10 things you need to know today: December 27, 2021

Fauci warns against complacency as Omicron fuels coronavirus surge, Roe v. Wade lawyer Sarah Weddington dies at 76, and more

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1. Fauci warns Omicron surge will continue pushing cases higher

COVID-19 cases, already at record levels in some areas, will probably continue to climb as the "extraordinarily contagious" Omicron variant spreads rapidly across the U.S., Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday on ABC's This Week. "Every day it goes up and up. The last weekly average was about 150,000 and it likely will go much higher." Fauci, President Biden's chief medical adviser, warned that although Omicron appears to cause less severe symptoms and fewer hospitalizations than other strains, Americans shouldn't be complacent because the sheer number of infections "might override a real diminution in severity." He said "we're particularly worried" about unvaccinated people, who are "the most vulnerable ones." The surge has spurred a rush for at-home COVID-19 tests, causing many pharmacies to run out.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.