reporting from the nation's capital, i'm catherine herridge. ♪ it's tuesday, it's tuesday, february 16th, 2021. this is "cbs morning news." ice, snow and freezing rain, a deadly winter storm is barreling through the u.s. how one state's power grid is crumbling under the cold. the race to vaccinate. why one doctor believes the next few months will be the worst of the pandemic. nursing home scandal. new york governor andrew cuomo addresses a growing coronavirus controversy. york governor andre addresses a well, good morning. good to be with you. i'm anne-marie green. we're going to begin this

morning with an unprecedented winter storm that is crippling large areas of the u.s. it's killed at least six people so far. the massive winter storm is bringing freezing rain, snow and blizzard-like conditions. storm warnings and advisories are posted for more than two dozen states all the way through maine. power amid record breaking cold, millions of homes and businesses lost electricity including a houston facility that stored covid vaccines. a warmup isn't expected until friday. and the brutal cold snap brought near whiteout conditions just down to st. louis. elise preston has more on this historic storm. >> reporter: a firestorm of winter weather caused this in louisiana after a transformer blew. stranded cars on slippery highways in little rock, arkansas, have brought dangerous, subzero temperatures in minneapolis where the low is forecast to zip to minus 19.

>> just move, move. there's plenty of movement we can do. we're moving boxes 30 pounds at least if not more. just move fast. >> reporter: the cold is a major concern in texas where the snow covers the sand in galveston. millions of homes and businesses have lost power and there's a state of emergency. record-breaking use strained the system leading to rolling blackouts. >> the next few days are going to be very tough. to those who have lost power, i know you are frustrated. i know you're miserable. i know you're uncomfortable. >> reporter: texas governor greg abbott is calling out the national guard to help move people to warming centers. >> the ultra low temperatures will last for several days. meaning what becomes frozen will remain frozen for a long period of time. >> reporter: conditions are already treacherous. a truck lost control near austin, and this man barely

escaped when a car crashed into a police cruiser in shellenberg. ice is the enemy in portland, oregon. the weight of it collapsed the roof of a safeway store and elsewhere snapped trees. 200 million americans are under weather alerts and warnings. elise preston, cbs news. well, the winter weather is affecting the rollout of coronavirus vaccines as well. appointments are getting cancelled as clinics wait out the storm. on top of that supplies are running short. debra alfarone is in washington, debra, president biden is expected to field some questions about the pandemic, certainly, tonight. >> reporter: absolutely, anne-marie, and expected to make his case to the american people about why we need that $1.9 trillion relief plan. this is the president's first trip as president, he's going to milwaukee. a place not spared by the

historic storm. currently, it's 9 degrees there and snow is on its way. the winter storm that knocked out power in parts of texas did not spare a public health facility in the houston area. when their backup generator failed they sent thousands of vaccine doses out to local hospitals, a university and a jail for immediate distribution. >> we got to work under the mission to avoid losing those vaccines with a loss of power. we quickly put together a plan to allocate and salvage them. >> reporter: the race to vaccinate more americans has intensified even as covid cases are dropping in nearly every state. health officials point to new variants that could spur a new surge in cases. >> the next 14 weeks i think will be the worst of the pandemic. >> reporter: new york is treating its first case of a variant initially discovered in south africa. and a group of scientists have

discovered at least seven homegrown variants. >> it may have little subtle effects on how well the virus colonizes a human respiratory tract. >> reporter: president biden will weigh in on the pandemic and his administration's response in a televised town hall tonight in milwaukee. he's expected to take questions from a socially distanced audience made up of democrats, republicans and independents. mr. biden said last week his administration had bought enough vaccine doses for 300 million americans by the end of july. many cities are prioritizing school teachers including chicago and sacramento. >> with them getting vaccines i'm so excited we may be able to go back sooner rather than later. >> reporter: california also hit a grim milestone. covid-19 has killed more than 47,000 people in the state. the highest death toll in the nation. it's tough to even comprehend that number. now back to the president's trip, the mayor of milwaukee has said publicly he wants to thank mr. biden for not only having

money going to states and cities in that pandemic plan but also money for vaccines. by the way, this is going to take place, this town hall, at pabst theater. the last show they had there was right around when the pandemic starts and it was dave chappelle, who is another person who spent some time here in d.c. anne-marie. fun fact. >> i believe it's his hometown, debra alfarone, thank you very much. astrazeneca's covid vaccine has been approved for use by the world health organization. the move allows the association to ship millions of doses around the world, the first batch of the vaccine will be rolled out later on this month. the w.h.o. recommended the vaccine to be used in all adults including countries where new variants are circulating. new york governor andrew cuomo is taking some blame for the nursing home scandal rocking that state. cuomo insisted yesterday he did not cover up the covid death

toll in the state's nursing homes. he said the information was always publicly and accurately reported. cuomo did admit his administration dropped the ball in clearing up the confusion, though. >> we should have provided more information faster. we were too focused on doing the job and addressing the crisis of the moment. and we did not do a good enough job in providing information. i take total responsibility for that. >> cuomo says he's proposing reforms involving nursing homes and hospitals in the upcoming state budget. congress is set to create an independent commission to address last month's house riot. house speaker told democratic colleagues in a letter said that the step is creditial in order tour get to the truth to what happened. the panel will be the one convened like the 9/11 attack. pelosi said that the panel will

also look at the preparedness and response of the police and other federal, state and local law enforcement. meantime, some gop lawmakers are facing backlash following trump's impeachment trial. pennsylvania's republican party should soon meet to possibly censure senator pat toomey. he was among seven gop members voting to convict the former president of inciting a riot. north carolina's senator richard burr also voted to convict. he was censured yesterday by his state's gop party. a spokesperson called the decision merely symbolic. coming up on "cbs morning news," hundreds of fans say farewell to legendary actress cicely tyson. and an interesting conversation, ththe duke and ducuchess of sus sit t down withh open practicic within f from for anan amazing ininterview.

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impeachment trial, his supporters held a rally in west palm beach. and he was there to see it. mr. trump waved to a crowd through a car window as his caravan drove by. he's been in florida since leaving office last month. well, there's a second covid outbreak on a u.s. aircraft carrier and fans said good-bye to a hollywood icon. those are some of the headlines on the morning stands. "usa today" said hundreds of people paid their respects to the late actress cicely tyson during a public viewing in new york city. fans waited in lines yesterday outside a historic harlem church where fans worshipped the chance to say good-bye. she died last month at the age of 96. some said that they traveled across the country to be there. >> through all the way from los angeles, california, just to be here for this moment. my buddy right here from atlanta, so it's just remarkable. great actress. loved all of her movies. had to be here today.

>> a private invitation-only viewing and memorial service will take place this morning. and a private burial service for tyson's immediate family will follow. "the washington post" reports that the navy says three sailors aboard the "uss theodore roosevelt" tested positive for the coronavirus. officials say the sailors had not had any symptoms and are isolated on a ship in the pacific. it comes less than a year when a massive outbreak sidelined a ship in guam for nearly two months. nearly 1300 sailors tested positive and one died. all 3800 crew members were sent ashore to quarantine. and the atlanta journal constitution said that former golf david perdue filed the first steps for a potential comeback. perdue filed paperwork for a possible run next year against newly elected senator raphael warnock.

purdue narrowly lost in a runoff last month against jon ossoff. warnock defeated republican senator kelly loeffler in another runoff. warnock's term, however, expires next year since he's filling the remainder of a retired senator's term. still ahead, strands of history. locks of hair from our nation's first president is up for auction. for auction. with cerertain inflflammatory c conditions. because e there are e option. like a an “unjejection™"”. xeljanz. t the first a and onlyly pill of i its kind thatat treats momoderate to o e rheumatoidid arthritisis, psororiatic arththritis, or mododerate to s severe ulcerativeve colitis when o other medicicines haveve not helpeped enough.. xeljananz can lowewer your abiy toto fight infnfections. bebefore and d during treaeat, your doctotor should c check for r infectionsns, like t tb and do b blood test. tell youour doctor i if you'ved hepapatitis b oror c, have flulu-like sympmptoms, or are prorone to infefection. serious,s, sometimeses fatal l infectionsns, cancerers includining lymphom, and d blood clotots have hapap. tataking a higigher ththan recommemended dosee of xeljajanz for raa may inincrease risisk of deat.

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morning on vaccine rollouts and u.s. stock futures are trending higher as optimism remains high over stimulus measures. the social network parler preferred by the far right appears to be back online. the platform went dark last month after being dropped by amazon's web hosting service because the site was not doing enough to moderate calls to violence. on monday, the basic outline of parler was live but private messaging was disabled. a member of the tea party patriots movement is now running parler and interim ceo. add jaguar to the list of automakers planning to go all-electric. the british company outlined a strategy to phase out internal combustion engines in four years. jaguar expects 50% of its land rover brands to be all electric by 2030. land rover is the luxury car brand that's been struggling in recent years. now is your chance to own

presidential locks. george and martha washington's hair is hitting the auction block. rr auction says the strands of hair have been placed in two floral frames which have an estimated value of at least $75,000. you better act fact if you want the hair. the auction closes this thursday. anne-marie. >> yeah, i was checking out the auction because i read your script ahead of time to see what it's all about. and you can get little pieces of history for 600, or $700, if $75,000 is a little too team for you. they have all kinds of things for you. of course, less popular presidents but presidential, nonetheless. >> right. i mean, like, i love the idea of presidential history. the hair, though, it's just like, oh, it feels like we're making some kind of potion. i don't know. >> i know. i know. who would have thought just cleaning up the bathroom floor many years later would -- >> exactly. >> diane king hall in new york. diane, thank you so much. >> you got it. so up next, no parades?

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i'm just trying to rip the hardest rhymes. ♪ >> we are getting our first look at a preview of the new documentary about rapper notorious b.i.g. yesterday, netflix released a trailer for the upcoming film "biggie: i got a story to tell." it will look at his rise to fame, his legacy in the music industry and his murder in 1997 at the age of 24. the documentary begins streaming on march 1. prince harry and his wife meghan will speak with oprah winfrey in their first major broadcast interview since quitting royal duties last year. yesterday, cbs announced the 90-minute show, oprah with meghan and harry. the show prime time special will air on march 7th winfrey will talk with meghan about life, pregnancy and philanthropic work and discuss with harry, the move to the west. dr. anthony fauci is being

awarded for his work with the foundation. the israeli foundation said dr. fauci is being awarded a $1 million prize. the private foundation said president biden's top adviser earned the recognition on research and aids relief as well as science and coronavirus vaccines. well, today is fat tuesday. and residents of new orleans are keeping the tradition of mardi gras alive after parades were cancelled due to the pandemic. instead of floats moving through the streets people are on parade checking out elaborately decorated houses. it's being called yardi gras. it started as a social media joke with one woman saying with that parade, she would turn her house into a float. some 3,000 homes are now taking part. >> are you beyond surprised? >> i'm definitely overwhelmed how over-the-top the response has been. >> we actually hope this is a thing every year, even when the parades come back. >> to help the community, some

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♪ be a little bill brave. our top stories this morning, a major winter storm is bearing down on the midwest and northeast. it's packing heavy snow and ice. at least six deaths are blamed on the storm after it slammed the south. it even broke snow records in texas. massive power outages were reported across the state, leaving millions in the dark.

and coronavirus infections are dropping in nearly every state but officials warn new variants could spur a surge in cases. new york is treating its first vase of a variant initially discovered in south africa. and scientists have discovered at least seven homegrown variants. nearly a year into the pandemic, there's still opposition to many precautions designed to keep people safe. so what causes some people to resist the saved guidelines? chris martinez takes a look. >> reporter: scenes like this have played out across the country, large gatherings to protest pandemic restrictions like mask wearing and quarantining. health officials have tracked the latest outbreaks to people ignoring police to follow precautions. the question is, why are people so resistant? >> as it's going on people wanting to get back to business, they're very tired of restrictions. >> reporter: this doctor from

cedars-sinai in los angeles says while pandemic fatigue is a major reason behind the defiance, it's not the only one. she said peer pressure also leads some to ignore the rules and other big factor is confirmation bias, people giving more weight to their own experiences than the experiences of others. >> they get a little bit more relaxed. they're able to say, well, we did this before and it was fine. why are you worried about this? why don't we go hang outside or go to the restaurants and it will be fine. >> reporter: convincing others to get on board with the measures can be difficult but it is possible. experts say it begins with making it personal. >> what is it going to take for you to take that seriously? is it the fear of a loved one getting sick, or grandmother? and thinking about it in whatever kind of way that can resonate with you so that you can take the appropriate actions to keep yourself and others safe. >> reporter: she reminds people

that while the pandemic will end, the choices we make now could have lifelong consequences. chris martinez, cbs news, los angeles. well, coming up on "cbs this morning," we will take you to texas for the latest on the winter storm emergency. and we'll speak with the mayor of austin in an exclusive interview. plus, we'll hear from the ceo of chobani yogurt as he explains the importance of immigrants and how they helped build his company. and we're taking a look at the 50th anniversary of the congressional black caucus in our continuing celebration of black history month. that's the "cbs morning news" for this tuesday. thanks for watching. i'm anne-marie green. have a great day.