mark in weeks. and new this morning, merck asking the fda for emergency use authorization of its new antiviral pill, which the drugmaker says cuts hospitalizations and death by half in those with early symptoms. elizabeth cohen, a lot of signs for optimism, but experts like dr. anthony fauci are warning we shouldn't prematurely be celebrating. >> that's right. because, boris, if you can remember just a few months ago, sort of the end of may, beginning of june, we were celebrating a little bit, then delta variant happened. please, god, we will not have another variant like that come around, but we need to be careful. people need to get vaccinated and be sensible about the kinds of activities and the kinds of things they're doing. this pandemic is not over. but having said that, as you said, a couple of promising developments. one of them is that merck applied for emergency use authorization this morning for their antiviral pill. now, there are other treatments for early stage covid, and note i'm talking early stage covid, not in the hospital, but they're tricky to administer. there are monoclonal ant bibodi, and this would be easier if doctors could prescribe a pill, call it into the pharmacy for those with e