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Coronavirus

12th Jan 2022

Doctor says every covid patient currently in his hospital’s ICU is unjabbed

Kieran Galpin

The ICU unit opened four months early to aid in fighting covid

A doctor working in an intensive care unit has disclosed that every single covid patient in the unit is unvaccinated.

Dr David Hepburn stated that while vaccines do not offer 100 per cent protection, no vaccinated people were in the ICU at Grange University Hospital in Cwmbran, South Wales.

The specialist care unit, which cost £350m, opened four months early to help aid in battling covid. As of Tuesday, all 24 ICU beds were taken by unvaccinated people.

Read more: Rules around covid PCR tests changed today. Here’s what you need to know

He also told the Mail Online that they have experienced “several deaths this week”.

He continued: “None of them had significant comorbidities and were people you would usually expect to live another 30-plus years.”

While Hepburn admitted that the unit had seen fewer covid cases in recent months, he emphasised that the hospital as a whole is under increasing pressure.

He added: “We now have less Covid cases on the unit than for several months — this might be because of good vaccination levels locally or we haven’t hit the peak of Omicron as yet.

“So all in all we are in good shape as ITUs go.”

On getting the vaccine, Hepburn said: “Even if your risk is low of getting seriously unwell, vaccination makes a huge difference to those around you who are awaiting treatment for other conditions.

“We all need to do what we can to help our neighbours and friends — this is reason enough in my opinion”.

The doctor did add that we should all be “sympathetic” to the reasonings of unvaccinated people.

However, he concluded that everyone should be “sympathetic” to the reasons why some are vaccine-hesitant.

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