it is 10:00 a.m. eastern, 7:00 pacific. i'm chris jansing in for jose diaz-balart and there is a lot going on right now. in less than an hour, the white house covid-19 response team will hold a briefing on latest efforts to combat the coronavirus. it comes as new data shows the u.s. hitting a record seven-day case average. more than 262,000 daily u.s. cases as of yesterday, breaking a nearly year-long record. overall, the u.s. has now surpassed 53 million cases since the pandemic began, which is why federal strike teams are heading to hospitals and testing sites to help, including now to pennsylvania and georgia. there's also growing confusion this morning, over the cdc cutting its isolation guidance to five days for asymptomatic people who test positive for covid. the cdc director defended that guidance this morning and clarified why. >> i want to be very clear and say, if you have the capacity to stay home for longer, if you still have symptoms, we are not saying you have to go out after five days of isolation. we're just saying that the maximum amount of your transmissible time has already occurred, and we are saying that you should be wearing your mask after those first five days. if you are wearing your mask, if your coworker is wearing your mask, that should prevent the residual amount of transmission that is possible. >> the cdc also dramatically revised its estimate of how prevalent the omicron variant is here in the u.s., saying that it accounts for 59% of cases, much lower than the estimate given last week. and developing now, the cdc is investigating or monitoring 86 cruise ships with reported covid-19 cases onboard. we've got a stellar team with all the latest developments. shaquille brewster is in chicago. mike memoli in delaware, traveling with president biden, and dr. kavita patel is a former obama white house policy director. good to see all of you. mike, what are we expecting to hear from the white house covid response team at the top of the hour? they're under a lot of pressure right now. >> that's right, chris. it may be a holiday week, but an important time to hear from the president's top medical advisers. as you said it, we are seeing record number of cases in this country. a number of states setting all-time records, as well. and there are a number of questions for them, of course. but you'll remember, a few days ago, the president raising eyebrows when he said that there is no federal solution that this gets solved at the state level. he went on to tell the governors, who he's meeting with, that if you need something, say something. and that's what we expect to hear from the covid response team today. laying out in detail some of the measures that people have been using to tackle this. they'll be talking about the deployment of sl national guard members in 48 states. that tab being picked up by the federal government. and some nine new federal testing sites in new york. three more expected to come online in new york, philadelphia, d.c., this week. that's in addition to the more than 20 sites that have already been operational. and a significant amount of ppe that's been surged to the states in desperate need of them right now, including 1 million gloves, 350,000 face coverings. we know those are in demand. now, we know the biggest headache facing the administration right now has to do with this issue of testing. i mentioned the federal testing sites that are being set up, but there are also now questions not just about the availability of questioning, but the accuracy of some of these take-home tests. remember, the president announcing last week that they're going to be making 500,000 of these available to the public through a website last week, and the fda releasing some data yesterday saying that omicron may not be showing up in some of these take-home tests, that you might be seeing some false negatives in these. that's among the range of questions that we're going to be asking in this briefing in the next hour, chris. >> a lot of questions, dr. patel. so much confusion over the cdc's new guidelines shortening quarantine procedures for those with covid and exposed to it. i want to read what a senior health official told "the washington post." they worried that the sheer volumes of infections could mean that tens of thousands of police, firefighters, grocery workers, and other essential employees would be out of work, making it challenging to keep society functioning. even though many of the infections would be mild or produce no symptoms. and the officials said, look, obviously, there's great legitimacy to that. we're seeing it play out all across the country. are you concerned at all that economic pressures could push decisions that maybe aren't based on as much science as they should? >> absolutely. chris, especially, when there's not a testing requirement. look, i'm one of those people, if i were sick and i had a mile infection, i too would probably want to get back to work, because my colleagues having to pick up any slack, it's something that i would feel pressure to go back and do if it's safe, but how would i know it's safe, chris? i don't trust myself even with all my training. a test would help. so you could easily just for essential workers only, just like we did with vaccines, prioritize teg for those individuals. they could return so the economy would not shut down. but to have this broad policy with no explanation underneath, how to handle a situations that are just the in-betweens, what if you're immunocompromised, what if you have chronic conditions, what if you have unvaccinated children in your house, what would you recommend? i think that is absolutely causing chaos, panic, confusion, and unintentionally will lead to more infection. >> well, let's take one perfect example. we're just a few days from new year's eve, and there is so much mixed messaging. we've heard dr. fauci and others suggesting small gatherings with known people, same thing they said for christmas, but a lot of places are allowing full-on parties. we're still going to see thousands and thousands of people in times square. there are so many people, dr. patel, who are just so mentally and physically spent from the pandemic, they feel they need to go out and celebrate. they feel sometimes they need to do things they wouldn't have done necessarily, a year ago, because they're exhausted. but what's the fallout going to be? >> yeah, count me in those categories of people that are mentally exhausted. every situation i'm saying, well, everybody's vaccinated, and what if we all just agree to wear masks, wouldn't that be okay? here's why i encourage people to have a pause on that moment. the fallout could be incredibly serious. we're already seeing it. pediatric hospitalizations on the rise, they're not dramatic, but it's enough to cause me with children in my house to say, let's pause. number two, we've got a bunch of immunocompromised people. not just 3 million who can't mount a response, but hypertensive, obesity, heart disease. chris, i need to buy some time. why? i've got this oral treatment, merck and pfizer, we have limited doses, we started prescribing them this week, but we only have a thousand or so doses in the district of columbia, for example. i need to get at least a couple more months where i have more of those doses available so, chris, when the fallout occurs, i have something i can offer people. right now, i don't have much to offer people if they are sick, if they end up in the hospital, even the monoclonals that work on omicron are in short supply. the entire state of texas has run out of them. so, that's where we are. we won't be there in three months, but we can't afford to see the fallout until that time. >> yeah, only a thousand doses. that's a scary number to me. and obviously, as you've pointed out and we've been talking about all morning, testing, testing, testing. i want to check back in with a shaq, who's been at a testing site this morning in chicago. how are things looking there? how have they changed over the past hour? >> well, this one just opened up in the past half hour, but it's people taking advantage of a free pcr testing option here in chicago. and look, we know that as cases rise, so, too, usually, do hospitalizations, but one thing that officials here are watching are the rise in pediatric hospitalizations, because those are increasing based on an nbc news analysis at faster rate than that of adult hospitalizations. illinois is one of those states leading that rise in childhood hospitalizations, along with states like new york, new jersey, and florida. so what you have are officials now trying to get ahead of that, with students returning to classrooms next week. the chicago public schools district, sending out more than 150,000 at-home test kits, so people can go and test their students and ship those results back. hopefully preventing some positive cases when students return to the classrooms, but you again have those issues and questions about whether or not the rapid tests that people have detect the omicron variant. i want you to listen to what we heard from the cdc director this morning on the "today" show. >> we do know that the antigen test may not perform as well as it had for prior variants. the alpha variant and the delta variant, but it's still picking up quite a bit of infection. if you have a negative antigen test and if you have symptoms, then you should go ahead and get that pcr test. >> the problem with many of those pcr tests, chris, is that they take longer to get your results back. this is a testing site that promises to get those results back in between 24 to 48 hours, but that is not the case in other places around the country, chris. >> okay, so dr. patel, so, you know, if the antigen tests aren't so great and they tell you to go get a pcr test and it was hard enough to get an antigen test in the first place, i mean, this is what frustrates people and i think keeps them from doing even people who want to do the right thing, the right thing. what's your take on this new fda study that mike and shaq just mentioned? >> honestly, chris, i'm is not shocked. for weeks now, we have been seeing clinically, people who are negative by a rapid antigen, three days in a row, even, and their pcr which they'll get on day three will be positive and they'll still have rapid negative antigen, and we've seen the flip where we've seen positive rapid antigens and negative pcrs. it's a little bit all over the map, and hearing what the fda has seen with external data, and i bet there's more to come that gives us detail on which of these rapid antigen tests, how reliable are they. but the bottom line is you can't test out of covid. you really can't. i know we all want that secure and that little lollipop card that's negative and say, i'm all good. i think the most common sense thing to do, there are not enough rapid antigen tests. you can't get a pcr test quickly enough. if you have even an inkling of a symptom, a runny nose, just stay away. we are seeing most people presenting with upper respiratory symptoms. it's not that loss of taste or smell, it's this common cold. i would think anybody coming in with covid had a common cold if i hadn't tested them. so this is something that i think people should just, again, i know that this is not great news. just pause and think about who you're going to be with, what that risk might be, if you get covid, and what the implications are for your household and your life. and some of us don't have the luxury to do that, i get it. but a lot of us can take that decision and make the right one. and i'll just say it. boosters. we kind of lost this in the conversation. you can get a booster today and it can make a difference tomorrow. so do that, at a minimum. >> yeah, the number of vaccinated people who haven't gotten their boosters yet is really still pretty shockingly low. dr. kavita patel, shaquille brewster, mike memoli, thanks to all of you this morning. meantime, flags are flying at half-staff this morning after harry reid died at age 82 yesterday. he rose from poverty to democratic powerhouse, serving as senate majority leader when president obama was in office and helping him pass the affordable care act, after he convinced obama to run in the first place. he also served with then senator joe biden for decades, who issued a statement saying, quote, i've had the honor of serving with some of the all-time great senate majority leaders in our history. harry reid was one of them. and for harry, it wasn't about power for power's sake, it was about the power to do right for the people. ali vitali is with us in washington, d.c. jon ralston, the editor of the nevada independent, and author of a forthcoming biography on harry reid is here as well. ali, we saw tributes pouring in overnight from both sides of the aisle. what are folks saying there about harry reid today? >> and john will speak to this too, i'm sure, chris. but the single most powerful elected official in nevada politics, a man remembered as much for his political shrewdness as he was for his dedication to the institution of the senate. and of course, you touched on this. the critical role that he played in helming so many obama agenda items through the senate and through congress during the obama era, including obamacare, the passage of the affordable care act. reaction, though, has continued to pour in and you're right, it's from both sides of the aisle, including from one of his most consistent sparring partners, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. in a statement out, he says, the nature of harry's and my jobs brought us into frequent and sometimes intense conflict over politics and policy. but i never doubted that harry was always doing what he earnestly, deeply felt was right for nevada and our country. he will rightly go down in history as a crucial, pivotal figure in the development and history of his beloved home state. now, president obama also released a letter that he sent reid in the waning days of his life. in it, he joked that for reid right now, it might be hard to talk on the phone, and that's why he was sending a letter, referencing something that many have referenced in remembering reid, which is his often brusque way of ending phone calls, sometimes hanging up without even saying good-bye, but obama credited him by saying, i wouldn't have been president without your encouragement and support and also attributing the legislative success of his presidency in large part to the work that reid was able to do in congress. >> john, there's no doubt that history will credit harry reid for his role in the obama agenda. how plugged in was he in his final year and was he frustrated that several of biden's top priorities were stalled? i guess in other words, once a majority leader, always a majority leader? >> i have to tell you, chris, up until very, very recently, and i mean just the last month or so, maybe, harry reid was as plugged in as he was when he was a just senator, or as much as he could be. indeed, during the couple dozen zoom interviews i did with him for the book, senators and former senators called harry reid and he would let me listen in to the conversations. i, of course, asked him about that frustration, but one thing he never did was speak ill of his former colleagues and how they were handling things. i think there are people who believe that harry reid would have been a different kind of leader than chuck schumer has been during this time, but he would never criticize schumer. but i have to tell you, i think if you look at harry reid's history and the deals that he was able to broker with jim jeffards to switch parties, to get obamacare passed the achievement he was most proud of, i think that maybe he would have dealt with kyrsten sinema and joe manchin in a different way. could he have gotten them to come along in a way that chuck schumer has tried? nobody knows the answer to that, chris. but i am sure that he was frustrated at manchin and sinema, as he watched from his home in henderson, nevada. but he would never express that to me. >> you know, as you're writing your book now, and i was recently going back over a book that i've referred to often, called master of the senate, which was about lyndon johnson, which was about it harry reid that was masterful? what was his secret sauce that allowed him to accomplish what he accomplished? >> it's interesting that you invoke lbj. and he has compared to lbj, the master of the senate. and i asked him about that. and he chafed a that the. he said, don't compare me to lbj. lbj was a bullet. and harry reid was the opposite in many ways in leading the senate. he was masterful at finding out what made his colleagues tick and what they needed to get their support. whether it was for a piece of legislation or to keep him as leader for so many years. you may recall that he became leader after tom dashel's shocking loss in 2004, and there was a thought that maybe chris dodd or someone else would become the leader of the senate. but by the time the sun rose the next morning, reid had already secured the votes and dodd had privately surrendered that reid was going to become the next leader. he was -- he was, despite his public brusqueness and some of the controversial, even nasty comments he made about other officials, very, very skilled at getting to know people and having that ability to know what they wanted when he most needed it. it's a fascinating story, and one i hope i can do justice to in the book, chris. >> well, i'm looking forward to it, jon ralston. you can put it up on your shelf, which i'm coveting your library right there. ali vitali, thanks to you, as well. appreciate you both. and coming up, the fate of elizabeth holmes and ghislaine maxwell in the hands of jurors, 3,000 miles apart. as we've been on the air, the maxwell jurors just sent a note to the judge. we'll take you to the courthouse with details on that. plus, many school districts already saying that they will return next week despite the covid surge. why teachers and doctors say this is crucial. achers and docty this is crucial. wondering what actually goes into your multi-vitamin. at new chapter. its innovation organic ingredients and fermentation. fermentation? yes, formulated to help your body really truly absorb the natural goodness. new chapter. wellness well done. nicorette knows, quitting smoking is freaking hard. you get advice like: just stop. go for a run. go for 10 runs! run a marathon. instead, start small. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette. we're back on verdict watch this morning for two high-profile trials. right now, the jury is deliberating for a fifth day in the ghislaine maxwell sex trafficking case. and in about an hour, the jury will meet for a sixth day to discuss the fraud case against former theranos ceo elizabeth holmes. both women have pleaded not guilty to all charges. nbc's tom winter is live outside the courthouse in new york city covering the maxwell trial. cnbc's scott cohn is live in san jose, outside the courthouse, covering the holmes trial. tom, i understand jurors just sent another note to the judge. what do we know? >> reporter: that's right, chris. so they asked for the testimony of shawn, who is the boyfriend of one of the four alleged victims in this case, carolyn, both testifying under pseudonyms. amanda young and jason richards, two fbi agents who testified in this case and kim espinosa, who was an assistant to jeffrey epstein who testified for ghislaine maxwell in the defense. so they asked for the transcripts of their testimony. on top of that, they've asked the judge if they're going to have to deliberate and sit on december 31st and on new year's day, january 1st. so a question now as to how far they're going to go along. about 15 to 20 minutes, they were prepared to say, look, i think they're making progress here. we know that because we sent a note to the judge last night saying, look, we're making progress. they did not ask for any additional testimony yesterday. so it appears that they were moving forward. the judge advised them, because of what she calls a, quote, extraordinary spike in coronavirus, particularly the omicron variant here in new york city, that the jurors were going to have to be prepared to deliberate later in the day. they were supposed to be off tomorrow, friday, and obviously, through the weekend. she said that they should be prepared to sit through the end of the week. and now the jurors are asking if that includes the holiday. so, obviously, the judge here concerned that should one of the jurors or one of the participants in the trial, or one of the attorneys or maxwell herself somehow contract this virus that they may have a situation where the trial is delayed up until the point that there was a mistrial. that's the judge's, allison nathan's chief concern at this point, chris. so as the jury orders up more transcripts, conceivably pushing out a potential verdict here, it remains a high concern for everybody inside the courthouse, as to whether or not this trial will be for naught, if, in fact, virus strikes the jury. >> what a nightmare scenario that is. okay, scott, where do things stand with the elizabeth holmes jury? >> reporter: well, chris, we're about to begin, as you said, day six of deliberations in this trial. that's not necessarily out of the realm of normal for a trial that lasted more than three months. they have a lot of things to go through. and we've heard comparatively little from this jury. certainly less than tom was talking about in the ghislaine maxwell trial in new york. we've heard from the jury twice. first, on the second day of deliberations, asking if they could take the jury instructions home with them. they were told, no, they couldn't do that, because that institutes deliberations that can only take place in the jury room. and then on thursday, just before the christmas break, the jurors asked to hear a key phone call, a call that elizabeth holmes had with investors back in 2013, when she was raising money for her blood testing company, where the prosecution says that she was lying about theranos' contracts allegedly with the military. there were no military contracts, and its relationship with pharmaceutical companies. the defense says that those were good faith statements that she actually, she believed in, and that she was talking about more about the aspirations for the company. so that's a key piece of evidence that the jury is going to look over and wanted to hear again as they continued their deliberations. and yesterday, a pit of a wrinkle here that's not typical. there was a closed proceeding with the defense attorneys, the prosecution, and the judge for about 20 minutes. we don't know what that was about. whether it was something about the coronavirus situation or something more substantial involving the outcome of the case. hopefully, we'll hear more about that today. chris? >> all right. scott cohn, tom winter, thanks to both of you. next, it's like there's a bomb somewhere and you're just hoping no one lights a match. that's how a pennsylvania principal describes his school after more than a year of remote learning. is he's not alone. he joins us next. he's not alon. he joins us next in just 30 minutes, the white house covid response team will hold a briefing on the fast-spreading omicron variant. it comes as kids prepare to head back to school next week, and officials are working overtime to make sure that happens. in new york city, schools are ramping up testing to limit closures. and while physical safety is important, schools have another problem on their hands. kids are still battling mental health struggles after more than a year at home. joining me now is dr. harrison bailey, principal of liberty high school in bethlehem, pennsylvania. also with us, dr. bill stickroots, a clinical neuropsychologist and co-author of the book, "the self-driven child." good morning to both you've. so dr. bailey, i know your school has been overwhelmed with kids who are struggling with anxiety and depression since they came back. you're not alone. tell us what you're seeing and how you're trying to help kids along. how are they handling it? >> sure. thank you for having me. i want to start by saying that we need to recognize that this is a national issue. it really is. we were on the edge of an epidemic from a mental health perspective before the pandemic hit. and so the pandemic has really just kind of poured gasoline on the fire. most of our students are readjusting. we're doing well. our teachers are working hard. our staff are really pitching in to support. but we know that there are students who are struggling. and now more -- more now than ever. so we know as a society, that we'll be measured not by how we serve those with resources, but how we serve those without. and so it really has shined a bright line on those individuals without the mental health resources they need to survive and thrive in our schools. >> yeah, dr. stickroots, everybody knows that kids need stability and that shift to remote learning kind of ripped the rug out from underneath them. you also have, and i think this is a critical point, you also have kids who come from families who don't have the financial resources to do some of the things that other people can, whose parents may have had to continue to work at times when others were able to work from home. what can you tell us about what kids are going through? and what do we need to do right now to help them? >> chris, i just want to say, i want to take my hat off to mr. bailey for the incredible work you're doing. and say that it's completely true, between 2012 and 2017, scientists were seeing this dramatic spike in anxiety and depression in teenagers and loneliness. and so as mr. bailey said, it's just gotten worse. the estimates are that the anxiety and depression, the incidence has doubled since the beginning of the pandemic. and we know that all the things we're talking about, for the anxiety, the depression, the aggression, the assaults that we're seeing across the country in schools, these are all stress-related problems. and we know from social science that neuroscience, that the things that make life most stressful, you can summarize them with the acronym nuts. it's novelty, unpredictable, perceived threat, and a low sense of control. and you think about the covid pandemic, it has all four. and the low sense of control is the most stressful thing you can experience. and i think that "the self-driven child," the book i wrote, it's all about, how do we help kids feel a stronger sense of control over their own life? and i think kids across demographics, this is one way that we can really target on helping these kids adjust to all of the novelty, all of the uncertainty, the perceived threat. is by increasing their sense of control. >> so dr. bailey, there's a consensus on this, from the top down. government officials say remote learning was a failed experiment. do you feel that you, your school, your students will have the resources that they need to meet students' needs, including the mental health needs, which as we just heard, have doubled since the pandemic? >> i would say that it really depends on the school. when i think about liberty high school, we have been very fortunate in that prior to this pandemic, we had created a wellness center, which houses four social workers, coordinators, some occupational therapy services, but it's 60% grant funded. so the problem with that is that grant ends at the end of this year. so we know that this can be a pilot for the country, that every high school in america needs to have a wellness center that serves their students. but we know that without state and federal funding, it's not going to happen. it needs to be mandated and funding. and so we've been fortunate until now, but we need our state and federal government to step in and support our schools. there are certainly a lot of students without those services that they need in the community. as schools, we've taken over the job of feeding, clothing, providing physical, dental health, mental health. and we do all of these things so we can educate. and so that's a scenario that we can't sustain. and so, we truly need our communities and our government to step in and support us. >> dr. harrison bailey, dr. bill stickroots, thanks to both of you. and coming up, the family of the 14-year-old girl inadvertently killed in a police shooting in los angeles speaks out. the latest on that tragic story, next. the latest on that tragic story, next ww's all-new personalpoints program is made just for you. you take an assessment, enter your goals, the foods you love and ww builds a plan just for you. i lost 26 pounds and i feel incredible. oprah: no two people are alike so no two plans are alike. with ww, i lost 30 pounds. this new program changed my life. live the life you love. lose the weight you want. the all new ww personalpoints program. start the new year with three months free. join today at ww.com. hurry, offer ends january 3rd. for the first time, we're hearing from the family of a 14-year-old girl killed by a stray police bullet. valentina orellana-peralta's family is demanding answering from the lapd after she was inadvertently killed in a store dressing room while out shopping with her mother. police say they were looking for a suspect who 911 callers reported was attacking people with a weapon when they opened fire. valentina was hit by a bullet that police say ricocheted off the floor and passed through a wall and died in her mother's arms, just days before christmas. nbc's emily aqaeda joins me now. what's the family saying? >> reporter: valentina's family say they will keep pushing for clarity until they find out how things went so wrong, insisting that something should have been done differently. we'll warn you, the images you're about to see are graphic. >> victim down! victim down! >> reporter: this morning, newly released video shows police making their way through a busy department store, just two days before christmas. guns drawn. >> slow it down, slow it down. >> reporter: officers rush in, responding to a radio call for an assault with a deadly weapon in progress, according to los angeles police. >> hey, she's bleeding! she's bleeding! >> finding their suspect in front of a fitting room before opening fire. >> shots fired! shots fired! >> reporter: at least one round killing the man that police say attacked customers, but another ricocheting off the ground and piercing a wall, on the other side, 14-year-old valentina orellana-peralta is inadvertently, but fatally hit. her mother speaking through tears tuesday. she says her teenage daughter died in her arms while trying on a dress for an upcoming christmas party. >> never should this 14-year-old little girl ended up as collateral damage at a shopping plaza. >> evacuate the building! >> 911, what's the emergency? >> i have a hostile customer in my store attacking -- attacking customers! >> reporter: the moments leading up to the tense exchange captured on body camera footage released by lapd zplp he's breaking things. >> reporter: authorities say 24-year-old daniel elena lopez attacked multiple women in the north hollywood department store. elama lopez seen brutally beating one person with a heavy-duty bike lock. employees heard on 911 calls trying to warn shoppers inside. >> attention customers, evacuate! >> reporter: but not everyone could. the young girl and her mother, caught in the cross fire. >> reporter: her family now asking for justice around increased police tactics that led to the deadly accident. the lapd police chief calling the incident chaotic, adding that he's committed to completing a thorough investigation into the circumstances that led up to this tragedy. >> reporter: and there is a multi-agency investigation underway. it could take up to a year to complete. chris? >> reporter: emilie ikeda, thank you so much for that. and coming up, with a rise in cases in vaccine rates at a standstill, new pressure on airlines to require the shot. we'll talk to one person who has skin in the game, next. o one pes skin in the game, next more holiday travel chaos this morning. with more than 800 flights already canceled just in the u.s., airlines blaming weather and staffing shortages caused by the omicron variant. this week, the cdc announced new guidelines shortening the recommended isolation and quarantine procedures for covid exposures and businesses hope it will ease the staffing crunch. but not everyone is happy, including flight attendants' union. joining me now, sarah nelson, president of the association of flight attendants. it's good to have you here. you've been a vocal critic of the cdc's decision to change isolation guidelines. what's your concern? >> our concern is that this is putting all the onus on the workers. and when you put policies forward that are pro-business and not grounded in public health, it gives people reason to pause and not trust our public health requirement. and that puts flight attendants in an even graver danger as they're trying to enforce public health initiatives like the mask requirement and then facing conflict on our planes. we're also very concerned that it's not reporting that workers don't have to come to work if they're still symptomatic. so it's asymptomatic and mask wearing throughout the rest of the time. there's no requirement on businesses to put those things in place. so we need to get the word out to all workers, you should not be forced to come back to work sick. and before you're fully better. people are worn out. and we've got to give them a break in order to take care of this country and keep the economy moving. this is a short-term fix that the cdc gave businesses that is going to have long-term pain. >> let me ask you about something that anthony fauci said earlier. he kind of walked it back a little bit. he suggested that the u.s. should consider a vaccine mandate for domestic flights. what are your members thinking about that? >> the vast majority of the people that i represent say hoar ray. and would love to see this in place. they know the situation they're in at work, the combative situation, the fact that we don't have business travel back, we don't have fully restored international travel, we don't have flying like we know it is because this pandemic is continuing and because we don't have everyone vaccinated. the hesitancy in getting vaccinated is something that needs to be pushed. and i'll be very clear. there is no way to roll this out operationally at this time, because we have not kept track of vaccinations in this country like other countries. there's some operational issues that shouldn't be put on the frontline workers or airlines solely. it needs to be on the table and we should start working to make it work. we have got to get everyone vaccinated. it's a workplace safety issue for us. >> so i want to talk about you really are sort of at the epicenter, a great example of this fight that we see going on, or, you know, these tough decisions about the economy versus safety, public safety, the safety of workers. are you concerned at all that if, for example, there was a vaccine mandate, you would lose customers at a time when airlines are starting to build up again, that more flights would have to be cancelled because more people would be out because they have to be quarantining? how do you look at that balance? >> chris, that is nonsense. the reason that we have travel demand back is because the vaccines became readily available. and people felt confident to be able to book these tickets. they felt confident in their own safety and in making sure that they're not carrying the virus to their loved ones. and that's when we saw the demand return to air travel. so putting more safety in the space is only going to increase confidence. it's going to help us end this pandemic which is the problem in the first place. and it is going to get us back to a place where we can all travel freely. no, i don't agree with that argument at all, because the few people that we would lose, we would gain in others who have real confidence in real travel and are ready to get back to a free and normal life. >> well, i'll tell you, i fly a lot. including recently. and i see the pressures that are put on the crews, especially the flight attendants day in and day out. i don't know how they do it. sara nelson, we thank you so much for taking the time to be with us and for all the folks who are continuing to staff those flights. we appreciate it. >> thank a frontline worker, everyone. >> yeah. up next, empty shelves and higher prices dominated the conversation in 2021. what's on tap for next year and how will it impact your wallet? 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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. shelves, higher prices and a shortage in the work force, and now experts are saying these problems aren't going to go away in the new year. nbc's kerry sanders has more. >> reporter: as our year comes to an end in our country abundance, we learned that sometimes there can be shortages. the supply chain can be strained. so we'll talk to the experts in a moment, but first, let's look back before we look forward to 2022. >> supply chain crisis. >> these are some of the shortages we experienced in 2021. paper. they've seen it spike 60% in value. >> the great ketchup shortage of 2021. >> it used to be ease to find drivers who wanted to sit in this seat. >> shortages experts say will be with us again in 2022. we've already seen travel troubles in the air heading into the new year. if you're thinking of driving, be ready for pain at the pump. on average a gallon of gas is more than a dollar higher than this time last year with more americans on the road now than at any other point during the pandemic. >> the consumer should get used to pay in excess of $3 a gallon as economies around the world continue to recover and demand increases. >> reporter: in shortages from meat to cereal and syrup have been resolved as supply chain issues cleared and production ramped up. while some staples like cream cheese have been harder to come by. but in some places, we may have reason to hope there are shortages as in a shortage of snow. why? not enough snowplow drivers. and few are lining up for the jobs. >> we're not sure why we're not getting people that we used to and why we're not getting the drivers that want to do it. >> reporter: economists blame employee shortages from cooks to wait staffs to housekeeping at hotels on the great resignation of 2021. americans foregoing low paying jobs are finding better positions as well as older americans reassessing what's important to them. and retiring early. it hit all segments of society. retiring police leaving some cities like washington d.c. with officers still on the job exhausted. >> sometimes their days off are cancelled. sometimes they're working weeks at a time without a day off. this is catastrophic levels. >> reporter: at hospitals no shortage of covid patients has resulted in a shortage of nurses? >> many of the nurses have been dealing with this for two years and decided to call it quits. >> reporter: one supply chain shortage impacting all others, computer chips. that is slowing production of new cars, clothes dryers, even electric toothbrushes. >> what i'm hearing from companies is around the midway point of the year, this could start easing up. but it will take a while. >> reporter: and some shortages are of our own making. the u.s. mint says right now there are plenty of coins in america. but there is still a shortage of coins in circulation. why? even though americans are getting back out there, look at the holiday crowds at airports for proof of that. experts say the covid effect has left many of us reluctant to touch money. >> kerry sanders, thank you for that reporting. that wraps up a busy couple hours. i'm chris jansing. we have the briefing from the white house covid response team that's set to begin any minute now. alison morris picks up the coverage right now. good wednesday morning. we have a busy hour coming up. starting with yet another grim milestone in the u.s. fight against the coronavirus pandemic. there have now been more than 53 million total covid cases in the u.s. since the start of this pandemic. that's according to an nbc news tally. it's nearly one sixth of our entire population. more than the population of all of south korea. with those numbers hangingve

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