Relatives recounted their agony after their loved ones died from Covid weeks before they became eligible for vaccines – with an Air Force veteran being invited for vaccination just before she died.
More than 247,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the United States since vaccines were made available in mid-December.
Authorities warned that distributing enough vaccines to achieve collective immunity would take months.
And with the initial supply of the vaccine extremely limited and the virus spreading wildly throughout the country during the winter, it was a sad reality that some would contract COVID-19 and die before being inoculated.
After months of expecting to receive a COVID-19 immunization and then weeks of fighting the disease, after one never came, Air Force veteran Diane Drewes was up to her last breaths at a hospice center in Ohio when the phone rang .
She was a healthcare professional calling to make her first appointment for a coronavirus injection.
In the photo: Air Force veteran Diane Drewes, who died while waiting for a COVID-19 vaccine
Vaccinations are increasing as more states open up greater eligibility for residents
Drewes’ daughter, Laura Brown, was surprised at the call in January, but did not attack on the phone or explain that her 75-year-old mother was on the verge of death. It just didn’t make sense, she said.
“But my sister and I were upset because it was too late,” said Brown. “It felt like the final insult.”
With research showing that a large percentage of the US population fears vaccines, it is impossible to say exactly how many of the dead would have even wished for an immunization.
But Brown said his mother wanted one – desperately.
Other families tell similar and painful stories of loved ones who were infected after months of safety and died before receiving a dose.
Charlotte Crawford, who spent 40 years working in the microbiology laboratory at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, was fully immunized in January after receiving two doses of the Moderna vaccine because of her work.
Even so, she endured the agony of seeing her husband and two adult children contract COVID-19 and die before receiving the vaccines.
Henry Royce Crawford, 65, had an appointment for a vaccine when he fell ill, his widow said. Their children, Roycie Crawford, 33, and Natalia Crawford, 38, also wanted the injection, but had not yet found it when they fell ill and died, Crawford said.
Natalia Crawford died in Texas before she had a chance to get a COVID-19 vaccine
Henry Royce Crawford died before receiving the vaccine. The 65-year-old man had an appointment, but fell ill, as did two of his children who also died, including Natalia Crawford
The days since their death in late February and early March seem to be a mess for Crawford; she is still trying to find out what happened while begging everyone to hear her to get a vaccine as soon as possible.
“All I know is that I did three funerals in three weeks,” said Crawford, from Forney, Texas.
Although more than 101 million people in the United States have received at least one dose of the vaccine, only 57 million are fully vaccinated, or about 17.5% of the nation’s population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
With doses now more widely available, injections are taking place at a faster rate. More than a dozen states have opened vaccine eligibility for all adults amid an increase in virus cases.
Only the Johnson & Johnson injection is completed after a dose, so the waiting time between the first and the second injection of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines leaves a period of weeks in which the recipient remains vulnerable and subject to infection.
The wait for a second chance was too long for Richard Rasmussen of Las Vegas, said his daughter Julie Rasmussen.
Richard Rasmussen, 73, fervently believed in the use of face masks for protection and took his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine in early January. “He was very excited to get the vaccine,” she said.
However, Rasmussen tested positive for the virus 10 days later and died on February 19 before receiving a second dose, said Julie Rasmussen. Its final decline was impressive for its speed, she said.
In the photo: Julie Rasmussen and her father, Richard, who died waiting for their second dose
“And now I’m alone,” said Rasmussen in an email interview. ‘He was my best friend. We send messages every day, all day. I do not have brothers. No husband / boyfriend. He was single. I am alone browsing the legal system and packing your home. ‘
On the same day that Rasmussen died, Deidre Love Sullens, of Oklahoma City, was standing in the snow-covered parking lot of a vaccine clinic amid the pain of losing his mother, Catherine Douglas, 65, and stepfather, Asa Bartlett Douglas, 58, for COVID-19 over a 16-day period before they could get the vaccines.
‘They and I consider the vaccine to be the only life-changing factor that would allow us to see each other in person again. It was our goal.
“We all intended to get the vaccine so that we could get together again, so that my mother could play with my daughter again, so that maybe we could visit my grandmother at the nursing home and not be restricted to window visits,” said Sullens in an interview. conducted by email.
More than 101 million Americans have already received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccination. In the photo: a cancer patient in Louisville gets an injection
Still, vaccinations represent only 17.5 percent of the total American population
On that cold February day, with a few doses to spare because bad weather prevented others from making an appointment, an employee called Sullens to the clinic to be immunized. Sullens said she was overcome with tears and a ‘surreal feeling of disbelief’ when she entered.
‘My mind was thinking,’ If only my parents could have lasted two more months … they would be here getting the vaccine too. They would be alive. They would be here with me, ” she said.
There is hope emerging ahead of the vaccination, with about 3 million Americans receiving a dose every day, according to the CDC.
Many states are also preparing to make the vaccine available to anyone aged 16 and over by the end of April, with Alabama being the most recent to follow suit.
Infections are not decreasing as expected, raising fears of a new wave of COVID-19
An average of less than 1,000 people died daily in the past week
In addition, fully vaccinated Americans are being advised that they can travel, although the CDC does not yet recommend doing so.
But the director of the CDC, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, recently admitted that she feels “imminent condemnation” about the potential wave of new cases arriving in the country.
Many states are also abolishing their COVID-19 restrictions, leading to calls that it is too early to dismiss important security measures.
“I ask, I beg of you, do not give up on the progress that we all struggle so hard to achieve,” said President Joe Biden at the White House on Friday, according to the New York Times.
There have been more than 30.6 million cases of COVID-19 in the United States since the pandemic began.
Of those cases, 554,106 people died, making the United States one of the most lethal countries for coronavirus victims in the world.
There were more than 30.6 million cases of coronavirus in the USA, with 554,106 deaths