of ian s destruction. look at the pictures in front of you. this is what it looks like, including in lee county, where rescue crews, this is a live look now, a live look at that location, rescue crews are trying to get to people, with millions of floridians without power and water. we re going to take you live to the hardest-hit areas including lee county, which you re looking at now, for what is expected to be obviously a years-long recovery. i m halle jackson in washington. let s get to shaq brewster live for us in charleston, south carolina, nbc news meteorologist janice is with us today. shaq ian has made landfall in the last 40 minutes. tell us what you re seeing. the landfall was several miles up here from charleston, and that does not mean that charles was not impacted by this storm. throughout the afternoon and into the morning, and throughout the afternoon, we saw heavy rain bands, heavy wind bands. that tropical storm weather, that was expected for many people her
into what you are seeing. so that hasn t increased emergency department volume significantly. however, it is something we have to really think about because we are seeing invasive disease with strep a. and that can be especially troublesome if you have an influenza or rsv infection. we are seeing increased hospitalization with kids who have systemic illness or specifically developing abscesses or other problems in their throat due to that infection. so this is interesting. something that i did not know until doing this segment, that there is a factor in some u.s. hospitals that is contributing all to this, and that is that some hospitals have cut back on pediatric beds. why is that? is it because it s more profitable the treat adult patients? what s going on there? well, i think as children s hospitals have grown and spread across the country, you try to
has been since the start of the pandemic. and quite frankly that s because we are as you said rapidly approaching our all time record high for covid hospitalizations. but at the same time, we re seeing a real surge of patients who likely delayed seeking treatment for care that are now showing up in the hospital, our staff who have been dealing with this pandemic for nearly two years now are as fatigued as they have ever been, and so, again, the situation is incredibly dire. and we need the public support to get out of this very dangerous predicament. as dire as it has been, i know people will hear that and say, how can that be? i know michigan s vaccination rate is 55%, below the national average. but how can it be the worst it s been at this point of the pandemic? when we look at emergency department volume and we look at positivity rate, we know that in the days and weeks ahead those