ICU doctor says current COVID-19 surge could be the last

CELEBRATION, Fla. — Not many people truly understand the dark depths of the COVID-19 pandemic the way Dr. Fortune Alabi does.

“When you’re putting someone on the respirator, you’re thinking … ‘Am I going to be able to get them off?’ Because the vast majority of time we can’t,” he said.

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But even with the overwhelming amount of death he’s seen over the last two months, the AdventHealth intensive care unit director said he’s starting to feel more optimistic.

“I feel and I pray that this is going to be the last wave,” Alabi said.

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There was a time when the creation of a vaccine felt like the end of the virus was near, but not enough people received the shot, leaving the community without herd immunity.

“We’re all going to get something, whether you get the vaccine or whether you get the virus,” he said.

Alabi said he hopes that reality will encourage more people to get vaccinated. He said the delta variant has changed a lot of his patients’ minds.

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“Most of my patients are now talking about being vaccinated. In the last four weeks, I’ve gotten calls from people that were completely no, no like six months ago. Now they are open to the idea,” he said.

Orange County’s seen about a 5% increase in vaccinations during the current surge.

Data shows about 61% of the eligible population was vaccinated in July, and now, more than 66% have been vaccinated.

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Alabi said there’s still time to get the virus under control. He just hopes we don’t see another new variant before then.

“I just think it’s just sad because the vast majority of people dying, we could have prevented from dying,” he said. “If we all just knew from the onset that this is something we have to do together.”

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