united states and all around the world, we have reports from rome, berlin, the white house and tokyo. this is early start, i m laura jarrett. good morning, i m christine romans. we begin in europe, it s cheaper, simpler to deliver and is being pulled off the market, some countries in the last few minutes halting use of the astrazeneca covid vaccine after a small number of patients experienced blood clots. it s another blow to the eu s sluggish vaccine rollout. in vaccine is not authorized in the u.s. yet but it is being counted on to fight the uk variant spreading around the world. all this comes at a really difficult time. a third wave of infections is sweeping across europe and forcing renewed restrictions, hospitalizations on the rise in france, germany seeing a spike in cases and italians back under lockdown. that s where cnn s melissa bell is live for us this morning, she s in rome. melissa, good morning. what can you tell us? reporter: good morning, lawyer rachl
over 100 million vaccines delivered so far. we are at a critical time. stunning images of crowds flocking for spring break. the other surge raising major concerns this morning is the growing crisis at the u.s. mexico border. right now, more than 4,000 unaccompanied migrant children, that s children without their parents are in border patrol custody. we are following all these headlines, first, cnn jeremy dimons is at the white house with more on the cross-country tour touting his relief package, it s interesting during trump presidency, we talk about campaign-style presidents. i wonder if you see this at a campaign event? reporter: from is no question president biden and vice president harris are talking about the american rescue plan. that coronavirus relief package you signed in law last week. a part is political. it s about preparing for the mid-terms. every democrat up and down the ticket will be running on this plan. particularly throws members of congress and senators
focuses on too much besides covid. last hour a new pandemic briefing from the biden health team and the message quite stark. yes some optimism but we re at a trigger moment. cases remain down. 1 in 5 americans have now had at least a vaccine shot in the arm. all 50 states in the district of columbia will allow teachers to get the vaccine today. that s all good. this, though is concerning. travel hit a pandemic high this past weekend. nearly 5 million americans transiting through airports since thursday. spring breakers on beaches, out on bars all but ignoring pandemic precaution that should be basic by now to every american. italy, the cdc directors says offers the latest example of what variants can do if public health pull back happens too soon. they simply took their eye off the ball. i m pleading with you for the sake of our nation s health, these should be warning signs for all of us. cases climbed last spring, they climbed again in the summer. they will climb now if w
through what this is actually going to look like. gene sperling is a longtime economic aide. he served other presidents. he has been a adviser to president biden on the campaign trail. but he is not expected at the sore money. because right now like most americans he is working remotely, has not been vaccinated yet, and is still in california according to the white house. and he won t be in the west wing doing the job for several more weeks according to the press secretary earlier today. that is interesting. gloria, this package, relief package is popular. is the white house worried that it won t be so popular, that popularity that wane? why this real effort to bolster this. well, a lot of people who were there, including the president himself, were there in 2009 when the stimulus package passed. and one of the problems with that, biden himself has said, is that they never explained the benefits of it to the american people. and it was unpopular. this bill starts out more
the biden administration wants to see made permanent. so, i think this is part of building that for them. and the questions are whether or not they actually get there, but also how the execution of it goes. so, that s how you saw president biden say he s tapping gene sperling, this long-time democratic economic aide to oversee the spending here. he was talking about how when he oversaw the stimulus bill in 2009 amid the great recession, how crucial it was to just be on the phone, have these conversations at a granular level to make sure there is no fraud or abuse or mis-spending. i think that s the next big tactic for them to go after because, of course, republicans are going to be watching very closely for any kind of a misstep and if they haven t properly communicated it. be cautious, fullcourt press, that s number one. number two, what s the story out of the cdc today? we re getting new reporting that some of the covid guidelines put in place by the trump administration