Texas GOP official dies of COVID days after mocking the virus: Report.

A GOP official in Texas has died of COVID five days after posting an anti-vaxx meme on Facebook, the Daily Beast reports.

H. Scott Apley, 45, Dickinson City Council member and State Republican Executive Committee member was admitted to UTMB Galveston with pneumonia-like symptoms and tested positive for COVID on August 1, according to a GoFundMe page set up to help his family. He was placed on a ventilator as his condition worsened.

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He died Wednesday morning around 3.a.m. He leaves behind his wife, Melissa and a 5-month-old son, who both tested positive for COVID-19. Apley’s wife has not been admitted to the hospital.

It is unclear whether Apley and his family were vaccinated.

Five days before his death, Apley posted a meme on Facebook questioning the wisdom of getting vaccinated against the virus.

“In 6 months, we’ve gone from the vax ending the pandemic—to you can still get covid even if vaxxed—to you can pass covid onto others even if vaxxed—to you can still die of covid even if vaxxed—to the unvaxxed are killing the vaxxed,” the meme said.

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Apley has been railing against masks and vaccines long before that.

According to The Daily Beast, in May he called efforts to get more people vaccinated by incentivizing vaccinations “disgusting.” Weeks later he posted an invitation to a ‘mask burning’ at a Cincinatti bar, writing “I wish I lived in the area.”Last month he suggested that mask mandates in Germany were akin to Nazism, and has called former Baltimore health commissioner, Dr. Leana Wen “an absolute enemy of a free people,” for celebrating the news of the Pfizer vaccine efficacy.

Texas Republican Party Chairman Matt Rinaldi issued a statement asking for prayers for Apley’s family. His statement made no mention of the fact that he died from COVID related complications.