ANTIOCH, Calif. (AP) — A Northern California city official has been ousted after he suggested on social media that sick, old and homeless people should be left to meet their “natural course in nature” during the coronavirus pandemic.

City Council members in Antioch, a city of about 110,000 people 35 miles east of Oakland, voted unanimously Friday night to remove Ken Turnage II from his post as chairman of the city’s planning commission. Turnage's Facebook post characterizing people with weak immune systems as a drain on society caused a swift uproar.

He said he was entitled to his personal opinion and that removing him would violate his freedom of speech.