As COVID-19 cases surge across the U.S. ahead of Christmas, President Biden delivers remarks on his administration's plans to fight the onslaught of cases and the rapidly-spreading omicron variant of the virus.
Watch Live: Biden outlines plan to address surging COVID-19 cases
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![Ambassador-at-Large John Nkengasong, who will lead the State Department's Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy, speaks to the press about the new agency. He told NPR that the pandemic "taught us three key lessons. We are collectively more connected than we thought. We are more vulnerable than we thought. And we have [vast] inequities" when it comes to disease threats.<strong></strong>](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/18ac0b6/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2989x1665+0+164/resize/280x156!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.npr.org%2Fassets%2Fimg%2F2023%2F08%2F03%2Fdr_-john-nkengasong2_custom-6999de0de0549cbba3a298aaab8e0d482f5b305a.jpg)