In from out of state to reinforce exhausted medical workers, and in texas, mayors are demanding the right to shut down their cities to avoid overwhelming hospitals. The center for Public Integrity today obtained white house documents that show that 18 states are currently in what is known as the red zone, and that means those states have more than 100 new cases per 100,000 people in the previous week. According to that document, which was prepared for the White House Coronavirus task force but not released to the public, quote, more than a dozen states should revert to more stringent protective measures limiting social gatherings to ten people or fewer, closing bars, and asking gyms and asking residents to wear masks at all times. For more, i am joined by dr. John torres, an msnbc medical correspondent, dr. Matt hines, a hospital official in arizona who served in the obama administration, and Health Policy reporter for the Washington Post. Thanks to all of you for joining us. Yazmin let me start with you, this document that was obtained by the center for Public Integrity, can you tell us a little bit about what you know about the genesis of that document, who commissioned it, what its purpose was supposed to be in the administration, why it hadnt been released to the public, what do we know about that . So the document, you know, says there are 18 states that are red zones for coronavirus, meaning that their daily infection, new daily infection case rate is at least 100 per 100,000 people. Its not entirely clear who commissioned it or why it hasnt been publicly released, but the recommendations in the report are at odds with the general public posture the white house has taken. It recommends that the states that are in the quote, unquote red zones have mandatory Face Covering mandates that they close bars and gyms and indoor gatherings and limit gatherings to ten people or less. Thats obviously quite at odds with the message gotten from the president in recent weeks. Dr. John torres, let me ask you, we keep talking every day and here it is again, another new record for the number of new cases. We are also seeing the death count tick up as weve seen thats been the story, ive been doing this all week. Thats been the story every night. I think one of the questions is just to try to get a sense of the skoecope of this. When we think back to the outbreak in march and april, when the death rates were just soaring there, that death tally right now, that death rate right now, do you think its on pace to get where new york was . Do you think its on pace to get close to where new york was . Do you think it will come in short of that . What are we looking at in terms of a trajectory here . And steve, unfortunately, i think were on pace to maybe even surpass that. If you remember back in new york when we were having cases we were ittisitting here thinking e had 20 to 40,000 cases a day, that was a lot of cases. Experts thought by october we might have 100,000 cases a day. Some people said that seems to be a bit of an overload. Were getting very close to that. 73,000 cases a day. That number continues to go high, every day over the last couple of weeks weve seen higher and higher numbers. I think what thats showing us is what we did and remember, the cases were seeing today are from infections that occurred one to two weeks ago. We were seeing story after story, picture after picture of people gathering together not Wearing Masks, no social distancing, and the warning was being put out, if this continues, were going to start seeing an uptick in cases. Were seeing an uptick in cases. You and i talked about this, one of the big things is when we reopen, we knew wed see cases spike. The concern was to make sure those spikes didnt turn into outbreaks where unfortunately it looks like theyre starting to turn into outbreaks like you mentioned, the red zone, 18 states are in the red zone according to that pamphlet that came out. 18 of those states in the red zone because of the numbers, 100 cases per 100,000. 11 because of the 10 person Positivity Rate or higher, and ten of those states have a combination of the two, definitely needed to cut back on things, definitely need to rom back some of the reopenings in some of those areas. Dr. Hines out there in arizona, let me bring you in on this. Arizonas one of those states weve been talking about every night with the rising case loads, with a lot of these troubling statistics getting higher and higher. What is the situation like on the ground where you are right now . How would you describe it . Yeah, greetings from the red zone, and we have record level of hospital beds being utilized as well as were almost at the limit for with regard to Critical Care beds, and we still dont have a statewide mask requirement from our governor. Maricopa county, which is where the city of phoenix is as many of them are reporting, just commissioned ten refrigerated units for the county to deal with extra morgue space. Thats where were at. You mentioned theres no statewide mask mandate in arizona. As i understand it, the counties, the municipalities can do that. Youre in tucson. Does pima county have one . Yes, pima county and the city of tucson did. Even some of the towns within pima county had been using the fact that the governor will not say theres a mask requirement. Theyre using that to make the excuse that they dont have to follow it. There are some towns in rural areas where you can go, nobodys Wearing Masks and its almost like theres no pandemic. And is that is that turning up in terms of what you see in the hospital then . Do you see a connection there, a direct connection . For sure. A lot of the patients sigh come in from rural outside facilities and are then either by helicopter or ambulance brought in to tucson and other cities to be to get treatment, and many of those cases, you know, they come from areas where there are not mask requirements. Yazmin you were alluding to this a minute ago, when you ask the administration, talk about its messaging when it comes to coronavirus, when it comes to national strategy, where were going, your article you wrote this week kind of alluded to this. There seems to be a bit of a disconnect between what a lot of folks in the administration, what they would like to be emphasizing when it comes to the coronavirus and how the president speaks about this. Could you talk about that . Yeah, i mean, within the administration you do have people who are paying attention to the outbreaks in some of these states like florida, texas, arizona, south carolina, that theyre very worried about, and you do have the cdc and hhs sending in reinforcements to those states. The president wants to be focusing on the good news, that the death rate is lower than it was in april, that a vaccine is on the way, treatments. There isnt really a cohesive national response. There hasnt been for most of this response, but right now what you see is kind of a patchwork reactive set of actions that the Administration Takes based on where they see new outbreaks coming or where theyre getting criticized. So they are taking actions, but you dont see a comprehensive National Plan for how to get out of this, especially when you see the worrying uptick that weve seen for the last several weeks. Theres also this today, we could put this up on the screen from politico, House Democrats on the education committee, they are having hearings next week on this issue of reopening the schools. They say the white house is blocking cdc officials from testifying at that hearing. The announcement comes as the cdc has delayed its release of new guidance on safely reopening schools. This is sort of the big issue policy wise thats taken center stage here in the last week is reopening schools. What do you know about that in terms of the administrations obviously the president has been saying open things up. You have House Democrats saying they cant talk to the cdc. What do you know about that . Well, we reported this week that the president was advised by some of his economic advisers that if they wanted to truly open the economy and start seeing a recovery that schools n school. Of course they want their kids back in school, but they dont want the decision taken away from them if they dont feel like they can do it safely. Youre seeing this tug of war between the administration and members of congress about whether it is safe to bring kids back to school. You saw President Trump criticize his own Public Health agencys guidelines as overly cumbersome and expensive and Vice President pence saying they were going to essentially override them. Dr. Torres, theres also potentially positive news today, this from time looking at they say a cheap common steroid may help patients with severe covid19. A Study Released in the new england journal of medicine, low cost steroid they say may be a valuable treatment for severe covid19, that dexamethasone appeared to reduce by a third the risk of death for patients with severe covid19. I think weve talked about it before you and i on this broadcast. Ive had it given to me for sinus infections before. That seems very significant, very promising. Whats your take on that . That is significant. Its a very promising finding. Its been around since the 60s. I used it the first day i walked into a hospital. Its one of those medicines thats ubiquitous, but right now there seems to be a little bit of a shortage of it. What were finding out is dexamethasone and remdesivir are the only two medications that have shown to reduce dying from covid19. And of course the vaccine is coming around the corner here hopefully within a year or so. Were making headway here, but steve, one thing to remember is were barely six months in to coronavirus. Six and a half months ago nobody had heard of coronavirus before the covid19, and so this is one of those things that is new, but theyre making rapid advancemen advancements. Being able to give it to calm down the immune reaction that seems to be happening and causing problems in patients, thats a big step forward, tooetooef steve. Thats why i was bringing up this question of the death rate earlier. As we look at the exploding outbreaks in the sunbelt and some of the states in march and april we werent talking about, and of course were talking about is there a potential here for the second wave in the fall for it to come back to new york, come back to other places where we saw it earlier, are there tools that are in place now that may arrest that death rate a little bit in the sunbelt or more importantly even, if you have the second wave that hits the whole country that might help us in that case . And steve, the death rates declining for a couple of reasons. One, right now, we know that young adults are getting coronavirus more than the elderly, so theyre not dying as often from it, although it does lag behind cases, and so the death rate is certainly creeping up. But on top of that, again, six months into coronavirus, weve learned how to treat it a lot better. Before it was almost a knee jerk reaction, if peoples oxygen level dropped, you put them on a ventilator. Now they found out its okay to let their oxygen level drop. Dont put them on a ventilator right away. We know right now that that site a kooin storm sneaks after. Thats what proves to be deadly. Need to get that under control, and thats what it seems to be helping with. Understanding it better, learning how to take care of it, the Supportive Care is important, and were getting more medicines we can use as well. I think all those factors mean when a second wave comes we have a better understanding and a better way to take care of it. At the same time, it doesnt take much for Hospital Systems to get overwhelmed. It doesnt take much for medicines to become short. It doesnt take much to get the death rate to go back up again. We all need to do those things we need to do to stay safe. Dr. Hines, we keeping hearing in a lot of these states having the outbreaks, the median age, the average age of these cases be lower than we saw in new york, new jersey, at the beginning of this. Im curious what youre seeing where you are. Are you seeing younger patients and are you seeing any indications of it starting to move to the older, more vulnerable populations too . Thats right, actually, for about the past four if not five months, ive been seeing patients in their 20s, often with like no medical comorbidities, no heart disease, diabetes, the one that seems to be the most common is like a mild degree of obesity, but just about four nights ago i admitted two different 25yearolds and a 28yearold. One of those 25yearolds actually unfortunately did have to get intubated, so it is not necessarily a it has thdisease affects the older people. We are still seeing people in their 60s, 70s, 80s coming in with serious effects and having to be potentially sbu daintubat hospitalized. 50, 55 of the new cases every day announced in arizona, are 18 to 44yearolds. Dr. Matt hines, thank you all for joining us. Really appreciate that. And coming up, several georgia mayors angry, and they are speaking out as Governor Brian Kemp goes to court. Hes trying to block them from issuing mask mandates. I dont think it takes a mandate for people to do the right thing. And the governor has simply overstepped his bounds and his authority, and well see him in court. Plus, new concerns tonight about the health of Supreme CourtJustice Ruth Bader ginsbu ginsburg. The latest coming up, stay with us. E latest coming up, stay wit us good morning, mr. Sun. Good morning, blair. [ chuckles ] whoo. Im gonna grow big and strong. Yes, you are. Im gonna get this place all clean. Ill give you a hand. And im gonna put lisa on crutches wait, what . 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Its why, at xfinity, were committed to helping kids keep learning through the summer. And help College Students studying at home stay connected through our university program. Were providing affordable Internet Access to low income families through our internet essentials program. And this summer, xfinity is creating a Virtual Summer camp for kids at home all on xfinity x1. Were committed to helping all families stay connected. Learn more at xfinity. Com education. Welcome back, the showdown over masks is escalating in georgia. It is pitting the republican governor against atlantas democratic mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms and other local officials. Kemp signed an executive order attempting to stop local officials from requiring their residents to wear masks. He sued bottoms to prevent atlanta from reversing measures to reopen. Kemps lawsuit alleges that, quote, unless mayor bottoms is restrained georgia residents will suffer immediate and irreparable harm. It comes as the daily number of new cases is on the rise in the state. Georgia is also among the 18 states in the coronavirus red zone, this according to a white house document that was obtained by the center for Public Integrity. That document specifically recommends that georgia, quote, mandate statewide wearing of cloth Face Coverings outside the home. While kemp does encourage the voluntary use of mask he says his suit will protect businesses. Theyre barely hanging on as it is. They cant be the citys police force. We are focused on two things, the lives of georgians. We dont need a mask mandate to do that. Heres what atlantas mayor is saying. The entire the filing of a lawsuit is simply bizarre quite frankly. I will continue to do everything in my power to protect the people of atlanta and the governor has simply overstepped his bounds and his authority and well see him in court. And im joined now by msnbc correspondent blayne alexander in atlanta. Blayne, thanks for joining us. So weve got a legal battle playing out here. Weve got a political battle playing out. While this is in courts, right now what is the sort of state of play in georgia . Are masks required anywhere right now . Reporter well, yes, they are in some places. In addition to atlanta, the city of savannah, athens, clark county all of them, a handful of other municipalities have put mask mandates in place, they said they are going to keep those in place. Before we get into this legal back and forth, lets talk about the battle over covid here in the state of georgia, steve. You know, when we talk about the numbers, the latest numbers here in georgia show more than 3,900 additional cases just over the past 24 hours. Those are some of the highest single day totals that weve seen since this pandemic began. We also know that hospitalizations have gone up 39 over the past week, and so when you look at the numbers, its clear that theyre moving in the wrong direction. I think anyone would agree to that. So when we talked with Governor Kemp today at that News Conference earlier this morning, one of the many questions that i, other reporters that were there asked him is listen, hes been encouraging masks. He doesnt say masks shouldnt be worn. He kind of mounted a statewide tour flying from cit