Went from seeing 1-2 cases per day past few months to 10-20 range per day again. Almost all unvaccinated. All the hospitals are full again, but this time it isn't all Covid. We also have trauma season in full swing, and all the other respiratory viruses are making a huge comeback since the masks are off which mostly means more pediatric visits to the ER for croup, RSV, etc...

I can't tell you how burnt out all the ER physicians, nurses, and ancillary staff are. We have had more turnover this year than in the last 4 years combined.

*edit* I was given bad info regarding Australian flu cases, please disregard:

If Australia ends up being a good indicator for our next flu season, like it usually is, then there is no end in sight. I don't know if we will be able to find anyone to work by then.

Thanks for all you do.

Well looks like I got bad info on the flu in Australia. Was told this AM they were having a bad season, but following it up, it looks like the flu has been very mild there so far. Maybe some light at the end of the tunnel after all??

Badace52 said:

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Well looks like I got bad info on the flu in Australia. Was told this AM they were having a bad season, but following it up, it looks like the flu has been very mild there so far. Maybe some light at the end of the tunnel after all??

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I would expect that flu wouldn't be that bad this year, at least as far as fatalities go, because some of the people that would have normally died from flu this year already died from COVID.

Badace52 said:

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I can't tell you how burnt out all the ER physicians, nurses, and ancillary staff are. We have had more turnover this year than in the last 4 years combined.

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I feel you. I've seen a decent number of nurses and mid-levels jump ship for lower paying careers that aren't going to work them to the bone. I suspect many physicians aren't too far behind.

so we have roughly 60% of the population vaccinated + roughly 20% post-covid (stronger immunity than vaccine) and RAPIDLY increasing per charts/news...tha leaves about 20% of the population, some of which can't get the vaccine and some that have some sort of natural immunity.....so either this virus continues to mutuate and renders all vaccines pretty useless or it will "relatively" soon run short of hosts to keep spreading.

I feel you. We went from zero to 40 covids in one week.

Same situation here in San Antonio. Just coded a 40 year old, previously healthy, non-obese patient yesterday who passed away from COVID. Its an interesting change that most of our COVID ICU beds are now filled with 40 year olds rather than 60-80 year olds.

Our ER wait times are currently around 6-8 hours because we have had so much turnover with our nursing staff in the last year, not just in the ER, but on the floors and in the ICU, and then now half our patients are COVID again which is just exacerbating the issue. I basically haven't seen a patient in a bed for the last month. I am admitting patients from the waiting room to the ICU.

Quote:

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Just coded a 40 year old, previously healthy, non-obese patient yesterday who passed away from COVID.

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not a doctor...but this is easily the most frustrating and perplexing dynamic of this virus. the randomness of severity.

Badace52 said:

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Well looks like I got bad info on the flu in Australia. Was told this AM they were having a bad season, but following it up, it looks like the flu has been very mild there so far. Maybe some light at the end of the tunnel after all??

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Australia is basically in a full lockdown due to COVID. They will not be a good barometer for our flu season this year. I think a bad flu season is more likely than not due to waning immunity.

Aggie95 said:

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so we have roughly 60% of the population vaccinated + roughly 20% post-covid (stronger immunity than vaccine) and RAPIDLY increasing per charts/news...tha leaves about 20% of the population, some of which can't get the vaccine and some that have some sort of natural immunity.....so either this virus continues to mutuate and renders all vaccines pretty useless or it will "relatively" soon run short of hosts to keep spreading.

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It's just as likely to render prior immunity useless as the vaccine. A warning sign for the natural immunity folks should be what is happening in Thailand. Thry gave everyone the sinovac vaccine that uses a weakened COVID virus (one of the original variants ofcourse) and it had decent efficacy (estimated in the low 70%) until they got hit by the delta variant. There was a huge scandal because a leaked email from their health minister claimed that they didn't want another vaccine because it would upset China. Fast forward 2 weeks and they are scrambling to get every western vaccine they can. Vaccinated (by the weakened virus) Health care workers in particular have been hit hard in this wave. Given that particulsr vaccine is meant to simulate natural infection and it is failing far worse than the mRNA vaccines means you shouldn't exclude the possibility that this virus can get around natural immunity as well. It may not be the gold standard some of you want it to be.

I also think that it's likely we had fewer infections in the first wave than we thought at the time and that this strain is a couple orders of magnitude more contagious (see how quickly it burned through the entire population of India).

OldArmy71 said:

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Was this person vaccinated?

Are the people with COVID now coming in vacccinated?

Is your hospital using the monoclonal antibodies? Or are people too sick to be eligible?

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Unvaccinated. I have only seen one patient with symptomatic COVID who has been vaccinated, and about 50 unvaccinated COVID patients in the last month. The vaccinated individual was 80 years old (I believe he got the Moderna vaccine) and was laughing and joking with me during the visit with normal vital signs other than a fever. I've been chart checking him to see if he has returned, but it does not look like he has, so I suspect he had a mild course.

I posted on another forum about our family last week vacationing in Branson MO. My wife's aunt started having severe stomach pains so we took her to ER at Branson hospital. They were full so sent us to Springfield. Luckily I have a close friend as a Doctor at Cox Health Hosp and he helped us. She ended needing emergency appendix surgery and is still in hosp.
He had dinner with us and told us how bad Covid is spiking in MO. That hospital is full and they are sending folks to other places. He said their Covid cases are at the same level as in October and this time its 20-45 year olds. He says they are getting more sick and 98% or not vaccinated and it is mostly the Delta variant.
He said his staff is decimated by it happening
Again and that just 7 weeks ago they were celebrating that it was over.
He said doctors and nurses are exhausted and some are just quitting. He is a pro vaccine guy, as are many of his nurses and other doctors that work there and he says there is a lot of anger building due to folks not taking the vaccine in MO.
He was visibly shaken from this spike.

My wife is having a similar situation. She's an ER doc in Springfield, MO. ER is full, ICU is full and transferring patients out of state. Many hospitalizations are under 50, way more than ever before. Almost all unvaccinated. Our area vaccination rate is really low. I don't think deaths have increased much, but I do know that before late June, my wife could count on one hand the number of people under 50 that have died. She's probably had double that in the last month alone.

Thank you sir for what you do. Sadly so many fellow Aggies will attack you and call you a liar over this. So sad that we seem to have a way out of this but people just won't use it I guess.
My doctor told me he is seeing lots of patients that survived Covid, some were bad sick and some hardly had symptoms for a day or so, young and old but many are now having unexplained health issues of all kinds so he told me that in his opinion the risk of Covid after effects may be much worse than any effect of the vaccine. That statement was the game changer for me. Are you seeing the same?

Some eye-opening accounts in this thread. Hang in there Docs and other medical professionals!

Bruce. I just posted about our experience in Springfield this week. I have very good doctor friend who helped us. He told us exactly what you just said. I posted it on the politics board and basically was called a liar.
People don't want to know the truth.

Thanks for the accounts - I hope people read these and reconsider the notion that getting vaccinated is just a personal risk assessment. People don't live in a bubble, and it's clear their personal decisions impact others.

Getting vaccinated is a personal decision that should be based on a risk assessment.

Do you tel all the fat unhealthy people not to come to the hospital when they have a heart attack or diabetes issues? Do you tell smokers not to come in when they get lung cancer. The last sentence of your post is absolute bull*****

bigtruckguy3500 said:

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If you don't care enough to get the vaccine, don't go to the ER when you get it.

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If you're obese, don't go to the ER for covid or the myriad of other problems you could have. GTFO here with that bull***** Good Lord.

Thank you sir also for what you do.

bigtruckguy3500 said:

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Saw an 80 year old as well who was positive. Only had one dose, was due for his 2nd when he started feeling ill and a little short of breath. Desats to the 88-90 range when walking, but otherwise doing ok. That first dose probably saved his life.

And yeah, all these young people coming in for viral symptoms, suspected COVID, scared. Time and time again they say they didn't get vaccinated because "I dunno" or because " I don't need it."

Saw a guy in his 50's who elected to not get the vaccine, was recently exposed and sick, came in because his wife is immunocompromised cancer patient and he doesn't know what to do because he thinks he exposed her. Still apparently didn't think COVID was that big of a deal. Of course he tested positive.

If you don't care enough to get the vaccine, don't go to the ER when you get it.

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So you just think we should let people die?

So does this attitude apply to every disease that can harm you if you don't take precautions?

Like blood pressure? Heart disease? If I don't take my blood pressure meds, and my blood pressure spikes, you don't think I should go to the ER? What's the difference?

These arrogant doctors wonder why they are losing people's trust and respect.

Folks can have lots of health issues that they can't help. I know folks that have fought weight problems all their lives. I think big truck is saying what a lot of nurses and doctors who have put their lives on the line for over a year fighting this thing and see a way to stop it but yet Some folks decide not to realize that.