At sparrow hospital in lansing today, about to head on to the COVID floor. They’re at 100% capacity plus 50 overflow beds - highest ever during the pandemic. “Everybody’s stressed,” a pediatric specialist says.

Significant increase They’ve got 3 moms in labor who’ve tested positive, and there’s a discussion about when/if to administer monoclonal antibodies. They’ll do it after birth, drs decide. Evidence shows safe for pregnant moms, one dr says. “The side effects are basically nill.”

The women’s and children’s departments are seeing increases overall, and Sparrow is shutting down non-affiliate admissions (basically only sparrow’s community hospitals can send patients who need critical care here.) They’ve had children as young as **two months** in ICU.

One thing peds is trying to understand is why moms who have COVID when they deliver, don’t seem to transmit to their newborns: positive moms who opt to keep their babies in their rooms (vs being separated) haven’t been coming back with sick babies. It’s all anecdotal, obviously.

Why are kids getting so sick now, I ask? Are their siblings back in school, or what? Could be, they say. Dr. Michael Zaroukian, chief medical info officer, talked about combo of spring break travel, indoor winter sports, loosened restrictions, and of course, the B.1.1.7 variant

The patients (all adults) I talked to are all over the spectrum. Annette, 63, works at the Walmart bakery Dept. She had to pause between short sentences to get more airflow from the nasal cannula. She’s been here over a week, and wipes away tears talking about her adult children

She’s so lonely here, she says. Her anxiety is a challenge, especially now, and her coping mechanisms - taking a long walk - aren’t options. She’s getting a bit better today! Maddie, her nurse, was a huge help yesterday when she was really struggling emotionally.

Annette and others here just sit or lay in these beds, day after day after day after day. You call your family, and that helps, and sometimes you can get a single visitor. But otherwise you sit and try to breathe. There’s a TV quietly playing an NCIS rerun in Annette’s room.

At the end, I asked her why she agreed to talk to a reporter - we come in with these big breathing hoods and practically have to shout questions at her, like she’s a specimen on Mars. Loneliness, she says. “Just wanted to see some faces.”

Another patient had been here 13 days. She’s 42 (!!!!) and has 4 kids, brags about the older 2 in college or graduating HS early. She’s asthmatic, so she’s been careful, but sent her 6th grade daughter back to school in person, doesn’t know if that’s how she contracted COVID.

She didn’t even know she had COVID - just thought she had a sinus infection from seasonal allergies. But her sister came over and took her to the ER b/c she was getting so disoriented. She started crashing and they rushed her to the ICU.

She’s doing better now, nurse says she’ll be discharged today or tomorrow w/ oxygen support. She says her faith has been a source of strength. “I call COVID the devil,” and promised herself she wouldn’t let it win. She was SO close to getting vaccinated before she go sick.

“I almost made it,” she says of the vaccine.

And in the world’s least revelatory observation: these masks are, in fact, really uncomfortable. The nursing teams are doing 12 hr shifts, plus dealing w/ staffing shortage. I wore mine for a few hours and was like “time to go sit in my car and talk to some food about this.”

And that’s the thing: more hospitals are allowing reporters in on a limited basis, in hopes of keeping the public’s attention despite pandemic fatigue. And then we come away like “guys guess what it IS in fact very bad!” But people know that. What are we adding, exactly?

Just the reminder that it’s still very real, I guess. That younger people, including some little kids, are sick, scared and lonely. That hospitals are straining, battling mental/physical exhaustion. And some light: Sparrow is pushing hard on expanding monoclonal antibody therapy.

Doctors I talked to here are referring more and more patients for these treatments, and have capacity to do more. Big picture: the next front in this, Dr. Z says, will be reaching the vaccine hesitant and combatting fears and misinformation.