available in a couple of weeks. it might be a little too late, epidemiologist asks scientists are saying the peak of this omicron wave could be mid january. the tests are popular items. now to mike memoli in delaware with the president. how is the biden administration responding to some of the backlash and questions over the cdc s new quarantine guidelines for those who have covid? joe, well, new year, new variant, but the same challenge for the biden administration as they deal with what is actually now the biggest surge in coronavirus cases in the entirety of this pandemic now. and as we ve seen the administration putting forward an agenda that they say is always about keeping the science first, following the science, we have seen something of a shift in how they are dealing with it, especially as it relates to trying to avoid major disruption s in critical functions. we see it in the strain on our
immunity. i wonder where you see this debate come down. jim, i think it s really anyone s call right now. talking to folks who are members of this fda vaccine advisory committee, they really don t know what s going to happen. they say that this has gotten pretty messy actually. it s becomes contentious, this booster shot program. and even there s some bitterness with president biden saying essentially, let s start a booster program. and scientists saying, hold on a minute, don t talk out of turn, mr. president. we need to hear about the science first. so let s look at what the science says. so, on friday these advisers will be presented with studies from the u.s. in qatar that show they successfully prevent covid-19. it says two shots prevent it well. israeli data says it s not so great protecting against covid-19. israelis have data that show a booster shot, third shot, does help protect against severe
scientist is that they take this policy position and then somehow try to scramble to find the science. they don t put out the science first, let it percolate and let the scientific community come together to form a condition census and that s why you have like governor your governor murphy in new jersey making the statements but doesn t have anything to back it up. i want to go. i have time for another quick question and that is about this idea that the vaccine booster. there are some that argue that between shots 1 and 2 it should have been a longer period of time, but what about this booster shot, is it really necessary, is the science behind that? doctor: if you compare what happened in israel versus the uk, israel had a shorter interval between first and second dose. the uk had a longer one and those in the uk are having breakthrough infections, there should have been a longer interval, maybe 6 weeks, 8 weeks, who knows, we don t have a study to show it. when it comes to booste