Unvaccinated Man Who Lost Wife to COVID, Ended Up in ICU, Urges People To Get Shots

A 42-year-old man from Minnesota who lost his wife of 20 years after they both contracted COVID is urging others to get vaccinated.

The husband and wife were both hospitalized, but while Jeremy Voss survived after two weeks in hospital fighting the virus, his wife, Monica Voss, a 40-year-old mother of four, succumbed to her condition on Friday. Both of them were unvaccinated.

Jeremy Voss explained to WITN that he hadn't been vaccinated as he felt that only people with underlying health conditions needed to be protected against COVID.

"I just basically thought if I got it, as healthy as I was, I would end up being just like all my other friends," he said.

Jeremy Voss posted from the ICU on October 31, explaining that both he and his wife had been hospitalized. He wrote: "If you haven't got the vaccine, just go get it. This right here isn't worth it. Can barely get out of hospital bed and constantly on oxygen tube right now. So please, just go get it for you and your kids to be safe."

Writing before her mother passed away, the daughter of Jeremy Voss and Monica Voss, Faith Voss-Paulson, also posted a statement on Facebook.

Blaming misinformation for her parents' hospitalization, she wrote: "To my parents friends who thought they knew better. To the ones who promoted medical misinformation, to those who encouraged my parents to follow you blindly in your quest of being against masks and vaccines.

"I hope you're happy, and I hope that you're proud that you were able to have my parents completely disregard medical SCIENCE and for them to tell their daughter who studies MEDICINE that she is wrong, I hope you're freaking proud."

She went on to brand anyone sharing misinformation about COVID "idiots." She shared a message from her father apologizing for not believing her.

The 42-year-old, who last saw his wife on ventilator support, explained how they had met when she was a teenager. He told WITN: "We've known each other since she was 15. We'd been together 25 years. We'd been married 20 years."

Jeremy Voss, who is still receiving oxygen and faces a long road to recovery, is hoping his family's loss will inspire others to get vaccinated, potentially saving the lives of other parents.

"If I can make a difference in one dad that makes his wife get a vaccine, if I can make a difference in one mom that gets the vaccine, that made a difference in their lives forever," he said. "Think if you had to tell your kids that you're not going to see their mom or dad the rest of their life."

And his daughter Faith Voss-Paulson, a surgical technician, is adamant that she will also continue to strongly urge others to follow guidelines to curtail the spread of COVID, despite facing resistance.

"I BEGGED them to get the vaccine, pleaded. But because ignorant fools decide to spread false information, my parents didn't believe me," she said. "I am not apologizing, I will continue to promote the vaccine and mask mandates, I am infuriated and terrified."