American coronavirus: cases of Covid-19 forcing hospitals to ration care are unfair and unacceptable, according to an expert



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Montana’s health care system is under this pressure, including St. Peter’s Health in Helena, which operates to crisis care standards.

“We are at the point where all patients in need will not get the care we wish we could give. It is not as usual in your local health system,” Dr Shelly Harkins, Chief Medical Officer of St Peter’s Health, mentioned.

Crisis care standards are activated in emergency medicine when there are mass casualty events, such as after a mass shooting or a major fire, and healthcare professionals must ration their care, Associate Professor of emergency medicine and associate dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University, explained Dr. Megan Ranney.

Over the past week, the United States has recorded an average of around 1,926 Covid-19 deaths per day, the highest average since early March.

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the “overwhelming majority” of Americans will need to be vaccinated to bring the virus under control, but data from the state Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows -United. (CDC), only 54% of the population is fully vaccinated.
Meanwhile, 80% of the country’s intensive care beds are in use, with nearly 30% occupied by Covid-19 patients, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services.
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“This puts our health care providers in a state of moral injury where they are going to have to watch people die whom they would normally be able to care for,” Ranney said. “It is an unacceptable state for us to be in the United States of America, and it is not fair to these doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, emergency medical service providers.”

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

“People who arrive in cardiac arrest may not benefit from CPR, and patients who would otherwise be hospitalized may be sent home with loved ones who will be afraid and not have the full capacity to care for them simply because that there are not enough beds and nurses, ”said Ranney.

In Kentucky, nearly 85% of Covid-19 deaths have occurred 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 hospitalizations, he added.

“I hope you… hear very clearly that the first thing we can do to overcome this is get vaccinated. As a percentage, over 90% of the people who end up in hospital are not vaccinated. So how not? not overtake our hospitals? We get vaccinated, ”Beshear said.

Should people previously infected be vaccinated?

On whether previously infected people need to be vaccinated to be protected against the virus, Fauci said the recovered patients have a “considerable degree of immunity.”

However, he pointed out to CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday on State of the Union that it is not known how long this protection lasts.

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“They have protection. The only thing we are not yet aware of, and hopefully we will get this data, is the durability of the protection and the future, whether or not this type of protection is caused by natural infection or not. , how that will be against the variety of variants as they arrive, ”said Fauci.

Ranney said she believes those previously infected should be given vaccination warrants because the level of protection offered by a previous infection is not standard and, at the moment, there is no way to confirm that a person has recovered from a previous infection.

“We need a way to confirm that people are immune and for now it shows your (vaccine) card, ”Ranney said.

And while much of the conversation has centered around booster doses, that’s not the highest priority at the moment, Fauci told NBC on Sunday.

“We think it’s important to give people reminders, but the top priority is to vaccinate the unvaccinated,” Fauci said.

Jack Kingsley RN cares for a Covid-19 patient in the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) at St. Luke's Boise Medical Center in Boise, Idaho.

What to expect for the booster doses

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisers on Friday gave the green light to recommend emergency use clearance for a booster dose of Pfizer’s vaccine six months after vaccination comprehensive – but only for people 65 years of age and older and those at high risk of severe illness from the virus.
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“The reason they made this decision is because of the FDA ruling that the goal of vaccination is to prevent serious illness, hospitalization, and death, and the only people we’ve seen that two doses don’t are 60 years old or 65 and over, “Ranney said.

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

The CDC is meeting with its vaccine advisers this week, and the agency must give its approval before any booster doses can be formally administered.

Although Fauci said he believes all Americans would likely be recommended a booster dose, he clarified that he didn’t think the FDA was wrong in the recommendations.

“I have no problem with their decision. What I’m saying is that the data will keep coming in and I think you’re going to see an evolution of that process over the next few weeks to months,” Fauci said. Sunday.

One development could be the data assessment for boosters from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, which Fauci says are expected to arrive within the next three weeks.

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

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