'This COVID is a monster:' West Virginia mother shares story of son who chose not to get vaccine

Linda said she, her husband and Joey, who is 40, contracted COVID-19 after attending a crowded event in July where few were wearing masks or social distancing.

“It was a very poor choice on our part,” she said. “For that, Joey ended up with COVID, I ended up with COVID and my husband ended up with COVID. I’d had the vaccine, so had my husband, and we had the antibodies and we did not have a hard time.”

Joey wasn’t as lucky, Linda said.

“He was admitted (to the hospital),” she said. “Before he got so sick that he couldn’t talk, he told people, ‘Get vaccinated. You don’t want this stuff.’”

The day after Joey was admitted, she received a call from his physician, Dr. Tom Takubo, who is also GOP majority leader of the state Senate, Linda said.

“He said, ‘Your boy is in trouble,’” Linda said. “Joey was put on the vent (ventilator) and the ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation), which is a machine that functions for your lungs and lets your lungs rest so that you can get healthier and your lungs work a little bit better.”

Joey was taken off the ECMO machine after about five weeks, but remains sedated and on a ventilator, Linda said.

“Joey choose not to be vaccinated because he listened to the negative and false accusations about vaccination,” she said. “He listened to his friends, he listened to social media, and he listened to what I call the ‘garbage’ that’s out there.”

Anyone with questions about COVID-19 vaccines should consult their doctor, Linda said.

“Go to someone that knows. Let them answer your question, because that’s where the true answers are,” she said. “This COVID is a monster.”

Takubo, who also joined Monday’s briefing, said Linda’s story is “not unique.”

“Since the beginning of this pandemic, we’ve had to, as medical workers — the nurses, respiratory therapists, the physicians — they’ve had to relive this over and over and over, time and time again,” he said.

Between 88% and 90% of the COVID-19 patients he has treated are unvaccinated, Takubo said.

“The vaccines are working,” he said. “They are keeping people safe or they are keeping people out of the hospital.”

There were 852 COVID-19 patients hospitalized statewide as of Monday, including 267 patients in ICUs and 162 patients on ventilators, according to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.

All three hospital metrics are now higher than they have been at any previous point during the pandemic, Justice said.

James Hoyer, who leads the Joint Interagency Task Force for COVID-19 Vaccines, said officials are in daily contact with West Virginia Hospital Association representatives.

On March 31, 2020, just after the initial onset of the pandemic, Justice signed an executive order indefinitely suspending all elective medical procedures in the state in an effort to conserve personal protective equipment for health-care workers.

Hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers were allowed to resume elective procedures April 28, 2020, after receiving approval from the DHHR.

Officials have determined a similar executive order suspending elective medical producers is not the best course of action amid the current surge, Hoyer said.

“As opposed to proposing to the governor a statewide moratorium on elective procedures, when discussing with the hospitals, we decided to go to a local level effort that we then stay — through the Hospital Association — in touch and coordination with,” he said. “It allows the hospitals, without a state moratorium, to manage and triage at each hospital level based on availability of beds, equipment and staff.”

Staffing shortages are currently the biggest challenges, Hoyer said.

“It’s really not a matter of beds, and it’s even not necessarily a matter of equipment. We’ve got enough ventilators across the state that we could push some additional ventilators to places, and we’ve been doing that,” he said. “The issue is qualified ICU and ER staff.”