The COVID vaccine has become a touchy subject for most, but is something that helps everyone. Whether or not you are for the vaccine, you have a reason for why.  Across the country, hospital administrations and staff recommend getting the vaccination. Of course they will acknowledge that you can still get COVID-19 despite having the vaccine in your bloodstream, but the side effects of the virus have not been shown to be life threatening, as they have for the unvaccinated. 

The Sandscript spoke to Sean Dardeau, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Mercy Health in Cincinnati, who told us, “I think the vaccine is very promising, since we have knowledge that there is a FDA approved vaccination, we should have a higher percentage of vaccinated Americans. We know that this vaccine reduces covid cases, lessens symptoms, and in most cases prevents hospitalization.”

While watching the COVID cases for around 18 month, this hospital administrator knows and understands the severity of this virus and what it can do to your body and lungs. 

On August 23, 2021, 75 doctors “walked out”, and held a peaceful informative protest. In fact these doctors and healthcare professionals did not walk out while practicing. They held a brief news conference in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, in order to urge the public to get vaccinated. They held the conference before office hours, and this has led to harassment and threats towards the participants. These doctors went before and after their shifts, without missing a patient or a single delay in treatment. 

One thing people were asked not to do in the beginning of this pandemic was travel.  Now that we have opened places and traveling is easy again, many are traveling to a popular vacation destination: Florida. Florida is one of the highest vacation destinations in the United States, it appears the state is feeling the effects of so many outsiders coming through.  Currently, Florida is dealing with a much more extreme COVID case intake, not only with the locals, but with the tourists who are visiting. Last Monday, Florida reported 21,329 new cases and 17,215 people hospitalized due to the virus. A 24% increase in cases within the last 14 days, according to the New York Times. 

CEO of Rockledge Regional Medical Center (Florida), Andy Romine said, “Covid- 19 in the state of Florida is very high. We clearly have a disproportionate number of unvaccinated patients. In Florida, 96% of covid cases are unvaccinated, a third of the state’s beds are COVID related, and it takes up half of the ICU. At Rockledge Regional Medical Center about 30% of patients are because of COVID. Out of fifty-nine patients who are hospitalized due to covid, only four are vaccinated.” The data is something that is inarguable, Romine gave us statistics and backs up healthcare professionals’ reasoning behind walking out.