It has never been higher. And this morning, there is every reason to believe that it will grow even more. Hospitalizations hit a new peak overnight. More than 247,000 new cases reported. That is a record as well. It is clear we are in the midst of a wave of death, even as vaccines begin to take effect. In just hours, an Fda Advisory Panel will review modernas vaccine, meaning we could have a second vaccine authorized within days. Overnight, a really interesting and promising development. It seems there is more of the Pfizer Vaccine in every vial than previously thought. Medical workers were able to get more doses out of each vial, which means more people will be able to get vaccinated more quickly. Also breaking this morning, french president Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for coronavirus after experiencing symptoms. His office says he will isolate for seven days. We have a live report from paris with more details, coming up. Back in the u. S. , the highest profile vaccination yet is scheduled for tomorrow. The white house confirms that Vice President mike pence plans to get his shot on camera tomorrow morning. Cnn has learned that president elect joe biden will get the vaccine next week. But we begin in San Francisco with cnns dan simon, where a stayathome order goes into effect tonight. Whats the situation on the ground, dan . Reporter alisyn, good morning. California reported an astounding 53,711 cases yesterday, shattering all previous records, although officials did note that it did include several days of backlog. Nonetheless, it is a remarkable figure. In the meantime, we are here at ucsf medical center, which received its first distribution of the vaccine yesterday. A hopeful development now taking place across the country. Here in california, a shout of hope, as nurses, doctors, and other essential Health Care Workers receive the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Im very proud to stand here and get the first vaccine here at ucla health, to also make sure to spread the message that this vaccine is important for everyone, but especially for those who are black, latino, and other people of color. Reporter but alongside the arrival of a vaccine, a dangerous surge with new cases, hospitalizations, and coronavirusrelated deaths in the state setting records, according to data from the California Department of public health. I want to be very clear. Our hospitals are under siege and our model shows no end in sight. The worst is still before us. Reporter the entire San Francisco barrier will be under the states stayathome order for the next three weeks beginning tomorrow. This after the regions intensive care bed availability plunged to just below 13 wednesday. Across the country, many hospitals are on the brink, with over 113,000 coronavirusrelated hospitalizations across the United States. A record. And as new cases continue to rise, Vaccine Distribution could, with time, help change the course of the crisis. In just hours, an fda panel is expected to discuss emergency use authorization for modernas candidate. If cleared, federal Officials Say around 6 million initial doses will be shipped. If moderna gets the eua, which i hope they will, you will by the time we get to the end of december will have 40 million doses for 20 Million People to be able to administer. Reporter while there have been few reported issues with vaccines administered so far, Alaska Health officials reported one Health Care Worker had an allergic reaction to pfizers vaccine tuesday, despite having no history of vaccine allergies. I was concerned about an anaphylactic reaction, so gave her the standard treatment of a dose of intermuscular epinephrine and she responded immediately. Reporter Health Experts say the occasional allergic reaction is to be expected and urge americans with allergies to check the vaccines product label. What we need to find out is what specifically seems to be inducing this allergic reaction. But remember, even for this patient or person whos never had an allergic reaction before, she would have been instructed to hang around for about 15 minutes, during which time usually if youre going to have a severe allergic reaction, you have one. While there is some optimism, alisyn, with the vaccine arriving in california, there is some grim news. The state reporting that it had to order an additional 5,000 body bags and 60 additional portable refrigeration units to deal with the rising death toll. Alisyn . Yeah, the death toll is very bad everywhere this morning, dan. Thank you very much. So the white house announcing that Vice President mike pence will be vaccinated tomorrow morning. Cnn can report that president elect joe biden plans to roll up his sleeves next week and both men plan to get their shots on camera. Cnns jessica dean is live for us in wilmington, delaware, with more. What do we know, jessica . Reporter good morning to you, alisyn. Youre exactly right. President elect joe biden expected to get his Covid Vaccine early next week and were told that any hesitation or that any delay on their part has nothing to do with hesitation, but rather with logistics of getting this all together and getting it on camera for people to see. Heres the president elect yesterda yesterday. Were working on that right now. I dont want to get ahead of the line, but i want to make sure that we demonstrate to the American People that it is safe to take. Theyre working on that plan right now. And when i do it, ill do it publicly and so you all can actually witness my getting it done. Reporter also right now, were getting some new reporting about bidens search for who will be his attorney general, which has turned out to be one of the more complicated decisions of this transition process. With several things hanging over the decision, and that includes possible investigations into President Trump, a federal probe into hunter biden, and also pressure from outside Interest Groups on biden and his transition team, affecting who they may choose. We know that it has been narrowed down to a list, a short list of contenders. And leading that list are alabama senator doug jones and also judge merrick garland, but were also told its not out of the question that biden would take another look at a former Deputy Attorney general, sally yates, or former massachusetts governor, deval patrick. But because the majority of the contenders are white, were told that many in bidens orbit would like to roll out other Justice Department nominations at the same time, including the Deputy Attorney general, and the head of their civil rights division, as well. But again, john, that decision for attorney general, not expected until next week at the earliest. Biden has said he wants to get his cabinet all announced by christmas, but time is ticking away. A week away at this point. Jessica dean, thanks so much for being there for us, keep us posted. This morning, there is a lot of snow out there, especially in the northeast. More snow in all cities than all of last winter. Cnns Brynn Gingras live near new yorks central park with the very latest, brynn. What are you seeing . How are you feeling . Reporter john, why are you laughing . You look so comfortable. Reporter listen, its still snowing out, but even worse than the snow coming down, its the wind. Were getting so many wind gusts that are really quite strong and theyre mixed with snow and that ice. So its really biting. But if we go and just check on with my trusty ruler here, you can see we got probably 6 to 8 inches right where we are here in central park in new york city. Ill defer to chad myers, hell let us know if we will actually reach that foot mark that they were expecting for this part of the northeast. But nevertheless, its caused major disruptions, this snowstorm. Weve seen more than a thousand flights that have had to be canceled. Theres one of those wind gusts. And major disruptions across mass transit. If people do have to venture out, you do have to be careful. I saw a lot of cars slipping and sliding on the roads as i was trying to get to this live shot. But if theres any Silver Lining in this pandemic, there is a lot of Remote Learning and a lot of people can work from home. Of course, thats not everybody. But that will hopefully help, but people will be able to clear these roads, make it a little bit safer and people will be able to get out and about as the snow dies down in a couple of hours. John . Ill take it, brynn, so john doesnt laugh at you again. Isnt is nigt nice when anchors their warm, cushy studios laugh at the reporters outside. Reporter jyeah, appreciate that, alisyn. If its any consolation, brynn, i had to walk from the hotel to here, i was like dorothy in the wizard of oz and almost didnt make it. And i was wearing high heels. Good thing you didnt have an umbrella. A lot of snow in a lot of places. The farther you go to the southeast, youre mixed in with a little bit of sleet. So that didnt pile up the inches of snow. And even if that sleet was only two or three hours, those were the important hours to really get the heaviest snow. Back up in towards binghamton and eaglesmere and pennsylvania. Really deep in the snow here. Parts of i80 completely shut down. Many roads arent even passable. Still more snow to come. Most of it between saratoga and killington, most towards rutland, these big purple areas here, still coming down. Maybe an inch of snow for new york city still to come before its all finally stopping here. But boston, youre still going to see at least a few more hours of this, like five more hours of this still coming down, heavy at times. And if you get farther north on up into parts of maine, thats where the heaviest snow is going to be. Probably still another foot of snow here, at least a foot in some spots, because its still going to be blowing with some wind off the ocean. Maybe a little bit of ocean effect going on. But get this, by the time we get to christmas eve, temperatures in new york city, they make a run at 60. Back to you guys in new york. Thats confusing. Thank you, chad, for keeping an eye on all of that. So coming up, a Surprising Development that could allow more people in the u. S. 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Breaking news this morning, the United States shattering every coronavirus record. 3,656 new deaths reported overnight. Thats a record. 113,000 hospitalized this morning. Thats a record. More than 247,000 new cases. Thats a record. Later today, an Fda Advisory Panel will review modernas vaccine, meaning we could have a second vaccine authorized and going in arms within days. Joining us now is dr. Carlos del rio, hes the executive associate dean at Emory University school of medicine and a contributor to the nih Moderna Vaccine trial. Dr. Del rio, thank you so much for being with us. As we see these records shattered, the new deaths, 3,600. Its hard to get your arms around it. And what makes it even worse is when you see the hospitalizations rising at the same time. Theres every reason to believe that it will continue to go up or at least not go down anytime soon. And i want to couple that with some news that we got from the White House Coronavirus task force, which put out a statement overnight saying, many states and local governments are not implementing the same policies that stem the tide of the summer surge. The White House Coronavirus task force says, were not doing what we need to do to stop this. So, how much worse can this get, and what will turn it around . John, i think it can get a lot worse, as were saying, were seeing an incredible surge, the hospitals are full, the icus are full to capacity at many places. This is very concerning and i absolutely agree with the White House Coronavirus task force, were just not seeing people seeing people do the implementation necessary to stem the tide of this virus right now. What we saw this summer, what europe has done, simply, were not doing it. Were simply saying, oh, well get the vaccine, but the vaccine is coming way too late for thousands of people who will die before get the vaccine. Dr. Del rio, i had naively, i guess, held out some hope earlier this week when the numbers came in from over the weekend, the numbers of death, and on monday, and they were lower than we had expected. They were in the, you know, 2,000 range. And i thought, i know that theyre always lower on the weekend and monday. And i thought, maybe we dodged the bullet. Maybe somehow the thanksgiving peak wasnt going to actually happen. And then today, to wake up to 3,656. I mean, thats higher than i think we had predicted of 3,000 deaths a day. And so when you say, it could get much worse, just what does that mean . Well, what it means is that, you know, transmissions are actively happening. And i think before the end of the year, we may be getting close to 4,000 deaths per day. The number of people getting coming down, the transmission of this virus is continuing. And as hospitals get busy, as hospitals get overwhelmed, simply the ability to care for people as well as we should simple y goes away and therefor the mortality goes up. I want to ask you about a really Interesting Development overnight. It turns out that there might be more of the vaccine in the vials, the Pfizer Vaccine, than was previously thought. And all of these centers that have been administering the vaccine are reporting saying, hey, when we finish giving people the five doses we thought were in there, weve got a little bit left in the vial. So finally the fda last night put out a statement saying, if you have enough to give someone a full dose, go ahead and do it. And this might mean theres a lot more vaccine out there, one or two doses maybe per vial. How could this happen, first of all . I mean, its a great, tfortuitos accident, i suppose. How could it happen and what are the implications . Im not sure how it happened, but obviously, at the time of the putting the liquid into the vials, it is not very frequent that a vaccine comes in a multivial like this. And i think the amount of fluid, the liquid you need for each vaccination, which is 0. 3 ehem r emeriles, is small, and you can easily make a mistake. But what pfizer was very clear, if you have 0. 1 in one vile, and 0. 2 in another, dont mix them. If you have enough in one vial, use it, but if you dont, dont use it. And theres also a cnn article i was reading about the monoclonal antibodies. That is the treatment that President Trump was able to get, as well as Chris Christie and ben carson. Thats what has saved live. I mean, giving people who are stick the antibodies saves lives. But you have to do it early, it turns out. I mean, i guess, you have the best outcome the earlier you do it. But not everybody goes to the hospital as early as they were able to. So it turns out monoclonal antibodies are in short supply, but its possible, according to the cnn report, that some states are not using all of their monoclonal antibodies. That they are sort of holding in reserve or that not all patients are needing or getting access to it. How do we make those more available . Well, i think we need several things. We need people to get tested and to get results quickly. The test results take five to seven days. Youre already too late to get the monoclonal antibody. Number two, we need people to present early in their disease process to health care. And then within health care, we need to be able to organize ourselves. We have to find an infusion room where you can bring people who are, you know, covid positive, but not sick enough to be hospitalized. You have to do it in some sort of outpatient setting infusion room. And dont want to do it right next to your cancer, chemotherapy, or other infusions that youre doing. You also have the problem that you have to have, the nurses and all the different people that need to be administering this. And right now, as hospitals are overwhelmed, you dont have enough staff. So you have to have your staff in the icu. You have to get your staff here. So you have to find a staff able to do, trained and able to do. So logistically, its taking some challenges. I think hospitals are simply taking time, because the logistics are not there to do it immediately. Its not an easy drug to administer. I think its a valuable drug and, you know, once you get it going, i think youll find that it works just fine. Dr. Del rio, there was an email that came to light overnight from a doctor who worked inside the trump administration, who was rooting for people to get infected to build herd immunity. And im not overstating that, he literally was. This is what paul alexander, again, who was an hhs Senior Adviser said, infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle ages have zero to little risk, so we use them to develop herd, we want them to get infected. And in addition to being startling that someone would say that, theres an article in the journal of American Medical Association overnight, and one of the doctors is the dr. Rochelle walensky, who will run the cdc starting in a few weeks, found that young people are dying at higher rates than they were before. It appears that july was the deadliest among this group in modern american history. More th on average, 11,000 Young American adults died each july. This year, the number swelled to 16,000. 5,000 more young adults than the previous average. And the implication is its largely because of coronavirus. What does that tell you . It tell me what we all knew all along. While coronavirus is not severe in young people as it is in older individuals, it is not risk free. And the best thing you can do is not get infected. The problem is, you know, we had many people saying, oh, its fine, get infected. Coronavirus is no worse than the flu. We know its a lot worse than the flu. Weve looked at it, know its a lot worse than the flu. Even on young people. And i think what dr. Walensky and her team describe is exactly what were all seeing. Is that the coronavirus mortality in young people is not trivial. And unfortunately, young people live with older individuals, so as that young person gets infected who then infects somebody else. This whole idea that we can let people get infected, let the virus run loose, and develop the socalled herd immunity, what were seeing is an increased number of hospitalizations and deaths. I think this is absolutely proof that that was really the wrong strategy. Dr. Del rio, thank you so much for being with us this morning. Appreciate your help. I know that Moderna Vaccine, which you have worked on, its up for emergency use authorization today, an Fda Advisory Panel will look at it. So congratulations on this moment to you, sir. Thank you, sir. So the deadline to pass a desperatelyneeded stimulus bill is fast approaching. Still no deal as of now. Congressional leaders say progress is being made. Well give you the very latest on what we know, next. Research shows that people remember commercials with exciting stunts. So to help you remember that Liberty Mutual customizes your Home Insurance, heres something you shouldnt try at home. Look, Liberty Mutual customizes Home Insurance so we only pay for what we need. Its pretty cool. That is cool grandma very cool. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Tonight, try pure zzzs all night. Unlike other sleep aids, our extended release melatonin helps you sleep longer. And longer. Zzzquil pure zzzs all night. Fall asleep. Stay asleep. 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Congressional leaders say they are getting close. Cnns Sunlen Serfaty is live on capitol hill with the latest. How close . Alisyn, leaders say theyre very close and they have optimism. They say they are getting there, but there certainly is no final deal yet. And thats significant, given that we are here on thursday and leaders are facing a midnight friday deadline. Now, they are going over essentially the final fine print details. They will reconvene later this morning. And heres what we know that has been agreed to so far. The contours of the deal, as its coming together, looks like a 900 billion package and includes another round of stimulus checks, but notably much less than what people received earlier. 600 is what its looking like right now. Jobless benefits at 300 a week, also less than people were receiving before. And money for Vaccine Distribution. Both sides here, notably, did have to make some concessions. Democrats had to give, theres no money for state and local aid and republicans giving on liability protections. Thats something that they had pushed very hard for. There are significant hurdles that essentially will have to get negotiated in the room this morning, namely democrats. They are pushing for 90 billion in state aid that would be distributed by fema. But republicans here are arguing, thats essentially just state and local aid disguised by that, distributed by fema. So they are raising issues with that. Now, speaker pelosi, chuck schumer, they were on the phone with the treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin late last night and they will reconvene again this morning. All working towards announcing a final deal. But after they announce that final deal, it is a lot of steps to actually get this passed. So a lot of uncertainty on what the exact path forward is, at this moment, alisyn, as the clock certainly clicks towards that deadline tomorrow night. Thank you very much, sunlen. So its being described as the most significant hack of the u. S. Government ever. Why isnt President Trump alerting the public to this . And why are Senate Republicans Holding Hearings on debunked election claims . Thats next. Oh humans. Listen to what every strain. Every twistoof and every backache is telling you you cannot do this. Pain says you cant. Advil says you can. The only thing a disaster cant destroy is hope. Donate now at redcross. Org a livcustomizeper iquickbooks for me. Okay, youre all set up. Thanks that was my business gi, this ones casual. Get set up right with a live bookkeeper with intuit quickbooks. Less oral steroids. Taking my treatment at home. Nucala is a oncemonthly addon injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. Not for sudden breathing problems. Allergic reactions can occur. Get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. Infections that can cause shingles have occurred. Dont stop steroids unless told by your doctor. 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And since then, pretty much the only thing that has become clear is how extraordinarily widespread this could be. Otherwise, u. S. Officials are still struggling to figure out which agencies and which departments have been hit, how badly, and what was taken or spied on by these attackers, who are believed to be packed by the russian government. We actually may never know the full extent of the breach. This is how the fbi, the intelligence community, and the department of Homeland Securitys icyber agency put it in an overnight statement. They learned about it over the course of the past several days, saying this is a developing situation. And while we continue to work to understand the full extent of this campaign, we know this compromise has affected networks within the federal government. Thats a bit of an understatement. All across the federal government, we understand, the departments of commerce, agriculture, Homeland Security were all compromised. The Washington Post reported that treasury was, as well. The pentagon, for its part, is still investigating how they might have been affected. It will likely take months for a full forensic analysis. This was a highly sophisticated attack that likely started in the spring. So the russians may have been in u. S. Government systems for most of the year. Now, the house and Senate Intelligence committees were both briefed on wednesday. I was told by an official from the department of Homeland Security, cyber agency, known as s sica, that the biden team was briefed next week. This may be one of the issues that the new Biden Administration will have to deal with from day one, including how forcefully to respond to russia. It is hard to think of a more sensitive time that this could happen. In the middle of a president ial transition, in which the current president is refusing to concede that he lost. President trump hasnt even acknowledged himself this huge cyber breach. The country, of course, is deeply divided, and we are now the victim of one of the most significant cyber intrusions that we have ever seen. Alisyn . Its so disturbing, alex. And obviously, we need to know so much more about what happened here and what they got access to. Thank you very much for all of that reporting. So amid this massive ongoing security threat, the Republicanled Senate Homeland Security Committee Held a hearing yesterday that elevated the baseless claims of Election Fraud that so many states, all of the swing states, have already investigated and resolved. Joining us now, ana palmer, senior washington correspondent for politico and cnn political commentator, errol louis, a political anchor for spectrum news. Errol, i want to start with this massive breach for one second. Because i know that i thought, and im sure i wasnt alone when the cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency came out and said, this election was safe, we didnt have russian interference or other foreign actors. I thought, huh, i wonder why they gave up so easily. Hmm, wonder if there is anything else that they were trying to do. The idea that tom bossert, the former National Security adviser says that the russians have had access to a considerably number of vitally important and Sensitive Information networks for the past six to seven months. So, did we take our eye off the ball. I know none of us are National Security experts, but should the cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency have seen that one . Well, theyll certainly need to answer some questions about what happened. Was there a bit of simplistic sleight of hand, where were all looking at the elections, and meanwhile theyre stealing the palace jewels out of treasury, agriculture, Homeland Security, and other vital agencies. If thats what happened, we need to know exactly why it happened. What we also know is that the head of sica was fired unceremoniously for declaring that the elections were at least not the subject of attack. Meanwhile, it looks like nobody understood the full extent of what was going on. And i guess, finally, its really worth pointing out that we need public statements from the white house, not just because its a good idea to be truthful with the American People, although thats certainly important, but youve got millions of federal employees and the contractors who do business with them. You dont just send out a memo to millions and millions of people. We need a statement from the top of the government, telling people what they need to do to secure, even belatedly, the systems of the networks and the information with which theyre entrusted. And somethings got to be done. Simply trying to pretend it didnt happen because its going to be embarrassing to this administration, is simply unacceptable zp unacceptable. Your question, alisyn, did we take our eye off the ball . Yeah. Not only did we, but leaders in washington still are proudly ignoring in a way these reports, ignoring this attack. You have the senate Homeland Security committee yesterday, which held a hearing. Its their job to oversee this. Was the hearing on the huge hack . No it was on this cooked up, discredited notion that there was widespread fraud in the election. Just watch what took place at this hearing yesterday. Were not going to be able to just move on without bringing up these irregularities, examining them, and providing an explanation. And see where there really are problems so we can correct it moving forward. Senator paul . Mr. Chairman, ive got to respond to that. Try. You say im putting out information one, i had nothing to do with this report. You lied repeatedly in the press, that i was spreading russian disinformation and that was an outright lie and i told you to stop lying and you continued to do it. Mr. Chairman, this is not about airi ing your grievances. I dont know what rabbit hole youre running down. So ana, what does it tell you that ron johnson isnt focused on the real attack this morning . I mean, he continues to be very focused on what he says is election irregularrregularities. I think you saw a with that back and forth that not only democrats, but a lot of republicans have with him having the gavel, how hes chosen to lead on this issue, where there is a massive issue, a very serious issue around hacking, how long it happened, what secrets russia knows now, what the implications are of that going forward, and instead, you have one of the president s closest allies in the senate continuing to go down this rabbit hole of Election Fraud and baseless claims. And its really, i think, frustrating to a lot of members and their staffs who ive been talking to when they say, this is not what we should be focusing on. The election is over, its time to move on, but the senator just refuses to see reality. Errol, one of the things President Trump seems to be focused on instead of all of this hack is pardons. Apparently, theres been this flurry of requests from all sorts of people, directly to the white house. So, his allies, some of his closest business associates, many highprofile criminals. And because, you know, President Trump has broken norms and doesnt sort of do things in the normal order, people are asking him directly for the pardons, instead of, you know, going through the proper channels. Theyre asking jared kushner, et cetera, cnns reporting is that unlike practically any other matter related to the end of his presidency, his clemency powers are a topic trump actually seems enjoy discussing. In all, the president is considering pardons for more than two dozen people in his orbit who he believes were targeted or could be targeted in the future for political ends. What should we expect in terms of pardons in the next 35 days . We should expect what weve seen already before from this president , when it comes to pardons. Is that theyre done politically. Theyre done to people who are friends and allies, political allies. And that its done without any regard to the apparatus thats already in place, by which you would normally sort of vet and screen and test legal principles and test precedent, before you announce a set of pardons. Far from doing that, this is a president who we know revels in his personal power, his personal authority, which is at its peak and really unchallenged when it comes to the pardon power. There were no other institutions that could sort of undo it or stop it. So rather than have anything resembling an orderly process, its going to be the personal whims. This is donald trump being able to act a little bit as a king in his 34 remaining days. And obviously, from what we know about this president , hes going to savor every moment of those last 34 days. Ana palmer, cnn is reporting that the search for the attorney general nominee is down to two. Merrick garland, who, of course, was Barack Obamas nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy, sits on the d. C. Federal court of appeals. And doug jones, who is the outgoing senator from alabama. What do these two choices tell you and what does it tell you that its complicated, right . A lot of this is complicated because of the probe that hunter biden has acknowledged being a part of. Absolutely. I think the Hunter Biden Probe really does complicate who he chooses. Merrick garland would certainly be seen as somebody above approach, has the judicial temperament, has a long history of that, in terms of being able to separate himself from the biden orbit, hes not very close to the president elect, for instance. But we have seen time and again that joe biden is picking people that hes personally close with. Hes much more personally close with senator doug jones. Also, i think the other real kind of, you know, thing that doug jones has going for him is the fact that he has this very long civil rights background, clearly, the department of justice is going to have to focus on that in this next term, in terms of trying to get the Justice Department and the whole legal apparatus in a different position than it has been under the trump administration. Ana, errol, thank you both very much for helping us understand all of this breaking news this morning. And we have more breaking news right now. The french president testing positive for coronavirus after developing symptoms. We have a live report with the details from paris, next. Before we talk about taxsmart investing, whats new . Audreys expecting. Twins wed be closer to the twins. Change in plans. At fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan. So why wait to screen for colon cancer . Because when caught in early stages, its more treatable. Im cologuard. Im noninvasive and detect altered dna in your stool to find 92 of colon cancers even in early stages. Tell me more. Its for people 45 plus at average risk for colon cancer, not high risk. False positive and negative results may occur. Ask your prescriber or an online prescriber if cologuard is right for you. Ill do it. Good plan. All right. Breaking news. Weve learned a short time ago that french president Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for coronavirus. Cnns melissa bell live in paris with all the details here. Melissa, tell us what weve learned . Reporter well, for the time being, we dont know much about his state, but we know that he tested positive after delaying symptoms. John, what happens in france as per french regulations is that he will now isolate for the next seven days. Weve also now heard that his wife, bridgette macron, although she is no symptoms, will also be isolating with him. And of course, when you look at the people hes met this week, theres a number of other people who have cause for concern. The spanish and portuguese prime ministers kumconfirming they ha canceled certain events over the week. He also met with the entire french cabinet, all of french ministers on wednesday, although because of social distancing, they are not being declared as contact cases. This is really a reminder of just how hard this second wave has hit europe. The infection rates across the continent, not just here in france, john, remain stubbornly high and we see restrictions strengthening rather than easing, as authorities hope. Still, as ursula vandlan tweeted this morning, it is europes moment. We expect the first vaccine to be proved next week and europes Vaccination Campaign to begin on december 27th. Its also a reminder why leadership in general should be toward the front of the line for being vaccinated. Why the u. S. Vice president will be vaccinated tomorrow morning. Why president elect joe biden, we think, as soon as next week. Thanks so much for that report. Appreciate it. Keep us posted. So russian president Vladimir Putin moments ago responded to cnns investigation into the poisoning of an Opposition Leader. We have a live report and breaking details, next. Someday i will ask you a question that will change me forever. Yes. Show them your love is unstoppable. Instore, online or by virtual consultation. Only at kay jewelers. An herbal stress reliever ashwagandha, that helps you turn the stressed life. Into your best life. Stress less and live more. With stressballs. Experience the power of sanctuary at the lincoln wish list sales event. Sign and drive off in a new lincoln with zero down, zero due at signing, and a complimentary first months payment. And im still going for my best. Even though i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. So if theres a better treatment than warfarin, im on top of that. Eliquis. Eliquis is proven to reduce stroke risk better than warfarin. Plus has significantly less major bleeding than warfarin. Eliquis is fdaapproved and has both. Whats next . Getting out there. Dont stop taking eliquis unless your doctor tells you to, as stopping increases your risk of having a stroke. Eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. Dont take eliquis if you have an artificial heart valve or abnormal bleeding. While taking eliquis, you may bruise more easily and it may take longer than usual for any bleeding to stop. 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Cnns exclusive investigation found evidence that the fsb formed an elite team, specializing in nerve agents that trailed Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny for years. Navalny was poisoned with novichok in august and nearly died. Cnns Clarissa Ward who broke this story is live in moscow where putin is still speaking. And clarissa, kind of chest thumping in defiance over this report. Yeah, i mean, its always difficult when president putin gives an answer, its invariably long winded and you have to spend at least 10 to 20 minutes translating it into english and translating it in your brain to try to figure out what hes exactly saying. But the grist of it is that hes not refuting any elements really, of our report, except for the actual poisoning. So what he said was, essentially, that Alexei Navalny, although he doesnt say his name, that Alexei Navalny is apparently in cahoots or working with u. S. Intelligence agencies. And as a result of that, its normal, essentially, that the fsb, the Security Services will be following him. Ill give you the exact quote. He says, of course our special services need to keep an eye on him. But that doesnt mean he needs to be poisoned. Who needs him anyway . If they wanted to, they probably would have finished it. Thats pretty ominous there, but it does seem to underscore what hes saying is that, no, theres nothing incorrect about our reporting, in terms of this fsb team trailing navalnys every move for many years. What he doesnt answer, though, john, the crucial question is, why would you have an fsb team trailing him who have experts in chemical agents and who are in regular contact with the signal institute, a laboratory here in moscow, that is known to research and develop novichok. That part of the question he did not answer. And if he wasnt poisoned, what happened to him . Why did he almost die . Why was he so, you know, terribly sick. So has Alexei Navalny responded yet to what putin said, clarissa . He hasnt responded yet, but it will be interesting to see. Im sure he would have expected this. And really, one of the most remarkable things about the way that putin deals with the topic of Alexei Navalny, who is really only the prominent Opposition Leader in russia, who is a persistent critic of president putin, is to never mention his name. So today in the press conference, he kept referring to him only as the patient in the berlin hospital. He never said navalnys name out loud. And i think that really goes to show just how much of a threat putin actually thinks that navalny is. The fact that he refuses to say his name, and that he really wants to cast him as somehow being a stooge of the cia, a stooge for u. S. Intelligence services, who he really blames for this whole incident. You know, i did travel down that long, winding road of putins response, looking at the translati translation. What struck me in addition to the fact that he never used navalnys name, like you point out, he seems to know a lot about what your report says. This is something that he clearly had put in front of him in great detail. It gives you a sense of the bank account of this, clarissa. I think thats absolutely true and i think the fact that we didnt hear a word for two and a half days, basically, other than one flippant remark from the foreign minister, sergey lavrov, tells you that theyve really been mulling over how to respond to this. And even the way the question was phrased, and its important to remember, they really do plant questions with their favorite reporters in the audience, the reporter kind of lumped it in with a bunch of other recent investigative reports, mostly about putins family, so he was trying to sort of not draw too much attention to it, to almost make it feel like its not such a big deal. And you had to really sort of sift through the mud around it to get to the nub of what he was actually saying, which, as i said, appears to essentially confirm our reporting. I dont suppose you were able to ask putin a question, clarissa . No, surprisingly, perhaps not surprisingly, my accreditation did not arrive for me to participate in this event, which is still going strong, more than three hours after it began. Funny how the mail works. Thank you, clarissa. Thank you so much for all of this reporting. And obviously, things happen by the hour, there are new developments. So please keep us posted on what happens next. And new day continues right now. Announcer this is cnn breaking news. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is new day. And breaking news. The United States shattering every coronavirus record on wednesday. 3,656 american deaths were reported yesterday. That number is the highest ever. The highest all year. And more americans are hospitalized this morning than ever before. More than 247,000 new cases were reported yesterday. That breaks another record. In just hours, an Fda Advisory Panel will review modernas vaccine, meaning we could have a second vaccine authorized within days. And then overnight, there was this Surprising Development about pfizers vaccine. Medical workers say they are able to get more doses out of each vial than expected. So well have more on what that means in a moment. Palace breaking this morning, french president Emmanuel Macron has tested positive for coronavirus. We are told he has experienced symptoms. His office says he will isolate for seven days now. The white house confirms that Vice President mike pence plans to get vaccinated on camera tomorrow morning. This will happen live so that the world, america can see the example that he is setting. And cnn has learned that president elect joe biden will
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