>> nick watt, appreciate it. thank you.e now on the implications of all this especially as it impacts on daily living. joining us, cnn chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta, author of "world war c: lessons from the covid-19 pandemic and how to prepare for the next one." also with us cnn medical analyst and former baltimore health commissioner dr. leana wen, author of "lifelines: a doctor's journey in the fight for public health." so sanjay, you heard nick watt call this a depressing deja vu. you see college exams being moved online, some sporting events, broadway shows canceled. is that the correct reaction to what we've learned over just the last few days? >> well, i mean, we're still very much in the midst of a delta surge, anderson. obviously, omicron's getting a lot of attention in the news. but if you look at the map and see just how much virus is still transmitting in various places, i mean, we're still in a significant shower of virus. at some point if the numbers come down low enough, then i think you may be

nick watt, cnn, los angeles. >> nick, thank you very much for that.oining me now is an epidemiologist and cnn medical analyst. doctor, good to see you. thank you so much for helping us out with this story. you're saying that omicron is the most transmissible virus ever? that is a scary thing to hear. it's quite a statement, but what will it mean for us in real-life terms? what does that mean? >> thank you for having me, don. it's very nice to see you again. sorry it's under these circumstances. >> yeah. >> first of all, let's start off with the fact that we're already in the middle of a delta winter surge. so even if there wasn't omicron, we would be facing higher case counts, higher hospitalizations. but omicron, remember, it's that variant that sort of appeared almost out of whole cloth around thanksgiving with 50 mutations simultaneously, 30 of them in the spike area and half of those in the business end of the spike. so it's a new virus, but it's spreading like we've never seen anything spread before. it's a multiple more infectious than delta. as

nick watt, we'll be keep an eye on all of that.nk you. >>> joining us to help sort through some of this confusion, is dr. shatner. always great to see you. we need help understanding what to do about omicron, which is fast becoming so if omicron is much more transmissible, is less severe than previous variants, at the moment, we think, what does that mean for christmas? should we? can we be get together with our vaccinated loved ones? or do you not recommend that? >> alisyn, i would recommend we hang our stockings with care. i think we have to be careful. if we're all going to get together, we should all be vaccinated, and prefer referenceally boosted. we should wear or masks if we're uncertain, and another thing we can do is we could all get tested the morning of our getting together. we did that at our house over thanksgiving, because we had a member who had a very serious condition that put them at risk of very severe disease, should they get infected. we have all negative. it worked out just fine. >> that's a little easier said

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we get more from cnn's nick watt. >> reporter: the question is when, not if the omicron variant reaches the united states. could already be here. among the first to study omicron, this guy. >> it looks like a problem, but we don't know to what extent it's going to be a problem. i wouldn't at this point say that this is hugely different from stuff we've seen before. >> i think we'll get information on transmission and severity in the coming week or two. i do think it will take some time for us to get a better understanding on the impact of vaccines. our estimate is two to four weeks. >> reporter: here's what we already know about omicron's mutations. >> these mutations have been associated with increased transmissibility and immune-ivation. >> reporter: will it work as well against the delta variant? moderna's c.e.o. told the financial times, if omicron does, indeed, diminish protection from vaccines -- >> boosters should reduce dramatically the gap. >> reporter: this variant was first detected in southern africa, now dominant down there. >> what we are presenting to primary health care

cnn's national correspondent nick watt has the story. >> michigan's little warsaw.y hall. every single mayor was polish american. every one, until now. >> i am the mayor elect of hamtramck city. i came to the united states about 22 years ago. >> reporter: from yemen, hamtramck, locals say, is now majority muslim. this little city was dying, decaying. new immigrants, largely from bangladesh and yemen, are bringing it back. and what could be more american t than diving into local government? >> tonight is a real example that the american dream is alive and well in the land of opportunity. >> hamtramck will apparently become the first city in america with a muslim mayor and an entire muslim city council. >> people are like what do you think about this being a first? and i'm like firsts are great and now we have to prove it doesn't matter. >> she is a polish american convert to islam. >> we are muslims. we are proud of our briefs and values. but we are not going to try to impose them on others. >> we are not going to be saying, like, oh, all the women have to cover thei

nick watt, cnn, los angeles. >> of course vaccinations are key as we head into the holiday. spoke earlier with a member of the u.s. food and drug administration's vaccine advisory committee, and he explained how boosters and even initial doses are critical to controlling the spread. have a listen. >> the cdc estimated today that the doubling time was about two days, which is much faster than the delta variant in terms of transmissibility. so you're therefore much more likely to be infected. the best thing you can do is to vaccinate yourself. i know we talk about giving a third dose, but the most important thing is to get those first two doses. i just came off of being on service for a week at children's hospital of philadelphia, and we saw a number of children, more than i've seen consistent with the national afternoon, and what all those children had in common even though most were over 5, many were over 12, none of them were vaccinated. none of their family members. no one was vaccinated. we talk about boosting, but we need to make sure even if you get two doses of an mrna

they, like us, have a vaccine hesitancy issue. >> nick watt, thanks.respondent dr. sanjay gupta. thanks for joining us. always a treat to have you in studio. let's play a key moment in your conversation with cdc director dr. rochelle walensky. you asked her if she was worried omicron could become the dominant strain here in the u.s. here's what she said. >> it might. we don't yet know. what we do know is that early data and even mutation data are telling us that this may well be a more transmissible variant than delta. and so this is going to take some time to sort out. we are prepared, though. we are doing genomic sequencing in all these states. >> what did you make of that? >> we are doing a lot more genoming sequencing but most of these variants are typically found in other places first. a large part of that is we're still not doing enough overall testing. pcr tests. >> in the united states. >> in the united states. a million to a million and a half a day. at one point we were talking about 20 or 30 million a day. maybe we'll get to that point. dr.

one, the winter surge is here, and as cnn's nick watt reports, fauci says it is only a matter of time until omicron becomes the dominant variant in the u.s. >> tina among broadway shows canceling performances once more after cases among the cast just two months after reopening. princeton and nyu just joined cornell and others moving what's left of the semester back online. a depressing dose of dejavu. officials in philly are warning, don't party with people outside your household over the holidays. >> it is hard and feels impossible and unfair. these gatherings with friends and family are when we infect each other with covid. >> pro sports teams demonstrating how the virus is spreading. odell beckham jr. scored monday night and next morning joined the long list of players and staff testing positive and quarantining after exposure. >> really a window into community spread. kudos to the sports leagues because they are actually doing a fantastic job of surveillance testing. and the rest of the country, we're driving a car down a dark road with the headlights off while looking in the rear

. >> let's bring in cnn national correspondent nick watt. covid cases and hospitalizations and deaths here in the united states are all rising rapidly. >> reporter: well, and wolf, this just in from new york, that city saw the positivity rate on their pcr tests double in just the space of four days. the city is now dishing out a million dollars worth of masks, half a million at-home tests, setting up more testing sites and meantime, wolf, some fairly monumental vaccine news. >> we have 15 yeses, zero noes. >> reporter: the cdc vaccine advisers unanimous in remming the cdc change its guidance to say that the pfizer and moderna vaccines are preferred over the j&j. why? well, those very rare blood clots connected to the j&j that can be fatal. meantime -- hamilton, among the broadway shows canceling performances once more after cases cases amongst the cast, just two months after reopening. princeton and nyu just joined cornell and others moving what is left of the semester back online. a depressing dose of deja vu. they are warning don't party w

. >> reporter: nick watt, cnn, hamtramck, michigan. >> very nice -- very nice report. nick, thank you very much. and to our viewers, thanks for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in the situation room. "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. >>> out front next. breaking nus. a new study finding no evidence that omicron is less severe than the delta variant comes as the pandemic is shattering more records. nfl games now being postponed and one of the nation's biggest school districts returning to virtual learning. is this the beginning? >>> plus, cnn learning who the january 6th committee believes sent one of the messages to trump's chief of staff about overturning lgt election. and the officer who shot and killed daunte wright takes the stand. her testimony highly emotional. did it work? let's go out front. and good evening, i'm erin burnett. out front tonight, the breaking news and it is concerning news this hour. we have a new study just coming out of the uk that finds there is no evidence that the omicron strain is less severe than the delta variant. well, this comes as dr

cnn's nick watt has the latest from los angeles. >> reporter: omicron is in the united states. he was fully vaccinated and boosted. >> so far, i am reassured that this will be just a mild illness if any illness at all for those of us that are fully vaccinated. but there are a lot of people in the u.s. who are unvaccinated, and our hospitals cannot take that kind of surge again. >> reporter: and it appears is this variant does spread faster. >> early mutation data are telling us this may well be a more transmissible variant than delta. >> we do think it is quite infectious, quite transmissible because south africa has been reporting a very rapid increase in the number of cases. in fact, they've been doubling every day. >> reporter: still unclear if it partially evades vaccines, but -- >> the other thing that's becoming clearer is that people who were infected with other versions of the sars-cov-2 virus can be reinfected with this one. >> reporter: new travel restrictions kick in 12:01 a.m. monday. everyone coming into the u.s. will have to test negative within 24 hours of depart

. >> let's bring in nick watt who is following the story. this is sad.xperienced some controversy so tell us how we got here. >> well, listen, alisyn, this horse was a young much loved extraordinary race horse. first race was just last year. ten starts in all. more than three and a half million dollars in earnings, one half of the races he ever entered, including the kentucky derby earlier this spring and that is where the controversy that you mentioned kicks in. after the race, medina spirit tested positive for something called beta metha zone. bob baffert, a huge figure in horse racing in this country, nearly 50-year career, super suave and very successful, he said this was just in a skin ointment that they we were putting on the horse and it was not injected and i texted with his lawyer who said last week an independent analyst proves that they were right, they were not breaking the rules. but the kentucky horse racing commission said that their investigation they tell me is still ongoing. so there is still a small cloud hanging over this race horse.

cnn's nick watt starts us off with the more aggressive approach. >> announcing today that all inbound international travelers must test within one day of departure regardless of their vaccination status or nationality. >> reporter: one plank of the president's winter action plan announced this afternoon to fight the coronavirus and its new omicron variant which we now know is here, a second case confirmed this morning in minnesota. mile symptoms, now recovered, vaccinated man recently returned from a large animae convention in new york city. >> potentially now on both coasts and that means we are going to continue to see the number of cases rise. >> reporter: the first confirmed case was yesterday in san francisco, fully vaccinated but unboosted individual recently returned from south africa. also mild symptoms and doing well. >> all close contacts have been contacted and thus far have tested negative. >> reporter: we still don't know for sure if omicron is more transmissible or significantly evades the vaccines. but -- >> there is every reason to believe that kind of increase you get

cnn's nick watt has more. >> reporter: well, christine and laura, in new york city they are handing out million dollars worth of masks. and a half million at-home covid tests, putting up new testing sites around the city. why? because in the space of just four days, the positivity rate on pcr tests in new york city doubled. an adviser to the mayor said, we have never seen that before in n.y.c. delta, the variant still around the country and the omicron variant on the rise, a dire warning from president joe biden. >> new steps we've taken, omicron has not spread as fast as it otherwise would have done. and that's happening in europe. but it's here now, and it's spreading, and it's going to increase. for unvaccinated, we are looking at a winter of severe illness and death for unvaccinated. for themselves, their families, and the hospitals they will soon overwhelm. >> reporter: dr. fauci says that the omicron variant will pretty soon become the dominant variant here in the united states. the vaccines do still provide protection against severe disease and death, especially with a booster. n

the deaths prompting investigations on which our nick watt has extensively chronicled. i hope you take a look at his fantastic reporting on that. thanks for joining us. "ac 360" starts now. >>> hey, good evening. we begin with breaking news and potentially a big break for the january 6th committee. s cooperation of-smrn who could not be closer to rope vice president into the former president's election scheme. cnn special correspondent, jamie gangel, is part of the team that got this exclusive. he? joins us now. so, jamie talking about the former choof chief of staff, mark short, what have you learned? >> we learned mark short, one of former vice president pence's closest advisers, his former chief of staff is cooperating with the january 6th committee along with my colleagues ryan nobles and mike warren, we have learned that the committee subpoenaed short a few weeks ago. but that unlike some other trump officials, he's not fighting the subpoena. and, anderson, short's cooperation is a significant development because he is, as you say, a firsthand witness to so many cr

the deaths prompting investigations on which our nick watt has extensively chronicled.d evening. we begin with breaking news and potentially a big break for the january 6th committee. s cooperation of-smrn who could not be closer to rope vice president into the former president's election scheme. cnn special correspondent, jamie gangel, is part of the team that got this exclusive. he? joins us now. so, jamie talking about the former choof chief of staff, mark short, what have you learned? >> we learned mark short, one of former vice president pence's closest advisers, his former chief of staff is coop