surge is going to subside any time soon. even if everybody were getting immunized, vaccinated, you re still not going to have immunity right away. this is going to go on for weeks at a minimum. high transmission rates still plague most of the country. the top doctor at the nih says he expects things to get worse. i will be surprised if we don t cross 200,000 cases a day in the next two weeks. that s heartbreaking considering we never thought we would be back in that space again. no wonder why when you look at places like texas and florida, the two states lead the nation in new hospitalizations, accounting for 40% of the nation s numbers. recent headlines show where state leaders are placing their priorities. waging war with local counties and schools over masks rather than fighting the real enemy which is the virus. retired admiral brett giroir, the covid testing czar under president trump, joins me now. good to see you, sir.
vaccination. the decision comes as the united states is experiencing its biggest coronavirus surge in the last six months due to the highly contagious delta variant of the virus. yesterday the united states reported 130,808 cases. the last time it had 130,000 cases was on february 4th. here s nih director frances collins. this is going very steeply upward with no signs of having piqued out. i would be surprised if we don t cross 200,000 cases in a day in the next couple of weeks and that s heart breaking considering we never thought we d be back in that space again. that was january/february. that shouldn t be august. joining us is an msnbc
surge is going to subside any time soon. even if everybody were getting immunized, vaccinated, you re still not going to have immunity right away. this is going to go on for weeks at a minimum. high transmission rates still plague most of the country. the top doctor at the nih says he expects things to get worse. i will be surprised if we don t cross 200,000 cases a day in the next two weeks. that s heartbreaking considering we never thought we would be back in that space again. no wonder why when you look at places like texas and florida, the two states lead the nation in new hospitalizations, accounting for 40% of the nation s numbers. recent headlines show where state leaders are placing their priorities. waging war with local counties and schools over masks rather than fighting the real enemy which is the virus. retired admiral brett giroir, the covid testing czar under president trump, joins me now.
would no signs of having peaked out. i would be surprised if we don t cross 200,000 cases a day in the next couple of weeks and, that s heartbreaking, continuing we never thought we would be back in that space again. that was january february, that shouldn t be august. joining us now is laurie garrett, port pulitzer prize winner covering the global pandemic. she s an msnbc contributor. laurie what do we know about this recommendation that will be coming according to the new york times, that we all get a third shot, a booster shot? lawrence, what we know, overtime successful in new immunization it s able to muster immune responses but it s diminishing overtime. there is much consideration to having a third booster. now, israel is already rolling out third boosters.
workers must be vaccinated. a new study shows young children are more likely to spread covid in their household than older children. for more covid developments, here is cnn amara walker. reporter: new fears that the kocovid-19 pandemic will only g worse. i will be surprised if we don t cross 200,000 cases a day in next couple of weeks. that s heartbreaking considering we never thought we would be back in that space again. reporter: the country averaged 200,000 cases day in january before covid-19 vaccinations for widely available. right now the u.s. is averaging about 131,000 cases a per day. one expert says he s concerned about rising infection rates across the country highlight georgia, the care liocarolinas, tennessee and illinois. i think the surge could sustain itself for another four to six weeks. reporter: hospitals