FLOYD COUNTY, Ga. — It’s rare that a city council will hold an emergency joint meeting with the county’s commission. But, that’s what happened in Rome, GA on Thursday, as the two governing bodies, along with four doctors, urged people to take COVID seriously.
Mayor Craig McDaniel started the meeting, held by the Rome City Commission and the Floyd County Commission, addressing the recent death of Porter Helm, a 13-year-old who was found not breathing by his father.
“School started back, I think everyone anticipated the numbers going up, but I don’t think anyone anticipated the numbers being what they are now,” he said.
“We lost a 13-year-old, to a vaccine-preventable illness,” added Dr. Ed McBride, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for the Hardin Clinic.
McBride was joined by Dr. Ken Jones, CO of Floyd Medical Center, Dr. Gary Voccio, Health Director for Georgia Public Health Northwest, and Dr. Julie Barnes, CMO of Redmond Regional Medical Center. Each doctor gave an overlook at the recent state of their hospitals.
Dr. Barnes said they’re seeing COVID numbers close to the peak in January, but this time around, they’re not only losing patients but staff as well.
“We’re currently losing between seven and eight nurses every week, which is devastating,” she said.
While Dr. Barnes said they are in a better place than before with supplies and PPE, their critical care units are at 100% capacity, and they’re relying more on oxygen than ever before. She explained that oxygen delivery to the hospital is 350% of the norm.
Dr. Barnes also expressed disappointment in the number of patients they’re treating who refused or continue to refuse the vaccine.
“The vast majority of patients who are there with COVID, which is 60% of the patients, are unvaccinated,” she said.
At Floyd Medical Center, Dr. Jones said they’ve surpassed their previous January peak of 108 patients, and now see 120 COVID positive patients on average for the last week
“Of the 126 patients that are in my hospital today, 9% of them got the vaccine. That means 91% did not,” said Jones. “Twenty-eight patients are in our ICU this morning and we’re holding six patients in our ER that need an ICU bed that we don’t have.”
Additional COVID ICU patients are being housed in 20 beds outside of the hospital. Jones said the gravity of the situation is clear in the growing death rate.
“In the month of August, we have 28 deaths in our hospital. In July we had two deaths,” he said.
For staff, Jones added 57 employees are currently out with COVID.
Staff shortages are a problem Dr. McBride also is seeing at the Hardin Clinic.
“Any given day during this surge that we’re presently experiencing, we have 30 to 50 staff out of commission because of either active diagnosis of COVID, or significant exposure to an unvaccinated individual,” he explained.
McBride said of the staff that continues to work, morale is the lowest he’s seen since the pandemic started.
“I have physicians stop me and say, 'when did we lose the confidence of the people we serve? When did they stop listening?'” he added.
As many hospitals ask patients to push back non-life threatening or elective surgeries, McBride is seeing patients who need routine care, that can’t get access to doctors.
“As a result of the resources in our community being exhausted,” he said.
Rome is the medical hub of northwest Georgia. Dr. Voccio oversees hospitals and data from 10 counties in the district. Floyd County has the highest rate of vaccinations in the area, where 40% are currently vaccinated. But what worried Voccio is the age group of people getting COVID compared to earlier in the pandemic.
“Younger people are getting COVID. Six months ago the average age was 55, now it’s 40,” he said.
While the group encouraged people to get vaccinated, Mayor McDaniel pleaded with people who live in Rome and Floyd, to trust doctors and science, instead of internet opinions.
“These Facebook physicians are jeopardizing people’s lives when they say things that aren’t true, that aren’t proven by science,” the mayor said.
No mandates or action were taken at the Thursday meeting, as McDaniel said they wanted information on the state of COVID in their area. While McBride believes the area may soon reach a peak in cases, it’s not positive news.
“The deaths that result from COVID follow two to four weeks after the peak,” McBride said. “If you don’t have somebody in your life that has been impacted by COVID, you probably will before this is over with.”
McDaniel added they plan to discuss COVID again during the Rome City Commission meeting on September 13 to see what actions they can take.
Before adjourning the meeting, McDaniel gave one last plea.
“From the bottom of my heart, I urge people, I have no agenda, but please get vaccinated.”