national convention at 8:00 p.m. eastern here. anderson cooper picks up the coverage right now. have a good day. i'm anderson cooper. welcome viewers here in the u.s. and around the world. more than 1,000 americans on average died from the coronavirus pandemic. it's now the number three cause of death in the united states as the nation sets grim new milestones. at least 170,000 americans have now died the virus, 18 days ago that number was 150,000. while new u.s. cases are at the lowest levels since late june 13 states are now showing an upward trend as a new school year ramps up with developments at the college campuses. at the university of north carolina in chapel hill four clusters found just this weekend alone. three in dorms, the other in a fraternity houses. classes in session since last

monday. this was the scene near the university of north georgia where large outdoor party was held in an off campus housing area. officials said they were aware and expressed disappointment in the size of the gathering and the fact that face coverings were not worn and there is no mask mandate in the state of georgia. we'll have more on the spread in the u.s. in a moment but first close ally to president trump tells cnn that the president is enthusiastic about yet another unproven per thutdic for the coronavirus. this time from a plant that's highly toxic and can be fatal if consumed. here's what the president said about this plant earlier today. >> i've heard of it, yes. >> the fda -- >> no, i haven't. >> is it something to support? >> something that people are talking about very strongly? we'll look at it. we'll look at a lot of different things. the fda's been great. they are very close, were very close to a vaccine and a therapeutic. i have heard that name mentioned. we'll find out.

>> cnn white house correspondent kaitlan collins with know now. this is pushed by the creator of mypillow. how did it make its way to the white house? >> reporter: he is close to the president and speak relatively aurp and used to come to the old coronavirus task force meetings in the briefings in the rose garden and so he had this july meeting with the president where he shared the find wings the officials and dr. ben carson saying that he looked at this data himself, they brought it to the president and that's when he confirmed today that the president enthusiastic about it and we should note while we discuss this the president hasn't publicly brought this up and reporting on these internal discussions going on over this and mike lindel said he saw the president again since that july meeting and this is a botanical

extract from a highly toxic plant but coming to coronavirus and pushing it as a possible treatment for coronavirus there's no evidence or studies published showing that it works to treat covid-19. it's just him pitching it to the president hoping that the fda will approve it as a dietary supplement and that hasn't happened yet. coming to mike lindell he was put on the board of the company making this botanical extract and got a financial stake placed 0 the board of the company and important to keep in mind when you hear that he's pushing it and he is expected to go to the president's event in minnesota today and see if they bring it up there and it shows you that if the president isn't publicly pushing it in the way we saw him do with hydroxychloroquine, it shows that there are people who can get into the oval office, have a meeting with the president and pitch something like this that's got through the

task force because it's not been brought up as a task force meeting. >> this is oliandrian. thank you very much. we have certainly been here before. in unscientific approach to coronavirus. joined by cnn medical analyst and professor of medicine, dr. jonath jonathan reiner. what is this? >> oleandrin is a product of a toxic plant. it can produce something called a cardiac glycocide and you can find online a preprint non peer reviewed paper that seems to suggest that invito -- in test tubes -- may be anti-viral activity for this compound but there are millions of compounds that when tested in vi to in a

test tube appear to have anti-viral capacity and worthless in humans. a recent example of a compound like that is hydroxychloroquine. which in vito appeared to have anti-viral capabilities but tested in human beings is worthless. when's bothersome to me about this is less about this worthless botanical but more about the sidelining of scientists and the elevation of these sketchy characters who have access to the president and can tell the president that something is magic, i couyou sh approve it. >> when you hear proponents of this, people say i have seen it with my own eyes have incredible power, which, you know, is all well and good. it sounds great and maybe that person actually believes it but that is not actually how science

works. things are actually peer reviewed, studies done with thousands of people, control groups, placebos. doesn't sound like that is done with this product as far as we know. >> not even the most basic study. not even the worst performed, you know, lousy clinical trial, nothing has been done with this other than invitro analysis of this compound. the highway is littered with drugs like this which are failures. do not help patients. and are distractions. that's what this really is. we need to focus on what we know works, focus on doing rigorously performed randomized clinical trials and show the way forward, prove in a scientific way what works and doesn't work. this is nonsense and a distraction. >> when it came to hydroxychloroquine, the president leaned on the fda to

have an emergency authorization and then later revoked it after the large study warned heart problems. i mean, can -- do you think the fda could be pressured again? this is -- this is a supplement, not an actual like prescription medicine. right? >> no. this is just an nutroceutical. >> what is that? >> an agent derived from a plant. >> okay. >> so yeah. i am concerned about that. not only did the fda issue an emergency use authorization for unproven hydroxychloroquine, the strategic reserves in this country acquired 60 million doses of it so without any data for efficacy or safety so when you hear that this has tickled the ear of the president who famously is searching for a magic bullet, you know, to cure

covid-19, ordinarily i would dismiss it but not with this president. his ears are very open to magic remedies. >> it also appears dr. ben carson is helping push this. >> yeah. well, that's hard to understand. there is really no data to support this as any kind of serious therapeutic for covid-19. we should focus on doing clinical trials for things like convalescent plasma. we don't have the data that proves it's beneficial. we need to move better testing forward. you know? we have heard a lot of talk about the saliva direct which is an advance but we need better tests, at-home tests. have the fda focus on these things forward. this is a terrible distraction. >> dr. reiner, thanks for being

with us. >> my pleasure. large crowds gathering without masks at bars as college students return to campus and a covid vaccine may be delayed because trials don't include enough black and latino participants and an investigation of the president's actions at the postal service. the union president said the u.s. postal service is being held hostage. ta-da!

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try wayf♪ r. you got this! ♪ perfect. -you're welcome. i love it. how'd you do all this? told ya! wayfair. let's talk dining tables. yes! blow it up. ♪ wayfair you've got just what i need ♪ top house democrats are asking the fbi to open a criminal investigation into the postmaster general and the board of governors over sweeping mail delays. the congressmen have written a

letter to christopher wray urging him to look into mail slowdowns and operational changes that sparked public concern. speaker nancy pelosi is calling back the house early from its summer recess to deal with the crisis. lawmakers may hold a saturday session in between the two preside presidential nominating conventions and they want the postmaster to testify next monday. president of the american postal workers union joins me now representing more than 200,000 employees in the postal service. so, mark, we have been hearing about the major changes at the post office slashing overtime, cutting hours, removes post office boxes. what are you hearing about it? >> well, what we are hearing from our union members are two things. one, there's a lot of dismay. postal workers are extremely dedicated to serving the people of this country and the prompt,

reliable and efficient manner that the law demands and underscored in this pandemic where as much as the difficulties and the dangers we have faced on the front lines proudly carrying out that mission and connecting the people of the country so anything that slows down that service, that disrupts that service, that degrades that service returuns counter to everything we stand for. so one is postal workers are troubled. secondly what we're hearing throughout the country is these changes in policy which we implemented soon after a new postmaster general came in from the outside of the post office without the knowledge of the inner workings and without consultation of the community that these policies are going to have a huge impact. mail is being delayed. mail is slowing down and of course to us that drives business away. it drives more revenue away and

it's troubling on every front so we have been very clear both in private discussions with this new pmg and publicly that these policies need to be reversed, people of the country support the post office and want good, solid, quick and prompt postal services and that's what they deserve and should get. >> supporters of the president say these are just changes to try to make the post office more efficient, to try to save money, reduce overhead. do you have evidence to the contrary? do you think the moves are intended to keep people from voting? >> well, look. the fact of the matter is that congress can really help in this situation. the post office is being hit hard by the economic impact of covid. the postal service does project a huge loss of revenue over the next ten years, just as with covid and it is a non taxpayer

based independent quasi government agency. they need revenue to do the job. that's falling off and there are concerns about running out of money but that doesn't mean to cut and slash services. it is the united states postal service. and so congress needs to provide in this one case taxpayer appropriated emergency relief. in march they took care of the private corporations to over $500 billion. they have another opportunity. there's an ask by the postal board of governors for $25 billion. that's what's in the house stimulus package now being moved over to the senate. congress really needs to get right and right by the people of the country. >> what's -- >> in terms of efficiency, it is an efficient --

>> what's happening with the mail sorting machines? the trump administration says it won't remove more before election day. how many is taken offline? do you know? >> i don't know. they scheduled over 670 machines to be taken out and we try to find out how many have been taken out and how many plan to be taken ow but this isn't the time. we are in a covid world. mail volume dropped off but facing an election, another holiday season. let's see what happens over the next period of time. and in terms of the mail volume so it's very ill timed at best and combined with the other policies it is troubling. >> the president says the post office should raise prices for amazon, a long-running demand of his. back in i think 2006 with the law passed by congress i think there was a cap on pricing,

wasn't there? >> there was a cap on pricing but the packages are what's called the competitive side. and the postal service has more flexibility with pricing there. but it's an interesting thing, anderson. here's a president that doesn't demand of airlines what they charge for ticket prices or hotel rooms or restaurants what they charge for hamburgers or anything else to get a stimulus relief in the economic crisis. coming the post office he is trying to dictate that postal, package rate should raise four times. that will hurt every single person in this country and that uses e-commerce, every person that engages in e-commerce from the business point of view and fundamentally undermine the postal service because 30% of volume is in -- i'm sorry. of revenue is in packages, the volume is growing. and it would just drive the

postal service out of the package business, hurt the customers and undermine the post office further. >> mark, i appreciate your time. thank you very much. >> they. there's video shows packed party crowds in georgia. we'll have more on that. plus bars packed at university of alabama. the mayor says police are overwhelmed and the fda approves a saliva test for covid in what could be an important development. when we started carvana, they told us that selling cars 100% online wouldn't work. but we went to work. building an experience that lets you shop over 17,000 cars from home. creating a coast to coast network to deliver your car as soon as tomorrow.

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the state of maryland created 24-hour hotline where people report potential coronavirus violations. citizens concerned about safety precautions ignored can call a toll free number and then shared with local health departments and possibly reviewed by local law enforcement. here's other national coronavirus headlines. >> reporter: in miami, another 13 school districts will be reopening in the state of florida this week. this bring it is total number of school it is a reopened to 26.

we have learned about quarantines in at least two school districts, one in bradford county where the superintendent there says that at least five students and two teachers are under quarantine and learned from a spokesperson in martin county 151 students under quarantine and 11 staff members are impacted. >> reporter: in milton, georgia, a lot of people not happy that the big ten is not going to have a football season this fall and many players, parents and fans are not giving up without a fight. a fairt to win the heisman with a petition on moveon.org to reinstate the fall football season and called it a matter close to his heart. the petition with more than 200,000 signatures since yesterday morning and he wants the conference to allow individual teams and players to choose whether or not to participate in the upcoming season. the big ten has not commented on the petition.

>> reporter: in georgia, pictures and videos from a large off campus party went viral over the weekend. you can see there aren't really any masks and very little if any social distancing happening. a spokesperson for the university of north georgia told cnn they were disappointed, many of the students chose to ignore the covid-19 public health guidance. on campus at the university of north georgia masks are required in classrooms and some public area but not residence halls. in the state of georgia there is no statewide mask mandate. >> thanks. scenes of crowded bars near tuscaloosa campus have outcries. pictures showed long lines of people not social distancing and many not wearing masks. police arrested four others for vie latting covid regulations.

the site ignored a crimson tide football player begging them to safe guidelines seriously. here's how about social distance? the mayor says he is decembspery trying to protect the city. the mayor joins us. the order expires end of the month to require people to wear masks in public spaces and exceptions to it. how hard has it been for law enforcement for your officers to try to enforce these orders? i don't know if you can hear me. how hard has it been for law enforcement to enforce these orders? >> it's been extremely difficult because like most places across the country we experience loss of force with covid-19, or exposure to covid-19 and then put on the fact that being a large city we are already

stretched thin. this is difficult for us to do right now because nobody wants to put law enforcement into an adversarial position but to protect the health care system and be air to protect the economy. we know fall will be modifies but a modified fall will save thousands of jobs so it's both a health care and economic crisis for us. >> does it seem like most students are not adhering to maskings or distance guidance? >> i think the opposite is true. what i'm seeing is most students are and what happened yesterday to me really was a surprise because we have had instances where we have had to go in and enforce heavier but yesterday was not only midday in tuscaloosa but move-in day and clearly the message hasn't gotten out to those just arriving on campus. we'll work very hard to ensure that everyone understands that we all have a role to play. if we want to protect the

regional health center and have fall we've got to do our part with wearing a mask and social distancing. >> school starts wednesday. i'm not sure if -- in classrooms, do they -- do students have to wear masks? >> yes. when they do, there's a modified schedule and required to wear -- the university has really gone above and beyond coming the safety of the students and the community. but unfortunately, anniversaryo or 10% who have determined that this is a hoax or not real or not a threat to my health or the health of others and put that aside. we can have that debate later but if we want to protect the health care system and want to have our economy rolling in the fall and most importantly here have football then do the right thing, wear a mask, social distance and have the political arguments down the line. >> what about the football

season? it is important to fans and the local economy. >> we have got to have it. football is a $200 million impact on the city. >> really? that's much. >> direct economic impact $200 million. you can only imagine the indirect so it is important to us. not only do we have 100,000 in the stadium, another 30,000 or 40,000 outside the stadium and we know that's not going to happen under the best of cases this year, circumstances this year. but even a modified fall helps us get through the economy and when we talk about the economy, people somehow think it's mutually exclusive of protecting the health care system. the first and foremost priority is protecting the health care system. if we can do that by wearing a mask and social distance we have a shot of the fall of the past. >> it's not an easy time to be mayor. i appreciate your time. mayor, thank you very much.

>> thank you for having me. schools reopen in several states, speaking with a teacher going to extremes to protektd her son battling cancer. the race appears to tighten. the biden campaign will join me to respond. ♪ 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. ♪

in arkansas a teacher who also happens to be the mother of a young child with cancer is protecting her son and students. 7-year-old hayden has cancer. he's already had 56 treatment sessions and 16 surgeries. he's the definition of at-risk with the coronavirus. to protect her son aly spillman wears a lab coat, a shield, a double mask at school. at home she is apart from her family, spends the time in the home apart from her family in the master bedroom. with me now is aly spillman, her husband zach. thank you for joining us both of you. zach, let's get an update on your 7-year-old son. how's he doing? >> you know, right now he's doing great. we are in a phase of cancer treatment of maintenance so we are in remission right now and

what we're doing is we're taking regular chemotherapy just to make sure that we don't have the cancer come back. we just found out on thursday that they found an abnormal cell. we don't know what that means yet so we're -- we're positive and we are looking forward to doing our best to fight our best fight and to do our best to keep him safe. >> aly, as we talked about you have undertaken drastic measures. this is tough for everybody but for you to be separate is heart breaking. you have reached out to the governor to see there f there's a national guard location to help people in your situation. what would you like to see happen? >> well, you know, i would love a place where people could convalesce away from family members, especially if they have

high risk family members. we have been very blessed to have someone offer their mother-in-law home that's on their property but away from them so not everybody has that so optimally especially with the community spread is and opening up schools i think that would be a wise choice. >> so i know you'd also reached out to anybody from the area for an extra camper and a place to stay separate? is that what it is? >> yes. so basically, you know, covid is very contagious and hayden has only part of a functioning immune system and if i'm symptomatic i would be tested and not come home and go straight to the location we have had offered to us and until three days, four days before i was supposed to report for professional development we didn't have a plan in place and it was a very big stress for us

trying to figure out how to make that happen. >> zach, you chosen to stay at home to care for the kids while your wife is teaching at school. how are you and your kids coping? >> you know, it is a challenge. and really, it's doubly stressful right now because this sadly is life as normal for our family like ours. several things to deal with in this country from the challenges of social distancing and working from home and doing education at home we have been doing a lot of these things for about two and a half years because of hayden's situation with being so um meim compromised. he had 8% of a functioning immune system and going through the same things that other families in america are with covid and doing it with a child that is drastically more at risk and so for us we feel incredibly

stressed and worried just like everyone but that's also why i think we have had to take some of the extraordinary measures we have done to keep safe and at the same time as parents from the very beginning we have made a commitment to each other and to our family to be positive and so what can we do to frame this as an adventure and something that's a challenge and something that is a fun way that we as a family can do a lot of the normal thing ws we like to do a make school and make things happen and so far we have been fortunate that our kids are just so resilient and brave and hayden in particular is courageous through the process. >> a lot of parents going through the parents of how do you care for your kids and going to work? some people have to sacrifice work. do you have a virtual teaching? was that an option? did you think about not teaching

anymore? or was that not possible? >> well, you know, with zach home already, i'm the one who's bringing in the income so i couldn't do that and our district was very generous with offering up a leave and unpaid and then we would have had to have some insurance changes and whenever you go through things medically like we are you have to be careful with how you rearrange those things because the system for our family financially is pretty fragile and we just have to keep things kind of in line so it just wasn't an option. as far as virtual teaching, there are positions in district but since i'm an art educator, it is a little different and there wasn't really an opportunity there. >> just when i see all that you as a family going through and so many are, it seems like such a small thing that the rest of us

can do of wearing masks to try to stop the spread and really boeb bothers me that people feel like it doesn't affect me so i won't way a mask. what is your feeling? >> anderson, i think wearing a mask is the least you can do. it's uncomfortable. i have taught in one. whenever hayden was in the most intense part of the treatment and it is not easy but when come push to shove it is life and our little boy and others like him have a chance to live a -- make the journey and have successful treatment and live on into older years so if you have the mindset of a community instead of individualism and i think that america has gotten like we have that individual mindset even me as an artist and art teacher i

have that mindset but we are a community. so whatever choices you're making please do consider the community whenever you're doing them. >> yeah. the people, the country just don't realize how much families like ours needs theirs to be successful. >> that's such an important point and i appreciate you coming on and talking. i'm sorry for what your family is going through. and i'm glad you're all together and have each other and we wish you the best and just stay strong. you are incredibly strong and brave all of you. thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you, anderson. new cnn polls show a tightening race of president trump and joe biden. plus a vaccine on the market to see delays because there aren't enough black and latino participants to join the trial. more on that ahead.

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tonight a democratic national convention like history has never seen almost entirely online will feature big names in the party, all the biggest names really all giving speeches remotely leading up to joe biden's thursday's speech from delaware. michelle obama, senator bernie sanders and john kasich, a new poll shows a tightening race. the lead has narrowed since june with 50% of registered voters backing the biden/harris ticket while 46% say they support trump and pejs n june biden had a 14-point lead over trump. overall this poll shows a bigger lead, 51% are backing him while

42% trump. i want to talk about it with cedric richmond. congressman, thanks for joining us. i want to get your reaction to this new poll showing a tightening of the race. why do you think it is if it's accurate. >> if it'sccbb and flow of a rice but other three of the fuhr po -- four that came out, the last one had nine points. it very well may be this one is an outlier but if not it's the normal ebb and flow of a presidential campaign. >> i want to turn to the postal service. the postmaster general has agreed to testify before congress. ted lieu and wrist wray and hake should investigate and what, if anything, is the potential crime? >> well, absolutely i think they should investigate. one a potential crime could be

tampering with a federal election. two, it is causing havoc for our constituents right now who depend on merchandise, depend on medicine, depend on money, and so what we have seen is that this postmaster is removing mailboxes from communities. he's actually removing sorting machines from the post office. and it used to be that our fabulous mail carriers would work until all the mail is delivered and now it seems that there's some instruction that, hey, when it hits this time just come on back in. the is the united states postal service was never created to be a profit center. it was created to provide a service, an essential service to the american people and that's its constitutional duty and we want to make sure it's protected. it is a bedrock of the united states of america and our diplomacy. >> at a recent hearing you wentl

barr over his department's lack of black staff and told him to keep john lewis' name out of the department of justice's month. wonder what you think congressman lewis would have to say about it. >> he would say we have to get in good trouble and need to raise attention to this issue. and john was far more, you know, dilgny tied in his responses and believed in nonviolence and would make sure he always took the high road. my problem with the attorney general, he came in to praise john lewis while he gutted all of john lewis' work for the last 50 or 60 years and that's just more of the same with this administration is that they're just hypocritical. they say one thing and they do another, so i'm sure that john lewis today would be doing what he did his entire life for 65 years of that 85-year life which

is to be on the battlefield for justice and what is right and funding the post office, fighting against what they're doing to it is what's right. >> just yesterday president trump shared a tweet that criticized democrat cities where there's a quote, democrat cities where violence is surging and called for them to be left to rot. i'm wondering what your reaction to that was for the president of the united states to say stuff like that. >> well, you know, there's nothing that comes out of this president's mouth that amazes me. in the words of general honore, he's stuck on stupid. the real question, what are we going to do as this country to unite and to continue progress. i think that in terms of uniting the country biden has 49% of the people's faith that he can unite the country, trump has somewhere in the 20s so it's very clear. that's why tonight our theme is we, the people, and that's what

we believe in as a biden/harris team, as a democratic party that we want a more perfect union. donald trump is not necessarily anti-democrat. he's anti-democrat, he's anti-republican. he's anti-anybody whose last name is not trump, so when he turns his back on american cities or when mcconnell says let states and local governments go bankrupt, that's them letting the american people know what they think about them, rich, poor, urban, they don't care about the american people. they just care about themselves. >> congressman cedric richmond, i appreciate your time. >> thank you for having me. president trump is entering a new phase of pushing so-called cures for the coronavirus. this time he is, quote, looking into, end quote a plant extract touted by the ceo of mypillow that in its raw form is not only toxic but can be fatal and there's no actual pier review studies that proves it works. actress sharon stone with a frank message to anti-maskers

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actress sharon stone taking to instagram to reveal her sister who's already suffering with lupus has been diagnosed with coronavirus. stone was clear about who she blames. here's cnn's chloe mallis. >> she's sharing her experience with coronavirus and says those

who aren't wearing masks are to blame. in a post she shared a photo of her sister's hospital room with the caption, this is her hospital room. one of you nonmask wearers did this. a post on her page she wrote she drove to montana thinking they would avoid the virus. now she said she is fighting for a breath. you don't want covid. anderson. >> thanks very much. it is the top of the hour. i'm anderson cooper. as cases spread across the united states the ability to find and isolate them is on the decline. that's according to data from the covid tracking project which found that 15 states have conducted fewer tests this past week compared to the previous one. at least one expert says the u.s. could be seriously undercounting the number of americans who are infected. >> the testing situation is not good in the united states. what we're not picking up are people who are contagious. that