MEMPHIS, Tenn — In tonight’s Ransom Note: a COVID wake-up call  

By now we know most people who die from COVID are elderly, have some type of co-morbidity, maybe they’re a smoker, or very overweight. 

Then come stories like Orthopedic Doctor Barton Williams of Memphis. 

He was just 36 and just got married. 

We’re told the wedding presents were still on the table. 

Now the CDC says he may be one of just two people in the entire country who got the vaccine, only to die from a COVID-related system. 

Here’s what we know: 

When Dr. Williams was checked-in to Baptist East with a bad infection, he tested negative for COVID. But he did have COVID antibodies, meaning he’d been asymptomatic at some point. 

Plus, it couldn’t be COVID because he got the vaccine a month ago. But apparently that’s how this multisystem inflammatory syndrome works. 

Yes, the virus itself is gone, but the immune system still turns on itself and attacks. 

The organs malfunction and the patient can’t be saved. 

Dr. Williams family wanted the word out that his death wasn’t due to some new variant. But if he had access to the vaccine prior to getting his asymptomatic case, he’d still be alive. 

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