Anti-vax mum who lost son to covid regrets not getting vaccine

“This is not a hoax, this is real,” were Curt Carpenter’s last words to his mother after rejecting the jab, then losing his life to covid.

A mum in the United States is urging people to get vaccinated after her 28-year-old son who believed covid was a hoax died of the virus.

Alabama woman Christy Carpenter and her adult children Cayla and Curt Carpenter were diagnosed with coronavirus on March 5.

The family, who had decided not to get the vaccine because of fears over how “quickly” it had been produced, at first only experienced mild covid symptoms.

“It took years to create other vaccines, and the coronavirus vaccine was created very quickly,” Christy told The Washington Post.

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Curt had believed coronavirus was a hoax until he was placed on a ventilator in hospital. Picture: Facebook.

“That made us very nervous.”

But a week after their coronavirus diagnosis both Christy and Curt became severely unwell and were rushed to a nearby hospital where they found out they had pneumonia.

Curt, who had no pre-existing health issues, was placed on a ventilator and after a two month battle with coronavirus complications that included a collapsed lung and organs shutting down died on May 2.

According to Christy, Curt’s last words before being ventilated were: “This is not a hoax, this is real.”

Christy (centre) and her two children were diagnosed with covid in early March. All three were unvaccinated. Picture: Facebook.

“It’s very difficult, especially when it’s a young person who had no health issues,” she told local newspaper The Montgomery Advertiserof her son’s death.

It’s what covid does to the body. It’s a horrible, horrible, horrible illness.”

Christy believes Curt would now want her to warn others about how serious coronavirus is, with her and daughter Cayla now determined to encourage people to get vaccinated.

Christy is still suffering the effects of covid today and struggles with brain fog, fatigue and hair loss.

“It took watching my son die and me suffering the effects of covid for us to realise we need the vaccine,” Christy told the Post.

“We did not get vaccinated when we had the opportunity and regret that so much now.”

Cate and Christy now want to encourage others to get the covid vaccine. Picture: Facebook.

Majority of Covid deaths, hospitalisations are unvaccinated

While no vaccine will offer complete protection from an illness, being vaccinated is proven to reduce rates of hospitalisation and death from covid.

In the United States, which has one of the highest rates of adults fully vaccinated against coronavirus at 49 per cent, the vast majority of severe coronavirus cases are in those who have not had the vaccine.

Currently 99.5 per cent of covid deaths and 97 per cent of hospitalisations are Americans who are unvaccinated, according to health figures reported by the New York Post.

Curt’s tragic case is the latest in a series of unvaccinated covid deaths that have made headlines.

Tricia Jones died of coronavirus last month. Picture: Facebook

Fernanda ‘Ferny’ Vega died on July 13 after contracting covid and developing a blood clot in her lungs. Picture: Fox 5.

Earlier this month the mother of Missouri woman Tricia Jones spoke out after her daughter died of coronavirus in June.

Deborah Carmichael told local news station Fox 4, Ms Jones had been hesitant about getting the vaccine but had regretted the decision on her death bed.

Fernanda ‘Ferny’ Vega died on July 13 after contracting covid and developing a blood clot in her lungs.

The 47-year-old former healthcare worker and her family, from the US state of Arizona, were unvaccinated due to concerns about vaccine side effects, her husband Ysmael Vega said.