| "If someone who's been infected with Delta is well protected from this and someone who is fully boosted is also well protected from this, that could be a pretty good backstop from this becoming really epidemic in the United States." - Dr. Scott Gottlieb on whether the Omicron variant is more transmissible than previous variants.
Welcome to the "Face the Nation" Five at Five newsletter. Scroll down for your five takeaways from today's broadcast of "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on CBS. Did someone forward you this? Sign-up at cbsnews.com/email. 1. Fauci warns of "potential" for new COVID-19 wave, stressing vaccines and boosters  Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Biden, warned the U.S. could potentially experience a fifth wave of coronavirus infections, but said increasing the number of Americans who are vaccinated against the virus and receive their booster shots could blunt its severity. What Fauci said: "We certainly have the potential to go into a fifth wave. And the fifth wave, or the magnitude of any increase, if you want to call it that it will turn into a wave, will really be dependent upon what we do in the next few weeks to a couple of months." Why it matters: Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said there are 62 million Americans who are eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19 but have not yet gotten their shots, and millions more who were immunized at least six months ago and are now seeing their immunity against the virus wane, precipitating the need for booster shots. 2. Full Interview: Dr. Anthony Fauci looks back on COVID-19 response  Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Biden, sat down with "Face the Nation" moderator Margaret Brennan for a wide-ranging discussion on the pandemic. See moments that didn't make it on the broadcast and watch the entire interview now on www.facethenation.com. 3. Gottlieb says Omicron variant of COVID-19 is "almost definitely" already in U.S.  Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former head of the Food and Drug Administration, said Sunday that the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus reported last week is likely already in the United States, but said the federal government is better positioned to detect cases of the new strain than it was a year ago. What Gottlieb said: "It's almost definitely here already, just looking at the number of cases coming off planes this weekend. It's almost a certainty that there have been cases that have gotten into the United States. We're in a much better place now than we were a year ago when B.1.1.7 first arrived, or even when Delta first arrived. We are sequencing about a hundred thousand cases a week, which is very good. It's about 20% of all the diagnosed cases. CDC is also going to set up this week a new surveillance system specifically for this variant." Why it matters: First reported by South Africa to the World Health Organization last Wednesday, the Omicron strain was classified as a "variant of concern" in part because of its high number of mutations and some initial evidence it carries a higher degree of infection than other strains. Cases have been reported in Belgium, Israel, Hong Kong and Britain, but no cases of the new variant have been identified in the U.S. as of yet, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 4. Clark says hiring remains a "challenge" in "very tight" labor market  Dave Clark, the CEO of Amazon's Worldwide Consumer business, said Sunday that the "very tight" labor market poses a "challenge" for the world's largest online retailer, despite thousands of new hires joining the company during the holiday season. In an interview with "Face the Nation," Clark said Amazon has nonetheless had "great success" in recent hiring, with 45,000 new employees onboarded in the last week, but he noted that in some parts of the country, "particularly in metropolitan areas," it has been more difficult to fill positions. What Clark said: "People have evaluated what kind of jobs do they want to have. Do they want to be in the food service business? Do they want to be in retail, or do they want to be in fulfillment? Do both people in the family want to work? So many things have changed for people during the course of the pandemic that it's hard to say one particular thing." Why it matters: Clark said he is hearing from many small businesses in particular about the challenges they face in hiring employees. What's the cause for this challenge? Clark said workers are "looking at their lives so differently" due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 5. New Omicron variant rings alarm bells across global community  CBS News foreign correspondent Debora Patta reports from Johannesburg, South Africa, on the new variant. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment