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Delta Is Driving a Wedge Through Missouri
Delta Is Driving a Wedge Through Missouri
For America as a whole, the pandemic might be fading. For some communities, this year will be worse than last.
By Ed Yong
(The Atlantic) The summer wasnt meant to be like this. By April, Greene County, in southwestern Missouri, seemed to be past the worst of the pandemic. Intensive-care units that once overflowed had emptied. Vaccinations were rising. Health-care workers who had been fighting the coronavirus for months felt relievedperhaps even hopeful. Then, in late May, cases started ticking up again. By July, the surge was so pronounced that it took the wind out of everyone, Erik Frederick, the chief administrative officer of Mercy Hospital Springfield, told me. How did we end up back here again?
The hospital is now busier than at any previous point during the pandemic. In just five weeks, it took in as many COVID-19 patients as it did over five months last year. Ten minutes away, another big hospital, Cox Medical Center South, has been inundated just as quickly. We only get beds available when someone dies, which happens several times a day, Terrence Coulter, the critical-care medical director at CoxHealth, told me.
Last week, Katie Towns, the acting director of the SpringfieldGreene County Health Department, was concerned that the countys daily cases were topping 250. On Wednesday, the daily count hit 405. This dramatic surge is the work of the super-contagious Delta variant, which now accounts for 95 percent of Greene Countys new cases, according to Towns. It is spreading easily because people have ditched their masks, crowded into indoor spaces, resumed travel, and resisted vaccinations. Just 40 percent of people in Greene County are fully vaccinated. In some nearby counties, less than 20 percent of people are.
Many experts have argued that, even with Delta, the United States is unlikely to revisit the horrors of last winter. Even now, the countrys hospitalizations are one-seventh as high as they were in mid-January. But national optimism glosses over local reality. For many communities, this year will be worse than last. Springfields health-care workers and public-health specialists are experiencing the same ordeals they thought they had left behind. But it feels worse this time because weve seen it before, Amelia Montgomery, a nurse at CoxHealth, told me. Walking back into the COVID ICU was demoralizing. ............(more)
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/07/delta-missouri-pandemic-surge/619456/
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Delta Is Driving a Wedge Through Missouri (Original Post)
marmar
Jul 2021
OP
It's very sad and also tough, but we must double down on our efforts to stop the surge.
CaliforniaPeggy
Jul 2021
#1
republicans blocked Medi-Cal expansion that was duly voted for by the people . . .
Lovie777
Jul 2021
#2
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,620 posts)1. It's very sad and also tough, but we must double down on our efforts to stop the surge.
We cannot stop it by pretending it's over.
Lovie777
(12,262 posts)2. republicans blocked Medi-Cal expansion that was duly voted for by the people . . .
republican leaders along with the other republican leaders from other states have misinformed their constituents regarding COVID-19. As a result, far less have been vaccinated, masked, social distance, etc.
What in God's name did they think the outcome would be different?
Javaman
(62,530 posts)3. And it all could have been prevented nt
roamer65
(36,745 posts)4. Pandemic of the unvaccinated.