Search icon

Coronavirus

22nd Jul 2021

Doctor tells dying unvaccinated patients ‘I’m sorry but it’s too late’

Kieran Galpin

Dr Cobia

Doctor Cobia has a cautionary tale

Dr Brytney Cobia has revealed that Covid patients currently in hospital beg for the jab, for which she tells them “it’s too late”. Working at Grandview Medical Centre in Birmingham, Alabama, Cobia deals with a lot of Covid patients, including young people with “very serious Covid infections”.

“One of the last things they do before they’re intubated is beg me for the vaccine. I hold their hand and tell them that I’m sorry, but it’s too late,” she tells Metro.

“A few days later when I call time of death, I hug their family members and I tell them the best way to honor their loved one is to go get vaccinated and encourage everyone they know to do the same. They cry.

“And they tell me they didn’t know. They thought it was a hoax. They thought it was political.

“They thought because they had a certain blood type or a certain skin colour they wouldn’t get as sick. They thought it was “just the flu.”

Alabama has the lowest uptake of the Covid vaccine in the US, with just 33.7% of the population choosing to take the vaccine.

“But they were wrong. And they wish they could go back. But they can’t. So they thank me and they go get the vaccine,” she continues.

“And I go back to my office, write their death note, and say a small prayer that this loss will save more lives.”

Doctor Cobia also spoke to AL.com about her experience:

“I was signing 10 death certificates a day.

“Now, it’s certainly not like that, but it’s very reminiscent of probably October, November of 2020, where we know there’s a lot of big things coming up.”

When patients are admitted with Covid, and seeing that they have not received the vaccine, Dr Cobia asks why:

 “I try to be very non-judgmental when I’m getting a new Covid patient that’s unvaccinated, but I really just started asking them, :Why haven’t you gotten the vaccine?”

“And most of them, they’re very honest, they give me answers. “I talked to this person, I saw this thing on Facebook, I got this email, I saw this on the news,” you know, these are all the reasons that I didn’t get vaccinated.”

“We’ve been doing this for a long time, and all of us are very, at this point, tired and emotionally drained and cynical,” she concludes.