WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:05.000 JUDY WOODRUFF: Let's take an in-depth look now at the human effects of the latest surge in COVID. 00:05.520 --> 00:09.360 Louisiana has the nation's highest per capita infections, 00:09.360 --> 00:14.360 driven in large part by the extremely contagious Delta variant. At the same 00:14.480 --> 00:18.800 time, Louisiana also has one of the country's lowest vaccination rates. 00:18.800 --> 00:23.800 This week, Governor John Bel Edwards reimposed a statewide mask mandate for all indoor settings. 00:26.240 --> 00:31.240 William Brangham and our team were given special access to one hospital, Baton 00:31.280 --> 00:36.280 Rouge General, as staff there try to save lives and to convince more people to get vaccinated. 00:37.840 --> 00:39.840 DR. STEPHEN BRIERRE, Baton Rouge General Hospital: So, we have got 00:39.840 --> 00:44.840 59-ish, fixing to be 60 ICU patients. Of those, 47 are COVID-positive. 00:47.040 --> 00:51.120 WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Each morning at Baton Rouge General Hospital begins like this. 00:51.120 --> 00:56.120 DR. STEPHEN BRIERRE: Yesterday was incredibly busy. We went from 39 to 47 COVID ICU patients. 00:58.080 --> 01:01.040 WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Dr. Stephen Brierre, the chief of critical care, 01:01.040 --> 01:04.480 briefs the hospital's division chiefs on the latest COVID numbers. 01:04.480 --> 01:09.480 DR. STEPHEN BRIERRE: 1-R saying that -- and this is ugly. I hate to talk about it. 01:10.320 --> 01:12.000 We need to expand the morgue. 01:12.000 --> 01:13.920 You seem to be having some trouble with that. 01:13.920 --> 01:17.360 WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Right after, Dr. Brierre is back upstairs in the ICU. 01:18.160 --> 01:22.160 Just over a month ago, there were 10 COVID patients in the hospital. 01:22.160 --> 01:27.160 The day we visited, there were 129. It's a surge that's caught Dr. Brierre somewhat by surprise. 01:29.120 --> 01:32.960 DR. STEPHEN BRIERRE: I thought we were close to done. I knew Delta was going to be a little 01:32.960 --> 01:37.960 bit of a surge, especially in Louisiana, given our low vaccination rates. But I 01:38.080 --> 01:43.080 had no idea that the impact would be almost as severe as the first surge that we saw. 01:43.840 --> 01:48.560 WILLIAM BRANGHAM: More than 60 percent of people in Louisiana are not fully vaccinated, 01:48.560 --> 01:52.560 and that's overwhelmingly who's ending up in this hospital with COVID. 01:53.120 --> 01:58.120 Of those 129 hospitalized COVID patients, nearly 90 percent are unvaccinated. 01:59.760 --> 02:04.080 And doctors here believe, in part because of the Delta variant, 02:04.080 --> 02:06.880 patients may be getting sicker faster. 02:06.880 --> 02:10.800 DR. STEPHEN BRIERRE: We're certainly seeing a group of people, not all of them, but a group 02:10.800 --> 02:15.800 of them in the ICU who rapidly deteriorate. So, people that we would have thought we would have 02:17.120 --> 02:22.120 been able to support without a ventilator for a week or two to get them through it, 02:22.880 --> 02:27.680 we're running to the bedside to intubate them 24, 48 hours into the hospital... 02:27.680 --> 02:28.414 (CROSSTALK) WILLIAM BRANGHAM: That fast? 02:28.414 --> 02:29.280 DR. STEPHEN BRIERRE: Yes, sir. 02:29.280 --> 02:33.840 WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Seeing this large number of unvaccinated people coming through your doors, 02:33.840 --> 02:36.960 is that frustrating to you? And is it just -- you just think, 02:36.960 --> 02:40.560 that's just the way our society is? Like, how do you square that? 02:40.560 --> 02:45.120 DR. STEPHEN BRIERRE: I try not to dwell on it too much. 02:45.120 --> 02:46.320 WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Why not? 02:46.320 --> 02:48.720 DR. STEPHEN BRIERRE: Because it does frustrate. 02:50.000 --> 02:52.800 There is a little bit of we shot ourselves in our foot. 02:54.160 --> 02:59.160 I'm not mad at people who didn't vaccinate. And I understand a lot of it. I mean, 03:00.240 --> 03:05.240 there was so much misinformation out there. And the country is so polarized, 03:06.480 --> 03:11.440 ROBERT WILSON, COVID Patient: Until it affects you personally, you don't know. Now I know. 03:11.440 --> 03:16.240 WILLIAM BRANGHAM: In one of those in-demand hospital beds is Robert Wilson, 03:16.240 --> 03:20.880 a 49-year-old who contracted the virus last month. He wasn't vaccinated. 03:20.880 --> 03:25.880 ROBERT WILSON: It wasn't political. It just - - I didn't figure I was going to need it, 03:26.400 --> 03:31.197 because nobody really knows the long term of this vaccine, and people are scared of it. 03:31.197 --> 03:34.080 WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, that was your concern? That you might take the shot, 03:34.080 --> 03:35.323 and it might harm you long-term? 03:35.323 --> 03:38.960 ROBERT WILSON: Down the road, we don't know. And that's most people's experience that I know. 03:39.760 --> 03:44.760 But if it combats this, I'm going to get it, this go-round. 03:44.800 --> 03:47.200 WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Because of his brush with the virus, 03:47.200 --> 03:50.400 Wilson says his family is planning to get vaccinated too. 03:51.600 --> 03:56.480 Thirty-two-year-old Jordan Miller is an ICU nurse. She's been here through the whole pandemic. 03:58.320 --> 04:03.320 And she says, for her, this is the worst yet. Staff are tired, burned out. They're 04:03.840 --> 04:08.800 working overtime. And she says too many people don't take the virus seriously. 04:08.800 --> 04:10.000 JORDAN MILLER, Nurse, Baton Rouge General Hospital: It's something 04:10.000 --> 04:13.440 that could have been prevented. And that's what's so hard. 04:13.440 --> 04:18.240 And because these people are younger and healthier, 04:19.680 --> 04:24.680 it hits even harder. You know, I had a 34-year-old patient that I was talking to, communicating with, 04:29.920 --> 04:34.920 having a discussion about his family, and then, within four hours, he coded and died, 04:37.600 --> 04:40.240 34 years old, no medical history. 04:40.240 --> 04:41.840 WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Unvaccinated? 04:44.720 --> 04:49.360 While the unvaccinated are the lion's share of hospitalizations and deaths 04:49.360 --> 04:52.320 here and nationwide, that's not true for all. 04:52.320 --> 04:57.320 RITA EAMES, COVID Patient: I had my vaccine in January and February, 04:58.160 --> 05:02.480 and I just started feeling bad a couple of weeks ago. 05:03.360 --> 05:07.280 WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Seventy-year-old Rita Eames says she did everything she was asked to do 05:07.280 --> 05:10.960 to avoid COVID, including getting her and her family vaccinated. 05:11.600 --> 05:16.000 Nevertheless, she developed a rare breakthrough case a couple of weeks ago. 05:16.000 --> 05:21.000 RITA EAMES: I think my odds are much better than me not having any vaccine. 05:24.800 --> 05:28.800 If I had to do it all over again, I would do it all over again. 05:28.800 --> 05:33.120 DR. STEPHEN BRIERRE: So what could we have done as a population 05:33.680 --> 05:38.680 to decrease her risk of being in an ICU for her fifth day now? And what we could have done is, 05:40.640 --> 05:45.520 the rest of us could have been vaccinated, because we know, if we're vaccinated, we 05:45.520 --> 05:50.520 decrease the probability of catching it ourselves and transmitting it to someone like Ms. Eames. 05:52.400 --> 05:56.720 WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Louisiana's low vaccination rate applies to medical staff as well. 05:57.280 --> 06:02.000 At Baton Rouge General, about half the hospital staff haven't taken the vaccine. 06:02.640 --> 06:06.320 One of them is surgical tech Ashley Lanoux. She spent much 06:06.320 --> 06:10.080 of last year recovering from breast cancer and undergoing chemotherapy. 06:10.080 --> 06:11.680 ASHLEY LANOUX, Surgical Technologist, Baton Rouge General Hospital: I was very 06:11.680 --> 06:16.160 unsure about it just because it was thrown out so quick. 06:16.800 --> 06:18.960 WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You mean they developed the vaccine so quickly. 06:18.960 --> 06:19.339 ASHLEY LANOUX: Yes. 06:19.339 --> 06:20.640 WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And that made you nervous. 06:22.080 --> 06:27.080 ASHLEY LANOUX: Mm-hmm. Yes. I mean, it was - - it felt very rushed. Like, why -- why did 06:28.320 --> 06:33.320 you all of a sudden come up with a vaccine so quickly for something that just came around? 06:34.800 --> 06:39.440 WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Well, they would say it's because over 600,000 Americans died, 06:39.440 --> 06:41.120 and we have got to stop those deaths. 06:44.880 --> 06:45.920 That doesn't persuade you? 06:45.920 --> 06:46.320 ASHLEY LANOUX: No. 06:46.320 --> 06:48.800 WILLIAM BRANGHAM: 06:48.800 --> 06:53.800 Then, two weeks ago, Lanoux got COVID, and ended up at urgent care, needing an infusion 06:54.080 --> 06:59.080 of monoclonal antibodies. That experience pushed her closer to getting the vaccine, but not fully. 07:00.560 --> 07:05.560 ASHLEY LANOUX: I'm on the yes side, but I'm not 100 percent yet. I mean, there's a lot of people 07:08.640 --> 07:13.640 even around here that have questions about it and the uncertainty just with the employees. 07:14.240 --> 07:19.240 WILLIAM BRANGHAM: This week, another major hospital in Baton Rouge, Our Lady of the Lake, 07:19.600 --> 07:23.520 said it would now require its employees to get vaccinated. 07:24.240 --> 07:27.280 Baton Rouge General says it's not quite ready for that step. 07:27.280 --> 07:31.120 DR. DAWN MARCELLE, Baton Rouge Regional Medical Director: I do think that mandating vaccines 07:32.240 --> 07:37.240 would be helpful when it comes to increasing the vaccination rate. 07:37.760 --> 07:42.320 WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Pediatrician Dr. Dawn Marcelle is the public health 07:42.320 --> 07:46.720 director for the region that includes Baton Rouge. She works with hospitals, 07:46.720 --> 07:51.720 clinics, the National Guard and many others to increase COVID testing and vaccination. 07:52.560 --> 07:56.960 She says, in addition to more mandates, this surge in cases and deaths 07:56.960 --> 08:01.840 is already motivating some to change their minds about getting the shooting. The state 08:01.840 --> 08:06.840 saw a fourfold increase in first doses received in the six weeks from mid-June to late July. 08:08.000 --> 08:11.920 DR. DAWN MARCELLE: We have seen increased traffic at our parish health units across 08:11.920 --> 08:16.920 the state. People are calling now like they were at the very beginning of vaccine availability. So, 08:17.200 --> 08:22.200 we are seeing a definite uptick in interest in vaccines and people getting vaccinated. 08:23.280 --> 08:27.200 WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Back on the ICU floor, staff have already built 08:27.200 --> 08:29.840 two additional units and are planning on a third. 08:29.840 --> 08:32.480 DR. STEPHEN BRIERRE: You're already down to 80 percent 08:32.480 --> 08:34.880 oxygen, and I'm going to decrease it some more. 08:34.880 --> 08:39.280 WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Dr. Brierre, nurse Miller and the other staff are stressed out and 08:39.280 --> 08:44.280 stretched thin, just hoping more people will hear their pleas to get vaccinated. 08:45.040 --> 08:49.760 Do you think, if I come back here six months from now, we're going to still be having this debate? 08:49.760 --> 08:54.240 DR. STEPHEN BRIERRE: I didn't think we'd be here today six months ago, 08:54.240 --> 08:58.960 when we knew that a vaccine was fixing to be available to us. So I don't know. 08:58.960 --> 09:03.960 WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The COVID surge here isn't expected to peak until mid-September. 09:05.360 --> 09:10.360 For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm William Brangham in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.