what does a wave of new cases mean? the age of vaccinations? and we are getting a dose of good news this morning, moderna reports preliminary data shows its booster shot significantly increased antibody levels, it comes as experts including dr. anthony fauci are warning about the impact of the omicron variant. >> this virus is extraordinary. it has a doubling time of anywhere from two to three days. right now, in certain regions of the country, 50% of the isolates are omicron, which means it's going to take over. it's going to be a tough few weeks to months as we get deeper into the winter. >> right now, the average number of daily covid cases being reported in the u.s. 130,000, that's up from an average of 70,000 new cases just last month. new york seeing an average of 16,000 new cases each day, that's up 154% in less than a week and the covid surge has new york city's new year's eve celebration plans up in the air. the mayor says they will decide whether to go ahead with the times square ball drop but no decision has been made yet. tomorrow president biden is expected to announce new steps to fight covid and specifically omicron and is likely to issue we're told a stark warning for unvaccinated americans when it comes to this winter. cnn's jeremy diamond joins me live from the white house. so a lot of anticipation in terms of these remarks set for not tonight, jeremy, but tomorrow. >> reporter: yes, that's right, erica. with coronavirus cases surging around the country and a lot of uncertainty in the american public around what this next chapter of the pandemic actually means, president biden returning this morning from his delaware home. he will meet with his coronavirus team in the oval office this afternoon to discuss some new measures that the president is expected to announce tomorrow in a speech, where the president is expected according to the white house to deliver a stark warning particularly to the unvaccinated about what kind of severe illness and death awaits them in this winter, as coronavirus cases surge on the backs of this omicron variant. at the same time, just as the president did last thursday, the president not only issuing a stark warning but also a message of optimism to those who are vaccinated and to those who are boosted, urging people to get their shots because particularly with that third booster shot, americans are well-protected from serious illness and death. that will be the president's message and of course we're waiting to see exactly what steps the president announces tomorrow. so far, the white house has been resisting going anywhere in the direction of lockdowns or shutdowns. erica? >> jeremy diamond, appreciate it, thank you. joining us cnn medical analyst and professor of med sip and surgery at georgia washington university, dr. jonathan reiner. dr. reiner, we are seeing this huge rise in cases. what do you think it means, and what do you think it means we need to be doing? >> well, it means our hospitals are going to fill in parts of this country rapidly, but it means different things to different people. for the 30% of the country that is fully vaccinated and boosted, it probably doesn't mean a lot. it means that you either won't get infected or if you get infected, you'll have either mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. if you're fully vaccinated or what we used to call fully vaccinated but not boosted, you are more susceptible to infection. probably still protected against severe illness. if you are relying on prior infection as your superpower, you are mistaken. you are not protected against this variant, and if you are unvaccinated, you will absolutely get infected sometime in the next six weeks. >> so unvaccinated absolutely get infected sometime in the next six weeks as you said. do we have any sense of whether that's more of an omicron or a delta infection? because i know right now even though delta may still be dominant, we're seeing the way omicron is increasing but we don't have good real time data on the split at any given moment in terms of what we're seeing. so how much does that factor in? >> you're right, erica, we don't. we heard this morning that new cases in houston, for instance, being admitted to houston methodist hospital are overwhelmingly 80% omicron. i suspect that the big wave coming across the northeast is increasing every day with omicron, but whether we face simply omicron over the next six weeks or whether it's sort of a dual hit from both variants, the bottom line is that if you are unvaccinated, you are likely to get infected. it will not be safe for you to be in public in this country in the next several weeks if you are unvaccinated. that's the message the president i'm sure will tell the country. the other message i hope the president tells the country is that you are no longer fully vaccinated in our current variant environment if you are not boosted, and i'd like to see the federal government start to surge teams around the country to increase the capacity of cities to boost people, because if you go into a pharmacy now and you are trying to get boosted, you'll find there's a substantial wait. i also want the president tomorrow to announce a new federal plan to make rapid testing more widely available and completely free to all americans, so i hope he addresses that as well, because again, if you go into a pharmacy in most parts of the northeast or mid-atlantic where i live, it's impossible to find rapid testing, and they're an important tool to keep our schools and businesses open this winter. >> this is what the white house has said, press secretary jen psaki was asked about getting every american a test before and this was the response a few weeks ago. >> why not just make them free and give them out and have them available everywhere? >> should we send one to every american? >> maybe. >> then what happens if every american has one test? how much does that cost and what happens after that? >> the bottom line, dr. reiner, is anyone who tried to get a test this weekend knows, it's next to impossible. the drugstores in new york and they all have signs say we don't have them. >> right, and everyone needs them so i had an upper respiratory tract infection a couple weeks ago and i work in a hospital. i tested myself every day for four consecutive days. i was negative all four days, but i wasn't going to go to work if i tested positive. there are non-covid infections that circulate every winter. people are going to feel ill. people need to understand whether they have covid particularly in this more contagious environment of omicron. every home needs a bunch of these tests. if a child in your child's classroom is out with covid, the whole class doesn't have to quarantine, but all the kids have to test every day. that's the new sort of central element of this test to stay program but that's the same way businesses can stay open. every employee tests to stay if somebody else in the establishment is positive. this administration has been completely tone deaf on it. it was slow to boost the country and now they're slow to test the country. i want to see the president acknowledge this tomorrow. >> we will see what is said and what action is taken. dr. jonathan reiner, always appreciate your time. thank you. >> my pleasure. west virginia senator joe manchin caught the white house off guard by saying he cannot continue with the build back better legislation after months of negotiations. here's how he laid it out on fox news. >> i cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. i just can't. i've tried everything humanly possible. i can't get there. >> you're done? this is a no? >> this is a no on this legislation. i have tried everything i know to do. >> so is this the end of the line for what has been billed as joe biden's hallmark piece of legislation? joining us congressman john yarmuth of kentucky, primary sponsor of the build back better act. good to have you with us this morning. >> thanks. >> the statement in response to senator manchin was scathing which was perhaps putting it mildly which read his comments were a breach of his commitments to the president and the senator's colleagues in the house and the senate, said the administration would continue to press him to see if he will reverse his position yet again to honor his prior commitments and be true to his word. when we look at this, it seems that speaker pelosi was pinning some hopes on the fact that he said, "this legislation." we know senator schumer still wants to bring this for a vote in january but realistically this morning, what are the chances? where does this stand? is it done? >> erica, i still think there's a really good chance that we'll get something done. what's frustrating, there are so many frustrating things about senator manchin's position, but what frustrates me most is that he's using discredited republican talking points to make his case for not supporting the bill. this bill is not inflationary. he talks about fears of inflation. we've had numerous economists from across the spectrum saying there's no inflationary impact from the build back better act, he talks about deficits. this is almost entirely paid for in the first ten years and actually provides a surplus in the second ten years. there's no real significant addition to the debt. it talks about supply chains. i have no idea what he's talking about. i wish he would tell us what he wants and what he'd be satisfied with, we've never gotten an answer from him. meanwhile 222 democrats in the house and 49 democrats in the senate have been working in good faith for six months or longer trying to get this very important piece of legislation done. i think a bit of arrogance on the part of in the manchin who thinks he should have total say as to what gets passed. >> how do you think the white house was caught so seemingly off guard here? >> you know, i'm not sure. i think basically they felt that they were negotiating in good faith. one of the mistakes a lot of people are making particularly in the media, talking about joe manchin's long history with joe biden and how they were colleagues. they never served together in the senate. joe manchin's only been there since 2010 so i don't think there is much background between the two. >> the president himself said he thought he would come around, right, so we're also hearing that from the president. he said throughout the course of these negotiations he thought it could happen. you said you think something can get done here. what is that something? smaller pieces? your colleague tim ryan was just on told john berman maybe that's something to look at, but when we look at how this bill passed in the house without republican support, how confident are you that there could be republican support in the senate, even if this is broken down into smaller pieces? >> i'm not confident that there will be any republican support for it in the senate and that's the difficult part. now, we could do what some of us actually supported doing in the house, which was basically to focus on three or four significant provisions, one of them being as tim ryan said extension of the child tax credit, early pre-k but whatever we choose and live to fight another day, but that's a possibility but you know, the reason we were in the position of having to cut back the duration of some of this funding for certain elements of the plan was because joe manchin made us so he made us go from originally $3.5 trillion to half of that and we'll cut back the duration of the funding. now he complains about the fact we cut back on the duration of the funding. so again -- >> sorry. >> go ahead, i'm sorry. >> to your point, do you think he's been given too much power here from the beginning? >> well, he has but that's the nature of the beast with a 50/50 senate. what i've been saying for the entire year is look we're all joe manchin. every one of us in the house and senate is joe manchin because in the house when we pass it, we can only lose three votes so we all had that essentially kind of veto power and when you have that power you have to be a little bit more responsible and again, i think the fact that joe manchin comes from a state 1.9 million people out of 333 million, even though west virginia would benefit immeasurably from this, but he has a responsibility to look to the whole country and i think that again is showing disingenuousness we're seeing out of him. >> i know you're home in kentucky. we heard congressman jason crowe, senators elizabeth warren and cory booker tested positive for covid. we are seeing this surge across the country. how concerning is it to you? are you changing any holiday plans? >> we haven't decided to change any plans yet. everybody in my family is fully vaccinated and boosted. so i think we'll probably go ahead, but it is concerning when you see all these breakthrough cases. i'm glad that the symptoms for senators booker and warren seem to be mild and that seems to be a case generally, but you know, i saw a basketball game being broadcast from bowling green, kentucky, on saturday. unfortunately, my louisville cardinals lost to the western kentucky team, but it was a packed house and virtually no one had masks on. i would say 98% of them were maskless and that's an area that doesn't have a high vaccination rate so i'm concerned about how people are taking this a bit cavalierly and we're in for some trouble unless people start acting more responsibly. >> congressman john yarmuth, appreciate your time. >> thanks, erica. stock futures lower this morning in the face of growing threats to the global economy. cnn chief business correspondent christine romans joins me now. the market is not happy. >> blame rising covid cases ahead of the holidays and the big no from senator manchin. take a look at u.s. futures right now, stock index futures down, off their lows but still stock index futures are down, right there global markets. global markets closed lower. europe, asia did, europe opened lower and their stock index futures down about 400, oil prices are tumbling, too, when there are threats to the global recovery, that's what happens so adds to the covid part of the situation. added gloom to the forecast but stocks are up sharply for the year. the s&p 500 up 25%, the nasdaq up nearly 18%. the demise of build back better has goldman sachs trimming its forecast for the u.s. economy. goldman expects gdp to grow at an annual pace 2% next year, down from the earlier estimate of 3%, similar cuts in the second and third quarters. goldman economists warn a failure to pass bbb has negative growth implications and they name that ex-priargs of the refundable child tax credit. the inflation senator manchin is "likely to persist" the goldman economists say. for investors it's not all so negative because there wouldn't be the corporate tax increases that would be needed to help pay for it and it would be good news for drug companies and biotech companies because this bill would have limited the sky-high prices for some drugs that the middle class has to bear. >> interesting. interesting who likes the fact that it went down or at least it's on hold, shall we say. christine romans, thank you very much. up next, the long lines for covid testing in new york, the city's top doctor joins us live with the latest on the case surge. plus a republican plan for the supreme court if they re-take the senate next year, and why were third graders told to re-enact scenes from the holocaust in school? relieve pressure points. and its temperature balancing so you both sleep just right. don't miss our weekend special. save 50% on the new sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. plus, 0% interest for 48 months. ends monday. ♪ fresh flavors... classic dishes... ♪ and a new seat at the table. ♪ as covid surges across the country, new york is breaking records for a third day in a row, record positive case numbers totalling more than 22,000 as of saturday. new york city some people waited in line for hours to get tested as omicron anxiety sets in ahead of the holidays. joining me, dr. david choxie, new york city's health commissioner. thank you for being with us. we've seen a large increase in the number of new cases in new york city. what about the number of severe cases, though. has that number been rising in a corresponding fashion? >> thanks for having me. you're asking the critical question. we've seen cases and test positivity increase sharply but as yet we have not seen the same thing with respect to the markers of severe disease. particularly hospitalizations. right now there are about a thousand people hospitalized with covid-19 across new york city, about a quarter of where we were at the peak of last winter's wave and less than a tenth of where we were in the spring of 2020. >> we can put that up on the screen so people can understand. hospitalizations tend to lag case numbers. that top number people are seeing is a huge spike in the number of unvaccinated people hospitalized. bottom two numbers are unvaccinated and overall but we are seeing an increase in unvaccinated vaccinations. yes? >> precisely. omicron does present a new threat and one that we're still learning about but the threat is likely to be the greatest for people who remain unvaccinated. the fact that new york city has built up vaccination rate, over 70% of our entire population that's fully vaccinated, it will help. it's a sea wall against the omicron wave. we have to build upon that with booster doses and getting as many people vaccinated as possible. >> capacity is okay as of now? >> that's correct. we're watching it closely, making adjustments as we need to. right now we are in a solid position. >> let me ask you about testing. we all see the lines. how much of a gap is there between need and availability, even the need and what you have? >> we did see unprecedented demand. we've ramped up, more testing per capita than just about any other place in the world and continue to ramp it up to meet it. for example adding additional testing sites throughout this week. a total of 89 across the five but boroughs of the city, and we're distributing rapid test kits through community-based organizations. we'll keep building upon that to meet the demand in the coming days. >> do you need more from the federal government in terms of testing? >> yes, we do, particularly rapid test kits. we're in close touch with our federal partners. they're aware of the need, and we do expect to get more this week. this supply is particularly important because we want people to test if they're feeling ill, because it helps them to isolate and helps us to break the chains of transmission. >> mayor bill de blasio said he'll come one an answer for times square new year's eve and noted it's outdoors and vaccine required. still if you're putting a lot of too emin one space who are going to go out to bars and other areas after, how could you keep that safe with the number of cases we're now seeing? >> yes, this is something that we're discussing, and as the mayor has said, we'll follow the situation, we'll follow the numbers and what the data and the science tell us. it is outdoors. everyone is required to be fully vaccinated. people wearing masks, of course, can add another layer of protection and we'll make the decisions that we need to, to help keep people safe. >> i know we're about to get into the christmas break but a lot of parents are concerned about schools after the new year. after all the closures they went through before can you commit to you'll find a way to get schools open after the new year? >> we are very committed to keeping schools open and keeping them safe. look, i'm a doctor and a father and i believe in this both from the perspective of how important in-person learn something for educational and social development but also for the health of our children. new york city has led the way time and again with respect to reopening schools safely and we're very committed to that even as we grapple with new challenges during the omicron wave. >> dr. david chokshi, i know you're very busy. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. a teacher in trouble after an holocaust re-enactment at an ale elementary school. did joe manchin derail a major part of president biden's agenda? we look at what's next for democrats. your strategic advantage. ♪ limu emu... & doug ♪ ♪ superpowers from a spider bite? i could use some help showing the world how liberty mutual customizes their car insurance so they only pay for what they need. (gasps) ♪ did it work? only pay for what you need ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ spider-man no way home in theaters december 17th feel stuck with student loan debt? ♪ move your student loan debt to sofi. earn a $1,000 bonus when you refi— and feel what it's like to get your money right. the living room slash yoga shanti slash regional office slash... and this is the basement slash panic room. maybe what your family needs is a vacation home slash vacation home. find yours on the vrbo app. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list event. ♪ this holiday, let them shine like never before. ♪ this is how we shine. ♪ find the perfect gift at zales. the diamond store. senator joe manchin's stunning announcement he is a no vote, that may have doomed president biden's build back better bill. can the white house hand out a compromise to bring this over the finish line? >> jackie alameny author of "the washington post" "the early 202 newsletter" and journalist mara schiavacampo. jackie, this is a tough moment for the white house this morning. they were surprised by this, caught off guard by this and issued this scathing reaction saying that manchin broke a commitment to this. where do things stand this morning? >> that's exactly right, john. i don't think you need me to tell you how frustrated the white house and all of joe manchin's democratic colleagues are. the frustration is palpable. it was very clear in the statement released by white house press secretary jen psaki yesterday and from many of the public statements from even joe manchin's moderate democratic colleagues right now. i think the white house is curr currently huddling to figure out how to recalibrate and a feeling is joe manchin final in this decision? he has a tendency as one senate democrat phrased to me last week to be the boy who cried wolf, to flip-flop and waver on these decisions. there are people waiting for a 10:00 hit on local west virginia radio station right now to see if maybe he'll slightly walk back his comments. that being said, this is the most definitive comment that joe manchin has made when it comes to quashing the build back better bill and the white house realizes there's a lot on the line here for democrats who were to enact this historic economic agenda and they have to figure out a different way forward if they want joe manchin to ultimately sign on to something. >> in terms of what's on the line here, it's not just build back better, and all those programs, mara. there's a lot more at stake for democrats. another pr headache they don't want or need. >> it speaks to problems with. biden's entire legislative agenda. what does that mean for voting rights and it's significant in the midterms as well. if democrats are going into the mid terms without a big legislative win and without something that has changed and touched people's lives swiftly and tangibly, then that really is going to affect a lot of democrats that are vulnerable and when you look at joe manchin and his motivation here, i think it's really important to remember that this is the lone democratic senator from a state trump won by 40 points twice and take cues he made his announcement on fox news and he is citing in his decision concerns about things like inflation, but when you look at that logic, it really doesn't stand up to scrutiny because the economic analysis suggests these measures in the short term would not contribute to inflation and the net benefit is to low income americans and this is a senator who represents one of the poorest states in the country. and when it comes to the way forward for democrats, they have the option to potentially break this up and to focus on some of the more popular measures to isolate those and try to get them through, but short of that, it's really hard to see how they're going to move forward with this and with voting rights. >> mara, it is interesting, one more question for you. there are people who complain to progressives there isn't enough focus on what's in the bill. there's focus on the gamesmanship. it has to pass in order to count but why isn't what's in the bill enough for joe manchin, given the perceived need in west virginia? >> you know, john, that's a great question and it's not one that i think senator manchin has provided an adequate response to, because the things that he cites just don't stand up to scr scrutiny. he cited rising inflation, economic analysis does not support that. he cites geopolitical concerns, we need to preserve the money for geopolitical concerns when he voted last week to give 25 billion to the defense budget more than what they asked for. so it's really not clear not only what he wants but what really is the reason here, and cynics would say perhaps he's motivated by special interest money, perhaps motivated by ego and being right now the most powerful man in washington and all of those things can be true at the same time. >> they all can be and all may be at the same time. jackie, in terms of where we stand this morning, a fairly optimistic "dear colleague" letter from speaker pelosi. senator schumer making it clear he still wants to bring this bill to the floor in january, but realistically, does that help democrats to push that vote come january or are they better off trying to reconfigure this in another way? >> i think mara really hit the nail on the head here when saying that it's still unclear what joe manchin wants and i think that is what is most frustrating to his democratic colleagues, that he doesn't necessarily have a reason that is grounded in solid policy for why he doesn't want this bill through. so it's hard for them to decide what will go in the bill, what should come out of the bill in order to appease manchin. that being said, there are some discussions right now that maybe democrats will try to hammer out some of these policies and standalone bills. the only problem with that and the reason why we had build back better in the first place was because of the 50-vote flesh hold. democrats wanted to do reconciliation to skirt around that and these standalone bills can't be done f they can't get done in the reconciliation process, they most likely won't get done with any republican support. there's also been other conversations about how to continue to negotiate with manchin on various rules changes, that maybe if they can get him to agree to that they can find some work-around but again it's still hard for democrats i think to find a path forward since they're not quite sure what manchin wants or where he stands. >> from what joe manchin wants to what stephen breyer wants, jackie. our colleagues and your friends isaac dovere and ma knmanu raju report if republicans take control of the senate again, they will not vote on a supreme court nominee from joe biden, so if stephen breyer wants to retire, they want him to do it now and frankly, they want him to want to retire most progressives are saying. where is this going, jackie? >> this is another person who has not been very receptive to public criticism or public pressure. joe biden has this supreme court commission that's established and they're almost done with the process and probably going to be releasing their findings in the next month. i'm not sure on that timing exactly. it's already been delayed a bit but progressives are eagerly waiting on some of the findings, whether they might further help with this public pressure campaign to urge breyer to retire early so as not to repeat what we saw happen with ruth bader ginsburg which allowed president trump to ultimately push through republican scotus. so that is all very much in the air but yet it is another i think tough point that biden has to deal with here going into the new year and illuminates just how many priorities he has left with democrats right now that he has yet to follow through on. he was very vocal on throughout the democratic campaign for the president. >> jackie, mara, thank you both very much. check out both of your twitter feeds. mara has a nice tweet or two on the covid situation in new york city that i think people would be instructive it would be to people, so check it out this morning. a group of third graders at a washington, d.c., public school were allegedly instructed by a staff member to re-enact incidents from the holocaust. the school has launched an investigation. jean casarez joins us with details on this. explain, jean. >>, if of all, d.c. schools has told cnn this was not an approved project at all. it did involve as you just said third graders at the watkins elementary school. now "the washington post" is saying that this actually occurred in library class, that one student was cast as adolph hitler, that others were tasked or cast to shoot their fellow students and other students had the responsibility of simulating digging mass graves. there are also allegations that hate speech was said during this project. now, allegedly, the teacher instructor said do not tell anyone, told the students, but the students went back to their home room school teacher and they told her, and that is how this allegedly got out. now, we want to show you, we have some statements, first of all, from the d.c. schools, they have told cnn this was not an approved lesson plan, and we sincerely apologize to our students and families who were subjected to this incident. cnn also received a letter that was sent to the parents by the schools. here's part of that letter, it says "students should never be tasked with acting out any atrocity especially genocide and war." additionally there were allegations of a staff member using hate speech during the lesson, which is unacceptable and not tolerated at our school. john, the students are being seen by mental health counselors at this point, and a school official tells cnn that that teacher, she's on leave. >> all right, jean, keep us posted on this, let us know what else you learn. jean casarez thanks so much. >> thank you. so here's what else to watch today. the trial of the former police officer charged in daunte wright's death takes a big step forward this morning. and spider-man just saved the movie business in america. mom, hurry! our show's gonna start soon! i promised i wouldn't miss the show and mommy always keeps her promises. oh, no! seriously? hmm! it's not the same if she's not here. oh. -what the. oh my goodness! i don't suppose you can sing, can you? ♪ the snow's comin' down ♪ -mommy? ♪ i'm watching it fall ♪ watch the full story at www.xfinity.com/sing2 time now for 5 things to know for your "new day." meer do in a's booster shot significantly increased antibody levels, welcome news as dr. anthony fauci wrnz oarns omicrol become the dominant variant in a few weeks. senator manchin announced he's a no on president biden's build back better plan. the west wing accused him of breaking commitments calling his opposition sudden and inexplicable. closing arguments expected to begin today in the manslaughter trial of former minnesota police officer kim potter who killed a 20-year-old black man. potter choked up on the witness stand more than once last week recounting the moment she fatally shot daunte wright. she mistook her gun for a taser, she claims. closing arguments set in ghislaine maxwell's trial in new york. the defense rested its case friday after a jeffrey epstein associate decided not to testify. the jury has two days to deliberate before a court is closed for the christmas holiday. ever since i got bit by that spider, i've only had one week where my life has felt normal. >> "spider-man: no way home" earned an estimated $253 million over the weekend. keep in mind the third highest opening weekend in box office history, that's despite new covid cases rising, and streaming becoming the way millions of americans have now become used to watching movies from home. >> so that's 5 things to know for your "new day." more on the stories all day on cnn and cnn.com and don't forget to download the 5 things podcast every morning, go to cnn.com/5 things. you can find it wherever you get your podcasts. covid concerns certainly not deterring holiday travelers. we have the latest from a busy airport, that's next. first, what if the media covered the war on democracy like an actual war? 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>> that's right, john. what i was worried about as journalists who are under a lot of pressure to put out daily content, like you make this show for three hours every day, that's a lot of stuff and so it can pull us in the direction of covering the stories that we're familiar with, and in politics, that's often he said/she said, here is joe manchin and joe biden fighting over issues, and we can lose stigt of -- sight of the fact that the playing field under which this is happening is under attack and american democracy itself is not something that's going to continue, could be at risk at this moment. >> why do you think it's so important to change the way we focus as a society on what happened january 6th and continues to be happening? >> continues to be happening and that's the thing that we've learned since january 6th, that was not just an aberration, something that happened that day but we have political actors and even elected officials who are passing legislation that allows states for example to send whoever they want to the electoral college and that's if that was somebody doing it to us from the outside, it would be a huge news story and i think it needs to be a huge news story when it's happening within our political system as well. >> you say cover it like it's an actual war. what would that look like? what does that mean? >> i think it would mean we would cover it all the time, not just every once in a while, like this conversation we're having now, but like a story like omicron or inflation, where we find a lot of different creative angles to show people how this has an impact on their own lives, how it's something they as citizens have an ability to engage with, that it's a big deal, a big, big deal. >> do you think joe biden as president has focused as much as he could or should on this? >> i'm not a great expert at assessing how much he should have focused on it. i think he has tried. he just had a democracy summit. i don't know that he has turned up the volume quite as much as he could have, but we all have a part in this, as journalists we have choices on how much play we give these issues. as citizens we have choices how much attention we pay. the president also has choices about how much he chooses to highlight this over other issues for sure. >> the success of undermining democracy depends on people not paying attention. monika bauerlein, i appreciate you shining a light on this. thanks so much. dueling variants of covid surges in the united states. what you need to know. what's next for joe biden's agenda after senator joe manchin's no. ♪ ♪ ♪ experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list event. this is your home. this is your family room slash gym. the guest bedroom slash music studio. the daybed slash dog bed. the living room slash yoga shanti slash regional office slash classroom. and this is the basement slash panic room. maybe what your family needs is a vacation home slash vacation home. find yours on the vrbo app. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ kiss the people you love. mark this moment in time, and celebrate every kiss. get zero down special financing with the kay jewelers credit card. ♪ ♪ ♪ finding your new favorite spot? piece of no-you-really-have-to-try-this cake. get exclusive access to sought after restaurants. one of the many reasons you're with amex platinum. time for "the good stuff." act why are gary sinise is holding his annual event. it's virtual for a second year because of the pandemic. kids, look at that, hello, roy kent, kids enjoyed brett goldstein, magic by penn and teller and performance by edine menzel, tom hanks, matthew mcconaughey and again roy kent also took part. >> i want to hear more from what roy kent said. they were kids. every third word was bleeped? >> i think maybe he censored himself or didn't. it's a good question. roy kent tied by the way for my son's favorite. him and sam obisania. >> gary sinise and brett goldstein are all smiling, getting so much out of this. they're joyful in sharing this moment with these kids, so wonderful. >> it really is. they're there to spread the joy and getting a lot of it back as you say. pleasure to be with us this morning, john berman. ahead, omicron cases rising as we're getting new information about just how important those boosters are in terms of protection. cnn's coverage continues right now. a very good monday morning to you. i'm jim sciutto. we're going to do our best to give you the good news and the bad news. happening right now, health experts are warning the country could be in for a grim beginning to the new year because covid cases are on the rise. the u.s. is averaging now 130,000 new infections per day, that is up from 70,000 at the beginning of november, nearly doubling the rate. the omicron variant not driving that yet. dr. anthony fauci says it will be the dominant strain here in the u.s. soon.