Tuesday morning news - December 28, 2021

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

CDC recommends shorter COVID isolation, quarantine for all » The CDC now says that if you test positive for COVID-19, you no longer need to isolate for 10 days. Five will do just fine.

It similarly shortened the time that close contacts need to quarantine.

The agency says that because the evidence continues to show that people with the virus are most infectious in the two days before and three days after symptoms develop. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN, REPORTER: CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the country is about to see a lot of omicron cases. She said “Not all of those cases are going to be severe. In fact many are going to be asymptomatic.” She added that we want to make sure “we can safely continue to keep society functioning while following the science.”

Last week, the agency shortened the time that healthcare workers who test positive must stay home from 10 days to 7 days. That is if they test negative and have no symptoms. And at facilities with staffing shortages, the isolation period could be five days, or even fewer.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Omicron, storms, disrupt air travel for 4th consecutive day » Many frustrated travelers found themselves stuck at airports once again on Monday as airlines continued to cancel flights for a fourth straight day.

Airlines have pulled the plug on thousands of flights during one of the busiest travel periods of the year. That as more and more employees call in sick with COVID-19.

Lucy Burke was awaiting a flight in Chicago on Monday…

BURKE: One of my best friends is stuck in Mexico right now and their family just tested positive, and they got kicked out of their hotel room, and it’s just a whole disaster.

According to tracking service FlightAware, airlines have canceled more than 4,000 flights to, from or inside the U.S. since Friday with more than 1,000 on Monday alone.

Winter weather wreaks havoc in parts of CA, NV » As if travelers need any more headaches, the weather also impacted many flights on Monday and wreaked havoc on roads in parts of California and Nevada.

A storm over the holiday weekend brought whiteouts to the mountains in Northern California and Nevada. And the winter weather shut down major highways and could snarl traffic in the area for several days.

A 20-car pileup on a highway south of Reno left three people injured on Sunday.

Dustin Norman with the National Weather Service…

NORMAM: Some places have gotten between 3 to 5 feet in total, so it’s been rather active. It’s definitely great for the snow pack. We need all the snow we can get. Sometimes receiving it all at once can cause issues.

Winter weather rolled along most of the U.S. West Coast. The northern end of Puget Sound in Washington reported more than a foot of snow, and other parts of the Pacific Northwest also saw snow over the weekend.

U.S. steps up probe into Hyundai-Kia engine failures and fires » The federal government has stepped up a series of investigations into engine fires that have plagued Hyundai and Kia vehicles for more than six years. WORLD’s Leigh Jones has more.

LEIGH JONES, REPORTER: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says a new probe of the engine issues covers more than 3 million vehicles from model years 2011 through 2016.

The vehicle models affected by the engine fires include Hyundai's Sonata, Santa Fe, and Elantra and as well as Kia's Sorento, Rio, Optima and Soul.

The agency has received more than 160 complaints of engine fires, some of which occurred in vehicles that had already been recalled.

Engine failures and fires have dogged the Korean automakers' vehicles since 2015 when the company issued an engine failure recall. Since then it has issued at least eight more recalls for a host of engine problems.

The federal agency says it's opening an engineering analysis that could lead to further recalls.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leigh Jones.

Sociobiologist E.O. Wilson dies » The Pulitzer Prize–winning author and evolutionist Edward O. Wilson has died.

Wilson closely studied the behaviors of social insects and animals like ants, termites, and monkeys and found that an individual animal will often die for its community.

From that, he developed a controversial theory of evolutionary altruism, a belief that natural selection could actually develop a sense of morality in a species.

Wilson grew up in the Southern Baptist church. In a 2007 interview, he said people of faith and science must work together to save the environment.

WILSON: Science and religion are the two most powerful social forces in the world. The so-called culture wars between them needlessly blocked full cooperation.

But he also once said—quote—“the best thing would be to eliminate religions, though not human spiritual yearning.”

Wilson won the Pulitzer Prize for his books On Human Nature and The Ants. He was 92.

I’m Kent Covington. For more news, features, and analysis, visit us at wng.org. 

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