that they needed the money to reopen the schools. now they re not reopening. it s the justification for the money was to schools, local school districts are saying we can t reopen without this money. now they re not. the teacher s unions in chicago, 75% of chicago teachers voted not to return toin-person learning. 75%. any teacher that refuses to teach is should not be teaching. what the school districts ought to do and what the mayors ought to do is do what ronald reagan did when the air traffic controllers refused to work and fire them. there s no excuse. this is not about protecting kids. we know kids most kids, covid is like the flu. we don t shut down our schools for the flu. in germany, the german government reported that in 15 months, not a single healthy child under the age of 18 has died in the country. not one. we don t know the number in the united states because the cdc doesn t track it. i m sure it s similar.
president as the white house faces criticism over the cdc s guidance of testing out of quarantine and what it means to be fully vaccinated. here s jen psaki. what the the cdc is advising is for everybody to be up to date on your shots and scheduled to have a booster, get your booster. i wouldn t point to them for more specifics on what fully vaccinated looks like. martha: let s bring in dr. amesh adalja. he focused onned pandemic preparedness and bio security. thanks for being here today, doctor. address if you can this confuse over what it means to be fully vaccinated especially in light of the fact that lots of people have three shots. some of them have had covid and they still get omicron.
if you re not an essential worker, quit and find another job. teaching is essential. if you don t think it is, you shouldn t be in a classroom with kids. martha: we made a promise to every child in america to give them a public education. if you reneg, there should be ramifications. the department of education needs to make sure that they have a plan for catchsh up and implement that plan now. they should be teaching in the summer. martha: i asked randi weingarten why isn t there summer school. it s like i had three heads. thanks, mark. good to have you as always. take care. martha: you too. covid and living with it is a new normal for now. it s time for a new national strategy from president biden s only former health experts. dr. amesh has more on how to live your life when we come back. once-weekly ozempic® can help.
for the second time in less than a month, president biden will speak to president putin today. the phone call, requested by the russian leader, comes ahead of a series of january talks over russia s months long troop buildup on the ukrainian border. john harwood joins us live from the white house to explain. john? reporter: john, this is a challenging moment for president biden at a time he s dealing with a covid resurgence, economic challenges, legislative challenges and now vladimir putin is testing him by the potential for an invasion of ukraine, another invasion of ukraine. of course, he seized crimea in 2014. president biden has been trying to deter him. in the earlier call he indicated there would be sanctions the likes of which president putin has not seen before should he invade again. that includes unplugging russia from the international financial system, perhaps more severe sanctions on russian oligarchs
the uk reducing its covid isolation period from 10 days to 7. why the u.s. may not be far behind. allies of president trump stonewalling. michael cohen suing to keep his records under wraps. what s behind the nhl s big decision? good morning to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. it is wednesday, december 22nd. millions of americans are set to travel and gather with loved ones this week. and president biden is reassuring the vaccinated to go ahead with the holiday plans despite the covid resurgence. he says the country is better prepared to fight and contain the omicron variant. we should all be concerned