LA County Health Official Says Refusing To Wear A Mask In Public Is ‘Act Of Domestic Terrorism’

The health officer of Los Angeles County spoke out last week to outrageously say that refusing to wear a mask in public amidst the coronavirus pandemic is an “act of domestic terrorism.”

Health Officer Calls Not Wearing A Mask ‘Domestic Terrorism’

“If it were up to me, anybody not wearing a mask when they are out in public would be arrested,” Dr. Muntu Davis said, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. “That’s an act of domestic terrorism and should be treated like one.”

Davis has been the county health official for Los Angeles for the past two years.

#PressRelease: Los Angeles County appoints new County Health Officer. @LAPublicHealth welcomes Dr. Muntu Davis, who was sworn in today. Read more about Dr. Davis: https://t.co/nvsAnZoObE pic.twitter.com/nK8ZPCW0Hx

— LA Public Health (@lapublichealth) July 30, 2018

He said this as county public health officials have been dealing with “dramatically increased rates of transmission and potentially exponential growths of deaths in the coming weeks” as “hospital rooms fill up again and depleted hospital staffs scramble to keep up,” according to the publication.

It added that health officials all over the U.S. are afraid that hospitals could become overwhelmed if people ignore safety guidelines.

“Limiting certain activity that can easily result in increased cases like outdoor dining at restaurants is done to try to get our case rates lower so we can move to a less restricted tier and open more businesses,” Davis said. “We know what we have to do, but not enough people are doing it.”

Los Angeles Bans Outdoor Dining At Restaurants

This comes one week after county supervisors in Los Angeles banned outdoor dining at restaurants.

However, the paper interestingly noted that Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer and Davis have “acknowledged that contact tracing cannot definitively point to outdoor dining as the cause of the surge. Davis leaned on Centers for Disease Control studies.

They stressed it is the only retail activity that allows customers to be mask-less for long periods of time.”

On Monday, the county issued a new order saying that “residents are advised to stay home as much as possible and always wear a face covering over their nose and mouth when they are outside their household and around others.”

This order added that “restaurants, bars, breweries and wineries remain closed for in-person dining and drinking, as customers are not wearing face coverings during their visit which results in an increased chance of transmission of the virus. Restaurants, wineries and breweries remain open for pick-up, delivery, and take-out. Breweries and wineries remain open for retail sales at 20% occupancy.”

This piece was written by James Samson on December 1, 2020. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.