Images of spring breakers gathering in large crowds this month have been stressful sights to see for health care workers, especially those who have been on the front lines throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

“It’s been disheartening to say the least,” Dr. Hilary Fairbrother, an emergency medicine physician based out of Houston, Texas, said on Yahoo Finance Live (video above). “This is a disease that has really outstripped our medical resources across the country. It’s taken thousands upon thousands of lives.”

Fairbrother added that caring for sick amid the pandemic “has stretched, and continually stretches, our health care teams, particularly on the front lines and in the ICUs throughout the country. To be so close to what I hope is a resolution of the pandemic in this country — it’s disconcerting and frankly a little bit depressing.”

The U.S. has seen over 29 million cases so far and over 542,000 deaths. Though case counts have decreased recently due to more vaccine availability, numbers have ticked up in certain regions of the U.S., particularly areas that have begun relaxing their restrictions and mask mandates.

“It feels like we’re at the very end of a marathon and we just stopped running,” Fairbrother said. “It defies logic. At this point, we’re so close to potentially controlling this pandemic with vaccinated peoples and watching the businesses rebound and watching people be able to live certainly much more free and open lifestyles and seeing their loved ones and family after all this time.”

'Pretty heartbreaking'

In Texas, where Fairbrother is based, the governor fully reopened the state and eliminated the mask mandate beginning on March 10.

The doctor noted that it’s still too soon to tell what kind of impact it will have on the number of cases.

“To have been so close and to have opened in such a fashion was pretty heartbreaking and certainly not in line with any of the medical organizations or physician organizations across the countries,” Fairbrother said. “Frankly, if you go into any hospital across the state of Texas, you’re still going to be wearing a mask. I hope that tells the people of Texas something about how they should be behaving outside of the hospitals of Texas as well.”

There are about 45.5 million Americans (13.7%) fully vaccinated, and health experts have said that between 75-80% needs to be fully inoculated in order to reach herd immunity.

This means, according to Fairbrother, that the general public still needs to be following CDC guidelines, which means practicing good hygiene, wearing a mask when outside the house, and socially distancing.

“That messaging has been consistent from the CDC,” Fairbrother said. “And that should be the cornerstone of any kind of bringing people together as we open up our populations.”

More cases, more variants

The U.S. has now surpassed Israel in terms of the number of people vaccinated — More than 31 million Americans versus nearly 4 million Israeli citizens. (Notably, however, Israel's population is approximately 9.3 million, meaning that the country has vaccinated more than 40% of its people.)

At the same time, however, states like New York and New Jersey are seeing a spike in cases, which is cause for alarm for health care workers.

“The more people that get coronavirus, the more chance it has to mutate, the more chance we have that our vaccines will no longer be as efficient as we want them to be against this disease,” Fairbrother said. “Then we spend even more time and energy trying to beat this thing back before we’re done.”

There are several mutant strains (variants) of COVID-19 around the world, with the most notable ones being based out of Britain, South Africa, and Brazil. And depending on the strength of the variant, the current vaccines available become less efficient at neutralizing the virus.

These strains are able to develop the longer the COVID-19 virus is making its way throughout the world. So with more people flouting pandemic guidelines and exposing themselves and others, the longer it will take to put an end to the pandemic once and for all.

Fairbrother is particularly worried for her state of Texas, which saw its rate of transmission back up to over one.

“That means we’re still seeing potential for an increased number of cases,” she said. “With the loosening of the statewide regulations and spring break and things like this, we’re worried that we’re going to see another spike before the end of this.”

Adriana Belmonte is a reporter and editor covering politics and health care policy for Yahoo Finance. You can follow her on Twitter @adrianambells and reach her at adriana@yahoofinance.com.

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