Pro-Trump candidate sparks uproar after praising restaurant server who came in sick despite Covid risk

The candidate then bashed the restaurant for ‘giving into the woke mob’ for sending her home

It’s a case of retail politics gone wrong.

On Friday, Josh Mandel, a highly conservative Republican candidate running to fill US Senator Rob Portman’s vacant seat, set off a wave of criticism after praising an Ohio restaurant worker for knowingly coming to work sick.

Ohio-based Senate candidate Josh Mandel poses with a server at a restaurant in Perrysburg, Ohio, on Friday, 20 August, 2021. Mr Mandel caused controversy by praising the server on social media for working while sick. (Josh Mandel)

“Even though Brianne was sick today, she came to work because she knew they were short servers,” Mr Mandel wrote on Twitter on Friday, of his server at Inside The Five, a brewery in Perrysburg, Ohio. “These are the type of American workers that make our country strong.”

The praise, in the midst of a pandemic, struck many as tone deaf.

The restaurant, which reportedly deleted its social media accounts soon after the comments, got a wave of negative reviews online, including one commenter who threatened to call the health department.

Others mocked the candidate himself.

“Why might coming into work sick during a pandemic be a bad idea?” writer Molly Jong-Fast wrote on Twitter.

“Next week on travels with Josh … Look at these minimum wage workers, they’re [literally] dying to work in the food service industry!” another commenter added, along with a gif of a zombie.

Inside The Five told WTOL the employee violated company policy by coming in sick, and would be Covid tested before returning.

“This is so disappointing,” the restaurant told the station. “Although our server’s intentions were good, it was not the right decision and it will be addressed. Yes, we are short-staffed, but would close our doors before we put anyone at risk. The employee has since been sent home.”

For his part, Mr Mandel, who has opposed mask mandates, vaccine proof requirements, and other public health measures, bashed the restaurant he initially praised for “giving into the woke mob.”

“Hey @InsideTheFive, instead of giving into the woke mob, how bout having your employee’s back and giving her a raise,” he wrote on Twitter later that day. “While so many people are getting paid to sit home and do nothing, Brianne muscled through feeling under the weather and came to WORK.”

In the last month-and-a-half, cases in Ohio have climbed to their highest daily rates since their peak during the winter, with more than 3,000 people getting coronavirus on average each day. One in 10 hospital patients in the state have Covid, and frontline health workers are warning of another grim season of cases.

"We take risks every day with this virus,"  Lisa Meyers, a respiratory therapist at OhioHealth’s Grant Medical Center Downtown, recently told The Columbus Dispatch. "(My colleagues and I) are brave and strong and smart and we don’t really want to do this again. But, most of us are going to."