Cases are spiking this morning in 25 states, so the question becomes how is it all intertwined in the president tweeting a picture, look at that. Thats really significant of him finally tweeting a picture wearing a mask after months and months of downplaying it and months of refusing to wear one in public. Were live across the country this hour. Lets begin in the state of florida. Rosa flores joins us from there. Good morning, rosa. Hospitals there sundaying the alarm that they need more nurses as cases spike. Reporter youre absolutely right, poppy, because you can convert more beds into icu beds, but you still need human beings to provide this care. Were learning this morning from the state that 39 hospitals from across the state are asking the state for help with nurses. Thats the case here in Jackson Health. We know that the state of florida has deployed is 125 nur to Jackson Health, and this morning Jackson Health is asking for an additional 275 medical professionals and heres. Why we eve learned 146 employees from Jackson Health have contracted the coronavirus in the past ten days, including 49 nurses. Were also learning that the Positivity Rate here for sunday, which is the latest statistic available, was 38 . Now, these this includes all of the tests done at the e. R. , inpatient tests and also employees, and when you look at the amount of care that is needed, it really lets you know a little more about whats happening inside these hospitals. According to Jackson Health 25 of the covid19 patients in this hospital need icu care. Now, as we look across the state, weve learned that 53 icu hospitals are at zero capacity here in miamidade county, yesterday, the icus were operating at 130 . Now, poppy, you and i have been talking about this, despite all the facts and figures the state of florida continues to require, to mandate for schools to reopen for inperson instruction starting in just a few weeks. Now, of course, weve learned that educators have filed a lawsuit. Well, just now in a press conference that wrapped up here in the city of miami, city of miami mayor Francis Suarez announcing that the summer camps in the city of miami will be closed effective this week because at least three children have tested positive for the coronavirus, so if this is any indication of what happens when you gather children. Here we have it, it poppy. City of miami announcing closure of summer camps because at least three children have tested positive. Wow, rosa, thank you so much for that update from miami for us. So its been nearly three months since the president has held a daily briefing. If no medical experts attend today, what are we going to hear . Our chief Political Correspondent dana bash is with us. Good morning, dane, a. Dr. Fauci said he would go. Talk about what drove the significant change in the president to timely put a mask on and take that photo and publicly support maskwearing. Reporter polls, i mean, thats it, full stop. Its because this is directly affecting his own personal political standing and prospects for reelection. Thats been a trend. Not as if its a news flash that had the coronavirus dominates and the lack of faith in his leadership on this massive issue is really, really hurting him, but somehow advisers got to him in the past few days, and its you know, from according to people i talked to who are familiar with his thinking, its that just the combination of all of these polls. I mean, theres not one that they say publicly and more importantly for his consumption internally that shows that this is working for him, so the plea that was made to him was turn back to the coronavirus. Focus on this this issue, because it is dominating everything else, nothing else is breaking through, and this election right now is all about you, referendum on you and your lack of leadership on this. Now, we can talk about how hes going to execute that right now, but from what im told what hes planning on doing certainly doesnt jive with what he was advised to do, jim and poppy. Dana, i have to ask you, because it sounds like the president believes that this will help his poll numbers. As you know, the president S Performance at briefings prior were not always helpful in terms of getting accurate information. Think about injecting disinfectant, his personal sales pitch for hydroxychloroquine. Are his advisers convinced that this will help rather than hurt him . No. And the big question is what is the this which was kind of what i was getting at. The sources who i talked to say what they are imploring the president to do is to lead with the facts, lead with the medical experts, the people who as of this hour are not planning to atte attend, the Anthony Faucis and the other medical experts who can really give americans information that they can use, not spin and in many situations, in many cases, maybe most often from the president , disinformation. I mean, we saw him try to do that over weekend in the interview he did with chris wallace, and theres no reason for us to believe that that will change today, so thats a long way of answering, jim, that there is that there are a lot of people who are around the president who are holding their breath because they dont know how this is going to go. He is being advised, i am told, to keep his portion of the briefing short, not to allow himself to engage and to get into, you know, fights with reporters who are trying to factcheck him realtime on things that he is saying are wrong, but based on what we know right now the plan for a briefing at 5 00 with no medical experts doesnt look like hes heeding that advice as of this as of this minute. It doesnt at all. Dana, appreciate the reporting. Thank you. Lets see what comes in a few hours in this briefing. Lets talk about the Science Behind all of this. Our chief medical correspondent dr. Sanjay gupta is with us this morning. Good morning. Actually, san. I want to start with you on testing, the fact that Quest Diagnostics says two weeks now for some people now to get their test results. Ive experienced it personally, you know, with a friend here in new york, 14 days, no results, no answers. What happened to the fast tests, right . Theres the abbott labs one that worked so well in detroit, and that were questions about how accurate it all was. I mean, it just seems like that would be the solution across the country, Rapid Testing not just for sports players in the league but everyone. I was just talking to some sources about this very issue, pope, and if you look at like the abbott test specifically, this rapid test that was supposed to give results within 15 minutes that testing units are still out there, but the testing kits, the actual kits that you use to collect the swabs and and be able to use reagents, that then takes the materials off the swab and test, those are still in short supply. In fact, to put some numbers on it, about 1. 2 million tests globally are being done and youre nowhere near able to think of a widespread test that can be used to sort of get at this issue of surveillance, so its really still being use, primarily in some some point of care locations, but its its not a problem as much with the technology as it is the fundamental problem with the testing kits. Im talking about the swabs and the reagents and the breadandbutter stuff that in july, same conversations we were having in march, those still end up being a problem. Geez. Sanjay, i want to talk about schools, a lot of folks, were all parents here, and i know a lot of folks are watching because they with like their kids to go back to school and would like them to go back safely had. I want to play sound from the governor of missouriries truly remarkable to hear from a sitting governor of a major state and get your reaction and get you to focus on the science here. Have a listen. Hmm, okay. These kids have got to get back to school. They are at lowest risk possible, and if they do get covid19, which they will, and they will when they go to school, they are not going to the hospitals. They are not going to have to sit in doctors offices. They are going to go home and they are going to get over it. You know, i realize you might have to go through a list of things thats fundamentally mislead and unhelpful about those comments, please do it because i know kids want their kids to go back to school as i do, but, of course, they want it to happen safely. Yeah, thats probably the one consistent thing that, you know, i think most people, myself included, would agree with in what the governor said. Problem is that kids can transmit this virus still. I mean, thats the fundamental issue is that while they are less likely to get sick, and that data has seemed to hold up since we looked at the early data coming out of wuian at the very beginning of this year, they can still transmit the virus. There was a study, i was up early this morning talking to some sources in asia. There was a study, as you guys have heard about, that showed that kids between the ages of so and 18 have enough virus and seem to transmitt the virus the way adults to so youre talking about so18yearolds which is a significant chunk. As far as people who are younger than that is correct the thing is i think that the data is still not clear. I think what the governor is sort of referring to and what some have said is that those kids arent trnds hitting the virus as much, and if you really dig deep into that data you find that you really cant make that assessment yes. Part of the issue is for most part, think about your own kids if they are under the age of 9, they have mostly been at home since march so even in the huge studies looking at tens of thousands of people sometimes it only involves 40 or 50 kids under the age of 9 or so years old. You really still dont know and thats the concern. I think the biggest thing, and i dont know if we have this graphic of whats been going on in missouri, but missouri had its highest sevenday average of new cases just over the last couple of days. If you had a lot of virus in your area, it basically means youre much more likely to come in contact with somebody who is carrying the virus. If youre vulnerable because of your preexisting conditions, youre vulnerable. Maces have done it safely but in places where theres a lot of virus its very hard to open schools safely. For sure, and thats a key fundamental difference between european schools and whats happening in the u. S. You talk to dr. Fauci. He says hell be at the briefing today, sanjay, if hes wanted there. Whats going to happen . I felt that this was quite striking, and i know you guys talk to him regularly. You know, as of early this morning he didnt know. I mean, that thats the thing. First of all, its a briefing, not a Coronavirus Task force briefing, so, you know, we keep thinking of this as something that we used to see where there was a gravity and importance being given to what is the largest Public Health crisis of our lifetime, and they are calling interest a briefing and the scientist as of this morning still dont even know if they are invited to this which is a fact. When i talked to dr. Fauci, he was referring to all members of the Coronavirus Task forks so i think its i find that just absolutely remarkable at this point when we need to hear from him. I mean, certainly we dont want to hear from him when all he is doing is contradicting or factchecking other people such as the president during the meeting. I dont know how useful that is. But the idea that there is a path forward here, its not that challenging. Other countries have done it. We need to hear from the scientists how to do it hear so, still, it doesnt sound like were going to get that opportunity. Its just really, really terrible. The president denies the science repeatedly, he does. I mean, again, this weekend the idea that its testing. Were only seeing more cases because theres more testing, its false, and if thats the primary voice, raises question about the function of it. Dr. Sanjay gupta, always good to have you on. You got it. Thank you. As cases soar in the state of texas, one county there is now issuing a stayathome order. Could other counties follow suit . Were going to discuss. Also, louisiana went from flattening the curve after an initial surge to now being right back to where they started. What happened . The states Lieutenant Governor is with us next. Come on in, were open. All we do is hand you the bag. Simple. Done. We adapt and we change. You know, you just figure it out. Weve just been finding a way to keep on pushing. That selling carsarvana, 100 online wouldnt work. Weve just been finding a way to keep on pushing. But we went to work. Building an experience that lets you shop over 17,000 cars from home. Creating a coast to Coast Network to deliver your car as soon as tomorrow. Recruiting an army of customer advocates to make your experience incredible. And putting you in control of the whole thing with powerful technology. Thats why weve become the nations Fastest Growing retailer. Because our customers love it. See for yourself, at carvana. Com. Well, right now the state of louisiana ranks number two per capita in the most covid cases surge is once again. Take a look at this. I think this graphic really paints a clear picture of how all the progress made in the state during the stayathome order is gone after it was lyfted in may, and its not just cases rising there. Hospitalizations climbing as well. Im glad we have louisianas Lieutenant Governor nungesser with us. Glad to be here. Another sad statistic is 45 of the cases are in people under 29 years old, under 29 years old. The when you look at how the governors mask mandate is expiring in you are yo state for three days, is it time for that to be extended . I believe the governor will make an announcement today at 2 30, and i dont want to put words in his mouth, but i believe with those numbers we will see text tended, and hopefully because of the fourth of july weekend and the next few weeks we can see this level off if everybody wears their mask and follows the guidelines, and hopefully we can see our way a light at the end of the tunnel, because this is really having a devastating effect on louisiana. The. Yes. Do you and the governor, youre a republican and hes a democrat. Does the state of louisiana support a federal mask mandate . Your borders arent shut. People coming in and out of the state all the time. Right. Were giving out masks at the Visitor Centers and we do the monday Conference Call with the white house, and theres talks about that, and that will be decided on the federal level but what do you think . Well, i think its in lieu of all of the states that are having the spike its absolutely important to have that everyone wearing a mask. I dont want to make a decision for the feds, but here in louisiana we need everybody to wear their mask so we can get the doors back open until louisiana. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you think about the fight within the state of georgia right now in atlanta and if that makes a whole lot of sense, you know, in the middle of all of this. This is not police camp this is about peoples safety and about getting our economy back open. Weve got families that have been in the Restaurant Business for generations here in louisiana, especially new orleans, that wont make it through this crisis if we dont follow those rules and see this thing level off. For sure. The trump administration, as you know, is pushing back on even some republicans in Congress Asking for increased state aid for Contact Tracing and testing. I wonder if you need more money in the state to do that, and if you dont get it, had a is that going to mean for health of people in louisiana . Well, i think absolutely the testing, the tracing is so important to isolate and find out and keeping this under control, and so that that funding is crucial as we had hoped that we would not see the spike again, but obviously this thing is going to be here a lot longer than we anticipated. Because you did see the spike that as i showed in that chart has completely done away with all the progress made since stayathome order, are you and the governor now in louisiana considering another stayathome order, are you on the brink of that as california says they are . Well, i dont want to put words in the governors mouth. Well, you are the Lieutenant Governor so youre privy to this stuff. I work closely with him. I hope we can stay where we are and see people follow the mask rules and the distancing rule and come out of this and not have to go back to a lockdown. Of course, im in charge of tourism, so im hoping we can move forward and not move backwards and get this thing under control where we are now. And there is nothing id rather do than come to new orleans and have a hurricane. I think all of us would love to do that, but its just not its not in the cards right now. Lets talk about schools finally, because if you look at Jefferson Parish schools, for instance, they are supposed to open august 12, and you look at 224 cases this just yesterday alone. 77 of icu beds taken, and then you have teachers like this tiefer. She teaches High School English in st. Tammys parish. Heres what she says. I feel very much like all of American Education is an experiment right now, but but not even a scientific experiment. It is a political roll of the dice for us and we are the dice. We are the dice. Are schools in Jefferson Parish safe to rehope in three weeks . You know, im going to defer to the medical team, but i absolutely believe the teachers and educators need a seat at that table and shes absolutely right. It should not be political. We need the kids back in school, but we need them back in school safely, and and any attempt to open without doing it safely, whatever those restrictions are put in place need to be followed because we as you said, we dont need to see another spike, and we need our kids back in school but weve got to make sure its done safely for teachers and the students and those educators. Yeah. For sure. Well, thank you so much. Well look forward to that announcement from the govern