Leader of Texas anti-mask movement dies from Covid-19

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A prominent anti-mask leader in Texas has died from complications caused by Covid-19.

Caleb Wallace, 30, spent three weeks in an intensive care unit at Shannon Medical Center in his hometown of San Angelo. His family had said previously that his situation was getting worse after he was admitted to the hospital on 30 July.

Mr Wallace was moved to a hospice on 27 August where his family was able to see him before he died. Earlier in July, Mr Wallace had staged a “Freedom Rally” for people who were “sick of the government being in control of our lives.”

Mr Wallace had created the San Angelo Freedom Defenders, a group who sought to end what it labelled “Covid-19 tyranny,” according to a YouTube video.

“Caleb has peacefully passed on. He will live forever in our hearts and minds,” His wife Jessica Wallace said on the GoFundMe raising money to pay for his medical expenses.

Ms Wallace is the mother of Wallace’s three children and is currently pregnant with their fourth child.

On 19 August, she told the San Angelo Standard Times Wallace had taken vitamin C, zinc aspirin and ivermectin. The latter is a drug typically used to treat animals and humans affected by parasitic worms.

Some have proposed ivermectin to be a cure for the coronavirus but this has been disproved. The Food and Drug Administration shared a statement on their website debunking it.

It advised,: “You should not take any medicine to treat or prevent COVID-19 unless it has been prescribed to you by your healthcare provider and acquired from a legitimate source.”

Potential side effects of the drug include stomach problems, seizures, nerve damage.

Ms Wallace said that her husband was respectful of her decision to wear a mask.

“You know masks aren’t going to save you,’ but he understood I wanted to wear them. It gives me comfort to know that maybe, just maybe, I’m either protecting someone or avoiding it myself,” she said to the paper.

According to data collated by the New York Times, in the previous fortnight in San Angelo’s Tom Green County, covid cases have increased by 50 per cent and hospitalisations have increased by 33 per cent.