Welcome to the special edition of the lead. I'm Pam LaBrown in today for Jake Tapper

on this Monday. And we begin with the health lead, the coronavirus pandemic. Today, there

is encouraging news. The vast majority of the country is seeing the number of new infections

decrease. Hospitalizations are also on the decline. And a little more than a month,

hospitalizations have plummeted by 44 percent.

Yet the promise from the Biden administration to reopen schools remains unfulfilled.

And as CNN's Jason Carroll reports, new guidance from the CDC is not focused just on the science.

Students may be on vacation today, but mounting confusion and frustration from parents and

teachers isn't taking a day off. After the CDC rolled out its new guidelines for reopening schools

Friday, which focus on five strategies for in-person learning, including universal mask wearing,

physical distancing, hand washing, cleaning, and contact tracing. But the CDC also recommended

full in-person learning only in places where levels of community transmission are low.

The problem, according to a CNN analysis of federal data, almost 90 percent of American children

attend schools and high community spread areas located in so-called red zones.

As that transmission comes down, we'll be able to relax some of these measures.

The issue has become a political landmine for the Biden administration,

trying to get kids back into classrooms while also appeasing teachers' unions and parents in

heart-hit areas, many of which have demanded vaccinations and other measures before going back to

in-person learning. The CDC director saying the guidelines changed after holding meetings

with parents and teachers. Direct changes to the guidance were made as a result of them.

Telling Jake Tapper on State of the Union that science is behind all the guidance.

The real point is to make sure that the science is consistent with our guidance, which is

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