Story By:  Gheorghi Caraseni, Sub Editor:  Joseph Golder,  Agency: Central European News

A Romanian lorry driver who believed COVID-19 was media hype and that it was no more dangerous than the common cold has died from the disease.

Marian Giurea, 47, travelled all over Europe as a lorry driver and on 17th of March, he told his Facebook followers he did not believe the COVID-19 disease was real. He even threw down the challenge to everyone he knew asking them to give him proof of at least one person that might be sick and to give him a name.

In his post he wrote: “They say millions of people are infected with coronavirus… can anyone tell me for real that they have actually seen even one person sick from the coronavirus?”

But this week it was revealed that he had died in the French capital Paris after being hospitalised with a high fever.

Friends said that he lived in Paris with his wife and two children and had moved there 20 years ago. Although work had dried up recently, he had not returned to Romania because he did not want to put his elderly mother’s health at risk.

He also wrote a message to his family in Romania telling them to treat the disease very seriously, and not to treat it like a game.

His friend, Radu Remus, said everybody was shocked that Marian had been taken ill as he very rarely was ever sick from anything.

He was reportedly a strong man who did a lot of fitness and had strong principles that meant he neither smoked nor drank alcohol for over 15 years.

He said: “This man was like a mountain, he never complained of any pain. He had an iron psyche, I was shocked when they told me he had passed away.”

According to him, Marian fell into coma on 8th April and on the 10th he passed away in Paris.

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