Welcome to thursday. Its meet the press daily. Im chuck todd. Right now our country is facing two historic crises. One is the greatest Public Health emergency in a century, and the other threatens the health of our democracy. As President Trump continues his dangerous and delusional fight to overturn the results of a free and fair election. Were going to have much more on that emergency in a few minutes but we begin with the Public Health emergency. An Fda Advisory Committee is holding a meeting to decide whether to recommend the authorization of Pfizers Covid vaccine on an emergency basis. If the panel gives the green light, the fda could announce that emergency use authorization as early as tomorrow. And while help is hopefully on the way, the vaccine is sadly too late for far too many people. Coronavirus has killed more than 290,000 americans, including more than 3,000 people yesterday. 3,000. This number shatters the previous single day coronavirus death toll. And it now makes it that single day, yesterday, one of the deadliest mass casualty eveptss in American History. Look at it this way. The galveston hurricane of 1900 killed 8,000 people. The battle of antietem during the civil war tilde more than 3600. And the gabattle of gettysburg. December 9th, 3,103 americans died from covid19. And it likely means that seven of the 10 worst mass casualty events in American History will all be covid related. Yesterdays death toll is more americans than were killed in 9 11. And hospitals right now across the country are at capacity. So sadly, theres reason to believe we will surpass yesterdays death toll in the coming days and weeks. Right now more than 106,000 americans are hospitalized with the coronavirus. Its the fourth consecutive day that hospitalization totals have broken a record. In austin, texas, icu capacity is at 87 . In baton rouge, louisiana, more than 91 . In albuquerque, new mexico, its at 118 . Erin mclaughlin is in austin, texas. Also dr. Christopher thomas, a pull monologist who treats Critical Care patients in baton rouge. Erin, paint us the picture in austin. We know the country is suffering. Austin, a huge city, a huge growing city. How are they in Hospital Capacity . Well, its not looking great here in austin, chuck. 83 Hospital Capacity for this city. That number climbs to 90 for the state of texas. And its really a picture that were seeing across the country. More than onethird of all americans live in areas right now that are being impacted, areas that are facing critical icu shortages, and surgeons and doctors tell me that its having a profound impact, not only on covid19 patients but nonCovid Patients as well. I was speaking to stephanie deer, her 47yearold sister lauries heart stopped in october. She was rushed to the hospital. Needed an ecmo machine to save her life. There was not an ecmo machine available because they were all being taken by covid19 patients. They took 3 1 2 hours for her for the doctors to find her a machine. She ended up dying days later because microscopic blood clots formed in her tissues. The doctors attributing her death to the fact that machine was not available due to covid19. Take a listen to what stephanie had to say. People are dying from preventable deaths because they cannot get medical care. My sister should be here right now. She should be shopping for christmas, and we should be gossiping. And laughing and shes not here. And she should be. Since laurie terrys death, the situation in utah has gotten much worse. The numbers there tripling. I was speaking to one surgeon who said his hospital was having to cancel up to 10 elective procedures a day. And they really take exception to that term elective. They say, yes, we call it elective because its scheduled but, really it is an essential surgery. A potentially lifesaving surgery. And if they have to shut down as the surgeon was predicting, theyll have to do for elective surgeries there in utah, that will have profound effects. Once you shut that down its very difficult to restart the engines as we saw at the beginning of the pandemic. Erin mclaughlin with a dire picture on the ground in austin, texas. Thanks very much. Let me move to dr. Christopher thomas here. Dr. Thomas, how close is baton rouge are you getting to where, you know, you guys can only handle Covid Patients and scheduled surgeries. And i sake the point of some surgeons elective makes it sound like its somehow okay. Scheduled surgeries are something thats getting canceled now. Yeah, we have seen significant elevation in our Covid Patients over the last four weeks. We now are at the spot and location where it is beginning to impact our nonCovid Patients significantly. Were a large referral center. And my biggest challenge is that the patients in louisiana who need our expertise are in a position where we cant offer that all the time because of the amount of patients who are in the hospital. The decision about surgeries is one thats critical. We know from the first two surges that there were patients similar to the story that you were just able to share where patient care was impacted. And we are desperate to try to reduce the volume so that we can provide that care, not only to our city of baton rouge but to smaller rural areas. And so the preventive measures that are necessary in smaller areas and in the cities is essentially one large community. Its no longer very local geographic for us. Its a statewide issue. And we need everyone to participate in those preventative measures so that noncovid and covid can get the expertise that we can provide. You know, i want to ask you more about the stress on your system there. How much how much are you dealing with outside of baton rouge versus in the baton rouge community. How bad are things in rural parts of louisiana where they have just no ability to treat some of these patients . Yeah, we view ourselves as a Service Agency to the rest around baton rouge. The level of illness in baton rouge has limited that Service Capability and we are continuing every day to try to reinstate it. There is no doubt that nine months into this, going through our third surge here in louisiana, that our team members, while committed and wanting to do an excellent job are tired. And that is an impact as we talk about how do you surge again and ask people to do more and try to staff more. Its a real significant problem. Are you noticing anything different in Covid Patients this time . Are they getting it from a different way . You noted this is the third surge that youve had to deal with. Is it are people catching it a different way . Is there anything different about this surge on the patient side of things . Yeah, our first surge march and april had a significant proportion of patients in nursing facilities and in congregate settings. This time our surge is almost all Community Spread, and so the difference is the Patient Population is really Community Interaction and Community Spread as opposed to those large areas where people were grouped together where we knew they could have a large outbreak such as nursing home versus living facilities. For us, over 90 of our cases right now are Community Spread. And so thats why we feel like its such a big deal from a preventative measure perspective because you in the community are helping to prevent other communities from going through this if you can do the things like social distancing and wearing a mask. You literally now, as a person in the United States, as a citizen of louisiana, are a Health Care Provider but your job is Preventative Care medicine as opposed to us, which is treatment. You are elite outpatient providers as public citizens. Do you get the sense that the folks youre seeing on this surge or maybe folks that werent wearing a mask all the time or didnt quite believe in the lethality of this and now, unfortunately, now see it . Yeah, there is no doubt that the ability to not hold pretty strictly to things like masking and social distancing are primary drivers of people coming to the hospital. We tend not to focus on that from a Health Care Provider because for all of us, they are all sick and they all will get excellent care. Having said that, we do recognize the stress on us as a Community Related to the reluctance to do what we believe are basic preventative measures and weve been trying to facilitate both our availability and the idea that its the right thing to do. Dr. Christopher thomas, hang in there. Really appreciate you sharing your perspective with us and your expertise and keep fighting the good fight, sir. Thank you, chuck. I now want to bring in the mayor of albuquerque, mayor tim keller. Ive got to ask you this. Youre out of icu beds. Your capacity the capacity issue is over 100 . What do you do now . Well, were looking at a couple of aspects. Firstly, we do have an ability to scale a little bit with respect to emergency facilities. And, of course, looking unfortunately at crisis level triage of care. And so this is just where were at right now in albuquerque. Very unfortunately. The city is also ready to basically convert anything into hospital or care space. Our limiting factor is Health Care Workers. You know, as weve heard, they are fatigued, theyre working very hard, and were maxed out. Our challenge has been on getting that workforce as opposed to getting the physical space. And so were so we are recruiting heavily retired Health Care Workers and we have retired medical care and were also trying to bring in folks from other states. So that is in process. Weve had some success with that. But weve also just got to drop the spread, right . The other side of the equation is we have to create more space in our existing system. And thats why we are moving heavily around areas like enforcement. So weve cross deputized multiple departments. Firefighters and code enforcement. We have a much higher compliance rate for mass groups, mass gatherings, even essential things like grocery shopping. Thats what weve been focusing on both sides of that equation. What kind of decision what goes into the decision to start rationing care . Are you involved in that decision . Do you work with the various hospitals in albuquerque about that decision . Is this something your Public Health officials are going to be recommending . Where are you on this . So as the largest city in about 1,000 square miles we have most of the major hospitals in the state. And so we i enemy touam in t the heads of those hospitals. Those kinds of decisions we really leave to the experts. So its our state department of health in coordination with the Hospital System to develop a criteria to go through how that actually would work and we feel that it should be in the hands of medical experts, not in the hands of politicians. You know, its interesting you talked about how much youre trying to enforce some of these Public Health requirements, and weve seen other cities and other mayors and Governors Institute mandates but not enforce them saying its too hard to enforce. Youve decided to enforce. Would you say its too hard to enforce or if you really want to do it, you can . Well, i would say that its you cant enforce your way out. Unfortunately just where were at as citizenry and in america, theres always people who arent going to do certain things. But we i would say you can have heavy success if you use the institutions where people are going to. So it is working with churches. Its working with grocery stores, shopping malls, the restaurants. But when i say working with, i mean enforcement through them. We basically say if you violate that order, and there are people in your establishment without masks and so forth, theyll close you down. And i think also trying to have compliance, some by civilians, not by Law Enforcement or police officers, has also gone a long way to people just saying, okay, ill be in compliance. Instead of really escalating a situation. So those are things that are much more doable if theyre handled in that manner. Look, youre a state and a city that has taken that has taken more aggressive action than some of the neighboring frankly, your two neighboring states to the east and the west. And yet, obviously, you havent been able to protect from the virus. How would you say its spreading right now in albuquerque . Do you have an idea . Is it people not mask . Is it the small events, or is there Something Else . I would echo what the doctor from baton rouge said. We basically know that its Community Spread. And we have a dynamic with our rural state and an urban center and what happens is, we have big families in new mexico, and we often have family all around the state and in colorado and arizona and texas. But we typically do get together on the weekends. Its a in albuquerque. Thats been a dynamic for shopping or health care since before the pandemic. Our population swells during the weekend. So thats certainly increasing spread and making it harder in the city of albuquerque. And you have had little luck trying to get people to perhaps not come to albuquerque on the weekends . Well, for some of them, its in some ways, its not a choice, especially because, you know, we have a lot of, like my grandmother needs health care or i do my shopping literally in much of the shopping is done in albuquerque. So there is this notion that this concept of staying home is a luxury. Not everyone can do it, especially in new mexico. So i think we try and pair is with support. When you do come in, its gotten to the point where im handing checks into peoples car windows for business support. If youre immigrant and couldnt get other funding. Were handing checks to people when they come into town. Thats what leadership is right now in this crisis. Mayor tim keller, albuquerque, new mexico, thanks for coming on and sharing your perspective. Good to have you on. Thank you. Good to be with you. As weve said, an fda meeting is under way right this instant to decide whether to recommend the approval of the pfizer coronavirus vaccine, something both canada and the uk have done. 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And since they are on the carrier rated 1 in customer satisfation, they live happily ever after. Again, again xfinity mobile. Your wireless. Your rules. Your way to stay closer together. Click, call, or visit an xfinity store today. Welcome back. In the midst of this raging crisis in this country, President Trumps claims that the election was stolen from him are rnd mining the fundamentals of our democracy. The courts have not found a signal instance of widespread fraud in this election, nowhere, anywhere yet any of kind. In the late lost the white house is touting is seeking to overturn Election Results in four battleground states. And that lawsuit in a word is crazy. But understand how truly ludicrous it is, thats peel back the levels of crazy at play here. First off, its crazy that this lawsuit was filed in the first place. Texas attorney general ken paxton is asking the Supreme Court to delay mondays meeting of president ial electors in georgia, michigan, pennsylvania and wisconsin. Attempting to nullify millions of votes. Thats unconstitutional. Also the state of texas does not have a legal right to challenge how other states conduct their elections. Thats not how the law works. Second, its not just crazy, but its downright delusional the president is touting and joining the texas suit. Hes joining as an private citizen, not as the sitting president. With a legal filing that somehow cites a rasmussen poll and incorrectly claims that no president ial candidate has won both florida and ohio but lost the overall election. Ask Richard Nixon about the 1960 election. Hed beg to differ. It also turns from crazy and delusional to dangerous. That other republicans, elected ones, chief Law Enforcement officers, mind you, are backing this baseless lawsuit. Attorneys general in 17 states sine e signed an amicus brief in support of this suit. They somehow find this crazy lawsuit drawn up by ken paxton who may or may not be shopping for a pardon. They thought this was worthy. By the way, all these states were carried by President Trump in november that these attorneys general represent. It also has the backing of the two Georgia Republican senators on the ballot in next months runoff elec