Coronavirus Tales : From Fiction to Reality

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Staffordshire Covid sceptic Marcus Birks dies in hospital
Staffordshire Covid sceptic Marcus Birks dies in hospital

Marcus Birks said he was going to tell "anybody I see" to get the vaccine after he was hospitalised
A Covid sceptic who was hospitalised with the virus and went on to urge other people to get vaccinated has died.

Marcus Birks, 40, from Leek, Staffordshire, died on Friday leaving his family "shattered", his wife said.

He was admitted to the intensive care unit at Royal Stoke University Hospital earlier this month.

The musician had told the BBC he was "shocked" to have become so unwell with the virus because he "rarely got ill".

'Best dad'
Mrs Birks, who is pregnant, wrote on Facebook: "The pain I feel writing this is unbearable, my heart has been ripped out, my soul and world completely and utterly shattered."

She went on to describe her husband as her best friend and soulmate.


Speaking to the BBC earlier in August, Mr Birks said: "If you haven't been ill, you don't think you're going to get ill, so you listen to the [anti-vaccine] stuff.

"When you feel like you can't get enough breath, it's the scariest feeling in the world."

He said information had been skewed by social media and conspiracy theorists and he had not had the vaccine.

The 40-year-old said his symptoms started with a flu-like feeling, which got progressively worse, and he was eventually admitted to hospital, suffering from breathing difficulties.

"First thing I am going tell all my family to do is get the vaccine and anybody I see," he said.

Mrs Birks thanked people for their kind words, adding: "I made him a promise that I will tell our baby boy every day how much he loves him, how special he is and how he would have been/is the best dad a son could ever wish for."

 

[TaxCollector13459]

Covid been making packs damn near 2 years, cacs still be thinking they special

 

[TaxCollector13459]

this richard rose dude was a racist fukk.

now his stupid azz an 8th of za......

 

[skylove4]

 

[TaxCollector13459]

lmaoooooo fukk boy a packkkk

 

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Anti-Vaxxer Turns Vaccine Advocate After Husband Dies From COVID-19

Anti-Vaxxer Turns Vaccine Advocate After Husband Dies From COVID-19
"I was getting the vaccine as they were trying to bring him back from him coding,” said a San Diego woman who was adamantly against getting vaccinated until she saw COVID-19 taking her husband's final breaths
By Alexis Rivas • Published September 3, 2021 • Updated on September 3, 2021 at 8:34 pm




Christina Lowe, 32, lost the love of her life and father to her children to COVID-19 less than a week ago.

It’s a death she now believes was preventable.

"I just always thought it’s never going to happen to us,” Lowe said. “It can’t happen to us. We’re young, we’re healthy. And then it did happen to us, and then you start playing the regret game."

Lowe and her husband Mikel were both adamantly against the COVID vaccine -- that is, until he lay dying in a hospital bed.



"We thought the vaccine was rushed,” Lowe said. “We thought it was more about money and power than about Americans and protecting the people."

Mikel served as a federal firefighter, working out of the Naval Air Station Base in Coronado until just a few months ago. He was born and raised in San Diego County, but his opposition to recent California politics drove the family to move out of state.

“We honestly thought that COVID was mostly political,” said Lowe said.

She says they had friends who got the virus but only suffered minor symptoms, so as a young, healthy couple, they figured they were fine.

Then Mikel got sick and his symptoms were anything but minor.

"I went upstairs to check on him and his face was purple and blue,” Lowe said. “He was struggling to breathe on oxygen."

Mikel died from COVID on Aug. 29 at just 38 years old.

"The last time I saw him they were taking him out to the ambulance,” Lowe said. “And I had to Facetime with my husband while he was unconscious, and that’s how I had to say my goodbyes."

Before his death, Lowe says her husband promised to get the vaccine should he survive. He also urged Christina to get the shot. She later learned her injection was mere minutes before his time of death.

"I was getting the vaccine as they were trying to bring him back from him coding,” she said.

She says she now lies awake at night wondering what if, and worrying about the future of the family Mikel left behind.

"We have two boys,” she said. “They are 5 and 6 and they are now without their father. And it’s just absolutely heartbreaking for all of us."

As a vaccine hold-out herself, Lowe said she has watched countless stories of COVID victim relatives like her own. She says while she didn't listen, she hopes other skeptics do.

“Like I said, it might be political. But your life isn’t worth that," she said. "Your life isn’t worth thinking this is because of the president, or this is because of the governor. Because once you’re gone, none of that matters."

There is a Celebration of Life planned for Mikel at the Crest community center on Oct. 9. Christina Lowe asks those interested in attending to reach out to her directly for more details.

 

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Spoiler: mirror

 

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33-year-old Ga. man who died of COVID-19 makes final plea for friends to get vaccinated

33-year-old Ga. man who died of COVID-19 makes final plea for friends to get vaccinated

WSBTV.com News Staff 3 days ago

A 33-year-old Georgia man who died from COVID-19 used social media to make a final plea to his friends and family to get vaccinated.

© Family photo
Kevin McKenzie, of Senoia, died Sept. 2 at Piedmont Newnan Hospital after a three-week battle with the virus. He was not vaccinated.

On Aug. 24, McKenzie posted a photo from his hospital room, saying that he appreciated prayers but he needed something else from his friends and family.



“Yes, there is something I want everyone to do for me that I was too damn stubborn to do, and that’s if you haven’t yet done so, go get your COVID vaccine,” McKenzie wrote.

McKenzie said that when he was admitted to the hospital, four different doctors told him they had not had to admit one single patient who was vaccinated.


“Trust me you don’t want to be where I a now and as soon as I get over this I’ll be getting my vaccine,” he wrote.


McKenzie’s finace, Lori Minatree, said she hopes that post helped save lives.

“He won’t even know how his story saved so many lives because the amount of people who are getting vaccinated after hearing his battle!” Minatree wrote. “He was just 33 years old and had his whole life ahead of him.”



McKenzie was described by family members as a fun-loving guy who loved to ride his motorcycle, visit amusement parks, camping and being an adopted uncle to many of his friends’ children. He was also a father-figure to Minatree’s two young daughters.

“With his adventurous, natural, and outgoing personality Kevin was a true friend to everyone,” family members said in his obituary.

McKenzie’s funeral in Sunday in Peachtree City. A group of fellow bikers plan to escort his body to the funeral home.

 

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Identical twins: One was vaccinated for COVID, the other wasn't; how'd they fare?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opin...ed-when-identical-twins-got-covid/5744529001/

Laurence Reisman
Treasure Coast Newspapers

Bobby and Billy Ford hung out together even before they were born one after the other Jan. 21, 1962.

The identical twins were inseparable as youngsters growing up in Williamsburg, Virginia, where their father started an auto repair shop after fixing helicopters for 20-plus years in the Army.

They worked in the shop, but also were together in the outdoors, playing football and enjoying all the perks associated with Colonial Williamsburg and a mom who worked at nearby Busch Gardens.

The twins were separated temporarily in 1987, when Bobby followed his wife, the former Jane Griffin, to her hometown of Vero Beach. The brothers spoke regularly and vacationed together on their motorcycles, Bobby said. In 1993, he opened Bobby’s Auto Service Center, where Billy eventually joined him.

The twins’ workday camaraderie and banter lasted until July 22.

Identical twins Billy and Bobby Ford pose in a picture dating to about 1968.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO FROM BOBBY FORD


Was it flu or COVID-19?
That was maybe a week after one of Bobby’s employees learned he had COVID-19.

Meantime, Bobby said, Billy wasn’t feeling well, so he went to a medical provider, where he was told he had the flu. The next day, Billy was so ill he went to the Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital emergency room and was admitted — with COVID-19.

“It was one employee after another going down,” Bobby said, noting employees under age 30 got COVID-19 badly and were on their backs for eight days, texting him “they’d never been so sick in their lives.”

The group of 10 employees had been careful throughout the pandemic, Bobby said. Folks were given time off to visit physicians and get tested for COVID-19. Four were vaccinated.

Eventually, the repair shop was shut down for nine days while employees recovered.

Bobby was the last one to have symptoms: three days of fever.

J&J, other vaccines praised
As a big man, 6-feet-3, 320 pounds, Bobby Ford might have been a prime candidate for hospitalization. But he, like other employees who had relatively minor symptoms, had been vaccinated: Bobby with Johnson & Johnson.

Even the twins' mother, 83, was infected and had a minor fever. But, Bobby said, she was protected by the Moderna vaccine.

Billy was not vaccinated.

“We had many heated discussions about this vaccine,” Bobby told me the other day, lamenting that he could not persuade his brother to dismiss conspiracy theories and get one.

“DNA-wise, we’re pretty much identical,” Bobby said, noting Billy started to take medication to control diabetes several years ago after hitting about 400 pounds. More recently, though, the 6-foot-3 Billy had cut down to about 240 pounds. Bobby hasn’t had diabetes.

When his brother was hospitalized, Bobby said, the two regularly spoke on the phone, though Billy often would lose his breath quickly. Via phone from his hospital bed, Billy persuaded others in his family to get a vaccine.

Vaccine decision was too late
“He changed his mind on that,” Bobby said, noting the two eventually had to text each other. “It was too late for him.”

After seeing how much his brother suffered, and he didn’t, Bobby has been trying to persuade people to get vaccinated.

“We have a whole lot of friends that were not vaccinated … a whole lot,” he said. “We know that a lot of people are looking at Bill and saying, ‘I need to do something.’ They’re finally changing their minds.”

Bobby’s troubled by misinformation spread about the vaccine. The other day, he said, someone came into the shop saying she was sorry Billy died. She then told Bobby her girlfriend’s boyfriend said the vaccines have tracking devices.

Bobby said he told the woman to leave and did not mince words.

“It’s people like you, repeating stupid (crap) from stupid people that keeps people from getting vaccines,” Bobby said he told her. “And she probably tells 20 people a day the same (stuff).”

'We’re all praying for you'

Bobby said the first employee to get COVID-19 in the repair shop was admitted to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center in Fort Pierce, eventually spending four weeks on a ventilator. He’s back at work.

Billy ended up on a ventilator, too.

In his last significant text exchange with his brother, Bobby expressed hope.

“We’re all praying for you,” Bobby texted.

“Are you sure, because I'm a terrible pain,” Billy replied. “I was expecting hospice.”

“You're gonna get through this,” Bobby texted. “Keep breathing.”

Bobby said his brother's pain got worse. That’s when Billy was sedated and put on the ventilator.

“He wasn’t a wimpy guy so he must have really been hurting,” Bobby said, suggesting videotaping people suffering with COVID-19 would be a great way to persuade people to get vaccines.

After all, we discussed, scared-straight-type videos were shown years ago in our schools when we learned to drive or use electric saws in shop class.

Also instructive would be images of what Bobby saw in the hospital visiting his brother in his final days.


Like a 'valley of death'
“There are so many sick people in the ICU,” Bobby said, noting he saw a shorthanded hospital staff, struggling with COVID-related absenteeism, “working their butts off” to take care of the ill. “I don’t know how the health care people are holding up.”

Just to get upstairs at the hospital after hours is like running a COVID gantlet, he said.

“You have to go through the valley of death in the emergency room,” he said, noting people were all over coughing and hacking. “I was just like, ‘Oh my God, this place is a disaster.' ”

It’s reality amid Indian River County’s worst surge of COVID-19.

William H. “Billy” Ford, 59, died Aug. 14 in the hospital. He left behind a wife, three children, his mother and three brothers.

Including Bobby.

“A twin is your best friend and your worst enemy,” Bobby said, remembering Billy. “You have someone that looks just like you competing for the same friends, the same girls, the same everything. You know, it's fine for me to punch you, but nobody else.

“We’re twin brothers,” Bobby said. “We did everything together.”

 

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Tennessee’s ICUs Are Full Of Vaccine Refusal Regret

Tennessee’s ICUs Are Full Of Vaccine Refusal Regret | WPLN News - Nashville Public Radio

BLAKE FARMER
SEPTEMBER 6, 2021

Middle Tennessee truck driver Joe Gammon, 45, has been receiving ECMO therapy at Ascension Saint Thomas West since mid-August, allowing his blood to be oxygenated by a machine by his bed. The life-support is giving his lungs time to heal from COVID, which he contracted in July. He says now getting vaccinated is a no-brainer.Blake FarmerWPLN News

It’s a struggle for Joe Gammon to talk right now.

Lying in his ICU bed at Ascension Saint Thomas West, he uses a suction tube to clear his own throat. Even dislodging some phlegm has become a struggle.

“If I would have known six months ago that this could be possible, this would have been a no-brainer,” the 45-year-old father of six says after weeks in critical condition. “But I honestly didn’t think I was at any risk. That is the naive portion on my end.”

Gammon is a truck driver from Lascassas who says he listens to a lot of conservative talk radio. And the daily diatribes downplaying the pandemic and promoting personal freedom were enough dissuade him from vaccination.

Tennessee hospitals are setting new records each day, caring for more COVID patients than ever, and the most critical are almost all unvaccinated, meaning ICUs are filled with regretful patients hoping for a second chance.



Gammon says he’s not an “anti-vaxxer.” And he says he’s a committed believer in the COVID vaccine now. He’s also thankful he didn’t get anyone else so sick they’re in an ICU like he is.

“Before you say no, seek a second opinion,” he says to people who think the way he did before being hospitalized. “Just to say ‘no’ is irresponsible. Because it might not necessarily affect you. What if it affected your spouse? Or your child? You wouldn’t want that. And you sure wouldn’t want that on your heart.”

Gammon is fighting for his life. His lungs are too damaged from COVID for a ventilator. So now, thick tubes run out a hole in his neck, pumping his blood through an ECMO machine to be oxygenated. A mask over his nose forces air into his lungs as they’re given time to heal.

This Saint Thomas West ICU is treating COVID patients only, and that data point should be pretty convincing to vaccine holdouts, says critical care nurse Angie Gicewicz.

“We don’t have people in the hospital suffering horrible reactions to the vaccine,” she notes.

Nurse Angie Gicewicz points to a rotoprone bed that allows COVID patients to lie face down, which is sometimes useful when damaged lungs are having trouble oxygenating blood.Blake FarmerWPLN News

If all the patients on this hall could talk, Gicewicz says they’d tell people to learn from their mistakes. She tells the story of an elderly woman who was admitted in recent weeks spent her first days in isolation to control infection.

Gicewicz says she’d wave at the nurses from her sealed room, desperate for anyone to talk to.

“The first day I took care of her, she said, ‘I guess I should have taken that vaccine.’ I said, ‘Well, yeah honey, probably, but we’re here where we are now. And let’s do what we can for you.’ ”

That woman, like so many who didn’t take the vaccine, never recovered, Gicewicz says. She died at this hospital, which averaged more than one COVID death every day during the month of August.