Franson is not about to rein things in a bit during this sensitive time of quarantine and coronavirus – or, as she called it on Twitter in mid-March, the “#ChineseVirus.”

Novel coronavirus was first reported in the Wuhan region of China, a fact that has spurred widespread reports of anti-Asian bias across the United States. Twitter

Maybe she is pulling back a little. On Wednesday, as Gov. Tim Walz extended the state's stay-at-home order through May 4, Franson boldly declared: “I’m not staying home” on Twitter. After concerned responses in her replies, the legislator amended her statement to say she was “doing [her] part to social distance.”

Well, that was fast. Twitter

Franson had another outlet when she wanted to let loose. The COVID Memes Facebook page – of which, until recently, Franson was the page administrator – was full of folks letting off steam.

Facebook

The page featured jokes about people from Wuhan supposedly having a predilection for eating bats, and memes about government and the media characterizing the virus as more dangerous than it actually is.

City Pages reached out to Franson for comment on Thursday, and she didn’t respond. Instead, the page abruptly disappeared. Then a person who identified himself only as a COVID Memes member named “Jon” called to ask this reporter if they “had ever made a joke in [their] life.”

For some more buttoned-up content, you can check out the Representative Mary Franson Facebook page, where she mostly sticks to claiming that “an hour of CNN is far more of a public health threat than all the bars in all the cities of the country” and “our economy is going to be flatter than a pancake if we wait until May to get back to work.”

Before COVID Memes was taken down, City Pages took a few screenshots of memes Franson posted to the page. Peruse them below.

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