An Australian anti-vaxxer who didn’t believe Covid-19 was real has made a stunning backflip after being struck down with the illness. Sydney woman Amanda Gulasi was a proud anti-vaxxer who didn’t believe in the Covid-19 pandemic – until she caught the virus and struggled to breathe in the hospital.
During an emotional interview with A Current Affair, she has completely changed her tune and begged Australians to take the virus seriously and get vaccinated. Appearing on the program on Monday night, the mother of three, now recovering in her southwest Sydney home, said she regretted her previous stance.
“Vaccinate people, vaccinate. No, seriously, it’s not fun,” she said. “At the start of Covid, I was completely on the side of the conspiracy theorists. “Now, I believe it, and it will kill you. It is true; it is real.” Ms. Gulasi told reporters that as a disability support worker, she had access to the vaccine from the first days of the rollout but had refused as she thought Covid was “just another flu”.
“Like, we get flu all the time … But this is nothing like the flu. It’s not like any flu; as days go by, you seem to get worse instead of getting better,” she said. “The symptoms (have) a mind of its own; it’s like it has a life of its own. It’s so hard to explain it until you’ve experienced it.”
She explained that she hesitated to take the vaccine due to how fast they were produced and the so-called “scare tactics” used to try and encourage vaccinations. But she said she now regretted that belief. “It’s just not worth it for a few side effects,” she said.
The 42-year-old, who said she was normally fit and healthy, was now concerned for older or less healthy people who caught the virus. “I would hate to be somebody who is elderly and feel the way I feel or somebody who is at risk,” she said. “I am very healthy, and this virus has knocked me to the ground.” She urged the public not to fall for vaccine misinformation. “Don’t believe what you’re seeing on social media,” she said. “Pray it doesn’t happen to you. Pray it doesn’t happen to be a possible death sentence.”
Cases explode
Ms. Gulasi’s message comes as NSW hit yet another grim record, recording 1290 cases today and four new deaths. So far, in Australia’s latest outbreak, the overwhelming majority of deaths have been among the unvaccinated, with some receiving just one dose before succumbing to the virus.
And sadly, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said things would worsen before they got better, warning that October would be the “worst month” for NSW. “We anticipate that the worst month, the worst time for our intensive care unit, will be in October,” she said today.
“October is likely to be our worst month in terms of pressure on the system, which is why we have been gearing up for that, and we have been nearly two years. Our hospital system is under pressure. Will we need to do things differently? Of course, we will.”
Anti-vaxxers’ death bed regret
As the deadly Delta variant wreaks havoc across Australia and the globe, stories like Ms. Gulasi’s have become increasingly common, with several high-profile anti-vaxxers losing their battle against the virus recently and regretting their position only after it was too late.
Over the weekend, US radio host Marc Bernier, who called himself “Mr. Anti-vax”, died from the virus in a Florida hospital. Texas man Caleb Wallace, who had organized anti-mask protests in support of “freedom”, also died aged 30 last week, leaving behind three children and a pregnant wife in the UK, Covid denier and father-to-be Marcus Birks also died aged 40. Read related topics: Sydney
