antib antibody, peak following the second dose of a two-dose mrna, it's like at this level. if you look at the peak following the third shot boost, it goes way up here and people ask, why is that important? because our experience with variants such as the delta variant is that even though the vaccine isn't specifically targeted to the delta variant, when you get a high enough level of an immune response, you get spillover protection even against a variant that the vaccine wasn't specifically directed at and that's the reason why we feel even though we don't have a lot of data on it, there's every reason to believe that that kind of increase that you get with the boost would be helpful at least in preventing severe disease of a variant like omicron. >> as you know, a lot of americans right now are shopping for the best booster or whatever they can get and given the fact that manufacturers and scientists are learning more about this variant and then to mod di a vaccine that would combat it. for those who have received their boost, how long would it be for them before they could have a new, modified booster that would more directly target this and is there any reason those individuals should wait given the white house said it would be a couple of months perhaps before we have a more modified vaccine. >> great question. we get asked that a lot. right now, i would not be waiting. people say well, if we're going to have a booster specific vaccine, should we wait. if you are eligible, namely six months with a double mrna dose or two months for the jnj, get boostered now. we may not need a variant specific boost. we're preparing for the possibility that we need a variant specific boost and that's what the companies are doing. we have been, the administration has been in contact with the pharmaceutical companies to go ahead and take the steps in case we need it. but the mistake people would make is to say, let me wait and see if we get one. if you're eligible for boosting, get boostered right now. >> follow up. there is screening in place for international travel, but we've seen how quickly variants can spread once they reach our shores. does the science not suggest there should at a minimum be a testing requirement for domestic air travel? and if not, why not? >> again, these kinds of things we always talk about and consider, but right now, i'm not so sure we need testing for air travel in this country. i always get back to the fact is that people should wind up getting vaccinated and boostered if they're eligible for a boost. i keep coming back to that because that's really the solution to this problem. >> two quick ones. moderna executives have said in the past couple of days that this variant appears threatening and may demand new vaccines. what do you make of those remarks that seem allot more alarmist? >> well, i think, i know, that we don't have enough information right now. as you know, and we've said this, that the profile of the kinds of mutations that you see would suggest, a, that it might be more transmissible and that it might allude some of the protection of vaccines. but we don't know that now. we don't know what the constellation of mutations are actually going to be. we have to be prepared that there's going to be a diminution in protection, which is the reason why i keep getting back over and over again to say why it's so important to get boostered, but i think any declaration of what will or will not happen with this variant, it is too early to say. and i think we need to be careful because i know you're going to be reading a lot of tweets and comments about this. we're really very early in the process. >> this is more, this proves more transmissible, but less virulent that delta, would there be any public health benefit by lifting travel restrictions to outcome pete the delta variant? >> you're talking about something really dangerous. let a lot of people get infected to see if in fact you could product. that's something i think almost all infectious disease people with any knowledge would not say that's a good idea. >> we are firmly in the holiday season and a lot of americans are wondering whether it's safe, even if vaccinated, to go to a cocktail party without a mask, with a glass of eggnog in their hand. what's your advice? >> it's what i follow myself and what i tell people to do. get vaccinated. i'm going to get to your question. get vaccinated. number one. if you need, if you're eligible for a boost, get boostered and in a situation with the holiday season, indoor type settings and family and people that you know, you can feel safe with not wearing a mask and having a dinner, a reception, but when you are in public, congregate setting in which you don't know the status of the people involved, it is prudent to wear a mask and that's what i do. >> despite the eggnog. >> obviously. unless you have a special kind of mask that i don't know about. the fact is, sure, when you're eating and drinking, take the mask down, but to the extent possible, keep it on when you're in an indoor, congregate setting. >> as you've advised the president about the possibility of new testing requirements for people coming into this country. does that include everybody? >> the answer is yes because you know that the new regulation if you want to call it that, is that anybody and everybody is coming into the country needs to get a test within 24 hours of getting on the plane to come here. >> what about people who don't take a plane and just these border crossers coming in in huge numbers? >> that's a different issue. for example, we still have title 42 with regard to protection at the border so there are protections at the border that you don't have the capability, as you know, of somebody getting on a plane, but we can get some degree of mitigation. >> is there a way to test these people somewhere else? >> there is testing at the border under certain circumstances as you know. >> doctor, two questions. first, for folks in california, i know this is only one case, but what's your message to them? should they be particularly concerned? and secondly with your emphasis on boosters, why not make a determination that's in the interest of public health for the definition of fully vaccine mated to include that additional dose? >> okay, so for the people in california, we've been in contact with the public health officials in california. not sure exactly what they're going to say, but i'm pretty sure they're going to say just do all of the mitigation, the things we have been talking about up till now. for those who haven't been doing that, start doing that. for those that have been, continue doing that. >> in terms of -- >> again, there's the official determination of what something is for a variety of reasons. for example, employment and getting vaccinated. what is the definition. that will stay that way. for optimal protection, i'm talking about what your personal effort, that's why i say we should all get boosters. >> what about in terms of the mandate? you have a vaccine mandate. right. at what point does the booster become part of the mandate? >> i can't answer that right now, but i know for the time being, the official definition of fully vaccinated is two. >> we keep having these variants, we're concerned about them. >> it could change, yes. let's see what rolls out now. i know if i say it's going to change, it's going to get spread out. we don't know right now if it should change, but it might. >> quarantine for international visitors, do you think they should quarantine for seven days regardless of vaccination st status? >> you're talking about foreign visitors? obviously, if they are, they have to get tested within 24 hours and when they come back, if they're not vaccinated, they have to be in quarantine. they're recommended for quarantine and recommended to get a test within three days. >> if they are vaccinated. >> if they are vaccinated, should they quarantine? >> you're talking about united states citizens or anybody that comes into the country? i'm not sure what that's going to be. i think we'll have to check with the cdc. >> dr. fauci, the reports in a new book former president trump's chief of staff mark meadows said that the then president tested positive for covid three days before the debate with president biden. were you aware of that positive test at the time and do you think given what meadows said, that he put biden at risk in the debate? >> i certainly was not aware of his test positivity or negativity. >> do you think he put president biden -- >> i'm not going to specifically talk about who put who at risk, but i would say as i've said, not only for an individual, but for everybody, that if you test positive, you should be quarantining yourself. >> dr. fauci, just to follow on that quickly if i may. president trump's doctor, who you worked with at the time, was aware of that according to mark meadows who you also worked with during that time, yet former president trump continued to go out in public. based on your medical advice, is that something you would have recommended if he tested positive? >> i would recommend to anyone, whether it's the president or any of my patients or any of the people that i deal with, that if you test positive, you should be prudent and quarantine yourself. >> christian. >> dr. fauci, there's zero case of covid, omicron case in zimbabwe, in mozambique. what justified imposing a travel ban on countries that have zero case of the omicron variant? >> you know, that's a very good question and important question and we did struggle with that. but we wanted to see if we can buy time temporarily. so i do hope that this gets sorted out and lifted before it has any significant impact on your country. >> last week, the governor of new york signed an executive order to postpone elective opt surgeries to prepare for the omicron variant. i know you and your team are being proactive as we try to learn more about this, but do you believe some states might be going too far too quickly before we know too much? >> you know, i really don't want to comment on situation in individual states because there are so many factors from state to state that are different. i don't think it would be appropriate for me to comment on whether a state should postpone elective surgeries. >> the president said we will defeat this variant not with shutdown, but based off the tools we have now. is there anything that that we are taking into this new variant experience based off of some of the adverse effects of some of those lockdowns? we just passed over 100,000 overdose deaths for the first time ever. >> first of all, we always discuss things that we might do to better our preparation. better our response. that's something we discuss every single day. but right now, what i've always said and i'll continue to say, let's utilize and implement the tools we have because if we had done that, if we had the overwhelming majority of people in this country vaccinated and those who needed to be boosted, boosted, our virulnerability wod be less now. >> what do you see as an end game? the flu pandemic, did evolve until it was less. but there are those who say we're never going to get that far with this virus because we need more people vaccinated. what do you see as the end game? >> as we get more people vaccinated not only in this country, but globally, we will see a situation where viruses will not have the opportunity that they have right now is to essentially freely distribute and freely circulate in society, both domestic society and global society. the more protection you get with vaccines, the less likelihood a virus has to do that, the lez likelihood a virus has to mutate, the less likely you're going to get a variant. so one of the things we need to do about our long end game is to do the things we've been saying every single day. not only for ourselves, but internationally and you know, we have done a lot and will continue to do a lot to get low and middle income countries vaccinated. oh, absolutely. there's no doubt. this will end, i promise you that. this will end. >> thank you, dr. fauci. we have to let dr. fauci go. thank you for coming. appreciate it. not additional details, but they're going to be doing a perez conference in california where they may have additional details to share. >> you've been listening to dr. anthony fauci answering questions after the discovery of the first person in the united states has the omicron variant of coronavirus there in california. thank you for joining us. >> you just heard dr. anthony fauci say that that first case has been detected in the u.s. this was something that was expected and predicted by health experts. >> phil mattingly is there at the white house. stephanie elam in california where the first case was detected. an epidemiologist and former health commissioner also with us. stephanie, let's start with you. what do we know about this person who has this first case? >> these are some key details we just learned right now and the biggest part of this is that we know this is a traveler who returned from south africa into the san francisco area. this traveler returned on the 26th of november and then they tested positive on november 29th according to dr. fauci what he just said there. they're saying this person has had mild symptoms and all of their contacts have tested negative, but this person was fully vaccinated and at this point, dr. fauci said he doesn't believe this person had had a booster shot. however, the symptoms of this person are mild. now, what's interesting, i've been covering covid in kansas the entire pandemic and genome sequencing was done and they were instrumental in the entire state of getting testing up and running and helping the state to do that. we are also hearing from the governor and the health department from california, the governor saying that large scale testing and early detection systems have found that omicron covid-19 variant in california. we should assume it's in other states as well. they're saying the testing is why they were able to identify that it was here as early as they were and to get this person into isolation. so this is key of what is happening here and looking to see where else it is, but they're saying this is no reason to panic. we knew this variant would find its way to the united states, but the testing is key to make sure you can do contact tracing and that's what they're saying they've been able to do with this one person. >> so this raises questions about what will change in terms of policy and protocol coming out of the white house now that we know that this variant is in the u.s. does that change the travel ban? you just heard dr. fauci getting some of those questions. i thought it was interesting. he said again, look, we needed to take a beat. we just wanted to sort of catch our breath. this was the wise thing to do in terms of issuing, he says, the travel ban for southern africa because they needed to buy time. was his words. but then you know, you heard one of the reporters there say, some of those countries have zero cases. so what do you think will change if anything now? >> you know, i think that's the frame when you talk to administration officials that they really viewed the last four or five days through, which is we're not going to stop this from coming to the united states. we know it's going to come to the united states. what can we implement fast to make clear there's an understandingness the administration for very bad fallout from what this could be, but also a recognition that this would buy them some time. not an immense amount of time, but would give them time to prepare. that's been their primary focus. whether it's ramping up surveillance. we've seen at the four busiest airports in the united states that the cdc implemented yesterday. testing, tracing, is a huge component. the cdc imminently is going to apply a different timeline for all travelers entering the united states, bringing vaccinated travelers from three days to one day. potentially requiring or requesting tests after the fact as well. those are i think the near term issues you're looking at. when you talk about time and preparation here, i think when you talk to administration officials, a lot of what's been going on behind the scenes over thes course of the last several days is in preparation for a worst case scenario. that's what you heard dr. fauci refer to a couple of times in terms of a variant specific boost. he made clear that might not be necessary, but the conversations between administration officials and vaccine makers, how a vaccine would be changed depending on the variant, but also things like cost assessments for a national vaccine effort, what that would look like. how it would play out. the logistics of it. that's been part of what's been happening. so when they talk about buying time, whether or not it stepped anything from coming to the united states, nobody thought that would be the case. what they wanted more than anything else, both in the near term and these long-term issues, was time to prepare for what they knew was inevitable. >> doctor, let's turn to you to asuede some fears here. we know health experts said this would happen. but there might be some people who are a bit anxious now that it has been discovered in california. how different is the public health picture now at 2:19 eastern than it was at 12:19 now that we know that the case is here? >> i'll be honest with you, no. the fact of the matter is that the most dominant concern that we have of covid-19 right now is still delta. think about it. we have one identified case of omicron and we have thousands of identified cases of delta. and the way that anyone can prevent either omicron or delta is by doing the same things we've been telling folks to do when it comes to covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic and since we've had vaccines, which is to get vaccinated if you haven't been. to get boosted. make sure you're wearing masks in crowded public indoor settings. and to make sure that you're doing things like washing your hands and making decisions about whether or not you may want to take up risks by engaging in certain social activities. from a public health perspective, there's a lot of reason that our public health institutions, our workforce, does need to ramp up. whether it's on surveillance or contact tracing. there's a lot we can to that we ought to have been doing for a long time to prevent omicron from spreading the way that it has in south africa. just keep doing the things or if you haven't been, do those things that we know can prevent covid-19 of any stripe. >> doctor, another question. i take comfort possibly misplaced, in hearing from the doctors in south africa because they've seen more cases of this than we have. so they've been dealing with this for looks like a couple of weeks or ten days now. so here is what one of the doctors from the south african medical association said about the types of casings or symptoms they're seeing there this morning. >> what we see on the ground is that we're seeing younger patients and we're seeing milder cases of omicron. but also, what we've noted is that the data of being hospitalized are largely unvaccinated. they are about 90% of those are unvaccinated. there is nothing much that we see beyond what we have seen with the delta variant. >> so doctor, as you'd expect, 90% of the hospitalizations are unvaccinated, but he's saying they've only seen mostly mild cases thus far. is it too soon to have seen more severe cases? >> well, circumstantial evidence is evidence, just not high quality. it is good the evidence out of south africa suggests that the cases tend to be mild and the folks being hospitalized tend to be folks who have been unvaccinated meaning the vaccines may confer a level of protection. one of the hard parts about this pandemic generally is that we've got to wait for the science on this. this is new. it is new to our understanding of covid-19 and there's a lot more science between here and firm answers on whether or not it is in fact substantially more transmissible. whether or not it is less severe. whether or not it may have some vaccine escape. so between now and then, i think the key thing that we have to do is make sure that we're doing what it takes to protect ourselves from covid-19 of any stripe and to wait and sit back and let the science do its part. that said, it is important to find places where you can take comfort and it is great to here f hear from physicians. just remember the early clusters tended to be among younger people who tend to have better outcomes and early evidence is just not the kind we can hang our hat on. let's do our part to proourselv from covid-19. >> piresident biden and dr. faui were asked about this revelation from mark meadows that according to the guardian is written, that former president trump tested positive for coronavirus a few days before the first debate in 2020. it seemed like president biden didn't want to talk about it and we got kind of a glossover from dr. fauci, too. >> yeah, circular no comment from dr. fauci and president biden sticking with his line from the last 11 months anytime you ask him, which was i don't think about the former president. i think when you talk to former campaign hands from the biden team, they were obviously very concerned about this heading into this debate. there was a real concern about the posture of the trump campaign operation, the trump family when it came to protection, when it came to wearing mask, the president not taking the final test before the debate. but when you talk to white house officials about what that moment means for now, they just don't bite. i think that's been a consistent theme over the course of the last several months but also a recognition that in terms of what they're trying to do, particularly in this moment in time with this new variant arriving in the united states, they don't see any upside in engaging about what it means or didn't mean in october of 2020, but instead want to focus on what they care about what's most important for the success of their administration. that's to be quite honest, boosters and vaccines at this point in time and try to get as much information as possible about the new variant. >> phil, stephanie and doctor, thank you, all. as a reminder, cnn is hosting a global town hall to answer your questions about this new omicron variant. join anderson cooper and dr. gupta. also, dr. fauci. that's tonight at 9:00 eastern here on cnn. meanwhile, the prosecutor in michigan has just announced charges against the alleged gunman in that deadly high school shooting. we're going to talk to a student who was in the school, next. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ deposit, plan and pay with easy tools from chase. simplicity feels good. chase. make more of what's yours. and that's just basic wavy guy maintenance, right? 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causing death and four counts of first degree murder. seven counts of assault with intent to murder and 12 counts of possession of a firearm. >> and we've just learned a fourth student has died of their injuries. authorities believe the suspect fired at least 30 shots and that his father pucrchased the fiream four days ago. investigators have writings that contain some of the teen's thoughts after authorities executed a search warrant and the prosecutor just said she's considering charges for both of the suspect's parents and she'll make a decision about that soon. we know the identities of the four victims. tate, just 16 years old. played for the varsity football team. madison baldwin, she was 17. a cnn affiliate reports she had gotten into several colleges and universities on scholarships. there's chilling video, too, from idnside one of those classrooms. a voice claiming to be the sheriff's office knocks on the door. watch. >> sheriff's office! come out! >> come on. >> we're not willing to take that risk right now. i can't hear you. >> moments later, those same students rush out of the classroom through a window and then run to safety. our next guest is a student at oxford high school. thank you for being here. i just cannot imagine this generation having to live through this and the suspicion of a member of law enforcement coming to the door and saying we don't trust you, we're not coming out. how are you doing today after what happened at your high school? >> i'm doing pretty okay. i'm really shook up. but i'll make it through it. >> so, tell us when you realized that something was going wrong. you just walked into class and then what happened? >> i heard screams come from the hallway and the first gun shot happened and my teacher, he walked into the classroom. he locked the door and he told us to call 911 then we heard the rest of the gun shots go off. more screams. i was on the phone with 911. i didn't even really speak with them. i just said oxford high school, shooter, because i couldn't talk. he was right outside my classroom. i had to be quiet. we were there. just waiting. hoping we would be okay. >> we know from the sheriff's office that more than 100 calls came in from the school about the shooting and you say the shooter was just outside your classroom. how close were those screams you heard? do you know? >> less than 20 feet. >> within 20 feet. tell us about what was happening inside the classroom as you were waiting there. >> we all got in the corner least visible from the door. there was crying. people were texting their families letting them know they loved them and just hoping to make it out okay. >> did you text your family? >> yes, i did. >> and what did you text? >> i texted both my parents. told them i loved them. i told them what was going on. i texted my grandparents. i texted my little brother who was also in the school trying to make sure to see if he was okay. >> do you know, we now know the identity of the accused shooter. did you have any interactions with him before what happened yesterday? >> no. i can't say that i have. >> okay. i do know that you know unfortunately one of the deceased. one of the teenagers. tate was one of your friends. tell us about him. >> tate was a really close friend of mine. i've known him five, six years now. we were on the football, we were on the football team together. he's a great, he was a great person. great leader. he's just always wanted to make sure everyone was okay and involved in everything he could. he's great. >> we of course are sorry for your loss of your friend and your other classmates. listen, there have been some parents there in oxford who say they saw or their children saw threats that have been posted online or a mention of something bad that could happen at the school. did you see any of that? >> i didn't see anything beforehand. i heard about it. i've seen stuff now that i've been shown and i didn't really see anything before, no. >> you're going to have to go back into that building at some point. have you prepared yourself for the day that you'll have to go back to oxford high? >> not really. i've just been trying to mourn the loss of a friend. >> i understand. zander, we are so sorry for what you had to endure yesterday. too many students across this country have a similar experience. thank you so much for your time. >> my gosh. our heart just breaks for him. shimon is in michigan where that press conference just ended. help us understand what the prosecutors said because these are very interesting developments in terms of, i believe she said it was something like it was absolutely premeditated. did they share what they have been seeing? >> no. they would not share. she said because she doesn't want to hurt the investigation. they still have more to do and obviously at some point, there's going to be a trial so they don't want to reveal too much information. it is significant she said the prosecutor here, karen mcdonald, that there is indications that this was planned, not an impulsive act and that is why they are charging him with the first degree murder charge, which allows them to charge him as an adult. he's 15 years old. he's now facing the prospect of the rest of his life in prison because of these charges. and she explained why they did that. why they went ahead and charged him as an adult and she said that is because there's information that they have that indicates that this was not something that was sudden. that was impulsive and that is something that he planned. she also began the press conference by identifying the alleged shooter but then said she doesn't want to dwell on that, then went and talked about the victims, how they were athletes, a football player, an artist. other things like sports. a lot of sports. the school has a lot of sports, athletic, so she wanted to talk about that. she wanted to talk about the families of these victims. also significant is that she announced that the parents, of course there's been a lot of questions about the weapon used. a nine millimeter handgun in this shooting. the sheriff just yesterday revealing that the father, the father of the alleged shooter, bought this weapon four days before the shooting on november 26th. the prosecutor saying that is not part of the investigation. and that it is likely that they will, that the parents of this alleged shooter will be charged for not securing the weapon. so that is also a very significant piece of information. she said we will hear more about that perhaps in the coming days. so significant pieces of news here and that number one, there's some indication here that this was planned. the parents are now likely to face charges because they did not secure the weapon. again, the prosecutor wouldn't go into too many details about how the gun was obtained, but it seems from what she was saying that the parents did not secure the weapon, they didn't keep the ammunition separate from the gun. she also said we will likely see the suspected shooter, the alleged gunman here, in court later today for an arraignment. so perhaps we will learn more. but the big questions here are what is the premeditation? what is the planning and obviously what was the motivation here. so we still have yet to get answers on those very, very important questions. >> we know the police will be briefing at 3:00. of course we'll bring the latest to you as soon as that happens. shimon there in michigan, thank you. california officials are set to discuss the first case of the omicron variant of coronavirus detected in the u.s. we will bring that to you live. and the supreme court has just finished hearing arguments in a case that could reshape abortion rights across this country. we have all of the big take aways for you coming up. ♪ what the he— henry? thanks! if it's “out decorating the neighbors” season, it's walgreens season. ♪ what a pain in the a— alice? if it's “let's wrap 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your ongoing leadership during this pandemic and i want to thank our partners at ucsf, especially dr. charles chu and his team who worked so quickly to sequence this specimen and i'd like to thank our testing partner at color. both are here today. and of course, my partner in our emergency response, dr. mary ellen carroll. all of us have been working furiously for the last 24 hours with our federal and state partners at cdc and at the state department of health to determine whether this is indeed the first case of omicron that has been detected and that has indeed been the result of our work overnight. i want to acknowledge our outstanding health officer, dr. susan phillip, for our outstanding work. her team worked really hard to ensure we got this information as quickly as possible. but i want to emphasize that this is not a surprise. for those who have been following this, we knew that omicron was going to be here. we thought it was already here. we just hadn't detected it yet. so this is cause for concern, but is also certainly not a cause for us to panic. we are prepared here in the city for this. with regard to the case itself, the person recently traveled to south africa and developed symptoms upon their return. and they did the right thing and got tested and reported their travel history. they have received a full dose of the moderna vaccine, but no booster. they had mild symptoms and thankfully have now recovered. contacts have and are being notif notified by the health department. and again, here's what we know now. san francisco is relatively well positioned to respond to variants. our vaccine rate is high. more boosters are going into arms every day. 5 to 11-year-olds are getting vaccinated at a rapid uptake. our masking and vaccine requirements are among some of the most stringent in the country. these efforts have been very effective in helping us slow the spread of the virus. and there's still a lot we do not know about omicron. we don't know how infectious it is although there's a strong likelihood that it is more infectious than delta. we don't know how sick it will make people, but that is being studied furiously right now across the world. and we don't know yet how effective fully effective the vaccines are in protecting against transmission or serious cases of illness and hospitalizations due to omicron. but most experts that i have spoken to believe that the vaccines will still be of critical importance in protecting ourselves, our families and our community. so our message is the same as it was yesterday. to best protect against this variant, get vaccinated for goodness sakes, if you have not been vaccinated. get your booster if you're eligible. continue to wear those masks inside where required. continue to take the steps that we know that have been successful in san francisco to prevent major loss of life and to slow the spread of this virus. we know how to do this, san francisco. at this time, we do not anticipate changing any of our health orders or changing any current restrictions or imposing any restrictions on activity in san francisco. we're also following these developments very closely. we will share additional information as we have it and again, get vaccinated, get your booster, wear the mask and for goodness sakes, it's been a long almost 24 months now. please have a great holiday season with your family. and now, i'd like to turn it over to dr. chu, our great partner in sequencing the virus and again, his team worked so hard over the night to make sure we got this information as quickly as possible. thank you. >> good afternoon. so, my laboratory at university of california, san francisco, has been working very closely over the past year with the san francisco department of public health, the california department of public health and color genomics on surveillance of the virus. when we identify positive an attempt to sequence the cases we can identify. this particular example was -- >> you have been listening to health officials, also the mayor, london breed in san francisco about the first case come omicron identified in the u.s. cnn's stephanie elam is back with us, along with epidemiologist dr. abdul el-sayed. you have been covering the spread of covid across the state, just how well connected this system is to immediately get a sequencing of this and it was identified overnight. >> and victor, i actually took the time to call of the epidemiologists from ucsf. i have been talking to these people for a good couple of years now. one of the things i learned is what they are doing at ucsf is taking all the positive tests from san francisco county so they can then genome sequence them, and that's how they were able to identify that this was, in fact, omicron. the main thing here, though, is that the vast majority of the tests there, and they're averaging about 54 positive cases a day, the vast majority are the delta variant. at this point, that's why you heard dr. colfax say the same thing. this is no reason to panic, but to be concerned. i would point out you heard dr. colfax say they have stringent mask rules, you have to wear them indoors. same with l.a. county, we are still wearing these masks. we're seeing the variants, you have a need for people to get vaccinated. information can travel quickly in the small world of ours as the virus can. what they have been able to learn from south africa, they have been able to sequence it here quickly, and also to know how to respond to it. so what he said is how they're testing down in south africa is what they are doing this san francisco county that helped them identify this variant very quickly after someone came back and reported being ill and also gave their travel history as well! dr. el-sayed, it was comforting to hear the patient has mild symptoms and has now recovered. what did you take away from the press conference we just heard? >> that's really good news. i want to go back to what the last individual was talking about, that capacity for genomic surveillance. that ability to sequence the genome of the virus that is pulled out of a patient. that really is critical. couple that with contact tracing and that capacity for genome surveil is going to be critical to contain omicron in our country. that being said, we only surveil about 10% genomically of all of the samples that we collect from patients and so the capacity to do that and do that at scale across the country is going to be really important. it is a great thing that most of the circumstantial evidence that we have about the severity of cases suggests that they have been generally less severe. that being said, of course, we've got to wait for the science on this, and we've got to understand that, you know, an n equals 1 situation doesn't really tell us about the overall risk of severe illness among individuals who may come down with omicron. but it is heartening to hear and certainly good for that one individual, and certainly the folks with whom he has come in contact. >> doctor, let me lean on your experience as a public health official of a major city, former health commissioner there in detroit. what we heard there was that they're not changing the health protocols in san francisco despite having identified the first case of omicron. you look here in the state of new york, the governor's already declared a state of emergency saying that it's coming in no identified case of that variant here. which path is prudent, makes sense from your perspective? >> well, i will say that there are a lot of different kinds of states of emergency, and what declaring a state of emergency can do for you is to open up funds and resources to be able to get ready. we just talked about genomic surveillance, and that's going to be critical. we talked about contact tracing, again, critical, and opening up the resources to be able to set up and build up the infrastructure as we know that omicron is making landfall, may already be in a city the size of new york. that is really critical. >> can i just add one thing to that. >> sure. >> just really quickly. >> sure. >> it was also note worthy that dr. colfax said this person did not have a booster. this person did not have a booster shot but was fully vaccinated. they're pointing to that as another reason and proof that you should get your people to go out and get vaccinated. also worth noting that san francisco county has a high vaccination rate, these are all things that play into that region as well. >> helpful context, stephanie elam, dr. abodul el-sayed, than you as well. the conservative leaning court seemed poised to uphold a mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks. some of the conservative justices expressed skepticism about the roe v. wade precedent and indicated that may be looking to a potential middle ground on this issue. >> today's arguments were the culmination of a decade's long effort to return the abortion issue to the states a move that could limit abortion rights in more than half of the country. hundreds of protesters from both sides of the issue gathered outside of the supreme court. cnn supreme court reporter arian vogue is outside the courthouse. tell us what you have heard from the justices that suggest which way they might go. >> reporter: i was in that courtroom, it was somber. respectful but somber. this court, 6-3 is really divided on the issue of abortion. what looks like will happen is the conservatives on this court will move to uphold this mississippi law that bars abortion after 15 weeks, but what was less clear is if they're ready to end the right to abortion, to overturn roe v. wade. chief justice john roberts is key here, and he seemed to be proposing kind of a middle ground, he would allow states to bar abortions earlier, move that viability line back, but he would try to find a way to still keep some remnants of the right to abortion. that would be a more incremental move and the big question would be are other justices ready to sign on to that. all eyes were on justice brett kavanaugh, he could be key, maybe he would be interested in it. but in court, he really seems to push on the fact that how this issue really belongs to the states and if he goes that way, he would be a vote to overturn roe, to get it away from the supreme court down the line. listen to what he had to say. >> when you have those two interests at stake and both are important, as you acknowledge, why not -- why should this court be the arbiter rather than congress, the state legislatures, state supreme courts, the people being able to resolve this, and there will be different answers in mississippi and new york, different answers in alabama than california. because there are two different interests at stake, and the people in those states might value those interests somewhat differently. why is that not the right answer? >> reporter: so this was the most important abortion case this court has heard in some 30 years. it does look like roe v. wade is in trouble, maybe not in this particular case but down the road. >> thank you very much for explaining all of that. let's bring in constitutional law professor and author of the book "she took justice" gloria brown marshal, and cnn contributor and law professor steven vladik, great to see both of you. some of the questions from the justices struck me how little they know about pregnancy. i mean, never mind abortion. the question from john roberts, he was basically asking why isn't 15 weeks fine, as though he doesn't know that there are all sorts of screening tests when you're pregnant that happen at week 18, at week 20 that decide the viability of your fetus. you get important information at week 20 that you didn't know before that. but it didn't sound like he understood that, so here is his question. >> if you think it that the issue is one of choice, that women should have a choice to terminate their pregnancy, that supposes that there is a point at which they've had the fair choice, opportunity to choice, and why would 15 weeks be an inappropriate line, so viability it seems to me doesn't have anything to do with choice. but if it really is an issue about choice, why is 15 weeks not enough time? >> okay. so what did you hear there, gloria? >> i'm hearing somebody who doesn't really understand that sometimes in the early stages, a woman might not even know she's pregnant for some time, you know, depending on how her body changes or doesn't change. i think it's also a wrestling period of trying to figure out how can someone feel a time period in which a woman's choice should be made as opposed to having viability be that choice. and then that brings in science. it goes almost to what we're dealing with right now with covid, a feeling versus science. and in this instance, that's what we're working with this court, is the sense that we want to give the states this power from the conservative standpoint, and that goes against science. so then just forget about science and make up standards as we go along. >> and steve, to the question of precedent, justice sotomayor talked about or asked the question will the institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception. this is all political. >> i think it's the right question from justice sotomayor, and one of the things that really came through in the argument today is, yes, there have been bad precedents throughout the course of history, that the justices have overruled. usually, though, in the favor of expanded individual rights. here we have a case where overruling precedent would be to take away rights that the court has recognized. we haven't seen that kind of decision where the country is so evenly divided, where there's so much reliance built into women assuming that they have the right

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