A vaccinated Florida man died of Covid-19 recently. It's these unfortunate incidents that anti-vaxxers will immediately cite in their attempts at justifying not getting a Covid-19 vaccine. However, the Florida man's obituary begs others to get the shots.
Clark Allen, 84, survived series of car accidents due to his negligent driving, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but it's Coronavirus that took his life. In an interview to the Washington Post, his daughter Danielle said, "The doctor told my dad the first day in the hospital that he was a one-in-a-million case to be in the ER."
Allen happened to be one of the rare, unfortunate vaccine breakthrough cases. A few days later, after being diagnosed and admitted, he died on July 22 while all alone in hospice care.
Two of his daughters Danielle and Nicole Allen Gentile, out of a total of seven children, when sat down to write his obituary not just honored and celebrated their father's life but also expressed regret and anger over how they think their father got infected.
"He was infected by someone who chose to not get vaccinated and his death was preventable," the obituary reads. "It is the wish of his family that everyone gets vaccinated in order to prevent further death, sickness and heartbreak."
The Tampa Bay Times further quoted Danielle as saying how she thought her father was infected by an unvaccinated individual at Carlisle Palm Beach, an assisted living facility in Lantana. The details of his infection are still unclear.
Danielle, 33, also told The Post, how it was a relief when Allen was fully vaccinated, "But the reality was that he was around a lot of unvaccinated people." She added, "I'm attempting to not be very angry at unvaccinated people and it's become extremely difficult. We're all really angry and struggling."
Even a small fraction of the unvaccinated people pose a great challenge in the face of highly transmissible delta variant. The vaccinated remain at risk of being infected, while the virus remains susceptible to further mutations with every new person getting infected. Currently, more than 170,00 people in Florida are hospitalized with Covid infection.
Harrowing last few days, spent alone
After being readmitted to the hospital, initially on July 13, he joked about being, "almost fit to participate in Olympics." But his condition deteriorated soon enough to the point where he had to say goodbye to his family on Facetime call on July 17 wearing a BiPap mask.
Danielle recalls, "Allen was moved to hospice and was delirious and in pain." His daughter visited on the morning of July 22 to say goodbye one more time. She recalls that being the worst thing having to do. What remains is more than a couple of ifs. What if he wasn't in Florida. What if everybody around him had got themselves vaccinated.
The rise in breakthrough infections
The rise in breakthrough infections remains a major cause of concern for public health policy experts. The waning immunity and delta variant have collectively fuelled a surge in breakthrough infections. Preliminary data from seven states in the US hints that the arrival of the Delta variant in July has altered the calculus and beliefs that immunized people are very unlikely to get infected.
As per the data gathered by the New York Times, breakthrough infections in vaccinated people accounted for at least 1 in 5 new diagnosed cases.
In the month of March, the breakthrough infections when the Delta variant had just begun were as low as 2 percent. In late July, Los Angeles County officials reported how the Delta variant was overwhelmingly transmissible and accounted for 90 percent of new infections and 30 percent of breakthrough cases.
