once he does here is what will happen. there will immediate i will be an extension of unemployment benefits through september. billions for state and local governments, billions for schools, billions for vaccine distribution, and expansion of the child tax credit and those $1400 direct stimulus checks. but that right there is only part of the big news that has come out today. a year after the w.h.o. declared a global pandemic we got some of the best news yet. a new study shows the pfizer vaccine prevents near all asymptomatic infections. a huge step towards ending this pandemic and getting us back to normal. on top of that the pfizer vaccine shows it is 97% effective at stopping hospitalizations and deaths including against the uk variant which doctors say is more contagious. it is incredible news delivered at an incredible speed. tonight president bide listen deliver his first prime time address to the nation and he is expected to recognize the immense lost that we have suffered in lives and lively hoods. with me now is the director of texas children's hospital center for vaccine develop dr. peter hotez. also joining me the author of "which country has the best health care." let's talk about this news on the vaccine front. dr. hotez these numbers out of a study in israel are pretty incredible. >> we have some idea about this because there is a paper published in the new england journal of medicine. and it shows that two doses of the vaccine gives an extraordinarily high level of protection. to give you a perspective that is probably our best vaccine that we have. the two doses of the measles vaccine. and it is shedding from the nose and mouth, but it is also halting asymptomatic infection as well. i think we'll see similar findings from some of the other operation warp speed vaccines. so the good news is if we can fully vaccinate the people we can potentially halt a symptomatic transmission. that is here in texas, florida, and georgia. so a lot of excitement ahead as we move into the summer and get american people fully vaccinated. it is just a matter of how we navigate the next few weeks because of this rise of the u.k. variant before we can get everyone vaccinated. >> dr. manuel, the news that the pfizer vaccine is preventing asymptomatic infection, what does that mean for our ability to eventually stop wearing masks, to get back to normal, to do all of the things that we only a year we're going to expand vaccination if we continue at this rate. tu is a huge tremendous turning point. we don't know exactly where herd immunity and killing the spread happens, but somewhere in that time. so it does look like summer or early fall we will be getting back to normal. and it is really important, i think, katy. normal is not covid going away entirely. normal is the background risk of covid goes to something like the background risk of flu and it just becomes part of the every day life. i would say the one big question left really that we have to establish is the durability of the vaccines. how long do they last. is it every year we have to get another boost. is it every six months? that will make a difference for the rollout and what we're asking of the system. but i do think that people can expect that over the summer we're going to get back a lot of the normal activities that we have. we have to get to the alaska situation where anyone over 16 come and get a vaccine. and that will be a huge, another huge turning point for the country. >> dr. emanuel, just touching on one of those points you were making, when will we know whether or not there will need to be a booster. >> and that is how we're going to really find out. one of the other important points is the data out of england. when people have the vaccine the number of cases and the death rate among those people over 65 in britain has plummeted because they have been vaccinated and that will be another very important sign, when you see cases dropping and going to background levels. it's no longer an emergency that stresses the system. that will be the big turning point. >> so the pool, the white house press pool as it is called, is in the oval office. we're watching that door to see when the president will come out. while we wait what about the south africa variant. i know it has been tested against the uk variant -- here is president joe biden, let's pause for a moment, and watch as president biden signs his first major piece of legislation. >> in the weeks that this bill has been discussed and debated, it is clear that an overwhelming percentage of american people, democrats, independents, have made it clear -- the people out here, made it clear they strongly supported the american rescue plan. yesterday with the final passage of the plan and the house of representatives their voices were heard and reflected from everything we had in this bill. and i believe this is, and most people do as well. historic legislation that is about rebuilding the backbone of this country. giving people who built the country a fighting chance. i'm going to have a lot more to say about that tonight and the next couple days. but in the meantime i'm going to sign this bill and make the presentation tonight. then there will be the plenty of opportunities on the road to not only talk about what i'm talking about but the impact on the virus and how to end this pandemic. if i could talk about all of the elements of the bill, friday, saturday, and through the week. thank you for being here. got it, thank you all. >> thank you! >> that was pretty short, definitely sweet. the president signing that $1.9 trillion relief bill, not taking any questions from reporters. let's put back on the screen what is about to be dolled out to state and local governments, as well. there is a whole lot in there. he says he will address more of it tonight in his prime time address and over the weekend. joining us now is dr. hotez, kelly o'donnell, peter baker, this is you know 51 days, i believe, into the presidency where he is signing a really major piece of legislation. what does this mean? >> i think this is big deal. he used a more earthy term in there. but getting the spending on narrow partisan votes is a states and cities that lost some revenue as a result. he is doing other things with this bill. it is a three-part bill. the covid relief part, an economic stimulus to pump in a lot of money, and it is an anti-poverty bill. some of this will disappear and congress will have to revisit it to see if they will make some of this permanent. but for a president that came in in the middle of a crisis and promised to act quickly, this is a sweet day. >> dr. emanuel, in this bill there is a lot of relief for state and local governments. also hospitals for those who are still treating the people who are suffering from this virus. what is this money going to mean for our ability to get on top of this? >> it will be enormously helpful. i think if your goal is to open up schools, having $130 billion for schools to redo ventilation, create more space to you can space students out, very, very important. they have more channels, the mobile vaccination sites. there are small parts, more money for jeanetter surveillance. more money for testing, these are all important. i would just mention one thing that peter baker mentioned. a lot of this is because of the covid problem, but if we're really going to make trurl changes we have to put in permanent relief. the permanent sax tax credit and we know the parts of this bill that include health. if you can bring people's income up they get healthier, they get more education, and they have better lifetime prospects. that is really, really important in the next faze. >> kelly, he was supposed to sign this tomorrow, so why did it again move up to today? >> one of the things we have to remember is the signing moments, while they appear symbolic are actually carrying the effect of law. so once congress finished it's work by passing the legislation is has to be enrolled, and you might handshake to buy that new car, but you need the paper work prepared. the bill arrived at the white house, they were able to move up the time line a bit for the president so sign it and signing it more quickly does start the clock for things like the department of treasury that is smr responsible for the direct payments. and fakes will get a certain direct check based on income levels and the more quickly the president signs it, the department of treasury can move forward. the president, vice president, and other top officials will be on an education tour, if you will, to dive into aspects of the legislation and the impact it will have in the real world. the implementation is important. schools may be getting money, but how does that work? what's the mechanism to distribute the funds, who qualifies for what. there are so many other details part of the ongoing story of what is this american rescue plan as the biden administration named it. expect to see the first travel of the president and the vice president together where they go to georgia. no surprise georgia because the two newly elected senators there were part of the wall of democrats that made this possible to pass it without republican support. while the signature means the bill is law, there is a new phase that starts to educate the public, explain what is in it, and the stewardship for disbursing the money and the program that's are part of this, k katy? now is when you give credit far passing the bill and the credit for those blocking the bill. mitch mcconnell said we were already on a upswing, it has nothing to do with this bill. >> bide listen be owning any upturn in the economy, but they want to remind voters they also agreed to pump in trillions of dollars at our lowest period and we may be joying the benefit of that months ahead of time before we get the true effects of the biden bill. right now president biden is selling a moment. he is selling a moment of hope and recovery and it is a political moment for him as well. he needs to use this bill as something that which he attach himself to. the successes of the house and the senate when 2022 comes around. they don't make the same mistakes they did in the obama years when the stimulus recovery bill was not something that he touted and he did a tour around the country to make sure that when americans start feeling more comfortable, when they start to see money in their walt, that you can thank biden for this. as you will hear from republicans they will point out operation warp speed is the big part of the reason why we have vaccines right now. but the further we get from the trump white house and presidency the more likely biden can own a recoverying economy. >> dr. hotez, i have a question for you that i will save for when you come back. it is about the south africa variant. in the meantime, thank you to my guests. still ahead, health workers on the front line of this global pandemic reflect on what has been a year of loss, of sadness, and of burn out. >> we're the ones holding their hands, taking them off of their breathing machines while their families cry on zoom. >> one of the first known super spreader events, on the dimon princess cruiseship. he is still feeling the effects of this virus. and this video right here is me, today, double masked and on my way to do something very exciting. more on that, coming up. re on t. as carla thinks about retirement, she'll wonder, "what if i could retire sooner?" and so she'll get some advice from fidelity, and fidelity will help her explore some different scenarios, like saving more every month. ♪♪ and that has carla feeling so confident that she can enjoy her dream... right now. that's the planning effect, from fidelity. today is march 11th, 2021, one year since the w.h.o. declared the covid-19 virus a global pandemic. in one year we now have three separate fda vaccines. can you even remember what it was like a year ago today. the day you went home from work and never went back? the day that everything changed when desks were left abandoned gathering dust in empty schools and officers. businesses closed for the day, the month, and then forever? today there had are over 530,000. at the time it was impossible for most americans to fathom how bad things would get and yet here we are. joining me now are two reporters on opposite coasts. gabe gutierrez. it was known as the epicenter. what is it like there today. >> i was coming to you from an empty time square. we were here in elmhurst. and the workers here are just starting to sort through that trauma. at one point they were dealing with more than 400 covid patients a day. 13 people died at this hospital, and i spoke with one of those doctors that had to deal with some of that. take a listen. >> it was a minute to minute moment by moment, you know, one step in front of the other deal with it next crisis, put out the next fire, the next phone call, oxygen levels were going off. helps us co-hort the ventilators in one area so we know where they are. secure the ppe. make more rooms, change out the oxygen tanks, it was just a constant. >> the images here coming out are the first visual representation of the crisis in the u.s. until that point we had only seen it in europe. the ambulances here were parked down the block. we spoke with health care workers that said at one point they said they just didn't have space. the ambulances were literally parked down the block, they could not even have enough space. now one of the people -- a motorcycle going by. one of the people we were speaking with last year during this time, he was in line getting tested and i had to yell my cell phone number to him, talk to him halfway down the block with a long lens because of the uncertainty and the virus. we didn't want to get too close to him. he told me at the time how sick he was and how worried he was for his family. i checked back in with him just a few days ago. >> i was here for the test, and i was positive three days after that they called me and told me it was positive and i was in shock. >> you were in shock? >> how sick were you? >> really sick. i believe i almost died. katy, he tells me that he is grateful to be alive. back to you. >> that is really amazing. i'm so happy he is okay. gadi, one of the things this last year taught us is how deep seeded our inequality is especially when it comes to health care and exposure. los angeles was the hub for figuring much of that out, what are you seeing today? >> we have been talking a lot about inequality here in los angeles. one of the things coming to the forefront of that now is the johnson and johnson vaccine. they see it as a second class vaccination. they say it is easier to give one vaccine to have individual instead of having to schedule them two vaccines. sometimes they're transient, but that vaccine just as effective when it comes to severe hospitalizations and death as the other ones. so we're starting to see that vaccine administered here in los angeles and the health and human services secretary of the state of california was just getting his vaccine a little while ago. he got the johnson and johnson. a year later right now this is not a hospital clinic, this is a shopping mall here in the baldwin hills area. an area that is traditionally under served. the parking lot is kind of empty, and we're talking to some of the people and some of the folks out here that say they work for metro, they're essential workers and they're telling us about this vaccine. there is a lot of celebration, we saw people cheering when somebody would get called up to get their shot, in fact, ma'am, who are you most excited about when it comes to get this vaccine, who are you thinking about here before you go in? >> definitely my children and my parents. they're disabled and they have underlying health conditions and i want to be around them to help them out. >> what does this vaccine represent to you? >> a chance to help save lives. if i can do it to save someone else, even if i have to be the guinea pig for it. >> what do you think of the johnson and johnson vaccine? >> i heard some up and downs about it. but it's okay. >> how long have you been waiting? >> my appointment was at 11, so about 30 minutes. >> they are talking about people they're excited to see. the have, dc said that if people have been vaccinated under certain circumstances they can take their masks off when their congregating with other people as long as no one has pre-existing conditions. that came out in the last week or so and it started to bring down some of that reluctance factor. a lot of people here are excited to get their vaccine. >> incentivize people to get it. according to the press secretary jen psaki, people with direct. deposit on file will get the checks as soon as this weekend. coming up, he was healthy prior to the pandemic. now he is in a wheelchair and says his doctors can't figure out why. covid long hauler infected on the diamond princess cruise ship will join me on his year long battle with what he believes are the viruss after effects. >> in a rural community hit hard by the pandemic, misinformation was rampant. >> people that i knew personally that didn't think it was that big of a deal either came to be a patient on one of our units or had family members, i think it changed their perspective. >> how nurses there were able to help change public perception and turn things around. s around [ birds chirping ] mondays, right? what? i said mondays, right? [ chuckles ] what about 'em? just trying to make conversation. switch to progressive and you can save hundreds. you know, like the sign says. if you smell gas, you're too close. leave the structure, call 911, keep people away, and call pg&e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. if you see wires down, treat them all as if they're hot and energized. stay away from any downed wire, call 911, and call pg&e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. >> it feels like we're almost out of this nightmare, but we're not quite there yet. that is especially true for the health care workers that have been and continue to be on the front lines putting their own lives on the line to fight this disease. in the beginning there was not enough ppe, not enough staff, not enough known about this disease, no therapeutics, no vaccines. still, health care workers went to work. some of them made the ultimate sacrifice. more than 3500 have died from contracting covid while as work. >> for a look back and a look at what's ahead, joining me now is pulmonologist. dr. gupta, you've been helping us understand everything that we have been experiencing and what we needed to know. talk to me about the health care workers have been experiencing over the past year and are they doing okay today? >> well, katy, good afternoon and thank you for highlighting this. i think it is such an important topic. i had a chance to spend time with some front-line medical workers. it is the level one drama center. what they have to say is what the toughest part of this pandemic has been for them. >> seeing patients deteriorate so quickly. seeing patients pass on that were healthy a month ago, it was shocking. it is often times we felt like we were doing battlefield medicine here in the hospital in an advanced setting. that wears you out. you go home and sleep and try to recover so you can come back and do it again. >> i think that our resiliency is low at this point. you know that dealing with the pandemic and being in this respiratory pandemic at this point has taken an emotional toll on all of us. and it is hard. it is very hard. >> you know, katy, in talking to not only these frontline workers, and colleges across the country there is a feeling of relief and exhaustion, but there is also a desire to take away key learnings t