Conservative activist Greg Gandrud details his struggle with COVID-19, and his views on the 2024 presidential race, in this exclusive podcast on Santa Barbara Talks.

Gandrud was elected to the Carpinteria City Council in 2002 and currently holds the title of treasurer for the California Republican Party. In this podcast, Gandrud talks about his fight with COVID-19 and how he survived.

A few days after attending a Republican convention in 2021, Gandrud started to feel sick. He later tested positive for COVID-19. He was not vaccinated.

“Within a few days I was very ,very week,” Gandrud says on the podcast.

He was working on a Sunday and he fainted and cracked his nose. His condition deteriorated, and he eventually went on a ventilator for 20 days. He lost 40 pounds.

To watch the original video on Molina’s website, click here:

Gandrud explains his treatment and offers his views on COVID-19 and the way that doctors attempted to treat him and the disease.

He believes the government and the pharmaceutical industry worked together to push drugs that were expensive, but sometimes ineffective.

Gandrud said he supports the COVID-19 vaccine as a matter of personal choice, particularly for people with pre-existing conditions and the elderly.

“Yes, the short-term impact is it reduces serious disease, hospitalization and death from COVID, it may have prevented me from getting sick,” Gandrud said. “We don’t know if I would have gotten sick anyway.

“Had I been vaccinated, maybe I would not have had that happen to me. But at the same time, I might have been one of those people who got a blood clot and died from a stroke days after being injected.”

Toward the end of the podcast, Gandrud also talks coming about coming out as gay, and how attitudes among his political peers have evolved over the years.

“It’s changed,” Gandrud said. “I don’t think people realize how much it has changed, but it has changed a lot.”

Gandrud also declares his support for Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, in the 2024 presidential campaign.

“I think strategically he’s a really good choice,” Gandrud said, noting that Trump lost swing states such as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.

“I think Trump has high negatives in a lot of these places,” Gandrud said. “Right at this moment, I am trying to network with like-minded people who identify as DeSantis supporters.”

Consider a donation to this podcast by clicking here. Subscribe to this podcast by clicking here. Josh Molina has been a journalist in Santa Barbara for 20 years. He also covered City Hall for the San Jose Mercury News. In addition to working as a reporter at Noozhawk, he teaches journalism at Cal State University, Northridge and Santa Barbara City College. Please subscribe to his You Tube channel for more content.