they were supposed to be taking at least one senate vote today, but then they all got slid into tomorrow because of the storm. that said, this afternoon the capitol physician the doctor for the house in the senate sent a sobering detailed letter to the democratic and republican leaders of the senate. telling them that you know, regardless of the stall, senators ought to be staying home now anyway. apparently, the covid testing sites they have set up at the u.s. capitol, the positivity rate, the rate at which tests that are coming back positive, it had been under 1%, until recently, until the omicron wave of the virus started to hit in d.c.. the capital physician advised senators today that as of right now, the positivity rate at that testing that has gone from under 1% to over 13%. he described the number of covid cases on capitol hill right now as, quote, unprecedented. saying, quote, thousands of individual with coronavirus infections identified at the capitol daily. this is not capital city, you mean specifically at the capitol building. they are getting thousands of new infection found every single day. he then reminded senator schumer and mcconnell that he sent this letter to, that the capital building, which he is speaking for, and that testing site which is speaking about, they are also located in d.c.. do you see as a city is taking on the chin right now. quote, is effectively in the district of columbia much brought an area has obtained the highest coronavirus disease cases per population size in the entire united states. meaning d.c. right now has a higher per capita rate of coronavirus infection than any other place in the country. quote, the overall rate of hospitalizations has been less frequent than the prior delta variant waves. however the benefit of a reduced rate of hospitalizations has been offset with profoundly increased numbers of cases. and therefore, an increase in absolutes of people requiring hospitalization, especially among the unvaccinated. you capitol physician says, quote, this situation has led to an unprecedented strain on medical centers. and our local region, where hospitalizations have more than doubled in the past ten days, at least six large hospitals have declared crisis standards of care, and states of emergency, and watch health care providers are petitioning their states governors for various emergency declarations to prioritize and allocate medical services. governor larry hogan of maryland has advised maryland residents to prepare for the worst part of the pandemic during the next 4 to 6 weeks. medical centers face unprecedented pressures of relentless demand for services and wellness and exhaustion to pleading their staff. other essential infrastructure services are similarly impacted by coronavirus in the workplace, such as air travel, childcare, mass transportation, ambulance services, fire, and police. capitol physician then tells the senate leadership in this letter today that all members of the senate, often it is and their staff need to upgrade their masks. quote, blue surgical masks, cloth face masks, and gator style masks must be replaced by the more protective k and 95, or k and 95 masks. and 95 masks, or kn95 masks. bottom line is telling the senate that they should stay home right now. congressional offices, committees and agency should immediately review there are operations to adopt a maximal telework posture. reduce impressing meetings and an office activities to the max month extent possible. electronic means to facilitate all virtual or hybrid type meetings or hearings should be emphasized. again, this is the letter from the attending physician of the congress of the united states. brian monahan who is essentially the doctor for the house and senate advising a maximal telework posture for congress. again, the senate is supposed to be in session this week, we will see how that plays out. we will have more later on this hour as to what is going on with hospitalization numbers, we have seen over the past couple weeks as case numbers have just gone off the charts by infectious disease experts say -- now that we are watching the case numbers and -- we need to watch hospitalization numbers not just case numbers. and we do avoid having -- might surprise you does not so comport with common wisdom and common anecdotal discussion about what is going on with this wave. you are going to want to see this, we will have a close look at that in just a few minutes on the show on this hour. on wednesday this week in washington, we know attorney general -- is expected to give a major address to doj staff, interestingly it is and talk -- about the progress the department has made in prosecuting crimes that took place in the capital and, wiling to tack on the u.s. capitol to try and overthrow the president and stop the transfer of power to the new president. the one year anniversary of the capitol attack is this thursday. honestly it is starting to look like it will be a strange day on capitol hill. the senate as i said is technically in session this week, but the capitol physician did tell senators they shouldn't be doing anything they should be working from home as much as possible, is calling for the maximum telework posture so we don't know what that will mean to senators plans and plans for senate staff this week. thursday the day of the anniversary is also the day of the funeral for former republican senator johnny isakson who died last month and whose memorial will be in his home state of florida on thursday this week senator isakson served two decades in between his time in the house and the senate. he is very well known in fact lake on capitol hill. a lot of senators will be attending his memorial this week the day of the january 6th -- it is hard to know exactly what capitol hill will be like at this point. that day on thursday, the house his, house representatives as opposed to the fan and they are not technically in fashion that day, or in fact all this week. but her house speaker nancy pelosi, the house has nevertheless planned a day of remembrance on thursday. including discussion with a historian about implications for the country and and store cool parallels to this kind of crisis. there will be i think for speeches in addition to the speech we are expecting from the president that morning from the white house. sort of capstone what they are planning is a prayer vigil,, a prayer or four members of congress in the early evening. now again, that is what is planned by the house, thursday competing event at that same time. true to form, former president trump himself has apparently planned a kind of publicity seeking event of his own that day of all days. and he has planned his event, his press conference, or whatever it is, to start at the same time as the prayer vigil is starting at the house of representatives. as always, the man is working overtime to put the tee in classy. there is no tea in classy. anyway, here's a snapshot for you of how this is all going over in republican circles right now. here's the headline today in the alonna channel constitution, the cobb county homage to treason plan to january six. natalie events of january 6th will mostly be marked around the -- remember the day that he pro donald trump mob attacked the u.s. capitol. but at the cop county georgia republican county headquarters, far-right activists will hold a two hour-long program on thursday to -- the insurrectionists who stampeded the capital to prevent congress from certifying president biden's victory. the 5 pm program will begin with a live stream of former president trump's press conference from florida. it will continue with a call to action for cobb county georgia republicans. it will conclude with -- this is amazing -- it will conclude with a candlelight vigil for the quote, january 6th patriots. the shorthand extremists have created for the rioters who sought to overthrow the government. so on thursday, on january six this week, there will be a vigil for those patriotic rioters who attacked the u.s. capitol and try to overthrow the u.s. government. the january 6th appreciates that will have a candlelight vigil in their honor, a celebration of the attackers. hosted by the republican party in cobb county georgia. as we close in on the anniversary this week, as interesting -- when i started started making notes today kind of updating myself, consolidating what had happened over the break, how we left things before the holiday break with a january 6th investigation, what is going on in the lead up to the anniversary. i was surprised to see how many big open questions there are right now, how many big important things would sort of waiting to happen at any point now that we are into the new year. first of all, in terms of the criminal investigation, that's reached why -- will be important in large part because there has been no indication thus why that the justice department is investigating the people who actually planned the coup. the people who tried to orchestrate that attack on the capitol not just for fun, or for free expression, but because it was part of a plan, to stop the transfer of power to the new president, to overthrow the government. if the justice department is investigating the big crime there, instead of just the individuals who took partner at the lowest levels presumably this wednesday speech by attorney general merrick garland will be the attorney general's best opportunity to tell the country about a change in forecasts, or at least an additional development in their investigation. so that will be a highly anticipated -- set of remarks from attorney general as the questions get more and more -- in terms of whether or not anyone who planned the overthrow of the government is going to face any reckoning for in criminal law. so that is wednesday, open questions potentially to be answered by the attorney general on that day. we are also right now still waiting on the department of justice to decide whether they will prosecute criminal contempt charges against trump's white house jesus staff mark meadows. mr. meadows you may recall in december refused to hand over materials and testify to the january 6th investigation, congress then referred -- for prosecution and the justice department hasn't said anything about it since. that referral was two and a half weeks ago, it was december 14th or 15th i think. for context, when the justice department obtained an indictment to -- steve bannon under similar circumstances in november, that took three weeks, three weeks in between the time they got a referral on the indictment was handed down. has not been to an half weeks since they got the referral from -- relating to mark meadows. we haven't heard anything yet, but that question is becoming then a more pointed question as time goes by. so we will see. whether or not an indictment comes down for trump's white house chief of staff. in congress, the congressional investigation into the attack, they themselves have to decide if they are going to issue subpoenas who currently serving members of congress who are believed to have plays a role in the attack or have the information about it. again you will recall from before the holiday break, republican congressman scott perry and republican congressman jim jordan received requests from the investigation that they testify voluntarily, that they hand over documents and materials voluntarily. scott perry has said outright that he will not cooperate with those demands, jim joan has suggested that he is unlikely to comply with those voluntary demands. if both were to refuse to comply, the investigation has to decide whether they are going to issue compulsory subpoenas and response. that has never been done before to a sitting member of congress, let alone two of them. we are not sure if they will do that -- potentially implicated members of congress as well. we are waiting on that as well. the new york times reports as well today that the january 6th investigation is over -- issuing subpoenas to trump himself and to his vice president mike pence. so we are waiting to know about that too, and of course if those subpoenas to come down from the investigation, it will be interesting to see how long they will be held up in court once trump and pence and evidently the file subpoenas. and, on top of all of that of course the supreme court of the united states is now mulling whether or not it will take up trump's appeal. trump lost excessive -- court rulings and is now facing an order that he needs to hand over his white house records to the january six investigation he has appealed to the supreme court after losing and every lower federal court that is considered this matter. the supreme court, they take their oath through time on matters like this, they also offered no guidance on whether they will make their decision until they actually make it, so we are waiting for that to, but again like all those things any of that could have been at anytime. an of that could have bee n at anytime. but meanwhile, surprised, happy new year. the man who worked as police commissioner in new york city under that mayor, rudy giuliani. a man named bernie kerik, who really did lead new york city police until he himself pled guilty to eight felonies and served years in federal prison, bernie kerik, who is naturally part of this whole mess on the trump side, he has not only agreed that he will testify to the january six investigation next week. he has produced what political today described says a quote, trove of documents to the investigation. a trove of documents that includes this 22-page strategic communications plan that stated december 27th. see the sub head there in red, we have ten days to execute this plan and certify president trump. it's not really a plan. it's basically a set of talking points. this is what they say is they're talking points message targeted to, quote, everyone. you cannot let america itself be stolen by criminals. you must take a stand and you must take it today. again, that document dated december 2020. saying that they had ten days until january six. to get president trump certified for another term even though he had lost the election. that 22-page documents one of the documents reportedly handed over for the january six investigation by bernie kerik. but here's the really interesting part, he also handed over what his lawyer is calling a privileged law. and now privileged log is a real thing in court proceedings when somebody is part of a court proceeding has to hand of something over. but something cannot be handed over because of the type of documented this because it is implicated that the attorney client privileged or some other privileged that should shield it from being handed over to the court. for verge log is a real thing. privilege logs don't live like this. brittani kerik produced this, privilege law that is a bazooka bubble gum version of a privilege log. but it is his explanation to the january six investigators of what he is not handing over to them and why. he has given them a trove of documents, he has not given them everything they asked for. this is as privileged log that explains why they are not getting some of the things that he has. and it is not a document that overall inspires confidence. literally here is kerik's description of one of the things he says he is not handing over to the investigation because he says it is protected by attorney client privileged. this is how kerik describes that document. type of document, reports prepared by volunteered third parties for the trump legal team. basis for birth holding, retained by the trump legal team in anticipation of litigation. date, 28 november, 2020, addresses, giuliani. and the title of the documents, they withheld in this case is, quote, complication of rents. [laughs] >> that is not misspelling. that is why bernie kerik and his lawyers say is the type of the document. completion of rents. yes, we can all see how that is likely very sensitive. and that cannot be handed over to investigators. the compilation of you're -- the completion of your rents. whatever. sure, your complication of rents, i understand, very sensitive. this one is a little more worrying though. basis for withholding, documents drafted and or edited by attorney. date, december 26 to 17 2020. draft, buddhist letter. meaning draft of a letter from the president of the united states. but look at the subject matter of that document, again, bernie says that he is not handing over. quote, draft letter from potus to seats evidence in the interest of national security for the 2020 elections. a draft letter to be released by, then president trump, voted for him by an attorney. a letter explaining or announcing that he is seizing evidence for the 2020 elections under some national security guides. you know, we had previously seen referenced in the january six investigation to a draft executive order prepared for trump related to the election. related to so-called, election integrity. he had previously seen trump advisers -- mike flynn recommending that trump should use the military to go seize ballots, sees election machinery. declare martial law. but now from bernie kerik, of all people, we've got this new revelation. a lawyer of some stripe drafting a letter for trump about seizing evidence related to the election. again, this dated mid december 2020. brittani kerik says that he has this document but doesn't want to hand it over. what do we expect that will happen next. joining us now is nicholas wu, congressional reporter for politico. he was the first to reported that bernie had handed over documents to the january six investigation. mr. nicholas wu, thank you very much for being here. >> thank you. >> so, first of all, let me ask if i've gotten any of that wrong. or if there's anything important that it missed out on in terms of what you know from your reporting and what we have learned from mr. kerik has handed over to the committee. >> well, rachel, that draft letter that you brought up just now, the timing in the data it is the most interesting. so that is dated december 17th 2020 that is a day before trump held an oval office meeting with mike flynn and sidney powell and other trump world allies about ways to potentially seize election machines and other things that trump saw as proof of fraud in the election. and so it is unclear how these two are linked. but it is quite a coincidence with the time. >> in terms of the sort of nature of the documents and the likelihood that the ever see the light of day, obviously, mr. kerik has described this document as, again, a draft letter for the president about seizing evidence. we do not know more about it than that. but he has described it but not produced it saying that it is protected by attorney client privilege because it was drafted by a lawyer. do we know anything about how the committee is handling that kind of an assertion? mr. kerik identifying that the documents exist but it's saying that it won't be handed over. it is protected from this kind of inquiry. >> right, so, the lawyer has gone back and forth with the committee on this. and he tried to testify to try and find some sort of condition that would make it amenable. but for kerik to come and testify before the committee and for them to release documents trying to figure out what could be rejected and what is not privileged -- the inner question is what exactly would allow him to come and testify for them. he said before that he would be interesting in replying to the committee. they just have concerns about the format of it. whether or not it would be public. but right after we published the story, kerik's lawyer said that the agreement with the committee to come in for an interview seem to have fallen apart. and the committee wanted to do a deposition instead on the 13th. now, this is something that kerik's lawyer has opposed previously because the don't see that the committee is being to hold a deposition for a various of technical reasons. this is part of a back and forth, here, and we will see that play out over the next week as we get closer to that deadline to actually come in for an interview. >> nicholas wu, congressional reporter for politico. mr. nicholas wu congratulations on the scope. the nature of mr. kerik's cooperation is so fascinating that it sort of hasn't come to full flower in terms of us understanding its implications yet. but we wouldn't know about it without you. thanks for your reporting, thanks for joining us tonight. >> thank you. >> all right, we've got much more to get two ahead tonight. stay with us. t. stay with us we have to be able to repair the enamel on a daily basis. with pronamel repair toothpaste, we can help actively repair enamel in its weakened state. it's innovative. my go to toothpaste is going to be pronamel repair. as america begins to reunite my go to toothpaste big oil executives saw a chance to make more money. they hiked up gas prices, right before the holiday season. sky-high gas prices for you meant record profits for them. 174 billion dollars. big oil executives took advantage of a recovering nation. just to make more money. it's time to tell big oil executives that their rigged game is over. america: it's time for clean energy. ♪ limu emu and doug.♪ and it's easy to customize your insurance at libertymutual.com so you only pay for what you need. isn't that right limu? limu? limu? sorry, one sec. doug blows several different whistles. doug blows several different whistles. [a vulture squawks.] there he is. only pay for what you need. ♪liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty♪ ♪ ♪ only pay for what you need. just two pills for all day pain relief. aleve it, and see what's possible. and also try alevex topical pain relief. moving is a handful. no kidding! fortunately, xfinity makes moving easy. easy? -easy? switch your xfinity services to your new address online in about a minute. that was easy. i know, right? and even save with special offers just for movers. really? yep! so while you handle that, you can keep your internet and all those shows you love, and save money while you're at it with special offers just for movers this is a statement just stop at xfinity.com/moving. tonight from the office of the new york state attorney general. we just got this. quote, for more than two years, members of the trump family and the trump organization have continuously sought to delay and impede our investigation into donald trump and the trump organization. but despite their names, they must play by the same rules as everyone else. these delay tactics will not stop us from following the facts or the law, which is why we will be asking the court to compel donald trump, donald trump jr., and ivanka trump to testify with our office under oath. our investigation will continue undeterred. and happy new year to you as well. we learned last month that new york's a tierney general, letitia james, had subpoenaed former president trump to testify at her office's investigation into the financial and business practices of the trump family real estate business. they are reportedly investigating potential tax fraud and bank fraud at the trump organization. now, that news that the former president trump in self was facing a subpoena to testify in that investigation, that was big news when we learned it last month. but it was not until today that we learned that the attorney generals office is also sipping trump's children, trump jr., and ivanka trump. both of them had long been executive at the family business as sister brother eric, who testified in this investigation already last year. the new york attorney general apparently wants testimony from all of them now. now, what attorney general letitia james is conducting here in new york is a civil investigation. which means that the end result could be a lawsuit by the attorney general, not criminal charges. but that's not necessarily a small thing. it has been lawsuits from the new york attorney general office that have successfully dismantled donald trump's fraudulent trump university and his bogus trump foundation charity thing. neither of those exist anymore and millions of dollars had to be paid in shutting them down in settlements for those lawsuits. so the civil lawsuit from the new york attorney general is a powerful thing and that may be where this is going. but in addition to that, there is also a parallel criminal investigation into trump's business practices being run by state prosecutors in manhattan. that investigation is being taken over by the new district attorney in manhattan who has just been sworn in this weekend, his name is alvin brag. but the two lead prosecutors handled the trump case are staying on under the new da. so even though there is a new man at the top of the office, we expect continuity in terms of the actual conduct of the case. and here's where it gets tricky for former president trump and his adult kids. if they give testimony under the subpoena in new york attorney general civil investigation that testimony could potentially be used under them in the criminal case. but if yeah they refused to testify to the attorney general, to take the fifth, that very refusal could be used against them in the civil case. again, the civil case could be just as serious in terms of its implications for the trump organization. well, as of tonight, they are opting for -- trump's have filed a motion in court to quash these subpoenas. this is what attorney -- as delay tactics. that then, any testimony from any of the trump slightly delayed till next month as this fight plays out in court. it should be noted though, that former president trump may be as happy as they climb to string this out as long as he can. remember, he is not paying his own legal bills for this. even though trump is no longer president or a declared candidate for any office, even though the alleged crimes in this behavior for which is being investigated have nothing to do with this time let's conduct before he was a public official, despite all of that it is -- my national -- for the bill for his legal fees in new york in this investigation into the potentially fraudulent practices of his real estate business. the party has told over one and a half million dollars in legal fees for him on this already. here is my question. now that his kids have been subpoenaed as well, what do you think the odds are that trump will find a way to get the republican party to pay his kids legal fees as well. republican donors pay for those, but even kind don jr. have to pay for their own lawyers, that seems unfair. one of the arts right. joining us now is rebecca rebecca roiphe roiphe. thanks for having me on rachel. >> so those of us not lawyers who watch these things from the outside, i think that we are all very clever and that we can read the subtleties here and we can all get it wrong. it is my common uninformed belief that when the principles of the highest profile and highest ranking people in an organization get subpoenas, that signifies that an investigation is? not something you do at the beginning and is something you do at the end of an investigation. am i right or wrong inspecting that? >> no i think you are totally right about that. there are some things that we have been following this carefully and just as well as we do and i think that is one of them. this is a kind of situation where you would want to gather all of the documentary evidence and all of the other evidence you could have to check the testimony that you get from the witnesses and so it does signify that this is towards the end of the investigation. i think that is not reading too much into the -- to read to that conclusion. >> and in terms of the trump family's efforts to what the subpoenas, to have the set aside, what do you make of the case that they have presented to the court along those lines? is there anything else, i mentioned eric trump was compelled to testify earlier in this investigation, is there anything else about this case that sort of gives us a good way to surmise what is happening in terms of them trying to evade the subpoenas? >> so i don't think in the and they will be available to -- snow basically arguing that this is a around the protections that have in the criminal system that is essentially the attorney general is running a civil investigation -- way of stripping the witnesses and the targets of the protections that you get in a criminal case. at face all, you it looks like not a terrible argument, but you can't just claim that is the case. you have to show it, and it is not even clear why the investigators would gain from having, criminal one in both cases the witnesses can claim the -- self incrimination and there is no way that you can force them to give their testimony without giving them immunity. with that said, as you pointed out earlier, you can draw a negative inference from them claiming the fifth in the civil investigation, but not in the criminal investigation but that really doesn't seem like it has enough to compel somebody to waive their privilege. and so, i don't think that this is going to -- survive judicial or -- in the end. as you said, it is a good delay tactic, it will take a while before attorney general james can get that testimony one way or another. >> right, so they will succeed in delaying even if they can succeed in squashing altogether. let me just ask you also along those lines, to the extent that this criminal investigation by the da's office and the civil investigation of the internal -- they do appear to be moving and parallel. we don't know exactly what the -- are but they do seem to be investigating roughly the same type of alleged behavior by the trump organization and its executives. should we guess if the civil case is appearing to get towards this and -- if they are only issuing the subpoenas for the highest level executives in the company now -- as you said they are getting towards the end of what they are looking for in this investigation, should we also expect that the criminal cases coming to its end? i mean obviously the likely outcome -- the possibly outcome there is potential criminal charges, we have already seen felony charges brought against the organization itself and its chief financial officer, a lot of people are wondering if the trump family is facing criminal charges here or what timeline we should look to expect that? >> yeah, i mean, i think they could have different timelines here. in part because there are elements that you have to prove in the criminal case that you do not have to prove in the civil case, the burden is so much higher in the criminal case than it is in the civil case. with that said i don't think it would be radically different because there are certain facts that have to be the same and as we know they are sharing information and they are sharing evidence. we have to assume that there while not a necessarily in -- ballpark and saying timeframe because otherwise it wouldn't make sense they're giving information if they were on totally different timeframes given the overlap it seems that is reasonable to assume that it's around the same timeframe. >> we will see. we are glasgow professor rebecca roiphe former assistant district attorney for the manhattan da's office. thank you so much for. timer pressure is being. her >> thank you. >> all right we have more news ahead tonight. stay with us. stay with us gives us the dual action effect that really takes care of both our teeth sensitivity as well as our gum issues. there's no question it's something that i would recommend. ♪ ♪ there's no question it's something just two pills for all day pain relief. aleve it, and see what's possible. and also try alevex topical pain relief. people everywhere living with type 2 diabetes are waking up to what's possible... with rybelsus®. the majority of people taking rybelsus® lowered their blood sugar and reached an a1c of less than 7. rybelsus® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't take rybelsus® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop rybelsus® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. taking rybelsus® with a sulfonylurea or insulin increases low blood sugar risk. side effects like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may lead to dehydration, which may worsen kidney problems. wake up to the possibility of lower a1c with rybelsus®. you may pay as little as $10 for up to a 3-month prescription. ask your healthcare provider about rybelsus® today. you could email an urgent question to lisa in marketing. and a follow up. and a “did you see my email?” text. orrrr... you could see her status in slack. and give lisa a break while you find someone online who can help. slack. where the future works. with clean, fresh ingredients, panera's new chicken sausage and pepperoni flatbread is a mouthwatering explosion of yes. craft? yes! heartiness? yes! living life to the flavor-fullest? heck yes. panera. live your yes. now $1 delivery. when a truck hit my car, now $1 delivery. the insurance company wasn't fair. i didn't know what my case was worth. so i called the barnes firm. i was hit by a car and needed help. i called the barnes firm, that was the best call i could've made. i'm rich barnes. it's hard for people to know how much their accident case is worth. let our injury attorneys help you get the best result possible. as you get further on, and the ♪ the barnes firm injury attorneys ♪ ♪ call one eight hundred, eight million ♪ infections become less severe, it is much more relevant to focus on the hospitalizations as opposed to the total number of cases. >> it is more relevant to focus on the hospitalizations as opposed to the total number of cases. doctor anthony fauci yesterday offering a really hopeful, framing as we confront this latest covid wave. the point he is making is that the case numbers, what's worth watching, but they may not be the most consequential thing to watch right now. if most of the cases that we are getting with this omicron wave are cases in which people are not getting particularly sick. with this new particular wave we hire having, cases around the country, new infections, have gone up so much that the chart showing our daily case counts looks like a mistake. if you try to case numbers look at the far right side of your screen. the line just shoot straight up heading towards the moon at this point. it looks like somebody dropped the graph on the way to the next data point. what doctor fauci is saying is that the real consequence for our country is not necessarily those case numbers, but the hospitalization rates. the question with this wave is not just how much people will be infected, it is mammoth numbers, a large portion of those infections being ones in which people don't get to terribly sick. the real consequence he is saying, the real question consequences whether our health care system can hold especially after two years of being a bloodshed by the cyrus. that is why -- right now in particular to watch the hospitalization rates not just the case numbers. when you start doing that at the largest level, those numbers look kind of comforting. look at the left side of your screen, again, this is the country's new daily cases. and on the right side of that craft which is the most recent time period you can see the case numbers are just shooting up. on the right though, this is the same time period, and this is hospitalizations. yes on the right side of your graph you are seeing hospitalizations go up, but they are not going quite as much. it's not quite as steep rise as the caseload. maybe? that is for the country as a whole. but now look at some of the leading states that have been first hit with this wave of omicron. the hospitalization charts in these first hit states are starting to look a little scary too. here for example is a look at the daily cases in new jersey, and you see the huge spike on the right side of the graph there. it is beyond any record the state have seen before in terms of new cases. now look at the hospitalizations next to it. yeah, almost just as steep as the case chart. more than 4500 patients hospitalized yesterday. that is a record for the state since the beginning of the pandemic. take a look at maryland, as you might expect, these are case numbers just off the charts. but now look at hospitalizations in maryland. hospitalizations are getting there to, setting a new record for hospitalizations this weekend. and it is not just an east coast, here's ohio. you see the same thing, a case chart where the number is just straight up to the moon in recent days. but as of this week, and look at the new hospitalization records in ohio to. and in new york, the state with the most cases per capita right now. look at the rise in those case numbers. cases just keep soaring every day, there's been no relief in terms of new case numbers. so far, at the state of new york has not said the hospitalization record but look at where it is going. every new update the state is inching closer to last winter's hospitalization peak. and that incline, you see on the far-right of that chart is very steep. it could mean a lot of patients ahead all at once. we are seeing record breaking numbers, not just of cases of hospitalization in the first hard-hit states. and if those first hearted states are an indicator of where we are heading as a country it looks like, well that we are in for unprecedented times. joining us now is dr. ashish jha, he is the dean of public health. doctor, thank you for being here as always. >> thank you for having me back rachel. >> am i looking at this the right way? i felt like it to great comfort from the early numbers out of new york city when they started seeing their case numbers skyrocket and they didn't see hospitalization numbers rise in parallel. i feel like those numbers, which i have been looking at ever since, in every jurisdiction where they're having big news of cases have started making me feel less comfortable than i did before. >> yes, i think that the lead up there was terrific and very helpful. and here is what i thought about. it first of all, why is doctor fauci even saying that we need to focus on hospitalization. we are seeing a little bit of a breaking up the link between cases and hospitalization. all through the delta wave, throughout the entire pandemic, we could look at infections today and predict how many people would get hospitalized a week for now. how many people would die 3 to 4 weeks for now. that link was very very tight. what is happening now is that we are seeing a lot of infections in boosted people in vaccinated people that are not -- that are not leading to -- because vaccines work. the reason you're seals seeing hospitalizations increase in a lot of those places is because 40% of americans are still not fully vaccinated. 80% of americans are not fully boosted. and not just overall. but we have 7 million elderly americans who have not vaccinated at all. it is just shocking to me how many vulnerable people are still out there. that is and those are the folks who when they get infected, are going to the hospital. or who are ending up in the icu. >> and in terms of the data about severity, about people likely to end up in the hospital, likely to end up in the icu, is the data parallel in vaccinated people and unvaccinated people? omicron versus delta, omicron versus the earlier variance. is omicron less severe both in vaccinated and unvaccinated people or are unvaccinated people essentially opened this in a way that there is really no mercy for them from the virus? >> yes, two things are going. on first of all, there's more breakthrough infections and there was with delta. so that means we have a bigger pull of vaccinated people getting invested. but there is no question about it that their levels of illness is very low. after that breakthrough, compared to what we saw with delta for unvaccinated people the jury is not fully in. i think that the data suggests that the may be milder for them. but mild air is relative. right? delta was really bad. omicron is still pretty bad. making marginally better. that is good, but you cannot take any solace and that. -- especially older unvaccinated people they risk -- one >> last question for you about these numbers, i am sort of haunted by these case numbers going up the way that they are especially because we are seeing hospitalization numbers rise in states where they're say they're already tapped out in terms of medical capacity. does the steep rise in case numbers tell us anything about how long the wave will last? will it also crest and fall sooner than other ways did in the past? >> yes, that is a very good question. i think that the steepness and then also looking at what happened in south africa, getting some early glimpses out of london and other places in europe, which went about two weeks before us, i think that there is reasons to believe that we are going to see a kind of peeking wave. it will vary from place to place across the country. but a peeking about two weeks from now in places like new york, new jersey, maybe a little bit later on in other parts of the country. nationally, i do expect sometime this second half of this month to have a national peak. and then hopefully a very rapid decline down. that is when we are all hoping for. but every country is a little bit different. and i don't think we can rely at looking at south africa or the uk. and be confident that that's what's going to happen. >> yes. and now more than ever. if it's ever not been urgent to you before, now more than ever. protect our health care system. protect our doctors and nurses and people who are having to deal with this access, this capacity in a way that we thought they were maxed out before but they are being asked of even more. dr. ashish jha, dean of the brown university school. it's good to have you tonight. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back, stay with us. stay with us. ♪ dry eye symptoms keep driving you crazy? inflammation in your eye might be to blame. let's kick ken's ache and burn into gear! over the counter eye drops typically work by lubricating your eyes and may provide temporary relief. those drops will probably pass right by me. xiidra works differently, targeting inflammation that can cause dry eye disease. what's that? xiidra? no! it can provide lasting relief. xiidra is the only fda-approved non-steroid eye drop specifically for the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. one drop in each eye, twice a day. don't use if you're allergic to xiidra. common side effects include eye irritation, discomfort or blurred vision when applied to the eye, and unusual taste sensation. don't touch container tip to your eye or any surface. after using xiidra, wait fifteen minutes before reinserting contacts. got any room in your eye? be proactive about managing your symptoms by talking to your doctor about twice-daily xiidra. like i did. i prefer you didn't. xiidra. not today, dry eye. january 22nd, 1973, is one of the landmark roe v. wade decision was hunted out. protecting abortion rights nationwide. last, year on that anniversary, on january 22nd, somebody took a shotgun and fired into the planned parenthood in tennessee. luckily, no one was injured but this is some of the damage done. it was pretty clear that someone wanted to send a message. the fbi later during the investigation to that attack but even though there was a witness to that crime, so for nearly a year later no arrests has been made. again, that attack on that clinic in -- was january of last year. and now there is this. on friday, three days ago, that same planned parenthood clinic in knoxville tennessee burned down. a fire was reported around 6:30 in the morning. on friday, nine knoxville fire units respond to the same fire department was at a total loss. there is no indication of what caused the fire. they tell the daily beast, quote, investigators will have to sort through the ruins by hand. the atf is reportedly involved in the investigation assisting with that investigation the fbi has also been in touch with the local officials. this investigation is ongoing. and the fire, could be accidental. it could be something, otherwise, not newsworthy. but giving the previous targeting of that, the planned parenthood in knoxville still needs to be kept an eye on. watch this space. watch this space napoleon was born and raised to conquer. but he was just kind of over it, you know. watching prime video he realized he should follow his dreams. so he ordered a microphone with prime next day delivery. now the only thing he cared about conquering was his audience. prime changes everything. i always wanted to know more about my grandfather. he...was a hardworking man who came to new york from puerto rico when he was 17. with ancestry, being able to put the pieces of the puzzle together... ...it's amazing. it's honestly amazing. ♪ ♪ being able to put the pieces of the puzzle together... just two pills for all day pain relief. aleve it, and see what's possible. and also try alevex topical pain relief. ♪ limu emu... & doug ♪ ♪ superpowers from a spider bite? i could use some help showing the world how liberty mutual customizes their car insurance so they only pay for what they need. (gasps) ♪ did it work? only pay for what you need ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ spider-man no way home in theaters december 17th this is elodia. she's a recording artist. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ 1 of 10 million people that comcast has connected to affordable internet in the last 10 years. and this is emmanuel, a future recording artist, and one of the millions of students we're connecting throughout the next 10. through projectup, comcast is committing $1 billion so millions more students, past... and present, can continue to get the tools they need to build a future of unlimited possibilities. all right, that is going to do it for us tonight. it's good to have you back with us after the holiday break. i'll see you again here tomorrow. now it's time with the last word with lawrence o'donnell. >> good evening rachel, i was just reading over this gem from joy reid, this moment that happened on her show tonight. and it's a moment with chuck schumer. where she asked him, she said, it was such a great question, i would've thought of it, and she said that there is no public evidence. i'm paraphrasing, i'm going to show this later in the show. there is no public evidence that joe manchin and kyrsten sinema care more about voting rights than they do about the senate 60 vote rule. and she asked chuck schumer if he had any evidence that maybe those two senators cared more about voting rights than the senate rule. and chuck schumer talked and talked and tried to steer, as one would, away from that question. and he admitted, no. he admitted what you see publicly is what we've got. that is what we are dealing with. that is why we have to keep trying. but it was a really revealing moment because, you remember a year ago, rachel, when chuck schumer discussed on your program, on my program his confidence about how things were going