there s a lot of work that is ongoing in south africa and in other countries to better characterize the variant itself in terms of transmissibility, in terms of severity, and any impact on our counter measures like the use of diagnostics, therapeutics or vaccines. cnn has a team of correspondents covering this breaking news for us. we have david mckenzie in south africa, pete muntean is tracking this at the airports. let s begin with arlette saenz in nantucket with the president. what does the president want americans to know about this new variant at this hour. reporter: president biden is trying to show they are tangkin this coronavirus variant seriously, and is enacting the travel restrictions to keep people safe. the president released a statement saying that he was briefed this morning by anthony fauci as top medical adviser and after those discussions they determined that this was the appropriate course, to ban travel from south africa and seven other nations in that area. i
about a whole range, monetary policies and inflation. and i have confidence that appointees that i have made, and going to have three more are going to reflect that concern. when do you make those appointments, sir? i am concerned. look, we support ukraine easte s integrity, ukraine s ability to govern itself, and we object to anything remotely. are you going to? in all probability. mr. president, are you thinking of any new mandates since your others were caught in court? no. not at the moment. thank you. thank you, sir. happy thanksgiving. we have been listening to president biden there on his vacation in nantucket, talking about the breaking news of today, including this new variant, this new coronavirus
variant known as omicron. let s bring in arlette saenz reporting on the president in nantucket. he felt it was important to share his thinking on why he s moving quickly with that travel restriction. he did, alisyn, this is one of the few times we have seen president biden while he s been here in nantucket, and he came out and stressed that they decided to take this move out of caution over this variant. he said that there s still a lot that is unknown about what is occurring at this moment. but ultimately, they thought this was the best protocol to put in place in order to keep americans safe. he said that he spends about half an hour speaking with his coronavirus team, including dr. anthony fauci before they reached this decision to ban travel from south africa and seven other countries tin that region. the president also there once again called on people who are unvaccinated to go out and get their covid-19 vaccines: he also talked about the need for
and josh letterman covering the president in nantucket, and ron. thank you for being with me this morning. the white house knows the consumers are worried about the rising costs and the markets falling today. that s exactly right. and they are trying to thread the needle here. with a very delicate message. on the one hand, the white house does not want people to take things out of proportion. they want everybody to take a deep breath, given what the white house views as the overall strength of the economy. and so you see president biden, white house spokeswoman pointing to the fact that unemployment claims down to the lowest point in half a century. other economic measures, the unemployment rate, down significantly from when president biden took office. and also the fact that while there are these additional costs from inflation and other economic effects, saki pointing out the cost of a turkey, if you had a 20 -pound turkey for
variant of concern and giving it the name omicron investors are rattled. cnn s jeff zeleny is traveling with the president in nantucket. pete muntean joins us from outside washington. this will be startling news to a lot of americans doing their black friday shopping. why is the administration waiting until monday to restrict travel? reporter: well, jim, president biden said that was a decision based on his medical team, the experts. they said it simply takes time to put in a travel ban. it takes time with the airlines, and the white house had a phone conversation with airline executives earlier today, we re told. president biden also spoke on the phone with dr. anthony fauci and other experts on his covid team. they said it simply takes time