As COVID-19 vaccinations are accelerating in the United States, a hospital in California, severely affected, says its staff has obtained immunity from the herd. In December, when the pandemic peaked in the state, UC Davis Medical Center had 231 employees because of COVID-19.
On Wednesday, that number was just 10.
To date, more than 56 million doses of the vaccine have been administered in the United States, although the nation is still far from immune immunity, scientists say the country must be safe. However, at UC Davis, over 90% of employees received at least the first blow – and reached that threshold.
UC Davis nurse Chasity Whitmer has given birth to children at the height of the pandemic. When it came time to get vaccinated, she told David Begnaud of CBS News that she was hesitant.
“If I received the vaccine, would I receive COVID? What would be my side effects? How long will it take? Whitmer remembered wondering.
But with a husband who stays at home and takes care of the children, Whitmer told CBS News what changed her mind.
“I referred a nurse to my unit and we had some kind of discussion,” she said. “What if we got COVID? We couldn’t work. We didn’t have income, we didn’t have health insurance. And so we talked to each other and we increased our confidence and we raised the line to be vaccinated. “
She and more than 90% of staff at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento received at least one dose of vaccine.
This number is 100% among the hospital’s emergency physicians, said Dr. Nate Kuppermann, director of the emergency department.
Kuppermann said that vaccinating most employees changed his ability to hire ERs and that he felt that “this pressure has lifted off our shoulders.”
“So, before the vaccine came out, one day, we would have between 100 and 150 employees who were sick with COVID and were asking for patients who weren’t coming in,” he said. “And now I think it’s a single digit. I mean, it’s less than 10.”
It’s not just UC Davis’ health care system – within the University of California’s health care system, cases among medical staff have dropped from 431 a week to 171 a week. With fewer sick employees, the pressure on health workers has also decreased.
Acting Director of Employee Health Services Anne Tompkins said UC Davis data and people’s stories were “proof that the vaccine really works.”
“We’ll be fine,” she said.
As for Whitmer, the nurse went from skeptical to vaccine to evangelist – a few days after receiving the second dose, Whitmer’s husband, mother, three children and grandmother tested positive for COVID-19. . Only she and her grandfather did not – and they are the only two in the family who have been vaccinated.
“My husband was extremely sick with COVID pneumonia, he was here in the emergency room for nine hours. My grandmother spent 25 days in the hospital with COVID pneumonia and she is still recovering,” Whitmer said. “It’s not fun to see your sick family members. It’s very scary, being a nurse, watching them get sick more and more and if they have to go to the hospital, if they stay home.”
Whitmer said her reliving made her emotional because she didn’t know if her husband “will be one of those who will live or die.“
A member of the CBS News team filming inside UC Davis said it was the calmest and quietest hospital he had visited in months.
And, although the staff there is confident that everyone is protected by the vaccine, they still mandate masks and social distances at all times.