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now. humana, a more human way to healthcare i'm elizabeth wagmeister in los angeles, and this is cnn where is the backpack? >> one of the biggest and most distinctive pieces of evidence from the killing of unitedhealthcare ceo remains missing ahead. new details on the manhunt and the gunman's movements in the days leading up to the shooting. >> plus president-elect donald trump says the support for pete hegseth is strong and deep. it is the first time in recent days that trump has publicly endorsed his pick for defense secretary ahead. what this signals especially as he says nomination is in peril. and a cnn exclusive report our jomana karadsheh is the first western journalist to enter the syrian city of aleppo since rebel forces gained control. ahead, we'll show you what our

cameras captured, especially as the rebel offensive gathers steam. we are following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to cnn news central right now. >> major clues emerging in the search for the suspect in wednesday's killing of unitedhealthcare ceo brian thompson. we're told testing is underway after detectives found dna on a water bottle and a cell phone at the scene. a law enforcement official also tells cnn police are using facial recognition technology and sending the suspect's image to every member of the nypd. cnn's omar jimenez joins us now. omar, what more do we know about this possible dna yes, we're getting a sense in general of all the different methods that investigators are using to try to piece together any sort of substantial clue or evidence that could get them closer to not just finding out where this person is, but who this person is as well.

>> so when you talk about the dna samples that they found, according to a law enforcement source that's spoken to cnn the dna was gotten they got it from a swab, essentially of a water bottle that was found at the scene. a water bottle that they believe the shooter may have sipped from, even leading up to the shooting as well. and then they recovered a cell phone on top of that that could have some touch dna as well. bottom line, police say they are done processing those those materials and have turned it over to the office of the chief medical examiner as well, or as of this moment, for further testing and of course, you talked about the facial recognition technology. we've seen a few images of this person come through the ones of him unmasked. they've described him as a person of interest, but nonetheless someone that could be very significant to their investigation, if not the suspect himself. and so putting that image through their technology and sending it

to every member of the of course large new york police department, sort of shows where their priority is right now to again, try to track down anybody who may know who this person is or has seen this person to try to at least find some clue of a location. >> but leaving behind a water bottle and a phone would seem to be a pretty crucial misstep by someone who has taken so many other precautions to try to hide his identity well, it's not just that, too, but of course, you know law enforcement are looking for a backpack that may be missing because we know the shooter was seen with a backpack as the shooting unfolded. >> and then they tracked him toward central park and then later on, someone matching the description of someone they believe could be the suspect is seen without the backpack leaving the park. so where is that backpack as well? that's another major question that they're asking and then, of course, we know this person used a fake id to check into the hospital as well. but when you talk about those, what some would call

mistakes over the course of this, a former fbi agent who we actually had on air a little bit a short time ago said, and i want to quote here those are mistakes that will eventually lead to his capture. i think what he was trying to do was trying to be a professional. he thought that he was being professional by paying the cash and the fake id and so again, someone from an investigative background believes that these sort of missteps could actually really help law enforcement here. and we're going to be looking to see we're going to look to see if we actually hear a little bit more from law enforcement today or we're trying to see if that could be a possibility and maybe get some insight into how effective some of these clues actually are in their investigative efforts. >> time, of course, being of the essence with the suspect at large, omar jimenez our thanks to you. brianna we have retired nypd detective michael alcazar with us now he's an adjunct professor at john jay college of criminal justice thank you so much for being with us. >> you're looking at what investigators publicly are saying they have certainly they have more, but we know that they have a lot of threads to

pull on here. the hospital, the shell casings, a smudged fingerprint on a water bottle, a cell phone, a greyhound bus. what does that tell you about the chance to catch this guy i think our chances are good the dna evidence is important. >> everything is for courtroom testimony. so we can link him to the crime. right? we have his image i'm sure there's a lot of tips coming in through crime stoppers helping us identify the suspect i my gut feeling is we already the nypd already knows who he is. we're just looking f for him. we're on the hunt for him. so once we apprehend him, it's key that we link him to the scene via all the dna evidence all the fingerprints that are left on the spent shell casing the live round the bottle, the cell phone. so this is all for again for courtroom testimony and presentation there's the words delay and depose, found on a live round and a shell casing. >> and as you're watching this person do things to clearly

cover their tracks there's always the possibility likelihood that police will capture him. right? we see that anyone, i think, who would commit a crime like this must know that. do you think that even in that case, there's potentially a desire on the part of the shooter to have a motive kind of precede him before that happens perhaps, perhaps he was maybe he was anticipating that he might get stopped or arrested on the scene. >> maybe he put those markings on the bullets as a statement, or it could all just be subterfuge. maybe he's just misdirecting us. so it's very interesting. all the information we hope to capture and arrest this guy. so we can do an interrogation and find out what his motive is. if any other players were involved. um, if anybody funded him, did he do this by himself? so it's going to be very interesting once we make the arrest yeah. >> does this speak to a motive

or is it a diversion? the suspect used cash, used a fake id at the hospital. we have a picture from the hospital of a person. police believe is the suspect. is it normal for criminals to be in something like this? to be pretty meth methodical about trying to cover their tracks, but then also to slip up like this taking the mask down so you can see the full face i mean, we rely on bad guys to make mistakes. >> he seemed pretty methodical until again, he dropped his his mask and of course he left all the dna. uh, you know you know, our our dna, our fingerprints are left everywhere. it could be on the counter top of that. that hostel. so as prepared as you think you might be you know, there's mistakes that people make all the time. and law enforcement relies on that. >> yeah. what do you make of the fact that the suspect and having been there ten days before the killing happened the suspect knew where thompson was staying, seemed to know the

path that thompson would take to the conference was certainly at least waiting for the time that he might be heading to the conference and was then able to identify him as he passed him. what do you make of all that as an investigator? >> uh, you know, we know they arrived ten days before so it's careful preparation on the perpetrator's part as an investigator, i want to think, did he get information beforehand? prior? you know we always have to entertain that avenue of investigation um, i mean, for him to to hide himself, right there in the sidewalk and then wait for the victim to walk past them in a few days, that the victim was there that is very careful preparation i know people have entertained the the idea that he might be a professional. i had my doubts in the beginning, but now that i've seen all this prep the weapon he used, you know, he might be a professional. he might have

some training, he might have some military training. uh, potentially it could be from. i mean, he's so young, right? what does he get this training from? he looks young anyway could he be from outside the country all these things come into to investigators mind. these are the ideas we come up with and theories. and we stick with something that's plausible. so a lot of moving parts for this arrest. >> yeah, but a very clear picture of this guy's face that no doubt investigators are cross-referencing using facial recognition technology to see whether it's on the web or other photos. michael, thank you so much for your insights. we do appreciate it you're very welcome kayla, today a new. >> show of support for pete hegseth from president elect donald. trump himself. hegseth, of course, is his choice to be the next defense secretary who's been embroiled in allegations of sexual assault, money mismanagement and alcohol abuse. the president elect posting this online this morning quote, pete hegseth is doing very well. his support is strong and deep much more so

than the fake news would have you believe. a source says that trump's allies are noting they've heard no hard nos on seth's nomination, at least among the republican senators that he's met with this week. let's get the latest from our congressional correspondent, lauren fox. lauren, it's still early days for this nomination, but what are you hearing about whether the trump transition will stick with seth in the end? >> well, if you look at where they started the week, kayla, and where they ended the week, if your team on capitol hill, you're probably feeling pretty good about how things wrapped up this friday. you know, over the course of the week, there were a lot of questions about how he was going to handle some of these very difficult meetings with people like senator joni ernst, as well as the incoming republican leader, john thune. but what you saw from some of these high stakes meetings is that some lawmakers came out and made clear that they were not going to just say they were opposed to hegseth. some even said that they could get to. yes, eventually. you know that's what i heard from senator mike

rounds of south dakota, who met with him as well as senator kevin cramer of north dakota, who said he had a really frank discussion at various points really pushing hegseth on questions about his past alcohol use and that he got a promise from hegseth that he would not drink if he got the position of leading the pentagon. and i think that that makes hex's team, as well as the trump transition, feel pretty comfortable about the fact that perhaps they started the week in one place and ended the week, and maybe even a better place than they had expected. obviously, things can turn on a dime. there are a lot of questions about whether or not anything else comes out about pete hegseth. you know, kevin cramer told me we cannot have any more surprises. and he really did hammer home that point with hegseth making it clear that in the senate and in the confirmation process that is the last thing that you'd want. again we are a really long ways away from the potential public confirmation battles, but that is going to be another place where senators are going to be looking really closely to how hegseth handles

himself, how he handles some of the tough lines of questioning you might see. but again, this is going to take time to play out. they feel very good, though, about where things stand right now. >> and then, of course, there is the fbi background check, which is just getting underway. and that could also provide some surprises. we will see. lauren fox, our thanks to you. let me turn now to cnn's zachary wolf. he's the author of cnn's what matters newsletter. he took a look at another trump transition effort increasing efficiency by potentially trimming $2 trillion from the government budget. zach, we're talking, of course, about doge or the department of government efficiency here. and you took a look at past attempts at a similar goal, which of course, have their own names. >> that's right. well, the first one to look at is the grace commission. that was during the reagan administration. the president reagan went to these outside, sort of like trump. he went to outside business executives to get their recommendations on how to trim the government and control government spending. it took them two years, and they came up with a

47 volume list of recommendations, most of which were never, you know, became law because they couldn't get them passed through congress and then after that, of course, in the 90s, there was rigo or reinventing government. you saw al gore's picture there because he was in charge of it. that was an inside effort. they got recommendations from across inside the government. it was a little more successful. they trimmed something like 350,000 jobs, although they probably shouldn't get credit for all of those because the pentagon was already getting smaller. but the point is, there have been multiple efforts like this just in recent memory people or presidents trying to trim the size of government and even the ones that were sort of successful haven't worked because government spending we know has skyrocketed. look at the math. each year, the government spends about $6.8 trillion start the most importantly spends $3.8 trillion just on mandatory things. things congress doesn't even control. we're

talking medicare. we're talking social security after that, there's $0.7 trillion that goes to interest on the national debt. they can't not pay that, or the government would essentially lose its credit rating. so and that number is getting bigger every single year with interest rates. that only leaves about $1.7 trillion for the government to spend every year that's more than elon musk has said that he wants to trim from the government. so you would imagine if elon musk got his way, the entire government ceases to exist. like the pentagon, homeland security, all of those things come from that $1.7 trillion pot. so it's hard to see how the math works. add to that the government is only taking in about $4.4 trillion every year, and these are 2023 numbers, by the way. they change from year to year. so you have a major deficit. it was $1.7 trillion in that year. so the math is really confusing and it's hard to see how they do it. >> and already they're trying to reset some expectations. they started talking about 2

trillion. more recently they've been talking about well, maybe we'll cut $500 billion. we'll see what if any of that ends up happening. zack wolf, our thanks to you on that story. ahead, this hour on cnn news central, it's a story you will only see here. cnn is the first western media outlet in aleppo, syria, after rebels captured the city. we'll take you inside as families return to the area for the first time in years. plus, qanon, the group that believes the government is controlled by a group of satan worshiping pedophiles, is apparently excited about president-elect trump's pick to lead the fbi. we have a closer look at kash patel history with the far right conspiracy group and health officials are racing to identify a mysterious, flu like illness that's killed dozens of people in the congo what we know about what's being called disease x, these important stories and more all coming up this hour on cnn news central yellow didn't pass the tissue

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favorite treats toys and food. the best presents at the best prices for the best pets for low prices for holidays with pets, there's chewy. >> i'm natasha bertrand at the pentagon and this is cnn syrian rebels are staging what could be a major upheaval in the middle east, in a country where american troops are stationed. new video shows families fleeing the city of homs as rebels close in after a surprising string of victories. those gains are abruptly shifting the power dynamics in syria after a long stalemate in a civil war. the rebels say their destination is damascus, the country's capital. right now, the rebels control the area you see in green on this map, kurdish forces seen in yellow control the northeast signaling that syria's president bashar al assad has suddenly lost control of nearly half his country. cnn's jomana karadsheh went to aleppo as the

first western journalist on the ground there since rebels took over and asked people about their reaction. >> we are in aleppo's old city here by its historic, iconic citadel, and it's really surreal being in syria's second city just days after that lightning offensive by rebel forces, where they managed to capture this city in a matter of days. >> and you look around here and it seems like business as usual. >> ahmed never left aleppo and she says their homes were destroyed. >> her children are in turkey and she hasn't seen them in years. and she's hoping now that the city has changed hands, that this means that she could see her children again. when abdul was in idlib, he's been there since the start of the war, and this is his first time back to a city he says they

trust the rebels who are now returning them to their cities and he says he's not afraid. syrians have gone through so much and they're resilient. just in the last few days, people have painted over this with the colors of the free syria flag and this is something you see around the city, where people are trying to remove any signs of the assad regime. this is the bassel roundabout named after the deceased brother of the syrian president, bashar al-assad. and one of the first things that people did when rebel forces took over the city of aleppo was toppled. the statue of bassel, a symbol of the assad regime. this is an area where there were fierce

battles with regime forces, and since then, in the past few days, there's been an airstrike that killed many people. you can still see the aftermath of that. the blood on the floor here and speaking to people in the city. this is what they fear. they fear that there will be more russian and syrian regime airstrikes, that they will be back for the city of aleppo. and this is your first time back to aleppo in ten years. >> ten years? yes. >> did you ever imagine this moment possible? >> no. actually, no no. it we we have in our imagination, imagination that we we're going to come back. actually, we had a lot of dreams about getting back to aleppo, but we didn't actually believe that this moment is going to be true. >> but are you worried about what might be coming? >> of course we are here. all the people here are worried about what's going to happen because the the the airstrikes

always the attacked us. >> but you can imagine living, of course here again. >> of course i love i love my country. i love my, my actually all of the syrian place, the syrian country our country, we have we we hope it's going to be a a clear from the assad regime. all the syria, not just aleppo, speaking to people here, you get this sense of joy and relief to see the regime of bashar al-assad gone but also there's this apprehension anxiety, fear of what might be coming. >> people don't really know what to expect from these rebel forces who've taken over aleppo. but most people that we've spoken to say that their biggest fear is what the regime and its allies are going to do a real fear of going back to the bloody days of the civil war in

syria. jomana karadsheh cnn aleppo, syria thank you to jumana for that report. >> let's talk now with retired colonel peter mansoor, former aide to general david petraeus peter, i wonder just how you are seeing this moment in syria. it's kind of driven home by that extraordinary report of tom homan is there, but you have abu mohammad al-julani, the militant leader of hts, the main group driving the country's armed opposition, saying that the goal here is to overthrow the assad government. is that in the cards, in your opinion well it could be the syrian army clearly has shown an ability to defend the northern part of the nation. >> the question really is, as he drives south towards damascus will regime elements hold firm and will they get any support from russia or from hezbollah, both of which have bigger fish to fry closer to their homelands? so this is an amazing attack. it's obviously

been well planned and has been in the works for quite some time and as that amazing report on the ground in aleppo shows, you know, the the group is also ready to transition from a military organization to a governance organization so i think the the offensive will will stick. i think it will succeed because i think the syrian army clearly has shown that it's not willing to defend the regime. >> i mean al-julani he's doing this world exclusive interview with cnn. he claims that he's gone through a transformation and did an about face on past hard line rhetoric. what do you make of what is it's certainly a pr campaign. what do you what do you think about it well, you know, i'm from peoria on this one. >> show me uh, you know, show me your deeds and not just your words. the words are great. uh the hts broke away from al

qaeda in around 2016. uh, they've said that they would not persecute christians and other minority groups in the areas they control and so far, that's been the case. uh, but we'll see going forward. you know, it is hts is designated a terror group by the us government and a lot of foreign governments as well. and that's based on its background. so um, al joe kenny clearly wants to, you know change that perception and we'll see going forward as they govern aleppo and other areas that they have seized, how they how they act, if it's reality and not just perception how is the us viewing its interest in this fight? >> because obviously, american officials have long opposed assad. but of course, they're interested. or but are they really interested in supporting rebels like al jilani, who, as you mentioned, is a designated terrorist organization, and he also has a $10 million bounty on his head from the us? yes yeah.

>> i don't think the united states is going to support hts. our interests lie in the northeast part of the country with the syrian democratic forces mostly kurdish forces and the area that us special operations forces are helping to advise and and eliminate the the remnants of isis. um, but, you know the government is looking at what's going on and probably making a calculation now, which is better. uh, you know, assad who's a murderer and has blood on his hands or hts, which is an unknown quantity and potentially could, uh, you know, develop a terrorist regime itself. i my guess is hts will win out if they if they take over. but we'll see you know, it is truly not to overuse the word. >> just an extraordinary time in syria as we were watching. colonel, thank you so much for talking with us thank you. coming up, a major

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aaron the work's never done. >> i'll never stop. >> yeah baby. >> until the whole town is transformed. >> they know what they want. they don't know where to find it we do. >> hometown season premiere sunday december 29th at eight on hgtv tiktok is running out of time. >> today, a federal appeals court upheld a law that would ban the social media app in the us next month unless its chinese parent company agrees to sell it. let's discuss the impact of the decision with lance ulanoff. he's tech radar editor at large. lance, it's

great to see you this decision was more or less expected, but it means that tiktok is one step closer to a ban. of course unless its parent company bytedance agrees to sell it by january of next year bytedance said in april they didn't want to sell. do you think they've changed their mind? >> no. i really don't. >> i still think they consider it a point of pride that this is such a globally popular app and extremely popular in the us even though tiktok instituted project texas, which basically took the whole the whole company, the us part of it made it a us operation so they theoretically have a lot less control over it. but there's just been no signals. and it's also unclear who can really afford to buy them. >> well there were a lot of potentially interested suitors four years ago. microsoft tried to buy them. that deal fell apart. oracle then tried to buy them. and you still have several investors circling the company. not least of which trump's former treasury secretary but i'm wondering if you think there's any one of those buyers

who could actually put together an offer that would pique tiktok's interest? >> well, look to be fair, you know, this is an inflection point right now. the clock is ticking and we're we're entering that area of uncertainty, you know, between now and january 19th, what is going to happen. something must happen. it is super unlikely that tiktok wins its appeal. you know, if it goes to the supreme court, it just doesn't seem likely. it's going to happen. so what tiktok won't. i don't think bytedance will let tiktok simply evaporate from the us market, so it may now finally be interested in entertaining that exit idea but can anybody put together the right number for them? i don't know, it would take someone big. it would take someone, maybe apple size. >> mm interesting. meanwhile, though president-elect trump, for his part, has appeared at least more willing to allow the company to operate which of course, as you know, is a major reversal from 2020, when his opposition to the app set this

whole process in motion. like what changed between then and now? >> well, an election change i mean, you saw that all the candidates went on tiktok, right? he joined tiktok and became part of it because you're reaching 170 million americans and especially a demographic that they all really want to talk to, which was the younger demographic. so you know, you sort of, you know sometimes you just that's your strange bedfellows, but it is, you know it's honestly quite unclear because we know that trump has said, you know, that if you ban tiktok, it would make meta stronger meta is an american company, but trump has you know, he really doesn't like them very much. so i don't know entirely what's going to happen. but a lot of it will probably have to do with the people around trump and what they think. and one thing i want to emphasize here is that in this whole time frame, when people have asked legislators and people and government officials, what are they so afraid of like what have they seen that makes them so worried about bytedance? there are certain things

they've never told us. they say they've seen things that give them great concern. we just don't know what those things are. >> and you mentioned the people around trump. one of them happens to own a different social media platform so we will see if he can do anything before january 20th. likely not. and it will all come down to the courts. lance, thank you still, to come on cnn news central. why the far right qanon community is excited about president elect trump's choice to lead the fbi are you sure? >> you tend to exaggerate go ahead call him yourself. >> thank you for calling aetna. >> how can i help you? >> do you really have medicare plans that cover dental, vision and hearing? yes. all three. >> plus, we have plans that include a monthly allowance for certain over-the-counter products. >> really? >> that's right. aetna also has medicare advantage plans with a $0 monthly plan premium. >> oh, i like that. >> don't wait. call

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>> cnn's donie o'sullivan takes us inside one of the epicenters of deep state conspiracies we are here in beautiful, sunny florida, right by mar-a-lago. >> we're on our way to meet a qanon influencer what? >> you know, you can't explain. >> for years jeffrey peterson, a former it guy, has been running the matrix groove show. >> welcome back to the show where the truth is learned. >> it's never told. it's a show devoted to all things qanon. >> if you think qanon is bad, you're believing the mainstream news. >> deciphering the cryptic codes from q and trying to figure out the deep state and the cabal and everything else. >> this is q post 1828. this is the the spy op. >> and the reason we're here is because he has had as a guest on his show kash patel, who might become the next fbi

director. >> cash is on the show today. let's bring him in right now. you guys are the best. >> i love being on your program. patel has dipped his toe into this qanon world a bit over the years, has flirted with it on truth social. there's a q account whether or not it's the real q, i'm not going to get into. >> are you a q like so. >> no. so like everything else, you have to have fun with it. the q thing is a movement. a lot of people attach themselves to it. i disagree with a lot of what that movement says, but i agree with what a lot of that movement says. the qanon movement has long been associated with radicalization and hate, and qanon iconography was seen throughout the january 6th mob. >> is that donie o'sullivan? yes. >> q has posted how many times? 4967 times. q posted about kash patel. >> yes twice and said kashyap kash patel a name to remember. >> q has been so right on so many things. i'll get off that subject. >> no, he has. >> and i agree with you. he has, he has. and you got to take a you got to harness that

following that, that q has garnered and just sort of tweak it a little bit. that's all i'm saying. he should get credit for all the things he has accomplished because it's hard to establish a movement. who is q? i don't know. >> q says it's ten people, three nonmilitary, less than ten. we don't know. i see people trying to say that cash is cute. you can't prove that. i can't prove that. >> for a lot of people kash patel engaging in the world of q and qanon at all. they'll say well, that's disqualifying. >> but what you're going to find out is that we have a mandate in america and we want the fbi cleaned. you know, 99% of the fbi is good you know, but there's a 1% that is not good. >> the anonymous q persona hasn't posted in a few years, but the world of qanon is still very real for people like jeffrey. >> news unlocks with the q posts are like you know, like, for example kashyap kash patel a name to remember. kash patel has just been nominated as the fbi director right? that's a q proof, what we call couldn't i

just say, well, q is posted 5000 times. >> he just posted a name like, yeah, you can absolutely say that. >> and but what about all the other names in our interview? >> jeffrey made it very clear that he condemns violence. he's not a fan of the proud boys oath keepers or other groups that conspired to cause violence on january 6th. >> i always say, you know, we're not going to make fun of liberals because we're going to be here for them when they wake up. >> but there is a lot of portrayal of democrats, of people on the left of being evil. yeah. do you think they're evil? >> not all of them, no. do i think there are some? yes. like hillary clinton maybe. i don't know. >> as for kash patel, jeffrey and other qanon influencers welcome him as the country's top law enforcement officer. >> i think the american people will be happy that kash patel is going to straighten out what they've done to president donald j. trump and the fbi. and i think america should be happy as well. >> and a trump transition

spokesperson dismissed any links between qanon and kash patel and described our story as a pathetic attempt at guilt by association. back to you. >> all right. thanks to donie o'sullivan for that. health officials are warning about a mysterious and deadly new illness dubbed disease x, one that has killed dozens of people. we're going to talk to an infectious disease expert about it next like a relentless weed. >> moderate to severe ulcerative colitis symptoms can keep coming back. start to break away from uc with tremfya with rapid relief at four weeks. tremfya blocks a key source of inflammation at one year. many people experienced remission and some saw 100% visible healing of their intestinal lining. serious allergic reactions and increased risk of infections may occur. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tb. tell

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you about what this disease could be well, first of all, i think there's been a rush to judgment that this is somewhat of a mystery disease. >> and while in fact, we don't yet know what's causing it, it's not been because we've tried looking for it and found that there was no answer. it's because the lab tests that really needed to be done just weren't done. this was in a remote part of the drc and while cases started in late october, we're just now getting the first lab tested completed so i suspect actually within the next 24 to 72 hours, we probably will know what's causing this situation. >> but those symptoms that we just listed normally, doctor they're not fatal. so why do you suspect they are with this illness well, first of all, you have to understand that a number of the cases are in children, and we know that in this area of the drc, malnutrition is a real problem in young children. >> so the anemia issue that you raise may have nothing to do with the overall underlying

condition of the what's causing the outbreak. in terms of the respiratory like symptoms that you just mentioned, which sounds like early influenza, it sounds like it could be any number of respiratory illnesses. and i suspect that when the final numbers come in, they're not going to be quite the same we've heard i've actually have numbers that range from 29 to 179 deaths, all since october so there are now the right health officials on the ground we're going to know what the real numbers are. we're going to know is this in fact, one single disease, or is it a series of respiratory viruses that may be causing the problem? and again, i come back and just remind us all. i think once we get the lab tests completed this weekend, we're going to know what's causing it. >> yeah, i mean, it's a vulnerable population as you say. there are vulnerable populations in many parts of the world. so why is this really sparking so much interest well, i think coming off the pandemic, there's a

heightened sensitivity to any kind of serious illness that might be occurring in the community. >> we're seeing it right here in the united states as it relates to avian influenza and h5n1. in this part of the world. we're concerned that if we don't find out quickly what's causing it, could it continue to spread, much like mpox did two years ago and continues to spread? and so there was really, i think a lot of attention paid to this one. once it was finally recognized. remember this is a remote area of the drc the public health authorities have limited numbers of people working in that area. and so this kind of went on for some time. one piece of information, i think that is important for people to understand. if you look at the cases back to early november, late october you'll see that there hasn't been a big increase in number of cases per week. in other words it's roughly been about the same number week after week. so there's no evidence that this is explosive or that it's quickly growing in numbers, which is also, again another

reassuring point of information that is reassuring. >> but certainly a lot of questions. and we hope that they're answered as quickly as you anticipate they may be. doctor michael osterholm, thanks for being with us thank you very much. police have some brand-new clues in their search for the gunman who killed the ceo of unitedhealthcare. what we know about the latest evidence next cnn heroes, an all star tribute sunday at eight on cnn these seven denture adhesive seals hold all day and make your gums feel happy with gradual release technology for strong, all day hold and a cushiony, soft seal for full gum protection and comfort strong all day hold makes your gums happy. >> see bond vinyl windows seem to be a typical choice here in the local area. >> some companies even advertise high quality vinyl and romer here before you invest in vinyl, windows listen to what michael smith of renewal by anderson has to say.

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