John Bacon, Jorge L. Ortiz and Grace Hauck

Blame the highly contagious delta variant and a swath of Americans refusing easily accessible vaccines that most of the developing world is furiously scrambling to obtain.

Hospitalizations are up 158% from a year ago, U.S. Health and Human Services data shows. The result: Some U.S. hospitals are getting so crowded with COVID-19 patients that physicians may soon be compelled to make life-or-death decisions on who gets an ICU bed.

"We are perilously close," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, told CNN. "You're going to have to make some very tough choices."

The crisis has arrived in Mississippi, the state with the nation's lowest vaccination rate at 38%. At the University of Mississippi Medical Center, the emergency room and intensive care unit are beyond capacity, almost all COVID patients. Risa Moriarity, executive vice chair of the hospital's emergency department, described a “logjam” with beds in hallways and patients being treated in triage rooms.

"You leave work at the end of the day just exhausted by the effort it takes to (dig) that compassion up for people who are not taking care of themselves and the people around them,” Moriarity said.