‘Use Some of the Help God Has Already Given,’ Brother of GOP Legislator on Ventilator Says of the COVID Vaccine

State Sen. Andre Jacque, a critic of mask and vaccine requirements, remains hospitalized with a coronavirus infection.

The brother of a state legislator hospitalized and on a ventilator due to COVID-19 told a Milwaukee television station Tuesday that the pandemic worsened an already-frayed family relationship, and that’s why he took to social media to sharply criticize another lawmaker about their opposition to vaccine and face mask requirements.

Sen. Andre Jacque (R-DePere) told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel early last week that he was being treated in a hospital for pneumonia due to the coronavirus, days after spending hours in the state Capitol taking part in public hearings. Jacque and Republican leadership in the Legislature did not notify fellow lawmakers and members of the public who were in the hearing rooms, according to Democratic legislators who said they first learned of Jacque’s diagnosis in the Journal Sentinel.
 

On Friday, Rep. Shae Sortwell (R-Two Rivers), another opponent of pandemic safeguards, posted to his Facebook followers that Jacque “is in serious need of your prayers.” A response from Jacque’s brother Pierre did not mince words in telling Sortwell: “Shae, respectfully, go and f–k yourself into a hole and then ask your 10K followers to fill it in.”

Pierre Jacque told WISN-TV his brother has been against “common-sense tools” to fight the virus, which is why his response to Sortwell included a request for others to stop resisting a medicine that can save their lives. “Go get the vaccine,” he wrote. “Or at least be honest and let your flock know the ‘choice’ they are making is between effective scientifically backed preventative medicine, or choking on a vent while their friends and colleagues hide their condition and some insufferable [expletives] uses their name to beg for prayers and MAGA points.”

“All of these things that are common-sense tools to fight the virus, he has been very against,” Pierre Jacque told the TV station. “So the surprise kind of quickly faded and it was just, ‘Oh crap, my brother is very, very sick.’”

On Tuesday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Jacque had been placed on a ventilator in order to breathe. A spokesperson for Jacque told WISN there was no update on his condition.

​​”While I appreciate the prayers for my brother and I understand that that’s how they feel they’re helping, I would ask them to use some of the help that God has already given them to stay out of that same situation,” Pierre Jacque told the station.