US man who mocked COVID-19 vaccine efforts succumbs to virus in LA hospital

Amid considerable COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, a US man who had mocked the coronavirus vaccines labelling them as ineffective died this week at a Los Angeles-area hospital after contracting COVID-19. 34-year-old Stephen Harmon passed at Corona Regional Medical Center, approximately an hour away from the east of Los Angeles, according to US broadcasters. The LA man was hospitalized and was put on an ICU ventilator as his symptoms grew critical. His last tweet read, "Don't know when I'll wake up, please pray." 

He had earlier made fun of the vaccine as he tweeted, “I got 99 problems but a vax [COVID vaccine] ain't one.” Moreover, he posted on July 8: “Biden’s door to door vaccine ‘surveyors’ really should be called JaCovid Witnesses. #keepmovingdork.” He had also shared memes that read he trusted the Bible over top US disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci.

As he contracted the COVID-19, Harmon needed immediate hospital admission. He posted photos of himself in his ward bed on social media, as he informed that he had pneumonia and critically low oxygen saturation at the time and was going to be intubated. “Don’t know when I’ll wake up, please pray,” he wrote on Twitter.

Just three days prior to his death from the deadly COVID-19, Harmon had lashed out on social media at the medics for following medical procedures. “If you don’t have faith that God can heal me over your stupid ventilator then keep the Hell out of my ICU room,” the now-deceased man wrote in a tweet. He added, “there’s no room in here for fear or lack of faith!”

Coronavirus positivity rate 'more than 5%' in some states

Dr Oren Friedman, in charge of treating COVID-19 patients at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, told KCBS-TV that Harmon’s death was “unbelievably demoralizing.” “Virtually every single person that is getting sick enough to be admitted to the hospital has not been vaccinated,” he added in his televised remarks, urging people to get their COVID-19 shot. Several states in the US, including California and LA, were now recording an uptick of hospital admissions due to the highly transmissible delta variant spread, Friedman stated. The coronavirus positivity rate over seven days jumped to more than 5 per cent as of Monday, the state Department of Public Health reported, adding that it registered nearly 8,000 new cases a day earlier. Of the total 3,000 new cases recorded in LA, close to 700 were hospitalized.