‘He’s regretful’: Radio host who doubted vaccines hospitalized with COVID, family says – By Jeanine Santucci (USA Today) / July 24 2021
A conservative Tennessee-based talk radio host has changed his previously skeptical messaging on vaccines after being hospitalized with COVID-19, his family said.
Phil Valentine, who has posted on social media dissuading his audience from getting vaccinated if they aren’t “in danger of dying” from COVID, has been hospitalized in the critical care unit and is receiving supplemental oxygen, but is not on a ventilator, according to his brother.
Valentine told listeners after being diagnosed — but before being hospitalized — that he chose not to get a COVID vaccine because he thought he probably wouldn’t die from the disease.
His brother, Mark Valentine, said on WWTN-FM in Nashville this week that his brother has never been an “anti-vaxxer,” but was “pro-information” and “pro-choice” regarding the vaccine.
