THE LAST SHOT

‘I never imagined it could be this bad’

For doctors and nurses who tell patients they have COVID, hearing the regrets of the unvaccinated is a distressing reminder that a fourth wave didn’t have to happen. With 314,000 Toronto residents to go, the city bolsters its ground game to try to save the lives of stragglers and finally move us past the pandemic.

An emergency physician who now sees both fear and remorse on the faces of her unvaccinated patients admitted to hospital.

A pediatrician who has told hundreds of people they’ve tested positive and still hears patients say they didn’t know COVID-19 could make them feel so sick.

An infectious diseases doctor who watches patients struggle to breathe in the ICU, wishing they could turn back time and get vaccinated so they could see their kids just one more time.

For doctors and nurses who work on the COVID front lines, learning a patient is unvaccinated has become a new source of distress in a pandemic already filled with trauma and tragedy.

Months after vaccines have been widely available, offered in mass clinics at malls, workplaces and transit stops, health workers who speak with COVID patients are now hearing words of regret mixed in with the shock and worry that comes with a positive test.

In Ontario, 78 per cent of people over the age of 12 are fully vaccinated, leaving more than a million still vulnerable to the more virulent Delta variant.

Last week, data released by the Public Health Agency of Canada showed unvaccinated adults are 36 times more likely to be hospitalized for COVID.

Though efforts are underway to reach the unvaccinated, doctors and nurses worry about those who’ve yet to get a jab, knowing it is only a matter of time before they become ill with the virus.

And while their compassion has yet to wane, even as small numbers of anti-vax protesters yell insults and mistruths outside hospitals, they hope their message will — this time — get through.

As the fourth wave threatens to get worse, the Star spoke with four health workers to find out what it’s like to speak with COVID patients during this stretch of the pandemic.

ANDREW FRANCIS WALLACE TORONTO STAR Dr. Tasleem Nimjee, an emergency physician at Humber River Hospital, says she tries to ask every patient she speaks to if they’re immunized, whether it’s relevant to the clinical case or not.