what do you feel? if i say i didn t feel anger i would be lying because this can be prevented with vaccinations. reporter: in the covid unit 73 year old ron is vaccinated but not boosted. he has an underlying medical condition. i d say i was the last one to think that i would get it. reporter: what would you say to people who think that omicron is mild and it s no big deal? i m willing to walk out the door and they can come and sit in here and see what it s like. reporter: stephanie, i have to tell you being there, look, i have not actually been into a covid icu before, i ve done a lot of things but i hadn t been into an icu. we can t show you the faces of all the patients other than ron who agreed to talk to us. most of them can t talk. most of them are on ventilators and just seeing that with your own eyes, i wish i could express
bit more contagious. and that s what we have to pay attention to and that s what we re learning does that mean we could look at another wave or an addition to the wave we re already in i think another major wave is really unlikely out of this subvariant reporter: two weeks ago we were inside a covid icu at the cleveland clinic and met ron perelka. what would you say to people who think omicron is mild and it s no big deal i m willing to go walk out the door and they can come and sit in here and see what it s like. reporter: ron is back home and slowly recovering but his son has been hospitalized for 71 days with double pneumonia and covid. what s the lesson we should learn from what your family has been through i think, appreciate family time is short. reporter: he s hopeful his son will be hope soon too kate snow, nbc news.
and i ve been working on covid icu since the beginning. i have not had a vaccination. i do not want to have a vaccination. many health care workers have not opposed mandatory vaccinations for staff. if a patient comes to me and says. should i have the vaccine? have you been vaccinated, doctor? that answer should always be, yes, of course i ve been vaccinated and you should, too. there is no wriggle room ethically for doctor or a nurse or anybody talking to patients. it s understood the policy is now being reconsidered with a view in government that the landscape has changed because the omicron variant has not proved as serious as the delta wave, during which the policy was first drawn up. ministers will meet today to decide whether to continue with the plan. it s understood no final decisions have yet been made. the risk is that nhs chiefs, who ve tried to defend it will feel undermined by any u turn, and there will be demands for care home staff in england who lost theirjobs becau
to have their first dose. that includes nhs staff and other jobs, like gps and dentists. the latest figures suggest 95% of nhs workers are already vaccinated, leaving around 77,000 who haven t yet had a firstjab. i think the scientific evidence is so overwhelming. many others working in health care support the principle of mandatory vaccination. if a patient comes to me and says, should i have the vaccine? have you been vaccinated, doctor? that answer should always be, yes, of course i ve been vaccinated, and you should, too. there is no wriggle room, ethically, for a doctor or a nurse, or anybody, talking to patients about whether they should be vaccinated themselves or not. so your message would be, get the vaccine if you want to stay in a job? i think the evidence, the evidence is overwhelming. i ve been working on covid icu since the beginning.
face staffing shortages. in california where average daily case numbers are up 27%, l.a. county reported its youngest ever fatality, a 15-month-old baby. in washington state they re averaging more deaths now than ever. nationally, the death rate is still rising. but the average number of daily cases is going down because some states are past their peak or leveling off. experts are closely watching a subvariant of omicron that s now been found in a number of states. early data suggests it is not more severe than the original omicron. it may be a little bit more contagious, and that s what we have to pay attention to and that s what we re learning. does that mean we could look at another wave or an addition to the wave we are already in? i think another major wave is really unlikely out of this subvariant. two weeks ago we were inside a covid icu at the cleveland clinic and met ron. reporter: what would you say to people who think omicron is mild and no big deal?