Skip to main content

Texas man who worked against COVID measures dies from virus

An empty emergency room at Goodall-Witcher Hospital in Clifton on August 3, 2021.

SAN ANGELO, Texas – A man who led efforts in his Central Texas community against mask wearing and other preventative measures during the coronavirus pandemic has died from COVID-19, one month after being admitted to the emergency room.

Caleb Wallace died on Saturday, his wife Jessica Wallace said on a GoFundMe page where she had been posting updates on his condition, the San Angelo Standard-Times reported Saturday. He was 30 years old and a father of three children. His wife is pregnant with their fourth child.

Recommended Videos


ā€œCaleb has peacefully passed on. He will forever live in our hearts and minds,ā€ Jessica Wallace wrote.

On July 4, 2020, Caleb Wallace helped organize ā€œThe Freedom Rallyā€ in San Angelo. People at the event carried signs that criticized the wearing of masks, business closures, the science behind COVID-19, and liberal media. He also organized the group ā€œThe San Angelo Freedom Defenders."

ā€œWe are not real happy with the current state of America at the moment,ā€ Wallace said in July 2020.

In April, he wrote a letter to the San Angelo school district, demanding it rescind all its COVID-19 protocols.

Jessica Wallace told the newspaper her husband began experiencing COVID-19 symptoms on July 26 but refused to get tested or go to the hospital. He instead took high doses of Vitamin C, zinc aspirin and ivermectin, an anti-parasitic medicine that health officials have urged people not to take for COVID-19.

Caleb Wallace was taken to an emergency room on July 30 and since Aug. 8, he had been unconscious and on a ventilator.

A day before his death, Jessica Wallace had posted on the family’s GoFundMe page that her husband ā€œwas an imperfect man but he loved his family and his little girls more than anything.ā€

ā€œTo those who wished him death, I’m sorry his views and opinions hurt you. I prayed he’d come out of this with a new perspective and more appreciation for life. I can’t say much more than that because I can’t speak for him,ā€ she said.