amid the record surge in coronavirus cases comes the surge in holiday travel. the risks of getting home for thanks giving. plus, the new time line for a thanksgiving. this thanksgiving joe biden is setting the table for his administration the president-elecs leading picks for top cabinet positions as the walls close in on president trump's legal fight for legal fights. all the winners and surprises at the 2020 american music awards this is "early today." good morning i'm frances rivera.

>> i'm phillip ma. we're beginning what is usually one of the busiest weeks of holiday travel this year health officials are pleading with americans to stay home as covid cases surge to record levels. despite the warnings, airports just saw their busiest weekend since the pandemic begin nbc's blaine alexander joins us from atlanta blaine, good morning. >> reporter: phillip, good morning to you we have heard those warnings from health officials, from the cdc for days now urging all-americans to stay home, not travel this week, but scenes from airports around the country show that many people are not listening and that's got dr. anthony fauci now concerned about what this could look like after thanksgiving a direct and dire warning to travelers like these already packing airports ahead of the thanksgiving holiday. >> when you get a crowded plane, you're in a crowded airport, you're lining up not everybody's wearing masks. >> friday and saturday the t processed more than 2 million travelers, the highest two-day total since mid march.

tauna lee traveled from laguardia. >> the thing that surprised me was people from the army were making sure they fill out health forms, have shown proof that they've taken a negative covid test within the last three days. >> experts are worried not only about the journey but the destination. >> we have commitment. >> in arlington 19 they point to this family as a warning after months staying apart they spent one afternoon together for a birthday party soon after, 15 positive tests. >> i went to my neighbors house and love seeing my family but now i'm fighting covid-19. >> when we took my mom to the hospital, our hearts broke. >> but across the country those warnings are falling on deaf ears new york governor andrew cuomo called for investigation into

th this, thousands of people packed together but for some travelers it's a clailted risk worth taking. >> all of our meals we'll take to go, sit outside away from people nkts he canceled his family thanksgiving plans. he is taking his wife and young daughter to disney. >> what made this a risk worth taking >> i think we were able to look at it and say we can do this in the least risky way possible. >> but dr. anthony fauci warns if you're not careful now, christmas could be even worse. >> you're not going to see an increase until weeks later things lag so what you don't want to see is another spike in cases as we get colder and colder into december and then you start dealing with the christmas holiday. >> reporter: now the demand is certainly down overall and much less busy than we would see

during holiday travel. some airlines are adding a number of flights because they're anticipating the busiest travel week since we saw back in march. while the traffic is up in the airports, it's also up on the roads. aaa is estimating that some 95 persz percent of all travel this season will be done by car >> traveling right along with us president-elect joe biden is filling out his cabinet this week last night anthony blinken is the president's top choice for secretary of state he served as deputy national security advisor in the obama administration and deputy secretary of state citing three sources biden is expecting to nominate linda greenfield as a.m. bass so door to the united nations. tracie potts joins us with the

latest >> it is going to be a big week. we expect that biden will make those announcements and maybe even some more tomorrow, but those individuals and the rest of his cabinet won't be able to get fbi background checks or security clearances until the trump administration signs off and that has not happened yet. meantime, the president's legal options to challenge the election results seem to be running out. he has now lost cases in pennsylvania, in michigan. both of those states beginning to certify their results today the trump team is asking georgia to do another recount. that's right, a second recount of the results they're not clear yet if that will happen. there's growing pressure from inside the president's party, from republicans to turn the corner and start to work with the biden transition >> what's happened here is quite frankly the conflict of the president's legal team has been a national em pair rasment. >> i hope the administrator of the gsa will do her job.

the law only requires her to find who is the apparent victor of the election and i can't imagine there's any dispute, any dispute that joe biden is the apparent winner of the presidential election. >> but the biden transition team still shut out of coronavirus planning with the trump administration biden and his chief of staff are warning that could delay distribution of a vaccine next year frances. >> tracie, thank you as millions of americans gear up for a pandemic thanksgiving, november is turning out to be the worst month by far there have been over 3 million cases reported this month bringing the total number of americans infected past the 12 million mark meanwhile, huge progress on the vaccine front. oxford university and astrazeneca say their vaccine can prevent people from getting covid-19 and is effective with different age groups the fda has cleared regeneron's

antibody treatment for clinical use. the treatment significantly reduced virus level. california governor gavin newsom is under quarantine with his family after being exposed to a california high buy way pal officer. thousands of people swarmed huntington beach against his curfew we are in san francisco with the latest good morning, scott. >> reporter: they prided themselves throughout this pandemic on staying ahead of the curve, but even here they're starting to get nervous now as case rates nearly quadruple including among communities that haven't been hit like affluent whites who are able to work from home there has been robust demand for testing at sites like this one, one of 19 across the city. even as officials warn that a negative covid test now has very little bearing on whether it's safe to gather for thanksgiving

later in the week. they're afraid it is only a matter of time before san francisco moves into the restrictive purple tier that most of the rest of the state is involved in as case rates go up. that requires curfews from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. and lots of restrictions on businesses and where people can gather. scott cohn, nbc news, san francisco. back to you. now to an urgent new warning about taking a cruise. the cdc just raced the risk level to the highest one yet saying passengers should a voice cruise travel altogether covid spread is very high and passengers who do go should get tested and stay home after travel. week 11 in nfl the chiefs were in las vegas looking to avenge their only loss of the season against the raiders. vegas kept the defending champs guessing early derek carr to the end zone finding nelson aguilar fast forward to the fourth

carr scrambles around and finds jason whitten for the go-ahead score. looks like the raiders were going to upset k.c. twice. never really over when you have patrick mahomes and travis kelce. revenge on the raiders 356789-31, chiefs. in indianapolis the packers had the colts number in the half indy would outscore green bay 17-3 in the second half to force overtime in overtime the packers had the bubble and coughed it up at a costly time. the colts lined up the game winning field goal he hit it. colts win 34-31. in baltimore derek henry did what he does best, find an opening into the end zone. he did this in overte im get all the way to the house that would end the game. the titans proved that last year's playoff win over the ravens in baltimore, not a fluke. they take it 30-24.

and a bat site in washington, quarterback joe burrow had to be carted off the field after an ugly knee injury. he was having a great season he reportedly suffered a torn acl. he took to twitter to tell his fans, see you next year. let's take a turn and check and see how our weather is shaping up janessa, good morning. >> good morning. good morning, everyone we do have soggy conditions this morning across most of the east coast and it's going to linger this morning until about 9 a.m then the front will cross over and things will start to quiet down behind the front unfortunately across ohio valley to the great lakes, we have some lake enhancement that will start to take place and the winds are going to stir up from washington, d.c. to new york ci where wty midwest

some very cool conditions. upper 20s. the feel like temperature in the teens. and we'll take a look at your week ahead coming up. >> talk to you in a bit, jane a janessa. thanks. it was a star studded night at the 2020 music awards justin bieber kicked off the big event with a medally with his two big hits, lonely and wholly. it had bill ly eillish and someo the nights biggest winners included the award for new artist of the year dan and shay for collaboration of the year. and taylor swift was presented with the night's highest honor, artist of the year. still to come, retailers bet > y.on beaut

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welcome back so many americans have questions relating to the coronavirus pandemic so nbc news medical correspondent dr. john torres took to the streets to answer some of yours. >> i have a question about the vaccine. >> what is the timing of the vac sneen. >> what are your thoughts on how quickly we'll have a vaccine >> i think most of us will get it in the springtime. >> is that vaccine going to be free >> will it be affordable >> they're saying it will be affordable. >> i'm nervous about the vaccine and being one of the first ones. >> they're not going to approve it unless it's safe and effective. >> do you feel like there's

going to be another shutdown coming soon? >> that depends on how we behave get your flu shot from the sake of your own health and to ease hospital capacity. >> thanksgiving coming up and i was wondering if i could hang out with a group of people. >> you can hang out with people. you just have to do that safely. make sure you social distance, wear a mask and keep your distance low if i'm warring a mask i'm protecting you. >> how should you stay safe with family >> if you move your table to the garage and open up the garage door, then that can help out, too, the air can circulate wash your hands often. wash your hands. clean your hands appropriately >> if you travel, is it legitimate to be able to sit at home for 14 days when both places have covid anyway >> it depends exactly that, where you are, where you're going. if it's hot spots. the other thing is how you are

traveling. airplanes are very safe but the airports before and after, those are the big concerns before and afterwards if you plan to wear mass transit sanitize your hands frequently, wear your mask and sanitize the seats. an i give it to my dog. >> can you get it from your dogs >> that's interesting. actually, we can pass it to dogs and cats that can happen. doesn't happen very often. >> when's it going to end? >> the this inning that will help it end, one, the vaccine, two, human behavior. looks like we'll get the vaccine to most people by springtime it will take place within the year, it will get much better. >> dr. john torres nbc news >> questions a lot of us have asked at one time or another. >> wall street cheers on another promising vaccine trial. >> will makeup hit the mark for target why big retailers are betting on

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in today's quick hits, spacex is set to launch into orbit today more star link broadband internet satellites. they're targeting 9:34 p.m. eastern for the cape canaveral launch for the 16th batch. the rockefeller ice skating rink is officially open for the

holidays though with limited capacity and encouraged social distancing it will stay open until january 17th. santa is coming to town, but he will not be spreading covid-19 dr. anthony fauci says, quote, santa is exempt from this because santa, of all the good qualities, has a lot of good innate immunity. >> all up to you to stay on the naughty or nice list. dow expected to have a higher opening jeff cutmore has more on that as retailers are taking a big bet on beauty. >> very good morning to you. a couple of reason why is we're called higher. the early prediction is 200 points to the up side on the dow. we had a very weak closeout last year it looks like there's a little bit of bargain hunting going on. the ore reason is of course this development from astrazeneca that's the third major pharmaceutical group now talking

about stage 3 progress on their trials very encouraging news on the vaccine front. so it's another reason why these markets are getting a little bit of support let's just talk about kohl's and target the mass retailers see a big opportunity in beauty products they think they can step in where some of those department stores like macy's are losing out because customers are no longer visiting their counters that's one of the reasons why the mass retailers are moving into the beauty segment. the other is much higher margins than you get on grocery products they are looking to cash in where some of the big department store counters are loses out back to you guys >> geoff, thank you. next on "early today," janessa will have our thanksgiving dayor fecast. >> the pandemic perils of heading home for the holidays. to show up... ...for the sweet. the hectic.

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as this holiday week appears to get this underway, americans are shrugging off travel restrictions nbc's jay gray reports from chicago's o'hare. >> reporter: for a lot of peoplepack, oadsnd a airports are a holiday tradition. >> people are traveling and going to see family and friends. a lot of those decisions are being made last minute to make those trips. >> reporter: trips that doctors, nurses, health officials, city and state leaders have been for weeks urging travelers not to take. >> you should not be traveling

right now covid is surging across the entire united states. >> reporter: in many cases spread as groups and families gather from across the country still for some spending months cooped up and the pull to see family and friends feels stronger than the risk of infection. >> i felt like it doesn't seem like it's getting any better, we might as well just try to have a little bit of fun without getting sick. >> reporter: passengers are required to wear masks and airports are trying to enforce social distancing. >> no one is six feet apart. everyone's three feet apart or two feet apart it's horrible. yeah it's bad to travel right now. >> reporter: that concern driving some travelers to the road aaa says 80% of all trips will be by car. >> the cars offer so much security to people it's your own space, right you know who's going to be with

you. >> reporter: still, health teams worry about exposure because they say the virus is growing and traveling this holiday season as well >> of course it is it's riding shotgun along with us it's a tough decision for all of us of course we want to see our family and friends we've been wanting to do a lot of things this year. >> maybe one of those things we've got to pump the brakes on. what a dilemma so many of us are facing. >> like we've heard, this is going to determine largely what we see come christmas. there were some athletes in russia, they all got together to pick things up and put them down and repeat all to see who was the strongest of them all. some of these events of the strong mens attempted, lifting a 900 pound car. pulling a rope 65 feet as fast as they could. there were no fans allowed to be there to root for their favorite they were there powering their way through the events a 22-year-old took home the

weekend's top prize. don't know what it was maybe a bucket of protein. >> major, major flex >> i'm phillip mena. >> i'm frances rivera. we leave you with this

right now at 4:30, breaking overnight, a deadly south bay stabbing near a church. we'll have a live report from the scene and what police are telling us this morning about what led up to the incident. plus -- >> we closed last night at 8:30, which is unheard of for us. >> day three of the coronavirus curfew. how businesses are coping and are people abiding by the new rules? and how do you make it around the bay? the all new transportation option for riders starting today. "today in the bay" starts right now.