Χ΋11:39 Finally be able to get this opportunity. After a virus cases are down, vaccinations are up and millions of people are on the Move. Lot of pent-up demand, they're staying longer and doing more things and spending more money. What the travel boom says, about the state of the virus and the US economy, getting to the bottom of the origin of this pandemic will help us understand how to prepare for the next pandemic after President, Biden orders, you Intelligence agencies to redouble their efforts to uncover the origins of the coronavirus new CNN reporting this morning on exactly what that renewed, push entails, it became a rallying cry in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. Why cities across the country are now refunding. The police after initially slashing their budgets Newsroom starts right now.? And I'm Boris. Sanchez. You were live in the CNN Newsroom and we begin this hour queuing up the soundtrack, to The Unofficial start of summer Americans on the road. Again, going places. They haven't been in a while and whether it's the beach or a barbecue, both sound great right now. The CDC says, if you are fully vaccinated, you're fully protected. It's good thing today is your Friday for us. So Memorial Day Weekend? Well no it's not.? That one more today. Weekend is the first major holiday though. Since the CDC said fully vaccinated people can drop masks stop social distancing. We Do Most states have since relaxed their restrictions were going to soon, see what impact America's reopening will have on people who have not gotten their shots. But check out where we were a year ago, the summer surge that followed Memorial Day. This year, the pace of vaccinations hopefully will prevent what was it tragedy there? Yeah. More than a hundred thirty three million people in the United States are fully vaccinated right now. That's forty percent of the total population and it includes more than fifty percent of adults in this country. So millions of people are taking advantage. They're traveling in numbers and we haven't seen in a long time. We have our team tracking the holiday travel Russia's. Well, want to start with CNN's Polo Sandoval, he's at New York's LaGuardia Airport and we understand that they're busy. It doesn't look too bad. Where you are though? Help us understand what it's been like this morning. Polo Hey, Chrissy Boris. We think that majority of those Travelers were probably getting to their destination yesterday. That's because at least here at LaGuardia singles. Terminal is relatively quiet. Only about a five minute. Wait, we'll get you past security. So that also explains why some of these newest TSA numbers that were just released a few moments ago. Suggest that we have reached at least broken, another. Pandemic ERA record is yesterday with the TSA reporting just under 1.7 million people using airport, security checkpoints yesterday, that is getting us closer to? Endemic numbers possibly about 90% of those pre-pandemic numbers. So that certainly goes to that point that we've, that we've heard discussed on, are repeatedly that people are now anxious ready to get back out there. Ready to get on the road yet again? And when you see some of the trout, that Tripoli numbers, they certainly showed that the AAA estimating that we could see a huge spike in travel to 37 million people. That be a 60 percent increase over 20, 20 Robert Sinclair up AAA says that really people have been cooped up for well over a year now. They are more than anxious to stretch your travel like travel likes and get back on the road. A lot of pent-up demand people's lost, Sutton at home for more than a year. We're seeing that people really want to get out and travel, the so-called we've ends travel, where people were able to save a lot of money because they weren't traveling to work last year and so they're going to places, they're staying longer and doing more things and spending more money. Yeah, and more. That money is probably going to go towards airfare AAA also estimating that we've seen about a 19% increase in airfare this past April compared to April of 2020. And it may not even be that much cheaper to actually drive to your destination since the average cost of a gallon of gas. Now, about three dollars, we did hear from the White House yesterday saying that that doesn't surprise them given that increase in demand. But look at the end of the day at the end of the day, Christian Boris here from Travelers and? No matter the price. They are willing to pay it right now if it means getting out. But of course, the big hope. Is it those people who are leaving their bubbles and are taking to the roads are at least those who are fully vaccinated. You mentioned that key number a little while ago, about 40 percent of Americans. Now fully vaccinated now quick. Reminder, if you are going to be adding to the masses today, don't leave the mask at home federal law. Still requires that people wear masks if they're going to be using public transportation, and that could possibly lead to some conflict. Obviously, there's a lot of people who are not quite used to wearing that mask, especially, they have been traveling for the last year year. In a couple of months guys and we've already seen too much of that so hopefully it'll be a peaceful travel weekend. Polo Sandoval. Thank you so much. Let's pivot from New York to one travel hotspot that I know very well. Miami Beach where the mayor Dan Gilbert says he's worried that too many people might be heading that way. CNN's Natasha Chen is there a Natasha? I hear that there's a lot of traffic both on the street on the sidewalk. It's insane. Boris and you're from here, you know what, it's like to have visitors. Just descend on Miami Beach during a holiday weekend. So to have the mayor of Miami Beach, say that the volume of people coming here is unprecedented, you know, that's a big deal. Last night, we were trying to drive just a few blocks on Collins one street over, from us. And it took us about an hour to do that. Of course, all the partygoers who were creating that traffic last night are probably still asleep right now. There is some concern CERN because of that the mayor says, you know, the virus is still here and there, there is some chaos that ensues with crowds like that, at the local residents have been concerned about that as well. But businesses are probably happy to see those dollars coming in. According to the County Convention and Visitor's Bureau hotel occupancy. For the first time this year is actually now at the same level of the hotel occupancy in during the same week in 2019. So that is a big deal, dining activities. Is actually more than a third higher than at this point in 2019. Also, according to the convention and visitors bureau using open data open table data. Another industry. That's putting a lot of hopes on this Memorial Day, weekend is the movie theater industry. Those have been closed for so many months during the past year. And yesterday, I met a few people who were walking in to see a movie for the first time since the pandemic.? Is coming in smiling, popcorn, seeing these behind us, seeing all the pictures of the new movies coming out. It feels pretty good to be back. We just ready to do something relaxing. It's hot outside movie theaters.? Peter's the box office sales last year, really flat line between March and August when all of them were closed. And it's historically, such a big deal for box office, sales Memorial Day weekend. So they're trying to see if this weekend is an indicator of normal summer business to come that applies here to the beach businesses as well. The air and sea show is back in Miami Beach. So while the locals and the mayor are you telling everyone to be safe and how they enjoy their time here? Of course the? This is are also very happy to see those dollars, come back. Boris and Christy, All right, Natasha Chen. Enjoy Miami Beach even when you're walking. I know because you've got some Sunday. Thank you so much. So Tom Klose is with us, he's publisher of the oil. Price information, service Tom, it's good to see you. I know that people are going to be getting in their cars, they're going to see that price at the at the gas station. Will you put this in a perspective for us though? I mean we have not been traveling by car a whole lot in the last year. So what does this look like in?? Two other years past. Well, if you go back to 2011 to 2014 Memorial Day weekend, we had gas prices between 350 and about 390. So we've been here we've $3 might seem apocalyptic and it is if you live in California where you're about four dollars and twenty cents but we've had this kind of inflation, it's not like what we're seeing in housing or what we're seeing in grains or Lumber or whatever. And so that's not the problem. I think the problem that I think this is a little bit of a weekend dress rehearsal for it is the supply chain. You know that last mile or two hundred miles is it the supply chain for for gasoline has been strained and we've lost a lot of the drivers that drive. Those big transport trucks on the road fast, young Turnpike, or whatever. So that when we get high demand, I'm not so worried about this weekend but maybe in July and August.? You can see some outages, we can see some places. This bag pumps and we kind of had a dress rehearsal for bad behavior. A couple of weeks ago with the colonial pipeline down and we saw that the crowd can get apoplectic very, very quickly. Yeah. I mean, there's definitely a panic that sets in if you've got to get gas and you're going to station after station and you can't get any. But you mentioned the prices in California is out west more vulnerable to those higher prices than other parts of the country. Yeah. I mean California and to a certain extent Oregon and Washington already acted to try to be emphasized carbon. There's a lot of charges, they are on the road that are baked into the price of gasoline that are related to carbon suppression. So that's why you pay so much more in California than you do in the rest of the country. It's kind of a laboratory, perhaps, for what we may see in the Northeast because there's a lot of states? Χ΋11:50 Low carbon fuel standard getting and, you know, it's not a free lunch, you have to pay for that. So I don't think this is going to be a tremendous pricing event that we see where people can't go somewhere because they can't afford it. I mean last year we saw people driving about as much as they drove during the Kennedy administration on Easter weekend. So we're going to see to man, be very very lumpy but the problem comes to July and August if we get problems with Supply I inform her. It's so I think we're okay we've been at three or four National and for about a week or so that's not too painful. I think would probably drop a little bit in June and then July and August is anybody's guess. So you mentioned that the disruption in in production and supply and you also I know you just mentioned hurricanes but you also talked about the truck drivers and the fact that a lot of them lost their jobs or? They were sick with covid. So how how intense is the lack of drivers right now to transport the fuel is pretty intense. In some places, you know, here in New Jersey, it's not a big deal because you're never more than about 50 or 70 miles from products terminal, but if you think of places like the Florida Keys, where it has to be loaded in Port Everglades yet, your reporter was in. A me and then it has to go. What's maybe a 10 hour round trip? You can be a real problem. It can be a problem from the national parks for the places that are very distant from the petroleum infrastructure. I don't think it will be this weekend and it's not so much that it's going to be a problem, but if people see a few station outages, they start for camp and we have the propensity, or we have the capability if everyone panics and tops off their tanks. We use about. Billion gallons.? Hundred million. So no Supply system can handle a panic. Like, what we saw a few weeks ago, when the colonial pipeline shut down down, Tom close up, we appreciate your, your expertise on this. Thank you for giving us a good lesson this morning. We appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Absolutely take care. Ahead and optimistic message for the holiday weekend, hear what President Biden had to say about the progress. We've made in the battle to eradicate covid-19 and just because covid cases are falling. That does doesn't necessarily mean we can suddenly let our guard down, right? Or is the travel going to be setting us up for another surge is what a lot of people are asking. We'll talk about it.?