jonathan reiner, professor of medicine at george washington university. good evening, doctor.t this past week in a covid hotspot, florida, talking to officials there. hospitals are overwhelmed. the mask fight clearly highly politicized, very irrational, very emotional. and i'll tell you, i was super concerned. i have little kids at home who don't have the option of being vaccinated. i took -- my husband, maybe. i took my n95 with me wherever i went. should we all be dusting off thosen n95s for trips to the grocery store? >> absolutely. n95 masks and kn95 masks are very effective at preventing infection. during the hottest months of this pandemic, the safest places to be have basically been in hospitals where staff have been wearing n95 masks. there have been several studies that have shown that the infection rates in hospitals in communities that are -- have high positivity rates, the positivity rates in the hospital are substantially lower. there was a plan in the trump administration that they canceled to send masks to every household in april of 2020. i would love to see th

jonathan reiner, a cnn medical analyst. you have always been helpful to me when i've had a lot of questions over the last couple of months. we've got it seems even more now. i want to start with probably the most important element here. which is, if vaccine hesitancy does not improve or vaccine opposition, is the situation we're seeing in florida a precursor of what we could see play out nationwide in the next few months? >> i think, phil, it will play out throughout all the states with similar vaccine resistance. there is a little bit of good news in that our vaccine rates seem to be on the rise. for the last five days the united states has averaged more than 700,000 shots. for the last four days we're averaging more than 400,000 new people coming in for first-time shots. so i think that's an acknowledgment that maybe some of the message is starting to get down to the grass roots. maybe people are starting to see folks in their community get sick and see hospitals fill. so whatever the reason for the uptick in vaccinations

jonathan reiner. thank you so much for joining me. doctor, you know, i've spoken to you for a year and a half about this. i have a different perspective after going there or i should say an enhanced perspective from going inside that hospital. one of the hardest parts is knowing these people who are so sick in this hospital with covid, that they didn't have to be. there is a vaccine and it is available and there's information out there and that vaccine is free. >> that's what's so damn frustrating for me, that for the last almost 8 months we've had a get out of jail free card, literally free. no one in the united states now needs to be hospitalized for covid-19. our vaccines are that good. we've failed the public in our messaging. our leadership has failed the public in how we have presented the vaccines to this country. one of the original sins was to call the vaccine program operation warp speed. you heard some of the patients that you spoke to in the hospital express concern about how rapidly the vaccine was developed. you know, th

jonathan reiner. a thousand deaths a day?d did you think we'd be back here despite all of these vaccines being available? >> we got back to this point for two reasons. a more contagious, more aggressive variant came upon the united states. that's the delta variant. and we have inadequately vaccinated our population. you asked in the tease before the break, what could we do to get past that? and the answer is both hard and simple. the simple part of that answer is we need to vaccinate more americans. we have fully vaccinated 51% of this country. canada has fully vaccinated 67%. the canadians have a daily rate per capita of about 2 cases per 100,000 population. we have 27 per 100,000 population. the magic number appears to be somewhere between 65% and 70% fully vaccinated. that's where you really get a dramatic decrease in transmission. we have a long way to go. i'm hoping that anticipated fda approval will maybe boost this a bit. >> we got the news overnight that conservative radio host phil valentine had passed away from covi

jonathan reiner. i appreciate it.well. >> have a good night, don. >> you as well. >>> democratic leaders from president biden to nancy pelosi calling on governor emmcuomo to resign. i'm going to ask a top senator if he agrees next. >>> plus simone biles finally takes to the competition floor and revealing a family tragedy. what's the #1 retinol brand used most by dermatologists? it's neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® smooths the look of fine lines in 1-week, deep wrinkles in 4. so you can kiss wrinkles goodbye! neutrogena® hey, i just got a text from my sister. you remember rick, her neighbor? sure, he's the 76-year-old guy who still runs marathons, right? sadly, not anymore. wow. so sudden. um, we're not about to have the "we need life insurance" conversation again, are we? no, we're having the "we're getting coverage so we don't have to worry about it" conversation. so you're calling about the $9.95 a month plan -from colonial penn? -i am. we put it off long enough. we are getting that $9.95 plan, today. (jonathan)

jonathan reiner. i trained with him and i trained under him at george washington university. i absolutely agree with that. i think the cdc is currently meeting to try to provide some clarity on that very issue. the entire medical and scientific community has a question about these immunocompromised and we know that some of the trials are going on, moderna and others, specifically looking at this particular population, the organ transplant population, with regards to what -- once they have received both doses of the vaccine. we're looking for the guidance to come forward because the questions are being asked. >> dr. morgan, appreciate your taking the time thank you for being with us on this friday and offering your expertise. thank you for all you do. >> some good news in the july jobs report today but who is getting hired and where? >>> andrew cuomo facing new legal challenges today. you're live in the cnn newsroom. neuriva plus fuels six key indicators of brain performance. more brain performance? yes, please! neuriva. think bigger. this is the sound of change from pnc bank.

jonathan reiner of the cardiac department of johns hopkins hospital.>> my pleasure. >> you really think the governors are going to listen to joe biden, president biden? what is it going to take for them to take the safety of their citizens for seriously, is the question? >> what is sad about this, it doesn't have to be this way. it shouldn't have to -- it doesn't violate the rules of physics for a governor to do what is necessary to contain the pandemic. i live in a state of maryland that has a republican governor larry logan who has done a terrific job in the pandemic. he prioritized masking early on. had mask mandates in the state for quite a while. prioritized testing and right now, maryland is averaging 8 new cases per 100,000 residents. florida that has a republican governor that has just prohibited mask mandates in the state, has prohibited vaccine passports. has prohibited any type of lockdown throughout the state. florida has 82 cases per 100,000 residents every day. so the different is stark. look, hospitals in florida are filling with patient

jonathan reiner. dr. reiner, thank you so much for this. to pop up this video again, abbott's event last night. it's in a high-transmission county in texas. just to remind everyone, the cdc recommends people wear masks in public, indoor settings, and areas with high transmission, even if they're vaccinated. listen, no one wants anybody to become positive with covid, but after all, he is the governor of the state and has a responsibility to set an example for the people in his state. does this prove exactly why mask mandates are actually a good idea? >> right. so, you know, you can't find a mask in that crowd. what that turns out to be now last night in texas is a superspreader event. the governor of texas positive today was almost certainly infectious and contagious last night. i think his behavior is astonishingly hypocritical. so he would deny school districts in texas the ability to protect our most vulnerable citizens now who are our kids, who are all unvaccinated, all kids under 12 are unvaccinated. he would deny them the protection of

jonathan reiner. the raw numbers look bleak.haps a few glimmers of some progress out there? >> hi, john. first of all, i think the rate of growth in the united states, even though cases continue to encr increase, the rate of increase looks leaike it's starting to slow. let's look at missouri. you look at new cases there. looks like they've almost started to decline now. same thing for nevada. i think some of our earlier states are starting to see a dropoff. when you look at placed like the u.k. and india, this delta surge started to drop after about two months. we're about at the two-month mark now for places like missouri and nevada. i'm starting to think that perhaps there is some reason to hope that in another three to four weeks we'll start to see the united states peak and perhaps start to decline. >> one thing the administration says is there's an increase in the vaccination rate. it has now gotten up over 500,000 people a day. i want to come back to this hospitalization issue. 73,000 people in the hospital with covid. if

jonathan reiner. he's the director of the cardiac president, and also with us, mark mckinnon and the executive producer of the circus. good evening. dr. reiner, you just heard those educators, facing threats and pushback from their governors for trying to keep students safe. there were parents there pleading with him to -- with this delta variant, they are angry and they are rightfully so at the so-called leaders playing games with their children's lives. >> right. so this variant is infecting kids at a very rapid rate now. about 220 children are being admitted to -- children's hospitals every day in the united states and in parts of the country, it's hard to find a room in an intensive care unit in a children's hospital because of the coronavirus. so the threat is real. over 4,000 kids in this country have had the multisystem inflammatory syndrome, a serious disease with unknown long-term consequences. so the consequences are real and now -- it's also important to understand that all of our kids unde

jonathan reiner talking about florida governor ron desantis and how bad things are there.hreatened to pull funding from any district that tries to compel districts to wear them. this as record breaking new daily cases of covid-19. one infectious disease expert at florida international university told cnn that miami area children's hospitals are, quote, completely overwhelmed right now. frances suarez is the mayor of miami. he joining me now to talk about this. thanks for joining us. how bad are things across florida and in your city right now? >> definitely the lead indicators are not good. new cases are up. percent positivity is up and hospitalizations are up. the good news is that our population is increasingly vaccinated. for those in the most vulnerable population, 65 and older, 99% of them have received one dose and 84% are fully vaccinated. we have 75% of those 18 and over are also fully vaccinated. this is as a ceo of one of the largest public hospitals in the country said, this is certainly the pandemic of the unvaccinated in many cases. a large percentage of peopl

jonathan reiner and times. rise in cases, 50% of the country fully vaccinated. to you, which is the more significant metric? will we ever reach a point of heard immunity in this country? >> i would rather talk about community immunity. we're such a divide country parts of the yunited states wil have effectively community immunity. already in vermont probably that's what you have. so many people almost 90% of adults have been vaccinated in vermont that you really do have a level of immunity. in places, particularly in the south, where in some place only a third of adults have been vaccinated, we won't reach that for a long time. but the level of deaths we're seeing now is the tip of the iceberg. 500 americans die d yesterday, but death is a lagging indicator. typically it lags if he cans by two to three weeks. two to three weeks ago there were 33,000 cases per day that. generated 500 deaths. right now we're three times that level so i suspect by the end of this month we'll be tipping 1500 deaths per day. almost every one of those folks unvaccinated. >> we're seei

jonathan reiner, director of the cardiac catheterization program at george washington university hospitalspoke to a hospitalized virginia man who had not gotten the vaccine and is now urging others to get their shots. here is part of it. >> please. please don't wait. don't procrastinate. the delta variant is stronger and faster. and it attacks those who are not vaccinated or have more medical conditions. a person who is not vaccinated will be attacked ten times faster and harder. it's not worth it. get your vaccination or your friends will carry your body for your wife. >> what do you think about what he said, doctor? >> it's very painful to hear. and we've been trying to get the message out for the last eight months, to get people to listen to science. we've tried to keep this apolitical and focus on the benefits of vaccines. what we know these vaccines can do. yet somehow they've become politicized and it's really painful to hear somebody in such distress. air hunger, what someone with a viral pneumonia to have, struggling to breathe, is an agonizing way to be. i think more and more peo

jonathan reiner and cnn political commentator amanda carpenter. good evening to both of you. thanks for joining. amanda, you're up first. biden's calling gop governors like ron desantis and greg abbott disingenuous, pointing out the hypocrisy of the way they're acting and the fact that they're risking kids' lives. i know you have been watching what is happening closely. why are they doing this? >> i've got to say number one, i fully support biden in leading into this issue extremely hard. but i think it shows his frustration because he's getting a little bit off his winning playbook. i mean, joe biden was successful in 2020 because despite everything that donald trump threw at him he didn't make it petty, he didn't make it personal. he stuck to the policies. and here he's on much stronger ground talking about the pol policies of vaccination, why masks work, why we all need to go in on this together to protect children than calling ron desantis disingenuous, hypocritical. i don't necessarily think that joe biden is wrong in doing so. but the emotions around this are so hot rig

jonathan reiner, medical adviser george w. bush white house. dr.on to what happened to scott aptly. it's horrible. >> yeah. it's horrible. my condolences to mr. aptly's family. there should be no -- for the death of somebody like mr. aptly or anyone else who has, you know, doubted the seriousness of this of horrible pandemic and yet has gotten sick. this virus has split the country by politics and this is the tragedy that we've let politics blind people to science. i am reminded that at the time of the signing the declaration of independence, that benjamin frankly said very appreciationly, if we don't all hang together, we will hang separately. we need to come together as a country and listen to scientists, not politicians, about this pandemic. 96% of physicians in this country have been vaccinated. that's about all the public needs to understand right now. physicians get it. the public needs to get it. you shouldn't be listening to polarized politics. >> so republican senator lindsey graham is recovering from a break-through infection. he did get

jonathan reiner to help us out on this. doctor, thank you very much.urt refusing to sfintervene by the mask mandates. tonight the texas education agency put out public health guidance to schools letting them know that the ban on mask mandates in the governor's executive order not being enforced now, right? so, while it's not going to be enforced while it's tied nupt courts. and once it's resolved they're going to provide further guidance. so, for now it seems like schools can -- students can wear masks or they can do mask mandates if they will unless there is a further development -- if they want to, i should say. >> right. well, that's what the order says, that they will not enforce the governor's ban on local school districts machndates mas. but there was never any public interest any court would hold for upholding the governor's ban. i'm just cynical enough to think that the governor himself has told the education agency not to uphold his own order because pediatric hospitals in texas are filled with kids. and i think, you know, like the governor of

jonathan reiner, he advised the white house medical team under president george bush.ors, one after another, announcing this, awfully vaccinated. we don't know if they're connected or not. but what does this mean for the rest of us? >> well, first of all, kate, i find it more than a little bit ironic that there was a democrat, independent, and a republican, because the virus doesn't care. the virus doesn't care what your politics are, the virus doesn't care whether you believe in it. but i think we can make some conclusions about this. so first of all, all three of the senators are about 70 or above. i think senator hickenlooper is 69. wicker is 70, and angus king is 77. we know in old effort people, and the antibody response is not as robust as for younger people. and it degrades over time. also, we know that these senators were vaccinated were early. all members of congress were vaccinated beginning in the first wave. so they would have been vaccinated in december or january. and that's now eight months out. what we're learning is that the effect of the vaccines wane

jonathan reiner is here, and joe allen, director of the healthy buildings program at the harvard publics." good to see both of you. joe, it's been a while. i see dr. reiner every night, he's our nightly house call. they could have held this party and technically been in accordance with the state guidelines since it was going to be outside. but they were looking at possibly 600 people, between guests and staff. it's the summer. there are lots of events, big and small, weddings, concerts, et cetera. what do people need to know? >> thanks for having me back on, don, good to see you as well. i think people have to be concerned here that the delta variant is different. we know this, this is much more highly transmissible. it feels like another moment of uncertainty here in terms of where we are as a country. that said, some basic fundamentals still apply. first and foremost, vaccines are safe and effective, that's the path out of this, that's how you stay safe. in addition, events outdoors are much safer. if you're vaccinated and outdoors, i think that's a low risk activity. i think we have

jonathan reiner. doctor, great to see you on set. this is terrific. are we really at this point again where events are going to have to be canceled in this country? a lot of people thought we were going around, around the bend over this, getting over this hump. doesn't appear to be the case. as you said, it's just so -- was so avoidable. a year ago, no one really thought we would actually have the tools to do what we did this spring, which was largely to extinguish this pandemic in the united states. our vaccines work better than we could have possibly hoped they would work. our vaccines prove to be remarkably safe. these vaccines have been given now to billions of people on this planet. and yet we have been unable to convince about one-third of the country -- a third of the adults to take it. and to me, it feels like i'm flying on an airplane through the worst turbulence and about 70% of the passengers on the airplane are buckled in and the other, you know, third of the passengers are not just unbuckled but trying to open the emergency escape doors.

jonathan reiner. he is the director of the cardiac catheterization program at george washington university hospital. also with us, mr. mark mckinnon, he is the former adviser to george w. bush and john mccain and the executive producer of "the circus." good evening, gents. dr. reiner, um, you just heard the -- those educators facing threats and pushback from their governors. for trying to keep students safe. there were parents there, pleading with him to -- with this -- with this delta variant, they are angry and they are rightfully so at the so-called leaders playing games, really, with their children's lives. >> right. so, this variant is infecting kids, at a -- at a very rapid rate, now. about 220 children are being admitted to children's hospitals, every day, in the -- in the united states. and in parts of the country, it's hard to find a room in an intensive-care unit in a children's hospital because of the coronavirus. so, the threat is real. over 4,000 kids in this country have had the multisys

jonathan reiner a medical av advisor to george w. bush. so what does that mean?ppointment immediately? >> this is expected and i think this is good news. it's good to see the fda and cdc becoming a little more proactive about this. we've known for awhile that it appears the efficacy of the mnra vaccine, over six months the effectiveness of the vaccine begans begins to wayne a little bit but the vaccines remain super effective at preventing severe illness that would require hospitalization or death. we're starting to see a decline in the efficacy of these vaccines to prevent symptomatic illness. this is the first group of people who would be boosted would be the immune compromised. the u.s. has 3%, maybe up to 10 million people organ transplant recipients, cancer patients, they will be first. i think the second group should actually be health care workers. many of the health care workers -- >> interesting -- >> were vaccinated eight months ago. i was vaccinated on december 17th. so i think that we should in setting of a surging delta variant, i think health care w

leading research at duke university looking at global vaccine distribution and cnn medical analyst jonathan reinere idea that the u.s. might get third shots or start distributing third shots, you've got some problems with this as other countries are trying to get their first. >> well, so the issue is that we're trying to solve a global crisis with local interventions and that's never going to work. so we need to end transmission globally before we'll be successfully at ending it locally. to do that, we need to ensure at least 70% of the world can get vaccinated to stop global transmission. until we do that, we'll just be stuck in this game of playing whack a mole with the different emerging infectious variants popg up and boosters over and over again until we just end it at a global level. >> doctor, what do you think? >> well, look, i don't think it's a binary choice. i think the united states can do both. i think we can be what the president calls an arsenal for vaccines for the world. the united states has committed, i believe, half a billion doses to covax and will contribute to the g7 gang an

jonathan reiner is "outfront". you've seen this from all sides. dr.a and by the way, the context here is really important. the fda has no confirmed leaders. you don't have anyone formally confirmed and charged. officials are frustrated the way the white house announced boosters would be available for all adults next month. how much does all of this matter? could it hurt trust in the rack s -- vaccine process itself when you see the end fighting? >> it matters a lot, erin. l let's look what happened. the director and deputy director of the fda center task with approving buy logics including vaccines, when they resign on the same day during a pandemic at a time the fda is endeavoring to approve not just booster shots but also vaccines for children under the age of 12, it speaks to great dysfunction within the fda. what is supposed to happen is the fda is supposed to license or approve a vaccine and then the cdc, their committee meets to bay sebasically say how the vaccines will be used. that's for immune compromised people. five days later in a statemen

jonathan reiner describe the search. >> it is so high in florida that i think if florida or another countrye would have to consider banning travel from florida to the united states. he needs to understand that he has painted himself into a corner. people are dying in florida. it is going to get much worse. >> harry, the doctor set it up asking the question, if florida or louisiana were foreign countries, what we been travel? >> i mean this is bad. florida, louisiana, look at this. worst of the entire pandemic in both louisiana and florida. look at that per 100,000. up to 100 per day. look at this, hospitalizations. same deal, look at this. worst of the entire pandemic in both louisiana and florida. the only difference is louisiana , florida is worse than the other. but anyway you look at it is bad. compared to other countries look at this. these are countries. the united kingdom, france, greece. a sickly have to wait 14 days after you've been in the country. essentially a travel ban. covid cases per 100,000, louisiana +99. florida +90. united kingdom, only +40. still really high but not nea

jonathan reiner that advised the white house medical team under george w bush. dana, is there any doubt in your mind what desantis is doing by escalating this war of words? >> no. there really isn't and as you played in the intro, you know, all, the biggest tale for those of us that cover politics is whether or not a politician is trying to raise money off of the actions that they are engaging in. and the fact that ron desantis is doing just that is the biggest tell aside from so many other political data points that fly in the face of what seems to be the medical and the scientific data points that are going on in florida. the fact is that the hospitalization rates are skyrocketing and so on and so forth and, you know, it is a bit ironic that what the governor has done is issue a mandate that people can't on a more local level in florida issue mandates. i mean, there is a bit of rich irony in that, don't you think, kate? >> in the republican tradition of valuing local control, yes, there is quite a bit of rich irony in that. dr. reiner, dana is talking about th

jonathan reiner and dr. peter hotez. doctors, thank you so much. i appreciate it. i'm going to start with you, dr. hotez. this is big news. people have been wondering. people have been asking me, are we going to get a third shot? when are we going to know about a third shot? some americans are already coming up to their eight-month shot period, right? so what does this mean for them now? >> so, don, this really follows a trend that we've been following out of israel, and there was also a recent mayo clinic study that's been showing what looks like waning immunity after six, seven, eight months. for a while, we didn't know if it was true, waning immunity or whether there was a specific issue around the delta variant or maybe a combination of the two. it looks like there is indeed waning immunity, especially in older populations. now i think the game-changer is not only is it waning immunity against infection, it had gone down to as low as 40%, 45%, 50% protection against infection, but it was still holding up against hospitalizations. now we're starting to see more

jonathan reiner early on in this program where he said it's time to start doing booster shots.now some people quarrel with the term booster shots, but start getting extra shots out there to people because that protection may be needed as we head into the fall and winter. >> listen, the more people who don't get vaccinated at all, the more we'll need a third shot, a fourth shot. i don't think there's any safety issues with doing that. i also don't think it's necessary for people with strong immune systems. i don't fault people for doing it. people are scared. they don't want to get delta variant. they don't want to get covid. even if your risk is 1/100 of somebody who isn't vaccinated and you want to bring that down a little bit more, i understand that. i know the fda is monitoring the numbers and once they recommend that, that will happen. we've still got to keep getting it in arms of people who aren't vaccinated so we can get out of a fourth dose and fifth dose down the road. >> yeah. we've got to get those 49.5% folks who haven't been fully vaccinated, vaccinated. and if they

jonathan reiner to help us out with this. as well as other news on the covid front.ch. so talk to me about this breaking news, the supreme court refusing to intervene on these mask mandates issued by several local jurisdictions. so tonight, the texas education agency put out public-health guidance to schools letting them know that the ban on mask mandates in the governor's executive order. not being enforced, now. right? so, while it's -- it's not gonna be enforced while it's tied up in the courts. and once it's resolved, then they're going to provide further guidance. so for now, it seems like schools can -- students can wear masks. or they can do mask mandates if they will unless there is a further development? if they want to, i should say. >> right. well, that's what the order says. that they will not enforce the governor's ban on local school districts mandating masks. but there was never any public interest that any court would hold for -- upholding the governor's ban. look, i'm just cynical enough to think that the governor, himself, has -- has told the educat

jonathan reiner. dr. reiner, great to have you again here in person as always. when you hear about hospital beds being put in a parking garage in mississippi or if you call for an ambulance in memphis, tennessee, it may not come. what goes through your mind. >> the system is breaking. it's not just the beds. many hospitals can find beds in places like parking structures or cafeterias, but it's qualified people to staff those beds. the united states is critically short on icu nurses. so finding the qualified staff to take care of critically ill patients becomes increasingly hard. what you see happen is hospitals pay large sums of money to try and attract staff from all over the country to come into these surge areas and that leads to problem staffing hospitals, in not the hottest parts of the country. so it's a series of dominos that starts to fall when the system breaks like this. >> is it going to help, the fact that the cdc has endorsed this additional vaccine dose for immunocompromised people? is that going to help put a dent in all of this? >> well, it will

john none r -- jonathan ryaner and seniored a tore at the atlantic. dr. reiner, let's start with you here. we've talked so much over the last year and a half about mask mandates, about masks in schools. when you see what austin is considering and what we heard from the governor, his concern over hospitals, how do you think things are going in texas? >> it's fractured the way it is in large parts of this country. i applaud mayor adler for looking after the best interest of his constituents. our children are most vulnerable at any time and now particularly during this pandemic. we have vaccinated almost 200 million americans now. not a single one of those americans is under the age of 12. every one of our young children in this country is vulnerable to infection and they're getting infected at record rates. about 220 kids per day in the united states are being admitted to hospitals and about a third of those children are being admitted to icus. this is a real danger to children. b about 4,000 kids have had multi system inflammatory disorder, which is a serious inf

jonathan ryaner. he's advised the white house medical team under president bush. dr. reinereople have been waiting for, now coming as soon as monday, how significant is it? >> i think it's a milestone, a big milestone. so today the united states passed another milestone vaccinating 200 millionth person in this country with at least one shot. but we have another almost 30% of the country to go. and we won't do that in our current state. what approving the vaccine means is first of all, it will allow businesses, states to i think more easily mandate vaccines. hospitals, school districts. i think once the vaccine is approved for children over the age of 12, i think you'll see school districts mandate the vaccine for children going back to school. it will, i think, also give confidence to some of the folks who are still vaccine hesitant. a recent kaiser survey suggested one-third of the holdouts can be swayed or willing to get vaccinated once the vaccine receives full approval. so i expect we'll see a surge in vaccinations to follow. >> i was actually going to ask you about that