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By Heather Hollingsworth<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The COVID-19 patient\u2019s health was deteriorating quickly at a Michigan hospital, but he was having none of the doctor\u2019s diagnosis. Despite dangerously low oxygen levels, the unvaccinated man didn\u2019t think he was that sick and got so irate over a hospital policy forbidding his wife from being at his bedside that he threatened to walk out of the building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Matthew Trunsky didn\u2019t hold back in his response: \u201cYou are welcome to leave, but you will be dead before you get to your car,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Such exchanges have become all-too-common for medical workers who are growing weary of COVID-19 denial and misinformation that have made it exasperating to treat unvaccinated patients during the delta-driven surge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Associated Press asked six doctors from across the country to describe the types of misinformation and denial they see on a daily basis and how they respond to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They describe being aggravated at the constant requests to be prescribed the veterinary parasite drug Ivermectin, with patients lashing out at doctors when they are told that it\u2019s not a safe coronavirus treatment. People routinely cite falsehoods spread on social media, like an Illinois doctor who has people tell him that microchips are embedded in vaccines as part of a ploy to take over people\u2019s DNA. A Louisiana doctor has resorted to showing patients a list of ingredients in Twinkies, reminding those who are skeptical about the makeup of vaccines that everyday products have lots of safe additives that no one really understands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are their stories:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
LOUISIANA DOCTOR: \u2018Just stop looking at Facebook\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When patients tell Dr. Vincent Shaw that they don\u2019t want the COVID-19 vaccine because they don\u2019t know what\u2019s going into their bodies, he pulls up the ingredient list for a Twinkie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLook at the back of the package,\u201d Shaw, a family physician in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. \u201cTell me you can pronounce everything on the back of that package. Because I have a chemistry degree, I still don\u2019t know what that is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also commonly hears patients tell him they haven\u2019t done enough research about the vaccines. Rest assured, he tells them, the vaccine developers have done their homework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then there are the fringe explanations: \u201cThey\u2019re putting a tracker in and it makes me magnetic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another explanation left him speechless: \u201cThe patient couldn\u2019t understand why they were given this for free, because humanity in and of itself is not nice and people aren\u2019t nice and nobody would give anything away. So there\u2019s no such thing as inherent good nature of man. And I had no comeback from that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n People who get sick with mild cases insist that they have natural immunity. \u201cNo, you\u2019re not a Superman or Superwoman,\u201d he tells them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said one of the biggest issues is social media, as evidenced by the many patients who describe what they saw on Facebook in deciding against getting vaccinated. That mindset has spawned memes about the many Americans who got their degrees at the University of Facebook School of Medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am like, \u2018No, no, no, no, no.\u2019 I shake my head, \u2018No, no. That is not right, no, no. Stop, stop, just stop looking at Facebook.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n DALLAS ER DOCTOR: Baffled at how he\u2019s \u2018lost all credibility\u2019 with anti-vaccine patients<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Stu Coffman has patients tell him they are scared about vaccine side effects. They don\u2019t trust the regulatory approval process and raise disproven concerns that the vaccine will harm their fertility. He said the most unexpected thing someone told him was that there was \u201cactually poison in the mRNA vaccine\u201d \u2014 a baseless rumor that originated online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He is confounded by the pushback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you\u2019ve got a gunshot wound or stab wound or you\u2019re having a heart attack, you want to see me in the emergency department,\u201d he said. \u201cBut as soon as we start talking about a vaccine, all of a sudden I\u2019ve lost all credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said the key to overcoming hesitancy is to figure out where it originates. He said when people come to him with concerns about fertility, he can point to specific research showing that the vaccine is safe and their issues are unfounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But he says there\u2019s no hope in changing the minds of people who think the vaccines are laced with poison. \u201cI\u2019m probably not going to be able to show you anything that convinces you otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And he thinks he could change people\u2019s minds about the vaccine if they could follow him around for a shift as he walks past the beds of the sick and dying, almost all of whom are unvaccinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n KENTUCKY: Political views come into clear focus after diagnosis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Ryan Stanton recently had a patient who began their conversation by saying, \u201cI\u2019m not afraid of any China virus.\u201d From that point on, he knew what he was up against in dealing with the patient\u2019s politics and misguided beliefs about the virus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stanton blamed people like far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for spreading some of the misinformation that has taken root among his patients. Among them is that the vaccine contains fetal cells. Another said it \u201cis a simple fact that the vaccine has killed millions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn fact,\u201d he said, \u201cthat couldn\u2019t be more wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s tough to watch, especially after living through the early surges. On his worst shift last fall, an elderly nursing home patient arrived, close to death. She hadn\u2019t seen her family in months, so staff wheeled her outside in the ambulance bay so her relatives could say their goodbyes from 20 feet away. He snapped a picture of the scene so he could remember the horror.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was hope after the vaccines arrived, but then came the delta variant and a slowdown in immunizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cReally it amazes me the number of people who have this huge fear, conspiracy theory about vaccines and will honest to God try anything, including a veterinary medicine, to get better,\u201d said Stanton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MICHIGAN PULMONOLOGIST: Facebook post unleashes his frustration<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For Trunsky, the vaccine pushback grew so intense that he turned to Facebook to describe the ire he confronts on a daily basis at Beaumont Hospital in Troy, Michigan. The post listed eight encounters he had in the two previous days alone in which COVID-19 patients explained misinformation-fueled reasons for not getting vaccines or made demands for unproven treatments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Example No. 5 was a patient who said he\u2019d rather die than take the vaccine. Trunsky\u2019s response: \u201cYou may get your wish.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He has heard a litany of misinformation about the vaccine: They say it\u2019s not proven and only experimental when in fact it is not. Others tell him the vaccine is a \u201cpersonal choice and that the government shouldn\u2019t tell me what to do.\u201d He also has heard patients tell them they are too sick and didn\u2019t want to risk the side effects of the vaccine. One young mother told him she wasn\u2019t vaccinated because she was breastfeeding, although her pediatrician and obstetrician urged her it was safe. She had to be hospitalized but eventually got a shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Others, though, take out their anger on health care providers. Some threaten to call attorneys if they don\u2019t get a prescription for Ivermectin, commonly used by veterinarians to kill worms and parasites. The drug can cause harmful side effects and there\u2019s little evidence it helps with the coronavirus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He estimates that he has cared for 100 patients who have died since the pandemic began, including the man who threatened to walk out of the hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ILLINOIS FAMILY PHYSICIAN: Traces misinformation back to Scripture, Nicki Minaj<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Carl Lambert hears lots of wild misinformation from his patients. Some comes from the Bible interpretations; some originates from the rapper Nicki Minaj.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of it is the stuff of internet conspiracy theories, like there\u2019s a chip in the vaccine that will take over their DNA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cImpossible scientifically,\u201d says the family physician in Chicago. He also hears patients tell him that the vaccine will weaken their immune systems. He responds: \u201cImmunology 101. Vaccines help your immune system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recently he received a flurry of messages from patients who were worried about damage to their testicles \u2014 a rumor he ultimately traced back to an erroneous tweet from Minaj alleging that the vaccine causes impotence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd I was like, \u2018That\u2019s outlandish. That\u2019s a bit outrageous.\u2019 So a lot of just kind of counseling that I did not expect to have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of the misinformation is delivered from the pulpit, he said. People have sent him sermons of preachers saying the vaccine is \u201cungodly or there\u2019s something in it that will mark you,\u201d a reference to a verse in Revelation about the \u201cmark of the beast\u201d that some Christians cite in not getting vaccinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s a mixture of like almost fear … and saying, \u201cHey, if you do this, maybe you\u2019re not as faithful as you should be as, say, a Christian.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most common, though, is patients just wanting to wait, uneasy with how quickly the vaccine was developed. But he warns them, \u201cPlease do not try to wait out a pandemic. A pandemic will win.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said his job is \u201ca lot of just dismantling what people have heard,\u201d answering their questions and reassuring them that \u201cvaccines work like this just like when we were kids.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He has had some luck lately in changing minds. \u201cI\u2019ve had patients that maybe four months ago said \u2018You are wasting your time. Dr. Lambert, I don\u2019t want to hear you talking about it.\u2019 And they\u2019ll come back and say, \u2018Hey, you know what? I\u2019ve been watching the news. I\u2019ve seen some stuff. I think I\u2019m ready now.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n UTAH DOCTOR: Fear of vaccine side effects, then fear of dying<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Dr. Elizabeth Middleton talks to COVID-19 patients about why they aren\u2019t vaccinated, they often cite fear of side effects. But as they get sicker and sicker, a different sort of fear sets in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey sort of have this sinking look about them, like \u2018Oh, my God. This is happening to me. I should have been vaccinated,\u2019\u201d said the pulmonary critical care doctor at the University of Utah hospital in Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She hears often that the vaccine was developed too quickly. \u201cWho are you to judge the speed of science?\u201d she wonders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Also frustrating is the idea among some patients that there is a \u201csecret agenda\u201d behind getting vaccinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c\u2018There must be something wrong if everyone is forcing us to do this or everyone wants us to do this,\u2019\u201d patients tell her. \u201cAnd my response to that is, \u2018They are urging you to do it because we are in an emergency. This is a pandemic. It is a national and international crisis. That is why we are pushing it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Getting through to patients and their families is a \u201cdelicate line,\u201d she says. She tries not to disrupt the patient-doctor relationship by pushing vaccines too hard. But often the people who have been on ventilators need no convincing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey are like, \u2019Tell everyone that they have to be vaccinated. I want to call my family. They need to be vaccinated.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Originally published at Associated Press<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Heather Hollingsworth The COVID-19 patient\u2019s health was deteriorating quickly at a Michigan hospital, but he was having none of the doctor\u2019s diagnosis. Despite dangerously low oxygen levels, the unvaccinated man didn\u2019t think he was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[275,1844,1845],"class_list":["post-5654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-covid-19","tag-doctor","tag-misinformation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n