for public health. so, sanjay, this is the first we have spoken since the omicron surge really took hold weeks ago. what do you make of what s and confusion over guidance from the government. yeah. well, happy new year, right? here we are back, again. i mean, i think there is a couple things that have really struck me. one as you just heard in randi s report is that the the number of cases is is really it s pretty staggering, right? if you compare this to last year s peak around this time, we are about, you know, close approaching two times what we saw around this time last year. now, at the same time, we have about 75% of the hospitalizations and this gets to that point that people have been making. look. this may be less severe for various reasons, because we have some existing immunity, because of the nature of this omicron variant, itself. who knows? we are not sure, entirely. but there does seem to be this decoupling of cases. but what you have heard, again, from randi
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a bit of news out of israel today only adding to confusion for folks here in the u.s. israel now offering a fourth vaccine dose to those 60 and older so they have gone from the two doses of the mrna to the third dose which was the booster, and now this fourth dose for that age group. so that has a lot of folks here wondering are we going to have to get a fourth dose as well here in the u.s.? will people need the vaccine every three or four months? and nobody seems to be able to answer that question, at least not yet here in this country. so still, anderson, a lot of unknowns, a lot of questions and as you said, plenty of confusion. randi, appreciate it. joining us now, cnn or cnn chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. also, dr. leana wen. cnn medical analyst, former baltimore health commissioner, and author of lifelines, a doctor s journey in the fight for public health. so, sanjay, this is the first we have spoken since the omicron surge really took hold weeks ago. yeah
all right. steve, thank you very much as always for your perspective. and thanks so much to all of you for being with me, this first show day of the new year. ac 360 starts now. and good evening. the year begins with a flurry of new covid developments as the omicron surge gathers force. the country is now averaging more than 400,000 new infections every single day. nationwide, they have risen 198% over the last two weeks. that s up 222% in new york and in florida where the state s surgeon general is now speaking out against so much testing, cases are up 947%. again, in just 14 days. but it is not just cases that are rising. so is the number of people needing hospital care. even as more healthcare workers get sent home sick. teachers, as well. with millions of kids going back to school today, mostly in person but in several large school districts they have gone back to remote learn for the time being. against that backdrop, today the