“Strongly Conservative” Man Is Sorry About Something

The Associated Press reports:

Daryl Barker was passionately against a COVID-19 vaccination, and so were his relatives. Then 10 of them got sick and Barker, at just 31, ended up in a Missouri intensive care unit fighting for his life.

“I was strongly against getting the vaccine,” Barker said through labored breathing. “Just because we’re a strong conservative family.” He arrived critically ill. Placed on a ventilator, Barker was given a 20% chance of surviving.

Daryl and Billie Barker both plan to get vaccinated once he recovers. Daryl said his wife and son are why he’s fighting so hard. “I don’t ever want to have to do this again,” Billie said, “and if that means getting a vaccination to prevent something like this, that’s what I’ll do.”

Read the full article.

God, the scene at the end of this story, where the man’s wife and son sit outside his hospital window in lawn chairs, sweltering, just to keep him company….https://t.co/QMMiRv15VT

— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) July 29, 2021

“Hospitalization” is a clinical word, cold and abstract. In reality, it means a 31-year-old man with no preexisting conditions is put on a ventilator and told to say goodbye to his 6-year-old son. https://t.co/YPGQJgjoKV

— Justin Miller (@justinjm1) July 29, 2021