Young, single-vaccinated father dies of COVID-19 complications

MONTREAL (CityNews) ─ A 27-year-old Quebec father who died of complications related to COVID-19 sent a message to young people before passing away: get double vaccinated.

Kevin Smith-Chartree died Sept. 24 in St-Jerome, Que., − 23 days after testing positive for the virus. He became the first Quebecer in their 20s to die of the virus since April.

Hesitant to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, Smith-Chartree had only received one dose.

“While one dose of the vaccine gives you some protection, you really need both doses at least to have good protection against the more infectious variants like the Delta variant,” said cardiologist and epidemiologist Dr. Christopher Labos.

“Even if you’re young, and even if you’re healthy, you should still get vaccinated because you can still get infected and you can still get a serious complication. The risk may be low but it’s not zero.”

Kevin Smith-Chartree died Sept. 24 in St-Jerome, Que., − 23 days after testing positive for the virus. (Credit: FACEBOOK/Kevin Smith Chartree)

Smith-Chartree was first taken to hospital on Sept. 5 but signed a refusal of treatment form. Two days later, his roommate found him in their apartment struggling to breathe. The Quebec father was hospitalized a second time on Sept. 9 and later slipped into a coma. He died a few weeks later.

Family and friends took to social media to honour and remember him, calling him ‘their brother’ and ‘their soldier,’ someone who will watch over everyone he loved.

The 20-39 age group is seeing more hospitalizations in this current fourth wave of the pandemic and represents more than a quarter of new cases.

Seventy-four per cent of Quebec residents aged 18 to 29 are fully vaccinated. That number increases to 77 per cent for those aged 30 to 39.

Dr. Labos says health officials are still seeing some hesitation in people.

“People are just worried. I think you’ve seen a lot of misinformation, you’ve seen a lot of fear, and fear is very hard to overcome,” he said. “People are worried about the side effects. They think they’re at low risk because they’re young and healthy and they say. ‘let other people get vaccinated but I don’t really want to,’ and I think that’s what’s really driving a lot of the hesitancy.

“We just have to address the risks one-by-one. There have been a number of times when people have come up to me and say they’re worried about A, B, C, D, E, and if you can address those issues, a lot of times you can move people from the unvaccinated to the vaccinated column.”