original ba.1 omicron but a second peak of ba.2, the more transmissible variant and that is now slowly starting to rise in the united states and i expect that we will see pretty definitive evidence of an increase in cases in the united states by the end of this month. what more can you tell us about the ba.2 variant? how serious is it, if it s mort vaccines? right. so we know, as you said, this variant is remarkably transmissible. ba.1 was the most transmissible virus that anyone has ever seen and this is about 30% more transmissible than ba.1. the good news is that it does not appear to evade vaccines more than ba.1 and does not appear to result in more severe disease but it s an issue that relates to the denominator. if more people get infected,
the ground if they turn towards odesa and then if the russian naval activity which picked up just in the last two or three days if that starts moving closer to the coast and if there is an amphibious assault at the same time there is a ground assault. u.s. officials are watching that closely. at this point, there is still no indications that has begun. but again that, would be one of the big inflection points. the russian overall military remains stalled. that includes though the fact that they re stalled around kharkiv, but they re really being hit hard. and the official i spoke with said there is a lot of concern that we will see only more of that in the days ahead. courtney, thank you. gabe, thank you as well. reaction to this assessment which you just heard from the pentagon. that s my understanding as well. i think we re in a situation that is going to be pretty
supporting vladimir putin. despite him trying to drown that out and saying that s not what the republican party stands for. what they re trying to do especially leader mcconnell in the senate is trying to recalibrate the republican party away from the years of america first back to those more traditional republican ideologies of pro interventionalists and something away from this kind of weak on russia stance that republican party had for the last several years. there is going to be eight republicans who are on there. there this is one in a series of tricks to poland near the ukrainian border that republicans have taken over the last several weeks. they are pressuring the biden administration to do more. they see that will is some weakness there, whether it s
neil: all right. just when we re ready to take the masks off, a new variant is taking off. we don t know how dangerous it is. we know it s led to a dramatic spike in cases in china, europe and particularly italy and now here, even in the big apple. it s called ba 2. dr. anthony fauci, the white house chief medical adviser here now to explain it if this is a big deal and if we have to worry. doctor, good to see you again. glad to see you back in full action again. neil: thank you for that. let me ask you, doctor, about this ba 2. should we worry about it? well, look at its characteristics. we can make that determination. it s got a transmission advantage over ba 1, which is the classic original omicron. not a multifold advantage, but a
The disclosure of new Covid variants emerging in China and the rise of a potentially more transmissible strain in the U.K. has recast the spotlight on the ongoing risk of the virus, even as health experts say there’s no reason to panic