Sun-too late: COVID dies while waiting for vaccine

Air Force veteran Diane Drews breathes at a hospice center in Ohio when the phone rings after months of hoping to be vaccinated against COVID-19, weeks of fighting illness, and so on. I took over. It was a healthcare professional and called for a schedule for the first appointment of a coronavirus shot.

Drews’ daughter Laura Brown was stunned by the timing of the call in January, but did not make a call or explain that her 75-year-old mother had died. She said it didn’t mean anything.

“But I and my sister got angry that it was too late,” Brown said. “It was like the last insult.”

More than 247,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the United States since the vaccine was first made available in mid-December. Authorities warned that it would take months to dispense enough vaccine to reach herd immunity. It was also a sad reality that some people were infected with COVID-19 and died before vaccination due to the very limited initial vaccine supply and the nationwide spread of the virus during the winter.

Studies showing that the majority of the US population is sick of vaccines cannot tell exactly how many dead people wanted vaccination. But Brown said he wanted his mother — desperately. Other families have the same tragic story of a loved one getting infected after months of safety and then dying before taking it.

Charlotte Crawford, who has worked for 40 years at the Microbiology Institute at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, was fully vaccinated in January after being vaccinated twice with the Modana vaccine for her work. Still, she endured the pain of seeing her husband and two adult children infected with COVID-19 and dying before firing.

According to the widow, 65-year-old Henry Royce Crawford had an appointment for a vaccine when he got sick. Their children, Roycy Crawford, 33, and Natalia Crawford, 38, also wanted the shot, but Crawford said they hadn’t found the shot yet when they died of illness. Said.

The days since their death in late February and early March seem messy to Crawford. She begs someone to hear her vaccinated as soon as possible, so she’s trying to sort out what happened.

“I only know that I had three funerals in three weeks,” said Crawford, Forney, Texas.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 96 million people in the United States have been vaccinated at least once, but only 53 million are fully vaccinated, or about 16% of the U.S. population. I’m sorry.

Shots are progressing at a faster pace as doses become more widely available. With the increasing number of cases of the virus, more than 12 states have opened the vaccine eligibility to all adults.

Only Johnson & Johnson Shots are completed after a single dose. Therefore, the wait time between the first and second shots of either the Pfizer vaccine or the modelna vaccine leaves the recipient vulnerable and susceptible to infection.

It turned out that waiting for the second shot was too long for Richard Rasmusen in Las Vegas, said his daughter Julie Rasmusen.

Richard Rasmusen, 73, enthusiastically believes in wearing a face mask for protection and was first vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine in early January. “He was very excited to get his vaccine,” she said.

Still, Rasmussen was virus-positive 10 days later and received a second dose after his death on February 19, Julie Rasmussen said. She said his last decline was amazing at that speed.

“And now I’m alone,” Rasmussen said in an email interview. “I was a friend. We sent text messages every day all day. I have no siblings. I have no husband / boyfriend. He was single. I navigated the legal system alone and I’m packing his house. “

On the same day Rasmussen died, Oklahoma City’s Daedre Love Salence lost both his mother, Catherine Douglas, 65, and his stepfather, Asabertlet Douglas, 65, in the sadness of the frozen snow at the Vaccine Clinic. I was standing in a parking lot covered with snow. 58, to COVID-19 in a span of 16 days before they could get a shot.

“They and I saw the vaccine as a single life-changing factor that allowed us to meet again in person. That was our goal. We are all able to meet again. I was aiming to get the vaccine so I could play with my daughter again, so I was able to visit my grandmother in a nursing home without being restricted to window visits. ” ..

On that cold February day, workers were willing to take some doses because other people couldn’t make reservations due to bad weather, so workers called Salence to the clinic to get vaccinated. Salence said she was defeated by tears and “surreal distrust” when she entered.

“My heart was thinking,’If my parents can hold up for another two months, they will be vaccinated here too. They will be alive. They will be here with me. There will be, “she said.