Atlanta man, 28, who died of COVID-19 leaves final message about vaccines
"I never expected to be a widow at the age of 25,” Brittany Wright said.
An Atlanta man who died of COVID-19 had one dying wish — for more people to get vaccinated.
“That is his message: ‘Get the vaccine. Because I would hate for people to be like me,’” said Brittany Wright, 25, of her 28-year-old husband Braderick Wright, who died Saturday night.
Braderick was hesitant to get vaccinated, according to his wife. Brittany took the jab last month and is still waiting to get her second shot, WSB-TV Channel 2 reports.
“He was deep into Tik Tok conspiracy theories and, for him, he just didn’t want to get (the shot),” Brittany said. “He didn’t trust the government.”
The couple both contracted the coronavirus but only Braderick was ultimately hospitalized on July 30. He reportedly had pre-existing conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure. Brittany was able to speak to her husband one last time before doctors had to intubate him.
“I told him I didn’t want to lose him,” she said. “I told him I loved him.”
A few hours later, he died.
“I’m 25. And I mean, I never expected to be a widow at the age of 25,” Brittany said. The couple dated for five years before they wed in December.
“I expected us to grow old together have kids, have grandchildren and just live the life, you know. But sadly, here I am today, planning his funeral.”
The family has set up a GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses and bills.
“My husband was really, really goofy. He had an understanding life is always an adventure,” Brittany said. “We had trips planned, and now I don’t know what to do. He was literally the light of my world and that light is gone.”
Brittany will likely survive the contagion because she had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
According to the CDC, 50.2% of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated with 58.8% of the population at least receiving their first dose of the vaccine.
“When you get the overwhelming majority of the population vaccinated—and we don’t know what that threshold is—the virus will disappear, and then we won’t need to worry about it, at least in this country,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor, told USA Today over the weekend. “If you don’t do that, you will get a smoldering level of infection that will just go right into the fall, get confused with influenza in the winter, and then come back again in the spring.”
Dr. Fauci claims the unvaccinated could create new COVID-19 variants that are resistant to vaccines.
“With delta, we have a virus that spreads much more rapidly than the original alpha variant,” Fauci said. “What happens if over months and months and months you allow the virus to replicate, it is conceivable, not guaranteed, but conceivable, that we could get a variant that eludes the protection of the vaccine.”
Meanwhile, fully vaccinated people are still getting infected with COVID, but immunization greatly reduces the risk of hospitalization and death.
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