Multiple states are currently struggling to keep pace with COVID-19 cases, with five now reported to have less than 10 percent of their ICU beds left.
The latest data from the Department of Health and Human Services, as spotted by Madeline Holcombe for CNN on Tuesday, shows that the following states are nearly out of ICU beds: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Arkansas, and Texas. Additional quoted data, this time from the CDC, shows that the hospitalization rate among those who are not vaccinated is as much as 16 times higher than among the inoculated.
As of Aug. 30, 52.4 percent of the total U.S. population had been fully vaccinated. Earlier into the vaccine rollout process, the Biden administration had been pushing for 70 percent of the adult population to have received at least one dose by July 4. In true USA fashion, the country fumbled this goal. At the time of this writing, which notably occurred nearly two months after the July 4 target date, 74.1 percent of the U.S. population aged 18 or older had received at least one shot.
Regions in the South have been among the most affected by the latest case number upticks, which isn’t a shock given the presence of abysmal vaccination rates.
In Alabama, for example, just 38 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, in Florida, a conservative radio host known as “Mr. Anti-Vax” was recently reported to have died due from COVID-19.
President Biden’s chief medical advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, minced no words when addressing these numbers over the weekend.
“What is going on now is both entirely predictable but entirely preventable,” Fauci said in an interview with Jake Tapper. “We know we have the wherewithal with vaccines to turn this around. The reason you see the numbers that are so alarming that you just gave is that we have around 80 million people in this country who are eligible to be vaccinated who are not yet vaccinated. We could turn this around and we could do it efficiently and quickly if we could just get those people vaccinated.”
Secure your shots here if you haven’t already done so.
