particularly in this final hour of trade. we're up though 55 points. here comes the closing bell. [closing bell rings] crude oil flat, still at $41.89. there we go, s&p gaining 15. the nasdaq up 107. it is time for "after the bell" and possibly more information on the covid crisis. connell: yeah, just moments from now at the white house the vice president and the coronavirus task force will indeed brief us on the pandemic. this comes as officials issued a new warning for americans ahead of the thanksgiving holiday. we're just wrapping up a choppy session on wall street. we close it on a up note. we're weighing impact of new restrictions against the positive vaccine developments. the dow closes up 44. nasdaq best of the bunch. major averages up a shade by 1%, 103 points higher on the day. good to be with you. i'm connell mcshane. welcome to "after the bell." team for news happening at this

hour. fox business team coverage. blake burman in washington today, hillary vaughn in wilmington, delaware. the president-elect is meeting with a group of governors. grady trimble in chicago where businesses brace for more lockdown related loss. first we start with lauren simonetti about the new cdc warning about thanksgiving travel. lauren? lauren: good to see you, the cdc is urging americans not to travel for thanksgiving one week from today. we're in the worst of the pandemic yet. over one million americans infected in the past seven days. 80,000 in the hospital. still look at these numbers. 50 million people will hit the roads to see family and friends next week. while that is 10% fewer than last year, it is still a large number of people traveling. nearly all of them, 95% will be traveling by car. so if you are hosting a gathering, this is the cdc's recommendation. keep it small. keep it outside. if you're attending thanksgiving

gathering, the cdc says bring your own food, drink, plates and utensils. stay out of the cook's kitchen. i kid you not. despite the warnings people are going to travel, connell. and yes, 2.4 million are still expected to fly. look here, perspective, that is the biggest annual decline ever. it is basically half of what we saw last year so it is still 2.4 million people congregating in checkpoints, airports, other high traffic areas. so the the cdc says, if you're one of those people, get a flu shot, war a mask with two layers before exposing yourself in the general population. crazy times. connell: really interesting indeed to have the cdc weigh in today. we'll see what impact is on people and the economy. lauren, thank you. a live look at the white house as we continue to wait for the vice president and a task force briefing. lauren is talking about millions of americans to stay home for

thanksgiving. we have businesses now, in some of the nation's largest cities bracing for massive revenue loss. a series of new restrictions. more on that now, live from grady trimble in chicago. grady. reporter: connell, chicago tried the curfew approach like new york is doing. officials here said that didn't do enough to contain the virus so the entire state of illinois starting tomorrow will face more restrictions. museums like the field museum will have to close. so will casinos and movie theaters. retailers which should be gearing up for black friday next week, they will be at 25% capacity for the foreseeable future. the same with gyms and salons. bars and restaurants have not been able to do indoor dining for several weeks. they can do outdoor but not a lot of people taking advantage of that with the weather in chicago. the governor of chicago says he will see how it goes the next couple weeks but he has not ruled out another lockdown. >> the triggers obviously will

be at least if we get through one, likely two incubation periods we're not seeing any movement in the right direction. that is it when we consider what the next steps will be. reporter: other cities, states, counties trying a less restrictive approach. we mentioned new york with the 10:00 curfew for the past week. ohio for the entire state is starting a curfew tonight at 10:00 p.m. l.a. county as goes into 10:00 tomorrow. restaurants and bars, they are hit hardest by the curfews because they miss out on late night business. it has trickle-down effect. people that use rideshare companies like uber and lyft, they struggle a lot during the pandemic. they're expected to hit even harder when when the curfews go into effect. places like illinois where lockdowns are becoming more real starting tomorrow, a lot of people are urged to stay home, you will see food and grocery deliver services become very

common again, connell. connell: yeah, that's right. like they were in the spring. now in new york city we've talked a lot about the schools with the announcement this week they're closed for the time-being for in-person learning. when you talk about the new restrictions in chicago. are schools impacted by that out there at all? reporter: interestingly no. schools are not affected by these tier 3 restrictions in illinois. chicago schools they actually never went back but on the same day the governor announced the new severe restrictions school system is gearing up to get back to in-person teaching starting in january. some of the suburbs not forced to close by the government, the school districts there are choosing to close. it is kind of an interesting time when they're trying to keep the schools open if they can but the businesses are dealing with the burden. connell: right. grady, thank you. grady trimble out there in chicago. looking at the lecturn in the white house and briefing room moments from now vice president

pence and the coronavirus task force are expected to brief reporters for the first time in, first time in a few months we've seen a briefing like this. we used to see them all the time. blake burman is live in washington with a preview for us. blake. reporter: first time in quite some time, connell. what is notable we heard from the top officials on "operation warp speed" yesterday saying they would be briefing the media more down the line as we have seen the vast number of cases rise all across this country in the recent days and weeks. we got the warning today, another press briefing from the cdc lauren talked about as it relates to holiday traveling during thanksgiving and this afternoon suddenly out of nowhere popped up on the vice president's schedule this coronavirus task force briefing meeting t comes after the task force was set to meet 2:30 this afternoon. presumably we'll hear from the head of the task force, vice president mike pence, members of the task force as well. there is a host of questions and topics they could get into.

you heard, grady talking about schools and lauren talking about holiday travel. if the vice president ends up taking questions as well i would, i think it is safe to assume, connell, he would be asked about the president's refusal to concede the presidential election at this point, what exactly it might mean for "operation warp speed" and transition that will be involved around that project in the upcoming dies. a host of issues to get into here, connell. as we anticipate to hear from vice president mike pence and members of the coronavirus task force coming out after task force briefing meeting any moment now, connell. connell: months ago when we did have the briefings on a regular basis we would be told the vice president is the head of the task force who would be there along with task force members. sometimes the president himself would walk out. is there, do we know, you probably don't know if there is any chance that might happen this time? what do you think? reporter: no indication of that right now. they did update the vice president's schedule.

they have not updated the president's schedule. as you know the expectations can go out the window there at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. we haven't seen, really heard much really if anything from the president since he lost the election over the last couple weeks. just slated at this point to be the vice president who is the head of coronavirus task force. still there are many who would like to get a few questions in to president trump at this time. connell. connell: we had the president at one rose garden event, they talked about "operation warp speed." we thought he would take questions from the reporters and chose not to and walked away. we'll monitor the brady briefing room, when the vice president walks out we'll take part of that briefing to see what news comes out of it. while we await president-elect joe biden we've been wait for him to deliver remarks. he had a meeting with a group of governors. nope, that has not started yet.

that is the old empty podium in wilmington, delaware. hillary vaughn joins us with the latest. hillary, we've been waiting a while. what is going on with the president-elect? reporter: a slight delay. he wrap ad meeting with the executive council of the national governors association which is made up of five republican governors and five democratic governors and he told them he wants to know directly from them what exactly they need to handle rising cases of coronavirus in their states because he says because of the gsa delay, he is unable to get accurate, up to date information to figure out what they need when he moves into the oval office. >> i understand many of you, that you, you have serious resource constraints as you try to fight this pandemic. and that has limited your ability to do what you need to do. i want to, i mean this, we both want to work with you. we want to work with you and congress on bipartisan basis to make sure you get the resources

you need. reporter: connell, multiple sources are now confirming to fox news that president-elect biden will meet with senate minority leader chuck schumer and house speaker nancy pelosi tomorrow here in wilmington. connell? connell: that's interesting. been a lot of talk whether we move forward on any kind of stimulus in the near term. but the other thing of course, the president-elect putting together his administration. we had some time to talk about this, hillary, there has been some buzz online, other places about what that administration will look like at the cabinet level. whether the president-elect gets dragged to the left with the progressives in the democratic party. what is the latest on the cabinet as far as you understand things? reporter: connell, he is even facing criticism from people he is putting in his inner circle from progressives. he criticized the trump administration for bringing on ex-lobbyists to fill roles in the trump administration but he

is doing that same thing now. he brings on steve richetti a former pharma lobbiest. he worked for pfizer and eli lilly and worked for companies like gm and at&t in the past. they're criticizing that pick because of his corporate ties and criticizing cedric richmond bringing on as senior advisor who accepted over $190,000 to fossil fuel pacs like exxon. that is fueling bad blood with progressives. they held a press conference today, essentially making the point that are viewpoint is not going away and their perspective needs to be heard. >> our folks don't have another day, another hour, another any moment, not another week, a month. they're tired of waiting. they're asking for clean air. they asked you for clean water, to protect them. and so we're on a different timeline. we're going to make sure the biden administration sticks to our timeline.

reporter: connell, what is interesting is the person who has been out there the most is senator bernie sanders, democratic socialist. he has been actively campaigning as openly as one can for labor secretary. there has been no indication yet he is even on the top of the list. that the biden administration is considering at this point. they have been pretty tight-lipped though who is on that list, connell? connell: openly as one can for labor secretary. good way of putting it hillary. thank you. that will be interesting to see how the president-elect handles that with the left in his party. while hillary was speaking. you saw the event beginning in wilmington. we'll keep an eye on that and the white house as we continue here. an extra tax, meantime from the comfort of your home to speak about. the possible move that has remote workers sounding the alarm is just ahead. plus the pandemic and a coin shortage are leaving one holiday charity at risk here. we'll talk to the commissioner of the salvation army now about

the hurdles he is now facing. speaking out on their historic mission. astronauts from the international space station are giving the public an update on the successful spacex crew dragon launch. stick around. much more to come on "after the bell."

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♪. connell: "fox business alert"

here as we wait for the update from the white house the coronavirus task force. vice president pence expected to discuss the pandemic, possibly some vaccine-related developments as well. as soon as that briefing starts we'll dip into it at the white house. while we wait, if you're working from home right now as many people are researchers at deutsche bank think you should be paying a 5% tax to help the economy. meantime new numbers are out showing a widening gap in the job market recovery, based on salary. let's talk jobs as we bring in jackie deangelis from fox business, jack otter from "barron's," host of the "barron's" roundtable every friday night on fb. what do we know about this? >> this is work at home privilege tax. it is an idea kicked around by deutsche bank. how it would work, you're working at home, saving on food, child care, clothes, because you're not going into the office. on average salary of $55,000 a

year, on a tax rate of 5%, you would pay more than $10 a day in this tax. that would add up to $48 billion a year we could help boost the economy, help some businesses that are struggling and people that lost jobs, right? some people are saying it is not necessarily the responsibility of those who are at home to bear that risk. we are waiting for that stimulus package from washington, right? and there is this interesting twist to it as well. like, who, is choosing to stay home for example? look at a company like facebook. they said their employees can stay home until july of 2021. then there are some contract employees that do very important search work for facebook. they are saying they are being forced to go to work, asking mark zuckerberg why is that the case? were are you not protecting me? there is a little bit of irony for those working al home don't want to be there and go back to

the office. and some say i don't want to be in the office. i want to go home. this is interesting conversation as we're waiting to at that talk about the stimulus, talking about that instead of this. that is little difficult for employees and employers, connell. connell: we'll see if it gains any traction. jack otter, apologies in advance if i have to cut you off for the white house briefing that could start any moment. the other job related stories that stood out for me, by the way we had initial jobless claims at an elevated level, 742,000 last week, the recovery in the job market looks really uneven. quite simply for people making more money. "axios" said unemployed in the country work in bottom earning industries. industries don't make as much money, even though they only represent 24% of workforce. any concern about this we -- people are really struggling but not everybody is.

in certain areas they're struggling a lot more? >> yeah. so one much the fascinating things about this pandemic has been how it accelerated trend that were already happening which is actually quite unusual. usually a big turning point in the economy sets back where things were. this time is an acceleration. the that acceleraton we already saw zoomed ahead. why deutsche bank came up with the idea. frankly i think the deutsche bank thing is dead on arrival. by pure coincidence on the phone or zoom call with two guys from deutch when this thing came over. they didn't have details but they both scoffed, said, oh, my god, that is a terrible idea. i don't actually see it happening but it address this is problem, right? i'm working at home. i don't spend as much on dry cleaning commuting. the guy at the sandwich shop near our office, connell, i don't see him so often. i worry what is happening with that guy? i don't have the answer. deutsche bank's answer is tax me in order to pay for him.

i will say there are caveats on that. this guy's proposal, doesn't mean any government will actually do it, he suggested if your company didn't offer you a desk, like you had no option, you couldn't go in, the company should pay the tax not the individual. they also said if you were mandated to stay home by government or something else, you shouldn't have to pay the tax. so there are a lot of caveats here in this proposal. also i will say it was on page 33 of an 82-page report with a lot of different ideas about how to rebuild post-pandemic. again i think it is one of those interesting thoughts out there that is unlikely to happen but i will say, right, when the government pays to you know, these various packages including the cares act, that essentially is the same thing. because it is taxpayer money going to these people in such dire straits right now. all the deutsche bank guy is

doing putting a label on it and actually tagging that tax to this purpose but even if we don't do that, we're kind of doing it now. we're just borrowing the money by issuing more bonds and adding to the national debt. connell: right. couple things. number one, if it is 33rd page of an 80 something page report, kudos for jackie deangelis finding it. >> i didn't. i didn't. people were talking about it before me. connell: i'm only kidding. but we're waiting for this briefing to begin, jackie, and it does kind of bring up a wider bigger picture on jobs, right? i said the jobless claims were elevated and remained well over 700,000. that we're in the middle of this week, getting towards the end of now of this week we had so much great news on vaccines but terrible news in other ways as hospitalizations go up in so many parts of the country hit by the virus, you wonder about bridging the gap.

how many jobs might be on the line the next few months before the vaccine is ready to go. what are your thoughts? >> it is a really important question. that is what everyone is is braking for. we have coronavirus fatigue as we go into what we're perceiving our second wave. you're thinking to yourself if we have to lock down, look, new york city shut schools hit thresh hold of 3% on rolling seven day average. that is low, but de blasio says i may shut down bars an restaurants all over again. that has impact on retail sector and low income jobs of people who suffered the first wave. this is a real issue. while the vaccine news is exciting. it is long off on the time horizon. it won't be widely distributed until sometime next year. i go back to something that hurt my soul personally when i read it, biontech founder said life will not go back to normal until winter of next year. so we have to figure out how we

get from here to there. yes there is a light at the end of the tunnel. there is more pain along the way if we can't somehow control the spread of these cases to find some way to keep economies, cities, states, more open. it us a tough one. connell: it is a very tough one and a dow at nearly 30,000 but small business owners, medium-sized business owners, jack, to the point jackie is making are still really struggling. we had one on the show almost every single day and it is never good news. always how can i get by. not planning for the future. let me get to this point. most people are thinking when the vaccine comes out. jackie is right, a lot of experts predict it will take a while to roll out before the economy gets back to normal. your thoughts? >> yeah, it's tough. that is yet another trend this has exacerbated. the rich are getting richer. i don't mean rich people, the people doing well. companies doing well in the

previous economy. big cap tech names, right are hitting all-time highs while mom-and-pop businesses who don't have access to capital markets, they can't just issue stock if they need more money. they're getting slammed with fewer customers like me, as i said talking about the sandwich shop or whatever. they have many fewer options, first of all yes, the bridge that jackie referred to between now and vaccine time really important for us as a nation to figure out how to help people as they struggle with that. look, it is all of our props, right? if the ball business owner goes -- small business owner goes belly-up, they can't pay the mortgage, what happens at that point? so it's a good idea to help them through this. but even even after we get through this, habits have changed. i suspect that i might go into the office three days a week in the future. if you multiply that times the

entire white-collar economy there will be lots of reasons why downtown office areas are not the way they use to bed. they have to get really creative. one idea floated out there to take some empty office buildings to allow schools to expand into them, universities and colleges so that, for instance, you could have the same number of people but would be spread out over a wider space. social distancing. more ways to educate people via virtual classes so you could expand the pie with more people getting a college education down the road. we have to think outside of box, 5% taxes or not, all kinds of ideas to adjust for real changes that will survive this pandemic. connell: yeah, those are all interesting. you're right everything probably should and probably is on the table to some extent. jack otter, thanks as always. jackie deangelis good to see you as well. we'll squeeze in a quick break.

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♪. connell: still waiting for the white house briefing. as we do so news in from wilmington, delaware, where president-elect joe biden has been speaking. moments ago he said he made his pick for treasury secretary which is a big one for the business community. they have been waiting to see who the president-elect might select for that position and, he says he has selected someone but will make the announcement official before thanksgiving. so in the next week we should know the biden treasury secretary pick, that was said moments ago as the president-elect continues his remarks in wilmington. we're waiting on news from georgia. state officials have until tomorrow to announce the hand recount in the general election results. the pressure is also mounting on those two senate runoff races. fox's steve harrigan live in atlanta. these senate races something else, steve. looks like they will be the most expensive we've ever seen, right? tell us the latest.

reporter: they really grabbed the country's attention and pocketbooks as well. we've seen a stream of heavy hitters coming in from both sides of the aisle to campaign for four candidates. january 5th runoff, first two weeks alone, 135 million-dollars in television ads purchased. the adds are pretty much around the clock in georgia, very negative ads, so important, so expensive. both sides see this potentially giving one party or the other control of the senate. connell? connell: now, the recount which i mentioned a moment ago, this, by hand recount, what's going on there, what's the latest? reporter: presidential ballot recount. five million ballots. they did it by hand. we're supposed to hear the data sometime today. as is it stands right now, biden has 13,000 vote lead. there have discrepancies found

in four counties. there were 2000 votes each. president trump picked up votes in both of those. georgia officials say this recouldn't will not affect the final outcome. >> they have absolutely every right to look out for the 73 million americans who supported donald trump. that is why we're doing the hand count to prove and show the machines count what the machines counted. that is what we have to say. reporter: senator tom cotton campaigning today for the two republicans. tomorrow it is vice president pence. connell. connell: shah, steve harrigan live in atlanta, georgia for us. the big story of the week in terms of the virus is hospitals. hospitals are feeling the strain. coved coved-related admissions passing 79,000 for the first time. next up talking to a member of pandemic task force in st. louis where the area hospitals are seeing more than three times

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♪. connell: so, you know, any moment now this briefing should start at the white house. vice president pence and the coronavirus task force. it comes at a time when a large part of the midwest has really been overwhelmed by covid-19. for example, st. louis, missouri, hospitalized admissions hits a new high, 125

a day. the tack force would like to see that number at 40. alex garza joins us right now, officer ever the task force. explain the effect of that. i believe the number i've been alluding to has been over 100 for a week or so you would like to see it around 40. explain the impact. >> let me explain that number of 40. we hit the first phase of patients coming through. doing the math, this would be sort of a red line. as you mentioned we're averaging over 125 patients a day over the past seven days. so it put a tremendous strain on all of our hospitals. it decreases capacity but also decreases our ability to take transfers in from the rural partners. it decreases the availability of our icu beds and other beds for patients that don't have covid such as heart patients and

stroke patients. so it is severely impacting operations. connell: it is the kind of thing that i would think the coronavirus task force, members of that task force now walked into the brady briefing room we'll be talking about. we're still waiting for the vice president himself to come out. this is general that runs "operation warp speed" from the logistical side. quick comment as we wait on the vice president, dr. garza, how close you are to the so-called brink? how bad are things for people not in your area? >> yeah. so we take a look at the data that we have ongoing every day. then we also use our models to say how far can we sustain this, how far before i run out of capacity? we believe if we continue the same rate, if nothing happens, most likely we'll be out of two weeks we'll be out of icu beds. another week we'll reach limit of our capacity. we'll need to do other things to

create more space, to accommodate more patients. so it is a very short time frame we're talking about if we continue on the current pace. connell: yeah. man, dr. fauci, dr. birx. we're waiting for the vice president. two weeks is not a long time. what are the next few months will look like if you get, if you get to that point? what actually happens? as i say you have to build new hospitals, field hospitals i guess? we have gone through it here in new york but it is tough. >> the challenges piece is staff. we're competing for staff across our metropolitan area and across the country. that is the rate limiting factor. connell: i let me interrupt you, doctor. i thought the vice president might come out. we'll follow things in st. louis. all the best to you, dr. garza on the task force in st. louis. the coronavirus task force in

the white house, briefing us for the first time in a few months. here is the vice president. >> we continued to be on the same mission we've been on throughout the course of this year, that is to save american lives and work every day toward that day we put the coronavirus in the past. i'm joined today, you will hear in a few moments from members of the white house coronavirus task force including those that are leading the effort of distribution, vaccinations under "operation warp speed." i think you will be as impressed as i was at fema earlier today when i heard the detailed plans for the virtually immediate distribution of vaccines when they become approved and available to the american people. from very early in this pandemic at the president's direction we have followed an approach to this pandemic that was federally supported, state managed and locally executed. to that end this past monday we completed our 41st conference call with all of the

nation's governors, every state, every territory. there we spoke about our current circumstances where we see cases and hospitalizations rising but we also continue to speak to them about, about expansion of testing, the availability of supplies and our ongoing efforts to continue to drive forward toward the development and distribution of a vaccine for the american people. as we gather here today with cases and hospitalizations rising across the country president trump directed us to host this briefing to describe the ongoing work of our task force and our partnership with state and local officials and our partners in the private sector to continue to put the health of america first. but first let me begin simply by saying that our hearts and our prayers are with all of those families that have been impacted by the coronavirus over the course of the past 10 months and

let me say personally not a day has gone by i haven't thought personally about families that have lost loved ones and i want to assure each of you will always be in our hearts and you will remain in our prayers but we wanted to take to this opportunity also to thank the american people for the extraordinary sacrifices that you have made over the course of the past 10 months. we've been through a lot together. we went through 45 days to slow the spread back when the positivity rate across this country was more than 20%. we managed to accomplish our object testify. we slowed the spread. we flattened the curve. we saved lives. and then during the outbreak across the sunbelt this summer when we saw positivity rise to nearly 10%, the american people, officials at the federal and state level stepped up again and we put that outbreak in the past. and even as we see help on the way, vaccines being developed at

an historic pace as i mentioned before as we gather today we're seeing cases and positivity rising across the country but we approach the moment with the confidence of experience. we know the american people know what to do. we have forged a partnership that is truly seamless with state and local health authorities and as we'll describe to you today we've continued to work seven days a week, all throughout this year, up to this very moment to make sure the american people have access to the health care that we want any member of our family to have as we meet this pandemic. now cases are rising throughout the country. positivity in the last 30 days has risen from average of 5% to 10% and, to that end we've continued the mobilization that began at president trump's direction early this year. we increased testing from a standing start in the month of february to now as of today we completed more than 170 million tests.

we continue to approve new tests including an at home test that the fda recently approved. we're distributing more than 150 million binex tests to schools and nursing homes around america as we speak. our mobilization of supplies you will hear supplies in great detail continues to surge. we're actually able to track ppe and supplies on a hospital by hospital basis. so we're carefully monitoring, we're working with state officials, with hospital administrators to make sure our hospitals have the support they need. also as we gather more than 140 clinical trials for therapeutics to con to be underway. effective therapies are widely available. they're widely known among the american people. for those over the age of 70 we're proud to report we actually decreased the fatality rate by more than 70% since those heart-breaking days of april. in may of this year of course as

the president spoke last week in the rose garden we launched "operation warp speed" focusing on accelerating the development, the manufacture, and the distribution of a safe and effective vaccine and you will have an update today on the progress from two of our leading experts, those coordinating "operation warp speed." what i want to say in the midst of all of this to the american people as we begin this briefing is that with the, with the massive increase in testing over the last ten months, with ppe and medical supplies and equipment that are available to the american people, with the medicines and therapeutics and very soon the vaccines that are available, america has never been more prepared to combat this virus than we are today. our pledge to each and every american looking on today is we're going to work round-the-clock to keep it that way. we'll make sure hospitals that are seeing patients coming in on

an increasing basis know we're going to work around the clock to meet that need. you have our continuing pledge and the practice of experience that we've had along the way. so in a few moments you will hear from members of our team. we'll begin with dr. deborah birx who will describe rising cases. members of the task force begin with detailed analysis what is happening across the country. she will give us very best on rising cases and hospitalizations. that nation is summarized each and every week for the nations governors and provided to them in particular detail as well. after dr. birx speaks we asked general david sanford from fema on up going efforts to provide ppe and medical supplies to our hospital needs. we're literally make sure as i said, as we see cases rising

that we're meeting the needs of hospitals around america to stand up the response that any one of us would want a family member to be able to have access to. then we've asked dr. fauci to give us an update on the incredible and historic progress on the development of vaccines. seems like with good news happening every couple of days, that is great encouragement to the american people. then general gus pernham will outline plans on "operation warp speed." he was at fema, i received a detail briefing on plans. i asked general pernod to come today to make the presentation to the american people. that is in a sense putting us in a position literally the day after one of these vaccines is approved we'll be shipping vaccines to the american people and within a day after that we'll be seeing those, vaccines

injected into americans, with a particular focus on those most vulnerable and those that are providing health care to the american people. finally we'll talk with a bit about the way forward. as state and local governments are continuing to act and take mitigation measures to slow the spread. i can assure them as we did again governors this week we'll support decision making at the local level. we'll continue to support the decisions that are made in each individual community based on the circumstances on the ground. with that being said president trump wanted me to make it clear that our task force, this administration, and our president does not support another national lockdown. and we do not support closing schools. you will hear from dr. robert redfield of the cdc actually, actually the cdc never recommended we close schools at any point this year.

and dr. eleanor katz who is also serves with substance abuse and mental health services at hhs will describe the real cost to children being away from school. but everyone of these cases we'll give you the best information we have up to this moment and i just want to assure the american people as i trust that you will have a sense today that we're going to continue to work round-the-clock to meet this moment. help is on the way. we have every confidence in a short period of time we could have one or more safe and effective vaccines for the american people and as each of us does our part and partnership with state and local officials, each of us does our part to look after our own families and our own communities i believe the day is coming soon we will put this coronavirus in the past. with that let me introduce dr.

deborah birks, who will update us on cases. after that we get availability of supplies we make available to hospitals and health care providers around the country. >> thank you, mr. vice president and it is really a moment that we want to call on every american to increase their vigilance. i want to go through some data about why we're asking people from eco, nevada, denver come, from philadelphia, to madison, wisconsin, el paso, texas, across this great nation to increase their vigilance at this moment. want to thank governors, mayors, county commissioners i had privilege talk to the last four 1/2 months i've had privilege to be on the road. have the slides please. 40 states, 30 universities, a large number of chairman from our tribal nations. the reason we wanted to really be in here to understand the

reality on the ground what they were facing and understand how we could be more supportive. this is really a call to action for every american to increase their vigilance because of the graphic that is shown here. i wanted to show you the difference in slopes between the spring surge, the summer surge and the fall surge. so the american people know that this is more cases, more rapidly than what we had seen before but to also make it clear like before, we do know what to do and we're asking every american to do those things today. the next slide shows our increase in test positivity. the light brown bars are the number of tests that were performed but even with the number and ever increasing number of tests performed you can see the increase in test positivity to around 10%. in some areas of the country, it is much higher than that and it illustrates the ongoing community spread in your

counties, in your small and large metros and in your rural areas. the next slide really shows the country as a whole and why we're asking every american to remain vigilant. to do those things that we have been asking you all to do, to wear a mask, to physically distance, to continue your hand hygiene but really, in this moment of bringing people together, to really limit interactions indoors to a immediate households when we see this level of community spread. behind this level of community spread is a lot of asymptomatic cases. people are spreading the virus because they don't know they are infected with the virus. and so people are coming together indoors, every one looks healthy but among those individuals could be individuals that already are infected. have no symptoms, and are

unknowingly spreading the virus to others. it is because of this asymptomatic spread we asked people to wear masks indoors and to wear masks when among others. sometimes when we go indoors and with friends and family, we just assume if you look okay you are okay. now we know that over 50% of the individuals, particularly among those under 35, many could be infected and unknowingly spreading the virus. this virus increased so rapidly because there was an unusual cold-snap that began in the northern plains and went down through the heartland where the end of september, beginning of october, a large number of people moved indoors. so we've been going across the country to really tell them in the mid-atlantic states and the northeast to really increase testing looking for these asymptomatic cases and i really want to thank the governors across this great land who really heeded that call and set

up what we call sentinel populations, whether it is nursing home staff, k-12 teachers, whether it is community college students, county workers, specific businesses to have routine weekly testing so we can see the spread of this virus down to the zip code and really combat that with additional mitigation. the next slide shows what we have been talking about, about the level of hospitalizations and in this slide you can see the hospitalizations by the darkness of the color. i just want to make it clear what the vice president talked about, we now can see every admission every day. i want to thank the hospitals who from july have been sending us that data, improving that data, working with cdc so we can see new admissions, we see in-patient status, ccu and icu status and we can see who is being admitted by age group. right now it is 50/50 between those between 40 and 69 and

those over 70. you can see we have some areas of the country in the hot red, bright pink and these are the darkest red are those states that have more than 21% of their hospitals are covid patients. the light pink is between 16 and 20%. and the light orange between 12 and 15%. but you do see that there is still states in the green areas. to all of those states that have not seen this surge, to really increase your testing among asymptomatic by setting up these sentinel populations. when we did the 45 days to stop the spread and we asked each state to follow the dating criteria, part of that date tag criteria including for looking for atom asymptomatic cases. with the antiagen test we can find the cases to stop the

spread. as we started with we stopped the surge in the south through very targeted mitigations that started with masks, started with physical distancing but also include decreasing those friends and family gatherings where people come together and unknowingly spread the virus. i want to thank the mayors of miami, miami city, miami county. who they were the ones that first in the summer really found how much asymptomatic spread was occurring in household gatherings. so as you bring together individuals, remember, what the vice president talked about. every american needs to be vigilant in this moment because we know that when you are we can mitigate this virus and stop the spread together. >> thank you, dr. birx. connell: dr. deborah birx along

with vice president pence in the white house briefing room. we heard from the coronavirus task force. we come to the top of the hour to wrap up our coverage on "after the bell," lauren simonetti with me here. a few interesting points, to start at the end so to speak, you and i were speaking earlier this hour about the cdc warning about people being urged not to travel, right, for thanks giving. dr. birx was getting at this idea of the spread we're seeing in communities of the virus because people are gathering in their homes. that seems to be a real point of emphasis. >> you think your healthy but actually have the virus. that seems to be the problem. a lot of us say how do we get there, we're still >> and she gave us an answer. she said there was unusually

cold weather in the northeast and the mid atlantic. people went indoors, maybe got a little lax because things were getting better, and that's how we are where we are now. so that struck me as the reason why, this is how we got here. connell: yeah. it's been -- yeah, you make a good point. that is how, probably, how we got here. the numbers are staggering really not only on the cases butted today, obviously, the headline that we've surpassed 250,000 deaths. the vice president talked about the positivity rate going from 5 to 10% nationally. i don't know if you heard, but we had a doctor from from st. louis on just before this event, and that's the key here now, the hospitals, and whether they'll be overwhelmed. >> right. and about 80,000 people in those hospitals. but vice president pence did say something, and he said if you look at the 70 plus crowd, among the most vulnerable, that the decrease in the fatality rate for that vulnerable age group is down by more than 70%.

and he he credits that to therapeutics, at least 140 trials are ongoing right now for therapeutics. and to this eventual vaccine, and tomorrow -- connell: lauren, thank you, as we come to the top of the hour. see you tomorrow. ♪ ♪ lou: good evening, everybody. president trump's legal team today saying they have the evidence to swing the election to president trump. attorneys for the trump campaign speaking for more than an hour and a half today at a news conference in washington where they chastised the radical dems and the left-wing national media for their handling of this election, and they provided damning examples of what they say is rampant vote or or fraud across the country. the president's attorney, rudy giuliani, leading the charge today. giuliani says the radical dems' control and power