our bargain detergent couldn t keep up. turns out it s mostly water. so, we switched back to tide. one wash, stains are gone. [daughter] slurping don t pay for water. pay for clean. it s got to be tide. asth omicron variant begins to spread in this country it s already begun to ravage europe. it s expected to be the dominant strain there by next month. right now in the uk, they re experiencing their worst outbreak of the pandemic, with new cases hitting at all-time high yesterday surpassing the previous record by more than 10,000. things are so bad, the queen canceled her prechristmas lunch with her family. nbc s matt bradley is in london. how bad is it? stephanie, it depends on what you re looking at. if you are looking at pure numbers it looks really, really bad. like you said, the highest number ever, ever since this pandemic started in britain and
really high even though we have this massive vaccine program here. if you look at deaths it s the same. the death rate is lower, far lower than it was at the same peak last year and it looks like it s going to maintain the same rate. it s been basically flat lined but the number of optizations is starting to increase and that s why we re hearing from politicians that things could get overwhelming for hospitals in january in the coming months but still stephanie, there s no word on further lockdowns. the government has essentially ruled out returning real restrictions like lockdowns to public life. stephanie? matt bradley, keeping an eye on europe as we are watching the strain spread across the u.s. when we come back, for months, we ve been hearing about shipping issues. we ve been dealing with shortages, empty shelves, not being able to get your christmas gifts on time. that was the fear, but let s get real. what is the reality on the ground? guess what? santa will make it here by