Billboard backlash after anti-mask message
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OMAHA, NE (KETV) — A pair of billboards go up in the southwest Omaha area with an anti-mask message.
“It’s not about a virus. It’s about control.”
The founder of No Mask Omaha says they wanted to spread their message to more people, but others say the message will spread the virus even more.
“Nobody likes these masks,” said Kelly Jensen. “The effectiveness doesn’t make sense.”
Jensen founded the Facebook group, No Mask Omaha. Some of the 5,400 members pitched in and paid for the billboards. The same group criticizes the mask mandate at Omaha City Council meetings.
“From our standpoint, it doesn’t have to do with the effectiveness of the mask. It has to do with how far can they push their control to you, the public,” he said.
“I don’t understand why it’s okay to spread misinformation so that people don’t take it seriously so that people die,” said Andrew Fanciullo.
Fanciullo drove by the billboard Wednesday morning, about an hour after getting an upsetting text from his father.
“That my grandma got moved back to ICU,” he said.
“I was angry he had to see that on the same day we got terrible news about his grandma,” said Andrew’s wife, Breanne.
Fanciullo’s grandmother, Millie, 92 has COVID-19. She’s been in the hospital since Saturday.
“I was angry that somebody thought it was okay to put it up and I was just baffled that a group of people 5,000-plus can possibly think that way,” said Breanne Fanciullo.
Jensen said he caught COVID-19 two weeks ago.
“I understand it. I also have a lot of underlying conditions,” Jensen said.
He said the only time he wore a mask and gloves was on Halloween and he doesn’t plan on wearing them again, despite getting the virus.
Jensen said wearing a mask into a restaurant only to remove it to eat doesn’t make sense to him and his group.
“Everyone makes jokes about how silly it is,” he said.
And as for the public pressure to take down the billboards:
“Talk about being silenced,” he said. “It’s not about the masks. It’s about control, which is the point of our billboard.”
Jensen said they planned to keep the billboards up for about a month. However, backlash caused the company to take it down Wednesday.
The Douglas County Health Department declined to comment on the billboards’ message.
Nebraska Medicine spokesperson Taylor Wilson sent KETV NewsWatch 7 this statement:
“In light of the current surge in COVID cases and hospitalizations that are overwhelming health care resources, we find this statement not only blatantly false, but also irresponsible and dangerous.”
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