the capitol police since that day. it s been 50 days with no answers on that. first, though, new troubling developments in the fight against covid. researchers say they ve found a new home-grown variant right here in new york city. and others across the northeast not only is it becoming more common. this variant appears to evade at least, in part, the body s natural immune response. and the big question is how do vaccines play into all of that. let s begin there. with us is dr. ashish jha, also the dean of the brown university school of public health. good morning, dr. jha. as someone who resides in new york city, i took particular interest, obviously, looking at this. but my main concern wasn t just that it looks like it s really here. it s that it s that part of it that they think it evades our part of our body s natural immune response, and i wonder what you can tell us about that and how it relates to the vaccines. yeah, so good morning. thanks for having me on. so th
the top republican in the senate says president trump is practically immorally responsible for the january 6th attack on the capitol. if he really feels that way, the question is why did he vote to acquit. plus, the impeachment phase is over, but possible criminal investigations may just be heating up. the question, who gets the final word on whether donald trump is to blame for the capitol riot. and the cdc releases new guidelines designed to get students back into the classroom, but they don t include teacher vaccinations. the question is should they? it s way too early for this. good morning and welcome to way too early, the show that is marking a presidents day unlike any other. i am kasie hunt on this monday, february 15th. we ll start with the news. the u.s. senate acquitted former president trump for a second time this past weekend. the vote was 57-43, and that was ten votes short of the 67 that would have been needed to convict. the seven republicans who
the statistics are bad enough. more than 26 million people in the united states are known to have been infected with covid-19. more than 442,000 americans have died. add to that, america is struggling with the vaccination roll-out, and there s growing concern about new variants of virus. dr. michael osterholm is in the university of minnesota for infectious disease and policy. he said that a surge of the uk variant could happen in the u.s. in the next 6-14 weeks. i think right now, in advance of this surge, we need to get as many one doses in as many people over 65 as we can to reduce the serious illness and deaths that are going to occur over the weeks ahead. meanwhile, millions americans remain out of work. tomorrow the s the first of the month. rent s due. so, it may be good news that ten senate republicans are proposing a relief package in hopes of a bipartisan solution. it is significantly smaller than president biden s $1.9 trillion proposal. today, they wrote
there were essentially no hospitalizations or deaths in the vaccine group whereas in the placebo group there were. this tells us we have a value-added additional vaccine cand candidate. there are other advantages. it is cheaper, only requires a single shot and only basic refrigeration. no vaccine has yet been authorized in the vaccine for use by anyone under 16 but there s more news. today, dr. fauci addressed when that could change and when kids could start to get vaccinated, the new variants of the virus are also causing potential problems as athena jones now rep reports. reporter: another covid-19 vaccine could be available in the united states. the results are very encouraging. reporter: johnson & johnson s vaccine was 66% overall in a phase three trial, 72% effective in the u.s. and 85% effective against severe disease. the drug is delivered in a single shot and does not have to be stored frozen, making distribution ease her. there is real benefit to having a
company says its phase 3 trial in the u.s. found its 72% effective in preventing moderate to severe symptoms and says it will file for emergency authorization in the coming week, that could mean approval by the end of february. here s what s key, the vaccine does not require ultra cold temperatures for storage and shelf life is good for up to two years, huge win. the other breaking story we re following, scientists warning the u.s. is in a race against time with the new coronavirus variants popping up across the country and one of those strains, the south african variant, is now officially here. two cases have been confirmed in the state of south carolina. even more concerning, the state department s public health warning says that two infected adults had no recent travel history and no connection to one another. and it s raising concerns the strain may already be circulating within the community as new data indicates the vaccines we have may be less effective against this on