Covid Kills Off Prominent Anti-Vaxxers and their Misinformation

Many well-known anti-vaxxers have died recently from Covid-19, leaving behind the prominent conservative platforms where they spewed anti-science misinformation. They include right-wing radio announcers, government officials, religious zealots, protest leaders, and policemen.

Covid didn’t care what they believed. The virus brought them miserable and avoidable deaths after they campaigned against the vaccine.

By killing prominent anti-vaxxers, the disease is eliminating misinformation about it.

Broadcast Blowhards

Marc Bernier, a prominent conservative radio host from Daytona Beach, Florida, who was an outspoken opponent of Covid vaccines and mask mandates, died August 28 after a nearly month-long battle with Covid-19. He was 65 years old.

As news of Bernier’s death spread more widely Monday, the term “Mr. Anti-Vax” began trending, with more than 16,000 tweets made about it.

He became an outspoken shill for conservatism during his three-hour afternoon show at WNDB — as well as a strident voice against vaccinations of all sorts. Bernier was first hospitalized with Covid on August 7, after being off the air and sick at home for the week leading up to his hospital admittance.

On July 30, Bernier posted what would become his final tweet, in which he compared the U.S. government to Nazis in its push to get people vaccinated.

Dick Farrel, a right-wing Newsmax TV host, attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci as a “power-tripping, lying freak” who conspired with “power trip lib loons.” Farrell was an ardent supporter of Trump and urged people not to get vaccinated, saying “it’s a ‘scam-demic.'”

The shock-talk broadcaster went all-in on election fraud conspiracy theories and questioned the effectiveness of the Covid vaccine. He was known as the “other Rush Limbaugh.”

Bernier also worked at WIOD radio in Miami and WPBR radio in Palm Beach. He had strongly condemned the coronavirus vaccine, posting on Facebook on July 3, “why take a vax promoted by people who lied 2u all along about masks, where the virus came from and the death toll?”

Florida has become one of the nation’s hot spots for the virus amid the Delta variant surge. Last week, the state had more than 151,000 new infections and over 170 deaths.

Shortly before he died on August 4 at age 65, he said, “I wish I had gotten [the vaccine].”

Phil Valentine, a 62-year-old conservative radio host in Nashville, Tenn., who had questioned the necessity of vaccines, also died from the virus. Valentine had a nationally syndicated show.

“The people who instinctively believe that the government is the solution to everything are already talking vaccination mandates. This should be a personal choice,” he wrote on his blog in December.

On July 11, Valentine confirmed that he had been diagnosed with the virus on Facebook, telling his audience that he expected to be back soon. Just four days after announcing his diagnosis, Valentine tweeted a sarcastic comment to a news article reporting on a recall of Johnson & Johnson sunscreens, writing, “Ah, but I’m sure their vaccine is perfectly safe. Don’t worry about it.”

He tweeted in December 2020, “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 also recorded a parody song titled, “Vaxman,” mocking the vaccine.

But like Farrel, he had reportedly changed his position on vaccines after contracting Covid-19. The radio station he was affiliated with, 99.7 WTN, posted a statement on July 23 that Valentine had been hospitalized and “regrets not being more vehemently ‘Pro-Vaccine.’” He died on August 21.

Rabble rousers

H. Scott Apley, a Texas GOP official who repeatedly mocked Covid vaccines and masks on social media died five days after posting a meme on Facebook, questioning the idea of getting inoculated against the virus.

Apley, a Texas Republican Executive Committee member and a Dickinson City Council member died from Covid on August 4. He was 45.

Apley leaves an impoverished wife and infant son, both of whom tested positive for the virus, who had to start a GoFundMe page to pay for his funeral expenses. Known for his extreme conservative beliefs and Christian faith, Apley rallied against most Covid safety policies. For example, he compared mask mandates to Nazism.

Apley posted a Tweet about a former health commissioner who said the Pfizer vaccine was effective against the virus, saying, “You are an absolute enemy of a free people,” Apley wrote. Then, he hopped on Facebook in May to post about a “mask burning” party 900 miles away in Cincinnati. “I wished I lived in the area!” he wrote.

On social media, Apley criticized the idea of businesses using vaccine passports. He also attacked a vaccination center in Houston that offered rewards for getting vaccinated, like tickets to NFL games and Disney on Ice, calling the idea “disgusting.”

Two days after posting on Facebook that vaccines don’t work, he was admitted to the hospital with Covid, where he died.

Caleb Wallace, another Texas anti-masker, died of Covid at age 30 after battling the virus for weeks. He helped organize the “Freedom Rally” and other prominent protests against pandemic restrictions.

He also left behind an impoverished widow and three children. His widow Jessica, who is pregnant with the couple’s fourth child, said that he initially began experiencing symptoms on July 26 and that he had been in the hospital since July 30.

“He was so hard-headed,” she told the San Angelo Standard-Times. “He didn’t want to see a doctor, because he didn’t want to be part of the statistics with Covid tests.” Wallace reportedly believed that vaccine mandates were also an infringement on people’s constitutional rights.

Wallace was well known in San Angelo city for being a prominent anti-masker, having stood up to the school board and even helped organize a rally. In July 2020, Wallace was one of the key organizers of the ‘Freedom Rally,’ where protesters demanded the state end all restrictions and ban mask and vaccine mandates.

Since 2020, he had appeared in interviews with numerous local media outlets and even organized the ‘The San Angelo Freedom Defenders’ group.

“He didn’t want to see a doctor because he didn’t want to be part of the statistics with Covid tests,” his widow said. He reportedly refused to get tested and treated himself with Vitamin C, zinc, aspirin, and ivermectin horse dewormer.

Religious ranters

Jimmy DeYoung Sr. was known for hosting his own “Prophecy Today” radio program which was syndicated across hundreds of stations in the US. He was hospitalized on August 7, less than a week after preaching his final sermon. He was dead from Covid a week later, on August 14.

In February, DeYoung’s program hosted another Christian faith leader who characterized the Covid vaccines as a “major deception” and a “present from the devil.” During the interview, DeYoung questioned whether the vaccine would become a form of “government control.”

DeYoung’s guest at the time, Sam Rohrer, said that very few people who were infected lost their lives, calling the vaccine only a “purported solution” and “not truly a vaccine.”

DeYoung published an interview promoting the conspiracy theories that the Pfizer vaccine would make women sterile and that world governments were using the virus and vaccine to centralize power.

In December 2020, DeYoung said that it should be a “personal decision” as to whether Christians get the vaccine. He died at age 81.

Stephen Harmon of Corona, California, who mocked Covid-19 vaccines on social media, died on July 21 after a month-long battle with the virus. He was 34.

A member of the Hillsong megachurch, Harmon had been a vocal opponent of vaccines, making a series of jokes about not having the vaccine. “I got 99 problems but a vax ain’t one,” the 34-year-old tweeted to his 7,000 followers in June. On July 8, he posted: “Biden’s door to door vaccine ‘surveyors’ really should be called JaCovid Witnesses. #keepmovingdork.”

Three days before his death, Harmon tweeted: “If you don’t have faith that God can heal me over your stupid ventilator then keep the Hell out of my ICU room, there’s no room in here for fear or lack of faith!”

Harmon posted pictures of himself in his hospital bed. “Please pray y’all, they really want to intubate me and put me on a ventilator,” he said. In his final tweet, Harmon wrote, “Don’t know when I’ll wake up, please pray.” Harmon still said he would reject the vaccine despite his struggle with the virus, saying his religious faith would protect him.

Before to his death, he had joked about the pandemic and vaccines, sharing memes saying he trusted the Bible over top US disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Government Misinformers

Linda Zuern, a supporter of former President Donald Trump and a protester against Covid-19 vaccines, died of coronavirus on July 16. She lived in Bourne, Massachusetts, and was age 70.

Zuern opposed local vaccinations efforts, both as a member of the county government council, the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates, and as a volunteer with a local conservative group called United Cape Patriots. She was the president of the Chapter 9 Massachusetts Republican Assembly and was the vice president of the Bourne Republican Town Committee. She also founded the Upper Cape Tea Party.

Last December, while serving her third term in the Assembly, she pushed for local doctors to use hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19 patients. In addition, she was often seen holding a Trump support poster as motorists drove by.

Recently Zuern protested in Provincetown against the state’s VaxBus program. The bus is a mobile vaccination unit to help inoculate rural residents who lack access to nearby health clinics.

In June, she fell into a coma at a Boston hospital and was placed on a ventilator until she died. She never got vaccinated against the virus, according to her friends.

Joe Manning, an anti-vaxx Sheriff’s deputy in Georgia, died of Covid after he urged friends to take animal dewormer Ivermectin, which is toxic to humans. Capt. Joe Manning, a 57-year-old Wayne County Sheriff’s Office employee, died on August 25 after a short battle with the virus.

The law enforcement officer had also expressed anti-vaccine views on Facebook. Manning frequently bragged, “I am not vaccinated by choice and that’s my right.” He leaves behind a widow and three children.

In a post on Aug. 14, eleven days before he died, Manning urged his followers to visit a local animal feed-and-seed store that was carrying both “liquid and paste Ivermectin.” The same day Manning posted a meme that stated, “If we lose on vaccines we will completely lose our right to sovereignty over our own bodies.”

Daniel ‘Duke’ Trujillo, 33, died on May 26, shortly after sharing a series of anti-vaccination posts on his social media. The Denver Sheriff’s deputy had shared a series of anti-vax posts just weeks before his death. “I have an immune system,” exclaimed one of his Facebook posts.

“I don’t care if you’ve had your vaccine,” read another profile picture border included on a now-deleted Facebook post from April. He leaves behind a widow and two children.

The sheriff’s deputy had also captioned a TikTok post with an anti-vaccine message, “I’ll get it later on after y’all start growing apendages [sic] out of y’alls foreheads,” he wrote.

Trujillo shared an Instagram post in July 2020 that suggested he refused to wear a mask. “Before you shame me in public for not having a mask, ask yourself one simple question,” the post said. “Will this mask stop an uppercut?” In 2017, Trujillo was suspended for 60 days without pay for using excessive force against an inmate.

Trujillo is the second Denver Sheriff Department deputy to die of Covid complications.

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“The vaccine isn’t the problem. Talk radio is,” said Jerry Del Colliano, a professor at New York University and editor of Inside Music Media, which covers the radio industry. Radio companies, he said, “are risking the health of their audiences even as anti-vaxxer bloviators continue to die.”

“There is a clear message that is coming through: This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC’s director, said at a briefing of the White House COVID-19 Response Team. “Our biggest concern is we are going to continue to see preventable cases, hospitalizations, and sadly deaths among the unvaccinated.”