Younger, angrier and unvaccinated. Fairbanks Alaska Memorial Hospital sees COVID demo shift

essentialsaltes said:

“We are really struggling right now; we have a record-high number of patients in the hospital,” Shelley Ebenal, FHP CEO and quality medical director, said.

Overall, 18% of all Interior hospital patients are Covid patients, compared to 5% statewide, according to the state Covid-19 Hospital Data Dashboard. Out of 56 beds available in the Interior, 51 are occupied. Out of 13 ICU beds available, eight are filled.

Creighton said after the vaccine rollout, the demographic of the patients changed. Before, people who were older or Native would come to the hospital with Covid. With seniors being the most immunized age group in Alaska and the Native population leading state vaccination efforts, current Covid patients generally belong to a different group.

“These are young people,” Creighton said. “These are middle aged white guys — sorry to say that — but it really is the demographics of people who haven't gotten around to get vaccinated or don't really feel that they need vaccination...

When the hospital received older patients, they were showing appreciation to hospital staff, which changed with the shift in demographics, Ebenal said.

“These are generalizations,” she noted, “but some of these folks are anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers and they don’t believe that they have Covid or that they are sick because of it, and our staff is getting some very angry folks.”

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essentialsaltes said:

“We are really struggling right now; we have a record-high number of patients in the hospital,” Shelley Ebenal, FHP CEO and quality medical director, said.

Overall, 18% of all Interior hospital patients are Covid patients, compared to 5% statewide, according to the state Covid-19 Hospital Data Dashboard. Out of 56 beds available in the Interior, 51 are occupied. Out of 13 ICU beds available, eight are filled.

Creighton said after the vaccine rollout, the demographic of the patients changed. Before, people who were older or Native would come to the hospital with Covid. With seniors being the most immunized age group in Alaska and the Native population leading state vaccination efforts, current Covid patients generally belong to a different group.

“These are young people,” Creighton said. “These are middle aged white guys — sorry to say that — but it really is the demographics of people who haven't gotten around to get vaccinated or don't really feel that they need vaccination...

When the hospital received older patients, they were showing appreciation to hospital staff, which changed with the shift in demographics, Ebenal said.

“These are generalizations,” she noted, “but some of these folks are anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers and they don’t believe that they have Covid or that they are sick because of it, and our staff is getting some very angry folks.”

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Jake Arsenal said:

This article raises many questions:

If they don't believe they are sick, why would they be in the hospital?

Do they believe they are sick but think it is some other ailment and disagree with the diagnosis?

If they don't value hospital workers, why are they in the hospital?

What are they angry about?

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rambot said:

1. They know they're sick they just don't think it's covid.
2. Because they're entitled fools who refuse to believe people smarter than then and believe they must be served and believed.

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Jake Arsenal said:

What is your source? Was there a follow-up article? I'm not familiar with the situation because I have never been to Alaska. The article left me with a lot of questions which I think would have been best answered if the writer had interviewed some of these very angry folks.

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rambot said:

It's the same angry folks that are in hospitals all over the us and Canada.

Have you not heard of this?

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essentialsaltes said:

A little more detail from a nurse in South Dakota a while back. Search for Jodi Doering:

But some front-line workers, like Doering, also face the emotional toll of treating patients who, despite being severely ill, are reluctant to acknowledge that they have been infected with a virus that President Trump has said will simply disappear.

Doering said she has covid-19 patients who need 100-percent-oxygen breathing assistance and who will also swear they don’t have the illness that has ended the lives of nearly a quarter-million people in the United States since February.

“I think the hardest thing to watch is that people are still looking for something else and a magic answer and they do not want to believe covid is real,” Doering told CNN in an interview Monday.

“Their last dying words are, ‘This can’t be happening. It’s not real,’” Doering said, adding that some patients prefer to believe that they have pneumonia or other diseases rather than covid-19, despite seeing their positive test results.

“And when they should be... Facetiming their families, they’re filled with anger and hatred.”

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