and good day, i'm andrea mitchell in washington with breaking news for tens of millions of americans. the centers for disease control just now advising against thanksgiving travel, as the coronavirus pandemic surges to unprecedented levels across the nation. there are more than 170,000 new confirmed covid cases the last 24 hours. that is more than quadruple the number of daily cases we were seeing just six weeks ago. a major concern for state and local leaders trying to slow the spread in the hospitals where doctors, nurses, and staff are being pushed to their limits or getting sick themselves. president-elect joe biden continuing his focus on

responding to the pandemic, heard directly from front line workers in an emotional virtual meeting wednesday. >> there is something seriously wrong when nurses have to take to the streets to beg for protection in the middle of a pandemic. i have not been tested yet and i have been on the front lines in the icu since february. >> you're kidding me. >> no. i'm sorry i'm so emotional. >> no. >> it's just -- >> you got me emotional. president trump now in his sixth straight day without public event or remarks, remains focused on his attempts to discredit the election outcome on twitter and with multiple court challenges, many already withdrawn or dismissed by judges. joining me now, nbc medical correspondent dr. john torres with more on the cdc's big announcement and nbc's kathy park at city hall in new york city where parents are speaking out after mayor bill de blasio's

decision to move more than 1 million students back to virtual learning. john, the cdc doesn't speak out often during this pandemic, unlike other pandemics. now we're hearing this warning about thanksgiving. >> you're right, andrea, this is a very important announcement they made. i think the reason they made it, if you remember, a little while ago they put out recommendations for thanksgiving. they're seeing these numbers climb higher and higher. so they felt they needed to put out stronger recommendations. one, they strongly recommend against traveling over the thinking weekend. point blank, blunt, do not travel over thinking weekend. number two, they're also trying to clear up some confusion and they're defining what a household means, because they say only have celebrations with people in your own household. what does that mean? if somebody from your family like your son or daughter is coming back from college, are they part of your household? what they're defining household as is anybody that's been living with you for 14 days before thanksgiving, that's your household. if they haven't been there for

the full 14 days, then you need to treat them like you would somebody outside. that means masks and social distancing. they say they'll continue to have these briefings on a regular basis going forward because they believe they need to start getting this message out more and more. like you said, throughout the pandemic they haven't given us many of these briefings. hopefully this starts it, this catalyzes briefings going forward and we can get the message from the cdc who should be giving us this message, frankly. >> dr. john, let me just ask you about how they enforce this. i know that many governors are beginning to not only require masks but even require that it be your nuclear family, in your household. how can they enforce that? >> i just got off the call with them earlier. what they said, they were specifically asked that question, and they said twhoehe don't really have an enforcement mechanism. they're pushing it back to the states. some states have policies and recommendations and other states

don't have any yet. they say they don't have a mechanism to enforce these types of policies, but they're putting out strong recommendations with meetings or briefings like this. they hope we, the press, get the message out as well because they want to make sure americans get that message and are protected against it. they don't have an enforcement policy in place and they're not ready to take that step or measure yet. >> and it's remarkable, 250,000 deaths, and we still have not heard from the president. we have not heard him commenting about covid other than the vaccine announcement last friday, not at all talking about the surge. thanks so much, john torres with this very important -- yes, go ahead, finish your thought there. >> no, i would say i think you're right, in the vacuum of not getting a message from the president, the fda, the cdc is

putting that message out. >> thank you very much. kathy park, the decision to move learning back to virtual has many parents frustrated. mayor de blasio has said all along if they reach 3% positivity rate, they would close the schools, and that happened i guess 48 hours ago. >> reporter: andrea, good afternoon to you, that is absolutely right. it certainly has been a week of high anxiety for families who have students enrolled in new york city public schools because they've been closely monitoring for that 3% positivity threshold which the city hit yesterday, forcing the closure of all school buildings. now students are back to remote learning, at least for the next two weeks. but we heard from the mayor not too long ago. he said that they are working on a plan, collecting details on reopening schools as quickly as possible, but as safely as possible, with of course testing being a top priority. but not too long ago we had

dozens of parents outside city hall, protesting the shutdown of these schools. here is a reason as to why they want them reopened. take a listen. [ chanting "schools are safe" ] >> the teachers are the ones that are educating and taking care of our children and giving their all every single day. and the guy in charge of them needs to realize that the teachers want to be teaching our kids in class. >> that number of 60,000 kids who don't have devices is an appalling number. but the number of children who can't do remote learning is even higher than that. >> reporter: and frustrated parents have also argued that it really doesn't make sense to keep bars and restaurants open in the city. and yet close down schools. but officials have said that restrictions are on the way as cases continue to climb here in new york city, andrea. >> kathy park, it's obviously emotional on all sides but these

warnings are really scary. dr. torres, kathy park, thanks to both of you. kentucky democratic governor andy beshear joining me now, governor, it's very good to see you again. you are one of the governors who have joined a bipartisan op-ed written today in "the washington post," published in "the post." six other governors in the midwestern states just north of you calling for people to stay home, stay safe during the thanksgiving holiday. so i assume you're not surprised that the cdc has made this announcement today, this recommendation. >> not surprised at all. but grateful they're out there providing the true information that people need. thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays of the year. it's a time when we hold our families close. and we are thankful for all of our blessings. one of our blessings this year is that we have more knowledge at this point about how this virus spreads and what we can do to protect one another. if we do thanksgiving the way we've done it in the past, it threatens to be the largest

super spreader we've seen thus far in our battle against this virus. and i don't want what people do during thanksgiving to mean that other kentuckians aren't around for christmas. so listen, we're at war with this virus. it means we have to do thanksgiving a little different. but i'm thankful that we've got that information and we can protect one another in how we celebrate it. >> and what are your restrictions, how have you updated the restrictions for kentucky? >> so here in kentucky, we are in our most dangerous place we have been during the course of the battle against this pandemic. we have now hit exponential growth. it took us, oh, six odd months to get to our first day where we had a thousand cases. it took us two months to get to our first day when we had 2,000 cases. in about a week we're close to moving from 2,000 to 3,000 cases. now is the time to fight back.

i don't believe that we surrender and we accept fatalities in this war against covid-19. so what we've done is we have taken targeted, surgical steps, because we know so much more about how it spreads than we did back in march and april. so for the next three weeks, we've closed our bars and our restaurants to indoor dining. we still want to support them. we want to do carryout. and if it can work, outdoor seet seating. but we know spread is occurring there. we're limiting gatherings even further, down to at any time just two households with the same definition that the cdc is using. we've had to curtail gyms, indoor recreational facilities. we've had to pause the winter sports, which could be dangerous until at least past december 13. and we've also had to take a step on moving our schools to virtual learning.

now, i see the debate on new york each day. and i wish we in the commonwealth were there, at a 3% positivity rate. we're at a 9% positivity rate, an exponential growth. that means the virus has pushed through all of our defenses. our long term care facilities, where we test those workers three times a week, are all of a sudden being flooded by this virus. we lost 25 veterans in one veterans home in the last couple of weeks with everybody trying to do it right. the only answer, the only answer is to take the steps we need to tamp down this virus, because as our cases go up, there are more people who need help, medical help, that are going to need a doctor or a nurse. as we saw with the mayo clinic, the more cases go up, the more health care workers get infected, and our capacity to help them goes down. so now is the tipping point. now is the point where we absolutely have to act. and we're doing that here in kentucky. >> it's just extraordinary.

and i know from just yesterday, wisconsin was at a 41% positivity rate, nearly half the people tested. it's just frightening. we've just learned now that for the first time in weeks, the white house, after one of their task force meetings, is going to have a public briefing at 4:00 in the briefing room today. so we don't know who is going to be briefing, but we do know that the white house task force is now taking this seriously. just yesterday i was interviewing admiral giroir and he was very concerned, there was a real difference in his tone, in his warnings about thanksgiving in particular. are you still getting briefings from the vice president? >> we are getting briefings from that task force. the vice president is on most of the time. and listen, this administration has communicated well with us here in kentucky. they provided us surge testing that we have going on in two locations. communication has never been the

problem. and so we appreciate that. >> let me -- let me just ask you, governor, but are they urging, when you're on those calls with the governors, are they urging -- kristi noem in south dakota, to, you know, to take on the mask challenge as now north dakota and iowa and kansas are? are these resistant governors being told how serious this is by the vice president himself? >> that doesn't happen during the calls. but i know two things are happening out there. number one, we get recommendations each week in reports to each state. and they are very direct and frank. the report from the white house agrees with the steps that we've taken here in kentucky, and agrees that the spread is happening where it is. they haven't been shy about stepping up and saying a mask mandate is necessary. and i expect that that same advice is given in a report to

south dakota. the other thing is, dr. birx herself has traveled across the united states and she has been very direct with individuals as well. i know she was direct with the governor of tennessee. >> and let me ask you also about kentucky because mitch mcconnell has sent the senate home. there is a surge in the senate. he's losing a key vote with senator grassley unfortunately having covid and so now he doesn't have the votes to pass the confirmations he wants. but, you know, has anything been said to mitch mcconnell from your folks at home about the lack of covid relief? because now congress has gone home without passing it. >> we do talk about it. i think that the senator and i have a disagreement on what needs to be within that package. we've got a lot of people out there who are hurting on the economic side. we have our restaurants and our bars that we're having to take

heartbreaking action that need help to survive and only the federal government can provide that help. it's more than that. if we don't get another c.a.r.e.s. act funding before the end of the year, everything we do to fight this virus falls off on december 31st. no money for testing, no money for contact tracing, no money to distribute the vaccine. by not getting the paneling ock and issues we're seeing in the presidential transition, makes me worry that we're pushing back getting this vaccine out by weeks or potentially a month. we're talking about a 95% plus effective vaccine, two of them. there's light at the end of the tunnel. let's do what it takes to get to a better tomorrow. that means congress has to work together and we have to make sure there is a smooth transition between administrations. >> thank you very much, governor andy beshear, thanks again for being with us today. just ahead, conclusion not

concession. new white house word play as trump's legal team grasps at straws in their final challenges to the election. stay with us. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. on msnbc.art? -audrey's expecting... -twins! ♪ we'd be closer to the twins. change in plans. at fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan. good morning, mr. sun. good morning, blair. [ chuckles ] whoo. i'm gonna grow big and strong. yes, you are. i'm gonna get this place all clean. i'll give you a hand. and i'm gonna put lisa on crutches! wait, what? said she's gonna need crutches. she fell pretty hard. you might want to clean that up, girl. excuse us. when owning a small business gets real, progressive helps protect what you built with customizable coverage. -and i'm gonna -- -eh, eh, eh. -donny, no. -oh.

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as president trump continues to fight the outcome of the election, sources within president-elect biden's team tell nbc news some former and

current trump officials have worked out for them, although they say it's not a replacement for the formal access they need. a former senior trump administration official tells nbc news the president knows the fight is futile. the biden camp is warning that a delay until december could impact the timing of distribution of covid vaccine. this as the president meets with the nation's governors today as they struggle to get ahold of the pandemic without a national effort. joining me now, "weekend today" co-anchor i didn't say ten welker, "washington post" political reporter robert costa, and "washington post" opinion writer jonathan capehart, welcome all. kristen, the president-elect is meeting with the governors, i guess it's the executive board of the national governors association, the first republican elected officials, larry hogan being the head of the governors association, the

governor of maryland, the first official meeting he's having with a recollectn elected repube the election. >> andrea, that's right, and i think you hit the nail on the head, this meeting comes as there is a patchwork of approaches within each state for how to deal with covid-19. and of course this is something that president-elect biden campaigned on, the need for a traditional strategy. that will be at the forefront. we know that president-elect biden has been pushing these governors not only to let them know what they need to fight covid-19 but also pushing them to enact and call for mask mandates within their individual states. and it does come, andrea, as we learned overnight, that current and former and current trump officials are starting to privately and very quietly reach out to the biden transition team. one official describing these conversations as not a big deal, and no replacement for what is needed, which is of course national security briefings, intelligence briefings,

briefings on the covid crisis. kate bedingfield, a spokesperson for president-elect biden, saying to me overnight, quote, it requires more than former officials choose to go sting to forward and be helpful. so more defiance from the biden team as they continue to be denied the briefings. the president-elect has signaled he's not about to take legal action imminently but he is revisiting that decision given that they are still being locked out of these briefings, andrea, that remains to be seen. >> and, you know, kristen, you were there, he pointed out yesterday that this is a matter of law, the transition act. this is what he had to say yesterday. >> the law says that the general services administration has a person who recognizes who the winner is. it doesn't require there to be an absolute winner.

it says the apparent winner. we're going to be behind by weeks or months, with two drug companies coming along and finding 95% effectiveness, efficiency in the vaccines. >> and robert, the president's strategy is a mystery. you've been doing a lot of reporting on this. there are 30 election lawsuits from trump and the republicans by our count. yet still no evidence of fraud. in fact rudy giuliani admitted in court in a pennsylvania case that he's not even charging fraud. some of them have been dismissed, some have been withdrawn. what's the end goal here for the white house? >> the strategy is not so much a mystery, but jarring and incoherent. but the ultimate end game is to raise doubts among republicans about the election and to also pressure, through a campaign of disinformation, to pressure republican officials in different states to somehow

stall the certification of different biden victories in the hopes that this could disrupt the electoral college when it meets in december in the sense that maybe some electors won't be selected by then or they may need to be selected by the state legislatures. of course this is a last ditch effort by rudy giuliani, the president's lawyer, and president trump. but you see them believing they can somehow erode the integrity of the election and reclaim some political standing by making these baseless claims about the election and forcing republicans to kind of echo them at every turn. >> and jonathan, all this while the pandemic is raging. the vice president is holding a task force briefing today or a meeting today. we're going to see the first briefing we've seen in weeks and weeks. >> yeah, what we're seeing with that, with the vice president elect -- sorry, the president-elect, is to show that he's moving, that he's

governing, that he's not waiting for the trump administration to turn over the keys. what's happening here, from kristen's report and robert's reporting and his sort of jarring reporting that he just said, is that it seems like we've gone from the petulance of the president to just doing real damage, doing damage to the country and its institutions, doing damage to the american people because as long as the gsa does not open things up to president-elect biden, there is no way for the biden/harris administration to truly coordinate and try to be able to hit the ground running on january 20, to try to finally start getting this pandemic under control. and then it's really damaging democracy. the peaceful transfer of power has been a hallmark of american

d democracy around the world since our founding. the fact that we have a sitting president who lost resoundingly both in the electoral college vote and also the popular vote, to president biden who received more votes than anyone in american history, 80 million americans saying they want him to be the next president of the united states, the country, our people, and our democracy are hanging in the balance here. >> and robert, nbc's peter alexander is reporting that on tuesday, president trump personally called two of those wayne county, michigan canvassers by phone. they insist he asked about their well being after they faced backlash after they were reluctant to certify the results in wayne county, detroit. >> what the president is doing is escalating his fight against the election result. this is not just a president who is sitting back, as he has for

weeks, and making baseless claims about election fraud or the election being rigged. what he's now doing is involving himself personally as the commander in chief, the chief executive, into different election decisions and certifications across the country. now, privately the president's allies tell me he's aware it's almost impossible for him to climb back into contention. he sees the numbers. but what he wants to do is get the republican party at a local and state level to remain in lockstep with him as he moves ahead and to somehow make it difficult for biden, to delegitimize president-elect biden. that is the goal here. that's what he's doing by making these phone calls and other things. >> robert costa, kristen welker, jonathan capehart. and jonathan, we're all going to be watching because jonathan has a big conversation with barack

obama, after president obama's new book, "a promised land," was published this week, this weekend on msnbc. secretary of state mike pompeo became the first secretary of state, the highest ranking u.s. official to visit a jewish settlement in the palestinian west bank. how this as well as a series of foreign policy moves challenges the incoming biden administration's foreign policy. and later, frustration on the front lines. health care workers feeling forgotten as their hospitals are overwhelmed by covid. stay with us. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. n msnbc. >> i think it's incredibly frustrating. i think there's a sense that no one is listening to us. and it really does feel at times as if we're on the field, we're fighting fires, and yet people continue to set fires. -twins! ♪ we'd be closer to the twins.

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secretary of state pompeo is in israel today. he's making an unprecedented visit to israeli settlements in the west bank, the highest ranking u.s. administration official to do so. the visit marks the latest in a string of last-minute foreign policy moves that could be aimed at complicating the incoming biden administration's strategy towards israel and the middle east as well as other countries in the world. joining me now, ben rhodes, former deputy national security adviser under president obama.

sources inside the administration tell me that is exactly the purpose, to cement these policies and try to tie the hands of the incoming administration. he also went to the golan heights today which as you know, a year and a half ago he helped announce along with the president that we were joining israel in declaring israel sovereignty over the golan heights. what do you make of all this, how difficult will it be for joe biden to turn things around? >> well, andrea, these are obviously unprecedented moves, we've never had a u.s. official of this rank visiting an israeli settlement in the west bank. and on this specific issue of the middle east peace process and the possibility of a palestinian state, extending this kind of de facto recognition to west bank settlements that clearly are a part of an enterprise of israeli west bank settlement construction is going to complicate any effort to get back in the peace process. more profoundly, andrea, the question is, why, given

everything happening in the world today, is mike pompeo visiting a winery in a west bank settlement? you've got reports of troops about to be yanked out of iraq and afghanistan with no coordination with allies, with the governments there. you've got wars in the horn of africa. a russian-brokered cease-fire in a war in azerbaijan. mike pompeo seems to be looking out not just for complicating the biden presidency but frankly his own political interests. he gave a speech to the rnc from jerusalem. these things seem designed to appeal to some american voters rather than addressing pressing national interests of the united states. >> and in fact the israelis referred to this as the pompeo doctrine, which is interesting. he's also aiming this at iran, not the west bank visit so much as the golan heights where the israeli defense force has been firing at iranian-backed groups

as well as syrian military forces in the golan heights in the last two days, they say because they found ieds that were implanted there. >> yeah, and andrea, if you take a step back and just look at the state of play with iran, the reports recently are that iran has significantly enhanced its nuclear program, both the stockpile that it's producing, enough for two nuclear bombs, as well as the type of centrifuges it's operating, the machines that produce that nuclear material. this problem has gotten exponentially worse since donald trump and mike pompeo pulled us out of iran nuclear agreement. joe biden has said he wants to return to that agreement and clearly they're trying to make that more difficult. they've been piling sanctions on iran. this type of move today is clearly meant to be inflammatory towards the iranian government. they want to make it as difficult as possible for joe biden to work with our allies to reconstitute that iran nuclear agreement. the problem is, this policy has

utterly failed and the chief u.s. national security interest, which is the prospect of an iranian nuclear weapon, has gotten much more dangerous under this president than it was when he took office. >> in fact they sanctioned some of khamenei's personal business interests just yesterday as well. we're hearing from the iranians they do want to get back to the deal. but just to show it from the trump perspective, we have this international weapons inspectors, the u.n. weapons inspectors' report, that iran has broken through all previous restraints on their nuclear enhancement. so doesn't the u.s. have to do something? >> well, the thing that had restricted the iranian nuclear program was the nuclear deal that trump left. all of this progress by the iranians in terms of their nuclear program has been made since the united states under donald trump and mike pompeo pulled out of a deal that was working. this has been a catastrophic failure of policy that has led

us to this precipice. and the reality, andrea, if i'm going to be blunt here, it seems like they're more interested in the domestic politics of the iran issue than they are in actually solving the problem because the problem was solved before they even took office in terms of the iranian nuclear deal. you see the common thread between donald trump and mike pompeo is they seem to make very grave national security decisions with their own personal political interests more in mind than whether or not they're actually solving the problem. >> and all this without briefing the president-elect. ben rhodes, thank you so much. thanks for being with us today. more on those last-minute policy moves from the outgoing administration in just a moment. senator chris van hollen joining me. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. pizza. he uses fresh, clean ingredients to make a masterpiece. taste our delicious new flatbread pizzas today. panera.

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falls off the cliff on december 31. no more money for testing, for contact tracing, no more money to distribute this vaccine. >> that was governor andy beshear earlier in the program. but the senate has gone home one day earlier than expected without doing anything on covid relief because the capital has become a covid hotspot which also is denying mitch mcconnell a key vote, republican vote he needs for some controversial confirmations, after senator chuck grassley tested positive. seven house members have also now tested positive in just the last week. as washington remains deadlocked with no progress on covid relief, an unemployed worker expressed her frustration to nbc's jo ling kent. >> basically i get $276 a week. i have two daughters to support. i'm the sole provider. i haven't paid my rent yet this month. it's the first time i missed a payment in 32 years. i'm just so angry, frustrated,

li livid. there's no reason nothing can be passed right now. >> joining me now is senator chris van hollen. senator, how can the senate go home with no money for all of these people? the money is running out, they won't have money to distribute vaccine if vaccine is available. >> andrea, that's exactly right. the senate should be working around the clock. this is an urgent, desperate situation, both in terms of providing more help to turn the tables on the virus, but also to deal with the economic pain that's been caused. as was just said, at the end of december, a lot of important life lines, safety nets, that were keeping families afloat economically, are going to expire. it would be unconscionable for the united states congress not to get an agreement to provide relief before that time.

>> there's a century found report saying because of the talks going nowhere, 12 million workers are on the brink of losing their benefits. what can be done? on top of that, there is a deadline, i believe december 11, where government funding runs out, for the whole budget, for everything. >> well, that's right, that's for funding of the u.s. government, which of course impacts every american in one way or another. so we've got to come together to get an agreement with that budget package. we are making progress there. my view is that we should attach the emergency covid-19 response bill to that so that we can all come together, one vote, keep the government open, but also provide this vital relief, which should include continuing the unemployment insurance program and enhanced benefits, providing help to small businesses, those who are most in need, state and local governments, food

assistance. that should be part of this overall agreement. and we've got to get this done because millions of americans are already hurting, and tens of millions more are going to be put in desperate straits if we don't do that. >> you're on budget and appropriations. has anyone from the republican side talked about that solution? >> unfortunately not. we saw talks break off with the trump administration, president trump is more preoccupied spreading his falsehoods about the election than he is in helping the country. senator mitch mcconnell said that he wanted to do something, but we've asked him to engage and come to the negotiating table. and so far he has refused to do so. he seems content to let all these american families and workers go over the cliff. i hope that will change.

we're seeing the virus spiking, 250,000 americans now dead. so it's way past time for mitch mcconnell to come to the negotiating table. the house passed the h.e.r.o.e.s. act six months ago. we don't have to pass the h.e.r.o.e.s. act, if there is some other proposal that can bring us together, but we do need to get something done. >> what do you think of what mike pompeo is doing in israel today? >> so, andrea, here we have a secretary of state who is undermining democracy here at home by feeding into president trump's fraudulent narrative that he won the election. and that hurts us overseas in terms of our democratic values and principles. but in israel, he's also undermining our interests. our interests in achieving a two-state solution. and what mike pompeo is doing is pulling the rug out of even the

remote remaining possibility to do that, to have a democratic jewish state of israel living side by side with a palestinian state, a homeland for the palestinian people. and by going into the palestinian territories, to these settlements, what pompeo is doing is making it much harder to achieve that. and, you know, making it harder for the incoming biden administration. but i am confident that the new information will get back on track on what has been bipartisan u.s. policy before trump. >> is it possible some of the steps they're taking will be irreversible like withdrawing the troops from afghanistan? >> well, i think with respect to the troops in afghanistan, my understanding is that while president trump wanted to withdraw them all, we're talking about 2,000 remaining troops. so incoming president biden will

have to make a decision there. obviously there are sensitive, ongoing negotiations with the taliban right now. and we don't want to give the taliban a reason to, you know, resume even more active hostilities. they're already violating the agreement and we don't want to give them the green light to violate it more. with respect to the situation in israel, i am confident that a biden presidency will not pursue the policies that trump has which have essentially undermined any possibility of getting that two-state solution. i think we'll get back on track to try to make sure that we can have that kind of settlement. but it's going to be long and it's going to be difficult. and it's made harder by what mike pompeo is doing, really for his own personal political reasons. as ben rhodes said, he had it exactly right, mike pompeo wants to run for president and he's

using the post of secretary of state and taxpayer dollars to further his political interest at the expense of our foreign policy interests. >> senator van hollen, thank you very much. thanks for being with us today. families urged to cancel all their holiday plans with nearly 80,000 americans now hospitalized with coronavirus. the limits of covid testing and the desperate pleas from front line workers for americans to just stay home. the former head of the fda joining us next. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. "andrea mitchl reports" on msnbc. >> please take it seriously. wear your mask. and i hope i don't see you here. ♪ still the one and i can't get enough ♪ ♪ we're still having fun, and you're still the one. ♪ applebee's 2 for $20. it's date night in the neighborhood. ♪ ♪

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to directly engage floors and dig deep into carpets. pick up more on every pass with no hair wrap. shark vertex with duoclean power fins. with the breaking news that the cdc is recommending people cancel their thanksgiving plans, will people listen? a lot of people have been feeling they could just rely on tests to have their college kid comes home or grandparents visit. joining me now, dr. peggy hamburg, former fda commissioner and before that, the health commissioner for new york city. good to see you. i know people have been thinking if you get tested you can travel and then test again at the end of the visit. but what the cdc is saying that that is not safe.

and it really, at this point, is so much of an emergency that people should not get together beyond their nuclear families. >> this is a critical moment. our country is seeing such a dramatic resurgence in covid-19 cases with an exponential rise in cases, hospitalizations and deaths. these days and weeks are crucial to our being able to turn this around. if not, the devastation is only going to get worse. it is really important, avoid nonessential travel now. it's not just the modes of travel, it's the hubs of travel where you are interacting with a lot of people. testing tells you something about one moment in time, but then you're exposed to lots of other people. so you can't be sure, especially sad at holiday gatherings to have to avoid coming together, but for an occasion like thanksgiving, we're going to have many generations gathering.

you may have people who are infected. they may not even know it. it's not worth it. say another day late next spring is thanksgiving and come together when the situation isn't so dire. >> the vaccine emergency use authorization application is imminent from pfizer. walk us through just how quickly this could get into the front line workers, certainly, to nursing homes. the distribution, they say they've got 40 million, 50 million doses, but they need two doses to be effective. >> well, there's been some great news about vaccines, both pfizer and moderna reporting very promising late results for their studies and oxford astrazeneca reporting today about good early evidence of protection broadly from their vaccine. so we're making progress. the fda has indicated that they

will have a vaccine advisory board meeting in early december, december 8 and 9 to review data on the pfizer and, i believe, the moderna vaccine potentially as well. and will then be making recommendations about authorization. it is easily conceivable that by the end of december, early january, vaccine will start to be going out to those high risk priority populations, frontline health care workers, elderly, those with medical problems and those in aggregate settings like nursing homes. it will be considerably longer before it gets out to those not in high priority risk groups through their physicians, through their local pharmacies. and that's why it's so important that we continue to maintain those common sense public health measures to control virus spread and reduce infection in the meantime.

>> how much of an impediment do you think the lack of any transition communication between the public health officials, just briefly in the few seconds we have left, and the incoming administration. >> it's an enormous concern. we're in the middle of a global pandemic. the worst public health threat in a century. we need a smooth -- we need a seamless transition so that we don't waste a moment. the ability to effectively distribute vaccine makes a huge difference. that's just one of the areas where a disjointed transition can put people at risk and cost lives. >> dr. peggy hamberg, a pleasure seeing you. thank you for your expertise again. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." chuck todd is up next with "mtp daily" only on msnbc. what are you doing? art class.

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if it's thursday, the white house will hold its first task force briefing to the public since july. i guess better late than never. the cdc is now urging every american to stay home this thanksgiving. we'll see if the president believes his government should speak like that as more than 1200 americans are now dying every single day. plus, the president and his allies remain focused on rallying to support to overturn the results of a fair and