This Covid Surge Feels Different

[0] From the New York Times, I'm Annie Correale, in for Michael Barbaro.

[1] This is the Daily.

[2] Today, despite its reputation for mild illness, the Omicron variant is fueling a staggering rise in hospitalizations around the country.

[3] I spoke with my colleague, Emily Antheis, about why doctors and nurses inside those hospitals say that this phase of the pandemic feels so different.

[4] It's Tuesday.

[5] January 11th.

[6] So, Emily, you've been reporting on hospitals across the U .S. and the challenge that they're facing at this particular moment in the pandemic.

[7] Can you tell us about what you've been hearing?

[8] Absolutely.

[9] So cases have been skyrocketing in recent weeks.

[10] If you look at graphs of cases, they're basically vertical.

[11] And the highest case numbers we've seen at any point in the pandemic.

[12] And hospitalizations, which are.

[13] tend to lag behind cases have started to rise, too.

[14] And in some of the early Amacron hotspots, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, elsewhere, hospitals are being flooded with new patients.

[15] They're just being inundated.

[16] Emergency rooms are filling up.

[17] There aren't enough staff to care for all these patients.

[18] And that might seem like a bit of a paradox because we ourselves have covered a bit about how evidence is emerging that this variant, Amacron, might be a bit milder than Delta, which caused some of the previous surges.

[19] So we wanted to try to figure out what was at the heart of this tension.

[20] If this variant was causing milder illness and so many Americans are vaccinated now, why are hospitals filling up?

[21] This is Drew.

[22] Hi, this is Emily Antheis calling from the New York Times.

[23] How are you?

[24] Good, good.

[25] Can you hear me okay?

[26] I can.

[27] So several of my colleagues and I...

[28] We are trying our best to talk to as many hospitals in...

[29] Including my colleague Azeen Goreshi.