Doctors issue dire warning as COVID poses an even bigger threat now to the unvaccinated

OMAHA, Neb. (FOX42KPTM) - A graphic shared by epidemiologist Dr. Matthew Donahue Wednesday was telling. As recently as October, the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services revealed you were six times more likely to go to the hospital if you were unvaccinated against COVID-19. Now, you are ten times more likely.

"It's as if there isn't a surge at all among the vaccinated group. The surge is in the unvaccinated."

The graph Dr. Donahue shared Wednesday showed about 40 out of every 100,000 hospitalizations each week for the unvaccinated compared to just four out of every 100,000 if you are fully vaccinated.

"It's really been a prolonged Delta surge that's hung out."

"If you haven't gotten the message yet, it's looking bleak for all of us," said Dr. Brian Boer, a critical care doctor at Nebraska Medicine.

Dr. Boer put it bluntly Wednesday. If you're not vaccinated and end up in the hospital, you're causing exhaustion for hospital staff, especially if that means an ICU stay.

"This is not your average ICU patient that comes in for some quick fix and they're either dead or better in three days, you're here for three weeks. You are a massive burden on our health care system."

The result doctors say is some staff choosing to move on or retire. The blame they say mostly lies with younger people who choose not to get vaccinated. Across the state, 14 percent of all patients in the hospital with COVID are between 20 and 44 years old and even more of those are showing up in the ICU.

"We're seeing younger patients fill the hospital over the least three months rather than over a period of just a couple of weeks," said Dr. Donahue.

Doctors encourage you to talk to your family and friends about the importance of the vaccine if you haven't already done so. They say anything you can do might help.

Doctors are also encouraging you to get the booster shot if you're eligible. They told us Wednesday you do not need to wait to see how vaccines hold up against newer variants first.