cdc. this morning, vice president kamala harris pitched the administration's covid relief plan as the answer for ramping up vaccinations. she says, teachers should be a priority and move up in line. here is what she just told savannah guthrie about the urgency to get this passed and people vaccinated. >> sometimes you talk about hurricanes and what we need to do relief afterward. this hurricane is still raging. we still have people dying on a daily basis. we have got to address this. that's what the president and i and the american rescue plan is designed to address. an emergency that is occurring right now and is ongoing. we need to act and we need to act now. >> the race to vaccinate some communities is so urgent that one pastor of a black church in virginia is literally going door to door asking his members to get one. his church was slated to open its doors a few seconds ago. it's a place where people can get vaccinated with the help of county nurses. nbc's aaron gilchrist is at the church. take us through how the health department and this particular church are working together, how this could be an example for our communities. >> reporter: it could be. the health department here in richmond knew they had to be intentional about this vaccine equity effort in these communities of color. so they went to the established networks, in this case the church. the doors just opened here at second baptist. we have a few folks here getting checked in. they come over to this area where they take a seat and wait to be called for their vaccine. a few people are at the tables getting shots put into their arms right now. about 300 people today we expect to be vaccinated from four churches and a nursing home as well. the churches are working with the health department to identify folks, to register them and to get them vaccinated. these are people who are at high risk who may not have access to information or to internet or transportation. you know what? the church can get to them. so they went out and we talked to the pastor here. he said that he literally went to a nursing home yesterday and started registering people right there inside the nursing home. hear more of what he told me about the church's role in this and why it's so valuable. >> the black church is pretty efficient. often, we're some of the most trusted people in the community. most of the people we call were looking for someone to call. they thought we were the health department initially when we call and talked about it. we're the church. this is the pastor, one of the deacons, one of the trustees. as soon as they heard that, we have been trying to call, reach out. look, no problem. you can come over to the church. >> reporter: again, today we expect about 300 people will be at the tables getting the vaccines today and the pastor already has a line of cars outside. more people who are going to come through here to get vaccinated. the expectation is that this effort at churches like this and in a few other churches arndt -- around richmond will get hundreds more vaccinated in the weeks to come. >> so good to see that. aaron in a city he knows well, richmond. welcome to the peacock as well. solid reporting there. let's turn to kristin welker at the white house. white house covid response team briefing should start any moment now. i apologize in advance if i have to cut you off. the president just pitched that relief plan at a town hall in milwaukee last night. a few hours from now, he and the vice president will make that pitch to labor leaders. how are they trying to build momentum behind this bill right now? >> reporter: that's right. that's what we are seeing all week long, now that the impeachment trial is over for the former president, president biden, vice president harris are intensifying their push for the $1.9 trillion covid relief package. the president making his strongest pitch yet overnight during that town hall in milwaukee saying that this is a time to go big. also facing tough questions about the time line. when will the united states get back to normal and also when will everyone who wants a vaccine be able to get one? initially, remember, dr. fauci, the administration had said that would start to happen in the spring. now they are pushing that time line back to the summer. take a listen to what president biden had to say overnight. >> we came into office, there was only 50 million doses that were available. we have now, by the end of july, will have over 600 million doses. enough to vaccinate every single american. by next christmas, i think, we will be in a very different circumstance, god willing, than we are today. now is the time we should be spending. now is the time to go big. >> reporter: of course, on "today" earlier today when pressed by savannah, vice president harris said she wants teachers to be a priority when it comes to getting vaccinated so that schools can reopen. >> thank you. that covid-19 response briefing has started. let's listen in. >> that execution is yielding results. today i will give you the latest update on our execution in those three key areas. vaccine supply, number of vaccinators and places to get vaccinated. we will hear from dr. walensky on the state of the pandemic. dr. fauci on the latest science. dr. nunez-smith on our equity work. carol johnson, white house testing coordinator, will discuss important progress on testing. first, i will start with vaccine supply. we have acted aggressively to increase the vaccine supply. yesterday we announced another increase in the weekly allocations of vaccine doses to states, tribes and territories. from 11 million doses last week to 13.5 million doses this week. that's an increase in vaccine allocations of 57% during the first four weeks of the biden/harris administration. in addition, we are doubling the weekly vaccine supply to local pharmacies from 1 million to 2 million doses. thanks to the president's leadership, we are on track to have enough vaccine supply for 300 million americans by the end of july. second, we are mobilizing teams to get shots in arms. re-signed an order to allow retired doctors and nurses to give shots. today we have deployed over 700 federal personnel as vaccinators. the federal government is funding 1,200 national guard members who are serving as vaccinators. for the first time, we have activated over 1,000 members of the military to support community vaccination sites. we have deployed an additional 1,000 federal personnel to support community vaccination sites in operational roles. we continue to take action to increase the number of vaccinators and federal support teams. third, we are creating more places where americans can get vaccinated. we have expanded financial support to bolster community vaccination centers nationwide with over $3 billion in federal funding across 40 states, tribes and territories. we are bringing vaccinations to places communities know and trust. community centers, high school gyms, churches and stadiums nationwide. we are standing up innovative, high-volume, federally run sites that can give over 30,000 shots a week. we have launched efforts to get vaccines to pharmacies and community health centers. the data shows that we are making progress. as you can see on our weekly vaccination progress report, our seven-day average daily dose administered is now 1.7 million average daily shots per day, up from 1.1 million only four weeks ago. our seven-day daily average of 1.7 million compared to an average of 892,000 the week before president biden took office. that is almost double in just four weeks. throughout this work, we are putting equity front and center. partnering with states to increase vaccinations in the hardest hit and hardest to reach communities. increasing supply to convenient and trusted locations, like community health centers, deploying mobile units and improving data collection so that we have a better understanding of the inequities currently experienced. let me be very clear. we have much more work to do on all fronts. but we are taking the actions we need to beat this virus. there is a path out of this pandemic. how quickly we exit this crisis depends on all of nunez-smith. follow the public health guidance. wear masks, social distance and get vaccinated when it's your turn. we will do everything we can as a federal government to defeat this virus. it will take all of us, stepping up to do our part. with that, let me turn it over to dr. walensky. >> thank you. i'm glad to be back with you today to share the latest information on the status of the pandemic. let's first begin with an overview of the data. then i want to briefly discuss with you what cdc knows about recently detected covid-19 variants and what we're doing in response. cases have been declining for five weeks. the seven-day average in the past week, cases have decreased nearly 22% to an average of slightly more than 86,000 cases per day. similarly, new hospital admissions have been declining since early january with a 21% decline in the seven-day average over the past week. averaging approximately 7,700 admissions per day. we see the daily number of reported deaths fluctuate. the latest data indicate deaths declined by 0.6% to an average of 3,076 deaths per day from february 9th to february 15th. these numbers are a painful reminder that we have -- of all those we lost and continue to lose, our family members, our friends, our neighbors and our co-workers to this pandemic. while cases and hospitalizations continue to move in the right direction, we remain in the midst of a very serious pandemic. we continue to have more cases than we did even during last summer's peak. the continued spread of variants that are more transmissible could jeopardize the progress we have made in the last month if we let our guard down. as of yesterday, we have confirmed 1,277 cases of the b-117 variant across 42 states. including the first case of the b-117 variant with the e484 substitution that had been found in the uk. 19 cases of b-1351 have been found across ten cases and three cases of the p-1 have been found in two states. reflective of our commitment to communicate openly and often about the latest science on variants today, cdc is releasing two studies in the morbidity and mortality weekly report as well as a commentary in the "journal of the american medical association" on variances. in the reports, one study describes the different ways eight people in minnesota were infected with the b-117 variant that emerged last year in the uk. none of the eight individuals traveled to the uk. three of them appeared to have been infected during international travel to other destinations and three during travel to california. one person was exposed to virus in their home and another in their community. the second report examines the spread of the b-1351 in zambia where the average number of daily confirmed cases increased 16 fold from december to january, which coincided with the detection of the variant in specimens collected in december. the b-1351 variant was detected in south africa and zambia shares substantial commerce and tourism link with south africa which may have contributed to the transmission of this variant across the two countries. in the review point, we provide a synopsis of what we know about the variants in the united states and the interagency steps the federal government is taking to address these variants. i know these variants are concerning, especially as we are seeing signs of progress. i'm talking about them today because i am concerned, too. fortunately, the science to date suggests that the same prevention actions apply to these variants. this includes wearing a well-fitting mask that completely covers your nose and mouth, social distancing when around others who don't live with you, avoiding travel, crowds and poorly ventilated spaces, washing your hands often and getting vaccinated when the vaccine is available. it's more important than ever for us to do everything we can to decrease the spread in our communities by increasing our proven measures that prevent the spread of covid-19. fewer cases means fewer opportunities for the variant to spread and fewer opportunities for new variants to emerge. finally, a quick comment on masking. as i stated last week, the science is clear. consistently and correctly wearing a mask is one of the most effective tools we have to stop the spread of covid-19. for reasons supported by science, comfort, cost and practicality, the cdc does not recommend routine use of n-95 respirators by the public. investigations and data and large population level analyses demonstrate that masks now available to the general public are effective and are working. there is little evidence that when worn properly, well-fitting medical and cough masks fail in disease transmission. cdc continues to recommend the use of masks that have two or more layers, that cover your nose and mouth and that fit snugly and comfortably over your nose and the side of your face. thank you and i look forward to your questions. i will turn it over to dr. fauci. >> thank you very much, dr. walensky. i would like to address an issue that we have been asked about continually since the successful demonstration of the high efficacy of the vaccines that are currently being implemented right now in our country, of pfizer and of moderna. the question is, we do know now that we have a 94% to 95% efficacy in preventing clinically recognizable disease. the if a person gets infected, despite the fact that they have been vaccinated, wethat as a breakthrough infection, does that person have the capability of transmitting to another person? does vaccine prevent transmission? i had mentioned to you that we, together with the moderna company, and the pfizer group is going to it also, are going to look at the viral load to determine if in fact a person who is vaccinated but has a breakthrough infection compared to a person who is unvaccinated and has an asymptomatic infection, is there a difference in the viral load? that will be very important. what has happened over the past couple of weeks is there have been some studies that are pointing into a very favorable direction that will have to be verify and corroborated by other studies. let me spend a minute to just describe it to you. the real question is, is there a relationship between viral load and transtransmission? we know from studies over many years with hiv is that there's a direct correlation between the viral load that an individual has usually measured in the blood and the likelihood that they will or will not transmit their infection, for example, to a sexual partner. the lower the viral load, the less likelihood of transmission, the higher the viral load, the higher the likelihood of transmission. when you are dealing with covid-19, you are talking about viral load in nasal area. a study came out from spain that directly looked at it with a group of 282 clusters of infections. what it showed in an article that came out on february 2nd was something that we were hoping we would see. that there was a direct correlation with the viral load and the efficiecy of transmission. very much the same as what we have seen in diseases like hiv, only now it's in the nasal area. lower viral load, very poor transmission. together with that is another study that came out on february 8th on an online journal which i believe is worthy of being noted here, even though as i mentioned, you want corroboration with other studies. it was a study from israel. it looked at the following question. if, in fact, you assume that decreased viral load is due -- will result in a decreased transmission, when you follow breakthrough infections in the individuals in israel who had been vaccinated, compared to infections in individuals who are not, there was a markedly diminished viral load in those individuals who were vaccinated but had a breakthrough infection compared to individuals who were not. it's very interesting, the israelis were able to do that study. it's noteworthy when you look at the amount of vaccinations per 100 people, namely how many vaccinations were given per 100 people, israel is way up there with 78 doses per 100 people. compared to the united states which is 16.7 doses per 100 people. we have been hearing and seeing in the press that israel has a remarkable diminution with the efficiency of their vaccine. the reason i bring this to you is that it's another example of the scientific data starting to point to the fact that vaccine is important, not only for the health of the individual to protect them against infection and disease, including the variants that dr. walensky has mentioned just a moment ago, but it also has very important implications from a public health standpoint for interfering and diminishing the dynamics of the outbreak. the bottom line message is one that you just heard from dr. walensky, that i said the last few times that we had these press briefings, and that is when your turn to get vaccinated comes up, get vaccinated. it's not only good for you and your family and your community, it will have a very important impact on the dynamics of the outbreak in our country. with that, i will hand it over to dr. nunez-smith. >> thank you so much. over the past few weeks, i have been -- it's been a pleasure to be here giving updates and how we are centering equity in our response. spent time describing the need for data from states and localities to guide an equitable response. last week, i introduced you to the individuals selected for the covid-19 health equity task force, a group that will develop recommendations to inform the work. today just very briefly, i wanted to zoom out a little bit and just at a high level describe some of the elements of an equitable covid-19 response that we have built and that we are building so far. in terms of the federal covid-19 response, we have developed robust efforts in three key areas on the continuum of covid-19 impact, vaccination, treatment as well as testing. first, vaccination as we have been discussing so far today is just critical. the federal programs, those include the community health center partnerships, retail pharmacy programs, the community vaccination centers and the mobile vaccination sites, those are being executed to make sure we also reach the hardest hit. we are working directly with state and local leadership on these programs. second, i want to spend a little time today discussing equity in covid-19 treatment options. we have been working very closely with the food and drug administration to discuss the promise and the potential of three antibody therapies authorized for emergency use. in brief, these therapies have been shown to reduce hospitalization and improve outcomes for high-risk patients diagnosed with covid-19. the potential for these therapies is especially high in the communities that have been most affected by the pandemic. in fact, the 25 locations currently participating in the administration's rollout of the therapies include 32% of the american population and also includes significant racial and ethnic diversity. from houston to detroit, l.a. to atlanta, in coordination with community leaders in these areas, we have the ability to reach 38% of the black community, 42% of the of the as the country. we have reached intra-rural populations. with regard to the therapies, in particular, we will keep you updated. third, we have been hard at work developing robust efforts in covid-19 testing as well. with that, i want to pass it over to my colleague carol johnson to describe the latest developments in the efforts to streamline and increase covid-19 testing. >> thank you, dr. nunez-smith, for your leadership on testing and equity and so much more. i'm delighted to be here with you today. i'm the covid-- team testing coordinator. i provided health care and social services to our most vulnerable residents in new jersey. when covid came to our state, i experienced firsthand the difference our access to accurate, affordable testing could make in slowing the spread. i'm here today because while we are working around the clock to vaccinate folks, we also need to continue doing what we know works to protect public health. that includes robust testing. we need to test broadly and rapidly to turn the tide of the pandemic. we still don't have enough testing and we don't have enough testing in all the places it neetds to be. today, we are taking a critical step along that path. thanks to president biden's leadership, and his commitment to testing, we are announcing the federal government will invest $1.6 billion in three key areas. supporting testing in schools and underserved populations, increasing sequencing and manufacturing critical testifying supplies. first we invest $650 million for testing to begin to help schools with reopening and to reach underserved populations. while this funding will serve as only a as pilot until the american rescue plan is enacted, we want to get support underway in the priority settings. the department of health and human services will use these funds to create centers that will partner with labs to leverage their testing capacity. they will use that capacity to support schools, underserved communities and other settings. testing can be hard to implement in non-medical settings and hard to find the right partner to make testing work. these centers will help match lap capacity with demand. these are places that typically don't have the resources or the bandwidth to build partnerships with testing labs. that he is where the government can be a facilitating. we will identify and match it to an area of need and support and fund that testing. second, we will invest almost $200 million to expand sequencing to identify, track and stop the covid-19 variants. sequencing tells which variants are in the country. this surge in funding will result in a threefold increase in cdc sequencing capacity. to get us to 25,000 samples awe week. as a result, we will identify covid variants sooner and better target our efforts to stop the spread. we are quickly infusing targeted resources here, because the time is critical. when it comes to the fast-moving variants. finally, we will address the shortage in testing supplies. talk to anyone who is focused on covid testing over the last year and they will tell you the same thing. our nation faces a shortage of critical supplies and raw materials, including tips, paper used in antigen tests and the molded plastics to house testing reagents as a couple of examples. our administration will invest $815 million in building and surging domestic manufacturing capacity of the critical testing supplies. we need to build the capacity to produce these materials or we will continue to face shortages that will sidetrack our work in expanding access to testing. to be clear, these resources are a significant help in the short-term. they are far from what's necessary to meet the need for testing across the opportunity. they are a bridge until congress passes the american res tu plan to fully expand testing and ensure that any american can get a test when they need one. with that, i will turn it over to jeff. >> thanks. i want to emphasize the importance of testing. she laid out the case, but i want to add my two cents here. we have too little capacity for diagnostic, screening and genomic sequencing. it can take too long to get a test. there are too many barriers to testing and screening. quality, affordable testing can be important to reopening our businesses and schools and keeping them open. genomic sequencing testing is how we will spot variants early before they spread. we need to make a significant investment and ramp up testing across the country of the we are using funds to pilot programs and make progress. make no mistake, we need the american rescue plan to double testing capacity, promote innovation and drive down cost per test. finally, before we open it up, i want to make one last point. we know millions of americans have lost their health insurance as a result of this pandemic. this week, the administration opened a special enrollment period to get more people covered. between now and may 15th, americans can go to healthcare.gov and enroll in quality, affordable health care. we encourage people to check out their options and to take steps to protect you and your family. with that, let's open it up to questions. >> we have been listening to the white house covid-19 response team. this is the three times a week briefing they do. didn't have one monday because of presidents' day. every monday, wednesday and friday they conduct the briefings. we will continue to listen and monitor. if there's any additional news that's made, we will pass it along. one of the big headlines, we are vaccinating nearly double the number of people every day in this country than we were just four weeks ago. i want to bring in dr. robert laheda, the chairman of the department of medicine at st. joseph's health care system, professor of medicine at rutgers, new jersey, medical school. were heard the cdc director, dr. walensky, pointing out we are making progress, but these variant strains of the virus can jeopardize that progress if we let our guard down. if you get sick, how do you even know if you have one of these variant strains? >> that's really interesting, craig. thanks for having me. the strains right now have to be genomically determined. most local hospitals and most university hospitals do not have the genomic testing capability that we would like to see. for example, in this country, only .3 to .5% of laboratories are capable of doing genomic testing to look for variants. in the uk, that number is quite high. what the biden administration wants to do is raise the genomic testing capability to almost 50%. that is phenomenal. that will require money, technicians, training, et set are a. >> we are getting questions from our viewers. while we have you, we wanted to ask you some of these great questions. i want to ask you about one viewer writing in, i'm a teacher with my first pfizer doze. my appointment for dose two is 28 days from dose one because i couldn't make earlier available dates. will 28 days between doses, will that reduce the pfizer vaccine efficacy? >> that will not, craig. in fact, you can take the second dose up to 12 weeks and still get the booster affect in your immune system. remember, the immune system has two parts, a cellular response, which few people talk about, and it has an antibody response, which is the one we measure and we look for. both of those responses are robust. 28 days is great. you can go beyond 28 days. nobody should have an anxiety attack because they can't get vaccinated really, really on the days. the immune system has no concept of the calendar, just so you know. >> go back to quickly to follow up on the cellular response. to your point, that's not something i have heard a great deal about. >> right. the cellular response is robust and probably even more important than the antibody response. the cellular response involves a specific class of immune cells in your blood. they are called cytotoxic t cells. they are recognized early on in your life and my life from the thymus gland. they attack viruses. they are known for this sort of thing. when you have an exposure of this spike protein to the t cell population, i look at them as though they are detective divisions in the police department of the immune system. immune system, of course, comprises many different segments, as our society has a robust police department, so does your body. the t cells are very, very important. nobody talks about that or very few people. >> that was a useful analogy. thank you. we have another viewer question. this one coming to us from gloria. i'm a 71-year-old woman. make sure i get that right. i have had my first covid shot but need to know if i can still infect my son and husband. if i can affect my son and husband. what do we know about this? >> you heard dr. fauci, which is an interesting thing, what he said in the briefing was that he talks about breakdown or breakdown infection. after you get the vaccine, you can infect somebody else? the interesting thing is, yes, you can. that's the reason we still wear masks, wash our hands and socially distance. she's living with her husband. if she has been vaccinated, the research on the viral load still has to go forward to find out if she's capable of infecting other people, even after she's vaccinated. my suspicion is that she is but at a low level. i wouldn't have anxiety over that either. i would just take precautions. if she's been in the supermarket and the movie theater or whatever, that changes the whole picture and she should be extremely careful. i hope that answers your question. >> i think it did. thank you. stay with us if you can. i think we will try to get more questions in in a little bit. no power, no heat, no running water. that's what millions of people in texas are dealing with this morning. many of them for the fourth day in a row. how they are coping and how things got so bad. what are you doing? art class. it's abstract expressionism. when you start with a better hot dog from oscar mayer, you can do no wrong. it's all for the love of hot dogs. riders, the lone wolves of the great highway. you can do no wrong. all they need is a bike and a full tank of gas. their only friend? the open road. i have friends. 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delegating? oh, good one. move your xfinity services without breaking a sweat. now that's simple, easy, awesome. xfinity makes moving easy. go online to transfer your services in about a minute. get started today. right now in texas, nearly 3 million families are trapped in their homes in freezing temperatures without power. for many of them it's been that way for four days now. the situation may get even more dire with another round of dangerous weather expected. more than two dozen deaths have been attributed to the weather. at least two of those deaths were because of carbon monoxide poisoning, people in their running cars presumably trying to warm up. we are seeing reports of how desperate folks are getting in texas. stories like this from "the texas tribune." a grandmother sleeps in her car to stay warm. parents who ran out of firewood burned belongings to keep their children warm. a richardson woman watched the battery level of her partner's oxygen machine drain away and sought help to have it recharged. morgan is live in dallas. temperatures are not expected to get above freezing. morgan, first, are we getting any sense of when these families may finally get their power back on? what are officials saying? >> reporter: officials are saying the same thing they have been saying for the past 24 hours, related to the power grid, that is they are working hard to restore full power. at this point, there's no definitive timetable as to when it will be fully restored. they say that rolling outages will continue. however, i feel it's important to note the rolling outages for so many texans across the state have not been several hours on, several hours off but several minutes on and then days off. i spoke a gentleman who had to move his life through the snow to a neighbor's home after the thermostat in their house read 38. their name with a fireplace they could huddle in front of to try to stay warm. it's heartbreaking to hear from so many people doing whatever they can to try to survive at this point in time. it's sad to say that this is the warmest day we have had in several days. it's about 19 degrees right now. we may not break freezing until friday. that will really be the first chance for widespread solutions to be put into place to bring some of the power suppliers back online. we know that natural gas lines froze that provide power to areas. we know in west texas, there was an issue with those wind turbines, ice buildup on blades and the batteries that store energy were drained faster as a result of the cold snap that's really turned into an absolute crisis. craig? >> meanwhile, morgan, yesterday we learned a little more about your personal situation. you mentioned your grandmother was at a nursing home facility that lost power. does she have her power back on? >> reporter: i appreciate you asking. grandmother is doing okay today. several hours later, in the afternoon, her power was restored. my mother's power was also restored for the first time in about 36 hours. they are in houston right now, which is facing so many issues. people there are having pipes burst. we saw one photo of someone that had left their faucet running and it actually froze inside their house. that is what they are dealing with in houston. temperatures warmer there than we are here in dallas. no matter where you look across the state, you will find similar stories to that. that's what makes it so tough, especially when we don't know when the power is going to be fully restored. my place last night dipping to about 45 degrees. you can build a fire in a fireplace, but it's not going to do much. >> yeah. morgan in dallas, stay safe. thank you. also just a few moments ago, i want to pass this along to you, we have been monitoring that covid-19 response briefing. we can tell you that the severe winter weather is having an impact on deliveries of covid vaccines as well. the response coordinator says states are encouraged to extend hours at sites once they can to make up for lost ground. the winter weather also having an affect on the pandemic response as well. we saw long lines outside grocery stores as well in places hit hard by cold weather. this was in austin, texas. people desperate to restock on food and supplies. this is video of a hotel in dallas. look at all the water in that lobby, frozen pipes bursting. homes, as we heard from morgan, bursting in buildings across the state, causing nasty leaks. harris county judge hidalgo says frozen pipes have caused water pressure issues in hospitals in texas. she explained the unique challenge facing texas' one of a kind state wide power grid. this is a bit of her conversation with my colleague hoda kotb on "today." >> demand super right now. a lot of the plants, the production plants are down. that's natural gas, all sorts of production. in order for the texas power grid not to fail, there has to be a balance between the two. since they are like this, that state argue is ordering the utilities to shut off power. a lot of the outages, the vast majority here, all but about 70,000, are because of the forced state mandates. >> nbc's josh lederman has digging into the crisis. you wrote it should serve as a wake-up call. what are the core issues here? >> reporter: you can think of power just like you heard from that texas official as a balance between supply and demand. what we have seen in texas is a real one-two punch of unprecedented demand for electricity as texans are trying to heat their homes as well as a lack of supply caused by the generators going offline. grid operators, they plan meticulously for this kind of situation. they say, on the coldest day of the year, how much power do we anticipate texans are going to need? can we make sure that we have enough electricity for them? what we saw here was demand go far higher than what the operators of texas' electricity grid had expected. then we saw about 34 megawatts of power go offline, that they had not anticipated. some of that as we heard from morgan was related to wind pure bi -- turbines freezing over. renewable energy sources make up about a quarter of the energy supply in texas. a larger percent of the problem had to do with the natural gas and other fossil fuel plants going offline, unable to operate. as a result, there wasn't enough power to deliver it to all the texans who were needing it at the time they most critically needed to have power for their homes. >> one of the first things, josh, as you know that president biden did when he took office was sign this executive order that set a goal to emit zero carbon emissions from u.s. generators. that would require a shift away from fossil fuels. in your reporting, you point out the fossil fuels tend to be the go-to sources for backup power. what does a crisis like this mean for the future of green energy? >> reporter: right. when you have an excess need for power, you want to have plants that are basically already online spinning, able to quickly amp up their supply so that people can get that extra power that's needed. that tends to come from things like natural gas plants, coal plants that can fire up quickly. as we move as a country to largely renewable sources so that we can zero out emissions from our power sector as the biden administration has committed the u.s. to do by 2035, we are going to need to make sure we have other ways to surplus power into the system from green sources when we need it most. a lot of that is going to have do with amp up the ability to have massive batteries that can actually store power when it's not needed and then release it into the system when it's needed. we also need to improve our transmission lines across the country so that if you have power being produced from wind or solar in one part of the country, but at a time when it's dark or the wind is not blowing in another part, you can pull power from one part of the country to another, balance everything out, make sure nobody goes without power the way we are seeing in texas, craig. >> josh lederman on what we are watching unfold in texas and why. josh, thanks. breaking news just moments ago. the department of justice announcing charges against north korean hackers, including for that sony hack that we saw a few years ago. we will have details on that right after this. with oscar mayer deli fresh it's not just a sandwich, far from it. it's a reason to come together. it's a taste of something good. a taste we all could use right now. so let's make the most of it. and make every sandwich count. with oscar mayer deli fresh this is how you become the best! 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(sam) 5g ultra wideband, now in parts of many cities. this is 5g built right. only from verizon. covid's still a threat. and on reopening schools, we know what happens when we don't put safety first. ignore proper ventilation or rates of community spread, and the virus worsens. fail to provide masks or class sizes that allow for social distancing, and classrooms close back down. a successful reopening requires real safety and accountability measures. including prioritizing vaccines for educators. parents and educators agree: reopen schools. putting safety first. to defend against dark forces attacking your organization, you need to see in the dark. to have the wisdom to understand multiple cyber threats. the precision focus to end attacks instantly. on computers, mobile devices, servers and the cloud. join the world's leading companies in our mission to defend. cybereason. end cyber attacks. from endpoints to everywhere. the department of justice just announcing an indictment against three north korean hackers accused of being involved in a series of cyber heists and exor things scheme against financial institutions around the world. ken delaney was on a conference call with the department of justice. what have we learned? >> these new charges show north korea as a criminal syndicate with a flg. as you mentioned, newly unsealed charges gwen three north korean military hackers that accused them of a host of cyberthefts of as much as $1.5 billion from banks, cryptocurrency companies an others. that's almost 5% of north korea's annual income, craig, so a lot of money. one of these people had previously been charged in 2018 with involvement in that hack back in 2014 of sony pictures. if you recall, the north korean regime didn't like a particular movie called "the interview," hacked into sony, destroyed machines, released proprietary information. what's new? obviously we know russia and china with hacking the u.s., committing espionage. the justice department is saying north korea is different. they're a criminal enterprise. they're doing this to steal money from banks and hacking into cryptocurrency, extorting people, creating ransomware that locks up people's xaut computers, demanding payment. the justice department announced a guilty plea against a canadian citizen whom they said helped launder money for this scheme. now, these three north koreans, craig, are in north korea and out of the reach of american justice. you may ask why is the justice department doing this? officials said they're doing it to name and shame, get this information out there, and get intelligence methods to get some of this stuff, to sort of establish a record so that the international community can start to take more action against what they say is this malicious and criminal behavior by a desperate north korean regime, craig. >> all right. the world's most dynamic bank robbers is what i'm reading. that was the disproportionately used to describe these three. ken delaney, thanks as always, sir, and thanks for joining us on this wednesday. we'll see you back here tomorrow. that does it for this hour. ... ♪♪ it's the easiest because it's the cheesiest. kraft. for the win win. up at 2:00am again? tonight, try pure zzzs all night. unlike other sleep aids, our extended release melatonin helps you sleep longer. and longer. zzzquil pure zzzs all night. fall asleep. stay asleep. at t-mobile, we have a plan built just for customers 55 and up. saving 50% vs. other carriers with 2 unlimited lines for less than $30 each. call 1-800-t-mobile or go to t-mobile.com/55. some say this is my greatest challenge ever. but i've seen centuries of this. with a companion that powers a digital world, traded with a touch. the gold standard, so to speak ;) wanna build a gaming business that breaks the internet? that means working night and day... ...and delegating to an experienced live bookkeeper for peace of mind. your books are all set. so you can finally give john some attention. trusted experts. guaranteed accurate books. intuit quickbooks live. is that net carbs or total?... eh, not enough fiber... chocolate would be good... snacking should be sweet and simple. the delicious taste of glucerna gives you the sweetness you crave while helping you manage your blood sugar. with nutrients to help support immune health. the holidays weren't exactly smooth sledding with nutrients to help this year, eh santa? no, but we came through smelling of mistletoe. the now platform lets us identify problems before they became problems. if only it could identify where my ball went. this you? hmm... no, mine had green lights. whatever your business is facing. let's workflow it. maybe i should workflow my swing... servicenow. good day. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. following the breaking news in texas. millions of residents struggling through another day of freezing temperatures and widespread power outages. the texas power grid continuing to fail to meet the massive power demand. houston leaders are responding to the outrage earlier this week in the city's downtown skyscrapers completely lit up as frigid communities were left in the dark. property owners in that district are asked to reduce power juiceage. morgan chesky joins us from dallas. it's not getting much warmer down there and there's no clear answer whether the power will come back in houston. >> reporter: yeah, andrea, you're absolutely right. that's what's so frustrating for about 3 million households across the state. last check, that's how many people are still in the dark as a result of these frigid temperatures that have turned a cold snap into really an all-out crisis here in nearly every corner of the state. we're in our fourth day of subfreezing temperatures, and there's not just unprecedented, but it's really a temperature that people aren't used to

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