"It's an individual decision": coronavirus ICU patient still undecided over vaccine

Record ID: 1628430

  • Title: "It's an individual decision": coronavirus ICU patient still undecided over vaccine
  • Date: 24th July 2021
  • Summary: ORANGE, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JULY 23, 2021) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF BRIAN PARISI, UNVACCINATED 53-YEAR-OLD COVID PATIENT, RECEIVING TREATMENT FROM NURSES IN THE CORONAVIRUS ICU AT PROVIDENCE ST. JOSEPH HOSPITAL (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRIAN PARISI, UNVACCINATED 53-YEAR-OLD COVID PATIENT, SAYING: "And then about 11 days ago on a Tuesday evening, I started having difficulty breathing and my O2 started dropping, so I thought I better get to the hospital. And so they took me into the E.R. and then evaluated me and then brought me up to this unit." VARIOUS OF NURSES IN PROTECTIVE CLOTHING TREATING PARISI IN COVID ICU WARD (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRIAN PARISI, UNVACCINATED 53-YEAR-OLD COVID PATIENT, SAYING: "We had considered moving forward with it (the vaccine), to be honest, to be perfectly honest, we were waiting for the emergency authorization to work its way through. In retrospect, I honestly don't know if it (vaccine) would have made a difference because there are adverse reactions that can come from the vaccine." (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRIAN PARISI, UNVACCINATED 53-YEAR-OLD COVID PATIENT, SAYING: "I honestly don't know that I would have personally (taken the vaccine), but I think it's an individual decision. There's a lot of factors that are going into it. There are politics involved. And there are multiple sides of the equation, and I don't know that there's a right answer, honestly. I think the folks in the hospital have all been vaccinated. I think it's an important part of their procedural stuff to keep themselves safe. For the general public, I think it's a serious decision that each individual should make of their own accord." VARIOUS OF PARISI RECEIVING TREATMENT IN ICU WARD CLOSE-UP OF MONITOR (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRIAN PARISI, UNVACCINATED 53-YEAR-OLD COVID PATIENT, SAYING: "It's been hard, eleven days away from my wife and I feel for everybody who's in this unit because I know there are people not improving in the manner that I am and it's hard for them to be separated from their families as well. I think it's a reality of Covid." VIEW OF ENTRANCE TO COVID ICU WARD WITH SIGN READING "CLOSED UNIT" SIGN ON GROUND READING: "CAUTION. YOU ARE ENTERING A COVID UNIT" VARIOUS OF NURSE PUTTING ON PROTECTIVE CLOTHING AND GLOVES BEFORE TREATING COVID PATIENT IN ICU "COVID" PRINTED STICKERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) CRITICAL CARE PULMONOLOGIST, DR. JOOBY BABU, SAYING: "It's quite obvious that people who are vaccinated are not getting symptomatic disease and much less likely so to get admitted with Covid." BABU PUTTING ON GLOVES BEFORE SEEING COVID PATIENT IN ICU VIEW OF COVID PATIENT BRIAN PARISI SPEAKING TO BABU (SOUNDBITE) (English) CRITICAL CARE PULMONOLOGIST, DR. JOOBY BABU, SAYING: "Over the past almost two and a half weeks, we've had an increase in the number of patients come in and I would say I've seen at least like 20 to 25 patients come in on high oxygen levels. Out of which, 97 percent ... 95 to 97 percent are unvaccinated. There are a couple of patients who were vaccinated, but those patients had other comorbidities or illnesses and they were admitted, but they still didn't have severe disease." BABU SPEAKING TO NURSE BABU AND NURSE ENTERING ROOM TO TREAT COVID PATIENT (SOUNDBITE) (English) CRITICAL CARE PULMONOLOGIST, DR. JOOBY BABU, SAYING: "Well, right now, we are concerned that there will be a surge because there's still a large number of unvaccinated people out there. Hopefully the vaccination rates go up again soon so we do not see that. So, yes, but we are concerned that it will probably be overwhelm us at some point, maybe not like December or January but we still see the possibility." NURSE TREATING COVID PATIENT NURSE TAKING OFF PROTECTIVE GOWN AND LEAVING ISOLATION UNIT AFTER TREATING COVID PATIENT VARIOUS OF NURSES IN COVID WARD PROTECTIVE FACE SHIELDS HANGING ON COAT HANGER (SOUNDBITE) (English) ABIGAIL PIMIENTO, ICU NURSE, SAYING: "So we take the sickest of the sick which we have been doing for over a year and a half in my nurses who are amazing, have been taking care of these patients with compassion and care. And we've seen the worst of it, We've seen the best of it but it is a thing that's real and it is devastating to the families. And, of course, our nurses also take an emotional toll." PAN OF COVID ISOLATION UNITS IN ICU WARD WITH NURSES AND DOCTORS TREATING PATIENTS VIEW OF VENTILATOR (SOUNDBITE) (English) ABIGAIL PIMIENTO, ICU NURSE, SAYING: "Covid is real, it is. This is living proof of the patients that we do have that if you can, please God be vaccinated. It's just not for yourself, but it's also for your family, for your friends, because we need to put a stop." COVID-ICU WARD / VARIOUS OF MEDICAL STAFF IN ICU (SOUNDBITE) (English) DR. AMIR GHIASSI, PULMONOLOGIST WITH PROVIDENCE ST. JOSEPH HOSPITAL, SAYING: "this may become eventually endemic where it's there and you get Covid and you get a cold and you get better, but we're not there yet. Until we get a high number of people vaccinated, we're not going to be there yet. Especially with the Delta variant and other variants that may come around." VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF PROVIDENCE ST. JOSEPH HOSPITAL
  • Embargoed: 7th August 2021 01:24
  • Keywords: COVID-19 Providence St Joseph hospital coronavirus hospital patient pulmonologist
  • Location: ORANGE, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
  • City: ORANGE, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Health/Medicine,United States,Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA001EN78OCN
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Brian Parisi almost died from COVID-19. But sitting in a coronavirus Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at a southern California hospital, the unvaccinated 53-year-old says he's still in two minds about the benefits of the COVID-19 vaccines.
    "In retrospect, I honestly don't know if it (vaccine) would have made a difference because there are adverse reactions that can come from the vaccine," Parisi told Reuters on Friday (July 23) as he received treatment from ICU nurses in full PPE.
    "I honestly don't know that I would have personally (taken the vaccine), but I think it's an individual decision," he added.
    Health officials are concerned that a COVID-19 surge ignited in parts of the United States by the highly contagious Delta variant is also being impacted by vaccine hesitancy as vaccination rates fall across the U.S..
    "It's quite obvious that people who are vaccinated are not getting symptomatic disease and much less likely so to get admitted with Covid," said Dr. Jooby Babu, an ICU Pulmonologist at the Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, California.
    "Over the past almost two and a half weeks, we've had an increase in the number of patients come in and I would say I've seen at least like 20 to 25 patients come in ... out of which ... 95 to 97 percent are unvaccinated," he added.
    Dealing with deadly virus takes an "emotional toll" on the ICU nurses, explained Abigail Pimiento, whose been treating coronavirus patients since the start of the pandemic at the Providence St. Joseph Hospital.
    "So we take the sickest of the sick which we have been doing for over a year and a half and my nurses who are amazing, have been taking care of these patients with compassion and care. And we've seen the worst of it, We've seen the best of it but it is a thing that's real and it is devastating to the families. And, of course, our nurses also take an emotional toll," she said, moments before a new COVID-19 patient was brought into the ICU.
    "Covid is real, it is. This is living proof of the patients that we do have that if you can, please God be vaccinated. It's just not for yourself, but it's also for your family, for your friends, because we need to put a stop," she added.
    The seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases in the United States is up 53% over the previous week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday. The Delta variant makes up more than 80% of the new cases across the country.
    (Production: Sandra Stojanovic, Omar Younis)
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