Brian Lee Hitchens (screen capture/WPTV) A Florida man thought the coronavirus health threat was “a fake crisis” that was “blown out of proportion” and “wasn’t that serious.” And then he and his wife contracted COVID-19. “I thought it was maybe the government trying something, and it was kind of like they threw it out there to kinda distract us,” Hitchens told local news station WPTV. In a lengthy Facebook post, Brian Lee Hitchens shared how the pandemic affected he and his wife’s lives.