BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Medical professionals in Alabama are witnessing two starkly different realities.
Inside the hospitals, they attend to patients fighting for their lives in overcrowded intensive care units. Outside the medical centers' doors, they see a society that appears to be blithely ignoring the safety precautions that experts have recommended to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
Dr. Michael Saag is an infectious diseases expert who treats patients at a hospital run by the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He says he is greatly disheartened by the lax attitude many have shown. And he worries about Alabama’s future at a time when the virus is posing more of a threat than ever.