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Israel-Hamas War Protests Worry NYC Mayor Ahead Of New Year's Eve Bash; Tricky Travel Expected In Northeast After Storm Blasts Midwest; Tom Smothers Of "Smothers Brothers" Dead At 86; Top-10 Health & Wellness Stories Of 2023. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired December 27, 2023 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:30:00]
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Here in the United States, New York City Mayor Eric Adams says he's concerned that protest over the Israel- Hamas war might disrupt New Year's Eve celebrations in Times Square. Though he says he has a solid security plan in place.
CNN's Mark Morales is here to explain.
Mark, legally, the city has to be careful how it now responds to mass demonstrations. But Mayor Adams says technology, new technology will play a big part.
MARK MORALES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTER: Right, Boris. That technology really sort of plays into the common trop you hear at the end of the year when we talk about security and New Year's Eve. And that is, some you will see and some you won't see.
What are some of these technological advances we'll see on New Year's Eve? It's drones. The NYPD has invested heavily in acquiring drones. They've used them to help monitor the situation during large gatherings.
They'll be deployed on New Year's Eve and they'll be serving as the eye in the sky.
Something we won't readily see as much as drones will be other technological advances, like vehicle scanning devices and radiation detectors. Over the last couple of years, technology for both these devices has really ramped up. They'll be able to do more than they've done in the past.
While you have technology on one side, you also have the deployment of officers, which is another key component to how they're actually going to keep this event secure.
Mayor Adams was talking about this yesterday. I asked him specifically about the security plan, and his response to me really involved the deployment of personnel, using the right amount of police officers to deploy to a certain situation.
The idea being that if you take too many officers from one situation and put them in another, you're creating vulnerabilities.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR ERIC ADAMS (D-NY): There's something that's known in policing, particularly when there's some type of terrorist action of secondary devices and things like that. They want to draw attention from one area to go to specific target area.
We are really exercising our mental muscles to make sure that doesn't happen. People have to maintain their locations and use minimum deployment from where a particular incident is happening. So that we do not allow people to take us off of our goal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MORALES: The NYPD will be going a lot deeper into their security plan. They're expected to hold a briefing later this week where they'll explain everything from road closures to what revelers can bring into their pens -- Boris?
SANCHEZ: Mark Morales, thanks so much for the update.
JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: As millions prepare to travel for New Year's Eve celebrations, a storm heading for the northeast could bring trouble for multiple states, including New York.
It comes after blizzard concerns wreaked havoc in the Midwest this week. Officials said the powerful blizzard conditions triggered close to 150 weather-related incidents on Christmas Day.
Right now, a large portion of Highway 30 in Nebraska remains closed as a result.
Let's go over to CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers who is in the Weather Center.
Chad, how are the next few days shaping up?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, wet for New York City, Boston, Philadelphia today. And also low clouds.
Although I'm very surprised, according to FlightAware, only 140 airplanes have been canceled so far today out of thousands and thousands in the air at this point.
Now, a couple thousand, 3,000 are delayed a little bit. That's typical when you have full flights and everyone is trying to get on the same flight at the same time. Sometimes you can be on time but then it takes 10 minutes to get the door closed.
There's the rainfall in New York. The rain in Pittsburgh. And now the storm that made the snow in Nebraska, parts of Colorado and Kansas, it's winding down. It's lost all of its moisture, lost its energy.
There still could be one to three inches of snow. If it's over St. Louis tonight, especially at sunset, that could be a problem.
The moisture and energy shifted to the east. That's where the rain will be. There's a slight risk of even some flooding from Pennsylvania to New Jersey, the Delaware Water Gap, all the way down toward the Delmarva. And then there you see the light snow along the Mississippi River.
Here is how the day shapes up. It's not over yet. We're only talking 2:30 and there's still half the planes have to leave here. If things go downhill a little bit, we'll see more and more cancellations throughout the afternoon.
But for now, I am pretty impressed with only 140 canceled flights at this point.
There's the storm for right now. It moves off towards the east. Things dry out.
I've been looking ahead to New Year's night, and I don't see anything in New York City, except 40 degrees and clear skies.
Not so much for the west. The next storm system is on the way. But just about everywhere across North America is above normal today -- Jessica?
DEAN: How about that?
Chad Myers, with the update for us, thanks so much.
Tributes are pouring in right now for Tom Smothers, one-half of the famed comedic duo, the Smothers Brothers. We'll bring you that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:38:53]
DEAN: Now to the other headlines we've been watching.
Beginning with the tragic update in the search for a missing pregnant teenager in Texas. Police believe they found 18-year-old Savannah Soto dead of an apparent gunshot wound near San Antonio.
Her body, one of two that were found inside a car outside an apartment complex. The other body is believed to be her missing boyfriend.
Soto disappeared last week just a day before an appointment where a doctor had planned to induce labor. Authorities say they're looking at it as a possible murder case but say the crime scene is, quote, "very perplexing."
Police in Florida are now offering a $10,000 reward as they search for the suspect in a deadly mall shooting over the weekend.
Authorities are still searching for Albert Shell Jr for allegedly killing a man and wounding a woman in Ocala. They say it was a targeted attack that sent shoppers running for their lives. SANCHEZ: We also have some sad news to report. Comedian Tom Smothers
has died after a battle with cancer according to a family statement.
Tom and his younger brother, Dick, performed as the Smothers Brothers. They were known for their "Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" in the late 1960s.
CNN's Richard Roth has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[14:40:07]
ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, the Smothers Brothers.
(APPLAUSE)
RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Smothers Brothers were a counterculture comedy sensation when America was on fire in the late '60s.
TOMMY SMOTHERS, COMEDIAN: It was passionate. There was no hiding how we felt about the war in Vietnam and the voter registration and civil rights. All those things were happening.
We get a lot of complimentary letters but we get a lot of derogatory letters saying we're Communists, Pinkos. And those are the good letters.
(LAUGHTER)
ROTH: CBS gave Tom and Dick Smothers an hour of Sunday primetime programming following the brother's earlier career of folk singing and sibling rivalry humor.
T. SMOTHERS: You smelled love, sincerity, gentleness and caring, and that came out every single show.
ROTH: However, the show changed dramatically with the times.
(SINGING)
ROTH: But CBS began to sensor the humor, feeling it was anti- establishment.
DICK SMOTHERS, COMEDIAN: You got to watch yourself, Tommy. No more Nixon jokes.
(SINGING)
ROTH: The show was very different than traditional network fare broadcasting before cable and streaming.
Big-named stars appeared in skits to support the brothers.
T. SMOTHERS: Well, whether you can say it or not, keep trying to say it.
ROTH: Dead-pan comedian, Pat Paulsen, did ironic editorials on hot social issues. A younger Baby Boomer generation found a TV show it could connect with.
D. SMOTHERS: The show has had an emotional impact. We were only on for three years, 71 shows.
ROTH: Tom and Dick Smothers felt the end was near.
SMOTHERS: We had a bit of a premonition. Things were getting tight. The Vietnam War was getting going.
ROTH: Despite the show's popularity, CBS canceled the Smothers Brothers.
WALTER CRONKITE, FORMER CBS NEWS ANCHOR: CBS announced today "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" will not return to the CBS television network next season.
ROTH: They sued CBS and received more than $750,000 in damages.
T. SMOTHERS: I had lost my sense of humor after CBS. I lost my point of view. I just didn't think everything was funny. Everything was deadly serious.
ROTH: The brothers didn't stop performing but the controversial CBS show was the height of their fame. Twenty years later, they hosted a reunion show on CBS.
T. SMOTHERS: Don't forget this was the network that fired us.
ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, Mother Smothers favorite son and the other one.
ROTH: Tom was born 22 months before brother, Dick.
D. SMOTHERS: It's like an old marriage. A lot of fighting and no sex.
T. SMOTHERS: It's timing and a relationship between the brothers. So that's where comedy comes from.
Fifty years later, I look back on us being fired and I'm still pissed off.
D. SMOTHERS: Sit down.
(APPLAUSE)
(LAUGHTER)
T. SMOTHERS: Thank you so much.
D. SMOTHERS: Thank you.
Oh, that was good.
T. SMOTHERS: Ah, I couldn't do it.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
(LAUGHTER)
T. SMOTHERS: Yes.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:47:27]
DEAN: This year, we saw Buffalo Bills player, Damar Hamlin, make a miraculous recovery from cardiac arrest and injectables like Ozempic dominate the world of weight loss.
SANCHEZ: It was also the year we saw new ways to tackle critical drug shortages and scientific breakthroughs that have huge implications for the future.
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta has the top-10 health and wellness stories of 2023.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Two thousand twenty-three may best be described as an incredible year of breakthroughs in innovation while also a year of continuing to deal or not deal with basic ongoing health problems.
Our team has had many moments now to reflect, be inspired, learn, and redouble our efforts to help make all of you happier, healthier and more informed.
So let's kick things off with number 10 of our top-10 health stories.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead and go over to the cot. I don't like how he went down.
GUPTA (voice-over): January 2, 2023, the very beginning of the year, Buffalo Bills Safety Damar Hamlin goes into cardiac arrest on national TV.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to need everybody. All call! All call! GUPTA: A quick response not only saved Hamlin's life but brought national attention to the importance of CPR, rapid defibrillation and the NFL's safety protocols, which I saw firsthand.
(on camera): Now keep in mind the medical team was able to get to Damar Hamlin within 10 seconds. And speed really matters here. Every additional minute that someone in cardiac arrest goes without CPR, mortality goes up by up to 10 percent.
(voice-over): Number nine. You've probably never heard of Phenylephrine but that's OK. It's the main ingredient in many over- the-counter allergy and cold medicines like Sudafed PE and Vicks Sinex.
This year, an FDA committee said, contrary to popular belief, it was not effective as a nasal decongestant in tablet form.
So while we wait for a final decision, some stores like CVS have already said it will no longer sell medications that contain this is as the only active ingredient.
(on camera): Don't worry though, there's a lot of other options out there.
(voice-over): Number eight.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A breakthrough treatment for sickle cell disease.
GUPTA: And a breakthrough for modern medicine.
UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: Johnny is now one of the first people in the world to have his genes edited using CRISPR to treat his disease.
JONATHAN LUBIN, CRISPR SICKLE CELL TRIAL PARTICIPANT: I was worrying that I might be, like, given superpowers, but --
(LAUGHTER)
[14:50:01]
GUPTA: In December, the FDA approved the first-ever treatment to use the gene editing technique known as CRISPR.
Think of it like this. CRISPR allows scientists to precisely cut and modify DNA, which could then potentially treat and even cure certain diseases, such as sickle cell, but also cancer, muscular dystrophy, and even Parkinson's.
Number seven.
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR AND SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A 60-year scientific quest has now given us the world's first RSV vaccine.
GUPTA: For the first time, we have vaccines available to fight the full respiratory triple threat of COVID-19, flu and RSV.
Last season, we saw cases of RSV come back with a vengeance, reminding us of the importance of vaccination, especially for the most vulnerable.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Before I even knew what happened, he was being admitted and pumped with oxygen and trying to be stabilized.
GUPTA: So far, we've been sort of sleepwalking into this triple threat season but there is still time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not too late to get vaccinated if you haven't already.
GUPTA: Number six.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are more than 300 drugs on the FDA's shortages list right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: More than 90 percent of cancer centers say they're impacted by a shortage.
GUPTA: This one may surprise you. One of the richest countries in the world that spends trillions on health care.
(on camera): And yet we currently have the highest number of drug shortages in about a decade.
(voice-over): Laura Bray had to call hundreds of children's hospitals across the country herself to try and find chemo treatment for her daughter. And in the process, she started a movement.
She's now channeling what she's learned into a national effort to predict which drugs are going to go into shortage and to produce them before patients have to go without.
GUPTA (on camera): And you see this now, Laura -- you see this coming off the lines -- what's that like for you?
LAURA BRAY, FOUNDER, ANGELS FOR CHANGE: What I see here is each one of those that's being filled up, seven to nine NICU babies are going to get fed today.
GUPTA (voice-over): Number five.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: In our health lead, the FDA has approved a new Alzheimer's drug today.
GUPTA: There's new hope this year for those with early Alzheimer's.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll look at my phone and read the names and a lot of them don't mean anything to me.
GUPTA: Lecanemab is the first drug proven to show a slowing down of the debilitating disease, in part, by removing amyloid plaques from the brain. (on camera): It's not a cure but clinical trials found that it can
slow down the onset of more severe symptoms.
(voice-over): Number four, loneliness.
DR. VIVEK MURTHY, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: I am still concerned about our children because there is an epidemic, if you will, of mental health challenges that they have been facing.
GUPTA: Coming out of the pandemic, loneliness and social isolation have become a key public health issue for young and old alike.
So significant an issue that the surgeons general, normally known for things like curbing smoking, had a rare convening to raise the public health alarm about this topic.
DR. JEROME ADAMS, FORMER U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: And I have to look at my three teenagers every day and know that I'm not handing them a better world than the world that was left to me. And a lot of that is because of our failure to really focus on mental health.
GUPTA (on camera): It's a massive problem that seems to disproportionately affect Americans. But at the same time, small moments of human connection -- smiling, just saying hello -- those are all steps we can take toward a solution.
(voice-over): Number three, the ripple effects of overturning Roe v. Wade. Real-life stories and unimaginable decisions.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Were the doctors clear with you about what her chances were of surviving?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They told us there was no chance. They said that either she would be stillborn or she would die within a few hours.
GUPTA: A ruling by a Texas judge also sent the fate of Mifepristone, an oral pill used for abortion and miscarriage management, into legal limbo.
With families already feeling the effects, the final decision will now be taken up by the Supreme Court.
DR. LEAH TATUM, OBSTETRICIAN-GYNECOLOGIST: Their concerns are if medical abortions are no longer accessible, what if their reproductive rights are restricted even further?
GUPTA: Number two.
(SINGING)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wegovy helped us lose weight.
GUPTA: Demand for weight loss and diabetes drugs like these have skyrocketed.
A Trillian Health analysis found that in the final three months of last year, an estimated nine million prescriptions were written for these kinds of medications.
That's a 300 percent increase since 2020. And it pushed manufacturing lines to run practically nonstop this year.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Demand is very high and we're doing everything that we can to stand up and supply.
GUPTA (on camera): That demand has also resulted in shortages, knockoffs, and growing awareness of the side effects, including nausea, vomiting, and even stomach paralysis.
But so far, these drugs have been proven to be effective for weight loss and also a welcome tool to combat obesity.
[14:55:03]
(voice-over): And number one.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: You've talked about the dark side of AI. This is a bright spot on health care.
GUPTA: While the message is still to proceed with caution, we've already seen a glimpse of how artificial intelligence could change health care, from identifying new antibiotics to detecting breast cancer.
It may not ever -- hopefully, never -- replace your actual human doctor but it could help enhance patient care and, even as we saw, help someone walk again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A paralyzed man is up and about.
GUPTA (on camera): Happy New Year. I look forward to a lot more in 2024.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: Our thanks to Sanjay Gupta --
DEAN: Yes.
SANCHEZ: -- for that round up.
Still to come on NEWS CENTRAL, Michigan's Supreme Court rejecting an effort to remove Donald Trump from the 2024 primary ballot. Why this court came to a different decision than the one in Colorado.
We are back in just a few minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
