An Alabama physician says she’s “admitting young healthy people to the hospital with very serious COVID infections.”
“One of the last things they do before they’re intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late,” Dr. Brytney Cobia wrote on Facebook Monday. Her comments were just published by the state’s largest news outlet, AL.com.
Dr. Cobia says all but one of her COVID-19 patients recently were unvaccinated. That vaccinated patient is expected to recover after needing oxygen, but some of the others are dying.
Alabama has the lowest vaccination rate in the country, with just one-third of its residents fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Since April 96% of Alabama residents who died of COVID were not fully vaccinated. 94% of hospitalized patients who died were also not fully vaccinated.
Alabama’s current 7-day average of new coronavirus cases is skyrocketing. It is now at levels not seen since early March, when few were eligible for the vaccine. And yet the state’s governor, Republican Kay Ivey this week announced children will not be required to wear masks when they return to school.
When her COVID patients die, Dr. Cobia says, “I hug their family members and I tell them the best way to honor their loved one is to go get vaccinated and encourage everyone they know to do the same.”
Dr. Cobia wrote that “when I call time of death,” the family members cry.
“And they tell me they didn’t know. They thought it was a hoax. They thought it was political. They thought because they had a certain blood type or a certain skin color they wouldn’t get as sick. They thought it was ‘just the flu’. But they were wrong. And they wish they could go back. But they can’t. So they thank me and they go get the vaccine. And I go back to my office, write their death note, and say a small prayer that this loss will save more lives.”