vaccine vaccination, rates we still have millions of people who are not protected from this virus, this is a variant that moves fast. let me tell you that, it s the most transmissible version of covid that we have seen to date. on the masking issue. what do you say to someone who says, look i am not an ideological anti mask or, i m vaccinated, i want to be safe, but when i look at the data, and i do a risk assessment for myself, and i look at the provincetown data for instance, where there s a huge outbreak a break view affections among brexit in folks, it seems like the vaccinations are basically doing their job, but i want to be able to hang out with people inside, or go to bars inside and not wear a mask, if i m vaccinated, why should i be thinking about masking? it s an important question, chris it s something you said that i think is worth underscoring 100 times, which is that the vaccines are doing their job. and that is the critical message that we have to make
fine. he s all good. how long did y all go? how long was the event? i don t know, whatever it takes to eat a hamburger to. so, and the whole good news, vaccinated foes were outdoors, graham is tested positive, others getting tested, fingers crossed for all of. them as we wait and see if other u.s. senators on that book and infect, today we re waiting republican governors across the country figure out how to negotiate this renewed public health threat. and the story, of three of those governors, in particular, is the story of republican politics at the moment. and how deeply prefers the political incentives are in their party. let s begin in florida, which reported a record number of cases over the weekend, over 21,000 new cases according to data released on saturday. that s not great news. all that we should say it s far less worrisome than it would have been six eight months ago, before many people were vaccinated. that said, the state s vaccination rate is not great.
sure that people do not lose sight. of but the vaccines are doing with delta, is there dramatically reducing your chances of dying or being hospitalized. if you get sick. and even though it s a small portion of people who get breakthrough infections once they re vaccinated. we re seeing on top of that those infections by and large are mild, or asymptomatic. that is all because the vaccines are working. and working well. but the reason that the cdc is asking people to mask when they are in public indoor spaces, especially if they are in high substantial transmission zones, is because of the recently came across data that helped us understand that breakthrough infections with delta, can continue to transmit. you might ask why, do i really care about that if i m asking. the reason that you should care, is that you are likely going to be fine if you have a breakthrough infection. but the transmission that you may contribute, to that keeps the spread of this virus going in your community, p
in the completely unnecessary surging communities across the country, now and that s more and more people are finally going out to get vaccinated. doctor dr. vivek murthy is the surgeon general of the united states, he joins me now. what do you see in the data across states in terms of the relationship between high levels of community transmission and people getting out and getting vaccinated? well chris, it s a really good question, what we see in fact is the states that have low vaccination rates, from the ones where we are seeing the greatest surges. this is what you would expect. low vaccination rates you have low protection. and that s what we ve been worried about all along. thankfully the states that are at the top, in terms of vaccination, rates are doing very well in terms of cases, hospitalizations and deaths. that is good, but what is reassuring also is despite the bad this is gone, and we are seeing a significant uptick in the vaccination rate across the country. particul