GOP lawmaker who said ‘stop getting tested’ for coronavirus faces backlash in Ohio
An Ohio member of the House of Representatives is facing criticism after urging his constituents to stop getting tested for coronavirus.
Rep. Nino Vitale’s (R-Urbana) comments came Tuesday, a day before Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s face mask order was to go into effect. He has ordered the use of face masks in seven counties seeing spikes in COVID-19 cases.
Vitale asked on Facebook on Tuesday if people are “tired of living in a dictatorship yet?”
“This is what happens when people go crazy and get tested. STOP GETTING TESTED,” he wrote. “It is giving the government an excuse to claim something that is not happening at the magnitude they say it is happening.”
Coronavirus hospitalizations have increased in recent weeks in Ohio, according to WKYC. There are more than 55,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in Ohio and 2,700 deaths since the pandemic began, according to the department of health.
The graphic he shared had text on the bottom in all caps reading, “Never get tested.”
His post has more than 2,200 comments as of Wednesday morning — many of them against his claims.
“Nino Vitale - you are the most irresponsible State Rep. I’ve ever come across,” Ken Wilson wrote. “You know absolutely nothing about basic public health measures. Telling your constituents to “stop getting tested” for the sake of your politics is asinine.”
“It’s not a ‘dictatorship’ to be asked to perform a very simple activity that does not infringe upon your health, livelihood or identity in order to save the lives of others,” KT Lowe commented. “I’ll happily wear my mask and get tested if it means ending quarantine sooner and saving others around me.”
Vitale, who is serving his third term in the Ohio House, has often voiced his opinion against the use of face masks. In May he stated, “We are all created in the image and likeness of God. That image is seen the most by our face. I will not wear a mask.”
Last week he said the only people he knows who wear masks “are those trying to get away with a crime.”
In a Fourth of July post asking what has happened to Americans’ independence, he said “the new cult is now ‘No shirt, no shoes, NO MASK, no service.’”
“The hatred unleashed on our fellow citizens for what someone ‘thinks’ someone else should wear on their face is astounding,” he wrote. “The real disease is the sickness in the social fabric of our society.”
