Finally, after a yearlong delay, the Tokyo Olympics have for the past several days been providing Americans with a welcome distraction from the worsening COVID-19 crisis.
But it’s not just Team USA that’s breaking records. This week, we broke one, too – but not the good kind.
On Wednesday, the number of people under COVID care at our Covington hospital hit 67, eclipsing our previous high of 66, set Jan. 15. Then, on Thursday, we broke the record again, with 77 COVID inpatients. Friday, we hit 81.
While we remain prepared to care for our community, continued vaccine hesitancy combined with the arrival of the highly transmissible Delta variant is making this long, hot summer feel only longer and hotter.
“Many people have asked me, ‘When is this going to end?,’ and there’s a simple answer to that: It’s going to be the easy way or the hard way,” STHS infectious disease expert Dr. Mike Hill said in a video we made initially for internal use but which we’ve since shared publicly to combat rampant online misinformation.
“The hard way is, many of our citizens are going to have to get infected with the virus and develop natural antibodies, and because of that, many will die or become sick and have chronic issues with ‘long COVID,’” Dr. Hill continued. “The easy way is for us to get vaccinated as soon as possible.”
We encourage you to watch Dr. Hill’s message, which you’ll find below, and take it to heart. We also encourage you to share it. Most of all, if you haven’t already, we encourage you to do your part to protect yourself, your loved ones and our community.
