sexualized because the dollar bill used in the cover artwork made the baby look like a sex worker. thanks for joining me. anderson cooper 360 starts right now. good evening. even as we're digesting the news tonight the more than 82,000 people have now been airlifted out of afghanistan, which is however you look at it a remarkable number. we're being reminded of how dangerous it is and how difficult things could turn. right now as we speak americans waiting to get into the airport in kabul and eventually onto flights out of afghanistan are being told to leave the airport area for their own safety. the u.s. embassy now based at the airport issued the warning shortly after airtime advising americans who still have yet to actually enter the airport who might be outside among the crowds outside the airport's east, north and abbey gates to, quote, leave immediately. the embassy further cautions

against traveling to the airport unless specifically instructed to by a u.s. government representative. this follows cnn reporting earlier of a, quote, very specific threat stream from isis-k against crowds. cnn's orrin leiberman joins us now with the latest on this. >> reporter: anderson, this is specific warning to u.s. citizens to get away from three gates to the international airport. the north gate, the east gate and the abbey gate citing security threat. we know the pentagon believes they could well target the crowds around there as an attempted target for them whether that would be through suicide bombing or vehicle improvised explosive devices, the pentagon, the u.s. government, the biden administration views this as a threat and we now see how seriously as the administration races to get people out as quickly as possible. in the span of ten days the u.s. and its allies have moved the equivalent of a pack of a giant stadium out of kabul airport.

there are possibly as many as 1,500 americans who remain in the country. the biden administration till working to keep its solemn promise to evacuate every american who wants out but also saying it's difficult to track in realtime every u.s. citizen in afghanistan. but how the u.s. will ensure passage for afghans after the last u.s. plane leaves remains a question. >> they will not be forgotten. we certainly have points of incentive and points of leverage with a future afghan government to help make sure that that happens. but i can tell you again from my perspective, from the president's perspective this effort does not end on august 31st. >> when asked who shoulders the blame for this frantic effort up to the deadline he said this. >> i take responsibility. i know the president has said he takes responsibility. there will be plenty of time to look back at the last six or seven months, to look back at

the last 20 years and to look to see what we might have done differently. >> reporter: the taliban now imposing even tighter restrictions on afghanistan. one day after warning it wouldn't allow afghans to reach the airport. in this video shared on social media this man says he was beaten by the taliban. his face bloodied, he says they hit me bad and this happened to me when i was crossing to the airport. now the taliban telling working women to stay home until security is in place for them. they say their fighters don't know how to treat women yet. >> translator: we want to make sure women are not treated in a disrespectful way or god forbid hurt, so we'd like them to stay at home until security is in place for them in the offices. >> reporter: the founder of an afghan girl's school burning school records for her students protection. she fled with her students to rwanda. taliban checkpoints limiting movement in kabul and beyond. one afghan woman tried about a dozen times to get through so she could join her husband in

the united states, he told cnn's kylie atwood. finally she dressed her baby in yellow and managed to send a photo through the marines who were able to spot the baby in the crowd. the family made it in. on tuesday the first u.s. troops began leaving afghanistan, a mix of headquarter staff and maintenance no longer required in kabul. >> in those last cup of days we will begin to prioritize military capabilities and military resources to move out. >> reporter: for now the mission remains focused on the evacuation. but with time racing down it'll soon transition to the withdrawal of u.s. forces and equipment before the august 31st deadline. >> so orin, the pentagon has acknowledged three separate operations to pick up u.s. citizens in kabul. is it possible to do that for every american who can't make it inside the airport? that would seem to be difficult. >> incredibly difficult if not nearly impossible. john kirby pointed out those three helicopter missions were short distance and short

duration meaning those americans were very close to where they needed to be to kabul international airport. to go deeper into kabul and certainly deeper into afghanistan into territory held by the taliban or contested by isis-k and others, that may be too much with the clock winding down here, which opens up a question and that's a question we'll keep on asking, how is the u.s. going to get potentially 1,500 people across the country? >> so, sam, the embassy warning we obviously know that airport well. how concerning is it? >> well, it's very deeply concerning. it's been something that's been top of everybody's minds in terms of the intelligence community and the security of the airport. these enormous crowds pose or present an absolutely delicious target for the vicious sort of tactics that are employed by isis-k. in the past they've gone in for

the sort of spectacular murders we've seen isis are known for in founding syria. but this poses an absolutely catastrophic threat because it could utterly stymie efforts not just by the american led coalition to get people out but also the taliban efforts to get a level of at least around the airport. yes, they have very brutal recently toward afghan citizens who they say should not be leaving, but those crowds are still there. they're still pressing up against those three gates, and they still present a target. now we have specific intelligence being -- and urgent messages going out from the united states and the united kingdom urging their citizens to get away from those gates in the case of the united kingdom get away from the airport all together. so this is a very unusual level of anxiety to have such specific intelligence and then to appear to be relatively powerless at this stage anyway to do something about it.

so the only thing they can really do is get people away so that the target itself, the mass murder potential of innocent civilians is not being presented to isis-k. and i can tell you that the taliban have been working to try and catch people, and they claim to have arrested four just the other day, anderson. >>o how would american citizens who were outside the gates trying to get in and the crowds, how would they find out about this warning from the u.s.? >> there is a network -- a warning system of quite a sophisticated system in place with this state department that have been able to reach out to all of those american citizens who have reached into them or whose location they already knew or had been preregistered with the u.s. embassy. and they are being communicated verbally and by text message and e-mail not just on this matter but on all the other issues associated with trying to get them out of the country. but it is fraught, and

ultimately even though they might know where groups of or individual americans are, how do you get them from where they were not just from taliban checkpoints which for american citizens are reasonably benign but away from this terrorist threat which at the moment means the official ways into the airport are now blocked. and there still are people there. there are still people so desperate that they will ignore afghans -- i mean afghans will be ignoring in large numbers these threats from isis-k because they're already so fearful of the taliban, anderson. >> and what about your journey out of afghanistan? >> well, it was long and hot. i was on an american c17 with 451 other passengers almost all of them afghans or americans being flown here to qatar.

they were shepherded on. now the systems are pretty well understood, so we all move on in a great mass of people and then we line up in pretty neat rows and then asked to sit down because of the take off and landing. there are no seat belts or anything. you're just sitting on the floor like in a gymnasium except this thing flies. an awful lot of people were very afraid on take off. there was a little bit of cheering and clapping at the beginning, a sense of relief when the aircraft took to the air, but these are people at their wits end anyway, and yes they are relieved to be getting out but they're also very fearful. the afghans among them, those without american passports, many of them with american visas, so they know where they're going to end up in country but they don't know where in that country, where they're going to be able to find food, jobs, accommodation, all the strains and stresses of a refugee population now weighing on their

minds for the next stage in this very arduous journey. but the staff of the service men and women on the aircraft are extremely kind and gentle with them, very, very respectful. there isn't what you see so often actually when people are dealing with refugees, there's something horrible that happens to a refugee, they get herded around like cattle almost. i've seen this all over the world. in this instance they were treated with great respect. at least that stage of them they're still hanging onto their dignity as tight as they're hanging onto the very small bags they're able to carry with them on this long and hot flight. >> just before air i spoke with a permanent resident of the u.s. trying to leave kabul right now. he traveled to afghanistan for his father's funeral -- we'll say we do not know that much about him. but to help verify his identity

he did provide us with his driver's license and we looked at his linkedin and facebook pages as well and seems to line up. again, i spoke with him just before airtime. you're headed to the airport now. what's the situation? >> well, there are thousands of people around the airport. they are trying to get in, and there is no evacuation right now. they don't let anybody inside the airport. so there are thousands of thousands of people here, women, kids. >> have you been there before? have you tried to get into the airport before? >> since -- since 16th august i'm coming every day. every day. three times, four times a day.

>> what is the difficulty? >> the first difficulty is the rush of people. you can see, you know, hundreds of people are standing there. they're making, you know, fake documents. >> what documents do you have? >> i'm a permanent resident of the united states. i have my documents in my hand. the problem is i've got close to them, to the gates, i talk to the international forces. once i talk to british -- to british force they said we're sorry we cannot get you in. only americans, they can get you in. we know that you have -- you have documents, but we can't get you inside the airport. >> how long have you lived in

the u.s.? >> six years. >> and i understand your mom is in afghanistan. why did you go back this time? >> my father -- my father died, and i came here for a funeral. i have no one here, so i have to be here because my mom she was alone here. so i came to attend the funeral. >> so if you get to the airport and you're able to find somebody, will you just try to -- will you go into the airport now and try to get on a plane if they let you in? >> of course yeah. once i get inside the airport they will check my documents. i believe that some of my friends that they work with u.s. organizations here, they got in.

they say that there are three checkpoints. obviously, you know, the first checkpoint is the taliban. the second checkpoint is for the afghan force, previous afghan force. and the third checkpoint is international forces. so they check your document and they get you inside. this is what they say. so, you know, thousands of people inside the airport. some of them as you guys can see also in media, they don't have documents. i don't know how they got inside and how they put them in the plane. so we have documents.

but there are some alternatives ways that they are picking up, you know, u.s. citizens. >> and is it just you trying to get out or is your mom trying to get out as well? >> it's not only me that i have documents. i know a few people that they came from the u.s. to visit their families and they're stuck here. my flight was on august 15th, exactly on the day that the taliban entered kabul city. so my flight was canceled because of, you know, the rush inside the airport. you know, people were running

away especially the politicians. so they block the airport, the airlines. >> what happens if you aren't able to get in right now, today? >> well, today -- well, what happens we're concerned about, you know, the target which is the 31st august. so we don't know what is going to happen. every time, every second change everything here. >> you said you've tried to reach out to the embassy. have you heard at all from the u.s. government? >> i did heard -- you know, they called me in 48 hours and they were just asking me if i'm safe -- in a safe place. well, actually everywhere is not safe in kabul. >> and did they give you any advice about how to get to the airport? >> well, the advice -- the only

way that they're doing right now which is very good idea is calling people -- they're calling people and they're picking them up from specific places. that's the only and best way for people to get out these people. because these are coming through the gate and they get escorted -- some of these buses are escorted by taliban because they want to bring them safe to the airport. >> i wish you the best. i appreciate you talking to us and good luck to you. >> well, thank you so much. god bless you. and we're trying to get in. we'll see. >> i hope you do.

thank you. well, next more on this embassy warning to americans outside kabul airport. by the way, we've not heard back from him to see how he did. we'll be joined by two experts on the region, on the people that are looking to hurt americans and what this means for the rest of the evacuation and later how the covid pandemic is unfolding in one of the most vaccinated countries on earth. ♪ ♪ it's a wishlist on wheels. a choice that requires no explanation. it's where safe and daring seamlessly intersect. it's understated, yet over-delivers. it is truly the mercedes-benz of sports sedans. visit your local mercedes-benz dealer today for exceptional lease and financing offers. ♪ ♪

more on our breaks news. the warning within the hour, the embassy in kabul telling them to, quote, leave immediately. and those not there yet to stay away unless otherwise instructed. the danger not specified but for now the stated concern from the president on down has been potential attacks on crowds by groups like the local isis affiliate. joining us now national security analyst peter burgen, also with us cnn intelligence security analyst and former cia officer bob bayer. peter, given what we've already heard from officials about isis-k and their desire to create mayhem at the airport, does a warning like this surprise you? >> not really. this is a sort of hostage crisis of the biden administration's own making where on the one side

you have the day certain august 31st and now you have this, you know, credible threat of violence which could be from isis-k, but we can't also discount al-qaeda which has presence in 19 of the 34 provinces in afghanistan according to the u.n. the u.n. is also reporting over several months thousands of fighters have poured in to support the taliban or al-qaeda. isis-k has an ability to strike at will in kabul. it bombed a girls school. dozens of kids died in may. there are other groups that would love to carry out an attack that would embarrass the united states and also kill americans. >> bob, how difficult is it for the u.s. now to kind of gather information about potential threats in a timely manner given they're now isolated at the airport, and there's no longer

an afghan government that they're dealing with? >> well, anderson, there's no way to meet agents right now in kabul or any part of the afghanistan. so that's what we're left with are airplanes and intercepts. and so undoubtedly what the biden administration is picking up, the national security agencies intercept the phone calls where you've got people calling each other looking for americans, and they know what the isis numbers are. and this is what has alarmed them at this point because the taliban is not a kunified movement. it doesn't have full control of kabul. and one of these radical zealot groups very easily could grab an american, take them hostage or worse. >> peter, i think bob raised an interesting point and an important one. i was talking to a reporter on the ground who has spent a lot of time with the taliban over the years. there are a lot of divisions within the taliban. we imagine them as sort of this monolithic organization. this reporter yesterday had been

talking about those who have spent time in doha with foreigners and women and that they're competing groups and factions inside the organization. >> yeah, that's all true. i mean the doha taliban, the political face and met with the cia director william burns according to "the washington post." that's the kind of acceptable face of the taliban. and then there's the real power who by the way right now has got an american hostage in his group that's been held for some period of time. he's a designated foreign terrorist. he has a $5 million bounty on his head. he has just orchestrated one of the great military victories of all-time which is the taliban taking over the country in two weeks. and i think he is the real power behind the throne here. we still don't have a government in afghanistan, but i think whatever the acceptable political face of the taliban in

that government behind him will be people like him who have a long record also by the way of carrying terrorist attacks in kabul. the most militant arm of the taliban. >> bob, how credible do you think a threat has to be for the u.s. embassy, which is based at the airport to issue a warning to any americans outside the airport to leave? >> well, like peter was saying for the administration to make a public announcement like this it has to be very serious because they don't want to panic people, so they picked up something extremely, you know, substantive. and, you know, they can pick up the islamic state. the haqqani network, on the other hand, is rarely spiked, but they're extremely dangerous as peter said. and right now there's nothing they'd love than grab a couple of americans because it's a hostage crisis and they have a lot of control over what the administration can do and what it can't. >> peter, this all comes on the

heels of more than 100 prison inmates loyal to isis-k escaping from two prisons near kabul. is that -- how significant do you think that is potentially? >> i think it's hugely significant. i mean it's not just i-k people who got out. it's a lot of lot of taliban, a lot of al-qaeda. i've been in the prisons and it's an enormous prison that has the capacity to house thousands of prisoners. and also there are prisoners just to the north of kabul. so this is going to replenish -- every jihadi group is going to be replenished by these prison breaks. >> i appreciate it, thank you. coming up next the question how we got to this point. i'll speak to a columnist who asked what might better afghan policy have looked like? earn at the end of their first year automatically woo! i got my mo-ney!

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along with tonight's security warning to americans outside cubowel airport or waiting to get there, there's also the good news more than 82,000 people have now been lifted out of kabul. secretary blinken also alluded to the months and years and decades, frankly, of mistakes and -- well, mistakes leading up

to this moment. "the new york times" columnist has been exploring the complescom complexities. in your piece you argue while the biden administration deserves blame for mistakes there probably was no clean way for the u.s. to get out. why do you say that? >> so if you think through here what's the big problem, the big problem -- the immediate problem is we're not only evacuating americans but also afghans who worked with the united states military and ngos and the media in recent years. and you say, well, we should have evacuated them before the military withdrawal, but actually when you think that through you realize it was absolutely impossible. in fact, it was a request of the afghan government we not evacuate them. if the biden administration had begun evacuating thousands and tens of thousands of afghans before the government fell, it would have led the government to

fall and we would all be saying president biden caused the afghan government to collapse. so i think as you said biden made mistakes here. but i think when we think through the actual choices that they faced, i don't think there was an exit from afghanistan that wasn't messy. >> one of the criticisms has been, frankly, that the prior administration as well as i assume this administration was kind of slow walking or at least the prior administration was slow walking and this administration didn't really pick it up, the speed of processing the applications. because you talked to republican and democratic congress people who say, look, we've been working for years to try to get certain people visas, special immigrant visas. so that certainly -- you know, the other criticism which we've had on the show from ryan crocker has been that -- that essentially the process was undercut by the previous

administration dealing directly with the taliban which undercut the afghan government and the biden administration continued that policy, essentially. >> i think that's a fair criticism, but i also think it's worth remembering we were never going to get out everyone who deserved to get out before the government fell. i mean there's sort of a catch-22 here, right? the united states and the afghan government obviously wanted the afghan government to survive. there is no way for it to survive if we are simultaneously airlifting out the thousands of people who are running that government. and so so long as the u.s. and afghanistan wanted to take a shot at an afghanistan that wasn't run by the taliban, there was no way to accomplish a most of the airlift in advance. >> i'm so struck just how we, the united states and, you know, countries like to believe that they know what the effects of their involvement in another place is going to be. you think you're doing one thing, but it can have ripple

effects that you don't really anticipate, you know, just the corruption that exploded in afghanistan with all the money that being poured into it by the u.s. and the regime itself which we were supporting was known for it its corruption. >> i mean, i think, anderson, that's the key point here. which is if you look at history, look at the united states and vietnam, look at france and algera, look at the soviet union and afghanistan, it is full of instances of big -- big powers going into small poorer countries and thinking that they can overhaul them and run them and put in the government they want. and, you know, this is exaggerated only slightly. it never works ever. and so the u.s. i think had to attack afghanistan in order to go after al-qaeda in 2001. the question is why didn't the united states, which is really the george w. bush administration at the time, have a plan that was something other

than we're going to remake this entire society? why didn't they accept the surrender of the taliban when it was offered to them? why didn't they see that a permanent war that seeks total victory is actually more likely to end in defeat as we've just seen than a more limited mission in afghanistan? >> to the point that the afghan government which as you talked about this earlier and you've written about this -- the afghan government asked the u.s. don't start pulling these people out because it's going to totally collapse our government. i mean, it's a tricky situation for the u.s., and they decided to aqueous -- i mean after essentially cutting the afghan government at the knees after negotiating with the afghan taliban they decided to listen to the afghan government on this one. >> yes. and the reason they decided to listen to them is u.s. intelligence said the afghan government would likely survive for months. and i think one of the key mistakes here of the biden

administration was they took that forecast as gospel. they said, oh, our experts say the afghan government is going to survive for months, well then that's what's going to happen. they didn't do enough contingency planning. they didn't say to themselves, well, wait a second what are the chances the government is actually going to collapse in weeks or has happened, days, and what's our plan for that? and i think if they'd taken seriously the possibility the government would collapse in days, and they had reason to take it vseriously. as you talked about they had people saying, look, this government is not going to survive for two weeks. if they'd taken that seriously i think they would have sped up the visa processing as you were talking about. i think the u.s. may not have been quite so certain about the date we were leaving knowing we might have had to leave troops there a few weeks longer to oversee an evacuation process that going to need to be much more rapid. >> appreciate it. thank you so much.

>> thanks, anderson. still to come iceland's covid surge but with far fewer icu patients and no fatalities in months. take a look at why that is next. boost is the only mobile carrier to give you the power of free 24/7 access to live doctors from your phone. get a free samsung galaxy a32 5g when you switch to america's largest & fastest 5g network. more power to stay healthy. boost mobile ♪ limu emu & doug ♪ oh! are you using liberty mutual's coverage customizer tool? sorry?

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voltaren the joy of movement is your family ready for an emergency? you can prepare by mapping out two ways to escape your home, creating a supply kit, and including your whole family in practice drills. for help creating an emergency plan, visit safetyactioncenter.pge.com

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 a troubling trend in this nation's covid surge. more than a millen new confirmed cases in the u.s. this past week. the most in any country and more than 1,000 people dying every day. cases in the u.s. up nearly 10%

than compared today one week earlier. deaths surging more than 55%. some good news, though, of course however vaccine doses up 15%. still another concern the biden administration says hospitalizations have nearly tripled in the past month with more than 100,000 people now hospitalized with covid, and that's a level we've not seen since january. of course it doesn't have to be this way if more people got vaccinated. all those numbers would be much, much lower. and if you want to know what that would actually look like, look no further than iceland. iceland is in the middle of its fourth covid surge, but the difference is they're really staggering and they're instructive. gary tuchman went to find out. >> reporter: how many people have died in this country during this wave from covid? >> none. >> reporter: zero? >> zero. >> reporter: the doctor is iceland's chief epidemiologist. >> i think the widespread

vaccination in iceland has for sure prevented serious consequences of the infection. i've been grateful, and i think it's a testimony to this population. >> reporter: this doctor is the ceo of the largest hospital in iceland. he says a nightmare scenario during this fourth and worst wave of covid has been averted because of his fellow islanders. >> if it hadn't been for the vaccinations, you know, population i think it would have been catastrophic. >> reporter: health officials say nobody have died from covid in the country since may. 30 died before that, almost before the vaccine was available. and how vaccinated is this nation now? >> if you look at the age bracket 16 years and older it's just about 90%. if you take from 12 and older that's 84%. >> reporter: superlative percentages. finding people in the u.s. who

have not been vaccinated easy. here not so easy. have you gotten vaccines? >> of course. >> reporter: of course. why do you say of course? >> because it's our civic duty to get vaccinated. >> reporter: do you have friends who haven't gotten vaccinate snd. >> no. >> reporter: we go into the hospital, the ilandic word for intensive care unit because the high number of vaccinations also means fewer patients despite the surge of infections. last year before the covid vaccines were available to the ilandic public they were typically between 65 and 75 covid patients in this hospital. and this day there are 18 covid patients. some are very ill. three of them are in the section of the icu behind this black and yellow tape. but patient numbers do continue to drop. >> it was absolutely crazy last year, but it's more calm at the moment. there are fewer patients. they get well sooner than they did in the first wave. >> reporter: notably, the u.s. state department issued its most serious covid advisory earlier

this month stating do not travel to iceland. iceland's covid surge is for real. but so is the sense of optimism. >> i think we are sort of a proof of this principle that the vaccination is working wonders. >> gary joins us now from island. gary, i think i know the answer to this question but do health authorities in iceland know what caused this latest covid surge? >> reporter: they're not 100% sure, anderson. but back in june they lifted covid restrictions here back in iceland because things had gotten better. but in a few weeks things got worse again and they brought back restrictions. bars have to close at 11:00 p.m. this is a party city so people have nowhere to go when the bars close so they're hanging out with us right now but they don't want those bars to be crowded after 11:00 p.m. and also there's no longer allowed public gatherings of more than 200

people. one important thing to point out -- excuse me, gentlemen. be respectful. not one person in the country of iceland has died from covid after getting vaccinated. >> how great was it to hear that lady say oh, it's our civic duty, like, duh, it's our civic duty. the number of people -- i just wish that was something people said everywhere. yeah, this is what you do to be a good citizen. gary, i appreciate you being there. perspective now from chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. sanjay, i'm sure you had the same thought, civic duty. i want to get the latest on the vaccines in a moment. what do you make of what's going on in iceland? >> yeah, that was a great piece because it sort of shows what life can be like if we had higher vaccination rates. it's interesting, anderson,

because you go to a place like vermont and i think vermont is probably twice the population of iceland. iceland is like 350,000 people. vermont is pretty similar in terms of vaccination rates. 16 plus getting close to 90% vaccination rate. so you've got these pockets of that sort of civic duty as you and gary were talking about. but obviously if you look at overall the status in the country we've got about 52% fully vaccinated, 9% more that are partially vaccinated, and it's that red in the upper left corner, the eligible unvaccinated. that percentage is just too high, anderson. and that's the problem. 98% of people in the hospital with covid in june, july were from that red part of the pie graph there, so that's the issue. that continues to be the issue. >> by the way, how is vermont doing in terms of covid? >> well, you know, it's interesting because they still have higher spread than thidid a couple weeks ago or about three or four weeks ago now.

but the overall hospitalizations and deaths are quite low. that's the thing. we look at cases and then we look at hospitalizations and deaths. i think this is going to be a big topic of conversation. if we focus on cases alone we realize we're dealing with a very transmissible virus. but overall in terms of protecting against hospitalization and death, if you have a higher vaccinated population you're going to have a much lower hospitalization rate as they saw in iceland, vermont, connecticut and maine and other states like that. >> let's talk vaccines. according to the cdc more than half of those fully vaccinate against covid in the u.s. received pfizer. and at the same time almost the 14 million people who received the johnson & johnson vaccine they've been waiting for news about a booster. they got some news today. what happened? >> yeah, i mean the 14 million people, i mean they're frustrated. i think i probably heard from just about every one of them through e-mail or social media. it's understandable, but because they were authorized later, because it's a smaller segment of the population, there's less

data. let me show you what they talked about today. these are small studies basically looking at what happened if they got a booster of the johnson & johnson vaccine. they found, first of all, it's pretty effective against moderate and severe disease. when they got the booster six months later they found that antibody levels went up about nine-fold compared to after the first shot. the big question, anderson, is this is going to be a question i think we're going to be asking for some time is what does that translate to? you get more antibodies, does that actually equate to people doing better and more protection against hospitalizations and deaths? more protection against even severe illness? i don't know we can say that yet. and i think that's going to be a topic of discussion with all the boosters with johnson & johnson and also pfizer and moderna. >> thanks very much. up next, the search for the covid origin. the latest on a federal report

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given ta president biden has already gotten the long anticipated intelligence report on the origin of covid and that it reportedly reached no conclusion the question now is what we could learn when the unclassified version comes out. the white house says it should be released soon but investigators are not even confident they'll ever know for sure whether the virus came from the wuhan lab or from animal to human transmission. joining me for more perspective is the world health organization advisory committee member and former national security staffer in the clinton administration. we haven't seen the full contents of the report yet. what we've seen even after 90

days review by the nation's intelligence experts say it is still unclear how the virus started. what does that tell you? >> it doesn't tell us much. this was a very important first step but this review was always a first step. now we need a full investigation to get to the bottom of this. there is a lot of evidence fully available and should be in china but even if the chinese government continues to not participate and prevent any investigation inside of china there are many other resources which we need access to and that is why this is a first step and we need to authorize the continuation of the biden intelligence review, a national covid, bipartisan commission, and need to ramp up international efforts to have the kind of full investigation that has never been mandated to date. >> isn't the bottom line if china doesn't cooperate unless there is human intelligence connections or signals

intelligence it doesn't seem -- is it possible to actually learn the truth, what happened? >> it definitely makes everybody's job harder. i don't think necessarily impossible. there are a lot of things we can do, resources available outside of china. there are materials that were submitted for example to scientific journals before the chinese iron curtain went down early last year that could be accessed. there are whistle-blower provisions. i'm guessing there are hundreds of people inside of china who have highly relevant information about the origins of the pandemic who i'm guessing are probably afraid for their lives. they've seen people in prison for asking basic questions. we need to do that. the core point is no international investigation has ever been mandated. if we can't not have an investigation and then say we'll never find something let's have the best possible investigation and see what we can get. >> why hasn't that been

mandated? >> the big issue is last year, it is a little technical, the world health assembly which is the governing body of the world health organization, the australian government proposed a full investigation. china punished australia with trade sanctions and a chinese supported resolution eventually passed that essentially did not authorize a full investigation into the origins of the pandemic but mandated a chinese controlled joint study into one single hypothesis that it jumped from animals to humans in the wild not associated with any kind of laboratory research. so that is what has been done. that is where the real fight is. the w.h.o. director general has been incredibly courageous calling for a full audit of chinese labs, calling for the chinese authorities to share raw data and china has flatly refused. they've attacked dr. tedros in the media. that is why again this is the beginning of a process and we all, the united states government, governments around

the world, need to be pushing for the best possible investigation and, again, we don't have one. we need one. >> since early last week you've talked about your belief that a lab incident is the most likely origin of the pandemic versus the other theory that it naturally jumped from animals to humans. if the intelligence efforts are inconclusive what is it that makes you believe the lab theory? oh, we just lost the guest. we'll try to get him back though we are at the end of the program so another time. always great to have him. we'll continue following that. up next a baby born to afghan refugee parents on an evacuation flight out of kabul. wait till you hear the name that they chose. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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♪ please don't take my sunshine away ♪ you may pay as little as $10 per prescription. ask your healthcare provider about rybelsus® today. centrum multigummies aren't just great tasting... they're power-packed vitamins... that help unleash your energy. loaded with b vitamins... ...and other key essential nutrients... ...it's a tasty way to conquer your day. try centrum multi gummies. now with a new look. as your business changes, the united states postal service is changing with it. with e-commerce that runs at the speed of now. next day and two-day shipping nationwide, and returns right from the doorstep. it's a whole new world out there. let's not keep it waiting. a baby born to afghan refugee parents on an evacuation flight from qatar to germany has a new name. the head of command told reporters the baby girl has been

given the name reach. as unlikely as that may sound the general said the parents agreed to the name in honor of the call sign of the c-17 that carried her and her parents to safety reach. officials said she was born in the cargo bay. two other babies were delivered successfully at an american military hospital after they landed and are both doing well as the infant born on the plane, reach. congratulations to all. that's it for us. the news continues. we'll head over to chris for cuomo primetime. >> we need a lot more happy endings. thank you very much anderson. welcome to "primetime." we really need to figure out what we are about in this country. our government learns there are terror threats at the kabul airport and their reaction is to tell americans who are desperate and dying to get out to leave. are you kidding me? here is the u.s. government warning issue just now. because of security threats outside the gates of kabul airport we are advising u.s. citizens to avoid traveling to

the airport and avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a u.s. government representative to do so. those who are at the abbey gate, east gate, or north gate now should leave immediately. question, why isn't the answer to bring americans into the airport to keep them safe? especially if you can really say that these are americans? why are you sending them away? what would you do to people that you care about when you learned they were threatened? would you send them away or want to keep them close? bring them into the airport. why not? where is the answer to that question? look, terrorists are coming for the people that america is trying to get out. right now. not just taliban hunting women and friendlies. this threat is the new isis, isis k. k stands for a province they come from. it's up on the pakistan border. a lot of the taliban, a lot of the bad guys are not eve