‘I’ve had the ‘Rona.’ Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie says he’s recovered from COVID-19
Rep. Thomas Massie said he has recovered from COVID-19 and tested positive for antibodies.
The Northern Kentucky congressman went on the Glenn Beck Program Friday and said he plans to donate plasma to help others fight the virus. He was convinced he had the virus in January before it was known to be circulating.
“I’ve had the ‘Rona, and I have recovered from it,” Massie said. “And the titer of my antibodies indicates I have three times the level that’s required to donate plasma, so I would happily do that to help anybody I can.”
Massie said he asked for and got the antibody test done on July 31 while being tested for active COVID-19. He got his results Thursday.
“I was laid out for four days,” Massie said of his January illness. “No energy. This was the end of the Christmas recess. A fever, a sore throat, I laid on the couch for four days because this is before we knew what ‘Rona was, but I knew I had something, and I didn’t want to give it to my family.”
Massie said he went to the doctor because of how sick he felt for the first time in 10 to 15 years. He got an antibiotic shot and an antihistamine and said he was feeling better “within a day.”
Medical experts have been able to track traces of COVID-19 in the United States that could have arrived in January or December, but those cases were primarily in coastal areas of the country, according to the New York Times.
Doctors at Baptist Health Lexington have used the plasma treatment to which Massie wants to contribute. Plasma helped critically ill patients improve in April, doctors said.
“I’ve talked to doctors here in Kentucky who used that early on and are convinced that it worked,” he said.
Massie made national headlines in March when he tried to hold up the Congressional vote on the $2.2 trillion CARES Act passed in response to COVID-19’s economic upheaval. President Donald Trump demanded on Twitter that Massie be kicked out of the Republican Party at the time.
But Massie went on to win the Republican primary in District 4 with 81 percent of the vote. He’ll take on Democratic nominee Alexandra Owensby in November as he tries to win a fifth term.
This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 10:09 AM.