several developments on the mystery still surrounding the omicron coronavirus variant. at least 19 countries now have confirmed cases of the variant, which has spread to five continents. this morning japan is taking a major step after reporting its first case, shutting down its borders to all foreign travelers. the south african doctor who was one of the first treat patients sick with this new variant calls travel bans an overreaction, especially since there is so much we still don't know. listen. >> i think it was an overreaction. i do understand that there's a lot of mutations in this virus. i do understand that it might be much more far spreading than the delta variant. people say yes, but i'm trying to protect my people. so then the question would be how doon it's not in your country yet? how do you know that a lot of those infections that you are currently seeing that is severe, how do you know it's not related to the omicron? how do you know? >> here in the united states, where there are no confirmed cases yet of the variant, president biden insists shutdowns like what we saw early in 2020 are not needed. the president is urging americans to remain calm and for those who are unvaccinated to get their shot now. and the cdc is strengthening its booster recommendations saying all adults should get one. we have all these developments covered for you. let's begin with the new travel ban. what does it mean? >> it means for the next month no foreigners will be allowed into the country. japan confirmed its first case of this new omicron variant. it was detected in a man believed to be a diplomat in his 30s who traveled from namibia to tokyo and he tested positive at narita international airport in tokyo upon his arrival on sunday. starting on tuesday, japan sealed its borders to all noncitizens, to foreigners, including international students, includes people wanting to visit family, friends, and relatives in japan. this is a very strict measure that other countries like israel and morocco have implemented as well. the ban will run for at least one month. inside japan, it is generally welcomed by the public. japan is not taking any chances here with its current prime minister, fumio kishida, saying this is an emergency precaution to prevent, in his words, a worst-case scenario. listen to this from the prime minister. >> translator: we will ban all new entries of foreign nationals from all over the world as of november 30th. >> prime minister kishida wants to avoid the sort of political fallout and criticism that brought about the fall and the resignation of his predecessor in september. the former prime minister of japan, suda, he was roundly criticized for his slow response in his handling of the delta variant, and the current prime minister of japan, prime minister kishida, he will hold an emergency meeting on this latest variant, omicron, with his ministers, that meeting to take place shortly. kate? >> thank you so much. appreciate it. president biden is vowing that shutdowns like we saw at the beginning of the pandemic are off the table for now. and he's defending his travel ban on eight south african nations. the president admitting that it will not prevent the variant from coming to the united states, but he insists that it could slow it down, could slow its spread. cnn's jeremy diamond is live at the white house with more on this. jeremy, what are you hearing from there today about all of it? because so much is still unknown. >> reporter: listen, coronavirus is right back at the center of activity here at the west wing of the white house. we know officials are working to put together the finishing touches on that strategy that we're expected to hear president biden outline on thursday for how the united states is going to fight the coronavirus this winter. listen to the president talking about that yesterday. >> thursday i'll be putting forward a detailed strategy outlining how we're going to fight covid this winter, not with shutdowns or lockdowns, but with more widespread vaccinations, boosters, testing, and more. >> reporter: you hear the president there emphasizing the fact that he is not looking to do additional shutdowns or lockdowns. instead, it will be doubling down on what we've seen from this administration so far. vaccinations, boosters, testing. we heard the president talk about that yesterday. even as the united states waits for the next week or two to learn more about this variant, president biden emphasizing what americans can do now. that is to get vaccinated, if they are vaccinated, to get their boosters, if they are eligible. and also the president urging people not to panic. that is kind of the sense i'm getting at the white house, not a sense of panic yet but certainly concern about this variant and efforts to ramp up the efforts at the white house so the president can present a comprehensive plan on thursday. >> jeremy, thank you. let's turn to global markets and how they're reacting. they are rattled this morning. stocks in the united states have been under pressure and are under pressure at this hour amid concerns that current vaccines may not be effective against the new variant. still not known, but that is of course a concern. it comes as the nation's top economic leaders are testifying on capitol hill right now about the threat that the variant poses to america's recovery. let's go to matt egan watching this, keeping a close on eye on what we're hearing from the fed chairman. what are you hearing from the hill? >> reporter: well, the focus is obviously on what these two leaders of the nation's economy are thinking about this new variant. treasury secretary january net yellen talks about how we don't know enough information yet to assess what the real risk is to the economy, but she said the best protection is for people to get vaccinated and to take their booster shots. jerome powell, chairman of the federal reserve, he did address some of the risks facing the economy. here's what he had to say. >> the recent rise in covid-19 cases and the emergence of the omicron variant pose downside risks to the employment and economic activity and increased uncertainty for inflation. >> reporter: increased uncertainty for information, worries about slower job growth, slower economic activity. he talked about how supply chain issues could get worse before getting better. on the stock market, the dow hit session lows, down about 530 points, 1.5%. the market is reacting to some comments made by powell. he talked about how the risk of higher inflation has actually gone up. and he expressed some support, some openness to talking about removing and unwinding the fed's stimulus bond-buying program a little sooner than expected. so that is not sitting well with investors. on top of all of that, investors are trying to make sense of how severe the symptoms are for omicron and how effective vaccines are going to be. so at this point, kate, there's a lot more questions than answers. >> yeah. in terms of investing and in terms of public health, right, matt? thank you so much. i appreciate it. let's get back to the science of all of what is still unknown about the omicron variant, but what we are learning more about day by day. joining me now, cnn's chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. sanjay, one doctor who's treating patients infected with the omicron variant in south africa told cnn this morning that the cases she has seen so far seem to be in the way they put it, quote, extremely mild. do you take comfort in that? what does that do to your level of concern about the omicron variant now? >> i think that could potentially be good news. this is a doctor taking care of patients on the ground there. as everyone has said already, tease are early days. we know that the majority of the patients that were initially seen were young, and those patients tend to have milder sort of courses of illness already. so, you know, how much of that is something we should take comfort in versus this is sort of a natural trajectory of this particular virus. i think there's all sorts of data. there's two things to point out. one is that south africa oop op was in a quiet time right now in terms of the overall pandemic. it's sort of late spring there, kate. numbers have come way down. weather is getting warmer, all of that. but at the same time, when we dug down into some of the data, we see in the particular province this may have originated, the hospitalization rates have gone up. they're not nearly as high as at other times in the pandemic, but they have gone up at a time when hospitalization rates from respiratory diseases are typically coming down. does that mean anything? i don't know. that's the sort of data investigators will be looking at. then what does south africa mean to the rest of the world, meaning if this has become the dominant strain in south africa, that happened at a time there wasn't a lot of competition from delta. a very different picture in the united states where delta is far and i way the dominant strain. will it outcompete delta? we don't know yet just based on looking at south africa. >> that is really interesting. then one of the main questions of course is what is the impact that this variant has on the effectiveness of vaccines that we have currently, right? the ceo of moderna predicted to the "financial times" in an interview that current vaccines are going to struggle with omicron. he said there's no world i think are where the effectiveness is the same level we had with the delta variant. he went on to say, "i think it's going to be a material drop. i just don't know how much because we need to wait for the data. but all the scientists i've talked to are, like, this is not going to be good." a lot of people are reacting to that, sanjay. what do you think? >> first of all, again, we don't know that this will necessarily become the dominant strain because of what we're seeing in south africa. it doesn't mean it will happen around the world as i was mentioning. >> right. that's the backdrop of all this. but i've talked to several different people who work on vaccines and they sort of echo the same thing, but it can mean different things to different people. you get a cushion effect when you get a vaccine, so you get the number of antibodies that are protected against disease, and as you heard initially these vaccines were some 95% protected against severe illness. that cushion may be eroded because of some of the mutations they're seeing with omicron, but what that might mean clinically for patients may not be as big a deal, meaning that in the laboratory it me a seem like a big deal, but in the real world it may not feel that much different. i think it makes the case right now, kate, that people who have been thinking about vaccines but haven't yet gotten one, they should reconsider. these vaccines, they do like they will at least offer some protection against omicron. if you're all due for a booster at this point, six months out from your pfizer or moderna vaccines or two months out from j&j, you should get that booster because it will increase that cushion effect. so i think that that's sort of what we take away from it. within a couple of weeks we'll have a much better idea. they'll take the virus, take blood from vaccinated people, put it in a test tube and see what happens. we may find out it's very protective or it's eroded a bit or we need something more. >> yeah. one thing unique about this new variant is the sure number of mutations it has. of course smarter minds are saying it and i'm learning more about it. but how significant is just, the number of mutations versus what these mutations actually do? >> yeah. that's a great question. i should just context-wise, there have been, you know, lots and lots of variants that have emerged through this pandemic, but only a few have risen to the level of being a viariant of concern nape of seen certain mutations out of the 50 or so that omicron has that have been associated with being able to evade antibodies. that's some of that immunity escape. there is other mutations that may make it more transmissible. so these are signals. it's kind of like cooking in a way. you're putting a bunch of things together in a dish. do they retain specific qualities or is something else entirely going to come out of all these mutations? we don't know. in the past, kate, they made a delta-specific vaccine. they made a beta-specific vaccine. they were trialing those at various times during this pandemic. didn't end up needing them because the current vaccines were still effective against those strains, and that could happen here as well. so, you know, hate to be the person who echoes that "i don't know," but i think that's the most honest answer right now. once we get those lab studies and see clinical data in terms of hospitalizations around the world, we'll have a much better idea. >> absolutely. it's good to see you, sanjay. thank you so much. a quick programming note, please join sanjay and anderson cooper for a new cnn global town hall. dr. anthony fauci will be joining them and answering your questions about the omicron variant. "coronavirus facts and fears" tomorrow night 8:00 p.m. eastern only on cnn. coming up for us, the lead scientist who helped discover the omicron variant will be joining us live from south africa to talk about what they are uncovering about this new strain. also ahead, how will this new variant impact president biden's economic agenda? we know that top economic advisers are on capitol hill now. i'm going to talk to the number two democrat in the senate about that and more. next. ♪ ♪ there are beautiful ideas that remain in the dark. but with our new multi-cloud experience, you have the flexibility you need to unveil them to the world. ♪ it's our cyber week special on the sleep number 360 smart bed. it senses your movements and automatically adjusts to relieve pressure points. and its temperature balancing, so you both sleep just right. save up to $1,000 on select sleep number 360 smart beds and adjustable bases. plus, 0% interest for 36 months. ends monday why hide your skin if dupixent has your moderate to severe eczema or atopic dermatitis under control? 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>> yobi don't believe so. let's get to the bottom line, the president and the witnesses you're quoting are being honest with the american people. we know something about this variant but not all we need to know. it will take days or weeks to understand the current effectiveness of the vaccines on this, tame time to assess the seriousness of this virus as it moves forward. in the meantime, we have a job to do going beyond the current variant, which i hope is one of the last, but address what america needs to get back on its feet. we are focusing on helping working families. four years ago under the trump administration, there were tax cuttings for the wealthy. we're trying to cut the cost of living for working families across america. >> to do that, the build back better bill, you need all democrats to get this spending bill through and you know that, of course. every time senator joe manchin has been asked about the bill and the debate around it, he talks about inflation. yesterday he added the new variant in as a reason to pause, how he said it. let me play what he told reporters. >> inflation is now more than transitory, and on top of that you have this new strain of covid we're very much concerned about. no one know what is effect it is going to have. and you have inflation on top. all these things give you cause to pause. >> cause to pause. do you know what that means for the build back better bill now? >> i'm not sure. we need joe manchin's vote to pass it. he's been engaged in negotiations for weeks on end, perhaps for months. i said to him at least a month ago, joe, you've made your mark on this bill, you've dramatically cut its cost. you've also made sure we paid for everything we do. it doesn't add to the deficit so it's not inflationary. you've done these things, joe, now close the deal. it's time for us to do something for the american people and this will help them. you want to put americans back to work? of course they're concerned about covid. they're also concerned about child care. we address that in this bill, as we should. there are elements that i think will help americans get back on the street and will not be inflationary. >> he does not seem convinced it's not inflationary. i've looked at all these interviews, senator. every time he's asked about his position on the bill, he talked about concerns over inflation. do you think there's more uncertainty today about those bills' future, especially hearing what pow sell saying now with the concern over the variant? >> not at all. the point is here we know we have an economy that's gaining strength, getting back on its feet. we've had substantial job creation, and we need more. we know that businesses are getting back on their feet. we see it in restaurants and shops and shop across america and the holiday season. we want to fortify that and try to say to the working families of america, this bill is on your side, whether talking about daycare or the extension of pre-k, schooling opportunities, the idea that perhaps your mother or grandmother is going to have home health care so she can stay in her home and be independent as long as she wants. all these are family values that need to be strengthened as this economy recovers. >> again, joe manchin, though, not yet, at least not yet, seeming convinced. but you are, as i mentioned the deadlines earlier, you're up against a bunch of deadlines right now as it seems to happen every december, of course. the debt ceiling has to be dealt with by december 15th. is it your understanding that senator schumer also wants the build back better bill on the senate floor that week? >> that's our goal. of course we have to go through the parliamentarian entanglement. i won't try to explain that to your viewers other than to say it's complicated and takes longer than you think. the bottom line is we need a deadline to get this done. deadlines work. why do most people wait until april 15th? because that's the deadline. why do they wait until the last minute to make a dental appointment? there's a deadline. the same is true for the senate. when we have deadlines, we respond to them, as we should. >> senator durbin, thank you for your time. >> thank you, kate. coming up for us, lawyers for former president trump are in a federal court right now trying to keep his white house records secret. will congressional investigators win this battle this time? the latest in a live report next. we are not getting you a helicopter. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ ok everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy. whoo hoo! ensure, with 27 vitamins and minerals, now introducing ensure complete! with 30 grams of protein. what's strong with me? 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>> well, kate, these three judges are hearing this case and they're hearing it quite skeptically. the trump lawyers are making the case that even though he's a former president, that he still has the power to say what is turned over to this congressional committee, even if the current president, president biden, has already said that he is not asserting privilege over these 700 pages or so of documents that the archivist was due to turn over more than a week ago. the fallback that the trump team is saying is even if the court says maybe these documents should be turned over, they're saying that the court should look at the documents individually, essentially trying to figure out how to run out the clock for this committee, which, as you know, wants to try to get these documents, need to try to get to the bottom of what happened on january 6th. the judges, one of them, judge brown jackson, i'll read you part of what she said. she said "this boils down to who decides what is in the best interests of the united states to disclose presidential records, is it the current president of the united states or the former?" of course you know, kate, that a previous judge, a lower court judge, had already ruled that these documents should be turned over. we'll see how this argument wraps up in the next couple hours. >> all right. evan, thank you so much. joining me right now is attorney sara azari for more on this. the argument is they think he's covered by executive privilege and it's continued to come down to executive privilege in the bounds of that presidential power. what do you think of the trump team's legal argument here that it's executive privilege or if they allow it they should go document by document? >> i mean, kate, i think at this point i just shake my head and chuckle because they're on repeat, these arguments have failed. at some point an appeal becomes a lost cause. this was a lost cause from the beginning. number one, former president trump does not have the executive privilege. it belongs to biden. biden has clearly said that there's no reason to invoke it. secondly, no privilege is unlimited under our constitution. every privilege has its limits, and the crime exception is one that i think that applies here. we've never had an insurrection. this heinous crime against our democracy, which frankly trumps any kind of interest that, you know, trump might be alleging here. but we have to remember that trump's last stop to buy time is the supreme court, right. that is his best stop. he thinks that just because he has a very conservative court 6-3, three of the justices being appointed by him, that somehow he might have a chance there. the idea here, kate, is that under our system and our country, we don't get just sis from our oi point tees. this is no different from me appearing before a judge i helped with his election and expecting he's going to rule in my favor. it doesn't work like that. the court is going to first determine the threshold issue of whether he has the privilege to invoke, and second if that privilege is trumped by the interest of the committee to get to the bottom of this heinous crime. going through those documents, it's a strategy to by time. i think the supreme court needs to decide if that's necessary. if he doesn't have the privilege, there's no reason to go through any documents. >> so interesting. it does seem inevitable at this point that the supreme court is where it ends up. sara, thank you so much. appreciate it. coming up for us, the lead scientist who helped first identify the omicron variant will be joining us from south africa as researchers try to answer so many of the questions still out there about this new strain. that's next. ♪ so light 'em up, up, up light 'emem up, up, up ♪ ♪ lightht 'em up, up, up ♪ ♪ i'm on fire ♪ ♪ so light 'em up, up, up light 'em... ♪ wow... that's so nice! is that a photo of tepechitlan? 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[uplifting music playing] ♪ i had a dream that someday ♪ ♪ i would just fly, fly away ♪ the living room slash yoga shanti slash regional office slash... and this is the basement slash panic room. maybe what your family needs is a vacation home slash vacation home. find yours on the vrbo app. your shipping manager left to “find themself.” leaving you lost. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire developing this morning, cases of the omicron variant confirmed in 19 countries and territories and five continents. scientists are racing to learn more about this new coronavirus strain, really across the world, which was first reported just six days ago in south africa. joining me now is virologist alex see gal, who leads the team of researchers that first identified omicron. he's a fact up ti member at the africa health research institute. thanks for being here. i saw that you said -- >> thank you. >> -- is probably the most mutated virus that you'd ever seen. what was your first reaction when you saw this variant under the microscope for the first time? >> well, first to set the record straight, i wasn't the one that discovered it. this was discovered by a couple of other groups in south africa. i'm a virologist, so i don't look at -- i don't do the sequences. i take advice from those guys and i grow it up to see what it does. so i was in the office, he kind of showed me this stuff, and it was clear it was going to be a problem. >> what did you see that made it clear to you is going to be a problem? >> well, there's a whole bunch of mutations there. some of them are good for escaping the immune response. some of them are good for transmission. and some of them we didn't see before. of course, it looks like a problem, but we don't know to what extent it's going to be a problem. i wouldn't at this point say that this is hugely different from stuff we've seen before. >> as i'm beginning, as you know well, as i'm beginning to understand it, it's not as much the sheer number of mutations. it's where those mutations are, what those mutations do. what insight are you gaining into that at this point? >> well, i mean, we know some of these mutations. like you said, it's kind of a frankenstein, so we've never seen this constellation of mutations before or this number of mutation, but we've seen those guys in other variants and in viruses that were subc subcritical, right, so we've seen evolution events in south africa which we're monitoring and similar mutations were there as well. we more or less know what those guys are capable of. >> you're in the midst of more experiments with omicron samples. what are you focused on right now, alex, in terms of determining how bad this is, if it's as bad as it kind of looks to put it simply? >> yeah. we don't know yet how bad test. and, you know, i wouldn't -- you know, i would not say that this can be -- you know, it can be anything in principle. but it doesn't have to be kind of this, you know, terrible variant. we just don't know. we're focused on just one kind of simple question to begin with, and that's what does this variant do to vaccine protection? and the answer is, if everything goes well and the virus cooperates in growing for us so we can test it, we'll know these answers fairly soon, in a couple of weeks. >> everyone needs to wait for that because it is all part of the process as we are now learning. i saw reporting that within 36 hours of discovering this new variant, the teams you've been working with alerted the world. so in 36 hours this information was put out there, that this was something new, this was something different. what do you think of the worldwide reaction since? >> i'm a little bit saddened by it because it kind of shows a lack of perspective. so south african scientists were open and transparent and so was the south african government, and it seemed like what we're getting is a bit of punishment for that. now, luckily, this place allows us to report things as we see them. we just hope as scientists in other places can also report similar findings, you know, without their governments perhaps suppressing it because of what happened here. so i think, you know, one has to be very careful about, you know, discouraging this kind of open communication. >> if you've been involved -- others have been involved with identifying earlier variants, the beta variant of covid. now we're looking at the omicron variant. how many more variants do you think you'll find before this pandemic is over? >> well, i don't know, you know, how many kind of very powerful variants, but certainly i think we'll be learning more of the greek alphabet. >> so there is more to come. what do you think it's going to take to finally -- >> more to come. >> many more to come. thank you very much. i appreciate your time. thank you for your work. >> thank you, kate. coming up for us, death from opioid addictions are rising dramatically in the united states and the pandemic is a big reason why. coming up, a close, tragic, and painful look at the human toll of the crisis. new baja steak & jack, and the new baja chicken & bacon, aka “the smokeshow”" save big. order through the app. how did olay top expensive creams? like this with hydration that beats the $100 cream in every jar of regenerist retinol24 collagen peptide new vitamin c and the iconic red jar can't top this skin shop now at olay.com ♪ ♪ cases of anxiety in young adults are rising as experts warn of the effects on well-being caused by the pandemic. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ the living room slash yoga shanti slash regional office slash... and this is the basement slash panic room. . ness. maybe what your family needs is a vacation home slash vacation home. find yours on the vrbo app. ♪ ♪ there are beautiful ideas that remain in the dark. but with our new multi-cloud experience, you have the flexibility you need to unveil them to the world. ♪ parse if you smell gas, you're too close. leave the structure, call 911, keep people away, and call pg&e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. drug overdoses are breaking records in the united states. the cdc saying that the pandemic is making the battle with addiction even tougher. in a new cnn series "united states of addiction," cnn's miguel marquez finds that the drug fentanyl is a big reason why. >> 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 i spent some time alone with him patting his hair and touching his -- his hands. he looked like he was just asleep. >> reporter: davidson first addicted to prescription painkillers and then heroin, struggled with addiction for ten years. >> this isn't my first time that i've been in a program. >> reporter: in and out of recovery and 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 a dose of what he thought was hearin, but it was a very high level of fentanyl as well. >> was in the heroin, and it doesn't take any of it to hardly kill you. >> reporter: fentanyl and synthetic opioids like it accounting for 64% of the record 100,000-plus deadly drug overdoses from april 2020 to april 2021. did the pandemic kill matthew? no. it just intensified. i think he was more emotionally fragile. >> what did the pan emdid for places like kentucky? >> there was a clear and obvious use in use in, overdose in, my metric that you want to use. >> reporter: alex, a 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 it does is up level dopamine. >> reporter: cheap and plentiful, fentanyl 50. to 100 times more powerful than morphine whether in pill or powder form if snorted, dangerous in tiny amounts. >> reporter: when did fentanyl first come into your life. >> in my first overdose. >> reporter: how many overdoses have there been? >> 14. >> reporter: when his grandfather died, grief caused him to relapse and he thought he was using heroin but it was fentanyl. how much did you use. >> a tenth of a gram. >> reporter: that's tiny. >> barely like a sprinkle of salt. >> i want to welcome everyone tonight. >> reporter: social interaction important for the addictioned and their families, too. jean carey butcher found p.o.w., parents of addicted loved ones and they heard it all as they worked to serve of their son matthew. >> send them our fixer. 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 would think they would know what they are doing to their children. >> but drugs take over the brain. >> reporter: matthew's brother glen says there's no easy way to recover and money alone won't solve the problem of addiction. >> addiction isn't something that you can just turn off. for a lot of these people it's not a choice. they are addicted to 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 of his favorite shirts. >> sometimes i would think, okay, i've got matthew's arms wrapped around me. >> it includes the last photo they took together in his most favorite shirt. >> if the house caught on fire i would grab that equipment i dal my matthew quilt. >> reporter: matthew davidson a victim of opioid addiction wrapped in the pandemic of covid-19. >> you know, miguel, every one of these stories is as tragic and more tragic as the next. i mean, is there any hope in terms of as the country is opening back up? is the number of drug-related deaths at all? has it leveled off at all? >> there is some indication. the cdc has predictive numbers for 2021. it's fairly well below the numbers they were in 2020. it's heading in the right direction, but we have a very, very long way to go. kate? >> what do you say -- it's impossible to say anything with what these families are going through. i mean, just to say to get through this you need love and support. god, there has to be more than this. >> each family. the stories are so similar, and each story is -- is so difficult to take in but so many families going through this at all levels of society. >> at all levels. that's exactly right, and i think that's such an important thing to point out. good to see you. thank you so much for reporting and thank you for putting spotlight on this. we'll continue to report on this. meantime, thank you so much for being here, everyone. i'm kate balduan. much more to come especially with the omicron variant and all that is unknown with that. "inside politics" with john king begins after this break. i brought in ensure max protein, with thirty grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! (sighs wearily) here i'll take that! 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