During a heated public hearing in Palm Beach county, anti-mask Floridians warned the county commissioners of 'satanism' and 'pedophilia' as they prepared to vote on a mandate for wearing face masks in public. The videos of the hearing are going viral on the internet, where the anti-maskers can be seen opposing to the move with some bizarre yet hilarious claims and conspiracies.
While some accused the officials of violating their freedom of choice, a few others said that they were committing a crime against humanity by trying to play God.
A woman even went ahead to claim that masks are killing people. She said, "Every single one of you that’s obeying the devil’s laws are going to be arrested. And you are going to be arrested for crimes against humanity."
"Every single one of you has a smirk behind that little mask, but every single one of you are going to get punished by God. You cannot escape God ... not even with the mask or 6 feet," she added.
Watch her video here:
Another woman said, "I don’t wear a mask for the same reason I don’t wear underwear - things gotta breathe."
"We are being lied to, our freedoms are being taken forever and I will not be muzzled like a mad dog. This is sick and you ought to be ashamed of yourself for being a part of this," declared a man at the anti-mask hearing.
He added, "It’s time for us to stand up for our freedoms because if we stand back and let these pieces of cr*p handle our freedoms we’ll have nothing left — in fact, we’ll end up being dead."
Here's how Twitter reacted to their 'spurious' claims:
Meanwhile, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has ordered to close bars in a bid to slow the spread of COVID-19 as the number of new infections shattered the state's record for the most coronavirus cases reported in a single day.
The Florida Department of Health on Friday reported 8,942 new COVID-19 cases, shattering the previous record of 5,511 set just two days ago, reports Xinhua news agency.
The state reported a 13.5 per cent positivity rate for new tests conducted, according to a news report from the clickorlando.com.
At a press conference on Friday, DeSantis said the order was issued because many people were disobeying the state's reopening guidelines.
"People weren't following it," the Governor said. "There was widespread non-compliance, and that led to issues. If folks just follow the guidelines, we're going to be in good shape. When you depart from that, then it becomes problematic."
With Friday's tally, Florida now has reported nearly 123,000 coronavirus case, with more than 32,000 of them confirmed in just the last seven days.
The move came a day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned the true number of Americans who have been infected could top 24 million.
On Wednesday, the US saw a record number of new coronavirus cases in a single day, with 45,557 reported, according to a tally by NBC News.
With 2,467,658 cases and 125,046 deaths, the US continues with the world's highest number of COVID-19 infections and fatalities.
Inputs from IANS.
