Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
WHO Reports No Deaths from Omicron So Far; Michigan School Shooter's Parents on the Run. Aired 12-12:15a ET
Aired December 04, 2021 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[00:00:00]
(MUSIC PLAYING)
PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The World Health Organization says no deaths have been reported so far from the Omicron variant. There is good news. Most cases appeared to be mild.
But the mutated virus spread quickly to nearly 40 countries and that has health experts worried. In South Africa, COVID cases had quadrupled since Tuesday, just a little more than four days. A surprising number of the infections are incurring (sic) in small children.
After Ireland recorded its first case of the new variant, it closed all night clubs and ordered indoor events to be limited to half capacity. Omicron is a mutated form of the coronavirus and here is what we know.
Researchers say the mutation includes a stretch of genetic material that looks like it comes from a virus that causes the common cold and that could make Omicron more transmissible. Because it's so new, we don't yet know how severe an illness it can cause compared to other strains or how effective current vaccines are against it.
The World Health Organization says it will be another week or so before we have any concrete answers. A university study in South Africa found it's likely that Omicron can evade immunity from a past infection more easily. That means there could be greater risk of catching COVID twice or more. CNN's Eleni Giokos has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Morning, everyone.
ELENI GIOKOS, CNN BUSINESS AFRICA CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An early Zoom call, a familiar sight. When it is run by South African scientists in the Omicron age, the world watches with bated breath.
MICHELLE GROOME, SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNICABLE DISEASES: Some preliminary data that we have is definitely evidence that it is more transmissible and that there is some immune escape.
But I think it is not necessarily that that is related to severity. I think we need to have more information over the next two to three weeks.
GIOKOS (voice-over): That question of severity hangs over policymakers around the world. The South African experts caution not to draw early conclusions from the fact that most cases they see now are mild.
DR. WAASILA JASSAT, SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNICABLE DISEASES: Our data, you know tells us a little bit about patients in ICU ventilated on oxygen, but it takes time for, you know admissions to unfold and for the severity measures to come about.
What we also see is that severity is always low in the early and late part of the wave. So, I think even if we are seeing a slightly less severe disease right now, it's too early to say that that's a characteristic of this variant.
GIOKOS (voice-over): Swiss leaders are taking no chances. Geneva has seen mass protests against restrictions in recent weeks. But health authorities still say, Friday, they are quarantining 2,000 students and staff after two cases of the Omicron variant were detected at a local school linked to a family member returning from South Africa.
U.S. President Joe Biden says he'll step up testing efforts and require international arrivals to get tested just 24 hours before boarding the plane.
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This type of testing timetable provides an added degree of protection as scientists continue to study the Omicron variant.
GIOKOS (voice-over): The CEO of BioNTech, who helped create the Pfizer vaccine, says he believes the current inoculations are still effective.
UGUR SAHIN, CEO, BIONTECH: Based on the mechanism of our vaccines and vaccines in general, we know, and we anticipate that infected people who have been vaccinated will still be prevented against severe disease.
GIOKOS (voice-over): Access to those vaccines remains critical.
DR. SOUMYA SWAMINATHAN, WHO CHIEF SCIENTIST: There is a clear relationship between inequity and access to vaccines and the development of variants.
GIOKOS (voice-over): The World Health Organization's Chief Sciences with a stark warning on Friday.
SWAMINATHAN: And this is going to keep happening again and again.
[00:05:00]
SWAMINATHAN: So even today, it's not too late for us to look back and really sort out this once and for all and make sure that going forward, we do distribute not only vaccine but also diagnostics and drugs.
GIOKOS (voice-over): Eleni Giokos, CNN, Johannesburg.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: To Mexico, it's reporting its first Omicron case. The health minister said the patient is a 51-year-old South African with mild symptoms, now confined to a private hospital in Mexico City. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has been appealing for calm, saying vaccines are still the best protection. For more on this, I am joined by Rafael Romo.
So good to see you here in the studio. When we look at the facts, only half of Mexicans are vaccinated. They have already lost 450,000 people to the coronavirus.
What is the government doing now when they see this game-changing variant on the horizon?
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SR. LATIN AFFAIRS EDITOR: The way it was announced and what's coming from the president's office is trying to appeal to calm. One thing those made clear is there will be no lockdowns. There will be no closing borders. There will be no stopping of merchandise because that hurt Mexico very badly in the first year of the pandemic.
So, they're trying to avoid that. The word is vaccines, vaccines, vaccines, I have spent a lot of time in Mexico this year. People are following all of the guidelines regarding wearing masks, social distancing. And you go to different places and they been doing that very well.
Some other places, some small towns here and there, some people have refused to do the vaccine. But it's not a political issue like it has been in the United States and other countries.
Now you talk about other countries, like in Ecuador and Colombia, they have responded with a reopening of their borders because of Omicron. We also have the first cases in Brazil and other countries getting ready for what is imminent, that it's going to happen to their country. So they're getting ready for it.
NEWTON: So many of these economies and countries are just recovering from the Delta variant. I have to ask you about Cuba. They have had a really tough time. They had just opened to tourists, Rafael.
ROMO: That's true. It was only mid-November that they reopened. Now they're announcing restrictions for travelers again, especially of those in the southern part of Africa. This is a list of countries whose travelers are going to face restrictions.
South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, and Zimbabwe, Namibia, Malawi and Mozambique.
And proof of vaccination not only one but three PCR tests and a seven- day quarantine. They are imposing restrictions on people from Belgium and Israel and other countries. As you know, they depend largely on tourism. They were just getting ready to reopen and go back to normal and now this happens. NEWTON: And again, they are waiting for answers like the rest of us.
Rafael, so good to see you. Thank you for your perspective. I appreciate it.
A manhunt is underway for the parents of the suspect in Tuesday's deadly school shooting in the U.S. state of Michigan. After charges were brought against the couple on Friday, James and Jennifer Crumbley are charged with involuntary manslaughter after investigators say their son shot and killed four students at Oxford High School earlier this week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAREN MCDONALD, OAKLAND COUNTY PROSECUTOR: I want to be really clear that these charges are intended to hold the individuals who contributed to this tragedy accountable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: Now here is the thing, the parents failed to show up for their arraignment on Friday afternoon. U.S. Marshals are offering rewards of up to $10,000 in the search for the couple. Legal experts say the charges are unusual, but the local prosecutor laid out some of the alleged behavior that led to charges being filed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCDONALD: A teacher at the Oxford High School observed Ethan Crumbley searching ammunition on his cell phone during class and reported the same to school officials.
Jennifer Crumbley was contacted via voicemail by school's personnel regarding her son's inappropriate internet search. School personnel indicate they followed that voicemail up with an email but received no response from either parent.
Thereafter, Jennifer Crumbley exchanged text messages about the incident with her son on that day.
[00:10:00]
MCDONALD: Stating, quote, "LOL, I am not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: We can't forget the victims here. A vigil was held on Friday night for the four students that were killed. Six others were wounded as well as one teacher.
Disturbing details are emerging about how a mob killed a Sri Lankan man in Pakistan on Friday. The prime minister was quick to condemn the attack. It is just the latest incident of vigilante violence of those accused of blasphemy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON (voice-over): A brutal killing by a mob in Eastern Pakistan is sending shock waves shock waves through the country over the scale and savagery of the attack. Police say a large mob of factory workers tortured and set a manager on fire who they accused of blasphemy.
Angry crowds filled the streets, scaling fences and overturning cars. Police say about 100 people have so far been arrested. The Pakistani minister Prime Minister Imran Khan condemned the brutal attack, saying, "It's a day of shame" for the country. His adviser for interfaith harmony said the violence will not be tolerated.
TAHIR ASHRAFI, ADVISER TO IMRAN KHAN (through translator): It is a barbaric act and against Islam's teaching. It has nothing to do with Islam or prophet Muhammad. Religious scholars across the country condemn it.
NEWTON (voice-over): The remains of the man, who police say was a Buddhist from Sri Lankan, have been recovered and taken to a local hospital. The human rights commission of Pakistan tweeted that the attack shows, quote, "the grim reality of spiraling radicalization in the nation."
Police say a separate mob of thousands of people ransacked and burned a police station in a different part of the country, just a few days ago, after crowds demanded officers turn over a man accused of burning a Quran. Blasphemy can be punishable by death in Pakistan, though no one has so far been executed for it.
The accused are often attacked and sometimes killed by mobs. Rights groups say the allegations are often unproven and used for personal vendettas or to target minorities.
In 2011, the former governor of Punjab province, Salman Taseer, was gunned down by his bodyguard over his efforts to reform blasphemy laws.
And violent right-wing demonstrations broke out in 2018, when Asia Bebe, a Pakistani Christian woman who was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death, was acquitted. This latest attack just another example of a source of conflict that Pakistan has long struggled to contain.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: I want to thank you for spending a part of your day with me. I will be back. We'll bring you right up to date on the news of the Omicron.
