go. >> let the review proceed. i'm not going to resign. >> will it work? hello, i'm jake tapper in washington where the state of our union is springing forward. one year ago this weekend, reported deaths from covid-19 were still just in the double digits, just under 70 confirmed deaths as we all started to scramble to a sudden new normal life in the pandemic. tomorrow, march 15, 2020, president biden announced more sites to slow the spread. one in five americans have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the cdc. nearly 3 million yesterday alone. president biden has an aggressive timeline saying all adults will have doses by the end of may, and that july is the beginning of the recovery from the virus. health experts are continuing to warn that now is not the time to return to normal. here to explain why and what's next, the president's chief medical adviser, dr. anthony fauci. dr. fauci, thanks for joining us. the government of italy is imposing another lockdown tomorrow as new variants cause cases to surge there. in some cases the vaccines are less effective in combatting the variants. how worried are you about that happening here? >> well, it definitely is of concern, jake, which is the reason why i and so many of my public health colleagues say that although we are going in the right direction and things look really quite bright in the sense of positive thinking concerning the vaccines, which every day we get better and better with it. we've had, as you mentioned, 3 million doses going into people's arms just yesterday, that we're going in the right direction. but if you look at the numbers, the numbers are going down. the last couple weeks they've plateaued, and when you see a plateau of 600 cases a day, that is a very vulnerable time to have a surge to go back up, and that's exactly what happened in europe. they had a diminution of cases. they plateaued and they pulled back on public health measures. you see the pictures in the paper and on tv. they've opened the restaurants, they've opened some of the bars. the younger people particularly stopped wearing masks, and all of a sudden you have a surge that went right back up. that's where we are right now. we can avoid that, jake. we can avoid that if we continue to vaccinate people, get more and more protection without all of a sudden pulling back on public health measures. we will do that. we will gradually be able to pull them back, and if things go as we planned, just as the president said, by the time we get into the early summer, the fourth of july weekend, we really will have a considerable degree of normality. but we don't want to let that escape from our grasp by being too precipitous in pulling back. >> we've been living with this virus for a year. there are still a lot of things we don't know about the coronavirus. what is the biggest outstanding question for you about this virus? >> there's so many things, but the one that is the looming one is the issue of what impact these variants are going to have. we know that when you get a very high degree of antibodies resulting from the vaccination that even though it isn't specifically directed against the variant, that high level of antibody can protect to a certain degree and certainly protect against severe illness, hospitalization and death. so the best way that we can avoid any threat from variants is do two things. get as many people vaccinated as quickly as we possibly can and to continue with the public health measures until we get this broad umbrella of protection over society that the level of infection is very low. there is a tangent in virology that is so true. viruses don't mutate unless they replicate. replicate means it spreads around the community. >> so president biden says there will be a vaccine for every american by the end of may. there's a big difference in having enough supply and getting those shots into arms. when do you think it's going to happen that everybody who wants a shot has gotten a shot? >> well, i hope that's just going to be a couple months after that. hopefully by the time that we get into the summer and towards the end of the summer, logistically, let me tell you what's going on and why i feel optimistic about that. what the president is announcing is happening is the opening up of community vaccine centers, up to 500 of them, and over 900 of the community health centers from hrsa. and also giving the areas more leeway in giving vaccines, particularly areas of the country that are demographically underrepresented to a high degree. getting mobile units out to poorly accessible areas, and get a lot of people to do vaccinations. that means the military, retired health care nurses and health care providers. getting enough doses, which we will have with the new contracts with the pharmaceutical companies, but once you get the doses, getting it into people's arms. that's why president biden said he believes strongly that if we do these things, we'll reach a sense of normality and by summer we should be able to be back to normal. >> the cdc already tells us to continue masking and social distancing. does that mean we won't have to do that by the end of july? >> when you have a situation where you have 70,000 infections per day, i mean, that is a feeling that you don't feel very secure about mingling, about having people around feeling comfortable about it. if by the time we get to the fourth of july with the rollout of the vaccines, we get the level of infection so low, i'm not going to be able to tell you exactly what the specific guidelines of the cdc are, but i can tell you for sure they will be much more liberal than they are right now about what you can do. >> the cdc released some guidelines for people that are fully vaccinated, but those people still are not allowed to have medium-sized gatherings, they're still not allowed to travel according to the cdc. what do you need to see to say that it's okay for vaccinated people to travel or be in a crowd? it doesn't make sense to a lot of people. >> let me tell you how it goes with regard to the cdc. the cdc is a science-based organization, so they would really like to get the data to allow them to go to the next step. if they don't have the data, they'll do modeling. if they don't have modeling, they'll use common sense expert opinion. what we see is the first installment of what you can do if you're vaccinated. that's what you mentioned, what you can do in a home setting with vaccinated people together or vaccinated people with an unvaccinated person. you're going to see very soon similar types of guidelines for the american public with regard to travel, the workplace, all kinds of different things that you're asking right now. you will imminently be seeing those types of guidelines coming out. they just want to make sure they get it right. some people think it's a little bit too slow, but they'll get there and they'll get there soon. >> so the cdc guidance, as you know, the guidance for social distancing as to how far away people should be, some organizations say 3 feet or a meter is enough. but here in the united states we say 6 feet. there is a new study from researchers in massachusetts just out this week. it found no significant difference in coronavirus spreading in schools where there was 6 feet of distancing versus 3 feet of distancing. but that 6-foot requirement, that's one of the main hurdles to reopening schools. does this study suggest to you that 3 feet is good enough? >> it does, indeed. and that's exactly the point i'm making, jake. what the cdc wants to do is they want to accumulate data, and when the data shows there is an ability to be 3 feet, they will act accordingly. they have clearly noted those data. they have in fact done studies themselves. when the data is analyzed, it's going to be soon. you're asking good questions. the cdc is very well aware that data are accumulating, making it look more like 3 feet is okay in certain circumstances. they're analyzing that, and i can assure you within a reasonable period of time, quite reasonable, they will be giving guidelines according to the data that they have. it won't be very long, i promise you. >> any mayors or governors or school district heads listening right now, if they hear you right now and they say, well, it sounds like dr. fauci says 3 feet is good enough, that will enable us to open our school, that's all right? >> jake, i don't want to get ahead of official guidelines. i can tell you i talk to the cdc, dr. walensky, every single day. she is acutely aware of the accumulation of data and the fact that her team will be acting on the data the way they always do. just stay tuned. it's going to come and it's going to come soon. >> we are staying tuned to all the schools that want to open. dr. fauci, thank you very much for your time today. >> good to be with you, jake. thank you for having me. maryland's governor surprised many in the state when he lifted covid limits in the state. it sounds like a simple question. shouldn't we encourage many people, citizens, legal voters, to vote as soon as possible? 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>> well, i have a tremendous amount of respect for dr. fauci and we've worked together over the past year very closely. we also have his former colleague, dr. redfield, who is one of his advisers and team of experts and epidemiologists every day. many lifted mask restrictions. we did not. i think we took a balanced approach to try to continue to keep people safe but also get folks back to work and help support our small businesses, and our metrics from positivity rate to cases to hospitalizations are better than they've been in many, many months. dr. fauci is right, we're not through this and we're going to continue to follow the public health guidance and keep everybody safe. >> in his prime time address a few days ago, president biden called on every state to make vaccines available. maryland's residents under the age of 65 are still not eligible per maryland for the vaccine. the cdc ranks your state 30th in terms of vaccines administered per capita. why are you lagging behind? >> well, we're really not. there is a lot of different numbers you can utilize, but it's all based on supply. we're 13th in the nation in the total number of doses, we're number one in america in utilizing the j&j vaccine. i think we're 15th and 16th in several other categories. that one number you're talking about, a percentage of vaccination, is based on federal numbers. their doses went to federal agencies that we don't have any control over. it's all about supply right now. we can do 100,000 shots a day. we hit 60,000 the other day. we're just waiting for more doses. we utilize 90% when we first get it immediately. >> do you think you're going to be able to make the may 1st deadline? >> we could do it today. all we need is the vaccines from the federal government. we can't purchase vaccines, we can't manufacture vaccines, so if the president and his team is able to deliver, we don't have to wait till may 1st. we can get moving even faster. >> the biggest problem in terms of vaccine skepticism is among trump supporters. a new poll out this week found that nearly half of trump supporters do not intend to get vaccinated. president trump got vaccinated, but he did it secretly before he left office. he did not participate in a joint public awareness campaign with all the other former presidents. do you blame him for this vaccine hesitancy among all your fellow republicans? >> it certainly didn't help any with his messaging throughout the pandemic on masking and not speaking out strongly enough on the vaccines, but you can't pin all of it on him. there is a lot of disinformation campaigns out there from the right and the left. we can overcome that with public information, spending millions of dollars trying to convince people, and i think we're doing pretty well. we've now vaccinated more than 65% of the total eligible population, and we're going into communities where we really need to get more people vaccinated and we're doing everything we can think of. we're going to have to get more people vaccinated and get everybody willing to take this vaccine if we're going to get it under control and try to get life back to normal. >> president biden also said during his prime time address he condemned the wave of racist attacks against asian americans. he called it unamerican. your wife is korean american. you tweeted out your appreciation for the president's remarks along with a picture of your family. that's a gorgeous family, by the way. we've all been horrified in the spike in violence against the asian community. what's the past year been like for your family? has your family faced harassment or discrimination? >> it has been a serious problem. my wife, my daughters, three grandkids all asian. they felt some discrimination personally, but they also have close friends, friends of my wife's from church, some of my daughter's friends who have really been treated pretty terribly. hate crimes in general last year were down 7%, but it was up 150% in the asian community and it's outrageous, it's unacceptable, and i think it was great that president biden brought this up. it's something i've been focused on. we feel it personally. my daughter is sometimes afraid to come visit us. people that had best friends being harassed at the grocery store or being called names and people yelling about the china virus even though they're from korea and born in america. it's something we have to get under control, and i wish more people would be speaking out, and i appreciate the president's remarks. >> yeah, it's hideous. i want to ask you about your successor as head of the national government association, new york governor, andrew cuomo. several democrats, including majority leader chuck schumer, have called on cuomo to resign both about his misinformed data on nursing home deaths as well as the sexual harrassment allegations. do you think governor cuomo needs to step down? >> these are obviously serious allegations that need to be looked into and investigated. i don't think it's up to me to be speaking for the state of new york, but thank god there are obviously investigations underway and hopefully we'll get to the bottom of this, because they're pretty serious allegations and growing every day. >> governor larry hogan, thank you so much for your time this week. we really appreciate it. the senate majority leaders call the new rules racist. stacey abrams will join me in what she plans to do about it. i. with our highest concentration of prebiotic oat intensely moisturizes over time to improve skin's resilience. aveeno® healthy. it's our nature™. how do we ensure families facing food insecurity get access to their food? we needed to make sure that, if they couldn't get to the food, the food would come to them. we can deliver for food banks and schools. amazon knows how to do that. i helped deliver 12 million meals to families in need. that's the power of having a company like amazon behind me. germ proof your car with armor all disinfectant. kills 99.9% of bacteria and viruses. who takes care of yourself. so why wait to screen for colon cancer? 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(laughing) (trumpet playing) someone behind me, come on. pick that up, pick that up, right there, right there. as long as you keep making the internet an amazing place to be, we'll keep bringing you a faster, more secure, and more amazing internet. xfinity. the future of awesome. welcome back to "state of the union." i'm jake tapper. across the nation, states are limiting the right of people to vote. it's unclear if it will go anywhere due to the filibuster. stacey abrams, thank you for joining us. public lawmakers in your home state of georgia have introduced almost two dozen bills to make it more difficult to vote. they are going to end no excuse mail-in voting which has been there since 2005, they're going to reduce voting on sundays, ask for stricter i.d. requirements, take away drop boxes. it was called racist, pure and simple, unquote. do you believe in stopping these efforts? >> first of all, i do believe it's racist. it's jim crow in a suit and tie. it's not that there was a question of security. in fact, the secretary of state and the governor went to great pains to assure america that georgia's elections were secure. the only connection we can find is that more people of color voted and it changed the outcome of elections in a direction that republicans do not like. so instead of celebrating better access and more participation, their response is to try to eliminate access to voting for primarily communities of color, and there is a direct correlation between the usage of drop boxes, the use of in-person voting especially on sunday, and the use of voting by mail and a direct increase in people of color voting. >> brad raffensperger says he thinks