By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
A program is being offered by the Rural Domestic Preparedness Consortium (RDPC) to train emergency responders in rural areas of the country how to plan for incidents requiring “mass quarantine and isolation of a large portion of a local rural population.”
Robert Lowyns, director of Levy County Veterans Services, alerted Levy County Commissioners Tuesday to the 8-hour training course provided by RDPC, an organization authorized by Congress in 2004 to provide “consistent quality training, specifically among the nation’s tribal and first responder communities.”
“It was brought to my attention yesterday that under Homeland Security they have training classes going on – the training classes are for mass public quarantine for unvaccinated rural Americans,” Lowyns said.
The information indicating the training course is aimed at preparing “for a mass public quarantine of the unvaccinated in rural areas of the United States” was part of a news story carried on USSA News.
The RDPC website said the 8-hour training course to train rural emergency responders how to deal with incidents requiring the isolation and quarantine of a large portion of a “local, rural population.” The course description makes no mention of isolating and quarantining the unvaccinated in rural communities.
In authorizing the RDPC in 2004, Congress noted, “This new consortium should provide a regional approach to rural first responder awareness level training, develop emerging training and provide technical assistance in support of rural homeland security requirements,” according to the RDPC website.
Lowyns wanted to know if commissioners were interested in sending one of its employees, possibly from the Department of Emergency Management, to take the course and find out more about what was being taught. Commissioners didn’t commit to sending someone to the course.
Commission Chairman John Meeks said as far as he is concerned there won’t be any massive isolation and quarantining of unvaccinated Levy County residents.
“I say this; I don’t know about the rest of this board. I have a pretty good feeling about how they feel and the rest of the country. They can try to put this down on us all if they want, but we ain’t putting up with it, or I’m not putting up with it. I may just be a footnote in history as the chairman of Levy County, but I can promise you we ain’t rounding anybody up because they ain’t vaccinated. It ain’t none of their business. That’s what the whole deal is with HIPAA (the federal medical privacy act). Your medical records are your business, not the government’s, not the public’s,” Meeks said.
Lowyns said he was researching information “on this biochemical shot” they are giving everybody and the Veterans Administration response and investigation of the vaccination program when he ran across this information.
Commissioner Mike Joyner said Levy County won’t take part in this type of mass isolation and quarantine, but he made the statement in a way that only Joyner can say it.
“You tell them one thing. Tell them to piss on the fire and call in the dogs. We ain’t in this hunt,” he said.
RDPC’s website said the agency is directly connected to federal agencies.
“Since inception, RDPC has remained an integral part of the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Training and Education System, which along with other national training entities, provides training resources utilizing a whole community approach. RDPC has successfully trained more than 100,000 rural and tribal practitioners through multiple modalities.”
Translated RDPC is directly connected to the federal Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
———————-
Link to training classes: https://ruraltraining.org/training-schedule/
Board of Levy County Commission Meeting July 20, 2021; Posted July 20, 2021
