States call on soldiers to aid medical staffs

More U.S. states desperate to defend against COVID-19 are calling on the National Guard and other military personnel to assist virus-weary medical staffs at hospitals and other care centers.

People who became sick after refusing to get vaccinated are overwhelming hospitals in certain states, especially in the Northeast and the Upper Midwest. The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 has soared to about 54,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Michigan, health director Elizabeth Hertel was blunt: “I want to be absolutely clear: You are risking serious illness, hospitalization and even death” without a vaccination.

Meanwhile, the country is approaching a new milestone of 800,000 COVID-19 deaths. More than 200 million Americans, or about 60% of the population, are now fully vaccinated.

In Maine, as many as 75 members of the National Guard were being summoned to try to keep people out of critical care with monoclonal antibodies and to perform other non-clinical tasks.

The New York National Guard said it had deployed 120 Army medics and Air Force medical technicians to 12 nursing homes and longterm care facilities to relieve fatigued staff.

Dr. Paolo Marciano, chief medical officer at Beaumont Hospital in Dearborn, Mich., said it is a “tremendous lifeline” to get assistance from the Defense Department, which has more than 60 nurses, doctors and respiratory therapists assigned to the state.

The largest hospital system in Indiana enlisted National Guard for support last week at a time when the number of COVID-19 patients in the state has more than doubled in the past month.

Florian Schroetter / Associated Press Police officers confront demonstrators in Vienna who gathered to protest coronavirus restrictions. Austria announced last month that it would implement a general vaccine mandate early next year.