i'll talk about some of that in a minute. we really believe that those in that 65 and up age group are at an increased risk and we're continuing to advise them to limit close contact outside the home and to avoid crowds as much as possible, but this is a pretty dramatic, i think, picture of showing how this virus operates and who tends to bear the brunt when they get infected. and that 25 to 34, if we were going back six weeks, it would not have been anything special on this map in terms of how many tests. i mean, there had been positive tests there for sure. real dramatic increase in terms of positive cases in that age group. far and away now, they're the number one age cohort, that 25 to 34-year-old. if you look to see each individual age, how many there, we're still -- 21 is still the

number one age that has the most cases. obviously, 21, absence a significant co-morbidity, likely to be an asymptomatic or mild illness. so, one of the things you do -- when we look at these cases, and i know a lot of people like to talk, and it gets reported. when cases are reported to the state, that's a positive test that could have been taken seven days ago, eight days ago. there's all these companies that do it. they report it. when that infection occurred is not even clear. some of these infections may have occurred two weeks ago when a test finally gets reported from a private lab. one of the things that you look at is, okay, i can get a certain amount of test results reported today, then next week. there's all kinds of ways you can look at that. there's all kinds of ways that the data may not always, you know, come in in kind of a coherent fashion.

when you look at e.d. visits, people showing up to the e.d. because they have influenza or covid symptoms, that's the likelihood of what's going on. and the more people doing that is more the prevalence that you have. throughout the last few weeks, throughout the month of may, you know, it was very flachlt statewide, we were under 500 visits a day. for the state of 21 million people, it's a small number of visits. influenza type illness, 250 or below for weeks and weeks. and even as we got into june, it was still very low. you start to see it inch up as we get into that third -- when we get into 6/14, and then the following week it escalates more and the end of june it escalated to where we were seeing more than 2,000 e.d. visits a day for covid-like illness. going to e.d. doesn't mean

you'll be admitted to the hospital but if you're symptomatic, you're showing up, they're testing you. we've seen statewide this start to trend downward. you look at a couple of days and sometimes that can be more noise than signal. so we want to continue to look at that. i think they'll talk about here the e.d. visits have skewed younger and kind of that 35-year-old range, which obviously is a different kind of clinical cohort than the 65 and up. but syndromatic surveillance in terms of what we're doing or going on in the state of florida. protect the vulnerable. you see the fatalities skew 65 and plus and 75 and plus when you think about it. this is something that's a priority. given that you see more prevalence of this in the community today than we did, you know, say in the middle of may,

you know, it is important for those in the -- to avoid crowds and minimize close contact with people they don't live with. if you're in a multi-generational living arrangement there's definitely risk with that. we've seen that in different parts of florida, where you have the multi-generational housing, crowded housing lead to more outbreaks. obviously, there's only so much that you can do when those are your living arrangements, and we understand that. but there is the risk in the 65 -- underlying conditions, elevated risk. any age that has some of these conditions, you need to take similar steps and avoid the crowds, minimize close contact outside the home. one of the things when you have folks who are 65 or really under 50, the ones that have things like diabetes, morbid owe oe beesity, those are the ones that

typically have a much harder time with the coronavirus. so, just understand that and take whatever precautions that you can. we talked before coming out here about long-term care facility, really significant component of this. when we started this in march, we obviously knew that the nursing homes would be ground zero. the most vulnerable population there. we did things like we prohibited visitors. visitors in nursing homes since the middle of march. that's a tough thing for a lot of people. we feared that you would see more introduction of the virus, if you allowed that. we also prohibited hospitals from discharging covid-positive patients back into the nursing homes. when that was done in other states, that really had negative consequences. and we felt that was the better course of action. we required ppe, like n95 masks. we sent 10 million masks, plus,

to long-term care facilityies, face shields, gowns, gloves, all of that. we required them to use the ppe. we provided them the ppe, because we understood that was important to try to minimize infection within those facilities. but we also understood, as we started to get into april, that, you know, even with doing all those precautions, you would still have it get in with a staff member, maybe not wearing the ppe right. maybe the ppe wasn't as effective as we wanted it to be. so, you would see cases there. we sent the national guard in to do a lot of testing in the nursing homes. we understood we needed to identify cases before they could spread like wildfire. so, we understood that there was a need for some of these folks who, if you do test positive in and you're a resident of a long-term care facility that you had to be isolated appropriately so that you didn't spread it to other residents. and some of these nursing homes,

long-term care facilities, they're justify not set up to do appropriate isolation. and so we said you need to transfer those folks. now some of that was just sending them to the hospital where they're basically just boarding because they're medically stable. we thought that wasn't the best use of hospital resources if we could help it. we've now established 13 covid-dedicated nursing facilities in florida. these are nursing facilities that all of their patients are covid-positive. if you have somebody who tests positive in a nursing home in manatee county, you can send them to carrington place in pinellas or polk, charlotte. this way they're able to be isolated and not spread it into their home facilities. we started the pan-american or the miami-dade care center last week. we think that that's going to be filled probably within a couple

of days, and we have a number in south florida, central florida. we're also working under the tampa bay area, we've dealt with a lot of nursing home outbreaks particularly in pinellas county. while this carrington place is good, we want to see if there are ways we can expand the footprint. this is an important tool to protect residents of long-term care facilities that are the most vulnerable, but also, you know, not needing to say -- if someone is stable or asymptomatic, having a place where they can go if they're not going to infect other people and they can be cared for. i want to thank secretary mayhew for working hard on that. we talk about the new facilities and additional beds for this. and just to show why this is important. so here in manatee county, they've had, i think as of yesterday or as of this morning maybe, 138 covid-related deaths, 91 of them have been related to

long-term care facilities. that's 66% of the corona-related fatalities have been linked to long-term care facilities. that's not only just saying 65 and up, but just 65 and up and then residents of these facilities. sarasota county close by, you kn know, they've had 100 corona-related fatalities. 65 of them were related to residents of long-term care facilities. so, again, 65%. so, this is really, really a significant part of this fight. social distancing, we have a much better idea now than in march about, you know, what the virus likes and doesn't like and, you know, close spaces. i think you're seeing a lot of this activity throughout the entire sun belt. some people have said because when it's hot, people would rather be inside, in enclosed,

air conditioned spaces. the point is that if you're in an area where you have a crowd of people indoors, you know, in a party or something like that, in the air conditioning, it is going to be a better vector for transmission, no doubt about it. people's homes. obviously, most people get infected from family members or friends. and it's actually in the air conditioning. that's going to be something that will be a good vector. the outdoor transmission has not been as significant. the sunshine, the heat and humidity are generally your friend when it comes to this virus. the virus doesn't typically like that, would prefer to be in the enclosed environments. big crowds, obviously, proud more risk. and then the close contact settings, when you're in sustained close contact with people, you don't even need to cough or snooed sneeze, you know, we think at this point. if you're talking repeatedly and you're there for a long time.

the social distancing is very, very significant. if you maintain appropriate social distancing, you're not going to probably infect anyone or get infected. facial covering, if you can't do that, is a way that could mitigate some of the particles that you may cough or sneeze or talk with and could reduce some of the transmission. if you're not in a situation where you can avoid the three c's or where you can appropriately social distance, you know, wearing the face covering will help you. again, low risk versus high risk. it's pretty well documented at this point. when we talked about flattening the curve back in march, the main reason was to make sure that the hospital system could cope with whatever happens in terms of the effects of the coronavirus. and in march, this was a very new virus and, you know, we kind of new in january it was out

there. in florida, we were testing pomace they came back from asia, and almost all of them were negative throughout february i think we got our first case at the very end of february. we now know that there was much more widespread than we thought. the testing criteria was very limited. there was problems with ppe. there was problems with testing. there were all these issues. and so now we're in a situation where, you know, we've got a lot of test sites around the state of florida, hospitals are all testing, private companies that are testing, cvses are testing. now it's a little easier, which is a good thing for people. drive-through sites, walk-up sites. we've got all different ways that people can test. the federal government is doing tests in duvall county. they're kind of moving around the country, doing different things.

that's been good. we now have free antibody testing at five of our drive-through sites, two in member, the hard rock stadium, marlins stadium, the one in jacksonville at the jaguars stadium. orlando convention center and then the west palm beach site where we're at the spring training complex. if you're somebody who is not symptomatic, but you think you may have gotten this, the antibody testing may be better. if you got it a month ago, you'll mostly pop for the antibodies and at least you'll know that you had t the pcr test, you know, you could have been infected a month ago and still pop positive but no longer be infectious. take advantage of the antibody. it's not as easy as the pcr because it is a blood draw and takes a little bit more time but you get the result in, i think, 15 minutes, and it's instructive. if you have the antibody, that's important to know. the ppe situation is much

improved. we speak with hospitals every day. i'm not heard anyone say ppe is not an issue anymore, and the florida department of emergency management sent a huge amount of ppe to long-term care facilities around and the state. that's very, very significant. i mentioned the remdesivir. that is -- we didn't have any of that in march. we now have the remdevevir. they're using this hydroxchloroquine. some doctors think that's good. they have tools in the tool box so someone can come in and be treated and hopefully improve their process. chemicals that are involved when you test this stuff. the problem is that the u.s. is testing more on a daily basis than any country, by far.

and the lab resources are backed up. some of these turnaround times that are supposed to be 48 hours, some of the big commercial labs are running three and four days behind that. some of the supplies are starting to run low. and so i'm working with the white house to try to get more reagents down for our hospitals. i have spoken to a number of them that are concerned about this. part of the reason, we're testing a lot of asymptomatic and a lot of healthy people. and those numbers add up very quickly. and i think the consequences of that is that you've seen some of these supplies dwindle. so the lab reagents are something that we're really concerned about and are thinking about. i mentioned before and hopefully we'll have an announcement at the beginning of the week. we are sensitive to getting these test results back as quickly as possible. when we did our contracts with private labs they were guaranteeing a 48-hour turnaround. that's just not in the cards anywhere in the country for what we're seeing. we do, though, have some

companies that have the ability for us to do self-swab tests and then they can turn it around. they say in 36 to 72 hours. that's what we're doing with our long-term care testing. once we tested all the residents of long-term care facilities, we tested the staff, we said okay, going forward we just need to test the staff every two weeks. if they're asymptomatic, they bring it in, infect, and they can spread in these long-term care facilities, and we've seen that happen. we have an arrangement now where we do these tests every two weeks. so far they've sent in 130,000 tests. we have 86,000 test results and only a 2.8% positivity rate for staff in long-term care facilities, which is a little surprising. if you've seen the prevalence in other parts of the state you're at 15, 20% prevalence in pcr

testing. to see the 2.8, quite frankly that was somewhat of a surprise. we're going to be getting in 190,000, roughly, test results every two weeks just from staff of long-term care facilities. this has been a good model. we want to be able to try to figure out how we can get people their results back as quickly as possible. we're focusing that on symptomatic people. people coming to test don't necessarily know if they have symptoms. they just want to know if they have it. somebody has symptoms, we'll work on dedicating the dri drive-through lanes for those people and then having them do the self swab, sending it to some of the companies that may be able to turn it around a little bit quicker. that is something that would really make a difference. the thing about testing the asymptomatic people was, okay, if you're asymptom attic, you cn

spread it. you don't get your results back for seven days, are people just isolating if they're not positive? most people are probably do that. it made sense in theory but given the resources we've had with commercial labs. contact tracing, if you're asymptomatic and get a result back in seven days, it will be harder to go back and contact trace. >> hey, everyone, we are taking a listen to florida governor ron desantis, as he talks about coronavirus and how it has befallen this state. right now, it is perhaps the epicenter of coronavirus in this country. i want to bring in dr. cedric dark, on the front lines of an er doctor in houston and baylor university of medicine. doctor, i want to talk a bit with regard to what's happening in houston. what you heard from the governor, what's your big takeaway? remdesivir, he says now we're getting more shipments of

remdesivir. is he putting too much, not enough -- what do you think the emphasis is on remdesivir, is it a miracle drug? >> i wouldn't say that. when i looked at the science behind it, the paper behind it, it reduced the amount of time people were in the hospital. it didn't do anything about their mortality rate. the thing that bothers me most about this december as an emergency care doctor is whether people live or die. that's the biggest outcome to me. reducing the time people are in the hospital is a great thing. my cousin was actually just in the hospital himself and received remdesivir. hopefully it had something to do with getting him home earlier, and he's doing better now. there are other drugs. >> the steroid. >> yeah and really just oxygen, basic oxygen is one of those things that's really, really important for patient. >> what about, doctor, the fact

that he noted the majority of cases, the majority of deaths as well in florida are those who are elderly, ages 65, then he technically bumped it up to 75 and older. the fact that he categorizes it that way, what's the message he's sending? >> the number of cases in 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s but when you talk about people dying it's usually the older population, 60s, 70s, 80s. and so even though the numbers are higher in younger people, and younger people might feel like they're invincible to this, we have to think about what happens when they go home? people who live in multi-generational housing, what happens when they give that infection to their grandparents? those people are at risk. we have to do everything we can to minimize the infection to those people. wearing masks, social distancing, taking this virus seriously even if you, yourself, are not going to be harmed

personally. >> dr. dark, you mentioned personally and social distance and masks yet we heard the governor say if you social distance you will probably not get coronavirus. i was straining to hear the word masks, demanding that residents in his state wear them. is social distancing enough, in your mind? >> no, it is not enough. we need to use everything in our tool belt to accomplish what we need to accomplish. sometimes you can't socially distance. if you're in a store, if you're traveling around somewhere, if you're going to do takeout. when you go to a restaurant, you need to go ahead, put a mask on when you're around somebody who is not in your household. i see people wearing masks in their automobiles which is unnecessary if you're the only one in there. if you're around people who don't live with you, you need to wear masks. my son is being watched by his grandmother. she doesn't live in the same house with us. she's wearing a mask around him

just to make sure she's safe. >> i'm glad she is. dr. dark, we'll be back with you in a moment, to hear what's happening in your backyard there in houston. thanks for weighing in on what we heard from governor desantis in florida. let's go to california now. certainly a hot spot where cases and hospitalizations are surging. educators want to keep schools close until further notice. that is the most recent big headline there as we go to nbc's ga gadi schwartz there for us. >> reporter: that positivity rate, hospitalizations across the state are alarmingly high. they've not let up, despite the hope that things would be better by summer. the biggest question in the state is, what are schools going to look like in the fall? the largest school districts seem to be preparing parents for the likelihood that schools will continue to be held virtually, and elementary through high

schools will remain closed, campuses may remain closed for the foreseeable future. here in los angeles, the public health director had a phone call with the county superintendents and told them, point blank, every single school district needs to have plans in place to continue distance learning for 100% of the time. so, that is obviously something that parents are watching out for every single day. at this point, they are hoping that that is just a contingencc. teachers' unions across the state are stressing the importance of educators and children need to come foo first. cta, biggest teachers' union in the state told the san jose unified school district they believe it is unsafe for teachers to provide in-person instruction and that their members will not be returning to the classroom at this time. the same sentiment is being expressed here by the lsusd

teachers union. the president is pushing for schools to reopen, even blasting the cdc's guidelines for being too strict and threatening to withhold funding for those schools and universities. local leaders across the state, however, say the numbers they'll be watching for again are infection rates, hospitalizations and new cases, and right now those rates are the highest they've been so far and covid-19 is showing no sign of slowing down. >> folks approaching it with a very responsible manner. gadi schwartz, thanks for that. hospitals being pushed to capacity because of the influx of coronavirus cases. some have reportedly had to divert ambulances. and respond together uptick in calls as it's facing its own shortage. priscilla thompson is joining me from houston, an e pichltcenter in this country right now. what are you hearing specifically from the firefighters there? >> well, alex, as the numbers

tick up in terms of the positivity rate and number of cases, firefighters and first responders are not immune. i spoke with the fire chief this morning. and he tells me less than a week ago, there were more than 300 firefighters that were quaranti quarantining, either because they tested positive for the virus or had been around someone who tested positive for the virus. and when that happens, it places additional strains on those firefighters who are still out in the field. i spoke to some emts who one man told me he worked ten days straight last month and right now he's on his fourth day straight. so it's a very big concern and obviously the other thing that you mentioned is that this is coming at a time when calls to the fire department are ticking up. they are about 30% higher than they were back in may. looking at fielding anywhere from 1,100 calls per day. and a lot of times when they're arriving to these hospitals to deliver patients, they're having

to wait for a while with those patients, because there aren't any beds available. take a listen to what the fire chief told me earlier. >> we're having to go into these hospitals, knowing that there is not enough capacity in the ers. we'll have to be waiting for a while to transfer a patient. that's not good for our patients that are sitting on the gurney. it's not good for the hospitals either. and it's really not good for our community. >> and, you know, lots of concerns when we hear that, particularly as we have new nbc reporting, suggesting that more people are dying at home, in part because they are nervous about calling 911 or going to that hospital and waiting until the last minute. and i want to point out that we did learn late last night, governor abbott said that they are going to be sending federal resources, a task force here, to help out with the hospitals. it will be a group of around 85 people, a unit of around 85

people that can staff up to 250 hospital beds, if needed, alex. >> priscilla thompson, thank you for that. let's bring back in dr. cedric dark, working-er in houston. >> what priscilla was talking about, the fact that you have to turn away patients from many er rooms in houston and the greater area there because they are full, are you seeing evidence of that, and is that a big concern? >> let me correct someone. no one is being turned away from an er. every patient that shows up 24/7, 365, that's the first thing. >> dr. dark, how do you deal with that, when you have a full er? we've gotten reports from houston and elsewhere, doctor, around this country that you've got gurneys in hallways, that there are people being treated for coronavirus for some time while in an emergency room. is that true? >> yes, there are busy, busy ers. myself, my colleagues, people that i know across the city,

everyone has had points, either this week or last week, where our hospitals were full, where patients were boarding down in our emergency departments for extended periods of time, waiting on rooms upstairs, waiting for icu beds to open up. this is an all hands on deck moment. i'm very thankful that the government is receiving military resources to bring in additional staffing so we can have additional beds. the hospitals in the texas medical center are all trying to help one another out. they've been expanding capacity as covid has started to fill up the hospitals. we realized one thing. we have a shared destiny, as these hospitals in houston. if we don't take care of each other, one of the hospitals might go under, and that's going to topple the entire system. >> dr. dark, last question to you. icu units, are they full at this point? and how concerning is that, if they are? >> so the icus, about a week or two ago, were full. in different places they've been

finding ways to increase capacity and that's happening. if you have an open icu bed it's not going to be helpful unless you have staff to staff it. that's where we need additional personnel. people have been called in, either from within the state to go to other places in the state that might need services, like the rio grande valley, places like houston. getting federal resources is extraordinarily helpful right now. >> houston er physician dr. cedric dark and assistant professor at baylor college of medicine. new pushback within the trump administration to the president's commutation of roger stone's sentence. we're calling on josh lederman one more time for us. what can you tell us? >> reporter: we are learning more about opposition within the trump administration to president trump's move to offer this clemency to roger stone. trump administration official telling our justice correspondent, pete williams, that the justice department had nothing to do with president trump's decision to commute the sentence of roger stone.

that official also saying that attorney general bill barr actually spoke with president trump about roger stone and encouraged him not to do exactly what the president ultimately went ahead and did anyway, which was cut that sentence short and offer that clemency to roger stone. so, what we may start to see happening here, alex, is the justice department trying to distance itself from this decision, which is already shaping up as the latest blow to morale at the justice department, an agency already demoralized by other interventions by the administration, such as the administration dropping its own prosecution of michael flynn. the key takeaway here, being that the president's decision here to offer this clemency was not something that was unanimously supported, either by members of administration or even by fellow members of his own party, a reality, perhaps, best punctuated today by a tweet from senator mitt romney of

utah, who called this an unprecedented, historic corruption. mitt romney going on to say an american president commutes the sentence of a person convicted by a jury of lying to shield that very president. alex? >> when he puts it that way, it is hard to get your head around it. thank you very much, josh lederman. progressive programming at sirius xm and betsy woodrough, msnbc contributor. betsy, you first, here. give me your sense based on your reporting about the president's mental i mentality, surrounding his commuting of roger stone's sentence. is any part of it to stop him from potentially spilling the beans? >> this is very much of a piece with the president's thinking about roger stone's case, going all the way back to the earliest days of special counsel robert mueller's russia investigation. the president has always believed this is a hoax, that

the deep state was conspiring against him and that the bulk of the allegations regarding a very real interference that the kremlin sponsored into the 2016 u.s. election campaign were fabricated, that it was a conspiracy launched against him. and trump sees roger stone as a victim of that conspiracy, rather than as a person who, as a jury convicted him of having done, lied to investigators and tampered with a witness that those investigators wanted to work with. both of those things are federal crimes. that's what stone was sentenced for. i don't have any reporting that trump believes he will somehow keep stone from helping with future investigations because of granting this commutation. i think the explanation is probably pretty simple. trump sees stone as someone who is on his team, someone who is loyal to him, someone who didn't, quote, unquote, flip and testify against him during the -- when the mueller investigation was ongoing and

believes that the political consequences will not be as dire as some of his advisers may have told him it would be. >> the president may be feeling a bit burned, based on what happened with michael cohen, his former self-described consigliare. that's why i asked that question. is there going to be anything about this that benefits either donald trump or joe biden, come november election time with the vote? >> well, i do think this decision, again, reminds us of the inherent corruption, frampg frankly, of this corruption. if you remember, alex, we're still in a year where the president was impeached. and early on in this year, we went through so many different moments throughout the impeachment trial in the senate and the subsequent acquittal. i think it's an interesting moment where you have a senator

like mitt romney, who voted for conviction, tweeting out that this is really unprecedented corruption at the highest levels. because, remember, the crime that roger stone was convicted of and the investigation that he was lying about was one into the president's conduct. and so this goes to the larger narrative that i think democrats and the house really need to get back on track in expressing the fact that this presidency beyond the incompetence of the pandemic response, beyond the racist rhetoric of his campaign rallies, the inherent level of corruption in this administration is an issue that voters do care about, because i think the pandemic makes us understand that we are the re p recipients of the consequences of the corruption that enriches his cronies or benefits his friends and his businesses and leaves us all really hanging on

the hook. >> look, let's face it, if we have again utah senator mitt romney's tweet there, it pretty accurately synopsizes in three lines his interpretation of this, which is mirroring that of many others. i want to switch gears and go to the president dropping that daca promise. is this an effort to distract or are these serious intentions? do you think the president has had a change of heart? >> the president, ever since his election, likes to make noise to persuade hispanic voters that he's going to take meaningful action to protect undocumented immigrants, from deportation and other steps. until the president actually signs a legal document, until he actually does something concrete that goes beyond just making an announcement or floating the possibility of some sort of clemency or protections for

these folks, i don't think there's reason for people to feel optimism that there will be action following his words. the fact that he's using this rhetoric is notable, because the president's rhetoric is always notable. it is vastly, vastly less important from the reality of any concrete steps he takes. the truth is that the president is gearing up his campaign in the next few months of his presidency to try to energize his base. i think it's unlikely he would do anything that could be seen by those base voters, many of whom are extremely hawkish when it comes to immigration enforcement. he would do anything that those folks, particularly the hard core immigration hawks, would see as unfavorable. >> yeah. selena, potential warning signs for democrats. i know betsy is familiar with this because it's from politico. it reports that gop voter registrations have outpaced

democrats, adding that a slowdown in adding new voters during the rolls of the pandemic. warning about the trump vote being undercounted. overall, how concerned is the party about this? >> look, i think the party is concerned about everything, alex. we're in unprecedented times in the middle of a pandemic with an incompetent president. this is a good warning. i'm glad it's happening now. democrats need to focus on from this point forward is not only registering younger and those more diverse set of voters, who are not normally regular, democratic voters, the more sporadic voters, and they also need to ensure that those voters have mail-in ballot access. registration say concerning sign, mail-in ballot access in states like florida have given almost 400,000 florida voters the ability to be able to cast their ballot in november via

mail. and that is an incredible important detail. it's not something that we can wait and see. we need to scale up all of the mail-in voting structure and infrastructure on this state level. i think democrats have a lot of work to do. nothing is in the bag. i am here because hillary clinton did not defeat donald trump in the electoral college even though all of the polling heading into november said she would. i think that you take nothing for granted from this moment forward, and you demonstrate that your vision of competent leadership and, frankly, to quote my co-host, jess mcintosh, we're voting for a vaccine delivery system in november because you want somebody at the helm who can distribute that vaccine in a comprehensive fashion to everyone who needs it. and so there is so much at stake, and biden needs to take every single opportunity to turn out as many voters who don't normally participate in the

process in november. >> ladies, thank you both. betsy woodruff and my author friend, zelena maxwell. the shot is perfect. the book on both sides framing you, "the end of white politics: how to deal with our liberal divide." best times seller, i'm sure. >> thank you. greatly worries the head of florida's teachers' union. what does he fear most? i'll ask him next. teachers' uni. what does he fear most i'll ask him next. businesses are starting to bounce back.

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not in your hat, galoshes and

rain jacket any longer. have you seen more people streaming into the park? >> yeah, we've seen the activity pick up around here. people who are coming today had to have reserve airgss and those reservations were limited. as i lose my mask here, anyway, those reservations were limited. and so there's only a certain amount of people that can get into the park today at all. you can't just drive up and go to the park today like you normally could on a normal day at disney world. and there are only two parks open out of the four parks, epcot and the hollywood studios are opening wednesday. right now just the animal kingdom and magic kingdom are open at this point. it's still much quieter than you would ever imagine on a normal saturday in july, alex. >> okay. well, interesting to know they're taking reservations and

that does make sense, chris paulone. while schools are reopening overseas, u.s. educators are divided on whether they're ready to restart classes in person. joining me now, president of the florida teachers association. i'm curious, can you chronicle your main concerns about reopening schools in the next month? what has you most worried? >> sure. we have a lot of concerns. we're the epicenter of this virus. we had 10,000 plus cases were reported just today. we do not have a handle on this from a public health stand poibt and leadership standpoint from our governor. the governor has, unfortunately, tied himself to the president and that means we're being driven by the economy and politics. we need to push that aside and put our kids first, and our teachers and educational professionals first. >> frederick, points well taken. let me go over what the cdc has

done, releasing guidelines to consider before reopening. eliminating cafeterias, have kids eat lunch in their classroom classrooms, mandating face coverings for students and teachers. separating desks for social distance. have they implemented enough guidance in your opinion? >> no, they've not provided enough guidance and also leave out funding, money. we need funding to do this. schools were built for social interaction. they were not built for social distancing. so we have to reengineer and reconfigure our schools and nobody is talking about the inorder nate amount of money it is going to cost to open these schools, do it right and keep our kids safe. we need to pass the heroes act first in the congress and stop this bickering between the parties and get the senate to move on this heroes act so we can put billions into our education system. >> money is at the root of all of this.

let's get to the virtual learning. what, in your opinion, has been effective about it? has it been effective at all? do you think that kids can get a full, proper education at home if it comes to that? >> nothing replaces the magic that happens between a student and teacher. that atmosphere you create between teachers, students and working together, nothing replaces that. what our teachers did over the last five months was complete magic. and we reengineered, rethought about how to deliver that instruction. we don't want to do that full time. nobody wants to be in front of children more than teachers. teachers want to be in their classrooms. first grade teachers get giddy this time of year usually, to get themselves ready, back to school, and band directors, football coaches, we all want to get back in schools. we must do it safely. we must tread lightly. we're looking for leadership. in the state of florida, we're full steam ahead, putting the gas pedal down and saying we're going to open schools no matter what. that's not the case.

that's the same thing we've done with our rere opening and this virus, which gives us the epicenter, the vortex of this right now. >> it's difficult to re-create the magic for those of us who have been blessed with wonderful teachers. i've got teachers i love from first grade, seventh grade and all the way up. let me ask you about the millions of parents, frederick, who consider school a necessity because they need free lunches and child care. is there any way to have some kids go back to school while others stay home if the need is omnipresent there? >> absolutely. let's talk about the courage we're seeing from some of our school boards, from some of our superintendents and school unions all across the state of florida. we'll have 67 different plans. we'll have modes and mechanisms so that children can learn and be educated in our schools. what we don't want to do is be

the petri dish for this nation. we don't want to say no matter wh what, no matter how many cases we have, no matter how many people are dying out there, we're going to open up our schools. we can't do that in a reckless manner. that's what we're seeing from our government and state government. we need to press the pause button, get ourselves ready like teachers get themselves ready. let's do some lesson planning and make sure we pass the test. kids are in the balance, and people will die if we don't get this right. >> frederick ingraham, i love the passion with which you're talking about this. come see me again and we'll keep things updated with the situation on schools in florida. background checks are hitting an all-time high in the united states. fbi is reporting americans set a new record of 3.the 9 million background checks to purchase or possess firearms last month in june, eclipsing the previous record in march of 3.7 million background checks.

in mt. airy, north carolina, jord jordan jackson, what's behind this? >> reporter: the uptick is staggering. in june last year this state conducted just under 35,000 background checks. that same month this year over 90,000, 160% increase. i spoke to a local business owner who offers classes, offers training courses. i talked to him a little bit about the demand that they're seeing in this community of the take a listen. >> wave got more than we can do right now. we have to make people wait six weeks almost to get some type of training. there's a lot of shortages with ammunition and firearms right now and prices have probably doubled if not triple the price they were five, six months ago. >> reporter: now, this business owner told me that he's seeing a

lot more women come out, elderly, even some young people that are coming in to take his classes. i actually spoke to a local mom here, a mother of four. she just completed her concealed carry class and has her first firearm. take a listen to what she told me this morning. >> specifically being out, going out into local grocery markets or being stopped on the streets with protests, it just gave me an uneasy feeling, that i may not have an option. and i wanted to be prepared. >> reporter: now, like alaina, many of those i've spoken to coming in or out of these stores, who express interest in taking some of these classes tell me they're primarily motivated by fear. this is just one way that this sense of instability is playing out in different parts across the nation. alex? >> tell you, lot to be concerned about with this subject. thank you very much, jordan jackson. with florida becoming the

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florida is very quickly look i go like the new coronavirus epicenter. officials add more than 10,000 cases today bringing the statewide total to more than 250,000 cases. it is the third high nest the country. joining me now is nikki freed, florida's commission of agricultural and consumer services. welcome back to the broadcast. tell me, how did florida get to this point? do you think your state reopened too soon? >> yeah, unfortunately, we hit some grim milestones this week. we have over 4,000 deaths, 230,000 cases, 7,000 people that are in the hospitals, and 84% of our icus are at capacity. we absolutely opened too fast. we had a data driven health expert plan that was laid out but unfortunately the governor arbitrarily moved from phase one to phase two. there was no enforcement.

he went all across the national news saying mission accomplished prematurely. it was poor leadership on his part. and we certainly are now having to take your own health care into our own hands. >> i know you called for a statewide mask mandate. we spent the better part of a half hour listening to the governor at the top of this news hour. he mentioned a score of things but not a mask mandate. he said he is not going to implement any kind of a statewide mask order. have you had a discussion with him? has he explained why he won't take that step? >> unfortunately the communication between myself and the governor broke down in the middle of march. we have had no communication, either myself or members my leadership team with governor's office. >> why did they break down. because i was holding him

accountable. he is only surrounding himself with heme that are going to say yes to him and leadership with the white house. every one of heist his cues have come from the white house. whether it is to wear masks, whether it is to reopen or to the to reopen. that is all based on the white house's parameters. he made it very specific he is not going do to it which is poor leadership on his part as we see the numbers spike. we know wearing masks is not going to stop the virus but certainly it is going to stop the spread as fast. >> do you have concern about places like disney world opening their gates again today to park goeers. i spoke to the mayor of orange county and he said he is confident it is going to go well because he has seen disney's plan. i pushed back a bit and i said well it depends on how individual park goeers react and adhere to those plans. are you concerned. >> yeah. of course i appreciate disney taking all of the precautions that are necessary to keep

people safe. but in the same thing i am saying to all of the citizens in the state of florida it is one, because an establishment like disney or restaurants or bowling alley or movie theaters are open doesn't mean we should be going. until the time we get this under control here in the state of florida who coming to our state to visit disney, university studios or any of our theme parks. we have to take individual responsibility and relying on corporate partners like disney to make sure they are enforcing the cdc guidelines and doing everything possible the keep the consumers and the public safe. >> you and i spoke about the ag situation there in the state. at one point during the pandemic farmers in florida were big time struggling. many had to throw out a surplus of crops because restaurants across the country and in that state had shut down. s that farming industry recovered? >> not yet. the reality is that our harvest season was this peak of the pam.

we lost $522 million worth of economic impact in our state. we here in the state of florida are number two in our seasonal production. we feed about 150 million people with our fresh fruits and vegetables. unfortunately, we took a big hit. our farmers are resilient. they will certainly fight back. the usda's help was too little too late and didn't get to us in time to protect our harvest season. on top of that, president trump had a new approximately see allowing for -- to come into our states. >> commissioner nikki fried, thank you so much. we will see you again. that is it for me, i am alex with it. i will see you tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern. up next, we will talk with the family of have a necessa ♪won't wait♪ ♪we're taking everything we wanted♪ ♪we can do it

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it is 2:00 p.m. on the east coast and coronavirus cases are exploding across the country. the u.s. once again of the shaerring records overnight reporting 74,000 new infections yesterday, higher than at any point since the pandemic began. as cases soar support for president trump's handling of this pandemic is hitting an all-time low. a new abc poll shows 67% of americans disapprove of trump's response. when asked by nbc's jose diaz balart about the fight against covid-19 the president ignored the reality of rising cases and claimed victory. >> is the united states losing the war against covid. >> no, we are winning the war. we have areas that flamed up. they aring go to be fine over a period of time. >> as the president down plays the risks of the pandemic for americans, he is also drawing sharp criticism for his late-night decision to commute the sentence of his long time friend and political adviser roger stone. stone was scheduled to report to prison next week for