NC man’s TikTok video says unvaccinated COVID patients cost dying wife a hospital bed
A Mooresville man whose wife died of Stage IV breast cancer has drawn millions of views on TikTok after he blasted unvaccinated people for filling hospital beds needed by non-COVID patients like his wife.
Jason Arena says in the video (caution: video contains profanity) that his wife, Marilyn Arena, was discharged after only two days because the hospital told the couple they needed the beds for people streaming in with COVID-19. He doesn’t name the hospital in his video.
As a result, he said, his wife never had fluid drained and other needed procedures.
Marilyn Arena died on Aug. 20, 15 days after he posted the video, Arena told local and national media outlets this week, including CNN and WBTV.
“Ninety-nine percent of everybody that’s in the hospital with COVID right now is unvaccinated,” Arena says in his Aug. 5 video, which has drawn about 5 million views. “If you really (vulgarity) believe that COVID is not real, and you really believe that’s not a big deal, and you really believe you don’t need to get the vaccine, that is your (vulgarity) right, OK? I’m not going to argue with you about that.
“What I am going to argue with you about is you running to the hospital once you get the virus,” he says. “If you don’t trust the medical field to prevent you from getting it, why do you trust them to cure you from it?
“ ... Stick to your (vulgarity) guns and keep your (vulgarity) ass at home. Stop running to the hospital and putting everybody else at risk,” he says in the video. “People like my wife ... get kicked out of the hospital because your dumb ass is too stupid to go get a vaccine shot.”
Arena did not immediately reply to a text from The Charlotte Observer on Thursday.
On Wednesday, he told WBTV that he and his wife went to a hospital in August because she was having trouble breathing.
”We were there for 13 hours, waiting for a room,” he told the station. “She didn’t get comfortable, by no fault of the hospital staff, until 10 o’clock p.m. We got there at 4:30 in the morning.”
Charlotte doctors appealed again this week for the unvaccinated to get their shots, as the vast majority of coronavirus patients in hospital intensive care units were unvaccinated against the disease, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.
Many people who posted comments on TikTok in response to Arena’s video agreed with his plea for the unvaccinated to stay home.
“yes they should stop taking care of the unvaxed, just like I’ve stopped caring about them, friends and family too,” one man posted.
Others posted their refusal to get vaccinated and said Arena got their intentions wrong.
“It’s not that we don’t believe covid is real, we don’t believe that vaccine will be 100% safe months/years from now!!” a person posted on TikTok.
“My father died from Covid and had the shot,” wrote another.
Another man wrote that while he will not take the vaccine, he agreed with Arena that the surge of COVID patients has taken beds from patients with other critical needs.
“I’m not taking those shots,” the man posted after expressing sympathy for Arena’s loss. “I do stay home but I wouldn’t take ur wife’s room!”
Replied Arena: “Your a responsible person, that’s all I’m asking for! Finally, someone gets it! Thank you.”
This story was originally published September 2, 2021 at 5:09 PM.