jorge rodriguez, great to talk to you. really enjoyed it.nk you so much. >>> hospitals in texas are dealing with a traumatic surge in covid patients especially along the southern border. ed lavandera spoke with a patient fighting for his life and yerng to be reunited with his wife and kids. >> reporter: the coronavirus has held an excruciating grip of jose limon's lungs. even as his voice trails off it's clear he has one thing on his mind. >> i miss, i miss -- i miss my family. >> reporter: all this anxious time alone gives a 60-year-old man time to reflect on what matters most so he thinks a lot about how he loves coaching baseball teams and dressing up as santa claus for kids around his hometown of del rio, texas. he requires round-the-clock oxygen. the desire to reunite with his wife and three children is his motivation. >> get out of here. i'm going to do t i'm going to make it. >> he's a fan favorite up here. he's a super sweet man and keeps you going. >> reporter: lana sanchez has been by his side in the medical center. sanchez has spe

jorge rodriguez told me earlier. >> first of all, it's a very good vaccine. we have gotten spoiled by the numbers that were thrown out by pfizer and moderna in the 90s. that is spectacular. had it not been something to compare to, we would think, well, it's a great vaccine. it has 72% he wa he was -- and prod prevention in deaths. it's more affordable and can be distributed to many areas of the world with one shot. it can be a game changer for sure. >> absolutely. quite another arrow in the quiver, vaccines of course, prevent illness, what do we know about whether they prevent infection. the j and j is fairly effective in that regard. it's is nteresting, it was triad against more series version serf the virus. you cannot compare them, they used different populations at different types of the year. the j and j virus had more people tested in south africa that had that variant. it has been shown to decrease the spread. >> now, the u.s. finally releases that the report on the killing of a disident saudi journalist. we will have details and the reaction. with aud

jorge rodriguez told me. >> it's a very good vaccine. we've gotten spoiled by the numbers that were thrown out by pfizer and moderna in the 90s. that's spectacular. had that not been something for us to compare to, we would have said, wow, this is a great vaccine. it's got 72% efficacy here in the united states, 85% reduction of very serious covid illness, and 100% really reduction in deaths. but what makes it great is that it is one injection. it does not have to be kept in subzero temperatures. it is probably more affordable, and it is something that can probably be distributed to many areas of the world with just one shot. so it can be a global game-changer for sure. >> absolutely. quite another arrow in the quiver. vaccines of course prevent illness, but what do we know about whether they prevent infection? it was interesting, the j&j has been shown to be fairly effective in that regard. it's interesting too, we should note it was trialed against comparatively more serious versions of the virus as well. >> which is why you can't comp

kaitlan, let me start there with cnn medical analyst jorge rodriguez, internal medicine and analyst sabrina sediqqi. welcome to both of you. doc, i'm starting with you. watching our town hall last night biden said there will be enough vaccines available for every american by july, but when you look at the math and where we are now, only 4.5% of the population, 4.5% is fully vaccinated right now, so how is he going to make that happen by july? >> well, you know, in crunching the numbers, you'd have to vaccinate 1.5 million people every day, including saturday and sundays until we get to mid-july for that to happen. is it possible? yes, and i love the administration's optimism, but look what happened now. natural changes happen, natural disasters, weather. who knows, so it really is going to take a concerted effort for this to happen. can it, absolutely. >> okay. i appreciate your optimism, too, and i'm all for saturday and sundays. sabrina, president biden has been facing all kinds of criticism from republicans that he's willing to upset the -- unwilling to upset the teachers union. the whit

jorge rodriguez to talk about this. we don't know much, doctor.ow that he's suffered moderate to critical injuries and that he had to be pulled from his car using the jaws of life. moderate to critical injuries. maybe you could speak to -- i mean, look, we do not know what is happening here, but in a situation like this, in a car wreck like this, what kinds of injuries might we be talking about? >> well, first of all, from what i heard about where this occurred in the palos verdes estates area. it's a hilly terrain. a rolling car like that could have suffered many, many rollovers and many crashings and things of that nature. the fact that he got removed from the jaw of life tell you he was very accordioned into that. some things will be obvious. the fact that they were so general of what he could be having from moderate to critical tells you they may not know exactly and some of the things that could be happening right now are neurological injuries. did his brain get injured? does he have a hematoma, a subdurable which means is there blood accumul

jorge rodriguez to walk through some of this with me. one thing that really sticks out, doctor, as we're listening to this, we heard from the cdc director that the variants that have popped up are of great concern, as she put it, and dr. anthony fauci saying that is all the more reason why it is more important than ever to get as many people vaccinated as possible. as he said, viruses cannot mutate if they cannot replicate. talk us through that. >> well, first of all, incredible briefing. i'm so glad that we're having these transparent briefings. i circled that also. there was so much information here. that is the key, and i think people need to wrap their head around the fact that if the virus is floating around, it cannot make new viruses. it needs to infect someone in order to replicate. and in the replication process is where mistakes happen, and those mistakes are called mutations. and that's when, if you make a mutation that causes the virus to be stronger and survive longer, survival of the fittest, that is going to be the dominan