GOP Rep. David Byrd missed entire legislative session due to covid, still quite ill [View all]

https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2021/05/07/tennessee-david-byrd-misses-entire-session-covid-19/4960776001/

"Rep. David Byrd enjoyed the company of colleagues on the House floor Nov. 24.

Out of session, the House Republican Caucus returned to Nashville just before Thanksgiving to reelect leadership, a gathering that came just a few days after its multi-night retreat at Pickwick Landing State Park in Byrd's district.

On the first night of the retreat, Byrd hosted a dinner with dozens of caucus members at a local restaurant, an event held despite public health guidance — and eventually conservative Gov. Bill Lee — urging people not to gather beyond small groups throughout the holidays.

A week and half after the caucus meeting, Byrd, 63, was flown by helicopter from Waynesboro to Saint Thomas Hospital in Nashville for complications from COVID-19. The November caucus meeting was the last time he has been at the state Capitol.
...
Byrd, spending the past five months in a grueling recovery from a life-threatening case of coronavirus, missed the entire 2021 legislative session. The first half of the two-year 112th General Assembly began in January with a special session and ended Wednesday.

He spent more than a month hospitalized in intensive care and weeks fighting for his life on a ventilator before being taken back and forth between a rehabilitation center and hospitals.
....

Republicans in the Tennessee General Assembly this year passed multiple measures to curb enforcement of pandemic-related public health restrictions.

Members of the legislature, including Byrd, in June approved a resolution declaring the "mainstream media has sensationalized the reporting on COVID-19 in the service of political agendas."...(more)

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(Sorry/not sorry but I am not wasting thoughts and prayers on someone who caused harm to many people in many ways before bringing this personal catastrophe on himself. If that makes me a bad person, so be it. For those unfamiliar with Byrd, this is also from the link:

"The Waynesboro Republican has been a controversial legislator in recent years. 

Byrd, accused by multiple women of sexually assaulting them when they were 15 and 16 in the mid-1980s, has not denied the allegations, but previously said he did nothing wrong while in office. He was the girls' high school teacher and basketball coach at the time." )