A 30-year-old Texas man who reportedly attended a so-called “COVID party” has since died from the very virus he once believed to be a hoax, News 4 reported.
Before they passed away, the unidentified patient from San Antonio admitted he had made a “mistake” in refusing to believe the rapidly-spreading coronavirus was any sort of a real threat.
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“COVID parties”, such as the one the man is said to have attended, are allegedly being thrown to prove the pandemic is fake.
“This is a party held by somebody diagnosed by the COVID virus and the thought is to see if the virus is real and to see if anyone gets infected,” Dr. Jane Appleby, Chief Medical Officer of Methodist Healthcare, told News 4 .
A report from ABC 11 claims some college students in the U.S. have also thrown these parties, but actually competed to see who will contract the virus first, even going so far as to place money on their guesses.
Appleby said the patient, who was in his 30s, attended a “COVID party” and later expressed regret for doubting the seriousness of the deadly virus.
“Just before the patient died, they looked at their nurse and said ‘I think I made a mistake, I thought this was a hoax, but it’s not,'” she told News 4 in a statement.
In a separate interview with KOLN , she confirmed the patient was male and added, “He thought he was young and invincible and wouldn’t get affected by the disease.”
Appleby explained she’s publicly sharing the patient’s heartbreaking story so people understand the virus can affect anyone.
“It doesn’t discriminate and none of us are invincible,” she said. “I don’t want to be an alarmist, and we’re just trying to share some real-world examples to help our community realize that this virus is very serious and can spread easily.”
Coronavirus-related hospitalizations have greatly increased in Texas in June and July, after the state was reopened in May.
As of writing, Texas has currently reported 250,462 positive cases of the virus, with more than 3,000 deaths and over 100,000 patients currently hospitalized with the disease.
Last week was the deadliest week of the pandemic in the state, with 95 new deaths confirmed on Friday.
h/t: News 4 , ABC 11 , KOLN , Texas Health and Human Services
