# WA state senator, known to have COVID, dies under mysterious circumstances

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wa-state-senator-known-to-have-covid-dies-under-mysterious-circumstances/956330>\
**Category:** The Quarantine Zone\
**Tags:** covid-quarantine\
**Created:** [December 19, 2021, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wa-state-senator-known-to-have-covid-dies-under-mysterious-circumstances/956330 "2021-12-19T23:17:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2021, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wa-state-senator-known-to-have-covid-dies-under-mysterious-circumstances/956330/1 "2021-12-19T23:17:04Z")

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He’s a politician at the state, not national, level, and was apparently an “election witness” for corrupt right-wing regimes. He contracted COVID last month while in El Salvador, was medevaced, and any further information beyond his death is unknown.

> **[Washington state Senator Doug Ericksen dead at 52; follows COVID diagnosis](https://www.nwnewsnetwork.org/government-and-politics/2021-12-18/washington-state-senator-doug-ericksen-has-died)**
>
> Washington state Sen. Doug Ericksen has died. His death comes after the Whatcom County Republican was hospitalized last month following a COVID-19 diagnosis while in El Salvador.

This story says that he was a lobbyist for foreign governments, specifically Cambodia and El Salvador, probably because of their own right-wing governments.

> **[Washington state Sen. Doug Ericksen dies; sought treatment for COVID](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/washington-state-sen-doug-ericksen-dies-after-battle-with-covid/?utm_source=marketingcloud&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=BNA_121921002118%2BWashington%2Bstate%2BSen.%2BDoug%2BEricksen%2Bdies_12_18_2021&utm_term=Active%20subscriber)**
>
> Ericksen, who served in the Legislature for more than two decades, said last month that he tested positive for the coronavirus, although his cause of death was not immediately confirmed on Saturday.

I saw these links on another board, and it sounds like a really strange story. Any PNW Dopers who know more and can comment further?

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**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2021, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wa-state-senator-known-to-have-covid-dies-under-mysterious-circumstances/956330/2 "2021-12-20T03:45:16Z")

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Not really. Just what’s in the local news. He went to El Salvador for _reasons unexplained_, was unvaccinated, contracted covid, desperately tried to find some horse dewormer or other treatment, medivac’d to the US. Died.

Seems likely he had some kind of financial ties to El Salvador. Otherwise, unvaccinated dumbass out in public caught covid and died. News at 11