paul offit and dr. uche blackstock, our thanks to both of you. >>> more than 100 people are dead and hundreds more unaccounted for after catastrophic flooding swept across western europe. we'll get a live report on the very latest. >>> and at this hour, vice president harris is meeting with voting rights activists after some were arrested yesterday by capitol police while demonstrating. two of the advocates in that meeting with the vice president today will join me soon. >>> and coming up next, senate majority leader chuck schumer outlines an ambitious new plan to force a vote on infrastructure by wednesday of next week. only one problem. the bill hasn't been written yet. stay with us. ♪ ♪ when technology is easier to use... ♪ barriers don't stand a chance. ♪ that's why we'll stop at nothing to deliver our technology as-a-service. ♪ subway® has so much new they couldn't fit it in their last ad. like new smashed avocado and artisan italian bread. 100% wild-caught tuna. hold up! 100% wild-caught tuna ain'

paul offit and dr. leana wen and the author of the new book "life lines, a doctor's journey in the fight for public health." . thanks for being here. what is coming out in the documents. delta variant is more transmissible than the virus that caused mers, sars, ebola and smallpox and as contagious as chicken pox and they believe it causes more serious illness. what does that mean? >> well it is certainly more contagious than the first two viruss that came into this country. chicken pox has a so-called reproduce ability index of ten. if i'm infected, i'll infect ten people. i haven't seen data to see that sars cov 2 is contagious. and a couple of point made with the previous reporter, if you've gotten a dose of the mrfa or a dose of the johnson & johnson vaccine you're likely prevented from severe disease, going to the hospital or the morgue. that is good. i think that while it is true that if you have been vaccinated that you still might have an asymptomatic infection or mildly asymptomatic infection an

offit, i've been interviewing you on this topic for about a year now.onally you sound very frustrated and almost a little angry. am i wrong? >> well, i think it's a lot angry. it is really frustrating to me that we have our ticket out of this mess. you get your golden ticket, which is a vaccine, and people are simply choosing not to do it invariably based on bad information or, worse, conspiracy theories. >> dr. paul offit, thank you so much. >>> the chairman of donald trump's inaugural committee heckled as a traitor before meeting not guilty in federal court today. what could tom barrack know about the inner workings of the trump white house? >>> and the january 6th committee set to begin its work tomorrow. what could happen if the former president refuses to cooperate? stay with us. usaa is made for the safe pilots. like mac. who can come to a stop with barely a bobble. with usaa safepilot, when you drive safe... ...you can save up to 30% on your auto insurance. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. get a quote today. now we're giving you even mo

offit, good morning. it's good to have you.h the delta variant and the rise in cases, los angeles county and about ten other counties in california are now bringing back their indoor mask mandates. do you think other american communities should do the same now and were some of these restrictions lifted too soon? >> well, you learn as you go. i think what's happened is that in some communities that are relatively undervaccinated, you're seeing a surge in cases again. in those communities, yes, i think bringing back the mask mandate helps. i mean, you would hope that since we have enough vaccine to vaccinate everybody in the country over 12 years of age that people would readily take up that vaccine but what we're finding is the hardest part of this whole pandemic was not constructing a vaccine or mass distributing or mass producing or mass administering the vaccine, the hardest part is getting people to take it. you know, you still have a solid 60, 70, 80 million americans who simply refuse to get vaccinated. and what do you do

paul offit, the director of the vaccine education center at the children's hospital of philadelphia.nt maga media and republican lawmakers' attacks on health experts, especially on dr. anthony fauci. today on capitol hill, fauci was confronted with an accusation basically from kentucky republican senator rand paul. take a listen. >> dr. fauci, knowing that it is a crime to lie to congress, do you wish to retract your statement of may 11th where you claimed that the nih never funded gain of function research in wuhan? >> senator paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly. and i want to say that officially. you do not know what you are talking about. this is a pattern that senator paul has been doing now at multiple hearings based on no reality. he is talking about gain of function. this has been evaluated multiple times by qualified people to not fall under the gain of function definition. i have not lied before congress. i have never lied certainly not before congress. case closed. >> i don't want to get into the details of what senator paul was attacking there a

offit, great to see you, as always. i'm sure you've seen this. by mid-august there will be up to 625,000 covid-19 deaths reported in the u.s. and as many as 14,000 new hospitalizations, that's disturbing. that paints a picture of a very challenging month ahead. how did we wind up back in this position? >> it's the delta variant. it's just much more contagious. it has a so-called contagious index of six, which means it's more contagious than influenza. it's still spreading and still causing hospitalizations and deaths in the summer. this basically is a winter respiratory virus. it's much more easily spread typically in cool, dry climates. and now here you see it spreading and causing a lot of suffering. it just speaks to the contagiousness of this virus. >> and i hear this question time and again. i'm going to ask you, i'm sure you've heard it over and over. but it bears repeating. if you are fully vaccinated, just how protected are you against this variant, and should vaccinated people be taking precautions like wearing masks again? >> you're hig

offit described to us are mild.date in place, and people are concerned that they are still getting sick or still pazpassing the virus in between each other, a mandate like that is still easier to put in place. >> yes, and at the end of the end, day with are entering the new normal because the delta variant is not the last variant we will see. and so this is not going anywhere any time soon, and so this is a new normal to learning to live with the virus, and experiencing what we are here in provincetown, the majority of people here in provincetown have incredibly mild or moderate symptoms, and no spike in hospitalizations or symptoms, so at the end of the day, the vaccine is working, but the delta variant is dangerous for those unvaccinated. >> thank you, alex morris. and thank you for being with us for this hour, and chuck will be back tomorrow. more "meet the press daily" tomorrow and news coverage with geoff bennett after this. . mm. [ clicks tongue ] i don't know. i think they look good, man. mm, smooth. uh, they

paul offit. he joins me now.tion center at children's hospital of philadelphia. paul, the -- the lab-leak theory is such a dramatic shift from when this was being written off as a conspiracy theory. we did talk to dr. anthony fauci, in the last hour. and we should note, he still does not sound like he is sold on this. he is saying that he thinks it's more likely that this was of -- something from sort of natural origin in china. what do you think? has your stance changed on this? what do you make of this latest reporting? >> i'm with dr. fauci. i think the chance that this was created by laboratory workers, that it was engineered, is zero. there is this wonderful podcast called "this week in virology." and he has, over the last few weeks, had a series of virologists on who have an hi analyzed this virus, as virologists do. and came to the conclusion the fact that this was engineered by people is zero. this was engineered by mother nature. only she could be this evil, actually, to come up with a virus this awful.

paul offit, i appreciate it. thank you very much.s a political divide over the vaccine. as you know quite a few top republicans in politics and the media have changed their tone on getting vaccinated. that's certainly good. that said, listen to what republican congressman ronny jackson said when pressed by cnn along with other members of the republican doctors caucus on whether party members should share their vaccine status to encourage constituents to get the vaccine. >> i think that you as the press have a responsibility to ask questions of the democrats as well. how many of the democrats are willing to say whether or not they've been vaccinated? and what about the texas delegation from the texas house -- >> 100% said they're vaccinated. >> they've said that. including the six that tested positive. do we have any evidence of that? i highly doubt that those six people were all vaccinated and tested positive for this virus. so you guys need to -- >> i'm just telling you. >> so he was wrong, and they had the facts and he had to chang

of offit, is unvaccinated people transferring it to vaccinated people. you look at areas of high transmission, most assuredly you'll find lower vaccination rates there. and dr. walensky talks about someone who is vaccinated and adapts one of these breakthrough infections should have the virus in their nose and mouth and transfer it to someone else. if you're vaccinated, you may think, i'm totally free and clear, i can spend time with someone unvaccinated, no problem. that's where this might help a bit where you're going to spend time with vulnerable loved ones, you don't want to spread the virus to people, so vaccinated people should wear masks in public indoor spaces. how much of a difference does that make on that map you just showed? i don't know. what's driving red and orange on that map shows unvaccinated to vaccinated, primarily. >> you're absolutely right. sanjay, you have a question for dr. offitt. go ahead. >> doctor, you look at it, and hindsight is always 20/20, but back on the 13th, they changed the mask mandate for individuals saying they no

paul offit from philadelphia hospital on a number of news programs talking about side effects and otheraccine. and i don't know the doctor, but my daughter has a rare health condition and is under care at the children's hospital of philadelphia. so that was something we had in common. i have been very impressed with them and how they cared for my daughter. and so, i was very impressed with his resume. and so i had paid attention to a lot of things that he said. there is video that captures it really well on the children's hospital of philadelphia website. he gives a really astonishing statistic. but in all of vaccine history, the side effectings, always appear, within six weeks of receiving a dose. so now we have about is 63 million people vaccinated. a little more than that it's been over 30 weeks since we started offering it in the united states. so that statistic just keeps getting more and more compelling. in addition to that i started thinking about others. so outside of myself. now, right, i have been following the rules from the begining with masks and we have been careful becaus

offit, i know that this is a discussion that's going to continue.s say high demand could make it hard to find essential supplies, a story we first saw in "the washington post" and deirdre bolton has more. good morning, deirdre. >> reporter: good morning, michael. companies are going to be playing catch-up for awhile so that means potential shortages of backpacks, sports gear and electronics. back-to-school season is just around the corner. >> pens, pencils, binders. >> reporter: and with more classrooms fully re-opening experts say in a year plagued with product shortages and supply chain problems, demand will be high especially the longer you wait. >> if you're a family out there wanting to get all of the school supplies, but usually wait until maybe a week or two before school, that's when it's going to become a problem. >> reporter: and even with rising prices, according to the national retail federation's annual survey, consumers plan to spend record amounts for both school and college supplies. families with children in elementary through high

paul offit has said the purpose of the vaccine is to keep you out of the hospital and out of the morgue. if a vaccine keeps you from getting very sick or from dying, the vaccine has won. jim? >> helps you and your family. elizabeth cohen, thanks very much. >> thanks. >>> all right, let's go to carlos del rio, executive associate dean of the emoryie school of medicine at the grady health system. dr. del rio, always good to have you. i want to picture you if i can in your office and a patient says these vaccines are only 64% effective at keeping me getting infected with the delta variant. what do you say to them? >> well, jim, what i would say is that, you know, initially when we worked on these vaccines and they were developed, the idea was to test them and to be sure that they kept you from dying and from not getting hospitalized. and, in fact, the fda initially said, look, a vaccine with 60% efficacy is a good vaccine. when it reached 65 it was a home run. so when we discovered the vaccines not only prevented you from getting sick and dying, they also prevented you from getting infecte

paul offit.is the director of the vaccine education center at the children's hospital of philadelphia, and he is a memb of the f.d.a. vaccine advisory board. dr. offitt, welcome back to the newshour. let me first ask you your reaction to president biden now ordering federal employees, over two million of them-- almost three million-- to either get vaccinated or get regularly tested. >> well, i think it's the the right thing to do. you could argue he didn't go far enough. i think if you're going to have a vaccine mandate, you shouldn't allow people not to get vaccinated. you know, these are federal employees. i think when you get vaccinated, you're showing that you care about whether or not you catch and transmit this virus, knowing that there are people in this country who can't be vaccinated because they're too young or because they have, you know, chronic diseases. and so i think if you're going to be a responsible member of society, then you should get vaccinated. and i think if you're going t

paul offit on a few different news programs and really thought highly of him. had done some research on his level of expertise and it's really impressive, not just in being a pediatrician, but he's also an expert in epidemiology but also in vaccinations. and so, i had seen him on several things. he actually has a video on the children's hospital website that mentions pretty astounding fact that in all of vaccine history there has never been a long-term side effect that has not showed up within the six weeks after you get a dose. and so, to me that was really compelling. and as of today, we have over 163 million people vaccinated in the united states and it's been over 30 weeks since the first person got their vaccination. so i feel like that statistic just keeps getting more compelling as we have more and more people who are getting vaccinated. and so in addition to that, i really have thought about -- my daughter has a rare health condition and in addition to mom, i am a care giver to her during the day. and so, i just started to think a little outside of myse

and found the local community around offit to be the most support wriff of all. tim embodies that patriotic welcoming spirit to the fullest. families extremely important to tim. he and his wife have three sons. five grandchildren, and a sixth grandbaby on the way. post retirement, tim is looking forward to spending more time with his family and finding ways to keep himself busy in the local area. tim has been heavily involved in the local area and i'm sure he'll continue to do so. and we need him. on top of all this, one of tim's passions is music. especially playing with his irish pub band, the shenanigans with two of his sons. he's an exceptional leader and skilled communicator and served the omaha area with honor and distinction. we thank you, tim. and we thank you for your time at oppd and keeping the power on for those living in southeast nebraska. with that, madam speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from kansas, mr. mann, for five minutes. mr. mann: madam speaker