right now on "america this morning," the coronavirus emergency and its seemingly unstoppable surge in some areas. more than 20 states putting a pause on re-opening plans as tensions over masks reach a boiling point. this morning, the white house putting pressure on states to open schools next month. we'll have the latest. breaking overnight, chief justice john roberts spending the night in the hospital recently. why was the public never told? also breaking right now,'the former teacher at the center of a scandal in the 1990s. her recent passing. plus, under investigation. an alleged racially motivated attack appearing to show a group of white men threatening to lynch a black man. >> please, let him go.

>> the video sparking outrage and now questions about why no arrests were made. caught on camera, a former football player makes the catch of a lifetime after a child is dropped from a burning building. and a woman finds a very special way to visit her mother in a nursing home, all thanks to a fire truck. good morning, everyone. thank you for joining us. great to have our friend shirleen allicot from wabc filling in. >> it's been fun so far. >> we begin with the coronavirus running rampant on track to hit 3 million cases. >> 350,000 americans tested

positive for it in the last six days alone. icu beds are in short supply. >> still, this was the scene yesterday at a courthouse in oklahoma city. dozens of people packed in a hallway. lots of face masks but no social distancing after the state saw its biggest spike of infections in a single day. but in philadelphia, a reason to celebrate. a homecoming for 67-year-old coronavirus survivor vanessa cassidy after 102 days in the hospital. abc's megan tevrizian has the latest on the alarming surge. >> reporter: this morning, hospitals across the country are being pushed to their limits. >> we are days away from overrunning our hospitals. >> reporter: at least 28 states now reporting a jump in admitted coronavirus patients as some icus begin to overflow into emergency rooms. here in ventura county, california, they're running out of beds. >> at every hospital in the county, there's many covid patients who are very sick. >> reporter: in florida only 16% of all icu beds in the state are still available as tensions over masks reach a boiling point. >> back off.

>> reporter: this man in a ft. myers, costco exploding after a woman asked him to cover his face. it comes as the world health organization acknowledges the virus could be more contagious than they thought saying it's possible the virus is airborne. meanwhile, the surge in cases forcing 21 states to slam the brakes on re-opening including california where the state capitol was forced to shut down for the next week after the virus sickened at least five lawmakers. the u.s. death toll now exceeds 131,000 people, but on tuesday, president trump making this false claim. >> what we're doing very, very well, again, mortality rate, the lowest anywhere in the world. >> reporter: even the nation's top coronavirus expert is disputing the claim. >> it's a false narrative to take comfort in a lower rate of death. >> reporter: in fact, the u.s. reported more than a thousand new deaths on tuesday alone

accounting for a quarter of new deaths worldwide and the university of washington is now projecting more than 208,000 deaths in the u.s. by november 1st. >> there's so many other things that are very dangerous and bad about the virus. don't get yourself into false complacency. >> reporter: despite the claim of deaths, the white house is upping the pressure for states to re-open schools in the fall. >> so we're very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools to get them open and it's very important. >> reporter: some governors insisting still they're not ready to make a decision. >> we're not going to say children should go back to school until we know it's safe. >> reporter: but amidst the new numbers, some encouraging news. for the first nths, cnecticutn

we he's saying the u.s. will normally withdraw from the world health organization next july. in response, joe biden tweeted he will rejoin the w.h.o. if elected on his first day as president. kenneth, shirleen. >> megan tevrizian, thank you. now to that breaking news from the supreme court. the high court revealing chief justice john roberts was hospitalized two weeks ago. the 65-year-old suffered a head injury after taking a fall on father's day. it was bad enough that he needed sutures and was held the chief justice has had seizures in the past but doctors say last month's fall was caused by dehydration. the supreme court did not disclose the injury after roberts fell. also breaking overnight, mary kay letourneau has died. the former seattle teacher kicked off a national scandal in the 1990s when she sexually

assaulted her student. letourneau was 34 years old when she began the relationship with the 6th grader at the time. in 1997 she gave birth to their daughter before serving a seven-year prison sentence on second degree rape charges. they later had a second child and married in 2005 but divorced last year. letourneau died of cancer. she was 58. now to that explosive tell-all book by president trump's niece set for release next week. she reveals family secrets and claims his own sister called him a clown. abc's andrew dymburt has more. >> reporter: this morning, the president's niece, mary trump, unloading in a new book the trump family titled to stop entitled "too much and never enough: how my family created the world's dangerous man." mary trump describes the president's father fred trump as a high functioning sociopath who short-circuited donald's ability to develop and experience the entire spectrum of human emotion. miss trump, a trained psychologist, claims the

president's father perverted his son's perception of the world and damaged his ability to live in it. >> mr. president, any reaction to your niece's book? any reaction to mary trump's book. >> reporter: this morning the white house is taking issue with the book's description of the president's relationship with his father saying in a statement, the president describes the relationship he had with his father as warm and said his father was very good to him. mary trump, who is the daughter of the president's older brother fred jr., also writes that donald is simply weak. his ego is a fragile thing that must be bolstered every moment because he knows deep down that he is nothing of what he claims to be. she adds the president's sister retired judge maryanne trump barry told her in 2015 she didn't take her brother's presidential campaign seriously saying, he's a clown. the president's press secretary hitting back. >> it's ridiculous, absurd allegations that has abosolute no bearing in truth. have yet to see the book but it is a truth of falsehoods. >> reporter: she's seen little

of him over the last 20 years although she attended a dinner at the white house in early 2017 and acknowledges the next year she gave details of trump family finances including tax records to "the new york times." >> andrew dymburt reporting there. mary trump sued the president and his siblings in 2000 claiming she was treated unfairly in his grandfather's will. the case was later settled. now to the disturbing video appearing to show a group of white men attacking a black man allegedly threatening to, quote, get a noose. part of the incident was recorded on july 4th near bloomington, indiana. a group of white people are seen holding a black man against a tree following a disagreement over crossing private property and the men are heard shouting racial slurs as they pin vauhxx booker against a tree. booker says he was scared for his life. >> i just see so many images pass through my mind of george floyd, of the countless black

people we've seen be killed in horrible ways, and i think to myself, am i going to be them? >> protesters on tuesday demanded those men face charges. the fbi has now opened a hate crimes investigation as the county prosecutor says she's waiting for investigators to turn the case in for review. a statue of andrew jackson will be removed from a city that was named after him. jackson, mississippi's city council voted to relocate it from city hall citing the former president's history as a slave owner and his brutality against native americans. time now for a look at your weather for this wednesday morning. at leastwo fires near simi valley, california, kept fire crews busy. that was for hours tuesday. the flames forced the closure of some lanes of a freeway through that area. hot, dry conditions continue across the west today. there are red flag warnings, fire warnings in several states.

checking today's temperatures, 82 degrees in l.a. the real high heat is east of there. it will be scorching across the southwest all the way to the great lakes. cooler for the northeast. coming up, the former first couple celebrating 74 years of marriage. also ahead, the new reality for sports. we go inside the nba's bubble in orlando as the league's commissioner discusses what worries him. and a former football player makes the catch of a lifetime after a 3-year-old is dropped from a burning building. the dramatic rescue caught on camera.

incredible video from an apartment fire in phoenix. former college football

invest receiver phillip blanks caught a 3-year-old boy thrown out of a third floor window by his mother while the child was saved, his mother died in that fire. blanks calls the child's mother the real hero making the ultimate sacrifice to save her children. >> wow, seeing that video gives you so much anxiety just an incredible moment caught on camera there. now to the new reality for sports. the nba has taken its next step on the road to normalcy amid the pandemic. players have started arriving in orlando where they will live in a so-called bubble filled with precautions and concern. this morning, several nba teams in florida preparing to restart the season during a coronavirus crisis. players will live and compete in a so-called bubble campus at espn's wide world sports complex in disney world, orlando, but now the nba commissioner is expressing concern after a number of new positive test results in the league. >> we won't be surprised when they first come down to orlando if we do have some additional

players to test positive. >> reporter: commissioner adam silver admits a surge in cases could shut down the season again. >> certainly if we had any sort of significant spread at all within our campus we would be shut down. >> reporter: inside the bubble at disney, which is abc's parent company, players will have 24-hour vip concierge, on site barbers, manicurists, pedicurists and hair braiders. >> i feel like it's going to be an experience that when we're done we'll look back and say that wasn't too bad. >> reporter: but some players say it's a bad idea including joel embiid. >> i know i'm going to do the right things. i know i don't ever do anything -- i only play video games. i'm always home. i don't do anything but then again i don't trust dealing with other guys to do the same. >> reporter: and this morning, a new reality in other sports amid the pandemic. espn is reporting the pga has postponed the ryder cup for a

league. in major league baseball, the nationals, astros and cardinals have canceled. nick markakis the latest to opt out of the season. >> to have to go out there and play and in front of an environment with no fans is just -- it's not baseball to me. >> the yankees pitcher zach britton doing his best to following distancing protocols kicking the ball away to avoid touching it with his hands. making news in america this morning, soccer postponed between nashville and chicago after five nashville players tested positorovid-19. also ahead, the president of brazil testing positive for the virus after repeatedly playing down the risk, even removing his mask while announcing his diagnosis. what he told reporters next. these are real people, not actors, who've got their eczema under control.

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president of brazil confirming that he has tested positive for covid-19. jair bolsonaro has repeatedly played down the virus calling it a little flu and routinely mingles with withouts without wearing a mask even as his country's death toll tops 65,000. he's saying he's on the rebound and taking the drug hydroxychloroquine. after announcing his diagnosis bolsonaro stepped back to show camera how he looked. back to the coronavirus back in the u.s. and recent studies suggesting a person's blood test could predict the risk for covid-19. earlier i spoke with dr. laleh gharahbaghian about those studies but starting with the white house withdrawing from the world health organization. dr. gharahbaghian, let's start with the trump administration's decision to with draw the united states from the world health organization. as a medical professional what do you think the impact will be as we fight covid-19? >> it's an excellent question and the world health organization encompasses over

150 countries. it directs and leads international health care and system improvement efforts for the united nations system. its goal is clearly displayed on their website is to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable, and it gathers information. it plans, and it spreads that information to all of the countries, and for whatever the reasons that the trump administration has, i think it's better to have a seat at that table given that it's a very powerful and impactful organization than to not. >> president trump says he will pressure all governors to open schools this fall. your thoughts on schools re-opening? >> i think it depends on the area. the areas that are hit hard with a high prevalence of covid having increasing cases and who are not at the phase of opening, then they may have an issue with opening schools come the fall, especially if the schools don't have a plan to decrease the risk

of spread, but there may be areas that are at the phase of opening with a low prevalence of covid disease that are able to open and have a plan to then open safely. >> doctor, recent studies show blood type could play a role in how sick patients could get from the virus. what do we know about that? >> it's an interesting study out of italy and spain. it actually corroborates a study that was previously done in china saying that if you have o type, you might be less -- have less severe disease whereas if you have "a" type, you could have much more severe disease. i think at this point there needs much more research. we know that genetics matter in how our bodies get impacted, this might be a consideration but there definitely needs to be more study in order to get better co better conclusions.

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so, start feeling lighter and more energetic... by taking metamucil every day. ♪ time to check "the pulse" starting with the classic movies that people wish, wish they saw in the movie theater. >> pollsters in england asked people what film they would want to see when it was released on the big screen. the horror classic "the shining" came in number three. >> coming in at number two was "star wars" and number one, da, da, da, da, "jaws." >> that was really good. and no surprise. next a unique luxury hotel is just months away from welcoming its first guests. >> the train on the bridge hotel in south africa is just what its name implies. a stationary train built on a

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making news, new details emerging about the ambush killing of an east bay doctor. new this morning, a poll just released reveals how concerned we are about covid-19 and the speed of california's reopening. and a tech ceo goes on a racist tirade and a worker takes action. we'll get to all that in a moment, but first let's check in with mike nicco for a look at our day ahead. >> good morning, kumasi, how are you? >> good, how are you? >> i like the green. >> thank you. >> that is cool. all right. so what are we going to do on this wednesday? how about we warm it up a little

bit. and we'll back off on the they have been refreshing but they won't be there like they have been the last couple of evenings. so let's take a look at what is going on and you can see they are significantly lighter, about 15 miles per hour in fairfield, the rest of us near 10 miles per hour. and it is pretty clear throughout the bay. so mid to upper 60s along the coast and san francisco, is t t handle changed much. but some 80s in the peninsula, and low to mid-90s inland. this morning we're learning more about the shooting in the sierra over the holiday weekend that left a danville doctor dead and his son alone in the woods for 30 hours. amy hollyfield is live in danville for us. >> reporter: good morning. the danville family is now

getting some answers about the investigation into the shooting death of ari gershman. we now know who authorities have arrested and we have his picture. 40-year-old john conway of orovil oroville. he was on butte county's most wanted list last summer. there was him of making terrorist threats. he went on a shooting rampage shooting three people, two survived, but are ari gershman died. we talked to a witness who was camping in the sierra and she heard the gun shots. >> we assumed that they were just target shooting because it is legal to shoot guns in the national forest. about ten minutes later, we

heard another couple gunshots and then screaming. >> reporter: gershman was off-roading with his 15-year-old son jack when he was shot. it took rescuers 30 hours then to find jack in the information are forest. they say he was covered in bug bites but that he is okay. ari's wife was diagnosed with cancer about six weeks ago and now she's a single parent. and a gofundme page has raised $350,000 for the family. in danville, i'm amy hollyfield, abc 7. and a family is speaking after a san francisco ceo went on a racist rant at a caramel valley restaurant. melanie woodrow as the video and