Alabama Doctor Pens Heartbreaking Facebook Post About Unvaccinated COVID-19 Patients Asking for Vaccine: “I’m Sorry, But It’s Too Late”

An Alabama doctor recently made a Facebook post detailing her recent experiences with treating unvaccinated COVID-19 patients.

On Monday, Dr. Brytney Cobia said all but one of her COVID patients had not received the vaccine. The sole vaccinated patient only needed a little oxygen and is expected to recover, but others under her care are dying, AL reported.

“I’m admitting young, healthy people to the hospital with very serious COVID infections,” wrote Cobia, a hospitalist at Grandview Medical Center in Birmingham, in an emotional Facebook post on Sunday. “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.”

Despite three vaccines being widely available in the state, the vaccination rate is at a whopping 33.7% of those fully vaccinated.

Alabama is having another surge in hospitalizations and cases of the more contagious Delta variant of the virus.

“Back in 2020 and early 2021, when the vaccine wasn’t available, it was just tragedy after tragedy after tragedy,” the doctor told AL.com. “You know, so many people that did all the right things, and yet still came in, and were critically ill and died.”

The virus continues to wreak havoc but primarily on those who remain unvaccinated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said it’s now a pandemic of the unvaccinated.

Alabama state officials announced that 94% of COVID hospital patients and 96% of Alabama residents died because of the virus since April were not fully vaccinated.

“A few days later, when I call time of death,” continued Cobia on Facebook, “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 color, they wouldn’t get as sick. They thought it was ‘just the flu.’ 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. And I go back to my office, write their death note, and say a small prayer that this loss will save more lives.”

Over 11,000 Alabamians have died from COVID. But Dr. Cobia says midway through 2021, the mental and emotional capacity to care for someone who could have prevented their infection but chose not to has changed.

“You kind of go into it thinking, ‘Okay, I’m not going to feel bad for this person because they make their own choice,’” Cobia said. “But then you actually see them, you see them face to face, and it really changes your whole perspective, because they’re still just a person that thinks that they made the best decision that they could with the information that they have, and all the misinformation that’s out there.

“And now all you really see is their fear and their regret. And even though I may walk into the room thinking, ‘Okay, this is your fault, you did this to yourself,’ when I leave the room, I just see a person that’s really suffering, and that is so regretful for the choice that they made.”

There is still a strain on healthcare workers.

“It’s really hard because all of us physicians and other medical staff, 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 said.

The doctor also added that the new Delta strand reminds her of what it looked like during October and November 2020.

“What we saw in December 2020 and January 2021, that was the absolute peak, the height of the pandemic, where I was signing 10 death certificates a day,” she said. “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.”

“All these kids are about to go back to school. No mask mandates are in place at all; 70% of Alabama is unvaccinated. Of course, no kids are vaccinated for the most part because they can’t be,” Cobia said. “So it feels like impending doom, basically.”

Dr. Cobia received her vaccine in December and said she wasn’t hesitant about it. She offered some advice to those that may be hesitant to get it, speak to your physician.

“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 I’ll just ask it point-blank, in the least judgmental way possible,” she said. “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.

“And the one question that I always ask them is, did you make an appointment with your primary care doctor and ask them for their opinion on whether or not you should receive the vaccine? And so far, nobody has answered yes to that question.”