tonight. also developing as we come on the air, the earthquake in california. a strong earthquake off the coast. the magnitude 6.2 quake damaging homes and businesses. some windows shattered. several aftersharks now being reported. tonight, news president biden has talked with senator joe manchin, after the bombshell reveal 24 hours ago by manchin that he is a no on the president s build back better bill. tonight, what both of them are now signaling now. cecilia vega with us live at the white house. two major drills we re watching at this hour. jury deliberations now under way in the case of former police officer kim potter in minnesota. the prosecutor calling the shooting and killing of daunte wright reckless and a blunder of epic propoe sutipropotions. and the trial of ghislaine maxwell going to the jury late today. the prosecution calling her and jeffrey epstein partners in crime. the defense calling a victim of straight up sensationalism. a college student last
countries around the world are racing to implement travel restrictions from south africa as well as neighboring countries there, while here in the u.s. the new concerns causing the stock market to fall dramatically, dr. anthony fauci on nbc this morning explaining why this variant is different than the others, and that he would not be surprised if it was already here in the u.s. it seems to have really spread rather rapidly in south africa, even though the numbers are relatively small, its ability to infect people who have recovered from infection and even people who have been vaccinated make us say this is something you ve got to pay really close attention to and be prepared for something that s serious. it may not turn out that way, but you really want to be ahead of it, and that s the reason why we re doing what we re doing. plus, the biden administration issuing a long-awaited report reforming the country s oil and gas leasing program calling for companies to pay more
The city. we don t know anything about his underlying conditions, whether he was vaccinated or boosted. it is important to note, however, that this news comes just as the county raised its threat level to orange, indicating that there is an uncontrolled level of covid in the area and also worth noting that we have a no evidence that omicron is anymore virulent than any other variants, in fact, there is some information pointing to the opposite, especially if you are immunized. david? yeah, let s hope that holds true in the coming weeks and i know many people, matt, thanks to you, we have a lot of questions. we re going to go to dr. ashish jha. and dr. jha, great to have you with us. you heard the new numbers just before we came on tonight, from the cdc. omicron now the dominant variant in the u.s. 73% of new cases. and in some parts of the country, more than 90% of cases. this is going to rattle a lot of people. we knew highly transmissible, this was your suspicion last
See you back here at 4 p.m. bye, bye. tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. the cdc with eye-opening numbers just out tonight on this new variant, the omicron variant. what the numbers show in this country reports coming in now what could be the first omicron death in this country and where. late today, the cdc revealing omicron is now the dominant strain in america. the highly transmissible variant making up 73% of new covid cases in the u.s. more than 90% of new cases in some parts of the country are omicron. cases doubling every two to three days and what does this mean for christmas and your family gatherings? new york state, for one, breaking records for a fourth day in a row. what they re seeing tonight from texas to new york to michigan, and dr. jha is standing by to walk us through this. also news on moderna s booster
Shows shut down for now. and, of course, sports, too. the nfl and now more than a quarter of nhl teams canceling games due to covid. and news from moderna tonight. they say their current booster shot produces a strong antibody response against the omicron variant, according to their new data. they also say they re developing a new omicron-specific shot anyway. tonight, come reports the first omicron death, as well. this comes from harris county, texas, confirming the first death, a man in his 50s in harris county, of course, we don t know if he was vaccinated, if he had any pre-existing conditions that put him at any greater risk. it is still early. we are tracking all of the information coming in. and our chief national correspondent matt gutman leading us off in new york. reporter: tonight, just days before christmas, the nation s top doctors are warning of a surge of cases unlike anything we ve seen so far in this pandemic, driven by omicron. the variant now accounting for 73% of