The emergency doctor: the Omicron wave is a challenge because "we have fewer staff"

 

The emergency doctor explains that the Omicron wave is a challenge because "we have fewer staff."

Just like the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, hospitals across the United States are becoming increasingly overcrowded with COVID patients due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant.

Intensive care unit utilization is currently above 60% in most states, and many hospitals are understaffed amid a labor shortage.

Christopher Colbert, assistant director of the Emergency Medicine Residency Program at the University of Illinois, on Yahoo Finance Live. "So anyway, we can mitigate some of the negative effects as a crew and about patients has helped tremendously."

In Illinois, where Colbert is based, the governor has been deploying health care workers to hospitals across the state to help with staff shortages amid the pandemic.

President Biden is also sending military medical teams to several states to help ease the burden on hospitals.

Providing outside assistance is "a huge effort and a big step about reducing some of the stress that we have as medical providers because unlike previous waves of COVID that went into the hospital, with this wave, we have fewer staff," Colbert said.

'Multiple Effect' of Supreme Court Decision Amid Omicron Surge Increase

According to many public health officials, the best way to prevent hospital systems from being overburdened is to have a complete vaccination and booster.

Colbert said the Supreme Court that struck down President Biden's mandate for a vaccine for all companies with 100 or more employees while maintaining Biden's declaration for a vaccine for health care workers "prolongs the multiplier effect for individuals who do not receive the vaccine."