vaccine shots in the first 100 days, being met today. the biden foreign policy challenge on front and center, after a testy day one of first biden talks with china. the american chinese trading insults, the same day a sneering back and forth from the russian president to team biden. this morning the president stressing what you might call a wait and see approach to both of these global challenges. >> what's your reaction to china last night? >> very proud of the secretary of state. >> are you going to take vladimir putin up on his offer to talk live with you? >> i'm sure we'll talk at some point. >> have you -- on russia, sir? >> that will come in time. >> up first, though for us today a game changing move in america's covid back to school debate. the centers for disease control last hour changing its classroom safety guidelines. the cdc says three feet of separation is safe, cutting in half the current recommendation to keep students six feet apart. masks are still required but the spacing change is giant, school administrators coast-to-coast have said the six feet rule made it impossible to safely fit all students back in school. let's take a look at the numbers now, especially the new cdc guidelines as we walk through this. here they are, just out last hour, the cdc now saying it's revising physical distancing in classrooms from six feet to three feet. removing, also, the recommendation for physical barriers between students and between students and teachers. it does say you should keep teachers and students in cohorts throughout the day, keep the same groups together as they move through class and create distance and require masks on school buses. bring more children back to school the cdc says you need to be careful and make sure the school buses are safe. if he does say keep the six feet rule in place for some people under some circumstances, among adults and between adults and children, when masks can't be worn the cdc says keep six feet apart and in middle and high school, you should keep the six foot rule in place. activities like singing, band, sports and in big common areas the cdc recommends keep students six feet apart to be extra safe there. take a look at what it looked like under the current guidelines, six feet classrooms, when a lot of schools said, yes, we can bring people in but we can't bring the students back because you can't fit them when you space the desks out like this. going six feet to three feet, especially in school systems with limited space, limited money should be able to put more students back in the classroom. that's why so many administrators said at six feet we can't bring everybody back, at three feet we can try to work that out. if you look at the cases, some have been arguing for some time, transmission among children is lower. school is not unsafe. let's get our children back to school. the numbers do tend to back that up. childr children, 13% of all covid innfections in the united states past year, age cutoff, make up about 24% of the population, a smaller percentage of the cases than they are of the population. and of late the case numbers, among children, have been coming down. obviously january was the winter peak. and like the overall case count the numbers among children have come down, plateauing a bit right now. most of the scientists saying it is safe to get children back in school important both educationally and psychologically if you do the safety concerns. the boston school superintendent says they plan on bringing kids back next month. the spacing requirement was part of that plan. >> part of that plan is to be able to have the three feet of distance in order to have the capacity within our schools to meet all the students that want to come to in person learning. we know our children have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic this past year and as it continues to weigh on their mental health, their social isolation has been extremely challenging for them to just get up out of bed and attend class. >> insights from someone who spends a lot of time on this issue, caitlin rivers, also a senior scholar at the bloomberg school of public health. grateful you're with us on this important day. you've spent a lot of time on this. as you look at the new cdc guidelines they will be oversimplified perhaps, six feet to three feet, remove the requirement for physical barriers. when you walk through them how did the cdc do here? anything glaring, missing in that regard or did they get it right? >> it's good news to allow our children to go back to full-time school. we know that prolonged close contact is a risk factor. that's why the six feet recommendation has been in place. what we see from cdc today is a recognition by the time you consider mask use and vaccination of people at high risk of severe illness, ventilation, testing for which $10 million was recently announced in school, by the time you layer all those mitigation measures on, there are -- there's an opportunity for wiggle room to get more kids back into the classroom. i think that's what we're seeing today. >> the two major teachers' unions in the united states reserving judgment and voicing hesitation of the national education association says it will be particularly challenging to take the requirement from six feet to three feet and says now is not the time to back off safety measures. the american federation of teachers says it will reserve judgment and also says the most enduring safety standard of this pandemic has been the six foot rule. they want more information. do they have a point, or do you believe the cdc now has enough data to say these new guidelines are safe and people should go back to school? >> from a public health perspective i'm comfortable with the three feet recommendation because cdc takes pains to recommend the mitigation efforts with an eye towards transmission level happening in communities. what schools are grappling with is that many of them have started for the spring or have plans in place. pivoting to getting all kids back in the classroom is a big operational change. and that is a struggle. >> you wrote about this in an essay you co-authored with scott gottlieb, who is the former fda commissioner. you talked about the challenges. you said the cdc should encourage larger trials, for vaccines in children, it may be 2022 before young children have a vaccine option. this means classrooms will need mitigation measures in the fall, the substantial public health alarms of having so many kids out of school for so long must be considered along the risks. as a parent i'm with you on that last part about getting kids back in school. put the pieces of the puzzle together, do you believe whether it's now, and you mentioned some schools are already in their plans so it's hard to adapt to new regulations, between now and september what are your biggest questions? >> well, i think that the vaccine is probably not going to be available for the youngest children in the fall. and so we do need to have a long-term eye towards what will happen, not just through the spring but also through summer and fall. i think that means we will likely continue to see masks in classrooms, i think we'll avoid group settings. school assemblies, congregation in the front hall but i think that we are moving back towards having our kids in school full-time and i think that's great news. i'm really looking forward to sending my oldest back to school and i think that it's been a very tough year for families so the more we can do to get our children back in school safely the better. >> let me ask you on another subject where we are in the vaccine rollout race, if you will. the president, the new president promised 100 million shots in his first 100 days. they're going to hit that today so they're going to hit it before 60 days. the question is, how -- by 100 days where can you get? larry hogan the governor of maryland says he's trying to do the best he can but he believes there's a holdup in vaccine supply. listen. >> i think some states are saying that they're opening up eligibility but they don't actually have the vaccines. for the next two weeks the federal government has told us there will be no additional vaccines but starting on the 29th of this month, that week we're going to start to see a significant increase. >> by no additional he means there's 16 million vaccines going out to the states as of this week and the states distribute. 6 million going directly to pharmacies and community health centers. do you believe -- the president said as he was leaving the white house, he believes it's possible to double the 100 million. if you stay at 2.5 million vaccine shots a day it's possible to get to 200 million vaccines by the 100 days. is that realistic? >> i certainly hope so. we have seen that vaccine supply has expanded nearly week over to week. there may be a plateau right now through this month but the johnson & johnson vaccine is now authorized for use. that will add a lot to our supply. and looking ahead i think we may have a bigger problem with convincing people that the vaccine is safe and effective more so than making sure we're able to get vaccine to everyone who wants one. that's the next big challenge is reaching people where they are, addressing their concerns, and making sure they feel comfortable making this choice. i think that's the next big thing we need to tackle. >> as we watch the many challenges play out we will stay on top of that vaccine hesitancy. kaitlan rivers, thank you, appreciate it. >> thank you. up next, new details about that horrific shooting rampage in georgia and the vice president and the president land there this hour for meeting with asian-american community leaders. he needed his insurance to get it done right, right away. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa people everywhere living with type 2 diabetes usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. are waking up to what's possible with rybelsus®. ♪ you are my sunshine ♪ ♪ my only sunshine... ♪ rybelsus® works differently than any other diabetes pill to lower blood sugar in all 3 of these ways... increases insulin... decreases sugar... and slows food. the majority of people taking rybelsus® lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than 7. people taking rybelsus® lost up to 8 pounds. rybelsus® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. don't take rybelsus® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop rybelsus® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. taking rybelsus® with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases low blood sugar risk. side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration which may worsen kidney problems. wake up to what's possible with rybelsus®. ♪ please don't take my sunshine away ♪ you may pay as little as $10 per prescription. ask your healthcare provider about rybelsus® today. priceline works with top hotels, to save you up to 60%. these are all great. and when you get a big deal... you feel like a big deal. ♪ tonight...i'll be eating loaded tots for march madness. 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the ones asking this to be considered a hate crime, and to be investigated as one. >> joe biden and kamala harris are due in atlanta this hour and state representative bee nguyen is among the community leaders to join the president and vice president and discuss the spike in attacks on asian-americans this year. highlighting progress in the vaccine fight and meeting with s stacey abrams to discuss voting rights. with us to share the reporting and their insights, cnn's jeff zeleny. . this was originally a plan to highlight the covid relief package and the covid fight and a little bit of politics but it has a very different meaning now. >> reporter: it has a very different meaning. this is yet another example, perhaps the first example for president biden in this role that presidents do not control events. they react to events, and events control narratives in the administration. president biden initially coming to georgia, a key state to him, not only of course helping him win the white house but getting him in that democratic senate majority this allowed the covid relief bill to happen. he was going to rally support behind that, ic plain the benefits of the bill, that's now been put on hold for a more pressing urgent conversation with asian-american community leaders here in atlanta. of course the community is reeling after the horrific shootings earlier this week of eight women, six of asian descent. and he is going to be hearing from them directly and quite frankly, candidly about, is the white house doing enough to classify this as a hate crime, to call for the investigation of this as a hate crime? one thing the president has done a few moments ago, put out a statement calling on congress to pass the covid-19 hate act, which would raise the awareness for the rising violence against asian-americans in the country but certainly a challenging moment for the president. he'll be making remarks this afternoon here after that meeting at emory university and i'm told they're going to be forceful remarks, calling out the hate crimes and violence against asian-americans here in this country, john. >> we had a conversation about how much words matter, and in the "washington post" there's data shows that after former president trump used anti-asian slurs several times during covid there was a spike that followed not long after. it's critically important, the president and the vice president deciding to do this event today but to jeff's point they're listening to community leaders, there's voicing of sympathy and concern and then there are specific questions, will the president get out ahead and label this a hate crime? >> right, well so far president biden has declined to label it as such. he's been briefed by the fbi. he has been briefed by attorney general merrick garland and he's waiting on law enforcement to make their determinations before they use those labels in what happened in the tragedy in atlanta over the last week. but certainly he and vice president kamala harris, the first vice president of south asian descent to occupy that position have made it clear that the rise in anti-asian harassment, violence over the last year, is absolutely, you know, abhorrent and should be condemned. and that study was really interesting because defenders, the study that you just mentioned. defenders of president trump's rhetoric say it's not racist, he's just pointing out the facts that this virus originated in wuhan, china. but there's a way the president says it. the studies show with the spike of the use of anti-asian sentiment, the use of #chinese virus the week after president trump first uttered the words "chinese virus" you see that direct correlation between what the president of the united states says and how that filters down into people across the country and across the world. that study is really important to show that link between, you know, the leader of the free world and how that really matters. >> right. and seung min, i want to stay with you. one of the complaints from the asian community is these horrific hate attacks, violence of words, don't get as much attention, enough attention in their view and it comes at a time when maybe it's crass to connect the two dots but it's just a fact, the asian-american community across this country is a rising political force in its numbers, a swing vote in georgia right now, 3% of the vote, you know, fastest growing piece of the electorate, 4.6 million voters back in 2000. 11.1 million voters today. so this is a community that believes, again, whether it's in tragedy or not, it deserves a bigger seat at the table. >> especially in georgia where that state, and more relatively more so than in other states, even some other swing states, you've seen the power of the asian-american vote in the last several cycles, including in georgia this past presidential cycle and at the same time a lot of the advocates that we and my colleagues at the "washington post" have talked to, advocates of the asian-american community they've pointed out that it's times like these when the -- when, you know, the focus is on the community, the national spotlight is on the asian-american community, that right now the relative lack of asian-american pacific islanders in this administration, in this white house is particularly, particularly glaring. the white house has been committed to -- and the white house has been doing a lot of outreach to api groups over the last 48 hours. that is something that the asian-american community really appreciates but they're saying now that there needs to be more representation at the highest levels of government, particularly for times like this. >> well, i guess i'm guessing the president and the vice president will hear that face to face in just a short time. seung min kim, jeff zeleny, thank you for your great reporting. let's get perspective from a member of atlanta's asian community. lan tron, thank you for joining us today, and we express our sorrow for the pain in your community. all of us at cnn do. and i do personally. what do you want to hear from the president and the vice president today. what's the most important thing they could say during this visit? >> what i want to hear from the president is that he acknowledges that there's pain in our community right now. that this has been rising, not just over the past year, but before then, and this is decades, centuries old systemic problems of discrimination within our country and that him and the vice president, they're going to formulate a plan, they're going to push for the tough discussions across our communities and our leaders to address this. >> you're a small businessman. these were small businesses that were hit in this horrific violent act. i know i saw our team reached out to you beforehand and you have made it a point that you yourself and you're talking to friends in the community, saying keep your businesses open, do not give in to fear. why is that so important to you? >> it's important to show that we're not going to crumble or wither in the face of violent acts, in the face of hate. that's what this was. and, you know, we have to show that we are strong as a community. it's the only way we're going to let our neighbors and our patrons know that you can come to our businesses with confidence, that we are looking out for you and that we also need your support. we can't do that if we close our doors and go into hiding. so we've got to be strong. >> explain -- forgive me for interrupting. explain, if you will, please help our viewers understand the pain and the conversations among your friends and family members right now. >> the pain runs the gamut from we've known that this is a possibility for a very long time, that things were leading up to this point. what could we have done more about it? to grief and sorrow for these families. i know many of the leaders in our community, like myself, haven't had a chance to grieve and mourn because we're doing our best to support the victims. and we have other families out there that are in complete shock and their children need support because they've been bullied and harassed at school and now they truly have something to fear. >> long tran, grateful for your time and insights from the ground there in atlanta. i appreciate it very much, thank you. >> you're welcome, thanks for having me. >> thank you, sir, best of luck, appreciate it. as we go to break, the house observing a moment of silence for the georgia shooting victims and to show solidarity with the asian-american community. the chair asks that all members in the chamber, as well as members and staff throughout the capitol, to rise for a moment of silence in honor of the victims of the horrific shootings in georgia this week. and in solidarity with all members of the aapi community facing discrimination and violence. - it is. - show me. just hit record! see that? you're filming in 8k. that's 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have more than 14,000 migrant children in custody. while continuing to insist this surge is not a crisis. it is a white house that has been most careful in trying to label the growing migrant issues on the southern border as a challenge but the word crisis did pop up at the briefing yesterday. >> there have been expectations set outside of -- unrelated to any vaccine doses or requests for them that they would be partners in dealing with the crisis on the border. >> when you were talking a moment ago about diplomatic negotiations between the united states and mexico, you said crisis on the border. was that a -- >> the challenges on the border. >> so that's not -- that doesn't reflect any change in the administration's view of things? >> nope, nope. >> cnn's priscilla alvarez is in dallas for us, call it a crisis, a challenge, it's a giant problem, priscilla. secretary mayorkas is on his way to get a look at these facilities, what's he going to learn? >> reporter: this is one of the delegations that's been happening to see what's happening on the ground. mayorkas is going with a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including the top democrat and the top republican on the senate homeland security committee. they will go to el paso where they will see what's going on in these facilities and john we have been reporting on just that. we know these facilities are overcrowded. sources tell us that children are alternating sleeping schedules. in these jail-like facilities to try to get some rest. border patrol agents are putting up bunk beds, cots, mats to accommodate these children. it is a challenge for the administration and that is why they are trying to scramble to get the more than 4,500 children out of this facility. >> you mentioned the scramble. that's one facility where you're able to do large numbers. give us more steps in the scramble if you will as they try to accommodate these growing numbers? >> reporter: so what's happening here, john is the children will be going to border patrol custody first because that is who will encounter them first and then they have to be transferred to the shelter network run by the health and human services department. the problem, john, they just don't have enough space. so i am here at a convention center in dallas. this is being used as an emergency intake site to get those kids out of border patrol custody and into these sites to kick off the process of relocating them with family in the united states. so this convention center, it is massive, it is being transformed. it has -- there are cots in here. we are told that children will be provided games and books to keep them entertained. so all of this here happening behind me, more than 2,000 kids could be accommodated here in the coming days. as, again, the administration tries to alleviate that overcrowding in border patrol facilities, john. >> priscilla alvarez live in dallas, appreciate your hustle on this important story. the irs warning the child tax credit that was supposed to come this summer might be delayed. we've got drones that can delive fridges that tell us when we're out of eggs, and people with diabetes are still pricking their fingers? meet the dexcom g6. see your glucose right on your phone without fingersticks. finally, a better way to manage our diabetes. straight to the white house now, the biden covid team briefing. achieving this goal is a direct result of deliberate, aggressive actions. guided by the president's whole of government national strategy to end the pandemic. now thanks to the american rescue plan we will have the resources to fully implement the strategy and put the pandemic behind us. i'm currently at a community health center in new york city where i joined leader schumer on a tour of the ryan health center. to see what's working, thank the folks on the front lines, and hear what else we can do to support them. i also want to thank leader schumer for his critical leadership in passing the american rescue plan. today i'll give a brief update on our three-part strategy on vaccinations. first, more vaccine supply. second, more vaccinators in the field. and third, more places to get vaccinated. on vaccine supply the president has taken aggressive action to move up the production timelines for all three vaccines. pfizer, moderna and johnson & johnson. as a result, by the end of may we will have enough vaccine for every adult in the united states. this week about 22 million doses went out to states, tribes and territories. and through the federal channels, including pharmacies and community health centers. that's more than 2 1/2 times the weekly supply that was being distributed the week we took office. on vaccinators in the field, we've deployed nearly 6,000 federal personnel to service vaccinators and support vaccinations, including over 2,000 active duty military men and women. at the president's direction that number will grow to more than 6,000 active duty troops over the coming weeks. on places to get vaccinated we've increased the number of convenient and trusted places for people to get a shot. we've provided federal support for more than 600 community vaccination sites. we've administered more than 1 million shots at federally run community vaccination sites across the country. in more than 60% of those vaccinations have been administered to minority populations. that includes two sites right here in new york city. one in brooklyn, and one in the queens. and the american rescue plan will allow us to continue to increase the number of community vaccination centers. we launched the federal pharmacy program, which has allowed millions of americans to get a shot in their local pharmacy, the same way they get their flu shot. last week the president committed to doubling the number of pharmacies participating in the program. already, people can get vaccinated at one of 14,000 pharmacies around the nation. for americans who aren't near a pharmacy, or a community vaccination center, we've supported more than 500 mobile clinics to meet people where they are and today at the ryan health center community health centers like ryan health serve 30 million people, 60% are people of color and two-thirds of patients are below the poverty line. the administration is already sending vaccines directly to 250 of these community health centers. by the end of april we will deliver vaccines to an additional 700 community health centers. this work is a result of the biden administration's partnership with state and local officials, federal workers and the nonprofit and private sectors and it is leading to significant progress. as you can see in our weekly vaccination progress report, the current seven-day average is 2.5 million shots per day. 2.5 million shots per day. that's a new record pace that we will continue to build on. importantly now two out of three adults age 65 and older have gotten at least their first shot. this is critical because 80% of covid deaths have been individuals 65 and over. given our progress on increasing supply coupled with increasing the number of vaccinators in the field and creating more places to get vaccinated the president announced last week that all adults in the country will be eligible for vaccinations no later than may 1, all adults eligible no later than may 1. finally i want to provide an update on how we are working with our north american partners on efforts to stop the spread of covid-19 across the continent. as part of the national strategy to end the pandemic the united states is committed to engaging with the international community in supporting global efforts to address public health and humanitarian concerns. under the president's direction the u.s. reengaged with the w.h.o. on day one of his presidency. we committed to providing the most funding to covax than any country in the world. we are working to achieve expanded manufacturing of safe and effective covid-19 vaccines at facilities in india. and now given our visibility into vaccine supply in the u.s. we're able to announce that we're lending a portion of our releasable astrazeneca vaccines to mexico and to canada. our approach to this wartime effort is to have as many tools in our tool kit as possible. right now we have three effective vaccines that went through a rigorous review process to be authorized by the fda. we have other vaccines going through that process now, including one from astrazeneca. as we await the results of these trials here in the u.s. many countries have already approved astrazeneca, but need more supply. that includes canada and mexico. so balancing the need to let the approval process of the astrazeneca vaccine take place here in the u.s. with the importance of helping to stop the spread in other countries we will loan a portion of our releasable astrazeneca vaccine to mexico and to canada. this action will allow our neighbors to meet a critical vaccination need in their countries, providing more protection immediately across the north american continent. in total we will loan mexico and canada around 4 million doses. to be clear this loan will not reduce the available supply of vaccines to americans. the doses we are loaning are not approved for use in the united states. no american will be without a vaccine because of this action. with that i'll turn it over to dr. walensky. dr. walensky? >> thank you, jeff, i'm glad to be back with you all today. let's begin with the data. covid-19 cases continue to remain between 50,000 and 60,000 cases per day with the most recent seven-day average at 53,200 cases per day. the most recent seven-day average of hospital admissions is slightly below 4,700 admissions we are day. deaths continue to decline, with the current seven-day average of 1,025 deaths per day. today i want to talk about a top priority for cdc and me as a parent. the effort to support the safe reopening of schools for in-person instruction. we have frequently said cdc believes schools should be the last place to close and the first place to open. the benefits of in-person instruction are well recognized. as a mother of three myself i know all too well the difficulties that arise for our children. and parents and caregivers, when children are not able to attend in person for school. these challenges are especially difficult for children and families from low resourced communities as well as those from ethnic and minority communities and those with disabilities. safe in person instruction gives our children access to the critical social and mental health services that prepare them for the future in addition to the vital educational needs that they need to succeed. when i became cdc director i promised that i would lead with science, to rebuild trust in our public health institutions and to keep people safe, it's critical to make decisions based on evidence and facts. on february 12th cdc released our operational strategy for k-12 # schools. based on the latest science at the time. to help schools open and remain open for safe in-person learning. the science told us then just as it tells us now that k to 12 schools that implement strong layered prevention strategies can operate safely while protecting teachers, staff and students. we have seen data demonstrating that this is safe, even in areas of high community spread. cdc's operational strategy focuses on five key layered mitigation measures for schools conducting in-person learning. these include universal and correct use of masks, physical distancing, hand washing and respiratory etiquette, cleaning to maintain healthy facilities and diagnostic testing with rapid and efficient contact tracing in combination with isolation in quarantine and in collaboration with local health departments. when we release the operational strategy i said that cdc was going to follow the science and would update our guidance as new evidence emerged. this is essential since the science of covid-19 is rapidly changing with new data emerging every week. since the initial release cdc scientists have been actively reviewing the latest science and conducting their own studies to expand the evidence space and we now have new information to help us refine our recommendations, specifically for physical distancing. last week the journal clinical infectious diseases published a study that looked at covid-19 and 251 massachusetts school districts over a four month period of time. it found that physical distancing of at least three feet between students could safely be adopted in school settings when everyone, students and staff, wore a mask at all times. and today cdc is publishing three new studies in the mmwr that add to this evidence base. one study looked at data from utah elementary schools and found that covid-19 spread was low with students placed less than six feet apart in classrooms even though levels of virus spread in the community were high. another report examined data from kindergarten classrooms in springfield and st. louis, missouri. this study found that transmission occurred at lower rates in classrooms than in the community because the schools use multiple layered prevention strategies together and the third study looked at covid-19 rates among students in florida, and found that 60% of cases in students were not related to spread in schools. it also found that resuming in-person activity was not associated with proportionate increase in covid-19 cases. importantly this study also found that covid-19 rates were higher among students in school districts that did not have mandatory mask use policies in place. layered mitigation strategies including strict use of masks among students and a distance of at least three feet between students were common factors among the schools in these studies that demonstrated decreased transmission from covid-19. this additional evidence continues to underscore why it is so important for schools to use layered prevention strategies to provide the greatest level of protection. so in light of the expanded evidence on physical distancing today cdc is pleased to update our recommendations for physical distancing between students and classrooms in our k to 12 operational strategy. specifically in elementary schools cdc is now recommending that all students remain at least six feet apart in classrooms where everyone is wearing a mask, regardless of whether community covid-19 risk is low, moderate, substantial or high. in middle and high schools cdc is also recommending that students be at least three feet apart in classrooms where everyone is wearing a mask, and the community level of risk is low, moderate or substantial. because covid-19 is spread more likely among older students cdc recommends that middle and high school students should be at least six feet apart in communities where covid-19 risk is high, unless cohorting is possible. cohorting is when groups of students are kept together with the same peers and staff without close interaction with other groups or cohorts. to reduce the risk of spread throughout the school. we recognize that cohorting is harder in high school students, but the science indicates that these students are also at higher risk of transmitting sars-cov-2. i want to emphasize that these recommendations are specific to students in classrooms with universal mask wearing. cdc continues to recommend at least six feet of distance between teachers and staff and other adults in the school buildings and between adults and students in common areas in the school, when masks cannot be worn, such as when eating, during activities such as singing, band practice, sports, exercise and other activities that can increase exhalation, these activities should be moved outdoors or to large well ventilated spaces when possible and six feet should also be used in community settings outside the classroom. today's announcement builds on our ongoing efforts to support teachers, school, staff and students as well as our work and educational and public health stakeholders to provide the guidance, tools and resources to get our nation's schools open as quickly and safely as possible. this includes our plan to invest $10 billion to support covid-19 diagnostic and screening testing for teachers, staff and students which we announced on wednesday. and our ongoing work to get teachers and school staff vaccinated during the month of march through more than 9,000 pharmacies in our federal retail pharmacy program that are now prioritizing vaccination appointments for teachers and staff who work in k to 12 schools. if you're an eligible educator or school staff member and have not yet been vaccinated i encourage you to go to cdc.gov to learn more how you can sign up for an appointment through this program. i'm hopeful we're turning a corner on this pandemic. getting our children back to school in person instruction as soon as possible is a critical first step in doing so. i'm grateful to all the scientists who produced the evidence to address the key question such as the distance required to remain safe so that we can move quickly to this end. thank you, i look forward to your questions and i'll now turn things over to dr. fauci. >> thank you very much, dr. walensky. i'd like to spend the next couple of minutes in addressing an issue which is on the forefront of the minds of many people, and that relates to the threat of a variant of concern, particularly the b.1.1.7 variant which right now as we know is causing a significant degree of concern in europe where the flare and the surge we're seeing is directly related to the variance 1.1.7. this variant as you know is every day getting more and more dominant in our own country. so for first let me take just a few seconds to refresh your memory about the variant. it was first detected in the uk in december of 2020. it was reported in over 90 countries. the first u.s. cases were detected in the united states in colorado at the end of december of 2020. and since then it has been detected in 50 jurisdictions in the united states. and likely accounts now for about 20% to 30% of the infections in this country. and that number is growing. next slide. so i want to do again is take a look first of the concern that we have and then some encouraging news and then i'll end with a caveat. of concern is that there are about 50% increase in transmission with this particular variant that has been documented in the uk and there's likely an increase in severity of disease if infected with this variant. next slide. this is an example of that. if you look at the daily confirmed cases in certain selected european countries, over a period of time, and as you can see the last date on this slide is march 17th. this is what i refer to previously about the surges that are going on in europe at a time when we've reached this point of plateauing, that dr. walensky mentioned to you where we're now at 53,200 cases per day on a seven-day average. this strongly suggests that there's an increase in transmissibility in the european countries associated with 1.1.7. what about severity of disease? next slide. in a couple of uk studies this one looking at over 54,000 matched pairs of participants in the uk in which one person was infected but with the b.1.1.7 and another one with the previously circulating variant there was a 64% increased risk of at the time for those with the b.1.1.7. next slide. in this similar study in the uk there was about 5,000 deaths that were analyzed where there was the presence or absence of 1.1.7. and again, an estimated 61% higher risk of death with b.1.1.7. next slide. what about some encouraging news? there has been a minimal impact by monoclonal ainti wiantibodie there has been a minimal impact on -- by post vaccination. next slide. on this last slide as you can see with israel as an example where the b.1.1.7 predominates, as their vaccine doses into the arms of individuals increase, you're seeing a very dramatic and steady diminution of cases which is underscoring the effect and the capability of the currently utilized vaccines against 1.1.7. with that encouraging note i want to end with a big caveat. the way we can counter 1.1.7, which is a growing threat in our country, is to do two things. to get as many people vaccinated as quickly and as expeditiously as possible with the vaccine that we know works against this variant and finally to implement the public health measures that we talk about all the time and that was on dr. walensky's slide. masking, physical distancing, and avoiding congregant settings, particularly indoors. i'll stop there and back to jeff. >> listening to the white house covid briefing from the biden covid team, let's bring in our chief medical correspondent, dr. sanjay gupta, let's pick up where dr. fauci just ended. alarming data about that uk variant, b.1.1.7. says it's now 25% to 30% of the new infections in the united states are from that variant. he says it's also more transmissible than previous variants of the coronavirus. but in the end here he was trying to say look at what israel is doing where it's predominant the b.1.1.7 but they have had a successful vaccine rollout and their cases are coming down. he's essentially saying, correct me if i'm wrong, it's a big threat out there but vaccines work. >> right. i think that's a good way of summarizing it, vaccines work. he also made the point that some of these therapeutics in the form of monoclonal antibodies seem to work as well. they haven't had a reduced impact against that variant but it is more transmissible. so until we can bring the numbers down overall and get people vaccinated to the point where we're reaching this sort of level of herd immunity, that's why the public health practices need to stay in place and including masking and all these things even if you've been vaccinated because you could still be exposed to this variant or some of the other variants out there. so cautiously optimistic i would say dr. fauci was there at the end. >> let's go to the beginning of the briefing, two parents having this conversation right now. we've had it many times over the past year. when is it safe for children to go back to school? and dr. walensky changing the cdc guidelines today, the current -- as we woke up this morning, it was keep students six feet apart. now the cdc says it has science and has data to support that especially in elementary schools you can put that to three feet. dr. walensky said in most middle schools and high schools you should be able to go to three feet as well unless there's high community transmission in that community. how significant is it in terms of the giant debate, american families have been having for a year now, is it safe for my kid to go to school? >> you know, i think that it's big for two reasons. one is just the practical reason, you know john, reporting on this now for a year, you know, just for these school administrators to find the square footage in their schools, six feet, you know, is challenging. you had to go to bifurcated schedules, hybrid schedules, just finding that space was challenging, this is going to help. but i think it's also signaling that, you know, there's -- the guidance and the guidelines here have been steadily loosening, this is another example of that. and that's good. so we're heading in the right direction. they do draw a little bit of distinction between elementary school students and older students. they say older students are more like adults in terms of how they transmit. younger students don't seem to transmit the virus very much so three feet across the board for elementary school students, whether or not they're living in a community with high transmission or not and i'll tell you about that in a second. for middle school and high school students you can do three feet but if you're in a community that has high levels of transmission, then it's six feet, unless you can cohort, basically same group of students and teachers together throughout the day having very little interaction with other people within the school. john, you know, the transmission rates in communities are still worth paying attention to. overall the numbers are a lot lower than they were a couple months ago but i think we have this map to show you a time lapse between middle of february to now of what that transmission has sort of looked like and i can sort of summarize, red is obviously bad there but i can summarize for you that over 40% of communities in the united states still would qualify as having high levels of transmission. more than 100 per 100,000 cases in their communities. >> i think that's critical. i'll close on this point is that it's critical as you show that that we are still at this covid cross road. 2.5 million doses a day, the president met his goal of 100 vaccine shots, might be able to double it in the next 40 days but dr. walensky saying we're at 53,000 cases a day on average. we are at about 40,000 when we went up to the winter peak. it's a breath high baseline. >> i think we're starting to get these metrics of what success looks like as well. below ten per 100,000 people would mean we'd want to see below 30,000 cases per day in the country. obviously every community is different but that gives you an idea, john. >> sanjay gupta, grateful for your insights after that important briefing. brianna keilar picks up right now. hello, i'm brianna keilar, moments ago the white house covid task force establishing the long awaited recommendations for reopening schools. the cdc is changing its guidance of staying at least six feet apart to staying at least three feet apart, specifically for children wearing masks in an elementary school classroom. now, this is a major development and it's happening as the average daily numbers of hospitalizations, new infections, and deaths are stable or ng

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