coronavirus

He Thought the Coronavirus Was ‘a Fake Crisis.' Then He Contracted It

"This thing is nothing to be messed with please listen to the authorities and heed the advice of the experts," Brian Hitchens wrote on Facebook

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A Florida man who thought the coronavirus was "a fake crisis" has changed his mind after he and his wife contracted COVID-19, NBC News reports.

Brian Hitchens, a rideshare driver who lives in Jupiter, downplayed the seriousness of the coronavirus in Facebook posts in March and early April, asserting that he doesn't fear the virus "because I know that my God is bigger than this Virus will ever be." 

Then, the 46-year-old and his wife both contracted the virus. In a Facebook post on April 18, Hitchens wrote that he didn't have any energy "and all I want to do is sleep." A day later the couple was admitted to Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center where his wife's condition worsened and she was sedated and put on a ventilator, Hitchens detailed in a Facebook post.

"This thing is nothing to be messed with please listen to the authorities and heed the advice of the experts," he wrote. "We don't have to fear this and by heeding the advice doesn't mean that you fear it that means you're showing wisdom during this epidemic time."

Read the full story on NBCNews.com

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