A hospital CEO in South Carolina is using his observations and experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic to show why he's supporting vaccinations, according to the Herald.
Mark Nosacka, CEO of Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill, S.C., discussed vaccines Sept. 23 at a business breakfast put on by the York County Regional Chamber of Commerce.
"We've got more people dying in hospitals than did in the first wave, and almost 85 to 90 percent of those people are unvaccinated," he told attendees, according to the Herald. "We've got nobody, to my knowledge, that's died at a hospital from the vaccine. And yet, all the people that are in the hospital 20 days or longer are all unvaccinated."
He told attendees he opposed vaccinations, "in general, before this, but I don't want to be one of those people that's in the hospital 20 days, on a ventilator, restrained and could have got a vaccine."
During the business breakfast, Mr. Nosacka also shared an anecdote about a couple in their 60s.
"They had other conditions. She was vaccinated, he wasn't. She was sick for seven days. He was sick for 20 or more in the ICU. Tell people to make their choice, but we're just trying to save lives," he said.
Mr. Nosacka's comments come in South Carolina, among the states that have the lowest percentages of their populations fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the CDC's COVID-19 vaccine distribution and administration data tracker.
As of 6 a.m. EDT Sept. 22, 2,383,084 South Carolinians had been fully vaccinated, or 46.29 percent of the state's population, according to the CDC.