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JUDY WOODRUFF: Let's take an in-depth 
look now at the human effects 
of the latest surge in COVID.

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Louisiana has the nation's 
highest per capita infections,

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driven in large part by the extremely 
contagious Delta variant. At the same

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time, Louisiana also has one of the 
country's lowest vaccination rates.

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This week, Governor John Bel 
Edwards reimposed a statewide mask 
mandate for all indoor settings.

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William Brangham and our team were given 
special access to one hospital, Baton

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Rouge General, as staff there 
try to save lives and to convince 
more people to get vaccinated.

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DR. STEPHEN BRIERRE, Baton Rouge 
General Hospital: So, we have got

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59-ish, fixing to be 60 ICU patients. 
Of those, 47 are COVID-positive.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Each morning at Baton 
Rouge General Hospital begins like this.

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DR. STEPHEN BRIERRE: Yesterday 
was incredibly busy. We went 
from 39 to 47 COVID ICU patients.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Dr. Stephen 
Brierre, the chief of critical care,

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briefs the hospital's division 
chiefs on the latest COVID numbers.

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DR. STEPHEN BRIERRE: 1-R saying that -- 
and this is ugly. I hate to talk about it.

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We need to expand the morgue.

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You seem to be having 
some trouble with that.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Right after, Dr. 
Brierre is back upstairs in the ICU.

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Just over a month ago, there were 
10 COVID patients in the hospital.

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The day we visited, there were 
129. It's a surge that's caught 
Dr. Brierre somewhat by surprise.

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DR. STEPHEN BRIERRE: I thought 
we were close to done. I knew 
Delta was going to be a little

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bit of a surge, especially in Louisiana, 
given our low vaccination rates. But I

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had no idea that the impact 
would be almost as severe as 
the first surge that we saw.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: More than 60 
percent of people in Louisiana 
are not fully vaccinated,

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and that's overwhelmingly who's 
ending up in this hospital with COVID.

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Of those 129 hospitalized COVID patients, 
nearly 90 percent are unvaccinated.

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And doctors here believe, in part 
because of the Delta variant,

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patients may be getting sicker faster.

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DR. STEPHEN BRIERRE: We're 
certainly seeing a group of people, 
not all of them, but a group

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of them in the ICU who rapidly 
deteriorate. So, people that we 
would have thought we would have

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been able to support without a ventilator 
for a week or two to get them through it,

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we're running to the bedside to intubate 
them 24, 48 hours into the hospital...

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(CROSSTALK) 
WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That fast?

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DR. STEPHEN BRIERRE: Yes, sir.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Seeing this 
large number of unvaccinated 
people coming through your doors,

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is that frustrating to you? And 
is it just -- you just think,

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that's just the way our society 
is? Like, how do you square that?

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DR. STEPHEN BRIERRE: I try 
not to dwell on it too much.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Why not?

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DR. STEPHEN BRIERRE: 
Because it does frustrate.

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There is a little bit of we 
shot ourselves in our foot.

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I'm not mad at people who 
didn't vaccinate. And I 
understand a lot of it. I mean,

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there was so much misinformation out 
there. And the country is so polarized,

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ROBERT WILSON, COVID Patient: 
Until it affects you personally, 
you don't know. Now I know.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In one of those 
in-demand hospital beds is Robert Wilson,

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a 49-year-old who contracted the virus 
last month. He wasn't vaccinated.

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ROBERT WILSON: It wasn't 
political. It just - - I didn't 
figure I was going to need it,

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because nobody really knows 
the long term of this vaccine, 
and people are scared of it.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, that was your 
concern? That you might take the shot,

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and it might harm you long-term?

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ROBERT WILSON: Down the road, 
we don't know. And that's most 
people's experience that I know.

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But if it combats this, I'm 
going to get it, this go-round.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Because 
of his brush with the virus,

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Wilson says his family is 
planning to get vaccinated too.

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Thirty-two-year-old Jordan Miller 
is an ICU nurse. She's been 
here through the whole pandemic.

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And she says, for her, this is the worst 
yet. Staff are tired, burned out. They're

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working overtime. And she says too many 
people don't take the virus seriously.

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JORDAN MILLER, Nurse, Baton Rouge 
General Hospital: It's something

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that could have been prevented. 
And that's what's so hard.

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And because these people 
are younger and healthier,

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it hits even harder. You know, I 
had a 34-year-old patient that I 
was talking to, communicating with,

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having a discussion about his 
family, and then, within four 
hours, he coded and died,

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34 years old, no medical history.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Unvaccinated?

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While the unvaccinated are the lion's 
share of hospitalizations and deaths

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here and nationwide, 
that's not true for all.

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RITA EAMES, COVID Patient: I had 
my vaccine in January and February,

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and I just started feeling 
bad a couple of weeks ago.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Seventy-year-old 
Rita Eames says she did 
everything she was asked to do

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to avoid COVID, including getting 
her and her family vaccinated.

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Nevertheless, she developed a rare 
breakthrough case a couple of weeks ago.

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RITA EAMES: I think my odds are much 
better than me not having any vaccine.

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If I had to do it all over again, 
I would do it all over again.

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DR. STEPHEN BRIERRE: So what 
could we have done as a population

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to decrease her risk of being 
in an ICU for her fifth day now? 
And what we could have done is,

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the rest of us could have been vaccinated, 
because we know, if we're vaccinated, we

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decrease the probability of catching 
it ourselves and transmitting 
it to someone like Ms. Eames.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Louisiana's 
low vaccination rate applies 
to medical staff as well.

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At Baton Rouge General, about half the 
hospital staff haven't taken the vaccine.

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One of them is surgical tech 
Ashley Lanoux. She spent much

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of last year recovering from breast 
cancer and undergoing chemotherapy.

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ASHLEY LANOUX, Surgical Technologist, 
Baton Rouge General Hospital: I was very

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unsure about it just because 
it was thrown out so quick.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You mean they 
developed the vaccine so quickly.

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ASHLEY LANOUX: Yes.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And 
that made you nervous.

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ASHLEY LANOUX: Mm-hmm. Yes. I 
mean, it was - - it felt very 
rushed. Like, why -- why did

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you all of a sudden come up 
with a vaccine so quickly for 
something that just came around?

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Well, they would say 
it's because over 600,000 Americans died,

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and we have got to stop those deaths.

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That doesn't persuade you?

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ASHLEY LANOUX: No.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM:

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Then, two weeks ago, Lanoux got 
COVID, and ended up at urgent 
care, needing an infusion

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of monoclonal antibodies. That 
experience pushed her closer to 
getting the vaccine, but not fully.

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ASHLEY LANOUX: I'm on the yes 
side, but I'm not 100 percent yet. 
I mean, there's a lot of people

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even around here that have 
questions about it and the 
uncertainty just with the employees.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: This week, 
another major hospital in Baton 
Rouge, Our Lady of the Lake,

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said it would now require its 
employees to get vaccinated.

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Baton Rouge General says it's 
not quite ready for that step.

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DR. DAWN MARCELLE, Baton Rouge 
Regional Medical Director: I do 
think that mandating vaccines

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would be helpful when it comes to 
increasing the vaccination rate.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Pediatrician Dr. 
Dawn Marcelle is the public health

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director for the region that includes 
Baton Rouge. She works with hospitals,

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clinics, the National Guard 
and many others to increase 
COVID testing and vaccination.

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She says, in addition to more mandates, 
this surge in cases and deaths

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is already motivating some 
to change their minds about 
getting the shooting. The state

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saw a fourfold increase in first 
doses received in the six weeks 
from mid-June to late July.

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DR. DAWN MARCELLE: We have seen increased 
traffic at our parish health units across

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the state. People are calling now 
like they were at the very beginning 
of vaccine availability. So,

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we are seeing a definite uptick 
in interest in vaccines and 
people getting vaccinated.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Back on the ICU 
floor, staff have already built

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two additional units and 
are planning on a third.

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DR. STEPHEN BRIERRE: You're 
already down to 80 percent

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oxygen, and I'm going to 
decrease it some more.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Dr. Brierre, 
nurse Miller and the other 
staff are stressed out and

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stretched thin, just hoping more people 
will hear their pleas to get vaccinated.

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Do you think, if I come back here 
six months from now, we're going 
to still be having this debate?

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DR. STEPHEN BRIERRE: I didn't think 
we'd be here today six months ago,

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when we knew that a vaccine was fixing 
to be available to us. So I don't know.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The COVID 
surge here isn't expected 
to peak until mid-September.

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For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm William 
Brangham in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.