‘Heartbroken’ doctors take out ad begging Minnesota residents to get a COVID vaccine
A group of overwhelmed Minnesota doctors seeing “overfilled” emergency rooms took out a full-page newspaper ad urging residents to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
In the full-page ad published in the Sunday edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the doctors say they are heartbroken and overwhelmed at the number of coronavirus patients in their hospitals.
“Our emergency departments are overfilled, and we have patients in every bed in our hospitals,” the Dec. 12 ad read. “This pandemic has strained our operations and demoralized many people on our teams.”
Executives and doctors from nine health care systems signed the letter asking people to get vaccinated, including rolling up their sleeves for a booster shot.
“... Every day we’re seeing avoidable illness and death as a direct result of COVID-19,” the letter said.
The doctors said in the letter that their ability to provide care to those in need is being “threatened” because of the growing number of COVID-19 patients.
“How does this happen in 2021 — almost two years since this deadly pandemic began,” they asked. “... Your access to health care is being seriously threatened by COVID-19. We need to stop the spread!”
According to data from Minnesota’s COVID-19 response website, 79% of hospitals in the state reported having no open adult ICU beds as of Dec. 13. Nearly 30% of those ICU beds are occupied by coronavirus patients, including both adults and children.
Of the 1,012 adult ICU beds in the state, 991 were in use as of Dec. 14.
“The full-page ad that some of Minnesota’s hospital and health system leaders signed is a dire yet accurate summary of the situation here in Minnesota,” Minnesota Hospital Association President and CEO Rahul Koranne told CNN in a statement. “Our health care heroes are exhausted, heartbroken and overwhelmed after running this relentless ultramarathon for 22 months each day, evening and night.”
The letter also comes amid concern surrounding the omicron coronavirus variant, which early evidence shows may be more contagious and able to at least somewhat evade protection from the vaccines.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told McClatchyDC that the variant — currently making up about 3% of all sequenced COVID-19 cases nationally as of Dec. 14 — “may well be able to out-compete” the delta variant that sparked a surge in hospitalizations and deaths after it first arrived in the U.S. in June.
“I think from a respiratory virus standpoint, this would be high up there among the most transmissible,” she said.
One of the hospital systems that signed the ad later posted a statement, asking readers to do their part to help frontline workers.
“Healthcare workers across Minnesota are doing everything they can to keep you safe. But they are heartbroken,” the tweet said. “They are overwhelmed. That’s why our healthcare leaders have come together to ask you, please, do your part.”
The ad urges people to continue to wear a mask and socially distance, and asks those who feel sick to get tested for the coronavirus.
“Encourage neighbors and loved ones to take these steps,” the letter concluded.
Across the United States as of Dec. 14, more than 799,000 people have died from the coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published December 14, 2021 at 2:46 PM with the headline "‘Heartbroken’ doctors take out ad begging Minnesota residents to get a COVID vaccine."
