Pennsylvania State Rep Brian Sims believes in First Amendment rights. Just about a year ago, he confronted anti-abortion protestors in front of an abortion clinic in his district. That engendered a counter protest in which he was accused of harassing pro-lifers.
This year, he has made national news with a new rant. His Republican colleagues, it seems, are not as pro-life as they might be. One of their members, Representative Andrew Lewis, tested positive for Covid-19. He explains, he told as few people as possible in order to protect his own privacy.
Fair enough. Except. Those few, apparently sworn to secrecy, were only Republicans. They did include the House Republican leadership, though.
Representative Lewis needed the support of like-minded people.He could have stayed home, self-quarantined, avoided endangering others. Instead, he got tested and went back to work. He went to committee meetings as dud Representative Sims.
After all, Representative Lewis explains, he has a mild case. He feels OK. He did self-quarantine after he tested positive. Until then, he had important work to do. He and other Republicans were doing what they could to end Pennsylvania’s lock down. It was, the Republicans had been explaining, safe for everyone to return to work. And those people he told about his positive test? Some self-quarantined out of concern for the safety of their families. Others, kept on working.
More than two weeks after Representative Lewis began to feel sick, Representative Sims learned about Representative Lewis’s illness. In his opinion there was something wrong with Representative Lewis working while feeling sick, something wrong with those Representatives who had been in contact with Representative Lewis continuing to work and possibly infecting others, something wrong that Republican Representatives were sufficiently aware so that they could self-quarantine while that information was kept secret from Democrats, something wrong with Republicans touting how safe it was for Pennsylvanians to go back to work when they secretly self-quarantined themselves.
Representative Sims was concerned for himself. He has a compromised immune system, a result of having recently donated a kidney. He had kept that donation secret. Perhaps, the Republicans, had they known about the kidney donation, would have told Representative Sims about the positive Covid-19 result. I don’t believe that, but you may.
Representative Sims was concerned about others, about his own family, about other Democratic Representatives who were kept in the dark, about their families who could have been exposed to Covid-19. He spoke about his concern on Facebook.
Concern would be too mild a description of Representative Sims’ statement. The technical term for how Representatives Sims responded to the Republicans would be “bat-shit angry.” Google Brian Sims. Watch him. Listen to what he has to say about his Republican colleagues.