>> test test test. test test test. some school districts are defying this ban for the sake of the children. >> if we don't do anything, it could go as many as 2,000 new cases, every day, by the end of the month. so, i felt it was time to step in, even though i'm going to get

in trouble. and need to step in and -- and just have some courage and make a decision, i think's in the best interest of the district. >> and in the best interest of the children. let's remember, kids in texas are getting sick. and they are contracting covid. listen to this dire warning, tonight. it's from an official in dallas county. >> in dallas, we have zero icu beds left for children. that means, if your child's in a car wreck, if your child has a -- a heart -- congenital-heart defect or something, needs an icu bed. or more than likely, if they have covid and need an icu bed, we don't have one. your child will wait for another child to die. >> in america, in 2021? in one of the nation's premiere cities? one sick child needs to die, before another, sick child gets an icu bed. think about that. this is america. one sick child needs to die,

before another one can get an icu bed because people won't take a lifesaving vaccine or wear a mask. what are we doing? what are we doing? we are tearing ourselves apart, as a nation, and it's not like it is helping anyone, except for those who thrive and profit off of stoking hate and division. you know who they are, and so do they. the white house, now, ramping up the pressure on governors who are playing politics with covid. >> if you are not interested in following the public-health guidelines to protect the lives of people in your state, to give parents some comfort as they are sending their kids to school. schools are opening, in florida, this week. i know, in many parts of florida. then, get out of the way and let public officials, let local officials, do their job to keep students safe. >> keeping the students safe. and that anger, we talked about,

that's really shocking me, this week. and you, as well, because i've heard from you. it's really disturbing. even with everything we have seen, in this country, lately. in tennessee, this week, an uproar by parents as the williamson county school board voted for a temporary-mask mandate for elementary-school kids. watch closely. >> no more masks! no more masks! no more masks! no more masks! no more masks! no more masks! no more masks! no more masks! no more masks! >> same reaction, as you. uh. embarrassing. it is really -- those are adults.

maybe, the kids should be running stuff. a respiratory therapist, named calita perkins, who has worked in that community for over two decades and who is the parent of a school aged -- she has school-aged children, herself, spoke at the meeting pleading with the parents to support masking school kids. telling me that she felt completely ignored. >> i felt hurt. i felt disrespected. i felt disregarded. as a healthcare advocate for our community. um, it was a big blow. you know? i -- i put 110% in, into my community. >> and, of course, what happened in the parking lot to one father, who supports mask mandates. >> take that mask off. >> no more masks!

no more masks! you are child abusers! there's a place for you guys. there's a place in hell and everybody's taking notes, buddy. we know who you are. we know who you are. no more masks. >> i wonder if they've seen this video and -- i'm sure they have. they -- they should be embarrassed by it. it's embarrassing. grown you-know-what people. he is a grown you-know-what man and those grown people acting like -- not even children. the man verbally attacked is michael miller. i also met him this week. the same day i met those patients in the hospital, in fact. he says that he feared for his life, at the anger he witnessed, and he is terrified for his family's safety. but, he says, he is speaking out because that's not the america he knows. >> they hide behind this -- this

label of liberty. liberty does not give you the right to violate the safety of someone else, to harass somebody, to violently attack people. it does not give you the right to infect other children in the school, and not -- and not have any regard for anybody else in your community. >> here is the sad part. are you listening? at least two kids in his child's 6th grade class have, already, tested positive for covid. >> these are children, under the age of 12, who cannot be vaccinated. i'm floored by any parent that would send their child without a mask. >> i, also, met an indiana doctor who was responding to the -- the viral-misinformation claims from another doctor. making it very clear that masks work in preventing the spread of covid. >> the way that the virus has traveled, they are trapped by masks. i think you can argue, at this point, what masks are best, where they work best. i think there are reasonable

arguments to be made about masks, and how we use them. but whether or not they work isn't, really, in the -- the realm of reasonability to argue. >> there is an old saying about freedom. your right to swing your fist, stops at the tip of my nose. nobody is trying to take any -- anything away from anybody, especially not freedom. or anybody's rights. but getting vaccinated and wearing masks, indoors, well, there are ways that we are going to stop the deadly spread of covid. if people won't listen to the scientists, like dr. fauci, maybe, they'll listen to the terminator who i am now calling the maskinator and, wow, does he have a message for those claiming it's all about their individual freedom. arnold? >> and the only way we prevent it is we get vaccinated, to wear masks, to do social distancing, washing your hands all the time, and not just we think about, well, my freedom is being kind of disturbed here. no.

screw your freedom because with freedom, comes obligations and -- and -- and responsibilities. we cannot just say i have the right to do x, y, and z. when you affect other people, that is when it gets serious. >> louisiana governor, john bel edwards telling me the same thing, trying to talk sense into people. >> what every individual does or doesn't do doesn't just have an effect on them. it has an effect on everybody, which is -- which is the -- the big, i think, disconnect between so many people in our country right now. is that they want to prioritize their individual right to do or not to do something. but you cannot manage a public-health emergency in that regard. >> so here is the reality. these are the facts. nearly-every covid patient hospitalized -- you listening -- nearly every covid patient hospitalized right now around the country is unvaccinated.

that is the case in my home state. it's the case in yours, too. now, i'm really not sure how many of you viewers, out there, listening to me are unvaccinated. before this week, you know, i would have thought most of you probably were. but now, i'm not so sure. so, if you still aren't, and you don't want to listen to me, listen to jim. him and his brother. remember? listen to maxine having to tell her four kids that she may not make it. and to brenda. to get vaccinated. and if you are, i am glad. stay safe. stay well. and let's take care of each other. so i just finished talking about all the people i met, this week, on this covid story. let me introduce you, tonight, to two more. the superintendent of a school district, where an angry parent attacked a teacher over, you guessed it, a mask. and a school-board chair in a district, where three teachers died from covid complications,

within 24 hours. and school has not even started, yet. >> people that i, personally, know, family members know that their families have gotten covid. and now, their worst-case scenario, they passed away and it's not -- this is not fear mongering, this is real. we're living it.

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mask mandates sparking so much rage all across the country. a 6th grade teacher in northern california, hospitalized, after a parent attacked him during an argument about the school's mask policy. so joining me now, the superintendent of that school district in california, tori gibson. superintendent, thank you. i appreciate you joining us. doing okay? >> yeah, we're good. >> okay, great. >> been a long couple days. >> yeah. i'm glad i tested that because we have got a delay, and i didn't know. so, let's be cognizant of that. i'm so glad that you are here, superintendent. this attack happened at an elementary school on the first day of class. that has to be incredibly unsettling to you. what happened, exactly? and how is the teacher doing? >> the teacher's doing great. they came back to work the very

next day, after being released from the hospital. essentially, long story short, the parent came on campus to pick up his daughter from school. fortunately, there were very few students at the time. he and the principal had a verbal altercation. she walked away. the parent left with the student. about-45 minutes later, the parent returned back to campus, and -- and went into the office area. the teacher had witnessed the verbal altercation, earlier in the afternoon, and followed the parent into the office knowing the principal was in there alone. at that point in time, you know, a conversation ensued. um, that escalated, very quickly. he physically began to approach the teacher and that's -- i'm sorry, the principal -- and that's when the teacher stepped in. and within a matter of seconds, um, the -- the fight was on and it was -- it was a -- it was very physical. >> in your letter to parents, you wrote people need to take a -- a breath. pause.

listen. walk away, if necessary. i think you're exactly right. okay? but why -- why do you think emotions are running so high over, i mean, masks? it's just a little piece of cloth that we -- i mean, what? what's going on? >> yeah. it -- it's really about people feeling, as if their rights are being taken away. um, you know, we live in a county where, very divided, very polarized. and the government coming in and telling people what they can and can't do, especially for their children, is -- you know, creates this passion, like no other. and unfortunately, throughout the rest of our community, masks are not required throughout our county, other than at school. and so, it's a little confusing for parents, i think. i think parents are the ones that have more of the issue with the mask, than the students. the students just want to -- they'll do anything that they need to do, the first day of school, all-morning long and classes were packed. our enrollment is up,

considerably, to pre-pandemic numbers. and there wasn't one issue. there wasn't one student refusing to wear a mask or -- um -- you know, not wearing their mask properly. they didn't have to physically distance, any longer. and they were just really happy to be there. so, i think, it -- it really boils down to [ inaudible ] unfortunately. >> well, unfortunately, there is so much disinformation and anger out there, how concerned are you about more confrontations, superintendent? >> extremely concerned. um, i had staff texting me throughout the day with -- you know, with threats, violence. threats, both, on the phone, as well as on social media. i have received some very interesting e-mails, today, unfortunately. people threatening that, you know, masks are ridiculous. i won't go into the verbiage because it's not appropriate for tv. but um, it's just very unfortunate.

so now, we have staff, including myself, that we are all kind of looking over our shoulder right now. um, and it's -- it's a very unsettling feeling. i -- i don't anticipate this being the end of this, unfortunately. >> superintendent, you be safe and we appreciate you joining us. okay? thanks for the work that you do. >> absolutely. thank you. now, i want to turn to florida. that's where the coronavirus cases are hitting a new record, now. more than 151,000 reported, in just the last week. think about that. three teachers in florida's broward county, all, died from covid in a span of just-24 hours. two more teachers in the district are hospitalized with the virus. so joining me, now, is rosalyn ozgood, she is the school-board chair for broward county. thank you for joining us, rosalyn. how are you doing, this evening? >> i'm hanging in there, don. it's been really rough, the last couple of weeks, as we continue to see people lose their life to covid. we're continuing to work in our community to get people

vaccinated and to, also, have to fight the threats and bullying of our governor in the state of florida. who does not understand the significance of us mandating masks, when we open school on wednesday. it's been really, really difficult and challenging. but, you know, i'm blessed that i serve with nine board members, eight of which feel the same way that i do. we are standing our grounds. we believe that the lives of our children and our staff are invaluable. we won't be bullied or intimidated to place a value on their lives. we've been threatened to have our salaries taken away because we mandated masks. um, we've lost two teachers and an educational-support professional, esp, um, within a matter of 24 hours in our school system. but today, we got a little hope because there was a letter sent

from the federal commissioner of education, dr. miguel cardona, to the secretary of -- to the commissioner of education in florida, supporting our mask mandate. and expressing how they won't allow us to have our salaries taken away. they gave us permission to use what we call our elementary and secondary-school emergency relief funds to fund the salaries of school-board members and superintendents, if the governor decides to hold those funds. so we are fighting on every end. >> well, let me jump in here because i know -- look. i have been seeing you on other programs on this network. i have been seeing you all around. and -- and -- and in addition to having to do your job, right, as an educator, you are having to come on and explain to people the importance of this. you haven't even opened schools, yet. it is tragic. and i'm sure that, you know, teachers and staff or -- you know, they're concerned.

what -- what -- i know you're tired but tell me, what's this like for educators, for the teachers and the staff? what is this like for you? and is this about politics at all, for you? >> it is and it's unnecessary trauma. you know? at the end of the day, when you an elected official in this country, it is a democracy. you have a constitution. a state constitution that allows a local citizenry to choose and elect local school-board members to govern the schools. so, not only have we seen massive voter-suppression laws in florida under this governor. but now, we're having the votes of our citizens totally ignored they've elected us as school-board members to make these decisions, and now the governor is usurping that. so instead of allowing us to focus on bringing our students back to their loving environments with their teachers

and bus drivers in school settings. we continue to get these threats. we continue to get these attacks. our children are scared. our parents are scared. we have people that work in our school system, from bus drivers to teachers to cafeteria workers, that have pre-existing conditions, that have family members that are sick. and many of them are the only breadwinners in their home. so, we can't risk them getting infected with this deadly pandemic that's killing people or leaving them with lifelong complications. >> yeah. rosalyn, i hope they are listening to you. and again, i want to thank you for doing what you're doing. any -- anybody who is helping to educate our children and to keep them safe -- um -- are -- we owe you our -- a debt of gratitude. thank you so much for appearing. get some recolst, please, and b safe. >> and thank you so much, don, for what you do. we preevt yappreciate you as well. >> thank you very much. have a good weekend. so this country just can't seem to get it together.

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hospital systems in multiple southern states struggling to keep up with a massive coronavirus surge. florida and texas, alone, accounting for nearly 40% of new-covid hospitalizations all across the country. governors ron desantis and greg abbott playing politics instead of trying to save lives.

fighting back against counties in school districts that are defying bans on mask mandates. so joining me now is fareed zakaria. the host of cnn's fareed zakaria gps. fareed, good evening. it's good to see you. let's talk about what's happening now because we are in the middle of a devastating-fourth covid surge, in some places it is worse than it has been throughout the entire pandemic and people are dying. when this could have really been prevented. we have lifesaving medicine. why can't this country hold it together? >> yeah. the -- the most important thing to remember here is that we are uniquely blessed. i mean, there's a small group of countries in the world that have more than enough vaccines. we're at the top of that list. we were ahead of everybody else, in vaccinations. now, we're not, by the way. most european countries have many more, a much larger percentage of the country vaccinated. and in that circumstance, what you are dealing with is something very deadly. you know, it's very important to understand why this is so deadly

because we have a large pool of unvaccinated people in this country. when you have a large pool of unvaccinated people, it means that the delta variant, which is twice as infectious as the first variant, has a -- a place to go, a place to replicate. when it has a place to replicate and spread, that means it has a chance to mutate. that is, to change from one strain to another. perhaps, more deadly. perhaps, even more infectious. all this can be solved by not having that pool of unvaccinated people. we had the opportunity to create a situation where the virus had no place to go. um, we would've vaccinated enough people, plus, the people who were already infected and we were done. you know, we were -- we were so close to being the first country to, truly, be able to say the pandemic was behind us. >> yeah. the department of homeland security is warning about possible violence, ahead of 9/1 # 1.

the 9/11 anniversary, fareed, and other religious holidays. online rhetoric over election conspiracies. the buildup on january 6th. how and why are we so awash in this misinformation? >> look. you can't -- you can't help but say that there is one group of people, and it's not all republicans and it's not all conservatives, but there is a body of people, within the republican party, within the conservative movement. that have really turned politics, not into a -- a -- a -- a process of governing, a game of governing, if you will. but really, about, you know, rip whipping up anger, whipping up emotion, spreading false information, riling up people. it's all symbolic politics. if you ask these people, what is it you want to get done in government? what is it you want to happen? they don't have any answers. it's not like they like this tax bill or that tax bill. trump was in favor of a trillion-dollar infrastructure

bill. well, guess what? biden just passed a trillion dollar infrastructure bill. that's not what it's about. it's -- it's all symbolic politics to say the other side is the enemy and it's become so poisonous, don, think about it. people are foregoing what is, essentially, a lifesaving treatment. they are foregoing the ability to save themselves from a deadly disease because they'd rather be politically right, than safe and healthy. >> politically right, in their own mind, right? and not -- it's not the right thing to do, but just in their own mind, politically right. i see people online -- >> they want to be ideologically right, rather than, you know, physically safe. >> there you go. i hear people talking, you know, as i'm around. even like, in the airport and i -- and i -- and online and i see people saying, well, i'm not gonna do it because the people on tv, on the news channels, didn't like trump. so i'm just not gonna do it because of that. and thinking, you're not hurting the people on tv like me. you are actually hurting yourself and the people in your

community. listen. before i go on and on, i want to talk to you about afghanistan. i mean, it's unbelievable there, that the animation that we have up on the screen shows just how fast the u.s.-backed government has lost control, since april. the taliban now controls about half of the country's provincial capitals. i mean, this was a two-decade war, fareed. does our withdrawal there and -- and the rapidly unraveling situation threaten america's foreign policy and legitimacy? >> look, it's -- it's not -- it's not good news. it's a tragedy for the afghan people. it's a -- it's a blow for the united states. no getting around it. but the truth is, don, we had lost this war, a while ago. we just are powerful enough and strong enough that we could delay it and draw it out. and -- and complicate it. but the truth is we have been trying to defeat the taliban for 20 years. remember, during the obama administration, the generals asked for more troops. they asked for a surge. obama gave it to them. they had almost-two years with, you know, 100,000 troops.

they weren't able to do it. we hear about these -- these cities falling. they've fallen two, three times in the last decade. we kept getting them back with american troops, with american power. the question is, you know, at what point do you say this isn't working? and the -- and -- and the most telling fact here, don? look at all these -- all these towns, these cities falling. there is no fighting. the afghan army just melts away. this is a force that was built for 20 years. we probably spent hundreds of billions of dollars. some people say a trillion dollars. it's meant to be 300,000 strong. it's just melted away. people say that number is bogus. it was all corruption. it was all pjobs. all we know is people are fighting for their government. in that circumstance, when you have a local partner like that, it is a lot like south vietnam. no matter what you do, they -- we send half a million troops into south vietnam. if they -- if the army won't fight for its own -- own country and its own government, very

tough for an outside force to do it for them. >> yeah. fareed zakaria, thank you very much. i appreciate it. and if you want to hear about this and more with some of the smartest minds in the world, make sure you tune into fareed zakaria gps, sunday, at 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. and check out fareed's new book. there it is. you saw it on the bookshelf behind him by the way. i was going to mention it. our thanks, again, to fareed zakaria. planning on flying somewhere soon? going on a last-minute summer vacation? we are going to tell you what you need to know about traveling as the delta variant surges. with subaru, you get kelley blue book's most trusted brand winner, seven years in a row. in fact, subaru has won most trusted brand for more consecutive years than any other brand. no wonder kelley blue book also picked subaru as their best overall brand. once again. it's easy to love a brand you can trust. it's easy to love a subaru.

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spiking coronavirus cases due to the highly-contagious delta variant slowing down air travel. the tsa reporting the sloebt day this week since mid-june. so, should we be concerned?

about flying? i want to bring in, now, an infectious disease specialist and senior scholar at johns hopkins center for health security. thank you, sir. a lot of people -- good evening, to you -- a lot of people have this question, what should i be doing? should i be traveling? on and on. so i appreciate you answering our questions. the -- this delta variant is making us, all, reassess behavior that seemed safe for vaccinated people, just a few weeks ago. but what is your take? do you think it's risky to fly right now, doctor? >> it all depends on if you're vaccinated or not. if you are somebody that's fully vaccinated, you can rest assured that your vaccines are going to hold up against the delta variant, especially when it comes to what matters. preventing serious disease, hospitalization, and death. if you are not vaccinated, it's a whole-different calculation because the delta variant will find you, if you're not vaccinated. and it does pose a major risk to you. you can get it. you can spread it to other people. so, that's kind of where this dichotomy is. we kind of have a portion of the country vaccinated where they can go back to many of their pre-pandemic activities, pretty safely. and then, you have got people

who are not vaccinated where this is such a major threat to them. and with the delta variant, the stakes are much higher. >> i have got to ask you about united airlines. the only major airline to require employees to be vaccinated. are you concerned that other airlines aren't doing this because flight attendants have relatively close contact with tons of people over the course of a week? >> i think it should be standard for all flight attendants, all flight crews to be fully vaccinated. that should be a condition of employment. united made the right decision here and i would like to see the other airlines follow suit. you do have a lot of contact with -- with flight attendants. they are unvaccinated people on airplanes so this is something that you don't want to have affecting your workforce. if you are an airline, you don't want disruption in -- with your flight attendants even if they are not going to be at risk for serious disease, maybe because they're younger or they get a mild illness. it's not something you want to have on your planes and there is an easy solution to this. with all the stuff that airlines have done to make flying safe, with masks and -- and filtration and the air circulation. the easiest thing they could do is have everybody else

vaccinated on that plane, especially the ones that are employed. that's the best way to make flying as safe as possible. >> right now, everyone on a plane is required to -- to wear a mask. but that mandate is -- is set to expire, mid-september. if it's not extended, there could be unvaccinated, un-masked flight attendants and so on. is that a recipe for disaster? >> if you have un-masked people, who are not vaccinated, that is just asking for an outbreak to occur. we know that this delta variant is out there. it's not going anywhere. covid has established itself in the human population. we are going to see cases and they are going to be amongst the unvaccinated and the best thing to prevent the unvaccinated from spreading is to get them vaccinated but in lou of them being vaccinated, they need to be wearing a mask. that has to be the standard, especially in these high-risk types of encounters where people are very close together. where they are less than six feet apart. where social distancing is not possible. >> yeah. listen, i was -- i flew, just this morning. and everybody in the airport, everybody on the planes, were -- were masked.

and i -- i was just saying why can't we do this in -- why is it so hard? you know, because in order to get into the airport, in order to get on the plane, you have to have a mask and perhaps that's something that we should be doing in other industries, as well. and other facets of our lives, instead of, you know, fighting against wearing them. it is august. we all want to go out to restaurants, bars, concerts. but with this delta variant surging, is -- do you think it's safe even if you're fully vaccinated? >> i do think this kind of boils down to your risk tolerance. if you are somebody that's fully vaccinated, you -- like i said before, you're -- you can be sure your vaccine is going to hold up against serious disease, hospitalization, and death. if you get a breakthrough infection, and breakthrough infections are expected, the vaccine is going to kick in and likely make that very, very mild. now, that all depends upon what you -- what risk you want to have and i think, for some people, that risk is -- is something that's worth -- worth taking. for others, it may not. especially, if they are immunocompromised. i know, now, they are starting to get third doses into some of

those immunocompromised people. but you have to remember, covid is not going anywhere. it's established in the human population. there is always going to be covid cases. there is always going to be breakthroughs. our goal has always been to tame this virus, remove its ability to put hospitals in crisis. and -- and i think that's what we have got to get people to be able to do. make good risk calculations and i think this is something that can be done safely for vaccinated people but there is always going to be some level of covid risk. >> doctor, thank you, we learned a lot. appreciate you joining us. hope you'll come back. >> thank you. >> thank you. the house republican leader is selling new campaign apparel. take this. kevin mccarthy is redefining the word -- oh, boy, this could get me in trouble -- moron. next. mission control, we are go for launch. um, she's eating the rocket. ♪ lunchables! built to be eaten.

take this. the delta variant bringing the pandemic back to crisis levels across the united states. and mask mandates causing fights and shouting matches as kids go back to school. but the house minority leader, kevin mccarthy, would rather use the mask issue as a chance to troll. although who is trolling is up for debate here. speaker pelosi and mccarthy, well, she said that mccarthy was a moron for opposing a reinstated mask mandate in the house last month. now mccarthy is raising money, selling shirts with the word printed in big, bold letters. you might miss the fine print, and i quote here. moron, a term coined by nancy pelosi referring to freedom loving americans who oppose mask mandates.

well, she was actually just talking about him. but anyway ways, it's clear he wants to turn the insult into a badge of honor the way trump supporters did with the word deplorable. but hard to imagine, like, moron merch is going to have quite the same appeal. the fact is wearing masks isn't about attacking anyone's freedom. it's about protecting each other at a time when people are getting sicker than ever from covid. he could have learned a lesson about ill-advised fund-raising from florida's governor, ron desantis, whose campaign was selling these t-shirts and the beer koozies, don't fauci my florida. that happened just before the state became the epicenter of covid in the u.s. so, congressmen, maybe stop trying to make fetch happen and focus more on convincing people to get vaccinated. do your job. we'll be right back.

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the world has lost more than 4 million people due to covid, and the waves of grief for those left behind have been tremendous. this week's cnn hero knows just how difficult and isolating it is to lose a spouse. michelle hernandez has created a community of widows that can heal together. >> i would tell the nurse, tell him i love him. put the phone by him because they would not let me in. sometimes i'd just go sit in the parking lot just to be close to him. and on april 13th, they told me he was gone. i needed someone to understand what it was like to be widowed. >> initially you imagine that when someone dies, the worst day is the day they die. and the truth is that living without them is the hard part. but you have to make your way

through. >> thank you for being here and showing up for each other. >> we help people live and live through something that many times they did not think that they would survive. >> to see the full story of michelle and the people she helps, go to cnnheroes.com. thank you so much for watching, everyone. our coverage continues. ♪ hello and welcome to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm michael holmes. coming up here on "cnn newsroom," half of afghanistan's provincial capitals fall to the taliban. an exclusive look at a former u.s. base now in enemy hands. booster shots for covid now available in the u.s., but not everyone is eligible. and police and troops enforce an even tighter lockdown after australia's most populous state sees a record number of coronavirus cases.