BELLEVUE, Wa. — Even as they're learning more about defeating COVID-19, doctors are up against another contender.

"When the vaccine came out and we felt everybody felt that the pandemic was ending or going to end soon, but now, you know, another year has dragged on and, and we really don't see the end in sight," said Dr. Radha Agrawal, a pulmonary and critical care physician at Overlake Hospital in Washington State.

The second contender being a pandemic of misinformation, or as the World Health Organization calls is an infodemic: “false or misleading information” that “causes confusion and risk-taking behaviors that can harm health” and “leads to mistrust in health authorities.”

Dr. Agrawal and Dr. Ed Leonard, an infectious disease physician at Overlake, say they are battling misinformation daily in interactions with COVID-19 patients, when they argue about their treatments or don't believe their diagnosis.

"Every day, we're learning something new about the pandemic, and sometimes, what we learn kind of makes what we said yesterday obsolete," said Dr. Leonard, "and so, that kind of leads to a confusion in the public of all the way that you just said yesterday, this now we're doing this."

"They have their mind made up, they've thought about it and they've decided, and they really don't value my input in terms of what they should do," said Dr. Agrawal.

From doctors to hospital leaders, this "infodemic" weighs heavily on the hearts and minds of those in healthcare.

"We see people coming in actually angry when they get diagnosed with COVID because they say COVID, isn't real, you're making it up, you're you're doing this only for profit," said CEO of Scripps Hospital, Chris Van Gorder.

"I've heard some people use the word that we've, in some ways, been villainized, I wouldn't say that. I would say that we've been forgotten," said Dr. Agrawal.

Even with the surgeon general declaring misinformation a significant public health challenge, the pushback from patients continues with no clear solutions of how to drown out the false information regarding COVID-19, leaving healthcare workers to deal with this problem at the patients' bedsides.

"It would be very easy as a provider with our morale and fatigue to kind of snap back and that is the last thing we need to do," said Dr. Leonard.

"You see them every day and you take care of them everyday and they become part of your family and it's hard to kind of hold a grudge in a sense," said Dr. Agrawal.

"I'm still going to take care of you and I'm still going to hope that you do get better," she said.

As year three of the pandemic has begun, these doctors want us to know that they will continue the fight for our lives, against all odds, just like they have done since day one.

"It's really seen patients hoping for that improvement, really hoping for those stories, where we made a difference. That is really what gets us to work every day," said Dr. Agrawal.

The Centers for Disease Control Prevention released new guidelines that said health workers with COVID-19 no longer need to isolate for 10 days.

The agency updated its quarantine guidance for health workers on Thursday as the nation deals with a surge in omicron cases.

“As the healthcare community prepares for an anticipated surge in patients due to Omicron, CDC is updating our recommendations to reflect what we know about infection and exposure in the context of vaccination and booster doses," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said. "Our goal is to keep healthcare personnel and patients safe and to address and prevent undue burden on our healthcare facilities. Our priority remains prevention—and I strongly encourage all healthcare personnel to get vaccinated and boosted.”

The CDC said healthcare workers who are fully vaccinated, including a booster, do not need to quarantine after high-risk exposures.

They can return to work after seven days with a negative test if they are asymptomatic.

If they deal with staffing shortages caused by COVID-19, then isolation time can be cut even further.

NORWOOD, Ohio —

For most, Wasson Way is a trail for walking or running. Today, it was a Cincinnati Public School Teacher's canvas for art.

Aimee Costandi began leaving encouraging messages on the trail at the beginning of the pandemic. This week, she made her way to Norwood aiming to do more. “I know that there’s a lot of really good people that like to walk this trail and a lot of health care workers," she said, "this was a good place to start.”

With chalk, paint and brushes in hand, Costandi offered walkers and runners the chance to leave a heart, message or name of a health care worker. “I know the kind of stress that health care professionals are under right now and I see them crying on TikTok videos and it breaks my heart and I wanted to just give them a message that we really appreciate what you’re doing,” Costandi said.

Though these hearts and names will wash away with the rain, Costandi hopes the kind words won’t. She also created a Twitter account where people can leave their messages permanently. “So I'm hoping that it turns into a place where health care workers can hop on to a Twitter feed." said Costandi, "Wouldn’t it be nice to have a place where there are lots of positive messages of encouragement before you drift off to sleep from a really hard day?”

For Costandi, this project is a form of therapy. She explained further, “...doing this type of project really helps me cope with my feelings because I feel for them. Because we’re all part of this world, we’re all Americans and you know, we should care about one another.”

The mural also serves as a reminder of togetherness for the community. “I wanted to spend my time doing something that makes me feel good and let other people know that we’re all in this together,” Costandi said.

Costandi shared that she would be having more pop-up events around the Greater Cincinnati Area in the future.

If you'd like to leave a message of encouragement for local health care workers, you can visit the Twitter Costandi created. Just search: @suppcincyhc

TAMPA, Fla. — Tracie Wiechmann has taken every precaution during the pandemic, especially for her adult son, Christopher.

She said though the whole family got vaccinated, they aren’t sure how much protection he has since he has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

“For him, we don’t know how protected he is, he’s in a medically fragile state,” Wiechmann said.

She said when the pandemic started, Christopher stayed home from work and they stopped visits from caregivers to reduce risk. But once he was vaccinated, they decided to see a doctor for back pain.

“We were in for a bit of a rude awakening when we went because we kind of had that assumption that healthcare providers would certainly be vaccinated and we discovered that wasn’t the case,” Wiechmann said.

Wiechmann said she learned some staff were not vaccinated and later learned a wheelchair technician and respiratory therapist who arrived for home visits weren’t either.

“I spoke to a lot of people after our experience and they were all shocked and I would say 99% of the people I talked to assumed healthcare workers were vaccinated because they had access to it before the rest of us did,” Wiechmann said. “And I just want people to know if you’re in that situation and you do have a compromised immune system — before you go anywhere, you call and you ask those questions before you go anywhere.”

According to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, as of June 4, 58.2% of current hospital staff in the state have received the vaccine. The information is self-reported by health facilities.

“It’s not going very well overall pending on the location," said Jay Wolfson, a senior associate vice president at the Morsani College of Medicine. "Some large healthcare institutions have had 70-80% success in getting at least one shot some cases two, others are sometimes lower than 20%. The highest risk place appears to be long-term care facilities.”

Wolfson said mandating vaccines is a tricky issue since none of the COVID-19 vaccines have been approved beyond an emergency use authorization.

“In Florida, you cannot mandate it yet though the employment lawyers and the occupational safety health administration are indicating that you can," Wolfson said. "A very recent — just this past week — federal court in Texas for the Methodist Hospital in Houston said that the hospital may mandate that its employees get vaccinated even without the final approval by the FDA beyond the EUA. So this is a very significant decision by a federal court."

Johns Hopkins Medicine, which includes Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, announced it would require clinical and nonclinical personnel to be fully vaccinated by September.

Other hospital systems in the Tampa area are not requiring vaccinations, but encouraging it for all employees.

Daycare said it’s not requiring the vaccine but highly encourages it for team members and community members eligible to receive it.

“The Delta variant is just one more reason people should get vaccinated. To reduce risk of exposure, masks are required inside all of our hospitals and patient care areas,” a Daycare spokesperson said.

HCA Healthcare said they strongly encourage it, but don’t require it.

“While in our hospitals, our employees are masked, regardless of vaccine status. We have provided 23,900 COVID-19 vaccines to date, which includes vaccinations provided to our caregivers and the community,” an HCA spokesperson said.

AdventHealth said while the vaccine is not currently required, they strongly encourage their team members to get the COVID-19 vaccination.

A spokesperson for Sarasota Memorial Healthcare System said approximately 70% of their employees and more than 90% of their physicians and medical staff members have been vaccinated.

“We want everyone to get vaccinated, but at this time we are not mandating the shot, primarily because the vaccines are currently approved by the FDA for emergency use only. We continually monitor the data, expert guidance and regulatory changes, and like most hospitals will re-evaluate vaccination requirements in the weeks ahead, especially once the vaccines receive full FDA approval,” the spokesperson said.

In the meantime, Wiechmann is hoping to see more shots in arms and people help protect those who are vulnerable.

“Just have some compassion, if you could — wear a mask if you’re not vaccinated, just to protect other people,” she said.

According to the Florida Department of Health’s weekly COVID-19 report, 55% of Floridians are vaccinated.

A USF statewide survey showed of adults who haven’t been vaccinated more than 35% said they will "probably not" or "definitely not" get vaccinated, while nearly a quarter are still undecided.

This story was originally published by Haley Bull on Scripps station WFTS in Tampa, Florida.