[0:00][Music] everyone i'm kyra phillips thanks so much for streaming with us three more of the 17 missionaries who were taken hostage in haiti are now free their
[0:09]ohio-based ministry saying they're safe and in good spirits 12 of those hostages still remain captive though as the 400 mauso gang leaders spoke out in a video
[0:20]demanding one million dollars in ransom for each one threatening to kill them if demands are not met russian troops massing near the border
[0:30]of ukraine sparking fears of an invasion tensions higher now than any time since russia seized control of parts of that country seven years ago the u.s fearing
[0:40]thousands of russian troops could be preparing for a full-scale military assault into ukraine as president biden prepares to talk to vladimir putin tomorrow
[0:51]the trial of elaine maxwell enters its second week the socialite charged as an accomplice in jeffrey epstein's sex trafficking operation her siblings appealing to u.s attorney general
[1:02]merrick garland about her treatment behind bars claiming she has been deprived of time with her legal counsel and food maxwell has pleaded not guilty
[1:14]an enormous volcano erupting on jabba island in indonesia at least 14 people are dead many more missing as mount simeru spews hot ash and smoke thousands
[1:25]feet up into the air over the weekend and sending people scrambling to safety destroying hundreds of homes and more than 30 schools more than a thousand
[1:33]people are now in rescue centers unsure whether their homes have survived or not now to the growing concerns over omicron health officials closely monitoring the
[1:45]spread of the new variant as the cdc puts new requirements in place for international travelers to the u.s all air passengers over the age of two now required to show a negative covid test
[1:56]no more than 24 hours before they board their flight into the united states or they need to show documentation that they have recovered from covid in the past 90 days new york city mayor de
[2:08]blasio also announcing a vaccine mandate for all private employers to combat the spread of the omicron variant abc's stephanie ramos has more for us
[2:19]health officials on alert as the omicron variant spreads across the country with cases reported in at least 17 states we know we have
[2:29]you know several dozen cases and we're following them closely and we are every day hearing about more and more probable cases so that number is likely to rise
[2:39]30 year old peter mcginn from minnesota is one of those cases being monitored he tested positive for the omicron variant mcginn is fully vaccinated and received a booster he attended an anime
[2:50]convention in new york city in late november after flying home he learned that one friend he went to the convention with tested positive for kovitt i was just a little taken back to
[3:01]the fact that i a had covet and b was the new one mcginn believes that he contracted the new variant not at the convention itself but events after when he and a group of about 30 people also
[3:13]vaccinated got together now half of that group has tested positive for covid i felt perfectly safe with the people that i was with and so it never really crossed my mind to think that i had
[3:23]coveted so um it was more like those events outside of the con where i believe that the transmission took place it's unclear if the omicron variant will be more
[3:34]severe or spread faster than the delta variant we really got to be careful before we make any determinations but thus far the signals are a bit encouraging regarding the
[3:45]severity but officials stress that all eligible americans roll up their sleeves and get that booster shot meanwhile in louisiana thousands being tested after a covet outbreak on a week-long
[3:57]international cruise at least 17 confirmed cases on the norwegian breakaway the cruise ship company saying in a statement in part in addition to
[4:06]requiring that 100 percent of guests and crew are fully vaccinated we have implemented quarantine isolation and contact tracing procedures and kira
[4:17]starting today all air passengers with a flight departing to the u.s from a foreign country will be required to show a negative cova test taken within 24
[4:28]hours instead of three days before they enter the u.s all of this in an effort to slow the spread of the omicron variant kira all right our stephanie ramos thanks so
[4:40]much well let's talk more about this with physician at stanford children's health dr olok patel also one of our contributors so dr patel we heard dr fauci say uh just recently that the
[4:51]booster shots raised the level of protection but as we heard in stephanie's piece just there one of the cases in minnesota that 30 year old man who attended that anime convention
[5:02]new york city is fully vaccinated and received a booster so bottom line the booster shots protect us from these new variants you know good morning kyra and we still
[5:13]have enough evidence if not anecdotal but based on previous sciences suggests that boosters still work remember this one this one person who went to the convention he tested positive had mild
[5:22]symptoms could it have been worse if he wasn't boosted it's possible also we have to think about the thousands of other people who may have come in contact who were boosted who aren't being reported right now because they're
[5:33]either asymptomatic or they have not gotten tested positive so it's really hard to make these widespread speculations just based off one case we still have enough evidence to tell people to go out and get boosted
[5:44]right okay and and it's still unclear if the omicron variant will be any more severe because a lot of scientists are coming forward saying although
[5:54]it's more infectious it looks less likely to lead to severe symptoms as you just mentioned and also hospitalizations and now mayor de blasio there in new york just announced this vaccine mandate
[6:05]for all private employers to combat the spread so how should leaders across the country you think react as these new variants continue to emerge
[6:17]well i think you know we have to look at this in two different parts right now so the first thing is that leaders need to be not only protecting people protecting their communities but we're also trying to prevent another surge in
[6:27]hospitalizations in an already strained health care system which you know even mild to moderate cases can do that especially people are missing work they have to go to doctor's offices and so forth but kiera here's what's kind of
[6:38]counter-intuitive it is not advantageous for the virus to be more virulent or kill more people to put it bluntly the virus wants to be more contagious because it wants to out compete delta
[6:49]the omicron variant but if people are getting really sick and they're not spreading it the virus doesn't want that scenario and so you know the way to think about this is that what the virus wants to do to be able to kind of propagate and survive is in fact a lot
[7:00]of people but kind of tone it down a little bit so that more people can pass it on if that makes any sense so right now the early data is encouraging but we need to see more right and what's your opinion on the
[7:11]effectiveness of these travel bans you know there's been some outcry over the us ban on certain african countries in response to this variant including bans on some southern african countries where
[7:23]the variant has yet to even be detected i and my colleagues are a little confused about the travel bans because if you look at the amount of cases in south africa and those surrounding
[7:34]countries they're not astronomically higher than what we're seeing in the european union and there's no travel ban in effect in europe so when posed this question of what is the evidence you had a travel ban all we keep hearing from
[7:45]the white house and you know coronavirus task force is we're waiting to reevaluate them we're waiting to see what the data shows but i i that that doesn't still help a lot of people because we want to exactly see
[7:55]why is this travel ban in effect and a good thing and why is it not travel apartheid which is what the world health organization called it so i think it would build a lot more trust if we were transparent about why these travel
[8:06]events are in effect to begin with all right if you don't mind switching gears just a bit quickly this new study by researchers at the cleveland clinic reporting that blood pressure spikes in
[8:17]adults during this pandemic even more so in women than in men why are we seeing this increase and what should people know about treatment and screening well kiera i would never mind talking
[8:28]about preventative health because that is what this boils down to so this study actually showed a small increase in blood pressure if you look at the beginning of the pandemic in spring 2020 versus 2019 the important things to look
[8:39]at is there's a lot of factors that can raise blood pressure things like a sedentary lifestyle stress poor diet alcohol smoking a lot of things which may have increased in certain populations in the united states during
[8:50]the pandemic but also we have to consider blood pressure wasn't well controlled going into the pandemic so you give people a barrier of access to health care less preventative health services and those blood pressure numbers are going to go up and
[9:01]hypertension defined as 130 over 80 can be a risk factor for a lot of diseases kidney disease heart disease stroke and so forth so i'm hoping this is a little bit of a wake-up call for people to not only get into health care but for people
[9:13]to be better about screening and lifestyle changes where needed yeah very good advice and bring on the meditation dr patel always good to see you thank you good to see you
[9:24]you've helped us all find our center on this monday all right well that's right absolutely every time we talk thanks doc well the parents of that 15 year old
[9:35]accused of killing four students at oxford high school in michigan are now in custody james and jennifer crumbly now facing manslaughter charges after a manhunt to find them when they failed to
[9:46]turn themselves in both parents have pleaded not guilty and yesterday the detroit lions paying tribute to one of the students who lost their lives the
[9:55]nfl posting this photo of jalen elliott who shares the number 42 with oxford high school junior tate meyer that died in that shooting wearing a jersey with
[10:06]myers name trevor alt has the latest for us from michigan james and jennifer crumbly and their 15-year-old son are waking up in the
[10:16]oakland county michigan jail all of them accused of having a hand in the oxford high school massacre that left four students dead and as the community calls
[10:25]for justice the prosecutor charging both parents with four counts each of involuntary manslaughter are you trying to set a new standard or is the evidence simply overwhelming in this case the
[10:36]facts of this case are so egregious prosecutors say on black friday james crumbly brought his son with him to buy the weapon later used in the rampage
[10:46]prosecutors referencing these instagram posts the alleged shooter saying just got my new beauty today jennifer crumbly writing mom and sunday testing out his
[10:56]new christmas present the day before the shooting prosecutors say a teacher reported the suspect searching ammunition on his phone after which jennifer crumbly texted her son quote
[11:07]l-o-l i'm not mad at you you have to learn not to get caught then the morning of the shooting prosecutors say another teacher reported a picture drawn by the
[11:17]teen that featured a person appearing to be shot and disturbing phrases like the thoughts won't stop help me and blood everywhere the superintendent says the
[11:27]student claimed the drawing was part of a video game he was designing the crumblies were called to school but they resisted taking him home hours later he allegedly walked out of a
[11:38]bathroom and started firing the alleged shooter is charged as an
[11:48]adult and pleaded not guilty to 24 charges including four counts of first degree murder and friday as arrest warrants were issued for his parents the crumblies were nowhere to be found later
[12:00]located after midnight tucked away in an empty commercial building in detroit both parents pleading not guilty to all charges their lawyer arguing the couple
[12:10]never intended to flee are you pleading to count one not guilty james crumbly shaking his head at the prosecutor's accusations
[12:21]and many people have also been critical of the school's actions leading up to this shooting and the superintendent is now calling for a transparent third party investigation we also want to mention the sheriff's office now says all but one of the injured students have
[12:32]been released from the hospital and the final student being treated is in stable condition kira all right trevor out there in pontiac michigan forest trevor thanks well
[12:42]coming up as omicron variant cases rise in the u.s concerns are growing about transmissibility and vaccine efficacy when we come back rare access inside
[12:52]moderna as it responds to this new variant [Music]
[13:12]welcome welcome back it's been 12 days since south africa first reported the omicron variant to the world health organization raising concerns about around the world rather and renewing
[13:23]uncertainty about the future of this pandemic our martha radics actually got an exclusive look inside moderna headquarters where they're already working on a new vaccine to fight
[13:34]omicron as the threat from the variant grows two years into a global pandemic when things were starting to look up a new
[13:44]worrisome variant omicron if you're worried about a momo crown variant the best thing to do is get fully vaccinated and then get your booster shower the reaction was
[13:56]swift in just one day this week more than 2.2 million vaccine doses administered the highest single day number in more than seven months the
[14:06]president of pharmaceutical giant moderna who spoke to us at the cambridge massachusetts headquarters says the makeup of the omicron variant has the
[14:15]potential for a worst case scenario what did you think when you first saw this this variant did you just think oh no here we go again there was literally a list of
[14:26]eight or ten mutations that we never wanted to see show up in one variant of concern and we opened this one up and all but one of them was there and the instant feeling was oh this
[14:35]isn't going to be good but the big question just how much protection will the existing vaccines and boosters have against the new variant the ceo of
[14:46]moderna stefan boncell roiled markets this week by predicting a significant drop in vaccine efficacy saying there was quote no world in which vaccine
[14:58]effectiveness doesn't drop against the new variant do you agree well i probably would have used different words but i think the short answer is we don't have data yet to know for sure you said you would
[15:09]use different words than your ceo used what words would you use well i think that there's a real risk that we're going to see a decrease in effectiveness of the vaccines what i don't know is how
[15:19]substantial that is is it going to be the kind of thing that we saw with the delta variant which is ultimately vaccines were still effective or are we going to see something more like a 50 percent decrease in efficacy which would
[15:30]really mean we probably need to reboot the vaccines and update them modernist scientists are not waiting the expected two to three weeks to find out we traveled to the research lab and got a
[15:41]rare look inside where modernist says it could quickly create another shot specifically tailored to protect against omicron approximately 70 percent of the
[15:52]u.s supply comes out of this facility matt barrows is moderna's senior director of manufacturing he says if necessary their facilities are ready to
[16:01]mass produce the current vaccines and a new one simultaneously do you have the facilities to do both and do them rapidly we do have the
[16:12]capacity to do both and do them fast but dr hogue warns it would still be a waiting game we could probably produce tens of millions of doses in the first quarter but not hundreds and it really
[16:22]wouldn't be until the second quarter of next year that you'd be seeing those big step changes in terms of the number of doses made just miles away from moderna headquarters in everett massachusetts
[16:32]emergency room physician aaron beaumont is already seeing a winter surge and is bracing for omicron i think we just don't have enough data yet but i am a little bit worried you don't want to go
[16:44]through this again no i don't want to go through that again i i i was just reflecting back to what it was like in march and april of 2020
[16:54]and that was a dark time a time when dr beaumont was giving us regular disturbing updates once we do get our surge i don't know where we're going to put these people i think we've come a long
[17:06]way in terms of having vaccines and in knowing how to treat this disease but yeah i just i really i don't think any of us want to go back there dr hogue
[17:16]says despite the uncertainty about omicron he is still hopeful that the finish line is in sight we really do expect this will end and i'm still quite
[17:26]hopeful that 2022 will be a year where that happens and so we can't rule out that there will be another surprise but as we build higher and higher levels of immunity we think the virus will run out of room and our thanks to martha raddatz for
[17:40]that report well coming up the domino effect of the supply chain crisis on the environment our ginger z reports right after the break [Music]
[17:57]welcome back to abc news live the shipping backlog is adding fuel to an existing problem in the los angeles area poor air quality our ginger z has an
[18:07]inside look at the efforts [Music] [Applause] [Music]
[18:17]hi i'm ginger z and it's not too late okay so welcome to the port of long beach where you can at least see it and yes all of those ships part of that backlog disaster that you've been
[18:28]hearing so much about the major backlog of container ships at the ports of la and long beach the traffic jam on the high seas could be delaying your packages shipments are stuck at ports in
[18:39]california for you or me this is a backlog of goods maybe a delayed couch or something as important as a wheelchair but at the same time for the
[18:48]folks who live around this port it means sickening haze yes you can smell this you feel it feral golden and john cross
[18:59]have lived in west long beach the neighborhood that borders the port for most of their lives west long beach area has been known since the mid 2005 6-7 as a diesel decimal
[19:10]the diesel death zone or asthma alley as it's sometimes called surrounded by impure air we've got a 710 freeway which handles thousands of thousand trucks to
[19:20]the east of us to the north of us we got a 405 freeway which has trucks on it to the west we got rail yards freeways and refineries and to the south we got the
[19:32]port we can't take any more pollution they can't take anymore yet in the last year more ships means more trucks more
[19:40]trains and more pollution in the last year with the surge of more container ships have you noticed a difference oh yes
[19:51]you can turn around and take your car and after a couple days it's covered with black soot john wasn't exaggerating we drove into the neighborhood and did
[20:00]our own unscientific test on a car some of these neighborhoods people will wake up and they will actually have soot on their car in neighborhoods like this the long beach alliance for children with asthma
[20:12]report that they have a higher asthma rate among residents than anywhere else in california there is a direct correlation between air pollution and asthma yes there is but that large body of
[20:24]evidence shows that diesel pollution and children's lungs don't mix children in particular because their lungs are still developing even before this particular
[20:34]image there was already an overwhelming amount of diesel pollution in our community the port of los angeles is the busiest port in all the united states with the port of long beach not far
[20:46]behind roughly 40 percent of america's cargo comes through these ports the average number of container ships at the ports of long beach in la 16. right
[20:56]now more than 110 you can see so many of them stacked up they wait for weeks at a time sometimes and you can see the heavy line of smog and haze sitting right over
[21:06]where people live people are having to breathe in this stuff so that people so that other people across the country can get cheap tvs that's not fair hector de
[21:16]la torre is a member of the california air resources board or carb it's a state agency that regulates air quality a study that they did back in march shows the increase in port traffic was
[21:27]equivalent to the nitrogen oxide emissions of nearly six million cars and that was before the latest search is it one to one where more container ship means more emissions
[21:39]more haze more smog it it does in a lot of ways meaning it isn't just the ships right once they get here then all of these containers end up
[21:48]on a truck or on a train that pollute the communities as well so there is a whole uh movement of pollution not just offshore but it comes on shore and then through
[22:00]our communities but you can't control how a ship filters or doesn't filter no because there is no international body that regulates them we can control them when they're right here
[22:11]california's air quality rules are about as tight as they come the air resources board makes ships that are near the california shore plug in to local power so they can turn off the diesel engines
[22:21]reducing emissions 70 percent of the toxic effect of air pollution comes from diesel we have to reduce that what we want to do going forward is to change
[22:32]how we do goods movement to make it zero emission the ships when they're here the trucks when they're on the road be zero emission meaning either battery electric or hydrogen fuel cell not only will zero
[22:43]emission ships and vehicles be good for the health of the port neighbors but it's benefiting all of us think about it less idling trucks and ships means less carbon dioxide warming the planet and
[22:54]this isn't science fiction in november the first fully autonomous electric cargo ship was unveiled in norway the ship has as many batteries as a hundred tesla cars and prevents as much as 678
[23:05]tons of carbon dioxide a year from entering the atmosphere vessels like this are sorely needed the global shipping industry emitted more than 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide in
[23:16]2018. unfortunately the electric ship in norway is only good for short trips it isn't ready to make long-haul crossings until then california ports can begin to tackle the problem by making other
[23:28]vehicles zero mission we're on it we just this last budget the california legislature approved 2.3 billion dollars for zero emission heavy-duty vehicles in
[23:40]california 2.3 billion dollars that's bigger than some states budgets and we are putting that into this because we want to drive the market to switch over for now the ports are asking ships to
[23:51]idle farther offshore to help reduce air pollution right along the coastline they're going to push them to 150 miles away and then call them and have them come in the people here say that probably won't
[24:02]be enough it's gonna end up being about congestion about volume that will have to change and then it won't be too late thanks to ginger z well that does it for
[24:15]this hour i'm kira phillips thanks so much for joining us remember abc news live is here for you all day with the latest news context analysis i'll see you right back here at 3 pm eastern with terry moran until then stay safe and
[24:26]have a beautiful monday [Music]
[24:49]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
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