beforehand. cnn spoke with several doctors who say hospitals and health care workers are being overwhelmed by the omicron surge. to hear that omicron is different and is not cause being immense illness in people is not what we re seeing on the ground. we re seeing our e.r.s flooded with people who are looking for a test but are also sick and want to be evaluate and had find out what s going on so they can protect their family. inside the hospital we re seeing an increase in admissions that is startling. we ve more than doubled our admission since last week this time and people are sick. it is unlike anything we ve ever seen. even at the peak of the prior surges of covid. what we re experiencing right now is an absolute overwhelming of the emergency departments throughout washington, d.c. all our hospitals themselves, the inpatient wards seem to be maintaining. the emergency departments are being flooded with mostly mildly symptomatic patients who are coming in to get tested. and it
in places like germany. germany stopped paying for the tests, the virus tests that don t get vaccinated. they ended quarantine pay. if you re a smoker, insurance companies can charge you more. they can charge you a premium of 50% and you have to put that on the form when you apply for insurance. don t we have to make people that are saying i m willing to take the risk to be unvaccinated for me and everyone i come in contact with, shouldn t they have to pay more into the system because they are collapsing our health system? they re the ones in the e.r.s? they re taking it up. if you have a stroke or heart attack, you can t get in the e.r. because they re taking up the beds so shouldn t they have to pay more? i m sadly aware of what is happening the hospitals and health care facilities all over the world. hospitalizations in the united states increased 30% this week and what is happening is this a
some pushback and praise for telling hbo s bill maher that she is done with covid. take a listen. we were told, you get the vaccine. you get the vaccine and you get back to normal. and we haven t gotten back to normal. this is going to be remembered by the younger generation as a catastrophic moral crime. the city of flint, michigan, which is 80%, i think, minority students, has just announced indefinite virtual schooling. it is a pall of bureaucracy. it is not real anymore. what was your reaction when you heard that? my reaction was, it is real. it is very real. it is whip lash working in a hospital and seeing what s going on in hospitals. they re overwhelmed. e.r.s are full. you can t get beds for your patients, covid or not. to come out of the hospital and hear remarks like that, it feels like whiplash. the catastrophic moral failure.
removing the steps of the staircase. and sure and behold, they found a little pair of feet. those little bare feet belonging to the girl kept hidden in the box you see under the staircase. she was cold. she was wet. unclear how long she was there. her biological mother was found down there with her and said the parents and the grandfather have all been arrested and charged. they were later released with orders to stay away from this girl. police say thankfully she is in good health. but she told officers she hadn t eaten in a while. so they stopped to mcdonald s on the way to the station, a place she told them she fondly remembered. she is now reunited with her sister. someone really paying attention. they had been over the stairs over and over and something didn t seem right. we hope this little girl is okay. thank you so much for that. . er s sure.
testing for travel. it is a place where they can be exposed, and i think it s very risky. but the challenge is finding testing sites, and i think that s why e.r.s have kind of dealt with these additional challenges of patients who just need testing. the administration has been more clear this week about the testing failure for this country, and they re trying to do something about it, ordering half a billion tests, but i wonder what your message is to the federal government right now. is that the number-one thing that you guys need, is just more tests? or is there something else that would be most helpful at this point? i think more tests absolutely is really important. in addition to that, vaccine mandates. i think the more people who can get vaccinated, the more protection there will be. ultimately, i d love to see children under 5 being vaccinated. i know there are trials going on now for that. in the meantime, the best way to