Anti-vaxx mother, father and brother die of Covid-19 within a week of each other
9 August 2021, 14:51 | Updated: 10 August 2021, 07:12
Three members of the same family who turned down the Covid-19 vaccine died of the virus within a week of each other after catching it at a family dinner.
Francis Goncalves, from Cardiff, said his brother, Shaul, 40, father, Basil, 73, and mother Charmagne, 65, were taken ill on the weekend of July 10, a couple of days after having a meal together. They had all died within two weeks.
Francis told Wales Online that his family did not get their vaccines because they had been duped by "misinformation".
Devastated Francis said he hoped sharing his story would encourage others to get the jab.
All three members of the family were buried next to each other on Sunday August 1 at a cemetery in Lisbon called Sao Joao, where a section is dedicated to Covid-related deaths.
In a video posted to Facebook after their deaths he said: “A lot of people have asked me how I’ve gotten through this and to be absolutely honest with you I don’t know.
Moving call with a doctor urging people to get jabbed
“I don’t know how i made it through each day. Picking myself, scraping myself through.”
He thanked his wife, friends and colleagues for helping him get through the grief and warned people not to be taken in by anti-vaccine propaganda posted by bloggers with no scientific background or 'right wing' political figures.
“To those of you who have taken the time to send me information as to why you think the vaccine is bad, thank you very much for taking the time.
“What I see is a lot of fear, what I see is a lot of concern over the possibilities of these things being real.
“Believe me I’m pretty sure a lot of people that have been vaccinated have considered the negative options that the propaganda has shoved at them.
“I’m going to call it propaganda because that’s what it is.
He asked for people to send him ‘more information’ about vaccines but said: “I’m going to ask you to consider three things. The credibility of the information - don’t give me the opinion of a bloggist.
“Secondly, steer clear from right wing fascists. It’s all a political game from them. Politics should not be brought into this.”
“The credibility of people bringing forward the information is really, really important.
“And lastly the wording. People are always able to hide behind the big things.
“When you read an article that says why ‘I’ won’t take the vaccine, ask the question why that person is not saying why ‘you’ should not take the vaccine.
“The short answer is to escape legal liability.
“I’m not gonna stop driving the message that the vaccine is a solution.
“The science… is not rushed. If you wear a mask and protect those around you thank you. Because that’s what this is all about, looking out for each other so we all make it through this.
“For those of you that don’t think Covid exists, I don’t know what to say to you except, maybe you should go clean down a Covid ward.”
Last week medics and families of self-confessed vaccine sceptics who tragically died with Covid pleaded with people to get jabbed after “needless” deaths of anti-vaxxers.
A doctor, who spoke to James O'Brien on LBC on Friday, told the harrowing tale of a 27-year-old patient with Covid who was unvaccinated and 29 weeks pregnant.
Solicitor Leslie Lawrenson, 58, passed away at his home in Bournemouth on July 2, just nine days after posting footage on Facebook explaining why Covid was "nothing to be afraid of".
John Eyers, a fit and healthy father from Southport in Wales, died of Covid-19 last month after also refusing the vaccine.
And Matthew Keenan - a football coach and father - passed away just weeks after contracting the virus.
His story was first shared online in early July by Dr Leanne Cheyne - a respiratory consultant at the West Yorkshire hospital.
