i'm curious to get your thoughts as to why the cdc did it this way? because i know there is reporting that the biden administration dismissed a planned pitch back in october to ramp up at-home testing ahead of the holidays. so the need to increase rapid testing seems to be at least a known concern for officials. >> yeah. and i can speak to that story because i was actually a part of that call. the "vanity fair" reporter actually didn't get it quite right. but be that as it may, the cdc has balanced a number of things when they make these decisions. unfortunately, there are no perfect decisions that this pandemic presents. you have to essentially make judgments that are going to be the smartest and soundest judgments. and even if 5% of people are infectious, slipped through the cracks because they leave too early, there are also 95% that were staying home, not going to work, not seeing their families if they were being isolated for too long. so saying that you can leave isolation after five days if you have no symptoms, and i agree with ashish complete

don't get me wrong, the cdc is filled with dedicated public health servants. the culture has done our country a big disservice. >> talk us through that. how can it be different? >> there's a couple of different problems. the cdc would rather wait for data. then be fast. we are in the midst of a pandemic. response is critical. if you look at cdc history, sometimes the data they report can be years old. the second problem is a bigger one. that is that the cdc would rather reinvent the wheel than invest in innovations. at the beginning of the pandemic , the cdc had to rebuild its own diagnostic test despite the fact that other countries already had diagnostic tests going out. unfortunately, the test didn't work and that caused a big delight. and mike sprint the cdc i have learned that they just don't have a willingness to engage with private business. that is a big problem. there is innovation, diagnostic innovation, vaccine innovation going on in the private sector and cdc should be playing that central coordinating role. that's a big problem. if you're not will

victor, thank you. >>> and tomorrow morning, cdc dr. rochelle walensky will join us on "good morning america." >>> next, the deadly shooting spree in the denver area. at least four people killed, three others injured, including a police officer. the violence unfolding across seven different crime scenes, ending in a busy shopping area, where the suspect was killed in an exchange of gun fire with police. late today, authorities saying the suspect was known to law enforcement and harbored extremist views. here's abc's madea villareal. >> reporter: tonight, fbi agents and local police are pouring over at least seventh different crime scenes. the deadly gun battle playing out across denver, spilling into a busy shopping mall. >> this is the holiday season. to have this type of spree take place is not normal for our community. >> reporter: sources confirming to abc news, the spree started at a tattoo parlor just after 5:00 p.m., with the intended victim, an acquaintance of the shooter, according to law enforcement. he survived, but two women

so i don't know why the cdc did not put that in. i suspect it might be because tests are still hard to come by and that may make it even harder. >> reporter: but new york city plans to make testing the center of a new plan to keep more students in the classroom. >> this is how we're going to look at schools from this point on. keep them safe. and keep them open. >> reporter: the country's largest school system will no longer quarantine entire classrooms exposed to covid. instead, they'll ramp up testing after a positive case. students who are asymptomatic and test negative with an at-home kit can stay in school. >> this new variant is affecting children more than the past variants. >> reporter: it comes as covid cases in children are soaring to nearly 200,000 last week. hospitalizations up 80%. nearly all of those patients unvaccinated. >> typically, we see children over 5. two-thirds of them have a comorbidity. and that comorbidity is typically obesity. but one-third of them are otherwise perfectly normal. so therefore all children

this is a quote from the cdc. people who test positive should isolate for five days and if asymptomatic at that time they may leave isolatio

why should americans trust the cdc? my job right now is to take all of the science and the information that we have and to deliver guidance and recommendations to the american people that is adapted to the science at hand. this pandemic has given us a lot of new and updated science over the last 2 years. and it is my job to convey that science through those recommendations. and that's exactly what we are doing. ok, i heard the term science about 4 times in her 22nd answer. but rick, if this was all about science, why don't we hear about the study of masks only being 3 percent effective? do you think the cdc priority is the well being of the american people and are honestly changing recommendations for the greater good? and do you think the cdc is giving out mixed messaging? well, absolutely. i don't think that the cdc really knows what the term science means. right now they tell the american public to go left and they go, right. they tell the american public to go right. they go left, they keep changing the rules. what

big news from the cdc. new guidelines shortening the recommended isolation and quarantine times for those who test positive or exposed to the coronavirus. here's how it breaks down -- people who test positive but have no symptoms should, in fact, isolate five days instead of ten. and then wear a mask for those five days following. the if you guidelines apply to everybody, by the way, including the unvaccinated. we'll dig into that. all of this announced after the president met virtually with some of the nation's governors monday conceding that not enough has been done to expand covid testing capacity saying, there's a lot more work to be done, but making a pledge. >> just have to stay focused and continue to work together. my message to the governors is simple. if you need something, say something. and we, we're going to have your back, in any way we can. >> and then omicron forcing more closures across the board. apple temporarily shutting down about 20 of its retail stores after a wave of covid-19 hitting

yesterday, cdc released data that estimates the prevalence of the omicron variant based on our national genomic sequencing analysis. although the vast majority of these cases continue to be delta , representing about 96% of cases across the country, the omicron variant is now estimated to represent about 3% of the cases in the united states. in some areas of the country, the estimates of omicron are higher. in corning in new york and new jersey where the cdc projects that omicron could represent about 13% of all cases. they are looking on early data about transmissibility of omicron from other countries. we expected to see the proportion of omicron case here in the u.s. continue to grow in the coming weeks. early data suggests omicron is more transmissible then delta with a doubling time of about two days. what does this mean for individuals and families as we head into the winter? it is a time when families may be gathering with one another over the holidays. it means it is vital for everyone to get vaccinated and boosted if they are eligible. given the increase in transmissibility, th

now, the cdc obviously decided not to use that. and instead, what they are saying is people should mask up for another five days. if people actually complied with that and had a high-quality mask, i think that'd be a reasonable alternative. i just -- i just worry about how much people will follow it and i think a negative test would have been much more effective. >> mr. slavitt, are we unable to require a negative test to release people from isolation after five days because there are still not enough tests in this country? i mean, is that a public health failing on the part of this administration? i am curious to get your thoughts as to why the cdc did it this way because i know there is reporting that the biden administration dismissed a plan pitched back in october to ramp up at-home testing ahead of the holidays. so, the need to increase rapid testing around the holidays seems to have been a known concern, at least for officials. >> yeah. well, and i can speak to that story because i was actually part of that call. the vanity f

the nbc guide, the director of the cdc, does the cdc have any credibility? it's not exactly the same but what you think? >> i'd have to say no and it reminds me of late summer when we saw the disaster of afghanistan unfold, the situation was so bad people could literally see with their own eyes things spiraling out of control, they didn't get that loss from the media from the podium, in this case, they are hearing different things and it is confusing to them and i think in terms of rochelle walensky or doctor fauci, these are individuals keep popping up, 1 million programs a day saying a bunch of different things and they outlived their usefulness of communicators. the president needs to come out and be the strong communicator about what's going on and he needs to level with the american people about what is happening. at the end of the day with a lot of these agents like the cdc, operating with a handshake agreement. americans generally trust these institutions until they don't. i think we need to be mindful of the fact that the more they continue to delive

according to the cdc. joining us is the cdc director dr. rochelle walensky. doctor, thank you for being with us this morning. it cuts the isolation period in half if you're asymptomatic. how do you settle on five days for everyone? >>st good morning, kaitlan. thanks for having me. we looked at several areas of science here. first, the science of how much howe transmission happens in the period of time after you're infected. we know the most amount of transmission occurs in the one to two days before you develop symptoms, the two to three days after you develop symptoms. if you map that out, the five days account for someone between 85% to 90% of all transmission that occurs. we really wanted to make sure that during the first five days you were spending in isolation, that's where most of it occurs. of course there is this tail end period of time in the last five days where we are asking you to mask. but the other things we were looking at is the epidemiology here. we are seeing and expecting even more cases of this omicron variant. many cases are mildly sympt

the cdc saying it's not needed. that doesn't pass a common sense test other than it is damn hard to get your hands on tests. what do you make of that? >> right. that's where i think it is born from. it is hard to get your hands on tests. i can tell you with people that work in close proximity to each other where they are not wearing masks because of the job, the people that are working around them want to know that they're not going to get infected by that person. buff the simplest ways to do that is time and negative test that shows, look, i am not carrying enough virus to be on this test. therefore, i am not carrying enough to affect you. this just seems to be adding risk and anxiety that we don't really need. >> you're 100% right about that. if you've been isolated, get your hands on a test, take the test. thank you so much for joining us. be sure to stay tuned for an interview coming up with cdc director rochelle walensky. we will join "new day" next hour about all your questions about these new cdc guidelines.

do you think the cdc is priority? is the well being of the american people and are honestly changing recommendations for the greater good. and do you think the cdc is giving out mixed messaging? well, absolutely. i don't think that the cdc really knows what the term science means. right now they tell the american public to go left and they go, right. they tell the american public to go right. they go left, they keep changing the rules. what is the science then? and that's really the question that the cdc directors should be answering is, why are the recommendations moving from 10 to 5? why not? or why not 3? so now they're saying, well, we have to take the economy into consideration and make sure that i solution time periods are only 5. so we can get health care workers back to work. and so they keep changing the rules. they're not defining what science they use. they keep using the term science and using it fairly liberally without any definition behind it, even the medical community has no idea what to do. and i can

>>> new advice from the cdc on what to do if you get covid. can it keep america running during this omicron surge? >>> and breaking overnight, five dead, including the shooter as a gunman goes on a rampage through several locations in the denver area. >>> and new body cam video from the l.a.p.d. raising questions about use of force after a teenager is killed by an officer pursuing a suspect. >>> good morning, everyone. it is tuesday, december 28th. it is 5:00 a.m. here in new york. thanks so much for getting an early start with us. i'm laura jarrett. >> and i'm paula reid in for christine romans. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. we have reports from los angeles, moscow, bough jing, delaware, rome and mexico city. >> basically everywhere. welcome to "early start." paula, so nice to have you again today. >>> we begin with a major change when it comes to how we live with the virus and frankly each other. the cdc has officially shortened its recommendation time -- isolation time for people who test positive with co

and what he's saying about those new cdc guidelines. but first, abc's marcus moore leading us off here in new york. >> reporter: tonight, the cdc changing guidance for all americans who get infected with the coronavirus but are asymptomatic. recommending they isolate for five days instead of ten. and if still without symptoms, mask for five more days. their close contacts should also quarantine for five days from exposure if they are unvaccinated or late for their booster. the cdc pointing to evidence that most transmission happens early on in the illness. it comes as new covid cases skyrocket to 206,000. in a meeting with governors today, the president acknowledging americans need more covid tests. >> seeing how tough it was for some folks to get a test this weekend shows that we have more work to do and we're doing it. >> thank you very much. >> you're welcome, have a good one. >> reporter: in miami today, some waiting hours to get their hands on covid test kits after stores ran out. >> i've been here since 6:45. >> reporter: for days

c. news as the head of the cdc. today, you said last week you said that the, i'm, a kron accounted for 73 percent of new infections. and now you say this week, it only accounts for 23 percent of new infections. how can you be believe? so let's, let's just say she's correct. let's just say so now. now i'm a client is going to do a quarter of the infections. so that means the other 75 percent are the delta variant, which this, this treatment does work on. so they are making this up as they go along on every level. you could not find logic. if you extend their comments to anything else, you can not by logical consistency. so i've, course it's politically motivated. i mean just like hydro clocks hydro classical hydrochloric way early on, was politically motivated. oh, it has side effects. every drug you ever see a drug commercial on tv, those side effects will make you run the other way. every drug has side effects. so it's always been political. yeah, it's been about the right for sure. and now, ever since the pandemic

today, we are releasing cdc evidence. it allows children to stay in schools they have been exposed so they don't have to miss school. and the test to stay protocol, there is increased testing of close contacts after a covid-19 exposure and that needs to be at least twice during seven days after exposure. if exposed children meet certain criteria and continue to test negative, they can stay in school instead of quarantining at home. the cdc is releasing two reports with the use of test to stay and how it worked in two communities. these studies demonstrate that it works to keep unvaccinated children in schools safely. in order for test to stay to be implemented, some key prevention measures need to be included. in both studies, masks were worn consistently and correctly. " of a positive case were monitored for symptoms and stayed home if they became ill printed those without symptoms had regular testing. test to stay is an encouraging practice to keep children in school and the cdc is updating materials to help schools and

tomorrow, we will release data on cdc's covid data tracker that provide a snapshot of national- -- a snapshot of national and state-level data on covid-19 vaccine and booster effectiveness among residents of cms-certified long-term care facilities. the graph displayed here shows covid-19 cases among nursing home residents by vaccination status, including individuals who are unvaccinated -- represented by the top red line, those who are fully vaccinated, represented by the middle blue line, and those who have received an additional booster dose, represented by the bottom green line. as expected, nursing home residents who are unvaccinated have the highest weekly covid-19 case rates, which increased from 3.4 to 8.8 per thousand nursing home residents between october 31st to december 5th. for those who are fully vaccinated, we are starting to see cases increase, which is likely due to the waning of vaccine protection over time. but the good news is that these data show that nursing home residents who are fully vaccinated and have received a booster dose have a 10 times lower rate of get

we hear from doctor anthony fauci, cdc director doctor rochelle walensky and vivek murphy. >> we start with doctors rochelle walensky and fauci for an update on the omicron variant. >> good morning. i would like to start by walking you through today's data. the current, 7 day daily average of cases is 86,400. the seventh average of hospital admissions is about 6300 per day and the 7 day average of daily deaths is 860 per day. i will focus my comments on the state of the omicron variant. around the world we've seen cases in about 40 countries and on wednesday, the first confirmed case was detected in the united states in california. this then, additional states, minnesota, colorado, hawaii and new york have reported cases and we are working closely with state and local public health authorities to investigate suspect cases in other states. i mentioned on tuesday we are prepared and ready to rapidly recognize the omicron variant. the first case reported by the california and san francisco department of public health was identified quickly through genomic sequencing conducted at the unive

>> a big question of how the cdc responds to these new reports as well. thank you for the update. >>> maryland and the district of columbia are among the regions to see an all time high number of covid cases. in d.c., starting next week, all public school students must show a negative covid test result within 24 hours of returning to school. joining us now to discuss this new policy is the d.c. mayor, mayor bowser. thank you for joining us this morning. of course, d.c., i live here, you live here, this is a big epicenter now of the omicron cases in the united states. and you announced yesterday that all public schools and staff will need to provide proof of a negative test to get back to school next week. i'm curious, what drove this new policy, besides the obvious with the case count. >> well, we want to make sure that our commitment to having in person learning is honored with our families and we want to put ourselves in the best position to keep our -- to reopen our schools from winter and keep them open. and the way to do that is to ensure that every

so the cdc every week puts out reports. all the new cases out there, "x" percent are delta and "y"% are only crone and they have been doing this throughout the pandemic. the cdc said the week of december 18th, they previously said new cases were 73% omicron and everyone was like, wow, that got very big very quickly. now they are saying, we're revising that estimate. we think it's actually 23%. that is obviously a gigantic difference, and they say the week of december 19th through 25th was 59%, so omicron does not seem to be spreading quite as quickly. delta is still holding its own. how did this happen? it is unclear. one thing that we know, you know, people think, phil, that every -- that we do genetic sequencing for every case, we don't. we have to do estimates. we do a few and then we estimate, but it's a bit of a problem that this happened because you start making treatment decisions based on these numbers, and that number austin powers to have been wildly off. phil? >> yeah. that might even be an understatement still.

the cdc insisting the change is motivated by the science purely. the science which shows you're most contagious in the first few days of your illness if you have covid but dr. anthony fauci admitting the new rules were aimed at least in part at getting people back to work more quickly. the flight attendants union now questioning how much these changes were influenced by pressure from corporate america and in addition, the president of the nation's largest nursing union predicting the cdc's change will only increase the spread of the virus. cnn's tom foreman starts us off with a closer look at what all this might mean for you and your family as we head into a new year. >> reporter: amid the winter weather, the pandemic is roaring across the country with an average of more than 200,000 new cases diagnosed daily. >> this omicron variant is such a game changer in terms of its high, high transmissibility. it's like this big virus blizzard. >> reporter: hospitalizations are only about half of what they were last winter, but some states are seeing peaks t

i don't know what to say about what the cdc is doing. we have seen other countries do it differently. we were just talking with a doctor out of london who pointed out they have reduced the timeframe to seven days. as you pointed out earlier, nobody has gotten this 100% right. some companies have made mistakes here or there. it has been disastrous for administrations around the world. if the cdc just made a mistake, it is not the first and it will not be the last. i don't know what to tell you as far as going back to work. if i get covid, i am going to wait until i feel better physically and emotionally, then i will start testing. i want my colleagues to test negative before they come in. jonathan: what does that positive test actually mean? your positive antigen really does correlate with whether you are transmissible or not. we don't know the answer to that. the fda has not looked at whether your positive antigen really does correlate with whether you are transmissible or not. matt, how confusing is that? this is the quote from the head

why should americans trust the cdc? >> my job right now is to take all of the science and information that we have and to deliver guidance and recommendations to the american people that is adapted to the science at hand. this pandemic has given us a lot of new and updated science over the last two years, and it is my job to convey that science through those recommendations, and that is exactly what we are doing. >> that's the director of

and that's what the cdc did. >> while we're on the subject of mitigating risk, why do you think the cdc has not taken a position on the quality of masks? because it does seem as though there is data suggesting that an n95 mask is much, much better than a cloth mask. i don't even know if a cloth mask does anything at this point. can you clear this up? >> right. the reason the cdc has not done that, if you ask dr. walensky, and she articulates it when she gets asked that question is that the cdc is concerned that people just wear a mask, any mask. there are so many people who just don't want to wear a mask that if we can get anybody to wear a mask, that's a big plus. obviously, the epitome of the best masks are the n95s. n95s are less likely to be worn because they are not particularly comfortable. you put an n95 on for a period of time, it is not the easiest thing to wear. so the decision was made by the part of the people at the cdc, we would rather have people wear a mask than have to worry about people not wearing a mask because it's uncomfortable. >> it's been more than a year since

but the cdc say 10 to fiv if you have no symptoms. there will be companies that do require a negative test. matt: and countries as well. keep in mind people in this industry are moving between borders and may have to show covid negative tests, especially if the tested positive five days ago. the cdc issues guidelines for the u.s. but not globally. it will be interesting to see what other companies and countries require as well. jonathan: i think we have taken an important step toward treating this differently. a step toward normalcy perhaps. in the near term operationally i think we see recent tension. from new york city, for our audience worldwide heard on radio and seen on tv with kailey leinz and matt miller i am jonathan ferro. this is "bloomberg surveillance ." ♪ jonathan: 69 record highs of the year so far on the s&p 500 could become 70. the equity market is up 12. yields are going nowhere. euro-dollar going nowhere. crude positive up to 76.55. the cdc decision for some people is a bullish call. matt: absolutely, because of th

we should note we heard the cdc director, dr. michelle walensky, that they ramped up surveillance trying to find this, including the four airports in the united states, all of those trying to find these cases. part that far is getting contact information from the travelers who are coming from these nations where we note this is spreading, where those restrictions have gone into place which don't apply to american citizens, don't apply to legal residents. that presents a problem for them to try to contact trace as well. so that is something they'll be dealing with now that it has been identified here in the united states. >> kaitlan, stand by. i want to bring back dr. leana wen to react to this information you just shared, which is we now have our first identified case of omicron, this variant of covid here in the u.s., now detected in california. we were just discussing this idea that it is likely already in the u.s. and just hadn't been picked up yet, so i don't think this information is a huge surprise to anyone, but i do belie

wen about the cdc updating guidelines today. as he i mentioned, they shortened the recommended times people should isolate when they have tested positive for covid-19 from ten days to five days if they don't have symptoms, if they wear a mask around others, for at least five more days. what do you think of that decision? as shimon was just saying at la guardia airport, might help flight crews who are kind of grounded right now. >> jim, this was a necessary step because we are facing the collapse of our critical infrastructure. the number of cases that we are seeing now -- it's really high. but it's going to get so much worse because we have exponential spread of an extremely contagious variant. the numbers now, by the way, are a significant undercount because of how many people who are not getting tested or getting rapid home tests and are not reporting it to public health authorities. we could very well surpass over a million new cases every day. and with those kinds of numbers, we are going to see our police officers, our food

the cdc said pfizer and moderna are safer preferred and recommended over the johnson johnson vaccine when the cdc looked at well, others. >> serious complications that are very rare but can occur with and we've got early vaccines that are more effective in. don't have that complication. a logical decision was with the cdc said the doctor swartzberg says. >> if you have received j and j. there's no need to worry because the chances of blood clots are still small. it's a small number of a million. >> so the worry about if you got vaccinated months ago or 2 months or 6 months ago. the panel is still making the j and j shot available to people who want it. >> or have a severe allergy to the other options. experts say the johnson and johnson vaccine is better than nothing at all. for example. >> populations are hard to reach here in the united states like homeless people. you want to get humane only get one. she has to vaccinate them and that would be huge that settings. the cdc director is on board with the panel's recommendation. >> she says it emphasizes the agency's commitment to prov

why should americans trust the cdc? >> my job right now is to take all of the science and information that we have and to deliver guidance and recommendations to the american people that is adapted to the science at hand. this pandemic has given us a lot of new and updated science over the last two years, and it is my job to convey that science through those recommendations, and that is exactly what we are doing. >> that's the director of the cdc, and she's been pressed after the decision to relax isolation guidelines just as covid cases hit record numbers. the question is did she provide assurance that the agency can, in fact, be trusted? >>> and fully vaccinated. it's currently defined as two doses of either pfizer or moderna vaccines or one dose of the j&j. the question, is it now time to redefine that term? >>> and ghislaine maxwell, convicted of sex trafficking for her role in recruiting teenage girls for jeffrey epstein. the question this morning, is the case closed? it's "way too early" for this. ♪♪ >>> good

, this is exactly what we want the cdc to do. their job is to quarantine and isolate. you're just watching them do this in a much broader sense. a distinction between a cruise ship and an airplane, for example, is the ability to control, isolate, and also deal with circulation. believe it or not, air circulation on airplanes is incredible, that's why you don't see people benching the entire airline industry. when i had to work in the white house, we worked on cruise ship outbreaks of other types. so this is something the cdc has done before, it just hasn't gotten as much publicity. i do think the industries can turn this around. it's a reflection of what we're seeing across the country. kids are going back to school next week. i'm not a fan of shutting schools down, but i think we're going to see schools in quarantine, in some phases of shutdown because we'll see so many cases, so it's similar. but i want to be positive about saying that we can then recover from this just as quickly because we know what we need to do so that peop

this will now be reviewed by the cdc director. david? >> all right, stephanie ramos with us tonight. stephanie, thank you. we know many of you at home have a lot of questions, particularly with christmas eve one week from tomorrow. families plank get togethers. and so let's bring in dr. ashish jha, dean of the brown university school of public health. dr. jha, always great to have you with us. let's get right to it. we heard from the cdc already that this new variant, omicron, is doubling every two days or so. it's one thing to hear that from them. it's another thing to start hearing it and seeing it from people in your everyday lives. i'm hearing from a lot of people, family and friends, colleagues, who are seeing this. i'm curious, does this simply underscore just how transmissible this is and has the speed of this been eye-opening even for you? >> yeah, good evening, david. thank you for having me back. the speed of this transmission has been eye-opening for all of us. even in the last week or ten days, it's moved faster than i expect

i want to get right to those new cdc guidelines. do you think it's the right call, and do you think there should be this distinction not being made in these regulations, by the way, between those who are vaccinated and those who are not? >> wow, paula, i think this surprised all of us when this came out. look at when it's coming out, when we have a surge of the most infectious variant of covid that the world has seen. and it's confusing to everyone. we're getting called all over by employers and by different patients and different even departments of health are trying to interpret this. it's very confusing. now, here's the biggest thing that concerns me. what do all of them state? wear a mask at the end of that five days. well, what about something we've been complaining about, which is what is the proper guidance for what mask is effective, and how do you wear it? everyone has seen it in public that people wearing all varieties of masks, and we know those are not effective. so very wrong time and very confusing messages to the amer

that's not the issue, according to the cdc. according to the cdc, what they're saying is that for the first five days an abintigen te would be predictive of whether a person is transmissable. it's much more likely predictive. as you get further into the course, namely, out to the seven, eight, nine, ten days, the predictive value of an antigen test to say weather you are transmissable to someone else is really not only not known, there is no evidence indicate that that has any predictive value. in fact, what they're telling us, and it's true, is that the fda approved that antigen test and never approved it for the purpose of saying it has any predictive value when you are eight, nine, ten days into the course, whereas early on it gives you much more predictive of weahether you are enficktiver transmissable. >> here's what i'm dr. fauci, here is what i am not hearing you say. it has nothing to do with test scarcity. >> right. oh, i said that. i said it three times, michael. sorry. it has nothing to do with a lack of testst. that

cdc director dr. rochelle walensky showing us the many mutations. >> these are all the mutations. >> these are the spike proteins. these are all the mutations. >> reporter: while early signs show omicron might be less severe than delta, they still believe it's highly transmissible. that it spreads easily, and has them concerned about the sheer numbers. >> we have some concerns about this new variant in terms of its transmissibility. we don't know what it's going to do in terms of disease severity. but even if it is not more severe, if we many, many people who get it -- >> large denominator. >> right, a much larger denominator. and we could have a problem with disease severity anyway because there are just more people who have it. >> reporter: but right now, it's the delta variant making up nearly all new cases nationwide. an 83% increase since late october. hospitals feeling the surge, even in highly vaccinated areas like the northeast. >> delta is incredibly infectious, and those, you know, 5% to 10%

a cdc doctor gave these very pointed remarks. we've been struck when reviewing these cases by how rapidly patient status deteriorates and results in death. that's by cdc doctor isaac see. where does that leave everyone? if you got the johnson & johnson vaccine, don't worry. it is very effective . if you have not gotten this blood clotting disorder, you will not, likely, because it happens within the first two weeks of j&j, so you're fine, but they're saying moving forward, pfizer and moderna are preferred. many more people are getting pfizer and moderna already, but the cdc wants to make it clear, when you go to get vaccinated, pfizer and moderna are preferred. alisyn? >> some people are worried who got the j&j vaccine in the last two weeks, but as you point out, the numbers are less than one in a million. extremely rare, but still, the cdc is addressing it. thank you very much for the breaking news. >> thanks. >>> now to this. florida's governor ron desantis is pushing a bill that would allow parents to sue school districts if t

a lot of us believe wrongly that the cdc would be able to respond to covid and the cdc just wasn't capable of doing it. i think people wrongly assumed that the cdc was an operational agency. they take a lot of time to do retrospective analysis that only comes into cdc, and they published that analysis to help support future decision-making. that is basically the core function of cdc. cdc is not fema, it is not the defense department capable of mounting a large-scale response. it doesn't have an operational capacity. i think we wrongly assumed that it did and left the role of responding this pandemic solely in the purview of the cdc for far too long. the cdc's difficulty in ascertaining with the true prevalence of omicron is an miss stating that in a very significant way where it is estimated that about 75% of infections in the u.s. were omicron a couple of weeks ago and then revise that estimate that it was only 25%. public health decisions were made based on that estimate. that was a very significant mistake on the part of the agency. if you ask yourself how did the agency get something t

this is a quote from the cdc. people who test positive should isolate for five days and if asymptomatic at that time they may leave isolation if they can continue to mask for five days to minimize the risk of infecting others. now, that new guidance is sparking relief for some, confusion for others as americans attempt to navigate how to manage the virus at this point and, of course, the new variant. these changes come as new cases are surging across the country right now. the us .s. is averaging more th 237,000 daily cases. for many americans, this holiday season may be remembered for hours spent in long testing lines or desperately searching pharmacy shelves for at-home tests. our team of reporters following all the latest developments this morning, but first, to our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen on this big shift in guidance from the cdc. good morning. explain it to all of us because it is coulnfusing, even the lite part where it says that the time. does that mean you need to be asymptomatic at t

cnn's elizabeth cohen joining us now to explain these new cdc guidelines. i have to say, elizabeth, i had to read those guidelines four to five times. i think i understand much of it, but i'm really glad you're here to make sense of it for us. >> reporter: and they are so confusing. i read them over way more than that, talked to my producer, called one of cnn's mad cal analysts. he didn't know the answer. the v he got someone else. all of us got together. these are difficult to understand. it's unfortunate that the cdc guidance is guidance for the public but it's difficult for even medical professionals to understand. here is sort of how we boiled it down. if you have covid-19, you do need to isolate, but as you mentioned, it's been cut from ten days to five days. now, five days of isolation and then five days of wearing a mask if you're around others. that is if you are asymptomatic or if you're sick but your symptoms are getting better. that's a big "if." if you're still super sick, you obviously are not supposed to do that. now let's talk about when peop

i think that is what cdc was trying to do. i don't think that they communicated it very well or very clearly so right now a lot of the public is pretty confused. >> do you think a lot of that has to do though with the public just not willing to do whatever it is that the cdc recommends? because it seems inevitable that at any point there will be some people who don't want to do the recommended isolation or what they do believe, wearing a good mask when you are out in public, a lot of people we've seen don't want to do that or just don't do it. >> well, i think that that is exactly right. they don't want to do it. and in some sense they feel forced to do it. i didn't see the cdc telling people that they were forcing them to do anything. i didn't hear anything about a mandate. what i heard was if you are sick, it makes sense to get a test. if you are positive, you should stay home and not expose others. and particularly if you are not vaccinated and you are exposed, it is important for you to be wearing a mask, for you to get te

the new data that omicron is likely less severe than delta, and new information from the cdc on when people are most contagious. >> most of your transmission potential happens in the one to two days before you have symptoms. >>> holiday travel nightmare. nearly 1,000 flights canceled today the massive pile-up in wisconsin as severe weather begins to roll through the southeast. >>> high stakes call president biden set to talk with vladimir putin tomorrow as fears grow that russia will invade ukraine. why did the russian president request the call >>> truly free returns. the secret policy at some major retailers that lets you keep the item you want to give back and the refund. >>> and the tributes pouring in for two towering figures we remember former senate leader harry reid and nfl great john madden. >>> this is nbc "nightly news" with lester holt. >>> good evening i'm kristin welker in for lester after the death of jeffrey epstein, the world has watched and waited as the jury deliberated for days about what would happen to his confidant, ghislaine maxwell. tonight they have found he

new cdc guidelines have separate recommendations were vaccinated versus unvaccinated for post exposure guidance. number three, antigen test have -- tests have held up their sensitivity to omicron. i think number three is true. separate recommendations only for postexposure. i feel like that could be the one. producer, do we have >> the audience has got to chime in. ama: i feel confident we are going with number two. >> number two is actually true. this is part of the criticism of the new guidelines is there is not a differentiation for actual positive tests, this is exposure. they say if you are exposed to somebody else to list tested positive for sars-cov-2 and you are vaccinated and boosted you might be completely fine, but if you are unvaccinated you should quarantine yourself for five days, whereas if you test positive there is no distinction between people who are vaccinated or unvaccinated, which is tricky right now. a is actually true true true tre we are seeing so many positive test in the pediatric population. c is false. if you have symptoms and you get a negative antigen tes

earlier this evening, anthony fauci explained the thinking behind the new cdc recommendations. >> if so many people simultaneously catching it, you want to make sure amongst essential workers that you get people out there much sooner, i mean cutting it in half, five days of isolation and come out and wear a mask for the rest of the time, you can keep people safe from getting infected, if you are still infected, but at the same time, i can you back to what might be an essential function in society. on balance, if you the safety of the public and the need to have society not disrupted, this was a good choice. >> is is just what many businesses said they needed to keep operating, case in point airlines, our staffing shortages due to overcrowding that a huge impact. more than 1000 u.s. flights were canceled, doctor anthony fauci was asked about vaccine mandates for domestic air travel. he clarified the earlier comments that suggested that was under consideration.>> it's unlikely you would see that in the foreseeable future, what i states under consideration, people take a leap and say we