‘We’re absolutely in a third wave:’ Front-line ICU doctor calls for mask mandate and vaccine outreach

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Pulmonary and critical care physician Kate Grossman is a front-line ICU doctor working with COVID-19 patients every day at Boone Health in Columbia.

She says Columbia's health care workers are overwhelmed.

“It's incredibly busy and it's incredibly exhausting," Grossman said. "Every day in the hospital, we are full, we have nurses caring for more patients than they've ever cared for, we have physicians caring for more patients and sicker patients than they've ever cared for."

"It truly is exhausting and really difficult to get patients who are really sick through this."

Kate Grossman, a pulmonary and critical care physician at Boone Health

Grossman went to the Columbia City Council's special meeting Monday night to speak, but was turned away when public comment was suspended. The city council planned the meeting to consider a new citywide mask mandate for Columbia but the council rejected the bill in a 3-3 vote as mask opponents crowded the council chambers, many without wearing a mask. Six votes were needed to approve it.

After the meeting, Grossman contacted ABC 17 News to have her views heard. She says she's in favor of a mask mandate because our health care facilities are now at a breaking point.

"I feel strongly that we should be wearing masks again,” Grossman said. "Masks are what we've been doing for the entire last year and a half, that helped us get in control of the pandemic and it's something that we need to be doing now while our rates are so high.”

According to the state health department, Missouri's coronavirus hospitalizations spiked above 2,000 again on Wednesday.

The number of ICU patients in the Show-Me State on Sunday registered at 644, just 41 patients away from Missouri's previous peak on Dec. 22 of last year. Initial data from Monday's hospitalizations show Missouri surpassed that peak.

Gov. Mike Parson announced Wednesday $30 million to support Missouri’s health care professionals and system that will be funded through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

The state will commit $15 million to provide health care staffing for all Missouri-licensed or CMS-certified critical access, acute care and long-term care hospitals. The state will commit the other $15 million to establish five to eight strategically located, state-funded monoclonal antibodies sites that will operate for 30 days each.

The extra staffing will help hospitals in hard-hit areas, said Dave Dillon, spokesman for the Missouri Hospital Association. Right now some areas north of Interstate 70 aren't seeing the kind of viral spread that other parts of the state are experiencing, Dillon said, but it's only a matter of time as delta gets into more communities.

"I have seen more death in the last two years than I have seen in all of my career."

kate grossman

After the city council's special meeting, Mayor Brian Treece called the mask mandate discussion a "distraction." Treece said rather than debating a mask mandate, we should be focused on getting people vaccinated. Grossman disagrees.

"I don't agree that we can only focus on vaccines, or on masks," Grossman said. "I think that we have the ability to do both and we should be doing both.”

Vaccination rates in Missouri are among the lowest in the nation. Only 42.4% of Missourians have been fully vaccinated, according to state reporting. The number in Boone County is slightly better but still low -- 47.8%.

Ultimately, Treece and other members of the city council expressed their concerns with enforcement and voted to deny the mask mandate.

"I was disappointed," Grossman said. "I think it is hard to enforce a mask mandate and I think there are always going to be people who go against it but I think a big portion of the population will hear the importance of a mandate and we'll go back to wearing masks and I think that all that does is protect us further.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's most recent state profile report, 31 hospitals in Missouri are currently short-staffed. This means that more than a quarter of Missouri hospitals don't have enough workers to deal with the surge in patients. Grossman says staffing is one of her main concerns.

“At a certain point, there's too many patients, they're too sick and we don't have the staff," Grossman said. "The main resource that I'm worried about is, is our health care providers, our beds in the hospital.”

Grossman says it's more than just COVID-19 -- since the pandemic hit, the ICU has seen an increase in other respiratory problems too.

“Since we stopped masking, we've seen a resurgence in other respiratory illnesses that truly we didn't see this last year and so now we don't only have COVID in the hospital, we have parainfluenza, we have RSV, we have enterovirus, we have rhinovirus," Grossman said. "We have all of these viruses coming back and we're about to enter a flu season and truly I didn't see one case of flu in this last year, and I have no doubt without masks right now we're about to have a flu season again.”

The vaccines are incredibly safe and incredibly effective, they prevent against 99.9% of severe disease and hospitalizations, even from the delta variant.

kate grossman

Grossman is asking the community to get vaccinated and wear a mask.

“The vaccine is safe, the vaccine is effective and everyone should be signing up to get this vaccine,” Grossman said. "The fact that we're seeing such a surge right now while we have a vaccine that could be protecting people is truly devastating, and you know I hear people talk about why they're hesitant to get it or why they don't believe in it and when I see patients in the ICU, they're regretful. They're regretful because it's too late.”

You can find more information on how and where to get vaccinated in Missouri here.

Grossman says Missourians are being hit by the third wave of COVID-19 but there is one difference from the past waves.

“We're absolutely in a third wave and the numbers that we're seeing, yesterday, today and in Boone County are the highest that we have seen in any of the waves," Grossman said. "We have the most hospitalized patients and we have a huge number of cases, the huge difference is that this is preventable.”

Grossman wants mid-Missourians to take action.

“We need the community to step up and put their masks back on and go out and get vaccinated if you haven't already," Grossman said. "Do whatever you can to slow down the spread of COVID, to slow down the amount of hospitalizations and patients that we have in the hospital, and to give your healthcare workers a break because this is exhausting.

“We have tired physicians, we have exhausted nurses who are putting forth their best effort and we really need to see that effort in the community as well.”