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>> doge to see your private data. new cnn reporting that elon musk's team wants to access an irs system that includes your tax and bank information, plus not at the table. u.s. and russian officials meet tomorrow to talk about ukraine's future, but no one from the very country they are talking about will be there that they're talking about. and then later, deadly flooding. at least ten people killed as record rainfall swamped the south and midwest. kentucky governor andy beshear will join me as the flooding threat persists in my home state of kentucky. well, good morning to you. you are live in the cnn newsroom. i'm pamela brown in washington. and i want to begin this morning with elon musk's doge team and its search for more access to government agencies. doge is seeking access to personal taxpayer data at the irs. details like banking

information and personal identification numbers. cnn's alayna treene is at the white house. elena, i just got off with a source familiar with the situation who said, there's a lot of alarm right now in the irs that politicals are not supposed to access the system. even irs commissioners don't access it because it is such sensitive information about every american and their taxpayer information. and there's a lot of questions about how this fits into doj's priorities of waste, fraud and abuse. what are you learning, elena? >> that's right. there are definitely concerns, especially just given the highly sensitive nature of what the data system underneath the internal revenue service has. as you mentioned, in data, including taxpayer information, social security numbers, banking information, the list goes on. but to give you a sense of what's happening today. so essentially we've learned that doge has turned its attention to the irs. they want to access that system as part of their broader effort to hunt down what they call waste, fraud and abuse within the federal government. now, i've learned,

according to a source familiar with the matter, that a doge software engineer. his name is gavin kliger. he's working under doge, but is going to be temporarily based at the irs. he is in the process. i'm told of getting access to the irs system. i'm told that as of last night at 9 p.m., he did not have access to this highly sensitive data system, but that is expected to happen, quote, imminently. according to the source. and in a statement from the white house, harrison fields, a spokesman for the white house, told me, quote, waste, fraud and abuse have been deeply entrenched in our broken system for far too long. it takes direct access to the system to identify and fix it. doge will continue to shine a light on the fraud they uncover, as the american people deserve to know what their government has been spending their hard earned tax dollars on. now, i do just want to get into a little bit more of the details of what exactly the data that doge might be accessing looks like. so there's this one system called

the ids. it's the integrated data retrieval system. they say that under that includes data on social security numbers, bank account information addresses, tax returns and other personally identifying data. we also know that, for example, that some that has some personal data on different employees and taxpayers, excuse me. apparently the irs includes information about taxpayers pending adoptions, for example, so parents can claim dependency exemptions and tile child care credits. all to say, this is the latest effort by the department of government efficiency, helmed by elon musk, to try and gain access to these different, very highly secure systems to see if any sort of waste or abuse or corruption is is happening within those different agencies. but as you mentioned as well, a lot of concern among people at the irs because they know how how sensitive this information is, and there's so many laws and regulations around what you

can do with it now as well. i'm told, pamela, that there is some sort of memorandum of understanding that the irs is considering to allow broader access by doge employees to the system. part of that does include, though, one, having people like this data engineer working under doge gavin kliger, you know, just temporary access to this, but also noting that he would have to destroy any sort of documents and, and handle all of this data very confidentially. um, you know, upon his completion at the agency. but a lot of questions still, of course, about whether or not doge should have this authority and whether or not some of this is legal, as we've seen with a lot of the other moves that they've had done. so so far. pamela. >> right. this is certainly fitting in with a pattern. um, but when you look at the different agencies in their systems, i think in terms of americans information, it varies, right. and with the irs system, it's particularly, um, personal private information. and i think that is why in talking to sources, um, there is

concern about this access. alayna treene. thank you so much for laying all of that out for us. mark everson joins us now. he was irs commissioner from 2003 to 2007, when george w. bush was president. thank you for coming on. so i want to get your reaction to all of this. as i have been reporting, i just spoke to a source, um, close to the irs who said that this is highly irregular for political to get this kind of access to this system with personal taxpayer data. this person said that typically, even irs commissioners don't have regular access to this system in the past. how surprising is it to you that doge will imminently be getting in? >> well, let me just start by saying i applaud the president's efforts to make the government more efficient. and that's certainly called for, uh, what i would say in this instance is, uh, i would urge,

uh, the group doge to to proceed with extreme care. there's real operational risk here. you may remember it was just several years ago where there was the propublica leak. that was a massive leak of taxpayer information. nobody thought that was going to happen, but it did. and, um, this is very sensitive information. there's plenty to do at the irs in terms of modernizing the agency. it doesn't operate like a bank. it needs real technical improvements. and some of that is underway. but to access this information, uh, anything that's done with this kind of that particular system has got to be done with extreme, extreme care. >> just really quickly, in terms of politicals getting access, is that true that it's highly unusual for politicals to have access to this system? >> yes, absolutely. uh, that i

never saw any of those systems. money to do, uh, sort of running agency and and speaking on capitol hill and making the decisions, of course. but the, the access to taxpayer information needs to be protected. and i do think that there are many ways to work on efficiency and and look at the very legitimate issues that that mr. musk is after. uh, without going into this particular system at this time. and what i really would caution or counsel is that, uh, the president has a nominee, uh, billy long, former congressman long, that he has nominated to the position. i think he should get in there. and then they can make decisions as to what the what the proper thing to do in terms of, of of doj's role. >> right. because the source i spoke with this morning really raised that question of why do you need access to this system with this all this personal information from americans for the purpose of waste, fraud and

abuse? as you know, the irs already does audits. um, and it sounds like you're kind of echoing that same sentiment. can you explain exactly what the system is? what what kind of information is in it? how it all works, just so we can all understand fully. >> sure. what? what the irs, it has hundreds of systems, hundreds of systems that interact with each other. but before someone's going to have an audit or you're going to send out a notice, you want to make sure that you have all of the relevant information on the taxpayer. uh, you know, maybe there's a pending matter already or there's an open year. there's money that was owed from before, or there's a refund due. so you do need to have a central depository that has all of the relevant information. and that's what you have here. but that doesn't run to oh, you know, something like the earned income tax credit has it has the highest, uh, error rate of any

of their programs. but, uh, that that would not be that would be something that you would look at to obviously improve the efficiency of. but, uh, you don't necessarily need to use this system to make strides on, on efficiency or going after waste, fraud and abuse. i would say. >> in a statement, the white house defended this move, saying, quote, waste, fraud and abuse have been deeply entrenched in our broken system for far too long. it takes direct access to the system to identify and fix it. doge will continue to shine a light on the fraud they uncover, as the american people deserve to know what their government has been spending their hard earned tax dollars on. so this doge employ special go ahead. >> no, i agree with that entirely. the question is whether this particular system is essential to achieving that task. and i think that there are plenty of things to look at the irs, but there's a skittishness

there's a concern. we're in the middle of the filing season now, couple hundred million people are affected by paying their taxes. so you don't want to have any significant operational risk. if there's any hiccups that occur that are totally unrelated to this. i wouldn't want to take on that that risk if i were in the administration right now. plenty to plenty to do with the irs. go after it. that's fine. but, uh, i would be very careful here. >> and i think also just for a lot of americans, they don't have a full grasp of what's going on. i mean, elon musk says he's being transparent by putting stuff on x and so forth, but we don't really know who these people are getting access and what they're doing with the information and that kind of thing. and we know there's historical reporting, you know, looking back from when trump's first term a few years ago, trump's former chief of staff, john kelly, told the new york times that the president said he wanted to, quote, get the irs on his political enemies. you know, so we know that. and i'm not saying that that's the intent

here, but without sort of more transparency, concerns are raised about a trump political appointee having access to this information. do you share that concern? >> i just think that it's a very significant operational risk, potentially, when you get involved in a system like that. so they've got to be extremely careful. and yes, there are the the the irs is very much in the crosshairs. so that does add to the stakes of of looking at anything there. so again, i would suggest that that the right thing to do here is to get the, to get uh, congressman long, former congressman long before the finance committee get him confirmed and then work out whatever doge is going to do in terms of looking at the irs. that's the order of events that i would follow. >> mark everson, really important to get your perspective on this. as a former irs commissioner. thank you so

much. >> thank you. >> well, the department of education is now threatening schools over race. a department official warns that preschools, universities and everything in between could lose federal funding if they consider race in admissions, hiring, financial aid and pretty much any aspect of student life. cnn's rene marsh joins us. so, rene, this is rooted in that 2023 supreme court ruling that gutted affirmative action in college admissions. but even preschools are targeted here. what more can you tell us? >> right, pamela? i mean, no school spared based on this interpretation that we're reading here in this letter. again, this is a threat to pull this federal funding. um, directed again at preschools all the way up to colleges and universities and the trump administration's department of education has told schools across the country to stop considering race in almost every aspect of student life, and they need to do it in 14 days. the agency sent this letter friday night, and it states that if a school treats a person of one

race differently than than it treats another, that is a violation of federal law. this letter goes on to say that this will pertain to admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life. that just shows you just how broad this is. and as you mentioned up top, pamela, this mandate is the trump administration's sweeping interpretation of this supreme court 2023 ruling in students for fair admissions versus harvard, which was very specific when it struck down affirmative action in college admissions. but the administration is trying to use that ruling to justify extending it to any and all races. racial conscious spending activities or programing on school campuses. this will

certainly face legal challenges. we are already hearing from democratic lawmakers on capitol hill. democratic senator patty murray saying there is simply no authority or basis for trump to impose such a mandate. in fact, federal laws prohibit any president from telling schools and colleges what they can teach. pamela. >> and what about any reaction from education leaders? do they have a deadline to respond here? >> they do. so this letter was sent on friday the 14th, and they gave these schools 14 days. and, you know, look, whether or not this is legal, it certainly i would believe has this ripple effect of having schools rethink their programs and what they're doing. if there is this fear of losing federal funding. so while we do expect this to be fought in the courts, the question remains of what sort of impact it will have on schools who just alone this letter alone is enough to to make them rethink.

we've reached out to several unions and school teachers unions, and we are waiting to hear back. no one coming out and speaking just yet. i think many are just trying to digest what this means and figure out what how it may impact their programs and how to respond to it. >> pamela rene marsh, thank you so much. and coming up, u.s. and russian officials will be meeting in saudi arabia to discuss ending the conflict in ukraine. but ukrainian officials won't be part of that initial conversation. neither will the europeans. and they're holding an emergency summit. the hard line russia is already taking. up next. >> it's the news. >> welcome back. but it's also kind of not the news. >> all the information on this show. so terrible. >> have i got news for you. news saturday on cnn. after cooking a delicious knorr chicken cheddar broccoli recipe, you will want to close your delivery apps because nothing beats a perfect combo of sweet tomatoes and

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arabia to discuss ending the conflict in ukraine. secretary of state marco rubio is there for the talks, but very. notably, ukrainian officials are not. and european leaders, for their part, are holding an emergency summit in paris to ensure europe remains a key player in negotiations. ukraine's president doesn't seem so pleased about being left out. >> ukraine will not participate. ukraine knew nothing about them. ukraine perceives any negotiations about ukraine without ukraine as those with no results. we cannot recognize anything or any agreements about us without us. >> also new this morning, a blunt reality check. russia's foreign minister implies that the kremlin is not willing to make compromises to broker a peace deal. cnn's fred pleitgen is in moscow. fred, it was in response to your question that foreign minister lavrov really

seemed to set expectations of russian concessions, or lack thereof. what did he say? >> yeah, you're absolutely right, pamela. we were at a press conference earlier today with the russian foreign minister, sergey lavrov. and of course, we have heard from several officials from the trump administration that they believe that as these talks go on, to try and find some sort of ceasefire or peace agreement and to end the conflict between russia and ukraine that the trump administration believes that both sides will have to make painful compromises. so i asked sergey lavrov what compromises russia is willing to make, especially as far as the territory that it currently holds in ukraine. here's what he has to say. which territorial concessions and in general, which compromises is russia willing to make to achieve such a peace agreement? >> you want us to have a mere thought of the negotiations on the settlement, regarding the fact that some territories still need to be ceded, to cede how? with people with russians or without people with only rare earth metals? if we are still

talking about serious diplomacy, it's better to first understand the history of the issue and see why the russian language is banned in all spheres of life in ukraine, and why the canonical ukrainian orthodox church is banned. >> there. >> and here they say that territorial concessions are necessary. for what? so that russians can now be destroyed, like they are now being destroyed in the kursk region and in other regions of the russian federation. >> so you hear there, pamela, the russian foreign minister, not sounding like the russians would be willing to give up any of the territory that they've taken from the ukrainians over the past couple of years as the war has dragged on. but of course, the reality on the ground is that the russians still hold a lot of ukraine's territory. but at the same time, of course, the ukrainians also have a foothold inside russia and the kursk region of russia. and it's really unclear what exactly is going to happen there. however, it certainly does give the impression that some of these negotiations as far as ending the fighting on

the ground there in ukraine is concerned, could be more difficult than president trump so far has let on. he's, of course, been saying that a lot of progress has already been made, but the russians have been cautioning over the past couple of days, really the past couple of weeks, that there are certain red lines for them that could make it a lot more difficult to achieve an agreement. pamela. >> all right. fred pleitgen, thank you so much. let's continue this conversation with cnn political and national security analyst david sanger. so, david, the u.s. and russia will be talking about ukraine's future in saudi arabia. zelenskyy won't be participating in these talks. and then separately, you have this emergency summit with european leaders. how does this all coalesce around a peace deal that is satisfactory to all involved? >> well, pamela, i think, as fred suggested, we are a long, long way from that. there are three levels of uncertainty here. so the first is, is vladimir putin ready to deal? um, it's not at all clear. he is. he probably feels as if

he's got the upper hand here. uh, president trump, through his defense secretary, pete hegseth, uh, made some preliminary concessions last week, uh, that, uh, they then had the backpedal, backpedal away from, uh, those included that ukraine would never join nato and that russia would, as a practical matter, probably get the 20% of the country that they are currently occupying. those are two of the big demands that, um, putin already has. but he may well have more. if you think about the demands he was making before the invasion. he may want to pull back of american forces from, uh, western europe. he may want a reduction of, uh, american provided nuclear forces in europe. and the question is, is president trump willing to put all those on the table? and then there's the issue you raised, which is what kind of

deal is it if ukraine is not at the table and therefore doesn't agree to it? and what kind of deal is it if the europeans aren't there and they're the ones whose forces may have to police this agreement? >> does ukraine have any leverage here? >> a little bit? um, i mean, if ukraine does not agree to the deal, then there is no peace deal. now, president trump could turn to president zelenskyy and say, if you don't sign, you're not getting any american aid. and if you're not getting any american aid, you're going to lose. so president trump has the capability of forcing ukraine to go, uh, sign up to this deal. but this all has to do with what the security arrangements are in it to keep the russians from just resetting and attacking again. and the ukrainians feel they've been deceived by the

west on security guarantees before, most notably right after the cold war. >> i'm wondering what your thoughts are from what we heard from the russian foreign minister, implying that moscow is unwilling to make compromises to end the war. do you think that this is just posturing from the russian side? i mean, the trump administration has previously said both russia and ukraine will need to make. compromises. >> well, certainly the russians are going to want, uh, ukraine to get out of kursk and those areas of russia that they've now occupied. and the ukrainians occupied them to give themselves some leverage in any negotiation so they could trade that for some of the areas of the donbas that the russians now occupy. um, whether they can strike that deal is a big, big question. >> zelenskyy is now saying that ukraine is open to giving the u.s. access to its rare earth minerals. if they get security guarantees in return. we know

that that that trump has been asking for this. this comes, of course, just days after the ukrainian president did not let one of his ministers sign a draft of an agreement that would open up those mineral deposits in return for future military aid. how big of a piece is this, in your view? >> well, it's a big piece to president trump. you know what ties together? greenland and the ukraine? uh, debate here is, uh, this focus that the president has on mining rare earth minerals, minerals that would be critical to future american technologies, battery technologies included, um, mr. zelenskyy, it's interesting. he's not holding out for money here. he's holding out for security. he's saying, look, the one thing the united states can provide me that no one else can is the ability to guarantee that the russians don't come after, uh, the country and particularly the capital of

kyiv. again. and it's going to be really interesting to see if the president is willing to sign up for that. and if zelenskyy would believe that the president was willing to do so. if you see american troops being pulled out of, uh, europe and out of nato countries, i think there would be reason to doubt whether he, the u.s., would be willing to aid, uh, ukraine in a second invasion. >> david sanger, thank you so much. coming up, at least 12 people are dead after severe weather swept through my home state of kentucky and virginia. and the threat is not over. seen as danny freeman is in salem, virginia this morning. danny. >> pamela. the winds are strong. it is bitterly cold out here, but at least it's dry for now in southwestern virginia. crews, though here where we are, are assessing damage and closing roads just to make sure people are safe. we'll bring you the latest, from what we just heard, also from kentucky.

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and her seven year old daughter were killed when flash floods swept away their vehicle. >> and it had rolled over upside down. rescuers did rescue the seven year old out and rescue her, but retrieve her out of the vehicle, but could not get to the mom because the water was coming up so fast. >> water levels reached historic highs in some areas of kentucky, prompting more than 1000 rescues in under 24 hours. cnn's danny freeman is in salem, virginia, and meteorologist derek van dam is in the weather center for cnn. danny, to you first. what are the conditions like there? what are we expecting to. >> pamela, right now, the conditions are cold and windy, but at least in this part of southwestern virginia, it is relatively dry. that's the good news. i just want to show you what's going on here behind me. this is the roanoke river right here. over the course of the weekend, this river actually was over this bridge. now crews are out here assessing some of the

damage that happened to the guardrails of this bridge. as debris came tumbling over. that's part of the cleanup that's going on not only here, but in a lot of parts of the commonwealth of virginia. and, you know, it's just amazing how widespread the impact was of this storm, but perhaps nowhere felt it quite as hard as kentucky. as you noted, 11 people now confirmed to have been killed in the storms over the course of the weekend in kentucky. that was information we just got from governor andy but especially in kentucky, while things have leveled out here, flood waters receding a bit here in virginia, in kentucky, the fear is that not only might that death count go up, but there is still active flooding in many parts of that state. take a listen to what the governor said just a few moments ago in a press briefing. >> we are still in the search and rescue phase of this emergency. we are still, uh, we still have multiple different

missions that are underway. there are still people that are in harm's way. uh, and it's very important today that we continue to remind folks not to drive through standing water, not to drive around barricades. they are there for a reason. >> and again, the governor of kentucky and also officials all over this region have really been pleading with people that exact point. please, if you see flood water, because there still will be some flood water in a lot of these areas. do not try to drive through them because that's what leads to injury, death, especially that tragic story that you noted earlier at the top of that woman and her child who were killed over the weekend. pamela. >> yeah. so sad, derek, to bring you in on this. what can we expect in the coming days? >> yeah. pamela, this is really a one-two punch because the same areas that have been impacted by all this devastating flooding you see behind me, we'll see snowfall and extremely, bitterly

cold temperatures going forward. i mean, imagine if this was your home. your backyard is flooded like this. you lose power. you don't have the ability to heat your home. that's scary moments for thousands of residents. right now, 14,000 customers in the state of kentucky without power. so we've got these extreme cold alerts. they stretch from the u.s. canada border down to the rio grande. that's over 150 miles. and going forward over the next week or so, we've got about 270 possible record low temperatures that will be set across the eastern half of the country. and by the way, 170 million americans right now will feel temperatures below the freezing mark over the next week as well. so be prepared. i want you to pay attention to what's happening here in kentucky. remember, that's the area where we've had some of the flooding into virginia, where danny freeman was located. right now, many of these locations are under a winter storm watch because of what's to come. this is the second storm that will work in tandem with the cold air that's setting in. we've got five river gauges across the state of kentucky that are under

major flood stage right now. so this system is not said and done even though it's moved on, the impacts are still being felt. so the secondary storm will move through, lay a swath of snow over the same areas that were hit hard by rain just 48 hours ago. you can see that precipitation total going forward. and again, it's the big story. here will be the cold air that sets up behind it. but look at the damage left behind with the tornadoes that were spawned on the southern part of the storm as well. very dynamic storm system and active weather pattern continues. pamela. >> certainly we're going to be talking to governor beshear later in the show. derek van dam danny freeman, thank you so much. and coming up, as the trump administration makes major changes to the government, we're seeing a divide among democrats on how to respond to all of this. we're going to have more on that. up next. >> on news night with abby phillip tonight at 10:00 eastern on cnn. >> today. >> i choose. >> us how to screen us for colon cancer. here on my land, not theirs. give me god or give me.

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free book to answer questions you may have. call now and we'll come to you. >> 882 one 4000. >> as the trump administration works to reshape the federal government, democrats are searching for ways to punch back. but with no clear face of the party. some lawmakers, like one i spoke to last week, say this is a chance for a fresh start. >> i think for. >> the first time in 20 years. >> going into not just 26, but actually the 2028 presidential primary, that we have a totally open field. i don't view that as a leadership vacuum. i view that actually as an opportunity. i think that's exciting. we're going to have a forest of ambition, and there'll be lots of of presidential timber there. and i think it's actually an opportunity for the party to reorient and reengage with the american public. >> cnn's isaac dovere joins us. so, isaac, you've been reporting about how the divide among democrats and how it's working and how they're trying to figure out how to respond to trump. what did you find?

that's right. >> pam. look what's happened over the course of the month so far of the trump presidency is that democrats have gone from being stunned with the speed and expanse of how much trump has been doing to being panicked about it, not knowing how they're going to stop it, and realizing that we are just at the very, very beginning of this presidency. wherever it leads to. and there is now a divide that is really starting to become clearer among the party, which basically comes down to this can they rely on things that they did in the past, including during trump's first term in office, of going to the courts, of going through legislative maneuvers, of relying on things to take on a life of their own? or do they have to go to extraordinary measures of their own? as i write in the piece, they're their own wrecking balls and trying to really fundamentally change how they go about governing and pushing back on trump. >> and we've seen some protests, other actions from the last few weeks, but the party

hasn't seemed to sort of coalesce on one message yet and one action. what do you think they'll try next? >> well, yeah, i've been to some of those protests. i was outside of the consumer financial protection bureau offices last week where they were protesting or usaid. there have been things going on, bills being introduced, press conferences. but the real pressure point that we're soon going to be at, pam, is next month, when there is this budget deadline for the government on march 14th. if there is not a budget deal done by then, there will be a government shutdown. now, what is key here is that the republicans have a very slim majority, just three votes in the house and a couple of votes in the senate. there is not a clear majority of support for anything that is being proposed so far. and democrats, especially in the house, are hoping that they will be able to say to republicans, hey, you're going to need some of our votes to make up for the defections on your own side. so you're going to have to make some major concessions. we'll see how that works and what donald trump as president is actually willing to

agree to in terms of concessions. he is not a concession friendly president generally. and over the course of the past month, because he has been governing by executive order and not by legislation, he hasn't had to make any concessions at all. so it's going to be a really, really difficult place. but it is the first time where we have actual potential leverage for democrats to to exert. >> we'll see what happens. isaac dovere, thank you. and coming up, a new case of bird flu in the u.s. sends a woman to the hospital. what you need to know about the virus's spread. that's next. >> welcome back. >> have i got news for you? news saturday on cnn. >> subway has got a new. >> meal of the day with chips and a drink for just 6.99. or if you're big, hungry. make it a footlong for only $3 more. huh? big. hungry? is that a thing? that should be a thing. find your fresh with the all new 6.99 meal of the day at subway. >> end of season savings just landed at wayfair. president's day clearance is here, and with

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medication regimen, but they add that he's awake eating and reading newspapers and his hospital bed. a third person in the u.s. has now been hospitalized with the bird flu. this patient is a woman in wyoming who was likely exposed to the virus through infected birds at her home. the cdc says the overall risk to the public is still low. i want to bring in cnn's meg tirrell on this. so, meg, what more do we know about this case? >> yeah, we know that this. >> is an older woman. >> and the state health department says she has underlying health conditions that could make her more vulnerable to the bird flu. so we know that she is hospitalized and as you said, likely had exposure to the virus from a flock of infected birds at her home. now, we've heard similar stories before. the patient in louisiana who unfortunately died from the bird flu. it was also thought to be infected from a backyard flock. and of course, this is just one of a handful of people who have been hospitalized with this virus. typically, we haven't seen it

get so severe. people need to go to the hospital. but we did just hear about another case earlier this week in ohio of a farm worker who worked with birds who did need to be hospitalized. but we have learned is recovering. just in the last week, there have been three additional cases reported, so we're getting up to about 70 cases across the united states now of bird flu in people. still, the most important thing to look out for is whether this is spreading between people from person to person. we haven't seen that yet. pamela. >> but the concern is, is that it could mutate, right? with each new case. is that still what health officials are looking at? >> yeah. you know, the way they often put it is every time it gets into a person, it's kind of like pulling the the lottery, you know, at the slot machine, and you're sort of seeing the mutations potentially come together. and if they strike the right combination, that could be very bad. so of course, you do want to avoid it getting into people as much as possible. >> all right. meg terrell, thanks so much. and we're going to have much more news coming up right after this break. but first, this week's chasing life with dr. sanjay gupta.

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come to you. >> 821 4000. >> good morning to you. you are live in the cnn newsroom. i'm pamela brown in washington today. millions of people in the southeast are under winter storm warnings and bracing for plunging temperatures. and it comes after severe weather swept through the region over the weekend, leaving at least 12 people dead. heavy rains led to massive flooding in several states, with water levels reaching historic highs in some areas. and making matters worse. the bitter cold air already moving in. cnn's derek van dam is tracking it all from the weather center in atlanta. so just how cold are we talking about here, derek? >> yeah. tomorrow morning is when we will see the feel the brunt of the extreme cold across the areas that have been impacted the most. look at these overnight low temperatures. these are wind chill values. what it feels like on your exposed skin as you step outside. that is bitterly cold. dangerously cold. and something we want to be prepared for because the potential here