一个要求北卡罗来纳州在Covid-19流感大流行期间允许企业重新开业的脸书团体的领导人已经被检测出冠状病毒呈阳性，但仍然坚持要求取消州长罗伊·库珀的家庭禁令，称这侵犯了她的宗教自由权。
奥黛丽·惠特洛克(Audrey Whitlock)是“重新开放北卡罗莱纳州脸书”组织的领导人之一，该组织拥有近7万名在线成员，每周组织面对面的集会，要求该州重新开放。惠特洛克在周日早上的一篇自删帖子中称自己是“无症状的Covid-19患者”。尽管她有传染他人的可能，她说遵守州长的命令意味着她的权利被侵犯了。
“现实是，现代社会未能根除传染性病毒。一个典型的公共卫生隔离将发生在一个医疗设施中，”惠特洛克写道，根据WNCN。“我被告知不要参与政府要求的公共或私人住宿，因此我被剥夺了第一修正案规定的宗教自由权利。”
2020年4月14日，北卡罗莱纳州罗利，一名抗议者在拒绝离开停车场后被逮捕。
库珀最近将他的家庭订单延长至5月8日。惠特洛克的帖子说，“当你为自由而战时，[的政治派别都变得无关紧要了”，但最后还是呼吁“在11月将罗伊·库珀免职”
她还声称强制执行隔离令可能违反《美国残疾人法案》，并哀叹道，“其他人暗示，如果我出去，我可能会因拒绝隔离令而被捕。”
尽管惠特洛克似乎已经删除了这篇文章，但她向当地新闻机构WTVD证实，她已被检测出病毒呈阳性。她拒绝表明她在解除隔离前是否检测呈阴性，并在被问及是否参加了上周该组织举行的抗议活动时回答“无可奉告”。
北卡罗来纳民主党对此消息的反应是发表声明称，该组织继续“表现出令人瞠目结舌的缺乏社会责任感，完全无视我们在这场危机前线的第一反应者和卫生工作者。”
惠特洛克并不是唯一一个引用宗教来反对州长在家呆着的命令的北卡罗莱纳州人。戴维森县居民科琳·吉尔·斯萨雷告诉WXII，尽管她88岁的父亲死于该病毒并被感染，但她不赞成这些限制。
“如果你能出去做一些事情，但你不能做其他的事情，对我来说，这是不对的，”斯撒特告诉媒体。“我只是不明白这一部分，因为正如我所说的，你可以去商店买东西，和周围的人在一起，即使你可能戴着面具和手套。但是，你不能去教堂。”
“对我来说，这是不对的，因为这对我们所有人都很重要，”她补充道。“这对我爸爸非常重要。”
新闻周刊联系了库珀的办公室寻求评论，但是没有及时收到发表的回复。
LEADER OF NORTH CAROLINA PROTESTS AGAINST STAY-AT-HOME TESTS POSITIVE FOR CORONAVIRUS
Aleader of a Facebook group demanding that North Carolina allow businesses to reopen amid the Covid-19 pandemic has tested positive for coronavirus but is still insisting that Governor Roy Cooper's stay-at-home order be rescinded, saying it violates her right to freedom of religion.
Audrey Whitlock is one of the leaders of the ReOpen NC Facebook group, which has close to 70,000 online members and has organized weekly in-person rallies demanding that the state reopen. Whitlock described herself as an "asymptomatic Covid-19 patient" in a since-deleted post to the group on Sunday morning. Regardless of her potential to infect others, she said that abiding by the governor's orders meant her rights were being violated.
"The reality is that modern society has not been able to eradicate contagious viruses. A typical public health quarantine would occur in a medical facility," Whitlock wrote, according to WNCN. "I have been told not to participate in public or private accommodations as requested by the government, and therefore denied my 1st amendment right of freedom of religion."
A protestor is arrested after refusing to leave a parking lot during a demonstration organized by the group ReOpen NC in Raleigh, North Carolina on April 14, 2020.
Cooper recently extended his stay-at-home order to be effective through May 8. Whitlock's post said that "political affiliation[s] all become irrelevant when you are fighting for freedom" but concluded with a call to "remove Roy Cooper from office in November."
She also claimed that enforcing the quarantine orders could be a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, lamenting that "it has been insinuated by others that if I go out, I could be arrested for denying a quarantine order."
Although she appears to have deleted the post, Whitlock confirmed to local news outlet WTVD that she had tested positive for virus. She refused to indicate whether she tested negative before releasing herself from quarantine and answered "no comment" when asked if she had attended a protest the group held last week.
The North Carolina Democratic party reacted to the news with a statement saying that the group had continued to "demonstrate a jaw dropping lack of social responsibility and a complete disregard for our first responders and health workers on the front lines of this crisis."
Whitlock is not the only North Carolinian who cites religion in opposing the governor's stay-at-home order after having been personally impacted by the potentially deadly disease. Davidson county resident Colleen Gill Sprinkle told WXII that she disapproves of the restrictions despite having lost her 88-year-old father to the virus and becoming infected herself.
"If you're able to go out and do some things but you're not able to do other things, to me, that's just not right," Sprinkle told the outlet. "I just don't understand the part because, like I said, you can go to stores and stuff and you're around people, even though you may have a mask and gloves on. But yet, you can't be in church."
"To me, that's just not right because that is very important to all of us," she added. "And it was very important to my dad."
Newsweek reached out to Cooper's office for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
