Covid toll mounts in state of denial

Low vaccination rates spark health crisis in Mississippi

As patients stream into Mississippi hospitals, doctors and nurses have become accustomed to the Covid-19 denial and misinformation in the US’s least-vaccinated state.

People in denial about the severity of their own illness or the virus itself, with visitors frequently trying to enter hospitals without masks. The painful look of recognition on patients’ faces when they realise they made a mistake not getting vaccinated. The constant misinformation about the coronavirus that they discuss with medical staff.

“There’s no point in being judgmental in that situation. There’s no point in telling them, ‘You should have gotten the vaccine or you wouldn’t be here’,” said Dr Risa Moriarity, of the University of Mississippi Medical Center’s emergency department.

“We try not to preach and lecture them. Some of them are so sick they can barely even speak to us.”

Mississippi’s low vaccinated rate — about 38 per cent of the state’s 3 million people are fully inoculated — is driving a surge in cases and hospitalisations that is overwhelming medical workers. The workers are angry and exhausted over both the workload and refusal by residents to embrace the vaccine.

Physicians at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, the state’s only level one trauma centre, are caring for the sickest of patients.

The emergency room and intensive care unit are beyond capacity, almost all with Covid patients. Moriarity said it’s like a “logjam” with beds in hallways, patients being treated in triage rooms.

In one hospital in Mississippi, four pregnant women died last week, state health officer Dr Thomas Dobbs said. Three of the cases required emergency C-sections and babies were born severely premature.

“Again, none of these individuals were vaccinated,” Dobbs said.

Moriarity said it’s hard to put into words the fatigue she and her colleagues feel. Going into work each day has become taxing and heartbreaking, she said.

At a recent news conference, UMMC’s head, Dr LouAnn Woodward, fought tears as she described the toll on healthcare workers.

“We as a state, as a collective, have failed to respond in a unified way to a common threat,” Woodward said.

As the virus surges, hospital officials are begging residents to get vaccinated. UMMC announced in July that it will mandate its 10,000 employees and 3000 students be vaccinated, or wear a N95 mask on campus. By the end of August, leaders revised that policy, vaccination is the only option.

Moriarity said this surge has taken a toll on morale more than previous peaks of the virus. Her team thought in May and June that despite Mississippi’s low vaccination rate, there was an end in sight. The hospital’s ICUs were empty and they had few Covid patients. Then cases surged with the delta variant of the virus, swamping the hospital.

Numbers of total coronavirus hospitalisations in Mississippi have dipped slightly, with just under 1450 people hospitalised for coronavirus on September 1, compared with about 1670 on August 19.

But they are still higher than numbers during previous virus surges.

In the medical centre’s children’s hospital, emergency room nurse Anne Sinclair said she was tired of the constant misinformation she hears, namely that children can’t get very ill from Covid.

“I’ve seen children die in my unit of Covid, complications of Covid, and that’s just not something you can ever forget,” she said.

“It’s very sobering,” continued Sinclair, who is the parent of a 2-yearold and a 5-year-old and worries for their safety. “I just wish people could look past the politics and think about their families and their children.”

To deal with overflow Covid patients, Christian relief charity Samaritan’s Purse set up an emergency field hospital in the parking garage of UMMC’s children’s hospital.

The hospital is treating an average of 15 patients a day, with the capacity for seven ICU patients.

Nurse Kelly Sites, who has also treated Covid patients in California and Italy, said was heartwrenching to know some of the severe cases could have been prevented with the vaccine. Many patients are so sick they can’t talk. Nurses walk around with scripture verses taped on their scrubs and will recite them to their patients.