Rep. Rick Becker Wants To Eliminate COVID-19 Mass Testing & Contact Tracing

Republican state representative wants to become North Dakota's next state health officer

BISMARCK, N.D. — A former candidate for governor and current Republican state representative wants to become North Dakota’s next state health officer.

It is a position from which three people have resigned during the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic.

Rep. Rick Becker, who is a plastic surgeon in Bismarck, says he has a plan for addressing COVID-19.

He would call for eliminating mass testing, contact tracing, guidelines for businesses and marketing campaigns for masking and social distancing.

Becker calls testing a waste of resources saying a negative test is only good for that day.

In a Facebook post last week, Becker asked people to not give his name as a close contact.

He wrote, “Also, for the love ND, if you could stop testing, that’d be great.”

Interim State Health Officer Dr. Paul Mariani abruptly resigned after a close contact quarantine order, with a potential misdemeanor charge for violators, was rescinded one day after it was announced.