As you know well, the CDC has been criticized for mixed messaging throughout the course of this pandemic, whether it's on masks or on boosters.

Why should Americans trust the CDC?

My job right now is to take all of the science and the information that we have and to deliver guidance

and recommendations to the American people that is adapted to the science at hand. This

pandemic has given us a lot of new and updated science over the last two years. And it is my job

to convey that science through those recommendations. and that is exactly what we are doing.

That's the director of the CDC, and she's been pressed after the decision to relax isolation

guidelines just as COVID cases hit record numbers. The question is, did she provide assurance

that the agency can, in fact, be trusted? And fully vaccinated.

It's currently defined as two doses of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or one dose of the

J&J.

The question, is it now time to redefine that term?

And Delane Maxwell convicted of sex trafficking for her role in recruiting teenage girls for Jeffrey Epstein.

The question this morning is the case closed.

It's way too early for this.

Good morning and welcome to way too early, the show that is really ready to close out 2021.

I'm Jonathan Lemire on this Thursday, December 30th, the penultimate day of the year.

We'll start with the news.

Jeffrey Epstein's longtime associate, Gleine Maxwell, will likely spend the rest of her life behind bars after she was found guilty of five sex trafficking charges.

NBC news correspondent Ron Allen has all the details.

After six days of deliberation, a jury found Galane Maxwell guilty of five out of six federal charges, including sex trafficking of

minors, which is the most serious and carries up to 40 years behind bars. The road to justice

...