gyms now allowed to reopen their doors. >> reporter: that's right, ayman. we've seen a steady stream of folks coming out to cross fit. some of them are behind me getting that midday work out in. we're seeing safety measures implemented here as we're seeing across the country. at this gym, they moved some of the equipment that was inside outside in order to create more space and promote that social distancing. but this does come as texas has seen record high numbers in terms of covid-positive cases. saturday saw a single-day increase and so i asked some of the gym goers about that. take a listen to what they told me. >> does it surprise you that we're seeing these spikes in numbers? >> no. as contagious the disease is, you're going to risk having more positives. >> as we open up, we have increased testing. we've had limited testing in texas, we're getting more and more testing. as we open up, we're going to have more cases. >> reporter: and the governor has worked to increase that testing sending surge response teams to places like meatpacking plants and ordering that all nursing homes staff and residents tested. we expect him to make another announcement about reopening today. >> let's go over to shaquille brewster in chicago. testing is being expanded after cook county gets the distinction of having the most cases of coronavirus than any in the country. talk to us a little bit about that and the plans for expanding testing in that county. >> reporter: that's right, ayman. new testing criteria here in the state of illinois. any frontline or essential worker can get tested. no payment, no referral from doctors. think about grocery store attendants, people at gas stations, pharmacy workers can get that testing. in addition to that, people with chronic illness can get tested. that's an expansion of the previous criteria. anyone who has interacted with someone who was tested positive can now go to one of these drive-up facilities and go and get tested. this expanded testing is part of the reason and part of the explanation that you hear from officials on that new distinction that you mentioned of chicago's cook county. chicago's cook county leads the country in total coronavirus cases. it is important to note, though, that the next county on that list, new york's queens county, is about half the size of chicago's cook county. officials are still saying that the numbers that we're seeing are far, far, far. that's a quote. below actual coronavirus numbers. they're hoping testing helps reveal the size and scope of the situation and the outbreak here in chicago. despite the increase in testing and despite the increase in numbers, you're seeing illinois's government and governor face increasing pressure to reopen the state. the governor says that the state, if you look at the metrics that he's using for reopening, including hospitalizations, including a positive test rate, he's saying that the state is on track to begin and move into their next phase of reopening in about two weeks. but this weekend, we saw some churches open up and have services, openly defying the stay-at-home order here in the state. you saw some protests, again, in the downtown area. the governor saying it's all about testing, it's all about the numbers and that's what he's focused on as he looks towards reopening. right now, the priority remains on testing here in chicago and here in the state of illinois. >> shaquille brewster, stay with us for a moment. i want to go to kara lee at the white house. give us the politics of it. the president taking another swipe at president obama this morning after a war of words erupted over the weekend. let me play you that sound bite. >> more than anything, this pandemic has torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they're doing. a lot of them aren't even pretending to be in charge. >> look, he was an incompetent president, that's all i can say, grossly incompetent. >> carol, you have that happening on one side. this morning the stock market taking a bump, 700 points, the biggest it has in the past month or so. walk us through the politics of what we're seeing play out between the former administration and this administration. >> well, look, ayman, you have former president who has endorsed president trump's opponent, obviously, president trump has really escalated the tensions between the two of him and his predecessor. he's accused president obama of an unspecified crime without any evidence saying that took place. when you look narrowly at their differences on the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the president's really just engaged in a blame game here. he said this morning he's tweeted in response to an article that has called his handling of coronavirus historic. he said that's true except to the fake news media and a former president who didn't have a clue. in another tweet, the president says, we've done a great job. we were left little by obama. so he's essentially the argument from this administration is that the obama administration did not leave enough resources behind for the trump administration to combat a pandemic. however, we know that the obama administration left a pandemic playbook behind to hand over during the transition to the incoming administration and president trump has been criticized for ignoring that. white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany said on friday that was a thin packet of paper. there's sparring on that. and at the same time, you know, put it into context. the president saying that the previous administration didn't do enough when the pandemic came in his fourth year in office. so clearly, he had several years if there weren't enough resources to come up with those resources. but this is all against the backdrop of a president who is trying to turn the page on the pandemic and really wants to lean into his re-election campaign. we've had reporting by me and some of my colleagues about the president, as his coronavirus task force fades from public view, really listening to a re-election task force, the number of advisers, jared kushner, members of his campaign, his outside advisors like karl rove who ran george bush's 2004 campaign. this is all part of it, trying to find a way to deflect from the criticism of the president's handling of coronavirus, trying to find somebody else to blame. and at the same time the president really wants to lean in and focus on the economy, ayman. >> all right. carol lee at the white house for us. let me take that for a moment and go back to shaquille brewster. give us the sense as we heard there from carol who was talking about the politics of this, the president trying to blame everybody but his administration in the way this has handled. you're on the ground in chicago. you've been speaking to folks across the state of illinois, what is the perspective of the response of the federal government from the folks who need that help, on the testing front, on the hospitalization front, on the equipment front? what are folks telling you about the kind of support and resources they've gotten from the federal government and specifically this administration? >> reporter: when you listen to illinois's governor, he has not been shy about going after president trump and going after the white house saying that he needs more help, that they're low on testing supplies and he's had to do things on his own, that he would expect of the federal government, and you also have heard president trump even this weekend fire straight ahead at the governor here, governor pritzker, saying he's not doing enough. he needs too much. you've seen that back and forth happen there. what you're hearing on the ground, something that illinois and the city of chicago has been focused on, is the disproportionate impact of this virus on african-american and latino communities. right now, for example, the mayor is going out and she's one of the city-run testing centers, she's going out with actor sean penn trying to bring awareness. the testing center i'm at right now, is a state-run facility. you have private testing facilities. the mayor right now, if you look at the video, we have a shot, she's with sean penn, this is one in a latino community. we know that from data, especially we're talking a lot about this last week, the latino community has had the coronavirus has had a disproportionate impact on the latino community in terms of the cases you see. african-americans here in chicago have a disproportionate impact in terms of the deaths that you see here with the virus. ayman? >> shaquille brewster, priscilla thompson, and carol lee, thank you all for starting us off this hour. i'm joined now by dr. jeremy faust from boston. good to have you with us, this morning. let me start by getting your response to the big news this morning. moderna, a pharmaceutical company, reporting some promising vaccine results after the first round of testing on humans. they're reporting that they saw a dose dependent response, eight out of eight patients showed neutralizing antibodies. antibodies were similar to or higher than those who recovered from covid-19 and the vaccine was generally safe and well tolerated among them. can you translate some of what that means for us and what that potentially means going forward? >> ida'd be happy to. this news is the first step in a 10,000 mile journey. it's a good step. we like to see that under the microscope, there's an immune response. this is phase one. very few drugs and vaccines get from phase one to market. but this is a first step. that's good news. the one thing i would just put out there, this is a very exciting technology, the mrna vaccines. but noi don't believe a single e has reached market. it's a new front tier. >> i believe there's more than a hundred or so different companies out there who are testing for the vaccine right now. is this different than anything we've seen. we've reported on other companies that have been making some of these strides. but this one seems to have a different tone to it. >> well, i think that what's exciting about this report is you see the idea that there is a good immune response, but that's really premature. i think that in general, the approach that we're going to have to use is, try everything, see what works, and move forward. if i think we prejudge one versus another, we could actually rule out some really promising things. so it's a bit of a race, but it's also -- it's a quality too. you can't get across the finish line with somebody that is suboptimal. there's old technologies, new technologies. let's try it all and watch carefully. >> let's turn to states reopening, particularly texas. as you saw this morning, taking another step. even though the state saw a record single day increase in coronavirus cases, is this to be expected as more people decide to venture out and as we increase our testing capacity across the country? >> i think that people have shut down fatigue and i think that some of that is because we've just been so shut down. when you hear about people getting arrested for surfing, you understand why they are getting tired of this. at the same time i think it might make sense to open some things that we've been really conservative about, just because it makes sense to do that and there's some benefits as well. but at the same time, if we don't do that or the fact that we haven't done it sorry far, leads to people making poor choices. going surfing or visiting the cemetery to see your loved one on the anniversary on someone who died, i think that's safe whereas going out to bars and what we're concerned about. i think people are having trouble necessarily separating those two things out. >> let me ask you about a recent op-ed that you wrote for "the washington post" about a key metric that could tell us when it is safe to re-emerge. it's called excess deaths. explain what that means to our viewers. >> sure, excess deaths is the idea that in this country, we've been tracking how many people die every day, week, month, year for over a hundred years. we know on a week in march, april or may how many people are supposed to die of all causes. and the fact is, that over the last month or two, we have seen more deaths than ever and this time frame by historic margins. and so people quibble about, oh, is it coronavirus that killed my relative or did they die of cancer? actually, if you just track the number of deaths, you realize, oh, goodness, something historic is going on. and so my theory and many experts agree is that you can track that number and when it comes closer to basically your normal expected rates, you can say, whatever is going on in your communities, it's not having such a historic effect as it is having right now. >> is that number on its way down or are we still at the peak of the excess deaths as you described? when do you think it will be safe to emerge? i know you're saying when the number goes down. are we seeing the downward trend begin yet? >> here in massachusetts, it looks like the -- there was a peak of excess deaths a few weeks back and it does look like we're having some improvement. what i would say is, if we hadn't had that peak, what we currently have would look historic. i'm happy to see we're coming closer. but we are way off of that baseline. and also there's lag. we need to make sure we don't celebrate our goals before we've put the ball in the net. it's coming down a little bit, i think, but it's unclear how far away we are and how much of that is lag. i think some of it is real. i think there's progress. but now is not a time to surrender that progress. >> very important milestone there. dr. jeremy faust, thank you for giving us the facts over the fear. still ahead, even as the number of coronavirus case surges in chicago, the city's mayor is determined to reopen the nation's third largest public school system this fall. we're going to talk to the head of the city's schools about what changes are being made to get kids back into the classroom safely. new nbc reporting that the ousted state department inspector general was investigating secretary of state mike pompeo and whether he was having a staffer run personal errands for the secretary of state. next, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are demanding an investigation into that. we're learning new details this morning about the state department inspector general who was abruptly fired by president trump over the weekend, once again. nbc news is reporting that the ig, steve linick was investigating whether secretary of state mike pompeo improperly used the political appointee to do personal errands for him and his wife. late friday night, president trump informed congress of linick's dismissal giving no specific reason but telling lawmakers he no longer had full confidence in him. democrats are launching an investigation into the move. officials tell us they believe it was an act of retaliation. nbc's josh lederman in washington with reporting on that and garrett haake is on capitol hill following those developments as well. josh, what else can you tell us about this firing, what we've learned about it? >> reporter: ayman, we're learning that the types of activities that pompeo allegedly was having this personal aide conduct, according to what the inspector general was looking into at the time he was removed, included the kind of task that is you might hire a college kid over the summer to do if you were busy, picking up dry cleaning, walking the dog, even making dinner reservations for secretary pompeo and his wife. we also just this morning, ayman, are hearing from state department officials who are telling nbc news that they for months have raised concerns internally about the role of mrs. pompeo, the secretary's wife, and instructions that she would give to state department officials and the outsized role that she seemed to play in the operations of that government agency. we have been asking the state department over and over throughout the weekend and again today whether these allegations are true, why the secretary recommended to president trump that the inspector general be removed, and whether secretary pompeo even knew at the time that he removed him that he was under investigation by the inspector general. so far, ayman, it has been total radio silence from the state department on this issue. >> let's cross over to capitol hill. now democrats, even a few republicans, are critical of the move. where does this go from here on the hill? >> reporter: over the weekend, the chairman of the house foreign affairs committee announced an investigation with the minority-ranking member bob menendez saying they would combine forces to investigate what would on in in case. a number of very brave people at the state department came forward as individuals to testify, the state department itself largely stonewalled the efforts of democratic investigators to get documents and relevant investigation and testimony from members who did not want to come forward. the concern here is that the state department will, again, do the same thing, particularly if republicans in the senate are not interested in investigating this. so far, the response has been tepid, except, as again the lessons of impeachment are with us still, mitt romney coming out with a tweet over the weekend, the strongest statement of any kind of that i've seen from republicans, calling this a threat to accountable democracy and an fissure. until republicans in the senate decide that the firing of igs is the kind of thing they want to investigate, democrats may have a hard time forcing the state department's hand here. >> troubling trend across the administration. garrett haake, josh lederman, thank you for that reporting. still ahead, the world health organization is holding a historic virtual annual meeting that could descend into open war on the coronavirus. the live report from london. italy is emerging today after the longest nationwide lockdown in the world. how is the country able to lift restrictions ahead of schedule? we have the global wrap coming up live from venice. a closer look at small business owners who are struggling through this health and economic crisis, the hardest part they say is the uncertainty of it all. >> the hardest part for small businesses during covid has been the lack of information, clear and consistent guidelines and easy to follow protocols. we have teams, we have families, we have clients whose safety it is our responsibility to look out for and the lack of clarity and the consistently confusing and conflicting information that came from national, local and state leaders has made it next to impossible to make decisions with any sort of confidence. i switched to miralax for my constipation. stimulant laxatives forcefully stimulate the nerves in your colon. miralax works with the water in your body to unblock your system naturally. and it doesn't cause bloating, cramping, gas, or sudden urgency. miralax. look for the pink cap. in america, the zip code you're born in can determine your future. the y helps fill the opportunity gap with education programs for all. for a better us, donate to your local y today. welcome back, everyone. we're about an hour into the trading day so far. you see on your screen, the dow is up about 700 points or so. it is the single largest jump in a month or so on the news that there may be, may be, we should emphasize, some progress on developing a vaccine by a company in massachusetts in the fight against the coronavirus. some positive news this morning in the first hour of trading. we shall see if that lasts. heading overseas this morning, the global fight against covid-19 taking a turn in several different countries and on different fronts. this morning china's president xi is defending his country's actions to the world health organization's annual assembly which is taking virtually. he says once the pandemic ends, he will support an international review by the world health organization. he says china will provide $2 billion over two years to help other countries fight the virus. nbc's keir simmons is in london with the very latest on this. good to talk to you, my friend. president xi appears to be drawing a clear line to his response to the world health organization and the response coming out of washington and president trump's. >> reporter: there's no doubt that that's what the leader of china is trying to do, ayman. and what we're seeing, the deep divisions that we thought would be exposed by this meeting, perhaps the most important meeting in the history of the world health organization with the secretary of state -- we're waiting for the health and human services secretary to address the meeting. but the secretary of state putting out a statement just in the past few minutes condemning taiwan's exclusion from the meeting and saying that no one disputes that taiwan has mounted one of the world east most successful efforts to date. china was opposed to taiwan to be allowed in a listening capacity, being allowed to participate because, of course, china says that taiwan is part of one china. and china gaining really the diplomatic advantage this morning in the early hours of the morning, suddenly revealing that president xi would address the meeting. president xi then pivoting a little, really, and agreeing to an international investigation which is what more than 116 countries now are calling for. now that resolution has been somewhat watered down so ta the australians and americans have been asking for it, to look at the origins of the coronavirus and china's role in the early days and whether it had covered up the coronavirus. that's not really what that resolution calls for anymore. and the leader of the world health organization in his statement saying that an investigation should happen when it's appropriate. both china and the world health organization appearing to agree to an investigation, but only after all of this is over. of course, what scientists and doctors say is that the most important thing right now should be trying to tackle the coronavirus now, just get ahead of that, and what you need for that is unity. but it does just go to show how much diplomatic back and forth there is here in this meeting, extraordinary just because it's being held virtually by video. and you have to say that the chinese, again, president xi talking about africa and giving $2 billion towards health around the world. the chinese, once again, trying to step into the space left by america and attempting to seem like a world leader even while being criticized. >> very contrasting perspectives there from china and washington. keir simmons, thank you very much for that report. in italy right now, emerging from the longest lockdown in the western world after ten weeks and the third highest death toll, shops, restaurants, even museums are reopening to a new normal marked by things like social distancing and other restrictions as you can imagine. in france, there is a potential breakthrough in the hunt for patient zero. identifying two possible cases in mid-november. meaning covid-19 could have been circulating in europe two months earlier than previous thought. emmanuelle saliba is covering the race to find patient zero. matt mcbradley is on the ground in italy. what kind of safety restrictions are we talked about here as you go out and about? >> reporter: yeah, ayman, we just had lunch at a restaurant for the first time in ten weeks since we got here. we could sit at a restaurant and that's what italians are enjoying today. it was a little bit socially distanced. indoors, everybody is staggered around. you can see the same thing in public transport, even in church. in churches, we were talking to a priest just yesterday, he was pointing out how the church pews had red and green markers where people could sit and couldn't sit to try to keep socially distant as churches open for the first time today. not everything is open. you see you can see behind me, these gondolas are grounded. and one of things that's interesting about venice, you look around, it looks like there are people around here just right off of san marcos square, just about all of these people are italian. a lot of people that we've been speaking to, they were saying that their businesses can't open, even though they're allowed to open because the tourists who are the ones providing the money here. in a way, they've gotten back their authenticity. venice is back for venitians. >> it doesn't look like all of them are keeping the social distance. thank you very much for that. what are you learning from these researchers in france about how early coronavirus may have been spreading there and is there any way to kind of be 100% sure about who these patients were? >> reporter: so it's interesting because french scientists and researchers believe that mapping the spread of the disease in its earliest stages is key to understanding how to protect people right now and how to prevent a second outbreak. so we stoke to dr. schmitt who is the radiology director at a hospital in a region of france that was heavily hit by the coronavirus. and you see his team there on the screen. they poured over at least 2,500 scans from -- dating back to 2019. and they found two scans in november that show symptoms consistent with the coronavirus. they found 12 in december and 16 in january. to put these into context for you, ayman, this is just two months before france announced their official first case, four months before the country went into lockdown. and it's well before the virus was identified in china. so these doctors believe that racing back in time and understanding our past is going to help us manage our future. now, whether or not we can be 100% sure, dr. schmitt is the first to say that these are initial findings. it's just the beginning of their investigation. and what they're going to do, they're going to go back to each of these patients, they're going to see whether or not they have blood samples, nasal swabs, anything that they can test for the presence of the virus and they're also going to ask for medical history, travel history, but what he's urging is for every single doctor to look back at past x-rays to see whether or not the coronavirus was present in countries earlier than thought. >> that would be an important development. thank you both very much. it's not just adults going back into public as more parts of the u.s. start to reopen. it's also kids. and starting today, it's kids in oregon. as day cares get the green light to open their doors, new details on safety measures as world health leaders raise concerns about the disease related to coronavirus that's impacting some of the youngest 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the coronavirus pandemic began. it's after the state's governor expanded guidelines to allow child care facilities to reopen but under strict new restrictions. steve patterson is in oregon for us. good to have you with us. this is a very important decision that i think a lot of people around the country are watching closely. what can we expect when that day-care center behind you opens up today? >> ayman, i think it's clear that one of the biggest bottlenecks to this country bouncing back in any meaningful way is childcare. jobs opening back up is not going to mean much to a lot of parents if they don't have a place to bring their children. that's doubly true for a lot of working-class families. restrictions easing here in oregon on childcare facilities, allowing some facilities to open up, especially particularly the one behind me. we have the vice president of kindercare, can you tell me, what does day care look like in the age of covid? what are you doing to ease fears from parents while working within restrictions set by the state. >> it's been really -- it's very -- oh, my gosh. i'm so sorry. i'm so proud of what we've been able to do. we've been working with medical providers, as well as local cdc and other health care people to help us navigate this for our parents. we have worked within our guidelines, we have smaller group sizes in the centers. we're taking temperatures out front, we're restricting visitors within our centers, extra handwashing, extra sanitizing of toys, really communicating with our parents, all the things we are doing. we have to give them peace of mind that their children are coming to a safe place. >> in talking to parents, what are some of their biggest fears about bring their kids to a facility like this? >> you know, just the unknown. the unknown of what this virus is doing and the twists and turns it's taking every day. as we show them the precautions that we're doing and all the added safety and keeping the children in their same classrooms with their same friends and in the same environments, they're feeling good about that. and once they see it in action, i heard from a parent the other day, whatever you're doing, keep doing it. my child has never been so happy. it feels us feel good that we're able to be there for the parents that way. >> because of the restrictions, no more than i think, one teacher to every ten kids as a solid unit. you have to have more ppe, more sanitation equipment available. that's a big strain on a lot of childcare facilities. how do you deal with that end of it as well? >> that's absolutely the truth. we've had to be really nimble and flexible and we have a whole team behind us supporting us to find all of that for us. we couldn't do it because that because we know it's the right thing for our teachers and the children. it's not been easy, for sure, but it's something that we're supercommitted to doing. >> michelle, thank you so much for doing that. really appreciate it. we've been seeing children and their parents come in this morning. it's been a little bit slow, obviously. i think some parents are a little worried about bringing their kids in and doing it in a staggered fashion, as per guidelines by the state. this will be a slow phase in but important for parents and the overall economy across the country. ayman? >> steve patterson, thanks for that update. let's head over now to chicago, to the chief executive officer of chicago public schools, janice jackson. chicago's mayor took some by surprise saying she's determined to open schools this fall. but as you probably saw in our show earlier on, cook county, which includes the city of chicago, has more covid-19 cases than any other county in the united states. that's got to be a troubling. is a fall reopening of the school system realistic? >> first, ayman, thanks for having me on. what's important for parents to know that we're doing everything we can in our power to open our schools safely. when we get the go ahead, i think mayor light foot comments are aspirational, no one wants to see children back in school faster than i do. but we understand it's important that we're inviting students and teachers back to safe environments and that's what we've been turning our attention to in the past few weeks. >> let me ask you about the double aspect of this. as i mentioned, chicago public schools, serving 355,000 students or so, what precautions are being considered as of now to keep the children safe when they do return, but also to keep all the teachers and the administers and everyone who works around the children who will have to leave their schools and go back to their home safe as well. >> looking at our response to covid-19 gives you a lot of insight and confidence into cps's ability to protect our educators. we were able to quickly transition to a remote learning environment for the protection and safety of all of our stakeholders. but in the past few weeks, we've been focused on what would a fall reopening look like and we're looking at a variety of scenarios that take into consideration all of the guidance from the cdc around social distancing, making sure that we're doing the right contact tracing, should there be any outbreaks in any schools, we're also paying a lot of attention to the proper ppe or commitment that we will need in our schools to make sure our children are safe. i'm also a parent of students in chicago public schools so i have that top of mind. what is it going to take in order for parents to have the confidence that when students return to school, not only will they get a high-quality education, but more importantly, they will be safe in that environment. that's what we're focused on. >> who actually ultimately makes this decision? is it you, the mayor? the governor? the chicago teacher's union said they were flabbergasted that the mayor had not spoken with them. >> we've been in collaboration since the on set of this. they don't have to speak directly to the mayor. they're speaking to the professional experts around education on a regular basis. we walk through our remote learning program with them and also all of the policies that we have in place to protect our employees. look, nothing is more important than health and safety here. it requires us to work in collaboration with the folks around us. ultimately, we're still under a stay-at-home order from governor pritzker which we will continue to abide by and respect. but when we're ready, when the governor makes a decision and the local and state health professionals say it's okay for students to return to school, it's important that the school district is ready and we have a variety of plans to receive students as well as our educators back into safe environments. >> and you just mentioned that you're also the parent of two children who are enrolled. not only just in charge of the schools, you also said that the mayor's decision or the mayor's calling for schools to be reopened is somewhat aspirational. i'm curious to get your sense as a parent, what is your biggest concern among parents like yourself right now? >> i think like many parents, we want to see kids back in school. but we want to make sure that they're safe and healthy. as a parent, that's always our primary focus and that's paramount. i also think as an educator, i'm worried about students' education being impacted during this time. while i'm proud of the remote learning program that we've been able to stand up, there's absolutely no replacement for in-class instruction with a trained educator. and so we're kind of balancing two things, the most important thing is the health and safety of our residents, our students and stakeholders, but i also have a second challenge, which is how do we get things back on track? what does the new normal look like? how do we ensure that all of the gains that students have achieved over the past ten years are sustained? that's something that's going to require a lot of work. i think balancing those two things is something that we will continue to do. but what i really want parents -- especially here in chicago to know and i know my colleagues across the country are thinking the same thing, nothing is more important than ensuring that our students are safe and healthy and we will get back on track, get back to normalcy and we'll do that in the proper way and by following the science and the guidance from our health care professionals. >> very important decision for everyone in that space. janice jackson, thank you so much for joining us with your insights. we're also following some breaking news on the deadly attack at the pensacola, florida, air station last december. this morning, federal authorities say the saudi officer who shot his fellow students was in fact pushed by the al qaeda terror group to carry out the attack. they've come to that conclusion after examining a cell phone he tried to destroy. three people were killed and eight others were wounded after he opened fire in a classroom building. our pete williams is reporting that attorney general bill barr is expected to announce that authorities were able to open the iphone and recover the data without help from data. switching gears, nascar and golf back on track. the race to bring back sports is next. 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% of patients on eliquis didn't experience another. and eliquis has significantly less major bleeding than the standard treatment. eliquis is fda-approved and has both. don't stop eliquis unless your doctor tells you to. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't 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 planed medical or dental procedures. what's around the corner could be your moment. ask your doctor about eliquis. sports fans are finally seeing some live action with nascar's first race since the pandemic brought everything to a halt. no fans in the stands. in fact, the event was called the real heroes 400 to recognize the medical workers on the front lines of this outbreak. and nbc's morgan chesky was there. >> reporter: this morning the race is on to bring back sports. nascar setting the pace, fulling off its post-covid return sunday, in south carolina. >> i didn't think it was going to be that much different then we won the race and it's dead silent out here. we miss the fans. >> reporter: no fans in the stands. but on tv millions watched drivers mask up. their put crews slightly smaller. the first race back different. but welcomed. >> reporter: is it tough to be so close and yet not be able to go in? >> not really. i think they're doing the right thing by not allowing us to go in. >> reporter: ronald nunez one of the fans who decided to drive down anyway. the tradition he sets up the camper while dad mans the grill. >> if we can't see it inside we'll watch it on tv and we'll hear it and smell it. that's why we're here. >> reporter: progolf back as well. in florida a charity match for health care workers brought out the sport's biggest names, the president himself phoning in to call it a good start. >> we're getting it back and it's going to be fast. start off with small crowds, if any. >> reporter: with america's team sports on hold all eyes no gou to germany, mare soccer league back on the pitch. players told no handshakes or even group celebrations. the same rules could soon show up here. nbc news confirming a draft proposal from major league baseball, the league suggesting testing all players, coaches and umpires. social distancing, even in the dugout. and sunflower seeds or tobacco, gone, with spitting strictly prohibited. the nfl, not far behind. reopening practice facilities tomorrow. as long as state and local governments allow it. back in south carolina, the drivers going full throttle, a welcome sight for the rest of the sports world and the country. >> we'll get through this, we'll get through it, come on, we'll get back there. >> reporter: and racing fans do have a little bit of a reason to rejoice. drivers coming back here to darlington tomorrow and wednesday before heading down to charlotte where charlotte motor speedway will be hosting four more races come next week, the majority of their season now finally back on track. send it back to you. >> morgan chesky, thanks for that. and thanks for watching this hour of atmsnbc live," up next, more news with my friend craig melvin. msnbc live," up next, more news with my friend craig melvin. msnbc live," up next, more news with my friend craig melvin. "msnbc live," up next, more news with my friend craig melvin. saturdays happen. pain happens. aleve it. aleve is proven stronger and longer on pain than tylenol. when pain happens, aleve it. all day strong. and i recently had a heart attack. it changed my life. but i'm a survivor. after my heart attack, my doctor prescribed brilinta. it's for people who have been hospitalized for a heart attack. brilinta is taken with a low-dose aspirin. no more than 100 milligrams as it affects how well brilinta works. brilinta helps keep platelets from sticking together and forming a clot. in a clinical study, brilinta worked better than plavix. brilinta reduced the chance of having another heart attack... ...or dying from one. don't stop taking brilinta without talking to your doctor, since stopping it too soon increases your risk of clots in your stent, heart attack, stroke, and even death. brilinta may cause bruising or bleeding more easily, or serious, sometimes fatal bleeding. don't take brilinta if you have bleeding, like stomach ulcers, a history of bleeding in the brain, or severe liver problems. slow heart rhythm has been reported. tell your doctor about bleeding new or unexpected shortness of breath any planned surgery, and all medicines you take. if you recently had a heart attack, ask your doctor if brilinta is right for you. my heart is worth brilinta. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. michael vasquez! come over here. i've heard such good things about you, your company. well, i wouldn't have done any of it without you. without this place. this is for you. michael, you didn't have to... and, we're going to need some help with the rest. you've worked so hard to achieve so much. perhaps it's time to partner with someone who knows you and your business well enough to understand what your wealth is really for. and a good monday morning to you, craig melvin here, let's start the hour by getting you caught up on the latest facts. we have crossed two new milestones right now there have been more than 1.5 million known cases of coronavirus in our country. and we've now lost more than 90,000 americans. the director of the cdc says we are likely to hit 100,000 deaths by june 1st. roughly 30 minutes from now n