“I would have liked to have made better choices”

• The mother of a 13-year-old hospitalized in Arkansas said she regretted not having her daughter vaccinated.

• Angela Morris told KTHV she had “a false sense of security” and believed the virus “was like the flu”.

• But her daughter has been on a ventilator for days as the highly transmissible Delta variant ravages the state.

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The mother of a 13-year-old girl who spent days in hospital on a ventilator with COVID-19 is warning other parents to take the virus – and vaccinations – seriously.

Angela Morris of Arkansas said she chose not to be vaccinated or to have her daughter vaccinated, believing other preventative measures like social distancing and wearing masks would protect them from the virus.

“I just had a false sense of security that it was like the flu and it wasn’t that bad,” Morris told CBS affiliate KTHV. “Obviously it’s so bad and it was so bad. Now I can see.”

Morris’s 13-year-old daughter Caia tested positive for COVID-19 on July 1. Two days later, she was fighting for her life on a ventilator at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, according to posts on Morris’s Facebook profile.

“It’s very hard to see her in this situation. It’s very hard not to know whether she’s really going to come home or not,” Morris told KTHV. “It’s heartbreaking. I wish I had made better choices for her.”

Morris blamed the “misinformation” on his decision not to get the shot or Caia.

Morris did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

Less than 45% of the population of Arkansas has received at least one dose of the vaccine, and only 35% of residents are fully immunized, Insider reported previously, although all residents over 12 are eligible to receive the. vaccine in the state.

Low vaccination rates have made Arkansas the country’s new epicenter for the highly transmissible Delta variant. Data compiled by Scripps Research’s Outbreak.info tracker suggests that Delta may account for more than 80% of new coronavirus infections in Arkansas, among the highest proportions of Delta infections in the country.

The story continues

Dr Jessica Snowden, head of infectious diseases at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, told KTHV they are seeing more sick children amid the spread of Delta.

“We have had perfectly healthy children who ended up in hospital, in intensive care, with COVID-19 infection,” she said. “So it’s definitely something that could impact anyone.”

Although the ages of patients treated by the hospital vary, Snowden told the outlet that they all have one thing in common.

“All of the children we have admitted who are seriously ill with COVID-19 are either too young to be vaccinated or have not yet been,” she said.

After seeing her daughter intubated after 13 days on a ventilator, Morris said she hoped other parents didn’t make the same mistake.

“I just want people to get their children vaccinated. Everyone just needs to get vaccinated. It’s a much better road than the one we are on,” she told KTHV.

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