Firefighters, we are with the st. Paul Fire Department right now. Weve seen the fire truck as well as one of the ambulances already head out on a call this morning. The department is averaging 15 to 20 calls a day for covid and flulike symptoms. Every time paramedics and firefighters head out on a call, they are at risk. Even if they arent told of covid19 symptoms, there is the potential there someone could be asymptomatic. With me here is the fire chief, chief bruce ings. Walk me through what youre seeing right now. You look at the numbers in minnesota, hospitalizations, the death rate, its not good. What has it been like for you and your team here . Thank you. Its been extremely challenging for us. Were seeing call volumes at an alltime high, with call volumes averaging 150 calls a day most days. Averages, numbers going up to 180 calls per day. Mentioned that the positive or covid runs were going on are 15 to 20. Of the 150 to 180 calls every single day, theres a chance for exposure. Theres a chance for being exposed to people experiencing this pandemic. Reporter we know the state of minnesota asked the federal government, fema, to send them 25 fully staffed ambulances to help with some hospital transfers. Why is Something Like that necessary . So for that, thats necessary because, as every hospital is experiencing, is the bed Space Available . The ability to treat all these patients that are positive with covid. But this particular program will definitely help in the rural area, help transport patients from hospitals to other facilities, creating possibly more bed space there. Thats one program our department, during this pandemic, has implemented, is the interfacility transport, to help within our city. Reporter we think about just the toll, and we talk about it a lot, that this takes on doctors and nurses. You guys had, i think, nine people within your Department Contract covid19 about a month ago. What is that number right now, and how are your team members doing . Yeah, so a month ago, we had a total of nine cases since the beginning of this pandemic. Right now, for the whole, the total is at 52 cases. But, you know, we maintain our readiness, maintain our composure, our attitude to respond, but our firefighters are stressed. The women and men in our department are called to duty every single day to respond to our redentsidents, and theyre g it, but theyre stressed. Our Peer Support Program has never been as busy as it is now. As we talked before this, the culture of our Fire Department, we come back, most of the time were able to sit around the Kitchen Table to decompress, talk to each other, get through what we just experienced. Thats over. Our women and men are wearing ppe like i am on every single run. Theyre wearing it 24 hours a day. When they come back from a run, theyre back to their rooms. So theyre stressed, but i couldnt be more proud of what theyre doing and the response theyre giving to our residents. Reporter all right. Yasmin, you heard him say there, they went from nine confirmed cases of covid19 just within this Fire Department a month ago to 52 today. Cases are going up across minnesota. The people who have to deal with the calls and try to render aid to people who have contracted this virus, theyre getting hit hard within their own communities, as well. Yasmin . Allisellison barber, good to to you. Were hearing that story across the country, First Responders dealing with it everywhere. I want to go to cleveland and valerie castro. Talk to us about ohio. Theres a lot of concern in that state, both over the spike in cases there and also, as we were just hearing from the other First Responder that ellison was speaking to, the stress on nurses, on doctors in the health care community. Reporter yeah, good morning, yasmin. Well, the reality is here the cases are going up, as were seeing in other parts of the country. There have been about 25,000 new cases reported since friday across the state of ohio. Some of those are health care workers, caregivers. Here at the Cleveland Clinic behind me, about 10,0,000 worke are out because theyre sick with covid or under quarantine after having been exposed. It is not just at this hospital. The Ohio HospitalAssociation Says 20 of Health Care Facilities across the state are reporting staffing shortages right now, and thats a real problem when you consider the fact that all the counties in this state, 88 counties, are seeing an increase in cases. We spoke to the director of the intensive care unit here at the Cleveland Clinic this morning, and he says, of course it is challenging dealing with the rise in cases, but also challenging when colleagues are also falling ill. Take a listen to what he had to say. Well, it drains us emotionally, because these are part of our team. These are people that we have worked through and we want to continue to work along. Anxiety generates because you want them to go through and not be going through the bad stages of the disease. It also affects how we deliver care because we have to be sure that where do we pull other people to ensure we are providing. We have done a lot of planning, and that planning has helped a lot. Ol obviously, this adds an extra strain to the whole team. Reporter and you heard the doctor. A lot of anxiety. A very challenging time for these health care workers. Yasmin . Im hearing that a lot from the doctors and nurses ive been speaking to in my reporting, as well. Valerie castro, good to talk to you. I want to go to nbcs meagan fitzgerald, in the sushs north of los angeles, where we saw really long lines at many testing sites, especially across the weekend. Take us there. Reporter yasmin, i can tell you, the long lines continue today. Take a look behind me here. We are in the san fernando valley, just outside los angeles, as you mentioned. Cars lining up all across the treat here, and then if you walk with me down here, this is where theyre trying to go. All the way here is the testing location, where were told they can test some 2,400 people a day. Thats the mission across the state of california, is what were seeing. Testing is key. We know dodgers stadium, the largest testing facility in the entire country, testing some 13,000 people a day. The mayor here, had an opportunity to speak with him, and he said, were pushing out text alert, encouraging people to get tested. They believe thats the strategy here. If they know who has this virus thar then they can Contract Trace and those people can selfquarantine. In addition to that, cases are exploding in the state of california, as they are all throughout the state, throughout the country here. So just last night, we saw the county of los angeles put in place even further restrictions, limiting outdoor dining. Again, they believe these restrictions and testing is the key to try and stop the surge here. Yasmin . Meagan fitzgerald. Thank you. Good to talk to you this morning. I want to go to the latest Coronavirus Vaccine news. Astrazeneca announced its be third vaccine candidate with up to 90 effectiveness. Ill be talking with astrazeneca executive Vice President later on this hour. Dont miss that conversation. While this is good news, the vaccine is not available for people to take. Right now, there are renewed fears, thanksgiving could be a massive superspreader event, according to tsa. Over the past three days, 3 Million People packed the nations airports, ignoring the cdcs advice not to travel to see loved ones. I want to turn to medical correspondent dr. John torres, standing by for us. Thanks for joining us on this. Appreciate it. So we have good news and then troubling news, as well, as were seeing spikes in cases and more folks traveling for the thanksgiving holiday. We have three vaccines on the horizon. Talk to me first about the latest news were hearing from astrazeneca, seeing it is 70 effectiveness, this astrazeneca vaccine. If you take it in the twodose form format, 1 2 dose first, it is 90 effective. How encouraged are you by this latest news . Yasmin, this is good news because were seeing the vaccines showing more effectively than we thought they would show. Right now, to date, the pfizer vaccine, moderna vaccine, and now the Astrazeneca Oxford vaccine are all in the 90 range. Astrazeneca had to do different dosings to get to the 90 . Experts are sayinging the way its working. More detals to codale details t. There are four, five front runners. One already dropped the emergency use authorization request here in the u. S. , pfizer. Moderna is probably soon to follow. The Astrazeneca Oxford one is a uk one, so itll be a bit more complicated. Worldwide, looks like were getting more and more of the vaccines being to the point where they can start getting authorized, start getting approved, and then they can start getting used. Were actually going to drill down on that question, as to why it is working the way it is working with that dosage. Thats a bit confusing, as i tried to set up. Were going to try to get that answer the bottom of the answer. Stick with us with that. Lets talk about the storage of this astrazeneca vaccine. Seems this is more in line with the moderna storage, in pfizer needs the extra cold storage, so you cant necessarily see that vaccine distributed in urgent care facilities, for instance. Moderna and possibly this astrazeneca vaccine is more accessible for folks throughout the country and really throughout the world. Yeah, this is extremely important. Like you said, the pfizer vaccine, it is showing great effectiveness, but it takes the ultra cold storage. Here in the u. S. , we have an infrastructure we can mobilize. So we can use those types of vaccines. In other parts of the world, they cant do that, especially remote parts in developing countries. They need a vaccine that can be put on an airplane, sent somewhere, maybe put on a jeep and driven to some place. They need a vaccine they can use that way. Thats the good news here. This vaccine can be used at normal refrigerated temperatures or stored at those temperatures. It can be taken long distances to remote areas and be used to try to get people vaccinated there. From a global perspective, this is fantastic news. Were getting some vaccines that arent as dont need quite the care and requirements that some of the other vaccines do that we have in the u. S. , yasmin. Dr. Torres, last one while i have you. Want to talk thanksgiving for a moment. A lot of health officials, scientists, doctors, warning folks not to travel, not to gather for thanksgiving, as difficult as that is, especially after the year weve had. Were seeing a lot of folks traveling. If you walk outside, especially in new york city, you see lines around the block outside urgent care facilities for folks getting tested, wanting to stick with their thanksgiving plans. How do we mitigate the spread ahead of the thanksgiving holiday . Yasmin, it is a bit discouraging, seeing how many people are traveling, but i get it. This is thanksgiving. We all have pandemic fatigue. We want to be with family. You have to be extremely, extremely careful. You cant test your way to thanksgiving. Say you test today or tomorrow, and you test negative. That doesnt mean youll be negative wednesday or thursday. Its just a snapshot in time on that one day youre testing. You still need to be careful. You still need to social distance and still make sure you wear a mask, all those things. Consider people high risk. Make sure theyre not around because they potentially could have a lot of complications, yasmin. Dr. John torres, thank you, as always, my friend. So good to talk to you this morning. Appreciate your information on this. Well have much more on the vaccine news, as ive been mentioning. Ill speak with the head of astrazenecas biopharma unit later. Dont miss that. New details about president elect Joe Biden Cabinet picks, including who he plans to nominate for secretary of state and National Security adviser. Well get the latest on the transition team. And michigans election board will vote later today to certify the results, that joe biden won the state. But things, theyre getting complicated, with at least one trump supporter potentially going rogue. Well be right back. Ef claes makes a pizza, he doesnt just make a pizza. 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Build muscle, fuel desire, and improve performance. Get test x180 from force factor, the 1 fastestgrowing mens health brand at walmart. We built the wall to keepsafe from what . [ screams ] its just a little monkey. Thats not good. [ screams ] ohhh we have to save them. Whats the plan . New tribe name. Thunder sisters thunder sisters [ shouts ] [ screams ] heads up [ screams ] welcome back, everybody. President elect joe biden is set to make his first cabinet announcement with a focus on the National Security team. Nbc news has learned that biden is expected to name his longtime adviser, tony blinken, as secretary of state, and Jake Sullivan as National Security adviser. Linda thomas greenfield, career diplomat, is expected to be the next u. N. Ambassador. This is happening as legal challenges for President Trump, they are dwindling, and more high profile republicans are saying he should recognize joe biden as president elect. Joining me now, nbc news political reporter ali vitali, following the biden transition in delaware. Also with us, carol lee. And the White House Bureau chief and coauthor of a very stable gen genius. Welcome to you all. Ali, were hearing some names in some cabinet picks. Take us through it, and some of the decision behind these names. Also the schedule were expecting from joe biden today. Reporter well, were expecting to see joe biden today as he does a Virtual Event with the conference of mayors. Were also expecting to hear from him tomorrow as he rolls out this first slate of cabinet picks. You laid it out right there, the names were hearing and the agency heads we might see tomorrow. Roles at state department, National Security adviser, as well as ambassador to the u. N. , you laid out their backgrounds here. Tony blanken is the name were expected to hear as head of the state department. Jake sullivan, aide to Hillary Clinton at the state department. Someone who will be the National Security adviser there. Ambassador to the u. N. , linda thomasgreenfield, a longtime diplom diplomat. We expect that to be a cabinetlevel position in this administration. Thats something each president decides, how theyre going to elevate that role. In this administration, we are told to expect u. N. Ambassador to be cabinet level. Really, yasmin, theres a larger theme playing out here. Joe biden seems to be putting his policy picks where his Campaign Promises were. So as we see him start laying out these positions, the first thing was prioritize the coronavirus. Day one of the transition, they put out the names on the covid task force. Now, were seeing him start looking abroad. Starting to prioritize Foreign Policy, experience, long ties to diplomacy. Leaning in there as he tries to establish americas standing in the world stage, in the viewpoint of how he wants to be, opposed to how trump was doing it. Carol, lets talk about the trump team while i have you. While joe biden is looking ahead to january 20th, and what his cabinet is going to look like, President Trump is trying to flip the results of this election. He has 30 or so lawsuits, many of which have been overturned at this point. You have president s Election Results being certified today. You have michigan headed toward a possible deadlock in its certification today. Over the weekend, the trump team also requesting a recount yet again in the state of georgia. It seems these are a lot of lastditch efforts at this point, carol. Walk us through it. Reporter youre absolutely right, yasmin. It is an effort to try to somehow find a way to overturn the results of this election and also just undermine president elect joe bidens victory. In pennsylvania, a judge ruled against the trump team over the weekend. The trump team has come back with an appeal, that Pete Williams said is unlikely to go anywhere. The judges decision was scathing. Ill read to you in part, in the United States of america, this could not justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most popular state. This is not how the constitution works. So the expectation was the trump team would broadly respond to that. They havent. But theyre, again, trying to continue to keep the ball rolling. You mentioned georgia. Again, they asked for a recount. Weve gone through a hand recount by the states audit, which, again, certified solidified joe bidens victory by more than 10,000 votes. Then you have mic