JUDY WOODRUFF: Good evening.

I'm Judy Woodruff.

On the "NewsHour" tonight: Taliban takeover.

The militant group orders an end to all protests, as they finally allow the departure of some 200 non-Afghans, including American citizens.

Then: COVID cases surging.

The virus overwhelms hospitals with unvaccinated patients.

We talk with Dr. Anthony Fauci about the difficult path ahead.

And 20 years later, 9/11 reflect on the trauma of that day, and how it compares to the stresses of the current pandemic.

JOHN EPISCOPO, 9/11 First Responder: This pandemic is this generation's 9/11.

The stress is overwhelming, the -- seeing death in many levels.

It's the same type of experience.

JUDY WOODRUFF: All that and more on tonight's "PBS NewsHour."

(BREAK) JUDY WOODRUFF: President Biden is rolling out requirements for up to 100 million Americans to get vaccinated for COVID-19 or get tested weekly.

His plan, announced today, is a bid to stem the surging Delta variant.

It affects private employers with more than 100 workers, and it mandates that federal employees and contractors get shots with no testing option.

The president had sharp words for the unvaccinated.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: We have made vaccinations free safe and convenient.

The vaccine has FDA approval.

Over 200 million Americans have gotten at least one shot.

We have been patient, but our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us.

So, please do the right thing.

JUDY WOODRUFF: We will talk to the president's top infectious disease adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, later in the program.

Separately today, the Los Angeles School Board considered a vaccine mandate for students 12 and older who return to classrooms.

It's one of the most aggressive measures yet in a major school district.

Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are asking the Supreme Court to end proxy voting in Congress during the pandemic.

Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said today that it's not right that lawmakers stay home and get paid while other Americans have returned to offices.

Democrats say that proxy voting limits the spread of COVID.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban today allowed the first large-scale departure since last month's mass evacuations.

An estimated 200 non-Afghans flew to Qatar from Kabul, including an undetermined number of American citizens.

U.S. officials said they expect another flight tomorrow.

We will look at this after the news summary.

Back in this country, the U.S. Justice Department sued Texas over a new law banning most abortions.

It takes effect around six weeks into a pregnancy, and it lets private citizens sue anyone who helps in obtaining an prohibited abortion.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said it's a dangerous precedent.

MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. Attorney General: This kind of scheme to nullify the Constitution of the United States is one that all Americans, whatever their politics or party, should fear.

If it prevails, it may become a model for action in other areas by other states and with respect to other constitutional rights and judicial precedents.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The Texas law is the most sweeping restriction since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld abortion rights in 1973.

A federal judge in Florida today struck down a Republican-backed law that targets violent protests.

Governor Ron DeSantis championed the statute.

It says peaceful protesters may face criminal charges if there's violence during a demonstration.

The judge called it an assault on constitutional rights.

Extremely hot, dry conditions have returned to much of California, raising the risk of new wildfires.

A fire weather watch covers parts of the state through tomorrow.

Nearly 15,000 firefighters are already battling 14 major fires across the state.

In the Southeastern U.S., the problem is too much water.

Remains of Tropical Storm Mindy poured rain over Georgia and South Carolina today in areas already soaked by previous storms.

In the Pacific, Hurricane Olaf headed toward Mexico's Los Cabos resort region with winds of 80 miles an hour.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned sales today of nearly 950,000 vaping products.

It cited their potential appeal to teenagers.

But the FDA allowed the bestselling Juul brand to stay on the market for now.

The agency said it needs more time to complete its reviews.

And on Wall Street, worries about the COVID surge pushed stocks lower again.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 151 points to close at 34879.

The Nasdaq fell 38 points.

The S&P 500 slipped 20.

Still to come on the "NewsHour": many Louisianians still struggle without power and water in the wake of Hurricane Ida; the president withdraws his nominee to lead the ATF; we talk with Dr. Anthony Fauci about the latest surge of COVID hospitalizations; plus much more.

Returning to Afghanistan, and the first international commercial flight from the Kabul Airport since the Taliban seized the country.

The Biden administration said that Americans and legal residents of the U.S. were on the plane, but they leave behind a country in a humanitarian crisis.

Ali Rogin has the story.

ALI ROGIN: In Kabul today, 200 more people began a new chapter in their lives.

They're heading to Doha, Qatar, and onward to a host country in the first large-scale departure since last month's withdrawal of foreign forces.

But they leave behind an Afghanistan on the brink of collapse.

Today, the U.N. refugee chief called for substantial humanitarian support for the Afghan people.

MAN: The big development assistance has been suspended.

If you neglect them, the humanitarian crisis will increase.

And then you have big flows of people that make it out of the country.

ALI ROGIN: This week, the U.N. appealed for almost $200 million in extra funding.

The World Health Organization says 90 percent of clinics in Afghanistan could soon close.

Medics have not received salaries in months, and hospitals are beginning to run out of medicine.

ALI MUSTAFA, TRT World: This country is facing a severe, severe humanitarian crisis.

And the Taliban don't have the answers for them, for how to alleviate the suffering.

ALI ROGIN: Ali Mustafa is a reporter with TRT World -- that's Turkey's national broadcaster - - and is in Kabul.

He says Afghanistan needs hard cash to address the humanitarian crisis.

ALI MUSTAFA: There is desperation on the streets.

There are families that are starving.

People haven't eaten for weeks now because they haven't been paid for months now.

ALI ROGIN: This week, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid announced a new interim government, an attempt to project normalcy.

It's now the Taliban that must ensure stability and security nationwide.

In Kuwait today, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin warned that al-Qaida could reemerge in Afghanistan.

LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. Secretary of Defense: I think the whole community is kind of watching to see what happens and whether or not al-Qaida has the ability to regenerate in Afghanistan.

You know, we put the Taliban on notice that we expect for them to not allow that to happen.

ALI ROGIN: Still, on the streets of Kabul, Afghan women continue to lead protests against the Taliban takeover.

Yesterday, in Kabul, a Taliban member used a whip to beat a woman during a demonstration.

Today, two journalists said they were tortured by the Taliban after covering the protests.

TAQI DARYAB, Journalist (through translator): When they treat journalists like this, it's possible that journalism will stop in Afghanistan within a few months.

It will be destroyed.

ALI ROGIN: This week, a Taliban spokesperson told Australian TV that women's sports would be banned.

AHMADULLAH WASIQ, Deputy Head of Taliban Cultural Commission (through translator): Islam and the Islamic emirate do not allow women to play cricket or play the kind of sports where they get exposed.

ALI ROGIN: Mustafa says the Taliban is balancing a need to appeal to Western governments with the reality that many in its ranks remain conservative.

ALI MUSTAFA: If they come across as too moderate, half of their people will revolt against them, because they were with the movement for 20 years based on certain action, certain principles.

ALI ROGIN: For now, the Afghan people must live in that uneasy balance.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Ali Rogin.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Power is now restored to most of New Orleans, but several hundred thousand people in Southeast Louisiana are still without.

Consequently, the death toll has been rising.

Local officials say nine more people in New Orleans have died of excessive heat, bringing the overall death toll in Louisiana to 26.

Our community correspondent in New Orleans, Roby Chavez, has been reporting on the difficult living conditions in some of these parishes.

And, Roby, good to see you again.

Thank you for being there and reporting.

You were telling us yesterday you were in the community of Lafitte, where they are still digging out.

Tell us a little of what you saw.

ROBY CHAVEZ: Today, we're in St. Charles Parish, where Hurricane Ida, its eye came here, it sat for a couple of hours.

And look at the damage.

You can see these huge R.V.s just flipped on their side.

One fell on the red truck on the side here.

And we have seen this kind of damage along the coast, where the winds and the surge has been great.

So, we went to Lafitte.

It's a small village just outside of New Orleans, one of the best places you will ever go.

But it is still hurting.

The folks are still trying to recover in that area.

Some of the power has come back on.

The water, not all of it has receded yet.

And so the National Guard has brought in these huge pumps to try to get some of that water off of the roads, out of people's yards, and back into the bayou, where it came.

And the weather has been a big issue.

When it's not hot, it is just pouring down rain outside.

We sat through a thunderstorm yesterday and just watched the water rise all over again.

And as we drove through Lafitte, you could see the damage of the tidal surge, many of the homes washed away.

Their roofs were blown off.

There are these huge bulldozers that were scooping feet of just mud and muck off of the road to get it out of the way, so emergency crews can get through.

We also saw that with folks, people trying to do their best, mud in their homes, mud in their driveways, shoveling it out just like you would do from a snowstorm, but inches of this thick, thick mud.

I have told telling a little bit about the cemeteries that were damaged in Hurricane Ida, a very grisly scene to see these damaged coffins laying in people's homes, in their front yards, under their carports.

And the roadways in the area also just filled with debris.

People are gutting their homes, everything that belongs to them torn and ripped out of the house, and put on the side of the road for garbage.

So, those folks, they're just trying to take it day by day.

ANTHONY MIKE, Louisiana resident: Just pick the pieces up and move on.

It's the first time in 18 years that I have been here that we actually got it like this, you know?

Obviously, we just ripped everything.

We just gutted the house.

Mold is starting to take off in the house.

So, I mean, I'm fortunate enough to be able to go finance me a trailer, I mean, an R.V., and put it in front of the house.

That's all we can do.

ROBY CHAVEZ: Judy, so tough for so many people.

And I have got to tell you, as we walked around, you couldn't get around without sinking in the mud up to your knees.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And it's just one community after another.

You were telling us today you have been in Lafourche Parish, which took a direct hit from Ida.

ROBY CHAVEZ: Yes.

Yes, Hurricane Ida right up the Bayou in Bayou Lafourche.

And we saw a lot of damage there.

The word of the day today is power, trying to get as much power back on as possible.

So far, only a trickle.

Nearly half of the homes are either uninhabitable or have been deemed that no can live in there anymore.

Some apartment complexes have issued eviction notices.

We also passed near the hospital, where there's a triage unit out in front of the hospital.

The E.R.

is still open, but operating in the parking lot under a tent.

We went through one of the high schools that was damaged.

So, schools will be out for quite some time.

But we did notice a lot of power crews trying to put power back on in the area, nearly 2,000 people brought on.

Housing clearly going to be an issue.

So many people can't go back to their homes.

Today, the parish was talking about bring boats to the Bayou there, so folks can live on barges and in boats.

JUDY WOODRUFF: It's just stunning how much work still has to be done in that part of the state.

Roby Chavez, again, thank you so much for your reporting.

ROBY CHAVEZ: Thank you, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or the ATF, is the federal government's leading agency for regulating guns and for addressing gun violence.

But it has been extremely hard, historically, to get the Senate to confirm a permanent chief.

Today, President Biden withdrew his nominee for the job.

William Brangham looks at what's behind that and what's at stake.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Judy, this spring, the president nominated David Chipman to head the bureau.

Chipman worked at the ATF for 25 years before retiring in 2012.

He then advised groups that advocate for gun control, like Everytown and the Giffords Law Center, which was started by Gabby Giffords, the congresswoman from Arizona who was shot in 2011.

And when it came to confirming Chipman, those affiliations were a problem for all of the Republicans in the Senate.

Even some moderate Democrats expressed reservations.

Now President Biden must find a new nominee, and the bureau remains leaderless.

Alain Stephens has long covered these issue for the Web site The Trace, which focuses specifically on guns in America.

He joins me from California.

Alain, great to have you on the "NewsHour."

David Chipman, this is someone who spent a quarter-century inside the ATF, and then advised these gun safety groups.

On paper, that seems like a natural nominee for a Democratic president.

And yet he's out.

Can you explain the specific resistance to him?

ALAIN STEPHENS, The Trace: So, part of this is just because it's a very controversial position.

In 2006, the National Rifle Association had successfully lobbied to remove the ATF director from a presidential appointment and to one that required congressional confirmation.

And since then, they have been in a near perpetual cycle of acting directors, with only one confirmed director in the last 15 years in the form of B. Todd Jones under the Obama administration.

And, because of this, right, the GOP and its allies have been able to really kind of hamper any sort of director from getting confirmed time and time again.

So it's already a controversial position.

And so, when you look at this, and anyone who has covered the ATF for some time, that is kind of par for the course to see this level of resistance.

What was particularly interesting with Biden's pick, however, was, because the position is so controversial, historically, there's a tendency to kind of pick safer candidates.

And in this case, Biden felt that he was very confident to try to push forward one that has some strong and vocal gun control support.

And for many Democrats and independent Congress members who are in gun-friendly state, that was just a bridge too far.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: So, the ATF is -- as you're saying, it's not unusual that it's been leaderless for a long time.

But can you explain, practically speaking, from a policy perspective, what does it mean that the ATF doesn't have a leader?

ALAIN STEPHENS: Right.

So when you talk to the agents on the ground, the issue that they kind of talk about is how they're an agency that's held hostage.

And that's very unique for a federal law enforcement agency that, because they are up for so much congressional public scrutiny that is almost exacerbated due to the political polarization surrounding guns, that they are unable to advocate successfully for resources without a confirmed director.

When you look at other federal law enforcement entities, like the FBI, they are able to articulate long-term plans, right?

We're going to tackle terrorism.

You look at DEA.

We're going to tackle the cartels.

For the ATF, they're not able to really do that.

They're not able to articulate these kind of overarching public safety issues and how they're going to address them.

Instead, they're very much in kind of a reactive cycle.

And that really hurts them.

That keeps them down on their number of agents, inspectors.

And it's very hard for them to get a lot of resources and assets to even compete with their federal law enforcement counterparts.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I know that you and your colleagues at The Trace did some investigation into the ATF's inspection of gun stores around the country.

What did you find in that investigation?

ALAIN STEPHENS: We found a microcosm of exactly what we were just talking about here, that, due to the political polarization and the lack of resources because they have been leaderless and pretty much without an advocate, that they were essentially afraid.

They were afraid to come down on bad gun stores that they knew had failed inspections.

They're very lethargic with that.

Going back to how this ties into an appointment of an ATF leader, actually, in 2007, right after this position became a congressional-appointed -- or a congressional confirmation position, the first people to essentially rise up and advocate to their congressman to block Bush's appointee were actually gun stores who had failed an inspection because their guns had been showing up in crimes.

They had their license revoked.

And they were able to kind of reach out, get their local congressmen to raise issues about the potential ATF leader.

And actually they created that cycle.

And when you see this confirmation go on, you actually see a lot of the same tactics being used of gun store owners and stuff like that raising concerns.

And that is kind of just something that has historically gone on for, like I said, almost 15 years.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: I mean, you and others have pointed out that the United States is unique in this ongoing epidemic we have of gun violence in this country, murders, suicides, mass shootings.

And yet here we have the primary agency responsible for addressing that is essentially hamstrung.

ALAIN STEPHENS: Right.

I mean, when I talk to people about just gun violence in America, one of the things that I kind of say is that we see a mass shooting, a major mass shooting in his country almost every other week.

And on scene, we hear from the police chiefs.

We hear from sheriff's departments.

We hear from the FBI.

But we don't hear from the ATF.

And it's not because they're not on scene.

They are.

But it's because that fear of political scrutiny, and, again, tied to the just political polarization around firearms in this country, keeps them in a reactive state.

And I think it's particularly interesting when you have a federal law enforcement entity that is more afraid of Congress essentially battling them or special interest lobbying than they are about failing their fundamental public safety mission.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Alain Stephens of The Trace, thank you very much for being here.

Thanks for your reporting.

ALAIN STEPHENS: Thanks for having me.

JUDY WOODRUFF: As the country struggles with a surge of COVID, the president is significantly ramping up his efforts to get more Americans vaccinated.

The plan he announced today was the most far-reaching yet.

President Biden would essentially require two-thirds of American workers to either get vaccinated or face weekly testing.

The Department of Labor will draft new rules requiring that for all businesses with 100 workers or more.

Additionally, most federal employees will now have to be vaccinated, or face possible disciplinary action.

Testing will be more widely available.

And the government will use the Defense Production Act to increase access.

And the president called on governors to require teachers and staff to get vaccinated.

Mr. Biden said that COVID spread required a tougher response now.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: The unvaccinated overcrowd our hospitals, are overrunning emergency rooms and intensive care units, leaving no room for someone with a heart attack or pancreatitis or cancer.

Listen to the voices of unvaccinated Americans who are lying in hospital beds taking their final breath saying, if only I'd gotten vaccinated.

If only.

It's a tragedy.

Please don't let it become yours.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And with us once again is Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and President Biden's chief medical adviser.

Dr. Fauci, welcome back to the "NewsHour."

It sounds as if President Biden is growing exasperated with people who are not vaccinated.

Is he?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, Chief Medical Adviser to President Biden: Yes, he is.

And I think that was very well manifested and expressed in his speech today.

I mean, no doubt we really do need to get more people vaccinated.

And what he said is, I think, a good roadway to getting there.

That's going to involve, in total, over 100 million people.

So I myself am quite favorably impressed by that and feel strongly that that is what we should be doing.

I mean, we have tried everything we can worry to get people vaccinated.

We have the solution within our grasp, within our power.

We just need to implement it.

And that is what the president has said tonight in his speech, that we are going to implement that.

And if that means more mandates, so be it.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, these are some ambitious steps the president announced.

But I will be candid, Dr. Fauci.

I'm already hearing from people who are saying, wait a minute.

We're already in the middle of this surge of the Delta variant, hospitals, some hospitals running out of space.

Shouldn't this have come earlier?

What do you say to that?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Well, Judy, I say, every time something happens that is good, somebody is going to say, why didn't you do it earlier?

It isn't as if we have not been pushing hard to get people vaccinated, making it easier.

It's safe.

It's easy.

It's convenient.

It's free.

We have done all those things.

We have used trusted messengers to get out there.

So it isn't as if we have been sitting back, thinking that things were going to happen spontaneously.

So, I would respectfully object to that particular appreciation or interpretation of this as being too late.

It isn't.

It's something that is important.

And I'm very glad that the president did it when he did it.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, let me ask you about a number of the specifics in what the president announced.

One part of this is to ask the Labor Department to draw up regulations, in essence, asking or demanding that employers with over 100 employees require the people who work for them to be vaccinated.

How do you make sure that happens?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Well, I mean, you -- coming from the president, the Department of Labor makes these types of, I wouldn't say pronouncements, but makes it very clear that, through the Department of Labor -- I don't know quite frankly, Judy, how you enforce these pronouncements from the Department of Labor.

But I'm sure that there is a way of doing that.

I'm not privy to exactly how they're going to enforce it.

But I'm sure there are going to be ways to do that.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And we will watch and see what comes out of the Labor Department.

Dr. Fauci, even before today's announcement, we're already hearing from some Republican political leaders who are saying that these kinds of moves they were anticipating President Biden making are -- quote -- "authoritarian," undermining confidence in vaccines.

We heard from Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state today.

She said: "The president using fear, control and mandates, failing to put science first."

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Well, Judy, I totally disagree with that statement.

It doesn't make any sense.

Failing to put -- science is the reason why you need to get vaccinated.

So this is, in fact, putting science first.

If you listen to the science, the science overwhelmingly indicates that you should get vaccinated.

So, anything that the president does to see that we do get vaccinated is following the science.

So, with all due respect to the people who are saying that, I totally disagree with it.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Let me ask you about another part of what the president discussed, and that is calling on the governors of all the states to require teachers and staff in the public schools to be vaccinated.

Do we know if the president has the authority, or can he make the governors do this?

How does that work?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: No, he cannot.

And that's exactly why he worded it that way.

He is encouraging the governors and the local authorities to get the people in the school system to get vaccinated.

He doesn't exert an authority to do that.

He's using the power of persuasion in his office as president to do that.

And it was very clear from the wording of that that's exactly what he was doing.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And in your -- you hear about this every single day.

Is there more that could be done right now?

We are watching school systems around the country struggling with this, whether to stay open, whether to close, whether to go to virtual, whether to the hybrid.

Is there more that you think could be done right now?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Well, I think what we saw with the president's speech this evening, Judy, was a big step in the direction of doing a lot.

This was pretty clearly more than just incremental.

This was saying -- and you heard the frustration in his voice -- enough is enough.

We have got to get people vaccinated.

We have within our grasp the capability and the tools to do it.

So I think that this speech and what it represents is a very strong step forward in the direction of getting this done.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Booster shots, the administration has talked about this.

You have talked about it.

We're now hearing complaints that the signals coming from the administration are confusing.

At first, it was, we don't need boosters.

Then it was, yes, we're going to have boosters September 20.

And then it was only Pfizer.

Where does that stand right now?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Well, we will have boosters.

I'm virtually certain of that.

If you look at the evidence that's evolving from our own cohort studies that the CDC is following, to the very clear evidence we're getting from our Israeli colleagues, that the immunity, particularly against infection, but, in the Israeli data, certainly also against severe disease, is waning, including in the context of the Delta variant.

We are also seeing that, in the situation in Israel where they are boosting people, the boosting is highly successful in increasing dramatically the protection that one gets against serious disease and against infection.

So, as the time goes by and these data roll out, I would be very surprised, Judy, if you're not going to hear a very crisp, clear message about boosting.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And when do you think that will come?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: It's -- as the president said, and we all agree, that it's going to be up to the FDA to gather the data that's accumulated, both in our own country and from Israel, to look at it and to make a regulatory determination as to the appropriateness and timing of a booster.

Then the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will look at that and make recommendations.

And, as soon as the data becomes available, I'm certain that those agencies will act as expeditiously as possible.

Hopefully, that will be very soon, because this is something we want to see get implemented, if, in fact, the decision is made.

JUDY WOODRUFF: As you know, Dr. Fauci another aspect of the booster issue is what the World Health Organization has been saying and pleading and now, frankly, criticizing the United States and other nations for planning to move ahead with boosters.

Just yesterday, the head of the WHO, Dr. Tedros - - and I'm quoting him.

He said -- he said: "I will not stay silent when the companies and countries that control the global supply of vaccines think the world's poor should be satisfied with leftovers."

In other words, why can't the rich -- richer countries wait until the poorer countries have more people vaccinated?

Because, after all, that's how the Delta variant is spreading.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Well, Judy, let's just take a look at what we in the United States are doing.

We believe that we can do both, that we can get doses to the developing world, the low- and middle-income countries, at the same time as we implement a booster program here in the United States.

So, let's take a look at what we're doing simultaneously.

You and I are now talking about the program that will likely roll out to do boosts, the third shot superimposed upon the two shots.

We're planning to do that.

What we are also simultaneously doing is that we have given now 130 million doses to 90 countries.

We are giving a half-a-billion doses, 200 million of which will be given before the end of the year; 300 million will be given in the first half of 2022.

We have given $4 billion.

And the president is already talking about increasing the capacity of the countries -- excuse me -- of the companies to make doses, so that we can give them to the low- and middle-income countries.

So, if it was only doing it for ourselves with boosters, you would have a very good case that the WHO is correct, we shouldn't be doing that.

But when we're doing the boosters at the same time as we are significantly increasing the number of doses to the low- and middle-income countries, that's proof that you can do both.

I'm very sensitive, as all of my colleagues are, to the needs of low- and middle-income countries.

But if you do both at the same time, then there's not an argument there.

And that's exactly what's happening.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Dr. Fauci, you are working on this issue every day and for long hours.

But I do have to ask you about more criticisms that we're hearing out there that the administration stopped doing -- providing enough testing.

I know the president addressed that today, said that's going to be ramped up.

But there's been a big lag with regard to testing.

There's also been a lag with regard to following the cases, breakthrough cases.

The U.S. is depending on Israel and other countries for their research.

Do you acknowledge that the U.S., that this administration could have done a better job in these areas in these critical last several months?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Judy, the one thing I have learned through many, many years of dealing with outbreaks, and specifically for the last 20 months with this outbreak, any administration, under any circumstances, always could have done better.

I don't think you can ever say that one did it absolutely perfectly.

So you're talking about doing the tracing of people who have asymptomatic infections.

Yes, it could have been done better.

You're talking about testing.

Of course it could have been done better.

But you're seeing even this evening in the president's speech addressing many of those things.

If it can be you can do better, and you don't pay any attention to that, that's bad.

But if you realize you can do better, and you take the steps to do better, that's a good thing.

And I think that's what you're seeing now.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Dr. Anthony Fauci, we thank you, as always, for joining us.

Thank you.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: Good to be with you, Judy.

Thank you for having me.

JUDY WOODRUFF: As we continue to report on the human toll of the COVID-19 pandemic, we're also marking the 20th anniversary of a very different kind of mass trauma, the September 11 attacks.

John Yang spoke to first responders and medical workers who have lived and worked through both in the city that was the epicenter of both, New York.

To John Episcopo... JOHN EPISCOPO, 9/11 First Responder: Good morning, handsome.

JACK DELANEY, 9/11 11 First Responder: What's up, beautiful?

JOHN YANG: ... the door of Jack Delaney's Long Island home is always open.

They share an unbreakable bond forged in the smoke and flames of the World Trade Center.

JOHN EPISCOPO: This picture was taken about 30 seconds before Tower 2 collapsed.

In the front there leading the way is Jack, and I would be back here.

JOHN YANG: Twenty years later, the memories are still vivid.

JACK DELANEY: When I got back from Ground Zero, that was actually in my jacket pocket.

JOHN YANG: They were among the New York-Presbyterian Hospital paramedics who raced downtown from Manhattan's Upper East Side.

JOHN EPISCOPO: It seemed like the top of the building kind of tilted, but then the entire sky went gray.

And there's just a moment where we all kind of looked at each other and kind of gave each other permission to do whatever we needed to do to survive that.

JACK DELANEY: We ran for our lives as the buildings were coming down.

Tremendous dust.

You couldn't see in front of your face.

But I was trying to find the rest of my staff.

JOHN YANG: The remains of two of them weren't found for months, Mario Santoro and Keith Fairben.

Both Delaney and Episcopo nearly lost their lives as well, injured as the debris of the collapsing towers rained down on them.

After freeing themselves, neither wanted to leave.

JACK DELANEY: During the day, people were like, dude, you got to get out of here.

You're hurt.

And -- but then two of my guys actually... JOHN EPISCOPO: Physically removed you.

JACK DELANEY: ... gave me no alternative and removed me from the pile and took me by ambulance back to Cornell.

DR. ANTONIO DAJER, New York-Presbyterian Hospital: We could see it and then we heard it.

JOHN YANG: A few blocks away, Dr. Antonio Dajer and his team were told to prepare for mass casualties, but they couldn't begin to imagine how many or how serious they would prove to be.

Dajer was the attending E.R.

physician at this hospital that bright blue September morning.

He was expecting nothing more than a routine Tuesday.

Then a nurse ran in with the news that changed everything.

Just a few blocks away, a plane had flown into one of the Twin Towers.

DR. ANTONIO DAJER: The first badly injured patient I remember was a young woman who came in flying solo in a stretcher that I thought it was -- that I was seeing wrong.

But, as soon as I saw her, I knew we were in for mass trauma.

JOHN YANG: And when the first tower collapsed: DR. ANTONIO DAJER: I have this vivid memory of a 10-story-high dust cloud barreling towards me.

JOHN YANG: The chaos eventually gave way to silence.

DR. ANTONIO DAJER: So many families were coming around with posters and fliers for their loved ones.

And that was the sacred moment of, you just needed to absorb it.

You just needed to be quiet and try to bring them in and do what you could for them.

JOHN YANG: So busy doing what they could for their patients and the families of victims, Dajer and his colleagues hadn't begun to process their own emotions.

DR. ANTONIO DAJER: Coming out of that was probably more traumatic for me.

Seeing it on TV and seeing the worldwide reaction was -- it was the first time I broke into tears.

That was coming out of that isolation or that sense of intensity of this one place with these people that I'm with and then reentering the world.

JOHN YANG: The first responders at Ground Zero reentered the world as changed people.

JACK DELANEY: I had to remain the rock.

So, I literally took my emotions and put them to the side.

And I had to be there to talk to staff that wanted to talk.

I had to interact with the families.

And I didn't realize how deeply I pushed my emotions away.

JOHN YANG: Jack Delaney's physical injuries forced his retirement, and both he and John Episcopo still deal with the mental toll of that day.

JACK DELANEY: I always had flashbacks and nightmares.

JOHN EPISCOPO: I used to have the dreams on a consistent basis.

I have woken up a couple of times with the smell.

JOHN YANG: For Episcopo and some other first responders, seeking treatment for post-traumatic stress wasn't easy.

JOHN EPISCOPO: Speaking to a therapist that's not in the business is difficult, because there's certain -- it's like talking a different language.

I have to explain everything.

But it definitely helped.

It kind of gave me the permission to feel the emotions that I felt.

At I think -- at least with 9/11, I think the stigma behind the mental health has been taken -- has been diminished.

JOHN YANG: New York-Presbyterian Hospital psychologist Dr. JoAnn Difede has worked with 9/11 survivors to overcome that stigma.

In September 2001, she was treating burn patients with PTSD.

After 9/11, her work became all the more urgent.

Difede pioneered using virtual reality therapy to transport her patients back to the sights and sounds of that day.

DR. JOANN DIFEDE, New York-Presbyterian Hospital: Many people will tell you even to this day, on a September day, and the sky gets a certain blue cast to it, they will think of the World Trade Center.

They learned that the blue sky was associated with a terrorist attack and something horrific and unimaginable.

JOHN YANG: By confronting their trauma, they were able to overcome it.

DR. JOANN DIFEDE: So, the whole idea in these trauma simulations is, you go over your trauma as if it were happening again in the present tense, so that your brain starts to learn, it's a September day.

It's not -- it's not 9/11, 2001.

JOHN YANG: For many, the pandemic has meant a new kind of mental stress, trauma that can be especially acute for front-line health care workers.

DR. ANTONIO DAJER: And I think 9/11 was such a short event, at least for us.

It didn't test our endurance the way COVID has.

JOHN YANG: As a paramedic on Long Island, Episcopo has seen that fatigue first-hand.

JOHN EPISCOPO: This pandemic is this generation's 9/11.

The stress is overwhelming, the -- seeing death in many levels.

It's the same type of experience.

So, there's no doubt in my mind that the co-workers of mine and friends that were in the height working the street of the pandemic will end up developing PTSD.

JOHN YANG: Difede is working on a virtual reality program to treat front-line medical workers' trauma.

DR. JOANN DIFEDE: The enemy was invisible, unlike the World Trade Center, where it was, at least in one element, more visible.

If you think about our health care workers, some of my colleagues worked around the clock seven days a week for a very, very long time taking care of people who were gravely ill, many of whom died.

They saw death more frequently than they had ever seen in their entire career.

JOHN YANG: Episcopo and Delaney have lasting physical ailments from 9/11 and its aftermath.

Breathing in the toxic dust, smoke and fumes at Ground Zero puts them at higher risk of severe illness if they get COVID-19.

But they say that the threat of isolation during the pandemic was just as debilitating as the threat of the virus itself.

JOHN EPISCOPO: The interaction is key to the mental health of the responder.

That's what has helped me deal with and live through the aftermath of September.

JOHN YANG: And as much as the last 18 months have stressed health care workers, Dr. Antonio Dajer says he's now seen another mass trauma event bring out the best in doctors, nurses and paramedics, and the city.

DR. ANTONIO DAJER: There's a community spirit that mimicked 9/11 to some extent, that this really was everybody in it together.

There was that sense of shared experience that I think probably sustained many people through it.

JOHN YANG: As they struggle through a different kind of calamity, one whose memorials are yet to be built.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm John Yang in New York.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Our broadcast studio is located a few short miles from the Pentagon just outside Washington.

On 9/11, that iconic structure designed to project American military might was struck clear out of the blue, just like the Twin Towers; 184 people died both in the building and on American Flight -- American Airlines Flight 77, excluding the hijackers.

There are many more who escaped.

And now we hear from one of them, whose story was brought to us by The War Horse.

It's a nonprofit newsroom focused on coverage of veterans and the military.

Robert Hogue worked for the Marine Corps, and he made it out after the plane crashed just below his office.

ROBERT HOGUE, Former Counsel to Commandant of the Marine Corps: Starts out like any other day.

Marine Corps, where I was working, of course, starts very early.

I was the deputy counsel for the commandant at that time, a senior executive position, one of the very few civilians working on the senior Marine staff.

And it was also my one-year anniversary.

So, I was a little bit -- I was happy, kind of goofing around, calling up my boss, you can't fire me now, I have made my probationary period, you know.

But when I came into his office, he was talking to another attorney.

And they had New York on TV.

And so it made things suddenly serious.

But, also, there was a lot of confusion.

Nobody really knew what was going on.

I was in and out of the office for the next almost hour, it seemed like.

And then I happened to be in his office when the second plane flew in, hit the second tower.

And then it's just a -- hard to describe, but I would just say that, in a moment, you knew that you were a nation at war.

And I don't think anybody had any real idea who we were at war with.

I had an administrative chief, an admin chief, a young corporal named Tim Garofola.

He was a Marine.

I asked him to get the security status of the Pentagon, thinking, hey, we're in the flight pattern for National Airport.

Seemed like a good idea.

He called down to the security office, and, in the midst of all the running around, comes back into my office and reports the threat condition is normal, THREATCON normal.

And I said, that's obviously a mistake.

You need to check.

Like, every five minutes, report back to me.

And about 9:30, he came into my office.

And this is how many times it is.

He showed up every five minutes.

And he says, threat condition still normal.

And I jumped up from my desk.

And I just started to rant: "You know, we're in the flight pattern for National Airport, for Christ's sake," you know?

And I left my office.

We're in an interior suite.

The office runs parallel to the west wall.

And I turned to go to my office, my boss' office, Peter Murphy.

And right about time I got to the door, it was just boom.

The experience of being blown up is more like a lost time experience.

I'm walking, and then I'm over there, waking up on the floor kind of thing.

I was very fortunate.

I had been on the south side of the building and blown to the north side.

I started to pick myself up.

I recognized I'm looking through my boss' windows from a distance.

I can see a tumbling cloud going up the other side of the windows.

It's the -- it's the fireball.

I say to Corporal Garofola: "Get us out of here."

When the plane exploded, it pushed the fuel out into every crack it could find, of course.

And because it had opened up a very large hole in the bottom of the building, it had plenty of oxygen to fuel the fire.

Well, our windows didn't blow out.

The Pentagon had just been reconstructed.

And it had these blast-proof windows put in.

And God bless the guys who put those in.

That saved our lives.

I mean, the plane went into the building right under us.

We were on the south side of the building, the side that's collapsing.

We have to jump the crack to get to the other side, which we do.

And then we gather ourselves there.

And, as this is happening, the floor continues to pull away.

The south side, in which direction is the fourth corridor, which is the closest way out, but in order to get there, you have to run down this crumbling hallway.

It looked a bit like a shooting gallery.

It was not very inviting.

To the north side, which is the only other - - in that part of the Pentagon, you can only go in these two directions, north or south.

South is not good.

To the north side is the construction entrance.

You see these tan pants appear... (LAUGHTER) ROBERT HOGUE: ... in the construction, tan pants appearing in the construction area.

And tan pants, it's the Navy -- Navy chief probably, I'm thinking, and he starts to yell.

And even I can hear this.

He's yelling as loud as he can: "If you can hear my voice, come this way.

There's a way out."

So now we know we can escape.

And it occurred to me at that moment that we can't just run, even though I desperately, desperately want to run.

But I said, no, we're going to search these offices.

And I sent Corporal Garofola into the first office.

As soon as he left, it's like a piece of me got carved out.

I just felt like that was just a terrible mistake.

But he went in.

And I counted to 10.

And at 10, I started in and practically ran into him coming out.

And he had found someone under a desk.

So, that is Tim Garofola saving a life.

I had a pretty significant brain injury.

And I was starting to struggle from the pressure inside my head and all the things that a massive concussion does to you.

It starts to crowd out your thinking.

And, anyway, we finally get ourselves out of the building, long story short.

And Joe Baker had his phone with him.

And he was trying to call his wife and he couldn't get her.

And I said: "Let me try.

I will call Cheryle."

And I called and she picked up.

And I said: "We made it out.

We're in the parking lot.

We're safe.

We're going to come home."

We were called in the next day.

And planning for the war started really the next day in a conference room at the Navy Annex.

And I took a call from a guy named Robert Barrow, who was a former Marine, as he told it.

And he was volunteering.

He was a very old man, and he was volunteering to carry a rifle.

And I thought, wow.

You know, where do you get these guys?

As it turns out, Barrow was a former commandant who was very elderly and infirm, and I think very sincerely was offering to do one more thing for his country.

Well, I had the privilege of serving alongside Marines for almost two decades.

And I think what I'd want people to know is, it's not what it seems.

It's not what it seems like in the press.

It's not what it seems like on TV.

It's sure as heck is not what it seems like in the movies.

The Corps and I think all the services are trying to prepare themselves to do an awful mission that everybody hopes they never have to do.

It's an organization, imperfect, trying to do a very hard thing.

And they need help.

And they need understanding.

They need time and the patience of the public and I think the gratitude of the public as well.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And, Robert Hogue, we're going to let your words speak for themselves.

We are so grateful to you and everyone who represented the United States on that terrible, terrible day.

And that's the "NewsHour" for tonight.

I'm Judy Woodruff.

Join us online and again here tomorrow evening.

For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour," thank you, please stay safe, and we'll see you soon.