In Separate Rallies, Utahns Protest Mask Mandate and Demand in-Person Classes

Courtney Tanner, reporting for the Salt Lake Tribune:

As she walked up to the podium to speak, one of the moms grabbed a face mask and spit her gum out into it. “It’s garbage,” she shrugged, wadding it up. “It doesn’t work anyway. Not for me and not for my kids.”

A dad who spoke after her said he, too, doesn’t think the masks are effective, and said he’s pulling his kids out of school this fall if the state doesn’t lift its mandate requiring all K-12 students to wear a face covering. Another mother carried her 4-year-old son in her arms, noting there’s no way he would keep one on in his kindergarten class — but she thinks they’re stupid anyway, regardless of age.

Parent after parent followed at the Utah County commission meeting Wednesday afternoon, objecting for more than two hours to having their kids in masks even as counts of the virus continue to climb across the state, where there are more than 30,000 confirmed cases.

The first photo — a meeting of well over 100 people packed elbow to elbow in a room — is startling. These people are incoherently angry, and that’s striking. But the most salient fact — which straight news reporting won’t just come out and state — is that they are really, really stupid.

★ Thursday, 16 July 2020