joining us now, rosa brooks. rs in the obama administration as a counselor to the undersecretary of defense for policy. she's now a co-organizer of the transition integrity project. ms. brooks, thank you for being here. this has become a question that has gone from people saying it's ridiculous to talk about, clearly it's not up to donald trump to accept or not accept the results of an election. but people are now wondering what are the actual mechanics? what happens after election day, which by the way might not be like other election days because of the number of absentee ballots, because of coronavirus, and the number of mail-in ballots. in your esteemed opinions, in these consultations you've had, what happens? >> nothing very good happened, and i should say at the get-go that our exercises were not exactly secret. anything that gets covered by "the boston globe" isn't much of a secret. but what we were trying to do is get a group of people together to talk about some of the what-ifs, not to make predictions,

rosa? >> reporter: well, brooke, miami-dade county just released the latest positivity rate and it went up from 27% to 28%. and the goal from the county, according to the mayor, is not to exceed 10%. well they've exceeded that for the fast 14 days. whether it comes to hospitalizations, in the past 13 days there is an increase of 70%. ventilators 116%. and it accounts for about 24% of the more than 220,000 cases but it is the not only area impacted. jacksonville was just deemed by hhs a hot spot. so much so that the federal government is now setting up a testing site there and hoping to test at least 5,000 people per day. the mayor of jacksonville lenny curry is now in quarantine because of possible covid exposure. now here is the irony about the situation in jacksonville. you probably remember about a month ago it made a lot of news because of the reopening of beaches. well governor ron desantis had a press conference at the time where he was supporting, defending the reopening plan, slamming the media and asking critics to send apologies. take a listen. >> the facts are that since this ha

brooke. >> keep calling them. blow them up. that needs to change. ro ro rosa flores, thank you. >>> hospitals in two counties have reached capacity as coronavirus cases surge statewide and officials are sounding the alarm as icu beds are coming close to being fully in use as the number of cases continues to climb across the state of texas suggesting it is only a matter of days until hospitals are overwhelmed. listen to this. >> if we don't change the trajectory we're on now, that in ten days to two weeks, we're going to have overwhelmed hospitals and overwhelmed icus and it is not just the physical space, it is the health care professionals, it is the doctors and the skilled nurses and it is beginning to look like houston and dallas and san antonio are all going to be competing with that same talent as austin here in a couple of weeks. and that has great concern. >> speaking of houston, joining me now dr. ben saldana from free-standing emergency care centers for houston methodist hospital. so thank you for being on with me. welcome. >> thanks for having us. >>

florida, governor ron desantis, brooke, departing to the white house today where he's expected to talk to president donald trump about covid-19 and also other matters. >> rosa, thank you in miami. >>> coming up here on cnn, president trump making big reversals and striking a slightly different tone on the pandemic. could is t have anything to do with the tail spin in the polls. let's talk about that. >>> and this family in michigan devastating after the coronavirus has taken the parents of three children and one of the kids will join me live. you're watching cnn, i'm brooke baldwin. (burke) at farmers, we know how nice it is to save on your auto policy. but it's even nicer knowing that if this happens... ...or this.... ...or even this... ...we've seen and covered it. so, get a quote today. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪ >>> we're back on this friday afternoon. you're watching cnn, i'm brooke baldwin. listen, if one thing has been consistent during this pandemic it is the inconsistent messages from the president of the united states. look at past week. we've seen another sears of mixed messages. yesterday he canceled the republican national

brooke, we could show that curve just one more time. the governor there describing it as flatter. not so flat. exactly right. >> not so flat. rosa flores, thank you so much for being there and for reporting on all of this day in and day out out of florida. >>> let me bring in celine grounder, when you hear rosa and the update on what is happening in florida, not such a flat curve, when dr. fauci calls out florida for reopening too quickly, just short of a statewide shutdown, what can be done to stop the surge. >> honestly, brook, i don't think there is much more than a shut down. the testing, contact tracing, isolation, work best when you have suppressed community transmission to a more controllable level but this is completely out of control. you have widespread community transmission and i don't see any other way right now. >> you have a governor, let's be frank, that is in denial of the curve. >> that is right. and i think now we're starting to see an increase in deaths subsequent to the increase in infections and this is going to hit florida with an aging population really hard. >> we'll be talking to a disney world employee

rosa flores is live in miami. and how are the hospitals coping right now? >> reporter: you know, brooke, right now it is not so much the need for equipment or hospital beds because right now a lot of the hospitals are converting regular bed news icu beds. what they need right now are human beings that could provide the medical care. as you mentioned, we're learning from the state that 43 hospitals across the state are asking for nurses. they need nurses. case in point right here in jackson where i am, the state deployed 125 nurses recently. well now we're learning from jackson that they requested an additional 275 medical professionals. so they could meet demand. and here is why. more than a hundred employees are out with covid-19. they contracted covid in the past ten days. now when we look at miami-dade county, icus have been operating at more than 100% for the past six days and if we look at the state, more than 50, more than 50 icu hospitals are operating at capacity. now, today during a press conference governor ron desantis said based on the data he's looking at his state is on th

his family that you see there, john miles, his son, natasha brooks, john milsey girlfriend, sam lewis and grant lewis, another brother. rosan the bridge today chief of staff michael collins and so those were the people as you saw with a single driver that stood, everybody else away and once it hit the moment of silence for 60 seconds, beyond that point you saw the family members and people close to john lewis escort him across that bridge. be with him in his final moments in selma, alabama. moving forward from march seventh, 1965 to this sunday, this was a sunday too, to this sunday in 2020. we shall over come and now they consider -- they continue singing and we should expect another pause momentaryily. bishop of dallas, texas. is he listening. bishop, thank you for being with me. take us through from a spiritual perspective. all right, we are working to get a better audio situation in dallas, texas, and we will do that momentarily. i hear them testing his microphone and as they do that, look how much the crowd filled in on the other side of edmund pettus bridge, everyone stepped away with the exception to have family and

brooke. >> they are and to your point about kids, we're talking to a woman coming up who lost her brought to covid and her daughter's two itty-bitty's tests positive. for now, rosa flores in miami beach, thank you. >>> joining me now to discuss, just all of this, is dr. seema yasmin and disease detective. and so doctor, as you heard with talking to kaitlan, the highest ranking trump official has tested positive for covid. we don't know the last time he was with trump per se but you heard kate rin report he was in paris and met with counterparts in europe. a., how significant is this and b., does in thnot underscore the need for testing and tracing despite what the white house has said. >> it is very serious, brooke. especially when we think about the kind of global travel that high ranking officials are doing even now at the height of the pandemic. in the u.s. and it is concerning that we've seen pictures of the adviser not wearing a mask while in public meetings. it totally reinforces the need for testing. we are now told that senior white house officials get daily testing. i hope that is the case. because at least then you have reassurance that people are gett