There is a record number of new COVID cases as well as hospitalizations

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There is a record number of new COVID cases as well as hospitalizations

Transcript¹

The U.S. is averaging more than 700,000 cases of the coronavirus every day. And the number of people being hospitalized across the country, including young children, is hitting new highs, too.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

The U.S. is now averaging more than 700,000 cases of the coronavirus every day - a record. And the number of people being hospitalized across the country, including young children, is hitting new highs, too. Yet doctors say this surge is different. Many vaccinated³ people are testing positive, but they are not getting seriously ill thanks to the protection of vaccines⁵.

NPR's Allison Aubrey joins us to help sort through the latest.

Good morning, Allison.

ALLISON AUBREY, BYLINE⁶: Good morning, Rachel.

MARTIN: So we know hospitalizations from COVID have shot up considerably⁷ over the last week. Who is most at risk?

AUBREY: Yeah. Hospital admissions are near or at record pandemic highs. In some states nationwide, about 18,000 people are being admitted a day. That's a 50% increase over last week. And the people who are most at risk are those who are not vaccinated. The CDC says unvaccinated people are 17 times more likely to be hospitalized.

I spoke⁸ to Dr. Lance Becker. He's head of emergency medicine at Northwell Health in New York. And he says they see many unvaccinated patients who are very ill.

LANCE BECKER: It is very upsetting to see a person who's made a decision, and now that person pays such a price for it. And we've had people who are dying and had family members say, well, maybe you could vaccinate² them right now. And, you know - and they're, like, literally⁹ losing their blood pressure and dying in front of your eyes. And you just want to cry. You just want to cry.

AUBREY: You can hear that in his voice, Rachel...

MARTIN: Yeah.

AUBREY: ...Because so many of these deaths are preventable, he says. It's just hard for health care workers to be going through this again.

MARTIN: I mean, what about health care workers? Are more hospitals...

AUBREY: Right.

MARTIN: ...Scrambling¹⁰ to keep them on the job right now because of the surge?

AUBREY: You know, around the country, a lot of health care workers have tested positive. And then they can't come to work for five days or so. Now, because most health care workers are vaccinated, and many are boosted, they're not getting as sick.

I spoke to Dr. Becker about what he's seen over the last several weeks among his staff.

BECKER: Within the emergency department, luckily, thank goodness, no one was hospitalized, but many people were out for several days. About half of those people experienced almost no symptoms at all. They simply tested positive because we were aggressively wanting to ensure the safety of everyone and discovered that people were positive.

AUBREY: So those staffers have to be out during the isolation¹¹ period. Dr. Becker says he's been able to move staff around and manage just fine. But a bunch of urgent care centers in New York and New Jersey¹² have had to close due to a lack of staff amid this surge.

MARTIN: Allison, from what you have been able to glean¹³ from experts, is the U.S. near the peak of this surge?

AUBREY: You know, officials in New York say the state might be nearing a peak now. Numbers have flattened¹⁴ over the last few days in New York. But remember, it was the first region to sort of see this surge. Nationwide, the CDC director has said we have not reached the peak. On Friday, more than 830,000 people tested positive, according to the agency. And that doesn't even include those who used only a rapid at-home test.

I spoke to Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota about what we can expect.

MICHAEL OSTERHOLM: Four weeks ago, I put out a prediction at that time that we would be literally in a viral blizzard¹⁵ for the next eight weeks or more. And I'm sticking with that. I think another four weeks, and we're going to see case numbers peaking and coming down quite rapidly.

AUBREY: Several models suggest a similar kind of quick rise and fall, Rachel. That's what's been seen in South Africa and in parts of the U.K., which has typically been about three weeks ahead of the U.S. during this pandemic. There're some initial indications that the numbers of new cases may have peaked there. And Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the way out of this pandemic is for everyone to get vaccinated and boosted.

MARTIN: I mean, that's what we hear from a lot of world leaders - right? - including President Biden.

AUBREY: That's exactly right.

MARTIN: In this country, I mean, are more people heeding¹⁶ this advice?

AUBREY: You know, heading into the holidays, White House advisers¹⁷ said the pace of vaccinations¹⁹ was accelerating. But so far, only about 35% of people in the U.S. have received a booster. About 66% of eligible²⁰ people are fully²¹ vaccinated. So some states are going back to mass vaccination¹⁸ sites, including Massachusetts, where shots are being given at Fenway Park, the baseball park, again. In Oregon, the state health authority has opened drive-in sites - no appointments needed. And in Illinois, state agencies are setting up mobile booster clinics. Many sites offer shots to both adults and kids.

MARTIN: Let's talk about kids. There's been a pretty significant rise in hospitalizations among children, right? What can you tell us?

AUBREY: Yeah. About 825 kids are being admitted to the hospital per day with COVID right now. This is a 40% increase compared to the prior week, so that's pretty significant. But keep in mind, more than 300,000 kids have tested positive in a single week amid this surge. I've spoken to several pediatricians who say, in the ER, most kids coming in for treatment end up being released rather than admitted. And some kids come in for treatment for something other than COVID, but then turn out to be positive for the virus.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky addressed this on Friday.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ROCHELLE WALENSKY: We are seeing a rise in hospitalizations, both because they are coming in with COVID, but also because they're screening in for COVID. And so I would say we don't yet - have not yet seen a signal that there is any increased severity in this age demographic.

AUBREY: She says they are watching the data closely. And she adds, it is clear that kids are more likely to end up hospitalized if they are unvaccinated.

MARTIN: How many kids in the country have been vaccinated so far? Do we know?

AUBREY: Yeah. Only about 25% of 5- to 11-year-olds have received their first dose of the vaccine⁴. Among older kids, about 54% of 12- to 17-year-olds are now fully vaccinated. And the rates really vary widely from state to state. I'll point out, some of President Biden's former COVID advisers say that the U.S. is going to need near-universal vaccination to get to the point where COVID is manageable and kind of predictable from year to year.

Among them, Dr. Zeke Emanuel says this may require mandates²² in school.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ZEKE EMANUEL: One reason we have great response to things like, you know, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus shots is that we have mandates. You have to be vaccinated to go to school.

MARTIN: Right.

AUBREY: Yeah. He argues COVID vaccines should be the same after they're fully approved - be tough to pull off. You know, many states have already moved to prevent these mandates, so this is likely to be a fight going forward.

MARTIN: NPR's Allison Aubrey.

We appreciate you, Allison. Thank you.

AUBREY: Thank you very much, Rachel.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 vaccinate   

vt.给…接种疫苗；种牛痘

参考例句：

• Local health officials then can plan the best times to vaccinate people.这样，当地的卫生官员就可以安排最佳时间给人们接种疫苗。
• Doctors vaccinate us so that we do not catch smallpox.医生给我们打预防针使我们不会得天花。

3 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

4 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

5 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 considerably   

adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上

参考例句：

• The economic situation has changed considerably.经济形势已发生了相当大的变化。
• The gap has narrowed considerably.分歧大大缩小了。

8 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

9 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

10 scrambling   

v.快速爬行( scramble的现在分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞

参考例句：

• Scrambling up her hair, she darted out of the house. 她匆忙扎起头发，冲出房去。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• She is scrambling eggs. 她正在炒蛋。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

12 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

13 glean   

v.收集(消息、资料、情报等)

参考例句：

• The little information that we could glean about them was largely contradictory.我们能够收集到的有关它们的少量信息大部分是自相矛盾的。
• From what I was able to glean,it appears they don't intend to take any action yet.根据我所收集到的资料分析，他们看来还不打算采取任何行动。

14 flattened   

[医]（水）平扁的，弄平的

参考例句：

• She flattened her nose and lips against the window. 她把鼻子和嘴唇紧贴着窗户。
• I flattened myself against the wall to let them pass. 我身体紧靠着墙让他们通过。

15 blizzard   

n.暴风雪

参考例句：

• The blizzard struck while we were still on the mountain.我们还在山上的时候暴风雪就袭来了。
• You'll have to stay here until the blizzard blows itself off.你得等暴风雪停了再走。

16 heeding   

v.听某人的劝告，听从( heed的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• This come of heeding people who say one thing and mean another! 有些人嘴里一回事，心里又是一回事，今天这个下场都是听信了这种人的话的结果。 来自辞典例句
• Her dwarfish spouse still smoked his cigar and drank his rum without heeding her. 她那矮老公还在吸他的雪茄，喝他的蔗酒，睬也不睬她。 来自辞典例句

17 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。

18 vaccination   

n.接种疫苗，种痘

参考例句：

• Vaccination is a preventive against smallpox.种痘是预防天花的方法。
• Doctors suggest getting a tetanus vaccination every ten years.医生建议每十年注射一次破伤风疫苗。

19 vaccinations   

n.种痘，接种( vaccination的名词复数 )；牛痘疤

参考例句：

• Vaccinations ensure one against diseases. 接种疫苗可以预防疾病。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I read some publicity about vaccinations while waiting my turn at the doctor's. 在医生那儿候诊时，我读了一些关于接种疫苗的宣传。 来自《简明英汉词典》

20 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

21 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

22 mandates   

托管（mandate的第三人称单数形式）

参考例句：

• Individual mandates would require all people to purchase health insurance. 个人托管要求所有人都要购买健康保险。
• While I agree with those benefits, I'm not a supporter of mandates. 我同意上述好处，我不是授权软件的支持者。