>> joe biden is always the other side of the aisle inside of the united states of america. >> there are a lot of signs that tell me that we're not doing very well and the consumer is saying it. >> this is a failure of two people in my view. it be the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general mark milley and the secretary of defense, lloyd austin. they should have notified the president far before they did. >> markets need to calm down and i think jerome powell will use this as a do-over to let markets know look the fed rates may stay where they are. >> we need to be stewards of economic prosperity. true economic prosperity. >> i think people look at joe biden and see that the cognitive decline, the lack of vision. i think what's going to come out of this state of the union tonight is ask yourself, does he have a plan to deal with inflation? ♪ living in america ♪ stuart: good morning, everyone. it is 11:00 eastern time, it is

tuesday, february 7, "living in america" and the statue of liberty. check those markets, the dow is down about 140 points the nasdaq holding on to a fractional gain and big tech mixed picture there , we have microsoft ruling the roost it's up 2.25% solid gain there. both microsoft and google are introducing, we believe, some kind of chatgpt what do we call it? lauren: bot? stuart: how would you describe that? lauren: artificial intelligence? stuart: yes. on a chatgpt. >> there you go. stuart: i can't remember these things i'm telling you i'm in real trouble here however if you check the 10-year treasury i can tell that the yield is 3.63%. we just got this coming to us. the judge hearing the case against sam bankman-fried has denied his request to modify a bail conditions.

the hearing remains scheduled for thursday. now this. if you want to teach biology at texas tech university, you'll have to put your politically correct face on. forget biology. just knuckle under and accept the texas tech's diversity equity and inclusion policies. you've got no choice. if you don't tow the party line you don't get the job. an op-ed in the "wall street journal" delves into texas tech 's diversity policy. the headline sums it up. how diversity policing fails science. the writer, john sailor, shows how the biology department weeded out candidates who failed the diversity test. candidates have to know the difference between equity and equality. don't make any mistakes there. one candidate was red flagged for micro-aggressions against women. what has the students done? well he had minimized the difficulties of women in the u.s. by comparing to worse situations elsewhere. oh, you can't do that and of

course, personal pronouns have to be correctly applied or else you do get a plus, however, for something called land acknowledgment. that is making a point of saying native americans once lived in what is now the united states. you've got to say it. this is madness on many levels. for a start it forces students to accept a political perspective with which they may not agree. it's like china, or the old soviet union. publicly accept diversity, equity and inclusion or you are out. worse, if you impose a political straight jacket on the biology department, you don't produce the best buy all o gists, do you as john sailor writes, it is a degredation of higher education. third hour of "varney" starts right now. jimmy failla sitting pretty close to me this morning and

there you go. free speech dead on college campuses. >> oh, completely and i want to be clear because i'm avoiding a biology major for the old fashion reasons which is my grades. i'm not even allowed to play the board game "operation" with grades like i have, but my big problem with this is obviously, the top level thought is that we're prioritizing things overcome p tense in biology which is a recipe for failure for society as a whole but this is a subset of issue that's infiltrated every four year school around the country which is they are now teaching kids to go what is a micro-aggression, like me saying stuart, you look good today and you go today, as opposed to what, yesterday? like it's a silly joke but as a lifestyle, that's exhausting, and that's the difference between the colleges we attended and the colleges that are in business now, is when we were in college, we weren't worried about micro-aggressions we were worried about running out of beer which explains my grades but the point is every one of

these colleges has become just an exhausting social pressure campaign, and the reason i wanted to highlight that is because as a comedian, the most stand-up album i watched was george carlin on campus because of the time he recorded it, campuses were these free thought free speech hubs where this was the only place in society you could say these abstract comedic thoughts. carlin on campus in 2,023 be called campus on fire and they choice him out of town. stuart: it's true. >> crazy. stuart: it's true. jimmy, thanks very much indeed. you managed to bring humor to a very serious situation. >> oh, i'm trying over here, stuart. stuart: you're doing a good job. >> i'm going to go i miss you already. stuart: see you soon. to the markets jason katz with me this morning. jason, will the fed induce a recession in your opinion? >> the fate, stuart, of the economy and the market for that matter, rests squarely on the feds shoulders. after the transitory blunder,

they are deathly afraid of further reputation risk, so in their view, it's easier to fight a recession than get the inflation genie back in the bottle; however the pre conditions of a bad recession at this juncture are not in place, as evidenced by the jobs numbers last friday. people are coming back into the labor force, wages are modestly decreasing, and powell himself said there's dis inflationary forces intact. regretably, the fed is going to go a little too far and stay a little too long, so i do think a recession is in the offing, albeit a mild one. stuart: that's negative for the stock market. >> yes, that being said the stock market peak-to-trough last year at least the nasdaq dropped 33% in the s&p 18 and the average peak to trough decline in a recession is around 35% so if we get that mild recession i'm not so sure the market will freak out about that. stuart: so we might just hold our own for a while, modest loss here and there and then wait for

the signal that the fed is turning, changing, maybe lowering rates later. when that signal comes, are we off to the races, huge rally? >> not necessarily on an index level, but beneath the surface there are a lot of cheap stocks, and there's a lot of inexpensive stocks outside of our border so at the first sign that the fed is going to call mercy and pivot , i think you're going to see a parabolic rise in indices other than the s&p. stuart: fascinating. jason thank you, sir. see you again soon. another survey, here we are, finds that one-third of millionaires say retiring securely will take a miracle. i don't get it. why do they say that? lauren: that's kind of disappointing, right? well they want to retire early at 63, and that might not be possible. that's why 35% of them say it be a miracle if they can retire securely. they also said inflation and market volatility. this speaks to the anxiety in the nation . yes you have a

strong jobs report. yes the economy is holding up and why don't people feel better off today than they were two years ago, right? this speaks to that anxiety that it's very hard to get by right now and to live comfortably. stuart: it's a survey about anxiety. rich people anxious. lauren: everybody is anxious even people who make a lot of money, right somewhat was the latest survey, another survey 8 million folks making $100,000 or more are living paycheck to paycheck? stuart: these surveys seem so meaningless to me. lauren: okay, but show me, they all say the same thing. show me a survey that says something confident that says something positive about where we are. stuart: help me out jason. you deal with rich people all the time. they aren't anxious about retiring. >> cry me a river. lauren: are they anxious? >> they are a little bit on edge. you have some rich-flation going on but there's demographics also you may want to retire at 63 or you have the money or think you do. you'll probably live longer so you better work a little bit longer.

lauren: and put your kids through college and buy a summer house. >> you better retire, stu. what will i do on monday and tuesday mornings after you retire. stuart: enough of this talk, i'm done. thank you very much, jason. you've got movers for us. i want to start with take two interactive, please. lauren: nice so they make that video game nba 2k, you might know what that is, it's a hot title. stuart: what is it? lauren: a video game about basketball. it's the best i've got for you. the folks at moffettnathanson say take two as well as activision have quality titles recession-proof. stuart: okay. i'll buy that. sky works solutions. lauren: semiconductor manufacturing company up 9% at $2 billion share buyback plan was just announced in their earnings report. stuart: my script on the prompt er says baidu bidu. is that the real baidu? lauren: yes, that's the ticker of it, bidu, and it's up 10% and

an 11 month high because the chatgpt. they have their project testing ernie is wrapping up and they plan to launch it next month. stuart: what just happened there you jumped all over the screen did you see that? lauren: do we also have sound hound and big bear? these are two smaller ai players. their stocks are down about 10% each today but they are up 120% this year more than doubled because there's this battle for artificial intelligence and the small players are seeing it too. stuart: now you've got baidu, google and probably microsoft involved as well so little guys are under pressure. lauren: doubling your shares by february 7? stuart: kevin costner leaving the hit show "yellowstone." reports say he's out and a big name actor is into replace him. we'll tell you who that might be president biden's state of the union address tonight expected to have the new taxes on the very rich. we'll talk about that.

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first psoriasis, then psoriatic arthritis. even walking was tough. i had to do something. i started cosentyx®. cosentyx can help you move, look, and feel better... by treating the multiple symptoms of psoriatic arthritis. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting...get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections some serious... and the lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms... or if you've had a vaccine or plan to. tell your doctor if your crohn's disease symptoms... develop or worsen. serious allergic reactions may occur. watch me. stuart: we're learning more about the chinese balloon that was shot down off the coast of south carolina. ashley what's this about explosives? ashley: well, the balloon was more than a couple of thousand pounds in weight, roughly 200 feet tall, but yes. well, no confirmation but may have carried explosives meant for self-destruction. that's according to air force

general glenn van herk, the head of norad, who says precautions were taken because of the size and weight of the pay load, but he actually stopped short of confirming that the balloon was actually carrying explosives. it was just his potential belief , he says. the balloon, by the way, as we know eventually shot down off the south carolina coast on saturday. china maintains it was just a weather research airship blown off course, they say, but of course the u.s. says beijing, nice try. nice try at spying. no wonder they steal our high-tech stuff if this is their low tech effort at spying. stuart: yeah, got it ashley, thank you. many questions on china's spy balloon, unanswered, as president biden gets ready to take the podium tonight. grady trimble on capitol hill. this incident has renewed concern over china. do we know if the presidents going to mention it tonight? reporter: he is going to mention the china spy aircraft according to our colleague mark meredith, stu, but it's going to be a

brief mention, not more than a reference. >> i'm not going to get ahead of the president and what he's going to speak to, as it relates specifically to china. i just laid out at the top that it is going to be up to china. it's up to china to see how they want to see this relationship moving forward. reporter: lawmakers on the hill are focusing on the growing tensions with china holding a pair of hearings today on that topic one on the threat of the ccp to our national defense and the other on combating the economic threat of the communist nation. >> the actions of the chinese communist party last week serve as a clarifying moment. china is not an allie or a strategic partner. they are our competitor and pose a single, pose the single greatest threat to america's global standing. reporter: president biden is facing growing pressure especially from republicans in congress, to do more to take on

china, but if last year's state of the union where he only mentioned china three times is any indication, stu, the ccp will not be a focal point tonight. stuart: got it. grady trimble right there. thanks very much, grady. take a look at this op-ed in the "wall street journal." seen any other spy balloons lately? an $850 billion defense budget and we can't detect a chinese airship? congressman russel fry ex republican from south carolina joins us now. how could these spy balloons go undetected, congressman? >> i think you hit on a very interesting question that we all have answers to. this entered our air space on january 28 over alaska and for days was allowed to kind of meander through alaska, through canada which culminated in missiles being fired over myrtle beach, south carolina, so i have a lot of questions about this. i know my colleagues on the hill have several questions about why , who, what, where, and we're just not getting information from the administration at this point which is unfortunate,

because at the end of the day, china is our chief rival on the world stage and they send a spy balloon over our country to wander for days and it wasn't until really local press picked it up in montana that it became a national focus. stuart: yeah, shouldn't we be increasing dramatically our defense spending? >> well i think so. look, at the end of the day, what we need to do is we need to be able to detect these things and the fact that the administration either wasn't aware as they claim or whatever , this is a problem for our country. we need to make sure we can detect these before they come into our country it so we can address them. stuart: as i understand it, the balloon was taken down very close to your hometown. what do the folks in south carolina think about all of this >> it was like a scene from independence day. people were outside, pulling over on the side of the road, filming this thing, seeing jets circle the balloon. it really was a very interesting scene on the ground and look, we're known for a lot of things. we've got great weather, good beaches and golf. we now are known for

international missile crisis across our coast. stuart: i think they've got some of the stuff out of the balloon and i think it went to quantico to analyze it. is there any doubt in your mind it was a spy ship and not a weather balloon? >> oh, i don't believe, if we were truly to believe the chinese communist party on the intention of that balloon i think we're in real trouble. i think everyone believes this and sees it for what it is and so i'm glad they have retrieved it and it sounds like they are taking it to quantico to evaluate it. certainly the military did a fantastic job to take it down but again, we on the hill and really the american people have a lot of questions about why we couldn't take this down sooner, when it was coming into our air space in alaska. stuart: don't expect any answers tonight in the state of the union. congressman russel fry, republican of south carolina. thanks for joining us, sir. appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. stuart: back in the markets and i still see red ink for the dow down about 100 nasdaq positive

to the tune of 20 points. coming up, the governor of texas , greg abbott fed up with the presidents handling of the border and says texas is going to start building its own border wall. we'll tell you about it. 9:00 tonight the president delivers his second state of the union. what's he going to say? bill mcgurn is a former speechwriter for president george w. bush. he will give us his preview. ♪

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stuart: after tonight's state of the union, president biden will travel to states critical to the 2024 election. mark meredith at the white house all right, mark. he's looking like he's campaign ing. does he have the support of democrats? >> well, stu, right now he does but a lot can change. we're waiting to see if there's any different reaction after the speech today. we are going to be hearing from the president on a number of different topics, the economy, jobs and a white house aid told me this morning he will reference the chinese spy craft that was shot down, however, it's not a large reference, it's only going to be a small part of

the speech. instead we'll hear more about the economy and here is why. 80% of rejected uttered voters only rank the economy as fair or poor. those numbers are up more than 10 percentage points from earlier in the presidents term so in the speech which i'm told is a work in progress we'll hear the president talk about the economy, jobs but also more issues that will get more bipartisan support, efforts to cure cancer, the war on drugs and boosting america's mental health services. we heard from the president late yesterday. he wants to talk to the people well beyond the beltway. >> i want to talk to the american people and let them know the state of affairs, what's going on and what i'm looking forward to working on from this point on, what we've done, and just have a conversation with the american people. >> a conversation with members of congress as well, he's likely to get a warm reception from congressional democrats and some issues will likely see republicans applaud and stand up, but the gop already making it clear things are not perfect in biden's america. the rnc putting out a statement saying there is a reason

republicans took back the house because of speeches like tonight where biden will ignore and deflect blame for inflation, rising crime and border crisis he created and while the focus is on the speech itself and any clues to 2024, stu there are also notable names in the audience tonight including the ukrainian ambassador to the u.s. , the parents of tyre nichols the man killed in memphis a few weeks ago and also bono of u 2 also. stuart: bill mcgurn joins me now who was a speechwriter for president george w. bush so bill mcgurn, what do you think president biden will say tonight , not what you would write for him but what you think is going to be written for him. >> well, look, stu. he has a primetime address to take his message directly to the american people in the most- watched speech of any president, so what he's going to do is the first speech of his

2024 campaign. he's going to say things are great, that he's solving the problems of america, the economies up, it's better than when he came in and what he's going to say, and layout a positive agenda for himself and he any call on the republicans to join him at some part. stuart: i doubt he's going to talk much about education or the border, or crime. he'll try to stick with something positive for him, like the jobs numbers from last friday and the low unemployment rate. he'll try very hard to be positive. do you think he will get a post- speech bump as presidents sometimes do? >> i don't know. it's a difficult thing. you know, so much effort goes into the state of the union. every year, speechwriters say that it's not going to be a laundry list. every year it is a laundry list. it's the nature of the beast. everyone in the government wants to get their program mentioned.

even if it's for half a sentence so for all the fuss, the state of the union is pretty much forgotten shortly after it's delivered. it's a template for people working the administration for a president's campaign, but the public, you know, think of how many lines are from state of the unions. not really many. stuart: true, true. will you watch, bill? be honest now. >> yes, i watch. look, the little things speechwriters watch for , you try to put your president's agenda in a way that even the opposition has to cheer or at least can't sit down, or looks bad if they sit down, so there are those little things that you try to combine. i don't know if president biden is going to do that. he doesn't seem the type. he's given more divisive

speeches. he will probably tamp that down a little, but i don't know if he really wants to work with republicans or whether he would rather tag them as extremists that are a threat to democracy. stuart: does it drive you nuts when they all stand up and applaud then sit down and stand up? >> yeah, it's kind of part of the game. it's very impressive when you go , it's in congress. both houses of government, sometimes the supreme court, so all three branches of government there. a lot, it rarely doesn't live up to it. stuart: well said bill mcgurn thanks for joining us. >> thanks, stu. stuart: i'll be asleep. that's just the way i am. thanks very much, bill. >> you get up earlier than i do , stu. you're forgiven. stuart: this is true. thank you very much. the president will use tonight's address we hear to propose a new tax on billionaires.

ashley? what do we know about this new tax? ashley: well i know you'll be happy to sleep through this. tax, tax, and oh, yes tax the wealthiest people, even though the top 10% of earners pay 17% of all income taxes. the white house claims billionaires pay an average tax rate of just 8%, refuting studies show the wealthy have increasingly shouldered the largest share of government funding and tonights state of the union biden is expected to focus on raising taxes on billionaires capital gains including unrealized gains that are not currently taxed and also expected to call for quadrupling the tax on corporate stock buybacks. well, but with republicans in control of the house, the tax agenda has virtually no chance of passing in the next two years but he will make those points i am sure tonight. stuart: you saw this i think, a fence is being built around the capitol building ahead of tonights address, apparently i thought the democrats don't

believe in walls, ashley? ashley: well, they don't. they've called the building over a wall and the southern border a sign of xeno-phobia that sends the wrong message so republicans are asking what message is being sent as that large fence is being constructed around the capitol complex ahead of the state of the union speech and the fence by the way not the first wall to be built for the presidents protection. biden began construction of a voila round his delaware vacation home which is expected to cost by the way taxpayers close to half a million dollars being funded through a government contract via the department of homeland security. that is okay. apparently. by the way, after declaring not another foot will be built at the border, you know what? the biden administration last july approved resuming construction of the border wall right along yuma, arizona. interesting. stuart: yeah, i've got more on that. the governor of texas, greg abbott, has resumed building his own border wall. the governor posted this video

on twitter showing the wall going up with the caption "texas is building our own border wallet. back to the markets. of course we're all waiting on jay powell whose going to speak in about an hour. that could move the market in advance of that there's not that much price movement but there is movement and susan li is here to tell us about movement in microsoft. >> yeah, so state of the union, fed jay powell, whatever. i'm paying attention to microsoft. stuart: so am i. >> that's a 90 minute time so microsoft is going to take off the wrap on his new bing search engine that's incorporated with chatgpt, which some say could be the google killer if it helps you search the internet better with more sophisticated predictive power so i call jarvi s hads from ironman, the sky net computer from terminator, i'd say 2001 space odyssey. you know that, remember? stuart: i never saw that movie. >> you never? stuart: no, sorry. >> i can't win. okay, so microsoft, we know is

investing $10 billion over the next decade into chatgpt and its parent company open ai, and not to be out done last night or left behind google making its own ai had announcement in this artificial intelligence arms war that we're in, so alphabet ceo sundar pachai witnessing they are developing its own chat gpt chart called bard, which they are only throwing $300 million into it, a lot more in the future, all hands-on deck initial testing phase with an external test group and a wider launch expected in the next few weeks and on the earnings call last week,ai was emphasized over and over again and in my discussions with alphabet and google over the last few years they also paint themselves as an ai leader, whether it's google translate, you have the photo editing capabilities on the pixel phones, so that is the hottest topic right now in technology and then you have the china competitor the china google baidu, not to be outdone.

that stock is skyrocketing today , because they are launch ing their own ernie bot, which is their artificial intelligence program and i think they will actually have a larger data set to be able to train their artificial intelligence with, which is kind of key to developing probably the best ai, so that's their advantage. stuart: is this the big new thing? >> i think so, and how do i explain it to individuals like yourself, because no, i mean, look. stuart: how do i make this idiot understand? >> no this is the next era in computing and i understand sometimes it can be a bit confusing. stuart: for old people. >> different generations as i like to say, but look, if it helps you and your life better in the future, for instance it can call your car for you, know when you're sick and call that chicken noodle soup, it's a fantastic thing. stuart: calls my car for me? >> yeah. stuart: what do i need that for? >> well because you need to get to the studio on time and woken up in the morning maybe? what do you think? stuart: i never set the alarm. i never ever set an alarm.

>> oh, aren't you, wow. stuart: if you told me, stuart, you got to wake up tomorrow morning at 2:23, i could do it. >> okay, so how long have you been waking up at 2:30 in the morning? how many years, how much training does that take? stuart: i've always been an early morning guy for the last 45-50 years. >> can you imagine artificial intelligence if you train it for 45 years on the same thing? stuart: it would know me quite well wouldn't it? that is frightening, susan. you want to tell me about bed, bath and beyond? >> we really have to talk about this down 45% up 92% yesterday at the end of close, already halted several times on volatility this morning. its already priced billion dollar capital raise meaning it's around at least not file for bankruptcy in the short-term tapping that the $100 million credit line and you can still get your 20% coupon if you go in stuart: sounds good. that's a nice motorcycle jacket you've got on there. do you drive a harley? >> it's heather and you don't have to always what, to only motorcycle riders can wear

leather? the world has changed. stuart: i got to you didn't i? >> i like high fashion. stuart: susan you're all right thank you very much. one groom's best man is asking folks online, is it rude to decline being part of a wedding because it costs too much money? we'll tell you the reaction to that. can't wait. lawmakers currently giving aviation officials over mishaps including plane collisions and the first nationwide ground stop since 9/11. full report on that coming up for you. ♪ i want to get away, i want to fly away ♪

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...will remain radioactive for years to come. well, thank goodness. it's time for the "good news of the week." and, boy, do we need it. [ chuckles ] well, this safe driver saved money with the snapshot app from progressive. -how do you feel? -um, good? he's better than good. he got rewarded for driving safe and driving less. sorry, barb, just to confirm, this is the feel-good news of the week?

this is what we found. -yay, snapshot! >> nothing we do is for today. ranching is only business where the goal is to breakeven. survive another season. stuart: all right that was kevin costner in the hit series " yellowstone" we're playing the clip because he may be

leaving that show. sources tell "deadline" that costner had disagreements over shooting schedules. now, paramount network responded that report saying oh, we have no news to report. kevin costner is a big part of yellowstone, and we hope that's the case for a long time to come however an extension of the yellowstone franchise maybe in the work and the new star would show actor matthew mcconaughey. aviation officials testifying right now on capitol hill the hearing comes after a series of aviation mishaps and near misses. connell mcshane is following it for us. connell: well, you know, not a whole lot yet we didn't know. safety is obviously the topic. technology has been what they've been focused on so far as i've been monitoring it. a lot of people argue the technology used in aviation at least some has really become outdated, right? and we have a top safety official from the faa testifying alongside the head of the pilots union chair of the national transportation safety board as well, who actually did have some ideas on how we might avoid some of the high profile near

misses stuart alluded to that have made headlines in recent weeks. >> we continue to have investigations such as the incident last month at jfk and now austin where the data isn't available to our investigators due to the current time limitation. we've recommended that the faa require new and existing aircraft have 25 hour recorders. connell: be an upgrade from the current standard which is only two hours in the united states. now, you heard the reference to austin, texas. this past saturday as we've talked about that fedex cargo plane, it came closer than anyone could have imagined to colliding with the southwest passenger plane. in fact, she did an interview that says these two planes actually may have come within 100 feet of each other. originally they were saying a thousand which was close, 100 feet. we've also had the issues like the one we reported last friday at newark airport and new jersey where those two united planes clipped wings. fortunately nobody injured. the tip of one of the wings snap

ped off the planes. the theme emerging so far is this need to upgrade and modern ize the technology, the head of the pilots union urged congress to boost funding in the name of safety. we've heard similar calls here in the last few weeks from an administration official so the transportation secretary pete buttigieg talked about it. others though pointed out the faa funding has already gone up and they had a $17.5 billion budget four years ago it's more than 23 billion today. so, that's it so far, stuart. stuart: got it thanks very much connell. switching gears to an interesting story. we've all been to destination weddings, right? i've been to a couple. a good time but expensive to attend. now, some are wondering if it's okay to decline an invite even if you're asked to be in the wedding party. take this on, ashley. ashley: yeah, it's interesting, because now that the wedding business is picking up again after the pandemic there's this trend of destination weddings, as they are called. they are becoming more popular. the concept of engaging i-do in

far flung exotic locations sounds great but it doesn't come cheap if you've been invited and can't afford it. one view created a lively discussion when asked for advice after asked to be best man at his friend's wedding, in italy. he said it was going to cost him more than 2,000 bucks something he said he couldn't afford with a wife and two young children at home. turns out, it's a common dilemma an etiquette expert says it is perfectly fine to tell the groom in this case no saying no one should feel pressured to drain their bank account to attend. the only stipulation from the etiquette expert is that that conversation should be verbal either by phone or in person. but if you can't afford it you really can't make it say that. don't, you know, go bankrupt just to make the wedding. stuart: but isn't that the one thing that you aren't supposed to say in america? "i can't afford it"? ashley: right. well, you can come up with any reason but if you truly can't

afford it sometimes honesty is the best policy. stuart: so i'm told. all right, thanks, ashley. on your screens now, the state of the markets, there's all the 30 dow stocks we're about two-thirds down, one-third up the dow is down just 50 points. new data shows children are 100 times less likely to die from covid than adults. so, were school closures a mistake? we'll deal with that, next. ♪

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hi, i'm jason and i've lost 202 pounds on golo. so the first time i ever seen a golo advertisement, i said, "yeah, whatever. there's no way this works like this." and threw it to the side. a couple weeks later, i seen it again after getting not so pleasant news from my physician. i was 424 pounds, and my doctor was recommending weight loss surgery. to avoid the surgery, i had to make a change. so i decided to go with golo and it's changed my life. when i first started golo and taking release, my cravings, they went away. and i was so surprised.

you feel that your body is working and functioning the way it should be and you feel energized. golo has improved my life in so many ways. i'm able to stand and actually make dinner. i'm able to clean my house. i'm able to do just simple tasks that a lot of people call simple, but when you're extremely heavy they're not so simple. golo is real and when you take release and follow the plan, it works. stuart: new data shows children that will be babies up to the age of 19 years old, well they are 100 times less likely to die from covid than adults. let's bring in dr. bob lahita joining us now. doctor, this surely begs the question. were school closures a big public health mistake? >> stuart, i believe it was a big public health mistake. if the data are correct that

children were 100 times less likely to get covid and die, that was a mistake to close all of the schools, because it has repercussions going forward for many many years, where kid 's scores are down in math and in english and writing capability. it has had a major effect. stuart: if i'm not mistaking schools, i think it was sweden and denmark, stayed open throughout the entire pandemic without any serious negatives for the children who were being schooled all that time. i think i'm right in saying that there's no negative consequences for them. >> yes you are with sweden. stuart: it was sweden. so they are have not lost all that learning which our kids did lose over those years. >> absolutely. stuart: okay. >> absolutely. children are more likely to die from accidents, suicide. this is the group between ages of say five to 19, and number eight is covid, so it's not a

very common cause of death and in fact, stuart, teachers which we were very concerned about, did not suffer adversely by being in class with students. that was before we closed the schools if you'll recall. stuart: yup, you've got it. the new hbo show, "the last of us" features zombies that came about from mind-altering fungal infections. well sorry to bring this up, doctor, but scientists now warn that fungal infections are actually a growing global threat is this a new scare? >> well, it is a new scare insofar as we are blaming climate change and we are blaming resistance to antibiotics and you know, fungi are eukaryotes, we call them scientifically and they aren't bacteria and they aren't viruses which are particles totally different animal with regard to fungi. fungi are resistant to

medications and we have these fungi that goes back to 2009 well before the pandemic when we were alarmed by having certain kinds of fungi pop-up in hospitals, which were very resistant to therapy. in general, they are resistants so you're right. we could have a fungus which infects insects, for example, and turning them into zombie organisms so it is very concerning insofar as it's resistant to just about everything. stuart: forgive me, doctor, if i don't understand what a zombie organism is. could you explain that one? >> well, the fungus takes over a certain insect strain and turns that insect into a behavioral disaster, so that insect no longer behaves the way the insect normally does and it proceeds to die. scientists have been looking at the fungus that invades insects and other animals. not humans. humans, because we are warm- blooded, 37 degrees centigrade, that is very anti-

fungal; however, if you have a co morbidity say for example, like diabetes, something else metabolic like cancer chemotherapy, you are at great risk for having a fungal infection. now becoming a zombie is not realistic and is kind of a science fiction thing but fungi do kill people every year. stuart: this is fascinating. i wish we had more time, doctor, because it's fascinating and it's scientifically very intriguing. i've got to say. dr. bob latiha, thanks for being with us, sir. we always appreciate it. >> thanks, stu. stuart: check the markets real fast because i see some green for the nasdaq. it's up 50. s&p is up 5, dow is down about 50 points we're still waiting for jay powell. he's going to be speaking around 12:40 or 12:45 today. what he says could move the market. here we go, the tuesday trivia question. this is really a good one and i haven't got a clue what the answer is. which animal did not live

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♪. stuart: big moment here. what animal, which animal i should say did night live along dinosaurs? ashley, you got choice. crocodiles, sharks, lobsters or

whales, which is it. >> unfortunately they put the answer up early. for me whales and lobsters. i would have said lobsters, that is not right. stuart: i'm afraid they showed me the answer before going into the segment. it is whales. the first whales appeared 50 million years agos well after the extinction of dinosaurs. we know the dinosaurs disappeared because meteor eight h struck the gulf of mexico. >> you didn't cover it, didn't you? stuart: you lived in arizona? you were in yuma, arizona. >> yuma, arizona, you name it, i lived there. >> great guy. thanks for all the hard work, ash. my time is up for me. that is it for "varney & company." "coast to coast" starts, wait for it, now. neil: all right. we know of course that the

president of