An incomplete tally of fatal vaccine hesitancy
Over and over again, surviving family members urge others to get vaccinated
There have been a lot of news stories recently about people who died after either refusing to get the vaccine or simply not getting around to it. In most of these cases either the people themselves or their surviving family members ended up putting out impassioned pleas to the public to get vaccinated so as to avoid their fate.
I thought it might be useful to collect these stories in one place, as I haven’t seen that done anywhere. Each one is arresting in its own right, and the sheer totality of them is kind of overwhelming. Our brains our wired to make us respond more to individual narratives than to massive datasets (“a single death is a tragedy, a million deaths are a statistic” etc. etc.), so feel free to share this list with the vaccine-hesitant people in your life.
This list is necessarily incomplete so if you know of any stories that I missed drop me a message in the comments below, which are open to everyone. I’ve only included cases where news outlets are able to confirm that the victim is unvaccinated, and where the person’s identity is confirmed (there are many stories, for instance, about pastors talking about unvaccinated parishioners who died, or of doctors talking about their unvaccinated patients in the ICU). This list also excludes many stories of people who survived Covid and have since urged others to get vaccinated.
This would obviously be impossible without the diligent work of the news outlets covering these cases.
Darryl Preissler, 63, Pasadena Maryland. Preissler reportedly told his wife he was simply too busy with work to get his shots. She suspects he contracted the disease at a 100-person wedding in April, when he danced, maskless, with his elderly aunt who subsequently tested positive. The aunt succumbed to the illness as well.
John Eyers, 42, Southport England. Eyers was a “fit and healthy bodybuilder” who was “climbing Welsh mountains & wild camping 4 weeks before his death,” according to his twin sister. He figured he was fit enough that he didn’t need the vaccine. After becoming infected his condition deteriorated rapidly, leading to multiple organ failure. Before being put on a ventilator, he told a nurse he “wished he had been vaccinated.”
Leslie Lawrenson, 58, Dorset England. His partner Amanda Mitchell told BBC he thought the vaccine was “too experimental.” He told her “You don't need to have it, you'll be fine, just be careful.” They both became severely ill after contracting the virus. “I feel incredibly foolish,” his partner said. “Les died unnecessarily.”
Stephen Harmon, 34, Los Angeles California. Harmon famously mocked the vaccine shortly before becoming gravely ill. “Got 99 problems but a vax ain't one,” he tweeted roughly a month before his death. He documented his illness on social media. His last tweet, sent right before he was intubated, read “Don't know when I'll wake up, please pray.”
Tricia Jones, 45, Grain Valley Missouri. The mother of two was hesitant about getting the vaccine after seeing the side effects her own mother experienced after the first shot. “After she got [Covid], she said, ‘Mom, you were right about the shot, about masks, being diligent and all that.’ I was like, ‘I don’t want to be right. I want you to be well. That’s all that matters,’” he mother told reporters. Jones was hospitalized, put on a ventilator in May, and died several weeks later.
H. Scott Apley, 45, Dickinson Texas. The Republican official had a long social media history of mocking the pandemic and efforts to contain it. He posted approvingly about a “mask burning” party in Cleveland. At the end of July he shared a Facebook post mocking vaccine efficacy. Several days later he was admitted to the hospital and put on a ventilator. He died shortly thereafter.
Antwone Rivers, 39, Lincoln Park Michigan. The father of five reportedly had no underlying medical conditions and was not comfortable with the idea of getting vaccinated. After becoming sick his condition deteriorated rapidly. He was rushed to the hospital and put on a ventilator. He died in May after a month-long battle with the disease.
Alan Lanoix, 54, Katy Texas. Lanoix thought the vaccine was “poison” and was afraid to get it, according to his sister. He caught Covid at work and initially thought that a mild case of the illness would convey immunity without vaccination. His condition worsened and he spent 17 days in the hospital, the last few on a ventilator. He died on June 9.
Fernanda Vega, 47, Tolleson Arizona. According to her husband, nobody in the family was vaccinated due to concern over side effects. After contracting Covid she took a “sudden turn for the worse” and was admitted to the hospital with a blood clot in her lungs and a weak pulse. She died less than an hour later.
Martin (53) and Trina (47) Daniel, Savannah Georgia. The couple wasn’t vaccinated, citing mistrust of the medical establishment and specifically the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, during which the federal government allowed hundreds of Black men to suffer from untreated syphilis without informing them they were being experimented on. The Daniels died within three hours of each other.
Gisele Beaudoin, 70, Drummondville Quebec. Beaudoin was “a conspiracy theorist and an anti-masker,” according to her sister. Shortly before she died her sister took to Facebook to plead for others to take the vaccine. "She asked me to tell all of you to get vaccinated because she didn’t believe," the sister said.
Matthew Keenan, 34, Great Britain. Keenan “told friends that he ‘wished he had his jab’ after he was hospitalised and placed in an induced coma to try to save his life,” according to Wales Online. His respiratory doctor shared his story online, calling Keenan a “self-confessed vaccine sceptic until he caught Covid. If he could turn back time he would.”
Erica Thompson, 37, St. Louis County Missouri. Thompson "adamantly did not believe" in the vaccine, her mother said, and “didn't think [Covid] would ever happen to her.” She went to the hospital with chest pains on May 16 and tested positive shortly thereafter. Thompson’s conditioned worsened and after a grueling 50 days in the hospital she died on July 4.
Olivia Guidry, 24, Lafayette Louisiana. Guidry, an ER nurse who treated Covid patients, said in July 2020 that the vaccine “manipulates your DNA at the tiniest molecular level. Do. Not. Get. It. It's not safe.” She was diagnosed in July 2021 and died shortly thereafter.
Kim Maginn, 63, Little Rock Arkansas. Maginn’s daughters reportedly pleaded with her to get the vaccine but she refused. Maginn was “in the best shape of her life” but succumbed to the virus nonetheless.
Brandon Haynes, 46, Baton Rouge Louisiana. Haynes had heart problems and COPD but refused the vaccine against his doctor’s advice. His mom also begged him but he was unmoved, claiming to have “done his own research.” After he succumbed to the disease, his mother held a vaccine clinic at his funeral.
Donavan Daniel, 34, Carthage Missouri. Daniel refused the vaccine and mocked his wife Stephani for getting it. “It was a personal choice for him not to vaccinate,” she said. “He felt like he wanted more information, he just wanted some more data and he wanted more information on long-term effects.” He started feeling ill in mid-July, and on the 18th he went to the hospital for breathing problems. Eventually his organs failed and he died on July 25.
David Parker, 56, County Durham England. Parker was an anti-vaxxer who rejected the vaccine due to it being “experimental” and developed by “big pharma.” He had no underlying health conditions, but became extremely sick with the disease and died in the beginning of August.
Aude Alaskar, 27, Sydney Australia. Alaskar was infected by his wife, a home health nurse. He had no underlying conditions but after 13 days of isolation at home he deteriorated suddenly, collapsed, and died.
Daniel Trujillo, 33, Denver Colorado. Trujillo was a sheriff’s deputy who shared anti-vax content on Facebook, including his photo accompanied by the words “I don’t care if you’ve had your vaccine.” He died in May after contracting Covid during an outbreak at a detention center in the city.
Rob Tersteeg, 46, Minot ND. Tersteeg wasn’t against the vaccine but it simply wasn’t a priority for him, according to his wife. He fell ill on Mother’s Day, went to the hospital, and never came home. He died on June 3. Before his death he urged his wife to get their children vaccinated as soon as possible.
Marquis Davis, 28, Rockledge FL. David got Covid in July, and while in the hospital told his wife he planned to get the vaccine as soon as he got out. He never got the chance, dying on July 26.
William Stough, 37, Sebring FL. Stough was in good health, according to his father, and didn’t want the vaccine. He became ill at the beginning on July and went to the hospital a week later. He died on August 1.
Curt Carpenter, 28, Birmingham AL. Carpenter had autism but was otherwise healthy. He initially believed the virus was a ‘hoax,’ and he and his family did not get vaccinated. They all became ill in March, and he and his mother were taken to the hospital. Carpenter’s lung collapsed, his organs began shutting down, and he died on May 2. “It took watching my son die and me suffering the effects of Covid for us to realize we need the vaccine,” his mother said.
Michael Freedy, 39, Las Vegas NV. Freedy planned to “wait a year” before getting his vaccine, according to his fiancee. After a trip to San Diego in July, he went to an ER with difficulty breathing and ended up in the ICU. “I should have gotten the damn vaccine,” he texted his fiancee before he died.
Lawrence Rodriguez, La Marque TX. Rodriguez and his wife were “careful” about Covid but didn’t get vaccinated, according to a relative. “They didn’t believe in vaccines.” In July the entire family contracted Covid, and Rodriguez and his wife were both admitted to the hospital. Both were transferred to intensive care and intubated. Lawrence died at the beginning of August. His wife remains in the ICU.
Dick Farrel, 65, West Palm Beach FL. Farrel was an anti-vaxx right wing radio host who advised his listeners to not get the vaccine. After becoming sick with Covid and going to the hospital, he changed his mind and encouraged his friends to get the vaccine. He died in the beginning of August.
Brian Lynch, 46, Blackburn UK. Lynch was “waiting for more information” before deciding whether to get the vaccine. But he never got the chance. He was admitted to the hospital on July 12, and passed away on the 31st. “I'll be honest, I thought it was the vulnerable and the elderly who got hospitalised,” he wrote from the hospital.
Jordan Sinor, 16, Little Rock AR. Sinor had down syndrome. His mother said she did not get him vaccinated and will not get vaccinated herself until she’s “seen more research about its effectiveness.” Sinor died in July after being hospitalized with Covid for several weeks. She told a local news station she hopes her son’s death will be a “warning” for everyone, but reiterated her refusal to get vaccinated.
Braedrick Wright, 28, Atlanta GA. Wright, who had diabetes and high blood pressure, “did not get vaccinated after reading conspiracy theories online,” according to Newsweek. On July 30 he was admitted to the hospital with Covid symptoms. In the hospital he changed his mind about the vaccine. "That is his message: 'Get the vaccine. Because I would hate for people to be like me,'" said his widow, 25. He died on August 7.
Stu Hedley, 99, San Diego CA. A survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hedley was encouraged to get the vaccine but “declined,” according to CBS-8 News. “Freedom is not free. Freedom is gained at a price,” he often told students. He was planning a trip to Hawaii in October for the 80th anniversary of the attack. He died of Covid at the beginning of August.
Tyler Nettles, 17, Douglasville GA. Nettles was a Black high school football player. After testing positive and becoming seriously ill, his mother took him to a local hospital twice, but he was sent home each time. When she drove him to a different hospital he was immediately intubated. He died on July 31. “People have been attacking me saying he should have gotten vaccinated, but what about the level of care that he did not get,” his mother said.
Schwanda Corprew, 17, Norfolk VA. Corprew was scheduled to get her first shot, but did not get the chance. She died at home after an illness her family thought was a cold. The Virginia Department of Health confirmed Corprew died of Covid complications.
Scott McReynolds, 20, Kingsport TN. McReynolds “wore his mask when he was supposed to and he did all the right things,” but was not vaccinated, according to his parents. He was admitted to a hospital with Covid in May and spent the last 10 weeks of his life there, many of them on a ventilator.
A whole family decimated by covid. Yup, anti vaxxers. http://archive.today/kykiQ
Jordan Sinor's mother should be prosecuted.