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Tennessee leads the nation in new COVID-19[female[femininecases per capita, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been found.
According to data compiled by The New York Times over the past week, the state has averaged more than 8,300 new coronavirus infections every day.
Health experts believe part of the alarming number is linked to low immunization rates, especially among children.
Less than one in four children aged 12 to 17 in Tennessee is vaccinated against COVID-19.
This has devastating consequences for families.
Julie McDivitt’s son, Jacob Rodriguez, began to feel ill at the end of July. He told CBS News’s Omar Villafranca he felt he “had COVID.”
“I felt really tired, a headache. I couldn’t taste anything. It was awful,” Rodriguez said.
But his symptoms did not raise any red flags for McDivitt. Even after a positive COVID test, she expected her athletic son to overcome COVID easily, and for a while it seemed like he did – until his temperature started to rise.
“On Day 2 the fever hit, and it never stopped,” McDivitt said. “Fourteen days in a row he had a fever.”
McDivitt took Jacob to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis. He had developed severe inflammation of MISC – a rare and potentially fatal disease linked to COVID-19.
“The nurse comes in and he’s like, ‘It looks like Jacob played four quarterfinals with no pads inside his body,’ ‘McDivitt recalls.
“When you hear that from a healthcare professional, what do you think of? Villafranca asked.
“Really? ‘My God, where are you taking us with this? Am I going to be on this list? Is my kid going to be one of these numbers?”, Replied McDivitt.
For four days, Jacob and McDivitt sat together in a hospital room as Jacob slowly improved. But in those four days, the hospital went from five pediatric COVID patients to 21. Within weeks, it peaked at 33. At least three children died in August.
Happiness Infection Prevention Medical Director Dr Nick Hysmith called the increase in COVID cases in hospital a “perfect storm” between “vaccination rate, delta variant and restarting schools” .
“Not only is it devastating to see a child in this situation, but to know that the majority at this stage is preventable is also devastating,” Hysmith said.
McDivitt said Jacob had not worn a mask properly and, like her, was not vaccinated.
But Jacob’s battle with the virus made a difference for the family; McDivitt says she plans to see her doctor about the bite.
“We get it. I just have a few questions first. I get it,” McDivitt said.
“People would just come up to me, like every class period like, ‘What have you been through? “And I was just telling them it’s not a joke, like you take it more seriously, or you could probably end up the way it ended,” Jacob said.
Due to his infection, Jacob lost 20 pounds and had to miss two games of his senior football season. On Friday, he made his return to the pitch by running with his teammates, wearing jersey number 41.
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