and encourage loved ones to do the same. the u.s. hit 50 million cases and 800,000 deaths today with more than 100,000 new cases reported each day. back with us tonight, dr. steven sample, an e.r. physician at memorial hospital and health care in jasper, indiana. he is also a volunteer clinical faculty member at indiana university school of medicine. it s good to have you back, a lot to talk about, let s start with what we always ask. what are you seeing in your hospital right now. good evening, thanks for having me. it s awful right now. there s no other word for it. this sucks. this is not fun. it s not funny. we are shot. we re exhausted. our numbers are higher than they have ever been. consistently higher than they have ever been, and there seems to be no light at the end of this tunnel. these waves are coming back to back to back, and you just see a whole lot of staff, and all the
also a volunteer clinical faculty member at indiana university school of medicine. doctor, i m going to ask you about the uptick in patients. i m assuming there is an uptick in patients, how many are unvaccinated? sure, believe me brian, the circle goes around again and we start over. the uptick israel. seeing new patients every single s shift now. 100% of the patients i have seen so far have been unvaccinated people. i am certain that there are probably breakthrough cases, as they say, here and there. but thus far i have not seen them. i have learned anecdotes of, hey i knew this guy, but overwhelmingly this is the pandemic of the unvaccinated. how ready or unready is a hospital like yours? this is the time we were all told that we can take a breath.
in january of this year, we ll compare that with today. we see a dramatic drop in concern for outbreaks across the country, because the vaccinations are ramping up. with some exceptions that you see depicted on that map. back with us again tonight, dr. steven sample, er doctor at memorial hospital and health care center in jasper, indiana. also a volunteer clinical faculty member at the indiana university school of medicine. doc, i am guessing that where you are, the aggressively mask-less have remained so. but generally, i want to hear how things are in your neck of the woods? it evening, brian. they re doing real right now. it s been interesting. i m kind of practicing medicine like i was 14 or 15 months ago. the patients are back. they are all sick with different stuff again. you know? at the end of last year about half of the patients i was