the wake of the the deadly shooting at a high school in suburban detroit. hello, there backup well to meet the press daily i'm chuck todd. president biden just landed at the national institutes of health where he will deliver remarks scheduled for later this hour to formally roll what they say is updated planned to fight covid as health officials out of minnesota confirmed the second case of the omicron variant in the united states from an individual who had not travel overseas but anned a conference in new york city. surely after the announcement out of minnesota. kathy hochul delivered remarks, saying there are no confirmed cases yet detected in new york. but she does expect that to change. new york declared a state of emergency last week in anticipation of this variant. both confirmed cases, the one in california and the other in minnesota, had been breakthrough infections that officials say both experienced only mild symptoms. but these were vaccinated folks. all week the administration has been saying that getting vaccinated and boosted is still the single best way to protect yourself against covid and all of its potential variants, whether delta or omicron. not surprisingly getting more shots in arms is is the centerpiece of the winter plan to fight covid when he officially unveiled veils it later. the remarks come as the administration has taken the opportunity to significantly ramp up the public messaging campaign on covid all this week. monday the president delivered his first extended remarks on omicron. and the cdc strengthened the booster recommendations. tuesday, the white house task force briefed the public on omicron for the first time and yesterday dr. fauci spoke from the white house briefing room. and of course we heard from the president on supply chains and covid yesterday as well. . it it looks as if the white house is trying to take the reins on the covid response, be more front facing, if you will. but does this mean they engage in the political fight over vaccine mandates? as we noted earlier in the week the president is at least up until this point losing the vaccine mandate messaging fight. and the resistance to the mandates from a handful of conservatives on the right has actually put us on the brink of a potential government shutdown tomorrow fight night. joining me ahead of the president's remarks is monica alabout a from the white house joining from california, for the country areas first omicron case was identified yesterday during this hour is sfis's health director. dr. grant colfax. plus our inhouse expert. infectious disease physician, dr. nahidp bedealia. monica, starting with you, are we officially saying they are all hands on deck with covid in the westchester wing. >> i think that's absolutely accurate, chuck. if you think back to august with the delta surge, the white house unveiled a six-prong planned and detailed strategy to combat that. today we hear from the president on a nine-prong plan. the supersize version, given the omicron variant. and really what we can expect is there is no blockbuster announcement. i want not like there is some major new policy or tool that he is going to unveil today or talk about. instead it's really really an amplification of what is existing now but where there are trouble spots when it comes to testing nationwide and surveillance, something the administration acknowledges they need to to ramp up. when it gets to boosters, some people having a hard time finding appointments or understanding whether they are eligible or not. so the president is trying to make some clarity when it comes to that. but, again, these are things that existed for some time the white house is saying we're going to fr ramp them up because they are more essential than ever. they are very much aware that also there is pressure when it comes to the question of travelers. people entering the united states when came to delta, why didn't they put some of the requirements in place back then? now they say, yes, anyone entering the u.s., american citizens included, will have to seek a negative test 24 hours before travel, which is in and of itself a bit of a logistical complication. but that is a big step the white house is taking they hadn't before. they are now using everything on the table. and the other thing stood out to us in the would you say briefing earlier this afternoon, press secretary jen psaki said when it comes to domestic travel everything is still being considered and we could see tighter restrictions there too. >> well you read my mind, monica, i was about to follow up with that. i -- i think we're all running into a logic circle here. omicron is in california. omicron is in minnesota. it may be in new york. yet we're banning travel from countries that have had no cases yet. it seems domestic air travel with so many different parts of the country having dip in vaccination rates it almost seems essential at this point. it sounds he can they want to get there but with are they afraid of the politics of it. >> reporter: i think that's a major component but also again the logistical questions of this. it's hard to find a place to get a pcr test and results within 24 hours. it's asking a lot of the private sector and off the airlines to necessarily agree with implement that. we've obviously seen some partners in terms of the united airlines with the white house working hand in glove in terms of getting vaccination requirements up. but it's not like everybody would necessarily get onboard. that's a little bit of a hesitation. but i think what you are going to see, another thing the president is going to talk about it today is he extending the extending the mask mandate for public transportation, airlines, buses and trains. that's something tsa agreed to extend through mid-march. it was going to expire in january. the conversations are happening, very much on the table. not being ruled out. whereas a few months ago the white house was saying we're really not considering that. we don't think that's necessary. there is a a shift here. yes pabtly the politics at play given the fact the biden administration nationwide vaccine mandate is so tied up in courts and legal battles right now. >> and look the airlines are having a hard enough time dealing with -- dealing with passengers that are unruly about the mask. they would be at the front lines of having to execute this plan. so i imagine the airlines are a bit hesitant to add to the burden already. monica alabout a, i appreciate you getting us started. i want to dig diaper into what we know about omicron and what we think about the plan. dr. colfax, i want to start with you. tell us a little bit more about the -- this was a vaccinated person. tell us more about what you learned from omicron. i mean, this is a breakthrough case. what does that tell you? >> well, i think that it's really important to -- to step back a minute and realize that was expected. as we said earlier in the show. omicron is here. omicron -- however you say it it's here in the country. and we knew that it would be detected relatively soon. in san francisco, because of our outstanding department of public health and our cooperation with ucsf and most importantly the source -- the source patient, that person upon return from south africa upon travel developed symptoms, got tested. tested positive, received a text from the health department about the test result, contacted the health department and shared her travel history. that allowed us to collaborate with ucsf to quickly sequence this virus and discover that it indeed is this variant. but this is not unexpected. i think we need to remain vigilant. >> right. >> but here in san francisco we have high vaccination rates. 81% of people in san francisco are fully vaccinated at this time. so i think we're locally well positioned to respond. >> can you share whether the person who had the variant had gotten a booster yet? >> the person was fully -- had received two -- two doses of the mrna vaccine, moderna. and actually the time hadn't elapsed for this person to be eligible for a booster yet. but i think it's really important to emphasize that boosters are key right now. as you know, the cdc recently changed recommendations for everyone who is eligible, given the time line from when their first initial series occurred to get a booster. we're getting boosters in arms in san francisco. 50% of our population 65 and over has received a booster shot. and we have about 5,000 boosters going into arms every day in our city. >> dr. bedelia, the two omicron cases, vaccine cases. but prebooster cases. does that give you a sense that we have the tools in hand here and that it may evade -- it may evade vaccines if the vaccine is waning in you but if you are boosted it will not? >> yeah, actually, the case had minnesota was boosted, received three doses. and the booster was in november. but i still think that there is, you know -- i think people -- two things, i want to step back and talk a little bit about what this case and the connection to new york means. i think that what it means is as we expected the omicron is in this country. but also it'ses probably been in this country longer than expected because we are seeing what we call community transmission. that means somebody got it from somebody else here in a community in the united states. which is why your points about domestic travel are so important. but, two, i think people want to read into both the mild illnesses or the vaccine status and say this had something about the severity of disease or even look at hospitalizations in south africa, all in all to say that all this data so far is anecdotal. we don't know about severity of the disease. but the fact you see infections in people who are vaccinated i'd say is also expected because looking at the mutations we -- we -- we expected that there would be some reduction in prevention of infections. but you're still going to have very good protection against severe disease. and if you get a booster then protection is shyer than if you were unvaccinated or got two doses. but the other part is if you are seeing infection in vaccinated people even though protected against severe disease. means we can't just rely on vaccine. they are the critical, the cornerstone. but this winter we need to layer our strategies with the masking, testing which isway the president's plan is trying to do. >> i want to point out something here, doctor, from the cdc's european counterpart, the european center for disease control and prevention. they are hypothesizing the omicron variant is expected to cause over half of all covid infections in the eu within the next few months. seemed pretty clair active there. why are they so sure that's going to happen? >> i think they're basing some of in the growth rate they see in south africa. again, i think the numbers are there worrisome. they've seen an increase in 65% in hospitalizations. but they're an undervaccinated country, only 30% fully vaccinated. but they are looking at the increase in cases they have seen. they are also looking at potentially mutations that are on this virus that potentially could confer it with both the properties to the immune system and transmissibility. i would say it's good to be cautious. i don't think you can be declarative. and even if it doesn't change in transmiss ability, chuck, what we found from delta, even if the disease part remains the same, if it's more transmissible it can get around to to reach unvaccinated people and more people and might caused increased cases of hospitalizations from thatspective. >> dr. colfax, what are you seeing in san francisco right now when it comes to covid cases and hospitalizations? how many vaccinated, how many unvaccinated are ending up hospitalized? >> so, the vast majority of people who have been hospitalized in san francisco have been unvaccinated. we have very few people in the hospital right now because of the high vaccination rate. in our city of over 800,000 people we have a total of 21 people in our hospitals -- in fact in our public zuckerberg san francisco general we have one person with covid in the hospital. really i think it reinforces the importance of the vaccines and boosters. and getting back to the point about, you know, the vaccines and the initial vaccines and boosters can't be the only strategy, we have really reinforced our mayor london breed reinforced masking and testing. we have built a system of testing across the city that i think is really an important component to our -- it's been an important component to our response. i'm happy to see the biden plan is expanding testing and expanding opportunities for people to get vaccinated. in san francisco we have nearly 100 vaccine sites. san franciscans are within walking distance. we have sites in public schools. drop in sites. for people to get vaccinated and get tested. and of course it's important to emphasize that we have a vaccine requirement for indoors where people are dining, consuming food or drink. and we're continuing with the indoor masking requirement for in public spaces. so it's a combination of the efforts that i think has gotten us to where we are today, relatively relevanto well positioned to respond to the new variant. >> quite a few people are hitting their six-month- already hit the six-month anniversary from the second dose, dr. colfax. >> yeah. >> have you seen increased amount of two-dose vaccinated people getting breakthrough cases as they get to this six-month mark? is that anything that's quantify bling yet. >> we've been aggressive in getting boosters into people most vulnerable. we haven't seen a significant trend in that. again, we moved aggressively to recommend boosters for people early on as we saw the data about waning immunity at the national and other international level. so we have not actually seen a significant increase in those -- in infections from the six-month day. >> dr. bedelia hooking at a national level. do we have enough evidence. >>? i'll tell you the aba anecdotes as i see. . if you look at the sports world, the amount of covid we see among supposedly vaccinated athletes. i say supposedly because there is rumors about fake vax cards. but is that a coincide we're about at the six-month mark for for so many people. >> it's not. and chuck, a lot of the data was presented at the fda and cdc meetings when they approved the boosters for a larger population, because what you are seeing is you see sore of waning immunity against infection. i want to put that a aside. people are seeing infections, mild infections might feel crappy when they get the infection as an outpatient. but what they see- in old people over 50, you might also see some decrease in protection. this is all in the delta era. we haven't gotten to omicron yet. there was some decrease in hospitalizations and that's why the boosters are important. but new york city released a study even in the time of delta with two doses in wung people under 50 you had good protection against hospitalization. people should remember, they are coming up to the boosters, omicron or delta, boosters are still important to increase protection against infection which will be important if there is a lot of people around you who might be infected. you don't want to be one of the carriers that might give it to other people snp. >> dr. bhdelia you have been good at not looking alemail. we have to close the segment. but south africa is essentially their version of the cdc. nih, the national institute for communicable diseases they put out. right iris put out a quick wire update saying the latest finding provides epidemiological evidence that omicron has the ability to evade immunity from prior infection. what does that tell you? >> yeah, and i think this was expected. again, i'm not surprised looking at two things. one, just the mutation that is we are seeing but also south africa because it's -- because they went through a lot of just -- there is low level of infection you saw a huge percentage of the population who probably got covid in the past. they have gone through all variants, delta variant and other variants that are evasive. this shows for people in our own country people on the fence saying i got infection before. do i want a vaccine or not? now is the time. the data, the potential we have to follow it up and soo see how much of this plays out in other scenarios in other countries. but the fact that they are seeing infections in people previously infected, seeing reinfections, goes to show in a set of omicron there might be a signal if you have gotten an infection in the past now is the time to get the vaccine and get boosted here. >> dr. colfax. dr. bhdelia, appreciate you bowing providing expertise on what we are dealing with right now. we are expecting to hear from the president. he will be speaking he national institute of health on plans to fight the omicron variant later this hour. we will bring you those remarks life when they happen. up next congressional republicans appear to move full steam ahead towards threatening a government shutdown tomorrow in protects of the vaccine mandates. yet another sign of the extreme dysfunction in this u.s. congress. you're watching meet the press daily. congress you're watching meet the press daily. hide my skin? 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i guess it's for twitter mentions or something. >> yeah, well, it is in the name of the conservative ideology that people like senators mike lee and ted cruz and roger marshal espouse. this is something that would shut down the government if it went forward for a brief period of time basically over the week, potentially into early next week, just because if these conservative senators don't get what they want, which is amendment vote, simple majority on the vaccine mandate funding then they say they won't agree to speed up the process in the senate and just on the timing of this a government shutdown would be the casualty of senate procedure going as it normally would without anything in it to speed it up. you talk about where we are on the amp scale of dysfunction, this is it. it's really just a quaint way of saying this is a time management thing. we knew all of these deadlines were coming at the end of september, the last time that we did all of these news cycles around the debt ceiling and government funding. on the defense authorization act, this is something that comes up every year that the senate has known they have to deal with for weeks. all of these things we're seeing in the future we're journalists sees we know delinquents we have a love/hate replace with then clearly same congress. but when you talk about the implication of this is, again we have never defaulted on our debt in this krep. that's a deadline that's under a week and a half away and government funding. i have covered these things out in america talking to people who aren't getting paychecks, who are cancels kids' birthday parties. already in debt because of the health cries. these are the fallout of the political gamm bits it's important to keep that in mind. even if it's a shutdown for a few days there are implication to that. >> a little bit of this is there is sort of this exhaustion from sky is falling coverage, right. and i understand it. like look, i roll my eyes at this. everyone oh my god this is -- no we know you guys even if you flirt with it you don't do it. do they realize they are diminishing the entire institution and themselves? what political benefit does any of them get out of this? >> that's right. if you talk to almost every other republican and democrat on this -- and i've sbn spending the time on the hill going back and forth between lawmakers, everyone agrees it doesn't benefit anyone politically right now to shut down the government. what it does, you're right, is lend to the idea of dysfunction. speaker pelosi talked about this earlier. this is silly, the idea that republicans could shut down the government even briefly over vaccine mandates. but at the same time to it could happen and americans don't necessarily care how the government is funded. they don't care about raising or suspending a debt limit. they just care that it happens. because they're busy going about their lives. what this does is it lends to the idea of dysfunction and also into a midterm year you have democrats in chrome of both houses of congress. doesn't benefit republicans to do this but definitely doesn't benefit democrats either as they are trying to show they are the party in charge here. they have the majorities in both houses plus the white house and this is still happening. >> are you suggesting this is -- this is a sabotage strategy just make the democrats look more dysfunctional? is that a republican strategy out there? >> i'm not sure it's the strategy of the full party. because you talk to republicans and they agree that politically for them there is no appetite on this either. they would rather make the messaging points about inflation and about the economy. but at the same time if this is one of the unintended consequences of it or for the small minority here that are forcing this shutdown issue that it's an intended consequence, sure, all the better. but, again this all leads to this is the last vest ij of 2021 politically that people have in the mouth as you turn to 2022. >> it's our broken incentive structure system. the way the propagandaist media works on the right. the incentive is to do political theater. ali vilgtsly thank you. we were showing you live pictures of the senate floor while ali was talk pl chris murphy talking about a bill on preventing gun violence which he hopes to get a vote on soon. up next mike brawn of indiana. he has been trying to convince republican colleagues to vote for his plan to undo the biden vaccine mandate. he is not for shutting down the federal government to do it. we'll talk with him about what he is trying to do next. you're watching "meet the press daily." atching "meet the press daily. is the first and only medication proven to treat and prevent migraines. don't take if allergic to nurtec. the most common side effects were nausea, stomach pain, and indigestion. ask your doctor about nurtec today! i booked our hotel on kayak. it's flexible if we need to cancel. cancel. i haven't left the house in a year. nothing will stop me from vacation. no canceling. flexible cancellation. kayak. search one and done. [uplifting music playing] flexible cancellation. ♪ i had a dream that someday ♪ ♪ i would just fly, fly away ♪ . just to put a fine point. you're saying you can avert a shutdown or not, sir. >> yeah we're not going to shut the government down. that makes no sense for anyone. almost no one on either side thinks that's a good idea. >> welcome back. that was the senate republican leader mitch mcconnell saying almost no one thinks a government shutdown is a good idea. almost no one because we may be staring one down as a few republican senators threaten one over the employee shovt vaccine mandate. joining me now is mike brawn. he signed a letter saying he would not vote for any legislation for a vaccine mandate. but i believe i stopped short of using the government funding bill asway way to threaten a shutdown. i don't want to put words in your mouth. let me ask you, i know you would like to see a defunding of the federal government's push for the private vaccine mandate. are you advocating a government shutdown to do that? >> i'm going to agree with you, chuck. what i just heard the leader say as well. we always get, you know -- we're holding the bag on the government shutdown deal. we get blamed for it regardless of the merits of the case. . that's why i chose to get on the c.r.a. version of it. but when i look at some wanting to it's probably due to frustration. frustrated me since i've been here a little under three years. we don't do budgets any more. no regular order. and, remember, this is spending that should have been fleshed out before september 30th. it's for the prior year. c.r.s -- i guess the only consolation is there is so much money wanting to be spent with a new appropriations regimen that crs are beneficial. but shutting government down is another part of the dysfunction. because we don't do budgets, don't mind the business of the biggest business of the world for all the people depending upon it and we spend too much and borrow too much money. shutting the government down is not the way to solve anything. >> let's talk about the congressional review act. we can talk about the merits of the idea in a second. but you are -- you are using what one would call a proper channel to address your concerns about what the executive branch is doing. explain why you want to use the congressional review act to do this. >> first of all, my -- i guess my strate sense, gut feel was that i could get all republicans on once we initiated it. and had everyone on it, i believe before the thanksgiving break on our side. i'm optimistic we'll get a few democrats, because the underlying issue there gets down to, regardless what you think of the vaccines -- i've been very clear -- lucky we have them. take the disease seriously. but when you couch it in either get the vaccine or lose your job, axios, 14% of the public -- that means two-thirds of democrats don't agree with that. courts are weighing in. it's falling apart because it's a bad idea. but this is the right way to say you think it's a bad idea. every congressman, every senator will be on record. and that at least we hand up with being able to say you're for it or against it. and the only formal we can way we can do it. >> let me ask about the substance, the -- the vaccine mandate. how you described it actually not how the mandate would work. it's either get the vaccine or testing once a week. that's a very soft mandate. one that's -- look we'll see what the supreme court does. but they've been pretty -- they've upheld pretty much every mandate coming before them thus far. we'll see how this goes. but that doesn't seem to be that difficult. why dunk it's to difficult for a private business to either have testing to protect workers or a vaccine? >> for whatever that reason might be -- and i still think that's a personal decision between a doctor and the individual -- but when you go into the weeds there is some places among federal employees at one of our prisons in indiana 20% didn't want to get tested or take the vaccine. it sounds like there is flexibility there or an option. but, chuck, the reality is through many parts of the country -- and it may be misguided in terms of that point of view -- we're going to lose 10% to 20% that don't like either option there. and especially when it it's in the form of a top-down mandate opinion i think you maybe able to interpret that as flexibility. but the reality is that some places aren't going to like either option. >> what's the -- where is the evidence that there is actually going to be 20% not participating? the evidence so far, tysons has been like 97%, 98%. united airlines. we have not -- there's been this fear that there will be a a whole bunch of people walking away. that hasn't happened. you know, look. >> i got -- i. >> they take the paycheck. >> the explanation for that is very clear. larger corporate america has been behind, i think, the vaccine mandate from the get-go. i'm taking the pulse of main street america, southern indiana, throughout my state, in businesses that aren't large corporations. this isn't going to impact between 100 and 500 employees, 93,000 businesses that aren't big corporations, that are -- were defined as small businesses we were helping them keep employees up to 500 now we want to force them away down to 100 it's a bad decision to push that upon places like where i come from. it's not corporate america. it's main street. >> senator, i do have a bunch more questions. but the president has begun his speech in the new covid plan so i have to stop our interview there. thank you for being here. i appreciate it. here is the president. >> the incredible work you've done during the pandemic. and developing vaccines, saving lives, giving us hope. also -- also continuing to give me advice on the developments as they occur. more of dr. fauci than my wife. we kid each other. who is president fauci? but all kidding aside. i sincerely mean it. today i'm back to announce our action plan to battle covid-19 this winter. not any of you are surprised because the combined advice from all of you that we developed this plan. and it doesn't include shutdowns or lockdowns. but widespread vaccinations and boosters and testing and a lot more. there are five key actions that i want to see us take this winter. fivrlt, of course expanding the nationwide booster campaign with more outreach, more appointments where more hours, more times and sites to walk in, providing boosters, shots for up to 110 million americans who are religion for boosters. now you might want to know parenthetically, i was talking to one of my folks who does polling and national strategy. and he said there is some evidence in one poll -- i won't mention it because i'm not positive of the number -- i was told this as i was leaving the white house -- this there is an expectation that 30% of the non-vaxers said under no circumstances would i get a vaccination because of the new variant are now saying i'm getting a vaccination. so we hope that's true. i hope that's true. but the second point is that launching new family vaccination clinics to make it easier for children and whole families to get vaccinated in one place and new policies to keep children in school instead of quarantining at home. we'll talk about in deal detail these. the third piece is making at had-home tests available more than ever before abhave them covered by the private insurance plans, available in thousands of locations and available at community health centers and other sites for the uninsured who don't have insurance. four, increasing our surge response teams that are -- our doctors, nurses -- i know people in this audience know incredibly well what a surge team is. but medical staff in the communities with rising cases and over-burdened hospitals and short on personnel. and they make a gigantic difference. republican governors and democratic governors contact me when i go to the states talk about thank you for the surge teams, because it really makes a difference in some communities that are hit so much harder than others. they just -- you know, they just can't make it without -- what we're going to do -- i'll speak to this in more detail in a second. the fifth thing we do is accelerate our efforts to vaccinate the rest of the world. and strengthen the international travel rules for people coming to the united states. i plan to announce -- my plan i'm announcing today pulls no punches in the fight against covid-19. it's a plan i think should unite us i know covid-19 has been very divisive in this country, has become a political issue, which is a sad, sad commentary. it shouldn't be. but it has been. now as we move into the winner and face the challenges of the new variant this is a moment we can put the divisiveness behind us, i hope. this is a moment we can do what we haven't been able to do enough of through the whole pandemic. get the nation to come together, unite the nation in a common purpose. to fight this virus, to protect one another, to protect our economic recovery and to think of it in terms of literally a patriotic responsibility rather than somehow you're denying people their basic rights. the plan i'm announcing today is a plan our scientists and covid teams recommended. and while my existing federal vaccination requirements are being reviewed by the courts this plan does not expand or add to the mandates. a plan that all americans hopefully can rally around. and it should be -- and should get bipartisan support in my humble opinion. it should unite us not continue to separate us. tharn thetically you all know that there are literally as it relates to whether or not we are going to pay the federal debt, whether we're going to in fact have a continued resolution, et cetera, some of my friends on the other team are arguing that if i don't commit that there will never be any more mandates they're going to let us default. in the neighborhood -- i can't remember they would look at me and say, go figure. go figure. but before i explain each new action in more detail, i want to -- and i'm not going to embarrass you, doc, but i want to thank francis collins. you know, you have done an incredible, job, doc, here at n.i.h., one of the most important scientists in my time in my view. i'm not being solicitous. i'm not exaggerating a bit. after i was elected president dr. kel are collins -- i think it was the second call i made to ask you if you would stay on. the second call i made. because when i was vice-president and i got to know dr. collins really well when i was given the opportunity to manage the cancer moon shot initiative. and dr. comens is an incredible resource for our nation. and i'm grateful -- i mean this sincerely. i'm grate chl for everything he has done during this pandemic and all the medical breakthroughs including mapping the human genomep he recently announced that he is stepping done at the end of the month after a consequential tenure. but the good news is he is returning to the lab, to the national genome research institute. and we look forward to his unlocking possibilities. the bad news for you is you ain't getting rid of me, man. i'm calling you all the time. there is a lot you can do help me to get done. tell me, point me in the direction and i'll follow. i just received a briefing from dr. collins and fauci and dr. lawrence tibek. and dr. julie ledgerwood. i appreciate it. i my only regret is i had to come and speak and it was short. i think we would have benefitted if my speech was short and i had spent more time with the docs. but as they -- as they study the omicron variant that we have just two cases reported here in the united states. but as i explained on monday, this new variant is cause for concern but not panic. we know -- we knew there would be cases of this -- of omicron here in the united states. and it's here. but we have the boast tools, best vaccines, the best medicine and best scientists in the world. we are fighting this with science and speed, not chaos and confusion. just like we beat it back in the spring and the powerful delta variant in the summer and fall. as a result, we enter this winter from a position of strength compared to where america was last winter. last christmas, fewer than 1% of american adults were fully vaccinated. this christmas, that number will be 72%, including more than 86% of seniors, the most vulnerable population. last christmas our children were at risk without a covid-19 vaccine. this christmas, we have safe, effective vaccines for children age 5 and older with 20 million children and counting now vaccinated. last year, the majority of our schools were closed christmas time. in that area. now we're 99% of our schools are open. but i pledged to always be straight and give you this straight from the shoulder as president of the united states. tell the american people exactly where we are. so here -- here it is. experts say the covid-19 cases will continue to rise in the weeks ahead in this winter. so we need to be ready. you can read the whole plan we're talking about here at white house.gov go to kwhous.gov and it's laid out in detail. . for now here are the five key points i want to expand on slightly. we are expanding our national booster campaign to provide booster shots to all eligible adults. our docs and scientists believe that people who get at booster shot are more protected than ever from covid-19. i was just told which is a question i got to ask i've been meaning to ask a long time, whether or not not just an increases the resistance of the variant that is being dealt with, but it also is -- it is stronger. it not only just raises the total, but it's a stronger -- makes things more powerful in terms of resisting. and the center for disease crowell,ed the cdc, the food and drug administration, fda and our top public officials recommend all adults get a booster shot when it's time. but here is the deal. more than about 100 million are eligible for boosters. but haven't gotten the booster shot yet. folks, if you're over the age of 18 and you got vaccinated before june the 2nd, six months has gone by. go get your booster now. go get it now. booster shots continue to be free. we have made available 80,000 locations coast to coast in the united states of america. 80,000 locations to get the booster. if you want to know exactly where to go, text your zip code to 438829 to find where you can get your booster shot now. now. and starting today we are making it easier than ever to get a booster shot. i'm calling on pharmacies and they've been cooperative, big and small, to offer more appointments, more walk-in hours, including week nights and weekends. so you can get vaccinated tooth a time that works best for you and your family. pharmacies are send millions of texts and emails to remind customers to return for booster shots. because they know who got the baffert shot appear at cbcp they are send something the text to that particular person when the time is up. pfizer and moderna, six months. j&j, two months. . to reach our seniors we're collaborating with the american association of retired persons, aarp, reaching out to the 38 million members. they are making an aggressive effort. they are going to be hosting virtual townhalls to answer questions and even arrange rides for seniors to get booster shots. and so that will all be coming. my administration is also contacting the 64 -- will contact the 64 million people on medicare to remind them to get their booster shots. we have to ability to do that from a federal level. just like i did to make it easier for folks to get their first and second shots, i am providing paid off time for any federal employee who goes to get the booster. the only time they can get the booster where they are, at such and such a day in the middle of the day they can go. all they have to do is demonstrate that's where they went or took, son, daughter, husband, wife, mom, dad, they get paid. don't get docked pay. i'm asking other employers in the private sector to do the same thing. i don't want you private sector to do the same thing. dr. fauci and dr. collins believe if you're worried about the omicron variant, the best thing to do is get fully vaccinated and get your booster shot when you're eligible. we don't yet believe that additional measures will be needed. but so that we're prepared, if needed, my team is already working with officials at pfizer, moderna, johnson & johnson, to develop contingency plans for other vaccines or boosters. i'll also direct the fda and the cdc to use the fastest process available without cutting corners for safety, to get such vaccines renewed, reviewed and approved if they're needed. second, we're expanding our efforts to vaccinate children ages 5 and up. for any parent worried about omicron variant or the delta variant, get your child vaccinated at one of the 35,000 locations in the country including doctors' offices, pharmacies, children's hospitals, and 9,000 pop-up clinics at schools. if you're wondering where to go, visit vaccines.com. today i'm announcing we're going to launch hundreds of new family vaccination clinics across the company for vaccinations for the whole family, one-stop. one-stop. children can get vaccinated. parents can get vaccinated, get their first or second shots or their booster shots. family vaccination clinics will be held in community health centers and other trusted locations. some will be mobile to reach further into hard to reach communities. it's booster shots for adults, vaccinations for kids, all at the same place, at the same time. when we first announced, i said the logistical problem, it wasn't just we didn't have enough vaccines when we got into office, but once we go to the vaccine, the logistical effort to get all communities in all areas vaccinated was a gigantic logistical undertaking that would make any military proud, of being able to do it. but because of the incredible talent, including our military, we got that done. and we're going to do the same thing now as we continue to expand. we know parents of children under the age of 5 are wondering when the vaccine will be available for little ones. that's the question i get most often asked now at functions. we had a function celebrating hanukkah and christmas and various things at the white house. the parents come up to me, they're saying, i have a 3-year-old, is there going to be a time that that -- am i going to be okay, is she going to be okay, is he going to be okay? let me say this. i strongly support the independent scientific view of vaccine usage for children under 5. we can't take shortcuts on that scientific work. but i'll do everything in my power to support the fda doing everything as safely and quickly as possible. vaccinating are children is also critical to keeping our schools open. but while over 99% of our schools are open now, we need to make sure we keep that throughout the winter, this winter. the cdc is now reviewing pioneering approaches like test to stay. test to stay policies. which could allow students to stay in the classroom and be tested frequently. when a positive case in that classroom popped up that wasn't them, up to now you go home and are quarantined. but rather than being sent home and be quarantined, they're able to stay. the tests will be available, and regularly. the cdc will be releasing the latest science and other findings in the coming weeks so that other schools can learn from the impediments -- excuse me, if there's any impediments in this practice, we'll take new steps. again, the best step is to vaccinate your children, get them vaccinated. third, this winter we'll make free at-home tests more available to more americans than ever before, to better detect and control the delta variant, making testing more available, affordable, and convenient. i used the defense production act to increase the production of rapid tests, including at-home tests. when i came into office, none of these tests were on the market. thanks to our actions and the work of all of you, we now have at least eight at-home testing options and prices for those tests are coming down. but it still isn't good enough, in my view. that's why i'm announcing that health insurers must cover the cost of at-home testing, so that if you're one of the 150 million americans with private health insurance, next month your plan will cover at-home tests. private insurers already cover the expensive pcr test that you get in the doctor's office. and now they will cover at-home tests as well. now, for those not covered by private insurance, we're going to make it available, free tests, at thousands of convenient locations for folks to pick them up and take a test kit home. the bottom line, this winter, you'll be able to test for free in the comfort of your home and have some peace of mind. this is on top of the 20,000 sites already around the country like pharmacies where you can go in and get tested for free. we have to keep this going. fourth, we're going to continue to help communities that experience rising cases this winter. and improve the care for those who get covid-19. since this summer, we've worked with republican and democratic governors, as many republican governors as democratic governors, to deploy what we call surge response teams. these teams work. they provide needed staff for staff overruns, badly needed staff where overrun hospitals are handling more patients than they can handle for their emergency rooms and intensive care units, who don't have the personnel available. they help provide life-saving treatments for communities in need like monoclonal antibody treatments. we have over 20 teams deployed now. today i'm announcing we're going to triple that, more than double. we'll get to 60 teams, ready to be deployed to states expecting a surge of cases this winter. the governor in minnesota is raving about the positive impact it's had on his state. but there's other states the same, in the same circumstance. additionally, we're increasing the availability of new medications recommended by real doctors, not conspiracy theorists, okay? for example, monoclonal antibody treatments have been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization by up to 70%. for unvaccinated people at risk of developing severe disease. we've already distributed over 3 million courses of this treatment to save lives and reduce the strain on hospitals. and we have promising new antiviral pills on the horizon for people affected by covid-19. we've secured enough supplies of these pills already and early indications are these treatments will remain effective in the face of omicron. we don't know that for sure yet but that's the hope and expectation. like with the distribution of vaccinations, we will ensure that these medicine will be available to the hardest hit communities in america as well. fifth and finally, as we see with covid-19 and the delta variant and now with the omicron variant, all that emerged elsewhere. it all came from somewhere else. and to beat this pandemic, we need to go to where it came from in the rest of the world. we also need to vaccinate the rest of the world. america in my view continues to lead that effort. we ship for free more vaccines around the world than all other countries in the world combined. every other country combined. over 280 million vaccines so far to 110 countries including south africa where we delivered all the doses they requested. now, today i'm announcing that we'll accelerate the delivery of more vaccines to countries that need it. we pledge to deliver 200 million more doses within the next hundred days on our way to delivering more than 1,200,000 doses for the rest of the world. let me be clear. there's not a single vaccine dose that america ever sends to the rest of the world that will ever come at the expense of any american. i'll always make sure our people are protected first. but vaccinating the world is not just a moral obligation, in my view. it's how we protect americans, as we see with this new variant. america is doing our part, and we'll do more. but this is a global pandemic. and everyone needs to fight it together. and that includes countries who are not particularly friendly toward us. their populations are in trouble. to their credit, the scientific community, particularly in south africa, quickly notified the world of the emergence of this new variant. this kind of transparency is to be encouraged and applauded, because it increases our ability to respond quickly to any new threats. and that's what we did. on the very day the world health organization identified the new variant, i took an immediate step to restrict travel from the countries in southern africa. while we know the travel restrictions can slow the spread of omicron, it cannot prevent it. but it does give us a little more time to take more precautions at home to

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