The Covid death of a fully vaccinated 66-year-old Illinois woman was caused by those who chose not to get inoculated, her family has said in an obituary.
Candace Ayers, who was from Springfield, Illinois, was the mother of two and the grandmother of three children. She had been fully vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine in March but died on 3 September after contracting a breakthrough infection.
The fully vaccinated Ayers contracted the virus with her husband after traveling to Mississippi
Sending a strong message to those who remain unvaccinated, the family leveled blame for Ayers’s death on vaccine hesitancy. “She was vaccinated but was infected by others who chose not to be. The cost was her life,” it added.
Ayers’s family said she caught Covid in July when she went to visit an unvaccinated friend, whose husband had died from Covid.
She was hospitalized as her condition deteriorated and moved to the intensive care unit, where she spent her final days on a ventilator before dying from the infection.
“Mom was a fighter… and mom was so angry at people for not getting vaccinated and not wearing a mask,” her son, Marc Ayers, 36, told USA Today.
In a Facebook post almost a month before his mother’s death, Mr. Ayers said their family believes in science and urged people to get vaccinated and follow mask mandates. “If you’re able to get vaccinated and/or wear a mask but refuse to, just know that your selfish actions are threatening (sic) the lives of others,” he said.
“We were responsible, we wore masks indoors, and were so happy to have received a full vaccine so we could exit this pandemic and move on with our lives. Unfortunately, some of you bought into the political nature of this crisis and threatened the lives of my family,” he added.
He said both his parents got Covid during the trip. While his fully-vaccinated father recovered, his mother’s condition deteriorated as she had pre-existing rheumatoid arthritis, making her immunocompromised.
Ayers was admitted to the hospital after she tested positive and was put on a ventilator
Ayers told USA Today his mother got tested after feeling fatigued on the way home from the trip. Following his mother’s diagnosis, she was admitted to the hospital and was given antibiotics for her symptoms.
Candace Ayers later returned a few days later and was hospitalized for a month with three weeks on a ventilator and developed sepsis. After suffering severe lung damage, the ventilator was removed and she passed away.
Breakthrough infections occur when a person catches Covid at least 14 days after the second dose of vaccination, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
There is evidence that vaccinations make the illness less severe for those who are vaccinated and still get sick, while others might not have any symptoms. The risk of infection, hospitalization, and death has been found to be much lower in vaccinated people compared to those unvaccinated.
In her obituary, statistics of the COVID-19 death toll were used to further encourage the unvaccinated which was met with mixed responses.
“She was preceded in death by more than 4,531,799 others infected with Covid-19,” said the obituary, referring to the worldwide Covid death toll.
The obituary reads that Candace Ayers was ‘born on June 28, 1955, in Mobile, Alabama, the daughter of Thomas and Beverly Kruger. Candy was an Air Force brat and lived a short time in Okinawa, Japan where her father was stationed on a military base with her mother. She married Terry Gene Ayers on October 7, 1978.
‘Candy graduated from Pawnee High School in 1973. She was an orthodontic assistant for Drs. Sternstein, Bernardy & Groesch for many years before deciding to be a stay-at-home mom to raise her children. After her children were grown, she went back to work for five years at St. John’s Prairie Heart Institute at the Cardiac Cath Lab.
She loved her soap operas and reality tv and has passed that addiction onto her daughter. She also had a fine knack for speaking her mind, a great eye for detail, an amazing ability to organize and was quite possibly the best mom, wife, and Gagi in the entire world.
‘She is survived by her loving husband of nearly 43 years, Terry of Springfield; her children Marc (Samantha) Ayers of Springfield, and Amanda Foster and her triplet 5-year-old grandchildren Andie, Daniel, and Charlotte Foster of Springfield who were the loves of her life,’ the obituary read.
With 99% of all hospitalizations since January being among unvaccinated people, it’s no wonder that fully vaccinated Americans have a less than one in 13,000 chance of having severe breakthrough cases.
Americans who have received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have a less than one in 13,000 chance of a severe breakthrough case, according to a DailyMail.com analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
More than 99 percent of Covid hospitalizations and deaths in the U.S. since January 2021 have occurred in unvaccinated people. More than 177 million Americans have been fully vaccinated as of September 9.
This number includes about 63 percent of all eligible Americans (over age 12), 65 percent of adults, and 82 percent of seniors.
As of August 30, a total of 12,908 Americans have been hospitalized or died with Covid after being fully vaccinated. About 173 million Americans had been fully vaccinated by that date – meaning the chance of a severe breakthrough case is less than one in 13,000.
Among those with severe breakthrough cases, 10,471 had been hospitalized – through about 2,400 of those hospitalizations were asymptomatic or not Covid-related.
Similarly, 2,437 Americans have died after contracting a breakthrough infection – but about 500 of those deaths were asymptomatic or not directly caused by COVID-19.
180 million U.S. residents are currently fully vaccinated accounting for 54.7% of the population. Approximately 63% of the U.S. population has received at least one dose.
The data demonstrate how well vaccines continue to work, even against the Delta variant, at preventing serious illness.
Among older patients (over age 65), a greater share of hospitalized patients were fully vaccinated: 32 percent. The median age for these breakthrough case-patients was 73 – compared to the median age of 59 for unvaccinated patients.
Breakthrough case-patients were also likely to have weakened immune systems – due to an organ transplant or cancer.
These vaccinated patients were likely to suffer from three or more underlying medical conditions, such as obesity, gastrointestinal diseases, and neurological conditions.
A recent CDC study, conducted amid the spread of the Delta variant in the US and published earlier this month, found that around 46,312 cases or 8 percent of the total Covid cases between 4 April and 17 July in 13 jurisdictions were breakthrough infections.
“I would just wish (unvaccinated people) would read the story of my mom, what we as a family went through and see if that’s something they want to put their loved ones through because I can probably assure you that it’s not,” Mr. Ayers said.
The ‘crisis standards of care’ allow these hospitals to prioritize patients who are more likely to survive while providing less care for others. In addition, vaccination protects people who are not yet able to get their shots. The majority of Covid cases in children are currently occurring in states with lower vaccination rates – where parents pass the infection to their kids.