Joe biden. On tuesday we learned that the u. S. Will cut troop levels in iraq and afghanistan. That fulfills a Trump Campaign promise, but also does something that trump said he would never do. Tell our enemies about our Troop Movements ahead of time. In fact, those troops are set to withdraw by january 15th. That, of course, is days before biden takes office. Potentially creating a National Security crisis hell have to deal with on day one. And speaking of security, the president just fired, thats right, fired, chris krebs, the Homeland Security official who was in charge of cybersecurity for the election. Remember, krebs is the man who came out publicly and said this election was the most secure in history and that there were no signs of fraud. Basically the opposite of what trump keeps claiming. Krebs was fired over twitter, no surprise, since were only hearing from the president on social media these days. Once again, no Public Events on President Trumps schedule. That is the fifth day in a row. All of this comes as the rest of us, the rest of our nation, is facing a growing covid pandemic that the administrations own Task Force Says is aggressive, unrelenting and expanding across the country. That is according to their latest weekly report obtained by nbc news. New restrictions and measures are being put in place. The latest coming from states like ohio and maryland, but it may not be enough. Meanwhile, the toll continues to rise. Now just shy of 250,000 american deaths, a figure greater than the population of cities like richmond or baton rouge, but there are two pieces of very good news to tell you about this morning. Pfizer now saying it is just days away from seeking fda emergency approval for its vaccine, and overnight the fda approved a new inhome covid test which could have cut down on some of those nasty, nasty, giant testing lines weve seen across the country. I want to bring in dr. Ashish ja dean of the Dean University school of Public Health. A lot to cover. Start with the pfizer news. Can we be confident this vaccine and safe, because its happening very quickly. Good morning, stephanie. Thanks for having me on. Look, weve got to see the full side of data. Based on everything i have seen i am confident the vaccine will be safe and effective. Its happened quickly, but the scientific integrity with which the vaccine has been developed is really high. I am not worried about it. Again, look at the full celt of data when they become available over the next couple weeks. I plan when its my turn, whenever people, my turn, i plan to get vaccinated and at this point going to get my family vaccinated. I think its going to be pretty safe. Do we have any better idea ow the vaccine will get to people who need it . We know the Pfizer Vaccine needs to be stored in subzero temperatures, which could end up being a logistical disaster. A huge issue. One thing to have the vaccines that are safe and effective. Its a whole different issue to actually get it out into peoples arms. Right . The Pfizer Vaccine is particularly challenging and theyve worked for several months now to come up with a logistical plan, but this is why we actually need a really effective transition. Because the government, the federal government, the cdc harks to work with states and theyve got to hand off the whole logistics to the biden team, the fact that there is not an effective transition happening right now is probably going to slow down vaccine deployment across the country and will actually cost lives, and i think thats really a huge problem. There are a lot of people in this country who are saying they are not sure they want to take the vaccine. If they dont, are they just putting their own lives at risk, and what percentage of our population do we need to adopt this for it to actually impact us in a big way . Yes. Everybody who gets vaccinated will benefit, but the whole country, every community will benefit once you get to high levels of vaccinations. 60 , 70 minimum. Ideally higher. I think its been so good to make sure that, ensure that the scientific process here has been done with rigor, but if, you know, say a majority of americans choose not to end up getting vaccinated, not only they put themselves at risk but their entire community and their families at risk as well. Lets talk about the new stayathome test. Can people be confident that if they take it, and it says theyre negative, theyre actually negative . Yeah. These are pretty highquality tests best we can tell. Again, were just learning about them. My big problem with these athome tests, theyre talking about springtime before they become widely available. So unfortunately theyre not going to bail us out in the next few weeks or couple of months. All right. Doctor jha, good to see you. Thank you for helping us get smarter on this very important subject. Ahead across country, reporters in some of the hottest spots out there. Hot not in a good way. Morgan chesky in texas and antonio in portland, oregon. Morgan, you say el paso is a hot spot within a hot spot. What does that even mean . Reporter means texas has broken its own daily record for covid cases crossing that 10,800 threshold yesterday. Thats the highest its seen this entire pandemic. Meantime, el paso is seeing its worst days of the pandemic so far. You can see that behind me in the tents surrounding hospitals. 52 . That is the number of patients that are hospitalized in el paso hospitals being treated for covid19. So that means of all the patients inside these health care facilities, 52 of them suffering from this virus, and unfortunately seeing those consequences play out in realtime. We watched those mobile morgues brought a couple hundred yards from where im standing, the county judge says more than 200 bodies fill them at such a risk being shortstaffed at the medical Examiners Office theyre using inmates, trustees, to assist in moving those bodies from one place to another. Meantime, we have the fact this shutdown, in place in this city, was temporarily shut down because it was challenged by a local Restaurant Group and a texas state attorney general. The county judge here in el paso telling me theyre trying to find some sort of middle ground restrictionwhy is that everyone c wise and that number, more than the dallas and houston area combined. Steph . Remind our audience one more time. Those are mobile morgues, not mobile health clinics. You think this thingss flu . Look again where morgan is. Mobile morgues filled with dead bodies. It is not the common cold. I want to turn to antonia. Portland, oregon, the governor in oregon Just Announced a freeze on businesses. Youre in a state that has actually seen really strong economic recovery since this pandemic started. The Unemployment Rate has been cut in half. Is that about to get all completely lost . Reporter absolutely, steph. I think were about to see, no question were about to see some of that progress rolled back. I actually spent the entire day yesterday with a server here in portland trying to get on unemployment the day she was laid off, and i watched as the system crashed in front of her four separate times. Another thing, key thing to know. The governor announced 55 million over the next couple weeks will trickle down to businesses that are struggling. Minorityled businesses, womenowned businesses, in an attempt to help them weather the next couple of weeks. That 55 million is not a general fund or stimulus available to individuals and to laid off people with bills, holidays coming up, Christmas Gifts hoping to buy their kids. And i spoke to many of them about the freefall theyre looking at. Take a listen to this. Were getting two hours, three hours of sleep a night. I mean, its a heck of a burden to sit here and think about what were going to have to walk our way through and the impact this will have on our team. Nobody knows anything. None of reporter so jim the Business Owner you just heard from there told me right after that conversation that he is planning to dip into his 401 k and pay the penalties associated with that to try to keep his business afloat over these next couple weeks, because this freeze is expected to last at least four weeks here in portland. He says in the event the two to four weeks go by and there isnt a meaningful reduction in cases here in the state, he is not sure hes going to make it, stephanie. Dip into his 401 k to keep his business alive. It may be time to lift those penalties. I went ahead to connecticut. The governor, ned lamont joins us now currently in selfquarantine after one of his officials tested positive. Governor, thank you for joining us this morning. Your state hit new infection highs, more than 4,000 on monday. Despite that you said you will not do another lockdown. Are you confident you can get a handle on this without more drastic measures . Weve had some of the lowest infection rates in country until recently, steph. We kept our bars closed, were ut shing down restaurants, 10 00 at night. No high school sports. At least until january. Doing all this in hopes at least in keeping places of business open. Ive met with all Regional Governors here in the northeast. Facts dictate, were going to take other actions. During the surge in the spring, your state was able to borough hospital supplies and personnel from other states that had low infection rates. Today, we dont have any states with low infection rates. What do you do . Well, weve got a good supply of ppe, put together our own stockpile. Hospitals have done that. We know we can get the field hospitals up in 48 hours so we can maximize beds as needed. Ill tell you, our choke points going to be the nurses and docs. Theyre stretched. Theyve been working flat out and now if we ramp up, i cant go to other states and try to find people to help them. Do you have a plan for having to distribute a vaccine when it becomes available . We do. Deirdre gifford our Public Health put together a commission. We have relationships with the major pharmacies who will be able to ramp out that very quickly as well as to our nursing homes. Our hospitals have the deep freeze capability. Pfizer will deliver their vaccine in dry ice. We have to get it out the door and people vaccinated within a short period of time. Were working on it. I think were going to be ready, but it is a herculean effort. Weve got 3. 5 million people. At one point your state had a 3 billion rainy day fund. I think its safe to say its raining right now. Is that an option to dip into that and help the people suffering there . Ill tell you. If the federal government is going to stay asleep at the switch a little longer, which is a terrible choice for them, the states have got to step up. I go have a 3 billion rainy day fund. Our First Priority is going to be making sure everybody has the ppe, that everybody has the vaccination put in place the infrastructure. Hoping that the federal government will step in after january 20th and make good. Governor, thank you so much for joining us, and im wishing you the best of health. Thanks, everybody. Coming up, you know we have got to talk about education. There is a disturbing new study showing the damaging impact that learning virtually is having on kids. Heres the tease theyre not learning. Just because school is remote doesnt mean theyre learning remote. First, back to the drastic decision by President Trump to pull troops out of the middle east. And the abrupt firing of a leading cybersecurity official. Democratic congresswoman amend former navy pilot joins me on how the president s recent decisions are putting our National Security at risk. Were going to mikey sheryl, why . Always time for jersey. Ity, youll get planning and advice to help you prepare for the future, without sacrificing whats most important to you today. Because with fidelity, you can feel confident that the only direction youre moving is forward. Because with fidelity, you can feel confident to customizes yourcan gocar insurancetual. Com so you only pay for what you need . Really . I didnt aah ok. Im on vibrate. Aaah only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. This was the theater i came to quite often. The support weve had over the last few months has been amazing. Its not just a work environment. Everyone here is family. If you are ready to open your heart and your home, check us out. We thought for sure that we were done. And this town said not today. 5g is going to change everything about the way businesses run. And most important is the ability to transform the smallest of businesses right in our neighborhoods. We created the 5g Business Impact challenge to give them the tools for them to come back stronger. The things that folks are doing today to survive during the pandemic will help them become more resilient into the future and Technology Like 5g is whats really going to enable that. More reevery timeto the future ayou touch a surface,g bacteria is left behind. Try microban 24. It kills 99. 9 of bacteria and viruses initially, and keeps killing bacteria for 24 hours, even after multiple touches. Try microban. Its fooand minitronsat subway got some new news contactless Curbside Pickup is here just tap for tasty in the app. And pickup contactless. Cause its safety first. Right, tiny car . You wearing your seatbelt little man . Subway. Eat fresh. This morning were following two major moves by the Trump Administration with potentially wideranging National Security ramifications. First, the pentagon reducing troop levels in afghanistan and iraq to 2,500 by january 15th. And second, a stunning act of retaliation. President trump firing the head of u. S. Election cybersecurity and doing it via twitter. Claiming without any evidence that Christopher Krebs put out highly inaccurate information. Krebs had recently debunked election conspiracy theories including some by President Trump himself. Lets go live to Peter Alexander at the white house. Peter, we are seeing republicans like richard burr and ben sasse aflawed krebs for his work saying he should not have been fired. What are people inside the white house saying about it. Reporter in public agreeing with the president. In private saying they would have advise the not to fire chris krebs and the same folks advised him not to fire defense secretary mark esper just a week ago. You are exactly right here, stephanie. The president exacting revenge on one of his critics. This time a member of his own administration. The administrations top cybersecurity tasked with the most recent election. Chris krebs, you remember, called out the claims of voter fraud. Those false claims of widespread voter fraud and of Software Glitches last week saying it was the most secure election in american history. Beyond that saying no evidence of any of the things the president had said that votes were deleted or they had been changed. Even after he was fired, krebs took to twitter again and said, honor to serve, adding, we did it right. This is notable for a variety of reasons. Not the least of which is krebs responsibility went beyonds just protecting the election system. Also a National Security issue in some ways. Krebs was responsible for protecting Water Systems and power plants and networks against a relentless Cyber Attacks we see coming from foreign states and from other criminal entities. Steph . And what more can you tell us about the troop withdrawal from afghanistan and iraq . Reporter well, you hit the headline. The president with newly installed loyalists top of the pentagon made this announcement yesterday. Christopher miller saying the president would reduce number of american troops in afghanistan and iraq to 2,500 by the middle of january. And afghanistan, thats almost slicing the total there in half. Mitch mcconnell among those, Republican Senate majority leader who had said among other things that a precipitous drawdown in afghanistan or iran would be a mistake. Bottom line, goes against what the president complained about during the course of this presidency, he would never preview, say in advance what his plans were in terms of military action or military drawdown. For good reason. It could embolden the enemy. Thank you. Joining us, democratic congresswoman Mikie Sherrill from new jersey, a former helicopter pilot and serves on the Armed Services committee. A lot to get to. First, your reaction to the troop withdrawal from afghanistan and iraq, and the fact that its been announced before it even happened . Well, stephanie, as you can imagine, so many of us want to get out of iraq and afghanistan. What we call these generational wars with fathers and mothers and sons and daughters fighting in the same war. And yet to announce any Troop Movement before you do if certainly is not a good military move. And then to do Something Like this without really bringing in our allies. Without having them help us come to the best decision so we can implement the best strategy in the region is something thats very concerning to me, and a continued problem with this presidency. Does it concern you that this announcement happened just days after the president punted Top Defense Department officials and put in his loyalists . Well, yes. I mean, we have people here who dont have experience in the department of defense. Who dont have experience making these key, strategic decisions. Its, you know, it really has a domino effect on our, you know, our role worldwide and how we are going to be perceived. The stability of countries across the world in our own National Security. So to have new people in right now who dont understand all of these implications and a president whose made chaotic decisions in the past and continues to do so is very concerning. Lets talk about the president firing the head of election cybersecuri xursecurit Christopher Krebs. We know you dont feel good about it, but could the president pus in place somebody who could affect the outcome of the e election . That would be very hard to do that. The courts have not bought into. I think very difficult for the president to overturn this, but any attack on our democratic election system by the president of the United States, these constant attacks on how were running our democratic elections, on the fairness of them, is really striking to me and incredibly disappointing to me. Ive served all over the world. Ive seen the United States teach other countries how to run democratic elections, and for our president to undermine our election system is really unacceptable, and you know, quite frankly, im very glad well have joe biden coming in soon. Somebody who understands the importance of our democracy and will work lahard to defend it. I want to talk about the importance of the transition, because a mere mortal, civilian, like me, doesnt necessarily understand the importance of it. The president is refusing to give president elect biden security briefings. You are someone who served in the navy, around the world. Your life depended on these types of decisions. What are your biggest concerns about this lack of information sharing . Well, first of all, just the precedent it sets. We know how important these transitions are. We know how important it is to National Security and know its a key piece of our democracy. Peaceful transition of democracy and something ive taken pride in. It weakens our National Security. Even though the 9 11 report. It was in september, even the fact that transition was cut into because of the bush v. Gore election was problematic as far log as september. We know were losing valuable time right knew and luckily have an incoming president very well versed in Foreign Affairs and National Security. I know hell be ready on day one to assume control of this, but to have a president , our current sitting president put his own petty interests ahead of the National Security of the United States is unacceptable and i say makes him unfit to be the commander in chief. Congresswoman, always good to have you here. Thank you for joining us. Than thanks so much, stephanie. Appreciate it. You dont want to miss our next segment. The congresswoman and i focused because we have seven kids between us. Talking about kids and schools and schools considering closing their doors again. Detailing longterm impacts of learning from home. Heres a teaser it aint good. Instantly clear every day congestion with vicks sinex saline nasal mist. For drug free relief that works fast. Vicks sinex. Instantly clear everday congestion. To help you build a flexible wealth plan. Youll have access to taxsmart investing strategies, and with brokerage accounts online trades are commission free. Personalized advice. Unmatched value. At fidelity, you can have both. I guess i look pretty. Ridiculous. [ chuckles ] no one looks ridiculous, bob. Progressive is always here for you with roundtheclock service. Just so you know, next time, you can submit a claim with our mobile app. Good. Thanks again for for rushing over. Are you kidding . This is what 24 7 protection looks like. Okay. You smell like fish. Sorry. I was talking to jamie. To syour body needs routine. System, sorry. Centrum helps your immune defenses every day, with vitamin c, d and zinc. Season, after season. Ace your immune support, with centrum. We started by making the cloud easier to manage. But we didnt stop there. We made a cloud flexible enough to adapt to any size business. No matter what it does, or how it changes. And we kept going. So you only pay for what you use. Because at dell technologies, we stop. At nothing. Heart monitors that let your doctor watch over you, just like you watch over your best friend. Another lifechanging technology from abbott, so you dont wait for life. You live it. As School Districts across this nation consider a return to virtual learning, this morning a new report is sounding the alarm in a big way on the impact covid is having on teenagers Mental Health. Kate snow joins us with more. Kate what did this report find . Reporter this report from the California Partners project, and essentially found that teenagers are experiencing profound loss right now. Those who had diagnosed disorders before the pandemic are having increased symptoms and then everyone else, ought participa all said signs of anxiety, depression, 60 little to know exercise over one week and teens connecting with friends, not surprisingly through social media and gaming not facetoface and they miss that, stephanie. I hear that. I know that. You and i both have teens. I know you also spoke to a few participants. What did you learn . Reporter they talked a lot about the loss and not having milestones. Right . Not able to do the sports or the theater that they were expecting to do. Not having graduationing they were expecting or homecoming. Heres a bit of my conversation. Definitely not at happy as i used to be. Im always talking to people, socializing. So thats like a big part of what makes me happy. Reporter raise your hand if you spend more time on screens now than you used to . Everybody. Okay. Raise your hand if you think thats a bad thing. Reporter even during our interview, their attention was sometimes split. I see you looking down. I dont know what youre looking at. My bad. Supposed to be watching a zoom class, sometimes on the phone . In class in zoom and my phone positioned off to the side and facetiming with my friends. Reporter so facetiming with friends while on virtual zoom classes, stephanie. What every parent knows is happening. Jumping from screen to screen. What can parents and families do . A couple tips. One, model good behavior. If were scrolling all the time they see that, and modeling after us. Also, create spaces in your life where you dont have screens. Right . So breakfast time or dinner time. Maybe like a noscreen zone at all. That was kind of the biggest takeaway i took as a parent of teens. Trying to help them monitor, because, stephanie, you heard them say. They dont think its that big a deal when i said do you think its hurting you to be on your screens all the time . None raised their hands. Teenagers are not developed enough, say experts, to monitor themselves. They need some help from us. Kate, giving me a pit in my stomach. On the other side of this wall is a 14yearold going to School Virtual apd im pretty sure he just like that other boy has a phone positioned where hes facetiming with friends. Reporter i know. What you and i are doing right now . Were at work. Reporter i know. Kate, thank you so much. Thank you. This is such important stuff to cover. Really appreciate it. I want to dig deeper. Bring in the president of the harlem childrens zone. My dear friend and education champion jeffrey canada. Jeff, i want to say so it is always good to see you, but not when the covering news like this. Take us to harlem. How have these schools and students been doing over the past few months . And i dont just mean your schools. I mean the highest risk schooling out there. Stephanie, i dont want to be even more alarming than the study you just sort of had cited, but this is an educational disaster. Students if they are signing on, and we know a lot of kids railroad even signing on anymore, they are not being educated in a way that deals with any of their needs. Not their emotional needs. Not their needs to socialize. Not their needs for exercise and movement. Certainly not their academic needs. This is a disaster. Its a disaster for all children. But for poor children, you can multiply that times five or times six. And we need to do something dramatically different as soon as humanly possible. Are we doing anything different . In the spring had to shut down without much warning. Now months to prepare. Are schools in better position now . They are not in a better position. We still have huge numbers of children who dont have devices. Huge numbers of children whose connectivity goes bad. Stephanie, think how many times awened ahave to call our tech people in to try and help us, imagine trying to get an education with no one to call when youre having problems with your Internet Connection or with your devices . We have squandered the time we should have been preparing this country to have its students online, but i i have a solution. And it goes along with give it. Reports youve done on msnbc. Pfizer is going for their early use of their vaccine. There are 3. 7 million teachers in this country. We should vaccinate every single teacher in america in december so that we can have our schools open with full students in them, then have to vaccinate the most vulnerable children, because the science is clear. Children dont spread this among themselves. And impact on them when they get it is not as dramatic as the adults. We could vaccinate every single one of our teachers, make that a high priority and get our schools back open. Get these kids back in the classroom so that by january, our schools are open and our students are learning again. What were doing right now is a total disaster all over america. Jeff, sounds like you could be the next education secretary. Is the biden team talking to you . Look, stephanie, i dont want to start any trouble right now. I have a mission at my new institute to try and see if we can bring these comprehensive supports to children all over this nation. We have left schools on their own too long. We know that providing kids with a whole comprehensive set of support in poor communities is the only way were going to make up any of this learning loss. Look, our kids have now lost more than a year in the poor communities. Weve got to make sure we create systems that support these kids, and thats what im going to be doing for the next five years of my life. Trying to make sure education has the help it needs so that these poor kids can succeed. And i am grateful for the work youre doing. Keep focusing on what students are missing in the weeks or months that school is online, but can you talk about the longterm impact this could have on their lives . This is the thing that is so frightening to me, because our kids are really facing trauma. You have to understand. Trauma tized as a kid. Told not to take off your mask because you might get your parents sick. You know those kids take their masks off. Living with guilt, fear, god forbid their parents get sick. Theyre worried they did it. They dont feel they can go out and be safe. Theyre missing all of are the interactions that children need to form social relationships. If you think its bad at those high schools, the kind of emotional problems kids are having, wait until they do the studies in middle school and elementary school. Because we know theres toxic stress shows up for years. Think of posttraumatic stress disord irs and what happens when our soldiers come back from war. Six months a year, five years later, still dealing with the fear, the dread, the emotional turmoil. We have millions of kids living with that kind of fear. Theyre watching people die. Theyre hearing the ambulances going by. Their parents are frightened, and they dont know how theyre going to eat. They dont know how theyre going to pay the rent. They know their families are literally coming apart around them, and this trauma doesnt go away with a counseling session or two. We need to provide millions of our kids with longterm Mental Health support so that they can tripe to recover from this trauma, which is really devastating young people all over this country. Jeff, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for educating us on this really important topic. Please, come back soon. Thanks for the work you do every day. Stephanie, thanks for not letting this go. This is the most important work thats being heard in america right now. Work being hurt in america right now. Certainly it. Jeff, thanks again. Coming up next, despite more chaos certifying this election, this time in michigan, president elect joe biden is not letting it slow him down. He is moving forward. Naming key officials in his incoming administration. What do his picks tell us about what we can expect from a policy perspective over the next four years . Co vicks sinex. Instantly clear everday congestion. We made usaa insurance for veterans like martin. When a hailstorm hit, he needed his insurance to get it done right, right away. Usaa. What youre made of, were made for. Usaa every minute. Understanding how to talk to your doctor about Treatment Options is key. Today, we are redefining how we do things. We find new ways of speaking, so youre never out of touch. Its seeing someones face that comforts us, no matter where. When those around us know us, they can show us just how much they care. The first steps of checking in, the smallest moments can end up being everything. Theres resources that can inform us, and that spark can make a difference. When we use it to improve things, then that change can last within us. When we understand whats possible, we wont settle for less. The best thing we can be is striving to be at our best. Managing Heart Failure starts now with understanding. Call today or go online to understandheartfailure. Com for a free Heart Failure handbook. Still the one and i cant get enough were still having fun, and youre still the one. Applebees 2 for 20. Its date night in the neighborhood. Days since the president ial election was called, and drama is still playing out in a few key states, but mostly in President Trumps head. In wayne county, michigan, where biden won by a 21 margin, two republicans tried and failed to block the certification of the results last night. After officials and the public condemned the move on a heated zoom call the two changed their mirnds and vo minds and voted to make president elect bidens results official. Out of georgia more questions over comments senator Lindsey Graham made to secretary of state brad raffensberger. A top staffer says he was on the call between the two confirming that graham asked whether the secretary of state had the power to toss out certain absentee ballots. Graham, denying he made those comments. As all of this plays out joe biden is moving forward with his transition with new staffing announcement expected by end of week. Mike memoli joins us and peter baker, chief White House Correspondent for the new york times. Peter what do you make of this situation that played out in mish last night . Are we likely to see this in other counties . Obviously a surprise to a lot of people who werent paying attention what was happening in wayne county and the idea an election won by 150,000 votes in michigan suddenly could be up in the air. It did raise a lot of questions. I think the fact they quickly reversed themselves showed that theres a lot of pressure on, to not give in to the, you know, these false theories that the president is spreading out there that somehow there was enough widespread fraud to actually overturn the election. Its not the case. No evidence of this whatsoever. Even the president s own lawsuits dont offer evidence of widespread fraud to overturn and election yet that partisan vote initially taken last night i think sent the signal this is not over until all canvassers and all of the cert fxdificatio are done and thats why the election process is still going on. As each day passes more of the president s lawsuits keep getting tossed out. Rudy guiliani just yesterday in philly. Michael, take us to the transition team. New reporting about new appointments . Reporter thats right, steph. We saw yesterday announcement of ten senior officials mostly behind the scenes players in the west wing, but now getting some indication of how the team is looking at what those public facing jobs would be. The most high profile roles of White House PressSecretary Communications jobs. The team really considering what the Communications Department with the white house looks like in this rapidly changing media environment along with Geoff Bennett and kristen welker, my colleagues on this beat are hearing Karine Jeanpierre served as pop adviser to biden and now to Vice President elect Kamala Harris is leading candidate for press secretary position. Kate bedingfield, Deputy Campaign manager and Communications Director in the campaign is the leading candidate to be Communications Director, in the white house, Symone Sanders also a top adviser in the Campaign Still in the mix. The biden team also considering some external candidates for this position. Considering, really, expanding the roles of some of these positions as well to include a policy position. Biden sent a clear star in. Get downing lowering the political temperature. Based on these positions, peter, and whos filling them what is it going to look like by your estimation, when you read the tea leaves from a policy perspective and look at those selected, what do you think were going to get . Reporter an interesting mix. Right . Some people you see appointed are people that have been around president elect biden for years. Mike donilon, familiar to anybody who cover him as long as mike has and covered the obama white house. In some ways walk through the white house and theyll be people who will be right back where they started just four years ago. Then youre bringing in new figure who have not been as close, at least not a part of the white house in the past. Campaign manager now deputy chief of staff. Hasnt worked in the white house before. New for her bus a rather successful run as the first woman to run and successfully win a democratic election and senator richmond, congressman, senior advisers on a lot of different subjects for the new president. New figure to the white house. I think hes mixing people, finding different categories of people within the party, wirth his own coalition. Not just the coalition but those who speak to the liberal wing, enthusiastic for an ambitious presidency even with a senate that looks like it will remain in senator mcconnells hands. Trying to mix and match old and new and a patchwork group. See how it works out. I think a lot of the party right now looking at these figures and reading tea leaves as you are to see what does it mean for a biden presidency . Looks like hes trying to get a lot of people on tunder one g big tent. Cant think of two better experts on this important topic. What will the next four years hold. What they wont hold, President Trump in the white house. Coming up next, back to the front lines of the pandemic fight and sharing what one chicago doctor says patients are telling her about how they got the coronavirus. Iasis or psoriatic arthritis, Little Things can become your big moment. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not an injection or a cream. Its a pill that treats differently. For psoriasis, 75 clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. For psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. And the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. It may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. Otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. Tell your doctor about your medicines and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. A new buick . For me . To james, from james. Thats just what i wanted. Is this a new buick . I secret santaed myself. I shouldnt have. But i have been very good this year. Wow wow wow this year, turn black friday into buick friday all month long. Now during buick friday, pay no interest for 84 months on most 2020 buick suv models. Health care workers are fighting for our lives and their own. Hospitalizations are soaring across the u. S. Raising concerns about beds and staffing. In chicago the city state home advisory began on monday. The illinois governor just said the whole state will start new restrictions on businesses there. We have a pulmonary Critical Care doctor. Tell us what its like in your hospital right now. Thanks for having me. Were seeing covid since spring. Were familiar with it. The issue is right now were seeing our hospitalizations are closing in on our spring peeks. The stay at home orders were put back into place. We anticipate our numbers of hospitalizations will exceed what we saw in the spring, and our main issue is just not so much the beds. Those are important, but the staff to serve those beds. And making sure that we can get patients through this. Tell us about your patients. Do they just let their guards down . Were they corona fatigues or are they following the protocols and they dont know where theyre getting it . I think its a little bit of both. Weve been dealing with covid. Everyone has covid fatigue. People are were hearing stories when we see patients. Well talk to families. A lot of my patients are in the icu. Most of our conversations are with family members. We hear ive been doing everything, and we thought we were okay. We thought we would be okay. We had a small gathering and then theyre spread before the symptoms. Thats the key time point of when things start to change. Many of our patients are having those stories. Some dont know where theyre getting it. And now in chicago our Community Spread is so high that you really just need to assume that everyone is infectious. What makes them think they have the virus . Is it just a headache or a fever or does it start off more serious than that . It could be both. Thats the challenge with this particular virus. Some people have severe fevers with abrupt onset. Theyre feeling fine one day and a high grade fever for weeks after that. Shortness of breath. Some other patients, its much more mild. They may have a headache or a fever for a day or runny nose. Im a mom of three boys. My kids always have a runny nose or fever. It doesnt strike you as something that would be abnormal in some patients. So thats the hard part and the challenge, and the reason why testing really is so important and so the ideas of home testing is really going to be really helpful for us to localize and isolate patients at a better rate than were doing right now. People were willing to follow the strict the severe restrictions in the spring. We didnt see our parents for months following the shelter in place orders. Now its different. We mentioned it. People are fatigued. How are you spending your thanksgiving . And what are people in your area doing . Where i live, a lot of people are still sticking with their plans. Theyre just not talking about it. So most of the people i work with in the icus, our nurses are fantastic and running our 24 7. Our respiratory therapists are the unsung heros. Most of us havent seen our parents in a while. We dont feel its safe. My thanksgiving is usually my favorite holiday to cook. We usually have the family at our house. Were not doing that. Im cooking. Im doing the whole meal because my husband makes me, but were going to be sending it out and doing a virtual zoom, so were meeting family across the country playing a zoom game. Trying just to make something good out of what has been a real change for us. But most of the people in my line of work are staying away. Its just too big of a risk, and with hospitalizations already at spring peaks, we just dont know if those beds will be available, and its a scary condition. Thank you. Lets follow this doctors orders. Cook at home. Play a zoom game with your family, and this year when you talk about what youre grateful for, make it the respiratory therapists, the unsung heros of this pandemic. Thank you for joining me today, doctor. Thank you for having me. Thank you for watching this busy hour. Hallie jackson picks up coverage next. Before money, people traded goods. Tools, cattle, grain, even shells represented value. Then currency came along. They made it out of copper, gold, silver, wampum. Soon people decided to put all that value into a piece of paper, then proceeded to wave goodbye to value, printing unlimited amounts of money as they passed the buck to the future. Thats why its time for Digital Currency and your investment in the grayscale funds. Go digital. Go grayscale. 5g is going to change everything about the way businesses run. And most important is the ability to transform the smallest of businesses right in our neighborhoods. We created the 5g Business Impact challenge to give them the tools for them to come back stronger. The things that folks are doing today to survive during the pandemic will help them become more resilient into the future and Technology Like 5g is whats really going to enable that