This kind of thing is happening all over red-leaning America. My own father and sister lied to me about having been vaccinated to get myself, my husband, and our 18-year old son to come visit my 80 year old father who had end-stage CKD.
We're all fully vaccinated. But, this was at the height of the Delta surge, before boosters. We remained masked, wearing face shields, and sat with them on their screened porch only. We also declined to hug any of them or take anyone's hands or accept any refreshment while there. So, we ended up being relatively safe, I guess.
It's heinous enough that my father and my siblings disregarded my father's constellation of comorbidities – but that was HIS choice.. However, my father and kin knew I have pretty bad asthma and had been hospitalized in 2018 and barely survived a pulmonary health crisis that had included a pulmonary embolism, pneumonia, missing blood volume requiring transfusion, as well as near null iron counts requiring four infusions while still in hospital. They knew I was still receiving infusions for iron deficiency and was still on an albuterol nebulizer. They knew I have an arhythmia. They also knew that my illness had been so severe that I was still recovering and trying to regain my strength. Knowing full well that I was one of the most at-risk persons they could name, they still lied to me about having been vaccinated. They also knew that my son is an asthmatic too. They so disregarded my health and safety that they fecking lied about being vaccinated to trick me into coming to see them.
They took away my choice to be protected. And, when I expressed my outrage, they cast aspersions on the strength of my Christian "faith" by saying something along the lines of "Our God didn't make us to live in fear" and "If your faith is strong enough, God is more powerful than any virus." Theirs is a god lacking in the compassion and empathy to act for the needs of our neighbors – and everyone is our neighbor. My God is the God of whom scripture declares, "God is love." I just cannot fathom how they could impose such risk on us through lies and deceit, then use God to justify themselves.
Fortunately, we didn't suffer such a tragedy as Ms Bartolovich and so many others we've read about or known of in this deeply red, MAGA-country North Carolina. But, these kinds of things keep happening and it makes me feel like we're going to be social distancing the rest of our lives.
