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New surge of COVID patients, young and unvaccinated, 'very scary' for Saint Francis physicians

Andrea Eger Aug 1, 2021 Updated 4 hrs ago

Apathy and complacency — not anti-vaccine sentiment or denial of the existence of the pandemic — drove the vast majority of new COVID-19 patients filling up hospital beds in Tulsa to choose not to be vaccinated. ... And physicians on the front lines of the latest surge in cases say the consequences have been both stunning and devastating.

“I’ve had a lot of ‘I was going to wait and see what it did for other people,’ ‘(see) if other people had side effects,’ or ‘there are too many unknowns,’” said Dr. Ryan Parker, chief of emergency medicine for Saint Francis Health System. ... “Some people, I feel like, have the perception that (COVID-19 is) not as bad as people are making it out to be — ‘If I’m 18, I should be fine,’ or ‘If I’m 25, I should be fine.”

Stalled out, too-low vaccination rates have combined with the onset of the much more contagious delta variant to make that “wait and see” attitude a losing gamble locally.

Like other health care facilities in hot spots, Saint Francis has seen its COVID hospitalizations soar from the single digits to figures not seen since the peak of the pandemic last fall and winter in a matter of only two to three weeks. As of Friday afternoon, 145 people were hospitalized there.

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