our hospitals than ever before, and the overwhelming majority are unvaccinated. >> the ad follows a similar plea from hospitals in minnesota earlier this month, now facing omicron, pleading for help. >> that part of it all feels like it was preventable. we had a level of protection that was offered that people declined, and now they're taking up beds that we know we need for other patients that need surgery for their heart disease or for their cancer, and those patients don't have access to the care that they need right now. >> all of us working on the front lines, health care providers, doctors, nurses, respiratory techs are going to feel the impact of those individual decisions. hospitals and emergency rooms were crowded before omicron came. we had a delta surge, we had e.r.s that are full of tired workers exhausted, not enough nurses e. >> covid now the third leading cause of death after heartland disease and cancer. being bombarded with new restrictions and restrictions, california will require health care workers to get booster shots. in chicago proof of vaccination will be required to get into bars, restaurants and gyms after the new year. massachusetts national guard troops are training to provide non-medical support to hospitals starting monday. hundreds of military medical personnel are already helping at hospitals across six states. in cleveland, free drive-thru covid testing opened. staffed by the national guard, but demand was too heavy. >> sat in line for more than three hours. something like that. >> what were you told? >> just cut it off for today. >> are you disappointed? >> it is what it is. >> i'm coming tomorrow morning like at 7:30. >> maybe even 6:30. >> maybe, maybe. >> we thought it would be optimal. that long line depended consequence, we didn't see the congestion we experienced. >> new york city mayor elect postponed his inauguration ceremony while the current mayor bill de blasio is offering $100 to new yorkers who come in for a booster shot by the end of the year. the federal government will be offering pop-up testing sites in new york city, trying to shorten the very long lines. >> yeah, part of the reason those lines stretch around the blocks is you can't find at-home tests basically anywhere. cvs and walgreens are now limiting the number of rapid tests you can buy in stores after a huge surge in demand. in his speech tuesday, president biden pushed back on the notion that testing in the u.s. is a failure right now, trying to reassure vaccinated americans that their holiday plans can go forward while also outlining the next phase of the white house covid response. a belated effort to maximize at-home testing. cnn's jeff zeleny reports from the white house. >> reporter: christine and laura, three days before christmas, president biden and the white house squarely focused on omicron and this deeply concerning surge of cases heading into the holidays. now, the president making clear that americans who are vaccinated should continue their holiday plans. but also made clear those who are not vaccinated simply should get the shot, and they could face severe illness. really delivering a stark warning from the state dining room of the white house. with christmas trees flanking behind him, talking about the reality, the blunt reality here that a dark winter does indeed exist for the unvaccinated. but the president also stepping into that role of comforter in chief with this message for americans. >> are we going back to march 2020, not this last march 2021, but march 2020 when the pandemic first hit? that's what i keep getting asked. the answer is absolutely no, no. i know you're tired. i really mean this and i know you're frustrated. we all want this to be over. but we're still in it. and this is a critical moment. we also have more tools than we ever had before. we're ready. we'll get through this. >> reporter: the president also laying out clear testing measures that this administration will be doing, sending 500 million at-home tests in the month of january. but the question, will that be enough. striking a defensive tone when asked if there has been enough done on testing. >> what took so long or didn't take long at all. what happened was the omicron virus spread even more rapidly than anybody thought. if i had told you four weeks ago that this would spread by a day-to-day basis, it would spread by 50, 100%, 200%, 500%, you would have looked at me and said, biden, what are you drinking? but that's what it did. >> reporter: but the question is this administration now will be judged on how this testing goes, and how this reaction goes to the surge of cases. no doubt, this is not where any president wanted to be right before the holidays, but president biden reassuring americans and warning them at the same time. christine and laura? >> jeff, thank you so much. in the president's speech, president biden also gave credit his predecessor and take aim at those who profit from pushing lies and misinformation about the pandemic and vaccines. >> just the other day, former president trump announced he had gotten his booster shot. maybe one of the few things he and i agree on. people with booster shots are highly protected. join them. join us. the unvaccinated are responsible for their own choices. but those choices have been fueled by dangerous misinformation on cable tv and social media. these companies and personalities are making money by peddling lies and allowing misinformation that can kill their own customers and their own supporters. it's wrong. it's immoral. i call on the purveyors of these lies and misinformation to stop it, stop it now. >> so it's clear who the president had in mind. but the question is who is hearing him? the biggest purveyors of garbage right now whether it's on fox or facebook or your friends' cousin who had something bad happen to them, these are audiences that are not moved 1 inch by the president's scolding. as cnn's oliver darcy points out here, most of the messaging seems geared towards people who already pay attention to the news and have their mind made up one way or another. the pro-vaccine messaging for lack of better words, is boring and, christine, oliver points out something that i hadn't realized, which is when you open up instagram, you are not bombarded by sort of this onslaught of pro-vaccine messaging. we are not bombarded with psas from celebrities or other people, influencers, if you will. instead, there is this onslaught, a one-way messaging of nonsense. >> that is because as we've heard over and over again on social media in particular, the profit motive is the extremist rabbit hole, that's where the money is, right. and pro-vaccine conversation is just fact. it's not that rabbit hole that is so popular on social media. and that's a real challenge here. >> yep. >> the covid resurgence driven by the delta. the omicron variant taking a heavy toll on restaurants and hotels. service sector businesses hoping holiday traffic would help them recover from the pandemic. with new york state reporting record-high new infections, one harlem restaurant owner tells cnn her customers are cancelling reservations left and right. she says ten out of 70 employees have tested positive for covid. a trade group says many restaurants were already struggling with a labor shortage, and that spike in wholesale prices. now they say these low-margin businesses face a third threat here, plummeting customer confidence as covid cases surge. fewer customers are coming in this month than in november. according to open table, restaurant seatings nationwide were down 11% last week compared to the same stretch in 2019. 90,000 restaurants, about 14% of the u.s. total, have permanently closed during the pandemic. laura, i think it's interesting for our viewers to notice on the right side of the screen how you're seeing a little different information this morning. we're in a new phase where we're measuring the latest surge by hospitalizations because we do have the important tool of vaccines and boosters, right. so now we're looking at the hospitalizations to try to figure out, you know, the spread of this virus. so i think for viewers you're seeing it different on the right-hand side. that's why. >> great to point out. we're going to talk to an e.r. doctor in the next half hour about refocussing the conversation and what he's seeing in his e.r. still ahead for you, spurned by the power broker in his own party, president biden is trying to get build back better back on track. what senator manchin told his demo democratic colleagues in a private call last night and what it means for the plan. everything felt like a 'no'. everything. but then ray went from no to know. with freestyle libre 2, now he knows his glucose levels when he needs to. and... when he wants to. so ray... can be ray. take the mystery out of your glucose levels, and lower your a1c. now you know. try it for free. visit freestylelibre.us because you're forever connected by love... two touching center diamonds, representing the connection you share. forever connected. the perfect gift to give this holiday. exclusively at kay. liz, you nerd, cough if you're in here! shh! i took mucinex dm for my phlegmy cough. what about rob's dry cough? works on that too, and lasts 12 hours. 12 hours?! who studies that long? mucinex dm relieves wet and dry coughs. when it comes to autism, finding the right words can be tough. finding understanding doesn't have to be. we can create a kinder, more inclusive world for the millions of people on the autism spectrum. go to autismspeaks.org. with age comes more... get more with neutrogena® retinol pro plus. a powerful .05% retinol that's also gentle on skin. for wrinkles results in one week. neutrogena®. for people with skin. look, i want to get things done. i still think there is a possibility of getting build back better done. >> did senator manchin break his commitment to you? >> senator manchin and i are going to get something done. >> president biden holding out hope for build back better. days after senator joe manchin defied his party and torpedoed a key part of the biden agenda, leaving millions of people looking for help with child care, paid family leave, universal pre-k, drug price, climate concerns and more. manchin spoke with the democratic caucus on a phone call tuesday night. cnn's manu raju reports. >> reporter: good morning, christine and laura. now, democrats had a conference call last night to figure out if there is a way forward. and at the moment there just is not the consensus to move forward yet. yes, talks will probably continue. yes, there will be discussions about whether they can do a scaled-back plan. but what exactly that looks like remains to be seen. i am told joe manchin reiterated his concerns over this proposal saying that he has been consistent over the past five years, saying this bill would add to the debt. also raising concerns about the temporary nature of these programs he does not believe will be temporary. in fact, he believes that they are not showing the true cost of the proposal. one of those issues is the child tax credit. of course, that has been a central plank of the democratic proposals for this past year. an expansion of which would expire the end of this year if they don't get a deal here. but joe manchin is not in favor of that because he believes that any expansion of the child tax credit does not really accurately reflect how much it would cost taxpayers because year after year they would be extended. he also has concerns about waste in the program, and that is simply a no-go. also just the jen structure of t -- general structure of the bill. he wants things to be smaller? scope, but he did indicate that he is willing to continue to talk. so whether they end up somewhere that can get the various factions in line is the major question here. perhaps talks will continue, but perhaps it will lead to nothing and more frustration from democrats who have struggled, engaged in painstaking negotiations for months, only to see nothing materialize. they've had other accomplishments they can point to like the $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal. but it is very clear that right now democrats don't have a clear path forward and are laboring to get anything out of the senate. guys? >> all right, manu raju, thank you for that. to the january 6 investigation now, cnn has learned committee members are exploring the idea that they could produce criminal evidence against former president trump. sources say any potential referrals to the justice department could be a long way off. the justice department also doesn't need a referral, by the way. meantime, the panel is condemning gop congressman scott perry's refusal to talk with them and has not ruled out a subpoena for him. perry is a member of the freedom caucus and is considered a key player in pressuring the justice department to investigate bogus claims of voter fraud. body cameras for i.c.e. agents in some cities, the immigration customs enforcement pilot program in houston, new york and newark. the goal, improve transparency and accountability. the aclu claims it has documented i.c.e. officers using violence against migrants. so, if omicron is more contagious but less deadly, is it time to shorten the isolation time for an asymptomatic positive test? it's one of the big questions right now. new cnn reporting on what health officials are thinking next. 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( ♪ ) this is how we shine. at zales. the diamond store. in a recent clinical study, patients using salonpas patch reported reductions in pain severity, using less or a lot less oral pain medicines. and improved quality of life. ask your doctor about salonpas. it's good medicine. 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 welcome back. as people around the globe try to live with this latest covid surge, delta airlines is urging the cdc to shorten the recommended isolation period for those who get infected with covid, but are vaccinated. delta c.e.o. writes this. with the rapid spread of the omicron variant, the ten-day isolation for those who are fully vaccinated may significantly impact our work force and operations. >> yeah, delta is suggesting shortening the isolation period to five days, and to end isolation with an appropriate testing protocol. cdc chief dr. rochelle walensky responded on cnn last night. >> we are reviewing that science and that policy right now and understanding in the context of people who have been vaccinated, people who have been boosted, people who have mild or no symptoms associated with what might be a positive test, they have some low-level of infection, but they're not being symptomatic. we're reviewing that science right now. >> the uk lowered the self-isolation to seven days. the u.s. could take measures soon. jacqueline howard has that for us. >> reporter: the current cdc guidance is for to isolate for ten days. isolation starts the first day after you develop symptoms or if you have no symptoms the first day after you test positive. but we are hearing that health officials are considering shortening that time for fully vaccinated people with no symptoms. here's where the debate comes in. some doctors argue that the ten days could be cut in half for people who are asymptomatic and fully vaccinated. or better yet, boosted. they're less likely to spread covid to others. so after five days, why not say they can stop isolation if they test negative at that point. that's the question being considered here. here's dr. anthony fauci speaking with our colleague john berman about this. >> that's certainly an important consideration which is being discussed right now, particularly, john, in the context of health care workers. for example, if you get a health care worker who is infected and without any symptoms at all, you don't want to keep that person out of work too very long. >> reporter: you heard there fauci said we don't want to keep health care personnel out of work too long. if hospitalizations surge this winter, we'll really be relying on our health care workers to be on the front lines. christine and laura? >> jacqueline, thank you for that report. so, while americans are being urged to get boosted for maximum protection, israel is rolling out a fourth dose of the coronavirus vaccine. cnn's elliott is live from jerusalem with all the details on this. elliott, israel has been one step ahead of the u.s. all along here. so what's the rollout plan there? >> reporter: laura, we're still waiting for details of the rollout plan. as you said, israel led the world in rolling out a third booster shot in july or august, and now it wants to repeat the same trick with a fourth dose of the covid vaccine. nis initially it will be available for folks over 60 and medical workers. as we've seen in the past, it will be rolled out to other age groups and the population at large. it is introducing it to try to slow the spread of the omicron variant and its fifth covid wave. it knows it can't stop it but wants to slow it down adding u.s. and other countries to red line no-fly list. they are extending the green pass to prove that you've been vaccinated or recovered in order to gain access to certain shops and certain venues. it's also reducing the time gap between the third -- excuse me, the second and third booster shot. there are also going to be restrictions coming in for the education system depending on the prevalence of covid in those areas and the prevalence of vaccination rates among children. but as we've also seen in the past where israel leads, other countries tend to follow. so it wouldn't be surprising to see at some point in the near future other countries following israel's lead and also introducing a fourth shot of the covid vaccine. laura? >> all right, elliott, thank you. all right. of all the restrictive voting laws passed in the last decade, a third -- a third of them came in the last year alone. now republican-led states are gearing up for more of the same in 2022. representing the connection you share. forever connected. the perfect gift to give this holiday. exclusively at kay. nurse mariyam sabo knows a moment this pure... ...demands a lotion this pure. new gold bond pure moisture lotion. 24-hour hydration. no parabens, dyes, or fragrances. gold bond. champion your skin. ♪ [laughing and giggling] (woman) hey dad. miss us? (vo) reflect on the past, celebrate the future. season's greetings from audi. the big lie 2.0 is coming in 2022. new analysis shows republicans are pushing more ways to make it harder to vote at the state level after an historic onslaught of bills, lies and voter fraud, nonexistent voter fraud this year. we're talking fewer places for you to drop off your ballot, cutting back on mail-in voting, old playbooks with more momentum in gop-led states. cnn's sara murray reports for us. >> protect the vote. >> reporter: after successfully passing restricted new voting laws in states like georgia and texas. >> ensuring the integrity of the ballot box isn't partisan. >> reporter: gop lawmakers across the country are readying another round of bills for 2022 that could make it tougher to cast a ballot. a new report from the left-leaning for congress, they are already preparing more bills to allow review of votes, limit vote by mail and new voting requirements. many in the gop followed former president trump's donald trump's lead as he peddled baseless fraud about the 2020 election. >> in other words, the election was a fraud and we must pass a complete overhaul of our entire election system to ensure it's free, fair, honest and able to be fully and quickly audited. >> reporter: using those debunked allegations to post election ballot reviews. lawmakers in 19 states passed 34 restrictive bills in 2021, according to brennan's analysis. brianna an center president michael waldman said it is a sharp uptick driven by trump's rhetoric. >> the big lie has driven states across the country to enact new laws to make it harder for people to vote. some are worse than others, but they are invariably targeted at black and brown and asian voters. it is the biggest attempt to roll back voting rights since the jim crow era. >> reporter: senate democrats are insisting their stalled national voting rights legislation is top of the agenda in the new year, but state republican lawmakers are already chugging ahead with voting restrictions. >> if congress doesn't act, it gives a green light to these states to restrict the vote, to sabotage their own elections, and to turn them over to the hands of partisans. >> reporter: state legislators in missouri, new hampshire, south carolina and arizona filing at least 13 bills for 2022, making it tougher to vote. in arizona, home of the infamous partisan review that still showed trump lost. >> we have a lot of people that have serious questions about election integrity. not just in arizona, but in the entire nation. >> reporter: legislators are now eyeing stricter voter identification requirements. and the gop's audit fever also appears likely to carry into 2022. >> they want the forensic audits. they don't want the [ bleep ] audits. >> reporter: prefiled bills in florida and tennessee would set off partisan reviews of the 2020 election results. and in missouri, new hampshire and south carolina, pre-filed bills are laying out guidelines for conducting future partisan reviews. senate democrats insist the national voting rights legislation is at the top of their agenda for 2022. state republican lawmakers are not waiting. they are making these plans ahead of time. they are moving ahead and democracy advocates are worried about what's going to happen if these laws pass and they are worried when they look at some of the secretary of state aureliuss, some of the attorney general races where people questioned or flat-out denied the results of the 2020 election are still running. back to you. >> sara murray, thank you. "early start" continues right now. good morning, everyone. this is "early start." i'm laura jarrett . >> and i'm christine romans. 31 minutes past the hour. top stories to keep an eye on today. americans are struggling to get tested for covid with surges. they will limit the number of at-home kits customers can buy because of the demand. murder trial in ex-police officer kim potter, jurors struggling to reach a consensus. they asked the judge for guidance. he said keep at it. brooklyn center police are prepared to set up road closures and blockades in case they are needed. packaged salad by fresh express, ten have died. they are recalling salad made at its facility in illinois. professor charles lied about his ties to a chinese university and recruitment program run by the beijing government. u.s. authorities believe the recruitment program may have been used to conduct economic espionage. the national hockey league players won't participate in the beijing winter olympics. multiple outputs reported tuesday. they paused until after christmas because of covid outbreaks in the league. an historic preservation, team plans to open up a time capsule today from 1887. it was found last week as crews took apart the pedestal that held the robert e. lee statue in richmond, virginia. president biden walking a fine line this week trying to settle americans' fears over the coronavirus pandemic. >> we should all be concerned about omicron, but not panicked. >> all right. it's time for three questions in three minutes. he said a little bit more, but let's bring in dr. ali raja, vice chair of emergency medicine at massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical. doctor, thank you so much for being with us. we've been talking a lot lately about sort of refocussing the discussion more on hospitalizations and lesson just pure case counts. so, talk to us about what you're seeing and you're hearing. you're on the ground. we see hospitals overwhelmed in places, not only because of staffing shortages, but more people are actually coming to the e.r. now for non-covid problems. >> that is absolutely true, laura. i'm working through the holidays and i know i'm going to see a lot more patients than i normally would. like you said, some of it is going to be covid, and especially in patients who aren't vaccinated. but most of it isn't. a lot of it is just patients who were forced to delay care because of the pandemic and that's catching up to us. i've got to tell you, added to the staffing shortages we're facing and mild breakthrough infections we're seeing in our staff and their families, it's going to be a tough few months for us in the hospital. >> i'm sure it will be. our hearts go out to everybody working in health care toward the end of the year as they're facing this again. meanwhile at home, laura and i are doing risk management every day trying to keep our families safe and decide what to do and weigh the information that's changing as we learn more every morning about omicron. it's spreading faster but appears to be less severe than delta. we zero in on this chart of hospitalizations. you can see the summer surge there was delta. but what do you say to americans looking to celebrate the holidays, business owners looking to stay open right now during omicron? should we be treating this differently or the same? what are the risk management metrics we should be using every morning when we try to decide what to do for the holidays? >> that's such a good question, christine. it's something my family is wrestling with, all of us are. i think we need to remember this year isn't last year, and we really do need to reconnect this holiday season. and so we just need to be careful. we didn't have vaccines last year. we didn't have as many masks and tests available. so i think this year we can still proceed with holiday gatherings, but we need to do so safely. i'm talking about rapid tests. plenty of ventilation and masks in public places. >> doctor, can i ask you on a personal level, are you changing any of your own behaviors and practices just to sort of account for where we are? are you eating out in restaurants? >> i'm not eating out at restaurants, but we are having family come over on christmas eve. i have a bunch of rapid tests we're all going to take beforehand. so i'm not doing as much publicly, but we're still gath gathering privately. >> we're trying to do the same, trying to find rapid tests, but they are in short supply and hard to get right now. >> and expensive. tea and expensive. that's the other thing. it's not like you can get them for a dollar like you can in other places. i want to ask about research we're seeing in the uk, japan and south africa that suggest that omicron might be less likely to cause severe lung disease than other strains of covid. basically it seems like it doesn't embed in the lungs in the same way as its original strain. what more do you know about that? >> it's a really interesting small study that just came out, laura. so, it was done in a petri dish. this wasn't done in actual lungs. it's not yet peer reviewed. but it had some pretty interesting findings. in the lab in this petri dish, when you exposed lung cells to omicron and delta, the omicron spike protein wasn't really able to fuse with the lung cells as easily as the delta was. if this is replicated by others, it may actually explain why we're seeing less severe disease with this variant. >> something to watch, something optimistic, maybe hopefully to watch. dr. ali raja, massachusetts general hospital, thank you for your time this morning. >> thank you. kids are headed back online with the latest covid surge. mine included. the secretary said there is no reason to switch to remote learning. >> our children need to be in school. we know how to keep them safe. we have a year's worth of experience. we have vaccination efforts happening for children ages 5 and up. the precautions that we took were necessary, but we're a year removed from that. we know what works. we know how to protect ourselves. there's no reason our schools should be going remote fully. we need to keep our kids in the classroom. >> boy, we have come a long way. secretary cardona added nthat te cdc's test to stay program allows shorter quarantine periods for vaccinated students. they are working closely with health and human services to make covid tests available to students so they can stay in physical classrooms. and as the u.s. grapples with the rise of the omicron variant, there is new information about the human toll of the original virus in 2020. the cdc says covid-19 contributed to the biggest drop in life expectancy in more than 75 years. this shocked the statisticians who are working on these numbers. cnn's elizabeth cohen reports. >> reporter: chris teen, laura, the cdc has put out new mortality rate looking at deaths in 2020 and the news unfortunately is not good. let's take a look at what the cdc found. the cdc says that in 2020, life expectancy was 77 years old. that's down 1.8 years compared to 2019. that's the largest annual drop since world war ii. the three leading causes of death in this order, heart disease, cancer, and covid-19. covid-19 was responsible for 10% of all deaths in 2020. now, overall, some groups unfortunately were hit much harder than others. the death rate increased from 2019 to 2020. it was 1.7 times higher for black males than when you look at the population in general. that death rate increase was 2.5 times higher for latino males than the population in general. so, 2020 a particularly deadly year, especially for certain groups of americans. christine, laura? >> elizabeth cohen, thank you for that. news out of the justice department. d.o.j. says nearly 8,000 federal inmates can serve out their sentences at home rather than return to prison. thousands of people you'll remember were released to home confinement during the early days of the pandemic to slow the spread of covid and to ease the burden on prison, prison staff. now attorney general merrick garland says many people have reconnected with their families, gotten jobs and followed the rules. we'll be right back. lisa here, has had many jobs. and all that experience has led her to a job that feels like home. with home instead, you too can become a caregiver to older adults. apply today. ray loves vacations. but his diabetes never seemed to take one. everything felt like a 'no'. everything. but then ray went from no to know. with freestyle libre 2, now he knows his glucose levels when he needs to. and... when he wants to. so ray... can be ray. take the mystery out of your glucose levels, and lower your a1c. now you know. try it for free. visit freestylelibre.us ♪ this flag isn't backwards. it's facing this way because it's moving forward. ♪ just like the men and women who wear it on their uniforms and the country it represents. they're all only meant to move one direction which is why we fly it this way on the flanks of the all-new grand wagoneer. moving boldly and unstoppably forward. where's mom? she said she would be home in time for the show. don't worry, sweetie. she promised she'd be here for it. ooh! nice shot! thanks! glad we have xfinity, with wifi speed faster than a gig! me too! woah, look! mom is on tv! she's amazing! (cheers) xfinity brought us together, after all! power your whole home this holiday with wifi speeds faster than a gig. click, call, or visit a store today. sing 2 the big question here, how long to quarantine after a positive covid test? british health officials are looking to shorten the self-isolation time. cnn's barbie nadeau is following all the latest pandemic headlines out of europe. she joins us from rome. howard reported u.s. health officials are looking at a similar change to shorten the self-isolation time after a positive test with no symptoms. so what's the uk doing? >> reporter: well, the uk, it's interesting. around 90,000 new cases every single day. they're looking at shortening it from ten to seven days. that's going to be good news to a lot of people who don't have any symptoms and who test out of it right away. we've seen health care workers there catching covid at this round. also seeing a real scatter shot approach across europe. sweden, which didn't really pay attention to the pandemic the first time around, refused to have any lockdowns and led to great loss of life there. they got big restrictions coming their way. germany is looking at lockdown after christmas. here in italy where we've had a mask mandate since march 2020, now in the city of rome and the area around rome, people have to wear masks outside. if you're walking your dog you have to put a mask on. we're seeing all these various approaches. christmas you can kind of get together. but new year's, i think it's going to be a total bust. rome canceled concert here. paris isn't going to have the big light show. it is to stop the spread and the numbers that we don't know entirely if this is all omicron or if this is still delta. not every country is sequencing every positive test result. in denmark they are. here in italy, cases of omicron seem low because they're not sequencing every positive result. so it's going to -- christmas is going to happen, but it's not going to be a very happy one. >> christmas is going to happen, but it will be another covid christmas. barbie, thank you so much. laura? so, right now many are weighing the risks of holiday travel given covid. not to mention all the new rules. but to the world's biggest airplane makers are focused on something else. could new cell phone service endanger your flight? cnn's pete muntean has a closer look for us. >> reporter: it is the newest issue that could impact your safety in the sky. airlines are warning that radio waves from soon to be turned-on high-speed phone service could interfere with key instruments that pilots use to land. in this simulator of a regional airliner, i saw how automatic warnings could stop and flight displays give confusing mismatched readings. what would you do? just go around and figure it out? >> cause a big bottleneck. >> reporter: in a new letter, c.e.o.s of boeing say that 5g cell transmitters could adversely affect aircraft to safely operate. on capitol hill last week, airline executives called it their number one issue. >> how concerned should passengers be, how scared should they be about this? >> the passengers will be safe, but it will be really damaging to customers. hundreds of thousands of customers a day impacted by this. >> reporter: providers such as at&t and verizon plan to turn on 5g in just weeks on january 5th, with the promise of speeding up cell data in 46 markets. but major airlines say the signals could slow down hundreds of thousands of flights. a new analysis from industry group airlines for america, say 345,000 flights could be delayed or diverted each year, affecting 32 million passengers. >> very actively. >> reporter: 5g interference impacts radar altemeters used to tell the actual height and low visibility. eduardo rojas leads the radio spectrum lab at emery riddle aeronautical lab in florida. >> it is difficult trent from helicopters, especially because it helps tune in. it's a concern, a big concern. >> reporter: airline executives say it is now on the federal government to ban 5g transmitters from nearby airports or delay its rollout so your next flight isn't. >> this is not an issue created by airlines or airline customers, and it cannot be solved on the backs of airlines and airline customers. >> reporter: pete muntean, cnn, washington. all right. act out of line and you'll wait in line. that message from the head of the faa warning unruly airline passengers, they could lose their tsa pre-check privileges. under a new partnership between the two agencies, the faa will now share information with the tsa on passengers who face fines for belligerent and often violent behavior on flights and in airports. this year alone there have been more than 5500 incidents involving unruly passengers, most officials say are mask-related. in colorado, prosecutors are requesting a hearing to reconsider a man's 110-year prison sentence for a crash that killed four people and injured ten on interstate 70. the case has gained national attention, including from a celebrity turned criminal justice advocate kim kardashian west, the online petition to commute his sentence or grant him clemency has gathered more than 4 million signatures. his sentence was the result of the mandatory minimum that applies to any offense in which somebody suffers serious bodily injury. all right, looking at markets around the world this wednesday morning, you can see futures -- we'll start with global markets. you can see asian shares are mixed. europe has opened mixed. on wall street, stock index futures, we can look there, also mixed. not very decisive really. turn around tuesday on wall street, shaking off several days of gloom. the dow rose 1.6%. the s&p 500 rose 1.8%. the nasdaq up a strong 2.4%. there is still plenty of uncertainty in the economy with the spread of omicron raising concerns of official restrictions, but remember, all three indices are on track for double-digit gains for the year. a lot to digest today. consumer confidence, existing home sales and update the final one for third quarter gdp. the latest read said the u.s. economy grew 1.2% year over year. no change. the president will meet over supply disruptions. the white house announcing good news for americans at the pump. falling to 3.30. winter's warm start could mean much needed relief to many americans who had been bracing for high home heating bills since natural gas is used to heat almost half of u.s. households. rising natural gas prices stem from the inventory held in storage which shrank in september more than 7% below the five-year average. storage levels have recovered in large part due to the unseasonably start to the winter. let's get a little sports. nba commissioner adam silver says he has no plans to pause the season even with this current covid surge. andy scholes has this morning's bleacher report. hey, andy. >> commissioner adam silver says 97% of nba players are vaccinated, with 65% of them also receiving their booster shot. in an interview with espn silver said he doesn't see a reason why the nba should pause their season. >> we have, of course, looked at all the options. but frankly we're having trouble coming up with what the logic would be behind pausing right now. as we look through these cases, literally whipping through the country right now, this virus will not be eradicated and we're going to have to learn to live with it. >> now, the nfl has moved to a model of mainly testing vaccinated individuals only if they show symptoms. silver said that is something the nba is looking at, but they are not ready to make that change just yet. all right. the nhl, meanwhile, and its players association reportedly agreed to pull out of the upcoming winter olympics in beijing. the nhl plan -- allowing players to go to the olympics as part of the collective bargaining agreement signed in 2020. they put in a provision there they could pull the players if the nhl season was materially impacted by covid. and so far, 50 games have been postponed. the nhl was going to take a break from february 6 to the 22nd for the olympics, but now likely going to use that time to make up games that have been postponed due to covid. nhl players have not played in an olympics since the sochi games in 2014. the reported move comes after the nhl announced a shutdown of all league operations today until december 26 to deal with the recent surge in covid cases. due to postponements, the rams cooper cup continuing his incredible season. fourth quarter between seahawks and rams. put the rams in the lead for good. they win 20-10. nine catches, 136 yards, two touchdowns. he's had the single season record for catches for the rams of the still have three games left to go. he leads in nfl receptions, yards making the fantasy owners pretty happy this season. the other game the eagles hosting washington, bad luck for the eagles early in this one. dallas goddard drops the pass. watch, it goes right off his foot and landon collins is going to grab it for an interception. washington would lead 10-0 after a quarter. but philly mounting a comeback. jalen hurts in his first game back for the ankle injury ran for two touchdowns. the eagles got the win 27-17. the first black woman to be a position coach during an nfl game, the assistant to running backs coach randy jordan. he had to miss the game due to covid protocol. so king stepped in there, guys. that was pretty cool to see her on the side lines in an official capacity. >> very cool. >> thanks, andy. >> appreciate it, andy. all right. get this. a 70 million-year-old fossil is shedding new light on the link between dinosaurs and birds. a dinosaur curled up inside its egg was discovered in china more than two decades ago. it sat in storage for ten years. researchers say the fossil indicates that dinosaurs were moving around and changing poses before hatching in a way that is similar to modern birds. >> very cool. something else that sat around too long, a big cash donation to the city college of new york. look at that. a box of cash sat in the mail room nearly a year because classes were virtual and few people were coming in. when in-person classes resumed, the head of the physics department finally got his mail, and he found this. $180,000 cash. they wrote it is key to a long successful scientific career and wanted the money to help physics and math majors. >> i wonder why it was in cash. glad they found it finally. all right, a world war ii veteran says his latest honor means a lot to his family. his high school diploma. >> i'd like to present a 1943 daniel high school. >> wow. he was sent to boot camp in 1943 which was supposed to be his graduating year. he fought in the battle of the bulge and took part in the normandy invasion. >> since he never received his diploma, his granddaughter asked the school to participate in the program called operation recognition that recognizes those who were drafted and unable to finish high school. >> god bless everybody. the best christmas i ever had. it's about time, you know, 78 years. a long time. you know, when i came home from the service, the ship docked and i got off the ship. i looked up and guess what i -- first thing i seen? stadium high school. >> the school says he is the first veteran they have honored, but he will not be the last. you know, that story warms my heart because the sacrifice of that generation for democracy for this country is just epic. one hopes that we remember that and we base our decisions on the sacrifices of our grandfathers and grand mothers. >> that's certainly the hope. and the value of education still meant something to him to have that physical diploma in his hand, even all these years later. >> all right. thanks for joining us. i'm christine romans. >> i'm laura jarrett. "new day" is next. get up to 40% off storewide. 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