Republican who rejected masks and ‘sensational’ pandemic coverage now urges people to take Covid...

A Tennessee lawmaker who became badly sick with Covid has had a change of heart since his earlier views on the coronavirus pandemic, and has now begun urging people to take it seriously.

David Byrd faced an eight-month-long battle with Covid-19 that included symptoms of long Covid, making him change his stance about the pandemic in a statement shared on Friday.

Mr Byrd participated last year in an overnight retreat in Nashville with 70 Republicans from the House of Representatives at a time when the pandemic was raging through the country, yet many at the event were shown not wearing masks.