Northern Idaho’s anti-government streak hinders fight against Covid

Hospitals in region so packed with coronavirus patients that authorities said facilities can ration healthcare

Northern Idaho has a long and deep streak of anti-government activism that has confounded attempts to battle a Covid-19 outbreak overwhelming hospitals in the deeply conservative region.

A deadly 1992 standoff with federal agents near the Canadian border helped spark an expansion of radical rightwing groups across the country and the area was for a long time the home of the Aryan Nations, whose leader envisioned a White Homeland" in the county that is now among the worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic.