but there is some good news breaking word on a new drug. today the fda gave emergency authorization to the first antiviral pill to treat coronavirus. we're going to hear from the cdc director and dr. anthony fauci on that and more at any minute. joining me now is monica alba at the white house, nbc steve paterson in los angeles, nbc courtney kube at the pentagon and also with us nbc senior medical correspondent dr. john torres. a lot of good news in terms of this pill. i'm sure we'll hear about that at the covid briefing and concerns about us who cannot get vaccinated and by us i mean kids under 5 and also those immuno compromised. what are we expecting from the briefing on those two groups? >> exactly, katy. i think you'll hear at the top about the encouraging news that the covid team is going to highlight and at the same time they're going to remind everybody that the reason it's so important to get vaccinated and to get boosted is not to protect yourself. it's really, of course, a major benefit because if you're young and healthy and you maybe only have a mild or breakthrough case of omicron, that is best-case scenario. this is all about those who are too young to get the vaccines or those who maybe only had their first or second dose because maybe not enough time have passed to get their booster given the timeline and exactly to your point, those with either immuno compromised situations who are high risk, who are elderly. so, the holiday season is what really brings this into the starkest contrast for many who are really making these decisions if i feel safe and personally can travel, if i'm boosted and everything that's great, but if i make a decision that then puts somebody else at risk because i'm going to so them and they haven't been able to be vaccinated or have this higher risk category, that's the kind of thing these health experts are going to address because so many americans have those questions and then also a long list oaf questions this team still needs to answer for in terms of how the at-home rapid tests will be distributed by the federal government and how that is going to work. we still don't have a clear picture on when in january they will be available and how many per household and how they're going to be distributed. will certain high risk priority groups get access first or a free for all. the big question, katy, is this a one-time deal where 500 million available but once those are gone, is that it? what is the back-up plan? there is still a lot to pose to the health experts as this briefing gets under way soon. >> monica, what about news from the cdc with how long people with covid should be isolating? >> they are looking at this. so, this would be a ten-day window. that's the current recommendation. that may be reduced potentially to something like five to seven days. they are evaluating that and we have heard from people like dr. fauci and other experts who are looking at that, again, given the fact that omicron in some of the cases does appear to be a bit more mild and if you're asymptomatic they're minimizing that time so people can get back to work sooner, get back to school once we're back in the season after the holidays and so that people also have a better understanding of this virus as it evolves, not the same recommendations are going to apply that did months ago or even a year ago. so, they are evaluating that and then something else we're waiting to hear from, katy, in terms of the administration where they may change course, the travel ban that had been put on south africa and other african nations, that's something the president and medical team may lift in the coming days. >> the isolation time has been reduced to seven days in the uk. a lot of pressure from businesses out there who need a workforce and, again, two weeks at home, ten days in isolation is a long time to wait, especially if you're not experiencing symptoms. and potentially aren't as symptommatic and you can't as easily give it to somebody else. dr. torres, let's talk about the new drug approved by the fda. this antiviral treatment. who is going to be able to use it? >> like you mentioned, emergency use authorization from the fda and right now they have authorized it for is 12 and above. those that within five days of starting symptoms who are at risk for mild to moderate covid, those are the ones that can take the medication. a medication that we call antiviral. it directly works on the virus. even those with compromised immune systems it should work well for them. 89% effective at preventing hospitalizations or deaths for those at risk for serious illness. again, one of those things that is going to work very well in people when they can get it and take it at home and has to be taken early in the course of their covid exposure and illness, but at the same time one of the tools we have. vaccination being the main tool but certainly something that will go a long way towards helping us. hopefully it will keep people from getting seriously ill and dying from covidkaty. >> what about the news out of the pentagon that they're developing their own vaccine that will be able to evade covid period and all its variants, even ones we don't know yet? >> this is something the army has been working on for more than a year and a half now. they were working to develop some sort of vaccine that wouldn't just target one variant of covid, but would be broader and potentially go after variants that we don't even know about yet and also something that is supposed to protect against sav. so, at the walter reed institute they have been working on this for some time. they are now through essentially what is the first phase of their trials. but really important to point out to our viewers, katy, they still have two more phases of the trial to go through. we're not really close to these actually getting shots in arms here. but it's very optimistic and very promising where they are so far because so far it can theoretically defend against several different variants of covid. the idea is if they get through these next few phases and approved by the fda, this is theoretically something that americans could be getting in the future. again, very important to point out, they are not there yet. they are still in the testing phase of this. >> dr. torres, i'm surprised that this is what the pentagon is doing and not a private company like pfizer, astrazeneca, have been trying to develop. >> walter reed is a big research facility, as well as being a hospital that treats soldiers, airmen and sailors and at the same time, you know, early on they knew in the onset of the covid pandemic they would need this for military personnel and civilian personnel where they can do the research and do more of the long haul research getting funding from the government to do this. and like was mentioned earlier, we're still a bit aways and the struggle they're going to have one and one hurdle they will have moving forward with the human trials the fact to do the human trials you typically need someone who has not been vaccinated and not exposed to covid and that is harder and harder to come by as the weeks and months go on. either that, or it will take a long time to get the personnel they need. like she mentioned, a bit before we see the fruition here. down the road, this could be something that is very needy, especially if we start getting more and more variants. >> especially with how contagious omicron is. let's talk to you, steve, with what we're seeing with holiday travel. messy time of the year. how messy is it now with these restrictions? >> as you might imagine, katy, lax an absolute zoo. 3.5 million expected between now and early january. this isn't one of the busiest days and it's really packed in here. this is the international terminal. you know, the county health department knows that. the airport knows that. so what they've done is they established this pop-up vaccine clinic alongside testing that they have on site here, as well. to the left you can see the line. it has been cut down significantly because of how efficient this is running in the middle here you see people waiting after they got the shot to be checked on and then to the far right you can see the shots being administered. right here in the middle, we have a guy named isaac. i spoke to him not too long ago. you stood up and got tall on me. how did that go? was that pretty fast and efficient? >> oh, yeah. they don't even ask for your insurance card. which is good, i don't have it. pretty fast. >> so you literally just went in line, stood in line, got through and got the shot and now you're waiting. do you think it's important for people to get this especially if they're traveling? >> absolutely. >> you don't strike me as a guy afraid of shots. pretty painless so far? >> yeah. simple. yeah. >> great, isaac, thank you so much. appreciate it. this is going on until 5:00 today here at lax. they're going to do it again on wednesday. it's been successful so far. i spoke to administrators here and they don't fear them running out of any shots and they have moderna, johnson & johnson, boosters, first-time vaccines, pfizer for juveniles and adults. really no excuses is what we heard from airport officials. >> i love that they're doing that and the gentleman was able to get it so quickly. also, steve, lax looks a lot nicer than i remember it. have they been going through a renovation? >> yeah, tom bradley, again, this is the international airport. i don't know how many times you've come through here. but they really have done a lot of work here at this airport and major construction across the street at the parking garage. i can tell you that much because it took about 20 minutes to get from there to here. always something going on at lax? >> thank you for humoring me. i am always curious what is going on out there. steve paterson, thank you so much, monica, dr. john torres, thank you, guys. we're waiting for the white house briefing to start. we'll bring it to you once it does begin and some news comes out of it. coming up, what do you do once you have tested positive? also new reporting on the future of the biden agenda. what joe manchin told his democratic colleagues during their late night emergency meeting. a federal judge just responded to michael flynn's attempt to block a january 6th subpoena. - oh...oh. - what's going on? - oh, darn! - let me help. lift and push and push! there... it's up there. hey joshie... wrinkles send the wrong message. help prevent them with downy wrinkleguard. feel the difference with downy. democrats in congress along with president biden are looking for a way, any way to revive build back better. new details today from an overnight call with senate democrats according to our capitol hill teams joe manchin repeated his opposition to the bill even as fellow dems try to change his mind. chuck schumer was also on the call and for the first time he voiced some support for changes to the filibuster. joining me now is punchbowl news co-founder john resnihan. >> hi, katy. >> changes to the filibuster, any word or chance of that happening? >> there's a possibility we could see it. what won't change is the 60-vote threshold. so, to cut off debate. right now it has been for decades and since the '70s it's 60 votes to cut off debate on legislation. so, you need a super majority and that's not going to change. manchin won't support a change to that threshold and neither will senator kyrsten sinema in arizona. that's not going to change. what's under discussion is possibly how the process works is to forcing, put the burden on the folks who are filibustering legislation to be on the floor to be actively, actively taking part in the filibuster. right now all a senator has to do, all she has to do is call their leader's office and say i'm filibuster legislation and putting a hold on it and that's it. and then it gets, you know, they have to get 60 votes to overcome that filibuster. so, what they want to try to do is force these holds out in the open and make the process more difficult. i don't know if manchin and sinema will go for it but ways to tweak the filibuster and keep the basic process or threshold in tact. >> we have josh letterman with us from the white house, as well. so, josh, the president had a call with joe manchin over the weekend after he said no to this. joe manchin had a call with senate democrats where he still said he is a no. why is the president still so confident that he's going to be able to come to some sort of deal with him? >> i don't think the president, from what we know that he's confident he will convince joe manchin to get onboard with what he has already rejected. if there was ever a doubt about the ability to simply persuade joe manchin to do what he made pretty clear all along he wasn't comfortable with. those hopes fell apart pretty clearly on sunday when he went on fox news sunday. but i think that given the conversation that the president had over the weekend with joe manchin, according to white house officials, they do feel like manchin is at least committed, interested in getting something done if in the next year in the early next year they are able to really restructure this around something differently. i think they know here at the white house that it's not going to look like what they thought it was going to look like at the end of 2021 and that essentially, you know, if they are able to get something, it's going to be something that has to be driven largely by joe manchin. that there is no appetite any more for trying to sort of negotiate what they think maybe hopefully he'll get on board with at the end and persuade him at the 11th hour. particularly how frustrated and angry the progressives are how this played out. something that joe manchin is pretty on the record committed to from the very get go. we heard today from jen psaki the white house spokeswoman she was briefing and asked about the most recent with manchin and really trying to still hammer this message of at the end of the day, joe biden and joe manchin have been friends for decades, they share the same valus and they are essentially, you know, in the same place mentally even if they are far apart on the specific piece of legislation that now is not going to happen this year. so, you see the white house not wanting to alienate manchin any further than they did with the blistering statement from jen psaki. white house officials are a little confused about whether or not that was the most smart move strategically, but i think there's also an appreciation right now that this is something that's going to need everyone to kind of go home over the holidays, regroup a little bit and come back next year and see if they can, you know, not start from scratch, but certainly have a pretty comprehensive relook at this if they think they'll get joe manchin on board. >> stick around for a second because we have some breaking news from the january 6th select committee. just out with news about requesting information from congressman jim jordan. joining me now is capitol hill correspondent garrett haake, pete williams and, again, john. so, garrett, what are they asking for from congressman jordan? >> benny thompson says that jordan was in touch multiple times with donald trump on the 6th itself and they want to ask him about those discussions. what was discussed whether it was a text or phone call during the hours that the violence was going on. what was discussed about the possibility of continuing the challenge to the election results after the capitol was cleared. the committee chairman's letter also points out that jordan has said publicly when he was asked about the january 6th since that he has nothing to hide, almost daring him to answer questions. >> bres, what do you make of this news? >> well, you know, they crossed a threshold when they asked scott perry for information. they're clearly setting up for kevin mccarthy. that seems like the one they're really interested. if republicans win the majority. i think, you know, i'm just not sure where this goes. i mean if jordan talked to trump, you know, and he says he acknowledges that publicly, but he says he doesn't want to talk to the committee, are they going to subpoena him? i don't know. this is the big question they face. can they subpoena jordan or perry or mccarthy? are they willing to go that far and then would a court allow them to enforce it. they're clearly setting up for that kind of clash ahead. >> let me ask about that because, garrett, liz cheney has been pretty, i mean, not direct but almost direct about where she thinks this is going. she has spoken in terms that make you think maybe there is something criminal with the president. i mean, what is your sense on the willingness to subpoena a sitting member of congress given, frankly, the gravity of what they are investigating. >> well, look, liz cheney has been quoting from u.s. code. i mean, she clearly thinks there were crimes committed here and that's the road she wants to go down. she covets this fight and sees it as absolutely essential to have in this moment for the future of her party. the possibility that the former president might have committed a crime or that any of the other members have committed a crime seems a little more remote. remember most of them were in the building and in the chamber when this was all going on on january 6th. i am sort of lined up with bres here. we don't know how deep this rabbit hole goes. does the committee use the tools that are available to the house majority like trying to strip someone of committee assignments? jim jordan is the ranking member of the judiciary committee, excuse me of the oversight committee. he is someone who could be a committee chairman in the next congress yet alone if you go down this route with kevin mccarthy. we're going deep into unchartered territory here. >> i know your beat's not politics or capitol hill, but you do cover the doj. what would mayor garland likely to have stomach for? would he be willing to go down contempt charges if jim jordan was subpoenaed and he refused to testify? >> he has to consider that the law considers the justice department whether to submit it to a grand jury. you know, i think we would be in a territory that i'm not familiar with any cases like that and raises a question about whether it would violate the constitution speech or debate cause saying members of congress can't be held to account is the phrase i think the constitution used prosecuted for anything involving their official business and the courts have been pretty generous about what official business is. so, it may not be possible to do a criminal case, i don't know. >> really interesting stuff. go ahead. >> i mean, also, just thinking about it, they're going to ask trump to testify or something. that's the other part of this. do they ask trump to testify because let's say for instance you talked to scott perry and talked to kevin mccarthy and jim jordan, the natural part of that is you're going to want to talk to trump. so, you know, that to me is where, do they subpoena trump? you know, an invite is one thing, but would they ever subpoena trump, private citizen, former president trump. so, you know, we're going, it's going to get real interesting here pretty soon. >> no doubt about that. i could continue this conversation but we have to dip into the covid task force briefing. gentlemen, thank you so much. michelle wolensky speaking now. >> 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 and 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 outm cans. 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 likely 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. wolensky. what i would like to do now is spend a few minutes on underscoring and reiterating some of the important principles that dr. wolensky mentioned. i'll 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 in a moment. next slide. no doubt this is a highly transmissible. this is the latest data from the omicron variant that is in the united states. it is now about 73% plus. 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 there 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 clearly have been showing now in conversations we 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 in severity and much larger number of individual cases, the fact that you have so many more cases might actually obiate the effect of it being less severe. 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 mentioned this in different briefings before, but just to reiterate. there's no doubt that there is 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 antiomicron activity is about 20 to 40 fold higher in boosted versus the dose in individuals who had the two-dose vaccine. this is validated by the clinical data which shows 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. mainly the treatments that are available. unfortunately, but understandably with the degree of mutations that we have with omicron, some of the monochronial antibodies will not work against omicron and those are shown in the first two monoclonal antibody. well positioned to be used as a treatment against omicron and then the az product also is likely. small molecule antivirals are available now. you heard the recent approval of an eua of paxlovid and available in a three-day course which in a recent study shows to diminish the need for hospitalization. guidelines on this will be now reexamined by the nih guideline committee and you'll be hearing more about recommendations on how to utilize these. if i can have the last slide. i want to reiterate what dr. wolensky said about prevention which is a multi-layered comprehensive process. the hallmark of which is vaccination. now, one of the questions that dr. wolensky and i and dr. murthy and others get asked very frequently right now as we get to the christmas holiday and new year's, would it be safe for individuals who are vaccinated and 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. wolensky mentioned. 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 and 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 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 anti-viral and, therefore, we want to make sure that production is ramped up as quickly as possible. according to a company, the complex chemistry involved in creating the active ingredient in the pill means the production takes six to eight months. now that the pill is authorized, we will have discussions 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. so, 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 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. >> 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. wolensky on holiday and modifying the definition. >> yeah, i think that you just heard from dr. fauci as to how we are recommending people modify their holiday plans. certainly not advocating for large events as i think this is a modification. we also have given clear guidance to what we believe is a safe way to gather. we do want families to be together and to be able to be together this holiday season. so, to do so, we're really energ canning people to be vaccinated and boosted and practice all the 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 that 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 more to come there. but just to be very clear, our recommendations are to get boosted. >> next question, please. >> jeff zellany 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 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. any time 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 point one thing out in the last month. i think we've 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. let's go to -- >> going back to the pfizer drug. if you can walk through how patients should try to get this drug and the fact that they have to get a test result quickly and take the drug within five days of symptoms. a lot of folks don't have primary care doctors, so will there be telemedicine or some way to get it through the pharmacy. how do you look at that and then with the sort of limited supply of it at the beginning, it is indicated just for high-risk people, but should there be prioritiation in those groups like even by vaccination status? >> talked for a second about the distribution plan and then over to dr. fauci for the medical questions. as we've done with vaccines and monoclonals we'll distribute the pills in a fair and equitable way. the antivirals provided to states and jurisdictions at no charge on a pro rata basis to quickly get that supply in the field. as i mentioned in my comments as part of the administration's commitment to equity, we're also distributing antiviral pills, pfizer directly to federally qualified community health centers across all 50 states. and that will ensure that these life-saving antivirals are available at some of the most vulnerable, in some of the most vulnerable communities and hard-hit populations across the country. over to you, dr. fauci, for the medical part of this. >> yeah, jeff, and it is obviously a very difficult situation when you have a limited supply. for that reason, we've asked the nih guidelines committee to put together a recommendation of when someone comes in with an acute infection and is in a risk group, which is what you want this to be for since we have a limited supply that we would have a prioritization of what the best approach would be. it almost certainly will be a physician writing a prescription for someone who would within the first three days of notable symptoms of covid and is in a high-risk group to get it. but those guidelines which will not only be limited to what you would do with with paxlovid but also whether or not it might be more appropriate to recommend remdesivir given in a three-day dose or one of the monoclonal antibodies. guidelines will be coming out shortly. >> next question, please. >> go to ricardo at the ap. >> can you hear me? >> yes. >> okay. thank you for taking my question. and it's for dr. wolensky and my question is, the president felt like we would see more and more cases involving, i'm sorry, vaccinated people. in every workplace he said, even in the white house and anecdotally people are seeing it with various political and sports celebrities who are vaccinated getting covid. can you tell us what proportion of cases currently are represented by vaccinated people. in other words, what proportion of covid cases are vaccinated people. how that compares with what proportion are hospitalized patients and deaths and can you give us a timeline for a decision on making the definition of fully vaccinated to mean boosted, as well. because it seems like that is an urgent question for the average american. >> yeah, thank you for that question, ricardo. so, what i can tell you is that you're ten times more likely to have a case of covid if you are unvaccinated compared to if you are vaccinated and boosted. you're 20 times more likely to die of covid if you are unvaccinated compared to if you're vaccinated and boosted. yes, we know with omicron that has more mutations and able to evade our vaccines better, that we are going to see vaccinated and even boosted people have breakthrough cases. and they will have breakthrough cases with mild disease or perhaps even asymptomatic disease. what i would say is that those are those vaccines working and working well because those vaccines are working to prevent really severe disease and prevent hospitalizations and deaths. as for your second question and evaluation is currently under way and more soon but to be very clear, our recommendations are to get boosted. >> next question. >> we're going to dip out of this and back with us is monica alba at the white house, senior medical correspondent dr. john torres along with dr. megan rainy at the brown university school of public health. monica, i keep hearing from dr. rochelle wolensky soon, we'll soon have a standard if whether a booster means you're fully vaccinated and we're going to figure out or change the days you need to be in quarantine or isolation. what does soon mean? do we have any precedent idea of what soon means for her? >> i think they're a little bit closer on the second item than the first one, katy. i'm told by officials involved in these discussions that changing the discussion of fully vaccinated to include these three doses would really involve a lot of logistical challenges. for instance, the biden administration vaccine mandate that is supposed to go into effect next month, would that suddenly mean that people would have to have their three shots. could they do that feasibly in time. that is a lot they have to look at and in my discussions with experts weeks away from that changing or shifting because they also want to give people time to comply with that. so, what we may see happen is that the cdc could come out and say the fully vaccinated need to be having their three doses by a certain date in the future that gives them that ample time to get it. so that's one of the considerations there. so, i think when she says soon, those are very, very active discussions. i do know this is something the president has been involved in and as you saw there, i think there is a bit of a shift in her language because she is now just not saying we're looking at it, but let's be very clear here we fully endorse and recommend getting boosters, aka, you should consider that third dose to be essential, especially again given what we've seen in its protection against omicron. to your question about the isolation. i think that could come a little bit sooner because they're looking at the real-world data coming in about if these are more mild cases could people who aren't exhibiting symptoms cut that time down. so, if i had to bet, i would say maybe we'd get guidance on that sooner and that could be over the next couple of weeks and then that definition of fully vaccinated just as a thornier issue as i'm sure others could help explain why. >> have to give people the time to get it and a lot of places where appointments are many weeks down the line. just so many people who want it at this point. dr. rainy, there was a bit of good news coming out of that cautious good news coming out of that briefing. ireland is also showing the same signs that maybe omicron is not as virilant. that has to be pretty good news. >> that's terrific news. and it is far better than the alternative of having omicron be just as deadly as delta. but as dr. fauci mentioned, there is still time that has to pass before we know how much that applies here in the u.s. we have a different demographic, make up of our country compared to ireland, the uk and south africa and we certainly have different rates of immunization and types of immunization here. particularly concerned about what is going to happen is omicron hit populations that have neither been previously infected nor have received vaccines. regardless of this good news, the reality is our hospitals across the country are already overwhelmed with the surge of delta patients. and so even a small increase in hospitalizations as omicron tears through our population is going to put many of us into disaster levels of care. >> can we just be a little more plain spoken about what it means when we say we have a different population. what exactly does a doctor mean when you say this is a different population than ireland or south africa? >> great question. so, it's a couple of things. one is that our age distribution is different from south africa. south africa has generally younger despairties of healthcare access. we have more elderly people in the united states. we also have greater racial and ethnic diversity in the united states than is observed in the uk. number of black and brown americans, indigenous americans and certainly a long history of structural racism which influences underlying health conditions and health outcomes in the face of covid. >> dr. torres, little more good news out of that briefing in addition to the pfizer pill, dr. fauci was talking about therapeutics that can be used in the hospital and while there are a couple that we had been using regeneron and another one that aren't as effective against omicron a gsk therapeutic which, unfortunately, is in short supply out there right now. also potentially to come an astrazeneca therapeutic and what was he saying about remdesivir? >> it was an astrazeneca one you heard about and hopefully it will come up, as well. that seems to be effective against omicron. let's not forget about remdesivir. it is one you have to take iv over a three-day time period and you have to go into a clinic or hospital to get it and not as convenient as a pill, but it's still there and something that looks like it can work against omicron and, of course, then he talked about paxlovid, the new one that is coming out and hopefully by january get the 265,000 courses or doses that he was talking about that could be available by then. by that he means three pills twice a day for five days and 265,000 people will be able to take that by january. 10 million he said by summertime. but also mentioned it is a very complex system to develop this pill. so it's not as easy as going to another manufacturer and saying, here, we want you to start developing this even with pfizer who has everything set up takes six to eight months to ramp up and the other entities will take even longer. hopefully they can figure this out and get the 10 million pills by figured out, hopefully they can get the 265,000 by january. at least a start, but a drop in the bucket. >> do you know what's faster than summertime? getting a booster shot. thank you so much, monica, dr. torres, and dr. rainy. happy holidays. the latest from minneapolis, where the jury deliberation ms. the kim potter trial are in day three. re in day three. get groceries, gifts, & more fast and easy. so last minute guests are the only thing you'll be waiting on. ♪ joy. fully. ♪ at vanguard, you're more than just an investor, you're an owner with access to financial advice, tools and a personalized plan that helps you build a future for those you love. vanguard. become an owner. vanguard. when our daughter and her kids moved in with us... our bargain detergent couldn't keep up. turns out it's mostly water. so, we switched back to tide. one wash, stains are gone. [daughter] slurping don't pay for water. pay for clean. it's got to be tide. this afternoon, jurors are continuing to deliberate in the case of former minnesota police officer kim potter. it is the third day of deliberations after the jury asked the judge what to do if they cannot reach a verdict. potter faces manslaughter charges in the title shooting of 20-year-old daunte wright after a traffic stop. she testified she meant to use her taser but pulled her handgun instead. joining me now, nbc correspond end shaquille brewster. it signals there is disagreement in the jury room about how to find kim potter. that being said, this jury is sequestered and friday is christmas. >> exactly, katie. and we are looking at approaching more -- we are approaching i guess right now 21 hours of deliberations where they have been tucked away going through these two manslaughter marges. >> saturday is christmas. >> this is more than double what the ham i had noor jury took deliberations. they are tucked away this deliberations. an open question as to what the hang-up is at this point. >> christmas -- i keep saying friday. there was also a question about holding onto the gun. how did the judge leave it with the jury? >> yeah, the jury did have access to both the taser that was not used, and then the gun that kim potter used to shoot daunte wright, but it was zip tied to a box marking it as evidence. they asked for the zip ties to be removed from it for a matter of time. that's something prosecutors wanted to to, feel the gun, look at the differences between the gun can the taser. the judge granted them that request and gave them a procedure on how they could have access to it. one thing from the pool report, the pool reporters, the two in the room didn't notice any signals the jury was sending, there was no exhaustion or look of exasperation from the jury panel when they came in and submitted that question. we haven't gotten anything from almost 24 hours. >> shack brewster, thank you very much. that does it for me this afternoon. deadline white house starts after this quick break. s after this quick break great, now i can't even see what i'm calling! save big. order through the app. nicorette knows, quitting smoking is freaking hard. you get advice like: great, now i can't even see what i'm calling! try hypnosis... or... quit cold turkey. kidding me?! instead, start small. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette people with moderate to severe psoriasis, or psoriatic arthritis, are rethinking the choices they make like the splash they create the way they exaggerate the surprises they initiate. otezla. it's a choice you can make. otezla is not an injection or a cream it's a pill that treats differently. for psoriasis, 75% clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you. [music: sung by craig robinson] ♪ i'm a ganiac, ganiac, check my drawers ♪ planning to be. [sfx: sniffs / long exhale] ♪ and my clothes smell so much fresher than before ♪ ♪ yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ i'm a ganiac, ganiac, check my drawers ♪ ♪ it's a freshness like i've never smelled before ♪ one sniff of gain flings and you'll be a gainiac too! the only detergent with oxiboost and febreze. emergency planning for kids. we can't predict when an emergency will happen. so that's why it's important to make a plan with your parents. here are a few tips to stay safe. know how to get in touch with your family. write down phone numbers for your parents, siblings and neighbors. pick a place to meet your family if you are not together and can't go home. remind your parents to pack an emergency supply kit. making a plan might feel like homework, but it will help you and your family stay safe during an emergency. the snapshot app from progressive rewards you for driving safe and driving less. okay, what message did you hear this time? safe drivers can save using snapshot? -what's snapshot? -what the commercial was about. -i tune commercials out. -me too. they're always like blah, blah blah. tell me about it. i'm going to a silent retreat next weekend. my niece got kicked out of one of those. -for talking? -grand larceny. how about we get back to the savings? [ everyone agreeing ] hello, everyone. it is 4:00 in new york system i'm john heilemann in for nicolle wallace. jim jordan, call your office! we've got breaking news, fresh from the january 6th select committee's investigation into the attack on our capitol. last hour, we learned that the committee has sent congressman jim jordan a request for information. it is the second such request made of the republican congressman after pennsylvania congressman scott perry received a similar request n. a letter to jordan, the select committee chairman wrote,