decline in daily cases once the variant turned the corner once the country turned the corner from the omicron variant. do you expect to see the same thing happen here? if so, how soon? i expect us to see the same thing starting in the northeast already. i because the northeast is so much of our population, we ll see on a countrywide basis that cases drop. but at the same time, cases are still rising in much of the country. we are not yet out of the woods. the other thing, of course, as you mentioned earlier, that cases are only part of what we re worried about. equally concerning are hospitalizations, intensive care unit stays and deaths, and even in the northeast, our hospitals are still quite overwhelmed from that combination of sick, unvaccinated covid patients and of course, all of the other medical and surgical problems for which care has been put off for the last two years. so even if the omicron case wave has peaked, the burden on the
meaning it took only 21 days for omicron to spread nationwide. hospitals are inundated with unvaccinated covid patients and hospitals are depleted after two years on the covid front line in a desperate plea asking americans to please get vaccinated. six cleveland area health care facilities paid for a one-page ad that features one word on a blank page. help. the message below says we now have more covid patients in our hospitals than ever before. the overwhelming majority are unvaccinated. dr. gupta and a critical care pulmonologist joins us and dr. brooke watts, chief officer for community health in cleveland. thank you both for being here. i ll start with you, dr. watts. that ad said help and described the situation you re facing. describe for us what is going on in your hospitals.
i think tensions are high in general. you ask somebody to put their mask on in the emergency department sitting next to a cancer patient with no immune system and we can t tell them that. we can t share that information but we re trying to protect our vulnerable patients. and, you know, we get cussed at and yelled at and obscene gestures and we frankly don t have enough security to keep everybody safe. don t have enough security to keep everybody safe at the hospital. i mean, this is happening in alaska against this very real back drop of hospitals across alaska implementing crisis standards of care. right? hospitals across the state operating above capacity. they re having to implement rationing of health care. because the number of unvaccinated covid patients has so swamped the health system that they can t provide even life saving care to people who otherwise would be getting it. the doctors and nurses suffering under those conditions are the ones being threatened and assaulted in
yelled at. i ve seen jester gestures. we frankly don t have enough security to keep everybody safe. you don t have enough security to keep everybody safe, at the hospital. and this is happening in alaska against this very real bask drop of hospitals across alaska, implementing crisis standards of care. hospitals across the state is rationing of health care. because the number of unvaccinated covid patients has so swamped the health system, that they can t provide even lifesaving hair to people who would otherwise be getting it. the doctors and nurses suffering under those conditions, are the ones who are being threatened and assaulted in the health care setting. justice public officials are getting threatened in public meetings about mask ordinances. despite the threats of violence, hurled at anchorage assembly members, despite that intimidation s, i should tell you the anchorage assembly just
gestures, and we, frankly, don t have enough security to keep everybody safe. don t have enough security to keep everybody safe at the hospital. i mean, this is happening in alaska against this very real back drop of hospitals across alaska implementing crisis standards of care. right? hospitals across the state operating above capacity. they re having to implement rationing of health care because the number of unvaccinated covid patients has so swamped the health system that they can t provide even lifesaving care to people who otherwise would be getting it. the doctors and nurses suffering under those conditions are the ones being threatened and assaulted in the health care setting just as public officials are getting threatened in public meetings about things like mask ordinances. despite the threats of violence hurled at anchorage assembly members by the public, despite that intimidation i should tell you the anchorage assembly just passed the mask requirement for indoor spaces i