divisiveness politically when you have a classical historical unprecedented pandemic. it doesn t make any sense. millions of americans still unvaccinated this morning. dr. anthony fauci, thank you for joining us. good to be with you, kathryn. thank you for having me. and new day continues right now. good morning to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. it s monday, december 27th. i m john avlon with kaitlan collins. berman and brianna are enjoying a well-deserved week off. i can t believe they left us in charge. we ll see how it works out. i m feeling good about it. the contagious omicron is surging across the united states and dr. anthony fauci is warning those cases are likely to climb much higher. years into this pandemic, testing a major challenge. many americans are wondering if they need to scrap their new year s plans all together, as omicron cases are surging health experts are waiting to see if hospitalizations will as well. rig
lyricist himself. no new friend in congress, covid matches, videos depictings the murder of a colleague. the mood at the capitol is toxic. is civility dead and gone? but, first, moment ago, president joe biden addressing the growing omicron covid surge. he says there is more work to do to get covid tests to every corner of the country, and his new mantra for governors, if you need help, just ask. biden is also careful to say that history is not repeating itself. this is not like march of 2020, the beginning of the pandemic. we re prepared and we know what it takes to save lives, protect people and keep schools and businesses open. we just have to stay focused and continue to work together. my message to the governor is simple. if you need something, say something. and we we re going have your back any way we can. the president s words come as the u.s. nears an awful repeat covid milestone. daily cases approaching 200,000 per day. i want to get straight to cnn s john har
remained relatively lower than previous peaks. some good news there. still, this new surge is causing major disruptions to daily life. thousands more flights cancelled today. airlines seeing critical staffing shortages brought on by covid, and the surge is also impacting sports. several college football bowl games cancelled. others now seeking replacement teams as the virus sweeps through the nation. the nhl, the nba and the nfl all forced to postpone some games, and this morning president joe biden joining his pandemic response team s meeting with the national governor s association. while he says the u.s. has made great progress, biden at mitts there are still some gaps in our response. this is not like march of 2020, the beginning of the pandemic. we re prepared and we know what it takes to save lives, protect people and keep schools and businesses open. we just have to stay focused and continue to work together. we went from no over-the-counter tests in january to 46 mi
to get tested for covid. the white house is facing increase criticism over its handling of the testing situation. dr. anthony fauci saying this today. we should be using testing much more extensively than we have, even in a situation where you have people who are vaccinated or boosted, but the situation where you have such a high demand, a conflation of events, omicron stirring people to get appropriately concerned and wanting to get tested as well as the fact as the run on tests during the holiday season. we ve obviously got to do better. i mean, i think things will improve greatly as we get into january but that doesn t help us today and tomorrow. this morning, two cruise ships returned to florida after several passengers and crew members after fully vaccinate tested positive for covid. it s not just cruise ships dealing with covid. we just learned more than 800 flights have already been cancelled as airlines now deal with staffing shortages. cnn s nadia romero is here
very good thursday morning to you. i m jim sciutto. we are following breaking news this morning and it s some good news, a second pill to treat covid-19, a pill the food and drug administration announcing they gave merck s antiviral pill the green light just one day after the pfizer pill was given the okay as well. all of this as new studies are showing that the omicron variant may be less likely to send you to the hospital, also less likely to cause severe illness than previous strains of the virus. that s good news. despite that, it is still spreading fast across the country. as expected, omicron has been detected in all 50 u.s. states and accounts for at least 90% of new infections here. it happened very quickly. last night president biden responded to questions as to whether he was prepared enough for this new wave. if you go to the pharmacy, we hear this over and over again, empty shelves, no test kits. is that a failure? no, i don t think it s a failure. i think it