Unfortunately this is the typical sad end result for many anti-vaxxers...
The Unique Pain (And Anger) Of Grieving Someone Who Refused A COVID Vaccine
“Knowing there’s something that was free, accessible, and could have prevented their death, it’s heartbreaking.”
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/juliareinstein/grief-for-people-who-refused-covid-vaccine
They weren’t people you’d typically pin as anti-vaxxers. He was a retired engineer and she had worked as a nurse. But the Florida couple, both in their eighties, refused to get inoculated against the coronavirus, and now he’s dead.
Just over a month since her father-in-law died, Marie is still grappling with the painful fact that he and his wife ignored the science to devastating results.
“It’s been worse for [my husband] because it’s his father,” Marie told BuzzFeed News. “But I’m mostly just angry at them, because this didn’t have to happen.” (Marie asked, like others in this story, that her last name and identifying details about her family not be used for privacy reasons.)
It didn’t have to happen, but it is happening, and will likely keep happening, to some of the roughly 1 in 5 Americans who’ve said they will not get a COVID-19 vaccine. With every adult in the US eligible for shots since April 19, and for older Americans months before that, there are now people dying of the deadly virus who were already eligible for vaccination before they became infected. As officials continue to work to overcome issues of accessibility and more and more Americans achieve immunity, a sense of optimism and seminormalcy is returning to the US, and the once-merciless death toll will continue shrinking to new, welcome lows. But as long as COVID-19 exists and people keep making the choice to remain unvaccinated, some will, inevitably, die, leaving their loved ones grieving a death that could have been avoided.
“I think the preventable death aspect that we’re now headed into is going to be really hard for people who lose people to it,” said grief therapist and author Claire Bidwell Smith. “It’s not that we could ever get closure or feel resolved about a death, but I think when it was so apparently preventable, it’s something people end up really struggling with.”
Despite their scientific backgrounds, Marie said, her father- and mother-in-law had lost trust in modern medicine and slipped into vaccine skepticism over the past decade, influenced by the right-wing media they avidly consumed.
Knowing their views, it came as no surprise to Marie or her husband that his parents did not opt for the vaccine when they became eligible months ago. “There really wasn’t anything we could say to sway them,” she said. “Maybe if we lived near them we could’ve been enough of a presence to counter some of that, but they were adults and they made up their own minds.”
After her father-in-law came down with COVID-19 in April, Marie said, he did not seek professional medical care. Instead, he self-treated with ivermectin, a drug used to treat parasitic worms that has joined hydroxychloroquine as yet another false COVID “miracle drug.” At best, officials warn, it has inconclusive results; at worst, it can be dangerous. Just days after getting sick, Marie said, he died suddenly and unexpectedly at home of what is thought to have been a heart attack. Marie does not know whether it was caused by COVID-19, which research suggests may lead to heart issues, or the medication he took, which the FDA has said can cause death.
“I’m angry that they didn’t listen to science. I’m angry they let the conservative view of their state government and of the conservative media convince them that COVID is not that much of a threat,” Marie said.
“I feel guilty that I’m not more sad, [but] I know that anger is part of grief, and I expect that the real grief will come.”
(More at above url)
The Unique Pain (And Anger) Of Grieving Someone Who Refused A COVID Vaccine
“Knowing there’s something that was free, accessible, and could have prevented their death, it’s heartbreaking.”
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/juliareinstein/grief-for-people-who-refused-covid-vaccine
They weren’t people you’d typically pin as anti-vaxxers. He was a retired engineer and she had worked as a nurse. But the Florida couple, both in their eighties, refused to get inoculated against the coronavirus, and now he’s dead.
Just over a month since her father-in-law died, Marie is still grappling with the painful fact that he and his wife ignored the science to devastating results.
“It’s been worse for [my husband] because it’s his father,” Marie told BuzzFeed News. “But I’m mostly just angry at them, because this didn’t have to happen.” (Marie asked, like others in this story, that her last name and identifying details about her family not be used for privacy reasons.)
It didn’t have to happen, but it is happening, and will likely keep happening, to some of the roughly 1 in 5 Americans who’ve said they will not get a COVID-19 vaccine. With every adult in the US eligible for shots since April 19, and for older Americans months before that, there are now people dying of the deadly virus who were already eligible for vaccination before they became infected. As officials continue to work to overcome issues of accessibility and more and more Americans achieve immunity, a sense of optimism and seminormalcy is returning to the US, and the once-merciless death toll will continue shrinking to new, welcome lows. But as long as COVID-19 exists and people keep making the choice to remain unvaccinated, some will, inevitably, die, leaving their loved ones grieving a death that could have been avoided.
“I think the preventable death aspect that we’re now headed into is going to be really hard for people who lose people to it,” said grief therapist and author Claire Bidwell Smith. “It’s not that we could ever get closure or feel resolved about a death, but I think when it was so apparently preventable, it’s something people end up really struggling with.”
Despite their scientific backgrounds, Marie said, her father- and mother-in-law had lost trust in modern medicine and slipped into vaccine skepticism over the past decade, influenced by the right-wing media they avidly consumed.
Knowing their views, it came as no surprise to Marie or her husband that his parents did not opt for the vaccine when they became eligible months ago. “There really wasn’t anything we could say to sway them,” she said. “Maybe if we lived near them we could’ve been enough of a presence to counter some of that, but they were adults and they made up their own minds.”
After her father-in-law came down with COVID-19 in April, Marie said, he did not seek professional medical care. Instead, he self-treated with ivermectin, a drug used to treat parasitic worms that has joined hydroxychloroquine as yet another false COVID “miracle drug.” At best, officials warn, it has inconclusive results; at worst, it can be dangerous. Just days after getting sick, Marie said, he died suddenly and unexpectedly at home of what is thought to have been a heart attack. Marie does not know whether it was caused by COVID-19, which research suggests may lead to heart issues, or the medication he took, which the FDA has said can cause death.
“I’m angry that they didn’t listen to science. I’m angry they let the conservative view of their state government and of the conservative media convince them that COVID is not that much of a threat,” Marie said.
“I feel guilty that I’m not more sad, [but] I know that anger is part of grief, and I expect that the real grief will come.”
(More at above url)
