A Hamilton mum, who says she was a COVID-19 denier until she got the virus, is finally back home after ending up in hospital.
Karina Haira shared her fight for life on social media via a series of Facebook livestreams, documenting her condition, and has received "overwhelming" messages of support from across the world.
"[They are] just talking about thanking me for getting the message through to their own families. It's changed the minds of their families and friends that they've been trying to get vaccinated."
Haira told Morning Report she initially did not believe in the danger the virus presented.
"I just didn't think that COVID was as bad as it really is.
"I wasn't anti-vax though, I was looking into getting it done, I was just really nervous and scared and that's because as a kid I reacted [badly] to vaccinations, my mum told me.
"I just didn't know anybody [who was infected], that's why I didn't believe it.
"And the media ... doesn't make it as scary as it really is."
But then she was diagnosed and she started speaking out after a suggestion from an acquaintance who worked at a pop-up vaccination site.
Haira's symptoms worsened around the fifth day and that was when she did the first livestream.
"I was okay and able to get out of bed on the first four days [of infection] and I was able to do things, come the fifth day I was bed ridden.
"My symptoms just went from okay to really, really bad. I literally could not get out bed. I kept complaining to my husband 'I can get out of bed, I can't even get up'. I couldn't. I couldn't even stay awake. I just keep sleeping, and my body just ached. I couldn't even move."
As an asthma sufferer, the virus just made things worse, she said.
While she said she did not want to go around telling others to get vaccinated because she understood some had their reasons, she acknowledged that she probably would not have been as ill if she had been vaccinated.
"I probably would have been a lot better off if I had been vaccinated. I probably wouldn't have been fighting for my life in ICU if I had been vaccinated."
Haira has now returned home and is on the mend.
She said her family would have to wait another four weeks after they have left isolation to get vaccinated.
RNZ
