Florida restaurant says you don’t have to wear ‘face diapers.’ People react to no masks
A Weeki Wachee restaurant went a bit wacky in its social media post to tell its customers masks were not required despite the pandemic.
The reason?
The sign, with a red line through a circled blue mask, reads: “Face Diapers Not Required! Everyone welcome.”
The implication, theoretically, is that people who heed CDC guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic and wear masks are, well, babies.
The owner of BeckyJack’s Food Shack in Florida’s Hernando County didn’t use the word “babies” to describe people who don’t think like he does.
Instead, Jesse Fox, who doesn’t enforce mask rules at his business told WFLA-Channel 8 he posted the sign in the window and shared it to the restaurant’s Facebook page to “be proactive.” He said he wanted to let people know his restaurant’s mask policy because people coming in were surprised to see fellow customers and staffers without face coverings.
He said face masks are not required in Hernando County and that he is following the earliest guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that healthy people don’t need to wear a mask.
But the earliest guidelines in March 2020 were quickly updated as scientists and doctors learned more about how the novel coronavirus is spread.
The cumulative Florida death total approached 30,000 after Valentine’s Day, the fourth-highest in the country after California, New York and Texas, according to the New York Times database of cases.
As of Thursday, Hernando County, on Florida’s west-central coast, has reported 10,725 cases and 461 total deaths, according to the Florida Department of Health’s Data & Surveillance Dashboard. According to the 2010 Census, Hernando had a population of 170,950.
Neverthless, Fox is unfazed.
“I don’t feel like I am going against the grain. I feel like I’m using common sense,” Fox told WFLA.
Social media reaction
The reaction on Facebook about the restaurant policy runs pro and con. There are more than 3,300 comments and about 860 shares through Thursday.
▪ “Why is it disrespectful? Everyone is welcome, even those with masks. No one is forcing anyone to go there,” reads one post.
▪ “Honestly wearing a face mask in to a restaurant to take it off at the table and then put it back on to walk out the door is dumb anyways. You can’t eat through a mask so if everyone is that concerned don’t go out to eat!!”
▪ “Typically righty ragebait. ‘Oh no, we’re so persecuted, and the government is controlling us with masks somehow.’”
▪ “I just saw y’all on the news. I’m down in Madeira Beach but I’m gonna be making the drive up this weekend to show some support. I hate masks and refuse to wear them!!”
▪ “I’m very proud and will NEVER be ashamed to wear a mask. Plus, I wear 2 of them. I’m an intelligent person who believes in the science of this situation. Can’t wait to see who blasts me. Come and give me your best shot, because it’s more patriotic to wear a mask than not. I believe it’s very selfish behavior to think you DON’T want/need to wear one. You’re ONLY thinking about yourself when you choose to NOT wear a mask.”
Fox told WFLA that if Hernando County makes mask-wearing a requirement he will heed the rule at BeckyJack’s.
Earlier in February, a Naples grocery store owner, Alfie Oakes, flouted a Collier County mask mandate. The Oakes Farms Seed to Table Market owner allowed a store full of employees and customers to work and shop without protective facial wear.
This story was originally published February 18, 2021 at 1:21 PM.
