the former-first lady getting into the world of nfts. we ll explain. let s go out. good evening, i m poppy harlow. out front tonight, breaking news, a new record high average number of covid cases for the second day in the row. this as cdc predicts more than 44,000 covid deaths in the infect four weeks and as the white house deploys federal teams across country to he try to help overwhelmed hospitals, dr. fauci is warning of troubling signing ahead as the omicron variant continues to spread fast. we know now incontrovertibly that this is a highly, highly transmissible virus. we know that from the numbers we are seeing and clearly, there is a degree of immune evasion, particularly against infection and to some degree against hospitalization. now, across the country, hospitalizations are up in 37 states over last month. up at least 50% in 13 of those states. pediatric hospitalizations are close to topping the previous record, set in september. and there are warning signs ac
challenged. to that point, new cases are now averaging nearly 300,000 a day. a new cdc forecast out late today predicts more than 44,000 new deaths are possible over the next four weeks. yes, 44,000. meantime, testing remains hard to come by. former hhs official, rick bright, on cnn this evening compared it to the hunger games and as people scramble to get tested ahead of new year s eve and holiday flights back home, schools in some of the hardest-hit areas are laying out new guidelines. it is a lot. cnn s tom foreman starts us off. reporter: schools in d.c. will require all students and staff to have negative covid tests to come back to class. new york city will require rigorous testing, too. all that, as the white house says it expects to sign a contract for a half-billion at-home covid tests next week. and as the centers for disease control faces sharp questioning over new guidelines for covid-weary americans. it really had a lot to do with what, um, we thought peopl
Sometimes they have disagreements about what was said or what was done. and so, i think what they wanted to do was make sure they got it right. they wanted testimony. they wanted all different pieces of evidence. and so, moving forward, they just want to be sure they were on the same page and they were for five of the six counts. and, jennifer, in a lot of ways, this trial was about jeffrey epstein as the primary abuser. that being said, there was evidence of maxwell being present during the abuse. the defense tried to, you know, make her out to be a placeholder for jeffrey epstein during this trial and so on. what stood out to you, though, as the most critical piece of evidence that really sealed her fate? i think, jim, you know, it s hard to pick one piece of evidence. there were four victims who testified and the counts kind of broke down along those lines. certain counts were tied to certain victims, and they found guilty as to five of those six counts, so they believed all of
Have done differently? well, jim, i think we re in the midst of, um, really two viral infections, simultaneously. so, kansas still hasn t had many omicron cases. we as the last report from the health and environment department said, we have about 25 confirmed cases of omicron, over 1,000 cases of delta in the hospitals. so, we re still really being pressed by the delta variant. and people are hospitalized, mostly unvaccinated. and the staff is stretched thin. we have hospitals that are sending patients all over the place. we we have yet to have the omicron, um, wave which is coming, i am afraid, later in january for the middle of the country. and we are going to pile that onto a continued delta variant.
Trying to separate her from jeffrey epstein. to try and unwind her connection and put some distance between the two of them. but clearly, jim, the jury felt that she was not an innocent bystander in all of this. that she wasn t a bit player but in in fact a key player in the abuse of these girls, jim. absolutely. randi kaye, thank you for that. for more now on what might have moved the six women and six men on the jury, we are joined by jury consultant alan turkheimer. also with us, cnn legal analyst and former federal prosecutor jennifer rogers. jennifer, let me start with you. you called this quote a good day for justice. um, tell us why? well, jim, you know, this was a long, hard road for these victims. and until today, no one has gone to prison for this. you know, there was a ridiculous slap on the wrist down in florida for jeffrey epstein a number of years ago but he died by suicide in prison, so he will never be held responsible for this. so, for these women, girls at the tim