Hello again, everyone. Thank you for joining me. Im fredricka whitfield. We begin with historic and devastating wildfires ripping through much of the west coast. At least 26 have died in california, oregon and washington state. Millions of acres have turned into ash. And those numbers are expected to rise. Nearly 100 fires are burning in 12 western states prompting air quality alerts for most of the west coast. This as Health Experts warn that smoke from the wildfires can actually make people more susceptible to coronavirus and other infections. In just a few hours, the president heads to reno, nevada, where a dark and hazy sky will be his backdrop during the rally there today. And besides a tweet late last night from the president hes largely remained silent about the fires. The white house Just Announced that the president will visit california on monday and be briefed on the devastation. Cnn is in marion county, oregon, a state with 14 major fires burning right now. Camilla, last hour you reported zero containment. Is that still the case . Yeah, fred, its still the case because from this point forward theyre going to try to start making progress. But before this, all they were doing was really trying to save as many people and as many homes as possible. So zero percent at the moment, and the worst part is that you add the low visibility and this thick, thick cloud of smoke, a permanent cloud of smoke. I want to show you what it looks like. Were trying to get as close to the fire as possible but they have these road blocks because it is so difficult to see. You cant see five or ten feet in front of you. So it makes it difficult not only for the residents in this area but for the frrirefighters. Theyre only letting a select group of people in this area. One of the people who was in there and came back told us he was working in the area and theres a meat market about eight miles up the road that is no longer there. Theres still homes in this area up in flames. And there are people who, of course, want to get in and see what happened to their homes. We just spoke to one woman, mrs. Brown, who came up to us and told us shes been looking at her home camera but she told me how devastating and difficult it is to have to evacuate and to have to keep looking and to be anxious and alert trying to figure out if your home is still standing. Take a listen to what she told us. Its unreal. You dont really you cant really fathom what is going on. You think, this isnt really happening but guess we better be prepared. You take what you think. And you just get out. She says she has not been able to sleep looking at her home camera, but thankfully she says shes one of the blessed and lucky ones who still has a home standing. She really ended up with the interview telling me that she just wants 2020 to be over because her father was diagnosed with covid19. Shes already had to move two times because of these evacuations. So these stories are just the ones that are so heartbreaking to hear and to see. And to know that there are some families going through an even worse time because there are people who are missing at this point. And that, of course, is a lot harder, fred. A lot of people are fearing about when theyre able to really traverse the area and get an account of people missing. And the woman you interviewed, she was wearing a mask. Many are Wearing Masks not just for coronavirus but also because of all this smoke. Can you tell us how difficult it is to breathe there . It is very difficult because its not only the breathing. Its also irritating on your eyes. And so it makes it so hard for these firefighters. They told us that there are times when they cant see the fire line, and so imagine that when youre really trying to be up against these flames, and they cant see them. They cant be up in the air. Not only fighting the flames but also looking to see where this fire is going. So its making it so much harder. Governor kate brown saying this is the worst in the world in terms of air quality. And moving forward, firefighters are even telling us this is not going away. Thats terrible. Camilla, thank you so much. Joining me right now to discuss this is an emergency medicine physician in southern california. Doctor, good to see you. How concerned are you about this poor air quality because of the wildfires that span so many states . Yeah, you know, thank you so much for having me. Were definitely concerned. The fact we can visibly see how bad the air quality is is not a good sign. Even more concerning are those invisible pollutants. Ozone, the particulate matters, dangerous gases, carbon monoxide, et cetera. And the Environmental Protection agency, epa, monitors these. I recommend people go to their website and go to airnow. Gov aqi. You can see the air quality index in your area. I entered in my zip code and it tells you how dangerous the air quality is. So certainly patients who are at risk or those with any lung disease, asthma, copd, emphysema. Obviously our elderly patients and the younger children as well. President trump is expected to hold an Outdoor Campaign rally today in reno, nevada. And that is a location that is also, you know, the sky has been darkened because of this dense smoke from these wildfires that have swept a good part of the west. If people are going to go to that rally, would Wearing Masks be enough with this kind of poor air quality . What are your overall concerns . You know, certainly wearing a mask is highly advised. I think this is going to have to be a personal decision for everyone, right. If im someone immune compromised or an elderly Family Member or young child, i would not be going. If youre healthy and otherwise well, you should wear a mask and social distance and do all the proper things but use common sense. Everyone needs to make their own decision. You can go to that website and look for yourself. Enter in the zip code of where theyre gathering and make your own decision. Dr. Morrison, thank you so much. Be safe. Cnn has just learned the president will visit california on monday for a briefing on the fire damage in that state. Cnns john harwood is following these developments for us at the white house. John, he put out a tweet or the information coming from the white house, hell be meeting with First Responder types. But thats a state where the governor is making it very clear that Climate Change is a gigantic component here. Do you see that the president would be meeting with him as well . Dont know if hell meet with governor newsom, but you can be confident, fred, that hes not going to emphasize Climate Change as the cause of this. You mentioned at the top of the hour, the president had been slow to react to the wildfires. We know that he tends, above all, to his political base. California, oregon and washington are not exactly trump country. And to the extent that Climate Change is a factor in this, thats not an issue he wants to emphasize. This has become a catastrophe too large to ignore. Millions of acres ablaze. Dozens missing. At least 17 already known to be dead. So the president has wedged in this trip to Mcclellan Park in Sacramento County into a swing out west where today hes traveling to nevada, which is a swing state that he lost narrowly to Hillary Clinton. Trying to win back against joe biden. Then on monday after this trip to california, hell be going to arizona which is a state that he won in 2016 against Hillary Clinton but joe biden has a significant lead there now. Hes trying to claw that back. You also have some breaking news on the Trump Administration officials who have been altering weekly covid science reports coming out of the cdc. What more can you tell us about that . What we have confirmed is the initial political report that michael caputo, who is the communication political appointed head of communications at the department of health and Human Services and his deputy Paul Alexander have been interceding in the weekly science reports that are prepared by the cdc, trying to make them consistent with the president s message. As we know from the president s own words to bob woodward, the president s interest has been in downplaying coronavirus from the beginning. He downplays it to the present day by having masks where people are not having rallies where people are not Wearing Masks or socially distanced. And career officials at the cdc are concerned about pressure. Michael caputo has justified dr. Alexanders intervention saying hes an oxford educated epidemiologist and were not going to be governed by the thinking of the deep state within the cdc. And its interesting, fred, theres an overlap between that characterization of scientific expertise at the cdc as deep state thinking with the president s dismissal of science on Climate Change, which hes called a hoax. All right. John harwood, thank you from the white house. Dr. Morrison, didnt i say it was always good to see you. Look. Here you are again. Just a few minutes since our last meeting. So how does this sit with you to learn that this weekly cdc report is being altered by those in the Trump Administration so that the messaging is more in concert with the president s message on the pandemic . How concerning is that to you . I mean, we need science to be accurate and for the data. So i cant speak for whats happening with the cdc data, but with anything in public health, we want the numbers to be accurate. Hopefully those are being reflected appropriately. I want to mention the upcoming flu season we have right around the corner and that for most of us has us concerned. Typically flu season is between october and april. But believe it or not, were already seeing, of course, as applicable with 2020, were already seeing reports of flu being reported. This is concerning because when you present with symptoms of covid and influenza, theres a lot of overlap. Patients have fever, cough, runny nose, muscle aches. Its going to be hard to clinically distinguish based on symptoms alone whether you have flu or covid19. Practically speaking if you go see your doctor today and youre concerned you have one or the other, theyll want to test you. We can do rapid point of care flu testing but we dont have enough of those rapid covid tests. And so if you were my patient, id tell you, you do or dont have flu but its going to take about 48 to 72 hours to confirm whether you have covid or not. For those offous the clinical frontlines, this is highly concerning. Even our discharge instructions, what do you do . I cant completely rule out that you dont have their. Even more important, the messaging needs to be definitely, of all the years, i know we get desensitized with influenza because we see it every year, but this is affecting children particularly, those under the age of 5 at highest risk for pneumonia and seizures so this is the year to get your flu shot because it will help minimize one of those infections. Dr. Morrison, good to see you. Thank you so much. Straight ahead new developments on the coronavirus pandemic. Health officials now warning that more than 415,000 americans will likely die of coronavirus by january. What needs to be done right now to save lives . Plus federal authorities level a relatively small fine on Smithfield Foods over a coronavirus outbreak at one of its meatpacking plants. Why the largest meat hft Packing Union in the country says thats not enough. And a consumer alert on amazon products that may spontaneously explode. Cnns exclusive investigation coming up. What if you could have the perspective to see more . At morgan stanley, a global collective of thought leaders offers investors a broader view. We see companies protecting the bottom line by putting people first. We see a bright future, still hungry for the ingenuity of those ready for the next challenge. Today, we are translating decades of experience into strategies for the road ahead. We are morgan stanley. An Influential Health model now projecting that over 100,000 lives could be saved by january if more americans would wear masks. That stark prediction coming as one analyst says 150,000 americans would still be alive today if the Trump Administration had just embraced Wearing Masks as a national edict. Cnns Polo Sandoval joining me now from new york. What more are you learning . Fred, whats concerning here for officials is, of course, the number of cases were seeing on College Campuses across the country. Fall semesters are moving right along. Weve already seen at least 40,000 infections at College Campuses. We already have an effect on every state in the country. So thats certainly concerning and that is why Top Health Officials right now are recommending that folks basically pause now, look back on the Holiday Weekend thats already behind us and examine that sort of review their actions if they potentially let their guard down. Then now is the time to get tested. Of course, theres an example of folks letting their guard down at Miami University in ohio last weekend. Police body camera video now showing an encounter with a young student who had tested positive for the coronavirus and nw he is believed to have basically played a role in having a big house party. Its not only surprising and shocking to hear about it, but its also surprising and shocking to see it yourself. Take a look. Ive never seen this before. Theres an input on the computer that you tested positive for covid . Yes. When this was . This was a week ago. Are you supposed to be quarantining . Yeah, thats why im at my house. You have other people here and youre positive for covid . You see the problem . They were honestly all walking by and they were out here. How many other people have covid . They all do. Miami university couldnt comment a whole lot on this citing privacy concerns. However, they did say that any student that violates any sort of local ordinance or quarantine protocol does face disciplinary action. It really takes us to what the big recommendation is. The importance of that flu shot. We have were still seeing 35,000 new covid cases a day. That number is slightly better than what we saw last month but its high going into the fall season and now theres a concern there that people would face that double wammy effect from covid and the flu. Yesterday we did hear from Top Health Officials that recommended that you get that flu shot no later than october because thats the biggest concern now is doctors and medical practitioners would have a hard time differentiating between those two viruses as people head to their local hospitals and clinics. The urging of the flu shots as early as one can this fall. Polo sandoval, thank you so much. President trump keeps hinting that a vaccine for covid19 may be ready by election day. Its whats known in political circles as possibly an october surprise. The head of the u. S. Vaccine effort dubbed operation warp speed isnt so sure about that timing. Cnns chief medical correspondent dr. Sanjay gupta spoke to the operation warp speed chief in a rare sitdown interview and asked him point blank about when americans may see a vaccine. What i really wanted to hit on was, when is this vaccine likely to be available . Whats the process like thats unfolding now . And what are some of the things they are looking for . Obviously, theres a lot of pressure to get this vaccine out. But effectiveness and safety are going to be the two most critical components. You have talked about your optimism in terms of efficacy and even cited a number, 90 efficacy. Just a couple of questions about that. First of all, where does that degree of optimism come from at the time you said it, i think there was still very little data. Why am i optimistic and i remain optimistic . Im not predicting its going to be 90 . I said it could be 90 . And i say it again. I looked into the data in primates, and using my judgment and my experience having looked at the development of very large number of vaccines, thats usually reasonably predictive. Its more if all primates are protected in all experiments or not. And i would say for all vaccines except for one, and im not going to say which one, protection is complete in the primate experiments. And that gives me confidence that protecting against this particular virus can be so basically put youve got two groups of people, right . A group that gets the vaccine, a group that gets the placebo and you follow them along. What youre counting on, and this is counterintuitive is the people in the Placebo Group develop a much higher rate of infection than the people in the vaccinated group. You can say for sure that the vaccine is working. That it seems to be protecting people against this infection. But what is acceptable . How much is how much of a difference is enough . Right now the fda says if this is shown to be 50 effective, it may qualify for an emergency use authorization. The other big question, though, is safety. You are giving this vaccine to lots of people. How do you know its safe . How long do you wait to look for side effects . This is a big point of concern. Heres how he approaches this. You look into the databases of the fda, on the overwhelming majority of adverse event associated with vaccines happen within the first, i was told, 42 days after completing the imcommunization regimen and maybe two months after completing. It doesnt mean things may not happen way after. They could. Extremely rare. What that means is that within 42 days, up to two months, the majority of adverse events or side effects, he says, typically happen. So that may be giving you a little bit of a marker in terms of how long they would wait to follow these patients who received the vaccine to be confident that, in fact, its safe enough for an authorization. So again, the first shot followed by the second shot a month later and then waiting around 42 days. There are many patients still being enrolled in this trial righ