americans has received that shot worrying health officials. nbc s steve patterson has the latest on all of this. hey to you, steve. hey, alex, yeah, experts are warning all of the conditions that were in place for what some are now calling a potential viral blizzard, the more transmissible omicron variant is projected to become the dominant strain within just weeks as cases spike, as hospitals fill up in these marquee events now shutting down. covid whiplash, as the nation teeters once again on the edge of a winter free fall, long lines at testing centers across the country, families hoping for negative test results ahead of the holidays. health officials once again pleading with the public. for the unvaccinated, you re looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm. reporter: with cases up more than 24% over the last two weeks and deaths now averaging 1,300 a day, hospitals are bracing for a hard
Special christmas edition of the cross connection. stay tuned because my friend, alex witt has the latest. hello my beautiful alex. i saw that you were going to work on christmas day and have that special show. i ll be tuning in for that. that will be awesome. have a wonderful week. you had a great show, loved watching. thank you. thank you. and a very good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters here in new york. it is high noon here in the east, 9:00 a.m. out west. welcome to alex witt reports. we start with an alarming new rise of covid cases likely driven by the omicron variant. we re now learning the risk of reinfection of the highly transmissible omicron strain is more than five times higher and it has shown no sign of being milder than delta. that s according to a new study. as covid cases surge across the country, experts are saying the u.s. booster effort is far behind. right now only one in six