Though young and healthy, unvaccinated father dies of COVID
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Healthy and in their 30s, Christina and Josh Tidmore figured they were low-risk for COVID-19. With conflicting viewpoints about whether to get vaccinated against the virus filling their social media feeds and social circles, they decided to wait.
On July 20, Josh came home from work with a slight cough initially thought to be sinus trouble. On Aug. 11, he died of COVID-19 at a north Alabama hospital as Christina Tidmore witnessed a doctor and her team frantically try to resuscitate her husband.
“She would say, ’I need a pulse. ’I would hear, ‘no pulse,’ "Christina Tidmore said through tears. “They were trying so hard.”
“Nobody should go through this. He was only 36 and I’m 35 and we have three kids.”
She is now imploring young adults not to dismiss the risk and to consider getting vaccinated.
“Josh was completely healthy, active, not a smoker.” He would have turned 37 on Saturday.
Doctors say they are seeing a spike in cases among young adults and children as the highly contagious delta variant sweeps through unvaccinated populations. Medical officials say there is conflicting information on whether it makes people more severely ill or whether young people are more vulnerable to it, but it's clear the contagiousness means more young people and children are getting sick.
“There is no question that the average age of people who are being hospitalized is going down,” State Health Officer Scott Harris said Friday.
“I don’t know if it’s clear that delta is worse in that age group or worse than any of the strains we’ve seen before. ... But what you have though is one that is just much, much more transmissible. Because seniors are the ones that are predominately the vaccinated population in our state,...
