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Christmas during COVID-19; More Restrictions across Europe as Omicron Spreads; Unvaccinated Prioritized for Antiviral Pills; Philippines after Typhoon Rai; James Webb Telescope Launch; Christmas in Bethlehem. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired December 25, 2021 - 03:00   ET

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

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber.

Coming up, Omicron is canceling holiday plans around the world.

And parts of the Philippines recovering from a devastating typhoon. We'll hear what the victims need right now.

And in just a few hours, the most powerful telescope ever made launches to space to probe the question, are we really alone?

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.

BRUNHUBER: Christmas celebrations are underway around the world and even though the pandemic put a damper on festivities for a second year, it couldn't stop them.

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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Palestinian scout troops held their annual Christmas parade. There are some visitors this year but nowhere near the crowds before the pandemic.

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BRUNHUBER: The pope attends Christmas mass at the Vatican next hour and delivers his annual message. They've limited the number of worshippers allowed inside.

Many are scrambling as more and more flights are cancelled. Thousands of flights across Christmas Eve and Christmas Day have been called off around the world, mostly because so many airline workers are calling out sick amid surging Omicron COVID cases.

But travel may soon pick up from southern Africa. The U.S. will lift their restrictions on eight nations Friday. They were meant to slow the spread of Omicron. But with the variant so prevalent, U.S. officials say travel from the region won't have much of an impact on cases.

In Europe, Omicron is quickly becoming dominant, leading to the return of many restrictions and the cancellation of some New Year's and Christmas festivities. Italy, France and the U.K. all reporting new daily highs on Friday.

And for the third day in a row cases in the U.K. reached new heights. Nada Bashir joins us now.

I understand ministers may be meeting to discuss new restrictions.

What's the latest?

NADA BASHIR, CNN PRODUCER: Absolutely. Boris Johnson was clear when he spoke last week, saying, while he's not looking at adding further restrictions ahead of Christmas Day -- we haven't seen those restrictions -- he does reserve the possibility of implementing tougher measures perhaps ahead of the new year.

And we can expect to see the government taking a look at that. They said they're looking at the data, hour by hour, to assess their response and whether or not new measures are needed.

And the U.K. has been seeing record figures on fighting, with 120,000 cases recorded, another record broken. And at the end of last week, somewhere around one in 20 Londoners had coronavirus.

And there's a sense of concern and urgency as we see the spread of Omicron in the U.K. And while early studies are suggesting there's perhaps less risk of hospitalization with Omicron, we've heard from the head of one of the studies at Imperial College London saying it could still put pressure on the National Health Service.

And as we saw last winter, that's something the government will be keen to avoid. BRUNHUBER: And not just in the U.K. but looking across Europe, this

will be the second Christmas many will be going through restrictions of various kinds.

What's the situation across the continent?

BASHIR: Much like the U.K., a number of European countries seeing a surge of COVID-19 and many are taking a strict approach to tackling and getting ahead of the virus. We've heard from WHO, warning of a storm coming.

European leaders are doubling town on vaccination efforts and booster jabs. Also the tightening of restrictions, as you mentioned. Christmas is not looking as festive as many had hoped.

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BASHIR: In Greece, public celebrations for Christmas and New Year's have been cancelled. And much like Spain and Italy, mask wearing now has been mandated in Portugal. They're waiting until after Christmas to bring in new measures. And in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, strict limitations on social gatherings in force.

BRUNHUBER: Thanks so much. Nada Bashir is in London.

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BRUNHUBER: Dr. Jonathan Reiner is a CNN medical analyst and professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University.

Thanks so much for joining us, Doctor.

On one hand, whether you're looking at the huge case numbers in countries like the U.K. or rising numbers in the U.S., there's cause for concern that more people could die and hospitals could be overwhelmed.

On the other hand, what we're seeing in South Africa that Omicron hits heavy and hard but isn't as serious in terms of hospitalizations, so are you more worried or optimistic we head to the new year?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: I'm optimistic for the new year. But we have a really nasty four to six weeks to get through.

It's comforting that the severity of the Omicron wave in South Africa and now apparently in the United Kingdom, at least, appears to suggest that the virus is either intrinsically less virulent.

But this variant is so remarkably infectious that the caseload is going to be potentially overwhelming in the next month. That an even smaller percentage of people are being hospitalized with such a huge denominator makes me worry about overwhelming our hospitals in the next four to six weeks.

We have to get through that period and, yes, going forward, I am optimistic.

BRUNHUBER: Now vaccination is key. But the early studies seem to suggest that booster shots are useful against Omicron but their effect wanes much more quickly than against Delta.

Will that mean we'll need a fourth booster?

Israel's already starting it for some people. Dr. Fauci seems against it for now.

But is it inevitable?

REINER: I think it is inevitable that everyone is reboosted with a variant-specific new vaccine. Both Pfizer and Moderna and other companies are working on Omicron-specific boosters, which I think are inevitable.

In the near term, what the Israelis have seen is the efficacy of the booster to prevent symptomatic infection wanes after three to four months. And they, too, are worried about the integrity of their health care system.

In the United Kingdom, particularly in London, they've seen an increase in sick days for health care workers. So the strategy may be -- and I hope the United States embraces this sooner rather than later -- would be to give a fourth booster -- give a second booster dose, a fourth overall, to health care workers and other essential workers, where absences would really be disruptive to society.

So you can see, giving fourth doses to hospital workers, police and fire and maybe teachers, I think that strategy is something this administration should think about. We're going to be potentially in crisis mode in many hospitals in the United States, with people out for a week.

BRUNHUBER: So the good news is there are now two new antiviral pills to treat COVID so doctors have more weapons to treat the disease. I saw the NIH released a statement about who should be prioritized for COVID therapies if there are shortages.

And it seems, if you play by the rules, you got the vaccines and you've been boosted, you're at the back of the line. I understand it but I don't.

REINER: Right. So there is a visceral way to think about who to prioritize for antivirals and then there is a moral way. So I understand the frustration of people who have gotten their shots and who have socially distanced and worn masks and played by the rules.

And they feel like the folks who haven't done any of that should be in the back of line. But the truth is that the people who will be most vulnerable to dying from Omicron infection are the unvaccinated.

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BRUNHUBER: It still must be frustrating for those who played by the rules and might prevent death.

But what about effects of long COVID, for example?

These are things we'll have to work out. We're out of time. Thank you so much for joining us, Dr. Jonathan Reiner. Appreciate it.

REINER: Thanks for having me.

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BRUNHUBER: The Philippines is in dire need of relief after a typhoon devastated last week. Coming up how one humanitarian aid organization is helping. Stay with us.

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(MUSIC PLAYING) BRUNHUBER: The Philippines is struggling to recover after a typhoon devastated parts of the islands last week. More than 370 people died in the storm and they believe that number could still go up. It made landfall with the strength of a category 5 hurricane, ripping homes apart and causing widespread flooding and landslides.

The U.N. estimates over 600,000 are displaced. Flooded roads and debris-blocked areas are cutting off survivors for necessary aid.

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BRUNHUBER: Brenda Barton is the World Food Programme country director for the Philippines and joins me now from Manila.

Thanks so much for being here with us. It's been described as one of the worst typhoons to hit the country in decades. First, you've been touring some of the hardest hit areas. Describe to me what the damage looks like.

We were just playing some video, just so you know, that you and your colleagues have been taking while you were surveying that damage.

BRENDA BARTON, WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME: Thank you. I just got back late last night, Christmas Eve. And I have to say, I've been working with the World Food Programme for 30 years. I've been to war zones.

This looked like a war zone. People are saying, it looked like a place a typhoon had not only just hit but accompanied by a tornado. Everything I saw in the city I visited was razed to the ground and in the smaller islands nearby, they say the same thing: 95 percent of all houses have been completely destroyed.

BRUNHUBER: Unbelievable.

Do you even know exactly how bad the situation is?

As I understand it, some areas are still cut off; communication is still a huge problem.

How hard is to get an accurate picture and to reach people?

BARTON: It's one of the biggest challenges because all of the major electricity systems went down. Of course, all the cell phones went down, and we've been struggling to get information.

And there are many, many small islands that haven't been visited, that have no communication at all. So we feel there are blind spots. More information is emerging, but we don't know the exact death toll and certainly not the injuries.

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BRUNHUBER: The country's used to typhoons, of course. It's hit by some 20 or so a year. And everyone I talked to on the ground in the Philippines before and during this said that the government and the country were more or less prepared. But the models didn't predict the way the storm intensified.

Did that account for some of the problems we're seeing now?

BARTON: It is one of those where the government has been super prepared, I would say, for typhoons. Haiyan in 2013 really shifted the country off. And we have been part of efforts to work on the government's preparedness.

Really, the numbers of deaths that have been reported and the kind of damage are super low. But nobody could have ever imagined that what was a tropical storm would quickly, within hours, become a super typhoon and rip through nine regions, cutting right through the center part of the Philippines.

BRUNHUBER: And more than some 600,000 people displaced at Christmas.

What's the biggest need right now and how are you helping?

BARTON: Well, the biggest need is food, shelter, medicine and water. Those are the top priorities. And I talked to yesterday and I saw them. They were just living, making roadside shelters, trying to find some protection because there's still more rains coming.

We're monitoring low pressure systems. People need protection and an evacuation center is not great place to be because of the COVID pandemic. No electricity still in a giant city. Overnight, it's dark at night.

And they managed to get telecommunications up and running with the government because we can't have these new mobile houses actually sending signals to the emergency responders, the frontline workers. Apart from that, people barely have access to cell phone signals.

BRUNHUBER: I know and, when people are displaced, they don't have access to clean water. Disease is always a problem. And you spoke about COVID, it's a factor here, not just in terms of people forced to shelters but I'm thinking of the local governments, whose budgets have been hard hit by responding to the pandemic.

Now we don't have enough money to handle the new crisis.

BRUNHUBER: You're absolutely right. One of the things we already know is, an area I was visiting, for the first time in decades there's a decline of their economic output in terms of COVID.

When I was there yesterday, I saw mountainsides of coconuts stripped bare and coconut it is one of the industries in that area. They take years to grow back. The fisheries industry, folks were all destroyed. So all the small fisherman, nothing.

It's really a human catastrophe and I think the death toll can be deceiving, frankly, to the depth of disruption and restoration of lives that is going to have to take place.

BRUNHUBER: Obviously this is going to have long-term implications for the Philippines. If people want to help, how can they do it?

BARTON: There's a major -- we're accepting donations from all over the world. There's asks to the degree of 170 million from the U.N. agencies. So everyone would welcome support.

The government would welcome acceptance of that kind of support. WFP launched on Christmas Eve an app, very easy to download, called Share the Meal and people from all over the world, including the 10 million Filipinos, can, by a touch, give a meal to a hungry child. We've already had about 30,000 meals come in.

So there are many ways to help volunteers as well. It's an amazing community. I saw people themselves affected bundling up clothes and giving it to others.

BRUNHUBER: I mean, the need is so great. And the repercussions will last a long, long time. Brenda Barton, appreciate you speaking with us. Good luck with all of your work. Thank you so much.

BARTON: Thank you.

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BRUNHUBER: The White House says it's revoking Ethiopia's membership from a lucrative trade deal with the U.S. over human rights violations. It comes after an exclusive CNN investigation found the Ethiopian government had been using its flagship airline, Ethiopian Airlines, to shuttle weapons to and from neighboring Eritrea during the civil war in Tigray.

The trade deal gives some African nations duty free access to the U.S. market. Ethiopian Airlines says they strongly refute the findings. The termination will take effect January 1st.

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BRUNHUBER: Now Santa is almost done circling the globe, but a telescope is ready to take off and we'll show you what it reveals and how it can shift our understanding of the universe. We'll have details after the break.

Plus, Bethlehem faces its second Christmas with very few visitors. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: The world's most advanced telescope is slated to launch and will travel 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth. It will be able to observe the atmosphere of planets outside our solar system as never before. CNN's Kristin Fisher has more.

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KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE & DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope is about as high stakes as it gets for NASA. If, heaven forbid, something goes wrong during launch, that's about $10 billion, more than two decades worth of work down the drain just like that.

But if all goes well -- and NASA believes it will -- this telescope truly has the potential to transform our understanding of the universe.

We're talking about, where did the first light in the cosmos come from?

And are we alone in the universe?

Astronomers around the world have been waiting for decades for this moment. The launch has been delayed by about 10 years. Now finally, it is scheduled for liftoff on Christmas morning here in the United States.

And it's going to be launching from French Guiana, a space port, a reminder this is a joint mission with the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. There are employees from all of the agencies down in French Guiana, waiting for this moment to happen.

And it's not just the launch that we have to be nervous about. It is also the next several weeks because, this telescope, after launch, it still has to unfold. And there are more than 300 single points of failure. So everything has to work perfectly.

NASA is confident that it will. But when you talk to the scientists, who spent more than two decades working on this, they say, how can you not be nervous?

Back to you.

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BRUNHUBER: New Year's Eve fireworks are now a go in Rio de Janeiro. They light up the skies and is seen on TV screens across the world. The mayor initially cancelled this year's event because of COVID concerns. But now he's consulted experts and changed his mind.

It will last 16 minutes. The mayor says he wants the celebration to inspire hope that 2022 will be a better year.

Christmas in Bethlehem is subdued again this holiday. COVID has kept most tourists away for a second straight year. CNN's Andrew Carey explains what that means for one Palestinian woman whose livelihood has always depended on crowds of Christmas visitors.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language). ANDREW CAREY, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Maha Saca has been stitching since she was a little girl, traditional Palestinian patterns on pillowcases, on tablecloths and the richly embroidered long dress (INAUDIBLE).

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I like this one, too.

CAREY (voice-over): This a bridal fob (ph) from Bethlehem, different panels expressing the wish for children and the hope for a long life.

MAHA SACA, PALESTINIAN HERITAGE CENTER: This is our identity. Every village and town in Palestine, they have a special dress where the woman, she will tell a story and what surrounded her, my design on her dress. That is why every dress is completely different.

CAREY (voice-over): Craft and skills of a bygone time. And for Palestinians, with the region's troubled history, garments that can express an idea of resistance and the preservation of memory.

SACA: You can see that this is for Bethlehem area. This is for my grandmother. The most important here is the blooms of the tree. The (INAUDIBLE) groves here.

CAREY (voice-over): They also provide a livelihood for the 20 women who produce them and the other works on sale here. The pandemic has had a crushing impact.

SACA: In this two years, we have no tourists, no work. Also every shop in Bethlehem, there is no work, the hotels, the restaurants.

CAREY (voice-over): Palestinian officials put the cost of COVID to the tourism sector at $1.5 billion. Bethlehem's nativity scene and tree are up. But Christmas this year needs a fix.

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CAREY (voice-over): Even so, for Maha Saca, December did bring a gift when UNESCO added Palestinian embroidery to its cultural heritage list, giving a little reason for hope and the optimism of the season.

SACA: Bethlehem is the capital of Christmas, the capital of Christianity. And always we have the hope, we will not lose the hope at all (INAUDIBLE) that and I hope to have the peace that equals these pleasures (ph) (INAUDIBLE) for Bethlehem and for all the world.

CAREY (voice-over): Andrew Carey, CNN, Bethlehem.

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BRUNHUBER: Firefighters filled in for Santa in northern Mexico on Christmas Eve. They organized a gift drive in Ciudad Juarez, asking residents to donate toys for children in need. They received over 50,000 toys. They even went a step further and repaired the toys that weren't in perfect order. Kids were left overwhelmed with emotion when they received their

Christmas gifts.

I'm Kim Brunhuber. Thanks so much for watching and Merry Christmas to all of you celebrating it. More CNN NEWSROOM at the top of the hour. "AFRICAN VOICES: CHANGEMAKERS" is next.