happens going forward. the stunning set back of the omicron variant sweeps across the nation. president biden saying he is sending americans a half billion testing kit. the new york times reporting the contract to buy the tests isn t even signed yet. good morning, everyone. i m julie banderas. benjamin is here. benjamin: i am benjamin hall and this is america s newsroom. if that weren t enough, the newspaper also reports that the website to order the testing won t be up and running until next month meaning the president dialing back his comments that the u.s. was near victory in the fight against covid. now admitting his efforts so far are falling short. president biden: nothing has been good enough. but look, here we are. last christmas we were in a situation where we had significantly fewer people vaccinated, emergency rooms were filled. you had serious back-ups in hospitals that were causing
hospital but they are being knocked out of the work force because they are at home. also the fact that paxlovid won t be here in time, testing won t be here in time and the fact that two out of our three monoclonal antibodies simply don t work against the omicron variant. there are a lot of concerns that i have. we have got to take more aggressive measures to keep our health care work force in the work force. well, that s not exactly have a holly jol christmas there, doctor. but i think it s you know, we are always for the bracing truth here and hearing it from people with your standing and credibility. shannon, that is also something the white house doesn t want the hear. the biden administration yesterday gave more ground yesterday with david muir in acknowledging some of the short falls. how tough a pill is that for the white house to swallow, so to speak, maybe not using the right metaphor here.