last-minute christmas shopping, lastworddesk.msnbc.com. all your christmas gifts can be sent right there. that's your "last word." "11th hour" starts right now. good evening, once again, i'm ali velshi. day 335 of the biden administration. omicron is now officially the dominant covid strain in the united states. the associated press with this reporting, "the cdc numbers showed nearly a six-fold increase in omicron share of infections in only one week. it's responsible for an estimated 90% of new infections

in the new york area, the southeast, the industrial midwest and the pacific northwest." president biden met with his covid response team today and has a major address planned for tomorrow. the white house revealing that biden himself has tested negative after coming into negative with a staff member who contracted the virus. the white house said the staff member spent about 30 minutes in proximity to the president on air force i. he was fully negative and boosted prior to boarding. the staff member didn't experience symptoms until sunday and was tested on monday. in scenes reminiscent of the early 2020s, hours-long lines are forming in new york city as people prepare for holiday gatherings. the tsa bracing for a busy travel season, nearly 30 million passengers are expected between now and the new year. dr. fauci had this advice for celebrations.

>> do not do things like go to gatherings where there are people who you do not know what their vaccination status is. if you do that and some people are even going the extra step or the extra mile, maybe even getting tested when you have people coming over the house. >> in the nation's capitol today, democrats are scrambling to salvage the president's agenda after joe manchin announced in the bluntest terms possible he would not vote for build back better. the white house came out with an uncharacteristically response that said "just as senator manchin reversed his position on build back better, we will continue to press him to see if he will reverse again. manchin was quick to blame the white house for the breakdown in negotiations. >> i just got to the wit's end and they know the real reason what happened. they won't tell you and i won't.

i understand staff, it's not the president, it's the staff. they put some things out that were inexcusable. they know what it is and that's it. >> nbc news confirms that manchin and biden did speak on the phone last night. two sources saying they agreed to keep the door open to continued negotiations this was vice president kamala harris on those prospects in a new interview with cbs news. >> so you don't fee betrayed? >> no, i don't have any personal feelings about this. this is about let's get the job done. >> reporter: how do you do that without senator manchin? >> you don't give up. that's how we do it. >> we have updates on the investigation into the january 6th attack on the capitol. the january 6th committee is requesting information from republican congressman scott perry of pennsylvania. this is the first request from a sitting member of congress. in a letter to perry, the

chairman wrote "evidence have multiple witnesses received that have had an important part and that he sent communications to the former chief of staff using the encrypted signal act. if you're not familiar with scott perry, he's the incoming leader of the freedom caucus and led efforts to overturn pennsylvania's electoral votes for joe biden, voted against medals for the officers to fought against the rioters on january 6th. they're examining if there's enough evidence to send criminal referrals for donald trump and others. investigators for the committee are looking into whether a range

of crimes were committed, including two in particular, whether there was wire frad despite knowing the claims were not true and whether they obstructed congress by trying to stop the certification of the votes. good evening to the three of you. thank you for joining us. courtney, what's the level of fear and concern inside the white house both for the white house in terms of staff because of exposure to covid and for the country? >> yeah, i mean, it's really incredible timing for the president. as you mentioned, he set to delivery marks tomorrow about

the latest strategy on covid. as you mentioned, he tested negative yesterday, he tested negative today and will be tested again on wednesday but will continue with his daily schedule because cdc guidance doesn't require fully vaccinated individuals to quarantine after an exposure. i think that underscores a point which we'll hear him make tomorrow, which is even if you're vaccinated and boosted, you could get covid, but that is the best form of protection against hospitalizations and deaths. and, you know, if you are vaccinated, the symptoms are likely to be mild. that's a message that he's going to drive home tomorrow. it's a shift from earlier this year when we saw the white house emphasize that breakthrough cases are rare. that your prepared for cases to surge. they already are in some areas, as you mentioned, omicron as

become the more dominant variant but the message is about how to prevent hospitalizations and deaths and the way to do that is vaccinating some 40 million adults who have been resistant to it so far and access to testing and we'll hear the white house say how they plan to step up and make testing more available and how to help overburden hospitals ahead of this winter surge. i think you'll hear him emphasize we're not where we were in 2020, even though we're seeing images of long lines at testing centers and drive-through testing season terse. the president will emphasize people are vaccinated and it's about using the tools available to them to prevent the severe

cases as we learn to cope with this pandemic. >> in march of 2020 you didn't have long lines for testing because the president at the time was sort of against the idea of testing, he thought the numbers would go up. we didn't have a vaccine and all of this threatens to cast a shadow over a second straight holiday season and people get frustrated. how does the administration manage this because of the frustration and the fears about possible shutdowns? >> well, i think tomorrow night he has to calm their fear, speak to their fears but also address the frustrations. it's critical he address the fact that testing capacity is in terrible shape. he won't use those words, but the poor access to tests, the fact that rapid tests are no longer available. these things should have been available to us in june of 2020 and because of donald trump's

opposition and contempt for testing, we didn't. it's a year and a half later. we're well into the biden administration, one fourth of the way into his term and we have terrible testing capacity. this is the kind of thing that's going to help americans navigate a holiday season, navigate a variant as transmissible as omicron. it's something he's going to have to acknowledge, we're not a year ago, it's not as scary but people can avoid spreading this around by taking precautions but also getting tested. and the government is going to have to act with the private sector to fix the testing situation so people can be responsible and slow the spread of this incredibly contagious new variant. >> to courtney's point about some people feeling like it felt in march 2020, we just had news from the "new york times" that the nhl is pausing its games for

the remainder of the year. not the hockey seasons so for canadians and hockey fans, there should be a season but it means there are no games for the remainder of the week. i have to argue, joyce, about the progress that the committee is making. people will wonder wasn't mark meadows one? he was one. when people are disobeying these subpoenas that they're getting, the committee has started making referrals to the department of justice, criminal referrals and one of them at least has resulted in an arrest. what's the thinking around that? the committee is unable to do certain thing but they're recruiting the justice department to do things they can't get done, getting people to come forward and talk. >> that's part of the awkward position congress is in here. they don't technically have the ability it enforce their own

subpoenas without help from the justice department and the courts. but this committee is nonetheless finding a plethora of other ways to signal how serious it is. this request to congressman perry, as you point out, the first request that's been made to a sitting member to provide information demonstrates seriousness both because it comes in the week of christmas and because they've asked for the opportunity to meet with him before january 4, indicating that they're willing, committee staff, to travel to his district in order to get his testimony. and so process-wise that signals their seriousness but also the topic itself is one of extreme concern. here he is the congressman who first brought to the attention of mark meadows this sort of lower level employee at d.o.j., a political appointee who at this point in time had become the acting head of the civil division but it's perry who put

forward jeffrey clark saying this is someone who is on our side essentially who we could have take over the justice department. the committee's very interested in getting the details and it signals to me the fact that they're now talking to principals like jeffrey clark and congressman perry that save set enough of the groundwork, who were around the conversations and able to provide them with the details that they're willing to question the principles. they wouldn't take a run straight at them if they didn't know what they will elicit from that testimony. >> you often make that point, it's not a fishing expedition, despite the fact that lot of people think it is. courtney, president biden is going to be speaking to the country tomorrow. one of the very successful ways of getting people vaccinated has been the rules for companies

that employ people, but it's been a lightning rod for the right. it is something that they hate. does joe biden go out there, celebrate it and talk about it or does he avoid the topic of shutdowns and mandates altogether? >> we heard from white house press secretary jen psaki emphasize this is a speech that will not be about locking the country back down. she said that today. and i think we won't hear the president emphasize restrictions or vaccine mandates or testing mandates but really try and talk about the tools that are already available right now. and, you're right, i think that some of those restrictions that he put in place earlier this fall are going to help the administration, you know, break through the plateau of vaccinating 60% of u.s. adults, but, you know, as we see some of

the core battles play out with some of those roles, we're going to see the president try and talk about ways in which americans can cope with the pandemic and, you know, as you mentioned earlier, testing is a big part of that because, you know, this is a country that is very pandemic wary, people are heading home from the holidays, you know, we're four days out to christmas. people are crisscrossing the country. and the last thing they want to do is talk about more restrictions and mandates. so i don't think we'll hear the president talk about anything with any regard to restrictions tomorrow. >> amy stoddard, yesterday morning joe manchin went on fox news and basically said he's not voting for the build back better deal. chuck schumer has said he's going to hold a vote on this in the senate, a vote that he is at this point almost certain to

lose. what's the point? >> well, i think the leader is frustrated with the fact that these negotiations have gone on so long and ultimately seem to have failed. everyone's very disappointed and licking their wounds after this announcement that the senator made on fox. but the idea of putting people up for -- putting something up for a vote that is going to fail basically keeps the focus on the fighting between different factions of democratic party and put vulnerable members who have very tough races next year both in the house and the senate in even a worse position than they're in today. so maybe he'll change his mind in the weeks to come over the holidays, but it's not wise to dig down deeper in the hole in terms of the strategists who are

running these campaigns perspective. they're hoping something joe manchin can agree to with materialize in 2022 and they can call it a win no matter what it is. but the idea of sort of bringing something up that you know is going to fail to hang the spotlight around senator manchin and possibly others like senator sinema on different parts of the bill just continues the family and fighting in the democratic party increases the tension and actually impedes the future negotiations they hope to get back to in january. >> joyce vance, i want to ask you about all the places. you were leading to this. the idea that the january committee has some sense of what they're going to get when they invite somebody to give them evidence. they kind of know where they're going with this. what's the likelihood of something reaching donald trump, about there being something that might even look like a criminal referral involving the former

president? >> i suppose that's the ultimate question that we're all trying to figure out the answer to. you know, on the one hand this is awfully simple. we all saw the events of january 6th happen in front of us. we watched trump from really before the election begin to suggest he wouldn't abide by the results if he lost. we watched the big lie as it was perpetuated. it seems relatively clear that there's at least such evidence for the justice department to have opened an investigation in several areas where criminality may have occurred. on the other hand, though, the reality of that has been very elusive. the attorney general has managed to stay silent on this topic and he's come in for a lot of disparagement over that. frankly, there's absolutely no evidence that the justice department is investigating donald trump and similarly there's no evidence that the justice department isn't

investigating. in the best traditions of the justice department, they have remained frustratingly opaque. but the more evidence that congress uncovers in its work, the more the situation for d.o.j. changes. and if in fact d.o.j. is not actively engaged, a referral to d.o.j. along criminal lines on the former president from a bipartisan committee could do two things. it could both nudge the department, if the committee has developed sufficient evidence that makes it really untenable for d.o.j. to fail to engage, no matter how hesitant they are, there could be a little bit of a nudge factor. and at the same point getting a referral from a bipartisan committee could also provide d.o.j. with a little bit of cover. that said, though, d.o.j. certainly is not obligated to follow through on congressional referrals and d.o.j. feels

completely at ease ignoring them. >> we covered a lot of ground there. courtney, amy, joyce, i really appreciate your time tonight. coming up, one of the world's top vaccine experts is here to answer a key question about omicron. how long will this surge last and should we be worried about long haul covid? and joe manchin, is it such a big surprise? is it such a big surprise no one can deliver your mom's homemade short ribs. that's why instacart helps deliver the ingredients.

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this is not march of 2020. it is not even december of 2020. they're not comparable to what we went through when we did not have vaccinations and boosters and the knowledge we have now. we have to meet this moment with action and not fear but also just lean into the strengths we know we have and that we'll get through this. new york state reported more than 23,000 new infections today, breaking its single-day record of new cases for a fourth straight gate. day. harris county, texas reported their first omicron death in the state. the patient was in his 50s with underlying health issues and was not vaccinated. health experts warn the unvaccinated remain at higher

risks. >> our vaccinated and boosted people are 20 times less likely to die than our unvaccinated people. unvaccinated people are dying at 20 times the rate of people who are boosted. back with us, dr. peter hotez, working with a team to develop a vaccine for global distribution. he is the dean of the national school of tropical medicine at baylor college of medicine. peter, thank you for being with us tonight. i want to ask you about the trends you're seeing in other parts of the world, including in south africa where we first learned of this. rapid uptick and then the slowing of it. all of us know people who have been vaccinated and boosted, in some cases three injections and they're still getting this thing. is there some sense of which the

speed in which it comes in may indicate the speed at which is slows down? >> that would be nice, ali, because then we could get back to some normal semblance of life again. it's hard to predict. in the southern united states with delta we had an uptick but in the u.k., it went down about halfway and then continued to plateau for a long i'm. exactly why certain parts of the world, these peak behave differently, we don't entirely understand. the bottom line is we're in for a tough few weeks, not only because of the omicron rise, we still have delta, and a lot of people are still getting sick with delta. the biggest concern i'm watching

is these surges are occurring a the a time when lots and lots of health care workers are starting to get sick with breakthrough covid. the data suggests that level goes down to around 30 to 40%. what that means is we're going to have a lot of health care workers calling out sick, not getting very sick but sick enough to be at home so they're not in the workforce and that creates a very dangerous combination. we've seen over and over again these last two years that punch of a surge on top of depleted health care workforces, that's when mortality goes up. i think it's going to be the most important thing i'm looking for in the president's remarks tomorrow, how he's going to deal with large absences in the health care workforce in light of this surge that's sure to come over the next few weeks. >> you and i were together in february of 2020 when this first

started, we were first talking about this. we of course didn't have therapeutics and we didn't have a vaccine. and we were together on december 13th, on the day that we first got vaccines. mao we've got vaccines, we've got some therapeutics, certainly on the horizon and we've got -- we still have test and trace. tell me how this all shakes down for you over the course of the next month. how do you think we use these things to effectively try and get a handle on this? >> you know, the vaccines are still our mainstay in this. we know we can largely prevent hospitalization and death if we can get people fully vaccinated and then boosted. and that's problem number one. while we're doing about 60% of the country's, quote, fully immunized, i don't consider fully immunized and only about a third of those what been boosted as well. i think really trying to convince people to understand they need that third vaccination

to keep them out of the hospital and the intensive care unit, that's got to be a top priority. the diagnostics, we still talk about diagnostics like it's march of 2020. you see the line snaking around diagnostic testing whether it's here in houston or in new york. we still have not made it easy to get diagnostic testing. and the therapeutic, two steps forward, one step back, the monoclonal antibodies, two of them may not be effective against this omicron variant and as a consequence we're sort of back to square one. we have i think one monoclonal antibody, we have a good drug out of pfizer but we don't have enough of it. how much of an impact it going to have in time for this wave is hard to say. so clearly things are much better than they were a year ago, especially with regard to the vaccines but we still have a

lot of other places that we're p -- we have to look for and i'm really worried about the depletion of the health care workforce. >> there was another study out of germany that indicates the antibodies created by the virus drop off fairly significantly at the end of a few months, which means boosters may become a new thing. who is supposed to change the definition of what fully vaccinated sound like? fully vaccinated is one shot of johnson & johnson or two shots of the mnra. >> it just doesn't apply any longer. one, change the definition and the other is innovative solutions to keep our health care workforce in the workforce. if that data from the u.k. pans out where vaccine effectiveness

even against the third dose is still holding up against severe illness but symptomatic, goes down 70 to 75% you're going to have too many health care workers calling out sick. should we give them a fourth immunization, a second boost or at least offer it to them so they have the option in order to raise up their virus neutralizing antibodies and keep them in the workforce for that short period of time? i've made that recommendation and at least look into it and see if that's mentioned at all in the president's remashs tomorrow. i kind of doubt it but i think it something worth considering. >> well, you health care work verse been our front line and protectors and saviors since the beginning of these things. it would be hard to see losing some of thieves people just from the workforce because they're, aused by it because this

shouldn't be happening right now. dr. peter hotez is probably one of the smartest people on this topic. coming up, our political experts talk about the bumpy road ahead for democrats in congress when the "11th hour" continues. s when the "11th hour" continues. finding understanding doesn't have to be. together, we can create a kinder, more inclusive world for the millions of people on the autism spectrum. go to autismspeaks.org

i mean, we all knew that

senator manchin couldn't be trusted. you know, the excuses that he just made i think are complete bullshit. it is really disheartening to hear him say that he has been trying to get there for the people of west virginia because that's a complete lie. >> minnesota congresswoman ilhan omar not mincing words with me yesterday when i asked her about joe manchin's no on the build back better act. he did extend a proposal without the child tax condition. he now has to explain to more than 180,000 west virginia families why he publicly walked away from talks to extend the popular child tax credit. we welcome back to the show

juanita tolliver. juanita, there as a lot to cover here. one of the things is that we have now heard people relate that joe manchin has made comments about paid leave, suggesting that people might go hunting with their time that they're given, even though almost every other country in the world recognizes paid family leave and medical leave and this people with the child credit might use it for drugs. that's sort of an 80s trope to me. >> exactly right. it's the welfare queen trope that was targeting black and brown communities that relied on government assistance just to make end meet and here manchin is just to roll that out. just shows his lack awareness,

his lack of empathy and lack of compassion for people who are in need at the same moment when he recognizes people are paying more for basic goods and due to inflation and yet he doesn't want to do anything about it. i appreciate the report from the a.p. that talked about the 400,000 children that benefit from this. when he can't break that down why that is helpful or why elder care or aid for families or universal pre-k is helpful for family. it makes no sense, especially with him spewing these arm until racist trips that are unhelpful. i look at a millionaire senator having a temper tantrum because somebody made him upset. you have the last few days to

sum up what you think about senator manchin at this point. >> sort of the widely publicized complaint about someone is a little unusual. what didn't strike me as usually is this is joe manchin. he knows he has a lot of power right now and maybe the best way to get what he wants is to continue to say no to people. are you surprised this is where we have ended the year with joe manchin? >> not at all. not in the least. we can spend the next three days beating up on joe manchin, who fancies himself mr. smith goes to washington but he's really more of a senator payne in the character of that movie, who he thinks he is. but he has to decide for himself when he looks in the mirror what his integrity is. there's two fundamental problems here that have nothing to do with joe manchin. you have a coachable football team with a bunch of assistant

coaches and a bunch of other players whose only play, whose only singular play was a post pattern to joe manchin, a player who didn't want to run the pattern, was reluctant to play the game and they defend that was their own play of the coach to get this done was somebody that had been telling them he didn't really want to run the play. yes, joe manchin should be held responsible but why is your only play dependent on a player who couldn't want to play. that's or first problem. they're still operating in washington, d.c., too many democrats in my view, as if we're still in the functional democracy, operating like we can 20, 30, 40 years ago. this is a new world we're in. and the way you deals with senators and all that is done. our democracy is in the stake of

all this. the fact that one senator can do this, that our democracy is in paurl. the democrats and it should be falted when, secondly, quit operating on a set of rules and protesies that no longer exist. you make the point that the democracy's in peril in this country and that is a good place to break this because i want to have that conversation with you on the other side. juanita and others are staying with us. juanita and others are staying with us. first you will see the past.

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of multiple constitutional infractions that they were not under all of the known circumstances regularly given. pennsylvania congressman scott perry was in the thick of it january 6, objecting to electors of his own state to keep donald trump in office. and now they want to talk to him about wanting to elevate clark to attorney general. as we mentioned, the "new york times" reports the committee is weighing whether to recommend the justice department pursue a criminal case against donald trump. matthew, there are a lot of people in this country who won't know scott perry, he's the incoming head of the freedom caucus, voted against giving the afghan translators, funding them, voted against criticizing qanon, voted against giving congressional medals to the police who defended the capitol

on january 6th. so no surprise he was involved in this thing. he's actually been subpoenaed at this point. what do you expect to happen? >> let me start with my hope. i'm hoping he's head accountable. he's should be on the same list that benedict arnold is put on. i would also a whole other senators and other representatives, to the ben benedict arnold top ten list. so my hope is he's held accountable. my expectation because of what we've seen over the last year, i've become a little jaded because we're almost a year out from january 6th and no person that instigated this, that pushed this, that was involved in this that has held some kind of office has have held

accountable yet. a bunch of the small fish have been held accountable but none of the big fish have been held accountable. i hope it happens but so far if experience leads us forward, i don't have a lot of expectation that the big fish are going to get held accountable. >> juanita, they've written him a letter saying we'll come to your district. somebody says no. they issue a subpoena, then somebody says no and the house volts on it and sometimes it results in an arrest warrant. some people think what way do they get merrick garland, some

people think the justice department needs to use its teeth to get some people to testify. >> i think you're right in describing that escalation process and garland is going to wait for that process to continue. it also applies to when the committee wraps up its recommendations and makes referrals to the d.o.j. merrick garland is going to stand back, as much as people want him to move faster and i want him to move faster, he's going to stand back and allow congress to finish their investigation before he jumps in. in terms of what the public is looking for in terms of accountability. that's what it comes down to. i think the preview with the text messages, with liz cheney asking the question if there was a violation from trump to interfere and obstruct national business. you better believe even those

these folks are obstructing and filing lawsuits against the select committee, they're still hearing from hundreds of other witnesses who are implicating them. they're saying we know you did all of this stuff, that you were included in all of this, now here's your chance to speak for yourself before we move forward. i think that's what the select committee is coming at this with. >> matthew, a lot of fair-minded republicans, fair-minded people who maybe just don't follow this as closely as the three of us do are wondering to themselves, what's this for? what are we learning we didn't already know? it strikes me we're learning a great deal more. we sort of knew what was happening on one end of pennsylvania avenue. we didn't know in as much detail what people on the other end were doing, what they knew, who

paid for what, what they were actually planning to do and it's starting to come into sharper relief now. >> yeah, i agree with that. so i think no matter how jaded i might be about my expectations, i think the pursuit of the truth in our democracy is an important par of this. i think there is a vast part of people out there who are ignoring this, worried about the christmas holidays, wondering about what's going on. they also think any time somebody mentions something awful and how somebody is to blame, they ignore it until real evidence confronts them in the face and then they have to deal with it. ali, you have made this point ever since we've been on this tear on january 6th. i think the administration and all of us and every single person has to constantly bring every single issue back to the peril of our democracy. every single time we talk about anything, the economy, covid, everything, all of those things are related to whether or not

our democracy is healthy in this. and so i think as we go forward and as these hearings because more public, the public will begin to pay more attention and understand how their lives will be affected by the loss of this 240-year experiment we call democracy. from your lips to the voters' ears. you are right, democracy is the underlying issue here. coming up, if this holiday week has you going places, prepare for company, lots of company, despite the latest surge in covid. that story when "the 11th hour" continues. 11th hour" continues. the brand i trust is qunol.

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get $200 off a new eligible 5g phone when you switch to xfinity mobile. talk with our helpful switch squad at your local xfinity store today. as we mentioned, it took just a few weeks for the high lie contagious omicron variant to become the dominant strain in the united states, as it is now. despite this latest surge, tens of millions of us are about to

travel to see family and friends for the holidays. tom costello has a preview of what to expect at the airport. >> reporter: despite long lines and little elbow room, americans are already packing airports and planes, usually shoulder to shoulder. >> we're not concerned actually. we felt pretty good of where we've gone. >> reporter: experts say only the vaccinated and boosted should feel safe traveling right now. >> if you're not vaccinated, travel is not a great idea because you are in a very vulnerable place with omicron. >> masks still restraining required by law. >> i think the case is very strong that masks don't add much, if anything, in the air cabin environment. >> reporter: the next day kelly tested positive for covid. he now says he misspoke and southwest fully supports the

mask mandate. nationwide the tsa expects 30 million passengers between now and january 3rd, approaching, even exceeding 2019 passenger levels at some airports. already miami is setting all-time records for holiday passenger traffic at a thousand flights and 156,000 passengers every day. >> we've got quite a bit of experience to know the travel experience can be a safe one if you follow the recommended safety protocols. >> reporter: the american airlines ramp tower today juggling more than 700 flights on the ground in miami. >> do we have enough fuel, do we have any air traffic to keep an eye on? >> a critical linchpin as a critical week takes off. >> our thanks to tom costello for that. coming up, what you need to know about the newest resident of the white house. e. (vo) subaru and our retailers believe in giving back.

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the last thing before we go tonight, christmas has come a little early for president biden. today a brand new puppy arrived at the white house. biden tweeted a photo of the enough pop today with the caption, "welcome to the white house, commander" and not long after that there was this. >> hey, pal. how you doing? how are you? ♪ ♪ >> the white house says the three and a half-month-old puppy was actually a birthday gift from biden's brother and certainly. he's a german shepherd, just like the other two dogs the bidens brought to you white house this year. there was 13-year-old champ, who sadly passed away in june, and major, who now lives in family friend in delaware after a couple of aggressive incidents

at the white house. for those wondering when the bidens will fulfill their promise to bring a cat to the white house, the first lady confirmed a female cat will be joining the bidens in the white house in january. for now a new little puppy withy with some adorable-y big years, will be commanding all of the attention. that's our broadcast for this monday night. with our thanks for being with, us on behalf of all of my colleagues at the networks of nbc news, goodnight. e networks o nbc news, goodnight. it's good to have you here. two weeks ago, the cdc said that the omicron variant of covid, accounted for 0.4%. of all the covid known to be circulating in this country. 0.4%. then last week, the cdc said, it went from 0.4%, to 3%.