inglesby, thank you so much for joining us.alls for these tests have been out there for a long time. how much difference are these steps the white house has announced going to make? >> judy, thank you so much for having me tonight. good to be here. the steps that have been announced this week i think are going to make a major difference in the availability of over-the-counter tests for americans. the insurance plan you just referenced will come into effect this weekend, and every family that's covered by private insurance will be able to access tests on a regular basis for all family members. then as you noted, the second part of this new announcement this week is the presidential plan to provi 500 million rapid tests to americans across the country through a simple web site. that will be put in place later in this month. people will be able to be ordering later this month and tests will start to arrive during january. so those different component of the plan will add to the already growing market of o over-the-counter tests in

tom inglesby, is that right? he's one of the world's leading infectious disease experts and i'm grateful for his willingness to help tackle this challenge. third thing, today we'll discuss our hospital response efforts. just since thanksgiving, over 800 military and other federal emergency personnel have been deployed to 24 states, tribes and territories, including over 350 military doctors, nurses and medics helping staff where hospitals are in short supply. this is on top of more than 14,000 national guard members that are activated in 49 states. these deployments at my direction, and thanks to the american rescue plan, are fully paid for by the federal government. we've shipped over 5.5 million pieces of personal protective equipment, gloves, gowns, masks, to protect frontline health care workers. we're shipping more treatments of covid-19, which includes anti-viral pills, that at any point during this pandemic. in addition, i've directed fema to work with every state, territory and the district of columbia to

inglesby.tion means for the federal response to the pandemic. >> i think it's good news. what we want is infectious disease subject matter experts running the show here. because for too long, testing has languished, testing has been neglected. and having somebody that takes care of patients, that is experienced with dealing with infectious disease emergencies is going to make that team much better. hopefully, he's able to gain traction and hopefully they'll listen to him. obviously, i'm biased, because he's been my mentor since 2008 and he's the director of the center i work for. but i think it's good news to see infectious disease expertise coming to the fore. >> how important is the testing aspect in this battle? >> testing is going to be really important for the foreseeable future, because people want to know their status. they want to know, is it safe for me to be around other people? is it safe for me to go to this event? and as we get more of the pfizer antiviral, we want people to be tes

inglesby promises there will be a phone number available soon.hen you look at the broader picture of manufacturing for tests right now, it is a very tight situation. i have improved two heads of top test makers, one is based here in southern california, and they can't hire workers fast enough. this is what the ceo told me. >> i don't think we have that sound, jo. >> well, bummer. well, what he told me is he's having significant labor shortage issues, because he's unable to hire people fast enough because there's not enough people workers out there, and omicron hitting them very hard, a lot of their workers unable to go to work. what does that mean? that means their capacity, even though they have a brand-new facility for creating and making and sending out tests, they are a little bit backlogged. plus, they're having issues with the supply chain. truckers and organizing the trucks to come in and out fast enough to satisfy all of the demand for the tests, so you can get them online, in the store, or on the website. all of that is backed up. so the

tom inglesby, correct? president harris: i would have to look at the current information, but soon. it is a matter of urgency for us. we are doing it. >> but should we have sooner? >> vice president harris: we are doing at. [laughter] >> greg: a new variant, call it joe-micron. doesn't aspire as much confidence as a doctor in the room wearing a female body inspector t-shirt. scientists thought that some covid leaked from a lab, but worried that debate would harm scientists in china. the last thing we want to do is bring a halt to lab experiments they are doing on caged poodles. this according to a recently surfaced emails in which one expert admits from nearly a year ago that a likely explanation was that covid had rapidly evolved in a low security lab. a "low security lab." to me, that sounds like the worst kind of lab. [laughter] at least from missing around for deadly viruses. kat is messing around making meth in her garage. [laughter] it was suggested that the virus was ready for rapid transmission betw

tim inglesby, an expert on this issue is joining the covid response team to oversee its testing initiatives in their briefing today. we heard from the white house on another key issue announcing 1.5 million, 500,000 additional courses of the treatment by astrazeneca. and finally on the issue of the masks today because that's a key issue. we heard from the cdc director and director fauci noting among their priorities is that americans wear masks. as it relates to the concern there are not a sufficient number of good masks out there right now, the experts indicated today they're strongly considering trying to make more high quality masks available to all americans. we'll keep you posted as that conversation develops. >> and then they've got to get them to actually use them. peter? >> no doubt. >> thank you so much. and joining us now dr. zeke emmanuel, university of pennsylvania vice provost and former covid advisor to president biden. first of all, does today's testing ramp up begin to move in that direction? what about the other criticisms? >> well, andrea, if i could dissent a little bit,

tom inglesby, correct? president harris: i would have to look at the current information, but soon. it is a matter of urgency for us. we are doing it. >> but should we have sooner? >> vice president harris: we are doing at. [laughter] >> greg: a new variant, call it joe-micron. doesn't aspire as much confidence as a doctor in the room wearing a female body inspector t-shirt. scientists thought that some covid leaked from a lab, but worried that debate would harm scientists in china. the last thing we want to do is bring a halt to lab experiments they are doing on caged poodles. this according to a recently surfaced emails in which one expert admits from nearly a year ago that a likely explanation was that covid had rapidly evolved in a low security lab. a "low security lab." to me, that sounds like the worst kind of lab. [laughter] at least from missing around for deadly viruses. kat is messing around making meth in her garage. [laughter] it was suggested that the virus was ready for rapid transmission betw

tom inglesby. find. carol, as a mom of public school kids and a mom of pta, by the way, yes i'm on the pta, the main concern and conversation we're having is how do we get our kids tested more and how do we get them better masks sphit seems like the administration has an answer for that. what is it? >> how do you get better testing and better masks in school? and what the administration is saying today they're going to send these 10 million tests starting this month each month to schools. that's 5 million rapid tests and 5 million pcr tests and that's designed to help schools who say, hey, we want to keep our schools open but we need testing. it follows the administration's plan to send 500 million at-home covid tests to those who want them. they're trying to address the criticism of the other covid response plan. that's why they have this new person in charge of their testing plan. on masks they're announcing they're going -- they're looking at ways to make more high quality masks available to mor

inglesby. correct?ious disease experts, and i'm grateful for his willingness to help us tackle this challenge. the third thing. today we'll discuss our hospital response efforts. just since thanksgiving, over 800 military and other federal emergency personnel have been deployed to 24 states, tribes, and territories including over 350 military doctors, nurses, and medics, helping staff the hospitals who are in short supply. this is on top of more than 14,000 national guard members that are activated in 49 states. these deployments are fully paid for by the federal government. we've shipped personal protective kwmt, gloves, masks to protect frontline health care workers. we've shipped more treatments of covid-19, which includes antiviral pills, than at any point in this pandemic. in addition, i've directed fema to work with every state, territory and the district of columbia to make sure they have enough hospital bed capacity. today i'm announcing our next deploit of six additional federal medical teams,

tom inglesby to lead the government's covid-19 testing initiative.direct of johns hopkins center for health security. joining us now to discuss kate snow, the first national network correspondent to enter the cleveland clinic. i was watching every single spooed sows of hers yesterday. and dr. kavita patel. dr. patel, the president is speaking in the next hour deploying medical teams to help overwhelmed states. what else does he need to do? >> we need to get boosters out to people, that has been shown to be a significant difference in people being hospitalized or critically ill and those who are able to say that this is a more mild illness. we're still woefully low. the second is pushing out therapeutics, we haven't gotten a lot of attention on this because we've been talking so much about testing. testing is important. you can't test out of covid but with so many people getting covid we have to be able to have access to early therapeutics, the monoclonal antibodies that work against omicron, these things are available but they are in short supply and

he's a jobs hopkins doctor on leigh names thomas inglesby. he said the 500 million free at home tests that the administration has promised to mail to anyone that wants one have not all been ordered yet. >> the contracts are just closing today in the next couple days. some of the details will be announced by this friday. we're going to get tests out as quickly as the manufacturers can deliver them. >> they blamed the pandemic for most issues affecting the country from rising crime to the crimped supply chain. the president's focus has been on voting rights. why off base according to critics. voters care more about inflation like the just announced 7% increase in prices compared to last december. >> you may care about inflation back here. their crisis is that there's some laws in this country that do not automatically force everyone to register to vote. that the crisis. >> so the president has his hands full with the economy and with covid. he's going to capitol hill to talk to senate democrats privately at their mighting. but not about any of

inglesby. is that right? day and terrible year. has she been to the border, no, and i haven't been to europe either. that was a cringe worthy response about the border. inappropriate giggles as afghanistan turned murderers the frequent factual mistakes, staffers leaving in droves and when asked if she would be on the ticket in 2024 no answer. and aging failing president and a vice president who inspires 0 confidence. three more years. the third hour of varney just getting started. kayleigh mcenany joined me now. i need you bad. can the biden team. and change course? >> reporter: it seems highly unlikely. there was a moment after afghanistan which was a stain on our conscience of the american people that i thought, others were saying he would pivot to domestic legislation and be sure up some victories there. that didn't happen. into the hell 3 times and all 3 times failed to get democrats to come on board with his legislation. then he has chosen to pivot to divisive and, division about federalizing elections,

tom inglesby, the former director of the johns hopkins center this comes as the biden administration up its testing initiatives to keep schools open, doubling testing capacity in schools to 10 million tests per month labcorp was the first company to get fda approval for its at-home test and ceo adam schechter joins us now for an exclusive interview it's great to have you back on, adam i just went to walgreens.com to buy a pixel. they're out of stock, at least for shipping so, how are we doing with this testing shortage >> hi, sara, hi, wolf. it's nice to be back we've done 65 million tests since the beginning of the pandemic if you look right now, we're going anywhere from 125,000 to 175,000 per day. and the good news is that we're able to turn those tests around on average within two days if you look at pixel, there will be more to order for sure. what we try to do is make them available throughout the day and then we make sure that we can actually have them shipped in time so that we get them the next day it is a very important testing capability that we have, and it represents aro

tom inglesby, one of the world's leading infectious disease expert. since thanksgiving over 800 military and other federal military personnel have been deployed to 24 states including over 350 military doctors, nurses and medics helping staff the hospitals who are in short supply. this is on top of more than 14,000 national guard members that are act vated in 49 states. these deployments at my direction are thanks to the american rescue plan, fully paid for by the government. including gloves, masks to protect frontline workers. more treatments of covid-19, antiviral pills at any time in this pandemic. i directed fema to work with every state, territory to make sure they have enough hospital capacity. our next deployment of 6 additional medical teams. 120 medical personnel to six hard-hit states, michigan, new york, new jersey, ohio, rhode island. let me close with this, it's been a long road, but what's clear as we get through this when everybody does their part, no matter where you live, no matter your political party, we got to fight this together.