support for voting rights legislation, but, he added that the no later than the martin luther king holiday january 17th this year to change senate rolls in republicans continue to block the voting rights bill. now as that all unfolds, the nation heads into the new year grappling with the relentless spread of covid, with the daily average of new cases north of 400,000. earlier today a former cdc director predicted the situation may not let up anytime soon. these next six weeks are going to be very rough in terms of numbers of cases. the fda today added yet another layer of protection against the virus by authorizing the pfizer booster shot for children aged 12 to 15 years old now while the current situation has some schools returning to remote working new york city, public schools are open for in class instruction. today, the nation s largest
a big lie. the idea it is a one-off is wrong. it s perpetrated by an attempt to take away voting rights. he sent a letter to senator saying he will seek bipartisan support for voting rights legislation and added that the chamber would vote no later than the martin luther king jr. holiday january 17th this year to change senate rules if republicans continue to block the voting rights bill. as that unfolds the nation heads to the new year grappling with the relentless spread of covid with daily average of new cases north of 400,000. earlier today a former cdc director predicted the situation may not let up any time soon. these next six weeks are going to be really rough in terms of numbers of cases. the fda today added yet another layer of protection against the virus by authorizing
comes to vaccination progress in that department as well. the cdc says 77.3% of u.s. adults have now had at least one covid vaccine dose. do you think that s why we re seeing a decline in new cases because today if you look at the average daily case rate it is at the lowest it has been in more than seven weeks? well, you know, i i can t answer the back end of that, but front end of that, this is really encouraging news, you know. that is a great rate. the kaiser family foundation put out data that breaks it down and looks to see, okay, how are we doing by group and one of the things that really i found extremely encouraging is that the adult vaccination rate for black americans, latino americans and white americans is about the same. all hovering around 70%. the biggest gaps we see are by political affiliation and by urban versus rural and when it comes to urban versus rural i think we need to look are there barriers to access in rural
communities? another point that the cdc made this week is people with disabilities represent the greatest potential for closing some of the vaccine great. that group hats largest percentage of people who still want to get vaccinated but who have difficulty with access so this is something at the community level that can be looked at is what s being done to reach people where they are. what are the bear dwlaers are there for people with physical disabilities, intellectual disabilities to ensure that those populations, those communities are getting access as well. that is such an important point. dr. richard percent, real appreciate your time. thanks for spending it with us. my pleasure, ana, thanks for having me on. now take a look at this new disturbing video showing a crying and shaking gabby petito telling police how her fiance brian laundrie grabbed her by the face. this new video comes amid several new developments in the search for laundrie, plus breaking just moments ago, c
convenient. elizabeth cohen, thank you. and let s discuss more with dr. richard besser, former cdc acting director and president of the robert wood johnson foundation. dr. besser, happy friday to you. merck plans to apply for emergency use here. do you think they will get it? you know, ana, i never like to like to make judgment based on a company press release, and that s all we have right now. you know, it s going to be really important for scientists to be able to look at the full study to see who was in this study. do they represent a general population. how are you going to pick who gets this and who doesn t, what were the side effects. i always look at company press releases more about their stock price than good science but i m very excited about a drug going forward to the fda. we do need better treatments and oral therapy. it s not a replacement for vaccination as that s the way to