As the epidemic worsens in the United States, General Surgeon Dr. Vivek Murthy is concerned

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The US Surgeon General said Sunday he is concerned about an increase in COVID-19 cases in every state, millions still unvaccinated and the highly contagious virus spreading rapidly.

In a sign that nearly all coronavirus deaths are now among the tens of millions of people who haven’t received their shots, despite the widespread availability of a vaccine, Dr. Vivek Murthy paints a troubling picture of what the future may hold.

“I am concerned about what will happen because we are seeing increasing cases among the unvaccinated in particular. While, if you do get vaccinated, you are well protected from hospitalization and death, unfortunately this is,” Murthy said on CNN’s State of the Union. Not true if you haven’t been vaccinated.

“What worries me is that all this misinformation going around has a real, measurable cost in terms of lives lost and this is tragic,” US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says of the spread of misinformation about vaccines on social and conservative media. # Al-Riyadh newspaper pic.twitter.com/hBTk3NDs9s

– State of the Union (CNNSotu) July 18, 2021

Cases of the COVID-19 virus in the United States last week increased by 17,000 nationwide over 14 days for the first time since late fall, and the historically significant increase in deaths follows a sharp rise in the disease. Murthy said a large part of the worsening problem is due to the delta variant first identified in India, which has hit the UK and other countries since then.

While US case numbers and hospitalizations remain well below levels from the worst of the pandemic early this year, Murthy said the deteriorating situation shows the need to convince more people to get their vaccinations.

“It is the fastest and most effective way out of this epidemic,” he said.

About 186 million Americans received at least one shot, but 90 million eligible Americans did not. Officials are trying to get around the refusal of some — especially rural white conservatives — to vaccinate, but it is unclear how to do so. So, in the meantime at least, some places are back to health precautions that were abandoned.

In Las Vegas, some resorts and casinos are again requiring employees to wear masks in response to a recommendation from health officials amid rising rates of COVID-19 cases in Nevada; It ranks fifth among US states for the most new cases per capita over the past two weeks.

Los Angeles County late Saturday reinstated rules requiring everyone to wear masks inside public buildings. Across the San Francisco Bay Area, which has the highest vaccination rates in California, health officials have recommended that everyone wear masks again inside public buildings, regardless of their vaccination status.

But in conservative Alabama, where the number of hospitalizations for the COVID-19 virus has more than doubled in a month and only about a third of the population has been fully vaccinated, officials have refused to reinstate health rules statewide or use gimmicks like the lottery to boost vaccinations.

“I think the best thing for us is to encourage everyone to use common sense, exercise personal responsibility, and keep themselves and their families safe,” Governor Kay Ivey told reporters last week.

Cases are also on the rise in Springfield, Missouri, where Mayor Ken McClure told CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation” that false information about the pandemic was hampering the fight to vaccinate people.

“I think we’re seeing a lot spreading through social media as people talk about their concerns, their health concerns, what it might do to them later in their lives, what vaccines might contain,” he said.

“We know the solution: It’s vaccination,” Missouri Mayor Ken McClure told jdickerson, as his community deals with an increase in COVID-19 cases. “People need to have it. It’s readily available. Age groups are now inclusive up to 12” pic.twitter.com/00XDzxvvG4

– Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) Jul 18, 2021

Surgeon General Murthy said that “almost insufficient” progress has been made in combating misinformation circulating on social media about COVID-19 and vaccines. He said that individuals, not just platforms like Facebook, need to fight the problem.

“Everyone of us has a decision to make every time we post something on social media, and I ask people to stop and see, is the source accurate? Does it come from a scientifically reliable authority? And if not, or if you’re not sure, then don’t.” share it.”

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