How Many People Did NYS Assembly Candidate, Tom Lapolla, Kill Today?

New York State's 99th Assembly District features a show down between a former public school teacher, and someone who's statements about COVID-19 suggests he barely graduated from one.

Above: A convicted felon and insurrectionist poses for a photo with New York State Assembly candidate, Tom Lapolla, on the anniversary of 9/11 in New York City. Lapolla was an FDNY Battalion Chief until he was “fired” for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccination. In reality, according to a spokesperson from the FDNY, Mr. Lapolla retired after 38 years of service. He was not fired.

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Ok. So, the odds are real good that I lost like, half of you with today’s cover photo.

And the other half of you reading this probably wouldn’t vote for Lapolla anyway.

Why? Because Tom Lapolla believes the government should tell women what to do with their bodies but not tell anyone how to mow their lawn.

But.

We need to talk about Mr. Lapolla’s repeated claim that he was “fired” from the FDNY because he refused to get a COVID-19 vaccination.

According to data from NYC.gov, at least 45,000 residents died from COVID-19, with another 5,500 suspected additional deaths.

Also, according to New York City, unlike Mr. Lapolla, 90% of New Yorkers received at least one COVID-19 vaccination.

As you know, I have pretty strong feelings about people who admonish us to “never forget” the brave men and women who responded to the terrorist attacks on 9/11, but have also repeatedly failed to wear a mask and get vaccinated.

If those first responders were brave enough to run into a towering inferno of misery and death, then you should be brave enough to get a goddamn vaccination and wear a mask.

Mr. Lapolla was not brave enough to do that.

“Americans refused to take the COVID-19 vaccine paid a higher price than those that created and released COVID-19 that overwhelming majority of Americans are okay with that.”

- Tom Lapolla in sworn testimony provided to the New York City Committee on Civil Service and Labor. You can read the full testimony here, beginning on Page 76.

Above: Mr. Lapolla, at the top right, has made three appearances on the YouTube channel for Fire Engineering. The regular YouTube show often allows aggrieved first responders to rant about vaccine mandates and spew disinformation about the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine. We’re going to look at Lapolla’s appearance from October of 2022, two years into the pandemic.

At 27:55 in the video above, Mr. Lapolla refers to the COVID-19 virus “a man made virus made in China.”

Fact: At the time of this writing, we do not know the origins of COVID-19. This is specifically because of the actions of the Chinese government to stimy all attempts to investigate.

Current genetic evidence suggests the virus originated from an infected animal that was sold for human consumption in China.

At 42:07, he said the vaccine did not work.

Fact: As mentioned, 90% of New York City residents got vaccinated.

COVID-19 Vaccines can directly be contributed to saving the lives of 240,000 people between December of 2020 and June of 2021.

At 59:20, he said the pharmaceutical companies control the media, and that’s why news outlets didn’t report “the truth” about the effacy of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Fact: This is one of those examples of our friends on the Far Right being *this close* to being correct, but then whiffing.

Yes. It’s true. Big corporations DO have a lot of influence over what you see reported. For example:

However, there is also NO evidence to support the belief that the media “misled” people concerning the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine.

What DID happen was that the virus mutated, and the media reported on the effectiveness of the vaccines waning against new variants of COVID-19, which is why the CDC recommends people get a COVID shot once a year now.

At 1:02:09, he blames the vaccine for the deaths of young firefighters without providing any evidence to support his story.

Fact: Mr. Lapolla would later repeat this story during another visit to this YouTube channel in 2023, but again, did not provide any names, dates, or other facts to corroborate his story.

There is NO evidence to support that the vaccine killed young men.

What he likely is referring to, and I have first-hand knowledge of this, is that a lot of young men died from heart-related illnesses linked to COVID-19.

A very close friend of mine lost her brother, who was in his 20s, from this very specific phenomenon.

It was heartbreaking then. It is heartbreaking now to think about, and Mr. Lapolla is spitting on his grave, and the grave of all young people who died from this phenomenon by claiming it was the vaccine that killed them.

Fuck you Tom. Sincerely.

At 1:06:42, he called on his fellow firefighters to fight vaccine mandates.

Fact: 318 981 people died preventable deaths from COVID-19.

What do I mean by preventable?

Preventable means that the vaccines were widely available at the time of their deaths, and those people did not get vaccinated specifically due to the kind of disinformation Mr. Tom Lapolla has repeatedly put out there since October of 2022.

Those deaths are on Mr. Lapolla, Mr. Trump, Mr. DeSantis, and others in the far-right.

By continuing to spread disinformation about COVID-19, Mr. Lapolla continues to endanger the lives of the people he is running to represent.

How many people did Mr. Lapolla kill today? That depends. How many people have died in 2024 because they refused to get vaccinated over Mr. Lapolla’s brand of disinformation?

That’s your answer. You can track it here.

I don’t care what your politics are, but people are dead. Hundreds of thousands of them.

Nobody who helped contribute to that should ever be allowed to hold public office.

Nobody.