rates in the u.s. are the highest they have been in three months, though experts say that doesn't necessarily mean hospitalizations and deaths are will be as high as in previous surges. still, the president will lay out a sweeping plan to beat back this tide. priority one. flood the zone with free covid tests. >> we have had in the past not as many tests as everyone would have wanted or needed, but part of the president's program, which he will be speaking about this afternoon, is to dramatically increase the availability of testing and putting up about 20,000 testing sites, with getting half a billion tests very quickly, literally within the next few days, and then have a situation where you can get anywhere from 200 million to half a billion tests per month. >> but a key question. with the travel rush in full gear already, is this push too late? the tsa has screened more than 10 million people at u.s. airports in the last five days, and the agency estimates 30 million holiday travelers get on a plane by january 3rd. president biden will have a message specifically for those people. he's expected to reassure americans who are vaccinated and boosted you should keep your holiday plans, but his outlook for unvaccinated folks suspect it to be much different. cnn senior white house correspondent phil mattingly say waiting the president's remarks for us. what more can you tell us, phil, about today's critical address >> you know, ana, the way you lay it out is perfect in terms of underscoring a very complex balancing act providing reassurance to those who have gotten vaccinated and boosted while also delivering a very dire warning to the nearly 40 million americans who have not to this point. it comes as i think anxiety is sweeping across the country much like the omicron variant is. the speed has been stunning to which that variant has become the dominant variant in the country, and the administration has urgently tried to figure out how to address esthat. now you mentioned boosters and vaccinations certainly the primary component of defense. they will be standing up more vaccination sites trying to ensure that there's better opportunities to get shots notice arms. you talked about i think one of the most critical components and that's what the president is going to lay out and that's on the testing front. we've seen lines across the country, difficulty in getting rapid tests and the administration is going all in between trying to give as many pathways as possible to get at-home rapid tests. starting next month up to 500 million tests will be available to be ordered online for free delivered by mail. still a lot of details but something that the administration is urgently trying to get to and hospital support for more than thousands of military officials being deployed knowing there could be a mass surge and they are trying to get out in front of that, ana. >> we know. we'll all be listening care fundamentalist you'll be bringing us any new developments you want between now and the president's address and afterwards as well. thank. what a difference a day makes. yesterday as we went to air, you'll recall the latest cdc breakdown showed the delta variant accounted for the vast majority of cases other in the u.s. today the cdc's updated numbers show a complete flip. omicron is now making up almost three out of four new infections nationwide. the entire trajectory of the pandemic changing overnight for americans. let's bring in cnn medical correspondent ecohen. elizabeth, experts knew omicron would eventually be dominant. did they know would happen so fast? break it down for us. >> reporter: i'm not sure that they knew that it would happen quite this fast. this has really been incredible. we remember when the so-called uk variant, that's what it was called at the time, when that took over. that was fast. when delta took over, that was fast t.wasn't as fast as this. let take a look at what happened -- has happened just in the past two weeks. if you look at the week ending december 4th.07% of new cases -- new cases of covid in the u.s. were of the omicron variant. december 11th that went up to 12.6%. by december 18th, as you said, nearly three out of four new cases were omicron. that is a jump from less than 1% to 73% in less than two weeks, and in some places it's even more than 73%. the cdc says in these pockets, in the northwest and in the southeast, in these 12 states, it's actually more than 95%, more than 95% of new cases are omicron. aprila? >> and we've also learned of the first death now from the omicron variant here in the u.s. tell bus that. >> reporter: right, this is a man from houston in his 50s. he was unvaccinated which is not surprising. we know the unvaccinated get much more sick or much more likely to die from omicron, and he also had underlying health conditions. it's the first known death from omicron. it is very possible that there have been other deaths. it's just that they don't always do genetic sequencing every time someone dies of covid. ana? >> and i want to underscore he was unvaccinated and had a previous covid infection. still got omicron and it ledded to this severity in which he died. elizabeth cohen, thanks for all that have information. for more on all of this we're joined by admiral bret t giroir. >> there were things that we did under the trump administration. pushing vaccines is really the number one issue. we know now with omicron that the omicron infection really can avoid vaccine immunity as well as pre-existing natural immunity, so your protection is only about 20% against omicron. that's why getting vaccinated, each if you've had the infection before and getting boosted even if you've had two doses are so critical, and obviously i'm positive about the testing. it depends how quickly those tests are available. we're a little bit behind the eight ball because of the lull in testing and orders throughout the summer and fall, but it's the right step. >> 500 million tests expected to be available for people to go online and say want one and then they would be mailed to those homes. do you think that that will be a difference-maker? >> i'm concerned because it's not enough, right? that 500 million maybe over two or three months so it's not still not enough to blanket the population. what i want to be sure of and what i would advise the support still to make sure that the vulnerable get priority. that would be the elderly. that would be people in ansy assisted light. can you go on medicare rolls to see all the people who would have pre-existing conditions. i think we need to be selective to make sure that we keep people who can die from the disease from disease dying from the disease and remember that test is very important because you can get monoclonal antibodies and hopefully you'll get oral antivirals so i think targeting will be important and we need to see what the numbers shake out to be. >> a lot of people are scratching their heads saying how can testing still be a problem? how can we still not have enough tests and how can they still not be accessible and easy for people to get? we're almost two years into the pandemic and, of course, you were testing czar for the trump administration and so you're a great voice to be able to answer that question but i want to remind our viewers that this was a problem from the very beginning, right? increased testing wasn't a focus. >> it was a problem from the beginning but, remember, what december we sent 180 million of the rapid tests out. that a year ago that we were able to do this. >> but that's enough for like half of america to have one test. they were never sent to american homes. we all remember the long testing lines, the drive-through testing places -- >> and a year later. >> we just had this report that came out on friday from the how is that said basically that there was guidance and pressure to change testing guidance so that amountic people didn't get tested to reduce the number of cases positive that would be out there so i just don't want, you know, a white-washing of the history but that's a problem. >> not only is the report byteses but your reporting of the sorority completely incorrect about what the report says, but let's get back to the testing issue. between january and august there were really no government orders. the states didn't have orders and production lines closed down. we expected to have a billion test per month by may or june, that's not just us, academic researchers, and we're only to the level right now that we should have been last february or march so there was a lull. it was multi-factorial but there was no problem with technology or availability. it's just the orders weren't there and the infrastructure wasn't there and now we're behind. so, yes, that's the situation we're in. that's why i think we'll have to be selective right now about who we test, because to test the entire country and to do it multiply, of course, we need billions per month and we don't have that right now. >> let's focus forward here because i think that's what's important. what specific things would really make a difference at this stage of the pandemic, do you think? >> it's really vaccination, and i real need to double down on that, and i want to emphasize it's not just the unvaccinated because with omicron if you've had two vaccines, two of the mrna vaccines you're only about 20% protected from infection, now you're more protected against hospitalization, but i don't want to turn into the unvaccinated because it's very important for people who have had two vaccines to get their booster formed to raise their immunity. that is the single most important thing to do. testing is obviously going to help. i'm very hopeful that the oral antiviral from about merck right-hand ridgeback gets authorized soon because it can cut hospitalization by 30% to 50% but the core answer is vaccinations. that is hab to be the foundation of our response and i'm 100% in agreement with the president on that. but it's not just the unvaccinated. it's the incompletely vaccinate that had we really need to worry about with omicron. >> everybody needs that third boost or the third shot, the booster shot is what is considered right now. i wonder what your advice is for people for the holidays because i ask this question every day to our doctors, but information has been change day to day as we just reported. you know, overnight it went from delta being the dominant variant to omicron now, 73% of the most recent cases. what's necessary and what's not in terms of precautions and mitigation measures that people should be taking for the holidays? well, this is all very important individual family discussions and discussed with your health care providers. if you have a very vulnerable person in your family, even if they have been tripoli vaccinated, if you have an 15-year-old we really do need to be careful because we don't know all the related information. i'm not cancelling holiday plans. we do have immunosuppressed people in our family. we're being careful. we're making sure we don't expose them or risk them. it's an individual decision. i missed christmas last year. i'm going to enjoy having a small christmas celebration but exerting reasonable care like everyone would and all of our family are completely vaccinated with boost and that gives me a much higher degree of confidence. >> real appreciate your time and wishing you a very merry christmas and a happy new year as well. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. still plenty for come this hour. jurors back at work trying reach a verdict in the kim potter trial. the ex-cop who says she mistakenly fired her gun instead of a taser. key question here. was that fatal accident also a crime? we'll talk to the legal issues next. and later, the house committee investigating the capitol riot gets a big no from a lawmaker it wants to hear from. now what? and new yorkers on edge in search of covid tests. why is it so difficult to get up right now? age before beauty? why not both? visibly diminish wrinkled skin in... crepe corrector lotion... only from gold bond. ♪“i got you babe” by etta james♪ ♪ get groceries, gifts, & more fast and easy. so last minute guests are the only thing you'll be waiting on. ♪ joy. fully. ♪ ray loves vacations. but his diabetes never seemed to take one. everything felt like a 'no'. everything. but then ray went from no to know. with freestyle libre 2, now he knows his glucose levels when he needs to. and... when he wants to. so ray... can be ray. take the mystery out of your glucose levels, and lower your a1c. now you know. try it for free. visit freestylelibre.us as a dj, i know all about customization. that's why i love liberty mutual. they customize my car insurance, so i only pay for what i need. how about a throwback? ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ it is day two of jury deliberations in the manslaughter trial of former minnesota police officer kim potter. she says she missed took her gun for her toyser when she shot and killed 20-year-old daunte wright during a traffic stop in april. the prosecution and the defense laid out their closing arguments yesterday. potter's attorney told jurors that daunte wright caused his own death when he tried to drive away from the scene and that potter was justified to use deadly force even if that wasn't her intention. the prosecution argued that the shooting was, quote, a colossal screwup and that porter was negligent and acted recklessly. joining us now is cnn analyst areva martin and a criminal defense attorney. areva the defense says potter made a mistake and a mistake is not a crime. what do you make of that argument? >> well, a mistake is not a defense to the criminal charges that have been brought against kim potter, but the defense had three arguments essentially that we heard in the closing. one, this whole mistake notion and shoe, she's remorseful and emotional and three, that you know, daunte wright caused that himself and all of those arguments are fatally flawed, ana. this notion that daunte wright caused his own death. that's an old racist trope when we see a white cop that kills an unarmed african american like daunte wright. she had the opportunity to stop him. this whole case stopped him because he had an air freshener hanging in the back window of her car. she herself said she wouldn't pull him over. the rookie cop wanted to make the stop. she didn't have to pull this over. this whole notion of her being remorseful. that's a term we call jury nullifications. all the facts in the case suggest they are guilty but because they are sad or remorseful the jury should ignore the facts and find the person not guilty and the notion that she had the right to use deadly force is undermined. she said her conduct was unreasonable and yelled taser, taser, taser, knowing that this was not a situation where she should have pulled her weapon so i think the facts are there and the evidence is there to support a guilty verdict at least with respect to the criminal negligence if not the reckless first-degree manslaughter. it just comes down to what the jury is going to do. >> do you agree with the assessment of how the evidence was present and the interpretation perhaps by the jury? >> well, i think the defense, ana, going with a mistake is rather misleading. that is not the law and areva is correct, it's not a defense. we have to remember that the crime of manslaughter itself is about a mistake. it's the accidental killing of another human being, so there is no mistake defense to a mistaken crime. accidents can be crime, and in addition to the racist trope that was brought up, you know, the facts aren't there. the idea that, you know, there was a use of force expert who said not only deadly force was unjustified but even the use of a taser was unreasonable because there was a passenger and other overs around. this was not an's. i love that line. this is not an oopsy. mistake is not a defense of the facts obviously and the law are on the side of the prosecution, ana, but really depends on whether this jury cannot apply their heart to the fact and apply the law to the facts and also one more thinking? my only critique of the prosecution in closing was that i think they should have reminded the jury of that, that she be emotional and can be remorseful. she can be agonized and traumatized but that's a sentencing issue, you know. those are not defenses to this crime and they need to follow the law and not the heart. all right. let's gun to the ghislaine maxwell trial where jury deliberations are also under way right now. maxwell is charged with six federal counts for allegedly recruiting teenage girls into jeffrey epstein's sex trafficking ring. that's the allegation here. now during the trial four women testified that epstein sexually abused them and that maxwell aided and sometimes participated in that abuse. we learned a short time ago jurors sent a note asking for transcripts for testimony from trieste four accusers and i'll come back to you. a key line from the prosecution in all of this has been, quote, maxwell was crucial to the whole scheme. epstein could not have done this alone while the defense has argued that maxwell herself was ma nip late bid epstein suggesting she, too, is a victim. how clear scutt this case? >> it's not clear cut, aprila and, you know, the defense is saying maxwell is not epstein. that's the headline of this case for the defense. you know, let me say this. we're in the middle of -- well in the thick of the me, too, era and i for one going to court every day and knowing the reality of the situation don't believe all women, but fact of the matter is this is a she said, she said, she said, she said cautious and we're in a different era. you know, ten years ago this could have been a very defensible case. today i'm not so sure, and the idea for the defense, i think the strongest argument they have made is the financial motive. the idea that at least two of these accusers never brought up maxwell. every time they sat down with law enforcement for over decades, and they suddenly, you know, they pulled maxwell into this scenario when they lawyered up with the pi lawyers and sat with the fbi after they realized there's an epstein victim's fund from which they have collected millions of dollars could collect more if maxwell is convicted. that's really the strongest argument. again, when a different time. you know, you have these four accusers telling similar stories of sexual abuse by epstein, the fact that maxwell groomed them and brought them to epstein and then looked the other way. we have to remember, ana, there is an instruction on the prosecution side about conscious avoidance, the idea that maxwell may have known what's going on behind closed doors and may very well have been manipulated by epstein and that she consciously turned a blind eye to those facts so, you know, this is the case that i think is going to require -- it's not so clear cut. it will require some deliberations but we have the holidays coming up. it will be interesting to see if there is there's a verdict before friday. >> reporter: and there's the charge that maxwell is being charged for epstein who, of course, died in prison in 2019. how do you think the prosecution has worked around this, the fact someone so crucial to the case is no longer alive? >> i think they have done the best job they can do. clearly there will be some people on the jury that feels like this is a substitute for enstone. the evidence is overwhelming that maxwell is guilt el. obviously epstein is guilt and there's some other men involved in this case that i would like to see brought to trial because of their reprehensible conduct but the four witnesses that testified in this case despite the financial motives that sauro talked about have been quite compelling and persuasive in this argument, that this woman gramd them and participated in the sexual abuse of minors, some of them were minors at the time, and she needs to be held accountable for that. >> ladies, thanks so much for on that. >> merry christmas to boast you. >> merry christmas to you as well, thank you. >> all right. bye-bye. republican congressman scott perry turning down a request for the interview by the house committee looking into the capitol riots, so will investigators try a subpoena to force his testimony? 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(cheers) xfinity brought us together, after all! power your whole home this holiday with wifi speeds faster than a gig. click, call, or visit a store today. sing 2 we have some important new developments in the january 6th investigation. republican congressman scott perry says he's declining an invitation to be interviewed by the house select committee. perry is the first sitting lawmaker to be asked to voluntarily speak with members of this committee. they want more details on perry's role in former president trump's push to overturn the election, specifically perry's alleged attempt to install ally jeffrey clark. the committee has cited text and other communications per he with former chief of staff mark meadows at the time as well, and the "new york times" is reporting that the committee is planning to hold public hearings early in the new year. let's discuss with cnn senior legal analyst elie honig who is also a former federal and state prosecutor. furs, elie, your reaction to congressman scott perry refusing this invitation to sit down for an interview and how do you see this playing out. what comes next? >> well, my first re, a an, is this guy has something to hide. he says he's all for the rule of law. why not come far and answer questions then. it's important to understand scott per's role in this. he was a middle man between the white house on one hand and doj on the other. he tried tone list doj in this plot to steal the election, and one thing that really caught my attention as a former prosecutor is the way scott perry communicated with mark meadows was by an encrypted app signal. why would you do that unless you were trying to hide something? how does this play out from here? first of all, the committee has to decide whether it wants to issue a subpoena which is a formal command to testify, and if perry continues to defy it then the question for the committee is will they hold one of their own members in contempt? they have done already with steve bannon, already done with mark meadows and we'll see if they do it for scott perry. >> he's first member of congress the committee has asked to speak with. do you expect to see more of in? >> i do, ana. i've been critical of the committee up until now for handling its own members with kid gloves for not questioning kevin mccarthy and jim jordan. now they have cross that had line with scott per and there's more of that to come. >> the "new york times" is reporting that the committee is trying to decide if they have enough evidence of criminal conduct either by former president trump or others to make what is known as a criminal referral to the department of justice. i want you to listen to a member of the january 6th committee congressman adam kinzinger, what he said about the possibility of criminal charges against former president trump. >> i don't want to go there yet to say do i believe that he has. i think that's obviously a pretty big thing to say. we want to know though, and i think by the end of our investigation and by the time our report is out we'll have a pretty good idea. we'll be able to have on the public record anything that the justice department needs maybe in pursuit of that. >> so i thought that was interesting. can you walk to a criminal deferral on how that work. . it's not formally technically legally binding. it's up to prosecutors and doj, not congress whether they want to charge. prosecutors get referrals all day every day from different sources. however, as a practical matter, a criminal referral from congress, from this committee after all of the evidence that they have uncovered i think would be an incredibly powerful criminal statement that's a very dramatic city to take and it would significantly increase public pressure and political pressure on doj to do something to meaningfully investigate as least to people behind the big lie and january 6th. >> the "times" also looks that the the january 6th committee is looking to change the electoral count act, and how does that play in their work? >> they ought to do this. this act goes back to 187 w46 it was passed and there are parts of the act hard to decipher. this is whaen abled donald trump and others to try to get mike pence to throw the election. they took the act, they put a ridiculous spin on it, but there's enough in it that they were able to argue that mike pence has the authority to throw out electoral votes that he does not like. that's not the case, but let's clean up the law here and let's make it entirely clear that the vice president's role whether it's mike pence or kamala harris, the only roast vice president is to count the votes and has no authority to throw them out on a whim. >> and this is just now another i guess argument for the committee that they are in, you know, full legal scope of this investigation because their work could lead to legislation, right, and that's been one of the claims that we've heard against the committee as trump as others have argued that they are kind of out of bounds in their request for information or for a specific interview or testimony. it's real great to have your expertise as always. you're a great guide when it comes to all the legal complicating factors here. thank you so much. >> thanks, ana. appreciate it. and when we come back, the global battle against the omicron variant. you're correspondents in canada, rome and japan are going to give us a glimpse of what's happening in their hot spots. stay with us. ♪ ♪ you are my fire ♪ ♪ the one desire ♪ ♪ you are, you are, ♪ ♪ don't wanna hear you say... ♪ ♪ ♪ i want it that way ♪ michelob ultra organic seltzer. two flavors bursting onto the scene. they'll make quite a splash. now in watermelon strawberry. and black cherry. as real as it tastes. ♪ ♪ ♪ aloha! isn't this a cozy little room? sorry your vacation request took so long to get approved, so you missed out on the suite special. but lucky for you, they had this. when employees are forced to wait for vacation request approvals,it can really cramp their style. i'm gonna leave you to it. um, just— with paycom, employees enter and manage their own hr data in a single, easy-to-use software. visit paycom.com and schedule a demo today. we've been waiting all year to come together. ♪ happy holidays from lexus. get $1500 lease cash toward a 2022 rx 350. ♪ 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. rise of the omicron variant is also hitting hard on our neighbors to the north. as paula newton reports, it's triggering tough new restrictions for millions of canada's second biggest province of quebec. >> reporter: i'm paul ark newton in ottawa where canada's top doctor is warning canadians to keep the holiday gatherings small. she's now fearful that canada's public health care system will be overwhelmed if gatherings get out of hand. she's also warning everyone to ditch the cloth masks saying they are aren't effective enough right now. most canadians are restricted to having ten people or less their homes over the holidays but situation is most acute in quebec where cases continue to rise dramatically, and that province has now closed bars, movie theaters, casinos. it is sending some schoolchildren home early for the holidays, and it says the situation right now there is critical. >> reporter: i'm ben wedeman north of rome. in cities across europe, including landon, paris and rome, public holiday festivities are being cancelled as a wave of covid, including the highly contagious omicron variant, sweeps across the continent. france is seeing the highest number of severely ill covid patients since may of this year, and french officials expect the current wave to peak sometime between christmas and new year's. in germany, officials are considering banning private gatherings of more than ten people and shutting down discos and night clubs, and in italy's lazio region where rome is located, the governor has signed an ordinary making the wearing of masks mandatory in public. >> reporter: i'm selena wang in tokyo. all across asia the omicron variant is disrupting reopening plans. new south wales reported a record nearly 3,000 new covid-19 cases and cases in queensland are doubling every day twos, and the promise scott morrison wants to avoid travel restrictions aed head of christmas saying the country is not going back to lockdowns offer, quote, shutting down people's lives. meanwhile, china is trying to contain a cluster in the city of xian where the city has reported 19 hurricane cases since december 9th and have launched testing of all their residents. china is now doubling down on its zero covid strategy. authorities have urged residents in any city where covid-19 cases have been observed to avoid travel for the upcoming lunar new year holiday. >> thanks to all our reporters, paula newton, ben wedeman and selena wang. and up next we go live to the streets of new york city where anxious residents are waiting in these long lines just to get a covid test. what's happening here when we come back. 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ask your health care provider today about once-weekly ozempic®. oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! you may pay as little as $25 for a 3-month prescription. ♪ ♪ wow, we're crunching tons of polygons here! what's going on? where's regina? hi, i'm ladonna. i invest in invesco qqq, a fund that gives me access to the nasdaq-100 innovations, like real time cgi. okay... yeah... oh. don't worry i got it! become an agent of innovation with invesco qqq earn about covid-19, the more questions we have. the biggest question now, what's next? what will covid bring in six months, a year? if you're feeling anxious about the future, you're not alone. calhope offers free covid-19 emotional support. call 833-317-4673, or live chat at calhope.org today. we will hear from president joe biden as the country faces a surge in covid cases and the omicron variant becomes dominant here in the u.s. the president, we're expecting, will expect that 500 million at-home test kids will be made available next month, this as the demand for covid testing soars. cnn's jason darrelle is joining us from outside a testing site in new york city where there are more long lines today. jason, what are you hearing from these people waiting in line and from city officials? >> hearing that you have to have a lot of patience. you can see that the line extends all the -- people having to wait an hour and a half, even longer before they can get the test. help is on the way. the mayor announcing just this afternoon saying that the federal government is going to be heading to new york city to help set up test sites, like the one that we're just seeing right now. in addition to that, the mayor also saying that he's been in touch with president biden's team and he says that according to what he's been learning that, quote, a major shipment, this is in the mayor's word, a major shipment of test kits is on the way as well, so some developments there. all this as new covid numbers are in, and it's just like what we've been hearing over the past few days. the numbers continue to rise across the state and in the city as well. if you look at what the state is happening here. it has broken for the fourth consecutive day. the number of new infections with topping out at more than 23,000. most of those infections right here in new york city with more than 15,000. again, those are the latest numbers. the mayor basically saying that at this point he says that the -- that the worst part of the wave is not behind new yorkers, but it's still ahead of it's going to be a challenging few weeks. any question. we are seeing a bigup upsurge in cases. thankfully in general they are more mild and thankfully the health care system is well positioned to deal with it. but it's a tough few weeks and we need to understand that and do everything possible to address that. >> getting vaccinated, getting booster shots is something the mayor has continuously pushed. and this afternoon, anna, he also announced what the city is offering is a $100 incentive for all the people out here in the city who have gotten vaccine shots to get booster shots. a $100 krennive to get a booster at a city site from now until january 31st. anna. >> all such deja vu, thank you for your reporting. let's get invieth from guests, dr. carlos del rio, associate emery school of medicine. we are seeing the lock lines for testing here in new york city and other parts of the country. how is this still happening? >> well, anna, it's simply because the virus is incredibly transmissible. what you have right now is simply the demand for testing is outstripping -- far outstripping the supply. a lot of people want to be tested because they are symptomatic or exposed. if you want to be tested you find a big line. i was driving a testing site in atlanta. and the line is probably two hours. >> is this a failure by the administration not to have prioritized testing more? again we're two years in here. >> well, you know the problem is you know at some point in time you have too much test capacity. at some point too little. i don't think anybody predicted we are in the situation we are right now with a virus so different. om onis so, so transmissible that simply keeping up with testing is very hard. we should have had more rapid testing available. that was an error. we should have made a partnership with companies producing rapid tests and have those readily available and easy to access and affordable. i mean, 25, what you pay if you find one today in cvs or local drug store or store. it's simply way too much. we should have been able to buy those under $5 and should be plenty available. the problem is that was not planned. and that's a mistake. now the president is talking about ramping up production and having more tests available. but it's clearly late. >> we are playing catch-up and we know it can be done. europe has gotten the testing program figured out better than the u.s. it appears with more accessibility and cheaper test options. we know the president will be addressing the nation soon on omicron, on his plans. what had you be listening for? >> you know, i'm hoping to see three things. i'm hoping to hear more support to hospitals and health systems, because some are already struggling with delta let alone omicron. number two i'm hoping to continue to hear ways in which we have more rapid testing. i mean this initial proposal back in december 2nd of get your rapid test and then submit a reimbursement to the insurance ludicrous. we need testing available and affordable and free basically so people can use it. and number three, i hope to hear more -- more support to vaccination sites and places that are doing boosting, because, you know, you are running out of personnel. they are either in the hospital or at vaccination and testing sites. but many places struggle having personnel at both sites. we need those addressed. >> with all the holiday travel? what's your guidance? who should plan gatherings who shouldn't. >> i want people to gather but safely. i'm going to tell what you i'm doing. i'm gathering with my family. limited the number of people there. everybody is going to be vaccinated. not everybody is boosted because not everybody has been able to get boosting. we are going to be making sure that nobody who attends has any systems even though they may say this is just a cold. and then we test everybody. i'm giving everybody for christmas a rapid covid test kit. and before you come into the gathering we want everybody tested. i think if we do that we're going to be safe. also have windows open, try to do it in a way with good ventilation. by doing that we hope to minimize the risk. >> good advice, good information thank you for detailing all that. we're seeing the case surnl right now. but the silver lining is that more people are vac eighted than last winter, right. there is a large chunk of the population who only received two doses not the third. how protected are those people? and if someone recently got the second dose, any aren't eligible for a booster yet, right. should they be able to get a booster sooner than six months after the second dose? >> well, you know, we don't know the data. it may be four months is good enough. you shouldn't get it shorter than that because it doesn't work. but ideally somewhere between four and six months. you got two doses of mrna vaccine you are fairly well protected against severe diaz and death. you're not that protected against symptomatic infection. your protection against symptomatic information is only about 30 to 40%. not zero. better than zero. but don't be surprised if you are infected and develop symptoms. my suggestion is if you develop symptoms isolate yourself to you don't infect others. you're right. we have a lot of people in the country also not yet vaccinated. and i'm more worried about those individuals frankly. >> dr. carlos del rio thank you for being here and for all you donna joining us today. >> happy to be with you. >> that does it for this hour. i'm anna cabrera we are waiting for the remarks from president biden from the white house. of course we will carry those live here on cnn when that happens. i'll be right back. it to unwrap. ♪ joy. fully. ♪ real cowboys get customized car insurance with liberty mutual, so we only pay for what we need. -hey tex, -wooo. can someone else get a turn? 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get published now, call for your free publisher kit today! hello again and thanks for joining us. i'm ana cabrera in for victor and alisyn. today president biden will address the nation on the rapidly resurging covid pandemic. and how to mitigate the new threat, omicron, now the dominant strain in the u.s. accounting for 73% of new cases. cnn's chief national affairs correspondent jeff zeleny at the white house. jeff we'll hear two messages, uno one for the vaccinate and unvaccinated >> certainly president biden drawing a big distinction between those vaccinated and boosted and those not. simply saying it's not a repeat of march of 2020 for those who are vaccinated. but for those who are not, that is not necessarily the

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