. hey, everyone. welcome. i'm savannah sellers. >> i'm joe fryer. aaron and kate are off. "nbc news daily" starts right now. today, thursday, december 8th, 2022. breaking news, safe return. brittney griner is on her way to america after spending ten months behind bars in russia. the high stakes prisoner swap bringing the wnba star home. rapidly running out. as flu cases surge pharmacies are struggling to get the antiviral medication peoples need.

what doctors are recommending you do if you get sick. personal foul. congress reveals details about the toxic culture inside the washington commanders football team. the report that has lawmakers demanding change throughout the nfl. celine's struggles. reveals she's been diagnosed with a rare condition. what she's sharing with her fans and what you can learn from her. we begin with breaking news, the much-anticipated return of wnba star brittney griner. >> that's right. after being detained in russia for the last ten months, griner is on a plane on her way back to america. the white house says administration officials negotiated her release in exchange for a russian arms dealer. it's one of the most high-profile prisoner swaps since the cold war. >> president biden and griner's wife cherelle spoke with her from the oval office. >> i'm glad to say brittney is in good spirits, she's relieved to finally be heading home, and

the fact remains that she's lost months of her life, experienced needless trauma and deserves space, privacy and time with her loved ones to recover and heal from her time being wrongfully detained. >> joining us matt bodner in london and white house correspondent mike memoli. matt, what are we learning about the negotiations between russian and u.s. officials that led to this big moment? >> reporter: thanks, joe. we don't know too much about the actual process, but that sort of is buy design. for some time now, at least for a year or more, going back to that summit meeting between president biden and president putin in geneva last summer, this has been a high-level, behind closed doors process and something that russian foreign minister sergey lavrov alluded to when speaking at a press conference, said the last time he spoke to his counterpart antony blinken was almost a year ago, specifically about the prisoner swaps, about griner and

paul whelan, and he kind of reaffirmed this wasn't necessarily a direct diplomatic issue between the state department and the foreign ministry, for example. it was actually a process that's been taking place between in mr. lavrov's words the security services on both sides, this would be law enforcement and related agencies. it's been a very delicate process, something that we don't see a lot of. i know we've been kind of following this beat by beat, since february, in griner's case, and haven't necessarily had too many ipds kagsz of how things progressed and today's developments came by surprise. there was very little indication, as it did with trevor reed released earlier this year and we hope will happen with paul whelan somewhere down the line. >> let's bring you in here on that. paul whelan, the other side of the coin, another high-profile american who remains detained in russia. what do we hear from the white house about the efforts to get him freed as well? >> reporter: savannah, as i've been talking to white house

officials here today they have underscored the degree to which the conversations around securing the release of wrongfully detained individuals are some of the most wrenching that president biden has had to make in office. when the white house first put this as they called it substantial offer on the table in july involving viktor bout there was hopes this might be a two for one deal, getting brittney griner and paul whelan in return but as multiple white house officials stressed the russians continue to view whelan's case as separate as very different from griner's. let's listen to secretary of state antony blinken laying this out earlier as well. >> this was not a choice of which american to bring home. the choice was one or none. we will never relent until paul and, for that matter, every other u.s. national held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad, is free and coming home and joining their families where they belong. >> reporter: now senior administration official tells nbc news that white house officials have been in contact

with paul whelan's family ahead of griner's release being announced and that they're hopeful that the line of diplomatic communications that has been opened to secure griner's release will secure his release eventually as well. >> mike and matt, thank you both. an urgent warning this hour about the flu surge happening nationwide. pharmacies report they're running extremely low on a critical medication. >> we're talking about tamiflu the popular antiviral to treat the flu. prescriptions for that drug are at their highest level in nine years. in all, the american society health system says more than 260 drugs are in short supply. that includes some of the most popular treatments for sick children. >> kids right now, there's nothing available. you're talking tylenol, motrin, and ibuprofen and acetaminophen, mucinex, benadryl. nothing. all out. there's whatever -- whatever we've got on the shelf is what we've got. >> joining us is breaking health

reporter ar ia bendict and dr. natalie azar. great to have you with us. i'll start with you in studio with us, what is causing the shortages exactly and there is any end to this in sight? >> the answer is simple, just the overwhelming number of people getting sick with respiratory viruses. obviously, that's hard to predict. we didn't expect it this season and pharmaceutical companies did not expect it. they are work to ramp up production, but that could take a couple weeks. don't expect the shelves to be stocked overnight. with tamiflu there aren't shortages everywhere. it's not a nationwide shortage. it's a local one. make sure you check because it may be available in your area. >> dr. azar, knowing this could last a while, what's your advice to parents who have sick kids trying to track down these medications? >> yeah. you know, it's two sort of separate things talking about fever reducers for comfort as opposed to tamiflu as an antiviral. i will make a note about the tamiflu, there are other antivirals available.

tamiflu is not the only one. it happens to be the most well known or popular. if you're an otherwise healthy person you don't necessarily have to take tamiflu. it reduces the severity of your symptoms and can shorten illness by a day, but not an absolute must. in terms of what parents can do, look, i really urge parents, especially of young children, to talk to your pediatrician about other things you can do if you really can't find acetaminophen or ibuprofen. kids if you're under 3 months of age you need to see your doctor if you have a fever. if older maybe you do a cool ice bath or wash cloths. there's other tricks you can do that i urge parents to talk to their pediatrician and ask them what to do in this situation. >> super quickly, we want to ask you about news on a covid-19 booster for kids. what do parents need to know here. >> yeah. this is a booster that was approved for moderna and pfizer and the age group that has yet to have a bivalent booster

approved, savannah, so for moderna that's age 6 months to 5 years and for pfizer it's 6 months to 4 years. kids of who completed their primary series of the moderna shot, which is two shots, are eligible for a bivalent booster. for kids who have completed all three shots for the pfizer series, it's three, they actually don't need the booster. if they've had two shots they can get a bivalent as their third. >> dr. azar, who we should know was in studio, doing her tv thing, treating patients in her office, thank you so much. aria, appreciate your reporting. the four idaho college students murdered are being honored in a memorial service today. the grieving community remains on edge with no arrests, no suspects identified. a focus could bring detectives a step closer to solving this case. steve patterson has the latest from moscow, idaho. >> reporter: yeah. police now dialing in on a key

piece of information and asking for the public's help at the same time focused now on a hyundai elantra or what they believe to be the make and model of a elantra between 2011 and 2013. it is when they believe it was made. they say it is critical because it was in the immediate area during the crime, somewhere extremely close to that home where those four college students were stabbed. they say that they believe that the occupants of that car could have critical information, but they couldn't elaborate on a whole lot more. just really asking for the public's help to help track that car down, to help identify it, so they can ask those pivotal questions. meanwhile, there, of course, is the processing of dna evidence at the home. that will be a critical part of this investigation, but one that experts say is likely to take some time, not only because it just takes time to match and process dna, but because of the complexity and the size of a home not to mention, you know,

this is a college home where it's kind of an open door, as you might imagine. a lot of people in and out of there. but we should learn a whole lot more when they're able to process that. meanwhile, this is still a community in mourning, still largely in shock now almost a month later. we expect another memorial today. the community of moscow coming together to help remember the victims. back to you. >> steve patterson thank you. people in central north carolina are about to experience their first night of lights and heat in five days after the attack on their power grid. the search for the person who targeted the critical infrastructure is still under investigation. $75,000 reward is now being offered for information helping lead to whoever is responsible. nbc news correspondent quad venegas is in north carolina. good to see you. authorities are combing through tips on potential suspects and motives here and we're learning about some other reported attacks near substations around the country. what do we know here?

>> reporter: savannah, more attention is now being focused on different energy infrastructure. we now know in the pacific northwest, just in oregon and washington, there were at least five different attacks or what the power companies there called criminal vandalism acts to different substations. those are all being investigated. we don't have very many details of what happened there. we also now know that weeks ago, here in north carolina, a different substation also suffered what the power company called a criminal act of vandalism that left more than 10,000 customers without power for at least two hours. they did say they were able to make the necessary repairs there. and then, of course, this incident here still under investigation. very important that one of the power companies did say they wanted the people to be reminded that anybody who attacks these power substations should be reminded that it could result in state and federal prison time. savannah? >> quad venegas, thank you very much. breaking microsoft news, and

there's more trouble ahead for ye's brand. >> christina joins us with the money minute. >> let's start with the government taking on microsoft. the federal trade commission is going to court to block the tech giant's $75 billion plan to buy video game maker activision blizzard. antitrust regulators think microsoft will restrict activision tight thes to its own xbox platform, apparently unconvinced by the company's recent offers to guarantee it will also make nintendo and playstation versions call of duty for the next ten years. aaa national average gasoline is now $3.33 a gallon. that's one cent below what it was at this time last year. analysts expect gas would fall below $3 by christmas but increased demand from china, opec cuts and russian sanctions could send prices higher again early next year. according to tax lien

documents by nbc news, ye's brand apparel may owe $600,000 in taxes to the state of california. back over to you guys. >> all right. >> thank you so much. >> thanks. a fedex driver accused of kidnapping and killing a 7-year-old girl, what the girl's 7-year-old girl, what the girl's mother is now saying abo my asthma felt anything but normal. ♪ ♪♪ it w was time fofor a nunorml with nucalala. nunucala is a a once-monthty add-onon treatatment for severe e eosinophililic asta that c can mean less oral l steroids.. not t for suddenen breathining problemsms. allergicic reactionsns can oc. get hehelp right a away for r swelling o of faface, mouth,h, tongue, or t trouble brereathing. get hehelp right a away for r swelling o of ininfections t that can cacae shiningles have e occurr. don'n't stop steteroids ununless told d by your dodoc. ininfections t that can cacae shiningles have e occurr. tell y your doctoror if u ininfections t that can cacae shiningles have e occurr. have a p parasitic infection. may cacause headacache, injejection sitete react, backck pain, andnd fatig. asask your aststhma speciaiat about a nununormal with nucalala.

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hearing from the mother of the little girl who police say was killed by a fedex driver. the mother says hr 7-year-old was robbed of the chance to grow up when she was abducted from her home last week. maya, this is heartbreaking to hear what this mother is going through. what's her message right now? >> reporter: joe, athena strand's mother just wants to keep her daughter's memory alive. she recently spoke about the tragedy that sent shock waves through the tight-knit texas community. investigators say the 7-year-old was kidnapped and killed by a man who was a contractor for fedex. police say he delivered a package to her home shortly before she went missing. athena's mom says inside that package was a christmas present for her daughter. the you can be anything barbie. christmas was her daughter's favorite holiday and the joy that athena brought to her family is something they will never be able to feel again. >> i will never see her bright blue eyes or her smile again. i will never be able to hear her say "i love you mommy."

i will never be able to do her had hair again or hold her while she sleeps. i was robbed of watching her grow up by a man that everyone was supposed to be able to trust to do one simple task, deliver a christmas present and leave. >> reporter: last night hundreds of people gathered to remember and honor athena. we heard from people who knew and loved her, including her first grade teacher. she described athena as a bubbly, free spirit who loved to dance and the color pink. >> clearly loved by so many. so hard to hear that mother talk about her daughter, but also just a wonderful tribute to her. maya, the suspect in this case is behind bars. what happens next? >> reporter: 31-year-old tanner is behind bars held on $1.5 million bond and charged with aggravated kidnapping and capital murder which means he could face the death penalty in texas. >> thank you so much.

right now, the search is on for three people after a shooting on a d.c. metro station. investigators say this is the second shooting on a busy d.c. rail system in less than just 24 hours. nbc's gary grumback is in d.c. what can you tell us about how this all unfolded? >> reporter: yeah. another day, another shooting. that's the way one woman described it earlier today. it started around 9:00 a.m. on the platform of the metro station here in northeast d.c. at benning road where there was a fight between three men, three teenage men, and one teenage boy. a gun came out during that altercation and they shot not only the teenage boy, but by association, two of the bystanders that were sitting on a bench nearby. three people were shot in this. two of the bystanders have nonlife-threatening injuries and are expected to survive. the victim, the teenage boy, was taken to a local hospital with critical injuries and police are actually going school to school in this area trying to figure

out who these young men were because they ran away with the weapon. here's what officials had to say this morning. >> we can never become numb to violence, regardless of the agers but we are seeing more of juveniles and disheartening to know that juveniles are the numbers that are driving gun violence as of recently. >> reporter: now, this is the second shooting at a metro station in washington, d.c., in less than 24 hours. last night we saw a shooting involving an off-duty fbi agent and a suspect who were also in an altercation at metro center, one of the biggest metro stops in washington, d.c. that was a fatal shooting that the fbi agent ended up shooting and killing the suspect. savannah? >> covering what one woman in the community called another day, another shooting. thank you so much. still ahead, what newly unsealed court documents are

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31st deadly pedestrian crash this year. >> she was a long time community activist. maria marciello. the crash happened near little orchid street last night. police say the driver stayed at the scene and is cooperating with police. san jose mayor sam liccardo tweeting about her passing, recognizing her work on behalf of immigrant families and saying our hearts break for maria's family and friends. sfo airport workers are mobilizing to bring attention to what they call low and unfair wages. ginger has more on the protests. >> reporter: the workers and unions that represents them want to make it clear, this is not a walkout and it's not a strict. it is a big day for mobilization for airport screeners, passenger service workers and baggage claim service workers and the

like as a demand for higher pay and safer working conditions. there are several aspects today. one is a car caravan going to sfo. the other, union workers will be purpling up, wearing their purple t-shirts saying low pay causes delays throughout the day at sfo. a spokesperson says the goal is to provide for free speech activity while allowing passengers to move throughout the airport without impediment. not seeing huge delays so far. nbc bay area news. >> thank you. here are some other stories you need to know about. officers are spreading the holiday cheer. firefighters are among up a large house fire in the south bay. first, in less than an hour. a san francisco judge will hear the first hearing in the case of twitter employees suing the social media companies. the employees filed a class action lawsuit in federal court. they say twitter violated labor

laws because it did not provide proper notice when laying off employees. the the lawsuit says elon musk informed people of their employment status by email, but some people got locked out of their accounts before that happened. we are expecting to hear from the employees today. they plan to discuss their experiences at twitter since musk took over. firefighters battled a house fire in saratoga this morning. this is video from about 8:30 in the morning in the area of shore hill court and chester avenue. firefighters upgrading this to a two-alarm fire before knocking it down in about an hour. no one was hurt. the cause. fire is unknown. plus, the happiest holiday shoppers in the bay area took over a south bay store this morning. million is 200 officers from 24 different local state and federal agencies made this happen. this is the 15th year for the annual shop with a cop event. not only did the kids get to pick up their own gifts.

they can choose presents for their family members. we're tracking rain in the bay area. it will be this afternoon. here's meat meet kari hall. >> our next storm system is quickly approaching and will bring in a quick round of rain. starting in the north bay but moving into the rest of the bay area in time for the evening xhaut. by 6:00 to 7:00, we're seeing the rain in parts of the peninsula as well as the east bay and the south bay. the north bay will gradually start to dry out after getting a quick round of rain. going into the weekend, we'll see more rounds of showers passing by that start out early on saturday morning but then become heavier and more widespread as we go throughout the day. still pop-up showers will linger into sunday. we'll talk about when we could see some additional rain in the forecast. that's coming up in about 30 minutes. thank you. check out this recent big cat scare for one north bay family.

it happened in bennett valley near santa rosa. you can see it just sitting there on that patio. the mountain lion killed two goats in their barn before dragging their dog outside. that's when one family member fired a gun off to scare it off, saving the dog in the process. the family said state, fish and wildlife responded and a trapper had to euthanize the animal. for the latest, go to nbcbayarea.com. that'll does it for this edition of the fast forward. i'll be back in 30 minutes with more news. my asthma a felt anyththing but normrmal. a a blood testst helped showow my asthmama is d driven by e eosinophils, which nucacala helps r re. a a blood testst helped showow my asthmama nucalala is a oncece-mony add-on injnjection a a blood testst helped showow my asthmama for severere eosinophphilic asthmhma. nucalala is not fofor sun breathing g problems.. alallergic reaeactions canan o. nucalala is not fofor sun breathing g problems.. get hehelp right a away for r swelling o of face, nucalala is not fofor sun breathing g problems..

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bottom of the hour now. here are some of the stories making headlines on "nbc news daily." three people including two firefighters are dead after a house fire in pennsylvania wednesday. the firefighters were battling flames inside the home when they suddenly became trapped. both were rescued but later died from their injuries. a third person was also pronounced dead at the screen. state police are investigating the cause of the fire. a 12-year-old child has been arrested and charged with murder after a fatal hit-and-run crash that killed an 82-year-old woman. it happened last month in dallas. police say florence kelly's car

was entering an intersection just after 11:00 a.m. when hit by a speeding car. police later found out that a 12-year-old boy was behind the wheel. the crash is still under investigation. and george newal, one of the creators of "schoolhouse rock" passed away. he was the last surviving creator of the series which taught subjects like grammar, civics and math to viewers through animated musical numbers. newall died of cardio pulmonary arrest on november 30th. he was 88 years old. we're following new developments in the colorado springs lbgtq night club shooting. an affidavit released last night is giving us more details on what happened the night a gunman killed five people and injured more than a dozen others at the club last month. i want to bring in anchor cory cover fins. what are we learning from the newly released affidavit? >> according to this affidavit

anderson lee aldrich arrived feet from the entrance to club q around 11:55 p.m. the surveillance video shows him getting out of a gold toyota highlander wearing a ballistic vest and carrying an ar-15 assault-style rifle. the suspect walked in the club and immediately opened fire at patrons inside the club, according to the affidavit. now the gunman was taken down by two people inside that club, injured and transported to the hospital. we're also learning from the affidavit that while at the hospital a detective overheard the suspect tell medical staff that they were sorry and had been awake for four days. >> anything else from these newly released documents standing out? >> the affidavit also includes the details of an interview between a detective and the suspect's mother. she told the dktstive she was with aldrich and they were supposed to go to a movie around 10:00 that night but that aldrich left to go run an errand. the affidavit says that they claim that the errand would only take 15 minutes but gave no other information.

aldrich's mother says she didn't see him leave and did not know if they had taken anything with them other than their phone. she told detectives that the family did not have weapons except a pocket knife owned by aldrich. investigators are still working to determine the motive behind the shooting. aldrich is charged with 305 criminal counts in connection with the shooting including murder, attempted murder, assault and bias motivated crimes. joe? >> cori, thank you for the update. now in missouri, more testing is being done within the hazelwood school district to look for radioactive contamination on the heels of previous testing and conflicting reports about toxins found at an elementary school in the district. nbc news correspondent steven ramo is following the story for us. just explain what's going on here? >> reporter: concerning stuff here. this all started this year, an independent study found an elementary school in the district had high levels of radioactivity in and around the school. the locations included the cafeteria, library, boiler room and areas of the play ground.

while a recent report by the u.s. army corps of engineers confirmed there was low-level radioactive contaminants on the banks of a creek at the edge of the school's property the agency said there was low level of concern and that elementary school was ultimately safe. because of those conflicting results the hazelwood school school district brought in a third-party engineering firm to do more testing and school officials asked that group to do even more samples within the district including at a high school football field which may have used soil from the elementary school around 25 years ago. the district spokesperson confirmed this is being done out of an abundance of caution right now. >> steven, how are parents in the district reacting? concerning stuff there as you said. >> reporter: as you can imagine they are alarmed and parents say they're not only concerned about hearing this, but disappointed by the lack of communication and transparency from the district about that additional testing that's still being done, as well as the cost for it. that testing proving to be quite

expensive, totalling $59,000 so far. paid for by the district. >> the school district doesn't need to be the one footing that bill. there should be no reason our tax dollars need to be going to anything other than educational needs. hazelwood school district knowing this information and not providing that information to the community in a very transparent way, is of major disservice. >> reporter: well, meanwhile, that elementary school where the contaminants were initially found is still closed and students have been split up across five other elementary schools across the district. many people still waiting for answers right now. >> absolutely. what a mess and that's the least they deserve. thank you so much. a blistering new senate report is highlighting failures by the federal government during the early days of the covid-19 pandemic. the report from democrats on the senate homeland security committee says in part, quote, the loss of life and the suffering that was caused by the pandemic were not inevitable. nbc news senior digital white

house reporter shannon pettypiece joins us now. the report 250 pages long. take us through some of the committee's key findings. >> reporter: well, they really found a cascade of failures across administrations throughout the federal government that committee members said resulted in many of the deaths and economic toll that could have been avoidable. some of the flaws they found range from things like just a general weak supply chain for u.s. medical equipment that left the country over dependent on foreign countries, including china, to get some of these crucial medical supplies we needed early in the pandemic. they said there were antiquated data systems where you had public health officials using pen and paper and fax machines to send data to other health officials, really slowing down the process. just an overall weakness in the system for infectious disease in this country that left us months

behind being able to track how widespread this virus had become once it arrive in the country. but there are sort of more near term problems they pointed out specific to the trump administration. things like a miscommunication and diverging opinions between public health officials and top government officials, including the president, around things like wearing masks. there was a delay in getting out this ppe that was in the u.s. stockpile to the places that needed it most. then they just cited general confusion in the administration about who was in charge. again, the committee saying all leading to unnecessary death and economic damage from this pandemic. >> we often hear experts say this will not be our last pandemic. considering that, what are some of the changes the committee is recommending? >> i mean, the committee said there needs to be really a systemic change to the way pandemic preparedness and public health are done in this country. number one, it's going to

involve more funding and that's going to have to take action from congress. they said there are some things that could be taken even in the immediate term at the white house level, at the agency levels. when it comes to organization and structure and having a clear plan for a pandemic like this because they did say that, it is might all the lessons here, that people are very well aware of, the changes have not been made or put in place yet to avoid another situation like we saw in 2020. >> all right. thank you so much. a toxic workplace culture, that's what a scathing congressional report says is had happening inside the nfl's washington commanders. the house oversight committee's investigation found, quote, sexual harassment, bullying and other toxic conduct prevadsed the workplace and were perpetuated by a culture of fear instilled by the team's owner. nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian joins us now.

this report comes after a year long investigation and the findings criticize both the team but also the nfl. what did the committee discover? >> reporter: that's right. savannah, in this blistering report the committee lays out its findings that team owner dan snyder ignored a culture of sexual harassment for more than two decades and team leadership ignored conduct by senior male employees and dan snyder interfered with two investigations one by the nfl and one by this committee and criticizes the nfl for misleading the public for how it handled the investigations into the sexual harassment investigations and the nfl continues to minimize workplace misconduct. take a listen to the chairwoman carolyn maloney. >> we also learned that instead of being transparent about it and taking steps to be accountable, the nfl did absolutely nothing. if anything, they became complicit with the commandrs in covering up what is happening.

>> reporter: now the nfl did fine the commanders $10 million, but there is another nfl investigation by a former u.s. attorney into separate allegations of sexual harassment. >> have we heard anything yet from the commanders or the league? >> reporter: the commanders -- lawyers for dan sniders issued a strong statement pushing back saying the congressional investigators demonstrated almost immediately they were not interested in the truth and that they were only interested in chasing headlines by pursuing one side of the story. we should also mention that the republicans on the committee have been critical of this investigation, which will end when the republicans take control of the house of representatives. >> thank you very much. a landmark bill to protect same-sex marriage rights is on it ways to president biden's desk. >> the house passed the respect for marriage act this morning. nearly 40 republicans voted for the bill which protects interracial marriage rights. house speaker nancy pelosi presided over the vote in one of

her final acts of speaker calling it an exciting moment for the country. >> at last, we have history in the making, but not only are we on the right side of history, we're on the right side of the future. expanding freedom in america. >> now president biden said in a statement, quote, congress has restored a measure of security to millions of marriages and families and added, together we show it's possible for democrats and republicans to come together to safeguard our most fundamental rights. celine dion reveals she has a rare neurological condition. what you need to know about the warning signs. more "nbc news dly" right more "nbc news dly" right aiaf

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problems with my health for a long time. it's been really difficult for me to face these challenges and to talk about everything that i've been going through. >> that there is grammy winner and music sensation celine dion revealing to her millions of fans she's been diagnosed with a

rare neurological condition. >> it's called stiff-person syndrome and she says it has caused hr severe muscle spasm. joins us is dr. newsom, director of the stiff-person syndrome center. doctor, good to have you with us to help us understand this. a lot of people maybe woke up and never heard about this before. tell us more about the condition, and its symptoms. >> can you hear us? >> thank you for inviting us to spread awareness. i can hear you. can you hear me? >> yes. go ahead. >> good. i was going to say, thank you for inviting me to help spread awareness for this rare condition. i think you had asked how rare it is. you know, it's quoted as being 1 in a million disease, but i will tell you it's probably more common than that, albeit so rare, there's really an evolving spectrum of symptoms that can be seen, some of which you showed i think there, where people can have this insidious subacute

chronic rigidity and spasm that often involve the trunk, the legs more than arms. you know, people really suffer with this condition. some people are in pain 24/7. they can have falls after they have a spasm, have major injuries from that. in terms of the clinical spectrum, though, this goes beyond the musculoskeletal system for some. we've had some people have what's called a ataxia on their feet, double vision, speech issues. it really can involve a lot of the areas of the nervous system. >> doctor, we know this disorder has no cure, but is there any treatment available to ease some of those symptoms, make it more livable? >> absolutely. and no cure yet, as i said, because we're working very hard within the research world to try to find a cure. the typical muscle relaxers that can help put at ease some of the

muscle spasms, or at least the intensity, can help loosen up some of the rigidity regions. i would say most people that i see, we end up committing them to an immune-based treatment. at the core of this disease it is an autoimmune condition, and without having an s immune-base treatment, the immune system just continues to be angry and quite broke, and so that is part of our cocktail that we use. i will mention that non-farm logical agents work as well and we put these all together to try to help the person's day-to-day quality of life. >> dr. newsom, thank you so much. again as joe said a lot of people waking up wondering about this. we appreciate you walking us through that. >> thank you for your time. on today's daily health, a promising new treatment for a common and sometimes deadly form of cancer, melanoma. doctors are hoping this groundbreaking advance could hold the key to treating other cancers as well.

stephanie gosk reports. >> reporter: the leading cause of melanoma beats down on us every day. in the last 30 years cases of this deadly form of skin cancer have been on the rise. bruce is living proof that a new treatment could dramatically improve prognosis. >> this stuff works, guess what, a lot of people will benefit from it. >> reporter: holly was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma, a mole on his foot turned into tumors throughout his body. treatment wasn't working until doctors tried a new therapy called tumor infiltrating lymphocytes. >> over the course of three months it diminished 30%. >> reporter: relies on a patient's own immune cells, harvesting them from a tumor, growing the cells and transplanting them back to go after the cancer. >> those immune cells can recognize the cancer and secret proteins that poke holes in the cancer causing them to explode in a process. >> reporter: a study out today

found 168 patients with metastatic pell melanoma, for those who received till it was 50% less compared to those who got a different immune therapy. 20% saw their tumors disappear entirely, compared to 7% in the other group. fda approval for till therapy could come next year. researchers at the moveette cancer center believe that could be the beginning. >> the therapy will be a game changer for many kinds of cancers. >> reporter: it's already been a game changer for holly. >> god has given me the opportunity to do it again. >> reporter: stephanie gosk, nbc news. a new study finds it's safe for breast cancer survivors to take a temporary break from some medications in order to get pregnant. that's according to researchers at boston's dana farber cancer institute, pausing hormone blocking treatments does not raise a patient's short-term risk of cancer coming back.

researchers are still studying the longer term safety of pausing treatment, but that's a little bit of good news for a lot of women, i'm sure. much more news ahead. >> you're watching "nbc news daily." the e virus thatat causes shiningles is slsleeping... in 99%9% of peoplele over 5. it's lying dodormant, in 99%9% of peoplele over 5. wawaiting... and d could reacactivate. shiningles strikikes as a painfnful, blistetering rashh that c can last fofor weeks. shiningles strikikes as a painfnful, anand it couldld wake at anyny time. shiningles strikikes as a painfnful, think k you're notot atat risk for r shingles?? itit's time toto wake up.. bebecause shiningles could wawake up in y you. if you'r're over 50,0, tatalk to yourur doctor or pharmrmacist if you'r're over 50,0, abouout shingleses preventio.

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illnesses. flu cases are at a ten-year high. the trifecta of illnesses is taking the toll on health providers. 9% of hospital beds are occupied now as the number of covid, flu and rsv patients rise. more than 9 million flu unnexts since october. nearly 80,000 of those people hospitalized 4500 died according to the cdc. pharmacies are seeing shortages of fever medications. especially for children. doctors fear people getting vaccine fatigue but urging everyone to get the flu vaccinations as soon as possible. >> nationally nearly 9 million cases over 78,000 people hospitalized. over 4500 deaths. some of them are children. 14 children. >> as for the children's

medications there is hope on the horizon. johnson & johnson the maker of tylenol says it's ramping up the production lines to help meet demand. we have more storms on the way with a strong one on saturday. here's kari hall with the extended forecast. >> rain arriving but this evening and wrapping up by tonight and temperatures into the mid-50s. looks like most of friday is dry but not seeing a lot of sunshine and the next storm system early saturday morning. with the potential of even thunderstorms across parts of the microclimates into sunday. monday see the storm system wrapping up. dry on tuesday but then could see some more showers by the middle of next week and the near term forecast for san francisco mid-50s in the forecast. mostly cloudy friday with cool temperatures and then focusing on the impacts of this more heavy storm coming in.

>> thank you .

turning to the climate in crisis world leaders flocked to montreal to work on a new set of goals to slow down the loss of the natural world. cop 15 focuses on the world's bio diversity with plant and animal species weeks after countries gathered in egypt to tackle climate change. while they sound similar this one focuses on conservation. 1 million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction as a result of the human activity. clean air, food and climate are all regulated by the natural world. of course we'll keep an eye on the headlines from cop15. if you like to follow the climate in crisis series go to our website nbc bay area.com. don't't e expect local fres

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today on "access daily," move over milk. we're having christmas cookies and cocktails. >> and we're recreating the viral cheeseburger from the movie "the menu." "access daily" starts now. ♪♪ welcome to "access daily" from universal studios hollywood. i'm mario lopez with kit hoover. it is thursday. >> yesterday you remember the big debate about kate winslet talking about she learned to hold her breath for the new avatar movie for seven minutes. all the actors had to do it. >> you know that meme where that