Conservative Radio Host Dies Of COVID After Attacking Masks And Vaccines

Conservative radio host Phil Valentine died of COVD over the weekend, after spending several months attacking masks and questioning the safety of vaccines. These stories are hitting with far more frequency as the Delta variant continues to spread across the country. Valentine's family announced, prior to his passing, that he would be far more pro-vaccine once he got out of the hospital, that day will never come now. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins discusses this.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

On Saturday morning, this past weekend, it was announced that conservative radio host Phil Valentine from Tennessee at the age of 61 died from COVID-19. For the past few months, in fact, for many, many months, Valentine had on the air and through his social media accounts, questioned the efficacy and safety of vaccines. He had railed against mask mandates. In fact, even at one point, recorded a Beatles parody song called VAX man that mocked the vaccine. Oh, and at one point, and I got to read this and he posted this on Twitter. 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? You didn't have a heart attack. You didn't get paralysis. But you did get COVID and you did die from it. One of the saddest parts about this story and again, just to reiterate, I did another story about this, about another anti-vax, anti-mask, Republican COVID denier. It's not COVID denier, but anyway, COVID, you know, whatever, that died. I did that video on Friday.

Now, here it is Monday. I got another one. And as I said last time and the time before, and the time before that, I'm going to talk about every single one of these that comes up because these are teachable moments, teachable moments for the anti-vaxxers, teachable moments for the anti-vaxxers, teachable moments for the people who think that COVID is no more than the common flu. Why we even worry about it? Because of situations like this. This death was in fact a tragedy. And as per usual, I guarantee you, I never agreed with a single thing Phil Valentine ever said on the air. Probably would have despised the man's politics if I knew more about him. But that's irrelevant. Phil Valentine was a human being. And at this point with these vaccines readily available, especially for people in Valentine's age group, it's unnecessary. It should not have happened. And I wished it hadn't happened. His family made an announcement, um, a couple of days before his death and they said, here it is, I'll read it. Let me read it.

Phil would like for his listeners to know that while he has never been an anti-vaxxer, he regrets not being more of a vehemently pro-vaccine and looks forward to being able to more vigorously advocate that position, as soon as he is back on the air, which we hope will be soon. Like so many of these other dead Republicans, he had a change of heart once it affected him personally, and he clearly told his family look, when I'm out of here, I'm going to be different. I'm going to stop the nonsense. I'm going to encourage people to get the vaccine. I wish I had done it. He doesn't have the opportunity to do that now. I hope the station and any affiliate stations that he had, I hope they read this family statement on the air. I hope the listeners understand. I hope they understand that even he knew at this point he was wrong for what he did. He was wrong to attack the vaccines. He was wrong to downplay the virus. He was wrong about everything and he knew it and he admitted it. But now he doesn't have the opportunity to tell the people who rely on him everyday, what to do.

But more importantly, a family just lost a family member.