Shepard Smith Calls Footage of Maskless Floridians "Shocking" Then Gets Wrecked by Data

Richard Drew

CNBC host Shepard Smith received a video out of Florida that he deemed “shocking?” What’s shocking about it?

Nothing. It’s just people living normally with no masks.

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“WATCH: This shocking video from @SamBrockNBC shows a market in Naples, FL where many customers and employees are not wearing face masks. Florida does not have a mask mandate, but the CDC has said that wearing masks can help control the Covid pandemic.

“We all fantasize about a time when we won’t have to wear the masks anymore,” said Smith. “It’s not now.”

“But some at a supermarket in Florida appear to have decided that the time is now,” he continued.

Smith proceeded to show footage of the aforementioned supermarket where not one person was wearing a mask. As the footage proceeded, a chyron below read “shocking video shows maskless market in Naples, Florida.”

An interview was conducted with the owner, Alfie Oakes, was then shown with Oakes noting that he knows the masks don’t work nor that 400,000 people have died by the virus itself.

Smith came back on camera to say that masks do work and that the science is “crystal clear,” citing the CDC’s prediction that COVID-19 could be brought under control within eight weeks if we all wore masks.

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Only Smith couldn’t be more wrong. Immediately, data was released that destroyed the narrative that wearing a mask is helpful to keep the virus under control.

Naples is in Collier County which is registering very low rates of COVID-19 infection despite there being no mask or lockdown measures in place, at least within the store. Compare that to Imperial County in California which not only enforces mask mandates but fines anyone caught without one. You’ll notice that the difference in infection rates is staggering, with Imperial flying sky-high with rates compared to Collier.

Twitter user @ianmSC continued to put forth the data given by the New York Times.

Just to cut off any arguments that may arise, @ianmSC pointed out that not only is Collier county more densely populated than Imperial, its population is also more elderly.

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It should be understood that Naples, FL, actually does have a mask mandate in place, but it’s clearly being ignored. In fact, Florida has some of the laxest lockdown laws in the country and it manages to outperform states with draconian lockdown laws like California.

(READ: Graph Showing Difference in Case Rates Between Florida and California Is a Wake-Up Call for America)

Smith is attempting to sow fear in order to get people to comply with a mandate that is proven to not work and the data proves it.

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