hi, everyone. i'm aaron gilchrest. -- >> i'm kate snow. >> gill gill is on assignment. "nbc news daily" starts right now.aaron gilchrist is on assignment. "nbc news daily" starts right now. today, hospitals on both coasts are running out of beds for young patients. what's behind the problem and how doctors are trying to respond. electric shock. tesla reportedly under federal criminal investigation over claims about its self-driving cars. what it could mean for the company and elon musk.

florida's recover, one month since hurricane ian devastated that state. the problems floridians are still dealing with and what you can do to help. and burning through money. why this season's winter heating bills could be much higher than normal. and what you can do to save a buck. welcome, everyone. we begin with growing concerns over the triple virus threat overwhelming hospitals nationwide. >> we're talking about the combination of covid, the flu, and rsv. that's that severe respiratory virus targeting kids specifically. it's being called a tridemic, threatening to overwhelm america's hospitals. >> covid-19 combined with a potentially bad influenza season and now seeing rsv going up at the same time. that obviously makes us concerned that we might get into this triple pandemic situation. >> nbc news senior medical correspondent dr. john torres joins us now. we've been talking about

hospital beds on the east coast filling up, now seeing that on the west coast. i want to show the numbers. arizona, 87% of pediatric beds are being used. in texas, 91%. seattle children's hospital says they're at 200% capacity in their emergency room. what do those numbers mean for those hospitals? >> reporter: the hospitals are getting stretched thin and reach out to other hospitals and start putting patients in those areas. typically a hospital's icu, especially pediatric, they don't like to get much more than 85% of their beds filled because that gives them that buffer zone, that 15% capacity in case they need them for emergencies or traumas. in this case, as you mentioned, some of these are filled beyond capacity and sometimes even double capacity. in cases like that, they do a couple things, one, they get children out to other community hospitals and get them to take care of them, and they also try

to bring in more help. that obviously drains the facilities, drains the people that are taking care of them, because you can imagine shift after shift after shift after shift having much more workload than you're used to can take its toll. so this is something they're dealing with. they can't deal with it for a very long time. >> also i want to talk specifically about rsv. it's really concerning because it's targeting kids who in most cases are too young to have that robust immune system. what do parents need to know about how this spreads and keeping their kids safe especially when hospital bids are full? >> reporter: rsv is one of the most contagious out there. most kids get it before the age of 2. because of the pandemic, they didn't necessarily get it. so we're looking at double the amount of kids that could be getting hit hard with it because their body hasn't seen it before. it's spread by aerosol, respiration, like covid and the fl the best way to protect them is to keep them from other people that might be sick and make sure if you're sick you stay home as

well. of course getting your vaccines can help protect everybody in your community and family. important as well. >> dr. john torres, thank you. >> you bet. new data shows the u.s. gross domestic product up 2.6%. that's beating expectations, and it's welcome news for the white house. but president biden says more progress still needs to be made. nbc news correspondent josh lederman. the midterms, we keep saying it, 12 day ace way now. inflation and the economy are on top of mind for 44% of voters, almost half of voters according to a recent poll. what's the president's message to these those concerns? >> that new gdp report is giving the white house an opportunity to try to make the case that things are starting to get better, that essentially their plan is now working and that american voters can expect more improvements to happen if they sort of stay the path of what president biden and democrats

have done over the last couple of years. the president's chief of staff ron klain on "morning joe" earlier today points out, look, it's not just this one gdp report, that we've seen gas prices fall dramatically, well over a dollar since -- or since earlier this summer, that we've seen some indications that inflation may start to be easing. all those things that the voters say they most care about in that "new york times"/siena college poll, are now things the white house is saying are starting to improve and would only go in the reverse direction if congressional republicans were to take over and do things like trying to repeal the inflation reduction act. one bit of news i want to bring to you that we learned as the president was heading to new york from his press secretary on the plane is all these questions about some of the state where is president biden is not campaigning, the fact that his campaign schedule has been so much lighter.

we know on tuesday president biden in florida will be campaigning with charlie crist, the gubernatorial candidate, as well as val demings, the democratic senate candidate. he plans to travel out west to new mexico and appear there with governor grisham. >> josh thanks you. as president biden makes his case for democrats, early voting is under way across the country. absentee ballots have already been cast. all eyes are on georgia's state senate race where republican herschel walker is facing new allegations that he funded an abortion, a claim he denies and claims that nbc has not independently verified. joining us is nbc news washington correspondent yamiche alcindor. this is the final stretch before the midterms and polls are showing momentum turning towards the gop.

you've been talking to feeling? >> we can't say it enough, with 12 days until election day, both republicans and democrats are hoping for a big turnout. republicans are feeling more confident in their chances of taking control of the house and senate. they point to a number of polls that show the gdp with a slight lead on generic congressional ballots and voters increasingly concerned about inflation and voting as their top issues. republicans also say history shows the president's party, democrats in this case, often loses grounds in midterm elections. democrats say they are ready for this fight. we've seen president biden and a number of democrats making the recent argument that the gop would shut down the government and send the economy into a tailspin. they're leaning in on that new message to the economy and what republicans could do to it. they're hoping to motivate

voters saying women's privacy would be on the line as well as this idea that this american constitution would be put to a test if republicans were in office. all in all, we're in for a chaotic and busy few days as both republicans and democrats rally across the country. they're bringing out big names, surrogates like former president obama and trump. >> chaotic and busy 12 days to go. thank you, yamiche. for more than five months after the shooting at robb elementary school in uvalde, texas, the state's top cop says the texas department of public safety did not fail. his comments come as our nbc affiliate in san antonio obtained some new police body cam video from the shooting which of course left 19 students and 2 teachers dead. nbc's morgan chesky has been following this. start with the new video. what does it show? >> reporter: it's stunning and shows multiple angles for nearly an hour of this shooting response or lack thereof outside

robb elementary. one of the first things that stands out is that we see a glimpse of sergeant juan maldonado being approached by multiple officers near the entrance to robb elementary. that's important because maldonado was the first trooper fired as a result of this ongoing internal investigation. that announcement came last friday when his termination was made official. you can hear officers asking each other what they should do at that point in time. then there's another angle from inside the school where body cameras captured officers questioning each other, what are we waiting on, what should we do right now? and i think that having been released within the last 24 hours only frustrated parent who is came here to this public meeting today for an update on the investigation that has left this community of uvalde in perpetual mourning. >> morgan, i don't know if you can see there, but we were seeing some of the chirons, the subtext there of what people

were saying to each other, and they're saying, how many kids are in there, are there kids in there? really astounding. today was as you said public testimony from the head of the texas department of public safety, first appearing since the shooting and faced some of the relatives of the victims. what did he say? >> reporter: calls for his resignation have only gone up in the past several months, kate, because earlier in this investigation process, he essentially told the parents of the uvalde children who were lost in this shooting that if dps failed as an institution sh he would resign. following several parents calling for that, this is how he responded a short time ago. >> as an institution, the dps failed the families, failed the school, or failed the community of uvalde, then absolutely. they need to go. i can tell you this right now,

dps as an institution, okay, right now, is fail ourg community, plain and simple. >> the time is now. if you're a man of your word, you'll resign. we're not waiting any longer. our families, our community, our state has waited long enough. >> reporter: as the agency's director left the meeting today, i had a chance to ask him a couple questions.