it's the top of the hour, so glad you're with us. i'm poppy harlow, thank you for joining me on newsroom. we're going to hear from the white house. the white house covid task force is going to give a live update on the surge we're seeing in the united states right now. this comes hours after the approval of a potential game changing first in the pandemic, a pill to treat covid. the fda just today giving emergency authorization to pfizer's antiviral pixilvid, as the united states is seeing a 4% rise in hospitalizations from just a week ago, and now detecting omicron in 26 states 22 days after the first reported case in the country. a top researcher in south africa says the country is beyond its peak of omicron, saying south africa is seeing a serious decline in cases in the area where it was first detected. that is potentially good news for the word, the first pill to treat covid, how well does it work? >> it works quite well, and it's something you can take home. the doctor calls in a prescription. it's not a monoclonal antibody. but there is a kavp icaveat whi get to in a moment. about half of them took a placebo, a pill that did nothing, and at the end of the month, 66 were hospitalized with covid, and 12 died of covid, and half of them took paxlovid, eight were hospitalized and none of them died. that's a pretty dramatic difference, and there's one thing, in the clinical trials, people took it within five days of feeling symptoms of covid. you need to know you have symptoms, act on it, get tested, you need to call the doctor, the doctor needs to call it in. that is a lot to have happen within five days, especially given the testing situation in the united states, so that is one concern about this pill. we'll see how it works when it comes out in real life rather than just clinical trials. >> that's exactly right. elizabeth, you also have two studies making some early conclusions on omicron, and on hospitalizations. what do they tell us? >> right, so these are studies out of south africa, and scotland because they sort of got omicron before we did, and have been doing it a good job of measuring it. so let's take a look at what they found. in the south africa study, they looked at cases in october and november. they found that folks who had omicron, 2.5% of them ended up getting admitted to the hospital, but folks with delta, 12.8% of them ended up being admitted to the hospital. that shows you how much milder the disease is with omicron. as far as scotland, they found a 2/3 reduction in hospitalization risk, and this is important, the booster was linked to a 57% reduction in the risk of symptomatic infection, so the booster making a difference. t most important thing is get vaccinated. if you're more than six months past the second shot, get yourself a booster. poppy. >> for sure. this is also really interesting what united kingdom has decided to do and that is to reduce the number of days that people who are fully vaccinated need to isolate if they get infected. what is the change? >> here's the issue, in the united states, in the uk, everywhere, we need our doctor, essential workers. if you're just mildly sick, do you really need to be out for the full ten days that's now recommended. let's take a look at what they've down in the uk. they have shortened that isolation period, if you're vaccinated and you get covid, shorten that isolation period from seven to ten days. if you're unvaccinated, you must isolate for ten days, and you're going to be sicker and likely contagious for longer. in the united states, it's interesting, the ceo of delta air lines writing a letter to the head of the cdc saying, hey, we'd like you to shorten this time because of course delta air lines, an essential service, all the airlines. what delta is asking for, we want the isolation again for fully vaccinated people with covid to be shortened from ten to five days, and also have a test before you get out of isolation, make sure you're negative, and the ceo of delta noted that 90% of the delta work force is vaccinated. poppy. >> it would make a huge difference for these businesses that rely on so many of those front line workers. thank you so much for the reporting. again, we're seeing incredibly long lines for people around the country, people waiting to be tested. the federal government has vowed to help. let's go to our colleague, shimon prokupecz, he joins us in new york. shimon, across from our home every day the lines around the block, around the full block, and it gets longer by the day. >> reporter: it does, and what's going on really across the city now, poppy, as you have been going out, you see these independent kind of privately owned labs setting up shop, just tents, that they have set up and they are really the ones that are doing, at least it would seem, a lot of the testing across the city. certainly in parts of manhattan, which are seeing a surge, surge, surge in cases, and so people lining up at sites like this where they're testing, walking up. these are set up for tourists, people coming to the country overseas to get back on a flight. what has happened is a lot of locals are using them for their tests because other places are just inundated and can't take the capacity. a stunning number, i want to share something from the governor in new york state. close to 30,000 new cases, 28,900 across the state. a majority of them here in new york city, manhattan seeing one of the largest surges that it has seen. so certainly a lot of concern, and the testing, this is why the mayor says they need to increase the testing. the mayor also trying to sound upbeat, talking about how people need to live their lives, as they continue going through day-to-day, take a listen to what he said. >> it's important to say this clearly, we are not telling people to hide or hunker down or surrender to the situation. we're telling people to be smart. if you're not feeling well, stay home for sure. if you might have been exposed, get a test and act accordingly. if you're a vulnerable person, older, with serious preexisting conditions, limit the kind of things you go to. but we're not telling vaccinated people to stop living their lives. >> reporter: and so one of the things the mayor said that they're going to be doing is they're going to be increasing testing all across the city. the other thing is to try and improve some of the safety measures. they're going to be limiting visits to hospitals. obviously still a huge concern here, the spread is continuing, the mayor, the governor, city officials, all saying that they expect the surge and the spread to continue, but a key in all of this, poppy, of course, is hospitalizations. they are not seeing that steady increase in hospitalizations that would certainly concern them that obviously led to many of the shut downs, and concerns the last time and really the start of this pandemic, but right now, when you look at these numbers and the way this is going across this state and this city, certainly the omicron, certainly the epicenter here in new york city. >> yeah, i know for us it's like work home, work home, work home, and that's sort of it for a lot of us here in new york. shimon, thank you very much. joining me now is cnn medical analyst, and e.r. doctor. dr. leana wen and internal medicine dr. jorge rodriguez, a viral specialist. i wish it was the reality we're experiencing but it is. let me begin with you dr. wen. bill gates said this morning, we could in his estimation being entering the worst part of the pandemic. that is stunning, especially given that not enough, but a number of people are fully v vaccinated and boosted. >> i think what we will see with omicron is a very large number of infections due to covid-19. the question, though, is are we going to see a decoupling of infections with hospitalizations and death. that would be ideal, the entire point of vaccination, the main point of vaccination, i should say is to reduce severe illness. if we're able to avoid overwhelming our health care systems, that would be the goal. are there going to be a lot of people who get omicron? absolutely. but the hope is that enough people have been vaks ccinated some parts of the country and many parts of the world that we're going to prevent the worst of it. i have a lot of concern about what happens to parts of this country with low vaccination rates. i think president biden's message was the right one in some ways, saying vaccinated people should move on with their lives with precautions. i wish he would go further to restrict the activities of the unvaccinated. they're the ones still spreading covid, and prolonging the pandemic for all of us. >> we're seeing the vaccine mandates, et cetera, certainly charged all the way up through the courts. challenged, i should say. dr. rodriguez, just to build on the question that dr. wen raises, which is what is omicron going to show us? will there be a decoupling between infections and hospitalizations? the data out of south africa just highlighted in the "washington post" today is really interesting, right, that they're saying the surge that they saw in omicron cases is now completely dwindling, they might be going down the other side of the mountain, but the qualifier is they know 70% of people in south africa have had some variant of covid, so maybe protected and their immune systems built up from that. so does that mean we cannot exactly read good news out of south africa as good news for us here? >> well, i think we can be hopeful about that news. you brought up one point is the fact that a lot of people there have already come into contact with some form of covid, and may have a natural immunity to it. i want to caution people not to take too much heed in sort of so solace from that. south africa is not the united states. they're more homogeneous in their population, and in their politics, if you will, which n makes a difference in this country. their population tend to skew a little bit longer than in the u.s., which may be why they're not seeing as many people hospitalized. if you're looking at it as a whole, the data for the vaccinated whether it's omicron or delta, is the fact, and let's keep hammering this home, people that are vaccinated will get less sick, will be hospitalized less often and there will be less deaths. >> dr. wen, the uk has just said that they will shorten the isolation period for people who have had covid but are sfully vaccinated. should the united states do that? >> yes, in a sense, this is a test to return policy just like you have test to stay in schools, this is test to return to work. there are two major reasons why this is so important, one is to preserve the work force. we're facing a crisis of health care workers all being infected and not being able to come to work. the shorter the duration they have to be out the better. the point is you get regular testing and if you're able to show somebody is no longer shedding virus, especially because if you're vaccinated, you probably are shedding virus for a shorter period of time, you should be able to come back to work. the second reason is a lot of people are fore going tests, if they're traveling somewhere. they don't want to test positive for fear they're stuck somewhere for ten days. we're adding a disincentive to testing, and we could stop that if we have a shorter period. >> just because you don't know doesn't mean you don't have it. you make such a good point. dr. rodriguez, before we go, the fourth shot for the elderly and immunocompromised that israel is doing, is that going to come to the united states, do you think? >> well, you know, it might, but i even said this last night, i think israel may be jumping the gun a little bit, and even they said they don't have any data to support this. but they are trying to be ahead of what they think has been a pattern. it neigh come to the united states. i think people definitely not run to their pharmacy or doctor asking for a shot. i think we need more information, but i think repeating vaccinations, whether it's yearly or whatever, is something that is going to happen. >> dr. wen, dr. rodriguez, thank you both. wishing you a healthy and happy holiday. >> like wise, thank you. in the wake of a major setback for democrats on their campaign to get build back better passed, actually, let's go here. this is the white house covid task force briefing. let's listen in. >> i want to underscore the president's message yesterday. due to omicron, we expect a significant rise in cases. fully vaccinated people, particularly those with a boost are highly protected. but due to omicron's highly transmissible nature, we will see fully vaccinated people get covid. they'll likely be asymptomatic or feel under the weather for a few days. let's be clear. unvaccinated people are at a higher risk of getting severely ill from covid, getting hospitalized, and dying. we are prepared for this moment. yesterday the president announced new actions the administration is taking to protect families, communities, and hospitals as we face omicron. these steps include more support for hospitals, including 1,000 military troops deployed, hundreds of ambulances and help for hospitals to ensure adequate supplies, equipment and beds. more testing including new federal sites and a half billion tests will be free to all americans. and more capacity to get shots in arms including new mobile clinics, hundreds of additional vaccinators in the field, and tens of thousands of new appointments. let me reiterate what the president said yesterday, this is not march 2020. we have more tools than ever before to protect people. vaccinations, boosters, testing, and treatments. today i want to give an update on treatments. from day one, our strategy has been to fill the nation's medicine cabinet with a diverse set of options to treat people. let me walk through the three types of treatments starting with monoclonal antibody treatments which have proven to be highly effective. since july, we have deployed 2.7 monoclonal antibody treatment courses to help keep people out of the hospital and save lives. from the moment we learned of omicron, we began assessing our existing monoclonal antibody treatments and we learned that two of the three existing treatments are not effective against the new variant. fortunately glaxosmithkline's monoclonal antibody treatment is effective. we acted quickly to secure more supply of it. we're more than doubling the supply of gsk's monoclonal to 1 million treatment courses with 300,000 treatment courses available in january. and we have already begun making this drug available to every state and territory. next let me touch on a preventative treatment from astrazeneca, which is especially important for certain immunocompromised individuals at high risk. many of these immunocompromised people are not able to get the level of protection they need from a vaccine alone. we will have more than half a million doses of astrazeneca's monoclonal antibody treatments on hand in january. and we're preparing to purchase significantly more across the next three months. and finally, let me provide an update on antivirals. we got good news today with the authorization of pfizer's antiviral. merck's pill if authorized along with pfizer's newly authorized pill have oral treatment options to our nation's medicine cabinet. as soon as emerging science showed the promise of these antivirals we acted quickly, and aggressively to prepurchase 10 million treatment courses of pfizer and 3 million of merck. for merck, end of january, we anticipate 3 million treatment courses available to send to states if fda authorizes. the pfizer team has a very promising and now authorized treatment. a pill that dramatically reduces the risk of hospitalizations and death for those at risk. we've purchased 10 million courses, more than anyone else in the world. according to pfizer, the complex chemistry involved in creating the active ingredient in the pill means production takes about six to eight months. so supply of this product will ramp up over the next several months. knowing that these pills take time to manufacture, pfizer continues to increase their production plans and now that the pill is authorized, we'll have discussions to explore how we can help them improve their manufacturing capacity even further by providing any resources needed. we will have 265,000 treatment courses of pfizer available in january. with monthly totals of pills ramping up across the year and all 10 million treatment courses delivered by late summer. as quickly as pfizer gets the pills manufactured and delivered, we will immediately provide them to states and jurisdictions for distribution. just as we've done with vaccines and monoclonal antibody treatments, we will ensure equity is at the center of antiviral distribution. we are not only urging states to ensure equity in their own distribution plans but also distributing antivirals to community health centers across the country. this will help ensure these life saving antivirals are available to the most vulnerable communities and hard hit populations across the country. in closing, as we face omicron, the nation's medicine cabinet of treatments gives us more options to protect the american people. it's yet another reason this moment is much different than march 2020. we have tools to keep people safe. and we will continue using them to do so. with that, over to dr. walensky. >> thank you, jeff, good afternoon. as usual i'd like to start by walking you through today's data. the current seven-day daily average of cases is 149,300 cases per day, an increase of about 25% over the previous week. the seven-day average of hospital admissions is about 7,800 per day, and the seven-day average of deaths are about 1,200 per day, which is an increase of 3.5% over the prior week. over the past several weeks, cdc has continued to closely monitor the emergence of the omicron variant. currently over 85 countries have detected omicron and on monday we released updated data for the united states, which estimates that the omicron variant represents approximately 73% of covid-19 cases in the united states. and in some areas of the country, omicron has increased even further. accounting for an estimated 90% of cases in the eastern atlantic states, parts of the midwest, south, and northern pacific states. this rapid increase and the proportion of omicron circulating around the country is similar to what we've seen around the world. although this is a reminder of continued threat of covid-19 variants, this increase in omicron proportion is what we anticipated and what we have been preparing for. i know there are a lot of questions about the omicron variant, how to protect yourselves, our loved ones, how to safely gather with our family and friends over the holidays, and you have heard me say before, we know what works against covid-19. and it's critically important that we implement our proven multilayer prevention strategies. let me reiterate those four prevention measures for you. get vaccinated. get boosted. wear a mask in public indoor settings in areas of substantial and high risk community transmission, and take a test before you gather. i know many parents are wondering how they can keep their children safe for the holidays. if your child is 5 or older, get them vaccinated and if they are younger than 5 years, surround them with adults and siblings who are vaccinated, boosted if eligible, and masking in public indoor settings. i also want to be sure people understand the risks around holiday travel. holiday gatherings and risk of travel really has less to do with the airplane or car ride and much more to do with how people from different households behave in the weeks todays before meeting up. importantly, consider gathering with family and friends who are also practicing similar proper prevention measures. and as we have said before, those who remain unvaccinated are the most vulnerable to covid-19. cdc data now updated through november when delta was the predominant strain circulating demonstrated that an unvaccinated person has a ten times greater risk of testing positive for covid-19 and a 20 times greater risk of dying from covid-19 when compared to those who are fully vaccinated and received their booster dose. every day we are following more and more studies emerging about the omicron variant. early data on the vaccine is promising against omicron, especially when people are boosted. covid-19 vaccines, especially when accompanied by a booster dose are likely to protect against severe disease, hospitalization, and death. still, we know we will continue to hear more about people who get infected who are vaccinated. these people may get mild or asymptomatic infections and could unknowingly spread those infections to others. again, this means it is important for everyone, regardless of vaccination status, to wear a mask in public indoor settings in communities of substantial or high transmission. and i would encourage people to take an at-home covid-19 test ahead of time to help protect you and your family and friends who may be at greater risk of covid-19 or severe outcomes. evidence has repeatedly shown that these prevention measures, when layered together, work. so again, if you're wondering how to stay healthy and protect your loved ones this winter, please get vaccinated. get boosted, wear a mask in public indoor settings, and take a covid-19 test before gathering with others. we're at a critical point, and how well these measures are implemented by all of us caring for ourselves and for one another will largely determine the outlook of the coming weeks and months ahead. thank you. happy holidays, i'll now turn things over to dr. fauci. >> thank you very much, dr. walensky. what i would like to do now is just spend just a few minutes on underscoring and reiterating some of the important principles that dr. walensky had mentioned. i'm going to touch on four areas very quickly. transmissibility, severity, evasion of immunity by vaccines and the potential impact on therapeutics. i will point out that there is a relationship between interpreting the relationship between transmissibility and severity, and i'll explain what i mean in a moment. next slide. no doubt, this is a highly transmissible infection. these are the latest data that we get from the cdc about the omicron variant that is sequenced in the united states isolates. it is now about 73 plus percent and speaking to governors from other regions of the country, in some they're even as high as 80 to 90%, so there is no doubt that we are dealing with a highly transmissible virus for the reason, as jeff mentioned just a moment ago, that we expect that they will be continuing to have a substantial increase in cases. next slide. now we get to the idea of severity. these are data from our south african colleagues who have clearly been showing now in conversations we've had and now in this recent publication that in fact, it appears, that in the context of south africa, there is a decrease in the severity compared to delta. both in the relationship and ratio between hospitalizations and the number of infections, the duration of hospital stay, and the need for supplemental oxygen therapy. recently, literally yesterday. there was another paper that came out from scotland which appears to validate and verify the data that are in south africa. this is good news. however, we must wait to see what happens in our own population which has its own demographic considerations. i would point out that even if you have a diminution in severity, if you have a much larger number of individual cases, the fact that you have so many more cases might actually obviate the effect of it being less severe, and that's one of the reasons why the president in his remarks yesterday spoke about how we are going to supplement the capability of hospitals to respond to the possibility that there might be a run on the need for hospitalization. next slide. now, let's talk about some of the immune invasion, we have mentioned this in briefings before. just to reiterate. there's no doubt that there's a marked reduction in neutralizing activity against omicron when you look at the two dose mrna vaccines. when you compare omicron to earlier variants such as delta. however, and here again, why we emphasize the importance of booster shots, the anti-omicron activity is about 20 to 40 fold higher versus the peak in individuals who had two dose vaccine. this is validated by the clinical data which shows that the vaccine efficacy, as we all know from previous studies of a symptomatic infection of a two-dose mrna wanes over time. however, there's a moderate to high effectiveness, about 75% seen in the early period after a booster dose and very likely higher when it comes to hospitalization and severe disease. next slide. a quick word now on something that jeff mentioned is namely the treatments that are available. unfortunately, but understandably, with the degree of mutations that we have with omicron, some of the monoclonal antibodies shown on the slide here very likely will not work against omicron, and those are shown in the first two under monoclonal antibody. fortunately, the gsk, their product, looks like it's well positioned to be used as a treatment against omicron, and the az product also is likely. small molecule antivirals are available now. you heard the recent approval of an eua of paxlovid. of note, and under appreciated, remdesivir is already fully approved and is available in a three-day course, which in a recent study shown to dramatically diminish the need for hospitalization. guidelines on this will be now re-examined by the nih guidelines committee and you'll be hearing more about recommendations, how to utilize these. if i can have the last slide. i want to, again, just reiterate what dr. walensky said about prevention, which is a multilayered comprehensive process, the hallmark of which is vaccination. now, one of the questions that dr. walensky and i and d dr. murthy and others get asked frequently, right now as we get to the christmas holiday, and new year's, would it be safe for individuals who are vaccinated, who are boosted, to get together with family in the setting of the home. the answer to that is yes. an extra level of protection would be the testing that dr. walensky measured, but i want to make sure this is not confused with going to a large gathering. and there are many of these, parties that have 30, 40, 50 people, in which you do not know the vaccination status of individuals. those are the kind of functions in the context of covid and particularly in the context of omicron, that you do not want to go to. so to the extent possible, we urge you to stay away from those situations that could put you at a higher risk. i'll stop there and back to you, jeff. >> well, thanks, doctors, with that, let's open it up for some questions. kevin? >> thanks, jeff. let's try to get through as many questions as we possibly can. first let's go to peter sullivan at the hill. >> hi, thanks. i wanted to ask on the supplies of the new pfizer treatment pill, there have been some experts calling for the administration to just do more to increase supply. for example, enlisting other manufacturers the way merck is helping to make the j&j vaccine, so you're not just relying on pfizer's capacity alone. have you considered that at all or is there more steps, you know, the administration can take to boost the supply? >> yeah, and i might also have dr. fauci talk some about the synthesis process, which takes months to do. we know the pfizer team is hard at work ramping up production, and everyone agrees this is a very promising antiviral and therefore we want to make sure that production is ramped up as quickly as possible. according to the company, the complex chemistry involved in creating the active ingredient in the pill means the production takes, as i mentioned, about six to eight months. now that the pill is authorized, we will have skdiscussions to explore how we can help them improve their manufacturing capacity even further by providing any resources that they need as quickly as pfizer gets the pills manufactured and delivered, we will be immediately providing them to states and jurisdictions for distribution. the bottom line today is an exciting development, and we applaud the american company for their innovation. we do have 10 million doses ordered, which is the largest amount of any country in the world, and 265,000 treatment regimens will be available to us in january. anything you want to add there, dr. fauci? >> well, jeff, just what you said. i mean, the very good news is that we have a product now that has about a 90% efficacy in preventing hospitalization, but the sobering news is unfortunately it is really a quite complicated and complex synthetic process, which we will be working with the company to figure out how we can help alleviate the stress of the long duration that it takes to make it, and hopefully we'll be able to shorten that process by working closely with them. >> next question? >> cameron keith at npr. >> thank you so much for taking my question. i'm wondering, the w.h.o. is telling people to curtail their holiday plans. why isn't the u.s. government doing that also, and also where is the cdc on modifying the definition of fully vaccinated to include boosters? >> dr. walensky on holiday and modifying the definition. >> yeah, i think that you just heard from dr. fooauci as to ho we are recommending people modify their plans. we are not advocating for large events, and i think this is a modification. we also have given clear guidance as to what we believe is a safe way to gather. we do want families to be together, to be able to be together this holiday season. and so to do so, we're really encouraging people to be vaccinated, to be boosted and to practice all of those prevention strategies before they gather so they can maximize the safety of their holiday gathering as well as that reassurance of a test. with regard to your second question, our guidance right now is very clear. cdc recommends, strongly recommends people who are eligible for a booster go get a booster. that is everyone above the ages of 16 boosting at greater than six months. if you receive the pfizer or moderna vaccine, and of course greater than two months if you receive the j&j vaccine. we're looking at the definition right now, and, you know, more to come there, but just to be very clear, our recommendations are to get boosted. >> next question, please. >> let's go to jeff zeleny at cnn. >> thank you for taking my question. i was wondering if jeff or the doctors could point to one thing in the last month that you could have done differently to avoid where the nation is right now on the cusp of christmas? >> dr. fauci, anything to add there? >> well, i don't think i can pick out one thing that we could have done. anytime that you put the effort that we're putting in, we always are the strongest self-critics of could we have done something better, could we have done something more quickly or more thoroughly. and you know, when you say i can't think of anything, i don't want anyone to think that we think we've done everything perfectly, but i don't think i could .1 thing out in the last month. i think we have been intensively involved in getting the response to the omicron variant. we jumped all over it, all of us spent the entire thanksgiving weekend getting enough information to be able to respond in an appropriate way to omicron. so again, admittedly, we can always do better but i can't think of something specifically that we would have done differently. >> next question. >> okay. that was a great question just asked there by our very own jeff zeleny, could anything differently have been done by the administration in the last month considering where we are with omicron right now. we'll get to that and more with our doctors. let's bring back in dr. lena we know -- leana wen and dr. jorge rodriguez. we heard jeff the policy coordinator, they will have milder systems, it's the unvaccinated that remain at great risk of hospitalization and death. we will see a significant rise in cases because of in variant. i should also note that dr. fauci said that the severity of omicron seems to be a bit less than that of delta. however, it is so contagious that some places are now seeing 80 to 90% of their covid cases being this variant. dr. wen what struck you the most from the updates that we just got. >> yeah, all along we have been saying with omicron or with any new variants that we're looking for three things, one is it more contagious, clearly it's more contagious, is it more virulent. omicron for people vaccinated or boosted is not causing severe disease. chances are you're going to be just fine with no or mild symptoms. the bad news is there immune escapes, do the treatments, the vaccines that we have still work against it. good that they work, but if you are vaccinated, if you are boosted, then i think this is the call for all of us to be -- to get those boosters, get those vaccines if you have not already. i want to say that testing remains a major issue, and people coming into the holidays, what they should do if they have limited tests. we should not be in the position of having to ration tests, but if you have to ration tests, the people who should get tested with the highest exposures. test the college student that maybe has gone to bars recently before getting together. >> i think it's important, dr. rodriguez, the guidance that dr. fauci just gave again, which is if you are fully vaccinated, boosted, you can get together with your family over the holidays. better if you test first but he said don't confuse that with going to a party with 30, 40 plus people and you don't know all of their vaccination status. that is not recommend ed or advisable at all at this point. >> correct. and i think we need to very clear, and he said like people, people that are like you in the fact that they have been vaccinated, family that have been trying to be cautious, it is safe or, you know, as safe as possible to meet in small groups. i think a few things that struck me is that, and i agree with the fact that we now need to say completely vaccinated means getting all three shots. that's what saves lives. another thing that i think is really important, if you indulge me is the fact that even though omicron is not as deadly, it appears to be. they also said because of its contagious factor, it can easily overwhelm our health care system. let's say that 5% of delta, 100 people went to the hospital, but if omicron infects a thousand people and 1% get infected, ten will go to the hospital. it can still very easily just overwhelm our health care system. >> and dr. wen, good news from the administration talking about pfizer's pill to treeat covid that got emergency authorization today, pacxlovid, the federal government will provide any resources to ramp up production. that's a pretty good indicator now. >> absolutely, and for the individual who is high risk, this is really good news because there are so many people who are very worried about what happens if they're already medically frail, and contract covid. this pill can reduce their likelihood of hospitalization or death by almost 90%. i think this is also good news for our hospital system because we also want to prevent our health care system from getting overwhelmed. if you can reduce the number of people who require hospitalization, if all they need is a pill, that would be great, but of course there are many logistical challenges here. there needs to be enough testing because this is early treatment that depends on people getting diagnosed early, and also worry about equity. there are a lot of people who are well resourced who may even hoard this pill in case they get covid, and that might leave those who already lack access to health care, that may leave them behind. >> that's such an important point. i hope that's the focus as they roll this out. thank you, dr. wen, thank you, dr. rodriguez. we are following significant breaking news just in, the january 6th committee is looking to interview jim jordan of ohio about the violent capitol insurrection. paula reid joins us, this is now a second sitting member of congress who at this point, this is a request to voluntarily come talk to us. do we know what the committee wants to ask congressman jordan? >> exactly, this is not a subpoena. this is just a letter to a colleague asking them to voluntarily come in, and cooperate with the ongoing investigation into january 6th and in this letter, poppy, they lay out some of the things they would like to discuss with representative jordan, including the fact that he was in touch with former president trump on january 6th. it's important to note the committee is not just looking at january 6th, though, they are looking to the days and weeks leading up to the capitol insurrection, and they say that j jordan was involved in efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 election. we know on january 5th he forwarded a text message to then white house chief of staff mark meado meadows that laid out a legal theory about how then vice president mike pence could block the certification of election results. this is a significant move by the committee, poppy. this is something that could really ratchet up partisan tensions surrounding this investigation. representative jordan has previously said that if this investigation were to target gop lawmakers that they could potentially face political retribution, if republicans take back the house in the midterms. now, as you noted, jordan is the second republican lawmaker and trump ally to receive a letter or a request like this this week. the first one went to representative scott perry. he has declined this request from his colleagues, and it's not clear if the committee will now move to subpoena him. they haven't gone that far. they have said they will use other tools at their disposal to get the information they want. as for jordan, also unclear, it seems unlikely that he will cooperate with the request. as the committee notes in his letter, he has previously said quote he has nothing to hide. poppy. >> we will see if he complies, if he does, will there be a subpoena, and let me bring in former u.s. attorney harry litman. good to have you here. we don't know what jim majordans going to do. i don't want to jump to conclusions. what are his options? what is the power of the committee to compel him. >> the committee has the ultimate power to compel him, but there are six gop members. the committee knows who they are. they know the committee knows who they are, and they're now applying pressure selectively. they started with perry, and now jordan. trying to make one of them break rank. if they do that, then they will be able to get leverage on the others, get information about the others. if they don't, i think they've telegraphed pretty clearly that they will, in fact, issue subpoenas and jordan has said, and sure it's true, that's the ultimate third rail, and if the republicans take power in 2022, there will be criminal investigations for jay walking and the like, but the committee is not here and they are ready to do it methodically. these are members. they're colleagues. so first they're going to try to cooperate with each of them, but there's pressure now on all of them to be the one that maybe comes forward first and cooperates, and avoids being cross wise with the committee. >> one question, though, i was reading some expert analysis of this over the last few days, and there is protection members of congress have in the speech and debate clause if it was anything done in the -- in their legislative work, right, so this committee needs to make clear this is outside of your legislative work, and therefore this protection that you have is, you know, is not applicable here. >> great point, and it is, and the committee will. basically speech and debate means when they talk to the floor and say things, whatever it may be, they're immune. of course they're immune from punishment. they still might be called to give the information, which is what we're talking about, but in any event, the committee will steer very clear of that, give it a very wide berth, and like wise anything privileged, they can raise any claims they want. they want the heartland of what they have already telegraphed, right, with jim jordan, all the communications with trump on the 6th, with scott perry. he's the one who introduced him to john eastman, the discredited professor who gave the wild-eyed theory. that's the stuff they want, and there's no plausible claim of privilege or other protection to it. >> so this is another really interesting development that just happened while we were on the air and that is that michael flynn has lost his legal challenge to the committee. so the committee has wanted, wants michael flynn's phone records. this is his 8th legal challenge against the committee to try to block their ability to get those records. he filed it yesterday. a judge just said today, so 24 hours later, no. but what i think is interesting, and this is important, harry, it's not a no and a dismissal on substantiative grounds. it's a dismissal on procedural grounds, so i don't know if it's a 12 b 6 motion to dismiss or what it is, but the point is he could come back. he could come back. right? he didn't say there's no merit here. it's a procedural dismissal. >> all the court said is there's plenty of time. you don't get to come in, and you didn't do it right anyway, and make us stop the music now. so it pushes him back to negotiate. but poppy, there's a broader thing going on that i think is very interesting. there's a cavalcade of these lawsuits, as you say, nine of them now, and if you're someone who might plead the fifth there's resisting, you would normally go into a defensive crouch and make the committee come to you. flynn and others have done this, and each of their suits has a very broad section, even the leading argument about not their subpoenas but the ones to verizon, a something about that really spooks them and that's what they're trying to go after in court. back to flynn, yes, it's just temporary, they don't stop the music. but there's no reason to think that he'll fare better down the line. his arguments are, no legislative purpose, first amendment, the kind of things that are both tired and discredited in this probe. >> harry litman, good to have your brain on all of this, thank you for helping us understand the breaking news, we appreciate it. well, this. help. an ohio hospital issues a desperate plea. look at that one word in this advertisement they took out in the newspaper. help, because their medical systems face an onslaught of covid-19 cases. what they're asking for specifically, next. relieve pressure points. and its temperature balancing so you both sleep just right. save up to $500 on select sleep number 360 smart beds. plus, 0% interest for 48 months. only for a limited time. new vicks convenience pack. dayquil severe for you... and daily vicks super c for me. vicks super c is a daily supplement with vitamin c and b vitamins to help energize and replenish. dayquil severe is a max strength daytime, coughing, power through your day, medicine. new from vicks. ♪ fresh flavors... classic dishes... ♪ and a new seat at the table. ♪ i just wish more people knew how easy it was to get health coverage. i'm only paying $52 a month for there are quality plans 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>> poppy, thanks for having me on today. what we are trying to do is make sure the public understand in general how stressed the hospital systems are and how many patients we have. as you mentioned, we have more patients in our hospitals now than at any time during the pandemic. so we're trying to reach those people who are unvaccinated. there's lots of opportunity in ohio. in general the population is about 55% vaccinated. but 80% of our hospitalizations involve people who run vaccinated and 90% of the people who are in our intensive care units are unvaccinated. >> what have you heard? what has the feedback been since you placed this advertisement? because, you know, there are still -- i was just looking at the latest numbers a few moments ago, i think it's over 20% of people in this country that can be vaccinated, are unvaccinated. >> we're still trying to encourage people. this is another venue to do that. we've tried many different things including the newspaper. we have -- on social media, we're on youtube, instagram, et cetera, trying to urge people to get vaccinated. but it's a persistent push over time. it's not one particular thing that will get everybody vaccinated. so we're using multiple channels, trying to encourage people to get vaccinated and stressing that the hospitals are under stress. when they're under stress for covid, that means we're also under stress in terms of taking care of other things. and we not only have a lot of covid patients in the hospital. we have a lot of patients with severe illness. cancer, strokes, cardiac disease, et cetera, who have might have deferred their care during the early pandemic and now are coming in later with more severe disease and require longer and more intense hospitalizations. >> is the cleveland clinic asking the administration to do what we've just seen the uk do, which is lessen the number of days someone with covid has to be in isolation if they're fully vaccinated and if they test negative to get out of it? we saw yesterday the ceo of delta air lines ask the cdc to do that. >> i think it would be very helpful, for vaccinated people and for health care workers. we have over a thousand health care workers in the cleveland health care care system in cleveland, ohio, who are currently out because they've come in contact with delta or have active infection. if you're fully vaccinated, your recovery is much quicker. we're looking to see if the cdc can make the determination to shorten that quarantine down to seven days like the uk did or even shorter. >> finally, your reaction to the fda giving emergency use authorization to the first ever pill to treat covid, highly effective, plaxovid. >> we've got something to treat people with. you do have to get tested first. we've heard supplies will be fairly robust, with the number of cases per day being 150,000 in the united states, we'll have to tier people in terms of who is most at risk and who is going to be where i beleligible for t. >> thank you, dr. wylie, and to all of your teams on the front lines, fighting this fight still, still. they deserve the help of all of us to get fully vaccinated. thank you to them. >> thank you, poppy. thank you for joining me. "the lead with jake tapper" starts now. jim sciutto here again today. a newly-approved pill a day could keep severe covid away. "the lead" starts right now. the covid task force just finished meeting as cases surge and omicron takes over. but this afternoon, a possible game changer gets the okay from the fda. possibly positive omicron clues from the country where the variant was first found, cases already dropping in south africa. why is that? we'll speak live with an expert there. plus as democratic senator joe manchin faces criticism from his own party, there is a new, very public push by the country's top republican lawmaker for manchin to switch sides. and welcome to "the lead." i'm jim sciutto in for jake tapper. we begin with breaking news in