mara barrett has a story you need to hear about what some of these millions of american families are they will likely have to leave their homes in the next two months due to eviction. >> we call eviction the scarlet "e" because when a family faces an eviction, people who face an eviction are then often barred from getting access to housing, to jobs, or to loans. as they, you know, recover from the experience of an eviction. >> if you do find yourself with an eviction notice on your door, no matter where you are, experts all agree -- >> the number one thing you can do is find an attorney. the more you can get that advice, the better, because these processes can move quickly. there's a lot of complicated paperwork. if you're doing it for the first time, it's likely you can make a mistake. talk to that attorney, get that advice. >> you can go to your local federal legal services office. they're usually free or they may refer you to a nonprofit legal provider for eviction cases. when you go, it's important to bring the receipts. >> documenting everything you can, if you can take photos o

nbc's mara barrett covered the iowa state fair in des moines for us.uestion to share from our doctors. we'll start with dasha. >> i'm dasha burns in washington county, tennessee where schools have re-opened with no mask mandate, no social distancing requirements and no strict protocols for quarantining children who have been exposed at school. i was speaking to the ceo of the children's hospital who says she and her fellow health workers are doing all they can to convince leadership at the district level and the county level to take more action, but they're searching for ways to make the point, to make their voices heard and convince folks to take more steps to protect these kids. back to you. >> doctors patel and hotez are back with us. dr. hotez, what do you think there? there's the question from dasha. >> well, you know, we don't have that many tools to fight covid-19. our two best ones are vaccines and masks, and if you're not letting us use vaccines and masks it doesn't give us a lot to work with, and unfortunately, you've got elected leaders acro

more of these stories from two of the biggest covid hot spots in the country, nbc news reporter mara barrett in memphis, tennessee and ron hilliard in tallahassee, florida. i understand you got some breaking news on some of the developments taking place there in florida. tell us what you have learned in the last couple minutes. >> yeah. there are seven states in which the governors of the states have banned school districts from requiring their students to wear masks. florida is one of them. governor ron desantis even threatened to cut funding to any school district that attempts to defy or challenge that by requiring their students to wear masks. and this is notable here. because just here this afternoon the first school district, leon county, that's where we're standing in tallahassee has essentially been the one to stand up and say we're going to be the ones to challenge him. they're now requiring students to wear masks beginning on wednesday when the students k-8 students return to the classroom. now their kids under the age of 12 cannot get access to a vaccine at this point. and that is

mara barrett in memphis, tennessee, where kids are headed back to school today. also dr. ezekiel emanuel, from global initiatives at the university of pennsylvania. he was health policy adviser in the obama white house and part of president biden's transition board on covid-19. morgan, i know things are rough down south, but austin sounds particularly bad. what's going on? >> steph, you mentioned that number. this came out over the weekend. 14 icu beds for 2.3 million people in the greater austin area. it's hard to imagine that that number actually got worse from then to monday morning but, yes, six icu beds in the greater austin area. we know warnings were sent out from officials saying this is a dire situation. please mask up. please stay home if at all possible, and there's a couple of reasons for that. the numbers are so bad with this delta variant sweeping across the south and hitting texas especially hard. local leaders no longer have the authority to issue a mask mandate because of an executive order by greg abbott that prohibits them from doing so. what we're seei