endemic nature and how bad it proceeds. probably like the flu every season. neil: dr. lahita, you ve been such a constant force through the craziness and speak for certainly everybody here, we appreciate that. continue keeping us calm, doctor, thank you. thanks, neil. neil: dr. bob lahita. i don t know if you ve been following what s going on in new york. we have a new mayor and also a new manhattan district attorney and he announced that he won t prosecute certain crimes and the police chief in new york blasted that d.a. for this lenient agenda. i mean, it s crazy. we ll fill you in on it after this.
hospitalizations appear to be low. in atlanta, the cdc says they re seeing a staggering surge in hospitalization with adults and children. the surgeon general had a blunt warning. the most important of all of vaccination is to save your life and keep you out of the hospital. the real numbers for covid could be much higher than are being reported. that s because so many americans using the rapid at-home tests and not reporting the results. with the new year s eve holiday on the horizon, the guidance from the federal government is grim. when you re talking about a new year s eve party, we have 30, 40, 50 people celebrating, you don t know the status of the vaccination. i d recommend stay away from that this year. here in atlanta, for the second year in a row, the peach drop is cancelled. trace? trace: thanks, steve. now here dr. bob lahita.
thanks, peter. now let s go to dr. bob lahita from the st. joseph s institute. you hear more about cases like peters and others in the surge in cases across the country. when do you think, doctor, it begins to ebb? based on what we know about south africa and now the united kingdom, i presume this will ebb late february, early march. so i do think the numbers will come down. we ve had 99% roughly in estimates of the population that have the covid virus is omicron. so omicron is out there. it s taken over. neil: so as you have been telling us from the beginning, it s very contagious, certainly more than the other variants that we ve experienced so far but not very dangerous.
muck. jackie: just as some states are beginning to see a decline in omicron cases, a new sub variant being reported in the united states. should you be concerned? joining me now, dr. bob lahita, director of the institute for autoimmune and rheumatic disease. doctor, always great to see you, also the author of immunity strong. let s talk about this omicron variant here. my sense and understanding from what i ve read is that a it s something to keep on the radar but not something to panic about. your thoughts. exactly. we should not panic about it. it s just a variant. it is called stealth not because it s hidden or cryptic or dangerous particularly, but because of the way we found it, with the pcr test. it just gave us a different
also they re in their cabs, and they re alone. the risk of spread is very minimal. how should we be looking at some of these issues as a nation as we try to move forward from this and put the past behind us? well, as a nation we have to look at our economy. i was always against mask mandates. i have been i ve said that but for certain groups it should be mandated such as health care workers, ems, fire and police. but i think if that if you can work from home which truckers obviously can t if you can work from home for your company, i don t think you have to worry about a mandate. but for truckers, i agree with you. they re isolated, they re in their cabs. of course, there are vectors of expression and infect if other people, but we just have to take the honor system, but we need the truckers to work. jackie: we do. dr. lahita, thank you so much for your insight. always great to see you, sir. thank you, jackie. good to see you. jackie: a monster snowstorm burying cars and home