'ReOpen' Founder Who Refused to Wear a Mask Gets COVID-19

But Tim Walters doesn't blame himself
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 27, 2020 4:00 PM CDT
'ReOpen' Founder Who Refused to Wear a Mask Gets COVID-19
In this video screenshot, Tim Walters appears at a 'ReOpen Maryland' rally in Maryland.   (YouTube)

Three facts about Tim Walters: He fought to reopen Maryland at the peak of the pandemic. He refused to wear a mask. He just tested positive for COVID-19. "I was diagnosed yesterday at the ER with COVID-19 and here I am months after not wearing a mask at rallies, churches and so on and so it's funny how capricious this thing is," said the 53-year-old co-founder of ReOpen Maryland in a video released Friday, Newsweek reports. The two-time Republican candidate for Maryland's state House (he lost both) says he came down with a dry cough in March, lost focus in one eye, developed headaches, and got a fever. Yet he refuses to help contact tracers by offering personal information that might help them harness the virus.

"I will not share anybody's information with the government," he tells the Capital Gazette. "I will not do it." What's more, Walters says he has "not changed one iota" regarding his disdain for masks, though he's mostly stayed home this week. As for who to blame, it's not him: "No one ever got sick at any of our rallies, to include me. Start a church, and I get sick," he says. "I got it because Satan deemed to get it. Because he wanted to quiet my work, to slow down the building of a church. That's what this is about. But the world won't see that. Why? Because they live behind a veil. They choose to hate God." COVID-19 numbers have declined in Maryland, but Gov. Larry Hogan is urging residents to "remain vigilant" by getting tested, practicing physical distancing, and wearing a mask. (More coronavirus stories.)

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