Virginia pastor, 66, who mocked 'mass hysteria' surrounding pandemic dies of coronavirus
A Virginia pastor has died of the novel coronavirus after fervently criticizing the "mass hysteria" surrounding the deadly contagion.
Landon Spradlin, 66, was in New Orleans to preach to the crowds gathered for Mardi Gras celebrations when he started to feel sick. A month later, the pastor died.
Spradlin, who hailed from Gretna — a small town located halfway between Lynchburg and Danville — was also a renowned musician inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2016.
Speaking to the BBC, Spradlin’s daughter Jesse Spradlin, 28, revealed that "his mission was to go into pubs, clubs, and bars, play the blues and connect with musicians and just tell them that Jesus loved them." “Mardi Gras is like Times Square in New York during New Year’s Eve. It’s a sea of people just drinking and partying. He was loud and laughing and in his element," she recalled.
While Spradlin began to feel unwell in New Orleans, he initially tested negative for coronavirus.
According to a report by Patch, the pastor shared a controversial meme on March 13 comparing coronavirus deaths to swine flu deaths while battling his symptoms at the same time.
The meme reportedly mocked the public reaction to the pandemic as "mass hysteria" and suggested the media was exploiting the outbreak to hurt President Trump's chances in 2020.
However, the pastor mentioned in the comments section he believes the coronavirus “is a real issue, but I believe the media is pumping out fear and doing more harm than good.” “It will come and it will go,” he had written.
But the family band had never discussed the virus as they played in the historic Jackson Square, according to Naomi Spradlin, 26, another of the pastor's daughters.
“I don’t even remember us talking about the virus,” she told the BBC. “With what’s happened, we keep looking back, and we didn’t talk about it once.”
Meanwhile, Spradlin’s son Landon Isaac, 32, clarified his father “didn’t think it was a hoax, he knew it was a real virus.”
“But he did put up that post because he was frustrated that the media was propagating fear as the main mode of communication,” he told the outlet.
Spradlin's health deteriorated on the family's 900-mile drive back home to Virginia. “I spoke to him five minutes before he collapsed in North Carolina,” Isaac told the BBC. “I could tell his breathing was getting worse. And I just said that you’ve got to get home. But he didn’t make it.”
Spradlin, who was rushed to a hospital in North Carolina, had developed pneumonia in both lungs, doctors found. According to the report, he tested positive for coronavirus this time around. After spending eight days in intensive care, Pastor Landon Spradlin passed away.
“We just never thought our father would pass away because of this,” Jesse said. “But he wasn’t the type of person to just live in fear and let it rob him of the joy of the life that he had," she added.