This morning, the Athens Clarke County Chamber of Commerce hosted a community discussion with CEOs from both major hospitals in Athens.
Piedmont Athens Regional CEO Michael Burnett and Montez Carter, CEO of St. Mary's Health Care, say roughly 90% of patients admitted to their hospitals are unvaccinated. Burnett says the vaccine IS effective, yet people are still refusing it -- causing the Piedmont staff to become frustrated. "We know
there's a way that we can get over this, but we're still dealing with it." He also says the Delta variant puts more children at risk of contracting the virus. "Because it is a much more contagious variant, we are going to see more cases in the pediatric population".
Montez Carter from St. Mary's says the resistance to the vaccine in Athens impacts other communities as well. "There are a lot of patients in outlying rural facilities that need to come to us for a high level of care because those communities don't have the capabilities to care for those patients. Right now, we can't accept them."
Burnett said this vaccine hesitancy will cause COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations to continue to rise, especially in the absence of masking and social distancing.
WUGA's Jessica Wurst filed this report:
