Ohio State Representative Nino Vitale has made it extremely clear that he has no intention of wearing a face mask, criticizing Governor Mike DeWine and Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton, M.D., for backtracking on the topic.
In a lengthy Facebook post, Vitale pointed out moments where both Acton and DeWine brushed off the need for wearing face masks in public. Weeks later, the message changed, with DeWine mandating that masks be used in public and Acton calling on residents to “don” their masks like a cape. More recently, DeWine called the mandate for masks “a bridge too far,” adding “people were not going to accept the government telling them what to do.”
Still, DeWine did highly recommend that individuals wear masks.
“They have changed their mind about masks 4 times,” Vitale wrote in his Facebook post before signaling his own refusal to wear them.
“This is not the entire world. This is the greatest nation on earth founded on Judeo-Christian Principles. One of those principles is that we are all created in the image and likeness of God,” Vitale added. “That image is seen the most by our face. I will not wear a mask.”
In the post, Vitale included a video compilation pulling together Acton’s and DeWine’s varying comments on the issue.
In the video, Vitale repeated his stance, claiming that he doesn’t want to cover people’s faces, as “we’re created in the image and likeness of God.”
“When we think of image, do we think of a chest or our legs or our arms?” Vitale said. “We think of their face. I don’t want to cover people’s faces.”
In his post, Vitale also urged counties to open up “before it’s too late,” saying that the response is not “based on logic,” but on “fear and propaganda.”
“Every statistical, data-driven study done in the last 2 weeks says death counts are low, the models were wrong, and this is more like the flu,” Vitale added.
The flu and coronavirus comparison has been used in many statistics, although many reports have outlined why that comparison is apples to oranges and largely flawed.