reporter: laura, the high winds northwest of denver really at the heart of these fast-moving fires, and hurricane-force winds, i want to show you what that looks like. take a look at this driver at the costco parking lot. he was trying to flee and part of it was already on fire. authorities in that area are calling the fires life-threatening. some structures already destroyed by those flames. and look and listen to residents evacuating the town of superior. wind gusts in and around boulder ranged from 78 to 115 miles per hour. hurricane force is 74 miles per hour. those winds downing power lines, according to the governor, and that started many of the fires, then spread them faster than the firefighters could keep up. in fact, all aircraft grounded because of the high winds, so crews were having to fight this on the ground. meanwhile, roads were jammed at
for us. reporter: we see cases hitting their highest levels ever and there is a new warning from the cdc telling people they should avoid travel by cruise. the cdc raising the risk level of cruising to a four from a three. that is the highest risk level. we are citing an increase in cases aboard ships. they re saying that happened since omicron was first detected. when i got off my ship last week, i dreaded it, because i felt safer on the cruise ship than i do at the grocery store, theme parks, airplanes and hotels. excited, nervous, wondering how it s all going to play out. reporter: if you decide you are going to ignore the recommendation and take a cruise anyway, they are saying that you should be vaccinated and boosted and that you should test both before and after you do that cruise. laura? thank you for that. the other big story this morning, a state of emergency has been declared in colorado, after a series of wildfires destroyed hundreds of homes there. thousands of
hospital, so sick, and so many more fatalities. thank you. let s bring in dr. raja, executive vice chair of the department of emergency medicine at massachusetts general hospital. also a professor at harvard medical school. doctor, so nice to have you this morning. so lots of new year s eve parties happening tonight and a lot of kids going back to school on monday. what do you think the testing protocols should be in schools? should kids be tested the morning of, should they be tested all next week? what do you think we should do? it s a great question, laura. first of all, i think it s really important that kids actually go back. they need it, but just as importantly, we all need it. yes. so i think that the key is going to be that over the next few days we need to limit their exposure, we need to test them this weekend, before they go back, if at all possible, and then if that s just not possible and they do go back, it will be important to test them when they
reporter: laura, probably the biggest news is this pending approval by the fda of booster shots for kids from the age of 12 to 15 years old. will there be that many people in the country? it s a vulnerable population because so many young people have not been vaccinated at all. if you can get more further down the pipeline, that s a better sign for everyone. over 8 million kids have been vaccinated, with a very, very good safety record. the cdc just released more data on that. the biggest risk to kids today is if they re not vaccinated and they are exposed, they can go on to get very serious consequences for that. 99% of the kids who have been hospitalized, according to recent cdc data, had no vaccination before. what we re seeing right now in this giant surge, make no mistake about it, is exactly what health officials predicted. it is pounding away at people
take, like that lady on the plane that you were talking about a few minutes ago, who realized that i can t imagine sitting in an airplane bathroom for a couple hours, but whenever we develop symptoms, we need to be able to do some tests at home and not expose testing personnel and others. we just need a lot of rapid tests in every house. a lot of rapid tests. what about domestic travel? do you think there should be a vaccine mandate? i think we re probably heading there. the fact is that airplanes are safe and they circulate a lot of air, but quite honestly, we ve had plenty of people after airport exposures and all of the other stuff that goes with flying, that it makes sense to have a vaccine mandate. i think that s where we re headed. with all the delays at airports, you see people packed in like sardines in the waiting areas. doctor, thank you so much for coming on early. appreciate it. hope to see you in the new year. thanks, laura. now to our other top story, catastro