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Who was Stephen Harmon? Hillsong Church member, 34, who was against vaccines dies of Covid-19

The unvaccinated Hillsong church member had said he '99 problems but a vax ain't one'

A member of the Hillsong megachurch who posted an anti-vax tweet saying "got 99 problems but a vax ain't one" died in California, on Wednesday, July 21, after a month-long battle with Covid-19. Stephen Harmon, 34, died on July 21 at the Corona Regional Medical Center outside Los Angeles where he was being treated for Covid-19 and pneumonia.

Harmon, who completed his graduation from Hillsong College, had made many jokes on social media in recent weeks about not taking the Covid-19 vaccine, including when he was in the hospital and was getting treated for the virus. He also documented his fight with the virus and his treatment publicly on Instagram and Twitter ever since he got hospitalized in June 2021. Hillsong founder Brian Houston confirmed the news of Harmon's death in a social media post on Thursday, July 22. He said: "Stephen was just a young man in his early 30’s. He was a graduate from Hillsong College and a vital part of our church in California. He was one of the most generous people I know and he had so much in front of him. He would always turn up to our grandkid's soccer games and he will be missed by so many. RIP."

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Prior to his death, Harmon had joked about the Covid-19 to his 7,000 social media followers. "If you're having email problems, I feel bad for you, son. I got 99 problems but a vax ain't one," he posted on June 3, 2021.  Harmon had tweeted on July 8, 2021: "Biden's door to door vaccine 'surveyors' really should be called JaCovid Witnesses. #keepmovingdork." He also posted memes about how people trusted Dr Anthony Fauci, over the Bible. "When you can't trust the Bible cause it was written by man, but you trust the CDC/Fauci guidelines cause they were written by a man. Makes total sense," he posted on May 25. According to Harmon's social media posts, he previously claimed that he wasn't an anti-vaxxer but rather "pro information." It is not clear when Harmon was diagnosed with Covid-19.

He revealed that he had been hospitalized due to Covid-19 and pneumonia and posted several pictures of himself on a breathing machine on June 30, 2021, A few days before his death, Harmon had been posting about how he was "on max oxygen," "struggling to function" and questioning if he should shift on a ventilator. "Please pray y'all, they really want to intubate me and put me on a ventilator. even the slightest movements and my heart rate skyrockets and oxygen dependency increases. and please, I'm not asking for anyone's opinion on intubation, I'll make my own choice, I'm asking for prayer," he said. He followed up with: "If you don't have faith that God can heal me over your stupid ventilator then keep the Hell out of my ICU room, there's no room in here for fear or lack of faith!' #ThingsIAmAboutToScream." His tragic final tweet, which was posted on Wednesday, July 22, revealed that he finally decided to be intubated. "I'm choosing to going under intubation, I've fought this thing as hard as I can but unfortunately it's reached a point of critical choice & as much as I hate having to do this I'd rather it be willingness than forced emergency procedure. Don't know when I'll wake up, please pray."