A California man who mocked COVID-19 vaccines on social media has died on Wednesday after battling with the virus for months.

A vocal critic of the COVID vaccine, Stephen Harmon, a congregant of Hillsong Church, made a series of jokes about not taking the vaccine, according to US media reports.

“Got 99 problems but a vax ain’t one,” the 34-year-old tweeted to his 7,000 followers in June.

In a hospital outside of Los Angeles, he was treated for pneumonia and COVID-19 before passing away.

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In the days preceding his death, Harmon recorded his struggle for survival, uploading photographs of himself in his hospital bed on social media.

“Please pray y’all, they really want to intubate me and put me on a ventilator,” he said.

In his final tweet on Wednesday, Harmon said he had decided to go under intubation.

“Don’t know when I’ll wake up, please pray,” he wrote.

Even as he struggled with the virus, Harmon still maintained that he would not get a vaccine shot as his religious faith would protect him.

Prior to his death, he joked about the pandemic and vaccines, posting memes in which he said he believed the Bible above top US disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci.

In a tweet on Thursday, Hillsong founder Brian Houston acknowledged his death.

“Ben has just passed on to us the devastating news that our beloved friend, Stephen Harmon has passed away from Covid. Heartbreaking,” Houston said, according to BBC inputs.

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In an Instagram post, he paid tribute to Harmon.

“He was one of the most generous people I know and he had so much in front of him,” he wrote on Instagram.

“He would always turn up to our grandkids soccer games and he will be missed by so many. RIP.”

He added that the church encourages its members “to follow the guidance of their doctors”.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases have risen in California in recent weeks, with the majority of those being taken to hospital unvaccinated.