{"id":10197,"date":"2021-09-03T15:57:03","date_gmt":"2021-09-03T19:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/?p=10197"},"modified":"2021-09-03T16:43:07","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T20:43:07","slug":"no-covid-19-in-anti-vaxxers-does-not-make-me-happy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/no-covid-19-in-anti-vaxxers-does-not-make-me-happy\/2021\/09\/03\/","title":{"rendered":"No, COVID-19 in Anti-Vaxxers Does Not Make Me Happy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Octopus Car Wash, Minneapolis, Minnesota; 1981. John Margolies\u2019 Photographs of Roadside America (public domain).<\/p><\/div>\n

High-profile people who deny the seriousness of COVID-19, or strongly oppose vaccination, also contract — and sometimes succumb — to the disease.<\/p>\n

Surprise, surprise.<\/p>\n

The list is long, but recently has included a group of well known conservative radio hosts.<\/a> Broadcaster Marc Bernier from Daytona Beach, Florida, died of COVID-19 recently.<\/p>\n

Bernier called himself “Mr. Anti-Vax”, so it follows logically that he was not shy about expressing his opinions. His last statement on social media compared government advice that people get vaccinated to Nazism.<\/a><\/p>\n

He was dead less than a month later.<\/p>\n

This week, Joe Rogan, a famous podcaster who explicitly discouraged vaccination among young healthy people, announced that he has the disease.<\/a><\/p>\n

Unlike Bernier, Joe Rogan is recovering (at least as of his last communication). For treatment of COVID-19, he “threw the kitchen sink at it.”<\/a><\/p>\n

While we might think that someone who refuses vaccination would take the same “natural” approach to therapy — allowing the body’s healing processes to save him without exogenous help — think again. He received monoclonal antibodies (a good move), ivermectin (shrugs), azithromycin (doesn’t work), prednisone (can make mild COVID-19 worse), an “NAD drip” (huh?<\/a>) and a “vitamin drip” (available now pretty much everywhere<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Best V.I.P. treatment that money can buy! But for the record, our taxpayer dollars are paying for the one thing that probably helped, the monoclonals.<\/p>\n

What I find fascinating about these cases of COVID-19 in disease-deniers and anti-vaxxers is our response \u2014 as a society in general and as ID doctors in particular.<\/p>\n

If one reads the comments on line or on social media, here are some of the common attitudes:<\/p>\n