Hospitalized with COVID and on a ventilator at Baton Rouge General Hospital, 72-year-old Charlotte Broussard, a resident of Lafayette, La., wanted to say something. Unable to speak, she was given something to write with, and she scrawled across two pages a message for her friends.
“SEND TO FRIENDS F*CK,” read one sheet. The second said, “TAKE THE DAM SHOT.”
Her message was tweeted out by CBS News reporter David Begnaud, and Broussard gave the hospital permission to release her identity.
Louisiana had its single-day death record for the COVID pandemic broken this week, with 139 deaths reported on Tuesday. The state also saw an increase in hospitalizations on Monday, breaking a six-day streak of declines.
Of the over 2,800 people currently hospitalized in the Pelican State, 91% of them are unvaccinated, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.