[0:00]hi everyone I'm Phil Lipoff thanks so much for streaming with us it was not the merriest of Christmases for thousands of airline passengers roughly 3 800 flights canceled since Christmas Eve alone
[0:11]carriers blaming the spread of Omicron for creating Staffing shortages in the airline industry Omicron also created an unprecedented demand for testing resulting in long lines Nationwide we're
[0:23]gonna have more on that for you in just a moment but first the jury weighing fraud charges against former theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes has begun their second week of deliberations Home faces
[0:34]11 criminal charges alleging that she duped investors and patients by saying her company's blood testing technology was a medical breakthrough prosecutors
[0:44]say that was not the case we are also monitoring jury deliberations in the trial of galane Maxwell the British socialite faces charges alleging she recruited and groomed teenage girls for
[0:56]financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse over a 10-year period Maxwell turned 60 on Christmas day while spending time Behind Bars both homes and Maxwell are maintaining their innocence
[1:08]we will of course bring you the verdicts in both of these trials when they happen and there was no Christmas miracle for Powerball players out there sorry for
[1:18]the 34th straight time there was no big winner bringing the jackpot now up to 416 million dollars for tonight's drawing there were 1 million dollar
[1:28]winners in California South Carolina and Tennessee that is a pretty nice Christmas present the odds of hitting all five numbers in the Powerball by the
[1:36]way one in 292 million so we could be waiting a while for the next big winner now to the fight against covid-19 more
[1:46]essential workers are calling out over the holidays as Omicron spreads and cases continue to Surge we are also seeing a striking increase in children being hospitalized with covid Trevor all
[1:58]with the latest the Omicron surge piling up new cases through the holidays leading experts to warn that even if this variant proves to be more mild its sheer transmissibility
[2:10]could seriously overload hospitals testing lines in cities from every region of the country stretching blocks as the virus spreads caseloads soaring past the Delta Peak even as many
[2:21]Americans say they have to search relentlessly to even find a test some showing up well Before Sunrise CVS Walgreens all those were booked out and
[2:31]honestly this is a last resort I will come here three o'clock if I really had to in Florida where they've broken their record high daily infection total on back-to-back days this Orlando testing
[2:42]site reached capacity nine straight days heading into Christmas and Sunday crowds back out once again we just got back from the plane and everybody was coughing so we really wanted to see if
[2:53]we have have covered or not and in New York state the health department has warned pediatric hospitalizations have increased four-fold saying bluntly the
[3:03]risks of covid-19 for children are real that is why you know it's so important for those that are eligible and around especially our children under five were yet to get the vaccine to be vaccinated
[3:13]to really cocoon them protect them especially as we're entering the surge an Omicron is creating Staffing shortages 19 of New York City EMS workers called out on Christmas that
[3:25]several times more than usual and professional sports leagues are having to adjust as well the NHL has now postponed all the games that were scheduled to be played tonight and the
[3:35]NBA is requiring every team to hold a booster shot event for their players as 97 percent of NBA players are fully vaccinated but a third of them have not received a booster Phil
[3:46]Trevor thank you another industry affected by the latest covet outbreaks cruise ships some ships are actually returning to port after being refused permission to dock at their scheduled
[3:57]stops Victor akendo with the latest a holiday travel nightmare at sea at least four Cruise Lines reporting coveted breakouts on board the way
[4:07]fueled by Omicron passengers left isolating and ships now bypassing popular destinations it was disgusting nobody cared and now I have to worry
[4:18]that I'm going to have kovid in San Diego Poland America cruise ship koenigsdam returning to port after being denied entry to Puerto Vallarta by Mexican authorities we had our Excursion
[4:29]all planned we were waiting for about an hour to get off they kept saying we're delayed we're delayed we're delayed and finally the captain got on and said we're leaving in an hour according to the Mexican Ministry of Health when the
[4:40]vessel arrived in Mexico 21 crew members tested positive for covid Hall in America responding to ABC News saying in part No guest presented as positive with
[4:50]the pervasive nature of the Omicron variant we have continued to evolve our protocols which were developed with guidance from leading Health experts and in anticipation of situations like this
[5:01]the same ship sailing off again on another Voyage just hours after passengers disembarked in Miami Carnival Freedom a ship on an eight-day Voyage returning to its Port after what
[5:12]passenger Ashley Peterson described as traveling in a Petri dish we've had the high number of covet cases on board they're not able to really contain it
[5:22]being on a small ship it's really the worst kind of travel that you can do I mean it's not safe at all the vessel tonight entry to Aruba and Bonaire due to infected passengers on board many
[5:34]passengers upset with Carnival over its communication they didn't inform us of hardly anything we sat there for a couple of hours and then we found out
[5:44]they wouldn't let us on the destination because of so many people on the ship having covet Carnival telling ABC News their vigorous covet protocols account
[5:54]for the possibility of any positive cases on board and that they also made announcements and communicated in writing to guests on board the cruise industry crushed by the pandemic
[6:04]shifting protocols and setting strict rules for sailing in order to prevent the spread of covid but this current tread of outbreaks as the CDC monitoring closely the CDC creating this
[6:15]color-coded chart system on its site of 108 current cruise ships operating or planning to operate in U.S Waters green being no reported cases and red is
[6:26]defined as a ship having quote sustained transmission of covid-19 or potential for covid-19 cases to overwhelm onboard Medical Center resource
[6:37]so far we're talking about a relatively small number of infections on board take the Royal Caribbean Symphony Of The Seas for example they reported less than one percent of everyone on board testing
[6:48]positive all right Victor akendo thank you so much joining us now to help us understand this new surge where we're headed the difficulties that Omicron poses as Chief Innovation officer at
[6:58]Boston Children's Hospital and ABC News medical contributor Dr John Brownstein Dr Bronson thanks so much hope you had a good holiday weekend thanks so much Phil hope you did too did we appreciate you being here well people
[7:10]Nationwide gathered to celebrate the holidays Christmas this past weekend on Thursday the U.S averaged nearly 161 000 new daily coveted cases that is up
[7:19]36 percent from the previous week if you find out right now that you were in close contact with someone who had coveted and so many people are doing that especially after this weekend what
[7:30]should you do and how does your reaction differ if you're vaccinated or unvaccinated yeah you know Phil this is the message that I got all day long every day
[7:40]throughout the holidays you know so many exposures so many unique situations a lot of anxiety the reality is it is different if you're vaccinated versus unvaccinated unvaccinated a person needs
[7:51]to quarantine for 14 days you know local guidelines might change that to about 10 days or seven days with a negative test but you know you really need to go right into quarantine immediately after that
[8:01]exposure if you're vaccinated you know and you don't have symptoms you don't have to quarantine according to CDC but you should be getting tested a few days later and remember if you do have symptoms go right into quarantine as
[8:13]well and a test may not show up as positive for a few days so even if you get that rapid test immediately you're negative but you have symptoms you should be considering yourself quarantined and isolating until you get
[8:24]you know additional testing done um we just all have to do our part to reduce transmission this is a very fast moving variant so whatever we can do in terms of limiting Mobility masking social distancing this is how we're
[8:35]going to get through the net next three weeks so we know that it's a fast-moving variant there's some data that suggests it may not be as severe as Delta you know sort of the jury's still out on that right now but this is what
[8:46]everybody wants to know and they did with Delta they do now is there any clear data that tells us how long people are contagious you know when you get it are you contagious just before your
[8:57]symptoms what's the data show us you know it this is really challenging obviously with a new variant there's different metrics but different people will be contagious for different times and this will change based on varying
[9:08]it's not clear-cut it depends on your immune system's ability to clear the virus that timing and it depend if you're we're vaccinated or previously infected um it couldn't be a matter of two days
[9:19]it could be five rarely ten I think we're going to see changes in isolation guidelines because of that you know data suggests that with Delta variant you know you have a shorter contagious
[9:29]period I'd assume with Omicron it's even shorter but the only way to know is through testing and making sure that you get an understanding of whether you're positive or negative and doing that multiple times because a rapid test
[9:40]tells you whether you're contagious now but it doesn't necessarily tell you if you're contagious tomorrow and so the things we know are one thing we know Omicron is spreading very fast faster than Delta but the unknown I think
[9:52]scares a lot of people the shortage of testing is a major issue for this country right now we saw fighting in Bushwick Brooklyn at a test distribution
[10:01]site up in Westchester we know that a site ran out of tests in 47 minutes so someone's standing in line an hour before they open couldn't even get a test um as as an epidemiologist what are your
[10:13]thoughts on this shortage right now you're the Biden Administration say 500 you know million you know free tests are coming but it's not soon enough right we should be testing everybody right now whenever they need it
[10:24]you know frankly we should have been better prepared for this we knew a new variant was going to emerge we knew testing was our sort of ticket out of the pandemic and we were caught flat-footed again testing now now a
[10:36]bottleneck and so the challenge really now is how do we get people to test and understand what they're infected infected so they can isolate so unfortunately now if you don't have access to a test but you have symptoms
[10:46]you should consider yourself positive until you finally can get that test Rapid tests are going to be super critical uh to be basically helping you know deal with that sort of load of
[10:57]testing that's out there but for now if you don't have a test just assume that you need to quarantine until you get get that access well you mentioned the type of test let's talk about that for for a minute explain the difference for us
[11:07]between PCR and Rapid antigen tests and whether one might be better than the other and it doesn't depend on the situations obviously a lot of confusion about this and with the testing shortage
[11:17]what you can actually get your hands on I I know and it you know you know whatever test you can get is better than nothing PCR is the gold standard but remember PCR gives you an indication of
[11:27]your pre-contagious contagious and post so while it's a very sensitive test the rapid tests are super critical because they can tell you right now whether you're contagious oftentimes PCR tests
[11:37]only tell you too late about whether you may have had virus before the rapid test can be really useful right now especially if you're Gathering or going on a flight try to get access to those but yes the PCR test is especially the
[11:49]gold standard to know whether you've been you know exposed to this virus and potentially early on in the in the infection period a couple questions for you here on kids earlier this month the American Academy of Pediatrics reported
[12:00]that coveted cases among children are extremely high it is sort of a twofold question first of all does that surprise you because with more cases one would think that yeah more people are going to
[12:10]show up in hospitals including children or is there something Omicron is targeting in children you know we don't yet know whether Omicron specifically is more severe kids we don't necessarily think so remember
[12:21]it's still a large chunk of our populations that's unboxing it is our kids about only a third of kids under the age of 18 are vaccinated so that's our vulnerable age group right now and
[12:31]so unfortunately with a very fast moving virus our kids are going to be vulnerable and especially those under five who get to be accessed you know to access the vaccine we have to be incredibly concerned and yes that's why
[12:42]we're going to see that increase in kids that's why it's so important for the adults and older kids to be vaccinated around them cocoon them make sure that they're protected do whatever we can to you know keep masking social distancing
[12:53]avoid large crowds especially as we're in the middle of the surge all right and just and just finally looking at South Africa and other areas across the globe that have faced this Omicron surge when can we expect to see these numbers
[13:05]subside and are we watching other countries to see that or might we not be following in their footsteps well I think it's sort of a double-edged sword on one hand you do want to look at South Africa and they experience a rapid
[13:16]increase in a rapid drop but we look different we have different demographics we're in the middle of a Delta surge when Omar Khan came we have Mobility with the holidays so I don't want to like hang our hats on what happened in South Africa in the UK we're still
[13:28]seeing increases you know so our context is different it is great to see you know that this virus could spread quickly and and move ahead Move Along that's what we hope but we shouldn't plan for that we
[13:38]could still deal with a significant surge especially as we're entering the New Year's period a lot of people Gathering that does create a little bit of a concern for multiple super spreading events in the coming weeks Dr
[13:49]John Brownstein thanks so much for your expertise seems like every time we talk to you we feel just a little bit better about what's going on around this country and around the world we do appreciate it have a great day thank you
[13:59]Phil you too all right now to that dangerous blast of winter parts of the Pacific Northwest stretching right into the Midwest or under winter storm advisories right now warnings as heavy
[14:10]snow and frigid temperatures settle in our Matt Gutman is in Truckee California with more Millions across the West hit by that dangerous winter blast closing out the holiday weekend
[14:21]weather alerts in effect all the way from the Pacific coast to the Great Lakes Heavy snowfall piercing temperatures and strong winds slamming States from California to Oregon to
[14:33]Colorado took about two hours to clear this Seattle blanketed by a rare snowfall up to six inches Sunday just a third time the Seahawks ever hosted a
[14:43]game in the snow thank you by there for a football game dangerous driving conditions shutting down roads and stranding drivers in the thick snow I don't know how they're going to get them up how is it traveling around that was
[14:54]awful over the weekend a 70-mile section of Interstate 80 linking Reno Nevada to Sacramento closed in both directions with whiteout conditions
[15:05]unleanting snowfall here in the Tahoe area since Tuesday hundreds stranded on the roads some cars abandoned this near record snowfall here has been so intense
[15:15]so heavy it's basically buried in trucks like this one in fact there's been so much snow and it's been so hard to get to some of these Resorts that a lot of the ski resorts in this area just have
[15:26]it opened up today Placer County Sheriff's saying the conditions have been so brutal they temporarily called up a search for a skier who went missing Saturday at a ski resort near Truckee
[15:36]the storm expected to continue dumping snow through the day in California's mountainous regions Matt Gutman from Truckee California Matt thank you coming up we are remembering
[15:47]Archbishop Desmond Tutu more on the tributes pouring in from across the globe when we come back stay with us [Music]
[16:02]welcome back everyone tributes continue to pour in from all over the world for Desmond Tutu the Nobel Peace Prize winner passed away over this past weekend at the age of 90. he was the
[16:14]voice of faith and moral courage in the long campaign to end apartheid in South Africa senior foreign correspondent Ian panel has more
[16:23]he's on it was Desmond Tutu's face that gave him the strength to tackle the racist apartheid system in South Africa with a
[16:33]message of non-violence [Music] tutu grew up under the oppression of
[16:44]segregation violently enforced by the white minority government but against the odds becoming the first black anglicanut Bishop of Cape Town as South
[16:54]Africa teetered ever closer to the brink of Civil War tutu stood shoulder to shoulder with Nelson Mandela on a mission to end apartheid the campaign for economic
[17:05]sanctions and his lobbying for divestment picking up support around the world including the US students at major universities protested demanding their
[17:16]institutions stop investing in companies with financial ties to South Africa it helped the apartheid economy and made reform inevitable his life's work
[17:27]would earn him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. tutu used religion to unify people of all faiths with a message of shared
[17:38]Humanity preaching kindness and forgiveness even amidst the darkness of apartheid his sermons and speeches spread a
[17:48]message of love joy and laughter tutu sought to fight Injustice in all its forms speaking to Robin Roberts in 2007
[17:56]on its most silent kind what do you see right now as the biggest challenge that we have to overcome poverty
[18:06]poverty poverty is so demeaning it is so dehumanizing and you say hey
[18:16]when are we going to get it we don't get it do we I mean that it's so obvious we've got the capacity to
[18:25]feed everybody his tireless advocacy for peace touching Generations transcending religion at the age of 76 he continued to be a force leading a mission to wart
[18:37]on Darfur what do you hope to accomplish there we want to say to them in a way what do you want to be remembered for
[18:47]do you want to be remembered for as someone who actually assisted in the destruction of so many people or do
[18:58]you want to live a legacy and I think I mean that most human beings you know most human beings want to be remembered for good things
[19:09]today spiritual and world leaders remembering tutu that his Global impact and his kind heart Desmond Tutu possesses that sense of generosity
[19:20]that Spirit of unity that essence of humanity that South Africans know simply as Ubuntu well he's worth remembering this morning
[19:31]that the Embrace of the anti-apartheid movement really was a ground swell of popular opinion it's something that helped create pressure for change many
[19:40]political leaders in America and here in Britain not least Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher actively supported the racist government fearing that communism was a greater threat but it was leaders
[19:52]like Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela who really inspired people to bring about change Phil Ian panel thank you what a spectacular and impactful Life we'll be
[20:04]right back [Music] welcome back everyone we are taking a look at the biggest moments over the
[20:14]past 12 months from news to entertainment Juju Chang has a preview of tonight's special the year with Robin Roberts
[20:23]I've got my driver's license last week for most of us getting our driver's license meant Breaking Free for breakout
[20:33]pop star Olivia Rodrigo it means breaking records to fame may have been fueled by her own Teenage heartbreak but the relatable
[20:43]emotion kicked her career into overdrive and has her nominated for six Grammys including Best New Artist this has been the most magical year of my life and it's all because of you guys so thank you so much
[20:55]it's safe to say 2021 was good for Olivia Rodrigo was it
[21:01][Music] Doja cat had us seeing Stars this summer
[21:14]when she dropped her album Planet her and her hit kissed me more became an instant ear worm I never thought I'd be dressed as a worm while accepting an award you never know what you're gonna
[21:26]get with Doja cat but that's part of the Allure of Doja cat I mean people are obsessed with her but in 2021 the lady leading the PowerHouse pack glamor Magazine's Woman of the Year may
[21:44]in the stallion the fact that Meg the stallion like won a Grammy with Beyonce
[21:55]solidifies you in music history if you know me you have to know that ever since I was little I was like you know what one day I'm a girl and I'm
[22:06]gonna be like the rap Beyonce my mama will always be like Megan what would Beyonce do no one has gone from from where she started what two and a half
[22:16]years ago three years ago to literally the top of the world in such a like complete way and the CMA award for new artists of the year goes to
[22:26]Jimmy Allen after 10 years of being here living in my car uh living on the trailer working every job this is amazing and not only has he broken
[22:37]through in the world of country music but Jimmy was recently nominated for the 2022 Grammy Award for Best New Artist you know I'm surrounded by people that
[22:46]work hard day in and day out to take all of my dreams all my ideas and make them a reality in the midst of them being told by people that the ideas we
[22:57]have will never work but here we are and they worked [Music]
[23:11]Juju Chang thank you so much it was quite a year the annual two-hour Prime Time special the year with Robin Roberts premieres tonight at 9 8 central on ABC and you can stream it the next day on
[23:22]Hulu I'm Phil Lipoff thanks so much for streaming with us the news continues with more context and Analysis here on ABC News live [Music]
[23:41]hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel if you'd like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our Channel
[23:51]and don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching