US coronavirus: Covid-19 cases forcing hospitals to ration care is unfair and unacceptable, expert says

The Montana health system is under this strain, including St. Peter’s Health in Helena, which operates according to emergency care standards.

“We have come to a point where not every patient in need is getting the care we could want. Your local health system is not going as usual, ”Dr. Shelly Harkins, Chief Medical Officer of St. Peter’s Health, named.

Crisis care standards are activated in emergency medicine when mass accidents occur, such as after a mass shooting or a major fire, and healthcare professionals have to ration their care, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Assistant Dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University, explained Dr. Megan Ranney.

For the past week, the US recorded an average of around 1,926 Covid-19 deaths per day, the highest average since early March.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the “overwhelming majority” of Americans need to get vaccinated to get the virus under control, but according to the US Centers for the Control and Prevention of Diseases (CDC) only 54% of the population are fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, 80% of the country’s intensive care beds are occupied, with nearly 30% occupied by Covid-19 patients, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health.

“It puts our health care providers in a state of moral harm where they have to watch people die they could normally care for,” said Ranney. “It’s an unacceptable condition for us in the United States, and it’s not fair to these doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, and EMS providers.”

As long as the hospital systems are in this critical condition, some people will not be able to get hospital beds, Ranney said. And others will not be able to receive care.

“People who have had cardiac arrest may not be given CPR, and patients who would otherwise be admitted to the hospital may be sent home with their loved ones who are afraid and do not have the full capacity to care for them, just because there aren’t enough beds and nurses, “said Ranney.

In Kentucky, nearly 85% of Covid-19 deaths were in partially or unvaccinated people, Governor Andy Beshear said Thursday. The partially vaccinated or unvaccinated also accounted for more than 87% of Covid-19 cases and around 92% of hospital stays, he added.

“I hope you … hear very clearly that the most important thing we can do to get through this is to get vaccinated. Over 90 percent of people who are hospitalized are unvaccinated . So how can we not overflow? Our hospitals? We are vaccinated, “Beshear said.

Should already infected people be vaccinated?

When asked whether previously infected people should be vaccinated to protect themselves from the virus, Fauci said recovered patients have “significant immunity.”

However, he told CNN’s Jake Tapper on State of the Union Sunday that it was unclear how long this protection would last.

“You have protection. The only thing we don’t know yet, and hopefully we will get this data, is the durability of the protection and the view into the future, regardless of whether this type of protection is triggered by natural infections or not. how that will be against the variety of incoming variants, “said Fauci.

Ranney said she believed that previously infected people should be subject to vaccination regulations because the protection that a previous infection provides is not up to standard and there is currently no way to confirm that someone has recovered from a previous infection .

“We need a way to confirm that people have immunity, and that shows yours for now (Vaccination) Card, “said Ranney.

And while much of the talk has centered on booster doses, that’s not the top priority right now, Fauci told NBC on Sunday.

“We think giving boosters to people is important, but the overwhelmingly first priority is vaccinating the unvaccinated,” said Fauci.

What to expect from booster doses

On Friday, advisors to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the go-ahead to recommend approval of a booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine six months after full vaccination in an emergency – but only for people 65 and over and people at high risk for serious illnesses caused by the virus.

“The reason for this decision is because of the FDA’s ruling that the goal of vaccination is to prevent serious illness, hospitalization, and death, and the only people we’ve seen two doses fail to do are age 60 years or 65 plus, “said Ranney.

“For the rest of us, hold on and hold on.”

The CDC is meeting with their vaccine advisors this week, and the agency must give their approval stamp before any booster doses can officially be given.

Although Fauci said he believed that a booster dose would likely be recommended to all Americans at some point, he made it clear that he did not believe the FDA made a mistake in the recommendations.

“I have no problem at all with your decision. I say data will continue to come in and I believe that over the next few weeks you will see this process evolve.” Months, “said Fauci on Sunday.

One development could be the evaluation of data for boosters from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, which, according to Fauci, is expected in the next three weeks.

CNN’s Amanda Sealy and Aya Elamroussi contributed to this report.

source https://www.bisayanews.com/2021/09/20/us-coronavirus-covid-19-cases-forcing-hospitals-to-ration-care-is-unfair-and-unacceptable-expert-says/