he won monday for his role in argentina s win of the cupa america title. the women s award went to alexia butteas. she helped lead barcelona to victories in the champions league, the spanish league and the spanish cup. well, it s the word on the tip of everyone s tongues this year. what do you think it is? you ve probably heard it a few dozen times this hour. the 2021 word of the year according to merriam webster, drug roll, is vaccine. the dictionary said searches for vaccine is up 600% from last year. noting it s become as much of a political or cultural term as it is a medical one. now just go out and get your vaccine, right? that s what we want to send that message. thanks for joining us. i m rosemary church. have yours selves a wonderful day. early start with christine romans and laura jarrett is up next. you re watching cnn.
japan just detected its first case hours ago, and that means that 19 countries or territories have diagnosed at least one case of omicron. there are no confirmed cases in the u.s. as of now, and with so much still unknown about this new strain, president biden is urging everyone to remain calm. this variant is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic. we have the best vaccine in the world, the best medicines, the best scientists, and we re learning more every single day. let s be clear, there s nothing unexpected about the spread of omicron around the world, and there is every reason to expect it could already be in the united states. that in and of itself is not a reason to for worry that much. the president doesn t anticipate more travel bans or new lockdowns. he says both options are off the table. the administration is redoubling its push for vaccinations. the unvaccinated need to get vaccinated, and those who are eligible to get boosted should
a booster. i wonder in your mind, are we sort of behind the ball on this? it seems like the time to do this would have been weeks ago before we had even heard about omicron. well, you know, there are a lot of the population is still well within six months of getting their second shot and we know unfortunately a lot of the population still has not been vaccinated is certainly true when you look at the global level. i m grateful my 5-year-old just received her second vaccine yesterday. but boosters are certainly critically important. i m excited to see the request to have 16 and 17-year-olds now receive their booster as well. i think globally, yes, preventing a new variant like omicron would have happened by making sure the world was vaccinated six months ago, but everything we can do now moving forward, keeping in mind of course delta is certainly here in the u.s. and causing a huge amount of difficulty in our hospital systems and for the burden of disease in our communities throughou
get ourselves protected and vaccination including boosters is just where we are right now. remember, most vaccines we receive in childhood are multi-shot series. so as a pediatrician, the fact it might turnout to be a three-shot series doesn t surprise me. it is the norm of mostly of our vaccinations. my littlest is getting the second shot today. i know that feeling when you finally get your whole family vaccinated. it is just like liberation. doctor, pediatric emergency physician, thank you so much for joining us today. my pleasure. thank you. as dr. murray was referring to, pfizer is set to ask the fda to green light its booster shot for 16 and 17-year-olds. the agency is expected to sign off quickly on the request. currently only people 18 and older are eligible for booster shots six months after their second dose of the vaccine. and with this new variant raising so many new questions, anderson cooper and dr. sanjay gupta will be joined by dr. anthony fauci for a all-new
countries like japan, israel, morocco barring all foreigners from entering their countries. and today the united states imposed a ban on travelers from eight south african nations. but president biden urged americans to remain calm in all of this. this variant is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic. we have the best vaccine in the world, the best medicines, the best scientists. and we re learning more every single day. and we ll fight this variant with scientific and knowledgeable actions and speed, not chaos and confusion. but as you can imagine, some on the right are losing their minds, not worrying about the variant, but claiming that the existence of the variant is a big global conspiracy. they think this is some sort of worldwide coordinated plot to help democrats win elections. there s always a new variant. and you can always count on a variant about every october.