Weird How All These People Who Believe COVID-19 Is A Hoax Keep Dying Of It

It's almost like they are very, very wrong about things.

Last week, 60-year-old John McDaniel of Marion County, Ohio, died from COVID-19. These days, unfortunately, that is not an unusual occurrence. This guy, however, had spent the last few weeks of his life, prior to getting infected, posting on Facebook about how he believed COVID-19 was a hoax and yelling about how unfair it was that (Republican!) Governor Mike DeWine wouldn't let him go out and play.

Here are two such posts.

If What I'm hearing is true, that DeWine has ordered all bars and restaurants to be closed, I Say Bullshit! He doesn't have that authority. If you are paranoid about getting sick just don't go out. It shouldn't keep those of us from Living our Lives. The Madness has to stop. 

Does Anybody Have The Guts to Say This COVID19 is a Political Ploy? Asking for A Friend. Prove Me Wrong. 

It seems he proved himself wrong.

His obituary included a note from his family asking people to practice the social distancing he refused to do.

"On behalf of the family, they would like to extend a heartfelt "Thank you" to the nurses at Marion General Hospital and to all the staff at Riverside Methodist Hospital for everything they did to try and save Johnny's life from Covid-19," the obituary continued.

"They would also like to remind everyone to continue practicing social distancing to keep each other safe."

And that's good. People should, and it's up to far too many family members after the fact to come out and say "yes, COVID-19 exists."

Earlier this month, Pastor Landon Spradlin, who had also been claiming that the seriousness of the virus had been "overhyped," also died from it. After he decided to go to Mardi Gras to spread the good word of Jesus.

Via BBC:  

Pastor Spradlin was one of those who became ill, but tested negative for Covid-19. Even as he was sick, he posted on social media about "hysteria" surrounding the virus.

On the 13th of March Pastor Spradlin shared on Facebook a misleading post comparing swine flu and coronavirus deaths.

It suggested that Barack Obama and Donald Trump respectively had been treated very differently by the media and that it was a politically motivated ploy to harm President Trump.

That same week, Karen Kolb Sehlke of Texas, who had also claimed the virus was a hoax and a plot to undermine Donald Trump, also died from the virus.

March 14th: *posted COVID-19 hoax, anti-socialism rant on FB* April 2nd: *died of COVID-19, family asking for GoFu… https://t.co/2Uv3x9Auk7

— Sunn m'Cheaux (@Sunn m'Cheaux) 1585985688.0 

Another pastor, Bishop Gerald O. Glenn, died just a few weeks after his last church service.

Via The New York Post:  

In his last known in-person service on March 22, Bishop Gerald O. Glenn got his congregation at Richmond's New Deliverance Evangelistic Church to stand to prove how many were there despite warnings against gatherings of more than 10 people.

"I firmly believe that God is larger than this dreaded virus. You can quote me on that," he said, repeating it a second time to claps, saying that "people are healed" in his church.

Happily announcing he was being "controversial" by being "in violation" of safety protocols — with "way more than 10 people" at the church — he vowed to keep his church open "unless I'm in jail or the hospital."

"I am essential," he said of remaining open, adding, "I'm a preacher — I talk to God!"

His church announced on April 12 that he had died. And again it was left to a daughter to tell people the coronavirus exists.

"I just beg people to understand the severity and the seriousness of this," she said, "because people are saying it's not just about us, it's about everyone around us."

On Monday, The New York Times ran a profile of Brooklyn bar owner Joe Joyce, another rightwing conservative who was so confident that the whole pandemic was a hoax that he went on a damn cruise. To the Mediterranean.

The entire state of Kentucky has found itself getting a surge in coronavirus cases just a week after a protest to "reopen" the state took place.

Via Newsweek:  

Democratic Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced Sunday that the state had set a grim record with 273 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus, the highest single-day rise to date. Kentucky's increase in infected individuals comes after protesters took to the streets throughout the week to call for the state to be reopened.

With the 273 additional confirmed infections, Kentucky now has 2,960 cases of the novel virus and 1,122 recoveries. Beshear also announced four new deaths on Sunday, bringing the total number of fatalities across the state to 148.

So how many people who have been going to these other stupid protests are gonna get sick and get other people sick and take up beds and take up ventilators? Because they wanted a haircut or multiple glasses of iced tea?

Today’s reopen rally organizer Steve Hasty of Murfreesboro says what he misses most is sitting in restaurants and g… https: //t.co/aWJmLgUeEc

— Natalie Allison (@Natalie Allison) 1587401309.0 

Now, I don't like being flippant about people dying. It's not something I'm comfortable with, both because I am not vicious in that way and because I am extremely superstitious for an atheist. I don't believe in capital punishment for anything, including for being an ignorant rightwing asshole. But I certainly feel a lot worse for all of the people they put in danger by being irresponsible and who might contract the virus because of their bullshit — and those people are why we can't really get our schadenfreude on.

How many of these people have to keel over and die before it finally occurs to the rest of them that no one is inventing a freaking pandemic just to make their lord and savior Donald Trump look bad or because they just really want to do some authoritarianism to them and take their "freedoms"? And how many people have to die with them?

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