State trooper who told off Inslee over vaccine mandate dies from COVID

A former Washington State Patrol trooper who told off Gov. Jay Inslee over the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, resigned and then became a sought-after media figure, has died, according to the State Patrol. Trooper Robert LaMay’s death was announced Friday.

He was 50.

According to FOX News, KIRO News Radio, Newsweek and other media sources, LaMay died after contracting COVID-19.

LaMay took early retirement in October rather than get vaccinated.

https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/coronavirus/article257841883.html

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Fox News wanted viewers to hear an anti-vax trooper’s story – until he died of COVID

Fox News has tried to turn workers who refuse vaccine mandates into culture war heroes, even though the network itself voluntarily imposed a requirement that its own employees be either vaccinated or tested for COVID-19 daily. LaMay became the latest such figure in October, after he resigned from the state police rather than follow Washington state’s vaccine requirement.

The network’s hosts and others on the right promoted LaMay’s story and presented his refusal to take a lifesaving drug as an example their audiences could emulate. But once his 15 minutes of fame were over and he could no longer be used to further the right-wing agenda, LaMay became expendable – his passing from the virus has not been mentioned on Fox as of posting time.

https://www.mediamatters.org/corona...r-anti-vax-troopers-story-until-he-died-covid

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The story doesn't say whether he changed his mind - like thousands of anti-vaxers - about the usefulness of vaccines, connected to a respirator.

And I doubt Fox will send an underling to attend his funeral.

I guess for anti-vax people, freedom is also the right to die in the stupidest way possible.

 

Another thread celebrating the death of someone.....sad.

 

Funny how they will celebrate the death of someone who hasn't taken their Covid shot but you don't hear squat about the thousands who die from Covid after getting the shot.
Pretty sick people.

 

Well, there are dumber ways to die.

However, beyond that, maybe he didn't die of COVID. He openly spoke out about higher ups being involved in human trafficking and, according to the article, the guy running for office (or was in office) planned to have him head a Task Force against human trafficking.

It seems strange to me that every time we hear about these kind of anti-vaxxers (in any medium), they die of COVID. Have NO anti-vaxxers died of something else? Is the media just using these media to hype a particular side in the debate?

 

Let's not be ghouls and celebrate his death.

 

sad, but was his choice, he made it, he paid the price

 

Sorry to bust your ghoulish bubble but vaccinated people die from covid too.

My landlord did.

 

this is true, the vaccine only tries to train your immune system, the actual fight is still up to your immune system, sometimes even a well-trained army can lose a battle

alcohol, lack of sleep, stress, medical issues, medications, ect... can all compromise the immune system, many variables can affect the outcome when getting a virus

 

How is that post "celebrating" his death?

It's not. Ark has a different perspective on the advantages of the vaccine that you and I do not share and that's okay. Please, if we are going to overcome this deep, deep divide, we need to figure out how to engage somewhat peacefully.

HB, come on man. Hasn't there been enough discord already? Sure, you can tell me to go <censored> myself and do that if it helps you in some way. But, after that relief, is there somewhere we can work toward a middle ground? Can we try? Baby steps? Maybe?

 

"Stupid you say" -- Stupid is picking out one person from millions of anti vaxers - who happened to die from covid - and pasting him all over the news as if it means something.

Then you connect this ridiculous stupidity from the article to freedom to die stupidly .. as if this one person's situation applies to everyone.

and I can make no sense out of that logic .. but .. perhaps you can clarify .. Why is it stupid for a healthy male 16-29 - who has already had delta unvaxed - to take a double jab .. incurring a risk of myocarditis of 1 in 10,000.

What is the risk of harm from Omicron to such a person. and then we who the stupid one's are.

This should be fun .. watching you try to calculate the risk of harm to an unvaxed healthy male 16-29 .. from Omicron.

but to save you the trouble .. just a guess .. do you seriously think the risk of some serious outcome from Omicron .. is anywhere near 1 in 10,000 to this healthy male.

Floor is yours mate -- your OP - Tell me who the stupid one is.

 

You mean like the right wingers who celebrated RBG’s death?

 

I can tell you who the selfish ones are.
The ones who don’t give a **** about others they could infect and kill.
And the stupidity angle isn’t wrong.
There is some guy who can’t get a heart transplant because he refuses to get vaccinated and he says he is willing to die instead.
When asked why he refuses the vaccine, all he can do is spout paranoid lies and tinfoil hat nonsense about the dangers of the vaccine.
What a sad way to die. Fooled by idiots.

 

SJ, that's not entirely accurate. There have been people that kicked their own family (mostly teens) out onto the streets because they were secretly vaccinated with the help of a sort of underground network because their parents wouldn't allow them to be vaccinated.

There are people currently separated from their spouses because each one holds a different opinion on vaccination.

We have members posting here that have been kind enough to share their vaccination statuses. Some are pro-vaccine and their spouse is not and some are anti-vax and their spouse is not but they are trying to work together to make the best decisions for their families.

It's not fair to assume someone is "stupid" because you don't agree with the choices they make for their life.

We've seen this argument a gazillion times with both side arguing the other one should lose the right to vote because they are too stupid to know the real issues.

I'm not chastising you, man. I'm just saying that if we want to retain the right to make the choices we deem most appropriate for us and/or our children, we have to be willing to accept that every other person has those same rights and unless somebody just loves being cut down, we certainly don't want them calling our choices "stupid". They believe in their position just as much as you believe in yours and that is the America we all know and love - an America where we have the Freedom of Speech and the liberty to make our own choices.

 

I think antivaxers and mask rebels are more selfish than stupid, but they believe lies told to them and succumb to mindless paranoia.
This whole nonsense about freedom of choice over a global health issue is bogus.
We routinely submit to vaccines to be allowed to attend schools as kids and nobody whines about it, so it’s not a freedom of choice issue.
We had mask mandates, quarantines and vaccines in the 1918 flu pandemic and we all went back to normal after it passed.
Don’t fall into the trap of excusing the antivaxer’s selfish agenda with their dodge that it’s about freedom of choice.
It’s not. It’s about caring for your fellow humans and not falling for lies from idiots and provocateurs with too much access to social media propaganda.
They are like the man who killed himself trying to “prove” the earth is flat.
How in God’s name can someone today be so stupid as to kill themselves in a homemade rocket because they believed the flat earth bullshit.
We need to promote intelligence, not paranoid superstition and right wing paranoia about government.

 

You means like the ones started by conservative posters gloating about COVID deaths in countries and States that do have strict vaccine and mask mandates etc?

 

I just explained why the stupidity angle is wrong... Why should a healthy 16-29 male who has had covid take on risk of harm of myocarditis and other nasty serious conditions ..that is far higher than risk of serious condition from Omicron.

Then - your transmission argument is also bogus .. as it is well established that the vax and unvaxed to not have a significant transmission difference . in some cases vax transmission higher.

Showing up in hospitals .. feel free to demonized the "Weak" who are unvaxed .. immune compromized - pneumonia succeptible -- and so on ..as they are the one's showing up in the hospitals .. and who could benefit the most from a jolt of antibodies .. that they are not able to produce themselves.

This has nothing to do with the folks who do produce their own antibodies .. especially the case in this example .. someone who has had covid..

Tell me why my son should take the vax .. taking a huge risk .. now that all the hills you have been desperate to defend have been demolished.

 

You managed to parrot every paranoid and selfish excuse the antivaxers like to trot out to justify their selfish behavior.
The antivaxers and mask rebels have only helped to prolong the pandemic and increase the death rate with their selfish and paranoid behavior.

 

Oh, I thought it was celebrating that the gene pool had improved in quality…

 

Ignoring the Science and repeating this unsupported "Selfish behavoir" trope is not an argument for much. Then you ramble some more unsupported jibberish but, having nothing to do with the Jab .. down some rabbit hole of denial.

Why should a 16-29 year old male who has already had covid take the vax .. risking large harm to themselves .. this is the question you are despeately avoiding.

Focus now .. head out of the rabbit hole .. answer the question. and explain why these folks not vaxing are being selfish .. as you claim.

 

Amazes me how much liberals love when conservatives die! More like it disgusts me. Fully vaccinated long time family friend of ours died from Covid. Do you see me celebrating this fact like liberals do?

 

I'm not sure I'd agree with your assessment that it's the "stupidest way possible", but we are a country that values individual freedoms, or at least used to.

You know what other decisions people make that in some case ends up in their death?

Becoming a State Trooper or other Law Enforcement Officer in the first place.

Joining the military.

Jumping out of an airplane with a parachute on your back.

Driving a car.

Swimming in the ocean, where it's possible to have a close-up encounter with a shark.

Building a pool in your back yard.

Shall I continue? I think my point is made.

There are LOTS of ways to die, some that might be seen as heroic, such as a soldier that throws himself on a grenade to save his teammates, other that end up being silly or stupid, such as building a pool that ultimately results in the death of yourself, or even a child. We are free to make all of these decisions (and many, many more), and we OUGHT to be free to make them.

That most certainly includes the right to not take a vaccine if you choose not to. It's not the government's place to decide to act as your nanny and prevent you from making potentially deadly decisions, period. You can continue to show us example after example after example, and I will continue to think that you should mind your own damn business and allow people to conduct their own individual affairs as they see fit. It really is none of your business.

 

Could you even get more off topic? One thing has nothing to do with the other. I'm a little surprised that nobody has brought up our powerless ex-President yet, but I figure it's only a matter of time until that happens, too.

 

Lol…The topic was celebrating the death of others.

 

Exactly. Without RW media and social media, the anti-vaxxer phenomenon would not exist, or at least be at a very minimum, kind of like before covid it was a small fringe group of people who believe that childhood vaccinations cause autism.

With social media, this fringe group becomes amplified and eventually goes mainstream. They are fed lies and paranoia by the RW media sites and places like Fox news 24/7, and eventually they believe that those are truths. Now, with covid, we all can see the damage that is being done by a large part of the population basically having gone off the deep end. It results in one of the lowest covid vaccination rates in the US compared to any other developed nation. It also leads to the US having 20% of the world's current new daily covid cases, while being only 4% of the world's population. We are the world's super-spreader. Wait for it: But China... Winning....

Now, the problem beyond covid is that the same social media and RW media outlets seed this misinformation on many other issues, most importantly the economy, our election system, gun violence, and the list goes on and on. How can a country function when a substantial part (probably about 30%) of the population lives in a alternate reality of lies and mistruths?

 

Yes. That's all there is to it.

Its not. Accusing people of such is an attempt to deflect attention from the topic to the poster.