the our power to protect our children. they are our most important asset. and to me it is morally indefensible to be withholding protective measures we know work when our children may be at risk. dr. vivek murthy, strong words for those republican governors. thank you so much. as we mentioned, school kids in mississippi, a state with a huge spike in cases now, more than 20,000 students are in quarantine from exposure to covid-19 wereman that 4,500 tested positive for the virus. in that state, just 36% of mississippi residents are fully vaccinated. joining us from the university of mississippi medical center, home to the state s only children s hospital, in jackson, mississippi. elson barber. good morning, you are looking at a new field hospital that has been erected there, unfortunately. reporter: yeah, i wanted to
thank you for being on this morning. now we turn to the latest with coronavirus where cases here in the u.s. have nearly tripled in the last two weeks in a growing number of hospitals. the nation is seeing an influx of covid patients. most of them unvaccinated and young. elson barber returned to one hospital in south carolina. give you the best chance reporter: a year ago the covid icu at lexington medical center was pushed to the brink. now it s feeling like deja vu. this man is the latest patient admitted and the doctor is trying to figure out if he should be on a ventilator. there s a high likelihood that he ll require more advanced care. reporter: around the corner is another covid patient, just 26 years old.
joining us now is correspondent elson barber, live at the state s only children s hospital in jackson, mississippi. what can you tell us about children who have gotten severely ill from covid? when we re talking about children here. when you re looking at numbers in general in this state on the surface they might not seem high. there were 557 new confirmed cases of covid-19 in mississippi yesterday. but it is the rate that theorizing that is really concerning when you look further at the numbers, hospitalizations in this state because of covid-19 have steadily increased since the beginning of this month and in the last week and a half alone, covid patients in icus, that number has nearly doubled. when you look specifically at children, mississippi s top health official had talked about and put out these numbers earlier in the week warning people that the delta variant,
what to do for a lot of things. we pay taxes we have to get vaccines before we go to school. we have to get car tags. so there are a lot of things that we re used to doing because we know we have to do. and this to me is more about responsibility for society. we ve certainly seen complications of covid-19 and very critical children with covid-19 and very critical young adults and late teens with covid-19 and people who have died who would have been, you know, well if they had not gotten it. it s a very preventable disease with this vaccine. and elson, these are great interviews and framing the point that a lot of people, public health experts, are trying to make at this point. we ve been doing vaccines for 70 years. and i just wonder, what are you hearing about what s behind this severe hesitancy? hesitancy that s leading to a
jon: the 2020 democratic presidential hopefuls are back on the campaign trail with pete booted judge and elizabeth warren and iowa, and bernie sanders and joe biden and new hampshire. the vermont former vice president have a verbal dustup odors potential dustup in an impeachment trial. nelson barber was in peterborough new hampshire with the latest. jon former vice president reminded me that controversial seated and then tried to see them walk it back now has made a complete reversal are he said if he is abated to be subpoenaed in the impeachment trial he would comply with the subpoena. but he continues to say there is no legal basis for calling him as a legal witness. i would obey any subpoena that was sent to me. but the.i am making or that relates to me, is the only