Miami Mayor Criticized For Maskless Family Photo

Miami FL

21 December, 2020

1:34 PM

Description

MIAMI, FL — The city of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is facing backlash after sharing a maskless family photo on Instagram. In the image, which Suarez shared Friday, shows 10 members of his family closely gathered around a table — some standing, some seated — at Caffe Abbracci sans masks. According to the caption accompanying the photo, the family was celebrating the 44th wedding anniversary of Suarez's parents. His father, Xavier Suarez, was the first Cuban-born mayor of Miami and also served as a Miami-Dade County commissioner. "They are the pillars of our family. My heroes and magnificent examples of love and devotion," Francis wrote about his parents. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mayor Francis Suarez (@mayorofmiami) The backlash was swift for the mayor, who has 73,000 Instagram followers. Many commenters, in English and Spanish, questioned why Francis and his family weren't following social distancing and mask-wearing protocols in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. And they used plenty of face palm, clown face and mask-wearing smiley face emojis to express how they felt. "Very irresponsible and you think you are above the law," user sisteragatha11 commented. Another user, themrsqueenbee, wrote, "I trust you've seen that Florida has 13,148 new Covid cases today...the most amount of cases in Florida since July. This photo demonstrates exactly why Florida is a disaster." "Clown show in full effect. We have to close down businesses. Not spend time with family but politicians just like you do this. You're the reason why people don't trust government," user badbenny305 commented. South Florida has been the hardest-hit region of the state during the COVID-19 pandemic. As of Saturday, there have been 274,117 total cases and 4,066 total deaths in Miami-Dade County since March, according to the state Department of Health's COVID-19 dashboard.