Lives are at stake in holiday precautions we take, or ignore

A woman with a chronic, potentially life-threatening condition trying to time her visits to the emergency department so she won't have to wait hours for care, potentially exposing her to COVID.

A young man facing 60 patients ahead of him while waiting for his leg to be set.

Patients in beds in the hallways of a local hospital.

This is the reality in Minnesota's hospitals today.

We have to be blunt, as this is a crisis: Because of the number of COVID cases in our Minnesota hospitals right now, we are unable to provide timely care in the event of an emergency like a stroke or heart attack, car accident or other critical injury.

Right now in our state, health systems are on the brink of collapse:

As physicians, we are horrified as we watch patients suffer because we do not have the capacity to care for them. Unfortunately, the situation is worsening rapidly. We fearfully await the coming wave of illness from omicron, and the inevitable post-holiday surge of infections. We know this means even more ill or injured Minnesotans will surely go without timely care.

We can all be at risk of spreading the virus without even knowing it, despite being vaccinated and boosted. But we have some control over that and here's the good news: as Minnesotans, we know how to take care of each other.

To help, we need to once again step up our safety practices including:

It is not the time to place blame, or argue over vaccine facts and figures. It is the time to sound the alarm and do everything we can to stem the tide of this virus.

Physicians, nurses and other health care professionals are working around the clock to keep our patients and community healthy this holiday season, but we can't do it alone. We need every Minnesotan to step up our safety practices as we head into yet another critical period of the pandemic. Your actions may very well save someone's life.