michael flynn. flynn twice pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his conversations with russia's ambassador. the president is also teasing in a tweet that's considering pardoning himself from any future federal prosecutions. what a stark contrast to president-elect joe biden, who is hosting a quiet thanksgiving dinner in delaware with a much smaller than usual group of family, after his holiday message to americans struggling during the pandemic. >> america's not going to lose this war. we'll get our lives back. life is going to return to normal, i promise you. this will happen. this will not last forever. >> and there is breaking news this morning that came to us overnight on the coronavirus. the supreme court issuing an injunction that new york governor andrew cuomo cannot enforce his new occupancy limits on religious institutions in his state. new justice amy coney barrett casting a deciding vote similar

decisions before she came to the court in california and nevada went the other way. let's get more on the important ruling in new york with nbc's gabe gutierrez. gabe, good to see you again. you were here back in spring when they were setting up field hospitals in central park and now the state is facing a legal hurdle. tell us about what happened overnight. >> reporter: yes, certainly. governor andrew cuomo has come under some fire and there's been some backlash to the restrictions that are being imposed and not just on businesses and you know, as closing schools here in new york city, of course. now we have this injunction overnight from the u.s. supreme court, in a 5-4 decision, essentially blocking some of the stricter limits on houses of worship capacity of 10 or 25 people. chris, we should point out the immediate impact of this ruling is not much, because as the state had argued some of the restrictions had already been dialed back, and that the houses

of worship are allowed to operate at 50% capacity, but what this does highlight, chris, is this, the impact of as you mentioned amy coney barrett, joined her conservative colleagues in the 5-4 opinion. chief justice john roberts joined the more liberal justices on the court, and again, the state had argued that this injunction was not necessary because houses of worship these restrictions were not actually in place because those houses of worship are under less restricted areas of new york city, because of the coronavirus' spread but the court said these restrictions would violate religious freedom and there's no evidence the churches and synagogues contributed to the spread of covid-19. chris, so far, there has been no reaction from governor cuomo's office but again, a potentially significant ruling here, as houses of worship really across

the country have said that they should not be singled out as these restrictions go into effect, chris. >> yes, i just saw congratulatory tweet from cardinal dolan in new york. as you say, we're waiting to hear from the governor. gabe gutierrez, happy thanksgivi thanksgiving. now to the latest in the transfer of power with our all-star thanksgiving day panel. nbc's carol lee outside the white house and political reporter ali vitale in delaware. president-elect biden we saw that clip from yesterday and then he just released on video to twitter kind of a reinforcement of his thanksgiving message. i want to play a little bit of that. >> this year we're going to be staying in delaware, just a small group around our dinner table. i know this isn't the way many of us hoped we'd spend our holiday. we know that a small act of staying home is a gift to our

fellow americans. yes, it's a personal sacrifice that each of our families can make and should make to save somebody else's life. >> ali, this is something traditionally a sitting president, not a president-elect would do. it's almost as if he is saying, well, donald trump's not going to do it. i'll step. what are you hearing about the strategy from the transition team? >> reporter: chris, this seems like the strategy as it's been over the course of the last few weeks, stepping into this role of president and filling the gaps we've seen on things like empathy and decisive leadership on this issue of the pandemic. we've seen biden paint a very different picture of the current stakes right now for this country as it relates to covid-19. it's very different from the way that trump himself has talked about this virus. he has tried to put a rosier picture on it, instead trying to push people ahead to the

potential for a vaccine, continuing to tout the stock market, even though we know that the rest of the economy remains in a recession in large part because of this ongoing pandemic. you contrast that with what we've seen from biden over the course of the last few weeks and definitely yesterday and today leveling with the american people about the fact that we're seeing cases rising, but also speaking directly to those families who may be having one less chair filled at their table this year because they have lost someone to covid-19. biden of course unfortunately no stranger to loss and in that video his wife, dr. jill biden, talks about the fact that they know what it's like to have lost someone and how hard those holidays can be. remarks made he talked about how hard it is to hope looking forward to the holidays dealing with the death of a loved one. it's something that biden offered to voters across the campaign trail, clearly something that's going to be

bringing into his role here as president-elect and then of course one's sumes the presidency in january it also speaks to combating covid-19, it was a key campaign trail pitch, sure, but at the same time he's now assuming this role at a point where the pandemic is getting worse and americans need someone to take this pandemic by the horns and actually say that they're going to deal with it. yes, eventually disseminating a vaccine but also by just putting up strict guidelines of what to be doing. we're seeing the president-elect showcase wearing a mask, social distancing, rolling out cabinet picks, wiping down the podium in between each speaker to not just talk the talk but to show americans the things they need to be doing and i was struck yesterday when he said yes, the federal government has a role to play here, but this is also a moment for individual responsibility. biden again emphasizing there part of the reason why they're scaling back their thanksgiving is out of respect for other

members of their family, something that i think a lot of americans are keeping in mind today. >> yes, there are other politicians who have gotten essentially caught not practicing what they're preaching but joe biden making a point to show that is what he is going to do. so carol lee, let's talk about the president and his approach to coronavirus, because a couple of times since the election first at that operation warp speed event and then in passing while touting the stock market this week he talked about it, but the focus really seems to be not on the pandemic at all, even as these hospitalizations are rising, even as we're back to hearing doctors, nurses all medical professionals talking about exhaustion, we're hearing about lack of icu beds, even after he authorized the transition, he seems to be focused on the election that he lost. >> reporter: yes, that's right, chris. anything we've heard from president trump particularly since the election on coronavirus really emphasized

the impending vaccines and the idea that we're moving forward and turning a corner, as the president likes to say, and not much mention of, if any, of the rise in cases, or the rise in hospitalizations. we heard the president on tuesday when he pardoned a turkey in the rose garden say that he was thankful and the country is grateful for our health care workers and doctors and those who have been on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic but that's the extent of those remarks and that's a stark contrast in terms of what he's been saying on his twitter feed and yesterday at length calling into this meeting of republicans in the state of pennsylvania led by his personal attorney, rudy giuliani, where he really focused on the election, saying that this was an election that was stolen from him, which is not true, saying that he actually won very big in a number of battleground states, again lls n

again, also not true and sticking to his convictions that this is something that needs to be overturned which is not going to happen. that's the public posture the president is going through pushing back on the election results and not admitting publicly that joe biden has won this election and will be moving into the white house on january 20th, whereas privately we know from our own reporting that the president is contending with what his future looks like, even including a possible run for 2024, and we saw him pardon his former national security adviser, that's something that a president would typically do in the twilight of a presidency, and we're expecting to see more of those and he as you mentioned also said that the transition for the biden team could go forward. so those are some of the things that are happening behind the scenes, and yet the president publicly continues to dig in and he's defying and expressing confidence that this election could be turned over, when he and those closest to him know that's not the case. >> meantime, the president announcing right before a

holiday late yesterday afternoon the pardoning of michael flynn, raising a lot of questions about who else particularly among those close to him, he might want to pardon, and then he really kind of teased something out there. he tweeted about, retweeted a tweet about the idea of pardoning himself from any future prosecution. what are you hearing? are there serious conversations going on within the white house, going on with his legal team about whether he could to it and would go through with it? >> reporter: what we know, chris, this is something the president talked about more privately. sorry, i apologies. >> sorry, carol. oswan? >> this is something that as far as we know with our reporting has come up somewhat in recent weeks or months with the president. it's been something of casual conversation, something that some people brought up to him

and as far as taking up to a serious terrain of the lawyers getting involved and the lawyers figuring out exactly how to do this, i haven't seen signs yet that has happened. carol lee has let the viewers know at the moment but at the moment, when it comes to individuals and trump allies and lawyers connected to trump allies, lining up in these final weeks of trump's first and perhaps only term there is' mad dash to try to get him to focus on more clemency and pardons. some of the people lining up at the white house figuratively and sometimes literally are focusing on extremely political and controversial once for people mobbed up within trump world. others trying to focus attention on certain things he's done, criminal justice reform related clemencies that have way more cross-partisan appeal. for people trying to get his

attention focused on that, michael flynn, trump's top pollster john mclaughlin called our nelson mandela, when it comes to the republican party and the maga movement. it's not encouraging if you're talking about political pardons and clemency in light of the trump era. >> we have not seen him shy away from controversy. thank you. happy thanksgiving to all of you. wisconsin democratic congressman joins me now. happy thanksgiving. >> happy thanksgiving to you. thanks for having me. >> let me start where we left off. do you think this pardon of michael flynn could open flood gates for the president and how seriously do you take the idea of him potentially pardoning himself? >> you know, i think anything is possible with this president, and it has been unfortunately for four years, but if he pardons himself, he's admitting

he's broken the law multiple times which is relatively odd to have a president say so i zoent' know ultimately if he has that power and if people will decide that he has that power but clearly you can look more for pardons of his cronies that has gone on and going to continue to abuse this office until the last hour he's there. >> the president-elect has been trying to express unity and certainty in most recent remarks to the nation and lester holt i wonder as co-chair are you ready to embrace a more bipartisan approach than past administrations for starters, we all know how far apart the republicans and the democrats are, and joe biden do you anticipate that he could find himself with a lot of other challenges apart from the right? >> i'm thankful joe biden will be president handling covid because the current president

has not. having said that, the challenges we'll have potentially are in the senate if we don't pick up seats in georgia and mitch mcconnell is still the leader. we watched two years of complete legislative inaction coming out of mitch mcconnell, including covid relief. that's the real challenge the president will face. joe biden's probably the most experienced person going into the office, he is going to make a lot of right decisions and get things done with the power that he has, but unfortunately if mitch mcconnell turns out to still be in charge of the senate after the january 5th georgia elections, i think you're going to look to see a lot of obstruction because that's what mitch mcconnell does the best. >> i'm 'm curious of your thoug on the georgia election. they are critical. let's pretend we're not on tv, just having conversation around the water cool we are close friends. realistically, what do you think the chances are that the democrats could pick up both

seats? >> a lot is really going to depend on what the president does. if he continues to abuse the office of the presidency going into january 5th, i think more and more people will be turned off. if he keeps saying that elections are rigged, that everyone knows they're not, but if he keeps saying that, maybe some of his voter also say why bother because they're rigged elections. so a lot is resting on how much donald trump embraces his inner donald trump as opposed to being the president of the united states but there's a lot of efforts down in georgia to get out the vote, riding the top of the wave from winning the presidential election. i'm hoping they continuing to do what stacey abrams and others are saying. >> you brought up the coronavirus and wisconsin is no longer in the top but scientists and medical experts are warning of a tsunami of victims coming

in december and january after the thanksgiving and christmas holidays. how worried are you about groups gathering and thanksgiving tables and reports of fewer deaths in your state may have given people a kind of false sense of security? >> we are not out of the woodshed in wisconsin. we have delivered the seventh most amount of cases in the entire country of any state ahead of states bigger than us like michigan, ohio and pennsylvania. our positivity rate is between 30% and 35% on any given day, people getting tests. think about it, new york, you just covered on your show, when they reached a 4% positivity rate to close down their schools we have something that's eight times that right now in wisconsin, and we just reached the first day with 100 deaths, just in the last couple days, so we have a lot that we still need to do in wisconsin, and we've got to get back to the mantra of testing, tracing and isolation. we're seriously deficit in the

number of contact tracers we have. we have a legislature that hasn't met for six months and not embraced the governor's good orders on wearing masks and capacity. we're still in a dire situation in wisconsin, more of the country now is also in a dire situation but ours has been building for about ten weeks. >> congressman mark pocan on that note, we leave you but we thank you and happy thanksgiving not just to you but all the folks there in wisconsin. we appreciate you coming on today. >> thank you. to you and all your viewers. >> thank you. keeping your family safe this thanksgiving, one of the nation's leading doctors in infectious disease is here with advice as you get ready to sit down with your loved ones, and still ahead as well, food banks struggling to stay stocked as the economic impact of the pandemic is hitting many families so hard this holiday. let's see what you've got, oculus...

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people are set to gather with their families today for

thanksgiving despite warnings from experts that this could ignite a fire that fuels superspreader events all around the country. how concerning is that for medical experts? let's bring in dr. bedalia from the boston medical center. thank you for coming on this thanksgiving. i was looking at the numbers and it's a million people a day that have been flying i think since last friday looking at almost a week of a million people a day getting on planes. we've seen how many people are getting in their cars and people decided it will be okay if i get together with a few neighbors, a few friends. when will we start to see dr. bedd bedalia whether thanksgiving is going to overtax an already overtaxed system? >> the average incubation period is four to five days and hospitalizations go up two weeks

after that, followed by death. the concern is this is thanksgiving holidays, the numbers we see may lag as well. the new cases, the testing may lag because people are going back to try to get tested at the same time so i would imagine in a week or two, you might see the increase in cases. this is the second half of the problem. the first half was the risk that people took traveling to go to meet family and now the second half of this and what i want to make sure people understand is they have to take the measures going back as well, the personal protective equipment avoiding crowds where they can, when traveling and when they get back many states have quarantine laws returning from out of state, to be aware of what your state requires to monitor symptoms but that's only part of the problem. the reason those diseases are hard to manage it's 50% of the new cases come from people who have no symptoms and so you

should monitor the systems but see if you can get a test after you get back, one way to isolate yourself if you end up having the disease and stopping the spread in a wider range. >> you and i talked yesterday about the fact that governor cuomo who has been a leader in calling for science based ways to fight this coronavirus he had his mom in her 90s coming to dinner in albany, along with his two daughters and got a lot of pushback and people said no, then we just heard that the denver mayor had decided to fly somewhere and he said it's better that more people don't come here as opposed to me going there, but what's the net impact when you see what some people would say is do as i say and not as a do approach to the poll days. >> when you see our leaders ask

people to sacrifice during this time that's been so hard for us, we're all hurting whether it's economically because we lost somebody, because we don't have the same kind of life we had last year, we're all hurting and longing for that and leaders take steps that go against the advice they ask everybody else to take it undermines the advice and the concern and people don't see the downstream actions, effects of their actions. one of the biggest things i'm thankful for is my fellow health care workers, many of whom on the front lines today and all of us are gearing up and when you are sitting around the dining room today you have a big group plan, this say good time to say stay home. we're going to reduce the numbers, take advantage of technology. zoom is offering free unlimited meetings today for people who want to take advantage of that. if you gather, i want to give a couple of steps if that's okay.

if you have people in your household make sure you open the windows ventilate as much as possible, the virus, breathe into the room and the virus sticks around for hours depending on the circulation. wear masks when you're not eating, have people who are not part of your household eat in a separate room and that will reduce the time that people are around each other, have a separate bathroom for people who are not part of your household and no buffet but one server and that reduces some risk that the gatherings are still risky from what we know. >> doctor, with always great information and great advice and we certainly do want to reiterate what you just said, which is we owe such a debt of gratitude to everybody who works in hospitals, works in nursing homes at every possible level who put themselves at risk every day to save lives. good to see you, thank you very much. after the break, hospitals are at a breaking point and so are

food banks, struggling to keep up with the need. first covid survivors, including front line workers who were infected with a special message of thanks this year, like chicago nicu nurse kerry weig who went into the hospital with covid in july and woke up with a coma in september. just weeks later, the 48-year-old underwent a double lung transplant, so this thanksgiving, she says she has a lot to be thankful for. >> this thanksgiving, i'm grateful for the new lease on life that i've received. covid destroyed my lungs and i was able to receive two new lungs in a transplant. i'm grateful to the family of my donor for allowing me to have their loved one's organs. without them, i would be dead. i'm grateful for my husband who pursued the lung transplant. i'm only the sixth person to

receive new lungs after covid. i'm grateful to my friends and family who gave me their love and their prayers, and kept me company through this time. i'm grateful for northwestern medicine and mary and joy who have taken care of me during this tough time and allow me to get bet sore that i may make it home and be home with my family. super emma just about sleeps in her cape. but when we realized she was battling sensitive skin, we switched to tide plus downy free. it's gentle on her skin, and out cleans our old bargain detergent. tide pods plus downy free. safe for sensitive skin with eczema and psoriasis. teeth sensitivity as well as gum issues.

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well come back. this thanksgiving, many americans are celebrating the holiday, there are others struggles brought on by the pandemic are unrelenting. families struggling to pay the bills, feed families in and hospitals around the country, health care worker, spending the holidays caring for covid patients. we're in tennessee where front line workers are stretched very thin this thanksgiving. meghan fitzgerald in orange county outside of los angeles, where food banks are seeing unprecedented demand. dasha the biggest concern isn't always hospital beds, but staffing.

how much pressure are health care workers under and what kind of toll is the pandemic taking on them for another round now? >> reporter: hey chris, that's right. it is all about the front line workers. i'm at johnson city medical center in appalachia, a hospital that serves a largely rural population and on this thanksgiving day, there are health workers in this building behind me who are caring for patients who are fighting for their lives right now. i'm told there will be calls made to funeral homes today, chris. some nurses say they've made more of those calls in just the last couple of months than they've made in their entire careers. the death rates are spiking here. they have seen record numbers over just the last couple of weeks and there are more patients coming into this hospital every day than discharged, putting immense pressure on the staff. this is yuzama, a parrish nurse but volunteering on her days off

to work with covid patients. why did you decide to spend your time working with covid patients and what have you been seeing here especially in the last couple of weeks? >> the toll on the nurses and the community and family members as a parish nurse manager, i see and hear from families and of their pastors and the toll it's had on everybody, made me know that this was time, this was the right moment for me to practice what i have promised as a nurse to be and so i decided the only way and the best way i could give back everything for everyone, both for jcmc and as a whole was to volunteer and help. >> reporter: i know some of the toughest moments are those phone calls with family members. what has that been like and how have you translated the work you've done as a parish nurse

into this covid on context? >> it helped me as a paris nurse to pray with them, to be able to talk to them and guide them through the whole process that's happening in-patient and tell them and explain things they don't understand, and it's so confusing for them, why especially why they have a loved one that's on the unit that's dying, but they can't reach them. they can't talk to them. they can't touch them. so the feeling of, one, coming into the covid unit, might be the last time they'll get to be with their loved one was what really pushed me and so being in the middle, i'm able to pray with them. i'm able to explain things that they can't understand, and also to talk to people they want us to talk to and being able to be in there, too, i love my time with these patients because i can relate with them as a nurse. i can relate with them as a parishioner and also as a

person. >> reporter: uzoma, happy thanksgiving. we appreciate your time. chris, a lot of heartbreak in this building but a lot of hard workers who are trying to guide these patients and these families through this tough time. chris? >> it's just extraordinary what they do, day in and day out. we are so lucky to have so many great people working in our hospitals around the country. meghan, let me go to you in orange county, south of los angeles, one of the wealthiest places in the country, so i think a lot of people would be surprised to find out that there's an unprecedented level of food insecurity there. what can family expect today where you are, and tell me just a little bit about who those people are, who are coming. >> chris, you said it. absolutely unprecedented. officials here in orange county are just astonished to see what they are seeing, giving examples of a person making six figures, coming here in need of food, and i want to give you an idea of what these folks can expect.

look down here, getting their thanksgiving dinner, so you've got the rolls here, some vegetables, the turkey of course, gravy and all the fixings in this box. they're going to be getting this, they're also taking home a box of canned goods and oats and peanut butter but that's not all. over here, they're also getting a box of fresh produce, so you've got some potatoes in here, and some onions and some celery. this is about 75 pounds of food. we want to bring you over here to give you an idea of the distribution process. behind me here at honda center, they've got the cones in place. you don't see anybody yet but they'll be opening up the gates. this area will be filled with people because they're expecting some 7,000 cars to roll through here, they believe that's going to feed upwards of 28,000 people. behind me, more of the distribution location when they have the supplies here. i want to talk numbers to give you some tangible things to really grasp in terms of how bad

things are here, according to officials. in 2019 they gave away some 29 million pounds of food, right now that number is sitting at about 42 million. then you take the time period of july of last year to september of last year, compare this to the same time period this year, it's more than double. so they're seeing an increase of more than 113%. we talked to officials, so there's four organizations here that are trying to help put this together, they all tell us that this is worse than 2008 recession, and 2009 combined, so they have about 300 volunteers here, equipped with ppe, they have their masks, sanitizing, they have gloves on, folks will pull up, put these boxes in their trunk, and they will make sure that anybody who needs and wants a thanksgiving dinner will be able to have one. chris? >> meghan fitzgerald in orange county, darna burns there in appalachia, thanks to both of you today. politics and the pandemic, thanksgiving day campaigning is

under way in georgia, where two runoff race also determine the balance of power in the senate. we'll take you there live on msnbc. ♪ ♪ ♪ you're all, you're all i need ♪ ♪ you're all, you're all i need ♪ ♪ as long as i got you then baby ♪ ♪ you know that you've got me, oh! yea...♪ ♪ to help you build a flexible wealth plan. you'll have access to tax-smart investing strategies, and with brokerage accounts online trades are commission free. personalized advice. unmatched value. at fidelity, you can have both.

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that's why it's time for digital currency and your investment in the grayscale funds. go digital. go grayscale. most americans are at least trying to put politics aside for the thanksgiving holiday, unless of course you happen to live in the state of georgia. the two runoff elections for both senate seats is about a month away and already this morning, we've seen both democrats out at public events handing out thanksgiving meals to families, both republicans didn't get back to us when we asked them about their plans today but we are seeing senator perdue on the front page of the "new york times," article centering around stock trades and million-dollar dump of shares in a company where he used to sit on the board, the sell-off trigger and investigation by the justice department for possible insider

trading. julia chester is in atlanta. an awful lot going on, you have the pandemic, the economic fallout. that's probably the biggest backdrop to everything these candidates are doing. tell us where you are and are you hearing from the candidates yet? >> reporter: good morning, chris. it is impossible to avoid politics at the thanksgiving table here in georgia this year. as you mentioned, the senate is in the high stakes runoff and the candidates on the democratic side are here at a hosea helps drive-through event. the reverend warnock behind me. senator perdue reports he personally directed profitable stock transactions at the start of the pandemic. now his campaign insists that separate reviews by the justice department, the sec and the bipartisan senate ethics committee each quickly and independently cleared him of any wrongdoing and while that is

true, the statement does not address the allegations that's personally involved in a stock portfolio which is something his campaign has said for months is not the case, that it's independently separately managed, and as for the democrats, his opponent john ossoff said his repeated misconduct is a flagrant abuse of power, but as you mentioned, the focus here is much more so on this. now i caught up with reverend warnock a bit ago and here is what he told me about why he's out here today. >> people in georgia need relief and the people of this country have been waiting for a covid-19 relief package for months. the senate is on vacation, but as you can see, hunger is not on vacation. homelessness is not on vacation and evictions are happening at a rate that is concerning. as i move around the community,

people are concerned about those kinds of things, and they need someone in washington who is looking out for them. >> reporter: we are in atlanta, a thanksgiving unlike any other with politics and the pandemic looming over the state here. back to you, chris. >> julia jester, thank you so much. very busy where she is in atlanta today. the hidden toll of the pandemic, the growing mental health crisis from months of anxiety, job loss and health worries. plus a reason to find hope and give thanks through these dark days. ent. everyone does -- right up here. it happens to all of us. we buy a new home, and we turn into our parents. what i do is help new homeowners overcome this. what is that, an adjustable spanner? good choice, steve. okay, don't forget you're not assisting him. you hired him. if you have nowhere to sit, you have too many. who else reads books about submarines? my dad. yeah. oh, those are -- progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto

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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! . we already know the pandemic is taking a huge toll on people physically, but the mental health implications are very real. they're staggering, in fact. especially on those fighting the virus every single day on the front lines. there's a new story in "the new york times" that details the battle fatigue many medical workers are feeling. here is a little part of it. quote, doctors and nurses on the front lines are running on empty, under increasing duress has the pandemic surges and hospitals are overrun with patients. let me bring in sarah wakefield, associate professor and chair of

the psychiatry department at texas tech health sciences center. thank you for being with us on this holiday. i'm wondering what psychological tolls we're seeing in this pandemic taking on health care workers, and is it going to get worse before it gets better with this new surge of cases. >> thank you so much for having me. it's really nice to be here on this holiday. what we're seeing are what we see all the time with physicians and nurses and health care workers, that they carry a very high level of stress, high level of burden of taking on other people's stresses and just moving on. during this time it's been a lot harder. it's been a lot harder for a lot of us. whether you're on the so-called front lines or in your clinic or in the pharmacy, we have clinicians all over the world trying to figure out what the next best step in for their patients and often not having the answer for those questions which can be really, really

difficult and adds to that toll that we're seeing and the burnout, the battle fatigue, that depression, that worry, not having the right answer and being unsure of how to help your patient. >> let me read you a little bit more. it's a heartbreaking excerpt from that "new york times" article i mentioned. a critical care physician accidentally brought the virus home, and his whole family got sick. he told the paper, i felt so guilty. this is my job, what i wanted to do for a living, and it could have killed my children, could have killed my wife. all this because of me. what are some of the things that frontline workers need to be doing and, frankly, their employers need to make sure they're doing to be able to take care of themselves mentally? >> first of all, knowing we have the right personal protective equipment is very important. i say all the time, we are not unused to infectious difficult

seerks not unused to seeing illness and critical illness. but when we're not sure we're being adequately protected, it's very hard to want to leave the house, to want to see your family, to not know if you're bringing that home to your loved ones. the other part is that, once you're protected, once you've done everything that you can, you're go toing have to forgive yourself for living in this moment in time. this is the moment that we're in, and we will do our best. we'll do our best to protect our patients and protect ourselves and to protect our family, but there are no guarantees in life. so we really have to unite together, understand and normalize that feeling stressed out during this time is the typical experience, that that's not a sign of weakness. that's a sign of humanity, and step in and support each other sooner, access mental health care services and support sooner. really important for employers to provide access to that for

physicians. >> the holidays are always a difficult time of year for a lot of people, whether they lost loved ones during the holidays, so it brings that back, whether they're alone. lots of reasons that people find the holidays difficult. maybe they're having problems with their families, but you add on to that now covid-19, and for a lot of people the economic difficulties that that means. i don't mean to treat people in 30 seconds on a tv show, but if there's one thing you can say to people out there who are struggling, what would it be? >> well, i want to remind us all that there are things to be grateful for. we are morale like than we are different. sometimes that's hard to see when we're spending a lot of time in isolation, social isolation, looking at social media, seeing the divisiveness sometimes in different programming. really, the number one thing is we've always had struggles, but together we can get through this. we can move forward, and to

remember to go outside. really, i think that's one of the more important things, whether you're in a high-rise apartment and wearing a mask or you're across the front yard talking to your neighbor. go outside, see your neighbor. remember that we're all in this together. >> sarah wakefield on this holiday, thank you so much for taking time away from your loved ones to be with was. thanks to all of you for watching this hour of "msnbc live." i hope wherever you are, whoever you're with, that you do have things to be thankful for and you enjoy this holiday. up next we have more news with yasmin vossoughian. but first, on this thanksgiving in the middle of a pandemic, americans are still finding plenty of reasons to be grateful for what they have and what they can give. >> my name is orion jean. i'm in fifth grade and i'm from ft. worth, texas. i'm just thankful that all of these things that have happened, they made me stronger as a

person. so in a way, in a very strange way the coronavirus has kind of made us better and more prepared for what's happening, what's going to happen next. >> my name is ben hertle, a ups driver in mother natural grove, minnesota. there's always beautiful things in the world. don't give in to darkness and fear. threes beauty everywhere. >> my name is hark hale and i teach first and second grade. i remain grateful and hopeful. every time i look into my stew deents' eyes, i know they need me more than ever. it's my duty and obligation to give them five-star service regardless of pandemic. >> i'm dr. desai, director of medicine at emery st. joseph hospital. time and time again i'm reminded i'm not doing this alone but doing it with others who have the same mission as me and that makes me feel thankful on a daily basis. >> it's hard to stay positive about the things we still do

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so bounce forward, with comcast business. . good morning, everybody and happy thanksgiving. i'm yasmin vossoughian. thanks for spending some of your day with us. we want to start with the latest facts on this pandemic that has killed more than 261,000 americans. right now states and local communities are making big changes