17-Year-Old COVID-19 Victim Youngest So Far In Douglas County

DOUGLASVILLE, GA — A 17-year-old Douglas County high-school student is one of the county’s latest fatalities from COVID-19.

Multiple media outlets reported that Tyler Fairley, a rising senior at Douglas County High School who was a starting offensive lineman on its football team, died Sunday. Fairley’s parents confirmed to WSB-TV in Atlanta that their son died of complications from COVID-19.

Fairley is the youngest person to have died from COVID-19 in Douglas County so far, according to data kept by the Georgia Department of Public Health. Fairley was Black, and the state health department reported that he had an unspecified comorbidity.

Fairley’s parents told WSB-TV that their son was unvaccinated. His mother, Tosha Nettles, told the Atlanta news station that she could feel the frustration from doctors at Wellstar Douglas Medical Center over his unvaccinated status.

“It was as if the doctor didn’t care because this was COVID and he (Tyler) didn’t prevent himself from having COVID because he wasn’t vaccinated,” Nettles said to reporter Tyisha Fernandes.

Fairley was eventually taken to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Scottish Rite Hospital, where he died after suffering seizures “that entire day,” Nettles said.

Hospitals again being filled to capacity

In fact, the capacity of Douglas County hospitals is again being pushed to its limits, this time propelled by the more-transmissible delta variant of COVID-19.

In an interview posted Friday — two days before Fairley’s death — Dr. Janet Memark, head of Cobb & Douglas Public Health, told county spokesperson Rick Martin that she was seeing “more than 13 times as many patients as we’d seen at our low point” in area hospitals.

“It’s not quite at the peak we’d had in the winter surge, but we’re well on the way, and they just keep adding up every day,” Memark said.

Memark said in the interview that COVID-19 was “really going after unvaccinated people, and so what we’re seeing now is younger people being hospitalized who just did not take the vaccine.”

Douglas County schools mandate masks, parents protest

Douglas County’s Board of Education decided Monday to mandate masks in schools, informing parents in an email early afternoon, according to The Douglas County Sentinel. By Wednesday morning, a group of about 50 people were in front of district headquarters to protest the decision.

“We just want masks to be optional,” said Lauren Page, a parent with children in Douglas County schools, to a reporter with the Douglasville newspaper. “We understand that there are some parents and students that want to wear masks, and we understand there are some parents and students that don’t want to wear a mask. Why don’t we have that right to choose?”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as reported earlier this month by The New York Times, the delta variant of COVID-19 is far more contagious than the virus’s earlier iteration. In fact, the delta variant is believed to be more transmissible than viruses that cause the common cold, the seasonal flu and smallpox.

Read the stories from The Douglas County Sentinel, WSB-TV and The New York Times.