One thing we've learned from the COVID crisis is that public health offices attract a lot of weirdos — officious officials presenting themselves to the public with irrational, and at times dangerous, commands, all presumably for our own good.

Most people have never thought about that field until they got an up-close look at the kinds of people running it. Here in the states, we've seen a lot of these misfits, we know that the U.K., Belgium, and Spain have a number of them, too, but Canada is not to be outdone.

Here is its chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam:

Parents and Caregivers, I had a great chat with Mrs. Claus about things we can do to make this a happy and healthy holiday season. Here’s the scoop from the #NorthPole: pic.twitter.com/pgKY5NPEyV

— Dr. Theresa Tam (@CPHO_Canada) December 21, 2022

She's presenting a Christmas message for kids, featuring a phone call to the North Pole, and a Zoom conversation with Mrs. Santa Claus, (which contradicts the phone use) telling kids that Santa is all up on his shots and kids should be, too. That's right, Merry Christmas, here's the needle, get your COVID shots and don't come crying to her if you get myocarditis. That's quite a way of getting a message out about public.

The script was absurd given that Christmas is associated with excitement and gifts to kids, while this message was all about crying in the doctor's office and getting a lollipop at best as compensation. There was a beyond stupid reference to Santa doing "snow yoga" besides. Who writes this crap?

Meanwhile, Tam's humorless, unsmiling delivery on such a Christmas cheer message to kids was redolent of a Soviet commissar, odd stuff for a message intended to persuade kids, and while she may not have been properly trained to make such a theatrical presentation, such training is available if the idea is to prevent her from sounding like a prison guard and actually sway and motivate children to get their shots. Not caring what the kids think, she didn't bother.

It's amazing how similar she is on the public health front to the bizarre characters who turn up promoting public health in the states. Being a misfit seems to be the common denominator.

The Canadians have their humorless commissar Comrade Tam.

Over here, we have the weirdly giggly or at times weepy Dr. Rochelle Walensky of the Centers for Disease Control, the fanatically surreal Dr. Leana Wen, a former president of Planned Parenthood and public health official turned CNN commentator who admitted that masking her own toddler as she called for stunted his development, and of course, the utterly gnome-like Dr. Anthony Fauci of the NIAID who runs the White House public health office. Let's also not forget Dr., or uhh, Admiral, Rachel Levine, USAToday's "woman of the year," who spirited her own mother out of a care facility in Philadelphia ahead of her own public health order to shove COVID patients into nursing homes. That saved Levine's old mom, but not other people's old moms.

They're not like any doctor you'd ever want to have as your own doctor. Doctors who speak sense, such as Stanford University's Dr. Jay Bhattacharya or Dr. Scott Atlas or UCSD's Dr. Robert Malone, are the kind of doctors who fill that bill, and wouldn't you want one of them as your doctor over an admitted liar on masks like Fauci? Those doctors live up to their profession as leading practioners and they've got fine bedside manners besides.

You don't find people like that in public health, which seems to attract freaks. Among this set, the weirdness, sometimes lethal weirdness, never ends.

Image: Twitter screen shot.