Politics. Im manu raju. John king is off today. If america is at war with what President Trump calls the invisible enemy, it is losing. More than 125,000 americans are dead. And at least 2. 5 million have been infected. The Novel Coronavirus is raging across much of the country. 36 states are reporting a rise in daily case counts versus a week ago. And just two states are registering a decline in new cases since a week ago. And this is about as bad of a map as you can imagine. But listen to how Vice President mike pence described things on friday. We have made truly remarkable progress in moving our nation forward. We have all seen the encouraging news as we open america again. Were opening up safely and responsibly. Were in a much stronger place. The truth is, we did slow the spread, we flattened the curve. Take a look at the curve here, it has not flattened. The number of new cases in the United States set yet another new record on friday with more than 45,000 cases. The situation is particularly dire across the sun belt, especially in texas, one of the first states to reopen and now seeing its case count explode. Republican Governor Greg Abbott bowing to reality on friday, rolled back part of the reopening by shutting down bars in the state, and admitting he may have moved too quickly. If i can go back and redo anything, it probably would have been to slow down the opening of bars. Now seeing in the aftermath of how quickly it the Coronavirus Spread in the bar setting, and, you know, how a bar setting in reality just doesnt work with a pandemic. People go to bars to get close and to drink and to socialize. Joining me now, the mayors of two of the biggest and hardest hit cities in texas, Ron Nurenberg and steve adler. Thank you for taking time this sunday morning to talk to us. Mayor nurenberg, the Vice President says were in a much better place than we were two months ago. But the number of cases in your county has tripled this month, and this was the banner headline in the san Antonio Express news, city rushing to covid calamity. Is that what your county is facing and do you have the Hospital Capacity to handle it . Well, thank you, manu, good morning. So this is a stark contrast from where we were at the beginning of the month. And the challenge for us is that we indeed flatten the curve early on and we maintained capacity and built up our medical ability to treat, but no one believed that we could continue to do that without maintaining the proper measures that Public Health professionals have told us all along, this virus is going to be around for a while. If we see the acceleration of cases that continue that we have seen over the last couple of weeks unabate, then were going to be in trouble and the capacity in hospitals are already at high stress and so we need to change behaviors very quickly. Mayor adler, Governor Abbott is trying to close bars, is closing bars in the state and saying thats an effort to try to contain the virus. In your opinion, is that enough or does more need to happen . Does there need to be a shutdown, something your own Public Health director suggested might be needed . I think we do need more. I think that people that can need to start staying at home. The governor says that, but people dont hear the governor as much as they see the orders that he comes out with, which is why we want him to mandate the use of face coverings in the state. I think that would be one of the most important things that he could do right now. Mayor nirenberg, one reason the virus is spreading so rapidly, people seem to think they can go back to normal. Cell phone tracking data shows residents are just as mobile as they were a year ago, you see there on your screen. So what is your message to those individuals who continue to move around and who may not be listening to this advice . What do you say to them in. Thats the biggest challenge is that, you know, from the very start we all knew that the biggest tool we had to fight this pandemic was public trust. It is not just bars. It is not just restaurants. We cant put our finger on just one cause. This virus spreads everywhere and so when you have mixed messages that call into question whether or not wearing a face mask is a personal liberty or public protecting Public Health as our medical experts have said repeatedly, it becomes a challenge. We need to, if were going to open up this country in the next couple of years, we all need to heed the word of the medical experts, wearing face masks, physical distancing, and sanitation, hygiene, all the things they have been telling us, but were getting too many mixed messages from politicians and washington, d. C. And at the state capital. And mayor adler, listen to what the Vice President said about masks in an interview this weekend. Why not ask people to wear masks . Well, we believe people should wear masks. Why doesnt the president wherever social distancing is not possible, wherever it is indicated by state or local authorities, and, you know, the the president has worn a mask. I wore a mask on several occasions. We made it clear that we want to defer to governors, want to defer to local officials. Now, texas, of course, is a red state. Curious, mayor adler, would it make a difference if the president or the Vice President took a stronger stance on this, or is it enough to leave it up to state and local officials to make that call . It would be a huge difference if the president and the Vice President wore a mask everywhere they were and everywhere you expect the public to wear a as the mayor said, it is the mixed message that is coming to people. They dont know whether masks are optional, they are not convinced they help, if they rally helped, then wouldnt their government be mandating that they use them . We had mandatory masking in austin, and in san antonio in march and april and more and more people were Wearing Masks, we were able to flatten the virus, but then the governor took away our ability to be able to do that, it became something he recommended, but not required. And that sends a very confused message and people stopped wearing the masks. We have gotten now back part of the ability to mandate masks, but only through business and not for people when theyre outside. Government has to do more in this instance and recommend because the message is ambiguous if the governor doesnt mandate it. And were seeing across the country the tension between reopening the economy and ensuring public safety. As mayor nirenburerg, i want to ask you where you think they went wrong in the governors efforts to try to reopen the states economy. There were a few things that combined into the perfect storm. The first, we began opening before we reached the gating criteria. Having the proper amount of testing and isolation tracing protocols in place before we started opening, none of the cities were really in that position yet. And we began to open. The second thing is that we started opening too fast. We opened in phases, but the phases were put in place before we had data to support the previous decision. Were moving very quickly. And then to top it all off, which i think was the most difficult and dangerous thing was that they stripped away local authority. And also made it seem as if mask wearing and other physical distancing measures were not necessary. So you had a perfect combination of people just getting the feeling were out of the woods, the urban communities had done such a good job of flattening the curb, we cve, we can go bac normalizing. It is better to prevent a forest fire than to contain and stop one. You have a Major University in your city, the university of texas. Austin, one of the biggest campuses of the country, more than 50,000 students. Should they reopen for in Person Instruction in the fall . It appears they have not made a decision yet, plan to make one soon. What do you think they should do . Should they reopen and allow students to come back to class . I have real concerns about students gathering again. The answer to that question is absolutely not, if they can ensure that the students are going to mask and social distance. Were finding right now that our numbers are going up as is they are all over the country. Especially in that younger population. Folks that feel that theyre bulletproof, though i just saw the two 17yearolds died in florida, a day or two ago, so theyre not bulletproof. But they have to wear masks because they can carry the virus and infect other people, even if they dont feel like they have it themselves, even if theyre asymptomatic. So i have concerns about it. And absolutely not if they cant get the students to mask. Thank you, gentlemen, for taking the time this morning and talking with us and dealing with the challenges in your cities. And up next, for us, against all evidence, the president continues to say the virus isnt as bad as you think. Looks like they picked the wrong getaway driver. Theyre going to be paying for this for a long time. They will, but with accident forgiveness allstate wont raise your rates just because of an accident, even if its your fault. Cut sonny. Was that good . Line the desert never lies. Isnt that what i said . No you were talking about allstate and insurance. I just. When i. Lets try again. Everybody back to one. Accident forgiveness from allstate. Click or call for a quote today. If yoyoull get 2 vyears or 20,000 miles from allstate. Of scheduled carefree maintenance. 3 years or 36,000 miles of 24 7 roadside assistance. 4 years or 50,000 miles bumpertobumper limited warranty. 5 years of connected services. And for 6 years you wont have paid any interest. Down the road, youll be grateful you bought a volkswagen today. Special fortieth anniversary presentation of a capitoly fourthfourth s for a with your hosts john stamos and Vanessa Williams and performances from coast to coast. Featuring patti labelle, john fogerty, the temptations, andy grammer yolanda adams, renee fleming, trace adkins brian stokes mitchell, chrissy metz, mandy gonzalez, and a tribute to our frontline workers. Its the fortieth anniversary of a capitol fourth. Saturday july fourth, eight seven central. Only on pbs. You cant always stop for a fingerstick. Betes with the freestyle libre 14 day system, a continuous glucose monitor, you dont have to. With a painless, onesecond scan you can check your glucose with a smart phone or reader so you can stay in the moment. No matter where you are or what youre doing. Ask your doctor for a prescription for the freestyle libre 14 day system. You can do it without fingersticks. Learn more at freestylelibre. Us. The numbers tell the story of a virus that continues to ravage the United States. States across the south and west setting records last week for daily confirmed cases. At least 12 states have been forced to pause or roll back their reopening plans. And it didnt have to be this way. Look at the comparison of the United States and the european union, eu countries did crush their curve, the United States did not. But President Trump inaccurately continues to claim the real problem isnt that people are getting sick, it is that more people are getting tested. So we have more cases, because we do the greatest testing. If we didnt do testing, we have no cases. Other countries, they dont test millions. Up to almost 30 million tests. So when you do 30 million, youre going to have a kid with the sniffles and theyll say it is coronavirus, whatever you want to call it. Joining us now, dr. Ashish jha, director of harvards Global Health institute. Thank you for taking the time this morning to chat with us. The president has been saying the only reason the cases are rising is because the United States is testing more. He says the virus will disappear, the worst is behind us. Give us the reality about how much increased testing has to do with the uptick in cases across the country. So good morning. Thank you for having me on. So we have increased our testing. And thats good news. But it is very clear to all the experts including the experts from the cdc and the president s own task force that thats not what explains what is happening in the United States right now. The increasing number of cases were identifying is because there are more people getting infected and increasing testing wouldnt explain our hospitals getting full, icus getting full, this idea that testing is driving all of this is just simply not true. Through the states that are doing the worse now are three of the biggest, california, texas, florida. Texas and florida were among the first to reopen, but california has been a little bit more cautious. But now were seeing some states like texas, arizona, florida pause and reverse their openings. And im curious what lesson should states draw from this. So, the key issue here is that we have got to let evidence and science and data drive these decisions. And those states didnt. They opened when things were still the number of cases had not been declining steadily and they opened too fast. I think as you mentioned in your last segment or someone mentioned in the last segment, too many states opened too fast without letting data drive those decisions. Now i think were going to see reversals. We might see a couple of states at some point go back into shelter in place. And im hoping that were learning our lesson and we can really open up our country much more safely as we go forward in the next days and weeks ahead. And learn much more about this virus, and the cdc said just this past week that there could be 20 million americans who had the disease, but were asymptomatic, they never knew they even were carrying the virus. How much harder does that make it for Public Health experts, for local officials, the federal government to stop the spread of the disease . So, yeah, the cdc report didnt necessarily argue that most people were asymptomatic, just that we had a lot more infections. Couple of thoughts on that, one is that it is a reminder that most of those people werent identified as having covid because we didnt have enough testing. So the lack of testing is why we have so many more people infected and have been identified. Second, you know, for months we have been telling people unless youre really, really sick you cant come in and get a test. So if we really want to get our arms around this disease, we have to ramp up testing, even today were probably missing 70 , 80 of the cases that are out there on a daily basis. So were way behind on testing and we have to be doing a lot more. The case count is surging, the death rate has not been. Listen to what Vice President mike pence did have to say about that. We can still take some comfort in the fact that fatalities are declining all across the country. There literally was a day, two months ago this week, where we lost 2,500 americans in a single day. This week there were two days where we lost less than 300 americans. Is he right . Should we take some comfort in that or do we just not know yet . I mean, it is always good to take comfort in fewer people dying. So i do. But the question is that sustainable and there are a couple of reasons that make me worry theyre not. First of all, death is always a lagging indicator. When hospitals start getting full, you start worrying that eventually in the days and weeks ahead were going to see increases in deaths. Im worried about that. Second, a lot of these are young people who are getting infected, less likely to die, but these people will go on and infect their parents and grandparents. Were going to see increases in the age of people getting infected, in the weeks ahead. So i dont think were out of the woods, i dont think we should assume this is no big deal. We still really need to work on curtailing this disease. So much more to learn about this disease. Dr. Jha, thank you for coming on, sharing your expertise with us. Up next, what does the Top Republican senator think of the u. S. Response to the pandemic . My exclusive with the Senate HealthCommittee ChairmanLamar Alexander next. Over time, you go noseblind to the odors in your home. background music but others smell this. upbeat music thats why febreze plug has two alternating scents and eliminate odors for 1200 hours. Breathe happy febreze. La la la la la. I wondered. Could another come around the corner . Or could it play out differently . I wanted to help protect myself. My doctor recommended eliquis. Eliquis is proven to treat and help prevent another dvt or pe blood clot. Almost 98 percent of patients on eliquis didnt experience another. And eliquis has significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. Eliquis is fdaapproved and has both. Dont stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. Dont take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. If you had a spinal injection while on eliquis call your doctor right away if you have tingling, numbness, or muscle weakness. While taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily and it may take longer than usual for bleeding to stop. Seek immediate medical care for sudden signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. Eliquis may increase your bleeding risk if you take certain medicines. Tell your doctor about all planned medical or dental procedures. Whats around the corner could be your moment. Ask your doctor about eliquis. And the clock could be ticking towards bad breath, receding gums and possibly tooth loss. Help turn back the clock on gingivitis with parodontax. Leave bleeding gums behind. Parodontax. Leave bleeding gums behind. There are times when our need to connect really matters. To keep customers and employees in the know. To keep business moving. Comcast business is prepared for times like these. Powered by the nations largest gigspeed network. To help give you the speed, reliabil