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Healthcare Workers Concerned As COVID Cases, Hospitalizations On The Rise

Brian Tabor, president of the Indiana Hospital Association

Brian Tabor, president of the Indiana Hospital Association (Alan Mbathi/Indiana Public Broadcasting)

Indiana officials said COVID-19 testing sites will be ramping up once again, this after closing state-run sites in June, as new daily cases of the virus climbed above 4,000 Friday.

Hospitalizations are also up – more than four times as many as July’s low of 371.

It’s one more wave for a weary healthcare system that has been battling COVID for a year and a half.

“Nurses are tired. Respiratory therapists, physicians, everyone. Our environmental service workers. They’ve all been working so hard for so long dealing with the pandemic,” said Brian Tabor, the president of the Indiana Hospital Association. “And that takes a toll.”

Tabor said he is worried about the availability of ICU beds as the numbers climb, but for now the state’s hospitals are “hanging in there.” He said his counterpart with the Alabama Hospital Association said there were only two ICU beds available in that state Wednesday.

“But pediatric beds are scares,” Tabor said. “There aren’t a lot of them. And so if we were to see these trends increase – we don’t yet know the full impact of back to school – that’s something we’re going to have to monitor very closely.”

Dr. David Porter, a family medicine doctor in Columbus, said he’s seeing a lot more children sick from the virus.

“I talked to a family member the other day of a 13-year-old who was at Peyton Manning (Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis) for a period of time with complications of COVID,” he said. “I really feel for the parents who have kids under 12. Those over 12, they should be encouraging their children to vaccinate. Unfortunately, children don’t have the choice to vaccinate themselves.”

And until the FDA approves the vaccine for those under 12, wearing a mask and social distancing are just about the only protections. The vaccine is readily available for everyone over 12, but Porter said the problem is convincing enough of the population to get it.

Barely half of those eligible to get the vaccine in the state have gotten it, although the number of first-time shots is on the rise lately. Still, Indiana ranks around the bottom third in the nation for percentage of population vaccinated.

Porter said he continues to see patients hesitant to get the vaccine.

“We hear the gamut, you know, various people have concerns about how quickly the vaccine was created, that it’s still under emergency status, all the way to, hey, I hear it’s going to turn us all into zombies after a year or two,” Porter said

Porter said it’s going to take a continued effort from the state, community leaders and church leaders to encourage people to get vaccinated.

“Unfortunately, in Indiana, we’re used to our anti-government stance, the don’t tread on me sort of thing,” he said. “This has become a bit political, which I hate to see, because it’s really a health tragedy that we’re dealing with and not a political issue.

“COVID doesn’t care what your politics are, it’ll kill you regardless.”

 Tabor said the numbers don’t lie when it comes to the effectiveness of the vaccine, despite the breakthrough cases.

“Ninety-eight percent of the hospitalizations that we’re seeing are unvaccinated patients,” Tabor said. “So we know that the vaccine is effective and can reduce that strain on the system. So, we’re asking everyone, for yourself, consider getting the vaccine.”

 

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