if it's wednesday, the u.s. has just surpassed 250,000 covid deaths. a quarter million deaths. it's a grim and alarming coronavirus task force report leaks that says this is now an aggressive, unrelenting and expanding crisis which our health system cannot sustain unless we act now. the task force told us that two weeks ago. plus the president continues his unrelenting assault on our democracy. he's now fired a top election security official for doing his job well. as the president cheers efforts

by his allies to overturn the election. and the trump campaign keeps up its efforts to contest the results in wisconsin this morning announcing they'll pay for a partial recount. not sure what -- welcome to wednesday. it is "meet the press daily" and i'm chuck todd. as the pandemic rages out of control, the last 24 hours in american politics have been a stark reminder that president trump and his lies are trying to reverse the election results of the contest he lost. they're trying to reverse the contest that he lost. think about that. that effort, however clumsy, likely won't actually overturn the results. but president trump's actions could crack the foundation of our democracy perhaps permanently. the president has fired his administration's head of elections cybersecurity, chris remembe krebs, for accurately debunking

his conspiracy dheeries. in a tweet announcing the firing the president repeated as many false and inaccurate claims that the elections with ragd against him. those claims have failed again and again to hold up under scrutiny in court. yet he persists. in pennsylvania the president's lawyer, rudy giuliani, has asked a judge to overturn the results, alleging a mafia-like cabal of democratic leaders across the country rigging this election for biden. he's just missing facts to back up his argument. the judge in that case replied to those allegations rather tersely. "at bottom, you're asking this court to invalidate some 6.8 million votes, thereby disenfranchising every single voter in the commonwealth." in nevada the trump campaign is also asking a judge to declare trump the winner or simply to reject the results. these are actual attempts at lawsuits. and yes, they're this absurd. we're not making up the absurdity. in michigan the president cheered a monumentry effort by two republican officials to block the certification of votes at the state's largest county. he's falsely claiming on twitter that he won the state. he's down by some 100,000-plus

votes in michigan. the campaign is not giving up on its efforts to overturn the results in wisconsin either. today they filed for a partial recount in the state. we assume partial because they didn't want to have to spend the money for a full recount. we'll try to get more details as the day goes by. the president, who was supported by 73 million people in this election, meanwhile continues an unrelenting pr campaign to convince his supporters that the election was a fraud and that he is the true winner. and republican leaders, thanks to the georgia runoffs, have decided to largely stay silent. folks, this is not what a healthy democracy looks like. it's what a banana republic looks like. joining me now outside of the white house is my nbc news colleague monica alba. geoff bennett is following president-elect joe biden in delaware. so let me start with you, monica. we are now another day further away from the election and it seems as if we're another day further away from the trump campaign finding any evidence to back up a single one of their

claims. and yet the more they lose in court the more emphatic the president seems to get on his twitter feed. >> reporter: exactly, chuck. that's why in many respects the president said he removed chris krebs from his post. and we should remind viewers that he was a trump appointee. he'd been working in this position for several years to ensure that the 2020 election was the most secure in modern history. and it was that exact statement and collective consensus from other agency officials that got him fired. and we're learning now from a source close to him that he expected this, for months he knew that the president making these baseless claims of a rigged election if he were the one to lose meant that he was probably going to lose his own job because the president didn't like what he was saying. and that's exactly what seems to be the case here. chuck, but i'm reminded now that the president essentially leaving office in a similar way, in the way he came in after actually winning in 2016. remember, he created a voter integrity commission to try to

find voter fraud 3 1/2 years ago that had to disband because they found none. and now that he has actually lost this 2020 election he's continuing with these baseless claims, again, for which there is no evidence, and his campaign sort of seems to have that recourse but to pursue these legal avenues. but i think the story in wisconsin really encapsulates the issue here, which is they didn't want to pay for a full recount of $8 million. they're doing a partial. and it's just two counties, two of which by the way we should point out were the ones where joe biden did best. and it's unlikely that any audit or recount there is going to change any outcome here for the election. >> again, you always -- you can always call donald trump's bluff when you ask him to write a check. all of a sudden things change. and i think the wisconsin stance is changing as we speak because he doesn't want to write the check. monica alba at the white house for us. monica, thanks very much.

geoff bennett is with the president-elect. it's once again, they're fairly low-key about everything that's going on. but i mean -- and i don't know what they should be doing and if they have much recourse other than to have? patience and bide their time. but the outgoing president is actively destroying the foundation of democracy a bit. and i know that was part of what joe biden ran on. but they must feel a bit powerless right now. >> reporter: yeah. sxik tell you, chuck, based on my conversations with biden transition officials i certainly am picking up increasing concern, worry, alarm. dr. david kes lerks who leads the biden covid advisory board, said on the record yesterday that these delays really risk the fact that the biden team will be able to distribute the vaccine to scale and equitably. the biden covid task force right now doesn't have a good eye on

the medical supply chain and in fact the way that they get data on caseload and death counts and hospitalizations is relying on media reports and what's available publicly. they have zero access to the government records. and to this other issue with the president's sort of post-election purge, the biden team put out a statement last night where they said that chris krebs should be commended for protecting the election and yet he was fired for telling the truth. and there is another sort of complicating factor here with the trump team requesting this partial recount in wisconsin. i was told by a gsa official that they will not claim or call this race for joe biden so long as there are standing legal challenges and so long as votes are still being counted. well, on the legal front -- >> interesting. >>. >> reporter: -- most of the gop and trump campaign cases have either failed or have been withdrawn, and now you have the trump campaign keeping this vote count going, at least in wisconsin. so this could last potentially

until december 14th, when the electors, you know, call the race. but we'll have to see. but what we do know is each delay has an untold number of consequences that the biden team will have to account for come january. >> so geoff, i just want to reiterate. so what gsa told you, as long as there's some sort of active lawsuit that is being taken seriously, and so far most of them have not but there may be one or two that do, or this partial recount, that's enough for them to hang their hat on and not starting the transition? >> reporter: yeah. that's right. it had nothing to do with whether or not president trump himself decides to concede the race, it had to do with an active vote count and active legal challenges. as it was put to me, you can only acclaim the race -- or rather ascertain the race once. but we should make clear that the law that lays this all out, the 1963 transition law, says

that all that's required is for the candidate to be the apparent winner. and joe biden has been the apparent winner for some 10 or 11 days now, chuck. >> and there's certainly plenty of states that aren't being contested right now that would add up to 270 electoral votes if gsa wants to do that math. monica alba, geoff bennett, thank you for getting us started. joining me is virginia democratic senator mike warner. he's the vice chair of the senate intelligence committee. senator warner. this is what we wrote in the first read this morning. and i'm curious if you concur c with this conclusion. forget the russian interference. forget the impeachment. for the president going to a foreign country looking for a foreign country's help to dig up dirt on a political opponent. is it not a bigger political scandal when the president and his allies actively try to overturn a legitimate election? is that not bigger than either of the other two things that you've had to look into over the last four years? >> the short answer is yes.

i mean, let's all take a deep breath and think back where we were 30 days before the election. 30 days before the election we were afraid of massive foreign interference. we were afraid that people might show up, create violence at the polls. we were literally -- the intelligence community and law enforcement community was so worried about the day before, a couple days after. and remarkably, our institutions held. we had a record turnout of votes, both from joe biden and frankly for donald trump. our forces stopped most all of the foreign interference. the elections came off relatively without a hitch. and while there are expressions of concern and dismay, there was not violence in the street. our foreign enemies, what they wanted to do was undermine americans' confidence. and what donald trump and his cronies and lackeys, no longer

can they even deserve the commendation of public officials, public servants, are doing exactly what our foreign adversaries wanted, which is sow chaos. i gave my republican colleagues who i have a lot of respect for, i work closely-w our committee's been bipartisan throughout this. they all said let trump have his period to have a little tantrum, let his ego be assuaged. well, that was for maybe the first few days. we're now 15 days after the election. and one of your earlier reporters talked about the challenges on coronavirus not getting the information. the fact that the president-elect is not getting the presidential daily briefs or that yesterday the president again acted arbitrarily against the interest of our allies in afghanistan and our nato partners and arbitrarily decided to leave, these are national

security threats and frankly all of us need to do our part to step up and protect our democracy. line you said this is a democracy, not a banana republic. >> i'm curious, senator warner. and i'll be honest, i vacillate every day with whether we're sitting in a pot of boiling water and we just don't feel it anymore or if we are overreacting. are you concerned that the republicans are going to mess with the certification process and we're going to have a constitutional crisis? >> i view that the vast majority of republicans are embarrassed by what donald trump is doing. i do not think this is republican versus democrats. but i don't think they can continue and should continue to enable him just because they don't want to be the subject of another tweetstorm from him. and i really think it is not going to be the mainstream media or democratic elected officials who are going to get this guy to change his behavior. it is going to have to be

business leaders, our retired military leaders, our intelligence community leaders who just say this is not acceptable in the greatest democracy in the world. and i vacillate back and forth as well, chuck. but every day that this goes on without any stopping from this white house, every day that you see a purge of senior intelligence and elected officials, my fear now is about the cia director and fbi director. my fear now is whether he will take other arbitrary actions in terms of our long-standing alliances. and i just beg and pray that all americans who are concerned, we can't allow this to continue. >> let's talk about chris krebs a minute. i want to put up the statement that he helped put together back on november 12th, and it's arguably the statement that probably got him fired. he said this -- "the november 3rd elect was the most secure in american history.

while we know they are many unfounded claims and opportunities for misinformation about the process of our elections we can assure you we have the utd most confidence in the security sxingt of our elections and you should too. when you have questions turn to elections officials as trusted voices as they administer elections." what's interesting is when the president fired chris krebs he actually tried to take? credit. he said yes, we kept out foreign interference, but then implied that somehow -- the president has gone down this kooky lane of thinking that a voting machine company switched votes. i mean, this is the bottom of the barrel conspiratorial stuff, and he put it in a tweet last night. >> well, chris krebs was a unique trump official in that he had broad-based bipartisan support. our intelligence committee has had him in on a regular basis. i don't know a single member of the committee that ever didn't congratulate and salute him for his good work.

remember, he didn't have the ability to force local election officials or secretaries of state to take this threat seriously. he could offer assistance. he had to control, he had to make the case. and he did that in a remarkable bipartisan way. and the fact that he did his job and told the truth and he's rewarded with being fired by twe tweet, i know he will have a bright future whether it be in public service or in business -- >> sure. >> he came from microsoft. he had a big career. but this is not the way we encourage good people to go into public service if they are treat sod disdainfully. ? b >> but here's the security challenge you now have and frankly all elected leaders do, is you're going to have some 40 million pernz americans, i don't think it will be everybody who voted for the president, but probably half the people who voted for the president, who will believe this election was rigged because their leader told them so. that's a national security

challenge for this country. what do you do about it? >> well, it is a national security challenge because in many ways i think we saw a cutting back of russian, iranian, other foreign disinformation because the disinformation source was often 1600 pennsylvania avenue. >> coming from inside the house. yeah. >> whether you agree with joe biden or disagree with him, the fact he has not taken the bait and has tried to keep people calm is what a president should do. and what i just hope and pray is that my -- and maybe the folks who are running for president on the republican side in 2024 will have to keep quiet and kowtow to this kind of misinformation. but i just urge all of my republican friends. and i've had a history of being bipartisan from being governor and senator, whether it's the local level or the state level or the national level. it's time to step up for our

democracy. >> there's no way -- you don't want to govern long-term if you won on a lie. senator warner, democrat of virginia, thank you for coming on and sharing your perspective with us. i appreciate it. >> thank you, chuck. over on the other side of the hill just moments ago house democrats held a press conference after their leadership vote. where despite a disappointing though re-elected majority nancy pelosi did remain as their choice for speaker because if not her who? would probably be the better question. with me now is our own garrett haake on capitol hill. garrett, there was no drama to this. and yet one could argue maybe there should have been. but democrats haven't figured out what it is that they want in new leaders yet so, they're sticking with the old ones? >> reporter: yeah, i think that's pretty much fair. the top four leaders in the democratic caucus here will all stay the same from nancy pelosi down to hakim jefferies. katherine clark moving up to be the number 5 democratic leader here. but yeah, look, i think there's

a feeling among democrats that pelosi and her team still deserve to be at the top, they won back this majority in 2018. they'll have a smaller majority with which to govern now. and there was a little bit of news out of this news conference, chuck. i asked speaker pelosi if, you know -- remember at the start of this congress there was discussion about term limits for the leadership team. that was never codified in any way. but at the time she had said she would only serve two more terms as speaker. i asked her if she thought that meant this next term would indeed be her last. she went to great pains not to put herself into a specific box on this but said you know, that statement was the statement and i made it and i said it and essentially that she stands by it though she clearly doesn't want to put herself into kind of a lame duck position by saying i'm really only going to definitely do it for two more years. that sure was my takeaway from her answer. >> and garrett, in fairness, though, people have been wondering is this the last term for nancy pelosi in leadership i think going on a decade now. ever since the 2010 -- ever

since she stopped being speaker after the 2010 elections and here she is. >> reporter: you would have lost a lot of money betting against nancy pelosi at any of these junctures. the control that she has over the caucus and the good feeling that she inspires within it are both pretty powerful forces for her and they have gotten her this far. and i think you nailed it a little bit in the introduction. you know, if not her who? there are plenty of very talented up-and-coming house democrats still. hakeem jeffries is the number 4 house democrat. his name gets bandied about as a potential successor to her. but it doesn't appear that there's anyone champing at the bit to take over the reins, to combine my horse-related metaphors here, or there's anyone who's especially ready to go right now who democrats think would do or could do a better job. the other really key thing, i think, from this news conference and the way democrats are thinking about this is pelosi has over the last four years had to be the main figure in the democratic opposition to president trump. that changes in a new congress

with joe biden as president. she all but said in this news conference, you know, joe biden's going to act as the whip for democrats here. he's the person that can keep them all together. this is a different ball game than what we have seen over the last four years and that can't be overstated. >> the most important thing, garrett is social media grammarians will be proud you said champing instead of chomping. which is always key when you're doing the bit joke. garrett haake on capitol hill with some important metaphors of leadership reporting. thank you, sir. much appreciated. >> you bet. up ahead the alarming revelations in a coronavirus task force report that the white house did not make public even as the cases and hospitalizations and deaths rose and are rising. and later, more promising vaccine news today gives us hope that eventually the pandemic will get better. but how much worse is it going to get before that? we'll talk to the doctor whose models have been the gold

standard from day one of this crisis. crisis still fresh unstopables in-wash scent booster downy unstopables when panhe doesn't justs mmake a pizza. he uses fresh, clean ingredients to make a masterpiece. taste our delicious new flatbread pizzas today. panera. ♪ ♪ [ engines revving ] ♪ it's amazing to see them in the wild like th-- shhh. [ engine revs ] for those who were born to ride, there's progressive.

welcome back. coronavirus deaths in the united states have now passed a quarter million. as case numbers continues to rise in every state and with hospitalizations and deaths rising as well. we have not had a public briefing from the infectious disease experts on the coronavirus task force since july. but nbc news has obtained a copy of a new task force report that was not released to the public despite its stark warnings of actions that need to be taken. the report reads in part, "there is now aggressive unrelenting expanding broad community spread across the country reaching most counties without evidence of improvement but rather further deterioration. current mitigation efforts are inadequate and must be increased to flatten the curve to sustain the health system for both covid and non-covid emergencies." this report also warns very plainly about the dangers of

holding large holiday gatherings. something that has been echoed by health care professionals across the country but not embraced by key trump administration officials as we head into thanksgiving. the impact of these rising case numbers and the fear it's going to get worse is reverberating around the country. mara barrett is in langhorn, pennsylvania where overwhelmed nurses are striking now. steve patterson's in albuquerque, new mexico where new restrictions have been put in place just in time for thanksgiving. maura, let me start with you. walk us through a little bit of why these nurses are striking and the fear -- i know there's a lot of people that are worried that health care workers have basically hit a wall and they're just done after nine months of this. >> exactly, chuck. and there's the question, right? as we see an increase in hospitalizations across the entire country, these nurses are absolutely integral to care. but they're worried, these 800 nurses that have walked out of this hospital here are worried that they can't provide adequate care when they only have half

the amount of nurses that are needed to care for covid patients. nurses here telling me it's actually about double the work, meaning double the labor, to adequately take care of a covid patient and that demand has just increased as they see this second wave spiking. they started negotiations here last year before the pandemic hit, put them on hold during the first wave, and were hoping to resolve it before the second and yet here we are. i want you to listen to some of the nurses i spoke to when i asked them what a typical day in the life has been these past nine months. >> a typical day in the life of the hospital is a nurse that is overburdened with patients. we don't have enough nursing assistants. we don't have enough housekeepers and the nurse has become the unit secretary, the housekeeper, the aide, and it's just not fair to the patients. it takes away from patient care. >> when patients decompensate in their beds, nurses are supposed to notice that and call the physician and say hey, something has changed here. you need to intervene. well, if there's more patients, they may not notice for a longer

period of time. and if that happens, the patient suffers. the patient suffers. >> this is not something that's localized to our area. this is a health care problem nationally as far as i'm concerned. >> right. right. >> reporter: they call it a microcosm for what we're seeing in hospitals across the country. just over in philadelphia 2,200 nurses across three hospital systems also threatening to strike. and remember, chuck, these people, these nurses are ones that got in thinds to help people and instead they're going home feeling exhausted and questioning whether they did enough to help the community that they're serving. chuck? >> maura barrett in langhorne, pennsylvania for us with nurses striking there. maura, thank you. let's move down to albuquerque. that's where we find steve patterson. and steve, i know that the last few weeks new mexico's governor has done a flurry of new mitigation efforts. there's been sort of an all hands on deck i've noticed. has it had any impact?

>> reporter: yeah, this is a now full-blown reversion to the stay-at-home order. what we saw similarly at the beginning of spring, basically if you're not an essential business you're not open. if you're a restaurant you've got to figure out takeout. if you're not going outside for any reason that's not emergency related or health-related, you should stay inside. and that specifically does pertain to the timing of this perfect, as you mentioned, to the thanksgiving holiday. they want people to stay indoors. they need to alleviate the stress on the health system here. is it having an effect? it's kind of too early to tell. it's day three of this. just to give you an idea of the timeline in which we may see an effect, i mean, this went into effect on monday. by tuesday as you mentioned record number of hospitalizations, cases, and deaths here in new mexico. it may take some time before we see the results of this. but health workers are confident that something positive will come of this. you know, we've seen these

lockdowns or closures or stay at home orders. whatever you want to call it. having positive effect in the past. in fact, the governor not too long ago was praising new mexicans for their ability to follow the guidelines. cases were dropping significantly here. and now they've shot back up. so we asked the chief medical officer here, how did we get here? and she basically said fatigue. listen to this. >> well, you know, we had a lull and our numbers went down. and i think that covid fatigue set in. people started to relax. people wanted to go back to their previous behaviors. and unfortunately, you know, the virus was all around us. it was in arizona. it was in texas. it was in all the other states. and we just started having our increasing numbers. people really, really were slower this time i think to go back to those protective behaviors. >> reporter: she mentioned texas and arizona. there's also colorado. these are states that neighbor new mexico. you know, in the spring

previously when we saw covid kind of move from region to region to region they were able to get help from those states, move resources around, move nurses around, move patients around if need be. now that is not an option because all of those states now have crises of their own. new mexico now in a very tough spot. the infection rate is through the roof. the positivity rate is through the roof. this hospital and several across the state now, 100% occupancy in their icu rooms. they need this stay at home order to work. we will see if that happens over the next week, chuck. back to you. >> maura barrett in pennsylvania. steve patterson in new mexico for us. thank you both. just another reminder how this virus is exploding everywhere. there is no regional issue anymore. it is national. up ahead, how bad should we expect this coronavirus crisis to be this winter? a closer look at the numbers. ts think you're managing your moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's disease? -are you ok? -i did.

but even when i was there. i never knew when my symptoms would keep us apart. so, i talked to my doctor and learned... humira is for people who still have uc or crohn's symptoms after trying other medications. and humira helps people achieve remission that can last. so you can experience few or no symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. be there for you, and them. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, remission is possible. opportunities are all about timing. so now that medicare annual enrollment is here,

it's time to take advantage of a plan that gives you more for your medicare dollar: an aarp medicare advantage plan from unitedhealthcare. this opportunity to enroll only comes once a year, so give unitedhealthcare a call today. take advantage of $0 copays for all primary care doctor visits, even virtual visits, and $0 copays on hundreds of prescriptions, at the pharmacy or delivered to right to your door. now's the time to find more savings. our members saved an average of $7,200 on prescriptions last year. with this plan, get $0 copays on preventive dental care, free annual eye exams, and free designer frames, all for a low or $0 monthly premium. call unitedhealthcare today. find out why we're america's #1 medicare advantage plan provider. now's the perfect time to take your shot and join a plan with the nation's largest

medicare advantage network. and only unitedhealthcare offers renewactive, a program that provides a free gym membership and access to our extensive network of fitness locations nationwide. annual enrollment ends december 7th, so don't miss your chance. call unitedhealthcare now. we'll guide you through our wide choice of plans, including ppo options that let you see any doctor who accepts medicare without a referral. take advantage of more benefits, more ways to save, and more support. catching a good opportunity is all about timing, so, call unitedhealthcare today. with over 40 years of experience, you can lean on us when you need it most. we'll help you easily enroll before the moment slips away. aarp medicare advantage from unitedhealthcare. it's time to take advantage. ♪ here? nah. ♪ introducing the all new chevy trailblazer.

here? nope. ♪ here. ♪ when the middle of nowhere, is somewhere. the all new chevy trailblazer. making life's journey, just better. welcome back. just minutes ago operation warp speed officials said they are ready to begin vaccine distribution within 24 hours of its emergency authorization. that's great news. the update comes on the heels of pfizer's announcement that it plans to file for the fda authorization within days. the company's reporting a final data analysis showing that its vaccine candidate's up to 95% effective, higher than they previously thought. the news offers some hope and a potential light at the end of the tunnel.

but experts warn the darkest days of this pandemic are not behind us. we're staring right at it. before millions of people are inoculated a massive distribution effort needs to get under way and even in the bestcase scenario it's going to take months. in the meantime a key model that has been cited by the white house coronavirus task force is predicting that we could see more than 2,000 daily deaths by january 1st. dr. christopher murray is the director of the institute for health metrics and evaluation at the university of washington. he's the man behind this model. and dr. murray, it does seem as if we're not plateauing right now, that our case curve is still going up. do you see any evidence that this is going to plateau at all, or -- and if not where does this end in the next couple of months? >> reporter: well, where we plateau is going to be a function of how careful people are. you know, thanksgiving in the winter holidays. do they wear a mask?

do they avoid the sort of situations we know are high risk? and it's going to depend a lot on what state governments do as well, putting back in place certain types of mandates. what we think will happen if people are careful and react to the bad news that's all around us, we'll end up peaking in about mid january at about 2,200 deaths a day. but it could be much worse. it could be up to 4 1/2 thousand deaths a day later into february depending on how we respond. and so no, we're nowhere near the peak. and you can see it in the numbers. they're exploding. >> i was just going to say, when you factor in your model you have cases, you have hospitalizations, you look at the mitigation efforts that get put in. i guess the thing that i'm curious as to how your model's reading is these state governments may put in these mandates but there's not a lot of evidence that the mandates are being followed.

>> well, you know, if we look back to the spring, the mandates certainly worked in the places they were put in place. if we look to europe, who are -- >> that was the spring. >> in the fall, winter surge, the mandates in europe have worked. we're seeing peaks in ireland and belgium and france. so you know, we're pretty confident that if the mandates go in things will work. >> when you look at what we're seeing as evidence of what thanksgiving's going to begin, we're going to have i saw 6 million people are estimated going to go through tsa. that's basically six times the air travel we've been having over the last three or four months. we know this college campus of issue of -- i guess in the best case scenario do we not plateau until middle december? >> you know, our sense of best

case is really plateauing well into january. it's hard to imagine given the momentum that's out there in the epidemic, given thanksgiving, that we're going to see a peak in december. that would be -- require incredible action, pretty much universal mask use is probably the only strategy that would get us there. >> walk me through how you have made this model better and why you have more confidence in it today than perhaps you did at the beginning of this pandemic. >> well, you know, we have a big team that's working on the model. we're looking at all the data in the u.s. actually and around the world. and we're constantly trying to adjust the model to what's happening. so for example, we are now pretty convinced that treatment once you get to hospital is

about 30% better now than it was in the spring. so the numbers that you're showing on the streen already incorporate that treatment is better. we'll start to factor in because of the pfizer news the role of vaccination in this trajectory starting probably next week or the week after. our preliminary assessments, as an example, around vaccination suggest it's not going to come soon enough to stop the big peak in december and january. but of course will make a big difference, you know, later next year. >> do you just believe that going through and looking at this model that you don't think any of these mitigation efforts are going to help before christmas, that we really are looking at at best this will be sometime after all of the holidays are over, all of the end of the year and we're looking at the beginning of january before we're making any progress? >> you know, i would like to

believe that people could act on the evidence around masks and we could do what australia did and get masks -- or victoria state in australia and get mask use up to nearly 90% in a matter of a week or two. if we could do that, if people were very careful, didn't have, you know, thanksgiving with other households, it's possible. but given what we've seen throughout the pandemic, the sort of slowness with which people, you know, take precautions, things have to be really bad around them before they start to take things seriously. i'm not optimistic that we'll see a peak before christmas. >> it sounds like you think our death toll's going to get over -- could get over 400,000 before vaccines become commonplace. >> well, i think that would be on the better end of the outcomes. we think that by march 1st it will be 440,000 deaths. it could go much higher if we

don't respond quickly. could go up to in the high 500s. we think vaccination will make a big difference but only after -- you know, toward the end of the first quarter of next year. it will make a small difference, you know, as we scale up. if we can get that vaccine out really quickly, it will shave off some of the deaths that we expect to see. but it will be hard to bring that toll below 400,000 by march 1st. >> america, we're so close. slap on the mask. let's bring this death toll down. christopher murray, chris murray, dr. chris murray of the university of washington, really appreciate you coming on and sharing your expertise with us. thank you, sir. >> happy to be here. coming up, an urgent plea from medical workers in the states hardest hit. we're going to speak with a frontline doctor in oklahoma, where masks are still not required for the general public. . introducing fidelity income planning. we look at how much you've saved, how much you'll need, and build a straightforward plan to generate income,

even when you're not working. a plan that gives you the chance to grow your savings and create cash flow that lasts. along the way, we'll give you ways to be tax efficient. and you can start, stop or adjust your plan at any time without the unnecessary fees. talk to us today, so we can help you go from saving...to living. this was the theater i came to quite often. the support we've had over the last few months has been amazing. it's not just a work environment. everyone here is family. if you are ready to open your heart and your home, check us out. we thought for sure that we were done. and this town said: not today. ♪ before money, people and ttools, cattle, grain,day. even shells represented value. then currency came along.

they made it out of copper, gold, silver, wampum. soon people decided to put all that value into a piece of paper, then proceeded to wave goodbye to value, printing unlimited amounts of money as they passed the buck to the future. that's why it's time for digital currency and your investment in the grayscale funds. go digital. go grayscale. stayingtakes a plan.ur game that's why at aetna, we take a total, connected approach to your health and wellness. with medicare advantage plans designed to surround you with the care you need every day. aetna medicare advantage plans.

we're understaffed. we have so much on our plates as nurses. there's not enough of us to help. we have i think they said ten covid units. and one of those is just a place for people to go and pass away, unfortunately. >> we're seeing the heartbreak that this virus causes. and to go out in public and have people deny that the virus exists or that the pandemic is a problem, that is an incredibly difficult thing to see. >> we need the community to help us. we need them to be on board with wearing a mask and making sacrifices because we're making sacrifices every day as health care workers and we want to feel like what we're doing makes a difference. >> so those were frontline workers and doctors from across the country as they battle this second coronavirus surge. for some places it's a third surge. joining me now is the chief medical officer of integg rus health in oklahoma. dr. julie watson. welcome to "meet the press daily," dr. watson. so the thing that we've been

noting as a theme during this surge over the last three weeks is how many medical workers like yourself, whether the doctors, the nurses, we've got nurses on strike in pennsylvania right now due to what they believe is a lack of resources and a lack of help during this pandemic, that there seems to be this fatigue that is hitting medical workers and the crisis that is coming to hospitals is as much impacting you guys than anything else, that a lot of workers here are just overwhelmed by this constant slew of covid patients. >> it's absolutely true, chuck. it's at this point i would say haunting to be honest with you that we see our frontline workers, nurses, respiratory therapists, physicians, even our unit clerks, it is -- we're approaching i think desperation.

and as a leader, as someone who is an intensive care doctor who has dealt with having to work harder her whole life and being surrounded by people that are in the trenches, we're not unaccustomed to hard work. but this is unlike anything thatfulthat any of us have seen. and i'm just so grateful that we're starting to get pictures like what you're showing right now out there. this is not made up. this is not exaggerated. we are seeing this all across the country. and i really want to take the message to the public at this point. this is a cold virus but it's a virus our bodies have never seen before, which is what makes it so dangerous. and we don't have the immunity to fight it off, unlike a flu vaccine. and i think we have to have our citizens helping us by wearing a

mask and keeping their distance. i appreciate everything that even your speakers prior to me have said about masks, and i'm a believer in masks. i wear one all the time. and yet we are still seeing the spread exponentially across this country. and that means we have to keep our distance in addition to wearing this mask. i just recently said if i had a t-shirt on that said i have -- >> are you seeing -- yeah. because the governor in oklahoma has -- look, oklahoma's had a few high-profile covid incidents that made national news. the president back in tulsa. but the governor, even as i think some city mayors wanted more mandates, he has not done it. and i get why. right? we know it's politically unpopular, particularly if

you're a republican governor, to do these mask mandates. and i'm assuming you just find it exasperating because all you're asking is just wear a mask, i'm not asking you to do anything else right now. >> right. well, yes, you're exactly right. it is baffling to me how this has become a political issue. the flu isn't political. heart disease is not political. kidney disease is not political. but somehow putting on a face covering to protect the person, you know, next to you or around you has somehow become political. what i'm most concerned about, honestly, chuck, is we may not get a mask mandate. so i'm not waiting for that. the medical community in oklahoma has banded together to say we're going to go straight to the public and we're going to really listen to your objections. we want to help you understand that this is serious, that if we don't do something our nurses are going to break. we won't be able to care for you when you come to us with a heart

attack or you come to us and you need surgery. we won't be able to do that. and that is unjust. we are putting our health care system in jeopardy. by not doing very easy public health doing very easy public health interventions. so i'm focusing on the public, on oklahoma, to help them understand that we have an opportunity to come together and do something different. >> dr. julie watson, sounds like you're determined and optimistic. i think a lot of us are hoping that you're right and that your optimism is warranted. up next, we're going to go live in wisconsin where the trump campaign says they're willing to pay for a partial recount. more after the break. pay for a . more after the break checked for those around us.

let's get checked for a full range of conditions. introducing letsgetchecked a health testing you do at home. let's get round the clock support from a team of nurses. let's get fast, accurate results. know your health. know yourself. order now at letsgetchecked dot com apps except work.rywhere... why is that? is it because people love filling out forms? maybe they like checking with their supervisor to see how much vacation time they have. or sending corporate their expense reports. i'll let you in on a little secret. they don't. by empowering employees to manage their own tasks, paycom frees you to focus on the business of business. to learn more, visit paycom.com

welcome back. as we mentioned the trump campaign is not giving up, they are giving up on winning wisconsin, but not on contesting it. they are requesting a recount in just two counties. milwaukee county and dane county. the campaign claims that chose them because they were the worst

irregularities there. shack, i have been trying to read what they're up to, myself, the pertinent part of the law here. their picking two counties and it looks to me like they're trying to attack absentee ballots. >> yes, they're saying that the absentee ballots were illegally issues, altered, and that the voter i.d. law, there was a circumvention that allowed people to vote without a voter id. that is what the trump campaign is doing at this moment. they just said in the past hour they got the three million

dollar payment. a recount orderer will go into effect tomorrow and it will begin in milwaukee county on friday. this is something they have been expecting. they already have a venue set out. they believe they will not take but the 13 days required by law and instead they will do that in five to six days. >> thanks, shack. thank you all for being with us this hour. we'll be back tomorrow with more "meet the press daily. we'll have more after this break. >> more after this break. >> op there. we made a cloud flexible enough to adapt to any size business. no matter what it does, or how it changes. and we kept going. so you only pay for what you use. because at dell technologies, we stop...at nothing.

♪ [ engine rumbling ] ♪ [ beeping ] [ engine revs ] ♪ uh, you know there's a 30-minute limit, right? tell that to the rain. [ beeping ] for those who were born to ride, there's progressive.

[ beeping ] tturning downhe temperature, dad. ow. thunk, lock the doors. locking doors. thunk, dim the lights. dimming lights. [ croaking ] goodnight, honey. goodnight. [ laughs ] that's my leg. aw! pft, pft. evolve your home security. get the peace of mind, safety and convenience of xfinity home. and don't forget to catch the croods, a new age

in theaters thanksgiving. rated pg. what is this? we call that a window. window. dun-dun-daaa! the first big screen. we really need to limit thunk's window time. not now. the birds are on. in my day we fought them. let me live my life!

. good afternoon, i'm katy tur, it is 11:00 in the west, 2:00 p.m. in the east. the u.s. has surpassed 250,000 deaths. the current president looks like he has given up fighting the pandemic and he is making it harder for the next president to make changes. it is clear that many in the administration understand how dire the conditions are in this country. there is now aggressive unrelenting expanding broad community spread across the country reaching most counties without evidence of improvement but