closed down to go back to our basics to go back to where we were last spring last summer and to shut down with $70000.00 new infections each day vaccines alone might not be enough to turn the tide in the final against covert 19. no other country in the world has been hit harder by the corona virus the united states has had the most confirmed cases and deaths in the world and despite its unprecedented vaccination program those numbers are still rising many people have grown weary of lockdown and with warming weather many states have lifted restrictions facing the threat of a 4th wave president joe biden's administration is doubling down to back the nation as the key to ending the pandemic but local outbreaks threaten to do that strategy . john brooks joins us from the c.d.c. the centers for disease control and prevention how would you say the u.s. is coming along there's been a change in leadership

a change in the weather but has there been progress in the fight against covert. well i think there has been steady progress in the fight against cove even since we began and this is despite 3 waves including a really unprecedented 3rd wave over the holiday season but we're coming down off the back of that wave right now and really getting the numbers down quickly we're not succeeding yet i mean we're making incredible progress but the number of new infections we're seeing in this country remains about what it was during our 2nd wave last summer so what about 50000 new infections a day and 525021000 deaths a day by the numbers of murder. promising when you take a look at who's been inoculated a 3rd of the population has got at least one jap that's over 120000000 americans but with the focus on getting people vaccinated what about you restrictions on the economy because there's a new wave of coronavirus cases as you mentioned and hospitals are getting crowded

. that's right and this you know we want to reserve using those really most difficult decisions of shutting down the economy when we have to apply them but it's becoming apparent that we may be at a place where in some jurisdictions certain states it may be time to sort of shut down a little bit to gain control over this virus i mean we're in a big race right now all right we are racing against the virus with vaccine and we've got to get the vaccine out as soon as possible we're asking people to hold on a little bit longer we know it's frustrating it's been a rough year people want to get back to the normal life they enjoyed before but we're not done with this race we're not done with the battle we're going to have to hang on to we can really get vaccinations out john is that message getting through to state officials because in michigan state health rate this is the government's focusing on getting more people back to native rather than imposing new restrictions on the economy. well it would be wonderful if vaccination took effect

immediately but you know it takes a couple of weeks for you to be to benefit from vaccination with the beyond tech vaccine is $21.00 days between doses plus another 14 days until you're fully covered but they're seeing a problem right now and to deal with the problem right now you need to cut off the chain to transmission with whatever you have at your disposal and unfortunately at this time the best needs for that would be slowing down of the reopening of society there so which states would you say are getting it right which are getting it wrong because again despite all those vaccinations the 7 day case 48100000 people is it 515 in michigan california is only a 50. that's right and it's interesting it's also very low in i believe states like texas and florida where one might have expected you know that it would be higher so where we don't understand exactly why the rates are different in different states it's probably some combination of the fact that some states have got more vaccine

out they have more social distancing measures still in place the government and political opinion is aligned with public health so we're all singing from the same songbook we say right that we're all working together and not against each other what about a 100 immunity is there going to be a stage where the u.s. will reach that. yeah i mean i have an infectious disease doctor i've been working in this area for 30 years and i'm certain that we will reach herd immunity i just don't know what that number is we'll know it when we get there because there will be a sustained decline and then leveling off of new infections and that will be the point when there's been enough people vaccinated as well unfortunately as people who've recovered from illness that the virus can't find anywhere else to go and that also depends upon whether or not the virus manages to mutate in a direction. that's absolutely right we're watching that very carefully i mean

these mutations concert these variants they're called really concern us a lot and vigilance really matters when viruses vary so we've put in i'm sorry go ahead to what we're going to say. i think we put into place a very very. large national effort to routinely screen a large number of these viruses out a model sure for variants and to identify those mutations which either make the virus more trance this will be increased the severity or undercuts some of the activity of drugs that we use against the virus ok on on that very topic i wanted to just mention some americans are already getting a 3rd dose which will be used to some people around the world that they're taking part in a study of updated versions of the current of virus vaccines and they've been tweaked to tackle mutations of the virus a variant of scott in britain just months ago is already the most common version of the corona virus circulating in the united states current vaccines off

a strong protection against these mutations but researches want to be ready to respond to new threats that emerge of course that study is being run by the national institute of health and emory university in atlanta i believe john which is where you'll based these sorts of tweets can be achieved in a matter of weeks it's the regulators that hold back the process by months can and should that be changed. well i think they'll be a lot of urgency to find a pathway forward where we can make these changes these and adopt these regulatory changes as rapidly as we possibly can while of course maintaining the safety of the public cool be receiving these vaccines you know we have annual flu vaccination now in that case every year the world health organization and other public health organizations around the world look ahead as to what may be coming but we have a different situation now we have these m r n

a vaccines from beyond ecan moderna and other companies that you can custom create the vaccine with m r n a relatively quickly and then it takes probably weeks to a few months to get that into production i believe that given the experience of this pandemic we're going to hopefully see regulators moving just as quickly with us. that would be nice don't. you can you can use it in the is there is there anything else that you can leave us with they give us some sort of hope in his cries that. well i'll just say this i mean our food and drug administration is the organization in charge of these regulations and they say they have experienced this pandemic just like we have in our agency which is in charge of things related to prevention and i think that there is a strong desire to move forward into this future in a way that we can keep the public safe but respond more fleetly we've had some bad

experiences where we weren't able to respond as quickly as we'd like and is clear that that's going to be an important thing in the future both for the city thank you very much for joining us today it's my pleasure. in another setback the united states has recommended putting the johnson and johnson vaccine on hold it's investigating a potential link between the jab and blood clots nearly 7000000 people have received the single dose vaccine in the u.s. clotting was reported in 6 women in the days off the vaccination several countries have also restricted the astra zeneca short of a closing fee is. over to outsiders correspondent eric williams who has an interesting view a question about the vaccine and hospitalizations. how come people hospitalized with covert 1000 don't get the vaccine couldn't it save their lives no although ongoing research into what are called therapeutic back scenes is fascinating the approved covert vaccines are traditional and the sense that they

aren't therapies if you already have covert 19 there are a measure to prevent you from contracting it in the 1st place or at least ensuring that if you do get the disease it will be a milder case and you won't end up in the hospital the reason the pandemic went global so fast and so on so quickly out of control is because sars could be too was a novel pathogen that no one had been exposed to before a state that 'd experts call being immunologically naïve the vaccines now in use basically teach your body that there's a bad bug out there that looks like this so but if it shows up in your nose or throat your immune system is is forewarned and can jump on it quickly but just like it takes time for your immune system to respond if you're infected for real it also

takes time to ramp up in a munich response to the fake infection that about seem simulations a couple of weeks give or take a few days depending on the back seem so so giving someone who has a severe case of the disease a vaccine won't help and could likely do harm that's why trusted health care authorities like the centers for disease control recommend that if you have covert 19 you need to wait a while after your symptoms have completely. subsided before you even began to consider getting vaccinated. finally surging coronavirus cases in many parts of the world are overshadowing the start of ramadan south asia's nations of battling a spiraling outbreak europe has passed a 1000000 deaths the muslim holy month is a time of avoiding food and drink during the day and coming together for feasts at

night both a challenge during a pandemic indonesia has the world's biggest muslim population of people have been attending socially distance services in mosques it's islamic body now says covert vaccinations do not violate the fost in a permissible under the religious law a relief for the government which has been counting on a vaccine drive to tackle the largest number of infections and deaths in southeast asia. thanks for watching stay safe and see you again sir.

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read the real trial of resides. i come from there lots of people in fact more than a 1000000000 it is it was the largest democracy league that's one reason why i'm passionate about people and aspirations and they can sense. the most amazing the book is fried chicken but end up in the form of the lenin one and i remember thinking at the time if the battle in blow going forward anything can happen if people come together and unite for a cool place but i do the news i often confront difficult situations. more conflict between does the us down to high c. just want my child to confront bloody does on policies and development to put the spotlight on issues that matter most. to security oppression missionizing. a notch has been achieved the so much more needs to be done and i feel people have to be at the hoc solutions my name is on the touchy lot and i walk into downhill.

to. the odd. place. blame. blame blame blame. this is it we do sly for world and health authorities hit the pause button in the united states stepping in to stop the world out of the johnson and johnson vaccine it's a temporary measure while an investigation is underway to find out as the vaccine is responsible for 6 cases of blood clotting among the 6000000 people who have already received the shot in the u.s. also coming up.