Kansas county where cartoon likened mask order to Holocaust goes red on virus map
The Kansas county where the publisher of a weekly newspaper posted a cartoon on its Facebook page likening Gov. Laura Kelly’s mask order to the Holocaust has been pushed into the “Red” risk level for coronavirus spread, according to a map rating contagion hazards across the country.
Anderson County is among four other Kansas counties that fell in the “tipping point” level on the COVID Risk Level map by the Harvard Global Health Institute, based on health data as of Saturday. Anderson County’s 7-day rolling average rose to the red category when six people tested positive for the disease on July 11.
The “Red” risk level indicates that those counties have more than 25 cases per 100,000 people based on rolling 7-day-average of the number of new daily cases. The red level is considered the tipping point where stay-at-home orders are necessary, according to the map, which was updated Saturday.
Anderson County, which reported its first positive COVID-19, on May 8, has 23 people who have tested positive for the disease as of Friday. The majority of those positive tests came after the cartoon was published on Anderson County Review’s Facebook page and the county leaders opted out of the mask order.
The newspaper posted the cartoon on July 3, which depicts Democratic governor Laura Kelly wearing a mask with the Star of David next to people being loaded onto a cattle train car, the day that her mask order aimed at stemming the spread of the coronavirus took effect.
Dane Hicks, the owner and publisher of The Anderson County Review and the county Republican Party chairman, removed the cartoon after it was widely criticized.
“After some heartfelt and educational conversations with Jewish Jewish leaders in the U.S. and abroad, I can acknowledge the imagery in my recent editorial cartoon describing state government overreach in Kansas and with images of the Holocaust was deeply hurtful to members of a culture who’ve been dealt plenty of hurt throughout history — people to whom I never desired to be hurtful in the illustration of my point,” Hicks said in an apology on Facebook.
A message left for Hicks was not immediately returned Monday. He was said to be on deadline.
Since publication of the cartoon, 19 people in Anderson County tested positive for the disease, according to data provided by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The county has reported no deaths in the county due to COVID-19 so far. The positive test rate for the county is 2.8%.
Statewide, there have been 23,334 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and 307 deaths. The positive test rate for the state is 8.9%.
As of Saturday, Anderson County had a rate of 25.5 cases per 100,000 people based on a rolling 7-day average. The other Kansas counties that fall in the Red risk level are Wyandotte at 57.3, Seward at 38, Grant at 30 and Republic at 27.7, according to the map.
Of those, all but Wyandotte County opted out of the mask order.
Statewide, Kansas is at the “Orange” risk level, with a rate of 16.5 cases per 100,000 people. The orange risk level, which applies states and counties with 10 to 24 cases per 100,000 people, indicates there’s an accelerated spread of the coronavirus and state-at-home orders and/or rigorous test and trace programs are advised, according to the risk level map.
