The Pandemic Is Only Getting Worse In Missouri

Ed Yong reports on the pandemic in Missouri, where ICUs are filling with more younger patients in their 20s, 30s, and 40s than before, including many with no underlying health problems.

“In part, that’s because elderly people were more likely to get vaccinated, leaving Delta with a younger pool of vulnerable hosts. While experts are still uncertain if Delta is deadlier than the original coronavirus, every physician and nurse whom I spoke to in Missouri told me that the 30- and 40-something COVID-19 patients whom they’re now seeing are much sicker than those they saw last year. Unlike last year, nurses are watching families navigate end-of-life decisions for young people who had no advanced directives or legal documents in place.”

“Almost every COVID-19 patient in Springfield’s hospitals is unvaccinated, and the dozen or so exceptions are all either elderly or immunocompromised people. The vaccines are working as intended, but the number of people who have refused to get their shots is crushing morale. Vaccines were meant to be the end of the pandemic. If people don’t get them, the actual end will look more like Springfield’s present: a succession of COVID-19 waves that will break unevenly across the country until everyone has either been vaccinated or infected.”