sanjay gupta! ♪ ♪ ♪ ( cheers and applause ) ( cheers and applause ) >> stephen: sanjay gupta, everybody. isn't that nice? >> wow. >> stephen: now and i have spoken a few times over the covid lockdown, over the zoom interviews. which was great. we had a good time talking to you, we got information out there. but the thing that is coming back to me now, the emotional moment that i'm reliving was-- you were my last guest in this theater in 2020, on march 12 of 2020. we had no audience. there were some staff members. i have a photo right here. there you go. we had a few staff members out in the audience, and jon batiste was at the piano, right, jon? >> jon: yup. >> stephen: you were at the piano, and that was it. and we leaned on you to tell us what you thought we were about to go into. how-- how do you think we did for the last 15 months? ( laughter ) looking back on that night and the next 15 months, what's your takeaway from what we've experienced? >> it's so-- it's so hard to sort of piece th

sanjay gupta. >> let's get a sense of where we stand right now in this country 18 months into the pandemic. joining me is harry. let's talk about where we are. >> right. look, here we are. seven-day average of new coronavirus cases. not as high as in december and january. look at this going back up again nearing 100,000 new cases a day. you spoke about hospitalizations in that opening. again, what do we see? we see we're not as high as that spike as in december and january but back all of the way we go with 50,000 new hospitalizations. if you look at cases and hospitalizations, not a pretty picture. >> 50,000 not headed in the right direction. that's the issue. heading up. talk to me about where this is all happening compared with where we know people are vaccinated? >> it's so important. hot spots are in places where there are lower levels of vaccination. this is new coronavirus cases. seven-day average. top 25 most vaccinated states, on average 14 new cases per 100,000. look at the bottom 25, mor

sanjay gupta with a special report on long covid. so who gets it and why? and why you can still get it if you're vaccinated and i'm also joined by the mayor of tapika. 45-year-old runner and mother of three about a get a pacemaker after she got her gull bladder he moved because she has long haul covid. >>> audio leaked we're going to lose if our border is the first line of defense as migrants are apprehended at america's southern border. an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan from unitedhealthcare. medicare supplement plans help by paying some of what medicare doesn't... and let you see any doctor. any specialist. anywhere in the u.s. who accepts medicare patients. so if you have this... consider adding this. call unitedhealthcare today for your free decision guide. ♪ it's the biggest sale of the year, on the new sleep number 360 smart bed. it's the most comfortable, dually-adjustable, foot-warming, temperature-balancing, proven quality night sleep we've ever made. save 50% on the new sleep number 360 limited edition smart bed. plus, 0% interest for 3

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we want to bring in chief medical correspondent sanjay gupta. we talk about masks in schools, and there's some new modeling out which projects what kind of a difference it can make. what does it say? >> yeah, so this is based on looking at lots of different studies, observational studies, large studies like the one out of north carolina and a million students. let me show you, first of all, if you do nothing at all, just look at how contagious this virus is. they say at least 75%, 75 to 90% of children, if you didn't have any mitigation measures in place will be exposed to this virus. if you do universal masking and it's universal meaning that you have a much larger impact if everyone is doing it as opposed to sporadically doing it, 24 to 50%. it's not perfect. you layer in testing as well, though, 13 to 22% exposure as compared to 75 to 90%. and other things like ventilation, and you can really start to bring down transmission within schools significantly. you know, one thing i just want to say as a parent myself, we talk about this all the tim

sanjay gupta even better in person. >> yeah, we have to do it more often. >> yeah, bring it on. thank you so much, sanjay. >> a once-in-a-lifetime musical event celebrating the cities comeback from covid-19, we love new york city, the homecoming concert is saturday, august 21st, only on cnn. >>> and still ahead, dominion voting systems is suing two cable networks over the big lie. we're going to talk with the lawyer who is leading their defamation case next. ♪ as i observe investors balance risk and reward, i see one element securing portfolios, time after time. gold. your strategic advantage. i'm morgan, and there's more to me than hiv. more love, more adventure, more community. but with my hiv treatment, there's not more medicines in my pill. i talked to my doctor and switched to fewer medicines with dovato. dovato is for some adults who are starting hiv-1 treatment or replacing their current hiv-1 regimen. with just 2 medicines in 1 pill, dovato is as effective as a 3-drug regimen... to help you reach and stay undetectable. research shows people who take hiv treatment as pr

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sanjay gupta. sanjay, this decision from the fda came overnight the decision to authorization a third shot for the immunocompromised. how significant is this? >> i think it's really significant for that group of people. 9 to 10 million people that we're talking about. not surprising for all the reasons you just mentioned. i mean, i think there's been increasing evidence of two important things, one is that they've been measuring antibody levels. they see the antibody levels have waned, but also that these people were more likely to end up in the hospital, more likely to get severely ill. it's really a combination of those two things. measuring antibody levels alone may not be the thing that everyone is focussing on, but the fact that people are getting sick. show you who we're talking about here. immunocompromised, this is something that we are going to want to have them define clearly, solid organ transplant recipients, they take medications to suppress their immune system so that their own immune

back with me, cnn's sanjay gupta as well as dr. peter hotez, professor from baylor medical college and dr. mardi from florida international university. sanjay, your reaction and take on what we just heard. >> well, they're making the case there's some evidence that there's waning effectiveness of these vaccines against mild and moderate symptoms. so not severe symptoms, not severe enough to get you in the lopt. there's still a lot of protection against that and preventing people from dying. what they seem to be saying, and it's an interesting sort of discussion here, they're saying we're trying to get ahead of this. because we're seeing evidence -- this is u.s. data from nursing homes, hospital systems, large number of people in the general population, they're saying since we're seeing this decreased effectiveness against mild or moderate disease, we're worried that will start to lead to decreased effectiveness against hospitalizations and death. haven't seen that yet, but that's a concern. it's an interesting point, kate. it will

sanjay gupta. sanjay, we get a lot of questions about booster shots, people are very focused on this que issue. i want to ask you for most people, for most americans who have been vaccinated, how focused or concerned should they be about the booster issue? >> well, so overall this issue is still being studied, but i think we're going to have some answers pretty quick here. to answer lucille's question specifically, not only may it be okay to go ahead and get a shot from a different company, it may, in fact, be recommended. why? because what they're starting to find is that if you have shots from two different, you know, companies, you may actually get a stronger immune response. you're activating slightly different parts of the immune system, it might be better, being actively studied. when i say soon, i mean this friday the cdc's advisers will be meeting to discuss this issue and they may be taking their cues from israel which has already recommended boosters for those over the age of 60 and in ge

sanjay gupta. >>> okay, sanjay, tell us what happened here? what changed so that we're now learning about needing boosters? >> well, nothing really changed in terms of the metrics that people have been following for a long time, which is how well do the vaccines work against hospitalizations and deaths. the vaccines still work really well. what they are citing is data showing that there may be some signals, some safety signals showing that the vaccines starting to lose some effectiveness against mild and moderate disease. and we can show you that. for the first time we saw some data from the united states, because before that it was primarily data from other countries. but they looked at a couple of different groups here. health care workers, front line workers on the left, workers on the right, there was mild disease and that waning was due to delta and how delta has changed things. the concern is eventually that will translate into decreased effectiveness against severe disease as well. it hasn't happened, at least not at a significant enoug

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sanjay gupta here. these cases seem to be a little more severe so you're having more hospitalizations. you've got staff that isn't fully vaccinated and you're understaffed in a lot of places and that's where we see louisiana struggle. >> right. and this variant is much less forgiving, more unforgiving if you with. people who got away with this, thought this was in the rear-view mirror, i didn't get affected by covid, they're not getting away with it anymore. that's part of why the numbers are going up. as far as is this more severe, does this delta variant more severe? it's unforgiving. as a result like you said you were correct the hospitalizations ends up being the key metric because everything revolves around that. hospitals start to fill up, people start to say, look, we can't take of any more patients and then mitigation measures are no longer an option, they're a necessity. >> why florida? you know, politics aside, they have everything they need down there. it is a travel hub, but so is california

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sanjay gupta. sanjay, great to see you. so let's look at where we are. more than a third of the country is still unvaccinated, and many say they have no plan to get vaccinated. and i know you've written this essay about the best way to approach a conversation with those who say no to the vaccine. so, what should we know about what to say? >> well, i think the first thing you have to realize is there's different reasons that people are saying no, being resistant or reluctant. a lot of it comes sometimes down to the concern about side effects. people still have concerns about side effects and safety overall. fair question. one of the things that's worth pointing out now as we look at this is that 4 billion of these doses have been given out around the world. as it turns out vaccines end up being from a real-world standpoint one of the most studied medical therapeutics out there. and they have held up really well. and, in fact, the sensitivity on picking up side effects is so strong that you remember that johnson & johnson concern, a couple of dozen people

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sanjay gupta. sanjay, as we're looking at this, let's start with the news from the fda authorizing this third shot for those who are severely immuno compromised. what does that actually translate to? who would be eligible? >> yeah, well, so these are people whose immune systems were compromised and weakened to the point that when they got the vaccine initially, they just didn't generate the same immune response as people who have, you know, healthy immune systems. so we get some indication of who this is likely to be. we can show you that, organ transplant recipients, they take medications to basically prevent their bodies from rejecting the organ. as a result their immune systems are compromised. they would certainly be on the list. but also other people who are similarly immuno compromised, people who recent chemotherapy, taking immune suppressing drugs for autoimmune disorders. they need to be very specific when we hear from the cdc later today as to who qualifies here. there are two points, eri

sanjay gupta, thank you. i know you'll be with us when we listen to what they have to say in an hour's time. >>> next, we'll break down the numbers for you on how many afghans are looking for america's help to escape the taliban. you might be surprised how high that number is. >> also, an afghan interpreter who made it out of his country joins us live to talk about the terrifying scenes at the airport, what he's hearing from family and friends still on the ground there. do you have a life insurance policy you no longer need? now you can sell your policy, even a term policy, for an immediate cash payment. we thought we had planned carefully for our retirement. but we quickly realized that we needed a way to supplement our income. if you have one hundred thousand dollars or more of life insurance you may qualify to sell your policy. don't cancel or let your policy lapse without finding out what it's worth. visit conventrydirect.com to find out if you policy qualifies. or call the number on your screen. coventry

sanjay gupta. sanjay, i just want to start with that news that lucy just shared with us, that 72,000 children including teens contracted covid last week. what do you make of this? >> yeah. it's close to a 20% increase from the week before. and i think it's pretty clear the numbers are going up. and if you look at hospitals, the type of patients that are in the hospitals are younger and more children that we saw before. part of this is because older people have been vaccinated or are more likely to have been vaccinated. obviously the vaccine not available for many of these age groups that we're talking about here. but another issue is that this is just a really transmissible virus. people who got away with things in the past in terms of not getting infected, this virus is not so forgiving. what we don't know yet, pamela, and i think it's going to be a question we have to answer, is does this delta variant, for example, in and of itself affect children more than previous variants? it might. it might

sanjay gupta. sanjay, the cdc director just moments ago gave the final go-ahead for third vaccine doses for certain immunocompromised people. that is such a big deal. who does this apply to exactly? is it a big group? >> it's probably about 3% of the population, jim. maybe 7 to 9 million people. and we could put the list up of people who sort of fall into this group of immunocompromised people who have had organ transplants, they take medications to suppress their immune system. it's a busy screen of things there. most people who are on these medications that weaken their immune system know this. if it's not clear, you can find this information at cdc's website, our website as well. but the point is people who have weakened immune systems, if you give them a vaccine, they may not generate the same amount of protection as people who have regular immune systems, healthy immune systems. that's who they're really targeting here. people who have had autoimmune diseases take medications for that. people

sanjay gupta. great to see you, sanjay. so, the white house is celebrating this encouraging marker today with the covid data director tweeting, milestone monday just in, today we hit 70% of the adults with at least one of the doses, adding seven-day average of newly vaccinated highest since july 4th. so, as we know, the administration is nearly a month late hitting this milestone. but what does reaching this milestone now tell you, sanjay? >> well, we're going in a better direction, obviously. it's kind of interesting, pamela, just interesting traveled back from japan, there are so many countries around the world that don't have access to these vaccines, and but the num going up gets us closer to more and more people getting protected here. that should've been something we should've accomplished earlier. >> fewer than 1% of fully vaccinated people getting breakthrough cases. is that what you expected, more or less? what do you think? >> yeah. this is interesting. so we can show what -- this was in san diego county. we can s

sanjay gupta. nice to see you again, sanjay. so let's start with these booster shots. who exactly is in this approved group, and who is not? >> so, there is a list, and people -- there's about 9 to 10 million people roughly that are going to qualify for this based on the conditions. we can show you this, i'm not going to read all of these conditions. typically people who have immune compromised sort of state, they know it, it's either people who've had an organ transplant and are on drugs to prevent rejection, people who have recently had chemotherapy. if you have autoimmune disease, you may be taking certain medications that also dampen your immune system. there is a list of people. it's a little -- you know, people are going to have to sort of figure this out a little bit by talking to their doctors if they're unsure. but for the most part the thing is this, pamela. if your immune system is weakened to the point where you don't generate much of a response to the vaccines, they're basically saying a third shot may help. there may be some people who never generate a re

sanjay gupta is back with us. and, sanjay, we should reiterate as president biden did this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated when it comes to deaths and hospitalizations. almost all of them are people who have not been vaccinated. i do want to start on this booster decision. there are a lot of questions people have. first of all, are we going to need to get boosters every eight months? >> i don't think there's any indication of that. sometimes when you talk about these boosters and a lot of vaccines do have boosters, after the booster shot you may not need it again for ten years, something like tetanus. obviously flu is a little bit of a different situation because you're not so much boosting for flu as you're sort of acknowledging that the flu virus itself drifts and you need to have a different vaccine to try and protect against that. i just don't think that we know, but i think that the point you make about when you show the hospitalization numbers and you remind people that 99% roughly of the people, 95 at lea

let's bring in cnn's chief medical correspondent sanjay gupta. you and i, it's not about democrats or republicans or scoring points or dunking on the libs of the conservatives whatever. it's about the science. scientifically, would a vaccine mandate make more sense than a mask mandate? >> well, i think they're both important. and that's not skirting the question, jake. but i think a lot of times people see these things as just another mitigation strategy. vaccines are really good at preventing people from getting sick if they have been exposed. the thing about masks, jake, right now because there is so much viral transmission, we're being showered in virus. so at some point when we're not all being showered in virus, i think we can start to think about lifting mask mandates. but they're a little bit different. ultimately it might be a situation where people should get vaccinated and still have masks available in times when there's a lot of virus out there kind of like you take an umbrella in a thunderstorm. so, mask mandates on planes and things

sanjay gupta. sanjay, how significant is this? i mean, talk about who is considered immunocompromised and eligible for a third shot. >> yeah. well, this is significant. i mean, we have seen this sort of play out in countries around the world and i think a lot of people have been wondering when this was likely to happen here in the united states. and it looks like it is imminent, as kaitlan just said. if the fda does go ahead and make this recommendation, it will be followed by the cdc. just like we saw with the vaccines. you remember, the fda authorized. cdc formally recommended. we see the same thing and as -- as soon after that, we could see the shots going out. maybe, this weekend or early-next week. it could be that fast. it is about 3 to 4% of the population we are talking about. 9 to 10 million people. immunocompromised means your immune system is compromised. not able to -- to sort of create the sort of immune response to the vaccines that other people do. so people who have received chemotherapy, hiv-aids patients, and peo

sanjay gupta, thank you as always. you have to see sanjay's new essay on cnn.com about how to coexist with the virus this far. >>> clarissa ward reporting live from the airport in kabul where the chaos to evacuate is esc escalating. >>> and live with the crew that flew this packed u.s. cargo plane full of hundreds of afghan planes and we're life at the white house next. ♪ ♪ (announcer) visible is wireless that gets better with friends. pay as low as $25 a month. or bring a friend and you both get a month for $5. so the more people you roll with, the more you save. visible. unlimited data as low as $25 a month. or bring a friend and you both get a month for $5. ♪ ♪ life is full of surprises when you least expect it. (woman laughs) and open. what happened to all your things? i know you needed a place to study, so... and other times, it pays off knowing what to expect. at university of phoenix, you can count on fixed, affordable tuition from the moment you enroll to the day you graduate from your program. learn mo

sanjay gupta, as well as dr. ashish jha, the dean of brown university school of public health. thanks to both of you for joining. sanjay, right now about a third of the eligible population in the u.s. 82 million people still have not been vaccinated. do you think this is going to move the needle in a significant way? >> yeah, i think it probably will move the needle. let me show you sort of what the overall impact might be on certain groups. first of all, people who were concerned that maybe this just felt too new, the vaccine. they wanted a full approval. if you look at some of the sush very muches, they say maybe around 20% of people would fall under that category. so maybe those people would be more likely to get the vaccine . giving that cover now to major organizations to do these mandates. and i think that that'll probably make the biggest difference. let me just show you quickly, jake, who the unvaccinated are in the country, sort of where things stand by looking at this pie chart. we know, as you mentioned, about 80 million people still unvaccinated. we know 51% of the

sanjay gupta, thanks so much. good to have you in studio. >>> coming up, a republican who will not stop pushing the big lie. he's now openly suggesting civil war. that's next. ♪ ♪ ♪ and savings like that will have you jumping for joy. now, get new lower auto rates with allstate. because better protection costs a whole lot less. you're in good hands with allstate. click or call for a lower auto rate today. as your business changes, the united states postal service is changing with it. with e-commerce that runs at the speed of now. next day and two-day shipping nationwide, and returns right from the doorstep. it's a whole new world out there. let's not keep it waiting. is your family ready for an emergency? you can prepare by mapping out two ways to escape your home, creating a supply kit, and including your whole family in practice drills. for help creating an emergency plan, visit safetyactioncenter.pge.com a little preparation will make you and your family safer in an emergency. a week's worth of food and w

i want to bring in cnn chief medical correspondent sanjay gupta as well as acting former cdc director richard boeser. thanks to both of you. sanjay, i know you have been talking to the white house advisory team. what are they going to announce and what does it mean? >> yeah, so, what they're going to announce as you mentioned is this idea that booster shots will be recommended for all americans ultimately, roughly eight months after they received their first shots. this is going to be based on new data, new data that's embargoed, embargoed until 11:00 today. many people will see this data for the first time, including many federal health officials. i've been talking to people over the past several days, some of whom, jim, told me they did not anticipate boosters being needed. i think they're going to be seeing this data for the first time saw l time along with the rest of the country. three separate data sets, all u.s.-based data sets. i bring that up because what we have been largely looking at until today was international data sets from places like israel, for example. it looks at

sanjay gupta shows why some in the republican party are not should on hershall walker. i'm kate bolduan in for erin burnett. a race against time. six days left, up to 1500 americans are still on the ground in afghanistan according to the secretary of state tony blinken. as administration offered for the first time any concrete numbers of americans left to evacuate, blinken said the u.s. does not know if all of them are looking to leave or are even still in afghanistan. >> these are dynamic calculations that we are working hour by hour to refine for accuracy. >> blinken also saying at least 4500 americans have been evacuated so far. more than 500 in the last day alone. but those evacuations in kabul growing more dangerous by the day as cnn learns an isis affiliate wants to create mayhem at the airport and planning to carry out multiple terror attacks there. that's according to a u.s. defense official who also tells our jim sciutto the concerns increase because of quote a very specific threat stream from isis-k. adding to those concerns, members of isis-k escaped two pris

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let's bring in government sanjay gupta. is this a reminder of the risk of what are called break-through cases with this awful delta variant raging right now? >> yeah. i think that that's exactly the case, wolf. we understand that they all have mild symptoms but otherwise doing okay. i think there is two issues here. for a long time people were vaccinated and not getting tested, so i don't think we had a good idea of just how common these break-through infections are. but there is something else. if you look over a period of time, you can tell there has sort of been a dropoff in terms of the there was two groups that were studied. one was health care workers. one was primarily people in long-term care facilities. [ audio difficulties ] -- there has been a dropoff. so this is not surprising. again, we wish them well. this is just a graph from san diego county. as much as we talk about what needs to be done, the vast majority -- [ audio difficulties ] -- vaccinated. so it's primarily still ton vaccinated that are getting sick

sanjay gupta, as always, thank you. dr. peter hotez as well. appreciate it. >> thank you. >>> coming up, is it time to rethink how we face covid? andrew sullivan, a writer, argues we should learn to live with the virus. he explains what he means and what that might look like, next. ? -audrey's expecting... -twins! ♪ we'd be closer to the twins. change in plans. at fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan. new customers get our best deals on all smartphones. that's right. but what if i'm already a customer? oh, no problem. hey, cam...? ah, same deal! yeah, it's kind of our thing. huh, that's a great deal... what if i'm new to at&t? cam, can you...? hey...but what about for existing customers? same deal (breathless) it's the same deal is he ok? it's not complicated. with at&t, everyone can ace back to school with our best deals on every smartphone - like the samsung galaxy s21 5g for free. liberty mutual customizes car insurance so you only pay for what you need. how much money can liberty mutual save you? one! two! three! four! f

sanjay gupta. good morning to you. that there is going to be a lot of people, myself included, fully vaccinated and questioning why do we need a third booster shot. you could explain it to everyone? >> well i think you're asking a very fair question. especially given that just a couple of weeks ago the message seemed to be you're not going to need booster shots this will probably just be for people with weakened immune systems that couldn't generate the proper immune response initially. it is a very fair question. and i will preface this by saying the mass majority of severe disease is still occurring among half of the country that is not vaccinated. so people that are vaccinated, they have really good protection. let me show you what is driving this data that we're seeing here. this was basically looking at vaccine effectiveness against any kind of infection. breakthrough infections and just getting surveillance screening, they did see waning of the vic effectiveness overall. but that is not reflective how well it wor

sanjay gupta. good to have him here "the situation room." sanjay, thanks for doing this. these numbers are pretty serious, pretty awful. i'm very worried about these kids. >> 200,000 cases diagnosed last week. that's a significant increase from the week before. school is about to start. we think about the fact the likelihood of severe disease is obviously much lower in kids, but it's not zero when you start to get denominators this high, you'll get more and more kids getting sick. to give you context, about 450 children have died from covid. that's two to three times worse than the worst flu season over the last 20 years or so. this is significant. obviously, they can transmit if they have unvaccinated parents in the home or other people. that's a concern. and then the concern about the long term symptoms in these kids. so, you know, there's a lot of concern about this and some st strategies, as well. there is modelling. the predictions are that after school starts, has started in some places already, about 75% of children will be exposed to the virus within the first thr

sanjay gupta. also, dr. peter hotez, co-director of the center for vaccine development at texas children's hospital and author of "preventing the next pandemic vaccine diplomacy in a time of anti-science." so, sanjay, who is considered moderately or severely immunocompromised and eligible for the third dose? >> well, they put a list out. the cdc did on their website of the types of conditions that would sort of fall into this category. and we can show you some of that there. i mean, people who, for example, have received organ transplants and they are taking medications to prevent rejection of their -- their transplanted organs. people who have recently been through chemotherapy. people who may have auto immune disease and take medications to tamp down their immune system, for that reason. it's an exhaustive list but, anderson, as you mentioned, it is kind of on the honor system, right? there's no prescription that's gonna be necessary. you don't have to show up with an antibody test to show that your antibo

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sanjay gupta. i love doing this with you, sanjay, because these are the real questions. good morning. that people have. and first, gary from virginia says this, he says i am fully vaccinated as of may 2021. i don't feel protected anymore. maybe you can address that. and want the booster sooner than later. are the original vaccinations effective eight plus months. why do we have to wait? >> well, that's a great question. and what the covid task force is basically said is they signaled, hey, look, we're seeing some safety signals in terms of waning antibodies. so, they're trying to be proactive. so maybe not waiting until they see numbers of hospitalizations and things like that go up. we'll see how the cdc and the fda treat this because this still has to go through the official processes and then be formally recommended by the cdc. right now i got to say the vaccine still work really well. we talked a lot about antibodies waning. people care more about the patients than their blood. let me show you something out of l.a. i love showing graphics like this because i think th

sanjay gupta will answer your questions about these booster shots. >>> and just in, afghanistan's first female mayor says she is waiting to be killed by the taliban. every single day, we're all getting a little bit better. we're better cooks... better neighbors... hi. i've got this until you get back. better parents... and better friends. no! no! that's why comcast works around the clock constantly improving america's largest gig-speed broadband network. and just doubled the capacity here. how do things look on your end? -perfect! because we're building a better network every single day. >>> the taliban's take over prompting fear for many afghan women and girls. they return to the harsh treatment they endured when the taliban last ruled in afghanistan 20 years ago. and joining me now to talk about that is the first woman to serve is afghanistan's ambassador to the united states, roya romani. i want to thank you, ambassador, for coming in to be with us. you left your post a month ago, i think it was, is that correct? >> yes. >> first, you have family in afghanistan. how concerned are you

sanjay gupta. sanjay, really depressing and troubling trends. what stands out to you when you hear these new numbers all going in the wrong direction? >> it didn't have to be this way, jake. maybe that's a broader conversation. but so much of what i'm about to tell you is preventible. we are basically awash in virus right now. 97% of the country is now in high transmission. very befew, 1 to 2% moderate transmission. in terms of where we were at our peak and how high these numbers are compared to that, cases 60% of all-time peaks. hospitalizations higher, 71%. that's concerning. hospitals are really getting filled up. and deaths, in large part because the vaccines, are still too high. we know most of the people in the hospitals, most people who are dying, obviously, jake, are the unvaccinated. so, that's a real issue. hospitals are becoming full. i can tell you the hospital i work in goes on diversion, meaning it's not just covid patients they can't care for but other patients as well. >> the number of covid cases among children is now at more th

sanjay gupta. sanjay, i'm sure you had the same thought, civic duty. i want to get the latest on the vaccines in a moment. what do you make of what's going on in iceland? >> yeah, that was a great piece because it sort of shows what life can be like if we had higher vaccination rates. it's interesting, anderson, because you go to a place like vermont and i think vermont is probably twice the population of iceland. iceland is like 350,000 people. vermont is pretty similar in terms of vaccination rates. 16 plus getting close to 90% vaccination rate. so you've got these pockets of that sort of civic duty as you and gary were talking about. but obviously if you look at overall the status in the country we've got about 52% fully vaccinated, 9% more that are partially vaccinated, and it's that red in the upper left corner, the eligible unvaccinated. that percentage is just too high, anderson. and that's the problem. 98% of people in the hospital with covid in june, july were from that red part of the pie graph there, so that's the issue. that continues to be

sanjay gupta. and, sanjay, we were talking about this yesterday. the world health organization says that evidence is lacking as of now that booster shots are needed for fully vaccinated people. so, why is the biden administration pushing them? >> well, the answer they give is that they're trying to stay ahead of the game here a little bit. they're looking at some data, some of it presented for the first time today from the united states among healthcare workers and long-term care facilities, among the general population, that does show some decreased effectiveness of this vaccine, of these vaccines against the virus, specifically the delta variants. let me show you. i don't know if we have the graphs. but these are some of the data that was presented today looking again on the left healthcare workers and on the right primarily at these long-term care facilities. and you can see predelta and delta. you can see the impact primarily of this variant on the effectiveness of the vaccines. now, the rub a little bit here, jake, and i think what people are

sanjay gupta. so, sanjay, you hear the governor seeking to penalize educators trying to get masks in schools. saying a responsible business wouldn't put 30 unvaccinated people in a confined space right now without masks, and keep them there for a whole day. and not only is that happening in some states, governors are fighting to keep it that way. does that make sense? >> uh, no, it -- it doesn't make sense. i mean, we've learned a lot over this past year, certainly about this disease and -- and its impact on kids. and it's worth reminding people, you know, millions of kids have been infected. thousands have been hospitalized. somewhere between 400 and 500 have died. you know, it's -- if you go back and look at h1n1, rich besser was acting cdc director at that time, that was a disease that primarily affected kids and the reported number of deaths during h1n1 was 358 deaths. my point is that we paid a lot of attention to it because it was affecting kids. this -- this covid has killed more kids, sadly

sanjay gupta. sanjay, this is one of the things that's been out there for awhile. if you're young, it doesn't really get you that badly. you won't get it. if you do get it, it's not so bad. the surgeon general now saying that's having a big impact across the board. >> yeah, i mean, this has always been presented as not only adult sort of disease, but an older adult sort of disease. but we know it can have an impact on kids. smaller impact. that has remained true. but it has increased, especially with delta. let me show you just the vaccination rates here. obviously 12 to 15-year-olds, they got authorized later, but you can see that there is a significant sort of difference in terms of the percentage of uptake of vaccines overall. and that's a concern because kids can get sick. i mean, 450 children have died. thousands have been hospitalized. tens of thousands have been diagnosed. it's leading to quarantines of schools all over the country. but to give you a little bit of context, 450 children dying. in 2017-2018, one of the worst flu seasons on record for kids, 188

sanjay gupta. and, sanjay, people will wonder what does this mean for me? when am i going to need to get this third shot? how is that going to work? do i get the same brand, et cetera? >> right, so what this is going to mean is that these shots will be available for most americans who have had a shot eight months ago. that's what it's sounding like is going to happen here, although it's a little confusing because, you know, just over the last couple of weeks we heard sort of a different message about boosters. yes, they would be recommended for people who had weakened immune systems, immuno compromised, but there wasn't a lot of evidence or data to support they should be given to the rest of us. that was the message from the fda just within the last couple of weeks. so, you know, there will be supply, sounds like, of these vaccines available to americans. it may come at the expense of having vaccines available to other countries around the world. but let me show you the data they're looking at here. some of the data is coming from the united states. they ar

sanjay gupta now. sanjay, news made by dr. fauci telling me in the last hour that he strongly agrees with the decision by oregon and washington state to require that teachers, faculty and staffers in schools get vaccinated, to make it a vaccinate mandate strictly as a medical physician, do you agree with that? >> yeah. i mean, i think that that -- we're in a position now where we're seeing these significant surges and we know that the vaccines do take a while to kick in in terms of offering their highest level of protection but, yeah, at this point anything that we can do to sort of prevent or blunt the surge as we go into the fall that's what the modeling is showing, the vaccines will be really necessary so places where you can real enforce these mandates, get people vaccinated, i think it's going to make a difference. again, maybe not right away. that's where the masking comes in but certainly looking forward for sure. >> culver city, california, went even further. they are requiring shots for all eligible students as well.

sanjay gupta. um, sanjay, i'm sure you had the same thoughts. civic duty. i mean, that's -- is what it is all about. i want to get to the latest news on the vaccines in a moment. what do you make of -- of what's gone on in iceland? >> um, yeah, that was -- that was -- that was a great piece because it sort of shows what life can be like if, you know, we had higher vaccination rates. it's interesting, anderson, because you go to a place like vermont and i think vermont's probably about twice the population of -- of iceland. just small -- i think iceland's like 350,000 people. vermont is pretty similar. in terms of vaccination rates. 16 plus, you know, getting close to 90% vaccination rates. so you got these pockets of that sort of civic duty, as you and gary were talking about. but -- but obviously, if you look at overall the status in the country, we got about 52% that are fully vaccinated. 9% more that are partially vaccinated. and it's that red in the upper-left corner. the eligible unvaccinated. that %epercentage is just too high, anderson and that's the