On a personal note, it's painful for me to know that nearly every death we are seeing now

from COVID-19 could have been prevented.

I say that as someone who has lost 10 family members to COVID-19 and who wishes each and every

day that they had had the opportunity to get vaccinated. Over the last many months, we've learned a lot about COVID-19, including how to stop it.

Yet the virus is rearing up again in dangerous ways as vaccinations lag and disinformation spreads.

It's a dangerous combination that we'll discuss this morning with the U.S. Surgeon General,

who you just heard there. Plus, we'll go live to Mississippi where health officials are warning

of a surge in the Delta variant. It's landed several children in the ICU, some on life

support. Also, an exclusive excerpt from that bombshell book by a pair

of renowned Washington Post reporters, how Bill Barr reportedly stunned Donald Trump into silence.

Think about that with his warning about the 2020 election. We'll get to that just ahead.

Plus, Angela Merkel pays her final visit

to the White House as Germany's chancellor. We'll talk about her meeting with President Biden,

which unlike a summit with Bush 43, did not include any spontaneous shoulder rubs.

Surprised about that. All that and much more on this Friday, July 16th.

Willie, that Bush-Mircle shoulder-rub never gets old. It never gets old.

A little shoulder-rub diplomacy from the 43rd president of the United States. We'll talk much

more about Angela Merkel in a moment, but we do begin with the growing fears of a new COVID wave as

cases climb vaccination rates plateau. Now, the nation's largest county, Los Angeles,

is turning back the pandemic clock, issuing a new indoor mask mandate. NBC News correspondent Miguel

Almagare has the latest. Los Angeles, the nation's largest county, taking a step back, requiring masks indoors,

even for the vaccinated effective Sunday.

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