Critically ill Covid patient Peter Nagy looked his doctor in the eye and admitted: “I’ve been a fool.”
Hours earlier the vaccine sceptic had been rushed from the main virus ward into intensive care.
His condition had deteriorated and medics were worried.
But despite his plight, a clearly frightened Peter invited the Mirror to his bedside.
He wanted our readers to see the reality of what Covid can do to the unvaccinated.
Peter was one of seven desperately ill patients in the unit.
Hooked up to an oxygen machine and monitors, the business development manager said: “The trouble is when you get to the stage where you can’t breathe, your options are starting to run out. You start to evaluate things differently.
“I realise that I made a massive mistake. I’ve never been an anti-vaxxer.
"In the past I’ve taken things like flu shots. But when Covid came along and they started to produce the vaccines very quickly I was just dubious.
“I did not think there had been enough clinical research and long term trials and that is why I felt the vaccine would not be the right thing for me.
“But two years down the line the world has learned much more about Covid and I am looking at it completely differently as well now.
“I have realised I have made the wrong decision. Really, really, the wrong decision. And when I am recovered I will have the vaccine.
“This has made me how foolish I have been.
“I am frightened. I think anyone would be, it is scary. It is a very unpleasant feeling. It focuses the mind.”
Standing alongside his patient, consultant respiratory physician Mohammed Munavvar assured Peter he would be cared for.
Holding the medic’s gaze, he replied: “Thank you doctor. Thank you for everything.”
The Mirror’s team were the first journalists to be allowed onto the critical care unit at the Royal Preston Hospital since the start of the pandemic.
We had only a few brief minutes with Peter but it was long enough to see the fear on his face.
And moments after we left, another ICU patient died - one of two to lose their battle that day.
Since the start of the pandemic, the hospital has treated nearly 5,000 people with the virus, of which more than 900 have died.
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Out of 106 Covid patients in the hospital earlier this week, more than 43% were completely unvaccinated and a further 32% had not had a booster jab.
Professor Munavvar, 58, says Peter is not alone in having regrets and he will not be the last.
He said: “I feel very sad that these people have been misled into thinking that they will not become so ill. It [the vaccine] is such a simple thing.
“Day to day we see people who are deteriorating and dying and we know for certain than 90% plus are in the unvaccinated category.
“They have missed a golden opportunity to get the most effective weapon to prevent serious illness. It is freely available to them. It is available down the road, round the clock, and still they have taken the risk.
“The people who are dying from Covid are either unvaccinated or they have several other medical problems which make them extremely vulnerable.”
He added: “There is no doubt that vaccines have been game changers. They have saved innumerable lives and prevented hundreds of thousands of hospitalisations.”
Vaccinated or not, every patient gets the same level of expert care from the dedicated staff.
Covid ward manager Rebecca Tuson said: “We respect the fact that people have the right to choice and we want to make it clear that the care they receive does nor change as a result of that decision.
“Our job is to promote having the vaccine, although it is personal choice.
But we see it day in and day out - if you are not vaccinated the chances are you are more likely to need intensive care and the outcomes are not as promising if you do not have that vaccine.”
Her colleague Tracy Fawcett, 43, who has had Covid twice, added: “We have to respect people’s personal choice but they have to understand the consequences of what might become of them and the effects that might have on other people as well.
“Our sickest patients are the ones who have not been vaccinated. They come to us and then they go to critical care and we don’t always know what happens to them after that.”
She added: “I am a nurse and our non-vaccinated patients will get exactly the same care. We are not here to judge them, we are here to care for them.
And sometimes they need more psychological care because of the impact that their decision has had on them.”
