FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) – Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s campaign for COVID-19 vaccines has gained a new voice with a very personal testimony: a vaccine skeptic explaining his debilitating fight against COVID-19 virus.
Ethan Koehler (Kay’-ler) spoke in clear terms about his trip from downplaying the pandemic to falling for an intriguing pain, struggling to breathe and then “re-learning” to walk without losing your breath while the coronavirus ravaged his health.
“I was very, very big on anti-COVID, anti-vaccine,” Koehler said. “I did posts on Facebook, posts, I talked to people, I did a lot of things. He made a point of not wearing a mask. I said COVID was not important. And I eat it crow, because I experienced it ”.
Koehler’s video message was displayed at the Beshear briefing on Thursday afternoon. After months of begging Kentuckians to take the shots of COVID-19, the governor has increasingly turned to other people to help make the case. Their briefings routinely feature doctors and nurses warning of the growing risks to the unvaccinated, as the rapidly spreading delta variant causes the worst pandemic increase in the state to date.
Koehler’s 28-year-old ordeal revealed another alarming trend: rising infection rates among younger Kentuckians, who are less likely to get vaccinated. Only 41% of Kentuckians aged 18 to 29 have received at least a first dose of vaccine, compared to 84% of people aged 65 and over.
Overall, more than 2.4 million Kentuckians have received at least one dose of vaccine, representing 55% of the state’s population. Most cases, hospitalizations, and deaths from state COVID-19 since March 1 this year have been among partially vaccinated or unvaccinated Kentuckians.
On Friday, Beshear reported 3,869 new cases of COVID-19 across the state and six more virus-related deaths. The rate of Kentucky residents who tested positive for the virus rose again, to 12.8%.
Koehler, who is from Benton, in the far west of Kentucky, contracted the virus in July and was hospitalized for 17 days. The pain became so intense that “every time I breathed, I felt someone sitting on the right side of my chest and with a knife,” he said in a phone interview Friday. He credits his doctors with saving his life.
In the video, Koehler said he always believed he was capable of “handling some things,” but when he struggled to breathe, “that’s when I realized this is really bad right now. I can’t even resist it.”
It also led him to reevaluate the statements he had made about pandemics on social media.
“Having COVID, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone,” he said in the video. “It’s because of COVID that I now have to fight every day to improve a little. I’m re-learning to walk without catching my breath.
“If you knew a vaccination would have accounted for 75% or even half of my struggles over the last month … I would have achieved it at a heart rate and would never have looked back,” he added.
Beshear praised Koehler for showing up to share his dramatic story. But the governor also said it reflected “the dangers of misinformation” that make it difficult to fight the virus.
“One of the hardest things we face in our fight against this virus is that people post information that is falsely blatant or sometimes intentionally lies,” Beshear said.
He warned Thursday that state hospitals are filling up as the delta variant accelerates the outbreak and that each “staff-capacity bed” could be used in a week and a half.
Punished for his experience, Koehler said he withdrew from the intense social media exchanges about the pandemic.
“I still think it’s your right to choose what you want to do,” he said over the phone. “But I guess its compelling aspect would be that if you don’t want to get the vaccine, don’t complain when you’re stuck in the hospital parking lot and can’t breathe because it’s full.”
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