judy: jelani cobb, how much does it matter that we understand what happened on january 6? jelani: i think it matters. it's crucial. i can't think of anything that's more important, in fact. i agree with george. if i were to use a single word here to describe what it was, i would say harbinger, because, at the moment, people thought that this had been averted and that the danger had passed, but, in reality, if we think about january 6 at the capitol, there was a convergence in a single place. and that building was overwhelmed, and, supposedly, the most fortified, secured city in the country in terms of federal presence. and that building was overwhelmed rather easily. what would have happened if we had a brushfires across the country in the state legislatures, as we saw in michigan? what if people had come back, the militias had come back in michigan, in georgia, in arizona, in places where there was suspicion being ginned up? and how would that have played out? we could have wound up with a much, ch worse situation. and there's no guarantee that we won't wind up with a sim

stu stevens, gary abernathy, jelani cobb, george packer, thank you so much. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, covid-19 caused a record 9.5 million new infections worldwide, over the last week, nearly all involving the omicron variant. that was up 70% in just seven days. overall deaths are going down, but the world health organization warned today, that does not mean omicron is mild. >> omicron is not the common cold. it can still cause severe disease, particularly among people who are not vaccinated, but of course people of older age, people with underlying conditions, and we're just starting to do analyses on the data coming in from countries and seeing data from countries that exhibit this. >> woodruff: meanwhile, the u.s. postal service asked for a 120- day delay of the federal vaccine mandate for large employers. the agency warned of potentially catastrophic effects on service. and, new orleans kicked off carnival season amid another covid surge. it culminates march 1st with mardi gras-- "fat tuesday." in kazakhstan, new violence erupted, with police killing dozens of rioters.