Richard Rose III, an Ohio-based Army veteran, passed away on 4 July from COVID-19-related complications, according to an online obituary. The man’s death came in light of an earlier social media post where he publicly slammed face masks as “hype”.
“I’ve made it this far by not buying into that d**n hype”, Rose argued on 28 April.
His post has now been shared around 19 thousand times and commented on by over 800 people.
On 1 July, the 37-year-old US Army vet announced that he had been experiencing COVID-19 symptoms in the past few days and later revealed that his test results for coronavirus had come back positive.
According to the man's friend’s comment to local news station WOIO, Rose was “getting slaughtered online right now for his decision that he made not to wear a mask”.
“We should still be compassionate whether we agree with someone’s beliefs or not. Someone has passed away and we should have some compassion towards that,” the vet’s friend, Nick Conley, added.