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>> if you are vaccinated you don't have to wear it indoors or outdoors! >> hallelujah. >> nice to see you. literally, nice to see you! >> vaccinated people. cdc didn't say anything about me sitting on your lap. >> no, you are okay with us and the cdc, savannah. but what does it mean where you are. state and local officials said they are slugging it all out. the two former epicenters, new york city and los angeles are keeping their mask mandate intact. while places like kentucky say it goes into effect immediately. this hour i will be talking to dr. fauci. and israel hitting tunnels overnight. at least 150 strikes. the latest from richard engel in

tel aviv. and it's official. elise stefanik replaces liz cheney as number three in the house. but let's start with this. foyers queens, that was the epicenter where you were there for so many weeks seeing such death and tragedy and such terrible sadness and heroics from the front line workers. what is it like today? >> hey, andrea. this is a neighborhood of corona queens. it shares its name with the virus. what a difference a year makes. a huge sigh of relief here. but here there is an immense sense of caution. from some people there is skepticism. some folks we are speaking with,

here by the subway line, many people walking through the area are continuing to wear their mask because they, frankly, didn't see the updated guidance coming. the vaccination level in this zip code is fully vaccinated, just 28%. and a bus pulled up run by the city to try and target some of these underserved communities with low vaccination rights. speaking to an advocate for some of these street vendors, skeptical. >> there is still a lot of fear of going back to what happened last year. the community here was the most impacted health wise and economically. people are terrified of reopening too fast. little by little i think as more people get vaccinated and people feel more comfortable, we will

start to reopen. >> many parts of the country, florida, texas, for them, ditching the max is to big deal. many folks have been doing it for a long time. but here, still skepticism. because of that, here they are not rushing to change things tanned reviewing the cdc's guidance before they release their restrictions. >> david, great seeing you after all of the work over the past year. >> and l.a. california and l.a. waiting to make the decision. >> it's similar to what gabe was just saying. a lot of people we are seeing are wearing masks. some aren't wearing their masks. it's weird to be walking down the streets here in los angeles because before today a lot of

this was policed by social norms. so if you weren't wearing a mask and walking down the street you could expect an argument and expect somebody to tell you to mask up. now if they are not wearing the mask, it is a statement they are vaccinated. this is out in public and not in a crowded space. when it comes to indoor places that are workplaces, those restrictions are still in effect. there is a lot of confusion. we have been talking to folks about what they think going forward. >> it will take a couple of months for things to adjust back to normal. i am fully vaccinated, but i still wear it. >> before today, if you didn't wear it, it was a political statement. >> it turned into a political

issue. >> here is what will be happening in the next few days. we are hearing it happen at grocery stores. people will go inside and not wearing their mask and they will say cdc says you don't have to wear masks and then those employees will have to say the county of los angeles says you still do have to wear a mask. there is a little bit of a disconnect that a lot of people hope will be settled next week. workplaces in california will meet and study the recommendation. this is an area that vaccination rates are a little higher. they are about 60% when you consider that people have about one shot. the big question is what will this do to vaccine hesitancy. a lot of people hope this doesn't encourage people not to get a vaccine. the pandemic is still in effect.

here in los angeles another 17 deaths yesterday. >> to kristen welker. what is going on behind the scenes? is there has been pressure on the cdc from the media and public to adjust these rules over the last couple weeks. any pressure from the white house? >> the cdc says they made the decision based on the science because they saw the number of cases going down and the confidence in the vaccines, but there is no doubt there was a political backdrop to this. there were growing calls for clarity in terms of what people fully vaccinated could do. i was told from two senior administration officials, that once the decision was made to update the mask decision, it was

kept close, only a few knew about that announcement. we can expect president biden and vice president harris not wearing their mask indoors and outdoors. we saw that yesterday. they came out not wearing their mask for the first time. the first lady not wearing her mask. she was out for the reopening of the smithsonian. she talked about how wonderful it felt to be out without a mask when she was asked. i think you will continue to see these sorts of themes unfolding. at the same time the administration acknowledges there is still confusion because you have states saying something different. they say the bottom line is people should follow the guidelines based on where they are.

here at the white house, staffers received an internal e-mail saying if you are fully vaccinated you do not need to wear masks. anecdotally, for the first time, i was walking around and white house staffers were unmasked. >> that is a new freedom. thanks for starting us off. i am joined by the former cdc director. dr. boeser, how about this rollout and whether there will be a period of confusion as states adjust? >> it is an exciting day. this marks a real change in how we are responding to the pandemic here in the united states. there will be a period of confusion for a number of reasons. i think that clearly people need to follow their local guidance, their local regulations.

states will come at this on their own timeline in terms muc. then i think there is this internal confusion and question that needs to take place as people process this information from cdc and say i have grown to become so comfortable with wearing a mask, with keeping away from people, how am i going to feel comfortable now without that on. it's going to take time. i have talked to a lot of people and expressed my excitement of getting rid of my mask in almost every circumstance and a lot of people said i don't know i am ready for that. this isn't saying you can't wear a mask. it's saying from cdc, that at the science says if you are fully vaccinated you don't need to wear a mask, you have very high levels of protection. >> levels, i would assume, of

safety here. you might go into a restaurant where tables are distanced and it's not very noisy. going into a restaurant after all these months, but you are not wearing a mask, but eating. what about going around a noisy bar and not knowing who is vaccinated and who is not. how do you assess the risks? >> this is saying to the individual fully vaccinated, if it's two weeks after your final dose of vaccine, your level of protection is really, really high. not only that, but the likelihood that you could spread this to someone else without knowing you had it is extremely low. putting those two things together with the data showing the cases are declining all over the country, they are saying even going into the crowded noisy bar, you are safe. individuals who are not vaccinated should still be wearing masks.

it will be the honor system. if they decide not to wear a mask, the risk is primarily to themselves. from a community standpoint we don't want them sharing the virus to each other because it could lead to new variants, but in terms of risks to those vaccinated, it's exceedingly low. >> what about kids younger than 12. can they come home and infect others? >> i'm a pediatrician. this is an important thing to consider. the good news is that the younger you are the lower the risk is for severe infection, for hospitalization, for death, it's very low. but the recommendations are for children under 12, you continue to follow the guidance, that you are not vaccinated, should be wearing a mask if you are in settings of close contact.

i am hoping the cdc will revisit their guidance for kids outside. there is growing information that outdoor activities is extremely safe, even for people who are not vaccinated. it would be great to see children allowed to go outside and be children. the other piece of this is that we have to recognize that vaccine administration across the country is still going on. there are populations, in particular, black and latino americans where coverage rates are low. we have to continue to increase efforts to make it as easy as possible for everyone to get vaccinated. >> there were hints that there will be discussions that could lead to changes about travel. >> i think that's right. this is a fluid situation. as excited as i am today, i also

keep in my mind that you never know. if the numbers of cases start to go up, the guidance could change. i also think, as you are saying, when it comes to transportation, revisiting that kind of guidance doesn't make sense to require masks in airports and bus stations or planes. those are things to look at if the number of cases continues to decline. >> thank you for being with us. a major escalation in violence overnight between israel. israel and hamas clashing over gaza. (brother) hi sis! (sister) you're late!

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a major escalation between israel and the palestinians with the israeli military carrying out at least 150 air strikes overnight and tanks firing into gaza. it said it targeted a number of underground tunnels used by hamas. hamas militants are firing 200 rockets overnight sending israelis into bombshellters. richard is in tel aviv. what are the latest developments? there is concern, watching the troops, there is concern it could be an invasion into gaza. >> there is concern it could escalate into a full out war

with israelis crossing the border into gaza. they have done that in the past fighting close you are ban commission. it is tough fighting. it involves generally a lot of destruction and a lot of palestinians dying when you have that kind of close quarter combat. it happened in the past and may happen again. israel has done that when hamas has stockpiled a great number of rockets. hamas has not just a few rockets but been firing enormous salvos of rockets, hundreds, in an attempt to get around the iron dome system. it is firing drone with limited success. it has taken many israeli officials by surprise that hamas was able to stockpile these

weapons. what is different about this phase of the conflict and why it is escalating beyond a military phase is that other members of the palestinian community are taking part and are being drawn into it. israelis have lived behind walls for many years. they are separated from gaza and the west bank by walls, but there was a large palestinian population that are israeli citizens. 20% of this country are palestinian by origin. israeli arabs is how they are known, but they are leading the charge. those are the ones we are seeing organizing into militia groups.

we have seen vij lan tee groups. there are arab israeli citizens lining up against jewish israeli citizens. so there is gaza and hamas, and a deeper threat at home within the walls. >> i haven't seen those kind of threats for years. it is changing the dynamics politically in israel and strengthening the hand of netanyahu who may be able to form another coalition which was not in the cards before this. a week ago tonight when the israeli police -- and no one is saying who ordered it -- fired

in the mosque. on the last night of ramadan, fired during prayers. there were old people. people down on carpets. and it enraged some people around the world who are made peace with israelis. it made a huge difference in the last few days. >> this was triggered by events in jerusalem, no doubt. tension had been building there for the last several weeks, particularly over ramadan which is always a sensitive time. then there was this one incident that was one of sefrt, but one that was caught on camera and became a flashpoint moment when israeli forces entered the

mosque to disperse people and they said they were doing that to stop stone throwing. a lot of people in the arab world saw those. they said what are the israeli doing. why are israelis attacking people in a mosque especially now that israel is trying to reach out to the rest of the arab world. just made peace and signed a peace accord. it is under increasing pressure not to do these kind of things. this is a dangerous moment for israel. it doesn't have trump in its corner which it had almost blind support i think you could say. now as a peace accord potentially at risk and is facing an escalation in gaza and a new problem with the israeli

arab population at home. >> also joining us today is our diplomatic correspondent. you have been writing about president biden's hands off approach. talking directly with iran, dealing with the russia situation, ukraine and china. and now they are not approaching this. >> china was at the top of the list of foreign policy as you know. president biden decided that he was not going to get entangled in the middle east. in particular this conflict that stymied so many of his

predecessors who came into office appointing envoys, summoning to washington to get a peace agreement, all ending in failure. blowback, particularly for president obama who took heat not only from republicans but some democrats for his efforts to find some sort of israeli/palestinian adream -- agreement. president biden was in the white house at that time. you have seen more involvement. president biden speaking to prime minister netanyahu and for the first time mahmoud abbas. but there is a mid-level official dispatched to the region, but secretary of state anthony blinken has no known

plans to travel there. they hope to be talking less about this. president biden pleading not to escalate for both sides. >> is there any sense that they have warned israel against crossing the border into gaza? >> we hear consistently that what the biden administration wants is deescalation. so certainly a ground operation would not be consistent with that. i think it's something the white house is hoping won't happen. i say hope as opposed to expect. that's president biden's world. he said he hopes there is deescalation. he also used the word expect.

a couple days ago i was hearing optimism from white house officials, but they are not out of the woods yet. >> thank you so much. house republicans officially replaysing liz cheney today. elise stefanik is the new chair. we know what it means for the republican party. next. and fully vaccinated americans can remove their masks indoor. dr. fauci ahead. dr. fauci ahead. it's so busted, you can't use this part of the screen. definitely cracked every phone i've owned. (announcer) you broke your phone,

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now it's official. house republicans have chosen elise stefanik, a former moderate to be the conference chair. she is elected to the third highest post in the house leadership. she ran against chip roy, final tally was 146-46.

congresswoman cheney is undaunted continuing to speak out about former president's lies about the 2020 election and what she calls incitement on the attack on the capitol. garrett, there is no question that stefanik would get the vote. where does this go from here? republicans fully enthralled to the former president? >> i think that's right. there was chip roy, a chance for small seed conservatives to register a protest vote on almost an anointment for elise stefanik. the press conference held

immediately after the vote was instructive in who they believe the leader is of the republican party. listen. >> i believe that voters determine the leader of the republican party and president trump is the leader they look to. i support president trump. voters support president trump. he is an important voice in the republican party and we look forward working to him. >> it's interesting construction given that they sent all of the leaders back to washington and did not do so with former president trump. we will see what the republicans are going to do in the house and going forward. they are hitching their wagon to former president trump, now more clearly than ever. >> charlie, let's talk about the rest of the country. is the rest of the country where the house leadership is? >> it's hard to say. i thought it was interesting

that she kept referring to him as president trump rather than former president trump. i don't think there is any secret what this party has done, the way it has given itself up as hostage to donald trump who was defeated in election. what is amazing abou elise stefanik is she's loyal to the white washing of january 6. it is not just the republican party lining up behind trump's policies, it is the republican party embracing as tightly as possible trump's deception about the election and the shamelessness about it. elise stefanik used to be highly respected and she goes on the steve bannon show and embraces the bogus audit in arizona.

where is the rest of the country? is the rest of the country paying attention to this? we don't know. are they going to pay a price? we don't know. no question about what's happening to this republican party right now. this is a republican party who continues to have people like marriage jar jorz /* /* majorie taylor greene and others and will say put us back in power. >> liz cheney has to win her seat back, but there could be other things in her mind, like winning the 2024 election. we have to leave it there. the new cdc mask guidance is celebration for the nearly 47% of americans who are vaccinated.

today people are scrambling wondering what it means for them and businesses large and small. welcome dr. fauci. great to see you on a day with such good news to report. let's talk about the timing of this announcement. it appeared to some people to be rather sudden. tell us the science behind this decision. >> it was not a sudden change in recommendations. it was based on scientific information. for example, we know the number of cases per day on average have come down substantially over the last several weeks. at least one-third. last time we talked it was way up there. it went from 60,000 per day down to around 30,000 per day. the second thing that's important is the actual real world effectiveness of vaccines

has become now readily apparent based on a number of studies. not only in the united states but in countries like israel and qatar and other places. it is as good or better as it was during the trials. so when you have diminution of cases and have clear-cut effectiveness of the vaccine and show even if people do get infected, which is rare breakthroughs, they virtually never get the serious disease. it gets people to function in a way that approximates the way things were prior to this terrible outbreak. >> dr. fauci, children, what should parents do if they are vaccinated, but their children

are too young for the pfizer vaccine which has been approved for that. >> that adolescence has not only been approved to get vaccinated, but it is recommended that you vaccinate them. when you are talking about children less than 12 years old -- we had said in the cdc-made recommendations, if you have an unvaccinated child in the home setting or in a setting with vaccinated adults, that a child does not need to wear a mask nor do results particularly if a child has an underlying condition that would make the child susceptible to severe outcome should they be infected. but when they go out in the community, indoor or outdoor, should follow the cdc guidelines we had from a few weeks ago which said that when unvaccinated even if you are a

child, you need to continue to follow the established cdc guidelines which is a good reason why, as we get further and further into the months, the clinical trials we are doing now, hopefully they show, and i believe they will, even in children, that they can in fact receive the vaccine. hopefully by the end of this calendar year we will be able to vaccinate children of any age. >> do you think a certain number of children, perhaps elementary age children, might be able to be vaccinated by september? >> i don't think so. adolescents, high school, i am fairly confident by the time they get into the classroom by september, they can be fully vaccinated, if they want to. i hope they do.

so we will have to wait until the latest of the first quarter of 2022. what about when you go into a store or restaurant. you don't know who is vaccinated or not. how safe are you? >> very safe. that's why the cdc made the recommendation. it is cheer the infection rate has gone down, but the real world effectiveness of the vaccine is truly extraordinary. if you look at the numbers of people who have been vaccinated and break through infections, it's a very, very small percentage. if you go into a place -- and the fact is you very likely will not know if you go into a restaurant or store or anyplace indoors, you will not know who is vaccinated or not. but we felt that all things considered, given the high degree of effectiveness of the vaccines, that you are okay to

do that because your risk is very, very low. >> our correspondent in l.a. was talking to someone who kept her mask on because she said she didn't want people to think she was politically against math. there is that. it has become so politicized that some people will be reluctant to take their mask off in public. >> you make a very good point and are right. people will have to make their own decisions about that. you can see people who are really at that transition period where they are not quite ready to take the mask off. but i believe, as the days go by, as we get a week or two into this, people will start feeling much more comfortable with this idea of going to an indoor situation and if you are vaccinated, taking the mask off. but the scenario you mentioned,

i am not surprised. >> we are going into a weekend. a lot of people i am close who have been asking about synagogues and churches and singing in choir. >> where you have an indoor environment, it was felt by the cdc, and i agree with them, that the risk was so low that we really need to take that step. it seems like a bold step but in fact the science backs it. >> people who are immuno compromised, are they okay without a mask? >> that is a good question. depending on the amount of immuno suppression, it's particularly problematic for people with solid organ transplants. we have been able to show that many medications they are on to prevent the rejection of the

transplant diminishes their immune capability enough that for those individuals they should consult with their private doctor for advice about what to do. it may well be they are in a category where they need to wear masks. hopefully as we get further in and talk about the idea of boosts, we will be able to boost people to get their level of protection up. right now the recommendation is consult with your physician before you take your mask off. >> do you think we will all need booster shots next year? >> i would not be surprised. i think sometime within a year or so from the time that you have been fully vaccinated you might need a boost. i don't know for sure. we are following carefully the level of immunity that we know is the current of immunity.

once it goes below a certain cutoff baseline or if we see more and more breakthrough infections, that will be a signal they need a booster. >> i have not been on a plane for 15 months but last week i was traveling internationally to ukraine. it was daunting. i found you have to get tests before the flight. nobody cares about vaccination levels. people there are not vaccinated. 19 people in a country of 42 million have been fully vaccinated. they are not in the eu, don't have access that canada and u.s. have. there are a lot of countries that have not gotten the benefit of the vaccinations. >> i think what we will start

seeing as more and more vaccine becomes available internationally, i would not be surprised if certain airlines will ask for validation and proof of being vaccinated in order to get on the plane. it will be tough to do, as you said, if you are in a country where 2% of the population is vaccinated. you will never get anybody flying. in lieu of that they are requiring, i think appropriately, that you get tested before you get on the plane and wear a mask. many airlines are having those kind of restrictions. >> i wanted to ask you about a promising study you referred to in the briefing yesterday, trials involving monkeys, a vaccine that could be universal for all coronaviruses. how promising is that? >> there is always, when you are looking at a study in an animal,

that it would get strap lated to humans. this is a promising trial. we will look at phase one trials in humans to show that such a trial is safe. but i wouldn't be surprised that in a couple years we see that. i was impressed with the data. they have protection against multiple variants and coronaviruses which are good news. >> it's great to talk to you on a good news day. thanks dr. fauci for everything you have done. >> good to be with you, as always. >> coming up in the next hour, chuck todd. back to school?

what the cdc's mask mandate means for kids who have been learning from home all year. coming up right here on "andrea mitchell reports." stay with us. stay with us that my grandfather was a federal judge in guatemala. my grandfather used his legal degree and his knowledge to help people that were voiceless in his country. that put a fire in my heart. it made me realize where i got my passion for social justice. bring your family history to life like never before. get started for free at ancestry.com this is the planning effect. as carla thinks about retirement, she'll wonder, "what if i could retire sooner?" and so she'll get some advice from fidelity, and fidelity will help her explore some different scenarios, like saving more every month. ♪♪ and that has carla feeling so confident

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it was great to see you reporting from kiev last week. i did not know that the cdc was going to do this in the afternoon. but i think if you see the kind of arc of where we see the science and the trust going, the science is saying that kids 12 to 15 are safe to get vaccines. the vaccines have been really big game changers. what we are learning is that they not only keep you safe from getting seriously ill, but they are very effective in stopping transmission. so what we said yesterday morning, given all the evidence that we have seen, is that it's full speed ahead for the fall. now does it mean it's totally risk free? of course not. will there have to be some

people who have accommodations still? of course. but -- obviously, as dr. fauci just said, younger kids are not going to have vaccines yet. but we think that -- we're embracing this new guidance about masks as a way of incentivizing people getting vaccines. it will take a minute or two to figure out in schools what the protocol should be. you can see protocols in an elementary school because kids will not have access, but being different in a junior and high school. we have to ask people about vaccines and things like that. i think we just have to take a minute or two to figure out how to implement this, because the bottom line is, we gotta create trust and build confidence for all our parents just like we have done for educators that

schools are safe. >> right now, about half, i understand it, of the nation's schools are fully or partially closed, partly because of safety considerations. they can't get up to the standards that are required. how can you accomplish -- tell me if that's been updated. >> i'm sorry. according to us, it's going to be great to be in person again. you don't have these delays. according to our data, 97% of schools are open in-person either fully or partially. a lot of the partial openings are for many reasons, including the fact that there wasn't space, there wasn't good ventilation or that parents actually are still really skeptical about sending their kids back to in-school learning. we just did a poll with naacp

and others, and a large number of black and brown parents are still skeptical. that's part of the reason why we're putting $5 million in this summer to try to actually run a campaign to get everyone back to school. we have to build the trust. the mitigation factors do, the vaccine efficacy does and the other piece that builds the trust is really is people actually being in schools and seeing the safeguards that we have done that have been the vehicle to making it safe. >> do you think that children should be required, once it's fully authorized, which pfizer is for kids, do you think that for the older kids, do you think that children eventually should be required to have this vaccination along with the others that are required vaccinations? >> look, you know, i'm a big believer in vaccines.

i'm not wading into that question yet because of the complete polarization in america on the issue -- on all of these issues. i think our obligation is to convince as many people as possible to get these kind of vaccines. i made this announcement yesterday. 89% of my members already have them. they have seen their affect -- the positive affect. >> we will leave it there for now. we will keep in touch. thank you very much. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." have a safe and happy weekend. chuck todd is up next with "mtp daily" only right here on msnbc. . age-related macular degeneration may lead to severe vision loss.

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