Dr. James Samuel Pope starts his day and makes his rounds at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut. Dr. Pope was supposed to handle telemedicine visits for patients, but thanks to a colleague's positive Covid test, he has been assigned to the intensive care unit instead. "The frustration is very real... all of us are burned out," he says. Sick patients fill 15 rooms (of 16) of one of the ICU wards at the hospital, with all but a few not there for Covid-19, and nearly all of them un-vaccinated and intubated with oxygen. Dr. Pope knows that not all the patients he is taking care of will go home. "Those of us who've been here from the beginning, it's hard to find somebody who's bubbly and feels like this has been an uplifting and, you know, positive life-changing experience. It has not." A VOICED REPORT IN THE FIRST PERSON