American Coronavirus: The national rate of Covid-19 infections is falling. But some hospitals are still struggling to meet high demand, doctor says

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A Michigan doctor said he had seen the headlines about the progress of Covid-19 but found it hard to feel relieved as his hospital remains overwhelmed with patients.

“I had just worked a few shifts in a row where I had six, seven people sitting in the emergency department, waiting for beds in other hospitals that did not exist, waiting for ambulances at six, seven hours of power to bring them. in those places, ”Dr. Rob Davidson, an emergency room doctor in western Michigan, told CNN on Saturday.

With more than 56% of the U.S. population fully vaccinated, the number of people who receive their first vaccines lags behind those who receive boosters, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Michigan has fully immunized over 52% of its residents.

Already, more than seven million fully vaccinated Americans have received a booster dose, according to CDC data. On average, 434,787 people receive a booster each day, while 288,445 people start their immunization series each day and 295,967 people are fully immunized each day.

And while data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) shows Michigan is one of five states that have seen at least a 10% increase in coronavirus infections over the past week compared to the The week before, new cases of Covid-19 nationwide were gout.

His father was vaccinated and his son was not. He lost them both because of the Covid-19

The United States recorded an average of 95,917 new cases per day in a week ending Friday – a whopping 44% drop from a peak Delta wave average reached in mid-September, according to data from JHU. And the national number of people fighting the virus in hospitals was 67,321 on Friday, a 35% drop from last month, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.

But in the busy Davidson hospital in western Michigan, he sees unvaccinated Covid-19 patients in their 50s put on ventilators, usually for at least a month, and undergo invasive procedures to stay alive.

In some cases, after physically recovering, Covid-19 survivors end up suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, due to time spent in intensive care, he said. A study published in February 2021 found that 30% of Covid-19 survivors suffered from PTSD, which is a psychological illness that usually occurs after a person has had a life-threatening experience.

Davidson noted that it is important for people to understand that “not dying from Covid is a good thing, but it is not the only measure we should be using.”

And since Covid-19 vaccines help prevent people from contracting the virus in the first place or reduce its worst impacts, health and government officials have pleaded with the millions of unvaccinated Americans to get vaccinated.

Not vaccinated because of religious beliefs? ‘Hit the reset button,’ says senior health official

Dr Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, noted on Saturday that one group hesitant to get vaccinated is that of evangelical Christians, who he says “have had great difficulty, in many cases, curling up. the sleeves “for many reasons. .

“A lot of it is this misinformation that is so widely spread on the internet and which I think has caused a lot of people to be confused or fearful of what vaccinations might do to them,” Collins told Jim Acosta of CNN Saturday. “And it’s really heartbreaking when we see, again, over a thousand people losing their lives from this disease (daily), almost all of them unvaccinated, and so it shouldn’t have happened.”

Is my immunity decreasing? Doctors advise Pfizer vaccinees not to worry

Collins, who identifies as an evangelical Christian, noted that unvaccinated people can spread the virus to others who are unable to fight it.

“Christians, of all people, are supposed to be especially worried about their neighbors,” he said. “If you are a Christian, or if you are someone who has not yet been vaccinated, press the reset button on any information you have that makes you doubt, hesitate or fear, and review the evidence.”

Collins admitted he was “slow” to come to terms with the idea of making Covid-19 vaccines mandatory because he hoped people would be convinced by the data showing that the vaccines are safe and effective. But now he thinks they might be needed “to get us over this.”

Earlier this week, CDC director Dr Rochelle Walensky said ending the pandemic depends on human behavior.

“We have vaccines, and what we can’t really predict is human behavior,” she said. “Human behavior in this pandemic has not served us very well. “

Walensky said the pandemic has been divisive and the nation’s ability to end it depends on “how we come together.”

“We are fighting against each other and not with the common enemy, which is the virus itself,” she said.

Children more likely to be asymptomatic if they catch Covid-19, study finds

Meanwhile, as federal health officials consider vaccines for children ages 5 to 11, a study has shown that the risk of coronavirus infection in children compared to adults appears to be similar – but children are more likely to be asymptomatic.

Children are at the same risk of coronavirus infection as adults, new study finds

The research, published Friday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, found that the incidence rates of infection among a sample of people living in New York City and Utah were similar across all age groups.

“Adults and children of all ages had similar risks of SARS-CoV-2 infection, but about half of SARS-CoV-2 infections in children were asymptomatic compared to a much smaller fraction. in adults, ”researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control. and Prevention and other institutions wrote in the study. SARS-CoV-2 is the name of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19.

The study, conducted from September 2020 to April 2021, included data on 1,236 people from 310 different households with one or more children in New York City and some counties in Utah.

Researchers took a close look at the incidence of Covid-19 and found that among households with one or more infected people, the average risk of infection within those households was 52%, adding to the evidence that households remain a common place for the spread of the virus.

Of the study participants, a total of 94 tested positive for Covid-19. Among them, 17% were under 4 years old; 22% were aged 5 to 11; 15% were aged 12 to 17; and 46% were adults 18 or older, according to the data.

CNN’s Ben Tinker, Lauren Mascarenhas, Jacqueline Howard and Keith Allen contributed to this report.

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