Hospital leaders stress the importance of showing how effective COVID-19 vaccines are in local areas
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
MU Health Care is now sharing data on how many COVID-19 patients are vaccinated. Although the information on vaccine effectiveness is available at the national level, local leaders say it's essential to reflect on what's happening locally.
"Putting this information out there hopefully will help people really understand what's going on right here in mid-Missouri help them to understand that the vaccine really is helping people stay out of the hospital, and it really is helping keep people alive," said Dr. Laura Hesemann, chief of staff for MU Health Care.
MU's data on Wednesday shows that 10 out of 46 COVID-19 patients are fully vaccinated. Two out of 23 ICU patients are vaccinated, and two out of 15 patients are on ventilators.
Hesemann says they hope other hospitals follow the trend of being more transparent. "It's important for patients to have information, and it's important for patients to really understand risks and benefits of medical treatments."
Not all locals have plans to release the information at this point.
Dr. Robin Blount with Boone Health said there are no plans to share this data with the public at this time, but she did confirm that the vast majority of Covid patients in the hospital are unvaccinated.
"I think it's helpful to know that, but we've known that all along. The Delta variant and this new surge showed that the unvaccinated were the ones that were landing in the hospital," Blount said.
Dave Dillon with the Missouri Hospital Association says, "Oftentimes what you see is that hospitals, take actions like this that represent the makeup of the community. If an individual hospital decides that this is part of their overall communications to try to support vaccination, then it is a powerful statement."
Dillon said, on the other hand, hospitals have no obligation to provide that data.
"Although it is widely known that the vaccine lowers the chance of hospitalization with the virus, I don't believe that sometimes this is what people want to hear," Dillon said.
Hesemann says patients need to understand what they can do to improve their health and protect their health. She thinks it would be great if everyone knew what the vaccine and what the coronavirus is doing in their communities.
Lisa Cox, with the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services, said the state has plans to move forward soon to provide data on statewide cases and deaths that show vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals.
