infections. and likely unconstitutional. a florida judge appointed by ron desantis says the governor s proposed congressional map is not fair because the judge says it boxes out black voters. but we begin this hour in europe with a dramatic example of how vladimir putin s war in ukraine is backfiring. today finland s leaders say they support ending decades of neutrality and joining nato. the nato chief promises a quick welcome if finland follows through and applies to join the alliance. the kremlin says finland joining nato would definitely pose a threat to russia s security. the president of finland says putin has one man to blame for this decision. well, if that would be the case that we join, my response would be that you caused this. look at the mirror. sweden could soon follow finland. new nato members would redraw the security map and expand along russia s border the alliance putin hoped to weaken with his assault on ukraine. we begin our coverage with h helsinki an
let s get important perspective from the associate dean at the brown university school of public health. also an emergency room physician. grateful to see you. sad the occasion that the president is marking. let s look at where we are now and look forward before i look back at the tragic number we re talking about. here s the case map now. we ve talked a lot over the last two and a half years of this. and the case map even though they re starting from a lower baseline is in terrible territory. the case count in many states is much lower. what does it tell you that as we move through the spring, the 44 cases, 44 states reporting more new infections this week compared to last week. we re in is the surge scenario. as the new omicron variants take hold across the united states, we are watching case counts go up in the same patterns that we followed throughout this pandemic. starting in the northeast now spreading south, midwest, and to the west as well. the big thing that s different now