not going along with what the government says, they are not coming downstairs to have their tests as they are supposed to do. because they are worried, firstly that they will catch covid 19 and secondly, if they do catch covid 19, they might be forced to go into one of the centralised isolation facilities where they will be sleeping on camp beds, huge hangers, next to people who may beds, huge hangars, next to people who may and this includes very old people, frail, elderly, people who are weak, people who have other sicknesses being made to go to the squalid isolation facilities and it all seems like it s to be part of this unwielding commitment to zero covid 19 that the government here is sort of rolling out in a mantra type fashion and it s unable to shift policy. it s had this great policy that
time. and when you get to the roots of it, there are 70% of the players in this league that are black and only one head coach as you noted earlier. that doesn t seem like an equitable process. there are a couple more guys in the senior positions, the senior ranks on nfl teams. but that needs to be upped substantially before the nfl could really consider itself true to equitable process of hiring minority and black coaches in the nfl. always good to have you on. thank you so much. to see you. coming up next, a covid vaccine possibly available soon for children under 5. are parents willing to give the okay? plus, a dangerous mix of snow, ice, and plummeting temperatures. the ripple nationwide as a powerful winter storm sweeps much of the u.s. stay with us.
optimistic as we see cases come down week over week. i think we have to use an important message as a barometer. how are our hospitals doing? and the hospitalization rates are still quite high. reporter: the average daily case count, falling by a third in just a week, still very high. and more than 2,500 people are dying every day on average. that number still rising. i do have a sense of optimism. at the same time, i worry that we were accepting more than 2,500 people dying of covid every day, as a normal state. and that can t be. reporter: around 68% of eligible americans are now fully vaccinated, and the fda s vaccine advisers will now meet february 15th to talk pfizer shots for kids, ages 6 months to 5 years. the first biggest question is, is it safe? i expect it to be very safe but we ll have to see.
the second question is, how effective is it? that should really drive the decision making. i expect an authorization but i m not convinced we ll have one. we will really want to look at the evidence very carefully. reporter: friday, the winter olympics begin in a covid bubble. two big cheeses from the necks games, paris 24, just tested positive before taking off for beijing. so didn t take off. the veteran bobsledder alanna taylor was supposed the carry the flag but just tested positive. reporter: there are more than 60 million eligible americans who have not had a single vaccine shot. so what kind of risk are they taking by that choice? for most it is a choice. new figures from the cdc this morning, they show if you are unvaccinated and catch covid-19, you are nearly 100 times more
necessity of the vaccine to talk about the really real negative effects of covid on kids. not just hospitalization and death, chfk, are less likely in kids, but also the ramifications for learning, being able to go to school and the larger community. that s step one. the other part is that we need to make it really easy. we need to make this part of not just the normal pediatric visit but also available in other settings as well. most kids only go to the pediatrician once a year. so we have to set up systems so parents can show up and get these vaccines where they re taking their kids anyhow. places like schools or grocery stores or pharmacies. it sounds like health officials have a lot of work to do to give parents young kids vaccine. will you support schools imposing a mandate? absolutely. and we know that new orleans school district has already imposed mandates. let s be clear.