Florida taxi driver who believed Covid-19 was a hoax loses wife to virus, warns 'don't be foolish like I was'
A Florida taxi driver who believed false claims online that the coronavirus was a hoax and a mild illness no more severe than the flu has said he hopes his wife will forgive him after she died due to complications caused by Covid-19. Brian Lee Hitchens and his 46-year-old wife Erin were amongst the many Americans who had bought into the conspiracies about Covid-19 that were posted on social media platforms like Facebook that insisted that the global crisis was a "plandemic" fabricated by the government to distract its citizens and it shouldn't worry anyone.
So, when state governments around the city were stressing on caution and asking citizens to follow health guidelines to slow the spread of the virus, neither listened, reported the BBC. Instead, Brian continued to go about his job as a ride-share driver without social distancing or wearing a mask, mistakes that would eventually prove fatal.
When the couple both fell sick in May, they still refused to believe in its seriousness and did not seek help. By the time they went to a hospital, they were so ill they had to be admitted into the intensive care unit. While Brian recovered, his wife, who had preexisting health conditions in the form of asthma and a sleeping disorder, was not so lucky. She became critically ill and died this month from heart problems linked to the virus.
With Covid-19 having claimed over 175,000 lives in the country and cases close to touching six million, Brian has now urged people to not repeat his mistake. He told BBC News he "wished [he'd] listened from the beginning" and hoped his wife would forgive him. "This is a real virus that affects people differently," he stressed. "I can't change the past. I can only live in today and make better choices for the future. She's no longer suffering, but in peace. I go through times missing her, but I know she's in a better place."
Asked about why he didn't think much of the coronavirus at the beginning of the pandemic, Brian explained that neither he nor his wife had a firm belief about it owing to social media. He said they kept switching between thinking the virus was fake, linked to 5G technology, or real, but just a mild ailment. "We thought the government was using it to distract us or it was to do with 5G," he shared.
This is not the first time that Brian has spoken out about his changed views and called for more awareness around the virus. In a heartfelt post on Facebook in May, when he and his wife first took sick, he had shared how he had continued believing the pandemic was being blown out of proportion until it was too late and asked others to be wary.
"This thing is nothing to be messed with please listen to the authorities and heed the advice of the experts," he wrote. "We don't have to fear this and by heeding the advice doesn't mean that you fear it that means you're showing wisdom during this epidemic time. Looking back I should have wore a mask in the beginning but I didn't and perhaps I'm paying the price for it now... If you have to go out please use wisdom and don't be foolish like I was so the same so the same thing won't happen to you like it happened to me and my wife.