work? a tricky argument for the government. end of the day, john, the core of it is the help necessary for those thrown out of work by covid? that $600 in some shape or form will have to be returned back. >> a debate in congress. appreciate your insights. for the latest news check out "market now" streaming only at cnn business. top of the hour. welcome to viewers in the united states, and around the world. i'm john king in washington. thank you for sharing your day with us. a frightening baseline truth this hour. the coronavirus pandemic is accelerating. global case count near certain to eclipse 15 million today. the world now averaging a pandemic high of 231,000 new infections per day. the united states accounts for more than a quarter of those. average of 66,000-plus confirmed infections just over the past week. the numbers send a clear message

according to the nation's top infectious disease expert dr. anthony fauci who says at the moment, we are losing. >> we ultimately will get control of it. i don't really see us eradicating it. i think with a combination of good public health measures, a degree of global many herd immunity and a good vaccine, which i do hope and feel cautiously optimistic that we will get, i think when you put all three of those together, i think we will get very good control of this. >> and dr. fauci says he's not quite sure whether a vaccine will come this year or next and adds it's impossible to know how long the vaccine would protect you against the virus. the u.s. government investing in a big way today. nearly $2 billion to obtain hundreds of millions of doses of a vaccine candidate. until then, the mission, minimize the spread. a fight the president now admits

likely to get worse before it gets better. mapping out the cases now. look at this week versus last week across the states, 26 states heading up in the wrong direction. 26 states heading in the wrong direction. 20 of them holding steady. 4 states at the moment trending down. 26 up sounds bad. actually better than a few days ago when we were at 38 states heading in the wrong direction. map out the deaths right now. this is sad. remember, cases go up. sadly, wait a few weeks, hospitalizations and death counts tend to follow. new deaths in the past week versus the previous, 13 steady 15 down. sad numbers look at those. look at the seven-day moving average of deaths, tuesday, back above 1,000. 1,082 deaths right there. again, a sad number. deaths tend to be a lagging indicator. let's hope this starts to drop. seven-day average trending in a

bad way at the moment. abc a arizona part of the hot spot. 3,500 new cases reported yesterday. the seven-day moving trend, hope yesterday was about aberration and it continues to go down. important to watch in each of these states. can they plateau and arizona 3,500 new cases yesterday and, again, deaths lag the case count. you see this trickling up. trend of the arizona deaths, 147, record a couple days ago on july 21, just yesterday, 134 deaths reported there. tend to lag the other cases. as the fight continues right now, the president says wear it a mask. the president says, this is rare, not long ago said it would disappear, going away, dieing out. now likely to get worse before it gets better. dr. fauci says this is like fight ag perfect storm. >> we are certainly not at the end of the game. i'm not even sure we're half way through. it is really an infectious

diseases person, a public health person, also your worst nightmare. you know, it's the perfect storm. we are living right now through a historic pandemic outbreak. and we are right now in a situation where we do not see any particular end in sight. >> with me now to share xpeertexpeert expertise and number one president saying going to get worse before it gets better. you hear's top expert dr. fauci talk about a perfect storm, take us inside what he means and why it's so difficult now that we have a high summer surge, high case count, what makes it difficult to knock it down? >> john, it's a combination of the virus and our response to it. so this is a highly infectious respiratory virus that transmits in a significant way through people who do not have symptoms

making it very hard to block transmission, when somebody who doesn't have symptoms may not even realize they're infected. also it's a question of lack of leadership apartment the national level and poor leadership even apartment the state level in many states where governors rushed to reopen and haven't taken measures necessary to flatten the curve, really to protect health systems and reduce did it number of transmissions, such that public health officials are able to get their hands around it. so right now the virus is so out of control, it's very difficult for us to do that, with the tools we have at hand. >> and you mentioned the tools we have at hand. one of the tools vital to trying to get a sense how bad is it in my community is testing. we see again not only some people can't get tests or delays to get a test, then a problem of even if you get a test you might wait seven days, in some cases two weeks for results. listen to dr. fauci talking

about how that essentially makes the test useless. >> when you get to six or seven days that real mitigates against getting a good tracing and a good isolation. so we've got to do better on that. >> i'm not sure what it would take. >> troubles me when the top expert in the united states government says i'm not sure what it would take, but to that question. trying to contact trace, trying to isolates and understand how deep is the spread in my community, ten days to two weeks makes that test useless. right? >> that's right. because by then, john, all of the transmissions that are going to occur from that indexed case will have occurred. so that sort of, once the impact, contact tracing, the whole point of contact tracing is to detect cases before they've transmitted onward. so, again, it's very difficult to do contact tracings when you have so many cases in the community, and also why the idea of mass testing of everybody was brought up, and in order to

capture those infectious cases early enough that you prevent onward transmission. >> and so one of the issues, we've had this conversation sadly five-plus months now, everything seems reactive. the government is reacting as opposed to being proactive and getting ahead of something. dr. fauci saying, not sure what it would take. you mentioned the possibility of mass testing, pool testing kicked around. what would it take? so that experts like yourself would have a folder full of data available helping you say, okay, here's what we need to do? >> the pool testing is really about batch testing where you're combining a couple specimens and testing simultaneously with one test. stretching resources. mass testing if we could get a test that was cheap and fast enough, where we could be testing everybody, say, every three, four days, you would be able to detect cases, people who are infectious even before they have symptoms and you would be able to isolate them, offer them medical care if they need it.

most importantly, be able to prevent them from infecting others. but we're still a long ways off from doing something like that. >> a long ways off from something like that, and to that point, as we do test in some states about 20% florida around 18%. look nationally, positivity rate trend, 8% nationally. what does that, explain to people at home why that matters? if 8% of the national tests are coming back positive, and in some states seeing it much higher than that, why is that so important? for me, a lay person, tells me we're nowhere close to controlling the spread. what else? >> well, it tells us we're not testing nearly enough. because it means we're not really capturing all the cases out there. if you have that many tests coming back positive, you know, we should really be doing, testing way more people without symptoms at all, meaning negative rate should be much higher. the data we have seen coming out recently including a paper from the cdc just in the last day

would indicate that there is 6 to over 20 times as many cases of coronavirus nationally than what the official case reports would indicate. >> and numbers of numbing enough. do that math, gets bordering on depressing i guess. appreciate your time and insights and expertise. we'll continue the conversation. up next for us, one of those states worrying about. doctors and nurses in arizona struggling to keep up with the surge in cases. meanwhile, teachers fighting taking a stance on reopening schools. come on in, we're open. ♪ all we do is hand you the bag. simple. done. we adapt and we change. you know, you just figure it out. we've just been finding a way to keep on pushing. ♪

i may not be able to tell time, but i know what time it is. [whispering] it's grilled cheese o'clock. our first for thicker-looking brows. brow fiber extensions... in a stick. brows look thicker. instantly. new brow extensions crayon. only from maybelline new york.

new brow$$9.95? no way.?on. $9.95? that's impossible. hi, i'm jonathan, a manager here at colonial penn life insurance company, to tell you it is possible. if you're age 50 to 85, you can get life insurance with options starting at just $9.95 a month. okay, jonathan, i'm listening. tell me more. just $9.95 a month for colonial penn's number one most popular

whole life insurance plan. there are no health questions to answer and there are no medical exams to take. your acceptance is guaranteed. guaranteed acceptance? i like guarantees. keep going. and with this plan, your rate is locked in for your lifetime, so it will never go up. sounds good to me, but at my age, i need the security of knowing it won't get cancelled as i get older. this is lifetime coverage as long as you pay your premiums. it can never be cancelled, call now for free information. you'll also get this free beneficiary planner. use this valuable guide to record your important information and give helpful direction about your final wishes to your loved ones. and it's yours free. it's our way of saying thank you just for calling. so call now.

teachers in arizona plan ralryes in their cars later today to pro test the possible reopening of schools. arizona's republican governor wants classrooms back in session by mid-august. many question whether that's a good idea, because as we all know the state now trying to flatten its curve after a surge of summer coronavirus cases. joining me now, dr. hannah dillon, emergency room physician in tucson. doctor, grateful for your time. if you look at arizona, i can

put up our national map. this is the statistics we have to be careful with them. at the moment look at the 50 states, arizona is green. that is good. means its cases are down this week compared to last week. if you do the week-by-week analysis. however, down from a high point. what are you seeing in the e.r.? one of the things you're worried about equipment shortages an burnout? >> thank you for having me, john. an anesthesiologist in tucson in our hospital is, would go with other hospitals across the state to manage the increased hospitalizations. as you mentioned in your first segment, there is a lag between when people become positive toing when they need hospitalizations and when deaths increase. we're experiencing very high levels of hospital bed occupancy. 85% to 90% occupied across the

state. not entirely by cases with covid, but if you contrast taha to may of this year, 60% to 65% occupancy, you can see a very large strain on our resources at this time. >> the question is, how effective can you be? how effective is the state being in pushing that case number down? look at the positivity rate, 24 percent of the seven day average of tests in arizona coming back positive compared to massachusetts, 2.5%, 2.4%, the number there. why? why do you have such a high positivity rate right now in the state? >> as your last guest mentioned it reflects inadequacy of our testing. we're having a very hard time obtaining enough tests and getting the results of those tests back in a timely fashion, which really makes the results of the test less useful to health care workers and also to public health officials who are

charged with tracing and figuring outside how to slow the spread. in addition with the strap on our resources we are finding that hospitals and physicians and nurses across the state are getting burnt out, getting exhausted. some of them falling ill further placing a strain on resources making it more difficult to get this under control. i think it's important to note last that arizona still does not have a state-wide mask mandate, and we are still able to go for a sit-down meal in a restaurant in this state. so we haven't followed the cdc's recommendations with regards to phased reopening, and i think that's a big part why we are where we are today. >> then hess tooitant to say whm about to say. i try to be an optimist. this virus frustrates that goal frequently. show you the seven-day new confirmed cases in arizona. again, look at the trend lines,

if we could go to the seven-day case. arizona versus massachusetts. go to the seven day of new cases in arizona -- all right. it's going up. it has had 3,500 cases yesterday. the point i'm making and do it without the graphic, i guess, there has been a slight drop in recent days. the question is, is that a blip or is it finally proof you're plateauing? do you see that? what are you seeing there on the ground? >> i do hope that that's evidence that we are plateauing. i think we are all very hopeful that's what that means. we are seeing a slight decrease in icu bed occupancy. again, last week it was closer to 90%. this week down around 85%, 86%. we are very hopeful that is a sign of our plateau and that may be a result of local, city and municipality mask mandates increasing social distancing and setting down some businesses

such as bars and gyms. >> you mentioned bars and gyms, also mentioned no-mask mandate there. you have, even the president of the united states belatedly coming into the briefing room yesterday saying americans should wear a mask. teachers in arizona will protest today because they think it's not safe just yet to reopen schools. you're a doctor. asking you more of a political question. what is the conversation over the past several weeks of things going steadily up? and hope plateauing. as you've had a summer surge in recent weeks, has the conversation changed in the state? >> you know, i think there's still a lot of emotion and politics being infused into this conversation that should really be just about science. there's still quite a few people across our state who are resistant to any social distancing measures, any mandates with regards to masks and we are still seeing it and embattles it on a daily basis. i wish i could invite people in

to a hospital to see the enormous strain on our health care workers and also on the patients who are battling every day. i can't really figure out what to say to help people understand that this is real and it's not just a disease of the elderly, which i think is a common misconception out there. here in arizona at least half of our cases are in the age range of 20 to 44, and those patients account for a quarter of our hospitalizations. so this isn't, you know, a flu variant that only effects the elderly and medically vulnerable. >> i hope your words, passion and time today help make the case to anyone who might need to think again about what they think on this day. doctor, thank you so much. >> thank you for having me. >> my pleasure. coming up, china about to retaliate after the united states orders beijing to close its consulate in houston, texas. u holding your breath.

♪ but bristol myers squibb is working to change things. by researching new kinds of medicines that could help you live longer. including options that are chemo-free. because we're committed to bringing new hope into lung cancer care.

becausimon pagenaud takes the lead at the indy 500! coming to the green flag, racing at daytona. they're off... in the kentucky derby. rory mcllroy is a two time champion at east lake. touchdown! only mahomes. the big events are back and xfinity is your home for the return of live sports.

the state department today is escalating tensions with china orders its consulate to close in houston. the trump administration says it's acting to protect american intellectual property. our correspondent in washington joins us live. a significant escalation of tensions? >> reporter: it is. one of the people who has been most forceful about this move

has been marco rubio, acting chairman of the senate intelligence committee. he said that this consulate in houston, he called scentral knoe of a massive spying operation in determines of defense industry and even trying to influence kongs. the state department has not said specifically why they chose to shut down this consulate. of course, this does come in response to a growing and rampant cyber espionage operation by the chinese that has really ramped up over the course of this past few months as this pandemic ravaged the planet. read part of the statement, by the state department earlier today justifying this move saying the people's republic of china has engaged for years in massive illegal spying and influence operations throughout the united states against u.s. government officials and american citizens. the secretary of state mike pompeo, traveling in europe, was asked about this earlier today.

here is part of what he had to say. >> we're setting out clear expectations how the chinese communist party is going to behave and when they don't we're going to take actions to protect the american people, protect our security, our national security. >> reporter: now, john, response, the chinese said this was an unprecedented stance that would sabotage the u.s./china negotiations. reports of fire as this was shut down, fires set in the courtyard caught on video by local residents. firefighters responded and were not allowed in to the complex. i mentioned, john, this comes on the heels of an increased inside cyber espionage. two months ago in may, department of justice called out china for carryingous cyber

attacks against companies looking into vaccines for covid-19 and just yesterday the department of the justice again named two chinese hackers working in concert with the chinese security services to go after that intelligence. now we have a concerted campaign by the trump administration to really ramp up the pressure, ratch up the pressure on china. we've seen major speeches by the director of the fbi, by the attorney general and the national security adviser and expecting another one tomorrow from the secretary of state mike pompeo when he gets back from his travels. >> continue to track this. appreciate the important news about the consulate in houston. coming up for us, a new warning from dr. fauci. you see why. the numbers on your screen. the fise against covid-19 is just beginning, says dr. fauci. what do you think? i don't see it. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

gimme two minutes. eligible for medicare. and i'll tell you some important things to know about medicare. first, it doesn't pay for everything. say this pizza... [mmm pizza...] is your part b medical expenses. this much - about 80 percent... medicare will pay for. what's left... this slice here... well... that's on you. and that's where an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company comes in. this type of plan helps pay some of what medicare doesn't. and these are the only plans to carry the aarp endorsement. that's because they meet their high standards of quality and service. wanna learn more? it's easy. call unitedhealthcare insurance company now and ask... for this free decision guide. inside you'll find the range of aarp medicare supplement plans and their rates. apply any time, too. oh. speaking of time...

about a little over half way and there's more to tell. like, how... with this type of plan, you'll have the freedom to choose any doctor who accepts medicare patients. great for staying with the one you know... or finding... somebody new, like a specialist. there are no networks and no referrals needed. none. and when you travel, your plan will go with you anywhere in the country. so, if you're in another state visiting the grandkids, stay awhile... enjoy... and know that you'll still be able to see any doctor who accepts medicare patients. so call unitedhealthcare today. they are committed to being there for you. tick, tick, tick, time for a wrap up. a medicare supplement plan helps pay some of what medicare doesn't. you know, the pizza slice. it allows you to choose any doctor, who accepts medicare patients... and these are the only plans of their kind endorsed by aarp. whew! call unitedhealthcare today and ask for this free decision guide.

well the names have all changed since you hung around but those dreams have remained and they've turned around who'd have thought they'd lead ya back here where we need ya welcome back, america. it sure is good to see you. killer attitude. nevor hydration.... neutrogena® hydro boost. the #1 hyaluronic acid moisturizer delivers 2x the hydration for supple, bouncy skin. neutrogena®.

an important warning for the nation's top infectious disease experts. big one, we are at the beginning of the fight against itthe coronavirus and dr. fauci had this to say about how quickly we might get a vaccine. >> if you want to do it correctly, with real attention to safety and eck faefficacy, i we're going at fast as we possibly can. if you can get such as we are experiencing now, in the united states, with 50,000 to 60,000 to 70,000 new infections per day, that's bad news for public health, but that certainly

facilitates the development and proving of the efficacy of a vaccine. >> cnn health reporter jaclyn howard joins us with more on dr fou dr. faucis message here. >> not at the expense of safety. making it clear things are moving as fast as they possibly can, but you can hear emphasis that doesn't mean corners are being cut when it comes to safety and efficacy. around the world, there are at least 24 vaccine candidates currently in clinical evaluation, and that means once there is a vaccine that has been prove ton the safe and effective, we'll probably see more than one when that time comes. things are moving as fast as they can. dr. fauci also made an interesting comment how he doesn't think we're going to eradicate the coronavirus anytime soon, but we do have the tools to control it. that means public health

measures, like washing hands and wearing masks and when we have a vaccine has will help as well. dr. fauci also said that he does not plan to give up when it comes to this pandemic. here's what he said. >> this is what i do. this is what i've been doing all my life. what i've been trained for. this is what i have all of my experiences in. would be unimaginable for me, no matter what they throw at me -- you know, security, whatever it is, i'm not walking away from this, because this is just too important. it's too much at stake for the world for me to walk away from this. not a chance. >> and you know, dr. fauci served under six presidents. when it comes to infectious diseases he's been in the game for some time, and so, again, you can just hear his determination when it comes to this pandemic. john? >> appreciate that. and wisdom and patience from dr.

fauci. continue to track it. thanks for the update. when we come back, congress is debating a new coronavirus stimulus package. the biggest immediate hurdle? a republican family feud.

insane is what rand paul calls the plan. if it comes to a vote ted cruz describes himself not as a no,

but a hell no. a tiny glimpse of the republican family feud over new coronavirus spending. our senior congressional correspondent manu raju on capitol hill. republicans trying to work out differences today. this is a deep divide. >> reporter: yeah. no question about it. this is just the start of this process and where it ends up is anybody's guess. the republicans are divided about whether they can do anything at all and exactly what the content of this should be. ron johnson, republican senator from wisconsin just told a small group of us off the senate floor he does not believe there should be more spending at this point because they still don't understand the full impact of their roughly $2.4 trillion stimulus package that passed in march. other conservatives have joined that including ted cruz. you mentioned rand paul. what's the point of spending more money? accusing them of trying to rune country. and difficult election races,

cory gardner, and susan collins, who want more government action to deal with the crisis, the crisis around the country. then you have the contents of the bill. the white house and the senate republicans at odds over several key issues. one of which, reopening schools and making money contingent on reopening schools. marco rubio just told me, florida senator, he does not believe he should tie money to schools to force them to open. the white house has pushed for this in the last several days. and a tax cut, republicans pushed back on that. even when senate republicans and without get on the same page of the proposal roughly $1 trillion. we expect it eventually it coup out, republicans vote over the next day or so and still have to bridge significant differences with the democrat with their own $3 trillion plan and much more different priorities and how do they resolve that in this time of crisis? so many people are waiting, particularly for those $600

jobless benefits about to expire end of this week. this is unclear. add in politics, raises lots of question s whether congress can bridge the divide within the two parties but also within the republicans themselves. >> tracking all this, manu raju. and stimulus, one form of the anxiety. and pick ag fight with liz cheney even though cheney is on the leadership team because shez is praising dr. fauci often on a different page than the president when it comes to coronavirus. discuss with rick santorum. insane, hell no. when it comes to this prosed republican spending plan. what are we seeing here, and let

me put something on the table. presidents poll numbers the tank, agree or disagree and i'm seeing beginning, he might lose. if he does a post-trump republican party. let's all stake a position? >> i don't know about that. this sounds like the good, old republican party that i remember. that where there are sharp disagreements about spending, about how much government control we want in washington versus giving it to the states. with respect to school closures. soundsalities more normal which i think is a good thing. i'm glad republicans are speaking out fighting for these various positions. ted cruz and mike lee and rand paul and ron johnson aren't tough fiscal hawks and i think they feel as if the election is coming up already spent a couple trillion dollars. time to dig in our heels a little and i find that to be a very positive thing and actually put republicans in a pretty good negotiating position with

democrats. >> amanda, a diplomatic way, making my point? fisk's conservative, fiscal hawks, as senator santorum calls them where have they been last three years? thought if they did so they would get in trouble for it? >> started back in the spring with the coronavirus bill. the fight between liz cheney and tom massie, start there. he got in trouble with president trump and leadership because he wanted to force a vote on this. think back to spring. president trump called for his ouster from the party and liz cheney went and endorsed his primary opponent. a strange move tr considering the things that guy posted on twitter, memes about the alt right racist, a head-scratcher move on liz cheney, from the way i see it. i think people trying to break this down into a pro-trump thing affecting the wrong dynamic. there are deep fissures going

back years and years back to the bush war. a pro-war caucus in the house. big spending. liz cheney fits in with that dynamic. you see people like tom massie standing up and others, we want control of the spending. asked about coronavirus. it's about a lot more things, too. >> i think it's about a lot. definitely i agree with that. it's about a lot. less listen to liz cheney on fox this morning. you mentioned, matt gaetz, jim jordan others on the house side don't like she's so effusive of her praise with dr. fauci and listen to her this morning saying this is too much about not too much. >> well, my voting record with president trump is 97% of the time. there are areas that tend to be on national security we don't always agree. i find in my experience the

president appreciates people who are direct. people who explain what they think. d. i get your point, senator, about a healthy debate. both parties should have a healthy debate. this proceed, though, uses his twitter chainsaw to shut down the debate within the republican party sometimes. and liz cheney tweeted a picture of her father, former vice president saying real men wearing a masksality time the president was not an advocate of masks. she occasionally does pick a fight. >> look, as amanda was saying, a dip fissure within the republican party. i go back to saying none of that on the democratic side. everything is following in line with the left. it you see republicans particularly on the issue of foreign policy. just between amanda and me, very different points of view as to how much we should, we as a country should be involved in stabilizing the world. i happen to agree more with lis

cheney than i do donald trump on that. fn on this issue, we varying differences. you may be paying attention to it now, but they've been vocal and real throughout his presidency. >> to that point we're in an election year. hope it's on the spending fight, how much will be, am i on the ballot and running maybe in a colorado, cory gardner purple state? susan collins, maine, purple state if not a blue state and not only have to separate myself from the president a little to win back home but might have to get democratic voters? >> yeah. listen, in an election year there's always a caucus of people both republican and democrats who want to get money out the door, because to hand to constituents. usually you can find republicans and democrats talking about that. why we have such a large debt and rising. people are trying to put the brakes on that pap dynamic

interesting here, representing party leadership as conference chair. part of fight they're having essentially how come you get to criticize the president on some point but i can't? what is your position? liz cheney i think toop often tries to take a hammer at the lib tear wber tea e libbertary. where's is a libertarian when you want them? look what's happening in portland now. where are the libertarians, this is why you need those voices to push back on the strong arm of federal government. >> we haven't had many political debates because of our pandemic coverage, very necessary. good to have a good debate every now and then. appreciate both of you coming in. i'm all for good debates. take them as we go. when we come back, dr. gupta looks at mental health of candidates.

hey frank, our worker's comp insurance is expiring, should we just renew it? yeah, sure. hey there, small business owner. pie insurance here with some sweet advice to stop you from overpaying on worker's comp. try pie instead and save up to 30%. thirty percent? really? get a quote in 3 minutes at easyaspie.com. wow, that is easy. so, need another reminder? no, no no, i'm good. uh, yes please. oh. ho ho ho, yeah! need worker's comp insurance? get a quote in 3 minutes at easyaspie.com. nefertiti: as a young girl

i was always comparing myself to my sisters. they were always thin and i wasn't...

i ate a lot of food. and then after i had my son it was really difficult to lose the baby weight, and everything took so much time and energy and i didn't have that. and then i tried noom, it was easy and it was super convenient. it's effective, i'd say it's life changing. my my name is nefertiri and noom worked for me. visit noom.com and lose the weight for good. it was 1961 when nellie young lost her devoted husband. without him, things were tough. her last option was to sell her home, but... her home meant everything to her. her husband had been a high school football coach and it turned out, one of his former players came up with an answer. a loan, created just for older homeowners. and pretty soon, nellie young had one of the first reverse mortgages. discover if a reverse mortgage loan is right for you. use it to eliminate monthly mortgage payments

and increase cashflow, create an emergency fund, preserve retirement savings and more. call now for your free information kit. that first reverse mortgage loan meant nellie could stay in the home she loved so much, with memories that meant even more. a reverse mortgage loan isn't some kind of trick to take your home. it's a loan... and it's tax-free cash just when you need it. it's about making your retirement better. call today and find out more in aag's free, no-obligation reverse mortgage loan guide. access tax-free cash and stay in the home you love. of course, you can use it to pay some bills, cover medical costs, update or repair your home. but best of all, it eliminates those monthly mortgage payments so you get more cash in your pocket, every month. learn how you can use a reverse mortgage loan to cover your expenses, pay for healthcare, preserve retirement savings,

and so much more. a lots changed since 1961... since then over a million older americans have used a reverse mortgage loan to finance their retirements. it meant so much to nellie, maybe it could mean as much to you... call now and get your free infokit first nitime in our history facing questions they are in mental decline. dr. sanjay gupta explores. >> reporter: regardless a record broken 74-year-old donald trump becomes oldest second-term president in u.s. history or 77-year-old joe biden oldest first-term president. questions of age, health and most notably cognition have started to emerge.

>> if i may, sir, respectfully, in the fox poll they asked people, who is more competent? whose mind is sounder? biden beats you in that. >> tell you what, let's take a test. let's take a test right now. let's go down, joe and i will take a test. let him take the same test that i took and i guarantee you that joe biden could not answer those questions. >> i've been testing on -- look, all i got to do is watch me and i can hardly wait to compare my cognitive capability to the cognitive capability of the man i'm running against. >> reporter: biden's advisers say he was referring to everyday rigors of being on the campaign trail. according to researchers it's true average memory and knowledge known as crystallized abilities tend to improve until we're about 60 years old and then plateau until about age 80

and caution not to read too much into age alone. >> nos responsibility or factual to just use age as a decision point whether or not someone has a true cognitive impairment. >> reporter: of course, neither candidate is your average person. americans have seen these two candidates age not just over the last several years but over the last several decades. watching their careers play out on the national stage. >> campaign for eric -- >> first time involved in a convention. >> bounce that ball -- >> tv star. >> never thought this was going to happen. >> reporter: lately, moments getting a lot of attention. >> no collusion no obstruction. i hope they now go and look at the oranges. the oranges of the -- of the -- investigation. >> we tried it in iraq. not working, i mean in iran. excuse me. we tried it in ukraine. >> we've performed 1.87 million

tests today. that's 1 million 870,000 million tests. >> all men and women are created by the -- go, you know, you know the thing. >> reporter: it is true everyone's sharpness change as bit day to day. could be a poor night's sleep. being distracted. low blood sugar, dehydration. >> very dangerous to overinterpret mental slips when you see it in an older person. >> there are many factors that affect our mental acuity. they may look like they're not functioning as well cognitively but may be perfectly normal. >> reporter: much as we think we know them, to diagnose a true cognitive problem is quite challenging. even for a professional. >> the way a physician makes a clinical diagnosis is to have a clinical relationship, to do a very comprehensive medical workup, order specific images, brain imaging, when needed. then order specific cognitive assessments, more elaborate

battery of cognitive tests to really have any degree of accuracies. >> reporter: then what do we really know about donald trump and joe biden's health? based on the medical records released by the white house, president trump is on a staten medication to manage his cholesterol. clinically obese. 2018, trump scoreds a 30 out of 30 on the montana cognitive assessment when sdoctors use to screen for mild cognitive disruption. that year underwent a calcium ct scan. he has a common form of heart disease. this past summer biden released he also takes a staten to lower cholesterol and triglis roll, he has afib and of normal weight.

notably in 1988 biden suffered a brain bleed due to a ruptured aneurysm and underwent two separate brain operations. doctors say he hasn't had any recurrence of aneurysm since. >> hospitalized years ago. i was hospitalized a couple times. second time couldn't find what was wrong the first time. >> reporter: it's worth remembering there is no requirement for a presidential candidate to release any of their medical history. so we may never have a complete picture of their overall physical and cognitive health. it's the campaign itself that is the ultimate test leaving the voters to decide whether or not age really matters. >> even if it's in the most powerful position in the land, what i would say is, you have to pick the best person for the job. >> reporter: john, no one knows campaigns better than you. even you would be surprised how much cognitive health has become

an issue in this campaign. it's not like we haven't heard about this sort of thing before, but it's really become something that both candidates are talking about quite a bit. we'll see how this sort of turns out. i do want to point to this montana cognitive assessment. the test i think president trump was talking about. take a look, john. you may have seen some of these images before, but it's a fairly simple test. 10-minute test. 30 questions. you look at visual, spatial relations. looking al fluency of speech, attentiveness and plain memory. asked to remember five objects that are recited to you and recite them back at some point later in the test. it's really considered more of a screening test, john. as you heard, it's very difficult to actually do a diagnostic test. that requires time and a lot more sophisticated understanding of these tests. there you have it, john. see how much of an issue this continues to be, but clearly both candidates talking about it for now. john? >> dr. sanjay gupta appreciate

the detailed look there. unlike any test with the rhinoceros on it. hope to see you back here same time tomorrow. brianna keilar picks up our coverage right here right now. have a great day. i'm brianna keilar and i welcome viewers here in the united states and around the world. we begin with breaking developments in the u.s. fight against the coronavirus. the latest modeling projecting fewer deaths because more americans are wearing masks. you'll hear from one of the lead researchers on that in a moment. some promisal news. the president acknowledging the pandemic will bet worse before it gets better. several hot spots seeing new case numbers while still high are on the decline, and the u.s. announcing a major deal promising free or cheap vaccines when they're ready. the american pandemic continues to experience serious setbacks. in a single day the coronavirus killed more than 1,00