More than 3,000 coronavirus deaths again. 3,000 deaths reported overnight. Record hospitalizations. Now, a second vaccine could be on the way. An Fda Committee meets tomorrow to consider emergency use authorization from modernas coronavirus vaccine. Joining me now is Admiral Brett Giroir assistant secretary of health at the department of health and human services. Admiral, thank you so much for being with us this morning. How confident are you that we will have a second authorized vaccine in the next few days, and what impact will that have . So thank you for having me on. The data from the Moderna Vaccine looks extremely good. I have, of course, reviewed all the packets that were made public and the public can look at them, and were looking at about a 95 efficacy on this vaccine. 100 at preventing severe illness. It works across the age spectrum from the 18 to 35yearold all the way into the elderly, and, again, the side effects are very mild. Its just your immune system working like a sore arm like you heard on the segment beforehand. I am very confident that that vaccine will receive authorization and will add, you know, tens of millions of doses to the American Public within a very short period of time. When will these vaccines, the pfizer and Moderna Vaccine, make a dent in what is a horrifying rate of deaths right now . So there are really two levels and its really a great question. Ultimately we immunize for herd immunity and that will happen when 70 or 80 of the American People have immunity against covid. Thats when you really see the pandemic dissipate and it will go away, we will end the pandemic. Right now were really immunizing for impact and what i mean by that is even though were immunizing only a few Million People to start, our most vulnerable. So if we can prevent covid in nursing homes, we know we can lower the death rate dramatically and we can also lower the hospitalization rate dramatically. Of course, its vital to protect our Health Care Workers because they are there for us, they are on the front line. We are immunizing for impact now, we will start seeing that almost immediately, but herd immunity when the pandemic really ends and depose away thats not until the late spring, early summer. As i noted more than 3,000 deaths reported overnight, 112,000 hospitalizations, which is a very troubling figure. We are a week before christmas, admiral. What do americans need to brace themselves for over the next few weeks in terms of these figures . So there are many parts of the country that are in different phases of this. What were seeing right now, which is very positive, is the midwest really starting in minnesota and the dakotas, michigan, throughout the midwest have actually turned the corner. Their rates of infection are going down, they have had several days and up to a week of decreases, but what youre seeing that the coasts are still on a dramatic rise. Although were very positive about the vaccine, it is absolutely imperative that we continue our work to wear masks, to avoid crowded spaces, to physically distance, to avoid travel if you can because until the vaccine gets widespread this is still our best measures to flatten the curve and save lives. We can save tens of thousands of lives just by doing these simple things. Thats how we bring the infections down, we bring the infections down, hospitalizations will go down and deaths will go down. Again, we have hope in the midwest right now, theyve turned the corner, but the coasts are still problematic. More than 5,000 body bags just ordered by the state of california, refrigeration trucks for make shift morgues. You are passionate about what people should and should not do before thanksgiving. Here is your chance to tell people what they need to know before christmas, admiral. Go ahead. What people need to know is we are still at a dangerous and critical part of this pandemic and tens of thousands of american lives are at stake. Really, every week. And we can flatten the curve. Please listen to the Public Health messages. Masks do work. They really do work to protect you and to protect others. Avoid crowded spaces, whether thats a bar or a house party of 100 people, you cant do it. This is a setup for spread. The end of the pandemic is in sight. It really is with these vaccines and probably more to come in january, but until we get a few more months down the road, do your best. Save lives. Save american lives, save global lives just by doing these simple measures. If you do that we are going to be in really good shape, but if you dont were going to have thousands of more casualties in this country that we can avoid. So thanks for this opportunity. Very simply traveling and gathering for christmas, your view . You know, im not scrooge here. I think if you can avoid traveling thats a good measure. If you are going to travel, there are many recommendations to keep you safer. Mask wearing during traveling, make sure if you are in airports or bus station toss avoid touched surfaces and to really bring hand sanitizer. When you gather at home try to decrease the amount of gathering that are there and if you are going to have a gather, maintain some distance. Yes, its okay to wear a mask inside, particularly if you have vulnerable, have good ventilation, all these things make you safer. The cdc. Gov website has all these suggestions for you. Avoid travel if you can. If you cant there are many ways to make it safer. As i said before, i come from a cajun family, we normally have ten people in the kitchen for six hours. Dont do that. Thats not a good idea, maybe you cook at home and bring it. Make better choices and we can flatten the curve. Youve been working for so long to flatten the pandemic and keep people safe. Im curious how it feels to you when you hear people, leaders, still out there denying that this pandemic exists. I want to play some sound from congressmanelect bob good from virginia a few days ago. Listen to this. This looks like a group of people that gets that this is a phoney pandemic. Its a serious virus, but its a virus, its not a pandemic. Its not a pandemic, its a phoney pandemic, admiral. How does that make you feel . What do you say to leaders who make those claims . Well, i dont know anything about the person you just played, but of course its a pandemic. Theres a definition of a pandemic and that is a virus that is raging across the world and this clearly is doing that and it has done that. We have hundreds of thousands of dead americans, we will have millions of people around the world. This is not phoney, this is not fake. It is serious. We are still in a dangerous and critical time. We are going to beat this because we have we have vaccines and that is the way to put the nail in the coffin for this virus, but until then we have to take it with utmost seriousness because, again, tens of thousands of americans can either live or die depending on what we do to protect them until the vaccine gets widespread. So its real, its serious, its what i live, breathe, think, dream, every single day and all of us in america need to be that focused in order to save lives. That guy is going to be a congressman in a few weeks. Thats a soon to be member of congress saying that. I will be happy to supply him Technical Assistance. Sounds like he might need more than Technical Assistance, admiral, but i appreciate your diplomacy there. Listen, in your wheelhouse is testing, to be sure, and we learned overnight that the fda has green lit the use and sale of this home test, 100 home test, you get the test, take it at home, analyze it at home, get your results at home, its an antigen test its called the alum test. What are your hopes for this and how soon will this be widely available for americans . So weve been working on this and other similar tests for the entire teime, this didnt happe overnight. Weve done investment in march and june and have been following the company and prepared to help them scale t its going to be available in january, but only in relatively small quantities, about 3 million per month. With he hope to really increase that. Youre going to hear more good news from the fda very soon about other home tests that are not exactly the over the counter type, but are in the same ballpark. We are now reaping the investments of being able to bring these tests into the home. It was a major, major step forward with the buy next cards of which we have distributed almost 85 million now, this is the rapid cardbased test, this is the next iteration. You will see more and more tests get authorized and them ramping up very soon in the early part of the year, which is, you know, its not soon enough, but it is as fast as physically possible and we are proud of alum and some of the other companies you will hear about, another one starting today. I have to let you go, admiral. When are you scheduled to get the vaccine . I dont know. You know, im not im not a front line worker anymore, im an intensive care physician but im not treating patients and im not a nursing home resident at least yet so i will wait my turn, but as soon as my turn comes up i will definitely be getting it as will everyone in my family. Admiral giroir, we appreciate you being with us this morning. Thank you for what youve done and thank you for your promised Technical Assistance which in some cases might mean slapping people on the head. Thank you for your time. Joining us now is cnn chief medical correspondent dr. Sanjay gupta. If you would like to react to admiral giroir and what he told john there. You know, i think the whole question about testing, we are talking a lot about vaccines, but testing has been an issue since the very beginning. We have not been adequately testing. You remember the roadmap to recovery at the Harvard School of Public Health had put out at one point they said we should be doing 20 million tests a day in this country to really get to that path to recovery because you can get tested, people have a better idea of whether or not they are contagious, stay home. By the end of january we are calculating the numbers perhaps 70 million tests per week. So its good, its freight news that these other tests are coming online. We are in december of this year now, 11 months after this. You know, it will still always be a question for me, i think for a lot of people, why we did not lean more into testing. There was these antigenbased tests, one had been authorized in may, why werent those produced in larger numbers that people could have tests in their homes . Every day or at least, you know, frequently people could be tested within their own homes. We still havent gotten there. Sounds like we will get there, at the same time the vaccines will roll out, which is, again, good news, but, you know, its all the ways this could have gone differently. Sanjay, one of the things admiral giroir said and i think we have the map so people can see it, in terms of the number of new daily cases with he see patterns about where were seeing more cases and in some cases where were seeing fewer. For the first time in a while theres green on this map which means week to week were seeing a drop in new cases. He brought up the midwest, places like ohio, michigan, wisconsin, minnesota which had been to hard hit were seeing a drop in new cases. Everywhere in page is static, which is of concern because there are major population centers. You see, california, arizona, the southeast as well, theyre seeing a rise, sometimes a steep rise in new cases. What should we make of this map . Will this lead to a reduction in cases overall or will it balance itself out and the cases will still go up . Im worried about the latter, john. When you see these numbers drop a little bit from very high numbers where theyve been, obviously its good, you want the numbers to be going in the right direction, but if theyre dropping from high levels, you know, obviously thats still of concern. Nothing about the virus has changed. Its still contagious. What you see in some of these areas they get very bad, they almost red line and then they have to enact measures again. So in michigan, for example, you know, sort of middle of november they enacted these some of these mandates back into place again because they recognized what was happening and it does make an impact. I think its a question at this point for places starting to look around their community and seeing whats happening in the hospitals, at what point do they act . Again t doesnt mean that they have to go into some sort of shutdown mode, but at what point do they act in terms of mask mandates, reducing large public gatherings and also, you know, some businesses that require people to be indoors without masks such as restaurants and bars, do you limit maximum occupancy there . Do you wait until youre redlining and hospitals are really full or do you take some of those measures preventively. Secretary azar sort of said this the other day as well, i dont want to be scrooge here, i want to be reasonable, but its tough. Everybody wants to be reasonable, but, you know, with err in the middle of a pandemic, we know that these home gatherings are one of the greatest sources of increased spread and increased viral dynamics. This is the year to not do those things, as opposed to trying to tell people here is how you do it as safely as possible because its tough when you have that much virus the likelihood youre going to come in contact with somebody who has the virus inside without a mask on is increasingly high in just about every place in the country. Okay. Sanjay gupta, thank you very much for all the information. So Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell finally admitting that joe biden will be the next president and telling his Senate Colleagues not to challenge the results from here on out. President trump has some select words for mcconnell as a result. Thats next. Except work. Why is that . Is it because people love filling out forms . 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That was a sign. That was a sign. When he ducks his head down and says he cant hear you. And also when you do the tapping your ear. Come in. Come in. Thats a sign. Well, we had hoped to talk to him about everything thats happening between trump and mcconnell. John harwood back with us, thank goodness, john. What can you tell us about President Trump turning on Mitch Mcconnell and what it means and what it means for mcconnells ability to keep senators in line . Reporter john, i think given the pathologies of donald trump and of the republican party, its not a bad outcome for the country. It was way belated, much of the party and the white house is playing fantasy football with the results of the election, but when the Electoral College smacked them in the face earlier this week, Mitch Mcconnell said, enough, said so on the senate floor. He also asked his colleagues in the interest of party, the health of the party, to call off shenanigans on january 6th when the congress is supposed to certify the results. He gave the white house a heads up that he was going to do this. He cushioned the blow as bill barr did in his Resignation Letter with all sorts of flattery for the president. As a result the president s rebuke of mcconnell on twitter was fairly mild, and we seem to be heading toward a multihundred billion dollar deal on covid relief, which is desperately needed as people look to the expiration of unemployment benefits, eviction protections, business failures, all of that sort of thing. So all that is positive, better than it could have been. Not healthy for the country that the bar is set that low, but thats where we are. You make such a good point, john. It was the president s rebuke was relatively mild, more mild than congressman mo brooks who is still planning to fight the Electoral College it sounds like. I just want to read it because i think the president is missing some fundamental math in his tweet. He says, mitch, 75 million votes, a record for a sitting president by a lot. Too soon to give up. Republican party must finally learn to fight. People are angry. 75 million votes, that is impressive. Not as impressive as what joe biden got in a recordsetting 81 million. He doesnt mention that part, strangely. Reporter well, exactly. Joe biden beat him by 7 million popular votes, by 74 million electoral votes. Look, it has to be said, if the president really believes that he won this election, hes crazy. He could be just grifting, using these phoney claims to extract money from his base, and hes extracted about 200 million from them so far, but, again, if the president isnt all there, the easing of the way toward january 20th, i notice he retweeted a breitbart story quoting franklin graham, Billy Grahams son, the christian leader, saying that he wished donald trump and Melania Trump well in the next phase of their life. That could signal the beginning of some acceptance there. Yeah, the Trump Campaign sent out an email to supporters basically asking do you want him to run in 2024 . So youre starting to see some of this stuff on the margins there. Reporter exactly. Secretary of state mike pompeo threw a big party well, it was supposed to be a big party. He invited 900 people. How did that turn out for him . Reporter not too well. You had Something Like 70 people rsvp and fewer than that showed up. The Washington Post reported. Theres no wonder that they didnt show up because its dangerous but the fact that mike pompeo would want to hold this party is consistent with the politics of the administration which has tried to down play the pandemic and just the heedlessness of the administration about their own Public Health. Thats why the president himself, members of his family, many of his top aides have all gotten the coronavirus. Theyve been fortunate to get goldplated treatment, which is not available to the average american, and so fortunately theyve survived and come out okay on the other side of covid, but that doesnt mean they are not completely reckless in how theyve approached this and it appears that many of the families of state Department Diplomats are a little smarter than the Trump Administration about whats safe and whats not safe. John harwood, thank you very much for being with us, perseverance through all the technical difficulties. Thanks so much. So we are getting new reporting just in about a possible key deal on relief. One of the senators who has been in the middle of the negotiations joins us next. If you have moderate to severe psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, Little Things can become your big moment. Thats why theres otezla. Otezla is not an injection or a cream. Its a pill that treats differently. For psoriasis, 75 clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. For psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. And the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. Dont use if youre allergic to otezla. It may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. Otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. Tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. Some people taking otezla reported weight loss. Your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. Upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. Tell your doctor about your medicines and if youre pregnant or planning to be. Otezla. Show more of you. Negotiations will resume this morning on capitol hill on hundreds of billions of dollars in much needed economic relief. Leaders on both sides say they are close to making a deal. How close . Lets ask democratic senator joe manchin, he is one of the people working on a bipartisan compromise bill. Good morning, senator. Good morning, alisyn, how are you . How close are you . Well, i think its going to be done. I think were going to i hit the deadline and do it and hopefully have it done by friday. Let me show you the size of what were dealing with. This is what our Bipartisan Group worked on. About 600 pages. Were very happy to be contributing, setting the guidelines of how this bill will be put together, im sure the language that weve worked on for a long period of time is being used as a basis to work off of. And this will help accelerate everything to get it done. Because the legislative language in this bill here, the legislative language is really what takes time to come back from the legislative bill drafters and thats been done so we appreciate that. And i appreciate that show and tell, that is actually very helpful for the viewers to see all of the thats what were dealing with. I dont know how you can lift that. But, i mean, is it possible i know you said by friday, thats good news, but it sounded like you worked late last night. Is it possible it happening today . Basically now putting it all together because they make modifications, they basically take a guideline or baseline and we were able to break the gridlock. The gridlock was how much money. The republicans were stuck in the 500 billion range, we knew that was not enough and the democrats were wanting a minimum of 1. 2, 1. 3, and we all know by economic reports we needed that much if not more but that wasnt to be had. Whats the dollar figure you have come out with. I think its going to be in the 090 billion range, 908. They might change things around. State and local might not fit in this time because of the liability. Okay. But hold on, sorry to interrupt. Let me just asking, 908 is that separate nood two different bills. No, it will be one bill. It will be one major piece of legislation at least this size, okay . But no state and local municipalities getting aid in that one . Thats what im hearing now. We are not at the table right now. Its basically the four corners working off of what weve had, looking at what they can incorporate in or work off of. So what they actually come up well see. Im understanding that it could be maybe some direct payments in lieu of state and local. What would those look like, the direct payments . Because that was a big sticking point. Obviously the progressives in the house want that. So how much . That i dont know. I cant speak to that. I know it wouldnt be more than 1,200 but i think it will be in the probably 500, 600 range to help through these most difficult times. That would be my guess. I have no knowledge of this whatsoever. Im telling you i think and this is the conversations weve been hearing for the last day or so. So theyre looking for a pathway forward. That might have been the pathway. We all wanted to do that. We just knew we couldnt get anybody to agree above the 900 and we didnt want to go below the 090. That was the figure we knew would stimulate this economy in an emergency situation and thats what were in right now, an emergency up through the First Quarter which will be april 1 of 2021. For sure. Will this bill as you understand it include money for Vaccine Distribution . Absolutely. I think they might have increased that, too. We had 16 billion and they might need more than that. There wont be any problem getting the money we need for vaccines so people will have the vaccine they need to protect themselves and get our economy moving and get their lives back to nor normal. It sounds like youre hopeful that this will happen this week. Most certainly. I knew when we broke the log jam i felt good about that because every one of the people that worked on it, and we had 15, 20 people from democrats and republicans, from the house and to the senate that all agreed on what we put together, the 748 and then we got two tranches and basically they could do what they wanted, either incorporate two, dom of come up with something different, but the 900 figure took us two weeks to negotiate back and forth to get to the 908 figure. Do you wish in retrospect that democrats had worked with what President Trump offered back on october 10th which was the 1. 8 trillion . Oh, hindsight being 20 20 absolutely. Im always looking for that deal. Thats what people expect us to do, you have to compromise to make a deal. If you want to hold your position, then basically you get nothing done. Weve seen the stalemate. Thats why im so hopeful when joe biden is our president working with the congress and the senate that he knows so well that he understands what we have to give and take a little bit to make things happen. Thats going to be interesting. Its going to be exciting. And on that front, as you know, Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell just yesterday finally acknowledged president elect bidens win. What did you think of that time sng. I thought it was great. I thought it was great. Its never too late. It needs to be done and should have been done sooner, but i appreciate the pressure they are under. You cant sit in hindsight and say they should have done this, this, and this. I would have done the same we did as democrats in 2016 thinking that Hillary Clinton would never lose to donald trump but graciously we moofd on. I want all the supporters of donald trump to understand this is democracy, the rule of law is who we are and its time to move on and come together. You should always want your president where you voted for them or not, whether its the person you would have chosen or the political party, you want them to succeed. If they succeed we succeed. West virginia will do well if this president does well. We will have a lot of challenges if they dont do well. Why dont we all Work Together so we can all benefit from it. Do you think that your fellow well, the republicans in the senate will heed his advice that Mitch Mcconnell gave on that behind the scenes Conference Call basically to stop any argument any more and not join in with the House Republicans who may try to challenge it on january 6 . Well, the house is a little different than the senate. Our Founding Fathers knew it would be different, they intended it to be different. If our house if our Senate Republicans can give some leadership and calm down the House Republicans and say, come on, we are all on the same team. Theres 535 of us rooting for the United States of america and supporting the United States of america for the same goals, that we can help help our constituents have a better quality of life and defend our country and keep us free and open as weve been. We all have the same goal, everybody has a different way of getting to it, but im hoping that they rise the patriotism rises above the political rancoring that going on. These are tired of this. Weve getting a little reprieve now, we dont see the animosity coming in as it has through the tweets and attacking people that dont agree, thats not who we are. Its never who weve been and it cant be who were going to be. Its time to get back to a little bit more normal. It might not be as exciting, you all might not have as much news to report on by a minute by minute basis, but it will be something we can accomplish and we all can be proud of. Senator manchin, what i would do for a slow news day. Thank you very much for all of the information of this. It sounds like soon to be breaking news. We really appreciate it. Yeah. Take a deep breath, alisyn, and enjoy the calm. Thank you for that moment of zen. Thank you. Talk to you soon. Byebye. It could be the biggest snowstorm to slam the northeast in years. More than a foot of snow is expected and chad myers has our forecast next. Adam, emily and then. S uh um. Its shiori. Shori. Thank you, thats great. Shiori. I really love it. The only thing a disaster cant destroy is hope. Donate now at redcross. Org its the things that matter family. Health. Thats it. We found help at covered california. Now we have a plan we can afford. Enroll now at coveredca. Com its the things that matter family. Health. Thats it. We found help at covered california. Now we have a plan we can afford. Enroll now at coveredca. Com we are on the verge of a big winter storm here in the northeast, 70 Million People in the path of this thing. Lets get the latest look at the forecast, cnn meteorologist chad myers here with that. Chad, what are you seeing . John, it is starting, already getting snow out into virginia, ice into the carolinas. Its been snowing all night in indianapolis and even into cincinnati. There is the storm right now, snowing across parts of upstate new york, eventually later on today snowing in ohio, already seeing the white here into parts of virginia. 70 Million People as you said under some type of advisory. Everywhere thats purple here is a foot of snow or more. Im going to get back to this graphic, but just bear with me. 1 to 3, 1 to 4 down across the south. Why . Because it mixes with sleet and freezing rain. Thats probably not better than snow. Sleet makes noise when it hits your wind he dough, freezing rain just freezes when it hits the ground, 4 to 8 around philadelphia, 8 to 12 around new york city, a little bit more back to the north and west. This is the problem right now that i see. You see there is a lot of snow here, no snow here, but theres ice in the middle and thats the ground right there around i95. By soon the snow doesnt get to philadelphia yet, by 4 00 its trying to snow in new york city, trying. You can look at the radar on your app, on your phone and go it should be snowing but its not. The air is too dry to snow just yet but the air will fill in, the humidity will come up and the snow will hit the ground. By 8 00 snowing he have hill. By 2 00 a. M. Maybe even thundersnow in some spots across parts of connecticut, massachusetts, all the way back down towards new york city. And then by 8 00, by this time tomorrow its already done for new york city. Tapering off. Not for boston, though. You dont get out of this until about 4 00 tomorrow afternoon. Not only will there be snow, there will be wind, some wind gusts over 60 miles per hour. There you see nantucket 3 00 in the morning coming up, 48 miles per hour. So this purple is not pleasant when theres snow on the ground blowing it around and maybe even blowing some trees into power lines. There certainly to be Power Outages with this. Now back to the map as i told you, new york city probably 10 to 14, maybe 16, well see. Boston 8 to 12, later it takes longer for it to get to boston. Philadelphia 6 to 10, less in camden, more in like Allegheny County or back out toward the west and certainly more into lancaster. You get into d. C. 1 to 3, the problem in d. C. Is the ice. Back to you guys. Chad, i dont know whats worse, the heavy winds, ice or thundersnow. It all sounds slightly apocalypt apocalyptic. Thank you for keeping an eye on that. Now to this disturbing story out of texas this morning, a former Houston Police captain arrested and charged with carrying out an armed vigilante traffic stop after President Trumps bogus claims of voter fraud. Cnns ed lavandera is live in texas with more. This is such a disturbing story, ed. What do we know . Good morning, alisyn. It is a shocking story. In a dangerous example of what can happen when powerful politicians continue banging the drum beat of baseless made up voter fraud accusations and in a dangerous rhetoric that can have real life consequences. Reporter a former Houston Police captain is now charged with assaulting a man with a deadly weapon. The former officer suspected the victim of being an Election Fraud mastermind. Authorities say mark Anthony Aguire who was part of a private Citizens Group trying to investigate still unsubstantiated 2020 Election Fraud claims ran an air conditioning repairman off the road and pointed a gun at him two weeks before the election. Harris County District attorney kim ogg says he crossed the line from dirty politics to commission of a Violent Crime and we are lucky no one was killed. His attorney disagrees. I believe its a political prosecution. Reporter prosecutors say he was hired by the conservative Group Liberty center for god and country to investigate allegations of voter fraud. The group paid him more than 266,000, prosecutors say. His company definitely worked for the organization. With respect to what happened regarding the incident in question, not very familiar with the details of that yet, but we will be looking into it. Reporter according to Court Documents aguire said he had been certificate veiling the repairman for four days thinking he was hiding 750,000 fraudulent ballots in his truck. According to the arrest affidavit aguire thought the repairman was using hispanic children to sign the ballots because the childrens fingerprints would not appear in any database. There is no evidence this occurred. In a statement Harris County prosecutors said on october 19th aguire ran his suv into the repairmans truck and apparently pointed his gun at him and fosted him to the ground and put his knee on the mans back. It said part of the incident was captured on a police body camera. In the repairmans truck only tools and air conditioning parts were found, no ballots. Houston Police Called the allegations of voter fraud unfounded. Agguires attorney said his client did not initiate the confrontation. He was working and investigating voter fraud. It was an accident. They were surveilling a vehicle. There was an accident and then a member of the car got out and rushed toward him and thats where the confrontation took place. Reporter the former Houston Police officer is being held on 30,000 bond in jail in Harris County. He could face up to 20 years in prison if hes convicted. Its important to point out that he is connected to this wealthy republican donor there in the houston area that was responsible in that effort, if you might remember, to overturn almost 130,000 ballots that were cast in Harris County during the early voting period, it was during that period of those drivethru ballots and those drivethru voting locations that were set up. This officer is connected to the man that was pushing that effort to overturn those ballots. Alisyn . The efforts are getting crazier and more desperate and turning violent. We just see how that progression happening. Ed, thank you very much for all of that reporting. Okay. Back to coronavirus. Up next, dr. Sanjay gupta will answer some of your vaccine questions. Tired of overpaying for your prescriptions . Try optum perks. Its a new way to save up to 80 . And everyone can do it. Its from optum, a Health Care Company thats trusted by millions of people. You dont have to sign up for anything. Just go to optumperks. Com. And get a coupon to use at your pharmacy. Thats it. I opted in. I opted in. You can, too. Opt in and save big today. Here is to your health. Many of you, many of us have a lot of questions about coronavirus vaccines. Luckily, we know someone who has some answers, dr. Sanjay gupta back with us now. Sanjay, andrew from arizona writes, what will be the impact of the covid19 vaccine on the number of confirmed daily cases Going Forward . When will we likely see a meaningful change in daily cases . Its interesting, i just recently asked that question of Admiral Brett Giroir. If andrew is looking for a new job he can do mine. If you look at the models overall theres sort of a plateau and hopefully a decrease in the overall trajectory of new cases by end of january, early sort of february time frame. That takes into account less about the vaccine and more that states once they hit certain numbers of new people being infected that they will start to implement some sort of mitigation measure, whether it be masks or shutting down certain indoor locations. As far as the vaccine itself, its interesting. Its likely to have impact on death rates first because the more Vulnerable People are being vaccinated first which makes sense, then hospitalizations and then case rates. So its almost going backwards in terms of the impact of the vaccine. You know, people say once you get to 30 vaccination you will start to see some impact, but its really this herd immunity number that we keep talking about, 70 , 80 of the country being vaccinated which they anticipate if everything goes well sort of end of spring, you know, sort of summertime sometime, it depends on how many vaccines actually come on line. But its happening and we should see impact sort of along that calendar. Okay. This one comes from john in texas. Why would someone who has had the virus and recovered and thus has some level of antibodies need the same two had the shon regimen than a person who has not had the virus need . Its a great question. And the point is that if youve had the natural infection in a sense you become immunized for at least a period of time. Your body is likely making antibodies or has made antibodies, these proteins that can help fight the virus. The issue really is that we dont know how long the immunity lasts in people who have had natural infection. We dont even know how long it lasts in people who have been vaccinated, but part of the idea of the vaccine, you get the prime shot and then you get a boost shot. The goal and the hope is that that sort of immunity will be longer lasting and stronger as well. So, you know, at some point people who have been naturally infected their immunity will likely wane, the vaccine should give them protection for a longer and stronger time. Laura writes i had a strong reaction to penicillin years ago. Im 62 and this happened only once, will i believe able to take the Pfizer Vaccine or do i need to take a different one . I will preface by saying, laura, we are all learning in realtime here. This became an issue because of what happened in the United Kingdom there were two Health Care Workers with previous history of strong allergies, Strong Enough that they carried epipens who had a reaction to this vaccine. They recovered and had no longerlasting issues, but that was what sort of has prompted this discussion. Theres sort of two points, one is that if you look at the trials from pfizer and moderna, they excluded people with a history of severe allergic reactions in the past and they did not find people had significant allergic reactions during the trial. So for whatever thats worth. I asked dr. Fauci about this specifically and what he said is that people who have had strong allergic reactions certainly flag that and you have a discussion because your health care person or whoever is helping administer the shots may want to know exactly what your allergic reaction was, did you feel tightness in the chest . Did you have significant rash or flushing on your skin . Based on that make a recommendation. You may be monitored longer, 30 minutes instead of 15 minutes, you will be in a situation where epinephrine is available if you need it, some people may get pretreated with benadryl and some people may be told not to get the vaccine but its likely to be on a casebycase basis. Okay. Sanjay, very good to know. Thank you very much for all of the information. You got t thank you. Time for the good stuff. A North Carolina man going all out for his Christmas Decorations turning his home into a Winter Wonderland for local families. Boyd chapman says he wanted to give families something interactive which includes a mailbox for letters to santa, a selfie sleigh, a candy cane ring toss and a snowman bowl alley. Its great to see all the families out here. It gives them an opportunity to do something during the holiday, see santa claus, mail a letter, have some fun outside. Its just an opportunity for families to really spend some time together and get out of the house in a way they havent been able to. That is so generous. Chapman also put up a very special Christmas Tree where people can hang their hopes and wishes for the new year. Thats beautiful. How fast can we get to North Carolina to participate . Cnns coverage continues right after this. Vicks vapopatch. Easy to wear with sosoothing vicks vapors for her, for you, for the whole family. Trusted soothing vapors, from vicks with the kids at home and less money coming in, thered be no way we could afford health insurance. My kids think im a superhero. But even superheroes need help sometimes. We found help at covered california. And not just us. 9 out of 10 people who enrolled got financial help. Covered california. This way to health insurance. Enroll now at coveredca. Com good morning, everyone, im poppy harlow. And im jim sciutto. This morning some potentially good news and we do like to bring you good news when its out there. This for millions of americans who perhaps like many of you desperate for financial help this holiday season. After months of stale mates and bickering congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle now express confidence they will reach an agreement on a much needed stimulus funding bill. Moments ago democratic senator joe manchin told cnn this bill could include direct payments to americans. We will have much more on that breaking news in just a moment, including details. But as lawmakers try to hammer out those details the vaccine rollout its full steam ahead. So many pictures le
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