Last November, Republican Tennessee state legislator David Byrd voted to pass a resolution claiming the mainstream media were sensationalizing the impact of the coronavirus.  To prove their point, he and Republicans colleagues went on an in-person retreat.

About two weeks later, he was admitted to the hospital and put on a ventilator with a severe case of COVID-19.  He would spend 55-days on the ventilator; This past June, he would need a liver transplant.  Now he joining the tide of GOP politicians urging vaccine resisters to get inoculated.

“For 55 days, I was in an intensive care unit on a ventilator. Although ventilators save lives, the sobering reality is that the overwhelming majority of intubated Covid-19 patients do not survive,” Byrd wrote in a statement, according to the Washington Post.  “Just when it seemed like I was improving, suddenly I wasn’t. My liver began to fail. I developed jaundice and was later diagnosed with Covid Cholangiopathy. I was told I would need a liver transplant or else I would die. Again, my family prepared for the worst.”

Tennessee is currently lagging the national vaccination rate, with only 40.2% in the state being fully vaccinated, as opposed to 50.1% nationally.  The rate of vaccinations has tailed off in the state, with only 46% of Tennesseans having at least one dose.

“I have never been against taking the Covid-19 vaccine, but I understand the concerns of those who are hesitant,” Byrd wrote. “To them, I would say Covid is real and it is very dangerous. It is a disease that wants to kill us. Please take it seriously. Please consider getting vaccinated. This is an issue that should not divide us.”