the nation's debt ceiling. the question is will this move help avoid a shutdown? it's "way too early" for this. ♪♪ good morning and welcome to "way too early," the show that gets stuck in gridlock traffic on the way in. i'm jonathan lemire on this tuesday, september 21st. covid has now killed more americans than the 1918 spanish flu pandemic. cdc estimates show the 1918 pandemic killed about 965 americans while 680,000 have died from the coronavirus. so far 32,000 deaths have been reported this month compared with 28,000 in august. right now the united states is averaging about 2,000 deaths per day. on monday florida reported more than 1,000 coronavirus-relate deaths to the cdc.