The "Obama variant" of COVID-19 is wreaking havoc on Martha's Vineyard's only hospital and threatening to overrun its capacity.
Nearly two weeks after former president Barack Obama, 60, threw himself a "super spreader" birthday party at his $17.5 million island estate, the Martha's Vineyard Hospital is reporting its highest number of COVID-19 patients since the pandemic began.
According to the Vineyard Gazette, the hospital has three patients hospitalized with COVID-19, a fourth who is being monitored for symptoms, and a fifth who last week had to be airlifted to Boston in critical condition.
"This is the highest amount of COVID-positive patient activity that we've had since the onset of the pandemic," Clair Seguin, chief nurse and head of hospital operations, told reporters on Wednesday.
Martha's Vineyard experienced a spike in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations throughout the month of August. According to data compiled by the New York Times, infections in Dukes County, Mass., which contains Martha's Vineyard, have increased 179 percent since Obama's celebrity birthday guests began to arrive on the island. Last week, health officials reported more than 90 new positive tests.
Denise Schepici, the hospital's president and CEO, said the uptick in hospitalizations due to COVID-19 was overwhelming the staff's ability to treat other patients. "We're bursting at the seams," Schepici told reporters. "We're hoping there will be a reprieve in September. But that's a prayer right now."
In recent weeks, Martha's Vineyard and other vacation hotspots frequented by members of the Liberal Élite have become breeding grounds for COVID-19. Celebs, journalists, and other left-wing activists who claim to believe in science have put countless lives at risk with their reckless behavior.
The emergence of the so-called Obama variant has vindicated the former president's critics, many of whom have long argued that the only thing Obama really cares about in life is hanging out with celebs, regardless of the death and destruction it causes.
Guests at the Obama super spreader event included actor Don Cheadle, anti-Semite Al Sharpton, and Kim Fields, star of Real Housewives of Atlanta. Prominent Jewish celebs, such as comedian Larry David and longtime Obama adviser David Axelrod, were disinvited at the last minute.
Update 5:11 pm: This piece has been updated to reflect the fact that Denise Schepici, not Clair Seguin, said, "We're bursting at the seams."