News

Praise the Lord,

Below is information regarding COVID 19 and the Delta variant. Deacon Aubrey Jenkins of the Columbia assembly received this information from Dr. Spencer Robinson.

Dr. Robinson serves as the Medical Control Doctor for the City of Columbia Fire Department and is an Emergency Department doctor at Prisma Health Richland Hospital in Columbia.

I urge you to carefully review this information, give it your serious consideration, and take heed to the “facts” regarding COVID 19 and the Delta variant. Doing so may be a matter of life or death.

I pray that each of you will prosper and be in health even as your soul prospers.

Sincerely,

Bishop Theodore Jenkins

"He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"

................ Micah 6:8 KJVS

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From: "Jenkins, Aubrey D"

To: "BishopTJenkins@sc.rr.com", "Deacon Dwight"

Cc:

Sent: Sunday August 8 2021 8:47:53AM

Subject: FW: [EXTERNAL] COVID Vaccination

Good Morning,

I hope that each of you are doing well:

I wanted to send this to you all, a message from Dr. Robinson. Dr. Spencer Robinson is our Medical Control Doctor for the fire department. I plan to send this out to our department, in hopes that it will spark some awareness in our people from a person who sees this all the time.

Thanks,

Aubrey D. Jenkins, Fire Chief

Fire Department

1800 Laurel Street, Columbia, SC 29201

Phone: 803-545-3710

Fax: 803-733-8311

ColumbiaSC.net

-----Original Message-----

From: Spencer Robinson [mailto:spencerfrobinson@gmail.com]

Sent: Friday, August 6, 2021 10:56 PM

"I just wanted to send you an email in regards to firefighters and vaccinations for COVID 19 and give my most recent personal account of the virus over the past two weeks from working in the emergency department. I care deeply about the members of the Columbia Fire Department and if you feel necessary to share with them please pass this message along.

I know that the COVID vaccination is a very polarizing issue and is deeply personal for many people. I can tell you that I received the vaccination on the second day it was available in this country and I didn’t hesitate. I had my wife vaccinated as soon as it was available to her and I will have my 7 and 9 year old children vaccinated as soon as it becomes available to them because I trust the science behind the vaccination. For some reason, the vaccination for COVID has become a politicalized issue that is deeply dividing people. The most recent data that I have seen is that 96% of physicians and the medical community are vaccinated. I think this is in part because we are seeing first hand exactly how this virus is affecting people that we treat and we trust the science behind the vaccination.

Over the last two weeks of working in our emergency department at Prisma Health Richland I have seen COVID surge at a much faster rate than the initial wave of COVID. The Delta variant is much more contagious where studies have shown one person infecting up to 30 people versus 3-5 in the initial strain of the virus. It is infecting children at a much higher rate than we have seen. Last week alone on one shift I had a 2 week old, 8 week old, and multiple children, upwards of 15 positive tests in a single 8 hour shift. This week alone I watched a perfectly healthy 41 year old man die in 6 hours after his presentation to us. He was selling cars at a dealership 48 hours before he came to the hospital. He died from myocarditis, which essentially is an infection from COVID that rapidly results in heart failure. I had a 33 year old yesterday who only had diabetes who I do not think is going to survive. I am not overly embellishing this in the email, almost every patient I test is coming back positive and they are much younger than before and lack the comorbidities that most people attribute to for sick hospitalized COVID patients. These people are coming to the hospital for a reason and they are sick, very sick. It ranges from fever to a little bit of respiratory distress to critically ill and we are unable to oxygenate them. For people who think that they are healthy, middle aged and that this will not affect them, I can assure you that you do not want to roll the dice with this virus. It has been scary to see how fast this is affecting people especially people who are otherwise healthy.

I can tell you the one thing I have not had to do over the past couple of weeks. I personally have not had to admit a single patient to the hospital for COVID that has been vaccinated. It is true that you can get COVID even if vaccinated, however these patients typically have mild symptoms. I have not admitted a single patient to the hospital that has been vaccinated. In the last 8 shifts I have easily admitted over 100 patients to the hospital for COVID related symptoms. These are not simple fevers, body aches, and vomiting. The only way you are getting admitted to the hospital is for significant hypoxia requiring oxygen and most of these patient are requiring high flow oxygen which deliver oxygen up approximately to 60 liters per minute.

One of the other issues that we are seeing is that our volumes in the emergency department are out of control. Unvaccinated COVID patients are consuming most all of our critical care beds and our ICU step down beds. They are boarding in the emergency department due to overflow. This is inhibiting other patients who need ICU level care from getting the proper bed placement in the hospital because of the surge. This is quickly getting out of control and I am very fearful that is going to get much worse.

Once again, I know that this is a deeply polarizing issue and that people are concerned for the safety of the vaccine, what are the possible side effects, etc. or they just think I am healthy and if I get it I’ll be okay. They may be okay, but the other people they infect while working, going home to family members, their children, the public may not be okay. I can promise you with absolute certainty from personal experience that people are not okay. People need to consider getting the vaccine not just for themselves, but for others. We are losing people at an alarming rate with near a 20% positive testing rate this week.

I have the most genuine concern for the members of this department, many of them have taken me in like family and I want only the best for them just like I want for my own family. They are some of the finest people I know and this is personal for me because I care about them and I care about their familes. I urge people to please get vaccinated to protect yourself and others. If I can help any way or if anyone needs to speak to me to get a first hand account I am happy to speak to anyone."

Most Sincerely,

Spencer Robinson