work with who had been a willing nazi collaborator in france. he and the nazi collaborator guy founded a new political party from 1972. among other things, a new political party celebrated the vichy government, what was called the vichy government, the french leaders who accepted nazi rule during ww2. who work with nazis, who persecuted and help in the murder of french jews. like the nazis wanted to. his new political party, celebrated the vichy french government and the nazi collaborators. so he found that political party in 1972, he ended up running a political party for 40 years. and along the way, he became one of the world's most famous holocaust deniers. he said that as far as he could tell, there were no mass murders of the jews by the nazis. he says he never saw any gas chambers and besides, even if there were gas chambers, he considered it to be a minor thing. he called the gas chambers quote, a detail, a mere detail. he built his entire decades long political career in france on blaming all the ills of the world armed jews and black people and muslims and immigrants. in 2014, he actually praised ebola, he praised the ebola virus because he said maybe ebola would be the solution to immigration. he was banned from the european parliament in brussels after he attacked a female politician, he physically assaulted her. as recently as last year, at the age of 93, he face new charges, new criminal charges for threatening a jewish actor that he would put him in a oven. his name is jean marie le pen, he's now in his 90s, he was the founder of something called the national front in france. i mentioned that he founded in 1972 after operating a publishing house that sold recordings of nazi speeches and nazi marching songs. but he founded the national front in 1972, he was head of the national front for nearly 40 years. until 2011. in 2011, he stepped down and the person took over for him and running that party was his daughter. whose name is marine le pen, his youngest daughter. now, her father, john marie le pen, he ran for president in france five times. he never got close. but his daughter, that's turned out to be a different story. tomorrow she will debate emmanuel macron, the president of france. and it will be their first and only debate of the presidential campaign. and then on sunday, french voters will go to the polls in the runoff election between her and the incumbent president, president macron. it's the second time in five years that she has made it into a presidential run off against him. the last time in 2017, marie le pen's campaign was financed in large part by a 10 million dollar loan from a russian bank. alone that reportedly she never had to repay. although she is lately disputing that. just weeks before the vote in 2017, marine le pen turned up at the kremlin in moscow for a surprise photo op with vladimir putin. at the time, she was pledging that only would france form a whole new alliance with russia if you are elected president, she said at the time that she would actually pull france out of the european union. if she were elected president. and you know, if you are a diminutive russian dictator for life who lives and breathes to try to undermine and destroy the west, that must sound great. i get brexit and then i get this, i get four exit or whatever they call it. a new president in france for a super right-wing party that's been known for decades for being radically violently antisemitic and racist and anti immigrant and she loves putin and she wants to break europe apart. don't worry about paying the loan pack, marine. let me know how much else you might need. let me know how else we could help. because it turns out, there was more than russia can do to help. between her trip to the kremlin a few weeks before the vote and win the actual vote happened in 2017, russian hackers gave her a little something extra. they broke into the campaign of her they hacked into the campaign accounts of her opponent, emmanuel macron. and then they leaked supposedly damaging information that they stole from his campaign and his party. they leaked it all of the public right before the election to try to hurt his chances in the election and to try to help her chances. sound familiar? marine le pen having the kremlin overtly fund her campaign, the last-minute trip to moscow to visit with putin right before the vote, they even more last-minute russian replay of the attack on the hillary clinton campaign for the previous year. in 2017, it was to help marina peninsula to help donald trump it was basically a zach thing. that was just amazing to see in 2017. russia did all they could. but in the end, it wasn't enough and marine le pen lost that election and emmanuel macron has been the french president ever since. but now it is five years later. she's running against him again. she has made into the final runoff election against him again. and the polls are closer this time. the vote is this weekend, it's on sunday. the polls are closer this time, the polls show her close to the french presidency than she has never been. but she does have that peculiar history about how she has tried to win the presidency in the past. and of course, this time, the presidential election in france is happening just after her best friend, her mentor putin has invaded ukraine. in fact, the vote will be happening this week just as russia starts the second phase of its attack on ukraine with one appears to be an all out mass destruction campaign against ukraine's east. before the war started, marine life and had reportedly pointed out more than 1 million campaign leaflets for this election, leaflets that included those famous pictures of her with putin at the kremlin shaking his hand. had to scrap those wants putin invaded ukraine 55 days ago. something that fresh people did not like le pen's campaign reportedly had to shred those million-plus leaflets. showcasing her friendship and her design relationship with henry putin. and so yes, given the war, given the passage of time, given the taste of the french public, she has had to sort of modulate some of her stances. when i say modulate not moderate because she just sort of changing the way she talks about a lot of it. even with putin having to invaded ukraine she's still promising that if she's elected, president, this weekend in france, she'll form a new bilateral alliance between french and russia. she says she will pull france out of the military command structure for nato. she is no longer saying overtly that she will pull france out of the european union like she did before, but if she's elected this weekend, you can certainly say goodbye to the eu continuing to provide weapons to ukraine. to defend themselves against the russian military. she has suggested publicly known russia essentially has the right to menace ukraine. in to keep ukraine in its sphere of influence. again, the vote of presidential election in france is this weekend, the votes on sunday. the one and only debate between the candidates, between her and an emmanuel macron take place tomorrow. here's the washington post on of this afternoon. quote, already facing a resurgent menace from the kremlin, europe is bracing for the possible rise of threat from within. one who could bolster moscow, break the european union and diminish the nato alliance at the continent's most critical moment since the fall of the berlin wall. marine le pen a doyen of the far-right with a history of warm ties with russian president putin is staging her strongest bid yet for the french presidency. with polls ahead of sunday's final round election putting her within striking distance. should she succeed, european observers feel an illiberal russian friendly leader taking the helm of the eu's sole nuclear power. experts say le pen's conciliatory position towards moscow's complimenting -- isolate putin. le pen for example opposes plan to wean europe off russian oil and gas and could jeopardize the eu ban on russian coal. her stance could embolden the kremlin by tying the eu's hands on any further measures against russia, should putin deploy even more inhumane war tactics in ukraine. in brussels, the eaves capital, european diplomats see le pen's surge as a real replay of trump's victory and a brexit. but this time, in the heart of europe. many are clinging to hope that she will lose, as she has twice before. quote, i just can't believe they would vote for putin's stooge. said one european diplomat who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak freely. then again, the double man continued, i could not imagine that someone will vote for trump or that the brits would vote for brexit. one former french diplomat writes today, in the boston globe, sort of with his hair on fire a little bit. he says quote, at a time of the european union has shown unity in the face of russia's attack on ukraine, a marine le pen victory has the potential to fragment europe, and destabilize the west. le pen's plans and foreign affairs, weakening france's relationship with united states, provoking the implosion of the european union, that's essentially prudent stream. if marine law penn as elected as president of france, it will create a shock that would shake the world. even though marine le pen basically shares the politics of her elderly father, one of the most prolific and famously violently antisemitic fascists in modern europe, marine le pen is said to be a strange from him personally in the recent years. i mention that even as he's facing new charges this past year for threatening to put jews in ovens, he is well into his 90s now. but his daughter is closer than the le pen family has ever been to real power. and at the worst possible time. the head of the european union is now confirming that the eu is drafting plans for a full embargo, a full ban on russian oil imports to europe which is the closest thing you could get to a silver bullet against the russian state. the eu is not planning on voting to implement any such ban on russian oil until france has these elections weekend, they don't want some sun fluctuation oil and gas prices to have an inadvertent impact on the french votes. so even as they are drafting that embargo, they say they will not ask eu member states to vote on it until after the french election happens this weekend. that said, if the eu is going to impose an embargo on russian oil and gas, all the eu member states have to vote for that. including france. and if marine law pen gets elected this weekend, it is almost certainty that she will have france block that kind of a move against russia. she might even forced the eu to drop some of the other measures they've already taken against russia like the embargo on russian coal that they've already put in place. or the ban on russian ships using eu ports. you need eu unanimity, any consensus among the eu states order to enforce those things. she is just as likely as you might expect to back france out of that and thereby destroy the eu's ability to any of the things against russia. today in greece, a big russian oil tanker apparently had to dock in a greek port. it didn't seem to have been aimed at the port in the first place but apparently the tanker had some engine trouble and then it got caught out in rough seas and it had to dock at the nearest port, which was in greece. and greece is an eu member country and russian officials are banned from docking in eu member ports. greek officials seized the tanker and its russian crew because the sanctions against russia say that they cannot be at an eu port. we'll see what happens there. nbc news was first reported that president biden has approved another large shipment of weapons, particularly heavy artillery, to go to ukraine. pretty big news late last week when our government sundays ship more than $800 million worth of helicopters and howitzers and drones and artillery shells and armored personnel carriers and more. more than 100 million dollars in a shipment that was approved by president biden last week, apparently today they've started making plans for another shipment of about the same size. in eastern ukraine, the russian assault appears to be as massive as was feared in the lead up to this phase of the war. in mariupol, where at least hundreds at least hundreds of civilians are said to be sheltering inside that shine steel plant along with ukrainian soldiers and marines, today the leader of the marines posted this video. explaining that this might be the last anywhere we hear from them, they are outnumbered now, 10 to 1. by russian forces, they are dramatically outgunned. he says they have 500 wounded ukrainian soldiers inside the facility as well as those hundreds of civilians including women and children. they're asking for someone to organize an extraction. to take them to a third country, they want and obstruction. sky news reporter jason ferrell today found the wife and children of one of those ukrainian fighters in mariupol. he is in mariupol among the last mariupol defenders. his wife and two sons are underground in a mick schiff children's hospital in another eastern ukrainian city. >> underground in the city of mykolaiv is a bunker that's now a children's ward. trump feeds and medication are administered among at the gloomy basement pipe work. bucks honest on the best to bring things out for her two sons, nikita and autumn, whose toys reflect the battle above. she last poke to her husband four days ago. he is among some of the last fighters holding out in the pummeled city of mariupol. how are you coping? >> she says he will be there to the very end. [speaking foreign language] her husband, again, according that sky news report among the holdout ukrainian fighters still trying to save the city of mariupol. which the russian military has already effectively destroyed. but where the russians want to control. and no one knows for the length they will go to the remaining ukrainian fighters and civilians there. in order to get it. the ukraine government has reportedly offered to trade russia one of its high value prisoners, one of its presence that russia will value highly. the russian linked oligarch victor -- who is now ukrainian custody. the current government reportedly offered to trade him to russia for exchange for russian giving safe passage to the mariupol defenders and civilians that are trapped inside that steel plant. according to ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy this evening, russia has not bother to respond to that offer. 250 miles north of mariupol is the second largest city in ukraine, the city of kharkiv. it's a big city, it's cosmopolitan city. it's being targeted with russian missile strikes today, reporters in the city of kharkiv say those strikes appear to have been aimed right into residential neighborhoods. in the city. the new york times had to reports out of kharkiv today, reporting one appears to be adjustments in the russian strategy in this part of the war. trying to avoid the same mistakes they made in their initial invasion, when they went in all over the country, when they tried and failed to take the capital of kyiv. the new york times today, quote, russia has launched a new campaign with a narrow goal focus from early on capturing ukraine's east and it promises to be much more thought école, a current ukrainian u.s. officials. instead of like -- moscow's forces have increased their artillery barrages and sent small detatches of troops to probe ukrainian lines known as shaping operations in military circles. the smaller russian attacks are often precursors to larger troop movements, or serve as a distraction from other fronts. joining us now from kharkiv is the correspondent the new york times who's the lead byline -- thomas givens. mr. give us enough is the bureau chief of the new york times facing last time -- he brings unique experience to this reporting job he's also served our country as a marine infantrymen with two tours in afghanistan. mr. given snuff, thank you for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> so we've been following your reports from kharkiv any reports from all the reporting they've done in ukraine closely. can you just give us an update on the scale of what's happening in terms of this phase of the war and with russia appears to be trying to accomplish? >> it's tough and as you can around the articles that we've written, they have narrowed their focus. they have thousands of troops kind of located in the east preparing for a larger offensive but taking much less ground that set out for in february. so that just looks different this time instead of having armored columns and infantry advances and helicopter insertions. they're kind of advancing very slowly from predetermine front lines of established in the last month and a half, two months. so a lot of that is going to look like a lot of artillery fire and then slowly moving their troops underneath that artillery fire as they weaken ukrainian positions. >> it sounds more efficient the way described that way. i don't know anything about military tactics and i'm not a veteran like you are. see these things at a personal level. but it sounds from a latest perspective the way they are describing that, that this is going to be a massive show of force that it's going to be grinding but it also seems to have more military chance of success than the earlier tactics that they've used in early parts of the war. is that a fair assessment? >> i think for the most part, i think it's going to be a lot slower and i think a lot of it has to do with keeping casualty numbers lower. that's before the early part of the war. they suffered, the russians and ukrainians have a lot of casualties just in those early weeks and february to march. so however it turns out, again, it'll be just much more concerted and will russian forces will focus on weak points where they can kind of gain as much crowd as possible for stopping in regrouping. >> what does this mean for the civilians who are in the path of this part of the russian offensive. obviously what we have seen in the places where there has been sustaining concert of fighting is that russia's basically destroying the places that it's trying to take over. the city of mariupol is in many to a large extent rubble. and that's true and a lot of cities east ukraine than in the target of sustained fighting those four. is there any effort, is there any strategic imperative to try to preserve anything about the livability of the cities or any of us infrastructure or are they just raising things to the ground? >> i mean, i think a lot of this going forward and i think what we've seen so far is, been a focus on weapons that the u.s. and the west has supplied like the javelins and anti tank guided missiles. it's getting a lot of attention but at the end of the day, this is an artillery war and that means a lot of destruction. no matter where the fighting is. so in the course, just like in any conflict, the civilians and the innocence are caught in the middle. so as this moves in the east and people living in towns and cities will be caught in the middle, they can evacuate, there's always a big chunk of people who just stay behind because they can't leave, they're taking care of elderly family members, their sick. so again whatever happens next is going to be civilians caught in the middle that will bear the brunt of this. >> in the united states there's been a lot of attention to the shift in what the u.s. government is providing, that the u.s. is providing artillery rounds and howitzers and the other kinds of weapons that at least echo the way that russia fighting its side of the war. do you believe that any other weapons shipments from the states, from the european union, from any of you kinds of allies could make a difference, is there enough material that can be moved into ukraine to help them find some sort of -- in this conflict or even to turn the tables? >> that's always the question. and i think just from what we've heard and the shortage of ammunition, it really comes down to bullets and band-aids. they need a lot of that to, ukrainians see a lot of that to hold the line alone. retake territory. so it remains to be seen but it will be something i think that the west and the united states especially is keeping a pretty close eye on. >> in terms of your plans and your reporting, i mentioned you've got unique experience because your own personal history they bring to this reporting. what are your plans, you don't have to get to specific with me, do you feel like you and your colleagues can safely report from where you are in ukraine? do you have plans to move to try to stay and safer places? >> i mean, as far as kharkiv is shell daily, i think you said at the beginning, it's a big city, there's places outside of the shelling where we can stay. but i think again going forward we have every intent of covering this war where it is and work it pushes. >> thomas gibbons-neff gibbons-neff, kabul bureau chief of the new york times at 4:00 in the morning from kharkiv ukraine. i'm not helping you do your job by keeping you have to pass for the morning to talk to me. unless you go certainly much free time and good luck. >> thank you. >> all right, we've got much more ahead tonight, stay with us. to be a thriver with metastatic breast cancer means... asking for what we want. and need. and we need more time. so, we want kisqali. women are living longer than ever before with kisqali... ..when taken with an aromatase inhibitor or fulvestrant in postmenopausal women or 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and in the lead up to the january 6th attack, in a way that didn't at all match what he has said publicly about what he did at the time. senator lee has repeatedly presented himself as a person who didn't approve of donald trump's efforts to try to overturn the election, and stay in power even though he lost. he's presented himself as someone who had a real patriotic conscience about that kind of thing, not just a conservative but a constitutional conservative, who never would have gone along with any of those scams. well, then, cnn obtained text messages that senator leave sent to trump's chief of staff, white house chief of staff mark meadows, at a time all that was going on. the text messages tell a very different story. for example, senator lee told bob woodward and robert costa that he was shocked, shocked, when, for the first time he received a legal memo from trump lawyer john eastman, just a few days before january 6th. the memo advocated a strategy to overturn the election that would entail sending fake presidential electors to the electoral college for multiple states, states where biden era won, they would nevertheless to have trump electors sent from those states to the electoral college, and it's maybe how the electoral results could be overturned. mike lee told woodward and costa, that he was shocked, shocked to get that ridiculous memo from john eastman, laying out that plainly unconstitutional, illegal plan. he says he sought for the first time on january 2nd, just days before the january 6th attack, he said he was shocked and horrified when he saw it. that said, we now know, from senator lee's text messages which are in the possession of the january 6th investigation, which have been released publicly i cnn, his next message is actually show that senator lee was investigating that trump lawyer john eastman, today -- john eastman has some really interesting research on this. then, in december, there was senator lee texting mark meadows, quote, if a very small handful of states were to have their legislatures appoint alternative slates of delegates, there could be a path. that is exactly what john eastman was proposing. behind the scenes, senator lee was vocally advocating john eastman's plan for a republican controlled states to throw the election to trump, he was advocating it as far back as december 8th 2020, but he told bob woodward and robert costa, that he didnt learn about the plan until january 2nd, and he was shocked when he heard about it. it's just plainly not true. what he represented about how outside this process he was, is just plainly not true. the text messages, further, show that senator lee continue to work on and promote that scheme privately, behind the scenes, all the way up until two days before the january 6th attack. he would claim later to know absolutely nothing about it, but he was working behind the scenes trying to get states to effectuate this plan, of standing in the fake electors, and thereby overturning the election. >> like i said, cnn obtained these text messages after they were, we assume, obtained by the january six investigation. that means investigation has them, cnn has made the public. this is now coming back to bite senator mike lee, in a way that he might not have seen coming, i'm not sure i didn't either. here, for example, is the headline from the salt lake tribune, which is of course the paper of record in mike lee's home state of utah. they start by quoting senator leaves techs to mark mellows. quote, please tell me what i should be saying. text messages show senator mike lee assisting trump efforts to over see the 2020 election. text messages show really knew of scheme to send alternate electors to congress, nearly a month earlier than he claimed. that sort of thing, of course, is a brutal headline for a senator to wake up to in his hometown paper. but it's getting worse for him, just today the salt lake tribune has released a new editorial under this headline, saturdays used tossed a republican convention would be a great place for mike lee to come clean. quote, it's past time for my mike lee to start fessing up to all he knows about the plot to satisfied the results of an honest and fair election, in order to keep donald trump in power. we know utah senior senator had a much greater role now plot than he is previously acknowledged. his constituents deserve a much more detailed accounting of what went on, and the extent of senator lee's participation in it. the editorial continues, quote, yesterday would be a great time for lee to come clean, saturday's utah state republican convention would be a really good opportunity for that, too. so the january 6th the buckle is proceeding on a whole number of different levels right now. georgia republican congresswoman marjorie taylor greene is tonight facing a legal challenge against her eligibility to run for reelection, because of her alleged help to the insurrectionists on january 6th. the criminal cases against people who actually entered the capitol, on january 6th, those criminal cases proceed not only with new convictions this week, but with new arrests continuing even this week. the january 6th investigation in congress, as of yesterday, they took nine and a half hours of testimony from donald trump jr.'s fiancée, kimberly guilfoyle, who helped rally the crowd on january 6th, in a count chocula costume, before the crowd turned and storm to the capitoll. but the individual accountability for members of congress, and the members of the united states senate, who were part of the plot to get the election results overturned. that is still an open question, a very open question in our country. and now includes utah senator mike lee in a very important way, that is becoming very hot for him at home. watch this space. was not good. i had periodontal disease, and i just didn't feel well. but then i found clearchoice. 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ask your doctor about nurtec today. a federal judge in florida yesterday decided to strike down the cdc's mask rule. for airline travel, train travel and public transportation. little bit of a strange decision by the judge. she made the decision even without hearing arguments in the case. she said she didn't need to hear the arguments, she just rolled on her own. and she said her ruling would apply nationwide even though the plaintiffs only brought suit in her single district in florida. nevertheless, that immediate change ordered by that one judge to this nationwide public health rule has immediate consequences. if you for example, flew out somewhere for spring break, before yesterday's shock ruling you're going to find yourself flying home from spring break under very different public health rules that you might have been counting on. and maybe that doesn't matter to you, maybe don't feel strongly about it, maybe weren't factoring that into your sort of covid safety matrix with your planning this travel. but maybe it does matter to you. maybe it was a big factor. the context in which this happened, not just its suddenness. that matters here to. the cdc had just decided last week that they were going to extend the mask rule until may 3rd. it's a short extension. they just want to give the agency a few more weeks to assess what the current uptick in covid cases might mean. for our health care system, for hospitalizations, four deaths. they needed a little more time to assess how much the mask rule might help over the worst of those consequences. and so again, they plan to extended just until may 3rd. may 3rd is right around the corner. now that this judge has thrown out the ruling. effective immediately nationwide. well the timing has to factor into the government's decision as to whether or not to appeal. by the time they brought the appeal, may third will probably have come and gone. which means the extension that the judge ruled against would effectively be moved. given the timing it has been an open question an interesting one whether justice department try to appeal. today the justice department gave an answer to that question, quote, the department continues to believe that the order require masking in the transition corridor is a valid exercise of the authority congress has given the cdc to protect the public health. that's an important authority the department were continue to work to preserve. if cdc concludes that a mandatory order remains necessary for the public's health after that assessment, the department of justice will appeal the district court's decision. so the doj is trying to reinforce that the cdc has the authority to enforce rules for health. they're trying to give cdc room to continue assessing whether a mask rule is needed, whether it's still unnecessary public health measure. when it comes to the bigger existential question as to whether the cdc has the authority to put health rules in place in the middle of a pandemic, is that questions still open as long as this judges ruling goes unchallenged? and what does that mean for doctors and nurses treating patients as the number of covid cases starts to tick back up again? joining us now is doctor craig spencer. he's the director of global health and emergency medicine at columbia university irving medical center, he's also an emergency room doctor pressing new york city. he's also a doctor with personal experience with scary contagious diseases. he was the first person new york city to be diagnosed with ebola. back in 2014 after he returned from treating ebola patients in africa. with the covid pandemic new york city hit in march 2020, doctor spencer was on the frontlines fighting patients at the very worst of that time. doctor spencer it's a real pleasure to have you back on the show, thanks for making time to be here this night. >> thank you for having me back on, it's a pleasure. >> so it seems to me that there are two things to think about in terms of this judges ruling. one is just the practical question. people may be watching you right now with your experience as a specialist in this feel, as a practicing physician in new york. is it a good idea to wear a mask on the train? on the subway, on an airplane, even if i'm no longer required? but also what's your view on this challenge to the cdc's authority to federal like this in place at all? >> both of those are incredibly important questions and i will add that not only as a provider but as a parent of a three year old and one year old, who three days ago took a flight to visit family and has to fly back home to new york city in a few days. under these new rules. it does give me some trepidation. my three-year-old and one year old, -- one year old can't and so it does give me some pause and worry i would prefer that they were on a flight where people were were massed. but we're going to have to adapt and we're going to think about how to keep ourselves safe. the most recent place before that was with my family to go down a visit immunocompromised owners and florida. and so i'm worried that there's gonna be a lot of people and some of situations that will be exposed and may expose others for myself personally i'm young i'm healthy i've been triple-vaccinated. my personal risk isn't high. but the rest other a my eye might infect or to my kids maybe. and that's for the personal at the family arrests now for the more important i think legal precedent. once you -- not a public health decision, you had a legal decision that overrode the decisions of a public health authority in the middle of a pandemic. and i'm not just worried about what that means right now today for flights in the next few days. and for the uptick in cases. i'm worried about what that means for the future when we respond to pandemics. when we have further pathogens that threaten us here in the u. s.. we already had dozens of states implement measures to limit public health authority, now you have a single judge in one state who has overrode a decision by the central public health decision-making authority and i think that's -- president and i'm glad to see administration challenging that. >> and the administration says they will challenge it provided that the cdc assesses and scientific terms that it continued mask mandate, continued mass reform of our transit actually is in the public health interest. and so there effectively, the justice department is effectively saying that they're going to follow the science. that if the cdc still thinks this type of rule should be in effect. then they will appeal the ruling in order to try to reassert the cdc's authority to make those decisions. it still does feel a little precarious in terms of the standing of the cdc to pass these rules in the future. i mean i understand with geo jay's suffering to them but that presidential issue we're talking about israel here. >> absolutely and also quite frankly it's a very confusing point in the pandemic for many people. if you are young and you've been vaccinated, you may think that your personal risk is low. and you may say, well we know that masks work and we know that having them in -- what is even the decision that needs to be made here. what is the cdc even looking at? we know that right now ba. 2, that's a variant, is spreading. we've seen it in new york and we know that is causing an uptick in cases nationally. we need to better understand what that means. not only for local outbreaks, for bigger outbreaks in places like new york city in another big cities where they've seen a lot of virus and a lot of vaccination. it has led to a dramatic uptick in hospitalizations frankly and i don't see a lot of covid patients in the er right now, we're not emitting a lot but that's not going to be true for every place in the country. so these decisions might seem really difficult and hard to kind of untangle even two years in. but the fact is, we are one country with many different subpopulations vaccination exposure immunocompromised states etc. that's what makes this so difficult. and that's also why it's important people have a bit of empathy even if the pandemic is over for you, it's not for a lot of people including parents with kids and people who are still immunocompromised and might not have access to the type of care or medications that we need. to stay safe as everybody else does. >> doctor craig spencer, director of global health and emergency medicine at columbia university irving medical center, doctor spencer, it's a pleasure to have you here. i am sorry that you guys got stuck in the middle of around trip with rules change in the middle of it. but i hope you enjoy your time away and good luck. >> thank you, rachel. >> we've got much more news ahead, stay with us. the sleep number 360® smart bed is on sale now. it senses your movements and automatically adjusts so you both stay comfortable all night. it's also temperature balancing so you stay cool. and now, save $1,000 on our most popular smart bed. only for a limited time. to learn more, go to sleepnumber.com. we hit the bike trails every weekend shinges doesn't care. i grow all my own vegetables shingles doesn't care. we've still got the best moves you've ever seen good for you, but shingles doesn't care. because 1 in 3 people will get shingles, you need protection. but, no matter how healthy you feel, your immune system declines as you age increasing your risk for getting shingles. so, what can protect you? 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