HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Alabama doctors expressed their concerns about rising COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state during a live Q&A session on Tuesday.
"We don't hospitalize people for colds. We rarely hospitalized people for influenza. There were 30 people in the hospital today for influenza. There were 1,247 in the hospital for COVID," said Alabama Hospital Association President and CEO Don Wilkerson.
"We're so extremely lowly vaccinated when it comes to children, and there are providers who have told their children, you know, parents and children not necessarily to vaccinate because you can just get COVID and it won't be so bad," said Medical Association of the State of Alabama President Aruna Arora.
"I certainly understand that parents are between a rock and a hard place here. You know, our public officials, our school boards are really in a tough situation. We all want kids to be in school and for face-to-face instruction. We want them there in person. That's the best way to do it. There's so many reasons how we've seen in the past two years that being out of school, being in a virtual environment, are just not the same, but we also want to be able to do it safely," said Alabama State Health Director Scott Harris.
One way to keep you and your family safe is to get vaccinated. Dr. Harris compares getting the vaccine to wearing a seatbelt.
"You don't wear a seatbelt because it keeps you from having a wreck, you know, so you don't die in case you have a wreck," said Dr. Harris.
"Right? That's right. It's not a pleasant message to have to deliver, but we'd rather people have that message in front of them before they're sitting in a place of desperate needs," said Dr. Arora.