Doctors Are Sharing What Happened When They Diagnosed Covid-19 Deniers With Covid-19 (30 Stories)

I am an emergency doctor and diagnosed a older white gentleman (60, probably) with covid. He came in with obvious symptoms but was obviously a Trump type guy with an attitude. When the swab came back positive he got visibly angry and asked me what I was going to do about it. He wasn't sick enough to need any treatment so I told him to just go home and stay hydrated and gave him my usual spiel about following up and yada yada. He then proceeded to scream at me that CNN told him this was the most horrible thing in the world and how could I possibly not do anything about it!!!! I politely told him I was not intending to have a political conversation with him and then walked out of the room. The nurse handed him his discharge paperwork and he walked out.

I think he came in just to show off his minimal symptoms to prove that the virus wasn't that bad. There was a patient in the next room with an oxygen saturation of 55 but I didn't bother telling him. That's not a hill I'm going to die on to convince some jerk of facts he'll never believe.

My mom works for an OBGYN who specializes in high-risk pregnancies and births, and he was called into the hospital to check out a woman whose due date was about 2 weeks away and who was very sick.. He confirmed she had COVID and admitted her to the hospital until she gave birth, but she insisted it was a hoax and ended up checking herself out AMA, but not before she spat in the face of the nurse, who coincidentally had just completed chemo. That was near the beginning of the pandemic, and I'm so curious what happened to that lady. The nurse is okay, thank goodness.

My wife and I travel for work and she happens to work in medical labs, usually large hospitals. I’ve been shocked by the sheer amount of lab techs and the like who refuse to wear masks and nonchalantly go about life as if COVID weren’t real.

I had a lady who was maxed out on high flow (next step is breathing tube) who still refused she had Covid and was holding a negative test in her hand that she had taken a week prior.

Physician here. The willful cognitive dissonance is real. It never ceases to amaze me how many patients will refuse assistance from me to register to get vaccinated, make claims that vaccines are harmful, but then accept my medical care on anything else that suits their whim. Patients absolutely have autonomy to refuse care, but why would you continue to see a physician and accept their medical advice and care if you think they would simultaneously recommend something to you that would be harmful?

I've posed this question to patients who are vaccine hesitant: "Why would you let me manage your diabetes and hypertension if you think I would harm you by recommending vaccinations?" You cannot get any kind of thoughtful response aside from, "I just don't want to be vaccinated."

They just kept denying they had it, stated they had something else, and tried to leave against medical advice while on high flow nasal canula which we didn't let him do because he would have died within minutes. Before he was admitted to the hospital, he was symptomatic but refused to isolate at home. He gave it to his wife who ended up in the ICU.

ER doc chiming in. They told me I was wrong. Obviously, there’s no way they had COVID despite coming in to the ER for shortness of breath, cough, and fevers.

When I mentioned that their wife who was several rooms down also had COVID, their response was: oh, that makes sense because she always gets sick.

When I asked how it made sense that they wouldn’t have COVID with the same symptoms I was told that it was because they were overall healthy and only took their mask off to eat and drink in the casino

I have treated a young male in our ICU with critical COVID19 with severe diabetic ketoacidosis. He did not believe in insulin (yes, you are reading this right) or other antidiabetics, even though insulin is inexpensive in our country. He tried to treat his type 2 diabetes with herbs, his HbA1C (the lab value showing the state of his diabetes on the longer run) was off the roof. He did not vaccinate (he was offered), did not wear a mask, did not distance, and did not believe in any of this coronabullshit. Most of this information was obtained from his 20 year old daughter, as he was quite disoriented at presentation and was intubated urgently. She was sobbing through the phone every day for 1.5 months until he died. I held the phone with his daughter on call to his ears multiple times when he was still intubated but his mind cleared up and his sedation was optimal. I was quite convinced that he realised his mistake on the ventilator, with lines and tubes inserted into his body everywhere and in his last clear moments, when his mind allowed, but I cannot be absolutely sure. I often think about the last conversation and last mental images people have before their death.

Family members have come in with a sick family member and lied about exposure and/or symptoms (despite a member(s) testing positive). This can/has lead to inappropriate management, delay in treatment, and exposure of staff and other families. The family members then get angry when told to isolate.

Infectious disease doctor here. Seen about 450-500 COVID patients in the hospital since it all started. Only one patient ever accused me of using the nasal swab to give him COVID (along with a microchip). A handful have (EDIT) ranted nonstop about China. Everyone else has been sick enough to accept it, but lots still refuse the idea of vaccination even after being in the ICU.