81-year-old Massachusetts man who believed in Trump's theories dies of Covid-19 after refusing to wear mask
An 81-year-old man from Massachusetts lost his life after refusing to wear a mask amid the Covid-19 pandemic because President Donald Trump repeatedly said the deadly virus is not a concern. Juan Ciprian died on September 29 after facing coronavirus symptoms. His granddaughter, Stephanie Landaverde, told the Boston Globe that her granddad was not very cautious regarding the virus. “I chose not to work in order to keep them safe, the thought of losing any of them seemed — it just wasn’t an option for me. We’re very family-oriented, and are traditional Latinos in that sense. My parents and grandparents require a lot of care, and I wanted to be available to them at any moment in case they did need me. Between my parents and my aunt and me, we were trying to stay in a bubble. We were all very rigorous about it,” the 24-year-old said.
But Landaverde added that the old man was not as careful as the rest of the family. “He was the only one that wasn’t complying. He was hearing all these conspiracy theories and saying Trump said this or that. He didn’t believe it was a real thing,” she told the outlet. On September 20, Ciprian started facing symptoms of the coronavirus and was admitted to a hospital on September 23. But he could not be saved. Ciprian’s wife also got infected and had to get admitted before she was shifted to a rehabilitation home.
The family’s misery did not end there as Landaverde’s parents also contracted the virus. Her father is a cancer patient while her mother has diabetes. The couple was admitted to Framingham Union Hospital as their health condition deteriorated. “They had to mourn him [Ciprian] while fighting Covid,” Landaverde said. While her father is in better condition now and has returned home, her mother still is in the hospital.
The young woman shared a message with the Boston Globe from her mother, Maria, that stated: “We, all the people who have been affected by Covid-19, lost their jobs, got sick, or even died from it, deserve to be heard. My heart is with President Trump and wish him the best but the country needs him to stop playing politics and remember we are people.”
According to reports, a day after receiving Ciprian’s ashes, the family got to know that the president also had coronavirus. “We don’t wish this upon anyone, nobody deserves to go through this, to feel so helpless. It only takes one little mistake, right? And that’s all it took for my grandfather,” Landaverde said, adding she hopes his own diagnosis will help Trump understand how risky Covid-19 is for humans.
The 74-year-old Republican leader announced his positive result last week after which he spent three nights at the Walter Reed medical center. But on Monday evening, October 5, he returned to the White House and created a fresh controversy by saying, “Don't be afraid of it [Covid-19]” and compared it to the flu. In a tweet, Trump stated: “I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good! Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!”
In another tweet, he added: "Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu. Are we going to close down our Country? No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!”