its first locally transmitted case of omicron and the city, how many more cases do you think there might actually be? we don t know, and i think that s what everybody is concerned about because of that activity from the first confirmed case was tracked back to december 31. you can have a hidden spread of the virus in the city. you know, how widespread this situation is, we do not know yet. my broader oints, we do not know yet. my broader points. and we do not know yet. my broader points. and you we do not know yet. my broader points, and you have we do not know yet. my broader points, and you have alluded - we do not know yet. my broader points, and you have alluded to | points, and you have alluded to it than that period of time, given what we know about the transmissibility of omicron, it is likely that there are more locally transmitted case is. that is quite possible, but the
fueled by the omicron variant is unlike anything the nation has seen during the pandemic. dr. james phillips is chief of disaster medicine at george washington university hospital in washington, d.c. good to see you again after quite a long time of not talking to you. glad to be back glad you could be back with us. doctor, how is your emergency department and staff holding up in all of this? well, you know, emergency health care providers are resilient by their very nature. before they even choose a specialty it chooses them because of their resilience. we re managing, but we re getting sick, and it s a staffing issue for our hospitals right now, particularly our emergency departments, where doctors, physician residents and especially our nurses are really being affected themselves by becoming infected and having to be out of the workforce. we re seeing a surge in patients again, unprecedented in this pandemic. it s fortunate that the majority of them are not sick because if we had
arguably making things a little bit worse but in a very different way. on the positive side, with omicron, the cases do seem to be that little bit more milder which means there are less patient heading into icu and requiring really intense medical intervention, which is good news for patients in hospitals and the staff there, but because of the increased transmissibility of omicron, the impact in terms of staffing seems to be that the greater in the reports over the week and the one in ten hospital staff are off, not all because of coping, but still in enormous number of the niche is out of the front line not all because of the front line not all because of coping. that is an impact on the nhs s ability to cope with the cases coming into hospital. the guardian says tomorrow that there are number of critical incidents at several nhs trusts, because of those staff shortages, and that is really concerning. something the government has been looking at. today, boris johnson acknowledg
front line workers who have been at it for so long. such a difficult situation. the transmissibility of omicron is wreaking havoc across the board. the chief medical officer here outlined the possible outcomes if you just get vaccinated. let s talk about that. this particular strain, while causing less severity of illness, is still causing illness, so we still have some patients in the icu getting very sick from covid. most of the patients admitted to the hospital are unvaccinated. for those who are being admitted to the hospital who are vaccinated, their severity of illness is less. so katy, that is the bottom line. the state of florida has a vaccination rate of 64%. in miami-dade where i am, it s more like 80%. dr. hotez, there are a decent number of americans who do have two doses but there are not that many americans who have gotten boosted. less than 40% of the vaccinated. what s stopping people from
talk about the transmissibility of omicron, dr. walensky telling savannah and hoda, omicron variant in new york and new jersey is 13%. those are signs it could become the dominant strain, and for family members wondering, do i get together with loved ones? should i be traveling? what if in restaurants, outside? what are the guidelines? most important thing according to dr. walensky, self-testing if you have to travel before you go so you know if you ll expose yourself to someone in your household or a different one that might be vulnerable. steph? how big a weapon might this anti-viral pill be good getting the pandemic somewhat behind us? great news on many levels. merck anti-viral pill approved with a much, much lower rate of efficacy preventing hospitalization and death. we compare.