cnn global town hall coronavirus facts and fears. that s tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. eastern. all right, federal reserve chairman jerome powell testifies about the new threat posed by the omicron variant. as we have said, much remains unknown about omicron, but powell s prepared remarks say that if the new variant prolongs the pandemic, it could hurt the economy in three ways. it could keep pushing prices up, it could hurt job growth, and make the supply chain crisis worse. powell predicts the u.s. economy will show 5% growth for 2021. that is strongest growth actually in decades, right? but he says omicron couldn t do much of that if it undermine s americans willingness to work in person. the stock and oil markets sold off but they regained ground when investors took a breath and sensed a buying opportunity as often happens on wall street. that s the pattern we saw when wall street first heard about the delta variant and there was reason to think history might remeet itself if omicron
let s go to laguardia airport here in new york. what are you hearing about the travel? any issues people are going through? any concerns about covid v variants? reporter: it seems like there is a bit more concern here from the people i m talking about in laguardia about the possibility of this new variant being dangerous, being something they need to watch out for on a level of say the delta variant. people here say timing of hearing of omicron couldn t be worse because they already had their travel plans set for thanksgiving. many of them now trying to get back home and they have no choice but to do so. of course, as dr. anthony fauci said, there s no cases that have been confirmed of the new variant in the united states but it s possible it is already here. that s the concern i m hearing from people talking to at laguardia right now. aaa says 53.4 million americans are traveling this year and that s only 5% fewer than were