An unvaccinated Virginia man is using social media to document his struggles with COVID-19 from his hospital bed and urging people to get vaccinated.
Travis Campbell, 43 tested positive for COVID on July 22 and progressively got worse, NBC News reports. His wife said he was initially admitted to a regular room at the hospital but was later transferred to the intensive care unit because he was having difficulty breathing.
Despite his condition, Campbell has been making videos from his hospital bed expressing regret over not getting vaccinated and encouraging others to get the shot.
In a video on Wednesday Campbell said: “I messed up big time, you guys — I didn’t get the vaccine.”
In a July 25 post he wrote: “I’m testifying to all my bulletproof friends that’s holding out, it’s time to protect your family, it’s not worth getting long term lung damage or death please go get the vaccine.”
Campbell, whose wife Kellie Campbell and two children also tested positive for the virus, wrote, “when I hear my kids with the rattle lung cough, when they say they are dizzy they are getting sick, or they or I are dehydrated from the diarrhea, I realize I could have prevented this. I’m over the stupid conspiracies its time to be rational and protective. Its not worth being stubborn like I did.”
He thought he did not need the vaccine because he had a mild case of COVID last year and believed he had antibodies that would prevent any serious illness if he contracted the virus again.
“I’m not trying to talk down to you,” Campbell said in a video last week. “I’m trying to talk to you so you understand that I don’t want to go to your funeral and I don’t want you to come to mine. The new delta strain … will get you down so fast you are not going to get back up.”
Kellie told NBC News that her husband doesn’t want others to have to deal with what he’s going through.
“He just doesn’t want anyone to have to endure the pain that he has, and if a vaccine will help them, that’s what they need to do,” she said.
She also encouraged others to go out and get vaccinated.
“If you have to take time off work, if you have to miss out on something, you need to go get the vaccine, because we didn’t, and look where we are now,” she said. “I mean, that should be your top priority. Especially not just for you, but your family members.”
