Back in April, when Dr. Leana Wen, CNN’s medical analyst, made a tweet to express her joy about trials showing the efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine, Texas GOP firebrand H Scott Apley had some strong words for her.
He made the following tweet, along with the hashtag #ShoveTheCarrotWhereTheSunDontShine:
“You are an absolute enemy of a free people.”
You are an absolute enemy of a free people. #ShoveTheCarrotWhereTheSunDontShine.
— H Scott Apley (@hsapley) April 2, 2021
Apley also made a number of other anti-mask comments until very recently, including a meme mocking the effectiveness of vaccines.
Last Wednesday, the Galveston County Republican Party shared news of the man’s passing through a social media post. Apley was part of the State Republican Executive Committee, a precinct chair and city councilman in the town of Dickinson, the remembrance detailed.
And while the committee did not mention the cause of his death, an online fundraiser shared the same day said that he died in a battle against COVID-19 after being sedated and put on a ventilator.
“Since then his wife, Melissa Apley, has also tested positive, but she has not been hospitalized,” the fundraiser read. “As you know, they have a very young infant, Reid, who is under the care of Melissa’s mother.”
Apley’s unfortunate death comes after an increasing number of news reports of stern anti-vaxxers losing their lives to the virus.
Among them is a father from Katy, Texas who railed against vaccines as “poison,” a Kenyan doctor and a sheriff’s deputy in Denver.
Meanwhile, as the delta variant spreads, new cases, hospitalizations and deaths from coronavirus are rising across Texas, and reports say that as of August 2, only 44% of the state’s population were fully vaccinated, making it 37th in the country by the percentage of residents who have received their vaccines.
What are your thoughts on this story? Let us know by joining the conversation in the comments and please share this article if you’ve found it of value.
