‘THEY DON’T KNOW THE TRUTH’

COVID-Positive Man Who Developed Rare Disorder Pleads for Others to Get Vaxxed

Saul Torres’ case points to the larger issue preventing Latino populations from getting vaccinated: misinformation.

A California man said misinformation caused him to not get the COVID-19 vaccine—and now he’s in the hospital with a rare neurological disorder. “We would say, ‘That isn’t going to happen to us,’ or ‘It [COVID] isn’t real, we won’t get sick,’ and then it happened to all of us,” Saúl Torres told KCRA. It’s because of this, he says, others should get the vaccine. He contracted the virus last month, losing 40 pounds and eventually developing Guillain-Barré syndrome, a disease that induces the immune system to attack the body instead. Yesenia Ramos, an internal medicine resident at the University of California Davis, said Torres’ situation is an example of how Latino populations view the virus, contributing to their low vaccination rates. “Among the Latino population, there’s just a lot of myths among each other and they don’t know the truth about the vaccines and they don’t see a doctor to get educated on it,” Ramos said.

She said GBS often follows a viral or bacterial infection, leading to fears it may be connected to COVID-19. Ramos said Torres may require physical therapy to fully recover.