Good morning. Welcome to Axios today. We made it to Wednesday, it's December 8th. I'm

Nyla Bhutu. Here's what you need to know today. Local newspapers are taking on big tech.

Plus, what's behind our surprising December weather? But first, today's one big thing.

How far Americans will go to beat Omacron?

Today marks two years to the day since a mysterious new virus was discovered in Wuhan, China. That,

of course, was soon dubbed SARS-CoV-2. And fast forward to today, we're grappling with the latest

variant in another pandemic winter. Axios World Editor Dave Lawler marked today's

anniversary with three notable numbers for you. More than 5 million people have died since that

first case. It's been one year since the very first Pfizer COVID vaccine dose was administered

to a woman in the UK. And 54% of the global population has received at least one dose of a COVID

vaccine. Now, as we look ahead, one big question is how willing are people to keep making changes

to their lives because of the pandemic? A new Axios Ipsos poll shows us the nuance here.

An Axios Managing Editor David Nayther is with me to go through the results. Hey, David.

Good to be here. So, what exactly did this latest poll show about what Americans are

willing to do to protect against the Omicron variant? Well, they're willing to wear masks about

six out of 10 Americans are willing to wear masks. For the most part, they're not willing to do much

else that really disrupt their lives again. So, how much is their contract with the numbers here?

Between, say, wearing a mask indoors and canceling holiday travel plans?

Cancel their holiday trips? No. Fewer than one in four Americans are willing to do that.

They're not going to stop going out to restaurants. Only about a third of Americans

are willing to stop dining indoors. They're not going to stop getting together with friends or

family outside of the household. The time for taking big disruptive steps to protect themselves

...