‘Like Noah, telling folks it’s going to rain:’ Mobile officials urge vaccination

Mobile Real-Time News

By Lawrence Specker | lspecker@al.com

Medical and governmental leaders in Mobile renewed their call Tuesday for people to accept vaccination against COVID-19, though governmental officials stopped short of supporting a new mask mandate.

An early afternhttps://www.al.com/news/mobile/2021/08/like-noah-telling-folks-its-going-to-rain-mobile-officials-urge-vaccination.htmlhttps://www.al.com/news/mobile/2021/08/like-noah-telling-folks-its-going-to-rain-mobile-officials-urge-vaccination.htmloon press conference included representatives of the Medical Society of Mobile County, USA Health and Mobile Infirmary, in addition to Mobile County Commissioner Merceria Ludgood and Mayor Sandy Stimpson. One strong message from the medical side: Mobile’s four hospitals are at capacity thanks to the fast-spreading Delta variant of the disease.

Mobile and Baldwin counties have some of the highest COVID numbers in the state. Most related hospitalizations involve unvaccinated patients.

Dr. Bill Admire, chief medical officer for Mobile Infirmary, said that “the number of COVID patients we’re seeing is higher than it’s been in the last 18 months. The hospitals in Mobile County, the emergency rooms, the urgent-care clinics, doctor’s offices, are overwhelmed. The numbers keep rising.”
“On any given morning we’ve got 20, 25, 30 patients in the Emergency Department waiting for beds to open up,” at USA Health University Hospital, said Dr. Michael Chang, Chief Medical Officer and Associate Vice President for Medical Affairs for the USA Health system. “When we’re full up like that, it’s difficult, it presents a challenge in terms of providing the other unique services that that hospital provides.”
“On the pediatric side, I’ll just tell you that in the last 12 months, [at USA Health Children’s & Women’s Hospital], our pediatric services diagnosed 500 cases of COVID in children,” said Chang. “In the last five days we’ve diagnosed 100.”