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vaccination rates are driving a surge in cases of influenza. nbc's sam brock is reporting from outside a children's hospital in new orleans. dr. vin gupta is also with us, a pulmonologist and msnbc medical contributor. sam, i know louisiana is getting hit especially hard. what are you hearing from doctors there? >> reporter: yeah, that map is very telling, chris, as far as what's going on in the state of louisiana, as recently as several weeks ago, there were about one or two dozen people being hospitalized with influenza. that figure now is 300 per week. i'm standing in front of children's hospital new orleans, that's the building behind me. it's part of the lcmc health network, which is the largest here in the new orleans area. they tell me as far as flu cases are concerned. in november, they were up 175%. in december, 115%, which is to say, chris, it keeps doubling and tripling every single month. that's why you're hearing warnings about how this could be comparable to what we saw in 2009 with the h1n1 pandemic as