The days of COVID-19 at health care facilities around Minnesota have been stressful, and there appears to be no letting up as staggering rise of cases continues.
It’s becoming worse than when the pandemic started back in the spring, when PPE’s and staffing to treat an unknown virus stretched everyone’s nerves.
Dr. David Hilden of Hennepin Health knows it didn’t have to be this way.
“We blew it just as a community, we blew it to even let this happen,” said Dr. Hilden on the WCCO Morning News with Dave Lee.
Every day, teams of physicians meet to coordinate their efforts for the coming hours.
“I have doctors, in tears, during the day here just saying this was preventable,” he said. “This was preventable.”
This comes after the early trial success of a vaccine was reported.It also comes as Gov. Walz is setting new social distancing restrictions, while considering further options.
“We have a little silver lining in that we got a little good news about the vaccine,” he said. ”But in terms of the actual burden on our health care system, we’re exceptionally worried.”
Dr. Hilden said virtually all of the major hospitals in the state are pushed to the limit from COVID patients taking up a dwindling numbers of beds.
The growing patient list is creating more work that’s dragging down already overworked staffers.
“It is, without a doubt, even more concerning than last spring,” Dr. Hilden said.
Revelations about the potential vaccine being 90% effective, which is as good as any vaccine for any ailment, is creating some positive feelings.
“There’s a great deal of optimism that this thing might work,” said Dr. Hilden. “I haven’t heard anything that would suggest otherwise. If it really works as well as they say it does, that would really be exactly what we need. If that’s the case, that is the first substantially good piece of news that we have had in a long time on this virus.”
