Caleb Wallace, a resident of Texas campaigning against the obligation to wear a mask, died of Covid-19 on Saturday. The 30-year-old was the father of three and his wife was pregnant with the fourth. The activist had been ill for several weeks, his wife said, quoted by the San Angelo Standard-Times. He had been hospitalized since the beginning of the month and in a coma since August 8.
On July 4, 2020, the national holiday of the United States, Caleb Wallace had organized a demonstration against the decision not to place the American flag in the garden of the court of San Angelo. He had taken it upon himself to hoist a flag. Participants in the event also protested against the wearing of masks, the liberal media, store closures and scientific data concerning the Covid-19.
He had created the group of “defenders of the freedom of San Angelo”
A promotional flyer announced a calm parade of “tired people under government control.” [leurs] lives ”. Caleb Wallace was also the founder of a group called “The San Angelo Freedom Defenders”. The movement’s Facebook page disappeared from the social network shortly after the hospitalization of its creator. The latter strongly criticized the government policy to fight against the coronavirus.
Via the page of his group and his own accounts on social networks, the thirty-something also questioned the recommendations of health experts. “Show me the evidence that masks are effective,” he wrote on the City of San Angelo Facebook page last December. “Show me the evidence that school closures are effective. Show me the evidence that curfews work ”.
In April 2021, Caleb Wallace wrote a letter calling for the dropping of sanitation measures in schools. Texas is experiencing a spike in the number of coronavirus infections. 11,762 new cases were registered in a single day on August 20, 2021, against 3,300 a month earlier. Less than 56% of Texans over 12 have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19.