PHILADELPHIA (Audacy) — There are many states where COVID-19 death totals are dramatically rising, and more than a dozen states where hospitals are again reaching capacity. Pennsylvania is one of those states, with an 85.8% inpatient bed capacity Wednesday.
Another example of that is Minnesota. That state's department of health reported on Wednesday that 53 more deaths have been recorded as a result of COVID-19. In addition, the update includes nearly 3,800 more cases, with hospitals reaching limits of how many patients they can take in. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday that Minnesota was at 81.7% hospital bed capacity.
When it comes to hospitals reaching capacity, Dr. Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota who served President Joe Biden's transition COVID-19 advisory board, shared that there is one reason we are seeing a crisis in healthcare.
"The limit right now is not hospital beds. It's not medical equipment. It's not even necessarily some of the drugs that come from a foreign country. It's healthcare workers," Osterholm said.
"This precious, precious group of people who have put their lives on hold for the last two years, who have done day after day battle against this virus."
Osterholm saysid that hospital labor shortages have been a lead factor in space-filling. Other factors included workers who have become sick and more who have seen patient loads multiply and quit due to the strain of COVID-19.
"What we are seeing is many people leaving the health care area right now. They just can't keep it up. They can't do it," Osterholm said.
"That's compounding the problem right now because then, someone who might have been taking care of two patients at a given shift now has to take care of four patients at a given shift because of the fact that they are short-staffed."
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Osterholm urged those who have not yet received the shot, for what they believe in or stand for, to just do it so they can protect not only themselves but others.
Osterholm has stressed that those who use the argument, "they don't care if they get the virus," are not thinking clearly. He said that if they need to be hospitalized, they may take care away from someone else who needs it for a non-COVID-19-related reason.
"I wouldn't want to have a heart attack or a stroke or be in an automobile accident right now," Osterholm said. "I wouldn't want that because right now, the quality of care is going to be compromised in many, many hospitals around the state."
The doctor urged people to get the shot as he says the only way to fight the virus and end the pandemic is for more people to get vaccinated.
When it comes to health care workers who have walked off the job due to COVID-19 vaccine mandates for workers, Osterholm says it is important to acknowledge those who have refused the vaccine. However, he said that close to 99% of physicians have got the shot.
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"Where we tend to see the greater number of individuals unwilling to get vaccinated are those who are the technicians, those who are the nurses' aides, those who are the station clerks," Osterholm said.
"There surely are nurses; there are other [physicians] who are also in that camp," he added. "But the majority of… those individuals who are not, I believe, are not in necessarily the best position to be the medical expert, to say I do or don't know more than the experts on these vaccines or the infectious disease physicians."
When it comes to those who refuse the vaccine and don't understand the safety of being vaccinated to protect others, Osterholm said that "if that message is not compelling, then I don't know why [they are] in health care."