children s hospital association had a warning, there may not be sufficient bed capacity or expert staff to care for children almost a quarter of all covid cases reported last week were children. they are sicker it s more contagious, and it s a much more virulent strain. reporter: 3-year-old aurora cannon spent days in the icu struggling to breathe. her mom, an emergency room nurse is vaccinated, but worries she brought it home from unvaccinated patients it s really hard seeing what i ve seen for the past 18 months and then watching my daughter go through it reporter: aurora has been released from the hospital, but tonight many children like payton continue to fight kristen dahlgren, nbc news our thanks to kristen. now to an nbc news exclusive. with laser attacks on aircrafts on the rise, we look at the faa s warning about the alarming trend posing a risk to both pilots and passengers here s nbc s tom costello we re getting hit by that laser again.
reporter: it happens every day, cockpits lit up by hand held lasers hitting us with a laser. reporter: in florida a man in a boat first admitted pointing a laser at a sheriff s department chopper thinking it was a drone. i did it. reporter: but i now pleading not guilty when the laser hits, the beam is big enough to envelope the entire cockpit reporter: sheriff s department chief pilot brian smith says he s been hit many times at low altitude when he s most vulnerable. you can get laser burns in your eye. those laser burns hurt, feels like somebody punched you in the side of the face or poked you in the eye. reporter: it happened to united airlines captain jonathan sawyer on approach to miami with passengers on board. i turned to look to see what it was. it was a bright green laser that then illuminated the entire flight deck. reporter: fortunately the first officer was able to land safely. even with lower air traffic last year, the faa reports nearly 7,000 laser
also senator ron johnson, republican from wyoming and the chair of the homeland security committee as well as white house budget director mick mulvaney. that s this sunday on your local fox station. check your local listings for times. the u.s. military facing threats on two levels. reported laser attacks on u.s. air force pilots and another country s military preparing for possible strikes against american targets next.
be used for a base. they opened a base in the horn of africa, deploying marines and equipment next door to a u.s. base in the horn of africa. cyber attacks on computer systems around the world, including those owned by the u.s. government. the chinese foreign ministry responded by the pentagon report accused of the u.s. of display ago cold war mentality, trace. trace: jennifer, military officials say there s a rise of laser attacks on u.s. pilots? that s right. we reported pentagon concerns about laser beam attacks routinely blinding pilots taking off and landing next to the chinese base in djibouti. but now new figures in the middle east show the incidence are on the rise there. the number of lasing incidents was around 700 in 2015. in 2016, there were an estimated
600 laser attacks. followed by 400 in 2017 and 350 so far this year. the preponderance have occurred in syria and afghanistan. it s exceedingly difficult to pinpoint the origin of a short laser engagement, so we can t source most laser attacks. those we assess that most come from insurgents and terror organizations in the region. the story was first reported by the wall street journal, trace. trace: thanks, jennifer griffin. thank you. president trump slamming new york governor andrew cuomo over his comment that america was never that great. now the governor walking back a bit. we ll take you to new jersey as we wait for the president to arrive at his golf club there for the weekend next.