-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com hello and welcome to our viewers here in the united states and all around the world. i'm michael holmes. you're watching skroom. coming up on the program, president-elect biden making history as he announces more members of his team. who they are and what's expected to follow? also there are record number of americans in hospital right now with coronavirus. we'll look at where the new restrictions might finally control spread and -- >> if a child or husband or their wife are dead, that's what

we're doing. >> the highs, the lows and what they're thankful for. three doctors tell us what they've seen on the frontlines of this pandemic. ♪ welcome everyone. the biden transition is in full swing. president-elect joe biden will get his first presidential daily briefing on monday. he's also building, as promised during the campaign, a government as diverse as america. the senior white house communications team will be a big break from tradition, all posts filled by women. cnn has also learned he's set to name some key members of his economic team on monday, including the long-expected announcement of janet yellen as treasury secretary and two other

women in top roles to help him navigate the country's economic recovery. but there's been a slight issue -- a slight health issue for mr. biden, on saturday suffering hairline fractures in his foot after slipping while playing with his dog. cnn's mj lee with the details. >> reporter: president-elect joe biden paying a visit to the doctor's office on sunday. the transition office announcing on sunday that on saturday he had an incident where he was playing with his dog major, slipped and hurt his ankle. the biden announcement team making a slew of announcements as well, including key women who will be serving in white house communications team. some names worth mentioning including kate bedingfield being named the white house communications director, jen

sachi, who will be standing behind the podium as press secretary, and also kareen john pierre who is being named the principle press secretary. looking ahead to what else to expect on monday, the biden transition team is expected to formally announce key members of biden's feature economic team, including janet yellen who is expected to be named husband treasury secretary. she would be the first woman to serve in that role if she is confirmed. two other names worth mentioning, neera tanden, she is going to be named biden's head of the office of management and budget and also cecelia rouse who will be named head of council of economic advisers. of course it's worth noting this is a group of women who will have their work cut out for them

because they'll be spearheading the recovery effort in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. joe biden's victory in wisconsin was re-affirmed after a recount was completed in one of the state's largest counties. that didn't stop mr. trump from ranting about non-existent election fraud on fox news. here's just a little. >> the whole world is watching and nobody can believe what they're seeing. and you have leaders of countries that call me and say that's the most messed up election we've ever seen. >> cnn's jeremy diamond following that story and details of that interview. >> reporter: well, it was a stunning 45 minutes of lies, delusion, and disbelief from the president of the united states on sunday, as he phoned in to a fox news program for something that really didn't resemble an interview but more of a conversation with the host of the show even encouraging the president as he made these false claims and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.

the president continuing to make these baseless claims even in the face of the mounting evidence against his case, 30 plus lawsuits brought forward by the president's campaign and their allies have been dismissed or withdrawn by those legal teams in state and federal courts in key battleground states across the country. one of the latest blows to the president's attempts to claim voter fraud coming in a series of federal cases in the state of pennsylvania, with one particularly strong rebuke from a trump appointed judge, steph nos vie vas. he wrote this, calling an election unfair does not make it so. charges require specific allegations and proof we have neither here. the campaign's claims have no merit. that goes to push back against all the claims of thrown out ballots that the president was making, election observers not being allowed in the room. the president also continues to make this conspiracy theory about voting systems deleting or switching votes that were

intended for him to president-elect joe biden. that was somewhere that even ronna mcdaniel, the chairwoman of the republican party, she wasn't willing to go that far as she campaigned in georgia. listen. >> we should go there in crazy numbers and they should have won, but then they still -- >> yeah, we have to -- we didn't see that in the audit, so we've got to just -- that evidence i haven't seen. so, we'll wait and see on that. >> and the president's efforts to call this election rigged also running into road block as it relates to key recounts in the state of georgia that confirmed the results of the victory for joe biden, where the two recounts in the counties in the state of wisconsin, paid for by donald trump's campaign, $3 million recounts that sends more votes to joe biden, confirming joe biden's victory there. the president did make clear this, even as he said earlier this week he would leave the white house january 20th if the

electoral college confirms joe biden's victory in the 2020 election, he also said he's not going to abandon the notion that the election was rigged. he said even six months from now he will still maintain that this election was stolen from him. jeremy diamond, cnn, the white house. and joining me now, ron brownstein, cnn political analyst. senior political analyst. i want to talk about the bewildering rant on fox news. before we do, what do you make of the appointments made by the incoming biden administration. >> he's beginning to get his to his promise of the campaign to be the next generation of leaders. his next appointments are well-respected and familiar. but familiar. the sort of people you would expect in any democratic administration. i think today when you get these announcement of so many female nominees, people of color, he begins to turn the page toward the next generation of

democratic officials and leaders, which is something the party needs, given how many septuagenarians right now are unaring things, nancy pelosi, schumer, biden and so forth. >> that's a very good point. okay. to the stunning nonsense from the president on fox news, ranting, rambling, lying. it's pointless of course. the election is decided. but the thing is there are still millions of supporters who believe what he says. what are the damagers in this? >> this is extraordinarily destructive. we have never seen anything like this from a defeated president. it is a continuation of the separation of red and blue america, not only in the separate media ecosystems as we often say but a fundamentally separate realities. this is not had a kind of symmetrical divergence. you have red america retreating, in effect, from reality. the president making these baseless claims, astonishingly

few republicans. they are poisoning the nation's bloodstream. they are widening our divisions. and yet mitch mcconnell, kevin mccarthy and virtually every senior republican leader cannot find the words to simply say this is baseless, this is false, and this is destructive. >> yeah, and you and i have talked about this often and it's still a major issue in the country. the congressional republicans by and large silent as the lies continue. you've tweeted on this. >> yeah. >> you've said the silence of mitch mcconnell and mccarthy as well becomes even more egregious as trump widens his conspiracy so immense as you put it, and even mentioning the fbi, the doj, trashing institutions that stand in his way. you talk about the lasting damage. what about the damage to the party as well? >> well, first, i mean, i think as the president's conspiracy

theory, which started at a racist core. i mean, you know, he accusing philadelphia and detroit and milwaukee and atlanta, cities with large african-american populations of stealing the election. he's not accusing montgomery and delaware counties outside of philadelphia where he declined by more from '16 to '20 than he did in the counties out of michigan. he's focusing out of heavily black cities and saying that's where the fraud was committed. as he starts from that base and expands now to include the justice department and the fbi and the conspiracy so immense, that language i cited for a specific reason. it was joe mccarthy's language in the early 1950s. and i think what we are seeing from mitch mcconnell and kevin mccarthy and the other republican leaders will be remembered as equivalent to the

c cow aring of the leaders of communist infiltration of the government. they are doing comparable damage. now, will they damage themselves inside the republican core? probably not because, you know, you're seeing the allegiance of so many of the voters to this line of argument. but i do think it kind of re-affirms the view of those very suburbs we did that i just mentioned that the republican party is moving in an extremist direction at noipoint, particuly as long as trump is defining it. >> acquiescence to is add sunbs the obscene -- >> the obscene is better. >> the georgia secretary of state calling the enemy of the people, struck out of the georgia governor brian kemp. firm supporters saying i'm ashamed to endorse him.

is he risking harming republican efforts to win those two crucial georgia senate seats with that and his other comments on georgia? >> that is a really good question. you saw over the weekend there were trump voters who confronted the rnc chairwoman what she was down there saying why should we go vote if our votes are being stolen. there is the risk of that. i think that pails next to the risk of the country. the extraordinary cynicism i think in particular of mitch mcconnell to allow this to go on either because he thinks it will hurt biden, make it tougher for biden to get a second look from republican voters and thus have less leverage to try to pressure republicans in congress to work with him or simply because he thinks it will kneecap the administration coming out of the gate and improve the gop odds in 2022. all this is happening as we are facing the greatest national security threat in the united states i believe since world war ii. and when -- the day after pearl harbor, the republican leader in

the senate stood directly behind franklin roosevelt as he signed the declaration of war. here we are seeing republicans kind of organize themselves to inhibit biden's ability to respond to the greatest threat i believe that we have faced in 80 years and just the contrast is extraordinary. and i think extraordinarily damming in the eyeing of history for the way mcconnell is conducting himself in the weeks after the election. >> always a fascinating discussion. good to see you, my friend. thank you so much. >> thanks for having me. a leading covid expert says vaccines are coming and the world will change. but how much worse could pandemic get before then? we'll have the lathest numbers and warnings. also -- >> the airport itself, everything is really nice and safe and everybody is doing things. so, i think it's safe. >> millions of americans ignored public health officials and went through u.s. airports last week. was it worlth it? we'll get a report from the

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[ twig snaps ] stop! it's alright. friend. little girl is lost. i am taking her home. my name is captain kidd. captain. -captain. word is she's that captive out of wichita falls. how much you want for her? it's a child. it's not for sale. i wanna get you away from all this pain. [ grunting ] captain. get in the clear of it. vicks vapopatch. easy to wear with soothing vicks vapors for her, for you, for the whole family. trusted soothing vapors, from vicks the united states is now smashing new coronavirus records on a daily basis. for 27 consecutive days, the

country has recorded more than 100,000 new coronavirus cases. that's basically the whole month of november. and all those new infections raised the total from the start of the pandemic to well over 13 million, nearly 267,000 deaths. america's hospitals are beyond strapped in many cases. more people are hospitalized with covid than ever before. some 93,000 right now. and experts warn the situation could grow even worse next month. >> what we expect, unfortunately, as we go for the next couple of weeks into december, that we might see a surge superposed upon that surge that we're already in. and, you know, when i give that message, i don't want to frighten people except to say it is not too late at all for us to do something about this. >> meanwhile, all those american travellers who ignored experts'

advice and gathered over the thanksgiving holiday, well, they're of course returning home. and many of them will be bringing new infections with them. >> we know people may have made mistakes over the thanksgiving time period. so, if you're young and you gathered, you need to be tested about five to ten days later. but you need to assume that you're infected and not go near your grandparents and aunts and others without a mask. we're really asking families to even mask indoors if they chose to gather during thanksgiving and others and went across the country and into the next state. >> about 6 million americans travelled through u.s. airports last week despite the covid concerns. cnn's natasha chen for more on the busiest travel day of this year. >> i talked to some people arriving home to atlanta after traveling for the holidays and their experiences varied depending on which airports they

came from around the country, as sunday was the busiest travel day of the entire thanksgiving week at the atlanta airport that officials here estimated 190,000 people coming through on sunday. that's still about one-third of the travellers they saw this time last year. i talked to someone who was traveling for the very first time since the pandemic began. >> i was a little nervous because it was the first time going out-and-out of state. but charl ston was really, really empty this morning, the airport. and atlanta is always busy. it was really different for us to have. but the airport itself, everything is really nice and safe and everybody is keeping distance. so, i feel like it's safe. >> people did describe how tough it was to make the decision with their family on whether to travel for the holidays. those who did travel tell me they do plan on getting tested after they get home.

in one case someone said they would self-quarantine for 14 days. the tsa says they screened more than a million passengers on at least three separate days during the thanksgiving week starting from the friday before the holiday. that's a sharp increase in passenger traffic because that record was only hit one other time since the pandemic began. back to you. dr. rio is an executive associate dean at the emory school of medicine, also special adviser for infectious diseases with delta airlines, and the doctor joins me from atlanta. doctor, great to see you. sunday was, like, a hugely busy travel day. millions gathered for thanksgiving. and dr. fauci said he was not very optimistic saying christmas we'll see a surge imposed on another surge. are you worried to the same degree. >> if you're going to gather with people, try to gather in small groups.

try to gather with people that are part of your bubble. try to gather outside. try to stay as safe as possible because the reality is you bring a lot of people indoors, the chances of having somebody infected in that kbrogroup is g to go up. >> el paso just as an example has been getting slammed with cases in resent weeks. the may sor said almost six weeks ago we started spiking significantly. i think people -- the consensus is that people just had covid fatigue. i guess i see that in my world. i mean, how dangerous is that complacency? >> you know, the complacency, the fatigue is real. i think everybody's tired of this. but i'll also tell people you need to hang on. you need to wear your mask. you need to social distance. you need to avoid getting infected just for a few more weeks. two or three more months, vaccines are coming and i think the world is going to change

when we start vaccinating people. >> exactly. in europe a lot of countries have had some pretty tight restrictions in place for a month or more. i mean some not quite lockdown but restrictions. they've been reduced now with the holidays coming in many places. and, you know, do you think that they have worked and with the holidays coming up, should those things be relaxed? >> you know, they clearly have worked, but i will tell you that i don't think we're at this point it's about lockdown. it's about public health. we need to do targeted interventions, enforcing masks, enforcing gather ergs of small groups of people, closing bars, closing restaurants. i think those are the kinds of things you need to do. if you do that, we can control this transmission. >> you mentioned vaccines, and development is moving ahead. the priority, as we know, will be the elderly, frontline workers and so on. but what do you say to regular folks. isn't it true it'll be a while before the general population

has meaningful protection, is that right? >> yeah, but it won't be that long. maybe somewhere between april and july there will be vaccines for the general population. >> in the same context about the impact of the president continuing to push what is a false narrative that the u.s. is rounding the corner on the pandemic, do you see it that way? >> we are nowhere close to rounding the corner. you know, it took us from april to october to have 9 million cases. in november alone, we had 4 million cases. we're not rounding the corner. we're having the worst outbreak ever in our country. we're close to 200,000 cases a day, over 2,000 deaths per day. we're in a very difficult situation in our country and we need to recognize across the country, the hospitals are overwhelmed, the morgues are overwhelmed. this is really bad. >> if there is that surge that dr. fauci talks about -- and you're hearing from colleagues

being overwhelmed now, i'm trying to imagine what a month or two will look like. >> i think it'll look terrible. i think hospitals are already -- many places are overwhelmed. health care workers are tired. there are not enough of them. i think it's really bad. i think the situation going forward not only for covid but for many diseases. if you have a heart attack, a stroke, cancer, they may be tough to get care. >> that is depressing, at least the vaccines are on the horizon. thank you so much. >> pleasure talking to you, michael. a funeral is happening right now for a slain iranian nuclear scientist and iran is vowing revenge for his killing. we'll hear from a former u.s. commander who helped kill osama bin laden who says iran will retaliate. with pure retinol our most potent retinol. in a clinical test, 100% of women showed reduction of wrinkles, even deep ones. new revitalift night serum with pure retinol from l'oréal paris.

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and welcome back to "cnn newsroom" everyone. i'm michael holmes, appreciate your company. a funeral is happening right now for iran's top nuclear scientist who was assassinated on friday. he was killed just east of tehran in an apparent ambush. over the weekend, his body taken to several muslim shrines for prayers and blessings. he was considered one of the masterminds of iran's controversial nuclear program. the semiofficial news agency says he was shot outside his car by an automatic remote controlled machine gunfired from another car nearby. and then that car exploded. cnn has not been independently able to confirm that series of

events. iran has accused was reel of orchestrating the attack and its intelligence ministry says it has several leads. iranian officials vowing revenge. no comment so far from the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. it's put nuclear capability back in the global spotlight. iran's parliament met on sunday to discuss the assassination and possible withdrawal from the nuclear deal signed with western powers in 2015 and that the u.s. pulled out of. while some world leaders are pleading for calm, they could secret bugs. >> the iranians are in a situation they have to retaliate. i don't see any way around it. they're going to have to save face. now the issue becomes what does that retaliation look like. does that begin to escalate the problems in the region? and that's not going to be good for anybody. the iranians don't want to go to war with us.

we don't want to go to war with iran. so, everybody needs to do the best they can to lower the temperature. >> joining me now, jeffrey lewis, professor at the middle bring institute of international studies and also host of "the deal" podcast. he joins me from california. good to have you on. this was an embarrassing intelligence failure, another one actually. but retaliation carries big risks right now. what do you see as iran's option right now? >> well, iran has a lot of options. it's really just a question of how do they want to play it? do they want to run certain risks with the trump administration? do they want to risk poisoning the well with the biden administration? it's tough to tell. one thing i would say though is this is a very dangerous moment. i think we really dodged a bullet earlier this year when we saw iran respond to the killing of qassem soleimani with a missile strike against u.s. military base in iraq. that was a very large missile

strike. it resulted in large numbers of casualties, but no one was killed. i hope we are as lucky this time as we were then. >> very good point. i mean, speaking of that risk versus reward factor when it comes to the assassination itself, if it was israel, in some ways can be seen as a win/win calculus for benjamin netanyahu, take out a prominent figure in the nuclear program. but if iran retaliates, it gives iran and the u.s. the reason to strike back militarily. >> i think it depends on how to look at goal. if the goal is to poison the well for diplomacy, i think the strike is extremely successful. they killed the scientist, but what they've really done is try to assassinate the possibility of returning to the nuclear deal with iran. if iran retaliates, that will make it much harder. and if iran does nothing, i think support for iran will drop. >> i know you've been tweeting a t lot on this issue too, but one

presumes they had a line of succession. will his death slow his work? past killings would suggest perhaps not too much? >> we've actually run this experiment. in 2011, all of iran's solid propellant long range missile team was killed in an explosion, including the head of that program. and it delayed the program by a few years. but pretty quickly after that, we saw iran reconstitute the team, rebuild all the facilities. and recently they've been launching missiles designed by that very team. i think our experience is maybe for the israelis at the moment it feels good to conduct an assassination like this, but there isn't any evidence it slows the iranians down. if anything it probably insights them to go faster. >> it probably encourages interest in the nuclear program by young scientists as well. i've seen that. if the time between now and january 20 is, let's say, uneventful, what chance for a revived u.s.-iran involvement in

the nuclear deal, what would iran want in return? what a biden administration demand of iran? >> well, you know, i think that a biden administration is going to want iran to return to compliance with the agreement, which is something iran has said it will do if sanctions come off. so, i think the big challenge for them in the short-term is just going to be sequencing that. can you find the right series of steps where sanctions come off, iran comes back into compliance, and we get sort of back to where we were. the challenge is going to come that it's been several years now and iran has made a lot of progress. and there are a lot of oothther issues, such as iran's support for proxies around the region and iran's missile program that are going to make the political environment for an agreement much tougher. but, you are know, we just finished a documentary on the iran nuclear deal called "the deal" and the thing we really learned from that, which i think the most important thing to keep in mind, is if there is

political will, we will find technical solutions. >> yeah, exactly. the documently is fascinating, by the way. not all iran-aligned groups within the country and without the country have the same calculations of course. how does this potentially change the dynamic between iran's hardliners and moderates? some saying the hardliners have the upper hand now anyway. >> i can't see how it would help the mode rats f. you're someone who's been arguing restraint, arguing there is the possibility of using diplomacy to solve these problems, the fact there has been this deal but the trump administration has come out, withdrawn from it, and you've seen this incredible level of violence, whether it's assassinations or buildings blowing up in iran. if you imagine yourself sitting in that room, i think people making the case for building the bomb have just an easier time of it because they can point to this kind of unremitting hostility. so i think we can get to a

point, again, where diplomacy is viable. but stuff like this doesn't make it easy. >> real quick, you do this sort of stuff for a living. what do you see coming in the next couple of months? >> well, i think the iranians are probably going to try to play it cool for at least a little bit. but i can't rule out that there will be more assassinations, more buildings exploding and in the end things getting a little out of hand. so, my fingers are crossed. i always try to remain optimistic, but i try to be a realist. >> and worth a follow on twitter. jeffrey lewis, thanks so much. appreciate it. >> it was a pleasure. we'll take a crick break on "cnn newsroom." when we come back, france lifting some of its lockdown measures. we'll look at where else in europe they're taking small steps back to normal and where it's still too soon. in a clinical test, 100% of women showed reduction of wrinkles, even deep ones. new revitalift night serum

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several european countries are re-evaluating lockdown measures after making progress in fighting the virus.

now, this comes of course just in time for the christmas shopping season. while some are easing restrictions, others say it's not safe just yet. jim bittermann reports. >> here in france and some other european countries, lockdown restrictions, which have been in place for a month or more, are starting to be gradually, very gradually reduced. christmas shopping in stores and boutiques start here this weekend. although social distancing rules apply. with the rate of hospitalizations and covid patients and icu beds on the decline, places of worship and hair salons were permitted to reopen. it will be at least december 15th before the government will consider reexamining the rules. in germany, at least december 20th. in italy, authorities are easing up in five regions where the numbers are e improving. governments are grappling with how to slowly bring back

something resembling normal life without creating more infections and lockdowns from holiday socializing. >> i'm michael holmes. aproeshiate your company. for our international viewers, you've got "world sport" coming up next. if you're with me in the u.s., i'll be back with more "cnn newsroom." after a night like this, crest has you covered. crest, the official toothpaste of santa.

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welcome back to our viewers here in the united states. i'm michael holmes. your watching "cnn newsroom." it has been nearly a month now since the presidential election. it feels a little bit longer, doesn't it? donald trump still unable or unwilling to accept that he was indeed defeated by joe biden. now on sunday he spent 45 minutes airing grievances and peddling baseless election fraud conspiracies to millions of viewers on fox news. here's part of his phone interview. >> this is total fraud. and how the fbi and department of justice, i don't know, maybe they're involved. but how people are allowed to get away from this, with this stuff is unbelievable.

this election was rigged. this is the essence of our country. this is the whole ball game. and they cheated. joe biden did not get 80 million votes. >> again, zero evidence. fox news has been facing criticism for failing to challenge and often encouraging those baseless claims of widespread election fraud. some republicans also under fire, a lot of them, for not standing up to the president or speaking out. here's cnn chief media correspondent brian stelter. >> reporter: there is a real tension inside fox about the president and his conduct. it is so sad to see that this president on the way out of office is willing to let the house burn down, willing to add fuel, willing to let it burn down, willing to leave nothing but ashes for biden to take over in january. and what is even more troubling are all the people standing around letting him set it ablaze. those are the murdocks who

control fox news, those are the mitch mcconnells and other gop leaders who apparently approve of all of this crazy stuff. because if they didn't approve, they could call into your show, boris. they could call in right now. they could speak out. they could issue a statement. but instead, 26 days after the election, they seem to be okay with all of this mad man behavior. it isn an astonishing way for te trump presidency to end because for four years it's been about who enables him. that includes bart romo who just tees up lies for the president and also political leaders who are willing to let this go on without intervening. >> now the stock market taking a bit of a breather from record setting runs while investors are still hopeful a covid vaccine will help economies bounce back, they're also weighing the immediate concerns of the rising case numbers.

have a look. right now u.s. futures are down with wall street's massive month coming to a close, over 3/4 a percentage point down. and the asian markets lower as well. hang sang just crossing into negative territory. john defterios is in abu dhabi with more on this. good to see you, john. it was a november we weren't seeing in terms of a rally. are investors more cautious as we wind down the month? >> yeah, it's a huge question mark as we close out 2020, which has been a terrible year, but not for the stock markets who are anticipating recovery next year. it's been a one-way bet so far in november. so, it makes sense to hit the pause button. there's a couple of factors you noted here. the developments on the vaccine, particularly in the western world for europe and the united states. and the second one, despite all the tweets we've been seeing over the weekend from donald trump, interview with fox business, the transition looks like a smooth one to joe biden. and i would adhere that joe

biden's been making some sensible choices for his new cabinet led by on the financial side at least janet yellen and her ability to work with jerome powell, who is the chairman of the u.s. federal reserve. they used to work in the same apparatus. yellen was at the federal reserve and the white house before this stint. there's this thought you can get herd immunity by this time next year. i think that's going to be a tough sell to see the take up, the distribution throughout the g20 countries. but it's helped all global markets. let's take a look. you see the s&p500 hit a record on friday, up 11% in the month alone. global markets up 13%. and now we have european stock markets catching up with paris, up 21%. and we have the long stock market up 25 kt approximate. there's the widely held view that the major economies of the

world, the g20 can drive through with interest rates and stimulus and not have more road blocks. that's a tough sell but the pervasive view at this stage. >> one of the things is the global distribution of the vaccine is such an enormous challenge. is that a hurdle not baked into the markets at this stage? >> i think you're absolutely correct, michael. we have a couple of real case studies at this stage, the two largest emerging markets for example. we have india has a huge challenge to get 1.3 billion people vaccines, people i've talked to all the way stretching to asia will say we'll take the chinese example and the evidence was out today. their factory activities at a three-year high. the services sector is strong as well. but that's a very different model, michael. they have a lot more control. they have the data collection. they can do a lockdown when they need to.

india cannot. and this is going to be put to the test in europe and the united states with brand-new vaccines in the united states as well. we'll get a better indication from the united states on friday. we have the jobless report coming out. it's supposed to inch down to 6.8%. so, if you lift the hood and look at the numbers, we have 13 million americans still taking jobless benefits and the u.s. dollar showing weakness. so, we're not out of the woods yet. but the markets making the bet we can be this time next year. >> no sign of that long-awaited stimulus f stimulus for some of those people suffering as well. john, great to see you as always. thanks so much. great to see you in sunny abu dhabi. >> thanks. the u.s. awe its most covid hospitalizations ever on sunday. we're talking about 93,000, more than 93,000 people in hospital right now with covid. and staff are bracing for that number to grow since there have been more than 4 million new coronavirus cases so far this

month. and the hospitalizations lag. cnn spoke to emergency room physicians about the early days of the pandemic, the strain on hospital systems and what they're most thankful for. >> we've had tens of patients who have been hypoxic. we had a patient who had cardiac arrest. >> when i talk about the pandemic and the amount of death health care providers here are seeing who are not even trained -- we're not even trained for that. you know, i've been in boot camp and the military and i've trained for war. and they're in a war. make no mistake, this is a war. there's no general helping us. there's no plan. and people in this country just continue to get infected.

>> i hate calling family members. i keep telling them that their child or their husband or their wife are dead. that's what we're doing. all across this nation. by 27-year-old cousin, healthy as hell, died from covid-19. i've lost three colleagues to this virus. last sunday i was working the shift here in yuma, arizona, no mask mandates, no icu beds to transfer a patient, but everything is open. makes no sense to me. >> i remember it was this eerie feeling of getting everything ready, the hospitals quiet. the icu was so quiet. and we knew it was coming.

and it was like standing on the beach and watching like a 40-foot tidal wave come at you. and only after it hit you did you realize it wasn't 40 feet, it was 80 feet, and it wasn't the only one. i just saw myself, my family, my loved ones, my community in my icu in a way i had never had before. and that was really kind of profound for me. i think we know a lot more now than we did then. i think we're going to do -- we're going to do better than we did then. but at the same time, once the volume of patients just hits a certain amount, there's only so much we can do. so, i'm worried. i'm worried for that. >> it's getting very busy. it's getting very stressful to work in the emergency department. i've worked shifts where we've had patients waiting for eight, ten hours to be seen, where we've had, you know, dozens of patients sitting in the emergency department waiting for a hospital bed because our

hospital was full. this year was the first time that i broke down crying. i'm most thankful for having a healthy husband and healthy two boys ages 13 and 10 who have not yet gotten sick. i am most thankful for not having anyone absent from my table. and i know that not only a lot of patients' families but a lot of my friends can't say the same thing this year. >> i forgot my helmet. >> my greatest fears going into this holiday season are that people are getting tired. they understand how difficult it is to remain isolated from your friends and family. you know, for myself, christmas is always a big deal. i always -- almost every year i'll travel to puerto rico, which is where i'm from, and

visit my mom, who's an 80-year-old now. we're not doing that this year. i worry that there's not enough people making that decision. >> well, the world's loneliness elephant finally has a new home, largely thanks to one of the world's biggest pop stars. ♪ no matter how your heart is breathing ♪ ♪ if you keep on believing ♪ the dream that you wish ♪ will come true >> you might recognize that voice. cher serenading the elephant, who has spent decades in a zoo in islamabad, much of that time alone and mistreated badly at times. but he's getting new life now at an elephant sanctuary in cambodia. cher behind organizing a lot of that. all right. thanks for watching "cnn

newsroom," spending part of your day with me. i'm michael holmes. another australian, rosemary church, with more news in a moment. ♪ ♪ smooth driving pays off with allstate, the safer you drive the more you save you never been in better hands allstate click or call for a quote today try garnier micellar water rose. with rose water and micelles that work like a magnet to gently cleanse and remove oils and makeup. and now, even hydrates skin. it's cleansing, reinvented. micellar waters by garnier, naturally. latonight, silence it with newd byzzzquil night pain. micellar waters because pain should never get in the way of a restful night's sleep. new zzzquil night pain.

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-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and all around the world. you are watching "cnn newsroom." and i'm rosemary church. just ahead, the team that will accompany joe biden into the white house takes shape, how it's making history, and the other key appointments we're expecting. america's top health officials warn dark days are coming, as the country braces for a coronavirus surge. and mourning