congress authorizes billions more in aid and weapons. plus president biden welcomes the leaders of finland and sweden, supporting their bids to join n.a.t.o. tonight s tonight s other top headlines, record-breaking heat in 19 states, wildfires surge across texas and new mexico, plus monkeypox found in the u.s., the symptoms of the rare disease. and finally tonight, they re in a class of their own. we ll introduce you to these four extraordinary cadets frompoint who are now rhodes scholars. how historic. think about the four of you together, pretty special. yes, ma am. just a little bit. o donnell: good evening, and thank you so much for joining us on this thursday night. tonight, some news for passports with small children. a top health panel is recommending kids five to 11 get a covid booster. it comes as the pandemic is rearing its ugly head once again. more than two years since it began, infections are on the rise nationwide. just in the past month alone, covid cases
covid concern skyrocketing. nationwide, hospitalizations are on the rise in 40 states. cases are up in 41 states.ns are the reality is much worse because we re undercounting covid cases. many people are testing at home using at-home rapid tests and many people are not testing at all. reporter: there s also deepening concern among parents. the american academy of pediatrics reports that cases among kids have climbed 76% in the past two weeks. late today, a c.d.c. scientific panel voted to recommend a third dose of the pfizer vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, even though only 28% in that age group have gotten their first two doses. this current wave of infections among kids could well land a lot of kids in the hospital. reporter: in connecticut, covid cases are up nearly 118% in the past month. that s where bridget tichar is
scenes like we saw this morning, we wonder how some of our friends in the media can ignore this much longer. this is how cnn s jim sciutto analyze today s events. i ve heard it consistently from new york police officers and we ve heard this from public comments from the commissioner, from the mayor about the problem with guns and gun violence in new york where those guns come from, how easy it is to get them into the city fromne from other states.ns come from they speak they speak with them coming from southern states, m often with more lax gun laws. so mark, a former obaman official then turned towi anger blaming southern states gun laws because a shameless lookng again s, this is going to need a comprehensive approach. look, take the subways in newin york., ing you can tto get new york back . subwa it s the subways aren tys safe because then people can t get safely to work . aren t safe and so what the mayor has to dor