Florida pastor who dismissed coronavirus as 'just the flu' dies

[Mike 03]

BNO News
Published 1 hour ago on August 24, 2020

A Florida pastor who at one point dismissed the threat of coronavirus as “just the flu” has died of complications caused by the illness, her family said on Monday. Her husband, who was equally skeptical, was also hospitalized but has since recovered.

Erin Hitchens, a 46-year-old pastor in West Palm Beach, fell ill in April and spent months in the intensive care unit, where she was put on a ventilator and sedated with no signs of improvement. She died this month of heart problems related to COVID-19.

Erin and her husband, Brian Lee Hitchens, were both skeptical of the virus when it reached the U.S. and began to spread. They believed online conspiracy theories, didn’t follow health guidance, and waited to seek help when they fell ill, according to the BBC, which featured Brian’s story in May.

“The news is emphasizing way too much on this coronavirus garbage, all it is is just the flu,” Erin wrote on Facebook on March 12, when she mistakenly believed that she had already gone through COVID-19 in the past. “I recently had it, I’m not dead. I’m not in the hospital and I’m fine.”

Erin added: “Can we all come together and get a petition going and tell the news to stop creating hysteria? Dr. Oz and other doctors are calling the news media’s out saying there is mass hysteria … Enough is enough, and you know what, I’m not scared, this is why I’m speaking out. Others need to speak out too with their voice.”

Read more: https://bnonews.com/index.php/2020/08/florida-pastor-who-dismissed-coronavirus-as-just-the-flu-dies/

Just heard on Thom Hartmann program.

[NCDem47]

1. Well,

It is what it is.

[lpbk2713]

2. Whoops.

...

[PCIntern]

3. My favorite epitaph:

Seemed like a good idea at the time.

[Maru Kitteh]

85. "I'm not dead."

Also good.




To be fair, she is no longer in the hospital.

[Midnight Writer]

4. Hope Dr Oz sees this. I think he has been very irresponsible in his Hannity appearances.

[thucythucy]

10. I wonder if someone couldn't bring a lawsuit,

something along the lines of medical malpractice.

Just because he's on TV shouldn't mean he should be exempt from being held responsible for his actions. In fact, it should mean just the opposite.

[Rebl2]

40. Could never stand him

Any dr. that doesn’t believe Covid is a problem should lose their license to practice. I believe he is a lot like trump and eats up all the attention he gets. Wish the today show would not have him on, but actually haven’t seen him on there in some time. Maybe they finally figured out he is just a tv dr., and not for real.

[Mickju]

49. Dr. Oz is a fraud.

A quack

[DSandra]

57. Dr Oz should have his career ruined for medical malpractice

[tenderfoot]

5. BNO is a total right wing news site

Just an FYI

[Freethinker65]

16. I had never heard of them. I googled and they look legit.

News agency from the Netherlands. They rate high and non-biased?

[Lancero]

22. Sure they are.

[tenderfoot]

24. The must have cleaned up

because when they first came across my radar they were posting some sketchy shit.

I stand corrected.

[Celerity]

36. No, you have them confused with something else. They were never 'sketchy'

If you insist on clinging to your story, produce the receipts, otherwise all you are doing is a FUD hit job.



BNO News launches news wire; Twitter account taken over by MSNBC.com

MSNBC.com announced as first client of Twitter news channel's new news wire

Posted: 24 November 2009

https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/bno-news-launches-news-wire-twitter-account-taken-over-by-msnbc-com/s2/a536637/

[tenderfoot]

73. There was a wingnut site that must have confused it with...

I also stated that I stood correct. Not sure how many times that needs to be said.

So get off your high horse.

[Celerity]

78. it's not a high horse m8, you tried to slip it in that they used to be dodgy, when they never were

[SamKnause]

6. Good.

[Blue_true]

70. Took her a while to die 5+ months.

I remember reading a story about her husband barely surviving and becoming a convert that COVID19 is real. She was in bad shape then, sometime in early April.

[thucythucy]

7. I wish there was some way to hold the disseminators of dangerous misinformation accountable.

"They believed on-line conspiracy theories...."

I wonder when the first lawsuits around this will be filed, or if that would even be legally possible.

Saying the government is concealing alien bodies at Area 51 is one thing. It's stupid, but relatively harmless.

But purposely misrepresenting vital health information, to the point where people are actually dying (and in appalling numbers) seems to me to be something else entirely.

[BamaRefugee]

17. There are plenty of other articles, some right here on DU. Husband is quoted as saying "blah blah we

found all our information on Facebook"

[thucythucy]

18. Facebook is a pox on our body politic.

[Blue_true]

71. The people that spread lies always claim that they didn't put people up to what happened.

They are scum, Hannity, Trump, QAnon, rightwing evangelical ministers, all pure scum. They use inflammatory rhetoric to induce some weak minded person to kill himself or herself, or kill a person, then the real instigators claim total innocence.

[thucythucy]

79. This all reminds me of something Abraham Lincoln wrote

about holding people accountable. He was talking about people who were trying to undermine the army during the civil war by encouraging soldiers to desert.

It went something like, "Must I hang a poor boy for desertion, but not touch a hair on the head of the miscreant who urged him top desert?" Not an exact quote, but close.

I actually feel sad about this poor woman's death (while hoping her delusions about Covid-19 didn't induce others to also put themselves at risk). It's the people you list i hold most to blame, and the Murdoch family, and the advertisers on Fox and Limbaugh and such.

[struggle4progress]

8. 2019 Liberty University graduate

https://www.linkedin.com/in/erin-hitchens-106b198b

[Mr.Bill]

29. So probably no science classes. n/t

[smirkymonkey]

46. Well, that explains a lot.

[jayfish]

9. "...were both skeptical of the virus when it reached the U.S."

That's not what skepticism is.

[CurtEastPoint]

11. I'm sorry but she couldn't even spell "Reverend" right.

[Lucky Luciano]

26. We can't all be smart as she demonstrated uniquely well.

[Hekate]

62. Well, that memorial service announcement answered one question...

Last edited Tue Aug 25, 2020, 12:50 AM - Edit history (1)

The grieving widower did not learn a damned thing about how COVID is transmitted: the service was inside the church and there was a catered reception afterward.

[MyMission]

82. In theory, the husband should be immune

So he learned he can't catch it or transmit it at the moment. He's safe.
But obviously he could care less about the attendees transmitting or catching it.

And of course (sarcasm) those that attended did so by choice. They were free to come and offer support and condolences, or to stay home. Attend at your own risk! But then, if their friends were Covid non believers, they would only be convinced if they themselves caught it. Maybe this was an opportunity to catch it so they could learn the truth?!? Maybe that's what the husband was thinking?

Nah, he probably wasn't thinking at all!

[malaise]

12. Bye Erin

Last edited Mon Aug 24, 2020, 06:16 PM - Edit history (1)

Darwin salutes you

[Celerity]

43. and they looked healthy enough to take on any ailment or disease that came their way

[malaise]

48. Indeed

Sometimes I just shake my head

[Celerity]

50. sometimes I just bang mine, lolol

[malaise]

54. Never hurt yourself over these fools

Lhi:

[Celerity]

56. my cell is padded

[smirkymonkey]

51. Yeah, I would definitely say they are in the "high risk" demographic.

People like this are dangerous, and there are too many weak minded lemmings out there who are all too willing to follow them to their doom.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, there is now one less voice trying to convince people that this is all a big hoax.

[Blue_true]

72. She had been near death for over 5 months.

I wonder during that time whether there was any conscious realization by her of what she had done?

[Mickju]

53. At his size I'm surprised he recovered.

[Liberal In Texas]

63. Erin...the Reverand (sic) Erin is the dead one.

[malaise]

64. Thanks

[JohnQFunk]

13. Evolution in action! 🐟🦎🐒💁‍♂️

That is all…

[DBoon]

37. Evolution works even if you don't believe in it

[I_UndergroundPanther]

14. When these evangelical

Preacher fuckfaces die, I don't care anymore. A Magat dies, I really don't care anymore.

I think their behavior and toxic beliefs condemns them before they die in my eyes.

Some humans because of who they are give up being human,and so when one of these death culties dies I feel well, a little joy.

However I care about other people dying who aren't republicans narcisstistic or magats. All the black people murdered by cops I am very saddened,the protestors,transpeople,the Dems and kids,death is cruel .

[CaptYossarian]

30. Have tbey figured out it isn't about abortion or homosexuality?

Maybe it's just a virus.

[BeckyDem]

15. I find these stories so sad. The tragedy began long before they ignored the coronavirus.

Decades of the conservative mantra that the government is leveraging your rights. First, they ended slavery, then what do they want?

Women to vote? Black people, to vote? Pay taxes to build public schools, have roads, and bridges?? WHAT??????

I truly hope the partner survives.

[oasis]

19. No masks needed where you're going.

So there's that.

[CaptYossarian]

31. Maybe an asbestos one.

[Horse with no Name]

20. I'm looking around

It doesn’t appear that I have a fuck left to give.

[RhodeIslandOne]

21. Womp womp

[kairos12]

23. Months on a ventilator. What a waste of resources. She should have just continued to

call it a hoax refuse medical treatment.

[bucolic_frolic]

25. Yay! Belief is the ultimate science!

Head of stone leads to tombstone of granite

[Hav]

27. As is typical with dumb Repubs,

the realization only comes after you get hit by it yourself. Besides his wife, to how many other deaths did he contribute? Now, while he acknowledges the virus, he also commented that he cannot change the past and that he can only make better decisions in the future. That's basically applying the Trumpian "It is what it is" attitude after his wife died. How those clueless idiots who undermined the fight against this virus can live with themselves, I don't know.

[PlanetBev]

28. Tuff Titties

I have no use for any of these people. They‘re put all of us in danger.

[Glorfindel]

32. Poor Pastor Hitchens.

Thoughts and prayers.

[flibbitygiblets]

33. Can we all come together and get a petition going to force "hoax" claimers to forgo treatment?

Why should our precious few medical resources go to treating people who are willing to risk their lives to support their beliefs? Some perfectly innocent person's life may have been lost while trying to save this idiot.

t's a matter of who deserves medical care, and this idiot clearly forfeited her right to COVID treatment.

[liberalla]

34. This is the 4th covid related death of a religious leader who had poo-pooed the virus,

that I've seen. There are probably more...
Sad and unnecessary.

[BigDemVoter]

35. I wonder if this pastor caused any other deaths by her shitty "advice" or by the fact that she

spread it from her own infection?

[DBoon]

38. BBC link to same story

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53892856

[catbyte]

39. Well, at least he'll have a colossal hospital bill to remember her by. (Harsh, I know but I'm

so goddamned sick and tired of these willfully ignorant fools putting everyone at risk)

[central scrutinizer]

65. Could be worse

She might have “survived” and be facing years of dialysis, heart disease, supplemental oxygen or maybe anti-rejection drugs after a lung transplant. On top of the bill. This virus is a motherfucker. Some of those it doesn’t kill outright face a life hardly worth living, in my opinion. That’s why I’ve changed my advance directive to include “do not intubate, palliative care only“

[aggiesal]

69. I thought that the first CARE's act passed by congress ...

covered all medical bills related to the Cornovirus?

I might be wrong.
I'll have to research it to verify.

[Blue_true]

75. He was hospitalized for several weeks and barely survived.

Even his bill is likely enormous. If I remember correctly about him in an article, he was a Lift driver or something like that. His wife already had health issues, in addition to being very obese.

[Pepsidog]

41. Karma is a bitch.

[appalachiablue]

42. Well, it is what it is

[chwaliszewski]

44. Thoughts & prayers, oh ignorant one.

[anamnua]

45. It reminds me of the famous last words of an American Civil War general (spoken on a battlefield):

'Nobody could hit an elephant at this dist......'

[yortsed snacilbuper]

47. Will he get 40 virgins,

just wondering?

[SergeStorms]

52. I really hate to say this...

but.......good. Hey, Donald Trump made me this way. I used to be a nice guy.

[Hav]

74. It's hard to feel sorry, I have to admit

because at this point, it has become a race of either them changing course (even if it's by dying) or them killing others. If death is what stops them from causing more harm to those who take this seriously and if they'd otherwise stand in the way of containing the virus, then it is what it is: Something beneficial for society.

[In It to Win It]

55. We haven't been sending our best

[volstork]

58. Science doesn't give a rat's ass if you believe in it or not.

(To paraphrase Neil DeGrasse Tyson)

Ignore it at your own peril.

[Ferrets are Cool]

59. My ability to give a shit about idiots dying

is at an all time low. I just do not care.

[Doodley]

68. You should care that we live in a nation that brainwashes a sizable chunk of the population into

believing things that are false, and as a result people are suffering and dying.

[Ferrets are Cool]

77. Those are two completely different things.

One is NOT like the other.

And, not believing in science is not brainwashing. It's stupidity. These people are dangerous idiots.

[Doodley]

80. It isn't just some amazing coincidence that there are so many "dangerous idiots" in America.

Why are they like that? What caused it? And what role does propaganda play?

[Ferrets are Cool]

83. Good night

[C Moon]

60. It's people like her who turned COVID-19 into what it has become in the U.S.

People believed her, Trump and those like them screaming about it being a nothing burger.

[Blue_true]

76. Exactly. nt

[Takket]

61. what is amazing is there are dozens if not hundreds of examples of stories like this...

and yet even when reality comes right into the inner circle of the MAGAt world, it still does not even BUDGE the needle of their concern of belief in the virus.

[Doodley]

66. They should have read their bibles: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing."

[Buckeye_Democrat]

67. She cited Dr. Oz!

[Vivienne235729]

81. I'm curious if the other wingnuts in their world have changed their minds on covid after this

or is it ok bc it was just ONE death that they know of?

[TexasBushwhacker]

84. An article from a while back

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8328069/Uber-driver-claimed-coronavirus-says-hospital-wishes-careful.html