The hiring of COVID-19 does not prevent US Representative Barry Moore (R-AL) from protesting the mask warrants, even though his home state has been left without ICU beds in the last pandemic wave.
“I just don’t believe in federal government mandates,” Moore told The Daily Beast of his farm in Enterprise, Alabama, Saturday. “If I died of COVID yesterday, I wouldn’t want to force my beliefs and opinions on anyone.”
Moore, a staunch critic of mask mandates at the U.S. Capitol, announced Friday night that he and his wife had hired COVID-19. He said Saturday morning that he had experienced fever, sore throat and exhaustion, and was recovering at home.
Three weeks earlier, he was protesting loudly over President Nancy Pelosi’s requirement that masks be worn inside the House of Representatives, calling her a “tyrant” and insisting on Facebook that she “will NOT comply.”
In a now painfully ironic way video posted to Twitter on July 29th, Moore lamented the House mandate, saying, “The Senate is open, but for its part, COVID is rampant, according to Nancy Pelosi.”
“We can’t find out, while traveling to the Senate, where the COVID virus stops,” he joked. (In another tweet about vaccine warrants, He wrote: “It’s not about science, it’s about government control.”)
Asked on Saturday if his brush with the virus had changed his mind about wearing masks to the Capitol, Moore said he didn’t know what he would do, but added that he wasn’t convinced yet that the masks would work.
“I will have the antibodies and I will have them [COVID]He said about returning home. which is incorrect, studies show that wearing a mask prevents the spread of the disease by protecting both the wearer and those around him).
Moore’s home state, meanwhile, was facing a devastating wave of COVID cases that left its hospitals without a single open bed in the ICU last week. The Alabama Department of Public Health requested federal assistance this week to keep up with the growing number of serious patients and at least one hospital has called for FEMA to intervene. Gov. Kay Ivey restored the state of emergency last week.
“Now is a devastating time,” said Douglas Brewer, general manager of Whitfield Regional Hospital Advertiser Montgomery. “I think most hospitals will tell you we’re getting worse by the hour.”
The state also has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, hovering around 35%.
Moore declined to answer questions about whether he was vaccinated or not, but said the vaccines were not “tested” and that “we don’t know much yet.” (The COVID vaccine went through the same test steps as most other vaccines.)
Moore also mocked the idea of the government going door-to-door to offer the shot, calling it “one more step on the part of the Biden administration to transform the federal government into ‘Big Brother.'”
“We have a responsibility to kill any Joe Biden and Kamala Harris scheme that gives more power to an out-of-control federal government and jeopardizes our fundamental freedoms,” he told Yellowhammer News in July. (The congressman took a more temperate tone in his statement Saturday, suggesting supporters talk to their doctors and make “an informed decision about prevention and treatment that is best for you.”)
Although Moore said Saturday he had few serious symptoms of the virus, there was an unfortunate side effect: because he needed to be quarantined, he could no longer attend former President Donald Trump’s rally in Cullman, Alabama, that day.
“While you can be sure I will be watching to see one of the most beloved presidents of my life,” he wrote in a post on Facebook. “#MAGA”.