With the Delta variant of COVID-19 continuing to spread throughout the United States, especially the country’s unvaccinated population, some states are beginning preparations to ration medical care, according to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.
"That means that we are talking about who is going to get a ventilator, who is going to get an ICU bed," Walensky told CBS’s “Face The Nation” on Sunday. "Those are not easy discussions to have, and that is not a place we want our health care system to ever be."
The process could begin any day now in places like Idaho, which sits among the nation’s least-vaccinated states, and Montana, where one major hospital has already begun to prioritize who is treated by using “crisis of care standards” and others around the state could soon follow suit.
Last week Walensky used her position as CDC director to overrule an advisory panel within the organization and increase the pool of eligible candidates for a third “booster” shot of the Pfizer vaccine.
The original approval was for anyone 65 and older, anyone residing in long-term health care facilities, and anyone over 50 with an underlying condition, but Walensky extended eligibility to anyone considered to be at high risk of exposure in their workplace.
Walensky called the decision a “scientific close call” during her CBS appearance, saying “I felt it was appropriate for those people to also be eligible for boosters.”
She added that her hope was that it would be safe for children to trick-or-treat when Halloween arrives in a little over a month.
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