At Methodist Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, a 30-year-old man who attended a so-called “COVID party” died after being infected with the virus. According to the hospital’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Jane Appleby, just before the man died, he told his nurse: “I think I made a mistake. I thought this was a hoax, but it’s not.” Dr. Appleby also said that he told his nurse that he thought he was invincible from the virus because he was young and healthy.
It’s no mystery why there are many people in this country who believe exactly what this young man believed. For months, politicians and many media spokespeople across the country have repeatedly called the virus a hoax, and have said young, healthy people have nothing to worry about. Many have discouraged the importance of wearing masks, downplayed the importance of social distancing, and rushed to open up businesses when it was not safe to do so.
There is no reason that a person should have to face death in order to take this virus seriously. There should be systematic public education about the virus. Doctors and scientists who understand how this virus works should be all over the media and given far more airtime than those who are willing to lie about the virus and dismiss it in order to keep the economy open and the profits flowing to corporations and banks. It is a complete failure at every level of government that this hasn’t been happening.
featured image credit: Wikimedia Commons
