Thread by @kohenari

Watching the Omaha City Council meeting and it’s time for public comment on the extension of the mask mandate. It’s going about as you’d expect.

Freedom of religion not to wear masks. A doctor who reports on her presentation to a conference on fringe science topics and climate denialism. A couple guys who say they personally believe the city is violating their personal beliefs. A chiropractor talking about vaccine injury.

One guy got up to protest being called ignorant. He was my favorite so much. But the chiropractor is a close second. He’s quoting Martin Luther King about oppressed people; he’s now comparing himself to Black people living under Jim Crow because he’s living under medical tyranny.

A nice woman holding a sleeping baby is now telling the Council that getting sick is good, that getting measles is healthy for you in the long term, and that having some bone broth is an inexpensive fix. Everyone could get COVID and only 1% will die so that’s basically fine.

The next nice woman is explaining that we’re not in a pandemic currently. She also doesn’t live in Omaha. Actually several of these people don’t. She won’t wear a mask. She won’t get the vaccine. Because of fetuses. “Jesus died on the cross for me. He gave his DNA for me.”

Now we have someone who brought Petri dishes from her kids’s masks. She says she washes them herself, but doesn’t say she does it daily. She’s very concerned for kids, who can’t make friends because of masks and are sickened by masks. She’s wearing a “Legalize Freedom” ballcap.

It’s the same cast of characters every single time. It’s actually kind of amazing. Now there’s a nice woman reminding them that they don’t have the authority to have this mandate. Since masks haven’t stopped all new cases, she says the emergency ordinance is invalid. Wild stuff.

The next person is literally threatening the City Council members. She’s screaming about going after all of their bonds. She is planning to let every single business know their inalienable rights. Now she’s being escorted from the chamber and is resisting and screaming. 2020, man

Ooh—now it’s the founder of the No Mask Omaha group! He’s sad the council members have their minds made up and won’t listen to the doctors (?) and they’re killing businesses. Now he says he’s moving because of he’s sick of each one of the council members who are puppets.

He ended by saying that if they don’t stand up for the people of Omaha and the businesses, “you’ll all come to the end of your term” which certainly sounded...ominous and threatening in an intentionally non-specific way.

Aaaand right after that vague threatening comment, the online feed died. Well, that’s enough of that anyway. Need to have dinner and prepare for tonight’s debate. Shine on, Omaha, you crazy diamond.

The feed came back just in time for us to hear a Councilmember (I think it was Brinker Harding) say that the Omaha police haven’t issued a single citation to someone for failing to wear a mask. In case anyone is interested in tracing why this mandate hasn’t been super effective.

And then there was Councilmember Aimee Melton, who has apparently decided that being an opponent of science is going to be her big issue in her 2021 reelection campaign.

I mean, seriously. Volunteer and donate to @sara_kohen. Science matters and if the Republicans on the City Council continue to insist on making policies based on their feelings, or on their fealty to Trump and Ricketts, we’re all doomed.

https://twitter.com/sara_kohen/status/1311091354294984705