information handy because it gives you power. it gives you agency. and that s really important. i think that s what also gets missed here. that that information is agency for individuals. so that s why it s so important for us to be able to follow the science, but also, our infrastructure you know, has to respond as well. i will just say, just as a personal note, i will be auto i will be 50 in two weeks. as i approach the 50 mark and i got my aarp card in the mail two weeks out i am not sure why, but i did. i am thinking that a lot of folks did not make it to 50. i am thankful that i am here and that i have my family and my friends who can at least cheer me on from afar. i am right behind you with 50. thank you for that. dr. patel, eli, basil, thank you all so much for starting us off this hour. happy early new year to all three of you. when we come back, a
we have way more science behind us than we did two years ago when i didn t know whether i could put a patient on their back, on their stomach, put them on a ventilator. we know so much more. imagine six months from now when we have plenty of therapeutics, plenty of medications, we could have more therapeutics for children and infants, vaccines for infants. we are heading into something where it is so frustrating, basil is right. we just need a little hope because it is there. we just lose sight of it sometimes. but the bigger picture is different than a year ago. eli, you have got you know, you started this conversation for us. you know, the president sort of acknowledging the progress made, but doing, as he does, sort of sitting in the muck with us. something that he does quite well. what are the plans for president himself if we, as dr. owesster home said over the next three to four weeks see the cases rise so dramatically that we will have a hard timekeeping life operating.
compromised, and that s why all those people who aren t vaccinated remember, you are protecting yourself and your child s classmates. this becomes a social network, unfortunately. eli, the times backs that up, nearly one third of the children who were so sick they had to be treated in intensive care units, almost 15% needed ventilation. among those hospitalized, 1.1% of the children died. the six hospitals were in arkansas, florida, illinois, louisiana, texas, and d.c. this administration, the biden white house, has made a commitment to keeping kids in school. mike himly reminded me joe biden
the last word because you said something that made me gasp. 16. you have lost 16 people. what are you thinking as we sort of wrap up this second year of living like this? eli has a 9-month-old who i felt this way until my 10-year-old could get vaccinated. the fear is sort of right here. you live with it all day. you have lost friends. tell me your thoughts as the year ends. i have two thoughts. one, you know, going to eli s point about over-the-counter testing. you know there are a lot of people in this country, me included that are wondering, being in a country like this, why can t we all have access to over-the-counter covid testing so that i can have the knowledge to whether or not i am positive before i go and see my mother or see my father? remember there was a time we weren t even ale to hug our parents. we are coming out of that a little bit, but you know, you still want to have that
the response for vladimir putin yesterday during their second call in less than a month. this is a white house photo of that call. the two nations scheduled to hold security talks coming up january 10th. the conversation centered on the 100,000 russian troops on the border with ukraine prompting fears of an invasion. i m joined by l.a. times white house reporter eli stokels, david ignatius, and in a moment, we will be joined from london. eli, the kremlin requesting this call. do you think president biden achieved what he wanted yesterday, and what do they hope to accomplish on january 10th? well, the white house achieved the fact that they re continuing to talk. they want to maintain this diplomacy and arrive at a diplomatic solution. officials are saying even though they re not clear why putin wanted the second phone call that was repetitive of the