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Black Friday; New Omicron COVID Variant Raising Alarm. Aired 2- 2:30p ET

Aired November 26, 2021 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:00:28]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. Welcome to this special holiday edition of NEWSROOM. I'm Alisyn Camerota. Victor is off today.

And we have important COVID news. The World Health Organization just designated a new variant of concern, and named it Omicron. This news is only minutes' old, but it's already causing shockwaves. We're seeing multiple international travel bans. We're seeing global markets tumbling, and scientists are scrambling to test the impact of this variant on vaccine effectiveness.

The fear is that Omicron may evade immunity and spread more easily. It was first detected in South Africa. The health minister there issued an alert yesterday, saying this variant has an unusually high number of mutations.

CNN has just learned that the U.S. will join other countries in restricting travel from South Africa and nearby countries.

So we want to get now straight to Jeff Zeleny at the White House.

So, Jeff -- well, actually on Nantucket, where the president is. What are you learning about travel bans and all this news?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Alisyn.

We are learning that President Biden just moments ago has issued a travel ban here to the United States from South Africa and seven other countries in Africa, on the continent of Africa. The White House says that they are following this very carefully. The president was briefed about this new variant just a short time ago here on Nantucket, where he is spending his Thanksgiving holiday with his family.

And, quite frankly, officials are just trying to get a handle on how dangerous this new variant is, one official telling us just a few moments ago -- quote -- "Our scientists and public health officials are working quickly to learn more about this variant," so pretty basic, vague language there.

But we do know, significantly, the president now joining other countries in banning travel to the U.S. from South Africa and seven other countries on the continent of Africa -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Jeff, stick around with us.

We want to go right now to CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean. He's in Washington for us.

Pete, how quickly do the airlines have to scramble with this new breaking news?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: We know that the changes go into effect on Monday, according to the White House, with this new Omicron variant.

We were wondering when this would come down, given the fact that all of these restrictions were going into place in the United Kingdom and across Europe, the U.K. really the first to act on this just yesterday.

In fact, some of these restrictions were coming down as people were still on board flights in the Netherlands. A plane filled with hundreds of people emptied out in Amsterdam, and all of those folks had to stay cordoned off in one part of that airport, until they figured out exactly how to deal with these restrictions.

Thankfully here, this is not happening as fast, although we will see how the airlines react here. We know that Delta and United Airlines are the two airlines in the United States operating flights between the United States and South Africa.

Delta does that flight three times a week between Johannesburg and Atlanta. United does a flight five times a week between Newark and Johannesburg. So we will see how they react. We know that they were monitoring this early on today. We know that the Department of Transportation said of the CDC and the State Department were also monitoring this as well.

And we also know this has created a little bit of chaos in the travel space, especially in Europe. Even the International Air Transport Association thought initially that this was a bit of a knee-jerk, saying that governments are responding to the risks of the new virus variant in emergency mode, causing fear among the traveling public.

But this is a huge gut punch to the travel industry, which was really just starting to recover a little bit. It was only three weeks ago that travel restrictions were relaxed for fully vaccinated foreign nationals coming into the United States.

If they could prove they were fully vaccinated, take a test within 72 hours and prove that they had a negative coronavirus test before coming into the U.S., they could travel more freely here, something that was a really big sea change. And this really just shows how quickly things can change in the travel space in this pandemic era, a really tough pill to swallow here, as these new restrictions have just been announced for South Africa, including seven other countries as well.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

If Jeff Zeleny is with us, I just want to go back to him for a second, because, Jeff, we remember when there was a travel ban put in place when we first learned about COVID-19, when President Trump, I think, stopped travel or tried to, for some flights coming in from China.

But then COVID-19 came in from Europe. And so does this White House is -- are they talking about anything they learned from that experience?

ZELENY: Well, certainly that is something, coming up on almost the second anniversary -- hard to even imagine that -- of when President Trump, former President Trump did ban travel from China.

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But, look, certainly, many lessons were learned in that respect. But one thing we should point out, American citizens and lawful residents here are not included in this. You will be able to fly home to the U.S. and all other passengers would have to test negative as well. So that's one thing that the White House officials are making clear to us.

And we do have a list of the seven countries, in addition to South Africa. I will just run through them very quickly here, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Mozambique, and Malawi.

So these are the countries the White House is talking about. And, again, they're just, quite frankly, trying to get a handle on how serious this variant of concern is, the WHO saying earlier today -- calling it a variant of concern. So, certainly, they're trying to, as we heard Dr. Fauci say earlier today, just trying to get more information about how serious this variant is spreading.

But the White House acting very quickly on this Friday afternoon here, certainly following the lead of many other European nations as well.

CAMEROTA: Jeff, one more quick question. Why are they waiting -- excuse me -- why are they waiting until Monday to start this travel ban?

ZELENY: That is a good question. I don't have an immediate answer to that. Seeing how this has worked in the past, it takes a while to get things in the system, so perhaps to get some American citizens back on flights. Perhaps it's because of the holidays.

We will check back with the White House officials and see if we can learn more on why the timing is that. But I do recall from earlier travel bans there was a bit of a window given at that point as well, so certainly not doing an immediate ban. As Pete Muntean was reporting, it takes the airlines a bit of time to gear up for this.

So that is my guess of why it is delayed until Monday.

CAMEROTA: OK, Jeff Zeleny, thank you very much. Come back to us as soon as you have any other developments on all of this breaking news.

ZELENY: Sure.

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

Let's get to CNN health reporter Jacqueline Howard. She's with us now.

Jacqueline, so tell us why scientists worldwide are so concerned about this particular variant.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Well, Alisyn, first, there's still a lot left to learn, how transmissible the variant is exactly, as well as how well our vaccines work against it.

But, just moments ago, when the World Health Organization announced that this variant, now named Omicron, is a variant of concern, here's what WHO's Maria Kerkhove had to say about why this variant is concerning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. MARIA VAN KERKHOVE, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: B.1.1.529 is named as a variant of concern because it has some concerning properties. This variant has a large number of mutations. And some of these mutations have some worrying characteristics.

Right now, there are many studies that are under way. There's a lot of work that is ongoing in South Africa and in other countries to better characterize the variant itself in terms of transmissibility, in terms of severity, and any impact on our countermeasures, like the use of diagnostics, therapeutics or vaccines.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWARD: So you see there, Alisyn, there's concern around how well our vaccines work against this variant, as well as it has more than 30 mutations on what's called its spike protein. That's the structure of the variant that it uses to enter our cells.

And that's why there's a lot of concern here around how transmissible this variant is and how well our vaccines work against it. You see, it's already been detected in a few countries. And so there's concern there as well to see how quickly this variant can spread, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Jacqueline Howard, thank you very much for that breaking news.

Joining us now is Dr. William Schaffner. He's a professor of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Dr. Schaffner, thanks so much for being here for this breaking news.

How alarmed are you to hear the -- what the WHO has just designated in terms of this new variant?

DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, DEPARTMENT OF PREVENTIVE MEDICINE CHAIRMAN, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: Well, Alisyn, Omicron, the name of this new variant, clearly is a variant of concern. That notches it right up there.

They're concerned about how rapidly it is spreading. They're concerned whether it causes more severe disease. And, of course, they're concerned about whether our current vaccines will protect against it, never mind do our diagnostic tests pick it up readily, do our therapies work against it?

So there's a whole lot of work going on in many laboratories now trying to get answers to those questions.

CAMEROTA: Doctor, where are you in terms of the effectiveness of a travel ban? As you have just heard from the White House, there is a travel ban affecting flights coming in from South Africa, as well as seven other African countries. It's not starting until Monday.

How effective do you think travel bans are like this?

SCHAFFNER: travel bans are modestly effective. They can obviously influence travel directly from that country to the United States. But, obviously, U.S. citizens will be permitted to come back. They could bring the virus.

And people can go from the country of interest, South Africa, for example, and go to other countries that are not on the travel ban, and enter, if you will, by the side door. So travel bans are somewhat effective, but let's not expect a miracle.

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CAMEROTA: I have also heard, I mean, that there's a downside to travel bans, which is that, in some ways, South Africa and these other countries are being penalized for being transparent, for disclosing this information in, obviously, a way that Wuhan did not to begin with.

And so then other countries see that South Africa, because they test so well and effectively and they have been vocal in sharing this information, that they're being penalized. Do you think there's a downside to this?

SCHAFFNER: Oh, of course there's that downside.

Those who pick up more rocks and find things will find them and then be restricted. There's no doubt about that. So there's a plus/minus story to all of that.

But not putting in the travel ban is thought to be a worse situation than putting it in. It's assessing the costs and benefits on both sides. Tough stuff.

CAMEROTA: How long do you think it will take for scientists to determine whether this new variant, Omicron, is -- if our current vaccines that we're using are effective against Omicron?

SCHAFFNER: I think it might take in the laboratory a week or a little bit more. But we will be getting data on almost a daily basis to give us a

better sense of that. And you can imagine that the vaccine scientists already are thinking about how to modify our current vaccines to cope with Omicron, if that's necessary.

CAMEROTA: Even before we heard about this new designation of Omicron, we knew that Europe is seeing a spike in COVID cases.

Do you think that that's a harbinger of what's about to happen in the U.S.?

SCHAFFNER: Well, let's come back to the U.S. for a moment, where we have the Delta variant, which is the most common around the world, spreading still widely.

We still have 60 million adults not vaccinated. We have many children now age 5 and older unvaccinated, and we have many people who are eligible for boosters still not boosted. I would hope that, within the next week or two weeks, so many of those people will take advantage of the vaccine. That will help us in the immediate term.

And I would anticipate that, as bad as Omicron might be, our vaccines still will be partially effective. So what we have got to do is what we know how to do right now. Let's get everyone vaccinated. And when we go out to group occasions, let's put back our masks. We're going to have to be cautious.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Schaffner, thank you very much for helping us understand this breaking news.

SCHAFFNER: My pleasure.

CAMEROTA: The new COVID variant has already rattled global markets. The Dow had its worst day in more than a year, taking a nosedive and closing more than 900 points down.

CNN's Matt Egan joins me now.

OK, Matt, we saw similar trends when Delta first emerged. What's happening?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, the news of this variant is not going over well on Wall Street.

It was just 48 hours ago that you and I were talking about how Washington economists were upgrading their forecast for the U.S. economy. By all accounts, this recovery was gaining steam, but this variant really calls all of that into question.

So that's what we saw the Dow fall 905 points, 2.5 percent. That is the worst day since October of 2020. That is before the election, before the vaccine breakthroughs, let alone that they were readily available, S&P 500 down 2 percent as well.

Two stats that I really think some of the mood of the market right now, one, oil prices down 13 percent to around $68 a barrel. That would be the worst day since April of 2020. That is a big deal because oil is very sensitive to swings in the economy. And vaccine maker Moderna up 20 percent. That is because investors are betting there's going to be a lot more demand for vaccines going forward.

Travel stocks, they really, really got hit very hard today. We saw airlines like Delta, United, they fell. Carnival and other cruise operators, hotel companies like Marriott, Airbnb, all of them fell pretty sharply.

We do need to put all this into context though. Despite today's losses, the market is still up 22 percent on the year. It's more than doubled from those March 2020 lows. And there's just so much we don't know right now. We don't know how quickly this is going to spread. We don't know how effective vaccines are going to be. We don't really know how society or governments are going to react, although we're starting to get a little bit of a sense for that right now.

For now, though, investors are -- they're selling first and they're asking questions later.

CAMEROTA: I mean, if vaccines are effective, then this will theoretically turn around.

EGAN: I think we have seen that before. With the Delta variant, there were a lot of worries about how effective the vaccines were going to be. There were some market tumbles, a lot of concerns about what it was going to do to the economy.

And it did slow the economy. The Delta variant did slow the economy. It actually created a bigger mess in the supply chain, because we're talking about more workers who were sick, more factories that had to shut down.

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But, eventually, the market and the economy were able to rebound. Right now, we don't know whether or not this is going to be like the Delta variant, something more serious. We just don't know yet.

CAMEROTA: Matt Egan, thank you.

EGAN: Thanks.

CAMEROTA: OK, it is Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year. So will that change with record inflation, with these new COVID concerns? We will talk about that.

And trash, that's what Congresswoman Lauren Boebert is being called by a GOP colleague after some hateful remarks that she's made. We will tell her how she is now -- we will tell you how she is now responding to them.

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CAMEROTA: Well, it's Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

Retailers are expecting record spending this holiday season, even with supply chain issues, and labor shortages and rising prices.

CNN's Alison Kosik is live outside of Macy's in New York City.

So, Alison, tell us what you're seeing there.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alisyn.

You know how it feels like everything we spend our money on just costs more? Well, that doesn't seem to be stopping consumers, who are shopping like crazy. In fact, the National Retail Federation is expecting holiday spending to break records this year, with consumers shelling out anywhere from $843 billion to $859 billion by the time the holiday shopping season is over.

So, today is Black Friday. It is the first unofficial start of the holiday shopping season. And 108 million people are expected to get out and shop today physically. Especially, we're seeing that today at the Macy's at Herald Square. And 60 percent of them actually are shopping in store because they're concerned that the products that they purchased online may not make it to their destination in time for the holidays.

Because of these supply chain disruptions that retailers have been facing, they have had issues building up their inventory. Now, some retailers have done better than others. Big ones like Walmart, Target, Costco, even Macy's, they got creative to get ahead of the issue and sidestep the supply chain issue.

I talked with Macy's CEO this morning, when he told me that one of the creative things that they did was charter cargo ships to send their merchandise across the globe. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFFREY GENNETTE, CEO, MACY'S: We moved up ship dates by 30 days to ensure that we would have it here for the holiday. That's really helping us get all of our stock into our warehouses and our stores.

So, across all of our gift categories, we're well-positioned this holiday season.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Other retailers have had a really hard time, like The Gap, saying that they lost $300 million in sales just heading into the holiday shopping season because of production issues and issues, of course, at the port.

Victoria's Secret says half of its merchandise for the holidays is currently stuck in transit. They have had to pivot and go to air freight. And you think that would help too, but, usually, air freight gets that merchandise there in two days. Those at Victoria's Secret say now it's taking nine days -- Alisyn. CAMEROTA: Well, it certainly looks lively behind you, Alison Kosik. Thank you very much for the update from Macy's.

All right, joining us now we have National Retail Association president and CEO Matthew Shay.

Matthew, thanks so much for being here.

Let's just talk about -- let's start with what Alison was just reporting. Back in October, you predicted that this would be a banner year, record sales year. Are you still sticking with that prognostication, given the supply chain issues and now the inflation issues and now this new COVID strand?

MATTHEW SHAY, PRESIDENT AND CEO, NATIONAL RETAIL FEDERATION: Yes, well, hi, Alisyn. Thanks for having us.

I think, on that last point, the new COVID strand, the obvious question there is, as you have already discussed earlier in the segment, how effective are the vaccines against it? How transmissible is it? Those are all things no one knows yet. So I think it's appropriate to be cautious. But let's wait and see what we learn.

As far as inflation and supply chain go, you heard the reference to the segment with Jeff Gennette of Macy's. And retailers that were able to do it did invest a lot in adjusting their supply chains, in pulling inventory forward, working with their partners to have the goods and the merchandise they needed in place.

That happened in many cases. It didn't happen in all cases. And there are some variables just outside of the control of some companies, based on where suppliers are, their shipping methods, the shipping locations.

But, overall, consumers are in a great place. They have got $4 trillion in savings. They're out shopping. Sales are up in a big way this year. We expect a great holiday season.

CAMEROTA: So, do you think you're still going to break a record this year?

SHAY: We do.

Alisyn, in fact, the retail sales for the month of October were released recently and show that, for the month of October, sales were up more than 10 percent over October a year ago. And for the 10 months that ended on October 31, retail sales are up 14 percent for the year.

So we have already had massive gains in terms of retail sales through the first 10 months. We think that momentum will continue throughout the month of November or December, through the holiday season. So we're still confident because consumers are in such a good place and because retailers have got inventory in place.

They're going to find the gifts that they have on their list, and we think it's going to be a great season. CAMEROTA: About those supply chain issues, what products and stores do you think are being hit the hardest?

SHAY: Well, I think -- and your colleague, Alisyn, also mentioned that it's a -- I think it's somewhat episodic.

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And it depends on where are your factories, where are your suppliers, what segment of the market are you in? She referenced a couple of companies that have had different experiences. So the general merchandise categories have done very well. There have been some others, maybe a little more specialized retailers, that, for unique reasons, had some challenges.

I think the important thing to recognize is that retailers have been working on this since the beginning of the pandemic. They understood the real stress the supply chain was under. They have invested billions of dollars in their teams, in their systems, working with their partners to get goods here.

That's why, really, we have survived the last 20 months and been able to get most of the things we needed when we needed them. So I'm confident we will find a way to get through this holiday season, and the overwhelming majority of those items on the holiday lists are going to get fulfilled.

And that's why we encourage people to go out early. And we know people did start earlier this year than ever. If you get out early, you can find the things you need and want and hopefully take some stress off your holiday season.

CAMEROTA: But are you finding all of those products at a higher price this year? I mean, how is Black Friday today being reimagined by retailers because of inflation?

SHAY: Well, I think we're living in an environment where we're seeing historic levels of fiscal stimulus, $5 trillion of stimulus already been put into the economy, which is more than 20 percent of GDP.

And that's before we even get to the bipartisan infrastructure deal and what might happen next on social spending on those other programs that are being discussed. So we have really stimulated demand. At the same time, we have had supply shocks due to the COVID virus in other parts of the world that have closed factories and inhibited workers.

So we have both of those things at once, really pent-up demand that's juiced by the fiscal stimulus. And we see shocks to the supply side. And that's creating an environment where wages are rising, where products cost more. Transportation, logistics, transmission, fuel prices, everything's costing more.

So far, wage pressure has continued its upward trajectory. And so consumers are keeping pace with inflation. And at some point, we expect to see inflation moderate, and we hope that some time in the new year, we will all be able to have a little more stability in those prices and get things back in balance between supply and demand.

CAMEROTA: OK, Matthew Shay, thank you.

SHAY: Thanks, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: All right now to politics.

Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has been loyal to former President Trump and his controversial allies in Congress, but one of the very Republicans that McCarthy has protected says he does not have the votes to be speaker if the Republicans win back the House.

We will get into that fight next.

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