4 ms·

Louisiana Congressman-elect Luke Letlow dies of Covid-19 at 41

32 points by belltaco 6y ago

fortran77 6y ago
COVID needs to be taken seriously. It's easy to get complacent. I haven't seen mention of his underlying conditions. Very few healthy 41-year-olds have succumbed. Judging from the most recent photos I could find (the one in the obit is old) he was overweight but not obese. (Being overweight increases your risk, according to CDC.) He didn't appear to be a mask-denier. Plenty of photos of him wearing a mask. (But a cautious person wouldn't spend any time socializing indoors, mask or not. I don't!)
- Waterluvian 6y ago
  Given he leaves behind a baby and a toddler, and just ran an election campaign, an underlying condition is probably significant fatigue. This is too terrible.
  - mlthoughts2018 6y ago
    There haven’t been any reports of fatigue as an underlying condition in this instance. It seems best not to speculate and rather to acknowledge that covid can be lethal even for relatively young and perfectly healthy people without preexisting conditions. Speculating on unproven possible complications from fatigue only does a disservice to downplay the lethality of covid, even for healthy people.
    - Waterluvian 6y ago
      I'm not sure it's speculation to suggest that fatigue can weaken your immune system. And I'm certainly not commenting about it as some form of excuse making for a young person dying from covid.
      - mlthoughts2018 6y ago
        It’s 100% speculation to suggest _this man_ had complications from fatigue. That has nothing at all to do with general properties of fatigue.
- avolcano 6y ago
  Have to say, there's a decent number of photos on his Twitter feed of him doing campaign events with folks who don't have masks on (though it looks like he himself was consistently wearing a mask as of late). It might be that he personally wasn't a mask denier, but the Republican base has often taken mask wearing as "weak" or "cowardly," and he felt obligated to not require a mask at these events to not alienate his base. I can't help but think of the ol' "I never thought the leopards would eat _my_ face" tweet: https://twitter.com/cavalorn/status/654934442549620736?lang=en https://twitter.com/cavalorn/status/654934442549620736?lang=...
  - ketamine__ 6y ago
    What about all the people that wore masks and got Covid? Were they not religious enough?
    - wyldfire 6y ago
      I think we can all agree that it's totally bonkers that mask-wearing is somehow seen as political. Imagine if it were the case for carrying an umbrella or wearing warm gear in winter.
      - HuwytNashi_008 6y ago
        Those are culturally normal though. Wearing a mask in the West is not (in fact we've been scoffing at Asians for having to wear them). We can feel the rain on our heads and the cold in our bones. The vast majority of people don't know anyone who has had COVID, far less symptomatic. It also comes at a time where Westerners' trust in their governments is extraordinarily low. There is a sense among a lot of people that if the government and media insist that you do/think a thing, it would be sensible to prefer the opposite.
      - HuwytNashi_009 6y ago
        Those are culturally normal though. Wearing a mask in the West is not (in fact we've been scoffing at Asians for having to wear them). We can feel the rain on our heads and the cold in our bones. The vast majority of people don't know anyone who has had COVID, far less symptomatic. It also comes at a time where Westerners' trust in their governments is extraordinarily low. There is a sense among a lot of people that if the government and media insist that you do/think a thing, it would be sensible to prefer the opposite.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- ketamine__ 6y ago
  He looks obese to me with a big gut. Could be visceral fat.
- adamnemecek 6y ago
  > I haven't seen mention of his underlying conditions. Very few healthy 41-year-olds have succumbed. I think that talking about underlying conditions is pointless. Fewer people without any underlying conditions have died but that doesn't really matter. You still can die from it.
- CydeWeys 6y ago
  He seems to have been doing lots of public events without wearing a mask. Photos are making the rounds on Twitter, e.g.: https://twitter.com/EvaMcGreggor/status/1344133556461731841?s=20 https://twitter.com/EvaMcGreggor/status/1344133556461731841?... It's not a mystery how he caught it.
- HuwytNashi_009 6y ago
  >LSU Health Shreveport Chancellor G.E. Ghali said Letlow died from a heart attack following a procedure related to the infection There's your underlying cause. Does anyone have any idea what "procedure" may have been attempted here?
- alphabettsy 6y ago
  The quoted person says he had none.
- loopz 6y ago
  It only takes one contact: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/29/us/covid-coronavirus-victim-story-haircut-chicago-trnd/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/29/us/covid-coronavirus-vict...
mrfusion 6y ago
Here’s a 41 year old who died from the flu: https://news.yahoo.com/41-old-mom-dies-flu-170521130.html https://news.yahoo.com/41-old-mom-dies-flu-170521130.html Death existed before COVID ...
- sofixa 6y ago
  How can people like you still exist and persist with their narrative of downplaying the pandemic?
jessaustin 6y ago
More Americans will die of covid in 2021 than have in 2020. The newly-available vaccines will help, but lots of people won't take them just as lots of people haven't worn and still don't wear masks. The effective reproduction number won't be less than one anytime in the near future. The important point is that in January 2020 the percentage of the general public who were contagious was very low. Still, 350,000 people died this year. In January of 2021, the contagious percentage will be much higher. That more people will die in the following year is simple arithmetic.
- snuxoll 6y ago
  And yet people will continue to say “but only 0.x% of people die”.
  - xref 6y ago
    Or “just require at-risk groups to isolate so the rest of us can get back to our lives.” Sometimes the callousness and selfishness is truly heartbreaking.
    - jessaustin 6y ago
      Keep in mind that such things are said by people who are themselves hurting. In functioning societies, the government provides material support to citizens when it halts commerce. Wealthy and powerful people choose that USA does not have such a functioning society. They are our true enemies, and they only benefit when we confuse them with people like ourselves who are in untenable situations.
    - ketamine__ 6y ago
      I personally think it is callous and selfish to force healthy people not to work and stay inside.
- silexia 6y ago
  To add to this - I have heard people say, "There is just more testing being done, which is why you have more positives." I personally needed a Covid test yesterday when I had a number of symptoms. I live in the liberal / Democratic state of Washington, where most of the public officials have taken Covid seriously. To my horror, I discovered it was VERY difficult to get a Covid test. I searched online for facilities that did testing, and called 10 of them. Most of them either put me into eternal hold or told me I wasn't an existing patient. Finally, I drove to a Walgreens after being told by a rep that I would be tested there. Nope, pharmacist refused. Finally, I went o a private testing company. I spent 4-5 hours calling and driving just to get this done. Imagine how many people are quitting sooner than I did and actually have it.
HuwytNashi_008 6y ago
>LSU Health Shreveport Chancellor G.E. Ghali said Letlow died from a heart attack following a procedure related to the infection. Does anyone know enough to expand on what likely happened here? What risky procedure could have been so necessary?
cbradford 6y ago
Note the subtle word choice and masking, he did not die FROM covid, but at the time he died he happen to have covid in his system. The desperate desire to make this a panic should not come at the cost of truth "LSU Health Shreveport Chancellor G.E. Ghali said Letlow died from a heart attack following a procedure related to the infection."
- mshook 6y ago
  He died from complications of it. So yes, he died from it. If we didn't do it like that, pretty much no one would die from AIDS, people would just die of, let's say, pneumonia or some other opportunistic infections. I agree with you as the media has been treating the whole thing pretty badly but if you end up at the hospital because of COVID and you die there, COVID brought you there...

32 points by belltaco 6y ago

COVID needs to be taken seriously. It's easy to get complacent. I haven't seen mention of his underlying conditions. Very few healthy 41-year-olds have succumbed. Judging from the most recent photos I could find (the one in the obit is old) he was overweight but not obese. (Being overweight increases your risk, according to CDC.) He didn't appear to be a mask-denier. Plenty of photos of him wearing a mask. (But a cautious person wouldn't spend any time socializing indoors, mask or not. I don't!)

Waterluvian 6y ago
Given he leaves behind a baby and a toddler, and just ran an election campaign, an underlying condition is probably significant fatigue. This is too terrible.
- mlthoughts2018 6y ago
  There haven’t been any reports of fatigue as an underlying condition in this instance. It seems best not to speculate and rather to acknowledge that covid can be lethal even for relatively young and perfectly healthy people without preexisting conditions. Speculating on unproven possible complications from fatigue only does a disservice to downplay the lethality of covid, even for healthy people.
  - Waterluvian 6y ago
    I'm not sure it's speculation to suggest that fatigue can weaken your immune system. And I'm certainly not commenting about it as some form of excuse making for a young person dying from covid.
    - mlthoughts2018 6y ago
      It’s 100% speculation to suggest _this man_ had complications from fatigue. That has nothing at all to do with general properties of fatigue.
avolcano 6y ago
Have to say, there's a decent number of photos on his Twitter feed of him doing campaign events with folks who don't have masks on (though it looks like he himself was consistently wearing a mask as of late). It might be that he personally wasn't a mask denier, but the Republican base has often taken mask wearing as "weak" or "cowardly," and he felt obligated to not require a mask at these events to not alienate his base. I can't help but think of the ol' "I never thought the leopards would eat _my_ face" tweet: https://twitter.com/cavalorn/status/654934442549620736?lang=en https://twitter.com/cavalorn/status/654934442549620736?lang=...
- ketamine__ 6y ago
  What about all the people that wore masks and got Covid? Were they not religious enough?
  - wyldfire 6y ago
    I think we can all agree that it's totally bonkers that mask-wearing is somehow seen as political. Imagine if it were the case for carrying an umbrella or wearing warm gear in winter.
    - HuwytNashi_008 6y ago
      Those are culturally normal though. Wearing a mask in the West is not (in fact we've been scoffing at Asians for having to wear them). We can feel the rain on our heads and the cold in our bones. The vast majority of people don't know anyone who has had COVID, far less symptomatic. It also comes at a time where Westerners' trust in their governments is extraordinarily low. There is a sense among a lot of people that if the government and media insist that you do/think a thing, it would be sensible to prefer the opposite.
    - HuwytNashi_009 6y ago
      Those are culturally normal though. Wearing a mask in the West is not (in fact we've been scoffing at Asians for having to wear them). We can feel the rain on our heads and the cold in our bones. The vast majority of people don't know anyone who has had COVID, far less symptomatic. It also comes at a time where Westerners' trust in their governments is extraordinarily low. There is a sense among a lot of people that if the government and media insist that you do/think a thing, it would be sensible to prefer the opposite.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
ketamine__ 6y ago
He looks obese to me with a big gut. Could be visceral fat.
adamnemecek 6y ago
> I haven't seen mention of his underlying conditions. Very few healthy 41-year-olds have succumbed. I think that talking about underlying conditions is pointless. Fewer people without any underlying conditions have died but that doesn't really matter. You still can die from it.
CydeWeys 6y ago
He seems to have been doing lots of public events without wearing a mask. Photos are making the rounds on Twitter, e.g.: https://twitter.com/EvaMcGreggor/status/1344133556461731841?s=20 https://twitter.com/EvaMcGreggor/status/1344133556461731841?... It's not a mystery how he caught it.
HuwytNashi_009 6y ago
>LSU Health Shreveport Chancellor G.E. Ghali said Letlow died from a heart attack following a procedure related to the infection There's your underlying cause. Does anyone have any idea what "procedure" may have been attempted here?
alphabettsy 6y ago
The quoted person says he had none.
loopz 6y ago
It only takes one contact: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/29/us/covid-coronavirus-victim-story-haircut-chicago-trnd/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/29/us/covid-coronavirus-vict...

mrfusion 6y ago

Here’s a 41 year old who died from the flu: https://news.yahoo.com/41-old-mom-dies-flu-170521130.html https://news.yahoo.com/41-old-mom-dies-flu-170521130.html Death existed before COVID ...

sofixa 6y ago
How can people like you still exist and persist with their narrative of downplaying the pandemic?

jessaustin 6y ago

More Americans will die of covid in 2021 than have in 2020. The newly-available vaccines will help, but lots of people won't take them just as lots of people haven't worn and still don't wear masks. The effective reproduction number won't be less than one anytime in the near future. The important point is that in January 2020 the percentage of the general public who were contagious was very low. Still, 350,000 people died this year. In January of 2021, the contagious percentage will be much higher. That more people will die in the following year is simple arithmetic.

snuxoll 6y ago
And yet people will continue to say “but only 0.x% of people die”.
- xref 6y ago
  Or “just require at-risk groups to isolate so the rest of us can get back to our lives.” Sometimes the callousness and selfishness is truly heartbreaking.
  - jessaustin 6y ago
    Keep in mind that such things are said by people who are themselves hurting. In functioning societies, the government provides material support to citizens when it halts commerce. Wealthy and powerful people choose that USA does not have such a functioning society. They are our true enemies, and they only benefit when we confuse them with people like ourselves who are in untenable situations.
  - ketamine__ 6y ago
    I personally think it is callous and selfish to force healthy people not to work and stay inside.
silexia 6y ago
To add to this - I have heard people say, "There is just more testing being done, which is why you have more positives." I personally needed a Covid test yesterday when I had a number of symptoms. I live in the liberal / Democratic state of Washington, where most of the public officials have taken Covid seriously. To my horror, I discovered it was VERY difficult to get a Covid test. I searched online for facilities that did testing, and called 10 of them. Most of them either put me into eternal hold or told me I wasn't an existing patient. Finally, I drove to a Walgreens after being told by a rep that I would be tested there. Nope, pharmacist refused. Finally, I went o a private testing company. I spent 4-5 hours calling and driving just to get this done. Imagine how many people are quitting sooner than I did and actually have it.

HuwytNashi_008 6y ago

>LSU Health Shreveport Chancellor G.E. Ghali said Letlow died from a heart attack following a procedure related to the infection. Does anyone know enough to expand on what likely happened here? What risky procedure could have been so necessary?

cbradford 6y ago

Note the subtle word choice and masking, he did not die FROM covid, but at the time he died he happen to have covid in his system. The desperate desire to make this a panic should not come at the cost of truth "LSU Health Shreveport Chancellor G.E. Ghali said Letlow died from a heart attack following a procedure related to the infection."

mshook 6y ago
He died from complications of it. So yes, he died from it. If we didn't do it like that, pretty much no one would die from AIDS, people would just die of, let's say, pneumonia or some other opportunistic infections. I agree with you as the media has been treating the whole thing pretty badly but if you end up at the hospital because of COVID and you die there, COVID brought you there...