By BRENT MATIN
St. Joseph Post
Mosaic Life Care executives urge local residents to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
Mosaic has announced it will require all caregivers to be vaccinated, stating the move will protect patients at its St. Joseph, Maryville, and Albany hospitals.
Chief Medical Officer Dr. Davin Turner says there simply is no dispute that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have proven effective against the coronavirus.
“What they have found with both is, still today, 98% of all people dying from COVID were not vaccinated; 98%,” Turner tells reporters at a news conference.
Turner says the Johnson and Johnson single-shot vaccine has also proven effective.
Earlier this week, Mosaic reported treating 43 patients in its system with four in ICU, three of whom are on ventilators. Twelve of the 43 had received their vaccinations. Turner says those patients had other challenges which weakened their immune system and prevented the vaccine from proving effective. Those suffering other ailments, especially respiratory ailments, and the elderly are the most susceptible to the coronavirus.
Mosaic has been using the Regeneron monoclonal antibody infusion to treat COVID patients and it seems to shorten the hospital stay.
Turner says while Mosaic is pleased the hospitalizations since the resurgence of COIVD-19 have hovered between 30-and-60 patients, the health care system would worry less if the area positivity rate drops. Fears hospitalizations might spike ease when the positivity rate decreases.
Mosaic expects to have all doctors and administrators fully vaccinated by the first of November. All staff should be fully immunized by the end of the year or early next year.
The leadership team at Mosaic insists much of the resistance to the vaccines is being fueled by misinformation on social media as well as politics.
Mosaic CEO, Dr. Mark Laney, says he understands why some are scared of getting the vaccine.
“You go out on the Internet and you can just get an opinion about everything that would scare you to death,” according to Laney. “So, I think there’s been some vaccine hesitancy there.”
Laney says other, troubling, aspects have kept area residents from getting vaccinated.
“Unfortunately, vaccination has become far more politicized, the discussion has been far more political in many ways than medical and that is a component as well.”
Turner says experience has proven the worth of the Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson shots.
“As you think about the vaccine now, it’s been out since the very end of last year, you’ve got a lot of good data, over 300 million doses given, 350 million doses given, in the states,” Turner says. “It’s just a very effective, safe vaccine.”