Son of Czech folk singer who died after catching Covid on purpose, blames anti-vaxxers for her death

The son of an unvaccinated Czech folk singer who died last weekend after catching COVID-19 on purpose in order to start having a ‘free’ life again, lashed out at anti-vaxxers for filling his mother’s head with inaccurate information.

Jan Rek, the son of folk singer Hana Horka, also revealed his mother’s final tragic moments before she died on Sunday. 

The morning she died, Horka, 57, remained in good enough health to get dressed for a walk, before she complained that her back was hurting and went to lay down in her bedroom. 

‘In about 10 minutes it was all over,’ Rek said in an interview with the BBC on Wednesday. ‘She choked to death.’  

Horka reportedly believed that catching the virus would allow her to avoid needing  the vaccine, leading to her celebration upon learning she had contracted the virus. 

Rek blamed anti-vaxxers in the Central European country for her death. 

‘You took my mother, who based all her arguments on your basis. I despise you, you are an absolute waste,’ Rek wrote on Facebook following his mother’s death.

Horka, pictured, was the lead singer for the Czech folk group Asonance prior to her tragic death

Horka, pictured, reportedly believed that catching the virus would allow her to avoid getting the vaccine, leading to her celebration upon learning she had contracted the virus

Horka, who was the lead singer for the Czech folk group Asonance, had previously announced her infection on social media, and welcomed the virus in several posts. 

She said she was ‘happy’ to contract COVID because she would be able to obtain a health pass that would allow her to visit venues blocked to those without proof of vaccination or recent recovery from an infection, her family said.

‘I’m very happy about it because in this way I would be able to start having a “free” life like everyone else, and go back to the cinema, on vacation, to take a sauna, to the theater,’ she wrote. 

‘I survived… It was intense. So now there will be the theatre, sauna, a concert… and an urgent trip to the sea,’ she wrote on Friday, just two days before the virus would ultimately claim her life. 

Rek added that while his mother was unvaccinated at the time of her death, she did not subscribe to any of the many conspiracy theories about COVID vaccines.  

Pictured: Czech folk singer Hana Horka, 57, who died Sunday after purposefully contracting COVID in order to avoid getting the vaccine

Jan Rek said his mother contracted the virus after he and his father, who were both vaccinated, came down with COVID over the Christmas holiday

‘Her philosophy was that she was more OK with the idea of catching Covid than getting vaccinated. Not that we would get microchipped or anything like that,’ he said. 

Rek explained that his mother remained in close contact with him and his father after the two, who were vaccinated, caught COVID over the Christmas holiday, leading to Horka contracting the virus herself. 

Covid cases in the Czech Republic reached a new daily high on Wednesday, with 28,469 cases reported in a population of 10.7 million people. Nearly 37,000 have died in the country since the start of the pandemic.

According to the latest figures, 63 percent of those in the Czech Republic are fully vaccinated, which is below the EU average. Thirty-one percent have received a booster jab. 

Resistance to get the vaccine has remained an ongoing issue, both inside and outside the United States.

Half of American adults who were unwilling to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in spring 2021 said that nothing could change their minds, according to survey data released in November.

Horka was ‘happy’ to contract COVID because she would be able to obtain a health pass that would allow her to visit venues blocked to those without proof of vaccination

Researchers in Boston, New York and Barcelona had surveyed about 6,000 adults, including participants from across the country – roughly 21 percent of whom said they did not want to receive the COVID vaccine.

More than half of those respondents said ‘nothing will change my mind’ about the vaccine while 13 percent said that advice from a family member or close friend might help convince them.

Nine percent said that a recommendation from a family doctor would be beneficial.

Conservatives, people living in poverty, and those who worked outside the home were more likely to be against vaccination, the survey data showed.

The survey was conducted in April 2021, before the Delta and Omicron variants surged in the US and abroad, vaccine incentive programs, mandates, and other initiatives. Still, about 15 percent of US adults remain unvaccinated, according to Census.gov.