And infecting more people right now than at any time during the pandemic so far, so what makes this breaking news even more terrifying, though, is the whats happening in just a few days. Thanksgiving. Public Health Experts and the cdc pleading with americans to not travel, not gather for large family meals and bracelebration not to do all the things that could kick the pandemic into higher gear. As for the president and his concerns, so far silent on the worsening pandemic, this terrible milestone reached just a short time ago. The president has been tweeting baseless voter fraud theories about his election loss. He also chose to skip a g20 world leader session on the pandemic, choosing instead to play golf, as you see right here. I want to get right to cnns evan mcmorrissantoro, whos here in new york. So evan, we are now past 12 million confirmed cases. Just give us a sense of how dire the situation is at this point, where were headed with numbers like this. Reporter well, erica, as you mentioned, it is the Holiday Travel season, and thats what makes people very, very worried because you think about how the travel season usually works, right . You leave your house, you go to another place, gather with other people, and then return to where you came from. Thats pretty much the worst Case Scenario in a pandemic, and its not just that 12 million number that has people very, very worried right now. Its this number, 19 Straight Days of 100,000 or more newlyreported coronavirus cases in america. Thats why public Health Experts are saying to people, please make the hard choice, dont travel for thanksgiving because this virus is spreading and its spreading very, very fast. Its now in rural areas. Its spreading here in new york city. The numbers have gone up again to see, like, the schools have been closed already. Theres talk about other things being closed down. Were back in the really dark days of this pandemic when it comes to that number, that numerical spread, and this travel season really has experts worried that it could really super charge whats already a very fastmoving virus, erica. Yeah, absolutely. Especially seeing those warnings from the cdc not to travel and then we see people in airports like at the one behind you. Evan, thank you. Cnn medical analyst and emergency medicine professor dr. Esther choou joining us now. This milestone, look, i guess we all knew it was coming but the fact that were now at more than 12 million infections in this country since the start of the pandemic, more than any other country, as evan just pointed out, 19 Straight Days of more than 100,000 cases being reported and about a quarter of the total cases in this country have come in the last three weeks. I mean, with the holiday bearing down on us, where do we go from here . Where could we be in another week . Yeah, you know, the scary thing, erica, is as concerning as those numbers are, i want to make them, actually, a little bit more scary, because we are still undertesting. So many states have test positivity rates of above 20 , which means that we are skrvast lagging behind in our confirmed cases so 12. 5 million may sound really high but its multitudes more than that, actually, and were starting to think in terms not just of the speed of the rise in cases and not just the acceleration but how fast acceleration is increasing. Thats a concept that researchers at northwestern have come up with, northwestern university, have come up, thats called j. E. R. K. And you can picture what that means. Cases are jerking upwards at this rate thats just beyond what we can accommodate in our Health Systems so this is really terrifying and of course every time we have a holiday, case rates go up. We, over the summer, had time to kind of recover, but the winter holidays are different. Theyre stacked on top of one another at a time when were all indoors and spreading it more rapidly so this is not the time to play around. We just cannot say, well, i dont want to lose that 300 plane ticket. We need to just say, what were giving up is so much smaller than what we have to gain here. And we just need to stay home. You know, were also hearing from dr. Birx that what were seeing could be faster, broader and last longer than what weve seen before and this updated guidance we saw on spread from the cdc, they had been saying the estimate was about 40 of cases were asymptomatic spread. Even that number is going up. As we add all of that together, what part of the message do you think is not getting through . We see these packed pictures at the airport in phoenix. I want to see my mom on thanksgiving. Shes only an hour away. Were not getting together. I wonder where the disconnect is in the message. Well, i think there still was a lot that was lost in october when people were getting really confusing messages about, you know, about how dangerous this disease was, and how much it was worth doing these Public HealthSafety Measures compared to things like opening up businesses and getting our lives back. And i think its so comforting to get any message out there that says, its not a big deal, and we can get, you know, we can really go back out and do those things and that dont worry, we have more therapeutics and people arent dying. The truth is, we still have not had the magic bullet therapeutic and people in hospitals will not do well when theyre as crowded as they are becoming right now, and so i think, you know, consistency of the message, really driving home that holidays cost us in lives, in many, many lives, and i think, you know, as disappointing as this administration has been, its messaging, President Trump even voted out, remains one of the most influential messengers out there, and this Administration Still has an opportunity through the Holiday Season to do some messaging that will bring people to the table and get them to do the things that we need to turn this around so we can start seeing our family members again in the new year. I miss mine too. Yeah, words matter. Actions matter, to your point. And this is an opportunity that still exists for the next couple of months. I mean, to that point, we saw what the president chose today. He chose not to attend a meeting of g20 leaders that was specifically targeted to the pandemic, and instead to go golfing. I mean, theres also the lack of coordination and conversation or at least appearing lack thats happening between this administration and other world leaders. This is a global pandemic. How much is that lack of coordination potentially setting us back as a country . It really is. I mean, the way that we, you know, we broke off from the w. H. O. , the way that we have failed to come together at the table with other countries, i mean, this is, like you said, were all in this together, truly, on a global level. And that coordination and that leadership, it was the difference between performing well and not doing and being where we are, which is an absolute catastrophe, and like you said, i mean, recordsetting numbers every single day, every single week, and its not only that the United States is leading in cases. We have individual states that are now exceeding case counts of entire countries, so you know, its so beyond. Its so beyond where we should be and so much of this is having humility and reaching out to other countries that have done so much better and being willing to adopt what theyre doing but we havent had any of that or any dialogue. Before i let you, i do just want to one more time talking about hospitals because its staff which is such a concern. You can put up a Field Hospital if you have to. You can add beds. You cannot just create doctors and nurses and all of the staff that are required to run a hospital overnight. How concerned are you right now about these folks on the frontline who have been giving their all for the last, i mean, ive lost count, eight, nine months. Where are we now . I mean, were approaching a year pretty soon. Its been a really long stretch for us and youre exactly right, we can build all the space that we want to but the Human Resources are really stretched, and its that were tired. Its that there simply arent a lot of them. You just cant create people who are trained to do this very quickly. One of the most stressful things in the spring for healthcare workers that led to the most anxiety and depression was being asked to perform roles that were out of your training, so when, you know, a pediatrician is pulled in to do adult critical care, which is the way that we are planning on filling gaps, that is not good for the patient, and its not good for the provider either, because that is way too stressful, and then of course, you know, Healthcare Professionals are also human, so the things thats affecting everybody else, things like, you know, child care, just the stress, the fatigue, those are also affecting Healthcare Providers and so we are not operating at full bore. Weve lost a lot of healthcare workers and are really stretched to fill shifts right now. Many of us are on double or triple backup. This doesnt feel sustainable, and we are really looking to everyone out there to be our heroes in this wave of the pandemic. We are maxed out as heroes so all of you need to be our heroes and do the things that you can to really turn this around so that we can get some respite at some point. You know, i spoke with a cardiac specialist earlier this week who was also a single mom who was redeployed, as you pointed out, in the spring here in new york, and she said all those same things and she said how concerned she is about the ptsd and the mental toll its taking on her and her colleagues. Dr. Choo, thank you so much for shining a light on that, something we need to continue to do. Thank you, erica. As the coronavirus spreads out of control in the United States, President Trump, as we showed you, is golfing. He did not join his g20 colleagues in a Virtual Meeting on the coronavirus. He is not pushing for a word with a transition, so how is that impacting you . Youre live in the cnn newsroom. Want to brain better . Unlike ordinary memory supplements neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. Memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. Try our new gummies for 30 days and see the difference. children laughing music swells music fades exhales experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list sales event. Sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing, and a complimentary first months payment. Narrator upgrade your protectin this Holiday Season. 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 . Said shes gonna need crutches. She fell pretty hard. 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And now with optional alarms, you can choose to be notified if you go too high or too low. And for those who qualify, the freestyle libre 2 system is now covered by medicare. Ask your doctor for a prescription. You can do it without fingersticks. Learn more at freestyle libre 2 dot u. S. I see you looking uh i see you looking na, na, na i see you looking uh i see you looking watch what i do camera clicks watch what i do i see you looking watch what i do camera clicks watch what i do i see you looking watch what i. Do its been two weeks since joe biden was declared the winner of the 2020 president ial election. President trump has used that time to fight the results tooth and nail or maybe tweet and nail. First, he turned to the courts, but his team has now lost or withdrawn from at least 28 election cases. He then turned to state legislatures where his efforts have been in vain, all in an attempt to subvert the will of the people as president elect bidens margin in the popular vote has widened now to more than 6 million. Trumps actions signaling there is no concession or transition in sight. Cnn White House CorrespondentJeremy Diamond joining me now. Jeremy, the president has at least tried to pull out all the stops. Whats left at this point . Where does he go from here . Reporter for one thing, hes certainly continuing to make these baseless allegations on twitter, spreading misinformation about the 2020 election. Today, the president was continuing to allege widespread voter fraud in the states of georgia and michigan, both of which secertified or are about certify, as michigan may do on monday, the results of their states elections. And to certify that joe biden has indeed won both of those states. And so now, the president seems to be turning to stalling as well. The Michigan Republican party and the Republican National committee, both of them calling for the state of michigan to delay the certification of those results for two weeks, which is not at all how the process is supposed to run. Its really supposed to be a rubber stamp on the elections that have already been certified in 82 of those counties in michigan but as the president is doing this and losing those cases in court, 28 dismissed or dropped already so far, the president is also beginning to face mounting pressure from some republicans. Some republican lawmakers last week began calling on the president to allow the transition to proceed even as he continues to exhaust some of those Legal Options and now we are seeing the first sign of pressure from a member of the House Republican leadership and that is congresswoman liz cheney, who says that america is a country governed by the rule of law and says that the president so far has not presented evidence in court and he should if indeed there is. She says if the president cannot prove these claims or demonstrate they would change the election results, he should fulfill his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution of the United States by respecting the sanctity of our electoral process. So obviously, erica, we are now two weeks removed from joe biden being projected the president elect of the United States, thing projected the winner of the president ial election and as this republican pressure continues to build, will it get to a point where republicans say, enough is enough and call on the president to concede and accept the results, accept his defeat . Well, meantime, as we wait for that, we did see the president today participating in this virtual g20 summit, but then he skipped out on a session on covid. Do we know why . Reporter look, ive asked the white house several times for comment on this. They referred me to the National Security council, which has not responded to a request for comment so far. But what we know is that the president participated briefly in part of his virtual g20 summit earlier this morning and then headed off to the golf course in virginia. This is a 333rd day that the president has spent at his golf course and as he arrived there, the second pandemic preparedness sideline meeting was beginning to take place. And this isnt a meeting that was, you know this is a meeting that was attended by other world leaders. The president of france, the chancellor of germany, all of them participating directly in this meeting but the president of the United States was nowhere to be seen as he is so aoften o these questions of responding to the pandemic. Jeremy, thank you. Well, President Trumps below crusad blockade is forcing president elect biden to get creative because listen, transitions need to happen, and especially in 2020. The stakes are very high. Cnn Political CorrespondentArlette Saenz joining me now. So, arlette, what is the focus at this point . What is changing as the president elect tries to navigate these very strange transition waters . Reporter well, erica, president elect joe biden is just trying to make it clear that he can still move forward with his transition planning as he does the work of president elect. Even as President Trump has refused to acknowledge the results of the election and the gsa has yet to ascertain biden as the president elect. But youve seen biden assembling his own teams of experts. We also know that the Transition Team is consulting outside experts as theyre starting to look at all of these agencies and the steps they need to take before they take office come january. And biden has spent the weekend so far meeting with Transition Advisors and a short while ago, he attended mass here in womening t wilmington, delaware, at st. Anns Catholic Church and as he was leaving that church service, biden was asked whether all americans should be able to attend religious Services Amid