0 reward. >> a good day in law enforcement. thank you for watching at captioning sponsored by cbs >> dokoupil: tonight, the s captioning sponsored by cbs >> dokoupil: tonight, the second thanksgiving of the pandemic, covid cases and deaths continue to rise, but this year americans are on the move in numbers not seen since before the coronavirus. more than 50 million americans are expected to travel over the holiday weekend, a pandemic record of 2.3 million travelers checked into u.s. flights at airports on thanksgiving eve alone. could the travel surge become a superspreader? the commander-in-chief marks the first thanksgiving of his presidency, giving thanks to u.s. troops. >> thankful for these guys. >> dokoupil: plus what we're learning about the president's health. the holiday shopping season begins with retailers ready to ring up record sales, while millions of americans are expected to shop this weekend, a wave of brazen and sometimes violent smash and grab robberies could drive some shoppers away from stores. delivery by drone, our exclusive look at how the nation's largess customers. powerful windship potential wildfire danger in the west, while a possible snowstorm could mess up holiday travel in the east. we go where the buffalo roam, to show you how one native american tribe is trying to save these symbols of freedom. and unifying america, how the seedkeepers of philadelphia are helping people connect with their roots. this is the "cbs evening news" with norah o'donnell. >> dokoupil: good evening, and thank you for joining us on this thanksgiving. hope you're having a happy one, i'm tony dokoupil in for norah. for the second year in a row, americans are expressing gratitude in the midst of a pandemic. just yesterday the u.s. recorded more than a 111,000 new covid cases and more than 1600 fatalities. but now more than 196 million americans are fully vaccinated, including nearly 135,000 children, between the ages of five and eleven, with no lockdowns in effect more americans are also traveling this holiday weekend, 2 million people pass through u.s. airports on thanksgiving eve alone. and here in new york city today, the streets were once again packed with crowds at the thanksgiving day parade. but while covid vaccines and boosters have helped americans bring back their favorite holiday traditions, health officials remind us the threat is not over. cbs's elise preston leads us off in new york city. good evening, elise. >> reporter: good evening, tony, thousands of people line the sidewalks starting here at macy's in harrod's square to watch the parade and the people we spoke with said they were happy to take necessary precautions to celebrate safely with family and friends. it certainly looks and feels like things are build back better act normal this thanksgiving. no new york city, crowds gathered together to watch the macy's thanksgiving parade. last year's parade was tv only. >> it's nice to be out and about. >> reporter: david dallas-orr is visiting from california a.c.a. >> with everyone being vaccinated, we can all be around each other and not be as worried about getting sick. >> reporter: all across the country, families are coming together with fewer travel and covid restrictions. more than 53 million people are driving, flying or taking trains to their thanksgiving destinations. airports saw the highest number of passengers since the start of the pandemic. the t.s.a. screened more than 2.3 million travelers yesterday. >> the risk is worth the reward? yes. >> reporter: once you get to your destination, dr. anthony fauci recommends gathering only with people who are vaccinated. otherwise, get tested. >> since tests are so widely available now, that should be something that a person should be willing to do, rather than put everyone else at risk. >> reporter: covid cases are on the rise in 25 states, and hospitalizations are up in 22d states. >> we're really uncharted territories, and it's not clear what's going to happen over the next six to ten weeks. >> reporter: to protect yourself, infectious disease expert dr. michael osterholm says get your booster shots now. >> for those who are fully vaccinated but now have reached that six-month time period after their doses they received, they need to get boosters. >> reporter: and if you plan on celebrating with loved ones over the next few days, doctors suggest spending time outdoors or leaving windows open. just other steps to reduce transmission. tony. >> o'donnell: good advice. love seeing familiar thanksgiving scenes. president biden is celebrating president biden is celebrating presidency on nantuckett, 30 miles off the coast of massachusetts where we also find cbs's nancy cordes. nancy, good evening. i hear it's better there in the summertime. >> reporter: this is true, tony, though the bidens have been coming to nantuckett to celebrate thanksgiving for decades, something of a family tradition. it is also common for presidents to spend at least part of thanksgiving day with the troops and, so, today, president biden kept that tradition alive, too. in a brief break from family time today, the president and first lady visited a coast guard station, speaking with about two dozen service members outside and holding video calls inside with troops from all six branches of the military. afterwards, mr. biden was asked what he's thankful for. >> what am i thankful for? i'm not joking when i say i'm thankful for these guys, wherever they are. people wonder what america is, they look and they see them, that's who they say. they don't see us here, they see them, and they make me proud. >> reporter: the president and first lady also called in to the annual macy's day parade. >> happy thanksgiving, everyone. video meage, whing thetid a one thing mr. bideca thankful for today, a note from his doctor saying a 3-millimeter polyp removed from his colon last week turns out to be benign, though the doctor noted it was potentially precancerous. the polyp was discovered during a routine colonoscopy at walter reed military medical center last week. >> i feel great. >> reporter: doctors say such polyps are common, especially in 79-year-olds. the president's doctor is recommending he get a gallup colonoscopy in seven to ten years -- follow-up colonoscopy. >> o'donnell: the holiday shopping seans is underway with retailers expecting to ring up $850 billion in sales this year, cbs's jonathan vigliotti has more on the big expectations for black friday. it's beginning to look a lot like 2019. tonight, shop owners across the country are getting ready to welcome more than 158 million shoppers just this holiday weekend. >> i'm up 100% in sales from 2019. >> reporter: maryam al hammami says that's despite product shortages and price hikes fueled by price chain snarls. >> the b barbie is $48.99 today and would have been 39.99 last year. >> reporter: biggest competition this season -- >> gas prices because they're already spending 20% more to get to my store. >> reporter: analysts say a combination of job growth, stimulus checks and monthly child tax credits are helping consumers in the highest inflation in three decades. >> prices are high but people don't seem to really bother with that. the last retails sales report showed a strong spending across lots of categories, even accounting for higher prices. i think it's going to be a strong season. >> reporter: especially strong for in-person shopping up nationwide more than 14% from last year. no surprise, considering most stores were closed. >> many people said this is the first time they have been in a mall in almost two years. so there's just now feeling comfortable to come out and do their shopping. >> reporter: one trend that has caught retailers and police offguard, a rash of high-end theft like at this nordstrom in northern california. officials say organized crime rings are running in, smashing counters, stealing luxury items, and then selling their loot online. most major retailers like target are closed tonight, ahead of black friday. stores are stocking up on supplies. they're also beefing up their security. tony. .>> dokoupil: those crime videos continue to shock me, jonathan, thank you very much. shoppers who live within a 50-mile radius of wal-mart headquarters in arkansas can now get items dropped off by drone. the retail giant is teaming up with the drone delivery company zip line to parachute packages of goods to everyday shoppers. cbs's errol barnett got an exclusive look. >> reporter: while the supply chain backlog continues to choke ports and trucking routes, many companies are looking to the skies for solutions. >> unbelievably exciting. woaive working towards this day many years. >> reporter: liam o'connor is zip line's chief operating officer. >> we have done over 220,000 commercial deliveries in overseas markets. for us the promise of ultra fast delivery is really to give access to all kinds of communities to all kinds of products. >> reporter: once a customer places an order via the zip line wal-mart app, items are packaged inside this specially designed box with a parish chute. >> so the first step we're doing is scanning the package. >> reporter: so by now, someone's ordered something, it's been packaged up, and now it's in your hands.d >> that's correct. >> reporter: flight operations e lead evan britton showed us how it's launched. >> next we'll install the parachute and load the package into the payload bay. >> reporter: latches? and the next step is to install the battery. inspection complete, zip line 963. >> roger. watching zip line 963 in three, two, one! >> reporter: for now, these zips, as they're called, are able to drop payloads within a 50-mile raid yous of pea ridge, arkansas. but wal-mart and zip line hope to one day expand the service nationwide. >> if our customers enjoy the service, we'll scale it so in future holidays there is probably going to play a really bick part in get things in a hurry. >> reporter: tom truns delivery operations. >> customers expect us to save the money, they need us to save them time. when it comes to saving time, what better way to do it than bh drone. >> reporter: zip line is part of a growing list of companies looking to commercial drone delivery more accessible. each zip returns to home base and hooks itself to this suspension cable, where it awaits its next mission. currently the service is free. no cost to customers as wal-mart and zip line gather data to find out if this is something people ant. expectations is this service could expand across the country. >> reporter: tony. >> dokoupil: heads up if you live in northern arkansas. errol, thank you very much. tonight the united kingdom says it will restrict travel from south africa after scientists discovered a potentially dangerous new variant of the coronavirus. few than 30% of south africans have had a covid shot, but researchers there are trying to reverse engineer the moderna vaccine with the blessings of the world health organization. cbs's debora patta reports from johannesburg. >> reporter: this is the cape town home to a revolution. inside the warehouse, rebels in white lab coats have an audacious plan to solve global vaccine inequalities. while more than half the world received one shot, most to have the nations had picks of vaccines, so african countries had to wait. as a result, less than 7% on the continent are fully vaccinated. afrigen technical director dr. caryn fenner said the pandemic was a wakeup call. >> made us realize if no one stipes up, no one else will do it. after pleading with big pharma to share recipes, these scientists are done waiting and taking the development of a covid vaccine into their own hands, so they're replicating moderna's mrna vaccine. despite commitment to global season access, moderna has not given its permission. legally afrigen can take this up to clinical trials, but petro terblanche says to get shots into people's arms, they would need a license agreement with moderna. but some experts globally said it couldn't be done. africa can't produce an mrna vaccine? >> i think we have a prize for the rest of the world, we can, and we will. >> reporter: on the covid battlefront, perhaps it takes rebels in lab coats to even the field. debora patta, cbs news, johannesburg, south africa. >> dokoupil: whether you travel this thanksgiving or not, we're taking you to the rolling hills of montana where a native american tribe is celebrating the home coming of the american buffalo or bison, if you prefer, which once roamed the northern which once roamed the nor plains by the millions. here's cbs's michelle miller. >> reporter: buffalo are an eliseive breed on the eastern border of glacier national park. >> they're taking off. won't wait for us, these once. >> reporter: but the blackfeet nation are returning that.e they returned 90 buffalo to blackfeet terrorist, a kinship that lasted through ages. >> they were our food, clothing, lodging, tools. they were our whole economy. we existed on them. >> reporter: when european settlers arrived in the 1800s, the delicate balance shifted. in the 19th century, there were millions of buffalo that roamed this edge, until they were hunted to near extinction. >> the blackfeet captured the cavs and took them across the mountains and sold them to the canadian government and that's how they got into canada and eventually ended up at the national park. >> reporter: those descended survived there more than 100 years. then in 2016, parks canada gave the buffalo initiative permission to return 1 100 buffo to the bel blackfeet reservatio. >> that was a great day for us. >> reporter: they have been living here peace ofly ever since. 13 made a detour, continuing on to california's oakland zoo. >> we were able to secure somewo of these to bring them to oakland for an incredible not only exhibit but really the educational purpose of why they're here. >> reporter: zoo c.e.o. nik dehejia hopes to return the ten babies born and bred her to the montana plains. >> the red one was born 24 hours ago. watching this young one yesterday within hours of birth trying to stand and walk, and you can see ut now getting hern footing. >> reporter: the goal is to increase the herd size and territory. what does an animal roaming in the 21st century have to do with how you live today? >> to me, it keeps our history and our culture alive.lture ali. this is home to them, wh this is home to them, where they originated from and were traveled a big full circle to cross mountains to canada back here to home. >> reporter: only took 100 and something years. >> yes. >> reporter: michelle miller, cbs news on blackfeet territorial lands in montana. >> a symbol of freedom this country before there was a country. more to come on "cbs evening news." we'll be right back.