Man who mocked coronavirus vaccine in viral tweet died of COVID-19

A man who mocked COVID-19 vaccinations died last week at a Riverside County hospital after contracting the coronavirus.

Stephen Harmon was 34. The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department confirmed his July 21 death, but did not have information about his city of residence or other details because coroner’s officials did not respond to the incident.

Harmon died at Corona Regional Medical Center. Hospital spokesperson Linda Pearson said she could not release information about Harmon because of privacy concerns. Harmon’s relatives could not be reached.

Harmon, who posted photos of himself lying in his hospital bed on social media, wrote that he had pneumonia and critically low oxygen levels, and that he was going to be intubated. In a July 21 tweet, Harmon wrote: “Don’t know when I’ll wake up, please pray,” KCBS-TV reported.

Three days before his death, Harmon tweeted: “If you don’t have faith that God can heal me over your stupid ventilator then keep the Hell out of my ICU room, there’s no room in here for fear or lack of faith!”

Before his hospitalization, Harmon had made fun of vaccination efforts on social media.

“I got 99 problems but a vax ain’t one,” he wrote in a tweet last month, a play on rapper Jay-Z’s hit, “99 Problems.”

On July 8, Harmon posted: “Biden’s door to door vaccine ‘surveyors’ really should be called JaCovid Witnesses. #keepmovingdork.”

Harmon’s death was “unbelievably demoralizing,” Dr. Oren Friedman, who treats COVID-19 patients at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, told KCBS-TV. The number of COVID-19 admissions had increased tenfold, he said.

“Virtually every single person that is getting sick enough to be admitted to the hospital has not been vaccinated,” Friedman said.

California has seen escalating numbers of COVID-19 infections, led by the highly transmissible delta variant that has proliferated since the state fully reopened the economy last month. The vast majority of new cases are among unvaccinated people, and health officials have pleaded for people to get the shots.

On Wednesday, the state Department of Public Health reported nearly 7,000 new cases and 38 deaths. The test positivity rate was at 5.9%. Los Angeles County, which has about a fourth of the state’s population, reported more than 2,000 new cases on Tuesday, July 25. Cases have also surged in Riverside County, which, as of Wednesday, has a seven-day case positivity rate of 6.5%.

Harmon attended Hillsong Church in Los Angeles.

Founder Brian Houston called him “one of the most generous people I know.”

“As a church, our focus is on the spiritual well-being of the people in each of our local communities. On any medical issue, we strongly encourage those in our church to follow the guidance of their doctors,” Houston said in a statement to KCBS-TV. “While many of our staff, leadership and congregation have already received the COVID-19 vaccine, we recognize this is a personal decision for each individual to make with the counsel of medical professionals.”

Staff writer Deepa Bharath contributed to this report.