“Beyond political resolution?” Peace talks stall in the Mideast; Herd immunity is diminishing, an exclusive NBC News investigation finds

Summary

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Podcast Summary: "Beyond Political Resolution?" Peace Talks Stall in the Mideast; Herd Immunity Is Diminishing

Podcast: Here’s the Scoop (NBC News)
Air Date: September 15, 2025
Host: Yasmin Vossoughian
Featured Contributors: Keir Simmons, Stephanie Gosk

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Episode Overview

This episode of "Here's the Scoop" delivers an incisive look at two of the day’s most consequential news stories:

1. Peace Talks Stagnate in the Middle East: U.S.-backed negotiations to end the war in Gaza have faltered after a controversial Israeli airstrike struck Hamas targets in Doha, Qatar—risking diplomatic relations and the already-tenuous negotiation process.
2. Exclusive Investigation—Vaccine Rates Falling: NBC News shares the findings of a sweeping, six-month investigation (in partnership with Stanford) into childhood vaccination rates, revealing alarming declines in immunization and rising exemptions nationwide.

The episode combines field reporting, data analysis, and expert interviews to give listeners essential context and direct insight into these urgent issues.

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1. Middle East Peace Talks Derail After Israeli Strike

Key Discussion Points

• Israeli Strike in Qatar:

  • Israel launched a targeted airstrike on Hamas leaders in Doha, Qatar, jeopardizing delicate peace negotiations and angering both U.S. officials and Qatari mediators.
  • President Trump’s administration, notably Secretary of State Marco Rubio, expresses rare public frustration with Israel's unilateral actions.
    • Quote:
      • "Obviously, we are not happy about the strikes in Qatar." — Secretary Rubio (paraphrased by Yasmin, [01:53])

• Diplomatic Fallout

  • The strike reportedly nearly killed Qatar’s chief Israel-Hamas negotiator, whose meeting was delayed at the last minute.
  • Keir Simmons (NBC News Chief International Correspondent) explains that the incident leaves President Trump’s Middle East strategy "hanging by a thread," seriously undercutting objectives for peace and regional normalization.
    • Quote:
      • "Both of those objectives now look much more unlikely...it may be that there is no political solution to the situation in Gaza." — Keir Simmons ([02:36]-[03:20])
  • Secretary Rubio is set to continue urgent diplomacy with Muslim and Arab leaders in Qatar.

• Ceasefire and Hostage Stalemate

  • Simmons reports no ongoing peace or hostage negotiations in Qatar at the moment, though Qatari mediators vow to persist.
    • Quote:
      • "Qatar is saying that it wants to continue its mediation role...I wouldn't discount that we do see more talks, maybe even here in Doha." — Keir Simmons ([04:57])
  • Reports of deaths include junior Hamas officials and a Qatari official, with the strike landing in a heavily diplomatic, residential area.

• Broader Escalation & Domestic Pressure

  • Israel continues airstrikes into Gaza; 55 killed according to Gaza health ministry.
  • Movement toward a new offensive in Gaza City looms, with dire risks to civilians.
  • Protests erupt inside Israel over Netanyahu’s handling of the war and hostages.
    • Quote:
      • "One of the hostage families groups now describing Prime Minister Netanyahu as the main obstacle to a deal." — Keir Simmons ([06:39])

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2. Exclusive: U.S. Childhood Herd Immunity Is Slipping

Key Discussion Points

• Background of the Investigation

  • Six-month NBC News & Stanford study compiled county-level vaccination data on kindergarteners nationwide, exposing worrying declines in immunization rates and surging exemptions.
    • Quote:
      • "They reached out to every department of health in every state in the country...to get this county by county data about vaccines." — Stephanie Gosk ([10:22])

• Declining Vaccination Rates

  • Since 2019, 77% of counties/jurisdictions report falling vaccination rates.
  • For the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine, 68% of counties are now below the 95% herd immunity threshold.
    • Quote:
      • "Since 2019, you had 77% of counties in jurisdictions that have seen a decline in their vaccination rates...68% of counties and jurisdictions now have rates below 95%." — Yasmin Vossoughian ([11:28])

• Rising Exemptions—Not Just Medical

  • Exemptions have more than doubled in 53% of counties/jurisdictions; many are for religious or philosophical rather than medical reasons.
    • Quote:
      • "53% of counties and jurisdictions saw their exemption rates more than double...That means children are going to school...not up to date on their vaccines." — Stephanie Gosk ([12:00])

• Factors Driving the Trend

  • Vaccine skepticism, widespread on social media, compounds with uneven access (especially in low-income communities like St. Louis).
  • Exemptions, lax school enforcement, and in some cases, school administrators quietly ignoring mandates to avoid losing federal funding or exacerbating attendance problems.
    • Quote:
      • "She said that the situation is so bad that it would mean potentially in some schools, hundreds of students not allowed to go to school..." — Stephanie Gosk ([14:52])

• Outbreaks Now Likely

  • Gosk warns, based on expert consensus, that another large-scale outbreak is a "matter of time." St. Louis is highlighted as a high-risk city after vaccination rates dropped from nearly 90% in 2010 to 74% in 2024.
    • Quote:
      • "Experts say it is a matter of time before we see another outbreak. [...] She's concerned that it's going to take something like that in a city like St. Louis for people to pay attention." — Stephanie Gosk ([16:06])

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3. Other Headlines & Pop Culture

News Wrap-Up ([16:39] - [19:18])

• Charlie Kirk’s Assassination:

  • Vice President J.D. Vance hosts Kirk’s show in tribute; suspect Tyler Robinson to be charged, with evidence of left-wing ideology involvement.

• TikTok Legal Saga:

  • U.S. and China reach a tentative agreement, allowing the app to continue operating days before a potential ban.

• NYC Politics:

  • NY Governor Kathy Hochul endorses Zohran Mamdani for mayor, highlighting the city's shifting political landscape.

• Bad Bunny’s Historic San Juan Residency:

  • Draws 600,000+ fans, injects $200 million into Puerto Rico’s economy, reversing the trend set by global tours.

Pop Culture Beat: The Boombox Moment in “Say Anything” ([19:18] - [20:38])

• Behind-the-Scenes Scoop:

  • John Cusack's legendary boombox scene almost didn’t happen—the director tricked him into filming it to capture a genuine, reluctant expression.

    • Quote:
      • "They asked John Cusack to do it one more time, hoisting the boombox above his head, insisting they didn’t even have film in the camera. Well, that is when they caught his perfectly pissed expression, the very thing that gave that moment the magic." — Yasmin Vossoughian ([19:22])

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• "[...] it may be that there is no political solution to the situation in Gaza."
  — Keir Simmons ([03:20])

• "Since 2019, you had 77% of counties...that have seen a decline in their vaccination rates."
  — Yasmin Vossoughian ([11:28])

• "53% of counties and jurisdictions saw their exemption rates more than double..."
  — Stephanie Gosk ([12:00])

• "Experts say it is a matter of time before we see another outbreak."
  — Stephanie Gosk ([16:06])

• “They asked John Cusack to do it one more time...insisting they didn’t even have film in the camera. Well, that is when they caught his perfectly pissed expression, the very thing that gave that moment the magic.”
  — Yasmin Vossoughian ([19:22])

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Summary Takeaways

• Diplomatic risk and frustration over Israel’s recent actions leave Middle East peace efforts at their lowest point yet, with potential for broader regional fallout and public pressure mounting within Israel for change.
• America’s herd immunity is eroding, primarily due to growing vaccine hesitancy, uneven access, and school enforcement loopholes—setting the nation up for renewed outbreaks of preventable diseases.
• A rich news wrap compresses key U.S. political and cultural happenings, while offering a lighter pop culture close.

For those who missed this episode, “Here’s the Scoop” delivers deep, clear reporting on urgent issues—with on-the-ground details and human stories you won’t find in headlines alone.

Transcript

[Adriana Brock]

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[Yasmin Bisugian]

Welcome to here's the scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Bisugian. Today on the show, we are digging into a six month long investigation by the NBC News Medical unit along with researchers at Stanford University on childhood vaccine rates across nearly every county in this country. And then the most iconic scene of a 1980s teen rom com almost never got made. We are starting today, though, in the Middle east, where peace talks to end the war in Gaza have hit a wall just days after Israel carried out a targeted strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar. Now the US Is pressing Israel for answers after the attack hit an allied country and the very negotiators that were meant to be brokering peace. Here's President Trump.

[President Trump]

Overnight, Qatar has been a very great ally. So Israel and everybody else, we have to be careful when we attack people. We have to be careful.

[Yasmin Bisugian]

Secretary of State Marco Rubio traveled to Israel where he held a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Now Secretary Rubio is heading to Qatar for a summit with Arab and Muslim leaders. All of this is coming as NBC News is learning new details about that Israeli strike inside Qatar. A diplomatic source telling us the country's lead negotiator between Israel and Hamas was actually supposed to be at the site that was hit. But his meeting with Hamas was delayed at the very last minute. Want to bring in now NBC News chief international correspondent Keir Simmons. Hi, Keir.

[Keir Simmons]

Hey, Yasmin. How you doing?

[Yasmin Bisugian]

I'm good. I think it's important for people to really understand how crucial this moment is. Secretary Rubio told reporters on Saturday, quote, obviously we are not happy about the strikes in Qatar. But what do we know about Rubio's meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu?

[Keir Simmons]

Well, we know what happened in public, which was that Prime Minister Netanyahu talked about the relationship between Israel and the United States in two ways, really. One, that it was solid, as solid, he said, as the bricks in the Western wall that he took Secretary of State Rubio to see. And at the same time, he insisted that the strike on that Hamas political office here in Doha was a independent Israeli operation. Of course, the issue is that what that strike has done is left President Trump's Middle east strategy hanging by a thread, has jeopardized President Trump's stated objective, which is to try to gain a peace deal over the war in Gaza. And it has jeopardized another of President Trump's objectives, which is to get a normalization of relations between Israel and more Arab countries. Both of those objectives now look much more unlikely. And in fact, Secretary of State Rubio, after his meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu, said as much. It may be that there is no political solution to the situation in Gaza. Pretty negative perspective from the diplomat, along with Steve Witkoff, the Trump envoy whose job is to achieve those goals.

[Yasmin Bisugian]

For President Trump, that is huge, especially coming out of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and saying he doesn't necessarily see a political path forward. What is beyond a political resolution, I.

[Keir Simmons]

Think the issue is the Trump administration's policy is both that Hamas cannot have any kind of a leadership role in Gaza, cannot be part of anything, any kind of solution, and on the other hand, that they want an end to the war and that they want to bring about peace for the Palestinian people. I think what Secretary of State Rubio is really facing and what the Trump administration is facing is that even after all of these tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths, it is very difficult to kind of pry Hamas's grip fingers away from the hold that they have on Gaza.

[Yasmin Bisugian]

Is it fair, though, to say at this point, Kir, just so folks can understand that there are no ongoing ceasefire and or peace negotiations happening in Qatar after this latest strike, and do we know exactly if there were any casualties from the strike and who they were?

[Keir Simmons]

So, in terms of the question of whether there are ongoing peace talks, Qatar is saying that it will continue. It wants to continue its mediation role. And in a way, that's not surprising, because in terms of Qatar's interests, mediating this crisis, this war, is a way of Qatar kind of, you know, making itself useful to the United States. I wouldn't discount that. We do see more talks, maybe even here in Doha, in terms of who was killed. There were a number of more junior Hamas officials killed and a Qatari official. And we've driven, by the way, Yasmin, around the district where this happened. And there are embassies there, there are schools there. I mean, it's a residential area and a diplomatic quarter. This thing was so risky that that's why, frankly, so many people are stunned. I'm hearing in the Trump administration, there were senior people who were really taken aback by all of this.

[Yasmin Bisugian]

Israel launched airstrikes in Gaza, killing at least 55 people on Sunday, according to the health Ministry in Hamas ruled Gaza. You couple that with everything that we've just heard from you where it seems like we're at a standstill and Israel is continuing to advance into Gaza. Where does that leave us?

[Keir Simmons]

I think the other part of this, though, is the looming question now about whether Israel will launch an offensive on Gaza City with again, huge numbers of Palestinian civilians there and some of them fleeing and some of them not.

[Yasmin Bisugian]

And you have continued protests inside Israel calling for Prime Minister Netanyahu to end the war and many not happy with his continued leadership and his ultimate objective when it comes to Gaza.

[Keir Simmons]

Yeah. One of the hostage families groups now describing Prime Minister Netanyahu as the main obstacle to a deal that would have those hostages released. You can only imagine the angst of those hostage families after the strike on Doha. The criticism of Prime Minister Netanyahu and the leadership team around him is that this strike has, critics say, less likely that the hostages will be released. Now, what of course, Prime Minister Netanyahu would say and what his administration would say is that Hamas is cynically holding onto those hostages in order to hold onto power. And so that the responsibility lies with Hamas for, for everything that's happened here.

[Yasmin Bisugian]

Cure Simmons. Thank you.

[Keir Simmons]

You bet.

[Yasmin Bisugian]

All right. We're going to take a quick break. When we are back, we are digging into a big study from our med unit on vaccines.

[Adriana Brock]

This week on Meet THE press as the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk sends shockwaves across the nation. Kristen Welker sits down with Utah Governor Spencer Cox, Pete Buttigieg and Senators Mark Kelly and Lindsey Grabb. This week on MEET THE to the full episode. Now, wherever you get your podcasts, who's.

[Yasmin Bisugian]

Ready for some football?

[Adriana Brock]

All season, the Today show takes you inside the game.

[Yasmin Bisugian]

We are going to get this party started.

[Adriana Brock]

Join us every week as we go behind the scenes with your favorite NFL teams for the biggest stories on and off the field.

[Keir Simmons]

Big game tonight.

[Adriana Brock]

Plus game day recipes that dial up your tailgate.

[Yasmin Bisugian]

Football food soup to nuts.

[Adriana Brock]

From stadium lights to game day bites, the Today show is your home for all things football every morning on NBC.

[Yasmin Bisugian]

And we're back with here's the scoop from NBC News. It appears that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Is setting his sights on the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. The program was created by Congress back in 1986, protecting vaccine makers from liability and it created a special court to award financial damages for vaccine injuries, which are relatively rare. The vicp, as it's known, has also helped ensure the US Has a reliable supply of vaccines. It's just this latest move by Kennedy to chip away at the nation's vaccine infrastructure. But it's coming at a moment when others in the administration, including the President himself, are sometimes sending very different, sometimes even opposite messages about vaccines.

[President Trump]

Look, you have vaccines that work. They just pure and simple work. They're not controversial at all. And I think those vaccines should be used, otherwise some people are going to catch it and they endanger other people.

[Yasmin Bisugian]

Bottom line, all the mixed messaging is taking a toll. Trust in vaccines is slipping. And now the vaccination rates themselves are starting to slide. That is according to a new extensive data analysis from the NBC News Med Unit in collaboration with Stanford University. Our own NBC News correspondent, Stephanie Gosk has been working with the team on this, and she joins me now to talk more about this. Hey, Steph, tell us about what you found here.

[Stephanie Gosk]

Hey, Yas. You know, this is really incredible and I'm so proud to have been a part of this project. The genesis of it is that the medical unit was sitting around during the measles outbreak in Gaines County, Texas, which I'm sure you remember, and they were thinking to themselves, you know, how can we broaden this out and take an interesting look at where vaccination rates stand around the country. They then embarked on this six month long project where they reached out to every department of health in every state in the country to get this county by county data about vaccines and vaccine rates among children, specifically kindergarteners. Now, you know, to gather that amount of data, it wasn't like these departments were, hey, oh yeah, hey, I'll just send you an email and you'll have it. This was phone calls after phone calls, FOIAs. And what they have essentially compiled here, really remarkably, is a county by county look at the entire country and vaccination rates across all across the country. They worked together with researchers at Stanford University to crunch the data and they came up with some interesting stuff.

[Yasmin Bisugian]

I want to talk numbers if we can, Steph, because I think the numbers kind of really tell the story.

[Stephanie Gosk]

Absolutely.

[Yasmin Bisugian]

Since 2019, you had 77% of counties in jurisdictions that have seen a decline in their vaccination rates. That's a huge number. And then among the states that are collecting MMR data, which is measles, mumps, rubella data, 68% of counties and jurisdictions now have rates below 95% that's the target vaccination rate for herd immunity. Walk me through some more of these numbers that you've been seeing in this study.

[Stephanie Gosk]

Yeah, yeah, sure. I mean, the other big number is not only did they look at vaccination rates, they looked at exemptions now in school districts for children. Most states require kids be up to date on their vaccinations or they can't attend school unless they have an exemption. And exemptions can be given for medical reasons, but they can also be given for religious and philosophical reasons. And according to the numbers that our team dug up, 53% of counties and jurisdictions saw their exemption rates more than double from their first year of data to their most recent. And that's a pretty remarkable number, too. So that means children are going to school, they have an exemption. They are not up to date on their vaccines.

[Yasmin Bisugian]

So there's a couple things that you said in there that I think are really important. One is that it's not just medical exemptions. It's for religious and or philosophical reasons in which they could have exemptions for actually getting these vaccines. Do we know why it is they're allowing this to go forward?

[Stephanie Gosk]

Well, look, the tone and tenor of, first of all, this administration coming straight from RFK Jr. But nationwide, there is a growing vaccine hesitancy. And you know that when you go online and particularly through social media, you hear a lot of people out there raising questions about the safety and efficacy of some of these vaccines that have been around for a very long time and have actually prevented certain diseases, measles among them, polio and others. And you combine that with a place like St. Louis, and this is interesting, I traveled there and did some interviews there. In lower income areas, access to vaccines is difficult. So you have to really make an effort. Sometimes that means people not going to, you know, parents not going to work to get their kids vaccinated. They don't get paid that day. You combine that with a general hesitancy, and that's in some cases what is creating this dive in vaccines. Now, let's talk about St. Louis for just a second. St. Louis, among kindergarteners, the numbers have dropped from 2010 to 2024 for the measles vaccine have dropped from nearly 90% to 74%. Now, that is lower than Gaines County, Texas, where that outbreak took place. And if you think about a city like St. Louis, if they had an outbreak of similar proportions in St. Louis, in Gaines county, it was 100 people hospitalized and two children who lost their lives. In St. Louis, those numbers get Much, much bigger, very quickly.

[Yasmin Bisugian]

And the thing is, is that in St. Louis, I know that kids are required to be vaccinated when going to public schools. But it seems as if in your reporting and what NBC has found out is, in fact, some of these schools are turning kind of a blind eye to this because they don't want to lose federal funding.

[Stephanie Gosk]

Yeah, there are a couple of things going on there. You know, the school district answered some of our questions over email, but they did not sit down for an interview with us. But our team made contact with the head nurse and had a conversation with her about the situation there when it comes to following the vaccine mandates for the schools. And what she said is that the situation is so bad that it would mean potentially in some schools, hundreds of students not allowed to go to school. So you have these school administrators who are saying to themselves, you know, where are our priorities here? Are we really going to send these kids home? That's part of it. And then if they do and the numbers are in the hundreds, then a school district that's just scraping by as it is could potentially see their funding drop on top of it. And what they're not hearing in that community is anyone in a leadership position who is looking at these vaccine declines and saying that this is potentially a problem, it is just not talked about.

[Yasmin Bisugian]

Is the sense, Steph, that this is just gonna get worse if you're looking at these numbers and especially places like St. Louis, which is not even reaching herd immunity at this point.

[Stephanie Gosk]

You know, experts say it is a matter of time before we see another outbreak. And there are a lot of people that we spoke to in St. Louis that are concerned, including an incredible school nurse who said that she's concerned that it's going to take something like that in a city like St. Louis for people to pay attention to what's going on here.

[Yasmin Bisugian]

And by the way, you can catch more of Steph's reporting on Nightly News tonight. Stephanie Gosk, thank you.

[Stephanie Gosk]

Thanks for the time. Appreciate it.

[Yasmin Bisugian]

All right, let's get to some headlines. Vice President J.D. vance hosted the Charlie Kirk show today as a tribute to his friend Kirk, who was assassinated last week. The vice president said, quote, I don't think that I'm alone in saying that Charlie was the smartest political operative I ever met. Charlie Kirk's organization, Turning Point USA, announced the Conservative Activist Funeral will be held Sunday, September 21, at State Farm Stadium in Arizona. And President Donald Trump said he's going to be there. Meanwhile, the suspect in Charlie Kirk's murder, 22 year old Tyler Robinson of Utah has now been linked to evidence found at the crime scene, according to the FBI Director Kash Patel. In an interview with Fox News Today, Director Patel said the suspect's actions were premeditated and his family, quote, collectively told investigators that he subscribed to left wing ideology. Robinson is expected to be formally charged tomorrow. TikTok's legal limbo may finally be ending, Treasury Secretary Scott Besant says WASHINGTON Beijing have hammered out a framework for a deal just two days before the app was set to Vanish again on September 17. China's Vice Minister of Commerce confirming a quote, basic consensus while President Trump rushed to True Social to claim credit, announcing that a deal had been struck on an app that, in his words, young people very much wanted to save translation. TikTok dances may live to trend another day. New York governor Kathy Hochul has endorsed Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City. In a guest essay for the New York Times, she acknowledged their differences on public safety and economics, but said their shared focus on affordability and determination to push back on President Trump's agenda sealed her decision. Mamdani, a Democratic socialist and the Democratic primary winner, welcomed the nod, praising Hochul's stance on both the president and affordability. That Bunny's San Juan residency Nome Quiero y I Don't Want to Leave Here took its final bow. In just 30 shows, he drew some 600,000 fans from around the world and pumped nearly $200 million into Puerto Rico's economy, according to the island's nonprofit tourism board. Discover Puerto Rico. We have seen tours like Taylor Swift's Eras Tour and Beyonce's Renaissance fueled tourism. But Bad Bunny flipped the script. Instead of going global, he made the globe come to him, turning his hometown into both a stage and a love letter to Puerto Rico.

[Adriana Brock]

In your eyes, the light, the heat.

[Yasmin Bisugian]

Your eyes, sure, the music's in your eyes. But behind the scenes, John Cusack had some serious side eye for that scene. It turns out the legendary boombox scene from say Anything almost never happened. Could you imagine? Director Cameron Crowe told the New York Times he and the movie cinematographer tricked John Cusack into filming it by insisting the camera wasn't even loaded with film. Cusack thought the whole thing was corny and too submissive. They originally shot the scene scene with the boombox on the car. Then they asked John Cusack to do it one more time, hoisting the boombox above his head, insisting they didn't even have film in the camera. Well, that is when they caught his perfectly pissed expression, the very thing that gave that moment the magic. And let's be honest, everybody, girls everywhere, including myself, were secretly hoping someone, anyone, would show up outside their window, speakers raised high, blasting their love story into the night. All right, that's gonna do it for us. Here's a scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Vesugin. We'll be back tomorrow with whatever the day may bring.

[Adriana Brock]

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