Now. Fauci said the country was still kneedeep in the first wave of the virus. You can see that in the numbers. He said its not a good place to be. Asked about that, the president said the exact opposite. He said the country is in a good place and in three, four weeks well be in good shape. He can, of course, say anything he wants, but here are the numbers. They are getting worse. Nearly 3 million americans have now been infected. More than 60,000 cases were diagnosed just yesterday. Thats the highest number of new cases reported in one day. Nationwide, 35 states are seeing an increase in new cases. That is not good. Thats not a good place. Just three states are seeing a decline. The number of people needing to go to the hospital for care is also on the rise with eight states reporting record highs on tuesday. That is not good, but thats also not the focus of the president right now. His focus has now turned to focusing in on schools and forcing schools effectively across the country to reopen as soon as next month and threatening to cut funding if schools dont reopen and criticizing his own cdc for putting out guidelines that he calls expensive. How does that work . Is reopening schools based not on science, but instead on a hope and a prayer really a plan . Lets get over to the department of education, Cnns Kaitlan Collins is standing by for that briefing. Kaitlan, what are you hearing . Reporter this is really notable. The reason im standing outside the department of education is the primary focus of the tank force in the last few days has been reopening schools and that is the priorist president and so many people, actually, and yesterday the president said he would pressure governors to open their schools and whats really striking about this tweet that the president just posted a few moments ago is that he is disagreeing with the centers for Disease Control and prevention on their guidance for reopening schools. The president and the cdc have not been on page during this entire pandemic, but it is striking that he just said i disagree with the tcdc on the very expensive and tough guidelines on reopening schools. While they want them open, they are asking schools to do very impractical things. I will be meeting with them. They include wearing face coverings, staying home inappropriate and potentially having staggered schedules and communal spaces being closed and having barriers and plexiglas including at the white house and he tweeted before that, kate saying that if other schools do not open he is threatening to cut off funding. This is something that education secretary betsy devos had been asked about yesterday and said was something that they were considering, but lets look at the numbers here because if youre looking at what funding is and what actually schools get from the federal government its not that much. Over 90 comes from state and local federal budget excuse me, state any local budgets, but there is that crucial 10 and a lot of that, kate, goes to disadvantaged students, title 1 students and students who need that funding the most and here weir in the middle of a pandemic when schools need more money for ppe and buy more School Busses to space students out and the president is threatening to cut them off if they do not open in just a matter of weeks. Thats exactly right, kaitlan. Kaitlan is standing by and shell be in that briefing when that briefing begins. Well get back to you, kaitlan. Thank you so much. Lets focus florida, the epicenter in the nation where icus in at least 56 hospitals are at full capacity now. Numbers heading in the wrong direction, but we still dont know the full extent of the problem because florida continues to release full data on covid patients. Unlike almost every other state in america. Cnns rosa flores is in miami beach and shes been following this trying to get information. Whats the latest . Reporter hi, kate. The Florida Department of health just released the number of new cases and its nearing 10,000. So these numbers are not going up. The record was more than 11,400 that was set last week. Despite this continued surge in the number of coronavirus cases in the state weve reported on this, the Florida Department of education requiring that all schools reopen in the fall in brick and mortar style for at least five days a week. Now were learning that Miamidade County to be exempt from that rule and heres why. Here is a tweet from the superintendent today. He said the wellbeing of students and employees remains our top priority. Miamidade schools will only proceed with inperson schooling option outlined in tentative reopening plan if miamidade successfulliness troisitions to phase 2. Currently the county is still in phase 1. The Positivity Rate yesterday was 27 here in this county. When you look at the number of hospitalizations and this is according to data released by the county, there is an increase of 87 in the number of covid19 patients in hospitals in this county. When you look at icu beds there is an increase of 19 and ventilators, there is an increase of 108 . The state is acknowledging and addressing the fact that there is a surge and they are sending 100 medical personnel to this county and theyre also upping the number of beds for longterm care facilities in Miamidade County, but kate, back to the education focus, in that tweet the superintendent made it clear that so long as the county is still in phase 1 they wouldnt be reopening in brick and mortar style and it would be difficult to believe with these numbers continuing to rise that this county would be ready to move to phase 2. Kate . Rosa, thank you so much. Changing day by day, but one thing thats not changing is the direction and the trajectory of the new cases that you just reported in breaking news that it is now almost 10,000 new cases as the pandemic continues. Joining me for much more on this is the mayor of hialeah, florida, carlos fernando. Thank you very much for coming in. A number that i am thankful rosa does bring to us because miamidade does bring these numbers. The Positivity Rate in your area right now is 27 . That was just yesterday. That is far, far beyond the realm of containment. What does that level of spread mean for your city . Its a big challenge and you were just talking about the mixed messages that were getting and thats making it very difficult at the city levels because people are getting different messages from the federal government, State Government and here at the county were getting mixed messages and thats causing a lot of confusion and again, what were trying to do at the local level is were trying to continue to educate our citizens about how serious this is. There are people not taking this seriously and we had demonstrations three weeks ago and all of that has caused a perfect storm for the numbers to go up, and the hospitals are blowing up and the expense for the cities its amazing right now and were doing the best we can to do what we can with the little help were getting from the federal level and the state levels. Most of the residents in your area are latino. Hialeah has the largest cuban and cubanamerican population in the country. The New York Times investigation that show black and latino people are three times more likely to get covid and more than two times more likely to die from covid. Are you seeing this in hialeah . Were seeing some of it. I think the hospitals are doing a great job. Their protocols have improved a lot in the last three months and thats whats helping a lot and thats why you see the death rate lowered, but again, we have to continue to send a message out and not just the confused messages and you have some saying we should open the schools and some we shouldnt and we should have one united message saying we have to take care of each other. We have to wear masks and be aware of social distancing and wash our hands constantly and we have to have one message come from the top to the bottom and as a city we need all of the help we can get from the State Government and the federal government because this has fallen on our laps right now. Specifically, one of the mixed messages is coming from the president when he says that the country is in a good place with the virus right now. What do you say to that . The numbers are not saying that. We are finding ourselves in deeper waters and im not going to say were in a critical situation right now, but were getting there. The message is we need to be united and we all need to respect social distancing and we all need to wash our hands as much as we can. I mean, we all have to unite. This is something that if we dont unite and if we dont all take care of each other, we will find ourselves in a very critical situation very soon in south florida. What is the most critical thing you need from the governor to get the outbreak under control. Is it consistent messaging, that consistent messaging is what you need right now . Think we have to start with that and we need a lot more tracing done from the state. Would you say youve had any tracing from the state level . Not that im aware of. Not that im aware of. I havent heard of a state doing any tracing down here or a county doing any of the tracing down here and thats one of the major things we need and weve not started in the city of hialeah or south florida. How is that acceptable . Contact tracing has been talked about since march when this began. Contact tracing is not a new concept to america. Contact tracing is used all of the time with other types of outbreaks that happen and it is a basic and fundamental and tried and true Mitigation Strategy when you dont have Something Like a vaccine. How is that acceptable that there is from your view, no Contact Tracing going on . Its not acceptable. I think were behind and the mixed messages are causing confusion among elected officials and at the end of the day people are paying for it with these numbers going up. We do need to unite one message and it will be critical real soon if big steps arent taking in the next couple of weeks. On schools, were waiting to hear from the White House Task force if theyll talk about the latest from schools. The state education commissioner in to reopen. What are you hearing about this . What does this mean with what you are capable of doing when it comes to schools . Theyre talking about opening schools and tomorrow and today are the last days that restaurants can be open. Thats the confusion and the misinformation or that its really causing a lot of problems and people are taking one side or the other instead of everyone coming together and saying lets take care of each other. So people are talking about not wearing a mask. At the city level we started enforcing, masks are not mandatory, we can fine people not Wearing Masks and close down businesses that are not doing the things that are being asked and those are the things that we are doing at this level and of course, educating the community, but we do need help from the state and the federal government. Again, theyre the big dogs and theyre the ones that can make big changes to help us quickly. And they have money, supposedly, that they could be helping if need be especially when it comes to the money thats going to be needed to get the schools to open safely because its not going to come on the cheap. Its going to actually require more funding. Mayor, thank you very much. Well check back in. I really, really appreciate it. Thank you. We shouldnt be surprised at this point, but flabbergasted that Contact Tracing is like this novel thing that isnt yet happening in a widespread basis in south florida. Its really disturbing. Coming up for us, President Trump directly contradicting dr. Anthony fauci. Put the that the riceatrics asi. It is a very real split right now. President trump threatening to cut funding if schools do not reopen. He disagrees with the cdcs guidelines on reopening schools. So what is his plan . Young man thanks for having us this weekend mrs. 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Rack it up with rakuten, sign up today to get cash back on everything you buy. Is skincare from around the wobetter than olay . Olay regenerist faced 131 premium products, from 12 countries, over 10 years. Olays hydration was unbeaten every time. Olay, face anything. I waited to get treated. Thought surgery was my only option. But then i found out about nonsurgical treatments. It was a total game changer. Learn more about the condition at factsonhand. Com one unfortunate constant throughout the pandemic is President Trump not listening to medical experts advice. Rather donald trump listening to Donald Trumps advice on how to handle the pandemic. As he says he listens to his gut, but now he is saying that very plainly and very clearly taking on, undermining and essentially dismissing the nations top Infectious Disease expert, dr. Anthony fauci. Just watch this. Its a false narrative to take comfort in a lower rate of death. There are so many other things that are very dangerous and bad about this virus. Dont get yourself into false complacency. Despite that, overnight President Trump sent out this message. Death rate from coronavirus is down tenfold. And when asked about dr. Faucis statement of reality earlier that the status of the pandemic was, quote, unquote, really not good. This is how the president responded. I disagree with him. Dr. Fauci said dont wear masks and now he says wear them and he said numerous things, dont close off china. Dont ban china, and i did it anyway. I sort of didnt listen to my experts and i banned china. We would have been in much worse shape. With me now is seema yasmin, a former cdc disease detective and cnns chief Political Correspondent dana bash. Dr. Yasmin, from a Public Health perspective, what does this do at this point . We are not at the beginning of the pandemic. We are squarely in the middle of it and this is what the president is saying about dr. Fauci. So its not just sidelining and silencing scientists, but its actively discrediting them and the more that i hear these clips and hear these exchanges the more i struggle for words to describe whats happening and how its making so many in the Public Health field feel because its frightening to see the experts who have dealt with countless epidemics, with six administrations and six president s be discredited when they know what theyre talking about. Theyre giving concrete advice based on the best Available Evidence and what we end up with is this tit for tat situation where the president says one thing and the experts have to try to debunk it and try to keep people accurately informed and every time they speak the president says dont listen to them. Its not just him, of course. Were hearing the same narrative of officials in different parts of the country and in different state levels and Lieutenant Governor dan patrick saying i dont need to listen to him anymore referring to dr. Fauci. We have this awfully mismanaged Pandemic Response where the evidence is being ignored. Dana, as a longtime trump watcher, the president s position here may not be surprising, but it doesnt make it any less troubling for what leaders and the government actually want which is to get past this pandemic. Yeah, and you know, the doctor just talked about how much this is hurting and is wrenching for medical experts around the country, never mind those on his own Coronavirus Task force, but lets just think about what this means when it comes to basic response. Kate, you just spoke to the mayor of florida and poppy spoke to the mayor of phoenix and she in particular is talking about the fact that there are doctors in hospitals who are having to make tough choices effectively turning away people who are older or maybe less severe, but still in trouble. This is the United States of america. Why is this happening here, and the answer according to the mayor you spoke to, this mayor and across the country is theyre not getting the federal resources, theyre not getting the level of federal response and the coordinated response, and the Strategic Response that is absolutely vital to making sure that people are able to go to a hospital in america and get treated. As was noted by those smarter than me earlier this morning, it is not just that he is ignoring science is that hes now making it about picking sides, and i heard that from the mayor of hialeah. He says now theres one side or the other. Theres not really theres only one side to be on. Its were on one side and the virus is on the other, but what is the impact, dr. Yasmin, of the president creating two sides of a discussion about masks or about democrats, about reopening communities safely. Remember when the president said the democrats wanted to keep it closed down for political purposes and now hes doing the same thing with school openings. Its just turned very simple, straightforward Public Health interventions like wearing a mask into hot topics where people are divided down party lines and it should never have been that way. The virus doesnt care what your pol