station, quote, it is a parent s worst nightmare. the only reason i m doing this is to put the word out to please get vaccinated. mika? now to a follow-up on a story we reported on yesterday. more than 75 doctors in palm beach gardens gathered to say enough is enough. they re exhausted with the still steady stream of covid patients who are unvaccinated. in yesterday s report we referred to the doctors event as a simulated walk out. and we learned afterwards many thought that left patients unattended. doctors wouldn t do that, they re committed, even when they re pushed by these extremes by people who do not choose to get the vaccine. those doctors gathered before going on shift or after working a long shift on the covid wards. some pulling double shift. something they ve been doing for months dealing with unvaccinated covid patients. they re exhausted.
dealing with the patients. and yet somehow it all got twisted around. their message is one that s simple, we just heard it from the doctor, 92, 94% of those that wind up in the covid wards are unvaccinated. the unvaccinated are the people these doctors are trying to reach. saying listen to the science we re the medical experts here. we re urging you to get vaccinated. because if you get covid and you get vaccinated, it s unlikely you will show up in the emergency room and winding up in the icu. so, kerry, there are some 90 million eligible americans who have not yet received a vaccine. yet with the fda approval of the pfizer vaccine, dr. fauci suggested he thought 20 million or so might now get it. what is your sense of that how this official fda approval may change the trajectory here? reporter: i think a lot of us thought that would be sort of what pushes it over the top. certainly the doctors told me
state of hawaii. this is very real. you heard the concerns from the doctor there, if we continue along at this rate he says the state and hospitals will look like what he called a war zone. yeah, willie. these are astounding stories and sadly they are very common stories. there are several striking things we ve already heard this morning. the news item about the mother in florida who lost two sons within the space of 12 hours to covid. the doctors who explained that hospitals are being turned into covid wards. there s no more maternity wards, we re on the verge of having no more emergency wards. everything is going to be covid. hospitals are going to be operating at maximum capacity. doctors and nurses are going to be physically and mentally exhausted by their chores. can you imagine the doctor we just had on from florida, the cargo of misery that he carries
headlines in papers, doctors, nurses getting burned out like we saw at the beginning of the pandemic. what is going on in florida? reporter: there s such anxiety and frustration with those who are not getting vaccinated that this morning in palm beach county, close to 100 doctors in white coats, some coming off their shifts on covid wards, others getting ready to go on, gathered right here. you can see from drone show that symbolism of this is so unique. one of those standing here, decided to stay with us, i am curious, what does it mean when i see and the nation sees all of you gathering saying enough is enough. it really means that us as a community of physicians are trying to let our patients know and everybody in our population that getting vaccinated and taking precautions is so
the mask mandate because we don t like it, but we think it is necessary. the surge of new cases is so bad in texas that some hospitals are once again setting up tents as covid wards to create more room for patients. the linden b. johnson hospital s icu is at 100% capacity with at least 63% of those positive for do covid-19. two hospitals have also temporarily closed their emergency rooms so staff could be transferred to work with covid patients. less than 500 icu beds are currently available in texas. the covid surge across the south is so bad that mississippi has no icu beds available at many hospitals. more than 200 patients are stuck in emergency rooms as they wait to get into an icu. the state s health department also says that there are more than 150 ongoing covid outbreaks in long term care facilities.