meg terrell with more. >>> 9-year-old is practicing how to use her new vocal cords. she was born with a rare disorder which causes problem throughout the body. her doctor at oregon health and science university shows us with this model. >>> this area just below the vocal cords were not formed normally. the vocal cords were present but telphers no opening between them. >> she learned to communicate using her tongue and cheeks to make sounds and form world series known as buckle speech. >> she was thriving like any other little girl. except, of course, that she had no voice. through any of that time. >> but, last year her and her family decided to go ahead with a complex and rare reconstructive surgery to open her vocal cords. her mom was nervous. >> i thought she was not ready yet. but, she was. >> the surgery took eight hours. >> the bottom part of the voice box and the top of the wind pipe, had to cut that part out and drill out the opening between the vocal cords here. and add more cart ledge borrowed from her ribs to make this part wider and connect up the bottom

meg terrel joins us, how hard is it to find those weight loss drugs? >> these new medicines can be almost impossible for some patients to access even if they qualify based on their bmi. that's in part from drugs in popularity legos and pick, and there high list prices, insurance companies will not cover them if you look at the list prices per month, that is before insurance, pushing $1000 or even more than that for all these medicines. we talked to one patient, she had prescriptions for each drug and experienced either insurance hurdles or shortages, sometimes both with these matters and. i talked with the doctor that's a sunny five percent of her requests for the newest medicine are currently getting rejected. there is a lot of problems and frustration getting these new medicines. the mac what are the older drugs people are turning to? >> there have been drugs for decades doctors use before this new class of medicines came along, and are using more now. drugs -- we have exclusive data showing that prescription rates for those medicines are up about 30

our meg terrell is here to tell us how she's finding her voice. >> good morning.za is an amazing little girl. she was born with her airway almost completely blocked. they were able to perform surgeries in the first days of her life that allowed her to breathe. she could never speak. now she has major reconstructive surgery and shea's learning to speak using her vocal cords and her voice for the first time in her life. >> you want one scoops or two scoops? >> one scoop. >> reporter: she's practicing how to use her new vocal cords. derek lamb, her doctor at oregon health and science university showed us with this model. >> this whole area from here to here, including just below the vocal cords, was not formed normally. the vocal cords were present but there was just no opening between them. >> she learned to communicate using her tung and cheeks to make sounds and form words called bucchal speech. >> she was thriving like any other little girl except, of course, that she had no voice through any of that time. >> but last year she and her family decided to go ahead w

reporter meg terrell has his story. >> two years ago it was hard to imagine 15 year old johnny lubin doing this for very long. born with sickle cell disease, an inherited disorder affecting the red blood cells. johnny has been in and out of the hospital his entire life, dealing with bouts of extreme pain and other serious complications. >> it was kind of hard for me to, like, do things like have fun and stuff because i'd always have to be worried about if i'd have a pain crisis or not. it would mostly be in my back, like my lower back. and i'd always like be like really like a pounding pain in my back. so it hurt a lot. >> how long would they last? >> sometimes the days until now, the only hope for a cure for the estimated 100,000 people in the us with the disease has been a bone marrow transplant. >> it. but like more than 80% of patients with sickle cell. johnny couldn't find a donor. >> we were desperate at that point. we were like, okay, what's going to be next? we thought that we were going to lose him. >> so johnny and his family decided to try something that's almost never bee

. >> reporter: meg terrell, cnn, ohio. >> quite the story, indeed. >>> in a few minutes, chris christie will join "cnn this morning" live. why he is saying this about nikki haley's civil war comments. >> i know her well. and i don't believe nikki has a racist bone in her body. but for purposes of this race, the reason she did it is just as bad, if not worse. and thatat should d get everyby concncerned abouout her candndi. >>> breaking overnight. russia launching its biggest attack on ukraine since launching its invasion two years ago. ukrainian officials russia launched missiles and drones across the country. >> ukraine says the attacks show it needs the world's support after congress went home without approving more aid. nic robertson joins us now. nic, this was a widespread attack that hit targets in every corner of the country. what happened here? >> reporter: you hit on why this is important, of course, on the head. russia looks for weaknesses. and ukraine's allies, the united states not coming up with money, or the european union, going on christmas break before the 54 million euro

let's discuss with meg terrell. is jn-1 making us sicker? >> reporter: well, the good news is it doesn't appear to be causing more severe disease than other variants of covid. but the bad news about it is it appears to have an advantage over previous variants. that's how it's really taking over here in the united states and around the world. if you look at the cdc's estimates of the prevalence of this, it's about 4% of new cases as of early to mid november. that's jumped to more than 20% in the last month. that's couldn'ting to increase. the expectation is it'll become dominant here and worldwide over the coming weeks. the thought about this are it can better evade the existing immunity and that's how it's getting this advantage. >> so the vaccine, how does it square off against this? >> reporter: so even though it does have the changes in the spike protein that give it that sort of evasion ability around our existing immunity, the vaccines are still expected to provide good protection. particularly against severe disease. so early research

meg terrell has the details. >> reporter: and the strain is fastest growing here in the united states. and that is because it has a growth advantage over other variants spreading here and around the world. if you look just back about a month ago this november, it accounted for about 4% of new cases in the ground according to cdc estimates. and now that is up to more than 20% nationally. it is already predominant in the northeastern part of the united states and is expected to become the dominant variant here in the u.s. and worldwide over the coming weeks. jn-1 is a decent scendant of 2. because it had a number of mutations that experts worry would make it better at evading our existing immunity. and it didn't end up taking off with the speed that lot of people feared it would. but jn-1 does seem to have that ability to spread. but good news is that early research suggests that the currently updated vaccines for covid should protect well against jn-1. and so public health officials especially here in the united states are encouraging folks to get the updated covid vaccines if they hav

. >> meg terrell, cnn, windham, ohio. >>> he is lucky to be okay. it is such a risk that. i would just go to the grocery store. >> i agree. but they only have a few varieties, boris. >> order them online! it's fine. nothing wrong with ordering mushrooms on the internet. what could go wrong? >> [laughs] stop. >> maybe you 2024 resolution includes reading more books. >> mine actually. does our own michael smerconish has some ideas. speaking to five officers who influenced him in 2023. >> back in 2006, after i've been appearing regularly on cnn, usually as illegal guest, the network told me that they liked my work but they did know what to do with. me i think the network brass were surprised when i then pitched my idea. hosting a weekly book club. we filmed beginning with me back a home in market street in philadelphia. that show never made it to air. today, 17 years later and all of a gift, at least for me, i decided out speak to five authors of books made an impact on me this year david brooks has been an opinion columnist for the new york times 20 years. his latest book ex

. >> reporter: meg terrell, cnn, reporting. >> that was just so sweet. megger erterrell, thank you.ding her voice. >>> all right. found after vanishing from a russian prison two weeks ago, where the jailed putin critic is right now and what we are learning about his current health condition. all that i is coming u up. i'm a little anxious, i'm a little excited. i'm gonna be emotional, she's gonna be emotional, but it's gonna be so worth it. i love that i can give back to one of our customers. i hope you enjoy these amazing gifts. oh my goodness. oh, you guys. i know you like wrestling, so we got you some vip tickets. you have made an impact. so have you. for you guys to be out here doing something like this, it restores a lot of faith in humanity. >>> right now, israel's war on hamas intensifying in gaza. dozens of palestinians reportedly killed overnight ad the idf is ramping up attacks. >>> found after disappearing for two weeks. imprisoned putin critic alexei navalny no longer missing according to his team. where they say russia has moved him. >>> dreaming of a white christmas? t

cnn medical correspondent meg t terrell who got the new cell editing therapy. >> reporter: two years ago, it was hard to imagine 15-year-old johnny doing this for very long. born with sickle cell disease, an inherited disorder affecting the red blood cells, johnny has been in and out of the hospital his entire life, dealing with bouts of extreme pain and other serious complications. >> it was kind of hard for me to do things like have fun and stuff because i'd always have to be worried if i'd have a crisis or not. it would mostly in my lower back, like a pounding in my back. it hurt a lot. . >> how long would they last? >> sometimes days. >> reporter: until now, the only hope for a cure for the estimated 100,000 people in the u.s. with the disease has been a bone marrow transplant. but, like more than 80% of patients with sickle cell, johnny couldn't find a donor. >> really desperate. at that point, okay, what's going to be next? >> reporter: so, johnny and his family decided to try something that's almost never been done before. >> i was worried that i might be, like, given superpow