Tensions rise over masks as virus hits smaller U.S. cities
MISSION, Kan. — Arguments over mask requirements and other restrictions have turned ugly in recent days as the deadly coronavirus surge across the U.S. engulfs small and medium-size cities that once seemed safely removed from the outbreak.
In Boise, Idaho, health officials about to vote on a four-county mask mandate abruptly ended a meeting Tuesday because of fears for their safety amid anti-mask protests outside the building and at some of their homes.
One health board member tearfully announced she had to rush home to be with her child because of the protesters, who were seen on video banging on buckets, blaring air horns and sirens, and blasting a sound clip of gunfire from the violence-drenched movie “Scarface” outside her front door.
“I am sad. I am tired. I fear that, in my choosing to hold public office, my family has too often paid the price,” said the board member, Ada County Commissioner Diana Lachiondo. “I increasingly don’t recognize this place. There is an ugliness and cruelty in our national rhetoric that is reaching a fevered pitch here at home, and that should worry us all.”
Boise police said three arrest warrants were issued in connection with the demonstrations at board members’ homes.
In South Dakota, the mayor of
Rapid City said City Council members were harassed and threatened over a proposed citywide mask mandate that failed this week even as intensive care units across the state filled with COVID-19 patients.
The tensions are flaring amid an epic surge in U.S. deaths, hospitalizations and infections over the past several weeks.
Deaths are running at more than 2,200 a day on average, all but matching the level seen during the last spring’s peak in and around New York City. New cases per day have rocketed to more than 200,000 on average, and the number of patients in the hospital with COVID-19 stood at almost 105,000 on Tuesday, another all-time high.
Protesters in Montana’s Gallatin County have gathered for two consecutive weeks outside the Bozeman home of county health officer Matt Kelley to decry health regulations, including a statewide mask mandate. They have carried signs that read, “We refuse to be your experiment” and “Oxygen is essential.”
Last week, around 80 people lined Bozeman’s Main Street to support Kelley and other health officials.
In Montana’s Flathead County, where officials recorded 17 corona virusdeaths over 18 days and resistance to masks runs strong, the interim public health officer is resigning when her contract is up at year’s end, citing a lack of support from local authorities for measures to control the scourge.