Return to Transcripts main page
CNN 10
Norovirus Strikes Olympic Security Officers; The Dow Swings Wildly; Lasers Help Researchers Find Ancient Mayan Structures
Aired February 07, 2018 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: This is CNN 10, your objective explanation of events making headlines around the world. I`m Carl Azuz. Always good to
see you.
First story this Wednesday: sickness has swept over dozens of people working on the 2018 Winter Olympics. But it`s not the nasty flu virus
you`ve heard about. What hospitalized 41 security guards in Pyeongchang, South Korea, is norovirus.
Olympics organizers say they suddenly started showing symptoms on Sunday. Officials don`t know exactly how the security guards got infected, but the
Korean Center for Disease Control and Prevention says they`ve all been staying at the same building. Organizers are testing the water in food
where the security guards are staying and they`re checking to make sure their bedrooms are virus free.
All of those who`d caught norovirus are stable. But in order to help contain the disease, a total of 1,200 security guards had to be taken off
duty. This would have had a significant impact on security for the games, so South Korea deployed 900 members of its military to help keep the event
safe. They`ll be doing the security checks at 20 of the venues where events are held.
Though the opening ceremonies are scheduled for Friday, the first events will actually start the day before. So, health officials want to get a
handle on this before it has the chance to spread to athletes, trainers, coaches and tourists.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Norovirus is one of the most contagious bugs out there.
SUBTITLE: How viral is norovirus?
COHEN: The amount of norovirus that can fit on the head of a pen can get a thousand people sick. About 20 million people a year get sick from
norovirus in the United States. Eight hundred people die, about 60,000 end up in the hospital.
Norovirus is the number one cause of food poisoning outbreaks in the United States. Infected food workers, they`re responsible for about 70 percent of
the norovirus outbreaks in this country.
When people get norovirus, they get vomiting and diarrhea, sometimes it`s pretty vicious. Another reason norovirus is so powerful is it can stay on
your countertops for up to two weeks and many common disinfectants and cleaners just don`t work against it.
So, you can fight norovirus. First of all, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water. Sanitizers just isn`t going to cut it.
Also, avoid touching foods with your bare hands. Use silverware as much as you can. And if you do feel sick, don`t prepare foods for other people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: Next, wild swings in the U.S. stock market. Following Monday`s historic drop in points for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the index of
30 significant stocks, had its fourth largest gain yesterday. It closed up 567 points after closing down 1,175 points the previous day.
One thing that`s important to point out is that while these are historic swings in terms of points, which represent dollar values of different
stocks, they`re not historic when viewed as percentages. In Monday`s decrease, the Dow dropped 4.6 percent. In Tuesday`s increase, the Dow rose
2.3 percent. Those percentages are nowhere near the historic market crashes of 1987 or 1929, or the historic margin gains of 1933 or 1931.
Still, there are signs of instability in the stock market and they`re watched so closely because that market is one indication of how the U.S.
economy is doing and its rises and falls affect markets around the world. American investors are concerned about wages, inflation, interest rates,
which we`ve explained a bit yesterday. But most analysts and the U.S. government say the economy is very strong and they don`t appear worried
about what this could mean in the long term.
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
AZUZ: The most powerful rocket in the world taking off. Falcon Heavy is the name of the SpaceX rocket. After a couple of delays, it blasted off
the ground at about 3:45 p.m. yesterday at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. SpaceX, which has received billions in grants from NASA estimates that each
launch of a Falcon Heavy rocket caused about $90 million. But that`s reportedly hundreds of millions cheaper than the world second most powerful
rocket.
As a way to decrease the high cost of spaceflight, Falcon Heavy`s three rocket boosters are designed to land upright back on earth to be reused.
At least two of them did that yesterday at Kennedy Space Center. The third was supposed to land at a platform at sea but we didn`t know immediately if
that return was a success.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUBTITLE: Researchers have identified thousands of undiscovered Mayan structures in Guatemala.
Dense sections of the jungle were mapped by special laser-equipped airplanes.
The Light Detection and Ranging system or "LIDAR" was used to see through the jungle.
The scans revealed an interconnected network of cities containing houses, palaces, fortifications and highways.
"We`re discovering that there is more of everything, and the scale is much bigger", Marcello Canuto, Tulane University.
"In any given area, there were more structures, more buildings, more canals and more terraces (than expected)".
Scans showing raised highways suggest that society was more interconnected than previously believed.
In total, 60,000 previously unknown structures were found, some of which are buried.
Researchers say the new data could mean that the Mayan population was as high as 10 million.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: Titanosaur, Woolly Mammoth, Megalodon, African elephant, these are mere chickens compared to the biggest animal on record. What`s interest
about the blue whale, besides the fact that it`s the biggest mammal on earth today is that it`s believed to be the biggest animal ever, that
nothing past or present has ever come close to the whale`s estimated weight which can approach 200 tons. So, even if the Loch Ness Monster is real,
Nessie has got nothing on Big Blue.
Now, that`s random.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: OK. Sticking with the mammal theme for our next "Great Big Story". Around the world, there are ongoing efforts to save something called the
tree pangolin and the reason is that there are ongoing efforts to poach them, especially in Africa and Asia. All three pangolin species are listed
as either vulnerable or endanger and there`s nothing quite like them in the world.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REPORTER: This is a male tree pangolin. He is six months old.
SUBTITLE: On the brink: Tree pangolin.
REPORTER: Critically endangered and under-researched, the tree pangolin is a mammalian species like no other. Found throughout Asia and Africa,
pangolins can be traced back 66 million years, meaning they lived amongst dinosaurs.
They`re the only mammals on earth covered in scales, which accounts for about 20 percent of their body weight. These large protective scales are
made of keratin, the same thing human nails and hair are made from.
Tree pangolins use their long claws to climb on trees and branches in an endless search for prey. Baby pangolins like the one here get around by
riding their mother`s tails. Though they have poor eyesight and hearing, their strong sense of smell and elastic tongue allows them to catch a meal
of mercy ants and termites.
When the pangolin senses danger, it will curl up into a ball, making it almost invincible in the wild. Humans however are a dangerous threat.
The pangolin scales are thought to have healing properties, though there`s no science to back it up. Because of that, pangolins are the most heavily
trafficked mammals in the world, worth almost $300 per pound on the black market.
No one knows how many pangolins are left, but we do know that their number is shrinking fast.
This is the tree pangolin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: "Ten out of 10" goes to a water gun you can`t buy at Walmart. This thing is so powerful, it can blast a hole through concrete, steel, and even
bullet proof glass. Yes, that would hurt your arm.
It`s part of a system that mixes water with granite dust to cut a piece size hole through, well, almost anything. Why? It allows firefighters to
squirt water into a room for example, where there`s a fire and drastically lower the temperature before they go inside.
So, developers had a concrete idea of what they were aiming for. Now, critics might call it the squirt gun, but when it comes to water, how could
you aquant (ph) anything more powerful than a super soaking pressure washer that`s literally a blast to use.
I`m Carl Azuz for CNN 10.
END
