hello, i am brianna keilar. i want to welcome viewers here in the united states and around the world. the pandemic in america is a disaster. it already was, now it is getting worse. the first coronavirus wave never really ended. cases never dipped low enough for a trough between waves. now the fall and winter surge is upon us. the president is still not modeling cdc guidelines, even after contracting covid. but his secretary of health and human services is urging americans to. >> this is being driven by individual behaviors at this point, community spread is happening because we've got to keep focused on washing our hands, watching distance, wearing face coverings when we can't watch distance, and being careful in household gatherings. this has become a major vector of disease spread. >> more than half the u.s., 32 states, show upward trend in cases. yesterday, there were more than 71,000 new cases reported, the

highest one day count since july. seven states saw the highest one day case totals, pennsylvania, indiana, ohio, oklahoma, utah, colorado, montana. seven states. the number of deaths increasing, the seven day average for deaths is 763. the highest it has been in a month. hospitalizations are soaring with more than 41,000 yesterday. that's 33% jump since beginning of october. and an influential model of the coronavirus pandemic predicts more than 385,000 deaths will occur in the u.s. by february 1st. that is a prediction. it doesn't have to be a fact. a new study projects more than 100,000 lives in the u.s. could be saved if we all wore masks. health reporter jacqueline howard has more on this. >> reporter: that's right, brianna. the new study finds if 95% of americans wear a mask in public,

that could save lives. studies from institute for health metrics and evaluation, here's what the study found. in september, 49% of americans reported they always wore a mask in public. keeping that in mind, the institute says that if states issue social distancing mandates when number of daily deaths reaches critical threshold, mask wearing stays the same, the death toll from covid-19 could exceed 500,000 total by the end of february. but if mask use increases to 95% and states issue mandates, the study projects about 380,000 deaths by the same day. that's a difference of about 120,000 lives. brianna? >> jacqueline howard, thank you so much for that. i want to talk about the study with a doctor that's a primary care physician, public health specialist.

dr. matthew, great to see you. this is a study that says that as of september 21st, only 49% of u.s. residents reported that they always wore a mask in public. do you see that that's something that could change for the better so lives can be spared or do you think that's about where it is going to be for the future? >> brianna, i want to be optimistic. i am a primary care physician, the gate keeper, first point of contact when patients come in with covid. i'm telling you, there's still a lot of people out there that believe this is a hoax. i don't know of anybody that had covid, why should i wear a mask. we just look at the studies. if we look at other countries, look at south korea, brianna, we have the first case on the first day back in january of both u.s. and south korea. now they have 444 deaths and we have over 220,000 deaths. look at the number of cases total in japan, a mask wearing

society. total number of cases 90,000. we could get to 90,000 cases per day in the u.s. all we have to do is look at our other countries, look at our neighbor, canada. it is very simple. i hope and pray that people will realize there's nothing political about this. wear a mask. you'll save your mom, save your dad, save your life as well. >> i want to talk to you about another new study. we are wondering which groups of people are increased risk to serious complications or death with coronavirus. this study found people with down's syndrome have ten times a risk of dying from covid-19 compared to those who do not have down's syndrome. why is that? >> the reason for that is patients with down's syndrome, it is a genetic mal formation if you will in utero. a lot of patients with down's syndrome have other chronic conditions, can effect your

heart, liver, effect your neurological system. unfortunately from day one a lot of down's syndrome patients are dealing with chronic medical conditions. we know that patients that have diabetes, hypertension, heart problems are also the patients being effected mostly with covid-19. >> and here we are, we are at a key place in the fight against coronavirus. there's so many grim predictions for the weeks ahead. what are you expecting? >> what i am expecting is if we don't hunker down, if i was a weather man, this is where i would be sending out high alerts. we're going into the cold and flu season. our cases already started at a high level. that's the difference. when people ask me why is it that the u.s. is so behind from the get go, we never got into contact tracing, into aggressive testing. and one thing a lot of us should

remember, our testing should be scaled on the size of the epidemic and not necessarily on the size of the population. i want to be optimistic. i think moving forward if every american took this upon ourselves to fasten the seat belt, wear a mask, very simple, don't go into indoor gatherings, weddings, restaurants, try to stay away from gyms, wash your hands and socially distance, i think we can definitely decrease the number of cases. >> if only people would follow this advice. hopefully some people hear you, doctor, and follow this. we appreciate having you on. >> thank you, brianna. at the final debate, the president told a lot of lies, particularly when it came to coronavirus. soon after taking the stage, president trump down played more than 223,000 american lives that have been lost to the disease. >> as you know, 2.2 million

people modeled out were expected to die. >> that 2.2 million number that he keeps repeating is a false benchmark. they weren't really expected to die. this is from a british report that said that many americans would die if we took no precautions whatsoever as a country. eight months into the pandemic and the u.s. has the most cases and the most deaths of any other nation and the fact it isn't worse is due to individual americans and state and local leaders that are doing the things, the recommendations that the president will not. >> it will go away and as i say, we are rounding the turn, we're rounding the corner. it's going away. >> it is not going away. it is going way up. it is about to hit the fan according to experts as they're watching the graphs that show fall, winter surge beginning. we're looking down the barrel of a gun about to go off as the temperature drops and more people head in doors to

socialize. the president made some extremely lofty claims about a covid vaccine. >> we have a vaccine that's coming. it's ready. it's going to be announced within weeks and going to be delivered. >> you also said a vaccine would be coming within weeks? is that a guarantee? >> it is not a guarantee, but it will be by end of the year. i think it has a good chance. >> he couldn't guarantee a vaccine because the fda has not approved any vaccines yet. most are still in active or paused trials. who needs a vaccine if you believe another false hood from the president. >> 99.9 of young people recover. 99% of people recover. we have to recover. we can't close up our nation. >> young people may recover, but not before they spread it to people who are more likely to die. young adults are the primary source of spread and according

to johns hopkins university, about 2.6% of people that test positive for coronavirus die from covid-19. and many survivors are experiencing lingering symptoms and internal organ damage for long term consequences. the president and joe biden are hitting the trail after a fiery debate. hear where they're setting up shop in the final 11 days. debate ratings are in. see how it compared to the first one. and biden cleaning up comments about moving on from oil. this is cnn special live coverage. bill assumed it was a costume party.

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i said sit! election day is around the corner. we are 11 days away. right now, president trump and

former vice president joe biden are hitting the campaign trail, looking to connect with undecided voters, trying to energize their base. more than 50 million have cast ballots. the president is flying to florida this hour to convince america's senior citizens to back him a second term. seniors are a key voting block to usher trump into the white house in 2016 and could prove to be the tipping point in 2020. biden is set to speak next hour in his home state of delaware where he will outline his plans to defeat the pandemic and get unemployed americans back to work. we're going to take you there live once he gets under way. and the final sprint for both men comes on the heels of last night's debate where they laid 8g starkly different visions for the future of the country. joining me, political analyst carl bernstein. carl, president trump and the former vice president facing off last night for the last time before election day. this was the last pitch that a lot of americans were paying attention to. what did you think?

what was your take away from the debate? >> trump once again is appealing to his base to get him close enough to winning that he can throw a monkey wrench into the electoral process if there is no win, unlikely that he will win a majority of votes in the electoral college demonstrably. rather, people i talk to in the white house say his strategy is to undermine the electoral process to the point where he can draw this out through court challenges, through not accepting whatever the vote of the american people is, trying to cling to office through some other means. he's still in the ball game. he did not perform like he did in the first debate which was almost fatal to him. he was much more coherent than he usually is. and his republican supporters are happy with what he did.

at the same time, the question is, is this election as we have seen all along really about the character of donald trump and the covid crisis, the pandemic, his negligence in causing through his naeegligence deathsf hundreds of thousands of americans. he is trying to move the debate away from that. and meanwhile, to energize his base with a kind of repeal, we're going to see, i have been told by those around the president in the next 11 days, we're going to see a scorched earth campaign the likes of which the filthiest of the campaign conducted by donald trump, unlike anything we've seen in our history, get set is what i was told last night. >> all right. buckle up. hold onto our hats and glasses. it will be a wild ride, as they say. one of the things i think we're hearing from normal people watching the election as they

look back to 2016 is people who support joe biden or oppose president trump are worried that even though polls may indicate positivity for biden, they worry it could be missing something. and then folks that support president trump say he defied expectations last time, he is going to defy expectations this time. could we be surprised again? >> there's always room for surprise. of course that's a possibility. but a lot is going to depend i think on the media and how we focus on the next 11 days, particularly about the issue of donald trump, what he and his rhetoric and his actions and words have been all about for almost four years now, the pathological lying, racism, the call to arms for his followers in the streets to almost provoke

violence in our electoral process. we're dealing with the president of the united states whose level of irresponsibility, reckless nl ness, lack of faith in the american process is coming dangerously close to a new kind of authoritarianism that we have never seen advocated by a president, something close to some peculiar trumpian neofascism. those are the real issues in the campaign and i think most voters are aware the real issue is donald trump and his conduct. can trump energize his base enough to make this election close and republican senators particularly who i talked to say that that's his real objective. get it close enough so that he cannot be forced to leave the white house with a clear victory for biden and if that is the case, then he goes into causing a constitutional crisis.

i think we need to look at his words and actions over the past month and into the next 11 days in terms of his willingness and enthusiasm for provoking a constitutional crisis if he can't get past 270 electoral votes which seems unlikely, whatever happened in the debate last night. the trajectory does not seem to have been changed notably, but his strategy is to cause such chaos that we are going to be very troubled in terms of how our institutions, how the electoral college, how republicans in congress, how the system handles a challenge to the orderly and legal electoral process. that also includes the kind of message he is sending as he did

last night during parts of the debate to his followers, the kind of unfounded vicious charges, the kind of language that we have seen in the past month appeals to racism. as biden said last night, much more than dog whistles, fog horns, toward racism, toward a kind of unacceptance of america, the likes of which we have never seen. that's where we are, that's what we have to look at particularly in the media along with the coronavirus pandemic and his failure to act, his homicidal negligence in failing to act to save lives of americans. as he told my colleague, bob woodward, he knew january 28th that we were facing the greatest national security crisis as he was told by his national security advisers that his presidency was going to see and

he chose to not only ignore it in public but to pretend almost it didn't exist as he said so he would not cause panic in america. >> carl, we'll be watching the final days with you. it is wonderful to see you. thank you so much for coming on. >> thank you. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell responding to concerns about his health after photos show bruises and bandages on his body. plus, the president once again attacked dr. fauci, calling him a democrat. we'll roll the tape on the false claim. big ten football returns this weekend, some college town mayors are terrified about super spreader events. we're going to take you there. experience helps you navigate what comes next. at university of phoenix, relevant life experience and eligible transfer credits can help you earn your degree faster and for less. see how much you can save at phoenix.edu.

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from ballots and bluster to cash and a mea culpa, what a year this week has been. let's run through some of the biggest stories we experienced. second wave of coronavirus officially arrived, even though the first one never really ended. cases hitting peaks from spring and summer. data analysis by experts at

columbia university reveal up to 200,000 deaths could have been avoided if president trump and his administration responded better to the crisis. a volunteer in the as tra seneca trial died, but the trial will continue. cracks emerged in the sidelined coronavirus task force as members contradicted the president, and twitter silenced his favorite doctor, scott atlas, for falsely claiming masks don't work. chris christie apologized for his naked face at the white house super spreader event after coming down with covid. even as democrats in the trump administration indicated they were making progress on a second coronavirus rescue package, senate republicans want a cheaper price tag and help for americans that need it is looking dim. airlines reported a staggering loss, airport traffic hit the highest mark since spring. 50 million americans have voted early, and that's 8 million shy of the 2016 total number. we still have 11 days to go until election day.

the supreme court ruled swing state pennsylvania can count mailed in ballots received up to three days after the election, even if post marks are legible. the fbi says iran and russia are interfering in the election, obtained voter information to send threatening emails. court documents reveal the u.s. government has still been unable to reunite 545 children separated at the border from their parents. they have not been able to reunite them with their parents, including 60 kids under five years old when separated. last night, the president said they're well taken care of in facilities, revealing he is not aware of their location. most of them are understood to be with sponsors. a judge ruled a breonna taylor grand juror can speak publicly. the juror saying prosecutors didn't give the jury the option of considering homicide charges. and the president got mad during an interview with 60 minutes and

later released his version, breaching his agreement with cbs. joe biden nearly tripled the president with cash on hand. president trump and joe biden debated for the final time. and "new york post" newsroom is livid as the outlet along with fox news pushed unverified, sketchy reports about joe biden. the senate judiciary committee advanced the nomination of supreme court nominee amy coney barrett to the full senate, paving the way for her confirmation as soon as next week. we have 11 days until the election. we have 70 days until 2020 is history. also, last night, the president continued attacks on dr. anthony fauci. >> i get along well with anthony, but he did say don't wear masks. he did say as you know this is not going to be a problem. i think he's a democrat, but that's okay. >> after calling fauci a disaster, an idiot this week,

the president has added democrat to his resume. fauci says he is not one, he is not registered to a party. and he worked for presidents from both parties, six presidents in all. he has overseen response to hiv, aids, ebola, zika and tuberculosis. he has run national institute of allergy and infectious diseases since 1984 when ronald reagan was president, and republicans and democrats alike with the exception of trump love the guy. >> i think dr. fauci, probably never heard of him, he is a very fine research, top doctor at national institute of health, working hard, doing something about research on this disease of aids. >> three decades ago, a mysterious playing took lives around the world. before the malady had a name, it had a fierce opponent in dr. anthony fauci for determined and aggressive efforts to help others live longer and healthier lifs. proud to give the presidential

medal of freedom to dr. anthony fauci. >> thank you to dr. tony fauci, nancy sullivan, incredible scientists at nih who work long days, late nights, to develop a vaccine. all of you represent what is best about america and what's possible when we lead. >> anthony fauci doesn't serve a party, he serves the nation's health. president trump has repeatedly demonstrated that he serves himself at the expense of the nation's health, so makes sense these two maybe don't see eye to eye. there's another megachurch seeing a coronavirus outbreak as more churches refuse to enforce mask use. see how biden and trump supporters react to the debate, including what surprised them most. and the president says don't worry, children separated from parents at the border are well taken care of. and now your co-p.

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reunite 544 children from whom they were separated from between 2017 and 2018. they can't locate the parents. many of the parents thought to have been deported to home countries without their kids. instead of explaining his administration's policy, trump repeatedly tried to argue that the cages that some children were held in were built under the obama administration. and boasted how the children separated from their parents were being treated. >> what happened? parents, kids were ripped from their arms and separated and now they cannot find over 500 sets of those parents and those kids are alone, nowhere to go, nowhere to go. it is criminal. >> they are so well taken care of. they're in facilities that were so clean. >> an attorney, immigration analyst writes opinion pieces for cnn.com, raul, i'm glad you're here to clear it up.

you have written extensively about the conditions but also talk about the conditions and also explain to us where the kids are. as we have understood from reporting, they're not actually being held in detention facilities which brings up the question of would president trump be okay if they had been for all these years, but tell us about the facilities and tell us where the kids are. >> first of all, i want to start with that the government has not been involved in the process of locating and potentially reuniting the children. our government hasn't done that. it is largely done by aclu and other nonprofit groups. they've faced and enormous task, where they think the children are, they have been placed in shelters, they may be within foster care. to be honest, some of them may have been placed and adopted by other families, even though they do have parents, because under some u.s. state laws, adoptions can take place without parental

consent. we have these children scattered across the country and going through multiple traumas. remember, they came from central america to the united states. that's one trauma. separated from their parents, another one. at least three years apart from parents. and were they to be reunited under the best scenario in the future, again, talking about trauma because whoever they are with now, even if it is just a shelter or foster family, they'll go through wrenching separation again, likely they have bonded with them and will be separated again. the whole situation is, the reason the president deflected this is because it is indefensible. at best, this is some type of gross bureaucratic meltdown, malpractice. at worst, it is government sanctioned kidnapping. >> so fact check his claim about what the obama administration did and did not do because there were some separations, but to be

clear under the trump administration, this was a deterrent policy adopted that became widespread as we have seen by number of kids separated. >> right. one thing quickly before i get to that, the president talks about the facilities that children are well taken care of. we know from journalists and doctors, nurses, volunteers, there are horrific conditions in detention. children died in detention. to the president's claim that basically he is saying obama did it, that's not true. in 2014, the obama administration did have a pilot program that they initiated, they kept migrant families in detention, but they were together. children were only separated under instances where the government suspected they were perhaps trafficked by an adult they were not related to. to be clear, under the obama administration there was no policy of family separations, it was not widespread, and it was

certainly nothing on the scale of the so-called zero tolerance policy of 2018 that trump instituted, defended, and only walked back on after international and global bipartisan outrage. to make the comparison with the obama administration is extremely misleading. >> raul reyes, thank you for coming on. >> yes, ma'am, thank you. up next, joe biden is playing cleanup after his debate comments on the oil industry. plus, why santa claus won't be visiting macy's stores for the first time in 159 years. nefertiti: as a young girl

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a long running holiday tradition is being put on hold in the era of covid-19. macy's announcing for the first time in 159 years, santa won't be visiting any of the department stores due to concerns about coronavirus. the detradition started in 1861. for more coronavirus headlines, let's check in with our team of cnn correspondents. >> i am dan simon. an l.a. church that defied public health orders, held large indoor services has been hit by an outbreak of the virus according to health officials. great community church has three confirmed cases, though it is not known if those are among staff or members. the church announced over the summer it would resume large indoor services, despite public health orders in place. thousands of people have attended services and the church is cited nine times by the public health department. >> i am cristina alesci in new

york. an israeli company created technology designed to get reluctant workers into the office. sensors mounted on workplace ceilings can record the number and location of people in buildings, including offices, hotels, restaurants. then work space managers can set up alerts for when more than two people are closer than six feet apart for more than 30 seconds. >> i am alexandra field in new york. in the northeast, new covid cases linked to indoor ice rinks. officials in massachusetts decided to shut down indoor ice rinks and skating facilities for the next two weeks. that after health officials say 108 cases of covid were connected to organized hockey. new orders don't apply to professional or college programs, but health officials say the plan is to reopen rinks in two weeks and strengthen protocols for social distancing.

this plan on the heels of a similar plan announced by the state of new hampshire last week. >> i am coy wire in atlanta. big ten football season kicks off tonight. mayors representing 11 of 14 cities where schools are located are asking the conference to help combat spread of coronavirus, even though there won't be fans in the stands, the mayors wrote in an open letter, we know the history of football games, they generate activity, social gatherings and consumption of alcohol. activities within the communities have also been associated with an increased spread of covid-19. unquote. the mayors would like the big ten to consider the positivity rates for surrounding cities when making decisions regarding practices and games. >> thank you so much to my colleagues for those reports. risk of a bigger recession is growing as cases continue to surge. here's a warning on that. and we will fact check the president's claim about wind and birds and also joe biden's promise about oil that's raising eyebrows.

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president trump and former vice president biden do not agree on much, but they certainly do not agree on how to handle climate change, or even if it's real. president trump is adamant about keeping the fossil fuel industry going, and as biden is pushing a

big move toward clean energy, he made a statement that raised some eyebrows. >> i would transition from the oil industry, yes. >> oh, that's a big statement. >> it is a big statement. >> why would you do that? >> because the oil industry pollutes significantly. >> oh, i see. >> here's the deal. >> that's a big statement. >> if you'd like me finish the statement. it has to be replaced by renewable energy over time. over time. i would stop giving to the oil industry -- i would stop giving them federal subsidyies. >> bill weir is with us to go through this. this is one of the needles that needs to be threaded, because the oil industry is responsible for a lot of jobs. at the same time it's a huge contributor to climate change. what did you think about joe biden's answer? >> reporter: it was interesting. you can't see his hesitation, and he's been this way since he won the primary. he was much more middle of 9

road, mushy on this issue until he absorbed a lot of bernie sanders folks, and came out with a plan 20 times more ambition than what barack obama put forward, but at the same time he remembers 2016, and the so-called war on coal turned off voters in west virginia and other place to say hillary clinton. so in pennsylvania, fracking is not exactly a slam dunk there, either. some people got rich, some people got sick. some of those western counties, they won't go for joe biden anyway, so maybe that's the calculation he's making, but if we step back, to appreciate this from 40,000 feet, only in america is it controversial for a debate candidate to say this, while the rest of the world, given the gigafires that won't go out our the flooding in low-lying areas, they're moving

on because of the market forces and morality. just last week a renewable energy company was briefly more valuable than exxon mobil. the international energy folks who are hardly tree-hugging lefties put out a report this week that solar power is the cheapest. of energy ever invented by humans. >> i think that's why we heard biden saying he would take away subsidies. he was focusing on why to give an advantage to the oil industry, but i want your perspective that trump was saying he knows more about wind than biden. let's listen to this moment. >> we don't need all of these countries that we had to fight war over because we needed their energy. we are energy independent. i know more about wind than you do. it's extremely expensive, kills all the birds, very intermittent, and they happen to make the windmills in both germany and china.

the fumes coming up, if you're a believer in carbon emissions, the fumes coming up to make these massive windmills is more than anything we're talking about with natural gas. >> all right. bill, fact check that for us. i know windmills have killed birds, but there's a lot of things that kill way more birds than windmills. >> reporter: exactly. wind mills kill birds. feral cats kill 2.5 million. the norwegians figure out if you paint one blade of the windmill black, it decreases killing of birds by a percent. the u.s. is late to the windm l windmill -- they opened one in the east coast, and it's laying

groundwork for what's happened here on europe. it was like watching two different candidates from two different planets -- planet trump where the fires aren't burning and the virus is just -- and then here on planet earth where we have to deal with it. >> planet reality, which we are all facing, whether we want to adsplit it or not. bill weir, thank you so much for joins us. just in the ratings for the final presidential debate. brian stelter, the host of "reliable sources," is here with us to tell us how it shaped up. >> this matters, because this was by far the biggest tv event remaining in the election cycle. these will not have a big audience like this again. the early preliminary numbers show that at least 55 million people watched the debate on the six biggest channels in the country. that compares to 63 million who watched on the same six-channel

group for the first debate in september. ultimately this number will end up being higher. ultimately it was 73 in september, so the ultimate tomorrow will probably by 65 to 70 million people. that's a massive number in this fragmented country. so it just speaks to how important these debates are. the country stopped and watched this debate, consumed it, and we'll see who ultimately benefited from that fact. these are really, really impressive numbers, on par with 2016, ahead of 2012's debates. it shows that this country is plugged in. >> brian stelter, great to see you. >> thanks. it is the top of the hour. i am brianna keilar. the coronavirus pandemic in america is a disaster. the u.s. case count is above 8 million, the highest in the world.

hospitalizations are overflowing and overwhelming in many states, and flu season only started. the president is still not modeling cdc guidelines, but his secretary of health and human services is urging americans to. >> this is being driven by individual behaviors at this point. the community spread is happening because we've got to keep focused on washing our hands, watching our distance, and wearing our face coverings, in particular being careful in household gatherings. this has been become a major vector of disease spread. >> more than half of the u.s. -- that is 32 states -- are showing an upward trend in cases. there's only one state, oregon, that is heading in the right direction. the number of deaths increasing, the seven-day average for deaths is 763. hospitalizations are soaring with more than 41,000 yesterday. that is a