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tv   MSNBC Reports  MSNBC  August 29, 2022 8:00am-9:00am PDT

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nu dot edu today. good morning. 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. it was supposed to be nasa's next giant leap forward for space exploration, but this morning a small step back. today's launch of nasa's most
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powerful rocket has been scrubbed. technical issues delaying the historic liftoff until at least friday. we will get an update from the launch site and i'll get an update on nasa protocols for missions like this one. and nuclear fears out of ukraine. after weeks of delays, united nations inspectors are headed to europe's largest nuclear power plant now under russian control. ukrainian authorities are so worried after several days of shelling around the plant, they started giving out iodine tablets. the latest from the region. and new fallout over the former president's handling of classified documents at mar-a-lago. what we know about the intelligence community's review of the materials and how they will assess potential risks to our national security. that's precisely where we start this morning. the director of national intelligence, avril haines, says her office will launch a damage
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assessment into the potential risk to national security posed by those documents. that's according to a letter she sent to lawmakers and obtained by nbc news. a trump-appointed federal judge in florida indicated she is inclined to appoint a special master to review documents that the fbi seized earlier this month. joining us now, nbc news correspondent ken dilanian, betsy woodriff-swann. ken, how will this damage assessment play out? >> first they need to get their hands on all these documents from the justice department, which as of a couple weeks ago hasn't happened. then they will go through them and farm them out to the various agencies that have equity. if it's a finished intelligence product, it may not be obvious
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where the information came from, but the intelligence information will go whether it's to the cia or the national security agency, the underlying source of the intelligence and try to figure out are any sources exposed here? for example, if it's the cia human source, do they need to be evacuated? one of the problems they'll have is they don't know for sure whether any of this information that was at mar-a-lago found its way into the hands of an adversary. so they may have to assume it did and take action accordingly. they'll have to figure out where the potential damage lies and then how to mitigate it. >> i'm wondering, betsy, how does something like that -- how is something like that carried out? what sort of damage would they be looking to assess? >> one of the most important things they would be looking for is whether any human sources who helped the united states government gather intelligence
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could be revealed to america's adversaries if the wrong person got their hands on one of these documents at the wrong time. we know any person working in a high-risk country who provides intelligence secretly to the u.s., often these peoples lives are at risk. if their names or identities become known by hostile foreign governments, those folks are in immediate danger. of course the other thing they'll be looking for as well is any information about the methods that the united states government uses to collect intelligence. when trump tweeted a declassified photo of a launch side in iran several years into his presidency, one thing that national security experts outside the u.s. government worried about was that people would be able to use that picture to kind of reverse engineer information about american spy satellites, satellite locations, capabilities, complex technical
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information that, of course, would not be obvious to the unschooled observer but could prove useful for a hostile foreign government to see what the united states can see from its satellite locations. those are the kinds of things we would expect u.s. intelligence officials to be looking through these documents to get a clear view of. >> i'm wondering, lisa, could this assessment in any way change the possible existing legal repercussions for the former president? >> it's an interesting question. certainly not where we stand right now. because the three statutes that were used as a predicate for the search warrant, they don't depend on what happens to the material. they're really about the unlawful retention of those materials and the concealment of those materials from any government agency that needs them to do their work. it's not just obstruction of an
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ongoing investigation. it's obstruction of any government agency in carrying out its official functions, that would include the national archives. dependent on that review, it may be that there are additional causes of action or charges that the department of justice contemplates against the former president. as of right now, the predicate for their investigation don't depend on what happens to those materials, they're solely about the fact that they were taken and retained unlawfully. >> and, lisa, you start looking at the numbers, 108 documents found in one search. more than 118 in the other. the sheer number of them, lisa, does that in any way change the same kind of question i was asking, any possible legal repercussions for the former president? >> i mean, certainly the government would be at liberty to bring individual charges based on the unlawful retention
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or concealment of each individual document. i don't think they're thinking about it in that light right now. >> betsy, i want to play for you some republican lawmakers that were on some sunday shows talking about the former president's handling of these documents. >> you should be very careful with classified documents. >> i think we all should be worried about what's in those documents, what nature was, but show us. >> it's hard to believe the justice department and fbi would take steps unless they had something serious they were investigating. >> these republicans are long-time trump critics, do you think we may see more of a change in tone as we get closer to the november midterms? >> it's a really interesting challenge for the republican party. on the one hand, the information that's come out thus far is just overwhelmingly negative in terms
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of what we know and what the fbi has revealed in court filings. at the same time, though, part of what makes this difficult for all the republicans we didn't see lining up to go on the sunday shows is that it's really provided a burst of momentum to trump himself. he has seen his fund-raising numbers go up. he closely tracks the coverage and conservative media that he feels to be extremely sympathetic, and trump himself is always at his most comfortable when he's in the victim or the martyr mode. it's just a place that -- it's perhaps a perception of himself that he loves to telegraph. while broadly particularly with the kind of independent voters, swing voters, people on the fence who determine the outcome of congressional elections, while broadly the information that has come out is really, really not helpful for republicans, at the same time trump is still the most powerful
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person in the republican party and particularly house republicans who are so close to their republican base are loathe to cross him or to get on his bad side. >> i want to turn to the possibility of that special master. what exactly would this person be looking for if appointed? what kind of person would that have to be? >> generally, it's a retired federal judge. we have some news on that front. the justice department in the last few minutes filed a response to the judge's preliminary order over the weekend where she said she was inclined to appoint a special master. she asked the justice department for certain things, including a more detailed inventory of the items they seized from the property. the doj is saying they will do all that and they also revealed that they -- it's been three weeks since the search. they're suggesting in the new filing they have been through all the documents and that they identified a limited number of documents that may potentially implicate attorney/client privilege, and that their filter team, their privilege team, a
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set of independent agents sifted those out and will follow the typical procedures. that may be enough for this judge. that's what a special master would do in any event. but then again the judge may want that extra set of eyes -- it's really about privilege. it's not about whether the search was appropriate. that's already been decided on by the magistrate judge. it's about whether any of the documents the fbi sees are privileged and not part of the investigation. >> so will those, like, those three passports initially reported on, will those items then be returned to the former president? do we know? >> generally that's the procedure. i mean, in a typical fbi investigation, defendants wouldn't get their stuff back that quickly. the former president, they delivered his passports as soon as they decided it wasn't relevant. it's safe to assume the same sort of procedures will be carried out with other materials.
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they're being extra careful and extra sensitive in this case. >> betsy, what is the former president hoping to get from the special master? what is his perspective on that? >> the argue. that his team is making is that the fbi can't be trusted to do this assessment process on their own and there needs to be an independent person deciding what the fbi investigators working on the case against trump can and cannot have access to. this particular request is not unprecedented. special masters have been appointed in multiple prior contentious cases. what makes this one different is that trump is hoping this special master will look at these documents with an eye towards executive privilege as well as an eye towards attorney/client privilege. but at this point, we think that would be less likely to happen in part because thus far the president's other efforts in
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different courts to claim executive privilege as a way of blocking doj or congressional probes have fallen flat. it's unlikely that particular angle is something that he would be able to get in the case of this special master. but, we'll have to wait and see what the judge says. >> betsy, lisa, ken, thank you very much. still ahead, launch scrub. today's historic liftoff of the artemis 1 mission delayed until at least friday. we'll be speaking to a retired astronaut about what nasa will be doing between now and the next launch window. take a look at that. growing fears of a radiation leak in ukraine after shelling near the largest nuclear power plant in europe. what u.n. inspectors will be looking for. serena williams about to take the singles court at the u.s. open for what could be the very last time. what fans say ahead of her retirement.
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a new development out of georgia related to the fulton county d.a.'s probe into potential election interference in 2020. in the last hour, the judge observing the grand jury probe has ruled georgia governor brian kemp must testify but not until after the november election. blayne alexander joins us with the latest. >> reporter: that certainly is something that is notable. just a few days ago, the attorneys for brian kemp went before the fulton county judge and asked to quash the subpoena altogether. the judge ruled that is not something that is applicable. his attorneys were arguing sovereign immunity.
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they say the governor must testify, go before the special grand jury that's looking into alleged election meddling on behalf of the former president, but what's notable here, this is somewhat of a victory for governor kemp or a semi-victory. they were saying if you don't quash the subpoena altogether, at least let us delay until after the election. attorneys for governor kemp said his role and his re-election bid is reaching a crescendo and it could have political implications if he's forced to testify beforehand. what's notable about this, this is coming at a time when we're seeing this investigation continue to widen. in fact, it was just the end of last week that the d.a. filed a motion saying she wanted to hear from several other people close in the trump orbit including former white house chief of staff, mark meadows. it also comes as we see this legal back and forth between senator lindsay graham on whether or not he will come and testify in georgia. certainly making the point that
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as was said a number of times, they're casting a wide net here. they want to know anybody who had a mindset or inclination into what the former president was doing or thinking around that time. as it comes to governor brian kemp, at the time former president trump was putting a lot of pressure on brian kemp to call a special session in order to overturn biden's election victory in the state of georgia. it's very likely that that is going to be something that he's going to be questioned about when he does testify before this grand jury. >> blayne alexander in atlanta, thank you very much. now to breaking news from the kennedy space center where nasa delayed the historic liftoff of its artemis moon mission this morning. engineers detected a technical issue with one of the fuel lines as the rocket was being loaded up with liquid nitrogen. the next potential launch window is this coming friday. vice president harris, who was at nasa for the launch, putting
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into perspective the historic nature of this moment, despite the pause. >> today is very much on that path about showing the great work that happens here with these exceptional public servants, these exceptional skilled professionals who have the ability to see what is possible and what has never been done before. how exciting is that? >> i want to bring in jacob ward who is in the bubble near the launch site at kennedy space center. also with me is leland melvin, author of "chasing space." jake, you know, the vice president said how exciting is that? super exciting. so what's -- what are you learning there on the ground and what could this delay mean for the launch on friday? >> well, jose, the crowds here were incredibly excited. there was an air of a super
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bowl-like atmosphere. even last night you could see people camping out all along the causeways on the way into here. now as we learned this has been scrubbed for today, you can see the clouds drift away. of course, it's all because the sort of unofficial mantra of space flight is better safe than sorry. in this particular case, because they couldn't get hydrogen to flow through the engines properly, they decided not to risk it. the question is whether they can fix that on the launchpad where this 30-story spaceship sits, or do they have to roll it back to the vehicle assembly building behind me, which takes the better part of a day, drain all the fuel out of it, and this could compromise the possibility of a friday launch. friday is already perhaps -- doesn't have the greatest chances of there being a launch. there's bad weather forecast for then. if you combine that bad weather with a much longer term fix, then experts here are saying this could drag on into the whole next window beyond labor
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day into something like september 19th or even into october. because this was a feasibility study of this and they didn't want anything to go wrong, i think nasa always a cautious agency was extra cautious today. that's why we saw it scrubbed. >> no doubt about it. leland, no doubt it's disappointing to so many. this should bring comfort to folks that nasa's protocols work and they really are careful with each launch. >> my first mission, sts-122 on "atlantis," we had a problem with the engine cutoff sensors. the flight rules said you need 3 of 4 to fly, we had 2 of 4. so we had to roll back to the vehicle assembly building to get that fixed. the team is meeting right now, mike serapin would be polling the room to figure out what we have to do to fix the engines.
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the hydrogen going around the engine cools it, so you need that at the right temperature to keep that engine from getting too hot on the mission. >> i'm wondering, you know, you wrote the book "chasing space." and it seems as though there's such an important part of being inspiring to what these missions are all about. i'm wondering how, you know, your chase of space and when you see this next phase coming, what do you feel? what do you think? >> i'm so excited about the possibilities of having the first woman and the first person of color walking on the moon. when i was a kid, 1969, apollo 11, i was the kid holding the rabbit ears behind the television set but never saw the transmission. when everyone came out to play astronaut the next day, i didn't see someone who looked like me who was on the moon, one giant
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leap for man -- one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. i never thought of being an astronaut. i went through the process of working at astronaut, things happened, someone said you would make a great astronaut, you should apply. and john young told me the same thing. now we have people of color going on the moon, walking on the moon. women. you get all these kids to think this is mission possible for me. that's one of the things about advancing our civilization, inspiring that next generation. >> yeah. it's so important for kids to see themselves reflected in those that they admire and that are part of the thread and fabric of everything that we as humans have access to. i'm just wondering, does this bring you hope? are you hopeful? >> i'm so hopeful. you are going to fly this rocket
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around the moon for 42 days, you'll bring it back going 25,000 miles per hour, 5,000 degrees. and we have designed and built this technology to allow us to do this. this is not just a moon thing. it's deep space exploration with the artemis program. so artemis 1, test mission. artemis 2, fly humans around the moon. artemis 3, have people walking on the lunar surface. the last time we did this was december 14, 1972, so it's been a long time. i think it's time for us to get boots on another celestial body and one day get to mars. >> jake, author of "the loop" how does it make you feel to be so close to something so transformative? >> this is the ultimate non-profit either that brings together so many countries for
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such a fundamental piece of science. nobody is going to the moon because there's money to be made there. we're going to the moon because the moon used to be a part of earth. something a billion years ago smacked into our planet and broke off a part of it and it began to orbit our world. it's the samples gathered that told us the moon was part of this world. now if we go back again, hit those poles, get into the water there, see more about what made us possible so many billions of years ago, it's a really powerful thing. i would say this is fundamentally what technology and science are for. you can forget that in a world where so much money is being made off of those things. >> such an important pay. i thank you both for being with us this morning. up next, nuclear inspectors will be in ukraine this week. they've heading there where the
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largest nuclear power plant in europe was shelled last week. what they'll be looking for and the dangers for local residents ahead. and more than 1,000 people dead after overwhelming floodwaters in pakistan. the latest on the recovery efforts next. hepatitis c? don't just treat it. crush it with mavyret. conquer it with mavyret. cure it. with mavyret. mavyret cures all types of hep c. in only 8 weeks. the virus multiplies daily and can damage the liver over time.
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. this morning, there's word of a new counteroffensive in ukraine with the military beginning a renewed fight for the city of kherson. this comes as u.n. nuclear inspectors are headed to ukraine to assess the damage done to europe's biggest nuclear facility amid fears of a potential radiation leak. the plant was captured by russia in the early days of the war, and there's growing alarm about increased shelling in the area. ukrainians still haunted by the worst nuclear disaster ever, chernobyl, in 1986 have been receiving iodine in case of radiation. joining us now is megan fitzgerald in odesa, ukraine and executive director at the mccain institute, evelyn farkas, she
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served as deputy of defense for ukraine and eurasia. let's talk about the international crisis at that plant, megan. >> good to be with you. the ukrainians are not saying much about this counteroffensive. we know it will take place in the southern part of ukraine in the kherson region. this is a part that russia seized control of early on. this would be a mission to try to get it back. we've seen hints of this counter offensive for several weeks now. we've seen over the last several weeks the ukrainians bombing and targeting places within crimea, the legally annexed peninsula that russia seized in 2014, where they were striking these military bases, ammunition depots. we will be watching this carefully as we're also going to be watching as these inspectors,
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these scientists will be making their way to the zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in the coming days. we expect them to be there by the end of the week. they'll be looking at everything from the structural integrity of this plant to the damage that has been done by the constant shelling that's taking place in the area. we also know that they'll be speaking with people inside that plant as well. there's a lot here we don't know. will they be able to speak candidly and freely with those people that are inside that plant? we do know that these inspectors do not have the ability, the power to make russia demilitarize that plant, which is something that international leaders have been calling for. we also know they don't have the power to stop the shelling. while this is a critical and important mission to understand the state of which this power plant is in, it will also be something that we will keep an eye on after these men and women leave this plant because, again, it's the shelling that's really
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causing great concern here. >> evelyn, a top-russian diplomat says that moscow welcomes the inspectors and will ensure the safety of the u.n. team. how is this going to play out from the russian perspective? >> you know, i mean, this is really interesting because this nuclear power plant, it is only about an hour and a half from kherson. it's not that far. it is basically in the region now where ukraine is launching its counteroffensive. that's probably one of the biggest reasons russia seized this. it can take this hostage and thwart efforts to re-seize kherson and crimea. they've been attacking crimea because that is a very militarized area. the russians have poured a lot of munitions into that area and they're firing from there into ukraine. so the ukrainians want to weaken the ability of the russians to lob more artillery as they
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advance, as they advance into kherson and towards crimea. >> so, if there is, evelyn, some crisis, maybe the power facility does get radiation leak, what -- what can the world do? what is the world reaction to something like this? >> i think that's, of course, what the u.n. wants to avoid at all costs. the head of the delegation is the head of the international atomic agency, that's good, a high-level, high-visibility person. it doesn't sound like he'll get there until friday. there's a lot of danger here, as you mentioned, there's been shelling, it's caused damage. they have to cut off the electricity briefly to make sure the plant was okay. the russians have parked military vehicles in there. of course, they have fighters in there. the part of the thing that the inspectors need to look at is not just damage to the facility, they need to look at the staff,
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how the staff have been treated, are they rested and well fed? it doesn't sound like it based on some of the media accounts. and then is the nuclear material being kept safely, meaning no one should get access to it. this is a nuclear power plant with nuclear materials that a lot of bad actors would want to get their hands on. they need to make sure everything is under lock and key. >> megan, how are people around the plant dealing with this potential threat? >> these people are on edge. they are certainly fearful about their lives and immediate future as the shelling continues. but now they're also concerned about a possible radiation leak. so, we saw the ukrainian government trying to be proactive here and disseminating these iodine pills to people in the community there. and so they're telling them don't use this yet, should there be a leak, we'll let you know. it's preparation, to prepare
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them. ukrainian officials say they are closely monitoring the levels in the area. right now everything is okay. as we know, that could change at any moment because shelling continues in this area. these people are very fearful for their lives. >> megan fitzgerald and evelyn farkas, thank you very much. tragedy out of pakistan. over 1,000 people have died in overwhelming flooding, which the country's foreign minister calls the worst flooding in its history. the deadly monsoon season began in mid-june and washed away entire villages and crops. look at this aerial photo. yesterday international relief routined thethe -- reached the a as planes carried in food and other necessities. look at this. there is just water destroying everything. officials are blaming climate change for the heaviest rainfall
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the country has seen since the early '60s. the first day back at school is always hectic for kids and parents, but changing covid rules could make things more complicated. how are things going on the first day back in philadelphia? plus new vaccines this fall are expected to specifically target the omicron variant. how a lack of federal funding could endanger that rollout. when moderate to severe ulcerative colitis persists... put it in check with rinvoq, a once-daily pill. when uc got unpredictable,... i got rapid symptom relief with rinvoq. check. when uc held me back... i got lasting, steroid-free remission with rinvoq. check. and when uc got the upper hand... rinvoq helped visibly repair the colon lining. check. rapid symptom relief. lasting, steroid-free remission. and a chance to visibly repair the colon lining.
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but only for the first ten days. after that, they're optional. the city is also dealing with an issue plaguing classrooms across america -- severe staffing shortages at every level. george solis is in philadelphia with more. shortages, changing covid protocols. it's a little bit complicated start of the school year there? >> good morning, jose. so a little bit of a shaky start for many students and parents starting off the school year here in philadelphia. this is about as normal as it's been for many of them after years of the pandemic. ten days, that's how long they have to wear those masks to start the school year. that is subject to change based on those cdc transmission levels. the city currently at a medium level. where things seem like they are tightening, there is some feel -- at least a feel of restrictions being loosened. a student or faculty member
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exposed to covid no longer has to quarantine for two weeks. they can come back to school as long as they're asymptomatic but they must wear the mask for an additional ten days. school officials announced today some 200 vacancies for teachers. not all of them are for in-classroom learning, but school officials say they don't expect that to impact the classroom. they're saying every student today would be greeted by educators. but school officials are encouraging people with referrals to apply for those teaching positions. today we had the opportunity to speak with some teachers and parents with respect to some of the shortages and changes with the covid protocols. many of them hoping for a sense of normalcy. take a listen. >> my son right here, he loves school. with them going virtual, he didn't like it. he liked being around other kids. i like they're going back. >> we're hoping it's normal as far as covid. we hope with the new superintendent and being a community school, we can offer more to the kids and families.
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>> there you can imagine some of this is not without controversy with so many other school districts across the country making masking optional for the school year. with the cdc current level of transmission in philadelphia, it's medium, so school officials have the right to implement a more permanent mask mandate if transmission levels return to high. >> george solis in philadelphia, thank you very much. if you have not taken advantage of the government's free at-home covid tests, time is running out. the biden administration is stopping the program as of friday. the reason is a halt in federal funding and a dwindling national stockpile. funding is also a major concern for the government's plans for a fall booster campaign as new doses formulated to fight the omicron strain will become available. joining us now is dr. ebony hilton, an msnbc medical
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contributor. it's always great seeing you. let's start with the lack of federal funding, it's impacting the at-home testing program and potentially the fall booster campaign? >> hi. you know, it's impacting our lives, too. we have to recognize that we are still losing 450 americans a day to covid. this pandemic has not stopped at all since 2020. we've come with this notion of we're over it, right, we're starting to roll back our mitigation practices, we're taking away masks. we're telling children and teachers you no longer need to isolate. just come on back to school when we know we are still burying people. these are peoples husbands and wives and sons and daughters and children that we have to face the consequences of our actions. what we're doing right now is not the way you handle a pandemic. we need to stop, we need to reset and go back to those same mitigating factors that we were doing back 2 1/2 years ago.
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>> so what kind of things do you think, doctor, we should be doing today, on this monday, that we're no longer doing? >> i think people can take the practice of what happened with president biden. the cdc has given recommendations for the general public that were not necessarily followed in the highest office, and it should have been. we know that president biden showed that he was still testing positive after those five days. that was despite the use of paxlovid. he continued on for better than two weeks. we have to follow science and follow when the tests are saying a person is still positive and treat them as such. if we took special precautions and made sure the leaders of the world were not getting infected because our president was infected with covid-19, we have to do the same exact thing for the teachers of the world when our children go into our classrooms. what we do know is their life is just as important as the
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president of the other nations. so, my question for the cdc and my question for the leading entities that are guiding this pandemic response is when are we going to actually go back to the practice of following science and allowing science to dictate what the protocols should be? and if someone is testing positive, they should isolate. we should make those resources available to them that they can isolate safely and then move forward once they're out of that isolation period, providing them those things to get back into the classroom and on a normal-day status. >> what's been going on with the whole paxlovid, people getting reinfected or covid right after? it happened to the president, the first lady, happened to a lot of people that we know. it's just the quick reinfection. why is that happening? >> correct. it's not necessarily a reinfection. we know paxlovid interrupts the virus's ability to replicate. what you're hoping is your
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immune system in that time that we're slowing down the viral load is able to build itself up to combat the remaining virus that's there. paxlovid did exactly what it was supposed to do, which was keep our president alive, to keep that viral load low so he didn't get as sick as he could have possibly have gotten. it did a fantastic job. the question is do we have paxlovid available to the every-day joe down the street? do we have it available to the most vulnerable americans so they, too, can stay alive? again, we're burying 450 americans every single day in the united states of america at this time. and what we do know is that when we look at the surge history, the greatest surge we have to face comes in november. we're running out of resources, we don't have enough tests, we do not have enough vaccines. we don't have the public's trust in our practices at this point because we waxed and waned for the last two and a half years on the messaging. we need to be concise and precise when we say take those
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steps to protect you and your family because when we go into this fall, we know we'll have the variants we have to face, we know we have waning immunity. protection is key and prevention. >> and, doctor, i want to ask you about long covid. there's so you about long covid. there are so many people dealing with still symptoms and issues for covid for months and months and months. >> right. this is a subject that rarely gets talked about. in fact, there was a major study that looked at over 70,000 patients with long covid. 75% of them had not been hospitalized. it is not that you have to have severe covid to have a disability tied to it. we are seeing that there are younger patients. in fact, one-third of those patients were less than 50 years old. about 4% were actually children.
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those are our working citizens. it has a crippling impact we're seeing now on our economy. we have to get this right this time moving forward. >> it's affecting also our communities in an overwhelming manner. thank you for being with us this morning. the end of an era. tennis icon serena williams might be about to play her last singles match ever before her retirement. the latest from the u.s. open, next. test from the u.s. open, next age is just a number. and mine's unlisted. try boost® high protein with 20 grams of protein for muscle health. versus 16 grams in ensure high protein. boost® high protein also has key nutrients for immune support. boost® high protein. ♪ ♪ boost® high protein also has aleve x.ents its revolutionary rollerball design delivers fast, powerful, long-lasting pain relief. aleve it, and see what's possible.
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extraordinary career. stephanie gosk as more. >> reporter: there's a lot of excitement here. serena will be playing a 27-year-old. she's been here before, won two matches. serena has won 106 matches at the u.s. open. when serena made that announcement that she may be retiring after this grand slam tournament, the u.s. open sold more tickets in the 24 hours after that statement than they did in the seven days leading up to it combined. since then, the tributes have been pouring in for serena's career, both how she's played on the court and who she is as a person. last night gatorade dropped a commercial narrated by none other than beyonce. >> when the world writes her down in history, we'll begin where she started, at love, a love that started a movement, a movement to always love exactly
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who you are. >> reporter: serena is 40 years old. she has been playing this game for two decades. and she has changed it. and she's done it through her athleticism on the court, which had never been seen before. that level of power and speed, other players either had to adapt or be totally left behind. the first time she won the u.s. open was 1999, and she was a teenager. that was 23 years ago, which just happens to be the number of single grand slam titles that she has earned. it's one less than the record that margaret court had at 24. even without that record, there are few people who dispute she is simply the greatest to have ever played the game. guys, back to you. >> that wraps up the hour for me. thank you for the privilege of your time. "andrea mitchell reports" is next "andrea mi . tchell reportsis next
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♪♪ good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. the launch of nasa's new moon rocket artemis has been scrapped for today. there were issues with engine number three

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