these four steps, get vaccinated and get boosted if you're eligible, wear a mask, stay home when you're sick and take a test if you have symptoms or are looking for greater, extra reassurance before you gather with others. with that, thank you. i will now turn things over to dr. fauci. >> thank you very much, dr. walensky. what i'd like to do over the next couple minutes is talk about the omicron variant and some concerns particularly in the area of severity of disease, if i can have the first slide. i'm going to focus predominantly on severity, but let me make a few comments to underscore many of the things that dr. walensky said. first of all, without a doubt, unequivocally, we are dealing with a highly, highly transmissible variant that spreads rapidly. the data are overwhelming in that regard. number two, immune evasion. oechl cron evades vaccine