Federal officials warn that the cards purporting to exempt people from having to wear face masks when they are in public are false. The cards, emblazoned with the logo of an eagle but riddled with misspellings, claim that the headlines are protected from mandates that require masks to be worn in public, a step recommended by health experts as a vital defense against coronavirus.
“Wearing a face mask has a mental and / or physical risk to me. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), I am not required to disclose my condition,” says the card, which misspelled “poses” and misnamed Americans with Disabilities Act.
United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of North Carolina
The card also states that companies or groups that qualify to wear a mask could contact the Freedom to Breathe Agency, the team that sells the cards. One version includes the Justice Department logo and lists a phone number to report ADA violations.
The cards are not linked to any government entity, according to Matthew Martin, the United States Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina. A box of approximately 500 of the cards sold online for around $ 50.
“Don’t be fooled by the ruse and misappropriation of the Justice Department’s eagle,” he said in a press release on Friday. “These cards do not have the force of law. The ‘Freedom to Breathe Agency’ or ‘FTBA’ is not a government agency.”
Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission on Monday issued its own warning to consumers about cards circulating online and on social media, urging Americans to obtain their information from government agencies rather than social media. The ADA’s official website also criticized the cards as “fraudulent.”
Lenka Koloma, founder of the Freedom to Breathe Agency, advertised the cards on her Facebook page and sold them on a Shopify site, which was no longer available on Monday.
But Koloma defended the cards on social media, claiming in a Facebook post that the cards were offered as “an educational tool based on the overwhelming number of citizens who contact us for health problems and cannot wear a mask.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that people wear cloth covers in public, and many states, cities, and businesses require their use. Recent research determined the risk of transmitting the coronavirus to more than 17% without a mask, social distancing, or other measure, while wearing a mask reduced that rate to approximately 3%.
The global number of deaths from COVID-19 now exceeds 500,000, with almost 126,000 of those deaths in the United States
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