and we don t yet know. what we do know is that early data and even mutation data are telling us that this may well be a more transmissible variant than delta. and so this is going to take some time to sort out. we are prepared, though, we are doing genomic sequencing in all of the states but it may be that we start to see more omicron than we have delta. and we will be following that very carefully. you know, as you mentioned, we re doing a lot more sequencing than a year ago or even several months ago but it strikes me, we re still only doing about a million tests a day, period. there was talk at one point of doing 20 million, 30 million tests a day. if we re not doing enough tests, even if we re sequencing more, doesn t that put us behind in terms of actually being able to have real vision on what is happening here? so, i think you re referring to the pcr test. we re doing about one and a half
a gallon of gasoline will be paying closer to $3 or below $3 in the next couple of three weeks. so that is a very positive development because obviously gasoline plays a prices pay a key role in how we think about inflation and how many of us think about the broader economy. that is welcome news to so many americans. mark zandi, thank you. take care. the w.h.o. chief scientist said the omicron variant appears to be, quote, very transmissible. stricter testing requirements are set to take effect for all travelers coming into the u.s. in just days. so are these measures strong enough to slow the spread of covid this winter? cdc director doctor rochelle walensky joins us live.
higher among people who have previous infections versus those who are vaccinated. if you look at south africa, and look at the waves of infection over there, you see that they have these surges, hardly any vaccination there, especially early on, they have waves of infection and then it sort of dies down for about three to four months and then another wave. and i reason i bring that up is because that is a population that gives you an idea of how long infection acquired immunity last. and it could be three to four months and it is not effective against new variants. so this is a big question going forward as you heard from the cdc director, but i think it is pretty clear that say that you had covid in the past with a previous variant, the idea that it will protect you against omicron or delta if you didn t have dealta, seems low and that is why the vaccines are so critical. sanjay, thank you so much for that conversation. you got it.
omicron and this was the only case that turned positive, in which case it would indicate that our vaiccines are working very well. it is also helpful to understand that this person had mild symptoms that have, to my understanding, resolved pretty swiftly. so this may very well be, actually a story of vaccine success and not necessarily one of vaccine failure and that is what all of the science right now we re doing to understand. you know, i do want to ask about this issue of natural immunity, dr. walensky. it comes up quite a bit. people who have have had covid feel like they have in infection acquired immunity, wondering why they still need to get the vaccine. is it been a lot of back and forth on this. should there be some plan in place to be able to figure out if someone actually has antibodies, have immunity and therefore doesn t either need to be vaccinated now or, you know, get a booster now, whatever it may be? yeah, this is really
we intend to and will continue to be fully transparent with all of the data that we are learning as soon as we are learning it. so you weren t being side lined in any way? oh, absolutely not. we have been collaborating and working through the weekend altogether. okay, dr. walensky, please keep in touch. we want to keep hearing from you and, you know, keep us informed on what is happening with the omicron. well, absolutely do. thank you so much for having me. all right. dr. walensky. sanjay, fascinating conversation. and where you left off there, the question early on after we got the name omicron was got that greek letter, where is dr. walensky, especially after we saw some confusion over boosters and who should get them. the cdc director was crucial to hear from her and we didn t for a couple of days. yeah, she just talked about that. she said she was working over the weekend.