Unvaccinated Covid sufferer tells anti-vaxx to ‘open their eyes’ in hospital bed interview

CNN

An unvaccinated Louisiana man who was hospitalised after contracting Covid-19 has warned others to “take heed” of his predicament.

The 53-year-old patient at Baton Rouge General Hospital Mid City told CNN anchor Don Lemon he wasn’t against the vaccine, but simply hadn’t found the time to get the shot.

The man, referred to only by his first name Jim, spent three days in ICU before being hooked up to an oxygen machine in a regular ward.

Speaking from his hospital bed, Jim said he regretted not getting the vaccine, and had a message for skeptics: “Open your eyes. Take heed to this. This is nothing to play with.”

Don Lemon is shown around the hospital in Baton Rouge where he was born (CNN)

Mr Lemon visited the Louisiana hospital where he was born in 1966 for a special report which aired on Thursday as hospitals in the state are being swamped with patients infected with the Delta variant.

Ninety per cent of the beds in the hospital were occupied by Covid patients, Venkat Banda, the hospital’s chief medical officer, said.

“The Delta, it’s more contagious, it’s more virulent, and it’s catching people who were not vaccinated.”

Mr Lemon said the hospital appeared to be “bursting at the seams”.

Louisiana has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, with just 37 per cent of the populations fully vaccinated.

The state has seen 11,000 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

Another Covid patient at Baton Rouge General Hospital Mid City, Maxine Sawyer, said she delayed getting the vaccine to allow others to get the shot first.

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“Before I got sick, I was thinking about getting vaccinated. I didn’t make it in time.”

Brenda Carl, 70, was admitted to hospital suffering from double pneumonia and Covid-19.

She said she’d been reluctant to get the vaccine as she wasn’t sure it was safe.

“Just apprehensive, you know. My husband got vaccinated and wanted me too, and I was ‘oh I’ll be careful’.

“I’ve always taken vaccines but this seemed different. I guess I didn’t get the information I wanted.”

After being hospitalised, she said she now planned to get the vaccine.  “Everybody ought to try to get it,” she said.