lift me up ♪ ♪ i know you will lift me lord, lift me up ♪ good morning. i'm chris jansing. it's friday, november 27th. i hope you had a great thanksgiving. we've got a lot to talk about this morning. president trump finally seems to be coming to grips with his political fate, but his path to acceptance is littered with lies and allegations that could have massive implications for america's confidence in the electoral system and more immediately the gop's bid to hold on to the senate. following a thanksgiving call to u.s. troops serving overseas, the president went on for 25 minutes about how he was robbed, alleging fraud on an unprecedented scale with, again,

absolutely no evidence. take a listen. >> this has a long way to go. this has a long way to go. you are going to find tremendous fraud. you're going to find fraud of hundreds of thousands of votes per state. you're going to find fraud of many, many times the votes that i need. i hate to say it, but this was a rigged. at the highest level it was a rigged election. >> again, not true. no evidence. on one hand, you can dismiss that as nothing but frustration over losing the election and getting nowhere in his legal efforts to change the outcome. but this isn't just about the president. remember, there are still two senate races yet to be decided in georgia. and increasingly, republicans are nervous that some of their voters convinced elections are rigged because the president says so will just stay home. but trump and ha lies continue to allege the states voting system is corrupt and if their voters don't turn out, of course, they don't win, democrats take over.

president trump who had been reluctant now says he will head to georgia next weekend to campaign, but yesterday, his mind was still very much on his own political future. >> -- votes for joe biden on december frae14th, will you concede -- >> it's going to be a very hard thing to concede because we know there was massive fraud. >> just to be clear, if the electoral college votes for joe biden, will you concede? >> if they, do they made a mistake because this election -- >> but will you -- >> -- was a fraud. >> just say you understand. this election was a fraud. >> if the electoral college does elect president-elect joe biden, are you not going to leave this building? >> oh, certainly i will. certainly i will. and you know that. but i think that there will be a lot of things happening between now and the 20th. >> i want to bring in kelly o'donnell following president trump from washington, ali vitali is on the road in delaware with president-elect

biden, and joel payne is a democratic political strategist who worked for the clinton campaign in 2016. thanks to all of you for being here. hope you had a great thanksgiving. kelly, one of the things that mattered is that the president said he will go to georgia. apparently next weekend which is kind of a kont acontradiction t saying voter fraud, voter fraud. he's going to go there and ask republicans to vote. tell us more what you know about that. >> it gives the president an opportunity to once again experience that campaign rally vibe that we know he so enjoys. he talked about this being an open-air airport style rally because he said due to covid he can't do an arena. so creating a bit of what he perceives to be the magic of the campaign trail. it's also important while he talked about the two senate races that are both going to runoff there, it is unusual to have two senate seats up in the same year. that's due to the retirement of

one senator. it's a special election and the regular both going to a runoff. he spoke to both of the republican incumbents yesterday and warned them that he's concerned about voter fraud but he'll go there to encourage republican voters to turn out. but there is also the piece of his own election that he wants to fight while there because some of his legal team is challenging the result in georgia for a recount and the demand the president talks about is being able to see this signatures associated with certain ballots. he went into a lot of detail going into some of these, in some cases, conspiracy type theorys about what may have happened with the election. and a lot of little details that still don't come to the point of being able to overturn results in one state, let alone enough states to change the outcome of this election. he was also asked about the idea of you're telling voters there's a fraud at the same time voters

are required to secure a republican senate. if that's the goal you have, mr. president. and he acknowledged that it's a mixed message and that he says there is this fraud, and at the same time will try to persuade republican voters to turn out. it's a hard argument. special elections and runoff elections on top of that. turnout is a key. and it's all about that. will voters feel motivated on the democratic side to see the chance of getting control of the senate or will republicans who may feel beaten up by the election with president trump not winning, will they turn out to try to be a hedge against a biden presidency. that's what's at stake here. the president mixing the messages, chris. >> yeah, it's hard to overstate what the stakes are here, joel. so let me ask you what you're hearing from democrats and what your take on this is. there's this big article in "political co" today that talks about these maga groups online talking about you shouldn't go

out there. you shouldn't vote. even donald trump jr. was forced to say, don't listen to them. we need you to vote. yeah, president, keep talking about how crooked things purpose keep saying don't vote. that only works for us. >> democrats are doing what they've had to do for the last four years which is keep their heads down and ignore the things coming out of 1600 pennsylvania avenue. this president lives in his fantasy world of his own creation. and while that might make him feel better, it doesn't change the reality on the ground. he's going to be leaving of the white house on january 20th. and democrats have a big opportunity to take back those two seats in georgia. and i think that the candidates, jon ossoff and raphael warnock have been disciplined about understanding what georgia voters need to hear. i think the president and republicans and mitch mcconnell understand that, you know, their message didn't resonate with

georgia republicans and georgia voters. and i think what you are going to see here is a real surge in democratic enthusiasm and excitement to turn out for the special election which is uncommon because normally in special elections you'd think it would favor the republican party. i think democrats feel very bullish about going into the special. >> ali, president-elect biden is doing what he can to stay above the fray of all of this. but any reaction to trump's comments from the people on his team? >> no, and chris, i think that's actually the point. we didn't see them respond to the pardoning of michael flynn. we didn't see them respond to the president's thanksgiving diatribe. instead, biden stayed focus on his own messaging. spending time with family yesterday after releasing this message on twitter in the morning. >> i know better days are coming. i know how bright our future is. i know the 21st century is going to be an american century.

history has shown and all of you have shown that there's nothing we can't do if we do it together. >> chris, i think this is going to be the pace of news the next four years as we head into a biden administration. we're not going to be seeing wild tweeting that swings the news cycle from topic to topic. we'll not see him giving long press conferences we don't know are coming, that cabinet roll-out set the tone for the way they're trying to do their cabinet picks. the pace is going to be slower than what we've seen over the course of the last four years. it's by design, though, because this is a group of people that's trying to project seriousness. they know that they are in the midst of several crises, including this burgeoning coronavirus crisis, and that is their focus right now. i will say, though, we expect the pace to pick up slightly again next week. biden is going to be rolling out a list of economic picks, including janet yellen is expected to be the next treasury secretary of the united states.

if confirmed, again, that would be historic. she would be the first woman to run that agency. but she also has to juggle a few competing things if she gets there after a senate confirmation. the fact there are a lot of progressives who are supportive of her nomination right now, but at the same time, on the back end, they are going to want to see a treasury department and an economic policy out of this group that tackles things like the racial wealth gap, the wealth gap more broadly across the country. that's something that was a key issue in this democratic primary that many progressives are still hoping to see rectified. but then she's also going to have to deal with the recession that we're currently in and some economists looking forward to maybe we'll see a double-dip recession in the early part of next year. all of that linked with combating the coronavirus which, of course, is the focus for this group of people 50-some odd days out before they take power in washington, d.c. >> and you're right, joel, about the enthusiasm on the democratic side because we saw, as has been said a million times, the record

numbers of votes for joe biden in a presidential campaign. having said that, it did not translate, obviously, to house seats. it didn't translate to what any number of groups were working on which was flipping legislatures to the democratic side. that didn't happen. and now democrats who felt some of them pretty confident there were enough contested races out there that they could win the senate. it comes down to these two. tell me what you think needs to get done over the next six weeks to have that enthusiasm that work forward joe biden, worked for those two senate candidates, particularly as we're talking about something like a ground game in the middle of the ongoing pandemic and, frankly, the holidays. people are doing a lot of other stuff. >> chris, you took the words out of my mouth. ground game. ali and kelly know those words very well based on the reporting that they have to get that machinery turned out on the ground to get people educated on the day of the vote and how to

vote and the safe ways to vote. obviously, given coronavirus. and democrats are focussed on that. something that didn't happen in the presidential and in the general election. a lot of the on the ground organization of knocking on doors and things of that nature. we know democrats are going to resume some of that in georgia in a safe way, in a way that respects the health and safety of georgians. so and then on top of that, you have two very popular experienced candidates in ossoff and warnock who really overperformed in their races in the general election. so democrats feel very good about that. >> joel payne, great to see you. kelly o'donnell, ali vitali, thanks to all of you. so much of the challenge for the new administration will be the coronavirus pandemic. and with thanksgiving now in the rear-view mirror, we now wait to see if the holiday leads to a spike in new cases. of course, the situation is already awful. roughly 1.2 million cases were reported in the past week alone, and daily death tolls have been

hovering around 2,000. those are numbers we haven't seen since mid-may. gabe gutierrez is in new york, dasha burns is in bristol, tennessee. two very different places. we wanted to look at how things are going there. gabe, how are health workers preparing for the weeks ahead where you are? >> well, chris, it's certainly a very big concern. as you mentioned around the country, around 2,000 deaths a day. the most since the summer. at least 263,000 covid deaths since the pandemic began, and now the cdc says that it believes that the country is severely undercounting these cases. that the actual number could be up to eight times higher than has been reported. now here in new york, the governor andrew cuomo says that his office is busy coming up with a winter plan, so to speak, for how to deal with this pandemic. it's going to be taking a closer look at hospitalizations, although we don't have the

details on what any of the changes will be. but, krirchris, as you know, ma bill de blasio has faced a lot of backlash for switching schools to all virtual learning with the positivity rate topping 3%. that is certainly much lower than other parts of the country. the actual positivity rate in schools is much lower than that. so there's a lot of controversy here in new york as to how to move forward. and, of course, with the u.s. supreme court coming back yesterday -- or late wednesday night and issuing that ruling blocking the enforcement of restrictions on houses of worship here, which governor cuomo yesterday called irrelevant because they've already expired, a lot of questions moving forward as we move into the winter, public health officials do expect that case count to rise dramatically after the thanksgiving holiday, chris. >> dasha, new york, unfortunately, has had a lot of experience.

obviously, the huge outbreak we saw in april, may, a lot of experience in those hospitals. but talk about how people where you are, are dealing with this pandemic in appalachia. >> yeah, chris, there are some factors specific to this region that make battling this virus particularly difficult here. first, this is a largely rural area. so people are coming to hospitals like this one from many miles away. some as far away as the border of west virginia. this is also a population with high levels of co-morbidity, meaning people have underlying conditions like obesity, diabetes, opioid addiction, making them more vulnerable to be hospitalized and more likely to die from this disease. but there's one other factor a little more unexpected for the health care workers here that's making things especially difficult. and that's the crisis of misinformation. and for that, i want to bring in chief infection prevention officer jamie swift. you've been preparing for something like this for the

better part of the last 20 years. you've been through h1n1, ebola. how is covid-19 different and how does misinformation play a role in this? >> it's really a different response. as we stood up our emergency response systems and our command centers to respond to this virus, we saw very quickly the spread of misinformation was going to impact our response. we know that the spread of misinformation is costing lives. we have patients that may not come in until the last minute because they still just believe this isn't true. so as we respond to the virus, as a health system, we've had to very quickly develop a response to the misinformation. we've partnered with our local mayors, local leaders. spent a lot of time trying to be proactive and really fight that misinformation so that people can understand, this is what's going on. help them understand this is the truth of the virus and look to us to be a source of truth. >> how concerned are you about the consequences of some of the gatherings that may have happened yesterday because people didn't heed those

warnings to keep their family gatherings, their neighborhood gatherings more limited? >> i really am concerned for our region. we are seeing higher cases each week. our case counts continue to go up week after week. we have a high burden of virus in the community. if there were lots of gatherings, we know in two to three weeks we'll have more hospitalizations, more cases. that's concerning of what could happen over the next 4 to 6 weeks. >> jamie, thank you. chris, i spoke to a nurse this morning who is seeing patients who are coming in with shortness of breath who are being diagnosed with covid-19 but just don't believe it is real. and that is posing a lot of challenges for the health workers here. chris? >> dasha, i'm going to cause a little problem here. i saw jamie walk away, but is she still there? i have a question for her. i think it's really important on this misinformation. if we could ask her. there are a lot of folks who have been told, you know, wait until you get really symptomatic before thinking about going into

the hospital because the hospitals are so overtaxed. what's her message to folks not just in her region but people who may be not believers all across the country or people in rural areas who hesitate to go to the hospital. at what point do people need to seek help. what's her message? >> let me ask her that now. our host chris jansing has a question for you. what is your message to people who might not believe in this thing and are waiting until the last minute, not just in this area, but all across this country who -- at what point should they come and seek help to make the jobs of the staff here easier and make them more likely to have their lives saved? >> i think there's a couple of messages. first and foremost is testing. go get tested, even with those mild symptoms. you need to know if you have this if you're spreading this. certainly be tested. if you start feeling really sick, if you've been tested, you're positive or even if you haven't. if you're having trouble breathing, getting weak, not

eating, unable to keep food down, come in. be evaluated. see what's going on if it's covid or something else. >> come as early as possible. your chances of survival are going to be better? >> absolutely. >> chris, there you have it. that is the message. >> dasha, thank you. thank you, jamie. thank you gabe gutierrez in new york as well. we've got a lot more ahead. new nbc reporting just out this morning on former intelligence officials sounding the alarm. not everyone thinks president trump should have access to america's national secrets once he leaves office. and the traditional day after thanksgiving shopping trip looking very different this year due to the coronavirus. how shoppers are scrapping waiting on long lines for big deals this black friday. >> it's not worth it when you can shop online. there's so many other options. eg damaged in the wash. that's why i use new downy defy. that's what's up! we have an assistant locker room manager?

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intelligence world on alert right now. ex-presidents have access to classified information, and the concern among former intelligence officials is what president trump could learn and whether he could let something slip because if past is precedent, their concerns hold some wait. here's a couple of examples. according to our reporting at nbc news, when trump briefed the public about the commando raid at killed al baghdadi, he disclosed classified and sensitive details. last year, you may remember, president trump tweeted what experts said was a secret satellite photo of an iranian nuclear installation. "the new york times" reporting on the president's tax records and his apparent financial challenges continued to raise questions about vulnerabilities to potential foreign forces. in other words, would it give them information? ken dilanian has more on the national security concerns and implications. good to see you, ken. take us through this new reporting. first of all, i mean, i think we should start with the basics.

what kinds of information can former presidents get? do they get them in written form? in briefings? and what are the main concerns you're hearing right now from the intelligence community? >> good morning, chris. former presidents have tended to get intelligence briefings before they travel overseas, for example, and they may get an in-person briefing from a cia officer. and they've also gotten briefings when the current president wants to consult them on a particular national security issue. and sometimes it's written. sometimes it's oral. i'm hearing from a cross section of u.s. intelligence officials who are very concerned that donald trump frankly poses a national security risk with the information he's got in his head now and they don't want him to have further information after he leaves office. and their concerns are twofold. donald trump's got a real estate empire. deals or potential deals in adversary countries, including russia and china and as "the new york times" reported in his tax records, he appears to have

significant debt issues. he's under financial pressure. he's officipersonally guarantees held by foreign banks. with that kind prove file, a person like that would not be given access to secrets. jack goldsmith, a former bush administration official worries that a foreign government will put donald trump on retainer knowing he'll be indiscreet and essentially try to monetize classified information. that's one worry. even if trump doesn't go that car, as you said, he's got a track record of being extremely careless with classified information and in addition to the examples you mention, there's that famous episode in 2017 when he provided highly sensitive information to the russian foreign minister in the overall office that came from an ally and we understand compromised a sensitive program. there's a lot of worry about what he might do and what my sources are saying is he shouldn't have these normal briefings that other former presidents have gotten. >> is there an anticipation that he would? i don't think there are many

people who think that joe biden is going to get on the phone and call donald trump and ask him to weigh in on something or send him somewhere as an envoy. he barely traveled as president himself. so even having said that, how unusual would it be or unprecedented for a president to say, a former president that has no access to any kind of classified materials? >> so you hit the nail on the head with a number of issues here. a lot of my sources don't believe that president trump will even ask for these briefings. he's had no patience for his intelligence briefings while in office. no love for the cia or other intelligence agencies. so he may never ask. joe biden also probably doesn't want to have to publicly say you can't have them. we tried to get a comment from the biden team for this story. they declined to comment. he doesn't want to anger the 70 million-plus people who voted for donald trump by publicly denying him the access to this information. so you're absolutely right. what probably will happen is

this issue will go away quietly. we'll never hear about it and trump won't be granted access to this information unless he decides to make an issue of it. back to you. >> ken dilanian, thank you so much. when we return -- three veteran cdcers in are raising concerns about the politization of anag agency that plays a critical role in the pandemic. as covid cases continue to rise in los angeles, new travel quarantine restrictions are in effect. we're live at l.a.x. with the details. 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! who knows where that button is? i don't have silent. 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.

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now to the latest on the coronavirus pandemic. here are the facts at this hour. new cases surpassed more than 100,000 for the 23rd consecutive day thursday with 124,000 new infections. but the cdc now says the real number could be eight times higher than what's been reported. more than 1200 people died on thanksgiving day alone from the virus. at the same time, the number of covid-19 patients in hospitals nationwide hit a record for the 17th straight day thursday. the number at more than 90,000. that's prompted more medical centers to warn they are running

out of capacity. and sources confirming to "the washington post" that baltimore ravens star quarterback and reigning nfl mvp lamar jackson has tested positive for the coronavirus. the ravens reportedly also had four additional players test positive jeopardizing this weekend's already postponed game in pittsburgh scheduled for yesterday. word is the nfl is considering expanding its regular season by a week to make up for canceled games. let's go live to erin mclaughlin in los angeles where a new travel quarantine is in effect. erin, good to see you. tell us about this quarantine and how it's impacting travelers arriving at l.a.x., which is one of the busiest airports in the country. >> hey, chris. that's right. they are asking anyone arrives here at l.a.x. airport to fill out a form acknowledging california's recommendation that anyone traveling to the state from out of state quarantine for some 14 days. this as the airport officials tell me they've seen a rise in the number of passengers here in

recent days. an average of 41,000 passengers passing through tsa in the days leading up to the thanksgiving holiday reaching a peak last friday actually with 44,000 passengers still nowhere near the volume of thanksgiving past. take a listen. >> you know, it's pretty staggering. last year, we would have been talking about numbers in the range of -- a day coming through los angeles alone. now we're talking about numbers in the tens of thousands. so definitely not the same as last year but we are at the same time seeing more people take to the skies than we have since the beginning of the year. >> and that's potentially alarming to officials here in los angeles, especially when you consider the l.a. mayor is telling people in this city not to travel across town for thanksgiving, let alone to the airport and out of state.

california has seen an unprecedented surge in recent weeks. just on wednesday here, in l.a. county, they saw over 5,000 confirmed covid-19 cases. a positivity rate of some 7%. the number so alarming that authorities here are warning that l.a. county could run out of hospital beds by christmas, if the area continues on this current trajectory. chris? >> one of the things we've seen, especially around the holidays is how overwhelmed many of these testing centers are. what's going on in l.a., and i guess l.a.x. in particular? >> yeah, there's a huge emphasis, even from the beginning of the pandemic on testing here in l.a. county, as well as throughout the state of california. l.a.x. is doing its part as well. setting up a testing center, as of last week, offering passengers that option to take a test when they come -- before they get on a plane. results in one or two days.

officials here say that's designed to allow them to travel to areas that require quarantine, such as hawaii. a quarantine or a negative covid-19 test. >> erin mclaughlin, thank you for that. the centers for disease control has been tested as never before by a becopandemic that's killed 262,000 americans. but it's put a lot of political pressure on the cdc with health experts worried about whether it can regain its reputation. more than a thousand current and former cdc officials denounced the politicization of the agency just last month, especially concerning as coronavirus cases and deaths jump nationwide. geoff bennett sat down with three cdc veterans who saw its politicization firsthand. >> reporter: the cdc has been at the forefront of the pandemic response and under fire after months of mixed messages, political pressure and public gaffes about covid-19.

creating cracks in the country's public health armor as coronavirus cases surge. >> cdc has lost its voice as the lead on pandemics. >> reporter: bob kohmacher retired from the agency after nearly four decades of service. >> i spent 35 years at cdc. i want to see cdc prosper and improve and get back to where it was before. >> reporter: carlton duncan previously was the agency's acting chief operating officer. >> i was there 21 1/2 years and that was definitely the thing that was one of our strengths. that we lead with science. >> reporter: and dr. madeline is an epidemiologist and obgyn. three cdc insiders speaking out about the agency's path forward after an unprecedented effort to sideline science during the covid crisis. emails and documents obtained by nbc news show how the trump white house pressed public

health officials to fall in line with president trump's political agenda. burying cdc reopening guidelines, watering down covid guidance for cruise ships, churches and theme parks, even installing political operatives at the cdc to try to control the information it released. one veteran cdc staffer who wished to remain anonymous telling nbc news, the house is not only on fire. we're standing in ashes. the three of you represent decades of experience at the cdc. has the agency ever been politicized in the way you say it has been under the trump administration? >> i think during the aids epidemic, we experienced a lot of barriers. and some of these political opposition that we received actually resulted in greater infections. >> even though we could have saved more lives than we did, it was nothing. it pales in my opinion, it pales in comparison to what we're

experiencing now. >> reporter: while a new white house offers the cdc a new opportunity to regain public trust, one current staffer tells nbc news, i don't know if the damage to our reputation can be overcome with a new administration. i worry it's a permanent problem. >> what's the morale? what's the culture like now that there's been a new administration elected? >> it's almost like you can see a light at the end of the tunnel in terms of science being able to go further in terms of its reach. we all feel very excited and that help is not too far away. >> we're all feeling that way. we hope help is not too far away. nbc's jeffen iss en geoff b you for that. we'll talk to a member of the covid advisory board about how eager they are to roll out a vaccine and who should be the first to get it. listen to this nurse on the front lines in nebraska. >> i really hope covid doesn't last for much longer, but we all

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president-elect joe biden and his wife dr. jill biden spending part of their thanksgiving holiday weekend thanking frontline workers. >> how are you all feeling? >> for real. >> it's crazy. it's crazy what's happened. >> and you're risking your lives. you guys are amazing. thank you, thank you, thank you. >> yeah, do they have their hands full. joining us, dr. celine gounder, a member of the transition advisory board and infectious disease expert. i want you to take us inside the discussions. what advice are you giving the incoming administration as we look at how to tackle these disturbing trends.

can you give us sort of your priority list? >> well, there are a few things you'll see prioritized early on. one will be around the messaging around mask wearing. unfortunately, masks have been politicized. this is a basic public health, hygienic intervention. we -- it would be like politicizing toilet paper. unfortunately, that has driven many people to resist this, but the fact is that masks are cheap, they're effective in protecting you, the wearer and effective in protecting others and they don't shut down the economy. so you'll be hearing a lot more about masks and the importance of that and then also testing. this is something that the current administration has been actively discouraging, saying we're testing too much. the fact is that coronavirus is a bit like this big iceberg where you have a tip above water that's all the people getting sick who are ending up hospitalized, ending up dying. you have a much bigger part of that iceberg under water which is all of the transmission that's occurring in the

community. and if you can't see that part of the iceberg if that remains invisible, it's very difficult to control this. and so we need to do testing to make all of that transmission visible. >> do we still need to figure out, i don't know, better ways to test? it occurred to me as i was driving through new york and i saw three, four, five-hour long lines of people waiting to get tested. it's almost impossible in an urban setting to socially distance unless you're going to go, you know, 20 blocks and there are people walking by who don't have masks on. i mean, it is -- are there still ways that we need to be looking at to figure out how to get people tested in a more safe, more convenient, more reasonable way? not everybody has five hours in the middle of the day to stand in line to get tested. >> well, i think that's a great point, chris. especially five hours in the middle of the day when that's time off work and you're paid by the hour. you'll see a ramping up of

testing availability. but i'll also say those lines, and i had friends from all over the country texting me, lines for testing at their local urgent care center or test center. that has me really concerned because i think people believe that if they have a negative test result, that means they're in the clear. that's why you saw so many people lining up just before the holiday. the problem is just because you test negative today doesn't mean you won't test negative in two days, three days, up to 14 days. that's why the quarantine currently is 14 days long. so i think, unfortunately, some of what we're seeing in terms of those long lines was driven by this false idea of a negative test means you're not incubating the virus already. >> important message to get out. let's talk about the vaccine distribution right now and how the biden administration plans to take that over from the current administration. how confident are you that the government now is ready to roll out a vaccine, and are there

ways that the biden administration is focusing on that you think could make it even better? >> well, i think one through line through all of our planning is going to be health equity. we're quite aware that this pandemic disproportionate impact on communities of color. in our planning we're going to emphasize making sure those communities have access to a vaccine. we've already seen with respect to testing that there has been worse access in communities of color. they have fewer testing sites. the lines are longer. and we don't want to see those inequities continue now that you have a vaccine that's going to be rolling out. >> i want to ask you, finally, about what we're seeing in the nursing homes. 26,000 nursing homes have covid cases. 37% of all u.s. covid deaths are linked to nursing homes, according to "the new york times." look, we have known from the beginning that they were a

particular threat because of the ages and underlying conditions of the residents and the closed setting as well. but what have we not done in the past eight months or so to see that it's safer, not more dangerous, to be in a nursing home than it was in april. >> well, some of what needs to be done is really regulating infection control. so are workers being tested and screened? do they have adequate personal protective equipment? how many patients does each caregiver care for? these are all things that need to be looked at very carefully that i know there has been efforts to address this. my own father-in-law who passed away from unrelated causes in late august was in a facility like this. and i definitely saw firsthand they worked very hard to improve practices to make it safer. >> yeah, one of the problems is a lot of the people who work there getting sick and so it's

hard for them to replace those people and backfill which means, as you say, fewer people to take care of these patients. very complicated stuff you all are taking on for this new administration. dr. celine gounder, thank you for taking the time to speak with us. we appreciate it. >> my pleasure. and still to come -- black friday bargain hunting in a season like no other. how many are taking their shopping sprees completely virtual. and why so many americans are choosing to break from tradition this holiday season. thousands of women with metastatic breast cancer, which is breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, are living in the moment and taking ibrance. ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for postmenopausal women or for men with hr+/her2- metastatic breast cancer, as the first hormonal based therapy. ibrance plus letrozole significantly delayed disease progression versus letrozole, and shrank tumors in over half of patients.

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big changes to black friday this year with retailers bracing for an explosion of online shopping. even with the pandemic, folks were lining up before 5:00 a.m. in atlanta to get into this best buy. the new face of black friday is masks. you've got to have one to get in, but also the changing landscape is forcing americans and struggling retailers to adapt to the new reality more broadly. just last year more than 190 million people shopped over black friday and cyber monday weekend according to national retail federation. this year the number is expected to be down by 43%. we are at the perimeter mall in atlanta with more of this. what does black friday shopping look like this year and is the pandemic drastically changing the way you're seeing people shop there today?

>>. >> reporter: it is. there are some pieces of black friday, the black friday that we know that are still here today. for instance, this macy's just outside of atlanta opened at 5:00 a.m. and since then we've seen a steady stream of people shopping. many people before sun rise. that tradition is alive and well, but the crush of people getting in line thanksgiving night and camping out, not this year. not so much of that. experts predict a lot of the shopping is going to be done online. consider this. already in the month of november we've seen some $60 million in online sales. between today, black friday and cyber monday, those are going to be the two largest days for online sales in history. a lot of people shopping online, but there's still a good number of people coming into brick and mortar stores and the stores are doing a lot of things to make sure it's a safe experience. malls like this one, they're

increasing the frequency with which they're cleaning. masks are almost universal si required. but another thing is the sales. instead of having the sales on one day, they're going to be spread out over a month. it's not this huge rush to get in the door. take a look. >> versus everybody, 200 people jamming through a vestibule at one time. nobody wants to see that happen. there's no sense of urgency at this point to show up at a specific time because there's a limited amount of time to get a black friday promotion or discount. >> officially kicking off the holiday season, more folks got a head start on setting up their decorations. they normally go up after thanksgiving, but some started as early as halloween. they wanted to make life a little bit more colorful during the pandemic.

nbc's carrie sanders has more. >> reporter: in our year of the pandemic, this has become a welcome distraction. for most families who celebrate christmas, there's an unofficial timetable that says no christmas trees until today, but that's another rule that does not apply in 2020. >> i have been wanting christmas since june. my neighbors have had lights up since before halloween. it's been a year that's hit a lot of us hard. >> reporter: this family family in texas began decorating the day after halloween, four big trees, three little ones and then there's this year's elf on the shelf in a quarantine box. >> here she is. >> reporter: why do i get the idea this should go into a time capsule and be opened in 50 years? >> 100%. i think a lot of things from this year need to go in a time

capsule, but the elf in the quarantine box, for sure. >> calle >> reporter: and on social media, it's red, white, and green. if you're getting a freshly cut tree, the rush began a week ago. >> i'm not sure any of us could have predicted it would have been this busy. this last weekend was almost like a record weekend for all of us. >> reporter: at the beehive shop in pennsylvania, it was 90 degrees outside when the christmas requests began. >> since august people were asking when the christmas merchandise would be out. >> reporter: in miami's coconut grove, the popular light show on lime court is back with one new rule, social distancing. >> 2020 has been nothing but disease and disappointment. the things that people look forward to aren't happening. >> reporter: so we need this now? >> everybody needs something they can be happy about. >> reporter: what's spreading across america is something we

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