South Carolina Republican leader who spread coronavirus conspiracy theories dies from Covid

A Republican lawmaker who frequently dismissed the threats posed by the coronavirus has died due to complications from Covid-19.

Pressly Stutts, a Republican leader in South Carolina who led a campaign to force out Republican officials who opposed the state party chairman, died from Covid-19 complications. He was 64 years old.

Mr Stutts and his wife were rushed to the hospital earlier this month after the politician complained he was having difficulty breathing. Ms Stutts recovered and returned home, but her husband developed pneumonia and was placed in an ICU.

His condition deteriorated and he was placed on a ventilator.

During the pandemic and even while in the hospital, Mr Stutts used social media to rail against coronvirus mitigation strategies, in particular mask mandates. He called masks an “illusion”, and dismissed the seriousness of the Delta variant of the coronavirus. The Republican also rejected the idea that people should be pressured to take the coronavirus vaccines.

“Mandates and coercions DO NOT WORK especially when they come to us from a government that has repeatedly lied to the American People time and time again,” Mr Stutts wrote in a Facebook post.

Once he was hospitalised his tone changed somewhat, as he advised his followers to take the virus seriously, claiming he “always contended that Covid was very real”.

However, even with that admission, Mr Stutts still advanced unproven theories about the provenance of the virus, claiming it was a “deadly bio-weapon perpetrated upon the people of the world by enemies foreign, and perhaps domestic”.

Mr Stutts' death was confirmed on Thursday.

His last post on Facebook was made five days before his death. He wrote that he was being put on a ventilator and that he would “wake up from this short rest and be back in the game soon!”

“This is my OWN decision. I trust God to keep me,” he wrote. “I ask you to trust Him, too.”