Health worker hits out at anti-vaxxers for killing her mother with misinformation

Husband and father-of-four says he was wrong to listen to Covid misinformation after hospitalisation

Anti-vaxxers have been branded “idiots” by a healthcare worker in Minnesota after her unvaccinated parents were hospitalised with Covid, and her other later died.

Faith Voss-Paulson, in a now-viral Facebook post on 28 October, admonished people she accused of fooling her own parents, Jeremy and Monica Voss, into remaining unvaccinated against Covid.

The couple were diagnosed with Covid in October and admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) in St Cloud, Minnesota, where 42-year-old Mr Paulson last saw his wife, aged 40, breathing through a ventilator.

The family announced on Friday that Ms Voss died from complications.

Ms Paulson, before her mother’s death, had admonished “anti-vaxxers” who allegedly convinced her parents to “disregard medical science” and the advice of their own daughter, a health care worker and medical student who was vaccinated.

“I hope you’re freaking proud,” Ms Paulson wrote. “Because of idiots like you spreading false information willy nilly, my parents believed you. And know what? They’re in the ICU right now with Covid and pneumonia.”

Announcing the death of her mother on Friday, Ms Paulson wrote: “This season will be incredibly difficult for my family to navigate through. Prayers are always welcome and appreciated.”

Her father admitted on Monday that he believed he was healthy enough to avoid the worst of Covid, and said: “I just thought if I got it as healthy as I was I’d be like my friends I know”, in comments to CBS Minnesota.

“Think if you had to tell your kids that you’re not going to see their mum or dad for the rest of their life,” he continued, and called on everybody to get vaccinated against Covid.

Jessie Roske, a nurse who treated Mr Voss in St Cloud, Minnesota, told the news station that three-quarters of the Covid patients admitted had not been vaccinated. She added that it was “preventable suffering”.

Resistance to Covid vaccines in the US has been more pronounced in Republican states, and in spite of social media platforms promising to take action on the sharing of medical misinformation.

More than 779,000 Americans have now died from Covid, with only 59 per cent of the population fully vaccinated against the virus, according to analysis from The New York Times.