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* Renée Cooper at WCIA…
32-year-old Mario Cruz-Cortes is grateful to be alive. Just a few days ago he needed the help of a machine just to breathe.
Cortes caught a case of COVID-19 that knocked him off of his feet, seemingly overnight.
Up until a couple of weeks ago he never had health issues. He had never been in a hospital bed in his life.
Now he wants everyone to know, if he could go back in time, he’d do one thing differently: “If you could go back in time would you get the vaccine? Yeah, I would get the vaccine because…what I went through, I don’t want no one to go through it,” Cruz-Cortes shared.
Cruz-Cortes was discharged from OSF Heart of Mary Medical Center in Urbana Wednesday afternoon after spending nearly two weeks in a hospital bed, about half of that time was spent on a ventilator.[…]
The 32-year-old was brought here to OSF from Taylorville on July 30. Cruz-Cortes said he had no idea how serious the coronavirus was until he was in the thick of it, and it happened really fast.
“One day you’re moving. The next day you cannot move anymore,” he explained. […]
Cruz-Cortes told us at least one of his friends, that was originally hesitant to get vaccinated, has gotten the shot since he’s been hospitalized. He said he hopes what he went through will encourage as many people as possible to do it for their safety, and for everyone around them.
I know a lot of folks have no sympathy for those who aren’t vaccinated and then become ill. But people like Cruz-Cortes might help save a whole lot of lives.
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 3:44 am
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I’m in the no sympathy category. The guy brought this on himself. The people I feel sorry for are the healthcare workers and the others paying higher premiums in his insurance pool, which is why a vaccine should be required to have the benefits of insurance.
Comment by Just Me 2 Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 5:32 am
Agree, Rich. I have sympathy for anyone who gets sick with Covid, but those who refuse to get vaccination can spread the disease to me and mine, so while I hope they survive, I don’t care if they suffer for their foolishness. But, yes, putting them on TV with their stories of how stupid they were are useful.
Comment by PublicServant Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 5:57 am
Meanwhile, WSIL lead story is three children suspended from Crab Orchard school for not wearing their masks.
The photo shows all three smiling while holding their suspension paperwork. Obviously, this lands at the feet of the parents, but I really cast doubt on how effective PSA’s from the likes of Cruz-Cortes would be.
Comment by Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 6:56 am
Agree that people who had doubts about the vaccine and get hospitalized with COVID should be spokespeople in vaccine ads. No matter how many of us feel about certain people, like those who deny COVID is a problem but help overload our hospitals, it’s in all of our interests to try to lead people toward vaccination.
“but I really cast doubt on how effective PSA’s from the likes of Cruz-Cortes would be”
Certain people are just unreachable and can’t be convinced. There are people—I think there’s a quote somewhere—who would rather pass away than get vaccinated.
Comment by Grandson of Man Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 7:43 am
“I know a lot of folks have no sympathy for those who aren’t vaccinated and then become ill. But people like Cruz-Cortes might help save a whole lot of lives.”
This. Exactly this. I know it can be tough, but we need to support people who have changed for the better.
Comment by Ducky LaMoore Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 8:08 am
I hate to say this, but I think it will only work with viewer who know the person in question. Otherwise, it can be dismissed as fake because “nobody knows that guy”
I think it’s a good idea, but you will need to make a lot of them for different markets.
Comment by Name Withheld Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 8:10 am
I don’t want anyone to die from Covid. But to those careless enough to disdain a lifesaving vaccination, and are negligent enough to the reality of this pandemic to risk infecting others, getting ill and suffering from Covid clears the fog from the survivors minds, and they should be used to share their Come to Jesus moment as an example to their purposfully irresponsible bretheren
Comment by PublicServant Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 8:21 am
Yeah, they’re a little grusome, but need to bring back ads like the anti-smoking ads except have them be people in hospital beds with Covid.
Comment by AD Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 8:35 am
I think it’s past the time to run PSA’s but I guess it’s never too late. There’s no shortage of media reports of angry parents at school board meetings demanding that masks come off but not nearly enough attention placed on the countless tragic stories of people that realized too late that they should have chosen a different path in dealing with the pandemic. Nobody says on their deathbed that burying their head in the sand was worth it.
Comment by Pundent Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 8:49 am
- Pundent - Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 8:49 am:
PSA’s have been running. Where have you been? Mars? There’s a state-led campaign, All In Illinois, and there’s a multi-faceted campaign nationally from The Ad Council.
https://coronavirus.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/coronavirus/documents/all-in-media-kit-vaccines-2021-final.pdf
https://www.adcouncil.org/covid-vaccine
Comment by Shield Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 9:02 am
@Ducky LaMoore: I hear you, but it’s really tough. I’m immunocompromised, so if I get COVID, I probably have a higher chance of it being serious or even death. Unvaccinated people are affecting my freedom, so sure, I feel a little schadenfreude when Cruz-Cortes and Andy Ray get COVID when there are proven methods to prevent it.
Comment by Steve Rogers Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 9:35 am
==The next day you cannot move anymore==
Correction. You ‘moved’ to the hospital for lifesaving measures…wasting resources and choosing not to face the consequences of your (foolish) decision.
Comment by Jocko Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 9:44 am
Trying to convince people to get the vaccine obviously is not working, and frankly, I don’t want to give a spotlight to an anti-vaxxer who ’saw the light’
So put me in the no sympathy camp. I think it’s time for consequences and making life for the willingly unvaccinated very, *very* difficult - no restaurants, no movies, no air travel, all of it. Until we take those actions, we’ll never get anywhere. Just more death.
Comment by Joe Bidenopolous Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 9:47 am
“making life for the willingly unvaccinated very difficult”
FDA approval is right around the corner.
Anti-vaxxers should prepare for a whole new world.
Comment by Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 10:44 am
I’m sympathetic, but I’m not sympathetic to the “what’s politically feasible” discussion anymore. We’re turning kids away from hospitals and still are putting up with “hesitancy” and worse. We need our leaders, government and business, to require proof of vax or a 24-hour negative test results so-called-mandates, and enforced indoor masking requirements, full-stop, and stop pretending we can cajole/incentivize/reason/shame sufficient numbers, or we’re simply not getting out of this.
Comment by lake county democrat Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 11:02 am
If you’re already vaccinated, why care what anyone else is doing? Serious implications for the vaccinated after exposure are unbelievably slim. In fact, it could be easily argued that contact with another strain by the vaccinated would act as a booster. In that case, you don’t need boosters…and then two years from now, we’re not having this same conversation about “do you have all your boosters, hmmmm? HMMM?”
Comment by Anti-Flippant Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 11:05 am
==If you’re already vaccinated, why care what anyone else is doing?==
It’s one bubonic rat, what’s the worry?
Typhoid Mary has a bad cough, but works real cheap.
Why get involved, Germany is Europe’s problem?
Comment by Jocko Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 11:17 am
“contact with another strain by the vaccinated would act as a booster.“
Unless of course it is a new mutation and kills you!
Comment by Old and In the Way Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 11:21 am
=If you’re already vaccinated, why care what anyone else is doing?=
Tell that to parents of children under 12. Do I want an unvaccinated nurse to treat my child? Do I want an unvaccinated teacher to teach my child? Do I want an unvaccinated server to wait our table?
Comment by Steve Rogers Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 11:24 am
Anti-Flippant, you cannot possibly be that stupid.
Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 11:25 am
Anti-Flippant: Um, did you see yesterday’s Axios story that the Mayo Clinic has a study showing the Pfizer vaccine only 42% effective at blocking and 85% effective against hospitalizations? And that’s if you only care about yourself and not the approx. 2.5% who are immunocompromised and can’t get vaxed.
Comment by lake county democrat Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 11:28 am
Even if he did bring it upon himself by not being vaccinated, the point is that he learned from that mistake and he now wants to encourage others to not make the same mistake. So I’m totally for spot-lighting his story. I have a co-worked who did the same thing. Avoided the vaccine but then came down with Covid and spent a week in the hospital with pneumonia. And he said the same thing about wishing he would have just gotten the vaccine. Just do it people.
Comment by Occasional Quipper Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 11:37 am
Anti-Flippant there are a few reasons.
1. hospitals. Already in several southern states there are overflowing hospitals and procedures that are medically necessary are being delayed because the staff are needed for COVID cases. Summer is the south’s covid season because they all head indoors out of the heat. Fall is ours because we all head indoors out of the cold. which means if we don’t learn from the southern states’ experience we are in big trouble.
2. Tourism and the economy. Several conventions are being cancelled in Florida. Not because the state is shutting them down but because the organizers are because who wants to go to a convention in plague central. This would impact Chicago as well.
3. Remote work affects small businesses that formed in the ecosystems that office buildings formed. Until the companies with their staff currently remote feel comfortable, they won’t send them back which means those small businesses will curl up and die.
Comment by cermak_rda Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 11:40 am
=I hate to say this, but I think it will only work with viewer who know the person in question.=
I think you have two audiences here. Maybe it doesn’t persuade the person who’s dug in and doesn’t believe in any of this. But that’s only part of the problem. We also need to appeal to leaders and policy makers like the folks running Timothy Christian. A few well done PSA’s with sick and dying people make it a lot harder to say we don’t need to wear masks and or get a shot. Better to heed the advice of a well done PSA then wait to explain why you ignored it in front of a jury.
Comment by Pundent Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 11:52 am
I think there are some out there who would be moved by his story even if they did not know him. Ro those who are almost ready this might make the difference. & that person who then got the shot might talk to another person and convince them.
Comment by jimbo26 Thursday, Aug 12, 21 @ 12:03 pm