Good evening, tonight is one of those moments in history you may remember for the rest of your

lives because more than 15 months after the CDC first recommended wearing masks, a recommendation

that was unnecessarily politicized but nevertheless became a symbol of the pandemic and restrictions.

We've all lived under that same agency has made a stunning announcement that speaks to just how far

we've come and fighting the disease in this country. Starting today, the CDC now says that if

you're fully vaccinated, you don't eat a mask anymore. I just want to repeat that because it's

kind of great to say and we've waited a long time to say it. If you're fully vaccinated,

according to the CDC, you don't need to wear a mask anymore. Not indoors, not outdoors. Now,

there are some caveats if you're on a plane or a train and we're going to discuss the new policy

as well as the exemptions to it in a moment with Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Dr. Lena Wen who joined us

for almost all of the 25 coronavirus town halls we've done over the past 15 months. But before we do,

we want to pause and take stock of the past 15 months. More than 584,000. That is the official

number of Americans we have lost the virus. 584,000 human beings. And remember when the projections

came out and said that we could see 100,000 deaths and that number was too high to even believe.

No way we thought. No way we would lose 100,000 people. And now tonight, the official number stands

in nearly six times that. As you may know, there are estimates that the actual number of deaths

may be much greater and it's clear that many of those deaths could have been avoided.

But that's not the conversation perhaps for tonight. It's this. Practically speaking,

today's news means we see more smiles and basic human interaction should get a little easier.

It also means that vaccinations work and that's worth repeating as well. Vaccinations work.

And today's announcement by the CDC is evidence of that. Symbolically, removing those masks also

represents perhaps the biggest step toward returning to some kind of normalcy. Today, reaction

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