mike kenner, in washington or many u. s. hospitals also reporting staff shortage is about 70000 americans were hospitalized with covered 19 as of christmas eve. that figures up about 50 percent from early november, but overall hospitalization. so the only con, very, to remain lower compared to previous strains. health officials have repeatedly warned that situation may worse and for tens of millions of americans that remain on vaccinated. dr. alley raja is executive vice chair at the department of emergency medicine, massachusetts general hospital, joins us live from boston by skype. and i might just pick up on the point we were making there in the story. how do low vaccination rates affect communities and health systems? how much of a strain does it cause? it's a great question, miriam. and it really, as you mentioned, depends on the vaccination rates and the prevalence around the individual communities. for example, here in the u. s. we have really high vaccination rates here in massachusetts where i live. as of yesterd