A Conservative Tennessee radio announcer who had been skeptical about the coronavirus vaccine until he was hospitalized with COVID-19 has died. He was 61 years old.
Nashville SuperTalk 99.7 WTN radio station confirmed Phil Valentine’s death in a tweet Saturday.
Valentine had been skeptical about coronavirus vaccines. But after he tested positive for COVID-19, and before he was hospitalized, he told his radio listeners to ask, “If I get this thing from COVID, do I have a chance of dying from it?” . In case the answer was “yes,” I advised them to get vaccinated. He added that he chose not to vaccinate because he thought he would probably not die.
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As soon as Valentine was transferred to the intensive care unit, Mark Valentine said his brother regretted that “he was not a more open supporter of the vaccine.”
“I know if he could tell them that, they’d be told, ‘Go get vaccinated. Stop worrying about politics. Stop worrying about all the conspiracy theories,” Mark Valentine told The Tennessean newspaper on July 25.
“He regrets not being more persistent about getting the vaccine. Get the damn data,” Mark Valentine added.
Phil Valentine had been a radio personality since he was 20 and became a famous conservative announcer by opposing a state tax proposed by then-Republican Gov. Don Sundquist, The Tennessean reported.