WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A former Republican candidate for Congress in Palm Beach County, who has been passionate against mask mandates and the COVID-19 vaccine, announced she is enduring a painful bout with the virus.
Conservative Laura Loomer wrote on the messaging app Telegram on Thursday that she had a fever, chills and severe body aches, describing it like getting "hit by a bus."
Loomer, an anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist who has been banned by Facebook and Twitter, said she later tested positive for COVID-19.
Despite contracting the virus, Loomer said she remains committed against getting the shot.
"I have not taken the COVID-19 vaccine, and I don't plan on ever taking it because it is unsafe and ineffective," Loomer wrote on Telegram.
Loomer said she is currently taking a cocktail of medications that include the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which health experts have advised against using because of adverse health effects.
"I wanted to get ivermectin but I couldn't get it. Doctors are really weird about prescribing it, which pisses me off," she wrote.
Ivermectin, which is used to treat parasitic worms, has not been authorizedor approved by the FDA for use in preventing or treating COVID-19 in humans.
The right-wing activist later praised Gov. Ron DeSantis for Florida's monoclonal antibody treatment centers and said she had received a location for those approved treatments.
Despite the treatment, Loomer asked her followers to "pray for me please" during her battle for the virus.
"Can't even begin to explain how brutal the body aches and nausea that come with covid are. I am in so much pain. This is honestly the worst part about it," she wrote.
Loomer sought to unseat incumbent Democratic Lois Frankel for the District 21 seat last year but was soundly defeated last November.