The husband of a woman with stage 4 breast cancer ― who he says was discharged from hospital early because of the pressure exerted on health services amid the resurgent pandemic ― has gone viral with a blunt video message in which he challenges coronavirus-deniers and anti-vaxxers.
Jason Arena, 45, from Mooresville, North Carolina, demands to know in the clip — that he first shared on TikTok last week and has now been seen millions of times on social media — why people who downplay the dangers of COVID-19 and refuse the vaccine then seek medical help when they contract the potentially deadly disease.
“If you don’t trust the medical field to prevent you from getting it, why do you trust them to cure you from it?” Arena asks coronavirus and vaccine skeptics in the video.
“Stick to your fucking guns and keep your motherfucking ass at home,” he continues. “Stop running to the hospital, putting everybody else at fucking risk and in turn the collateral damages; people like my wife who actually need medical fucking help for a chronic disease but get kicked out of the hospital because your dumb ass is too stupid to go get a fucking vaccine shot.”
Watch the full video here:
The video was born out of anger, the father of three told HuffPost on Thursday, from the recent premature discharge from an unnamed hospital of his wife Marilyn, 43, who was diagnosed as having stage 4 cancer in 2019 and has undergone multiple rounds of chemotherapy and radiation.
“I was sitting on the couch and heard the story that all the hospitals are all stressed out with COVID patients,” Arena, who owns a construction site contracting company, said via telephone. “It shouldn’t be happening. And that’s why I made that video, because I was frustrated.”
“With COVID, it’s been impossible for my wife to enjoy her life,” he explained. “We were trapped in the house for an entire year and now it’s going back to the same thing. We’re nervous about going out because it’s back.”
“I don’t understand how you don’t believe in science to prevent disease but all of sudden you’ll run to the hospital to take every experimental drug they’ll give you to save your life,” Arena added. “It makes no sense.”
The overwhelming majority of people who are now hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated. Percentages vary between states, but in North Carolina, only 0.5% of people who’ve ended up requiring hospital treatment for the coronavirus have received the vaccine.