seventh nuclear test, then the response, a coordinated response by u.s. and south korea will be stronger and firmer than it has been before. he also says if kim jong-un wants to talk, it s up to him to initiate it, but he does not want north korea to collapse. he wants north korea to prosper alongside south korea. now, i also asked him about covid, as north korea, just over ten days ago, admitted that they have their first omicron covid outbreak, they say close to 3 million people believed to have fever at this time, they don t have the testing capability to know for sure that it is covid-19. they say 68 deaths, but experts believe that the death toll is probably far higher. this is what north korea s telling us. but i asked president yoon about his offer to provide vaccines, masks, testing kits, pointing out that kim jong-un would find it difficult to accept that, and
from people to people. thaps what we worry about. this is not asymptomatic transmission as we saw with covid, which it s also not an contagious a as covid. you have to have contact directly with the person with the symptoms. as you can imagine, the rash itself is quite apparent. the pandemic preparedness guy, we have a plan for this. what does a plan for a u.s. response look like should this become worse? there are a few things we re doing immediately. as soon as we knew there were new cases reported first in the uk a few weeks ago, we already mobilized our colleagues at the departments and agencies. the cdc, department of health and human services to secure vaccines and treatments. that s number one. number two, we re working with state and local actors. i was just in touch with the doctors at the hospital in boston this weekend to ensure that they have the testing capability available and also that they have the guidance of how to use the vaccine for those
variant in terms of having little testing capability over the christmas holidays, and then they send out test kits to everyone well after omicron has left the building for the most part. so this president, this administration, they re like those guys who are in charge of spotting icebergs on the titanic. they can t see what s painfully obvious coming at them. i mean, the supply chain crisis has been going on for nearly a year, so yeah, maybe things like baby formula, we should have stocked up on maybe months ago because that s a pretty crucial thing to be out of. now this whole over this whole overall impression, it s incompetence. not just joe biden. maybe not a good idea to take the mayor of a small city of indiana and put him things in charge of things like supply chain. and jennifer granholm who said nice things about biden on cnn therefore let s put her in charge of the department of energy. i could go on, but we have finite time. i totally understand.
i should stay home. but the problem again is we don t have enough of them. so we ll see what the cdc says, but as you re listening to the recommendations, keep in mind that at one point we thought we should be doing 20 to 30 million of these tests a day in this country and obviously we re closer to a million or so. we re woefully undertesting here. no clear pathway or kind of like guidelines on when there s going to be all of the testing and an influx of testing capability we have been told and promised would be coming down the pike. you know, i wanted to ask you about miguel marquez s piece just really hits home once again and puts a face on all of these numbers that we see. pediatric hospitalizations are at their highest they have ever been as miguel showed in that piece. you hear the numbers and, of course, that is concerning. but i m wondering as we re
to illinois governor. what is being said? reporter: the white house is walking a fine line offering support to illinois officials but showing a bit of deference to the chicago teachers union as they continue to say they are the most pro-union administration in a long, long time. on friday, deputy press secretary told reporters that yes the white house was in touch with illinois governor. that was after the media was told he had came to the white house, asked them for more testing capability. now, she told reporters that the white house had conveyed to light foot privately what they have been saying publicly for a while which is the president wants to see kids in school and they feel that the administration and the federal government has provided and has the tools to keep kids safe in