[2] The cataloging of such deaths has been described as "heartless and unrepentant schadenfreude", and has been argued to derive not only from political differences, but from frustrations felt by overwhelmed medical professionals and healthcare systems.
[4] A column in the Los Angeles Times, following reactions to the COVID-19 death of antivaccine Orange County Deputy District Attorney, countered that there "may be no other way to make sure that the lessons of these teachable moments are heard",[10] an opinion which itself "came under fire" in social media responses.
[2] This was also reported in The BMJ in October 2021, in a piece which said that "[a]mong the people admitted to hospital with severe respiratory failure from COVID-19 pneumonia who have subsequently died, some had previously held strong anti-vaccine beliefs.
[2] Geriatrics and acute general medicine consultant David Oliver, writing for The BMJ, notes that some anti-vaccine activists have accused doctors of falsifying these asserted changes of heart on the part of their patients.
[15][16] In September 2021, another anti-vaccine conservative radio host, 62-year-old Bob Enyart, who "vocally refused to get vaccinated and actively spread false claims about the COVID-19 virus", died of COVID-19, prompting a new round of reports discussing the phenomenon within that demographic.