with alisyn camerota and john berman. welcome to our viewers in the united states and all around the world. this is new day. it s tuesday, march 16th. it s 6:00 here in new york. alisyn is off, erica hill with me. always a pleasure. director of the cdc is practically begging americans to stay vigilant a while longer and keep up the coronavirus precautions as new cases plateau at 55,000 a day. dr. fauci is warning the surge we re seeing in europe could happen here. the president is asking doctors and local leaders and religious officials to help get more americans vaccinated, a vaccine that was developed under the former president standing in the way of this message is a mountain of misinformation and possible ma lev lance. case in point. the administration would like you to take this vaccine, joe biden told you last week if you don t, you can t celebrate the fourth of july. but it turns out there are things we don t know about the effects of this vaccine. and he w
american democracy while finding that china decided against meddling in the u.s. election last year. let s go to our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto who s been watching all of this so closely. how extensive, first of all, was russia s election interference? reporter: i spoke this evening to a former senior u.s. intelligence official who was involved in the 2016 assessment. he said to me that russia is nothing if not consistent here. when you look at this assessment, the headline figures in this assess, it is almost verbatim from what we reported on 2016. we assess that the russian president vladimir putin ordered this, directed this, much as the intelligence community assessed in 2016. let s then go onto what russia did to interfere. it says they conducted influence operations aimed at denigrating president biden s candidacy. reminds you of what they did in 2016 in terms of denigrating hillary clinton. but also denigrating the democratic party, supporting
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
meanwhile, the head of the cdc is pleading with americans to continue wearing masks, physical distancing and other precautions to avoid another covid-19 surge as more states open up. the cdc says that one in five americans has now had at least one covid vaccine dose. we re also following new developments here in washington in the capitol siege. two men have now been arrested and charged for assaulting police officer brian sicknick who later died. the men are accused of working together to spray police including sicknick with a toxic chemical spray. let s begin over at the white house right now, our chief white house correspondent kaitlan collins is joining us. the president wants the americans to know that the covid relief package is much more than direct stimulus checks. update our viewers. reporter: yeah, wolf, he does. that might be the most tangible given it was put directly in americans bank accounts over the weekend, but the white house is saying there s a lot more h
president, targeting july 4th for when americans can gather in small groups. that will make this independence day something truly special, where we not only mark our independence as a nation, but we begin to mark our independence from this virus. and joining me now is the most trusted figure in the country on this subject. it s dr. anthony fauci, the director of the national institute of allergy and infectious diseases. dr. fauci, welcome back to meet the press. thank you, chuck. good to be with you. so, a year ago, literally this date, you were out there warning us. we were all contemplating how bad this would be. but i don t think anybody, any civilian thought, oh, we re going to be this is going to be a year at the time. what would you tell yourself from a year ago of what to expect and how shocked have you been about what this year s been like? you know, chuck, i knew it was going to be bad. and you know, just a couple of days ago last year, i said at a cong