A Republican challenger to Gov. Greg Abbott for the party nomination in Texas's 2022 gubernatorial election announced his diagnosis of Covid 19 on Saturday, adding that he expected to be hospitalised with the virus.
Allen West, a retired lieutenant colonel in the army and former congressman, chaired state branch of the GOP between 2019 and 2021. He resigned earlier this year and announced a bid to unseat Mr Abbott as governor in the state where Republicans are heavily favoured to win most statewide elections.
On Saturday, he wrote in Facebook posts that he and his wife Doctor Angela West had tested positive for Covid - 19, with his wife testing positive first on Friday. The second post indicated that Mr West, who is unvaccinated, was directed to be admitted to hospital due to concern about his oxygen levels.
Dr. West, who is vaccinated, was apparently not giving as severe a case and was not hospitalised; a Facebook post on Sunday indicated she was discharged by the hospital after receiving initial treatment.
The far-right candidate reiterated his opposition to vaccine mandates such as the plan announced by President Joe Biden on Sunday in a Facebook post that noted that he was recovering very well after receiving a monoclonal antibody treatment.
After this experience, I can attest that I am even more focused on fighting vaccine mandates. Instead of enriching the pockets of Big Pharma and corrupt bureaucrats and politicians, we should be advocating monoclonal antibody infusion therapy, argued.
While Mr West recovered from the disease, his case nevertheless illustrates the effectiveness of vaccines that he would go on in the post to falsely refer to as a dangerous shot his wife received the vaccine he decried as dangerous faced a less dangerous case of Covid - 19 than did Mr West and did not require an extended stay in hospital. Medical centers around the country have warned that the high influx of unvaccinated Covid -19 patients are causing them to have fewer resources available for other patients, even as many with the virus still die or leaving the hospital with severe long-term side effects.
The former Florida congressman, long known for his conspiracies about former President Barack Obama, Democrats in Congress as well as the 2020 presidential election, is one of a handful of Republicans projected to challenge Mr Abbott in the GOP primary in 2015 and beyond.
Mr West is not limited by term limits in Texas and heads into the primary with tens of millions of dollars in a state campaign fund which will likely give him a significant advantage over Mr Abbott and other Republicans with less statewide name recognition.
Texas has become a national battleground over the issue of abortion after the state passed a restrictive ban on practice after six weeks into pregnancy, virtually eliminating the procedure as an option for many in their 20s and 40s.