'The tragedy of refusing to take Covid and vaccines seriously': Piers Morgan shares series of tweets from anti-vax father who rejected jab... ending with final one from his daughter revealing he caught virus and died
Piers Morgan has taken to social media to encourage people to get the coronavirus vaccination, using a tragic case to demonstrate his point.
The 56-year-old TV personality took to Twitter to share the story of a father who appeared to refuse to have the vaccination, who has now reportedly died.
Mr Morgan's post captures four tweets sent by user @gridirondawg, likely from the U.S. and known only as Brent H, where he shares his views on the vaccination rollout. His Twitter description/bio says, 'MSU sports, Dallas Cowboys, fishing#'.
Piers Morgan, 56, took to Twitter to share the 'tragedy' of someone not getting their jab
In one tweet, he writes: 'I've never taken a flu shot and I'll never take a COVID shot!'
In another, he said: 'Zinc and vitamin D regiment > Moderna and Phizer.'
In response to another user, he wrote: 'I haven't taken it and haven't had any COVID issues.'
A glance at his profile shows the most recent update on June 24, which appears to have been posted by his daughter.
The tweet reads: 'This is Brent's daughter... dad died of COVID. He had no underlying conditions and was in his early 50s.
'I know he's been saying otherwise, but PLEASE save your families this heartache. Go get your shot.'
She then shares a link to an online platform where people can find their nearest vaccination centre.
Mr Morgan captioned the image with: 'The tragedy of refusing to take covid & vaccines seriously. Get the jab.'
The screenshots were shared on Twitter via Mr Morgan's account
Mr Morgan, who has now received both coronavirus jabs, has been outspoken about encouraging people to get their vaccinations.
And Brent H is not the only person who died in the US as a result of not receiving the vaccine.
New figures found that nearly all Covid-19 deaths in the US are now in people who weren't vaccinated.
An Associated Press analysis of available government data from May shows that 'breakthrough' infections in fully vaccinated people accounted for fewer than 1,200 of more than 853,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations. That's about 0.1%.
And only about 150 of the more than 18,000 COVID-19 deaths in May were in fully vaccinated people. That translates to about 0.8 per day, or five deaths per day on average.
The AP analyzed figures provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC itself has not estimated what percentage of hospitalizations and deaths are in fully vaccinated people, citing limitations in the data.
Still, the overall trend that emerges from the data echoes what many health care authorities are seeing around the country and what top experts are saying.
Earlier this month, Andy Slavitt, a former adviser to the Biden administration on COVID-19, suggested that 98% to 99% of the Americans dying of the coronavirus are unvaccinated.
And CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said on Tuesday that the vaccine is so effective that 'nearly every death, especially among adults, due to COVID-19, is, at this point, entirely preventable.' She called such deaths 'particularly tragic.'
Deaths in the U.S. have plummeted from a peak of more than 3,400 day on average in mid-January, one month into the vaccination drive.
About 63 per cent of all vaccine-eligible Americans — those 12 and older — have received at least one dose, and 53 per cent are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. While vaccine remains scarce in much of the world, the U.S. supply is so abundant and demand has slumped so dramatically that shots sit unused.
Ross Bagne, a 68-year-old small-business owner in Cheyenne, Wyoming, was eligible for the vaccine in early February but didn't get it. He died June 4, infected and unvaccinated, after spending more than three weeks in the hospital, his lungs filling with fluid. He was unable to swallow because of a stroke.
'He never went out, so he didn't think he would catch it,' said his grieving sister, Karen McKnight. She wondered: 'Why take the risk of not getting vaccinated?'
The preventable deaths will continue, experts predict, with unvaccinated pockets of the nation experiencing outbreaks in the fall and winter. Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, said modeling suggests the nation will hit 1,000 deaths per day again next year.
In Arkansas, which has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the nation, with only about 33 per cent of the population fully protected, cases, hospitalizations and deaths are rising.
'It is sad to see someone go to the hospital or die when it can be prevented,' Gov. Asa Hutchinson tweeted as he urged people to get their shots.
In Seattle's King County, the public health department found only three deaths during a recent 60-day period in people who were fully vaccinated. The rest, some 95 per cent of 62 deaths, had had no vaccine or just one shot.
'Those are all somebody's parents, grandparents, siblings and friends,' said Dr. Mark Del Beccaro, who helps lead a vaccination outreach program in King County. 'It's still a lot of deaths, and they're preventable deaths.'
In the St. Louis area, more than 90 per cent of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 have not been vaccinated, said Dr. Alex Garza, a hospital administrator who directs a metropolitan-area task force on the outbreak.
'The majority of them express some regret for not being vaccinated,' Garza said. 'That's a pretty common refrain that we're hearing from patients with COVID.'
The stories of unvaccinated people dying may convince some people they should get the shots, but young adults — the group least likely to be vaccinated — may be motivated more by a desire to protect their loved ones, said David Michaels, an epidemiologist at George Washington University's school of public health in the nation's capital.
The stories of unvaccinated people dying may convince some people they should get the shots
Others need paid time off to get the shots and deal with any side effects, Michaels said.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration this month began requiring health care employers, including hospitals and nursing homes, to provide such time off.
But Michaels, who headed OSHA under President Barack Obama, said the agency should have gone further and applied the rule to meat and poultry plants and other food operations as well as other places with workers at risk.
Bagne, who lived alone, ran a business helping people incorporate their companies in Wyoming for the tax advantages. He was winding down the business, planning to retire, when he got sick, emailing his sister in April about an illness that had left him dizzy and disoriented.
'Whatever it was. That bug took a LOT out of me,' he wrote.
As his health deteriorated, a neighbor finally persuaded him to go to the hospital.
'Why was the messaging in his state so unclear that he didn't understand the importance of the vaccine? He was a very bright guy,' his sister said. 'I wish he'd gotten the vaccine, and I'm sad he didn't understand how it could prevent him from getting COVID.'
Concerns are rising about the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19 as President Joe Biden falls short of his July 4 vaccine rollout goal.
The highly contagious Delta variant first identified in India now represents at least 20 per cent of COVID cases in the United States, where it is expected to become dominant in a matter of weeks, according to the CDC.
'US has just 1 month to act before US becomes full blown #DeltaVariant dominant. 1 month to slow it down. 1 month to fully vaccinate. Or else. But we likely have even less time than that if CDC doesn't act soon,' tweeted Eric Feigl-Ding, a public health scientist who frequently comments on the pandemic.
Concerns are rising about the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19 in the U.S. as President Joe Biden falls short of his July 4 vaccine rollout goal
A regional map shows the prevalence of Delta (dark orange) as a percentage of all COVID cases, with the variant gripping the Mountain West and heartland strongest
Feigl-Ding is a former Democratic candidate for Congress, who stridently advocates for vaccinating children and re-imposing universal mask rules even for those who are vaccinated.
Though he has a PhD in epidemiology, his background is in nutrition and chronic diseases rather than infectious diseases, leading some to criticize his pronouncements.
However, other U.S. infectious disease experts are also raising alarms about the Delta variant, citing worrying trends abroad.
'The delta variant is currently the greatest threat in the U.S. to our attempt to eliminate COVID-19,' Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said at a White House briefing on the virus this week.
'Good news: Our vaccines are effective against the Delta variant,' he added. 'We have the tools. So let's use them, and crush the outbreak.'
In the US, Delta has gained its strongest foothold in Mountain West and heartland states. Many of those infected are young and unvaccinated.
It is now clear that the U.S. will not meet Biden's stated goal of vaccinating 70 per cent of U.S. adults by July 4.
At this point, about 178 million American adults have received at least one vaccine dose, representing 68.9 per cent of those 18 and older.
At the current pace of vaccination, which has slowed due to hesitancy and concerns among those who remain unvaccinated, Biden's goal won't be met until late July.
The White House on Tuesday acknowledged that Biden will fall short of reaching his his Independence Day goal.
Biden also expects to miss a second goal: fully vaccinating 165 million adult Americans by July 4.
White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients projected it will take several more weeks to hit that number. On Saturday, the U.S. crossed 152 million fully vaccinated.
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