A Texas politician who expressed skepticism over masks and vaccines died this week while being hospitalized with COVID-19.
According to NBC News, Dickinson City Council member H. Scott Apley died Wednesday morning after testing positive for coronavirus. A GoFundMe campaign set up for Apley’s family confirmed his COVID diagnosis and subsequent death: “I am very saddened to report that H Scott Apley passed away last night at about 3 am,” campaign organizer John Barton wrote. “He leaves behind his wife, Melissa, who is COVID positive, as well as their infant son Reid.”
As indicated by his social media posts, Apley was a staunch conservative who had frequently dismissed the dangers of the deadly virus. His facebook page featured a number of messages and memes that mocked the efficacy of face coverings, social distancing, and vaccines. His last Facebook post featured a screenshot of a tweet that 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.”
The 45-year-old also compared Germanay’s mask mandate to Nazism and expressed his desire to attend a mask-burning event back in May.
“I was not really aware of his social media presence,” said Dickinson Mayor Sean Skipworth. “I don’t agree with the views that he espoused and the tones that he espoused them in … If you say you don’t like the tone of people on social media, and then you’re doing the same thing after someone dies, it’s disheartening. I think that’s disturbing for American discourse.”
