‘Nothing to be afraid of’: Anti-vaxxer said he was ‘glad’ to catch COVID – it killed him days later

A Cambridge-educated man who posted a video to social media downplaying the threat of COVID-19 has died from the virus, the Evening Standard reports.

Solicitor Leslie Lawrenson, 58, died in home in Bournemouth, Dorset, just over a week after he shared a video claiming that COVID is nothing to be afraid of. Lawrenson refused to be vaccinated because he felt he didn't need it. He had no underlying health problems.

In June, he posted two videos where he said his COVID symptoms were no worse than a cold. He also said that getting sick is just a part of life and that he was actually glad to have contracted COVID-19. But his parter Amanda Mitchell says, "I feel incredibly foolish. Les died unnecessarily."

"Les made a terrible mistake and he's paid the ultimate price for that," she said. "It was a daily thing that he said to us: 'You don't need to have it, you'll be fine, just be careful.'"

"Les was highly educated... so if he told me something, I tended to believe it," she added.