Guy With COVID-19 Admits His 'Stupidity,' Dies the Next Day

Thomas Macias had been self-isolating because of his diabetes. Then he went to a party.
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 2, 2020 6:00 AM CDT
Updated Jul 5, 2020 7:31 AM CDT
Partier Gets COVID-19, Says It's 'No Joke,' and Dies
Stock photo.   (Getty Images)

"Hopefully with God's help, I'll be able to survive this." Thomas Macias wrote those words on Facebook after contracting COVID-19 at a party in June, then died the next day. The Southern California man, who was overweight and had diabetes, felt sick soon after the party near his Lake Elsinore home and tested positive on June 18, NBC News reports. Two days later, the 51-year-old wrote in his Facebook post: "I ... went out a couple of weeks ago ... because of my stupidity I put my mom and sisters and my family's health in jeopardy," he wrote. "This has been a very painful experience. This is no joke. If you have to go out, wear a mask and practice social distancing."

Brother-in-law Gustavo Lopez says Macias went to a hospital on June 21 and was put on a ventilator that evening—just a couple of hours before he died. Lopez also said a friend at the party had the coronavirus and knew it, but believed he couldn't infect anyone because he had no symptoms. "Our understanding is that a gentleman had called [Macias] and said, 'Hey, I was at the party, I knew I was positive. I didn't tell anybody,'" Lopez tells CNN. "I think the gentleman was regretting not telling everybody, and he was calling people who were at the party to recommend they get tested." Macias, who was unmarried and had no children, is remembered by family members as a "good guy" who liked socializing. "He would do anything for everybody," Lopez says, per NBC. "No questions asked." (More coronavirus stories.)

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