County health official who backed mask mandate says woman tried to run him off road

A Michigan-based health director said a woman tried to run him off the road because he supported a mask mandate in their county, The Washington Post reported.

In an email sent last month, Kent County Health Department Director Adam London told constituents that he was subjected to abuse after announcing the mandate.

Kent County’s executive order implements a mask mandate for students from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, according to the Post.

London detailed how a woman driving more than 70 miles per hour tried to run him off the road two times in one night, saying the unidentified person yelled an expletive toward him and said a cruel remark about his children, according to the email.

The health official also said that opponents of the new mandate accused him of being a “deep state agent” for “liberal-progressive-socialist powers,” the Post reported. 

This comes as 62 percent of Kent County residents over the age of 12 are fully vaccinated against the novel virus, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The U.S. is currently seeing another surge of COVID-19 infections due to the highly contagious delta variant.

Kent County’s Democratic commissioners said in a statement that they support London’s mask requirement, adding that county officials have been through a lot during the pandemic, the Post reported. 

“We have been shocked to learn that Dr. London and his family have received threats to their physical safety and disheartened to see his reputation abused in public forums,” the commissioners said in a statement.

The Hill has reached out to the Kent County Health Department for comment.