Covid-19 doesn’t care if you believe it is deadly or not. It doesn’t care if you think your immune system can fight it off. It doesn’t care if you’re determined not to get vaccinated.

Many people who decided not to get vaccinated ended up getting Covid and wishing they had gotten the vaccine. Only after suffering from Covid in the hospital did they change their minds. In some cases, while they were in the hospital, they urged their friends, family and followers to get vaccinated. Sometimes, they never made it out of the hospital, but their death led their friends to decide to get the vaccine.

Today we have another true story like this one. This time, it was a rightwing radio host and anti-vaxxer who changed his mind about Covid and the vaccine only after being hospitalized with Covid.

Dick Farrel died of Covid on August 4, 2021. According to Mick McCabe, the creative director for WPTV, where Farrel was a radio host, “Dick was a pioneer ‘shock talk’ host, certainly here in South Florida, and a loyal friend both personally and to listeners here for decades.”

As recently as July, Farrel was urging his fans not to get vaccinated. He wrote, “Why take a vax promoted by people who lied 2u all along about masks.” He called masks “face diapers.” He said Dr. Fauci conspired with “power trip libb loons.”

One of Farrel’s friends, Amy Leigh Hair, broke the news about his death on Facebook. She wrote, “Covid Took One Of My Best Friends! RIP Dick Farrel. He is the reason I took the shot! He texted me and told me to ‘Get it!’ He told me that this virus is no joke and he said: ‘I wish I had gotten it!'”

Hair told WPTV, “I was one of the people like him who didn’t trust the vaccine. I trusted my immune system. I just became more afraid of getting COVID-19 than I was of any possible side effects of the vaccine. I’m glad I got vaccinated.”

Kit Farley, Farrel’s partner, wrote on Facebook, “He was known as the other Rush Limbaugh. With a heavy heart, I can only say this was so unexpected. He will be missed.”

Do you know anyone who has changed their mind about Covid and the vaccine after getting Covid? Do you think Farrel’s death will inspire more vaccine hesitant people to get vaccinated for Covid?