favored? and, the winter olympic games. just four days away. we're going to show you the dark controversies that beijing wants to distract from during the games. our new series. behind china's wall. welcome to "the lead." we start in the health lead. a bipartisan group of governors is calling on president biden to offer clear guidelines on how the u.s. can move beyond the pandemic now that new covid cases and hospitalizations are falling dramatically in the united states. even in places where the omicron variant hit later in the surge. in fact, 45 states in the u.s. are currently seeing cases decline or hold steady in the past week. but that's not the map that local officials used to determine when or if restrictions such as mask wearing and social distancing can be ditched. this is the map they used. the level of community transmission. it measures new cases per 100,000 residents. and nearly every u.s. county, as you see there, is still considered high. cnn's nick watt reports, some public health experts are saying this yardstick needs to change. >> i will be shocked if this is stopped. >> i don't see this going away. >> okay. so can when can we return to normalish life? live with covid-19? lift restrictions? right now cdc bench mark is 10 or fewer cases per 100,000 in a week. and all those red counties are now at 100 plus. ten times too high. >> we may need to rethink that with this new omicron strain. we may stall out around 20. that may be the point when we have to consider withdrawing these measures. >> because omicron is more contagious but generally causes less severe disease. >> we need to move away from the pandemic and we ask the president to help have clear guidelines on how we can return to a greater state of normality. >> tomorrow, san francisco, among most covid cautious cities, will slightly ease its strict indoor mask mandate. across the country, average new case counts are falling fast. down 39% from the omicron peak. hospitalizations also falling. >> look what is happening in the u.k. now. it started to come down really fast. and then it got stuck. whether that's because of the new version of omicron, ba.2 or some other factors, we don't entirely know yet but that's a real possibility in the u.s. >> today a victory for facts and science. two 70 something musicians, neil young, joni mitchell, basically shamed their spotify stable mate. >> if you're 21 years old and you say should i get vaccinated? i go no. >> into easing up on the covid-19 misinformation on his popular podcast. >> if there is anything that i've done that i can do better is have more experts with differing opinions right after i have the controversial ones. i am going to do my best in the future to balance things out. i'm going to do my best. >> in spite of rogan and others, about two-thirds of americans are fully vaccinated. but in say, indonesia, it is still less than half. in guatemala, less than a third. nigeria, less than 3%. >> i think right now, we're a set-up. we're a set-up for another variant this summer. i don't know if it will be from the african continent or latin america or southeast asia but we have to assume it will hit us again. >> and so bottom line on joe rogan, he will still have people on his podcast peddling misinformation. i'll just have an actual scientist afterward to call out the crazy. not ideal but better. you know, joni mitchell summed it up perfectly. she said irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives. important to remember that still more than 2,000 people are dying in this country every day from covid-19. and jake, that number is still going up. back to you. >> all right. from los angeles, thank you. let's bring in our medical analyst. doctor, let's show that community transmission ma'am again. even though case numbers and hospitalizations have been declining, the community transmission, cases, not hospitalizations, deaths, cases are so high that many are the decision to keep restrictions like mask mandates in place. when do you think they should start to ease? >> it will depend on the level of not just cases, not just transmission, but what the hospital situation looks like in every community. right now, there are about 250 counties in the united states with no hospital bed capacity. and as the wave of omicron sort of declines in the united states, and it will do it in a way coming from the northeast toward the south, we'll be able to open up. cases in new york city and washington, d.c. have declined since the peak, at the early part of january, by about 85%. case positivity rates in new york are down from 10% last week to 5% today. so things are moving very quickly. and places like new york and d.c. may be able to drop more restrictions soon. george washington university where i work has basically removed all covid restrictions. they had a basketball game filled with students yesterday. >> were they masked? >> students were masked but they were allowed to come to the game now. >> so the national association of county and city health associations say it is time for the metrics to change. this is not the same thing as if they've been saying it in the summer of 2000. now there is a vaccine, right? the omicron variant is apparently not as bad as delta was, although it is more contagious, apparently. but now there are stronger therapeutics. the facts on the ground have changed. do you agree the national association that the metric should change? >> the metric should change but let's listen to the pediatricians, for example. they issued a statement. the american academy of pediatrics issued a statement which prioritize keeping schools open which we all agree with. they also stated their strong preference to keep social distancing measures in place and keeping masking in place as tools to keep kids in school. now, as the level of community spread drops dramatically, when we get down to levels that we saw right around july 4th, yeah. then you can start to think about dropping some of these other sort of secondary measures. masking and social distancing. but right now, there are 500,000 cases per day in the united states. and we're seeing more cases now than we did last winter, which was our largest spike to date. so there's still a lot of covid in the united states. while we all want to look ahead, we need to have, we need to be realistic to say it will take a while to get there. >> look, this show has been talking about the need to open schools since the summer of 2020. so i'm not against that and we've been talking. because we've been following the science and that's what they've been saying. one of the things that's a little bit frustrating is people demanding schools be open, people demanding the students don't have to wear masks without acknowledging that most kids are still not vaccinated. if you want -- it seems to me, you want to open the schools as safely as possible, you know, all the kids and teachers and faculty and staff need to be vaccinated. that's the safest thing to do. >> right. you can't have it both ways. you can't not vaccinated your kids and want them to go to school completely unencumbered. right now if you look at children in the united states, less than half of children who are eligible for vaccines are vaccinated. and remember, no child under the age of 5 in this country is vaccinated. last week, there were 2 million cases in kids. >> yeah. there are so many people around the world who are not vaccinated and there is the threat of more variants. we don't know what comes after omicron. hopefully nothing but probably something. at what point do you see this moving into an endemic phase, meaning it is a deadly disease that we live with like the flu. obviously, the rate of death right now is much higher than the flu. >> currently we have 2500 deaths a day in the united states. so next week at this time, we'll pass nine hu900,000 deaths. then we'll look at a million dead. >> right. you can't compare it to the flu. >> no. you can't compare it to the flu. when we start to see much lower levels of cases in the united states, where in this country, there are less than 10,000 cases. less than 5,000 cases per day in the united states, spread out throughout the country. then we'll be at more of an endemic level. the definition of endemic includes basically, low, stable levels of disease. but endemic, or endemic diseases can cause a lot of death. tuberculosis which has been endemic for millennia kills every year. hiv kills a million people a year around the world. malaria kills 600,000. so yes, this will drop to an endemic disease at some point. but we're still going to have to learn to live with it so that we minimize the illness and death from it. >> thank you. appreciate it. troops on the border and weapons at the ready. all signs point to a russian invasion into ukraine. but is that the end goal? and why north korea's latest missile test is seen as its boldest in 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united nations security council. russia accusing the u.s. of misleading the world about what's really going on at the ukrainian-russian border and the u.s. urging others to see it as urgent and dangerous. the meeting comes as president biden fires off a stark new warning to moscow. >> we continue to urge diplomacy as the best way forward. >> reporter: president biden and his top advisers working urgently to avoid war in europe. >> i cannot let the false equivalency go unchecked. >> reporter: but a fiery diplomatic confrontation underscoring the scale of the problem. >> you are almost calling for this. you want it to happen. you're waiting for to it happen. >> reporter: as world leaders continue to grapple with a looming military confrontation on the border of ukraine. >> we are ready no matter what happens. >> reporter: biden ramping up u.s. pressure in the midst of the u.n. security council meeting, releasing a statement, warning of, quote, swift and severe consequences if russia foregoes a diplomatic solutions. consequence that include targeting vladimir putin's closest allies. >> we have developed specific packages for elites and their family members. >> reporter: the u.s. ambassador to the u.n., laying out a detailed case for alarm and potential resolution. >> the provocations from russia, not from us, or other members of this council. we have made clear our commitment to the path of diplomacy. >> reporter: the secretary of state antony blinken set to have a call with his russian counter part on tuesday, all as bynum lawmakers on capitol hill. >> these are sanctions beyond any that we have ever levied before and i think that that sends a very clear message. >> reporter: as the white house continues to navigate the delicate balance between its clear warnings -- >> it's dangerous. we've been saying more than a week that russia could invade at any time. >> reporter: and a ukrainian leader who has publicly question that had view and strategy. >> we don't have any misunderstandings with president biden. i just understand what is going on in my country just as he understands perfectly well what is going on in the united states. >> reporter: the white house is making clear the view and posture remains unchanged. >> we feel it is important to be open and candid about the threat from russia. >> reporter: the president's remarks on ukraine came before a meeting with qatar. and qatar has been a critical ally on several major issues the u.s. is dealing with on the foreign policy front. perhaps no more than ukraine. it is one of the biggest exporters of liquefied gas in the world and it would play a role in any contingency planning should russia invade the u.s. they will take action on its own natural gas exports, the u.s. trying to address ukraine on pretty. everything it deals with at this point. >> all right. thank you. meanwhile, russia is still fort identifying its positions, along the ukrainian border. a u.n. official says it appears moscow has moved critical blood supplies to its border. extra blood would theoretically be necessary to treat casualties in case of conflict. clarissa ward joins us now from ukraine, right near border with russia. how do you ukrainian forces there feel about the possibility of an attack? do they think it is inevitable? >> reporter: they do not seem to think it is enhe have tabl, jake. and let me spell it out for our viewers. we are here in this port city. if there was a russian invasion, the people here would be among the first to find out. russia is about 25 miles behind me. you've got the sea down to my left. if there was a movement in the country, this would be cut off pretty quickly. but it is extraordinary. we have been here now a couple of days, talking to people on the ground. walking around the city, exploring those front line areas. and nobody here seems to believe that an invasion is imminent. we found people ice skating, going to the market. we tried to talk to them. a lot of them concede that they do view president putin as an enemy of sorts but the ukrainian leadership has been messaging really strongly now that it is not possible for russia to launch an all-out invasion. as a result, you're seeing people here really buy into that narrative. and that seems honestly to extend to ukrainian forces. when we've been exploring around these front line areas, there's maybe one or two checkpoints right before you get up to that front line. it doesn't seem like they're really bolstering their defenses or trying to create depth. >> i hope they're right. the top u.s. general warned of a horrific outcome if russian forces are, quote, unleashed on ukraine, if necessary. are the ukrainian forces ready to fight? ready to defend their country? >> reporter: they say they're ready to fight. they say that they have been preparing. but we just haven't seen it in terms of heavy weaponry. more forces deployed. more tanks, for example, deployed. it's possible they are deploying to a different area. that they don't want to signal to the russians where they are bolstering their forces. certainly in this area, along the sea, down in the southeast of the country, we do not see any build-up. i was on a front line position two years ago and it looks pretty much the same two years later. and again, we keep hearing from ukrainian intelligence. and it is in such stark opposition to the very strong intelligence we're hearing from the u.s. that they genuinely don't believe this is going to happen. are they in denial? is it disbelief? simply a narrative to prevent panic? to prevent foreigners from withdrawing money from the economy? at this point it is anybody's guess. but the people here in mariupol, they are carrying on as usual. >> reporting live near the russian border. thank you. it is the pick of a lifetime. how biden as he pick for the supreme court. 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as an artist -legitimate and genuine- can be transformational. daddy! for the best audio entertainment and storytelling. audible. the pandemic made teaching and learning really hard. but instead of working to help students safely return to the classroom, the san francisco school board focused on renaming schools and playing politics. and they've even saddled our district with a $125 million deficit. our children can't wait for new leadership. here's our chance for a fresh start. on february 15th, please recall school board members collins, lópez and moliga before our kids fall even further behind. we have breaking news for you in our politics lead. cnn is learning another key witness has testified before the january 6th committee. our special correspondent has the exclusive breaking news. what can you tell us? >> so this is along with our colleague, gloria borger. we have learned that mark short, former chief of staff to former vice president mike pence, very quietly last wednesday went into the committee in person and testified, i am told, quote, at length for clarity. he was subpoenaed to come in and i'm told that any documents he handed over were also under subpoena. just to remind everybody, i mean, this is mike pension's most loyal top aide. he was with mike pence in the oval office on january 4th when trump and the lawyer, john eastman, were trying to pressure pence to overturn the election. and marc short was also with former vice president pence at the capitol on january 6th. >> when the crowd was channting hang mike pence. >> yes. for the record, the committee has declined to comment. i reached out to marc short and he has also declined to comment. >> one would think that short would not do this without at least former vice president pence saying it's okay. what might this mean for pence potentially cooperating with the committee? >> so no question. marc short did not do this without mike pence's blessing. we don't know yet whether mike pence is going to cooperate and go in. we know there have been some initial discussions. i think it is fair to say that he would like his team around him. people like marc short, his counsel, greg jacob, to speak to the committee first. once that's done, if the committee still needs to speak to him i think he will consider it. >> all right. interesting. thank you. so. really appreciate it. great reporting as always. turning to the supreme court. more than 100 influential black female leaders thanked president biden in a letter this weekend for upholding his historic promise for nominating a black woman to the supreme court. for the white house, the next few weeks will be nonstop as they meet with a pool of highly qualified contenders including three who are emerging as clear first responders. if biden picks one of them, he could have bipartisan support from none other than trump loyalist senator lindsey graham. >> reporter: the white house casting a wide net as president biden considers who to nominate to replace justice steven breyer on the supreme court. a source familiar with the discussions says several new names are emerging adding up to more than a dozen possible prospects but three are considered to be on the short list. the d.c. court of appeals judge brown jackson, justice kruger, and michelle childs, a federal judge on the district court in south carolina. her name, the only one officially confirmed by white house officials as being under consideration after they had to put a hearing on her nomination to the d.c. circuit on hold. childs drawing praise from fellow south carolinian lindsey graham. >> she is considered to be a fair-minded, highly gifted jurist. she is one of the most decent people i've ever met. it would be good to have someone not from harvard or yale. >> president biden saying he'll make his pick by the end of february. and senate democrats saying they'll expedite the process as soon as possible with some calling for a so-called amy coney barrett time line. her supreme court nomination came exactly one month after she was nominated. >> when he chooses a nominee and sends it to the senate, then we're off and running. >> but the process is expected to be rocky with some republicans already requesting biden's pledge to pick a black woman. >> the irony is the supreme court is at the very same time hearing cases about this sort of affirmative racial discrimination. >> yes. >> and while adding someone who is the beneficiary of this sort of quota. >> wicker's comments drawing criticism as more than 100 influential black leaders in a letter praised biden's commitment to select a black woman for the court. saying that biden wouldn't be the first president to set certain standards for a supreme court nominee. >> i remind them to take a look back at history and remember that it was ronald reagan who announced he would appoint a woman to the supreme court and he did. sandra day o'connor and it was donald trump who announced he would replace ruth bader ginsburg with a woman nominee as well. so this is not the first time a president has signaled what they're looking for in a nominee. >> reporter: the white house is going to meet with potential candidates as soon as this week. president biden will also meet with the top democrat and republican of the senate judiciary committee tomorrow at the white house. chairman dick durbin, chuck grassley, officials say it will be to solicit advice about the process. so president biden really looking to get the buy-in from both parties right from the start here. >> all right. thank you. an apology in grand fashion from british prime minister boris johnson. why his words may be too late to save his political future after a damning report of parties while others were under lockdown. >> i know what the issue is. welcomed bath fitter into their homes? it just fits. call now or visit bathfitter.com to book your free consultation. ♪ ♪ feel stuck with student loan debt? move to sofi and feel what 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moment when we must look at ourselves in the mirror and we must learn. >> that apology from british prime minister boris johnson coming after today's partial release of the damning long-awaited report. the johnson team's booze fueled parties during the covid lockdowns. that they gave little thought to following its own public health rules it was imposing on everyone else. the report he joins us live from downing street. tell us more about what the report says about these parties. >> reporter: this is an absolutely damning report. i want to read you that report. there were failures of leadership in judgment by different parts of number ten and the cabinet office at different times. this is a summary report and yet it is way worse than the prime minister expected. at times it seems to scold this government like bad teenagers reminding them that excessive drinking at the workplace is not allowed. it's not just here about one party or two parties or three parties. jake, there are 16 different events in this report. a report that outlines a culture of partying and drinking under the prime minister's roof. a culture of disrespecting the sacrifices of police families, a culture of acting elite, of above the law. prime minister johnson was talking about defending the indefensible. you heard him there saying he's sorry and he'll fix it. but for large portions of the british government, they've lost their trust in him. he is the man at the top of this government. how can he be the man to fix it? >> to remind our viewers, they were not letting people to go funerals in the u.k. for members of loved ones who died of covid because of the very strict rules. can johnson survive as prime minister? >> reporter: i think that's the question that everybody is asking right now. if you're asking the public here, the answer would be no. two-thirds of people in this country want to see the prime minister resign. and it is what you said there. they could not go home to see loved ones dying of covid-19. because they could not hold funerals at a time when people were drinking and partying behind me here. but it's not going to be up to the public. it is up to the prime minister's own party. the conservative party. there is a growing rebellion in there and after he was in parliament today, that's where he went next. he tried a pr campaign there and he's bought himself another day. here's what we need to remember. this is only the beginning. there is still a police probe that looks into all of these parties and to even more serious allegations of covid violations. people behind me here could be fined for breaking the rules. that police report could spell the end of johnson. >> all right. thank you so much. is this a test of the emergency broadcast system? the message north korea is sending to the u.s. with yet another missile launch. this time boldest in years. stay with us. so take care of thatat heart with lipton. because sippin' on unsweetened lipton can help support 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though. until now, what we've seen innian is short-range missiles and cruise missiles. but this was an intermediate range ballistic missile. it reached an altitude of about 1,200 miles. and went about 500 miles in its trajectory. analysts say had it been fired upon a normal trajectory, it could have gone to about 3500 mi miles. that's enough to cover a large part of the pacific ocean. and that's why it is so concerning. not only the range but the escalation. from short missiles to intermediate ballistic missiles. the last time north korea fired off a missile like this was in 2017. soon there after, kim jong-un put in place a self-imposed moratorium on firing medium range ballistic missiles. that raises the next question. if you fire off an intermediate range now, is an icbm next? >> and the biden administration said they want to restart talks with them. is this a sign that kim jong-un isn't interested? >> well, the question is what's the goal? is this weapons testing that he feels he has a right to do and north korea intends to carry out? that remains a mystery. incredibly difficult to get into they had of north korean leadership. what is clear, the pentagon said this a short time ago. with each one of these missile tests, the north koreans are learning. their advanced weaponry, it is an ability to improve those weapons and that in and of itself is a dangerous situation. but the u.s. government made clear, they are ready to engage in diplomacy with north korea even if there are obviously other issues going on right now. that remains a key one for the administration if the opportunity presents itself, which jake, it doesn't look like it is doing right now. >> so what seems to have changed? what do experts think has changed from kim jong-un's perspective now that he's begun firing off these missiles every few days? >> this is the hardest question to answer, perhaps. we saw some missile tests late last year, in september, december, but not at this frenetic pace of launches. it is incredibly difficult to get into kim jong-un's head. whether this is him firing off the missiles and testing the missile that's he's shown at parades or whether this is messaging to try to improve a position versus the united states when it comes to future negotiations. that's the key question. at this moment, it is very difficult to answer that question. with no diplomatic options, at least right now. >> thanks so much. ahead, the start of beijing olympics this week, it kicks off friday, we'll start a new series here at "the lead." it is called behind china's wall. behind the fanfare and the glamor are a lot of ugly truths that the chinese government wants you to ignore. cnn's david culver sets the scene with a look at the horrors president xi wants to you forget about while you cheer on your favorite athletes this week. >> reporter: beijing counting down to the winter games. its second olympics taking place amidst frigid geopolitical tensions and a raging pandemic. >> this is the largest regularly scheduled peace time gathering of the world and yet there can be no gathering. >> reporter: what is likely to be lost is that sporting events are taking place. because in the years leading up, china has faced growing outside pressures and domestically its zero covid policy is proving increasingly difficult to stick to. >> beijing! >> reporter: seven years ago, beijing won the 2022 olympic bid. the first city to host both a summer and winter games. but it came as china's relations with the west came apart. under an increasingly powerful ruler, xi jinping, they are on a very different path than what the west hoped for. cooperation replaced. from a trade war to threats of an actual war in the south china sea. in hong kong, beijing quickly squashed pro democracy protests it is and now mounding pressure on taiwan, pushing for the democracy to fall under beijing's control. then there are the widespread allegations of human rights abuses. cnn traveled to the far west region. it is here that other countries accuse china of committing genocide against think ethnically weaker population. they have demd that they have tortured them and called them politically motivated lies but that has not silenced the west. the u.s., u.k., australia and canada among countries protesting through a diplomatic boycott of the olympics. >> the biden administration will not send any diplomats to the 2022 olympics. >> reporter: the diplomatic boycott coinciding with the case of the former olympian briefedly disappeared in november after she accused a retired leader of pressuring her into sex. it happen to be the same official who led the 2022 game. amid the growing outcry, she has resurfaced. some have accused the international olympic committee of being complicit in the control over her story. thomas bach tried to reassure the world after her well being after two video calls with her. the ioc calling for silent diplomacy to better handle the matter. bach now in beijing is expected to meet with her soon. but that meeting happening behind closed doors, inside the so-called closed loop. that's the olympic bubble holding the athletes, the personnel, the incoming media, kept separate from the rest of china. this as the number of new covid-19 cases continues to rise and spread across the mainland. china facing a renewed challenge to halt this latest surge. snap lockdowns, mass testing, contact tracing, all of it stepped up as they work to show controlling the virus, calling it an imported threat. even dating back to wuhan. a consistent propaganda effort. and threatening to cast a dearing shadow over these games, growing he knows the between russia and ukraine with russian president vladimir putin expected to meet president xi on the sidelines of the opening ceremony. these olympics playing out amidst an increasingly divided world. david culver. cnn, beijing. turning now to our money lead within just a week of the public outcry that a tennessee school district yanked the book from its reading list, the graphic novel mouse which was awarded the pulitzer prize in people in 92 is now back on today's best selling list. it is the author's father's experience with the holocaust and depicts mice as nazis. they voted to remove the novel from the eighth grade curriculum over rough objectionable language. the use of the word damn, and a drawing of a nude woman which the author says is a ta tiny wo depicting his mother's suicide. today it is on sale at barnes & noble. coming up, fears of war. russia cause it hysteria but the u.s. says it is inevitable. i'll ask a democrat and a republican about their sense of what is going on on the ground in ukraine, next. bold and classic. cozy and precocious. with 465 fresh, clean, craveable pairings, find a you pick 2 for any mood. panera, the familiar made fantastic. new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. when you sponsor a job, you immediately get 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