cases are way up, in some places like houston tripling in just days. now another sign in the sports world of how bad the situation is. the national hockey league deciding it will not be sending any of its players to the olympics in beijing. but a silver lining. hospitalizations are rising but not spiking. not yet. all of this underscoring what the experts have been telling us, which is the best way to stay safe is to get vaccinated and make sure you have a booster. let's start with cnn's elizabeth cohen on the very latest with omicron and the current hot spots. elizabeth, where are the pressing concerns right now? >> kate, let's take a look at the united states. when you look at this map, red is bad. that's where you're seeing the most dramatic increases. so you can see we have six states in dark red that are seeing increases in cases of more than 50% week over week. louisiana, florida, georgia, new york, hawaii and new jersey. certainly we are hearing about the long lines of testing in some parts of those states as well as the hospitals being overloaded. and if we look nationally, we can see cases are up 23%, deaths are up 11%, and vaccine doses administered -- this one is a real punch to the gut -- down 19%. really hoping that as people see -- unvaccinated people who see omicron taking over that they will get the message they should have heard months ago, which is get yourself vaccinated. kate? >> absolutely. elizabeth, thank you for that. so israel is not waiting any longer to try and wait to find out how severe this variant proves to be, announcing that it plans to provide a four-vaccine dose to people over 60 and those in high-risk groups just a few months after the third dose. we have more for you from jerusalem. >> israel became the first country in the world to recommend a fourth dose of the covid vaccine. initially it will be made available to over 60s, medical workers and people with suppressed immune systems. if history is any guide, it will quickly be rolled out to other age groups and the rest of the population. the government of coronavirus experts have wonderful news. don't waste time, he said, go get vaccinated. israel battles the omicron variant and a fifth wave of the virus. others include expanding its red no-fly list to include countries like the u.s. and canada, refusing food and shopping malls to people without vaccination or recovery, forcing people to work from home on sunday and moving where there is a high prevalence of covid and vaccine uptake on children is below 17%. on tuesday the case load fell from 1300 to just over 900. the number of tests also dropped possibly due to a major storm blowing through the country. going forward, the government expects cases to resume, knowing that the best it can hope for is to slow the omicron spread. >> there is also new data out today on how americans are feeling about all of this. kaiser family foundation's survey says the number of americans somewhat worried about getting seriously ill from covid is up 28 points from last month. it also finds 54% of vaccinated americans now say they are more than likely to get a booster because of the omicron variant. there is a lot here to look into. harry entin joins us now. he's been looking at the numbers. harry, this shows how we're viewing the omicron variant at this point. how panicked are they? >> they're not panicked but they are worried. there are a few things i want to point out here. the not worried is down significantly, from 35% in november to now 16%, so people are clearly sort of getting off their butt, they're clearly a little bit more worried. you also see the summit more worried up from 25% to 35% now. but the very worried, not really that much higher. 10% in november versus 14% now. so when you put it all together, i think people are more worried but they're not panicking just yet. >> is this threat of omicron, is it doing anything to push -- how much is it doing to push vaccinated people to get another shot? >> yeah, i mean, look, if you look at the data, what you essentially see is, yes, more people who are vaccinated are, in fact, getting the booster. but when you compare the november numbers, right, have or definitely or probably will get a booster among those who had at least one shot is 72%. now you look at the december data and you say, have they had or has omicron made it more likely to get a dose if you have the booster is 77%. there's not much difference in that data, but what this tends to suggest is people who are already going to get it, omicron has made it much more likely to get it quicker. >> what about the unvaccinated, then, harry? is any of this changing how they feel? >> no. no. i feel like we keep going through this. if you say, okay, ask the unvaccinated, does omicron make you more likely to get vaccinated? look at that percentage. it's just 12%. 87% say no. we do this all the time. whenever there is something new that comes out, okay, does this make you want to get vaccinated? we always see no. the question is, is there anything that actually makes the unvaccinated more likely to get a first dose? what the data shows us is that, no, not really. in fact, if you ask the unvaccinated, will anything convince you to get a vaccine, 48% say nothing, nothing will. 12% say more research and transparency. how much more research do you need? we know that vaccines work, it's crazy. work requires at 6%, but if you look at the data over and over and over again, there just doesn't seem to be much we can do to convince the unvaccinated, which is clearly a shanda, because we know the vaccines can work and we know it can prevent you from getting a symptomatic case, and more than that severe illness and maybe even death. folks, get vaccinated if you haven't yet, and if you haven't gotten a booster, go get one. >> the numbers you showed is what they really reinforce is the challenge and what the government and local governments and local hospitals and doctors have been and are and continue to struggle with. this, 48% is a number that's pretty impossible to overcome if they don't change their minds. it's good to see you, harry. i really appreciate it. >> thank you, kate. joining me now with more on this is dr. ranney and assistant dean of public health at brown university. doctor, let's start there with this poll. 48% of unvaccinated americans saying nothing will convince them to get the shot. omicron is not impacting them. not the delta wave, not the threat of omicron, which leads me to wonder, should the administration and health officials kind of take this number to heart and start shifting the goal away from full vaccination to something else? >> i think they've already taken this number and tried to move beyond it. you know, they put executive orders in place around mandating large businesses, health care facilities to have their workers get vaccinated. that's because they recognize that more information is not going to shift behavior, man day mandates do. those mandate orders are being held up in the court which limits their effectiveness. i think that's why we're also seeing an emphasis on rapid testing, some supplies, and now after the announcement yesterday on shoring up the health care system that is crumbling under the weight of unvaccinated covid cases, recognizing that they can only do so much. the last thing that i think they can and should and are doing is working with community leaders. i think we're at a point where the vaccine and the virus has been so politicized that statements from biden, honestly even statements from trump, aren't going to move people. we need trusted messengers from individual communities to go out there and talk about the vaccines in order to get that last group of folks to get the vaccine. >> that's the last thing i heard from an emergency physician in south bend, indiana last night speaking of how they're at 77% capacity in a hospital in south bend, and that's exactly what efrshe was talking about. bill gates, dr. ranney, is out this morning with a pretty dire warning. he tweeted that we could be entering the worst part of the pandemic, what we're entering right now. but he also -- it seems to be something of good news that he also seems to see, saying omicron moves so quickly that once it becomes dominant in a country, the wave there should last less than three months. there is limited data on kind of how long it lasts and how severe it is, right? it's all happening in realtime, but what do you think of that? >> i think in every wave of covid over the last two years, we have seen new variants peak and then drop over a relatively short period of time. the trouble with the united states is that we are not one small region, right? even with the delta variant, we saw a surge in the south in the southeast in the summer, then we saw michigan in the midwest. now we're seeing the delta variant overtake the northeast, and meanwhile omicron is coming in. yes, omicron may surge and decrease in, say, new york, where we're seeing the earliest signs of covid cases, but what's with the rest of the country is yet to be determined. i wouldn't be surprised if we see omicron over the months to come rather than short waves that smaller areas will see, simply because we're such a diverse country. >> when it comes to treatment, the fda could be issuing an emergency use authorization for one or both of the antiviral pills that are under consideration as early as today. what would having these treatments on the market change about the pandemic? >> this is one of the few pieces of bright news this week around covid. paxlovid in particular, the pfizer pill, has the opportunity to transform the way we treat covid. let me explain what it is. basically it's a pill that you need to take within three days of testing positive. it has been demonstrated to dramatically decrease the number of hospitalizations, severe disease, deaths, among folks who are unvaccinated. in the face of not just the delta surge but also the omicron surge, this can allow us to get treatments to people in the comfort of their own home, recognizing that our health care systems are overwhelmed across the country, right? it's a prescription we can call into a pharmacy, someone can go pick it up, and then potentially avoid the hospital. this is particularly important because two of the three monoclonal antibody treatments we've been using to try to avoid hospitalization seem to not work against omicron. i'm really hopeful about these approvals, again, particularly for the pfizer pill. >> >> it feels like right now in this moment that approval cannot come soon enough. dr. walensky has confirmed that the cdc is considering reducing the isolation time for those who test positive. u.k. is moving in that direction, from 10 to 7 days. do you think the cdc should do that? is there a risk? >> there is actually pretty good science that if you're fully vaccinated, asymptomatic, and have a couple rapid negative antigen tests, the chance of being infectious is almost none. i think this is a great way of following the evolving science around covid-19, how it spreads and how we control it. however -- here's the caveat -- i would want us to make sure it works, that we can do it logistically and that it's not being used to force sick workers to come back. the devil is in the details of how it's implemented. if it's truly used for asymptomatic people who test positive, terrific, but if it's expanded beyond that, it can cause a lot of harm. >> that's a great point. thank you, dr. ranney. >> thank you. coming up, the jury in the kim potter manslaughter trial has a lot of questions raising eyebrows to the judge. a report, next. we're helping even more. by the end of this year, subaru will have donated over two hundred and twenty five million dollars to charity. this is what it means to be more than a car company. this is what it means to be subaru. 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 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. ♪ ♪ you are my fire ♪ ♪ the one desire ♪ ♪ you are, you are, ♪ ♪ don't wanna hear you say... ♪ ♪ ♪ i want it that way ♪ ♪“i got you babe” by etta james♪ ♪ get groceries, gifts, & more fast and easy. so last minute guests are the only thing you'll be waiting on. ♪ joy. fully. ♪ we do have breaking news. just in to cnn, the fda has just given emergency authorization for the first oral antiviral treatment for covid, a pill made by pfizer. let me bring back in dr. megan ranney. dr. ranney, literally as we were finishing our conversation, the news just came in. your reaction to this? >> i am thrilled. i'm going to work in the emergency department tomorrow evening, and having this as an additional tool in my toolbox for patients who are coming in with new diagnoses of covid is just going to be tremendous. now, this is not a magic bullet and it does not substitute for vaccination. vaccination is still better than taking a pill, and the pill will, of course, have side effects. but this is the first major new therapeutic that we have had in a very, very long time, and it's going to transform the way that we can treat covid-19 and help to avert those dreaded hospitalizations, icu stays and deaths. >> snome of the of thdata, just people know, when we had the pfizer ceo on the show, theit's taken every three days, cutting death by 99%, and it's extremely effective if taken within the first five days of symptoms. i think it's 88% effective. what should people know today, dr. ranney, because a lot of people may be beginning to be symptomatic today. >> there's a couple things. the first is this is an importance of getting quick testing. of course, our testing infrastructure is crumbling right now in the face of omicron, but a rapid test may be best so you can get treatment. the second thing to know, although this has been approved, it's not going to be widely available right away. before you come into the er or go to your doctor's office expecting to get a prescription, i would try to give them a call first. i expect that this is going to be rolled out across the country. it may be limited in access for a period of time. the third thing to know is, again, this does not substitute for vaccination. vaccination is just as, if not more, effective than the pill, but this is, again, an added thing to know about if you're someone who is high risk, so elderly or have chronic conditions for progression of the disease. >> al bowler, the advisor -- pfizer ceo, thinks there will be quick rollout of the pill. who should take this? >> people who are over 60 years old, who are immunosuppressed, people with chronic lung disease, heart disease, some groups of children as well and folks who are diabetic who are higher risk from many of the outcomes of covid-19. >> this is great information, dr. ranney. also i know that folks are going to wonder what this pill means, how it holds up against the omicron variant. this was a big question, and there is good news on that front, right? >> that's exactly right. so obviously the level of testing of paxlovid against omicron is not as robust as the original testing simply because omicron has only been around for a month. but preliminary testing does suggest it still works against the omicron variant, which is terrific news, especially as we are facing so many other things that are falling to the wayside, unfortunately, in the face of this new variant. >> absolutely. much more to come on this breaking news, how quickly these pills can be accessed. thank you for coming back on to react to this, dr. ranney. >> thank you. it's great news for all. >> a silver lining, some good news that we needed this week for sure. thank you again. i want to turn now to this. the jury in the trial of kim potter is now in its third day of deliberations. their last questions to the judge before they wrapped last night is raising big questions still today. potter is a former minnesota police officer who faces manslaughter charges for mi mistaking her gun as a taser, shooting and killing dante wright. adrian is with us. adrian, what about that question and what's happening now? >> reporter: kate, it signals there may be some sort of disagreement among the jurors. so far there have been three questions on the record. one of the three, members of the jury wanted to know if the jury can't reach a consensus, what is the guidance surrounding the steps they should take and how long they should deliberate? judge chew responded by rereading instructions she gave them in monday, saying, deliberate in part with the view on reaching an agreement. kate? >> law enforcement analyst ramsey and eli hoenig. sending this to the judge, they asked what happens if we can't reach consensus? the judge wrote back, keep trying, essentially. does that tell you they're headed toward a deadlock? >> it could mean just that. it suggests we could be looking at a deadlock and a mistrial. in order to get a verdict, you need all 12 jurors. same thing for a not guilty verdict, you need all 12 jurors. if they're stuck in the middle, that's a hung jury. prosecutors can retry that, however, it's still a setback for the prosecution. if we get another note from the jury saying, we're still deadlocked, what do we do, the judge will give them what's called the allen charge from an old supreme court case, essentially which means, don't give up on your beliefs, but work to reach a decision if at all possible. it works sometimes. not all the time, but sometimes. >> a question from the jury is they wanted to get the zip ties off potter's gun and take the gun out of the evidence box and hold it. what do you think they get from that when the major question is, how do you mistake your taser from your gun? >> and that is the key question. the weight of it will be different because the gun will not be loaded. but even with that, you can tell the difference between a taser and a firearm. i mean, she's a 26-year veteran. she's been trained, she's been retrained. i mean, that's the whole point of training is to know the difference between the two. the color of it is different, you carry it on your opposite side from your firearm. i mean, all those things, to me, point toward negligence on her part when she shot mr. wright. i'm sure that's what the jury wants. they want to know for themselves. they want to touch it, they want to feel it, they want to try to visualize perhaps what she was going through at that particular moment. but it's not just her discharging the gun. in my opinion, just very poor tactics on the part of the other officers that really led to this whole incident unfolding. taking him out of the car, knowing he's wanted on a warrant. standing right next to a driver's door that's open with an engine running. there is a reason why police take people to the rear of the car, it's so they cannot escape. people on warrants tend to want to escape often, so it's not a surprise. >> eli, let's get at the central question, right, that the jury is going to have to make about potter's fatal error, which is, is it reckless and negligence or is it an accident that was not a crime? this is the entirety of what closing arguments were. that is very hard. how does a jury reach a decision on that? >> kate, it's such a human process. we hear these legal terms like was it negligent, was it reckless? there is no scientific formula, there is no mathematic formula when an accident becomes so inexcusable it's a crime. we don't see them on the tv broadcast we're watching, they're off camera. it's 12 human beings. they're going to have to apply their logic to what the commissioner was just talking about. when i hold the gun, when i hold the taser, is it understandable that she mix them up, or does it rise to the level that we want to call that a crime? >> chief, you talked about training. i want to ask you about this. it gets to another question that the jury had for the judge, which has to do with a defense expert, a psychologist that testified for the defense, and he talked about how humans make mistakes even doing -- even when doing routine things, things they're trained to do when in stressful situations. potter, as you said, has been on the force for 26 years. would someone on a force for 26 years have had the training and experience to avoid something like this in a stressful situation? do you train for this? >> well, i mean, yeah. you try to train for it. but until it actually happens, you don't know how a person is going to react under that kind of pressure. let's face it, that's a suburban department. i don't know much about it, but i doubt if they deal with these kinds of situations on a routine basis like they would in philadelphia or even minneapolis. so, you know, again, that's the whole point of the training, reality-based training that many departments are using now, putting officers in these stressful situations. they develop a muscle memory so they know they're reaching for the taser, they know they're reaching for the firearm or whatever it is. that's the whole point of training, and she received training and she was even a field training officer, is my understanding. but in a stressful situation, you never know how a person is going to react, but police cannot afford to make a mistake like that. she made a mistake, but somebody died. that's the difference. >> sure is. chief, thank you. eli, thank you so much. so if you want to get a covid test before celebrating the holidays with friends and family, a lot of people are having that exact same idea and trying to make a plan for it right now. in new york people are lining up for hours, still. ahead we're going to talk to a top city official about what's planned to relieve that demand. ♪ (vo) reflect on the past, celebrate the future. season's greetings from audi. is now a good time for a flare-up? 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>> the united states has faced tremendous pressure from outside advocates but most importantly from democratic lawmakers, most extensively from chuck schumer to extend this loan forbearance. it was made pretty clear february 21 t1 was the deadline. cases are surging with the omicron variant, and now there are a significant number of democrats in the senate and the house who are telling the white house there needs to be another extension. there will be another extension for 90 days through the start of may. the president, kate, in a statement said given these considerations, he's talking about the current economic considerations and omicron, my administration is extending the pause on the student loan payments for an additional 90 days as we look at the pandemic and further our country. there is a lot of concern on capitol hill by democrats that this is going back into place, it is now being extended, and i think it marks a shift of the administration recognizing the reality on the policy side of things but also the political side, kate. >> phil, thank you for that. appreciate it. another move being made by the biden administration launching federal covid testing sites across the country to try to meet the demand brought on by the omicron variant. one of the first pop-up testing centers will be coming to new york city, and that help can't come soon enough as is evident from the lines you can see there reaching down the block in some places at many testing sites ahead of the holidays. joining me for more on this is city councilman mark levine. good to have you back on. >> thank you, kate. >> we need more testing sites, but is it clear to you the kind of help, the totality of it, that new york city is going to be getting from the federal government here? >> not yet, but i tell you, we need help. we're seeing 12,000 cases a day, and this is overwhelming our systems here. we need places like the javits center to reopen as fema hubs where they can do testing, where they can provide vaccination and boosters, where they can connect people to care once they have tested positive, give them referrals for anticlonal antibodies and so much more. we are seeing a level of spread here that we have not seen ever in this pandemic. it feels like every few minutes i hear about a friend who tests positive. this is moving so fast. it's so contagious and we need to head it off now. >> just everyone to know, the javits center is the massive convention center in new york city. it was a very successful covid vaccine site open 24 hours a day at one point, has since been able to be shut down because vaccines are so available. that would be an interesting place, mark, to make that now a testing site. >> yes, because as you've reported, lines are two, three, four hours at testing sites around the city. we've also got a huge delay in the return of lab results three to four days now. you could have lab processing set up there at javits and other hubs. once people test positive, it's getting difficult to access care because family doctors are overwhelmed. we need to have people getting referred in to monoclonal antibody treatments and other remedies once they do test positive. all of that could happen at a federal hub run by fema. we need this to happen now. new york city is really the canary in the coal mine. while new york city may be the epicenter today, it most certainly will spread nationally. >> the city is so very clearly getting hit hard in this moment, and we know president biden is facing questions about if they should have been more prepared, if they were unprepared for this round. was new york city unprepared for this winter surge? >> well, i think that we have been slow to recognize that vaccination is not enough when you're dealing with a variant like omicron which has such a high number of breakthrough cases. we really have to do much more to push remedies like masking, testing, social distancing. it's not enough just to say get vaccinated and go on with life as normal, not when you're up against omicron. my advice to folks is not that they lock themselves in their homes, but they use caution now. use other tools beyond vaccination to protect themselves and their families. i don't think we've been fast enough to shift as a city or country into na that multi-fron effort to protect ourselves from this wave. >> the good news, i guess, at this moment is that hospital capacity seems to be holding up and doing well. there hasn't been a massive spike in hospitalizations. we've heard that from one of the major ceos and health systems in new york, saying right now they're fine, they have capacity for patients, which is good news. but also, look, this is not the most important thing in the world, everyone's health and safety is, but it is a very big deal coming up with the times square ball drop celebration on new year's eve. i know that the mayor says he's going to be making a decision by christmas about what to do about that massive celebration. what do you think, councilman? where are you on this right now? >> i don't think it's wise to have hundreds of thousands of people, potentially more than a million, gathering. yes, it's outside for the event itself, but you have pre-parties and after-parties and all the socializing that happens around times square. i don't think this is a safe time to do it, as sad as that is, because i know we desperately want the opportunity to celebrate. but just on the hospitalizations, kate, thank goodness we're not seeing the levels that we've seen in previous surges, but the numbers are ticking up and health care workers are exhausted and dep depleted. we're understaffed in our hospitals. the antibodies we're using don't work on this variant. there is a new formulation that does which we don't have yet in supply in new york, and really hospitals have stopped using the anticlonals now. ultimately protecting them is one of the big reasons why we need to be cautious now. >> thank you, councilman, for coming on. thank you very much. >> thank you, kate. coming up for us, boeing and airbus are both asking the biden administration to delay the rollout of the much anticipated 5g cell service. we're going to share why, next. the living room slash yoga shanti slash regional office slash... and this is the basement slash panic room. maybe what your family needs is a vacation home slash vacation home. find yours on the vrbo app. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ no matter what you bring to the table, there's no place like wayfair. new today, concern is growing louder among the airline manufacturers among 5g service. the fear is interfering with air safety. both boeing and airbus are asking the biden administration to delay the now imminent rollout of 5g. cnn's pete muntean is with us. >> it's the new thing that could impact your safety in the sky. the soon-to-be turned on phone service could impede the service pilots use to land. the displays could have confusing, mismatched readings. >> you would just go around and cause a big bottleneck. >> in a new letter, the ceos of boeing are telling the biden administration that signals near airports could affect the ability of airplanes 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. 100,000 customers impacted a day by this. >> they 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 says 345,000 flights could be delayed or diverted each year, affecting 32 million passengers. 5g interference impacts radar altimeters, critical instruments that pilots use to tell their height above the ground and make landing a visibility. he runs the spectrum land in aeronautic university. >> it is a concern. >> reporter: airline executives say it is on the federal government to ban 5g transmitters near airports or roll out the next flight so yours isn't. >> it cannot be solved on the backs of airlines and airline customers. >> reporter: the top lobby for the wireless industry says there's no valid, scientific reason to delay 5g. it insists it is possible for airlines and 5g to coexist. they issued a rare joint statement and they now say they're working together to share data to identify specific areas of concern for aviation, but the clock is ticking here, kate, january 5 only two weeks from today. >> i think i speak for everyone who flies. i just want them to figure it out, no matter what it takes. also, though, pete, tsa just announced something interesting, new steps they're taking against unruly passengers. checking their pre-check status. what do you think about this? >> it's a partnership between the tsa and the faa, but unions really want this to go further. they want a federal ban list of unruly passengers. the issue is someone could get banned from one airline and fly on a different airline. 579 incidents just this last year, kate. it's a real problem. >> and you said 4,000 of them were mask-related incidents. >> 77% of them were mask related. it's wild. >> thank you, pete. in some ways china has never been richer or stronger, and its leader, xi jinping has spent the last year in political power. so they only pay for what they need. (gasps) ♪ did it work? only pay for what you need ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ spider-man no way home in theaters december 17th new this morning, china is gaining strength in large part due to china's xi jinping who is ending this year as one of the most powerful leaders in the world. >> reporter: walking the streets of this capital, it's not hard to see who is in charge. there are pictures of xi jinping all over. this poster addressing the firefighting community. at the heart of this is the chinese communist party. but at the center of the party, it's this man, xi jinping. 2021 saw merge steps to further consolidate power. in an early november meeting of china's ruling elite, the 400 or so top party officials passed an almost unprecedented resolution, highlighting the role of its current leader and china's president, xi jinping, on the triumphant rise on the global stage. >> he wants to really highlight his own contribution to be development of the party. that also will seal his legitimate rule over china in the foreseeable future. and, of course, no one would challenge his power within the party. >> inside national museums like this one, president xi jinping had elevated himself to be on par with past paramount leaders like dung sha-ping. >> china has become the biggest economy in the world second to the u.s. it has lifted millions of people out of poverty. >> in china's capital, you feel a rush of energy. a lot of activity. at times it feels like everyone in this country is on this confident drive for more ambition, more success. it's only amplified by a population of 1.4 billion people. an incredible buying power bolstered by new technologies making it quicker and easier to spend money, not to mention track people. just to get into some of these stores and restaurants, you have to first take your temperature. it shows that you're okay. then you've got to scan your health code. it then says we're good to go. one thing that is incredibly convenient about china is you really don't even need to carry your wallet places. everything is on your phone, including payment and i.d. 2021 marked 100 years since the party's founding in shanghai. it's a triumphant rise that the leadership proudly displays at so-called communist party pilgrimage sites, where they revere fears or controversies. instead they focus on a century of successes, and china is now making other countries, including the u.s., increasingly uneasy with its rapid military expansions. >> with all the power that president xi has amassed, coupled with an increased military might, many believe that his ultimate goal is to reunify with taiwan. he has not even ruled out taking the island by force if necessary. china has been putting military pressure on the self-ruling democracy. xi, stressing in a recent meeting with president joe biden, that on taiwan the u.s. is playing with fire. biden trying to calm the rapidly rising tensions. >> our responsibilities as leaders of china and the united states is to ensure that the competition between our two countries does not bear into conflict, whether intended or unintended. just straightforward competition. >> reporter: that's easier said than done. they are citing human rights abuses against china's weaker population -- >> what kind of country does this to people, to innocent people? >> reporter: the u.s. announced a diplomatic boycott of the beijing 2022 olympics. >> the biden administration will not send any diplomatic or official representation to the beijing 2022 winter olympics. >> reporter: with allies following. calls for boycotting the games fueled in part by the case of chinese tennis star pung shaia. the woman's tennis association postponed any games. it won't halt any olympic games, these the first games to be held under president xi. 2022 setting the stage for xi to rule for an unprecedented third term and likely beyond. david culver, cnn, shanghai. >> a fascinating look, david. thank you so much for that. and thank you for watching the past two hours. i'm kate bolduan. thank you for watching. ana cabrera continues after this. daring, or thoughtful. sensitive, or strong. progress isn't either or progress is everything. hello, i'm ana cabrera in new york. we begin with breaking pandemic news, the fda last hour granting emergency information for pfizer's antiviral pill to treat covid-19. this is big, because this is the first pill of its kind that people can now take at home to treat covid-19 before they get sick enough to need hospital care. a gift, a potential game changer as the omicron variant