An unvaccinated TikToker begged followers to get the jab from her hospital bed in a harrowing final video before she died from Covid.
‘I don’t have a lot of energy for talking, so I’m going to try to make this quick,’ Alexandra Blankenbiller, 31, told her 16,300 followers.
‘I did not get vaccinated. I’m not anti-vax. I was just trying to do my research. I was scared.
‘I do think it was a mistake.
‘I shouldn’t have waited. If you are even 70 percent sure you want the vaccine, go get it.
‘Don’t wait. Go get it. Because hopefully if you get it, then you won’t end up in the hospital like me.’
The video – the last of four she made while hospitalized – was posted on August 15.
She died nine days later, WedMD reported.
Blankenbiller, from Jacksonville in Florida, said in an earlier post that she had decided she would get the jab, despite her hesitations, but that she was waiting to convince her entire family to get vaccinated with her.
She warned: ‘if you are in my boat and you’re waiting to convince someone else to do it with you, don’t. Just get vaccinated.’
The TikTok star, along with her mother, and two sisters, eventually decided to get the the jab – but they fell ill before their appointments.
Blankenbiller developed the most serious side effects and was admitted to hospital on August 13.
In her first post from the hospital, screams of pain could be heard in the background.
She captioned the video: ‘The ‘vid got me guys. DO NOT WAIT TO GET VACCINATED! Go now!! And please pray/send good vibes, etc for me. Stay safe muffins!’
In another, in which she addressed a commenter who suggested fears over the virus were overblown, she said her experience indicated otherwise.
‘I’ve been here since early Friday morning, and all I’ve been hearing are the moans and screams of people in pain,’ she said.
‘People, I’m assuming that have lost people that they love, because I know what that’s like personally and what that sounds like.’
Blankenbiller’s death came as Florida saw its worst surge in coronavirus infections since the start of the pandemic.
Only 54% of its population is currently vaccinated.
Friends and family have paid tribute to Blankenbiller.
Her sister Rachel told WebMD: ‘Her final video really showed a lot of who she was.
‘She was selfless. The type of person who used her final days to help others.
‘She found beauty in everything and everyone.
‘She loved people without judgment. Regardless of whether you wanted her love or not, you’d get it.’
Friend and local filmmaker Royce Freeman said Blankenbiller would often visit him on set and help out.
He said they were working on a script together before her life was cut short.
‘The day before she went to the hospital, she was sending me pages,’ he said. ‘She didn’t feel good, but she was pushing through.’
And local a cappella group Jax Treblemakers also remembered Blankenbiller’s selflessness.
Alec Hadden, the group’s artistic director, said that she was like a family to them.
‘She cared deeply about helping others, and I think it was that compassion for others that drove her to try and educate people through her final few videos,’ he said.
‘She did not want anyone, even a stranger watching her videos on TikTok, to go through the pain and heartache that she and others on the COVID ward were going through. And if she could help even one person, she would.’
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