Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

U.S. Fighter Jet Shot Down Over Red Sea In Friendly Fire Incident; Two Navy Pilots Eject Safely After Apparent Friendly Fire Incident; Five Dead, More Than 200 Injured In German Christmas Market Attack; Funeral Services Held for 14-Year-Old Killed In Mass Shooting; Multiple Injured After Driver Crashed Into A JCPenney In Texas; Starbucks, Amazon Striking Days Before Christmas. Trump To Face Uphill Battle With Energy Promises; Officials: 2/3 Of CA Dairy Farms Under Quarantine Due To Bird Flu; CDC: 64 Human Cases Of Bird Flu, 1st Severe Case In Louisiana; Rain, Snow Threaten Record Holiday Travel Rush. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired December 22, 2024 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:40]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to CNN THIS MORNING. It is Sunday, December 22nd. I'm Victor Blackwell.

MJ LEE, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm MJ Lee in for Amara Walker. Thanks for joining us.

Here is what we're working on for you this morning. A U.S. fighter jet was shot down in what the Navy says was a friendly fire incident. What we're learning about how this happened.

BLACKWELL: There are new details about that deadly car attack on a Christmas market in Germany. What investigators are saying about the suspect, we have that in a live report.

LEE: And in Texas, a police chase ends with a man crashing his car into a JCPenney store, injuring five people. What police say led to that chase.

BLACKWELL: Two thirds of California's dairy farms are under quarantine. Bird flu cases among the animals are continuing to rise. We'll talk about the efforts to bring them down and the concern from health officials about the cases rising in humans.

Let's start this morning with what's new. Two U.S. Navy pilots ejected safely after their F/A-18 fighter jet was shot down, this was over the Red Sea, in an apparent friendly fire incident.

LEE: And U.S. CENTCOM says both pilots were recovered safely, with one of the crew members sustaining minor injuries. CNN's Betsy Klein is live outside the White House. Betsy, what have you been learning.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Well, MJ and Victor, a lot of questions here after this apparent case of friendly fire, according to U.S. Central Command, left one U.S. fighter jet downed and so many questions early Saturday morning. What we know is this U.S. Navy F/A-18 fighter jet was operating from the USS Harry S. Truman, and it was mistakenly fired upon by the USS Gettysburg.

Now, when that jet was shot down, both pilots were able to eject safely. But one crew member sustained minor injuries. Of course, so many questions now. This incident is now under investigation by the U.S. military, and questions about how this could have happened. As CENTCOM emphasizes, this was not the result of hostile fire.

Of course, this incident took place over the Red Sea, where the U.S. has moved warships and fighter jets and other assets in recent months amid ongoing tensions in the Middle East. And in a sign of the activity in this area, this incident comes the exact same day as the U.S. carried out airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.

Now, the U.S. struck a missile storage facility and a command-and- control facility in the capital of Sanaa. During that operation, the U.S. also shot down one way attack drones and an anti-ship cruise missile, according to CENTCOM.

Now, those attacks also involved U.S. Navy F/A-18 fighter jets and U.S. Air Force assets, according to CENTCOM. But two U.S. military officials tell CNN that this downed fighter jet, we have talked about in this incident, was not a part of those strikes, MJ and Victor.

BLACKWELL: Betsy Klein for us at the White House, thank you so much. Let's bring in now CNN military analyst and retired Air Force colonel Cedric Leighton. Colonel, good morning to you. The investigation will determine how this mistake happened. But typically, how do these types of mistakes happen?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes. Victor, good morning. Yes. One of the big things here is that you have a very big air space that they're dealing with. And in that airspace, there's a lot of activity, especially when there's a carrier battle group active like there is in the Red Sea with the USS Harry Truman.

Now, when you -- which is where the F/A-18 came from. So, when you are in a zone like this where there is combat happening at one end of the Red Sea, and then there are other flight patterns that the folks on the USS Gettysburg, the sailors on the USS Gettysburg, have to deal with, it can be pretty easy to mistake targets from one to the other. In other words, is one a friendly target, or is one an adversarial or potential adversarial target?

So, what the investigation is going to look at is what the people, the sailors who were manning the, you know, the positions on the USS Gettysburg, what they saw, what they believed was coming toward them. If, in fact, the aircraft was heading toward them, you know, why they saw it as a potential hostile aircraft and why they fired. So, this is going to be, you know, a critical piece. And in these situations, what they saw, what they believed to be the case, is going to be a key part of that.

[06:05:06] What the radar picture looked like for them is also going to be a factor. And of course, they'll need to answer why they didn't flip the aircraft properly.

LEE: And what we also learned is that this fighter jet was mistakenly hit and then the two Navy pilots ejected from their jet. I mean, is this how the ejection system, if you can call it that, is that how it's supposed to work? Or typically, would you see something like this coming and then before you're hit, you're supposed to get yourself out of the fighter jet?

LEIGHTON: Yes, MJ. One of the key things here is that pilots always stay with their aircraft until they can't maneuver the aircraft. So, what basically happened in this particular case is not atypical for a situation like this. In essence, what you have is you have a missile coming toward you. If you can evade that missile, you're going to do everything you can to not only save yourself but save the aircraft.

If your aircraft gets hit, that's when you eject. And that's exactly what these pilots, these crew members followed in this particular case, those procedures.

BLACKWELL: Colonel, should we have expected that there would have been some opportunity to communicate between the Gettysburg and this these two pilots before this happened, that they could have identified themselves?

LEIGHTON: Yes. Yes, absolutely. And that's also going to be one key aspect of the investigation. You know why the crew on the USS Gettysburg did not see this aircraft as a -- as a friendly aircraft. So, they're supposed to be communication between not only the pilots and the aircraft carrier, in essence, their controllers in this case, but also with all the other naval assets in the region.

And so, what was communicated to the USS Gettysburg is going to be a critical part of what this investigation finds. You know, whether or not that communication was clear, whether it was something that they, you know, mistook for something else and why they mistook it for, you know, for a potential hostile target. That's the kind of thing that is going to be part of the investigation. So yes, communication, what it was, how it was lacking. If that's the case, that's going to be part of the investigation.

LEE: You know, Colonel, I was struck before when you were saying that it's actually, you know, easy enough to mistake targets in this fashion. I mean, you know how much activity there has been in the Red Sea, basically, since October 7th, heightened hostilities, the back and forth. I mean, was it actually just a matter of time, in your view, until we had an incident like this, given how much activity we've seen there?

LEIGHTON: Yes, it's -- you know, you want to give the crews in this area, in a very tense area of the world, a lot of credit for doing what they do. And, you know, we certainly would expect, you know, when you look at the kinds of accident rates that the Navy and the Air Force have in situations like this, that something like this could happen.

But the procedures that are in place within the U.S. Navy and within, you know, all aspects of the U.S. military, especially in the CENTCOM area of responsibility, are actually pretty extensive. They're pretty tight procedures, and they're designed to avoid incidents like that.

And when a situation like this occurs, obviously something went wrong. And, you know, whether or not, you know, you would have expected something like this, that depends on what exactly went wrong.

But, MJ, when you look at the totality of this, it is certainly clear that an accident like this could certainly happen. And, you know, we are lucky that it hasn't happened before.

BLACKWELL: Yes, that's interesting, in the conversation about communication. I mean, when miscommunication results in an F/A-18 being shot down and two pilots ejecting, of course, CENTCOM tells us. But when these types of miscommunications happen and they don't reach this level of severity, I mean, how common is that?

LEIGHTON: Yes, that, you know, each crew is going to, you know, each ship is going to probably have different statistics when it comes to that. But yes, it is something that does happen where at first people think that there's an incoming target to them. And you have to think this -- you know, the aircraft are moving at a very high speed. And when you are sitting in a guided missile cruiser and you're looking at what is happening on your radar scopes and you see what is coming toward you, the potential for misidentification is actually quite high. And that's where training comes in.

They look at, you know, the types of aircraft. They look at their characteristics. They look at the airspeed.

[06:10:00]

They look at those kinds of things and use that to help determine whether or not what they're seeing on the radar is accurate. And of course, they also look at the intelligence picture and try to deconflict with that. So, these kinds of things, you know, do happen and misidentifications are very often corrected just in time before an incident like this -- you know, as bad as this is, before an incident like this does happen.

LEE: All right. Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you so much. Happy holidays.

A judge in Germany has ordered the man accused of driving a car into a Christmas market to be held in detention. And we're learning new details about the suspect this morning. A U.S. based activist group called the RAIR Foundation USA has identified the suspect as Taleb al- Abdulmohsen. German officials have called him an Islamophobe, and Friday's attack left five dead and more than 200 people injured.

BLACKWELL: Sources tell CNN that Saudi officials warned German intelligence about the suspect several times, but that those warnings were ignored. CNN's senior global affairs correspondent Matthew Chance joins us now. Tell us more about what we've learned about the suspect and the communication surrounding him.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, the suspect is somebody who's got quite a big social media presence, actually. He describes himself as the most aggressive critic of Islam in history. He has criticized the German state for being extremely soft on immigration and for its -- what he regards as its overly close relationship with Saudi Arabia.

What we've now learned from sources inside Saudi Arabia is that the Saudi authorities repeatedly warned Germany about this individual. He's originally a Saudi citizen. Of course, he's 50 years old. He'd been granted asylum in Germany. Have been living here since, well, since 2006. And he worked as a doctor. He was a consultant psychiatrist at a local clinic.

But the Saudis had repeatedly warned the Germans about the fact that he was becoming radicalized, that he'd been trying to, you know, get people out of Saudi Arabia and that he was generally sort of -- sort of voicing quite radical sentiments. And if you look at his social media, you know, he's talking quite aggressively towards the German state, saying if they want a war, you know, we will fight it. Things like that.

But, you know, the fact is that he was anti-Islam, even though he was born in Saudi Arabia, and he was an active campaigner against immigration in the country. And that means he didn't really fit the security profile of someone who the security forces may have expected to carry out this kind of Christmas marking, ramming attack.

I mean, there was another attack like this back in 2016, when more than a dozen people were killed when somebody from ISIS, the jihadist group, plowed a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin. This person, as I say, doesn't fit that profile. But it's still fueling anti- immigration anger across Germany right now as they deal with this horrific tragedy, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Matthew Chance for us there. Thank you so much. Joining me now, CNN senior national security analyst Juliette Kayyem. Juliette, we know more today about the suspect than we knew yesterday. And we'll probably learn more tomorrow, right? But based on what we know today, is there anything the German officials should have or could have done to prevent what he did?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Is how often do the Saudis notify the Germans of someone in particular that they're worried about? And if this was a consistent warning by the Saudis, the Germans are going to have to explain why they didn't take this intelligence seriously, why they didn't seem to even approach him to wonder what was going on.

The Saudis don't share intelligence that easily, especially as is clear that they were surveying someone who was in Germany. So, there were growing concern -- growing concerns about his radicalization, whether it was going to be targeted in Germany or elsewhere they didn't know. But the -- but the Germans are going to have to look at this and see why -- why did -- why did his immigration status, presumably asylum status, seem to protect him from any further investigations.

BLACKWELL: And if there were further investigations, again, we don't know all that we're going to know eventually, but there's no evidence so far that he was amassing any weapons or involved anybody else. His weapon was a car on a street. And so, unless they were going to take that vehicle, how could they have prevented this?

[06:15:02]

KAYYEM: Well, the Germans have a slightly more permissive legal system in the sense of being able to interrogate or question someone. Also, his immigration status would have allowed them at least to begin -- to question him regarding whether his immigration status was still accurate and whether he should retain it.

More importantly, I think, I mean, because what you said, Victor, is exactly right, that the car becomes sort of -- it's difficult to take away someone's car. You don't know that's how they're going to do it. But what they could see from his social media pages and what he was presenting publicly was that his radicalization wasn't turning towards sort of more extreme Islam, but actually more extremism towards the right-wing.

And if you look at his social media pages, he embraces the right-wing party, which has ties to the Nazi party. He likes American right wingers as well and praises them. And so, they could have seen that radicalization.

BLACKWELL: And does this event then change the way German officials approach their scrutiny of those who are close to this ADF Party, this party that he showed favor and sympathies for?

KAYYEM: Yes, I think it will. I mean, look, the German government had just fallen basically the week before. There are going to be very, very ideologically -- let's just say, confrontational campaigns out there, including towards the right-wing -- for the right-wing, which is very anti-immigrant and anti-immigration in particular from Muslim countries.

So, this could play out. As Matthew was saying, we're not quite sure how this is going to play out. Is it going to play out with sort of antagonism towards the violence that is sometimes embraced by the right-wing in Germany or towards Muslims because he was, of course, a Muslim immigrant? And how that unfolds, we don't know yet.

But both the Saudis and the Germans could have seen at least -- like maybe they couldn't have stopped this. But his -- he was presenting himself as someone who was dangerous and someone who might be prone to violence in protection of -- the irony here is, of course, in protection of some notion of Germany, of which he clearly is not a part of. That's the irony of this, is that his extremism led him to the to the right-wing which often condemns Islam and Muslim immigrants.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Juliette Kayyem, thank you. LEE: It looks like much of the East is still in an arctic chill this morning. And another storm for the northwest. Still to come, how the holiday week is looking for travelers.

And scary moments at a Texas mall. A police chase ending with a suspect slamming into a department store. What we're learning about that investigation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:22:47]

BLACKWELL: Here's some of the stories we're working on for you this morning. Funeral services were held yesterday for Rubi Vergara, one of the two victims killed in a mass shooting at a school in Madison, Wisconsin, on Monday. She was 14 years old. She attended the Abundant Life Christian School since kindergarten. The second victim, Erin West, a teacher at the school, will be laid to rest tomorrow.

Police in Texas are investigating after a suspect led them on a 19- mile chase yesterday. Now, this ended when the suspect drove his pickup truck through the glass doors of a JCPenney at the mall. State troopers, off duty officers shot and killed the driver. He drove several hundred feet into the store, first, injured several shoppers. The chase started when a state trooper tried to stop the truck after getting a call about a possible DUI.

And baseball great. One of the most colorful characters in all of sports, Rickey Henderson, has died at the age of 65.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICKEY HENDERSON, HALL OF FAME OUTFIELDER: Lou Brock was the symbol of great base stealing, but today I am the greatest of all time. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: And that was Rickey Henderson in 1991, speaking to the fans after he broke the all-time record for stolen bases, a record that's considered now just unbreakable.

The hall of famer won two World Series, just one of 10 major leaguers ever to have played 25 seasons, 14 of them were for his hometown team, the Oakland As. His cause of death has not been made public.

LEE: This morning, thousands of Amazon and Starbucks workers are still on strike just four days before Christmas. Amazon workers in multiple cities, including Atlanta and New York, have joined the picket lines, while Starbucks baristas in at least three cities have walked off their jobs demanding better wages and working conditions. CNN's Camila Bernal reports.

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: One of the things that these Starbucks employees are saying is no contract, no coffee. There are a number of locations that are currently closed. Here in Los Angeles, in Chicago and in Seattle. But what union members are saying is that if they don't have a contract negotiation, and agreement by Christmas eve, then there are more stores that could potentially close from coast to coast.

[06:25:08]

Now, Starbucks has been negotiating with the union since February, but the union just wanting to get this contract to finalize before the end of the year. A lot of the employees saying that they are the face of Starbucks. Take a listen to what one of the employees told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you think about Starbucks, you think about your barista. You think about the person who you talk to every morning, who makes you smile, who makes your drink and says, hey, I hope you have a wonderful day. We are the face of Starbucks, but we aren't treated like it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: And Starbucks saying that they are disappointed about this strike, but also saying that there is minimal disruption. It's similar to what you're hearing from Amazon, where some of the workers there are also on strike. But Amazon saying, your packages will get delivered.

Now it is a very different scenario at Amazon because some of these employees, according to Amazon, are considered third party contract workers. So, these employees at Amazon are fighting to be recognized as employees. They're fighting for better wages, and they're fighting for better working conditions.

Of course, they're asking Amazon to come to the table. But Amazon saying they don't need to come to the table because they don't see them as those employees. Now, what your also having is other people join in on the strike.

So, on Saturday, employees from one of the warehouses in Staten Island joining the strike. They are Amazon employees. But what Amazon is challenging is the idea that they are part of this union. So, there's sort of this back and forth on whether this union is recognized or not. Of course, the workers wanting to be recognized And in a similar fashion as to the Starbucks employees saying they want to get people's attention during the holiday season.

Camila Bernal, CNN, Burbank, California.

LEE: On the campaign trail, Donald Trump vowed to drill, baby drill. Still ahead, why his big promises related to U.S. energy dominance could face a much more complicated reality.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:31:30] VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Drill, baby, drill. You remember that? That's president-elect Donald Trump's energy mantra, campaigned on it. He made some big promises. He even said that he could cut your energy bills in half within the first 12 months of his administration.

MJ LEE, CNN ANCHOR: But now even his own cabinet picks for energy and environment are suggesting it's not going to be that easy.

CNN's Bill Weir has somewhat of a reality check for Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF UNITED STATES: Frack, frack, frack, and drill, drill, drill, drill, baby, drill.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the trail --

TRUMP: We're going to frack, frack, frack.

WEIR (voice-over): -- Donald Trump made some big energy promises.

TRUMP: Your energy bill within 12 months will be cut in half, and that's my pledge all over the country.

WEIR: What's the reality of that as he gets ready to take office?

BOB MCNALLY, FOUNDER, RAPIDAN ENERGY GROUP LLC: He quote Eminem, it's more snapback to reality.

WEIR (voice-over): But even Republican experts say, yes, don't count on it.

MCNALLY: Having worked for a president, President George W. Bush, and having looked, scoured the White House for a magic wand that can quickly lower oil prices or electricity prices. The truth is it doesn't exist.

RYAN KELLOGG, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: The reality is that consumers' energy bills, producers' production volumes, they depend much more on the whims of the global marketplace than what any single president can do.

WEIR (voice-over): And the U.S. is already producing more fossil fuel for that market than any nation in history. So, drilling on more federal land, experts say, would not affect gas prices.

KELLOGG: Private land and shale is really where the action is. Federal land, you can tinker with things on the margin, maybe get a couple additional 100,000 barrels a day, you're not going to double U.S. production or increase it by even 25 percent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good afternoon.

WEIR (voice-over): And remember when the pandemic and OPEC caused oil prices to crash? It was good for consumers, but horrible for U.S. oil companies.

So, Trump asked Russia and Saudi Arabia to stop drilling so prices would go up.

TRUMP: Making it so that our industry does well and the oil industry does better than it's doing right now.

MCNALLY: When does an American president call OPEC to cut production, to raise oil prices? Answer, never, except the second quarter of 2020.

Let me be very clear, from the industry's perspective, President Trump can and will implement regulatory and policy changes that will nastily impregnate the outlook for energy investment. But in terms of lowering oil prices near term, or electricity prices, that is very, very difficult for any president to do.

WEIR (voice-over): Meanwhile, utility-scale renewable energy is now cheaper than oil. China is switching to electric cars with such breathtaking speed and scale, it's disrupting energy futures. And around 90 percent of the projects waiting to get on the Texas grid are solar plus batteries.

ANDREW DESSIER, DIRECTOR, TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY: And batteries, if you look up a battery farm, you just mint money because you charge your batteries when electricity is cheap. You sell it six hours later when electricity is expensive. I mean, it's just a money-making machine.

These developers are not Birkenstock-wearing hippies who get in their VW bus and drive off. These are Texan energy developers who want to make money. And you make money with renewable energy right now. It's the cheapest energy we have.

WEIR: And can Trump politics get in the way of that, or claw back that momentum in any way?

[06:35:01]

DESSIER: I think it's a real open question what is going to happen. Everybody needs to understand that a transition to renewable energy will fatten your wallet. You're going to walk out with a better economy, cleaner air, better national security.

I mean, the benefits of the clean energy transition are enormous for almost everybody. Not if you're a fossil fuel billionaire. They will not be better off if you have clean energy. Fossil fuel billionaires will be worse off. And because of that, and because of the enormous political power they have, they have been able to essentially capture the political process to have politicians force us to continue using dirty, expensive fossil fuels.

WEIR (voice-over): Bill Weir, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEE: All right, our thanks to Bill Weir for that. A state of emergency is in place in California after bird flu cases popped up at dairy farms. After the break, we'll take you to one of the first farms in the U.S. to be hit with the virus.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:40:43]

BLACKWELL: This morning about two-thirds of California's dairy farms are under quarantine because of the spread of bird flu.

LEE: California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency last week to help government agencies get the spread of bird flu under control.

CNN's Veronica Miracle went to a dairy farm that was placed under quarantine months ago for a look at how they were able to reopen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the bird flu rips through California infecting dairy cows, about two-thirds of dairy farms in the entire state have been under quarantine.

This dairy farm just outside of Tulare, California was one of the first to be hit with the virus. Tom is a third-generation owner of his family farm.

MIRACLE: So, Tom is spraying down our tires with a bleach solution which says kills everything so that any car that's coming in here into their farm, particularly from another dairy, they have to get their tires washed with this bleach before they can enter.

Thank you for spraying down our tires and now we need to protect ourselves, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's correct.

MIRACLE: I've got the gloves, got a mask on, have the goggles here, but I see also you're going to bypass that because you feel confident and comfortable that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

MIRACLE: That everything here is safe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now I will also say that anybody else that comes in, we would request they do the gear up just because we don't know exactly where they've been.

MIRACLE (voice-over): Tom has roughly 1,200 cows on this farm. They produce about 11,000 gallons of milk per day. When the herd became infected with the avian flu in September, nearly 30 cows died. The farm was put under quarantine for five weeks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our facility is negative of bird flu and has been for some time so we're not under quarantine anymore.

MIRACLE: But the risk is definitely still there. The biggest concern being getting it from another dairy, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

MIRACLE (voice-over): Despite rapid efforts to contain the virus, the illness has now spread from Central to Southern California.

MIRACLE: How long does it take till you know that a cow is sick?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will know within three days.

MIRACLE: Within three days?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

MIRACLE: OK, so a cow technically could be sick right now and you won't know for a few days.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a possibility.

MIRACLE (voice-over): Transmission to humans is also a major concern, but state officials insist there's no need to panic.

ANNETTE JONES, CALIFORNIA STATE VETERINARIAN: Pasteurization is 100 percent effective in killing this virus in milk.

MIRACLE (voice-over): Of the 36 cases of bird flu in humans in California this year, nearly all of those affected were dairy farm workers exposed to sick animals, according to the CDC.

MIRACLE: So Miguel, are you concerned at all about your safety? You're not wearing any goggles.

(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

MIRACLE: So, he's not concerned about getting sick.

MIRACLE (voice-over): Right now, 613 dairy farms are quarantined. Sixty-six have been cleared in recent months, but dairy industry representatives say the risk doesn't end there.

ANJA RAUDABAUGH, CEO, WESTERN UNITED DAIRIES: We are starting to hear about reinfections in Texas, Colorado, Idaho, and Louisiana.

MIRACLE (voice-over): Here in Tulare County, Tom is staying vigilant and following safe practices. This while California prepares for the worst and tries to get ahead of a rapidly evolving crisis.

MIRACLE: It's not just cows that are at risk. Poultry is also at risk. Fifty-one poultry farms have tested positive this fall in the state of California for the bird flu.

We spoke to a chicken farmer in San Diego who said that he hasn't yet been impacted, but if one of his chickens gets sick, he will have to euthanize the entire flock. So major concerns there.

In terms of human-to-human transmission, that has not yet happened in the United States with this specific strain. And officials reiterating that the risk to the public is very low.

Victor, MJ.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEE: Veronica Miracle, thank you.

The CDC says there are now 64 confirmed human cases of bird flu. This comes as investigators are looking into the origin of the first severe case of bird flu in the U.S. That was in Louisiana.

The CDC says the person became infected after being exposed to sick and dead birds in their backyard.

We are joined now by Dr. Jayne Morgan, a cardiologist and Vice President of Medical Affairs at Hello Heart.

[06:45:00]

It is great to have you here.

JAYNE MORGAN, CARDIOLOGIST: Thanks, MJ.

LEE: I think people are trying to make sense of these headlines. Should they be worried? I mean, in the big picture, are you telling folks that are asking you questions about these bird flu cases that they shouldn't be panicked just yet?

MORGAN: Right. And we shouldn't, we shouldn't be panicked just yet. What we see is the transmission going from birds to birds, birds to cattle, cattle to cattle, birds and cattle to humans, but we don't have that human-to-human transmission yet.

If it makes that evolutionary leap, that's when we start to have some concern. That we've had these 64 cases so far. We don't see evidence of human-to-human transmission. Most of these have been within workers in the -- in the dairy cattle or bird industry, but also being exposed to these wild flocks is going to be somewhat of a challenge because they appear to be carrying this virus as well.

LEE: Yes. I mean, you mentioned that most of these cases so far have come from, you know, people who are working at dairy farms, poultry farms.

I mean, can you give us a little bit more on just the 101 on how does a person get bird flu and any precautions that should be taken.

MORGAN: Right.

LEE: Even if you're not somebody that might be living in or working at a dairy farm or a poultry farm?

MORGAN: And, you know, and I think that's the question that everyone has. Am I at risk for it if I'm not a farmer --

LEE: Yes.

MORGAN: -- if I'm not a worker on these farms? And the answer is yes, but a low risk. But here's how you get it. You get it from coming in contact with the mucus, saliva, or feces of birds or of cattle.

Now people who are not living on farms, what do we mostly come in contact with? Bird droppings on our cars, in our driveways, on our houses, and even cleaning the bird droppings off of our cars. That's probably the most likely way that we would come in contact with it.

LEE: Oh, wow.

MORGAN: So, make certain that you're keeping your hands clean.

LEE: Yes.

MORGAN: Because you're cleaning the bird droppings off of your car. If you touch your face or touch your mouth or even have an inhalation at some point, if there are feathers or any type of dust around, you can actually contract that. That's the most common way that we would get it if you're working outside that industry.

Still rare. We want to make certain that people are not coming in contact with bird feces or saliva. And definitely if you see a dead bird or an injured bird, do not approach it and do not touch it and remove it.

LEE: Which sounds obvious, but for most people.

OK, so in my household, I probably consume like a gallon and a half of milk --

MORGAN: Right.

LEE: -- every week.

MORGAN: Right.

LEE: This is a big question for I think a lot of parents who have children that are drinking milk constantly because there has been detection of bird flu in raw milk.

MORGAN: That's right.

LEE: Should we just be avoiding raw milk altogether for now? And then eggs is the other really important food group. What should we be doing about eggs and taking any precautions?

MORGAN: Yes, and that's why California has this state of emergency really because they've lost 35 million of their egg laying hens and it's really impacted their economy. And they've lost these birds. These birds have perished from bird flu.

So, here's something to remember. Generally, when birds or hens get the bird flu, they really are unable to lay eggs. So, but let's say for instance, if we do have eggs, all of the eggs in our system are pasteurized. And so, they should therefore be free of the bird flu.

The same for pasteurized milk. Pasteurized milk will go through the heat killing process and that will remove any of the bird flu.

The other thing you can think about if you're consuming the meat of the chicken, if you're eating chicken, then make certain that it is cooked or heated to at least 70 degrees Celsius, which is about 171 degrees Fahrenheit. So, you want to make sure that you cook it because heat can also kill it.

We certainly don't recommend drinking unpasteurized milk because large volumes of that virus can be in the milk. It's unclear whether or not that is a way that it can be transmitted to humans, but we should just avoid it altogether.

LEE: All right. Dr. Jayne Morgan, thank you for being here in person to answer these important questions and happy holidays.

MORGAN: Thank you. Happy holidays.

LEE: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Still to come rain and snow could impact your holiday travel this weekend. We have your forecast.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:53:56]

LEE: Record holiday tra -- holiday travel, is now --

BLACKWELL: What?

LEE: OK.

BLACKWELL: What's happening?

LEE: Start again. Record holiday travel is now underway, but rain and snow may cause some delays for some of you.

BLACKWELL: CNN meteorologist Tyler Mauldin is with us now. What are we watching?

TYLER MAULDIN, CNN METEOROLOGIST (on-camera): Hey, good morning, Victor. Good morning, MJ.

First off, we're starting with some of the coldest air that we have seen in months across the east, and because of that, we -- because that system that's bringing in the cold, the radar looks fairly quiet for us this morning. That is going to change as we go through the next 36 hours.

We've got the cold air here across the east. Up here across the Great Lakes, northern plains, Pacific Northwest, that's where we have the active winter weather systems. All of this is pushing eastbound.

So, on Monday, we're essentially going to be cutting and pasting the same forecast. The changes really start to occur as we get into Tuesday. Tuesday, that's when we see the warm-up across the east.

We begin seeing some rain pop up over portions of the lower Mississippi Valley, and a series of weathermakers continue to come onshore across the west coast. Thankfully, near the coastline, we are dealing with the warmer air, so mainly just rain out there. But once you get into the higher elevations, that's when you could be seeing a little bit of snowfall here.

[06:55:16]

That does mean that as Santa starts to fly in at midnight here in the U.S., he will run into a couple of trouble spots. Then on Christmas Day and Hanukkah, we're looking at more rain across the southeast, more mountain snow, and overall, temperatures really beginning to rebound.

So, on the whole, we're not looking at a terrible few days for our holiday travel, but there are a couple of tough spots as we go through time.

In terms of dreaming of a white Christmas, well, you need one inch of snow on the ground to have a white Christmas. And Victor and MJ, I would say up here across New England and the northeast, as well as the Rockies, that is where we could have a white Christmas.

BLACKWELL: When did that become the rule that it needs to be an inch of snow to be a white Christmas?

MAULDIN (on-camera): You know, I don't want to get technical. But there is an exact definition. I'm just the messenger.

BLACKWELL: Just the messenger. All right, Tyler Mauldin, thank you very much.

MAULDIN (on-camera): Thank you.

BLACKWELL: All right, still to come, there are new questions and new answers that a lot of people are looking for as officials work to understand what led a man to drive a car into a crowded Christmas tree.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)