won these bluetooth headphones for $20. i got these three suitcases for less than $40. and shipping is always free. go to dealdash.com right now and see how much you can save. ♪ the prediction said, by the end of july we'll see 800 cases a day. we were around 200 cases a day at that time. i thought, there's no way. it could be that bad. but it's even worse than the estimates. it's really scary. >> it is really easy to wear a mask. it's really hard to hear my voice over the phone telling you that your family member is very

sick and no, you may not come comfort them. >> whether they're occurring in an 88-year-old who may have underlying medical conditions, and certainly they're occurring in an otherwise healthy 20, 30-year-old, these are preventable, premature deaths, not to mention the amount of suffering that transpires prior to those deaths. once again we begin the sound from medical workers on the front lines of this pandemic. i hope you are not becoming numb to what these folks are saying. i mean, listen to them. they're the ones who see this better than any of us. well cup to wednesday. it's "meet the press daily." here we go again. white house officials say they think yesterday's press conference went well in terms of communicating the message, so

they have scheduled another one at 5:30 eastern. the white house revived these briefings, that appear to be first and foremost designed to address the political crisis the president is in right now. there were no public health officials at the briefings. we don't know if any will be alongside the ed either. yesterday seemed to be about the president acknowledging we'll be in this for while. he spoke to the topic, except for up well wishes to an accused sex trafficker, but hi did say the coronavirus will get worse before it gets better. he also seemed to acknowledge we don't have a national strategy to combat it. for him it was a seemingly glaring admission, which is that on his watch, the country has failed to control the pandemic.

at the same time the white house has also deployed a wide and at times unsettling range of tactics, seemingly to distract from the virus, including the decision to deploy federal agents to cities, as the president says, only cities run by democrats. some of the tactics used by the agents have been criticized for inciting more vile also viole e violence. it seems as a magnet in portland, all as -- just moments ago the president announced a surge of hundreds of federal agents to chicago in the expansion of a federal program that will send more resources into more cities. some officials may say the resources -- see the resources as a political assistance from the federal government to fight crime, but the president is describing this action in uniquely political terms. take a listen. >> my administration will be

working to remove dangerous offenders sprung loose by these deadly policies and, frankly, but they deadly politicians. america must be a sang wear for law-abiding citizens, not criminal aliens. my vision for america's cities could not be more different from the lawlessness being pushed by the stream radical left. that's why we're here today to answer the pleas for those crying for justice, crying for help. for those people in chicago and other cities where we'll be, help is on its way. unlike the other speakers, the president goes out way to politicize what they were doing. ahead of the news conference later this hour, is carol lee. also with is jonathan la mere, a reporter for the associated press and msnbc political analyst. carol ann, i want to start with

first the virus. the president yesterday by saying where they're coming up with a national strategy, by omanages that a lot of people saying, oh, are they acknowledging they don't have one? are they acknowledging they don't have one? is this a case where we're taking the president's words too literally now? >> reporter: well, i think the wow is trying to kind of explain what the president meant when he said they were developing a big powerful strategy. kellyanne conway spoke to reporters here earlier today, and said they essential do have a strategy. the president was talking about vaccines, therapeutics, getting those things moved along. when pressed, to say frankly the president wasn't speaking narrowly about that. she said also, you know, it's nursing homes, making sure they have what they need, protecting the most vulnerable. so still a lot of questions, not entirely clear on what the president meant, but i would

expect when he comes out to speak in roughly a half hour from now, he will argue this is a strategy, and he meant, you know, that he was trying to put the focus on these other aspects. frankly, one of the things he said yesterday is things will get worse before they get better, which begs the question, if that's the case, what is the strategy then? >> i want to play the quote so people can hear it themselves. listen to what he said yesterday about a national strategy. >> we are in the process of developing a strategy that's going to be very, very powerful. we've developed them as we go along. some areas are doing well, others less well. it will probably unfortunately get worse before it gets better, something i don't like saying about things, but that's the way it is.

>> so i just play that again. after, carol, your reporting on what kellyanne conway said, it doesn't really match her initial description, so i understand why so many reporters push back. >> reporter: exactly. the president was speaking broadly, talking about strategy generally, not really specifying a thing like therapeutics or a vaccine. one thing i think he wants to talk about is addressing this problem they have with lag times between when someone gets tested and when they actually get results is days, sometimes a week. you know, the president's team has said he's focused on that. he spoke a little bit about it yesterday, didn't have any specifics, but that's a real problem. we have seen people waiting in long lines in cars for hours upon hours. that's something i think the president will address today. but he's also going to have to

answer the question of what he meant as a strategy. it's out there, and he'll be pressed to explain it. >> he owns that phrase, whether he likes it or not. jonathan, i want to shift gears to the other event from about an hour ago. the president's description and those who were almost trying to distance what they were doing from portland. the president comes right back in, and he basically politicizes the entire program. who's doing the worst part of this conflating here? is this the president or -- or is the attorney general and dhs dock the winking and nodding here? >> well, chuck, both events today are politics first and foremost. the coronavirus briefing coming up, but also this event in the

white house a short time ago. the we were looking at it this is relatively small numbers of federal officers. this is something that the president seems to be exaggerating. i know that comes as a surprise, because he never does that, but that's where we are right now. this is the president playing the politics laning into themes he's hit hard, trying to suggest these cities, which a number still have protests, cities largely with democratic governors, those protests for the most part peaceful, the vast majority of those demonstrating peaceful. we are seeing crime tick up in a number of cities, including new york city. so the federal government is offering to mobilize these officers. you know, portland, we're seeing these very stark images. these clashes between these military police, these federal officers and those protesting.

it's not clear we'll get a similar moment or similar images out of the chicago, but the president is trying to lean on it. >> i was interested to hear michael chertoff, he says the fact that the president is explicitly singling out cities run by democrats, he says, makes it all worse. he says this -- essentially, he's suggesting this is a political maneuver. he goes on to say, the idea that it would be a tool of political activity is very unsettling. that's what i'm curious about, jonathan, is chad wolfe, the

attorney general are they going to run into a problem with the rank-and-file agency are going, am i being used as a prop on prime, on capable for another net who? is it. >> chad wolfe is certainly plague his park. >> it also remains to be seen how significant these groups will be in terms of the number of troops or officers broadband sent to these cities, but certainly this is about politics. since the mt. rushmore speech, aides have said this is about a way to paint joe biden that's until the command of the left fringe of the party. of course, that's an

overheighted agent from the president, but one he thinking can be effective, can win back voters if he's projecting streng strength. right. carol lee before i about ink in the doctor, the fact that they have kept these events separated, is the president capable of this kind of discipline? >> reporter: that is the question. he did yesterday, largely. white house spoke to a number of officials say he's hapthey're hh his performance. we've seen this before. he'll follow the script, and something veers him out, and he

grows tired of it. whether that's today, tomorrow or next week, but the white house surely wants the president to stay focused in these briefings, keep them relatively short. he did that yesterday. whether or not he does it today, we'll see. look, they clearly are aware there's a perception he's not on top of this virus, and they clearly need to change that perception. carol lee, jonathan lemire, thank you. dr. besser is with us. let's take the president at his word. what would that strategy look like today? >> well, what it would look like

is he would come to the podium, and one side would be dr. fauci from nih. the other would be dr. redfield from cdc. he would say from now on we're going to be led by public health science. it's the only way to open the economy, the only way to get this under control, the only way to get kids back to school. it's working around the globe. it's what we're going to do here in america. so let me turn this over to dr. redfield and dr. fauci, who will tell you what we're going to do going forward. i'm still concerned about the disconnect on messaging. school opening is one area where that's classic. you know, everyone wants to get kids back to school. kids belong in school, but until we get this under control in communities, it's not a safe thing to do. until the federal government steps up to make sure every school, even in low-income neighborhoods, have what they need and can retrofit to make is

safe, it's not a safe thing. that's what i would like to see from a national strategy. we'll leading from public health science from here on in. all right. that's probably asking a lot on that front, but it does seems as if they certainly want to do more, so let's focus on the t t testing lag issue? is this simply a reagent issue? is it more complicated than that? it seems as if we cannot increase the number of tests we can do every day if we can't increase the ability to get the results back in a timely fashion. >> it's hard to understand this many months into the pandemic why we're in this place when it comes to testing. if you can't get test results back in two days, three days max, from a public health perspective, it's meaningless. you don't have time to isolate

people. you can't find contacts and provide them resources so they can be quarantined in a safe way. some of this may be people getting tested who don't need to be tested. there was clarification this week that people who have been sick, as long as they are ten days past the onset of their symptoms and haven't had a fever, they don't need a test. i don't know how many tests that accounts for, but that's one clang that would help. there's movement around, looking to do some pool testing. that could help somewhat. but we need toe ma make sure th not just there's enough tests, but every community has the tests they need. >> what else do we need to stand up hooer? the abbott test? do we need to give them the money or the resources or

manufacturing power to make more of those? is that what we need to do? how do we close that gap? is on rapid test. >> yeah, i don't noknow. i don't know if it's the defense procurement act to get things revved up. i worry as universities come back online, and most of them have testing strategies as a way of ensuring that students aren't infected when they get there, and stay safe and not infected, that that will put additional pressure on the testing system. but this is something where cdc should be in a prime role. we should be hearty from public health every day to an -- >> i think i hear -- we've gone some rough weather in the d.c. area in particular, so i have a

feeling we just took a bit of a hit there with dr. besser's connection there. so it looks like we're not going to be able to get him back. so i'm glad we got about three quarters of our interview done, dr. besser, if you are still able to listen. thank you, sir. the president is set to speak from the white house in just a matter of minutes. once he begins, we'll take you there live. we have a whole team around to fact check if and when that's necessary. plus much more on the "operation legend." the justice department is deploying federal agents to cities as racial and injustice protests grow. we'll take to the mayor of kansas city, next. save hundreds on your wireless bill

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there are no term contracts, no activation fees, and no credit check on the first two lines. get a $50 prepaid card when you switch. 5g is now included with all new data options. switch and save hundreds. xfinity mobile. . welcome back. as we wait for the president, we're going to turn to his other appearance today.

they announced this afternoon that they are sending federal law enforcement resources into some democrat-led cities in order to do what they say is crack down on crime. the situation in some parts of the country is a bit more complicated. kansas city, missouri, one of the three cities included alongside albuquerque and chicago, already has federal agents, after police asked for their help. this announcement expands that original operation, which was first announced on july 8th, in which the president described as a success in his speech today. joining me now is kansas city's mayor. mr. mayor, i think a lot of things are getting conflated, so i'm hoping to unpack this. explain what the city of kansas city asked the federal government's help for? >> i believe kansas city asked

for help related to how to solve and clear unsolved murders. we did have the murder of a 4-year-old. we've had an increase in kansas city this year, and what we've heard is this would be pinpointed investigative support. it isn't us saying that we have given up or failed dramatically on solving all crimes or policing. it has nothing to do with protests. it had everything to do with four specific criminal inincidents. >> do you support what is being -- this operation in general? or are you kernel it's getting conflated with what's happening in portland? >> when i was growing up, you all talked a lot about dog whistling. right now i think we have dog

barking. the president starts off his remarks about a long commentary about democratic-led cities, about failures, the fact that liberal politicians are killing people. that's uncalled for. that's completely unrelated for what i see as a -- i certainly support taking efforts on that will allow us to solve crimes. what i don't support is trying to conflate protests in portland to black lives matters protests to murders, claiming there's been a dramatic increase only because of the protests of the murder of majority floyd. that's accurate. it's false, and i think it is incredibly unfortunate. it isn't helping us actually as a political matter in kansas city. so far it sadly hasn't helped us in solving some of our murders,

and i would hope that to the extent we get federal support and help, it's working with local leaders, it's not just bashing them. >> you said you had learned about this operation on twitter. did somebody finally fill you in from the department of justice on what they were doing? or did you have to proactively find out? >> so about an hour after i learned about it from somebody tweeting at me that the white house press secretary name-checked my city, the united states attorney from my district called me, described what the program was, what it was supposed to look like, and i have appreciated at least having more information. but frankly even today, the attorney general announced there were 200 arrests in kansas city over the recent weeks by the fbi. meanwhile, our local u.s. attorney's office announced its first arrest yesterday, so it's either one or 200.

this is inconsistent with what we heard from this add mir, but i think it's frustrating, it's clear, it's brought, it's helpful. what i don't want it to be is this sort of thing where they're saying democrat-led cities or hellholes orring in like i've heard the president say before. i have one main concern, which is that the pain of my community being used as a political tactic. it's not. there are people suffering and harmed. i want us to care more about them than scoring election points against the liberals. you've seen some police union activists have been supportive

verses those leaders in these cities. what has this done to your relationship with the rank-and-file police department? >> i don't think you can say we are closer. i think you're hearing a lot of folks kind of thinking this is the best solution. if you're used to hammering in a nail every time, you'll see ever problem like a nail. i think that is part of what we're having. >> i think early on in the george floyd protests we saw even more law enforcement folks talking about what are new ways to solve crimes? let me tell you something about mayors, right? usually radicals are not elected to may i don't reca to may oral positions. we know police are an important

part of solving crimes. to hear the president say the mayors are not there with you, for some reasons we want to say the murders on the streets. it's divisive and wholly unnecessary. i've been working with the u.s. attorney's office for years. i would love to be able to work with federal agencies, local folks, right, our clergy, black leaders, to make sure we're making you're cities safer, unfortunately the president's speech today related to only one narrow area. >> i am curious. how would you assess the state of kansas city right now, as far as safety and crime these days? >> we're no where are close to where we need to be. rough a problem with this gun violent.

gun violence has increased dramatically. the amazing thing is we'll talk about the violence, but we won't talk about the guns or the illegal good guns coming into our city. what i continue to want is how can we track those who are distributing -- how can we track those that are part of our gang traffic? that's been our biggest issues. there is not just an originally of violence, but the fact that people are resolving disputes with guns, because they can get them easily, and we haven't had someone step up and say maybe we can do something about the guns that have killed thousands of people throughout the years. there's an increase in homicide,

we all agree with that. i would welcome federal support in that targeted area. >> would you characterize it as an organized crime? is that what you're dealing with here as sort of a much larger, most sophisticated organization? there is trafficking in a number of these firearms. they're not just firearms told from grandpa's house. there's an organized effort. for whatever reasons we have they speeches, protesters and black lives matter causing murders, which is asinine, and we need to look at the real issues related to the ready access of firearms and the fact they're being used to fuel i

think genocide on our streets. i would love a lot more conversation, and that's where the atf, fbi, d.e.a. could be highly relevant and helpful. >> and in some cases want to help, and on that score, their bosses are not alleges interested in helping. thank you, mayor, for helps us understand what's going on on the streets. thank you, sir. i appreciate it. >> thank you. we are waiting for the president to begin his news conversation. news conversation - [narrator] this is steve.

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from where i sit, law enforcement help to quell -- >> my time is short. >> yes, senator. >> nobody condones violence. i have repeatedly said that. that's not the issue. the issue is whether that is a smoke screen for a federal takeover of local authority and local law enforcement sew what is your reaction going on in high hometown?

because i believe it is constitutional. >> welcome back. that was oregon senator ron wyden earlier today. he and other democrats are drafting legislation to keep what they call paramilitary operations out of the cities like portland. the senator ron wyden joins me now. senator, did you feel as if you ever got a satisfactory answer about the constitutional of what the federal government is doing in the city of portland? >> not at all. that was an exhibition of bobbing and weaving, chuck this country may be looking down the barrel of martial law in the middle of an even eleclection. you don't fix challenges in a democracy by unleashing

paramilitary squads against mobs. do you believe you have the power or legislative branch would have the power to prevent this, on you court believe they have no right to do this? let me ask the question this way, what is your understanding of when dhs has the right to do this? >> first of all, let's ref what tom ridge, the first secretary of homeland security said today. he said when he was governor of pennsylvania, he would let hell freeze over before he would allow for this kind of an invasion. the it is unconstitutional. there are even people, homeland security people are being quoted in the press now saying, look, they have a job to deal with

terrorism. they didn't get this position to go out and be donald trump's attack dog. the secretary of homeland security, at one hand he seemed to make a case it's an organized group causing this violence, it isn't systemic in some ways. it's clearly a group of people, but he claims the police department isn't doing any about that group of people. what is your understanding of what is the challenge on the streets of portland? is it a concentrated group of people who are basically looking to create trouble? >> no, the vast bulk of people on the strides are peaceful protesters. we know there's always a subset interested in violence. you heard me this morning making

it clear, i don't take a backseat to anybody in terms of fighting violence. what chad wolf and donald trump has done is basically inflame this situation. i will tell you, i wish donald trump would attack the coronavirus ehalf as hard as he's attacking or city. what is the next step in oregon? it i know there's a hope that a federal judge basically puts a temporary restraining order here of course, we do believe our attorney general is going to be successful, because she's making the point that's so clear. giving you an example of what she's dealing with, one of my best friends, an e.r. doctor and county commissioner, was hit with a teargas canister without

any provocation at all. our attorney general is picking up on those kinds of really flagrant attacks that there's no justification at all. that these squads of gassing and grabbing our citizens without probable cause. i want to ask about a small development when it comes to coronavirus relief, this idea that the senate republicans might offer up a stand-alone, frankly because you won't come to a larger agreement before the end of the month. would you be supportive of that? or do you think that takes takes away the they have taken this

two-week break that they shouldn't have and not worked with democrats on a long-term -- i wrote an extra $ 600 a wee. now senator schumer and i have come up with a proposal we think makes sense to the long term. that's to tie the unemployment benefits to the economy conditions. i see republican senators saying, hey, look, we understand if unemployment is high why people need some help, but when unemployment tapers off, then the benefit tapers off. that is essential what we're doing, by tying benefits to economic conditions on the ground. >> would you be supportive of separating it out and extending it? >> we're not going to support some other strategy to deflect away from dealing with this

issue. all the projects, we'll have significant unemployment going on for months and months. what this is is an effort to deflect away from the fact that republicans have stalled. they should have been working on it and putting together a solution, when we told them people would face a fiscal cliff. this weekend, saturday, i believe it's the 25th, there would be a lot of people hurting in america that will not be able to make rent, they won't be able to pay for grocery. it would be because senate republicans have been unwilling to work with us on our proposal. this could have been resolved weeks ago. senator ron wyden, democrat from oregon, i appreciate your perspective on both of those big stories that are certainly impacting oregon. thank you, sir. >> thank you. as you can see in the bottom rye hadn't corner, we're still awaiting president trump to show up for the coronavirus briefing. the when he does, we'll bring

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welcome back. california is marking a grim milestone today. it's officially passes new york as the state with the most confirmed coronavirus infections. governor gavin newsom also announced the state is reporting more than 12,000 new cases today alone. that's a new record for the state. it follows the state's top public health official, who says the governor's finger is on the dimmer switch. gyms and churches are at 80% of the state are closed. other than a stay-at-home order, it's hard to see what more california can do. for more we're joined by steve patterson. i guess that is the big question. last county is thinking of a full-fledged stay-at-home.

one of the other things i've read is it will take the state fik weeks to figure out if what they're doing is working. >> reporter: that's the problem. when you calculate everything based on what you did in the past to really get the facts and figures to determine the future, you have to wait at least two weeks, but as far as you mentioned, as five weeks. in that time we're seeing these astronomical numbers, the sin e single-day total. the seven-day rates, when you look at those, those numbers are dramatic. 94 had you be 9400 cases on average. the death rate is in the 90s. the positive rate, which determines how much so much testing is accurately happening and how much they have a handle on the spread of the virus, that has jumped up once again.

people are now wondering, not a matter of if, but a matter of when, and when those businesses factor that into the fact there's been so much unemployment in the area, specifically in l.a. county, they may have to close down one against, but so much groundwork has already been done on that front. gyms, you know, religious sites, office spaces, all of that has been shut down in much of california. the question is, what's next? beaches? pools? hiking trails? so much endangered, but the real raw numbers that people are looking at is the hospitalization rate. people being pulled into these ambulances, into these hops to be treated for the coronavirus, and those numbers continue to rise. chuck? >> steve, do we have a geographic -- is there any spot in california that is much different in a much better position than any other? or is this really, yeah, the

cities are in worse shape, nobody is in great shape? >> reporter: the counties that they're looking at, that they say they're on the watch list, are 80% of the states. specifically, if you want to look at the big ones lauer county, of course, makes up about 40% of the covid cases. but orange county is now in second place. san bernardino county, ventura, all of these places in and around the l.a. area are just exploding. one area that is not is san francisco. they did some individual work to try to tamp down on the virus early on, they never let up on their restrictions, they're doing a bit better, but really across the state, the numbers are widespread, and it's scary for a lot of residents who live here. steve, thank you. i know our chyron there said phoenix, it's okay, you're

definitely in burbank. thank you for your reporting. much appreciated. speaking of some graphic corrections, we wanted to give you some corrected numbers for virus tests in america. our data system had an incorrect number. we it on air. you may have seen that it said 152,000 deaths. the number you see on the screen right now is the accurate number. 143,000 is accurate. and we made -- had we made that kind of jump, trust me. it would have been major news. and the president is walking in. with that, let's go to the white house. >> today my administration reached an historic agreement with pfizer to produce and deliver 100 million doses of their jacksvaccine immediately following the approval. hopefully the approval process will go very quickly. we think we have a winner there. we also think we have other

companies right behind that are doing very well on the vaccines, long ahead of schedule. as part of operation warp speed, this agreement will also ensure that we receive an additional 500 million doses shortly there after. this is another crucial step in our effort to develop, manufacture and distribute a vaccine in record breaking time. really a very small fraction of the time. based on previous schedules. i want to thank the fda, everybody involved. it's been an incredible process. as discussed yesterday, the coronavirus poses the greatest threat to our senior citizens, as we all know. the mediate age of those who died from the virus is 78 years old. and nearly half of the deaths have occurred among those living in nursing homes or long term care facilities. that's really something. in other words, approximately half of the fatalities have

occurred among less than 1% of the u.s. population. so think of that. less than 1%. so we know what to look for. from the beginning we've made it our top priority to shelter our seniors. in early march, we announced guidelines suspending all medically unnecessary visits to nursing homes and prioritized resources for those facilities. and we gave it a very strong priority. fema has sent shipments to many different locations of protective equipment and it is going directly to 15,400 medicaid and medicare certified nursing homes throughout the country. i would like to provide an update on the actions we've been able to take and they've been very constructive. first we're requiring increased testing of the nursing home personnel in states where there

were the worst outbreaks. all will be tested at the highest level. we're distributing 15,000 rapid point of care diagnostic devices to support this effort. these are the tests where it takes five minutes to 15 minutes. they're very accurate, very good. and we're sending them all over the country. and over 600 devices will be shipped this week the additional facilities. second, hhs will be distributing an additional $5 billion from the provider relief fund to all nursing homes. nursing homes in higher risk areas will be receiving more funding. this money can be used to address critical needs including the hiring of additional staff, increasing testing and providing technology support so residents can connect their families, and they can connect to their families. they are having a tremendous time. they want to be with their loved ones and they can't do it. we're working it so we can

connect, have them connect with their families if they're not able to visit. we've been identifying high risk nursing homes and sharing with it the governors so the governors and their staffs can take appropriate action. we're able to find certain places that are very high risk. additionally, cms, cdc and the u.s. public health service are providing enhanced technical assistance and support chug visits to the highest risk nursing homes and that's their priority right now. the highest risk nursing home. cms and cdc are imcompleting a national training program focused on infection control for those nursing homes that need it most. and we have them surveyed and mostly pinpointed. we've created a surveillance

system on detect outbreaks and currently 99% of all nursing homes are reporting directly to it. so we have great data. when a nursing home has three or more cases, we alert the state and make sure that it responds very quickly. we check on it and make sure they respond very quickly. i want to send a message of support to every senior citizen who has been dealing with the struggle of isolation in what should be the golden years of your life. we will get to the other end of that tunnel very quickly, we hope. the light is starting to shine. we will get there very quickly. we send our love, our message of love. very important. we're with you all the way. as far as the outbreak in the sunbelt, i said yesterday, we continue to vigorously combat the rise of cases in the south and southwest and the west. we're closely monitoring and aggressively monitoring in

texas, arizona, california, florida, arizona, starting to come down. done a very good job. they're all doing a good job. they're very talented people. there are likely a cause for the number of spike in infections. cases started to rise among young americans shortly after demonstrations, which you know very well about, which presumably triggered a broader relaxation of mitigation efforts nationwide and a substantial increase in travel also was the cause. increased gatherings on holidays on memorial day, as well as young people closely congregating at bars and probably other places, maybe beaches, four or five different lidstr listed on the guide. we're also sharing a 2,000 mile border with mexico as we know very well, and cases are surging in mexico, unfortunately.

it's a big problem for mexico but cases are surging very sharply and all across the rest of the western hemisphere. 257 miles of newly constructed wall along the southern border has had a great positive impact on people coming in. we have record low numbers of people coming in illegally. that has helped greatly. it was men for a different purpose but it worked out well for what we're doing now and for the pandemic. nationwide, beyond the outbreak in several cases, states are very low. 19 states have positive test rates of less than 5%. eight states have positive test rates of less than 2%. our nationwide positive test rate is beginning to decline and currently at 8.8%, compared to over 16% at its peak in i am a. it's coming down. it's coming down fairly rapidly.

today we surpassed, first time, we surpassed 50 million tests. that's far more than any country in the world. india is second, we believe. we think. 1.4 billion people. that's about 12 million tests. we have 50 million tests. we're working every state to ensure the supply of remdesivir for early cases, and steroid treatment and other treatment for those seriously ill. we're working very closely with hospitals, doctors, nursing homes, everybody. the remdesivir has proven to be terrific. our case fatality rate continues to decline. we want to push this rate even lower. the therapeutic research continues daily on new and very promising treatments. including antibody treatments, the use of blood thinners and steroids, a lot of things are

happening and a lot of things are coming out that we wouldn't have known a number of months ago. we're doing tremendously well on therapeutic research, and tremendously well on the vaccines, and frankly, therapeutically, or maybe a word beyond that word, is cure, would be the best of all. we'll see what happens. that would be great. if we could go into the hospital and just cure people. we're at a position where we can actually to a certain extent with what we have right now. and we think in a very short period of time, we'll be able to do that. our strategy is to shelter the highest risk americans, while allowing younger and healthier citizens to return to work or school while being careful and very vigilant. wear a mask, socially distance and repeatedly wash your hands, practice very, very good sanitary means. you have to do this. you have to look at it

differently. i'm finding more and more people are saying wash your hands so wash your hands. we want young americans to avoid packed bars and other crowded indoor gatherings and we're all in this together. as americans, we're going to get this complete, we'll do it properly. we've been doing it properly. sections of the country come up that we didn't anticipate. for instance, florida, texas, et cetera. but we're working talboted people, brilliant people, and it is all going to work out and it is working out. so with that i'll take a few questions, please. >> i want to ask about the surge in cities. the mayor of chicago said that you're doing this from your failure on coronavirus. >> we haven't had that failure. >> you are only targeting cities run by democrats. is this just a polit