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Year ago, who now have that security. but we know, there s a lot more work to be done on the pandemic. way too many cases, hospitalizations. we need to get those things under control. i think that is what it is going to take to have people feel like the national economy as a whole is doing as well as they are in their own personal lives. in the last week, the last two weeks, these two initiatives, the using the postal service to mail every household. i have to say, the white house is very efficient, very clean, very easy to use. a plan to distribute masks. both of which are coming online. you guys probably should have done that six weeks ago, right? well chris, we had to ramp up both. i think on the testing side, it is worth remembering, that when we got here, there were zero at home tests. none, didn t exist in the united states of america. and so over the course of the first 11 months that we were here. we ve built that up from zero, to 350 million at home tests in december. now ....
A plan to distribute masks, both of which are coming online. you guys probably should have done that six weeks ago, right? well, chris, we had to ramp up both. first, the testing side, it s worth remembering that when we got here, there were zero at-home tests, none, didn t exist in the united states of america. so over the course of the 11, first 11 months we were here we built up from zero to 350 million at-home tests in december. now we are taking it to the next step, we re continuing to ramp up production so that we can have this easy website where you can go get four free tests. we also changed the rules so if you want to buy tests from a store or commercial website your insurance company will reemburse you for those tests so we re continuing to expand testing, made progress every month, continue to make progress. on the masking, again, i think the new cdc recommendation that tilts toward more use of the more specialized masks, the kn-95s, n-95s, i think makes it ....
Major address related to that omicron surge we ve seen over the course of the last couple of days. the president is expected to deliver a dire warning to the unvaccinated, a very simple warning white house officials say one repeating what he said last week for those vaccinated and boosted, there will certainly be breakthrough cases however, you re likely to avoid any type of serious infection from the pandemic. for those who aren t, you re facing death in a very dire winter. one thing to keep an eye on i m told is what the president says related to testing and potential overflow in hospitals. that s a very serious concern and very real problem on the testing side of things. it will be interesting to see if the president goes any deeper as omicron becomes the dominant variant in the united states today. that happened so quick. phil, thanks for your reporting. i want to bring in an epidemiologist. he s currently a professor at cornell medicine. ....
Joining us now, msnbc anchor and nbc news senior business correspondent, stephanie ruhle. steph, let s start with wall street. what do we make of this roller coaster ride yet again? it has been all about omicron, down for three straight days, now up again. for the markets, it s all about, where are we in this economic recovery? can businesses and schools stay open? the biden administration has said yes, but the markets have said, i m not so sure. as we get more and more numbers, yes, the case numbers are spiking. that clearly spooks the markets. however, hospitalizations aren t up that much. deaths are basically flat. so from the market perspective, their main thing that they are looking for, are we going to have lockdowns again? because, remember, supply chain issues, shortages, were all about things being shut down. and as the market looks at things today, omicron isn t good, it s massively inconvenient and problematic, especially on the testing side. but does it look like things ....
Last week for those vaccinated and boosted, there will certainly be breakthrough cases however, you re likely to avoid any type of serious infection from the pandemic. for those who aren t, you re facing death in a very dire winter. one thing to keep an eye on i m told is what the president says related to testing and potential overflow in hospitals. that s a very serious concern and very real problem on the testing side of things. it will be interesting to see if the president goes any deeper as omicron becomes the dominant variant in the united states today. that happened so quick. phil, thanks for your reporting. i want to bring in an epidemiologist. he s currently a professor at cornell medicine. doctor, thank you for being here tonight. i m happy to see you but not like this because we re learning that omicron is now the dominant covid variant in the u.s. less than three weeks after the very first cases were even detected. ....