Get the vaccine . Lets make a deal president us plan, but theyre billions apart. Plus a week before his senate trial, former President Trumps lawyers quit. Officers suspended, after they handcuff and pepper spray a 9 yearold girl. Tony bennetts battle, the family of the legendary singer opens up about his alzheimers diagnosis. On this first day of black history month, Unifying America. How a Theater Company is inspiring americans to start frank conversations about race and bias. Snow day the pandas show us all how to properly enjoy the snow. Theations capital. Odonnell good evening to our viewers in the west, and thank you for joining us. Well begin with Breaking News on that Monster Winter Storm thats pounding much of the east coast with blizzard like conditions, shutting down schools, businesses and even Vaccination Sites across moreanl outagee tef right now, nearly one out of every four americans is in the path of the noreaster and for millions of them, the worst is still ahead with
their frustrations. but the president said yesterday in those remarks to the national governor s association was to affirm the federal government is there to help states and localities which are on the front lines of administering the testing programs, the vaccination programs, said if you need something, say something. but he also acknowledged that the efforts of the federal government so far, especially on the front of testing, as we have seen huge demand for testing during the holiday season, have simply not been enough. take a listen to the president. went from no over the counter tests in january to 46 million in october, 100 million in november, and almost 2200 millin in december. it is not enough. it is clearly not enough. if we had known, we would have gone harder, quicker, if we could have. reporter: now, the president has in recent days announced a stepup of federal activity on the testing front. the purchase of 500,000 tests, which are going to be available
i know there are questions about staff and i know there are questions about testing and there is a lot of questions. but we re going to turn those question marks into a exclamation point, we re staying open. we re going to make sure our children are in safe spaces. and so the commitment is there to keep the schools open. so there is a plan in place which you just heard. on the the testing front, 1.5 million tests were delivered to every single school across the city over the weekend, in the last few gaves to prepare them to be able to test. and according to the school chancellor david banks, if there is a case in school, they ll test every close contact of that case, isolate the positive cases and then keep the rest of the young people in school safely learning. so that is test to stay. when it comes to staffing, there is a covid incident command center that is meant to give the city realtime updates to address the staffing issues so they have a pool of substitute teachers
originally we hear from the cdc director on the today show this morning, she confirmed that this morning saying it s not as effective picking up omicron as it was the delta or alpha variant but saying that the pcr test should be the reliable test for folks to take. that s why we re here at the site where you re seeing lines not yet but seeing lines across the city as that testing front continues, not just here in illinois but across the country. doctor, lines, lines everywhere but there s also questions about the antigen test and what people are taking and the delays in getting pcr results back. how concerning is all of that? should we be worried, for example, if we ve been relying on antigen tests? i ve been concerned about this for some time and think that, you know, a test that may only be 50/50 right is a test that still is a challenge in terms of understanding what to do with the information. i think this is a huge issue.
put those covid tests into the mix so they can speed up the production and get that half-billion amount of tests into the bloodstream of america. what happens if and when that doesn t happen? you talk about inflation like it s a small thing. well, it s not, but you re right, it s not as bad as what we are facing right now with the testing shortage. inflation is not a small thing. you are seeing the white house really focusing on some of the root issues with regards to inflation. we are seeing gas prices come down, that is a key thing. hopefully that ll stay on the downward trajectory. especially coming out of the holiday season. but, harris, your point is critical on this testing front. the administration needs to get this right heading into january with the promise of the site hundred million tests, and we have to deliver for the american people. that is certainly the case. harris: if what i m reading plays out these are reporters who were digging hard of those documents haven