The president had been using 60,000 as a kind of benchmark death toll estimate in weeks past. No more. Tonight nbc news reports 14 possible covid vaccines are now being developed as part of the administrations new program to fasttrack one for use as early as january. That number was, quote, whittled down several weeks ago from 93 vaccines in development that were studied as part of the program known as operation warp speed. The goal is to have three or four vaccines make it through final testing, cleared for use early next year. Late this afternoon, the fda announced its allowing emergency use of remdesivir to treat the virus. Its the drug dr. Fauci says has proven effective in early trials. Prior to this, though, it has not been approved for any illness in this country. Tonight nbc news has also learned the white house has blocked dr. Fauci from testifying next week before the House Appropriations committee about the coronavirus response. The Administration Says it would be, quote, co
That is even necessary. But as we start off by diving back into the real world tonight, we find the u. S. Death toll stands at over 60,000 americans. Last night here we reported the number of dead now exceeded the total number of american losses. In 19 years of fighting in the vietnam war. And if it helps, the number of dead also equals the population of these american cities. Grand junction, colorado. Terre haute, indiana. Cupertino, california. Pontiac, michigan. Casper, wyoming. Chapel hill, north carolina. Picture all the people gone from any one of those cities. Thats our death toll so far. Were also learning that new cdc data is indicating the virus could be responsible for far more infections, far more deaths than first thought. And yet there is also a sign of progress in the battle to find a treatment as i know youve seen during the coverage today. Theres new evidence that an antiviral drug actually helps patients recover from the virus. Today the nations top Infectious Disease
Now. But some have been moving faster than others in that direction. According to the new york times, ten states are in the process of fashlly reopening. 15 plan to follow suit in a week and 25 plan to have restrictions in place along with the district of columbia. The president painted a rosy picture in a radio interview. We have a lot of states open up and a lot of governors are feeling like you and i, and want to get going. And maybe they have pout out some the hot spots, embers, whatever it may be. We have to get it going. The same time, nbc news reports, no state that is opted to reopen has come close to the federally recommended declines in cases over a 14day period. Today, dr. Anthony fauci warned that the states can rebound in the states that ignore that criteria and reopen too quickly. The guidelines are very, very explicit and very clear. But you have to have the Core Principles of the guidelines. You cant leap other things and get the in a situation where you are tempting a
Soninlaw, as youll see here in just a moment, today called what we are living through a Great Success story. For that today his proud fatherinlaw called him a genius. The president said well soon see some astonishing testing numbers, and he quickly followed that up with i dont know if that is even necessary. But as we start off by diving back into the real world tonight, we find the u. S. Death toll stands at over 60,000 americans. Last night here we reported the number of dead now exceeded the total number of american losses. In 19 years of fighting in the vietnam war. And if it helps, the number of dead also equals the population of these american cities. Grand junction, colorado. Terre haute, indiana. Cupertino, california. Pontiac, michigan. Casper, wyoming. Chapel hill, north carolina. Picture all the people gone from any one of those cities. Thats our death toll so far. Were also learning that new cdc data is indicating the virus could be responsible for far more infections, far
Force, of course seemed fine with doing away with the task force. Until today when the president said he didnt know how populari the task force was and said hes decided hes going to keep it or around. The virus continues to churn across our country in tandem with the trend of reopening businesses and entire states. Despite the Johns Hopkins expert who just today testified that none of the states reopening have met all of the white house guidelines for reopening. And despite opinion polls showing a majority of americans are not at all ready or willing to go back to life and events as normal as we knew them. Indeed, in the real world tonight the death toll across our country stands at 73,863 souls lost to this virus. There are now among the small percentage tested more than 1. 2 million confirmed cases. The number of new cases is rising in nearly half of our country. Those are the states in orange on this map. The green states are where the number of cases are falling. Some 36 states hav