An Alabama woman whose 28-year-old son died after contracting coronavirus is urging others to get vaccinated, saying she regrets her decision not to do so, The Washington Post reports.
“It took watching my son (Curt) die and me suffering the effects of covid for us to realize we need the vaccine,” Christy Carpenter told the Post. “We did not get vaccinated when we had the opportunity and regret that so much now,” explaining that they did not do so because of how quickly a vaccine became available.
“It took years to create other vaccines, and the coronavirus vaccine was created very quickly, she said. ”That made us very nervous.”
Carpenter said that she, her son and her daughter had all contracted the virus around the same time this past March after having had mild symptoms initially. Their conditions grew more serious within days.
Carpenter said her son, who also had autism, was healthy prior to contracting the virus.
She told the Montgomery Advertiser that "Curt thought COVID was a hoax and did not take it seriously, until he could not breathe without the oxygen. The same day he was put on the ventilator, he told us, 'This is not a hoax, this is real.'"
“If Curt were here today, he would make it his mission to encourage everyone to get vaccinated,” Carpenter told the Post. “Cayla, his sister, and I are carrying out that mission in his memory,” adding that “If we can help keep people healthier and possibly save lives by encouraging others to take the vaccine, then Curt’s death was not in vain. Life is a precious gift from God.”
Alabama, which has one of the nation’s lowest vaccination rates, has seen a rise in coronavirus infections, The Hill reported.
Republican Alabama Gov.Kay Ivey said “it's “time to start blaming the unvaccinated, not the regular folks,” adding that people should exercise “common sense.”
She emphasized that “The vaccine is the greatest weapon we have to fight COVID, there’s not question about that, the data proves it.”
Dr. Karen Landers, Assistant State Health Officer for the Alabama Department of Public Health, added that “How much more information do we need to say that we can do this in Alabama?” the Montgomery Advertiser reported.
“We have vaccine that is readily available, it's free, it's safe, it can be given at any time,” Landers stressed. “What else can we do? We've done everything we need to do, and these trends are not looking good. We could be in a really bad spot within a couple of weeks.”
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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