dominant variant in the u.s. the cdc is reporting it accounts now for almost three-quarters of new cases. a month ago i had never heard of omicron. the first detection here was september 1st. now here we are, 19 days later, it accounts for three out of four new cases. so with this new variant quickly taking hold, the white house says this biden speech is not going to be about locking the country down but rather about what to expect in these winter months, what steps we can all be taking now, and some dire warnings for the unvaxed in particular. will biden s new warnings resonate? remember, he campaigned on ending this pandemic. but nearly a year into his presidency, even with the miraculous vaccines, covid is still raging with a vengeance. we re hearing now some of his advisers are encouraging him to alter his messaging about ending the pandemic and instead steer public attention away from the total number of cases and focus on severity, how much more dangerous this virus is
united states. tonight, the cdc saying omicron accounts for 73% of all new cases. now, when it was first detected in the u.s. in the first week of december, mind you it accounted for 1% of cases. by the second week of this month, just over 12%. and now, accounting for every three of every four cases. and the overall covid case load is now spiking. the u.s. now reporting more than 130 130,000 new cases per day and hospitalizations from covid are up 35% over just last month. dr. anthony fauci warning americans that the next few weeks and months are going to be difficult as omicron continues to spread. he and another medical expert urging everyone to get their vaccinations and booster shots from maximum protection and fauci criticizing americans that claim they have a right not to get vaccinated. reminding them that covid has killed more than 800,000 americans. when someone says well, i m taking my own chances, it is my body, i ll worry about it, nobody should tell me that i n
He made some news when he as a former advisor to the president elect said the government auoug to be providing rapid testing kits to everybody and masks, an upgrade in the masks. whether people would use the kits and wear the masks, i get it. that s still an issue to be determined. thank you for watching. i ll be back here tomorrow night. don lemon tonight begins in a moment with laura coates sitting in. i love the survey. i was filling out mine. you didn t get to my question, smerconish. i would respond to your question at any time. so thank you very much. all right. 9:00 a.m. tomorrow, sirus xm. i m calling in. i love it. please do. i m the nasal voice one. thank you. this is don lemon tonight. i m laura coates in for don lemon. omicron is spreading so fast it s now the most dominant coronavirus variant in the