BOISE (Idaho Capital Sun) – They survived 15 months of COVID-19 swabs, patients gasping for air, intubations and body bags.

The arrival of COVID-19 vaccines in Idaho gave these health care workers hope.

The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Idaho has doubled this month.

It is July 2021, and health care workers are exhausted.

We pride ourselves on that as physicians and health care workers … no matter the poor decision they may have made in life.”.

“There’s this onslaught of misinformation that so many people in Idaho have completely bought into,” she said.

Luke’s hospitals are full of patients, and have been for weeks.

Saint Alphonsus had a total of 379 patients admitted in its hospitals as of Monday.

Luke’s hospitals had a total of 545 patients admitted as of Monday.

Idaho had a total of 136 people hospitalized with COVID-19 on Friday, the most recent day with near-complete reporting from Idaho hospitals.

Of those, 43 patients were in the ICU, according to Idaho Department of Health and Welfare data.

This summer, the COVID-19 patient load has been “super stable,” at only about 5% of patients, he said.

Saint Alphonsus will always be ready to care for patients, she said.

But health care workers are not an infinite, expendable resource

“I don’t know if our health care system can tolerate another exodus of health care workers,” McInerney said