- Rhetoric and anti-science policy have led many to believe that the coronavirus is not a real threat, or is no longer a real threat.
- Some who have refused to wear masks, went out at the behest of local and federal governments, or even attended “COVID parties” are now dead from the disease.
- Their families and healthcare providers are begging others not to make the same mistakes.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
When an Arizona man died of coronavirus on June 30, his daughter almost called the murder death in his obituary, where he blamed local and federal politicians for opening up before it was safe.
—Bill Scheel (@billyscheel) July 9, 2020
Mark Urquiza, who was 65, mostly just left the house to do his essential job in manufacturing while orders to stay home were in place, his daughter, Kristin Urquiza, told the Washington Post.
But when the state reopened and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and the Trump administration encouraged people to take advantage of it, Urquiza listened and began to meet friends. He became ill with COVID-19 for three weeks before passing away.
“Despite all the effort I made to try to keep my parents safe, I couldn’t compete with the governor’s office and I couldn’t compete with the Trump administration,” Kristin Urquiza told the Post.
Urquiza’s death is one of several that have been publicized after victims were led to believe that the coronavirus is no longer a real threat, or in Urquiza’s case, it is no longer a real threat.
“The logical person would think … ‘Hey, they are reopening, it should be safer.’ How else could you reasonably interpret that?” Syon Bhanot, a behavioral and public economist at Swarthmore College, told Business Insider.
“So you’re getting totally ambiguous [information,] where the data says one thing and the public narrative says something else, “he added.” The public narrative will always outperform the data in terms of an emotional response. “
Here are five other victim stories.
An Ohio man died after posting on Facebook that he wasn’t going to “buy that damn hype” and wear a mask.
Richard Rose, a 37-year-old Ohio man, died on July 3, just two days after testing positive for COVID-19, according to local media.
Throughout the previous months, Rose was vocal on Facebook about what she called “that damn hype” of wearing masks, and it was frequently recorded in bars and restaurants across the state. Once he developed the symptoms, he also wrote about them, saying that he could barely breathe while sitting alone.
“We were surprised, you know? You heard about this virus and you don’t expect it to affect people, younger people like us,” Rose’s friend Nick Conley told the Cleveland 19 News.
“It is horrible that we have lost Rick, but the even more tragic part of that is who else became infected because of the actions he chose,” added Conley.
—Apologist BlackPink (@kat_blaque) July 11, 2020
A 30-year-old man in Texas died after attending a “COVID party”
A 30-year-old man died in Texas after attending a “COVID party,” his doctor said.
“This is a party organized by someone diagnosed with the COVID virus, and the idea is to see if the virus is real and to see if someone gets infected,” said Dr. Jane Appleby, medical director of Methodist Hospital and Methodist Children’s Hospital. , she told the local News4 store.
Appleby said the patient admitted his repentance just before he died and said to a nurse, “I think I made a mistake, I thought it was a hoax, but it isn’t.”
She and others are urging people not to make the same mistake.
“He doesn’t discriminate and neither of us is invincible,” Appleby said. “I don’t want to be an alarmist, and we’re just trying to share some real-world examples to help our community realize that this virus is very serious and can spread easily.”
A California man died a day after saying he regretted attending a party.
Thomas Macias, a 51-year-old California man, went to a party in early June, tested positive for coronavirus on June 18, and died on June 20 after being put on a respirator.
Her brother-in-law told NBC that while Marcias knew that a fellow party member had tested positive for the coronavirus, they did not believe it was spreading since they showed no symptoms.
The day before his death, Macías expressed his regret on Facebook, according to NBC. “Due to my stupidity, I endangered the health of my mother and my sisters and my family,” he wrote. “This has been a very painful experience.”
“This is not a joke,” he added. “If you have to go out, wear a mask and practice social distancing. Don’t be an idiot like me.”
—NBC News (@NBCNews) July 2, 2020
A 66-year-old pastor died after celebrating Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
Virginia pastor Landon Spradlin, who was 66, drove to New Orleans to preach and celebrate Mardi Gras with his wife and daughters, the BBC reported.
The coronavirus was not on their minds; Spradlin believed it was a media-driven overreaction in an election year, his son told the media.
Even after experiencing the symptoms of COVID-19, Spradlin posted about the “hysteria” around the virus.
Spradlin and his wife stayed in New Orleans until mid-March when their symptoms became too severe. They did not make it to Virginia, and were detained at a North Carolina hospital, where he died after eight days in intensive care.
“There is still a lot in the news that depends on the agenda, even though people perish,” her daughter Jesse Spradlin told the BBC. “This is affecting our country, and unless we start acting as a nation, we will not really find a solution. But for that to happen, it takes some humility.”
An Alabama man who refused to wear a mask died less than three hours after calling an ambulance.
Joe Hinton, a 78-year-old man in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, did not believe in wearing a mask.
“He thought, like many people, that he was being disproportionate,” his daughter, Amy Hinton, told the local ABC station. “It was as if she didn’t stop living my life, no matter what we did or said or pleaded with her.”
Hinton tested positive for coronavirus on June 18. On June 22, he called an ambulance and died less than three hours later.
Amy Hinton and her family are urging people to learn from their father’s experience and to wear a mask. “I don’t understand why wearing a mask is so inconvenient, if we know that it can help stop the spread,” Hinton told ABC. “If you’re so against it, just don’t go anywhere.”
