The information is not coming from the people who matter most. Plus, six months in space. Tonight meet the astronaut whos been there, done that. And good evening its rare that we get from the government an unfiltered uncensured true view of whats going on with coronavirus. Nbc just got one the White House Coronavirus task forces latest report delivers a sobering assessment of the pandemics trajectory. It describes aggressive, unrelenting, expanding, Broad Community spread across america thats getting worse, not better the task force reports efforts to stop covid are inadequate and the curve must be flattened to sustain the Health System for both covid and noncovid emergencies. In short, the virus is out of control, the Emergency Health care system is in danger of collapse and the white house knows it the task force is alerting thanksgiving can make things worse urging the states to warn their people not to gather, to wear face coverings and socially distance, the report dated on sunday and now governors and mayors from across pennsylvania to california are ramping up covid restrictions the United States now adding roughly 155,000 new cases every day. Johns hopkins reports weve been topping more than 100,000 a day for the past two weeks the number of americans in hospitals is the highest ever recorded in this pandemic, more than 73,000 just yesterday thats from the covid tracking project. And while there is good news to report on the vaccine front tonight, dr. Fauci warns, now is the time to double down on safety measures. Given the fact that weve been fortunate enough that the science has given us unless two and likely more vaccines that are highly effective there is light at the end of the tunnel i use the metaphor the cavalry is on the way which means rather than give up on Public Health measures we should say now that we see the end in sight, now is the time to double down. Double down ohio is one of the states taking new steps to slow the virus and its rapid spread Governor Mike Dewine announcing an overnight stayathome order from 10 00 p. M. To 5 00 in the morning and says it will begin thursday and last for at least three weeks. In iowa the governor called mask mandates a feel good measure now shes putting a partial one in place iowas in big trouble. The Positivity Rate there more than 50 now the governor warns if people dont do better the states Health Care System will fail in california, some of that is already happening. The governor there gavin newsom rolling back reopening plans after daily cases there doubled in the past ten days all 41 counties shown here in purple under the states strictest covid rules. Thats more than 94 of the states population houses of worship, restaurants and gyms in those counties ordered to shut down for move outdoors cnbcs aditi roy is live there what about the schools reporter good question, here at Lincoln High School many of the 1800 students in attendance were looking forward to the possibility of going back to school in person starting january 5th but now all of that has been put on hold, in fact, today was the deadline that parent had to let the school know whether they were opting for inperson instruction or going back to Virtual Learning which theyve been doing since march. The restrictions a surprise and disappointment to many students, parents and School Officials we anticipated that there might be an increase in covid rates over the holidays but yesterdays news was definitely tough and falling back to categories to the purple range was definitely a surprise to us and its probably going to change some of our plans postholidays. Reporter i also spoke to an official with the Oakland Unified School district. He tells me while they didnt have any concrete to open to inperson instruction this was a big blow to move to the purple tier because more than 70 of that district students are on the reduced or Free School Lunch program and, in fact, at one school there within the first two weeks of the pandemic, 80 of the students had at least one parent lose their job, 60 had two parents who lost their jobs, just staggering. Aditi, thanks. In new jersey leaders are threatening new restrictions to contain the virus. The state beat covid back for months on end but now cases are skyrocketing again, up 40 from just last week the test Positivity Rate now at a sevenday average of 9 . Health officials reported another 38 covid deaths just today, the highest total in about four months. Ron allen live in newark the Positivity Rates even worse there. Reporter it is, shep it is 20 of the last couple of days here in newark, the states largest city all day we have seen a steady line of people going into a Testing Center here. The line started forming at 4 00 a. M. In the morning which was several hours before the place was even set to open which is in some ways good news that people are testing, bad news that they have to wait so long, but thats the situation here, people are desperate to get tested the mayor here is saying that the thanksgiving holiday he may order a citywide lockdown and says it will be inevitable that people will gather for holidays and the numbers will increase, the big problem in new jersey and the cold weather, indoor small gatherings in private homes and businesses where people let down their guard and stop doing the basics and hand hygiene. So there are new restrictions in place in new jersey. Larger restaurants are closing at 10 00 p. M theyre trying to limit gatherings inside peoples homes to ten which is somewhat unbelievable and of course difficult to enforce and people will have to try and do that but its going to be a very difficult thing, again, a lot of concern about what happens after thanksgiving here in new jersey they have had 4500 new cases over the past couple of days the next thing they may shut down are Indoor Dining and Indoor Sports and the governor said he reserves the right to shut everything down not taking that off the table if the numbers keep rising. Shep. Ron allen in new jersey Pfizers Covid vaccine is one step close story getting fda approval today the companys ceo announced its vaccine achieved a key safety milestone meaning half the people in the trial have shown no major issues at all for at least two months after taking the second required dose pfizer needed to hit that milestone before being able to file for emergency use which it could do within the next few days so whats next what other vaccines are in the works . Heres cnbcs meg tirrell. Reporter as pfizer and model t prepa moderna, they are in midst of large phase 3 studies with expects ready early 2021. J j is the only one so far to test a single shot vaccine the others require two doses behind nose are novavax and sanofi with trials that could start by the end of the year they all target the coronavirus in the same way, focusing on its spike protein. But they do it slightly differently. Moderna rely on messenger rna and have been able to move the fastes fastest. The others employed a tried and true approach which takes long story develop. Success for multiple vaccines is key for large numbers of americans to get vaccinated quickly. Together they are expected to have enough supply for 20 million americans this year. Dr. Thank you very much fauci says if others are successful there should be enough for everyone in the u. S. Who wants to get vaccinated so who gets it first. A cdc Advisory Group will make the final call but the National Academies of science, engineering and medicine have laid out a framework top of the list, High Risk Health workers and First Responders then people with Health Conditions that put them at significantly higher risk and older adults living in congregant settings like nursing homes, phase two, teachers, school staff and child care workers, other critical workers in high risk settings and people in homeless shelters and prisons. Young adults and children follow and then everyone else and, shep, Health Experts say about 70 to 75 of the population has to get vaccinated in order for us to reach herd immunity and start to curve the pandemic. Were hearing the race for a vaccine is attracting really famous donors. It sure is. Dolly parton, we learned the news she had donated a Million Dollars to Vanderbilt University in april for the dolly parton covid19 Research Fund and that was used to support development of modernas vaccine she was asked about it this morning on the today show. Heres what she said. Im just so happy that anything ive done could help in any way. Back when we started the fund, i was just hoping that we might find some cures or whatever but now it looks like it might be happening. And, of course, yesterday modernas vaccine was proven to be almost 95 effective in preventing cases of covid19 shep, as i saw some brilliant person on twitter put it, it puts a whole new meaning to working 9 to 5. Rolling it out will largely fall to the next administration. It will need to get doses to hundreds of millions of american maybe more than once and convince them its safe and necessary. A massive undertaking with lots of people involved including michael osterholm. He is an Infectious Disease expert who serves on president elect biden a covid19 task force what is the role for the federal government in the rollout of a vaccine . Well, to roll out a vaccine we first have to be able to convince the public its safe and effective. And thats going to take a lot of work in terms of just public relations, Public Education campaigns, helping individuals understand why these new vaccines even though they were created very quickly, do have a lot of work thats been done to show theyre effective and safe. Our own well, dr. Fauci talked to our own Andrew Ross Sorkin about changing government listen i have been now dealing with six administrations. Transitions are extremely important to the smooth continuity of whatever youre doing. I think we need a uniform approach to this outbreak. We need some fundamental Public Health measures that everyone should be adhering to. Meaning from the top, from the federal to the state do you agree and could you list any . Absolutely. I mean the first thing, let me just emphasize that if were going to ask anyone in america whether its an individual or a company to close down or to lose a job because we want them to distance so we can stop this pandemic, we have to understand we have to take care of them you know, if youre the single mom a waitress at a restaurant that closes down and now you have two kid at home and dont know if you can feed them, its incredibly important that we support them i dont know a Small Business that doesnt want to do the right thing but if theyre hanging on by a thread so to be most impactful in terms of trying to reduce the transmission we need peoples cooperation. The way thats going to happen if we have the support to make that possible for them to do that and i think thats a major gap right now in many of these closings or other kind of forced activities were asking people to do. Michael, much of europe went into lockdown except for schools in late october to control the surge. There was a report on the daily from the New York Times. Walked back your own suggestion of a shutdown. A short one. Why . I didnt walk it down i walked it back i never said to i never recommended it it was a reported error on sororitys website that said that i said that i didnt. I laid out in august an argument for why we had to do more to actually in a sense lock down that virus then but with Financial Support and without that, you couldnt do it and so ive been just as i just stated very clear to say you wont be really very successful if we dont provide that Financial Support. Do i believe like tony that we need a set of National Standards to help governors to know what to do that would be really effective, i mean ill give an example why i realized people are trying to reduce the transmission of the virus. I dont think we have any data that says closing the bars at 10 00 is much more helpful than not closing them at all. Closing them completely down helps. We shut the whole place down and that worked. I agree with that so i think what were trying to do is understand what will make a difference the economy will shut down on its own if we see this uncontrolled transmission. If our Health Care Facilities start to fail and die in the emergency room after ten hours of waiting to get a room, youll see people refuse to go into the public at all we have to see a bunch of people dying because i mean there is another way i mean look at what belgium has done and look what happened across the continent rather than letting that happen in greece you have to text where youre going to go to walk outdoors but in the United States were dropping like flies and government is just going, be careful. I mean i dont understand it. I agree with you. I agree with you and have been saying for some time that just mask and watching hands is not enough at the same time, we want to do what is going to have an impact. I think the European Experience is a very important one. I think the experience weve seen in asia with australia, new zealand, other democracies where they have taken this compromisive approach but an example in australia why were they successful they paid people to get tested and stay home. They paid people to be part of the solution and you know what, it worked. Should we do that until we understand that its going to be a problem for us. Michael, wish you all the best on behalf of all of us. Thank you. Thank you President Trump ordering a drawdown of troops in iraq and afghanistan by january the 15th. Just five days before he is set to leave office. The Major Military move comes as President Trump and his administration refuse to cooperate and coordinate with the biden administration, the transition team. President elect biden receiving a National Security briefing today but not from the current government or the ones in charge, instead from former National Security officials. President trumps new acting defense secretary and National Security adviser did not take questions from reporters after the troop announcement four years ago President Trump ran on a promise to put a stop to americas endless wars today its announced at the pentagon President Trump is keeping that promise to the American People. Thank you very much. Have a great day thank you very much. How can you not take question. Why wont anyone in this administration take questions . Well, its a good question. The president s plan would pull out about 2500 troops from iraq and afghanistan leaving around 5,000 total on the ground. The president s fired defense secretary mark esper opposed this move directly called it too soon, dangerous and opposed by the generals sororitys eamon javers with us. Weve been expecting some sort of troop announcement. Here it is. Reporter yeah, it is, shep it had an end of an era feel at the white house robert obrien, the National Security adviser said the remaining troops in iraq and afghanistan are going to focus on things like defending u. S. Embassies and diplomats and ignoring the fact now that a new administration is coming to power in the United States in january he said that President Trump would like to see all of the remaining troops home as soon as may. Our American Allies in their Important Missions in those country, theyll defend our diplomats and theyll deter our foes just about the same time he was saying that at the white house in delaware joe biden was teleconferencing with defense and National Security experts about repairing relationships but in the short section that was opened up for report attorneys see, biden seemed as focused on putting things right here in the United States as well were going to need to reig investigate rate our democracy at home and transfer the democracy coalitions as we stand with and equip the American People to compete and succeed with the Foreign Policy that reflects their values and their needs. Reporter now, biden who is not received classified or Intelligence Briefings from u. S. Government officials wasnt briefed by anybody currently in the administration instead 13 outside advisers, they included stanley mcchrystal, the general who ironically was fired by barack obama back in 2