January 11, 2022: COVID Skeptics Keep Denying and Dying

1/11/22: Recently, the Arlington, Texas Republican Club Group on Facebook announced the passing of COVID-19 skeptic Kelly Canon.

 

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R.I.P. Ms. Cannon. But you were wrong about the science, and people like you are getting killed by ignorance, just as much as the virus itself.

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This past November, Canon posted on social media when her employer granted her a religious exemption from the vaccine. She wrote at the time: “No jabby-jabby for me! Praise GOD!” 

In December she posted again. This time she wanted to talk about a symposium she attended, where speakers discussed ways to dissuade others from getting vaccinated – because, freedom – right? 

On Tuesday, the Arlington group had to announce: 

We removed the previous post and announcement regarding the tragic loss of our friend Kelly Canon. We want to clarify a few things regarding her death. Yes, she went to the hospital with Covid pneumonia but on Sunday she had turned the corner on the breathing issues and had positive test results. However, overnight she developed abdominal pain and according to her sister she had a “hole in her stomach” which ultimately took her life. We mourn her death and find the posts celebrating her death distasteful and will be removed.

 

Ms. Cannon: An unnecessary death.

As a good liberal, I support the taking down of insulting posts. It’s a shame Canon died and sympathy to family and friends. She had also done good work politically, taking down a lawmaker from her own party after he sent sexually explicit Facebook messages to another woman, and Canon found out. (I looked for information regarding her age, but came up short. 

I did find a story about her last post on Twitter. She put up a video by some random guy in a bowtie, talking to three people in another room, via Zoom, and insisting the pandemic was planned in advance…and…I’m sorry…I lost interest in what he was saying at around the three-minute mark. 

So, Canon is dead. At least one source says she was 62, but spells her name wrong (two “n’s”) and I try to get facts right.

 

I do know this. Canon wasn’t the only American to die from COVID complications on Sunday. The day she died CDC reported a stunning record. More than 1.4 million new cases of the virus, as the Omicron variant continued to spread. (I know. People like Canon don’t believe – or didn’t – what CDC says.) 

On January 9, when Canon died, so did another 1,562 infected Americans – most of whom, if vaccinated, would still be alive. 

I like facts. I taught history for 33 years. So I look it up. Arlington is a city in Tarrant County. The Texas Department of State Health Services is keeping statistics on the COVID spread. 

Tarrant had 2,316 new cases the day Ms. Canon succumbed. (See: New Confirmed Cases over Time by County, Row 223, Column ZB, on the Excel spreadsheet.)

 

The next day, Tarrant recorded 3,265 new cases, on Tuesday, 3,860 more. On January 11, DSHS was reporting nearly 47,000 new cases across the state. And that’s red state data if you want to quibble about what CDC reports. If you’re not intellectually lazy you can check this all out. (See: Combined Hospital Data over Time by TSA Region.) On December 1, 2021, Texas, statewide, was reporting 2,893 COVID patients hospitalized. By Christmas  the number had risen to 3,731. By the time Canon died she had plenty of company in the hospitals of the state, with 10,417 Texans laid up sick. 

The next day, the figure had surpassed 11,000 – but sure, no “jabby-jabby” for Ms. Canon or for people who may have listened to her for advice. 

Hospital stays and big hospital bills? Yes. 

Sometimes death? 

Yes.

 

And did Canon die of COVID, or did she not? The Daily Beast had already captured a number of comments, before the Arlington group took down their first post. Here’s what two of Kelly’s friends wrote: 

“I Had just texted with her yesterday and she said she was doing well, fighting off this damn Covid in both of her lungs that turned into double pneumonia, so I am quite shocked to get this news.” (Jennifer Talbert Frank.)

 

“I am truly heartbroken to learn that my dear friend Kelly Canon has passed away from complications from Covid pneumonia. Just yesterday around 4pm she told a group of friends that she definitely felt better and that the docs had told her she had ‘turned the corner’ with improved blood test results. She was talking about wanting to come home. Later last night she developed an acute abdominal issue, was given pain meds and put on the ventilator.” (Maggie Clopton Wright.)

 

All those patients in Texas, all of them are wanting to come home, not take a last trip to the morgue. 

R.I.P. Ms. Cannon. But you were wrong about the science, and people like you are getting killed by ignorance, just as much as the virus itself.