We look at the skyrocketing number of COVID infections. Coronavirus cases hit record highs this week, with global cases climbing 70% from last week to 9.5 million and the U.S. reporting a single-day record of 1 million new cases on Monday. In the U.S., the extraordinary volume of cases is filling up emergency rooms nationwide and exhausting healthcare workers, says emergency room physician Dr. Craig Spencer, who has been treating coronavirus patients since the pandemic began. “We’re much better at treating this disease now,” says Spencer, “but the problem is that the amount of volume that we’re seeing threatens to really wash away any added benefit from either a milder variant or even all that experience that we’ve learned and those tools that we’ve built up over the past few years.” Spencer also critiques the U.S. government’s role in prolonging the pandemic, saying, “Global vaccine inequity has been one of the most profound and disappointing aspects of this pandemic over the past year.”

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