The spread of COVID-19 through the highly contagious delta variant is threatening to overwhelm many Kentucky hospitals as state officials and some health care leaders implore more residents to get vaccinated and wear a mask — and to stop spreading false information that might keep others from following safety measures that would save lives.
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“Hospitalizations have been doubling every two weeks — something we’ve never seen before,” Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday at a news conference with the state’s health commissioner, Dr. Steve Stack.
“By the end of this week, we expect to have more Kentuckians in the hospital battling COVID than at any point in the pandemic.”
As of Tuesday, there were 1,603 people hospitalized in Kentucky with COVID-19, including 441 in intensive care and 238 who were on a ventilator to breathe for them, according to the state’s daily report.
Jennie Stuart Medical Center was among the hospitals cited that are under significant stress from a steep increase in COVID-19 patients. With 32 coronavirus patients on Tuesday, the local hospital has seen more than a 350% increase in the number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in two weeks. It has averaged 28 COVID hospitalizations a day over the past week.
“We are very close to all of our hospitals being full,” Beshear warned.
Hospitals in Southern states are looking for open beds in Kentucky hospitals, and soon there won’t be any openings, said Stack.
“The health care capacity is going to get really difficult in the weeks to come,” he said.
Kentuckians should prepare for longer waits in emergency rooms and for some medical procedures to be delayed, he added.
Beshear and Stack both stressed the need to get more Kentuckians vaccinated and to get more people supporting the use of masks, especially in schools.
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As they tried to make their case, Republicans state lawmakers continued their push to limit the Democratic governor’s ability to order mask mandates, as he did recently for schools. Beshear hasn’t ruled out the possibility of an executive order for another statewide mask mandate. State Rep. Lynn Bechler, of Marion, introduced legislation on Monday that would ban such mandates in schools and universities.
Stack said false information about masks and vaccinations puts people in danger.
“Folks who think this is all not a big deal about wearing masks, you’re wrong. You need to wear those masks because that’s how we can prevent this disease from running like wildfire through all these communities,” Stack said.
He added, “And if your children and you are eligible for vaccination, that’s how we keep people safe. So we’ve got to do that.”
So far, 55% of Kentuckians have been vaccinated, which includes 66% of people 18 and older and 84% of people 65 and older.
Christian County has the third lowest vaccination rate in the state at 24.7% for all residents, 32.5% for people 18 and older and 58.1% for those 65 and older.
Stack addressed claims that the coronavirus vaccines, which the FDA approved through emergency use authorization, are not safe.
“These pharmaceuticals are the most heavily studied, heavily scrutinized, heavily monitored and rapidly deployed pharmaceuticals that humanity has ever seen in all of our existence,” he said.
Adverse reactions to the vaccines are extremely rare, and a person is more likely to become ill from COVID-19 by going unvaccinated, he said.
To date, approximately 1.7 billion people in the world have received at least one dose of a vaccine, he said. That includes nearly 200 million people in the U.S. and more than 2.4 million in Kentucky.
Beshear stressed that health care experts agree “universal masking in schools is a must to protect children.” Politicians don’t always agree with that, but the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce does, he said.
In response to Beshear’s mask mandate for schools earlier this month, the state chamber’s president, Winston Griffin, who owns Laurel Grocery Co, a wholesaler in London, said, “The chamber recognizes the importance of masking in schools at this time, because masking not only keeps our children and teachers safe but also because of its impact on the workforce.”
The governor addressed the claim that choosing to not wear a mask is an expression of liberty.
“We have always believed, and it’s always been the law, that you have a freedom of speech but you can’t run into a crowded movie theater and yell, ‘Fire!’” he said. “Your individual liberty ends when it harms other people. … An individual liberty does not exist to actively spread a deadly virus that can harm and kill other people when we know some very small and basic things to stop it.”
During the news conference, officials showed videos from two hospitals, Georgetown Community Hospital and Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital, in which doctors, nurses and administrators warned about pressures on their facilities from COVID-19 illnesses, and urged people to get vaccinated.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
