akram held a rabbi and three congregants at gunpoint for ten hours inside the synagogue. a live stream initially set up for virtual prayer services captured negotiations with police as well as the suspect's shouts. in that livestream, the gunman could be heard saying he targeted the synagogue because the united states only cares about jewish lives. during the standoff, akram demanded the release of aafia siddiqui, a pakistani neuroscientist who is currently serving a federal prison sentence in fort worth, texas, fewer than 25 miles from that synagogue. siddiqui was convicted by a federal jury in 2010 for the attempted killing of u.s. officers in afghanistan although she has always maintained her innocence. she's currently serving an 86-year sentence. her release has been sought by islamic militants for years including the attempts made by isis. siddiqui's lawyer told nbc news that she's always said and i'm sure maintains she does not support it, she does not support violence. the suspect in the hostage situation came to the u.s. legally in december. akram's brother told nbc news akram was, quote, suffering from mental health issues. this morning rabbi charlie cytron-walker described how all four hostages escaped unharmed. >> i asked to make sure that the two gentlemen still with me, that they were ready to go. the exit wasn't too far away. i told them to go. i threw a chair at the gunman. and i headed for the door. and all three of us were able to get out without even a shot being fired. >> joining me now is nbc news correspondent sam brock from colleyville, texas, and nbc news investigations correspondent tom winter. tom, i want to begin with you. this man was not an american citizen. he had just traveled here. how in the world did he get those guns? >> reporter: that's a great question, katy. it's something we're trying to get to the bottom of, presumably authorities are as well. we know this is an ongoing investigation being led by the north texas joint terrorism task force which handles that greater dallas-fort worth area along with the u.s. attorney's office and fbi. the question is, it is possible, just so folks understand, it is possible to come into the united states on a passport and if you have, let's say, a hunting license, you might be able to purchase or obtain a gun. it's unclear in this instance whether that would be the case here. and it's really very rare exceptions that a foreign national who is not a legal permanent resident is able to purchase a firearm. so that would be question number one that i have. number two, did he receive any sort of support as far as flying here. it seems kind of odd that somebody with no ties to the united states would find a way to be able to get to dallas. why did he choose this particular synagogue? i think that's of significant concern and presumably they're combing through his social media to see if he stated anything in the past, if he does have a presence. those are a couple of key questions for investigators, although i think it is also important to note, katy, that the fbi said friday night that they believe this individual, malik faisal akram, 44 years of age, arrived in the united states on december 29th, according to our reporting, acted alone. >> what about the family? i know there was some talk about how the family was in contact with the fbi during the hostage taking, but now we're hearing two of the sons have been taken into custody or detained at least in the uk. what more can you tell us about that? >> reporter: right, katy. as you and i have discussed before, in the uk, terrorism laws, or terrorism offenses, they would say, are different, in their ability to take them into custody and be questioned is very different. they have a wide latitude to be able to do that. they can take individuals in. and this particular agency, the manchester uk police, have experience with this. that's the area where the concert bombing was, they've had numerous terrorism investigations in that part of the country before. presumably they would want to bring these two individuals in, they have the legal authority to do so, and ask them presumably some of the questions i raised moments ago. so we should expect that. whether they will be charged or could be charged is something we'll figure out further down the line. just because they've been taken into custody, doesn't necessarily mean they will be. >> sam, how is the community doing today? >> reporter: it's a shattered sense of reality, katy, that's the bottom line. there's still a police presence right now. evidence response teams are still on the ground. we have seen an uptick on attacks on houses of worship, not just synagogues and temples but all houses of worship. it's become perfunctory, a routine part of daily life just to protect these kinds of communities. we learned some fascinating details from rabbi charlie here in his interview with "cbs this morning," a couple of revelations. one, that faisal akram was showing up here at the front of the building, knocking on the outside, trying to get his attention. the rabbi brought him inside, could detect something was off, didn't think there was anything sinister, had a conversation, even had tea, and the rabbi said he heard a click, looked over his shoulder and saw a gun. the second part here is rabbi charlie was saying this morning that in that tenth hour of negotiations, he could tell tensions were escalating. the suspect wasn't getting what he wanted i.e. the release of this federal prisoner and that he had to take action into his own hands, decided to at that point wait for a moment when the suspect was off-guard, pick up a chair, after he had ushered the hostages to the door, threw the chair, and ran out of the building. they all made it outside okay. having conversations with folks in this neighborhood who know rabbi charlie, lisa grossman says she believes the calming presence of the rabbi throughout all of this definitely saved lives. >> i said to my friends yesterday, rabbi charlie is going to be okay, he's going to be the best man for this job. it's going to be hard but he's going to be okay. and i imagine the hostages felt really comfortable that he was there. >> he just has a calming presence? >> plus he's a lot of fun, yes. >> reporter: the secure community network, katy, which is a nonprofit organization that consults temples and churches, hundreds of them, all over the country, came here on august 22nd to provide an educational course on barricading rooms, situational awareness, what to do, run, hide, and fight, and sadly, that was all put to the test here. the hostages passed the test. >> after what happened at the tree of life synagogue, it's become standard at a lot of houses of worship, synagogues across the country. tom, a lot of people were struck yesterday when the fbi held a news conference and said that this was not about the jewish community that this man was focused not on the jewish community, and they didn't use the word "anti-semitism" in this news conference. but let's heard on audio during the livestream saying americans only care about jewish lives, and he went to a synagogue to do this. what is the disconnect here? >> reporter: and the fbi released a statement saying we acknowledge this took place at a synagogue, we value this country's relationship with the jewish community and this remains an ongoing investigation led by the north texas terrorism task force. i think what happens here, katy, we saw it with the attacks that occurred at the asian massage parlors in the greater atlanta area, investigators and sometimes law enforcement focuses with a laser-like focus on the motives. so this individual is only talking about aafia siddiqui and called for her release, and he didn't necessarily or maybe often didn't talk about the fact and raise issues tied to anti-semitism, tied to the jewish community. but to your point, this occurred at a synagogue, this wasn't at a local supermarket, it wasn't at a local baptist church. he clearly chose this specific location. and he took a rabbi hostage. so i think sometimes law enforcement needs to look at this and say, okay, well, maybe our primary motive is "x" but we can't ignore the fact of where this occurred and we didn't ignore the fact of some of the statements he said on that livestream as you pointed out, katy. so i think the fbi had to provide a little bit of clarification there, and very obviously this has a nexus to the jewish community and obviously the fact that it occurred in a house of worship is very concerning. >> it was really just confusing when the fbi made that statement yesterday. tom winter, sam brock, gentlemen, thank you very much. more than 23 million people on the east coast are earned weather alerts right now. a winter storm is slamming parts of new york, pennsylvania, and ohio. some spots are expecting a foot of snow. over the weekend there were widespread power outages, road closures and flight cancellations. joining me is emily ikeda from pittsburgh and meteorologist bill karins. emily, there's a whole lot of snow, how are they doing there? >> reporter: hey, katy. the big change has been the wednesday, gusts coming through and making it feel that much colder. 35-mile-per-hour gusts expected for the pittsburgh area. that pales in comparison to folks on the east coast who are experiencing up to 70-mile-per-hour gusts. a foot of snow in pennsylvania, 22 inches in parts of western new york, an immense amount of snow and coming down at a fast clip in some areas, 4, even 5 inches an hour overnight, katy. >> bill, in looking at the forecast for the next few hours, the coming days, what should we expect? i know we had a really warm december through much of the country. is that going to continue? or are we going to be paying for it now? >> oh, we're paying the price. and it's only going to get worse. we have a lot more winter weather to go in the next two weeks, and cold too, especially in the eastern half of the country. the storm is now in the adirondacks, upstate new york. the snow is isolated to maine, northern vermont, northern new hampshire, northern portions of new york. snow is tapering off towards buffalo and erie. tonight the temperatures are going to plummet and everything that's slushy and sloppy now will turn into ice chunks. there's that 23 million people. upslope in the appalachians, snow is possible near lake michigan, fort wayne. buffalo to syracuse, those areas are still under winter storm warnings. additional snowfall today and tonight, isolated totals in the mountains could still get significant snow. a lot of the heaviest snow is over with. just be careful driving near the lakes as the cold air moves in behind the storm. we'll see lake-effect snow on interstate 90 and the new york state throughway back towards rochester and syracuse. the winds have died off. we had really high gusts tomorrow morning, 50 miles per hour from altoona to washington, dc. we'll watch trees coming down in nantucket. we had significant coastal flooding in areas of connecticut. i'm going to call this graphic winter's vengeance. we are going to watch this next cold front with a blast of cold air coming in behind it, maybe a little bit of wintry weather. you don't want to see a map that looks like this, that's not fun. frigid air from minneapolis, that's going to head to the east coast by the time we get to the weekend. and as i mentioned, we'll have probably a decent chance of a winter storm either in the southeast or on the east coast this upcoming weekend. so yeah, we're paying for december. >> that scream you heard is the primal scream of parents around the country who fear another weekend inside with their children. bill, thank you so much. >> it's a great point. every storm we've had has been on the weekends, you're right. >> i just want them to be outside. we almost froze our faces off this weekend. bill, thank you very much. and it's emilie ikeda, i'm sorry, emilie, for mispronouncing your day. it's mlk day. this entire week could prove crucial in the fight for voting rights. do democrats believe there is any path forward? 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>> that's exactly right, katy. there is not a legislative strategy to succeed at this point. there is a political strategy to get caught trying. this cause is simply too important to the white house, to the democratic party, to the base, to the civil rights community, to progressive advocates, that they don't believe they can pull the plug right now. senate democratic leaders believe that they must call a vote on this. they're going to put these two bills on the floor of the senate for a vote. the john lewis voting rights advancement exact and the act and the freedom to vote act. they have no way around the 60-vote threshold. senator chuck schumer, the majority leader, plans to call some form of a vote on a rules change, something to pierce the filibuster, to change the rules to allow these two bills to come up for that majority vote threshold. but it's abundantly clear at this point that senator joe manchin and senator kyrsten sinema, although they may support the bills, firmly oppose a change in the rules to allow them to pass. democrats either go home and pull the plug on this effort or they do everything they can. that's where schumer feels the weight of history on his shoulders. i'm reliably told he doesn't want to be remembered as the majority leader who didn't do everything in his power to at least try. they don't have a way to succeed but they feel they're too far along in this march to simply turn around and go home now, katy. >> they want to show the public they're trying to do what they promised the public. nancy pelosi today talked about the filibuster, and where she stands on it. let's play that sound. >> we all want bipartisanshipbi we all strive for it, we have a responsibility to do so. but when we do not have it, we cannot confine our democracy to what might be bipartisanly possible. so i ask our colleagues in the senate, respectfully, for what they think the filibuster means, to compare that, to weigh the equities against our democracy, because nothing less is at stake than our democracy. >> there are a lot of democrats who are coming out and putting a lot of pressure on joe manchin and kyrsten sinema. the president saying if you're not willing to do this, you're on the side of those who upheld jim crow laws, really tough language that rubbed some people the wrong way in the senate. you have nancy pelosi saying you what to do this now. chuck schumer is saying it. is this pressure campaign, does it have any chance of working? >> it is high unlikely to move either senator, katy. i think joe manchin and kyrsten sinema have been abundantly clear for a year now that they're not going to budge on the filibuster. it's also been clear for six months they're not interested in issue-based exceptions to the filibuster. joe manchin has said he opposes a carve-out. kyrsten sinema's opinion of the filibuster is that it promotes stability in law making and she argues if democrats carve it out now, republicans could seize on that precedent and act on national voter i.d. democrats believe this moment rises to the level of forcing a rule change, because there are filibuster exceptions for other things like changing tax policy or spending policy. at the end of the day these two are not buying those arguments. they may support the two voting rights bills but they are not willing to change the rules and as a result they don't have a path. >> eugene, let's talk about the white house. the president's poll numbers are in the garbage can right now. they're not good. most americans say they would rather him focus on inflation and tackling that than any of these voting rights bills. has the white house considered that a reason to try to move forward? are they looking at those poll numbers? or do they see this issue as something that goes beyond what the moment of the day calls for? >> they're looking at the poll numbers, that's for sure. as much as they try to say they aren't, we know that they definitely are looking at all the poll numbers we get and some we don't get to see. and they're seeing the exact same thing. so some of the folks in there are nervous that they may be missing the mark on concentrating or at least talking a lot about inflation, about the supply chain, about all of those things. the republicans have really talked about what they consider, republicans, a failure of the biden presidency. however when you talk to aides close to president biden, kamala harris, they say that they see this as bigger than just about some kind of political issue, right? they see it, as nancy pelosi just put it, as about the democracy. they tie it to january 6th and the lies that donald trump and some of the lies his allies have told and are still telling about the 2020 election, so they can get laws passed in certain states that make it harder for people to vote. they're trying as much as they can to figure out the pressure campaign. that's probably the most that the administration can do on voting rights right now other than some executive orders that they've already done. and that's where they're focused. i think as we move forward, they're hopeful that something in the senate is going to change. president biden has talked about basically history has its eyes on you, kind of a hamilton approach to pressuring joe manchin and kyrsten sinema to get on board with some kind of carve-out of the filibuster, but as sahil has said, so far that hasn't worked. >> martin luther king jr.'s son, mlk iii, said we're not going to give in, it's frustrating, my father and mother gave their life for this, my message for manchin is to find a way forward for something you say you support. eugene daniels, sahil kapur on capitol hill, thank you so much, boys, gentlemen, i appreciate it. u.s. veterans becoming insurrectionists. how fringe groups used tactics they learned in the military to storm the capitol. and what is happening in the battleground state of arizona and why you should be paying attention. d why you should be pg attention. >> anybody who was involved in that corrupt, shady, shoddy election of 2020, lock them up. p i have friends. 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[collision beeping warning] [silence] how bout tacos? tacos. automatic emergency braking — one of six advanced safety features standard on every 2022 chevy equinox. find new technology. find new roads. chevrolet. donald trump has a strangle hold on the gop. in arizona, the cast of candidates and office holders around him made it clear trump in 2022 will continue to command loyalty and demand belief in an alternate history about the 2020 election, one that is filled with lies. nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard has more from arizona. >> reporter: this weekend, donald trump's political party making it clear he demands belief in an alternate history and commands loyalty for the future. >> and in 2024, we are going to take back the white house. >> reporter: trump's rally in arizona a spectacle of loyalists. >> folks, this is our 1776 moment. >> we will get our country back. >> reporter: focused almost solely on trump's indignation over 2020. >> who won the election? you're right, trump won. >> reporter: and his false claims of mass fraud. >> we know they rigged the machines. >> reporter: these claims have no merit. but the embrace of the conspiracy theory is the centerpiece of who trump welcomes into his political party. >> what do we want? indictments. when do we want them? >> reporter: this is 2022. and trump is fighting for his power back. now in the state that a barometer for that power. in july, 2015, he held his first mega rally with thousands here. but in the last three years, joe biden, mark kelly, and kyrsten sinema all won the state. it's why he's back now. >> welcome to arizona, mr. president. >> reporter: he is trying to lift up a supporting cast running in 2022. individuals who could help him in 2024, including kari lake, a one-time well-known news anchor here. she's now trump's pick for governor. >> anybody who was involved in that corrupt, shady, shoddy election of 2020, lock them up. >> reporter: and this is mark finchum. he was outside the capitol on the day of the insurrection and is now trump's pick for secretary of state. >> the arizona election should be decertified. >> reporter: in arizona the governor and secretary of state must both certify their state's election results, meaning in 2024, if biden were to win again, republican election officials could possibly keep electoral votes from going to washington, dc. >> you're fake news, get away from me. >> reporter: if mark finchum wins, he could oversee arizona's 2022 election. why should folks trust that you would certify the 2024 election? >> they hate that we love our freedoms, our liberty. >> reporter: another speaker, congressman paul gosar who led the objections to the electoral certification in congress last year. proud boys here this weekend at trump's rally. thousands of trump true briefers parroting trump's disinformation and conspiracies. >> he won the election. >> reporter: the supreme court has rejected these challenges in every swing state. >> so far. >> i feel like we were robbed that day. >> the country was robbed. >> reporter: so when you saw the insurrectionists -- >> i don't like to call them that. >> reporter: galvanizing these masses. are you going to vote in 2022? >> yes. >> reporter: do you normally vote in midterm elections? >> this is the first time. >> reporter: as his party takes on 2022. >> a great red wave is going to begin right here in arizona and is going to sweep across this country. >> vaughn nailing why you should be paying attention to arizona. we are continuing to comb through recent indictments of 11 members of the oath keepers charged with seditious conspiracy for their alleged actions leading up to the january 6th attack on the capitol. the 48-page document details how oath keepers allegedly organized military-style basic training to get recruits, quote, fighting fit, and using military formations to breach the capitol building that day. the oath keepers have actively recruited military veterans and law enforcement officers for years. a database linked to the southern poverty law center and reported by "the atlantic" in 2020 revealed a roster of over 25,000 members across the country. but two-thirds of whom had background in the military or law enforcement. another 10% of their members were active duty. a new op-ed in "the washington post" puts it plainly. we are training our own insurrectionists. joining me now is the author of that piece, former fbi special agent and msnbc national security analyst clint watts. so clint, those numbers that "the atlantic" reported on that were leaked to the southern poverty law center about the membership in the oath keepers are pretty striking and scary. a number of those members, though, disassociated themselves with the oath keepers as it became clear that they were looking for some sort of fight, in their words. that being said, there were still a number of formerly military-trained people who stormed the capitol who are now being indicted by the fbi or by doj. when you write about how we're training our own insurrectionists, i wonder how do we stop doing that? >> katy, the big challenge is we have to be able to say what is domestic extremism and what are domestic extremist groups. if you saw secretary austin of the dod a few weeks ago, we were talking about it here at msnbc, he was trying to police the ranks but if you can't call it what it is it's very difficult to say this group is a domestic extremist group or this sort of activity is a domestic extremist activity. that's even more problematic when you look at our first amendment and second amendment rights. a lot of these groups claim to be second amendment advocates or trying to express their free speech. but the line between free speech and peaceful protesting and entering the capitol and killing cops is a very thin line, that's what we saw on january 6th. beyond that, looking at the skills of the oath keepers versus the proud boys, very top down organized. it was just like reading a military manual. the idea that they have weapons across the river that they're waiting to bring in, it's tough to realize how lucky we were on january 6th. we did not see shots fired at the capitol that day. what if they had called this qrf in that they were talking about? so it was much more sophisticated and when it comes down to it, these terrorists, unlike international terrorists, they have access to weapons, they have access to targets and they have the know-how to pull off plots. this was far more sophisticated than what we even saw most of the way through the global war on terror. >> legal access to weapons. i think back to the nra convention in 2016, the amount of weapons that were being sold, the variety, was incredible. you could get flame throwers and grenade launchers. clint, let's talk about the training, though. you mentioned in your article that a lot of the same language that was found in this indictment toward the oath keepers, a lot of the same formations, the same training, the same language that you experienced when you were coming up in the army. >> that's right, katy. this reads exactly like the ranger handbook issued to me when i was a brand-new lieutenant in the army. the language is the same, the procedures are the same. many of these folks that are there, while former, not active members, they learned the same tactics. i think that's where the difference is. if you look back through our country's history, three of the worst terrorists, domestic terrorist attacks or attempts were all former military. timothy mcveigh, eric rudolph, those were individuals that had devastating attacks or near devastating attacks. one of them was an attempt on a martin luther king parade in spokane, washington. these are folks that know what they're doing. that's what separates them from somebody who's just a wannabe or has an idea one day. i worry down the road that state, local municipal buildings, state capitols, that's where this is moving to and those are less defended and harder to police. >> why is former military members, law enforcement, fertile grounds for people recruiting from these groups? >> it's about identity. there's been some good interviews done with some former members of these militia-style groups. when they leave the military or law enforcement, that was part of their identity, part of being a group, it was fighting for something, there was an objective, it was about being a part of something larger than yourself. and so i think for some that come out of the ranks, they're searching for that identity. and we saw that with the air force, retired air force officer down there on january 6th in the senate chambers, barking orders. they were searching for something. what we can do and what we are seeing now, there is a group called we the veterans, you're seeing other veterans speak out and try and really kind of police the ranks after you're out of the ranks, essentially going around, trying to talk about, hey, we're there to support the constitution, protect values, not violate them. we learned to defend our country, not to overthrow it. i applaud those efforts, i think you'll see more of those in terms of the retired veteran community, retired law enforcement, speaking up and pushing back on this over the next couple of years. >> clint watts, thank you very much. up next, the country hasn't hit the peak of omicron yet, according to the surgeon general. but there are signs of what could be to come. stay with us. signs of what could be to come could be to come stay with us be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. this... is the planning effect. this is how it feels to have a dedicated fidelity advisor looking at your full financial picture. this is what it's like to have a comprehensive wealth plan with tax-smart investing strategies designed to help you keep more of what you earn. and set aside more for things like healthcare, or whatever comes down the road. this 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and you'll also get this free beneficiary planner. and it's yours free just for calling. so call now for free information. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ with a bit more thought we can all do our part to keep plastic out of the ocean. some good news on the spread of omicron. cases are falling in early hotspots like new york and new jersey. that is the good news. now here's the bad news. it could be weeks before the country itself hits the peak of the omicron surge, as public health experts warn not all parts of the country are on the same timeline. >> the challenge is that the entire country isn't moving at the same pace. the omicron wave started later in other parts of the country. we shouldn't expect a national peak in the coming days. the next few weeks will be tough. >> as a result, hospitals around the country are scaling up their response with drive-through testing and overflow treatment sites. joining me now is nbc news correspondent heidi przybyla at the university of maryland laurel medical center and dr. ebony hilton, associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the university of virginia. so heidi, what are they doing in maryland right now with just the knowledge for everybody that just because cases are going down in some parts of the country, just because omicron is not as bad for the vaccinated, the sheer number of cases means hospitals will feel the brunt of this once again. >> yeah, katy, the numbers are tracking with what we're seeing in dozens of other states. statewide, 85% of the beds here that are staffed are in use, a combination of more patients, fewer staff, and then there's a third category that hasn't gotten enough attention, katy, those individuals rolling into emergency rooms in order to get their covid tests. in laurel what they did here is three entire floors of this hospital are devoted only to covid in order to alleviate some of the pressure on the nearby main hospitals. number two, they created a drive-through testing site staffed by the national guard here to take pressure off the emergency room. if you roll into the emergency room to get a test you'll be kindly redirected to the facility behind me. hospital officials were expecting a surge after the holidays but there's one thing they were not prepared for. take a listen. >> we were expecting it, we were prepared for it. i think what happened that no one could have predicted was how quickly the omicron variant spreads. it's the community spread. it is over the dinner table, it's at the restaurant, it's in the grocery stores, it's those simple interactions that probably last two surges would not have been significant. >> and now for the broken record part of this segment. 65 to 70% of the individuals hospitalized in this health system are unvaccinated. >> can't be a broken record enough on that. get vaccinated! okay. so dr. hilton, the good news, and i want to focus on the good news for a moment, is we are seeing cases, hospitalizations, deaths, drop in new york and new jersey. already just walking around this city, places are filling up again. i'm seeing more people in could have coffee shops, seeing more people in gyms. it seems like we're starting to move past this here. >> it's always going to be a different story in big cities than small america. i'm from small america. 40% of the united states population lives in nonmetro areas. when we're looking at hospital burden or hospital capacity, there's 10% fewer hospital beds if you adjust for age in those metro versus nonmetro areas. when you're going back to south carolina, we're looking at ten times less icu beds in those rural areas than you have in the cities. so what we're going to start to see is that whereas new york city and l.a. and these high density populations, where in new york city we have 62 hospitals, half of the south carolina counties do not have a single hospital bed within those counties. there is going to be a lagging that we see and a drawn-out process of omicron impact in those states. >> you also have a lot more people vaccinated in some of these big cities than in other places across the country. the peak could be a few weeks away. and again, as dr. vivek murthy said, surgeon general vivek murthy said, it's going to be different in every individual place. will these hospitals be able to get through this? >> we have no choice. i also want people to pay close attention to this. not only are the cases going up, but who is actually getting infected. as we know, the week ending january 6, 580,000 children were infected with covid-19. i'll say that one more time. on january 6, that week, 580,000 children were infected. the week prior to that, they had about 300,000 children infected with covid-19. so we're seeing a rise in the cases. we may not see the same rise in hospitalizations because fortunately our children don't land in the hospital as often as adults do. my question to you is, when 580,000 children are exposed to a virus that we do not know the long term consequences of, when we're already seeing that there's data that those children have a 2.5 times 2.5 times incr diabetes being diagnosed if you have covid-19. what does that say for the longevity of those children and what safety tracks are we putting in place for them? what are we doing to see that they don't get infected? 11% of all the covid-19 cases for children, of which we have 8.5 million kids who have been diagnosed with covid-19 in america, 11% of those happened within the last two to three weeks. we have to slow this virus down. >> it is a scary prospect to think what it could mean long term, especially for kids. no doubt about that. and so many of these kids are not vaccinated even if they're able to, and then there are the kids under five who are not yet able to be vaccinated. important to still take caution. doctor, thank you so much, heidi, thank you as well. novak djokovic's vaccine status is not likely to end in australia. t wish i'd invested when i 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australia if your visa has been withdrawn, but the prime minister of australia, scott morrison, told reporters today that he thinks there could be a waiver, that it might be possible for djokovic to attend the tournament next year in australia if this pandemic and regulations are still going on. but today, as you mentioned, we heard from french authorities about the french open. that starts in may, and they have said unequivocally djokovic will not be able to attend if he's unvaccinated. and he's made it clear he's not getting that vaccine. earlier he released a statement saying he's very disappointed about how everything ended up, and he just wants things to focus back on the tournament. that's not likely to happen because he's really captured the attention of people and the grievances of people around the world. >> why is it such an issue? just get vaccinated. matt bradley, thank you. that will do for me today. hallie jackson picks up our coverage next. p our ♪♪ coverage next. ♪♪ 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