Texas GOP Leader Bashes Masks and the Vaccine. Now He’s Dead.
H. Scott Apley was a Dickinson city council representative and a member of the Texas GOP executive committee. He was also an anti-vaxxer and anti-masker. He’s railed against public health policy and flaunted guidelines to keep people safe. Last Friday he posted a claim the COVID vaccine doesn’t work on Facebook. Over the weekend, he, his wife, and his son all tested positive for COVID. He was admitted to a hospital in Galveston on Monday, and he died yesterday.
Oh, and here’s his Facebook profile pic:
He gave his life “owning a lib”. He sure showed us.
That picture makes me feel so sad.
1Another GOP Leader bites the dust… Ignorance and refusal to believe science has consequences.
2Sorry, I’m fresh out of pity. I don’t wish death on anyone but clearly, they do. Sometimes, however, their aim is a little off and the end up taking themselves out. Darwin strikes again.
3Actions or the lack there of have consequences. Hopefully his family, friends and followers will learn from his deadly foolishness and get vaccinated.
4Poor little kid.
5COVID is having a positive impact. It is improving the gene pool.
6I used to try not to laugh when this happened, but after it keeps happening repeatedly, I have given up trying.
7This might be the turning point for the Democratic Party to take over the state. There might not be enough Republican voters left to win elections in the not-so-distant future.
8I just posted this on facebook. it speaks to the issue:
Alan Johns, MD
Professor, Gynecology, TCU Medical School
Sorry, I’m fed up…completely and totally fed up.
9I’m not supposed to get this way, but COVID made me do it. Well, not the virus, but all the ….. going on around it. So here we go.
“It’s a conspiracy”
“It’s experimental”
“It alters your DNA”
“It may cause long-term problems”
“It’s too new, too rushed. I want more time”
“It will harm my future babies”
“It will mess up my periods”
“It’s only here to make money for the companies”
“I never get sick, don’t need it”
“I never take the flu shot and never get the flu; this is no different”
“Don’t you know about all the people that died after taking it?”
“Many doctors warn against taking it”
“I don’t want to put that stuff into my body”
“It’s all a scam by the liberals to stay in power”
“I’m not going to take it, no matter what you say”
“It’s not safe, everyone knows that”
“It’s my god-given right to refuse, and I love Jesus”
“It’s the mark of the devil”
“It’s just another way the government wants to control us”
“I’m not taking it, Fauci doesn’t know what he’s talking about, he’s just in it for the publicity and money”
On and on
I hear this nonsense from patients EVERY DAMN DAY, ALL DAY.
None have medical degrees. None have expertise in virology, microbiology, immunology, public health, pharmaceutical research, nor intensive care medicine. Despite the fact that COVID can kill them and do it in a particularly unpleasant way (if there is a pleasant way to die); despite the fact that the vaccine can, with 99%+ effectiveness, prevent them from dying from COVID, they still give me those damn scientifically illiterate reasons for not taking it. And, oh, by the way, they are in my office seeking medical care.
But they have “researched” the COVID vaccine.
I’m fed up, had enough. I’m not going to stay silent (mouthing curse words hidden behind my mask) with everyone except my colleagues. So here we go.
During my entire 42 years (and counting) in medicine, I’ve always tried to be understanding, compassionate, and honest with my patients. During the last 18 months, however, the “understanding” part of that equation has rapidly dissipated when it comes to COVID.
The COVID virus is spreading all over the world, replicating trillions of trillions of times every few hours and it’s inevitable that a new variant will evolve. That one may not be susceptible to the current vaccines, and then we are right back where we started. Sounds really great, doesn’t it, starting this crap all over again.
The only way to arrest the spread and, hopefully, prevent a particularly nasty variant from evolving is for most of the world’s population to become immune. Not just the population of Tarrant County, Louisiana, UK, Texas, Africa, or any other single geographic area, but the entire world’s population. COVID doesn’t give a crap who it infects or where they live. It simply lives to replicate and evolve. Then it hops a flight inside the nose and lungs of a passenger landing in Houston and off we go again. From a virology standpoint, this pandemic has shown us that we really are one world, and it has drilled that fact directly into our lungs.
This is real, this is serious, and it’s not us vs them, it’s us vs a virus. The virus is our opponent, not our fellow humans.
.
There are a few things we can do about this mess:
1. The most important, by far, is to become immune to the virus. When I say immune, I don’t mean you can’t test positive or even catch COVID after being vaccinated. I mean that, with 99% certainty, you will not die from COVID after you are fully vaccinated. Keep in mind what the vaccine is trying to accomplish. It’s not important if you are vaccinated and get a mild flu-like illness that lasts a few days. What IS important is that you do not end up in the ICU on a ventilator and/or dead (at least not dead from COVID).
2. Understand the science behind those recommendations from the CDC, Dr. Fauci, and, most importantly your doctor. And I don’t mean the “doctor” who believes that endometriosis is caused by having sex in your dreams with demons. Not the “doctor” who warns against vaccines and/or treats infected folks with tree bark or bird shit because they are “natural”. Those folks do not deserve the title “doctor”, they are medically illiterate quacks, no different than the old snake-oil salesmen of the early 1900’s. They can literally kill patients with their recommendations, and they don’t seem to care. From what I recall from the Hippocratic oath, that’s contrary to its dictum.
3. If it’s asked of you, wear a frickin mask. It works. Have you had the flu this season? Probably not and most of your friends haven’t either. Me neither. I have not seen a case of the flu in months. Could it be that masks work even for the flu? Think about that, it’s not a hard question. MASKS work. They are a pain, but us surgeons have worn masks for many hours at a time in the operating room. We don’t get light-headed, pass out, or lose our neurologic faculties and fall face-first into a big ole incision. Nothing happens except we don’t infect our patient’s wounds with all the bacterial/viral crap that comes out of our mouth and/or nose during the case. It’s not that damn hard to wear a mask. And don’t get me started on the “freedom” thing. Just call it a “Freedom Mask”, put a little American Flag on it and everyone will want to wear one, we won’t be able to keep them in stock. We could also wrap the vaccine syringe in bacon, then everyone would be asking for it.
4. Listen to the Doctors, and I mean the real doctors (see #2).
5. Keep in mind – this is a World-Wide problem that will continue to affect us all unless we work together. That working together thing is not real popular right now in the U.S., but with COVID it needs to be. Set all politics aside when it comes to COVID, work with and respect you fellow human beings. Like it or not, we are truly in this thing together.
I have committed myself to discussing the vaccine with every unvaccinated patient who comes to my office. It usually takes about 15 minutes to discuss their concerns calmly and rationally. Fortunately, the majority understand and say they will get vaccinated. Maybe they are just saying that to shut me up, but I don’t get that feeling.
To those few that respond to the question “why have you chosen to not get vaccinated?” with “it doesn’t matter what you say, I’m not taking it!”, I give up. You win. However, you could actually lose, but I did what I could to prevent it. Problem is, you could end up dead, a bloated reservoir for the rapidly evolving virus. And it’s all preventable. And if you don’t end up dead, you can transmit COVID to your unvaccinated kids, parents, grandparents, and friends, anyone of whom could die.
Are those folks who refuse the vaccine stupid? Ignorant? Arrogant? No, I am not saying that at all. They are simply ill-informed. Whose fault is that? Social media, politics, scientific illiteracy, lack of critical thinking skills, “Freedom”, etc. There are way too many reasons, but none of them really matter now.
This isn’t a political game, a simple “difference of opinion”, nor a power struggle. It’s not a matter of “Freedom” nor a religious issue. Unlike other freedoms we enjoy, this decision carries implications for the entirety of society, not just one person. That makes it everyone’s business, not just the vaccine refusers.
Medicine is a partnership between myself and my patients. They talk, I listen; I talk, they listen. My responsibility, however, is to tell them the truth, regardless of what they want to believe or what their neighbor/relative or google told them. I take that very seriously and consider myself a true advocate for my patients. I don’t give a rat’s as…. about politicians, insurance companies, pharmaceutical reimbursement, nor head-up-their-ass quacks. I care about my patients. That’s what I do. That’s exactly what prompted this rant.
Carry on!
Have y’all seen that the Sturgis Motorcylce Rally in South Dakota starts tomorrow? Hundreds of thousands expected. Last year’s rally was reported to result in at least 250,000 cases of COVID all over the country. Of course, Gov. Kristi Noem is all for it, will be there.
10Good Riddance to that self-ignorant MAGAot mofo, got what was coming to him, and hopefully the rest of them.
No, I have no particular sympathy or empathy towards his surviving kinfolk nor friends and associates, they all have enough facts and evidence to examine available, refuting the lunacy of the anti-vaxxers and the rest.
Like the previous comments, it is great that Darwinian natural selection kicking in is slowly improving the US gene pool by weeding out the most obvious genetic defectives, the dumbest of the GQPers and tRumpanzees. Looks like it kicked in a tad late for this maskhole Apley, since he obviously bred, but maybe his spawn will somehow avoid the pit of cluelessness that swallowed up his dad.
[used to get allergy shots, etc. at UTMB, still got my UTMB card in my wallet]
11Alan Johns, MD @10, Thank You for your excellent comment, about 99thousand times.
12Unfortunately, few of the people who really need to read or hear factual reality-based things like that will listen.
Texas Expat in CA @11, Hell Yes!
13The C19 virus is now many many times MORE LETHAL than last year. If they wish to self-immolate themselves in a blaze of COVID-19, may they burn brightly, if only briefly.
C19 may also now eliminate far more of those cretins than before, which is a very good thing; aside from the drawbacks so well explained by Dr. Johns above.
That poor child.
14I call the anti-vax crowd the Control Group. That is exactly what they are.
15dixiechiken says:
“Darwin strikes again.”
Evolution & vaccination.
16There’s a research project in there somewhere, about people who believe in neither.
It’s not just the uneducated or unsophisticated. The Baltimore Symphony fired its principal flutist because she wouldn’t stop spreading covid disinformation on Facebook. She also has some troubling ideas about George Soros and Black Lives Matter. And naturally she’s invoking the First Amendment, even though the BSO is a private organization.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/04/baltimore-symphony-orchestra-flutist-fired
17So it goes.
18> flaunted
You want “flouted”
Flaunting is not what he did.
19But did the flutist flaunt or flout?
20Stupidity and ignorance kills. He’s proof. I wonder how many others he infected- both with his rhetoric and his covid.
21Assuming the baby is his. I do have sympathy for the child. No sympathy for the rest of the family that followed Mr Apley’s lead. Also sounds like everyone in his city hall followed the same ignorance according to some of the comments under his Facebook post. Who else will they kill?
well, I certainly feel owned.
22A photo from the “Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas” showed H. Scott Apley in a group of 6 men in that caucus. 3 of the 6 men in the photo now have died of Covid this year. (Dave Nalle, Jeff LeBlanc, and now H Scott Apley)
https://twitter.com/ElanMcMillin/status/1423033242685517833
More irony, a gofundme page was set up to cover Apley’s medical and burial expenses, as well as aid his Covid-positive wife and infant child. The idea that a broad-based social support system (Medicare for All e.g.) should exist to eliminate the need of such funding seemingly never crosses the mind of people like him.
Lastly, speaking of people like him, the Texas Republican Party Chairman Matt Rinaldi remarked: “Please join me in lifting the Apley family up in prayer. We will miss Scott deeply but find comfort knowing he is at peace in the arms of our Savior. ” Note Rinaldi pointedly failed to mention Apley’s death was caused by COVID. Right on brand.
23Dr. Johns , thanks for posting that here. I hope it’s widely disseminated, because at least IMHO, it’s exactly the message that needs to spread.
24My most sincere thanks to Dr. Johns @10. Just wonderful!
25“Verified Harmful Extremist”
Dollars to doughnuts he never heard of Hannah Arendt.
26The average IQ in the US must be trending higher as the willfully and not so willfully ignorant die.
27Anti-vaxxer maskhole Mr. Apley is not an isolated case, there are increasing numbers of these cretins removing themselves from the very shallowest end of the gene pool [which is a good thing].
“Dick Farrell Death – Obituary, Anti-Vaccination Florida-based radio host And Trump Supporter Dies Of Covid
Dick Farrell, Newsmax Radio host and Trump supporter, has passed away due to Covid complications. Farrell had recently, about a month ago told his audience on radio that he wouldn’t get vaccinated because Covid vaccines are “poisonous”. ”
https://newdeaths.com/2021/08/07/dick-farrell-death-obituary-anti-vaccination-florida-based-radio-host-and-trump-supporter-dies-of-covid/
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/8/7/2044386/-Right-Wing-Radio-Host-Anti-Vaxxer-and-Trump-Supporter-Dick-Ferrell-Dies-From-COVID-19
28I’m a Patient Navigator at a FQHC in the South Bronx. I sat my HIV+ clients down one by one (and in a group) and introduced them to Kizzmekia Corbett, Ph.D. Immunology. She’s a beautiful 34 year old black woman from NC who is so bright UNC-Chapel Hill let her into their labs when she was in high school. She worked on a vaccine for SARS for SIX YEARS.
This laid the groundwork for the vaccine for COVID-19 otherwise known as SARS-CoV-2. Fauci grabbed her for the team; Dolly Parton put up the cash. We got the vaccine in months.
All my caseload got their shots. I convinced them.
29I simply refer to this as “the thinning of the herd.”
30