department of health and human services will establish an office to address climate change and health >> officials noting the devastating effects of climate change seen in just the last few weeks in the united states from severe heat and wildfires. the flash floods and tropical storms health and human services secretary javier becerra says the alarm bells are ringing and it is time the climate change crisis dressed as a public health issue at the national level. >> farm workers in the fields elderly people in sweltering apartments. are dying from severe heat. wildfires are choking people wiping out entire towns worsening the risks of the covid-19 pandemic. but from a string of tropical storms have ground people in the southeast. and in my home state of california. people's taps are running dry. reservoirs are vanishing. >> the new office of climate change and health equity was outlined in president biden's january executive order to combat the environmental effects of changing weather. still ahead at 6 the town of south lake tahoe bracing for the worst after the order for mandatory ev

. ♪ ♪ >> health and human services assistant secretary dr. levine talked about covid-19 vaccination efforts at an event hosted by "the washington post." this is about 30 minutes. >> good morning and welcome to washington post live. i'm the senior writer here at "the washington post." today we're going to be the talking about the troubling rise in cases from the delta variant and also vaccination challenges with dr. rachel levine. she's the assistant secretary for health at the department of health and human services. and, dr. levine, a very warm welcome to washington post live. >> well, thank you very much. it's a pleasure to be here. >> it's wonderful to have you at a time when we need to understand so much more. there was a change in guidance this week from the cdc resulting from new science about the delta virus including new mask advice even for people who are vaccinated in certain settings. what is the plan behind that change? >> well, so so we know and have been discussing the last number of months that the delta variant is different. t

and vaccination challenges with dr. rachel levine, assistant secretary for health at the department of health and human services. dr. levine, a warm welcome to washington post live. asst. sec. levine: thank you, pleasure to be here. frances: wonderful to have you here when we need to understand so much more. there was a change in guidance this week from cdc resulting from new science about the delta virus including masking for people who are vaccinated. what is the science behind that change? asst. sec. levine: we know and have been discussing for months that the delta variant is different. the delta variant has been shown to be more transmissible. it is at least twice as contagious as previous forms of covid-19 we have seen. approximately two months ago, the delta variant was 1% or 2% of the percentage of covid-19 cases we were seeing in the united states. now it is more than 80% of the cases we are seeing. so, because of this more contagious variant, cdc has changed its guidance, in terms of masking. it is recommending if you live in an area with moderate to high spread, community spread of covid-19, that when you

and also vaccination challenges with dr. rachel levine. she is the assistant secretary of health for the department of health and human services. dr. levine, a very warm welcome. >> thank you very much. it is pleasure to be here. >> we need to understand so much more that with the change and guidance this week from the cdc. advice for people who are vaccinated in certain settings. what is the science behind that change? >> we know and have been discussing for the last number of months that the delta variant is different. the delta variant has been shown to be more transmissible. it is at least twice as contagious then previous forms of covid-19 that we have seen. approximately two months ago, the delta variant was 92% of the covid cases. -- was only 2% of the covid cases we are seeing. now it is 80%. now that the more contagious variant, the cdc has changed its guidance in terms of masking. it is recommending that if you live in an area that has moderate to high spread, community spread when you are in public you wear a mask. >> that's the broad picture, but we were wanting to see the data. why the delay? why change the delay witho

this morning, the department of veteran affairs and the department of health and human services announced new requirements. all 350,000 v.a. health care personnel and all hhs health care personnel must now be fully vaccinated. state and local governments, health care systems, businesses small and large, universities, and other institutions are also stepping up. since last week, washington state, washington, d.c., and seattle have all adopted vaccination requirements. in more than 50 health systems across the country, they have announced all staff need to be vaccinated, bringing the total to more than 200 health systems. in the past 24 hours, amtrak, mcdonald's, nbc-universal, discovery, and capital one all announced new rules that workers must be vaccinated to return to the office. california announced all school teachers and staff in the state be required to be vaccinated or tested weekly. and the nea and aft, two of the largest unions in the country representing 5 million educators and school staff both came out in favor of school districts persimmon covid-19 vaccination policies, inclu

we, in the united states border patrol, transfer them to health and human services for their care, custody and control as quickly as possible to unite them with parents or legal guardians here in the united states before they make their claim for asylum or their claim for a special immigrant juvenile status. you will recall in march of this year, we experienced tremendous crowding in our border patrol stations of unaccompanied children. i said then that it was a challenge for us, that we had a plan to meet that challenge, and that we were executing on that plan, and that it would indeed take time. that is what we did, and we cleared the border patrol of the overcrowding of unaccompanied children in execution of our plan. i should say that of course we have unaccompanied children still in border patrol custody, but we are moving them much faster than we did in march, and under 72 hours that is required by law. next we have the single adults. single adults, the great majority of single adults are expelled under the title 42 authority. the public health authority of the centers for disease co

now the white house and department of homeland security and health and human services are partnering with local organizations to test isolate and treat migrants who have the virus health and human services secretary javier becerra says there is an inner agency effort to test all migrants before they enter us custody. >> i've had conversations directly with secretary mayorkas with federal government as a whole with the white house at the lead. we're all trying to take on this challenge because it is a bear because we don't want again covid to spread any more than it has. and we know that delta variant is very transmissible. >> dhs says it's working with local communities and non-governmental organizations to reimburse cities for testing and isolating costs. still ahead here at 6, a northern california doctor accused of selling fake mask. exemption cards. >> what he has to say about why hide your skin if dupixent has your moderate-to-severe eczema or atopic dermatitis under control? hide my skin? not me. by hitting eczema where it counts, dupixent helps heal your skin from within, keepi

yet been peer reviewed. >>> plus, the delta variant spreads nationwide, the department of health and human servicestaking action. it will require vaccinations for more than 25,000 of its health care workers that directly work with patients. motts of these employees work within the indian health service and the national institute of health. hhs employees will have until the end of september to get vaccinated. exemptions will be allowed for religious or medical reasons. >>> well, father and son from southern california were accused of using fake covid vaccination cards to travel to hawaii. police arrested nor bert and trevor chung sunday at the honolulu airport. police say they broke the state's travel rules. authorities were tipped off by community member. hawaii requires tourists upload proof of their vaccination status to the state's website before they arrive and bring the physical original vaccination card with them. falsifying a vaccination card in hawaii carries a fine of up to $5,000 and possibly a term of prison for up to a year. >>> we went through this here last year, and now there's panic

and small. charter is connecting us. announcer: charter communications support c-span as a public service, along with these television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. announcer: health and human services secretary xavier becerra was at a house ways and means hearing to testify on the president's 2022 budget requests, and he was asked about unaccompanied children at the u.s. border. >> good morning. i want to thank secretary becerra for being with us. [indiscernible] i won't to remind members to keep these procedures running

i know the health and human services budget focuses on advancing equity and reducing health disparities and all healthcare programs. can you describe these programs and their intended goals and also how would you introduce programs work in practice? >> congressman, first great to see you. i see that those digs look really familiar to me, the office of yours pics i hope you're taking good care of not just the office and your workers but the district as well send to be able to come in and do a phenomenal job as a member of congress for the district after he left. >> somebody left me some nice furniture. >> hey, man. let me tell you, by the way thank you for all your work on equity, trying to make sure all communities are served as you said our district my former district on your current district it's a tale of two cities in many ways, right? from wealth to poverty but folks working together in many ways. i will tell you that president biden has spoken not just about equity that he's made it clear he wants to see results. at hhs is easy for me as secretary to now say we are going to demand

this is going to be 25,000 workers, volunteers and contractors at the department of health and human services including the nih and the indian health service and the public health commission's core. and this is expected to go into effect by late september is what an hhs official is telling me. and listen to the reasoning behind this from the health and human services secretary. he said as president biden has said, we're looking at every way we can to increase vaccinations and requiring our hhs health care work force will protect our federal workers as well as patients and people they serve. most of the health care workers are probably already vaccinated but this is sending a signal to the private sector, to americans about the kinds of steps that are necessary and that are appropriate to take at this phase in the pandemic. and just lastly, veterans' affairs, they are also expanding their mandate for vaccinations at all v.a. hospitals expanding it from just certain health care workers to nearly all of their health care works now at v.a. hospitals. erica. >> sending a signal is right. thank you

just this morning the health and human services department announced that it is more than 25,000 health care employees and volunteers must be vaccinated by the end of next month. los angeles is also taking steps to require covid vaccinations at indoor venues including restaurants, gyms and many more places. cnn's stephanie elum is live in los angeles. what is the latest with this? >> reporter: well, kate, what happened yesterday is that the l.a. city council voting unanimously to draw up an ordinance that would require in indoor public spaces people have so show proof of one dose of the vaccine. and we're talking about stores, first of all. restaurants and bars, gyms, maybe movie theaters as well as concert venues. they're looking to do this to encourage other people to get vaccinated. take a listen to what one city council member had to say about this? >> let's give our workers in retail all of the protection we possibly can. because not all of them are going to have the choice to protect themselves from someone who comes in to buy groceries or get a prescription who chooses not to be

the department of health and human services is deploying a 250 bed federal medical shelter to louisiana. u.s. coast guard has aircraft. shelters are open in affected areas throat the gulf coast across the impacted states and their implement inc. steps to prevent the spread of covid-19. the national guard has activated more than 5200 personnel in louisiana, mississippi, texas, and alabama to support efforts. again, we are working closely with state and local officials, even though the storm has been downgraded to a tropical storm. imaging wind gusts continue to be a threat -- damaging wind gusts continue to be a threat. ida will continue to produce heavy rainfall, flash and urban flooding, and tornadoes remain a threat. finally, our secretary of homeland security will travel to baton rouge on wednesday morning and meet with the governor to survey damage. the ministry are also travel to mississippi on wednesday to meet with the governor and tour the damage. the last thing i want to go over with you is preventing evictions. today, a call for legal action is being made. the attorney general

health and human services secretary javier becerra says the alarm bells are ringing and it's time thelimate change crisis is addressed as a public health issue at the national level. farm workers in the fields elderly people in sweltering apartments. are dying from severe heat. >> wildfires are choking people wiping out entire towns worsening the risks of the covid-19 pandemic. but from a string of tropical storms have ground people in the southeast. and in my home state of california. people's taps are running dry. reservoirs are vanishing. >> the new office of climate change and health equity was outlined in president biden's january executive order to combat the environmental effects of changing weather. >> next sunday, one bay area woman helping a family of afghan refugees find their footing in the golden state and its port sports director jason dumas has details on the giants pitcher who tested positive for covid us an update emergency planning for kids. we can't predict when an emergency will happen. so that's why it's important to make a plan with your parents. here are a few t

. >> health and human services assistant secretary dr.l levine talked about covid-19 vaccination efforts at an event hosted by the washington post. this is about 30 minutes.

up what they called emergency intake sites, known as temporary facilities overseen by the health and human services opened up more than a dozen and today around four remain open. and two of those have come under heavy scrutiny including one in pecos, texas which in court declarations revealed poor conditions for chid undercookedg wait times for medical services and prolonged stays overall. in fact one 17-year-old from honduras said my brother has gotten depressed here. hhs says there are improving conditions with the facilities, but attorneys say that the children need to be moved to shelters that are better equipped to care for them. >> just real trouble. all right. thank you so much for that. >>> the navy's new aircraft carrier is completing it third and final shock trial. the super carrier demonstrating that it can survive exclusive events in combat. during the shock trials that began in june, three 40,000 pound bombs were set off under water and they would move progressively closer to the ship. the captain said it did break a couple things but that is to be expected. >> that looks like shock. >

to february 9, 2020 in the white house with doctor stephen hatfield, rick wright from the health and human services were getting operation warp speed jumpstarted and i mentioned this because at the time we were looking at the experimental gene therapy, the mrna that have been produced by pfizer image irna and at that time, we were clear eyed about the risk associated with that but we had no other choice but to move forward, my point were very dangerous decision one path the biden administration is hurtling down goes to universal forced vaccinations, the other is an alternative strategy which would be targeting vaccinations to the high risk population and letting everybody else deal with it in a way where they use therapeutics. gerry: them interrupt, i want to pull up for you you cannot see it but you may have seen it, it's a new york post today on friday had a very good from page graphic if you'd like we can show that wouldn't you say the line is insanity from the york post it shows a huge square lots of squares with the number of people who have been vaccinated in the tiny, tiny fraction of them t

department of health and human services. cnn's amara walker is in ft. lauderdale. good to see you and earlier today the governor downplayed the increase of children hospitalized with covid. what can you tell us? >> yeah. this is just a few hours ago at a news conference. governor desantis claiming that the delta variant has had little impact on the children here in florida, but his statements conflicted that. what we're seeing from the department of health and human services that shows that pediatric hospitalizations due to covid-19 in florida is more than four times higher than it was just a month ago. here's ron desantis just a few hours ago talking about how all of this is affecting kids. >> some people, yeah, you hear a lot of stuff. does delta behave differently vis-a-vis kids and never had a minor impact particularly on young kids and the answer is in terms of the hospitalization especially we have not seen any change in that in florida. clearly, we're at the top of a wave here so you're going to see more cases and infections diagnosed. >> all right. so victor

and the office of the inspector general, the department of health and human services is invested getting these schemes. next question. >> abc news. >> thanks for taking my question. i want to follow up on a question from last week about the hospitalization rates for unvaccinated versus vaccinated people. 97% of people that were unvaccinated ended up in the hospital. do you have better numbers on the efficacy yet, dr. walensky? >> the 97% was data from june through may. -- through june. we continue to evaluate those. >> next question. let's go to kelly, inside health policy. >> thanks for taking my question. there have been reports from cdc that over a million people have already gotten unauthorized third doses of mrna vaccine. do you know if private insurances and medicare are still covering the administration piece of the struts or are they not recommended currently? >> we're doing an evaluation on that to make sure we understand and we have the capacity to track this and understand the practice. many of these are occurring in the context of people who may be severely immuno come from i

and medicaid services. more eligible uninsured americans can access plans with 0 premiums, health and human services secretary javier becerra says plans are cheaper than ever. now thanks to new subsidies which were included earlier this year in the american rescue plan. >> both cases, a plan that's going to cost nothing more than $10 or her last per month for quality health care. so if you don't sign up by august 15th. you could miss out on the peace of mind that comes from having quality health insurance. >> earlier this summer, there was some suggestion of another extension. but sarah says for now the last day remains august 15th the 2022 open enrollment period begins november. 1st. >> a major hurricane spinning in the pacific. another one in the atlantic. that may be a problem this weekend will show both to you. >> coming up next. and bill cosby is back in court. the new allegations he's facing here in california. >> and in sports, the ace try to make it 8 in a row in texas will have the highlights much more sports when we come back. >> and now kron 4 sports. >> both barry baseball teams red hot. we'll get

and the potentially negative impact on children's health, safety and well being. if investigators obtain information about conduct and appears to fall outside of the law or health and human services policies and regulations, we will forward those details to our office of investigations for appropriate action. from was the guy the media love to hate perfect pantomime 1000000000. he made it easy. biden has been presented as the mirror image from his position was clear if controversial and divisive bite and said the right things enough to claim the election, appealing to both sides of the migration debate, but faced with a record breaking crisis, he risks losing some of his biggest eyes and in future, his political support. majority of the reporters, the people in the media, whether that be to fill a vision or the print press, they are anti crime because those who consider themselves to be a journalist. the majority of them, when they went to the school, to the universities, to study journalism. they were all within the demo part of the democrats. part of this by then is losing among the poles among the american people. and that's the immigration is one of them may have taken on tho

. >> can hhs, dhs bring in more people from health and human services to try to get shelter to the people>> couldn't it be extended to families with these babies? >> those people go to i.c.e. i.c.e. is stepping in, doing something they've never done before. as of this weekend, they're coming in, taking families, processing them. that means welfare checks, giving covid tests, offering vaccines. it is a big step, but for those people at the border, officials wonder how to handle it in their towns, they say it is too little, too late. >> i.c.e. is a law enforcement agency, they're not equipped with social workers and the like. >> it has advocates concerned how it might go down, do they have training to do this. at this point there's so little resources to go around, it looks like they're scrambling. >> thank you so much for staying on this. wonderful thing you're doing there. >>> that does it for this edition of andrea mitchell reports. follow the show on facebook and twitter. chuck todd is next with "mtp daily" only on msnbc. s next witp daily" only on msnbc balanced nutrition for strength

the inspector general for the department of health and human services is investigating conditions atnor children. children are being told to turn their underwear insight out because no clothes are available. cramped quarters, undercooked food. why is this happening? >> well, let me say one thing that's very, very important. we have ended the policies of cruelty that defined the prior administration. and that was done very swiftly. we are no longer expelling unaccompanied children under title 42, the authority of the centers for disease control. the president ended that because of the cruelty that it imposed upon vulnerable children. we are caring for children. and if in fact there are any weak naelss or infirmities in what we do, we cure them very quickly. the department of health and human services took swift action at fort bliss to address the conditions that the inspector general of that department reported. >> so it's been realmmedied tha this is going on that they are having undercooked food and having to wear their underwear inside out. that has been fixed? >> solutions have be

and the potentially negative impact on children's health, safety and oil being. if investigators obtain information about conduct and appears to fall outside of the law or health and human services policies and regulations, we will forward those details to our office of investigations for appropriate action trunk was the guy the media love to hate. a perfect pantomime bill and he made it easy. biden has been presented as the mirror image from his position was clear, if controversial and divisive biden said the right things enough to claim the election, appealing to both sides of the migration debate. but faced with a record breaking crisis, he was losing some of his biggest allies at an future. his political support. majority of the reporters, the people in the media, whether that be to television or the print press, they are anti trust because those who consider themselves to be a journalist. majority of them, when they went to the school to the universities, to study journalism, they were all within the them or part of the democrat party is by then is losing among the the polls among the american people. and that's the immigration is one of them. italy is temporarily exempted

and the potentially negative impact on children's health, safety and oil being. if investigators obtain information about conduct and appears to fall outside of the law or health and human services policies and regulations, we will forward those details to our office of investigations for appropriate action trunk was the guy the media love to hate. a perfect pantomime bill and he made it easy. biden has been presented as the mirror image from his position was clear, if controversial and divisive biden said the right things enough to claim the election, appealing to both sides of the migration debate. but faced with a record raking crisis, he risks losing some of his biggest allies and in future his political support. this is a political strategy. this was a political strategy. during the 2020 elections at 2020 pe, you know, to present himself opposite to truck. but when you were governing the united states, so he bided on with many people that do not advocate for over borders. and for immigrants to common greater numbers. you know, he faced the reality. he didn't know how difficult it was going to be to have this problem political and real because the conditions that people in c

they also got a federal d disaster medical assistant team from health and human services, to set up inorce and army personnel arriving to provide further help. there are three vaccines, that have been in use in the united states for months now. pfizer, moderna and johnson & johnson. before today, all three of those vaccines were approved under something called emergency use authorization. millions and millions of doses safely administered of all three vaccines. they've all proven to be effective, and keeping you from keeping you infected, if you still get infected they're very effective at reducing the chance of getting dangerous. all the states that are so overrun right now, it's basically because of low uptake of vaccines, in those states. today, interesting progress, for the first time the fda grants full approval, not emergency use authorization to the pfizer vaccine. for everybody aged 16 and up. that's a sort of graduation for pfizer. from emergency use authorization to full approval. and now today, a clear the way for another things, a new mandate for all active duty u.s. servic

harvard kennedy school and school of public health and former assistant secretary at the department of health and human servicesorking sunday on capitol hill as senators are racing to get the bipartisan bill across the finish line. senator ben ray lujan explains what to expect in the coming days. velshi is available as a podcast. listen for free wherever you get your podcasts. more "velshi" after the break. more gain scent plus oxi boost and febreze in every gain fling. start your day with crest 3d white and from mochaccinos to merlot, your smile will always be brilliant. crest 3d white brilliance. 100% stain removal, 24 hour stain resistance to lock in your whitest smile. crest. the #1 toothpaste brand in america. i brought in ensure max protein, with thirty grams of protein. those who tried me felt more energy in just two weeks! [sighs wearily] here, i'll take that! woo-hoo! ensure max protein. with thirty grams of protein, one gram of sugar, and now with two new flavors! so then i said to him, you oughta customize your car insurance with liberty mutual, one gram of sugar, so you only pay for what you need. h