school in person. federal health officials now say students need to remain only 3 feet apart as opposed to 6 feet as long as everyone is wearing a mask. that is a major policy change of interest to so many parents and so many kids who are eager to close the laptop on telelearning and get back to the classroom. we ll have much more on that in just a moment. the president s visit to atlanta was originally scheduled as part of the white house s help is here tour, touting that $2 trillion rescue plan, and although the main focus of the trip has turned to the aftermath of that deadly shooting rampage, the president and vice president will meet later this afternoon with asian american community leaders to discuss the escalating threats and violence against asian americans since the start of the pandemic. we re also learning a lot more today about the victims of those shootings, not only their names and their ages, but their stories. like delainie yan who went to the spa for mas
after six women of asian descent were among eight people killed in a rampage at three spas in the atlanta area. joining me now nbc news white house correspondent geoff bennett in atlanta, nbc news correspondent dr. john torres and heidi presblea. tell us more about the visit to the cdc and the vice president and president s visit meeting with asian-american leaders this hour. the visit to the cdc officials told us that was the president and vice president s opportunity to get a briefing from their medical and health teams about this ongoing fight against the pandemic. but based on what we saw from the president in his own words that was his opportunity to thank the scientists, to thank those career staffers who have been working around the clock at the cdc. he said science is back. he thanked those career staffers he said for changing the psyche of a nation. since then the president has made the short trip from the cdc over to emery university where he s meeting privately w