“Terrible not being able to breathe”

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A teenage member of the Decatur, Alabama city council who voted in April to end his city’s mask tenure landed in hospital with the coronavirus on Wednesday night after developing pneumonia and struggling to breathe .

“I am still breathing shallowly but my oxygen remains OK for now!” Hunter Pepper, 19, who in August 2020 became the youngest person ever elected to Decatur city council, said on Facebook on Thursday. “Confirming last night after a ‘CT-Scan’ it is now shown that I have ‘Covid Pneumonia’ which is absolutely terrible.”

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Pepper said he and his family started to worry after developing symptoms, including difficulty breathing. He tested positive for the virus on Wednesday morning.

“Everything about me wants to tell me it’s something different but every time I watch it’s ‘Covid this, Covid that’ and that terrified me and my family,” Pepper said on Wednesday. . “The media keep reporting on Covid-19 and explaining ‘death’ every time. It’s honestly terrifying to me but I have faith in the Lord.”

The 2020 high school graduate supported a hands-off approach to tackling the pandemic. In April, when city council voted to end a local mask term, Pepper said “wearing a mask should be my choice,” WAAY-TV reported. Still, Pepper is committed to complying with private business owners’ requirements for face coverings.

This summer, he slammed Republican Alabama Governor Kay Ivey after berating people who refused the coronavirus vaccine amid a surge in the number of new cases. Ivey said “unvaccinated people, not ordinary people” were to blame for the increase in cases, adding that those who did not get the vaccines “let us down.”

Pepper responded on Facebook, saying that getting the shot should be “your choice.”

“I’m NEVER going to push you or tell you that you have to do something or [you’re] not a great member of society. . . because I don’t agree with that, “he wrote.” I’m there for people, not just those who are vaccinated. “

And last month, Pepper shared the Alabama attorney general’s advice that prohibited government entities – including school districts – from requiring vaccines or asking people to show proof of vaccination. “Read it folks,” Pepper wrote.

It is not clear whether he himself has been immunized. Pepper’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Washington Post.

The city councilor, who suffers from hypoglycemia, had to be rushed to hospital for hypoglycemia in the middle of a board meeting in January.

After returning to the hospital on Wednesday night, Pepper said he and his supporters kept a positive attitude as he underwent treatment for covid.

He said he plans to call the board meeting scheduled for Monday if he feels well enough.

“Maybe it will clear up soon and the symptoms of this disease will not progress,” Pepper said. “It’s terrible that I can’t breathe.”