crucial for meeting the administration s september 20th deadline. all of it at a pivotal time of the pandemic. nearly 2,000 americans are dying from covid every day, most since last winter. infection rates are surging across the west and midwest, forcing hospitals to send patients across state lines for care. joining me with the latest, ahead of the key meeting, gabe gutierrez. also with us, msnbc medical contributor, founding director of boston university center for emerging infectious disease policy and research. gabe, walk us through the duelling medical studies this week on booster shots and what, if anything, they mean for tomorrow s fda meeting, do we know anything about which way the committee might be leaning? reporter: it is confusing for many americans and highly contentious in the medical community as you just alluded to. monday in the lancet, an article
and hoping that the administration will address, includes schools, as you heard cal talking there, nbc news tally about a thousand schools closed because of outbreaks and they re just past labor day. there are questions that remain about how schools should handle testing, how they should handle outbreaks and if there s anything more the administration can do to address these issues of mask mandate bans and what more they could do to help out those schools. another area to watch out for booster vaccination rollout plan. the administration has had a seth back last week. they do not expect to have the moderna boosters cleared by the fda by this september 20th deadline, they set for themselves. they plan to go forward with pfizer, how are they going to encourage people to go get a third shot when they have struggled to get people to go in and even get their first shot and what s the distribution of that going to look like? are we going to see millions
and let s talk about booster shots. everybody is looking towards the september 20th deadline to get that booster shot if and when they qualify. it seems like chief of staff ron klain and dr. anthony fauci saying that moderna may actually miss the emergency authorization september 20th deadline. what does it mine for those who got the moderna shot? reporter: we know this came after regulators warned the white house thursday that they may not have the data to support that third booster shot particularly in the case of moderna. and also even in the case of pfizer with the exception of individuals who are immunocompromised, those who qualify at this point. we did talk or cnn talked earlier today with chief of staff ron klain and he stressed that this decision now really is firmly in the court of the fda and cdc. those are decisions made by the fda and cdc. as i said before, what we have done is purchase the boosters so
themselves for maximum safety in the in-person classrooms. that s the most important thing you can do and make sure if they have children 12 or older right now. please get them vaccinated. the next month, two months, three months we ll see vaccinations available for children of all ages. that will be a good thing also. the more people vaccinated, the more safe we ll be. speaking of shots, a lot of hopes are being penned on the booster shots. it s unlikely moderna will meet the september 20th deadline. there s new warnings that the white house needs to slow down that program all together. why the delay and concern over a booster shot? should the public be alarmed or be reassured by a cautious approach? there s been a lot of confusion in the messaging that s coming out of the federal government with people in the
question are ready so we don t see this horrible spectacle we saw in december where vaccines were approved but you couldn t get them, you didn t know where to get them, we didn t have the supply. reporter: so to be clear, dr. fauci stressed this morning that we are going to at least see partial implementation by september 20th and eventually full implementation of this plan. got it. heidi, good to see you. thank you. representative adam kinzinger became the second republican on the january 6 committee to criticize kevin mccarthy saying that he is threatening telecom companies. it is really bad politics. and this is following of course liz cheney s statement reminding mccarthy that his statements have changed since january 6. want to go to ali vitali on the hill. anybody else, anybody else speaking up, any republican voices speaking up here besides though two? reporter: not yet, but that is not surprising, right?