making a plan might feel like homework, but it will help you and your family stay safe during an emergency. omicron is surging with major holidays just around the corner. health experts echoing get boosted now. also -- >> i cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. i just can't. >> joe manchin says he's made up his mind on biden's build back better plan, and democrats are furious. but america's internal conflicts don't stop there. i speak with a guest on how close the united states is to civil war. hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. i'm michael holmes, and this is "cnn newsroom."

♪ >> announcer: live from cnn center, this is "cnn newsroom" with michael holmes. not a wave but a covid tsunami. that is the warning from one u.s. health expert as the omicron variant threatens to plunge the country into yet another covid emergency. the delta variant is already driving a surge in cases and hospitalizations, but experts say omicron will overtake delta soon, straining a health care system that's already at the brink. that's why officials say it is more important than ever for americans to get vaccinated and boosted. and new numbers underscore why that is so. according to data from the cdc, unvaccinated people are 20 times more likely to die from covid than people who have been fully vaccinated and boosted.

and yet around 70% of fully vaccinated americans still haven't gotten that extra dose. >> we could be in for an ominous winter season and a kind of grim beginning of the new year. there are still so many now vaccinated but still not boosted folks out there. i wish everybody would go and get vaccine tomorrow. we've got plenty of vaccine available. it's in the refrigerators just waiting to get into arms. >> we're also seeing the impact of the latest surge in other ways. on sunday, u.s. senators elizabeth warren and cory booker both announced they've tested positive for the virus. both say they are experiencing mild symptoms. now, new york reporting some troubling covid numbers with another record case count on sunday of more than 22,000. cnn's polo sandoval reports. >> reporter: for three days now,

new york state has seen a significant increase in the number of new covid cases. in fact, a record number of covid cases confirmed throughout the state here. we have heard some optimism coming from new york city mayor bill de blasio on sunday, saying that the bringing back of some of these mitigation efforts, also this increase in numbers, that, yes, it is happening right now. it's a new reality. but it is a temporary one. but when you speak to new yorkers, there is a concern and a fear that things are possibly going to get worse before they get better. and so we have seen just massive crowds at covid testing sites throughout new york city. people who are trying to at least secure an appointment to actually get those tests. for some, it is a requirement if they're going to be traveling soon. but for many, almost everybody, they want to be tested. they want that extra peace of mind even though a majority of them are vaccinated. >> i feel like a couple of friends that i have that have been vaccinated did catch covid or have a scare, so just trying

to play it safe for the family. >> to be safe. you never know. even if you're vaccinated, you could still get it, so it's better to make sure than be sorry later. >> reporter: as recently as last week, new york city recently announced a multi-point approach meant to try to slow the spread. that includes increasing the number of locations where people could get vaccinated and also where people could guess tested and even making those home kits available for those who aren't able to stand in line for hours at a time. the big advice coming from officials not just here in new york city but throughout the country for the segment of the population that is not vaccinated to get the shot, if they already did, to get boosted. and if you got boosted, get tested. polo sandoval, cnn, new york. >> dr. tamara dildy joins me now. i'd love to know what is it like in your e.r. right now, doctor, and what is the morale of staff? >> i think people are exhausted.

it's been a long haul for everyone, patients, everyone. physicians, nurses, everyone. housekeeping. we've all been trying to keep it together. >> do you worry that the hospitals are on the brink where you are and elsewhere, and what happens if that tipping point is reached? >> i do worry that we're on the br brink. the good news is that we have vaccines, and the vaccines we're seeing, that we're seeing less severe infections, we're seeing people who have cold-like symptoms when they've been vaccinated with both vaccines and boosted. so that's really, really important. in terms of people coming in, there's more concern because people want to get back to normal life. and so here and there in my children's school, there's a positive covid or there's a covid-positive person, potential contact. so that sends people to an urgent care to be tested. it sends people to the pharmacy

to get at-home tests. then you have people who test positive, and some people are getting very sick, particularly those who are not vaccinated. so we are seeing more patients come through. >> yeah. the president's going to be speaking on covid and specifically omicron on tuesday. what would you like to hear from the president? >> you know, i think in order to mitigate and to get things back to -- our lives back to normal or as close to normal as possible in this period of time until we get on top of covid, we need more testing, whether it be testing centers or at-home testing. we need more testing. we also need vaccines. we need easiness, readiness to get vaccinated. i can tell you i tried to schedule boosters for my children before they go back to school, and i have to wait a week and a half. if you've got a busy life and you're trying to manage multiple things like most parents are right now, getting their children vaccinated, making sure

their parents are vaccinated and extended family, if you have to wait a week and a half, that can be an impediment, so you might push it back. so if we had vaccination centers where we could get vaccinated and also boosted -- getting boosters are so important. so if that were faster, that would help a lot. >> i'm curious what unvaccinated patients tell you in the hospital. are there some who still don't regret their choice? >> you know, i have made it a point when i work clinically to at least sit down with one person a day who i think i might be able to touch and talk through their concerns and their fears with regard to vaccinations. what i've heard -- and it's really hard. it's a high slope to climb. what i've heard is that they get information from their friend groups, whether or not people from high school that they knew that are in the medical field, that put in facts with

misinformation, and it sounds believable. they're telling me what they're hearing and i'm like, well, that's true. well, that's not true. >> yeah. >> and i think that there are two things at hand. i don't think it's nefarious. i don't think anyone is trying to misinform anyone inten intentionally. i'm choosing to believe positive in people. i think covid has been such a -- i mean we're living history. i went into medicine because i like science. i like medicine. i like things of the human body. but it's all happening right now, and it's happening en masse. so we're trying to gather information data, and sometimes facts were mixed up. and i think facts can be mixed up or information can be mixed up with fears and emotions and perceptions of what may be going on. so i think that those are the big hurdles to fight in terms of getting people vaccinated. >> i wanted to also ask, you know, about health care workers because of course health care

workers get covid too, and then they're not on the front lines treating others. you can't just manufacture people who can take over and who are best qualified to do so, can you? >> no, you can't. and, you know, that's another issue or angle that i try to take when i speak to people who are not vaccinated. i try to approach it from, well, who's going to take care of you if we're all getting sick? because one of the arguments, one of the main arguments, are like, if it's my time, it's my time. i don't need to get vaccinated. it's like, okay. you have that right. however, we're not living as islands. you know, one person can infect multiple other people, and as we get new variants, delta was more infectious, and now omicron is even more so. we infect more people, and that impacts people getting ill, also our mental health and our readiness to live our lives. i mean christmas is coming up, so how do we gather? i hear about holiday parties being canceled. i chose not to go to a party last night with my kids because i'm preparing to spend christmas

with my older family members, you know, who have medical problems. so i want to ration or mitigate my risks. >> i'm very grateful for what you do and those around you. so thanks for sharing some of that. dr. tamara dildy, thank you so much. later, how the pandemic is creating a mental health crisis in the u.s. now, the surge of the omicron and delta variants are forcing governments around the world to take drastic and unpopular at times actions. thousands gathering in brussels on sunday to protest covid restrictions. belgium recently requiring covid passes to enter bars and restaurants. d danish authorities painting a grim picture for the holidays, saying covid infections could reach up to 45,000 per day by christmas. and israel's prime minister says the country is in its fifth wave

of the pandemic now and that cases could skyrocket even further in the next few weeks. the omicron variant taking over parts of the uk and its neighbor, ireland. irish officials enforcing hospitality curfews to help slow the spread, and health experts say it is time to start considering tougher restrictions in the uk as well. cnn's scott mclean with more on that. >> reporter: the omicron variant is now officially the dominant strain in ireland as that country faces the highest number of new infections since january. starting monday, an 8:00 p.m. curfew on the hospitality sector goes into effect to try to slow the spread. the variant is also now the dominant strain in england, accounting for more than half of all new cases with an even higher proportion in london. according to the mayor, covid hospitalizations are up 30% in the last week, and the head of the health service in england

expects that by christmas, 1 in 5 health care staff could be out sick with the virus. government scientists say that a new set of restrictions to limit social gatherings is needed sooner rather than later to avoid near-peak levels of new hospitalizations of around 3,000 per day in england alone. here's how the health secretary reacted. >> it's a very sobering analysis. we take it very seriously. as i said, there are gaps in the data and our scientists, of course they recognize that. for example, on severity, on hospitalizations. but we will look at this data. we will take into account other factors, and then decide whether further action is needed or not. >> reporter: the government is still very much in wait-and-see mode, waiting to see more data on just how severe an illness omicron actually causes. if the prime minister, boris johnson, does opt for more serious restrictions, he will have to recall m.p.s from christmas break, and there is no doubt he will have difficulty

convincing much of his own party to go along. scott mclean, cnn, london. at 35 years of age, gabriel boric will become the youngest president of chile in modern history. coming up, reaction to his big win. and the chinese star peng shuai is walking back allegations about sexual assault in a new interview. we'll have the response from the women's tennis association and a live report from tokyo coming up. ♪ ♪ ♪ create the extraordinary alien goddess the new perfume mugler

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leftist gabriel boric will become chile's next leader after winning sunday's presidential runoff election. he defeated the conservative jose kast, and he'll replace the outgoing president, sebastian pinera, who is set to leave office in march. cnn's rafael romero reports from santiago. >> reporter: he's 35 years old, the former student leader, and has the support of the country's communist party. gabriel boric will be chile's next president. the former congressman and leftist leader garnered more than 55% of the vote on sunday's runoff elections. his rival, conservative attorney

jose antonio kast quickly conceded defeat, saying he had called boric less than two hours after polls closed. boric's victory was also swiftly recognized by current president pinera, who had a conference call with the winner moments later. >> translator: you are going to be one of the youngest presidents of recent times, and people should know how to combine strength, idealism, and the spirit of youth with prudence and the experience of gray hair. so i want to invite you tomorrow to have a work meeting so we can talk about very important subjects for chile. >> reporter: after a tooth and nail campaign in a very polarized country, boric was ready to turn the page when he addressed chileans after winning the election. he thanks his supporters and says he will be a president for all chileans. >> translator: compatriots, i will be the president of all chileans, of those who voted for this moment, of those who today

fill the squares of all of chile, of those who chose another alternative, and for those who did not vote, we will be there for you. >> reporter: boric made a lot of promises during his campaign, promises that could prove hard to keep. >> he's going to have a very hard time, you know. he's confronting a deadlocked congress. he's got a constitutional convention. he's got a very fractious coalition. it's not clear what role the communist party is going to play in his coalition, whether the socialist party will join or not, and he's got a difficult economic situation. we're coming out of the pandemic and the economic effects of that, and he's -- as you say, he's made a lot of promises that cost a lot of money. many of the things coming out of the constitutional convention are, you know, social and political rights are likely to have an effect on fiscal spending. and so he's going to have a hard time meeting all of that. >> reporter: leaders from across latin america and the caribbean including the president of cuba

congratulated the new president-elect. boric will take office on march 11th for a four-year term. pro-beijing candidates are claiming victory in hong kong's election amid historically low voter turnout of just about 30%. the legislative council election comes after beijing introduced sweeping electoral reforms giving local authorities far greater power to ensure only so-called patriots are even allowed to stand as candidates. it resulted in hong kong's first legislative council election without the participation of major pro-democracy parties. chinese tennis star peng shuai says she never accused anyone of sexual assault. this happened in an interview to a singapore newspaper, and it's despite a post on her social media account about being coerced into sex by a former senior chinese official. in a video of the interview, she says she's always been free and

that there may have been a misunderstanding. there's been global concern for peng's well-being and about whether she's being silenced by chinese authorities. selina wang joins me from tokyo with the very latest. what did she say, selina? >> reporter: michael, this is the first time that peng shuai has spoken to international media on the assault allegations. in the interview, she denied the claims. she was speaking on the sidelines of a cross country skiing event in shanghai. she was speaking to a singaporean, chinese language news outlet. this is what she said in the interview. quote, i want to emphasize one thing that is very important. that i have never spoken or written about anyone sexually assaulting me. this point is very important to be emphasized clearly. in terms of the weibo post, first of all, it's my personal privacy. there possibly has been a lot of misunderstanding. photos of her at the event were also posted by chinese state media reporters, including this video of her talking and smiling with former chinese nba star yao

ming. in the interview, she said she's been living at home in beijing and denied she's been under any kind of surveillance. but, michael, global concern about peng shuai's well-being still persists. this all started after she alleged in a weibo post on a chinese social media site dated november 2nd that a former chinese vice premier had sexually assaulted her. that post was quickly censored and the topic has been blocked on chinese's heavily censored internet. after that, for nearly three weeks, she disappeared from public view. she later appeared in posts and videos posted by chinese state media. the ioc said it held two video calls with her although the ioc has not made those calls public. but after those appearances and this most recent one, the women's tennis association is still pushing for an investigation. the wta said, quote, as we have consistently stated, these appearances do not alleviate or address the wta's significant

concerns about her well-being and ability to communicate without censorship or coercion. we remain steadfast in our call for a full, fair, and transparent investigation without censorship into her allegation of sexual assault, which is the issue that gave rise to our initial concern. the wta had said earlier this month that it is suspending tournaments in china over concern about the treatment of peng shuai and with the winter olympics less than two months away, michael, china's foreign ministry has said that it opposes the politicization of sports and that it hopes, quote, malicious speculation about peng's well-being and whereabouts will stop. michael. >> selina wang with the latest in tokyo, appreciate it. we're going to take a quick break on the program. when we come back, u.s. senator joe manchin says he won't vote for the build back better plan, the president's top legislative priority. details of the swift and angry reaction from democrats in washington. that's coming up. and also, why one american expert on foreign civil wars

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gig speeds to the most businesses. or get started with internet and voice for $64.99 per month with a 2-year price guarantee. give your business the gift of savings today. comcast business. powering possibilities. welcome back to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm michael holmes. you're watching "cnn newsroom." now, in a major blow to u.s. president joe biden's build back better plan, senator joe manchin says he will not vote for the legislation that would expand the nation's social safety net. manchin has long been a key holdout on the plan despite months of talks. here's what he said on sunday.

>> i cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation. i just can't. i've tried everything humanly possible. i can't get there. >> you're done? this is -- this is a no? >> this is a no on this legislation. i have tried everything i know to do. >> manchin's decision has sparked outrage from the white house and other democrats. cnn's suzanne malveaux has the details. >> reporter: the senate and the house are on recess for the holiday, but the reaction was fast and furious. democrats, moderates as well as progressives, angry, frustrated, disappointed, all tweeting out statements over the weekend regarding this bombshell announcement that was made. congresswoman barbara lee of california tweeting that she was infuriated and disappointed that those who would be losing out would be the caregivers. and she said primarily black and brown women, children, the poor, the homeless, not to mention the

climate. many provisions to protect the climate also in that bill. at the same time, we heard from republicans almost uniformly. senator john cornyn describing it as an early christmas gift, that this was a bill that was reckless and costly. we have seen this play out for months and months and months now. senator manchin at the center of all this as his colleagues, progressives and moderates, have tried to bring him over and convince him. he is the lone standout that they need to pass this legislation to, in fact, vote for it and see what he would find acceptable. they started off as a $6 trillion price tag to this. they cut it down to $3 trillion. and then about $1.75 trillion. the latest complaint from manchin was that the child tax credit extended for one year. he said, well, if you extend it for ten years, it will be a lot costlier. and the cbo, the congressional budget office, actually scored it as such.

but his democratic colleagues came back and said, first, the bill you have before you is a one-year extension, not ten. that is a hypothetical. and secondly, the cbo didn't take into account any kind of revenue-generating mechanisms that might also be proposed and kick in during that period. so they said it really wasn't a valid complaint. there are some of his colleagues, those of who are most angry, most frustrated who are saying they don't even believe manchin negotiated in good faith. >> i hope we will bring a strong bill to the floor of the senate as soon as we can, and let mr. manchin explain to the people of west virginia why he doesn't have the guts to stand up to powerful special interests. if he doesn't have the courage to do the right thing for the working families of west virginia and america, let him vote no in front of the whole world. >> reporter: i spoke with senator dick durbin before they went on recess, and he said that -- he joked that if they went home to eggnog and fruitcake, maybe they'd come back with better attitudes,

they'd be able to negotiate. but he was optimistic that they would strike a deal sometime early next year. i asked him, why? he said because the american people need this legislation, that they are in desperate need of this. but clearly that argument did not hold up for senator manchin. and the question now becomes whether or not there is a piece of this bill that could be taken out, a stand-alone portion that perhaps manchin and even some republicans would support. suzanne malveaux, cnn, at the capitol. the rigid refusal by lawmakers to compromise underscores the disturbing findings of one study on democracy in the u.s. according to a "washington post" editorial on the subject, data from the center for systemic peace finds the u.s. no longer technically qualifies as a democracy after the trump years. it's somewhere between a democracy and an autocratic state. barbara walter is a professor of

international relations at the school of global policy and strategy at the university of california, san diego. she joins me now, and i'm delighted. when we look at the research, it's frankly frightening, and you conclude that the u.s. is, quote, closer to civil war than any of us would like to believe. how close? >> well, i've been studying civil wars for the last 30 years across the globe, and in fact the last four years i've been on a task force run by the cia that tries to predict where outside the united states a civil war, political violence, and instability is likely to break out. and we actually know now that the two best predictors of whether violence is likely to happen are whether a country is an onocracy, and that's a fancy term for a partial democracy, and whether ethnic entrepreneurs have emerged in a country that are using racial, religious, or

ethnic divisions to try to gain political power. and the amazing thing about the united states is that both of these factors currently exist, and they have emerged at a surprisingly fast rate. >> what's remarkable is the research isn't based on sentiment. it's based on metrics and markers and signs and facts that the u.s. uses to determine the state of other countries' democracies and proximity to upheaval. if the u.s. were looking at another country and saw these signs, what would be the u.s. evaluation of that country? >> the u.s. would look at that country, and we would put that country likely at risk, quote, unquote, risk of civil war. the united states is pretty close to being at high risk of civil war. and once a country is at high risk, the task force puts it on what we call a watch list. countries that the agency wants to watch very closely because they believe sometime in the

next few years, that country is at high risk of descending into instability or political violence. >> wow. i think most americans automatically assume, truly believe, that democracy is sacrosanct in this country, that the system is solid and safe and impervious. what do you say to them? how do you punch through complacency? >> hmm. what i say to them is we all wish that the united states was a strong democracy. we all see it that way. but the reality is just not true. the united states has been declining as a democracy for the last five years on every measure. there are multiple different datasets that measure democracy in various different ways, and all of them have showed america in decline. and, in fact, the main measure that the task force uses to predict political violence comes from a dataset called the polity dataset.

they have actually classified the united states for the very first time as an onocracy, not a full democracy, not a partial democracy. some people call it a hybrid democracy. fareed zakaria has called it an illiberal democracy. but it certainly not considered on par with countries like switzerland or canada or denmark or japan. we are no longer considered the world's longest democracy. that ended in january of 2021. >> can such ships be easily turned around? is there a threshold countries cross where you can't go back, and how close is the u.s. to that threshold? >> one of the things that we know is that countries that experience one civil war are significantly more likely to experience a second and third civil war. political scientists call that the conflict trap. we've done a lot of research on the conflict trap to try to figure out how countries can

escape that. the united states has already had one civil war. how can we ensure that it doesn't have a second one? and we know that the countries that escape this trap invest in good governance. they double down on democracy. and if they don't do that, those are the countries that tend to experience repeat violence over time. >> yeah. as someone i was talking to the other day, said the french probably didn't expect their french revolution until it happened either. i'm curious, and we should make clear, you've talked about, you know, a civil war. you're not meaning like the old one where, you know, battlefields and things like that. what would it look like? >> yeah. one of the reasons why most americans can't conceive of another civil war here in the united states is because they're thinking about the old type of civil war. they're thinking about large armies and gray and blue uniforms meeting each other on battlefields, and that's the 19th century civil war.

21st civil wars do not look at all like that. they tend to be decentralized. they send to be fought by lots of small factions, militias, paramilitary groups who use different types of tactics, insurgency, guerrilla warfare, terrorism. so if a second civil war happens here in the united states, it's going to look very different from the first, and it's going to look more like a siege of terror. think about northern ireland. think about the palestinian/israeli conflict. that's the type of violence we're likely to see here in the united states, and that violence can last for decades and be almost equally as destructive. >> it's a hard genie to put back in the bottle. it's scary, but it is a conversation that needs to be had because, as you say, the ingredients are pretty obvious. professor barbara walter, i wish

we had more time. we do not. thanks so much. >> it's my pleasure. thank you very much. >> important stuff. now, the far-reaching effects of the pandemic aren't limited to physical illness. coming up, tremendous strain on mental health care in the united states. that's after the break. with 25% more concentrated power. alka-seltzer plus. ♪ oh, what a relief it is ♪ so fast! also try for cough, mucus & congestion.

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the pandemic is taking more than a physical toll on americans. a harris poll survey for the american psychological association finds more than a third of adults are finding it more stressful to make day-to-day and major life decisions now compared to before the pandemic. as the u.s. heads into a third year of pandemic living, therapists across the country cannot keep up with the demand for psychological help. many are turning away potential patients, including children, who want mental health support because they do not have

available time. "the new york times" spoke with more than 1,300 mental health professionals who said anxiety and depression were the most common reasons patients sought help, and 1 in 4 providers said suicidal thoughts were among the top reasons clients were seeking therapy. lakeasha sullivan is a clinical psychologist. she joins me from atlanta, georgia. she is also one of the health care professionals that "the new york times" -- took part in "the new york times" psychology today survey. thanks so much for being with us. one of your replies to the survey quotes you saying -- and i'll just read it for people -- i regularly wished aloud for a mental health version of dr. fauci to give daily briefings. has nearly enough attention been paid to this aspect of the pandemic, the mental health aspect? >> absolutely not, michael. you know, at the very beginning of the pandemic, i could see clear trends in terms of emotional functioning, you know,

among my patient population, and it was unfortunate that they -- honestly, i wish they could talk to one another because at the beginning of the week, you know, there was a theme as if, like, anger for the week or depression or people are sad and people are exhausted. and they felt so isolated. and so, you know, at the beginning, it was -- i really, truly wished that there was like a forecast of some sort to let people know, you know, basic emotional, like, processes, like depression often follows anger and things of that nature, to get yourself ready. if you're feeling this, then this may come next. >> preparation, yeah. no, i can understand that. one of the worrying aspects -- and there are many -- of this survey is that nearly 1 in 3 clinicians said it could take at least three months to get an appointment, or they didn't have room for any new patients at all. have you seen that level of

demand? >> absolutely. everyone i know in my network is either at capacity or near cap capacity. and so, you know, it's really unfortunate. and, you know, my take on it is that in the short term, of course, we need more clinicians, and we need more mental health services and to be able to have people access those mental health services in affordable ways. but the long-term solution, i believe, is not necessarily more clinicians. it's really focusing on teaching people -- students would be the great, you know, children on up -- basic emotional, you know, information about emotions. >> yeah. >> so, you know, that people -- so people know what emotions -- so people can normalize emotions for themselves.

>> right. >> and so -- yeah. >> as i was reading the study, the survey, it struck me. how are therapists coping because you all seem to be under it? you've got the workload, the sort of things you're hearing. who counsels the therapist? >> most therapists are in therapy, or they have had a robust therapy in the past. and so that's a major source of support for therapists. we also have consultation groups we're part of, and therapists are notorious for saying yes to requests. and so therapists have to -- i think this pandemic really highlighted the need to set boundaries and to engage in self-care and to -- and to be -- you know, to basically try to protect our careers and ourselves from burnout. >> right. what would be your advice for someone who is watching right now, perhaps feeling

overwhelmed, depressed, or whatever, and can't get in to see someone like you? i mean, what would you say to them? >> right. well, you know, i would say that -- so barring really significant symptoms that indicate serious mental illnesses, like that needs -- you know, if someone is experiencing that, they need attention, and they should go, you know, to their private care doctor or urgent care or something like that. barring that kind of situation, i would say that people -- it would be very useful if people don't pathologize themselves, that they allow themselves to feel grief and to feel anxious and to feel angry and to feel all of those things as opposed to engaging in behaviors or mental behaviors even that suppress those emotions because they -- it just makes it worse. >> i want to ask you this too. i mean, has at least discussion of mental health because of the

pandemic at least had the benefit of perhaps destigmatizing the issue a little? >> absolutely. most of my patients are first-timers, and it's a really wonderful thing. and so, you know, the phones are ringing off the hook, you know, so yes. >> and also are you treating people who you may not have seen if not for the pandemic? i guess has the pandemic exposed underlying issues for people, magnified them, brought them to the surface, relationships, too much of the kids and so on? >> mm-hmm. absolutely. so one way to think about the, you know, symptoms that people have is a stress model. i won't really get into it too much, but basically that someone could be predisposed to a condition, and faced with a certain environmental stressor, that condition may manifest. so i do believe that some people, because of the stress of the pandemic, are now manifesting issues that they

were predisposed to manifest. and so that is a subset. but i also believe that there are a lot of people who, one, they pathologize their own emotions, normal emotions that humans experience under unnatural and stressful and traumatic situations. so they may be pathologizing themselves, so then they're coming to therapy for these reasons. >> yeah. >> and so for that group of people, i don't necessarily think they would have sought therapy. but then again, it's a biased sample. people who seek help are people who tend to seek help when they reach a certain point. >> such an important issue. needs to be talked about. thanks for the work you do. clinical psychologist lakeasha sullivan, thank you so much. >> thank you so much, michael. >> important to say if you are thinking about suicide, if you're worried about a friend or a loved one who would like emotional support, the u.s. national suicide hotline is

1-800-273-talk. again, that number, 1-800-273-8255 in the u.s. for international resources, head over to save.org. we'll be right back. ♪ just shine your light for eveveryone to see ♪ ♪ and if you try a little kindness ♪

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more than 200 people are now dead and dozens more missing after supertie fun rai battered the philippines. though the official death count still stands at just over 30. national police say more than 230 people have suffered what they describe as considerable injuries. the storm hit the central and southern regions of the country last week with the strength of a category 5 hurricane. and in malaysia, authorities say monsoon flooding has displaced more than 41,000 people. that's according to the state news agency. rescue efforts are ongoing. officials say hundreds of motorists had to be rescued from a stretch of highway on saturday. malaysia's prime minister promised in a facebook post to devote $23 million to flood

recovery efforts. let's talk more about this with the cnn weather center and meteorologist tyler moulton. >> if i have any good news to share, it's the fact that typhoon rai continues to weaken. as you mentioned, it did make landfall as a super-typhoon. now it's just a typhoon. 100-kilometer-per-hour sustained winds but gusts up to 60. for those in america watching, that makes it a low end category 1 hurricane. it is hugging the coastline of vietnam, and what it's doing is mak making a beeline for southeastern china. you can see the rainfall left across portions of vietnam, roughly 100 millimeters of rainfall in just a few hours. it does continue to move to the north and east. it hugs that southeastern china

coastline. it sends squalls across hong kong. it doesn't make direct landfall. it actually just skirts the coastline and continues to weaken for us. that's good news. we could see 100, 150 millimeters of rainfall in this part of china because of rai as it pushes to the north and as it does begin to weaken. you also mentioned malaysia has dealt with rainfall. just since friday we have pd up 758 millimeters of rainfall. the monthly average is 598 millimeters. that's the kind of rainfall we have been dealing with here. unfortunately behind rai there's a tropical system that's going to push to the east across malaysia. that means we're going to see very rainfall across malaysia. you can see, zooming out the image here, plenty, about 100, 150 millimeters of rainfall here

across malaysia. that's on top of what we've already dealt with. and more in the way of rainfall in the philippines too. so, it is wet for sure across portions of this area, michael. >> tyler, thanks so much for that. ty tyler moulton, appreciate. the japanese billionaire is back on earth after spending 11 days on the international space station the first space tourist to reach the space station in more than a decade. he landed in kazakhstan a short time ago. he travelled with his production assistant, who documented the journey, and a russian cosmonaut that piloted the flight. the cost of the trip was not disclosed but some reports put the price tag as high as $50 million. thanks for spending part of your day with me. i'm michael holmes, you can follow me on twitter and instagram. do stick around. one australian is never enough.

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-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and all around the world. you are watching cnn newsroom, and i'm rosemary church. just ahead, covid surges threatening holiday festivities across the world. tightened restrictions putting many on edge, and renewing urgent calls for vaccinations. plus, it's a no from u.s. senator joe manchin, why he says he can't support the president's build back better plan, and how the white house is responding. and a shocking turn of events i