Kids back into school. This as nbc news has obtained a dire new warning from the White House Coronavirus task force saying that the vaccine will not be able to curb the spread until late spring at the earliest. Now urging states to implement harsher restrictions as the winter surge continues. I want you to remember, this is coming from the white house, whose overwhelming message from the beginning of this pandemic has been to open up, to remain open. They have fought any sort of shutdowns. They are now recommending more restrictions, and this morning, more than 104,000 americans waking up in hospital beds. The highest number to date. With many more americans that cant even get into hospital beds. These hospitals cant keep up. New data shows that hospitals serving more than 100 million americans, theyve got less than 15 of their icu beds left remaining. I want to start with our team of reporters showing what this looks like across our country. Allison barber and ashley burns. Allison, the state just passed 10,000 new deaths, and now theyve got restrictions extended there. What is it like on the ground . This is a state where restrictions have been fought against from the beginning. People were in the state house fighting back against closing gyms. Reporter yes, stephanie. The current extension of restrictions that stopped things like Indoor Dining it would have ended on tuesday, but instead they have extended what they called the pause until december 20th. The state health officials, the governor, they say while theyve seen some progress in terms of covid daily infection rates and perhaps the number may be stabilizing, they say they really have not seen any substantial progress as relates to deaths and covid hospitalizations so say they need the extra 12 days to assess what the impact of the thanksgiving holiday might be. We are at a brewerly in royal oak. Royal oak brewery has been here since 1995 when the first shutdown happened in michigan they tell us revenue dropped by 40 . This time, they say its dropped by 80 . They have moved things to where they dont have menus out. People show up, sitting outside or getting carryout, use their phones. Checking the menus. They created and put up igloos weve seen in a lot of places with ventilation here to keep their servers as well as patrons safe, in addition to sanitizing it. And walk over here. Introduce you to the gm of this brewery. This is tem. We hear the numbers and know how serious covid is in this state. The deaths at 10,000 now. Also we hear those numbers from your business and the revenue youve lost. What is this been like for you . Its been a rough go for us. Like anybody. I think youre hardpressed to find a business that hasnt been affected by this pandemic. Unfortunately for restaurants, were in a space where the public come together. They sit in small groups. Spend time together, and kind of puts us in an interesting position. Reporter if the current plan isnt the right one. I think youve told me you dont necessarily feel it is the best route. What is the best route for the government to be taking here . Well, im not really sure that its up to us to speak on policy. Id rather leave that to the people we elect to do it, but what restaurants are looking for is an opportunity to operate to the best of their ability. You have people that have family businesses. Our owners have been in business for 25 years. This is their baby. The their legacy. They dont want to lose it, and you have a staff full of people. Some of whom have been here 182, 1, 18, 21, 15 years. We cant keep our operation without a community. We need to find the best way to do that and get ourselves through this time. Reporter thank you, tem. Stephanie . Allison, thank you. Now turn to North Carolina where one company is preparing to transport the vaccines using drones. Dasha, explain this to us. Why use drones . Makes no sense. Reporter well, stephanie, i think civilians like us often think about drones as toys or nuisances, but this is not your kids toy drone. This drone hovering here above me, this is the 10c drone that can fly over 50 miles at 60 miles an hour and carry 10 pounds of cargo. What this drone has been doing, this is a demo, taking vaccines and medical supplies from pharmaceutical with the finishing facility here in town to this hospital. This is a health plex in neural North Carolina. A key piece of technology. This drone can do whats call add softtouch landing where it can land and release that product gently to make sure if there are glass vials with vaccine doses theyre not broken. This is a cargo box that can also store vaccines at minus 80 degrees celsius. The temperature needed to store the fids pfizer vaccine. This is key. It has very specific uses, but in this rural community, can you imagine. Talking about that ultra cold storage. Not every facility is able to do that. Those vaccines expire quickly. If youre a smaller facility and cant take on those big slabs of dry ice with hundreds of vials of vaccine, what you can do with drone technology, order the vaccines on demand. Order a smaller supply just for what you need for that community for those few days or that week, and there are a lot of challenges. Still restrictions that limit what this drone tech knoll cnol what this drone tech knoll cnoo do. In communities more rural, they need to get creative to vaccinate their 3population, ths could be one piece of the puzzle. We need all of those pieces to get this sorted. Thank you so much. Joining me now to dig deeper where we are right now, general surgeon for the Heritage Surgical Group and taking care of Covid Patients for months. Doctor stavros sorry. I have no yaud audio. Someone has covid, a clear game plan once in the hospital. For people who when they first test positive, things are still a mess. Testing is a mess. Quarantine guidelines keep changing. Why are things still like this . Hello . I think weve just lost dr. Stavros. Well move on and take you to capitol hill where i believe Garrett Haake is standing by. Are you there . Garrett, can you hear me . Reporter steph, got you there now. Yeah. Look, weve got the latest yes . Go ahead, steph. Talk to us where we are on this Economic Relief . You know, progress, progress, now stalled out . Reporter a lot of movement yesterday. I dont know how much we can describe as progress. Last night secretary mnuchin sent 914 billion of aid but Democratic Leaders quickly rejected it. Why . Mnuchin used the math inside that bill to offer 600 stimulus checks for a Broader Group of the population, but to affectively zero out the enhanced Unemployment Benefits if the bipartisan proposal negotiated. Democratic leaders put out a Statement Last night saying taking that number from about 180 billion down to 40 billion for Unemployment Benefits was a nonstarter with them. Democrats members of the Bipartisan Group saying today they want to see this aid focused on the people that need it most. We are essentially back to where we started yesterday. Waiting for this Bipartisan Group of senators to continue negotiations, put out a detailed summary of what exactly would be in their bill and solve the most perplexing piece of this, now clearly this liability shield provision for corporations, universities and so forth. Getting that solved i think will be key to unlocking all of rest of this and despite all that movement yesterday, that remains the key sticking point. So the government isnt doing much. Doctors are. We now have the doctor back. Can you hear me, doctor . I can. Sorry about that. No sweat. Here we are nine, ten months into this. Why are things still a mess . We dont know how to quarantine. Testing some working, its unreliable. Why is that . I think a couple of things. Ive talked about it before. The thought of war, this is something that a lot of people havent done, dealt with before. Leadership, governments, a lot of governments were caught kind of off guard, and then a lot of people have take consideration to the virus itself. Its almost like it was designed, no the that it was designed by people, but designed to be almost confounding in terms of how to prevent it. Testing is not perfectly accurate. Shows up in asymptomatic individuals. A large a lot of superspreaders are asymptomatic and youre not able to tell all the time whos going to have it. These things make for a virus thats very, very, stick to road runner, wile e. Coyote, cant get a grasp on it. Treatments, too. Get something working and then information treatments dont work and people are weary. Back in march we were telling people, you know, this is the, still the first inning. Id say now with advent of vaccine closer to seventh Inning Stretch maybe of this thing and still have a ways to go through a pretty rough spring, but hopefully by the time we get to springsummer things will start to come down. What do you tell your patients, though . We hear over and over a quarantine period is 14 days. But many, many people are sick for weeks if not months. If thats the case, are they contagious for that period of time . Do people need to be quarantining for that long . The guidelines from the cdc generally are two weeks for asymptomatic individuals but also do recommend you wait a week after youre asymptomatic. Thats the big one. That you want to wait until peoples symptoms really diminish. There is some data that says whenever you are still symptomatic you are contagious, and the big question is, a lot of the tests that theyre doing, the pcr tests, initial data seeing inest estest, test, sec wave of positive tests actual live virus youre able to spread is that virus thats particles of the virus that dismantled that your immune system is using. You know, right now were still not 100 sure. We know that there is no doubt this thing is spreading. Every time we leave our homes, we are taking some sort of risk. How should people prepare if they do get a positive test . Once you get that positive test, you cant run out to cvs or the grocery store. What should we have in our homes to put ourselves in a position if that positive test comes through . Thats an excellent question, and this is something ive been telling all of my patients when they ask me about coronavirus is to have kind of a coronavirus gobag, if you will. Something that prepares you beforehand. So dont wait until after, youre exactly right. You dont wait until after you get that positive test to run out to cvs and grab the vitamins. Should be prepared for it ahead of time. Should have, want to have the vitamins recommended, c and d. Have the possibly an o2 stat monitor. Cheap. Less than 10 online. A ter momenter, touchless. Have it in their house, sequestered, and not in the room, makes it less contagious to spread to their family. Thinking ahead and planning for it, just like any other problem or sickness is i think key to making sure its easier to deal with and youre able to heal faster. Unlike other countries, we dont have covid hotels, where people who are positive go and isolate. Once people find out they have this virus, not many people live alone. How do they manage quarantining . Because i dont know we have a true understanding what isolation really means. And thats the really hard part about this virus. That there is no hotel for to you go to and people are staying at home. Thats actually one of the largest numbers of spread were seeing. Within the household. Once one person walks in with the disease, the whole household gets infected. You know, now were talking about Wearing Masks at home even if youre asymptomatic and not sick. Hard part of knowing that, again, part of planning ahead of time. Arranging for child care and this is where its kind of unfair for people of lower socioeconomic status to cope with a positive diagnose and able to cope with not going to work and be able to make ends meet and on top of that find child care, especially a single parent. This is the really hard part of the disease. And this is one of the ways that i think its really kind of a catastrophe, not just to Peoples Health and measured loss of lives, obviously thats tragic. But in terms of hardship and unbelievable heartbreak in terms of the tough decisions parents and families have to make. Well, thank you for what you do every day. For your patients and in the hospital, and what this is doing to our Health Care Workers is extraordinary. We need to think about its really good to see you. Thanks for joining me. Thanks for having me on, steph. Thanks so much. Stick around. A lot more to cover in this hour. President elect biden will announce his pick for defense secretary later today. Well tell you why that pick and his leading contender for attorney general could face some serious opposition, not from republicans, but from fellow democrats. First i want to share a story. The New York Times detailing a very sad story reminding us of the dark reality of covid19. A young woman died from the virus just 18 days after giving birth. 33yearold Erica Becerra int tubated almost immediately after giving birth to her first son diego. Her brother said she never got to hold her baby boy. Think about that. Think about her life, think about diego. This thing isnt over. 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In a sign just ow contentious that pick is biden written an oped defending his choice highlighting her long working relationship. Overnight we learned the president elect tapped congresswoman marsha fudge as next housing secretary with former Iowa Governor vilsack returning at agriculture secretary and former south bend mayor and president ial candidate Pete Buttigieg to be a pick for chinas ambassador. Joining us, mike memoli knows more about this teams plan than anybody else aknow and in wilmington. Michael, president elect biden seems to be pushing his pick for defense secretary hard. Why does he have to do it . Whats the big riff here . Reporter steph you say, six weeks until inauguration and the pace of this cabinet is accelerating. Seen him roll these out in batches one each day. Second day in a row appearing with some choices. In this case just one. Lloyd austin. The fact its a oneonone is the important of this to biden that hes choosing this general. You saw the oped talking about their close working relationship. Austin was head of u. S. Forces in iraq when obama wad leading efforts to wind down troop presence there and make an argument about the role he will play in getting vaccines distributed throughout the country to millions of americans as biden notes in the oped. Requiring rear logistical man power here and austin has the experience from doing that in iraq, winding down u. S. Forces that will be really applicable here. The issue were going to face here from the biden Team Perspective in congress is that the necessary waiver for austin to serve in this position. Obviously, the pentagon secretary, its all about civilian control, austin, retired general, though, needing a waiver as we saw the case with mattis four years ago and democrats raising the most concern about this. Already heard from a handful saying theyre inclined not to support that waiver. Importantly the republican chairman of the Armed Services committee in the senate, jim inhofe doesnt see issue and getting endorsement of his candidacy today from former secretary of state colin powell calling the selection superb. Biden team understanding they might have to rely on republican votes, but confident theyll get the waiver and see him confirmed. The important pick of attorney general. Doug jones, the top contender . Reporter thats right. Senator from alabama who lost his reelection bid there in that deep red state in november, but has known biden for decades. Former u. S. Attorney as well from the Northern District of alabama. But were seeing as biden met last night along with Vice President elect kamala harris, choosing to push a black attorney general. Talking how important it would be for biden to send a senate especially with issues of criminal justice, prevalent throughout the campaign. Biden making real commitments to the black and Brown Community this would be at the forefront of his agenda and want to see that in his selection for attorney general. Biden allies pouint out jones a u. S. Attorney helped lead prosecution of two klansmen responsible for the 1963 bombing at the birmingham 16th Street Baptist Church and has recredentials to speak to as well, but the biden team facing this pressure. Not just on attorney general but across the cabinet to make sure biden himself promised that his administration will look like america. This is going to ubbe a recurri discussion as they weigh their choices across the board, steph. You will be cover all of those discussions. Michael good to see you. Thanks so much. Coming up next, youll want to see this. Skipping the pharmacy might seem convenient. But thats if it works. A brand new nbc news investigation reveals some of the dangers of ordering your prescriptions through the mail. First, the Supreme Court just dealt a devastating blow to the trump administration. Rejecting a gop congressmans lastditch effort to overturn the president ial election raumtsds results in the state of pennsylvania. Challenging a law expanding mailin voting in the state. The highest court in the land, rejecting this effort with a single sentence. And knop descents. Biden was certified winner there by 81,000 votes. This tweet caught my eye. Daniel goldman, former lead counsel of the lead impeachment to the president said this, we cannot normalize filie ining do of frivolous lawsuits as part of the democratic process. Its not. Into a smaller life . Are your asthma treatments just not enough . Then see what could open up for you with fasenra. It is not a steroid or inhaler. It is not a rescue medicine or for other eosinophilic conditions. Its an addon injection for people 12 and up with asthma driven by eosinophils. Nearly 7 out of 10 adults with asthma may have elevated eosinophils. 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Weve got an important story for the 26 million american whose get their prescriptions in the mail. Many say its convenient and Cost Effective, but we spoke to some mail order pharmacy cust meres who say they get crushed pill, broken vials and lifesaving drugs left in extreme weather. The question, are these lifesaving drugs even safe to take . Were digging into this. Cynthia good to see you. You talked to over 50 people over the course of last year who get their prexrinscriptions sen them at home. What did they tell you . Good morning, steph. Always great to be with you. Yes. We talked to over six dozen people about concerns they have. Some you just mentioned, crushed pills, broken vials, lifesaving drugs left out in extreme temperatures. Took a lard look ahard look at over the course of the year decided to introduce you to one little girl. Take a look. Big breath reporter sophie has Cystic Fibrosis and been on medication since a baby. One of thosezyme that helps her digest food and grow. When her family started getting it through a mail express economy, her mom said she sta started to see a decline in sophies health. Wait a minute. Told when two weeks old dont even keep enzymes in the car. They wont be as effective. Reporter the enzymes label says it should stay at Room Temperature, but without delivery notification, erica says it sometimes sat on the North Carolina porch for hours after arriving in an unair conditioned Postal Service truck. Erica says she called express scripts asking them to ship differently but rebuffed. Youre not a pharmacist, maam. My response was that i dont have to be a pharmacist to read the bottle and know what the temperature requirement is. Reporter erica is convinced sophies Failing Health was due to the way her medicine was delivered. But experts told nbc news thats nearly impossible to prove. Sophie did suffer. Eventually getting a feeding tube. I remember just laying on the floor and crying until there was a puddle of tears. Reporter like majority of customers we spoke to, ericas Insurance Plan forced her to fill longterm maintenance prescriptions by mail or pay out of pocket. What was the price . About 8,000 a month. For one medicine. Reporter express scripts told us its employers and health plans decide how people get to fill prescriptions. Not them. Very often patients have no choice in their prescription coverage. Reporter erin is a drug information specialist at the university of utah. Mail order pharmacy can be very convenient for patients, but its not going to do patients any good to get medicine thats no longer potent because its been exposed to extreme temperatures. Its really important to keep your medications that are Room Temperature, Room Temperature and that doesnt mean 90 degrees and it doesnt mean 40 degrees either. This is where we actually put pills in bottles. Reporter wendy barnes is president of home dlirelivery f express scripts and shows how they package refrigerated medicine in coolers in gel packs but room dedication, no special packages used. Nothings perfect. Sometimes things dont work out the way theyre intended. If it was determined in fact the medication wasnt usable or any concern about how that medication arrived, we will, in fact, replace that medication. So when someone on your team says to the mother, youre not a pharmacist, maam. Thats unacceptable. What i will say is, i have every confidence in what it is were doing today. Reporter our investigation found devices indicating if a package has gotten too hot or too cold can cost under 1. But express scripts told us they very rarely use them. Were very confident that weve tested the most difficult conditions that that package could endure. The thing i really dont understand is why a temperature monitor inside the package wouldnt be good for you and good for your customers . I would never suggest its not a bad idea. Its just not something that we do today. Reporter eventually erica did get an exception. Allowing her to fill sophies precipitation at a local pharmacy. And she says then sophies issues went away. But the experience still haunts her. They stole a lot from us, emotionally. I never got an apology. It was just too bad. Yeah. She deserves more than that. Everyone deserves more than that. To cynthia or me . Yeah, not good enough for sophie and not good enough for anyone. Its not just express scripts. We reached out to the three largest pharmacy mail order pharmacies. They all said they believe their service is safe, convenient and Cost Effective and that by and large patients are more than satisfied with their service. Those companies made, steph, last year, 300 billion in revenue. 3 billion and not currently putting 1 temperature monitors in the boxes. Almost anxious to ask this question. Of course they think theyre getting the job done. Theyre the companies. But are these businesses regulated in anyway . What are the rules for them . Well, important question. Turns 0 ut th s out mail order are regulated by the pharmacy board in each state. We reached out to all 50 of them and discovered something very interesting. Essentially there are no rules when it comes to how mail pharmacies have to ship medications. They told us in essence its up to the pharmacy to ensure that the shipping is safe. Make your own rules. Cynthia, i was afraid to ask the question. Because i didnt want that to be the answer. And alas, it was. Thank you so much. This is super important reporting. Maybe reporting thats going to spark change. I hope so. Always good to see you. A lot of people get their medications this way. Worth asking questions. Thank you. Uhhuh. Coming up next, unlike western europe, unlike canada, the United States is asking people to face this pandemic without offering any financial cushion. Any Financial Support from our government. They want you to isolate . What happens when you isolate and you dont have paid leave . Youre out of luck. Senator Bernie Sanders will be here on his push for another round of stimulus checks, and if hes getting any support. I felt like. I was just fighting an uphill battle in my career. So when i heard about the applied Digital Skills courses, im thinking i can become more marketable. You dont need to be a computer expert to be great at this. These are skills lots of people can learn. I feel hopeful about the future now. Of the financial system. Le have been shut out [music playing throughout] i feel hopeful about the future now. My grandfather founded Industrial Bank in 1934 so black people would have a bank that would work with them. Because our doors are open, other doors are opening to more opportunities for our community. Were excited to work with citi, so we can realize our dreams of expanding our reach and impact. Citi is committed to working with blackowned banks like industrial, so they can continue to support their clients and communities. Irresistibly smooth chocolate. To put the world on pause. Lindor. Made to melt you. By the lindt master chocolatier. We are following several developing stories now including this surprise resignation of a Florida Republican lawyer from the state commission. Ron philapowski is stepping down after a home was raid of the of rebekah jones. Fired last spring refusing to censor the States Coronavirus data and tweeted video of police raiding her tallahassee home, seizing her computer equipment and pointing guns at her children. In the state of texas, the army says it is fired our suspended 14 officers and enlisted soldiers at fort hood. An independent review found chronic fairs of leadership that contributes to a widespread pattern of violence including Sexual Assault and harassment. The report comes after a year that saw at least 25 soldiers assigned to fort hood die from suicide, homicide or other reasons. Including the disappearance and killing of Army Specialist vanessa guillen. And in the state of ohio, the Justice Department there now joining the investigation into the death of 23yearold casey good son. A black man tats fatally shot do enter his grandmothers home. Agents follow the man they thought was goodson and told him to drop the weapon when the deputy shot and killed him. The family says he had a valid license to carry and shot as he unlocked his door and entered his home and carrying a sandwich. Not a gun. The investigation continues. Next, senator Bernie Sanders joins me on his push to get another round of 1,200 stimulus checks to americans in need. This is decision tech. Find a stock based on your interests or whats trending. Get realtime insights in your customized view of the market. Its smarter Trading Technology for smarter trading decisions. Fidelity. New aveeno® restorative skin therapy. With our highest concentration of prebiotic oat intensely moisturizes over time to improve skins resilience. Aveeno® healthy. Its our nature™. We are in a global pandemic. The United States is not the only country seeing a major increase in coronavirus cases right now. Canada and other wealthy nations across europe are also suffering a surge of new infections. One very clear difference. Unlike their economic pieers, elected leaders in the United States left stns to face the Current Crisis without any additional Financial Support to our government. From our new article with my partner just posted on nbcnews. Com and he joins us now. Benji, were doing nothing. Whats happening outside the u. S. . Reporter the u. S. Pretty exceptional in that regard. Now, we are dealing with a situation that a lot of countries are dealing with now. A lot of countries with similar wealthiest advanced economies, which is having a surge of coronavirus cases. This isnt like the summer where the u. S. Was still having a large surge and countries in europe were largely spared. Now its europe, canada, all dealing with record cases often at the same time. The difference is, they have Economic Relief plans for workers, for businesses, that either have been continuous the whole time or theyve even added new supports to help businesses deal with new Health Restrictions that come with these lockdowns. So in germany, for example, theyve added new supports for businesses who are facing lockdowns and restrictions. So they can help deal with fixed costs like rent and utilities. In canada, Just Announced a new budget with a whole hosts of new relief measures building on existing ones that also helped subsidize wages and offered support for unemploy the. In the u. S. We have have remaining support, state unemployment extended through federal legislation, expiring end of the year, though. We had a 6 hp we00 weekly bene expired since july. Out of ppe money helping businesses get through the crisis and now even more supports also going to expire end of the month, unless congress acts. In this regard we are pretty much unique among similar, large, wealthy countries. Even countries as the uk considering letting some benefits lapse for workers, quickly put them back in place when he had cases shoot up. We have not had that same level of urgency and its starting to show. What is our argument not to do it . Right . This isnt stimulus were arguing over, lower Interest Rates to get people to want to go out there and build homes and start businesses. Were talking about money people need because their home, suffering from coronavirus, and cant go out and work . Reporter i was putting this question to a lot of economists abroad. One thing they mentioned, that the u. S. Unlike most of those countries doesnt have any National Plan for confronting the virus. So if you were in france or in the uk, leadership will say, this is our National Plan to get under control. Were going to announce nationwide or regional restrictions on these businesses and support those specific businesses and workers in response. Here we get contradictory messages from the white house for months. Some of their experts like dr. Anthony fauci or dr. Deborah birx saying we need to close bars and maybe restrict Indoor Dining in response to outbreaks and maybe open schools. But no National Plan to get those things done, and its not clear that the president agrees with them and often contradicts them saying those businesses should be open. Makes it harder to agree on a plan to, say, support them. Stuck in limbo now, no one is quite sure what our plan is or how to support it. You know whos not in limbo . The millions of americans suffering. Benji, thank you. Check out our story on nbcnews. Com. Joining us now, someone hi h know cares a lot about this issue. Senator Bernie Sanders from vermont leading a group of senators demanding 1,200 stimulus checks included in the next relief bill. Senator, weve heard your impassioned argument. Help us understand how senators convinced to support these stimulus checks . Any republicans on board . Yes, i think there is one, but senator holly in the case that he supports part of a 1200 per person direct payment. And 50 for children. I think the Democratic Caucus is ready to go forward with that. Yesterday i sent out a letter. I think we have virtually all the United StatesDemocratic Senators on board. The question now is whether or not Mitch Mcconnell is going to turn his back as your report just indicated, on the incredible suffering that the American People, the working people are now experiencing. Unemployment, high. A record level of hunger in america. Millions of people are facing evictions. This is an emergency. Congress has got to respond aggressive to help working families. Stephanie, i always get a kick. Here in washington when we go to war, theres endless amounts of money. Tax breaks for billionaires, money. Corporate welfare, corporate amounts of money. When children are going hung ry suddenly we dont have enough money. If we have to stay here throughout christmas, were going to stay here, because we are going to make sure that struggling working families in this country get the help they desperately need. Senator, im not agreeing with you fundamentally, but i want to talk to you practically. Youve been the lead sponsor of 422 bills during your 30 years in congress. But only seven of them have become law. Given that record, and how dire things are as you just laid out, do you need to find another lane or take a different approach here . I dont think thats the issue. You can ask how many other senators have passed significant legislation in recent years. Some of the legislation i worked on, the veterans bill has been significant in passing. But the issue right now is is the United StatesCongress Going to stand up for working people or not . And i am doing my best to rally not only democrats but republicans as well. As you know the proposal that came out of the white house yesterday talks not about 1200 a person but 600. Thats unacceptable. And by the way, they want to do away with all extended Unemployment Benefits. That is also unacceptable. As youll report, your excellent report indicated all over the world countries are responding to the pain that working families are experiencing. We have got to do the same. This Economic Disaster is directly linked to the health crisis. Millions of americans not millions. Weve got people going to work sick every single day because they dont have paid leave. Because theyre hourly workers. Should the government consider either forcing businesses or the government itself step in and offer paid leave . Because its only worsening the spread that sick people are going to work every day because unfortunately theyre making the decision, put food on the table for my kids, or go to work sick and risk spreading this thing. Well, stephanie, as the report Previous Report before you got on indicated, we are unique among industrialized countries. Lets be clear. We are the only major country on earth not to have paid family and medical leave. So if youre sick today, maybe you have symptoms of the coronavirus and your choice is not getting a paycheck or going to work, you know what . Youve got to feed your kids. Youre going to go to work. And its not only paid family and medical leave. We are the only major country on earth not to guarantee health care to human people as a human right. If theres anything i hope this terrible terrible pandemic is showing the American People, its how far behind we are other countries around the world in taking care of our children, taking care of the unemployed, taking care of the elderly, taking care of the sick. Were the richest country in the history of the world. 92 Million People today are uninsured or underinsured. That is beyond belief. That is why in my view, weve got to move to medicare for all single payer to guarantee health care to all people. American people cant afford to get healthy. With Speaker Pelosi and minority leader schumer rejecting the latest package, where do they go from here . Whats your advice to them for the next move . We dont want these talks to stall out. Stand tall. Do what the American People want. And what the American People understand is in a democratic civilized society, we cannot continue to have more desperation out there today than in any time since the great depression. What the republicans are proposing is gross ri unsatisfactory. You know, you will remember it wasnt so many months ago the democrats were saying we need 2 trillion. They reached an agreement with mnuchin. 1. 8 trillion. Do you know how much new money is in this package . Do you know . Its 350 billion. Theyre shifting 350 billion because theyre shifting 500 billion or 600 billion from the unused money in the cares program. Thats nothing. But senator, people thats nothing. Im sorry. Please. We just got to stand tall. That is unacceptable. And we cannot leave here unless we get 1200 for every worker. And weve got to extended unemployment and adequate aid for states and cities. Country is facing a crisis. We have to respond accordingly. People arent just suffering in democratic and republican states. People are suffering in red states, blue states, all the United States of america, and we need to do something to help them. Senator, thank you so much for joining me today. Always good to see you. Stay healthy. Thank you. That wraps up this hour. Im stephanie ruhle. Check out the Second Season of my podcast, modern ruhles. Its out now. You can listen to it wherever you get your podcast. Coming up at 2 p. M. Today, former dhs Cyber Security chief chris krebs joins katy tur live. Hallie jackson picks up coverage on the other side of the break. K yeah, its time for grilled cheese. After we make grilled cheese, then were eating grilled cheese. Because its time. Yeah. Time for grilled cheese. See yourself. Welcome back to the mirror. And know youre not alone because this is not just a mirror. Its an unstoppable community. Come on jessie one more. Its a race across time zones. Come on you two, lets go. A gift for the whole family. So join in now and see your best self in the mirror. Every year, we set out to do one thing help the world believe in holiday magic. And this year was harder than ever. And yet, somehow, you all found a way to pull it off. Its not about the toys or the ornaments but about coming together. Santa, santa, youre on mute just wanted to say thanks. Thanks for believing. We are close to the beginning of the finish line in the race for a vaccine. Maybe in this country Something Like 40 hours a away, 48 hours, too, from shots on the move. Were live at the pentagon to hear about their Distribution Plan with hour with questions building about the militarys role in getting the vaccine where they need to go. Some may get theirs via drone. Well show you ahead of a key fda meeting ahead tomorrow. Its already in motion in the