AZ Sheriff Tests Positive For COVID After Refusing To Enforce Restrictions
Arizona sheriff who wouldn’t enforce stay-at-home orders contracted COVID-19 at a campaign event where he was seen hugging people without a mask on
Arizona is in the midst of a COVID-19 hellscape. Originally, the state had a relatively low number of coronavirus cases which prompted state and local leaders to push back, or not really enforce, the stay at home orders. Then on May 15th, everyone seemingly returned to pre-pandemic life by racing out to bars and restaurants and now the state is seeing an extreme uptick in COVID-19 cases and is about to run out of hospital beds. In the ultimate ironic twist, a sheriff — Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb — who refused to enforce the governor’s stay-at-home orders because he didn’t want to infringe on anyone’s “constitutional right” to recklessly spread COVID has now tested positive for the virus and has to quarantine for two weeks.
Sheriff Lamb revealed in a Facebook post that he contracted COVID-19 at a campaign event for his re-election on Saturday, where he was photographed hugging people and shaking hands, and of course, nobody was wearing a mask.
“On Saturday, I held a campaign event, where it is likely I came into contact with an infected individual,” Lamb shared on Facebook. “I alerted the Pinal County Public Health Dept. immediately after my positive test, and they are working to track all those I came in contact with following the Saturday event.”
So now the Health Department has to track all the individuals in that campaign video and have them tested. If only there were some way to potentially prevent this? Oh, right there is! Wearing a mask and standing six feet away from everyone!
Lamb said he was supposed to visit President Trump at the White House which was where he received the COVID-19 test, as is customary for all White House visitors. “I will be self-quarantining for the next 14 days minimum,” he added in the post.
In another eye-roll move, Lamb seemed to solicit pity by claiming that there was no way he could have avoided the virus, because as a law enforcement official he doesn’t have the “luxury of staying home,” which is wild because he didn’t even contract COVID in the line of duty, he got it by not wearing a mask and hugging several dozen people at a dumb campaign rally.
Back in May, when the state’s stay-at-home orders were still in place, Lamb said he wasn’t planning on enforcing the rules in his community, saying, “I think people want to know that we’re going to support their constitutional rights. I felt [Governor Ducey] pushed me into a position where I needed to make our stance clear.”
As of Thursday, June 18, 2020, Arizona hit another single-day high of 2,519 coronavirus cases, beating out its previous single-day high of 2,392 reported cases on Tuesday. And according to The New York Times, unlike places like New York and New Jersey where cases are actually dropping, Arizona is one of a handful of states where cases continue to increase, showing no signs of flatlining. Just wear the damn masks already.
