katty, to your comment, if you tested positive and symptomatic and just wait, we ve seen patients who have been testing positive not just day ten, they ve been testing positive 12 days. that s not the norm but it is possible. we know those people are still likely to be to be infectious. that s the point, without testing, without a distinction for a vaccinated individual and without some criteria to say what does it mean your symptoms are resolving? what are the symptoms you should be looking for, these all mimic the common cold. i could have somebody with a true cold, nobody ability to get a test or not tested, and can be locked into this confusing advisory from the cdc for weeks even. our long list of questions to you this morning even speak to the confusion a lot of people have about this. let s take a step back before we let you go, dr. patel, and get a snapshot as we come up on the end of the year where you feel like we are. the omicron variant changed a lot of things but as you
box. that s absolutely the question, i was asking the administration, the white house exactly that when i was reporting. i was trying to get that question by saying look, president biden has said he wants to have half a billion tests managed and manufactured, 500 million tests, that sounds like an enormous number. but if you ask the white house, what s the goal here and what s the ultimate end game, how many tests does americans need every month. they don t have an answer for it. there has not been a decision whether the country is going to have to shift its focus to go beyond vaccines and get to a point where testing is going back to normalcy.
reporter: the cdc cutting the recommended quarantine time in half for all americans infected with covid-19, from ten to five days, if they re asymptomatic for five days. by 5:00 in the morning, lines of south florida were forming with prospects of free covid testing kits luring thousands. empty shelves everywhere. they re all in stock. they re all fine, but i guess they all disappeared in a matter of three days. like they just weren t there. reporter: at this library in miami-dade county, you re looking at two different lines right now. this is for free testing kits. this one is for testing on site. both of them snake around the building in both directions with no end in sight. it s a miami microcosm of a national crisis. chaos from new york to charlotte
omicron seems to be less severe. over the weekend dr. fauci warned we shouldn t get complacent. many this n this country remain unvaccinated. saw flights cancelled. how much will covid fatigue affect the president? i think the president has the challenge of continuing to make sure people are following the rules, and that they we have all the tools that we need whether it s testing and vaccines and continuing to wear masks so that we can get a handle of this virus. i think to the president s credit, rolling out all the vaccines means there are so many more people who are not or are experiencing mild symptoms that they have breakthrough cases and still, this remains a pandemic of the unvaccinate who had are experiencing more hospitalizations and more severe illness. and so i think that the president just has to stay focussed on using all the tools
to pay for your pcr test and you have to isolate for two days. these tests are more expensive, the government is saying look, if you are here and testing, those tests are free and if you are going to take the privilege of traveling, you have to pay the price. molly hunter, we appreciate you staying here. happy new year. thank you for all of you waking up way too early with us, morning joe starts right now. good morning, welcome to morning joe, it s december 28th, i am willie geist, joe and mika had the morning off. joining us is katty kay and jonathan lemire. happy almost new year to you.