Omicron is breaking records – and our health-care system
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 11 January 2022
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today the United States broke the record for covid hospitalizations. We talk about what overwhelmed hospitals mean for health-care workers and patients. Plus, a story about the power of reclaiming a name.
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The United States today broke a record with more than 145,000 people sick with covid-19 in hospitals. Health reporter Dan Diamond explains what that means for health-care workers on the front lines, and for those of us who depend upon them.
Plus, editor Marian Chia-Ming Liu on why she started using her full name after a wave of anti-Asian violence. If you’ve ever struggled with your own name or felt pressure to Anglicize it, we want to hear from you. Go to wapo.st/telllusaboutyourname.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | On Tuesday morning, we set a new national record for hospitalizations related to COVID, |
| 0:06.6 | about 145,000 patients. |
| 0:09.9 | That's Dan Diamond. |
| 0:11.0 | He covers health policy for the post. |
| 0:13.8 | That's higher than the record that was set about a year ago during the last big winter |
| 0:18.2 | surge, and it's also a really fast acceleration. |
| 0:22.5 | We wanted to call Dan to understand where we are with this variant and why this surge |
| 0:28.6 | is resulting in so many overwhelmed hospitals. |
| 0:32.6 | We've doubled in hospitalizations over the past month. |
| 0:35.5 | The fact that we are in this territory means that if you're in a hospital, some huge |
| 0:40.6 | percentage of your beds are devoted only to COVID, and that means some other percentage |
| 0:46.0 | of patients who need care probably waiting for those beds to free up because there's |
| 0:50.8 | so much COVID going around the US health system. |
| 0:55.3 | In the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. |
| 0:59.1 | I'm Ella Hay-Ezadi in for Martin Powers. |
| 1:02.8 | It's Tuesday, January 11th. |
| 1:05.6 | Today, record-breaking COVID hospitalizations. |
| 1:09.5 | Plus, the power of reclaiming your name. |
| 1:16.0 | Dan, you've been reporting on what the Omicron, Omicron, however, first of all, how do you |
| 1:21.7 | say it? |
| 1:22.7 | Dan, how do you say this variant? |
| 1:24.4 | I am wedded to the Omicron pronunciation, but I'm willing to accept that people have their |
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