Kathy Weishaar of Frederick, Maryland, said her hospital’s intensive-care unit was overcrowded last week. Almost all of the 18 ICU beds were taken; nine were occupied by COVID patients, four of whom were on a ventilator.
“Our staff has been amazing, but they’re tired,” said Weishaar, chief medical officer at Frederick Health.
“They are dissatisfied. Because they believe that what we are currently experiencing is avoidable. We need the public’s assistance. People must take this seriously.”
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Vaccination rates in the United States began to fall after reaching an all-time high on April 11 — 3.48 million doses were administered in the country on that day.
Then, all of a sudden, the supply of vaccine doses began to exceed demand.
The number of new vaccinations declined and peaked on July 10, when the number of doses administered was only 13% of what it was in April.
COVID Vaccination clinics went dark.
Terrence Reidy says he was distributing 3,000 vaccine doses per week in March from a brick building off a semi-rural road in West Virginia.
Now, Jefferson County’s health officer says there are weeks when he doesn’t even request any vials and sends the few takers to a nearby pharmacy.
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‘Meet them where they are,’ says the narrator.
In the spring, when his staff was suddenly awash in unwanted supply, he called local businesses and offered to bring vaccines to them. “There weren’t any takers,” he explained.
Initially, one company agreed and stated that 70 of its employees required shots. A clinic was set up.
“However, no one signed up.” The clinic has been canceled.
“Everyone who wanted [the shot] had gotten it. And those who hadn’t gotten it didn’t want it, either “Reidy stated.
Thousands of people protest vaccine mandates in Calgary, as hospitals deal with an increase in COVID cases.
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The mayor of Montreal has slammed anti-vax protesters who have gathered in front of schools and hospitals.
He stated that it had become a matter of cultural identity. “It’s almost like a religious belief,” he explained.
He wouldn’t say whether he agrees with Biden’s attempt to force some workers to get vaccinated, but he did say people should treat the unvaccinated with respect.
“Meet them where they’re at,” he advised.
In fact, he claims that several members of his own staff are unvaccinated, though they are not front-line medical personnel dealing with the public.
Biden is taking a more assertive stance.
The president stated that he intends to mandate the vaccination for the approximately 17 million health care workers who work in hospitals and institutions that participate in the Medicare and Medicaid social programs. Employers in the private sector with 100 or more employees will eventually be required to require vaccination or a weekly negative COVID test.
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Similar actions taken in the private sector appear to have had an impact: there has been a small, recent uptick in vaccinations since the summer low as major corporations have become stricter about requiring their employees to get shots.
Gray believes that this, along with the delta wave, explains the recent increase.
Covid: A Political Problem
Gray agreed that people’s views on vaccination appear to be linked to political identity. Indeed, vaccination rates and election results show that the states with the lowest vaccination rates are overwhelmingly conservative.
Gray says it pains her to see this happening in her home state of West Virginia, which she always imagined as a close-knit community where everyone looked out for one another.
“Politics are a big part of it,” she said.
She recounted a heated phone call from a man who had verbally abused a member of her staff. Gray, upset, stated that she called the man back.
The man scolded her and insulted her in West Virginia, where Republicans dominate state politics: “She must be a liberal.”
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“You want to tell me politics isn’t a part of it?” she asked as she recalled the conversation
“Politics has been introduced into this country from the beginning.”
Vaccine resistance isn’t always a result of politics.
People object to vaccination for a variety of reasons, including fear of new vaccine types, perceived insufficient oversight or details about the vaccine, unsubstantiated claims or conspiracy theories about vaccine safety, a lack of official FDA approval until recently, and opposition to governments or employers mandating vaccination.
Gray claims that the caller’s assumptions about her own politics were incorrect. She described herself as a moderate conservative and one of the small majority of Republicans who have been immunized.
One who wishes for the abolition of the pandemic.
