(Newser)
– An Alabama doctor, sick of seeing unvaccinated people die from COVID-19, says he will soon remove them. Dr. Jason Valentine, a doctor at Mobile’s Diagnostic Medical and Nursing Clinic, shared a photo of him this week posing next to a sign in his office that explains, starting Oct. 1, ” Dr. Valentine will no longer see patients who are not vaccinated against COVID-19, ”according to AL.com. “If they asked why, I told them that COVID is a miserable way to die and I can’t see them die like that,” Valentine said in a post since then.
In a letter to patients, Valentine writes that “we have great prevention with vaccines. Unfortunately, many have refused to take the vaccine and some end up seriously ill or dead.” This comes a month after another Alabama doctor wrote in a Facebook post that all but one COVID-19 patient was not vaccinated. “One of the last things they do before they’re intubated is ask me for the vaccine. I take them by the hand and tell them I’m sorry, but it’s too late,” Dr. Brytney Cobia wrote for AL.com.
Days later, Republican Gov. Kay Ivey said “it’s time to start blaming unvaccinated people” for spikes in cases and hospitalizations. Friday, a declaring a state of emergency, Ivy described a 100% increase in COVID-19 vaccines administered to the state last month and urged more people to receive the vaccine. But COVID-19 hospitalizations (2,723 as of Tuesday, according to data from the Alabama Department of Public Health) are now approaching the state record set on Jan. 11, 3,084. The state maintains the lowest vaccination rate in the country, with less than 36% of the population fully vaccinated, according to the country Washington Post.
The beds in intensive care units are full across the state. In fact, the Alabama Hospital Association said Tuesday that 11 COVID-19 patients in need of ICU treatment were being treated in hallways, emergency rooms or makeshift rooms, by WSFA. That number rose to 29 on Wednesday, WBRC reports. “Only 12% of patients in the hospital today are fully vaccinated,” explains AHA President Dr. Don Williamson. “This could have been avoided if we had achieved higher levels of vaccination.” Valentine says his sign is helping. Since it was published, the doctor says three unvaccinated patients have asked how they can be vaccinated, according to AL.com. (Read more COVID-19 stories.)