infants and the very little research money has gone to investigate treatments and so i encourage everybody to read up and give money if they can to research, because beans is in all of our hearts because of rachel and andrew. john john had and ryan payne, "varney" came in dressed like an englishman today i saw him. stuart: you said it, i saw you at 4:00 this morning and that's what you said you look like an englishman, thank you very much indeed, dagen, i am an american, good morning, everyone the markets in america are closed formatter in luther king day but after a dismal week for the president, politics takes center stage again. the democrats are engaged in a civil war. democrat congressman jamal bowman calls senator sinema a trader, and maxine waters says senator

manchin is "anti-black" obviously damaging to party unit y. on wednesday afternoon of this week the president holds a solo news conference. what will he do? pivot away from the left or double down on his failed policies? also on wednesday, the biden team opens the website where you can order a home test kit, fingers crossed, if it's a repeat of the obamacare rollout, it will be a disaster. on the covid front, the new government glenn youngkin ends the mask mandate for virginia schools meanwhile the ceo of moderna looks to a combined covid and flu that will be ready by the fall of next year. the caseload appears to be declining 1.4 million new cases reported one week ago, that was the high. sunday, yesterday, 254,000. we're trying to look on the bright side here. peak covid maybe very close. there is some trading of u.s. stocks overseas called the

futures and they're trading over there until about 1:00 p.m. eastern time. the dow up six, the s&p up three , nasdaq up 14. there you go. oil, this is important, well- above the $80 a barrel level you're at 83.61 this morning and the average price for a gallon of regular gas is now 3.31 and likely to rise from here. two last headlines. rules for the , but not for me. in america its usually been democrats breaking their own covid rules but in britain, it's the prime minister, boris johnson. there were a series of parties, some of which he attended, in his official residence, all while the rest of the country was strictly locked down. it's a serious challenge to his leadership. and novak jakovich left australia, thrown out for not telling the truth about his travels after testing positive. rules for the , but not for me. monday, january 17, 2022, we will show our respect and

admiration. "varney" & company is about to begin. ♪ stuart: have you ever seen rain? well it was absolutely pouring this morning, i walked out the door about 3:30, practically blown over in the blizzard and drenched in seconds by the rain, well let's get to it. president biden just days away from marking his first full year in office, and the bad polling numbers continue to plague him. a new cbs poll shows 50%, half the people, are frustrated with his performance. i'd call that a negative. charlie hurt with us this monday morning. the president will hold a news conference on wednesday. will he pivot away from the left or double down and keep the same policies and goals? >> well, if he does what he's been doing all along, that's

gotten him into all this trouble , he sticks with the leftist policies but i think it's crazy, because of course, this is a guy that's been around for a long time. he's much smarter than this or at least he has been throughout his career, and if he was the old joe biden, he would pivot back towards the middle but we haven't seen any evidence of that since he's been in office. stuart: democrats are at each other's throats, that sounds strong, but i think it's accurate. maxine waters attacking senators manchin and sinema over the voting bill saying they are anti-black and democrat strategist james kabal say the democrats whine too much. >> again you don't talk about what you didn't get. that's what the democrats whine too much, chuck. quit being a whiney party and get out there and fight and tell people what you did and tell people the exact truth. stuart: charlie, how does the president repair the civil war damage within his own party?

>> i don't know, quite frankly, and it's entirely possible that it's too late, because, you know , what we're seeing is a real frustration with carville that the party is not coming together abdomen not focusing on the issues they could win an election on but what you're getting from people like maxine waters is an un hinged desperation and i think there's a lot of desperation at the top part levels of the party, because, you know, and you know this. when you talk to people, there's an instability among voters right now that i don't think we've ever seen, it's a continuation, i think, of the trump effect, but you have people who have been life-long democrats, this weekend in richmond, the number of voters that i spoke to who had never voted for a republican governor before and voted for glenn youngkin, there's a real realize it's there and they

realize that their hold on power is very tenuous and when you lose faith with people at a profound level, you lose it for a long, long time, and when you start calling people racist because they don't agree with you, and you come unhinged like that, you could lose people for a very long time. stuart: the problem could be that republicans become too confident of victory in november >> yes. stuart: look, 10 months is an eternity in politics, events could interrupt the whole process here, so let's not get too carried away. last word to you, charlie. >> i'm with you, stuart. that is the thing that worries me the most is when anybody politician gets confident but republicans often get overly satisfied because they think they're right and they think they have all the right answers and so they get satisfied and that's where real problems come in, but i pray that that's not the case here. certainly, they have a tremendous opportunity and if they focus on the issues, they

could remake the political landscape in america. stuart: yes, they would, charlie hurt thanks for being with us, charlie, we'll see you again real soon. >> great to see you. stuart: yes, sir. virginia's new governor, glenn youngkin, lauren, good morning to you what's he doing? lauren: good morning he signed 11 executive orders on his first day including banning critical race theory from schools appointing a new parole board and giving parents their decision whether to put their kids in masks in class. he's already facing pushback from districts about that including jen psaki's arlington, richmond, alexandria, and fairfax. there's a ban on mask mandates setting virginia up to be like florida and texas, but i think that the overwhelming point is that the parents or americans in general, the freedom to decide, whether to wear a mask or get a vaccine is a winning issue. stuart: absolutely, it is. i guarantee that one, thanks, lauren.

staying in virginia, the new lt. governor there, winston sears shared an inspiring story after being sworn in. watch this , please. >> i am the embodiment of what we're trying to achieve in america. we want everyone to have equal opportunity, and here, i sit today, to say it can happen. i am so tired of those who look at lives as being the glass is half empty. what a negative way to continue to view life because, you know, life is going to hit you hard and you have to be prepared for it. you come out of the womb screaming. that ought to be an indication of how things are going to be. the rich suffer, yes, the poor suffer and everybody in between. we can make it. stuart: that was terrific, that's very american i think, more on that later. take a look at this headline from the new york times. supply chain woes could worsen as china imposes new covid lockdowns. jason katz with us this monday morning. are we going to have added

supply chain issues and maybe inflation issues because of the supply chain issues out of china? is all of that going to come at us? >> it appears that way, stuart. look, this is an attempt by china to stamp out the infection ahead of the olympics. let's make no bones about it. china is the home for a third of the world's manufacturing, and they've already locked down 20 million people there. now that's only a percent and a half of their population but this comes at a particularly fro ught time and we have 40 year high inflation and frankly i'm surprised how under reported this issue is coming out of china. stuart: so if the supply chain slows further because of the china lockdown before the olympics, that makes goods more scarce here because a lot of component parts come from china, so you raise prices here, that's inflation. is that the chain reaction here, jason? >> most certainly, and it puts the fed between a rock and a hard place. stuart: exactly. >> look, the ground has already

shifted under our feet, right? the fed went from talking about no rate hikes this year to as many as four, and they may have to temporarily step on that gas a little bit firmer if this issue out of china, with respect to lockdown, gets exacerbated. stuart: what's your outlook for the earnings, which are, they just started to be reported we're getting to the thick of it this week and next week. what's your outlook? >> look, the bank earnings on the surface beat expectations, but they had run up anticipation we have pulled forward. they talk about the great resignation. i talk about the great pull forward in terms of performance. that being said i do think this we could see as much as 12%inroy ssst stu,, fight f tos totohehehe p tirationaatlio mpieie clicacal v.al eec eiae el- witl-ed benit. ua yrtouon'toner

aboveutra o ghrowthh .r th picreictuarketsarts. >>l,elk. i nk that t the ara avera sveckckk ck thein thet ioingoi tngo d d bettn t price-to-e mulstisti growthro index b the pande to 3 from f . the of theof index only went up from 13 to 16, so what takes us home from this party are the cyclicals. it's the value. you'll get performance, it just won't be in the usual suspects. that's all. stuart: look on the bright side, jason. if there's no build back better, there's no tax increases on businesses, individuals and all the rest of it. let's get a smile for that one. jason, we'll see you again real soon, okay? >> thank you, stu. stuart: that's assuming the build back on the tax increases are completely dead which maybe i'm jumping the gun there. futures left-hand side of the screen show tiny little gains, for those active futures contracts overseas, which stopped trading at 1:00 this afternoon. president biden has a solution to stop the covid surge.

well actually the person playing him on saturday night live has the solution, roll tape. >> america, i'm here to tell you, there's one simple thing. you can do to make this whole virus go away. stop seeing spiderman. >> [laughter] stuart: there's a lot more where that came from and you will see more of it later. more trouble for this president and the rest of the country. larry somers predicts we're moving towards higher entrenched inflation. is he right? i'll ask economist stephen moore , after this. ♪ (naj) at fisher investments, our clients know we have their backs. (other money manager) how do your clients know that? (naj) because as a fiduciary, it's our responsibility to always put clients first.

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stuart: thursday, marks one year since president biden took office, the administration is praising what they call a stellar year of job creation. well, the country is still 3.5 million jobs short though of pre-pandemic levels. hillary vaughn on capitol hill. give us the president's economic scorecard, please? reporter: hi, stuart, good morning. well the white house is giving themselves an a-plus when it comes to jobs they are flaunting what they say is record breaking job creation in 2021 under president biden, creating out the number of jobs created since he took office, 6.4 million. he has seen more job creation under his presidency than any other president, but we're still 3.6 million jobs short of where we were at pre-covid so some economists are pointing out when you do the math, he has not created new jobs, but just brought old ones back. adp economist nila richardson s

aying "the economy, and this is an important point, hasn't added one single job from the 2019 high watermark, not one , all the jobs that we have seen gained are recovered jobs that were lost. we are not yet producing new jobs." some voters aren't giving biden high marks on the economy either a new cbs poll out yesterday found that 58% of voters say biden is not focusing enough on the economy. 65% think he is not focusing enough on inflation and even some senate democrats are admitting the economic outlook right now is grim. >> well, look. i think it's a tough time right now and margaret, as you know, the white house has focused significant energy on the economy in the first year, record job growth in the first year of the white house, 3.9% unemployment rate and very strong growth in wages, but the inflation issue is real. we've got to tackle it. reporter: and stuart, another thing out of this poll, voters described how they see things

right now as disappointing, and that they are frustrated and that they think president biden is distracted and not focusing on the things that they actually care about and are impacting them right now. stuart? stuart: i don't think it's job creation. i think it's just people going back to work and you're still 3.5 million jobs short. thank you, hillary, all good stuff. former clinton treasury secretary powerful guy, larry summers, he's been issuing warnings on inflation for nearly a year and now, he's got a new one. roll tape. >> we are basically moving towards higher entrenched inflation. it's there in expectations. it's there in wages. it's there in labor shortages. it's there in the pervasive pattern across many different prices, and people try to excuse it, by picking this figure and that figure from month-to-month

but we've got an overheated economy. stuart: well that's pretty dramatic stuff i'd say. let's bring in economist by the name of stephen moore who joins us now. do you agree with him, stephen, that it is, we now have we're moving towards entrenched inflation? >> well, it's interesting, stuart, that larry summers used that word, because that's exact ly the word that jerome powell used a week or so ago, in his testimony, entrenched. think about this. first, went a year ago saying inflation is not a problem then remember they moved to transitory and now they are worried about entrenched inflation. entrenched means it's here for a while. now, do i think inflation is going to go higher? probably not. i think we're going to be in the 5% to 6% range on inflation. that's a high number. that's a bad number. remember, the month that donald trump left office, exactly a year ago, do you know what the inflation rate was? stuart: 1.6% was it? >> yeah, you got it right on the nose, 1.6% so thinking about

that we went from 1.6% inflation to 7% inflation in one year, that's quite a dramatic rise. you can not blame this on the recovery. that's what all the biden economists are saying but you know this. the recovery started back in june or july of 2020 when we had very strong growth, so i worry more right now about a kind of secular stagnation frankly. i think all of this spending, you made a really good point earlier, is build back better dead? you and i hope it is, right? my prayers at night saying i hope it is but the democrats may make a last ditch effort to revise that that be extremely negative for the economy and then the question is, stuart, where is the growth going to come from? what is it that joe biden is doing that's good for growth and good for stocks. inflation isn't good for the stock market. a massive government spending isn't good for the stock market. the crime rate isn't good for

the stock market so i just don't understand where investors believe growth is going to come from. stuart: i worry about the federal reserve. if you're right and we've got a five, six, 7% inflation rate, stretching through this year, the fed's got to do something about it an what they would do about it is raise rates and we could have a recession on our hands, right? i mean, that's a risk. >> well, possibly. i think they should have, i've said this on your show nine months ago they should have started raising rates a long time ago to get had a hold of this inflation. they haven't. it has always, historically, its always painful economically, stuart, to drain inflation out of a system. stuart: always, always, i remember the early 1980s when volker jacked up in rates and we had a chronic recession. thank you very much for being with us this monday. >> thank you, sir. stuart: we just got the latest on china's economic growth. break it down please, lauren. lauren: so for all of last year it was weaker at 8.1%.

goldman sachs coming out, they say this year will be worse, 4.3 % expected, so essentially, cut in half. the pboc cutting borrowing costs to boost economic activity but that is really hard to do in a country with a zero tolerance covid policy. then you have that new york times headline, supply chain woes could worsen as china imposes new lockdowns. the point is, if supply is knocked out and demand stays strong, prices are going to rise more. it's not just the new york times another democrat jason furman sees inflation potentially being higher this year, than last year and you were just talking about that cbs poll about how people feel about the economy with hillary and stephen moore. there's a part in that report that says for those who do not approve of president biden's three-quarters would like him less if build back better or any version of it passes because that stokes inflation even more. stuart: so build back better is not popular with a lot of people , a majority of people

actually. lauren: no because it adds to inflation which is very unpopular. stuart: thanks, lauren. could your next trip to walmart be in the metaverse? it is coming, and we are going to give you a preview. ♪ because i'm leaving on a jet train, don't know when i'll be back again, ♪ your record label is taking off. but so is your sound engineer. you need to hire. i need indeed.

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see why a medicare supplement plan from a company like humana just might be the answer. stuart: well, there are futures trading up until 1:00 this afternoon, not much movement as you can see , left hand side of the screen. so let's bring in keith fitz- gerald on this monday morning. keith, it's going to be a tough week for the markets? >> i think it is, stuart. you know, normally i wouldn't have said that because this is generally a pretty sedate week following a holiday but here we've got investors caught between the fed, between presidential shenanigans and between very real inflation pinching their wallet so i think there's a lot of uncertainty, emotions are running real high and it reminds me of that old jaws movie where you see the shark fin out there doing one of these things. the only thing we don't have is the music right now. stuart: i could supply that if you really want me to there, keith. big tech has really had a significant sell-off. do you see any opportunities,

any buying opportunities in big tech right now? >> there is no question that i see buying opportunities. matter of fact i'm probably personally going to be doing quite a bit of it in the next week or two if i get the chance and if i'm smart enough. the key is timing. if you need your money in the next three, six, 12, 24 months then that's going to be a very tough decision but if you've got three to five years the mark it will show these are the companies that ironically enough are getting pounded now, but are going to be the very companies you regret not owning five years from now. stuart: well have you got a favorite big tech that's been beaten down? >> yeah, microsoft in particular is getting just hammered right now. apple too, but those are the two that i'm most focused on but ironically enough i'm also beginning to focus on companies like tesla, which is really tech and mcdonald's, for example, which is masquerading as hamburgers but is really tech -driven. stuart: well, real fast, you mentioned there's an inflation scare, and everybody is talking about the inflation scare. if the federal reserve really

acts to suppress inflation, we'll get a recession, right? >> i agree with that. i think we're going to see five, maybe even six rate hikes this week. i know the narrative is four, but i think it's going to be more aggressive than that because powell and his crew have not seen this coming. they've missed the crisis and formation and denied it when it showed up and now, suddenly, this is all entrenched, to stephen moore's point? really? they just need to seriously focus on what went wrong in their model, explain to the american people how they are going to fix this and why they won't make the same mistakes again. stuart: and investors will pay the price when they do that, i believe. yes. stuart: keith thanks for being here on a monday morning always appreciate it. see you again soon. >> thanks, stuart. stuart: it's 9:30 eastern buto opening bell today the markets are closed formatter martin luther king day but we'll run through companies where there is news. let's start with netflix, where they are raising prices, how much, susan? reporter: [laughter] yes, stu, get ready so it's going up by a buck or two and

this is immediate for gradual for existing ones, so think of the basic plan, now costing 9.99 a month the most popular one goes up to 15 a month and yes a premium package is now $20 a month i know that's expensive for you, stu, but it's interesting that netflix usually pre-announces any price increases but not the case this time around, which kind of surprised the market. you know, the last time they raised prices was in october of 2020. that didn't hurt their subscriber growth because covid lockdowns spiked sign-ups by more than 25 million that year, but look, the reason netflix stock is down 11% so far in 202e stay-at-home comparisons are proving tough and you know netflix needs to raise cash and they also need to raise prices in order to pay for it, and he has to pay for hit content which helped them in the fall time but netflix plans to spend around 14 to $18 billion a year on content , hbo committed $18 billion, it's a lot of money , right, stu, and disney

plus at least $8 billion. they need to find the cash somewhere. stuart: it is a vast amount of money, $18 billion on content? that's huge. you're right, you're going to get the cash from somewhere. don't always assume, maybe i could borrow your netflix password, maybe i can get in that way. okay? peloton. >> right. stuart: they're adding fees look at the stock, it closed friday, 31, good lord. >> so $250 now extra for delivery and installation, that's an extra $350 for the treadmill setup, and that starts on the final day of this month. so that effectively brings up the cost of the bike, stu, to what 1,745, treadmills now cost 2,845, not cheap, and peloton says look, if they're paying more for inflation and labor, because of the supply chain issues, they need to charge the customers more and peloton cut the price of their basic bikes by what, 20% to try to get more people to buy them. that hasn't worked, you still have to pay what, 40 a month extra for the classes and the

stock has been crushed really, because they aren't selling as many bikes, they had to cut short their sales guidance by billions, losses are widening and they were kicked off the nasdaq 100 on friday. stuart: wow, that's negative, and i can't remember, maybe you can, susan, but was peloton welo long ago? >> yes, that's correct. stuart: i don't know what the high was. >> it's greater by 70%. stuart: that's a cratering indeed. now the cow of target warning about inflation, everybody is warning about inflation. what does the target guy say? >> correct, yeah, so higher prices means that people will shop less. they will fill up their gas tank s instead if they have to pay more for their groceries that means they will consolidate the number of visits to shopping malls and also to brick-and-mortar like target and they aren't going to go out to eat and they aren't going to buy those new pants or dress. they're looking to save more by buying cheaper generic brands

and that's in line with the trends that we saw with the retail sales numbers for december that huge drop we saw for a traditionally-strong holiday shopping period, so inflation is biting on this u.s. consumer which as you know powers around two-thirds of the u.s. economy. stuart: as i was moving around over the weekend i saw one mcdonald's which was really shortening its hours especially at night. are the many locations doing that? >> is that when you go to mcdonald's through the drive-thru? well they can't find the workers so the golden arches have now cut back on their hours at the restaurants by 10%. they say omicron is making it worse, with workers second home quarantining and that's hurting mcdonald's sales. you saw that dip in restaurant sales at the end of last month, and mcdonald's ceo, they want the biden administration to avoid adopting policies of an add to their staffing headaches and i would imagine that broader big business vaccine mandate and mcdonald's says they actually did get back to pre-pandemic sales numbers in march of last year, but to

continue that this year has been proving tough. stuart: now this obviously is for you, susan. walmart entering the metaverse. tell me how it works, please? >> well this will be for you in the future too, because look, this is the future trend and this is how you're going to shop so it's not just silicon valley, but bent onville, arkansas-based walmart is getting into the metaverse and they have plans to create their own cryptocurrency and nft so think instead of loyalty points or rewards you can use that cryptocurrency or nft's to spend at walmart online instead. now, walmart also filing several new trademarks late last month, that really shows their future intent is to make and sell virtual goods like home decor, toys, sporting goods and personal care products. not sure if you saw this walmart demonstration video and shopping in the metaverse in the future so you can buy your beer from your couch, with your goggles on and maybe some of those gloves but i think walmart and other companies, like nike, are going

all-in for the future shopping. people are not going to be leaving their homes, stu, and that includes you. i can see you doing all your shopping with the virtual reality. stuart: wait a second. do you have to wear those goggles to get into the metaverse? >> yeah, i would imagine you have to. yeah. i mean, how else are you going to do it? how else are you going to go, i guess, get into the metaverse? and we've seen these movies, right? stuart: yeah, i've seen this stuff and i've had those goggles on. my problem was, i get sea sick. i mean, doesn't everybody else? >> they are work on that. yeah, motion sickness, you've heard the complaints as well but i think avatar, even stranger days, is it strange days back in the 90's you've watched those movies it's becoming a reality in the next 10 years. stuart: whatever you say, susan, come back and see us later. it's all good. do you remember those fliers in some parts of florida warning woke new yorkers to stay out of the sunshine state?

roll tape. >> the first amendment rights and we don't want them here. we don't. we don't want to turn this state , ever. >> i think people are just trying to come down and rile up things in florida. stuart: well, we'll definitely have more on that story, believe me. horror in new york city. a homeless man pushes an asian woman into an on coming train. this happened saturday morning at the times square subway station. the lady died. novak djokovic is back in his homeland after being deported from australia. now we're learning he could be barred from another big tournament. details after this. ♪ want to be a richer man, changes ♪

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stuart: covid cases appear to be plateauing in the northeast. the surgeon general says the next couple of weeks will be tough, however, since hospitalizations and deaths lag behind case numbers, jonathan se rri has the report. the latest please, jonathan. >> yeah, stuart on saturday, los angeles county reported 66 covid-related deaths that was the highest number reported in a single day since last spring, bringing the total past 28,000. la health officials say the majority of deaths reported over the past week are associated with individuals who became infected after december 20, when the omicron variant was circulating widely. that serves as a stark reminder that even though omicron cases have been mild for most, the variant still poses a threat especially for people with underlying health conditions and the unvaccinated. mega testing sites have been setting up in some locations

that previously served as mass vaccination sites as the omicron surge drives increased demand. the white house says starting january 19, each u.s. household will be able to order up to four free home test kits which will be sent through the mail. although the kits are likely to arrive toward the end of the current surge, health experts say increased testing supplies will be useful down the road. >> don't believe that omicron is going to be the last wave we see , having widespread testing available is going to make an enormous difference as we get beyond this surge, and before we face the next one, so i'm thrilled to see more tests coming. i think we're going to need them and we're going to want to use them. obviously we wish we had more tests going in. >> now in addition to test kits ramping up supplies of covid-19 treatments are also expected to increase by this summer and so while public health officials are talking about transitioning from a covid emergency to managing this as more of an

endemic virus many are saying if you can stay well during this current surge, you're going to be much better off if you get sick during some of the anticipated surges in the future, because supplies of tests and treatments will be that much higher. stuart? stuart: try to think positive. jonathan serrie, thank you very much indeed. the ceo of moderna says best case scenario, we will get a combined booster for the flu and covid, and it will be available by the fall of 2023. long way away. dr. marc siegel joins us. doctor? this seems to open the door for just endless shots. >> i don't think so, stuart. you know i've been trying to convince you for 10 years to get a flu here but this type of technology, the covid plus the flu, in one shot, with mrna, would actually, i could sell it to you better because it's a much-better, more effective shot and would work better at keeping you from getting any kind of

severe flu. we have a lot of trouble sometimes differentiating flu from covid. i really like the idea of having a combined shot. stuart: a combined shot. well, what about the efficacy of it? flu shots are rarely really effective, 100%. even 90% you just don't get it. you combine it with a covid shot what's the efficacy? >> because using the kind of technology we're using for covid already, it's going to be much more effective than that 20-40%. that's why you always say to me i'm not taking that flu it's only 40% effective. if they get the flu technology down in the same platform as covid, you know, that's going to be much more effective than 40%. that'll be up there the same as the covid was initially, 70- 80%. if they can match it to the strain coming out next year, that's the key. i'm very excited about this technology. i think that it's a way to go forward. stuart: okay. how far are we from throwing away mandates and opening up? i ask because sunday, yesterday,

256,000 new cases reported. last monday, less than a week ago, 1.4 million, so we gone from 1.4 million to 25 6,000. that tells me that surely, we're close to the peak if not beyond the peak. >> well, you just heard from jonathan serrie. i think we're starting to see a flattening of hospitalizations across the country and we're at the peak, and we're going to start seeing a decrease. that's especially true in the states that have really been saturated so far, new york, massachusetts, even some in california, washington d.c., the numbers are going down now, but to your point about mandates , you already teed this up for me like a golf ball, which is how can we mandate a vaccine which is working much more effectively if you're boost erred at keeping you out of the hospital, but doesn't prevent spread in the public place? with all of these cases, you can't use a mandate and argue that it's for public safety. that argument just got shot down

by the supreme court and that's one of the reasons, i believe, the vaccine we have does not stop spread. now, it's a different case in a hospital, stuart. if a hospital wants to say we need every tool we can to stop spread to an immunocompromised patient, i see that argument but not in the public, not in the business sector. it should be business, by, business not the federal government getting their clues into this. stuart: and that's what it should be and i believe that's what it is now. doctor, thanks for joining us hope to see you again real soon. >> thank you, stuart. stuart: saturday night live wasted no time taking on the president's failures on covid. lauren, where does spiderman fit into all of this? lauren: the popularity of the movie, that's why everyone has covid. watch. >> america, i'm here to tell you, there's one simple thing. you can do to make this whole virus go away. stop seeing spiderman. >> [laughter] >> think about it. when did spiderman come out? december 17. >> [laughter] >> when did every single person

get omicron? the week after december 17. >> [laughter] >> did you really just blame the entire spread of omicron on people seeing spiderman? >> i did, yes, next yen question? >> is this based on any kind of data? >> yes, everyone in america has seen spiderman like eight times. >> but what about experts who say the real problem is a lack of testing? >> they've tested spiderman. >> [laughter] >> its got 98% on au gratin potato. lauren: i love he took questions in the skit. three reporter questions, right? but that last question, even snl poking fun of the diversion from reality tactic, right? testing is not the problem. it's, fill in the blank, in this case, spiderman. stuart: it was funny actually. lauren thanks very much indeed. let's get serious. north korea launching two ballistic missiles overnight. sure looks like china is pressuring us through their client, kim jong-un.

kt mcfarland johns us later, seems to me these are dangerous times. tom brady, rob gronkowski teaming up to thrash the eagles they are one step closer to the super bowl gr onk shares some of his financial advice with us, after this. ♪ you never fail to satisfy ♪ and it's easy to get a quote at libertymutual.com so you only pay for what you need. isn't that right limu? limu? sorry, one sec. doug blows a whistle. [a vulture squawks.] oh boy. only pay for what you need. ♪liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty♪

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stuart: tom brady of the tampa bay buccaneers blew past the eagles 31-15. lauren, what's next? lauren: number 35 playoff win for the 44-year-old tom brady so what's next depends on today's playoff game between the la rams and the arizona cardinals. the winner plays the buccaneers sunday at 3:00 eastern. that wasn't it from the weekend kansas city chiefs they beat the pittsburgh steelers 42-21. patrick mdhomes threw five touchdown passes and the san francisco 49ers beat the dallas cowboys, zach prescott in the end unable to spike the ball before the time expired and that sets up a niners-packers matchup

on saturday. stuart: packers are my team, now this. lauren: i didn't know that. stuart: well i like the ownership structure. gronk, the man on the screen, he joined me on this program. it was a while back. one thing he shared was his financial advice. roll tape. >> i am told that you don't spend a dime if your nfl income. you live on your endorsements, is that true? >> yes, yes, i have throughout my whole career, and i saved it all throughout my whole career, which is very nice. i'm in a great place and that's where i wanted to be. i mean, just been told throughout, you know, that the nfl is not for long, which is true. the average career is what, two and a half years to three and a half years for anybody that's in the nfl, so it worked out well and its gotten me here now. stuart: it sure did. you know, lauren, he's got the right idea with man, i've gotta say. lauren: yeah and you know a lot of young athletes especially ones that don't come from much

and they have this raw talent they need to understand that because those multi million dollar contracts are not guaranteed so his point is, have fun, but make sure the partying is, you know, that you can afford it. stuart: well-said now gronk also told me, this is a while back, whether he planned to return to the nfl after he left the patriots. here is what he had to say. roll it. are you going back to the nfl? >> oh, am i going back to the nfl? i've been asked that many many times. stuart: well i'm asking. >> yes, i know. i got the same answer every time and my soul would have to be on fire to come back and it would have to be consistently, you know, having that feel to come back. right now, i'm just enjoying where i'm at so one day, that's the case. stuart: all right apparently had ehad the fire to come back and reteam up with his good friend tom brady. lauren, i think brady opened the door for gronk to earn what by his play, is that right? lauren: he did.

he did. they've got each other's backs, if you will. oh, look at that picture. i remember this interview you did that day so clearly, because when you walked outside the studio, there was this bombardment from everybody who worked at fox wanting to get a picture and i just sat there like so embarrassed but in the end i was the last person to get my picture and i said i have to do it and he was so gracious and so even-tempered. stuart: yeah. lauren: and smart. stuart: yeah, he was good on the set, the man could really entertain, he had energy and life, he was really a cool guest , if you ask me, and after yesterday' performance, well, we'll have him back, if he'll come. still ahead, steve forbes, leo terrell, kt mcfarland, mercedes schlapp, what an hour we've got, it's the 10:00 hour we've got and it's next. ♪ there's no place i'd rather be ♪ my name is douglas. i'm a writer/director and i'm still working. in the kind of work that i do, you are surrounded by people

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♪. stuart: start me up, yes indeed. good morning, everyone. 10:00 eastern, the markets are closed today in america for martin luther king, jr. day. there is trading of u.s. stocks in the futures contracts. that trading dries up at 1:00 eastern time this afternoon. there is not that much movement. dow up 50. nasdaq down 17. same story with bitcoin. that is a universal 24 hour market i believe and the price

is $42,000 per coin. pay attention to the price of oil, well above $80 a barrel, 83.81. that implies gas prices are going up from here. now this. glenn youngkin is off to a good start as governor of virginia. he is treating covid as something we have to live with, not something that has to be eradicated which you can't do. he lifted the mask mandate in virginia public schools. parents will love this. democrat states are big on masking kids. republican youngkin, he is going the other way. see covid policy on a national level change. for example, big companies don't have to force employees to vaccinate. it is their choice. thank you, supreme court. so why should any company fire you for not getting a vaccine that doesn't work to stop infection? message to corporate america. back off. message to the administration. quit the bullying of the unvaxed. the omicron surge is not their

fault. the surgeon general says that forced vaccinations make the workplace safer. no they don't. everyone i know who had covid recently was vaxed. back off. after all the caseload is declining. 254,000 new cases reported sunday. just last monday six days previously it was 1.4 million. we want our freedom back. not the freedom to go out and infect people as authoritarians put it, no, the freedom to make our own choices in the face after virus just about hit all of us, vaxed and unvaxed. now is the time to change. you can't kill it, live with it. second hour of "varney" just getting started. ♪. stuart: bring you more on the vax mess, right now, i want to talk corporate stories. for example, netflix. they're raising their monthly

subscription prices. jeff sica has been following streamers for us for a long time. is this an act of desperation, jeff? >> well, stuart, you have to understand, that look at the timing of this. netflix is reporting earnings this thursday. there is a lot of concern. we have been talking about on the show that these eight top media companies are going to be spending 150 approximately dollars. so netflix comes out. they raised their monthly fee. granted it is a dollar to two dollars a month but so many people have looking at the, that are streaming bills they need to take a home equity loan to pay them off. that is how big they're getting. so it does add up. so for netflix, netflix will spend $17 billion, stuart. this company has a market cap of

$235 billion. they are funding this expense on content. they're funding it through raising fees and trying to keep up with these companies like apple, like amazon, companies that can spend money because they make money in other businesses. netflix only makes money in streaming. so it is in fact an act of desperation. stuart: extremely crowded field. all the streamers have to increase subscribers, number of subscribers. they try to do that with spending a lot of money on content. the endgame here is not good. who do you think, can you name a couple streamers that you don't any will make it into the top two or three? >> this has become, you know, i said last week, the streaming wars look like a skirmish compared to what's going happen because now i think with all the new additions that are coming into the market i think honestly

netflix has to really focus on, on content because i think if they don't they're going to find themselves behind hbo and disney and amazon prime and that would be a very good place to be. so i do think that we're going to see disney and netflix at the top of the list but i think that list is going to get a lot smaller as time goes on. stuart: jeff zika, thanks for being with us this monday morning, jeff, see you again soon. got it. next case after two years of tealing with the pandemic the ceo of pfizer says when we'll return, to quote, normal life. all right, lauren, when? lauren: he says the spring but you know, the weather is warmer. most people are already infected or vaccinated but he is talking about the bill, the covid pill paxlovid that pfizer has.

it will be more available. if you do get infected you can be treated right away and hopefully stay out of the hospital. i hope in the spring we're past all of this. stuart: don't we all. look, i don't want to make that kind of prediction but i do see covid peeking very much right now. i can see the other side and i just can't imagine that urge to get out and enjoy america come the spring with the changing weather. i hope the spring is the turning point. next one, this is for you, lauren, aoc is calling out covid guidelines. she just recovered from the virus. what did she say lauren. lauren: on instagram. it is insane to force people back to work in five days. this is her exact post. as of i'm thankfully covered, wrapping up quarantine. covid was no joke. forcing people to work five days after symptoms is sociopathic and 100% informed by a culture that accepts sacrificing human lives for profit margins as a

fair trade. that is completely politicizing things. she should have just said what every other politician said, i'm recovered. it could have been worse. thankfully i'm vaccinated. leave it alone. stuart: it is always about profit for those folks. they hate profit. they're socialists. i know them real well. thanks, lauren. a new poll finds 51% of hispanic voters disapprove of the job joe biden is doing as president. lieutenant governor of florida jeanette nunez says these policies are leading the hispanics to the gop. watch this. >> you see hispanic voters are flocking to the republican party. part of that they agree that we want to be the party, we are the party that will provide them freedom, that will provide them opportunities for their families. i believe strongly that the midterm election and beyond is going to be an incredible turn of events for the president and for the party. stuart: well look who is here

now? rachel campos duffy. rachel, great to have you with us. >> good morning. stuart: i believe you are of hispanic descent? >> i am, i am mexican-american. stuart: we were always told his his -- hispanic constituent group of biden people. are we correct in saying that hispanics are drifting away from biden? >> what is interesting, cuban-americans for lots of reasons, especially their experience with communism and socialism, now venezuelans in florida as well always leaned republican. but mexican-americans, especially in the southwest and california have always been very democrat, reliable vote but i've always said, varney, stuart, they are very, i call you by your last name. didn't mean to do that to you. i always said they're very persuadable. this is the moment. right now the polling numbers that came out last week are

seismic. absolutely sending terror through the spines of all the democrat consultants and the administration. right now there is no demographic that is more dissatisfied with the biden administration than hispanics. it is unbelievable. what they're upset about are jobs, crime. they're upset what is happening at the border, that movement you're seeing with hispanics that is coming from mexican-americans, something i think the democrats didn't expect. stuart: don't forget i saw this over the weaken from a page in "the new york times," the crackdown in cuba following last year's demonstrations. extremely harsh crackdown we are told going on right now. go back into last year, the biden administration did nothing to support those brave young people demonstrating in the streets for their freedom. i'm sure that -- >> it was cruel. stuart: go ahead. >> it was cruel. all they asked for by the way,

they didn't ask for bay of pigs, some sort of invasion, give us internet, give us the internet so we can come communicate with each other. we can send images of atrocities and human rights abuses to the rest of the world. the biden administration in one of the most disgusting moves ever did nothing. stuart: true. >> one other thing, stuart, hispanics are the most entrepreneurial demographic in the country. they start businesses three times more the rate than others. this allowed small businesses big businesses and corporations to thrive. small business owners, especially hispanic owners are concerned about that. they're concerned about education. there is a lot of areas. and inflation. let's not forget that. stuart: let's not forget. >> it is really bad news and i don't think they will win them back this time. i think this is the moment for the republican party and for conservatives in general to really start to solidify this

vote. stuart: i really want to get this in, vice president harris' new communications director, jamal simmons will have to appear before the hispanic caucus to talk about 10 tweets. he saw two undocumented folks talking on msnbc. can someone explain why i.c.e. is not picking them up? looks like things are off to the very rocky start for the vice president's new team. >> only because he is apologizing for those moves. right now in the southern part of our country, near the southern border hispanic-americans actually agree with that statement that he had before. by the way, that statement wasn't toxic probably when he made it 10 years ago. stuart: exactly. >> that is where democrats were. they have changed entirely on, they're now calling us latin x, we're not hispanics. we're genderless demographic. they're off the rails.

republicans and their sensible business, pro-business, pro-family policies are looking very attractive to hispanics right now. stuart: i'm tired of being told i'm a racist because i want to close the southern border. case closed. rachel, great performance today. thanks very much for being with us. campos-duffy. thank you. >> thank you. stuart: former president trump held his first rally of the year in florence, arizona. did it sound like he is running in 2024, lauren? lauren: he did not officially put his hat in the ring. it sure sounded like he was. here you go. >> this november we have a chance to do something really spectacular. to bring these marxists monstrosities to a screeching halt. a great red wave is going to begin right here in arizona. it is going to sweep across this country. it is going to wash hundreds and hundreds and thousands and thousands of democrat socialists out of office.

lauren: trump plans to do two rally as month. you will hear a lot more from him. next up is texas at the end of this month, stuart. stuart: thanks, lauren. "los angeles times" columnist says you should be mocking the deaths of the unvaccinated. disgraceful but we'll take it on. more than 1000 hospitals nationwide are reporting critical staffing shortages. so bad the governor of illinois is urging hospitals to suspend elective procedures to deal with the influx of covid patients. grady trimble has that report. novak doak doak off the court and back in serbia after being kicked out of australia. now the tennis star could be barred from the french open, how about that? we have the latest after this. ♪.

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♪. stuart: hospitals across the country are overwhelmed or some are, overwhelmed with patients, because of staffing shortages. grady trimble is in chicago. how the hospital is dealing with wave of cases there? reporter: stu, hospital the here and across the country are suspending profitable elective procedures to deal with this surge in cases just like they did at the very start of the pandemic. according to dhss numbers, nationally nearly 80% of hospital beds are in use, 20% with covid patients. more than 1000 hospitals are reporting critical staffing shortages, with more expecting to in the not-too-distant

future. combination of factors, health care workers experiencing burnout, others getting sick n california, health care workers who test positive for covid but are asymptomatic are allowed to keep working. the american hospital association says the vaccine mandate for health care workers could worse renn staffing issues saying that the aha will work with hospital field to find ways to comply that balances the requirements to the need to retain sufficient workforce to meet the needs of their patients. in many states the national guard is being brought in to act as nurse assistants or provide help for overwhelmed hospitals. i will end with good news, stuart. even though hospitalizations are higher than last winter's surge, deaths are not. stu. stuart: grady, thank you very much indeed. novak djokovic landed in his

homeland of serbia after leaving australia for not telling the truth about his travel plans. reporter: first full day of australian open is done. like the rest of us djokovic can only watch the first major on tv from his home in belgrade, serbia. the world's number one tennis player arrived in belgrade after a long nights of travel from australia. he was kicked out by the government because he is unvaccinated. according to australian officials had no valid medical exemption to enter a country which put in some of most restrictive covid travel rules in the world. a judge upheld the administration decision in a court hearing, and within hours djokovic was on his way out, leaving the tennis world shaken but relieved to move on. what is a major distraction for

the 256 players competing in melbourne. in a statement after his court loss djokovic sported that saying in part, quote, i'm uncomfortable that the focus on the past weeks have been on me and i hope we can focus on the game and tournament i love. now the big question for djokovic as he seeks to become the greatest of all time and break a current tie between majors won between him and rafael nadal and roger federer where he might be allowed to play in the coming months. the french open is the next major beginning in may and france just introduced really tough restrictions for anyone who isn't vaccinated. prior to that, stu, one of the biggest spring tournaments djokovic often plays at is indian wells here in california. that is in mid-march. it might be the first major test of whether 10 authorities want to welcome current number one or he may spend many more months on the sidelines.

of course rafael nadal himself said, djokovic could avoid all these questions just by getting vaccinated. stu? stuart: jonathan hunt, got it. thanks so much, jonathan. reporter: sure. stuart: at the winter olympics team usa is being advised not to take their personal phones with them going to beijing. privacy concerns i guess, lauren? lauren: absolutely. an advisory from team usa, if you take your personal phone other computer to china you put yourself at risk of being monitored by beijing or compromised after because malicious software might have been installed on your personal device. not just the u.s., netherlands, great britain, australia, canada, isn't this pathetic? we're having olympics after a country does that. stuart: go ahead. stuart: china will not sell olympic tickets to the chinese public. they just announced it. they're trying to clamp down to keep covid out of the olympics. they locked down 20 million

people to keep it out. now they say there is a risk because if chinese people get to the olympics, there is a risk of infection. no chinese going to the olympics. that is quite something. thank you, lauren. lauren: i guess they can't stop it from spreading, right? that is the bottom line. they know it is going to spread. they're canceling tickets. stuart: covid zero policy in china. it is not going to work. they will clampdown even more to protect the olympics. lauren, i got it. north korea launched two more miss sills overnight. we have details on the rogue regime latest act of what is clearly aggression. jake sullivan says there will be a price to pay if russia invades ukraine. kt mcfarland will take that on next. ♪.

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yeah... oh. don't worry i got it! when heartburn hits, fight back fast with tums chewy bites. fast heartburn relief in every bite. crunchy outside, chewy inside. ♪ tums, tums, tums, tums ♪ tums chewy bites stuart: ukraine blames russia for the recent cyberattack against its government websites. ashley webster with us. microsoft says the ukrainian system, the whole computer system has been infected. is that true? reporter: well, not all of it.

microsoft believes as many as dozen computers within ukrainian government agencies have been infected with a destructive malware disguised as ransomware. the malware was detected when a cyberattack took some 70 ukrainian government websites temporarily off-line. ukraine says russia is engaging in a hybrid war as it amasses troops along the border. when questioned u.s. national security advisor jake sullivan says u.s. and private companies also investigating the source of this cyberattack but also added, oh, yeah, it is right out of the russian playbook. stu? stuart: ash, we'll get back to you shortly. personally i think this is a particularly dangerous time in the world. we have the russians challenging ukraine, the iranians are attacking our embassy in baghdad, the chinese, well, they're threatening and pressuring everybody. kt mcfarland joins me. one slip, kt, and we've got a global problem. i think it's a dangerous time.

we have a weak president, what say you? >> i think you're absolutely right and i think these are all related to each other. foreign policy, diplomacy, international security, think of it as a shark attack and if the shark senses that there is weakness, then they all go in for the kill at the same time. so i'm fully prepared to see a russian either cyberattack or hybrid warfare against ukraine at the same time the chinese will amp up what they're doing with taiwan. the north koreans are testing and tending again. as you pointed out the iranians are back doing malicious deeds to develop nuclear weapons. they sense a weakened american president. they sense this is their moment. stuart: national security advisor jake sullivan is warning, quote, severe economic consequences if russia does invade ukraine. watch this, kt, roll tape. >> in terms of sanctions what we laid out is a very clear message to the russians.

we've done so in concert and unison with our allies, that if they do further invade ukraine there will be severe economic consequences and a price to pay. yes, of course if it turns out that russia is pummeling ukraine with cyberattacks, if that continues over the period ahead, we will work with our allies on the appropriate response. stuart: are sanctions strong enough, kt? >> no. i mean we've already sanctioned russia a lot of different ways and there is very little we the united states can do. the real issue of sanctioning russia to cut off the economic pipeline to cut off the gas pipelines. as long as russia continues to supply anywhere 40 to 60% ofoil and natural gas and energy needs of the european countries the russians basically hold the whip hand, over the european, especially the german economy. i don't see where the additional sanctions are coming. these cyberattacks, false flag

operations, disinformation campaigns, the russians can deny it all. maybe that is what the europeans want. because that gives them an excuse not to do anything. stuart: if america moved against this nord stream 2 pipe line that takes gas, natural gas, from russia to europe that would really, really mess up the whole of europe because they're extremely short of nat-gas supplies at the moment. prices are astronomical. russia has america and europe over a barrel. >> absolutely. you know, this, ukraine situation we should have seen this coming. a lot of us did see it coming, if the united states really wanted to put russia in a position where they couldn't do this, bring back american energy independence, bring back american oil and natural gas fracking. make us energy independent and energy exporting nation. go to the european nations. don't rely on that. unreliable expense could turn it

off on turn it on, get united states liquified natural gas would help you do it. we didn't do any of that. now as you point out nobody will say a peep against russia for fear they have the oil and natural gas turned off in the middle of a winner energy crisis. stuart: do you sense a rise in the possibility of a really nasty situation arising here? seems like tensions rising, tensions increasing. that is a platitude, i think i'm very close to a real problem. do you? >> yeah. certainly in ukraine, you know, look, ukraine, could send the tanks across the border tomorrow. i don't think they decided to do it. only putin knows if he is going to do it. gets his objectives in other ways. he will not bother. why bother to attack. risky if you want, other pressures. the bigger picture is one you're pointing to. we're at a dangerous point. perceived weakness on the part of the american president. american distraction over the political culture wars.

stuart: if the president caved or backed off, that would encourage either china or iran to go full force against it, i guess? out of time, kt this is a very important subject. hope you come back to tell us more about it anymore. kt mcfarland, thank you very much kt. >> thank you. stuart: on related note, north korea launched two missiles overnight. what is the story, ashley? ashley: stu, the missiles were launched near an airport near pongyang earlier today. both south korea's military and japan reporting the tests. it is north korea's fourth missile launch in two weeks u.n. points out prohibits north korea from nuclear, weapons tests and imposed sanctions. north korea leader kim jong-un regularly defies the ban as he vows to test his country's defenses this, is unusual.

north korea normally conducts missile launches to mark politically significant events or response to u.s., south korea, military exercises. stuart: thanks, ash. president biden will meet virtually with the new prime minister of japan. it will highlight the strength of the u.s. japan alliance, presumably opposing china. more and more stores are struggling to keep their shelves stocked. is this new normal? we got a report on that. no shot, no service, starting today businesses in washington, d.c., will check a customer's vaccine status before letting them in the door. one bar owner there will tell us how it is affecting his business. that's next. ♪.

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♪. stuart: former president, ceo of walmart, bill simon, made alarming comparison of what america's bare shelves remind him off. what did he say, ashley? ashley: let me get to it. the former walmart ceo, backup of ports, chronic labor shortage, breakdown in transportation, rising prices all creating a unprecedented mess and he makes this comparison, listen. >> this is shocking and unmitigated disaster right now. ourselves in our stores look like the soviet union in 1972. upward pressure on prices usually means demand is reduced and supply increases. so there should be more product on the shelves. we've got sort of this whammy happening. ashley: soviet union 1972, says it all. simon says the congress seems to be focused on january 6 and voting rights when the american

people want lawmakers want them to address inflation and solution to covid. stu. stuart: that is true. january 6th is all over the place today. meaningless to many people. our next guest owns a bar in the heart of washington, d.c. tom is the ceo of bar lewen joins me now. vaccine mandates went into effect. customers have to show proof of vaccination and i.d. what is the effect on your business? >> we have 22 bars. we have 70 bars in 22 states. we've been dealing with a significant number of regulations because as you can imagine with federal, state, local overlays. it is quite complicated for us. the vaccine mandate was something that we didn't feel like we should have to enforce. we're pleased with that. in terms of the passports, you know, we comply where we have to comply and -- stuart: do those passports take business down?

i mean there must be a certain proportion of people who don't have the passport and others who are unwilling to have to show it every time they go to a restaurant. how much as it taken your business down? >> it is relatively new. it is hard for us to see what the effect will be. our business, we had the strong fourth quarter until the emergence of omicron. we were feeling good about things. we like to joke never in america need a better time to have the opportunity to have a great time as they do right now. we were seeing pretty good volumes. we see it coming back a little bit now. clearly omicron is easing in some initial markets. we're seeing it in our own workforce. we had a real large spike about four weeks ago in terms of number of our employees that were reporting covid positive tests. so, you know, we certainly think that it will have a little bit of impact. we're optimistic people will come back out to visit us.

stuart: how long can you keep this going? how long can you stay profitable if you deal with the restrictions months ahead? >> well you know, we have a really great team here. we put three guiding principles in place when all of this started. number one was, we believe we had to solve this ourselves. we didn't think anybody would help us. if we got help, great, certainly we've been dedicated to solving these problems on our own. the second guiding principle every guest coming into bar louie will get a five-star experience. we do what we have to do when people give us their time, we have a freight time. the third we'll keep our guests and employees safe. we don't have a choice. we'll keep going. we'll keep going, solve problems as they come our way. we remain dedicated to being open, giving people a great time. we'll find our way through this. stuart: okay. keep going, please. tom fricke, bar louie.

thanks for joining us sir. >> thank you. stuart: come back later to get an update how business is with all the restriction. >> we would love that, thank you. stuart: thanks, tom. grocery stores across the country facing empty shelves. you've seen it. facing higher prices too and labor shortages. madison alworth at a grocery store in new jersey. how are they dealing with all these issues there? reporter: when it comes to the labor shortage what is they have seen employees calling out sick across the locations. luckily they have been able to remain open. they have to move employees around to be fully staffed as the entire country deals with omicron. like you said, stuart, it is not just the labor shortages that grocery stores are facing. look at grocery stores across new jersey. this was the scene this weekend. a lot of these shelves, they're bare. when you find items that you need, not only going to be bare but will cost you more. it is really a perfect storm for the american necessity of the grocery store. i'm here with nevin, the vp of

this location. you've been able to maintain pretty good stocks on your shelves. what have you done as a company to insure that? how have you adjusted? >> as food retailer it is important to stay flexible. we're a family-owned business, we deal directly with ranchers in kansas city or fisherman in canada. we source product real quick. we don't have to deal with the middleman. reporter: we've been talking about across at fox business looking at this industry, there have been claims from people in washington saying that grocery stores are guilty of price gouging despite the fact on average grocery store profit margins are below 1% still. so customers are seeing higher prices but are you guys also seeing higher costs? if so, why is that happening? >> we're seeing higher costs across the industry. labor costs have rose. we raised rates two dollars an hour. we're also seeing the effects of transportation costs and fuel increases. that is really compounding the price increase. reporter: thank you so much.

right now we're still dealing with omicron. as you mentioned earlier, stuart, we've seen that kind of slow down. that should help with the labor shortage issue. the prices remain high. it is unclear when that will change. stuart. stuart: inclear, madison, thank you very much indeed. let's get to a story that is very interesting. florida residents are responding to those flyers warning woke new yorkers to stay out of the state. tell me more, lauren. lauren: it is a range of responses, the last person you will hear on the tape is the most sympathetic of the bunch. >> participating in their first amendment right. we don't want them here we don't want to turn this state ever. >> i think people are trying to come down and rile up things here in florida. >> everyone should be welcome anywhere as long as they're not causing anyone any harm. lauren: how do you define woke? that is what it comes down to. some people say means your

sensitive or current, that last person. i think a lot of people in florida are starting to think this because of what they're seeing. does it mean you're radical and very progressive. stuart: the young lady said don't mind what you're doing or hurt anybody or harm anybody. i would take if you take your radical stupid leftist politics to florida, you will hurt people because you ruin a great state. don't let me get carried away, lauren. calm down, stu. new governor, new direction. virginia glenn youngkin begins the first day in office banning critical race theory and masks in schools. i bet that makes leo terrell happy. he is on the show. a homeless woman pushes a woman in front of an oncoming train on times square. crime spiraling out of control in our major cities. leo terrell will take that on as well. ♪.

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to learn how our switch squad makes it easy to switch and save hundreds. every day in business brings something new. so get the flexibility of the new mobile service designed for your small business. introducing comcast business mobile. you get the most reliable network with nationwide 5g included. and you can get unlimited data for just $30 per line per month when you get four lines or mix and match data options. available now for comcast business internet customers with no line-activation fees or term contract required. see if you can save by switching today. comcast business. powering possibilities. stuart: his first day as governor of virginia, glenn youngkin signed 11 consecutive order, including lifting the mask mandate in public schools. he also banned teaching critical race theory. roll tape. >> we'll not teach our children to view everything through a lens of race.

yes, we'll teach all history, the good and the bad because we can't know where we're going unless we know where we come from, to actually teach our children one group is advantaged, another group is disadvantaged because of color of their skin cuts across everything we know to be true. stuart: as a civil rights lawyer. he is a former teacher. he joins me now. i bet what glen youngkin had to say, i can see the smile on your face, you're happy about it? >> owe, mlk day, stuart, thank you for having me. as a former school teacher, as a civil rights lawyer, my role model was dr. king. critical race theory is racist. apparently those who support critical race theory, stuart, didn't hear the i had a dream speech by dr. king. i want to be clear as possible, do we have racism in this country? yes. i want to be clear there is no systemic racism in america. there is no systemic racism. that is a heart and soul of

critical race theory. that somehow there is systemic racism because of skin color. that is a lie. i can't say it any clearer than that. stuart: what would martin luther king say about today's racial politics? >> i think he would be ashamed after democratic party, ashamed of those who push, who promote the concept that people are given an inherited a advantage simply because of skin color. i know this sounds crazy he certainly would not embrace the socialist, progressive policies of the democrats. he would not be in their camp whatsoever. stuart: i want to talk crime for a moment. three items. only 42% of murder cases in washington, d.c., in 2021 have been closed. only 42%. in new york a homeless man was charged with murder after pushing an asian woman into an oncoming subway train right in times square. the lady is dead. in texas, a rabbi and three

congregants withheld hostage at a synagogue by a british man who was trying to get an islamic terrorist freed from prison. crime, out of control, leo. what can we do about it? >> well, i tell you what we need to do about it we need to have president biden on his speech this upcoming day where he will have the press conference address crime in these cities especially democratic cities. he has been silent on that, stuart. you can also three in los angeles where they took a case where a cop was killed to the feds because we have a lackadaisical, soft progressive d.a. that jewish synagogue that was basically held hostage, the fbi and the federal government must come clean. that was an attack on jews. yet they tried to downplay it as gun control. that is a lie. there needs to be clarity as to the crime wave throughout this

entire city and country. i pray for those who live in new york because that manhattan d.a. is simply too soft on crime. eric adams needs to step up, stu, he needs to step up and go right after that d.a. and enforce the laws in the state of new york, the city of new york, and throughout the country. stuart: what have we come to, leo? jews attacked, asian women attacked, racial minorities picked out and attacked, last word to you, what on earth have we come to? >> a total reversal, an embarassment of the legacy of dr. king. he would be embarrassed. we should be progressing. we're regressing. we need to stop it now and the democrats need to put on their big boy pants, and address the issue. their progressives policies do not work, especially this racial identification. it is horrific to a country that believes in equality and freedom. stuart: glad you're on the show, leo. excellent on mlk day.

>> glad to be here, thank you. stuart: god bless you, see you soon. >> god bless you, stuart. stuart: still ahead, mercedes schlapp, steve forbes, vivek ramaswamy. hard to be a democrat especially after the disasterous biden first year, the disarray palpable. that is my opinion, that is "my take" next. ♪. ...

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♪ rain, on, me ♪ stuart: that's an empty sixth avenue no surprise as it is martin luther king day and it is dreadful weather out there, heavy rain and wind. all right, it's monday, january 17, yes, it is, martin luther king day, markets are closed but we can check out some pre-market activity. dow is up 40, the futures s&p up two, not much change, nasdaq down 20. bitcoin some movement not much, 42, 400 bucks per-coin the movement is in oil, watch

out for this. you're at 83.84 a barrel, that implies higher gas prices, soon to come. now this. trouble, trouble everywhere, especially if you're a democrat. following a disastrous week and a disastrous first year of the biden presidency the dis array is palpable. simply put they're at each other 's throats and they don't know what to do. no insult to senators manchin and sinema is too nasty, maxine waters told msnbc, they don't care about minorities, they don't care about blacks. the new york democrat jamal bowman, he went further. he singled out senator sinema calling her a trader to our democracy, it was that kind of language that made these senator s dig in their heels in the first place. how on earth do the democrats bring their factions together. there's more controversy for the vice president, kamala harris' new communications

director jamar simmons has been summoned to the hispanic congressional caucus. he has to explain 10-year-old tweets, where he appeared to call for deportation of illegals simmons, back then, backed i.c.e. deportations thought it was great back then. now, he works for the vice president, who is supposed to be working on illegal migration. so, what is the party to do? veteran democrat james c carvill e says they should quit being the whining strategy. wednesday afternoon, he holds a solo news conference, first in a long time. what does he do? pivot away from the far left or double down on the policies that have wrecked his first year he also has to show that he is up to the job, capable of answering questions without a prompter. where do they think this venom is going to get them? the third hour of "varney" & company is just getting started.

straight to the mercedes schlapp , you'll be pleased to know that i'm not entirely negative this morning as you criticized me last week, i remember distinctly. let's get serious. do you think the president will be able to pivot? will left let him? >> look, there's no room for pivoting and the biggest issue that joe biden has is that he has embraced his ideological purity from the left, which has led to these misguided policies of supporting crt, for example, of pushy economic policies that have only created more problems for our economy, for the failed withdrawal of afghanistan. it has been one misstep after another by this administration, quite frankly, when you're looking at his own advisors, they're part of the left. they're accepting this agenda.

they want to push this agenda, and so i just think that biden is in such a weakened position. it's going to be very hard for him to try to gain ground in the center and that's why you've seen these poll numbers where a vast majority of independents, they've abandoned joe biden and they've abandoned the democrats. stuart: florida's lt. governor goya nor jeanette nunes says this has caused hispanics to flock to the republican party. watch this , please. >> you've seen hispanic voters are flocking to the republican party and part of that is because they agree that we want to be the party. we are the party that will provide them freedom, that will provide them opportunities for their families. i believe strongly that the mid-term election and beyond is going to be an incredible turn of events for the president and for the party. stuart: 28% of hispanics approve of president biden. if that holds true for the next 10 months that is a disaster for

the democrats and the mid-terms. >> right. look the democrats have taken hispanics for granted for far too long. under the trump adminitration we made incredible end roads to the hispanic community. president trump who always say what do we got to lose so it was very important for republicans to invest and really reach out to hispanic voters and so this is an important lesson, because hispanic voters right now are becoming the swing voter s. like suburban moms and so i think the key is, it's going to come down to the kitchen table issues. it will be about the economy, and "varney", you follow this very closely, you're talking about inflation, the huge impact this is having on working americans, and you're looking at empty shelves in grocery stores. the supply chain crisis that has not been resolved despite promises made by the biden administration, and also, we're looking at the chaos at the border which even for hispanics they are saying this is not how

we implement immigration laws, and so in essence, i think that for the hispanic community they are going to be looking at this radical left agenda, which they reject, and they are going to say we need common sense solutions where we have economic opportunities for ourselves and for our families and that's why the republican parties message is resonating with hispanics right now. stuart: mercedes i want you to deal with this. los angeles times business columnist hike el hisdisc is doubling down on his belief that we should mark the deaths of the unvaccinated. just watch this , mercedes, roll tape, please. >> we had sort of a cultural habit of not speaking ill of the dead. i'm not sure that in this case, that's entirely appropriate because so many of them actually have promoted reckless, dangerous policies. stuart: that's disgraceful and outrageous. last word to you.

>> yeah, this is just simply disgusting. look we need to start having a respect when it comes to this dialogue on covid. you could support the vaccines but you could be anti-vaccine mandates. what i don't like is when you're starting to see these numbers, for example, where democrat voters, a vast majority of them, agree you should take the un vaccinated and either arrest them in their houses, use the national guard, or end up confining them in some sort of camp. this is not what we need in this country. we know that the science on covid continues to evolve. i've got to tell you even from the top down, you can't have this blaming the unvaccinated. that's not how you're going to win over the unvaccinated people and i just think that these individuals, these journalists, they just go too far in really trying to just have such a disrespect for life and that be the life of the unvaccinated. stuart: in a disgraceful fashion mercedes great stuff, we'll see you again real soon. >> great to see you.

stuart: thanks a lot. i've got a headline in the wall street journal you might want to read. here it is. omicron inflation drive down u.s. growth outlook. how about that? steve forbes joins me. steve, the markets keep shrugg ing off covid so what's the problem for the market? >> well i think what the market is doing and you see that it's being more picky about stocks, you seen what's happened to the tech stocks, they are going to be looking for stocks and better weather the shortage inflations that's coming. as you know the markets always look to the future. the number of cases of omicron have gone way way down and they see we're going to get over it and this part of the drag down on the economy should be ending, certainly in the moderate states and the red states, who knows what new york is going to do but even there they are going to have to back off. stuart: i want to show you a headline in the new york times it's on the front page this morning. i read it earlier today, and it talks about china. supply chain woes could worsen

as china imposes new covid lockdowns, and we've just heard that china will not allow any spectators at the winter olympics, which start in a couple of weeks. they aren't going to sell tickets to the general public and foreigners can't go anywhere what's the impact of this slow down in china, the lockdown of 20 million people, interruption of the supply chain, and i think possibly, more inflation in the united states. what say you? >> that's right and the two cities they've hit, unfortunately aren't the port cities. the port cities have been doing everything they can to try to keep the exports going from china; however, china has taken this peculiar policy of trying to lockdown everything and they are doing lockdown because of the winter olympics big time. i think once the winter olympics are out of the way, they're going to have to take a real hard look at this lockdown everything policy, but in the meantime, it is going to disrupt things. people are already saying they are having problems getting

critical parts from china, so yes, that's going to make the supply chain inflation worse here in the united states. it's also going to have businesses looking harder than ever, places like india, vietnam , and other places to try to have a more diversified supply chain so they aren't so dependent on one country. stuart: what worries me is a rise in inflation because of energy prices spiraling and because of the supply chain crisis and what worries me is the federal reserve will be pushed in some pretty strong action which could give us a recession. that's my fear. >> well that's right, and sort of reminds you of all old laurel and hardie thing when theory say this is the fine mess you've gotten us into and the federal reserve has been slow off the mark in terms of dealing with inflation. now there's a danger they are going to overreact. what they should do is stop the bond buying, stop the money creation, and in terms of interest rates, let the market set the interest rates instead of a bureaucrats trying to figure out what the proper price

of money should be, so the danger is the fed does believe prosperity caused inflation so they could be contributing to the problem again. first they didn't see the problem. then they are going to overreact to the problem and that's going to leave the administration to do bad things, including the possibility of price controls. stuart: oh, don't say it. man, goodness me, we are facing a crisis. steve forbes, thank you very much indeed for being here. >> thank you. stuart: okay, let's get into the cryptos. well there's not much change this morning, but there's still a pretty low levels. what do we got on this , ashley? ashley: yeah, bitcoin down another 845 bucks, you know, declined roughly 30% from an all -time high of 69,000 in november, but there are signs, perhaps, the sell-off is trying and starting to level off. digital currencies are expected to grow in acceptance this year according to a survey by visa. almost a quarter of small businesses in nine countries around the world plan to take crypto as a form of payment, while 13% of consumers in those

countries expect retail stores to begin offering crypto payments this year and beyond. the crypto market struggles, of course covid-19 omicron variant of the virus continues to grow and many businesses struggle with supply chain issues and the increasing cost of raw materials. also, perhaps more regulation on bitcoin mining is now getting more headlines so that is a concern for the market. stuart: yes, it is. okay how about walmart planning to enter the metaverse. want to explain this one to me, you're younger than i am. ashley: i will do my best. according to several new trademarks filed last month, walmart looking at creating, get this , its own cryptocurrency, and collection of non-fungible tokens on nft's. the filing suggests the retail giant exploring the idea of making and selling virtual goods including electronics, home decorations, toys, sporting goods and personal care products now, in a statement, walmart

said it is, "continuously exploring how emerging technologies may shape future shopping experiences." analysts say ever since facebook announced it was changing its company name to meta, businesses have been rushing to try and figure out how they can fit into a virtual world. two months ago, nike filed a slew of trademark applications that revealed its plans to sell virtual branded sneakers and apparel. a brave new world, stu. stuart: better get into it too, thanks, ash. novac djokovic is back in his homeland in serbia, after being deported from australia. now the tennis star's future in the french open is in question. we've got a report on that. microsoft word rolls out a new tool to flag potentially offensive language. vivek ramaswamy calls it a mechanism of mind control, he's on the show. the president's approval rating

among african americans slides from 85% to 57% in just the last year. not good news for the president. we've got a report on that too. ♪ now i'm free, free falling ♪ care. it has the power to change the way we see things. ♪♪ it inspires us to go further. ♪♪ it has our back. and goes out of its way to help. ♪♪ when you start with care, you get a different kind of bank. truist. born to care.

♪ stuart: day trip, another beatles song, why not? you're looking at the white house, inclement weather there today, it's now 38 degrees. i think they've had a lot of rain, actually. president biden carried 87% of the black vote in the 2020 election but in the latest quinnipiac poll, his

support among african americans has plummeted near 57% that is a plummet. dr. carey aladimore is the co dayton director of african american studies at trinity university and he joins me now. doctor, block democrats see a bleak 2022. do you, sir? >> you know, anything can happen between now and of course the election in 2022, but i can say the information is coming out is a little bit troubling, i would say, for the democrats, and president biden has a lot of work to do. stuart: would you put yourself in that camp? are you a democrat very troubled about 2022? i have to ask. >> i am an independent, stuart, so i would say i'm one of those people that president biden has to go get. i'm not in anybody's camp. stuart: okay, great. glad you're on the show. how about this? >> i'm glad to be here. stuart: today of course is dr. martin luther king day. president biden used this holiday, today, to get political. professor just watch this ,

please. roll it. >> back when our democracy was real from the january 6 insurrection to the onslaught of republican's anti-voting laws in a number of states it's no longer about just who gets to vote. it's about who gets to count the vote. dr. king held a mirror up to america and forced us to answer the question, where do we stand? whose side are we on? stuart: would you like to comment on that, doctor? >> everything in a sense is of course a political statement, a political discussion that president biden is having but i would say this. i think for any kind of voting rights legislation to get passed it's going to take some type of bipartisan support on this , and so speeches like that probably don't get us to where we really need to be, and i think that there are other issues out there that president biden can probably take notice of. there's a lot of other things for african americans that african americans are concerned

about. voting rights is one issue that we're concerned about. we're also interested and concerned about a lot of other issues so i'd like to see him address those issues as well. stuart: if, when you go to vote, you have to produce id and this is a central dispute between republicans and democrat s, if you have to produce id, at the voting booth, do you believe that that suppresses the black vote? >> me personally, i'm not, it doesn't give me a problem to have to produce an id. that's me personally. i think one of the things that we can do is we want to make sure that elections are safe, secure, and at the same time, we want to make sure that it's very open to everybody whose legally able to vote. we want to make sure that the vote historically is not suppressed so i think for african americans, you bring up issues of wherever you can think about issues suppressing a vote, we are very uncomfortable with that because of historical

situations but we also must make sure that the vote is secured, so those things are very important i think to all of us. stuart: what do you make of critical race theory? >> that's a big question right there, stuart. stuart: you knew it was coming. >> we don't have enough time to discuss all of the things of critical race theory. i can say aim a college professor so in universities we discuss lots of theories so i'm not a person that teaches critical race theory and all of its tenents, but it's particularly in law schools and schools of education. let me say this. i do believe that the liberal theories and when i say liberal theories we're not talking about liberal or conservative but the idea of liberal education, idea of liberal law, the idea of the law is something that can transform society for good in issues of race. i think that's important and so i don't say dismiss the law and legal issues, and when i say law

, you can't just say law is not important. law has been important in taking care of lots of racial issues and settling a lot of racial problems that we have so we've got that. the second thing is that i think we must always look for historical truth and we must always hold true to what's true. truth is not just a feeling. truth is not just how i feel and truth is not just something that makes me feel good, and so we always must be sure that when we search for historical truth and so it means it might be uncomfortable at times. it's going to be difficult at times where we must always feel free to teach historical truths. stuart: dr. carey latimore, you , sir, are a diplomat and it was great having you on the show >> great to be here. stuart: thank you, sir, appreciate it. the former commissioner of the fda says the administration made a mistake on the vaccine mandate. that's interesting, a mistake on the vaccine mandate. whose saying this , ash?

ashley: scott gottlieb, stu. he says the biden administration made a mistake by federalizing vaccine mandates in a way that they didn't have to, while blaming donald trump for mishandling the initial response to covid. take a listen. >> i think the administration made some mistakes at a macro level. the first was buying into this prevailing narrative when they took office that a lot of the problems, if not all the problems at the cdc and from the federal public health agencies owed to the trump adminitration and their mishandling of those agencies. the second challenge i think they bought for themselves was federalizing this in ways that they didn't have to, particularly with respect to the vaccine mandates. ashley: well vaccine mandates as we know have been a major point of friction across the country especially among republicans, multiple gop governors have now made moves to reject the mandates in their states. interesting. stuart: ashley, i see that the chairman of credit suisse, a huge investment bank, is resign ing, immediately.

he was only on-the-job for nine months. what happened? >> yes, this is a bank that has been scandal plagued, antonio os ario has resigned after it was revealed he broke covid quarantine rules last year which included a visit to wimbledon to watch the tennis finals, the former bank chief leaving as you say after just nine months on-the-job. he did release a statement regretting his actions adding that his resignation is in the best interest of the bank and its stakeholders and an investigation also revealed that he had breached strict covid restrictions by ignoring the 10 day quarantine period when he took control of the swiss banking giant following a number of scandals he did pledge to develop a culture of personal responsibility and accountability. oh, dear but now, he's been replaced by a board member axle lehman that's the latest in that soap and opera. stuart: the ceo of target says

he's seeing less foot traffic in his stores. is he blaming inflation or covid for that? ashley: in one word, inflation, stu. target's chief executive brian cornell says u.s. consumers will drive less and consolidate their shopping into fewer trips as they try to adjust to the pricing of gasoline and the high inflation rate almost the highest in four decades. cornell says shoppers will now eat at home more and seek cheaper generic brand goods to find some relief from these ris ing prices. after two years of a demand boom , during the pandemic, and of course let's not forget the government stimulus programs , target and other retailers are now watching very carefully for shifts in consumer behavior. the labor department's food at home index has jumped 6.5% over the last 12 months. that's compared with an annual increase of 1.5% during the last 10 years. cornell says a lot will be learned about how the consumer reacts in the next 60, 90 and 120 days to all these rising

prices. stu? stuart: we got it. thanks, ash here's what's coming up. airline pilots preparing for low visibility landings when 5g wireless service rolls out this week. we'll explain. google and facebook accused of making a secret deal to rig the online ad market and are now being sued by more than a dozen states. jackie deangelis breaks it down. this is a big tech bombshell, next. ♪ for investors who can navigate this landscape, leveraging gold, a strategic and sustainable asset... the path is gilded with the potential

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♪are you ready♪ ♪are you ready♪ >> [phone ringing] >> this isn't funny, amber. stuart: not my kind of movie but that was a clip from the horror movie "reboot" that's scream. took the top spot on the box office this week brought in just

$30 million to the top spot, don't seem like very much to me. spiderman, no way home, that was bumped into second place, just brought in 20 million this weekend but that super hero film has earned more than 698 million in the u.s.. it's now one of the highest grossing films of all-time. show me netflix, please. they're raising their monthly subscriptions one to $2 in the united states. the standard plan which allows for two simultaneous streams will now cost 15.49 a month up two bucks the price bump will pay for new programming to compete in an already very crowded streaming market. new bombshell allegations accuse big tech chief executives of working together to rig their word, to rig the online advertising market. jackie deangelis joins me. break it down, please, there's a lawsuit about this, please. break it down. >> hey, stuart that's right. the two tech giants are back in the headlines. there's a new complaint that

alleges alpha alphabet and meta work together to rig the ad market and remember that is really important because it is their bread and butter when it comes to making money. the new complaint says that google ceo and meta ceo mark zuckerberg coordinated and signed an agreement in 2018 that allegedly guaranteed facebook would bid and then win a certain amount of ad auctions. the suit is being led by texas a .g. ken paxon being joined by more than a dozen state attorneys general. in response a google spokesperson made this statement despite attorney general paxon's three attempt toss rewrite his complaint it's still fun of inaccuracies and lacks legal merit. our advertising technologies help websites and apps fund their content and enables small businesses to reach customers around the world. we will continue to fight this meritless lawsuit in court. now, to put this in context, stu , underscore why it's important here, the tech giants have been under fire for several

years now, accusations of course they dominate and control their markets and they use their size as an unfair advantage. now washington hasn't done anything concrete here but inquiries, investigations, they are on the radar and there are a lot of questions about how competitive, actually, the online advertising market is , and if these companies are playing on a level playing field so this is something to watch and its been sort of back burner because of the pandemic. stuart: yeah, got it. thanks very much indeed, jackie. vivek ramaswamy joins me, a critic of big tech. vivek, this gives you, this lawsuit, this supposed rig ging of the ad market, this gives you a very powerful line of attack to go after these two companies, doesn't it? >> well look, i was actually really surprised by those revelations, stuart. it was actually pretty egregious and i'd love to see how this plays out in court. i think it's a lens into how much more deeply these companies coordinate on other matters as well. i think the worst, the most egregious form is actually coordinating on what type of

content they will sensor. that's something we saw come out over the course of the last year as well. it's not an accident that twitter and facebook and google cram down on the same could be tent. it's because they are coordinat ing behind the scenes so i think this monopoly on ad pricing, on product, is just an entry point into seeing even the more dangerous monopoly , the monopoly on idea, the ideological cartel that actually these companies represent, but i do think that as a bombshell revelation and we ought to be paying attention to that case. it's an important case. stuart: yeah, good. now, you have an op-ed in the wall street journal. the quote is "slow the spread, speeding it maybe safer" now that's fascinating. vivek, now, you want to comment on this because i think you made a lot of money in biotechnology so you are equipped to comment on this , i take it, right? >> well, i was trained in molecular biology as an under grad at harvard a long time ago but that being said i wanted to offer a really simple statement of what a lot of virologists

observed over the years there are two different phenomenon how viruses evolved and we wanted to air an argument of how it should be in the public sphere of debate and nobody brought that up in the public yet which is actually if you could snap your fingers and everyone got a mild strain of the virus at the same time, that could have a really similar impact to vaccination that prevents the emergence of future strains, but the problem is, actually, if you both have conditions of widespread vaccination, and i do think vaccination, as we said in the op-ed was the number one tool in fighting this pandemic, but with over 60% of americans and over 60% of many other nations around the working vaccinated you create a new risk of actually selecting for newer and newer strains when you actually stop, for example, vaccinated people from being able to update their immune response to those milder strains , so i think as we continue to see milder strains emerge in this pandemic, i think it's time for a conversation about shifting the course of the response away from stopping the spread at all costs, to actually accepting some level of

spread and even viewing the health benefits over the long run associated with doing that and it's a contrarian point but a point we ought to be able to talk about. stuart: oh, absolutely let's get that conversation going because we're at that point where that is a viable thing to do. i've got one last one for you, vivek. microsoft is going woke, as you probably know. the program word is now flagging word offensive like mankind, postman, what's your reaction to that? >> i think george or well said it well, the best way to control a society is to control its mind first. i'm sorry there were reports that microsoft says they are actually going to auto correct for people using a product would say it's going to auto correct one giant leap for mankind, the famous quote, for humankind, that might have been a perfectly legitimate thick for him to say it's not what he said and those are trivial examples though that reveal the broader ideological agenda that's at work here and microsoft is

actually hidden out of the controversy of social justice issues like google or facebook or other companies have been caught up in but behind the scenes it seems like they are using their products to effectuate the same agenda and eventually we're going to need to see other products in the marketplace compete against these woke corporate behemoth's to actually inject ideological diversity, true diversity into the marketplace of products and the marketplace of ideas. we're missing that today, stuart but i predict that's coming. stuart: i just want to know what they would do with the word " manslaughter" is that out? i don't know, we'll see. vivek, you're all right we'll see you again soon, thank you, sir appreciate it. >> good seeing you. stuart: of those jobs listed as available in new york city, it was a small number that were remote last year. now, it's four times that number remote popular, we'll be back with more on that in a moment. made $1 billion before being shutdown by covid, and we'll

talk to one of their chief executives next. ♪ anybody ever wonder, they would steal the thunder, the show goes on ♪

♪ fly me to the moon, let me play ♪ stuart: we're showing you philadelphia international airport where it is 35 degrees, inclement weather up and down the eastern seaboard today and i've got to tell you, 1,500 flight cancellations around country already today. the federal aviation administration is paving the way for some planes to fly within 5g airways. not sure i understand this , but what does it mean, ashley? ashley: yup, well, the faa has cleared an estimated 45% of the u.s. commercial airplane fleet to perform low visibility

landings at many airports where 5g c-band will be deployed starting wednesday. now, the issue, the faa has warned the potential interference could affect sensitive airplane instruments and make an impact on low visibility operations or signals interfering. the faa says the aircraft and altimeter approvals open runways at as many of 48 of the 88 airports most directly affected by 5g interference, but the agency warned that even with these new approvals flights at some airports may still be affected and by the way, reuters reviewed the 36-page list of the runways covered by the approvals. it has not even been made public yet and by the way does not include many larger u.s. airports, so still, plenty of questions to be answered. stuart: that's a little troubl ing i've got to say. we have novac djokovic back in s erbia offer being deported from australia.

now my question is could his vaccination status create problems at the french open as well? ashley: yes, it could. another battle brewing as say, djokovic back in his native serb ia, having been denied the opportunity to defense list australian open title and now he may get the cold shoulder at the french open as well. french lawmakers agreed to a new law that basically denies un vaccinated people access to most public areas, and that would include sports arenas. djokovic's attempt to get a medical exemption from not being vaccination sparked a lot of anger in australia where we know strict lockdowns are being used to try and control the spread of the virus. serbia's president accruesed the australian government of harassing djokovic and called the court hearings there a lot of lies and now it appears another battle is brewing with french tennis officials, stu? stuart: got it, thanks, ashley. the omicron variant has caused

many cities to reimpose restrictions, and scale down live events. danielle lamar is the executive vice chair of the board for cirque du soleil and he joins me now. daniel, i know you are performing now in las vegas but are you shut out of elsewhere and does that mean it's going to be years before you can get back to full production again? >> fortunately not. not only are we in las vegas right now but we are just opened before christmas a new show at orlando at disney in orlando. as we speak, we are in presentation in london at the royal albert hall. we're also present in seattle, we're present also in punta cana , and we will open in march in los angeles, so we are gearing up right now to bring back our level of activities to the level we were

before the crisis. stuart: before the crisis, i understand you were doing about $1 billion a year in sales. how long, could you just estimate how long it'll be before you get back to that billion dollar level? >> yes. i think that within a year, we should be able to go there, because right now, we're opening a show, re-launching a show every month, and the one thing to be noticed is despite what's happening in the world right now , everywhere, where we present shows, people are really eager to come back and see shows , because people have been missing live entertainment and i think right now, we don't have any choice. we have to fight the fight and go back and meet with people and take, obviously some very serious and rigorous measures, but we have to again bring back the economy together.

stuart: and you think that you can be back to $1 billion worth of sales by the end of this year >> i'm hoping that within the year, we will be at that level. it doesn't mean that we will have in the next year, be back to a billion, but we will, in a year, have enough shows for 202o $1 billion. stuart: well, sir, that's exactly what we want to hear. we'd love to be on the comeback trail and it looks like you're on it. daniel lammar, cirque du soleil, thank you very much for being here, sir. love to come and see a performance. >> thank you. stuart: sure thing. the university of louisville is threatening to discipline faculty members who don't teach their classes in-person. this is great stuff. my next guest is a student of the university who says he's proud of his school for standing up and giving students the education they serve. a welcome guest, after this.

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if you think you have dupuytren's contracture, there's a simple test you can take—from anywhere. try to lay your hand flat against a surface. if you can't, you may have dupuytren's contracture. talk to a hand specialist about your options, including nonsurgical treatments. stuart: the university of louisville, kentucky is commit ting to in-person learning

remember a lot of schools are going back to virtual classes. our next guest is devon mcvey, a student there and he approves of this. well-done, i'm glad you're going back to in-person, however, what about the other students at your university? are they a little scared of going back to in-person? >> there is a small minority of students who are scared to go back in person. there's even one teacher' assistant that said that the university should be committed to being safe and not being dedicated to being in person, but i believe that the university should be dedicated to giving the students the education that we paid for. stuart: yeah, i don't understand this , because students are surely the least vulnerable people in our society. why give them the maximum protection at the same time destroying the university experience, which they are paying for. >> that's a good question. i'm actually very proud of the university for standing up for our rights to receive the education that we're paying

for. there are other universities like in california that are telling their students they are going to be online for two weeks and then a reevaluation. those students are very pessimistic that their universities are not going to allow them to come back on campus, and being in-person is very important for these student s not only mentally, academically. they're all suffering and all because of being remote. stuart: in your university career so far, how much time have you actually spent with in- person learning and how much time and remote? >> so, i'm on my fourth year, thankfully the university of louisville only spent one semester remote. we've actually learned to be living with this virus that is not going anywhere. over the past year, the university has decided that if a student has covid and tests positive, they will quarantine. it's up to the student and the professor to make sure that they get caught up. we've learned to live with it instead of hiding from it. stuart: are you still going to

have to wear masks all day and indoors too, in the dorm room, at your university? >> masks are required, but we're not required to be vaccinated. there's mandatory testing for non-vaccinated students, but we are seeing a glimpse of living as normal of an early adult life as we can during this time. stuart: do you have to wear the mask indoors? >> you do. you do have to wear the mask indoors at all times. stuart: will you have sporting events, football games, extracurricular activity? >> yes, we're allowed to do extracurriculars along with sporting events. there are universities like yale who are barring their students at in-person sporting events and we have to ask the question, are they going to school or in prison? stuart: very good question, indeed. generally speaking, what's the attitude? what's the response of the people, your fellow students are they happy about this going back in-person?

you said it was a small minority that wanted to be out. what's the big picture, big population? >> yes, most students that i've talked to are excited to be in- person. like i said students realize that that in-person relationship is what makes their mental health better and it makes the education process smoother. i actually even have a friend in california who is taking the semester off because their university is online and he does not feel like he's getting the education he deserves and that he's paying for. stuart: you're going to get the education you deserve and paid for that's a very good thing, devon mcvey, thanks for being here see you soon. stuart: look at that 11:55 it's the monday trivia question. i don't know where they come up with these things but look at this. how much weight can ants lift? [laughter] we will find out the true answer in a moment and ashley will contribute a guess. we'll be back. to run a growing business, is to be on a journey.

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stuart: here you go how much weight can ants lift? great question. any guesses, ash? yes. more than me. i will go with number two, 4,000. stuart: you're wrong. the answer is 5000 times their own weight. this is according to the journal of biomechanics. that is how much a ant's neck can support. for comparison that would be the same as a neck of 150-pound

human, supporting 750,000-pounds. who knew, ash, who knew? quick check of the futures because we've got modest gain. the futures close at 1:00 p.m. eastern. we'll have them for you first thing tomorrow morning. don't forget. to check us out on spotify. you can hear all the music we played throughout the past week. that is spotify. listen to the music. my time is up. asman. you're in for cavuto. david: yes i am, do you get paid extra for spotify? i am curious. stuart: i deserve it, don't know whether i do. david: you deserve every penny you make. thank you, stuart. i'm david asman in for neil cavuto. this is "cavuto: coast to coast" supermarkets face a super