This is Straight Talk from the disease doctor. What hes saying is that this virus does not respect borders. It doesnt respect state or city borders and he pointed to the rising rates in places like atlanta, baltimore, kansas city. He says we need to work to keep the numbers down. Unless everybody pulls together and gets the level way down of a baseline, were going to continue to see these kind of increases that dr. Birx was talking about in several of those cities. Thats what i mean by smoldering. You have got to get that baseline down and everybody on this group, everybody on the team of american citizens need to pull together. Lets because were all in this together. Dr. Fauci then went on to talk about what a diverse country we are so that its harder he spoke with me at the very, very beginning. Back in january, he said, elizabeth, this is a bit country, its a diverse country, Different Things are going to happen in different places. Smaller countries have been a easier time having t
And well be watching the last word like we do every night at 10 00 p. M. Eastern right here on msnbc. That does it for us this morning. Stephanie ruhle picks up the coverage right now. Hi there. Im stephanie ruhle. Live at msnbc headquarters here in new york city, it is monday, december 21st. Lets get smarter. Today, congress will finally do something it should have done months ago. Vote on a relief bill to provide badly needed help to millions of struggling americans. It includes things like a 600 direct cash payment, extra Unemployment Insurance and help for Small Businesses. The big question, why did it take so long . Also this morning, the first shipments of Modernas Covid vaccines are on their way. Millions of doses headed to Distribution Sites at this very moment. More than half a Million Health care workers have already taken the vaccine with many more getting them this morning. Nursing homes and longterm care facilities is also set to kick off today. Weve known for a while thos
Be included. A 600 stimulus check for most americans and 300 per week of enhanced federal Unemployment Benefits among other relief measures. But to make matters even perilous for the incoming administration, they will he also be inheriting a government that has just been breached by a massive russian hack. Meanwhile President Trump is casting doubt on russias role in the attack, even though u. S. Officials, lawmakers, experts and even the secretary of state and the attorney general have all said russia is culprit. And the president is using the hack to instill further doubt about the legitimacy of bidens victory. For the latest, imjoinm joined Garrett Haake and Josh Lederman. Garrett, when will we see the actual text of the covid relief bill . Weve been told that the text of the bill was imminent since about 10 00 this morning. There are reports that it is being held up by printer problem, digital unloading problems, it is giving me nightmares of term papers finished too late. But this
Tonight, the coronavirus surging across the u. S. New numbers coming in. Almost 500,000 new cases since this time last week. The unpublished white house document suggesting 18 states in the virus red zone should roll back their reopenings. Hospitals pushed to the breaking point. Reinforcements on the way in florida. 100 nurses arriving to help in miami. Plus, this powerful moment showing the reality. A husband losing his wife of 30 years. Their son sharing their final video together. The mask debate raging in parts of the country. 28 states plus puerto rico with mandatory mask orders. Also breaking tonight, californias governor with his new decision, saying more than two dozen counties on a watch list may not be able to open
their classrooms at the start of the school year. The Testing Crisis in america. Our team shut out at eight different sites. Families waiting for hours to be tested at a stadium. People in Florida Waiting Up To 18 days for test results. Tonights other major headlin
Seeing a rise without a mask himself and most folks in the crowd not Wearing Masks either. Remember, just days ago, he said the virus is dying out. Right. Its not dying out, clearly. And in texas, governor greg abott, a key ally of the president is urging people to stay home. The northern part of the state is seeing more young people fill hospital beds who seem less sick, but are still contracting this. Lets begin in texas and our correspondent Lucy Cavanaugh is live in dallas. Good morning, lucy. Reporter good morning, poppy. Texas is just one of 26 states seeing a surge in these coronavirus cases this as President Donald Trump said this epidemic, this pandemic has america to its knees and dr. Anthony fauci describing this as a disturbing rise and disturbing surge in cases warning about this concern about this plan to economically reopen states that have been championed by the president. He is also saying that its going to be critical how we operate over the next few weeks in terms of