but what took so long? very excited for that game. thank you all so much for joining us tonight. i'm kate bolduan. don't forget, you can watch "outfront" anytime, anywhere on cnn no. anderson cooper and ac 360 starts now. and good evening from launch site one near van horn, texas, where tomorrow morning, amazon founder and now executive chair jeff bezos, his brother mark, an 82-year-old aviation pioneer, and a teenager, very lucky teenager, will be rocketed into space. we're going to have more on the flight and what it might mean for the future of space exploration and bezos' company blue origin later in the program. tonight, we begin with breaking news. fresh evidence that for all the progress we have made, for all the hardship we have endured, we still have not yet fully come to grips with covid and what it can do. that is what the virus is telling us. and as we see, the virus doesn't lie. certainly not about the threat

it still presents to life as we all once knew it. late today, the state department issued a do not travel advisory for americans thinking about visiting the united kingdom after the cdc raised its covid risk assessment to the highest possible level. the news came after a punishing day on wall street. investors sending the dow industrial off a 700 point cliff. frightened at how quickly the delta variant has swept the country and what it might do to the economic recovery. the realization was sudden, but the evidence has been building for days and weeks, because as i said, the virus doesn't lie about what it can do to people who have chosen not to get vaccinated, as far too many americans have. cases are up on average 66% from last week. 145% from two weeks ago. number of people in hospitals is also rising sharply. especially where the vaccination rate is low. at university of florida health in jacksonville, they have more covid patients now than at their peak in january. that's how brutal the delta variant has been there. and cruel.

cnn's leyla santiago spoke with one woman currently hospitalized. >> can you tell me what your experiencing in terms of your symptoms and how you feel? >> before i came in, i felt like i was about to die. >> what would you tell someone who is not vaccinated right now? >> get vaccinated. soon as possible. as soon as i get out of here and get well, i'm going to get vaccinated. >> what has been the worst part about this? >> the worst part? >> yes, ma'am. >> not being able to breathe. >> let's remember, nobody who is hospitalized in the hospital struggling to breathe should be there. everybody can get the vaccine in this country. it is a great blessing. this should not be happening at all. the number of people getting the

vaccine is now averaging half a million a day. now, remember what that number was 2 million or more. still about half the country need to get a vaccine. over the last several days, canada surpassed the u.s. in the percentage of population vaccinated, even after a far slower start. they got a slower start than we did. they now have more, a higher percentage of people vaccinated. one reason, there's agreement in canada across the political spectrum on the need for it. because the virus does not lie about its indifference to political division, except perhaps as an unexpected bonus. >> i mean, political differences are totally understandable and a natural part of the process in any country, but when it comes to a public health issue in which you're in the middle of a deadly pandemic and the common enemy is the virus, it just doesn't make any sense to essentially disregard or don't

pay attention to what's obvious. 99.5% of all the deaths due to covid-19 in this country are among unvaccinated people. and 0.5% are among vaccinated people. that's a public health issue. that's not political. that's not idealogical. it's a public health issue. >> let's remember, little children cannot get vaccinated. so if you have chosen not to get vaccinated, you have a potential of threatening little kids throughout this country. sadly, though, enter the former president who recently weighed in with a statement which we're not reading here because it's both ridiculous and irresponsible that directly connects vaccine resistance to doubts about the 2020 election. virus won't lie about that either, and sadly, soon, we will all know what it thinks. joining us now is dr. murthy, surgeon general of the united states. dr. murthy, thank you for being

with us. as you probably know, scott gottlieb told cbs because the delta variant is so contagious, if you live in an area where there's a low vaccination rate, you should consider wearing an n-95 mask even if you're vaccinated. do you agree with that? >> well, anderson, it's certainly the case this delta variant we're seeing is the most transmissible version of covid-19 we have seen to date. and it's absolutely the case that if you are unvaccinated, you are at great risk right now, and you should take measures if you're unvaccinated, like masking, distancing, avoiding indoor gatherings. you know, as troubling as this news is, anderson, about this delta variant and its spreading so quickly in various pockets of the united states, we shouldn't lose sight of the good news here, which is that over the last few months, we have, according to independent research, saves millions of people from hospitalization and hundreds of thousands of people from covid related deaths. because of the vaccination

effort. so while we are seeing spread -- >> sir, i get that, but there is half the country who are vaccinated, and i'm one of them, and i have a small child, and i want to know, do i need to wear a mask because a whole bunch of my fellow americans are choosing not to get vaccinated, and if i get infected, am i going to pass it on to my child? and i haven't been able to get a straight answer on whether or not i'm a danger to my own child if i get infected. should i wear a mask? >> so anderson, i'm glad you asked. you and i in the same boat. i have two small children as well. they're 3 and 4. they're too young to get vaccinated. and i'm worried about their health, too. so here's how i'm thinking about it. i know that if you're fully vaccinated like you and i are, our risk of both getting sick and transmitting it to our children is low, but if you are in an area where there's a lot of infection or if you're worried about that risk of transmission, then wearing a mask, especially in indoor settings when you go out, is the right thing to do.

that's what i do, because again, i want to take every possible measure to protect my child, even though the risk is low, given that i live in an area where there's a lot of virus being transmitted, i want to be extra cautious. so that's what i do. and that's what all parents can do. is take that extra step, and i think, look, with covid spreading with this delta variant, it bears being cautious because this is being transmitted at a far higher rate than other versions of covid-19. >> yeah, and such an important point. it's very easy to get this. it's easier to get the delta variant than it is the other forms of covid-19 as far as i understand. just on the children aspect, again, i mean, for anybody who has chosen not to get a vaccine, they are choosing to endanger children who cannot get vaccinated, if they come in contact with children, if children come in contact with them. do we know yet if a child gets, you know, a young child who

can't get vaccinate d -- there were ten children in the icu. are children, is it still the case that children bounce back quickly from covid-19? or do we not know long term with the delta variant? >> well, we are still learning about how kids do with the delta variant, but anderson, here's what we do know. there is a myth out there that kids are -- young kids in particular are untouched and unaffected by covid-19. that is not true. children by and large do much, much better than adults do, and especially older adults. much lower rate of hospitalization and death, but with that said, we have had millions of children who have had covid, tens of thousands who have been hospitalized. we have had hundreds who have died from covid-19. and with this more transmissible variant, we have got to be cautious to protect our kids. you said it exactly right. our kids who cannot get vaccinated, they depend on us being vaccinated to protect them from the spread of the virus.

we are their shields. and so even if you don't want to do it for yourself, consider getting vaccinated to protect the children in your community. they are depending on us. >> dr. fauci said this past weekend he thinks vaccines for children under the age of 12 won't be approved until what he said was, quote, well into the winter towards the end of this year. considering what we're seeing now with the delta variant, is that acceptable to you? >> well, anderson, some of this is driven by the trials themselves. and so when a company completes its clinical trials and submits them to the food and drug administration for evaluation, then the fda can start its process. but to date, to be clear, there has not been data submitted from a company for kids under 12. for an emergency use authorization or for approval. so as soon as that comes in, the fda will evaluate it expeditiously. i can tell you that the fda is prioritizing the covid related

decisions. it recognizes we're in the middle of a terrible pandemic. so hopefully those trials will get done soon. the trials depend on how many people get infected. you have to wait for these cases to develop. you can't rush those. but as soon as the data comes in, i can guarantee you the fda will process it quickly. >> dr. walensky has said if you received the johnson & johnson vaccine, which is one shot, and you want to now get the pfizer or moderna vaccine, you should consider participating in a study. how would a person do that? and shouldn't there be some easier way to get a second type of vaccine, or would you recommend people get a second type of vaccine? >> it's a common question that people are asking if they had the j&j vaccine, do they need a booster? and that is something that we are trying to look at and study right now. there's not clear data yet that points to the need for a booster if you have j&j. i know some people have spoken with their doctors about getting that additional dose, and certainly people are free to

make that decision with their doctor and to get that if that's what they want. but right now, until we have the data available, anderson, that says immunity is insufficient with one dose and it's significantly boosted with a second dose, it's difficult to make an official recommendation that everyone who got j&j get a booster. >> yesterday, i heard you say that 99.5% of the people who are dying from covid right now are unvaccinated. i mean, if that doesn't convince people to get vaccinated, i'm not sure what will, if it's not even, you know, if you don't care about possibly infecting children, just the idea that all the people who are dying, virtually all of them are people who have not been vaccinated. one of the things i have taken away from our conversation is, because with a couple things you have said, we don't have all the data yet on that, and i think you're a man of science and it's good you are up front about that, but to me, what i take away from that is there's still a lot we don't know. we think we understand this

virus. we think it's past us. it seems like there's a lot we don't know, and we need to continue to be humble in the face of this, in the face of what we don't know. >> anderson, that's exactly right. if you look at the last year and a half, there have been multiple times where we have been fooled by covid-19. when cases went down and we thought we were in the clear, and then cases went up again. this is a tricky virus. it has fooled us on more than one occasion, kn i think that means we have to be humble about how we approach this. it means we shouldn't let down our guard until cases not only come down but stay down. and right now, cases are actually going up. cases are going up, hospitalizations are going up. death rates are ticking up. this is primarily happening among the unvaccinated, but recognizing delta is new and we're still learning more about it, it bears being cautious. if you're out there and you have kids at home or you're immunocompromised and you're thinking should i be more cases and put my mask on in indoor

spaces, i would strongly consider that. if you're a locality seeing cases rise around you and thinking should i put additional mitigation measures in place like masking, i would say yes, you should strongly consider that, because this is not the time to let down our guard. >> and just finally, what's your message to health care workers? many who are still exhausted from this past year and a half, two years, as cases are going in the wrong direction again? what's your message to them? >> anderson, this is heartbreaking, and these health care workers are my friends. they're my colleagues. they're my family members. both literally, figuratively, and i am heartbroken to see just how hard they are working, how exhausted they are, how many of them are suffering with depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, suicidal ideation as a result of the stress they have endured during this pandemic. what they are doing, anderson, is so many of them are pleading with the public to please get vaccinated. but yet time and time again,

when they see those calls go unheeded and they see hospitals filling up again, it's disheartening. not only is this bad for now when we need our doctors and nurses and other health care workers to take care of those with covid, but think about after covid when we need the same health care professionals to take care of all of the other needs we have as a country. if they burn out, they drop out of the work force, it will be bad for them and worse off for us. so many reasons to get vaccinated, for your health, to protect our children, to rescue our health care workers from the difficult situation they're in. and the good news is we're blessed with multiple vaccines that are highly effective. and very safe. >> dr. murthy, i really do appreciate your time and expertise. thank you very much. >> thanks so much, anderson. take care. a quick reminder, join us wednesday night. president joe biden joins don lemon for a presidential town hall, wednesday night, 8:00 p.m. eastern right here on cnn.

i'll be on right afterward for analysis of the president's comments. next up for us, more breaking news. long awaited republican members of the select committee investigating the insurrection have been named and how eager some were to overturn the election. >> and later, with jeff bezos and company getting ready for lift-off, we'll talk about tomorrow's launch which will happen right over my shoulder about a mile away. we'll speak with someone else who has recently gone to space to find out what the folks tomorrow can expect. salonpas contains the most prescribed topical pain relief ingredient. it's clinically proven, reduces inflammation and comes in original prescription strength. salonpas. it's good medicine.

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there's more breaking news tonight. house minority leader kevin mccarthy named his picks for the select committee on the january 6th attack on the capitol. no surprise, some of his choices wanted the same outcome by different means as the rioters did. they wanted to overturn election results. in fact, they voted to. one even boasted about it. troy nels tweeting in january, i'm proudly announcing i'll object to the counting of votes.

you sent me to fight for president trump and election integrity and that's what i'm doing. ryan, three of the five selections voted against certifying the election. congressman jim jordan actually participated in a so-called stop the steal rally two days after the election. i also want to play for our viewers something he said about the results. >> i don't know how you can ever convince me that president trump didn't ever win this thing based on all the things you see. >> i mean, isn't that exactly what drove the insurrection? >> well, there is a pretty compelling body of evidence that says just that. anderson, and that is part of what this select committee's task is to do, to connect those dots to figure out what went wrong here on january 6th, and then come up with solutions to prevent it from ever happening in the future. that's why there was a lot of concern about the picks that kevin mccarthy was going to make to this panel. and jim jordan's name certainly

jumps off the page as someone who has been a consistent and loyal defender of the former president, despite his inaccurate rhetoric about the 2020 election and the fact that he continued to peddle those lies. in fact, listen to what jordan said was at the top of himind about his appointment to this committee when we caught up with him this afternoon. >> we know what this is about. this is about going after president trump. you know, i mean, the democrats, they don't want to talk about anything else. >> so he's talking about president trump. he's worried that this is just going to be a committee that only is trying to go after president trump and nothing else. so it shows you his mindset going in to this process, anderson. >> speaker pelosi has the ability to veto any of these picks. is there any reason to think she will? >> so that is the open question here tonight. and we talked to three or four different members of the

democratic members of the select committee. each one of them said, to be clear, these are not the official names yet because speaker pelosi has that veto power, and her office told me tonight that she is reviewing those picks right now, that she's not officially confirmed that they will be a part of the panel. but anderson, it's important to point out the way that kevin mccarthy played this, releasing the names to the public first, getting them out there for them to be debated, it would be very difficult for her to veto one of the picks. republicans could turn that into a whole litical talking point. they could raise money on it, if someone like jim jordan is removed from this committee. so i would be very surprised if she takes that step, but it is still an option she has at her disposal. anderson. >> ryan nobles, appreciate it. i want to go to cnn's chief white house correspondent, kaitlan collins. does the white house have any expectation that, you know, that speaker pelosi is going to try to eliminate any of these republicans chosen by kevin mccarthy? >> i think it remains to be seen for them as well, given pelosi

saying she just saw the names tonight, as ryan was noting when they were put out by mccarthy's office. we asked the white house before act in good faith in this committee. they never said whether or not they believed republicans who voted to overturn the results of the election could act in good faith on this committee, investigating what happened on january 6th. and of course, as ryan just noted, that is several names on this list of members who did that. and not even just that. several of them also, remember, signed on to that texas lawsuit that wanted to invialidate the votes of millions of voters which was blocked by the supreme court, but that's kind of the group the white house is facing and going to be questioned about on whether or not they believe they're the right people for this job. so house speaker pelosi can veto these choices if she wants to. it remains to be if she will. so far, the white house has been the the credibly deferential to speaker pelosi on what the panel is going to look like.

when there was a rumor she was going to put a republican herself on the committee, there were questions how this would work with liz cheney and her relationship with jim jordan, which is not a good one. president biden has said previously, he wants this to be an independent investigation, he wants it to be fair. the question for the white house if house speaker pelosi does not veto these members is whether or not he believes people like jim jordan and others who voted to overturn the results of his election can do that. >> kaitlan collins, appreciate it. more on the capitol riot ahead. the first rioter found guilty of a felony was sentenced today. two former officials for the justice department discuss what his prison sentence means for the hundreds of others who have been charged. i discovered some very interesting documents on ancestry. this is the uh registration card for the draft for world war two. and this is his signature which blew me away. being able to... make my grandfather real...

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felony in the capitol riots was sentenced today. a decision that could influence the fate of hundreds of other rioters who have been charged. paul hodgkins is his name. he pleaded guilty last month to obstructing congressional proceeding. he spent about 15 minutes in the senate chamber, wearing a t-shirt and a flag proclaiming his loyalty to the former president. prosecutors wanted an 18-month sentence. the federal judge gave him eight and a $2,000 fine. the judge said hodgkins caused real damage to the country but was not involved in any violence and issued a sincere apology.

i want to get perspective from andrew mccabe, senior law enforcement analyst, and laura coates, cnn senior legal analyst. the fact the sentence in the case was significantly below the guidelines, one to two years. what does that tell you? >> you know, it's got to be a really concerning sign for prosecutors and agents working the rest of these cases, anderson, because there's no doubt that this sentence will have an impact on other cases that judge moss sentences and other cases other judges review, there's a strong desire within the federal bench to sentence similar defendants to similar punishment. it makes perfect sense. so this case in some very important ways could set a benchmark that other defendants who are charged with similar conduct could use to kind of expect what sort of sentence they could expect a judge to give them. >> laura, this particular defendant, he said in court he was remorseful, but then his attorney, according to our reporting, made a kind of

rambling 30-minute presentation. he quoted abraham lincoln, invoked the japanese internment in world war ii, decried cancel culture and argued the rioters who stormed the capital weren't quote/unquote real terrorists. how does the justice department deal with that? do you think it could be a sign of things to come in other cases? >> i think it is. the idea of throwing together all of these different talking points, these hot button issues, trying to string along enough statements that will have a provocative notion here, but being a provocateur is not going to make the judge actually try to see it the way of your client. and here, as andrew talked about, this is a benchmark, but remember what the judge also said, that because this person pled guilty early, because this person was nonviolent and showed some remorse, those were the factors that could distinguish it from other cases in the future. if you have somebody who was engaged in violent behavior, who was not demonstrating remorse, who was using his attorney as a mouthpiece that is along with what that person is saying, this

might actually serve to be a problem for the client, but yes, the prosecutors had to know now they're going to have to distinguish between what happened overall and making everybody a poster child of what happened and making sure that what they're actually asking for, for a particular punishment, is about this particular person's conduct. this judge made it very clear that while the whole issue was a problem, why the entire insurrection jeopardizes democracy, what this particular person did was in line with this particular sentence. so they're going to be very careful about this going forward. >> andrew, one of the prosecutors said the sentence they were seeking, 1 1/2 years, would, quote, send a loud and clear message to other would-be rioters if and when they're caught, they'll be held accountable. people will stand down, and there won't be a next time. obviously, they did not get the sentence they want. do you think this will be a deterrent or an encouragement for people to confess early?

>> you know, anderson, i'm not sure that an individual sentence has that much of a deterrent effect on a large -- you know, a potential group of people in the future who might consider similar action. i think as we have already discussed and laura pointed out, i think this sentence could have an impact on the decisions other current defendants make as to whether or not they should plead guilty or try their chances at trial, but i'm not really convinced that one sentence would turn a future potential mob of rioters away from enacting what they're doing. and the opposite is also true. you could make the same argument that a strong sentence could inspire more people to revolt, to be angry about that, it's a very inexact science to try to determine what actually deterred criminal activity. >> laura, i'm wondering, just for those who did actually -- are proven to have committed acts of violence against law

enforcement personnel, what sort of sentences might they be facing? >> well, remember, this particular person had a potential of 20 years for obstruction, right? now, they were not charged with domestic terrorism. they didn't have that sort of notion or things like that or more violent crimes. so those that actually would be charged with that, the prosecutors' case, what they would say at sentencing, this person's actions were akin to domestic terrorism. it would have much more weight. this judge was not being lenient because he didn't think anything was wrong with what was happening but because of the factors involved. we're talking about harming, not just an esoteric discussion about democracy, but harming and only the individuals but those who were sworn to protect the capitol, gave a much different calculus for a judge to take into account. i think it's going to slide the other direction in terms of the punitive damages, the punitive punishment here as opposed to one that says, look, we want to discourage anyone else who has

ideas about maybe going forward, trying to rebel in many ways against our democracy, and it wasn't in a vacuum, was it? i mean, andrew knows full well there's a lot of chatter about possibly having trump be reinstated. i don't know how, but by august. and so this was a way for the prosecutors to say, look, i'm going to shut down those notions. if i'm asking for 18 months of somebody who was not violent, 15 minutes, pled early, and in fact was remorseful, what do you think you might have in the future? it was a shot across the bow for future people as well. >> laura coates, andrew mccabe, appreciate it. >> just ahead, what jeff bezos and the others on tomorrow's flight can expect minute by minute when they take off and come back down. we're live from launch site one. we'll be right back.

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a little preparation will make you and your family safer in an emergency. a week's worth of food and water, radio, flashlight, batteries and first aid kit are a good start to learn more, visit safetyactioncenter.pge.com as i mentioned at the top of the broadcast, tomorrow morning, jeff bezos and a crew of three others will launch in space from a rocket here at launch site one in texas. the actual launch pad is about two or so miles in that direction. right now, the rocket that they're going to take off on, that building you're seeing with the feather on it, that's where the rocket is being stored. they call that the barn. and the launch site is a little bit farther down, farther past that. you can't see the actual site from here, but you certainly will see the rocket going off and we'll have a lot of cameras

a lot closer. the ride is expected to last about 11 minutes. and it really is obviously a big step for future space tourism, but it's a remarkable step in a mission that began more than two decades ago when jeff bezos founded blue origin. his plans for space, for blue origin in space are much bigger than just space tourism. earlier today, bezos delivered dinner to the press and the media center, showed no signs of worry despite the obvious dangers. >> that your last meal? are you having steak and eggs? >> did somebody say last meal? put it that way. let's talk about it in a different way. >> that's his brother, mark, behind him. and also in the cowboy hat. he also is going to be going up with bezos tomorrow morning. tom foreman has the details of what's in store for amazon's founder and his crew.

>> at blue origin's arid testing ground, the 60-foot rocket is slated to take off at 8:00 a.m. central time. >> command start. two, one. >> just as it has already in more than a dozen test flights like the one seen here, a million horsepower blast from the liquid fueled engine will start the journey. the astronauts will be strapped into a ring of futuristic space seats about a third of the capsule is made of windows. and the rocket will steadily rotate, changing the view. riding will be their only job. >> it's an autonomous vehicle. it's been designed so the customers, the astronauts themselves can experience the flight. >> over the first two minutes, their speed will literally rocket to more than 2,000 miles an hour. g-forces will intensify until each person feels as if they weigh three times as much as normal, but that won't last. at 2:45, the booster engine will

fall away. 15 seconds later as the capsule arced toward the highest point of the flight, the passengers will start to feel much lighter. and at four minutes, 62 miles up, they'll be unbuckled. >> you'll get to experience three to four minutes of weightlessness. again, to gaze out of those big beautiful windows, maybe do a couple somersaults. >> i don't know how it's going to change me, but i know it's going to. i'm excited to find out how. >> he'll have to find out fast. roughly six minutes into the flight, they'll return to their seats and start falling back to earth. eventually going so fast they'll break the sound barrier just as they did going up. they won't likely see the booster engine land a couple miles from the launch pad. and once they're close enough to earth, about nine minutes after taking off, parachutes will deploy to slow their descent to 15 miles per hour. then, a retro thrust system will fire just before touchdown. >> really by the time the capsule lands, it's just at

about one or two miles an hour. >> it won't be anything like orbital flight or what truly trained astronauts do, but it should be quite an experience. and at the going rate of $2.5 million permanent, it ought to be. anderson. >> tom, thanks very much. i'm joined by shu retia, an executive at galactic who eight days ago flew into space. thanks so much for being with us. so after having a week to reflect on your experience, what was it like? what does it feel like up there? >> you know, i have been asked this question so many times, and i still haven't found the right word. outside of just it's incredible. the experience really starts with training. so training with your crew mates, and everything from climb, release, boost, which actually was one of my favorite parts. you know, the transition from blue sky to black, and then of

course, seeing earth, the silence of space was just life changing. and really i have a renewed perception of our home planet. >> you know, people talk about that, about sort of a change in perception. bezos has spoken about that. other astronauts have. there are studies about it which have shown that usually it's people who have spent more time in space, you know, for days or longer on the space station, weeks or months, who sort of change a perspective. just the short time, the few minutes you were up there, did you feel some sort of change? or new way of kind of thinking about earth? >> yeah, absolutely. i mean, my role on this flight was to test the researcher capabilities. so i was performing tasks, but i had time to take a look out the window. and it's mesmerizing. it's just quite deafening, the colors of earth and, you know, beyond that, nothing. and it's -- you think back,

that's literally everything i have known, all the people i know is just encapsulated in what i'm looking at right now, and it's mind-boggling, to be honest. i'm still speechless to a point when i think about that view. >> obviously, with this flight, it's different in a number of aspects, the distance it goes, also the fact that it's taking off from earth in a booster rocket going up at 2300 miles an hour. the launch different than the virgin galactic one. there's been a lot of talk about billionaires and is this a great way to spend money in space. one thing that interests me about blue origin is not just that it's doing potential for space tourism of bringing paying passengers which is what virgin galactic is also going to be doing. they're really hoping, and bezos talks about this and others talk about building an infrastructure for future space exploration. and if there's going to be more

space exploration, there need to actually be a lot more companies like this, which are building the infrastructure for space. how do you see the future of space exploration? >> yeah, absolutely. i mean, there's a lot of reasons why we go into space. i think the item that a lot of people think about is building that future infrastructure for living and working in space. but honestly, a lot of our customers and a lot of our researchers go up on our suborbital vehicles to look down at earth and to conduct research that is better understanding what's happening on our planet and how our planet is changing. i think there's a lot to space travel, both to further our exploration, our knowledge of our universe, but also a lot of people are going up to look back down, and i think that's just a part that we skip over sometimes. we're learning more about our planet. >> do you wish you had spent more time? i know you had work to do on the

flight, but do you wish you had spent more time looking out? >> absolutely. i would totally be just a customer on a future space flight and just look out the window the entire time. it's just amazing view. a lot of windows to do it from. our vehicle, unity, so definitely recommend that for anyone going up. find a window and stick to it. >> yeah, good advice for the crew going up tomorrow. really a pleasure to talk to you. congratulations. thank you. >> thank you so much. up next, with the olympicics opening on friday, an alternate member of the women's gymnastics team has tested positive for covid. i'll talk with cnn chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta who is in tokyo about the pandemic shadow overhanging the games.

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so you can watch in stunning 4k ultra hd. to begin on friday and covid is already affecting some u.s. athletes. an alternate member of the women's u.s. gymnastics team kara eaker tested positive

sunday according to her father. and a member of the women's three by three women's basketball also tested positive for kcovid-19 after coco gauff tested positive. 11,000 athletes in tokyo or schedule today arrive shortly. our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta joins me new. how much already is the coronavirus in the run up to the games? >> it's affecting every aspect of it. we have gone to places like natural disasters and wars and the planes are always empty when you go there, right. >> it was like that when i flew it tokyo. no one is flying here because there is no spectators allowed. athletes will feel that as well, not having fans in the stands. then they have to get tested all the time. there is this concern about breakthrough infections. 61 infections in the village. about half roughly have been from japanese residents, about half from foreign athletes.

and we haven't really started yet. so those numbers are likely to go up and then they got to go into this process of quarantining, isolating, tracing all the contacts, all the stuff we talked about. it's really all consuming, anderson. >> what do you make of what is -- actually, they have had all these cases and we seem to be learning about new athletes testing positive every day. is it surprising to you to see this? >> it's not surprising. i mean, it's very interesting. i think we will learn something here, anderson, about breakthrough infections. we have typically just said they are rare, right? let me show you what's going on with testing in the united states. the cdc now says if you have been vaccinated unless you have symptoms you don't have to be tested. so as a result overall testing has come town close to 8 #%. we don't know what breakthrough infections are. here in the olympic village because of the olympics they are testing everybody. i got tested in 96 hours, 72

hours, tested again in when i landed, just got tested again. i am not surprised we are seeing the cases. the question is are those people going to develop symptoms. the focus has been on eliminating false/negatives. a doctor in charge of putting these protocols together, here is how he described it. >> the absolute priority is reducing false negatives. that puts people at risk because people in the village who might be infected who don't know it. but also we don't want false/positives because that means an athlete training for seven or eight risks being excluded. so we have been trying to balance the two. the priority has been to minimize false/negatives. >> so you are not going to get it perfect, anderson, in terms of actually finding every single person who is positive at the time. but the side they are erring on is making sure to reduce false

negatives. you will have more positives here. so 61 so far. those numbers are going to go up. >> let's talk about what's going on in the u.s. and elsewhere. i understand you were watching the interview that i did with the surgeon general earlier in the program. some things stood out to you? >> i think one the big questions is going to be about masking indoors again. you brought up the situation. you are vaccinated. should you wear a mask? you know, the idea that if somebody is vaccinated they are very, very low likelihood of getting sick. that's true. low likelihood of developing a transmissable virus, that's true. we know these things. i think the delta variant is definitely changing things. there was a study that came out last week that said that the viral load in someone who is carrying the delta variant is about 1,000 fold higher than the viral load in the original strain. even people who would have low viral load, might you still be

transmissable? sort of look at the weather. you are in texas, right now, 42% vaccination rate there. cases have been going up significantly over there. you don't know who is vaccinated around you. i think we will run into a situation earlier rather than later as you point out with dr. murthy that even if you are vaccinated, if you are in a situation where there is a lot of rviral transmission and low vaccination it may be time mask up again. you are seeing that in l.a. the american academy of pediatrics is saying that for students for the fall. we may see that more widely soon. >> yeah. i have been wearing my mask indoors while i'm here and certainly on the plane and airports and as you have to. sanjay, thank you very much. up next, an announcement from a professional hockey player about his life and his goals. enough, crohn's! for adults with moderate to severe crohn's or ulcerative colitis... stelara® can provide relief and is the only approved medication to reduce inflammation on and below the surface of the intestine in uc.

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with an nhl to make such a statement. luke prokop wrote on his twitter feed, from a young age i dream of being an nhl player and i believe living my all-time ept ilk life will allow me to bring may whole self to the rink. he signed a three-year entry level contract with the nashville predator last year. he has been playing for a developmental league in calgary. we wish him the pest and applaud his courage. let's hand turnover to chris. >> appreciate it. i'm chris cuomo. welcome to primetime time. arnold schwarzenegger is here tonight. a republican former governor who redefined politics when he became governor in a recall election. you know, then arnold was seen as maybe not conservative enough. now he is a hold-out for the good old days of conservatism, about being something else as a republican that just trump will talk to him abth