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Storms Slam Parts of U.S. with Intense Winds, Tornadoes; Super Typhoon Rai Makes Landfall in Philippines; Senator Joe Manchin Wants Expanded Child Tax Credit Cut; U.K. Official: Fast-Moving Omicron a Very Serious Threat; Italy Starts Vaccinating Children Ages 5-11. Aired 4:00-4:30a ET

Aired December 16, 2021 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

ISA SOARES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a very warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and right around the world. I'm Isa Soares in London and just ahead right here on CNN NEWSROOM.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been doing this 30 years and we're seeing things today in the CNN weather center we have never seen before.

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SOARES: We are following severe weather across parts of the United States. Thousands of people without power and bracing for dangerous gusts of wind.

Get your booster shots. Top U.S. officials say all four vaccines are losing their steam against Omicron variant and there will be breakthrough COVID cases.

And a policing expert and sergeant testified in Kim Potter trial. One thing he said he never heard of a police officer, accidentally drawing a gun.

ANNOUNCER: Live from London, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Isa Soares.

SOARES: Welcome, everyone. It is Thursday, December 16th, and we begin this hour with breaking news in the United States. Now a powerful storm system tearing through parts of the Midwest and Great Plains. Putting more than 80 million people under wind alerts. Right now, more than 400,000 customers across eight states -- as you can see on your map -- are without power. There were more than 55 reports of hurricane-force winds across the Central U.S. on Wednesday, breaking the national record for the most in one day.

Some of the gusts top 100 miles per hour, 160 kilometers per hour. Now, this system is also caused nearly 20 tornadoes. Minnesota reported its first ever December tornado.

And this is a scene as you can see there in Elkhart, Kansas where a massive dust storm has formed. A major highway was forced to close as the skies practically went dark. The wind gusts were so strong in Colorado, meanwhile, they blew semi-trucks -- as you can see there -- off the roads. And this was the frightening scene in Boulder as a dust storm blanketed the city.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, a powerful super typhoon battering the Philippines with heavy rain and strong winds. Rai made landfall just a few hours ago, in fact, hitting with a strength of a category 5 hurricane. So, a very busy morning. We'll get more on the super typhoon in just a moment. But first let's get more on the severe weather we are seeing in the United States from meteorologist Pedram Javaheri. Good morning to you, Pedram. These as we just pointed out, are incredibly intense winds. How long do we expect these storms to last for -- Pedram?

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know, the gusty winds are going to continue. That's essentially the longest-living element of this storm. We think through at least Thursday afternoon. We see these strong winds in place. But other elements of it finally beginning to quiet down here into the early morning hours.

And what an incredible day of weather when it comes to essentially wrapping together a spring, summer and winter event all into one. Kind of letting it play out across an area of the United States that spans 2,000 miles. You notice the tornado counts. The preliminary numbers bring this up to 20. The severe wind gusts upwards of almost 400 of them being reported as you noted. A national record, about 50 plus coming in at hurricane force.

Essentially 50 different towns, communities, locations around the U.S. feeling hurricane force winds with this system, a land-based system that has nothing to do with tropical systems. And you'll notice, total count, if you think we've talked a lot about tornadoes so far this December, the U.S. now has 116 reports of tornadoes in the month of December. Now, climatologically, this is supposed to be the quietest time of year, 23 is what we average. That is 5-X what we average in December in the span of just the first 16 days.

In fact, eight of these first 16 days of December we've now had reports of tornadoes, an incredible run of weather. Essentially kind of signaling what we've seen in recent years as far as the elevated number of these weather events. And I'm going to show you some of the wind gusts that are populating at this hour. The areas that are observing some winds that are incredible.

Around Minneapolis 50, around areas of Green Bay, almost 60 mile per hour winds. And remarkably, when you notice areas just east of this region, around, say, Chicago where these 50 to 60 mile an hour winds are expected, the temperatures there are in the middle 60s into the early morning hours of mid-December.

[04:05:00]

Warmer in Chicago than portions of the Gulf Coast down around, say, New Orleans into the South. So really speaks to the energy available in the atmosphere to produce these storms. But again, we're finally beginning to see some of this begin to weaken

and break down as a significant weather event is taking place really across an expansive area of the U.S. There it is, upwards of almost a half a million customers. That is, customers, not people that are without power across parts of nine states. And you notice these wind speeds, certainly want to support power outages up to 100 miles per hour in parts of Texas -- in parts of Kansas, I should say.

I want to show you something. Because speaking of these strong winds, that's not even the strongest storm on our planet. Strongest storm on our planet is taking place across the Philippines at this hour. Made landfall as a category 5 equivalent, 260 kilometer per hour or 160 mile per hour storm. That system becoming now only the third storm in over 100 years of record keeping to make landfall across this region of the Philippines as a category 5 equivalent. Remarkable and the most recent one, you'd have to go back to 2013 when super typhoon Hayden made land fall. If you followed world weather and world news, of course, you know that storm left behind thousands of fatalities. So, there's certainly -- there's going to be a rough go across the Philippines for the next several days -- Isa.

SOARES: Indeed. And I know you'll keep us posted on the weather in the United States as well as Rai. I appreciate it. Pedram Javaheri there for us.

Let's get more on this super typhoon Pedram was talking about. CNN's Selina Wang joins me now from live from Tokyo. And Selina, as Pedram was just saying, this is pretty powerful. And the fear of course is that it will pack quite a punch. Do we know at this hour whether the majority of people have been able to evacuate?

SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Isa, we that around 198,000 people have evacuated their homes, and this is absolutely devastating for residents. This is the 15th typhoon to hit the Philippines this year. And you already have millions of people who are still trying to rebuild their homes and their lives after the devastation from earlier this year.

And parts of the Philippines had been gearing up for this. They've been getting heavy rainfall in parts of the country for the past several days. We've got footage in a southern city called Gingoog. They've been having streets and homes flooded with this muddy brown water. At the same time, you've got airlines cancelling flights, thousands stranded at ports as authorities have canceled land and sea travel in the central and southern part of the country.

And this super typhoon made landfall on the eastern coast in the island called Siargao, which is a popular tourist destination, also known as the country's surfing capital. And this storm is expected to travel through the central and southern parts of the country. There are thousands of villages in the storm way that are at high risk of both flooding and potentially landslides because of the rainfall over the past few days has already weakened the land.

Now, the Philippines, as we've been discussing, is no stranger to these devastating storms. The Philippines gets around 20 typhoons per year. The deadliest one in 2013 killed more than 6,000 people. I want to read this statement from the chairman of the Red Cross.

He said, quote, Filipinos are tough, but this super typhoon is a bitter blow for millions of people who are still recovering from devastating storms, floods, and COVID-19 in the past year.

And, Isa, humanitarian organizations are on the ground helping to provide shelter, helping to evacuate, food, water, aid. We spoke to the head of an aid organization who said that one of the big concerns is that some of the people in these areas where they may not be hearing these government evacuation announcements, that they may not be able to evacuate their homes -- Isa.

SOARES: Yes, of course, I can imagine the fear that authorities there may be feeling right now. Selina Wang in Tokyo do keep us posted. And of course, we'll keep our eyes on both those stories. The tornadoes in the United States, the storms in the United States, as well as the typhoon, typhoon Rai. Very busy morning on the weather front. Thank you very much, Selina.

SOARES: Now, we now know the identity of the U.S. Congressman who tested former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows back in January outlining a theory to stop the certification of Joe Biden's election. Now, a spokesman confirms it was Ohio Republican Jim Jordan -- who you see there on the screen. Part of the text was revealed earlier this week as the House voted to recommend contempt charges for Meadows.

It says on January 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence as president of the Senate, should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional, as no electoral votes at all.

Now, the U.S. Federal Reserve is projecting several interest rate hikes next year to ease inflation. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell says any increases will be gradual, but analysts expect three of them next year, the first one likely perhaps in May. Consumer price inflation U.S. is as high as it's been in four decades as Americans are paying more for everything from food to furniture and power, those things may not get better unfortunately any time soon. Have a listen.

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JEROME POWELL, U.S. FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: These problems have been larger and longer lasting than anticipated, exacerbated by waves of the virus. As a result, overall inflation is running well above our 2 percent longer run goal and will likely continue to do so well into next year.

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SOARES: Well, the fed's announcement was -- as you can see there -- welcome news on Wall Street. Green arrows across the board. The Dow gained more than 1 percent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq earned more than 2 percent and the S&P 500 rose 1.6 percent.

If we have a quick look at U.S. futures, heading also another day of green arrows obviously winding down to the end of the year. So, clearly taking them in their stride, those news from the U.S. Federal Reserve. We'll keep an eye on those numbers for you.

Now, President Biden is pushing his Build Back Better domestic agenda as a crucial tool in fighting inflation, but the bill's passage may have to wait until next year as at least one Democrat is still not on board. CNN's Jessica Dean reports now for you from Capitol Hill.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It appears that Senate Democrats are now poised to punt a cornerstone of President Joe Biden's agenda into 2022. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had hoped that the Senate would vote on the Build Back Better plan. That's the economic and climate change bill that has already passed through the House before Christmas.

But right now, one key Democratic holdout -- because remember they need the support of all 50 -- that key Democratic holdout, Senator Joe Manchin, is said to be quite far apart from President Biden on priorities and what he is willing to accept within this $1.75 trillion bill.

One key provision that he wants to see on another track is the child tax credit. That has been a key priorities for Biden and other Democrats. They very much want to see that renewed and put into this bill. Senator Manchin wants to see that on a separate track, to kind of peel that off and make it its own legislation. He often wants to get bipartisan support on a lot of these issues. That's something, again, he's hoping to get bipartisan support on as well.

So, as it stands right now, that key issue of Build Back Better looking more and more likely that that will now go into 2022 instead of getting voted on before the Senate goes home for the holidays.

Instead, we are seeing Senate Democrats pivot to voting rights legislation, and you'll remember that the Senate Republicans have filibustered them on multiple attempts to move that legislation through the Senate. They are now trying again, but again, Senator Joe Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema opposing any changes to the filibuster as it stands right now. So, it looks like they will likely be in the same spot where they began.

Jessica Dean, CNN, Capitol Hill.

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SOARES: Now, U.S. health officials say they are ready for an onslaught of the Omicron variant as long as people get vaccinated and get their boosters. But new research shows Omicron may be markedly resistant to major vaccines. Those are the shots from Pfizer-BioNtech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Oxford AstraZeneca. And Dr. Anthony Fauci says you should expect breakthrough infections. Have a listen.

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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, U.S. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Yes, there will be breakthrough infections. No doubt about that. I mean, we know that from the emerging experience we're getting from people in South Africa and particularly in the U.K. And we will be seeing that in this country.

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SOARES: Well, CDC data shows Delta is still the main COVID variant in the United States, but Omicron has been found in most states as the country surpasses 800,000 COVID deaths. CNN's Alexandra Field has this look at where things stand going into the holidays.

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ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The grim milestone as Delta's destructive toll continues across the country and Omicron cases spread quickly. The new variant now detected in at least 36 states.

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, U.S. CDC DIRECTOR: We expect to see the proportion of Omicron cases here in the United States continue to grow in the coming weeks. Early data suggests that Omicron is more transmissible than Delta with a doubling time of about two days.

FIELD (voice-over): One in 6 hospitals in the U.S. is already reporting critical staffing shortages with patient numbers still climbing.

DR. ELIZABETH MURRAY, PEDIATRIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE PHYSICIAN: I think this is an opportunity to remind people the importance of testing before they visit with family. Testing before travel to make sure they're not bringing the Omicron variant back to their home states or home communities.

FIELD (voice-over): New data from the National Institutes of Health Finds a third dose of Moderna's vaccine offers protection against Omicron that's 20 times greater than the two-dose regimen, while Pfizer's booster shot is 75 percent effective against symptomatic infection, a strengthening case for boosters while new restrictions are set to take effect. California implementing a month- long indoor mask mandate.

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DR. ROHAN RADHAKRISHNA, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH: The last thing we want is to have a loved one need timely and high-quality hospital services and not be able to get that because of something we could have prevented.

FIELD (voice-over): New York City moving forward with a vaccine mandate for the private sector later this month.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK CITY: This new variant moves fast. We have to move faster.

FIELD (voice-over): Professional sports are yet again suffering COVID setbacks. Players pulled and games postpone as cases spike in highly vaccinated and regularly tested leagues. The NFL reporting dozens of positive tests among players since Monday alone. The Rams hit hard along with the Browns, whose head coach is among the latest to test positive.

DR. MYRON ROLLE, NEUROSURGERY RESIDENT AT HARVARD, FORMER NFL PLAYER: The Omicron variant is incredibly transmissible. It's hitting every state. Players are still traveling to go to different states to play and so they are being exposed. The Delta variant is still ravaging through communities and hospitals as well.

FIELD: This comes as so many people are planning on celebrations of the holidays that are a bit more like they used to be before. Planning to gather with family members. However, in Philadelphia, the health commissioner is saying that people should not gather with anyone outside of their household, citing a surge in cases after Thanksgiving. She goes on to suggest that if you are going to gather with people outside the household, you can keep celebrations small, do them outside and at a bare minimum, get a rapid test beforehand.

In New York, Alexandra Field, CNN.

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SOARES: Well, new COVID cases mean the show can't go on for more Broadway plays. Hamilton has joined a list of shows cancelling performance this week due to the virus. Its official Twitter account said it was due to breakthrough infections. That announcement coming less than an hour before the show was set to begin on Wednesday. Hamilton was one of the first Broadway shows to reopen, if you remember, in September. After being forced to close for 18 months.

Now, at least four more colleges and universities in the United States are moving to final days of the fall semester online amid concerns over the Omicron variant. Princeton University is shifting all undergraduate final exams to a remote format so students can leave campus as soon as they are able. Cornell, New York University and Middlebury College in Vermont are imposing similar safety rules.

Now, so now with both the Delta and Omicron variants spreading in the U.S., how should you handle the holidays? Dr. Anthony Fauci explains.

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FAUCI: One of the things you can do is try to restrict your activities to situations where you know the vaccination status of people, and that's easy to do. And people ask you, well, what about the family setting? If you're vaccinated, your family members are vaccinated, you should feel comfortable in the setting of the holiday season to have dinners and social events at home. People should not feel that that's not safe. I mean, nothing is 100 percent, but when you talk about the relative risk, when you're dealing with vaccinated and particularly boosted people, you can feel comfortable enjoying the holiday.

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SOARES: Dr. Fauci also says breakthrough COVID infections due to Omicron are to be expected. But as of now, there is no need for a booster specifically designed for the variant.

Still to come, COVID cases here in the U.K. reaching new heights, prompting dire warnings and long lines for boosters, you can see there. The latest on the spread of the Omicron variant.

And in the United States, the prosecution set to wrap up its case against the former Minneapolis police officer charged in a fatal shooting. We have the latest from the courtroom just ahead. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM.

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CHRIS WHITTY, ENGLAND'S CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: This is a really serious threat at the moment. How big a threat, there are several things we don't know, but all the things that we do know are bad. And the principal one being the speed at which this is moving. It is moving at an absolute phenomenal pace. And therefore, between the time that it first starts to really take off in a way people will be able to see and the point we get to very, very, very large numbers, will be quite a short one. And that I think is part of the issue.

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SOARES: A warning there from Chris Whitty, the top British health official. COVID infections continue to soar. Omicron's rapid spread is putting the rest of Europe on edge. As you can see there on your screen, the European Commission President says the variant is expected to be dominant by mid-January.

Daily U.K. cases surged to a pandemic high on Wednesday. Something officials warn will happen more often thanks to Omicron. That's prompting France to take more precautions in an effort to, of course, slow the variant. A government spokesman says most British tourists will be blocked from entering France.

Let's get more on the story. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz is here with me now. And Salma, you and I have been speaking every day this week, mostly about Boris Johnson, and the politics, and the crisis, and the scandals. But in the last 24 hours we have seen these rising COVID numbers that we just out lined. And that must come as a huge concern. Because we're supposed to be working from home, yet the numbers are still, you know, still rising.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: This is what health officials have been ringing the alarm about now for days, right. You had that sound bite there from the top doctor in the country. Phenomenal rise. It's about the doubling rate. It's doubling every couple of days and sometimes even faster than that in some areas across the country. You have the hospitalization rate increasing in the last seven days. The number of hospital patients admitted with coronavirus increased by 10 percent.

And that's the biggest fear, Isa, right, because this is about protecting the health care system across this country. There is a finite number of beds in any country in the world. There's only so many hospital beds, and that's what the doctors and nurses are worried about. If these case numbers continue to rise, what about those number of hospital beds?

SOARES: It is about protecting the National Health Service, making sure that, you know, the number -- they are able to control these numbers. Do we know there, Salma, from the number of hospitalizations, how many people -- or how many of those people are in hospital actually have the Omicron variant, how many are not vaccinated? Do we have that data yet?

ABDELAZIZ: We have some of that data. Some of it we still need updated. The latest figures I saw for the number of people in hospital with the Omicron variant was ten. We know the death toll so far is one. I understand those numbers sound very low, but that's what you just heard there again from the top doctor.

[04:25:00]

He said there is that window, there's that that gap between when you see the case numbers rising and when you actually see that translate into people in hospital trying to get help from doctors and nurses.

Usually that's a two-week period, at least during the pandemic that's what we've seen. But that's going to be shortened significantly. In a number of days now I would expect we'd start to see the case numbers. Over 78,000 positive cases in a 24-hour period yesterday. You're going to start to see those case numbers translate into patients in hospital.

SOARES: That is a startling number. We're seeing queues of people, lines of people queueing up to get their boosters. Thank you very much, Salma Abdelaziz there.

Well, Italy is among the latest EU nations to roll out COVID vaccines for younger children. There're being offered to kids ages 5 to 11. The campaign is one of many measures being taken throughout Europe really to try to stop the spread of the virus that Salma Abdelaziz was just talking about.

Ben Wedeman joins me now from Rome. And Ben, you know, we've seen various European countries really started to vaccinate children. Give me a sense though of the mood in Italy. How much hesitancy are you hearing from parents there?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: all Well, what we're seeing is that, for instance, here in Lazio, the region where Rome is located, is that so far 35 bookings -- 35,000 bookings have been made for vaccinations for children age between 5 and 11.

Medical personnel say they are hoping that the numbers will pick up as time goes on. Now, we're at the Museo dei Bambini -- the Museum of Children here in Rome. Where at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the doors of this building behind me will open and they will start providing these doses to children. There were -- the first doses began yesterday, but today is when the

nationwide vaccination campaign for the 5 through 11 age group begins. Now, they won't be getting the full dose. It will be a third of the dose normally given to adults, but there has been some hesitancy. A recent opinion poll found that 40 percent of parents of children between the ages of 5 and 12 had concerns about the vaccine. But the doctors we've spoken to have insisted that getting this particular age group vaccinated is critical to try to slow the spread, not just of the Omicron variant which at this point is relatively insignificant in statistical terms in Italy, but rather, the Delta variant which is the predominant variant.

85 percent of the adult population has been fully vaccinated, so it's that remaining 15 percent of holdouts, plus the children that really need to get vaccinated to bring the pandemic here in Italy under some sort of control -- Isa.

SOARES: Ben Wedeman for us in Rome this hour. Thanks very much, Ben. Good to see you.

Coming up after the break, President Biden gets a close-up look at the destruction caused by last week's tornadoes and says the administration will do everything it can to help communities rebuild. Have a listen.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You can see in people's faces what they're really looking for, and look around, I say to the press, what they're looking for is just to be able to put their head down on a pillow, be able to close their eyes, take a deep breath, go to sleep and make sure their kids are OK.

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