Photo via Travis Campbell/Facebook
August 6, 2021, 12:54 pm
A series of videos made by a formerly vaccine-hesitant man in Virginia documenting his time in the hospital and pleading with others to get the COVID-19 vaccine have been going viral on social media as he shows them firsthand just how bad the illness can get. Travis Campbell started the videos when he was admitted to the local hospital with low oxygen levels and has deteriorated, needing more oxygen over time.
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Thankfully, Travis Campbell appears to be finally improving, reporting in his latest video from this morning that he was starting to feel energy again. He is also off the full oxygen mask, though he is still receiving supplemental oxygen, and COVID-19 is known for being a roller coaster ride of an illness. He has suffered a partially collapsed lung already and though doctors have said that they are hopeful, he might not make it.
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Each recent video by Campbell has started with him expressing gratitude simply for making it through the night alive.
Campbell has used this opportunity to speak to other unvaccinated-by-choice folks, warning them that they could be next if they continue to refuse to get the vaccine in between long, labored breaths.
“I want to ask you: If you thought that you had to sit down and plan your goodbyes and funeral or go get the COVID vaccine, what would you do?” he said in one video. “It’s a sobering thought of which I have done. I have planned.”
Campbell explained that he didn’t get the vaccine because he had already contracted what felt like a severe respiratory illness in the winter of 2020 and assumed that it was COVID-19. Of course, it’s been found that people who have had and survived COVID-19 do not always gain full immunity, and with new variants, it is very possible to come down with the illness again. He also thought that he was in the clear after infection rates plummeted when other people started getting vaccinated.
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Part of the reason he was likely ill-informed about the nature of the virus was due to Republicans turning the pandemic into a political sideshow.
“During all the political agendas and conspiracies, you become numb and don’t watch news,” he said. “These are the reasons I felt that aided me in making poor decisions not to protect my family and I with a vaccine.”
As the nation watches and worries for Campbell, he is at least comforted by the fact that his videos are working. On Thursday, he posted a screenshot of a message from a pharmacist at the local CVS saying that they’ve experienced a rush of people coming in for the vaccine, citing his videos as the reason they finally decided to get the jab.
The delta variant of the virus is hitting largely conservative areas with low vaccination rates hard, causing enough alarm in deeply-red Louisiana that even right-wing people there are being driven to get the shot, according to a New York Times report. Some have even finally figured out that their actions can affect others.
“I don’t want to be the one inhibiting someone else’s health,” said Madeline LeBlanc of Baton Rouge.
*First Published: August 6, 2021, 12:54 pm
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