kristin englund, an infectious disease doctor with the cleveland clinic. we start this morning with a lot of questions about omicron. can you start with what we do know and what we are waiting to find out? guest: what we do know is that this is a variant of concern, mostly because it has more mutations than we have seen with other variants thus far. mutations mean it has got potential for being either more transmittable or potentially more deadly, or it has the potential to evade vaccines. all of those are potentials. we do not know the answers to those questions. we just found out about this variant two weeks ago a lot is done to try and understand whether we need to be as concerned or not. we are dealing with delta. that is a deadly variant, but omicron still has a lot of questions. host: when we start to get those answers? guest: i expect that we are going to be seeing some hard data within the next 1-2 weeks. they are looking at trying to grow some of the variants and mixed with antibodies to see if the antibodies are effective or not. south africa was

kristin englund, infectious disease specialist at the cleveland clinic. "washington journal" is next. ♪ host: good morning. monday, december 6, 2021. flags at half-staff this morning in reverence -- in remembrance of bob dole, who died yesterday at the age of 98. we are asking for your thoughts on the life and legacy of the world war ii soldier who, despite devastating injuries, went on to become senate republican leader, 19 96 gop presidential nominee, and lifelong advocate for veterans. eastern or central time zones, you call in at (202) 748-8000. mountain or pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001. special phone lines for world war ii veterans and their family members this morning, (202) 748-8002. you can also text us at (202) 748-8003, and please include your name and where you are from. on social media, it is @cspanwj on twitter. facebook, facebook.com/cspan. a very good monday morning to you. go ahead and start calling in now, as we show you had less from the obituaries peer-to-peer get capital journal this money, their headline, bob dole's rise to natio

while the focus, because englund has already done this, the focus is on reducing isolation for indexring. we have a situation right now in the wake of 0micron where we ask all household contacts of positive cases to isolate the ten days. i hope we can ease that up as well and i think it makes sense to make sure we are making changes in a coherent manner. these things are not easy, i don't underestimate the reasons why there are calls for us to do this. i hope we will do this but i don't think anybody looking at the case numbers being reported today would fail to see why it's important we take a very responsible approach to this and make sure that as far as it is possible we are getting it as right as we possibly can. businesses across scotland are struggling with the impact of these restrictions at what should be the busiest _ restrictions at what should be the busiest time of the year. many of the same — busiest time of the year. many of the same businesses have been affected — the same businesses have been affected by the self isolation. absences and a lack of staff cover will mean

it will push eastwards, not much rain for the eastern side of englund in scotland.. 17 degrees in east anglia and much milder than today in the north—east of scotland. as you move into the new year, new year's eve, we are looking at rain to start the day across scotland and northern ireland. that will pull away. skies may brighten and they might be some sunshine coming through but it is turning drier. it still mild. not quite as mild across parts of northern scotland but still 16 or 17 towards south—eastern areas of england. it's so mild because the winds are coming from the tropics, south to south—westerly winds. the rain will mainly be across more north—western parts of the country. we start with some exceptionally mild eight across the uk overnight into new year's day. still some rain around mainly across western areas and the bulk of that across north—western parts of england, northern ireland and scotland. it will push away and the skies should brighten with some sunshine and a few showers. quite windy on saturday and very mild with highs of 16 or 17 celsius. t

kristin englund, infectious disease specialist at the cleveland clinic.ington journal" is next. ♪ host: good morning. monday, december 6, 2021. flags at half-staff this morning in reverence -- in remembrance of bob dole, who died yesterday at the age of 98. we are asking for your thoughts on the life and legacy of the world war ii soldier who, despite devastating injuries, went on to become senate republican leader, 19 96 gop presidential nominee, and lifelong advocate for veterans. eastern or central time zones, you call in at (202) 748-8000

shortest day of the year — and with that, we see the return of the bit of sunshine across parts of englundthe coldest warning of the week for many of you, a widespread frost with temperatures well below freezing in rural areas in particular. but milder conditions with some rain midweek, will the cold airfight back with some rain midweek, will the cold air fight back for christmas? i'll tell you later. hello, i'm ros atkins, this is outside source. switzerland is the latest country to introduce new covid—19 restrictions including a mandatory order to work from home as the omicron theory and spreads through europe. here in the uk continues to report record numbers of new infections that boris johnson decided against tighter rules for england for the morning. i rules for england for the morning. i must say to people we will have to reserve the possibility of taking further action to protect the public. we have a special report on the deadly repression of civilians carried out in myanmar — after the miiltary seized power. the chinese tennis star pung shway retracts an accusation of sexual assa