conference, australians have worked very hard to have this christmas together and we want to protect that. but, kim, it s proving very hard to do just that. yeah, the timing for all this couldn t be worse. selena wang in tokyo, thanks so much. americans are getting their covid vaccines, but not at the rate health experts would like. cdc reports more than 500 million doses administered in the u.s., more than a million and a half a day, but the pace of vaccinations is down 19% compared to last month. meanwhile doctors and nurses on the front lines of the pandemic will be spending a second christmas treating patients, many infected with the omicron variant. according to the health and human services department, more than 70,000 americans were hospitalized with covid as of thursday. u.s. regulators have authorized a second antiviral pill made by merck to treat mild to moderate covid-19. the food and drug administration authorized pfizer s antiviral pill on wednesday. and more america