set on a path to obscurity. abraham lincoln might not have been heard from again. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. coming up, the debate over the future of the republican party and the fallout from the senate vote not to convict former president trump. the u.s. appears to have a worrisome coronavirus variant of their own. three cases of covid-19 sent new zealand's largest city into

lockdown. how strict measures like that have controlled the spread. >> it doesn't seem to matter which side of the aisle they are on, republicans and democrats alike are facing a backlash. mitch mcconnell is taking a lot of heat primarily for democrats but still voted not to convict. >> i voted for allowing witnesses, but i think at the end it wasn't more witnesses that were going to change your mind. mitch mcconnell said himself there is no question president trump is practically and

morelandly res ly morally r. a number of republicans used a faux constitutional argument that somehow you couldn't protect a president after he was out of office. >> democratic impeachment managers are facing questions of their own. one is pushing back on the notion that witnesses coup turned the tide of the conviction. >> witnesses in a senate hearing do not come and stand before senators and make a statement. it's a deposition. it's videotaped and brought before the senate.

we didn't need more witnesses. we need more senators with spines. >> republicans face a crucial fate of their party's future. >> it was interesting to hear leader mitch mcconnell's words for pretty strong. there was yesterday's vote but there was definitely a number of court cases. this is not oemp. we're going to decide of the next couple of years. >> we lost the white house, we lost the house, we lost the senate, we lost 40 legislative seats nationwide.

there really is no future with trumpism. we've got to move on. it's difficult because the president's base is still there, but we have to move on. trump spent sunday golfing at his course in florida. >> donald trump and his legal team expressing relief of the weekend, the former president putting out a statement making clear he is not done with politics. promising he has more to share with his supporters. allies believe he is going to go after republicans he

one republican senator who remains on trump's side is south carolina senator lindsey graham. he says he spoke with trump after his acquittal and wants to stick with the former president because he believes it is a formula for winning for the republican party. listen to more now from lindsey graham. >> i spoke to him last night. he was grateful to his lawyers. he appreciated the help that all of us provided. you know, he's ready to move on and rebuild the republican party. he's excited about 2022 and so, to the republican party if you want to win and stop a socialist agenda, we need to work with president trump. we can't do it without you. and to you, president trump, you need to build a republican party stronger. i'm in to winning. if you want to get something off your chest, fine. but i'm in to winning. >> graham also making clear trump is still openly mad at several lawmakers but on that point about winning, there are a lot of prominent republicans that would disagree with graham and want to move the party away

from trump. people like senator ben sasse and congresspeople liz cheney and adam kinzinger who would be quick to point out that by follow trump's lead in 2020, they lost the white house, senate and couldn't win a majority in the house of representatives. before any talk of 2022 or 2024 gets serious, trump has a number of legal hurdles he'd have to potentially overcome. sources close to trump reveal he's concerned about potentially facing charges, not only for his role in inciting the violence we saw on capitol hill on january 6th, but on a litany of other issues. boris sanchez, cnn, west palm beach, florida. >> thanks, boris. let's take a look at some of those legal battles facing former president trump. in washington, d.c., the city's attorney general is investigating whether the former president violated district law by inciting the insurrection at the capitol. meantime, here in georgia, the secretary of state is looking into trump's efforts to overturn

election results during two phone calls with state officials. in new york, the manhattan district attorney's office is investigating whether the trump organization has ever violated state laws, including insurance and tax fraud. well, let's go now to a professor of international politics at city university london and visiting professor at the london school of economics. he joins me from london. thank you, sir, for talking to us. so it's the start of a new week. the impeachment trial is over. but the division is clearly not. what still lingers after mr. trump's acquittal, politically? >> well, politically, i think pretty much the fallout of this whole episode. in fact, the last four years which we all thought was going to live for a lot longer because of trump being a symptom and exacerbator of the crisis. i think it just shows the united

states political system is still in a very dark place. that the divisions are still very, very deep. and wide and raw. and i think the fallout of the trump phenomenon is going to continue to rile both political parties. the biden administration, but also the republican party in particular. so i think we're in for a very, very kind of rough, turbulent, continued turbulent period because the trump phenomenon has not gone anywhere. >> let's talk about mr. trump and the republican party. there are two schools of thought. one that mr. trump is a spent force. you had to listen to mitch mcconnell's scathing speech and look at the list of his legal troubles he faces. or that, as you suggest, a trumpism and the possibility even of an extremer version of it without or with him, has now taken hold of the republican party. what do you think this will morph into over the years? >> well, what it looks like -- >> coming weeks even.

>> yes. and i think it's very difficult to put timelines on these things because the situation is very, very dire. i think for the republican party itself, i think they are going into a little period perhaps where nationally as a force for the white house, they are unlikely to be very powerful. i think president trump is going to remain ex-president trump is going to remain very powerful within the party and you can see that with mcconnell's vote to acquit but at the same time, to suggest that trump was totally liable for what happened on the 6th of january. and i think they want to try to hold on to as much of trump's base and not alienate trump himself but i think they're playing a very difficult kind of game. trying to ride two horses at the same time. the gop will be in a very tough position in the next few years. i think nationally, the gop looks like it's on the road to being a party which is a european-style far right party. kind of rump white nationalist

with white supremacists and other groups around it which may be frustrated enough to carry out some level of intimidation, violence and even terror attacks. >> there's that. and then just the fact that america is still very much gripped in the trauma of january the 6th. people, as you say, are still very much also feeling these divisions of the trump presidency. with all of that in mind and everything you've said, how can president biden shake off the shadow of all of this? what will it take to move forward? >> i think, really, if you look fundamentally, it would require massive effort to investigate the 6th of january riots and the entire run up to it and the sort of kind of politics and economy that led to it itself. not just trump's role but much more broadly than that because

it's quite clear there are serious security issues which were raised by 6th of january. but i don't think that is necessarily going to happen in a thorough going way. i think president biden and the democrats are also playing quite a tricky game because trump serves as a major unifying force for the democratic party as well. and so having him as a kind of spector haunting the american political system, it's actually quite functional even for the democratic party remaining a united force. and so what we see is mcconnell and biden playing a very, very dangerous kind of game. but going forward, i think what we've got it a very fractured political system, and i'm not sure that president biden can rely on a very right wing party to support the kind of far-reaching radical program which actually i think he seems to have in mind. so i think we're going to be in some sort of a deadlock for quite some time, and i think

2022 is going to be a first key test of really all these different forces and how they're actually playing out. one thing is there's a recent poll by the american enterprise institute which showed that 57% of trump supporters are willing to work with democrats to solve national problems. and i think president biden's grassroots, bipartisan strategy may be able to put feelers out through his policies to that kind of a constituency. and that may be one way in which there can be some degree of unifying the country behind that sort of program that he has in mind. >> okay. we're going to leave it there on that optimistic note. thanks very much, professor, coming to us live from london. >> thank you. so coming up next here on cnn, it certainly seems there are new coronavirus variants. and they're popping up all over the world. well, u.s. health leaders tell

us how well they think the vaccines will be able to stop them. we'll have that story, plus, at least two covid variant cases have put auckland and new zealand on lockdown after that nation showed the rest of the wo world. my audible library is just like scroll scroll

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welcome back. it's 16 minutes past the hour. u.s. scientists have now identified at least one new home-grown coronavirus variant like the british and south african variants that appears to be more transmissible. but the u.s. is ramping up its vaccination campaign and hoping it will be successful against all of these virus mutations. natasha chen tells us. >> reporter: nearly 53 million doses of the covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the u.s. and on saturday, fewer than 70,000 people were hospitalized, continuing a downward trend to levels we haven't seen in about three months. but looking forward to the next three months or so, another 130,000 people are projected to die of coronavirus by june 1st. that's based on a model from the university of washington's institute for health metrics and evaluation. what could make things worse, analysis of existing research in the uk suggests that the variant

first identified there could link to more severe disease. but dr. anthony fauci said the pfizer and moderna vaccines currently being distributed do work against that variant. teachers in many states are now becoming eligible for the vaccine. cdc director dr. rochelle walensky said safely reopening schools hinges on the transmission in the larger community. in transmission levels come down, schools can safely reopen with universal masking, learning pods and contact tracing. she did say that vaccinating teachers is not a prerequisite for opening schools and that differs from the opinion of dr. leana wen, who says that vaccinating teachers is essential, especially when schools in many parts of the country are in what she describes as poorly ventilated and cramped places without universal masking and social distancing. back to you.

>> thanks, natasha. new zealand's largest city aukland remains on lockdown until the end of wednesday. two of three new cases there are from the variant first found in the uk. new zealand's prime minister acted immediately to stop the spread. will ripley gives us more on what's been playing out in new zealand. >> for some people on the ground, hello, it's on again/off again with these lockdowns that they just get a handful of cases. six months ago, auckland went into this massive lockdown where people have to stay home unless they're going to the supermarket or pharmacy. essential workers can work but everybody else is not allowed. and some may say, look, when you just have three cases confined to a mother, a dad and teenage daughter, why disrupt this many people? but the message from the prime minister is that this is the formula that has worked that has helped new zealand if not eradicate covid-19, drastically

reduce it to the point they don't have community transmission for weeks and weeks on end or months on end. and that allows life to return to normal quickly. listen to what the prime minister jacinda ardern is telling people. >> now just keep in mind, we don't necessarily have to get to the bottom of that precise issue in order for us to lift restrictions. what we'd like to do, though, is really put a ring around things, make sure that we're testing all of those places of interest, getting those results of close contacts and to give us a level of confidence that whatever has happened we feel confident that we've got a bit of a ring around it. >> so what has happened because these people did not have a recent travel history, robin, but the mother, one of the three people in this family who was infected, she does the laundry at an air catering and hospitality agency. and some international travelers may have come in contact with some items this woman would have

come in contact when working. they're wearing masks, protective arm sleeves, all the ppe that's supposed to prevent this kind of thing. that's why contact tracing is so crucial to figure out if there's any other link or if this case did somehow come in from the outside. >> with that in mind then, how will that affect travel in and out of new zealand? >> well, this is what kind of gets disruptive. because new zealand has already said it's borders will remain closed for most international visitors, robin, for the rest of this year. most likely. that said, they got their first batch of covid-19 vaccines about a month early. they've just arrived. they'll start putting those shots in the arms of frontline workers as soon as this weekend, which is certainly good news in accelerating the process of getting enough people in new zealand vaccinated they can consider more options in terms of international travel. but there's a travel bubble between new zealand and australia, or there was. it's been suspended again for 72 hours. australian health authorities are saying instead of people from new zealand being able to

freely fly into australia, they'll have to go through that mandatory 14-day quarantine that the government managed isolation facility. this is the problem we see with these travel bubbles. people make plans for business travel, personal travel only to find out that the bubble is suspended because of a few cases and maybe they now have to completely up end their plans. but, look, this comes with the territory in the age of covid-19. before you have enough people vaccinated to provide, you know, herd immunity if you will. >> exactly. will, thanks for that update there. we'll keep an eye on what's happening in new zealand. appreciate it. while auckland is locking down, south africa is opening up. specifically 20 of its land border crossings shut last month to try to stop the spread of covid. travelers will be required to show a negative test upon entry, and the government is also cracking down on fake tests saying they carry a heavy penalty. let's go to david mckenzie in johannesburg with more details on all of this reopening for us.

hi, david. what can you tell us? >> hey, robyn. that is good news they're oping these 20 land borders. people will have to have a negative covid test before coming across from regional countries. the second wave, which has been brutal in south africa, really driven by that more serious variant discovered here, is easing off. i just looked at the numbers. the test positivity rate is down considerably. the deaths have been going down steadily for a couple of weeks or at least the last little while, robyn. and does seem like authorities are comfortable enough to open up slightly because of those rates going down. the worry, though, is that there will be another wave and another wave because of the issue with vaccines and dealing with this variant discovered in south africa. >> let's talk about vaccines. i know that some of -- some health care workers are going to

be the first to get the vaccines. but it's a pretty unusual strategy, isn't it? why? >> that is correct. what they are doing is they're going to get the johnson & johnson vaccine out to a large number of health workers but it's part of a phase three trial. it's not really an overall rollout of the vaccine. you remember, we've been talking about how the astrazeneca/oxford vaccine was the first vaccine purchased by south africa. it came in a million doses several weeks ago. but then that very depressing news that the new variant here was shown to be stopping that vaccine from being effective against mild and moderate disease. they paused that rollout. they've switched gears now. the johnson & johnson vaccine is not approved here or in fact, anywhere for emergency use. that process is ongoing. in the meantime, they are using a test doses, doses of the vaccine which were set aside for ongoing trials to get to a large

amount of health workers as part of an implementation trial. during that trial, they will then see the effects of the vaccine. already there is good news, though, in trials already held in south africa against the variant that's shown to be 85% effective for severe cases and hospitalizations. and that's really what scientists here in south africa are focusing on. not the vaccine that's like a silver bullet to eradicate covid-19 which is unrealistic, but stopping the health system from being overburdened by this virus and stopping future waves because most people i speak to now say, well, they expect another wave of covid-19 as we head into the winter here in the southern hemisphere. >> always good speak to you, david mckenzie. thanks for that update. so lebanon's vaccination campaign is under way, now that the country has received its first batch of the pfizer/biontech vaccine. 90 staff members at a beirut hospital were among the first to receive the shots.

but as cnn's ben wedeman now reports, that's likely to be the easy part. >> reporter: and so it begins, perhaps the beginning of the end here of the coronavirus pandemic. alas, just one of lebanon's myriad of misfortunes. the first to get a shot was dr. mahmud hasun, the head of the intensive care unit at the hariri university hospital. >> for us as the lebanese population, it is the only solution to finish this pandemic. >> reporter: trust in the authorities, in much of anything, is in short supply here. a recent survey found that less than one-third of those polled are willing to take the vaccine. for more than a year, the country has been convulsed by sporadic, mass protests and violence. lebanon was already careening

toward financial and economic collapse before covid-19 reared its head. and last august, massive beirut port blast added more injury to injury. in a country where the rich and powerful tend to get all the breaks, the vice president of the world bank, the institution which is financing this vaccine campaign, has warned that nobody should be use ing connections t jump the queue. caretaker prime minister was scheduled to receive the first vaccination but stepped out of the queue deferring to frontline medical workers. the country has been under a total lockdown for a month. those workers pushed to the brink. >> the fight is going to be a long fight. we know that. but i think that today, really, we turned a big corner.

>> reporter: one corner turned. many more to go. ben wedeman, cnn, beirut. >> thanks to ben there. so coming up on cnn after ten days of protests, myanmar's military are losing patience and cracking down harder on dissent. that's next. ♪ 2021 started differently than years past. but the new year brings new possibilities and promise. with the most important promise being the covid 19 vaccine.

so while first responders and those at risk go to the front of the line, you can help protect the veterans in your life by staying home, wearing a mask and rolling up your sleeve to get vaccinated. keeping your distance now will make the reunions all the better. the hugs even tighter. so stay home and help keep our veterans safe.

myanmar's civilian leader aung san suu kyi will remain in

detention until a court hearing on wednesday. that word coming from her lawyer. she's been jailed since the military coup two weeks ago. right now, thousands of people are protesting against the coup and for suu kyi's release. they've been deploying armored vehicles in major cities and they've been shutting down internet access. a monitoring group says service is just being restored now after an eight-hour near total internet blackout. just a short time ago, we learned that myanmar's commander in chief of the armed forces signed several amendments to the penal code. it appears that change targets prot protests, journalists and critics of the military coup. joining me is a journalist. for her safety we can't give you her name or her location. i hope you can hear me. what's happening right now on the streets? >> thank you for having me. so right now on the streets, despite the fact that yesterday

was a very frightening night, especially with tanks rolling in, seeing more soldiers in the street as opposed to simply police, people are back out there protesting. one large sight of protest in yangon is the central bank. private banks have now -- are not functioning right now. they've all shut down. and the government is trying to make sure, or the military is trying to make sure that the central bank remains operational. so people are trying to prevent that from happening. >> and what do you make of this -- these new amendments to the country's penal code that seems to target protesters, journalists, like you, and critics of the coup. certainly another escalation. >> yes, it definitely is. the military is clearly trying to ensure that any level is criminalized.

one of the amendments -- or one of the orders they've given out recently is for media to stop referring to them as the regime or the junta. and, you know, we're not supposed to use the word coup either. and so there's not only sort of a general trend of intimidation. there's also a way to describe what is happening with the correct language. >> that is censorship in itself. what has then been the reaction by people on the streets to the news that aung san suu kyi will be kept in deattention, that she'll remain in detention until this court hearing in the next few days? how much does her leadership, her inspiration still garner support? >> you know, when you're out on the streets, especially in yangon, you see a lot of signs demanding her freedom. there's a lot of signs that say

free our mother. save our mother. a lot of people here see her very much as a parental figure who guided and protected them for years. but, you know, you look in other regions, she's either less popular or her freedom is not seen as as much of a priority. or at least her freedom specifically and the signs and slogans are more about freeing all political prisoners. right now we're, you know, you're not seeing as much leadership from the nld. obviously, she's in detention and not able to communicate, but the party itself, the party that won the election is not necessarily leading the civil disobedience movement. and it's very much a largely leaderless or at least the leadership is very diffuse in terms of who is organizing what and the direction in which the protests are going. >> thank you for joining us. stay safe. i know that the nights are particularly scary. that was a journalanist myanmar.

we couldn't identify her or her location for her safety. we'll continue to monitor events on the ground. we'll take you straight to break. there will be more news after that. my audible library is just like scroll scroll scroll scroll scroll scroll, it's a lot. i downloaded audible and really, really enjoyed it. and then it kind of just became a lifestyle after that. audible allows me to find a space for myself. you just get way more than you pay for, one of those rare things in life. oh, the audible plus catalog is awesome. it's like having a streaming service, but just for audio content. there's audible originals... there's podcasts... i've used some of the meditations, it helps me relax. mythology, anthropology, a lot of the -ologies. audible recommended the right audiobooks at the right time.

they pretty much have whatever you like. it's really enriched my life in so many ways. i can put on an audiobook, or a podcast, and be transported somewhere that is impossible to go, that is why i love audible. to start your free 30-day trial, just text listen 8 to 500500.

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there is some happy news from prince harry and his wife meagan. the couple announced their family is expecting an addition as max foster now explains. >> we can confirm that archie is going to be a big brother. that was the announcement made by spokesperson for the duke and duchess of sussex only adding the couple are overjoyed to be expecting their second child. their first born archie currently 19 months old. and they announced in november the duchess suffered a miscarriage over the summer. with this announcement came a photograph. we don't know much more about it. apart from it was taken by tablet computer, we're told, and

remotely by the photographer. a spokesperson for buckingham palace said the queen, prince charles and the entire family are delighted and wish the couple well. the duchess' side of the family were also notified about this news ahead of the announcement. max foster, cnn, hampshire, england. finally, we leave you with this incredible image of mars taken by the united arab emirates' first mars mission known as the hope probe. it arrived at the red planet on tuesday and successfully entered orbit on its first attempt. the crown prince of abu dhabi tweeted the picture on sunday with a caption that said in part, we hope this mission will lead to new discoveries about mars which will benefit humanity. thanks for watchi ing cnn. i'm robyn curnow. "world sport" is next. enjoy. for our viewers here in the united states and in canada, i'll have more news after this quick break. stick around for that.

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welcome back. i'm robyn curnow. u.s. president joe biden and house democrats are pushing to pass their $1.9 trillion covid relief bill by the end of the month. the goal is to have it signed into law by mid-march. mr. biden is also focused on getting more cabinet nominees confirmed by the senate now that donald trump's impeachment trial is over. so to talk about all of that, let's go to arlette saenz. >> with the senate impeachment trial in the rear-view mirror, president biden can now push his agenda up on capitol hill with

their full attention. that includes trying to get his nominees confirmed as well as passing that $1.9 trillion covid relief package. the house is expected to continue its mark up of that legislation later this week, and the president will also be holding meetings here at the white house on that covid relief package. and president biden will also be taking his sales pitch on the road. he is participating in a cnn town hall in milwaukee, wisconsin, on tuesday. and then on thursday, traveling to a pfizer facility in the state of michigan. all of this as the president is trying to promote that covid relief package. there are still some details relating to that measure that need to be hammered out in the coming weeks. the president said that he is willing to negotiate on who would receive those $1400 stimulus checks as democrats and republicans have talked about the need for them to be more targeted. but right now, that key priority is getting that $1.9 trillion package passed. arlette saenz, cnn, the white

house. >> as arlette mentioned, cnn is hosting a town hall with u.s. president joe biden. it will be moderated by anderson cooper tuesday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern time. that's wednesday morning in europe and asia. now promising sign for the u.s. on the covid vaccine front. according to the u.s. centers for disease control and prevention, nearly 53 million vaccine doses have been administered so far. that's a seven-day average of about 1.6 million doses per day. on sunday, the cdc director gave an optimistic prediction for vaccine availability over the next few months. >> i'm proud to say that, as of yesterday, we have put 50 million vaccines into people's arms. we anticipate by the end of the summer we will have enough vaccine in order to vaccinate the entire u.s. population that is eligible. >> dr. walensky is advocating for teachers to get vaccinated

although the cdc says it's not a prerequisite to reopening schools. that echoes the message from america's top infectious disease expert, dr. anthony fauci. take a listen. >> so vaccinating teachers are part of it, but it's not something that you can't open a school unless all the teachers are vaccinated. that would be optimal if you could do that, but practically speaking, when you balance the benefit of getting the children back to school with the fact that the risks are being mitigated if you follow the recommendations in these new guidelines from the cdc. hopefully, i think, that will alleviate the concerns on both sides. >> new guidance from the cdc highlights these key measures for reopening schools, universal mask wearing, social distancing, washing hands, cleaning facilities and improved ventilation. plus contact tracing, isolation and quarantining. but a cnn analysis found that nearly all u.s. children, 99%, live in a county considered a

red zone with high levels of coronavirus transmission. under the cdc's reopening plan. so i want to take a closer look at how the u.s. is managing the virus right now. dr. rodriguez is a cnn medical analyst and viral specialist from los angeles. joins us now with his perspective. doctor, lovely to see you. what do you make about the cdc guidelines about school reopenings but then also the fact that they're counterintuitively contradict themselves by saying most of them can't open because they're in red. >> well, it's an oxymoron. >> yeah. >> because we have two conflicting tales here in the city. so the first thing is i personally believe that all teachers need to be vaccinated so that we can safely open schools and so that teachers can feel safe in school. secondly, if you look at the cdc

guidelines, they're very, well, specific but i don't know if they're practical. like you said, a lot of the cities that they're talking about have rates of infectivity over 10%. something that the cdc says schools should not open. again, they also are requesting and recommending that students be six feet apart, which is going to be very difficult because classrooms were already so jam packed with students. so i do agree that schools should open. i think that teachers should be vaccinated and i think that maybe it's going to have to be maybe a rotating system of students being present in the classroom itself. >> it's important to remember that there are quite a lot of schools open in the u.s., particularly private schools. they have been open throughout the whole pandemic using masks, social distancing, maintaining the cohorts and when there's an

outbreak students in specific classes are asked to isolate and go back in. this is a year into the pandemic. why can't that be replicated? it's pretty organic but why can't that be replicated in public schools and the wider communities? >> i think it can, but as usual one of the things that has stood in the way of the pandemic being handled is politics. public schools are usually regulated by an elected school board in the county at which those schools occur in. if there were a federal mandate that could uniformly tell us, this is what needs to be done, i think it would be a lot easier to control. schools are controlled by the school boards of certain counties and they usually go by the political makeup of that county. so that's why i think it's very difficult to do. it shouldn't be, but it is. >> let's talk now about the more information that we're getting

on this w.h.o. trip to wuhan. what strikes you about the details that were picked up by the team when they investigated? what are you hearing? what do you understand about this? the first outbreak and what we don't know. >> well, what i'm getting is the fact that there is still more information to be done, but i think it's pretty clear that the infections in wuhan started before we were told they started and that by december of 2019 it was pretty widespread. i found it a little bit disconcerting by some of the reports that the people that went there could not get as much information that they needed of prior infections to see if it started in october or november. i remember very vividly i think in december when i read an article that they were building hospitals just for people with covid in december and january and i thought, oh, my goodness, this has got to be worse than we

are being told. and i think, indeed, it was worse than we know. >> yeah, i remember reporting that as well. i think we might have had a few conversations about it a year ago as well. that's a very good point you make. more details. more questions to be answered there. after a year it's normal for a virus to mutate. we've heard about the so-called variants discovered in the u.k. and south africa. we are now hearing reports of seven different u.s. variants, they're home grown and they also seem to be more transmissible. what do you know about that? >> well, what first needs to be remembered is variants, which are mutations, are going to happen when the virus replicates. it's something that's natural that happens. they're mistakes that happen. the virus cannot mutate in the air, it needs a host. it needs human cells in order to replicate so i'm not surprised that we have variants. i'm not surprised that we will

have more variants, but what needs to be hammered home is the fact that we will continue to have more variants and the stronger ones are the ones that are going to survive as long as people get infected. so if you think that oh, this illness is not going to be too bad for me because i am young and healthy, you are potentially creating a variant. the second point, as long as half of the world is not immu immunized, vaccinated, the poorer parts of the world, those replications will lead to variants. we're one world and there is one solution to this and that is for the whole world to be healthy, to be vaccinated and to have herd immunity worldwide. >> dr. rodriguez, thank you very much. appreciate you joining us. >> thank you. so u.s. president joe biden has declared an emergency in texas as parts of the state are under winter storm. this storm watch is for the

first time in decades. snow, ice, plunging temperatures are spreading across the country from the pacific northwest to south central states. at least 120 million people are affected. the latest with more on this crazy weather. and i'm hearing there's even something called thunder ice coming. >> yeah, it's crazy, indeed. it's not only crazy, it's historic. we have wind chill warnings from canada all the way down to mexico. first time ever houston, texas, has ever been under a wind chill warning. can you see why here, robyn. we have wind chills going all the way down to minus 30. that's what it's going to feel like on your exposed planes. houston, it could feel like it's 5 degrees tomorrow morning. then minus 9 in dallas, minus 10 in lubbock. overall we're looking at temperatures possibly being as low as 50 degrees below average for this time of the year. there will be hundreds of records broken through monday and on into tuesday.

on top of that, yes, we are dealing with that thunder snow and thunder ice as you mentioned, robyn, as you toss to me, you see the snowfall here and across southeast texas. some of that is transitioning into ice and a little bit of sleet as well going into the lower mississippi valley. this is where we're going to have extremely impactful weather over the next 48 hours as it retreats to the north. winter storm warnings from texas all the way up into new england as this heavy snow falls on the really cold side. then where you get a little bit of warm air, you're talking about some ice secretion especially across alabama where we can see half an inch of ice. >> thank you so much for all of that update. i'm robyn curnow. thank you so much for watching. another hour of cnn starts right now. when we started carvana, they told us

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hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and all around the world. i'm rosemary church. ahead here on "cnn newsroom," a growing divide in the republican party after former president trump's acquittal with the gap now widening between his loyalists and those who want nothing to do with him. plus, cnn exclusively speaks with the lead investigator for the world health organization's wuhan mission. we will tell you what they've discovered about the pandemic's origin. and half o