outbreak a global pandemic. our senior medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta joins us to explain why. what makes it a pandemic? there are criteria that are somewhat defined to call something a pandemic. let me preface by saying this terminology that we re going to start using now isn t so much to cause panic but rather to really cause a focus on preparedness. sanjay will join us in a moment. more than 525,000 americans have died since sanjay made those remarks. but this morning there are so many positive signs. 2.2 million people a day are getting vaccinated. the cdc has new guidelines for 30 million people who are fully vaccinated. if you are one of them, the cdc says it is safe to gather with other vaccinated people indoors without masks. and vaccinated grandparents can safely visit unvaccinated grandchildren. but the experts say we re not out of the wood yet. coronavirus variants could still trigger another deadly surge, especially as states relax their guidelines.
now i should preface this by saying phones work both ways. if he wanted to talk about voting rights, he could certainly call the white house. but i wonder if that is true, that they did not engage moderate republicans like mitt romney, is that a missed opportunity? no, i mean, let s have a conversation about what intellectual dishonesty is. the fact is mitt romney is on the record about where he stands on the john lewis voting rights bill and he s ben clear about that. but it should be nonpartisan. and i like when i hear republicans say this is a federal takeover of elections, because it shows their hands. because that is the same language used in opposition to the voting rights act in the first place. so if mitt romney wants to come on board with something as pure and democratic as voting rights we ll welcome him to have that conversation. i dare not ask the president and the vice president of the united states to waste their time with mitt romney or rand paul and
jelly beans in a jar, but we have seen this before. we have seen the use of these election boards to try and make it extremely difficult for certainly people to vote. this is why we passed the voting rights act in the first place. because, we knew in provisions throughout the south that they were having election boards doing things to make it so that certain voters couldn t get involved in democracy. this is why the supreme court made this a voting act in 2013 and our bill to fix that so time. we also have the approved vote act, which would deal with some of this. but it s also being held up by the filibuster. we have to have the act because this is what s happening in our communities around the country. let s listen to what the vice president said today, at the summit for democracy. here in the united states, we know, that our democracy is not immune from threats. january 6th looms large in our
into one voting center, which critics say would discourage voting for people in republican areas. joining us is colin allred, he is a voting rights attorney. thank you very much for joining us tonight. i want to get your reaction to what is emerging of the details as to how republicans in georgia are using their new election law. yeah, well, you know, we re not being asked to county bubbles on a bar of soap or jelly beans in a jar but we have seen this before. we ve seen the use of these election boards to try and make it extremely difficult for certain folks to vote. and this is why we passed the voting rights act in the first place was because we knew that in, you know, divisions throughout the south, we were having election boards doing things to make it so certain voters couldn t vote, couldn t get involved in their democracy, and this is why the supreme court is striking down the voting rights act of 2013, and you are inability to fix that is
240 years, yeah, but only for 57 years have we had full enfranchisement of the population. that s the point. as if we have had full democracy since the outset of this country. we re talking about last election saying the last election was rigged and there is no evidence that it was but what was rigged? every election we had prior to 1965 where we had entire swaths of the population who would be murdered if they attempted to vote. and so that s the reason that we have that the voting rights act in the first place and after the 2013 supreme court decision that eviscerated it made it more clear, what we have seen since then made it more clear that we need to have that law reinstated. policing. there is an issue with that. that collapsed so far. we will see if somehow it gets back on the agenda there. voting rights. is there any other hope for passing legislation on these