Although the number of COVID-19 cases in Cameron County continues to drop, hospitalizations of coronavirus patients continue.
And though the hospitalizations are not as high as they were a year ago where hundreds of people were being admitted on a weekly basis, patients are still being treated for the deadly virus with some still receiving care in the intensive care units and some still dying
“Every day we admit someone with COVID pneumonia and we still have people who are in the ICU intubated, who will die…all of those people are unvaccinated,” said Dr. Beverly Zavaleta, a physician advisor at Valley Baptist Medical Center-Brownsville.
This is why health officials in the county continue to urge individuals who have yet to receive the COVID-19 vaccination to consider doing so.
Zavaleta said some patients she has talked to said they were waiting to meet with their primary care physician to learn more about the vaccine and how it would interact with medicine they were taking or were waiting to receive the vaccine at work. “They were on a list at their work place and when they were about to get it they got sick.”
As a former primary care physician, Zavaleta is happy that individuals concerned about getting the vaccinations are reaching out to their doctors.
“People do care about their health and they do trust their doctors, they trust their own doctor … family medicine and primary care we are suppose to be the core of medical care delivery world wide, so for me you are speaking my language when you tell me that. You are saying I trust my doctor, and I want my doctor who knows me to advise me and that is golden.”
What concerns Zavaleta is why the patients had not reached out to their doctors or did not have access to them.
“For whatever reason over the last six months or five months that vaccines have been available to the general public they haven’t been able to actually have that conversation with their primary care doctor. It’s more of an access to the doctor problem than anything else,” she said.
VBMC officials report over 78 percent of seniors in Cameron County have been fully vaccinated against the virus with the 65 and older groups answering the cry from health officials that they get vaccinated.
That means many local residents between the ages of 12 and 65 years old are still at an increased risk of both contracting and spreading COVID-19, in addition to facing higher odds of experiencing severe complications of COVID-19 infection that may require hospitalization, said Dr. Christopher Romero, an internal medicine specialist at Valley Baptist Medical Center-Harlingen.
“We have made tremendous progress locally with vaccination efforts, and we have seen firsthand the benefits with fewer cases, fewer hospitalizations, and fewer deaths,” he said. “Vaccination has definitely saved lives and prevented many of our friends and neighbors from suffering from a devastating disease we now have tools to prevent.”
With the vaccine now readily available at doctors’ offices, clinics, drugstores, grocery stores and farmers markets, Zavaleta said individuals don’t have to worry about waiting in long lines to get the vaccinations. When the vaccinations were initially available to the public, people waited in long lines for hours to get the shots.
“Many of the doctors offices have it and if they don’t it’s literally in any pharmacy right now…it’s easy and convenient and I don’t think that is something people don’t know,” Zavaleta said. “Now it’s as easy to get as the flu shot.”
Zavaleta said what could help in raising the vaccination rates in the county is to educate the public on how vaccines work, how infection works and how infection prevention works.
“What I see most is the lack of knowledge. People think they understand but they don’t understand. They think that it’s perfectly logical to say I am not sick so why would I take a medicine if I am not sick,” she said.
“I do have a lot of understanding for people because it’s really truly not that they don’t care about their health, it’ really truly not that they don’t care about each other, it’s a fundamental lack of understanding and knowledge about how all of these things work. We need to do a lot of outreach and education…and get into the community,” she said.
Zavaleta believes the Brownsville community and South Texas community care about each other and want to do what is best for everyone. “The medical community is incredibly supportive of the community and of each other and I really truly think that we can get through this and evolve with this situation. I am thankful for that and honored to be a part of it.”
