Republican refuses to wear a mask in public because faces are the 'likeness of God'

A Republican lawmaker in Ohio has said that he will refuse to wear a face mask to protect himself (and others) from coronavirus because our faces are made in the 'likeness of God.'

Representative Nino Vitale​ explained on Facebook that due to his religious beliefs he will not be wearing a mask in public, despite state governor Mike DeWine recommending everyone to do so to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

In a lengthy post on the social media website, Vitale said:

This is not the entire world. This is the greatest nation on earth founded on Judeo-Christian Principles.

One of those principles is that we are all created in the image and likeness of God. That image is seen the most by our face. I will not wear a mask.

We’re created in the image and likeness of God. When we think of image, do we think of a chest or our legs or our arms? We think of their face. I don’t want to cover people’s faces.

This is not based on logic, this is based on fear and propaganda and every statistical, data driven study done in the last 2 weeks says death counts are low, the models were wrong, and this is more like the flu.

You can see his explanation at the end of the below video which also features footage of DeWine and Ohio department of health director, Amy Acton.

Vitale reported made these comments in response to DeWine backtracking on a mandate that would have demanded everyone who entered a store to wear a face mask, instead making it just a recommendation.

Like many other states across America, anti-lockdown protesters had been demanding that Ohio reopen nonessential businesses and help the economy grow again.

This has tentatively begun to happen with some nonessential businesses reopening but it shouldn't be overlooked that Ohio has recorded more than 20,000 cases of coronavirus and which have resulted in 1,056 deaths.