administration, the message joe biden is telling americans about vaccines and the likelihood of getting millions of americans a pay raise. but first, late this morning, president biden approved a major disaster declaration for texas in the wake of this week's deadly winter storm. dozens of deaths now have been connected to this storm. but the death toll is likely a lot higher than what's being reported. first responders say they still have a long list of wellness checks to perform. on top of that, you've got 13 million texans who still don't have clean drinking water. in this country, they don't have clean drinking water. with that, i want to go to antonia hilton who's on the ground in houston. it has been harrowing to say the least. but of course it's bright and sunny where you are now. today. that being said, people are still suffering. talk us through what you're seeing on the ground so far. >> reporter: yeah, yasmin, i'm grateful for the sun today, because it has been a chilly week. here in houston, the mayor says they're going to be under a boil water advisory until at least monday, so residents started freezing in their homes and then finding out they don't have safe water to drink or in some cases they don't have any water coming out of their pipes at all. so in response, there has been a massive water distribution effort. i'm at new light church where earlier today, there was one of these efforts here. according to the mayor's office, people started lining up at about 5:30 a.m., which tells you how much need and how desperate people were to get their hands on free cases of water. i spoke to residents who went from gas station to grocery store looking for supplies and couldn't find any. some of the folks that we have met said that these cases were the first time that they could get their hands on something clean to drink in days. i want you to meet one of these people that i met. take a listen to this conversation that i had earlier today. >> we lost power monday night, and i kind of woke up and everything was dark and i thought, okay, well, that's not normal and it was super cold. and i literally, like, touch mid baby's face and he was freezing and i, like, freaked out. the pipes busted in our apartment complex, and we don't know when it's going to be fixed. and we don't have any drinking water, any flushing water, any washing water. i have a 2-month-old and i'm breast-feeding and i'm just like, even now, i'm dying of thirst. >> reporter: you can hear how tired she is right there. and that was the pervasive emotion. people are exhausted and drained after suffering all this for days now. and many of the people i want to point out that we have met at sites like this one, they are from black and latino neighborhoods here, low income neighborhoods, and they tell me that while they're so grateful that volunteers have given these supplies out to them, they're nervous that they're going to be ultimately the last people in houston to see their lives and their resources get back to normal. >> nothing that's happened there has been okay, and then just hearing her recount touching her baby's face, her 2-month-old baby, i'm assuming that's who she was talking about, that could have -- i can't imagine how terrifying, as a mom, that is. an tone yeah hylton, thanks thr that. i appreciate it. the nation on the precipice of surpassing half a million deaths. that number happening in less than a year when shutdown orders were first given. can you believe it has been almost a year? while touring the pfizer facility in michigan yesterday, the president had this message for americans hesitant to take this vaccine. watch this. >> we all know that some histories or some hesitancy about taking this vaccine. we all know there's a history in this country of having subjected certain communities to terrible medical abuses in the past. but if there's one message to cut through to everyone in this country, it's this. the vaccines are safe. please, for yours, your family, your community, this country, take the vaccine when it's your turn and available. that's how to beat this pandemic. >> and as we draw closer to that sobering milestone that i was mentioning earlier, states are battling their own crises at the vaccine rollout continues. in detroit, a covid vaccine drive is being held at second ebenezer church to combat the growing distribution inequities in that city. and then over to new york, there's more fallout from the newly announced preliminary investigation into governor cuomo's administration. he's now facing a slew of accusations over his administration's alleged underreporting of covid deaths in nursing homes throughout the state. nbc's cory coffin is outside mary manning walsh. shaq brewster is at second ebenezer baptist church in detroit where the senior saturdays vaccine drive is under way. thanks for joining us, guys. really appreciate it. cory, i'm going to start with you on this one. the nursing home that you are outside of right now is one of many that has been really badly affected by covid deaths, reporting 34 fatalities in just the last two weeks alone. what is the latest so far on what we're hearing into this investigation and from, of course, the governor's camp. >> yeah, and it is hard to imagine the toll these nursing homes are continuing to take, even as we get into 2021 here. now, governor cuomo continuing to have to defend his administration's actions through the worst of it last year. he says that these people are politically attacking him, they're taking this misinformation that is out there and using it to spread lies to confuse new yorkers even further. now, he admits that there was a void in public data from his office, but he says that void was filled with lies and conspiracy theories. of course, this all stems from that report from the state's attorney general's office that nursing home deaths were severely underreported here in the state of new york by the thousands. he says that was not intentional, despite a growing list of both republicans and democrats in this state saying it's a cover-up. that's what they're accusing cuomo of. now, yesterday, in cuomo's press conference, he stopped short of an apology but he did admit there was some things that they should have done differently. listen to what he said. >> i was not aggressive enough in knocking down the falsities. i heard them. i saw them. i dismissed it as politics. i dismissed it as personal agendas. i dismissed it as partisan politics, which is at a fever pitch nowadays. but i should have been more aggressive in calling it out. >> reporter: all right, we now know of that investigation that's being led by the fbi and the u.s. attorney in brooklyn. this investigation, yasmin, stems from the fact that there is a report this week by the associated press that a top aide to governor cuomo's office did say that they held back tallies over fear the trump administration would use them against them politically. these tallies come from nursing homes in 2020. the cuomo administration, though, has since clarified that statement and said they only held them back temporarily because they were dealing with a federal request and they had always reported the accurate amount of deaths. they were just miscategorized, yasmin. >> we're going to be following this investigation as it unfolds. that is for sure. let's go over to shaq, who is in detroit for us. at the senior saturdays vaccine drive. shaq, good to see you this afternoon. i know that this drive, it's a new partnership between the local hospital system there in detroit and then houses of worship as well. talk us through the biggest priority groups there today and the turnout. >> reporter: it's all about seniors, yasmin, and we saw about 500 seniors, which was the expectation, about 500 seniors come in to get that first dose of their moderna vaccine. when you break it out into a month-long period, it's going to be going on for several weeks, it's going to be about 2,000 seniors getting vaccinated at this church and officials say this is about saving lives. this is a hard-hit community. they targeted this community specifically. the fact that it's at a church is not by accident. they're doing that intentionally, because they say a church, unlike a hospital, or a clinic, is a place that people trust. they're willing to come in and get their vaccine here even if they have some skepticism about the vaccine. and that's something that you have been hearing from a lot of officials, including medical assistant inside the vaccination clinic who i talked to. she mentioned the fact that in some of the patients that she was talking to, they have more questions with this vaccine, for example. she even says that she's encountered several people who have never even had a flu vaccine but made sure, made it a priority that they came out today to get their coronavirus vaccine. listen to why she said that is. >> reporter: what is it about this vaccine that finally got them to come out? >> i think that just the seriousness of the amount of deaths that people are experiencing and the loss of family members and friends and stuff like that. that are making people, like, more acceptable to this vaccine. >> reporter: there was another story that she told me about someone who came in and said she was essentially getting her vaccine in secret. she didn't want to tell her kids about it because they had many doubts and she didn't want them to be concerned, so she'll go and tell them a little bit later. but something you're hearing from local officials, yasmin, is that this is something that can continue happening. it doesn't have to just be this church. this is a collaborative effort where the city's providing the vaccine. you have a medical system called henry ford providing the clinic and the nurses, and then you have the church providing the space, but the city is saying, hey, if we get more doses, if we get more supply, we can do more events like this, more frequently, to get more shots in people's arms. >> all right, shaq brewster, cori coffin, thank you both, guys. really appreciate your reporting on this. so, i want to get to the latest on covid relief negotiations as we are now officially one month into the biden presidency. with that, i want to bring in monica alba, who's standing by at the white house. talk us through this. i know we have been hearing grumblings about the fact that they could wrap this up by the end of the week, $1.9 trillion, major, huge relief bill. where do we stand at this moment? >> reporter: the house is hopeful they will be able to do their part this week, yasmin. you're exactly right. but then there's a bigger question about once this goes and passes and then heads over to the senate, what happens there. and we already know from president biden that he is prepared, he says, to forge ahead, even without republican support for this bill, that the urgency is so clear and the time is now, and really, they have very few weeks to waste given that unemployment benefits are set to run out in mid-march, so they want to make sure this gets across the finish line. ideally before then. and you heard the president yesterday specifically deliver this message at a pfizer plant in michigan where he was talking about the compounding crises of the coronavirus pandemic and of course the economic hardships and that's why he stressed that there's very little he sees you could argue stripping out of this $1.9 trillion package. take a listen to what he had to say. >> what would they have me cut? what would they have me leave out? should we not invest $20 billion to vaccinate the nation? should we not interviewed $290 million to extend unemployment insurance for the 11 million americans who are unemployed so they can get by? this is the united states of america. for god's sake. we invest in people. who are in need. >> reporter: so, the bill is nearly 600 pages long, yasmin. we got some of the top lines overnight, including those $1,400 direct stimulus payments that would go to americans as well as the extension of unemployment benefits, and then there's also money in there for vaccine distribution, as the president referenced there, but also for schools and other important financial aid for other entities of society and that's why the white house is arguing they need to get it done now because this is also one of the president's main promises of his first 100 days in office and one month in, it already has a bit of an uphill climb, though they do believe they can try to get it done, but of course it was that impeachment trial a week ago that derailed some of the attention and political oxygen so they're trying to get it back on track for this week so that it can continue to proceed and then eventually become law. they hope by mid-march. >> yeah and as we're looking at some of the polling, and we're going to be talking about this later in the show, a majority of americans support this thing. they support this bill. they want to see more money in the pockets of americans across the country that have been suffering for so long and will continue to suffer until we're able to reach herd immunity and that is coming into question as to when that's going to happen. monica, while i have you, i want to get a read on how the president's speech at the munich security conference is being perceived. >> reporter: it came on the same day that he also spoke to the g7. this was really something that in the president's words, he was trying to declare america is back, that they have reentered the world stage and the biden white house is trying to make clear they're ready to reengage with some allies and some adversaries so the response internationally has been mostly positive for them. chancellor angela merkel of germany, for instance, spoke right after president biden and said that she believes that europe and the united states really need to partner together when it comes to the major challenges presented by russia and china, for instance, and then there was also really more positive reaction to the fact that president biden decided to rejoin the paris climate agreement. of course, that's something that his predecessor had pulled the u.s. out of, and then also, the fact that the u.s. rejoined the world health organization. those are things that have gone over pretty well with the international community, though there are some questions, and president macron, for example, of france said he doesn't think that the u.s. needs to be leading on every single issue, that he wants to get more into a partnership-based approach with europe taking the lead on certain things but yesterday was a clear day of trying to broaden out the domestic priorities of the biden white house into entering the world stage and we're going to see a little bit of that coming up this week when president biden meets virtually with prime minister justin trudeau of canada. that's going to be the first bilateral meeting that he has but of course they're not going to do it in person. they're going to have to do it over zoom like we're all doing our meetings and business these days because of the ongoing pandemic, yasmin. >> let's hope they both have some good wi-fi and good lighting because that's all that you need during these zooms. nbc's monica alba, thank you. good to see you. so, the nomination of neera tanden to lead the office of management and budget is in serious jeopardy. that is because democratic senator joe manchin announced he's not going to vote for her. he becomes the first democrat to oppose one of biden's nominee, calling out tanden for overtly partisan statements with the senate evenly divided by republicans and democrats, tanden will now need at least one republican senator to vote for her confirmation. last night the president said he has no intention of pulling her nomination. also, six more members of the far-right militia group, the oath keepers, have been charged for their role in the capitol hill attack. the justice department filed charges on friday against kelly megs, the self-described leader of the oath keepers florida chapter, his wife, connie, and four others who participated in a military-style stack that ascended a flight of stairs outside the capitol and broke into the building, according to the filings. the group coordinated with three other members of the militia, thomas caldwell, jessica watkins, and donovan crowell, all of whom were charged last month. the indictment brings the total number of oath keepers charged to nine and represents the most significant effort by the justice department yet to prove that far-right extremists worked together ahead of the january 6th insurrection. and then on the heels of those indictments, "the washington post" is now reporting that the united states is investigating whether high-profile right-wing figures, including trump ally roger stone and conspiracy theorist alex jones may have played a role in the capitol hill attack. we're going to follow much more on the story as it develops and bring it to you throughout the next two hours. ahead, everybody, more on the problems texans are facing in the wake of the winter blast that's paralyzed much of the state since earlier this week. a houston homeowner joins me to share her personal story. we'll be right back. o share her personal story we'll be right back. 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efforts in that state, the new york democrat criticized texas leadership, including senator ted cruz, for taking a tone-deaf trip to mexico over what has been a disaster of power outages and water shortages during a historic winter storm that has lasted all week long. ercot, the private company that manages texas's power grid says the electric system is now generating enough power to resume normal operating conditions. that's almost a week later. but in cities like austin, the state's capital, power outages are still plaguing some residents who have been without it for days. water shortages are expected to continue into next week and those that do have water, they're urged to boil it before use because of burst pipes and water mains as well. federal since, though, it is on the way. as president biden today approved a major disaster declaration for 77 texas counties, unlocking federal money for the state. biden is also planning to visit the state in the next week if, he says, it does not create a burden. so we've heard of stories of personal loss, struggles, and bravery starting to come out of texas. residents venturing out on ice to find water with no idea where to go. city dwellers frantically searching outside to find things to burn to stay warm, residents caring for their children and the elderly while trying not to freeze themselves. we heard from a woman that antonia brought in a little bit earlier who essentially said she checked her child's face and it was freezing and she was terrified. i'm joined now by a houston resident who has spent days trying to keep her family alive and safe and is sharing her ordeal. thanks for joining on this. really appreciate it. i'm so sorry for what you have been through over the last couple of days. i can't even imagine being in that situation. how are you guys doing today? >> yasmin, we had a horrible experience during the power outage, my mother-in-law, who's 86 years old, fell and injured herself. the paramedics took her to the hospital. she's currently in the icu and is not doing well. we didn't have power for two and a half days. my house was around 40 degrees and i couldn't sleep at night because i was worried that my daughter would die while i'm sleeping because the temperature was so low. i was worried her body temperature would go low. i mean, the government in texas failed its citizens. the government has a duty to take care of our health, safety, and welfare. electricity and water are essential things for our welfare. and this could have been an avoidable disaster, and you know, to top it all off, in the middle of this catastrophe, one of our two senators jet sets off to cancun. i can't tell you those scary moments i had at night when there was no power, the house was freezing cold, and i just didn't know when this would end. it wasn't like, okay, we'll have power in two hours. it was days, and long hours at night. the power grid needs to be winterized. for the governor not to regulate this, not to demand regulation on this, this is an utter failure to the citizens of texas. millions lost power. several people died. we had ice forming inside the window of our bedroom, as you can see on the screen right now. you know, my heart goes out to the elementary school children who died because they were stuck in the car and they got carbon monoxide poisoning. for the senator to go to cancun just shows they don't care. you know? you showed a picture of a cat in that cage. that's a cat that i rescued. i'm freezing in my own house, but i show care for a cat because i can help them. i will help. for the senator to just get up and leave, that is such an insult to us, to the people of texas. and frankly, you know, we rely on the government that we elect to protect us, and this was an absolute disaster, what happened. >> mana, did you ever think something like this was going to happen, especially -- i mean, you talk about the politics of this thing and the grid, the power grid. is this ever -- anything that you anticipated, and do you think it will force the local government to rethink the power grid? because it seems like texas is getting kind of more of these extreme weather conditions, a heck of a lot more than it's been in the past. >> it's quite ironic that the government in texas says we don't want the federal government to regulate our power grid, but then they don't mandate winterization of the power grid, and the same token, the government in texas says, okay, now that the disaster happened, we want fema to give us emergency aid. well, we don't need fema emergency aid if you do your job, if you regulate the power grid. you know, this was a storm that we knew well in advance it was coming. it wasn't something that sprung on us like in minutes. so, this is a major problem with the controlling of, you know, of the power grid, of ercot not being regulated, and you know, letting down the people in texas. texas is a huge state. millions of people lost power in freezing weather. i never imagined that in the united states, i would be in my house without power and without water and i had thoughts that i'm going to die and no one is here to help me. i mean, it's just unthinkable what happened in the past few days. i was telling my husband, i think people are going to need therapy after what happened, because we were in a situation where we're completely hopeless and the government failed us. >> yeah, i mean, even still now, as we were talking to our reporter a little bit earlier, it is now disproportionately affected black and brown communities because of the deregulation that is happening across the state when it comes to the texas power grid. and so that is also something that needs to be addressed, i think, moving forward. mana, i'm so thankful that you and your child, your daughter and your husband are okay. i wish you the best and wish your mother-in-law the best and i hope she's able to get out of that icu and get back home to all of you. thanks for sharing your story with us, mana. coming up, everybody, it has been more than one year since the first cases of the coronavirus started to spread, but its origin remains unclear. why u.s. investigators are not yet ruling out a chinese lab accident. when we return. plus, a lot of talk these days about when we may return to normalcy, now that people are getting vaccinated. dr. patel is going so join us with her thoughts on that. l is with her thoughts on that. t be e to ask yourself, 'are my bones strong?' life is full of make or break moments. that's why it's so important to help reduce your risk of fracture with prolia®. only prolia® is proven to help strengthen and protect bones from fracture with 1 shot every 6 months. do not take prolia® if you have low blood calcium, are pregnant, are allergic to it, or take xgeva®. serious allergic reactions like low blood pressure, trouble breathing, throat tightness, face, lip or tongue swelling, rash, itching or hives have happened. tell your doctor about dental problems, as severe jaw bone problems may happen. or new or unusual pain in your hip, groin, or thigh, as unusual thigh bone fractures have occurred. speak to your doctor before stopping, skipping or delaying prolia®, as spine and other bone fractures have occurred. prolia® can cause serious side effects, like low blood calcium, serious infections, which could need hospitalization, skin problems, and severe bone, joint, or muscle pain. don't wait for a break, call your doctor today, and ask about prolia®. welcome back. nearly a year after the pandemic began, the u.s. is continuing to investigate where it all started. the world health organization announced it found no signs that a lab accident in china could have caused the outbreak, but the u.s. is not ruling out that possibility as of yet. i want to bring in nbc's ken delaneian, covering national security for us with some new reporting. hi, ken, good to see you on this saturday. this surfaced, like, you know, seven or eight months ago, i think, at one point, this idea that something like this could have happened and then it went away for a time. so where are we right now? and why is the u.s. not ruling out this possibility? >> reporter: nice to see you, yasmin. the u.s. is not ruling out this possibility because they say china has not been transparent and has not been forthcoming about all the data and all the information that the united states would like to see in order to rule out there was a lab accident. just to be clear, they've ruled out that the virus was somehow human made or a bioweapon. that's not the issue. the question is, did it come to humans through an animal host, or was there a possibility of a lab accident, did it escape accidentally? did somebody working in one of these labs in wuhan get infected and bring it out? there has been a circumstantial case for that because wuhan is a hub of virus research in china and the bats that generally are infected with these coronaviruses are a thousand miles away from wuhan, and so initially, people looked at that wet market in wuhan but that's been ruled out as the whole story, yasmin, because there are many early cases that had nothing to do with that wet market. so, what the u.s. is saying is we need more information. the w.h.o. went in there and initially said, we're ruling out the possibility of a lab accident, but then a few days later, the director of that organization walked that back and said, in fact, we're not ruling out a lab accident, and one of the w.h.o. researchers told my colleague, keir simmons, that they didn't get all the data they need from china. so, look, we may never know the answer to this, yasmin, but u.s. intelligence has some information, which they haven't been made public, that's leading them to continue to question. it doesn't prove that there was a lab accident, but it means they can't rule it out. >> yeah, i mean, and i was going to say, kind of to top this all off, it's not like we can full heartedly expect transparency from china ever, really, right? it's not really a question of when but if we ever will get that transparency that we need. >> reporter: and that's the problem. are they just acting like the chinese and covering up or are they covering up something really nefarious, which is secret research on this virus. the people in the labs said we were not working on anything close to this novel covid-19 virus, but then mike pompeo, the former secretary of state, on the way out the door, issued a fact sheet in which he said, the wuhan institute of virology was doing secret experiments with the chinese military, and the u.s. detected that some workers in that lab got sick with coronavirus-like symptoms in the fall. now, that doesn't prove anything but it sort of adds to the picture of things that need to be answered by the chinese, yasmin. >> adds to the suspicion. ken dilanian, good to see you, ken. thank you. i want to bring in, now, nbc news medical contributor dr. kavita patel to talk about this. i want to talk about when we get to return to normal, dr. patel. and about achieving herd immunity, but i want to get your reaction to some of the reporting that we heard from ken little bit earlier now where the u.s. is not ruling out this possibility that the origins of the coronavirus may have been in a lab. >> yeah, yasmin, so, this reminds me a lot of kind of my policy work that we have had to do in the white house and in congress when we were dealing with emerging kind of biothreats, and i think it's important to find the answers, but i think it's even more important to understand the implications. i think americans want answers, how did this virus jump into the population? those answers, though, are really even more important to understand if it was a lab accident, then it really does have security implications. accidents need to be kind of understood a little bit more better, you know, a little bit better. if it's animal spillover, which is also a theory, yasmin, then we need better surveillance, just worldwide, around viruses that can jump from animals to hosts in humans. and then third, there's been some speculation around frozen meat, and if that's the case, then we need to also think about better policies for trade restrictions where anything that could introduce any of these viruses or even bacteria are actually heavily regulated. so, that's where i think this set of questions is important. bottom line, we do need to find the answer, but not because of justice what we saw in the past. but so that we can protect citizens in the future. >> okay, so, let's talk now about a return to normalcy, which is what everyone wants, and achieving herd immunity in order to return to normal. the president has now said he is predicting, and he said this at the pfizer plant yesterday, essentially, that we could feasibly return to normal by christmas. he goes on, but i can't make that commitment to you, and i quote, there are other strains of the virus. he's talking, obviously, about these variants. what do you make of the prediction that we could actually be returning to normal by christmas time? >> yeah, first of all, that's kind of what i have been hoping for as well, just based on data and numbers, and the reason i'm predicting holiday time, thanksgiving, christmastime, is because we know we need to get a certain degree of the population vaccinated, yasmin, and we need to know if we will need boosters for some of these vaccines for variants that we haven't even discovered or labeled. and so, normalcy for many of us are going to be when we can get together with families, go on planes, and feel like we can take our children and families together safely. that's not going to happen until we have either a majority of people vaccinated or infected in some combination thereof. just as a reminder, herd immunity, the numbers we have to achieve get higher and higher the more infectious the agent or virus. measles is one of the most infectious ones which is why we try so get as many people vaccinated for the measles. the coronavirus is less than that but we have a long way to go so i think the end of the year is the right target. >> well, and we haven't even talked about children. i mean, vaccinating children. one in four americans in this country are children, so if you do the math, it seems to me like we need to start the process of vaccinating kids before we're even able to achieve herd immunity. >> yeah. it's a good point. remember, we're in trials and pfizer has wrapped up phase 3 trials for ages 12 to 16. we should get a readout. i do think that we will have -- the next age group is then 6 to 12. so i think by the end of the year, you could conceivably have children ages 6 and older vaccinated, which gets us a lot of the kind of younger population vaccinated, but just a little bit of caution and some word of kind of silver linings. getting to the november holiday time frame, yasmin, we will be able to get together in households with people who are vaccinated even if children aren't vaccinated as we have more and more people in our area, communities, states and cities actually getting immunity and i think that's where there is some hope. i will be able to get together with my parents if we're all vaccinated and i can keep my children safe. so, look forward to that. that, i think, will start happening in the next several months. >> i'm holding you to that, dr. patel. thank you as always for your words on this. very much appreciate it. and as we talk about the vaccine rollout, now is the time to make a plan so you're going to get ready to get vaccinated when it is your turn, as the president was saying a little bit earlier. our interactive state by state guide can help you figure that out, when and where to go exactly. you can also sign up for customizable alerts to let you know when you are eligible. visit planyourvaccine.com or use your phone to scan the qr code to be taken right to the site. up next, everybody, the biden administration's push to reopen most k-8 schools in the coming amongst. months. >> we don't feel that every teemer needs to be vaccinated before you can open a school. v before you can open a school >> how do educators feel about not needing to be vaccinated before getting back in the classroom? the head of one of the largest teachers unions in the country is with us next. ons in the couny is with us next. mornings were made for better things than rheumatoid arthritis. when considering another treatment, ask about xeljanz... a pill for adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis when methotrexate has not helped enough. xeljanz can help relieve joint pain and swelling, stiffness, and helps stop further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections. before and during treatment, your doctor should check for infections, like tb and do blood tests. tell your doctor if 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ailments such as insomnia, exhaustion, and headaches. the biden administration is hoping to alleviate some of these burdens by renewing in-class instruction, public, elementary schools by the end of the president's first 100 days in office, so with that, i do want to bring in the president of the american federation of teachers, randy weingarten to talk about this. good to see you to talk about this. it's interesting, i was thinking about this, about the last time we spoke, and it was almost a year ago, and we were in studio together, not sure if you remember. >> yeah. >> and we were talking about the possibility of a shutdown, and total online learning and the concerns that parents and teachers had about that going forward. so, talk me through where we are now. do you feel like it is feasible -- do you think it's feasible for us to achieve what president biden has proposed in getting everybody back to in-person learning, and do you think it's the best way forward? >> so, i think it's feasible to meet president biden's goal. i think that the -- that there's some confusion about, does five day a week school mean that everybody's going to be back to normal in april, may, and june, and i think that the answer to that is, no, because you need to have about 30% more space and 30% more teachers in order to do the social distancing and the dedensification of classrooms that cdc is talking about. but to be able to have, you know, the number of kids that parents want to send back to school, which has been -- which is about 30% or 40%, and to have schools, you know, elementary schools and middle schools reopen safely, i think there's a real shot at doing this. obviously, we have to keep looking at what's going on with the variant, but the good news, yasmin, and you're right, i think that was the last in-studio interview i did before everything shut down. but the good news is this. unlike the last administration where we begged people to give us the scientific guidance and to have the resources, you have this administration who's already had their cdc put out very good, solid guidance and within the next two weeks, hopefully we will have the resources for both the ventilation fixes, the testing that's needed, the vaccine distribution, as well as working on how to help deal with the social, emotional, and academic issues that kids have, like by having a summer program. and so, this is now a matter of the road map is there. how do we make this real in districts and regions all across america? the regions that actually want to do this right, like new york, and frankly the regions who have failed to do this right, like georgia or florida. >> all right, so you bring up new york, for instance, right, like teachers are up for a vaccine at this point in the state of new york. teachers all across the state and the city particularly are getting their vaccines. there was actually a "new york times" interview, and they interviewed 175 pediatric disease experts about the risks of renewing in-person learning without vaccinations to certain groups, and overwhelmingly, randi, these experts have said that vaccinations should not be a precondition to renewing in-person learning. >> right. >> what's your reaction to that? >> so, look, i'm -- i'm a social studies teacher and a lawyer. i don't even play a scientist on tv. so, i kind of have to listen to what the scientists say and what they have said is that vaccines are important as an added layer of protection, which is why teachers are a priority. but the things that are really important to stop transmission in schools are social distancing, masks, cleaning, ventilation, hand washing, and the testing that you saw in the nfl and in, you know, industry that actually manages and lets you see what is unseen. so, do we need the vaccine to make people feel more protected? absolutely. and if schools are important to open, we need to have it. but is it a precondition? no. these other things are. >> randi weingarten, thanks. so, after the break, our latest edition of in the spotlight focuses on telling the stories of black scholars, part of a four-part series on harlem's influence in our nation's culture. we'll be right back. in our nation's culture wel 'lbe right back. lactaid is 100% real milk, just without the lactose. so you can enjoy it even if you're sensitive. yet some say it isn't real milk. i guess those cows must actually be big dogs. sit! i said sit! introducing fidelity income planning. we look at what you've saved, what you'll need, and help you build a flexible plan for cash flow that lasts, even when you're not working, so you can go from saving... to living. ♪ let's go ♪ 1 in 2 kids is under hydrated. ♪ plant-powered creative roots gives kids the hydration they need, with the fruit flavors they love. and one gram of sugar. find creative roots in the kids' juice aisle. repair your enamel with pronamel repair. our most advanced formula and one gram of sugar. helps you 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journeys as creators of color and how they defined what it means to be black in america. msnbc correspondent and host of the into america podcast trymaine lee is joining me now. i got to say, i was taking a listen to your podcast recently. actually, this morning on my run and it's so good, trymaine. it is so good and you have such full, amazing conversations, and this series, it's -- it's incredibly touching, especially about the way you came about it and the inspiration of this series being this harlem artist. jacob lawrence, who was part of the fabric of harlem. talk to us about that. >> that's right, yasmin. thank you so much for having me. it's great to have these conversations with you now. yeah, so, i'm an amateur collector of artifacts, arts and antiques all connected to the black experience and i was able to get my hands on a rare signed numbered print of jacob lawrence's schaumburg library and there was a dedication that said, to abram hill and at that point, obviously, i was well aware of jacob lawrence, one of my favorite artists of all time, but abram hill, i had no idea who he was. and so, i started to do a little research and come to find out, abram hill was a harlem legend, a black american playwright, who really helped change the way black folks even saw themselves. certainly the way america saw black people but the way black people saw themselves by centering our narrative. and so, the more string i pulled and the more digging i did, it led me to other people like arturo schaumburg, the writer and editor jesse faucet, and it took me on this journey, really understanding not just harlem but america in some sense. >> trymaine, you also talked about how tricky it can be striking the right balance when it comes to content like this. specifically highlighting these black figures as a black american man yourself but leaving room, i guess, shall we say, for white people to engage with this type of story. what do you mean by that, and how do you go about doing that? >> so, the mission of black journalists, a lot of us are trying to make sure that we can really deliver our authentic selves and give the truest proper trail of black people and the black experience. so the difficulty is having an honest conversation and sometimes there's son shorthand in there but leading the conversation wide enough for other people in this country to consume. because sometimes we like to silo black history or silo the black experience but you don't have the american experience, a full telling and recounting of the american experience, without the black american appearance. experience. so the tricky part is just how do you maintain your authenticity but also leave it open, and i think you do so by just the stories that you tell, the way you tell the stories, not the content necessarily, but just really telling good stories and making sure that we're always connecting the dots. that this isn't just about black america. it's about america. >> and you actually had a really good conversation on january 28th with -- about reporting on race as well, and part of that is in that conversation. if you have the opportunity, you should listen to trymaine's podcast because it is so good and it's so important for every american to have, especially in this time, what we're going through in this country. trymaine lee, my friend, thank you as always. hope you're well during this crazy pandemic time. you can, by the way, tune in and subscribe to trymaine's podcast wherever you get your podcasts, new episodes drop every thursday, and let me know, by the way, what podcast you love. send your suggestions to @yasminv on twitter. much more, everybody, after the break. v on twitter much more, everybody, after the break. fine, no one leaves the table until your finished. fine, we'll sleep here. ♪♪ it's the easiest because it's the cheesiest. kraft. for the win win. my husband and i have never eaten healthier. shingles doesn't care. i logged 10,000 steps 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