The War on Love: Were expectant mothers murdered in US hospitals to promote the Covid-19 agenda?
The War on Love: Were expectant mothers murdered in US hospitals to promote the Covid-19 agenda?
“It’s still the same old story. A fight for love and glory. A case of do-or-die.” As Time Goes By, Herman Hupfeld
The iconic movie “Casablanca” premiered in November 1942, when the outcome of World War II was in doubt and when its American producers sought to uplift the spirits of the people in Allied countries. The movie proved tremendously popular around the world and clearly remains held in high esteem by critics, as illustrated by its being chosen by the Writers Guild of America as the best screenplay ever written. ( https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News_2006/04/07/Film-writers-pick-Casablanca-as-best/97351144445938 movie available at https://www.moviefone.com/movie/casablanca/6331/where-to-watch/).
Casablanca adeptly weaves a love story into a wartime setting, and it may strike some odd that the combination of love and war might be so appealing. Author Rick Riordan addressed this point with a character in his youth-oriented literature series The Heroes of Olympus (The Mark of Athena) when describing the relationship between Aphrodite and Ares: “Love and War always go together. They are the peaks of human emotion! Evil and good, beauty and ugliness.” Love can even be used as a weapon of war, as illustrated by the Biblical story (Book of Judges, Chapter 16) of Samson and Delilah.
However, love in its truest form encompasses much more than simply romantic love. As nineteenth century poet and philosopher Robert Browning put succinctly, “Motherhood: All love begins and ends there.” And novelist Agatha Christie imparted: “A mother’s love for her child is like nothing else in the world. It knows no law, no pity. It dares all things and crashes down remorselessly all that stands in its path.”
Is there, then, anything which better illustrates true love than an expectant mother - romantic love combined with the promise of the love of one’s own child. Surely, this aspect of our humanity is recognized throughout all cultures of the world: Pregnant women must be protected. Our innate, emotional response to a pregnant woman in danger is strong; we go to great lengths to ensure her safety at any cost, in part because we value the love she represents.
The corollary is that an entity which would use our instinct to protect pregnant women as a means of achieving personal gain is immoral. And a ruthless, violent attack on expectant mothers would be pure evil -nothing short of a declaration of war on love itself.
I expect that the very notion laid out in the title of this essay is so repugnant that some may avoid reading another word. Nonetheless, I believe the only way out of the dilemma we face is to tell the truth. So for those who can bear to contemplate the darkest aspects of human nature, let us proceed cautiously. I intend to illustrate that many of the individual involved in the next several pages have been deceived and perhaps, use poor judgment, as I will illustrate with an example. Others, however, I believe have deliberately executed one of the most malicious plans in human history.
***
In late January 2021, an article with 37 co-authors titled, “Disease severity, pregnancy outcomes, and maternal deaths among pregnant patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection in Washington State” was published online. (link: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33515516/ )
The medical journal article was quickly cited by press reports, such as the Daily Mail UK, on 27 January 2021 (link https://dailymail.co.uk/health/article-9194273/Pregnant-women-COVID-19-13-times-likely-die-compared-not-expecting-babies.html , emphasis added). Excerpts are given here:
“'We wanted to come together very quickly to understand the impact of the disease on our pregnant patients and their outcomes,' senior author Dr. Kristina Adams Waldorf, an obstetrician-gynecologist with the University of Washington School of Medicine, told DailyMail.com… there were three deaths among the pregnant patients for a maternal mortality rate of 1,250 out of 100,000 pregnancies, or 1.2 percent. This rate is 13.6 times higher than the 91.7 deaths out of 100,000 patients, or 0.09 percent, of the non-pregnant 20 to 39 year olds. 'We were shocked that we had so many women who died of COVID-19 because maternal deaths are really very rare in the state,' Adams Waldorf said. 'We only have a handful a year and these are three that happened in just a few months...and in spite of all the best care there is to provide.' What's more, the three women who died of COVID-19 were from minority ethnic groups and had other health conditions such as obesity and hypertension.”
The Seattle Times newspaper (link: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/washington-study-finds-pregnant-patients-with-covid-19-have-a-higher-risk-of-death-hospitalization/ ) also reported the group’s findings on 27 January 2021, stating (emphasis added):
“For the first several months of the pandemic, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assured pregnant patients they were in no greater danger from the novel coronavirus than anyone else. It wasn’t until the agency analyzed national data last summer that they discovered pregnant people with COVID-19 appeared to be at higher risk for serious illness and hospitalization. Now, a new study from Washington state confirms those results and also finds a much higher risk of death than previously reported, suggesting the peril to pregnant patients continues to be underestimated across the country. The analysis found the COVID-19 mortality rate among them was more than 13 times higher than among those of similar ages who were not pregnant. Those pregnant women with COVID-19 were also 3.5 times more likely to be hospitalized due to the disease and had higher rates of preterm birth.
‘The idea that pregnant patients were protected from COVID-19 is a myth,’ said lead author Dr. Kristina Adams Waldorf, an obstetrician at the University of Washington School of Medicine….
Adams Waldorf and her colleagues, who represent a collaboration among the 35 largest medical centers across the state, followed 240 pregnant women who tested positive for the novel coronavirus last year between March 1 and June 30. Most of the women had mild illness and no problems with their pregnancies. But 10% were hospitalized due to COVID-19, compared to 2.8% among the comparison group, according to the study published Wednesday in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Three women died from the virus — representing 1.3% of the expectant patients. That’s a “shockingly high rate,” Adams Waldorf said, and far more than the 0.1% mortality among similarly aged people in Washington who were not pregnant.
‘It’s really, really rare for pregnant women to die and we work really hard to keep them alive,’ Adams Waldorf said. ‘To fail in these three instances says a lot about the disease and how it impacts pregnant patients.’ The women in the study who died were from ethnic minority groups and had other health conditions, including obesity and high blood pressure.”
On 28 January 2021, merely one day after the UK Daily Mail and Seattle Times news stories on the University of Washington led study, the New York Times published an article titled “Pregnant Women Get Conflicting Advice on Covid-19 Vaccines” (excerpts here):
“The W.H.O. and the C.D.C. provide differing views, and experts partly blame a lack of data because expectant mothers have been excluded from clinical trials.” (by Apoorva Mandavilli and Roni Caryn Rabin, Published Jan. 28, 2021):
“Pregnant women looking for guidance on Covid-19 vaccines are facing the kind of confusion that has dogged the pandemic from the start: The world’s leading public health organizations — the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the World Health Organization — are offering contradictory advice. Neither organization explicitly forbids or encourages immunizing pregnant women. But weighing the same limited studies, they provide different recommendations. The C.D.C.’s advisory committee urged pregnant women to consult with their doctors before rolling up their sleeves — a decision applauded by several women’s health organizations because it kept decision making in the hands of the expectant mothers. The W.H.O. recommended that pregnant women not receive the vaccine, unless they were at high risk for Covid because of work exposures or chronic conditions… The difference of opinion between the C.D.C. and the W.H.O. is not rooted in scientific evidence, but the lack of it: Pregnant women have been barred from participating in clinical trials of the vaccines, a decision in line with a long tradition of excluding pregnant women from biomedical research, but one that is now being challenged. While the rationale is ostensibly to protect women and their unborn children, barring pregnant women from studies pushes the risk out of the carefully controlled environment of a clinical trial and into the real world. The practice has forced patients and providers to weigh sensitive, worrisome issues with little hard data about safety or effectiveness… In a statement, the C.D.C. said on Thursday that based on how the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines work, “they are unlikely to pose a specific risk for pregnant women.” …Covid-19 has also proved to be dangerous to pregnant women. A large C.D.C. study published in November found that pregnant women with Covid who were symptomatic were significantly more likely to be hospitalized or to die when compared with nonpregnant women who also had Covid symptoms. The evidence prompted agency officials to add pregnancy to the list of conditions that heighten the risk of severe disease and death from Covid.”
***
The earlier New York Times story on the CDC study from November 2020 (https://web.archive.org/web/20211230190151/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/02/health/Covid-pregnancy-health-risks.html ) is excepted here, with emphasis added:
“The study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the largest such study so far, examined the outcomes of 409,462 symptomatic women ages 15 to 44 who tested positive for the coronavirus, 23,434 of whom were pregnant. “We are now saying pregnant women are at increased risk for severe illness. Previously we said they ‘might be' at increased risk for severe illness,” said Sascha Ellington, a health scientist with the C.D.C., and one of the authors of the new study… Still, Dr. Ellington emphasized that the overall risk of both complications and death was low. “The absolute risk of these severe outcomes is low among women 15 to 44, regardless of pregnancy status, but what we do see is an increased risk associated with pregnancy,” she said… (T)he pregnant patients in the new study were 1.7 times more likely to die than nonpregnant patients. That amounted to a death rate of 1.5 per 1,000 cases among the symptomatic pregnant women, compared with 1.2 per 1,000 cases of symptomatic women who were not pregnant.”
Close examination of the numbers, indicate that At 1.5 per 1,000 cases and 23,434 cases, the number of pregnant women who died with symptomatic covid for this study conducted in 2020 is 1.5 *23.434 = 35 deaths. (Note that 34 deaths were actually reported in the study, which corresponds to a rate of 1.451 per 1,000 cases).
At 1.2 per 1,000 cases and the same 23,434 cases, one would have expected 1.2* 23.434 = 28 deaths. What this means is that the cited difference in death rate actually would correspond to only 35 - 28 =7 actual deaths. (Note that the rate is determined from 447 out of 368,028 non-pregnant women who died = 1.215 per 1,000 cases.)
Thus, using the rates in the New York Times article, the key outcome of the CDC’s “large study” of 409,462 women, which indeed is a large number, hinged on the deaths of only 7 pregnant women. At this point, an observant reader might ponder, ‘How did they work out a stated 70% increase from these rates, which they also report, since 35 = 1.25*28?’ In other words, using the rates alone, the reported increase would have been 25 percent instead of the reported value of 70 percent. The reason relates to statistical adjustments and will be addressed later in this article.
And what of the University of Washington paper that showed a 13.6 times increase in deaths? The CDC report (link: https://web.archive.org/web/20211230190154/https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6944e3.htm?s_cid=mm6944e3_w ) states that:
“This analysis included cases initially reported to CDC during January 22–October 3, 2020, with data updated as of October 28, 2020. Cases were limited to those in symptomatic women aged 15–44 years in the United States with laboratory-confirmed infection (detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in a clinical specimen using a molecular amplification detection test). Information on demographic characteristics, pregnancy status, underlying medical conditions, symptoms, and outcomes was collected.”
The study conducted by the University of Washington collected considerable data in addition to deaths, some of which are reported in a complementary paper by the same authors (link: https://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(21)00098-3/fulltext ) However, the ‘study design’ and ‘key findings’ descriptions suggest that the data for deaths of Covid-positive pregnant women overlaps with the data collected for the CDC study. In other words, the news articles in the Daily Mail UK and Seattle Times on the UW-led study published on 27 January 2021, which emphasized the three deaths of pregnant women with Covid-19, were reporting on a geographical subset of data that had already been widely shared through the CDC study publicized in November 2020. While the other data collected by the UW-led team was arguably newsworthy, the media naturally paid more attention to the deaths reported. The misleading perception that the UW-led data was independent of the CDC data served the purposes of those who promoted the vaccine for pregnant women. Specifics of the UW-led study design and key findings are given here:
“Study design: Pregnant patients with a polymerase chain reaction-confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection between March 1, 2020, and June 30, 2020, were identified in a multicenter retrospective cohort study from 35 sites in Washington State. Sites captured 61% of annual state deliveries. Case-fatality rates in pregnancy were compared with coronavirus disease 2019 fatality rates in similarly aged adults in Washington State using rate ratios and rate differences. Maternal and neonatal outcomes were compared by trimester of infection and disease severity at the time of delivery.
Key findings: In a multicenter retrospective cohort study of facilities covering 61% of annual births in Washington State, there were 240 pregnant patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infections, 24 COVID-19–associated hospitalizations (10%), and 3 maternal deaths (1.25%). The COVID-19 case-fatality rate in pregnant patients was 13.6-fold higher than similarly aged individuals with COVID-19.”
Interestingly, while the study period for cases is said to end on 30 June 2020, fatalities as late as 26 September might have been among the three counted. As the study states:
“Hospitalization and case-fatality rates at the state level were estimated between March 1, 2020, and September 26, 2020, because outcomes were collected for some study participants through September and to account for the lag between infection detection and mortality outcomes.”
This means that it is possible that a pregnant woman who tested positive for Covid-19 in March but who did not die until late September could still have been counted by the study authors as a death attributable to Covid-19. The authors do provide some very interesting details of the individuals who died but do not provide (1) the dates that each first tested positive for Covid-19, (2) the date they delivered the baby (for the two who did), (3) the date of release from the hospital (for one woman), nor (4) the dates of their respective deaths. From the paper:
“The 3 pregnant patients who died owing to COVID-19 disease were all publicly insured, aged 35 to 39 years, and from minority racial-ethnic groups. Each had significant comorbidities that included obesity, hypertension, autoimmune disease, or congenital heart disease. Notably, 2 of the maternal deaths occurred during the early postpartum period and 1 in the first trimester; 1 patient died from respiratory failure before she could have benefited from COVID-19 therapeutics. One died from a postpartum pulmonary embolus after recovering from a prolonged COVID-19 hospitalization where she received venous thromboprophylaxis during and after her hospital stay. A third patient died of respiratory failure after a prolonged ICU stay despite multiple COVID-19 therapeutics. One of the 2 neonates born to women, who died postpartum, was healthy. The other neonate was preterm and admitted to the neonatal ICU (NICU) for respiratory distress; SARS-CoV-2 testing data were missing for this neonate.”
One patient died during her first trimester. Since the other two were hospitalized, logic dictates that she was the patient who died before receiving COVID-19 therapeutics. Thus, and it seems from the description “before she could have benefited from therapeutics” that her death was sudden.
A second patient died after having been released from the hospital for Covid-19 and after giving birth - in other words, when she was no longer pregnant. The authors state that her Covid-19 hospital stay was “prolonged,” but they do not give the details of what this means. For instance, it could be that the woman was hospitalized for Covid-19 (1) from 1 April through 15 April, (2) gave birth in early May, (3) was released from the hospital in mid-May, and (4) died on 26 September. Or it could be that she had Covid-19 (1) from 16 June through 30 June, (2) gave birth in early July, (3) was released in mid-July, and (4) died the day after she was released from the hospital.
Clearly, these two very different timelines would influence an objective person opinion of whether the death is truly attributable to Covid-19 or whether Covid-19 was simply a nuisance which likely had little effect on the outcome of the patient. Since the study does not provide the details, the understanding of the general public is limited. Is it possible that this might be purposeful?
The description of the death of the third woman suggests that she may have been placed on a ventilator prior to giving birth. In such instances, as will be described, a Caesarian section is often performed. The baby lived through the ordeal, but the mother did not survive. This turned out to be a fairly regular occurrence when a Caesarian section when a pregnant woman was placed on a ventilator, as will be documented through examples below.
To place the number of deaths in the study into context, it is useful to determine how likely it is that whether the outcome of “3 deaths” truly is. We can approach the problem by considering some birth statistics for 2020, which compare state of Washington to the numbers for the entire US.
https://doh.wa.gov/data-and-statistical-reports/washington-tracking-network-wtn/birth-outcomes-data (54,529 births in Washington state in 2020)
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/births.htm (3,613,647 total births in the US in 2020)
Percentage of births for Washington is: 84,529/3,613,647 = 0.0234 which could also be expressed as 1 in 42.75. So every time there is a birth in the US, there is about a 1 in 43 chance the birth would occur in the state of Washington.
Since the pool of hospital facilities in the study only covered 61% of births in Washington state, the percentage of births in the US corresponding to one in the study drops to 0.61 * 0.0234 = 0.01426. Taking the inverse of this value, once can determine that there is about a 1 in 70 chance of a birth recorded in the US corresponds to a birth in the study.
How many deaths of pregnant women with Covid-19 should we expect to see in the University of Washington study? Let’s start by making a set of assumptions which would make the outcome as large as possible. To accomplish this step, one can first consult the CDC database available (at the time of this writing): https://web.archive.org/web/20221222184647/https:/stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/119588
A very useful chart, accompanied with a table, shows that between 1 March and 30 September 2020, the CDC reported a total of 66 deaths in the entire US of pregnant women due to Covid-19. Since the very last day of follow-up for the study was 26 September, one might use this value.
If the number of deaths of pregnant women in the US due to Covid-19 within this time frame were a little higher, at 70 instead of 65, the math would be pretty straightforward. We would be able to say that the number of deaths in the study would be expected to be (1/70) * 70 = 1. In other words, suppose there are 70 slots in a Roulette wheel, all with equal likelihood of being a winner. If you gambled on the wheel 70 times, on average you would win once. Obviously, you could win more than once (if you are lucky) or you could also win zero times (if you are unlucky).
When working out the chances of winning a certain number of times, a statistical tool called a Poisson distribution can be used. Since there are only 66 deaths instead of 70, one computes the average times of winning as a fraction (or decimal): 66/70 = 0.943.
The value 0.943 is he would be the “expected outcome” while the “actual number of occurrences” for this circumstance in the University of Washington led study is 3, in other words, more than three times higher. The calculation of the likelihood of having three more occurrences can be attained with an online calculator (see for example, https://www.stepbystepsolutioncreator.com/pr/poi ). The Poisson distribution model (remember: under these very favorable circumstances for expecting a high number), then would predict that an outcome of 3 or more deaths in this study would occur by chance only 7.0 percent of the time.
But there is a problem with using September as the cutoff because this approach neglects the possibility that some deaths might have occurred among pregnant women in the same group of hospital facilities with onset of symptoms occurring after 1 July combined with a death occurring prior to 30 September. After all, the single reported case of a pregnant woman who died in her first trimester suggested that it occurred so quickly that no treatment could be offered. Those deaths would not have been included in the count for the study, and so using 30 September, rather than 30 June, as the end date biases the data toward a considerably higher likelihood.
Furthermore, the CDC chart includes this curious footnote: “Date of death is used for reporting, and if missing, then date of diagnosis is used.” It seems strange to me that the CDC would not have a date of death, at least the month of death, for each patient. However, since the actual dates of death for the three women are not provided in the UW study, it is conceivable that all three deaths in the study period were shown by the CDC as corresponding to the time period ending 30 June 2020, at which time only 38 deaths of “pregnant women with Covid-19” had been recorded in the US. In that instance the (fractional) “expected number” of deaths within the study would be: (1/70) * 38 = 0.543. For such a circumstance, the Poisson distribution model predicts three or more as an “actual outcome” would occur only 1.8 percent of the time.
But another way of looking at the problem suggests that having three deaths as the actual outcome of the study, is even more unlikely. The outcome also depends on the rate of infection and/or rate of death due to Covid-19 in Washington compared to other states. For example, if Covid-19 occurred at a disproportionately high rate in Washington, one might expect the likelihood of death due to Covid-19 among pregnant women to be higher than the national average there. In fact, precisely the opposite circumstance occurred. According to the following reference, Washington state ranked 39th among the 50 states in the US in rate of Covid in the US, and every single one of the states with lower rates have a population lower than that of Washington.
By contrast, both the case rate and the death rate in several of the most populous states were substantial higher than that of Washington. For Washington, the case rate through 26 July 2020 was reported to be 698 per 100,000 people while the death rate was reported to be 23 per 100,000. Compare those values to the highly populated state of New York with a case rate of 2,107 per 100,000 and death rate of 128 per 100,000. New Jersey had an even higher case rate (2,013 per 100,000) and death rate of (177 per 100,000). Data for these states along with Illinois, Massachusetts, and Louisiana (each of which are populous than Washington) are given for comparison below. If one accounts for such a disparity in cases and/or deaths, the likelihood of the outcome for the UW-led study using the Roulette wheel model would certainly drop far below 1 percent.
How do we reconcile this unlikely outcome of 3 deaths in Washington state during the prescribed time period? Well, we have to remember that the Roulette-wheel-model only works when there is a random chance of events occurring. In other words, it is assumed that there is an equally likelihood that the ball would land on the slot with the number 1 as there is that it would land on the slot with, for example, the number 22.
To learn more about whether “other factors” might have led to this outcome, which suggests that “non-random factors” might have come into play, I performed an internet search was using the combination of terms “pregnant covid died Washington.” While privacy is a concern for some, there is certainly no shame associated with a friend or family member dying of Covid-19, so I thought perhaps some stories might be available. Yet I found no media, either news or social, that covered the deaths of any of the three women. However, when the state of Washington was replaced with other states, I did find several specific results in which family and friends were interviewed. In order to spot trends and patterns, I arranged the reports chronologically and highlighted areas I found interesting. For many instances, enlightening video reports are available in the given links, which are provided for each of the 46 personal accounts. For some of these 46, more than one media account is cited in order to provide different perspectives.
*** Media accounts of 46 Pregnant women who died of Covid-19 ***
Name, age, geographic information, date of death, and status of baby are provided in each heading. A picture of each woman, available from the internet search, is included.
1. Andrea Circle Bear, Age 30, South Dakota, April 2020, baby survived
“A pregnant inmate whose baby was delivered by cesarean section while she was on a ventilator after being hospitalized for coronavirus symptoms has died in federal custody.
“Pregnant South Dakota woman with COVID-19 dies in federal prison (Published: Apr. 29, 2020): The Bureau of Prisons says 30-year-old Andrea Circle Bear died Tuesday. She was hospitalized for about a month. The South Dakota woman is the 29th federal inmate to die in Bureau of Prisons custody since late March. Officials say she began exhibiting symptoms of the new coronavirus in late March, was hospitalized and put on a ventilator. Her baby was delivered by C-section the next day. She was serving a 26-month sentence for maintaining a drug-involved premises.”
Also: https://sfbayview.com/2020/05/andrea-circle-bear-dies-at-30-from-covid-19-in-a-texas-prison/
“Dear Friends, I write to you today with sad news that highlights so many of the layers of injustice we face as Native people. Here at the Lakota People’s Law Project, we’ve seen a lot and worked hard to address a variety of important issues over the past 15 years – among them criminal justice reform for American Indians. Now, in the coronavirus era, this problem has raised its ugly head again: A 30-year-old woman from my tribal nation, the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, died in federal custody in a Texas prison on Tuesday, April 21, just three weeks after giving birth. The cause of her death? COVID-19. How is it that one of our tribal members was taken from my homelands into custody by South Dakota state officials bent on ignoring the threat of coronavirus, and then shipped to a prison in another state that also ignores science – Texas – where she contracted a preventable disease that killed her? At no point in this process did Andrea have the power to protect herself – an age-old crisis here in Indian Country: lack of sovereignty. Who will someday explain to Andrea’s infant child how and why her mother died in the hands of the enemy? For a fuller picture of the circumstances surrounding Andrea’s premature and avoidable death, I encourage you to read this chilling article in The Guardian…” by Madonna Thunder Hawk, a Cheyenne River organizer with the Lakota People’s Law Project
Also see: https://theappeal.org/death-of-new-mother-at-federal-prison-hospital-prompts-calls-for-accountability-in-texas/ : Andrea Circle Bear, the first female federal prisoner to succumb to the novel coronavirus, was eight-and-a-half months pregnant in late March when she was sent to FMC Carswell, a prison medical facility in Texas. When she went into labor on April 1, a cesarean section was performed, because it’s impossible for a mother to push on a ventilator. While her baby was delivered safely, Circle Bear died last week of complications related to COVID-19. She was 30 years old. Despite being unlikely to pose much danger to society in her condition, Circle Bear was sent to Carswell when the coronavirus pandemic was well underway. Her death has sparked a growing chorus of criticism from criminal justice reform advocates and others, who say the government should have taken urgent steps to protect her. “The hard question is why a pregnant person is in jail and at risk of death from COVID-19 in the first place,” Dr. Joia Crear-Perry, a maternity and birth specialist and president of the National Birth Equity Collaborative, said. “Although birthing people are not at increased risk of acquiring the virus that we know of so far, we do know that if they become ill, two lives are at risk.” Circle Bear, who was Native, was serving a two-year sentence for a nonviolent drug offense. “She was serving a 26-month sentence that ended up being a death penalty,” Crear-Perry said. She and other criminal reform advocates are shocked by the senselessness of her death. “There were clear options that could have been implemented, such as home confinement or no sentence at all,” Anrica Caldwell, a criminal reform advocate with the group CAN-DO Foundation for Clemency, said. “If this nation can’t see the disregard for life given this preventable catastrophe, then we have totally gotten seduced by incarceration being the norm. And I don’t want to hear, ‘Don’t do the crime.’ Her death was a crime.”
2. Wogene Debele, Age 43 (per obituary), Takoma Park, MD, April 2020, baby survived
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-mother-covid-19-dies-before-meeting-newborn-baby/
Wogene Debele was nine months pregnant with her fourth child when she contracted COVID-19 and was admitted to the hospital. Doctors were able to deliver her baby boy three weeks ago, but because of the virus, Debele had to be separated from him immediately. This week, she lost her battle with the coronavirus before ever getting the chance to hold her newborn baby. On Wednesday, Mayor Kate Stewart of Takoma Park, Maryland, where Debele was a prominent member of the Ethiopian community, began the city's virtual council meeting with a moment of silence for the beloved local mother and her grieving family. "This evening, I'd like to start us off with a moment of silence," she said, displaying a picture of Debele with her husband and three older children. "Over the last few weeks, talking to family and friends, and especially today, one of the things that I learned is that her name means 'my community, my people.' And you could tell by her smile in this picture. She meant so much to our community, our broader city… among the Ethiopian community in our city, and in her family. She meant a great deal and it is a tragic loss for all of us right now." Nationwide, doctors say most pregnant women do not appear to be at a higher risk from the virus, and many show no symptoms at all, but for Debele that was tragically not the case. Debele's 17-year-old daughter Mihret serves on the city's Youth Council, lobbying for issues important to the young people in her community. After her mother's death, she sent a letter to the mayor thanking the community for the massive showing of support her family has received. Friends have set up a GoFundMe campaign to help support the family Debele leaves behind. "Wogene was kind, joyful, and a source of strength to her family and to all who knew her," it reads. "She leaves behind her husband Yilma Asfaw Tadesse, and her beloved children Mihret (17 years old), Naod (10 years old), Asher (4 years old), and the newborn Levi, whom she did not even have the chance to see…. Please continue to keep this family in your prayers." As of this article's publication, the campaign had raised just over $140,000 toward its $200,000 goal. (As of his writing, the amount is $268,165.)
See also: https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/mother-dies-coronavirus-after-birth-never-meets-baby/66-31118153-09d6-42b2-9461-59466cd6e119 (with video)
Her husband, Yilma Tadesse, said Debele was a woman with a "pure heart." "She loved people and she always put the needs of others before hers," he said in a statement. "She dedicated her life to helping those around her and hoped to be a mother figure for those around. I'm very heartbroken knowing that she never got to meet the baby or about the fact that none of us had the chance to say goodbye. What gives us peace in this time is knowing that she is in a better place." A GoFundMe page set up to support her family has raised $170,000 in two days.
3. Lolita Davis, Age 31, Chicago/Roseland, IL, May 2020, baby died
https://wgntv.com/news/coronavirus/idph-investigating-roseland-community-hospital-after-pregnant-woman-dies-of-covid-19/ (with video of whistleblower)
CHICAGO – The Illinois Department of Public Health is investigating Roseland Community Hospital after a pregnant woman died from coronavirus there in May. Back in May, 31-year-old Lolita Davis died at the hospital from COVID-19 with pregnancy as a contributing factor. At the time, Roseland Community Hospital said publicly that they’re underfunded, doing the most with least to save lives, and that they pray for every soul lost to COVID-19. But Therea Siaw said she was fired from the hospital’s board in June for sounding the alarm. She said the hospital was negligent with how they have handled the virus. Siaw alleges there’s been very long waits in the emergency room and for test results. She filed a complaint with the Illinois Department of Public Health, which launched an investigation. Even though Davis was 30 weeks pregnant, Siaw said she waited for hours to be seen. “She waited three hours in the ER waiting room without any monitors or anything,” Siaw said. “Then they took her to labor and delivery, where she died.” Siaw alleges people have died at the hospital due to faulty COVID-19 tests. “There’s negligence at that hospital, they have died due to false testing,” Siaw said. IDPH said the hospital could face federal decertification if problems are not corrected. View their full statement below…
See also https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/family-of-pregnant-mother-who-died-after-contracting-covid-19-files-suit-accuses-roseland-community-hospital-of-neglect (video of family)
Davis was 31 years old and pregnant with her fourth child when she called an ambulance to her Chicago apartment on May 15. "I was told she was having shortness of breath again," said her brother, Cory Davis. "I'm never going to see my sister again. That's what hurts me the most." The ambulance report, publicly revealed for the first time, shows Chicago paramedics arrive at Davis' home at 11:28 a.m. Complaints on the call log included vomiting, difficulty breathing, extremely high blood pressure – and a suspected case of Coronavirus, COVID-19. At 11:44 a.m., 16 minutes later, the ambulance arrives at Roseland Community Hospital. At 11:46 a.m., paramedics check Davis into the emergency room. But according to hospital medical records obtained by the CBS 2 Investigators, it was not until 2:54 p.m. that someone checked Davis' vital signs. That was more than three hours after she arrives. Her blood pressure remained high. At 4:11 p.m., Davis begins to slip away. Code Blue is called. At 4:13 p.m., doctors start compressions. At 4:20 p.m. and 4:24 p.m., shocks to the heart. At 4:51 p.m., doctors give up. Davis is dead. The cause of death listed on the Medical Examiner's report is COVID-19 complications. The cause of death according to the family? "She definitely was neglected," said Cory Davis. The family is suing Roseland for "wrongful death and medical negligence" Ashley Murray is their attorney. "Writing on a death certificate or having a positive COVID test should not and does not excuse hospitals from accurately treating and triaging patients and providing healthcare that the people count on," said Murray. Her argument? That the ER staff took too long to check Davis' vitals. "To have someone come in and sit in the emergency room for three hours and not be treated and not be seen and not have vitals taken and not have their medical record reviewed – it's just irresponsible," said Murray. The average wait time in emergency rooms across Illinois is just 19 minutes, according to the latest stats from the Illinois Department of Public Health. Roseland falls into a category of community hospitals with limited resources and tight budgets. There are 14 on that list. According to state records, Roseland has the second highest average wait time, 99 minutes. And when Davis' vitals were finally taken? "Her blood pressure is off the charts for somebody who is 30 weeks pregnant. And nothing is done. Her blood pressure got so high that she had a heart attack ," said Murray. "Telling the kids that their mother was gone. The look on their face, man. It was crazy. That day, that day was terrible," remembered Cannon. The children not only lost their mother, but Lolita Davis' unborn baby also died. It was a girl.
4. Allie Guidry, Age 29, Baton Rouge, LA, 25 June 2020, baby survived
https://www.wbrz.com/news/pregnant-woman-dies-of-covid-19-baby-successfully-delivered-at-baton-rouge-hospital (with short video)
BATON ROUGE - A pregnant woman from Baton Rouge passed away Thursday morning due to complications from COVID-19. Doctors at Woman's Hospital successfully delivered her two-pound baby, according to the family. The mother, Allie Guidry, was not due until October. Family tells WBRZ that Guidry was hospitalized with the virus at the end of May. She was placed on a ventilator a few weeks ago, and did not get better. Allie and her fiance both lived in Baton Rouge. "We'd like people to know to take this virus seriously," the woman's mother, Denise, said with the woman's boyfriend, Michael. "But do not stop living your life - be cautious, be careful. It's no joke." The family is asking for prayers, and says right now her baby is stable and currently being cared for in the NICU at Woman's Hospital. A gofundme page has been set up to assist the family with funeral expenses.
(The Go Fund Me has raised $39,832 as of Dec 2022.)
5. Bertha Esteban Diego, Age 25, Mesa, AZ, June 2020, baby survived
https://www.abc15.com/news/local-news/investigations/a-mesa-familys-message-after-mother-with-covid-19-dies-in-labor (with video)
MESA, AZ — A young Mesa mother infected with COVID-19 died while giving birth. Her husband spoke to the ABC15 Investigators with the hopes that he can bring awareness about the disease to the Latino community. “Everything will be okay. Take care of my son,” were the last words from Bertha Esteban Diego to Gaspar Diego before going into labor and passing away a few weeks ago. Gaspar explained what happened to ABC15 in Spanish, “Todavia estaba muy debil.” (“She was too weak still.”) Bertha and Gaspar got infected with COVID-19 just two weeks before giving birth to their second child, Daniel Diego. Daniel never got to meet his mother. “Se le paró el corazon,” (“Her heart stopped.”) said Gaspar. Bertha was only 25 years old. The couple had planned a wedding for the end of the year, but now Gaspar is left to mourn the love of his life while raising their two boys alone. All that in the middle of a pandemic that has struck the Latino community the hardest. Gaspar explained the shock he felt, “No podía creerlo porque no lo estaba viendo, era como un sueño, es un sueño.” (“I couldn’t believe it because I wasn’t there to see it. Like it was a dream, it’s a dream.”) Both parents contracted COVID-19, so Gaspar couldn’t be with his wife or their older son. This family now torn apart by coronavirus is hoping that sharing their story can save other people’s lives. “Decimos no es cierto, no me va tocar a mi, pero porque no lo han vivido esta enfermedad es muy dura y no se le desea a nadie.” (“We say this is not real, it won’t happen to me, but you say that because you haven’t lived it. This is a difficult disease; I wouldn't wish it upon anyone.”) Gaspar says he will cherish the memories he has of his wife forever and is thankful for their baby Daniel who, despite his tragic birth, remains a healthy baby boy full of joy. If you would like to help the family visit their GoFundMe page.
6. Cindy Zepeda, Age 38, Monrovia, CA, July 2020, baby died (second trimester)
Cindy Zepeda, an employee at a Baldwin Park call center for Kaiser Permanente, started feeling ill. It was July, about five months into the coronavirus pandemic, but the Monrovia resident wasn’t sure if it was COVID-19. So she waited about three days after first experiencing symptoms to get tested. The next day she received the result: Positive. Three days later, Zepeda died at home. She was 38. She was the proud mother of a 21-year-old daughter serving in the U.S. Navy. And she was pregnant. It was a shocking turn of events that shattered her daughter, Scheccid Zepeda, stationed at the time in Japan. The two had a close bond. In a way, the younger Zepeda said, the pair grew up together, since her mother had her as a teenager and was a single mom. “Being her only child, I keep thinking I’m not going to get another message from her, another phone call,” Scheccid Zepeda said in a telephone interview recently from Japan. “She’s not going to see me get married or be able to hug her future grandchildren.” For the sailor, dealing with the loss — which also included her prenatal sibling — has been especially difficult because she was so far away at the time of her mother’s death. She had plans to return home when her mother died suddenly. “I tried to stay in communication with her,” Scheccid Zepeda said. “She was looking forward to seeing me and we had plans for when I got back.” While the overall risk of severe COVID-19 symptoms for pregnant women is low, physicians say, pregnancy does increase the chances of severe illness. In Cindy Zepeda’s case, there could have been other contributing factors, though it’s impossible to know for certain without more information, said Dr. Erin Saleeby, chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. “For those pregnant women who end up having a severe form of COVID, it can be an especially severe form,” Saleeby said. “Yes, there is some increased risk, but in absolute numbers, it’s a smaller group of women who will develop severe disease.” It’s possible there could have been other factors contributing to Cindy Zepeda’s seemingly sudden death, Saleeby said. She had diabetes, one of the pre-existing conditions known to worsen outcomes from the coronavirus. And she was also pregnant, which at age 38 carries risks of its own, such as pulmonary embolism related to blood clotting, something also caused by severe cases of COVID-19. “With limited information, it sounds more like her case could be related to some of the known, though rare, factors, which include pulmonary embolism,” Saleeby said. “In the first trimester, we aren’t seeing any increased risk for having additional care needs when compared to non-pregnant people.” Every pregnant woman, Saleeby said, should pay special attention to their health and if they experience difficulty breathing while doing simple tasks around the house, they should consult their doctor. “It’s not unusual to deteriorate really quickly,” Saleeby said. “From symptoms, it can take up to a week. It would be very uncommon, though, to have truly mild symptoms and then an acute episode of death.” Scheccid Zepeda said her mother reported feeling weak so she went to an emergency room, where doctors instructed her to return home — though the daughter said she was unsure why. “She said her lungs were hurting,” Scheccid Zepeda said, “and she was having a hard time catching her breath and wasn’t able to walk.” As the coronavirus pandemic drags on, it’s become clear — based on protests to reopen businesses and family gatherings that led to a post Thanksgiving surge — that many of those personally unaffected by the disease may view COVID-19 as nothing more than meaningless numbers and headlines. But for people like Scheccid Zepeda — one of countless family members and friends mourning for the more than 9,000 L.A. County residents who have died from coronavirus-related causes — the pandemic is all too real. “I feel like until someone close to them gets impacted, they won’t take it seriously,” Scheccid Zepeda said. “If someone out in the street told me this is fake, this is not real, it’s just a bunch of bogus stuff, I would tell them I lost my mom to this.” Her mother was one of the 122 health care workers and first responders who have died from coronavirus-related causes as of Dec. 16. The majority of those worked at skilled nursing facilities, but others such as Cindy Zepeda worked tangential to patient care. In recent weeks, there’s been a dramatic rise in coronavirus cases among health care workers, with more than 5,500 testing positive within the past three weeks just as hospitals were treating a record number of coronavirus patients. “Healthcare workers have been on the front lines battling this pandemic for 10 months,” Gisella Thomas, a respiratory therapist at Desert Regional Medical Center, said in a statement on behalf of the California health care workers union that represented Cindy Zepeda. “Families are missing loved ones lost to COVID-19, and healthcare workers are mourning their co-workers and friends who succumbed to the virus. “We strongly encourage everyone,” Thomas added, “to help overwhelmed healthcare workers – and themselves – by wearing a mask, practicing social distancing, and staying home.” Scheccid Zepeda, for her part, said she would forever remember her mother as a loving and caring woman who enjoyed her job helping people with their health needs. She loved to read books. She made scarves. And she loved her daughter very much. “There was not a day when she said she hated her job,” Scheccid Zepeda said. “She would go for the overtime. She would do anything she could. If she wasn’t able to help, she would reach out to someone else who could.” Cindy Zepeda was also on her way to having another child. But her pregnancy was only in the first trimester, so the baby wasn’t yet able to live outside the womb. So now Scheccid Zepeda is alone. But, the sailor said, she would continue to be strong in the days to come — making her mother proud. “That was my only parent,” she said. “Now I have to guide myself to be an adult.”
7. Aurora Duran, age 35, Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, July 2020, baby survived
https://www.fox9.com/news/brooklyn-center-woman-dies-after-giving-birth-on-ventilator-battling-covid-19 (with video)
Juan Duran’s wife, Aurora, was on a ventilator at North Memorial Hospital since June 19. Since then, her baby was delivered via emergency C-section. Aurora died in the hospital on Sunday, July 19, according to the family's GoFundMe page. “She’s one of the strongest persons I’ve ever known," said Juan at the time. In the beginning of June, Duran says his wife, who was pregnant with their third child, started getting symptoms of coronavirus. He says she was coughing non-stop and after having trouble breathing, they decided to take her to the hospital. On June 19, she was put on a ventilator. “She is a 35-year-old healthy woman with no pre-existing conditions,” Duran said. “We never thought this could happen to our family.” A few days later, on June 23, Duran got a call from his wife’s doctors telling him she needed to have an emergency C-section to save her and the baby’s life. “That’s when it hit me. I was thinking ‘okay she’s going to get through this, a few days at the hospital.’ But when I received that phone call it just hit me,” Duran said. Aurora delivered a ten-weeks premature, but healthy, baby girl named Andrea. Even though she was on a ventilator during the surgery and still is, Duran says she is somewhat alert. He believes she can see and hear him and understands most of what’s happening. Their baby, Andrea, is in the NICU but is continuing to grow and get stronger… Duran says the doctors tell him their only other option is to get her on an ECMO, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, machine which performs the functions of the heart and lungs from outside the body. North Memorial Hospital says they are not able to offer the ECMO treatment to Aurora. She later died: https://nypost.com/2020/07/21/mom-dies-of-covid-19-weeks-after-giving-birth-on-ventilator “She is a 35-year-old healthy woman with no pre-existing conditions,” Duran told the station, prior to his wife’s death. “We never thought this could happen to our family.”
8. Erika Becerra, Age 33, Detroit, MI, died December 2020, baby lived
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/08/us/covid-death-pregnant-mom-trnd/index.html (with video)
“Erika Becerra was eight months pregnant when she was diagnosed with Covid-19. In November, she was induced and gave birth to a healthy baby boy. After an otherwise normal delivery in Detroit, Michigan, Becerra was immediately intubated because she was having trouble breathing. Three weeks later, on Friday, Becerra died. Because she was intubated and Covid-19 positive, she never got the opportunity to hold her son, her brother, Michael Avilez, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday… Becerra’s family traveled from Los Angles to Detroit where Becerra, her husband and their 1-year-old daughter live, Avilez told CNN affiliate KCAL. … In November, Becerra spent a weekend at the hospital after having contractions, but when she came home on a Monday, she began having difficulty breathing and moving around. Three days later, an ambulance took her to the hospital and on Friday, doctors had decided to induce her labor because her health “wasn’t getting any better,” Avilez said. On November 15, Becerra’s son, Diego, was born. “Right after she gave birth to her son, they put her on a tube because her body wasn’t retaining oxygen anymore and after that she wasn’t able to meet her newborn baby,” Avilez said. Becerra stayed on a ventilator until December 3, when she succumbed to the virus, Avilez said. “Towards the last moments, she was tearing up,” Avilez told KCAL. “I know she heard us as we prayed for her, we talked to her, we comforted her in the last moments.” Other than being pregnant, Becerra didn’t have any underlying health conditions, Avilez told KCAL. He said his brother-in-law, niece and new nephew all tested negative for Covid-19. To help with funeral expenses, the family has set up a GoFundMe account. On Sunday, Southern California and San Joaquin Valley residents were put under a three-week stay-at-home order after the intensive care unit capacity in the two regions fell below 15%, triggering a mandate issued by the governor last week aimed at slowing the rising numbers of Covid-19 hospitalizations. [Note: At the 2:08 mark of the video, Michael Avilez (brother of victim) said: “…She stayed the weekend at the hospital. She came home. She called my mom, she called my mom that Monday morning. She’s all like, ‘Mom, you know it’s - I think they hurt me at the hospital. Uh… it hurts to breathe. You know, it hurts to move. I don’t feel good.’ And she only lasted up until Wednesday. And Wednesday they had to call the ambulance. And they came to pick her up. And uh, sorry, Friday came along and the doctors - they saw she wasn’t getting better…”]
See also https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/erika-becerra/
She grew up in East L.A., her alma mater Roosevelt High School, but recently moved to Detroit, Michigan, where she died on Friday night. Her brother shared the story about her life and experience with coronavirus as she quickly became sicker. "The weekend came along and the doctor saw she wasn't getting any better," Michael Avilez said. "They had to think about the baby." Her labor was induced and on November 15, she gave birth to a healthy Diego Antonio Becerra.
9. Ashley Bennett, Age 36, Midlands, SC, January 2021 (per video), baby survived
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A Midlands family is grieving the loss of a beloved Midlands mother of ten who never even got to hold her newborn baby girl after COVID-19 stole her life from them. Ashley Harris Bennett was a mother of 10. Her big sister Courtney Bucknam says, "She was pretty amazing." "She lit up the room when she came in the room." Bucknam says Ashley adored her family, and they adored her, "She was their sun to their world. Being a mother was Ashely's true purpose in life." Ashley helped with the school band and volunteered at the Lexington Fire Department. "She was the first female to complete the Lexington Fire Academy," Bucknam says. Bucknam says Ashley was her soul sister, "Everybody did refer to us as a true ride or die. She truly was my best friend." A mother of three herself, Bucknam said she's so proud of her nieces and nephews, who range in age from 18 down to a newborn. "I just know she is smiling down, and she is so proud of them." Now, Bucknam is urging everyone to take every precaution they can to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. "I just wish everybody took it serious." "Ashley was 36, had no underlying health conditions," Bucknam said. "It can happen to anybody." Bucknam says Ashley's passing has left a hole in life. Her message for her baby sister? "I would tell her I love her. I wish we could go back and fix it, and she didn't get sick, but I just want her to know how much I love her." A GoFundMe Page has been set up in Ashley's honor.
10. JoEllen Engelbart, Age 32, Missouri, January 2021, baby survived
http://nypost.com/2021/01/04/missouri-prosecutor-dies-of-covid-four-days-after-giving-birth
“JoEllen Engelbart, a 32-year-old assistant prosecutor for Jackson County, had been fighting the virus for two weeks before she died from complications on Saturday, news station KMBC reported. Engelbart had given birth during her battle to a boy named Ross, whom she delivered three months prematurely on Dec. 29, the outlet reported. A colleague said she doesn’t believe the new mom ever got to hold her son, news station KLAS reported. “I’m so grateful that Ross is here and I know the rest of the family is as well, but it’s heartbreaking that she’s not here physically to be there for him,” Kelly Collins told KMBC. Colleagues said that Engelbart — who dedicated her career to fighting on behalf of children in the Special Victims Unit — had been excited to become a mother. “I know one of the greatest losses of all of this is the loss of seeing Jo be a mom. She would’ve been a great one,” Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker told KMBC. Engelbart’s family said the newborn is currently in the neonatal intensive care unit, but the baby boy is doing well, the outlet reported. She is also survived by her husband, Matt. A GoFundMe page created to cover Engelbart and her son’s hospitalization bills has raised more than $98,000 as of Monday afternoon.
“Collins said that selflessness was second nature to Engelbart. She was an assistant prosecutor in Jackson County with the Special Victims Unit. For five years, Engelbart advocated for children who were physically and sexually abused. “She’s just a really tough person,” Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said. “But also kind and caring and went into prosecution for all the right reasons that really wanted to help other people.” Engelbart’s fiercely loyal personality and ability to make everyone in the room know they matter is a loss to the legal community. It was ripped away by coronavirus. “Boy, the virus took a really lovely person,” Peters Baker said with tears in her eyes. ” “You hope that these stories help people know that COVID is real. It’s very real and very dangerous,” Collins said. “It doesn’t mean that somebody super close to you won’t also lose their life.” Collins believed Engelbart never got to hold her miracle baby. He was born three months early. She hopes he will know the kind person Engelbart was through the countless number of people she has helped. “While his mom can’t physically be here to do that, there are other people in his life that will make sure he gets those same feelings,” Collins said. “That his mom was able to give to so many other people.” Collins said baby Ross is still in the NICU, but family said he is doing well – even exceeding expectations. They hope to continue that momentum.
11. Ashley Gomez, Northridge, CA, age 30, January 2021, baby lived
https://abc7.com/northridge-nurse-dies-from-covid-covid-19-covid19/9389472/ (with video)
“Just over two weeks ago, 30-year-old Ashley Gomez was working on the frontlines as a nurse at congregate living facilities in Van Nuys. At the same time, the Northridge woman was pregnant, raising five boys. Then out of the blue, with no known exposure, she experienced her first COVID-19 symptom: shortness of breath. "Then she started having a small cough, and the fever kicked in," said her husband Wilber Gomez, who says she insisted on fighting it at home. "She was just a rock star, she tried to wait till the last minute. She's like, 'No, I got this, I can do this.' She liked to power through everything." But family convinced her to go to the hospital, and the next day she was admitted to Kaiser Woodland Hills. When things got worse, she had an emergency C-section, bringing her son Corey into the world. It led to better breathing, but because of her COVID-19 status, she had to stay isolated. "She got to see just the picture, so she didn't get a chance to hold him, to kiss him or anything," Wilbur said. The next day, her health declined again and despite her efforts to avoid it, her aunt says they had no choice but to put her on a ventilator. "It's confusing to think, how can she had been progressing and in a matter of hours, hours, it just turned," said (her aunt) Valerie Wolff. Ashley's final moments now haunt her mother. "We were there, yeah, it was hard. As soon as they turned off the machine, that was it," said Veronica Gornick (her mother).
12. Veronica Bernal, Age 36, Phoenix, AZ, January 2021, both twins survived
https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/phoenix-mother-of-six-dies-after-early-birth-of-twins-while-having-covid-19 (with video)
“Phoenix mother of six dies after early birth of twins while having COVID-19”: PHOENIX - A Phoenix man is left heartbroken after his wife died weeks after giving birth to their twins prematurely all while she was battling COVID-19. Veronica Bernal was only 36-years-old. Her husband, Manuel Medina, says the twins had to be delivered eight weeks early because of the virus and lack of oxygen. "It hurts so much because there was nothing I could do," he said. The pain of helplessness came right after Christmas, the last special moment he shared with his wife. The two share the twins and a 10-month-old baby boy. Bernal has three other children, making her a mother of six. Medina says he fell in love with her personality two years ago. "Her laugh, her smile, just her presence," he remembered. Shortly after Medina tested positive for COVID-19, Bernal began to have breathing issues. As 2021 began, she tested positive for the virus and was on a ventilator. Doctors advised her to give birth eight weeks early. On Jan. 6, two miracles were born. Their names are Manuel Jr. and Mariyah. Less than three weeks later, Bernal died without a goodbye. "For her to be taken so quick ... it's hard for me to just think of and imagine," Medina said. "She's never gonna get to see them grow up. She's not gonna get to be part of their lives anymore or anything because of all this." Medina is working a full-time job and checking on his babies at the newborn intensive care unit (NICU) constantly. "You really don't know how much and how real it is until it really hits hard close to home and somebody's taken from you," he said about the virus. Medina hopes to have his twin babies home in about a week. Donate to the family here https://gofund.me/f910ef19
13. Joanna Jimenez, Age 37 (per voter record), Paterson, NJ, February 2021, baby lived
https://abc7ny.com/new-jersey-mom-dies-covid-death-pregnant-pregnancy/10373494/ (with video)
PATERSON, New Jersey (WABC) -- On one of the hardest days of their lives, the family of Joanna Jimenez talked about their last joyous gathering - her baby shower. Baby Ashton was born February 13 - it was an emergency delivery because Jimenez was battling COVID. His mom lost her battle, never having the chance to hold, in her arms, the baby she carried with care for nearly nine months. Jimenez leaves behind her three boys -- 15-year-old Jordan, 18-month-old Christian, baby Ashton. She also leaves behind her devastated husband, Chad Augustus. "I'm just trying to stay strong...every day I want to let my emotions out, but I'm trying to stay strong for the kids and the family," said Augustus. The family has started a GoFundMe page to help her three boys begin their lives, without the mother that family and friends called 'the glue of the gathering.' "I've had so many experiences and memories with her - she's always been by my side," said best friend Cynthia Sanchez. "I'm so proud of her for the woman she became after she had kids - she dedicated her life to making sure her kids were good," said her brother, John Jimenez. The love is still flowing in the family - they all decided to let Jimenez's heartbroken mother, Ashton's grandmother, take the lead in caring for him. They say it eases her sadness in losing her daughter. "So now we just have to celebrate her life each and every day," said her sister, Jacqueline Diaz.
Also see https://www.health.com/condition/infectious-diseases/coronavirus/woman-dies-covid-after-emergency-c-section : “Augustus spoke to NorthJersey.com about his wife's illness and coming to terms with the tragedy. He explained that in the last week of January, the family went together to Target and Costco for household supplies. Jimenez began feeling ill a few days later, but she thought it was because she'd gone outside without a jacket the previous night.” However, when she didn't get better, Augustus suggested that the family get tested for COVID-19. Jimenez's test came back positive. Her health quickly deteriorated. "You could see her whole mood change," Augustus told the news outlet. "She didn't have any energy. Her whole aura changed. I felt so bad." On February 4, Jimenez decided to go to Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston. It was the last time Augustus saw her in person.
14. Ashley Totten, age 33, Stafford, VA, April 2021, baby died
“Ashley Gayle Totten, 33, of Stafford, Virginia and her unborn child, Amiya Nevaeh Totten, unexpectedly left this earthly life on Sunday, April 18, 2021, from complications related to Covid19. They have departed from this life to receive their wings among the angels and find a home beside Our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Pregnant with her second child, Ashley Totten started feeling bad about a month ago, and her father asked her to see a doctor. She didn’t. Two more weeks passed, her condition worsened, and Ray Totten, who lives in King George County, offered to pick her up and take her to get medical help. “She promised me she would go, and unfortunately, she didn’t,” he said. By Sunday, April 18, Ashley Totten, who was more than six months pregnant, had a hard time walking and talking. The rescue squad took her to the hospital, where the 33-year-old and her unborn baby, named Amiya Nevaeh Totten, both died from complications of COVID-19. The baby’s middle name is heaven spelled backwards, and the obituary for her and her mother said they both had “departed from this life to receive their wings among the angels.” On Thursday, Roy Totten was finalizing arrangements for her funeral service on Saturday. He said he was feeling “kind of reserved right now” and wasn’t up to talking, saying her obituary covers the pertinent details. He did say that his daughter, who had a 9-year-old named Briana Rae, often moved between his home in King George and that of her mother, Cheryl Lee Stafford, in Stafford County. “She was a free spirit,” he said. “She didn’t stay in one place at all.” On Facebook, Ashley Totten’s aunt, Traci King of Fredericksburg, noted the family’s despair. “We love you so much, and COVID took you from us,” she wrote. “You are a beautiful angel now. I can’t even explain the hurt of losing you and your unborn child.” The loss of such a young person seems so hard to grasp that one of King’s Facebook friends couldn’t believe it. “Is this for real?” she asked. When King responded, “Yes, honey,” and mentioned again that she was pregnant, other friends expressed their shock and sorrow. Ashley Totten was the third person in their 30s to die from COVID-19 in the Rappahannock Area Health District, which includes Fredericksburg and the counties of Caroline, King George, Spotsylvania and Stafford.
See also https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/stafford-va/ashley-totten-10159517
Ashley Gayle Totten, 33, of Stafford, Virginia and her unborn child, Amiya Nevaeh Totten, unexpectedly left this earthly life on Sunday, April 18, 2021, from complications related to Covid19. They have departed from this life to receive their wings among the angels and find a home beside Our Lord Jesus Christ. She was such a beautiful and caring individual. She obtained her PCA and deeply loved caring for the elderly. She was outgoing, carefree, a genuine soul and free spirit. She was a presence that lit up the entire room. The Belle of the Ball, the Social Butterfly. Ashley had an unconditional love for her daughter Briana and she was happily looking forward to bringing her second child Amiyah, into this world. Ashley was adored by many and loved by all. Her smile was comforting and her laugh was truly contagious. She will be missed deeply and forever have a place in our hearts.
15. Charmaine Bailey, Age 26, Chicago, IL, April 2021, baby also died
Thirty-two people in Cook County 49 or younger died from COVID-19 in April, according to the latest list of victims released by the medical examiner’s office. One of them was Charmaine Bailey, 26, who lived in Avalon Park on the South Side. Charmaine, who worked at a day care center, died April 21 at the University of Illinois Hospital less than two weeks after falling ill. She was five months pregnant. Her baby died two days before she did. It was a heartbreaking double loss for her mother Ethel Murry, who told me her daughter loved taking care of children and was looking forward to having one of her own. She’d picked out the name Harmony. “That’s all she ever wanted was a baby,” said Sheree Bogan, a close friend from the day care center, who said mothers were glad to leave their babies in Charmaine’s care. “They knew with Charmaine their kids were safe.” Murry described her daughter as a healthy young woman who “never really was sick” other than an asthma condition that didn’t cause her any limitations. “She went to work every day,” her mother said. But on April 8 Charmaine came down with a fever, went to a hospital emergency room and tested positive for COVID-19. Her condition deteriorated over the following days, and she was placed on a ventilator. “When the baby passed, they told us [Charmaine] would be OK,” said her younger sister Cherise Bailey. “A day later, they was telling us they couldn’t do nothing more.”
We’ve made great strides. The number of coronavirus cases is dropping, and the percentage of Americans vaccinated keeps increasing. Life might soon return to a semblance of normal. But we’re not in the clear yet, and the number of people seeking vaccinations has slowed, with younger people among those whose interest in the vaccine is lagging. There are many ideas out there on how to improve the vaccination rate among younger adults. I continue to believe you can’t go wrong by simply showing people that someone who might have been very much like themselves proved vulnerable to this deadly disease. Of those 32 April deaths of people under 50 years old, all but eight involved Black or Hispanic victims. I can’t tell you whether those who died had been vaccinated. But Charmaine Bailey had not. She was among the sizable group of Americans who have been described as vaccine hesitant.
16. Shanetta Wilson, Age 43, Washington DC, June 2021, baby also died
https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/family-mourns-pregnant-woman-who-died-of-covid-19/2693182/
“A D.C. woman who was pregnant with her third child was hospitalized due to COVID-19 just days after her baby shower. Relatives were worried, but they had no idea Shanetta Wilson and her son, a baby named Charles, would be gone in a matter of weeks. Wilson was excited about becoming a mom again. Six months into her pregnancy, family and close friends threw her a baby shower. “She was just so excited. She was so grateful for the gifts and everything on that day. I just remember her being so happy to be surrounded by family after being isolated and everything with Covid,” her niece, Charlene Wilson, said. Just days after that happy moment, she developed a cough and ended up in the hospital. “Like a day or two later I called to check up to see like, ‘Hey what’s going on?’ and it’s like, ‘Oh, she has Covid, and she’s in a coma,’” Wilson's other niece, Gwen Wilson, said. Charles was delivered in an emergency C-section. He lived for about a week but did not survive.
See also https://wjla.com/news/local/family-reminds-community-to-get-vaccinated-after-losing-expecting-mother-to-covid-19 (with video)
Wilson, 43, was a certified nursing assistant in D.C. for about fifteen years. She tested positive for COVID-19 in April. "She was a devoted wife and mother," said niece Charlene Wilson. "She was six months along, before she was diagnosed." According to Charlene, Shanetta attended her baby shower before she was diagnosed. She never received the COVID-19 vaccine. "She was advised not to get it early on, by her doctor," Charlene Wilson said. Currently, doctors recommend that pregnant and breastfeeding moms should be vaccinated. “Now that we have hundreds of thousands of pregnant patients who have been vaccinated safely, for COVID-19, we feel very confident that any tiny risk is well worth it to protect the pregnancy,” said OB-GYN Dr. Amanda Williams. “Keep up your safety measures, keep your distancing, masking. As a pregnant person, you are at higher risk,” Williams said. Shanetta leaves behind a husband, a four-year-old daughter and a 15-year-old son.
17. Kristen Roy, Age 38, Franklin, IN, August 2021, baby lived
WTHR (NBC, Channel 13 Indianapolis): Kristen Michelle Roy (nee Webb) (Riley Hospital for Children, Indianapolis, IN) “The CDC says that only 23% of pregnant people have received at least one dose of the covid vaccine. So tonight we’re going to focus on pregnancy and the vaccination. We’re going to talk about the risks of covid during pregnancy. And our verified team looks to dispel the myth that the covid vaccine causes infertility. But first tonight at 11:00, a family is now picking up the pieces after a mother dies from covid-19 and leaves her newborn in the NICU.
Reporter: “The 38-year-old Franklin native married her husband, Matthew (Roy) in December (2020) and was still a newlywed when she found out she was pregnant.”
Michelle’s sister, Courtney Burke: “She was very excited. She made an appointment, but by that point it was too late.”
Reporter: “Kristen tested positive for Covid July 9th (2021).”
Michelle’s sister, Courtney Burke: “Within just one week, she was hospitalized.”
Reporter: “Kristen’s condition deteriorated quickly, and she was put on life support to give (son) Elijah as much time as possible before he was born.”
Michelle’s sister, Courtney Burke: “And then the time came, August 13th, her stats were dropping significantly and so that’s when they made the call that ‘we’re going to lose her and the baby if we don’t deliver the baby today.’… He never got to see her (sobbing)”
Reporter: “A week later, she passed away at Methodist Hospital …
Michelle’s sister, Courtney Burke: “…She held on long enough for him to be born.”
Reporter: “But Kristen Roy won’t be there for her son’s first birthday, his first steps, or his first day of school. Not in person, anyway.”
Michelle’s sister, Courtney Burke: “She’ll be with him.”
Reporter: “But not the way Kristen’s family would have hoped. ”
Michelle’s sister, Courtney Burke: “All together, we will make sure that Eli has a good life. But it’s still not as good as what he would have had with his mom.”
Reporter: “And knowing a vaccine likely could have prevented that (outcome) is hard for this grieving sister to take.”
Michelle’s sister, Courtney Burke: “It’s too late for her. But it’s not late for so many other pregnant women out there. Like-it’s not. It’s not too late yet. Maybe her death, it won’t be for nothing.”
News Anchor: “The CDC is encouraging everyone who is 12 and older to get vaccinated.”
18. Greyzie Un, Age 31, Jacksonville, FL, August 2021, baby survived
In July, Greyzie Un was 31 weeks pregnant when she was hospitalized in Jacksonville with COVID-19. She underwent an emergency C-section but then was put in an induced coma. She was on a ventilator 17 days, but her lungs collapsed. She died Aug. 14. Un was not vaccinated against the virus. Her fiance, David Miller, now a single parent to newborn Evie and the couple's 2-year-old son Silas, can only wish she had been. "There were not that many studies at the time and we were going to play it safe," he told First Coast News, the Times-Union's news partner. "That’s only because we were taking every other kind of precaution. "This virus is real," he said. "Protect yourself and your loved ones so that you don’t go through a situation of watching their health deteriorate or losing them. … It will shatter your family."
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — David Miller cradles his tiny newborn Evie. She makes those little baby squeaky noises every once in a while in his arms. Miller is a proud new poppa, but he is a man in mourning. He just lost Evie’s mom, Greyzie Un. She was just 31 years old. "We’ve been together for eight years," Miller recalled. "She was phenomenal. There was not a speck of negativity in her. She impacted so many lives." The Jacksonville couple has a two-year-old boy named Silas with their second child on the way. However, while Greyzie was pregnant, she tested positive for COVID-19. "She woke up and was having trouble breathing, and it accelerated from there," Miller remembered. Greyzie was not vaccinated. "Because there were not that many studies at the time, and we were going to play it safe," Miller said. "That’s only because we were taking every other kind of precaution." While in the hospital being treated for COVID-19, Greyzie needed an emergency C-section, and little Evie was born. It was July 18. Evie wasn't due until September. However, after the delivery, Evie was healthy. Yet, Greyzie’s health was declining. "She agreed to a ventilator," Miller said. August 13 was their son's 2nd birthday. Greyzie joined the family celebration via Zoom. Miller was hoping it would raise her spirits and boost her health. However, the next day, August 14, Greyzie passed away. Her newborn baby was in the NICU, her husband was on the phone. "I got a call," Miller sobbed, "that said she was having complications that they couldn’t recover her from. And I was on the phone when her heart failed." Two days later, Evie got to go home in her father’s arms, but she had never felt her own mother’s embrace. "She never had a chance to hold her child," Miller said through tears. "That's tough for us to get our head around." The CDC reported this summer the COVID-19 vaccine is safe for pregnant women, but many expectant moms were not sure. "This virus is real. If I could say anything, it's to get vaccinated, protect yourself and your loved ones so that you don’t go through a situation of watching their health deteriorate or losing them," Miller said, wiping away his tears. "It will shatter your family."
19. Haley Mulkey Richardson, Age 32, Mobile, AL, August 2021, baby died
A south Alabama family is in mourning after a 32-year-old mother who was pregnant with her second child died of COVID-19 on Friday. Haley Mulkey Richardson, 32, was a registered nurse working in a labor and delivery unit at Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola and living in Theodore, Ala., according to friends and family in the Mobile area. Richardson’s mother, Julie Mulkey, said she is doing as well as could be expected after losing both a daughter and an unborn grandchild. “It’s really hard,” Mulkey said. “It’s hard to accept, it’s hard to face. We’re glad she’s not suffering anymore.”
Richardson lived just outside Mobile in Theodore with her husband Jordan Richardson and their daughter Katie, who turns 3 this week. Jason Whatley, a family friend whose wife was the maid of honor at Richardson’s wedding, told AL.com that Haley contracted COVID-19 about three weeks before her death, in late July or early August. “She was home sick for about a week and then her heart rate went up,” Whatley said. “I guess that’s something they look for.” From there, Richardson was taken to the USA Health Children’s and Women’s Hospital in Mobile. After being there for a few days, she was transported to the ICU at USA Health’s main hospital campus in Mobile. “After about three or four days in the hospital, the [obstetrician] told her that she was going to lose the baby,” Whatley said. “And she continued to get worse and worse.” “At some point, they basically told her that we’ve got to start treating you as if you didn’t have a child. We’ve got to do what we can for you because the baby is going to pass anyway.” Mulkey said her daughter could not have visitors once she was transferred to USA. “Haley did call me crying, that she was going to lose the baby,” she said. “And she was down there by herself when that happened.” … Mulkey said her daughter’s faith was characteristic of how she lived her life. “Haley was a Christian,” Mulkey said. “She fully believed in her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. She lived it every day. You could see it in her smile in her face. She was a labor and delivery nurse, and she greeted her patients with caring and concern and love and often witnessed to them and prayed with them.” Whatley said at one point Richardson was on a waiting list to be transferred to UAB for ECMO treatment -- a machine that acts as an artificial heart and lungs, pumping blood out of a patient to oxygenate it and then pumping it back in. “Unfortunately, within about a 24-hour period, she got worse to where she was no longer stable enough for them to transport her,” he said. The unborn child, Ryleigh Beth, died on Aug. 18. Haley followed on Friday, Aug. 20.
See also https://www.wkrg.com/mobile-county/pregnant-sacred-heart-nurse-unborn-baby-die-from-covid-19 (with video)
Jordan Richardson (husband): “It’s not easy. She just loved everybody.”
Meghan Mackey, Reporter: “Losing your soulmate and child in the same week- a heart-wrenching pain for Jordan Richardson, whose wife Haley contracted Covid-19.”
20. Paige Ruiz, Age 32, Fort Worth, Texas, August 2021, baby survived
https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/24/us/covid-texas-mom-dies-trnd/index.html (with video)
“Robin Zinsou says she urged her pregnant daughter to get a Covid-19 vaccine, but the 32-year-old educator was afraid it might harm her unborn child. Paige Ruiz tested positive for Covid-19 when she was nine months pregnant and died in a Texas hospital of complications from the virus on August 15, just days after her second daughter, Celeste, was delivered by emergency C-section. “It was my worst fear,” Zinsou told CNN’s John Berman on Tuesday. Ruiz never got to hold her new baby, Zinsou said. “As soon as Celeste was delivered, they whisked her away and when my daughter came to (after the surgery), they said … they had to keep each other separate because of the Covid,” Zinsou said. They were able to arrange a video chat so Ruiz could see Celeste. “That’s how we let Paige – figured out a way for her to mother her daughter,” Zinsou said. Ruiz was coordinator of Student Learning Outcomes and Federal Programs at the Joshua Independent School District in Joshua, Texas, and had been middle school assistant principal there for four years before that, according to a statement from the district. “Her dedication and passion to educating students will always be remembered along with her kindness to others,” the statement said. Ruiz and her husband, Daniel, also have an older daughter named Joanna, according to a GoFundMe campaign set up by the family. Zinsou told CNN that Celeste and Joanna are healthy and doing well. She said her daughter held off on getting vaccinated because she was worried about her baby. Ruiz and her husband, Daniel, also have an older daughter named Joanna, according to a GoFundMe campaign set up by the family. “She thought that there wasn’t enough information or data out there to say that she could confidently get vaccinated without harming the baby,” Zinsou said. Ruiz got sick before the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) issued stronger new guidance urging pregnant women to get vaccinated…
[Starting at 1:45 in the CNN video:
CNN Anchor, John Berman: “After she was diagnosed, she (Paige Ruiz) started trying to convince other people to get vaccinated. She came around. What did she do?
Robin Zinsou (Paige Ruiz’s mother): “Um, It wasn’t until after she had the baby that she started to get worse that she said she wished she had gotten, um, the vaccine. She texted that to me. I did not find out until after she passed that she was texting that same message to her sister and to her friends. And then she wanted people to get vaccinated.”
CNN Anchor: “No doubt she would want you to tell people right now to go out and get vaccinated and share her story.”
Robin Zinsou: “Yes.”
CNN Anchor: “So her daughter Celeste was delivered, and Celeste is doing fine. Paige was able to see Celeste but never able to hold her. Explain that.”
Robin Zinsou: “As soon as Celeste was delivered, they whisked her away. Um, and when my daughter came to, they said they had to keep each other separated because of the Covid. Celeste was discharged from the hospital a couple of days later. And we figured out a way to do video chat so that Paige could see the baby. And that’s how we let Paige, um, figured out a way for her to mother her daughter.”
CNN Anchor: “I’m sure she would have loved to be able to hold her, but even being able to see her, I’m sure in and of itself, was a blessing. Robin, I’ve got to let you go, but what is the message you want the American people to hear this morning?”
Robin Zinsou: “Mask up. Get vaccinated. So this doesn’t happen to your family.”
CNN Anchor: “Robin Zinsou, we’re sending you love. We are with you.”
Robin Zinsou: “Thank you.”
CNN Anchor: “Know we’re thinking about you and your granddaughters. We wish you the best of luck. Thank you for being with us.” ]
See also https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/coronavirus/fort-worth-mom-dies-from-covid-19-days-after-giving-birth/2723047/ (with video)
Paige Ruiz was a sister, a wife and a friend who cherished her new role as mom. “She was over the moon with that. She loved being a mom,” said Ruiz’s mother Robin Zinsou.
21. Kristen McMullen, Age 30, Melbourne, FL., August 2021, baby lived (born 27 July 2021)
“A Florida woman’s heartbroken family is grieving her death from Covid-19 just days after she gave birth to her daughter via emergency caesarian section. The woman, Kristen McMullen, 30, was hospitalized with the virus July 21, her aunt Melissa Syverson said Thursday. She was also diagnosed with pneumonia and sent home after four days, but she was hospitalized again on July 26. She delivered her daughter, Summer Reign, by emergency C-section July 27 and was transferred to the intensive care unit. McMullen was placed on a ventilator last Friday and died the same day, her family said… the Syversons declined to say whether McMullen had been vaccinated against Covid-19, but they said that regardless of pregnant women’s vaccination status, other people need to be careful around them. “We personally fell that whether a pregnant woman is or isn’t [vaccinated] or whether they wear a mask or don’t wear a mask, we fell like they’re at a huge risk potentially for it to be deadly for them or their baby,” Melissa Syverson said. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention urged pregnant women Wednesday to get vaccinated against Covid-19 as the delta variant of the coronavirus continues to surge across the country. Only about 23 percent of pregnant women have received at least one dose of a vaccine, according to CDC data. James Syverson said the last time he and his wife saw McMullen was last month at her baby shower in Florida, where, he said, he hugged his niece and told her how proud he was of her.
See also: https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/florida-mother-dies-from-covid-19-days-after-giving-birth (with video)
Kristen McMullen was only able to hold her baby briefly after delivering it before being whisked away to the ICU at Holmes Regional Medical Center in Melbourne. The rest of her interactions with her baby, Summer, were virtual. "There are many tragedies that happen like this every day," said the Syversons. "A lot of people have reached out to us saying their family member is in the same situation, but they’ve actually lost the baby -- their sister or friend are fighting for their life." The couple said even while Kristin was in the hospital, another pregnant woman was experiencing heart failure due to COVID-19. Doctors believe McMullen was infected with the Delta Variant. The family wants people to know how risky covid can be for pregnant women. They also want everyone to know McMullen was a light to all around her. She always dreamed of being a mother. After years of trying to conceive, she and her husband were ecstatic to become parents. "She just went after life and she enjoyed every minute of it," said the Syversons.
22. Davy Macias, age 37, Yucaipa, CA, August 2021, baby lived, (husband Daniel also died)
https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/13/us/california-family-covid-death-orphan-five-children/index.html
Daniel and Davy Macias spent 18 months being very cautious about Covid-19. They wiped down surfaces, showered after work and even had their groceries delivered, but that didn’t stop them from contracting the virus. Davy Macias, a Southern California labor and delivery nurse, was seven months pregnant with her fifth child in early August when she was hospitalized with Covid-19. Daniel Macias also contracted the virus. Doctors helped Davy Macias, 37, deliver the newborn early by Cesarean section while she was intubated, but she died before she could meet her baby. Daniel Macias, 38, was being treated in the same hospital when he learned about the birth of his daughter. Nurses showed him photos of the baby, before he too died from complications of the virus less than two weeks later, leaving the newborn girl without parents or a name. When the hospital called asking for the baby’s name, Terry Macias, the grandmother who is now caring for the five children, told them: “I’ll wait for my son to name her.” She has yet to be named. For now, like the hospital did, the family calls her Baby Girl. Grandmother explains death to the young children: The couple was unvaccinated and died on August 26 and September 9, respectively, leaving behind children ranging in age from 3 weeks to 8 years old, Macias told CNN on Monday. “It wasn’t that they didn’t want to be vaccinated – they planned on it,” she said. She was adamant that this was a personal choice and each wanted to learn more about its safety prior to being inoculated. A former kindergarten teacher who recently retired, Terry Macias believes her son and daughter-in-law contracted the coronavirus after a recent family trip to an indoor water park as a last hurrah before returning to school. Upon learning about their death, Macias was responsible for telling her grandchildren. The 8-year-old boy and 5-year-old girl understood their parents were gone, Macias said, but she’s not sure they understand their parents are never coming home. The couple’s 3-year-old daughter woke up Thursday and told Macias she had a dream her father was coming home from the hospital, but learned later that her father had died. The toddler broke down in tears when she learned the news, reminding her grandmother of her dream. “I know baby, but sometimes, our dreams don’t come true,” Macias said…. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/09/13/davy-daniel-macias-covid-19/ Davy Macias, 37, was intubated and dying of complications from covid-19 when doctors helped her give birth to her daughter. She would never see her baby. Her husband, Daniel Macias, 39, would only get a brief glimpse of their child because he, too, was hospitalized after contracting the virus. According to Davy’s sister-in-law, Terri Serey, Daniel waited to name the baby girl because he believed he and his wife would walk out of the hospital alive to introduce the newborn to their four other children, the eldest age 7 and the youngest, 2. But about a week after the baby was born, Davy died. Two weeks later, so did Daniel. Davy and Daniel Macias, of Yucaipa, Calif., are among the 658,000 Americans to have died of covid-19 as the delta variant causes a resurgence of cases and health officials race to immunize a population divided on whether to take the shot. Davy Macias did not get vaccinated because she was pregnant, Serey said. It is unclear whether Daniel was vaccinated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has urged those who are pregnant to get vaccinated, as studies have found that the coronavirus vaccines do not heighten the risk of miscarriages. Rather, research shows that those who are pregnant face a higher risk of severe covid-19 symptoms, preterm births and “other adverse pregnancy outcomes” if they contract the virus, the CDC says… The Macias children, who are being cared for by Daniel’s parents, have not quite grasped what has happened to their mother and father, Serey said. After Daniel died on Sept. 9, a counselor explained to the two eldest children, 7 and 5, that both of their parents were gone, Serey said. While the oldest child — Daniel and Davy’s only son — understood the situation, his younger sister is “still looking for mommy,” Serey said. All of the children, Serey was told by the grandparents, “spend a lot of time at night looking for mom and dad.” In June, Davy and Daniel celebrated 11 years of marriage. Davy was a registered nurse at the labor and delivery ward at Kaiser Permanente Fontana Medical Center, and Daniel was a teacher at Jehue Middle School in San Bernardino County. When asked what the couple enjoyed doing together, Serey had one answer: Their hobby was their kids. Because Davy often worked nights, she would spend time with her kids during the day, Serey said. Davy’s TikTok account is almost entirely dedicated to chronicling life with her children. One video from last year shows her with her four kids, all of them dressed in shark costumes, dancing to Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise.” In early August, the entire family came down with covid-19, Serey said. While the children recovered relatively quickly, the symptoms only worsened for Davy, who went to the hospital for treatment. Less than a week later, Daniel followed. Davy was already intubated and had stopped directly communicating with her family by the time her newest daughter was born via Caesarean section on Aug. 18, Serey said. About three days after the baby was born, Daniel was intubated. The husband and wife were only a few rooms apart at the hospital. “He had no idea that she passed away,” Serey said. As news circulated about the couple’s deaths, Serey said strangers have reached out to her and her husband — Davy’s brother, Vong — to ask whether they should take the vaccine. “They ask me questions about side effects,” Serey said. “It’s interesting, because people want somebody to give them the answer.” Her answer? “I don't know anybody that's died from the vaccine, but I do know people who have died from covid.” Serey said she does not know whether Davy had regrets about not taking the coronavirus vaccine, but she did get the impression that Davy didn’t believe she’d get seriously ill. “I don’t believe that she really thought it was going to get that bad.” Also https://www.sbsun.com/2021/09/10/yucaipa-father-of-5-dies-of-covid-19-weeks-after-his-wifes-death/ The Macias children are ages 7 and under, including a newborn delivered a week before Davy Macias’ death. “There aren’t words to explain the loss of both him and Davy,” Terri Serey, a member of the GoFundMe fundraising team, wrote on the page Friday, Sept. 10. “Keep the kids in your thoughts and prayers. They gained two angels but still have a long road ahead of them.” Daniel Macias, 38, was a 15-year educator in the Rialto Unified School District, where he was the AVID coordinator and chair of the math department at Jehue Middle School, according to district spokesperson Syeda Jafri. Daniel Macias graduated from Rialto High School, his wife from Eisenhower High. https://ktla.com/news/inland-empire-father-dies-of-covid-19-weeks-after-wife-leaving-behind-5-children/ : “It’s absolutely heartbreaking. We were really pulling for Daniel after Davy died. We wanted him to wake up and name his baby girl,” Terri said. Before being intubated, Daniel encouraged his family to get vaccinated against COVID-19 to avoid his situation, Vong said. “COVID doesn’t play by the rules. It doesn’t matter — you’re young, old — it can hit anybody at this point,” Vong said. He encouraged people not to wait to take the vaccine, noting that his family’s ordeal changed his mind about getting vaccinated. “I did change my mind. When it hits this close to home, it does, it really affects you. It opens your eyes,” Vong said. Family members started the GoFundMe account to help the couple’s children with food, clothing and other expenses. As of Friday evening, the page had raised over $160,000. “We’ll dry our tears and we will smile. And we will try to make everything as calm as possible, but there really is no way to fix this,” Terri said.
23. Clair Baisley, Age 33, Myrtle Beach, SC, August 2021, baby survived
"The risk of putting your life at risk, your unborn child's life at risk, is not worth it," says Dr. Rebecca Wineland. She is the director of labor and delivery at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Wineland says expecting mothers infected with the fast spreading Delta variant are at a greater risk for stillbirths, babies with restricted growth and pre-eclampsia, a leading cause of maternal and infant death worldwide. She is also seeing first-hand what the CDC warns, expecting mothers who get COVID are twice as likely to be admitted to the ICU and have a 70% increased risk of losing their lives. "It will absolutely save your life and decrease your risk of hospitalization if you were to get COVID," Wineland says. But the message came too late for Scott Baisley and his two-month-old son Sullivan who live just outside Charleston. Scott cradles the crying infant trying to comfort him. An empty bottle sits next to a framed ultrasound picture and wedding photo displayed on a table beside them. Scott's wife Clair was 33 years old when she collapsed on the floor of their home in August, within days of being diagnosed with COVID. She was quickly hospitalized with double pneumonia. A week later, doctors decided they had to deliver Sullivan by C-section. Clair was put on a ventilator and given a 10% chance to live. Less than a month after her diagnosis, doctors were desperately trying to save her. "But that was it. I watched her numbers drop. I watched her blood oxygen continue to go down. I watched her heart rate increase," Scott says. Suddenly Clair was gone. COVID had taken her life. She never got to hold Sullivan. "Having a son without a mother is one of the most painful things I've ever had to experience." It's a pain Scott doesn't want anyone else to have to endure.
Further: https://www.wbtv.com/2021/08/23/three-dorchester-district-2-employees-die-covid-according-sc-ed/
“My heart is destroyed right now,” Baisley said on Sunday. ”She gave birth to our son at 34 weeks during her battle with COVID and never got to hold him. Please wake up and realize the urgency in following safe protocols. The doctors are not against us.” Scott said Clair wore her mask everywhere and was diligent in keeping sanitized. “She was otherwise healthy and there was no explanation for why this awful disease affected her so badly,” Scott said. “She fought for 3 weeks before losing her fight. Wear the mask.” Scott said Clair was not vaccinated against the virus due to her pregnancy. Before Clair got sick, her doctors at the time told both of them that there was not enough data to say one way or the other if the vaccines were safe for pregnant women, Scott said.
They married in February 2020, just before the coronavirus pandemic took hold. In January, the couple found out that she was pregnant. As the pandemic raged around them, Scott said he decided not to get vaccinated. His diabetes made him vulnerable to the effects of the virus, but he stayed healthy before the shots were available, he said. He thought he would make it through the pandemic OK. Clair also didn’t get vaccinated. Not because she didn’t want to be, but because of concerns about how the new vaccines would affect the baby. Clair got to see Sullivan shortly after he was born. But he was quickly taken to the neonatal intensive care unit. She never got to hold him in her arms. Scott soon found out that he also was infected. Unlike his wife, he said he didn’t have any symptoms. ‘I should have been in there,’ he said. ‘Not her.’ Within 36 hours of their son’s birth, Scott said, Clair was put on a ventilator. A doctor gave her a 10 percent chance of surviving. Scott was still hopeful. As Clair remained in the hospital, her oxygen levels rose and fell. After his positive test, Scott kept in touch with her through text message, even though she didn’t always respond. He gave her updates on their son, and told her he was praying for her. In one message, on the day she died, he ended it with one of their favorite sayings: ‘I love you so much more.’ Just two days after his wife died, Scott struggled to comprehend how quickly a lifetime of dreams together were dashed. But seeing the effects of the coronavirus firsthand has changed his views on getting vaccinated. He plans to get a shot as soon as enough time has passed since his positive test result. He wants to do all he can to protect his son from COVID. And to speak out about the horrors of the virus. “It’s not a political game,” he said. “It’s not some conspiracy. This is real.”
24. Brianna Justus, Age 31, Hendersonville, NC, August 2021, baby survived
https://www.thestate.com/news/state/south-carolina/article253221153.html
A TV meteorologist in Upstate South Carolina says his family is seeing the worst of the ongoing pandemic, after his sister-in-law died of COVID symptoms days after giving birth in an emergency C-section. Chris Justus, chief meteorologist for WYFF in Greenville, reported the development in a Facebook post. Justus says his sister-in-law, Brianna Justus, came down with COVID symptoms in the past two weeks and died Monday in a hospital. The family is well known in the region as owners of the century-old Justus Orchard, an apple operation in Hendersonville, North Carolina. “Last week Brianna was hit hard with COVID at 30 weeks pregnant. A few days after a positive test she couldn’t breathe and went into ICU. A few days later she underwent an emergency C-section and immediately went on a ventilator,” Justus wrote. “For the past week Brianna fought hard, so hard. Today, at 31 years old her heart gave out. Her sweet baby girl made it and is in the NICU.” Brianna Justus was married to his brother, Cory Justus, and the couple also have two sons, he said. Cory and Chris Justus are known in the Carolinas for their ties to Justus Orchard, about 20 miles south of Asheville. It is currently operated by their parents, Don and Margo Justus, according to the orchard’s website. “Chris and Cory are the fifth generation to work this land between their full-time jobs,” according to the operations website. “Chris is your local TV meteorologist and Cory is a Henderson County Sheriff Deputy. They and their wives Lauren and Brianna all ensure this family farm keeps going.” Chris Justus, a UNC Charlotte graduate, concluded his Facebook post by saying visitors to the orchard this fall will find “a new little Justus saying hello and one special angel watching over the farm from heaven.”
25. Lacresanna Williams, Age 21, Shreveport, LA, August 2021, baby lived, grandmother “died of Covid” the next day
https://www.fox19.com/2021/08/18/mother-daughter-die-covid-19-just-one-day-apart/
SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA/Gray News) - A family is mourning after a mother and her daughter died of COVID-19 just one day apart. KSLA reported that Lacresanna Williams, 21, tested positive for the virus during a routine pregnancy appointment. “The next day, we got a call saying she had to have an emergency C-section and she passed,” her aunt Cassandra Martin said. According to Martin, her sister, Victoria Williams, panicked after hearing about the death of her daughter, Lacresanna Williams. The next day, Victoria Williams died. The family did not know at the time that she also had contracted the virus. Neither of the women were vaccinated and now, their family is pleading for everyone to take COVID-19 seriously. The family says they have not been able to see the newborn baby. Lacressana Williams was also the mother of a 1-year-old child.
https://www.ksla.com/2021/08/18/family-mourns-mother-daughter-who-died-one-day-apart-due-covid-19/ (with video)
Martin says her sister, and Lacresanna’s mother, 42-year-old Victoria Williams, went into an immediate panic after hearing the news. Little did the family know, but Victoria had also contracted COVID-19. She passed away one day later. Earlie Williams is now mourning the loss of a daughter and granddaughter. “She [Lacresanna] loses her life and leaves two precious babies here, and right behind her she loses her momma. She left five kids,” Williams said. Neither women were vaccinated, and now their family is pleading for everyone to take COVID seriously. “We heard about it and see it on tv, but you never think it will happen to your family,” Martin said. Monroe Brown is the executive director of Seniors First and she has helped at least 12 families bury their loved ones. She has been working with the family to plan the funeral. She’s doing it with the help of Precious Memories Mortuary.
Video:
KSLA-12 News Anchor: “Heartbreak for an ArkLaTex family this evening after a mother and daughter both die just one day apart because of Covid. That family sat down with KSLA News 12’s Taylor Bates.”
Reporter Taylor Bates of KSLA News 12: “It was supposed to be a routine pregnancy checkup for 21-year-old Lacresanna Williams.”
Cassandra Martin (aunt of Lacresanna): “I talked to the daughter on Facetime, on the phone, like I’m talking to you, and wasn’t nothing wrong with her.”
Reporter: “Her aunt, Cassandra Martin, says things took a turn at the appointment when she tested positive for Covid-19.”
Cassandra Martin (aunt of Lacresanna): “The next day we get a phone call that she had to have an emergency C-section, and she passed.”
Reporter: “The baby survived but is still in the hospital. Martin says William’s mother Victoria went into an immediate panic after hearing the news.”
Cassandra Martin (aunt of Lacresanna): “We were just trying to talk to her (Victoria), make sure she was calm and alright, trying to make sure she was great. And then, she ended up having a panic attack, so we called the ambulance on her.”
Reporter: “Little did the family know Lacresanna’s mother Victoria had Covid too. She passed away on day later. Earlie Williams is now mourning the loss of a daughter and granddaughter.”
Earlie Williams (mother of Victoria): “She lose her life leave, and she leaves two precious babies back here. You know what I am saying. Then right behind her, she loses her momma. Her momma’s gone. She left five kids.”
Reporter: “Neither Lacresanna nor her mother Victoria was vaccinated. And now the family is pleading for everyone to get the vaccine.”
Cassandra Martin (aunt of Lacresanna): “You know, you see it all the time, but you never know it will hit your own family until it hits your family.”
Reporter: “Both women were treated at Ochsner LSU Health Hospital. And like many other Covid patients, they died alone. As far as the newborn baby, the family has not yet seen the baby. Coming up at six, one advocate is helping this family in their biggest time of need. In Shreveport, KSLA Taylor Bates, News 12.”
26. Braxten Goodwin, Age 24, Kansas City, MO, August 2021, baby survived
https://fox4kc.com/news/young-north-kansas-city-mother-dies-of-covid-19-after-giving-birth/ (with video)
NORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The family of a young North Kansas City mother who died of COVID-19 hope pregnant women will get the vaccine. Braxten Goodwin died of COVID-19 two weeks after going into emergency labor. Wednesday, the CDC said they are advising pregnant women to get the vaccine. Goodwin’s family said she planned to get the vaccine after she gave birth. In the 24 years she was alive, her family said she lived life to the fullest. “Whatever she put her mind to she accomplished,” her grandfather Lloyd Goodwin said. “She was amazing. She had a good spirit. She was awesome,” her dad Cameron Horton said. Goodwin played basketball at Leavenworth High and graduated with honors. “She was awesome on the court. All I know is I would rush to her basketball game, and try to hurry up and get off work and go. I was like – I gotta go! My daughter is playing right now,” Horton said. She got her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, and had a passion for her faith. However, her family said her greatest accomplishment was her kids, her 22-month-old daughter Nova and newborn son Levite. She got pregnant with Levi in February but wanted to wait to get the vaccine. “She was just concerned about her baby trying to make him safe. That’s how much of a good mother she is, was,” her mother Tamika Horton said. Her family said in mid-July she came down with COVID-19. She was rushed to the hospital, and gave birth to Levi two months early. Her health quickly deteriorated. “She wanted to go home. She said I want to go home and before she went to the ICU she was like, she was kind of scared she said. She was scared,” Tamika Horton said. She never got to meet Levi. Soon after he was born she was put on a ventilator and died August 2. Horton said her daughter’s last words to her were calling for her daughter Nova. “I wish we could turn the clock back, I wish we could change some things,” Lloyd Goodwin said. On Wednesday, the CDC advised pregnant and breastfeeding mothers to get the vaccine. Dr. Kristi Weaver, an OBGYN for HCA Healthcare says vaccines are safe for expecting mothers, and it makes doctors and nurses feel helpless as more and more pregnant moms are showing up in the ICU with COVID. “We are seeing very sick moms, we are seeing moms in the ICU, we are having to deliver very preterm babies in order to save mothers and unfortunately, as you alluded to, sometimes we cannot save them. So it is vastly important that our mamas become vaccinated to save them and of course, their infants,” Weaver said. Weaver also said for women who are hoping to get pregnant in the future there is no evidence the vaccine effects fertility. “There is absolutely no science behind that statement. There is no vaccine on the market, including the COVID vaccine that causes any problem with fertility in our young patients. So it is safe at any age, including women that are pregnant,” Weaver said. Dr. Dana Hawkinson with the University of Kansas Health System agrees. “No one should die for their political views or whether it’s still feeling like it’s an experiment, or whether there are that misinformation campaigns about infertility, which is completely false, there are various reasons. But none of those reasons are good enough to override the general fact that these vaccines prevent you from going to the hospital and prevent severe illness even in these young people,” Hawkinson said. Weaver said, if anything, the vaccine helps babies build up their antibodies to fight off the virus. “Not only can it be transmitted through the breast milk, the antibodies I mean to say, it can also be transmitted across the placenta to the baby. And interestingly, most vaccines do that, which is why we advocate for flu vaccines, teed up vaccines and the COVID vaccine during pregnancy,” Weaver said. [From video (near end, reporter speaking): “Once Braxten passed away, the baby was transferred to Children’s Mercy. They (Braxten’s family) have not had any contact with the baby other than pictures that nurses took of the baby and were then texted. They don’t have a great relationship with the baby’s father, so they are hoping that they can get a hold of someone at Children’s Mercy. We did reach out to them.”]
27. Keighlie Renee Reaux, age 24, LA, August 2021, 38 weeks pregnant, baby lived
https://www.health.com/condition/infectious-diseases/coronavirus/keighlie-reaux-covid
A young Louisiana mom who contracted COVID-19 when she was pregnant died on September 12—five weeks after her infant was delivered via an emergency C-section and without ever getting to hold her baby boy. Keighlie Renee Reaux was just 24 when she passed away from complications of the virus, family friend Michelle Marcotte shared on a GoFundMe set up for her Reaux's family. Reaux, who was diagnosed with COVID-19 on July 26 at 38 weeks pregnant, was "fighting for her life after giving birth to her 2nd son, whom she has not even been able to hold yet." Reaux had an emergency C-section on August 4 and delivered a healthy boy, who the family later named Krew. She was transferred to a COVID unit at a local hospital the same day, leaving her boyfriend, newborn, and mother behind. Her health "continued to deteriorate," Marcotte wrote. Reaux was placed into a medically induced coma and put on a ventilator on August 9… An update on September 12 shared the tragic news that Reaux had died. "Incredibly sad news. Keighlie lost her fight with COVID today," the update read. "There aren't words to explain the gravity of this loss. Please keep Amie and Joe, Keighlie's siblings, and her two precious sons who will never know their mommy in your prayers. They all gained an angel today, but have a long road ahead of them as their hearts are completely shattered right now." Marcotte also shared a statement from Reaux's mother, Amie: "It is with a heavy heart that Joe and I gained a very special Angel today. Please keep our family in your prayers as this is one of the hardest days of our life. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for all the love, support, and prayers. Amie spoke with CBS This Morning and said that her daughter was unvaccinated against COVID-19. "We let our guard down," she said. "We started venturing out. We booked a family vacation. We thought, like the rest of the world, this isn't that real of a virus." Amie shared that after a family vacation, every member of her family tested positive for the virus. All were unvaccinated and all recovered from the virus, except for Keighlie. "The hardest part is leaving your children or your adult child to fight this virus alone," Amie said.
Her mother rushed her to the emergency room, and doctors delivered her baby— Crew. Five days later, Keighlie was placed on a ventilator. Dr. Frank Courmier gave an update to Keighlie's mother over the phone. “So, Keighlie is doing okay. I don't think she's a whole lot better. I’m certain she’s not worse,” Dr. Frank Courmier said to Amie over the phone. “Just from me personally, I just want you to know — Thank you.” Dr. Courmier got emotional while speaking to Begnaud. “It’s personal. I know she’s Mom and doesn’t want to lose her,” the doctor said, his voice breaking. “I don’t want her to go through this. I hope we can pull her through. We’re just not in a phase where we know if she’s going to make it or not.” All of the 24 patients in the main ICU at Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center were COVID positive. Dr. Courmier said the ICU beds at that hospital haven’t been filled by patients of a single disease before in his lifetime. “We've been called murderers. ‘We don't know what we're doing,’” Jennifer Mouton, who has been an ICU nurse for 37 years, said. “I'm on social media the other day and somebody is educating me on what we should be doing to treat our patients. He was the manager of a mattress gallery, and I thought, ‘Well, you know, everybody needs mattresses. I support what you do, but in turn, I expect the same kind of respect.’”
One of the beauties of South Louisiana is help. People rally together to help each other after hurricanes or floods, but in this pandemic, only about 40% of this area is fully vaccinated. “There's fighting and division and hatred,” the ICU nurse said. “If people could come and spend the day with me. I can assure you, they’d be running to get vaccinated.” Ashley Cook, a nurse practitioner at the hospital also spoke with Begnaud. “There's another part of me that doesn't understand how the public can so easily believe random people on social media who have no medical background,” Cook said. Since the onset of Delta variant cases of COVID-19, Dr Cormier has only had two patients come off the ventilator and survive, and that is something Keighlie Reaux’s family is praying for. “The hardest part is leaving your children or your adult child to fight this virus alone,” Keighlie's mother said. Over the weekend, Keighlie's lungs collapsed. Her family was called to the hospital. They thought it was the end, but Dr. Cormier and his medical team revived her. So, she lives to fight another day. Doctors and nurses asked Begnaud to send a message to people at home: Please tell folks to get the vaccine.
28. Morghan Elmore, Age 30, Hamilton County, TN, August 2021, baby survived
HAMILTON COUNTY, Tenn. — UPDATE (October 22nd): We obtained the medical examiner's autopsy report that lists Morghan Elmore's cause of death. It says Elmore tested positive on August 21st, and gave birth via caesarean section on August 22nd. An ambulance took Elmore and her baby to Erlanger, where the report says she was treated for COVID-19-related issues, and her condition declined. She was pronounced dead just before 6 p.m. on August 30th. Her official causes of death are listed as bilateral pneumonia, chronic drug abuse and COVID-19 infection. UPDATE (Later on Tuesday): A COVID-19 death could lead to a bitter custody battle. The Hamilton County's Sheriff Office announced this inmate gave birth before she died from the virus. The baby is in DCS custody and now the family is fighting for their grandchild. Morghan Elmore looked like she was in the prime of her life. She was 30 and had just given birth to her second child when the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office says she died from COVID-19. Elmore's newborn will never know her mother. Flores is working to make Elmore's sure she's raised by family. He's representing Elmore's parents in a the custody case. "This new child we are actively working to get this child over to them. This child is in bad shape herself," said Flores. Elmore had an extensive criminal history, mostly made up of misdemeanors. About two weeks ago, she landed in Silverdale on drug charges. "It would appear that someone who is pregnant and in that kind of situation there may have been something else for her," said Flores. We asked the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office specifically what precautions, if any, are being taken to keep pregnant women safe. Sheriff Jim Hammond says it's unclear if Elmore was infected when she was booked into Silverdale. "I can tell you she was a high risk patient, not only because of the pregnancy, but because of the legal charges. I can't say anymore," said Sheriff Hammond. Sheriff Hammond says Elmore is the first inmate in their custody to die from COVID-19 and he's hoping she's the last. However, the sheriff also tells us a couple are in bad shape. The sheriff's department says they're doing all they can to spread inmates out. They say they offering masks, cleaning supplies and the vaccine. However, Chief Deputy Shepard less than half of the more than 1,100 inmates are vaccinated. Elmore was not vaccinated against COVID-19.
29. Lacy Hutchison, Age 33, Catoosa, OK, September 2021, baby survived
TULSA, Oklahoma -A Catoosa family is remembering their loved one who died from COVID-19 complications. Lacy Hutchinson was eight months pregnant when she got sick. Lacy's sister Autumn Trammel says Lacy was full of life, and so excited to be a new mom. She says Lacy loved to be with her family, spending time fishing and going to the zoo. "She was the most amazing person I've ever known, she was bubbly, full of life, anyone that she came in contact with, she just touched so many lives," Autumn said. Autumn says about three weeks ago, Lacy tested positive for COVID-19. Because she was eight months pregnant, she was admitted to the hospital, and ended up having pneumonia. The baby was delivered through a c-section to help Lacy. "Every time she would fall asleep her oxygen levels would drop, and it was decided to put her on the ventilator and after two weeks her lungs were not healing," Autumn said. Lacy died after two weeks on the ventilator. Autumn says Lacy had been married for 13 years and was so excited to be a new mom and to bring home a baby sister for her five-year-old daughter. "Anything and everything that she needed or wanted, she would try and provide that for her, she loved doing things with her," she said. Autumn says their family is devastated but will do everything they can to make sure their daughters know their mom. "I just want to live in her name and let her daughters never forget who she was, and I just want everyone to be safe and cautious out there and take care," she said. The baby is now home from the hospital and is healthy. If you'd like to help the family, here is a link to an online fundraiser.
30. Patricia Denise Jackson, Age 31, Phoenix, AZ, September 2021, baby survived
https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/phoenix-man-left-devastated-after-covid-19-took-life-of-new-mother (with video)
“Phoenix woman dies from COVID-19 weeks after giving birth; child's father remembers the love of his life”: PHOENIX - A Phoenix man whose girlfriend died after being infected with COVID-19 while she was pregnant is speaking out, even as he is grieving. Michael Jerome is a new dad, as his girlfriend, 31-year-old Patricia Denise Jackson, delivered the baby two weeks before her death. Jerome now has a baby girl to raise, but the woman he wanted to share his life with is now gone. Denise first started to feel sick late in August. She thought she had the flu. "I've never seen somebody so sick before," said Jerome. "She, in her sleep, would breathe really crazy. She made a lot of noises in her sleep because she couldn't get enough oxygen." Jerome said Denise's first COVID-19 test came back negative, but days later, she tested positive in the ER. She eventually underwent an emergency c-section. At the time, she was 36 weeks pregnant. On Sept. 1, she gave birth to Kara, who then had be cared for in the newborn intensive care unit. "So at first, they had her on breathing tubes. They had her intubated, and they had feeding tubes in her, so I called two, three times a day to check on her, see how she was doing, but she’s a little fighter," said Jerome. Denise remained in the ICU. She was sedated and put on a ventilator, so she was not able to hold her baby girl. She passed away on Sept. 13. Jerome said while he is vaccinated, she was not vaccinated during her pregnancy. "Obviously looking back, I wish she had gotten vaccinated sooner," said Jerome. CDC data shows as of Sept. 20, 159 pregnant women across the country have died from COVID-19. There have also been more than 123,000 total cases among pregnant women. Directly impacted is little Kara, who is starting life without the woman who wanted nothing more than to be her mother.
"I tell her about her mother everyday and how much her mother loved her," said Jerome. "It's hard because I see her mother in her face when I look at her." As for Kara, Jerome said she is now 19 days old, and doing great.
Also see: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/09/24/pregnant-woman-dies-covid-days-after-emergency-c-section/5845094001/ “Patricia Denise Jackson, 31, died on Sept. 13 from the virus just days after giving birth. Michael Jerome, Jackson's boyfriend, told USA TODAY he took Jackson to the hospital on Aug. 28 after she was experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. A rapid test came back negative and she was told she had pneumonia, then sent back home with medication. Her symptoms worsened and on Aug. 31, Jerome took Jackson back to the hospital and it was confirmed she had COVID-19. "That's when everything stated to fall apart," Jerome said. Jackson was eight months pregnant and was transferred to a hospital in Phoenix for an emergency C-section. Kara Leola Jerome was born on Sept. 1 at 4 pounds and 7 ounces and was not getting enough oxygen due to Jackson's illness. Kara was put on breathing and feeding tubes, and Michael was unable to see his daughter for almost a week due to COVID protocols at the hospital. Go Fund Me account.
31. Aushunti Rimmer, Age 18, Memphis, TN, September 2021, baby died (5 months pregnant)
MEMPHIS, Tenn. As a teen’s family mourns her death from COVID-19, they’re making a plea to other parents. Aushunti Rimmer’s mother wants other families to avoid the heartache her family is going through. She told FOX13 she talked to her daughter about getting vaccinated several times but she was too scared. “It hurt me so bad because me and her talked about COVID and I begged her to get the shot but she was always like momma I’m scared,” Voshe Rimmer said. The 18-year-old was five months pregnant with a baby boy. She also had diabetes. Rimmer said the worst part is she is also unvaccinated and believes she spread the virus to her daughter, a former student at Wooddale High School. Both ended up in the hospital at the same time, but Aushunti was put on a ventilator. “I told her, ‘Well. baby, it won’t hurt.’ She said, ‘Yes, it’s going to hurt,’ and I said, ‘No baby, just pray to God about it and close your eyes, and everything will be okay,’” said Rimmer. “I talked to my child as good as day, and she blew me a kiss and told me she loved me, and that’s the last time I looked at my daughter.” Now, Voshe urges other parents to vaccinate their children to avoid the pain she is going through. “They need to get vaccinated. They really need to take it serious,” she said. “They got to take it serious because my daughter is one of the ones who was scared.” A few days ago, the family held a candlelight vigil at Wooddale High School. They plan on having the funeral on Saturday in Mississippi.
32. Ashley Smith, Age 30, Ormond Beach, FL, September 2021, baby died (13 weeks, miscarriage)
"Where you die, there I will be buried." Those are the words 30-year-old Ashley Smith wrote in her wedding vows in March 2019. She and her husband, Chris Smith, planned to be buried together in a double plot in Ormond Beach. Now, a little more than two years later, Chris, 29, is trying to raise the $9,000 needed to bury Ashley and their miscarried daughter, Victoria, after Ashley lost her 34-day battle with COVID-19 on Sept. 10. Ashley, 13 weeks pregnant, was hospitalized with COVID-19 on Aug. 8. She miscarried on Aug. 11. Chris has until Sept. 28 to raise the funds so that he can bury Ashley in their joined plot. If not, she'll be cremated. "Prior to getting married, she told me she wanted to be buried, not cremated," Smith said. While he has life insurance, Ashley did not. "I didn't realize how expensive it was going to be." On Aug. 8, Ashley went to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach, the same hospital in which she was born, after testing positive for COVID-19. She was 13 weeks pregnant and wasn't eating or drinking much due to a loss of taste and smell. She had a fever, but her husband said she was otherwise doing OK. She went to the hospital as a precaution and was hoping for a prescription to help her fight the virus. Instead, doctors admitted her so they could monitor her and the baby. Pregnant women already have lowered immune systems, making them more susceptible to severe complications from COVID-19, which can include miscarriage and preterm delivery, said Dr. Pamela Carbiener, an obstetrician and gynecologist with Halifax Health. While Carbiener was not Smith's doctor, she was able to provide insight into how pregnant COVID-19 patients handle the virus. Chris did not know the names of Ashley's OB/GYN doctors, but said they practiced at Halifax Health's Center for Family and Sports Medicine. Carbiener said in the second and third trimesters, the baby presses on the mother's diaphragm and lungs, making it more difficult to breathe.
"Somebody who has severe pneumonia from COVID and is in third-trimester pregnancy may not be able to be ventilated without removing the baby first," she said, "and therefore puts us in a position where we sometimes have to remove the baby … which can have issues with prematurity and possibly COVID." For this reason, Dr. Carbiener strongly recommends all of her patients get the COVID-19 vaccine. She said it doesn't matter which vaccine a person receives because "antibodies are antibodies." "We strongly, strongly advocate that everybody get vaccinated," Carbiener said. "If you're trying to get pregnant, if you're already pregnant, if you are nursing, get vaccinated." The Smiths decided a week before testing positive for the virus to get the COVID-19 vaccine. But they both contracted COVID-19 before they could make an appointment. Chris said that three days after Ashley was admitted to Halifax Health, on Aug. 11, Ashley learned her baby had no heartbeat. Victoria had died. Chris said he did not know whether the baby died from COVID-19. This was one of the three times Chris was permitted to visit his wife in the hospital, despite having COVID-19 himself. The staff determined it was appropriate for Chris to be there to comfort Ashley, who was starting to have breathing issues. At the beginning of August, Halifax Health had stopped allowing visitors for COVID-19 patients because of the sheer volume of patients. At one point, more than 180 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 at Halifax Health facilities. Spokesman John Guthrie said the hospital makes exceptions for certain circumstances, such as end-of-life events. Guthrie said he expects the visitor restrictions to lift once the current surge ends. The hospital system is looking to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for guidance. On Aug. 14, Ashley was placed on a ventilator. Chris said he wasn't informed about the ventilator until the next day. He would never have another conversation with his wife. "The last thing she said to me was, 'I love you, too' after I told her 'I love you' through text," Chris said. "That was the last time I was talking to her and then I texted her back at like 10:30 p.m. and it was left undelivered. She never got it." During the 28 days she was intubated, Chris sent her 788 text messages…Sometime between Aug. 16 and 18, Ashley delivered her still-born baby while intubated and in a coma, Chris said. On Aug. 23, he said Ashley's lungs collapsed. So Chris said he tried to get Ashley an ECMO machine, which oxygenates the blood and helps reduce stress on the lungs. But Halifax Health does not have ECMO machines, according to Guthrie, who spoke on the issue in broad terms. He added that the hospital system cannot comment on specific cases or patients. But generally, patients who require that type of treatment are transferred to another hospital, he said.
“On top of losing his wife and their unborn child, and dealing with thousands of dollars in sudden expenses, Chris has also had to endure the grief of having his 8-year-old stepson, Gabriel, move out of his apartment and into the home of the boy’s biological father.” Chris helped raise the boy from infancy. “I became his dad. I mean, I was there to see every moment of his life,” Chris told the newspaper. “It’s kind of heartbreaking.” More young and healthy pregnant people are ending up hospitalized on ventilators, delivering babies prematurely and sometimes dying from COVID-19 during the delta-fueled spike in cases.
https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/husband-desperate-to-find-special-machine-to-save-wife-30-from-covid (with video)
“The family of a 30-year-old Volusia County woman hospitalized with COVID-19 is desperate to find a special life support machine to help save her life. Chris Smith tells FOX 35 his wife Ashley Smith got sick on July 31. A week later, she was admitted into Halifax Health in Daytona Beach. Since then, he says updates from doctors have been negative. Now they face an uphill battle to find an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or "EMCO," machine. He says doctors say it may be the only thing that can save her.
33. Emily Robison, Age 22, Fort Smith, Arkansas, September 2021, baby survived
“ICU nurse helps fill nursery of newborn whose mom died of COVID-19 shortly after giving birth”. Emily Robison was just 22 years old when she died last month due to complications from COVID-19, leaving behind a newborn daughter whom she never met. Robison, of Fort Smith, Arkansas, was nearly seven months pregnant when she was hospitalized for COVID-19 in mid-August, according to her husband, Eric Robison. She was put on a ventilator and then began to decline so quickly that doctors had to perform an emergency C-section about two months before her due date. The Robison's daughter, their first child, whom they named Carmen, was born on Aug. 25. Less than one month after giving birth, on Sept. 20, Emily Robison, who was not vaccinated against COVID-19, died. "She was on life support until she passed away and didn't know she gave birth," Eric Robison, 23, told "Good Morning America," adding that his wife had long wanted to become a mother, saying, "Every time I came home she'd be talking to Carmen [during pregnancy]. It was like they were best friends already." With the death of his wife, Eric Robison suddenly became a single dad, and one who was not yet prepared with baby supplies because their daughter had been born two months early. His difficult road ahead struck Ashlee Schwartz, an intensive care unit nurse at Mercy Hospital, where Emily Robison was treated. Schwartz, the mother of two young children, cared for Emily Robison for one day in the ICU, about one week before she passed away. "I knew she was maxed out on ventilator settings and was beyond sick," Schwartz said. "One day I saw Eric down the hall, sitting in a chair and staring at a glass door [to his wife's room] and it just broke my heart." When Schwartz learned that Emily Robison had given birth, she looked online for a baby registry for the family so she could give a gift. When she learned there was no registry and the couple had very few items ready for the baby, she jumped into action. Schwartz started a "pay it forward" baby registry to stock Carmen's nursery with essential items like a crib, clothes, bottles and diapers. "I told Eric, 'I will try my best to get you everything that you need,' and it just took off from there," she said. "I felt so called to help." Just weeks after starting the baby registry, it had been fulfilled, thanks to donations from Schwartz's coworkers as well as community members and complete strangers from across the country. A GoFundMe account Schwartz created to help Eric Robison and Carmen has also raised more than $1,000. "I have told him, 'I am here for life. I will always make sure that you and Carmen always have what you need,'" Schwartz, who said Eric Robison is now like a brother to her and Carmen like a niece, said. "We as a community will always make sure they have what they need." Eric Robison said he is overwhelmed at the generosity of Schwartz and others. Carmen is expected to be discharged from the neonatal intensive care unit, where she's been treated since her birth, this week, and she will come home to a house full of supplies and love. "All of it has been so overwhelming and it's been truly amazing knowing that so many people care," Eric Robison said. "I want everyone to know who has ever donated, whoever will donate, who has ever prayed for my family, thank you so much. I cannot even express the gratitude I have. I appreciate it more than they will ever understand." He continued, "I can't wait until Carmen gets older and I can tell her all the support she had." Robison said that throughout the more than one month that his wife was hospitalized, he saw the kindness of nurses like Schwartz in action every day. "I have never known the kindness and the strength of nurses, from prayers to all the treatments they give to help patients," he said. "I've literally watched nurses work until they're collapsed in chairs because they're trying to help so many people out."
34. Marrisha Jenkins, age 27, Decatur, GA, September 2021, baby survived
From Decatur, Georgia, 27-year-old Marisha Jenkins “died the day she was cleared from quarantine and allowed to see her son…. Her family wants all pregnant women to seriously consider vaccination.”
“She was just loving,” Myles Jenkins said. “You just felt happy every time you got around her.”
After spending two weeks in quarantine, Marrisha and Myles were finally cleared to see their little bundle of joy. On Sunday, they were preparing to head to the hospital when Marrisha stopped breathing. “She said, ‘mom, they said my lungs are clear’ and they sent her home,” said Marrisha’s mom, Helena Kindred. "We said she has some issues but I wasn’t expecting what happened to her. Mother on video: She (Marrisha) said, ‘Mom, my lungs are clear,’ so they sent her home. She had some issues, but I wasn’t expecting what happened to her… Myles (her husband) was doing CPR before they got there. And she coded in the ambulance, and then in the hospital she coded again. And at that time, with no oxygen to the brain, it caused severe brain damage… If we had been vaccinated, I truly believe she would not have died.”
(Fox 5 Atlanta)
Reporter, Alex Whittler of Fox 5 Atlanta: “Family says 27-year-old Marrisha Jenkins had a giving spirit. They say she intended on getting vaccinated after she gave birth to her son. But things spiraled out of control when she contracted the virus just before giving birth. Marrisha and Joshua Jenkins were married were just this summer.”
Joshua Jenkins: “She pulled me out of a deep depression that I didn’t think anybody could bring me out of.”
Whittler: “She quarantined for 16 days after baby Jalen’s premature birth, and despite a lingering cough, she rushed to get dressed to meet him when the hospital gave her the all clear.”
Her husband, Joshua Myles Jenkins, said, “I mean you could hear the floor mat come up in pops from the bottom of the tub. And the next thing you know you hear – boom. I’m thinking that’s the floor mat, you know, hitting the bottom of the tub. Next thing you know, I say ‘Hey babe.’ And I’m waiting, I’m like waiting, for the answer, ‘Yes, babe.’”
Reporter, Alex Whittler of Fox 5 Atlanta: “(Joshua) Jenkins called 9-1-1… but it was too late.”
35. Sara Caitlin Vilchez, Age 31, Elgin, SC, September 2021, baby survived
https://ibtimes.com/pregnant-woman-gets-covid-19-day-giving-birth-dies-days-later-3291709
“Pregnant Woman Gets COVID-19 A Day Before Giving Birth, Dies Days Later”:
A 31-year-old woman in Kershaw County, South Carolina, died from complications of COVID-19 just days after giving birth to her fourth child in August. Sara Caitlin Vilchez, of Elgin, was waiting until after her delivery to get vaccinated because she was worried about how the vaccine may coincide with her underlying health conditions and her pregnancy, WIS News 10 reported. Vilchez was diagnosed with COVID-19 on Aug. 14 — three days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that pregnant people be vaccinated against the coronavirus. Prior to this, the vaccine was encouraged for pregnant people but not fully recommended. "She had mild symptoms. A sore throat, some coughing," Sara's older sister, Amanda Haynes, recalled, adding that Vilchez did not have breathing problems at that point. Vilchez welcomed her daughter Marianna on Aug. 15. Three days later, her symptoms reportedly worsened, but she insisted that she leave the hospital with her newborn. "She wanted to go home. She wanted to take her little girl home," her sister said. Physicians gave Vilchez a monoclonal antibody treatment before she was released. However, she was rushed back to the hospital three hours later. She was then put on a ventilator after two more hours. "It went from being so positive that, 'She's gonna beat this,' to, 'Now she's gone,'" Haynes said. Things started to look good for Vilchez for a period of time while she was on the ventilator, her sister said. "She was beating the odds. [W]e were talking about moving her to the next step. She was well enough, she was awake, she was alert, she made the nurses laugh. She was asking for ice and juice," Haynes recalled. Vilchez's feeding tube, however, later became dislodged and caused an infection that required surgery. "When they got to the operating room, before they could start, her heart stopped," Haynes said. Medical personnel reportedly performed chest compressions for 40 minutes that restarted Vilchez's heart. The surgery was successfully completed, but her heart later stopped again for 30 minutes. The medical team was able to resuscitate Vilchez, but they warned Haynes that her sister's body would not be able to handle the heart-stopping again. "That's when they allowed the family to come up," Haynes said. "Her presence was just gone." The Elgin community later contributed more than $10,000 to a fundraiser called "Let's give Sara Caitlin the funeral she deserves." Vilchez's loved ones, as well as health experts, have urged pregnant people to get vaccinated as soon as they can. "During the last few weeks of pregnancy, it's very hard to breathe. Your body's immunity also changes during pregnancy, so combining these two things, makes it very difficult to deal with a situation like [COVID-19]," Dr. Sunil Kumar, ICU director of Broward Health Medical Center, was quoted as saying.
See also: https://www.wistv.com/2021/09/07/my-baby-loved-her-babies-elgin-mother-four-dies-covid-19/ (with video)
“Sara Caitlin Vilchez’s family is shocked by her sudden decline and is urging expectant mothers to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Sara was waiting until after delivering her baby to get the vaccine due to her worries about how the vaccine may coincide with her underlying health conditions and with her pregnancy.”
36. Alicia Santina Rodgers, Age 30, Parker, CO, September 2021, twin babies survived
Town rallies around Parker mom who died of COVID just after her twins' birth, Alicia Rodgers, a mom to four girls including newborns, chose not to get the vaccine while pregnant. Parker has rallied around her family: PARKER, Colo. — Alicia Rodgers and her family moved to Parker to pursue a better life. Her husband had a new job he liked, her eldest daughter was in elementary school and she'd just given birth to twins. Then, she got sick with COVID-19. She was admitted to the hospital, and her parents drove up from Albuquerque to help take care of the children over Labor Day weekend. Rodgers would never make it home. Rodgers, who chose not to get vaccinated during her pregnancy, died Sept. 7. "It's gonna be a long, hard road. It really is," Teresa Santana said. She's Rodgers' mom. Teresa and her husband Philip are back in Albuquerque, and they've just enrolled their granddaughter in elementary school. But the rest of the family is still in Colorado. "The generosity has made me break down several times. Just unbelievable," Philip Santana said. Rodgers' daughter's school, Cherokee Trail Elementary, has helped raise money and donated gift cards, baby formula, diapers and wipes, as well. "There's no way we can ever thank everybody enough for what they've done," Teresa Santana said. The most important thing, though, is getting the rest of the family back to New Mexico. "It means so much just to have everybody together so we can support each other," Philip Santana said. Rodgers was a mom to four girls -- an 8-year-old, 1-year-old, and the newborn twins. A GoFundMe set up by Rodgers' sister-in-law is trying to get them home, as well as pay for her final expenses. So far, thanks largely to the generosity of her neighbors in Parker, that fundraiser has hit more than $15,000.
See also https://www.sacbee.com/news/coronavirus/article254561017.html “When a Colorado mom became pregnant last year, her family says she was advised to delay getting vaccinated against the coronavirus until her twins were born. Shortly after delivering her twins, though, Alicia (Santana) Rodgers tested positive for COVID-19 and was admitted into a hospital, KUSA reported. Her family says she died soon after.” “On Tuesday morning, September 7th, our sweet Alicia lost her two week fight with COVID leaving behind her husband Stan, and four beautiful little girls: 8 year old Emi, 16 month old Cora and 3 week old twins, Trinity and Kenzie,” her aunt, Kirsten Santana, said in a GoFundMe update.
37. Katie Moran, Age 30 (per obituary), Austin, Arkansas, September 2021, baby born one week prior to testing positive for covid.
Katie Moran and her husband Joe have two kids, welcoming a baby girl born just weeks ago (late July, per obituary). Shortly after, Katie tested positive for COVID. AUSTIN, Ark. — Throughout the pandemic, THV11 has tried our best to show the faces of COVID-19, and to show that the people who have passed away are much more than just a number. For Ben Hawkins, it's hard to flip through the memories, but he's doing his best. "Walk into a room and just brighten it up. Doesn't matter what, how dark a day it is, she brightened it up," he said. Hawkins is remembering his sister, Katie Moran. Her smile and her laugh are what stands out most to her older brother. "She was right with us, you know, with our friends that we had," Hawkins said, trailing off. "'Hey, Bug coming with us?' Cause that was her name: called her Katie Bug." Katie and her husband Joe have two kids, and welcomed a baby girl that was born just weeks ago. But not long after the pictures Hawkins is looking at were taken, Katie was back in the hospital. Katie tested positive for COVID. No one knows where she got it from, but she's a frontline hero at Unity Health in Searcy. "First scare for me was when we got told she was going to be intubated," Hawkins said. On August 5th, Katie was transferred to a hospital in Memphis. The day before was one of the last times Ben saw his sister. "Kissed her forehead, told her I love her, she pulled the mask off and said 'I love you too,'" Hawkins said, holding back tears. "Then I had to leave the room." Katie beat COVID-19, but the after effects were too much to handle. She died at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday morning. One of the last things Ben and Joe wanted to do was show her a scrapbook filled with family photos – a way to cheer her up. "Even though we wasn't right there in the room, her family was still a huge part," Hawkins said. "And then she could just have us with, and unfortunately, we weren't able to get it up there in time." It's hard to flip through the memories, but Hawkins said it's easier knowing that Katie is at peace. "She is upstairs right now, probably laughing at us for crying and everything else, just cause of who she was," he said. So Hawkins isn't stopping to pause on the sad memories – it's not what Katie would have wanted. "I just love her more than anything, and just want to thank her for everything she's given to us," he said. "Continue Katie's work. It's what she was put on this Earth to do, is to take care of others, and we're going to continue. We're going to continue her work somehow." Hawkins said that work starts now. There's a Facebook page, Katie Bugs Fight, where Ben would post updates for Katie's friends and families. He said anyone who needs family right now because they're going through something similar, is more than welcome to reach out and he'll be a shoulder to lean on as they work through this together.
38. Kimmie Pavone, Age 35, Las Vegas, NV, September 2021, baby survived
https://www.kansascity.com/news/coronavirus/article254038638.html
“Desperate to have a baby, 35-year-old Kimmie Pavone avoided the COVID-19 vaccine while pregnant for fear of a miscarriage, her sister said. Pavone died Wednesday at a Las Vegas hospital two weeks after giving birth to baby Jordyn Rose prematurely while on a ventilator for COVID-19, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. “She tried so hard to have that baby, and she never even knew it was born. Never got to hold her,” sister Vena Foster told the publication. “And that baby will never know how wonderful her momma was.” Pavone and her husband, residents of Pahrump, Nevada, had been trying for eight years to get pregnant, KLAS reported. But then Pavone fell ill with COVID-19. “She was crying on the phone and, ‘It hurts so bad to breathe and I’m coughing like crazy,’” Foster told the station. Her sister was admitted to a Las Vegas hospital Aug. 11. “She was so scared,” Foster told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. They communicated by sign language in their final talk before doctors put Pavone on a ventilator. Doctors delivered Jordyn Rose prematurely by Cesarean section later the same day Pavone went on a ventilator when the 30-week-old showed signs of distress. Pavone died two weeks later without regaining consciousness. “If you ask me, my sister gave her life for that baby,” Foster told KLAS. “I think literally gave her life for that baby and I want that little girl to know that.” A March study shows pregnant women gain similar levels of antibodies after vaccination as non-pregnant and non-lactating women, McClatchy News reported. What’s more, these antibodies were also found in the umbilical cord blood and breast milk of every woman included in the study, meaning coronavirus immunity is passed on from mother to baby, according to the study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
From https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/local-las-vegas/birth-and-death-unvaccinated-mom-dies-after-child-is-born-2432602/ (with video)
“She was so excited to have a baby. She wanted to be a mom so bad. … She just did everything she was supposed to,” Foster said of her sister, who worked as a phlebotomist in a doctor’s office. When she tested positive for COVID-19 in early August, Foster wasn’t overly concerned, since her sister was young and healthy. Foster said she last communicated with her sister the day before Pavone was put on a ventilator. “She was so scared,” Foster said about the sister she described as always happy and eager to help others. Pavone had an oxygen mask over her face and was unable to speak but communicated through sign language, which she had been studying. Her signing was interpreted by Foster’s niece. The last words she signed to her sister were “I love you.” Foster’s daughter, Malia Matney, has set up a GoFundMe account for Pavone’s widowed husband and the child he will be raising alone. The couple got married three years ago in Hawaii. It was Kimmie’s second marriage; she’d also tried to get pregnant in her first. The widower plans to sell their home in Pahrump to help make ends meet on one income. “I talked to him this morning, and he just cried. He just cried,” Foster said. “And he says, ‘I don’t understand this. I don’t understand how this happened.’” “She was so healthy. She always was healthy. All of us, we were the ones that had health problems. And we survived COVID. … I don’t understand a lot of it,” Foster said through her tears.
39. Brittany Luvender, Age 26, Middletown, OH, October 2021, baby survived
“The couple had just married in November of 2020 and had finally gotten pregnant after trying six years for their second child.” “We’ve been trying for this kid for so long, you know. I just can’t believe this happened," said Jonathon. Brittany was only 27 weeks along when she tested positive for COVID-19. She was admitted to the hospital on September 5. The following day, she could no longer breathe on her own and was placed on a ventilator. On September 17, Riley Rose was born. She was delivered by emergency C-section three months premature. ‘She’s doing good, but Mommy - Mommy couldn’t fight,’ Jonathon said. Brittany died on Friday less than a month after she was first admitted to the hospital. The day before, Jonathon fought for Riley to have one last bonding moment with Brittany. “It was amazing. Like all of her vitals went up; her oxygen levels went up; blood pressure was good; and she stayed that way for six hours," he said. "So I have a feeling she knew she was there and she was just waiting to know her baby was OK.” Jonathon says he wishes she would have gotten the vaccine. "Her thing about the vaccination was it’s not approved for children yet, so why would she give it to the baby, so she wanted to wait until after the baby was born,” he said. It’s a difficult decision thousands of pregnant women across the country face. “Every pregnant woman wants to protect her unborn child, so hesitancy is very understandable. That’s why it’s so important for us here and in my office to tell them what we know," said Dr. Lisa Egbert, vice speaker of the American Medical Association. The CDC says 97% of pregnant people hospitalized with COVID-19 were unvaccinated, putting them at a 70% increased risk of death. Dr. Egbert says the risk from the vaccine is minimal and does not compare to the risk of COVID-19 during pregnancy. "I don't want to see this happening to anyone else, cause I'm going through it and it's the hardest thing I've ever had to do," said Jonathon. He says, while it is a personal choice, he urges anyone who might be on the fence to get the vaccine. The family still has a long road ahead. Riley will have to stay in the NICU until at least December and the family will now have to downsize to adjust to only having one income.
(Brittany Luvender, Ohio, Age , covid at 27 weeks, baby lived, October 2021,with video). Also see https://www.health.com/condition/infectious-diseases/coronavirus/ohio-mom-dies-of-covid-after-giving-birth
40. Amanda Perry, age 36, Dickson, Tennessee, October 2021, baby lived
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/16498257/pregnant-mom-of-five-dies-from-covid/
“Amanda contracted Covid-19 while pregnant, and was admitted to the TriStar Horizon Medical Center emergency room in Dickson, Tennessee on September 15. Shortly after, she was flown to a hospital in Virginia that would be able to better care for her, but her husband was told to prepare for the worst. The couple got married in 2017, and had five children from previous marriages, before trying for their sixth child. Amanda suffered three miscarriages before she was able to successfully conceive and carry their son. They agreed to name their child Nolan, but 8 weeks before her due date, Amanda was rushed in for an emergency C-section. She struggled for her life after giving birth, but succumbed to the illness on October 18, leaving Billy alone to raise their newborn child. Billy said Amanda had wanted to get the vaccine but was too afraid that it would risk the pregnancy, and in hindsight, he wishes they both got the vaccine. He now plans to get the shot. Amanda died on October 18, having never held her child. Nolan was released after a month in the NICU and is now home with his father. A GoFundMe page has been set up in Amanda’s name to help the family she left behind. “To know Amanda was to love her. Her smile was contagious. Her warmth and kindness were felt by all who crossed her path,” the page reads. The GoFundMe page has raised more than $31,000 and asks for help during “her family's greatest time of need.”
https://www.newschannel5.com/news/dickson-county-mom-passes-away-from-covid-after-month-long-battle (with video)
DICKSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WTVF) — A Dickson County mom never got the chance to hold her newborn baby after losing her month-long battle to COVID-19. On September 15, 36-year-old Amanda Perry was admitted to the Horizon Medical Center Emergency room. She was 32 weeks pregnant, and an emergency C-section was performed.
41. Vicky Goodson, Age 40, Charlotte, NC, October 2021, baby lived,
A Charlotte woman who gave birth to her child while on a ventilator and in a medically induced coma after contracting COVID-19 has died, Channel 9 has learned. Vicky Goodson, a CMS employee who had been fighting for her life in a Charlotte hospital, died Tuesday morning, according to her family. Family members told anchor Genevieve Curtis that Goodson “fought and fought for her daughter, who she never got to meet.” Goodson was on extracorporeal life support before she died. Janette Kinard said that before she worked with her friend, Goodson, in the kitchen at Metro School they made a pact. “She was an employee of mine for many years,” Kinard said. “We always had a pact that anybody who had a baby working in the kitchen would be a ‘kitchen baby.’” Doctors delivered Reign Monet on Sept. 11 during an emergency C-section while Goodson was unconscious. Kinard is Baby Reign’s godmother. She would visit Goodson in the hospital and promised her things would be taken care of. “I will take care of child,” Kinard said. “You go ahead and rest, and I’ll take care of your baby.” Kinard’s nonprofit Champion House of Care Project One is financially adopting Baby Reign. She is also asking the community for help. “I know it takes a village to raise a child,” Kinard said. The nonprofit set up through an Amazon registry where people can buy items for Baby Reign. “We want to make sure she has a good life that Vicky would give her,” Kinard said. The baby did not have COVID-19 and spent two weeks in the NICU. Goodson’s family said she was cautious throughout the pandemic, especially when pregnant. She was working at the school and was waiting to get vaccinated until after she gave birth. Family members hope Goodson’s story will encourage other expecting mothers to get vaccinated.
42. Adrienne Chandler, Age 38, Milwaukee, WI, December 2021, baby lived
https://www.cbs58.com/news/mother-unexpectedly-dies-from-covid-19-after-giving-birth-to-fourth-child
MILWAUKEE, Wis. (CBS 58)-- A loving mother unexpectedly died from COVID-19 after giving birth to her fourth child. Adrienne Chandler is being remembered as an amazing, caring and funny person."She has a beautiful soul and my heart will always belong to her," Ryan Emperley, Chandler's boyfriend and father to her newborn, said. "She had a smile that would light a room and bring the absolute joy to everyone's life." David Henderson, her ex-husband and father to three of her children, said there wasn't a single person who met Chandler that didn't like her. "Everybody was just drawn to her, and her laugh was just contagious," Henderson said. Henderson said Chandler started with symptoms of COVID-19 about two weeks ago. "It didn't seem like it was that serious until last week when I came here to grab the kids on Saturday, and she was not looking good," Henderson said. "She was getting ready to drive herself down to the hospital, because she was always willing to lend a hand, but she didn't exactly ask for help too much either." The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed Chandler died from COVID-19. They said she was not vaccinated. "It was gut-wrenching. I don't know how I got through as much as I did before I couldn't hold the emotion in no more," Henderson said. "That thought everything is fine, and then it's not in an instant." "She will be missed forever, and there’s holes in my heart, but her love will continue to fill those holes. My love grows for her everyday," Emperley said. "Everybody was just drawn to her, and her laugh was just contagious," Henderson said. A GoFundMe page was created to suppo
rt her children. There's also information about how people can donate baby gifts and supplies for her newborn. You can find the link here. (so far, over $21,000 has been raised.)
43. Aimee Ayala, Age 22, El Paso, TX, December 2021, baby survived
https://www.ktsm.com/news/22-year-old-woman-dies-from-covid-19-after-giving-birth-to-baby-girl/ (with video)
EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – 22-year-old El Pasoan Aimee “Jaqueline” Ayala died from COVID-19 shortly after giving birth to her baby girl. “Knowing she never got to hold her, that was the worst part. She loved her so much we know she did because she gave her life for her,” said Kimberly Ayala, Jaqueline’s sister. Jaqueline was eight months pregnant when she was hospitalized with COVID-19 in November. Doctors doing an emergency C-section on November 13. After her daughter, Addison Mariand Morales was born, she never regained her strength. “As weeks went by she just got worse and then she went into cardiac respiratory arrest. She couldn’t breathe- her heart stopped,” said Kimberly Ayala. Jaqueline passed away on November 30, her husband Juan Pablo Morales Orozco says it’s baby Addison getting him through. Jaqueline was eight months pregnant when she was hospitalized with COVID-19 in November. Doctors doing an emergency c-section on November 13. After her daughter, Addison Mariand Morales was born, she never regained her strength. “As weeks went by she just got worse and then she went into cardiac respiratory arrest. She could breathe her heart stopped,” said Kimberly Ayala. Jaqueline passed away on November 30, her husband Juan Pablo Morales Orozco says it’s baby Addison getting him through. “I’ve been able to take her home, hold her and sleep with her. She has been a strength… she’s the one carrying me instead of me carrying her,” said Morales Orozco. Juan Pablo and Jaqueline had only been married for a little more than a year and were over the moon when they found out they were pregnant. “I’m going to give myself completely to my daughter and I’m going to try to be the best husband in the world for (Jaqueline)) to fulfill her dreams… because she was the best wife in the world,” said Morales Orozco.
44. Crystal Hernandez, Age 27, Pasadena, TX, January 2022, baby survived
https://abc7news.com/pregnant-woman-dies-of-covid-texas-mom-crystal-hernandez-unvaccinated/11489645
PASADENA, Texas -- A family shares their tragic story of a pregnant mother who died after suffering from pneumonia due to COVID-19. Rico Hernandez and his wife Crystal both grew up in Pasadena, Texas. "We started dating in the ninth grade and have been together ever since," Hernandez said. Together, they had five children and Crystal was pregnant with their sixth child. "She was always very, very, very loving," Hernandez said describing his wife. "She was goofy. She was always playing around. Always had a big smile and she loved to laugh. She loved to have a good time. Play around and have fun." "She started feeling chest tightness and then her breathing got really, really short and really, really bad. Like she was struggling to talk," Hernandez said. Hernandez said the two were not vaccinated based on their beliefs. "Me and my wife, we talked about it," Hernandez said. "She was pregnant and so she had some concerns. It all happened so fast and it was being pushed on us very fast and she just didn't want-- she didn't feel comfortable and so I wasn't going to go against her wishes." They decided Crystal needed to be hospitalized. Hernandez said Crystal ended up transferring to another hospital, where they told them Crystal had pneumonia due to COVID-19. Days later, doctors performed an emergency C-section to deliver their son, Koda, born at 25 weeks. Hernandez said right after New Year's Day, the duo tested positive for COVID-19. "They said that she did fine during the emergency C-section," Hernandez said. "And that she was aware afterward and that they were able to tell her she had a healthy baby boy." Hernandez said over the next two weeks, he received updates from his wife's doctors stating that her condition was improving, then suddenly Crystal's condition took a turn for the worse. "We didn't get to see her until she was close," Hernandez said. "I wish I would have hugged her tighter and held her long before I let her walk through those sliding doors." Crystal was just 27 years old when she passed away. Her newborn baby is still in the NICU, but Hernandez said he is very strong and doing well. A close friend of the family set up this GoFundMe page to help give Crystal a proper resting place.
45. Stephanie Baker, Age 31, January 2022, Shallotte, NC, twins: one baby lived/one died
An unvaccinated pregnant woman in North Carolina died of complications from COVID-19 last month, and her mother is now urging pregnant women to get the vaccine. The woman, Stephanie Baker, 31, of Shallotte, North Carolina, delivered twins on January 27 (2022). She continued to battle the virus until she passed away three days later, her mother, Debbie Baker, said in an interview with Newsweek. Prior to Stephanie's death, one of her newborn infants had passed away. Stephanie's doctors performed an emergency Caesarean section because her babies were showing stress from a lack of oxygen. She got to hold her son, Sylas, before he died. Stephanie's other newborn son, Sage, remains in the newborn intensive care unit (NICU) but is "doing well," Debbie Baker said. Debbie said that her daughter didn't get the COVID-19 vaccine because she was concerned it might harm her children. "She just thought, 'Gotta protect them and I don't want anything to hurt them,' and I respect that [because] she loved her children," she said. "But I was always thinking 'what if' and just praying 'Please don't let her get COVID, please let her make it through this pregnancy and be healthy.' And she chose not to, and I respected that," Debbie added. But Debbie is now urging pregnant women to get vaccinated because "hopefully they would make it through with a minor case of COVID if you have a vaccination, than if you don't have a vaccination." "We would never push anything on anyone, but it's devastating to go through this and I wouldn't want anyone else to go through such pain," she added. Stephanie worked as a receptionist at an animal hospital and was in school to become a veterinary technician. Debbie said her daughter was "beautiful, inside and out." "She loved everybody unconditionally. She would go out of her way to be a friend. Her love had no boundary for caring," she said. In addition to her newborn, Stephanie leaves behind a 4-year-old son. North Carolina news station WECT first reported on Stephanie Baker's story. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends the COVID vaccine for "people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, trying to get pregnant now, or might become pregnant in the future." The agency also warned that pregnant people or those who have been recently pregnant are at a higher risk of getting seriously ill from COVID.
“Debbie says she doesn’t want any other families to experience this, because of the devastation and heartbreak that loved ones go through. Even though we know she’s no longer in pain, and in a better place, we can’t help but miss her and we will carry on with all the love that I know she would, and live life to its fullest like she would,” Debbie said. “You can’t change things, so you have to move forward, so now, hopefully, we can impact lives in a positive way.”
46. Michelle Stani, Age 37, Bridgewater, NJ, January 2022, baby survived
https://nypost.com/2022/01/20/new-jersey-mom-of-4-dies-of-covid-without-holding-newborn-son
A New Jersey mother died of COVID-19 just weeks after giving birth to her fourth child — whom she never got a chance to hold. Michelle Stani, 37, of Bridgewater, died from the virus on Jan. 12 at a hospital in New Brunswick. Just three weeks earlier, the mom gave birth to her fourth child, a son named Jayden, but never got the opportunity to touch him, her aunt Tina Stani told The Post Thursday. “Her partner had taken a picture of the baby and showed it to her, but that’s all she got,” an emotional Tina Stani said. “It tore her up. She literally texted me that she was heartbroken, that she wished she could hold her baby. That’s all she wanted.” But Stani, who graduated in October (2021, presumably) from Rutgers University with a master’s degree in education, never got to fulfill that wish. She died at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital without physically connecting with Jayden, who was born on Dec. 23, Tina Stani said. Stani died of COVID-19 complications linked to pneumonia. It’s unclear if the mother of four was vaccinated, her aunt said. “I don’t know, she was pregnant for almost two years,” Tina Stani said, referring to Michelle’s third child, Jordan, an 11-month-old girl. “I would love to say one way or the other, but I don’t know.” The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced in August that COVID-19 vaccines were safe and effective for pregnant people. [Note: Rutgers policy as of summer 2021 is found at: https://academichealth.rutgers.edu/chancellor/communications/covid-19-vaccination-documentation which states, July 20, 2021: “Failure to comply with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate will prevent you from continuing your academic work at Rutgers in fall 2021. Students not compliant with the vaccine mandate will have the NetID access blocked. This means they will NOT be able to access any Rutgers application that requires a login such as my.rutgers.edu, Canvas, email, WebReg, and housing information…. Additionally, there has been some confusion over the exemption policy for students in online degree programs. That exemption applies only to fully online degree-granting programs. These are programs that only offer online courses and did so pre-pandemic. The vaccination requirement applies to all undergraduate students and to all graduate students in programs that traditionally offer in-person courses regardless of the mix of online and in-person courses for which they register for the fall semester…. In health, Brian L. Strom, MD, MPH, RBHS Chanellor. Notably, per https://www.jurist.org/news/2021/08/rutgers-students-sue-university-over-covid-19-vaccine-mandate/ , “Rutgers students sue university over COVID-19 vaccine mandate” by Tucker Guinn | Harvard Law School, US August 18, 2021: “A group of Rutgers students filed a lawsuit against the New Jersey university’s vaccine mandate on Monday. The group of 18 students is represented by Children’s Health Defense (CHD), an activist group founded by Robert F. Kennedy…In March, Rutgers announced that they would be requiring that students returning to campus be vaccinated against COVID-19. The university stated that the requirement would ensure a “safer Rutgers community” and a “safer New Jersey for our families our friends, and our neighbors across the state.” The university carved out an exception to the mandate, which allows for exemptions based on medical or religious reasons. The lawsuit argues that a vaccine requirement is “an affront to human dignity and personal freedom” because “all people have the right to decide their own medical treatment.” …The lawsuit comes in the wake of rising COVID-19 cases in the US over the last 45 days. Since their authorization, more than 700 colleges have required vaccines. Last week US Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett denied a similar petition from a group of Indiana University students who were protesting a similar requirement. Though her denial was through an emergency application—not a formal court decision—it likely signals that the court will not be convinced by challenges.
Also notably, the Robert Wood Johnson hospital, where Michelle Stani died, is affiliated with Rutgers University, per https://www.rutgershealth.org/rutgers-health-affiliations “Rutgers Health, as New Jersey’s premier academic health care provider, integrates educating students, providing clinical care, and conducting research with the goal of improving health for the people of New Jersey. We bring together the knowledge of member institutions that are part of Rutgers University, one of the top research schools in the United States....
Much of our innovation in research-driven patient care is propelled by an affiliation with our two principal teaching hospitals, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ and University Hospital in Newark, NJ.” ]
Michelle got sick in December and the virus “hit her hard very fast,” her aunt said. Her funeral was held Wednesday in Somerset, where Stani’s 19-year-old daughter, Samantha Jones-Stani, spoke along with Michelle’s older brother, Sean.
“I don’t think reality has set in for her yet,” Tina Stani said of Samantha. “They were very, very close. Samantha said yesterday that her mother was not just her mother, but so much more.” Stani’s family is raising money to offset her “significant” medical bills and set up an education fund for her four children. “She was an advocate for education,” Tina Stani said. “I believe she would want nothing more than her children to have a college education.” Some of the donated funds — which had eclipsed $36,000 as of Thursday — will be designated for education costs, Tina Stani said. “The incredible outpouring of love shows how many people she impacted,” Tina Stani said. “She was special. We know she’s in heaven. We’re going to grieve and help this family — how could you not?” Stani, who grew up in Somerset, is survived by her parents, John and Susan Stani, partner Frank Allen, two brothers and her four children, including 4-year-old Noah, according to her obituary. The hard-working mom loved music, especially the Dave Matthews Band, and was “vivacious and strong-willed and determined and disciplined,” her aunt said. “The fact that she was pregnant, had a rambunctious 4-year-old at home and still got her master’s degree, I would think you would be in awe of her,” her aunt said. “She did it all and worked full-time.” Michelle’s eldest child, meanwhile, posted a heartbreaking tribute to her mother last week, saying she was her soulmate. “You have impacted so many people, you are an inspiration,” Samantha Jones-Stani wrote on Facebook. “Noah, Jordan, Jayden, and I will always live through you and make you proud … I love you so much my mommy please watch over me.”
*** Statewide reports ***
In addition to these personal accounts, a few states reported numbers of pregnant women who died with Covid-19. A few examples are given here:
Hawaii, 20 September 2021
“They (the Hawaii State Maternal Mortality Review Committee, chaired by Dr. Stacy Tsai) are now urging pregnant mothers-to-be to get vaccinated.” (per KHON, channel 2)…. ‘We are not seeing increased risk of complications (due to the Covid vaccine)… I (Dr. Tsai) think the answer is to get everybody vaccinated.’ (date: 20 September 2021)
(See youtube.com/watch?v=_pBdmr4IzZM)
Mississippi from 17 Sept 2021: https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/17/health/mississippi-pregnant-women-covid-vaccine/index.html
“At least eight pregnant Mississippi women have died of Covid-19 since late July – none of them fully vaccinated – officials said, more than doubling the state’s pandemic total in just two months and spurring medical leaders to give this message. We’ve long known Covid-19 puts pregnant women at greater risk for severe disease. And with the highly contagious Delta variant spiking case counts, expectant mothers need to know the vaccine is recommended for them. “Please get vaccinated,” Dr. Thomas Dobbs, the state’s medical officer, said at one of two news conferences this month that addressed the topic. “You’ve got to protect yourself; you’ve got to protect your baby.” Mississippi’s situation likely is not unique, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Covid-19 deaths in pregnant women in the US appear to have ticked up in August. But health officials in the Magnolia State have been especially vocal about it. Eight pregnant women died of Covid-19 in Mississippi since July 25, bringing the state’s pandemic total to 15, Dobbs said Thursday. The 15 ranged in age from 23 to 40, none was fully vaccinated, and only one was partially vaccinated, Dobbs said. At least 12 of the fetuses survived, often through emergency C-section, and some were severely premature, said Dr. J. Martin Tucker, professor and chair of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He spoke for the 12 cases that his system was involved with; information about the other three cases wasn’t available. Mississippi also is analyzing information on 72 stillbirths – deaths of a fetus in the womb after 20 weeks – that have affected Covid-infected pregnant women in the state since the pandemic began, Dobbs said. That appears to be twice the usual stillbirth rate…
More details regarding Mississippi were released in this publication ( https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7047e2.htm#contribAff ) was released in November 2021. “COVID-19–Associated Deaths After SARS-CoV-2 Infection During Pregnancy — Mississippi, March 1, 2020–October 6, 2021” Weekly / November 26, 2021 / 70(47);1646–1648. On November 19, 2021, this report was posted online as an MMWR Early Release. It states:
“The Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) identifies COVID-19 cases and deaths through required health care provider and hospital reporting§ and death certificate reviews. A COVID-19–associated death after SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy was defined as the death of a woman with confirmed or probable SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy who subsequently died during pregnancy or within 90 days after the pregnancy ended…
The median age of the 15 decedents was 30 years. Nine (60%) were non-Hispanic Black women, three were non-Hispanic White women, and three were Hispanic women. The median interval from symptom onset to death before and during Delta predominance was 18 days. All decedents had been admitted to an intensive care unit, and 14 required invasive mechanical ventilation. Seven underwent emergency cesarean delivery (including two at the bedside). Three died during pregnancy, resulting in one spontaneous abortion at 9 weeks and two stillbirths at 22 and 23 weeks’ gestation, and 12 died after a live birth. Underlying medical conditions were present in 14 decedents. Receipt of monoclonal antibodies was not documented for any of the decedents. None of the 15 decedents had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19: five deaths occurred before COVID-19 vaccinations became available in December 2020; one decedent had been partially vaccinated; and nine were unvaccinated.”
Connecticut:
17 Jan 2022: “Connecticut physicians plead for pregnant people to get vaccinated as infections can cause miscarriages, complications”: Pregnant with her first child, the patient arrived at UConn Health critically ill with Covid-19. She had received two doses of the vaccine months earlier, but had put off getting her booster shot. She actually ended with severe illness and required a Caesarian delivery because of respiratory complications,” said Christopher M. Morosky, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and a practicing OB-GYN. Even more alarming for the patient and her family, the baby she delivered tested positive for the coronavirus, Morosky told members of a state committee examining the impact of COVID-19 on those who are pregnant. Both mother and newborn are recovering at home. “However, the trauma the patient had with this COVID-positive baby and the mom recovering from COVID infection and recovering from major surgery was just overwhelming to this family,” Morosky said. “They were brand new parents, and you can imagine putting all that on top of it.” At a meeting last week, the Women and Children’s Health Committee, which is part of the state Medical Assistance Program Oversight Council, heard other harrowing tales from OB-GYNs on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis. Dr. Vero Pimentel, a specialist in maternal and fetal medicine at St. Francis Hospital, cited studies that show a higher risk of miscarriage among pregnant patients with the virus. “In our hospital just this past week, we had a third trimester loss of somebody who was COVID-positive and a second trimester loss of someone who was COVID-positive,” Pimentel said. “The risk of miscarriage is real, the risk of [fetal] demise is real and the risk of preterm delivery is real as well.” A COVID-19 infection during pregnancy brings an increased chance of other serious complications, including preeclampsia and maternal death. It also increases the likelihood the newborn will be admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. Yet vaccination rates among pregnant Americans are lower than among the overall population, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control. In mid-September, just 31% of pregnant people were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, prompting the CDC to issue an urgent health advisory to encourage inoculation. The agency said 22 pregnant people died of COVID-19 complications in August alone. The CDC health advisory strongly recommends COVID-19 vaccination either before or during pregnancy because “the benefits of vaccination for both pregnant persons and their fetus or infant outweigh known or potential risks.” Since that advisory, the percentage of pregnant Americans who have received the vaccine has climbed to 41.5% of the population, a figure Morosky says is still “unacceptably low.” And vaccination rates remain proportionally lower for pregnant Black and Hispanic people, according to the CDC. (The state does not track vaccination rates among pregnant residents, but state Rep. Jillian Gilchrest, D-West Hartford, said she is pushing to change that.) Pregnant people were not included in clinical trials for the COVID-19 vaccines, which has fed skepticism about the vaccine, Pimentel said. Other factors include misinformation, mistrust of “the system,” the legacy of racism in medicine and a fear that the vaccine could harm the fetus. The plea for pregnant patients to get vaccinated has taken on a new urgency with the increase in cases driven by the omicron variant. “Over the last two weeks, half of the patients who came to the hospital have been COVID-positive,” Morosky said. “And even though the majority of them are fine, it is an additional stress on top of their pregnancy,” he said. At St. Francis, the labor and delivery unit has seen “many patients who have COVID,” Pimentel said. Some of those who have experienced symptoms have received monoclonal antibodies to help them fight the infection, she said. The CDC advisory calls on health departments and clinicians to educate their pregnant patients on the benefits and safety of the vaccines, something Pimentel and her colleagues at St. Francis have been doing. The hospital assesses the vaccination status of every pregnant patient who comes in for an ultrasound, Pimentel said. If the patient is not vaccinated, the staff provide counseling to explain the benefits. The hospital holds a vaccination clinic for pregnant patients twice a week. “We’re in the trenches,” Pimentel said. “My job is to educate one pregnant person at a time ... and if I change that one pregnant person, I can change her family, and if I change her family, I will change her community.”
*** Returning to the question of Washington state***
There are many trends and discussion points surrounding the 46 pregnant women who died due to “complications of Covid-19,” as profiled above and the statewide data reported for certain states, but first let us return to our original question. Why is it that none of the three deaths of the women in Washington in spring/summer 2020 were reported in the news media? After all, as noted, deaths were quite rare in Washington state during this time, so the death of a pregnant woman in her 30’s certainly would have been newsworthy.
Consider that, according to the news article, “The 3 pregnant patients who died owing to COVID-19 disease were all publicly insured, aged 35 to 39 years, and from minority racial-ethnic groups.” However, the article does not identify the specific ethnic groups to which each woman belonged. Regardless of their country of origin, one might consider the possibility that the three women were in the country illegally.
One might be tempted to count out this possibility since each of the three women were “publicly insured,” but it turns out that Medicaid has an exception for those giving birth. According to a PBS News Hour Story from 2013:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/how-undocumented-immigrants-sometimes-receive-medicaid-treatment
“While federal law generally bars illegal immigrants from being covered by Medicaid, a little-known part of the state-federal health insurance program for the poor pays about $2 billion a year for emergency treatment for a group of patients who, according to hospitals, mostly comprise illegal immigrants. Most of it goes to reimburse hospitals for delivering babies for women who show up in their emergency rooms, according to interviews with hospital officials and studies.”
Many women in such a circumstance (whether termed “illegal immigrant” or “undocumented worker”) often do not have a local support structure or social network typical for most Americans. So if the three women were isolated without the support of family or close friends nearby, it would explain an apparent lack of local press or social media coverage of their deaths. In turn, this raises a question: is it possible that the data for the three women were manipulated in some fashion in order to increase the reported number of deaths of pregnant women due to Covid-19?
An important refereed journal was published in May 2021, titled “New study suggests pregnant women hospitalized for COVID-19 do not face increased risk of death.” This news release described the results:
(from https://www.uth.edu/news/story.htm?id=f76ad8a9-5997-4adf-a46c-0203d679832b )
“Pregnant women who are hospitalized with COVID-19 and viral pneumonia are less likely than non-pregnant women to die from these infections, according to a new study by researchers with The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) and the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM). The study was published today in Annals of Internal Medicine. The study examined medical records from nearly 1,100 pregnant patients and more than 9,800 non-pregnant women ages 15 to 45 who were hospitalized with COVID-19 and pneumonia. Less than 1% of the pregnant patients died from COVID-19 compared to 3.5% of non-pregnant patients, according to the study findings. Currently, the Centers for Diseases and Control and Prevention (CDC) say pregnant women are at a high risk of developing severe complications from COVID-19. ‘We were surprised when we first analyzed the data,’ said Beth Pineles, MD, PhD, a maternal-fetal medicine fellow in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences with McGovern Medical School at UT Health and first author of the study. ‘We had expected to confirm the results of the CDC and other U.S. researchers showing that pregnancy increases the risk for dying from COVID-19. However, once we compared our results to data from the UK and reviewed the CDC reports more carefully, we found confirmation that our results were likely to represent the true risks of COVID-19 in these populations, despite the limitation of pregnant women being younger and healthier than non-pregnant women.’”
The study itself, denoted as “Pineles et al.” henceforth, can be found at: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M21-0974
Here are a few excerpts germane to the topic at hand:
“Background: Studies examining pregnant patients with COVID-19 have shown an increased risk for death in pregnant versus nonpregnant patients of reproductive age. However, these data are based on registries that are limited by a significant proportion of missing data, including pregnancy status, and likely have biased case ascertainment.
Objective: To evaluate the risk for in-hospital death among pregnant and nonpregnant patients of reproductive age hospitalized with COVID-19, because studies with more thorough ascertainment of COVID-19 in pregnancy are needed to provide the foundation for clinical management and health care policy.
Methods and Findings: We did a retrospective cohort study of patients in the Premier Healthcare Database, an all-payer data repository that captures 20% of U.S. hospitalizations. We included all female inpatients aged 15 to 45 years hospitalized from April to November 2020 with COVID-19. A patient was defined as pregnant if the encounter included any pregnancy-related diagnosis. This study did not include personally identifiable information and was exempted from review by the institutional review board of the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
In-hospital death occurred in 0.8% (n = 9) of pregnant patients and 3.5% (n = 340) of nonpregnant patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and viral pneumonia (Table 1)… Among those who received mechanical ventilation, in-hospital death occurred in 8.6% (9 of 105) of pregnant patients and 31.4% (294 of 937) of nonpregnant patients.
Pregnant patients who died are described in Table 2. Their ages ranged from 23 to 44 years. Eight were non-Hispanic Black or Hispanic. All died between April and July. Six were obese, and 7 had at least 1 comorbid condition. Gestational ages ranged from 23 to 39 weeks, and 7 of 9 deliveries were live births.”
The authors’ table actually includes 10 deaths (rather than 9), and all 10 fell between April and July. When combined with the statement that their statement that the database they studied covered about 20 percent of the entire US hospitalized population happens to correspond precisely with the 50 deaths records in the April-July time interval by the CDC since 0.20* 50 = 10.
Yet curiously, none of the deaths in this study fell between 1 August and 30 November even though the CDC recorded 22 total deaths in this interval. Since one would expect a (decimalized, average) number to be 0.20 *22 = 4.4 in the August through November group, the actual outcome of zero deaths would occur less than 2 percent of the time using the Poisson distribution assumption, which relies upon random outcomes. To relate to this scenario, imagine taking a multiple choice test with 22 questions with each having 5 possible answers, say (a) through (e). Even if you had no idea of the material and blindly guessed on every single question, the odds are that you would get 4 or 5 of the questions correct. To answer zero correct, you would have to be quite unlucky – that would only happen about two percent of the time.
Looking at the description of their Table 2, one can observe that a total of 5 of the 10 women were placed in the ICU the same day they arrived at the hospital, and gave birth via Caesarian section. Of those, 4 of the 5 babies survived.
Pineles et al.continue:
“Our study suggests lower mortality among pregnant patients than was initially reported. Using data collected from a voluntary reporting registry, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention observed a mortality rate of 0.15% among pregnant and 0.12% among nonpregnant patients, including both hospitalized and nonhospitalized patients. That study was limited in that pregnancy status was available for only 36% of patients, creating potential for case ascertainment bias.
A strength of our study is the use of a large database including patient discharge data from 853 hospitals. It is hospital-based, providing a clearly defined population without the biases of registry-based studies. However, some amount of collider bias is expected because both severity of disease and pregnancy affect the likelihood of hospitalization.
Other limitations include the small number of deaths, with resultant lack of adjustment for confounding. Results cannot be extrapolated to patients who are not hospitalized. Laboratory test results were unavailable, but prior research showed a strong correlation between COVID-19 diagnosis and laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this large, geographically diverse cohort of reproductive-aged patients hospitalized with COVID-19, we found that in-hospital mortality was low in pregnant patients.
*** Bias and Adjustments ***
According to https://www.scribbr.com/research-bias/ascertainment-bias/
“Ascertainment bias is a form of systematic error that occurs during data collection and analysis. It occurs when sample units are drawn in such a way that those selected are not representative of the target population. In medical research, ascertainment bias also refers to situations where the results of a clinical trial are distorted due to knowledge about which intervention each participant is receiving. Ascertainment bias can be introduced by:
1. The person administering the intervention
2. The person receiving the intervention
3. The investigator assessing or analyzing the outcomes
4. The report writer describing the trial in detail”
Pineles et al., cite the CDC study limitation that pregnancy status was only available for 36% of patients. One reasonable inference is that, of the remaining 64% with unknown pregnancy status in the CDC study, the vast majority were not pregnant. If for these individuals deaths occurred at a rate significantly higher than the 0.12% reported for the non-pregnant group, then the non-pregnant group might falsely appear to fare better than they actually did. The advantage of the data acquired in the Pineles et al. article is that the data set is more complete and therefore minimizes ascertainment bias. I conjecture that there might be additional reasons for the significant disparity in the data between these two studies, but I will describe those at the appropriate time.
Thus, contrary to the CDC report, Pineles et al. conclude that pregnancy does not lead to additional risk of death due to Covid-19 when compared to women within the same age group because their data is of higher quality.
Interestingly, the CDC report authors do not correct for this clearly important ascertainment bias. Yet they do apply a very strong, yet opaque, correction for confounding. To illustrate why some level of correction might be helpful for data interpretation, consider that most pregnant women might be in their 20’s and 30’s whereas the average hospitalized patient in the 18-45 range might be over 40. Since people in the 40’s tend to have poorer outcomes than those in their 20’s, a difference in age alone might expect a higher death rate for non-pregnant women. So the CDC applied a statistical adjustment – hence the 70% increase reported when the actual pre-adjusted rate is 25% (a point also mentioned earlier in this article). But the statistical tool is opaque. In other words, how do we really know the adjustment should be from 25% to70 instead of 25% to merely 30%? The CDC authors could have simply reported the outcomes for pregnant and non-pregnant women in terms of more refined age subgroups (comparing outcomes for 18-25, 26-35, and 36-45). But those more refined comparisons, which would also limit age bias in a very transparent fashion, were not apparently reported in the media releases.
*** Disclosures and Dollars ***
Scientific articles generally include a “disclosures section” which spells out potential conflicts-of-interest for the study authors. As such, the disclosure of relationships enable readers to assess whether the work might be compromised by either conscious or unconscious bias. Referring once more to the study led by University of Washington researchers, one of the 37 co-authors was Dr. Alisa Kachikis (MD, MS, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA). In the disclosures section of that article, the following statement is included:
Per the Article Information section: “A.K. (Alisa Kachikis) is on the Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline advisory board for immunization, which is unrelated to the content of this article. The remaining authors report no conflict of interest.”
Let’s examine this claim that the content of the article is “unrelated” to the “Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline advisory board for immunization.” On 2 November 2021, (link: https://cnn.com/2021/11/02/business/pfizer-earnings/index.html/ ), CNN published an article titled, “Pfizer revenue and profits soar on its Covid vaccine business.” It states:
Pfizer reported that earnings and sales more than doubled in the past quarter, and it raised its outlook for results the full year, thanks greatly to its Covid-19 vaccine. The company reported adjusted earnings of $7.7 billion, up 133% from a year earlier. Revenue soared to $24.1 billion, up 134%. Both easily cleared results forecast by analysts. The vaccine business alone was responsible for more than 60% of the company’s sales, as vaccine revenue rose to $14.6 billion from only $1.7 billion a year earlier. The company said its Covid vaccine sales accounted for $13 billion of that revenue. Revenue outside of its Covid vaccine business was up a far more modest 7%. This year, the Covid vaccine has brought in revenue of $24.3 billion. And Pfizer said it expects a total of $36 billion from the vaccine for all of 2021 – nearly $12 billion more in revenue the final quarter of the year. And it said based on contracts it now has signed it expects revenue $29 billion from the Covid vaccine in 2022. And that’s not necessarily all it will bring in. “We continue to engage with governments regarding potential additional orders for 2022,” said the company. The company said it now expects full-year 2021 revenue of between $81 billion to $82 billion, up $2 billion from its earlier guidance. It also raised its earnings per share outlook by about 3% to 5% above what it had been expected to earn. “While we are proud of our financial performance, we are even more proud of what these financial results represent in terms of the positive impact we are having on human lives around the world,” said CEO Albert Bourla in his prepared remarks for investors. About 67% of the total US population has had a least one dose of a Covid vaccine, and 58% are fully vaccinated, according to data tracked by the Mayo Clinic. So there is still significant vaccination doses that can be administered, especially to children, many of whom are still not approved to receive the vaccine. The US Food and Drug Administration on Friday granted emergency use authorization for the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer for children ages 5 to 11. Final approval of the vaccine for children is up to the director of the Centers for Disease Control, Dr. Rochelle Walensky. The CDC’s vaccine advisory committee is set to meet Tuesday, and the younger children could start to get the vaccine within days. Pfizer says a clinical trial showed its vaccine provides more than 90% protection against symptomatic disease among children, even at one-third the dose that could be administered to children. It said another trial shows that booster doses of the vaccine for adults shows 95.6% efficacy. Older and at-risk adults have already been getting the booster doses since earlier this year. Pfizer disclosed last week that the US government had exercised its final purchase option buy 50 million additional doses of its Covid vaccine. That brings the total number of pediatric doses of the vaccine to 115 million, which is enough to vaccinate every US child. Overall, the federal government has now purchased a total of 600 million doses across all age ranges under its supply agreement. Shares of Pfizer (PFE) were up 5% in midday trading on the results.
In order to fully trust of the research, one must also consider whether financial interests of the project sponsor might influence the results, which could occur either through conscious or unconscious bias of the researchers. And so it is typical for the acknowledgments to disclose sponsorship information. Here, in the University of Washington-led study, the following statement is included:
“This work was supported primarily by funding from the University of Washington Population Health Initiative, the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Washington, and by philanthropic gift funds. This work was also supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (grant numbers AI133976, AI145890, AI143265, and HD098713 to K.A.W.; HD001264 to A.K.; and AI120793 to S.M.L.). Study data were managed using the REDCap electronic data capture tool hosted by the Institute of Translational Health Sciences at the University of Washington, which was supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (UL1TR002319). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.”
October 25, 2016: “University of Washington Population Health Initiative receives transformative gift from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation”
“In May (2016), the UW launched an initiative to develop a 25-year vision to improve population health locally and globally by focusing on three key areas: human health, environmental resiliency, and social and economic equity. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded a $210 million gift that will serve as a catalyst for the vision, funding construction of a new building to house several UW units working in population health, as well as serving as a place for faculty, students and collaborators from the many university departments and global partners that are part of the effort to come together in their work.
‘Melinda and I are pleased to make this investment in the University of Washington to help dramatically accelerate their 25-year vision to achieve positive health outcomes for populations around the world. UW has long been a partner in our foundation’s global health and development efforts and this grant underscores our confidence in the school’s students, faculty and multi-disciplinary resources to advance their Population Health Initiative,’ Bill Gates said.…
The Gates Foundation gift is among the largest single contributions in the UW’s history and will dramatically accelerate the 25-year vision of collaboration among diverse fields in the health sciences and beyond, including education, engineering, environmental sciences, law, the arts, humanities, social sciences, business and others.”
*** Character matters ***
In 2019, the New York Times reported the following (see:
“Bill Gates Met With Jeffrey Epstein Many Times, Despite His Past”
(By Emily Flitter and James B. Stewart, Published Oct. 12, 2019. Updated Nov. 26, 2019)
“Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who committed suicide in prison, managed to lure an astonishing array of rich, powerful and famous men into his orbit. There were billionaires (Leslie Wexner and Leon Black), politicians (Bill Clinton and Bill Richardson), Nobel laureates (Murray Gell-Mann and Frank Wilczek) and even royals (Prince Andrew).
Few, though, compared in prestige and power to the world’s second-richest person, a brilliant and intensely private luminary: Bill Gates. And unlike many others, Mr. Gates started the relationship after Mr. Epstein was convicted of sex crimes.
Mr. Gates, the Microsoft co-founder, whose $100 billion-plus fortune has endowed the world’s largest charitable organization, has done his best to minimize his connections to Mr. Epstein. “I didn’t have any business relationship or friendship with him,” he told The Wall Street Journal last month.
In fact, beginning in 2011, Mr. Gates met with Mr. Epstein on numerous occasions — including at least three times at Mr. Epstein’s palatial Manhattan townhouse, and at least once staying late into the night, according to interviews with more than a dozen people familiar with the relationship, as well as documents reviewed by The New York Times. (*see note following this section on this stated timeline)
Employees of Mr. Gates’s foundation also paid multiple visits to Mr. Epstein’s mansion. And Mr. Epstein spoke with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and JPMorgan Chase about a proposed multibillion-dollar charitable fund — an arrangement that had the potential to generate enormous fees for Mr. Epstein.
“His lifestyle is very different and kind of intriguing although it would not work for me,” Mr. Gates emailed colleagues in 2011, after his first get-together with Mr. Epstein.
Bridgitt Arnold, a spokeswoman for Mr. Gates, said he “was referring only to the unique décor of the Epstein residence — and Epstein’s habit of spontaneously bringing acquaintances in to meet Mr. Gates.”
“It was in no way meant to convey a sense of interest or approval,” she said.
Over and over, Mr. Epstein managed to cultivate close relationships with some of the world’s most powerful men. He lured them with the whiff of money and the proximity to other powerful, famous or wealthy people — so much so that many looked past his reputation for sexual misconduct. And the more people he drew into his circle, the easier it was for him to attract others…
Mr. Epstein and Mr. Gates first met face to face on the evening of Jan. 31, 2011, at Mr. Epstein’s townhouse on the Upper East Side. They were joined by Dr. Eva Andersson-Dubin, a former Miss Sweden whom Mr. Epstein had once dated, and her 15-year-old daughter. (Dr. Andersson-Dubin’s husband, the hedge fund billionaire Glenn Dubin, was a friend and business associate of Mr. Epstein’s. The Dubins declined to comment.)
The gathering started at 8 and lasted several hours, according to Ms. Arnold, Mr. Gates’s spokeswoman. Mr. Epstein subsequently boasted about the meeting in emails to friends and associates. “Bill’s great,” he wrote in one, reviewed by The Times.
Mr. Gates, in turn, praised Mr. Epstein’s charm and intelligence. Emailing colleagues the next day, he said: “A very attractive Swedish woman and her daughter dropped by and I ended up staying there quite late.”
Mr. Gates soon saw Mr. Epstein again. At a TED conference in Long Beach, Calif., attendees spotted the two men engaged in private conversation.
Later that spring, on May 3, 2011, Mr. Gates again visited Mr. Epstein at his New York mansion, according to emails about the meeting and a photograph reviewed by The Times.
The photo, taken in Mr. Epstein’s marble-clad entrance hall, shows a beaming Mr. Epstein — in blue-and-gold slippers and a fleece decorated with an American flag — flanked by luminaries. On his right: James E. Staley, at the time a senior JPMorgan executive, and former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers. On his left: Mr. Nikolic and Mr. Gates, smiling and wearing gray slacks and a navy sweater…
Mr. Epstein pitched an idea for a separate charitable fund to JPMorgan officials, including Mr. Staley, and to Mr. Gates’s adviser Mr. Nikolic. He envisioned a vast fund, seeded with the Gates Foundation’s money, that would focus on health projects around the world, according to five people involved in or briefed on the talks, including current and former Gates Foundation and JPMorgan employees. In addition to the Gates money, Mr. Epstein planned to round up donations from his wealthy friends and, hopefully, from JPMorgan’s richest clients.
Mr. Epstein thought he could personally benefit. He circulated a four-page proposal that included a suggestion that he be paid 0.3 percent of whatever money he raised, according to one person who saw the proposal. If Mr. Epstein had raised $10 billion, for example, that would have amounted to $30 million in fees.
Ms. Arnold said Mr. Gates and the foundation had been unaware that Mr. Epstein had been seeking any fee. She said Mr. Epstein “did propose to Bill Gates and then foundation officials ideas that he promised would unleash hundreds of billions for global health-related work.”
In late 2011, at Mr. Gates’s instruction, the foundation sent a team to Mr. Epstein’s townhouse to have a preliminary talk about philanthropic fund-raising, according to three people who were there. Mr. Epstein told his guests that if they searched his name on the internet they might conclude he was a bad person but that what he had done — soliciting prostitution from an underage girl — was no worse than “stealing a bagel,” two of the people said.
Some of the Gates Foundation employees said they had been unaware of Mr. Epstein’s criminal record and had been shocked to learn that the foundation was working with a sex offender. They worried that it could seriously damage the foundation’s reputation.
In early 2012, another Gates Foundation team met Mr. Epstein at his mansion. He claimed that he had access to trillions of dollars of his clients’ money that he could put in the proposed charitable fund — a figure so preposterous that it left his visitors doubting Mr. Epstein’s credibility…
In March 2013, Mr. Gates flew on Mr. Epstein’s Gulfstream plane from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey to Palm Beach, Fla., according to a flight manifest. Ms. Arnold said Mr. Gates — who has his own $40 million jet — hadn’t been aware it was Mr. Epstein’s plane.
Six months later, Mr. Nikolic and Mr. Gates were in New York for a meeting related to Schrödinger, a pharmaceutical software company in which Mr. Gates had a large investment. On that trip, Mr. Epstein and Mr. Gates met for dinner and discussed the Gates Foundation and philanthropy, Ms. Arnold said. And in October 2014, Mr. Gates donated $2 million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab. University officials described the gift in internal emails as having been “directed” by Mr. Epstein. Ms. Arnold said, “There was no intention, nor explicit ask, for the funding to be controlled in any manner by Epstein.”
Soon after, the relationship between Mr. Epstein and Mr. Gates appears to have cooled. The charitable fund that had been discussed with the Gates Foundation never materialized. Mr. Epstein complained to an acquaintance at the end of 2014 that Mr. Gates had stopped talking to him, according to a person familiar with the discussion.
The relationship, however, wasn’t entirely severed. At least two senior Gates Foundation officials maintained contacts with Mr. Epstein until late 2017, according to former foundation employees.
Ms. Arnold said the foundation was not aware of any such contact. “Over time, Gates and his team realized Epstein’s capabilities and ideas were not legitimate and all contact with Epstein was discontinued,” she said.
Days before Mr. Epstein hanged himself in a Manhattan jail cell on Aug. 10, he amended his will and named Mr. Nikolic as a fallback executor in the event that one of the two primary executors was unable to serve. (Mr. Nikolic has declined in court proceedings to serve as executor.)
Mr. Nikolic, who is now running a venture capital firm with Mr. Gates as one of his investors, said he was “shocked” to be named in Mr. Epstein’s will. He said in a statement to The Times: “I deeply regret ever meeting Mr. Epstein.”
(*In her two volume book published in 2022, One Nation Under Blackmail (available at https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/one-nation-under-blackmail-whitney-alyse-webb/1142329678 ), author Whitney Webb provides a well-sourced argument which disputes the media reports suggesting that Bill Gates did not know Jeffrey Epstein prior to 2011. Moreover, she cites media sources which state that Bill Gates interacted many times with the family of Ghislaine Maxwell well before the year 2000.)
***The “Noble Lie” ***
In the introduction of this article, the movie Casablanca is referenced for its breathtaking rendition of the emotions of love during a time of war. There is one iconic scene, only 5 minutes long, which I believe provides prescient insight into our current predicament. Still shots and dialogue excerpts are given below, but I encourage the reader to take the time to watch the clip because the emotions of the characters are so brilliantly portrayed.
The film clip begins with the character Capt. Louis Renault (played by Claude Rains) pointing a young woman toward the character Rick Blaine, (played by Humphrey Bogart). Rick is approached by the young woman named Annina Brandel (played by Joy Page).
By presenting Annina’s dilemma and Rick’s reaction, the scene is used to foreshadow the movie’s eventual expression of Rick’s sentimental and heroic character, which lay buried deep within his pragmatic, war-hardened persona:
Annina Brandel (played by Joy Page): “Monsieur Rick?”
Rick Blaine (played by Humphrey Bogart): “Yes.”
Annina: “Could I speak to you for just a moment please?
Rick: “How did you get in here? You’re underage.”
Annina: “I came with Capt. Renault.”
Rick: “Ah, I should have known.”
Annina: “My husband is with me too.”
Rick: “He is? Well, Capt. Renault’s getting broad-minded. Sit down. Will you have a drink?”
Annina: “No.”
Rick: “No, of course not. You mind if I do?”
Annina: “Monsieur Rick, what kind of a man is Captain Renault?”
Rick: “He’s just like any other man, only more so.”
Annina: “No, I mean, is he trustworthy? Is his word…”
Rick: “Now, just wait a minute. Who told you to ask me that?”
Annina: “He did. Captain Renault did.”
Rick: “I thought so. Where’s your husband?”
Annina: “At the Roulette Table – trying to win enough for our exit visas. Oh, of course he’s losing…”
Rick: “How long have you been married?”
Annina: “Eight weeks. We come from Bulgaria. Oh, things are very bad there, Monsieur. The Devil has the people by the throat. So Yan and I – we do not want our children to grow up in such a country.”
Rick: “And so you decided to go to America.”
Annina: “Yes, but we have not much money…and travel is so expensive and difficult. It was much more than we thought to get here. And Captain Renault sees us, and he is so kind. He wants to help us.”
Rick: “Yes. I’ll bet.”
Annina: “He tells us he will give us an exit visa. But we have no money.”
Rick: “Does he know that?”
Annina: “Oh, yes.”
Rick: “And he’s still willing to give you a visa?”
Annina: “Yes, Monsieur.”
Rick: “And you want to know…”
Annina: “Will he keep his word?”
Rick: “He always has.”
Annina: “Oh… Monsieur, you are a man. If someone loved you very much- so that your happiness was the only thing she wanted in the world, but she did a bad thing to make certain of it, could you forgive her?”
Rick: “Nobody ever loved me that much.”
Annina: “And he never knew. And the girl kept this bad thing locked in her heart. That would be alright, wouldn’t it?”
Rick: “You want my advice?”
Annina: “Oh, yes, please.”
Rick: “Go back to Bulgaria.”
Annina: “Oh, but if you knew what it means to us to leave Europe, to get to America… Oh, but if Yan should find out -he is such a boy. In many ways, I am so much older than he is.”
Rick: “Yes. Well everybody in Casablanca has problems. Yours may work out. You’ll excuse me.”
The implication is clear. Without money, Capt. Renault would only provide the visas if certain “criteria” were met. Rick, owner of the establishment, then proceeds into the gambling room.
Rick and the croupier exchange a knowing glance, and then Rick approaches the young woman’s husband, Yan, who is seated at the Roulette wheel.
Rick: “Have you tried 22 tonight?” (looking at the croupier) “ I said… 22.”
The young man places his chips on 22... And, “remarkably”, 22 hits.
Rick: “Leave it there.”
The young man follows this instruction and places all of his winnings on 22… And 22 hits again.
Rick Blaine: “Cash it in, and don’t come back.”
Another observant gambler then poses a question to Carl, the Maitre D’ at Rick’s:
Observant Gambler: “Are you sure this place is honest?”
Carl (played by S.Z. Sakall): “Honest? As honest as the day is long.”
Only a moment later, the young couple tracks down Capt. Renault to discuss obtaining exit visas (by bribery, of course) as quickly as possible with their winnings. Capt. Renault, clearly dismayed by the outcome, feigns congratulations:
Capt. Louis Renault (Claude Rains): “I’m very happy for both of you. Still it’s very strange that you won… Well, (upon glancing at Rick) maybe not so strange.”
Shortly thereafter, Carl tells the bartender about Rick’s intervention. The bartender expresses disbelief, and then approaches Rick with admiration. He understood that by rigging the game of chance, the thousands of dollars ”won” by the young couple came from Rick’s own pocket, and he is overwhelmed by the gesture. He strides hastily around the bar to approach Rick.
Bartender: “Boss, you’ve done a beautiful thing!”
and proceeds to embrace Rick and kiss Rick on both cheeks
Rick subdued reply: “Wha - you crazy Russian...” and he gave the barkeep an amicable slap on the back as he walked away.
It is perhaps worth reminding the reader that the United States and Russia, part of the Soviet Union, were allied against the Nazi powers by summer 1941, one year prior to the making of the film Casablanca.
*** “The coldest story ever told…. How could you be so heartless?”(Heartless, K. West)***
When I first watched Casablanca many years ago, I left with ambivalent feelings for Capt. Renault. He is clearly a scoundrel, yet at the end of the film he reaches a compromise with Bogart’s character Rick with the iconic statement, “Round up the usual suspects.” The scene referenced above occurred much earlier in the movie, and so it was easy to look past Capt. Renault moativations and actions in this scene.
Today, in the shadow of convicted sex-trafficker Jeffery Epstein’s blackmail operation using underage girls and young women to exert control over influential people, I hold a much different opinion of the character. Consider that Renault either had to obtain permission to issue the priceless exit visas from a higher authority or else find some other corrupt way to obtain them. One way he might have ensured cooperation from these higher authorities (or whoever provided might have provided visas to him) would be to provide them with “underage” women like Annina.
Suppose, for instance, that Annina had never met with Rick and that she had instead agreed to go along with Renault’s corrupt bargain. She may have found out, after compromising her values and integrity by “sleeping with” him, that Capt. Renault would have provided her with only one exit visa. He might then have told her that if she wanted the second exit visa, she would also have to “sleep with” the higher authority. Renault would have bargained with the higher authority to trade Annina for two (or perhaps even three) exit visas. Thus, Renault would be able to ensure the continuation of his operation, perhaps even profit by selling the third exit visa, and simply wait the next desperate “underage” woman came along to repeat the process.
Annina was surely wise to ask Rick, “What kind of a man is Capt. Renault?” because, had she submitted to his will with the understanding she would obtain both visas with one liaison, he would have been in a position to blackmail her by threatening to tell her husband that they had an affair. Then after “sleeping with her,” he could have then given her three choices: (1) sleep with the higher authority to obtain the second exit visa, (2) leave for America without her husband, or (3) “go back to Bulgaria” as Rick first advises her.
Perhaps Rick knows something the average movie-goer does not in offering her that advice.
Thus, it is reasonable to perceive the true nature of the character, Capt. Renault, as being analogous to Jeffrey Epstein. The character Annina is focused only on raising a family with her husband in a safe place for their children. Renault, with all of the power in this scenario, views her as a play-toy and a means to secure even more money and power.
Viewed in this context, is there any doubt that Capt. Renault was waging a war on love?
*** "One bad thing”
The actions by Rick at the Roulette wheel precisely illustrate a situation where “the ends justify the means.” Rick uses a rigged game to cheat, but his actions secure the money for the husband and wife from Bulgaria so that they may travel to America, raise a family in a peaceful setting, and pursue their dreams together. Rick’s dishonesty but good intentions illustrate the “Noble Lie” as envisioned by those who coined the phrase.
It is worth pointing out that while the outcome of two straight wins on a Roulette wheel is unlikely, it is statistically possible. Therefore, the gambler who questions the honesty of the casino has “no evidence” that the wheel was rigged. Hence, Carl feigned disbelief at the possibility and dismissed the observant gambler as a “conspiracy theorist.”
I suspect that in the early stages of the Covid-19 era, many individuals associated with government health organizations, whether in the US or around the globe, viewed themselves as analogous to the character Rick. They may have taken actions which were deceptive or made false statements, but they expected that the outcome would be improved and that their actions would eventually be viewed as heroic due to “lives saved during the pandemic.” They expected that the ends would justify the means.
In my opinion, these health officials are impeccably personified in the Casablanca scene not by Rick, but rather by Annina. More precisely, they represent what Annina would have become if she had succumbed to the will of Capt Renault without intervention by Rick. I have little doubt that the overwhelming majority of the scientists in the CDC joined the organization with the lofty goal of ensuring the health and well-being of the people of the America and the rest of the world. I sense that the majority assumed that the Covid vaccine actually was “safe and effective” and would end the disruption of Covid-19 on our society. However, to achieve the goal of the “return to normalcy” and “saving lives,” many of those scientists had to do “one bad thing.” They had to relinquish their integrity in order to increase the uptake of the Covid vaccine by the public, including pregnant women.
In many cases, the “one bad thing” was not an overt action but rather an omission. In the example described above, an opaque and poorly-described statistical tool was used to change their measured 25% rate of increase to 70% in order to make the virus appear even more deadly for pregnant women than for women in the same age range. Even more, the CDC researcher omitted corrections which appear to have been properly applied by Pineles et al., who showed that pregnant women seemingly have no more risk from the virus than non-pregnant women within the same age range. This “one bad thing” amounted to a scare tactic, which in turn led to more pregnant women and their families taking the Covid vaccine.
As soon as “one bad thing” sacrificed their integrity to promote the “Noble Lie,” the “Devil” had the compromised CDC scientists “by the throat.” As data later showed that the Covid vaccine did not prevent infection, CDC scientists were prodded like cattle to promote the mantra that hospitalizations would be limited. Now that the data shows that hospitalizations are higher for the vaccinated, they cling to the idea that deaths are less likely. Is there any doubt that any government scientist speaking out, even now, against the Covid vaccine would be punished? And those at high levels of the organization would have been able to demonstrate that the scientist had gone along with the “one bad thing” during the Covid era– or much earlier, perhaps related to the opioid crisis- and could have provided supportive details to the media. In turn, the media news organizations, with advertising revenue supported by large pharmaceutical companies and others with a vested interest in promoting the Covid agenda, could have wrecked the scientist’s reputation and career. Analogously, if Annina had done “one bad thing,” she would have given Capt. Renault the power to destroy her reputation and her marriage. When the person in power has the mindset of Jeffrey Epstein, “one bad thing” can quickly turn into “many bad things.”
This approach may serve as blackmail to keep any restless scientist in line with the preferred narrative. Some, like Jeffrey Epstein’s young victims, may be trapped in an environment of fear and intimidation. Others, as with Ghislaine Maxwell, embrace corruption over time and serve as accomplices, may keep the other scientists in check. The accomplices might even serve as the equivalent of thug-like “enforcers” for an organized crime ring.
And what might happen to faculty and students at the University of Washington if they had attempted to publish a study which demonstrated that the Covid vaccine failed? Their dream of happiness in the promised land of “Academia” (as opposed to “America” in the film) surely would have been squashed. Is there even one example of one UW-led study with conclusions counter to the goals of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that provided the school with $210 million?
A transformational grant? “He wants to help us.”… “Yes, I’ll bet.”
In the case of the UW-led study, why did the researchers limit information on the timeline for each of the three women? For the apparent victim who was in her first trimester, what method was used to ensure that there was no “ascertainment bias” in her specific case? In other words, is it possible that an individual who wished to promote the vaccine might have supported the “Noble Lie” by listing a woman as pregnant in her first trimester when in fact she was not pregnant after she died of – supposedly- Covid-19? Such an “error” would have supported the goals of the Gates Foundation. What steps were taken to guarantee this did not happen?
The Real Dr. Fauci by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. describes what can happen to those in academia who fall out of line with the preferred, often dictated, narrative. Many good people attempt to become faculty because they feel a calling. Students benefit greatly from mentors with such a mindset, so it is tempting to allow “one bad thing” in order to, seemingly, protect this dream and “serve the greater good.”
Of course, the University of Washington grant is only one example of the Gates Foundation’s influence in academia as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funds, and therefore influences, universities around the world. One example is given here:
(link https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/committed-grants/2020/04/INV017069 )
“University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Purpose: To provide effective, accessible, scalable treatment for covid-19. Division: Global Health, Date: APRIL 2020, Committed amount: $3,268,572
If the reader is curious why this specific grant is singled out from among so many, I suggest you read a few other Way Out Substack articles.
To borrow Annina’s phrasing, “What kind of a man is Bill Gates?” For starters, he is a man who apparently had a close relationship with convicted pedophile and child sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. According to multiple reports, he also has maintained a close relationship with the family of convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.
In the introduction of this article, it was suggested that an expectant mothers are “love” personification of “love.” By contrast, is there a better metaphor for “hate” than a pedophile or child-sex trafficker? Those who view people, even children, as human capital to be exploited are no better than slave-owners. The extent of the Epstein blackmail operation and its obvious cover-up in the media demonstrates that this “war on love” goes far beyond one man. Those who wage it - the “Global Elites” and whoever else they control – must be stopped.
What is one to do if the calling of an academic career hinges on the support of Bill Gates and other “elite” oligarchs like him? “Go back to Bulgaria” comes to mind. Better yet, let’s fix the problem. To do the latter, it is helpful to examine the path laid out by the deaths of pregnant women who died with Covid-19, including the 46 women whose very sad stories were broadcast and published, as given above.
The table and accompanying chart of cases and deaths pregnant women with Covid-19 are based on data available (at the time of this writing) at the archived link here: https://web.archive.org/web/20221222184647/https:/stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/119588 (bar chart given above but repeated here for convenience)
Total deaths due to Covid in the US are available by month here: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/index.htm For a comparison to Total Covid-19 Deaths among the entire population of the US, see the chart below from https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html
As stated by CBS’s show Good Morning America, among others, (link: https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/wellness/story/covid-deaths-pregnant-people-spiked-delta-data-81724515 ): “More than 40% of the 248 deaths among pregnant people since the start of the pandemic occurred since August (through data collected by 15 December), the data shows.”
Consider the overall number of deaths due to Covid-19 through 30 November 2021. By inspection alone, it is clear that the number of deaths in the US from occurring between 1 August 2021 and 30 November 2021 was nowhere near 40% of the total US deaths accumulated to that point (from March 2020 through 30 November 2021). The number of deaths of pregnant women in August 2021 was nearly four times higher than it was in December 2020, even though the chart indicates that the overall number of deaths was about two times higher in December 2020 than in August 2021.
One way of visualizing the data is by dividing the number of deaths of pregnant women by the total number of deaths in a given month. A chart reflecting this “normalized” data is given here:
One might reasonably expect that the death rate for pregnant women due to Covid-19 might follow the trend for other groups. Instead, there are large spikes in the normalized data at certain times. If a variant caused such a spike, why would it be so pronounced for pregnant women? Between June 2020 and November 2020, the normalized data showed a factor of over 7 decline. Then between December 2020 and April 2021, it increased by a factor of 5. By August 2021, the normalized rate was over ten times its value in November 2020. The rate remained high through about December 2021. Interestingly, it then decreased all the way to zero for both March and May 2022. It seems that no data has been published since about July 2022.
The media and CDC officials might try to blame the statistical anomaly on a combination of the “delta” variant and the fact that a relatively low percentage of pregnant women were vaccinated by November 2021. But does that truly explain a four-fold variation in normalized deaths of pregnant women between June 2021 and August 2021? And why is there a more than six-fold decrease in the normalized deaths of pregnant women between June 2020 and November and December 2020 before the delta variant was prominent in the US?
Isn’t it interesting the the spike in and around June 2020 corresponded to a time period when lockdowns were being enforced. Could it be that the decrease in November and December for this normalized value might have come about due to a relative increase in the number of older Americans who woudl have been the first to receive the Covid vaccines in January and February 2021? And, perhaps coincidentally, the spike in the deaths of pregnant women “with Covid-19” between July and November 2021 corresponded to the time frame when mandates which were imposed.
There is another way in which this apparent statistical anomaly might have taken place.
*** A Theory ***
In the words of the Chicago Sun Times reporter in describing the death of Charmaine Bailey (#15) at an age of only 26 in April 2021, “(T)he number of people seeking vaccinations has slowed, with younger people among those whose interest in the vaccine is lagging. There are many ideas out there on how to improve the vaccination rate among younger adults. I continue to believe you can’t go wrong by simply showing people that someone who might have been very much like themselves proved vulnerable to this deadly disease.” Anyone who believes this statement must accept that an entity selling the vaccine financially benefits when the media presents young, pregnant women who “die due to Covid-19.” But would this entity take the next step, consistent with that of an organized crime ring, to guarantee that young expectant mothers “died with Covid-19”?
Ask yourself this question: if Jeffrey Epstein stood to gain one billion dollars by killing one pregnant woman, who he did not know personally, would he have done it? Or would his “moral compass” have prevented him from doing so?
Now consider that fewer than 100 pregnant women died in the spike between August 2021 and November 2021. At the same time, as CNN then reported, Pfizer “said it now expects full-year 2021 revenue of between $81 billion to $82 billion” (with nearly half of that amount due to the sale of their Covid vaccines) – in other words approximately one billion dollars per pregnant woman. Many other companies, such as Moderna, also made billions of dollars. Would any of the accomplices of Jeffrey Epstein have turned down the offer of one billion dollars in exchange for the death of a pregnant woman?
We might ask these accomplices directly, except that we do not know who any of them are. This suggests that they also exercise monumental influence over both the criminal justice system and the media (and social media) conglomerates. These same media enterprises in turn promote the Covid-19 agenda to further increase their both their profits and their power.
I believe that Jeffrey Epstein, and others with his mindset, is the type of person who would choose money over love. Once those with power and billions of dollars at their disposal make that decision, the rest is in the details. Therefore, I theorize that some (and perhaps, many) of the pregnant women with Covid-19, including those enumerated from 1 to 46 in this article, were murdered.
Consider some of the things the women had in common. Nearly all of them died in the hospital, and the exception was Cindy Zepeda (#15) who was only 5 months pregnant when she died at home in July 2020. Notably, she went to the hospital with symptoms but was released, which her daughter (who was deployed overseas) found confusing.
For one other instance, it could be argued that a death occurred outside the hospital. This would be Marrisha Jenkins (#34) who died at age 27 in Decatur, GA in September 2021 after being cleared from Covid-19 quarantine. The press reports stated she was then rushed to the hospital after an incident at home just prior to her going to the hospital with her husband to hold her baby for the first time, but it is unclear whether she died at home, in the ambulance, or in the hospital. Curiously, despite the fact that she had recovered from Covid-19, her widower said, “If we had been vaccinated, I truly believe she would not have died.”
Many of the remaining 44 women went to the hospital weeks before their due date, so one might expect that other pregnant women might have died at home. Surely, some women who came down with Covid-19 at about their thirtieth week of pregnant did their best to avoid hospitalization by recovering at home. So why do none of the 46 media reports describe a woman who waited too long to go to the hospital and died at home, especially if the delta variant of Covid-19 were so deadly? It would seem that going to a hospital was associated with an increase in the likelihood of death among pregnant women with Covid-19.
Once admitted to the hospital, pregnant women were isolated from family and friends “due to Covid protocol.” Trusting the authorities in the hospital setting led many initially-reluctant pregnant women to agree to go on mechanical ventilators. It is hard to avoid the sense that their trust was misplaced.
Reading and watching the media reports shed light on the chronological progression of events.
-The very first female prisoner, Angela Circle Bear (#1), who died with Covid-19 in April 2020 happened to be 8.5 months pregnant. She was a Native American who was transported to a prison hospital in Texas. There she underwent a c-section and died while her baby survived. Her case exemplifies a situation where the pregnant woman was in a very vulnerable position. She was isolated from family and other support and therefore she was in a very vulnerable position.
-Lolita Davis (#3) traveled to an emergency room by herself at only 30 weeks pregnant where she is said to have tested positive for Covid-19. A whistleblower, Theresa Siaw said she was fired from the hospital’s board in June for criticizing the hospital saying, “She waited three hours in the ER waiting room without any monitors or anything,” Siaw said. “Then they took her to labor and delivery, where she died.” Siaw also alleged people have died at the hospital due to faulty COVID-19 tests. “There’s negligence at that hospital, they have died due to false testing,” Siaw said. Siaw’s serious allegations led to an investigation of the hospital.
- The experience of Erika Becerra (#8), who died December 2020, was described by her brother in an interview with Anderson Cooper of CNN. At the 2:00 mark of the video (still accessible at this writing at https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/08/us/covid-death-pregnant-mom-trnd/index.html ), Michael Avilez (brother of Erika Becerra) quoted Erika in one important segment: “…She (Erika) stayed the weekend at the hospital. She came home. She called my mom, she called my mom that Monday morning. She’s all like, ‘Mom, you know it’s - I think they hurt me at the hospital. Uh… it hurts to breathe. You know, it hurts to move. I don’t feel good.’ And she only lasted up until Wednesday. And Wednesday they had to call the ambulance. And they came to pick her up. And uh, sorry, Friday came along and the doctors - they saw she wasn’t getting better…”
With the benefit of hindsight, I hypothesize that these three women did not die of neglect but rather were targeted intentionally. In the case of Angela Circle Bear, her death led to protests associated with keeping convicted criminals (whether male or female) in prison during a health crisis. Yet tellingly, when Tennessee prisoner Morghan Elmore (#28) tested positive just over a year later, in August 2021, the same process was repeated. A c-section was performed one day after Morghan Elmore tested positive, and she eventually “died with Covid-19” after being placed on a ventilator. Both Angela Circle Bear and Morghan Elmore were imprisoned for drug charges, with the former serving a 26-month sentence and the latter with a history of “mostly misdemeanors.” It would be interesting to know if any other pregnant women who died with Covid-19 in the CDC tabulation were prisoners.
- My simple internet search approach did not uncover any deaths of pregnant women with Covid-19 from 1 August 2020 through 30 November 2020. This is in line with the analysis of Premiere Hospital data which showed no deaths of pregnant women with Covid-19 within this time period in spite of CDC data indicating that 22 such deaths occurred during this time frame. It is worth considering the footnote in the CDC graph: “Date of death is used for reporting, and if missing, then date of diagnosis is used.” It would be interesting to know if any of the deaths reported during a particular month actual refers to the month in which the pregnant woman was first diagnosed with Covid-19. If not, then why is the footnote there? A cynic might point out that the footnote gives a dishonest broker the flexibility to shift the cont from one month to another if it offered some kind of advantage.
- If we use the terms “red” and “blue” state to denote states won by Trump and Biden, respectively, in the 2020 election, some trends appear in the 46 media reports. From December 2020 through June 2021, there were 6 stories of women in “blue” states and only 2 in “red” states. But from July 2021 through December 2021, there were 19 stories in “red” states and only 4 in “blue” states.
- Moving toward the end of the timeline analyzed, a press report from the Hartford Courant in the “blue” state of Connecticut 17 Jan 2022 highlighted the “need for boosters” for pregnant women and their families. Titled “Connecticut physicians plead for pregnant people to get vaccinated as infections can cause miscarriages, complications,” it states: “Pregnant with her first child, the patient arrived at UConn Health critically ill with Covid-19. She had received two doses of the vaccine months earlier, but had put off getting her booster shot. ‘She actually ended with severe illness and required a Caesarian delivery because of respiratory complications,’ said Christopher M. Morosky, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and a practicing OB-GYN. Even more alarming for the patient and her family, the baby she delivered tested positive for the coronavirus, Morosky told members of a state committee examining the impact of COVID-19 on those who are pregnant. Both mother and newborn are recovering at home.”
- Some of the exceptions to the red/blue trend are very interesting. In the early group, one “red” state victim was JoEllen Engelbart (#10), age 32 of Missouri, who died in January 2021. She served as an assistant prosecutor in Jackson County with the Special Victims Unit. For five years, Engelbart advocated for children who were physically and sexually abused. “She’s just a really tough person,” Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said. “But also kind and caring and went into prosecution for all the right reasons that really wanted to help other people.” Is it possible that JoEllen Engelbart might have been targeted in part because of her job as a protector of children? A question arises: what has happened to all (not just some) of the babies born to mothers who died?
- A second exception is Davy Macias (#22), who lived in California (blue state) but died in August 2021. An unusual aspect of her story is that her husband, Daniel Macias, also “died with Covid-19” at age 38 within one month of her death. Vaccination status of the pregnant women became the focus of almost every news story after April 2021. The lone exception was Lacy Hutchison (#29) of Oklahoma, in which the news broadcast did not address the question.
- Also in August 2021, in the interview by KSLA News 12 of Shreveport, Louisiana, the aunt of Lacresanna Williams (#25) described how her healthy niece was perfectly fine prior to going to her pregnancy check-up, but then tested positive, ws directed to have a C-section, and died one day later. Then, Lacresanna’s mother Victoria had a panic attack and was taken to the hospital where she died the very next day at age 42. The family was told that Victoria Williams also had “died of Covid-19” even though no one in the family suspected that Victoria had Covid-19 despite the fact that they were with her and called the ambulance. It is noteworthy that Daniel Macias and Victoria Williams were the individuals closest to the pregnant women who died and would have been in a position to demand answers from hospital officials – had they not themselves “died of Covid-19” in the hospital.
- Perhaps of significance, Davy Macias (#22), like Cindy Zepeda (#15), both worked for Kaiser Permanente. For more discussion of Davy and Daniel Macias, see more stories on The Way Out substack.
- The experience of Ashley Smith (#32) is similar to that of Lacresanna Williams in that she went to a hospital as a precaution. She had lost her sense of taste and smell and had a fever, but her husband said “she was doing OK and was hoping for a prescription to fight the virus.” She was only 13 weeks pregnant at age 30 at the time. Instead of being prescribed treatment, she was admitted to the hospital on 8 August 2021, miscarried three days later (11 August), was placed on a ventilator 3 days after her miscarriage (14 August), and died within a month (10 September).
- Medical establishment performed C-sections sometimes 2 months+ ahead of due date. Even without early treatment, pregnant women in their 20s or 30s would have very likely recovered from Covid-19 in time to have a normal delivery. The problem was that pregnant women have regular medical appointments, and many were convinced to go on vents and have C-sections. Later academic medical articles suggest that “Covid-19 leads to pre-term births, so get vaccinated,” which amounts to circular logic. I theorize that ensuring pre-term births instead of allowing expectant mothers simply to recover was part of the plan. Those same pre-term births were used to encourage pregnant women to get the vaccine.
- One potential motive for promoting vaccines among pregnant women is suggested by a comment made by Jonathon Luvender, husband of Brittany Luvender (#39). According to the news story, “He said he wishes she would have gotten the vaccine. ‘Her thing about the vaccination was it’s not approved for children yet, so why would she give it to the baby, so she wanted to wait until after the baby was born.’ One could make the corollary argument that if pregnant women have exposed their unborn children to the vaccine, then the Covid vaccines should be approved for children as well. This is an important step, as laid out by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. who is quoted as saying “So long as you take an emergency use vaccine, you can’t sue them (pharmaceutical companies). Once they get approved, now you can sue them, unless they can get it approved for children. Because all vaccines that are recommended officially for children get liability protection, even if an adult gets that vaccine. That’s why they are going after kids. They know this is going to kill and injure a huge number of children, but they need to do it for the liability protection.” (https://wsau.com/2021/12/31/robert-f-kennedy-jr-explains-why-fauci-is-going-after-children/ )
- Several of the women in the news stories felt well during delivery and wanted to go home. As an extreme example, Katie Moran (#37) gave birth one week prior to testing positive for Covid-19. Another example is Alicia Santina Rodgers (#36). Per the news article “…and she'd just given birth to twins. Then, she got sick with COVID-19.” Note also that the mother of Paige Ruiz (#20) said, “It wasn’t until after she had the baby that she started to get worse that she said she wished she had gotten the vaccine.” In the case of Sara Caitlin Vilchez (#35): "She wanted to go home. She wanted to take her little girl home," her sister said. Physicians gave Vilchez a monoclonal antibody treatment before she was released. However, she was rushed back to the hospital three hours later. She was then put on a ventilator after two more hours. "It went from being so positive that, 'She's gonna beat this,' to, 'Now she's gone,' She ended up back at the hospital only hours after her release, was placed on a ventilator, and eventually died.
-In addition to Sara Vilchez (#36), there were a few other curious instances of a woman who visited the hospital, was discharged, but then returned to the hospital. Kristen McMullen (#22) went to the hospital on 21 July 2021 for four days, sent home (presumably on 25 July) , and then was hospitalized again the next day (July 26). On 27 July, a C-section was performed.” As mentioned above, Erika Becerra (#8) was released from a hospital prior to feeling worse, according to her brother. And the daughter of Cindy Zepeda (#6), who died at home, stated that her mother “went to the emergency room where doctors instructed her to return home – though the daughter said she was unsure why. “She said her lungs were hurting and she was having a hard time catching her breath and wasn’t able to walk.” In light of the story of, is it possible that Cindy Zepeda was “hurt at the hospital” too?
-Each individual in both the video and written press reports should be interviewed by investigators. For example, the family of Kristen McMullen (#21, Age 30, Melbourne, FL., August 2021) mentioned another pregnant woman with Covid-19 on a ventilator in the interview. They may have additional information, which was not reported.
- The aunt of Michelle Stani (#46), who died in January 2022 stated that Michelle had “graduated from Rutgers University in October,” which I interpret as being in October 2021. If correct, she graduated at a time when Rutgers University had put in place a strict vaccine mandate, including most who attended class remotely. A lawsuit challenging the mandate had been brought by Rutgers students in August 2021 with the aid of the Children’s Health Defense. Michelle Stani’s vaccination status was not disclosed by her aunt nor in any other media I could find. She died in a teaching hospital affiliated with Rutgers University. If Michelle Stani had been vaccinated, her death would have compromised the position of Rutgers University in the lawsuit. On the other hand, if she had been unvaccinated, the position of Rutgers University in the lawsuit would have been bolstered. I am very curious about whether Michelle Stani was vaccinated or unvaccinated when she died. Either answer would be enlightening.
- Why does the CDC tracking data for cases and deaths of pregnant women apparently end in July 2022?
- For several states, including Washington state, I found only generic news stories about pregnant women who died of Covid-19 and only listed the number of pregnant women who “died from Covid” rather than personal stories. Mississippi reportedly has at least 15-yet none ended up in local TV or newspapers by name. Why were no stories broadcast in Mississippi about any of these 15 women while neighboring state Louisiana had broadcast reports of 3 [Allie Guidry (#4), Lacresanna Williams (#25), and Keighlie Renee Reaux (#27)]
- The data from Mississippi describe the youth and racial disparity of the Covid-19 deaths of pregnant women. “The median age of the 15 decedents was 30 years. Nine (60%) were non-Hispanic Black women, three (20%) were non-Hispanic White women, and three (20%) were Hispanic women. In comparison, during March 2020–October 2021 in Mississippi, an estimated 43% of births were among Black women and an estimated 5% of births were among Hispanic women.” The cited report (repeated here https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7047e2.htm#contribAff ) goes on to discuss possible reasons for such a disparity.
But I theorize a possible reason for the racial disparity which the state government authorities in Mississippi and elsewhere dare not utter:
Pregnant women from “vaccine-hesitant” ethnic and cultural groups were specifically targeted and murdered. In addition to Blacks and Hispanics nationwide, there was a focus on Whites in areas, especially in rural Midwest and the South, where overall “vaccine hesitancy” among Whites is highest.
The deaths of pregnant women, attributed by the CDC and the media as “due to Covid-19” led many to react with strong emotion to accept Covid vaccines. The death of Love, personified by expectant mothers, was used, I believe, as a propaganda weapon.
I believe that the propaganda campaign is ongoing. Why? Because, to a certain extent, it works. The aforementioned Hartford Courant article from 17 January 2022 also highlighted the effectiveness of the CDC’s vaccination campaign for pregnant women, as follows: “In mid-September, just 31% of pregnant people were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, prompting the CDC to issue an urgent health advisory to encourage inoculation. The agency said 22 pregnant people died of COVID-19 complications in August (2021) alone. The CDC health advisory strongly recommends COVID-19 vaccination either before or during pregnancy because ‘the benefits of vaccination for both pregnant persons and their fetus or infant outweigh known or potential risks.’ Since that advisory, the percentage of pregnant Americans who have received the vaccine has climbed to 41.5% of the population, a figure Morosky says is still ‘unacceptably low.’ And vaccination rates remain proportionally lower for pregnant Black and Hispanic people, according to the CDC.”
The article goes on to state: “The hospital assesses the vaccination status of every pregnant patient who comes in for an ultrasound, (Dr. Vero) Pimentel said. If the patient is not vaccinated, the staff provide counseling to explain the benefits. The hospital holds a vaccination clinic for pregnant patients twice a week. ‘We’re in the trenches,’ Pimentel said. “My job is to educate one pregnant person at a time ... and if I change that one pregnant person, I can change her family, and if I change her family, I will change her community.”
*** “Where do we go from here?” ***
On 16 August 1967, less than 8 months before he was assassinated, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech titled “Where do we go from here?” for the 10th Annual Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Its focus was on the future of the civil rights movement and the importance of addressing the oppressive economic disparity between Black and White Americans. Although part of the speech was devoted to these very specific issues, Dr. King also laid out the set of broad principles which inspired him and provided his guidance. I believe those principles provide a fitting conclusion to this article.
The entire speech in its full context as delivered by Dr. King may be heard at
These excerpts begin at 49:55. The written words on a page or a screen neither convey fully Dr. King’s passion nor the emotional response of the audience. If at all possible, listen to Dr. King’s speech in its full context.
“Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
I’m concerned about a better World. I’m concerned about Justice; I’m concerned about Brotherhood; I’m concerned about Truth. And when one is concerned about that, he can never advocate violence. For through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can’t murder murder. Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can’t establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can’t murder hate through violence. Darkness cannot put out darkness; only light can do that.
And I say to you, I have also decided to stick with love, for I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind’s problems. And I’m going to talk about it everywhere I go. I know it isn’t popular to talk about it in some circles today. I’m not talking about emotional bosh when I talk about love; I’m talking about a strong, demanding love. For I have seen too much hate. […] and I say to myself that hate is too great a burden to bear. I have decided to love. If you are seeking the highest good, I think you can find it through love. And the beautiful thing is that we aren’t moving wrong when we do it, because John was right. God is love. He who hates does not know God, but he who loves has the key that unlocks the door to the meaning of ultimate reality.
And so I say to you today, my friends, that you may be able to speak with the tongues of men and angels; you may have the eloquence of articulate speech; but if you have not love, it means nothing. Yes, you may have the gift of prophecy; you may have the gift of scientific prediction and understand the behavior of molecules; you may break into the storehouse of nature and bring forth many new insights; yes, you may ascend to the heights of academic achievement so that you have all knowledge; and you may boast of your great institutions of learning and the boundless extent of your degrees; but if you have not love, all of these mean absolutely nothing. You may even give your goods to feed the poor; you may bestow great gifts to charity; and you may tower high in philanthropy; but if you have not love, your charity means nothing. You may even give your body to be burned and die the death of a martyr, and your spilt blood may be a symbol of honor for generations yet unborn, and thousands may praise you as one of history’s greatest heroes; but if you have not love, your blood was spilt in vain. What I’m trying to get you to see this morning is that a man may be self-centered in his self-denial and self-righteous in his self-sacrifice. His generosity may feed his ego, and his piety may feed his pride. So without love, benevolence becomes egotism, and martyrdom becomes spiritual pride. […]
What I am saying today is that we must go from this convention and say, ‘America, you must be born again!’ So I conclude by saying today that we have a task. And let us go out with a divine dissatisfaction. Let us be dissatisfied until America will no longer have the high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds. […]
I must confess, my friends, the road ahead will not always be smooth. There will still be rocky places of frustration, meandering points of bewilderment. There will be inevitable setbacks here and there. There will be those moments when the buoyancy of hope will be transformed into the fatigue of despair. Our dreams will sometimes be shattered and our ethereal hopes blasted. […] Difficult and painful as it is, we must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future. […]
Let this affirmation be our ringing cry. It will give us the courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the City of Freedom. When our days become dreary with low hovering clouds of despair, when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this Universe working to pull down the gigantic mountains of Evil. A power that is able to make a way out of no way. And transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize that the arc of the moral Universe is long, but it bends toward justice. Let us realize that William Cullen Bryant is right: ‘Truth, crushed to earth, will rise again.’ Let us go out realizing that the Bible is right: ‘Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.’
This is our hope for the future. With this faith we will be able to sing in some not-too-distant tomorrow with a cosmic past tense: We have overcome. We have overcome. Deep in my heart, I did believe we would overcome.”
< End>
Perceptive. Thank you.
I’m just floored. I didn’t think this thing could surprise nor gall me more than it already had. I stand corrected.