several degrees, five of them while in prison. he launched his own group to reform the criminal justice system and mentors others who were incarcerated. marcus pass grew up in a struggling brooklyn neighborhood and found a love for helping underserved kids and a leading voice in partnership for children working 24/7 so families like his can succeed. a homeless mother facing domestic violence while living in a shelter with her newborn, now enrolled in a specialized education program working in technology. today she's a budding success, what a fantastic story. i hope we're all inspired by those heroes. that wraps us this hour. i'm stephanie ruehl. jose diaz-balart picks up breaking coverage right now. >> good morning, it's 10:00 a.m. eastern/7:00 a.m. pacific.

the first covid variant case in california. and the biden administration has struck a deal with mexican officials to reinstate the program along the southern border. today in washington, lawmakers have until tomorrow night to pass a bill to stave off a government shutdown. this as democrats are scrambling to pass the president's build back better. congresswoman jayapal will join us to tell us where things stand. in michigan a community in mourning after a fourth student dies from a high school shooting. we have the latest on the search for answers. we begin with the latest on the omicron variant, the first case detected here in the u.s. was found in a patient aged somewhere between 18 and 49 who was fully vaccinated but did not

receive a booster. california governor gavin newsom says the patient is experiencing mild symptoms and is doing well. joining me now from the west coast, jacob ward, nbc news correspondent and live from washington, mike memoli. thank you for being with me. you spoke to one of the top doctors at uc san francisco. what did you learn? >> dr. charles hsu who runs the lab that detected this particular variant spoke to the extraordinary infrastructure that has gone into places at the beginning of this pandemic, one that allowed a patient who returned from south off ka to san francisco november 22nd, felt poorly, turned in a test sample, that test was identified as an omicron variant, within about five hours, thanks to the gene sequencing capabilities here at the university of california at san francisco.

we cannot know how transmissible the disease would be, how resistant it might be or how it might affect its interaction with vaccines. we don't know any of that. we have the rapid ability to study this particular thing, and most importantly, jose, he says that what we've learned from this as with all variants, it is unvaccinated people inside the opportunity to become the variant and that is why he says it is so important for people to not only be vaccinated as this person was, in order to have these mild symptoms, but also that everybody needs to be further vaccinated who is currently not so we can stop giving the virus a chance to mutate. >> jacob, i wonder about contract tracing. it's not something the united states is very good at so far. i'm wondering if the patient who apparently flew on an airplane

recently the people around him if they've been contacted, something we should be asking in the future, jake. >> reporter: it is extraordinary actually, jose, that this particular patient managed to actually contact the san francisco department of public health and told them, i have been in south africa. i know the variant is there, and that set in motion an extraordinary contact tracing effort. none of those close contacts have tested positive. the patient, as you noted, is actually feeling pretty well, is not hospitalized, just in isolation, so it seems that that person does not, has not become a vector alone. that said, of course, san francisco officials are now insisting that anyone flying in from places like botswana, zimbabwe or south africa have to face additional testing in the future. >> thank you, jake. mike, how is the administration preparing for what could be another covid surge this winner? >> the president today is headed up to the national institutes of health to announce plan to tackle the winter surge of the coronavirus. this is something that's been in

the works even before the emergence of the omicron variant and there's a lot in this plan. what it boils down to is five broad categories. first has to do with international travel. the white house is requiring all passengers coming in the united states, regardless of citizenship and regardless of vaccination status to have a negative test within 24 hours of your departure and extending the mask date for transportation until mid march. the next category is schools. the white house wants to do everything they can to keep schools open, expanding the availability of family vaccination pop-up clinics. they want to make vaccination for younger children and adults as accessible as possible. they're also asking the cdc to review some of its own policies when schools need those, when there are positive cases in those schools. we're also going to see millions of americans benefiting from this, a ramping up of the availability of take-home testing. the white house has already worked over the last few months to try to reduce the costs of

take-home tests and now requiring all private insurance companies to reimburse individuals who purchased those take-home tests. they think that will go a long way towards encouraging more people to do the take-home tests but ultimately the number one message coming out of the white house today is around the issue of booster shots. we saw dr. fauci in the briefing room yesterday saying he wouldn't wait for a booster. if you're eligible, what is most concerning, millions of seniors who are eligible and haven't done that and there will be a major marketing push around that. >> thank you very much for being with me this morning. for more i'm joined by dr. celine yonder served on president biden's transition team and dr. david bannick, head of infection prevention at uconn health. thank you for being with me. the white house banned travelers from south africa and now the plan seems to be more boosters and more vaccines and more testing for travelers, but what about this plan is different from what we've already been

doing? >> well, i think the testing requirements are tightening up, so up until now, you could have been tested within 72 hours of travel, that's been tightened up to 24 hours. this is really a move that should have been made back in the spring or summer with the emergence of the delta variant, which has a short incubation period, so the challenge is whether the delta variant or the omicron variant, you could test negative 72 hours prior to flying, but be incubating the virus and positive on the day of flight. so this tightening up of that window is to address that gap, to make sure that people who are boarding planes are truly safe to fly. >> dr. bannick, you're in connecticut, seeing a surge of cases. how concerned are you about the impact of the omicron variant and what are you seeing? >> so thanks for having me on. i think the omicron variant has

certainly raised concern here in connecticut and throughout the country. here in connecticut we have seen an increase in cases in the community predominantly delta variant at this point. we're also seeing an increase in hospitalizations but not quite at the rate that we've seen in the past. i think a lot of that is protection from the vaccine, highly vaccinated state here. we're optimistic that will hold true but here in connecticut also, we've been really ramping up our capacity to do genomic sequencing to identify new variants including omicron so that's really important in the future in order to understand how this variant is going to be in connecticut. >> what are the things you have to do to ramp that up? >> there's been a big investment by the state in laboratory and partnerships throughout the state and that includes private laboratories as well as academic laboratories and public health laboratories and now we can increase up to a quarter of the isolates we received here in the state so i think that's going to really put us ahead in identifying variants and acting accordingly in terms of our

public health interventions. >> dr. gounder, on the omicron variant, what do we know today we didn't know last week, and what are we still not figuring out? >> there are three main characteristics to viruses. one is how easily do they transmit from person to person, how contagious are they? secondly, how virulent are they? how severe is the disease in that person who is infected with the virus, and then thirdly, how well does our immune system protect us, and that could be immunity after an infection or immunity after vaccination. we have seen that people who were infected and presumably had some level of immunity have been reinfected with omicron, so you really shouldn't bank on natural immunity. we suspect there might be slight reduction in vaccine effectiveness but still vaccines we anticipate will prevent much

of the severe disease you might get with omicron. >> dr. banach, when people are considering getting their booster, sometimes they're asking which booster should i get? should i get the pfizer? should i get the moderna? i had the j&j. which one is better fighting the omicron or any other kind of variant that comes down the pike? what would you say to those people? >> so i think these are important questions. you know, we are, i think the main message is that any of the boosters is going to be effective in terms of boosting immunity. the cdc does allow for mixing and matching between different booster answer the data on doing so supports that there may be benefit from that but we don't know the full extent of the benefit. at this point regardless of which vaccine you should get that booster whichever is

available to you. >> thank you for your time. breaking news, nbc news confirms the biden administration has reached a deal with the mexican government to reinstate the trump era remain in mexico policy as soon as monday. the law requires migrants seeking asylum to wait outside the u.s. for their immigration hearings. senior administration officials say they'll continue to appeal the program but they're required to implement the law after a court order. they also say individuals in the program will be offered a covid vaccine before returning to mexico. i bring in nick mirhoff reporter at "the washington post" who first broke the story. great seeing you. what does it mean that this policy will be reinstated? >> well, it means that the biden administration initially is going to start very slow. keep in mind, they are doing this to comply with a federal court order to reinstate the policy. they've been negotiating with

mexico for several weeks now and they finally have a deal in place, and we know it's going to start small. it will begin on monday in one border city which u.s. officials this morning didn't identify. they say it will soon expand border wide and primarily be run through four, texas and san diego. the title 42 public health law they used to expel most border crossers will continue to be their main border management tool, only a small number of folks are likely to be enrolled in this new version of remain in mexico or mpp as the trump administration called it. >> interesting, because then title 42 actually lets officials deport people, in other words, we saw what happened there in texas, and del rio when 9,000 mostly haitians were sent back to an island, they had left many of them ten years ago.

42 gives them the right to deport, remain in mexico holds them from coming into the united states. how did this deal get done? >> yes, so just to clarify if someone crosses the border they wait outside u.s. territory while their claims are processed by u.s. courts. the trump administration's intent with setting it up that way was to avoid the release of asylum seekers into the united states while their claims were pending. they viewed that as a major pull factor for illegal migration. so it will resume once more that way and the mexican government has extracted a concession from the united states which is the demand that the claims are prosensed within 180 days. the administration says that

it's going to assign 22 immigration judges just to work on these remain in mexico cases in order to make sure that, you know, the process is quick and i think this shows that mexico has had leverage in this process. the biden administration is facing record numbers of people crossing the border over the past year and they increasingly need mexico's help in order to manage these enormous flows of migrants not only from mexico and central america but from all over the western hemisphere. >> nick, thank you for being with me. still ahead, the supreme court is deciding the future of abortion rights. we'll take a deep dive. plus, breaking developments on capitol hill over government funding. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. don't settle for products that give you a sort-of white smile. try crest whitening emulsions... ...for 100% whiter teeth. its highly active peroxide droplets...

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18 past the hour. breaking news from capitol hill where there appears to be progress and efforts to avoid a government shutdown at the end of this week. the short time ago the chair of the house appropriations committee announced an agreement on a bill that would fund the federal government through the 18th of february. the house will take up issue. the republicans of utah and kansas threatened to delay it over money to enforce vaccine

requirements. with me now is nbc news capitol hill correspondent leigh ann caldwell. how likely is it the government will get a funding bill through the senate? >> reporter: good morning, jose. that's still the question. it was big news this morning, the fact that republican and democratic leadership came to an agreement to pass a short term government funding bill through february 18th. so that is the first step. but in this senate, there's other problems, that is like you mentioned senator mike lee and senator marshall of kansas want to hold up the process because they are opposed to funding vaccine mandate, and so they can delay this process, right. so what could essentially happen the government could shut down through the weekend. it would just take more time for the senate to override their opposition. they can't kill government funding but they can just delay

it, so we could very well be looking at a shutdown heading into the weekend that would last a couple days, probably no big major effect on the economy or most people, but it will just play into this level of dysfunction in washington. i asked senator mcconnell if he had spoke on it lee and what his advice to him. he didn't answer me. moments before he was on fox news saying he thinks the government shutdown is bad for everyone and most members of both parties don't want it. so we'll see if the republicans and leader mcconnell are able to walk mike lee off this cliff. >> everybody should be answering your questions, leigh ann, everybody. the senator particle ttachmentitarian is looking at provisions in the build back better bill to provide temporary protection for undocumented.

>> reporter: i'm told that in that meeting, she asked a lot of questions, but did not tip her hand either way into what way she will decide. senator durbin said this morning they have not heard from the parliamentarian on her answer. they hope it comes before the end of the week. i will say advocates think even if she doesn't agree to this specific proposal, they can amend their proposal and go back to her, hopefully find a place that she is comfortable with, so this process even if she says no might not yet be over. jose? >> and the house rules committee is meeting right now to discuss the resolution recommending that former trump administration justice department official jeffrey clark be held in contempt of congress for reviewsing to cooperating with the investigation of the january 6th insurrection. what happens next there?

>> so the house is going to wait to see what happens on saturday, because 18 minutes before the house vote or the january 6th select committee voted last night to refer this criminal contempt charge, jeffrey clark's letter sent a lawyer -- jeffrey clark's lawyer sent a letter. he's likely to plead the fifth but will appear and go through that process. so that deposition is scheduled for saturday. the house is going to hold off on a full vote to see how saturday goes. we're a little bit of a waiting game right now as is the house to see how things play out and what bay jeffrey clark cooperates. jose? >> thank you so much. has a head we'll talk with congresswoman pramila jayapal. a majority of the justices

on abortion to peer to be willing to uphold the mississippi law that bans almost all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy but it's not clear if they would take the ultimate step of overturning two previous decisions affirming a woman's right to an abortion. with me is barbara mcquaid, former u.s. attorney, now professor at the university of michigan law school, also co-host of the "sister-in-law product cast" and former msnbc analyst. justice sonia sotomayor made the point during yesterday's arguments you heard on msnbc, it was fascinating that tossing out landmark rulings on abortion rights could tarnish the court's reputation. here's some of what she had to say. listen. >> will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception, that the constitution and its reading are just political hacks?

>> barbara, what do you think this decision potentially could mean for the court as an institution? >> i thought those were very powerful words from justice sotomayor. the tradition of the supreme court and what gives the court its legitimacy but causes people to obey its orders is the notion that it is deciding cases based on fact and law and respecting precedent under the concept of stare decisis. sometimes cases get overruled but there's a process for that, based on the reliance of the law, looking at the consistency with other laws, deciding whether the standard has been workable in practice. what's not supposed to happen is that precedents get overturned because the makeup of the court has changed and that appears to be what may be happening here, why justice sotomayor suggested it could be so disturbing for the court to ignore the 50 years of precedent and overrule row

versus wade. >> it was mentioned. >> it's sort of the moment that republicans have been waiting for in the extreme conservative side, stacking the deck for decades. they've been building a bench with the federalist society. president trump was elected so many people in the south said i'm holding my nose and voting for donald trump solely because he has promised to put conservative justices on the bench who will overturn roe versus wade. they made it a political issue, which is of course not what our judiciary is supposed to be and i worry that this decision will erode whatever credibility is left in our supreme court. >> barbara, just wondering what you think of what we're seeing when it comes to abortion. could it mean other rights gained or amplified through supreme court decisions, marriage equality comes to mind, do you think those could also be at risk in the future? >> i think that is a

possibility. you know, justice roberts i think although he's no longer kind of representative of the center of the court, i think is still one to watch. the chief justice mentioned yesterday he was focused on this 15-week ban in mississippi. it seemed to me if you look at the tea leaves that what we can very well see is this incremental approach here, which is upholding the mississippi ban and saying roe versus wade is not overturned but we're going to instead of using this viability test we're going to use some other test and 15 weeks is okay. but then the next step beyond that and the one that i think the other three more conservative justices would urge today is to say there is no such thing as substantive due process rights under the law. that's all made up and so all of those same cases that have relied on that same substantive due process right like marriage equality, interracial marriage, gay sex, all of those protections come under the same notion of substantive due process. it may not be in the decision

but i think in the next case we'll see that steady erosion of those kinds of things that we have long cherished in this country. >> barbara mcquaid, thank you very much for being with me this morning. >> thanks. what alec baldwin is saying about the fatal shooting on the set of his movie "rust." you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." bye mom. my helpers abound, i'll need you today. our sleigh is now ready, let's get on our way. a mountain of toys to fulfill many wishes. must be carried across all roads and all bridges. and when everyone is smiling and having their fun i can turn my sleigh north because my job here is done. it's not magic that makes more holiday deliveries to homes in the us than anyone else, it's the hardworking people of the united states postal service.

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30 past the hour and we turn now to tragic news in the midwest, the fourth student is dead after a shooting in a michigan high school on tuesday. the four who lost their lives are 17-year-old justin hilling, 14-year-old hannah st. juliana, 17-year-old madison baldwin and 16-year-old tate myre. the suspect is being tried as an adult. the 15-year-old was arraigned last night, denied bond and placed in county jail. shaquille brewster is in monthiac, michigan. what is the latest? >> reporter: the 15-year-old suspect was moved from a juvenile detention facility to county jail late yesterday after

we saw him appear in court virtually for the first time since this shooting. he entered a not guilty plea for those very serious charges that's facing right now. you mentioned them before one count of terrorism causing death, four counts of first-degree murder, the seven counts of assault with intent to murder and the 14 counts of possession of a firearm and the commission of a felony. we also learned yesterday from prosecutors that they believe this shooting was intentional. it was premeditated, in their words, based on an investigation that they did where they say they recovered a journal and a video of him apparently talking about killing students. you mentioned four students were killed in this shooting. as of last check, three other students are still in the hospital right now, including one student who is in critical condition. the sheriff yesterday still called for prayers and thoughts for those who are still injured at this point.

prosecutors are still considering charging his parents for possible involvement in this shooting. they say the gun that was used in the shooting was purchased by the father just days before the shooting occurred. it's not clear when or what these charges would be and when the charges will be filed. that is something that they're also considering at this point, jose. >> shaquille brewster, thank you very much. take a look at headlines out west. alec baldwin is speaking out about the fatal shooting on the "rust" movie set. he says he never pulled the trigger on the gun that killed halyna hutchins in october. guad, what is baldwin saying? >> reporter: good morning. this is the first sitdown interview by alec baldwin after the tragic incident on the set of the movie "rust" in new

mexico. baldwin told abc news he had no idea how a live round got onto the set of the film and he talked about the moment the gun fired specifically about the trigger. here's part of that interview. >> it wasn't in the script for the trigger to are pulled. >> i would never point a gun at anyone and pull a trigger. >> you said you're not a victim but is this the worst thing that's ever happened to you? >> yes. yep. yep. >> bald win described the incident as one in a trillion episode and said accidents of this nature happen rarely on film sets. the investigation by authorities in new mexico is trying to figure out where the live round came from. they issued a warrant for a prop house search in albuquerque. >> guad vinegas in los angeles,

thank you very much. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. still ahead the fate of immigration in the build back better bill, we'll talk to congresswoman jayapal about that next. wondering what actually goes into your multi-vitamin. at new chapter. its innovation organic ingredients and fermentation. fermentation? yes, formulated to help your body really truly absorb the natural goodness. new chapter. wellness well done.

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♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty. ♪ 39 past the hour. back to coptal hill, where we await for house speaker nancy pelosi to hold her weekly news conference set to begin in a couple of minutes. also on capitol hill the parliamentarian is reviewing immigration provisions in the house version of build back better act, to see if they meet budget reconciliation rules but whether the senate democrats were able to make a good case for the provisions is unclear. >> what is your level of confidence that the house

provision also remain in the bill? >> i don't have any strong feelings one way or the other. the parliamentarian in the preliminary meeting was noncommitical. i don't know if that's a good sign for otherwise. >> with me is washington democratic congresswoman pramila jayapal. let me start by saying thank you for being on with me. it's been very kind of you to spend some time. i appreciate it. >> i'm so happy to be with you, jose, and thrilled to have you on with this new hour. >> thank you so much. senator durbin doesn't know if the parliamentarian will accept the provisions in the house bill. what if they are rejected just like a path to citizenship and green cards rejected by the parliamentarian. what happens? >> there's only two options. one is that the senate does have the option to not listen to the

particle ttachmentitarian's advice. that's a tough road to go and i hope the senate is seriously considering that. the other is we just have to get rid of the filibuster. you know the history of immigration reform in the senate. it isn't that we don't have the votes to pass immigration reform, but with the fiibuster threshold and a party, republican party increasingly taken aim at immigrants and refused to do common sense protections that the majority of americans support, comprehensive immigration reform, a path to citizenship for dreamers, tps holders, essential workers, these are not things that are controversial with the american people but the only way to get that done is if we actually reform the filibuster and allow for us to go with a simple majority in the senate. >> i'm glad you bring that up. 2013 there was an opportunity, the gang of eight, four republicans, four democrats in the senate, come forth with a comprehensive immigration reform

package that dealt with security in the border, they dealt with the 11 million people who have been in this country, contributing to our economy, and to our culture, and yet that couldn't pass the muster in the house of representatives. i'm just wondering, isn't there something that could or should be done to deal with this issue as a unilateral issue that is for the benefit of the entire nation? >> if it were brought to the house floor it would have passed with bipartisan votes because republican, independents and democrats across the country agree we need to reform our immigration system that we need

to provide a pathway to zintship for undocumented immigrants who are doing the work of the country and also reform the system so families can be together. the incredible backlogs for family members trying to get their kids back into the country until they ultimately age out. this is an issue obviously i'm passionate about and worked on for 20 years. this is absolutely doable but right now, we are stuck with the rules of the senate that require 60 votes to even bring a bill for consideration. >> even as you mention, the legal immigration process in this country, people who are going through all the channels they need to be going through and if you're someone in the philippines trying to get to the united states, it could be 50 or 60 years before that case is even considered. i mean, it seems like everything is broken and there's not a lot

of effort to fix that in any kind of large scale. congresswoman, i want to talk about another important deeply personal issue, to you reproductive right and get your thoughts on yesterday's supreme court arguments over mississippi's 15-week abortion ban and majority of justices appear to be ready to uphold it. >> it's a devastating, it was a devastating hearing for millions of women across this country, for millions of people across this country who are watching the supreme court actually look like they are going to overturn roe v. wade and take us back into the days of back alley abortions. this is personal to me. i am one of the one in four women in america who has had an abortion. it was a very difficult choice for me to make, but it was my choice, jose, and that is what we need to preserve for every person across the country, that has to be in that situation, but also i want to point out that if

the supreme court is refusing to pay attention to precedent, in roe v. wade, then what does that mean for all the other landmark decisions on civil right, on workers' rights? everything that the supreme court has taken up in the past, does that mean that those decisions also are subject to the political whim of essentially a politically appointed supreme court? that is extremely distressing as well, and very dangerous. so this is dangerous for women across the country. 20 states that will likely, immediately outlaw abortion if the supreme court overturns roe v. wade or, you know, dramatically rolls it back. so this is a terrible time, and women's rage is going to be seen at the polling places if this happens, but it was not a good sign, the hearings yesterday. >> congresswoman jayapal i can't thank you enough for being with

me and i hope you come back soon to continue the conversation. >> love to do that, take care. coming up, we'll have more on the breaking news from the top of the hour on the deal to restart the trump-era remain in mexico policy. telemundo anchor julio vacado will be here. and we await speaker pelosi's news conference. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. super emma just about sleeps in her cape. but when we realized she was battling sensitive skin, we switched to tide hygienic clean free. it's gentle on her skin, and out cleans our old free detergent. tide hygienic clean free. hypoallergenic and safe for sensitive skin. people everywhere living with type 2 diabetes are waking up to what's possible with rybelsus®. ♪ you are my sunshine ♪ ♪ my only sunshine... ♪ rybelsus® is a pill that lowers

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more on breaking nbc news. the biden administration is resetting the remain in mexico program. after a court ordered the policy be reinstituted. immigration activists walked out of a virtual meeting with the administration in protest. julio, it's an honor to see you. this policy is going to remain people remain in that country that are trying to ask for asylum in the united states. what does the situation in

mexico look like? >> we can't generalize and say the whole country is a dangerous place, but there are some areas in mexico which are extremely dangerous. the border is a dangerous place, the area that concerns us when it comes to the program since many of these immigrants will have to wait along the border. and this is an area where criminal organizations operate, drug cartels. they smuggle drugs and human beings. they kidnap and extort. the immigrants are in a vulnerable situation. they come in with no money, papers or jobs. they live in tents. i can only imagine the despair having to escape their own countries, throwing violence and poverty to find out they have to wait for asylum in a more dangerous place. >> this week, last tuesday, the wife of the mexican drug lord was sentenced in a d.c. court. what was that like? >> she was sentenced to three years in prison. it's very interesting.

it is a very slow sentence. we have to remember the crimes she was accused of are drug trafficking and money laundering. collaborating with her husband. three years in prison, and she has been detained for nine months. you have to subtract the nine months. if she has good behavior, she could come out of jail earlier. she could be walking on the streets in maybe 18 months' tame. that's a victory for the defense. now the attorneys are concerned that she could be in danger pause people believe that in order for her to get such a low sentence she had to cooperate and give some kind of information to the u.s. government about the drug cartel. they are concerned that there could be 'vennage against her or her family. >> meanwhile the cartels are in the border areas of mexico and the united states. they have ramped up violence in the past couple weeks. >> absolutely. we've seen bodies hanging from

bridges. it's outrageous and painful. this is a tactic that drug cartels have been using for a long time. the drug on wars have been ongoing for a decade and a half. and the violence is rampant. and one has to wonder if the strategy that the government is following is working or not. so far they've been trying to capture kingpins in order to send a message. but the reality is drugs keep oncoming into the united states more than 300,000 people have died. thousands more have gone missing, just disappeared. millions of people have had to escape from violence, to em brat. and so i mean, is it working or not? because this situation is really hard? >> the leader of telemundo news. i have to tell you this. i have deep admiration for you and i appreciate you being on with us. >> thank you. i appreciate it.

likewise. thank you. >> see you tonight at 6:30, 5:30 central. thank you for being with me. turning to other breaking news on the pandemic. another case of omicron variant has been detected. a male resident who recently travelled from new york city for an anime convention. his symptoms have already resolved after experiencing mild symptoms. we have a doctor back with us. are you surprised by this? >> i'm not surprised. i suspect we have a lot of transmission of the omicron already. we were surprised we had not picked up on cases with the cases in san francisco and california. where you pick it up is a reflection of areas more aggressive with testing.

you will not find if you're not looking for it. >> doctor, we -- how is that they're found? because i don't see a national policy of contact tracing, et cetera. how is it they're found? and it's pretty probable then you're thinking this could be as you said more widespread? >> so when you go get tested. when you get a pcr test for coronavirus, a sample or a subset of those specimens that turn positive are sent for sequencing. we figure out the genetic code for that particular virus you're infected with, and that tells us whether you are infected with the delta variant, the omicron variant, or something else. we're not doing that kind of testing on every single positive pcr test. we're only doing it on about 15%

of positive pcr tests across the country. there's always a chance that you're going to miss some of those omicron or other variants, cases if you're not sequencing everything. >> wow. if it's 15%, the odds are pretty good that it's everywhere or in lots of places? >> that's right. so we think probably, and this traveler was in new york city. i'm in new york city. many of us have assumed that omicron is here, that we simply haven't picked it up yet. with respect to the surveillance, many of us have been asking for an increase in the amount of genoic surveillance. it has ramped up since this administration came into office in january. but we're still not quite where we need to be, and in certain parts of the country, the question neemic surveillance rates are as low as 3%. that really does leave a huge

gap, and cases that could be missed. >> doctor, thank you for being with me this morning. that wraps up the hour for me. i'm jose diaz-balart. you can always reach me on twitter and instagram. follow the show online. thank you for the privilege of your time. chris jansing picks up with more news after the break. fter the bk such tree-mendous views. i'm at a moss for words. when a cough tries to steal dad's punchlines, he takes robitussin naturals powered by 100% drug-free ingredients.

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good thursday morning. i'm chris jansing in for craig melvin. a busy hour. first, we're tracking a possible deal to a government shutdown. in the last couple hours house democrats announced they have a plan to keep the lights on and the doors open before tomorrow's midnight deadline, but isn't there always a but? a handful of republicans are determined to let the clock run out unless congress pulls funding from the white house's vaccine mandate. any second now speaker nancy pelosi will take to