{"id":46417,"date":"2021-06-01T20:10:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T02:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/about-500-people-in-colorado-are-hospitalized-with-covid-nearly-all-are-unvaccinated\/"},"modified":"2021-06-02T02:10:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T02:10:00","slug":"about-500-people-in-colorado-are-hospitalized-with-covid-nearly-all-are-unvaccinated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/about-500-people-in-colorado-are-hospitalized-with-covid-nearly-all-are-unvaccinated\/","title":{"rendered":"About 500 people in Colorado are hospitalized with COVID. Nearly all are unvaccinated"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dr.
Dr. Steve Brizendine in the Intensive Care Unit of Platte Valley Medical Center in Brighton on Tuesday, May 25, 2021. (Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News)<\/span>Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Even as the pandemic seems to be receding, about 500 people remain hospitalized in Colorado with COVID-19. Almost all of them share a common trait: they are unvaccinated.<\/p>\n

The vaccines now in use and available to just about anyone 12 and older provide near universal protection against illness and even greater protection against severe cases leading to hospitalizations. Even more, doctors in hospitals treating COVID-19 patients in the state can\u2019t recall a single death of a vaccinated person.<\/p>\n

But after a year of relentless work, the constant churn of unvaccinated patients continues to wear down the doctors and nurses keeping them alive, or falling short and seeing them die.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are tired,\u201d said Dr. Sandeep Vijan of Parkview Medical Center in Pueblo. \u201cWe\u2019ve been doing this for a year. We are emotionally tired, tired of seeing people die. We are physically tired.\u201d<\/p>\n

The frustration for some partly results from the knowledge that at least some of the cases may have been avoidable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve taken a deep look at this,\u201d said Dr. JP Valin, chief clinical officer at SCL Health. \u201cNinety-five percent of the patients who have been hospitalized since February are unvaccinated.\u201d<\/p>\n

And they are skewing younger.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the patients that we\u2019re seeing now are young, 30s to 40s and can be critically ill,\u201d said Dr. Steve Brizendine, the chief of the medical staff at Platte Valley Medical Center in Brighton.<\/p>\n

Statistics bear that out.<\/p>\n

Hospitalization numbers show the virus spreading rapidly among the unvaccinated.<\/p>\n

In the week of May 23, almost 19% of hospitalized patients were between the ages of newborn and 39. That\u2019s up from Nov. 22 when that age group made up just 12% of the patient caseload.<\/p>\n

Patients 60 to 79 years old still make up the largest portion of those hospitalized, but at 42.64% of the patients in the week of May 23, that\u2019s a decrease from 45.38% of the COVID beds that were occupied by that age group in November.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/em> recently analyzed state-by-state data. It found the virus is still spreading as fast among the unvaccinated as it did during last winter\u2019s surge. Colorado is one of a few states with case spikes among the unvaccinated at rates double the national figure. But Valin said the flip side of that is that, for those getting them, vaccines are doing their job.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe good news is that those handful of patients that we have admitted to the hospital that have been vaccinated, we\u2019ve seen no deaths in that group,\u201d said Valin. \u201cAnd actually virtually all of them have been discharged home or back out to a skilled nursing facility for post-acute care afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hispanic and Black residents continue to be hospitalized at disproportionately high rates, according to data on the state\u2019s dashboard. Hispanics make up about 20% of the state population, but in recent weeks make up roughly 28% of those hospitalized; Black Coloradans account for nearly 4% of the state\u2019s population, but have been hospitalized in recent weeks at double that figure.<\/p>\n

Maggie Gomez who chairs the state\u2019s Health Equity Commission said underlying obstacles often prevent access or delay people getting healthcare, including vaccinations. Those include housing and employment issues as well as \u201ctransportation or geography or immigration status or language barriers or all of those social determinants of health, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

And she said despite efforts from the state health department, community groups, churches and others vaccination rates are still lagging behind in communities of color, especially with Hispanics. \u201cI really appreciate the commercials and they\u2019re doing stuff in Spanish and folks that, you know, are not just white and that\u2019s all really good and super important,\u201d Gomez said. \u201cIt\u2019s not really reaching the folks that it needs to reach though.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another data point: men are less likely to be vaccinated so far in Colorado (47.1% for men versus 52.6% for women) and more likely to get hospitalized with COVID-19 than women (52.4% for men versus 47.5% for women).<\/p>\n

Other data clearly show the impact of the vaccines. The state health department plotted both COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations with vaccinations county by county and shared that data with local health officials. Dr. Rachel Herlihy, the state epidemiologist, said counties and communities with the highest vaccination rates are seeing the lowest spread of the virus, and vice versa. \u201cThose groups where the vaccination rates are lower, are going to be the groups where the risk of transmission continues to be high,\u201d said Herlihy.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Steve Brizendine demonstrates a ventilator monitor of the kind used with COVID-19 patients in the Intensive Care Unit of Platte Valley Medical Center in Brighton on May 25. (Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News)<\/span>Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The charts clearly show a group of Denver area and mountain counties with higher vaccination rates seeing fewer cases and hospitalizations. But counties like El Paso, Pueblo, Weld and Mesa have recorded fewer vaccinations per capita and hence more people are still getting sick and hospitalized due to the virus.<\/p>\n

That means Colorado will likely see a very spotty, uneven pandemic in the months ahead, where trouble keeps popping up among the unvaccinated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are always going to be these pockets of under-vaccination,\u201d said Herlihy. \u201cAnd those are going to continue to be the communities that are most at risk, whether that\u2019s a county, a town, a school, a playgroup, whatever it might be.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why local public health authorities are working hard to increase vaccination rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s definitely a strong correlation, especially with just the number of infected individuals. That\u2019s why right now my push is on getting people vaccinated.\u201d said Jeff Kuhr, executive director of Mesa County Public Health. He said in the coming weeks the county is planning cash drawings for those who have been vaccinated, like the state recently announced.<\/p>\n

Mesa County is seeing some worrisome virus trends, like the arrival of more transmissible variants, including one first found in India. Vaccines so far appear effective against variants, but Kuhr said a girl older than 10 who recently died tested positive for the India variant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had quite an increase (in cases). I feel like we\u2019re stable right now, but I can\u2019t say that we\u2019re limiting spread. We\u2019re seeing a lot more cases in children, like the state. We have a lot more of (the) variant strains.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kuhr said the girl got hospitalized before the Pfizer vaccine was authorized for 12 to 15, so was not eligible for vaccination.<\/p>\n

He said most deaths and hospitalizations in the county are among the unvaccinated. Many are adults who have been able to get their shots for weeks. Some are waiting, some have questions. And, Kuhr said, some still have doubts about the severity of COVID-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, it\u2019s sort of \u2018my chances of getting a severe case is low.\u2019 There\u2019s a lot of misinformation about the vaccine,\u201d he said. \u201c\u2018I would rather take the chance of getting a mild case of COVID than getting a complication from the vaccine.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

At Platte Valley Medical Center, nurse Dianna Read said her husband was hospitalized and on a ventilator for two weeks with COVID-19 last year. She said unfortunately many folks won\u2019t take it seriously unless it hits close to home.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo seeing my husband go through that,\u201d she said, \u201cyou can talk about going through those experiences, but unfortunately, a lot of people, unless they go through it, they just don\u2019t see or feel or realize how serious it really is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Steve Brizendine demonstrates how a ventilator tube is placed down a COVID-19 patient\u2019s throat in the Intensive Care Unit of Platte Valley Medical Center in Brighton on May 25. (Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News)<\/span>Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Brizendine said in some cases patients are convinced they don\u2019t have COVID-19. He recalled one who yelled at, chastised and belittled staff who were wearing masks and doing their best to care for him, saying \u201cthere\u2019s no such thing as COVID,\u201d only to have a deathbed conversion.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us here, working on the frontline, taking care of these patients that are critically ill, saving them, some of them dying, and for people to feel that this is not a true virus, this is not a true pandemic, was highly disappointing, highly disappointing, discouraging,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Brizendine said he anticipated the mental health impact of treating pandemic patients will last years \u2014 but he said providers are able to process their experience through a support group. And after being through the coronavirus battles together, an unspoken link is formed. \u201cIt just builds that bond. And then it\u2019s a better team,\u201d of providers in the hospital. \u201cIt\u2019s a teamwork feeling that you can take care of that next patient even better.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a long haul and frontline providers are ready for the crisis to be over, Brizendine said, something only widespread vaccination can bring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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