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President Biden to Speak Monday About Omicron Variant and the U.S. Response; WHO Calls for Borders to Remain Open Despite Omicron Variant; World Monitoring Threat from Highly Mutated COVID Variant; Will Mark Meadows Face Criminal Charges?; NASA Test Mission Plots Asteroid Crash Course; The Great Resignation, Where All the Workers Have Gone; 81-Year-Old Ditches Retirement to Help Restaurant Stay Afloat; Theranos Founder Takes the Stand After 11 Weeks in Court. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired November 28, 2021 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: Good Sunday evening. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

Omicron is on our doorstep. Canada just now confirming its first two cases of the new highly mutated COVID variant. The Minister of Health in Canada says the infected individuals are now in isolation and had both recently traveled from Nigeria which, incidentally, is not one of the eight countries targeted by U.S. travel restrictions which go into effect in just six hours.

As this variant now inches closer to the U.S., President Biden has just wrapped up a meeting with his COVID-19 response team.

CNN's Joe Johns is at the White House for us. Joe, we not only got a readout from the White House. We got a photo.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and short version is this is sort of a White House status report. It doesn't move the ball a lot, but it gives us some information. Much of which we've already heard from the experts on CNN talking about the variant. Here is a graphic from that.

Dr. Fauci informed the president that while it will take approximately two more weeks to have definitive information on the transmissibility, severity, and other characteristics of the variant, he continues to believe that existing vaccines are likely to provide a degree of protection against severe cases of COVID. Dr. Fauci also reiterated that boosters for fully vaccinated individuals provide the strongest available protection from COVID.

So we're also told that the president is going to give an update tomorrow and that is the word they used. Now, one of the big questions, of course, is the extent to which authorities actually know where the science is headed. So if that's a question, the answer would be maybe. Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, talked about that on "STATE OF THE UNION" earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. FRANCIS COLLINS, DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: There is even a bit of a report from South Africa that maybe people with this are milder than the usual case, but they're mostly young people who have mild illness, anyway. We do think it's more contagious when you look at how rapidly it spread through multiple districts in South Africa.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: We're also in a countdown now until Monday, and that is the time when the president's latest travel restrictions on people traveling here to the United States from several countries in Southern Africa, including Botswana and South Africa, so hopefully tomorrow we can get an update on that as well.

The president was asked today whether he is expected to extend restrictions to any other countries, but he didn't answer that question -- Jim.

ACOSTA: All right, Joe Johns, I'm assuming that's because they're in a wait and see mode just like everybody else, waiting for that science to come in to see what to do next.

Joe Johns, thanks so much.

Still so much to learn about this new Omicron variant. And fear of the unknown is sparking drastic new global travel measures. In the coming hours the U.S. will join multiple nations in restricting travel from South Africa where this variant was first identified in surrounding nations, but the World Health Organization is saying not so fast. It's calling for border to remain open as we wait for the facts, saying travel bans could do more harm than good.

Let's go to CNN's David McKenzie in Johannesburg, South Africa.

David, South Africa's president is also sounding off on these travel bans.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, he's deeply frustrated, and earlier today a president who I have to say is usually quite diplomatic named the countries and regions one by one, which is unusual in these kinds of circles, and then slammed them for instituting these bans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. CYRIL RAMAPHOSA, SOUTH AFRICA: These restrictions are completely unjustified and unfairly discriminate against our country and our Southern African sister countries. The prohibition of travel is not informed by science, nor will it be effective in preventing the spread of this variant. The only the prohibition on travel will do is to further damage the economies of the affected countries and undermine the ability to respond to, and also to recover from the pandemic.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP) MCKENZIE: Now, if you look at the relative pandemics of South Africa, the U.S., U.K. and other regions, you have some sympathy for President Ramaphosa. South Africa is not in the worst-case scenario of its pandemic right now. There have been three severe waves here in South Africa, but it's all about trajectory.

[18:05:06]

And Jim, we have seen an increase in cases here that is attributed to this new variant and so many questions are left unanswered. But it is noteworthy that the passengers coming or the travelers coming from Nigeria to Canada tested positive for this variant. Earlier this weekend we had a passenger from Egypt testing positive in Belgium. Neither of those countries are on this list of travel bans and there are several countries in Southern Africa which have no confirmed cases whatsoever.

So scientists have been telling me it's sometimes more about who has the sophisticated means like South Africa to identify where these variants are rather than where the variants actually are. And it pokes another hole I guess in this travel ban strategy -- Jim.

ACOSTA: Absolutely, and you wonder if it's a disincentive for some nations to come forward and say, listen, we found variants where we are, and, you know, if travel bans are going to be thrown into place, that certainly might not be the best incentive.

David McKenzie, thanks so much.

Let me bring in host of CNN's "FAREED ZAKARIA, GPS," Fareed Zakaria. He's the host of a new special tonight at 9:00 here on CNN, "CHINA'S IRON FIST: XI JINPING AND THE STAKES FOR AMERICA."

Fareed, we want to talk about your special report, but we have to talk about the global response to this new variant as we were just talking about with David McKenzie a few minutes ago. South Africa is basically being punished, cut off from the world, for helping everybody out and having these world-renowned scientists who were able to detect this variant.

What are your thoughts on how the U.S. is handling this, and what's the best strategy for getting a handle on this?

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": Look, we're all learning as we go along, and I think one of the things we've learned here is don't make grand pronouncements without the data coming in. But it does appear that we need to fundamentally understand this thing is not going away. And so any strategy that is based on the idea that we just do one more thing and it will go away. That's not what's going to happen.

We are going to have to learn to live with some level of virus in some mutations in our societies moving from a pandemic to an endemic stage. What that means, it seems to me, is these travel bans are band-aids. They don't really help very much. What you really have to do is ramp up vaccination, figure out what kind of boosters you need for new variants. MRNA technology is a miracle technology because probably we can very quickly adjust the formula. This is essentially a computer code and come up with a new booster.

It still appears to be the case that the vaccines offer enormous amount of protection. We need to figure out how to get this MRNA technology to the world faster. The single biggest gap here has remained the global response, so we have, you know, 80 percent of many European countries vaccinated and only 10 percent, 15 percent of countries in Africa, if that. That is the gap that is causing this virus to replicate, you know, to move around, and the more it replicates, the more it mutates, which has changed forms.

But the bottom line is we are going to be living with some version of the coronavirus for a long time. We have to figure out how we can protect ourselves and how we can still not have to shut down the entire global economy again because that is not really an option.

ACOSTA: And if these travels were truly based on risk, wouldn't many countries want to ban travel from the U.S.? And Fareed, when do we get to a point where there need to be vaccine mandates for air travelers worldwide? I mean, wouldn't that potentially be a better measure here than, you know, arbitrarily going after one part of the world, even though the variant is around the globe at this point?

ZAKARIA: Yes. To your first point, as you point out, the U.S. still has a massive disproportionate number of COVID cases, COVID deaths. So we are really, I mean, you know, this is a case of somebody in a glass house throwing a lot of stones. And yes, you know, I return to the point, the single biggest gap here has been the global one. We have no global coordination, no common standards, no common certificate or passport that tells you whether someone has had one dose, two doses, what vaccine it was from.

In an age of information technology, this would be trivial to create technologically. The problem is no one wants to cooperate internationally. Everyone is instead talking of nationalism, protectionism, reshoring supply lines. All that is great, but what this new variant is showing us is none of it is going to work, because at the end of the day, the world is already so connected.

[18:10:06]

And by the way, has been for hundreds of years, that the only solution here is to come together, figure out a joint set of standards, joint sets of travel procedures, joint sets of vaccine stats and make a huge push to vaccinate the world. It remains true that vaccinating the world, while it sounds very ambitious, Jim, it's going to cost a fraction of the cost of these serial shutdowns, these travel shutdowns.

You could vaccinate, you know, all of Africa and save yourself an enormous amount of money, because if we have to do these shutdowns again, the cost are going to get back into the trillions.

ACOSTA: Yes. And nobody is going to want to do it. But, Fareed, you make a great point. You and I both remember when we used to solve problems globally, or at least attempt to solve them globally. I think that's the key.

Let's talk about China and your new special tonight airing at 9:00. Whether it's COVID origins or the status of this tennis star, Peng Shuai. Secrecy and censorship, that is how they do things in China. And there was this idea that as China became a global economic power, it would also become more transparent. Maybe we might be able to pull it in a more democratic direction. That does not seem to be happening.

ZAKARIA: Yes. What I tried to tell in that special, Jim, is the story of how so much of history happens because of individuals. We think of large structural forces, but really what happened in China is this one man, Xi Jinping, comes to power and before that China was opening up. The tech economy had burst open. Information was moving very freely. They were relaxing a lot of areas and they were cooperating with the world.

They were funding peacekeeping. They were doing all kinds of things. Certainly, baby steps but all in the right direction. And then you have Xi Jinping in what one scholar caused China's third revolution. In other words, Mao Zedong starts the communist revolution. Deng Xiaoping in the 1970s opens up China to the world. And Xi now moves it in this repressive, more aggressive, more nationalistic style, and COVID is a perfect example of that as you say.

There's been secrecy, there's been nationalism and China is the only country in the world trying a kind of (INAUDIBLE), really shut down and isolate from an entire world. It's not a very good scenario for world that needs more cooperation, whether on COVID, whether on the next pandemic, whether on trade, and of course on climate. On all these areas, we've got to find a way for people to come together.

And we like to think about the U.S. all the time, you know, blame the U.S. examinant, lots of blame to go around, but China under Xi has really taken that country in a very different and somewhat dark direction.

ACOSTA: Fascinating. It's going to be a fascinating special, Fareed. Thanks so much for sharing that bit of it with us.

Be sure to tune in to Fareed's special tonight "CHINA'S IRON FIST: XI JINPING AND THE STAKES FOR AMERICA." A lot of people don't recognize how ubiquitous Xi Jinping is in China. He is Chian right now. That airs tonight at 9:00 right here on CNN.

More on the Omicron variant ahead as we learned two cases have been confirmed in Canada. Our medical expert weighs in.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:17:34]

ACOSTA: As the world searches for answer about the Omicron variant, a leading medical expert says there are just three questions that we must find answers for. In a "New York Times" essay, Dr. Ashish Jha outlines those question as follows. The first question is whether the variant is more transmissible than the current, prevalent Delta strain? Second, does it cause more severe disease? And third, will it render our immune defenses from vaccines and prior infections less effective, a phenomenon known as immune escape?

And the author of that essay, Dr. Ashish Jha, joins me now. He is the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health.

Dr. Jha, do you have any answer for your first question yet? I mean, it sounds like Omicron may be more transmissible than Delta. We're getting some incremental data coming in that suggest that.

DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Hey, Jim, first of all thanks for having me back. Yes, so on the issue of transmissibility, there is some preliminary evidence, and it's very preliminary, that it may be more transmissible, but we don't know that much yet. I think we will know more soon certainly in the upcoming weeks, if not sooner than that. But it looks that way from earlier data.

ACOSTA: And your second question, does it cause more severe disease, Dr. Francis Collins says there are early signs it could actually cause milder disease. But he did caveat that, essentially was saying what you just said a few moments ago, we just don't have enough data at this point.

JHA: Yes. This actually is pretty hard to answer, and you know, and when we've looked at previous variants like the Alpha or the Delta variant, the early answers often turned out to be wrong. I mean we would all love it if this variant caused a milder disease, I just haven't seen any evidence one way or the other, so I think the jury is completely out on this one.

ACOSTA: And your third question, will it render our immune defenses from vaccines and prior infections less effective? There are some initial troubling signs about that, too.

JHA: Yes. So let's be clear about what we think is likely and unlikely. I think the idea that some people have proposed that somehow our vaccines just won't work. I think that's extremely, extremely unlikely. I think our vaccines will hold up. The question is how much of it to their effectiveness will it take? We don't know. I think we're going to get some preliminary data on that probably within next week with some preliminary laboratory data. Lab data is not as good as clinical data, which may take a little longer, but it will give us hints into that, into answering that question.

ACOSTA: And Dr. Jha, based on what we know right now, should we be changing our behavior?

[18:20:01]

Should people who have travel plans be rethinking those travel plans? For example, here in Washington we dropped the mask mandate. Do we start thinking about that again? God help us. You know, what do you think about that? JHA: Yes, I'll tell you what I'm doing which is I'm not making any

changes at all. I think it's really important. Obviously people need to get vaccinated. People should get boosted if you're six months out from your second shot. Those are going to be essential for Delta and for Omicron. But until we have more evidence, I don't think people should be making any substantial changes to their lives, not yet.

ACOSTA: All right. Well, that's very comforting. I'm glad you're saying that. And we're going to keep our fingers crossed and hope for the very best.

The speed at which, though, we learned of this new variant and that the world reaction was stunning. You know, we woke up on Friday and by the end of the day we had travel restrictions in place for a part of the world. In terms of information sharing, I guess looking at the glass half full, are we in a better place than we were in 2020 when we had, you know, then President Trump threatening to defund the WHO and using terms like "kung flu" and all of the other various things that he did?

JHA: We are not anywhere near March 2020 anymore. We are in a very different place for a couple of reasons. One is there is fabulous information sharing. I think the big hero here are the South African scientist who detected this variant that might have been spreading in other parts of the world as well. They need to be lauded. We didn't have that kind of global work happening in March 2020.

And then we have all these tools, the therapies, the vaccines, the best testing that we didn't have. So no matter what we learn about Omicron, it is not going to set us back to March 2020.

ACOSTA: And this travel ban begins at Midnight Eastern Time here in the U.S. In that "New York Times" essay, you write, "This will slow the spread of the various into the United States by a modest amount at best. And it sends a negative signal to South Africa which has done an extraordinary job in first identifying the variant and then quickly sharing the information with the global community. Whether the travel ban will be worth it or not is far from clear."

The WHO says the travel ban attacks global solidarity. I suppose you have the potential there for disincentive for some countries to not want to be as forthcoming if they think, you know, we're going to have an avalanche of travel restrictions falling on top of us.

JHA: Absolutely. That's been the history in pandemics for as long as we had pandemics. People don't want to disclose what's happening. This is why I think what South Africa did was so laudable and so unusual in its openness and transparency, and we want to reward that. And I'm worried that the effect of this travel ban that Europe imposed immediately, that we've put in, is a signal to countries that says, in the future, if you're not sure, don't share the information, because in fact it will have negative repercussions. We don't want to be sending that signal.

ACOSTA: All right. Dr. Ashish Jha, thanks so much for joining us. We appreciate it. JHA: Thank you, Jim.

ACOSTA: Coming up, he defied a subpoena but are criminal contempt charges on the way for former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows? What a key member of the January 6th Committee just said.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:27:42]

ACOSTA: A key Democratic member of the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection is hinting the panel may be making a decision on holding Mark Meadows in contempt this week. The former White House chief of staff failed to respond to a subpoena from the committee and representative Adam Schiff says he could suffer the same fate as Steve Bannon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): I can't go into, you know, what communications that we're having or haven't had with particular witnesses, but we are moving with alacrity with anyone who obstructs the committee. And that was certainly the case with Mr. Bannon. It will be the case with Mr. Meadows, and Mr. Clark or any others.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And CNN senior legal analyst and former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara joins us now.

Preet, Bannon and Meadows are both trying to hide under Trump's executive privilege umbrella. But Meadows' case is different from Bannon's. How so?

PRETT BHARARA, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, he's certainly (INAUDIBLE) case than Steve Bannon, I think of the entire universe of people that the committee wants to talk to, Steve Bannon, among the folks who have asserted some kind of privilege, was in the weakest provision. Among other things that even lay people can understand, he wasn't even in the Executive Branch at the time of January 6th and the events leading up to January 6th. Mark Meadows at the time was the chief of staff to the then president of the United States. So he has some arguments with respect to some details and materials potentially, but that needs to be worked out between him and the committee.

I interviewed Adam Schiff for an event last week and he said much of the same thing. My sense is he doesn't want to get ahead of Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the committee, but they are very, very driven to make sure that they not only get testimony from everyone they can, but that they use the example of Steve Bannon as someone who they are pursuing criminally or at least refer to the department to pursue criminally to make the case to people like Mark Meadows, you better be forthcoming.

And if there are some things that are privileged and you think are off limits, let's talk about it, let's discuss it, let's negotiate, maybe there's some accommodation that can be made, but lots and lots of things that Mark Meadows did, said, heard, and communicated are clearly not within the privilege.

ACOSTA: Yes. And they're critically important to getting to the bottom of what happened on January 6th. I mean, that was one of the questions that I have been wrestling with for some time now is, you know, is executive privilege, executive privilege every time no matter what? Or might the courts look at what happened on January 6th and see something that is just so extraordinary that executive privilege rights don't go as far, that they don't carry the same weight when we're investigating something as important as an attempted coup in our country?

[18:30:15]

BHARARA: Yes. I think that's a great way of putting it and a great way of framing it. Courts and Executive Branch officials themselves will look at the question of what is the necessity of the investigation, what is the need for the material? And as you may know, and the viewers may know, as an initial matter, the Biden administration, Joe Biden and his lawyers, have made the determination that, although executive privilege is important, in this case, among other things, as you say, what's at stake here, understanding how there could have been an insurrection at the Capitol, how we can figure out how to protect our members of Congress and our democracy better, what could be more important than that?

And for that, among other reasons, the claim to executive privilege does not make sense here. It has to fold to the even greater need and necessity of getting this information. I think courts will have the same kind of view. The phrase gets used all the time that people are engaging in extraordinary measures or taking unprecedented steps. It's not unprecedented to charge someone with contempt of Congress, but it hasn't happened in 38 years. But you have to ask the next question, always, as you put it, what is the thing that is causing the extraordinary action to be taken?

And the thing that's causing it to be taken is something even more extraordinary, something that's never happened in our country's history, the storming of the Capitol.

ACOSTA: That's exactly right. I mean, to me, this is such a critical moment in our country's history to let just let all of this go, you know, just by the wayside because we didn't investigate it. You know, unfortunately enough to me that would just be an outrage that people would not be able to tolerate.

But turning to another legal fight, Trump and his business are under investigation in New York, as we all know. Listen to what his former personal attorney has to say about long-time Trump organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL COHEN, FORMER PERSONAL ATTORNEY FOR TRUMP: You can bet your bottom dollar that Allen Weisselberg is not, and I truly say -- I mean, this. Allen Weisselberg is not the, you know, the key to this. They are going after Donald, they're going after Don Jr., Eric, Ivanka, a whole slew of individuals.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: What did you think about that, Preet?

BHARARA: So, you know, I don't know quite what to make of it. Michael Cohen clearly is cooperating with that investigation in New York. He has said, and it's been reported, that he's met with investigators and prosecutors many, many times, so clearly he must have some insight based on the kinds of questions that he's being asked. But other things to remember are, you know, he never got a former or any kind of cooperation agreement with my former office, the Southern District of New York, that prosecuted him.

They didn't put out a report as to why that is so, but among other reasons maybe they found him to be not a fully forthcoming witness. He is a problematic witness. He has taken a guilty plea for among other things, lying to Congress. So he's problematic in that way to the extent that Mister -- you know, the CFO, the former CFO of the company is not the whole ball of wax, you know, that may be so. Maybe Cohen is claiming that mantel for himself, but he is going to be a person who's so central and important to a potential prosecution that we don't care about the CFO.

But all the actions of the Manhattan D.A.'s office in connection with trying to pressure the CFO to cooperate and flip on Donald Trump, there were reports of that. And separate from the reports of that, you just know the playbook of prosecutors trying to negotiate something with him in advance of bringing that case with multiple counts of fringe benefits and tax fraud, they clearly thought he was an important witness.

So I don't know what to make of what Mr. Cohen is saying. He may be the substitute witness. I just don't know. But from all the things that we see and we know from how cases work and how much knowledge that someone who's in that high position at a company has, he's not an unimportant witness.

ACOSTA: Yes. Well, we'll see how it shakes out. I mean, there are so many Trump investigations going on, it's hard to keep them straight, but that one is certainly going to be fascinating to see how it plays out.

Preet Bharara, thanks for that expertise as always. We appreciate it.

BHARARA: Take care.

ACOSTA: You, too.

And coming up, NASA begins a mission to crash directly into an asteroid. Cue the Aerosmith power ballad next.

[18:34:28]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: NASA is on a test mission to defend the planet from a hypothetical killer asteroid.

CNN's Kristin Fisher has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Three, two, one, and liftoff of the Falcon 9 at DART.

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The launch of NASA's first ever Planetary Defense Mission. Instead of carrying satellites, telescopes or people, this SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is launching a spacecraft to test a technology that someday could save the world.

BILL NELSON, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: It may be the way to save Planet Earth if there's ever an inbound big asteroid that could really challenge our existence as a planet.

BILLY BOB THORNTON, ACTOR, "ARMAGEDDON": It's what we call a global killer.

FISHER: Even NASA administrator Bill Nelson agrees it sounds like a scene out of the movie "Armageddon."

BRUCE WILLIS, ACTOR, "ARMAGEDDON": The United States government just asked us to save the world. Anybody want to say no?

FISHER: But instead of destroying a killer asteroid with a bomb like Bruce Willis, NASA's DART mission, short for the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, is using something called kinetic deflection.

[18:40:06]

That's a scientific way of saying that this DART spacecraft is on a kamikaze mission to smash into an asteroid and try to push it off course.

NELSON: If it's successful, then if we had a real inbound killer asteroid, we could do that with it and it would miss us.

FISHER: It will take the DART spacecraft 10 months to reach its target. The Didymos asteroid and it's moonlet, which is about the size of the pyramid of Giza in Egypt. It's so far away that NASA says it will not create a dangerous debris field in low Earth orbit, like last week's test of a Russian anti-satellite weapon.

NELSON: The DART mission is creating an explosion and a debris field way out, millions of miles in space, where it is not harming anything.

FISHER (on camera): Now, this asteroid is not a threat to earth. Nor is any other asteroid that we know of, though it's likely only a matter of time. But just in case, NASA did invite Bruce Willis to this launch. Kristin Fisher, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Coming up, she's only 11 months old, but she sure knows how to shred. Meet the toddler who's become a snowboarding sensation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:45:43]

ACOSTA: This evening Doug Imhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, lit the first candle of the National Menorah on this the first night of Hannukah. The second gentleman is the first Jewish spouse of a president or vice president. And the National Lighting Ceremony, we should note, dates back to 1979.

The coronavirus pandemic has triggered the great resignation with Americans quitting their jobs in record numbers, so why the mass exodus at a time when wages are higher and jobs are plentiful?

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich tried to find out where all the workers have gone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS REPORTER (voice-over): A simple task. Kate Santangelo picks up her 7-year-old daughter Grace from school, something she's waited years to do.

(On-camera): Do you recall how often you were able to pick your daughter up from school?

KATE SANTANGELO, QUITE HER JOB IN APRIL: Oh, my gosh. Never.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): But that all changed in April. She quit her 15-year career in sales to be home full time with her kids.

SANTANGELO: I was working endless hours and traveling a lot.

YURKEVICH (on-camera): If COVID didn't happen, do you think that you still would have quit your job?

SANTANGELO: No. No, I think I'd still be there. Yes. Without a doubt.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): She's one of millions quitting the work force in recent months. A record 4.4 million quits in September. It's being called the great resignation.

SANTANGELO: We had, like, had so much time that, you know, we had to be sitting in our homes and spending time with, you know, people that we live with and just shifting priorities.

YURKEVICH: And she's one of 4.7 million business applications filed from January through October of this year, a 34 percent increase from the same time period in 2019. She founded Mammoth Moms, a resource guide for parents.

SANTANGELO: It allows me to take off if I need to bring, you know, my kids to the doctor, or, you know, offers more flexibility in terms of when I can even schedule appointments for them.

YURKEVICH: It's not just moms leaving the work force. Americans are retiring in greater numbers, too.

(On-camera): What am I looking at behind you guys right now?

SCOTT BANKS, RETIRED EARLY: That's our RV. Yes, that's our RV you got in the background.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Scott and Mary Banks, retired early this September at 57 and 59 respectively, and are road-tripping across the country.

S. BANKS: Packed up, strapped down, and ready to head down the road.

YURKEVICH: Scott put his finance job. Mary left real estate.

S. BANKS: I said what would you think if we did it now instead of waiting three more years.

MARY BANKS, RETIRED EARLY: And I'm like, I pushed all my chips and I'm all in.

YURKEVICH: 1.5 million Americans were on pace to retire during the pandemic. Instead that number more than doubled to 3.6 million.

S. BANKS: And it was just thought of, gosh, wouldn't it be just a tragedy if we spent all this time working for our retirement and then right near the finish line, you catch a horrible disease and die and never get to enjoy your retirement.

YURKEVICH: So they capitalized on the hot housing market, sold their home and hit the road.

(On-camera): How is live on the road compared to the jobs that you left behind?

S. BANKS: Gosh, I could say it was tough. But no, it's great. I do not miss at all working right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Our thanks to Vanessa for that.

And the White House, as we know, has tapped into U.S. Strategic Oil Reserves to blunt rising prices and ease the pain of motorists. Well, get this, now pancake lovers can rejoice in their own relief. Canada is dipping into its reserves of maple syrup. A so-called maple cartel of 11,000 Canadian producers is dealing with a spike in demand in a warm spring that cut back the harvest. So it's draining about half of its emergency stocks and 15 million pounds will now flow into the market hopefully ending a sticky situation. And we end tonight with a toddler who has become an Internet sensation

after being filmed sliding downhill on a snowboard. The 11-month-old hit the slopes in a ski resort in China, and although she hasn't mastered walking yet, her parents say they put her on the board and were surprised to see she was able to stand on her own so they kept on encouraging her, as any parent should. She wears protective gear inside her snow clothes for her safety, and her parents have now hired a professional coach to help train her. Not a bad idea.

[18:50:01]

And I jumped the gun a little too soon. We do have one more story to bring to you this evening. For many communities a local restaurant provides a place to celebrate time with family and friends, but the pandemic is putting the future of some of those businesses at risk. In Ohio there is a great grandmother who grabbed an apron and pitched in when her favorite neighborhood spot needed a hand.

Our very own Wolf Blitzer has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BONNIE AUGUST, CULVER'S EMPLOYEE: I'm Bonnie. I'm 81 until the end of this month and then I'll be 82. I've lived in this area all my life and it's home to me. And I'm comfortable here.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): One important ritual that makes it home for Bonnie August is eating her favorite meal in her favorite restaurant.

AUGUST: The people here are so friendly and I've known the owners' grandparents, parents and them and they're wonderful, wonderful people.

BLITZER: Bonnie has been coming to the Culver's in Finley, Ohio, with her friends and family since it opened 10 years ago.

AUGUST: These are some of my Sunday lunch bunch after church when we go out to eat.

BLITZER: Which is why she was devastated to hear Culver's had to go drive-through only because there simply weren't enough workers.

AUGUST: I don't like eating in my car. They've just got to get open.

BLITZER: There were 10.4 million open jobs across the country in September. But only 6.5 million workers hired. Trying to fill in those gaps are retirees like Bonnie, the hidden helpers of the pandemic economy.

AUGUST: My job listing says runner. I don't run anymore. I just hurry as fast as I can.

BLITZER: Helping just comes naturally to Bonnie. This is how owner Danielle Doxy remembers it. DANIELLE DOXSEY, CULVER'S CO-OWNER: She was walking up and me and my

other partner met her at the door and we're kind of like, you know, sorry, our dining room is closed. And she's like, no, I'm here to help. I want to get the dining room open.

BLITZER: And Bonnie isn't just showing up, she's a crucial member of the team.

AUGUST: I work five days a week a lot. It's just walking, getting the orders, taking the bag and walking to the car and giving it to the people.

You ordered some cheese curds, sir.

Making little small talk just to see if I can make them smile.

BLITZER: Bonnie used to work nights at this former factory and retired 11 years ago so her new job was a shock to her friends and family.

AUGUST: First they asked me if I was crazy. You're not going to go back to work. And I said, well, I am for a little while. I know that if there's a way I can help, that's what I'm supposed to do.

BLITZER: And while Bonnie certainly isn't looking for any extra attention --

DOXSEY: She does it because she genuinely wants us to do good and she wants to see us thrive. She is genuinely wanting to help and that's all she cares about.

BLITZER: She says she hopes she can aspire other hidden helpers to get back to the things they love in these tough times.

AUGUST: Give back. If you have a chance to give back, give back. We've been given so much. Jump in the water. It can be fun.

BLITZER: Wolf Blitzer, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Great report from Wolf there.

And before we go, a look at one of the most fascinating trials in the country. After 11 weeks the jury finally heard directly from the former Theranos CEO in the criminal case against her. Elizabeth Holmes took the stand for nearly nine hours testifying about the origin of her now defunct company and the evolution of its blood testing devices.

CNN's Camila Bernal reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH HOLMES, FOUNDER AND FORMER CEO, THERANOS: More people will have access to their own health information. CAMILA BERNAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: With her distinctive deep voice,

Elizabeth Holmes taking the stand. Over three days of testimony, Holmes tried to explain her actions and regrets at her now-dissolved blood testing company Theranos.

HOLMES: So this is the little tubes that we collect the samples in.

BERNAL: Needing just a few drops of blood, the startup once valued at $9 billion promised a wide range of tests, claiming to revolutionize health care.

HOLMES: We called them the nano-tainer. They're about this big.

BERNAL: But for 11 weeks, prosecutors in her criminal trial have argued Holmes, out of time and out of money, lied. She faces 11 federal fraud charges over allegations that she knowingly misled investors, doctors, and patients. The 37-year-old has pleaded not guilty.

Once known as the richest self-made woman, Holmes captured the attention and money of powerful and wealthy investors. Overall, Holmes raised $945 million in part thanks to her charisma.

SARA ASHLEY O'BRIEN, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: She's kind of, has her head tilted. She's very engaged. She's frequently smiling, making eye contact with her attorney who's asking her the questions and occasionally looking over at the jurors, you know, to kind of explain to them how the technology worked.

[18:55:07]

BERNAL: Tuesday Holmes also telling the jury she relied on her scientists, and cited trade secrets as the reason for not disclosing the use of third-party devices for their blood tests. This as prosecutors prepare to confront the now-disgraced golden girl of Silicon Valley.

O'BRIEN: For weeks we've heard all of the allegations that they have mounted against her, and they'll get a chance to put those allegations to her and kind of see how she responds. So I expect it will be, you know, pretty fiery at some points when that happens.

BERNAL: Camila Bernal, CNN, San Jose, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: That's the news and I really mean it this time. Reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. I'll see you back here next Saturday at 3:00 p.m. Eastern. Kaitlan Collins takes over the CNN NEWSROOM live after a quick break. Have a good night, everybody.

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