tapper. the cdc released its full set of guidance for americans, loosening some specific restri restrictions. >> if grandparents can be vaccinated they can visit their daughter and family even if they have not been vaccinated so long as their daughter and her family are not at risk for severe disease. >> vaccinated americans will still need to wear a mask in public and many other settings with unvaccinated people and travel is being discouraged for now. there's also a turning point in the battle against coronavirus today. there are now more than 31 million people fully vaccinated in the u.s., and that is more than all the americans infected during this entire pandemic, as cnn's nick watt reports. >> you can visit your grandparents if you have been vaccinated and they have been, too. >> reporter: finally, guidance for the fully vaccinated. how the government would like you to behave. >> fully vaccinated people can visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing a mask or social distancing. visit from unvaccinated people from a single household at low risk of severe illness from covid without wearing a mask or social distancing. >> reporter: even fully vaccinated still avoid travel and out and about, still wear a mask. >> there's still a small risk that vaccinated people could become infected with mild or asymptomatic disease and potentially even transmit the virus to others who are not vaccinated. >> reporter: they'll update on the science evolves. for now, definitely don't do this. >> not all at once. >> reporter: mask-burning protests in boise idaho, over the weekend. >> it's not healthy to burn mask. we want people to choose to make the right decision to wear a mask. >> reporter: but will they? meantime nearly 2.2 million vaccine doses now going into arms on the average day. >> i know the pace is challenging. this is a war. we can't let up. >> new cases now averaging just over 60,000 a day. lowest number in about five months, but about 20% of those cases could be the more contagious variant first identified in the uk, according to one testing company. >> that today is wreaking havoc in parts of europe. we are in the eye of a hurricane right now. >> still, there is a creeping normalcy. this past weekend, air travel, biggest numbers since the holidays. >> miami is the place to be. >> spring break is here. and already pushback from the airline industry to that cdc guidance that even fully vaccinated people should still avoid travel. airlines for america says that with the air filtration in planes and all the masks, the risk really is very low, but, of course, travel is not just your time on the airplane and the cdc director says that every time we see a surge in travel, we see a surge in cases. pamela? >> all right, nick. thanks for that. joining me now to discuss is cnn chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. as always, sanjay, great to see you. sanjay, rather. great to see you. what goes through exactly what the cdc says is safe once we have been fully vaccinated? >> sure, yeah. and, as nick said, we've been waiting for these for some time. basically defining who is fully vaccinated, starting off with that. it's two weeks after you've gotten your second shot, if it's the pfizer/moderna vaccine or two weeks after that single shot, the johnson & johnson vaccine. after that, it's a question of if you have been fully vaccinated and everyone else around you, if people gathering have been fully vaccinated you can get together without masks, physical distancing in a way that will feel much more normal. if you've been fully vaccinated and are going to go to a household who not necessarily has been fully vaccinated but low risk because they've been mostly at home, you can do the same. no masks or distancing necessary in those situations. those are considered low-risk situations. you're going to see a lot of this next graphic here from the cdc. these visuals to try to make this clear. green dots represent people who have been fully vaccinated. orange dots represent those who have not yet been vaccinated. you get an idea. if everyone has been vaccinated no extra health precautions. if one group is vaccinated, no public health precautions. this is basically what we're starting to see the beginning of as a first step here, pamela. >> and you actually just spoke to andy slavitt, working on the white house's covid response team about this process of putting together these recommendations that we've been waiting for, for a long time, as you said. what did he tell you? >> well, it was interesting. there's a few things. first of all, the recommendations themselves came from the cdc. he was clear to point that out. there was no interference, because that's been a concern, as you know in the past. no interference with anyone else to say you need to do this. he said this was clearly from the cdc, their scientific guidelines. he also said we're going to see a lot less kind of binary recommendations, absolutely do this, absolutely don't do this and more sort of low risk, medium risk, high risk sort of recommendations. to get people a sense of how concerning things are so that they can start to make smarter decisions. also, they used the word in this briefing today, first step about a dozen times, pamela. and i think this is an important point. again, this is the first step, first time we're hearing these sorts of recommendations. future recommendations, he says, will directly be tied to vaccination rates. so, 10% right now. in two weeks, we could be at 20%. at which point there will be new recommendations. so, every time we go up sort of one logrithmic step, there will be new recommendations that will be looser, let people do more things. >> it's interesting that he said they'll be making recommendations based on risk coming up, because one of the big questions coming out of today, of course, was traveling. i think people are still wondering why can't you travel, why are they recommending against travel if you've been vaccinated? dr. leana wen says this guidance is far too cautious, that the u.s. is missing an opportunity to tie a person's vaccination status to their level of access to openings, but if they're willing to get vaccinated they can fully travel. do you agree? >> it's tough. it's a tough call, pamela. i mean i talked to several people about this point. i agree with leana on this, but i think the concern is that this would not be considered a l low-risk situation because you could encounter a lot of people who may be unvaccinated from different households. some people may have vulnerabilities in terms of their age or pre-existing conditions. at a time when you still have 60,000 or so people becoming infected every day, are you going to add that in to the mix for recreational travel? essential travel, yes. again, i think within a couple of weeks, or maybe sooner than that, depending on vaccination rates, my guess is that they're going to hear looser recommendations around things like travel. it's not absolutely clear cut. i mean, that's the message i'm sort of getting as i talked to members of the task force. there's a nuance toerring on th caution. >> they're erring on the side of caution. it's to protect those who have not been vaccinated. there's still questions about how much people who have been vaccinated could be carriers and transmit the virus. what's the latest on the research into that? if you have been vaccinated, the level of risk you pose to others in terms of transmitting the virus? >> this is such an interesting point, pamela. i'll preface by saying that old adage, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. it's clear from a common sense standpoint that if you've been vaccinated you're far less likely to become infected and even less likely to become infected where you could transmit the virus. they have to prove that. that takes time. you have to follow people out in these clinical trials for some time. is it possible someone who has been vaccinated could still carry enough virus in their nose and mouth to infect other people? there's a hypothetical concern because they haven't proven that not to be the case. i think it's unlikely. i think about this all the time. i've been vaccinated. i do still wear a mask when i go out in public. i'm fairly confident that i'm not a potential carrier anymore. >> and i'm sure we'll be learning more about that. temperatures are getting warmer, more families are going to want to head to vacation. look, so many people have been locked down this last year. do you think that there is a chance we'll have these looser guidelines by the summer once more americans are vaccinated? it sounds like, based on your conversation, we're going to be seeing that. >> yeah, look, with great humility, i say yes. i think we have -- with humility, because we get surprised by this virus and certainly, you know, the variants that everyone talks about still could add -- throw a curveball into this. when i've been doing the math, talking to people who are responsible for the vaccine rollout, understanding how the recommendations are likely to change, probably every couple of we weeks or faster than that, i absolutely think by summertime we should be in a very different spot. i mean, we could even be in functional herd immunity at that point. it is possible, pamela, come fall the numbers start to go back up again as we saw last fall. i do think this summer, around these summer breaks you're talking about, i think we'll be in a very different and beneficial position. >> really quick, you think the numbers could go up in the fall even though most people could be vaccinated by then? the supply will be available in may. that doesn't mean everyone can get vaccinated then. we still think in fall we could see another rise? >> yeah. i mean, it depends -- if we had a third of the country still not vaccinated because of hesitancy or other reasons then, yeah, you know, you may see numbers that are much lower than they are now, but then go up. if we get down to 100,000 people per day becoming infected, you know, that's -- and then it goes up from there, it would still be going up, but i don't think it would feel as monumental or significant as what we have right now. >> just a reminder, these months, march and april, are still very important as well in terms of the mitigation efforts. dr. walensky just said that today as well. >> yeah. >> we could talk to you the whole show. unfortunately, we have to cover some other news. thank you so much. >> okay. you got it. thank you. a delay to the final step before president biden signs the $1.9 trillion covid relief bill. new details on the timing. plus, the world reacting to the shocking meghan and harry interview, except for one place. at panera, when we make a pizza... we don't just “make a pizza.” we use fresh, clean ingredients... to make a masterpiece. order our new pepperoni and four cheese flatbread pizzas for delivery or pickup today. panera. that bombshell interview with prince harry and meghan is airing right now in the uk. so far the royal palace is mum on its claims. on race, the royal couple told oprah winfrey that there were conversations within the royal institution about how dark his skin condition might be. on mental health, meghan said at one point she felt suicidal and was turned down when she begged for help. >> i went to the institution and said i needed to go somewhere to get help. i said i've never felt this way before and i need to go somewhere, and i was told that i couldn't, that it wouldn't be good for the institution. >> cnn royal correspondent max foster has the reaction this interview is getting today across the pond. >> i've spent a long time now not commenting on royal family matters and i don't intend to depart from that today zblsh addressing the elephant in the room, uk prime minister boris johnson sidestepped the question of harry and meghan's bombshell interview with oprah winfrey, commenting only about his admiration of the queen and her role as unifier. the royal palace having no comment whatsoever on the interview that highlighted just how disunified the royal family had become, leading to the so-called megxit. airing for the first time in full in the uk, the question is how damning will this interview be to the royal family? after all, it was everything it was billed to be and more, detailing a royal rift between father and son. >> i feel really let down. >> reporter: a gulf between brothers who weathered so much together. >> i love william to bits, but we -- we want different paths. >> reporter: candid and intimate, no topic off limits. >> i just didn't want to be alive anymore, and that was a very clear and real and frigh frightening, constant thought. >> isolation, barrage of drew her to thoughts of suicide. leading to a show of support today from the white house. >> for anyone to come forward and speak about their own struggles with mental health and their personal story, that takes courage. >> reporter: insidious undercurrent of racism perhaps the most damning claim in the most explosive interview to rock the royal family since his mother's interview with martin bashir. >> i was seeing history repeating itself but perhaps or definitely far more dangerous because you add race in. >> reporter: one of the most jaw-dropping accounts, that unnamed members of the royal family were worried about the skin color of harry and meghan's son. >> and also concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born. >> what? >> and -- >> who is having that conversation? with you? what? >> so -- >> hold up. hold up. >> there's several conversations. >> there's a -- >> which member or members of the royal family was it? harry and meghan wouldn't say. oprah winfrey on monday only saying she knows who it wasn't. >> he wanted to make sure i knew and if i had an opportunity to share it, that it was not his grandmother nor his grandfather. that were part of those conversations. >> leaving open the question, just who could have said it? another shock, their son wouldn't be given a title or the security protections normally afforded to members of the royal family with no reason given for why. >> the idea of our son not being safe and also the idea of the first member of color in this family not being titled the same way that other grandchildren would be. >> racism one of the key factors driving harry and meghan from the family. had they only had the family support, they would have gladly stayed. the very tabloid that they say drove their mental health to the brink was quick to get the splashy headlines, daily mail saying harry twist the knife, meanwhile, sussexes deliver enough bombshells to sink a fl otilla. it is lockdown, of course. it means more people will be sitting down to watch this interview, this moment in royal and british history and perhaps may sway their opinions here. >> there's so much to process from this interview. people in the u.s. who watch it are processing these bombshells that came from this interview. more than 17 million people watched it in the u.s. as it's airing in the uk right now. still not even a brief statement from the palace. you've covered the royals for years. what do you read into that? >> it's very hard to tell. i've spoken to people behind the scenes. they're saying we're not expecting anything quite yet. i suspect the various households in the royal establishment are trying to get together, one unified response to this. a lot of it was so personal, emotions are running quite high. will they give a no comment? that's highly likely. the other option is that they're allowing harry and meghan to have their voice, breathe here. i don't know if that's true. a statement is expected. i think that's widely the view of the british media here. they're under pressure to come out with a statement. it then becomes what do they say? comprehensive rebuff of all of those allegations that came out in the interview or something that says we're going to look at this and try to learn from it? it's impossible to tell right now. a lot of pressure on the palace to come out with something. >> they knew this was coming but did they know beforehand what the couple said? >> no, they knew nothing at all. i can tell you, pam ierk was having conversations last night with people in the palace. it's pretty clear that it was a tight group that had access to this. some people in the sussex's office hadn't seen it. no one knew what to expect. it was touted as this massive, blockbuster, bombshell interview. i think it exceeded anything that anyone expected, particularly about accusations of racism pointed at the established institution. >> let's listen to reactions on the skin color comments. >> when you say you were surprised about the skin tone conversation, were you surprised that would be true inside the palace or were you surprised they were telling you about it? >> i was surprised that they were telling me about it. >> is that the shocker, that this couple is saying the quiet parts of society out loud? >> yes, the revelations, and just who in the royal family was talking to harry about skin color? everyone was profoundly shocked about that. oprah adding today that, of course, it wasn't the queen or prince philip. the group is getting smaller of suspects, i would say, pam, and people want to know who it was. >> max foster thank you for bringing us the latest there on england. on the issue of mental health if you or someone you know had needs help in the u.s., you can call the suicide prevention lifeline at 800-273-8255. resources outside the u.s. include the international association for suicide prevention. they're online at iasp.info. you can also find help at befrienders worldwide.org. coming up on this monday, president biden is preparing for a first in his presidency. that's next. four, five, turn, kick. we got chased by these wild coyotes! they were following her because she had beef jerky in her pocket. 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[drum beat and keyboard typing] ♪ ♪ ♪ [keyboard typing] ♪ [trumpet] [keyboard typing] did you know that every single flush flings odors onto your soft surfaces? then they get release back into the air, so you smell them later. ew right? that's why febreze created small spaces. press firmly and watch it get to work. unlike the leading cone, small spaces continuously eliminates odors in the air and on surfaces. so they don't come back for 45 days. just imagine what it can do with other odors. kamala harris is speaking at the white house on international women's day before president biden delivers remarks. listen. >> today, women military members are stationed around the world. i say this to remind us while it has only been five years since all combat jobs have opened to women, women have been in the line of fire, risking their lives to protect our nation long before that. to today, we know women make up 16% of our active duty military and 19% of our enlisted officers. we also know that women want to serve and that our military is stronger when they do. look no further than these two generals for proof. recruiting more women to our military, adjusting policies to retain more women, enforcing policies to protect women and ensure they are heard, and advancing more women on fair and equal footing will, without any question, make our nation safer. and that's the work ahead. so for now, let me congratulate lieutenant general richardson and general vanovost. it's my great honor to introduce our commander in chief, president joe biden. >> thank you, madam vice president, and thank you, mr.