#Florida man who thought COVID-19 was a hoax loses wife to virus

Brian Hitchens and his wife, Erin, were both skeptical of the virus before she died this month of heart problems linked to the illness, BBC reported.

The Jupiter couple ignored recommendations to wear masks when the virus spread through the US — believing the pandemic had been “blown out of proportion.”

“I thought it was maybe the government trying something, and it was kind of like they threw it out there to kinda distract us,” Hitchens told news station WPTV.

He continued to downplay the pandemic until he began feeling sick, the outlet reported. A few days later, his wife also began experiencing symptoms.

When their conditions worsened, they went to Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center.

“They admitted us right away and we both went to ICU. I started feeling better within a few days but my wife got worse to the point where they sedated her and put her on the ventilator,” he wrote in a lengthy Facebook post in May.

Hitchens continued saying that he wished that he had begun listening to health experts’ advice sooner.

“Looking back I should have wore a mask in the beginning but I didn’t and perhaps I’m paying the price for it now but I know that if it was me that gave it to my wife I know that she forgives me and I know that God forgives me,” he said.