The recent death of Czech singer Hana Horka has highlighted the risks of intentionally exposing your-self to the coronavirus. Purposefully exposing your-self to the virus with the intention of developing COVID-19 can be fatal.
Risk of severe illness, de-veloping long COVID, transmitting the virus to others, and further taxing the healthcare system are additional possibilities. On Jan. 18, news broke that Czech folk singer Hana Horka had died after inten-tionally exposing herself to the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
According to her son, Jan Rek, the 57-year-old en-tertainer had purposefully exposed herself to the virus with the intention of developing COVID-19 while he and his father were ill. He said this was because proof of recovery would allow her entry into more social and cultural venues, like bars and theaters. Horka, who was not vaccinated, had posted on social media that she was recovering. However, 2 days later, she was dead, choking to death while lying in her bed. Unfortunately, Horka’s belief that exposing herself to the coronavirus would help her “get it over with” is one that seems to be growing in popularity.
Many people are tired and worn down from having to be constantly vigilant about the virus. Also, there is a growing sentiment that COVID-19 is inevitable, and therefore isn’t worth the effort necessary to keep it from spreading. Experts are cautioning this simply isn’t true. Intentionally exposing yourself to the coronavirus with the hopes of developing COVID-19 can come with severe complications, including death.
Healthline spoke with several experts who all agreed that deliberately exposing yourself to the coronavirus is incredibly risky and has the potential to affect much more than just yourself. It puts more burden on the healthcare system
Dr. Nicholas Kman, an emergency medicine physi-cian at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, said one of the biggest reasons that healthcare professionals don’t want people to get intentionally sick right now is that they are trying to delay the continued spike in cases as much as they possibly can. COVID-19 is already affecting our healthcare system, he said.
“January tends to be busy for healthcare in the win-ter with influenza, pneumonia, RSV, and other ill-ness,” said Kman. “COVID has added much to that.”
In addition, Kman said that many healthcare workers are out sick themselves or taking care of sick family members, which further stresses the system.
