heart rate soaring. >> the grocery store is a dread for me. >> what's hard about the grocery store? >> i cannot lift bags and walk. >> you're a full-time trainer and you can't lift grocery bags. >> correct. >> sadie has seen half a dozenen doctors in the past six months. her bedside table looks like a medicine cabinet. she's been diagnosed with post-viral fatigue and tachycardia, but no one can tell her exactly why this is happening. it's got to take such a toll mentally to still be dealing with this. >> it's depressing is really what it is. nobody can really understand or relate to you except somebody else who's had the same problem. >> what's been worse for you, the initial infection or the aftermath? >> the aftermath. >> she got covid in march and by may the infection was gone. 191 days later, she's still struggling. >> i was sick with covid, but

this post-covid experience has been beyond the worse experience of my life. >> she loved to run. three years ago she completed the new york city marathon. the following year, berlin. at 43, she was training for another race when she got infected. >> this is slight unsteadiness. >> now she tells us she has trouble walking more than a few blocks down the street. she says she's had so many strange and unrelenting symptoms she starte documenting them on her phone. she got tremors in her hands. and had problems with her balance. >> i had headache, dizziness, blurry vision, double vision, heavy limbs. >> that's a lot. >> it's a lot. >> for months, she experienced memory problems, trouble finding words and confusion, something many long haulers grapple with.

they call it covid brain fog, and nitsa says it made everyday tasks nearly impossible. >> it's like taking benadryl, kind of like a disconnect, a cloudiness to my head. >> but nitsa says the most terrifying symptom was when her leg started to give out. >> my sister said why are you walking like that. i said, i don't know, maybe i'm just tired. and i think three to four days after she mentioned that, i woke up and my legs felt so heavy as if a weight was pulling it down that i just -- my legs just didn't support me and i just kind of fell. i just got an mri. >> she went to the emergency room and requested an mri and a full bloodwork. everything came back normal. >> the doctors were like, you're fine. you're having anxiety attacks. you're just nervous. >> they thought it was your head.

>> they thought it was in my head. >> and one of those moments that i'll never forget because how could i possibly be fine? and when i left the emergency room that day, i was like, i'm just going home to die. sorry. i'm sorry. >> even recounting that is emotional. to be told what you're feeling is not real. >> precisely. >> she eventually found her way to mt. sinai hospital's center for post-covid care, focused on treating and studying long haulers. >> the average age of patients feeling this post-acute syndrome are 20s to 40s. they were relatively healthy before. >> dr. data mccarthy is a rehab specialist. there's a waitlist to get in. the vast majority of the patients you see here at this

center were never hospitalized. >> correct. >> so, they weren't on ventilators? this is not ramifications from being in the hospital? >> correct. yep. >> dr. mccarthy is treating her patients' symptoms as best she can, but isn't much closer to understanding what's causing them. >> do we know now what's going on? >> no. >> no? >> no. we still don't know. no. >> i think it's a little bit of a mystery. let's take little bit out of it. i think it's a mystery. this virus has many different affects on the human body just like what 9/11 did to those survivors. so, as a kind of catastrophic event at one time that causes a large group of special patients, you know, in a way, this is very similar to 9/11 but on a much grander scale. >> the pool of patients is much larger. >> absolutely. >> mount sinai is studying

commonalities among that pool of patients using data they've compiled in scanning huang haulers' brains, lungs and hearts to see what damage the virus might have done. the lack of answers and the skepticism many of these patients face have contributed to high levels of depression and anxiety. dr. mccarthy says that's not what's making them sick. >> you believe it's not in their heads. you believe them? >> yeah, because i feel those symptoms too and i don't think it's in my head. >> dr. mccarthy had what she considered a mild case of covid in march, but eight months later, she says like so many long haulers, she still finds it hard to get through the day. >> i basically do my work and i go home and go to sleep. that's what i'm capable of doing right now. >> at the end of the day do you feel way more tired than you would. >> at the end of this day because of what's happening right now and the meetings after this, i will have the most

excruciating head aache and i wl just take some tylenol and curl up in a ball and go to sleep and hope i feel better tomorrow. >> you can see the full report on our website, cbsnews.com. you're watching the "cbs overnight news." honey honey? new nyquil severe honey is maximum strength cold and flu medicine with soothing honey-licious taste. nyquil honey. the nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever best sleep with a cold medicine.

vicks vapopatch. easy to wear with soothing vicks vapors for her, for you, for the whole family. trusted soothing vapors, from vicks

the coronavirus pandemic has touched off wide food shortages. a michelin star chef is working to battle hunger thousands of miles away in his native india. >> reporter: in a makeshift kitchen on the terrace of a new york city apartment -- >> these are the most interesting pepper cons in the world. >> reporter: this chef's attention to detail is on full display, as is his trademark drive to get things right. >> so, how many versions of this dish did you go through in development? >> seven in seasonings, 11 in terms of plating. >> reporter: looking at his pan seared roasted squash, it's hard to argue with his approach. combining the tastes of his grandmother's indian kitchen

with classical french training to develop his own distinctive the cuisine. >> i like to incorporate them in a creative way. >> reporter: and opened the hottest restaurants in new york and soon beijing and singapore. >> that is what the purpose of cooking is now. >> reporter: these days crossing borders is all he thinks about. getting help to as many of the 400 million people in india forced into poverty by covid as he can. >> that is the true meaning why i became a chef. that is the reason that you were given all this training, to be that one to understand hunger so deeply. >> and then do something about it. >> find a solution. there is always a solution. >> reporter: leveraging his fame back home as a michelin starred chef, author, film director and entrepreneur, he started feed

india. >> did you have any idea the size of the undertaking when you got started? >> do you think anyone could envision the magnitude of this pandemic in the beginning? >> reporter: he's assembled a coalition of food producers, distributors, even bureaucrats. >> we want 100,000 cases of rice. okay, sir, it's coming here. >> reporter: and from half a world away mobilized an army. >> i put satellite kitchens together in six hours and we had the food on the trucks in eight hours. >> thank you. >> reporter: feed india has provid provided 50 million meals so far. >> 50 million meals. >> reporter: that's an extraordinary number. they're served in shelters, orphanages and gas stations on roads where people are walking to work. >> you are 7,000 miles from where you grew up.

it's 9.5 hours time difference. how can you manage the logistics when you're so far away? >> this is my mission, and i am not moving my eyes off anything. the lanterns were done very creatively. >> reporter: for now khanna has put the parts of his cooking empire on hold with the voice of his mother always on his ear. >> everything you ever sold or got award, everything belongs to every single person in this country. you just took it and sold it to the world, so don't give me this excuse that this is not your problem. >> reporter: so your mom is reminding you you have an obligation to do this. >> duty. she said it is a duty to feed others. >> reporter: he is seeking to nourish on a grander scale, showing the stomachs of millions in india, as well as his own soul here in new york. >> you've written dozens of

cookbooks, cooked for presidents. you've produced a movie. where does this effort rank for you in

at 111 years old, lawrence brooks is america's oldest living veteran of world war ii. he got a surprise birthday gift that will make this thanksgiving all the more special. jamie wax has his story. >> reporter: after more than a century, you might think lawrence brooks had gotten just about every kind of birthday present imaginable. ♪ happy birthday to you >> reporter: but at america's oldest world war ii vet, this year came with an unexpected gift, which came with a call from louisiana governor john bel edwards. right before he hung up, he said, let me know if there's anything i can do for you. you said -- >> my roof is leaking.

>> my roof is leaking. this is a lesson in taking an opportunity. >> yeah, yeah. there was vegetation growing out of the existing roof. there was obviously deficient framing. >> reporter: kevin griffin and jason engels were part of a louisiana-based team tapped by the governor's office to help lawrence brooks fix shotty repair work done after hurricane katrina. doz dozens of volunteers replaced the roof, no questions asked. >> the governor's words were fix the home and roof as if it were your own, and that's what we did. >> brooks wuas drafted into the second world war in the then still segregated u.s. army. brooks served overseas with the predominantly african-american 91st engineer battalion in places like australia and new guinea. he took a job as the unit's

cook. >> when i was coming up, i used to watch my mother. my mother would show me the difference in our cooking. they got us together and it sent me to cooking school for about six weeks. >> what did it do you to be able to give back to a man like that? >> it kind of makes you re-evaluate yourself. volunteering on something like this gives you purpose. >> surviving not only the war but be the spanish flu pandemic of 1918 as well, lawrence brooks brings us perspective t to the current year. >> certainly one of the craziest years you've lived through in your 111 years. what are you thankful for? >> thankful for my wife, my daughter, thank god for everything. >> reporter: jamie wax, new orleans. >> and that's the overnight news for this tuesday. be sure to check back later for

"cbs this morning." reporting from the nation's capitol. i'm kris van cleave. it's 24th, 2020. this is the "cbs morning news." formal transition. three weeks after the election the trump administration finally clears the way for president-elect biden's transition to officially begin. mr. biden's next move and what president trump is saying about the process. taking on covid. there's new hope as drug makers race to find a vaccine. how the latest proposed treatment could be a game changer. recall alert. millions of gm vehicles could be posing a major danger on the road. good morning. good to be with you. i'm