‘I should have gotten the damn vaccine,’ Las Vegas dad of 5 told fiance. Then he died
When Michael Freedy got home to Las Vegas from a vacation trip to San Diego with his fiancee and their five children, he thought his rash was a “brutal” sunburn.
“He was getting chills, couldn’t eat, couldn’t get comfortable, couldn’t sleep,” Jessica du Preez told KLAS. Then the 39-year-old tested positive for COVID-19.
“He’s panicking, saying how he doesn’t wanna die and he doesn’t wanna leave his babies without a dad,” du Preeze told USA Today.
In critical condition with coronavirus-related pneumonia in both lungs, Freedy texted du Preez “this is terrible,” KLAS reported.
“I should have gotten the damn vaccine,” Freedy texted. The couple planned to hold off on getting COVID-19 vaccinations for a year to see how it affected others, du Preez told KVVU.
He died Thursday morning with du Preez in his hospital room, USA Today reported.
“Our babies now don’t have a dad,” she told KVVU. “You can’t say I am young and it won’t affect me because it will.”
Du Preez and the couple’s oldest child have now been vaccinated. Their children range in age from 17 months to 17 years, according to the station.
“We were just holding off, and now to think that if we just had gotten the shot a week before or a month before when one of our jobs had a vaccination thing, he could still be here,” du Preez told KLAS.
More than 99% of recent COVID-19 deaths in the United States have involved people who are not vaccinated against the virus, NPR reported.
More than 198 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide with more than 4 million deaths as of Aug. 1, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has more than 34 million confirmed cases with more than 613,000 deaths.
States began easing pandemic restrictions in the spring as three vaccines became available and cases declined, but a new variant of the virus has sparked a resurgence in cases.
The delta variant, first recorded in India, is more contagious and increases disease severity such as risks of hospitalization. The COVID-19 vaccines used in the United States are effective against it but vaccination rates remain low in some areas.
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