Phil Valentine a conservative radio host who expressed skepticism of vaccines has died from COVID, Nashville radio station SuperTalk 99.7 WTN confirmed.
“We are saddened to report that our host and friend Phil Valentine has passed away,” the station wrote in a tweet on Saturday. “Please keep the Valentine family in your thoughts and prayers.”
Valentine was an outspoken skeptic of the COVID-19 vaccine. He questioned whether it was necessary for everyone to get vaccinated since “only those in danger of dying” from the infection should get the shot. He chose not to get vaccinated because he thought he probably wouldn’t die if he contracted the virus. Valentine said he was “taking vitamin D like crazy” and had found a doctor who agreed to prescribe ivermectin, a drug primarily used to treat parasitic infections in animals.
His message change in July when he was moved into a critical care unit on supplemental oxygen, but not on a ventilator after testing positive for COVID. He was suffering from “COVID pneumonia and the attendant side effects,” his family said at the time.
Mark Valentine said his brother is “regretful that he wasn’t a more vocal advocate of the vaccination.”
“I know if he were able to tell you this, he would tell you, ‘Go get vaccinated. Quit worrying about the politics. Quit worrying about all the conspiracy theories,’” he added.
Mark told CNN that his brother also regrets not setting an example for his followers.
“He recognizes now that him not getting the vaccination has probably caused a bunch of other people not to get vaccinated. And that he regrets,” Mark said. “This is a real threat, it is a real public health crisis and it is something that if he had to do over again … his cavalier attitude wouldn’t have been what it was and he would have gotten vaccinated and encouraged everybody to get vaccinated.”
Mark Valentine said he got vaccinated against COVID-19 after his brother became ill.
Tennessee is among the states with the lowest vaccination rates in the country. Just 40 percent of eligible Tennesseans are fully vaccinated.
