Oregon doctors plead with unvaccinated colleagues: ‘We cannot continue’

The letter warns that hospitals in the area may soon run out of ICU beds

Healthcare workers across the country are exhausted.

Doctors and nurses have left the industry in droves since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, exacerbating an ongoing staffing shortage as the Delta variant fills ICUs and waiting rooms with Covid-19 patients.

As staffing issues continue to loom large, a group of Oregon doctors and physician assistants have signed onto a letter calling on their colleagues to get vaccinated so that they do not end up occupying an ICU bed.

Dr Charlotte Ransom, of Eugene, Oregon, told The Washington Post that she was "exhausted" and that "the fight is just too much for me right now”.

"Going to work is a difficult process these days," she said.

She is one of the 50 signatories on the letter urging other health workers to take the vaccine.

“You may be very healthy and have a strong immune system,” they wrote in the four-page letter. “You may feel you will be safe. We have cared for and admitted many patients who have had this very thought.”

It continues, imploring the unvaccinated healthcare workers to understand that their concern is "not only about you and your healthy immune system" but that it is for "the greater good of the community”.

"We cannot keep fighting this fight without your help," the letter states.

Currently only 52 per cent of the US adult population is fully vaccinated. In Oregon, the vaccination rate is higher than the national average, with 57 per cent of adults fully vaccinated, and 63 per cent have taken at least one shot.

Even with the higher vaccination rate, however, the Delta variant has caused a surge of new patients to flood hospitals around the state. Hospitalisations have increased by 20 per cent in the past week, and deaths have risen by more than 57 per cent.

One man reportedly died from Covid-19 at a crowded hospital in Douglas County while waiting for an ICU bed to free up.

According to data from the PeaceHealth Oregon hospitals, 96 per cent of the 1,037 coronavirus cases it processed were unvaccinated individuals.

“They are so sick with Covid-19 that you know they are not vaccinated,” Dr Ransom said of her patients. “Most people tell me [vaccination is] a personal decision or that they are not going to do it and they never will. They just say, ‘It’s my choice and you are not going to make me do it.’”

The physicians' letter noted that younger people were being admitted with serious symptoms.

“Unfortunately, we are admitting younger and healthier people with complications from Covid-19,” the letter says. “It is NOT a bad cold. It is NOT a bad flu. It hurts. It keeps people awake at night because of pain. It causes fluid to build up in the lungs making breathing difficult. It is AWFUL even in those not sick enough to require hospitalization.”

The health workers tried to convince their colleagues to take the shot for the benefit of their parents and their children.

“We urge you to consider your circle of friends and family,” the letter states.

Dr Ransom said if the advice of the health workers is not heeded, they may run out of ICU beds.

"Every community has a breaking point, and I hope we don't reach that point," she said.