Alabama doctor describes how his patients ‘begging’ for vaccinations

• Amid rising COVID-19 cases, doctors are begging people to get vaccinated.
• One doctor said, “It’s a choice between jab or death.”
• But anti-vaxx trolls attack these people online, making them nervous to speak out.

As COVID-19 deaths skyrocket in the United States among unvaccinated people, doctors have pleaded with people to get vaccinated.

Dr Brytney Cobia, an Alabama-based doctor, made a candid post on Facebook this week – sharing the potentially vital importance of getting the COVID-19 vaccine when offered.

“I admit healthy young people with very serious COVID infections to the hospital. One of the last things they do before they are intubated is begging me for the vaccine. it’s too late.

“A few days later, when I call the time of death, I hug their family members and tell them that the best way to honor their loved one is to go get the shot and encourage everyone they know to do the same. They cry. And they tell me, they didn’t know it. They thought it was a hoax.

Read more: Anti-Vax movement is killing people, and right-wing media pushing it

Governor Kay Ivey of Alabama, who has resisted public health measures for much of the coronavirus pandemic on Thursday, criticized his state’s unvaccinated population.

“I don’t know, tell me,” she said when asked what it would take to get more people vaccinated. “People are supposed to have common sense. But it’s time to start blaming unvaccinated people, not ordinary people. It’s the unvaccinated people who let us down.”

Alabama has the fourth-lowest vaccination rate in the country, according to a New York Times tracker.

Dr Cobia’s post garnered a lot of attention, with many praising her frank approach to sharing the lessons she learned as a doctor during the pandemic. However, others have trolled her with slurs and death attacks – meaning she is now uncomfortable giving media interviews – reported an NBC reporter who tried to get in touch with Dr Cobia.

Hateful messages were even posted in the reviews section of Dr. Cobia’s MD webpage.

Initiated

Dr Catherine O’Neal – a doctor from Louisiana – echoed Dr Cobia’s message at a July 16 press conference: “I want to be clear after seeing what I have seen for the past two weeks. We only have two choices: we are either going to get vaccinated and end the pandemic. Or we are going to accept death. “

—John Bel Edwards (@LouisianaGov) July 19, 2021

A number of people on Twitter responded to Dr O’Neal’s plea video, calling it “propaganda” and that the Delta variant had been “posted” in order to rekindle fear of COVID-19.

Currently, 40% of COVID-19 cases in the United States are found in just three states – Texas, Florida and Missouri – with low vaccination rates, with 1 in 5 cases in Florida alone.

Now, as COVID cases increase at an alarming rate – with 63,818 new cases recorded in the United States on July 22 – Republican senators previously hesitant about vaccination are urging people to get vaccinated.