people not immune compromised? on the basis of study it seems like they are not going do that. let me explain. they said fourth doss did inclose antibodies, really did, but didn t to reduce your chancels of getting infected with omicron so with that the lead researcher said, you know what, maybe it makes sense to stay what israel is doing, fourth shots for the immune compromised, also being done in the u.s. and for you shots for people over the age of 60. the big question that the israeli researchers were not able to answer is does a fourth shot decrease the chances that you re going to get a severe omicron infection? they say they just don t have enough data to answer that right. >> hopefully more data comes in. up next, president biden hits one year in office this week and democrats are in a big bit of a
of people, the omicron infection especially if you ve been boosted and vaccinated will be mild, that is certainly not the case for everybody. we don t know yet about the incidence of long covid associated with the omicron variant, and remember that even if you, yourself, don t get severely ill, you could absolutely pass it on to somebody who will not do as well and could succumb to the virus. this is still not a cold. there are going to be many, many breakthrough infections for the unfortunate that will unfortunately end up becoming a severe illness and even leading to mortality. >> dr. natalie azar, stephanie gosk, kerry sanders, josh lederman, great information. thank you so much. coming up, president biden set to meet with senate democrats on capitol hill over voting rights. former president obama is backing him up right now. you re watching jose diaz-balart reports. you re watching jose diaz-balart reports.
or the countries doing something similar? , :, or the countries doing something similar? , ., :, :, ~ or the countries doing something similar? , ., :, :, ,, ., ., similar? they are looking at what we are doinu similar? they are looking at what we are doing and _ similar? they are looking at what we are doing and they _ similar? they are looking at what we are doing and they don t _ similar? they are looking at what we are doing and they don t have - similar? they are looking at what we are doing and they don t have as - are doing and they don t have as much lateral flow availability is we have in this country despite will be to set about supplies and i think the biggest issue is that you have to be careful because you cannot assume that you are not infected if you test negative on lateral flow. lateral flow only detects those people at the most infectious and so, where the concerns as if you still have symptoms and you ve tested negative, you do need a pcr test. it is with emphasising that. i do think it is a bit of an experiment in a situation where we have unprecedented levels of infection and we need to think about better ways of controlling it. if better ways of controlling it. if you were to test daily with a lateral flow tests, it would eventually pick up that you are positive, but then we need more tests. , , :, , ., , :, tests. this is a dependable on the availability and _ tests. this is a dependable on the availability and making _ tests. this is a dependable on the availability and making sure - tests. this is a dependable on the availability and making sure that i availability and making sure that they re distributed in the right way
the next week or two will be absolutely critical and then we figure out assuming we do get past this say over the last month what the post-omicron world looks like and the fact that i m concerned that protection offered by omicron infection, if you re not vaccinated on top of it, is going to be short-lived and will look like upper respiratory coronaviruses and then we ll be vulnerable again for a big wave coming over the summer. so what s the plan for the nation to get ready for the summer? that s the other big question. >> and a lot of big questions, of course, come with this. what are the mandates? what are the requirements? what is the best guidance and how to live in the midst of this? in virginia, the new governor there, he has a new executive order lifting school mask mandates effective today which are allowing parents to decide whether their kids wear masks in school. what do you think about lifting, even if it s looking better, what do you think about lifting school mask mandates right now?
>> dr. fauci said the data show that this new variant, omicron, less severe than delta. but we continue to see larger numbers of children hospitalized. knowing that so many younger kids can t get vaccinated yet, what advice do you have for parents here? >> well, with parents, well, you know, kids are -- they re only low risk. especially from the omicron. children by and large are not vaccinated in large numbers. and that is a concern. and dr. fauci mentioned that they re talking about six months to five years, but right now above five years is important and over the age of 12 you can get a booster. the booster mitigates the omicron infection. if you re a child with obesity, diabetes, chronic lung problems, heart disease, your child is at great risk to be hospitalized. and even die, and that is a big problem. and we don t want that to happen to any parent much less the child. the advice is clear.
if this is proven with more people, larger studies, it s possible that scientists could someday develop a blood test to check for those level of immunoglobulin. it s going to take time but the experts applaud the research and say it is quite promising. did the study look at whether the vaccines impact whether people get these long-lasting symptoms? >> that s a great question and the answer is no. most of these people were infected before vaccines were available. that also means that they had earlier versions of the virus, earlier variants. so it s still unclear whether these findings would apply to someone who goes on to develop long covid after an omicron infection. craig? >> erika, thank you so much for breaking down that study. and i should point out that that
there was a significant difference in hospitalization rates as well. 44 times. it s not even close, right? and for the general population, take all age groups, it s closer to 17 times. so it is very clear, you know, regardless of whether you sort of are in this camp that, look, everyone is going to get omicron. it s that contagious where a lot of people are thinking that. the distinction between the vaccinated and unvaccinated remains and it s very, very strong and gets even more pronounced in people over the age of 50. >> and the former director of the cdc, dr. tom frieden has an op-ed on cnn.com today. even if you don t consider yourself at high risk getting covid may wind up being more than a minor inconvenience. it s also not clear how much be omicron infection protects you from getting covid again. many nonsevere infections don t cause strong immunity. now is not the time to get up or let it rip. do you think that too many americans are risking underestimating omicron by not
student benefits from having access to the facilities. i can t got gym. including international students most clearly and that s been a huge burden on them especially given the very short notice that they provided apes ains mitchell, let me read what the university is saying delaying the start of the quarter and removing to remote only instruction for two weeks allowed the university community to get past the peak of omicron infection. helped reduce case counts on the on campus especially residence hall and. >> joe: served resources. we ll wish you all the best thanks for coming on this morning. >> thank you, pleasure to be on. >> vo: so when my windshield broke... i found the experts at safelite autoglass. they have exclusive technology
>> if you had omicron infection, you should have protection against subsequent infection from this new variant. that s why i don t think this is going to create a huge wave of infection. what s likely to happen is as we were coming down, we were coming down quite sharply in the northeast, florida, the mid-atlantic. you might see as the new strain starts to pickup, you might see we start to slow down in decline. the decline will happen nonetheless. >> a new study from england found similar results. transmission is likely to be higher with ba-2 although vaccines will be effective. europe will be lifting covid restrictions in the coming days. jim bittermann joins me now live from paris. what is the situation across europe? >> reporter: rosemary, in fact, february is going to be a month where i think we re going to see a number of restrictions lifted here. sometimes with reason, sometimes
>> it appears to be more contagious. data out of denmark from the serum institute suggests it s about 1.5 times more contagious than the strain of omicron that has made it around the u.s. >> which is already so transmissible. >> exactly. does it evade our immune system? does it evade the immunity we ve acquired from omicron infection or the advantage scenes? most of the evidence so far, and it s preliminary, suggests it doesn t. in fact, there s data out of the uk that suggests a fully boosted person may be more protected against this new variant than they were against the initial strain of omicron. and then the final question, is it more virulent? is it more dangerous? and so far based on what we ve seen out of denmark and the uk which are collecting very good data on this, it doesn t appear to be a more virulent strain. >> the new research comes as covid infections are surging around the world. russia registered more than 121,000 new cases sunday, a new record. over the weekend russia surpassed more than 100,000 daily infections for the first time. meantime, reuters is reporting that new zealand s prime minister has tested negative for