Photo: Washington Senate Republican Caucus
His death is believed to have been connected to Covid-19
By Dan O'Reilly — Written on Dec 20, 2021
Senator Doug Ericksen has died following a lengthy battle with Covid-19. No official cause of death was initially released, but it is thought that the senator’s death is connected to the positive Covid test that he received while on a trip to El Salvador a month ago.
Senator Ericksen is survived by his wife and two daughters.
Senator Doug Ericksen's death is believed to have been related to Covid-19.
Senator Ericksen recently made headlines after testing positive for Covid-19 while on a trip to El Salvador in November. Much of the news and headlines at the time surrounded the fact that the senator was struggling to get back into the United States while potentially contagious with the virus.
It was also reported that Ericksen was reaching out to other politicians in an attempt to find out how to get the monoclonal antibodies Covid treatment, which wasn’t easily available at the time in El Salvador.
Not long after, the senator was on a medevac flight bound for Florida, and that's the last that the American people had heard of his actions.
The last word on the senator was that he was recovering in a Florida hospital.
The news of the senator’s death came very suddenly and his cause of death was not initially released, although the general consensus is that Ericksen’s battle with Covid-19 is what cost him his life.
It appears as though Ericksen has joined over 800,000 other Americans who have fallen victim to the virus which has plagued the world for nearly two years at this point.
With the Omicron variant, the latest massive spike in cases and the holiday season coming up, the number of Americans that have died of Covid is only going to continue to grow.
Ericksen, a politician and elite member of American society, seems to have succumbed to complications caused by his battle with Covid-19 and it’s unclear if he had been inoculated against the virus at the time that he contracted it.
Regardless of Doug Ericksen’s specific vaccination status or even other contributing factors, what is certain is that he shepherded many other Americans, particularly his constituents, along his path of needless suffering.
Senator Doug Ericksen was an outspoken opponent of vaccine mandates and Covid restrictions.
Ericksen opposed emergency Covid orders in his state and fought against Covid-19 vaccination policies.
But it didn’t simply stop at individual Washington residents’ right to choose whether or not to get vaccinated against Covid, Ericksen was also critical of social distancing, business closures, and masking.
Doug Ericksen’s political blustering is typical for politicians of his alignment. Ericksen spearheaded Trump’s campaign in Washington.
Ericksen and many like him seem intent to oppose any policy intended to slow the international pandemic which has claimed over 5.3 million lives worldwide, because of the arbitrary politicization of such policies.
The politically motivated, misinformative rhetoric surrounding the vaccines and masks and other Covid protocols is costing lives.
Many are left to simply wonder, how many deaths like that of Ericksen is it going to take for everyone to be in agreement that combating the Covid-19 pandemic is in everyone’s best interest.
Dan O'Reilly is a writer who covers news, politics, and social justice. Follow him on Twitter.