The seven-day moving average of COVID cases in Michigan is still high, with about 7,300 cases per day.
Those numbers come as Michigan hospitals warn they are approaching a breaking point. Hospitals across the state are seeing high numbers of COVID patients. There simply isn’t enough room to transfer patients who need to receive higher levels of care for COVID or other medical emergencies.
Dr. Brad Uren with Michigan Medicine said he’s watching the situation grow dire. Not only in his own hospital, but all across Michigan. He said misguided beliefs are leading to some patients to resist the very treatments they need to save their life.
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“I think everyone I work with is feeling that strain and looking at that rising number of cases and wondering when we’ll hit this peak,” Uren said.
The cases keep coming and so does dangerous misinformation.
“We’re seeing a number of patients who are unvaccinated, that are coming in quite critically ill, that are often arguing or pushing back against the treatments that we recommend,” Uren said.
That includes medications like Remdesivir. Uren said people need to talk to their doctors in advance about their concerns.
“When you’re critically ill and being admitted to the hospital, there’s not a lot of time to talk about this. If you’re going to make the choice to go unvaccinated and risk a higher severity of illness, you need to be prepared for some of those conversations,” Uren said.
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Uren said based on what he’s seeing in the ER he has no doubts the vaccine is working.
“Occasionally we admit some vaccinated people or we see them in the hospital but those people have significant comorbidities in most cases and overall those people feel well enough to go home. We are admitting primarily unvaccinated people,” Uren said.
Uren said if you trust your doctor to take care of you for everything else, you should trust their advice when it comes to the vaccines. Hospitals cannot operate at this level for long.
Read: Complete Michigan COVID coverage