efforts to maximize every penny of the stimulus. the president and vice president and their spouses hit the road today from vegas to near philly for what the white house is calling the help is here tour touting the massive legislation. this comes as president biden is setting new goals for the nation to begin the path out of this pandemic and to help reach those goals the biden administration is now devoting $250 million to try to encourage skeptical americans, many of them trump supporters, to get the vaccine as cnn's phil mattingly now reports. >> shots in arms and money in pockets. >> reporter: with stimulus checks already hitting bank accounts president biden now in an all-out sprint to promote the $1.9 trillion covid relief law. >> the american rescue plan is already doing what it was designed to do, make a difference in people's everyday lives. >> reporter: and ensure there are no errors as it's put into place. >> the devil is in the details. >> reporter: biden naming gene sperling, a top economic official in the last two democratic administrations, to oversee the law's implementation. >> gene will be on the phone with mayors and governors, red states, blue states, the source of constant communication, a source of guidance and support and above all a source of accountability. >> reporter: all as biden's team hopscotches states around the country over the next week with vice president kamala harris and second gentleman doug emhoff heading to nevada, first lady jill biden in new jersey and biden him searching joining two trips in coming days, a highly coordinated effort to promote elements of the new law from the stimulus payments to the housing aid to the small business funding. >> president biden has directed the administration to deliver the two things that will most hasten our ability to recover, checks and shots, and as he said help is on the way. >> but when it comes to vaccine hesitancy, biden, says former president trump, telling his supporters to get the shot will make less of a difference. >> the thing that has more impact than anything trump would say to the maga folks is what the local doctor, what the local preacher, what the local people in the community say. >> reporter: all as the administration continues to grapple with the growing crisis at the southern border. >> we recognize this is a big problem. >> reporter: with thousands of unaccompanied minors in cut dishes the administration's promise for a more humane approach to the border is being tested in a major way. >> this is a big challenge, and it certainly is a reflection of using every lever of the federal government to help address that. >> reporter: jake, you mentioned the $250 million that will go in part to try to boost the vaccine rollout, but the president mentioned there. there's a recognition inside the white house right now that when comes to reaching republicans, when it comes to reaching conservatives, democrats and the messages from the white house probably aren't the best way to go about it. in fact, dr. anthony fauci and dr. francis collins will be meeting with evangelical leaders tomorrow, again, trying to meet people at -- the folks that they respect the most trying to get the message across that now is the time to get vaccinated. jake? >> phil mattingly at the white house. let's talk about this issue with retired admiral dr. brett giroir who led the testing effort under former president trump and was a member of the trump white house coronavirus task force. doctor, thanks for joining us. here's the problem. in a cnn poll 46% of republicans say they will not try to get a vaccine, and obviously there's one person with a lot of influence over that group, former president trump. do you think he should be actively encouraging his followers to get the vaccines that were developed under his own administration, under the trump administration's operation warp speed? >> well, thanks for having me on and, of course the answer is yes. i think all of us in the medical community, in the liturgical community and i think it's very important for former president trump as well as the vice president to actively encourage all the followers to get the vaccine. this is something that the trump administration developed under its time, and i think all of the above, including the former president speaking out would be very important. >> so that's why it's so confusing because we're talking about saving the lives of maga supporters, not just fellow americans, but specifically people that he has reached to. it was a mistake for him, president trump, to get vaccinated secretly behind closed doors instead of doing so publicly? did you know about it at the time? do you know why the decision was made to keep it secret? >> i did not know that he was vaccinated until i heard it as it was reported in the news. i get a little hesitant to -- to make judgments about people's, you know, private medical decisions, about whether there could have been, you know, potential issues that he did not want to make it public, but i think the point now is and i think that this is where we are that we all have to get together and urge every american, the people who follow former president are very committed to president trump, and i think his leadership still matters a great deal, and i think we have to do a better job reaching the minority underserved communities that have been so disproportionately affected. i think those are two really major goals. we've done a great job with the elderly. we're doing a great job getting vaccines in arms and i want to commend the biden administration for their building on the program, but question to need to focus on the vaccine hesitant which you pointed out as well as the underserved and minority communities. >> we've heard vice president kamala harris say, quote there, what is no national strategy or plan for vaccinations when they started and dr. fauci said under trump was only a vague plan on a national level getting vaccine doses into american arms. could the trump administration have done more to set up a national program to get the vaccines not just to the states but into the arms? >> i think that is false narrative that was propagated, and i have not heard either the president or the vice president say those words in the last few weeks. look, when we left office, there were plans to procure 900 million doses with 2 billion extra doses on an option. we hen rolled 70,000 vaccine sites, including 40,000 pharmacies. we had enabled form sifts and pharmacy interns, pharmacy techs, any emergency medical technician to provide those so, look, i think the biden administration has done a good job adding on to the plan with some of the max vaccination sites but there was clear strategy and plan on the day that president biden took office. 1.5 million doses went into people's arms. we were averaging almost a million per day which was a tremendous accomplishment. the foundation was there. there's no reason to cast aspersions. this is a great american story. a republican administration started this, laid the foundation. the baton has been passed, and the biden administration are taking it even to greater levels. that's the way i see it. >> well, when president biden took office the u.s. was administering just under a million doses a day as you note. now the nation's averaging 2.4 million doses a day. you think, correct me if i'm wrong, that the biden administration does deserve some credit for ramping up the speed with which vaccinations were going into arms. >> i think the ramp-up is approximately the same as we would have predict under the trump administration. what i think he's done very well in terms of vaccines in arms is, number one, i think the mass vaccination sites focusing on health equity is a really good idea and i think that's an idea that he brought. broad naming the prep act which he did last week so that physicians assistants and didn'tists could provide vaccines, though are all positive steps and re-engaging with the world health organization is going to yield benefits far beyond this pandemic, so i think he's done some very good things and positive things, but it's built on the foundation that we built in the trump administration, and that's the way it should be. there's no 180-degree turns. this has been a relatively smooth transition, and i think the vaccines and the rollout are a true american success story. >> a review conduct by the biden administration found that some trump-era cdc guidance was not grounded in science or free from, quote, undue influence. for example, some guidance on reopening schools that has been removed from the agency's website. what's your response to this? what kind of interference did you see during your time working not for the cdc but for the trump white house or for the hhs rather? >> yeah. you know, there was always discussions about the implications, the broad implications of what a guidance would have, but i personally did not see political interference in anything that the cdc did, and bob redfield and i were very close and in close communication. certainly testing and rtc was under me. i know there was some back and for the from lower level agency officials, but they had no influence, so, you know, i mean, it jake. i did not see the political influence. we started every day with data and science. the vice president clearly supported that. so from my knowledge point certainly around testing and what i saw of cdc guidance, you know, i just didn't see it. might have happened, i can't, you know, prove a negative. >> right. >> but i just didn't see it. >> so the big news today and we should make sure that viewers in the united states understands that the astrazeneca vaccine is not in the united states. we have pfizer. we have moderna and johnson & johnson and astrazeneca is being used in other parts of the world but today france, germany and italy all joined other countries in pausing the use of that vaccine. again, it's not in the u.s., not an issue here because of a report of the injection potentially causing blood clots. astrazeneca might proceed to submit its vaccine to the u.s. for authorization. do you see this as potentially the first vaccine that the fda might reject? >> so, again, i don't have any special insight into the data from europe, but the fda will certainly look at this, right? it's not eight months ago when we were desperately in need of a vaccine that even were 50% effective. as you pointed out, the three vaccines that are authorized here are all highly effective. the novavax preliminary data extremely highly effective. the fda will look, it's not just efficacy and it's safety. if there's an adverse safety signal or harm signal they won't authorize it. i do have faith in the process. it's as transparent as it was under our administration and it will get a good look. as you pointed out and thanks, jake, for saying this, this advantages seen not in the u.s. >> yeah. >> americans need to be 100% confident that what they are getting is safe and effective and is not this vaccine. please, go get vaccinated. >> have you been vaccinated and if so which one? >> i have been vaccinated. i'm not going to go into my medical history, but i just completed my second dose. i received pfizer. i would have been absolutely pleased to have receive moderna or johnson & johnson. they are all truly medical breakthroughs. i would have happily had any of them, and certainly encourage everyone when it's your turn in line as it was my turn in line here at my private physician to get -- to get vaccinated. >> all right. dr. brett giroir saying get vaccinated. he did. good to sigh again. >> good to see you, thanks, jake. a lot of people are easing covid restrictions as more and more americans get the vaccine but one university is ordering all undergraduates to stay in their dorms and then going across the border to where children are being housed. stay with us. d? 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and some say they slept under a bridge overnight. on pebbles and sand while waiting to get transported to immigration processing facilities. once there, migrants say they get three meals a day. this as cnn learns about 4,200 unaccompanied migrant children are in border control custody, attorneys blowing the whistle this weekend about children in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions at this massive temporary immigration processing center in donna, texas where unaccompanied children, including many under 10 years old, are being held, some for five to seven days which is against u.s. law. peter shea is a lawyer representing thousands it of unaccompanied minors in federal custody says capacity is 1,000 detainees and right now it's holding about 2,000. >> it's an untenable situation that the administration needs to address immediately. >> the head of homeland security directed fema to help create more shelters for unaccompanied children and move them out of border patrol custody quickly. dhs says border patrol officials do everything they can to take care of unaccompanied children in their care. as for mothers entering with children, many are released by border patrol at this bus station in brownsville. why did you come here? she says because of the economic crisis in her country is very severe. >> the reasons migrants say they are trekking to the united states varies. some says he lost everything during a recent hurricane in honduras. and this woman who says the toughest part of hur journey was when her daughter was the hungry and she had no food says she's here because of the lack of jobs and the abundance of violence in her home country. you're taking a live look at the immigration processing center here in donna, texas. cnn has made repeated requests to border patrol and customs and border protection to get access to this facility and other facilities like it, and that access has been denied. today we also asked about the migrants who we met and they told us that they slept under the bridge overnight on the dirt while they were waiting to get transported to a processing facility and, jake, we've not heard back. >> rosa flores at the border. let's discuss. nia, there's now bipartisan pushback against the biden administration on the border, but instead of visiting firsthand, the president and his team, they are traveling to promote the covid relief deal. the is this a smart strategy, by the white house to not go there? >> well, we'll see what the president ends up doing in coming days from. what we can tell from president biden he is someone who listens to the progressives in his party, and they are among the loudest folks who were talking about this crisis at the border. it has been years in the making. we obviously saw what happened under the trump administration. we saw what happened under the obama administration, too, and similar things and now we see there is this surge and partly at least biden's critics are saying it's partly a surge because the biden administration has had a more humane policy towards folks who are traveling over the border, children in particular, and that's why you see this surge, but we'll see what the president ends up doing. he obviously wants to highlight what's going on with this covid relief package but he does need to have some insight i think into what's going on at the border, and also suggest to the country that it is a -- a sort of different approach that this administration is taking because you've had for years and years and years progressives really complaining about what was happening down at the border under president trump and now you see similar, the kind of kids in cages imagery that we see out of the border now and some of the inhumane treatment that some might be getting. >> franco, we should note, that the trump -- the trump administration's harsh policies at the bothered notwithstanding, there was a surge in 2019. still, what's going on today is going on. white house press secretary jen psaki will not call the situation at the border a crisis. she also turned down the chance to call it a disaster. she's saying it a, quote, big problem. why is there such a fight over the language here? >> it has a lot to do about politics. i mean, biden does not -- the biden administration does not want to play into the republicans' narrative that they are trying to paint, that this is, quote, unquote, biden's crisis. he does not want to play into that game. as you just note, you know, this is a complicated matter. i mean, they are really trying to, you know, do -- have dual messages, you know, perhaps conflict messages. on the one hand present a humane approach but on the other hand try to send a message not to come at this time, but you are right, you know. this has happened back in the obama administration in 2014 and it absolutely happened in 2018-'19 under trump so they were definitely -- minors were definitely coming despite trump's very harsh policy. >> franco, i want to get your reaction to what we heard from republican leader kevin mccarthy at the border today. take a listen. >> when i talked to the doctor to see when they are being tested for covid, when they get out. more than 10% are testing positive and they are being stored together. in a time when the president will keep our country closed, and maybe have a hope of a 4th of july to get together with our family, how much spread of covid is he creating every single day by his policies along this border? >> first of all, as you note, trump had harsh policies and that didn't stop people from trying to get into this country illegally in 2019. there was a surge and kevin mccarthy didn't criticize trump for that, but beyond that he didn't seem to be this worried about covid spreading during packed trump rallies or at the trump white house, but all of a sudden he's invoking these fears of diseased immigrants coming in. >> yeah, i mean, it is part of politics of washington today. it's very unfortunate to attack migrants, attack immigrants, to attack, you know, the quote unquote other that are coming here and using them as kind of a tool to kind of present -- to kind of paint them as kind of a danger to the united states. it's -- you know, it's an unfortunate reality of the politics of the day, and i think that that's one of the things that the biden administration is at least trying to combat against, but they do have a very, very, you know, difficult situation on hand. it is a crisis at this moment. hence, why they are sending fema in to address this. >> nia we don't have time to run the clip but he's been airing since he said t.republican senator ron johnson said he did not feel threatened at all during the capitol insurrection but he would have been fearful if it was black lives matter protesters. what did you think of that? >> well, listen, i think what he said was pretty obvious. we know that the reaction, if those were black lives matter protests would have been different from republicans works have been different from the posture of law enforcement as well. that is hobbs, and in some ways i'm glad he said this because it does inject into this very clear story that race played a part in not only the reaction from law enforcement but also in terms of the motivations of though the folks who were there. they were fearing in many ways kind of multi-racial democracy. that's what they wanted to overthrow and so you had a ron johnson essentially saying that those folks whether fellow travelers and wouldn't have been if they were black lives matter protesters who were ask for kind of a broader more inclusive america, so listen, i think ron johnson was in many ways just stating the obvious. >> i know many members of congress who felt plenty threatened that day. one of the women who has accused new york governor andrew cuomo just spoke to investigateors. that story next. 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(burke) get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a short list of quality candidates from our resume database. claim your seventy five dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed.com/home. oh, you think this is just a community center? no. it's way more than that. cause when you hook our community up with the internet... boom! look at ariana, crushing virtual class. jamol, chasing that college dream. michael, doing something crazy. this is the place where we can show the world what we can do. comcast is partnering with 1000 community centers to create wifi-enabled lift zones, so students from low-income families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. oh we're ready. ♪ ♪ in our politics lead today, new york city mayor bill de blasio says the scandals surrounding new york governor andrew cuomo are, quote, making it harder to get things undone, and the vast majority of new york's congress a.m. leadership calling for cuomo to resign, but according to a new sienna college poll, 50% of new yorkers do not think governor cuomo should step down and 35% say he should resign immediately. brynn gingras joins me now. the governor has another scandal to deal with involving his vaccine czar? >> yeah, that's right. this reporting coming from "the washington post." it's concerning larry schwartz. as you mentioned that's the state's vaccine czar and a longtime friend and adviser of governor cuomo, and this reporting is that schwartz made phone calls to a number of county executives across the state to sort of get a feel for how their loyalties lie with the governor amid all of these allegations and investigations that he's currently facing. in those same conversations the reporting he was also talking about vaccine distribution. now, it bothered one county executive so much that he actually filed a notice of impending ethics complaint with the new york attorney general's office. now, cnn is still working to fully report this, but we did get a statement from governor cuomo's office, his legal counsel which i'll read it to you. any suggestion that larry acted unethically or in any way in the best interest of the new yorkers he self-lessly served is patently false and schwartz released a statement to the "new york times" saying what's being reported is simply not true. but, yes, another controversy in front of thech governor. >> certainly looks shady and you have news of one of the accusers charlotte bennett is meeting with state investigators. >> reporter: the meeting happened over zoom today as we understand from charlotte bennett's attorney deborah katz, lasted four hours over zoom and she also provide over 120 pieces of documents to investigators to corroborate what she says are sexual harassment allegations against governor cuomo, and i just want to mention quickly she also says that she provided detailed information about the sexually hostile work environment that the governor fostered in both his manhattan and albany offices and his deliberate effort to create rivalries and tensions among female staffers on whom he bestowed attention so it's very interesting details in the investigation, but it's a big step forward for that particular investigation, jake. >> brynn gingras on the national investigation. two men in custody charged with assaulting brian sicknick, the u.s. capitol police officer who died after the january 6th riots. federal authorities say images from police body cameras show the two men spray a toxic chemical aimed at three officers, including officer esnifnlgt i want to bring in cnn's jessica schneider. jessica, there are other investigators that are helping to build this case against these two. >> reporter: the criminal complaint goes step by step and uses surveillance video clips and body camera snapshots to really lay out how the two men allegedly attacked the officers. notably though they are not charged with killing officer sicknick. at this point they are charged with working together to plan an assault. at least three officers who were guarding the capitol grounds that day, including officer sicknick who died one day later so investigators say one body camera photo. it shows 32-year-old julian cater in a trump hat there, 39 george tanose in the red hat. they say they are beginning to talk there about chemical spray and cater takes the can in his right hand and there's body camera footage of cater in the tom right corner. investigators say it shows him holding a canister and then spraying it in the direction of several police officers, including officer sicknick. so sicknick and two others are struck with the chemicals. they retreat from the line, and you can see them bent over. they are holding their hands over their faces so the criminal complaint reveals that all of these officers, they were temporarily blinded. one officer even had scabbing under her eyes that lasted for weeks. we know esic? was also injured. we know he later collapsed in his office and was admitted to the hospital and died a day later but still no official cause of death. late breaking this afternoon, we actually just got this mug shot of george tanose. right now both men are in custody and they did have their court appearances today and will be held until a future court date. >> we still don't have a cause of death for overs sicknick, and as you know these two men have not been charged with sicknick's murder. could that change? >> it could change because, of course, early on we were told that this was a federal murder probe, but that could be part of this continued investigation. the charges right now against these two men are for assault and conspiracy among others, but jake, of course, it's always possible that the additional charges could be added especially if it's determined definitively how officer sicknick died, something we don't yet know. >> jessica schneider, thanks very much. appreciate it. the biggest trend for spring break may be going maskless on the beach and in the clubs. what that might mean for the pandemic and for the variants now spreading in the u.s.? stay with us. i've always focused on my career. but when we found out our son had autism, his future became my focus. lavender baths always calmed him. so we turned bath time into a business. and building it with my son has been my dream job. at northwestern mutual, our version of financial planning helps you live your dreams today. find a northwestern mutual advisor at nm.com advanced non-small cell lung cancer can change everything. but your first treatment could be a chemo-free combination of two immunotherapies that works differently. it could mean a chance to live longer. opdivo plus yervoy is for adults newly diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer that has spread and that tests positive for pd-l1 and does not have an abnormal egfr or alk gene. opdivo plus yervoy is the first and only fda-approved combination of two immunotherapies opdivo plus yervoy equals... a chance for more starry nights. more sparkly days. more big notes. more small treasures. more family dinners. more private desserts. opdivo and yervoy can cause your immune system to attack healthy parts of your body during and after treatment. these problems can be severe and lead to death. see your doctor right away if you have a cough; chest pain; shortness of breath; irregular heartbeat; diarrhea; constipation; severe stomach pain, nausea or vomiting; dizziness; fainting; eye problems; extreme tiredness; changes in appetite, thirst or urine; rash; itching; confusion; memory problems; muscle pain or weakness; joint pain; flushing; or fever. these are not all the possible side effects. problems can occur at the same time and some more often when opdivo is used with yervoy. tell your doctor about all medical conditions including immune or nervous system problems, if you've had or plan to have an organ or stem cell transplant, or received chest radiation. here's to a chance for more horizons. a chance to live longer. ask your doctor about chemo-free opdivo plus yervoy. thank you to all involved in our clinical trials. if you smell gas, you're too close. leave the structure, call 911, keep people away, and call pg&e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. if you see wires down, treat them all as if they're hot and energized. stay away from any downed wire, call 911, and call pg&e right after so we can both respond out and keep the public safe. we're back with our health lead right now. the u.s. average of daily coronavirus cases is down 10% from this time last week. the number of deaths from the virus is down 20% just in the last week, and one in five americans is now at least partially vaccinated against the virus. that's the good news. the bad news, there are also new concerns over spring break as cnn's nick watt reports. >> reporter: here's a split screen our current situation. on the right a record high 3.2 million vaccine doses in arms reported saturday, but on the left that's miami beach on saturday. >> we have seen footage of people enjoying spring break festivities maskless. this is all in the context of still 50,000 cases per day. >> reporter: back to the good news. more than one in five americans have now received at least one shot. >> we're accelerating vaccinations in anticipation of meeting the president's goal of being ready to be open up all vaccinations to all adults by may 1st at the latest. >> reporter: today in every single state and d.c. teachers can get vaccinated. meantime, a new study suggests that if kids and teachers all mask up, then whether it's six feet or just three of social distance doesn't make any difference. >> the cdc is very well aware that data are accumulating making it look more like three feet are okay under certain circumstances. >> reporter: which would make it much easier for more schools to reopen. expect an update to the cdc's guidelines soon. >> it won't be very long, i promise you. >> reporter: meanwhile, college kids at duke now in a seven-day lockdown after 180 confirmed cases last week driven by parties say college officials who warn if this feels serious it's because it is. these past four days the busiest air travel since this pandemic began wednesday is -- >> st. patrick's day. >> reporter: and, of course, there's this. >> spring break! >> reporter: but with more contagious variants circulating, sobering tales from europe for those south florida throngs. take italy where case counts are climbing once more and fast. why europe? >> they simply took their eye off the ball. i'm pleading with you for the sake of our nation's health, these should be warning signs for all of us. >> reporter: meanwhile today italy, france, spain and germany temporarily suspended use of the astrazeneca vaccine while authorities investigate safety concerns. astrazeneca says there is no evidence that their vaccine might cause blood clots and it's not yet authorized here in the u.s. >> now, one thing driving that surge in europe right now is that new variant first discovered in the uk, more deadly and contagious and of the cdc confirmed that that variant will be dominant here in the u.s. within the next few weeks. jake? >> nick, thanks so much. coming up, they are the inept, a cnn exclusive inside syria talking to the children who know nothing but war. if you're 55 and up, t-mobile has plans built just for you. get 2 unlimited lines for only $70. and now get netflix on us with your plan. and this rate is fixed, you'll pay exactly $70 total. this month and every month. plus, switch today and get a free smartphone for each line. the best value and award-winning customer service. only at t-mobile. ♪ ♪ like an echo in the forest ♪ ♪ (singing in korean) ♪ ♪ like an arrow in the blue sky ♪ ♪ (singing in korean) ♪ ♪ on my pillow, on my table ♪ ♪ yeah life goes on ♪ ♪ like this again ♪ ♪ oh oh oh oh ♪ ♪ (car horn) ♪ turn today's dreams into tomorrow's trips... with millions of flexible booking options. all in one place. expedia. in our world lead today, ten years of the syrian civil war which is still raging on, ten years. in march 2011 syrians tried to follow other arab nations and call out their oppressive government prompting syrian dictator bashar al assad to try to put the protests down, and now ten years later more than 400,000 syrians have been killed, many at the orders of assad. cnn's arwa damon returned to syria and she talked to some of the youngest victims in this war in a cnn exclusive. >> reporter: what do i do? use a bucket of water, a blanket? i tried use my hands like this to put out the flames. i couldn't. on my son's body was a ball of fire. he was playing on his bike when a rocket blew up fuel canisters nearby. an ambulance brought sultan to turkey. he and his mother have been there ever since. this is the last photo of sultan before the air strike. no, you are not ugly. you are beautiful his mother constantly tells him. the sultan has an utterly disarming smile with eyes that sparkle between sfarkling as a 10-year-old should and darkened as his past sets in. he has these nightmares where he's on fire, his whole body is on fire, even his eyes are on fire and he wakes up screaming, screaming for his mother to -- to put out the flames. >> reporter: sultan is as old as syria's war itself, a life that carries the emotional and physical scars of a nation. when he was 5, his baby brother was killed in a bombing. when sult an was 6, his father died in a strike on the market. this is where sultan was born into unimaginable violence where he lost so much, a gray dusty town of smothered childhood laughter stolen by war. the family did not know that mines were chained hey long the waffle her home. her grandfather shows us where the first one went off. >> she was swinging off the door with her siblings and all of a sudden there was a huge explosion from a mine right there. >> reporter: she lost her left leg under the knee. >> she has a prosthetic now. >> reporter: thee says her father disappeared a decade ago at the start of syria's war. she tells us he was blindfolded, and she was thrown to the ground in a forest. it's the longest sentence she speaks. mostly she gives up-word answers or falls sigh level. her grandfather says he feels like she's just gone blank. she doesn't dream of a life without war because she can't even imagine it. it's been over a year since we were last here covering russia and the syrian regime's most intense assault on what remained a rebel-held territory. there's been a cease-fire in place since then that has been relatively speaking holding. covid-19 peaked here late last year and now icu beds are mostly empty. it's all sandbagged underneath here just in case there's more bombing that resumes. this is a pediatric hospital, one of the few that remains intact. sade is two and a half months old and severely underweight. they have seen a threefold increase in malnutrition cases in this clinic alone for a number of reasons. >> reporter: years of bombings and displacement leading to greater poverty and then further fueled by covid-19 border closures and humanitarian aid slowing down. we pass ramshackle camps and with each bombardment more of them blotted the countryside, a decade, a lifetime compounded trauma. the past permeates everything. for most there's not a month, a week that goes by that isn't the anniversary of the death of someone they loved. perhaps all that is left to save are the shreds of innocence of a scarred generation. >> just absolutely heartbreaking. arwa joins me now live from syria. first of all, thank you for filing that -- that moving and brave report. so sadly war might be normal to these children. they have known nothing but, but are their parents do, they have any hope that the violence will end at some point? >> they do, jake in the sense that one really can't live without hope but then again hope is such a cruel beast, and syrians have seen that hope crushed over and over again. the adults here, those children's parents, they can't even begin to come to terms with what it is that they have been through. the kids most certainly can't even begin to wrap their minds around it or cope with the emotions that they are going through and one of the many aspects that has been very painful for the population that we've been speaking to has been what they feel like is this ongoing indifference and apathy. you know, a few years ago when we would come in we would get swarmed by people saying things like why doesn't the world care? aren't they watching what's happening? how can they allow this to happen? they don't even bother asking us those questions anymore because even though they have had a voice for the last decade, their voice hasn't mattered. the numbers of dead and displaced haven't mattered because when it comes to the lives of the innocent in this country, they are negated because bigger geopolitical games are at play. >> arwa damon. thank you so much. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪i've got the brains you've got the looks♪ ♪let's make lots of money♪ ♪you've got the brawn♪ ♪i've got the brains♪ ♪let's make lots of♪ ♪uh uh uh♪ ♪oohhh there's a lot of opportunities♪ with allstate, drivers who switched saved over $700. saving is easy when you're in good hands. allstate click or call to switch today. this is the sound of an asthma attack... that doesn't happen. this is the sound of better breathing. fasenra is a different kind of asthma medication. it's not a steroid or inhaler. fasenra is an add-on treatment for asthma driven by eosinophils. it's one maintenance dose every 8 weeks. it helps prevent asthma attacks, improve breathing, and lower use of oral steroids. nearly 7 out of 10 adults with asthma may have elevated eosinophils. fasenra is designed to target and remove them. fasenra is not a rescue medication or for other eosinophilic conditions. fasenra may cause allergic reactions. get help right away if you have swelling of your face, mouth, and tongue, or trouble breathing. don't stop your asthma treatments unless your doctor tells you to. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection or your asthma worsens. headache and sore throat may occur. this is the sound of fasenra. ask your doctor about fasenra. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. lastly from us today, 535,000 people have died from coronavirus in the u.s. and today we'd like to take the time to remember just one. her name was ruth sanders. she was an award-winning high school science teacher in georgia. she taught for almost 40 years. she was affectionately known as mother physics. she loved telling people about the time she ran into albert einstein in a princeton lab. she died just two weeks shy of her 90th birthday. may her member rib a blessing. our coverage continues on cnn right now. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." we're following president biden as he and vice president harris and their spouses are fanning out across the united states right now to sell americans on the $1.9 trillion covid re-lev package called the american recovery act. biden saying it's one thing to face but another thing to implement it adding, and i'm quoting him now, the devil is in the