heidi przybyla. to see you, my friends. >>> to talk about what rights there might be for congress, congresswoman dina titus is joining us. thank you for joining us. i appreciate it. >> thank you. >> you heard us talking about the fact this needs to be made into a law, roe v. wade needs to be made into a law. speaker pelosi saying a vote will be held in the house. what is the likelihood though that you could actually get the women's health protection act through senate? >> well, i'm an optimist or i wouldn't be in this business, but we will pass it very quickly out of the house. speaker said she is going to bring it up the first week that we go back and it will pass. on the senate side, of course, it is going to be more difficult. you have some of the women republican senators who i think would vote for it, but this may not be enough to break the stalling that makes us have to take 60 votes to get out of a filibuster. maybe it is time to look at ending the filibuster. you know, we've got the abortion

. >> joining me right now, nbc news correspondent heidi przybyla, and dr. celine gounder, an infection disease specialist and epidemiologist. people are trying to make sense of what the cdc and fda have decided. is it clear to them how to move forward? >> it's really just a sense of relief at this point. they know they are not going to be the ones having to check licenses to get vaccine, right? people who come in here will be taking them in on the honor system. people who come in and say they have these preexisting conditions. they say, lindsey, they have the capacity. we're outside a rather large auditorium. i've got to say it's been pretty empty today. that is the big difference between today and when the vaccines were first rolled out. you remember, people waited weeks if not months depending on when your card came up, when you were eligible. they say this time around that's just not going to be the case. they're particularly relieved that in addition to 65 plus, which this group was very concerned, given that they've already been vaccinated back in janu

bring in nbc news white house correspondent, monica alba, also with us, nbc news correspondent, heidi przybyla, and andy slavitt, former white house senior adviser for the nation's covid response. great to have all of you here. monica, these last 26, 27 minutes, showing just how much the president has on his plate right now, of major consequence in the middle of this ongoing pandemic. what's your takeaway? >> exactly, chris. and how much the president views these issues as intertwined. i thought most notably, as well, he did commit to getting his own booster shot. he said he doesn't know exactly what day he's going to be getting that, but he is far more than six months past his second dose. he and the first lady, actually, got their shots back in january. so he told everybody who might be in the same category, those who got their inoculations in january, february, or march, today, starting now, you can go to your health care provider, if you got pfizer and get that additional layer of protection. so that was the president's overall message, wanting to make sure people know and have clarity, be

i want to bring in heidi przybyla. doctor, i need you to talk to us about this decision-making process. it is so confusing to have some voices then you have a panel weigh in, say this is what we've decided and the director says, no, i'm going to change my mind on that. we're regular old americans trying to figure out the right thing to do. how do we navigate this? >> there were a couple things said at yesterday's meeting at the acip that were important. first they made the statement that the most important thing we need to do is vaccinate the unvaccinated. the second thing they said is if you are a member of the general public and you have had two doses of mrna vaccines you should consider yourself fully vaccinated, but then they went on to make recommendations for other groups and here is how that played out. it was easy to make a recommendation for the person greater than 65 or who was a resident of a long term care facility because basically they are an immune compromised person. similarly they were comfortable sayi

us lay out more of this six-step plan are our white house correspondent monica alba, and nbc's heidi przybyla just across the river here, and we no e from the collective reporting from the white house team, and heidi's great reporting, we know what the president is going to say at 5:00 p.m. eastern, and the headline though is that he is going to require the executive branch employees and federal contractors to be vaccinate and this is going to stretch the new authorities to new lengths as they try to stop this resurgent pandemic, monica. >> it is a big step, geoff. and we have new details from the press secretary. when he signs this executive order, they will have 75 days to get vaccinated or then they will face an hr process that could lead to progressive disciplinary action, and so in other words, they could lose their jobs if it is determined that they don't have an accept medical or religious reason for not getting these vaccinations. so what is so notable about this is that just in july, one of the options is that you could submit to rigorous testing if you didn't get the shots, but the

let me bring in heidi przybyla at an elementary school in arlington, virginia. they have kind of a unique plan pree the announce of the president to slow the spread. tell us what's happening at long branch elementary. >> the next few weeks are so critical. we're going to see the delta virus peak in this area at the same time we're bringing children back into gym cafeterias that were not designed for social distancing and having them dine indoors. something the principal here told me none of us as adults would do when we weren't vaccinated with a less transmissible variant. here's what some of the principals had to say about their hopes for this very simple, in their words, solution to keeping kids safe. >> did it cost a lot of money do something like this? >> to go outdoors for lunch? >> yeah. >> no. >> you didn't have to use your covid money, right? >> no, we didn't use covid money. we just used our brains and decided, like what's best for kids? and as i said, we figured out several years ago that our kids love being outdoors for lunch. we call it outdoor reces