multiple states now. on trajectories that look a as steep as the incredible and unprecedented rise in case in your opinions we re seeing. infection numbers going up like crazy. seeing the graphs of hospitalization numbers going up just as steeply. that s unsettling. the white house today announced they are doubling the size of the order they placed for pfizer very effective by scarce antiviral pill. the u.s. is ordering 20 million course of that fisa treermt. instead of ten. the administration changed guidelines on boosters. saying pfizer booster five months after your second shot. rather than six. the fda is just approved booster shots for kids age 12 to 15. there s a lot going on. there s a lot of movement and action happening. in terms of response to this wave. the hospitalization numbers and the case numbers are both looking scary. joining us now.
laying out his plan for taking new york city through these unprecedented infection numbers. they include keeping that very bold vaccination mandate in place that s specific when it comes to the private sector. then he also laid out that he has no plans to shut the city down again. today i m rolling out my administration plan to keep new yorkers safe from the virus and keep our city open. that s the goal. we can t shut down our city again. we can t allow the city to go further into economic despair. reporter: adam also saying one of the items he specifically wants to look at is the number of new yorkers who have not completed their vaccination series, basically got that first shot and never came back for their second or a booster either. that s one of the areas he wants to look at. again, making that promise he does not want to close that city again and wants to explore other
infection numbers are rising right now is a. country that is a terribly steep line, and that is terrible. but, today was also really good day. the fda approved the first covid treatment pill. it s a five-day course appeals from pfizer, you take it right after the start of covid symptoms. and you can drop your chances of being hospitalized by nearly 90%. huge news, huge day. this is a real advance. lots of devils in the details though, joining us now is doctor nahid she s a specialist in the emergence of such dr. healy start thank you so much for joining us tonight. thank you for having me rachel. so at first the promising new antiviral is gonna be really limited. how do we ensure that the very limited quantities of this drug at the people who most need it, and for whom it will do the most? good yes rachel, as you said
released last week, with about, i think, with staff from nhs acute trusts, you would normally expect about 5% of them to be off sick and now it is about 8% and that is really covid that has been driving it. if these infection numbers we have been talking about continue to play through there we can see where the pressure will continue to grow on the nhs. and society at large. but it is confusing for people, isn t it, when you see these numbers, that we are still at plan b in england, for example? that we are not seeing more restrictions put in, because the ministers are pointing to the fact that the vaccination programme has helped ? the bet that has been made is that the combination of the boosters, which will prevent some serious sickness, and the fact that omicron is less likely to make you seriously ill, those two things will prevent this huge number of infections turning into the kind of terrible
information? it is, and the sheer amount information? it is, and the sheer amount of information? it is, and the - sheer amount of misinformation targeted towards the american public by a small number of bad actors about vaccines, harms or suppose it harms, or how the virus has no negative effects on kids, just a lot of nonsense, it has really caused a lot of confusion among parents who are truly unsure what to do. all of the experts agree that kid should be getting vaccinated, i got my own children vaccinated but it is a confusing time for parents. i is a confusing time for parenta is a confusing time for parents. is a confusing time for arents. ., ., ., , parents. i don t want to be fli ant parents. i don t want to be flippant about parents. i don t want to be flippant about the - parents. i don t want to be flippant about the subtle, | parents. i don t want to be i flippant about the subtle, but these are schools we are talking about, these are centres of education, that is