whether the virus jumped from animals to humans or whether it escaped from that lab in wuhan, china. why this sudden push from the white house? and what do we know about the intelligence right now and what it leans toward? mary bruce on that tonight. also, america at its first major test as we begin to emerge from this pandemic. more than 37 million americans expected to travel for the memorial day weekend. and tonight, the news late today, the new report about how long protection against the virus may last. if you ve had covid, how long your cells will remember the virus. and if you then get the vaccination, how powerful the immune response might be. whit johnson with late reporting. in the northeast at this hour, we re tracking severe storms as we come on the air tonight, the potential for dangerous storms from washington, d.c., to philadelphia to new york. potentially heavy rain and straight-line winds up to 70 miles per hour. and the second system from texas to the da
good to have you with us. we begin with good news for americans who have been dreaming of a european vacation after more than a year of covid restrictions. the european commission resident tells the new york times that fully vaccinated americans will be able to visit eu countries this summer. that s good news for european economies that have felt the financial sting of travel bans. according to the centers for disease control and prevengs, nearly 95 million people in the u.s. are now fully vaccinated. that s more than a quarter of the population, and nearly 140 million people have had at least one dose. white house senior advisor andy slavin explained to pam brown how vaccinated americans will be able to enjoy more freedom, such as traveling abroad. the key to getting back to life that we used to know is vaccination. so far, we have more than half of adult americans that have done their vaccine shots. that s great! that also means that we have near half of americans that st
official who joins me in just a moment says there s no need to hyperventilate. put down the paper bag says jen psaki. she s here with us. first, let s get to our reporters with what the president is expected to talk about tonight and how democrats and republicans will react. joining us now, nbc news correspondent garrett haake, and chief white house correspondent and political analyst, peter baker. peter, bring us into the planning from the white house s perspective. what should we expect? i think you re going to hear the president talk about a few things. first of all, he s going to talk about his accomplishments. he s going to try to remind the country of how things were when they were in the country when he took other the period, in the middle of the covid pandemic, lockdowns, social unrest in the streets. there was of course the january 6th attack on congress and the economy was in free fall. i think he s going to try to remind people how things have gotten better over