Why they think its okay to fly. And pen pals. Students are reaching out and providing comfort to isolated seniors the oldfashioned way. Something to be said about the oldfashioned way. But first, heres todays eye opener, your world in 90 seconds. He wants to play all sides of the equation. I was surprised by his answer, actually, because, to me, its not an acceptable answer. President trump at odds with the nations top Infectious Disease expert over when to safely reopen schools. The president views this as a political problem. He doesnt view this as a Public Health problem that hes got to solve. Another nearly 3 Million People filed for Unemployment Benefits last week alone. The National Bureau of Economic Research predicting that 42 of the layoffs now could be permanent. According to nsa documents released by two, obama officials requested flynns identity be released. The fbi has served a search warrant on North Carolina senator richard burr. Theyre investigating his stock trades. Al
Can you feel the excitement . Were just an hour and a half away from the Oscar Nominations, so whos in, who got snubbed . Were going to bring it to you all live. The action is right here coming up. Among our guests this morning, connecticut senator Richard Blumenthal will be joining us, new york congressman joseph crowley, dr. Sanjay gupta is with us, the dog whisperer, cesar milan and comedian jay thomas joins us as well. Its thursday, january 10th. Starting point begins right now. Good morning, welcome, everybody. Our starting point this morning, the majority of the United States now dealing with a severe and deadly bout of the flu. The cdc reporting that influenza cases are widespread across 41 states. More than 2200 people reported hospitalized. Here are the hardesthit states. Pennsylvania, south carolina. Each reporting 22 flurelated deaths. Massachusetts declaring a medical emergency. 700 confirmed cases in boston since october. Rates ten times higher than what they saw last year
hospitalized. here are the hardest-hit states. pennsylvania, south carolina. each reporting 22 flu-related deaths. massachusetts declaring a medical emergency. 700 confirmed cases in boston since october. rates ten times higher than what they saw last year. our chief medical correspondent, dr. sanjay gupta, joins us this morning. he s at cnn center in atlanta. sanjay, good morning to you. put this in perspective for me. how do we compare it to last year? as you pointing out, you take a place like boston, for example, and it s about ten times worse, 700 cases versus 70. but this is clearly a much more severe season as compared to last season which was relatively mild. the question that a lot of people are asking now, is this more and this is early peaking and will taper off earlier as well or will it just stay high now for the rest of the flu season? we don t know the answer to this. also this particular strain. it s h3n2 just appears to be a more severe strain. we ve seen t