in. u.s. covid hospitalizations have now surpassed the peak seen from the delta variant. that was in september. nearly 113,000 people are currently hospitalized with covid. a large number of infections has forced everything from schools to airlines, hospitals, to cut back or modify services. cnn's alexander field explains. >> we cannot feed into hysteria. this is traumatizing our cu children. >> reporter: in an unprecedented covid surge, new york city's new mayor insisting schools really are the safest place for children. >> i need my cities to open, and we have to be safe. we have to double down on vaccinations and booster shots. we have to double down on testing, but we have to reshape our thinking of how do we live with covid. >> reporter: the vast majority of schools throughout the country are pressing on and keeping students in the classroom. >> what we have learned over the past two years is that there's significant risk keeping children out of school. risk in terms of not just educational learning but socialization and mental health and all kinds of things that are really, really important. >> reporter: but according to the data company birbio, more than 3,200 schools are going remote or delaying returns from winter break. l.a. unified school district, the latest to push back its start date by one day and require proof of a negative test. in chicago, the powerful teachers union is threatening a walkout over decisions to bring students back to the classroom. >> contact tracing and vaccination efforts by her administration have been an abject failure. only 30% of our elementary school students are vaccinated. only 50% of our high school students are vaccinated. >> reporter: across the country, pediatric hospitalizations are still rare but now at a record high, spurring questions over whether children are being hospitalized for covid or with covid as well as questions about the impact of omicron on children. >> now, did those children show up because they had a broken leg or a broken arm and then happened to test positive for covid versus, did they show up because they had trouble breathing because of covid-19? i think we would be foolish to keep minimizing covid-19 in children at this point in the pandemic. >> reporter: hospitalizations nationwide again surpassing the 100,000 mark. the surgeon general says vaccines and boosters are proving extremely effective at keeping people out of the hospital. >> when i talk to doctors in the emergency room and my colleagues who are in hospitals around the country, they continue to emphasize that the people they are seeing who are hospitalized are primarily those who are not vaccinated. >> reporter: the sheer volume of cases coming with dire consequences. one in five hospitals with an icu, that's more than 700 hospitals, reporting that at least 95% of icu beds were full last week. according to the department of health and human services. in massachusetts, doctors and nurses are sounding alarm bells with an urgent appeal. we are overwhelmed. your emergency departments are at a breaking point. the strain on testing continues to be a problem too. ohio turning to its national guard for help while florida's surgeon general offers a new approach, what he calls high value testing, prioritizing those most at risk. and alisyn and victor, israel has started giving fourth shots, boosters to people who are 60 and up, as well as healthcare workers. a new preliminary study out of israel shows that fourth shot of a pfizer vaccine can improve antibodies five fold within the space of a week, seems to support the policy that's being rolled out in israel. meanwhile here in the u.s., the struggle continues to get more adults to get a first course of vaccine, children as well, who still remain the least vaccinated age group, even in the face of what we are seeing are major consequences across the country. alisyn, victor? >> alexandra field, thank you. so, president biden plans to meet with his covid response team soon. a source says that the cdc plans to update their guidance on that shortened isolation period for people who test positive. >> some experts say a negative test should also be required to end isolation. cnn chief white house correspondent kaitlan collins joins us now. what do we expect to hear from the president? >> reporter: he's going to talk about just an update generally on omicron. i wouldn't expect a ton of new, though we did just hear from the white house that he is going to say they have doubled their purchase of that pfizer anti-covid pill. of course that's the one that got the authorization from the fda last week. it is very significant, because it can be -- it can make a real difference in treating coronavirus and responding to patients who obviously get it. however, we should at that dr. anthony fauci did tell cnn last week when it was still those ten million courses they had ordered, now it's 20 million courses, that this is something that's going to take months before it's widely available because it is so complicated, it's this multistep synthetic process, to create this antiviral pill so we should note that is something, a word of caution, essentially, that is something good. it is something significant. but it will take a while before you see it widely available for treatment. but victor and alisyn, overall, you're going to hear from president biden just an update on the rapid spread of the omicron variant, and of course, as it's coming alongside these other issues, number one being what alex just laid out there. the nationwide shortage of testing, and so some big questions for the white house are about this new plan to distribute half a billion tests for free to people who sign up for them online. right now, that is a website that's not available, and it's not clear yet which companies are making those tests or how quickly that's going to shift. those are big questions, because health experts have said, right now is really the critical period when it comes to testing, and making sure you can get tested and that is something that has been in short supply. i think the other thing that president biden will be asked about, if he does take questions here at this event, in a few moments, this briefing with his top covid officials is about the cdc guidance, and we know that change is imminent. there are going to be big questions about it. does it include, now, a recommendation to take a rapid test after those five days? that's what a lot of officials wanted to see. that remains to be seen, victor and alisyn. >> kaitlan collins, of course, we'll bring those remarks live when they happen. thank you so much. listen, we're just getting this in from the american academy of pediatrics. there have been an alarming increase or has been an alarming increase in new covid-19 cases in children, close to 64% over the prior week. let's talk now about this and more with pediatrician and scientist dr. levy, director of the precision vaccines program at boston children's hospital. also a member of the fda's vaccine advisory committee. perfect person to have on all these questions. let's start with this increase in hospitalization of children. we heard from hospital official in texas that it's not incidental diagnoses for many of these children that come in with a broken leg and then their diagnosed. the main cause for them is covid hospitalizations. is there something unique about omicron or specifically about the vulnerability of children that's leading to this increase that we're seeing? >> thank you for that, victor. it's a remarkable time. january shaping up as a very challenging month. omicron is really raging across the country, and as your lead-in piece illustrates, children are getting infected as well. now, thankfully, most of those children are getting mild disease, but some of them are getting more serious infection and are showing up in emergency departments, and as you illustrate, some are even been hospitalized. the risk is, of course, going to be greatest with children with comorbidities or immune deficiency of various sorts, but as you illustrate, some other children as well are getting hospitalized. this is a delicate time in the pandemic, and that's why it's busy times at fda and cdc to make available the tools, the vaccines and other tools, to try to protect children as well. >> well, speaking of making the vaccines available, why aren't they available yet for children under five? i mean, all of us, remember, getting our childhood vaccines, the measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria before we were five years old. why is this one different? >> well, the currently approved platform is a new platform. the messenger rna or mrna vaccines. we now have a lot of experience with this platform in adults, as you know, millions and millions of doses given, and they've marched down in age. age de-escalation, as you remember initially 16 years and up, and then the next group down, 12 to 15 years old, and fda just reviewed real-world data from israel for over 6,000 children, and now recommends boosters in that group as well. and then for the 5 to 11 years of age, as they went down to that age, alisyn, they felt the need, pfizer, to go to a lower dose. they want to emphasize safety in the youngest children, make sure that we don't get any untoward safety events, so that dose was quite a low dose and as they went under 5 years of age, that low dose was not producing the antibody response that was hoped for, so now they're going to study a three-dose series in those younger kids less than 5, so those studies are ongoing and we look forward and would welcome this data but we're not there yet for a vaccine in those less than 5 years of age. >> so, what's the timeline for that group, less than 5? are we talking a month, three months, six months until those kids can be vaccinated? >> right, i don't know precisely. my impression is that we're still months away, not days, not weeks, but months away from the sponsor, in this case, pfizer having the data, which they then submit to fda, and then fda will make a determination whether the data, you know, justifies convening an advisory panel meeting to discuss that and consider authorization. >> dr. levy, we have a graph, and this needs to be updated because as victor just reported, we've now seen this big spike in kids and hospitalizations, but the latest graph that we had of coronavirus hospitalizations in minors shows this, you know, obviously really dramatic upswing here. are kids having the same symptoms that adults were in terms of loss of taste and smell, in terms of difficulty breathing, not getting enough oxygen, or is it different somehow in kids? >> thank you for that. those studies are still ongoing. our impression is that children can present with fever, with runny nose, cough, sore throat, and body aches. so, similar symptoms to those that adults can develop, and yes, in some children, some loss of sense of smell. thankfully, over time, that loss of sense of smell usually returns. sometimes it takes weeks or months to come back, but it does come back in nearly everyone. rarely, in less than 1% of children with coronavirus, there's a multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children or misc. this is rare, less than 1% of kids, but they can present with bloodshot eyes, stomach pain, diarrhea, vomiting and rash. that's a rare case. >> dr. ofer levy, we thank you very much. we're going now to the president. the admiral's in the house. >> hi, sir, how are you? >> well, since we're more than ten feet apart while we're speaking, we're going to take our masks off, and let me begin by saying, good afternoon to my team, good afternoon to the press, good afternoon to anyone who may be listening. i'm about to receive a briefing from our covid-19 team. but before i begin, i know there's a concern and some considerable confusion about the rising cases, so let me provide a quick update and talk about three specific topics. and i'll give it to you straight, as i promised you i always would. we're going to see, as you all have been hearing, continued rise in cases. omicron is very transmissible, transmissible variant, but much different than anything we've seen before. but you can protect yourself. and you should protect yourself, quite frankly. get vaccinated. get boosted. there's plenty of booster shots. wear a mask while you're in public. because what we know is this. the impact from a rising cases depends on the effect on the person based on whether or not that person -- what their vaccination status is. you can control how big an impact omicron is going to have on your health if you get omicron. you know, those are fully vaccinated, especially those with the booster shots. and by the way, we have booster shots for the whole nation, okay? you can still get covid, but it's highly unlikely, very unlikely that you become seriously ill. and we're seeing covid-19 cases among vaccinated and workplaces across america, including here at the white house, but if you're vaccinated and boosted, you are highly protected. you know, be concerned about omicron, but don't be alarmed. if you're unvaccinated, you have some reason to be alarmed. many of you will, you know, experience severe illness in many cases if you get covid-19 if you're not vaccinated. some will die needlessly. unvaccinated are taking up hospital beds and crowding emergency rooms and intensive care units. that's jdisplacing other people who need access to those hospitals so please, please, please get vaccinated now. we've reduced the number of american adults without any shots from 90 million to about 35 million in the past six months, but it's still 35 million people not vaccinated. and let me be absolutely clear. we have in hand all the vaccines we need to get every american fully vaccinated, including the booster shot. so there's no excuse. no excuse for anyone being unvaccinated. this continues to be a pandemic of the unvaccinated. so we got to make more progress. and for patients who still haven't gotten your kids vaccinated, please get them vaccinated. look out for their interests here. it's the best way to protect them. and for parents with kids too young to be vaccinated, surround your kids with people who are vaccinated. and make sure you're masking in public so you don't get covid and give it to your kids. look, we have no reason to think at this point that omicron is worse for children than previous variants. we know that our kids can be safe when in school, by the way. that's why i believe schools should remain open. you know, they have what they need because of the american rescue plan with the first month we were in office, the second month that i signed in march, we provided the states with $130 billion with a "b" to specifically keep our students safe and schools open. funding for ventilation, ventilation systems to the schools, social distancing classrooms, even larger classrooms. on buses and everything from bus drivers to buses, to the actual bus. there were additional -- in all this process, we also back then included an additional $10 billion for testing for schools. that money went out to the states. the states and the school districts have spent this money well. many of them. but unfortunately, some haven't. so i encourage the states and school districts to use the funding that you still have to protect your children and keep the schools open. countries across the world are seeing rising cases. here in the united states, our team have been working around the clock during the holiday weeks, and the last two weeks, we have developed hundreds of military -- we have deployed, i should say, hundreds of military doctors and nurses to staff the hospitals in our states that are overrun and overworked because of unvaccinated covid-19 patients, primarily. the federal emergency management association -- agency, fema, is also working at our direction, and every state in hospital capacity, including whether they need beds. i've directed fema to be ready to provide emergency hospital beds wherever and whenever they're needed. the federal government will be there. we've shipped nearly 2.4 million pieces of protective equipment to hospitals from gowns to gloves and we're doing whatever we can to protect communities from the surge of hospital cases that are likely to see from the unvaccinated population. look, let me address three specific updates before i get my full brief from my team. first, booster shots. i know dr. fauci, i'm like an echo chamber here, okay, i know it. but repeating myself, but dr. fauci said it very clearly. booster shots work. they significantly increase the protection, they provide the highest level of protection against omicron. americans, we have given out over 70 million booster shots. importantly, two out of three eligible seniors have received their booster shots. booster shots are free. they're safe and available. over 90 -- at over 90,000 vaccination sites. let me say that again. they're free, available and at over 90,000 sites. we have added sites, added hours, added appointments, added walk-in capacity. we have booster shots for every american in the country. it's easier than ever to get a booster shot, and more importantly than ever, it's been. the fda has also now authorized booster shots for children ages 12 to 15. so, with the final approval from the centers for disease control and prevention, the cdc, young people, when that occurs, young people ages 12 to 15 will be able to get booster shots later this week. second, on testing, i know this remains frustrating, believe me, it's frustrating to me, but we're making improvements. in the last two weeks, we've stood up federal testing sites all over the country and we're adding more each and every day. google covid test near me, go there, google -- excuse me. covid test near me on google to find the nearest site where you can get a test. most often and free. look, with more capacity for in-person tests, we should see waiting lines shorten and more appointments freed up. look, if you want to test yourself at home, we have three options now. one, drugstores and online websites are restocking. two, you know, actually, so, the more tests are available, we're going to continue to become available. next week, our requirement that your insurance company reimburse you for at-home tests take effect so you'll have to get reimbursed. so if you're insured, you can buy the test and get paid for it. the second thing i want to mention is, many states and local governments and healthcare providers are passing out free at-home tests that you can pick up. just find out where they are. and finally, as i announced recently, the federal government is launching a website this month where you can get tests shipped to your home for free upon your request. the third point i'd like to speak about is also on treatments. for those at high risk who do get covid-19, we now have a new pfizer pill that greatly reduces the risk of hospitalization and death. i i'm pleased to say that on christmas eve, we shipped out the first batch of these pills that we received. we purchased and received. and more will be shipped this week. they're already saving lives but due to complex chemistry of the pills, to make the pill, it takes months, literally, to make a pill. but production is in full swing. the united states has more pills than any other country in the world, and our supply is going to ramp up over the coming months as more of these pills are manufactured. today, i'm directing my team to work with pfizer to double our order from 10 million to 20 million treatment courses to be delivered in the months ahead. we may need even more. that's the estimate we need right now. we've already placed the largest order in the world. now i'm doubling that order. these pills are going to dramatically decrease hospitalizations and deaths from covid-19. they're a game changer and have the potential to dramatically alter the impact of covid-19, the impact it's had on this country and our people. look, let me conclude with a quick recap. if you are vaccinated and boosted, you may get covid but you are highly protected against severe illness. schools can and should be open this winter. we have all the tools to keep kids safe. unvaccinated kids are at risk, yet the vaccinated are going to have a way to protect them. get vaccinated. if you're vaccinated, get boosted. folks, i know we're all tired and frustrated about the pandemic. these coming weeks are going to be challenging. please wear your mask in public to protect yourself and others. we're going to get through this. we're going to get through it together. we have the tools to protect people from severe illness due to omicron if people choose to use the tools. we have the medicines coming along that can save so many lives and dramatically reduce the impact that covid has had on our country. there's a lot of reason to be hopeful in 2020, but for god's sake, please take advantage of what's available. please. you're going to save lives, maybe yours, maybe your child's. please take advantage of what we already have, okay? so, thank you. now i'm going to get this briefing started. thank you very much. >> what about the covid tests -- >> thank you, thank you. >> okay. does not sound like the president is going to take any questions right now from the journalists, so back with us until we get an update from his covid response team. we have cnn chief white house correspondent kaitlan collins and dr. ofer levy, the director of precision vaccine program at boston children's hospital. kaitlan, the president just was underscoring, i think, his overarching message, which is, we have the tools to stay alive through this and manage our way through this. he begged people, get boosted. that makes it highly unlikely for you to get very sick or hospitalized or die. what else did you hear there? >> reporter: yeah, he was saying he feels like an echo chamber talking about booster shots at this point because so often, he has touted how booster shots work, how effective they are, the point of getting them and what they will do to protect you and he said, once again, he is telling people to get a booster shot, talking about who is eligible, talking about the decision that we are waiting for from the cdc director, which is signing off on the fda's authorization of booster shots for people who are 12 to 15. those are people who can already go ahead and get two doses but so far, they have not been able to get a third shot. but the fda has authorized it for a pfizer shot, a third shot. right now, we're still waiting on a final approval from the cdc. so, that is not something that they can get yet and that's something that the president was noting there. he also talked about something that is frustrating americans everywhere and something that the president says is frustrating himself, and that is the nationwide shortage of rapid tests. and the president said that he believes that stores are starting to get them back in stock and able to send them if you you buy them online but there are still questions about when exactly you are going to be able to walk into any drugstore on the corner and get a rapid test. in new york, here in washington, d.c., in many parts throughout the country, including when i was home in alabama recently, it's very difficult to get a rapid test at a drugstore. and so, that is something that they're working on, and one timeline update that the president did offer there is he said next week is when that rule is going to go into effect, requiring private insurance companies to reimburse you for the cost of those tests because when you can get your hands on one, they're pretty expensive. sometimes they can be $25 for two of them. the prices vary but the costs can really add up if you're taking these rapid tests pretty often, which a lot of doctors have said is something that you should be doing right now, especially with the spread of omicron. however, i should note, when it comes to this rule going into effect, we're still waiting on some of the details of it, but you will have to file a claim with your insurance company if you have private insurance to get your money back for those rapid tests. so it's not just a simple process where they're free or basically free. you still are going to have to file that claim. however, it is still notable, you will be able to get reimbursed for it. the one other thing i want to note really quickly is the president talking about ramping up what their purchase of this pfizer anti-covid pill. this is an antiviral pill that you will be able to take to help with covid treatment. of course, testing will be conve critical to taking that because you have to find out you have covid and take it pretty early on. but officials, including dr. fauci, have said it will be months before that is a pill that's widely available because it is so complicated to make. it is a synthetic process. it is multistep. and so yes, it is great news because that is something that will change the way we respond to covid, but it will take some time before it's widely available. >> dr. levy, let me come to you on the point about schools that the president made. he said that kids must stay in school, talked about some of the investments that were made to try to keep schools open but you know that there is a fight across this country on whether schools can stay hope. thousands of them have delayed or gone virtual for a short period as school resumes after the holiday break so what do you say to those, let's say, the teachers union in chicago that says, you know, they're going to vote today if they should return to virtual learning because they don't believe they have all of the things that the president listed there to keep schools open and safe. >> thank you for that, victor, and a critical question. look, there's no doubt, it's a major challenge to conduct business, healthcare, and education at the height of a pandemic. fortunately, although omicron is serious, it's not as severe as the prior waves, and there are more tools available than ever, as president biden just outlined, so my message to the teachers union is, do all you can to avail yourself of those tools, but let's not lose sight of the mission, the critical mission of educating the next generation of americans. it is so important, as a pediatrician i will say, and as a father of three, to the psychological and emotional wellbeing of our children to attend school. there are guidelines from the centers for disease control, cdc on safe opening of schools, and with the tools the president described, it should be possible to keep -- stay open and continue that critical mission. >> all right, dr. ofer levy, kaitlan collins at the white house, thank you. all right, now to this. this traffic nightmare on i-95 in virginia. drivers stuck for hours and hours. we're going to talk to a truck driver who decided to make breakfast for some strangers in nearby cars and how they responded. and it's been almost a year since the january 6th insurrection. some frontline officers are talking about the traumatic toll that day continues to take on their lives. rld can be pretty s. sit down. actually, really smart. good boy. where do you think you're going? smart move, mom. wicked smart. i think they get it. at capella university, we thought your education should be smart, too. so smart, it can work at my speed? -yep. -you sure it can keep up? well, with flexpath, you can finish the bachelor's in business degree you've started in 18 months for $18,000. capella university. don't just learn. learn smarter. why hide your skin if dupixent has your moderate to severe eczema or atopic dermatitis under control? hide my skin? not me. by hitting eczema where it 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today for 50% off at ww.com. hurry, offer ends january 10th. as we speak, victor, drivers are still stuck in that icy traffic mess along interstate 95 in virginia. some of them have been trapped since yesterday afternoon. that's 24 hours of gridlock. after this snowstorm turned the interstate between richmond and washington, d.c., into a skating rink. >> yeah, in one of those cars trapped overnight, senator tim kane of virginia. he tweeted this. i started any normal two-hour drive to d.c. at 1:00 p.m. yesterday. 19 hours later, i'm still not near the capitol. wow. joe johns is out there in that mess. joe, what do you see, and how long do they expect this is going to go on? >> reporter: you know, they don't really know how long it's going to take, victor, but i can tell you, you're right, it's a huge mess, and they still have a big problem on their hands. i'm in virginia, part of the district maryland and virginia area, but they got a lot more snow than, say, washington, d.c., that's just up the road to the north. take a look down here on interstate 95 south. it's still closed down, as it has been for hours and hours. all the overpasses have a lot of traffic. but if you look in the distance, you can see some of the vehicles that are stuck out there, and that's the big problem. the authorities say some of these vehicles are disabled. some have run out of fuel. there were accidents down there. and they have to separate the vehicles that can still move from the ones that cannot and tow the ones that cannot off of interstate 95 before they can reopen it. meanwhile, back up here on the overpass, you can see the massive traffic jam that's been going on just for hours and hours. they're starting to move a little bit more, but when we first got here, i talked to a trucker who told me he'd been out here on this road since last night, and that's just the beginning of it. probably the worst story i heard from anybody was from a paramedic who said he was out here on the road and he had a patient in the back who needed to get to the hospital, stuck on the road for eight hours until he was able to flag down a police officer who put the patient in the car and drove the patient to the hospital. i also talked to a trucker who actually put her truck on the side of the road, walked up here to a cluster of restaurants and convenience stores just down the road, to try to get some food. the stores were closed because the electricity had been shut down due to the storm. listen to her. >> i walked up here to get food because we done ran out of food, you know, and everything you need is microwavable and i don't have a microwave. >> reporter: 7 eleven is close. >> there's no fuel. my heart goes out to the young lady got her 2-year-old baby. she has no food. you know, how could they have not -- my people from st. louis called me and told me what was about to happen. how is it that they didn't realize what was about to happen? >> reporter: so, how did virginia authorities get themselves into this situation? well, everybody knows that before you have a big snowstorm, they'll go around and treat the roads with salt and chemicals to make it easier for people to get around. they weren't able to do that this time, they say, because it started out as rain, and when it's rain, all the chemicals just wash away. after that, we got snow, and then it froze overnight. back to you. >> oh, a mess. i can't imagine being out there for 24 hours with kids in the car, nothing you can do about it. joe johns there for us in dumfries, thank you. trucker john was stuck in that mess for hours when he decided to do something for other drivers, as you'll see here. they were stranded, and he made them a hot breakfast. and john joins me now. giancarlo, that is so nice of you, and before we get to your act of kindness, can you just set the scene for us. how long were you stuck in your truck? >> yes, first of all, thank you for having me. i stopped in traffic around 1:00 a.m., and traffic kept moving to the nearest exit around 9:30 a.m. >> okay, so, you were stuck for 8 and a half hours, and just describe this scene. were people getting out of their cars? were people running out of gas? were people falling asleep, talking to each other? did you know what was happening? >> yeah, so, i actually pull up every traffic back-up on the waze app and the first thing i saw was accident up ahead about 15 miles, so i was like, all right, no biggie, an hour back-up at the most, but it was just snow and black ice underneath, so that's what made it significantly worse. and after a couple hours, you saw people getting out to stretch. around the four-hour mark, i saw two people walking in the open ramp where they can easily get ran over, just really dangerous, just abandoning their car because that was two people out of many more that ran out of gas during that hold-up. >> okay, so, at what point did you decide to make a hot breakfast for the drivers around you? >> so, it was 8:00 a.m. this driver stood up maybe because he was the only car to my front and the right of my truck. he was there at that same exact spot while i was there as well in the truck since 1:00 a.m., so i knew i had some breakfast in the back, microwave. i made him a cup of water with fruit punch and decided to get it on tape, and you know, that was great. >> what did you make him? >> it was a jimmy dean bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast bowl. >> how happy was he to get that breakfast bowl? >> he was shocked when i -- when he opened the door at first, and you know, i was saying, hey, i just made you a hot breakfast and a cup of fruit punch. i saw you were sitting out here the whole time, as long as me, i was here since 1:00 a.m. so it was him and his mother, and both of them were really appreciative. it was a really nice moment. >> that's so great that you were able to do that. how much food did you have in your truck? how long could you have survived in your truck? >> so, it's funny, because i headed out of richmond, virginia, with just north of where i live. i headed out with about three days' worth of food and that was my second day supply, so i'll be back home by tomorrow or the day after. >> and you're still on the road right now? i see you're in dale city, virginia. you're moving now? >> no, i'm still stuck, so i got off on the first exit with most of the other guys that were stuck around me, and we've been stuck since i-95 is still shut down to this point. >> so, you have no idea when you -- your destination was, what, georgia? >> yes. >> and when will you get there? >> the load's due tomorrow morning. i can possibly still get there depending when the -- when the highway opens back up. but might have to be delayed. >> last question. is there anything -- i mean, you're a trucker. you do this for a living. you say you've never seen anything like this. is there anything that highway patrol or anyone could have done differently to avoid this? >> yes, i think there could have been more presence. i have another video where i saw the first emergency vehicles pulling up around 7:30 a.m. that was the first emergency service vehicles i saw since 1:00 a.m. when i was sitting there. including a plow, a snowplow. >> well, jean-carlo gachet, thank you for taking the time and i'm sure that other driver really appreciated the hot breakfast and good luck getting to your destination. >> thank you for having me. well, the country now preparing to mark the anniversary of the deadly u.s. capitol attack, and listen, we should never be desensitized to the images that we saw that day. and look at these pictures. the officers who struggled to protect the capitol from the violent mob of trump supporters, the mental trauma and physical injuries they suffered that day, they are still with them. moments ago, one capitol police officer, who still cannot raise his left arm because of the injuries he suffered in the attack, talked about the difficult year since. >> this whole past year has been very difficult. challenging. emotional, basically. i've been overwhelmed in the amount of physical therapy that i had recently. it was painful therapy. painful health sessions. trying to help me cope with some of these moments that i endure. they still traumatize me and others. >> congressman ro khana is with us now. it's been almost a year since the insurrection, six months of the january 6th committee's investigation. do you believe that the country is any better -- a better position than it was a year ago when we saw that insurrection there at the capitol? >> yes, i do. first of all, because of the extraordinary service of the capitol police. i'm taking this week to thank individual officers for their service. there's far more protection and security of the capitol, an attack like that, i don't think would be nearly as possible now so the security is tighter. second, the committee has done a great job in investigating. it's been bipartisan with bennie thompson and liz cheney. we are getting answers of exactly what happened and mhow o prevent it. >> even as we get some answers, we learn about text messages that were sent. we learn about people who were organizing and fund-raising from some of the leadership of the committee. there are still some who regardless of even audits of elections or recounts still believe the president's -- former president's lie. donie sullivan spoke with one of the former president's supporters. >> it was the democrats were behind it all. they're the ones that caused it all. >> reporter: do you really believe that? >> i know it. and there is no way that a republican would act that way, and there is no way that trump had anything to do with what happened on january 6th. >> reporter: what about all the trump supporters that have been charged and indicted? >> because it's all democratic judges and people that were on the take from the democrats. >> congressman, listen, we're in an election year now, and we know that some of the members across the aisle are going to go back to these communities and try to win re-election, and there may be some members to their right who are soaking this up and trying to sell it back to them. how do you break this fever of what you heard from that woman and a lot of fellow supporters of the former president? >> well, i'm saddened by what i heard because a functioning democracy depends upon an informed and educated citizenry. that was thomas jefferson. and social media, i think, is one of the culprits. i represent silicon valley. we need to do much better in terms of regulations on misinformation and disinformation. and then all of us serving need to look at the oath we take and say, we can disagree about ideology, but don't mislead the american public. don't lie. let's have some basic respect. i never questioned, in 2016, when president trump was elected. i don't think it's too much to ask that people recognize that president biden is now the leader of our country. >> let me ask you about legislation. we know that over in the senate, majority leader chuck schumer is going to introduce some legislation to try to carve out some exception to the filibuster to get some movement on voting rights protections, and here's what senator joe manchin, who's opposed to any changes to the filibuster without republican buy-in, this is what he said a few moments ago. >> let me just say that to being open to a rules change that would create a nuclear option, it's a very, very difficult -- it's a heavy lift. and the reason i say it's a heavy lift is that once you change a rule or you have a carveout, i've always said this, any time there's a carveout, you eat the whole turkey. there's nothing left. because it comes back and forth. so you want things that will be sustainable. >> sustainable. by that, he means republican buy-in. he's been clear about this for months now. is there anything substantive that you think that could get republicans buy-in at all? because that's really what senator manchin wants. that you could get through that would protect the right to vote that we see disintegrating across several states because of this new legislation? anything that can happen? >> unfortunately not with l republican buy-in. they haven't been willing to vote for the john lewis act. it's republican state legislatures that are disenfranchising black voters or young voters, and here's what i would say. mcconnell used an exception to the filibuster to get supreme court justices on, so he's already said there ought to be a carveout. why can't we have a carveout to the filibuster to protect the sacred right to vote? why is it controversial in this country that every person, regardless of their race, should vote? i just don't understand why we can't have a voting rights to protect every person's right to vote and we ought to keep pushing for it, mobilizing for it. this ought to be our top priority. >> senator manchin has been clear about his opposition to that. senator sinema as well. senator manchin was also asked about moving forward on build back better act. he says there have been no conversations with the white house since in december when he said that he was opposed to moving forward. he's a "no" on that. he said there are some elements of the bill he can get behind, specifically on the climate elements. if you can't get paid family leave, if you can't get the child tax credit expansion extended, are you willing to find those, like, individual elements that the senator is behind that should go through, that you and the house -- the progressive caucus can get together and get passed? >> i'm willing to compromise. i have had good conversations with senator manchin. i believe he's open to getting to a compromise and getting something done. we need to engage him in good faith. we need to have a dialogue with him in the white house, and we need to see what can we agree on to deliver for the american public, so i understand it's not going to be what we passed in the house. we're going to have to compromise, and i'm open to doing that. >> all right, congressman ro khanna, thank you. >> thank you. ahead, covid and the classroom. president biden said kids can and should be in school right now. but some teachers don't agree. so we'll hear from a parent and the president of the chicago teachers union next. and here's a look at what else we're following today. ♪ new year, new start. and now comcast business is making it easy to get going with the ready. set. save. sale. get started with fast and reliable internet and voice for $64.99 a month with a 2-year price guarantee. it's easy... with flexible installation and backing from an expert team, 24/7. and for even more value, ask how to get up to a $500 prepaid card. get a great deal for your business with the ready. set. save. sale today. comcast business. powering possibilities. so many drivers got stuck in traffic hell on i-95 outside of d.c. because of a dangerous snow and ice storm. one of those drivers was senator tim kaine. he tweeted about it. this was at 8:27 a.m. he said he had been in traffic for 19 hours, and was still nowhere near washington and the capitol. and he joins us live now. senator kaine, thank you very much for joining us on the phone. where are you right now? >> alisyn, i'm now 27 hours into my journey, i'm just going through quantico in prince william, virginia, where all marine officers train, and i still have probably at least an hour and a half until i get to the capitol. i left richmond yesterday at 1:00. i live in richmond. i was trying to get up to d.c. for a voting rights meeting. i'm working on voting rights issues, and the meeting was at 8:00 and i wanted to do it in person. it's turned into what will end up being a 27 or 28 hour ordeal, unlike anything i have ever seen. >> epic, just an epic odyssey that you're on. you have been in your car for 27 hours. how are you not losing your mind? >> well, i'm taking advantage of talking to a lot of people on the phone. the voting rights meeting i was trying to get to, we switched to conference call. i had a lot of other meetings today, switched by conference call, and as soon as friends and family and my senate colleagues heard that i was stuck with thousands out on the interstate, they called too. we have been just moving at a snail's pace, and there have been at least a couple of times where traffic on the interstate, black ice, when the snow was slushy, and remelted last night, it was very icy. entire traffic was stopped for five or six hours at a time, and so, you know, we would get out and visit with folks in the cars nearby. i'm driving myself, but other cars are packed with kids or senior citizens, folks coming back from vacations. there was some nice camaraderie, even during a very miserable, and extremely cold evening. one family with a connecticut license plate was driving back with their kids from florida from a vacation obviously, and they got out their bag of oranges, which was the souvenir, and started to hand out oranges to all the drivers near them, which i thought was really sweet. >> and senator, i mean, have you eaten or slept other than an orange? >> i had one orange, and that's the only food i've had since sunday night. and i slept when -- basically when it was clear that nothing was happening, you know, you're trying not to run out of gas. if you run out of gas, you're really sunk, so i would turn the heater on full blast for about ten minutes, and then i would turn the engine off and lean back in my chair and sleep for, you know, 20 or 30 minutes, before it got so cold that i woke up again. that is how i was sleeping. the temperatures were down around 11 or 12 degrees last night, and thank goodness i had a good coat, and i also had a pretty full tank of gas when i started. a number of people either slid their cars off the road in the ice or they ran out of gas because we were stuck between interstate off exchanges. everybody was just gridlocked, and you couldn't get gas. and so somebody runs out of gas, it's really horrible for them, but then the cars in the middle of the very narrow ice choked lane of traffic and it also means everybody else now has an obstacle to work around. so i was hoping to make the capitol by a 4:30 meeting but we'll see if i do. >> oh, my gosh, senator, and once somebody ran out of gas, where did they go? >> well, what was happening is when people run out of gas, the virginia department of transportation has an emergency line for anybody who's still out there who needs help. 1-800-for-roads. and you can get help. they were calling help emergency vehicles, people were walking across to the northbound lane to try to help folks. there were tow vehicles that were coming, but again, you've got so much snow and ice on the interstate and then it's all filled with cars just like mine that are just at a dead stop. it was really hard to get emergency vehicles in to tow disabled vehicles out, and that's what made the -- that's what made this so challenging, you know, i didn't find the roads that challenging to drive on, but as soon as somebody has an accident, a semitrailer jackknives, cuts off a couple of lanes, somebody runs out of gas, which is going to happen if you're stuck between exits for five or six hours, people are going to run out of gas, and so it was very very dangerous on a cold night when the sun came up this morning, and you started to see that ice melt, my mood improved considerably, and i'm sure others did too, but it didn't mean that the traffic started to move fast. >> senator, i mean, you are senator tim kaine, and you'd think that you could, if anybody stuck in this traffic hell could get some sort of special treatment, you could. were you calling the governor? were you in touch with the department of transportation during any of this? >> we did, but i didn't because i'm not the kind

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