The New Variant: “It’s Still Early Days”

The World Health Organization will meet today to discuss a new heavily-mutated variant of Covid-19. The variant has been detected in small numbers in South Africa, with reports of cases in Israel and Hong Kong. CNBC’s Meg Tirrell reports on how Covid-19 drugmakers like Moderna and Pfizer are responding to the variant. Dr. Kavita Patel, former White House health policy director and fellow at the Brookings Institution, also reacts to the new variant but says we shouldn’t “get ahead of ourselves” just yet. NBC’s Raf Sanchez reports from Tel Aviv that Israel has barred travel to several southern African nations over the new variant, as well as Singapore and several other nations. The U.K. immediately moved to ban flights from South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia, Eswatini and Zimbabwe. Plus, Priceline CEO Brett Keller discusses holiday travel demand, and how the coronavirus variant could impact bookings. In this episode: Kavita Patel, @kavitapmd Meg Tirrell, @megtirrell Brett Keller, @priceline Raf Sanchez, @rafsanchez Becky Quick, @BeckyQuick Andrew Ross Sorkin, @andrewrsorkin Cameron Costa, @CameronCostaNY