Meanwhile another anti-vax propagandist learns the hard way:

A conservative radio host in Tennessee, who repeatedly spread misinformation about coronavirus and mocked vaccines but changed his tune after falling seriously ill, was still fighting for his life on Saturday, weeks after contracting the virus.

Phil Valentine, who hosts a talk radio show on 99.7 WWTN-FM in Nashville, is hospitalized and is receiving supplemental oxygen while in critical care battling COVID pneumonia, his family said in a statement Friday.

I wonder if, while fighting for his life, he’s thinking at all about the people who listened to his misinformation about coronavirus and mockery of vaccines. I wonder if he’s feeling any shame at all about people he put in the hospital with his radio chatter. I wonder if he’s worrying about how many of them are as desperately ill as he is. I wonder if he feels any fucking remorse.

In a blog post in December, days after doses of Pfizer’s COVID vaccine [were] first authorized for emergency use in the United States, Valentine said he was simply following the logic in deciding not to get vaccinated.

“I’m not an anti-vaxxer,” he wrote. “I’m just using common sense. What are my odds of getting Covid? They’re pretty low. What are my odds of dying from Covid if I do get it? Probably way less than 1 percent. I’m doing what everyone should do and that’s my own personal health risk assessment. If you have underlying health issues, you probably need to get the vaccine. If you’re not at high risk of dying from Covid then you’re probably safer not getting it.”

Even if that were true (which it’s not), it overlooks everyone else. Vaccines protect the vaccinated but they also protect the population.

His brother, Mark Valentine, posted an impassioned message to Facebook on Wednesday, suggesting that watching Phil Valentine who was “fighting for his life,” had persuaded him to get vaccinated when he was previously not inclined to do so.

“Having seen this up close and personal I’d encourage ALL of you to put politics and other concerns aside and get it,” he added, noting that he wouldn’t wish his brother’s condition on his worst enemies.

Yes well this is the thing: politics should have nothing to do with it. This is a non-partisan apolitical politics are beside the point issue if ever there was one. It’s only dribbling morons and psychopaths who pretend it’s political.