hello, everyone. i'm kate bolduan. thank you so much for joining us. just how bad is the coronavirus pandemic going to get in this country? we have to ask that, because it's already worse than it's ever been and there are no signs things are getting any better. the country is breaking the all-time record of deaths reported from coronavirus in a single day. more than 2,800 americans killed by the virus. so many are becoming numb to these numbers, but consider this. that is more deaths than nations like japan, ireland, south korea, even the uae, than they have reported in the entire pandemic that's the number of covid deaths in the united states in just one day. actually, almost 150 countries have reported fewer deaths during the pandemic than the united states reported just

yesterday. that's some horrible perspective. here is some more. hospitalizations are also at a record high with more than 100,000 people currently receiving treatment and the overall case count is exploding, more than 200,000 new coronavirus infections reported yesterday. even compared to other countries hit hard by the pandemic in terms of the number of infections, the united states as you see is by far the worst in the world. this only paints one picture and points only in one direction. the united states is in an absolutely terrible place as a country heads into the winter. and here are the warnings. >> this is a very, very difficult and dangerous time and if we don't change our ways, this will not be the top of the curve. >> the reality is, december and january and february are going to be rough times. i actually believe they're going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation. >> and there's not just one or

two hot spots now as we've continued to discuss. from coast to coast the whole country is a hot zone. one place seeing some of the worst of it right now is california. los angeles is now issuing a new stay-at-home order and california was one of the first states to shutdown to put in those strict restrictions back in the spring during the first wave. is it on the verge of shutting down once again. stephanie elam is joining us live in los angeles. what are you hearing? >> reporter: that's definitely being considered now, kate, is the idea of shutting back down on some level, a stay-at-home order at some level. here in los angeles county we have one, it's modified from the spring. you are talking about numbers that are scary. let me tell what you california is dealing with right now. the number of cases announced yesterday, 20,759. that is a new record for cases in one day. blows out the previous record by

a lot. look at the hospitalizations more than 9,300 people in the hospital here in california now. also just shattering the records we've seen before, this is obviously of large concern as we've seen the positivity rate rising since november 1st or so, up about 2% in the last 14 days just under 7%. when you look at los angeles county, the largest county -- i should say the most populous county in the state. you can see this is where the trend is showing up. you can look at it and see and talk about the fact that hospital sailizations are hitti record, more than 2,400 people in the hospital right now, up about 85% from two weeks ago, average daily deaths up about 9% as well. and the data that came in for one day yesterday, more than 12% was the positivity rate for the one day. it was about 3.9% on november 1st. that gives you the idea there. that's why normally in december we would be talking about merry

everything, but the mayor of los angeles, eric garcetti, saying it's about cancel everything. take a listen. >> my message couldn't be simpler, it's time to hunker down. it's time to cancel everything and if it isn't essential, don't do it. don't meet up with others outside your household. don't host a gathering. don't attend a gathering. and following our targeted safer at home order, if you're able to stay home, stay home. >> reporter: and in the most recent briefing from los angeles county they say they have 122 icu beds available for this county. keep in mind there's about 10 million people that live here. if that doesn't scare you, make you think perhaps you need to stay home, wear a mask, do all the things you can, i don't know what will. this is going to be a dark winter. people do need to be safe. >> stephanie, thank you so much for putting it in perspective. thank you for the reporting.

joining me now from los angeles is dr. jorge rodriguez. great to see you again. stephanie did a great job of putting it all in context. it is a very dangerous situation. yes, we've been in this for months and months, but what los angeles is seeing is a very dangerous place right now. i want to get your perspective on why are these cases exploding in california and what does it mean? >> i think that california just like everybody else let their guard down and we did. we became complacent because we were under sort of the radar for so long. also remember that california is a place where our residents here visit a lot of other neighboring states that have higher positivity rates. and now well, you know, it's happened to us again. and i'm a hard liner. i think we do need to have much stricter restrictions in place. >> that's what i was going to ask you.

do you think would you like to see, do you think the state needs a statewide, stay-at-home order? and at this point, doctor, with so much talk and it is real, about covid fatigue, do you think people will listen? >> honestly, i don't know. and i don't believe people are going to listen. but they're not likely to listen if you make soft recommendations. in other words, we recommend that, we hope that, people find a loophole if you give it to them. this is serious and as a hard liner and someone who knows the virus doesn't care on soft recommendations, i believe it's time to get serious. we have increased by almost 400%, the number of people that are hospitalized in the last month in california. >> doctor, look at the positivity rate that stephanie was laying out and the jump in the number of deaths in just a matter of weeks. i'm scared of what it's going to look like just knowing how the

virus and the infection rate and then the hospitalizations and deaths lag. i'm really scared what the next couple weeks could look like. >> undyou should be. yesterday in my own private practice we had three new cases. it is worse than is predict by the health of metrics at the university of washington. we are at high tide and the hurricane is hitting. so it is going to be worse than we expected, which is why i don't believe in soft recommendations anymore. we have a few months to hunker down, the time is now. >> a couple quick questions i want to get on on the virus front. you have former presidents, obama, bush and clinton saying they're ready to roll up their sleeves and get vaccinated publicly, maybe on television, in order to lead by example and show the vaccine is not only important but also safe and effective for americans, what impact does that have? >> that's going to have a great impact. you have persons that people look up to. but i would also like to see

leaders in popular culture, movies, singers, also do the same thing. i think it would be a great public service for them to do that. >> we talked a lot about practicing what you preach. you can see this with obviously the former presidents. we've talked a lot about practicing what you preach or not when it comes to president trump. now we also have more than one official in your state, in california, caught defying the very health guidelines and recommendations as we've been discussing that they've been asking for. the mayor of san francisco, who attended a party at the french laundry restaurant days before banning indoor dining. the governor being there a couple days before. you have the mayor of austin texas and mayor of denver, colorado who both told residents to stay home and cancel travel and did the opposite, didn't stay home and got on airplanes. this is hypocritical, just like the white house.

what does that do to public health efforts that you're talking about so much? >> i think it undermines it. i think it undermines it completely. people say why should i follow those recommendations when the same people preaching do not follow them? i think it's very detrimental, i think the impact is immediate how it affect it is community and it's going to affect some very good leaders in the future when it comes to the polling booth a few years from now. >> right now in this critical moment, pragcticing what you preach and leading by example is everything. >> vital. >> and vital. thank you very much. coming up the efforts to roll out the vaccine could begin in a few days. the chief medical officer of cvs is our guest. later, leading civil rights groups left baffled why they want a meeting with the president-elect. the president of the naacp will

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as soon as this month a covid vaccine may be available in your state. but once the federal government approves it, it's largely up to each state to figure out who should receive the limited supply of the vaccine and how. one group at the front is residents and workers at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. cvs and walgreens will be in charge of the bulk of vaccines headed to those facilities and will be offering vaccines at their pharmacy locations nationwide. how is this going to work? joining me now is the chief medical officer for cvs, dr. troy brennan. thank you for coming on. we learned this week that

approval for the pfizer vaccine could be next week and shipments of the vaccine the week after that. what does december 15th and 16th look like for cvs if those are the dates? what will you be doing? >> there's a good deal of work that has to go on between cdc and states in determining who should be getting the vaccine, details about that. we'll be doing the skilled nursing facilities and long-term care facilities we have the lists of those organizations and next week we're having webinars with the organizations so we begin to get organized about consenting procedures and how the clinics will work in those facilities but we have to wait until the approval occurs and the cdc and state decides on this. that may take a few days but our plan is to be ready to go as early as december 15th waiting for the state approvals. >> that's a key part of it,

right? you're a couple weeks out from what will be a massive undertaking. if every state has its own distribution plan, if you will, do you have all the information you need? >> we're working with each of the states now, and it will be challenging because each state will be different. some states will say just vaccinate the people in the skilled nursing facility. some states want us to vaccinate not only the people in the skilled nursing facilities but the health care workers in those facilities. so those kinds of details are going to vary from state-to-state. but we're working directly with the states now to understand what the parameters are going to be. we expect this to continue as we get to the other stages as well, making decisions about who essential workers are and how we're going to check for morbidity for those individuals under the age of 65 but should be getting the vaccines early. there's a lot of details to work out with the states but that's

the way they work, the state makes the decision in consultation with the cdc. >> that's something you have to have. where is the line? where do you draw the line on these priority groups early on especially. how do you also deal with the challenge of cold storage for the pfizer vaccine as it requires these extremely cold temperatures that are not seen before with other vaccines? >> right. it does. but we've worked that out with pfizer i think fairly well. we've been doing tests with pfizer and planning through it. they have special containers that we can maintain at the appropriate temperatures using dry ice. so we'll be using their containers, they'll come to our thousand hubs that we're setting up where we'll be keeping the vaccine and then the vaccine will be traveling out from there to the individual facilities. we'll know how many people we're going to be vaccinating and how many vaccinations we need to take out to those facilities and be keeping a close eye on the

time that we have the vaccine and what those temperatures are. but we're pretty comfortable we're going to be able to store for up to 20 days the pfizer vaccine. simply by reloading these special containers with dry ice. so it sounds very difficult but turns out from a logistic point of view to be quite trackable. >> cvs has a vast network of locations, almost in every state. but what is the area of the country you're most worried about when it comes to distribution and the challenges of the logistics involved? >> for the skilled nursing facilities, the two organizations are ourselves and walgreens. and the skilled nursing facilities have already made a decision about sort of which organization they want to work with. we basically got 31,000 locations we're going to be doing the vaccination. and that's about 2 million patients. so we know who it is, where they are, and how many patients there are there. the others will be using

walgreens, some of that is going to be a decision about what is the most prevalent pharmacy chain in that particular part of the country. some places we have more pharmacies than walgreens and other places they have more than we do. so that's all been decided, at least for the skilled nursing facilities once we get into general distribution, i suspect not only ourselves and walgreens but a number of other pharmacy chains and grocery stos will be involved. i think using all the various outlets we'll have very good penetration across the united states. >> have you thought about, i'm sure you have, how you take on the challenge when it's approved for the general population how to make sure people come back for the second shot, the limited supplies you have, so the first vaccine isn't wasted if people don't come back. >> yes, our customers in our pharmacy will know that we do a good job of getting after you if you haven't refilled your medications, it's a critical part of pharmacy. so we're on top of that.

a lot of it will be done by telephone and more digitally. we'll be texting people and calling them to come back and get that second dose. we're going to set them up with appointments, when we start moving out to the stores themselves we'll be doing it by appointment only. you'll get an appointment for both your first vaccination, the second vaccination and we'll make sure you come back for the second vaccination. >> i giggled because cvs is good as i get messages that i get messages that i need to pick up and refill my prescription today. thank you dr. brennan, i appreciate you coming in today and the effort you're about to take on to get the country vaccinated. >> thank you very having us. president trump is frustrated with attorney general bill barr for telling the truth.

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new this morning, we are learning that dr. anthony fauci will be meeting with president-elect joe biden's transition team. that is according to cnn's jim sciutto and jim acosta. so the focus remains there for

the biden transition. as for president trump his twitter feed shows his focus remains on the election he lost and he's growing frustrated with attorney general bill barr who earlier this week said there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the election results. telling the truth, looking at reality essentially. and then there's this, the president has also planned a series of indoor holiday parties at the white house, the thing public health experts and local officials are calling on every other american to avoid this year. here's how the white house defends the position. >> is the white house setting a good example with the in-person holiday parties at a time when the cdc and other organizations are asking americans to forego those kinds of celebrations for their own safely? >> if you can loot businesses, burn down businesses, engage in protests, you can also go to a christmas party. >> joining me from the white

house is john harwood. where do you want to begin? what is happening with bill barr? >> reporter: it is striking that what frustrates the president is not the pandemic that's killed more than a quarter million americans, that he's not preoccupied with trying to stop the pandemic. you noted the parties that he's having. he's not even addressing it at all as it rampages through the united states. what he's concerned about is the fact that bill barr, who's been a very pliant attorney general, who's done the president's bidding on a number of fronts ran into the reality that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud tilting this election. bill barr decided to tell the truth about that and that made donald trump mad. there's talk he might fire bill barr, not sure what the point is, there's only seven weeks left in the administration. he'd get push back from republicans. john cornyn told manu raju a few minutes ago he'd be disappointed

if the president fired bill barr. but it's clear that the president can't handle being labeled a loser, can't handle the humiliation in the eyes of his followers, the damage to his own ego. one of the ways you know that is the president who seeks out television cameras throughout the four years he's been president has been hiding from them. and he's doing that again today. he's giving the medal of freedom, to lou holtz a retired football coach who endorsed him in the campaign, but it's a closed press event no chance for reporters to ask him questions because he can't handle those questions. >> good point. turning to the transition, baffled. that's how the leading civil rights organizations are left feeling right now. groups like the naacp worried about the direction of the biden cabinet and now applying

pressure to appointment more black officials to top posts so far. so far joe biden has nominated three people to his cabinet or cabinet level positions, lynda thomas greenfield, alejandro mayorkas, and neera tanden. thank you for being here. tuesday you told "the washington post" there had been no communication with the president-elect, no meetings set up and this baffled you. have you heard anything since? is there any meeting on the books right now? >> we have heard from the president-elect's campaign. what was baffling that you cannot say that civil rights in the black community will be a priority and you appointed a czar over environmental, which is important. but there have been no meetings with the civil rights community to talk about a civil rights

agenda. that is baffling. >> do you expect a meeting to happen? communication with the transition is still short of a meeting that you and other leaders are calling for. >> we believe a meeting will happen. president-elect joe biden has been a long-standing member of the naacp. i do believe he care about civil rights issues. but it's our job, our goal to make sure that it is front and center at all time. the last four years have been very harmful to civil rights legislation and progress made. we must be as aggressive as possible to restore the integrity of many of our agencies. >> what are you concerned about? you yourself just noted that joe biden has been a long-time advocate for the black community, a long-time member of the naacp. >> we're concerned about if you make it a priority, the conversation should have happened by now. there have been conversations with different groups, discussions around environment and labor and other things that

have not been the conversation about civil rights. that is concerning. if it's a priority, it's a priority. conversation should have been had now. >> the most important pick when you're talking about posts in the administration. the most important pick that joe biden has made so far was his running mate and he picked kamala harris, the first black woman to hold the position. are you worried, derrick, that kamala harris is not going to be promoting black leadership in the administration? >> not at all. i think senator harris -- i'm sorry, vice president-elect harris is going to do an outstanding job. this is about the policy, priorities to restore what was taken away during the last four years. look at the department of education. betsy devos gutted the civil rights division within that agency. if you look at the department of justice, we need a department of justice who will aggressively pursue white supremacists and

domestic terrorists. this is making sure that no matter who holds the post, civil rights is in the center of the conversation. we want to make sure that all considerations are centered in a civil rights frame. >> this reminds me of a conversation i had just before the election with a democratic voter, a black woman in detroit. let me play you what she told me then. do you think the democratic party takes you for granted? >> absolutely. absolutely they take us for granted. because they know that black women are going to help them get the big wins they needs where it matters but they also know that they can give us the bare minimum knowing that we aren't going to choose the other side. >> do you think that's what's going on here? is that what you're afraid of? >> no, i'm not afraid of anything. this is the classic understanding that political parties are vehicles for

agendas. so african-americans, we must always push our agenda no matter who's in office. but secondly, fdr says years ago, i agree with you make me do it. it's about continuing the pressure from our community so that the needs and interests of our issues are met. >> you have also warned about potential nominees, namely rahm emmanuel, who was under consideration for transportation secretary. what would it mean to you if he was picked? >> it would be outrageous. you cannot select someone who intentionally hid evidence of a police murder and then released it after the election. that is not the value proposition the president-elect said he would walk into office with. we will fight against that. you cannot bring tom fieldsack who terminated sheila sherod.

that's why it's important to have a civil rights frame on discussions because you can fall into these traps and these traps can cause a backlash for your core voting base. african-americans is a core voting base not only for the president-elect but the democratic party. it's our responsibility not the party to hold people account to make sure our interests, our value propositions are always front and center. >> derrick, thank you for coming on. >> thank you. programming note for all of you, president-elect joe biden, vice president-elect kamala harris will be joining jake taper for their first interview since winning the white house, you can watch it here tonight at 9:00 p.m. on cnn. we'll bring you the story of one family business that is looking at and could be forced to shut its doors now because of all of this after 40 years. from bath fitter. every bath fitter bath is installed quickly, safely, and beautifully,

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another 712,000 americans filed for first time unemployment benefits last week. you can see, we'll show you, that's down slightly from the previous week but still historically high as the economy struggles to recover as the

coronavirus pandemic surges on. millions of americans are struggling to pay bills, feed their families and simply stay afloat. lucy cavanaugh met one family whose business is now on the brink of shutting down. >> reporter: it's a family tradition. for nearly three decades the owners of the sun set inn in colorado have raised money to get gifts for children. >> they're not going to have nothing. >> reporter: but now their plans are up in the air. three generations work at the inn. >> it's the pillar of our family. >> reporter: this is one of the businesses crippled by covid-19. the restaurant now empty. more than half their employees laid off. takeout orders barely making ends meet. >> what's your fear when it comes to the sunset inn?

>> losing what we built all these years. having the fear somebody else has it after we walk away and us not being here anymore. that's -- sorry. that's my most fear. >> for over 15 years the sunset in was a favorite. but then in 1996 chuck added to the menu -- >> reporter: the menu rising to national fame after being featured in the travel channel's "food wars". >> the sunset is our whole family, life. >> the troubles began in march when colorado went into lockdown. >> we're resorting to this extreme measure so people know they need to stay in their homes. >> reporter: the sunset stayed shut for three months. then in october, disaster struck. >> outbreak and possible community exposure to covid-19

at the sunset inn. >> reporter: 11 family members infected. >> we wiped everything down, complied and ended up getting it. >> reporter: all recovered but the business is still recovering. before the pandemic, the family said the inn could pull $5,000 on a good day. now they're lucky to make 400. emergency relief funding helped them stay afloat but barely. if things don't change they say the inn may have to shut its doors in three months. new restrictions imposed last week could make a return to normal a long way off. >> how has the hardship affected you? >> not sleeping at night. my hair is turning gray. constantly worrying about if we can pay the bills. >> reporter: a fear echoed by the family and thousands of small business owners across the nation. >> my mom and dad are the hardest working people i know. and it's just emotional to know

that we don't know what could happen, you know, if it was to continue like this. >> now, this story, this family's experience is just a micro cosmic look at what's happening to small businesses across this pandemic. the chavez family knows how dangerous the virus is, they had it. but at the same time the sunset is more than a business for them. it's their life, their livelihood. colorado did wrap up a special session of legislation with new relief spending. but even the governor here is warning it's not enough. kate? >> lucy, thank you so much. really appreciate it. coming up for us, more school districts pushing back plans to resume in-person classes. kansas city, kansas just made that call. we'll take you there next. d'shea: i live in south jamaica, queens,

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the head of the cdc once again making clear that the science has shown it's possible to open and keep schools open safely. >> we now have substantial data that shows that schools, face-to-face learning, can be conducted in k-12, particularly the elementary and middle schools in a safe and responsible way. >> even so millions of students across the country are facing schools shutdown and classes only operating online. that includes 23,000 children in

the kansas city, kansas school district where the school board voted to push back their planned reopening day, push it back to april. joining me right now is the mayor of kansas city, kansas. thank you for being here. what's the reaction to the decision to push back classes, it was going to be january and now we're looking at april 5th. >> i think this is another piece of the continuing saga with what we're dealing with with the virus and the pandemic we have to continue to look at the data, consider the data, and always keep in mind that the welfare of our students and staff and the community itself. >> you hear dr. redfield, the head of the cdc, we've heard other doctors and public health officials looking and saying that the science they're seeing more and more is that it's -- you can keep schools open safely. you can keep kids in the classrooms safely, more safely

than people thought at the beginning of the pandemic. why can you not when it comes to kansas city? >> well, we can. and it's -- the problem is not in our community. the problem has not been spread within the school itself. we have four school districts and kansas hasn't opened in person yet. what we experienced is what's happening in the community. the concern is that the community spread is going to be brought into the schools. again, students in the school setting, we can control that, protocols are well established and all districts have been compliant with that. that's been successful. but the problem is what's happening in the community at large and that's being brought into the schools. so my assumption and my understanding is that the kansas school board took a look at what happened in the community at large, was concerned about staffing, whether they could

staff up, get enough substitute teachers because of quarantines and sickness in the community at large. >> valid concerns. also looking at restrictions in place in the area. as i understand it, you are requiring bars to close around 10:00 p.m. but they are still open, right? they're not shutdown until april. how do you square that? we talked about this in new york city. same thing, people can go to a bar, but kids can't go to school. >> right. i think basically the issue is this, as part of the larger metro area, we in kansas city, missouri, state of missouri has to be done in concert with the rest of the region. on the missouri side, for instance, there was a 10:00 p.m. shutdown in johnson county, south of us. they stayed open until midnight. we felt like we had to come in

with where we were in mainstream, that's why that's happening. we can't take anything, we're not an island onto ourselves, we have to go in concert with the rest of the metro area and the rest of the metro area is looking between 10:00 and midnight. >> mayor, there are more studies coming out saying that what people feared all along is that remote learning, you're seeing a drop in test scores, reading levels. it is not great for kids, especially among minorities, among black and brown students. so are you frustrated with the decision that's been made, because what you're looking at is telling families they're looking at five more months of not optimal learning environment for their children. >> yeah. well, i am frustrated with the decision. this is an elected board that has to take all of that into consideration. i certainly don't want to make judgments about what information they had, what they were looking

at. from what i know, they did due diligence. looking at our case rate and positivity rate in the county, they decided best thing they could do to protect staff and students and not create a situation they weren't able to continue with in person learning, decided to push it back to april. still comes down to all along everyone pay attention, mask up, don't get the virus, don't give the virus. if we all do that, we would be able to get beyond this much quicker. >> this is very tough. mayor, thank you for your time. >> you're welcome. i want to turn to georgia, with balance of power in the senate and throughout washington on the line, republicans in the state are getting worried. not even about results of the senate race but about the president visiting. president trump is scheduled to rally supporters this weekend in the state. some republicans say the continued baseless focus on alleged fraud is doing more harm than good. cnn's ryan young joins us from atlanta with the latest. ryan, what are you hearing about

this? >> reporter: imagine going into the biggest fighter on your side. what's what republicans are worried about. donald trump continues to tweet, talk about state of georgia, how the election didn't go right. we had two counts so far, haven't seen any voting irregularities so far. people are concerned he is focused on that instead of the two senate seats. when you turn the television on, you know republicans and democrats both want these seats. every time you turn it on, you see commercials. look at this one that came out earlier. says the republican governor, brian kemp, and secretary of state must immediately allow signature verification match on the presidential election. if that happens, we quickly and easily win the state, and importantly pave the way for a big david and kelly win. he will be here tomorrow, has a rally in savannah. saturday donald trump will be

here. you think about republicans, they want to see the president get down to business, talk about the two senate seats so hopefully they can keep that side of the aisle red. a lot of democrats are licking their chops thinking with the back and forth, they may be able to slip these two seats in. >> what if comt comes down to, concern about what the president is talking about, you point out the tweet, what attorneys that support the president are talking about could be suppressing voter turnout. that's one of the big concerns republicans have there. great to see you, ryan. thank you. still ahead, a look at coronavirus kits and cards could look like. we'll be back. like where to find the cheapest gas in town and which supermarket gives you the most bang for your buck. something else that's good to know? if you have medicare and medicaid, you may be able to get more healthcare benefits through a humana medicare advantage plan. call the number on your screen

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hello to our viewers in the united states and around the world. coronavirus cross currents between vaccine hope and despair of the current moment. 30 straight days of 100,000 plus cases, and the u.s. is expected to pass 14 million infections sometime today. these numbers are so big and overwhelming that they need to be put in proper human historical context. before that, other big ad