Kentucky mayor defends his explicit viral rant about people's ignorance of coronavirus

The mayor of Walton, Kentucky has gone viral after he posted an expletive-laden rant about people not staying safe during the coronavirus pandemic on Facebook.

We all know that staying indoors as much as possible is really important and will help stop the spread of the virus. Unfortunately for some people, this polite request isn't getting through so stronger words are needed.

That's what Mayor Gabe Brown decided he had to do when the people of Walton were not listening to the advice of the US government and the CDC.

He starts his message with "Listen up dips**ts" and doesn't pull any punches.

Picture: Facebook

The message which was posted on 23 March and has not been deleted. It has now been shared more than 4,000 times since then.

Just a few days later he shared a link to a story about a mass-gathering in Louisville, Kentucky on Friday, where at least one person got sick.

Later the shame day, he did apologise for using the strong language but stood by his overall message.

It has been bought to my attention that I may have, in fact, lost my ****. For that, I apologize. I probably could’ve handled all of your comments with a little more tact and professionalism. Then again, some of you got told what you should’ve. Wash your hands you filthy animals.

I’ve always tried to be a straight shooter. Maybe I probably could have delivered it a little better. But I guess if I had we would not be talking right now. I would have been somebody else who delivered a message that fell on deaf ears.​

Speaking to CNN's Don Lemon on Saturday, Brown defended his choice of words, claiming he lost his cool after hearing numerous people attempt to downplay the seriousness of the virus.

We've known that this was coming to the Cincinatti area, to northern Kentucky for weeks now. We've seen it creep across the world. We've seen it hit New York. Local governments up here have been working together on this daily for a number of weeks now. I put out the information that we had got our first confirmed case and people didn't believe me. I instantly had people coming back at me saying that I was trying to 'insight panic' and 'you don't know what you are talking about.' After a few back and fourth shots, I had enough of it. It's ridiculous that people are taking this so blase and walking around like it's no big deal. They don't shut down the whole entire world because something is the flu.

He's hoping that his rant and this issue can break the 'small town mentality' and realise that this isn't something that is just affecting big cities, "whether they like it or not."

At the time of writing the United States has more than 140,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus throughout the country, more than any other nation in the world.