What the Omicron Wave Looks Like at One Brooklyn E.R.
The New York Times
The nature of this variant, combined with widespread vaccine use, may make it seem less severe in some ways than earlier ones. It doesn’t always feel that like that here.
A young man poked his head out of an isolation room and demanded, not for the first time, to know the Covid-19 test result he was waiting for. He kept asking until Natasha Williams looked up.
At that moment, Ms. Williams was one of only two nurses working on the Covid-19 ward, with its 36 patients. The young man was the healthiest in sight.
One of the patients might die before the day was done, she worried. A few were on ventilators. One was curled in a fetal position and moaning for water; another was asking to eat. Patients were crammed into every corner, their gurneys arranged, Ms. Williams thought, like blocks in a game of Tetris.
