SorryAntiVaxer.com is a site that tracks stories of anti-vaxxers and anti-vax adjacent individuals who subsequently died from COVID-19. After pursuing the area over a few weeks, I have mixed feelings about it.
On the one hand, the site highlights the deaths of infamous right-wing nutcases who have done significant damage with their anti-vaccination stances.
Bob Enyart, for example, was a far-right radio host personality who used to regularly read obituaries of AIDS victims while playing Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust” in the background. Enyart was a vocal opponent of COVID-19 vaccination and mask mandates.
For every Bob Enyart, though, there seem to be several cases like that of Melissa Hedge. Hedge was only 30 when she died on Sept. 7, 2021, after being hospitalized with COVID-19 complications.
Hedge had posted on her Facebook account looking for advice on whether or not she should get vaccinated based on her history of “major asthma and breathing issues.”
Unfortunately, the people who responded to her inquiry included people who told her it would be better for her to contract COVID-19 rather than get a vaccine based on a ridiculous misunderstanding of how COVID-19 attacks the immune system.
Reading through the numerous summaries of these deaths offers a fascinating insight into the contours of the anti-vax and vaccine-hesitant movement. It is also sad to contemplate all of these completely unnecessary individual tragedies.