Ohio Goes Viral, Con't

Ohio's top public health official, Dr. Amy Acton, has resigned over anti-COVID-19 lunatics stalking her family.

Turning down pleas from Gov. Mike DeWine to stay on the job, Dr. Amy Acton surprisingly resigned Thursday as director of the Ohio Department of Health amid the coronavirus pandemic.

DeWine said Acton’s resignation is effective Thursday, although she now will become his chief health adviser.

“It is difficult for me to put in words how grateful I am for Dr. Acton’s service to the state,” he said.

The governor said he has asked Acton, who was appointed health director on Feb. 26, 2019, to “take a big-picture look” at improving public health while still working to address the pandemic.

Acton became both a beloved and polarizing figure to Ohioans for her candid, personal talks at televised coronavirus news briefings and for issuing orders closing down parts of the state’s economy that some found excessive.

Thursday, Acton praised local health officials, members of her team and those on the front lines of battling the pandemic. She also thanked her family and the governor — and the State Highway Patrol protective detail assigned to her after threats.

“Her knowledge, compassion and determination have set an example for all of us, and Dr. Acton’s extraordinary bedside manner and wise counsel have helped us all get through this pandemic,” DeWine said.

Asked why she quit, Acton said she couldn’t do justice to what amounts to three jobs at once. She said she now will have time to spend with her family, whose Bexley home has attracted protesters, some armed.

So congrats, "COVID hoax" nutjobs, you drove off yet another dedicated public health official so you can feel better about stuffing your face at Golden Corral on Sundays and not tipping the waitstaff.

And let's not forget the anti-semitic attacks from Ohio Republicans too.

An Ohio state representative drew criticism for calling the state’s Jewish Department of Health director a “globalist.” 

In a Facebook post on Friday, Rep. Nino Vitale said the director, Amy Acton, was denying state residents their human rights by extending a stay-at-home order until May 29. 

“Your basic human rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness do not come from an unelected Globalist Health Director, who signed the order in the dark of night. Your basic human rights are inalienable and cannot be bought, sold, traded or taken from you,” Vitale wrote in a post on Facebook on Friday and in a letter to supporters. 

Vitale’s Facebook page has since become unavailable, but in a note on his campaign website Vitale said “it appears web search engines and web relays are currently banning my Facebook page.” 

In a statement, the Cleveland office of the Anti-Defamation League urged Vitale to apologize for using the term, which recalls the anti-Semitic stereotype that a Jewish cabal secretly controls the world. 

“Whether Rep. Vitale purposely invoked anti-Semitism or not, we strongly urge him to remove that term from his vocabulary, and to issue an apology to Dr. Acton and the entire Jewish community. ADL is willing and able to provide Rep. Vitale, and all elected officials, training on anti-Semitism,” the ADL wrote on Facebook. 

Vitale’s statement comes a week after the wife of an Ohio state senator compared Acton’s support for the idea of issuing certificates to people who had proven immunity to COVID-19 to Nazi Germany. The senator, Andrew Brenner, later apologized to Acton and the Jewish community.

Vitale is also in trouble over Black Lives Matter comments.  I'll tell you what, Kentucky may be full of racists, but there are times where it has nothing on Ohio.