>> in harris county, it is the law.he courts have upheld it for now, the texas education agency has said while there is litigation, the orders stand. and so i am relying on parents in this community to make sure that the school districts are doing the right thing and we need to because of our children. you know, all of the school administrators they have a responsibility for the safety and the health of the children under their care. and so, we need them to enforce it just like they enforce any kind of dress code, any kind of requirement, and we are going to continue doing our part to get those vaccinations up. >> if you had a chance to talk to the governor directly about this privately, just a concerned, someone who's concerned about these kids, what would you say to him? >> well, we are in touch, our teams are in touch and i always make very clear, you know, the priority, whenever there's a crisis, and we deal with fires, ideal with floods, i've dealt with this pandemic, we need to put politics aside and we need to ge

not going to say dallas county in harris county and relook counties are people. rep.hia: you feel that sparsely populated counties that may have 100 people, 300 people -- should be treated the same as a county with 3 million people. rep. murr: they should have an expectation of uniformity. rep. anchia: how does that further -- how does that equal treatment of different circumstances, specially during a pandemic, further the policy goal of reducing the likelihood of fraud? rep. murr: you asked a broad question. i will go back to consistent application and uniform application of ever election code. rep. anchia: how does the uniformity -- you are making a policy choice. you are saying uniformity is important, despite that counties are different. uniformity is important, and we want to impose that despite difference in counties. how does that achieve the policy end in reducing fraud. rep. murr: reducing the likelihood of fraud is not the only policy goal. rep. anchia: how about that one specifically? rep. murr: i'm going to remind you it contains language regarding the pr

not going to say dallas county in harris county and relook counties are people. rep. anchia: you feel that sparsely populated counties that may have 100 people, 300 people -- should be treated the same as a county with 3 million people. rep. murr: they should have an expectation of uniformity. rep. anchia: how does that further -- how does that equal treatment of different circumstances, specially during a pandemic, further the policy goal of reducing the likelihood of fraud? rep. murr: you asked a broad question. i will go back to consistent application and uniform application of ever election code. rep. anchia: how does the uniformity -- you are making a policy choice. you are saying uniformity is important, despite that counties are different. uniformity is important, and we want to impose that despite difference in counties. how does that achieve the policy end in reducing fraud. rep. murr: reducing the likelihood of fraud is not the only policy goal. rep. anchia: how about that one specifically? rep. murr: i'm going to remind you it contains language regarding th

you have all kinds of different communities in harris county.ination numbers out? >> most importantly, going into each community. partnering with organizations, leaders in the community that know sort of what works, what's a convenient place in terms of vaccinations, but definitely, you know, we're seeing african-american communities having a lower rate. we have seen an increase in the past two weeks and we're going to continue to could can everything we can. >> lina hidalgo, the county judge for harris county, texas. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> still ahead, the unprecedented 2020 olympics wrapping up in august at one time. that's next. wrapping up in augue time that's next. we are go for launc. ♪♪ t-minus two minutes and counting. ♪♪ um, she's eating the rocket. -copy that, she's eating the rocket. i assume we needed that? [chomping sound] ♪♪ lunchables! built to be eaten. she has eaten the rocket. [girl burps] over. when you really need to sleep you reach for the really good stuff. [girl burps] new zzzquil ultra helps you sleep better

as the covid-19 crisis like in harris county escalated ongoing

it was now up to a harris county jury to decide sandra's feet.the jury said you have to go back to your office and how to go back and protect work? >> you can't work. you try to do other stuff, but you really can't. >> finally, on day two, there was a verdict. >> we were all saying is going to be fine. this is a joke. no worries. >> surely the jury will see it with the family see it? >> exactly. >> sandra melgar stood to learn her fate. >> we the jury find the defendant sandra jean melgar, guilty as charged with the indictment. >> sandra collapse into her chair, sobbing. liz, the on devastated, grasped for her mother as she was led away. >> it sucked the life out of me. i just felt the room spin. and i just felt like my world was collapsing. >> we just could not believe. it could not believe it was happening to her. >> to prosecutor barnett, this was justice. both for the state and for jamie melgar. >> she's committed a crime and they found her guilty. i'm glad. i've done my job. and justice has been served. >> the jury sentence sandra to 27 year

a little m bit of progress. >> do you feel that 2020 november election the general election in harris county was conducted fairly in your home county. [inaudible]. he believes that was fair. >> it was fair. >> so the drive-through locations and there were ten of them, in harris county because where they're located is important and are you aware. i'm sure you're familiar with precinct one, commissioner precinct one in harris county read okay. is that a a democratic area. [inaudible]. is the majority. in interest income of the ten locations, five of them were located precinct one. for them were located on the south side of precinct one and democratic areas had one was located in humble civic center which is clearly republican area. some nine sorry go ahead, nine out of ten of these locations that you y all love so much andy the way, a drive-through location two and three counties. with the nine, 90 percent of them just happen to be in .democratic areas. some 128,796 ballots were casted i would say prospectively that the definition of fair, leaves a lot to be desired. and you sworn in 1973 is n

progress. >> representative thompson, do you feel the 2020 november election, general election in harris county, was conducted fairly in your own county? ms. thompson: the secretary of the state of texas says it was. >> you believe it was fair, is that fair to say? ms. thompson: it was fair. rep. cloud: i looked up the drive-through locations in harris county, where they were located. i am sure you are familiar with precinct one, rodney ellis is the commissioner of precinct one in harris county. is that a democratic area? ms. thompson: you mean the entire -- >> it's about somewhere between 75% and 81% democratic area. of these 10 locations, five of them were located in precinct one, four of them were located just outside precinct one in democratic areas, and one was located in -- at the humble civic center, which is clearly a republican area. nine out of 10 of these drive-through locations that you love so much, and by the way, there were no drive-through locations in the other 253 counties. 90% of them just happened to be in democratic areas. 128,796 ballots were cast. i would say, respectfull

next assuming initial responsibility for the city of houston and harris county.spite the best efforts it's clear the economic impact was continuing in the need for rental assistance was growing and growing. we knew any additional resources would need to be distributed quickly and effectively and that's weighing catholic charities joined our efforts to be a second administrator of the program to help expand the capacity of eligibility and application and payments together we wasted no time and lessons from 2020 and quickly in 2021. nine local organizations and those focus on our reach of tenant and landlord to help identify addressing gaps in the system and then to expand the regional capacity to focus on tenants and landlord eligibility and payments also in an effort to focus on resources on eviction diversion our partners at the alliance of houston help establish eviction divergent program. this provides partner advocates and rental assistance to tenants who are already in eviction proceedings. also worth mentioning is stakeholder bias in the initial strategy we

and in harris county. children's hospital, we've been anticipating and planning for this surge for weeks and months. and so our team is ready from a bed capacity standpoint and a staffing standpoint. the surge the judge was talking about in dallas, it's really occurring here in houston in harris county and austin as well. and so it's very serious. there's a limited number of icu beds available. we had a few discharges last night. we have a few vacancies in our pedi-icu. it's serious. the story you heard from the judge is true also in austin, san antonio, fortunately we do have some beds. pedi-icu beds at our hospital. >> given the state, they'll fill up quickly. you're urging the fda to approve the vaccine for kids as young as five. why is this such an important step? >> it's really important to get everyone vaccinated ultimately in the united states, and we've been working really hard at getting 12 to 15-year-olds vaccinated and 16 to 18-year-olds vaccinated. we know that the fda will grant emergency auth

not a single fully vaccinated person at your two safety net hospitals in harris county. doctor, thank you very much for the information and for the time. >> my pleasure. >>> new this afternoon, there's a push by the secretary of defense to mandate covid vaccines for all active duty members of the military by mid-september. barbara starr joins us with the new report. the white house just released a statement that strongly supports the mandate. share it with us. >> the president putting out a statement in part saying that he's supportive of what the secretary of defense is doing to make the covid vaccine mandatory for u.s. troops. you bet he's supportive of it because it was several days ago that president biden ordered the pentagon to study the issue of how to make the vaccine mandatory. now the pentagon moving in that direction. because it was under emergency use authorization, as it is for all of us, the pentagon would have had to get a presidential waiver. now saying they'll go to president biden, get it made mandatory, and begin to implement all of this by mid-septemb

here she is talking about what you just said. >> pass the bill with harris county, our largest county to gain seats next time. they're not going to take over, they're going to erode. we're going to make sure we come back with more republicans. >> i'm in a real red district. but i don't want to get primaried. >> do you think that average texan voters know this and understand what republicans are up to? >> i think they do now. that's why we broke quorum and left the state. it made our constituents, it made americans stop and pay attention and ask why are these texas lawmakers leaving the state? why do they have to leave the state? what's going on. we're all awake now to how fragile this democracy is. after january 6th when they could not take control of our government by brute physical force, they are now going state by state to accomplish what they did not there. they are trying to hold on to power at all costs. they are trying to silence the will of the majority of voters. and that's what we stood up, walked out to stop. we stood up, walked out to protect the freedom to vote. and now

harris county, that includes houston, joining the growing list of counties against abbott and a harrisred a mask mandate for all county schools and childcare centers. i want to bring in a political voice. beto o'rourke joins us. how do you square governor abbott deploying additional workers to hospitals, which is needed, but at the same time, fighting in courts against a mask mandate? >> it's interesting. he's issued a mandate as the governor of the state of texas, preventing local jurisdictions like school districts or cities or texas counties from issuing their own mandates to protect the public health by requiring masks. what's interesting, also, is that those local jurisdictions in many cases are taking matters into their own hands and have defied the governor. in some cases, getting court injunctions to stay his mandate so that they can require masks. we are seeing the houston independent school district do that. travis county, which is home to austin, texas. dallas county. down in san antonio. so this is the rise of local leadership in the absence of statewide leadership. i hope

we met him at the harris county jail where he was awaiting trial, far removed from the promise of hisciful k shuns, nice house, top education, would you describe it that way? >> i can't say that i wanted for anything. >> and what drew him to medicine? >> i think, and a lot of ways, as a physician your public servant. >> he said meghan caught his eye in foresight. >> she was beautiful and five a shifts and smart. >> she thought you were obnoxious when she first met you. >> i don't know, i was just being myself. some people find me obnoxious or confident when they first meet me, but after they get to know me a little bit, i'm just an easy going, fun loving kind of person. >> after lyon was charged with soliciting meghan's murder, the old misdemeanor charge was dropped. he said he never physically abused. her >> i don't recall the relationship being like that. >> she said the final straw was you grabbing her face in the bathroom and you physically assaulted. her that's when she finally left. >> her recollection of that night is different than mine. >> tell us what happened in your eyes.

. ♪♪ >>> in harris county, txas, covid is soaring in just the last week.rdered an indoor mask mandate in defiance of greg abbot whose statewide ban on mandates is being challenged in court. joining us now is houston mayor sylvester turner. thanks for taking time for us today. are optimistic that this mask mandate will not be overturned. >> it is to protect our families and children and people going to work. that's the emphasis. let me just say, yes, andrea. the local hospitals admitted 393 patients suffering with covid. that is the fourth largest number since this pandemic began. 393. there are about 2300 people in our local hospitals and we are now in phase 2 of our icu capacity. so the numbers -- [ indiscernible ] >> those are very high numbers, 393, how many of those are breakthrough cases of unvaccinated people? >> probably 90% of people who have elected not to be vaccinated. this is a pandemic of those who are unvaccinated and that's why we continue to encourage people to get the vaccination and we encourage people to put their masks on. >> and are yo

for example, in harris county, which covers most of houston, texas, officials there realized there wasot of confusion among reters and landlords if they should apply to the county program or to the city of houston. when officials realized that, they merged the two programs together and stripped away a huge layer of confusion that was blocking money from getting out. as a result, harris county has led the charge in helping to get to the money allotted to help people. >> this moratorium is going to end at some point. it could end in october, as the biden administration wants it to, or it could end sooner if the supreme court says it has to end. will that mean that the money will go away? or will the rental assistance program continue without the moratorium? >> the rental systems' money doesn't vanish once the moratorium expires in october, or if it is struck down sooner. but it is really hard to imagine how people will be able to be helped by the money once the moratorium is no longer in place. because it has taken so long for those payments to go out, that if there is someone who has a

i mentioned harris county, virginia, louisville, that's only a small sample of the places it is working. so, we think what congress did was historic. and we think it has the potential to help norma sleep. people should -- enormously. people should not think that this is hopeless. yes, people report about being behind, but when you look at the survey and the philadelphia federal reserve, they are talking about a little less than 2 million really being a threat -- in threat. we have helped nearly 300,000. imagine if you were at 500,000, that meant you could be helping 1.5 million over a few months. so, if state and local governments rise to this rate, to the resources that this congress wisely gave to them, then there is every reason to believe they could have a substantial effect in mitigating these evictions. that's why we are pressing so hard, and why we will look for every bit of persuasion, authority or guidance we can make. i'm saying the reality is there is not a punitive step, that does not mean there's anything wrong with what i think is really a historic element of the american

today harris county, texas, the wstgast thei school d aeady defyin abbott's ban. >>> the shortage ofrivers across the country is getting worse. companies are raising pay for new recruits and that extra cost is being passed on leading to higher prices for consumer goods. >>> some of new york governor andrew cuomo's accusers are slamming his resignation speech saying he's playing the victim. cuomo announced he's stepping down in two weeks faced with a sexual harassment scandal and possible impeachment. >>> extreme heat in the northwest and middle of the country and northeast, storms across the southwest and rain from the great lakes to the gulf. >>> finally a man who lets everyone else do the talking. >> and he's listening closely. will ganss has his story. >> reporter: will norman says 2020 was the hardest year of his life. the texas native and cancer survivor was struggling and needed someone to talk to but no one was around to listen. >> i felt alone. i felt like i was in a hole kind of just kind of felt that there was no one. >> reporter: but then a moment of divine intervention or

passed a new ominous measure that would -- new on nevis measure that would restrict access -- harris countythe home of houston, texas, the state's most populous county and city and one of its most diverse regions. those laws in harris county were designed to increase voter access. the texas senate passed its version of its bill four days ago. the absence of preclearance, plaintiffs have been forced to rely on section two, which bans rules that result in the abridgment of the right to vote based on color, race or minority status, but in a supreme court decision, they significantly curtailed the ability of plaintiffs to succeed in claims of alleged denial under section two, burning another one of the act's enforcement tolls. the erosion of the voting rights act by the supreme work. -- supreme court. congress must act. -- remains expensive even in the terms of the shelby county decision. the 14th and 15 amendments to the constitution, the two of the three civil war amendments, give congress explicit legislative power to enforce voting rights and equal protection against race discrimination, so

in harris county. _ away with helped a tonne. in harris county, they obey a 24 hour voting. drive through _ they have extended voting and drive through voting and drop boxe5 where you can _ through voting and drop boxe5 where you can take your mail ballot and drop— you can take your mail ballot and drop them — you can take your mail ballot and drop them off. the republicans outlawed all of those things. they were responsible for that big turnout — were responsible for that big turnout of 2020. is were responsible for that big turnout of 2020.— were responsible for that big turnout of 2020. that turnout of 2020. is it possible that will hurt republicans? _ turnout of 2020. is it possible that will hurt republicans? i _ turnout of 2020. is it possible that will hurt republicans? i think- will hurt republicans? i think we miaht will hurt republicans? i think we might have _ will hurt republicans? i think we might have a _ will hurt republicans? i think we might have a good _ will hurt republicans? i think we might have a good point. - will hurt republicans? i think we might have

one of them is in harris county, a county that oddly enough, the republicans have targeted all sessional sessions. and so i do anticipate that i will be able to be victorious as relates to a writ which will allow me to walk about freely and do the work in my district until we have a hearing on the validity as to whether or not the speaker can even effectuate these warrants. >> so the republicans, i think, are now around five members short of what they need to get their legislation passed. how long can texas democrats realistically keep this going, civil warrants, arrest warrants or not? >> i think so long as we have some protection from the courts, then we're okay. i think it becomes very questionable if we lose those protections. and right now, we're looking at being protected. and i believe that my colleagues are going to hold on. we have been fighting for so long and we know that the fight isn't quite over. we know that we've done what we could do here in d.c. we saw what happened at 4:00 a.m. when our wonderful senator from texas decided that he did not want any voting legislation

house senators would restrict mail-in voting and eliminate some options like mail-in voting in harris county and thank you for joining us, and my apologies if we have to break early if the president interrupts us. so, if the house convenes later today, what is going to happen? >> well, first, garrett, when the republicans said they made quorum last week, they used a roll call that is 12 days old, so i don't believe they have a legitimate quorum, and they may have one today, but i will not be part of it today. and many of them going back today will have second thoughts of questioning the legitimacy of the quorum last week. but if there is a quorum, we are going down the wrong road here, and we are seeing the republicans acting with the bills in committee and no negotiations and no discussion and no public testimony, and treating the committee process as if it is the floor which means bills can be heard in 40 minutes and this is not bipartisan or pragmatic. >> and you mentioned the democrats going back if they had cold feet if they did go back, and three of them put out a statement saying that

harris county, the largest county in the state, plans to file a lawsuit against the governor over hisxecutive order. and in florida, local school districts are enforcing mask rules for students despite threats from governor ron desantis to with hold paychecks. the school superintendent in broward county already received a noncompliance letter from the state education commissioner. and this comes really to this, a governor blocking local leaders from exercising local control based on conditions on the ground for them. this is actually a concept that is quite counter to republican ideals as professed. all of this as the covid crisis explodes. look at it. exploding there on these governor's watches. florida and texas are breaking records for the number of children who are hospitalized with covid. >> so this morning as covid cases rise, social media companies are cracking down on lies. youtube suspended republican senator rand paul for spreading misinformation about masks. it happened the same day that republican congresswoman marjorie taylor greene got kicked off twitter for a second tim

in an open letter to the governor they right he governor they righ in texas, harris county became thexas county to sue governor abbott, challenging his mask mandate banned their. and today, a judge ruled in its favor. it came just in time, earlier dallas county judge clay jenkins issued this warning. >> if your child has a hard effect or something, is in icu, or more likely, if they have covid in an icu bed, they may not have one. your child will have to wait for another child for it to die. >> your child will wait for another child to die. >> joining us now, carly simon, the superintendent of schools in florida, and doctor peter hotez dean of the tropical medicine college at baylor college of medicine. welcome to both of you, thank you for being here. doctor hotez, thank you for being here, you and i have been speaking about the covid threat to children, something we didn't know as much last year. but now things are different, because last august, no one had a vaccine. whatever the threat was, there were precautions taken at schools, they were separated from people. now we're going b

harris county is texas's largest county and one that leans heavily democratic.atives led to the state's record voter turnout in the 2020 election. in a statement explaining their decision, the three democrats who returned to the house floor last night acknowledge the work their party had done but cited a need to also fight the pandemic raging in their state now. quote, we are proud of the heroic work and commitment we and our fellow democratic caucus members have shown in breaking quorum in may and again over the summer. we took the fight for voting rights to d.c. and brought national attention to the partisan push in our state to weaken ballot access. our efforts were successful and they served as the primary catalyst to push congress to take action on federal voting protection legislation. now, we continue the fight on the house floor. it is time to move past these partisan legislative calls and to come together to help our state mitigate the effects of the current covid-19 surge. about last night's development, the ap writes this. quote, it leaves democrats m

it started off in dallas county, in harris county, and even tarrant county, and tarrant county has beento parris, texas, an area that voted for trump at least in the 70 percentile. you would think they would say, maybe this isn't really a good thing for us to do if we really want to be reelected in this state. maybe we should let this one go and allow the locals to do what they're supposed to do, because we used to be the party that believed in local control. >> we're almost out of time but i have to ask. the state legislature is now back in business. it has a quorum, enough texas house democrats have returned to resume business in the special session. that means a restrictive voting bill can go through. do you think it was a mistake to give back the quorum to that state legislature? >> it was absolutely a mistake. i don't even know -- it was a colossal failure, not just a mistake. we are talking about -- we went all the way to d.c., we had multiple levels of litigation as relates to warrants. we have done everything and we are in the middle of the game. i fully anticipate that the john

americans want to see, what are they done to fix it in on that score, and gonzales sheriff of harris countych last i heard is being defunded as a mission to enforce of the border has been removed, this is another false stepem seems to be. >> the choice of head of ice and epitomizes the problem. let me speak very broadly when president trump left office in 2020 we had not only the most secure word in american history but we also had the most effective set of enforcement tools and american history, you know them well but i'll restate them again we have remained in mexico, we had safer agreements with honduras, el salvador and guatemala where migrants can be sent there instead assent to the united states, we had a border expulsion program because of covid notice title 42, we had in place foreign-policy agreements all aroundre the world to expede the removal of illegalal immigrants, we have the most effective system ever, now with respect to gonzales, he as sheriff in texas terminated an agreement with the federal government known as 287g, what that means it's an agreement who sold purpose is t

, in june triple the amount of resources that there was in may, and places like louisville and harris countyng money out effectively to help renters and if the federal government level we will do what we can now that the money is with the state and locals we will provide technical assistance and we can extend eviction moratorium for properties that are backed by government guarantees that is for hud and usda and the da but the key message, no landlord should evict without seeking the rental chickens and states and localities need to get that money our gently. and they can do that. dana: in new york they have all the money sitting there and they haven't dispersed it out all in your recall the unappointed benefits were really hard many of the states had a hard time dealing with that, are you confident that the states are going to be able to get off this money without causing an uproar for the administration. >> were not going to rest until that money gets out and flown effectively for states and localities need to take those steps and will do what we can at the federal level to support them, i

hospital officials talk, even throughout the worse days of this pandemic, listen to the ceo of the harris county health district there in houston who said he is frightened by what is coming and said the state is headed for a medical catastrophe. >> if this continues, and i have no reason to believe that it will not, there is no way my hospital is going to be able to handle this. there is no way the region is going to be able to handle this. i also see the silver lining, but i am freightened by what is coming. >> reporter: and the doctor is urging, despite all of the political fighting going on, between local officials and state officials here in the state, urging people to mask up and socially distance as much as they can. kate. >> ed, thank you. so let's go from texas to florida where the situation is also only getting worse. more than 15,000 people are hospitalized with coronavirus. breaking the state's record for the 11th consecutive day. new infections are also surging. hitting a record high for the third time just this week. cnn's leyla santiago is live in miami for more for us. what is hap

restrictions targeting laws in harris county, a democratic county. cal strategy to restrict the vote. stop people from voting. the republicans are looking to do that. >> harris: i only say that because -- quick from you, too, charlie. >> asking people to show i.d. to cast a ballot is not stopping people from voting. what we see is an admission by democrats it was a terrible strategy. all right. because he went so short even with your interruptions we have a couple more seconds here. charlie, i will double up with this. what did they accomplish? it was a side show while they were gone in terms of the headlines that came out. where would you put it and laura have the last word. >> absolutely. i think this is an admission by democrats in texas their strategy of having this temper tantrum of flying out of the state to avoid dealing with legislation back home, this is an admission now that it failed because now enough democrats have gathered in order to carry forward with this legislation and debate it and if there are problems with it fix it or vote it do

harris county, including city of houston, issuing the mask mandate late on thursday evening. this is hours after the county filed a lawsuit against governor abbott's orders banning mask mandates. the judge wrote in her order there is, and i quote, there is an unwritten contract between parents and schools and that is when our children are under the care of the schools, they do everything they can to keep them safe. now mask wearing is now mandatory in all four of texas' largest counties and officials there try to prevent children who are too young to get vaccinated from getting sick under this more deadly delta covid surge. we also saw representative sheila jackson lee writing to president biden yesterday asking for white house intervention in the state of texas. she cited the emergency provision of nurses to states like louisiana, mississippi, and arizona, also led by republican governors and slammed governor abbott for not reaching out to the white house for assistance to his struggling state. erica. >> with the latest for us there from houston. >>> turning now to mississipp

districts are defying the governor, defying his order despite the court ruling, including dallas and harris countyjoining me now is julian castro, former mayor of san antonio. he's now an msnbc political analyst. thank you for being here. it's helpful that you're also a former mayor. your thoughts on the governor now testing positive, the fact he's still holding maskless events, and refusing to allow schoolchildren to be protected with mask mandates. >> it's absolutely maddening, joy. it's the height of hypocrisy. you put out the stats there. texas right now has one of the worst covid-19 situations. only 314 icu beds left in a state of 29 million people. more pediatric cases of covid, i think, right now than any other state, or right around the same amount as florida. it's surging here, and at the same time, the governor is in a tug-of-war with communities across the state and school districts that want to do everything that they can to protect children and businesses that want to protect customers by requiring vaccination or at least requiring masks. school districts that want to require masks. t

>> right now, here in harris county, houston, we're now setting up a tent city for our hospital. that's how much things are accelerating right now. s that a fire storm across the south. i think we have to really have a frank discussion about whether we're serious about having our kids and doing in-person classrooms or not. and right now with this screaming level of transmission, and i do mean screaming, florida and louisiana, if they were countries would be some of the highest levels of transmission gleeblly and the other states like texas and mississippi are not too far behind. that's how this is going to continue to evolve. so if you're serious about doing in-person classes in that setting, you have to use every possible tool for the kids, for the teachers and staff. that means everybody has to be vaccinated. particularly, for those over the age of 12. so we need to vaccinate all of the adolescents. nobody is even talking about vaccination mandates. remember our vaccination levels among adolescents in the south is 25%. it's not like the northeast. so you have a huge ways to go.

we're under 370 available icu beds and the ceo of the harris county health district in houston is warning this state is heading for a medical c catastrophe because of the stress being placed on hospitals across the state. he spoke to state lawmakers yesterday and painting a grim picture saying he's frightened by what is coming in the weeks ahead. >> i also see the silver lining, but i am frightened by what is coming. we could go in my hospital and call it a disaster. we had 30, 3-0, icu in the emergency room on the stretchers waiting for a bed. some of them had to wait for more than 30 hours to find a bed. an icu bed. that is not optimal care. that is not safe care. that is not high quality care. i'm ashamed to say that my hospital providing that care. but that is where we are and that is where we are heading. >> reporter: and the doctor also went on to say that they simply won't be able to handle the crush of patients that continue to come. and the question is, many of the hospitals, erica, are dealing with staffing shortages. the governor has talking about bringing 2500 more nurses here

what the data says right now and specifically in houston and harris county, we've seen a 500% increase hospitalization in some of our hospitals. we know that african-american and latino individuals are taking a huge hit. and as we look at our most economically disadvantaged students, these are the families in you are ban school districts, large school districts like hisd that will suffer. so it is extremely important to us to really make a difference and take a stand around what we feel is right. >> and just in terms of the board of education set to vote on it on thursday. do you have a sense of how they may, what they may decide? >> our board of education has taken a slight turn. the focus will be to really have a vote of support so we don't feel of our nine incredible board members that will have any issues in terms of support. so we're looking forward to getting to thursday. officially having that support and moving forward with the start of the schoolier on august 23rd. >> and the public school board in broward voted to maintain the mask mandate, allowing only for health and safety

predicting six in ten florida hospitals will face critical staffing shortages within the next week and harris countysing its threat level to red this week as frontline workers are drowning in the cascade of new covid cases there, and we spoke with one mother whose 11-month-old baby had to be airlifted to another 150 miles away because there were no pediatric icu beds available in houston. friday, the u.s. recording its single highest day in covid cases in six months as dan said with 120,000, the country now averaging more than 96,000 new cases every day and as cases surge, vaccination rates are also rising. friday the u.s. hitting that 50% mark. half of americans now fully s en barriers to vaccinate customers across the country. >>> plus, "deals & steals" for 20 bucks and under. all supporting small businesses. >>> and we are still waiting for that new kanye album to drop. highlights from the superstar's second stadium listening party. we'll be right back. ♪ medicine works in a rich body, just as well as a poor body. ♪ it's as effective in 90210, as it is in 86503. ♪ medicine will not discriminate a

state and some regions are reporting single digit number of icu beds available and the ceo of the harris countyo state lawmakers today said that the state is headed for a medical catastrophe if urgent action isn't taken soon and he says he's frightened about what's coming in the weeks ahead. >> there is no intervention out there that i am hearing about from the state or anyone else that is going to have an impact on those numbers anytime soon. if this continues, and i have no reason to believe that it will not, there is no way my hospital is going to be able to handle this. there is no way the region is going to be able to ham this. handle this. >> and hospital executive also described a scene in one of his hospitals this week where there were 30 different coronavirus patients in need of icu care who were waiting in an emergency room lobby. in some cases it took 30 hours to get those patients into a room. meanwhile, the governor of texas insists that the time for mask mandates is over. he has once again talked about how it is the personal responsibility or texans across the state to get the vir

in addition to that, when you look at counties the size of dallas county or harris county, the fact thaty only want one drop box when it comes to ballots that are cast by mail, is that just doesn't make logical sense unless you're trying to minimize the number of people that have access to the ballot box. and finally when we talk about the fact that most legislatures do not have a maximum number of hours to vote. they have a minimum. instead, they instilled a maximum because they know the numbers they saw the diversity range when it came to those after-hours voting. those that were working third shift were able to finally go vote without having to stand infer line during normal working hours. so, i'm really excited that my colleagues have decided this was a fight worth fighting. and right now, we are still fighting it. >> and i'm curious about next steps. because at this point, isn't it virtually guaranteed that this bill is going to become law? >> so long as we go back. the quorum break is still on. they still don't have a quorum. they're upset about that. the house members are tweeting

in harris county officials raising its threat level to red this week. >> our icu population is increasing at a rate we had seen or we had not seen since the worst part of the worst wave we've had in this community. >> reporter: in houston, the ceo of harris health system calling it crisis mode. in the city where one hospital had to transfer stephanie lopez's 11-month-old daughter ava. >> it's something that i wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. it's nothing i wouldn't want any other mother to go through. >> reporter: stephanie telling me she felt heartbroken and helpless as her infant was airlifted to a hospital 150 miles away alone because there were no available pediatric icu beds in houston. >> was there a point when you were thinking the worst? >> yeah, there was -- like whenever i got out the car and she wasn't responding to me, she was just unconscious. she wasn't breathing, my heart dropped. >> reporter: like ava, pediatric hospitalizations are up 3 1/2 times what they were a month ago. the rise in cases in children prompting new jersey to reverse course. governor phil murphy announci

we know that just under 47% of people in harris county are fully vaccinated. slightly higher than texas overall. but i was reading, according to cnn tracker numbers, there has been a 500% increase in covid admissions, and that florida and texas account for about a third of all u.s. covid cases that have been reported in the last week. talk to us about what you are seeing in your hospital. >> i mean, it's interesting talking about this because, you know, over the last 12 hours i have lost more patients than the number of patients that have i have lost in the last five to six weeks, to give you an idea how bad things are. yes, we have had an increase in the number of admissions 500%. we have no beds. our emergency department is full of patients just waiting to be able to get into a hospital. but that's not just in one -- the one problem that we have. the other problem is health care providers. we don't have enough nurse nurses are phoning in sick. so we are having an issue with getting enough nurses so that we can provide the best possible care to the patients.

. >> citizens of harris county in houston are waiting 24 hours in an emergency room, that is just not acceptable. >> in the last week texas and florida made up one-third of the country's cases and despite an executive order by florida governor ron desantis banning mask mandates in schools, one school board has voted to require masks for the first two weeks of classes. >> but broward public schools will comply with desantis' order after he threatened a funding cut. brood is requiring hospitals to report covid statistics daily now because of the surge. in missouri a judge temporarily blocked a mask mandate in st. louis city and county. also in san francisco, people who got the one shot johnson & johnson vaccine will be able to receive a supplemental mrna dose. >> super interesting news as all of the question about boosters and when we can get them -- time for three questions in three minutes. let's bring in dr. chris burnell with the american college of preventive medicine. thank you so much for getting up early for us. so the american academy of pediatrics as we mentioned says that cas

>> here in texas, harris county specifically, we were left on alert level red for a year.ver reduced the alert that we had even when the cases started to decline, even when vaccines rolled out and vaccinations started going up. and it caused people to lose faith in our local government. so i'm talking about very specific issues here that, i think, were a little overboard. arthel: well, listen, you know, 46 billion allocated, 3 billion only distributed, people -- the landlords and the tenants, they both need help, so i hope they can get rid of, unwrap the, unravel the red tape and get something done. charles blaine, president of urban reform if, the urban reform institute, keep up the good work. thank you. eric. >> thank you. arc. eric: the highly contagious delta variant, as you know, spreading across our country causing a shocking rise of covid infections among children just as the new school year approaches. straight ahead pediatrician laura popper is here to tell us how to keep your kids safe in the classroom. ♪ ♪ their only friend? the open road. i have friends. [ chuc