there is no time to waste. the delta variant is dangerous and spreading, causing a pandemic of the unvaccinated. that's the pandemic, the unvaccinated. and while we are starting to see initial signs that cases may be declining in a few places, nationwide, cases are still rising, especially among the unvaccinated. across the country, virtually all the covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths continue to be unvaccinated. that's worse in states where vaccination rates are overall low. but even in states where many people are vaccinated, the unvaccinated are still at risk. let me be clear, there are cases where vaccinated people do get covid-19. but there are far less common than unvaccinated people getting covid-19. and most importantly, their conditions are far less severe. the overwhelming majority of people in the hospital of

covid-19 are almost all those dying from covid-19 are not vaccinated. not vaccinated. if you're fully vaccinated, both shots plus two weeks, your risk of severe illness from covid-19 is very, very, very low. i know that parents are concerned about the covid-19 cases among their children. i'll be addressing this soon with secretary cordona to discuss how we get our kids back to school safely. cases among childrenses among c rare. and severe cases among children are very, very rare. but i know that parents are thinking about their own kids. it's not as reassuring as anyone would like it to be. so let me say this to the parents. as you have, you have the tools. you have the tools to keep your child safer and two of those tools above all are available to you. one, make sure that everyone

around your child who can be vaccinated. parents, adults, teens. two, make sure your child is masked when they leave home. that's how we can best keep our kids safe. as i've said before, the pandemic of the unvaccinated is a tragedy that is preventable. people are dying and will die who don't have to. so, please, please if you haven't gotten your vaccination, if you haven't gotten vaccinated, do it now. it could save your life and the lives of those you love. now, the good news is that people are getting vaccinated. for the past several weeks, my administration has imposed new vaccine requirements on federal workers, the armed forces, people working in federal medical facilities and nursing home workers. governors, mayors and private sector leaders have done the same. we've also encouraged new

incentives. for example, in some states you get $100 if you get vaccinated. these new requirements and incentives are accelerating vaccinations once again. giving us the hope that we can put this delta variant behind us in the weeks ahead. there are three facts everyone should know about where we are in this fight against this pandemic. first, even as the delta variant has ravaged the unvaccinated, the deaths have climbed. the deaths have climbed. the death rate is still 73% lower than it was last winter. why? because we did such a good job vaccinating those most at risk. senior citizens. america has about 54 million senior citizens. about 50 million have gotten at least one shot. that's almost 92%. secondly, overall weekly new vaccinations are up more than

56% from where they were a month ago. last week, we saw a record of vaccinations. more than one million shots a day for three straight days. this is the first time this has happened since june. 6 million shots in the last seven days. the highest seven-day total in over a month and a half. remember, remember when we were trying to get 70% of the people over 18 at least one shot. now we have not only gotten that done, we've got 71% of everyone age 12 and older their first shot. that's over 200 million americans. and over 170 million are now fully vaccinated. third, states that have been lagging are seeing their vaccination rates growing faster. in fact, in alabama, arkansas, louisiana, mississippi. more people got new vaccinations

in the past month than in the prior two months combined. the progress we're making on vaccinations now is going to produce results in the weeks ahead. the sooner you get fully vaccinated, the sooner you'll be protected. according to the experts from the yale school of public health, the pace of our vaccination effort has saved over 100,000 lives and it prevented more than 450,000 hospitalizations. this is critical progress. where we need to move faster. as i mentioned before, i have imposed vaccination requirements that will reach millions of americans. today i'm calling on more country and more companies i should say in the private sector to step up the vaccine requirements that will reach millions more people. if you're a business leader, a nonprofit leader, state or local leader who has been waiting for full fda approval to require

vaccinations, i call on you now to do that. require it. do what i did last month. require your employees to get vaccinated or face strict requirements. as i said last week, vaccination requirements have been around for decades. students. healthcare professionals. our troops required to prevent everything from polio to smallpox, measles, mumps, rubella. the reason most people don't worry about polio, smallpox, measles, mumps is because of vaccines. it only makes sense to require a vaccine to stop the spread of covid-19. with today's fda full approval, there is another good reason to get vaccinated. so, please get vaccinated now. if you go to vaccines.com, vaccines.com or text your zip

code to 438829. 438829. you can find a number of vaccine sites near you. just minutes away. we can get your shot without an appointment. all around the world, people want these vaccines. here in america, they're free, convenient and waiting for you. so, please go today for yourself, for your loved ones and your neighbors, for your country. i'll close with this, we're in the midst of a war-time effort to beat this pandemic. it's one of the biggest and most complicated challenges in our history. and it's based on an unparalleled vaccination program that is saving lives and beating this virus. it's a vaccination program that's getting us back to our loved ones and a way of life we were used to. it's happening. and it's going to keep happening.

if you help, it helps our economy. it gets everything moving. it keeps us growing. together, we've made significant progress inhs. we just have to finish the job with science, facts and confidence. together, together as the united states of america. so, please get vaccinated today. god bless you all and may god protect our troops. thank you. >> president biden speaking from the white house about vaccinations. the message was very clear there. i counted at least half a dozen times that he said go get the vaccine. this with the approval this morning full fda approval of the pfizer vaccine. the president saying the moment you've been waiting for is here. if you had any hesitancy, if you were waiting for that full approval from the fda, go out and get the vaccine. he said let me bring in nbc news

white house correspondent kelly o'donnell. he also cited a lot of statistics about how many people are starting to get vaccines even in places where that was not always the case. >> this is a day that certainly the president has been waiting for because of the opportunity to make a pitch with a different lever. the president has talked about encouraging americans to get the vaccine for seven months. today he can speak to that group that have said publicly that they do not want to have the inoculation unless it is fully approved. this gives the president one way to break through where white house officials readily acknowledge the president does himself that there are many americans who have not gotten a vaccine who may not listen to president biden. they might be better served by what the white house likes to call, trusted voices in their community. their own doctor, a minister, family members. but today the president gets to use the weight of the fda approval as one more way to try to convince americans.

it comes at a time when certainly so much of the focus has been on the delta variant and on surging cases. we're back to the average of 1,000 deaths a day. numbers we have not seen for many months. the president's handling of covid has been judged more harshly in new polling and comes when there are a question about how many tools are left. the administration originally did not want to compel vaccinations and now embraced the idea of mandates as a way to get the country as close to fully vaccinated as possible knowing there are still many americans who have rejected this outright. kate. >> kelly, i was going to bring up that polling. i think we can show it this nbc news poll coming out yesterday showing a lower approval rating for the president. the lowest of his term so far. is there an effort here to try to win the public back? i ask because this is today he spoke, yesterday he spoke before cameras, friday he spoke before

cameras, kelly. >> in a time of crisis whether it's afghanistan or the ongoing battle against covid. putting the president's voice in the public space is one tool they have. certainly the numbers reflected in the polling on covid may be more of an indication of people's concern about what the virus is doing perhaps more than the president's own actions. he's been using many different levers of government. incentives, as well as pressure to try to get more people vaccinated. and today was that tool they have been waiting for. moderna another of the vaccines in the pipeline not yet fully given the fda approval, but it is still expected. doctors today being clear about children that there still is not an approval for the youngest children. those under 11 years old to get vaccinated. so, we heard the president talking about steps that are important in mitigation, especially so many children are back to school like mask wearing, which we know has become politicized and a point of contention in many states.

kate. >> yeah, kelly o'donnell at the white house, thank you. we also heard the president saying he will be addressing education soon with secretary cardona. more to come there. joining me now nbc news senior medical correspondent dr. john tores is with me. let's talk about this fda decision. what factors led the agency to conclude that this vaccine, pfizer, is ultimately safe and effective for everyone? >> kate, when they first got the emergency use authorization the fda used two months of data for all the different vaccines to give them that temporary emergency use authorization which would expire when the pandemic expired or ended, hopefully very soon here. but when they started doing this full approval, they actually started back in may giving six months of data after their volunteers got vaccinated. looking at the six months of data it took the fda three months to go through the data and looking at safety and efficacy and the effectiveness, but also looking at the manufacturing process to make sure the quality is going there and making sure that the manufacturer is going to have

continued follow up. because as president biden said, this is a full, this is a full approval, a permanent approval. not something they're going to easily rescind. so, moving forward like we mentioned earlier, you know, there were the people hesitant and president biden more than once brought up the fact that this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated. so, hopefully this approval will actually push some of them towards getting vaccinated since that was one of the things they were waiting on, kate. >> so, that's just pfizer, though, dr. john. what about moderna, johnson & johnson. people want to know what their future holds if they got that vaccine in the first place. >> so, pfizer started their application process for their full approval back injune. if you follow the timeline moderna should get their full approval september time frame. johnson & johnson says by the fall they'll submit their data. the person at the fda that runs this program says it typically

takes five months to get through a full approval process but doing a all hands on deck approach right now. they're able to get this in three months and hopefully the same with the follow-up vaccines. hopefully more people will get vaccinated, as well, kate. >> that opportunity for potentially booster shots, as well. >> exactly. and that's one of the things that the fda addressed. this does not address booster shots. this just addresses full approval for the vaccine. the booster shot, the way they're going to address that will go forward and plus they also mentioned this is for 16 and above, which is what pfizer got their emergency use authorization. and both the fda and the american academy of pediatrics have come out saying don't give this to children under the age of 12 because we're doing studies and we're not sure what dosing we'll need yet and that's what we're trying to find out. >> all right. dr. john torres, thank you. let me bring in policy

director and dr. patel. dr. patel, how does this designation affect those unvaccinated and on the fence. do you think the president clearly trying to sway people, convince them that now is the time to go get that shot, are we seeing any evidence that might happen? >> yeah, kate, we are. he cited some increase in numbers and i think we'll see even more of a bump from this full approval. i've been in contact with several patients of mine who were literally citing this lack of full approval as a reason to be concerned and they did, first of all, they were surprised and they said, oh, do you think this is too fast? i said, no, it has been very, some have criticized it has been too slow as you have said and they are willing to come and get it. they did ask. is pfizer better than the others, et cetera. it's been nice, kate, we have data to show that our vaccines are holding against delta and against hospitalizations. so now is the time to get them. and pfizer's approval, hopefully soon with moderna approval will

help them start today and give options as we go forward. >> all right, dr. patel, thanks so much for being with us. that will wrap up our coverage right now of president biden's remarks. we will have much more tonight on nbc "nightly news with lester holt." i'm kate snow in nbc new york. and we continue our coverage with a special edition of nbc bay area news. good morning to you. i'm scott mcgrew. >> and i'm kris sanchez. marcus and laura are off. we're going to start with some breaking news out of santa clara right now. here is sky ranger overhead of an encampment fire near northbound 101 and trumbull. you may have seen the smoke in the air. we saw a very large black column going up into the air but it now appears that the fire is getting largely under control. we see that there is some traffic diversion there in the area. so if you're headed out, make sure you go to nbcbayarea.com

and check out our traffic situation there. also breaking, the fda, as you heard the president say, just gave full approval to pfizer's covid-19 vaccine. the president spoke just a few moments ago to the nation in a special report. the pfizer covid vaccine is now the nation's first to go beyond that emergency use authorization and health officials say they hope this will now, this full approval will allow vaccine hesitant adults to have the confidence to roll up their sleeves and get vaccinated. with full fda approval, more businesses and schools could also mandate vaccines. the fda's emergency use authorization does remain in place for kids under 16 as well as for immunocompromised people looking for a third dose. that fda approval happened on the same day that one bay area city's mandate goes into effect on a college campus. we saw the resumption of in-person learning. >> we have team coverage. nbc bay area's cierra johnson is

live at san francisco state university where all students and staff have to be vaccinated in order to go back in person. but first we start with bob redell at san jose city hall. that's where workers are facing some pretty stiff consequences if they don't know that proof of vaccination, bob. >> reporter: yeah. good morning. starting today city employees here in the city of san jose, they must provide documentation that they've been vaccinated or submit to a weekly covid test. and obviously test negative. otherwise if they will not do either of those, they would be put on unpaid administrative leave. this is a new mandate that just went into effect starting today. the city says at least 81% of its employees have been vaccinated. the city says that in phase two, so right now we're in phase one, but in phase two, it will eventually mandate vaccines for all employees unless they have a documented exemption. and there would be no testing option. so the deal would be get vaccinated or else.

here's city councilman rob peralez. >> we're in communication with all of our employees to be able to talk about how do we, quite frankly, avoid any other further phases. how do we avoid any sort of mandate if we can just get our employee base vaccinated, that is the best for us and that's what we're hoping to get to. >> i think it's a good thing. >> are you vaccinated? >> uh, yeah. i'm proud to say yeah. i'm not afraid to say whether i'm not. yeah, i am. >> and your colleagues, the ones that you're aware of or most of them on board? >> uh, i'd rather not say. to each his own. that's the way i look at it. >> reporter: tomorrow the san jose city council expected to vote on more covid regulations. these would be at city-owned venues. mayor sam liccardo has proposed that attendees and staff of events with 50 or more people at city facilities like the sap center that they be required to show proof of full vaccination.

a negative covid-19 test would not serve as a substitute for vaccination under that proposal. bob redell, nbc bay area news. >> bob, thank you. students at san francisco state, meanwhile, resumed classes today, and with the start of a new school year there are new policies regarding vaccinations. nbc bay area's cierra johnson continues our coverage live. more information about what students and instructors need to know. cierra? >> reporter: yes, good morning. it is officially the first day of class. we've seen a lot of students walking by. some smiling, some not so excited to be here on campus. but with the return to campus come some changes. and one of them being the vaccination and the proof of vaccination requirement. so this is what we know here at san francisco state. all students and all unrepresented staff are required to be vaccinated and submit that proof of vaccination. now, the deadline to submit that proof of vaccination for san francisco state was august 13th. students and staff who did not

meet that deadline to submit the proof or receive exemptions, they face weekly testing. they have a relatively high vaccination rate among students and those eligible staff members. they say right now that stands at abouthose who have yet to upload that proof of vaccination, there were tables set up around campus to ensure students were able to get the help with the documentation process and re-enroll in classes if they were dropped for not having completed that uploading that proof of vaccination. now, staff member we spoke with said this first day of classes is definitely different, but they tried to make the new requirements easy to navigate. take a listen. >> the proof of vaccination is uploaded through my health which is an app that we're using, and it's linked through our sf state app. so the students can open up their app, visit the vaccination upload and be able to upload it there. and our student health services team are actually the ones who are going through verifying uploads and contacting students if there are any issues. >> reporter: and another college

resuming classes today, diablo valley college. according to the dvc website, vaccinations are not required there to attend any classes or to work any of the contra costa county district community campus. but it is strongly recommended that students there get vaccinated. masks will be required there if you're vaccinated or not. you will see a lot of those students wearing masks both inside and outside of the building and they are really urging folks to get that proof of vaccination and load it onto the app on their cell phone so they're able to continue with their school year. we're live in san francisco, cierra johnson for nbc bay area news. >> a lot of information for gators and their parents. cierra, thank you. coming up, we'll have your full micro climate weather forecast, especially as that smoke looms overhead.

majestic mountains... scenic coastal highways... fertile farmlands... there's lots to love about california. so put off those chores and use less energy from 4 to 9 pm when less clean energy is available. because that's power down time.

- i'm norm. - i'm szasz. [norm] and we live in columbia, missouri. we do consulting, but we also write. [szasz] we take care of ourselves constantly; it's important. we walk three to five times a week, a couple miles at a time. - we've both been taking prevagen for a little more than 11 years now. after about 30 days of taking it, we noticed clarity that we didn't notice before. - it's still helping me. i still notice a difference. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. welcome back to this abbreviated version of our midday news. let's get right to kari and talk

about the weather. >> we've been talking all about the smoke. at times it gets really hazy and smokey. and then other times it's been clearing out, at least for parts of the bay area. that's what we are seeing right now looking live in san jose where this morning it started out cloudy, but the air quality is improving here but not everywhere. for the north bay, east bay as well as the coast, we're still dealing with the moderate air quality. that means that if you're sensitive to the smoke, limit your time outside. let's get a look at our near-surface smoke model. this gives us a better idea of where some of that smoke is drifting and where we have the blues and the greens that indicate some moderate air quality, and we are going to see it continue for parts of the north bay where it gets trapped in some of the valleys and really doesn't have a chance to mix out even with the breezy wind. but it does look like the wind picks up later this evening and into the day tomorrow. so if it's a little bit bad for you today, you're smelling the smoke, tomorrow you should have

a break. and it looks like we will see that for much of the bay area as a lot of that smoke moves off towards the east. a shift in the wind direction, increase in wind speed really helps us out here. but there will be some changes going into the next several days. and, unfortunately, our temperatures will be going up. feels nice and cool today. this is what we're headed reaching into the low 60s in san francisco, that fog lingers today. san rafael, santa rosa reaching into the mid- to upper 60s. martinez reaching 82 degrees. and 83 in livermore. san jose will be in the mid-70s, and that's for a high temperature. but we are once again going to be warming up as we see a change in our weather pattern. high pressure will build over the desert southwest and will change our wind direction. instead of 70s and 80s, we'll be talking more about 90s and over 100 degrees by the end of the week. and then with the lack of the wind really mixing around, the smoke is going to come back by

the end of the week. let me show you brentwood, how hot it's going to be by the end of the week. we have some upper 80s today. 95 on thursday, and then 102 degrees on friday. and just as hot on saturday. and those temperatures just gradually come down by the middle of next week. so for our inland areas, we do have three nice days with not a lot of air-conditioning. temperatures in the low to mid-80s. and then we will see it reach 90 degrees on thursday. some mid-90s on friday. and once again some of those hotter spots will reach up to about 100 degrees. looking at san francisco, we're also going to have a little bit of a warmup here going from the low 60s to the mid-70s. and as we get more sunshine, unfortunately, we're also going to get more smoke and we'll be watching the air quality, especially for the end of the week. >> kari, thank you. and thank you fort 5:00. >> and if you need anything any time of day you can find us at nbcbayarea.com.

have a great day, and we hope your monday's off to a good start. majestic mountains... scenic coastal highways... fertile farmlands... there's lots to love about california.

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