A.G. Gancarski
A St. Johns County Commissioner who voted against a mask mandate is recovering from COVID-19, his daughter said Friday.
Paul Waldron, one of three no votes on a countywide mask order last week, is still hospitalized, said Ashley Waldron Zapata.
Though the Commissioner is “still sedated and in critical condition … the hospital is working hard to keep him comfortable and continuously monitoring him.”
“His blood gas levels have improved today and numbers are holding,” Zapata notes. “Although we are not out of the woods, today has been a good day.”
This may be the beginning of recovery for Waldron, who “went into septic shock” and was in the “most critical of conditions” the day before.
Though Waldron is on the 2020 ballot, he is unopposed.
Waldron is not the only Northeast Florida politician to contract COVID-19 in recent days.
Angie Nixon, a Jacksonville Democrat running for state House, also contracted the virus.
“I will be self-quarantining for the foreseeable future and working with my doctors for the right course of treatment over the next few weeks,” Nixon tweeted.
The candidate first figured out she might be sick last weekend, when she said she felt “mild symptoms.”
Health workers traced her exposure “back to someone that came within my personal space with no mask and tested positive about a week prior.”
Nixon is the first Jacksonville politician to test positive this week, but the second to self-quarantine.
With the Republican National Convention headed to Jacksonville next month, Jacksonville’s Mayor Lenny Curry is self-quarantining out of COVID-19 fears, though as of Monday he said he had only tested negative.
“I learned on Sunday I had been in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19,” Curry said, noting that he tested negative for the coronavirus.
Both Curry’s and Nixon’s sequestration came a week after the city issued a mayoral proclamation mandating face coverings, with a lawsuit challenging the right to issue a mask order following.
Nixon is not the only active Jacksonville politician to catch a case. City Council Vice President Sam Newby, a second-term Republican serving in one of the five citywide at-large districts, tested positive in the early days of the local pandemic. He has since recovered.
Northeast Florida, as is the case elsewhere in the state, is struggling with a resurgent virus and a fading public will for mitigation measures. Both Duval and St. Johns County continue to see positive test rates above 10%.
14 comments
Sonja Fitch
July 11, 2020 at 5:52 am
Cancel the damn RNC! Our children will be trying to transition back into school! Fing RNC can take their Putin loving scum traitor trump to hell! But protect and serve our Children!
Jeannie Jones
July 11, 2020 at 12:43 pm
America will end as we know it if the Perverted, EPSTEIN loving Liberals GET IN LIKE BILL GATES, Dementia Joe, George Soros, and Obummer. You better THANK GOD for President Trump as he gave up EVERYTHING including a PEACEFUL LIFE to Rescue America from the Perverted Clintons, Obama Hussein, and Epstein Loving Bill Gates. Your children won’t have a country if the Republicans don’t win! Pray for the Republicans.
Pierre LeMerchand
July 11, 2020 at 5:17 pm
Put down the meth pipe.
It’s bad for your tooth.
Robert
July 13, 2020 at 12:44 pm
If you’ve built a personality around gleefully “offending liberals”, here’s what you need to know: we aren’t offended. You haven’t hurt our feelings or made us cry. You sound like children to us, and we’re sick of responding over and over to your infuriatingly stupid talking points, but we keep doing it because people’s lives might literally be at stake if the wrong kind of idiocy is allowed to spread to far. You’re not erudite debaters “owning the libs.” You’re the rotten annoying little kids kicking the backs of our seats while were trying to keep the car on the road.
Roger Rock
July 15, 2020 at 12:35 pm
How do you explain the videos and photos of your almighty SUPREME LORD LEADER MESSIAH TRUMP with Epstein? Trump could toss Melania off the roof of the White House and you would find some way to defend him.
Kitty Kunt Kat
July 15, 2020 at 7:01 pm
your idiocy is well noted … let the fur grow really thick, that’s how Trump likes his pussy
Allyson Jankunas
July 20, 2020 at 1:07 am
Last I heard, Bill Gates, though a brilliant man and philanthropist was not running for public office. Epstein is dead, and President Obama, whose name you so rudely bastardize is now a private citizen.
George Soros is a billionaire philanthropist who donates to various causes. Why don’t you look him up? While you’re at it, look them all up and educate yourself.
Jeannie Jones
July 11, 2020 at 12:40 pm
I too hate to wear a mask but we must do it when we are in a public place for the safety of everyone. This is like the Swine Flu and Bird Flu that came from China.
The Chinese always want to come over here but its time to kick them out and say, NO! They are cruel to animals in China beyond belief and have NO SANITATION. They squat over holes with no TOILET PAPER and the sinks do NOT HAVE SOAP or Paper Towels. Even Malls and the Great Wall of China have ZERO SANITATION. Secure our AIRPORTS AND BORDERS NOW! VOTE TRUMP 2020 and SAVE AMERICA FOR OUR GRANDCHILDREN.
Melissa
July 13, 2020 at 3:52 pm
Racist much? Wow, so much ignorance about the Chinese culture in your one statement.
No, I am NOT Chinese, but I know better.
Ross D
July 13, 2020 at 8:18 pm
In fairness, I think China has a very different relationship to hygiene than do many other cultures. My first vivid memory of Beijing was getting into a taxi at the train station and looking out of the window seeing more than a few people going to the bathroom out in the open with no obvious means of “cleaning up” afterwards. But don’t get me wrong, it’s certainly not an East-West thing. Singapore is absolutely pristine and in Japan you could practically eat off of the subway floor.
Effy Pucker
July 13, 2020 at 8:36 pm
FUCK YOU.
Pierre LeMerchand
July 11, 2020 at 5:15 pm
Karma..
It’s a thing these days.
Tina
July 13, 2020 at 11:06 am
I’d be interested in the contact tracing for this man. I know where he was a few weeks ago and nobody there has been contacted about possible exposure.
Harold Finch
July 14, 2020 at 3:47 pm
Although a nice guy, Paul is morbidly obese and in poor physical condition, which is schoking knowing he voted aginst wearing masks, with the rsiks for people like him and now him!! Hope and pray he recovers. Who were the other two idiot commissioners who voted against masks?
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