An anti-mask protester has been caught on camera attacking a breast cancer patient outside a Los Angeles clinic, ripping off the woman’s face mask and allegedly punching her in her surgery scars.
Footage posted online shows Kate Burns being shoved and hit by a woman with a megaphone on the sidewalk by the Cedars-Sinai Breast Health Services building in West Hollywood Thursday afternoon.
In separate footage, Burns was seen confronting the group of protesters telling them ‘you are protesting a breast cancer f**king center’ and demanding they leave.
The incident unfolded as dozens of anti-maskers gathered outside the cancer treatment center and harassed patients and doctors, reported Vice.
The group held signs aloft with anti-vaccine slogans while some wore shirts emblazoned with ‘COVID is a scam.’
They were protesting against the clinic’s mask mandate – which follows LA County’s recently reintroduced rule that both vaccinated and unvaccinated Americans must wear face coverings indoors.
Footage posted online shows Kate Burns being shoved and hit by a woman with a megaphone on the sidewalk
An anti-mask protester has been caught on camera attacking a breast cancer patient outside a Los Angeles clinic, ripping off the woman’s face mask and allegedly punching her in her surgery scars. Pictured the protesters and the patient (front center in black)
The incident unfolded as dozens of anti-maskers gathered outside the Cedars-Sinai Breast Health Services building in West Hollywood Thursday afternoon (seen above) and reportedly harassed patients and doctors
Burns is seen approaching a small group and telling them to leave in a video posted on Twitter by a local videographer Vishal P. Singh.
‘I get treated here, get the f**k away,’ she shouts.
One protester, who is filming her on his smartphone, is heard asking her why she is so angry.
She replies: ‘Because I’ve just gone through f**king breast cancer. And you motherf**kers are here.’
‘That has nothing to do with you. We’re trying to help,’ one of the men responds.
Burns fires back: ‘You are protesting a breast cancer f**king center.
‘It has everything to do with me and my community.’
Burns asks whether they know what happens to the immune system when patients undergo cancer treatment.
‘Do you know anything about chemotherapy? Do you know what happens to the immune system?’ she asks.
In one video, posted by Burns on Twitter, a woman holding a megaphone is seen facing Burns, who is wearing a face mask. She first pushes a person behind Burns as shouting erupts
The woman is then seen shoving Burns, punching her in the stomach and hitting her several times
She rips off Burns’ mask as a man tries to push the woman away and people shout: ‘Leave her alone’
One of the other protesters, who is holding a sign reading ‘End the Censorship of Vaccine Risks’, asks her if she knows about the Civil Rights Act.
‘F**k your civil rights,’ she responds.
Another man joins in, telling Burns: ‘Get on the right side of history.
‘You’ve got a lot of anger you need to release. It’s a very dangerous emotion.’
The situation appeared to escalate further with the second video, posted by Burns on Twitter, showing a larger crowd of anti-maskers gathered.
A group of anti-fascist counter-protesters had also arrived on the scene with the two sides clashing, reported Vice.
A woman holding a megaphone is seen facing Burns, who is wearing a face mask.
Anti-maskers are arriving at the Cedar Sinai breast cancer clinic, they are angry that the clinic requires patients to have masks, they previously bullied a cancer patient into tears. pic.twitter.com/KcIL8YIl8t
— Vishal P. Singh (They/He) (@VPS_Reports) July 22, 2021
The attacker who was protesting against the clinic’s mask mandate is pictured in the footage
Burns (pictured) said on social media that she was sprayed in the face with bear mace in the encounter
Burns has spoken about her cancer diagnosis on social media, posting photos of her in her hospital bed
She first pushes a person behind Burns as shouting erupts.
The woman is then seen shoving Burns, punching her in the stomach and ripping her mask off her face.
She then strikes Burns several times as a man tries to push the woman away and people shout: ‘Leave her alone.’
Burns said on social media that the attacker hit her in her surgery scars.
She also said she was sprayed in the face with bear mace in the encounter.
Burns has spoken about her cancer diagnosis on social media, posting photos of her in her hospital bed.
In February, she tweeted: ‘I was diagnosed with stage 3 HER2 triple positive breast cancer a week before my 37 birthday- since then I’ve had chemo, radiation, multiple surgeries.’
This marks the second time anti-maskers have targeted the breast cancer clinic, reported Vice.
Footage posted online shows Kate Burns being shoved and hit by a woman with a megaphone on the sidewalk
Burns said on social media that the attacker hit her in her surgery scars on her abdomen
Cedars-Sinai told DailyMail.com in a statement that the ‘health and safety of our patients are always our most important priorities.’
‘While we cannot control activity that occurs on public streets outside any of our facilities, we have taken all available measures with our staff, our security and local law enforcement to ensure the safety of patients visiting our Breast Center, which remains open and fully operational,’ the statement read.
The health provider stood by its mask mandate which is in line with state rules.
‘We continue to follow all requirements from the state of California and Los Angeles County on indoor masking to protect against the spread of the virus that causes Covid19,’ it said.
‘We will continue to do our part to eradicate the Covid19 pandemic and that means adhering to these strict masking mandates for those who visit our facilities, while doing everything possible to meet the needs of every one of our patients.’
LA County is currently under a mask mandate amid a rise in COVID-19 cases and the rising spread of the Delta variant.
The mandate went into effect Saturday in the county, requiring all residents – vaccinated and unvaccinated – to wear masks indoors again.
The move comes as California has seen a rise in cases since the state fully reopened on June 15.
This marks the second time anti-maskers have targeted the breast cancer clinic (above)