Pressley Stutts, the Greenville County Republican Party leader, died Thursday of complications from COVID-19 after battling the disease for nearly a month.
Stutts was admitted to the hospital on August 1 after his oxygen levels dropped, Greenville News reports. In a post on Facebook, Stutts wrote: “The COVID has created double pneumonia in my lungs.” He also reportedly suffered from other complications of COVID, including renal failure and blood clots.
He would continue to post regular updates about his condition on Facebook all while remaining steadfast in his belief that masks and vaccines should not be mandated.
He made his last post on Facebook on Aug. 13. It was to announce that he was being placed on a ventilator.
“This is my OWN decision. I trust God to keep me. I ask you to trust Him, too,” he said.
He died on Thursday, according to a post on his Facebook page. His wife, Patty, also tested positive for COVID and was hospitalized but has since recovered.
“On behalf of Pressley’s family, and at Patty’s specific request, we would please request privacy for the family at the very difficult time,” the post read. “We will provide further updates as they develop.”
Ironically, Stutts believed that COVID “is a deadly bio-weapon perpetrated upon the people of the world by enemies foreign, and perhaps domestic.” Still, he opposed measures to mitigate the spread of the virus.
Stutts was among a group of at least 100 people who stood outside protesting when Vice-President Kamala Harris visited Greenville in June to encourage more people to get vaccinated.
“People should be free to get the vaccines they want. Free not to get it. But what’s happening now is that there’s a discrimination starting to take place,” he told The Greenville News at the time.
“Mandates and coercions do not work, especially when they come to us from a government that has repeatedly lied to the American People time and time again,” he said. “We the people have been awakened by the truth-telling and exposure of the depth of depravity and corruption President Trump has exposed.”
Stutts, a fervent supporter of Donald Trump was a member of the Tea Party and helped found MySCGOP, a conservative organization intended as an alternative to the S.C. Republican Party, since the GOP as it is today is not extreme enough, according to The State.
What a shame to lose your life because of lies about vaccines and masks. I wonder how many other people he infected? Disgusting!