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Hi. I'm Carl Azuz. Thanks for watching this Thursday, April 14th.
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International health officials don't know how far the dangerous Zika virus was spread.
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But with spring bringing warmer temperatures to the northern hemisphere,
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their concern that the mosquito that carry Zika
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could bring the virus far north of Brazil, the country hit hardest so far.
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Zika is not threatening to many adults who get it.
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Most don't even have symptoms.
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Those who do may have a few days of a fever, headache or muscle pain.
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But the unborn babies of pregnant women who get Zika are at risk of microcephaly,
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a disease that slows brain development and can cause lifelong problems.
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And officials are now linking Zika to premature birth,
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as well as eye problems and nervous system diseases in babies.
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There is no treatment and no cure for Zika.
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But researchers are racing to develop a vaccine for it,
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and they could be ready to test one later this year.
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If everything goes smoothly with that and it's proven effective,
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a vaccine could be widely available to the public by 2018.
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I can tell you, the last time I was here at the CDC emergency operation center was for Ebola.
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But this is the place where they're coordinating the U.S. response to Zika.
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We've got an exclusive look at what's happening inside.
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Let's take a look.
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Welcome to day 12 of the IMS activation for Zika virus.
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Every morning, this is the first place CDC Director Tom Frieden will look
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to get the latest on Zika virus.
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The board here tells us what's going on at the glance.
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We see outbreaks around the world where they're happening.
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We also look at the details of our responsible. This is the Zika virus.
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That's it, right there.
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This is what is look like under the electron microscope.
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Shouldn't we be scared if Zika or is the emotional part of this with regard to pregnant women
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and microcephaly sort of making this indiscriminately more -- having more impact.
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Over and over again, the nature deals us the wild cards.
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In the case of Zika, the real tragedy is the family that's had a child with microcephaly
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and we know that that is devastating.
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And I think that's what's driving the concern.
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This guy, this is a nasty mosquito.
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Is this the one?
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This is the one. This is Aedes Aegypti.
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Is anything good about these guys?
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The mosquitoes?
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I mean, would you get rid of them?
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I mean they cost more death than wars and natural disasters and everything put together.
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You know, the mosquito kills more people than any other animal on earth.
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Did they've thoughts about possibly using DDT?
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The fact is that DDT was widely used 50 years ago
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and virtually eliminated this mosquito from the Americas
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but DDT was also widely used in agriculture.
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They got into the environment then it had serious problems in the environment for many species.
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It also remains in the body for a long time.
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So, we're looking at safer, more effective ways to kill mosquitoes.
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If you're in an area with Zika, there are a lot of things you can do.
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Wear mosquito repellant. Use long sleeves.
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Use clothing that has permethrin put into it.
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All of those things really work and staying inside and screen space
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and air conditioning space really can drastically reduce your risk of getting a mosquito bite.
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The U.S. which has the planet's most extreme weather is currently in the midst of tornado season.
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It generally runs from March to June,
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though meteorologists point out that tornadoes can form at any time of year.
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Much of their research has been based on storms in the Midwest.
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But because the Southeastern U.S. has an excessively large number of deadly tornadoes,
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a U.S. government program called VORTEX Southeast is focused on that part of the country.
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Storm chasing in the Southeast.
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VORTEX Southeast is very different from chasing in the plains.
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There's a lot of parameters that are going to be involved.
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For one, these tornadoes could fire up after dark.
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Also, there's an element of danger because unlike the Plains,
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you can see from miles and miles.
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The terrain is very difference.
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You have a lot of hills and you have a lot of trees.
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As soon as this warning convection clears out, we will try to cover very quickly.
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We had our morning briefing.
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So, we're fairly confident about what's going to happen this afternoon.
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So, we think there'll be more thunderstorms.
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The question is, where exactly are they going to form?
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We think there's some tornado potential as storms do form this afternoon out to our west.
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And so, we're about to head out to see what we can find.
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We have some important decisions to make about exactly where to go
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and what time we are going to deploy those instruments.
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Well, here we are in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.
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And we're just waiting.
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And that's what happens a lot of times when you're storm chasing.
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We're waiting on these storms to fire up and then we're going to react to them.
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While we are waiting, the crew is back there,
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they're analyzing what's going on and trying to make the best decision of what to do next.
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Crews decipher real-tie weather data to make a decision of where to move.
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The question is what, say 45 minutes go by,
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and the storms look no bigger than they do right now
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and we have to make a decision to go east, give it more time,
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go south to try to catch more.....
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With enough information about the current environment, crews make the choice to deploy to the north.
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Chasers deploy 8 sticknets ahead of the storm.
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It takes under 7 minutes to deploy a sticknet.
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You can see the storm tht we're targeting right behind me.
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So, we rode out in front of the storm and we're putting out our sticknets.
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They're basically weather stations.
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They're going to tell you temperature, relative humidity,
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wind speed and direction, as well as pressure.
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And within minutes, we will have the data, not only to use today,
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but in the future to do research on these storms.
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What we're looking at here are actually,
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this is live data from the probes we just deployed over the last half hour,
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extending from our position back up to the north,
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so we can see the temperature, the dewpoints,
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as well as the air pressure, and the wind direction and wind speed.
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We're headed out of here.
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This information is not only coming from the Texas Tech team,
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but from a host of field scientists.
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It will take months to go through the data, but in the end,
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the risk these storm chasers are taking will eventually help save lives.
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Whether you're watching from a high school or middle school or college campus,
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the one place to request a mention on our "Roll Call" is CNNStudentNews.com.
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First school today is from Northern Belgium.
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In the city of Antwerp, hello to our friends at Onze-Lieve-Vrouwecollege.
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Across the Atlantic, we're making a stop in Charleston, West Virginia.
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Hello to the Generals watching from Stonewall Jackson Middle School.
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And from the town of Ecru, Mississippi, it's great to see the Vikings.
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North Pontotoc High School is on the roll.
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For as long as people have been driving, there have been driving distractions.
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Even the first cars on the road, some didn't even have roofs.
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They tended to attract crowds of onlookers.
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Now, we think of driving distractions in terms of text messaging.
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But decades before that was invented in 1992,
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the U.S. National Safety Council was using media to try to save lives on the road.
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It's come a long way, still has some miles to go.
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Evolution of driving safety campaigns.
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The National Safety Council has been delivering PSAs on driving safety since the 1950s.
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Remember your skill diagram, eyes, brain, hands and feet, all working together.
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Would you wear my safety belt?
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Oh, Sonny, after all these years, I find that you really love me. You made me put on the safety belt.
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Seatbelts saved nearly 40,000 lives in the U.S. between 1987 and 2013.
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But in 2015, driving fatalities rose nearly 8 percent, its highest in nearly 50 years.
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Record mileage, teen driving and cell phone use are part of the reason why.
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The NSC says that even hands-free devices have been the cause of fatal crashes.
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They recommend that the time you spend in your car is a time to be cell phone free.
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You deserve to disconnect.
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A videographer was recently exploring the waters off the Galapagos Islands
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when he came across this, a marine iguana.
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Not to be confused with the kind you might have seen in Florida, these lizards are huge.
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This one is likely around six feet long.
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Thankfully for the divers, it's a herbivore and what it lacks in good looks,
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it makes up for swimming ability.
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It's like a mini Godzilla wading its way through the water.
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And even if igua-not the prettiest thing in the world,
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you'd have to be cold-blooded to reptile me there's igua-no way you wouldn't swim with one.
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Given that outside the Galapagos, most people have never seen one herb- efore.
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I'm Carl Azuz, and if you promise to lizard to us again tomorrow,
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I'll igua-knock it off with the rest of the puns today.