A Virginia pastor, Landon Spradlin, who claimed that the media was overhyping coronavirus reports and ‘pumping out fear’ about the pandemic, has died after contracting the deadly bug.

Landon Spradlin who was a 66-year-old pastor and travelling musician downplayed the seriousness of the coronavirus pandemic.

However, he died on Wednesday, March 25, at a hospital in North Carolina after testing positive for the deadly COVID-19.

Just two weeks before his death the late Virginia pastor shared a meme on his Facebook page implying that the media is manipulative.

In his post, he compared the “mass hysteria” surrounding the casualties from coronavirus in the U.S. to the deaths from H1N1 during the administration of then-president of the United States, Barack Obama.

In the comment section of the post which he shared on March 13 post, he revealed that he knew COVID-19 is real but claimed that the media was pumping too much fear.

Facebook subsequently flagged his comment according to Newsweek, after independent fact-checkers reviewed and concluded that his post contained partly false information.

Following reports of his death, Spradlin’s Facebook page has been littered with people mocking and criticizing him for his views on the virus.