Washington State trooper who defied Gov. Inslee's vaccine mandate dies of COVID-19

In Washington State, far-right anti-vaxxers applauded State Trooper Robert LaMay for defying Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee’s vaccine mandate and quitting his job in response to it. Now, according to Seattle news station KIRO-FM, LaMay has died of COVID-19 at the age of 50.

On October 15, 2021 — his last day on the job — LaMay posted a video, announcing, “This is the last time you’ll hear me in a state patrol car. And Jay Inslee can kiss my ass.” KIRO reported LaMay’s death on January 28.

Truth be told, Inslee’s vaccine mandate wasn’t all that strict. LaMay told Fox News that he had been given a vaccine exception because of his religious views; so, he could have kept his job even though he refused to get a COVID-19 vaccine. But LaMay believed that the changes on his job because of his unvaccinated status were too burdensome and decided to quit.

LaMay told Fox News, “We don’t do vaccines. We don’t do flu shots or any of that stuff.”

Although Fox News has a vaccine rule of its own at its headquarters in Manhattan, that didn’t stop the right-wing cable news outlet from portraying LaMay as a martyr who courageously stood up to liberals.

But as even former President Donald Trump is now saying, COVID-19 vaccines are saving lives. Had LaMay been vaccinated, it’s entirely possible that he would still be alive. COVID-19 breakthrough cases — people who are fully vaccinated for COVID-19 but get it anyway — are seldom fatal. And the vast majority of COVID-19 fatalities at this point are among the unvaccinated.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which started in Wuhan, China in late 2019, has since killed more than 5.6 million people worldwide and over 886,000 people in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. COVID-19 is the world’s deadliest health crisis since the Spanish flu pandemic of the late 1910s.