After Cleveland hospitals take out ad begging for help, local doctor says 'we're in crisis here in Northeast Ohio'

On Anderson Cooper 360 Monday, fill-in host John Berman interviewed Dr. Brook Watts, the chief medical officer at the MetroHealth System in Cleveland, following the issue of a simple, but powerful, ad in which a group of Ohio hospitals begged for "help."

"We're in crisis here in Northeast Ohio," Watts said. "I think the health systems, together, said it best this weekend, when we took out a joint ad with all hospitals in our region and it said one word. It said, 'Help.' It said help because our hospitals are filled with patients with COVID and we're struggling."

On Monday, it was also reported that the Omicron variant is now the most dominant strain in the U.S. and, just last week, as Ohio's COVID-19 case count hit its highest point in just over a year, the state deployed its National Guard to hospitals to help with staffing shortages.

"They will be coming into our Cleveland area to help offer access for testing. Right now, because we have so many COVID cases, there isn't a rapid test to be found, and the PCR tests that are offered generally at testing sites, the wait period is approximately seven days. So the National Guard will be helping us by setting up the testing site," Watts explained.

With a record-breaking amount of COVID patients in Ohio's hospitals, Watts also shared that the majority are unvaccinated and, surprisingly, young.

"We continue to see that most of our patients, particularly the patients in the ICUs, are unvaccinated," said Watts, adding, "I think what felt a little bit, perhaps, different for me this time having taken care of COVID patients since the beginning of the pandemic is I do feel like we are seeing more younger folks. There is nothing more heartbreaking than walking into a COVID patient's room, and seeing pictures of their young children. So, young parents."

While it seems like Watts might be overwhelmed or scared during this time, she actually just said she feels exhausted. "Last year, we were in a similar situation but we sure had a lot of hope that we were going to get to a better place. I just don't think any of us saw this coming. For us right now, most of the patients in the hospital still have the Delta variant, but as you mentioned in your intro, Omicron is coming on fast and strong and we are all sort of waiting to see what happens next," Watts said. "And I think that unknown and that fear is contributing to the exhaustion we are all feeling."

Anderson Cooper 360 airs weeknights at 8 p.m. on CNN.

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