election interference. here at home today, new covid tremors, 770,000 americans filed for first time unemployment benefits last week, a week to week increase and it's more proof of the pandemic's continuing wrath. plus, the case count, and its trajectory is, again, causing alarm. 17 states on the u.s. map now trending in the wrong direction. air travel topping more than a million passengers for seven straight days. the president later today delivers remarks on the vaccine race. one in eight americans are fully vaccinated, 1 million shots is a goal the president wanted to meet, and perhaps today, 40 days ahead of his campaign promise. progress, yes, but some jitters too. this morning the biden health team warns variants, and vaccine hesitancy, could pull the country down into another covid spiral. and there was this. listen, the tense fight between dr. anthony fauci and senator rand paul over masks and if wearing one still matters once more americans are vaccinated. >> when you talk about reinfection, and you don't keep in the concept of variants that's an entirely different ball game. that's a good reason for a mask. >> you're making your policy based on conjecture. >> no, it isn't based on conjecture. >> you want people to wear masks for another couple years. >> no. >> you've been vaccinated and you parade around in two masks for show. >> no, masks are not theater. masks are protective. >> you see the fight right there. that is the tension right now, the tension right now. if you look at the numbers, though, they back up dr. fauci and the other health experts saying let's be cautious, at least for a while longer, and let's look at the case timeline right now. 58,480 new infections yesterday way down from the beginning of the year, big spike january 1st, way down, but look at that red line, seven day average, essentially a flat line, a plateau ticking up a little bit in recent days but a flat line a at a level public health experts say is too high. trend map, 17 states in orange or red. that's the wrong direction. orange and red means more covid infections now than compared to the data one week ago. 17 states heading up, two of them with 50% more new infections or higher more new infections this week than last. 20 states holding steady, 13 in green trending down. this is not an encouraging map. it's not horrible, but it is not encouraging. the top five states, as you look at it, alabama, up 90% this week compared to last week. delaware up 52%. michigan is up, montana is up. new hampshire is up. these are the top five states in terms of their seven-day average of new infections. heading in the wrong direction. the death timeline, everyone, is horror, but the death timeline trend line is coming down a little bit, 1,173 deaths yesterday. it's starting to come down, horrifically high, above a thousand. the question is, how quickly do americans get vaccinated? 12% fully vaccinated across the united states, 22% partially vaccinated, one of the two shot vaccine, progress being made in part because of this, go back, you see the biden inaugural, beginning of this chart, 900,000 vaccinations on that day, up now, 2.5 million is the seven-day average right now. it is possible that today we will hit 100 million vaccines since the biden inauguration, if not today that will come tomorrow, the numbers are going up right there. why are they going up? in part because the supply chain has improved. again, january 26th there were 10 million vaccines going out to the states. right now, 16 million vaccines going out directly to the states and the tribes. there's even more than that in the pipeline. when you look at it this way. the administration says it's also sending 6 million vaccines out to pharmacies, community health centers, other federal supply chain if you will, the rest goes to states, tribes and territories. this week, 22 million doses out there. more vaccines, but this morning on capitol hill one member of the biden team did acknowledge even though there's more supply in the system getting up the delivery system, how can i get an appointment? where do i go? is there somebody there to give me a not? that, dr. david kessler says, still an issue. >> i think we've all been frustrated getting appointments, people staying up throughout the night refreshing their computers. this was a mad dash at getting this out. and what you see is just very real, there's a real commitment at the state level, at the federal level to improving those information systems. >> let's get insights now, with us to share expertise, dr. celine gounder. it's good to see you. i want to start by going back to the latest exchange between dr. rand paul, senator rand paul, he's an ophthalmologist, and dr. fauci, who has been the nation's premier expert on infectious diseases. is he wearing the masks for show, or is senator rand paul dreadly wrong? >> dr. fauci is not wearing a mask for show. i also have been vaccinated as a health care provider seeing patients at the hospital, i continue to wear a mask and that is not for show. we continue to do this because we have seen the rise of these variant strains, some of which are more infectious, some of which are more deadly, and while the vaccines remain effective for now as the virus continues to mutate that may not remain the case. and so it's really important that we continue to protect ourselves and to protect others. >> and so let's walk through the other big issues, you dealt with them during the transition, the administration is dealing with them now, one of them is what guidance should you give to schools? there have been studies that show the current guidance is keep students six feet apart in schools, studies showing that three feet work, especially at the public school level, the administration saying that would be a game changer, they don't have the space to bring all the kids back to school if it's six feet, a contentious exchange this morning between senator susan collins of maine and the cdc director, listen. >> when we discussed this issue recently i really detected a lack of a sense of urgency on your part. we have got to get the schools reopened. and you've presented no timeline. >> this is an urgent issue. i understand the mental health challenges. i understand the educational challenges. the food insecurity. we are actively looking at our guidance to update it to address that science. >> even dr. fauci said recently that the studies look good. cdc has to make the final decision. there does seem to be a growing commentary if you will, are they moving too slowly? >> so this past year really has been a crash course in learning about the coronavirus and what we have learned is that this is an aerosol spread or airborne spread virus which means it spreads through the air and this six foot versus three foot difference is really about droplet spread so droplets do drop down within six feet but if what you're really dealing with is something that spreads through the air, you don't necessarily want to have crowds of people packed together, but at the same time what really matters to prevent transmission at that point is masks and ventilation and it could be as simple as opening a window. but in other places it might mean air filtration. but that six versus three foot difference really is less important in this context. >> another giant yes, we've discussed it before, is more access to testing, rapid testing, less expensive testing. it's key to getting people back to the office, it's key, obviously, it would help as well with schools, with students and administrators and teachers and everybody in the building. dr. micah mena at harvard said this is great but doesn't see progress in developing the testing platforms. the states don't just need money and advice in the cdc, the states need the tests to be available. is there a lag or where is the holdup in getting more quick reliable rapid tests on the market? >> well, another major holdup has frankly been how the fda approves these tests and dr. mena and others have been very much at the forefront of asking the fda to create different pathways for approval for a screening test so that's just the person who's out in the community who feels well versus what we call a diagnostic test, that's if somebody feels sick who might be in the hospital and those are very different contexts in which to be use ago test and the good news is that this week the fda did announce that they are going to be changing the way that they look at these tests. and so i do think that will help open up some of these bottlenecks. >> that sounds hopeful. dr. gounder, grateful for your expertise and insight. appreciate it very much. up next for us the fbi releasing dramatic new video footage from january's capitol insurrection showing the violence police officers nationed that day. the general for car insurance, and we all thought you were losing it, so we left you deep in the woods? turns out you were right about the general. i just misjudged them based on their commercials. they're actually a quality insurance company that's been saving people money for nearly 60 years. i'm pretty sure i said all of that. our bad, let's get out of here. five more minutes, my skunk is almost done. oooh, is that what i smell? for a great low rate, and nearly 60 years of quality coverage - make the right call - and go with the general. it's an important time to save. with priceline, you can get up to 60% off amazing hotels. and when you get a big deal... you feel like a big deal. ♪ priceline. every trip is a big deal. the fbi this morning releasing brand new video from the capitol insurrection in an attempt to help identify and arrest more suspects. our senior justice correspondent evan perez poring through the footage. >> reporter: this is from tens of thousands of hours of video that the fbi has been frankly struggling to get through and to figure out and identify some of these people who assaulted police officers who were part of this insurrection and so these ten video clips that the fbi released today show just how horrific the assaults were. they've already arrested 65 and these are ten additional people essentially the most wanted that they're still looking for. what these videos show is these rioters using everything they had, including batons that they had taken away from officers, shields, riot shields they manned to wrest away from hands of police officers. in some video you see one rioter grabbing the officer's helmet and slamming his head against a doorjamb. you see a chemical spray they were using to protect people inside the capitol, the lawmakers, and you see fire extinguishers being sprayed on a line of police officers to protect the people inside the building. this is a sustained assault that went on for hours and hours, began around 1:00 p.m. some of the most horrific assaults you see on some of this video, john, is from around 3:00 and 4:00 p.m. hours of fighting hand to hand with these insurrectionists is what these officers went through. one of the things we've seen, john, is a sort of rewriting of what happened on that day, some of the lawmakers whose lives that these officers were trying to protect have started saying essentially that this wasn't so bad, that these were people who were -- police officers. that's not what this video shows and it's important for people to see that. >> amen to that. it's very important for people to see it and we hope the release of the video helps the fbi, they're still in this search that's going to take weeks and weeks and more. evan perez, grateful for the hustle on those videos. it shows the truth, despite what some people are trying to rewrite. a bit more on that later. atlanta police are calling a series of deadly shootings despicable acts of violence but stopping short of labeling these murders hate crimes. investigators say they're looking into what motivated the 20-year-old gunman who opened fire at three businesses, killing eight people, six of them asian women. the gunman is claimed to have a sex addiction and he told police the spas were a temptation he wanted to eliminate. but the murders come amid a horrific wave of crimes against harassment of asian-americans. new information showing one of the police captains you saw on this program yesterday discussing the arrest at a news conference himself helped spread anti-asian sentiment. cnn's natasha chen live for us in georgia. natasha? >> reporter: well, john, we are learning that captain jay baker, the spokesperson, the public information officer for the cherokee county sheriff's office allegedly posted back in april of last year on facebook photos of a customized graphic t-shirt that said covid-19 imported from china with the word china spelled c-h-y, hyphen, n-a. claiming china for the virus, for the pandemic, when we saw with that language was a lot of anti-asian sentiment, anti-chai these people, anti-asian in general. that post raised questions when cnn reached out to captain baker he said no additional comment and this comes on the heels of statements he made during a press conference yesterday giving information about this investigation. someone asked him at the podium whether in the interview it seemed that the suspect was remo remorseful or understood the gravity of his actions and captain baker did response by saying that the suspect seems to be very fed up, at the end of his rope, and was having a really bad day which has garnered some criticism from the public about characterizing the suspect as, you know, somebody who should be humanized or, you know, oversimplifying the motivations behind what he did. there are questions right now, and we will continue to try and reach out to the sheriff's office for comment, john. >> natasha chen, grateful for your reporting as we continue to track the horrific case and these questions for captain baker, legitimate questions. georgia shootings are getting high-level attention here in washington today, president biden moments ago issuing an order for flags to be flown at half staff to honor the eight victims. tomorrow the president and vice president will travel to atlanta for conversations with asian-american community leaders, on capitol hill today the wave of hate and attacks directed at asian-americans is the focus of a house committee hearing. the chairwoman of the congressional asian pacific american caucus says former trump's rhetoric about the coronavirus contributed to the spike. >> even though donald trump is no longer president i believe the most recent round of anti-asian attacks are the aftermath of one year of hateful attacks, and four years of ugly comments about immigrants and people of color. >> sun ling kim joins us from capitol hill. a high priority for this hearing, to raise the issue to have a national conversation about what is horrific, and not just in atlanta, it's been going on for months and months. are there concrete plansi for legislative attempts to do something about it? >> reporter: the main priority right now is certainly awareness. let's underscore how remarkable this hearing was obviously scheduled before the horrific shootings in atlanta but this is the first congressional hearing of its kind since 1987. asian-american lawmakers say this is the first step to combatting discrimination to raising awareness, to showing and documenting to the world that this is a serious problem, that this is a problem that has arisen for the last year since the pandemic, but that anti-asian racism, harassment, discrimination has been going on for generations in america, and now the focus is really coming onto this point. in terms of legislation the house has passed, in the last several months, resolutions showing resolutions that condemn anti-asian discrimination which has also become kind of a -- you know, a lightning -- or a lightning point, or a contentious issue over the last several days of representative grace main the lead sponsor of it has specifically been calling out house republican lawmakers who voted against that resolution. it's an issue that's coming to the fore in front of this congress and we'll be watching really closely what president biden and vice president kamala harris say tomorrow on their trip to georgia. we've seen so much over the last year, particularly at this issue, that words do matter. from the president of the united states on down, whether it's the rhetoric that was coming from former president trump, and what president biden has been saying particularly on this issue for the last couple of weeks. >> let's follow up on that point and let's first show the statistics, which are horrific and you're right they deserve more attention. more than 3,795 incidents reported of hate, women report two times more than men. businesses are the primary side of discrimination. california, new york, washington and texas highest states with incident reports. the the hate crimes up 149%. you mention words matter. i want you to listen to the current president and vice president. these are comments they've made in the last 24 hours and obviously they will be in atlanta tomorrow. listen. >> i've been speaking about the brutality against asian-americans for the last couple months and i think it's -- it is very, very troubling. >> we're not yet clear about the motive but i do want to say to our asian-american community that we stand with you and understand how this has frightened and shocked and outraged all people. >> words do matter. you yourself have been subject to this hate in social media and other formats. we have had conversations previously on the program when the former president of the united states says china virus or says hateful things like kungflu, how much does it matter when you hear a president and vice president speaking out immediately and "b" saying we're changing our schedule to go and talk about this. >> reporter: the examples are really set from the top. any president of the united states really has a role among so many other things in setting kind of the moral tone and the moral standard for this country. and certainly you have a lot of lawmakers saying -- and pointing to the rise in reported crimes saying president trump with his rhetoric about the coronavirus pandemic had inspired a lot of this harassment and discrimination over the last year so that's why words really do matter and that's why kind of this show of support immediately from, you know, the president, the vice president and lawmakers on down are critical to the asian-american community right now. >> seung min kim, grateful for your reporting and insights, thank you. >> up next for us, vladimir putin matches to joe biden after the american president says the russian leader is -- a killer. and reimagining, her 4 acre slice of heaven. it's not hard to tell she's the real deal. renae runs with us on a john deere 1 series tractor, because out here, you can't fake a job well done. nothing runs like a deere. get a 1 series tractor starting at $99 per month. i give to shriners hospitals for children because i want to be a part of something amazing. - i know my gift to shriners hospitals for children makes a difference in the lives of children. - our support gives kids a bright future. - i give because when i see a child smile, i smile. - when you support shriners hospitals for children, you're joining thousands of other caring people like you who have helped kids like me and over 1.4 million other kids do amazing things. - will you call the number on your screen right now and give $19 a month, just 63 cents a day? 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