Country music star Sturgill Simpson called the press briefings given by President Trump “speculation” after being diagnosed with COVID-19 after feeling ill for a month.
Simpson, 41, first started showing symptoms on March 13 after spending two weeks on tour in Western Europe, according to a post he shared Saturday on Instagram. He went to his local hospital where he was not tested for COVID-19.
“I spent an hour listening to a (highly condescending) Doctor refuse to test me because I ‘did not fit testing criteria’ and tell me why it was impossible that I had contracted the virus due to its extreme rarity and that it was not in western Europe yet during that same period (which we now know is incorrect) even though I was told by two nurses that I was the first person their hospital had walk in requesting to be tested,” Simpson wrote in his caption.
After feeling sick for over a month, he finally got tested for coronavirus, which came back positive. Simpson noted in his Instagram post that he spoke to a CDC nurse who called the briefings “speculation” and took a shot at Vice President Mike Pence, who was chosen to lead the coronavirus task force. (RELATED: ABC’s George Stephanopoulos Tests Positive For Coronavirus)
“I should also add that the CDC nurse I spoke to yesterday told me that it reacts differently in a case by case basis and the White House briefings and the information they are providing is basically pure speculation causing fear and that the only thing anybody knows is that we don’t really know much yet,” he added.
“All I know is I first felt symptoms a month ago yet Im still positive and contagious and now on quarantine in the dojo until April 19th and really wishing Id taken my wife’s advice and put a bathroom in the floor plans..live and learn,” Simpson wrote. “But hey, at least our Government appointed task force headed by a man who does not believe in science is against mass testing and we now have a second task force in the works to ‘open America back up for business’! Dick Daddy out.”