secondly, the degree of spread impacts on whether or not there s a need for travel restriction. i don t anticipate that at this point. we will see. we will see if that works. if the other alex does not have a heart attack, i would like to call on him. i m not in alex, but i would love to answer question. president biden: alma asked the other alex and then you. mr. president, is this the new normal that americans should expect to anticipate for other variants crush merck driven insurances will become the new normal quick front for and dr. fauci. lock down touchstones are off the table for going forward.
is, how quickly it spreads, how dangerous. we have more work to do in that area. and wall street journal, sabrina. thank you, mr. president, the uk, europe, and a growing number of countries have confirmed cases of omicron. are you considering additional travel restrictions on countries where the variant has been detected? and just separately, you urged americans to wear masks in indoor public spaces, but many states and cities including washington, d.c., have lifted mask mandates. are you calling on officials reinstate mask mandates? with regard to the last question, the answer is i encourage everyone to wear a mask when they re indoors in crowded circumstances like we are right now. and unless you re eating or speaking in the microphone, and secondly, the degree of the
getting fully vaccinated. getting the booster shot. most americans are fully vaccinated but not yet boosted. if you are 18 years or over and got fully vaccinated before junr shot today. they are free and they are available at 80,000 locations coast-to-coast. a fully vaccinated booster person is the most protected against covert. do not wait. go get your booster if it s time for you to do so. if you are not vaccinated, now is the time to get vaccinated and take your children to be vaccinated. every child age five or older can get safe and effective vaccines now. what ll be a few weeks before we know everything we need to know about how strong the existing variant is, dr. fauci is with me today and our medical team.
waiting for vaur variants to prevent you from severe disease. i don t really think it changes the calculus all that much for americans who have been vaccinated and are boosting in the next couple of weeks while we wait to find out if, in fact, the variant is more transmissible and if it does evade immune protection. you know, we have a lot to be we do have a lot to be optimistic about, be encouraged about, enhanced and improved therapeutics, vaccination for children, a lot of tools in the toolbox we didn t have a year ago. certainly this is a story that will be unfolding probably daily and weekly in the next couple of weeks, chris. yeah, and so even though we re out of time, i want to ask you this really quickly, to the president s point of don t panic and your point of wait a couple of weeks, people don t need to start canceling flights that they were planning to go see mom or dad or grandma or grandpa for
reports. andrea is on assignment. i m chris jansing. we re following that breaking news from the white house. president biden addressing the nation this hour after a second meeting with his covid response team in just two days. highlighting the urgency the administration is feeling to learn everything they can about the concerning new coronavirus variant omicron with confirmed cases already at our northern aborter in ontario, canada. there are still a number of things we don t know about this variant with the white house releasing a statement sunday saying dr. fauci believes it will take up to two weeks to get answers on omicron s transmissibility, severity and other characteristics. the big question for nearly 200 million fully vaccinated americans, will their vaccine hold up against this new strain. fauci this morning urging eligible americans to not let fears over omicron s impact stop them from getting their booster shots. i would strongly suggest you