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Laura Loomer says she’s tested positive for COVID-19

by Rachel Scully - 09/17/21 1:17 PM ET

Far-right political activist Laura Loomer announced Thursday that she has tested positive for the coronavirus.

In a post on conservative social media platform Gettr, Loomer, a current and former House candidate in Florida, wrote that she began feeling ill on Wednesday.

“I had a fever, chills, a runny nose, sore throat, nausea and severe body aches that made my whole body feel like I got hit by a bus,” she wrote. “And after sleeping for a few hours, my symptoms started to remind me of how I felt when I had a bad case of the flu a few years ago.”

Loomer, 28, said she later tested positive for COVID-19 and has “immediately started a treatment of Azithromyacin and Hydroxychloroquine,” as well as the OrthoMune dietary supplement. She also received the Regeneron antibody treatment, which was also used and praised by former President Trump after his own COVID-19 diagnosis last year.

Loomer, a strong Trump supporter, also said in the post that she has not received the coronavirus vaccine and will not do so, falsely claiming “it is unsafe and ineffective.”

All three COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in the U.S. have been shown to prevent the overwhelming majority of severe infections, including against the highly contagious delta variant.

Last year, Loomer sparked controversy after she said she wished she could get the coronavirus to show everyone that it is not a dire matter.

“I hope I get COVID just so I can prove to people I’ve had bouts of food poisoning that are more serious and life threatening than a hyped up virus. Have you ever eaten bad fajitas? That will kill you faster than COVID,” she wrote on Parler in December.

However, her latest messages indicated that she was suffering from severe symptoms of the virus.

“Just pray for me please,” Loomer wrote on Telegram, a messaging app, according to The Daily Beast. “Can’t even begin to explain how brutal the body aches and nausea that come with COVID are. I am in so much pain.”

However, she continued to promote vaccine conspiracy theories, according to the outlet, saying the government “doesn’t want you to know what it really does.”

Trump in the past has praised Loomer, who lost a congressional bid in Florida’s 21st District last November and has been banned from most mainstream social networks for her anti-Islam rhetoric.

She is now mounting a Republican primary challenge against Rep. Daniel Webster in Florida’s 11th District ahead of next year’s midterm elections.