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Scientists Rush To Study New COVID Variant as More Cases Confirmed; Travel Bans Increase as Concerns about New Variant Grow; McCarthy Says He spoke to Boebert, Encouraged Her to Meet with Omar; Supply Crunch Making Christmas Trees More Expensive This Year; 2 Storm Systems Could Complicate Post-Thanksgiving Travel; College Football Rivalry Saturday for the Ages. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired November 28, 2021 - 14:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:59:51]

PAULA REID, CNN HOST: Hello. Thanks for joining me. I'm Paula Reid in Washington, in this weekend for Fredericka Whitfield.

Now, the list of countries reporting cases of the new omicron variant of COVID-19 is growing and so are the concerns over what it could mean for the ongoing pandemic.

Some experts calling for cautious optimism that it might not break through in the way some fear. Others are worried that the dozens of mutations on this virus could spell big trouble ahead.

With me now Nada Bashir in London and Joe Johns at the White House.

Nada, I'd like to start with you. This variant is already in Europe. But every expert seems to agree. The one thing they can agree on is that it's going to take weeks to know what exactly we're dealing with. So what happens between now and when we have a better sense of exactly what this variant means?

NADA BASHIR, CNN PRODUCER: Well, Paula, that's absolutely right. There is time we needed to really find out the details about the new omicron variant but there are still serious concerns, there are questions over its transmissibility, over how severe the disease it might cause and also on its impact on vaccine efficacy.

But as we've seen in the last few days these cases are on the rise. We've just seen in the last few hours the U.K. and Germany both confirming their third cases of the omicron variant alongside a number of other nations. And this is expected to rise.

Perhaps most troubling we've seen in the Netherlands they had identified 61 confirmed cases of coronavirus on Friday from passengers on a flight from South Africa. They have now confirmed that at least 13 of those who tested positive have tested positive for the omicron variant.

So there's a real sense of concern and urgency here. But the questions remain, and it will take time to find out more about this variant. We've heard from the European Commission president today, Ursula Von Der Leyen saying that there was a sense of urgency, but we do need more time to find out more.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

URSULA VON DER LEYEN, PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN COMMISSION: We're now in a race against time. Why that? Because we know not all about this variant, but it is a variant of concern. And the scientists and manufacturer need two to three weeks to have a full picture about the quality of the mutations of this omicron variant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASHIR: So there is some time needed for the manufacturers, for scientists to really investigate this new variant. But we've seen the European leaders and here in the U.K. taking really strong measures, particularly on the travel front.

We've seen a number of countries now banning travel from the southern African region or adding them to restricted lists like here in the U.K. Ten African nations now on that red list requiring passengers to quarantine for ten days in a government-approved hotel at their own expense.

But there are stricter measures coming in across those borders in the European Union, too. And we've seen that across the globe now. Other countries taking those tighter measures, but that has also been a cause for some backlash.

We've heard from the World Health Organization calling these decisions hasty, warning against tough travel restrictions without the scientific evidence just yet. And just in the last hour we've heard from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa calling on these wealthier nations to really focus less on these travel restrictions and more on supporting developing countries to fight coronavirus really highlighting the issue of vaccine inequality.

Now, if you remember, only about 7 percent of the population on the African continent is fully vaccinated and there are calls for wealthier countries to live up to their COVAX commitments to support these countries to obtain the vaccine.

So there's a real pressure here now on European leaders, not only to fight the spread of this variant but also to take the appropriate measures needed as called by the scientists, Paula.

REID: And Joe, the president is heading back to Washington now where he'll get an in-person briefing on omicron. But what's the view from the White House right now? They have a lot already on their plate.

And here they want to prepare the country, of course. People are looking for information, but they have to be careful as they don't know too much not to overreact. So what's the outlook right now from the White House?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT. Well, it's definitely a cautious approach, and as you said the president is returning from Nantucket after spending the Thanksgiving weekend with his family there.

The White House putting out a statement, no surprise, just a little while ago indicating that the president will get a briefing this afternoon from his COVID-19 team, including Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Of course, there are a whole host of questions that developed since the weekend began, including whether or not the variant is in the United States at this time.

Now if you listen to what the experts are saying, it's clear they don't have any conclusive information about that. Nonetheless, what Dr. Anthony Fauci is saying is you have to assume that it will happen any day now. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Do you think it's already here in the United States?

[14:04:48]

DR. FRANCIS COLLINS, DIRECTOR NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: I -- we have no evidence that it is, so I'm on the fence about that. We will find out because CDC is looking at tens of thousands of viral isolates every week and so we're going to find out if it's here.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We have a pretty good surveillance system, but as we all know when you have a virus that has already gone to multiple countries, inevitably it will be here. The question is will we be prepared for it. And the preparation that we have ongoing for what we're doing now with the delta variant just needs to be revved up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: So Paula, back to your question at the top. Clearly the president of the United States is being very cautious at this stage. As we know, the president has ordered travel restrictions on people traveling here to the United States from southern Africa. That does not include American citizens.

But as you know, Paula, from covering the White House yourself, there's a political approach to COVID and there's a scientific approach. The political approach that Biden is taking is to be as cautious as possible while the scientists are saying more or less wait and see.

Back to you.

REID: Nada Bashir, Joe Johns -- thank you so much for your reporting. And last hour I spoke with Moderna's chief medical officer Dr. Paul

Burton and asked him why Moderna officials are already concerned the omicron variant could elude the current vaccines. Here's some of that conversation .

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. PAUL BURTON, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICIER, MODERNA: So just a shout-out to the whole COVID community around the world that's really been able to sequence this variant and provide amazing information to the world so quickly. It's an amazing feat.

The network for genomics surveillance in South Africa, for example. What they show is that this is --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: Here we see President Biden is answering a few questions as he -- as he gets his travel under way. Let's take a listen.

All right. We're going to come back to this. Right now we're going to go back to Dr. Burton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. BURTON: Just a shutout to the whole code of community around the world that's really been able to sequence this variant and provide amazing information to the world so quickly. It's an amazing feat. The network for genomic surveillance in South Africa, for example.

What they show is that this is a virus now with at least 50 mutations, many of them spanning the previous variants of concern. Alpha, beta, gamma and delta. At least 30 mutations in the spike protein alone that we know lead to immune evasion and escape and also increased replication. So this Paula, is what makes it just so concerning to us.

REID: What we hear again and again from health experts over the past 48 hours is that we don't know too much about this variant but people should get a vaccine or a booster if they have already had their first two shots, but here you're that saying it's possible, even likely, that this could elude the vaccine.

So how do you reconcile those two statements?

DR. BURTON: Yes. So look, I think, Paula, you know, we have to go through a couple of weeks yet of uncertainty. There are three questions we really need the answers to. How transmissible is this variant? How severe is it? And will the antibodies that were produced in response to the current vaccines affect it.

And we won't know that last question for a couple of weeks but what we do know is that the best protection is to get vaccinated if you're on the fence. If you haven't been vaccinated get vaccinated and now everybody over 18 in this country is at least eligible for boosting. So if you're now eligible for boosting, get boosted as well. By doing that we at least know that you'll get that first line of critical protection. And then, of course, there's additional simpler things you can do. Hand-washing, some social distancing it and mask wearing as appropriate. These two together right now until we know exactly what's going on are going to be critical in our line of defense.

REID: So if it turns out that this particular variant does not work with the current vaccine, how long would it take to come up with a booster or a new version of the vaccine to protect against a variant like this?

DR. BURTON: Yes. So Paula, at Moderna we've been testing variant specific boosters and vaccines over the summer, one to the beta variant, one to the delta.

Our platform we can move very fast. We think within, you know, weeks to maybe two to three months we would be able to have an omicron specific vaccine booster available for testing and then for administration.

So you know, this is going to go at the fastest possible speed, but we have to do careful science now. We don't want to misstep. The academic community around the world needs to generate data that we can all be absolutely certainly on if we're going to have to pivot now and make some changes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: Dr. Craig Spencer is the director of global health and ER medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Spencer, thank you so much for being with us.

DR. CRAIG SPENCER, DIRECTOR OF GLOBAL HEALTH, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Thanks for having me.

REID: What is your reaction to what you just heard from Moderna's chief medical officer?

[14:09:59]

DR. SPENCER: Well I think like with everything around omicron the answer to many of his questions as well we just don't know.

What I really want to do is just take a second for all of us to take a deep breath. There's a lot of hype. There's a lot of panic. There's a lot of fear. Some of it may be justified, but the answer -- the thing is that we're just not going to know for a few weeks.

We have people right now at the World Health Organization, the amazing scientists in South Africa that were transparent that did this work, they are all working on getting us these answers right now.

But the reality is that we just don't know whether this is more transmissible or less, whether it causes more severe disease or not, or what impact it has on our vaccines. Now, to follow up on what was said by the representative from Moderna, you know, I think that the lead on this story should not have been about the travel bans or about how scary the variant may be. It should have been that this is a problem caused by global vaccine inequity and Moderna is one of the companies that has been prioritizing its pharmaceutical profits over getting the rest of the world vaccinated.

For example, in Botswana, they were paying -- Botswana was one of the countries where the genomic sequence for this new variant was first discovered. They were paying one of the highest prices in the world at $29 a dose, nearly double of what we're paying in the U.S.

And the delivery of their vaccine from Moderna was delayed by many months meaning that just over a third of people in Botswana right now are vaccinated.

We know that an unvaccinated population give the virus places to mutate, replicate and create new variants. And that is exactly why unless we get the rest of the world vaccinated, we can't build walls and we're not going to boost our way out of this problem here in the U.S. or another wealthy country. We need to do more to get more people vaccinated.

REID: We did ask Moderna about whether they should have been selling more vaccines to the developing world at cost. You can hear his answer on our Website but he really didn't give a very satisfactory explanation to whether they should be doing more to make sure that that vaccine gets distributed in other parts of the world.

But some experts are saying, I mean, we don't know, but it does appear that some experts are saying at this point what they are observing is that this virus, this variant is more highly transmissible but it appears -- it appears that it does not present as serious symptoms as other variants. So that appears to be some glimmer of hope, but where do you fall on that?

DR. SPENCER: We don't know. Look, we don't know how long this variant has been around. Has it been a couple of weeks, has it been a couple of months?

I personally am not taking any information as, you know, 100 percent credible unless it's coming from the amazing team that's doing this work in South Africa or from the World Health Organization.

There will things that circulate that say this is scary or that it's not that. What we have reason to freak out and then we have reason to not freak out.

I think that the one thing that we can do regardless of what we find out about this variant in the coming weeks and months is the same thing we've been doing all along. Protect yourself, get vaccinated. If you're currently unvaccinated and this does not encourage you to get your vaccine or your booster if you're eligible then I don't know what will.

We know that COVID is going to be around for a long time. I guarantee that omicron is not the last of the variants that will emerge. Will one come along that's, you know, scarier and more transmissible, cause more severe disease? I don't know, but we do know that vaccination has been our best line of defense against, you know, infection.

And that is not something that needs to just be held here. This is something that we need to think about globally. I've been coming on this program since February talking about global solidarity and global vaccine equity and it's only now that we're starting to see the impact of what many people have been warning about for months.

REID: Well Dr. Craig Spencer, thank you so much.

DR. SPENCER: Thanks for having me.

REID: A few moments ago President Biden landed at Joint Base Andrews. He very quickly answered a question from the press about travel restrictions due to the COVID variant. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you considering travel restrictions on Europe or any additional countries?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm having a meeting with my medial team when I get back to the White House.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When do you expect to make your remaining fed picks?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: All right. Very quick there. We're expecting that he'll get an in-person briefing. But the new variant is causing quite a bit of confusion at airports around the world, including here in the U.S.

Nick Valencia is Hartsfield Jackson in Atlanta. Polo Sandoval is in New York.

All right Nick. Atlanta is of course, a major delta hub and are still servicing South Africa today. What have you been seeing on the ground?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're seeing a packed airport. In fact, it's gotten a lot smoother since we've been here.

Earlier this morning we were hearing from airport officials who were telling us there's about a 40-minute wait. Right now it's 11 minutes, but of course this, busy travel day this holiday weekend or post- holiday weekend, comes as we're hearing news of the emergence of a new variant omicron.

[14:14:58]

VALENCIA: It's something that we're asking passengers here how it's factored in to their travel. They were joined here by some of the travelers here. What's your name, guys?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name is Chris.

VALENCIA: Chris and --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And Rebecca.

VALENCIA: Rebecca. And these are --

CHRIS: This is Lily and Lila.

VALENCIA: Hey, guys. How are you?

So you guys are traveling back to Los Angeles today?

CHRIS: Yes, sir.

VALENCIA: So you heard me talking about omicron, this variant. You had just found out about it but you have sort of seen the headlines a little bit. What do you think about this?

CHRIS: I don't do much thinking about it. I know we're going to hear more and more variants. Every six months we're going to hear about a new strain that's going to be more deadly or more, you know, potent perhaps in some way or another.

We're just going to live our life. We're going to take precautions. We're both vaccinated. We're not totally against boosters, so we'll do what we need to do to keep our family safe and our loved ones safe but we're not going to stop living life. We're going to keep doing what we do.

VALENCIA: And I talked to you guys a little bit off camera as well. Delta is continuing to fly to South Africa. This is where the variant -- news of the variant first emerged from South Africa. Does it give you any pause to come through the airport here knowing that Delta, which is based here in Atlanta, is continuing to fly to South Africa?

CHRIS: Not really.

VALENCIA: No. What about you, Rebecca?

REBECCA: No.

VALENCIA: No. Not at all. Why not? Why or why not?

CHRIS: I feel like there's probably a handful of different variants that we haven't discovered yet coming from any other part of the world. This is just the one we've discovered and we just can't live afraid.

We're just going keep going about our life. And that comes with some risk factor but we've already accepted those. We've talked about it and accepted them. Our kids are safe just naturally because they just aren't super affected by this.

Some variant shows up that is super dangerous for kids we'll take different precautions. But for now we feel safe with what we've done. VALENCIA: And Chris, you guys are going back to Los Angeles where I'm

from and I just returned from there. They take things very serious there in terms of the COVID-19 protocols. What are your impressions here traveling in the south and Atlanta and to sort of the differences that people approach this virus?

CHRIS: I like a more freedom-based approach. You can take your own precautions and keep yourself as safe as you need to. We have -- we have elderly, you know, more compromised family members that we take precautions around but they make their own decisions. We make our own decisions and we're just careful where we need to be careful.

VALENCIA: Well, we're so grateful you're taking the time. The Desrenes (ph) -- did I get that right. Nailed it. Awesome.

Thank you, guys. Thank you, girls. I love your masks. Those are so awesome. Did I hear you like unicorns?

Yes. Awesome, she's got some unicorns on her shoes there Paula. The other one, you like owls. All right guys. Thank you guys so much for taking the time with CNN.

Yes. thank you. Thank you, guys. A lot of passengers are getting here about two and a half hours early just because they are expecting these large crowds. 400,000 less than the 2019 pre-pandemic numbers which is pretty, you know, pretty close to the pre-pandemic crowds that we saw.

Again, lines moving very, very smoothly here. About 11-minute wait to get through that TSA checkpoint, Paula.

REID: Who doesn't like unicorns really. But it's great to hear those folks, you know, to get this perspective. We appreciate all of your -- all of your interviews today. It seems a lot of folks just saying, look, I'm going to live my life. They don't seem too worried which I guess also explains why they are at one of the busiest airports in the world.

Polo, you saw some arrivals from South Africa arrive at Newark Airport this morning. What was that like? Was it business as usual? Are there any additional precautions?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Remember, Paula, these travel restrictions they haven't even kicked into place yet and what when we learned during that visit to Newark is it's already leading to some complications even for some U.S. citizens that are headed from South Africa here to the United States.

I mean we brought you that story in the last hour of a New Jersey man who made it home safely because he had a non-stop United reservation from Johannesburg here to the northeast. But his family that was traveling on a separate reservation with a layover in Dubai, their flight got canceled so now they're basically stranded in South Africa.

And now it's a question not necessarily of if but when they will be able to get on a flight back to the United States. But then we're also getting a better idea of what it was like, for example in, South Africa as news of this new variant began to basically spread here and also what the process was like for some of those U.S.-bound travelers as they make it back into the United States before those restrictions kick into place.

I want you to hear directly from a couple that was traveling just today that we met. Michael and Haley (INAUDIBLE) as they described the process of getting off that plane after hearing about this variant.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HALEY, TRAVELER: They were checking for people's tests to see the negative result from the last 72 hours. And then they had this really cool station here where you could take a COVID test on site and they give you this little at-home test kit in case you're feeling any symptoms in the next few days.

MICHAEL, TRAVELER: But I think it was -- the irony is sort of like just a few weeks ago all the South African-specific restrictions kind of loosened up a little bit so it's too bad that just a few weeks later they are kind of back in that situation again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: So you hear from the (INAUDIBLE) there were basically just vacationing in South Africa and that's really what stood out for them is a lot of the people there obviously now concerned in South Africa of what this could potentially mean, especially for tourists such as themselves.

[14:19:59]

SANDOVAL: They were certainly looking forward to welcoming people back and now obviously they know after seeing first hand that this has the potential to change the situation there on the ground.

And finally as we -- Nick obviously touching on Delta a little while ago. United Airlines, that's the second U.S. carrier that announced at the end of the this weekend that they will continue to provide that service as United Airlines is saying that they are determined to maintain its safe and vital link for essential supplies and personnel from the United States to those affected regions in southern Africa, Paula.

REID: Nick, Polo -- thank you so much for your reporting. Appreciate it.

Still ahead House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy now says he has spoken to Congresswoman Lauren Boebert after she was caught on video making Islamophobic comments. We'll have details.

And later, Christmas trees might be more difficult to find and more expensive this season. We'll talk to the head of a Christmas tree farm about the challenges they're facing.

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[14:24:57]

REID: House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy now says he's spoken to GOP Congresswoman Lauren Boebert in the wake of her anti-Muslim remarks and the Republican leader says he's encouraging Boebert to meet with the Democratic lawmaker she targeted, Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. The Colorado Republican was heard on video making Islamophobic comments about Omar implying that the Muslim lawmaker was a suicide bomber.

With me now to talk more about this is Rachael Bade, she's a CNN political analyst and co-author of Politico's Playbook. Rachael, thanks so much for being with me.

RACHAEL BADE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

REID: All right. So here's an idea that these two folks should sit down and talk about this.

It's not a disagreement. It's not a dispute. It's a racist, Islamophobic comment that one made to the other. Is there really anything to be gained from these two women, these lawmakers sitting down and talking about this?

BADE: Look, I would say that what McCarthy is doing here is a lot more than we've seen the GOP leader do in the past few weeks and few months when we saw these sort of fringe lawmakers make really sort of grotesque comments about Democratic colleagues.

I mean, just two weeks ago Paul Gosar, the Republican from Arizona who is sort of in this sort of fringe wing posted a video of himself murdering another Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. McCarthy said nothing about this. Did not encourage a sit-down and Democrats ended up taking him off his committee and censuring him.

What we're seeing right now is the GOP try to do something. He called her. She issued a public apology. Now, will she stay with that apology? I don't know. She will walk it back? We'll see. She' clearly getting pressure from other fringe members to sort of walk back that apology.

But the fact that she said that she was sorry and that she's reached out to Ilhan Omar's office is something that we haven't seen these Republicans do in the past.

And so I think in that regard Democrats would say that this is a welcome first step. Obviously they are going to want to see more in terms of, you know, future actions. They don't want to see this sort rhetoric again.

But look, any time someone makes a comment like this that's clearly Islamophobic, you know, there could be a teachable learning moment. And if Boebert is sincere and wants to sit down with Ilham Omar, apologize to her face and try to make amends, then I would think people on Capitol Hill would welcome that. We'll just have to see what happens in the coming days.

REID: It seemed like they were lowering the bar when we say well, it's more than he's done in the past.

Now, as you know noted Boebert tweeted an apology saying she was sorry if she offended anyone in the Muslim community but her colleague, far right GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene says Boebert has nothing to apologize for, sending out this tweet saying "Never apologize to Islamic terrorist sympathizers, communists or those who fund murder with our tax dollars. Ilhan and the jihad squad are all three and are all under undeserving of an apology."

So what kind of problem is there here for the House Minority Leader when on the one hand and he's trying to clean this up? Boebert apologized but then you have Marjorie Taylor Greene coming out and basically doubling down. Is this a good cop-bad cop thing?

BADE: Yes. I mean this complicates the situation enormously. As you know, Marjorie Taylor Greene, she has sort of lorded over this power she has over McCarthy saying she might not vote for him for speaker. She could bring other fringe members along with her. She wants to see him be tougher. She calls him weak.

And she's actually close with Lauren Boebert, too. Like these two women often you can see them on the House floor together. They are walking together. So the fact that one of her fellow sort of far right Republicans is rebuking Lauren Boebert for suggesting she is apologizing is going to complicate this whole situation.

Basically she's trying to undo what McCarthy -- this damage control that McCarthy is doing behind the scenes right now and, you know, that could sort of get McCarthy to sort of back off because he needs this woman to back him to become speaker some day and he want to be speaker some day so it complicates the situation.

And I'm not sure how it's going to end up this week, but I'm sure this is not last we've heard of it.

REID: Complicated indeed.

All right. On a policy front, members of Congress return from Thanksgiving break this week with some big items on their to do: the debt ceiling deadline, the Build Back Better legislation. It's shaping up to be a really busy and consequential week on Capitol Hill.

So based on your reporting, do you think the Democrats will find a way to keep the government operating and pass the final piece of Biden's economic agenda?

BADE: Yes. I mean I think -- I don't think we're going to see a shutdown. I think nobody wants a shutdown Republicans or Democrats, obviously, Democrats being in power. Don't want to be blamed for something like that.

So I mean Democrats have put together or put forth a Christmas day deadline. They want to finish the big back better before, you know, December 25th and that's complicated by the fact that they have a whole laundry list of to-do items that they have to complete before they do that.

BADE: They have to fund the government. That requires an agreement with Republican senators. They have to lift the debt ceiling which Janet Yellen, the Treasury Secretary said needs to be lifted by mid- December, December 15th. So they have got to do that.

[14:30:03]

They are going to try to do a big national defense bill that they have to do every year. That takes amendments after amendments, a lot of hours and debate. And everything in the Senate moves very slowly, so it's a lot of things for the Senate to do in December.

And if they want to get Biden's bill done, they want to get the Biden agenda completed, they're going to have to do all these other things before. So it's going to be a really busy not just this week but the whole month of December is going to be a mess for them. But they say they can walk and chew gum at the same time. We'll just have to see if they real can.

REID: We'll see. Rachael Bade, thank you so much for joining us.

BADE: Thank you.

REID: So have you gotten your Christmas tree yet? If not, you may want to get cracking. Next, why Christmas trees may be the next victims of the supply chain crunch.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:35:19]

REID: Across the country, people are scrambling to find what they need for the holidays, everything from turkey and Christmas gifts are harder to find and it will cost you more.

And it's no different for anyone who wants a real Christmas tree this year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEB CARL, CHRISTMAS TREE SHOPPER: They had, oh, my goodness, maybe a third of the supply that we've seen in past years, and they are tiny. They are cute, but they are like Charlie Brown trees.

RODNEY RICHARDSON, OWNER, MET. ROGERS CHRISTMAS TREE FARM: We do wholesale, but we've cut our customer back a little, you know, about 10 percent of each customer, and we're not taking on any more new customers because we just don't have the tree.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: The Christmas Tree Association is warning that this isn't the year to buy a last-minute tree and a live tree will set you back about $78.

Bob Schaefer is CEO of Noble Mountain Tree Farm which has more than a 4,000 acre tree farm and he joins us from Salem, Oregon.

Thank you so much for being with us.

As you just heard, a customer and a seller both say they are having trouble finding enough trees. So tell us how is your business looking this year? Do you have enough supply?

BOB SCHAEFER, CEO, NOBLE MOUNTAIN TREE FARM: Our company does have enough supply. In fact, our numbers are up a little bit this year. The heat dome on June 27 put the Christmas tree industry in Oregon and Washington into uncharted territory. We got 117 degrees which is 10 degrees higher than the highest temperature ever recorded prior to that. It did impact our number one species grown on the West Coast which is a noble fir.

It's estimated we lost 40 percent to 50 percent of the seedlings but we also had about 12 percent to 18 percent of the estimates still a little bit vague on noble fir trees that were impact by the -- by the heat, and they were burned to the point that they were not able to be saleable this year. The good news is they will come out of it. And so, in the future, it will give us a bigger selection and some higher -- some taller trees. So that's -- that's a good thing.

Our company, the Noble fir and the Nordmann fir, the number two and three species grown on the west coast, were not impacted. Fortunately our numbers were up inside those species so our customers are getting as many trees as they ordered or more. Maybe not just as many Noble fir as they had hoped to get.

So, for our company we're in pretty good shape. There were smaller growers who were impacted more than the major growers. There are nine major wholesale growers in Oregon and most of them are spread out to where there wasn't a huge impact on their overall production.

Numbers are down a little bit, but for the most part I think we have younger fields we can go into, so we can get, you know, younger trees that are a little bit shorter if we need to. In our case we were in pretty good shape, but other growers are shipping some shorter trees in some instances.

REID: Well, a couple of inches, that's not the worst news when it comes to a Christmas tree, but we did hear some folks saying that they have to charge more for trees. Are you experiencing that, an increase in sales price this year?

SCHAEFER: We quote our customers early on so our prices were already on -- already set before the June 27th heat hit us, so we opted to go with the pricing that we had set which is not significantly higher than prior years. Some growers may have opted to raise their prices a little bit. But for real trees, I don't see a huge increase in the -- in the retail price for this coming season.

I've read that there's a shortage of fake Chinese trees because of logistics issues getting them off the docs or even on to the docs so their prices are up as much as 30 percent from what I've seen in the stores. But I don't look for huge increases in retail pricing for real Christmas trees for the most part on the West Coast.

REID: And it's interesting. Some more good news for your industry. We've seen more young people are buying fresh like real Christmas trees as opposed to the artificial trees you just referenced.

Is that something you've seen over the past few years, more young people, more young families going out and wanting to get a real tree?

SCHAEFER: That is actually what I think is creating the shortage perception, if you will.

[14:30:05]

Last year, a lot more young families opted for a real fresh tree and really appreciated it. Retailers are saying that 89 percent of the people right now who bought a real tree for the first time last year wished they had done it sooner. So the perceived shortage is because of a huge increase in demand for the real tree, and so because of that, overall, there may be a shortage because our -- our production on the West Coast is going to be about the same, but with the demand being up again this year significantly from what our retailers are telling us there could be towards the end of the season, some people looking for a tree that might not get it.

The other issue for us is the logistics. I mean, Oregon ships about 8,500, 8,600 truckload of trees south and southeast in about 20 days. And that's obviously a very seasonal shift in market demand for market trucks.

It's very difficult for us to get trucks right now. Some growers indicate they are paying as much as 40 percent more than they have paid in the past to try to get a truck. So when it comes to shopping early, actually that may not be necessary because trees are going to be probably be delivered later than they had been ordered just because of the trucking shortage that the industry is experiencing in the Northwest right now.

REID: That's really interesting. Sounds lime some supply chain glitches but younger folks, millennial families, millennial parents are really driving this demand that could create some shortages. Bob Schaffer, thank you so much for joining us.

SCHAEFER: No problem. Glad to be with you. Have a great day.

REID: As Americans return home from their thanksgiving holiday, a winter storm brewing in the Northeast could make travel tough. The latest forecast next.

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[14:46:36]

REID: As one of the busiest travel weekends of the year is still under way, winter weather could make for messy return home for some Thanksgiving travelers.

CNN's Gene Norman is live at the CNN weather center in Atlanta.

All right. Gene, what are you seeing out there?

GENE NORMAN, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Paula, good to join you.

Yeah, looks kind of dicey especially in parts of the Northeast. We're also tracking some rain along the Gulf Coast. It could be some tricky driving for folks along the I-10 and the only delay as far as airports is a 30-minute delay in Boston, Logan Airport up there.

But it's all due to this little clipper system that's bringing more snow to parts of the Great Lakes and in some cases could be kind of heavy. So, watch out if you're driving anywhere from Buffalo back down towards Cleveland over to Detroit. Snow being reported in all three of the locations and even a couple of flurries in the Big Apple and Philadelphia earlier today so along I-90 and I-75 those will be your slicker spots for driving and watch out for potential airport delays in these areas.

And the winter weather advisory is in effect outlined in purple, the areas that you see, especially to the east of the Great Lakes. That's where they could see anywhere from six to eight inches of snow. It's not over yet. There's another clipper system coming in tomorrow. If you thought maybe I'll wait this out a day I might want to rethink about that because more snow is anticipated with a little bit of pockets and higher snow amounts.

Out to the Pacific Northwest. Still seeing soggy conditions there so along I-5, Paula. Just a mess in and around Seattle.

REID: All right. Gene, thank you so much.

And tonight, join "Fareed Zakaria" for an in-depth look at China's leader. "China's Iron Fist" begins tonight at 9:00.

We're back in a moment.

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[14:52:46]

REID: What a weekend for college football. The rivalries did not disappoint. Here's CNN's Coy Wire with who is heading to the playoffs and who is heading home.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Paula, when a top five matchup between Michigan and Ohio state is not the first game we're talking about, you know it was a wild day.

Before we talk about that game, we head to Auburn facing number three Alabama in their Iron Bowl rivalry that dates back to 1893, Auburn just 6-5 coming into this weekend, but an electric crowd supercharging their defense, holding the Tide's high-powered offense to just one field goal in the first 59 minutes 36 seconds of the game.

But with 97 yards and a minute 25 in regulation, no time-outs, the Tide rising to the occasion. Sophomore QB Bryce Young methodically moving down the field to Auburn's 28-yard line and then comes the big blow, a sensational throw and incredible catch. Jakari Brooks corner in the end zone touchdown. Tying it up with just 24 seconds to go forcing the first overtime game in iron bowl history but it ends up going to four overtimes and that's where young hits John Metchie his 13th catch of the game as the game winner. Heartbreak at Jordan-Hare.

Auburn playing their hearts out but Bama avoids a huge upset and gets the win to keep their playoff hopes alive and well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK SABAN, COACH, ALABAMA: I'll tell you what. The players, I'm so proud of the way they competed in the game and fought. That's what we wanted to do at halftime and I couldn't be prouder of them. I think they were a little bit of out of sorts and I could see it in their eyes so I told them to go play and have fun at halftime. Just go have fun, man. Quit worrying about the result and just have fun.

REPORTER: At what point did that become fun for you?

SABAN: When we got the ball.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: How about this Sunday fun day for you? Seventy-year-old Nick Saban, one of the greatest leaders of all time, busting out their moves in the locker room with the boys. Bama gets a showdown with the undefeated number one Georgia Bulldogs in the SEC title game in Atlanta next weekend.

Now to Ann Arbor. Snowy scene for number 5 Michigan and number 2 Ohio State. Bad blood between two of the winningest programs ever. Michigan hasn't won since 2011 and used a decade of despair to demolish the Buckeyes, up front bulldozing the way for Hasan Haskins leaping into the history books.

[14:55:08]

In the final minutes, Haskins delivering the dagger into the heart of the Buckeyes. His fifth score of the day marks the most rushing touchdowns in the 125-year history of the rivalry, 42-27. Coach Jim Harbaugh getting his first win in six tries in this game. They will face Iowa in the big ten title game.

For some perspective this Michigan one was the third in a series since the iPod was released, not the iPhone, the iPod way back in 2001.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

REID: That's a long time. Coy, thank you. And next just more countries detect cases of the Omicron variant.

Scientists scramble to learn how the vaccines will hold up against it. The latest in minutes.

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