COVID is taking its toll in Michigan hospitals, and West Michigan is not immune either, pun intended! Mercy Health St. Mary's and Mercy Health Muskegon are feeling the weight of the pandemic yet again — and worse than ever before.

Fox17 reports that St. Mary's is over 100% capacity for beds. Currently, occupancy stands at 103%. That means they are caring for more people than ever before, and have expanded out units to meet current needs.

Infectious Disease Division Chief for Mercy Health St. Mary's Dr. Andrew Jameson told FOX17,

We reached out to some of the regulators of the state to expand our capacity for beds. We’ve had to tap into that reserve.

Sadly, and frustratingly, the current situation is entirely preventable. Nearly all of the people in the hospital who are dying or really sick are not vaccinated. And it appears that COVID is mostly spreading at home.

Dr. Jameson told our news partners at FOX-17 that parents ages 30-50 make up a majority of the ICU. Caring for children sick with COVID likely put them there, he says. The more virus someone is exposed to over a prolonged period of time will increase their likelihood of being critically ill.

Everyone is super tired and just sick of this. They’re sick of people dying that don’t need to be dying.

Another frustration is that surgeries may have to be delayed, as there's simply not enough room at the hospital, and Emergency room wait times will also be longer.

The Mercy Health staff is doing their best to fight the disinformation that landed patients in this position in the first place. The political divide in our country finds people reading, listening, watching things that are just blatantly untrue. That causes them to avoid getting vaccinated, avoid getting the care they need and results in delays in coming to the hospital. What happens in many of these cases?  As they say in the medical field, BAD OUTCOMES!

Answers to 25 common COVID-19 vaccine questions

Vaccinations for COVID-19 began being administered in the U.S. on Dec. 14, 2020. The quick rollout came a little more than a year after the virus was first identified in November 2019. The impressive speed with which vaccines were developed has also left a lot of people with a lot of questions. The questions range from the practical—how will I get vaccinated?—to the scientific—how do these vaccines even work?

Keep reading to discover answers to 25 common COVID-19 vaccine questions.

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