Newly elected Minnesota state Sen. Nathan Wesenberg, R-Little Falls, suggested Gov. Tim Walz should be jailed and called COVID-19 vaccines a “death shot” during a rally at the state Capitol on Thursday. “I’m not anti-vaccine but I’m anti-COVID-vaccine. It’s not a vaccine, it’s a death shot,” Wesenberg said during the demonstration, which was filmed by Alpha News.
The demonstration was organized by local anti-vaccine groups and featured Dr. Scott Jensen, the 2022 Republican candidate for Minnesota governor and a family doctor who rose to prominence by spreading misinformation about COVID-19 on Fox News. The speakers also included Republican state Sens. Eric Lucero, Jim Abeler, Steve Drazkowski, Andrew Mathews and Glenn Gruenhagen as well as Reps. Pam Altendorf and Walter Hudson.
Anti-vaccine activists have decried vaccine “mandates” as an infringement on their civil liberties despite the fact that vaccine requirements for students and government workers include exemptions for religious and health reasons. Wesenberg, who defeated two longtime state legislators in the Republican primary, said his wife recently left a job as a doctor because her employer didn’t like that she was writing exemptions for masks and COVID-19 vaccines. A LinkedIn profile for Jennifer Wesenberg says she left a job at CentraCare in February 2022.