The last seven days have been particularly bad. At least two dozen states had their worst week yet in terms of new cases. Yesterday, states like missouri, texas, tennessee, utah and West Virginia broke records for new infections. And those new infections have led to new restrictions. The governor of new jersey says people will now have to wear masks outdoors when they cannot stay six feet apart. Same thing in atlanta and seven hardhit counties in ohio, including the cities of columbus and cincinnati. And finally, with just a month or so before some schools are set to reopen, Vice President mike pence says the cdc will now revise their guidelines on how schools should do it. It comes after the president said the previous guidelines were too tough and too expensive. I want to start with my colleague dasha burns in broward county, florida. Im a mom. When it comes to school safety, its tough for me to hear that anything is too expensive, but i do want to start there because where you are, school is supposed to open in about six weeks. What are they going to do . Well, in short, stephanie, they dont have an answer to that yet. This week, floridas education commissioner announced all schools in the state must reopen in person next month. That sent schools scrambling to figure out what that means. There are still questions around sanitation to how cafeterias would work to the data they need to gather on how many students are expected to come back. How many theyll need to accommodate. The devil is in the details, and they just dont have those details quite yet. Right now im at an Elementary School in broward county. This is the sixth Largest School district in the country. More than 250 schools here that all have to make pretty significant changes by august 19s, which is the start date here. I spoke to the president of the Teachers Union in this county. She is extremely concerned at the prospect of coming back, especially if cases are still rising in this state. But there is one issue, stephanie, that looms extremely large for her. Take a listen to what that is. I do think it can be done with the funding and with the proper personnel that needs to get hired. If we need extra and properly trained to go with it, it all can be done but it boils down to the number one component, funding. And on the other end of the spectrum, theres the parents. There are some who are very eager to get their students back into the classroom. They are concerned about what they have seen over the last couple of months, their kids struggling. One couple told me the risk of covid is outweighed by the risk they see to their childrens emotional, educational progress. The question, though, for everyone is, what is the plan . And there just isnt a concrete answer to that yet, stephanie. Theres certainly a lot of work to do between now and then. Dasha, thank you. Lets head to phoenix, arizona, where Vaughn Hillyard is standing by. Yesterday Vice President pence said things are Getting Better where you are. You know, im just going to say, coming right off of dasha, this is what every state is encountering. Ones hope versus ones reality and mike pence yesterday, the Vice President , suggested the Coronavirus Task force briefing that the state was heading in the right direction but that frankly doesnt match the reality here on the ground. Particularly the data sets. If you look, he was suggesting that the curve was starting to flatten. When you look at the percent positive number in the state of arizona, in just the last 48 hours it is 31 . That is, by far, the highest percent positive rate in the country. The number has only been going up in the recent weeks. If you looked at the number of emergency room visits. There were 2008 yesterday which broke a record. The Vice President suggested those numbers were going down. But yesterday was the record. This is the part that is such a struggle. The governor here has resisted from reimplementing the stayathome order. Its been off the books for the last two months. But you are not seeing these numbers change direction. We should note the governor does have a press conference here later today at a time in which hospitalizations, icu beds are going up and real question marks. With school just one month away in arizona, whether those hopes can actually become reality, stephanie. Vaughn, thank you always giving us the math that matters most. I want to head to los angeles where the mayor said if things do not get better, he may impose stayathome orders. Miguel almaguer is standing by. L. A. Got criticism a few weeks ag saying they need to reopen. They have been shut down too long. Now here we are. Things are getting worse. The mayor was ready to reimplement some of those strikss should they be deemed necessary. After several bars and restaurants were shut down for indoor dining, the mayor here allowed them to reopen. But the governor said were moving too quickly and they had to close them back down. Here in los angeles county, there are more people testing positive for covid19 than in 44 other states. This region is simply a hot bed here in l. A. The good news in this area is theres plenty of rooms inside hospitals. The bad news is those numbers continue to tick upwards. 6,000, 7,000 people are testing positive every day. L. A. Is also home to the largest testing site, dodger stadium. The city here is asking only those people showing symptoms who work in highrisk environments or may have been exposed to someone with the disease to be tested now because thats how overrun the system is, stephanie. Miguel, thank you. I want to dig deeper into all of this and find out what it means for all of you at home. Dr. Richard besser joins us, former acting director of the cdc, now president and ceo of the Robert Wood Johnson foundation. I want to start first with hospitals and specifically ppe. Were hearing that some states are running short again. This is like deja vu all over again. And the administration says, no, no problem. The hospitals are just stockpiling supplies. Whats the truth . Well, this is a flashback. This is what happens when you see a pandemic getting out of control. And it doesnt have to be that way. We are seeing states that have been able to turn the tide and reduce the numbers, and then were seeing states where people are not following the guidance or not Wearing Masks and social distancing and doing those steps to reduce transmission. But you will overwhelm the Health Care System if you go back to normal and you pretend theres no pandemic raging on. Were seeing a lot of increase in disease transmission around young people but that wont stay restricted to young people. Its going to young people have contact with older people, people with medical problems, and i really worry about essential workers. People who are needing to go back to work to pay the rent, to pay the mortgage, to put food on the table. Theyre going to be exposed to people who are not following these rules and its all going to end up in the end putting pressure on our Health Care System. I want to switch to schools. The cdc put guidelines out. I want to share some of the basic ones. Keep desks six feet apart. No cafeteria lunch. Staring arrival times, use face coverings. The president said these recommendations are too tough and too expensive. What do you think . I think theres a part of the School Conversation that we havent gotten into. And i am a pediatrician, a parent. Its absolutely critical that we get kids back to school. And the guidance really talks about how to do that safely. Safely for the kids, safely for the staff and for the teachers. But when you look at how this pandemic is breaking down in america, its not hitting all communities the same. And thats going to be the same thing we see with schools. We fund our schools in america largely off property taxes. So wealthy communities are going to be able to make some of the adjustments that are necessary to create a safe environment. And schools in poorer communities where theres a higher proportion of children of color are going to be left behind. And these are also communities where theres a higher proportion of children without access to broadband internet. These are the our communities where its absolutely essential to get kids back to school. Thats going to take federal dollars. You want to retrofit a classroom so that its safe for the kids and safe for the staff. You need to hire staff so that they can do disinfection in the schools. They can be screening children. We want to learn from whats going on around the world in countries that have been able to open schools safely. But theres one thing about all of those countries. They got it under control in the community before they moved to reopen the schools. And thats what we have to do in america. Federal dollars and i want to remind our audience. Education funding in the united states. 92 of it comes from state and local governments. That means only 8 comes from the federal government. If washington wants to reopen, theyll have to find some dollars. I want you to give us a History Lesson here because this is the second time the cdc put out guidelines and this administration rejected them and forced revisions. How rare is that . Well, when i was at cdc, and i worked i led Emergency Preparedness and response, we did revise guidance. We revised guidance all the time, but we revised guidance based on new science and new evidence. And thats the normal process. Where cdc would come forward and say heres something new we learned and so were going to revise our guidance so that its even better for the public because its based on new information. So hold on when you develop guidance, it then goes up for yeah . So wait. You didnt revise guidance based on what previous administrations reaction to that guidance was . Well, you know, part of the process of releasing a guidance is that it goes through clearance. So cdc will develop a guidance in conjunction here would be in conjunction with experts in education. It would go up and be cleared by the department of health and human services. It would go to the white house for clearance. So the guidance that came out from cdc in the past had been cleared all the way up through the chain. I worry if a guidance is coming out as being revised because of political pressure rather than changes in the science. Got to lead with safety. We can do that through data and science. Dr. Besser, thank you for joining me. We just talked about this push from the administration, from people all across this country to get kids back to school. We all want to do it. The question is how . How are local School Districts going to find the way to do it safely . Later, more than 1 Million People filing for unemployment in the last week as we see Small Businesses shutting down in Record Numbers. Were going to dig into the program that was designed to save them. Paycheck protection program. You know we love covering that here. Beyond the flashy headlines, you will not believe how some companies took advantage of an emergency Program Designed to be a lifeline. Sure. Okay. Okay safe drivers save 40 guys guys check it out. Safe drivers save 40 safe drivers save 40 safe drivers save 40 thats safe drivers save 40 . It is, thats safe drivers save 40 . Hes right there. Its him hes here. Hes right here. Hi hi. Hey thats totally him. Its him thats totally the guy. 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In new york city, mayor bill de blasio announced students will be limited to one to three days a week of inperson classes in order to allow for social distancing. In l. A. , the Top Public Health official says all schools must prepare to continue learning from home as the cases there are surging. And in texas, officials announced schools must reopen in august for inperson classes if they want to receive state funding. Thats where nbcs Garrett Haake is standing by this morning. Texas is hit hard. This is the Third Straight day of Record Number of cases. But the schools are saying were opening no matter what. Well, stephanie, the Texas Education Agency just put out their guidelines for schools this week. Here in dallas, schools are supposed to open august 17s. Disd has more than 150,000 students. So theyve got to figure out how to put those guidelines in place. Im going to bring in the man in charge of doing it, dr. Michael hinojosa, the superintendent of dallas public schools. My first question is, how confidence are you that you can be ready to go on august 17th . Do you think schools will open on time or do you need more time . We were planning for this for a while. I thought we were going to be ready but im having second thoughts about can we pull this off by august 17th. Im hearing from our community members. Our parents have pivoted. More than 50 are now saying they dont want to come and were hearing loud and clear from our teachers that they have a lot of concern about how we can pull this off. Ive heard from a lot of teachers who are very nervous. Schools are petri dishes. They are worried about getting infected themselves. And they are also worried they wont have enough ppe. Teachers are used to buying supplies for their own classrooms. How confident are you that the district can protect teachers as they come back to work . We know teachers go above and beyond and many of them buy things out of their own pocket. Well have plenty of ppe. The state is also providing for this. If we have 150,000 student and 20,000 employees, weve procured those items. Theyre in warehouse now and well be ready for that part of it. Were getting misclarifications on how to social distance. And thats going to have an impact on our bus drivers, if you have a mask on. Can you get closer than six feet . We thought initially yes but now were hearing no. There are complexities about how we keep students and employees safe in this process. Im having second thoughts about what i need to recommend to my school board. Could you foresee trying to push this date back into september . How far could it go . That was the backup plan i had. Now that backup plan is becoming more of a reality. I do need to continue to talk to my senior staff and some of our teacher leaders. But also i communicate with the school board and county executive and the mayor. This is a long process. I think it might buy us some time but i want to make sure people are on board before i make a final recommendation to the school board. This is texas. High School Football is king. Will people be playing high School Football in texas this fall . I seriously doubt it. Were not in control of that. The University Interscholastic lead gives us guidance on that. Thats a true contact sport. Theres been some discussion of moving it to the spring but well have to wait and see. I seriously doubt we can pull it off. Dr. Michael hinojosa, thank you. You hear it right here. This is a real challenge in a realtime with a ticking clock toward the start of school this fall and no Obvious Solutions in place yet. All right, garrett, thank you so much. One crucial voice in the debate over whether or not to reopen schools, this countrys teachers. Joining us, kim anderson, the executive director of the National Education association. That is americas Largest Union which represents more than 3 million educators. Theres a huge push from the top government officials but also from families across this country to reopen schools. Some states are now mandating it in order for schools to receive funding from the federal government. You got to be open in person. Where do you stand on this . Well, stephanie, thank you so much for having us. First of all, we have to put safety first. We know that the circumstances across this country are not safe yet. There are varying degrees of spiking infection rates. We just saw that in texas. Were seeing it in florida. Not every place is in the same place. And so we have to make sure that we are putting the health and safety of our students and their families and educators first. And that takes more resources, not less. Were seeing when schools have reopened in other countries, they have actually allocated more resources for personal protective gear, masks, disinfectant. All of the kinds of safety precautions the cdc and other medical experts have recommended to us. And those countries have also slowed the infection rate before theyve reopened schools. We are not seeing that in a lot of places around the country where, in fact, were seeing the opposite. Were seeing infection rates go up. What do you think happens for teachers who are in higher risk categories if we reopen . What position does that put them in . It puts them in a horrible position. It puts them in a very unsafe position. Weve talked to a number of science teachers who do compare schools to petri dishes. Theyre germ factories. When kid comes and