Immediately I can see this was written by the comms director for the UC Davis ag/vet sciences department. UC Davis has one of the largest and most aggressive research programs oriented towards industrial livestock.
Please and think about the basic logic behind this claim and who benefits from making it a story.
I’m frankly not that surprised. The city and especially the surrounding areas in LI have always had some of the most conservative and fascist populations in the country. There’s something uniquely dangerous about the thin blue line Italian American crowd.
Gotta say though I’m not sure if this covers surgical masks but more ski masks, which are also not uncommon to see.