A fitness influencer from Los Angles, Amanda Kloots, who lost her 41-year-old husband due to Coronavirus infection in July, responded with a powerful message to the recent tweet by US President Donald Trump in which he urged Americans not to fear the disease.
Kloots's husband, Nick Cordero was a Broadway actor. He died of COVID-19 complications after spending 95 days at the hospital. During the hospitalization, one of his legs was amputated.
After the death of her husband, Kloots with more than half a million Instagram followers has been sharing posts related to how she and her son, Elvis are coping with the situation and being one of those families affected by the virus, which killed more than 210, 900 people in the US.
'Sad' and 'Disgraceful'
Trump tweeted on Monday night, October 5 about his experience with the COVID-19 after leaving the Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland. In the Tweet, he asked the US not to be "afraid of COVID" and wrote that "don't let it dominate your life."
But the words hit Kloots and she decided to put out a post on this case. She wrote, addressing all the victims of Coronavirus in the US: "I stand by you, with you, holding your hand. Unfortunately, it did dominate our lives didn't it? It dominated Nick's family's lives and my family's lives. I guess we "let it" — like it was our choice?? Unfortunately not everyone is lucky enough to spend two days in the hospital."
In her emotional Instagram post, she also said, "I cried next to my husband for 95 days watching what COVID did to the person I love. It IS something to be afraid of."
In the post, she wrote that after losing a loved one due to COVID-19, "you would never say what this tweet says. There is no empathy to all the lives lost." At the end of the post which included the screenshot of Trump's tweet about Coronavirus, Kloots said, "He is bragging instead. It is sad. It is hurtful. It is disgraceful."
In a series of Instagram stories, she clarified that even though she is not a very "political person", the message to the Americans by Trump was "hard to ignore." She also spoke to other families affected by the pandemic, saying, "We are afraid. I still am" and while addressing Trump, she asked him to show some "empathy."
Her sister Anna—an influencer and writer—responded to the "disgraceful" message in a post where she said that the SARS-CoV-2 caused disease COVID-19 "took the life of my perfectly healthy brother-in-law in 3 months and I WATCHED IT HAPPEN. I stood in the hospital next to my sister and SAW what it did to him."
As many people shared Kloots's post on social media sites, one user wrote on Twitter that "Watching her [Kloots's] IG story this morning made me cry. I sent her a DM saying I was angry on behalf of her and everyone who's lost a loved one to COVID and that she had every right to be upset. Some of us are capable of compassion and empathy. Prayers for everyone affected by COVID."
Another woman shared her experience. "My brother and uncle died from COVID-19 all alone in March/April. But to 45 it's NBD. I'm infuriated. We still haven't been able to have memorial services or anything."
