family and friends practicing similar prevention measures. president biden saying he bungled the covid case. omicron variant may have peaked. and despite the surge in covid cases, americans are crowding the roads and the airports at near pre-pandemic levels. we have your holiday travel and weather covered. announcer: live from london, this is cnn newsroom with isa soares. welcome, everyone. it is thursday, december 23rd. we begin with some positive news in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic. there is a new pill that could be a real game changer. the fda has authorized pfizer s antiviral pill to treat covid-19 in the united states. and the white house says thousands will be available in a matter of weeks and many more by the summer. cnn medical analyst dr. leana wen explains why this is such a big deal. there are a lot of people who are remaining unvaccinated. i wish they were going to get vaccinated, but we know that there are some people who are just n
the fda authorized the covid pill patients can take at home before they re sick enough to be hospitalized. here s where i think it can be very helpful. first is there are a lot of people who are remaining unvaccinated. i wish they were going to get vaccinated, but we know that there are some people who are just not going to do it. somehow these people are ready to take treatments if they get infected even if they won t get the vaccine which is not understandable. but still these people are the ones who are most likely to get ill, to overwhelm our hospitals. and if they can get a pill that removes them from the hospital, that will help to save their life, but also will help to remove the strain on our health care system. omicron is wildly contagious compared to earlier strains. just three weeks after it was first identified in the u.s., it now accounts for 90% of the country s cases. there have been outbreaks on land and sea. the miami herald reports royal caribbean of t
good morning to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. it is thursday, december 23rd. and it s getaway day for millions of holiday travelers. expected to be one of the busiest travel days of the entire year. this despite the alarming rise of a new variant which is now everywhere. in the three weeks since omicron was first identified in the united states, the variant is now in all 50 states, washington, d.c., and puerto rico. it accounts for 90% of new coronavirus cases nationwide. president biden last night addressing criticism of his administration s fight against covid, specifically that they didn t see the omicron variant coming. how did you get it wrong? how did we get it wrong? nobody saw it coming. nobody in the whole world. who saw it coming? did the administration expect a highly transmissible variant. sure, it s possible. it s possible there could be other variants coming along. what do you plan for? you respond to it. and i think
how did we get it wrong? nobody saw it coming. nobody in the whole world. who saw it coming? did the administration not expect that there could be moments like this one where you would have a highly transmissible variant? sure, it s possible. it s possible there could be other variants coming along. that s possible. what do you plan for? you plan for what you think is available, that is the most likely threat that exists at the time, and you respond to it. and i think that that s exactly what we ve done. and, for example, omicron is spreading rapidly. but the death rates are much, much lower than they were. this is not march of 2020. so there is reason for optimism this morning on the covid front, really promising news. the fda authorized the first antiviral coronavirus treatment in the u.s., pfizer s paxlovid. and three new studies from overseas suggest there is a lower risk of hospitalization with those infected with omicron compared to delta. we are watching these
move on. same goes for the national championship game january 10th in indianapolis. the committee does say the title game could be pushed back to no later than january 14th if needed. all right. finally, check this out. misfits forever a hero after that shot. she promised them all hot chocolate if she made it. nothing but net. all-time great schoolyard moment. the kids will remember that forever. they will be at high school graduation and say, remember the time ms. fitz made that shot and we got hot chocolate. erp this had he cheering so well. teachers are awesome. that, they are. . chefs had he even jumping up and down. you make a shot like that, you should jump up and down. she had great form. she knew it right out of her hands. i do like the high school graduation imitations where they look like 68 years old, smoked four packs a day. that s not how high schoolers sound these days? totally how it was when i graduated. new day continues right now. w