Florida church loses six unvaccinated members to COVID in just 10 days - including four people under 35 who were healthy
Six unvaccinated members of a Florida church died from COVID-19 in the last 10 days - including four people who were under the age of 35 and considered healthy.
George Davis - a bishop at Impact Church in Jacksonville, which has over 6,000 parishioners, of whom 75 percent of them are black - said many members have parroted false information about the coronavirus or expressed hesitancy about getting the vaccine because they don't trust the government, The Washington Post reported.
'It's very frustrating knowing that these were avoidable deaths,' Davis told The Washington Post.
'You also don't want the loved ones who are left behind to feel horrible and don't want to seem like I'm putting guilt onto them, but the reality is, I know that these people would still be here had they gotten the shot.'
George Davis - a bishop at Impact Church in Jacksonville - said he lost six members of his parish in the last 10 days
Four members of Impact Church who died of COVID were healthy and under 35
Davis told the Washington Post that many of his 6,000 parishioners parrot false COVID-19 information to him or express hesitancy to get the vaccine because they distrust the government
Davis has been hosting vaccine drives after each of the three services on Sunday
The names of the parishioners killed have not been released. Impact first learnt of the outbreak in late July, when a single member tested positive.
It was then hit by a 'cascade' of cases, with Davis saying those who fell seriously-ill did not spend long in hospital before ultimately succumbing to COVID.
Between 15 and 20 members of the church remain in hospital with the virus. Another 10 who tested positive were able to stay home. Between three and five of whose who caught COVID were fully vaccinated.
Throughout most of the pandemic, health professionals said people with underlying conditions and the elderly were most susceptible.
Now, as the highly contagious and potent 'Delta' variant becomes more prevalent, more unvaccinated-but-healthy young adults are being hospitalized and dying.
Mary Mayhew, president of the Florida Hospital Association, told The Washington Post, 'We now are seeing healthy 25-year-olds in the hospital in intensive care and on ventilators.'
'The delta variant has been ripping through a younger unvaccinated population and putting them into the hospitals.'
Duval County in the northwest corner of Florida, where Jacksonville is located, has a seven-day rolling average of 851 new cases compared to the national average of 210, according to the CDC.
About 53 percent of residents 12 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and 42.7 percent have completed their vaccinations.
Over the last week, the CDC reported there's been an 18 percent uptick in hospitalizations in Duvall County and 5.2 percent have required ICU treatment.
The Delta variant has accounted for more than 83 percent of COVID-19 cases in the United States.
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