♪ anchor:. i'm judy woodruff. some research. rising infections prompt new concerns about covid-19. we speak to the u.s. surgeon general about this next phase of the pandemic. then, the road to have it. frastructure negotiations face and on held -- on tilt -- uphill battle. a key republican about the legislation's future. desperate journey. migrants crossing the aegean sea to greece. they face harsh efforts from the coast guard. >> they abused us. they did not respect us or anyone's human rights. i thought if you come here to their country to request asylum,

they will listen to you. they killed that. judy: all that and more on the newshour. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour been provided by >> before we talk about your investments, audrey is expecting. >> twins. ♪ >> change of plans. at fidelity, a change in plans is part of the plan always. >> johnson & johnson. consumer cellular. fincial services firm raymond james. committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through

investments in transformative leaders and ideas. carnegie corporation of new york supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security at carnegie.org. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ judy: the white house is issuing

calls to action tonight in the face of covid-19's latest assault. the appeal has, amid talk of re-imposing restrictions. reporter: the biden team issued a sober warning and an urgent call for more vaccinations as the number of delta-related infections is rising around the country. dr. rochelle walensky is the director of the cdc. dr. walensky: we are at another pivotal moment in the pandemic with cases rising again and hospitals reaching capacity in some areas. we need to come together aone nation. the delta variant is more aggressive and much more transmissible than previously circulating strains. it is one of the most infectious respiratory viruses we know of and i have seen in my 20 year career. reporter: as new cases surged, the administration is maintaining his mask guidance. >> there has been no decision to

change the guidelines. if any decisions about public health would be driven by the cdc. we are engaged with public health experts and the cdc about how to continue to attack the virus and we have never said that battle is over. it is still ongoing. reporter: the seven day average of new cases is up 53% nationally. 83% are comprised of the delta variant and three states, florida, texas, and missouri, account for 40% of new cases nationwide. hospitalizations and deaths are a fraction of what they were at their peak due to vaccinations which experts say protect against the delta strain. last night president biden were urged the public to get inoculated at a cnn town hall. pres. biden: if you are vaccinated you will not be hospitalized. you are not going to die. it is gigantic lee important thank you act like we all act likemericans that care about our fellow americans. reporter: as officials attempt

to ramp up efforts, the effort to investigate the viruses origins continues. on capitol hill, a republican lawmakers also spoke of the need for vaccines but they focus more of their attention on china and questions that remain over how the virus first spread in 2019. >> we brought medical experts around the country. it was very, very eye-opening to see what they said. every one of those medical doctors testified that the virus likely started in the wuhan lab. everybody in america ought to be concerned about those findings. reporter: while some experts say there is not enough evidence to support the lab leak theory, the administration has said the idea and evidence should be investigated. the world health organization back that, too. today, china rejected the idea. >> to be honest, when i first saw the world health organization's second phase of an investigation into the origin of the coronavirus i was surprised.

the plan disregards common sense and divide science. reporter: the u.s. and other governments say more information from china is needed to prevent the next pandemic even as the work to contain this one is far from over. judy: we take a deeper dive on the biden administration's efforts to combat the delta variant with surgeon general. welcome back to the newshour. good to have you here. help us understand. this is confusing for a lot of people. we know maxing helps contain virus spread. why not change the guidance so more people wear them? dr. murthy: it is a great question. let's review what we know. we know they are helpful in preventing spread. we also know if you are fully vaccinated, your risk of getting sick or transmitting the virus is low. there are circumstances where individuals may want to consider wearing masks or counties

merited site -- may decide to put mitigation measures back in place. those would be if they had a lot of virus circulating in some communities. an individual who has kids at home who are not vaccinated or you are immunocompromised, those are circumstances work how the needs -- counties or individuals might decide to wear masks. i think when we are seeing covid spreading widely, because of the variant, it is prudent to air on the side of caution because a lot of people are getting infected. primarily unvaccinated. judy: what do you do about areas where you have leaders with a large amount of covid that is spreading? florida is one of the highest covid rates in the country. governor desantis opposes mask mandates, especially when school restarts. what do you do about those areas? dr. murthy: from a public health perspective, the masks help. especially when you have a lot

of virus spreading and do not have high vaccination rates. that is the case in parts of florida. masks absolutely can be useful. i understand people are tired of so much of what we have dealt with over the past year. wearing masks. not seeing your friends. the uncertainty of covid has been exhausting for all of us and we have made progress but this is a moment with the delta variant -- delta variant spreading that we have to take measures to reduce pride. vaccination is important. if you are trying to reduce spread in a short timeframe, it is measures like masking and distancing that are the most powerful tools. judy: the delta variant was spreading back in midnight when the cdc chose to relax the masking guidance. looking back, was that a mistake? did not send the wrong message? dr. murthy: the cdc made that decision because at the time cases were dropping

significantly and the science told us fully vaccinated people were well protected. their risk of infection and transmission was low. the cdc also saw there was delta but it was very low levels. what we have seen since then is delta has surged. it is more than 83% of cases that we are diagnosing of covid right now. what the cdc is also saying is not that people should not wear masks. what they did 60 days ago is give counties and individuals the flexibility to determine wheno use masks based on how much infection was in their community. one of the things we are seeing is as we are a vaccinated posh -- population is increasing, we are seeing covid become a regional phenomenon. the country is not flaring at once but we are seeing rises in pockets where there are unvaccinated people inside. it makes sense to direct mitigation measures to those areas and for counties putting

mask measures in place because they seenfections rising, i think it is reasonable. judy: the vaccination rates have plateaued. we are about 500,000 or so a day. 56% of the eligible population has been fully vaccinated in the country. what is the goal for you? what percentage do we need to get to be at herd immunity and have a comfortable level? dr. murthy: this is the million dollar question. i use the proof is in the pudding example. i don't think there is a specific number we are targeting. we don't know what it is. it changes based on how contagious the virus is. we are now dealing with a more transmissible variant which means the number you need to reach to reach herd immunity is greater in terms of percentage of the population vaccinated. here is how we will know we got there. when cases come down and stay down, we will know we are at the point where we have hit a good vaccination target. we are not seeing not yet in the

country and while some areas are doing pretty well and have greater than 80% vaccination rates, many parts of this country are seeing surges. one really important point. i need to make sure everybody understands it. the increases in cases we are seeing is not evidence the vaccine does not work. what we are seeing is that 99.5 percent of deaths from covid now -- 97% of hospitalizations -- are among those who are not vaccinated. it means if you are fully vaccinated you are well protected against the worst outcomes. that is why it is so important for people to go out and get vaccinated. judy: you have said officially you have to get the right messengers to those people who are unvaccinated. we have sn a number of republican lawmakers who have previously been silent on vaccinations. there are publicly speaking out and urging people to get vaccinated. we are still in terms of our

vaccination rates lagging other countries we were far ahead of. it's all about aign of even that messaging shift is not going to make a difference? dr. murthy: every person who speaks up influences the people who believe in them and seeing more political leaders step up to do that and seeing leaders in business and education stepped up -- step up, i think this is very promising. it takes people time to absorb those messages and make the decision. once they get vaccinated it takes weeks for them to actually increase and get the protection they need. i think this is very encouraging. this is what we need to keep doing. the thing to remember is that as powerful and important as doctors and nurses are as messengers, we have recent data that tells us all of us, family members and friends, can be powerful messengers. one in five of people on the wait category as far as vaccines

are concerned in january made the decision to get vaccinated. when asked what changed her mind, they said it was talking to their family and friends and seeing them get vaccinated and do well. i say that to remind everyone that in this phase of the vaccination campaign, it is up to us to talk to her family and friends, those who trust us. ask them if they got vaccinated and if they have not, help them answer questions. we have to help each other get vaccinated. judy: briefly, you have said the social media companies you have been in touch with need to do more to stop the misinformation out there and keeping people from getting vaccinated. what else do you want them to do that would help to end the pandemic sooner? dr. murthy: the reason i issued an advisory on health misinformation last week and called on technology companies and other stakeholders to do more is because health misinformation is harming our health.

there are eight things we laid out for technology companies to do but a few i will mention. number one, acting more quickly to get misinformation reduced on the site. number two, changing the algorithms so th do not see more misinformation to people. being more transparent is third. we understand how much misinformation is being transacted on their site. when they say we have removed x number of pieces of misinformation that does not mean much if we do not know how many existed. 4 million out of 4 billion is different from 4 million out of 5 million. we need more transparency. we need them to make more product changes to reduce the spread of misinformation. they have the ability to do that. we need them to act with greater urgency. judy: the u.s. surgeon general, dr. murthy, joining us tonight.

thank you for the time. dr. murthy: take care and be well. ♪ stephanie: we will return to judy after these headlines. daily covid deaths could triple by the fall according to new projections. the covid-19's tenorio hub which works with the cdc offers four scenarios based on how many people are vaccinated and how fast the delta variant spreads. under the most likely scenario, the u.s. is projected to get to a 70% vaccination rate, which would -- could mean a peak in october of 18 -- 850 deaths a day. the doj announced the formation of strike forces to target gun imes based in new york, chicago, los angeles, san francisco, and washington dc the -- d.c.

the focus is on gun violence and trafficking. >> our job is to go after those who pulled the trigger and end up critically injuring and murdering innocent people. our job is also, of course, to go after the sources of those guns, the corridor was they travel in and the networks that feed tse guns. stephanie: the attorney general met with police in chicago hours after mass shootings that killed three people and wounded nearly 20 in the city. fire crews in the west are finally geing help from the weather against the giant bootleg fire in southern oregon. 2200 firefighters have the wildfire one third contain. elsewhere, the tamarac fire that originated in northern california has crossed into nevada, forcing new evacuations.

disagreement over investigating the january assault on the u.s. capitol by trump supporters continues. on wednesday, the speaker of the house of representatives barred to republicans from an investigative committee. both of them are trp allies. kevin mccarthy withdrew his other nominees. neither side back down today. rep. pelosi: the american people want to know the truth and in light of statements and actions taken by them, i could not appoint them. rep. mccarthy: it doesn't matter what she does with the committee because it will not change the outcome. it seems like a predetermined thing. stephanie: pelosi insisted the select committee will do its job. mccarthy said the gop might mount its own probe although it has no power to do so under house rules. the capitol police have named jay thomas mager as their new chief. he takes charge of the

department that was overwhelmed by the assault. the house came together on giving refuge to more afghans who worked with the u.s. military and faced threats from the taliban. lawmakers added 8000 visas to 26,000 allocated already. the pentagon confirmed a series of airstrikes targeted the taliban this week. the militants have made sweeping gains in recent weeks. cuba faces u.s. sanctions over its violent crackdown on protests. thousands of people demonstrated this month against food shortages, high prices, and pandemic restrictions. u.s. penalties affect the cuban military leader and a special security unit. it is a departure for president biden, who once talked about liberalizing relations with the communist government. at the tokyo olympics, the director of the opening ceremonies was fired after reports that he joked about the nazi holocaust in 1998. the musical composer for the games had already stepped down

over bullying classmates at school. the head of the tokyo organizing committee resigned weeks ago over sexist remarks. today organizers acknowledged the scandals have plagued their efforts. >> i am very keenly aware of my responsibility. the fact that so many problems have been uncovered one after another and that we have to deal with them. it leaves the public with the impression that we are responding to late. we deeply regret this. stephanie: first lady jill biden arrived in tokyo today, leading the u.s. delegation. she was welcomed by japan's prime minister. we now have results of today's u.s. softball game. the top-ranked americans defeated canada 1-0 for their second win in as many games. the national football league national league announced new covid rules for the 2021 season. teams with outbreaks among unvaccinated players will forfeit their games that cannot be rescheduled. players from both teams will not

be paid for the contest and the team responsible for the outbreak will cover the other team's financial losses. the nba champion, milwaukee bucks, got the victory parade today. players and members of the organization road in double-decker buses as thousands of fans cheered them in downtown milwaukee. the box -- bucks beat phoenix tuesday for the first title in tuesday nears. migrants crossing the sea to greece face ht moved by the coast guard to repel them. we meet the iowa team behind an innovation to detect infection in stitch wounds. a new book details the inner workings of facebook and its ambitions. ♪ >> this is the pbs newshour from w eta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university.

judy: a bipartisan group of senators is negotiating the details of an infrastructure bill. after a procedural vote to debate failed yesterday, they say they are making progress and hope to have the details by early next week. the biggest sticking point in negotiations remains how to pay for it. the $1.2 trillion framework includes about $600 billion in new spending. that money would go toward public projects like shoring up roads and bridges, expanding broadband, and investing in electric vehicles. democrats are also planning a separate $3.5 trillion spending bill. for more on where infrastructure stands, i am joined by republican senator shelley capito toe of west virginia. she led a separate bipartisan effort on infrastructure last month. welcome back to the newshour. we appreciate you joining us. we know you are not part of the group that is negotiating the

current planet but is it your sense there will be an agreement in coming days that both parties can sign on to? sen. moore capito: i think the efforts the bipartisan group has put forward has been very straightforward and very honest and very narrow in terms of a physical infrastructure like the package i was negotiating but with more dollars. i expect early next week, hopefully as soon as monday, they will have bill text so we will know what we will vote on. it may take a couple of days and maybe even -- another week. i think they will be able to late the last issues to rest and break forward -- bring forward a bill and we can make the judgments when we see it. judy: we will watch closely for that. this has been in the works for weeks and months -- even months. it is taking a long time. much of the hangup has been on paying for it. democrats say republicans have repeatedly said no to ideas like

putting more money into the irs to go after tax cheats. and what is reported right now is republicans are looking at something called rolling pharmaceutical rebates. we know this would only pay for a fraction of the cost. where would the money come from? sen. moore capito: we have to look at it. the base of workers forward in paying for any infrastructure is the gas tax. we know that fall short in terms of meeting the demands of where we are. i think this group has worked as i did with the white house to try and get the white house to reach wrote -- reprogram covid dollars that are not spent or are found they were coming out of the pandemic and not used in the right time. it is really hundreds of billions of dollars. we as republicans did not want to touch the 2017 tax cuts because we think they have been sick that's full in spurring the economy. the president did not want to ask users of electric vehicles

to pay into a user fee. they use the roads and do not pay. we had a disconnect there. both sides are trying to get to reasonable pay-fors but i expect it will be tough to meet all the challenges. the question will be, is enough of it paid for it while the economic growth take care of the shortfall? people will have to answer that for themselves. judy: why do republicans oppose the idea of giving the irs more money to go after tax cheats is to mark sen. moore capito: that is good question. because of the overhang some irs issues we had with the s targeting conservative groups, i think we saw tax returns from the wealthiest individuals just all of a sudden -- public information, where did that come from? there has to be a leak. i think these things feet on each other and the trust of the irs knocking at your door. the other thing is the

parameters the democrats set forward in terms of getting to the -- the president told me $700 billion. it would be that banks would share records. your accountant would share records. are we getting into a fine line of where we need to -- invasion of privacy and privacy of financial records? these issues are sensitive to us as republicans and i think in the end, the group knew we would not -- to t amounts they want, we could go with the tax cap. i expect that to be in the larger bill, the $3.5 trillion larger bill. judy: you have expressed concern about this infrastructure legislation being tied to the separate $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, what the democrats are calling social infrastructure. it is being described -- democrats are saying this is the most consequential piece of legislation for working families in modern american history. they talk about the money for home health care workers, pre-k,

childcare, the poor, elderly -- why are these things not worth spending money on? sen. moore capito: we do now spend money on these things. you know, i think these are discussions we need to work through our committees. do we need to increase -- i believe home health care is something, avid -- after having my parents go through this, i remap -- realized the tremendous cost of families. what i disagree with -- they have set an amount. they said we are going to spend 3.5 trillion dollars and they are filling up the buckets. shouldn't we look at the needs and then what the cost is? i think if we are going to make consequential, huge social reform all across the country, we should do that together. it will be singularly done. this was a huge tax increase on the american public and a lot of luck -- reckless spending. judy: would you say there is already money -- that the government is already spending money on these things like home

health care? we hear from democrats that is not the case. much more needs to be done. sen. moore capito: i am not spending we are -- saying we are spending as much as we need to. let's define the need. how much more do we need to spend? what will keep a senior in their home longer to have home health care and not make greater cost to medicaid or the family? these are the discussions we need to have good judy: different subject. that is the federal government debt ceiling. the amount of money the government has to pay for its bills to keep running. this is typically not a popular thing but a necessary and routine thing. in order to keep the government open. the senate minority leader mitch mcconnell is saying right now all republicans will vote against raising it. we know you voted for it. we looked it up three times under president trump. why would now be dferent? sen. moore capito: i will tell you what.

the debt ceiling vote is difficult always. it always has controversy through the years and i am sure you know that having covered it thousands of times. i think what we need to look at -- we have spe $1.9 trillion on a rescue package we see our communities flooded with money and some of e money cannot be unspent because governors have pulled back on the unemployment ar. we see a 1.2 trillion dollar infrastructure package coming down the road. we see a 3.5 trillion dollar package coming down the road after that. at some point, we have to look at what impact this is having on our whole finances in the country. the debt ceiling will likely be raised. it has every time in the past. we will not default on our responsibilities but we need to look at the spending and find out wh does this do to future generations. that is the discussion we to have. judy: doesn't matter that the chief economist at moody's is saying it passing these two infrastructure bills, the social

infrastructure and the other one, it will be used the economy and reduce concerns of inflation? in other words, the concern there is too much spending is overdone. sen. moore capito: you know, i think i have been here for 20 years. we used to talk in billions. it is now trillions. remember in 2010 when president obama came forward with a $1 trillion package and we almost fell over. we are almost up to $10 trillion. every economist has a different opinion. i have great respect for him but you can find an economist who thinks differently and too much money is being flooded into the system. judy: senator shelley capito though. we appreciate it. thank you. ♪ judy: grace has been accused of breaching international law with a new aggressive migration policy.

pro-refugee groups alleged the greek coast guard is endangering the liv of migrants in the aegean sea by pushing them back toward turkish waters. critics also accused european union of ignoring greases behavior. six years into the migration crisis. we sent special correspondent malcolm to the greek island of sam is to investigate this latest snapshot of the desperate journey. at the extreme edge of the eu. malcolm: the mountains a mile away across the sea are in turkey. the premises are deceptive. these are not gentle waters. [screaming] >> sit down! malcolm: this is an attempted pushback by the coast guard. the migrants -- the greeks remove the engine and

left. >> no water. nothing. you will be happy. god will bless you. malcolm: after a drifter for 17 hours, the groups relented and took the migrants ashore. >> it is rare to get the chance to talk to a pushback victim in greece. we are on our way to see a pushback victim who has come from central africa and has been down a bumpy road. she was pushed to turkey and managed to make her way across the aegean sea. we are going to see her outside the refugee camp, which is sorted and guarded by hostile police. malcolm: turkish coast guard

footage shows migrants including the central african woman landing in turkey after being rescued. this and other geo-located photographs prove she was on the greek island of lead buzz. -- lesbos. she does not want to be identified for fear of retribution. she picks up the story. >> they took us through the mountains and all around until we came to a port. we saw the boat and said, oh, lord, we are going back to turkey. they put us on the boat and there were too many waves. they made us wear life jackets and said they might hit us again if we did not get on the big boat. they thrust crates of oranges. that was when turkey came to rescue. malcolm: the pushback happened under the cover of darkness. the woman was taken eastward from lesbos and abandoned your turkish waters, filmed by the coast guard. >> we were in the raft for a long time it. there were too many waves.

people were screaming. it really affected me. i could not talk. i was too dehydrated. they accused us. they did not respect us or anyone's human rights. i thought if you come here to the country to request asylum, they will listen to you but they killed that. malcolm:his is what it is like to be cast adrift under international law. nations are obliged thelp those in peril on the sea. according to the 1950 one refugee convention, asylum-seekers should not be expelled if their lives or freedom are threatened. >> they have limited propulsion and are overloaded. malcolm: former british army officer is a digital analyst with boeing, a website using open-source information from the internet to expose international wrongdoing. the turkish drone it captures a life raft being pushed back by a

vessel from greases hellenic coast guard. >> there is no way for them to be crossing the aegean. they being put in the life graphs by the coast guard's. malcolm: the lawyer represents asylum-seekers. he accuses greece of doing the european union starting work. -- union's dirty work. >> they put their lives in danger. our coast guard are the people that do these crimes. two years ago, they were here. we have seen the photos. they saved a lot of people and suddenly, the same people, they are doing the worst things to them. malcolm: listen to the screams. [screaming] malcolm: then the warning shots from the greek patrol boat. this turkish footage is part of a propaganda war against greece. the two countries have been

adversaries for centuries. greases migration minister declined to be interviewed but in response to persient allegations about pushback's he issued a video statement. minister: turkey is a safe country. it can provide well needed, appropriate international protection. instead of preventing departure, it is often too busy defaming them. malcolm: six years into the crisis, that gree is exasperated that asylum-seekers keep coming but what about the pushback? >> allegations affecting greece are clearly unfounded. theyely on footage or testimony provided for from the country of departure. >> is inconsistent with the evidence that is available. i think it is worth noting this is what we would expect from a government like russia but not from a eopean country. malcolm: grace is currently a

home for an estimated 120,000 asylum-seekers. most would prefer to be elsewhere but are stuck here because the eu sealed its borders in 2015 after more than one million migrants entered. last week the prime minister justified his tough migration policy. >> greece is committed to protecting its borders. they are also the borders of the european union. we are always ensuring full respect for human rights. this, of course, includes intercepting attempted illegal crossings at sea. malcolm: asylum-seekers are well aware of greases stance but appear undeterred by the threat of pushback's or the living conditions on the greek islands. this video was sent to a pro-refugee nonprofit on saturday. >> i would like to tell you that

we have reached the island. we have the escape children. we are three adults and my wife. we are calling you to save us. as soon as possible. these children are facing problems since last night. malcolm: he was not he only one sheltering in the underground. we are on our way to see a palestinian called mohammed who is hiding out. this young man is 25 years old. he apparently swam all the way fromurkey to samos over the weekend but because it is the weekend, you cannot get officially registered by the authorities. he is afraid, as are nonprofits, he might be picked up and pushed back. mohammed, a telecom specialist from gaza, it took eight hours to swim across. he showed his bites he suffered while hiding in a forest. >> i heard from a lot of people

and friends the coast guard will not catch them, put them back on the ship, and return them to the turkish regional waters. they do not grant them their rights. malcolm: mohamed laid low until monday when, under the protection of the u.n. refugees agency, he was registered and admitted to the camp. from there, the central african pushback victim urged the eu to force greece to adhere to the eu's core values. >> these have to change. there just needs to be an intent to save people. there is too much risk on the water. it is not easy. they need to listen to people. they need to accept people instead of throwing them into the sea. malcolm: she has nothing to go back to. her parents were killed and her african home was destroyed. asylum is her only hope but is not guaranteed.

♪ judy: all over the world, infections in a place where surgical incisions are made are a major cause of new illnesses, extending hospital stays and even death. in the u.s., these infections cost more than $3 billion annually. in developing countries, the statistics areorse. stephanie reports on one scientist who is working on a more affordable way to detect these infections early. it is the latest in our series breakthroughs on the leading edge of science. >> the color run here is -- the colorful one here is prince. stephanie: -- >> i came up with color changing

stitches that provide detection for infections early with the focus on surgical site infections and developing countries because those can be deadly if they are found too late. stephanie: how does it work? dr. taylor: there are a chemical imbalance is going on an infection and my stitches pick up those imbalances and may change color because of what is going on, all the signs. stephanie: they change color. dr. taylor: they change color. stephanie: she can't be to dispense -- to specific because of a patent application but she uses citrus died with teachers to make it happen. dr. taylor: a natural indicator is a baseline term for a substance that changes color when the ph changes, like a beat. stephanie: if a surgical site gets infected, that acidity decreases. when that change happens, taylor's sutures go from a bright red to a grayish purple. taylor is only 17.

mr. taylor: deja t. taylor. stephanie:er path to the sutures began junior year in a chemistry honors class. ms. tyalor:: this is where it started. stephanie: after a suggestion from her teacher. ms. walling: she sat in the front row the very first day and when i brought up a science fair project, she's data after school -- stayed after school and said let's talk about this. ms. taylor: i write about how scientists created stitches that involve fancy technology that i perceived to be equitable to those that would be able to need this technology. stephanie: in low and middle income countries, eight to 30% of procedures result in infections. so-called smart stitches required smart devices, which are expensive. ms. taylor: i said i could do it better and more equitably. stephanie: issues of equity are

personal for her. she and her mother live in the suburbs of iowa city. a predominantly white area. they have experienced their share of discrimination. taylor says her previous school tried to keep her from joining a science competition team. the lack of representation was even more apparent at her first science fair. >> she looked around and said i am the only black person in the room. and that was, that was one of those things where maybe you know it but you do not really notice it. stephanie: you have never experienced the world that way obviously. >> yep. she said i'm going to win this thing. and she did. stephanie: she helped open her teacher's eyes to racial discrimination and from creating lack history bulletin boards in her elentarychool to cochairing her school districts equity advisory committee, she has been on a mission to educate those around her. she sees her invention as a tool in that mission.

what did it feel like when you saw this work? ms. taylor: i was like, oh, my god, i did science. [laughter] >> she would be in my room constantly. every friday, she was bowling be-- boiling beets. stephanie: it paid off. ms. taylor: my product is an additive. stephanie: she was named a finalist in the regeneron science talent search, a national science competition for precollege students. past finalists include nobel prize winners and macarthur fellows. >> please welcome 17-year-old dacia taylor. stephanie: her work landed her on that ellen degenerate show where she was declared the winner of the science fair, not a thing. [applause] >> all i had to do was come here. stephanie: her next big step is college. she heads to the university of iowa in the fall. ms. taylor: i will major in

political science. social sciences and getting in tune with that in creating this equitable plan on a greater scale. stephanie: she is not done with her infection detection sutures. she says she will not stop until the people who need to stitches have them. what are you pinpointing as the challenge were are focused on currently? ms. taylor: it is a focus of making the suture commercially viable so everything can go smoothly when everything goes to market and the stitches get to the developing countries. stephanie: there are still barriers to it being used in th real world, safe to say. but do you consider it a success either way? ms. taylor: yeah because it rks. it detects ph. it changes colors where it needs to change colors. there are just some details that need to be worked out. they are not insurmountable. stephanie: while many in the medical community have praised the invention, there is a

technicaobstacle. sterilizing the sutures. she has already overcome a major hurdle. helping others that look like her believe they can find success in science, too. ms,. taylor: knowing i've inspired people all over the world is the price to me. that is the recognition that i am doing good in the world and this is not just for me. this project, this research is quite literally outside myself. ♪ judy: facebook is under fire again for allowing misinformation around the coronavirus and vaccines to proliferate on its platform. as we have heard, the president and his team have ramped up their pressure on the company and other social media giants took about false information.

william looks at a book that focuses on similar questions about facebook's role, larger responsibilities, and its business. william: the authors of this book detail how facebook has struggled and failed to curtail hate speech, this information, and violent rhetoric. it examines how facebook has become an enormously lucrative data mining operation capturing the personal likes and dislikes of its users and serving them up to advertisers. the book is called an ugly truth: inside facebook's battle for domination. it is written by two new york times reporters. welcome to the newshour. good to have you both. the title of your book comes from this memo that was written by a facebook executive where he is describing the company's mantra of how they connect people and he writes about some of the possible dark sides of the connection. maybe because somebody provides

by exposing bullies. maybe somebody dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools and still come up we connect people. the ugly truth is we believe in connecting people so deeply that anything that allows us to connect more people, more often, is defective good appear to that is the essential tension in facebook at large. ms. frenkel: that is right. that is a pattern we show through this book and it was one of the most powerful parts of writing it. it was discovering that over again, this company was making a calculus that growth was the most important thing. engagement. people comin on as often as possible. that is what matters. that is the bottom line. we cannot forget this is a business that has to answer to its investors in the stock market. all of the decisions kind of stem from that attention of needing to put company over country. william: mark zuckerberg's founding idea was a free-speech utopian idea that in the

presence of bad speech, more speech is the solution. but they quickly realized that lies and misinformation were percolating to the top, not countering those things. how did the company broadly react when they saw that was what was so popular on the site? ms. kang: they had taken efforts to try to cramp down -- clamp down on the spreadof disinformaation and harmful speech but after many years of prioritizing sech that tends to be -- conte that tends to be the most emotive. the kind that makes you respond, -- william: an emotional reaction. ms. kang: absolutely. either by getting angry or fearful and making you want to share and amplify. we explore in the story about how the technology is used. the algorithms to make the content service to the top. what facebook did is hired at

content moderators and tried to use ai to find and weed out the worst speech. by the time they did it, and they had been warned many times this was a problem, by the time they dated, the problem was so enormous for them and even the many thousands of content moderators they have hired were playing catch up because they were so far behind. william: your book documents many instances where facebook became aware of troubling things owing and blossoming on their site. january 6 was a perfect example. the election. the lies about it being stolen and then the plotting that went forward, leading up to january 6. how did those people who came to d.c. use facebook? ms. frenkel: you know, journalists were seeing this happen in real time. it they were seeing people on the far right organizing on facebook. right after the election, they posted photos of arms, actuay, and the kinds of rifles they planned to bring to washington.

they were warning facebook. journalists were emailing facebook and saying, this will be a problem. the company was warned. william: what was the company's response to that? ms. kang: when i kneeled them about a group i found were people posted those photos of assault rifles, they took them down to. ms. frenkel: it took me fighting that group on the eve of january 6. i said that email the night of january 5 for them to take down my group. what groups did i not find? what groups did other journalists not find? you know, the platform is so big and used by so many people, facebook likes to say we take down 90% of this or are ai systems catch whatever percentage of that. when you deal with millions of posts, 90% is still -- tens of thousands are online. they are active. i think the company often uses its metrics to make people feel it is safer than it is when in fact even one damaging group in which people orchestrate violence on the capitol can be too much. william: this touches on

facebook issued statements after your book came out. i would like to read this to you. this is from facebook saying, our teams were vigilant in removing content that violated policies against inciting violence leading up to january 6. we banned hundreds of militarized social movements, took down tens of thousands of qanon pages, groups, and accounts from our apps, removed the original stop the steal group, labeled posts that sought to prematurely declare victory, and suspended former president trump from our platform for at least two years. they are saying it we did a lot. sometimes more than other companies. how true is that? ms. kang: right after the capitol riots, sheryl sandberg, the coo, said in an interview, yes, there are problems on the platform and we have had some problems with enforcement but the vast majority of the problems occurred on other platforms. it actually happened that that was not the truth.

there was so much organizing happening on facebook, facebook messaging, and facebook groups. we saw that actually in the indictments of many people who storm the capitol. ms. frenkel: while it is fantastic they took down the group, if it srred hundreds of others and those were not taken down, it begs the question of, when can you act and how can facebook sit there and say to the public we are doing as much as we can it, we are being as aggressive as we can? i wonder. a $1 trillion company. do they have the metrics to say we need to hire this many content moderators customer we don't need 30,000 people. we need 100,000 people. william: the back of your book has this humorous way of pointing out this pattern it. this is 14 years of mea culpas. we understand the problems from sheryl sandberg and mark zuckerberg. do you get the chance they appreciate -- since this is ongoing or is this kabuki they

go through to keep regulatory wolves at bay? ms. kang: the reason we put the blurbs in the back is we realize the patterns are what is powerful. the dichotomy is if they continue to what growth the comforts, there will be collateral damage. they do recognize there are problem and they tried to correct them but it is always a few steps behind. william: we know we are at the moment where congress is debating what to do about the tech companies. there are complaints endlessly. we heard the surgeon general complaining that social media sites incling facebook do not do enough to take down a covid misinformation. when you look for what congress might do, is there a sense there is a solution, there are things congress could do that could help in this regard? ms. frenkel: one thing congress can do is tackle misinformation head on. i think facebook and other companies would love to see congress give them guidelines about what they see is hate

speech and information that leads to voters being disenfranchised. i really think we are in a moment were congress is struggling with how to define misinformation. there is energy around antitrust and other ideas but misinformation, which is difficult because it comes up against american values of free speech and free expression, they have not touched that. william: the book is an ugly truth: inside facebook's battle for domination. thank you both very much. judy: on the news our online right now, ahead of the 2020 olympics opening ceremony, we share 10 things to know about the tokyo games. you can find out on instagram @newshour. that's the newshour for tonight. join us online and here tomorrow evening. thank you. please stay safe and we will se you soon. ♪ >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided

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