thank you. >>> children fighting covid in a mississippi hospital. they didn't have the vaccination choice, but the adults around them did. we talk to one of the doctors seeing it firsthand. start your day with crest 3d white and from mochaccinos to merlot, your smile will always be brilliant. crest 3d white brilliance. 100% stain removal, 24 hour stain resistance to lock in your whitest smile. crest. the #1 toothpaste brand in america. i'm so glad you're ok, sgt. houston. this is sam with usaa. do you see the tow truck? yes, thank you, that was fast. sgt. houston never expected this to happen. or that her grandpa's dog tags would be left behind. but that one call got her a tow and rental... ...paid her claim... ...and we even pulled a few strings. making it easy to make things right: that's what we're made for. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. get a quote today. ♪ thousands of women with metastatic breast cancer are living in the moment and taking ibrance. ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr

mississippi takes this big step. it could have asked the court to curb it, but it's asking it to overturn roe v. wade, the landmark opinion almost 15 years old that established the right to abortion. of course, this is going to thrust these justices into the center of the political hot spot. they are going to hear this case next term. they will decide it by the end of june, and that's right before the midterm elections. and as you said, this law, this controversial law, most abortions after 15 weeks, no exceptions for rape or for incest. lower courts struck it down because they said look at roe v. wade. a conservative judge, a trump appointee in the lower court said, look, my hands are tied here. that's why mississippi asked the court this big step to overturn roe v. wade. all eyes are going to be on the conservative justices. think of chief justice john roberts just back in 2020. he sided with the liberals to block the louisiana law, but he did leave some room for restrictions. and on the other end of the spectrum y

only one-third of the state of mississippi is vaccinated. those are the things that the governor of mississippi needs to worry about instead of the cdc mandates that are geared to protect americans. >> dr. bessette, thank you very much for joining us this morning. let's hope people are listening to the science here. >>> right now louisiana has the highest seven-day average of new cases per capita in the country. at one baton rouge hospital the nurses say they're seeing the number of patients with covid increase rapidly. miguel marquez joins me now with his reporting. have you seen it all. truly, with you were on the font lines in the e.r. when the pandemic began and then there when people were getting vaccinated. and now you're here now to see people who are unwilling to and facing dire consequences. >> believe me, if i never had to go into another covid icu, i would be perfectly happy not to. i am vaccinated. i am wearing a mask again even though i'm vaccinated. and when i travel and i do all of the this stuff, i make sure and do that becau

wade, that's why mississippi has asked for it to be overturned. all eyes are going to be on the conservative wing of the supreme court. keep in mind that justice clarence thomas for years has said that roe v. wade should be overturned and that leaves the three liberal justices led by justice stephen breyer who is under some pressure to retire, they are going to work as best they can to limit the damage from their perspective to try to preserve as much of roe as possible. boris, kaitlan? >> thank you, ariane. as you noted there could be a decision by next june. those oral arguments are expected to happen either early fall or this winter. meanwhile, though, the cia inspector general is looking into cases of the so-called havana syndrome as the number of the reports of illness continues to rise. hundreds of u.s. diplomats, spies and troops around the globe have been sickened by this, some so severe that they ended up retiring. >> yeah, let's get to cnn reporter katie williams covering the story for us. good morning. what can you tell us about this ci

he sate quote, pretty much all cases in mississippi are delta variant right now. vast majority of cases, hospitalizations, deaths unvaccinated. 7% of deaths in vaccinated worrisome. we are allowing too much circulating data to reach the most vulnerable. he is saying 7% of the deaths were in vaccinated people, which of course, is troubling. do you know anything about that or is this number, this 99.2% will be eroding as delta surges? >>. >> i don't believe so. not from delta because the vaccines do work there. i don't understand the data from mississippi and i'd really like to understand what was the nature where those individuals who actually necessarily died of covid or of something else. so that ought to be looked at. all of the other data we've seen says 99 plus percent of people in the hospital with covid are unvaccinated. you quoted that result from los angeles, 1,000 people in the hospital all unvaccinated. i hope people will hear this right now listening to this. if you're on the fence about whether vaccination was going to help you, listen to those numbers

that orange line is mississippi, alabama is the red line. and as we learned, where hospitalizations are high the sad reality is more deaths are expected to follow. let's begin this hour with elizabeth cohen. good morning. this latest spike has i number of republican leaders feeling the pressure and a number of them now speaking up very vocally about this, including alabama governor kay ivey, where the vaccination rate is the lowest in the country. what is she saying? >> this is apparently what it took for some republicans, not all, but for some republicans to say, look, guys, you need to get vaccinated. so let's take a listen to governor ivy. she speaks in very plain language. >> these folks are choosing a horrible lifestyle of self-inflicted pain. >> what is it going to take to get shots in people's arms. >> i don't know. you tell me. folks are supposed to have common sense. but it is time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks. it is the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down. >> you could see how angry she is.

arkansas, louisiana, tennessee, mississippi, alabama, georgia. florida alone, now big state, number-three state, right? makes up a huge chunk of the new cases. they have been in the top five for new cases, going back to april. now, if you look, you will see that there's some toxic politics that have gone along with that. don't fauci florida and all this other stuff. and now he's anti-mask down there, the governor. i get the political play. it works with the trump fold but it's making people sick. you could say that, look, they have a big population. okay? so they're going to have bigger numbers. but the positivity is way outpacing the rest of the country. okay? which is why they have more people in the hospital than they did at any time this year. it's a scene playing out across the entire region. it's not just florida. but you have to look at where you have the most cases, and you will see the lowest percentages of vaccination. and the highest rates of transmission. okay? if you focus on that same group of states, you see, it's almost all red do

in mississippi, the state health officer says 7 children there are in intensive care. two of them are on ventilators. as for kids who are eligible to get the vaccine, only 25% of those who are age 12 to 15 have gotten the shot. >> the white house has enlisted pop star olivia rodrigo to reach that group and young adults. she visited the president. she recorded videos encouraging vaccination. health experts say if people continue to avoid vaccination, young children will keep suffering the consequences. >> if you can vaccinate all of the adults and all of the addlesadd l addless he sents, we know we can slow or halt covid-19. it's what's not going to happen in tennessee and mississippi, arkansas and now marching into deep south. transmission will continue to accelerate and what we'll see and the ones who will pay the price other than the unvaccinated are the little kids who depend on the adults and add he addless sents to slow or halt transmission. >> elizabeth, where are the companies, where is the government on emergency use authorization for those children under 12. >

but if i were indoors in places like mississippi, louisiana, tennessee, arkansas, missouri right now, now going into northern florida, yeah, you might still want to do that if the force of infection because of that high delta low vaccination rate continues. >> dr. peter hotez, i appreciate it. thank you. just ahead another american arrested in connection to the assassination of haiti's president. we'll have a live report on the investigation when we come back. do you struggle to fall asleep and stay asleep? qunol sleep formula combines 5 key nutrients that can help you fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and wake up refreshed. the brand i trust is qunol. new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a short list of quality candidates from our resume database. claim your seventy five dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed.com/home. ♪ ♪ when technology is easier to use... ♪ barriers don't stand a chance. ♪ that's why we'll stop at nothing to deliver our technology as-a-se

in mississippi only a third of the population has been vaccinated. state health officers there saying that seven children are in a mississippi icu with covid including two children that are currently on a ventilator. >> it appears that the delta variant while being more infectious is also causing more children to be ysymptomatic whether that is that it is just more severe or more prevalent so we're seeing more symptomatic cases, we're not sure, but it is probably related to all of those things. >> all those covid patients in los angeles county hospitals are unvaccinated. here is one woman who lost her unvaccinated husband. >> i think rob thought that he was invincible. i think that lot of men think that if nothing else has taken them down, that nothing can. and because of my role at the hospital, i know he that he would have -- he never said i'm never going to get vaccinated. it just wasn't of the right time. and i didn't ever push him. >> new research shows that the delta variant makes more copies of itself inside our bodies more quickly. scientists

house select committee on the insurrection, democrat congressman betty thompson of mississippi. i hope we really didn't lose your signal right there, congressman. we're going to try and re-establish that because we certainly want to talk to him and have a lot of questions about how the committee is building, and now with the add of a second republican, and of course tuesday's hearings begin this week, and at cnn we'll have special live coverage of the hearing beginning at 9:00 a.m. with our wolf blitzer. we're going to get back to that in a moment. >>> all right. meantime, growing fallout now from the nfl's vaccine push. an assistant coach for the minnesota vikings is now out of a job after refusing the vaccine. it's not mandatory for players, but player who's do get covid could face hefty fines, and their teams may have to forfeit games. dr. sanjay gupta has this report. >> with the first pre-season game less than two week as way, the national football league is sending a warning to unvaccinated players. cnn obtaining this memo sent leaguewide on thursday saying, if a game cann

mississippi 30. louisiana 35. you have states in the 30s and states in the high 60s. what is the issue in those states? is it just political persuasion? is it people who don't believe in vaccines? how do you breakthrough? >> you know, i thought about that for such a long time. and i think what we need to stop doing first is really polarizing and already polarized america. what i mean is there's no doubt that the southern states are lagging behind. i live in georgia below 40%. you mentioned 37%. but ultimately what the bmt line is there's a lot of misinformation out there, john. you know, it doesn't matter whether you are american or frerchg. a lot of young people are concerned the young people in the u.s. are concerned about, i have so far fought covid. i've been through the pandemic for a year. nothing has happened to me. i don't know anybody who has had covid. why should i get the vaccine? and another big concern that a lot of people have whether you're a democrat or republican, is this vaccine was developed in lightning speed. what is going to happen to me the next

states like arkansas, florida, louisiana, missouri, mississippi and alabama. they all fit into that masking category. meanwhile, here, what's going on? this is a testing site in little rock, arkansas. in the early part of the summer, it got so slow they only needed a couple of people to operate it. that has changed and changed drastically in the last seven to eight days, medical experts say. on monday they tested as many as 500, yesterday as many as 300, a steady flow today. the reason for that is because of the number that's low. that is, the vaccination rate for the entire state which is hovering around 40%. if you want to see the heartbreak of what a lack of vaccination creates, you go to the arkansas children's hospital pediatric intensive care unit where you will see its impact. children. they never had so many children infected with covid-19. half of those cases are inside of that icu. to see those little bodies wrapped up with all those tubes in such dire condition is heartbreaking and it's all avoidable, the experts say. just get a vaccine. kate. >> al

the rest of them, look at this, 37 for missouri. 50th mississippi. but look at the last week because what we see here is something very interesting. look at this. they're all in the top ten in terms of vaccinations in the last week. so, what it seems to be happening is as things have gotten worse in these places, these states have jumped ahead of the national average and more people are getting vaccinated. it does seem the places that were lagging as they have seen delta and seen how things have gotten worse in their own backyard they jumped ahead of the line and more folks are getting vaccinated. >> these are stark. arkansas go from 42nd to 2nd overall. it's a huge disparity there. fox news. >> yes. >> which you don't have to work hard there to find people dising on vaccines until recently. some of their, you know -- some of their people -- >> some of them. some of them. >> started suggesting, hey, science works, vaccines work. >> here is the reason why. age 18, adults with at least one covid vaccine dose by their main source of news. fox news just

in mississippi, seven children across the state are now in intensive care units. two of those children, we're told, are on ventilators this morning. and as the school year approaches, a cnn analysis finds that at least seven states are taking steps to ban public schools from acqurequiring vaccinations for teens even those eligible to get them. let's begin with medical correspondent elizabeth cohen. health experts are worried and children are the ones paying the price for adults choosing not to get vaccinated, but also, let's be clear. it's still really rare for children to get seriously ill from covid, right? >> it is. it is very unusual for a child to get a terrible complication from covid. but, you know, i say to you, poppy, as a mom, i'm a mom. why would you want to risk that with your child? i have pondered this for a very long time and i don't get it. why would you want to say, kids hardly ever get sick with covid. i'm not going to get my child vaccinated. i'll be honest, that's just bad parenting. we should be protecting our children. the vaccine is safe. ho

mississippi ninth. folks are scared and when they're scared all of a sudden folks who are perhaps hesitant to get the vaccine have gone out in much higher numbers than the rest of the nation to go get them. >> so do we know these people are going out more now to get vaccinated? >> that is exactly what these numbers are showing is that in these states they are making up a larger share of those getting vaccinated than they used to. they are all in the top ten now. before only florida was in the top 25. >> go deeper into florida. florida has every reason to be successful. it has the money, the means, lots of points of ingress and egress, medical care. what is going on there and why? >> look, coronavirus in florida average new dawley cases weekly. look at that. the week average over 10,000. new hospitalizations up daily. 358 on the average. deaths 40 averaging per day over the last week. look at these weekly changes. all way up. deaths up 22% week over week. 83% hospitalizations. 61% up on cases. why? i thi

and check out the party back home in starkville, mississippi. fun times there celebrating that title. and good timing for those mississippi state players because starting today, college athletes across the country can profit off their name, image and likeness. the ncaa approving interim guidelines yesterday. many states already had passed laws that were set to go into effect today allowing players to get paid. ncaa president mark emmert saying the organization is still committed to working with congress to pass more permanent federal legislation. >>> finally, a soccer phenom is going pro after a landmark legal decision. the 15-year-old signing a three year contract with the portland thorns yesterday. u.s. stdistrict court ruled tha the age restriction barring girls under the age of 18 violated antitrust laws. they don't have a cba in the nwsl. so that is why this was overturned. so for now, 15 years old playing pro soccer. >> for for her. i was not doing that at 15. very impressive. >>> thank you so much for joining us. >> great to have you this

but if i were indoors in places like mississippi, tennessee, arkansas right now now going into norp florida, yeah you might still want to do that because the low delta high vaccination rate continues. >>> just ahead another arrested in connection to the assassination of haiti's president. we'll have a live report on the investigation when we come back. limu emu... and doug. so then i said to him, you oughta customize your car insurance with liberty mutual, so you only pay for what you need. oh um, doug can we talk about something other than work, it's the weekend. yeah, yeah. [ squawk ] hot dog or... chicken? [ squawk ] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ here are the two battling to the line and allyson felix... simone manuel's above her trying to fight on, and above simone... getting an opportunity to show her stuff. nonstop, displayed at the highest performance level... finding something and the us takes gold! ♪ dream on ♪ ♪ dream on ♪ ♪ dream on ♪ ♪ dream on ♪ - yes! ♪ ahhhhhhh ♪ ♪ dream until your dreams come true ♪ >>> multip

mississippi at the bottom, less than 35%. mississippi, alabama, arkansas. if you had a resurgence or spike, would it be regional as opposed to national, so in those places with the low vaccination rates. >> absolutely, jim. think about vaccinations like a fire break that's dug into a forest fire, preventing the fire from jumping into new timber. a lot of, you know, dry brush on the ground is fuel for the fire, and in this pandemic, the fuel is a mass of unvaccinated people, and we're seeing that in the south and southwest and out through the midwest. you look at a state like arkansas. arkansas, which has a very low vaccination rate, has seen over 100% rise in daily cases over the last two weeks. we're seeing this. 55% increase in florida. we're seeing this in states that are lagging, and you're right, it's a vred/blue split. >> i read this morning that 99.2% of covid deaths in june were unvaccinated. it's remarkable. but there is still vaccine hesitancy in a big portion of the population. a new "washington post" poll found that nearly three-quarters of peop

other parts of the united states is going to look like no more pandemic, but parts of alabama, mississippi -- florida is now surging. 2,500 cases per day in florida. people need to be told straight out like the governor of west virginia, the governor justice is telling people if you're choosing not to be vaccinated, you're entering the death lottery. >> you're mentioning these places. louisiana right now, look at the light green means way low in the vaccination rate and here's the cases right now. 36% fully vaccinated 136789 average daily cases. the national average is 1.4. so you have this state well ahead now when we are in the warmer period of time, when children are not in school. if this doesn't get better, what happens when you get kids back to school and weather gets cooler. >> maybe you can't keep kids in school, particularly if you choose not to require vaccination. all these universities are having to make the decision whether to make it a requirement. where i work, that decision was made last month that every faculty and student returning to campus this fall must be fully vaccin

you see mississippi, the worst with 29.9% of residents fully vaccinated. not even a third of the population. we also know a lot of states with the higher marks have counties that are lagging. as we await president biden to speak about the response next hour, what are you seeing as the next step for the federal government in this fight? >> you know, i think something that could move this forward in a big way is when fda makes a ruling and finally approves these vaccines. right now they're being given under something called emergency use authorization. and the standards for emergency use are different than they are for full licensing. two of the companies brought their vaccines forward for fda approval. and some people, i think, who are on the fence who want to make sure that the fda has done their due diligence, may come off that fence when the vaccines are approved. at this point, fda has given no indication how long they're going to take to make the determination. >> we know that oftentimes it takes up to ten months. we know the vaccine companies, pfizer

they are arkansas, alaska, south carolina, kansas and mississippi. those have the biggest increases, more than 50% increases in covid cases last week over the week before and all of those states have low vaccination rates. look at the ones in orange. those are also seeing increases. not quite as dramatic and most of those states have low vaccination rates. it shows you right there if states that have the most covid or the highest increases in covid also tend to have low vaccination rates. let's take a look at two states in particular and you can really see the correlation here. the u.s. average of new cases, new covid cases last week was 24 cases per 100,000 people. that was the average across the u.s. for new cases. missouri, 108 cases per 100,000. more than four times the national rate and missouri and arkansas both have very low, relatively speaking, vaccination rates. this data, cnn analysis really illustrates quite nicely what is happening in sort of these two different nations of covid. >> thanks so much. let's talk about this delta variant in

i think we're going to see that across mississippi, alabama, arkansas, missouri, texas if we're not already seeing it, it is coming. >> dr. anan somenitan, always good to get your perspective. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. >>> it is a working weekend on capitol hill so can senators hammer out the details and finally agree on a $1 trillion spending bill? we'll take you live to capitol hill for the latest next. >>> also, a super hero is ready for a real world fight. why marvel movie star scarlet johansson is suing disney. a fund that invests in the innovators of the nasdaq-100 like you become an agent of innovation with invesco qqq priceline will partner with even more vegas hotels to turn their unsold rooms into amazing deals. delegates, how do you vote? (cheering) ♪ yes, y-y-y-yes, yes... ♪ that is freaky. (applause) from prom dresses to workouts and new adventures you hope the more you give the less they'll miss. but even if your teen was vaccinated against meningitis in the past they may be missing vaccination for meningitis b. although uncommon, up to 1 in 5 survivors of

unvaccinated americans now driving up cases in 46 states, and in a state with the lowest vaccination rate, mississippi, seven kids are now fighting covid in intensive care units, two of them on ventilators. vaccinatie ing as many americans possible is key to this pandemic. divisions seem to be overshadowing that. one state eliminating outreach to

mississippi and alabama seem to be the only states that vaccinated less than 35% of residents when it comes to alabama. that's why the state's republican governor is placing blame on the unvaccinated for why numbers continue to rise. that is why we are seeing more major cities, more and more cities turn to covid measures that we saw during previous spikes, maybe during the last one during this winter, including st. louis on monday. masks will be required in public indoor spaces and public transportation, that's sparking criticism from some republicans in that state, including the attorney general promising to file a lawsuit to stop that from taking place. when you look at the situation and that's what the attorney general tweeted yesterday in response, planning to file a lawsuit to stop that from being put into place. you hear from biden administration officials, it is clear they're concerned the u.s. surgeon general addressing the rise in numbers, calling now an all in moment for the nation, especially as they consider possibly implementing measures that we saw a few months ago. >> w

alaska, arkansas, south carolina, kansas, mississippi. they are seeing particularly high surges right now. and guess what? they all have lower than average vaccination rates and the states in orange also seeing surges. most of those also have lower than average vaccination rates. let's take a look at how this plays out in certain states. because in certain states, the difference is huge. if you look at new cases in the past week, the u.s. average is 24 cases for every 100,000 people. take a look at missouri. it's 108 new cases per 100,000. and arkansas, it's 110 cases per 100,000. so much higher. more than four times higher than the u.s. average. so really, it is -- and missouri and arkansas have very low vaccination rates. so it's really quite simple in states where the vaccination rates are lower, they're seeing higher covid-19 case rates. >> in some of the states like missouri, officials are asking folks to start wearing masks again. so it seems like some of the progress is undoing. elizabeth, thank you for that. >> let's dig deeper on

is fully vaccinated, less than 40% of residents in states like alabama, mississippi and louisiana are inoculated. one doctor says those who choose not to get vaccinated written the greatest rithe greatest risk of infection. >> all the sick patients that need hospitalization, almost all, there are a handful that have been vaccinated, but other than that, every sick patient has been unvaccinated. and 99% of the covid deaths in the last week were unvaccinated. most of the patients that i see are regretful that they didn't get vaccinated. i'm not there to wag a finger at them. when people are that sick, you know, if you haven't been around someone who is extremely sick and struggling to breathe, it is one of the most miserable feelings that you can imagine someone having. so when people are that sick, they wish they had done anything they could to avoid being that sick. you know, fortunately once people get covid and if they are going to get sick with it, there is not a whole lot we can do to treat it. so it is just oxygen support and trying to help them out. so the patients that i run in

in mississippi, only about one-third of the state is vaccinated. seven childr ith

one of those states is mississippi where the governor says unvaccinated people account for more than 90% of new covid infections. >> if you are unvaccinated, best way for you to protect yourself against the delta variant or at least any other variant that has come before -- that has made it to the united states, best way to protect yourself is to become vaccinated. >> another one of those hot spots is florida, cases are on the rise and doctors warn deaths could soon follow as the delta variant spreads. cnn's leyla santiago has more on the startling new trend miami hospitals are starting to see. >> reporter: we're at jackson health system and they saw double the amount of covid-19 patients over the weekend than they did earlier in the month. and they are pointare bepointin surge in the 30s and 40s age bracket. and i spoke to one infectious disease expert and she was telling me that part of the problem here is that you have a lot of unvaccinated people following cdc guidelines for vaccinated people. she was quick to say that she feels the u.s. and florida have jumped the gun because sh

starting to see spikes in new infections, according to the cdc, some of those states, such as arkansas and mississippi are among those with

kimberly cooley, who lives in m mississippi. she's there with her two 6-year-old nephews prepandemic. in the county she lives in only about 37% of people are vaccinated and that means she can't get near her two nephews. again that photo is from before the pandemic. kimberly did get vaccinated and she posted it on twitter when she did. she said hey, let's all do our part. i'm get ting vaccinated. we all need to do our part. unfortunately, that didn't happen. vaccination rates are too low to protect people like her. she basically has to live a quarantined life again. she's living like it was in the middle of the pandemic last year, hardly ever leaving the house, not get ting to see her nephews in person and hug them. that brings us to the results of this new study and finds people like kimberly really do have a lot to worry about. it was a study at johns hopkins where 18,000 vaccinated transplant patients, like k kimberly, they looked at them and 87 ended up hospitalized with covid-19. i know that looks like a small fraction but r

what's your message to transgender youth in these states that have seen some bills pass, states like mississippi, and arkansas, and tennessee? where bills have been signed into law this year? >> well, my message to those youth is that the federal government supports them. our president supports them. and he has vocally come out in support of lgbtq plus individuals, lgbtq plus youth, and particularly the vulnerable transgender youth, including in a speech to congress. you know, i was at the white house just a week ago for their pride celebration, and he articulated his support again. so i think that we have federal support from the president across the administration. and we'll be continuing to look at policy initiatives that support the lgbtq plus population. >> okay. i know you've been in their shoes, and so that's why i think it's really important to hear your voice on these issues. dr. rachel lavine, thank you for taking the time. we appreciate it. >> thank you. it was a pleasure. >>> a better than expected boost to the economy. the u.s. adding an impressive 850,000 jobs in june. we're still

we're obviously not going to have people in alabama or, you know, mississippi doing mandates for vaccines, and that's where it's needed. so that's the issue with leaving this local. that's what they have decided to do. >> they're talking about maybe businesses, companies, schools, stores, places like that, whether they can and maybe should start issuing vaccine requirements. elizabeth cohn, it's an interesting discussion. thank you very much. >> thanks. >>> the biden administration facing new political crises in neighboring cuba and haiti. we're live on the ground in both countries next. >>> plus, a newly discovered e-mail shows even the republican party's top lawyer knew that efforts to challenge the election were a quote joke. e ni. (burke) should have been watching the stove instead. (customer) tell me something i don't know. (burke) with your farmers policy perk, guaranteed replacement cost, your home can be rebuilt, regardless of your limits. (customer) that's really something. (burke) get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum

it's tied with mississippi at the bottom of the vaccination list. the cdc says alabama's vaccination rate is not quite 34%. community groups are pushing a pro-vaccine message, but it's still a tough sell. here's natasha chen. >> take it from me, i'm 15 years old. go get the vaccine. >> reporter: the effort to get covid vaccines into arms in alabama is an uphill battle. >> if you have not had the vaccination, then you are part of the problem. >> reporter: pastor cedric has passed out flyers in his community. sometimes he meets pushback from people who bring up the tuskegee experiment. he says it is not a good experiment, and he warns. >> you can't get your news from social media. >> reporter: but the rampant spread of misinformation on social media is the biggest hurdle according to officials. some are buying into false narratives including people under 30 who are the least vaccinated in alabama. birmingham city schools have been hosting vaccine clinics at their high schools, getting the band to play, cheer leaders to perform. >> go, fight. >> report

it was the sunday before the mississippi primary. you know, the t re out. and racism is just so pervasive, and it's weird, don, because they are so afraid of particularly black women, whether or not it's kamala harris or simone biles. you see people like charlie kirk. he can't do as many push-ups as simone biles or sit-ups. it's kind of silly. like simone biles literally would beat him up. and the fact that, you know, you have people like that who want to just -- it's not funny. it's true. she would literally beat him up. to call her weak or anything else, it plays into this politics. and i think mark will agree we need to get to a politics of a day where all of this asinine, silly rhetoric is thrown out the window and we actually talk about policies and the difference between progressive and conservative, getting back to the root of what this country is. >> with that, you have to talk about the strategies too, bakari and mark, to win elections because, mark, republicans want to hit democrats on things like critical race theory or defund the police. do you

. >> this is not moving into louisiana -- it's now moving into louisiana and mississippi and florida. i am worried we will see a big surge because the levels of vaccination are really low. you know, under this part of the country in the south we are seeing less than 20% of adolescents are vaccinated. less than 40% of young and middle aged adults. we have a huge vulnerability and this is going to be a huge issue. we are also seeing this now in wyoming and parts of the mountain west. so these are going to be more than hot spot areas. these are massive regions where we are going to see a surge in covid. >>> hopefully, the power of those former vaccine skeptics may bring some people in. but there is a lot of confusion, especially since pfizer announced friday they believe a booster shot would be needed. the medical community pushed back and said that is not something that is necessary at this moment. but, you know, i'm wondering what your take is on that. what do you say to people who argue there has been so much different information, they don't know what they are talking about, why shou

fully vaccinated. 33%, mississippi, 30%. that's one of the problems in the country. the disparity. if you look at the delta variant, it now makes up more than half will you see the progression from may, june and up we go. if you look at the map, it is taking route in the regions where we know the vaccination rate is lower. and the alabama state officer, dr. scott harris. dr. harris, if you talk to the public health experts, they make this connection. they look at the vaccine map them say alabama is at 33%. therefore, you're going to have more of a delta problem because you have a large he unvaccinate population. what can you do to fix that? >> that's a reasonable assumption and we are very concerned about that. we have tried as many ways as we can to address hesitancy. it comes in a lot of different flavors. some people have access, some people in the african-american community talk about the historical trauma they've experienced and the relationship they've had with the state and clearly, there are parts of the state that have almost a partisan or political aspect to their view ab

reach herd immunity. 30 states have yet to vaccinate at least half their residents and cam alabama and mississippi haven't cracked 35%. gary tuchman asked residents of alabama why they were hesitant to get the shot. >> most of my family has been vaccinated and they've been pushing me and i've been putting it off but the delta variant kind of scares me. >> reporter: that's why you got it? >> yes. >> reporter: how come you waited this among? >> based off a lot of stuff i heard about the internet, what people were saying about the covid shot. >> reporter: basically rumors? >> rumors. >> joining me is dr. reed tucson, founding member of the black coalition against covid. he's also the former health commissioner in washington, d.c., during the hiv/aids crisis and former chief of medical affairs at united health group and he joins me now on the show. great to see you. >> thank you so much for the opportunity to be with you. >> of course. i want to start with maybe talking about vaccine hesitancy. the cdc is currently saying that recent patterns suggest a narrowing of racial gaps in vaccinations at the n

. >> reporter: along with alabama, mississippi is the only other state that vaccinated less than 35% of its residents. alabama has seen 500 additional people hospitalized with covid-19. that's according to the latest community profile report. >>> the white house says biden is getting regular briefings about the spread of variants and updated guidance. there's a heightened sense of urgency lately but the administration made no move to implement new restrictions like masks or lockdowns saying only that they are considering all possibilities. cnn's jeff zeleny has the latest from the house. >> reporter: heading in to the weekend with the delta variant spreading more than ever before the white house is sunday the alarm about the your betweency of the covid-19 pandemic here in america. no question now. this is a tale of the unvaccinated living with the pandemic much more so than the vaccinated. but even there's a sense will there be new mask guidelines. more restricts. right now the white house say there will be no changes. we know from biden he's directed his government health officials

. >> reporter: in mississippi, which has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, seven children are in the icu with covid, two are on ventilators. >> we're too often falling back on to human behavior thinking that people will do what's in the best interest of the most, but that hasn't proven to be true so far. >> reporter: hospitalizations, skyrocketing in several states with one common thread. >> the people who are being hospitalized are those who are unvaccinated and we think that that's come with a lot of the unmasking. >> reporter: meantime, the more contagious delta variant accounts for 60% of new infections in the u.s. nationwide, all but three states seeing a jump in new cases over the past week. >> delta is here, delta is dangerous, and delta is killing people. this should scare the hell out of you. wr. >> reporter: wolff, one more update on what's happening in tennessee, they have in fact halt ld notifications for vaccines. it doesn't mean vaccinations have stopped but the notifications have. what does that mean? kids who were ready for a second covid-19 dose, and hpv v

year-old allen russell, who was sentenced to life in prison for possessing 1.5 ounces of marijuana in mississippi back in 2019 because of two prior felony convictions and a weapon charge or timothy jackson, who is serving life without parole for stealing a jacket at age 36 from a new orleans department store. the aclu said the court increased the sentence baesed o a juvenile offense decades earlier and two car burglaries as an adult. and robert reilly, who was on parole for selling lsd to drug heads. his sentence was commuted by barack obama in 2017. i could go on. the point should be crystal clear. as a country we have sentenced people to far longer prison terms for far lesser crimes than trying to overthrow our democracy. and being duped into believing the big lie is not an excuse, especially when the justice department decided not to charge with sedition, despite their actions meeting the dictionary definition. some people only understand the truth of their actions when they face real consequences. >> and crystal mason, the woman sentenced to five years in prison for casting a provisional ball

william thomas ball from mississippi and his wife alisha initially decided not to get vaccinated. alisha has since gotten the shot but her husband's case of covid has kept him in the hospital for three weeks. >> he means so much to our family. he's the world of our family. we just want him to get better and come home. >> christie carpenter and her family were he issitant to get vaccine. off her battle with the virus, the hospital employee is telling journalists what she misses most about her 28-year-old son curt who died of covid. >> you're going to make me cry. just his infectious laugh. he would laugh from his toes. he was so sweet and loving and just really caring. >> infectious disease specialist acknowledges americans are burned out from this and the new messaging on masking is confusing for many americans but she says the public has to understand the messaging will change again as the science keeps changing. she's urging patients tonight as america's top scientists try to get ahead of this dangerous moving target, the delta variant, wolf. >> so important and getting the vacc

now, maybe it's not happening across the entire state, i'm sure it's not, but there are pockets of mississippi that are really struggling and that we hear it from the healthcare leaders themselves. so, we've got to pay attention to that. >> dr. ashish jha, thank you as always. >>> new developments in the assassination of the president of haiti. the white house says officials from the fbi are going to head there soon to help investigate. >>> plus we have the latest from surfside, florida. cnn goes inside the sister building of the one that collapsed. what a structural engineer is saying about the situation there now. ♪welcome back to that same old place♪ ♪that you laughed about♪ ♪well, the names have all changed♪ ♪since you hung around♪ welcome back, america. it sure is good to see you. ♪ i thought i was managing my moderate to severe crohn's disease. then i realized something was missing... ...me. my symptoms were keeping me from being there for her. so, i talked to my doctor and learned humira is the #1 prescribed biologic for people with crohn's disease. the majority of peo

ball from mississippi and mhis wife didn't get vaccinated initially. alicia has since got the shot, but her husband has been in the hospital for three weeks. >> he means so much to our family. he's the rock of the family. >> reporter: christi carpenter and her family have been hesitant to get the vaccine. coming off her battle with the virus, the hospital employee from alabama is telling journalists what she misses most about her 28-year-old son, kurt, who died of covid. >> you're going to make me cry. just his infectious laugh. he would laugh from his toes. he was so sweet and loving and just really caring. >> reporter: infectious disease specialist dr. gounder acknowledges americans are burned out from all of this, and the new messaging on masking at least has been confusing for many americans. but she says the public has to understand the messaging will change again as the science keeps changing. she urges patients, as america's top doctors try to get ahead of the delta variant. brian todd, washington. >> thank you. >>> coming up, going for gold. sw

. >> alabama, arkansas, louisiana, mississippi and wyoming among those falling behind on vaccinations prompting fears about a looming surge in cases. >> you expect to spikes in certain states, cities or counties. i don't think you will be seeing anything nationwide because fortunately we have a substantial proportion of the population vaccinated. >> thanks to vaccines, america does appear to be on the road to recovery, making the nation's second pandemic birthday celebration look very different from the last. >> new data shows states with below vaccination rates have three times the number of covid cases, compared to states with higher levels of vaccinations. it is another statistical reminder that getting the vaccine is the biggest tool in american's arsenal in turning the corner on the pandemic. thanks so much for joining us. do you agree first of all with president biden when he says we're closer than ever to declaring our independence from covid, or is it too soon to celebrate? >> wolf, thanks of all, thanks for having me back. i agree with president biden. we made incredible prog

. >> reporter: along with alabama, mississippi is the only other state to have fully vaccinated 35% of its resident. there have been 5 additional people hospitalized -- 500 additional people hospitalized, up 64% from the week before according to the latest report from the white house covid-19 response team. athena jones, cnn, new york. >>> coming up on "cnn newsroom," the uk government is taking a major gamble by lifting covid restrictions across the country. why some are calling it unethical and dangerous coming up. >>> plus, 29 athletes in tokyo aren't trying to win honor and medals for their countries, but for the millions of refugees around the world. their stories ahead. our new scented oils give you our best smelling scents. now crafted with more natural ingredients and infused with essential oils that are 100% natural. give us one plug and connect to nature. -hey. -hi. whoa, nice car. thanks, yeah. i actually got a great deal on it too, although my interest rate is awful. have you checked your credit? i got like a free score from some app or something like that. but lenders don'

12 states that haven't reached a 40% vaccination rate, alabama, arkansas, georgia, idaho, louisiana, mississippi, north dakota, oklahoma, south carolina, tennessee, west virginia and wyoming. more now on alabama, where about 34% of the population is vaccinated, according to johns hopkins. there are more than 48 ho00 new cases reported last week. now everyone from church pastors to high school cheerleaders are being asked to share the pro-vaccine message. it's still a tough sell, though. >> take it from me. i'm 15 years old. go get the vaccine. >> reporter: the effort to get covid-19 vaccines into arms in alabama is an uphill battle. >> if you had not had your vaccination, you are part of the problem. >> reporter: pastor cedric has passed out fliers but sometimes he meets resistance to people. >> you can't get your news from social media. >> reporter: but the rampant spread of misinformation on social media is the biggest hurdle, according to health officials. some are buying into false narratives including people under 30, who are the least vaccinated in alabama. birmingham city schools have bee