antibodies for a relatively short period of time to protect against mild illness. do we want this war on the young against mild illness? does that serve us? is that the goal of the vaccine? the more reasonable goal is protection against serious illness, keep you out of doctors offices, the hospital, the icu, keep you from burdenening the health care system. it s the goal for every other vaccine we have. this is the first vaccine we ve tried to protect against mild illness for a long period of time. as my oldest will tell you, dr. offit, strep throat was a lot more debilitating last month for my oldest than the covid positive was. so therefore it reinforces what you re saying. dr. offit, appreciate you coming on. a lot of people are wondering what to do. i think this helps. thank you. thank you. up next, vladimir putin meets the press. what the russian leader said in his closely watched end of the-year marathon press conference about invading
new satellite images released on thursday appear to show russian forces gathering strength all along ukraine s eastern border. the photos show additional russian tanks, vehicles, artillery and long range rockets are now within striking distance of ukraine. a senior u.s. oi official says u.s. and its nato allies are ready to act if russia invades. an official said nato is beefing up its presence in eastern europe. comments came just hours after the russian leader held his annual news conference, again, deflecting any blame for the escalating tensions. we get the latest from cnn s melissa bell in moscow. reporter: it was a marathon press conference, nearly four hours of it, that did provide more insight into what vladimir putin is thinking when it comes to ukraine and how he sees the
there as a less than wholehearted warning to putin to not invade? reporter: i mean, that s an understatement. i mean, they watched those remarks i think with horror. one ukrainian official who i ve been in close contact with while this marathon press conference is under way said that he was, i m quoting here, shocked that president biden would give a green light to vladimir putin in this way. that the u.s. president would distinguish between an incursion and an invasion. and suggests that a minor incursion would elicit a lesser response than a more full invasion. the big concern, of course, which is what he was alluding to, is that it gives putin this is another quote it gives the green light to putin to enter ukraine at his pleasure. that s not just one ukrainian official. other ukrainian officials have
6.4 million jobs added, american rescue plan right at the start of the administration, 200 million americans fully vaccinated, the bipartisan infrastructure law is now the law of the land. and a whole bunch of other stuff that the administration needs to be talking about more and more. but i got to go to something that the president said during his press conferences, marathon press conference. let s play it and i ll get you to talk about it on the other side. i did not anticipate there would be such a stalwart effort to make sure that the most important thing was that president biden didn t get anything done. think about this. what are republicans for? what are they for? name me one thing they re for. what is mitch for? what is he for on immigration? what is he for? so, chairman dean, how hard is it going to be?
said russian president vladimir putin, quote, will pay a heavy price if russia invades ukraine. this comes after yesterday when he suggested there could be fewer consequences if russia stages a, quote, minor incursion. we ll talk to the white house press secretary jen psaki about all of this in a moment but first we ll start off with the fall out. i ve been absolutely clear with president putin. he has no misunderstanding. if any, any assembled russian units move across the ukrainian border, that is an invasion. president biden opening his second year in office today with a blunt message for russia. in an urgent act of clarifying and cleanup. let there be no doubt at all if putin makes this choice russia will pay a heavy price. reporter: the white house scrambling to clear up the impression from the president s marathon press conference on wednesday that a minor russian invasion into ukraine may not receive the full weight of retaliation by the u.s. and nato