top of the hour now. and for the second day in a row, the u.s. is reporting more than 1,000 people dying from coronavirus in a single day. more than 1,000 families have lost a mother, grandmother, someone they love to the pandemic. which has cut short over 186,000 livelies across the country. the u.s. is averaging 1,000 cases a day. still too high with a compounding problem of a flu season rapidly approaching. and for the labor day weekend ahead, dr. anthony fauci is warning people against gathering and pleading with them to wear mask and socially distance. after past holiday weekends have led to spikes in infections. dr. fauci also says americans

can feel, quote, confident after cdc documents revealed it is directing states to prepare to distribute a coronavirus vaccine as late as october. and he said it was unlikely but not impossible. >> these are all guestimates. i mean, if you look at the projection of the enrollment and things you'll need to get a decision about whether the vaccine is safe and effective. most of us project by november, december, by the end of the year. could this be earlier? sure. so, if someone comes out and says i'm going to shoot for the possibility that i'll get it by october, you can't argue strongly against that. unlikely, not impossible. i think most of the people feel november/december. >> now, before president trump pushes fran accelerated timeline on a vaccine, more than 40 years ago another republican president had a similar situation. in 1976, an election year,

president gerald ford, launched a campaign to mass vaxz made the the public against a strain of the swine we're talking about what happened in 1976. so, tell us more about, i guess what happened and what we can learn. >> very simply strain of flu developed at an army beige that trained recruits in new jersey and they were concerned it seemed to resemble the swine flu that killed 150 million in 1919. so, the secretary of what was called the department of education and welfare met with the president on march 22nd, 1976, and he said that we should consider a crash virus production program, that it should be up and running with around six months or so.

and from the documents that i saw at the ford library, they went forward, even though the epidemiologist said the probability of a pandemic was unknown and that they had no scientific consensus. that there had been no swine flu problems since 1930, even though the virus existed and no possible side effects. but he decided to go forward with it. it wasn't completely independent of scientific intervention. it wasn't like donald trump barking orders. but there were concerning political considerations. they noted that the press was aware of this. they noted that congress would expect action. they said it would be a great symbol of america's unity, going in the bicentennial year and gerald ford was up for his first election. he'd been nominated to replace a

guy who resigned. and then most menacingly, the guy in the background was his chief of staff a guy named dick cheney. he stands before the public on march 24th and said every american is going to take this vaccine we're going to develop. in september, he went before the tv cameras in the oval office. he had a syringe jabbed in his arm and that was it. hundreds and thousands and millions were vaccinated. the moral of the story is that there was no pandemic. only one person died but because of the unsafe, non -- speeded up lack of testing and lack of care in the development, 30 people died from the syndrome, and 400 were paralyzed and after publishing the op-ed, i've received a number of emails from people traumatized by this. the worst one i got was from someone who said after this

experience of seeing their grandfather, basically have his life saped away and being exhausted for the rest of his life, said they were never going to take a vaccine for the rest of their lives. that's what happens when you play with the trust of the american people by rushing a vaccine without adequate care. >> this is avoidable with taking appropriate care. we don't want people to look at this and worry about any vaccine. this isn't about any vaccine, right? this is about taking care. >> a rushed. >> a rushed vaccine. so, what lessons can be learned the fact that this administration has one shot at this. they have to nail this out of the gate so, they don't lose the trust of americans thinking that a vaccine will work. >> donald trump could do the patriotic thing. he could say we're not shooting

for november. we're shooting for december. i don't care about my re-election. i'm willing to sacrifice the health -- i'm not willing to sacrifice the health and safety of the american people, even if that means sacrificing my power. of course he'll never do that because all he cares about is power. and that's one of the most tragic, frightening developments of this frightening week and month, that we have a president literally playing with american's lives. this is the sort of thing that can destroy the sort of trust that public health officials need for a generation or even more. he'll have blood on his hands if he doesn't slow down and ignore political considerations altogether. >> i want to thank you for cometic on. this is an instance i wasn't familiar with. i think a lot of people aren't and there are lessons to be taken from it.

we appreciate your being here. the cdc is reporting a major surge in prescriptions in march and april for the controversial drugs president trump touted without evidence they worked. more than 250,000 new prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine were written and many were written by specialist whose don't typically prescribe these medications. that is significant. senior medical correspondent joining me now. we have to note again the studies have shown no benefit from these drugs. studies have been suspended because they're concerned about the fact this could hurt people. >> and brianna, beyond that, when you go back in time to march and april, it's not as if there were all these studies that looked good at the time and later turned out bad. there were no studies that showed that this really looked good. the there were no reliable studies and still doctors jumped to prescribe hydroxychloroquine.

let me tell you the numbers and i'll tell you what i think about it. in march 2019, so, before the pandemic, you saw about 31,000 new prescriptions that month for hydroxychloroquine, which is a legitimate drug for malaria, lupus, a variety of things. frir in march 2020, 250,000 and this is just out patient we're talking about. so, what this means is that doctors kind of got very nervous. they said, gee, i have nothing to give these people and they're coming in saying i heard the president say this is a terrific drug, and the doctor said here, have a prescription. i would guess many knew the drug probably wasn't going to do anything but felt the pressure to prescribe it.

why are they prescribing something for which there was no proof? you had people getting sick and they said, well, gee, there's somebody suggesting this might work. i'm going to subscribe it. when the history of the pandemic was written, this is an embarrassing chapter. there's no reason for this number of prescriptions and there wasn't then either. >> thank you so much. we appreciate that. canada's top doctor is talking candidly about sex as relates to the pandemic. the chief public health officer has this advice for those that want to have sex with a person outside of their household or their bubble. wear a mask. yeah. wear a mask. skip the kissing and overall avoid face-to-face contact or closeness. well, that raises a lot of questions. she said they should not have sex with someone who's infected. i think we all know that. joining me is the senior

director of the system-wide pathogens program office for new york city health and hospitals. do you agree with her advice? what do you think of it? >> i do agree. any close contact with an infected person is a means of potential transmission of covid-19. so, regardless of activity, you're putting yourself at higher risk. so, putting in mitigation measures like wearing a mask and not engaging in, for example, kissing that can exchange saliva, that's a way to prevent transmission. >> and i wonder, do you think people are going to follow this? i think of young people dating and they're saying you're telling us that if there is dating and there is sexual intercourse, that we should wear a mask and we shouldn't kiss. obviously, that really changes intimate relations as we have known them to be.

>> that's correct. it goes back to risk reduction. we know when you're engaged in these type of acts, it increases your risk of getting covid-19. so, the best way to provide education is to tell them what you can do to decrease your risk. telling them to completely abstain will basically have people doing it behind the scenes and unsafely. so, it's important to provide the type of information because an absence only approach has worked. not to say covid-19 is sexually transmitted. we're still investigating the means but we know exchange, and saliva, and we've seen covid-19, and semen and vagina and fecal matter. so, coming in contact with those may increase your risk. it's good to follow this public health guidance. the other thing i'll quickly

mention is people think if i've tested for covid-19, that i have antibodies and i don't have to wear a mask. that doesn't give you a clean bill of health in that sense. even if you've had antibodies for covid-19, you still need wear a mask if you're engaging in these acts outside of your household contacts. >> maybe prevents them from getting symptoms but does it stop them from spreading it to someone else? i think this is -- look, this is a topic i think a lot of people have questions about and maybe they don't know how to ask. we appreciate you discussing it with us. >> my pleasure. thanks for having me on. the white house says herd immunity was made up by the media. we'll tell you why that's bs. and we're going to tell you the picture behind the two young girls sitting outside of taco

bell using the wifi for school work. and the president trump is suggesting voters in north carolina vote twice. to support us no matter what.

whether we see them or not, we need to know that they're always there. for the past 25 years, masimo has been monitoring patients in hospitals around the world so that doctors and nurses can make sure you feel safe. as new challenges have arisen, we've grown to bring that same safety and support to the place that you want to be most. if we've learned nothing else, it's that when challenges arise, there's only one way to rise above. together. masimo. together in hospital, together at home.

president trump may be trying to do damage control after telling supporters to break the law by voting twice, once by mail or once in person. and now seems to be telling them to test the system. saying on election day or early voting, go to your polling place to see whether or not it's been tabulated, counted. if has t has, you will not be able to vote in the mail. if hawse not been counted, vote. he's repeatedly said the

election is rigged, attacked mail-in voting and encouraged his supporters to vote twice, contradicted u.s. intel on foreign meddling in the election. and on top of all that, his attorney general bill barr is doubling down that foreign governments can commit election fraud in the u.s. >> and you've said you're worried that a foreign country could send thousands of fake ballots to people and it might be impossible to detect? what are you basing that on in >> as i've said repeatedly i'm basing that on logic. >> pardon? >> logic. >> but have you seen any evidence that a foreign country is trying to inter -- >> no, i'm saying people are concerned about foreign influence and if we use a ballot system that states are just now trying to adopt, it does leave open the possibility of counterfeiting. >> and yes intel officials in

the trump administration disagree with the attorney general. and barr also tells cnn that they've indicted someone in texas for voter fraud but a cnn analyst tells us the justice department can't substantiate that claim. >> we indicted someone in texas, 1700 ballots collected. from people who could vote. he made them out and voted for the person he wanted to. >> i live in texas. i'm reporting to you now from that state. i am completely unaware of any such indictment. i asked the department of justice last night after he made that claim to substantiate it for me. i have not heard back from him. but so far as i know, nothing like that has happened in this state. >> now, raising these unsubstantiated claims seems to be a strategy to raise doubt in case joe biden wins. and sewing mistrust could casts the same shadow over trump, if

he is re-elected. we know, from 2016, that is something the president just can't bear. now, the nba is stepping up in this election. 17 teams are committed to turning their arenas into voting centers. league owners have helped to impluvvoting access. victor blackwell is joining me now from atlanta's state farm arena, home of the atlanta hawks. tell us what the plan is there. >> well, it's actually an expansion of what the team and the folks here at state farm arena did for the local primary a few weeks ago and that is bringing the voting machines here. and this will be an expansion of that, expected of course more voters. the 60,000 plus seats will be empty for weeks as the pandemic continues. there will be 300 voting machines. most of them on the floor here. a little over 2,000 voters came for the local primary a few weeks ago.

they're expecting so much more. orlando magic is the 17 pgt team now to offer up their venue, the amway center. we spoke with the ceo of the team and he said this is more than just an offer of space. there will be personnel to help as well. >> what we're doing is our staff is working it as if it were a game. our average age is 36.5 years old. very tech savvy, college educated and they're doing everything from greeters to registering people, to scanning licenses, to voter administration. and the key is to having that young tech savvy staff, who are in the guest services business to help voters with any issues they may have. >> so, these arenas being offered, they're the first fruits of the new coalition between the nba and players

association focussed on social justice and racial justice and voting. early voting starts october twelveth. brianna. >> thank you so much for bringing that report. and next, new outbreaks at college and universities, including eight at one major school. and joe biden is in kenosha. and president trump is si silent over the poisoning of a russian opposition leader as other leaders speak out and demand answers from vladimir putin. - [narrator] did you just reward yourself for spending a perfectly reasonable amount of time on the couch with tacos from grubhub? grubhub's gonna reward you for that with a $5 off perk. (doorbell rings) - [crowd] grubhub! (fireworks exploding)

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health officials have ordered 34 sorority and fraternity houses to quarantine after an alarming increase in positive cases at their houses and has called them to suspend in-person contact until september 14th, at least. and nearly 800 have tested positive in the past week and calling the rise in cases concerning. there's a powerful photo putting a spotlight on the stark divide in our country. it shows two girls outside a taco bell so that they could use the restaurant's free wifi to do theron line classes. and after this photo went viral, the school district gave the girls a hot spot to use in their

home so they wouldn't need to go to the taco bell. but a study in june shows approximately 15 million public school students in the u.s. live in homes with inadequate internet cone or devices not equipped for distance learning. the supervisor of the monterey county board of supervisors. talk to us about the challenges being faced in california, and around the country as well because we also understand that 4 in 10 latinos lack reliable internet access. what does this mean when they're not connected? >> first of all, this image of these two little girls outside a fast food restaurant are the faces of the digital divide in california, but also children across our country. we know this digital divide has gone on for far too long and it's an embarrassment. we must do better for our kids.

i represent the home of john stenback. and it's only 45 minutes from the sillicon valley but yet we see a pervasive problem that our children are now facing. we know latinos are the most impacted in terms of infections, hospitalizations and deaths. but now this crisis has also highlighted the digital divide and showing our children are the most susceptible and be most impacted as their learning has extended online this school year. >> and so what needs to be done? i know you're calling for a bond measure to bring about universal broad band infrastructure. tell us what you think the chances of that, in pushing forward, are and what needs to be done on the state and federal level. >> well, certainly guestimates in july were, by the department of education were 1.2 million st students in california or 20%

didn't have internet access at home. and right now they're all in the same situation. online learning was extenldded d all of them began ordering hot spots, boxes, at the same time. so there's a tremendous back log and this is going to take week before we get the most basic equipment to our children. i'm working with our state legislatures to propose a universal broadband bond, hopefully soon in california, to upfront the billions needed to get devices in the urban areas and extend to the rural areas. that's what it's going to take. there are six existing programs under the public utilities commission. they only generate a small fraction of what is needed and they need reforms because local governments shouldn't have to wait in line for internet service providers to get the first right to get some of the state money when we, as local governments, working together,

can move these projects forward much quicker through permitting and environmental review. we're trying to do that in celine aus. we have a meeting with all the superintendents, city, and county, working to how we can bring access to every citizen in salinas. >> i'm glad we're talking about this. thank you so much for coming on. >> thank you very much. it's the controversial theory called herd immunity where the high-risk population is protected, while the rest of the folks go ahead with their lives as usual. we'll investigate results in sweden where this has been adopted. and president trump silent on the opposition leader, while most are calling for justice. robinhood believes now is the time to do money.

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vladimir putin after germany announced a top critic has been poisoned with a nerve agent. and saying no doubt alexi navalny fell vilctim to a crime. one leader who has remained silent is president trump. the latest instance trump has failed to speak out against russia. the former chairman of the house intelligence committee and a cnn national security commentator. it's great to see you. give us a sense of the effect of the president being silent on russia. >> well, when the international community sets its mind up to come out on something this sensitive, that's a big deal. so, we need to be seen, we as the united states, as part of the conversation. trying to kill or eliminate your political opposition is dangerous in any society. and that's what you see

happening with vladimir putin, who is suspected of nerve age poisoning is a real problem. the president should clarify this as soon as possible. just a statement out of the white house condemning this action would be really important and helps our allies trying to take a swing and cut at this, by pointing out putin, well, agrezive means to eliminate those who disagree with him. >> germany took a strong public stance. the u.k., e.u. there's others. what does that say to you when you're looking at such a contrast between what the u.s. and our allies are doing? >> well, it's just concerning to me that the president doesn't understand the value of that condemnation. and obviously, germany is closest to it. they're closest to the medical testing that's happened, that has allowed them to believe it

was a novacek poisoning, that was important. and now to send a western allies message that we won't tolerate this and shouldn't tolerate it, is really critical. and not doing it just add as little mystery and confusion as to why. and i just don't think it helps in our effort to push back russian efforts all over the world, including in the united states. >> i want to turn to election threats. this is what the trump administration is saying. >> of those three countries, the intelligence community has pointed to russia, china and iran. what is the most assertive, agreszival? >> i believe it's china. >> which one? >> china. >> china more than russia? >> why do you say that? >> because i've seen the intelligence. that's what i've concluded. >> what have they done?

>> i'm not going to discuss that. >> it's from the chinese communist party. it's not, frankly, a close call. >> what do you think about that? >> this is one of those cases where both can be right. the people who believe it's russia and china. both pose serious risks when it comes to operations and the fbi announced they opened a chinese counterintelligence investigation in the united states and that's pretty serious at that level. every ten minutes. the russians, we know, we watched them in 2016, 2018, even though i thought they did a decent job trying to push them back. but we saw them increase efforts going into 2020 and the fbi said yes, they're trying to stoke hatred through information operations. they both can be dangerous and we ought to have the resources

and political will from republicans and democrats to say we're going to push back on both. what they're saying on the chinese, i think, is the fact that they're involved in intellectual property theft, meaning future jobs. we see that they are starting to look at it for an information operations of their own. meaning influence other nations, including the united states. and so, their power and wealth allows them to be bigger and more aggressive sometimes. including their spy placement. but the russians are still equally dangerous. frrbl and not paying attention is not the answer. >> don't pick one over the other. thank you. both bad, both need attention. so, next, a fact check on the false claim from the white house moments ago that the push for, quote, heard immunity was made up by the media. plus, we're live as the. i didn't realize how special

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the trump administration and some conservatives continue to point to sweden as a model for fighting coronavirus. it's try they never went under lockdown and has not reported a covid-19 death in over a week. but to say they've achieved complete success would be misleading.

here in swedien investigating. >> reporter: this icu unit in central stockholm with only one coronavirus patient receiving care. this was with the unit inundated. outside, bars, shops and schools remained open throughout. no lockdown. but people were given official guidance on how to sanitize and when to socially distance and they largely abided by those rules. masks were never mandated here, with a senior government source telling cnn that they're regarded as largely superficial. after an initial surge in the death rate, well above the scandinavian average, sweden has one of the lowest death rates in europe. nine out of ten were over 70 and 45% of all deaths were in care homes that's raised the question about the younger, the

healthier. did they develop a resistance to the virus? >> it is possible we are, or have been billing up some immunity that contributes to the present state. >> reporter: but when people in stockholm were tested only 7% had enough antibodies to test the disease. but they weren't tested for t-cells. >> that means immunity in sweden and globally is probably larger than we have previously appreciate. at least that is our current thought. >> reporter: and that's a narrative that some american conservatives are grasping on to. why bother with lockdowns and masks when you can allow them to go out about their normal lives, catch the virus and only shielding the elderly and vulnerable. they point to how their safety guidelines were followed by most swedes and the universal health care and welfare system that

provides a safety net for anyone falling ill or out of work. they over saw the government's response from the beginning as health minister. >> we didn't have a forlsed lockdown but we had many changes, large number of changes in the swedish society. during the spring we had distance studies for all, for the universities and adult and schools. we also had i think 30/40% people working from home, lots of people staying home on sick leave because they have the slightest symptoms. you could go up the street in the capitol and you didn't meet almost anyone. we have laugts of businesses with a very difficult situation because they didn't have any guests or customers. so, lots of things were changed. they're having a culture events, the sports events. so, things were changed but not in a forced way. i think that was the dirance.

>> reporter: the swedish economy shrank by 8%, the largest fall since records began. but what of the bigger price? the many elderly who died, many argue were sacrificed in the early days of the pandemic. >> if you get the virus into the elder care homes, many of the persons living there are having very severe symptoms and also die. so, that's why we have, by law, people are forbidn to visit the elder care homes. but that was not successful in all the way. we also learned a lot of that. >> reporter: all care home workers have since been retrained in hygiene protocols. the government here says it's too early to know what they did right, what they did wrong or whether heard immunity for coronavirus is even a thing. in the meantime, they're preparing for a possible second

wave this fall. it wouldn't be the first country to see a surge in the virus after apparently stamping it out. max foster, cnn, stockholm, sweden. white house press secretary kayleigh mceneny just lied that the media is floating the idea of herd immunity. >> it was made up in the fanciful minds of the media. that was never something that was ever considered here at the white house. >> first off, the concept has been pushed by many conservatives to reopen the economy. that's a fact. it's gained traction, because the president just hired dr. scott atlas to his coronavirus task force, and this is what he said in april. >> by having total population isolation, we are preventing natural immunity from developing. the way immunity develops in big

populations is people get the infection, and it's fantastic that more than half -- about half of people are asymptomatic. the vast majority of people have low, mild symptoms, very low risk. that's great. we want this population immunity, which breaks the chain of infection by virtue of people having their own antibodies, their own immunity. >> now, atlas recently told cnn's michael smerconish that the media is lying about him but an administration official told cnn all the policies atlas have pushed for are in the vain of herd immunity strategy. even the president this week floated the theory. >> once you get to a certain number. you know, we use the word "herd," right? once you get to a certain number it's going to go away. >> it's 2020. tape exists, and we've got the receipts. any moment now we're expecting to see joe biden as he

visits kenosha, wisconsin, a city that erupted in protests after the shooting of jacob blake. stay tuned for that. first, this week's impact your world. artists in atlanta sending a message to neighborhoods hit hard by coronavirus. ♪ >> we're not seeing visual cues of a pandemic. turning the murals that people have been looking at for the last two years into a statement saying, hey, put on your mask and stop the infection. it's just another form of visual messaging, and i feel like it's an underused tool. >> it's 100% volunteer campaign. we have a series of murals across the city being outfitted with vinyl masks and they're vinyl versus ashley painting over various murals because the idea is this is not permanent. we're disproportionately seeing black and brown people being

impacted by this disease. we very much wanted to target people who we know were hour ly workers, essential worker, people who had to be out and about. we've put out about 500 masks in the community. big fat small acts and anything that you see being put out from our yard signs to murals to promotional videos have that #that then drive back to our web page or social media channels so people can find tips on how to stay safe and keep other people safe. >> we're going to be all right. it's true like we're going to get through this.

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joe biden is in kenosha, wisconsin. he is holding a community meeting right now in prayer right there. earlier today, he met with the family of jacob blake, the 29-year-old black man who was shot in the black seven times by police and remains in the hospital. the blake family do not meet with president donald trump. cnn's arlette saenz is in kenosha.

arlette, how is this being perceived there? >> reporter: several people have gathered outside the church where joe biden will hold this community meeting. he's meeting with roughly 20 community leaders from the religious, business communities and also a bit of a law enforcement presence. he has said he has come here to kenosha to try to heal and unite this country in the wake of that police shooting of jacob blake and also the protests that occurred here in the city, at times turning violent. now as soon as biden landed in wisconsin, he met with the family of jacob blake. he met in person privately. his wife, jill biden, was also there. they met in person with jacob blake's father, his two sisters, his brother. they also spoke over the phone with jacob blake's mother. this is all part of biden's message of unity and trying to bring healing and trying to show that he is an empathetic figure who understands what people are going through. brianna? >> arlette, we know you'll

continue to monitor that appearance there. thank you. our special coverage continues now with brooke bolduan. >> live pictures as biden is sitting in this church, holding this community gathering. this is after he has taken some time there, meeting with the family of james blake. we'll take you to kenosha and find out what exactly happened with that family conversation in just a moment. but on to covid, stay vigilant. take the necessary precautions. that is the message from the nation's top infectious disease expert, dr. anthony fauci, ahead of this long holiday weekend. during an interview on cnn this morning, dr. fauci pleaded with americans to be safe while you're out and about, enjoying labor day. >> we don't want to see a