'This virus will kill you': Man changes mind about vaccines after bout with COVID-19
While more and more people are vaccinated, there is still a substantial number of those who refuse to get the vaccine or even mask up.
Carroll County, Maryland, resident Brent Whalen was one of those people until he got sick.
"You face your own mortality -- it's right there. You just don't know if you can hang on for another five or 10 minutes," Whalen said.
Whalen spent 36 days at Carroll Hospital Center with COVID-19, six of them in the critical care unit. In the days leading up to his diagnosis, Whalen played golf and moved his daughter into her college dorm. When offered concert tickets that required a vaccine or negative test, he decided to get the shot.
"I thought it was like some kind of conspiracy that 10 years from now, 100,000,000 Americans of some kind of rare disease because of the long-term studies haven't been there in terms of what the vaccine was going to do," he said.
A day after getting the J&J vaccine, Whalen said he didn't feel well. He thought it was side effects from the vaccine, then things went downhill.
"By the time I got to express care, I was so sick, they actually called the ambulance right from there," Whalen said. "When your lungs shut down, it's not gradual. I'm like, 'all of the sudden, I can't breathe.'"
He was put on oxygen and into a prone position. Whalen said he thought he was going to die. The hospital called his sister to make sure he had a will, and his affairs were in order.
"It's so hard when you're laying there and you don't know what's going to happen and your nurses are telling you your numbers aren't getting any better," he said.
Whalen said he kept thinking of his daughter and how he couldn't leave her. He is much better now but said his lungs are permanently scarred. He does respiratory therapy at home.
And he is no longer an anti-vaxxer.
"Learn the facts, weigh the consequences because the thing I tell people is maybe there are some long-term effects down the road, but I know that this virus will kill you now and you won't have down the road," Whalen said.
Whalen asks those who don't want to get vaccinated or wear masks to take themselves out of the equation.
"Think about the people that depend on you and love you and care about you and think about what would happen if you're not here. That's the message," Whalen said.
Whalen was so thankful for those who cared for him in the hospital, he raised $12,000 that he used to help feed them lunches, dinners. He still has some money left and as things slow down, he has more surprises for them.