5 dead from COVID-19 in one extended family. “No, it’s not gone”

Some dismiss the scale and danger of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. They say, ”I don’t even know anyone who has it.”

That is not the case for Mark Colebrook. Five of his wife’s relatives have died from COVID-19 – her father, an aunt in Delaware and two cousins and a brother-in-law in New York City. He also has a brother and a niece who struggled with COVID-19 and have recovered.

Colebrook, a 54-year-old teacher from Dunn, knows his experience is the exception, but as much of the state reopens, he fears that by the fall it will be less so. He thinks too many people are taking the pandemic lightly and are dismissing it as overblown.

“People are lackadaisical about this,” he said. “They believe this thing is gone. No, it’s not gone.”

He’s worried that Gov. Cooper has eased his stay-at-home order, allowing shuttered salons, barber shops and restaurants to reopen.

“I know he’s under extreme pressure, but I just don’t think we’re ready,” Colebrook said.

Colebrook isn’t just speculating about the presence of the virus that has killed more than 350,000 people worldwide. He, his wife and a son encounter it up close every day. He teaches seventh-grade math at a Wayne County public school that is currently closed. In the meantime, he delivers school lunches to his students, most of them Hispanic. Of his 75 students, he estimates that 15 to 20 live with a relative who has tested positive for the virus.

His son is a corrections officer at Neuse Correctional Institution in Goldsboro, where more than 460 inmates have tested positive and three have died in the biggest outbreak in the state’s prison system. He puts his uniform in the laundry as soon as he enters the house he shares with his parents and two siblings.

Colebrook’s wife, Teri, is a critical care nurse at WakeMed in Raleigh, where she treats patients with COVID-19. When she comes home after working shifts of 12 hours and longer, she immediately showers. Then she tells her husband what happened with COVID-19 cases at the hospital.

“That’s where you hear the realness of it,” he said. “So many on the news are trying to downplay it, but it’s costing people their lives.”

Colebrook is African-American. His familiarity with COVID-19 aligns with an ABC News/Ipsos poll released last week. It found that African-Americans and Latinos are almost three times more likely than whites to know someone who has died from it.

Having experienced the pain and loss from the coronavirus up close, Colebrook is bothered by those who won’t wear masks in public or take other precautions.

“Even if you don’t care about you, you have to have some concern about me,” he said. “Your disbelief is a potential infection for me.”

The nature and effects of the cornavirus are still being revealed. As more are infected, it may pose new threats, such as the recent link between the virus and a mysterious inflammatory syndrome in children. The only real safety will come with a vaccine. Until then, common sense safeguards are the only defense.

Colebrook said a united effort to prevent the virus from spreading is being undermined by false or distorted information that says the pandemic is not so serious or that it’s going away.

He knows the reality. It’s a numbing number. Five dead from COVID-19 in one extended family.

What took them didn’t go with them, he said. The threat is still here and could get worse if people drop their guard. “People are going to assume it’s OK,” he said. “But it’s not OK.”

This story was originally published May 26, 2020 at 12:00 AM.