Czech anti-vaccine singer dies after deliberately catching COVID

PRAGUE, Czech Republic — An anti-vaccine Czech folk singer has died after she deliberately contracted COVID-19 to obtain a health pass that would have allowed her to visit the sauna and theater, her family said.

Proof of vaccination or recent infection is required to access cultural and sports facilities as well as for travel and for visiting bars and restaurants in the EU member state, which is facing a COVID outbreak.

Hana Horka, who was the vocalist for the band Asonance, died on Sunday at the age of 57, according to her son Jan Rek.

She voluntarily exposed herself to the virus when her husband and son, both vaccinated, caught it before Christmas, Rek told public radio iRozhlas.cz.

“She decided to continue to live normally with us and preferred to catch the disease than to get vaccinated,” he said on Monday.

Two days before her death, Horka took to social media to say: “I survived… It was intense.”

“So now there will be the theater, sauna, a concert… and an urgent trip to the sea,” she added.

Rek blamed the death on a local anti-vaccine movement, saying its leaders had convinced his mother against vaccination and thus had “blood on their hands.”

“I know exactly who influenced her… It makes me sad that she believed strangers more than her proper family,” Rek said.

“It wasn’t just total disinformation but also views on natural immunity and antibodies acquired through infection,” he added.

The country of 10.7 million people announced more than 28,000 new COVID infections on Wednesday.