The Atlantic Daily: A Very Omicron Holiday

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.

This week brings tidings of joy—and fear. Americans are gearing up for the holidays just as a new variant helps send coronavirus cases upward. In an address this afternoon, President Joe Biden attempted to quell the public’s Omicron anxiety, stressing that people can still safely gather for Christmas. The White House also announced ramped-up mitigation measures, including the purchase of half a billion at-home rapid tests to be distributed for free.

Meanwhile, many Americans dutifully boarded planes and popped into overpriced rental cars, off to see loved ones for yet another very weird and complicated round of pandemic celebrations.

• Most Americans aren’t going to cancel their plans. Saahil Desai offers some practical advice for those forging ahead: “Relish the holiday season, but don’t use it as an excuse to let your guard down.”

• Emergency rooms aren’t ready for this next wave. “In March 2020, we worried about running out of ventilators,” the physician Craig Spencer warns. “Now it’s nurses that are in short supply.”

• Anthony Fauci is celebrating Christmas with his kids. Peter Nicholas, who covers the White House, caught up with the top pandemic adviser to discuss his holiday plans—and what the COVID outbreak may look like this time next year.

The rest of the news in three sentences:

(1) Chicago will soon require proof of vaccination in public indoor spaces. (2) The country’s largest coal-mining union asked Senator Joe Manchin to reconsider opposing Biden’s Build Back Better bill. (3) U.S. population growth slowed to a historic low amid the pandemic, new data show.

Today’s Atlantic-approved activity:

Girls5eva, streaming on Peacock, “is a tonal successor to 30 Rock: zany, hyperreal, meme-friendly, a reminder of why the term joke density exists,” Megan Garber writes.

A break from the news:

Neuroscientists are flummoxed by this brain phenomenon, Ed Yong reported in one of our must-read stories from 2021.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.