As the United States emerges from the COVID-19 crisis, Missouri is becoming a warning story in other parts of the country: due to the combination of the rapidly spreading delta variant and the stubborn resistance of many people, the number of cases has increased dramatically. vaccination.
The intensive care bed was packed with surprisingly young unvaccinated patients, and the staff were exhausted in this battle that should have entered the final throes.
Some health leaders hope that the rest of the United States can at least learn something from the plight of Missouri.
"It would be great if people in other parts of the country looked at us and said,'No thanks,' and they are getting vaccinated," said Eric Frederick, Chief Administrator of Springfield Mercy Hospital. The hospital has been overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients because the variant first discovered in India is raging in largely unimmunized communities. "We will become canaries."
The state now ranks first in the country with the highest rate of new COVID-19 infections, with the surge mainly occurring in a politically conservative agricultural area in the northern and southwestern corners of the state, including those in the country’s Springfield and Branson Ozark Mountains. The music mecca, the city’s theaters and other attractions once again gathered large crowds.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, although more than 53% of Americans have received at least one injection, most counties in southern and northern Missouri are well below 40%. Only 13% in a county.
Frederick said the number of cases in southwest Missouri is still lower than the winter high, but the trajectory is steeper than the previous surge. County data shows that as of Tuesday, 153 COVID-19 patients were hospitalized at Mercy and another Springfield hospital, Cox Health, up from 31 more than a month ago.
Frederick said these patients were also younger than they were at the beginning of the pandemic—60% to 65% of patients in the Mercy ICU on weekends are under 40 years old. Frederick pointed out that young people are less likely to be vaccinated. Much-some people are pregnant.
He is hiring traveling nurses and respiratory therapists to help his tired employees as other parts of the country are trying to escape the epidemic.