and i'm out here in the middle trying to avoid it. if worse comes to worse, i lock us in this bunker. four feet of dirt. in this bunker. designed for blasts. you ain't getting in. >> that's tonight at 9:00. i'm phil mattingly. cnn newsroom dcontinues right nw with jim acosta. you are live in the cnn newsroom. i'm jim acosta in washington. we begin with this. 50% of the u.s. population is now fully vaccinated against covid-19, but in the face of the aggressive delta variant, the major milestone feels underwhelming, reminding us about how much more is needed in this fight. half the population is vulnerable and fueling a spike

in cases, the scale of which we haven't seen in six months. the u.s. is now averaging more than 107,000 new covid cases a day, meaning we're now in the second highest peak of the whole pandemic. as a result, hospitalizations are back up nearing levels we've seen in previous peaks. the silver lining, last time cases were this high, there were about 14,000 more people in the hospital. but on the ground, it's no less dire. in texas, a parent's nightmare played out. houston's pediatric hospitals at full capacity. so an 11 month old had to be air lifted, even though the child had covid 150 miles away. in florida, the country's covid epicenter, record high in hospitalizations after covid cases skyrocketed this week. more than 134,000 covid infections in florida. the state's highest for cases recorded over any seven day period throughout the pandemic. despite the deteriorating situation, governor ron desantis

won't budge from school mandates choosing political fights over pandemic preventions, so private companies step in where government leaders won't. starting monday, amazon requiring all warehouse workers to mask up. in a big move, united airlines is requiring vaccines for its employees. to florida, natasha chen live in orlando for us. what are you seeing and hearing there? it's getting worse down there. >> reporter: there is a real surge in cases in florida. we are seeing an average of more than 19,000 new cases per day in the past week and that's higher than any other seven-day period in the entire pandemic. really concerning for health officials. also concerning is the number of hospitalizations. more than 12,000 people in florida hospitals right now with covid-19. children's hospitals are being overwhelmed. right now, the vaccination rate is at about 49%. about 10 million people in florida fully vaccinated at this

point. we were at a mobile vaccination unit event today. they're just wrapping up and the good news is that we are seeing whenever there are higher cases the health staff behind me tell me they see vaccination rates pick up. that's true for some of the people we talk to today who came here to get their shots. they said that they are fearful of the delta variant. they have seen friends lose their lives over this virus and so they want to get protected now. maybe they were waiting before to see potential side effects of the vaccine. they say now is the time because of the spread of the virus that they are witnessing around them. now, this becomes very challenging sometimes between local, state, and federal officials, a battle, really, on how to approach this pandemic, and so you see governor desantis doubling down right now despite the case numbers saying that he does not want to shut businesses down. he wants to leave parents the

choice of whether to send their kid to school with a mask. cnn spoke to a health expert in florida at the university about the issue of letting parents decide whether to let their kids go to school with a mask or not. >> florida has, for decades, since 1984, had phenomenal excellent vaccine mandates and florida has, for decades, done things to protect the health and welfare of children. it is normal for the government to impose certain restrictions on parental behavior. the temperature of the faucet. protecting swimming pools. not letting your child sit in a hot car. all of these things, yes, they alter how women or men can raise their children but in a way that protects the children. >> reporter: and we are seeing children, teens 12 to 17 here

today, their parents tell us that they came to get them vaccinated because school starts on tuesday for many of them. they wanted those kids to be as protected as possible, and the issue of masking, of course, is controversial. as far as the orange county public schools here, they do have a mask mandate, but they have to let parents opt out because of the state policies, jim. >> all right, natasha chen, thank you so much for that. the florida governor's resistance for covid protocols led to a dispute with president biden. >> going to help at least get out of the way. >> if you're coming after the rights after parents in florida, i'm standing in your way. >> not surprised biden doesn't remember me. my question is, what else has he forgotten? >> report >> i want to bring in miami beach mayor. you've been critical of desantis from almost the beginning of all of this. you said that lately, he's been

like the pied piper leading everybody off of a cliff. can i just ask you based on this back and forth that we're seeing between the governor and the president this week, what do you think is driving the governor's opposition to putting in some new safety measures? obviously, the situation is changing down there, getting worse. >> obviously, it's very worse. every day, it's a new record. governor desantis is following a political ideology. playing politics in the middle of the pandemic. we know in florida we have hurricanes. we know how to get everybody together and everybody in the same page. it's really important to do that, but in this moment, governor desantis has done something that i think is pretty despicable which is he's taken this health care crisis and try to convert it, really, to his own advantage politically. he's divided our community. he's divided our community. so now mask usage, even vaccines, just simply healthy practices have become political

moment statements and that should never happen because you want to save people's lives, not put them at risk to make sort of a cheap political point. >> mayor, the governor has been framing his opposition to mask mandates and schools as preserving parents' freedom to choose what's best for their children. what are you hearing from teachers and families in your community? what do you make of the argument he's been making? >> i'm one of those parents. i have a 17-year-old son going to public school. he's vaccinated. i'd like to know that he and his classmates are safe. it's sort of a false claim he's making because the truth of the matter is we know that the masks help not just the person wearing the mask but equally important, all the other classmates. it's not fair to say i want to give the parent a choice to send child to school to perhaps sicken some other child. we're all in this together, and by the way, this is an incredible opportunity for governor desantis to lead. at the beginning of this pandemic, people forget, we were one of the first cities to close

because we have so many people coming. he was very complementary. he was helpful, frankly. he called and said, i want local governments to make these choices. it's important for them to do that. and then as soon as it became a political opportunity, he reversed course and he creates these false choices like wearing masks is going to close down the economy. that's just not true. our businesses are asking people to wear masks. our cruise ships want to require people to be vaccinated because they know it's safer for their patrons and their customers and it's good for business. so all we want to do is open up safely, and all he wants to do is score political points with a very narrow swath of people who, by the way, are most likely not to be wearing masks and most likely not to get vaccinated. >> right, he's in favor of local control over issues unless they have applied to covid, i suppose. and you told cnn earlier this week that you are flying blind about access to covid stats. what does that mean? is the state hiding this

information from local leaders such as yourself? >> well, yeah. what they did is they took down their dashboard. they started reporting weekly. i am constantly asking for information. used to be forthcoming and what i typically do and a lot of mayors and commissions do is give it to our residents. when a resident sees more people are hospitalized in a certain way or getting infected when they see other kinds of metrics, they act accordingly. being forewarned is being forearmed but really, just to make a political point, decided that he is going to make fun of this, and by the way, his campaign web site literally is making fun of the cdc and fauci. how can you do that in the middle of a pandemic when you're hoping people will follow the rules that medical experts ask them to? this is really pretty outrageous and i think there's no question, it's increasing our positivity, our hospitalizations and obviously, our deaths.

>> right, i mean, it undermines public confidence in our top scientists when you're maacing f making fun of them and bashing them the way he has. cnn learned the biden administration is weighing the possibility of withholding federal funding to spur vaccinations. do you think that's a good idea or is that just going to result in another fight between the white house and the states? >> well, making this a political issue, which is what, really, governor desantis has done, puts everybody in a tough spot because whatever you do to improve health becomes a new political issue. look at the cruise ships. they wanted to mandate vaccines. pretty obvious healthy mechanism for them, and governor desantis made it illegal for them to do that. they're suing him now. imagine, a private company, private company who is trying to protect its patrons is actually suing the governor. i mean, people shouldn't have to sue the governor. we shouldn't have to protect ourselves from our governor. i think the biden administration

should do whatever it can to get people vaccinated. this entire surge we're seeing now, the hundreds of deaths that florida is experiencing every week, all of that is unenforced, all of that is unnecessary. that is truly the horror here is that all of these things we're feeling and we're seeing are unnecessary and could have been avoided if simply political leaders got on the same page they do with almost every other kind of major challenge. >> well, we're certainly a nation divided when it comes to responded to this pandemic. something we'll be talking about throughout the show for the remainder. mayor dan gahlver, we appreciate it. >> thank you, jim. coming up, new york governor andrew cuomo fires back at sexual harassment investigation that has put him on the verge of impeachment. the message from his lawyers. plus, he's made a name for himself by selling pillows and pushing the big lie. see what happens when cnn

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lawyers for new york governor andrew cuomo pushing back against allegations for sexual harassment saying the investigation has been one sided and made to support a pre-determined narrative. the new york state attorney general's report this week found the governor sexually harassed 11 women. one also filed a criminal complaint with the albany sheriff's office claiming reached under her blouse and groped her but lawyers for governor cuomo say that's not what happened. >> she was at the mansion that day for several hours. she wasn't just working with the governor. she was working with other staffers. emails that she sent while she was at the mansion. that she was joking while she

was there. she was eating snacks, and she even offered to stay longer at the mansion when her work was done. the governor deserves to be treated fairly. like anybody else in this country accused of something. he is 63 years old. he has spent 40 years in public life. and for him to all of a sudden be accused of a sexual assault of an executive assistant that he really doesn't know doesn't pass muster. >> time now for our weekly cross examine segment with cnn legal analyst elie honig, a state prosecutor. one of our viewers wants to know what legal consequences could andrew cuomo, the governor, could be facing and what would have to be proven against him for each of those issues. >> yeah, jim. so the governor is now facing a pile of legal problems. let's break it down. first of all, there are potential criminal issues here.

there is a crime under new york state law for forcible touching. forcibly touching a person without consent for sexual purposes. of the 11 complainants, the three of them made allegations that if true could meet the definition of forcible touching and we know five district attorneys are looking at these complaints. if you're going to bring a criminal charge, you have to be able to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. that's the highest burden of proof. then we have potential civil claims. any of all of these complainants could sue the state of new york for harassment, retaliation, hostile work environment. that's a lower standard. there, all you have to do is prove your case by the prepon preponderance. 50% plus one and then potential for impeachment. there's no particular legal standard. it's really whatever the state assembly and senate feels is necessary and appropriate in order to remove the governor from power. he's got some major legal problems they'll have to deal with in the weeks and months

ahead. >> certainly. another viewer wants to know if governor cuomo does not resign, what's the procedure to impeach and remove a governor under new york state law? it's different than how it works at the federal level, which might make things interesting here. >> there are some important differences. impeachment would start in the assembly. lower house of the new york state. congress, it takes a majority there to impeach. interestingly though, there is no high crimes and misdemeanors requirement like we know from the federal system. it's even broader in new york. if the governor is impeached, he loses power, at least temporarily. power goes over to the lieutenant governor. of course, another big difference from the federal system and then finally, there will be a trial in the new york state senate but again, another big difference there. the jury, so to speak there, is not just the senators, but also the seven judges on new york state's highest court. the court of appeals. so it would be like if the u.s. supreme court justices came down to sit on the senate trial, of course, another big difference. it will be interesting to see whether governor cuomo really forces the entire state

government apparatus to go through this process but if he does, that's how it's going to go, jim. >> that is fascinating. another viewer wants to know if governor cuomo fights the allegations against him. what do you think the defenses will be that he'll raise in all of this? we heard from the defense attorney a few moments ago. what do you think? >> we got a preview and then some yesterday from the defense team. first of all, they raised these political arguments. this is all some effort to get the governor. i'm not buying that. these are all democrats, essentially. governor cuomo was the one who referred the case over to the attorney general in the first place. and then they have these process arguments that they've not been given access to the transcript and background of these interviews. there's some legitimacy. there's little beyond the actual report which all of us have and most importantly, it's the credibility arguments, the substantive arguments and thus far, i find those really unconvincing. the example you just played. executive assistant stated with snacks or how does that mean

couldn't have been sexually assaulted before that. a simplistic argument, not particularly compelling and remember, there are 11 complainants here. only heard any kind of response to two of them from the defense team at this point. they've got a mountain of evidence that they're going to have to deal with here, jim, and i'm not seeing anything particularly convincing from them just yet. >> elie honig, thank you so much for that. make sure to tune in tonight. one of our guests this evening with my colleague, pamela brown, will be one of governor cuomo's attorneys, later on tonight at 6:00 p.m. eastern and coming up, cnn will be speaking with my f pillow ceo mike lindell that china traded votes for biden. calling out on this nonsense, that's coming up. can you be free of hair breakage worries? we invited mahault to see for herself that new dove breakage remedy gives damaged hair the strength it needs. even with repeated combing hair treated with dove shows 97% less breakage.

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he's been one of the most vocal purveyors of the big lie but now mypillow ceo mike lindell pushing most bizarre conspiracy theory yet claiming they switched votes for former president trump to vote for biden. part of a cnn investigation, drew griffin spoke to two dozen cyber experts about the claim and then went to minnesota to give mike lindell a much needed reality check. >> reporter: donald trump really won and lindell has the absolute proof. >> every single state.

>> reporter: and you have the proof. >> yes. >> reporter: that will show -- >> i have the whole -- >> actual exchange of votes. >> yep. 100%. 100%. >> reporter: it is, of course, complete nonsense, despite every piece of so-called evidence lindell has presented so far, three videos, a lawsuit, screen shots he sent to cnn, there's still no proof that the election was hacked and that's according to two dozen cyber experts and election officials contacted by cnn. >> 100% evidence. >> reporter: when lindell released so-called evidence, in videos like this, fact checkers quickly found out it was evidence of nothing. these images are just publicly available voter data, scrolling across the screen. not proof of election hacking, so lindell changed his story saying streamed live with mypillow discounts available throughout.

as further proof. you sent this on friday. what is this? >> one piece of 1.2 billion lines of data from the election, okay. within that will be time stamps of when it happened. there will be flips in there. >> we sent this to our own experts, it doesn't show any specific actions of any kind election-related or not, and it's proof of nothing. >> okay, so he said that's nothing, huh? well, he's wrong. you didn't hire a cyber expert. >> reporter: we didn't consult just one cyber expert, we consulted nine. top election security experts who told us lindell's screen shots were extremely rudimentary metadata. we reached out to counties where he says they were hacked out and

switch. he lists them out in his counter lawsuit against dominion voting. they are counties that use paper ballots counted by systems not connected to the internet. every one of them told cnn there is no evidence they were hacked by anyone. you identify 15 counties. we contacted all 15 counties. red and blue. red and blue. and we couldn't find a single person that said this is even possible. they said you are mistaken, think you're wrong. bottom line, they have paper ballot back-ups. that proves they were not. >> they went let you do a full audit? cnn? a full audit on 15 counties, huh? >> reporter: we did what lindell not do. we went to delta county, michigan. to see how the election was carried out. trump won here. nearly 2 to 1. >> the state michigan entry point or delta county. >> reporter: in his videos and his lawsuit, lindell claims someone in china hacked the

election system here and stole away precisely 3,215 trump votes and turned them into biden votes. the republican county clerk nancy finds the allegation laughable for one main reason. >> it is never connected to the internet. never connected to the internet, whatsoever. >> reporter: not only are they not connected to the internet, the votes are cast by hand on paper. voters scan their ballots into this dominion scanning machine where two digital storage cards keep a tally. the paper ballot goes into this bin under lock and seal. >> the container is sealed. >> reporter: just to check everything went okay, they conduct audits comparing the paper ballots to the results on the computer. and in 2020, it was an exact match. >> we audited three different precincts and they matched exactly. >> reporter: what would you say to somebody who made a documentary that among many counties accused your county of

being the victim of a chinese hack that changed the vote counts? >> i would say that didn't happen in delta county. >> reporter: a republican-led michigan state senate investigation found out it didn't happen anywhere. no evidence of widespread or systemic fraud. i don't think you really understand how votes are cast, collected and tabulated in this cunn. >> i do, but after they're tabulated, they can get hacked after the fact which they were. donald trump is going to win anyway. donald trump is going to win anyway. >> the paper ballots -- >> you didn't do an audit to match them up. >> reporter: audited against the machine count. >> no, they weren't. in these counties. who told you that? >> reporter: the county officials. >> did they tell you that? they're going to have answering to do. >> reporter: no matter who says there was no widespread fraud in the election, whether it's local election officials, secretaries

of state, judges or even donald trump's own attorney general, mike lindell's conclusion is the same. they are all wrong. all these county officials are lying? >> misconstrued because they don't realize what happened. >> reporter: lindell said his information comes from multiple sources, all of them super secret. he claims he spent millions on the project and also claims he will give five million dollars to anyone who proves him wrong. >> reporter: mike, you can make up anything. >> no, no, no. this is where you're wrong. we're giving it to the cyber people, we're going to give them the state, georgia. they can take it apart. >> reporter: could possibly be the victim of a scam here? >> are you worried about me? worried about old mike? god bless you. >> reporter: here's what we're

worried about. that what you are doing is mistakenly or deliberately destroying the confidence in the legitimate elected president of the united states and fostering what could be damage to this country. >> i never said that about biden or the democrats ever. never. >> reporter: through this investigation. >> you're lying now. you're lying. democrats warned us. no, you're lying. the democratic party. >> reporter: was illegitimately elected? >> china did an attack on our country. >> reporter: and the wrong person won. >> that's right. >> reporter: the people who watch what your video believe what you say? >> 100%. >> reporter: you're wrong. isn't that very dangerous? >> yes, but i'm not wrong. i checked it out. i spent millions. you need to trust me and come there. >> drew griffin joining us now. that was quite the interview. as we all notice there, mike

lindell very defensive during this interview. i'm wondering, what was your biggest unanswered question, your biggest takeaway after sitting down with lindell? >> the biggest question remains, jim, who is feeding him these lines? it's very clear to me mike lindell does not understand how we vote in the united states of america, nor does he understand cyber security anywhere in the world. so somebody is feeding him this. we have very good reason to believe this is just old conspiracy theorist scammers who have scammed other people and quite frankly, giving this information to mike lindell. we'd like to see where that is coming from and what exactly they are giving to him that makes him say what he is saying. >> he wouldn't say where he's getting this stuff? >> he would not. >> he's laplanning to give away

mypillow discounts at this so-called symposium? >> his business crumbling. kicked out of the retail stores, as you know, jim, and have reported. so he has gone on to all of these random bizarre podcasts and got on these podcasts, quite frankly, because revenue splits with them so he offers major discounts. a lot of these will get a cut of that and this entire symposium will also contain these kind of massive sales pitches. so while, indeed, he is pushing this conspiracy theory, he's pushing very heavily, pillows. >> no question about it. and drew, lindell's offering $5 million to anyone who can prove him wrong. does he have that much money? sounds like he might have to write a lot of those checks. >> yeah, i just don't know. obviously, he's going to try to worm out of this. he doesn't have any kind of specific information about the vote switching. that's just ridiculous, jim. but he's wording this in such a

way where i think he'll try to squiggle out of the fact he's going to write somebody a $5 million check. although, i must say, in unaired portions of the interview, we really nail him down on what he's promising in terms of 5 million. >> and i guess you're not ghoing to get a check. you can argue until the cows come home trying to lay out the facts and some of these folks will not change their minds no matter what you put in front of them but what a great story, great report as always, drew griffin, thank you so much for being with us. we appreciate it. >> thank you, jim. >> great to see you. coming up, cdc warning americans to not travel to more popular tourist destinations. what does that mean for your future vacation plans? we'll get advice from the points guy. that's next. fading, stretching, and pilling. new woolite has evercare, a first of its kind formula that keeps today's fabrics looking like new. new woolite with evercare

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more popular travel destinations have been added to the cdc's do not travel list. this week, the agency classified 16 more countries as a level four very high covid risk and joining me now, brian kelly, better known as the points guy, this is happening amid a surge in cases because of the delta variant. what's the best advice you could give people who are planning a trip when the cdc says do not travel, what does that mean and what do people do if they don't want to change their plans at the last minute? >> well, jim, it's kind of interesting because the cdc has that level four warning for a

lot of countries that are handling covid a lot better than the u.s. when the u.s. say, should i travel domestically, is that safer? i was in spain and italy, everywhere indoors, people wear masks and you can eat outside. so i would say definitely, make your own risk, but if you're vaccinated, if you wear a mask indoors and eat outdoors, you can manage your risk and make the best decision for yourself. >> i suppose there's some places in the u.s. is what you're hinting at that may be more risky than overseas, i guess. >> absolutely. so the one key concern for travelers is taking that test. even if you're vaccinated, you need to take a test within three days of coming back to the u.s. i know people who have had the d tests delayed. god forbid you test positive. you may need to go into a mandatory hotel quarantine. so i think that risk is really what's keeping most travelers staying domestic this summer.

>> yeah. and spirit airlines, you know this, just experienced a staggering week of flight cancellations roughly 2,000 of them. here's what some of the passengers were telling us. >> very angry. the worst airline that i ever saw in my life. >> i just want to get to my destination and never have to deal with spirit airlines again. >> reporter: have you ever had an airline experience this bad before? >> this is the first time in all of my years i've encountered something like this. >> and what do we know about what happened? are things getting back on track for the airline? >> they're slowly getting back on track. nothing short of a full blown meltdown. what started off as a minor disruption ended up kind of snowballing. once they started cancelling flights, flight attendants that needed to be in other parts of the country couldn't get there and those got cancelled. it was really chaos and what i recommend to people who book on

spirit, even if you're flying next week, make sure you're still on time and if you can change your flight, try to book on a more reliable airline. and even when spirit cancels your flight, you don't have to fly spirit whenever they can get you back home. they will refund you and take a little while. if you have the ability, cancel the flight, fly another airline if you really actually want to get to where you're going. >> ouch. and we all saw the wild scene on board the frontier flight where they used duct tape to restrain a man. this is unbelievable video. just shows you how volatile it is on these flights these days. man was accused of punching and groping flight attendants. as someone who travels as much as you, brian, have you ever seen anything like this? >> you know, it's really bad and i think it's about 4,000 cases since january 1st and the faa is not playing around. people, you'll get kicked off the airline for life. we're seeing fines up to $20,000.

certainly, there's a mental health aspect to some of these incidents. behind the scenes, i've talked to the airlines and sometimes, it is mental health. sometimes it's just jerks who have been drinking all day, airports are crowded, and things just get out of control. people's senses in general are heightened when you get on an airplane and add in a pandemic, as we're seeing now, people are simply out of control. >> i was on a flight just the other day and talking to some flight attendants about this, they deserve a medal for what they've been going through during this pandemic. it's just unbelievable. and on monday, the canadian border will finally reopen to fully vaccinated american travelers, but there could be some big delays for people trying to make the drive. what's going on? >> yeah. i mean, canada's opening technically. although, our numbers are now so high in the u.s. that we're starting to trigger, the eu announced today they may be reconsidering allowing americans in. same thing with canada. they're going to be vigilant about checking those vaccines. you still have to get tested.

the uk is open, but you still have to get tested on the second day. so there's still lots of hoops to jump through and there could be lengthy lines at the border because so many people have been separated from their families, so yeah, expect delays no matter where you go, but especially internationally. >> and that's why the key in all of this is to be vaccinated. you get vaccinated, everybody can get vaccinated in this country, we can start traveling again, doing all the fun things we used to do before this awful pandemic. brian kelly, thank you so much for your time. great stuff as always. thanks for coming on. all right. coming up, we'll take you live to california where a fast-moving wildfire has taken out much of an entire town. officials warning those remaining, you must leave now. all of that extra toilet paper was a good idea,

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>p > in northern ca r aa race against time firefp r firefighters losi tr t the r the ragin decip decimat in the nation only 21% contained. cnn's camila bernal is on the ground. this fire has destroyed more than 100 homes. california's third largest fire in the state's history. what are you seeing and hearing right now? is this thing getting under control? >> reporter: not yet, even firefighters with 30, 40 years of experience are saying they've never seen a fire like this one. they're describing itt as a fir

with frightening behavior because it continues to grow and is out of control. now, the focus for the weekend is to find eight people who are still missing. authorities say that they were able to locate 16 but they will continue to search over the weekend. thousands are still under evacuation orders. these are people who are having to deal with the stress and anxiety of not knowing whether or not their homes will still be there when they return. we saw what happened in greenville. it's not just a couple of homes and businesses destroyed. it's an entire community that will never be the same again. it's people who are left with that trauma. already the dixie fire has actually destroyed about 200 structures. that's the update we got from authorities and we are told that about 14,000 others are still at risk. firefighters are doing everything they can to save those homes and they continue to work, but it is still hot, it is

still dry, and the smoke is thick. the smoke could impact firefighting efforts on the ground and in the air. there are some areas where authorities are even telling people do not go outside. that smoke likely lingering on for the next couple of days and it's impacting, jim, not residents in this area but even in states that are nowhere near this fire. >> all right. camila bernall, they're unbelievable to watch. devastating damage. camila, thanks. president obama named her a champion of change. she's made progress but her fight is star from over. serious dr. sanjay gupta in today's "the human factor." ♪ >> reporter: margaret gordon's mission started 30 years ago while working in a west oakland school and noticed a shoe box full of inhalers prescribed to dozens of students.

the mother of three wasn't surprised. she, her son and two grandchildren had asthma too so gordon began researching the health impacts of pollution. >> every workshop, congress, symposium i attended. >> she found black soot inside her home. >> in my mucus lining and throat. >> reporter: she began to connect the dots. >> we have so much pollution. we have three freeways that surround a black community. we have the ships, the trains and the trucks 24/7. thank you very much. >> reporter: she co-founded the west oakland environmental indicators project. teaming up with scientists who set up truck traffic studies in air monitoring stations for block-by-block information. >> so who has been impacted? we could see. >> reporter: gordon appointed to the commission. less truck idling for port

equipment. >> from 2008 till now we had significant pollution reduction. >> reporter: she wants air filtration systems placed in west oakland homes and a shift away from fossil fuels. >> don't got to be reliving this. >> announcer: "the human factor" brought to you by azo. own your day. i booked our hotel on kayak. it's flexible if we need to cancel. cancel. i haven't left the house in a year. nothing will stop me from vacation. no canceling. flexible cancellation. kayak. search one and done. you've been taking mental health meds, and your mind is finally in a better place. except now you have uncontrollable body movements

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you're live in the cnn newsroom. i'm jim acosta in washington. we begin with two key milestones in the fight against covid that show how far we've come and how far we're falling behind. the u.s. is once again topping 100,000 new coronavirus cases a day. haven't seen numbers that high since february. the delta variant and unvaccinated americans are fueling this explosion. the good news is that as of today exactly half the u.s. is now fully vaccinated. nearly 166 million people. many parts of south dakota are considered high transmission areas as delta spreads including sturgis which you can seen 0 the left side of the map where hundreds of thousands are gathering for the world famous sturgis motorcycle rally