leana wen, thanks. >>> india. 412,262 new covid cases, were recorded in india, today.e since the start of the pandemic. every-single day, for the past two weeks, the country's added more than 300,000 cases. that's breaking global records. now, india's also reported a record number of deaths today. 3,980. it's a staggering amount of loss and grief. cnn's chief international correspondent, clarissa ward, is in india. and here is her report. >> reporter: the cremations start before dawn. as workers still clean away the embers of the night before. nestled on the banks of the river, india's holiest city. but it has not been spared by the vicious, second wave of coronavirus ripping through the country. as day breaks, he waits for the rush to begin. his family has worked in the crematorium for generations. but, he says, they've never seen anything like this. >> per day. every -- every five minute, ten minute, bring the body. >> reporter: officially, the government says that eight to ten people are dying here of coronavirus, every day. the real figure is, clearly, much, much h

leana wen in here with me to talk about all of this. she's a cnn medical analyst and former health commissioner for the city of baltimore. dr. wen, briefly your thoughts on americans traveling more, airlines filling their planes, no more empty middle seats. these restrictions are being lifted. now the cruise lines making plans to set sail again, maybe in july. are you concerned we can travel safely again now? >> i think we can travel safely, especially for people who are fully vaccinated and i actually wish the cdc would come out and just say it in this kind of clear way and say if you want to travel, get vaccinated. once you're vaccinated, it's safe to travel. if you're not yet vaccinated, you have to take a lot of precautions and ideally limit your travel to nonessential travel only f you're fully vaccinated, your risk of getting coronavirus and spreading it to others is extremely low. so you should go and try to resume as much of a pre-pandemic life that you're comfortable with. >> dr. wen, you took strong issue with president biden'

leana wen, is not a supporter of the move. could lead to a resurgence of infections. she adds, quote, this was a major blunder that threatens to set back much of the progress made. but president biden needs to fix it, urgently. dr. wen joins me, now. so, fix it how? >> well, i think, first, we have to recognize the problem, anderson, which is that the cdc got the science correct. but they got the policy and the communication really wrong. i think that they were trying to give, essentially, individual-level guidance, as if they were a doctor. i think it's appropriate for a doctor to tell the patient, once h you are fully vaccinated, you are now well protected from getting covid-19. but that's very different from then saying that to the country. because it was then understood as community or societal-level guidance. which is the reason we have seen mask mandates just being dropped across the country. i think the biden administration, it may be too late to unring the bell and apply mask mandates, again. but i do think they can --

leana wen. so, we have got some viewer questions, dr. wen.th the new guidance, that now puts my kids at higher risk. will they be protected enough? >> yeah. i am really worried about this, too, anderson. and i know that you are in a similar situation. i mean, i have a 3 and a half-year-old who can mask and a one-year-old who doesn't mask. and my kids are not eligible to be vaccinated. it's not that i don't want them to be vaccinated. it's that they can't be. and i do really worry. now, we are going to be potentially going into grocery stores or other settings, where they could be exposed. and just to be clear, vaccinated people are not at risk, themselves. now, we know because they are now vaccinated. but those who are unvaccinated are still at risk, especially if there are now unvaccinated people who are not masking. and so, i do think that having your child wear a mask does help. that distancing is really important, as well. so if you are taking your kids to the grocery store or somewhere else, try to go at a time -- and if there are a lot

leana wen, good to see you.espite the reason for optimism, covid is a real concern for many people. who is most at risk right now, in your view? >> well, we know who is not at risk. those are the people who are fully vaccinated and are generally healthy. if you're vaccinate but severely human ocompromised, you are still potentially at risk, but everyone vaccinated should feel well protected. those who remain at risk are those that are unvaccinated. including children who are not yet eligible. their risk, according to a "the washington post" analysis, is similar to their risk in the middle of the height of the surge in january. so they should really still take precautions, including mask wears, distancing and avoiding indoor gatherings. >> why is the risk so high in so former vaccinated? >> well, we do have thankfully at this point, 40% of the country that's fully vaccinated. 50% of the country that's received at least one dose of the vaccine, but that means that half of the country has not seen a drop of the vac

. >> joining us now, cnn medical analyst leana wen. always good to have you.cause of the strains vary every year and it helps to boost your immunity. is that something people should expect, and is that smart? >> i think it's important for the science to continue here. we need to understand about breakthrough infections. for people who are fully vaccinated, is there a point at which their immunity begins to wane or are there variants where the vaccines are not protective against these variants? we need to study this. the cdc announced they're cutting back on the reporting of breakthrough infections. we need to do more studies about this. we need to be careful about how we talk about booster shots. while there are some people, probably like the three of us, who are happy to get a booster shot if needed, there are also a lot of people actually a lot of vaccine-hesitant individuals, name the possibility of a booster as a reason they don't want to get vaccinated in the first place. they think this pandemic is never going to be over. what's the point of even getting

leana wen. good to see you. can we start with the good news first? i think biden often likes to lead with the good news and he said 57% of american adults have one shot. that's a good level of protection for 60% adults so far, and we're still averaging more than a million shots, a million vaccinations per day. so i know we're always quick to say ouuh-oh, we're not at herd immunity yet, but we're getting there. >> right, and we have come a long way, alisyn. i think it's important to celebrate that. the fact we went up to at some point more than 3 million vaccinations given every day. the fact we now have 90% of americans living within five miles of being able to access a vaccine. i think this is huge. the biden administration deserves so much credit for expediting getting the supply of vaccines, increase in the distribution of vaccines. i think at this point we have to acknowledge there are still a lot of people who want to get vaccinated, have not yet in making vaccination easy and convenient for them, getting paid time off work, having the vaccinati

let's put it in perspective with doctor leana wen. vaccination is mandatory.141 are vaccinated. there's a health and a religious exception in keeping with the law. but if you come back to work unvaccinated, you will work on a floor with others who are unvaccinated. what do you think? >> i think a lot of employees would feel much safer coming back to work in that environment, especially if they're going to be coming into the same environment of crowded conference rooms that are not particularly well-ventilated. i would certainly feel comfortable if everybody around me is fully vaccinated. i think there's the other benefit too in that if you have a lot of fully vaccinated people they may not need to wear masks or do distancing. i think a lot of people would trade off getting vaccinated so they can take off their masks all day at work. >> i know you read "the new york times" which had a nice lay of the land to how the corporate world is taking advantage of the issues. it seemed like a lot of talk and very little action. >> i do think that more and more businesses

leana wen, an e.r. ician and former baltimore health commissioner and talk about the state of play. dr. wen, you say that the key factor in terms of determining what can i do this weekend, where can i go and how can i do it is whether you are vaccinated. explain. >> well, we are at so much of a better place than we were last year at this time. last year we were talking about hunkering down with your family unit and we didn't know what was coming ahead of us, we just knew that it was going to be really grim and it was. and now we're at a totally different place where we're actually telling people if you're fully vaccinated, go out and see your friends and family, go travel, do the things that you've been missing the last 16 months. so it's a totally different place. but it is a totally different place for those who are fully vaccinated. those individuals are very well protected from becoming ill, from spreading coronavirus to others. but the risk to those who are unvaccinated remains really high. the risk

leana wen. you have heard some of the concerns we have had here, dr. rodriguez, about implementing this in schools, because we have been having conversations about this moving forward, we talked about the camps and day camps for children. what do schools do for children with this new guidance? >> well, the guidance is for fully vaccinated people, and so at this point starting just a few days ago, children 12 and over can get vaccinated. i would think that the same precautions that were in place were recommended before, and what announced today is still going to be in place. this is yet another reason the importance of getting vaccinated. vaccinated adults 12 and above, these are the recommendations. anybody before that, i think is as it what before, and i think schools and summer camps are going to have to continue following the same recommendations as before. >> dr. wen, what were your thoughts when you heard dr. walensky say if you are fully vaccinated you can stop doing the things you were before because of the pandemic? >> i liked that part of what

leana wen warns we could be in big trouble again.could see the come back of covid-19 in the winter of 2021. the unvaccinated would be at the highest risk but even though receiving this vaccine could become ill with variants. the u.s. won't be able to contain the virus and may have to resort to societal level restrictions. dr. wen joins us now. so, dr. wen, there's obviously reason to be hopeful in the u.s. about the pandemic. explain why you're concerned that this good news now may set us up for bad news come this fall and winter. >> well, anderson, i'm very optimistic right now about where we are. i do think you're right, that we've hit this turning point and actually shows that public health has worked. so often public health is about preventing something terrible from happening. we were going to hit this fourth surge and we kept on talking about the race between the variants and the vaccines. we've won this race for now because our vaccinations were at such a high rate. what i worry about though is that we are going to see a calm

leana wen, former baltimore health commissioner and contributing columnist for "the washington post."ng is, when the cdc sort of said this about a week ago, it wasn't clear. this is as clear as it could be from dr. fauci. what's your read this morning? >> i love what dr. fauci said because that's really what the american people need to hear. it's something that clear, direct and practical. the cdc put out this complicated chart with faces in different colors, some with masks, some without masks. it was hard to determine. if you are outdoors, you're vaccinated, no need to wear a mask. i would go further than that and say, if your outdoors, full stop, you dont need to be wearing a mask. outdoors is the safest place to be if you are unvaccinated. i don't want unvaccinated people to be hanging out with each other at home indoors. i want them to go outside because that transmission rate is so much lower. i think people are just really tired of the pandemic and we have to give them ways to socialize and be with one another again. and that includes being outdoors and in the meantime trying t

leana wen, always good have you on. >>> next, a u.s. capitol police officer who was swarmed, beaten in the riot on the u.s. capitol, could see it happening there through video, is opening up to congress, calling their response disgraceful. we'll have his words ahead. with sweet potato fries. (doorbell rings) thanks! splitsies? ♪ ♪ oooh...you meant the food, didn't you? someday i'm going to marry you. yes someday i'm going to marry you. someday we'll buy that little place on ellsworth. some days, will be rougher than others. ♪ someday, 50 years will have gone by, and i'll ask you to marry me, all over again. someday. ♪ get zero down special financing with the kay jewelers credit card. keeping your oysters business growing special financing with the has you swamped. you need to hire. i need indeed indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a shortlist of quality candidates from a resume data base claim your seventy-five-dollar credit when you post your first job at indeed.com/promo the first survivor of alzheimer's dise

leana wen. dr. need boosters when we start to see more break-through infections and the ceo of pfizer put that at 8 to 12 months afternoon your second shot. what's your thoughts on when and why we'll need them? >> well, i don't know at this point that we know when we'll need boosters. that's because we're still tracking those data. right now we know that the vaccines work very well against the variants of concern here in the u.s. we also know immunity will last at least six months. we don't know exactly how long. i think tracking break-through infections, infections in fully vaccinated people will be really important but i also don't want for us to get ahead of the science here. that's because while there are some people that will say if there's a booster i want to sign up tomorrow, we also know that one of the main reasons why people are hesitant to even get the vaccine actually has to do with the possibility of a booster. and so i don't want to accidentally deter people who are already vaccine hes

sanjay gupta and leana wen. what about kids under 12?the new guidance, everyone will stop wearing masks. will they be protected enough? >> i'm really worried about this too, anderson. i know that you're in a similar situation. i have a 3 1/2-year-old who can mask and a 1-year-old who doesn't mask. my kids are not eligible to be vaccinated. it's not that i don't want them to be vaccinated. it's that they can't be. and i do really worry. now we're going to be potentially going into grocery stores or other settings where they could be exposed. just to be clear, vaccinated people are not at risk themselves. now we know because they are now vaccinated. but those who are unvaccinated are still at risk, especially if there are now unvaccinated people who are not masking. and so i do think having your child wear a mask does help. however, that distancing is important as well. if you take your kids to the grocery stores, try to go at a time when there aren't a lot of people around. if there are a lot of maskless people walking around, you suspect

leana wen, always a pleasure speaking to you.. >> thank you, john. >>> so, the administration, also, dealing with a national-security incident, tonight. this afternoon, president biden said he is taking steps to make sure there is not a run on gasoline after a cyberattack forced the shutdown of a major-u.s. pipeline, that delivers nearly half the gas and diesel consumed on teast coast. the ransomware attack could potentially leave the region with widespread shortages, affecting everywhere there is a pump, from gas stations to major airports. our chief national security correspondent, jim sciutto, joins us now with the latest. jim, what are you hearing from your sources? >> well, this is really an unprecedented attack, in terms of scale. other-state actors, non-state actors, have tried to access u.s. infrastructure before. they've had some success. state actors have planted weapons, cyberweapons, inside these systems before. but to have an attack like this that actually shuts something down is significant and it shows vulnerabilit

leana wen. dr.this trump-era probe into whether this was a lab leak? >> look, ana, i think what we need at this point is an unbiased and full investigation, one that's based on the scientific method, which means you that don't go into this with a predetermined conclusion and then cherry-pick your data to fit that conclusion. i don't know if that's what was going on with the previous administration, with their probe, but i think what needs to happen now is we have these two hypotheses, one about the coronavirus emerging from animals to humans, the other being some type of lab leak. both need to be investigated. we need to look at all the facts on the ground. and again use the scientific method. we're not going into this saying one has to be correct. we need to look at all the science and information and the chinese government must be a lot more transparent than they have. >> it has been so long, though. we're talking about 18 months. how hard is it to backtrack? >> i think it's going to be difficult,

leana wen, thank you. >>> good afternoon, everyone. this is "newsroom."rota. >> a vote is expected a few hours from now. >> meanwhile, ron desantis signed his own bill into law that require

leana wen warns that that could discourage people from getting vaccinated.te, at best it makes public health measures seem performative rather than science-based and called vaccine efficacy into question. should the president start following these guidelines and stop wearing a mask outdoors, stop wearing a mask indoors with small groups of other vaccinated americans to show the american people there is a benefit to getting the vaccine. you could take the mask off. >> jake, it's interesting that you raise this. i myself found that i was still wearing my mask outdoors this week because it has become such a matter of habit. i think the president takes the cdc guidelines very seriously. and he's always taken his role as sending a signal to follow the science very seriously as well. you know, we do take some extra precautions for him because he is the president of the united states. but i would say that people should follow the cdc guidelines and they should take advantage of getting the vaccine, getting fully vaccinated and taking that mask off, particularly as

leana wen, thank you. >>> good afternoon, everyone. this is "newsroom." i am alison calm rota. >> a vote is expected a few hours from now. >> meanwhile, ron desantis signed his own bill into law that requires new id requirements and stronger restrictions on mail-in voting. diane gallagher is in texas. walk us what this means for voters in texas today. >> reporter: alisyn, victor, i think texas has some of the strictest voting laws in the country, so any additional restrictions will make things that much harder for some people in the state to vote. we're talking about dozens of different bills here, but what are many people paying attention to the election overhaul bills? sometime this afternoon and likely late into the night, we're talking about a whole host of changes but the focus here is on some of the powers that it gives the state and also those partisan poll watchers, activist worry that this is going to amount to basically voter intimidation legalized in the state of texas. it also adds different criminal penalties for voters and election officials

leana wen wrote "this is a major blunder that threatens to setback much of the progress made, president biden needs the fix it, urgently." >> when you talk to white house officials they understand there is a scramble going on right now. they see it and hearing about it. they acknowledged their hands are tied by the system they put in when they took office. the president and his top aid made it clear they were not going to meddle of what science said and what health officials decided of the best course of action. the president's top adviser did not find out that the cdc shifting their guidance. they had to scramble to figure out what the repercussions were. clearly, they lean into it fully. the vice president and president walking out that day without masks on and trying to use it to underscore the improvements that have been made and progress. behind the scenes there is no questions about it. there were some frustration about how this was dropped on their laps and without any sense or grasp of the repercussion nationwide. that being said, white house officials are making it clear, they

leana wen wrote for "the washington post." quote.theaters and restaurants can be at full capacity without masks if they check vaccination status. in other words, the dead & company model. i don't think any business wants to be in the business of policing their customers. >> i think there is two issues. one is no business wants to be in the policing business. and the second issue is that we never really created a national effort to create vaccination cards, if you will, that are verifiable. certain states have different electronic systems and others and how those integrate or not. now we are getting into issues around national identification and the like when you think about those things. so there is some people who would argue the civil liberties on one end and another group will argue the health issues on the other. we are sort of in this very, very sticky place. i absolutely agree with you. the thing that i'd like to see and that i've been talking a lot about is why businesses -- you know, if they want to get out of the middle, the

leana wen, great to see you.ople, and now you think the latest guidelines could delay herd immunity. where are you coming down on this? do think they messed up here? >> it's whiplash, we went from the cdc being way over cautious including being clear on whether or not vaccinated people could be safe outdoors without mask to the other side, where you can eliminate masks even for unvaccinated people, and the thing is there were unintended consequences of their actions, which is that they should have thought through what they say has a real and direct application on policy and as a result we have seen governors and mayors and business owners drop mask mandates and now we made life much less safe for those who are unvaccinated and young children who cannot be vaccinated. >> you talk about what state and local governments are doing. that goes nicely into what i wanted to ask you next, this morning on "state of the union," dr. walensky told dana bash that vaccination rates should be factored into local policies. let's

leana wen, an emergency room physician and former baltimore city health skmigser.et's talk about what we just heard. as daily coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths are all declining, you just heard the former fda commissioner saying we should start lifting these restrictions as aggressively as we put them in. do you agree? >> well, i agree with dr. gottlieb that things are definitely getting better, that we're turning a corner, and also that our public policies have to follow suit pretty quickly. that's because public health depends on public trust. we lose the public trust when we don't do common sense things. so for example, i think it's beyond time that we lift any blanket outdoor mask wearing restrictions that there still are. i think when it comes to indoor masking, it's a little more difficult because i don't think that vaccinated people need to be required to wear masks, but in a lot of public places it's hard to differentiate who's vaccinated and who's not. i would still keep indoor mask mandates in place. >> with that in mind, now that more than a

leana wen on how pfizer's vaccine is key to recovering from this pandemic. >> so this appears to be 100% efficacious in this 12 to 15-year-old group. great safety profile as well and i just know of so many kids in this category, this 12 to 15-year-old group who are so eager to get back to normal and have sleepovers and birthday parties and other aspects of pre-pandemic normal once they're fully vaccinated. >> the company running one of america's largest fuel pipelines says it hopes to restore service by the end of the week. on monday the fbi confirmed that ransomware from a criminal group in russia don't as darkside is behind the attack that has largely paralyzed colonial pipeline for says now. cnn's jim sciutto has more. >> reporter: the fbi is investigating the cybersecurity breach which has shut down the main fuel supply line to the east coast. the ransomware attack on colonial pipeline temporarily halted fuel lines from texas all the way to new jersey, spanning more than 5,500 miles. the pipelines transports more than 100 million gallons of gasoline and other fuel per day, nearly hal

leana wen, an emergency room physician and former baltimore health commissioner.ance in your words is a mess and you're calling on president biden to clean it up. what does he need to do to clean it up, in your opinion? >> i think what the cdc got right was the science, but they got the policy and the communication all wrong. i actually think that president biden needs to do something really fundamental, which is to clarify the role of the cdc. i think he and his team have ceded far too much responsibility to the agency. i understand where they're coming from. they want to follow the science, but listening to scientists is very different from allowing one scientific agency to make such a consequential decision as ending mask mandates. if the cdc or the white house had involved mayors and governors and businesses and union leaders, they would have come to a very different place and we wouldn't have this abrupt change that's leading to confusion and quite a mess. >> you warned that with only 37% of the u.s. population fully vaccinated, it's too soon to remove masks.

leana wen, thank you so much for that expertise. >> thank you, michael.in you. >> you too. >>> coming up, the new concern in trump world over the rudy giuliani raid, plus those new allegations against congressman matt gaetz. how seriously will prosecutors take the word of his indicted friend? we'll discuss with former fbi insider, andrew mccabe, next. i have a convenience store delivery for super grover? oh, yeah, he said just put it there. [super grover] ahhhhh ah! perfect timing. get more from your neighborhood. ahhh, so soft! doordash. >>> our newest reporting tonight is that allies of president trump were worried rudy giuliani could look to cut a deal. a trump advisor tells cnn that with regard to the raid on giuliani's home and office this week, it was a show of force that sent a strong message to a lot of people in trump's world that other things may be coming down the pipeline. they see the same pictures you see of the fbi taking things out of giuliani's apartment and office. as for what the feds have, well, the former mayor himself answered that q

leana wen, thank you so much for that expertise. >> thank you, michael. great to join you. >> you too. >>> coming up, the new concern in trump world over the rudy giuliani raid, plus those new allegations against congressman matt gaetz. how seriously will prosecutors take the word of his indicted friend? we'll discuss with former fbi insider, andrew mccabe, next. toh behr ultra scuff defense... so that you can live that scuff-free life. honey, i'm home from my really important job! scuff defense. honey! scuff defense. [ chuckles ] scuff! -defense! i love our scuff-free life. you too, scruff defense. today let's paint with the interior paint that's too tough to scuff. behr. exclusively at the home depot. people everywhere living with type 2 diabetes are waking up to what's possible with rybelsus®. ♪ you are my sunshine ♪ ♪ my only sunshine... ♪ rybelsus® works differently than any other diabetes pill to lower blood sugar in all 3 of these ways... increases insulin... decreases sugar... and slows food. the majority of people taking rybelsus® lowered their b

leana wen, she's the former baltimore city health commissioner as well.o much for joining us. how significant is this milestone and what challenges lie ahead as officials work to convince more adults to get vaccinated? >> it's a huge milestone, wolf. it's no surprise that and no coincidence that we also have a decrease in the number of infections, hospitalizations and deaths. i think the work ahead of us is going to be really challenging, because while the people who are fully vaccinated are well protected, we still have to keep on convincing individuals who are not yet vaccinated that they are not safe. the pandemic is not over for them. actually, a "washington post" analysis this weekend found that when you take out the people who are vaccinated, the risk to people who are unvaccinated looks about the same as in the middle of the surge in january. so for those individuals, i hope they will take heed and get vaccinated as soon as possible and in the meantime to keep on masking and distancing and practicing these safety precautions, because they are still

leana wen criticized president biden for short selling the vaccines through the visual of masking and change in tone. from mainstream media outlets. and there is obviously a couple of things going on here at the same time. one, pandemic trauma is real and we all have different reactions to it. different people are handling the anxiety and the trauma in different ways. and unfortunately there are irrational voices that are drowning out the rational ones. making it harder for folks in the middle to find common ground. when tucker carlson is on tv quoting kids wearing masks to child abuse, it is hard to have a nuanced conversation about whether kids should be wearing masks and when and where. but even if these fox figures are the wrong messengers, they are right to be pointing out the government's mixed messages. dine indoors without a mask, they say, but make sure your kids cover up in school. even if you think you could rationalize all of the rules, others can't. or won't. and so the social fabric frays some more. newsrooms in the northeast need to acknowledge many people changed their

leana wen a cnn medical analyst and physician and former baltimore public health commissioner. she has a book in july. the title "lifelines a doctor's journey in the fight for public health." dr. wen, we're going to get to herd immunity through a balance of those who have had it and those who got vaccinated. so this conversation is all about how that will be balanced and if we can get there through more vaccination fewer people will get sick and die. how is that? >> well, i certainly agree with you on everything you said in your intro. i also, though, am not sure that we are going to reach herd immunity. the other scenario here is that we get a decline of the number of infections because of increasing vaccinations over the summer. that is really good. i also fear people are going to get complacent and see that things are returning to normal. they can go about doing things they were able to before regardless of whether they were vaccinated. what i really worry about is that those people who are already on the fence don't get vaccinated. we don't reach herd immunity come the fall

leana wen, we have on next hour, is really warning against calls for a booster at this point.inated like a year from now or six months ago or is it that these trials have extended out and in a few months we'll know what the trials say? >> it's a combination of both. we'll know more about the longevity of the immunity to the current vaccines over time as more people have testing farther away from their actual vaccine. and then i think a lot of what's going to happen this summer is going to predict really where we are as a country. so what our percent vaccine rate is going to be, even among children, and then also, you know, sort of the social norms. i think the longer that this lasts, the longer that we're perpetuating cases in transmission, the more likely we'll need a booster. >> dr. kraft, we had dr. paul offit on earlier this week who makes the point, a hopeful one, which i don't mind emphasizing that, yes, 38% of the country fully vaccinated. the number of folks partially vaccinated closer to 50%, i think 60% for adults. but when you add that to the figure of people who we

leana wen. so, kaitlan, what is the white house saying tonight?sident biden since taking office on the origins of covid-19. it suggests that he saw something that's driving this, in the reports he'd requested. >> it does. and kind of, what the president goes into in his statement, where he was announcing this new directive for the u.s. intelligence community, anderson, is he says that he asked his national-security adviser, jake sullivan, about this back in march. and he said they came to him. he had follow-up questions for them. and now, because of whatever he saw in those follow-up questions, he's now directing them to lead this effort into, basically, getting a better answer as to what the origin of this could be. because he says the intelligence community has coalesced around these two ideas. but both have, essentially, low-to-moderate confidence in the fact that they are right in what their theory is. so he wants a more definitive answer, and so that's why he's instructing them to do this. but it does give you this indication that maybe he th

leana wen, cnn medical analyst and visiting professor of george washington university. dr. of the upcoming book "lifelines a doctor's journey in the fight for public health." also with us, cnn's david culver, who's reported extensively on the pandemic from china and from wuhan. so, i am wondering what you make of the new reporting? >> well, i think there are a lot of unanswered questions. and i do think it's important for us to get to the bottom of this. because this is a global pandemic that's killed nearly 3 and a half million people. we need to understand what the origin is. if there is, in fact, an intermediary animal, from bats -- between bats and humans. we need to understand because there may be a reservoir of disease that we should be looking for. if this, in fact, is a lab leak, we should also understand, for the purposes of securing lab-safety protocols. and i think, in this case, i just don't know. there is this report of these three lab researchers who sought medical care. but keeping in mind, that medical care in china is different. there isn't much of a primar

leana w wen, emergency room physician and former baltimore city health commissioner.ink the cdc made the right call with this new guidance for summer camps? >> mostly, yes, because first i think it is really important to say if everyone is fully vaccinated, you don't need masks or distancing, you can go back to normal. and also that outdoors is really safe, so even unvaccinated children can take off their masks outdoors. i do wish the cdc said indoor masking is still required. they say strongly encouraged, but i think it should be required if we're talking about a lot of unvaccinated children who can still be a risk to one another. >> memorial day dweekend last year essentially marked what many called the beginning of the end of the pandemic. does this mark the beginning of the end of the pandemic? >> it's a night and day difference from last year when we were filled with dread that the worst was yet to come, but i think the worst here in the u.s. is behind us. that said, we still have 50% of the country here that's not even seen a drop of the vaccine, and we have the

vaccine rollout, but it's giving way to questions and concerns including these laid out in an op-ed by leana wennger count on the cdc rules to keep you safe. what if you don't have childcare? your kids didn't choose to remain unvaccinated. the shots aren't available for them. surely it's not fair to put them at risk. let's bring into the conversation dr. ashish jha. first, for the country's dark days and dips, this was a good day yesterday. how do you feel about it? >> i feel great about it, nicolle, thank you for having me back. look, it was a momentous day because basically what we said if you're fully vaccinated, life pretty much returns back to normal. not 100% but very close. there are a lot of challenges here and the pandemic isn't over and we still have a lot of infections in america so we don't get to kind of wrap things up and go home but we should not underestimate how good a day yesterday was. >> i have this sense, and maybe it's just colored by my time at the white house, that what president biden is doing is treating us like grown-ups, sort of trusting us to have some role in caring