A Romanian coronavirus skeptic has had a change of heart after he caught the virus and was hospitalized for ten days.
Claudiu Cernat considers himself one of the lucky ones. Other Covid-19 patients who were in the same hospital as him died.
Activist
Before he fell sick, Claudiu Cernat was known locally as one of the people who regularly protested against mandatory face masks and vaccines against Covid-19.
The activist who regularly took part in protests in the central town of Brasov was convinced that the pandemic was a hoax. He thought restrictions were merely a pretext for the government to manipulate Romanians, adevarul.ro reported.
That was until he caught the virus.
Tricked
He now believes he was tricked by social media and “some news outlets.”
„When the pandemic started, there was a lot of manipulation. I found out that the government had given the media 41 million euros to write about Covid-19. By Easter (2020), there were none of the usual stories about people getting indigestion or food poisoning, or being hospitalized in alcoholic comas as we were used to reading every year. It was all about Covid,” he said.
Convinced there was a cover-up and egged on by others, he decided to take action.
He described how he took part in a number of protests and marches against restrictions imposed by the government.
Political machinations
“It seemed like they were using political machinations to manipulate people,” he said, explaining why he was opposed to face coverings.
Time passed and vaccines appeared, and he decided he didn’t trust them ”as they appeared too quickly”, he said.
He said his beliefs were encouraged by people who appeared on television and social media.
Then, one day in October he began to feel sick. He did two Covid-19 tests and they both came out positive. A few days later, he was hospitalized.
Symptoms
His personal experience has “radically” changed his approach to the pandemic, he said.
“I had symptoms I wouldn’t want anyone else to have. I had headaches, a sore throat, my head was throbbing. My eyes were burning, I was in deep pain.”
My lungs were 48% affected and my liver, 20%. “Thanks to hospital treatment, my lungs are now functioning 82%.”
He was fortunate. Other patients died. Like many Covid-19 patients, he calls healthcare staff “heroes.”
Incredible
„There were 37 patients, but nobody cared if you were a Roma, poor or whatever.”
“Some of the patients were so sick, they couldn’t move and nurses had to turn them over and change them. It was incredible the work they all did.”
Although he’s not going to tell people outright to get a vaccine, he does have a warning.
“I ask everyone to think of what I and other patients went through and to think about the fact that the vaccine means you get a less serious form of the disease.”
