Unvaccinated COVID patient in Arkansas: rejecting the shot is “playing Russian roulette with your life”

With new coronavirus cases have nearly tripled in the past three weeks, COVID cases are on the rise in all 50 states, for the first time since January.

Only four states – Missouri, Louisiana, Texas and Florida – accounted for 40% of new cases last week, with Florida hosting one in five of all new cases nationwide.

In Arkansas, 12 out of 100 people have tested positive. COVID patients in the state have doubled every 10 days for the past month.

As of January, 98% of people hospitalized with COVID in Arkansas had not been vaccinated. Their average age: 40 years.

“I thought the vaccine was a hoax,” said Lamonte Boyd, 42, married with three children. He said he hadn’t listened to the doctors or even his wife when she got the vaccine and told her he should too.

He is now hospitalized at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.

‘CBS This Morning’ senior national correspondent David Begnaud asked Boyd, ‘How did you feel about COVID before you got sick?

“I swept it away,” he replied. “I thought it was a joke.”

Boyd was diagnosed with COVID-19 almost two weeks ago. He developed pneumonia in both lungs, and again, “right now, as we speak, my wind is short,” he said. “That’s why, you know, I’m really out of breath now.”

Begnaud asked, “There are going to be a lot of people watching who don’t want to be vaccinated; what would you say to them?

Boyd said: “I would say to those who don’t want to get the shot: you play Russian roulette with your life.”

Arkansas has the third lowest full vaccination rate in the country – just over one in three people have received both vaccines. The state is now in its third push.

At the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, the state’s largest hospital, all 23 COVID beds are full, but they have 56 COVID patients in total, seven of whom arrived overnight. They use other hospital wings to house them.

Dr Cam Patterson, chancellor of Arkansas’ only University Medical Center, told Begnaud, “To put it in perspective, our team is currently in fourth trimester, or maybe even double overtime. This is not the first quarter for this team. They are tired. It’s hard.

Patterson has stood by the governor’s side on several occasions over the past year to brief the Arkansans on the effectiveness of the vaccines. To those who are still skeptical, he says, “Help me understand who will convince you. If I haven’t convinced you, help me figure out who would, and I’ll find that person, and we’ll talk to you. ”

A 62-year-old woman who didn’t want “CBS This Morning” to use her name wanted to speak to us about this story. She told Begnaud: “I regret not having been vaccinated against COVID.

“It’s hard to breathe, so I have oxygen – you can see it on me 24/7,” she said. “And then there are times when I have a cough and I can’t stop.”

Begnaud asked, “What would you say to all these people who are spreading misinformation about the vaccine?

“It’s a life or death sentence – it’s not a joke,” she replied.

See also: