our team of correspondents and analysts covering this history barak breaking story, want to go to cnn s priscilla alvarez. she s joining us from rehoboth beach in delaware, where the president is an isolation right now. give us the latest what are you hearing over there? priscilla? well, if as the president was self-isolating at his residence here in delaware from his positive covid diagnosis. these were also days of self reflection days where he was clearly deliberating his next steps and whether or not he would run for reelection. we had that answer this afternoon when he put out that one letter saying that he would step aside. now, importantly, right after putting that out, he also said that he was fully throwing his support behind vice president kamala harris to be the democratic nominee and urging the party to come together. it was a remarkable moment after weeks of democratic lawmakers, allies, donors calling for the president to withdraw from the race over the last
together. we re together. there s so much happening. i do want to go right to politics with you before i lose you. sure. j.d. vance, a rookie, someone who has evolved, as they say, in politics or switched sides with himself, but do you think this is a strong pick? like bill barr, it s a bs word, evolved. he flip-flopped. normal people who changed their mind, it s hypocrisy. what s interesting about j.d. vance is he was out of the gate really hot attacking joe biden in the media after the tragic assassination attempt of donald trump, and j.d. vance s rhetoric against trump is the most vitriolic i ve ever seen. i mean, he called him, quote, america s hitler. he called him an idiot. he called him things i mean, i ve had a lot of guests on and i don t think anyone has said the things that j.d. vance said about donald trump. he called him cultural heroin. coming out of finance and yale and all that, having spent less time in politics, but the way he rose in politics wa
recommendation for immunocompromised americans to get a third booster shot is coming soon. dr. anthony fauci will join me later to discuss all of the latest guidance. first, we need to talk about the crisis in the american south. where covid is surging in florida, louisiana, texas, and now particularly in mississippi. the state has seen a 136% spike in hospitalizations over the past 14 days. that s higher than they were at any other point during the pandemic. and 97% of those hospitalized are unvaccinated. doctors and nurses have painted a dire picture. it s been exhausting i think for us, we are all emotionally spent. i kind of personally feel like i am an air traffic controller, and every day i m watching two airliners collide. just having those patients look at you before they are being intubated and begging you to not let them die, that just it s just heartbreaking. based on what we are seeing, if we continue that trajectory within the next five to seven to ten da
ahead on cnn news room. it s not going to be good. we re going in a wrong direction. vaccine hesitancies fuelling the surge in cases and hospitalizations across the united states. making it even more urgent to get more americans to get the shot. a changing mood in japan. the olympics spark optimism despite months of coronavirus restrictions. we re live in tokyo for you this hour with the latest details. and china plays the blame game during a diplomatic visit by a top u.s . diplomat. happy monday. now the united states seeing a sharp rise in new infections. the delta variant spreads and vaccination rates fall. less than half of americans are fully vaccinated. in the reach herd immunity. it s at least 70% of the population need vaccines. the majority of u.s. more than 50% new incovid infections last week. in a sea of dark red. top health expert dr. fauci said the most pressing need now is to get shots in arms. take a listen. look historically at the model that ha
ending. oh. it s monday, july 26th. 5:00 a.m. here in new york. thank you for getting an early start with us. i m laura jarrett. christine is back. i m christine romans. we have reports this morning from london, beirut, tokyo, washington, hong kong, and los angeles only as cnn early start can. good morning. million dollar vaccine lotteries, free beer and doughnuts, none of that worked. maybe pressure from friends and family who do not want to go back to tight covid restrictions, maybe that can do the trick. 44% of the u.s. population now lives in counties considered to have high covid transmission. cdc data shows in early june, it was less than 3%. the four in 10 eligible americans who remain unvaccinated now are under mounting pressure to get their covid shot or at least hopefully. vaccinations are up only very, very slightly. what is up dramatically in the number of covid cases. it s nearly five times higher than a month ago. americans are now being forced to