the pandemic delivers another gut punch. the nation notching its highest death toll yet and the new concerns of an even more infectious strain of coronavirus hitting our shores, as millions of americans head home for the holidays. >> with families on the financial brink, both president trump and president-elect joe biden push for more pandemic relief plus, who's walking free after the president's pardoning spree? did walmart help fuel the opioid crisis? the new lawsuit brought forward by the department of justice >> and after six months in n neonatal care, she'll be home for christmas.

the miracle baby, approving the best surprises come in small packages >> good morning, i'm phillip mena >> and i'm paul gurky. thanks for joining us. health experts are once again pleading with us to avoid holiday travel, as nbc news confirms a staggering loss yesterday. more than 3,300 covid deaths that's a new single-day record and there are new concerns about the highly contagious strain that's emerged in the uk here's nbc's miguel almaguer >> reporter: flight after flight from the uk continued to touch down from the kentucuk, hundred travelers arriving from london, where a highly contagious version of the coronavirus is spreading like wildfire, while some 40 countries put a stop to the arrival of similar flights, the president-elect weighed in >> one of the things i'm waiting to get a response from my covid team is whether or not we should require testing before they get on an aircraft to fly home, number one and number two, when they get home, should they quarantine

>> reporter: new york's governor, who insist all uk travelers be screened and isolated if necessary, says state hospitals need to immediately begin testing for the new viral variant. >> this is about time and urgency. and this would be urgent >> reporter: the heightened concern comes amid a new deadly surge in covid cases here at home and a national spike in travel >> it's very important to be home during the holidays >> reporter: but there will be no holiday from the heartbreak seen by front line workers california on pace to hit a total of 2 million covid cases >> today, our hospitals continue to be under siege and under immense pressure >> reporter: with icus already exceeding capacity, front line workers and twins, michelle and cindy reckinadi were both infected with the virus, but michelle never recovered >> she always tried her best to make every single person she ever met happy she was an amazing woman she was the best mom

>> reporter: despite the evaluated risk to all, more than 3 million took to the air in just three days. >> it was a tough decision for me, i haven't seen my family since the last year. >> reporter: for many americans, the decisions were not easy. and now doctors hope the consequences are not dire. >> our thanks to miguel for that report as the world tries to protect against that mutated strain of coronavirus, the uk has become a very isolated island a border standoff with france left thousands of truckers stuck in britain just days before christmas. nbc's matt bradley joining us now from paris matt, good morning so what is france saying about those delivery drivers now >> well, now it seems as though there's been a kind of an 11th hour deal between france and britain, allowing the lorry drivers to come in via rail, via boat, and via airplane they flewill need to have a

negative test for covid. not necessarily that pcr test that's the most recognized as being the most comprehensive way of judging whether or not you have a coronavirus, but a faster test or an antigen or a lateral test that really only takes about 30 minutes to process. and that's what truck drivers on the kent side of the channel are going to have to take if they want to drive their products over the border. now, for those who are coming from france into britain, that's a major way of stocking shelves in britain it's something like 25% of all of the imports go through or over the channel, either by tunnel or by boat. so that's a major issue, too and there's going to need to be probably antigen tests on the french side. but you know, really a lot of this is just starting to sort of settle back to normal. there's dozens of countriestha have blocked travel from britain, as far as the brits are concerned. a lot of this was an overreaction, because, of course, there is a deployment now of vaccines. there's been no evidence that these vaccines are somehow not going to work on this new

variant, this new mutant form of the virus. so a lot of this is really just inevitable this first clampdown of all of the travel over the channel. now it seems as though leaders are starting to actually evaluate as they're catching with the science, which so far hasn't proved much at all about this new variant guys >> that's a fine line between paranoia and precaution. thanks, matt the nation's covid vaccine rollout continues. on tuesday, dr. anthony fauci and other top government officials received their first dose of the moderna/covid-19 vaccine. their public vaccination comes as thousands of front line medical workers continue to roll up their sleeves to get their first round of protection from the virus that has killed more than 323,000 americans nbc's kerry sanders joins us from clearwater, florida kerry, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, paul. we're here at bay care health system in clearwater, florida. this health system has more than 30,000 employees that will be getting the vaccine.

some have already gotten the moderna vaccine. more again today the goal here is to make sure that all of those front line workers and everybody in the health care system gets that important protection moderna is, of course, the second vaccine to get the emergency use authorization. let's here what vera crick had to say she's one of those here getting the vaccine. >> to all of my african-american friends out there, you have a choice coronavirus or corona vaccine. it's a no-brainer. the risk does not outweigh the benefits so you need to really step up and take it. that's what i would tell them. >> even as these front line workers are getting those vaccines, it's not as if they can drop their guard they still have the same sort of protective gear that they need to wear. and remember, they need to come back for a second vaccination, which we ultimately will all need to do for those getting the moderna,

it's 30 days later for those getting the pfizer vaccine, it's 21 days later. but for everybody, it's two vaccines and there's no mixing and matching paul >> kerry, thank you for that important reminder president trump is throwing some cold water on the covid relief bill this morning after months of negotiations in a new video, he says the $900 billion legislation doesn't go far enough for the average american meanwhile, president-elect joe biden is vowing to work with congress for a larger stimulus package. nbc's chris pallone joining us now from capitol hill. chris, good morning. similar points, but wildly different delivery >> reporter: that's right. for his part, president-elect is taking the position that america's darkest days are ahead and that americans need to stay vigilant as the covid battle wages on mr. biden also promised for more help for struggling americans and the battered u.s. economy. as for the outgoing administration, president trump railed against what he calls

wasteful spending, and demanded an increase in direct payments to americans mr. trump also once again falsely asserted he could still be in office next year >> leaders in both house and senate, in both parties, deserve credit for making the hard compromises to get this done but like all compromises, it's far from perfect this bill is just the first step, a down payment in addressing the crisis. >> i'm asking congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000 or $4,000 for a couple and to send me a suitable bill or else the next administration will have to deliver a covid relief package and maybe that administration will be me and we will get it done >> reporter: house speaker nancy pelosi jumped on that, of course, saying, now that he's agreed to $2,000 payments, democrats are ready to bring this to the floor this week by

unanimous consent. she tweeted, let's do this meanwhile, president trump also issued his first big wave of pardons and commutations, going after cases brought forward by the mueller investigation. he issued full pardons to his former adviser, george papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi. and he did the same for alex van der zwann, who worked with paul manafort he also pleaded guilty to lying to mueller's team as well. the president also granted clemency to steve stockman of texas, who was convicted of fraud and money laundering, california's duncan hunter, who pleaded guilty to misusing campaign funds, and the first congressman to back trump, new york's chris collins, he pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi and conspiring to commit securities fraud in 2017. you might remember, collins was caught on camera on the white house south lawn during an event giving insider stock tips to his son. the president also pardoned four military contractors who worked for blackwater, all convicted of killing 14 unarmed iraqi

civilians in 2007. the president also pardoning a dentist accused of health care fraud and a moonshiner >> using that power before he has to return it chris, thank you we now know who will fill the senate seat vacated by kamala harris has she steps into the vice presidency seat governor gavin newsom chose california secretary of state alex padilla and chose this video of the moment padilla found out. >> you serious >> this is the official -- this is the ask, brother. >> i'm honored, man. and i'm humbled. >> clearly, an emotional moment for padilla, who will serve as the first latino senator to represent california out of the bubble and back in their home arenas, the new nba season tipped off with a big-time double heard. before the game, lebron james

and the los angeles lakers got their rings, commemorating the championships they won just 73 days ago lebron has four now and looking for a fifth this year. >> one for the thumb, as joe green used to say. the lakers taking on the clippers lakers came out of the gate hot, not hot enough, though they got themselves within two before halftime. couldn't close the gap down the stretch, but lebron can still do that the clips get the best of the lakers, is 116-109, the final. and kevin durant returning to action against his former warriors teammates he was really good in the first half big plays for golden state few and far between. but kelly ubre pretty good. the nets had a field day with the warriors it's going to be another rough year for them. 129-95, the final. >> let's toss it now to one of the biggest nets fans we know, meteorologist bill karins. good to see you. >> good to see you guys.

last night watching that game was just 18 months in the making after signing kyrie and durant let's get into this forecast it's going to be a wild one. the windy conditions, the rain, maybe a few tornados, snow, flooding, flash freeze, we've got everything with this storm the biggest thinged to will et the winds, very windy in the midwest, and on christmas eve as these thunderstorms will roll through the east, we could see power outages christmas morning in southern new england. of course, remember that storm last week, the 2 to 3 feet that's going to melt, so we're going to get 1 to 2 inches out of that and heavy rain so we have flash flood watches up and we could easily see up to 2 to 3 inches in some of the higher elevations of the poconos

the rain will develop, possibly have isolated strong thunderstorms later on this afternoon this evening through the gulf coast, could be an issue too. we are going to get snow out of this storm, too don't want to forget that. still hope for a white christmas for some people. >> fingers crossed, bill thanks when we return, coronavirus touches down on all seven continents >> and the justice department takes on walmart, accusing the retailer of helping fuel the opioid crisis. it's superior grease-cleaning formula gets to work faster, making easy work of tough messes. dawn is a go-to grease-cleaner throughout the kitchen, too. keep a bottle in the laundry room to pre-treat greasy stains. and keep dawn in the garage to lift grease off car rims. it's even gentle enough to clean wildlife affected by oil. dawn's grease cleaning power takes care of tough grease wherever it shows up. scrub less, save more...with dawn less sick days! cold coming on? zicam® is clinically proven to shorten colds!

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in today's quick hits, university of florida basketball player chianti johnson is being released florom the hospital florida has canceled the four games since that incident. former new jersey governor chris christie says he's not ruling out another presidential run in 2024, even if that means running against longtime friend, donald trump christie's endorsed trump after dropping out in 2016 and the colonel is throwing his hat into the gaming ring with the kf console. kfc says the system can both run your favorite video games and heat up your chicken with a warmer placed inside no word yet on when we're going to get a chance to see that. >> i have an old xbox with a broken cooling thing that can do that exact same thing.

>> that'll help. 2020 was pretty tough on a lot of our financial health for some of us, but hopefully better times are on the way joeling kent joins us. >> reporter: millions of people are really hurting this year thanks to the pandemic and the ongoing economic recession here are some ways that we're learning how to head into 2021 a little stronger. with more than 20 million people on unemployment, the pandemic has wreaked havoc on the personal finances of so many >> if you have gone through your savings, you're struggling, it's all about getting to an essentials only budget and really spending intentionally. >> reporter: experts advise get back to basics with meal planning and cutting back on tv subscriptions, for example perhaps pause retirement savings for now. >> if you're looking at various types of debt, student loan

debt, credit card debt, perhaps a different type of mortgage, how should you prioritize what should go first. >> go with the high interest rate debt first and pay that down >> reporter: for the luckier ones, the personal savings rate has spiked to 14%, nearly double pre-pandemic levels. experts recommend those who can should automatically put away money from each paycheck into savings for at least six months of emergency money and invest in companies and causes you care about. >> reporter: for all of us, but i might say particularly for women, to begin investing some portion out of every paychecki a diversified investment portfolio that has the opportunity to grow. those things really build up financial security over time >> reporter: setting yourself up for a stronger 2021. >> when sally talks to us about impact investing and investing in causes that you care about, what they're really talking about is supporting companies that share maybe the same values as you and also donating your money to causes that you really care about, as you head into the

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akim, it appears you have a son. he must be found >> prepare the royal jet we are going back to america >> oh, hell, no, your majesty. >> eddie murphy and arsenio hall are reunited in the first trailer for "coming to america." the highly anticipated sequel of the 1988 comedy will premiere on amazon prime video of march 5th of 2021. if it's been a while or you've never seen it, you've got ample time to brush up >> see the first

go ahead and put the alert in your phone christmas miracles come in all sizes and shapes and this morning, we want to share a really special story about one chicago family celebrating a tiny wonder that's also a huge gift nbc's rahema ellis has the story. >> reporter: after six months in a neonatal intensive care unit >> it's a big day. >> jeffrey and jasmine aaron are finally leaving the hospital with their baby, just in time for christmas. >> is she a miracle baby >> oh, yes and she surprised everyone >> reporter: surprise because ellie may was the smallest baby ever nursed to health at rush university medical center in chicago. >> she's been a fighter through it all >> reporter: and she had to be she and her twin sister savannah were born premature, but ellie may was incredibly tiny, weighing only 13.5 ounces. so little, so frail she could fit in the palm of your hand >> this little baby challenged modern medicine, didn't she? >> there was several times where, you know, they said, call the parents and let mom and dad

hold -- this is going to be the end. and every single time, she pulled through, every single time >> savannah, your sissy's coming home with us >> christmas will now be a holiday that we can forever cherish because of her >> reporter: starting life so small and beating the odds rahema ellis, nbc news >> beautiful story >> got a little dusty in here for a second >> yeah, i can see why amazing. an elementary school principal in north carolina went the extra mile for his students. he dressed as an elf on the shelf on their last day of the semester it is the second year the principal has morphed into an elf for his students during the holiday season he's even dressed as the conductor from the polar express. principal vaughn said that he just wants to bring a smile to people's faces, and i think this year it's genius to do elf on the shelf, because you're not supposed to touch him, right another way to ensure that they stay far away from him >> i feel like we need that

stuff more now than ever, too. >> those educators, they've just been incredible this entire time >> bravo to all of you thanks for watching "early today. i'm paul gurky >> and i'm phillip

as much as we try to practice social distancing six feet apart, we're running into people everywhere. >> right now at 4:30 packed -- the surge in cases isn't stopping some last-minute shoppers from hitting the mall and taking big risks. and that comes as california is running out of room at hospitals as covid cases are on the rise. the holiday warning now being issued. plus, moving out. the growing number of people leaving the bay area and all new data shows where they're heading. "today in the bay" starts right now. and a good wednesday morning to you. thanks for making us a part of your morning. i'm