As the global pandemic continues with mixed results in the United States, there's been a big push to get hold outs to take the vaccine.
On his CNN show, Don Lemon visited a hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana—the same hospital where he was born—to speak with some of the patients currently trying to fight this virus. The staff of Baton Rouge General Hospital - Mid City also described their experiences and recommendations.
Lemon's experience was shared on CNN, and on Twitter.
As the Delta Variant surges across the U.S., @donlemon visits his home state of Louisiana to report from a hospital inundated with Covid-19 patients.\n \nWatch Don\u2019s Special Report from Baton Rouge:pic.twitter.com/vUJUCurdH6— Don Lemon Tonight (@Don Lemon Tonight) 1628822018
Lemon wasn't allowed into the wing without full protective equipment. Inside, Lemon interviewed a 53-year-old man named Jim.
Jim and his brother were brought to a different hospital to be treated for the virus. However, that facility didn't have the room, and they were sent to the Mid City campus instead.
Jim's brother was sent home two days prior, but Jim spent some time in the ICU due to the severity of his infection. He's now doing much better.
Jim wasn't an anti-vaccine advocate, but rather "just hadn't had time."
He now regrets his decision and wants to tell other folks who aren't getting the vaccination.
His advice to them was:
"Open your eyes. Take heed to this. This is nothing to play with."
He didn't have time to get the shot. Now he's in a hospital bed.\n\n'Do you regret it?': Don Lemon asks Covid patient about not getting vaccinatedhttps://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2021/08/13/don-lemon-birth-hospital-louisiana-covid-19-pkg-newday-vpx.cnn\u00a0\u2026— corvid 317 (@corvid 317) 1628871751
Thank you for doing this. Wearing a mask or getting vaccinated should never be about politics. It's not a political statement. It's about doing what is right.— Kimberly Wehmeyer (@Kimberly Wehmeyer) 1628837430
staring into the face of death...https://www.huffpost.com/entry/don-lemon-covid-louisiana_n_611602ffe4b01da700f41ad8\u00a0\u2026— jb-truth (@jb-truth) 1628882859
I just don\u2019t get it! We could end this thing is days or weeks but ppl just won\u2019t do it.— Debs Matthews (@Debs Matthews) 1628827961
Get vaccinatedhttps://www.huffpost.com/entry/don-lemon-covid-louisiana_n_611602ffe4b01da700f41ad8\u00a0\u2026— Russell Davis (@Russell Davis) 1629036331
After the interview with Jim, Lemon spoke with one of the doctors about Jim's vaccination views. At this point in the pandemic, we think of the holdouts as buying into conspiracy theories or holding regressive views on science.
However, it's not always the case.
Lemon expressed surprise Jim wasn't an anti-vaxxer and the doctor responded:
"Some people are anti-vaccine. Some people just don't think it's as important."
"They don't think it's going to happen to them, and unfortunately what we're seeing here is that it can happen to anybody."
And it does.
Across the nation more and more stories are coming out about patients regretting not getting the vaccine.
How many of these stories do we need? Everyone who can get vaccinated needs to do it, and do it now!https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1424513287929094158\u00a0\u2026— Nate Wardle (@Nate Wardle) 1628506609
My God.https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1425103182376669207\u00a0\u2026— A. Richard, MBA\ud83c\udf3b (@A. Richard, MBA\ud83c\udf3b) 1628607156
My mom is . She\u2019s a nurse, and the staff receives daily reports on how many pts are hospitalized due to Covid. The comparison between last Monday and today is crazy. If you\u2019re on the fence about getting the vaccine, maybe this will help? #getvaccinatedpic.twitter.com/3VBKlYUJQm— Harry (@Harry) 1628535444
I was hospitalized with Covid. My first Pfizer shot made me sick for two days, second shot 3 days. But i would gladly get a booster or the vaccine all over again. A vaccine is way better than this..pic.twitter.com/DyDTG9e0Vu— Alex Sanchez (@Alex Sanchez) 1628723741
seeing the news of hospitalized antivaxxers w covid & begging for the vaccine now that it\u2019s too late. it\u2019s very hard to feel bad for them.— xenia (@xenia) 1628795459
Lemon next spoke with a 40-year-old woman who had gone to the hospital thinking she'd had a heart attack, but was surprised to discover she had been infected.
Once again, she didn't hold anti-vaccine views, but rather thought she was being safe.
She said:
"I wanted to wait, let this first batch go through, see how it worked. But before I got sick, I was thinking about getting vaccinated."
"I didn't make it in time."
Online, people are urging others to get the vaccine, and take precautions if you have to go out.
Today, the 5 most vaccinated states (14M people) had\n\n580 people in hospital, 12 deaths\n\nIn the 5 least vaccinated states (16M people)?\n\n6,600 hospitalized, 104 deaths\n\nPer capita , least vaccinated states have \n\n10X hospitalizations and 7X deaths\n\nSo yeah, vaccines are working— Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH (@Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH) 1628566357
There\u2019s hundreds of people that are hospitalized and only 5 of them are vaccinated. Why is it so hard to get a vaccine I absolutely don\u2019t understand the logic— Ash (@Ash) 1628861893
There are 0 fully vaccinated ppl with covid in Ontario\u2019s icus. \n\nThere are 6 hospitalized \n\nVaccines workhttps://twitter.com/EdTubb/status/1426904142379896840\u00a0\u2026— Zain Chagla (@Zain Chagla) 1629037961
If things don't take a turn for the worse, these two patients will be scheduled to go home. Despite their harrowing stay in the hospital, it looks like they might be lucky enough to live their lives.
The first they'll likely do it look at where they can get the vaccine.
However not everyone is so lucky. Some people do not survive the virus, and don't get the chance to get it after their hospital stay.
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