exactly how the white house is going to finalize the delivery mechanism for those tests including that website that they have promised to get up where americans were request to get the at-home tests sent to them for free. so we re still waiting for a lot of details. frankly, this speaks to the gap of time that exists now, continuing to exist, between the testing shortages over the holiday season. and when americans can finally expect to get the rapid at-home coronavirus tests. and you mentioned that fda news that the tests may not be as sensitive to omicron. but still they don t see that changing their strategy. the white house doesn t see it changing their strategy as it relates to the use of the antigen tests. it can still detect omicron even if less sensitive. it s an important tool, of course, the pcr test remains the gold standard. and jeff zients tells me that the white house is looking to set up more testing sites
with testing shortages nationwide. the pcr test after infection can be positive for up to 12 weeks. that is not going to be helpful. why not test people at that time? i myself feel that s a reasonable thing to do. trace: the confusing guidance is causing some to question whether public health officials are making decisions based on science or merely prevailing opinion which is troublesome especially when you consider vaccines for americans as young as 12 could soon be widely available. the administration continues to insist that shutting down schools or returning exclusively to remote learning is frankly unnecessary at this point despite the fact that some districts are deciding to do just that. the next venue where the debate is the u.s. supreme court which is prepared to hear cases regarding mandates and one for businesses for at least 100 workers and another one for operations they receive medicare and medicaid funds. those arguments as you know are
we ve got a fentanyl poisoning ep idemic. there should be some really significant issues that we should be able to come around and coal ase around and get it done and we need the president, and we need the administration to lead the way. they re in charge. the buck stops there. there is no doubt about and we re not doing good enough. so you mentioned both the pandemic and the president, and of course, president biden ran on the idea that he could come in, govern in a competent manner and fight back against the pandemic. and so many americans have been so confused about the guidance coming out of the cdc. there is testing shortages. apparently you re going to be able to get a test from the government but weeks late for those people who had been dealing with the omicron surge early. do you think the biden administration, do you think president biden is fighting the
develop that will contain covid and other strains of covid. so certainly, there has been just a sense of frustration that s been building up, as this pandemic really enters its third year, but wolf, plenty of blame to go around. the cdc is not in charge of testing. that is the administration and the testing shortages and issues that is a challenge that they re working on back at the white house, not at the cdc. and jeff, another top priority, of course, for the biden administration is the u.s. economy. but today s monthly jobs report was largely disappointing, right? wolf, it certainly was a mixed report. about 199,000 new jobs were added in december. which means 6 million were added this year. but this was the weakest report of any month of 2021. the good news is the unemployment rate now is down to 3.9%. that certainly is historic given the nature of the pandemic. it was a disappointing jobs number. so there certainly are
point this month, but president biden has also acknowledged some of the frustrations with these testing shortages that have been seen across the country. and yesterday he offered this assessment on whether covid is here to stay for the long haul in the united states. no, i don t think covid is here to stay. having covid in the environment here and in the world is probably here to stay, but covid as we re dealing with it now is not here to stay. the new normal doesn t have to be we have so many more tools we re developing. reporter: so of course this is one of those key challenges facing the biden administration as so much of president biden s legacy and performance as president will depend on how he confronts this virus. fred? all right. arlette saenz at the white house, thanks so much. all right. joining us right now new york congressman jamal bowman, he is a former educator who serves as the vice chair on the house committee on education and labor. congressman, so good to s