Vito Di Cantante makes plea that everyone wear a mask and not end up like him.
On Thursday afternoon, Floridian Vito Di Cantante posted a video to his Facebook account from his hospital bed as a message to his family and friends, pleading with them to wear their masks so that they won’t end up like him. We still have Floridians steadfastly refusing to wear a mask in public. All day yesterday I watched as just one troll fought with people in a Facebook group who were thanking Vito for his video, and helping people to realize that this is not a hoax.
Today, Florida set a new national record in the number of new COVID-19 cases.
Sunday, Florida reported the most new COVID-19 cases any state has in a single day, 15,300.
Sunday’s Florida Department of Health update blew past the previous high, 12,274 by New York on April 4, as reported by the New York Times, by 3,026 or 24.6%. It zoomed past Florida’s previous high, 11,458 on the July 4 report, by 33.5% or just over one-third.
Vito has been fighting for his life against COVID-19. If you use Facebook, please share Vito’s In the Hospital With The Virus video with your family and friends. (It is also embedded below).
Since the video is public, Vito has received a lot of positive support and an outpouring of love; however, he has also received a lot of the usual comments from trolls and conspiracy theorists accusing him of being a fake and not even having COVID-19. This is an honest, heartfelt plea from Vito who has experienced what it is like to get this awful disease that is ravaging our country. He sincerely wants to help prevent others from catching it too. Please support Vito in his effort to spread the message of how important it is to wear masks and stop the spread.
For those of you who can’t see the video, I have transcribed it here:
Hello. Vito here. I don't know how well this is going to transmit. It's a very weird time right now.
For those of you who are not wearing masks, put them on, PLEASE! Those masks aren't to protect you from getting it. It's to protect other people from getting it from you. I don't know exactly where I got this, and at this point that really doesn't matter. What matters is, is that we stop this thing. And we dampen the curve, and you wear your mask because THIS, is no fun. And THIS is as close to normal that I've been in two weeks. Okay? So it's absolutely imperative that you guys do this.
The closest thing that I can describe this as is imagine if you're drowning in your own body. That's what it feels like. You can't breath, and it's scary as hell. And especially now, we have to worry about not just ourselves, but everybody. Okay? That's what this is about. We have to worry about everybody.
So put on your damn mask, and just do it. Okay? This is no fun. This really sucks. Any of you who know what my voice should normally sound like, know that this is not what my voice sounds like.
I literally woke up while I was being intubated or while I was intubated, broke free of my restrains (I still have bruises all over my hands), and tore the damn thing right out of my own throat because I thought it was killing me.
Luckily, everything right now is on course; everything’s good and we're going to get there. We're going to make it. I've got too much stuff left to do. But in the meantime, take care of each other and love each other, and wear your mask. Please!
Some of you know where I'm at. Some of you can just guess that I'm in a hospital. You know, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. I am in Florida. Luckily, I social distanced enough where I don't believe that I spread this to anybody.
But this is not anything to be taken lightly. This is not not anything to F-around with man, okay? Share this. Tag the people you love. If they don't have a mask, go buy them one.
Go and buy extra masks and just hand them out to the people who are not with it to know that they need to wear them. Okay? We got to do this, man. I came too close to buying it and I am not going out without a fight.
I love each and every one of you, and I can't wait to see you all again on the other side. I can't wait to see you when we can hug again. I can't wait to see you when we can hold each other again. But in the meantime, you need to do your job, and you need to make this right, okay? Make it right.
Wear your mask. Encourage the people you love to wear their masks. It's too important not to do it.
What I've been on here about 10 minutes and I'm exhausted already. This is too much. Okay? I'm going to take a nap now. I love all of you. Please stay safe. Please be careful. Please wear your mask, and please encourage everybody else to. It's the only way we can beat this, kids. Let me tell you, this sucks. I wouldn't wish this on my worse enemy. I really wouldn't.
From here on out, I'm dedicating myself to sharing and spreading as much love as I can, and to spread positivity and positive messages. And I encourage you all to help me, but we need to start by wearing the masks. All right? I love you all. Take care of yourselves, and I'll see you soon.
