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- Many were fearful that the strong measures seen in Europe against Omicron could resurface in the U.S., but the country is not trending in that direction (at least on the federal level). A speech from President Biden today won't be "about locking the country down," according to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, but will rather outline the "benefits of being vaccinated and the steps we are going to take to increase access and testing." For those who choose to remain unvaccinated, "he'll issue a stark warning and make clear that unvaccinated individuals will continue to drive hospitalizations and deaths."
- Quote: "The President will restate that while vaccinated individuals get COVID-19 due to the highly-transmissible nature of Omicron, their cases will likely be milder or asymptomatic," Psaki told reporters. "You are 14 times more likely to die of COVID if you have not been vaccinated. More importantly, he'll restate that we're prepared and that fully vaccinated individuals have the tools they need to protect themselves with a booster shot and masking." U.S. appeals court revives Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for businesses.
- Omicron is spreading like wildfire across the globe, and now represents 73% of sequenced cases in the U.S., up from 13% last week, according to data from the CDC. It's even higher in other areas of the country. Omicron is responsible for an estimated 90% or more of new infections in the New York area, the Southeast, the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest, while the national rate suggests more than 650K Omicron infections occurred in America last week alone.
- Interview highlights: "We have had reported deaths of Omicron around the world, although there have been a minority of them, with fewer than we've seen for other variants," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told CNBC's Shepard Smith. In response to a question about why vaccinated individuals shouldn't live normal lives, Walensky responded, "there are still Omicron studies coming in, and we don't know the long-term manifestations of Omicron - like the long COVID that we've seen with other variants - as well as the fact that you could transmit it to other people." Moderna's COVID-19 booster increases neutralizing antibodies 37 fold against Omicron variant.