Anti-vaccine/anti-mask protester, August 2021
Three right wing radio hosts who railed against COVID vaccinations and masks have died of COVID just in the past month. They are Phil Valentine, Dick Farrel and Marc Bernier. They are joined by other prominent right wingers, including Caleb Wallace, a self-described anti-mask “freedom fighter” who treated himself with the livestock deworming medicine Ivermectin and died of COVID last Saturday at age 30, and H. Scott Apley, a Texas Republican Official who criticized and mocked COVID vaccinations, and who died of COVID in early August at age 45. It is unknown how many others these conservatives in the spotlight caused to die by influencing their followers not to get vaccinated and/or wear masks in public places.
Examples of the diatribes of these dead conservatives include Marc Bernier’s last tweet (his Twitter account has now been deleted), in which Bernier, referring to Democratic government officials who exhort Americans to get vaccinated, wrote:”Now the US Government is acting like Nazi’s” [sic]. Likewise, as to Phil Valentine, according to WTVF NewsChannel 5, Nashville, TN:
In December of 2020 he tweeted “I have a very low risk of A) Getting COVID and B) dying of it if I do. Why would I risk getting a heart attack or paralysis by getting the vaccine?”
He even recorded a parody song – Vaxman – mocking the vaccine.
Similarly, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, H. Scott Apley’s last Facebook post, consistent with many of his previous posts, shared an anti-vaccination tweet, which read:
In 6 months, we’ve gone from the vax ending the pandemic, to you can still get Covid even if vaxxed, to you can pass Covid onto others even if vaxxed, to you can still die of Covid even if vaxxed, to the unvaxxed are killing the vaxxed.
And finally, let’s not forget Herman Cain, the Republican activist, 2012 Republican Party presidential candidate and right wing syndicated columnist, talk radio host, and Fox “News” contributor. In 2020, Cain repeatedly bragged about Donald Trump‘s maskless presidential campaign rallies, including Trump’s July 4, 2020 rally at Mount Rushmore, about which Cain tweeted:
Masks will not be mandatory for the event, which will be attended by President Trump. PEOPLE ARE FED UP!
Then, 10 days after attending Trump’s July 20, 2020 maskless rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Cain died of COVID.
We have previously advocated starting up and strengthening liberal/Democratic/progressive media to compete with the powerful right wing media machine on a more level playing field. Now, however, it may be that the conservative stupidity factory is doing our job for us.
Photo by Becker1999 (Paul and Cathy), used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/YYfb70
