Im victor blackwell. Good morning, im amara walker in today for christi paul. So thanksgiving week is here. And so is this expanding coronavirus surge. Consider this the u. S. Has recorded 12 million cases across the country. Just six days ago, the u. S. Hit 11 million cases. And for the 19th straight day, the u. S. Has added more than 100,000 new cases daily. A record 83,000 people are in hospitals right now, away from their families heading into the holiday. And the calls to avoid thanksgiving trips arent keeping the crowds away. Friday was the second busiest day at u. S. Airports yet during the pandemic. There is good news on treating covid19, however. The fda has issued an emergency use authorization for the antibody cocktail, the same therapy that President Trump ruffed during his hospital stay. Paolo sandoval is following this from new york. Good morning, paolo. What more do we know about who can access this treatment and when . Reporter we know that the food and Drug Administration has authorized regeneron for emergency use on those patients that have been determined to be high risk. It does not apply to patients that have been hospitalized and had to be potentially pout oxygen because of their treatment, to fight the virus. In terms of how soon people would potentially be treated with this drug, we do know that regeneron says that they are looking to have doses available for at least 80,000 patients by the end of this month. And potentially up to 200,000 patients by the start of the year. The u. S. Food and Drug Administration on saturday issued an emergency use authorization for regenerons antibody cocktail to treat covid19 in highrisk patients with mild to moderate disease. President donald trump received the therapy when he was hospitalized for coronavirus. According to the fda, the cocktail, which mimics an immune response to infection, reduced covid19related hospitalizations and emergency room visits in some patients within 28 days of treatment. They t works best in patients who are given the treatment early before the virus has taken hold in the body. The chief executive officer said in a statement the demand may initially exceed splooupply mak it critical that regen cov 2 is distributed equitably to the patient most in need. U. S. Coronavirus cases surpassed 12 million saturday. An increase of more than one million cases in less than a week according to Johns Hopkins university data. Over 255,000 americans have died. November already accounts for almost a quarter of all covid19 cases, and 9 of deaths. Almost every state in the u. S. Has reported a rapid surge in cases. In texas, the division of Emergency Management reports a team of 36 National Guard personnel have been sent to el paso to help the city cope with the surge of covid19 deaths. Good news on the horizon, experts say promising vaccines are on the way. Cdc will recommend which groups should receive a covid19 vaccine first. We have a number of categories of individuals that gha in the first may go in the first round of vaccinations. Among those are health care providers, individuals at highrisk conditions, individuals living in nursing homes, first responders, essential personnel, individuals over 65 years of age. Reporter as we head into thanksgiving, airports across the u. S. Bracing for increased travel amid the pandemic. With the cdc recommending coronavirus testing before and after international flights. We should mention regeneron is not the only Company Working to advance these kind of antibody therapies. At least 70 other treatments out there are being investigated also. The food and Drug Administration issued an emergency approval for a similar drug under similar circumstances just earlier this month, victor and amara. These are certainly tools that these Health Officials and these doctors need as they try to keep that death count, you heard out of west texas, the National Guard called in to help perform mortuary services. Paolo sandoval for us, thank you. Lets bring in one of those health experts, dr. Carlos del rio, associate dean of Emory University of medicine at Grady Health System in atlanta. Good morning to you. Lets start with the authorization of the regeneron cocktail. We know that its to treat highrisk patients with mild to moderate disease. But before they get to the hospital. So when is that sweet spot . Is it immediately after the the diagnosis, or is it once they start to get the systems symptoms, i should say, and how do you determine who is most at need if theyre not hospitalized . Well, these are incredibly good questions. What we know is the sooner you receive this treatment the better it is. For example, like the president received it. So the reality is if you are over 65 and you have comorbid conditions like diabetes, obesity, or some other, you know, immunosuppression and you get diagnosed with covid19, you should be considered for the therapy pretty much immediately. The sooner within the first three to four days of getting diagnosed is the best time to receive it. The challenge, of course, is finding it because its actually in limited supply. And the other thing is Health Care Systems and clinics are struggling to figure out how to administer this because this drug, you have to put you have to get it in the hospital. You have to give it intravenously and depending on the drug, you have to have a place where you can do it, and you can bring patients with covid in in a safe environment. So our typical infusion rooms where we have Cancer Patients are not the best part. Were all trying to figure out how to give it, where to give, and who to give it. Theyre useful drugs, and i think its a step in the right direction to have something to treat mild to moderate covid. And now we have nothing. Expectation is to manufacture enough for 80,000 patients by the end of this month, 200,000 by first week of january, 300,000 by end of january. They acknowledge that need will outpace supply. But when you have a million diagnoses a week of covid, how big is that gap between whats available and whats needed . I mean, the gap is enormous. If youre diagnosing more than 100,000 persons per day, lets assume of those 100,000 persons youve diagnosed per day 30 will be eligible. Thats 30,000 people every day that will be eligible for this drug, and youre manufacturing, you know, enough to treat 20,000 to 30,000 a month. Thats how big the gap is. We have to stop the spread. Were simply getting outpatient therapies, our icus, capacity in hospitals, were getting overwhelmed. This is like trying to drink from a water hydrant. When it comes to vaccines, we understand that the cdc committee, theres a committee thats meeting to discuss, you know, who should be receiving the covid19 vaccines first. Can you tell us what these conversations are sounding like, and what youre view is on how we can ethically approach this issue . Well, i would recommend that you and your viewers look at the National Academy of science, engineering, and medicine report that was issued last october on equitable allocation of covid vaccines. This is a committee that was made of very highlevel individuals, very distinguished persons, experts in the field, and coshared by some of the best and brightest in the area of vaccinology and public health. They recommend a tiered approach. They started saying, acknowledging were not going to have enough vaccines to vaccinate everybody immediately. How do you tier vaccination. They recommend starting with first responders, health care workers, People Living in longterm care facilities, elderly, people with very high risk of complications, then moving to the general public. The cdc committee and meeting specialists has basically taken the report from the National Academies and are accepting the suggestion. A practical question because weve been showing the long lines that weve seen at airports. A lot of people traveling ahead of thanksgiving. We may see that as we head into december. What is the right way to handle decisions on thanksgiving . Because as you know, dr. Del rio, people are going to still travel as we see, no matter what the guidelines are. Well, again, you have to think that theres a really very, very safe way to do it in a really very, very highrisk way to do it. And you have to decide whats the safest and the best for your family. I would start by saying, you know, if youre going to travel, be sure to travel wearing a mac and dont take it off. Wearing a face shield or goggles. Having hand sanitizer, avoiding, you know, avoiding proximity to people, so socially distanced, et cetera. Dont drink, dont eat, dont take your mask off on the plane or when you drive. Number two, once you get to the place youre going to be at, be sure you get tested before you travel, you get tested after you travel. Then i would also say, keep it to small number of individuals. No more than ten. Number four, you know, if you can do it outside, do it outside. Outside is always better than inside. You can do it inside, have have a good ventilation in the room. And finally, be sure to spread people out when theyre eating, when theyre getting together. The more you can keep people apart, the better it is. You know, avoid as much hugs and in proximity as you can possibly do. And if youre not going to be eating, put your mask on, its not a bad idea when youre having strangers with you. I if you do all those things, at the end of the day, you can stay safe. Quickly, the time frame of testing before you travel one to three days . My recommendation is one to three days after they travel and three to four days after they travel. As a way to its not 100 sure, but it decreases your risk that somebody, you know, asim mark is going to come asymptomatic is going to come in. If i have a College Student returning home now, i would take that person, keep their mask on, and you know, three to four days after they arrive i would get them tested. Doctor, appreciate your time this morning. Thank you so much. Happy to be with you. This week, georgia will count ballots cast in the president ial election for a third time. The Trump Campaign is requesting a recount as expected after the vote was certified on friday. Cnn has more from the white house. Kevin, georgia counted the votes and then audited the count, and now the Trump Campaign wants the state to recount the audited votes i mean, what is the end game here for the campaign . What do they want . Whats the expectation . Reporter well, it really seems at this point like theyre delaying the inevitable, putting off what will happen in january which is that joe biden will become president. They are facing a disappearing legal pathway. In georgia, as you said, theyve requested a recount of those ballots. The margin in the state is still short, small enough, to meet the threshold for this taxpayerfunded recount. As you mentioned, there was a hand recount of ballots last week. Technically an audit. That did not significantly change the results in georgia. This recount will be conducted electronically by scanners, so it will go much quicker. But given what happened last week, theres no expectation that the results in georgia will change. Now, these attempts to delay the results come as the president s case is collapsing, the latest in pennsylvania. Yesterday a judge not only denying the request to block certification of votes in the state, but essentially laughing them out of court saying that their efforts led by Rudy Giuliani were disjointed, calling them strained legal arguments without merit, speculative accusations, and essentially saying that the Trump Campaign was trying to disenfranchise millions of voters in pennsylvania. Now Rudy Giuliani had kind of taken the lead on the case there. This is one of the most important ones given how many electoral votes are at stake in pennsylvania. He made his first courtroom outing it decades last week. It was a shambolic appearance for the former new york city mayor. Clearly the judge saying he didnt think highly of it. As these legal cases fall apart, this was at least the 30th more than 30 cases withdrawn or dismissed from the Trump Campaign. He is increasingly turning to republican legislators to try and convince them to delay certification of votes or possibly to switch their electors from biden to trump. He summoned the republican lawmakers from michigan to the white house on friday. They explained to him the process for certifying votes in their state. They came out afterwards to see that they had seen nothing that would change the results in michigan. Nevertheless, the Republican National committee and state republicans in michigan are asking for a 14day delay of certification in that state. As the county audit as the state audits votes in the states largest county, wayne county. So all of this, delaying the results, challenging the legal the legal cases in courts, even as they fall apart. Its much more about casting doubt on the selection. Putting joe biden in this frame of an illegitimate president , all of this trying to role up the president s base even as the inevitable will happen, joe biden will become president in january. Yeah, i mean, even with these legal challenges, i think you said 30 or so that have failed, are we going to see more any more republicans come out and say, and acknowledge that, you know, the President Joe Biden he is i should say president elect joe biden . We did see yet pat toomey, the republican senator from pennsylvania, he praised the judge in that case who he called a conservative republican. And he congratulated joe biden on becoming the president elect. We should note pat toomey is retiring. He doesnt necessarily carry the same weight that other republicans do in terms of having to arppease the presiden, appease his supporters. We also saw hi cheney say if trump cant prove the allegations, he needs to move on and uphold the sanctity of our elections. But if youre looking for any reason why republicans might not be speaking out, look no further than the president s twitter feed. He went after liz cheney last night. Kevin, thank you so much. Rebecomea buck, youre up next rebecca buck, youre up next. Lets talk about the biden transition now. And i understand that were getting more about the cabinet picks and some announcements coming this week. Thats right. It looks to be a big week for the biden transition. They are not waiting around for trump to be satisfied with the Election Results to placate trump in any way. They are moving full steam ahead and, in fact, that is intentional. Initially the biden transition and president elect, rather, joe biden, had talked about wait willing until the balance of power in the senate was clear, until the Senate Runoffs in georgia had resolved, and they knew whether republicans or democratser going to control the senate next year when he takes the presidency. But they decided that they were going to move ahead with their cabinet right now, as soon as possible, to send a strong message to President Trump and his supporters and the country that joe biden will be president next year. Hes continuing to make those preparations. We are going to see some cabinet picks this week. Were expecting them as early as tomorrow to begin. And we could be looking first at treasury secretary, joe biden saying he already picked the person he has in mind to nominate, one of the frontrunners were predicting is will brainard, someone who would be a consensus pick. That gives a sense of how joe biden is going to go about the process. He was a moderate candidate in this election. I think thats probably a hint as to how hes going to govern and be making these types, as well. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Georgia senator Kelly Loeffler received mixed results from coronavirus tests. She tested positive on friday, but then on a second test on saturday it came back inconclusive. She and fellow republican senator david perdue are both in runoff elections in january. And theyve held summer rallies together in recent days on. Friday, they rode on a bus with Vice President mike pence to two campaign stops. And on thursday, they campaigned with arkansas senator tom cotton. The audience also not socially distanced. And many people not wearing masks. In 59 days, World Leaders will be dealing with a familiar name, but a new administration. How will they react to this new President Biden . Plus, for many, thanksgiving will be very different this year. Were going to discuss ways to protect your Mental Health during the holidays. Among my patients, i often see them have teeth sensitivity as well as gum issues. Does it worry me . Absolutely. Sensodyne sensitivity gum gives us the dual action effect that really takes care of both our teeth sensitivity as well as our gum issues. 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