Man dies two weeks after sharing video boasting about Covid-19 symptoms but saying virus wasn’t real

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A Canadian man has died two weeks after he boasted about having Covid-19 symptoms while insisting the virus isn’t real in a livestreamed video.

Mak Parhar was found dead by paramedics at his home in New Westminster, British Columbia, on Thursday morning. His cause of death is still under investigation, Global News reported.

Mr Parhar, who was an outspoken opponent of Canada’s mask and vaccine mandates throughout the pandemic, dismissed the existence of Covid-19 — which he referred to as “convid” — in an October 21 Twitch livestream.

He reported experiencing several symptoms associated with the virus, including a cough, chills and fatigue, but said they were “not convid because convid doesn’t exist”.

In another video posted on Wednesday, just hours before his death, Mr Parhar said he was feeling better and revealed he had recently taken ivermectin, an anti-parasite medication that has been promoted in conservative circles as a treatment for Covid-19 despite a lack of conclusive evidence that it helps people with the virus.

At the time of his death, Mr Parhar was in the middle of a trial on three charges for violating Canada’s Quarantine Act by refusing to self-isolate after he attended a flat earth conference in the US in 2020, according to Global News.

Mr Parhar’s belief that Covid-19 isn’t real first landed him in hot water with Canadian authorities in March 2020, when his hot yoga studio was shut down after he encouraged customers to attend by falsely claiming that the heat would kill the virus.

The following month, Mr Parhar was investigated for posting a series of videos of himself entering healthcare facilities in search of the “truth” about the pandemic.

He also hosted several “Anti-covIDIOT” gatherings in defiance of social distancing and shared videos of them on YouTube.

Mr Parhar, who described himself as a “citizen journalist”, first gained notoriety on social media by spreading his belief that the earth is flat.