months ago, you do need to undergo that five day quarantine period followed by five days of masking. if you have been boosted or you re within six months of your last dose, you re free of that quarantine requirement. that s significant because we ve been talking about whether the administration might redefine what it means to be fully vaccinated to include having a booster. they haven t done that yet, but this is a step in that direction. all of these guidelines depend on being able to get a test in the first place. that s a big headache facing this administration. you heard the president saying he understands the federal government needs to do better and will do better. getting those 500 million take home tests out will be the first order of the business in the new year. you heard dr. fauci say that s just the beginning, that the administration has made steps to not just get that 500 million
and as dr. fauci said we still have a considerable amount of americans who haven t even refused their first shot. that s why we got to do everything we can, full court press. get tests everywhere. flood the streets with tests. make sure you re using mobile vaccine options. that s the only way to reach those in the hard-to-reach communities. and i heard dr. fauci say earlier this week, it was only a matter of time before the definition of fully vaccinated is changed to include getting a booster. isn t it better for the cdc to change that definition early, to make sure that people are getting the booster, especially in light of the omicron variant? empathically, yes, i think that time has come and gone. omicron has proven that, we know with omicron, people who previously had covid don t have the level of protection from natural immunities that we ve seen with other variants. we need to go ahead, change the
but the vaccines are still highly effective at preventing severe disease or death. it is reassuring that these infections seem to be less severe. but that is really only true probably if you re a healthy person who has been immunized and ideally with three shots. reporter: now, we just heard president biden there saying omicron is not spreading as fast here as it is in europe, not yet any way. we heard dr. fauci say that omicron is becoming dominant in the u.k. what is happening in the u.k.? today britain recorded its most new confirmed covid cases of this entire pandemic. the most new cases ever, today. nick, thank you very much, nick watt reporting. let s get more on breaking news. joining us are chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta and dr. paul offit, his book
you look at the south africa experience and other people s experience, people don t seem to get as sick. that obviously is a good thing. let s take a listen to dr. anthony fauci. whatever it is, the disease seems to be less severe. whether it is inherently less pathogenic as a virus, or whether there is more protection in the community. we re just going to have to see when it comes in the united states, and for sure, jim, it is going to be dominant in the united states given its doubling time. so we just heard dr. fauci say for sure omicron is going to be dominant in the united states. and, you know, in some ways you think who cares? it doesn t seem to make people as sick as delta or other variants. and here is the reason why we care. if this spreads far and wide as it seems like it will, it will reach people who are unable to fight it off. so there will be many, more people for whom it will be the
herd mentality. so people who don t choose to get vaccinated, i mean, that s the gateway for it to continue. that s right. because even though, you know, you heard dr. fauci say that we have seen protection against infection go up, people who are vaccinated are still less likely to get infected compared to people who are not vaccinated. really, the vulnerability towards hospitalizations and deaths, right, the things that are keeping the majority of our hospitals full still are people who are unvaccinated. unfortunately, the vulnerable people who did receive vaccines, there are infected people in their communities, they re more likely to get infected and also end up in the hospital. that s our weakness right now. speaking of omicron, it is in a majority of states in the u.s. so far, no deaths. a single hospitalization, apparently, chris according to the cdc, but the uk reports show omicron cases are treated in the hospital. is there anything you have learned about the variant in the