Texas GOP gubernatorial candidate Allen West said four things are clear about how he feels after being hospitalized with COVID-19.
He told Newsmax on Friday that he has made a complete recovery, is now testing negative for the disease, will continue to reject getting vaccinated, and will fight the vaccine mandates.
"I was diagnosed positive last week, Saturday, and this past Wednesday had a negative COVID test," West said on Newsmax's "American Agenda." "I have not had any shot, and I don't plan on having the shot.
"What I did was I underwent the monoclonal antibody infusion therapy and also the budesonide nebulizer treatment for my lungs, and this morning I was out and knocked out about a 2½-, 3-mile run, so I feel fine."
West was released on Monday from the hospital at Medical City Plano after being admitted there two days before. He said he had been battling pneumonia related to a COVID-19 infection and that he was admitted to the hospital after suffering low oxygen saturation levels.
Even with his illness, West said he still rejects vaccine mandates because "no one knows your body better than yourself."
"It's not about being against the vaccine," West said. "It's about being told to be mandated. We don't live in a constitutional monarchy. We live in a constitutional republic.
"We should not have people handing down edicts, orders, mandates and decrees about the most precious and important thing that you have, your first inalienable right, which is your life and therefore your body."
He added that there are numerous treatments and protocols for COVID-19, so people should be able to decide for themselves what they want to use.
"I think that is the problem that we have, when we have these politicians and these bureaucrats and these government agencies and compromised individuals like Anthony Fauci that's trying to tell people what to do with their own bodies," West continued.
West added that nobody requiring shots for the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who are entering the United States illegally.
Meanwhile, even if the courts rule that President Joe Biden's vaccine mandates were legally enforced, West said he'll respond to that "very simply."
"I stand by the Constitution," he said. "I will say that the Supreme Court would have gotten it completely wrong because the Constitution rules in favor of the individual.
"The individual is sovereign over the institution of government, and no one in government should be mandating what people can do with their bodies. And if that be the case, then we have a huge constitutional crisis."
Meanwhile, it is the "ultimate hypocrisy" for the government to require travelers coming in from Canada or Mexico to get their shots, but not force immigrants to have them.
"We have a government at the federal and state level that is aiding and abetting a public health crisis," he said. "Instead of people trying to mandate what folks, everyday, law-abiding American citizens have to have injected into their bodies, we should be standing up for them to protect their safety and security. "
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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