Conservative personality Candace Owens was trending on Twitter Wednesday after a private COVID-19 testing service denied her service for spreading misinformation.
“Holy crap!! I just received an e-mail from a Covid testing facility that they are REFUSING to administer a test to me because they don’t like my politics,” Owens tweeted Wednesday afternoon.
“INSANE,” she continued. “I’m banned from making sure I don’t accidentally spread Covid? Going live with the e-mail on Instagram in 10 mins!”
The response Owens got was different than she expected: Social media users declared their support for Suzanna Lee, the owner of Aspen Lab, for her amazing takedown of the conservative pundit.
Lee wrote that she had heard of Owens’ appointment and said she was “going to refuse this booking and deny service,” adding, “We cannot support anyone who has pro-actively worked to make this pandemic worse by spreading misinformation, politicizing and DISCOURAGING the wearing of masks and actively dissuading people from receiving life-saving vaccinations.”
Lee makes a point to inform Owens that the only other local testing site offers a free test that is mailed to Texas and has inconsistent result times. She also notes that the entrance to the site is in a back alley.
“My team and myself have worked overtime, to exhaustion, unpaid and underpaid this past year, spending our own capital to ensure that our community remains protected,” she wrote. “It would be unfair to them and to the sacrifices we have all made this year to serve you.”
Twitter users stood up for Lee, reminding Owens that Republicans often note that private entrepreneurs have the right to conduct their business as they see fit.
“A privately owned COVID testing company refused to provide services to Candace Owens because of misinformation she has spread,” tweeted Bishop Talbert Swan. Quoting Lee’s contention about serving her being unfair to her team and their sacrifices, “That,” he maintained, “is how you take out trash, ladies and gentlemen.”
Owens replied to critics, writing, “I very much believe in the freedom to choose. Just pointing out the great irony that when the ‘health employees’ begin choosing who is allowed to determine if they have covid — we are no longer in a public health crisis. Admit it. Covid is political.”
Earlier this week, Owens wrote that she is unvaccinated, has been traveling, not wearing masks and that she slept next to her husband, who had light symptoms when he was reportedly COVID positive. She has consistently spread misinformation around vaccines, mask-wearing — even death totals of the virus since the beginning of the pandemic.
One Twitter user noted, “Candace Owens found out there are consequences for her actions. Karma.”
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