nationwide by nbc s count, cases are up 58% over the last two weeks and it s adding urgency to a covid summit happening virtually right now. president biden s message this morning, don t grow numb to this unimaginable loss. our heart goes out to all of those who are struggling, asking themselves, how do i go on without him? how do i go on without her? today we are at a new stage in fighting this pandemic, facing an evolving set of challenges. we have to double down on our efforts to get shots in peoples arms, country by country, community by community. we are focusing on eastern europe. president zelenskyy said joining nato would have saved his country. part of putin s justification for invading was to prevent nato expansion, and now finland s leader says they want to join nato without delay, and how russia is reacting this morning. plus, the spotlight is on the supreme court. where the justices are meeting today in private for the first time since the draft opinion leak
he is calling on other world leaders to match that effort. dr. gupta, there s a gap between the resources we have now and apparently what we need considering the white house warns as many as 100 million americans could be infected by fall and winter. based on your experience on the front lines of the pandemic, what do you want to see from the white house and the summit? good morning, and it s good to be with you. this is a classic case where we re only as safe as our least resource country is in the world, and the omicron and delta wave, they are showing us the least resourced countries are where we need to focus our efforts, because what happens 10,000 miles away will get to us in a matter of days. and this is why funding is being allocated to ukraine and held up on covid, and ukraine, it s a threat you can see, $40 billion,
summit? the president kicking off the second covid summit, first by talking about the progress that has been made since september, and he said the u.s. is on track to meet its goal of providing 1 billion vaccines to the global community, and trying to work with global efforts to stamp out covid-19, and also acknowledging that tragic milestone in the u.s., 1 million americans dead. he said this is not a time to be complacent and to double down and move forward as we are at a new phase. the challenge for the white house is one of the tools the president is hoping to use for the u.s. to continue to meet that challenge is through that covid relief money. he asked congress to pass $22 billion in additional covid relief funding, and so part of what he did today was use his remarks to light the fire under congress to act. let s listen to that part of the
president s remarks. i continue to call on congress here at home to take the urgent action to provide emergency covid-19 funding that is vital to protect americans, to make sure that we maintain our supplies of covid-19 tests, treatments and vaccines. white house officials in previewing this summit said this would not be a talk the talk summit but a walk the walk summit. the president wants not only other governments but private businesses and philanthropies to come with new commitments, and some from the u.s. are sharing technology that will help the further development of vaccines moving forward, and they are going to provide seed funding to the world bank for part of a new global pandemic prevention fund, preparedness fund. these are some of the steps the president is outlining today as