January 1, Self-Proclaimed ‘Plague Spreader’ Dies

An Italian man who caused an uproar after dubbing himself a “plague spreader” has died from COVID-19.

Maurizio Buratti, 61, was a regular commentator on Radio 24’s popular show Zanzara. He told listeners he was very sick with a high fever but purposefully walked around a crowded grocery store without wearing a mask.

Enrico Polati, director of the ICU at Hospital de Borgo Trento, told a local outlet Buratti arrived in “desperate conditions.”

“We did everything and a little more, but the disease was inexorable,” Polati said.

Buratti was opposed to the COVID-19 vaccine and other pandemic-related restrictions. He refused to get tested for the virus because of a conspiracy theory that the test swabs cause COVID-19 infections.

According to The Daily Beast, Buratti only went to the hospital at the insistence of fans and Zanzara host Giuseppe Cruciani.

Buratti was a COVID-19 denialist, but he did appear to acknowledge the existence of the virus in a recorded update that aired on the radio show. “I was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia, it seems to be COVID,” he said.

“You were, you are, Mauro from Mantua. We made fun of you, you insulted us, we talked about it all the way to the threshold of a court, but we had fun like never in life. And today I got a blow to the heart,” Cruciani wrote in an Instagram tribute.

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Self-Proclaimed ‘Plague Spreader’ Dies of COVID After Boasting About Maskless Grocery Store Stunt