A Study In Selfishness. An 82 -Year -Old Dies Of COVID After 'Friend' Hides Infection

[appalachiablue]

- Daily Kos, Jan. 2, 2022. - Ed.

Barb Bartolovich was an 82-year-old grandmother who liked to play cards. And as a cancer survivor, with a compromised immune system, she took precautions against getting COVID seriously. She was vaccinated. And when she was invited to a card game, she only attended after she was assured all the other players were also vaccinated. But according to her granddaughter, Lauren Nash, one of the players not only had COVID but knew they had it after a positive test. Tragically, Bartolovich caught COVID-19, was hospitalized, ventilated, and died on Dec. 21, right before Christmas. Most of us will not have heard of Barb Bartolovich, but to her family, she was loved and important.

Nash described her grandmother as a big personality, who loved her husband Frank and being with family. "She was so fancy. It is kind of funny now that I look back on it because she wore broaches. She was just everything to everyone. As everyone says, if you knew Barb, you were loved. She was taken too soon." Now, Lauren, in honor of her grandma, is asking you. Are you sick with any symptoms of COVID-19? Have you tested positive for COVID-19? If so, she says please take it seriously. Avoid others out of love. Stop the spread of a proven deadly virus. "It is not worth it. It is not worth knowing you hurt someone, potentially hurt someone, or killed someone because you want to go out and have fun. I am just horrified at where we are and what is going on, that we are not taking into account people’s lives."

I suspect that if you asked Americans if they thought they were selfish or not, most of them would say they were not. And yet tens of millions remain unvaccinated, with no intention of wearing a mask or social distancing. To be unvaccinated, in the absence of a valid medical reason, shows a lack of empathy. Not taking precautions against spreading COVID, while going to work, to bars and restaurants, to religious services and stores, et al. reveals a complete lack of concern for your fellow citizens. I also suspect, that if you ask the unvaccinated if they were patriots, they would claim they were. But patriotism is not demanding your personal freedoms and individual liberties. Patriotism is doing something to keep your country safe and make it greater. During a war on a fatal pandemic, a patriot gets vaccinated.

It is one answer to the question JFK said Americans should pose to themselves, “Don’t ask what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

But fat chance conservatives would trouble themselves by considerating what they could do for their country. They believe their religion should be everyone’s religion. Their moral code should be everybody’s moral code. They do not believe in compromise over gun laws or a woman’s right to choose. It is their way or the highway. Liberals are not without their faults. But when liberals fail, they fail while attempting to address the needs of the oppressed - the poor, minorities, immigrants, & citizens who do not fit the hetero-normal, bigender mold. Conservatives claim they are on the side of law & order. But not a moment later, they are walking the streets spreading disease & death. Where does homicide by COVID fit in their moral code? Conservative politicians are always saying that they’re doing what they do for the “American people”.

But the first thing the American people want is to stay alive. So perhaps these right wing gum-flappers could work on that. Or just shut the feck up. ~

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/1/2/2072305/-A-study-in-selfishness-An-82-year-old-dies-of-COVID-after-friend-hides-infection
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- SELECT COMMENTS:
Apparently the “friend” owned up to all of it: from the diary link "Somebody decided that testing positive for COVID is something they can hide," Lauren said. "The only way we found out is that the person owned up after Nana got sick." There may be a lot of mitigating details that we don’t know … but the implication from the article is that Barb Bartolovich had been trying to protect herself from anyone with an active COVID case, this person hid a positive test, didn’t say anything knowing that Bartolovich wanted to know about vaccination status, and then the person attended the event anyway.
Assuming there’s a clear chain of cause and effect, it’s about time that people like this were being sued by families of the deceased. Negligence, at least.
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I hope the false friend is viciously shunned for the rest of her life. My ex-wife had COVID last year and refused to tell me—sending the kids to me with no word whatsoever—knowing I have an automimmune condition. These people are menaces and deserve to be publicly shamed.
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What kind of monster would go to the trouble to get a covid test and knowing the positive results expose her friends to a potentially lethal illness? No need to answer. My neighbors had a similar situation, only it was a young women whom family was led to believed was fully vaccinated attending a small wedding reception last Summer. Fortunately the elderly grandma did not get infected. The monster couldn’t understand why people were angry with her...and felt that the others were over-reacting.
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This is exactly how I lost a member of my family last year. Early 80’s, went to a card game but felt safe because of of full vaccination. Succumbed to COVID a week and a half later, I barely had time to say goodby. There is still a hole in my world. 2021 was a really bad year. Let’s take America back from the Fascists in 2022.

[Moebym]

1. The worst kind of betrayal.

That "friend" and all other people whose lies about COVID-19 positivity caused needless suffering and death need to face legal consequences.

[BeyondGeography]

2. What's it called when you kill someone?

Murder?

[Nictuku]

3. With Friends like that, who needs Enemies?

[Laura PourMeADrink]

4. It doesn't apply to this situation, but what I have found

Is that the right is being convinced that they won't get it. Therefore if you don't get it you can't possibly infect someone else. This makes no sense of course medically but I truly believe this is what some of them think. And there's absolutely no way to rationalize with them.