Thread by @originalspin

So I’ve alluded to what’s been going on with my family and people have reached out with concern. I figured I should just explain.

My sister, who’s an urgent care doc and sees multiple (mostly unvaxxed) covid cases a day, got breakthrough covid.

Then my vaxxed parents got it.

They got Moderna early—January and February. They’re in their 80s with stacked risk factors. Because my sister was in quar I flew out to NY to help out my parents. But the day before I flew my dad had a fall, was taken to the ER on precaution—and promptly put in covid isolation.

He couldn’t get visitors. Even though—thanks to the vaccine—neither he nor mom had any symptoms.

The lack of communication drove us up the wall. They wouldn’t set up a FaceTime for us and my dad’s phone was dead. I dropped off a charger and no one plugged it in.

We delivered food for him knowing he wouldn’t like the hospital food. They didn’t feed it to him. Days later they connected us, admitting he wasn’t eating. He looked weak; thin. They still wouldn’t release him to home quar.

After 8 days he tested negative and they sent him home.

But he’d lost 15% of his body weight, couldn’t walk, was out of it. They had him on a catheter because he couldn’t go to the bathroom.

I took care of him/mom in quar for 3 days—and then he got a UTI from the catheter. I brought him back to hospital when he spiked a fever.

He tested negative again after being admitted. They put him in a nonisolation room and I visited him daily. When my mom finished her quar and tested negative so did she. They started PT but he was too weak so they said they’d discharge him to rehab. I toured sites and picked one.

The only issue is it had just ONE open bed left. Fortunately they said they’d hold it for his discharge the next day. I went to the hospital in the morning to stay with him and prep for discharge and at security they said:

He’s been moved. No visitors.

No visitors?? I’d been with him all week. And no one ever called us to let us know he’d been moved.

They put him back in covid isolation. Because he had a positive pre-discharge test—after two straight negatives, 16 days after first testing positive, never having covid symptoms.

So it’s probably a false positive—but they still won’t let him out until he gets 2 negative tests in a row. And those take 2 days each.

They released the rehab bed. We can’t visit him. At least they’re arranging FaceTimes now.

He’s in ok spirits but it all sucks a lot.

It’s all been very discouraging but on the other hand: He’s freakin alive. If he and my mom weren’t vaxxed I’m sure he wouldn’t be.

But all of this—the breakthrough infections of my sister and my parents—that’s 100% on those who’ve refused to comply with BASIC public health.

My sister said when Delta was rising she was getting nonstop people coming in to get tests for vacations. Unvaccinated people who wanted to see friends and have fun. She was reminding people to wear masks right. Hearing people complain about all the constraints on their freedom.

Antivaxxers and antimaskers: The ripple effects of your “I want my freedom” bullshit is not just death and illness for you and your loved ones. You’ve been ruining it for everyone: Twisting our society into a pandemic pretzel. Breaking our healthcare system. Shredding doctors.

Even people who are vaxxed and masked are being slammed by the impact of your narcissistic irresponsibility. YOUR freedom to refuse basic steps to protect society is destroying ALL OF OUR freedoms.

WW2 sacrifice made the Greatest Generation.

You’ve proven yourselves the Worst.

To be clear: My vaxxed parents had no symptoms. Not even a cough. My sister had it the worst (fever, chills, wheezing, loss of taste) but even then—the vaxx kept her from serious illness. And she was probably most exposed given her job, if that makes a difference. She’s fine now.

https://twitter.com/iugradmark/status/1439255334325866501