'Here fire, you hungry?' Idaho Covid protesters burn masks in front of capitol [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Guardian

Children encouraged to burn masks in state without mandate

Republican-led states move to relax coronavirus restrictions

Guardian staff and agencies
Sat 6 Mar 2021 18.20 EST

A least 100 people gathered in front of the Idaho state capitol on Saturday to burn masks, in a protest against measures to limit infections and deaths caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Some groups, predominantly rightwing, say mask mandates are a restriction of their freedoms. Health experts say they help slow the spread of the disease.

More than 170,000 Idaho residents have been infected with the virus in the last year and nearly 1,900 have died. Johns Hopkins University puts the US case count at nearly 29m and the death toll at more than 523,000.

Videos posted on social media on Saturday showed adults in Boise encouraging children to toss masks into a fire. One child could be heard to say: “Here fire, you hungry? Here’s another mask.”

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/06/idaho-covid-protesters-burn-masks-state-capitol