‘I’m sorry, but it’s too late’: Alabama doctor says dying COVID patients ask for vaccine

Alabama doctor urges COVID-19 skeptics to get vaccinated by sharing his experience of treating dying patients who wish to be vaccinated.

“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. I hold their hand and Tell them I’m sorry, but it’s too late, “Dr Brytney Cobia wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday.

“A few days later, when I call the hour of death, I hug their family members and tell them that the best way to honor their loved one is to go for the shot and encourage everyone they know to do the same, “continues the doctor. to say.

Cobia listed the reasons people are reluctant to get the vaccine.

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“They thought it was a hoax. They thought it was political. They thought that because they had a certain blood type or a certain skin color, they wouldn’t get so sick,” she said. writing. “They thought it was ‘just the flu’. But they were wrong. And they wish they could go back.”

Cobia’s post received more than 7,000 shares on Facebook on Wednesday evening.

COVID-19 cases have nearly tripled in the United States in two weeks amid a wave of vaccine misinformation that is straining hospitals and draining doctors.

In the United States, the seven-day moving average for daily new cases has risen over the past two weeks to more than 37,000 on Tuesday, from less than 13,700 on July 6, according to data from Johns Hopkins University .

Health officials blame the Delta variant and slowing vaccination rates. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 56.2% of all Americans have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.