Couple died of covid; people called their deaths 'fake news'

[left-of-center2012]

Two days after arriving at a Fredericksburg, Va., hospital with covid-19 in September,
Misty Mitchem was put on a ventilator. Another two days later, she died.

Misty's husband, Kevin Mitchem, got the news as he arrived at a separate hospital with an unshakable cough. He also had covid-19, and within a week or so he couldn't breathe on his own.
Before being placed on a ventilator Kevin begged doctors to give him a vaccine.
The doctors told him it was too late. Kevin died on Oct. 8, orphaning the four children he and Misty had raised together.

Before he died, he expressed regret that he had not been immunized. Neither Kevin, 48, nor Misty, 46, were vaccinated against the coronavirus. The couple had regularly taken in online misinformation about the virus and vaccines.
"Different people saying . . . covid is not real."

Kevin's younger brother, Mike Mitchem, said almost a dozen people have reached out to tell him they have been vaccinated because they heard Kevin and Misty's story. Yet he's also noticed that
others online have called the story "fake news."
"Why would the media make up a story this tragic?" Mike said. "I would give anything for it to not be true, just to have my brother back."

https://www.greenwichtime.com/news/article/A-couple-died-of-covid-leaving-five-children-16550906.php

Kevin Mitchem, 48, and Misty Mitchem, 46, who had not been vaccinated against COVID-19, left behind five children and one grandson.
family photo

[malaise]

1. The same fools called Sandy Hook a hoax

Go figure

[Bleacher Creature]

17. Seriously??

I'm a pretty forgiving person, but that's at the top of the list of things for which there's no coming back from. The world is a better place without them.

[malaise]

18. I will never forgive them

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/01/1042423742/alex-jones-sandy-hook-hoax-conspiracy

Alex Jones is found liable over Sandy Hook hoax conspiracy
Updated October 1, 20215:04 PM ET

A Texas judge has found Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones liable for damages in three defamation lawsuits brought by the parents of two children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre over his claims that the shooting was a hoax.

Judge Maya Guerra Gamble in Austin, home of Infowars, entered default judgments against Jones, Infowars and other defendants for what she called their "flagrant bad faith and callous disregard" of court orders to turn over documents to the parents' lawyers. The rulings were issued on Monday and released on Thursday.

The cases now head to trial for juries to determine the amount of damages Jones and the other defendants will have to pay the families.

Sandy Hook Victim's Father Wins Defamation Suit; Alex Jones Sanctioned
The shooting at the Newtown, Connecticut, school on Dec. 14, 2012, killed 20 first-graders and six educators. The gunman, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, fatally shot his mother at their Newtown home before going to the school, and killed himself as police arrived.

[gratuitous]

2. Five children, now orphans

The older ones may be able to process their parents' deaths, but the younger ones, and the grandson? Growing up and dealing with the fact that Kevin and Misty are gone when a vaccine (three vaccines) was readily and widely available. "Did Mom and Dad not love me enough to try to avoid dying?" I can't even imagine, and that's the real gut punch for me from these stories.

[lagomorph777]

8. Maybe more intelligent relatives will take them in.

Idiots like that could not have been great parents.

[LiberatedUSA]

21. You are likely wrong.

It is hard to put people into a box. Very smart, good and otherwise (unintentional not caring by not getting a vaccine) caring people have died. To assume they must have been shitty parents, is to want to make every aspect of an anti-vaxxer the devil.

The mind is way way more complex than that.

[lagomorph777]

22. They deliberately took actions that harmed their kids.

No pity for them, only for the kids. Sorry, not sorry.

[LiberatedUSA]

23. In that regard, we agree.

But we don’t know they were negligent parents from the birth of their kids to their deaths. Did they feed, cloth, play with and teach them, give them good birthdays and Christmas’ and vacations?

Maybe were good people that made a bad decision as opposed to awful beings from hell from the moment they set foot on this planet. That is all I am saying.

[SunSeeker]

3. It's almost as cruel as when right wingers called the dead kids at Sandy Hook crisis actors.

[Evolve Dammit]

10. thought the same thing. Like deaths can be faked?? WTF is wrong with these assholes?

[orwell]

4. MAGA dittos...

...send the bills to 45.

[left-of-center2012]

5. "Before being placed on a ventilator Kevin begged doctors to give him a vaccine."

The doctors told him it was too late.

[Dustlawyer]

6. I still cannot understand how the daily brainwashing can be so powerful?

I am working hurricane Ida in LaPlace Louisiana, a town completely devastated, in a state overwhelmed with COVID, yet very few masks. The facts are clear and have hit home with almost everyone here, yet they still refuse.

I think if Fox told them Ida was a hoax they would believe it while watching from their pop up camper parked in their driveway where their house used to be.

[Evolve Dammit]

11. It worked in Germany is the late 1930's and it's well on it's way here. Just as effective. n/t

[Voltaire2]

7. Colin Powell is the only person to actually die from covid.

[ecstatic]

12. Exactly.

[IronLionZion]

13. Freepers disagree on that too

and are saying he died from the vaccine or in spite of it. Completely ignoring his cancer treatment and old age.

[FakeNoose]

9. The internet is almost as big a scourge as Covid is

[CloudWatcher]

16. Not the Internet

The problem is our educational system that fails to teach logic and skeptical thinking. The idiots that trust Fox News have no need of the Internet.

[MissMillie]

14. The loss of life in this story is probably not limited to these two people

Can't help but wonder how many other people they infected.

And death isn't the only bad outcome.

Permanent health problems
Inability to return to previous activities--including jobs
Insanely high medical bills


Things don't get back to normal until we get this virus under control... we need all hands on deck.

[orleans]

15. how many other people did they infect? for starters, i'm guessing their 4 kids nt

[calimary]

19. Two more Gullibles. Gone.

I’m assuming they were trump voters?

How thoughtful of him to “weed the garden” for us, how ever unintentionally!

[tymorial]

20. That's disgusting

They left kids. What if they saw it? Someone celebrating their parents death.

Find a filter

[calimary]

24. Understood. I wish I still had a "fund" of compassion big enough to handle large withdrawals.

But when I hear these stories, it’s seriously hard. If this were at the start of the pandemic, then that’s one thing.

But there have been testimonials GALORE by now from people who refused to get vaccinated and finally see the light when theirs is about to be extinguished. For well being very a year now, and continuously. And how many of their friends and acquaintances and even friends-of-friends contracted the virus from them by now? And how long did they carry on without taking precautions before they showed any symptoms?

And seriously, had they not seen ANY of the coverage of doctor after doctor, ICU nurse after ICU nurse, expert after expert, Fauci interview after Fauci interview - for more than a year? How many grieving parents and adult children and close friends and teachers have been interviewed through tears and heartache over the loved ones they lost, sometimes having witnessed it close-up, or worse, having to ask the nurse to pass along one final “I love you” to someone dying behind that door that they can’t even go visit one last time?

My friend, I have seen this all over the front pages, TV coverage on multiple channels, platforms galore, heard it on the radio - for what? A year and a half now (at least!)? And STILL the deniers stand firm. And maybe SOME come around after it’s too late and express regrets and “I wish I would have” or “I guess I should have”? And others who breathe their last, STILL in denial that it’s the virus for real and not something some “libtard” made up to keep the rest of us from having fun?

And even worse than that - how about all those who DID try to be careful and DID acknowledge the facts but STILL caught it from somebody who refused to wear a mask or take precautions- just out of plain ol’ common courtesy?

Yes. I’m fed up and running on empty of understanding and patience with these folks. Last time I took note, Wednesday, 10/20/21 just before noon Pacific time, the data from Johns Hopkins and NBC News was as follows:
Confirmed cases US - 45,178,896
Deaths US - 733,011
Confirmed cases worldwide: 241,601,369
Deaths worldwide : 4,917,739

Look, you’re clearly blessed with a larger and broader sense of compassion and understanding, and patience than I can muster anymore. And you have my admiration for that. But I can no longer see any logical, moral, unselfish, or sensible rationale for refusing to get vaccinated, aside from the rare extreme health-related exception. I just can’t get there anymore.

Or perhaps it’s just another one of those things I still need to keep working on.