JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Justin Adams is on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. The traveling intensive care nurse says it's a fight his patients are not winning.
"I have seen more people die from COVID than I have in all of my 20 years combined from other illnesses," he told First Coast News.
It's a bold statement, but Adams says the death count is something he doesn't like to think about. In recent weeks, that number has only increased as the number of positive cases is also trending in the wrong direction.
"You are constantly thinking about your patients that you left at work. Pretty much you know when you go back the next day, those people aren't going to be there," Adams explained.
He's currently working at a 900-bed hospital in North Carolina. He says a large majority of his patients are unvaccinated. He knows only two patients who have received the vaccine.
It's weighed heavily on him mentally. "I have never really had a problem with anxiety until this started. It's basically like I am constantly on pins and needles," he said.
It's no surprise he's pushing for more people to get their shots, believing many of the patients who are on life support may not be in such dire situations if they had taken the vaccine.
"I have seen tons of people recently come into the hospital who were anti-vaxxers so to speak or thought COVID wasn't real. They end up in the intensive care unit on the ventilator and die," he said.
