Louisiana Rep. Higgins Says He Has COVID-19 for Second Time

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) questioning FBI Director Christopher Wray via video connection during a hearing on Capitol Hill, in Washington, on Sept. 17, 2020. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) says that he has contracted COVID-19 for a second time.

Higgins said in a July 25 statement on Facebook that his wife and son have also contracted the CCP virus, which causes COVID-19.

“Becca and I had COVID before, early on, in January 2020, before the world really knew what it was,” the Louisiana Republican wrote in the post.

“This is our second experience with the CCP biological attack weaponized virus,” Higgins stated in the post, presumably referring to the theory, which others have asserted but which hasn’t been proven, that the CCP virus was bioengineered in a Chinese lab in Wuhan and then leaked, either intentionally or by accident.

“This episode is far more challenging. It has required all of my devoted energy.”

Chinese officials have rejected the notion that the virus came from a lab and have instead insisted that it made a natural jump from animals to humans. A March report from the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded that the virus likely has a natural origin and that the lab leak hypothesis was “extremely unlikely,” although WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that more studies are needed, that “all hypotheses remain on the table,” and that “we have not yet found the source of the virus.”

The WHO has called for a follow-up probe into the origins of the virus, including further studies in China along with lab audits, which Chinese officials recently rejected. Zeng Yixin, the vice minister of China’s National Health Commission, said at a recent press conference that he was surprised by the WHO’s request for a team to return to Wuhan, calling the move “not scientific.”

Meanwhile, a panel of public health experts recently told a Republican-sponsored congressional forum that the CCP virus “likely originated” in a leak from China’s Wuhan Institute for Virology and that it had likely been modified through dangerous gain-of-function research.

Higgins, in his post, also said that he and his affected family members’ prognosis is positive and that “we are all under excellent care.” He didn’t say whether he or his family members have been vaccinated.

He also commented on his decision to disclose his infection, noting that, while he tries to “keep my family’s private business very quiet, because of the evil in the world,” he said that “quiet privacy does not mean secrecy.”

His remarks around disclosure come in the context of the White House refusing to release the number of COVID-19 infections among vaccinated staff, known as breakthrough cases, after one aide tested positive earlier last week and some reporters pressed for greater transparency.

Speaking at a press briefing on July 23, press secretary Jen Psaki was asked whether the White House was “trying to hide something” by not disclosing the number of breakthrough cases among vaccinated White House staff.

“No, but ... why do you need to have that information?” Psaki replied.

“Transparency, in the interest of the public ... having a better understanding of how breakthrough cases work here in the White House,” the reporter responded.

Amid the contentious exchange, Psaki pointed to efforts by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to track breakthrough cases.

According to the CDC, as of July 19, over 161 million people in the United States have been fully vaccinated, while, during the same period, the agency received reports of 5,914 vaccinated patients with breakthrough infections who were hospitalized or died.