it'll be awkward if they make the playoff and don't have a head coach. >> i will never understand the timing of some of these college football coach moves, right before these championship games and bowl games. andy, thank you very much. "new day" continues right now. welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. it is tuesday, november 30th. i'm john berman with brianna keilar. breaking overnight, the omicron variant of coronavirus has now been detected on five continents. nearly a week after being first discovered. now, this is not unexpected. scientists expected this to happen, and it doesn't get to the major questions about how severe the illness might be. japan just identified its first case hours ago. that means 19 countries or territories have now diagnosed at least one case of omicron. there are no confirmed cases in the u.s. as of now, but if you listen to dr. fauci and others, it is almost certainly here. with so much still unknown about the new strain, president biden is urging everyone to keep calm. >> this variant is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic. we have the best vaccine in the world, the best medicines, the best scientists, and we're learning more every single day. >> now, the president says he does not anticipate more travel bans or any new lockdowns. the cdc is also strengthening its guidance on boosters. it says that all american adults should get one. not just a recommendation. they're saying they should. moments ago, we spoke to a south african doctor who is treating patients infected with the variant, and she described the symptoms that she's seeing. >> the majority of what we are presenting to primary health care practitioners are mild to moderate cases. we need to tell you what the symptoms are so that the people can understand, if i feel a bit fatigued for a day or two, something, not the fatigue you're used to, this is a different fatigue, with a bit of a scratchy throat, a bit of a body ache and pain, you know, with a headache, we call it normally malaise, so i don't feel generally well. go and see your doctor. i have seen vaccinated people, and not really very sick. that may change going forward. as we say, this is early days. this is maybe what makes us hopeful. >> so this was really fascinating to hear a doctor there on the ground treating omicron patients talking about this. we are going to have our doctor, sanjay gupta, here in a moment to assess some of what she said. we do have reporters across the globe covering the spread of this new variant, beginning in south africa. >> reporter: i'm dave mckenzie in johannesburg. cases of the covid-19 variant appear to be rising fast here in this part of the country. there is now a sense that omicron is dominating other variants in south africa. hospitalizations are still quite low, but the good news, say scientists, is that vaccines appear to have some effect. most of those in hospital are unvaccinated. they will be key questions to be answered in the next few weeks, while everyone waits to see how bad this variant is. >> reporter: i'm cyril in paris. the same day spain detected its first case of the omicron variant, the country imposed a ten-day mandatory quarantine for passengers arriving from south african countries, including south africa. the travelers will be able to leave isolation after seven days and a negative pcr test. these measures, however, do not apply to european residents transiting from spain on their way home. >> reporter: i'm will ripley at the hong kong international airport, where a third person has tested positive for the omicron variant. two more cases detected in this quarantine hotel i'm staying in right now. all incoming travelers to hong kong are required to quarantine, and the territory panned non-resident arrivals from europe, africa, and the americas. any country where omicron has been detected. japan is taking things one step further, banning all new foreign arrivals as they also confirm their first case of the new variant. this morning, the white house says it doesn't anticipate new travel restrictions beyond the countries in southern africa, but industry groups are concerned. the u.s. travel association is urging the biden administration to reconsider the temporary ban. they wrote over the weekend, covid variants are of concern, but closing borders while vaccinations have proven incredible durable. joining me now is u.s. travel association executive vice president tori emerson-barnes. thank you so much for being with us. what is your message to the white house this morning? >> absolutely. we've been engaged with the white house over the weekend. we feel encouraged by the president's comments yesterday and reinforced this morning, that we expect not to see any more travel restrictions. i think what we really see with this current one is it is a slippery slope. we have really robust protocols in place. you know, air travel is safe. you have to have a vaccine and a negative pcr test to come into the u.s. we think that that is the appropriate way to assess an individual's risk and not preventing a wholesale country from coming to the u.s. >> what dr. fauci and the u.s. says is this temporary ban on the south african nations is to buy some time. why aren't you persuaded by that? >> absolutely understand the concern there. but as we've seen, as we just heard from the doctor, if you are vaccinated, the symptoms are very, you know, insignificant, really. you're feeling that malaise. quite frankly, we think, again, it should be the individual risk assessment. if you're vaccinated, which is required to come into the u.s., and you're taking a negative test, we think that's really key. we also have much data from mayo clinic, from harvard, from dod, that air travel is safe. we think, again, we don't want to set a precedent. we just reopened the rest of the international countries on november 8th. we've had a huge economic hit, and the industry is just now recovering. we're not going to see a full economic recovery in the u.s. without having a recovery of the travel industry, which is absolutely critical. so we really think that it is important, again, to look at an individual's risk assessment and keep our vaccine and really underscores the vaccine need and the need for folks to continue to get vaccines. >> the flip side of this for the travel industry is it can't be good for travel if there is an increase in cases, an increase in hospitalizations, and rising concern about a new variant, correct? >> absolutely. again, underscores the need for folks to get vaccinated because we know symptoms are going to be far less. we really want to keep the travel economy going again. one in six open jobs is in the travel industry. 65% of unemployment, pandemic-related unemployment, is in the travel industry. we're looking at a 2024 time horizon for recovery. quite frankly, again, you have to balance the health concerns and the economic concerns that we're facing here. again, want to underscore the need for folks to get vaccinated, but we really do need to look at individual risk assessment when folks are being evaluated to come to the u.s. >> tori emerson-barnes, i appreciate your time this morning. thank you. >> thanks for having me. let's bring in cnn chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gu gupta, the author of "world war c: lessons from the pandemic and how to prepare for the next one." first, can you respond to what we heard from the south african doctor who is treating patients with -- look, i want to be careful with our viewers. the caveat is she said she still wants to see how this is going to affect the vulnerable, how it is going to affect the elderly. i certainly don't want any narrative about this being no problem at all for everybody to take hold from the beginning because we don't know that. >> that's right. i mean, you're hearing an important voice, you know, in terms of someone who is taking care of patients on the ground. but we do know many of those initial patients were younger patients as well. it was a cluster, as david mckenzie has described, from a college in the area. a lot of those patients do recover well on their own already. we've known that since the beginning. this is a virus that tends to more adversely affect people who are older or people who have pre-existing conditions. it is hard to say. i think yesterday, we shared with you some data looking at the particular province there in johannesburg. there has been an increase in hospitalizations over the last few weeks. this is their late spring in terms of climate, so out of flu season, warmer weather, people more outside and, yet, hospitalizations going up. is that related to this? we don't know. that's the kind of data that the scientists are going to be looking at in terms of determining severity, along with other things. >> talking to dr. coetzee, she's one of the first doctors who is treating people known to be infected by the omicron variant. doctors in egypt are treating patients with it. this is a preliminary stage, and she's one of the first people we know dealing with it, but she says vaccinated patients who are infected with omicron she is seeing, again, mild symptoms or, as she puts it, no complications. the significance there, sanjay? >> i talked to about half a dozen people who are in the vaccine making world, vpeople making the vaccines. it'll be two to four weeks before we know of the true vaccine efficacy against this. what's happening right now is they're doing lab studies. they're taking the omicron virus. they're taking blood serum of people who have been vaccinated. basically seeing how well do the neutralizing antibodies in the blood work against this virus? it takes time. at the same time, you're following real world data, where the virus is spreading, are people getting sick, are hospitalization rates going up? it'll take a bit of time. all these folks told me they believe there is going to be protection still from the vaccine against this variant. it is likely to be maybe slightly eroded protection. remember when the vaccines came out, we were talking 90%, 95% against severe dpisease. it may be lower as a result of the mutations on this particular virus. i don't know if we have this 3d animation. sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. if we have this, the animation of the spike protein, there it is, this is the spike protein. this is omicron specifically. all those different colors represent new mutations. there's e484a. you don't need to remember that, but it is a mutation that can help the virus escape some of the protection from the antibodies. there's another one, 501, which basically makes it more transmissible. that's what the scientists are working on right now, to try to figure out how well do the vaccines work, will a new type of vaccine be necessary in the future? >> then, you know, in light of that, the potential impact, the cdc has strengthened its booster guidance, saying -- going from you may get it to you should get it if you're an adult. tell us about this. >> yeah. before, it was after age 50, you should get it. be people 18 to 49 may get it. now, they're saying every adult should get the booster vaccine. here's where we stand on boosters right now. the oldest population, people 65 plus, are the highest booster uptick, 44%. you can see it is pretty low across the board, despite significant availability of these boosters. i think the message is really clear. again, talking to so many of these people in the vaccine world and infectious disease doctors, epidemiologists, it is time to reconsider getting a vaccine if you haven't done so already. it is time to do that. it is now time for a booster if you're at least six months out from the mrna vaccines or two months out from the johnson & johnson vaccines. even if there is some erosion of the effectiveness of these vaccines against omicron, having the vaccine, having the booster is still going to give you the best protection of all. i'll add to that as well something that i don't think we still talk enough about, you know, masks. there's been a lot of back and forth on this, but i think we need to be prepared to be cautious as we're going into the winter season, even before omicron. don't get rid of these masks. get yourself high-filtration masks, home testing kits. most are good at detecting omicron. all these things help as well. >> very, very good. look, those tests, a lot of people i found don't realize they're available. they're available at your drugstore. they're a little bit of an investment, but not too much. it is definitely worth having on hand. i've always been grateful when i had any symptoms to be able to do that. sanjay, thank you so much. >> you got it. thank you. fox is taking its vitriol to another level, comparing dr. anthony fauci to a nazi doctor. we have a reality check ahead on that. plus, donald trump was far and away the most difficult new president to brief for the intelligence community. that's according to the cia del t detailing what went on during briefings. and bahamas declaring rihanna a national hero in the island's first act as a new republic. why they've left the youunited kingdom and separated from the royal family after 400 years. ♪ only one ♪ season's greetings from audi. ♪ i'm a reporter for the new york times. if you just hold it like this. yeah ♪ i love finding out things that other people don't want me to know. mm-hmm. 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our thanks. your rewards. a crucial hearing at a federal appeals court over key documents pertaining to the capitol insurrection. former president trump is trying to block their release, claiming executive privilege. cnn's whitney wild is live in washington for us outside the courtroom. this is a big day with some pretty important arguments, whitney. >> reporter: absolutely. each side will get 20 minutes to make their case to a three-judge panel at the appeals court here in washington. here's what the trump side is arguing. they say that this pursuit of records is so aggressive, so broad, that it could permanently damage the presidency, permanent si d permanently damage the confidentiality of the president and who he speaks with. we know a judge already said the privilege ends once the president leaves office. on the biden side, basically the same team as the house side here in trying to get these records, the biden side is arguing that these records are eventually going to be public anyway. because this is such an extenuating circumstance, they should be made public -- or, rather, be sent to the house as soon as possible, john, because transparency here is so important. so today, another crucial stop along a timeline here, and really along a legal road that could very well end up at the supreme court if the trump side doesn't get the ruling they're looking for, john. >> thank you for that. we'll be watching closely. it's no secret that donald trump had a strained relationship with the intelligence community, but a new chapter published by the cia underscores just how troubled that relationship was, even before trump officially took office. former intelligence officer writes, it is the most difficult in its historical experience with briefing new presidents. the only and imperfect analog was the nixon transition. trump was prone to fly off on tangents. there might be 8 or 9 minutes of real intelligence in a conversation. the irreconcilable difference was trump was fact-free. evidence doesn't cut it with him. we are now joined by the publisher and chief operating officer of law fair, also a former intelligence cia officer himself where he briefed george w. bush for part of that administration. he's also the author of the "president's book of secrets: a history of the president's daily brief." this is called chapter 9, "donald j. trump, a unique challenge." explain why he was the most difficult since nixon, david. >> unique actually is a very good summary. john did a good job with that title because it conveys so much. it wasn't that donald trump was un-briefable. he did have intelligence briefings during the transition, and he did keep them through much of his presidency, but those briefings were decidedly different than with any other president. because donald trump did not want to sit there and listen to the objective facts as judged by the intelligence community. he wanted to talk. he wanted to interrupt. he wanted to ask questions. and not really focus on what the evidence was as much as what he thought the evidence was. that led to a very difficult relationship for an intelligence enterprise that has been built up over decades solely to get objective information before the president. >> look, you've written about this, every president is different in their engagement style, but there's this absorbing of the information. what we can see from this chapter is trump was not doing that nearly as much as previous presidents. the person who was was vice president mike pence. he was kind of receiving these briefings more like a president than even president trump was, it seems. >> right on. there's a couple of people, other than president trump in the administration, who get some attention in this new material. one of them is vice president pence, who we didn't have much of a window on from the reporting during the administration regarding how he took intelligence. there was an assumption that he was getting the president's daily preebrief and taking the information seriously. frankly, the vice president doesn't have as much to do as the president. and perhaps he'd have to step into the president's shoes, perhaps more likely with this president than any other, given the two impeachments. pence should have been doing this, and the material shows he was. he was taking briefings quite regularly and engaging heavily with his intelligence community interlocketers. there also is a focus on michael flynn in this document, which is quite interesting, regarding what he has been up to dlately. michael flynn, until president elect trump, was fully briefed on all cia covert actions that were at the behest of the current president, barack obama at the time, that donald trump would be inheriting as his covert actions on inauguration day. michael flynn got that brief from the cia along with vice president pence becoack on decer 7th of 2020. trump didn't. it wasn't until several weeks into his administration that trump got briefed on all of the covert actions that he was now responsible for. it was quite a revelation. >> you mean when flynn was briefed in 2016? is that what you meant, to be clear? >> yes, 2016, not 2020. >> i wanted to be -- >> 2020, michael flynn was in a different circumstance. >> that would have been a headline. so he actually didn't get -- trump didn't get a briefing in the last month of the presidency. >> that's how it appears. it's a little bit dodge y, the way it is written. it is almost as if it didn't want to be said that bluntly. but before donald trump left for mar-a-lago for the holidays, which was somewhere around december 23rd, 2020, that he had his last briefing with his regular pdb briefer, and said, "i'll see you later." she wasn't planning on going down to mar-a-lago and briefing him during the holidays. later meant when he came back in early january. but the book says that he came back, and they were scheduled to have a briefing on january 6th, but they didn't have one and didn't have one until the end of trump's term. which adds up to almost a month of no intelligence getting to the president through the regular prbriefing process. this material also shows that even though the pdb would be delivered, he may have literally touched the book, as his first briefer said, but we didn't actually read anything. so it is a shocking revelation there, too, that the commander in chief of the united states didn't get any material from the pdb for virtually a month at the end of his presidency, in a very chaotic time. >> yeah. it is staggering. you know, you mentioned, as we see trump's style here, interrupting briefings, what is the matter with that? what is the matter with interrupting a briefer or challenging a briefer? >> this may be surprising, but there is nothing at all wrong with that. in fact, when i was a briefer, most often for bob mueller and john ashcroft, but a few times into the white house, i actually wanted the customers, as we called them, to interrupt. then i would know what wasn't working for them in the way i was presenting it, and i would know what was of interest to them that i needed to address in the limited time we had together. so there's nothing wrong with interruptions. there is something wrong if the interruptions mean that the fundamental, bottom line assessments cannot be communicated. if the messages the entire intelligence community has been gearing up to try to get to the commander in chief can't get through because there is too much chaos in the room. it looks, from this new material, like that's closer to where we were at often in the trump administration. that clapper said, i think he teed up 8 or 9 minutes in a one-hour briefing that is focused on intelligence. that's not horrible. you can communicate a lot of intelligence, bottom lines, in 8 or 9 minutes. that was a hopeful note in the new material. other days, it sure sounds like no main messages were getting through. that's the problem with someone who interrupts so often to hear himself talk, that the intelligence briefer can't do her job get the information out. >> i love how you say, that's hopeful. you are an optimist, david, you are, and i thank you for, you know -- you pull the curtain back on this, and it is great to talk to you about this. thank you. >> thank you. next, why the right's demonization of anthony fauci involves the torture of puppies -- i'm not kidding -- and the angel of death. we'll have your reality check next. overnight, barbados officially separates from the queen and crowns a new national hero. ♪ oh, na-na-na i need a boy to take it over ♪ ♪ looking for a guyuy ♪ ♪ there are beautiful ideas that remain in thehe dark. but with our new multi-cloud experience, you have the flexibility you need to unveil them to the world. ♪ i've lost count of how many asthma attacks i've had. but my nunormal with nucala? fewer asthma attacks. nucala is a once-monthly add-on injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. 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last 24 hours represents new lows in gross absurdity and new highs in historical ignorance. john avalon with the reality check. >> the partisan attacks against dr. anthony fauci reached an absurd level. yesterday on fox news, we saw two, sick, new examples. >> this is what people say to me, that he doesn't represent science to them. he represents joseph mangala, the nazi doctor who did experiments on jews during the second world war and in the concentration camps. i am talking about people all across the world are saying this. >> tony fauci morphed into a shorter version of mussolini. >> those keeping score at home, that's two fascist comparisons from fox news hosts in one day. people keep coming up to laura logan and compare fauci to mangala, maybe it says something about the company she's keeping. of course, that's kind of the point. hating dr. fauci has become an industry on the far right. it began in the early months of covid when polls showed fauci was more trusted than trump. this was an unforgivable sin and resulted in repeated attacks on the doctor by the donald. became a right-wing signifier with gop fundraiser off anti-fauci swag, like governor desantis pushing, don't fauci my florida t-shirts, as his state closed in on record covid rates this summer. according to data from bully pulpit interactive, cited by "politico," conservatives spent $300,000 on facebook ads targeting fauci in the month of may alone. the threats became more personal and conspiratorial. you don't have to think dr. fauci has gotten everything right in hind sight to see thes are desperate deflections. it is possible to investigate the wuhan lab theory without blaming the pandemic on america's top health doctor. even by these degraded standards, i was surprised to learn the latest anti-fauci outrage accused him of killing puppies, literally. in some says, it is the perfect cartoon version of the negative partisanship. your opponents are not mistaken but evil. so evil, they'd even kill puppies in their spare time. normally, this isn't the thing we'd bother to reality check, but a twitter thread by "the atlantic" made me realize this was beyond donald trump jr. who is selling "fauci kills puppies" t-shirts. after it spawned memes and flooded facebook feeds, people called fauci's office with death tl threats like these. >> [ bleep ] you, dr. fauci. i hope they put you in a cage with a bunch of flies and let them eat you, and then i hope they hang you from the highest tree. >> you evil [ bleep ]. your days are numbered. rot in hell, [ bleep ]. >> fauci told the "washington post," quote, the constant harassment and the form of ridiculous accusations and outright lies makes doing my job and that of my staff to fight the covid-19 pandemic all the more difficult. that's clear. where exactly did this killing puppies thing come from? well, it turns out that a group called white coat waste project, founded by a former republican operative, posted blogs alleging evidence that the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases, which fauci runs, spent over $375,000 funding truly grotesque experiments on dogs in tunisia related to a disease spread by sand fleas. except this was not the case. the journal that published a study on the experiments issued a correction, saying they had not received funding from the national institutes of health at all. but the nih had previously funded another study where beagles were immunized against a disease spread by sand fleas to test the effectiveness. animal experiments may not be your moral cup of tea, but as david pointed out, the experiments in question a seem reasonable to advance research of disease and, b, had nothing to do with dr. fauci. as a single issue organization, they said we don't take any stand on dr. pfauci or anything else. we're just trying to end the cruel experiments. images from the study are still being published. they claim the nih are funding other studies where animals were euthanized. the good news is we've found common ground between peeta and trumpers, but that'd be putting lipstick on a pig, something even peeta would hate. but it's this drum beat of d demonizing fauci. the complex amplifies any negative narrative about designated enemies. these obsessive efforts are a symptom of this environment of asymmetric information warfare. some people profit off polarization and misinformation, while local newspapers that edit and fact check are lie ddying o vine. it seems designed to create distrust in media institutions at a time when we need to reason together. as it stands, social media algorithms more easily spread misinformation than truth. we need transparency about how folks exploit the algorithms. right now, lies and conspiracy theories appear to be getting more exposure than actual facts. the volume of misinformation is disorienting, causing people to lose their common sense. but these nightmare visions of negative partisanship are always ultimately nonsense. that's your reality check. >> lara logan and her friends might want to read a book on joseph mangala before saying something like that. >> seems reasonable. >> repugnant. john avalon, thank you. overnight, barbados officially transitioned from realm to republic. in a ceremony last night, the nation bid farewell to queen elizabeth as its head of state and swore in its first ever president. cnn's max foster was there, and he is live in bridgetown this morning with the very latest. this was quite a thing to see, max. >> reporter: it really was. john, when i talked to you yesterday from this beach, i was in a british realm. today, i stand in a republic. this nation now has a president who was born in barbados. the queen no longer reigns here. there was a big celebration overnight for hours and hours. there was lots of speeches, music, dancing. it felt a really positive moment. those speeches included one from prince charles, who was here as guest of honor. now, this push for a republic was very much about breaking links with their colonial british past. prince charles actually spoke in the strongest words i've really heard so far about britain's role in slavery, which is very much part of the debate as we led up to this republic moment. >> from the darkest days of our past and the appalling atrocity of slavery, which forever stains our history, the people of this island forged their path with extraordinary fortitude. >> reporter: there are those who didn't want the royals here. they didn't think it was appropriate. they also felt he should have gone further and offered a formal apology and compensation or reparations. he didn't do that. adding to the frustration was the fact that one of the first honors that the president conferred on someone was to prince charles, giving him the order of freedom. the second one, interestingly, was given to rihanna, who really is a national hero here. she was given that title, national hero. so it was a very positive, forward-looking moment, and also a bit of a negative, back-looking moment. overall, today, i think people feel positive about the future, john. >> should be said, rihanna has a much better voice than the prince of wales as far as i know. max, i do know also, look, there are a lot of countries in the world who are watching what happened last night very closely because they face similar questions or moments like this in the next few years. >> reporter: yeah. we spoke to republican movements in australia, for example, and also the uk. they were really celebrating yesterday, particularly when they see the young people talking about they want independence. there are those sorts of movements in australia and jamaica, for example. i think they will be using this as a push towards their own republic movements. >> hang in there in barbados. we appreciate your hardship. thank you. beginning today, the trial over the fatal traffic stop shooting of dwayne wright. how strong is the argument that the officer meant to grab her taser instead of her gun? and republican congresswoman lauren boebert gets on the phone with her democratic colleague, omar, after insinuating she's a suicide bomber. instead of burying the hatchet, she twisted the knife. >> never sympathizing with terrorists. unfortunately, ilhan can't say the same thing. ♪ limu emu... & doug ♪ ♪ superpowers from a spider bite? i could use some help showing the world how liberty mutual customizes their car insurance so they only pay for what they need. (gasps) ♪ did it work? only pay for what you need ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ spider-man no way home in theaters december 17th this is the new world of work. each day looks different than the last. but, whatever work becomes, the world works with servicenow. mom, hurry! our show's gonna start soon! i promised i wouldn't miss the show and mommy always keeps her promises. oh, no! seriously? hmm! it's not the same if she's not here. oh. -what the. oh my goodness! i don't suppose you can sing, can you? ♪ the snow's comin' down ♪ -mommy? ♪ i'm watching it fall ♪ watch the full story at www.xfinity.com/sing2 the u.s. braces for a potential pandemic surge. accidental death from synthetic opioids are hitting record highs. covid and america's addiction to painkillers proving to be a deadly combination. cnn is launching a special series called "united states of addiction." miguel marquez is here with the first startling report. >> last year, we hit a record in record deaths. 100,306 people died from deadly overdose year-over-year. here's the story of one. >> i just knew in my mother's heart, my son was dead. >> reporter: matthew davidson, 31 years old, died from an overdose on memorial day 2020. >> i just remember crying out, "i wasn't ready to let you go." and spent some time alone with him, patting his hair, touching his hands. he looked like he was just asleep. >> reporter: davidson first addicted to prescription painkillers, then heroin, struggled with addiction for ten years. >> this isn't my first time i've been in a program. >> reporter: in and out of recovery, overdosing more than once. his death ultimately caused by the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl. >> at one point when his girlfriend was asleep, i think that's when he decided he was going to take this dose of what he thought was heroin. it was a very high level of fentanyl, as well. >> within the heroin. it doesn't take any of it to hardly kill ya. >> reporter: fentanyl and s synthetic opioids representing over 60% of the deadly overdoses from april 2020 to april 2021. >> did the pandemic kill matthew? no. it just intensified, i think. he was more emotionally fragile during that time. >> reporter: what did the pandemic do for addiction in places like kentucky? >> yeah, there was a clear and obvious increase in use, in overdose, in any metric you want to use. >> reporter: alex elswick, former opioid addict, now dedicates his life to studying, understanding, and working with the addicted and recovering at lexington's voices of hope. he says the pandemic and the isolation that came with it devastated the addiction community. >> what addiction is in your brain is down regulation of dopamine, and what social interaction does is up regulate dopamine. it is organic medicine for the recovering brain. >> reporter: add to the mix cheap and plentiful fentanyl, 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, whether in pill or wow durr f powder form. >> how did fentanyl come into your life? >> first overdose. >> how many overdoses has there been? >> 14. >> reporter: he was clean 19 months, then his grandfather died. grief drove him to relapse. he thought he was using heroin. it was fentanyl. >> i used less than 1/10th gram. >> less than 1/10th? >> it was straight fentanyl. >> that is a tiny -- >> that's tinier than tiny. it is barely a sprinkle of salt. >> i want to welcome everybody tonight. >> reporter: social interaction important for the addicted. their families too. the butchers founded parents of the addicted loved >> well, send him somewhere and fix him or fix her. it doesn't work like that. >> why don't they just stop? >> why don't they just stop? don't they know they can stop? >> you'd think they'd know what they're doing to their children. >> you see, drugs take over the brain. >> matthew's brother glen says there is no easy way to recover and money alone won't solve the problem of addiction. >> addiction isn't something you can just turn off or it is not -- for a lot of the people it is not a choice. they're addicted it these drugs and i think the only way they can get off is through support and love. >> this is his wallet. he didn't have much. >> reporter: karen butcher now clings to the few physical reminders of her son matthew. her favorite, a quilt made from all his favorite shirts. >> sometimes i would think, you know, okay, i got matthew's arms wrapped around me. >> reporter: it includes the last photo they took together in his most favorite shirt. >> if the house caught on fire, i would probably grab that quilt, my matthew quilt. >> reporter: matthew davidson, one victim of america's opioid epidemic, wrapped in the pandemic of covid-19. many thanks to the davidson and butcher family spfor speaking t us. it is not easy. there are some predicted numbers for 2021. so far the overdose deaths are down for this year, hopefully the worst is behind us. we got a long way to go. john? >> let's hope, miguel. as you point out with that family, the most important number is one when it is someone you love. and that's too much. thank you so much. tiger woods speaking publicly for the first time since the devastating car crash that nearly killed him. what he's saying about returning to golf. the documentary that has everyone talking. we'll speak live with the director behind the original video recordings of the beatles "get back" sessions. hear what he thinks about the new film. >> we don't have an idea of what the show is going to be. serena: it's my 3:10 no-exit-in-sight migraine medicine. it's ubrelvy. for anytime, anywhere migraine strikes, without worrying if it's too late, or where i am. one dose can quickly stop my migraine in its tracks within two hours. unlike older medicines, ubrelvy is a pill that directly blocks cgrp protein, believed to be a cause of migraine. do not take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. most common side effects were nausea and tiredness. serena: ask about ubrelvy. the anytime, anywhere migraine medicine. for people living with h-i-v, keep being you. and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in certain adults. it's not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to and stay undetectable. that's when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. research shows people who take h-i-v treatment every day and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. tell your doctor about all the medicines and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you have kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis. if you have hepatitis b, do not stop taking biktarvy without talking to your doctor. common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. if you're living with hiv, keep loving who you are. and ask your doctor if biktarvy is right for you. you booked a sunny vrbo ski chalet. with endless views of snowcovered peaks. but the thing they'll remember forever? 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(vo) reflect on the past, celebrate the future. season's greetings from audi. tiger woods is closing the door on golfing at the highest level full time. it has been nearly a year since he lost control of his vehicle in california, suffering multiple fractures in his right leg from that accident. here's woods in an exclusive interview with golf digest, his first since that wreck. >> this time around, i don't think i'll have the body to climb mt. everest and that's okay. but i can't participate in the game of golf. i can still maybe if my leg gets good enough maybe kick off a tournament here or there. but as far as climbing the mountain and getting all the way to the top, i don't think that's a realistic expectation of me. >> let's talk about this fascinating interview with golf digest staff writer dan rappaport. dan, that's a lot for tiger woods to grapple with, that he, you know, may never win again. >> it is a lot to grapple with and it is remarkable how at peace he seems to be with his new reality. he had all these injuries in the past, but it is i'm doing what i can, i'm getting back to the top, i got to put one foot in front of the other and eventually i'll be there. now it is different. i think this injury had a really profound impact on him and it really seems like he understands that his time as the game's dominant player as the alpha male of golf is likely over, and he's okay with that. i think that's remarkable for someone who is as competitive as tiger woods. >> it is incredibly remarkable. and also, you know, he clearly has so far to go still. i want to listen to part of what he said about his journey to recovery. >> i have so far to go. i mean, this is just, i mean, if you thought where i was was the beginning, i'm not even at the halfway point. i have so much more muscle development and nerve development i have to do in my leg. at the same time, as you know, i had back issues. sometimes the back may act up. >> he's a very young man to be in so much pain, you know? >> yeah, he's young by some stop da standards but his body doesn't feel young. he's 45, he's had five surgeries on his back, and he's had surgeries on his knee and now he realizes his body is kind of tapping out, saying i don't know if i can do this anymore. he said in that interview, when he pushes his leg too hard, sometimes his back goes out. it is all interconnected. he doesn't have the ability i don't think anymore to get to the gym enough to produce a body that is going to withstand the physical pressure of playing on the pga tour. i know when i say that, some people cringe, they think it is just golf. but you got to walk up and down hills and it is hot and you're sweating and it is four days in a row and you're ought there for five hours. he posted that swing video. one swing, everyone thought he's coming back, he's coming back. but hitting balls on a perfectly flat range he probably drove his cart to is different than playing on the pga tour. like you said, he doesn't have the body anymore to climb mt. everest and he's okay with that. it is sad, but it is also uplifting he seems so content with his new reality. >> yeah, a lot of force on the body, the swing. and, dan, before i let you go, i wanted to ask you about lee elder who passed away this past sunday. and just recognize how groundbreaking he was, the first black golfer to play at the masters at a club where they didn't have black members until the 90s. this is a legacy he leaves behind. >> yeah, there is an old fable, we don't know if it is true, a story about the founder of augusta national said as long as i'm alive, all the players here will be white and all the caddies will be black. it wasn't just that he was the first black man to play in the masters, which is the most famous golf tournament in the world, it is that he did it ag agustia national, a shame that the tiger interview and news dropped yesterday because lee elder really deserves his due, he deserves all the credit and all the honors he got. it is a shame it took augusta national until last year when the man was 86 years old, he could hardly move and to honor him with that ceremonial first tee shot that he couldn't actually hit the tee shot because he was struggling so much physically. so he's a trailblazer. he's an absolute legend, the one who set the path for