The missing statistic appears

The short work week starts out with sobering news from Bend, where new Covid cases have contributed to filling up St. Charles Hospital.

[Emily] Kroytz and the other ICU nurses have not seen this many COVID-19 patients at once in six months. As of Thursday, all 24 beds were full in the ICU, including five patients with the virus. Three of the infected patients are on ventilators....

Debbie Robinson, chief nursing officer at St. Charles Bend, said the hospital is bringing in available nurses from around the state and nation to help with the overcrowding of patients. Outside of the ICU, all other hospital beds were full Thursday, and 15 people were waiting in the emergency room for beds, Robinson said.

It doesn't surprise me. Bend may not be part of the "Greater Idaho" movement, but it's close by. I'm sure they get good Füx News ratings on the cable over there. La Pine High School has been a hotspot recently.

But at least somebody's asking the right questions. The Bend Bulletin story contains an important detail that's been missing in reporting on the coronavirus in recent weeks: 

Dr. Louis Davignon, who works in the St. Charles Bend ICU, sees the benefits of getting the vaccine. Since March, 98% of infected patients were not vaccinated, he said.

“And even the (vaccinated) patients that get admitted do much better,” he said.

That's the message that needs to get out there to the gun-loving, Bible-thumping, science-ignoring hicks of America: You can lie all you want to your friends about it, but go get the shot, it may save your life.