for their rights, among the first to ever beat isis on the battlefield. from nbc news world headquarters in new york, i m joshua johnson, welcome to the week. president biden s covid package is one big step closer to becoming law. but what s after that? how will democrats govern with republican support uncertain at best? it could depend on this senator, democrat joe manchin of west virginia. the stimulus package has smaller unemployment packets to gain his support, not $400 per person but $300. even with his support, there s getting over republican filibuster in future. takes every democrat and ten republicans to stop it. has a number of democrats calling to end of the filibuster. more you learn about them, easier it is to see why. they re not nearly as hard as they once were, if you re thinking of mr. smith goes to washington, jimmy stewart talking continuously, that s old-fashioned. today you just email the floor leader, no stamina required. emerged after the senat
states like alabama and wyoming that are only 47% vaccinated we need we in the medical profession that are really burning out, we need local and state officials in those states to really convey that vaccines are the the right thing to do. it s the patriotic thing to do to protect you, your family and your neighbor. it s the right thing and the patriotic thing to do, jonathan. real quickly, dr. roy, the positivity rate in new york city is almost 20% right now. what do you expect in the next week or so? i ve been getting texts from my colleagues, friends all over new york almost every day this week saying, oh, i just tested positive, oh, one of my patients tested positive. what we need are several things. we need widespread vaccinations, boosters, testing and masking. i m telling everyone to double mask. and if you have access to k95 or n95 please wear it. in the meantime a cloth mask
reaction, scared of things they re reading about, and so it s taken a lot of conversations. one more question, brittny. was spanish disinformation an issue in your family? yes, it definitely is. and i think from what i found even when i looked up disinformation for a piece i wanted to do i was seeing more often than not the spanish language news i was seeing shared with the video and the disinformation, there was no disclaimer on it that i could find so it was being allowed to kind of circulate even more. dr. roy, how concerned are you about continuing misinformation and disinformation about the virus and the vaccine? jonathan, good to be with you. let me first convey my deepest condolences to brittny, her family and her loved ones. you know, what s really frustrating to me and my fellow medical professionals brittny s story is sadly not unique.
didn t trust it, others with excuses for why they didn t need it. and joining us now is britney, metro reporter for the los angeles times. and dr. lippy roy, an internal medicine physician. britney, let me start with you, first. and one, congratulate you might sound weird but congratulate you on a beautiful piece of writing, but also my condolences to you and your family and for the pain that you shared with readers. for many covid-19 is what you wrote in your article. for many covid-19 is what forced them to stay home and wear a mask to keep others safe. the virus existed largely in the abstract. the virus has had a very real impact on your family, hasn t it? yes. thank you so much for having me on, jonathan. yes, the virus has had a huge impact on my family. you know, nearly 30 relatives testing positive for covid, family members who passed away
prevent in the case of an infectious disease because that reduces the opportunity of spread. so hopefully more people will get vaccinated and hopefully it will become more routine and mainstream over the near-term and that will take the number of cases down to zero, but it can take the number of deaths down to low numbers and that s exactly what we hope to see. thanks for your time this morning. andy slavitt is a former white house senior adviser for covid response. i want to bring back dr. roy. she s medical director of the covid isolation and quarantine sites and internal medicine physician. she s wearing a leafs hat because she s in toronto. they play next on december 30th because the nhl has delayed the season and paused the season a little bit because of covid. lippy roy believes our hometown team last won the stanley cup, i