An Alabama doctor took to Facebook to share the stark reality of treating Covid patients in the largely unvaccinated region that is the Southern United States: Apparently, upon falling gravely ill, they admit they should have gotten the vaccine.
âIâve made a LOT of progress encouraging people to get vaccinated lately,â wrote Dr. Brytney Cobia, a hospital physician at Grandview Medical Center in Birmingham. âDo you want to know how? Iâm admitting young healthy people to the hospital with very serious COVID infections.â
âOne of the last things they do before theyâre intubated is beg me for the vaccine,â she continued. âI hold their hand and tell them that Iâm sorry, but itâs too late.â
Upon the patientâs passing âa few days later,â Cobia then âhugs their family membersâ and âtells them the best way to honor their loved one is to go get vaccinated and encourage everyone they know to do the same.â
âThey cry. And they tell me they didnât know. They thought it was a hoax. They thought it was political. They thought because they had a certain blood type or a certain skin color they wouldnât get as sick. They thought it was âjust the fluâ. But they were wrong,â she added. âAnd they wish they could go back. But they canât. So they thank me and they go get the vaccine. And I go back to my office, write their death note, and say a small prayer that this loss will save more lives.â
âItâs not too late, but some day it might be,â Cobia concluded.
Cobiaâs Facebook post has since gone viral â with many anti-vaccination activists doubting the validity of her claims in the comments. Others, however, have come to her defence, asking how why they would bother arguing with an actual doctor.
Currently, Alabama has the lowest vaccination rate in the country, with only 33.7 percent of the population being fully vaccinated, per AL.com. As a result, Alabama COVID cases and hospitalisations are surging once more.
Hopefully Dr. Cobiaâs post will help inspire more Alabamans to get vaccinated.