This Miami hospital is being inundated with COVID-19 patients — and many are unvaccinated Millennials

When the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated during the 2020 spring, many of the fatalities were Baby Boomers in their sixties and seventies and Gen-Xers in their fifties. Millennials died from it as well, but older people appeared to be especially vulnerable. However, the current COVID-19 surge in the United States, largely driven by the highly infectious Delta variant, is attacking younger Americans in larger numbers, and an article published by the Daily Beast on September 2 stresses that many of the COVID-19 patients in a Miami hospital are unvaccinated Millennials.

An intensive care nurse at Miami's Baptist Hospital, interviewed on condition of anonymity, told the Beast, "It's horrible. I've never bagged so many thirtysomething-year-olds, leaving behind young kids, pregnant wives. The screams when we tell them their loved ones didn't make it — we're exhausted."

In August, 90 patients at Baptist Hospital died from COVID-19 — which, according to Beast reporter Francisco Alvarado, was "the highest number of deaths at the hospital during any given month of the pandemic." Alvarado notes that on August 26 at Baptist Hospital, the COVID-19 fatalities included "a 50-year-old and three patients in their thirties" and that "61% of the patients requiring constant observation were between the ages of 18 and 65."

To make matters worse, Florida is plagued by a far-right Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, who has downplayed the severity of the Delta variant and opposed mask mandates in public schools. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that one in five new COVID-19 infections in the U.S. is occurring in Florida.

"Across much of America," Alvarado observes, "frontline hospital workers are going through similar stress and fatigue as they grapple with a devastating coronavirus surge primarily fueled by the Delta variant and vaccine hesitancy. But in Florida, experts and medical workers say, a uniquely stubborn and denialist Gov. Ron DeSantis has helped transform hot vaxx summer into a summer from hell. With skyrocketing numbers of cases, hospitalizations and deaths this summer, any optimism that the Sunshine State was rounding the corner on the pandemic has been laid to waste. And September may not offer any respite."

Baptist Hospital, according to Alvarado, has "struggled to keep up with a torrent of new COVID-19 patients, a majority unvaccinated and under 65 — and sometimes, much younger."

In an August 20 e-mail sent to all employees, Alvarado reports, Baptist Hospital CEO Patricia Rosello wrote, "We realized, this week, that not everyone who works here realizes how different this surge has been. We want you to share this data and information with your friends and family as we all have to do our part in sharing the TRUTH. Many of your colleagues are having to face the multiple deaths of young people. We have pregnant patients with COVID in our ICU and that is something we did not experience before…. Unfortunately, we will see our numbers rise, so we have to continue to be strong and resilient."

Right-wing media outlets and MAGA Republicans have repeatedly downplayed the dangers of COVID-19, often promoting anti-vaxxer and anti-masker conspiracy theories and demonizing health experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci. But facts are facts, no matter how much Fox News pundits like Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham ignore them. According to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, more than 4.5 million people worldwide have died from COVID-19 — and that includes over 642,000 in the United States.

Another Baptist Hospital nurse interviewed on condition of anonymity told the Beast, "We've had code blues going off all the time. It's very scary."