ICU doctor furious with unvaccinated patients: 'I cannot believe what they're telling me'

The stories of people recounting their loved ones wishing they had taken the vaccine before eventually passing away from Coronavirus are far too many to count. The rampant misinformation surrounding vaccine and masks have muddied the waters, causing vaccine hesitancy that's costing lives. Not to mention there are people still out there refusing to believe the pandemic is real thanks to conspiracy theorists constantly questioning science. Families are being torn apart. Doctors and health care professionals are living a nightmare as they try to battle Coronavirus while also having to watch disinformation cost lives. 

Not only are they risking their own lives, that fo their loves ones, their mental health has also gone for a toss as new variants and Coronavirus waves follow one after the another. Thanh Neville, an ICU physician and researcher at UCLA Health, opened up about the helplessness engulfing the healthcare professionals as people are still refusing to get vaccinated. "I am angry that the tragic scenes of prior surges are being played out yet again, but now with ICUs primarily filled with patients who have chosen not to be vaccinated," wrote Neville for The Huffington Post.  

Neville is seething as more and more people getting admitted state that they didn't think it was bigger than the flu or that they didn't have the time to get vaccinated. "I cannot understand the simultaneous decision to not get vaccinated and the demand to end the restrictions imposed by a pandemic. I cannot help but recoil as if I’ve been slapped in the face when my ICU patient tells me they didn’t get vaccinated because they “just didn’t get around to it,” wrote Neville, adding that many of them are not even anti-vaxxers. "Their inaction itself is a decision — a decision to not protect themselves or their families, to fill a precious ICU bed, to let new variants flourish, and to endanger the health care workers and immunosuppressed people around them. Their inaction is a decision to let this pandemic continue to rage."

The call to get vaccinated has been framed as a battle for freedom, by anti-vaxxers, conservatives and the right-wing media. The freedom to not wear masks, to end lockdowns, rejecting mask mandates and so on. The problem with the pandemic is that you are risking the lives of your loved ones, as much as your are your own life when you refuse the vaccine. As the saying goes, your freedom to swing your fist ends at my nose. While conservatives and right-wing media have often cited mask and vaccination mandates as constitutional, they would do well to remember that small pox was eradicated thanks to the implementation of a small pox vaccine mandate in Boston in 1901. The program helped eradicate the disease stood the legal challenge in the Supreme Court as week, reported MSNBC. The people were warned they would be fined $5 (equivalent of $150 today) and also brought to court. 

Neville points the past year, the rising cases and deaths and is furious people are still refusing to take the vaccine. "I am angry that the tragic scenes of prior surges are being played out yet again, but now with ICUs primarily filled with patients who have chosen not to be vaccinated. I am angry that it takes me over an hour to explain to an anti-vaxxer full of misinformation that intubation isn’t what “kills patients” and that their wish for chest compressions without intubation in the event of a respiratory arrest makes no sense. I am angry at those who refuse to wear “muzzles” when grocery shopping for half an hour a week, as I have been so-called “muzzled” for much of the past 18 months," write Neville. "I am at a loss to understand how anyone can look at these past months of the pandemic — more than 600,000 lives lost in the U.S. and more than 4 million worldwide — and not believe it’s real or take it seriously."

Neville added that those who are immunocompromised have every right to be angry at those who refuse to get the vaccine and endanger their lives. "With angry tears, these patients tell me it’s not fair that there are people who are choosing to endanger both themselves and the vulnerable people around them. They feel betrayed by their fellow citizens and they are bitter and angry. I cannot blame them," wrote Neville.