Federal officials sent to help states struggling the most to contain the Delta variant were not able to ward off surges and crowding in hospital intensive care units
Emergency room nurses speak to each other at the Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital in Houston, Texas. | Brandon Bell/Getty ImagesAs the Delta variant swept the country in early July, President Joe Biden promised to send federal Covid-19 response teams to help struggling states. Months later, state officials say the resources they received could not stop cases and deaths from rising.
The federal deployments also were limited to a handful of states in the Midwest and South experiencing the most severe outbreaks — while other states' requests for personnel were rejected. That forced officials to work with outside contractors to quickly hire more doctors and nurses at local hospitals.
State officials stressed that although they struggled to respond to the wave of infections even with the federal help, their efforts would have suffered more without it. Medical staff tend to a patient with coronavirus at the Willis-Knighton Medical Center in Shreveport, La., in August. | Gerald Herbert/AP Photo
“I do think there's a variable here where poor states, like New Mexico, might have really fantastic experiences and wealthier states might not,” said David Scrase, the secretary of the New Mexico Department of Health. “For a poor state, like New Mexico, generally, we get two federal dollars for every one dollar we send to the federal government. The federal response reimbursements have been a lifesaver.
For example, the administration assigned a two-person team to help Missouri. One CDC epidemiologist helped with genetic sequencing, data analysis, and epidemiology support to examine outbreaks. Another CDC employee provided remote support as a risk communication specialist to help with a surge in cases related to local vaccine hesitancy. Four other agency personnel were dispatched to Illinois and Arkansas to support outbreak investigations.
By the end of July, the Delta surge had become untenable for physicians and medical staff in Louisiana. Hospital beds, including in ICUs, were full and emergencywith people waiting to be seen. Similar scenes played out in Alabama, where rural medical facilities were struggling to make space and find nearby regional hospitals that could accept new Covid patients.
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