A group of over 70 doctors in Palm Beach County held a press conference early on Monday morning to urge people to get vaccinated against COVID-19 after seeing a rise of unvaccinated COVID patients, MSNBC reports.
In a segment on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, reporter Kerry Sanders pointed to figures of 85% of ICU beds in Florida being full, with some hospitals reporting no ICU space at all. It marked the second time in a week that doctors in northern Palm Beach County spoke out.
“It’s incredibly frustrating,” Dr. J.T. Snarski, who was present at the gathering, told MSNBC. “Because we know vaccines are safe and effective. And it’s people who go out and talk against them that really go against physicians and medicine and science. And it’s not the message we want to get across to people. Vaccines are safe and we need to get our communities vaccinated.”
While right-leaning social media users, like Tomi Lahren, are now saying that “if you refuse to treat people because they don’t live their lives the way you want them to, you shouldn’t be a freaking doctor,” others have clarified that the event wasn’t a walk-out but rather an attempt to urge vaccinations. Patients were not left uncared for due to the press conference.
“If you identify with one of these doctors up here, we’ve cared for your family and you’ve listened to us then, the time really is now [to get vaccinated],” said Dr. Jennifer Buczyner, a neurologist and one of the event’s organizers.
Florida is currently leading the nation in daily average cases and hospitalizations, according to the New York Times. To date, there have 3,040,590 reported COVID cases in Florida, with 42,252 deaths.
