A young mother just celebrated her first wedding anniversary and was one of the six members of Jacksonville Church who died within 10 days.
Another Florida woman had just given birth to her first child, but she could only hold the newborn girl for a while before she died.
A Californian man died a few weeks before his 53rd birthday while his wife was using a ventilator at the same hospital in Oakland. He did not know that he died on August 4th.
As the delta variant swept the country among unvaccinated people, hospitals were crowded with patients, many of whom were younger than the early stages of the pandemic, so the death toll from COVID-19 began to soar again.
The United States now has an average of about 650 deaths every day, an increase of more than 80% from two weeks ago, and it exceeded 600 on Saturday, the first time in three months.
The age and demographics of victims during the delta surge are still limited, but hospitals in virus hotspots said they have clearly seen an increase in hospital admissions and deaths for people under 65.
Florida hospital officials saw a large influx of young, healthy adults across the state, many of whom needed oxygen. In Florida in the past week, 36% of deaths occurred in people under 65, and the state experienced a similar COVID surge in the same week last year, which was 17%. Florida has the highest number of coronavirus deaths in the country, with an average of more than 150 people per day in the past week.
Young patients marked the transition of the elderly and the infirm. Many people lived in nursing homes. They died of the virus a year ago. Then states made the elderly a priority for vaccination. More than 90% of elderly people have been vaccinated at least once, while the proportion of Americans under 65 is about 70%.
A predominantly black church in Jacksonville, with its fashionable atmosphere, modern music and powerful social media, reflects its young and vibrant congregation. Starting in late July, 6 members died within 10 days. All are under 35 years old.
They are “very healthy and not vaccinated.” Pastor George Davis of Impact Church lamented. He knew everyone and struggled with his grief at the funeral. He organized two vaccinations for a congregation of approximately 6,000 people, of which more than 1,000 people were vaccinated.
Among the dead church members was a 24-year-old man, Davis, who watched him grow up since he was a child, and a woman from his worship team who celebrated her first wedding anniversary a few weeks before her death. Her husband recovered.
Davis said the young woman “is simply a portrayal of health and vitality.”
“Young people have a feeling that they are invincible to some extent,” said Dr. Leana Wen, a professor of public health at George Washington University and a former Baltimore health commissioner. “But unfortunately, some people in the hospital will die, which means some younger people; as you can see, these people will leave young children behind in some cases.”
Among these parents, Kristen McMullen (Kristen McMullen) decorated her child’s room with rainbow and sun, fully embracing her favorite season-summer-after which she will be her first child name.
The 30-year-old woman fell ill three weeks before her due date and was taken to a hospital in West Melbourne, Florida due to COVID-19.
After an emergency cesarean section, McMullen was able to hug her baby girl for a while and was sent to the intensive care unit, where she later died.
“She would say she was scared and she didn’t want to die,” her aunt Melissa Severson said, struggling to speak between sobbing. “She is fighting to return to the baby.”
McMullen’s aunt said her family did not want to reveal whether McMullen was vaccinated.
Carlos Reyes was skeptical of vaccines, as did his wife Maria-until they and their two teenage children had to be taken to a hospital in Oakland.
Their 14-year-old son Sergio does not need to stay after taking oxygen, while 19-year-old Emma lives in the intensive care unit with his parents. She was released a few days later, and her parents were put on ventilators.
Their 32-year-old daughter with an autoimmune disease was the only person to be vaccinated when they were sick.
“We all hesitated at first,” said the couple’s eldest daughter, 34-year-old Jasmine Rivas Fierro.
Their four children did not want to make their mother sad because she was still in the intensive care unit and told her that Carlos had passed away the day after their 22nd anniversary.
“She loves him very much,” Rivas Fierro said of her mother who is still in the hospital.
The family told people that they must be fully vaccinated to attend Carlos’ funeral next week.
Cindy Dawkins also left four children, ranging in age from 12 to 24 years old. She died on August 7, less than a week after she and her family celebrated their 50th birthday at Universal Studios Orlando. She coughed and looked tired that day, and then her condition quickly deteriorated and she had to take her to the hospital in an ambulance.
Her family believed that she contracted the virus while working as a waiter in a tavern in Boynton Beach, Florida, and her colleagues also tested positive. She is healthy and undergoes regular check-ups, but is still considering vaccination.
“Maybe the vaccine will help fight it, but I don’t know if it will stop it completely,” said her 20-year-old son Tre Burrows.
When the family struggled in grief and resolved the custody of Dawkins’s youngest child, they also felt sad about what might have happened.
Dawkins came to the United States from the Bahamas when she was in high school. Her children said she was about to become a U.S. citizen, and the whole family planned to celebrate this event during a Thanksgiving trip.
“Everything is finally going well,” her daughter Jenny Burrows said. “Then this happened.”
© 2021 Canadian Press
