Anti-vaxxers are touting another new Covid ‘cure’ – drinking urine. But they are not the only obstacles to ending the pandemic | Arwa Mahdawi

Those spreading misinformation are doing real damage. But big pharma and rich countries need to stop hoarding vaccines

I am starting to think that common sense really is not that common after all - we live in exceedingly stupid times. Exhibit 874: US anti-vaxxers are now urging people to drink their own urine to fight coronavirus. Over the weekend, Christopher Key, the leader of an anti-Covid-19 vaccine group called the Vaccine Police", posted videos online extolling the health benefits of what he described as urine therapy". According to the wizard of wee, there is tons and tons of research ... [and] peer-reviewed published papers on urine"; so if you do your own pee-search you will discover it is God's own antidote to Covid-19. This vaccine is the worst bioweapon I have ever seen," Key said. I drink my own urine!"

That is not the only questionable thing he does. Key was recently arrested for refusing to wear a mask and filming proceedings during a court hearing. The reason he was in court? He was arrested in April for refusing to wear a mask at a Whole Foods store. In August he made headlines for suggesting that pharmacists should be executed for administering coronavirus vaccines; in December he also set off on a road trip across the US with a fake badge and firearms, in a mission to arrest a Democratic governor over vaccine mandates. Very busy man, our Mr Key! I cannot help thinking that if his name was Mohammed his shenanigans would have had him locked up in Guantanamo Bay by now.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist