A maskless woman who filmed her protest against a market that wouldn't admit her appears to be a prominent 'Flat Earth' conspiracy theorist

• A recent viral video featured a woman complaining about being denied entry to a Gelson's Market in Dana Point, CA for her refusal to wear a mask.
• The woman, who self-identifies in the video as Shelley Lewis, appears to be a prominent flat-earther.
• Lewis' Facebook account and what appears to have been her Twitter account have been deleted; her YouTube channel is still up but has been scrubbed of all content.

A woman recently filmed herself being denied entry to a Gelson's Market in Dana Point for refusing to wear a mask. She uploaded the video to Facebook, but after it went viral on multiple platforms, she appears to have scrubbed her social media presence from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

In the video, the woman in question self-identifies as Shelley Lewis, stating that she is at the Dana Point Gelson's location. The video begins with an attendant outside the store refusing her entry and stating that Gelson's does not allow any customer or employee inside the store without a mask. Lewis asks to speak to a manager, telling him that, "I have a medical condition that I'm not allowed to wear a mask and I'm not required by HIPAA rules and regulations to disclose that."

Lewis was deploying a tactic that has spread among anti-mask protestors who are attempting to invoke United States disabilities laws to get into stores without masks, as Insider's Bill Bostock reported. In the video, the Gelson's manager offers to shop for her, to which Lewis replies that she has private items she may not want store employees to see. When the manager states that the mask requirement is company policy, Lewis responds that she's being discriminated against and threatens to file a lawsuit against the company.

"This is Shelley Lewis, I'm at Dana Point Gelson's," she says after the manager goes inside the store to get her the corporate number. "If anybody wants to shop here, you have to have a mask, and here are the policies, which state that they will shop for me, take my money, my private credit card, and utilize that. I'm gonna just let them go do that? So, no, I'm not gonna do that."

Reaction to the provocative video was swift and intense.

Lewis reportedly uploaded the original video to Facebook, after which it was then re-uploaded to Reddit on May 17 on the r/PublicFreakout subreddit with the title, "Karen gets upset because she's not allowed to shop without a mask, despite being given other safe options." There, it received over 60,000 upvotes and has amassed over 9,500 comments. The video was also posted to Twitter, where it has amassed over 21,000 retweets and approximately 91,500 likes, by DNC member Khary Penebaker. It was widely shared on the platform by large accounts like Yashar Ali, comedian Kathy Griffin, and TikToker Khalil Underwood.

Commenters made fun of Lewis' reaction to the incident, pointing out that a cashier would both see the "private stuff" she complained about potentially not wanting store employees to see as well as her credit card when she paid for the merchandise. On Twitter, some praised the store employees while others posted "Karen" memes. There was plenty of backlash on Facebook as well, with multiple posts made about the incident on "Dana Point Unplugged," a local, public Facebook group.

In that same Facebook group, there were also sparse expressions of support for Lewis. Under one post about the video, someone shared a meme image that read "The masks aren't for your protection... they're a sign of your submission;" a commentor on another post in the same group acknowledged that they wore a mask to the store but wrote "that there needs to be more respect for individual choices. If someone says they have a health issue and they can't wear masks that need to be respected."

In the time since the video began making the rounds online, its original copy, which was reportedly posted by Shelley Lewis herself, has been deleted. So, it seems, have been all of her social media profiles, including a Facebook and a Twitter account. Her YouTube channel, "Supposedly Shelley," is still up, and has been scrubbed of all content. Some social media users have collected screenshots of posts that appear to be from her now-defunct Facebook page, where she shared debunked "flat earth" conspiracy theories, as was reported by the Daily Mail.

Even prior to the grocery store video, Lewis was well known in certain circles online for her flat earth beliefs and provocative social media presence. A profile of Lewis on the Flat Earth International Conference website describes her as a "passionate truther, a licensed holistic health practitioner, a certified lymphologist, a vegan chef, photographer, and co-director and co-producer of The Plane Truth Documentary." There's a video online that purports to depict Lewis feuding with former "The Plane Truth" collaborator JM Truth, who also put out a recent video in February 2020 titled, 'The Plane Truth about Shelley Lewis and her BOLD faced lies!" alluding to a feud with Shelley that appears to have occurred over the documentary.

While the Gelson's incident appears to have been spurred on by Lewis' provocative actions, particularly given her use of widely circulated anti-mask tactics, it seems to have backfired: between the disappearance of Lewis' social media and the swift and intense backlash, the response has been overwhelmingly negative.

Mask guidelines have become politicized and are one symbol in the culture war around coronavirus response.

Lewis appeared initially to post the video in protest of mask-wearing guidelines that have been instituted and enforced by private companies and certain governments amid the coronavirus pandemic. Amid protests that have broken out across the United States against continued stay-at-home orders in states like Wisconsin, face masks in particular have become an emblem of the conflict and in some ways, a signifier of party affiliation or ideology.

Certain republicans — including President Trump and Vice President Pence — have either stated that they will not wear masks in public or have demonstrably refused to do so. As Politico's Ryan Lizza and Daniel Lippamn wrote, "On the right, where the mask is often seen as the symbol of a purported overreaction to the coronavirus, mask promotion is a target of ridicule, a sign that in a deeply polarized America almost anything can be politicized and turned into a token of tribal affiliation."

The CDC began to recommend in early April that people wear masks in public to curtail the spread of the coronavirus, marking a departure from the early days of the outbreak in the United States when masks were not widely recommended. In early May, the White House required that all West Wing staffers, with the exception of President Trump, wear masks except when at their desks. Masks or face coverings are currently required in 11 states. Messaging around them, however, has been tricky — the WHO still does not recommend that healthy people wear masks in public, and a Business Insider poll of 14 public health experts revealed mixed opinions, although the majority responded in support of wearing masks in public.

Mask requirements vary in California, but in Orange County, where Dana Point is located, "all employees of any grocery store, pharmacy/drug store, convenience store, gas station, restaurant, food preparation establishment, or retail store in Orange County who may have contact with the public must wear a cloth face covering while at work," per a county ordinance issued in April.

When asked for comment, Gelson's Markets provided the following statement outlining its mask requirements:

"Gelson's takes the health concerns around the Coronavirus very seriously and encourages their staff and customers to prioritize their health first. All Gelson's markets will continue to follow health and government recommendations and take all necessary preventative measures for the health and safety of our customers and employees. Face coverings will continue to be required inside the store as well as suspending reusable bags and temporarily eliminating returns. To facilitate social distancing, doors are monitored at all stores to maintain occupancy maximums, as well as to maintain distancing for lines outside of the store. All shopping carts, checkout areas and other high-touch surfaces are frequently sanitized throughout the day, with plexiglass partitions at checkout stations, and reminders to shoppers about social distancing."

• Read more:
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• 2 Target customers who refused to wear face masks were arrested after a brawl that broke an employee's arm