the cdc is out with new guidelines shortening the recommending isolation of quarantine time for those who tested positive or expose todd the virus. this comes as the fast omicron variant puts pressure on airlines and other businesses. nbc news. >> reporter: testing for the virus reaches by a crisis point. by 5:00, the lines in south florida already forming with the prospect of free covid testing kits. >> what are you seeing in shelves? >> they're all in stock and fine, i guess they all disappeared in a matter of three days like they were not there. >> reporter: at this library at miami-dade county, you are looking at two different lines. this is for free testing kits. this is for testing on-site. both of them snake around the building in both directions with no end in sight. a national crisis, chaos in lines from new york and miami and dallas. >> we have more work to do and quadruple number of pharmacies offering free test and they are now more than 20,000 places where you can get tested for free. >> reporter: that expanded access comes alongside alarming development, 200,000 case averages with regards in florida and louisiana and delaware and in new york city, the number of kids hospitalized more than quadrupled. new york governor to make this plea. >> parents i am calling on you, this is the time you have the kids home from school, there is plenty of vaccination tuns from your pediatrician to a site set up by the state of new york, our urgent care center. >> reporter: new york city is implementing the vaccine mandate in the country while adding even more testing like this site in times square. >> this is a priority. i don't need the steaks and never mind the chicken, go get the covid-19 vaccines. >> i feel like every shift we have text messages going out saying we are short and looking for a nurse, a lot of people are burnt out. >> reporter: israel testing at a fourth shot to help strengthen its virus front line. >> let's bring in our physician, dr. patel, our medical contributor as well. it's great to see you this morning, boy, there is a lot to get through there. >> what went into it is data. unfortunately a lot of the data that the cdc cites of its background information is not recent from omicron which we know is the kind of here and now. data has supported up until omicron. if you are positive asymptomatic or if your symptoms are resolved or being infectious was the early few days and not in the last few days of the ten days period. with omicron without having a negative test, do you really want to be sitting next to somebody who tells you well, i have got my mask and it's not a high quality mask because the cdc did not dictate that and i am resolving my symptoms, don't worry about it willie, you are fine next to me. that's what we are seeing. those are ideal situations that we are not in. what about the distinction between people who are vaccinated and unvaccinated. should those periods be different for the two groups. >> that's something we are seeing data from the u.k. and other country including the united states, vaccination does make a difference. vaccinated individuals, this is true before omicron still holds true with omicron, although omicron is creating a scenario where i am a triple vaccinated, two doses and a booster still could have a high viral load in my nose and be infectious. i have had patients who had rapid antigen test positive beyond the ten days period. it begs the question of how will we know what this infectious period really is in order to be safe to return people to work and i have to say part of me can't help but feel this policy really came on a hills of these headlines that we are talking about, healthcare worker shortages and airlines cancelling flights and a scarcity in the economy of workers. i think this is the right policy eventually to land on, communications have not been very good. i worry telling people to trust to wear a mask after day five is absolutely going to fall flat. we have seen that not working in this country. >> and then there is the question that's not a medical question of the timing of this, there are a lot of people in this country who looked at that announcement, well, that would have been nice to know, a lot of people cancelled plans or amended them anyway because of the ten-day waiting period. what about the ting of the announcement? >> i do think so -- i have always tried to give us some latitude and whatever administration it may be to scientists and epidemiologists. december 27th, right after you had now literally and we still will of these christmas gatherings we already had they're going to results in the next two or three weeks and millions of people tested positive. the timing is something that does seem awfully coincidental coming on the back end. we are talking about schools reopening next monday. it will be important question to see how this guidance plays out in school. so many of these schools quarantined of shutdown right before the holiday. what will happen when schools are pressured to reopen and they do not have some of these measures in place. teachers don't have high quality masks and air ventilation. those are the critical differences would have been nice to see in the media advisory and plain language to people. the quality of your masks matter. we should throw away these fabric masks. i have been throwing them in the garbage now, they're useless at this point. >> this changed comes in a moment when there is a shortage of tests along the eastern west coast. those who have tests have shown there is times they'll get test negative of day one or two and negative, negative and comes positive. it seems like this variant is more hit or miss and hard to pick up at times. does it add further degree of risk to this chain of the guidelines where after five days you are saying to people, hey, you can go outside and we'll take your words for it. you are okay? >> absolutely. and i have compares the u.s. policy with other country whether they are implementing similar policies if you say for example, people have to test negative. you have to prove yourself and we also have data from workplace and schools and surveillance testing program that highlights exactly what you said. people will have symptoms and test negative with a rapid test and get a pcr test which is much better, that'll be positive but that short supply delays and lines around the corner. we know that's another kind of willie's comment earlier this does feel of the timing and the lack of comment for testing for isolation. isolation is what happens when you have a positive test or symptoms. quarantine is what happens when you are exposed. i am all for shortening quarantine time if you are fascinating. this testing positive if your symptoms resolved, and after 20 years in practice, i don't know if i can trust myself. if you want to go back to work, you bet you are going to think your symptoms are resolving so who makes that aassessment. >> doctor, just to be clear that you can test positive 10 or 12 days after first feeling symptoms and if you did, should you still be quarantining at that point or under the new guidelines could you leave quarantine? >> katty, that's the point. i do think the timing of your especially if you are quarantining because you are exposed to somebody, i think if you are vaccinated and asymptomatic and you tested negative around day 5, that's when you are exposed, i do think you can end quarantine early. i do agree the cdc did the right thing on that policy, you are vaccinated and you don't have to haul away in your house and waiting to test. if you tested positive or your symptomatic and you just wait. we have seen patients who have been testing positive, not just day ten, they have been testing positive for 12 days. that's not the norms. it's possible. we know there are people who are still infectious. without testing and without a distinction for vaccinated individuals and without some criteria to say what does it mean that your symptoms are resolving or what are your symptoms you should be looking for. these all mimics of common cold. true cold has no ability to get a test or not tested and for them to be locked in this confusing advisory from the cdc for weeks even. >> long list of questions to you this morning and speaks to the confusion of a lot of people have about this. let's get a snapshot as we come up here at end of the year, where do we feel we are and obviously the omicron variant have changed a lot of things. hospitalizations and deaths are way down and most of the people are in the hospital right now are unvaccinated. what's your sense of where we are during the pandemic as we turn the corner into the new year. >> we have turned the corner, omicron defines how we are turning the corner with the value of vaccination. i know there is enough misinformation and the public some would like to jump on quote on quote, "the vaccines don't work," that's not true. we are keeping people out of the hospital and with the surge of cases, we are not seeing this proportional rise of vaccinations. vaccines are helping, i do think we turn the corner a year ago but we are turning the corner from the unknown. hope with the omicron surge that this will be burnt out and cases will become more of a common flu or endemic, we have to stay vigilant on boosters and this comment in the u.k. whether or not we need a fourth shot. this is a public that's already tired and we can't get more information out of our advisory group at the federal level, we are turning ing corner where this is going to create incredible fatigue and people just giver up and nobody will listen even people like me who want to follow the science or we'll actually be able to say look, we got through this big hump, we'll be able to get on the other side and we are doing it through vaccinating and wearing masks when we need to which honestly i would tell everybody watching with which change in advisory, get yourself a high quality mask and wear it around people you don't know because this could change the game. that's where we are. >> good advise. we threw a lot at you, appreciate you are helping us to make sense of this. dr. patel, so much. president biden is working to reassure states and local leaders about the administration's response about the pandemic. the president held a phone call promising to provide aides to states struggling with the omicron variant. he acknowledged states and local governments will need to take the lead in controlling the spread. here is what president biden said before the phone call. >> look, there is no federal solution, this gets solved state level. my message is simple, if you need something, say something. we'll have your back in any way we can. seeing how tough it was for some folks to get a test this weekend shows that we have more work to do, we are doing it. the bottom line is i want to assure the american people that we are prepared and we know what it takes and as this group of bipartisan governor shown we are going to get through it by working together. >> so jonathan, the headline there there is no federal solution obviously flies in the face, frankly the reason that joe biden was elected in many ways that the federal government was going to take control of this effort to get us out of the covid-19 pandemic here. what does he mean by that and president trump came under heavy criticism for making the same case when he was president. >> yeah, you provided the right context there, willie, the president's comments raise a lot of eye brows. it's a complete contradiction of what he said earlier in the year. the federal government is going to be in charge of this. we can do the big thing. it was essential piece of this campaign, it was to depose of donald trump but to also say look, we can control of this. what trump said on more than equation in 2020. i talked to white house officials yet, they were quick to clarify what the president meant. he was trying to say he needed cooperations from the states. the states could not be an obstacle hinderous to the federal response to this virus. states like texas and florida resisted things like mask mandates and pushed back against vaccine mandates and many times been in obstacles of what washington tried to do to battle this pandemic. that's what the president meant. the governor of course the midst of trying to surge 500 million tests across the country over the next month or so. a lot of employees are having trouble finding work right now. we are seeing cases soaring across the country for those who are double vaccinated and boosted. we are seeing hospitals filling up across the country and federal health officials told me that they're deeply concerned of the state of play in a number of country and a number of states. i will say it was refreshing despite the push back of so many republican governors, ace hutchinson offered bipartisan praise for the federal government yesterday. that's the exception rather than rule right now. >> jonathan, it's interesting on the testing because several times over the course of the last three months since the end of the summer, the president said he's going to ramp up testing. he's made it sound like in the last week or so that well omicron came out of the flu and it caught us by surprise. he has said multiple times we are really going to ramp up testing because we need more testing heading into the winter. what happened? why didn't those commitments to ramp up testing translate into actual tests heading into the winter? >> certainly there were more tests available in the last two months than the hype of the pandemic in 2020. they do fell short, you making good point, this is not the second time the white house officials have acknowledged. they have been caught off guards by the speed of the pandemic, the best example of this is on july 4th, when the united states is about to declare its independence from the virus, the delta variant already put europe on fire at that point. anything that happens there, happens here. they did not expect the surge in cases and omicron didn't faster than delta did. there was a sense they were not quite ready for. to the overall point it shows the shift and both of the focus in terms of resources and rhetoric have been on the vaccines and not tested. that's what the administration really said. you need to get vaccinated and boosted. that's how we'll get out of this. they did not expect so many boosted people to come down and test positive because of omicron. >> jonathan, if you go back six months ago, it seems like we had come out of something and turned the corner for good and we heard not mission accomplished but almost from the president himself and came this new variant omicron and which gobbled up this administration's agenda that it came in with. these are things that happen when you are president of the united states, things you don't expect. how is this administration feeling now looking forward to 2022 without a doubt at least from the beginning of next year as well. >> public health officials are hopeful that omicron is going to peak soon than later and maybe by say february 1st, who is are on the other side of it. they're hopeful that another variant won't emerge in its way. the pandemic is everything for this president. as much as the focus been on is build back better bill and they still hope to get his agenda through congress in the early part of 2022. they hope to deal with some of the inflation issues that everybody across the country is battling right now due to the pandemic. they do feel good of some of the supply chain woes have ease and they want to turn to voting rights. sooner or later they are aware of the warning issues of civil rights and including democrats have to show some kind of progress by mlk's day or there could be some backlash among voters. all of those things all take a backseat to get control of the pandemic. as cases surge across the country and as much as the administration sending out tests and preaching the vaccines and as long as there is stubborn pockets of the population not getting vaccinated, this virus will not get away. >> labor shortage that increasingly includes pharmacy technicians administering these things. the technicians absence is leading to store closures and delays on prescription. vicky nguyen has more. >> reporter: mom of father working as a technician in pittsburgh. in october, she quits the job and thought she would retire from. >> all of the parts of my job slowly gone away with pandemic stress and just all the unpleasantness that's going on in healthcare and retail today. >> reporter: pharmacy tech supports the pharmacists and work the counter and more. nearly 90% say they can't find technicians. >> why are they so fed up? >> a lot of it comes to the in fact that we are grossly under paid across the board. median pay is about $16 an hour. it's not just wages. >> it was routine in my store to be 3 to 500 scripts past due. >> this means people could be going out with their needed medications for days? >> absolutely. >> nbc news spoke to 22 pharmacy technicians who recently quit. >> in some states you have 60 or 70 pharmacies that are closing for days on in because they don't have the appropriate staff. >> al carter leads the national association of board pharmacies. the shortest of pharmacy techs led to complaints and concerns of medication mistakes. >> in the last three or four months, i received double the number of patients letters than last year. >> we reached out to rite aid, we are temporarily closing most of our pharmacies one hour early to allow our team to catch up for the day and prep for the next. cvs and walgreens acknowledged the shortage. cvs stands flexible in meeting patient needs. all three are recruiting cvs and walgreen with increase wages. >> now that technicians are leaving in mass, hopefully they'll figure out that they need to make a change. >> a lot of people counting those prescriptions. vicky nguyen is reporting for us there. still ahead on "morning joe", call out from airline workers tested positive feeling massive flight disruptions through the holidays. another reason for the change in the cdc guidelines. we'll dig into that and the weather is making holiday travel more difficult for all of you. you are watching "morning joe" on a tuesday morning, we are coming right back. on a tuesday morning, we are coming right back. i brought in ensure max protein, with thirty grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! 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>> about 4:00 in the morning. >> we could have wake up at 7:00 and still be there on time. >> i got on the plane and one of the pilots did not show up. >> an hour turn to 2.5 hours but we finally got here. >> reporter: the flight attendant union had 10 days to remain in quarantine. >> what we are saying is profits are important than people. that's the bottom line. we can't abide by that. >> reporter: this comes as flight attendants who are closest to passengers were forced to break up a fight. one unmasked passengers confronting another who were pulling his mask down to eat. >> it needs to stop. >> reporter: a blast of winter weather turning parts of the west into a glow globe making holiday traveltreacherous. white house conditions on the road in northern california. >> it was so bad. >> reporter: the sierra mountains hit with several feet of snow shattering december records and bearing houses and stranded travelers. >> this is bad. >> shutting down major interstates. the blizzards sparking several spin outs and accidents and roadside rescues. >> reporter: the mountain snow direly needed after years of the snow pack which fuel it is much of california's supply got a major boost. the snowfall forcing ski resorts to shut down. authorities there searching for the 43-year-old skier missing since saturday. winter alerts from coast to coast. >> reporter: in the pacific northwest t frigid temperatures causing winter worries. >> too many people don't know how to drive in the snow. >> reporter: washington preps for an unusual cold snap. in the midwest, blizzard condition, zero visibility as the region braces for bitter cold. windchills as low as 50 below zero in the forecast, a dangerous deep freeze closing out the year with more to come. >> nbc's steve patterson reports for us there. president biden signs $768 billion defense spending bill into law. the statement reads in part, unfortunately the act helicopters to bar the use of funds to transfer guantánamo bay detainees to custody or effective control of certain foreign countries and unless certain conditions are met. i urge congress to eliminate these restrictions as soon as possible. the bill authorizes $740 billion for the defense department which is 25 billion more than the president requested, that includes as 2.7% pay raise for service members and it includes $28 billion for defense related activities in the department of energy. >> the first commanding officer navy seal richard marcinko has died. he was best known of creating the navy seal. he commanded the elite team for three years. the unit is known best for killing osama bin laden in 2011. macinko enlisted in 1958 and worked his way up in the rank of commander. he wrote several books including an autobiography titled "road warrior," his son told the new york times that marcintko may have died from a heart attack. he was 81 years old. coming up, new reporting of the january 6th attack on the capitol now looking into a phone call former president trump made in the hours before the attack. we'll talk to reporters who first broke the news about that phone call. 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>> it's a pivotal moment the night of january 5th and january 6th when trump picked up the phone call from white house according to sources, he instructed his operatives the find ways to stop the certification from taken place at all at the joint session of congress on january 6th. if you speak to trump's allies, this is not a big deal. he was just trying to find ways to delay certification and find another day but i always thought this was a disengenerous characterization. the capitol was attacked and now it's going to loom large in the community. >> hugo, two questions about the former president. what's the timetable when we get a decision from the supreme court as well as those records being turned over? >> trump claims executive privilege of a couple hundred documents from the previous administration. we are looking at this in the spring. it's likely to do if you are talking in the council committee and council for trump as well. i think that's the timeline roughly we are looking at. >> it seems also this is a classic investigation where you start with the small fish and leading you up to the big one. it does seem like in recent weeks of growing focus on trump personally on what he was doing. not just about meadows and bannon anymore. it's about the former president himself. what's the growing likelihood that some sort of action will be taken again against trump personally? >> it's becoming more likely because they are looking at criminal referrals for the former president, they're still looking at bannon and rudy giuliani and the guys at the willard that trump called up on the night of january 5th. there were multiple war rooms. there is one with bannon and flynn and stone. there was a massive operation happening at the willard. >> plenty of room available, really? it was stemming from the white house and right up pennsylvania avenue at the capitol. this is going to bloom pivotally in the investigation but it's true, they're all focusing on the culpability of trump himself and whether he directed the willard and the capitol attack. >> hugo, spell it all out for us in terms of the phone call and what the select committee may be able to actually find out from the records. they presumably if they can get hold of the record, they could find out what time it was made and who it was made to. how are they going to find out the content of that phone call, if they can't find out the content of that phone call, how much good is it? >> so i think this is the key question. i caught up with the chairman of the select committee benny thompson before congress broke for recess a couple of weeks ago and he told me and you say this in the story that they're going to ask the national archives for the white house communications from january 5th and january 6th, if trump made that call to the willard because he called lawyers separately. those calls will be reflected in those records. trump is of course the record they tell you the time and the date, they don't tell you it could get transcripts and the concept of those calls. short of the committee interviewing and getting depositions and testimonies from people involved in the willard operation, it's difficult for them to find out the content of the calls. there is one caveat, they can inform the committee what they learn from those people directly in the room and maybe that's the way the committee goes. there is a lot of caveats here and a lot of things happening for the committee to get at the information it needs to find out what happened and be whether there was some actual conspiracy intent premeditation around attack on the capitol. what's your sense because you dig into this a lot of how much work they have done and how much time they have left to cover the ground they still have not yet covered, given the midterms are already ten months away or 11 months away. >> yes, they are up against this deadline. it's a hard deadline, it's the end of this congress at the latest because if republicans retake the majority and this is the end of the committee, they're not going to want to reinstate committee, they are up against this time limit. they have a mass of a real trove of evidence. he spoke to meadows and he did provide a trove of documents and communication and text messages which we have only seen a sliver of. those are quite damming and trump is a bit of a melt down than we understand down in mar-a-lago. there are caveats. they depose around 300 individuals and 30,000 on file. i think there is a good chance that they're able to construct a pretty full picture of what happened in the hours leading up to the capitol attack. >> whether we find out what president trump said in that phone call in january 5th, we know everything that's publicly available, what he said on tv and rallies that he led the efforts to overturn the election. what does the select committee view as his objective here? what does it hope to get through by the summer of the report. we know how things filtered through media silos right now. we know half the country is going to dismiss it and the other half is rooting for an out come here because of what we have seen and all know. how is the committee proceeding? >> the committee is trying to do two things. they're going to try to do a report and criminal referrals if they are warranted. at the end of the day if you speak to members, our real mission is to bring facts to life and understand what happened on january 6th, if there were efforts by pro operatives or trump himself to subvert democracy. this is what he wanted to do. he wanted to stop the certification from taken place whether delaying or stopping in. the end result was he didn't want joe biden to be certified on january 6th. this is that aim, they want to show the american public what happened. if there was criminal activity involved, they'll put a lot of pressure on the justice department and ag merrick garland to take some sort of action and whether they at least have a report and people will be able to read themselves what the committee has uncovered. >> more subpoenas are on the way. hugo lowell, thank you so much for being with us. coming up, president biden telling us there is no federal solution to stop the spread of omicron. failure to overt a covid testing shortfall. "morning joe" will be right back. shortfall. 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[ joe ] my teeth were a mess. i had a lot of pain. as far as my physical health, my body was telling me you got to do something. and so i came to clearchoice. your mouth is the gateway to your body. joe's treatment plan was replacing the teeth with dental implants from clearchoice. [ joe ] clearchoice has changed my life for the better. it's given me my health back. there's an amazing life out there if you do something for your health now. welcome back to "morning joe," jonathan lemire and katy kay is still with us. here is a look at some of them, first of all, those who test positive but have no symptoms are now recommended to isolate for just five days instead of ten, followed by five days of mask wearing. that clock starts the day you test positive and the guidance is the same regardless of vaccination status. quarantine time for those who have been exposed with covid have been cut. they can skip quarantine and test on day 5 and wear masks for ten days. stay with me here, those who are not boosted are unvaccinated or vaccinated more than six months ago should quarantine for five days and followed by five days of mask use. the u.s. made a similar move for healthcare workers last week, cutting time down to five days. people are likely to transmit the virus one or two days before showing symptoms or two and three days after. joining us is dr. zeke emanuel. the isolation is down from 10 to 5 days. did they make the right call? >> well, it's true if you got covid and no symptoms, you are supposed to isolate for five days. i don't know where they got the five days. britain has done seven days and a lot of it is taken out of the air. the majority of people will no longer be shedding. if you take the 80-20 rule. that's still a lot of people. i am a little worried and i understand there is a follow on mask guidance and not everyone wears a good mask. i am worried this could cause spread with especially the highly infectious omicron. i understand we can't have the 10% of the work force not showing up because the airlines need to keep going. i get that and there is real good reasons and i am not sure it's informed by prior data of the health and limitation on spreading. >> let's bring it down from a policy document to the real world. if i tested positive let's say six days ago, i can show up some where with a mask. but now i am in the four or five days window that i have yet to get to ten days so don't worry, i have a mask on. is that how people should proceed? >> if you don't have symptoms, that's correct. >> does that make sense to you? >> no. i would like to say at the end of five days, you have to take a test. they did not do that because of the shortage of testing so you have a vicious circle we are making policies on the basis of whether we have tests or not. one issue is determining what symptoms are, right? >> you are a doctor and i am not a doctor, there are shades of symptoms, if you are leaving it up to people determining their own symptoms, five or six days after first testing positive that seems to me a little tricky, is it? you are 100% right. these are generic flu-like symptoms. one of the questions is how severe are they? are you having a temperature, is it 101 or a fever or not a fever. have you lost smell or taste, you know it's a symptom. is it just a cold out there? and as i have said, i am a little worried about this. i don't think the five days mark is very good policy. we'll have most people will not be infectious in five days and that does not mean everyone won't. with the highly infectious variant that seems to be not a good policy. >> omicron is highly infectious but for people who are vaccinated and boosted, does not seem to be particularly harmful and not lethal or needing hospitalization and the damage of our health asking people to stay in isolation for ten days even if they are not emergency workers is pretty extreme, it's tough being all up by yourself for ten days and it's tough on the rest of the family as well. omnivore kron if you are vaccinated and boosted does not seem particularly dangerous to you. is it an instant where you have to take the 20-80 rule, it's a little bit roll of the dice but in overall health population is totally worth it. >> that was not the rational. i totally agree with you, katty. we are all fed up with isolation and limiting our social activities. that's going to be the incentive to sort of take this and say all right, five days is up and i am done. i don't know if five days of isolation is psychologically any better if you have many more people who do test positive and do develop symptoms. i am not sure sure of the cost benefit analysis. we can't have healthcare workers out, they have to cover sick people, we can't have so many people working for the airlines out and working for other industry out. that seems to be the driving force. there are few things you can do better. you can have a much more objective even though not perfect measure of whether they should to isolate or not. >> dr. emanuel, good morning. it's jonathan lemire. in terms of the new guidelines, there is no distinction made of people who are vaccinated and boosted and those who are unvaccinated. tell me if that seems wise to you? >> i think relying on symptoms when we know many people can be asymptomatic and pass on the virus and not using the vaccination test is not where i would have gone. i think we do know that the unvaccinated are much more likely to be hospitalized and likely to end up in the intense care unit and die. 40% of our population is still not vaccinated and 70% of our people have had to doses but don't have a booster. >> dr. emanuel bringing some clarity into a confusing policy. thank you very much, he's the author of "which country has the world's best healthcare." a recent washington post reports growing frustration over the biden administration handling of the pandemic according to the post, white house officials acknowledged that not enough have been done to secure tests and they are scrambling to change that, holiday travel and the onset of the contagious variant. other officials working for the biden administration confirms that account. white house's health aides believe that once americans are vaccinated, few would need testing. annie linsky, it's great to see you. now we are at the end of the first year which president biden announced 500 million test kits would go out to americans, that's after the holidays maybe too little and late for some kind of explosion that's coming here. what happens according to your sources to lead is to this place? going back to the first day of transition, biden's covid aides were saying look we do need a robust testing program to help get us out of the pandemic and get back to normalcy. what changed were the vaccines were so good that the biden administration instead decided to as one of my sources said put all of their eggs in the vaccination basket. you know that may have worked potentially but we had delta and now omicron and the biden administration did not anticipate that we would end up essentially a 60% vaccination rate. so they did not use other measures like testing and did not prepare other measures like testing and other country took different approaches. where is the testing and could we at least secure tests for this moment, and obviously it did a lot of great for businesses. was testing not emphasized in the relief package? we need to stockpil some of these things in case a variant comes. >> a great question, our reporting shows there were a group of health officials who went to the white house and said we are not doing enough on testing and we should really ramp up test production and we should make sure we have an ample supply in tests. the white house did not act on that information. there was a scenario where you could have defeat testing the the same way operation warp speed conducted. the government created this enormous demand and promised companies they would have a profit if they put in enormous resources into treating these tests. that's what we did with the vaccines. the decision was made not to take a similar approach with tests. now we are in a scenario where the administration is scrambling and trying to make some of that time and pushing for manufactures for more tests. >> annie, good morning, great to see you. beyond the tests here, let's talk about what else may still be in the biden administration arsenal as they battle the pandemic. we know we are hearing from the president encouraging on a daily basis to get your vaccines and boosters. dr. fauci floated the idea that he could perhaps support a requirement for vaccines for domestic travel. the white house kind of pushed back on that a little bit so we are not there yet. where does things stand right now in terms of vaccine mandates? are they looking to expand them anywhere? >> that's such a great question, jonathan. i have been asking this for months. the president has clear authority to mandate vaccines for people who are traveling domestically. it's the same authority he used to mandate people wearing masks on airplanes. the president has been unwilling to take that steps. if you talk to any public health experts including dr. fauci, they support these mandates for internal domestic travels because it creates a enormous incentiv to get. the president refused to do this. it's a little bit of an argument when the president had been asked directly of this question, he had said, he's following advise from experts and he's not given the advise to take the step doing the mandates for vaccines. something the president decided he does not want to do. >> annie, it's katty here, we have been told by epidemiologists that a variant could come along and reeking havoc again. in the nice days of summer, things were getting better and it really changes our thinking namely on tests. how much does the experience of omicron change the white house's planning going forward. are they thinking we'll get through omicron and our whole focus we'll get back-to-back vaccines or are they thinking we'll get through omicron and that could be whatever it is that comes afterwards and we need to have more tools in the box. >> that's absolutely the question, i was asking the administration, the white house exactly that when i was reporting. i was trying to get that question by saying look, president biden has said he wants to have half a billion tests managed and manufactured, 500 million tests, that sounds like an enormous number. but if you ask the white house, what's the goal here and what's the ultimate end game, how many tests does americans need every month. they don't have an answer for it. there has not been a decision whether the country is going to have to shift its focus to go beyond vaccines and get to a point where testing is going back to normalcy. in that scenario, many of the public and officials i have talked to said you would test once a week or twice a week. if that's what we decide to do as a society going forward, you are going to need a heck of a lot more than half a billion tests. and you will need them to come back quicker than two or three days. >> annie, thank you so much for your reporting. new york city is battle the coronavirus as it has been from the beginning of the panpandemi. with mayor-elect eric adams is set to take over. adam, a 22-year veteran ran an unconventional campaign that threw support from mayor bloomberg and mayor de blasio. >> mara gay, it's great to see you. so much to talk about, let's start with pandemic. eric adams comes into office with an ambitious agenda. he wants to make some changes and put his stamp in the city of new york. will we be front and center? is this pandemic and some of the old things we saw setting back to new york city? he's going to have to work with kathy hochul. the size of new york means that the city and the state has advantages and challenges that other parts of the country don't have. the city has an enormous testing capacity, he's going to have to make sure that keeps pace with the rate of infection and fortunately this variant is supposed to pass quickly. there will be other variant. he'll have to work with the governor to make available treatment and the state is actually expecting a shipment today or tomorrow of the load viral from pfizer. this is a mayor who's focused on covid, that's about the right focus, we have tens of thousands of workers who died and families who are suffering and one out of ten of children in schools who are homeless. we have immense challenges here. he does not have any time to spare. >> challenges that exist before the pandemic and exacerbated. i want to talk about your great piece, mara, you talk about his political origin story and you go back to 1980s and he's inside the church and a veteran of civil rights movement, goes up to eric adams and says you need to join the nypd and reform it from the inside. eric adams goes onto become a 20 or 25 years veteran of the nypd and frankly in the 80s and the '90s a thorn on the side trying to affect change there. talk to us how it may change new york city. >> a lot of new yorkers who kind of for whom eric adams came out of nowhere. the reality is he's a very different tradition than the city's first black mayor, mayor dinken who died last year at 93 years old. he does not come from the same jack and jill lead black society community that david dinken did. he's got a whole different swagger. he's a former cop and a captain in the pd. eric adams was a young college student. he's still alive and well, i got a chance to talk to him and the reverend says to eric adams that your role in this fight and community is going to be joined the police force it was a time when police kind of regarded in some ways as an occupying force in many black neighborhoods. he goes and joins any way and the rest is history. i try to get, you have somebody goes to ghana and spiritually cleansed. you have somebody that parties into the night at nightclubs but yet is also -- who is this guy? he's very familiar figure. he's got that swagger. he's got that is wonderful queens accent that'll be so familiar to many new yorkers. i think there is a lot of voters this past year who recognize him as one of their own and they sent him to the mansion, we'll see what happens here. >> he has a great passage. he talked about law and in order but also black life matters. he parties late into the night alongside the rapper ja rule and the former chief executive, eric smith. he sounds nothing like barack obama. >> mara gay, great piece, thank you for bringing it this piece. a fifth straight day of flight disruptions as millions of americans travel for the holidays. we'll have a live report just ahead and what you can expect. in august, the u.s. ended its 20 years fight in afghanistan, richard engel is taking a look back at the withdrawal and where it leads the war-torn country today. 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[cheering] that was awesome. and, the hits won't quit, with peacock premium included at no additional cost. all that entertainment built in. xfinity. a way better way to watch. good morning, a beautiful live picture at reagan national forest in washington. the surge of covid and along winter weather are reeking havoc. more than a thousand flights were cancelled and leaves thousands of passengers stranded across the country. sam brock is live in miami. sam, good morning, how is it looking down there? >> reporter: when we last spoke on sunday, the situation is challenging and not a lot has changed since then. there is about 700 flight domestically cancelled already. 560 and counting delays. the good news is travel experts say this should be getting better but then new year is around the corner, it should be a challenge. >> reporter: a brutal one-two punch of covid and weather delay. >> about 4:00 in the morning and we got to the airport and got on the plane and everything was fine and so one of the pilots didn't show up. >> reporter: one out of over 30 of its flights cancelled. for delta, weather snarling traffic at key hubs bike minneapolis and salt lake city and seattle. >> i spent about 12 hours in the san francisco airport. >> reporter: one delta flight from tampa to atlanta had to deal with criminal behavior. >> a woman ber raided a man for not wearing a mask. >> it evolves in punching and scratching. >> reporter: delta says the company has zero tolerance for unruly behavior. airlines for america and several airlines ceos supporting the shorter quarantine time issued by the cdc for sick crew members. the flight attendants association has deep concerns. >> ten days may not be right for every single case. it's going to be more right than five days would be where we know some people would be forced to come back to work while they are still sick. >> reporter: dr. fauci suggesting it may be time to require a vaccination to fly. >> if you want to do that with domestic flights, that's something seriously should be considered. >> reporter: dr. fauci did clarify with kristen welker last night that no decision is coming. he says it's day by day or week by week at this point. back to you. >> be nice to those flight attendants on the plane. that's a very tough job right now. sam brock, thank you so much. the weather is not cooperating. parts o the west is getting hammered with know and rain triggering power outages and highway closures as well. the midwest is getting its own winter blast. steve pat patterson is live at bear, california. >> reporter: it's no doubt a winter wonderland here. those who are not used to this weather, it could be downright dangerous, experts are advising those living in this high-risk area to stay inside and safe. >> reporter: a powerful blast of winter from coast to coast over 30 million americans under winter weather alerts, storms and snow already blanketing the west in the next two days. northern california, white house conditions causing chaos. there were so bad that it would be impossible to get one exit to another. >> reporter: miles of interstate highways shut down. road ways coated in ice and snow. >> this is the most snow we have had in 12 years. so much snow fell at some lake tahoe ski resorts that they had to shutdown. >> reporter: in seattle, friday jed temperatures sending a chill through the region, the coldest in years. >> parts of oregon is getting pummelled the governor declared a state of emergency in the new year. >> reporter: blizzard conditions blasting the region, from minnesota to the dakotas. windchills as low as 50 below zero now in the forecast. authorities want the safest way to ride out the year end winter weather blits. >> stay home and enjoy the holiday. >> reporter: back here in big bear, a winter storm advisory just expired, more snow over night dumping nothing but fresh powder on the ground which is great news for the ski resors in the area but the road is still very dangerous as the system moves east. >> nbc's steve patterson. very good to see you. after two years of uncertainty for movie theaters. a whole a lot of americans headed out to see a movie in particular. >> reporter: the big screen is mounting a block buster come back. >> i am going to keep my mask the whole time but i am not really concerned. >> reporter: a power house showing with "spider-man" raking in more than a billion at the global box office. the first pandemic era film to hit that mark. the industry is looking to bounce back. >> i have to see it again. >> this girl is on fire. >> reporter: seeing two by a parent company, universal brought in $41 million. >> reporter: "the matrix" debuts in theaters pulled $22.5 million. 1 in 5 adults feeling comfortable coming back. marvel movies will continue to lure many movie goers to their universe with sequels to hit franchises like "dr. strange," "thor" and "black panther" and "batman" and the return of tom cruise and "mission impossible vii." next year disney plus will debut new exclusive titles like "hocus pocus ii." the move that may get more people back to the theater. >> in 2022, do you think we'll see fewer movies release? >> we'll go back to the theatrical first model, makes movies more coveted. >> reporter: movies were shout down forcing many to turn to virtual showing. amc's theaters posted a lost of $4.6 billion in 2020. the company is looking for new way to retaining customers, investing in bitcoin or selling popcorn outside the theater as the industry looks to rebound in the years ahead. >> it's a resilient business, people love going out to the movies. >> i can't stop. >> so jonathan lemire, i picked up my son and his buddy about 10:00 last night, they came out of "spider-man," reviews glowing from the 12-year-old. that number and given the circumstances, we are in a pandemic. the last two years have become a custom to that and for a billion dollars for "spider-man" is unreal. when i saw the box office, i read it twice because i thought i read it wrong. ages 10 and 7 are precisely in that "spider-man" demographic. they loved that. we have not been to the theaters yet since the pandemic began. this may get us there. to under line challenges presented by screaming services and the movie industry, they're most excited about in the few days we get "boba fett," that's streaming. >> and shout out to "sing too," great movie. my wife and i saw that. i was home with the dogs, broncos and i watched "don't look up." "sing too" was incredible. >> still ahead, look back at one of the most controversial foreign policy decisions in deck decades. the americans withdrawal from afghanistan, richard engel covers the report. we'll have his reporting next. . we'll have his reporting next. ♪ baby got back by sir mix-a-lot ♪ unlimited cashback match... only from discover. superpowers from a spider bite? i could use some help showing the world how liberty mutual customizes their car insurance. ow! i'm ok! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ only in theaters december 17th. ♪ ♪ ♪ what if you could see the details of your great-grandparents wedding day... ...or the record that welcomed your great-grandmother to the world. your family story is waiting to be discovered, and now you can search for those fascinating details for free—at ancestry. oh yeah, we gotta take off. and now you can search you downloaded the td ameritrade mobile app? yeah, actually i'm taking one last look at my dashboard before we board... and you have thinkorswim mobile- -so i can finish analyzing the risk on this position. you two are all set. choose the app that fits your investing style. ♪♪ plaque psoriasis, the tightness, stinging... ...the pain. emerge tremfyant®. with tremfya®, adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis... ...can uncover clearer skin and improve symptoms at 16 weeks. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. emerge tremfyant® with tremfya®... ask you doctor about tremfya® today. mission control, we are go for launch. um, she's eating the rocket. ♪♪ lunchables! built to be eaten. richard engel reports. >> reporter: 20 years, 2,461 soldiers killed and tens of thousands afghans killed, $2 trillion spent. so much blood and treasure only for it all to end. on august 15th, as u.s. troops were pulling out. the afghan military which washington spent $88 billion to train and equip collapsed. the u.s. backed president fled the country, the taliban swept into kabul. afghans rushed to the airport. escape seems to be the safest option. the withdrawal only got more chaotic and violent. isis decided the take a parting shop, suicide bombers who killed 200 afghans and 13 american service members. >> these members who gave their lives, it's over use words but they are our heroes. the signs were badly to missed but seemingly ignored. in may, months before the withdraw the taliban went down the offensive, they face little resistance from the afghan army and rapidly advanced across the country. still the u.s. seemed unphased. in july, the united states pulled out of the air base. the biggest base in the country. ing bahraim to pull out. >> reporter: they left them a base that the americans looks like they alluded themselves. >> how do you feel about the way the americans left this space? >> translator: i don't want to talk about it he says. >> reporter: after the united states abandoned bahraim, the afghan army further splintered and the taliban entered. now the talibans are the government. >> reporter: a few months ago would have been impossible for me to ride in a car like this with these men who still apart of an organization that's internationally designated as a terrorist group. now there is not even hostility and they are glad to show me around and glad to show that they are in charge. >> reporter: and afghan especially women must accept whatever rights are given. even though the u.s. effectively handed afghanistan over to the taliban, the united states government sanctioned the group and refuses to release about $10 billion in government funds. further aiding afghanistan's economic collapse. the united nation warns afghanistan economic melt down could become the worst humanitarian crisis it ever seen. ending the war may or may not have been a right decision, the way it was done seems to set the country up for failure and embolden our enemy aversaadvers. the united states does not always stick with its allies. whatever happens to their people will likely be their problem. richard engel who's been reporting from afghanistan for 20 years now. katty, he paints a bleak picture where things are right now and whether or not it was a right decision. historians can decide there could be no more debate that was chaotic as america left over the summer. women and girls had been a focus, you can see it on their faces of the progress that was made and unraveling quickly under the taliban. >> you had a whole generation of women who were after the taliban fell in 2002. they were allowed to go to schools and university and started to participate in society and when the taliban rolled back in and took back over, the country had high school girls not allowed to go to school anymore. their younger brothers can go to school but teenage girls have been shut out of education. they won't be going to universities and the country will lose a huge number of talented people that it needs. it was the picture of the end of richard's report that really struck me, too. we are starting to see that from other agencies as well. there is a phamming blooming in the country, 80% of the afghan's government budget before the taliban took over. those eight donors disappeared and most of the financing have been cut-off. the results of that have been people starving and people really being squeezed because there is no money in the country, it's impossible getting money out of the banks and inflation is skyrocketing, the situation for ordering afghans whether or not you think it was right of the americans and international forces to pull out the situation for afghans right now is catastrophic. >> and 2500 americans gave their lives over the last 20 years to go in after the attack of september 11th and prevent another attack here on our soil, they did just that. still ahead, covid outbreaks, it sees once again is disrupting the cruise industry. we have a live report from kerry sanders after a number of ships carried infectious passengers were turned away from foreign ports. you are watching ""morning joe," we'll be right back. ""morning " we'll be right back. ♪♪ ♪♪ inner voice (kombucha brewer): i'm dramatically holding this bottle, so the light hits it just right, and people think... wow... ...he knows what he's doing... ...when i'm actually pretty lost with my payroll taxes. intuit quickbooks helps you manage your payroll taxes. cheers. 100% accurate payroll tax calculations guaranteed. when you have xfinity xfi, you have peace of mind cheers. built in at no extra cost. advanced security helps keep your family protected online. pause wifi whenever for ultimate control with the xfinity app. and family-safe browsing gives parents one less thing to worry about. security, control and peace of mind. with xfinity xfi, it's all built in at no extra cost. 7:53 in the morning. what a beautiful shot of the pier in naples, florida. as the omicron spreads across the united states, it's spreading outbreaks at sea. cruise ships experiencing on-board covid outbreaks being turned away from the caribbean and mexico. kerry sanders is live from port everglade, florida. good morning. >> good morning, and thankfully this is nothing like the spring of 2020 where we had teaming launch ships and trapping voyages for weeks. this new outbreak, mostly asim asymptomatic, comes on time as most of the ships were covid free. >> reporter: the holland american ship back in san diego, after getting turned away from port vallarta, mexico, after a number of undisclosed members tested positive, even though the company said they were fully vaccinated. >> they let us know hey, look, we let the authorities know that there's people on the crew that are sick. >> reporter: lynn hoffman was on board. >> everybody on the ship wears masks. again, this might be one of the safest places because everybody's vaccinated. we were very careful. >> reporter: now back in florida, the carnival freedom was turned away from aruba after an undisclosed number on board tested positive. >> i feel like i was in a petri dish waiting too get covid. >> reporter: ashley peterson, on an eight-day cruise, said it was a nightmare. >> i didn't feel safe at all. i spent most of the time in my cabin. >> reporter: royal caribbean odyssey at the seas spent one day at the sea before turning back to fort lauderdale after a passenger tested positive. and more than 50 people came down with covid on another ship. these outbreaks happening despite enhanced safety protocols. all three cruise lines requiring passengers to show proof of vaccination and negative covid test, while encouraging mask use indoors. >> i had no concerns at all. cleanliness standards were really good. i think they responded really quickly to continuing everything. >> reporter: not the holiday season the cruise ship industry was hoping for. as they anticipate a busy 2022. and, of course, taking a cruise to ring in the new year is extremely popular, but after this news out there, from may be passengers who are a little bit anxious so if they want to get their money back and cancel the cruise, that's really a ship by ship, cruise line by cruise line call. in some cases you can get your money back and other cases you cancel but get a ship board credit for a future cruise. bottom line if you're taking a cruise, getting ready to go, be aware as itineraries may change. some ports of call, some islands, are turning ships away. >> sounds like some people may want to delay their travel plans. ships are pretty packed now. kerry sanders in fort lauderdale, thank you very much. new cdc guidelines for asymptomatic people who test positive for covid, we'll try to clear up some confusion with the doctor. and richard gere will be our guest. "morning joe" is coming right back. ♪ just remember this my girl when you look up in the sky ♪ tremfya® is approved to help reduce joint symptoms in adults with active psoriatic arthritis. some patients even felt less fatigued. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. emerge tremfyant® with tremfya®... ask you doctor about tremfya® today. i've lost count of how many asthma attacks i've had. but my nunormal with nucala? fewer asthma attacks. nucala is a once-monthly add-on injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred. don't stop steroids unless told by your doctor. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. may cause headache, injection-site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. ask your doctor about nucala. find your nunormal with nucala. good morning, it is just four days until we flip the calendar to a new year. i'm willie geist. joe and mika have the morning off. and joining us katty kay, and white house chief of politico, happy almost new year. and let's dive in. the cdc is out with you in guidelines >> reporter: the cdc cutting the recommended quarantine time in half for all americans infected with covid-19, from ten to five days, if they're asymptomatic for five days. by 5:00 in the morning, lines of south florida were forming with prospects of free covid testing kits luring thousands. >> empty shelves everywhere. >> they're all in stock. they're all fine, but i guess they all disappeared in a matter of three days. like they just weren't there. >> reporter: at this library in miami-dade county, you're looking at two different lines right now. this is for free testing kits. this one is for testing on site. both of them snake around the building in both directions with no end in sight. it's a miami microcosm of a national crisis. chaos from new york to charlotte to dallas. president biden pressed on the inadequate supply. >> seen how tough it was for some folks to get a test this weekend shows we have more work to do. we quadruple the number of pharmacies offering the free test and there are now more than 20,000 places to get tested for free. >> reporter: that expanded access comes alongside some alarming developments. and in new york city, the number of kids hospitalized quad druping from 22 in early december to 109 through last week. >> 0% of them were fully vaccinated children. they're not seeing any cases of vfled children in the hospital right now. >> reporter: that pushed new york's governor to make this plea. >> parents, i'm calling on you. this is the time, you have the kids home from school. there's plenty of vaccination opportunities from your pediatrician to a site set up by the state of new york, our urgent care centers. >> reporter: new york city also implementing the strictest private sector vaccine mandate in the country, while also adding even more testing like this site in times square. >> this is a priority. like don't eat the steaks, never mind the chicken. go get covid tested or get the vaccine. >> reporter: health care workers increasingly are trying to address full icus with depleted staffs. >> i feel like every shifts we have text messages that go out that say we're short and looking for a nurse but a lot of people are burnt out. >> reporter: the attrition taking a toll across the globe, with israel testing out a fourth shot to help strengthen its virus-stricken frontline. >> sam brock reporting for us there. let's bring in physician and fellow at the brookings institution, dr. kavita patel, msnbc medical contributor as well. there's a lot to get through there. just in the announcement alone yesterday from the cdc, let's start there, where you have the isolation period cut in half from ten days to five days from people who have covid and been exposed to it. what went in to that decision? >> yeah, willie, a lot of us are asking that question because what went into it were data that actually existed well beyond this past year with early experiences with covid, but unfortunately, a lot of data that the cdc even cites in its background information from omicron, which we know is the here and now. but data had supported up until omicron that if you were positive to asymptomatic, or if your symptoms resolved, your period of being infectious was the early few days, not the last few days of that ten-day period. of course, as physicians, we've seen all sorts of cases and with omicron, i think especially, willie, i'll just say it, without having a negative test, do you really want to be sitting next to somebody who tells you, i've got my mask, it's not even a high-quality mask. the cdc didn't dictate that. and i'm resolving in my symptoms. don't worry about it, willie, you're fine next to me. i think that's actually what we're going to see. the data does support it but those are ideal situations, which we're not in. >> and there's the obvious unanswered question in this report from the cdc, what about the distinction between people who are vaccinated and people who are unvaccinated? should that period be different for those two groups? >> yes, that is something we're seeing data from the uk and other countries, including the united states, vaccination does make a difference. we do know vaccinated individuals -- this is true before omicron and seems to still hold true with omicron, although omicron is creating a scenario, willie, where even i as a triple vaccinated, original two doses and booster, still can have a pretty high viral load in my nose and be infectious. i've had patients with rapid antigen test positive even beyond the ten-day period. it begs the question, how will we know what this infectious period really is in order to be safe to return people to work? and i have to say, part of me can't help but feel like this policy came on the heels of these headlines we're just talking about, health care workers shortages, airlines canceling flights, scarcity in the economy of workers. i do think this was the right policy eventually, but communication has not been very good, not a shock. i worry telling people to trust to wear a mask after day five is absolutely going to fall flat. we've already seen that completely not work in this country. >> and then there's the question, it's not a medical question, but you can speak to it if you want to, of the timing of this, there are a lot of people in this country who looked at the announcement and said that would have been nice to know a week ago traveling for christmas. a lot of people canceled plans or amended them, anyway, because of the ten-day waiting period. what about the timing of the announcement, which gets to the communication you were just talking about? >> i do think that -- look, i have always tried to give some latitude, whatever administration it may be to scientists and epidemiologists at the cdc. but i will say december 27th, right after you had now literally -- we still will, by the way, willie, these christmas gatherings that we've already had and holiday gatherings will result in the next two to three weeks in the scores, millions of people testing positive. i do think the timing is something that does consume awfully coincidental to come on the back end. but we're talking about schools reopening. the majority of the country's schools reopen next monday. it will be an important question to see how this guidance plays out in schools. as we know, so many of these schools are quarantined or shutdown before the holidays. what will happen when schools are pressured to reopen and they do not have these measures in place. teachers who do not have high-quality masks, air ventilations. those are the critical differences that would be nice to see and media advisory and plain language to people. the quality of your mask matters. we should throw away these fabric masks. even i've been throwing them in the garbage now. they're useless pretty much at this point. >> dr. patel, of course, this change comes at a moment when there is a nationwide shortage of tests, particularly in some of the big cities along east and west coast. but those who have had tests have shown at times they will test negative day one, day two, they feel ill, negative, negative, book, then comes the positive. it seems this particular variant is hit or miss and hard to pick up at times anecdotally. doesn't that add a further degree to risk in the change to the guidelines where after five days you're saying to people, hey, go outside and we'll take your word for it you're okay? >> yeah, absolutely, and i compared the u.s. policy with other countries that have either implemented or are similar implementing policies, uk, for example, people have to test negative. you have to prove yourself. we have data from workplace and school testing programs that highlight, jonathan, exactly what you said. people will have a symptom, test negative, test negative with a rapid test and get a pcr test, which is much better, that will be positive. short supplies, delays, lines around the corner. we know that's another kind of -- to willie's comment earlier, this feels the timing as well as lack of comment on testing for isolation. let me be clear, isolation is what happens when you have a positive test or symptom. a quarantine is what happens when you're exposed. i'm also shortening the quarantining time if you're vaccinated, the cdc makes that distinction. but this testing positive, if your symptoms, quote, resolve -- i have to tell you after almost 20 years in practice, i don't know if i can trust even myself. you want to go back to work, if that's your only paycheck, you bet you're going to think your symptoms are resolving. who makes that assessment? it's less up to the individual. >> to be clear, you can test positive 10, 12 days after first feeling symptoms? and if you did, should you still be quarantining at that point or under the new guidelines, i guess, an indication of how confused we all are, under the new guidelines can you leave quarantine? >> that's exactly the point. i do think that timing of your -- especially if you're quarantining because you're exposed to somebody, i do think if you're vaccinated and your asymptomatic and you tested negative around day five, that's if you only have been exposed, not if you're symptomatic and have a positive test, i do think you can end quarantine early. i agree the conor mcgregor did the right thing on that policy. that's consistent if you're vaccinated and you don't have to hide away in your house waiting to test. but if you tested positive, katty, to your comment, if you tested positive and symptomatic and just wait, we've seen patients who have been testing positive not just day ten, they've been testing positive 12 days. that's not the norm but it is possible. we know those people are still likely to be to be infectious. that's the point, without testing, without a distinction for a vaccinated individual and without some criteria to say what does it mean your symptoms are resolving? what are the symptoms you should be looking for, these all mimic the common cold. i could have somebody with a true cold, nobody ability to get a test or not tested, and can be locked into this confusing advisory from the cdc for weeks even. >> our long list of questions to you this morning even speak to the confusion a lot of people have about this. let's take a step back before we let you go, dr. patel, and get a snapshot as we come up on the end of the year where you feel like we are. the omicron variant changed a lot of things but as you said many times, those are vaccinated, hospitalization and death is way down and most people in the hospital are unvaccinated, as has been true most of this year. what's your sense of where we are in this pandemic as we turn the corner here to a new year? >> i think we have turned a corner. i think omicron have defined how we're turning the corner with the value of information. i know there's enough misinformation in the public some would like to jump on that quote/unquote, vaccines don't work. but you're right, we're keeping people out of the hospital. by the way, even with the surge of cases, we're not seeing a proportional rise of hospitalizations, to your point vaccines are helping keep people out of the emergency room. i think we turned a corner very different from a year ago and also turned a quarter into something unknown. i would like to believe with an omicron surge this will burn out and this will create an environment where now cases become more like a common flu or endemic as we'd like to call it. more immunity across the country. but the virus just keeps throwing us curveballs, mutating, and we have to stay vigilant on boosters. the comment in the uk and whether or not they need a fourth shot, this is a public that is tired and we can't get more confusing information out of our science advisory group at the federal level. so we're turning a corner where this is going to create either incredible fatigue and people just give up and nobody will listen, even people like me who want to follow the science, or we will actually be able to say, look, we've got through this big hump and we're going to be able to get on the other side. for doing it, through vaccinating, wearing masks when we need to, honestly, i would tell everybody watching, with this change in advisory, get yourself a high-quality mask, wear it wherever you're around people you don't know because this could change the game. that's where we are. >> good advice. we threw a lot at you this morning. appreciate you helping us make sense of this. dr. kavita patel, always great to see you. thank you so much. amid the increase for covid cases and long lines for testing, president biden is working to reassure state and local leaders about the administration's response to the pandemic. the president held a phone call with governors yesterday promising to provide aid to states struggling with the omicron variant. he also acknowledged states and local governments need to take the lead in controlling the spread. here's what some of president biden said just before that phone call. >> look, there is no federal solution. this gets solved at the state level. my message to the governor is simple, if you need something, say something. and we're going to have your back in any way we can. seeing how tough it was for some folks to get a test this weekend shows we have more work to do and we're doing it. bottom line is we want to ensure the american people we're prepared, we know what it takes. as this group of bipartisan governors have shown, we're going to get through it by working together. >> so jonathan, the headline, there is no federal solution, obviously flies in the face, frankly, of the reason why joe biden was elected in many ways, the federal government was going to take control of this effort to get us out of the covid pandemic here. what did he mean by that? obviously, president trump came under heavy criticism, and rightly so, so sort of making the same case when he was president. >> now, you've provided the right context there, willie. the president's comments there raised a lot of eyebrows on both sides of the aisle because it flies, frankly, as a complete contradiction to what he said earlier in the year, where he said no, the federal government is going to be in charge of this. we're going to steer the nation out of this pandemic. we can do the big things. it was a central piece of his campaign. it was oppose donald trump, of course, but to say yes, we can get control of this pandemic. and against what donald trump said on more than one occasion in 2020, he put the onus on the states. the yesterday were quick to clarify what the president meant. he was trying to say there he needed cooperation from the states. the states could no longer be an obstacle, hindrance to the federal response to this virus. we know there have been some republican governors in states like texas and florida that have resisted things like mask mandates, pushed back against vaccine mandates, have many times been an obstacle to what washington has tried to do to battle this pandemic. and that's what the president meant. the government, of course, in the midst of trying to surge 500 million tests across the country over the next month or so. a lot of kinks to be worked out as to how exactly that will happen. we, of course, know the cdc changed its guidelines yesterday as we just discussed, as a lot of employers are really having trouble finding workers right now. and we are seeing cases just soar across the country. and, yes, omicron appears milder for those who are double vaccinated and boostered. but certainly those who are unvaccinated, at great risk. we are seeing hospitals fill up across the country. federal health officials told me they're deeply concerned about the state of play in a number of states. i will say it was refreshing, doe spite the pushback from some familiar republican governors, asa hutchison actually offered bipartisan praise for the federal government yesterday, for the biden administration's response. white house officials quick to point that out, but that's the exception rather than the rule. coming up -- as severe weather combines with omicron-driven staff shortages, we are seeing more flights canceled coast to coast. we'll have the latest on the travel disruptions as so many of you try to make your way across this country. that's next on "morning joe." finally. our honeymoon. it took awhile, but at least we got a great deal on our hotel with kayak. i was afraid we wouldn't go.. with our divorce and.... great divorce guys. yeah... search 100s of travel sites at once. kayak. search one and done. i brought in ensure max protein, with thirty grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! 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[cheering] that was awesome. and, the hits won't quit, with peacock premium included at no additional cost. all that entertainment built in. xfinity. a way better way to watch. when you're born and raised in san francisco, you grow up wanting to make a difference. that's why, at recology, we're proud to be 100% employee owned with local workers as diverse as san francisco. we built the city's recycling system from the ground up, helping to make san francisco the greenest big city in america but we couldn't do it without you. thank you, san francisco. gracias, san francisco. -thank you. -[ speaks native language ] let's keep making a difference together. ♪♪ that surge of coronavirus cases we've been talking about this morning is causing disruptions in the airline industry. more than 1,000 flights were canceled in the u.s. yesterday, as staff and crew members called out sick due to covid, leaving thousands of passengers stranded during one of the busiest holiday travel periods of the year. and severe weather out west is only adding more strain to the system. nbc's steve patterson has the latest on that. but fist, here's nbc's kerry sanders. >> reporter: beyond the snowstorms and wicked winds that caused delays and cancellations, airline employees forced to call in sick and quarantine due to coronavirus now may be back on the job sooner. the decision by the cdc to reduce quarantines to five days down from ten means airline employees, just like health care workers who tested positive, can now return to work sooner if they feel better. >> i do think airlines are in a position to begin to catch up in the next few days. >> reporter: in part because of the fast-spreading omicron variant, airlines were facing employee shortages this past weekend. that led to more than 2,500 flight cancellations and it began a domino effect. the hall family with a long morning delay from michigan to florida. what time did you guys wake up? >> we woke up about 4:00 in the morning. >> we kind of woke up at 7:00 and were there on time. >> got on the plane and everything was fine but a pilot didn't show up. >> hour turned into an hour, 2 1/2 hours, but we got here. >> reporter: the flight attendants' union wanted the ten-day quarantine to remain, saying anything shorter was caving to business pressure. >> what we are doing is saying profits are more important than people. we can't abide by that. >> reporter: this comes as flight attendants, who are physically closest to passenger, were forced yet again sunday to break up a fight. one unmasked passenger confronting another who pulled his mask down to eat. >> this is not the picture of what aviation is. and it needs to stop. >> reporter: a blast of winter weather turning parts of the west into a blustering snow globe making holiday travel treacherous. in northern california, whiteout conditions on the road. >> it was so bad, it would be basically impossible to get from one exit to another. >> reporter: the sierra mountains hit with several feet of snow, shattering december records, burying houses, stranding travelers, shutting down several major interstates. the blizzards sparking several spinouts, accidents and roadside rescues. the snow direly needed, after years of thinning, the sierra mountains that fuels the water supply got a boost. but the overwhelming snow forcing ski resorts to shut down. 25 million winter weather alerts from coast to coast. in the pacific northwest, frigid temperatures causing winter worries. >> too many people don't know how to drive in the snow. >> reporter: parts getting pummeled while washington state preps for an unusual cold snap. in the west, blasting the minnesota to the dakotas. fargo, near-zero visibility, windchills as low as 50 below zero in the forecast, a deep freeze closing out the year with more to come. >> nbc's steve patterson reporting for us there. still ahead -- one year after january 6th, we're learning new details about a phone call former president trump made just hours before the capitol attack, and lawmakers want more information. "morning joe" is coming right back. ♪♪ welcome to allstate. ( phone notification ) where you can pay a little less and enjoy the ride a little more. now, get new lower auto rates. you're in good hands with allstate. click or call for a lower rate today. it's time for our lowest prices of the season on the sleep number 360 smart bed. it senses your movements and automatically adjusts to relieve pressure points. you're in good hands with allstate. and its temperature balancing so you both sleep just right. save up to $1,000 on sleep number 360 smart beds. plus, no interest until january 2025. ends january 3rd. ♪ ♪ ♪ i'm so glad we're finally on vacation. yeah, and kayak made it so easy - searching hundreds of travel sites to find us a great flight. my ears still won't pop after the flight but i don't even care.... what? kayak. search one and done. the house select committee on january 6th will hold public hearings in the new year on the attack on the united states capitol. "the washington post" reporting the looming midterm elections have added a sense of urgency to the committee's work as republicans are expected to shut down the probe if they regain control of congress. the panel is examining whether to recommend the justice department pursue charges against anyone, including former president donald trump, and whether legislative proposals are needed to help prevent valid election results from being overturned in the future. the committee is zeroing in on the january 6th activities of republican lawmakers jim jordan of ohio and scott perry of pennsylvania. also, on a january 5th phone call, that's according to "the guardian." it was made by then president trump to his lieutenants working out of the willard hotel up the street that, quote, attempted to stop ways to the certification to take place the next day. they're looking at details of the conversation held in documents by the national archives. trump is fighting the release of those records in a case before the supreme court. joining us now, congressional reporter for "the guardian," hugo lowell, who's been reporting extensively on the select committee investigating the january 6th attack and breaking an awful lot of news out of there. hugo, it's great to have you with us this morning. walk us through this call on january 6th, alleged to be from the president to the willard hotel. what was the substance of that call and why is the committee looking so closely at it? >> yes, this pivotal moment on january 5th into the early hours of january 6th where trump picked up a phone call from the white house, according to our sources, and instructed his personal operatives at the willard hotel to find ways to keep the certification from taking place at all at the joint sessions of congress january 6th. if you speak to trump's allies, they say this was not a big deal. he was just trying to find ways to delay the certification to fight another day. but i always thought this was a very disingenuous characterization, because either way, whether through action or inaction, he managed to get the certification stopped, and the capitol was attacked, and now it's going to loom large in the community's investigation if they can get the backing of the supreme court. >> here we have two questions about the former president. first, what's the timetable to when we get a decision from the supreme court as to whether the records will be turned over. >> the committee asked for the supreme court right for an expedited decision in the archives case. trump is claiming executive privilege over a couple hundred documents that are held from the previous administration. we're looking at probably the spring if they grant it, which i think they are likely to do. if you talk to councilmen on the committee and counsel for trump as well. that's the timeline we're looking at. >> so this is a classic investigation where you start with the small fish and lead up to the big one. it seems in the recent weeks there was growing interest on trump personally, and what he was doing, not just meadows and bannon, the former president himself. the people you talked to, and you're obviously very sourced in this, what is the growing likelihood some sort of action will be taken against trump personally. >> i think it's increasingly becoming more likely because they are looking at criminal referrals for the former president. they're still looking at bannon and still looking at giuliani and these are the guys in the world trump called on the night of january 5 and sought advice from. there were ones with bannon and people fliek flynn and people all throughout the willard. >> plenty of rooms available. >> plenty of rooms available across the street from the white house. it was a stone's throw from the white house right up pennsylvania avenue by the capitol. this is going to loom pivotally in the investigation but, it's true, they're focusing on the malability of trump himself, whether he directed the willard to conduct the attack and unravel that sort of conspiracy. >> to talk about the phone call and what the select committee might be able to find out from the records, presuming they can get ahold of the records from the national archives, they can find out what time it was made and who it was made to, but how are they going to find out what the content of the phone call was? if they can't find out the content of the phone call, how much good is it? >> i think this is the key question. i caught up with the chairman of the select committee, bennie thompson, before congress broke for recess a couple weeks ago and he told me -- and we say this in the story, they're going to ask the national archives for all of the white house's communications from january 5 and january 6, and if trump made that call to the willard and those calls to the willard because he called the lawyers separately and federal operatives separately, those calls would be reflected in those records. they're just records, of course. they tell you time, date, duration of the call and intended targets but they don't give you a transcript, they don't tell you the content of the calls. short of the committee interviewing and getting definitions and testimony from people involved in the willard operation, i think it's very, very difficult for them to find out the contents of the calls. i think there's one caveat, and that is if someone like bannon or eastman or giuliani talked to other people and they then are deposed by the committee, an aide, adviser, and they can inform the committee what they learned from those people directly in the room, then maybe that's the way the committee goes. coming up next -- actor richard gere lends his voice to a global cause. he joins us next with a look at his latest project. 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>> well, you know, a friend came to me and said he was making this documentary up. i said what -- what's the point? we -- most of us are concerned about climate. and he said, well, look, i don't think people realize that the earth is heating up much faster than any of the models would indicate. and i think this is an attempt to explain why, and it's truly around the fact when the earth is heating, the hottest years and the last thousands, many thousands of years on earth, the hottest years since 2000. so we are in this hyper heating mode right now. and what we are seeing as the earth heats up, it kicks in other systems, these feedback loops, that make it heat even faster, and so we're getting to a tipping point much quicker than any of the models would have indicated. >> there's no question about it, richard. as you know, you look at a younger generation, you just look at polling and they're awareness and concern about climate change is exponentially higher than older generations. so there is progress being made in awareness and maybe this new generation takes the baton. how do you use your voice and platform to break through? because so many people have said what you're saying for so long, how do you punch through to all of the people who need to hear this? >> i don't know. look, this young girl, this extraordinary girl greta, wrote everybody up about the passion points and responsibility and sanity. i think she was speaking for the 7.8 billion people on the planet who relied on our children and great grandchildren. the planet will not be here if we continue what we're doing. we have to stop with the fossil fuels. we have to stop. if we don't and continue to cut down our old growth trees, this planet will heat up and people will die in the millions and most of the species on this planet will be gone. that's a fact. now, why we don't pay attention to that, why we have politicians who don't pay attention to that, why we don't hold them responsibility, why don't we elect people who take this seriously, economy doesn't mean much if there's no planet. economy doesn't mean much when there's no healthy place for us to live on this planet. so kind of so many choices being made to maintain a status quo while using fossil fuel and cutting down forests all over the planet is a dead end. >> richard, katty kay here. it's a super difficult story to tell and engage audiences with. one of the ways we found when we try to talk about it on television if you have something concrete, something people can visualize. can you describe one of those feedback loops for us, whether it's in the forest for permafrost. what actually is taking place? >> the permafrost is probably the easiest. there's 100 feet of snow, which is frozen, and as the earth heats up that permafrost melts. there's a co2 released and methane that would not have been released otherwise. and when that enters the atmosphere it creates more of a greenhouse effect and rapidly heats up the planet. that's simplified. this is a very complex thing. as any scientist would tell you in this field and documentary they speak eloquently about this, the climate and the ecology of this planet is incredibly complex. but this idea of feedback loops is something that is radically changing our understanding of how quickly we're getting to a tipping point. >> hey, richard, good morning, jonathan lemire. so much of this as you outlined is so big, right. government action, the united states, china, india, whatever it might be. what lessons can people watching at home in their everyday lives take. we've all got recycling bins outside. but beyond that, what can we do to make a difference, even small that can add up, to combat climate change? >> biggest thing you can do is elect people that take it seriously. this has to come from the "ghost" side. unfortunately we had a president pullous out of the paris accords, and that was a huge blow to the environmental community. the u.s. is always expected to be a leader in these things, and when we pulled out, it took the oxygen out of the movement for a while. but that's the biggest thing. certainly we know we can't cut down old growth trees. that's basic. one of the scientists in this program, he talks about trying to create a technology, a machine that will help take the carbon out of -- co2 out of the air and everything they invent is basically a tree. and we have our trees. we still have 5% of the old growth trees on this planet. we can't cut them down. and that's our lungs, that's the most important thing. that's what we can do, elect people who take this seriously and hold them accountable. >> what gives you hope as you look out on the horizon here. we talk about the younger generation taking this seriously. what gives you hope? >> i see it there, old guys like me and you're almost as old as i am, not quite yet. >> knocking on the door. >> us old guys are on the other side of things, and we are in many ways stuck in the stat use quo. young people aren't. they're looking to their own futures and they're seeing this planet heat up and destroy itself. we got no other home. this is it. and they see that their home is being destroyed and i do look to them, i look to them to be the power to elect responsible governments all over the planet. greta thunberg is such an enlightened creature and so inspiring. the dalai lama incredibly inspired by her. >> richard gere, "the earth emergency" premieres tomorrow night at 8:00 on pbs. we're so grateful you stopped to talk with us, richard. >> thanks, willie. you take care of yourself. >> you do the same. still ahead on "morning joe" -- >> this is serious breaking news but a little behind the scenes, little flavor. i'm with one of the most legitimate correspondents on earth. if you're interviewing me, jacob, you face it -- hold on a second, a big black -- we're safe. sports, all right, that's our news today. >> wondering what you just saw? videos strikingly realistic but completely fake tom cruise, viewed. s millions of times on tiktok. rapidly advancing technology sparking those online and some in the fbi. be receipt back with more "morning joe." oe." inner voice (sneaker shop owner): i'm surprising my team with a preview of the latest sneaker drop. because i can answer any question about any shoe. but i'm stumped when it comes to payroll. intuit quickbooks helps you easily run payroll in less than 5 minutes... ...so you can stay... one step ahead. my nunormal? fewer asthma attacks with nucala. a once-monthly add-on injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. nucala reduces eosinophils, a key cause of severe asthma. nucala is not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred. don't stop steroids unless told by your doctor. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. may cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue. ask your doctor about nucala. find your nunormal with nucala. welcome back to "morning joe." 8:56 in the morning. a beautiful look south from the top of our building here at 30 rockefeller plaza, down to one world trade. deep fakes or digitally manipulated videos images and awed yore becoming increasingly common. some nearly impossible to detect. now the man behind one of the most best known deep fakes speaking out why and why he's fooled so many and the threat poseds by that technology. nbc news correspondent jacob soboroff has the story. >> reporter: all year long deep tom cruise posting video what appears to be a different side of the oscar nominated actor. >> people surprised that i'm a big dave matthews guy. >> reporter: believe it or not, that's most definitely not tom cruise nor is this with me or our l.a. bureau. >> serious breaking news but a little behind the scene, a little flavor. with one of the most legitimate correspondents on earth. interviewing me jacob -- hold on a second. there's a bill fire! we're safe! >> reporter: you are -- the fake tom cruise. >> that's me. that's me. >> reporter: myles fisher may have an uncami resemblance but his technology is far more than an extraordinary impersonation. >> have you created the best deep fake that has ever been made. i think we have created the first deep fake that's so realistic that a large majority of people have seen. >> reporter: not only seen but fooled by, including at least one of the world's biggest celebrities. >> this is the one that justin bieber thought was real? ♪ nobody listens ♪ >> reporter: fisher says looking and sounding like the leading man made it difficult to chart his own path as an actor but decided to lean into it stumbling into role with repercussions behind hollywood. >> found my face in dismovement. fascinating to learn. bleeding edge of technology. >> reporter: started contacted a man creating viral videos for fun and only getting better. >> still got it. >> about five days maximum, six days i could turn around something like this. >> reporter: you've gone from weeks to days in a matter of a year? this technology -- advancing that rapidly? >> yeah, yeah. >> reporter: for his part the real tom cruise haven't asked them to stop or monetized the tiktok account. he didn't respond for comment from nbc news but succession in the company meta physic is now in business together looking to convince others it's worth paying for this technology, how can we use this technology creating identity rights. say tom cruise gave us consent for this likeness, move beyond small parody clips. everybody is paid for that intellectual property. >> raising ethical questions where you knit if. >> the thesis of this company that chris started begins with ethics. >> reporter: they say they'll only take on projects they consider ethical. some worry leaving companies and individuals to make that decision to be a dangerous precedent. congress held hearings on this and the fbi following the rapidly developing technology. >> should we understand it as a potential threat to our democracy? >> i think the technology is morally neutral. as it develops, the positive output will so far outweigh the negative nefarious uses. >> if you like what you're seeing, wait until you see what's coming next. [ laughter ] >> jacob soboroff reporting. think of tom cruise and probably want that shut down. interesting he hasn't asked them to do thatsimply because so many believe what they see on the internet without checking it and serious repercussions for politics. it can spread like wildfire before is lie is undone. >> interesting to hear the imitator say the positive benefits outweigh the negative benefits. positive benefits, entertainment. i see that. i'm not sure what the positive benefits are beyond an entertainment value, because very quickly you get into what potential negative sides of all of this are. the biggest one being what you just said, willie. you could have a candidate made to say something that none of us would be able to detect and soon take 20 minutes for you to be able to make a candidate say, whatever you want, joe biden, donald trump, threatening war with china. nobody would know whether that was actually what they had said or not. so -- i just don't see how they're going to regulate it, though, because this is not being but back into the bottle and we've seen congress' inability to regulate high-tech things so far. it's going in that direction, i think. >> jonathan on the up side could, have a deep fake host "way too early" three days a week and save yourself some sleep? >> not a bad idea, catch up monday, wednesday, friday, deep fake do it. i the other days. to katty's point, living in a time, politics defined by lies and misinformation and disinformation, this feels like a dangerous tool to add to that. >> jonathan, katty, thank you very much. thank all of you for watching think morning. we'll be right back here with you tomorrow morning on "morning joe." for now, yasmine vossoughian picks up the coverage. hey there, everybody. i'm yasmin