Modernas vaccine is safe and 94 effective. Dr. Fauci notes this is bittersweet because this is the light at the end of the tunnel when the virus is worse than ever before in the United States. The peaks in the spring and summer have now been far surpassed. Right now, the u. S. Is seeing an average of more than 215,000 new cases each and every day. 215,000. A Record Number of americans are so sick, they are hospitalized. 110,000 as of right now. The u. S. Has now marked more than 302,000 deaths from the virus. Cnns alexandria field now reports. Reporter our latest defense against the virus deployed to all 506 states. 425 more sites across the country receiving shipments of vaccines today. More front line hospital workers in new york city are lining up for their first shot in the arm. Chicagos very first doses given today at a hospital in one of the citys hardest hit communities. California received more than 33,000 vials of the vaccine on monday, nearly the same number of new hospital cases in the state on the same day. The effort to pump out as many hospital in the state on the same day. The effort to pump out as many vaccines as possible as quickly as possible is expected to get a big boost later this week. Modernas vaccine proven 94 effective is likely to get fda emergency use authorization. The company is promising a first shipment of 6 million doses. That is double pfizers original shipment. Fedex and u. P. S. Are reporting no problems with the massive undertaking of moving vaccines across the country so far. 60 Million People are under some type of watch or warning. Reporter but a fast moving storm could affect shipments later this week. As hope starts to arrive, the u. S. Has crossed the threshold of 300,000 covid deaths and on monday almost 200,000 new cases. A bittersweet because we are still in a terrible situation with the numbers that you mentioned, the deaths, the hospitalizations, the number of cases, and, yet, we are really now starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Reporter but the tunnel is long and the roadblocks are already obvious. New york city is facing another possible lockdown with the exception of schools. If we implement that, my nomination would be right after christmas. Reporter in new jersey icus in may. Through march of next year eviction orders suspended. Reminder that more americans could be worse off in a new year that comes with so much hope for something better. Jake, here at mt. Sinai, they are starting by vaccinating the men and women who are working most closely with patients infected by covid. This is something they have been doing for months now. The men and women are working in this close proximity and they are getting the vaccines first. The hospital says they have received about 975 doses right now. That is just enough to vaccinate or to start vaccinating about half of their front line workers. They hope to get to all of them the next few weeks. The next big shipment of the Pfizer Vaccine we expect an announcement on that on friday and we hope those are badly needed doses at this point. Thank you. Cnn chief medical correspondent sanjay gupta joins us. Lets start with the Moderna Vaccine we hope is authorized by cdc later this week. Lets put up what we took away from the 54page document. Keep in mind we only heard from the company. Two doses a months apart, 28 days apart. The storage is a little bit warmer than the Pfizer Vaccine but still very cold storage. As you mentioned, 94. 5 percent efficacy at preventing covid19. Take a look at the age 18 and older. You mentioned being considered for authorization. No red flags, the other thing when you look at these documents to see if some surprise came out there. Its pretty much as we thought. Now we will let the fda scientists weigh in on it. How does this convenient compare to the Pfizer Vaccine . I asked bill gates who is not a medical doctor if one is better than the other but he didnt think so. They are very similar vaccines that are both messenger rna. Ill point out again this type of vaccine has never been used before. Here is the big differences. Moderna i just talked about. We know, you know, the specifics and the authorization process is under way. Pfizer, very similar. The two doses as well. Three weeks apart. So you can get immunity a little bit faster with the pfizer and needs to be colder than the Moderna Vaccine and that is a significant thing because some places that simply dont have the cold storage that can handle pfizer to moderna may be better. Then the age. This was a point of debate as you remember, jake, last week. Pfizer trialed it in 16 and older and authorized for that and moderna is trying to get 18 and older. Both of those vaccines require two doses. One is three weeks apart as you note and one is four weeks apart. How critical is the second dose . This has come up and a debate even within the scientific community. I can tell you dr. Fauci and dr. Peter marks and alex borla, cdc adviser say sitz a twodose thing and dont get into a notion lets just give one dose. They also point out that as youre doing these trials youre always looking for signals. If at some point it became really clear one dose was going to be adequate, sometimes the trials will pivot to a onedose sort of arm of the trial. For example, Johnson Johnson started with one dose thing but started a second dose. The data is around two doses and what everyone is going to recommend and give people their best protection. With both the pfizer and Moderna Vaccine, we have preliminary information on this important question as to whether the vaccines prevent people who have been vaccinated from spreading the virus. We know that they wont get sick 94 , 95 of the time but what about spreading the virus . Yeah. Great question. Its interesting because the original document from moderna did not mention anything about preventing infection but they added an addendum there. What they said is that they did swab the trial participants before the first dose, before the second dose, after, you know, the trial, after both doses have been administered. What they found was that between the first and second dose, they found people were about two and a half times more likely to become infected if they had received the placebo versus the vaccine. These are small numbers. Its hard to read into this right now. But there does seem to be some evidence at least with the moderna trial that it does also at least reduce the likelihood of infection and doesnt eliminate it altogether but reduces it. Pfizer hope to have some of that date next year as well. They were only looking at symptoms of disease but now they are digging into the data, they may have a statement or some conclusion about the idea of preventing infection as well. We just dont know right now. President elect biden told me earlier this month he would take the vaccine publicly as soon as dr. Fauci said he should. The biden transition said they would announce soon when is going to happen. When should we see protect biden not to mention outgoing President Trump take this vaccine and in a public way, we assume . I mean, dr. Fauci is the chief medical adviser now for president elect biden. He has specifically, as you mentioned, spoken about this. Take a listen. The security reasons i really feel strongly that we should get them vaccinated as soon as possible. You want him fully protected as he enters into the presidency in january. I think what he means by that, jake, is the same thing we are talking about. He says its not necessarily emergent thing but not to wait either especially given its two shots three or four weeks apart. So middle of december now. If you want to be fully protected by inauguration it takes two shots and takes 7 to 14 days after you receive those shots. That is why i think dr. Fauci and others are suggesting he do it right now. The first vaccinations are for Health Care Workers and nursing home residents. Its going to be a monstrous effort to get a vaccination to everybody. People at home are wondering about them. What do you think . Im optimistic on this and see what happens with moderna if moderna gets authorized. There are 200 million doses have been purchased by the u. S. Government of that vaccine. They wont come right away, obviously, but later in over the next several months. 100 million pfizer and 200 million of moderna. That would be 300 million. For the whole country we need 600 or 700 million and there are other vaccines under way. They they get approved in january or february they would layer in as well. It looks promising, jake. Youre probably talking end of spring, early summer, you know . May june time frame where there should be Vaccines Available for people in pharmacies and doctors offices and people have to get them and that lope gist cal challenge. The availability will no longer be the rate limiting step at that point. A light at the end of the tunnel as we keep saying. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell broke with President Trump on something. When will the rest of the republicans fall in line. He is receiving Death Threats after standing up to President Trump by doing his job and following the law. Now he is preparing for the senate runoffs. We will talk to the guy in charge of making sure georgias Voting System works again. Really perfect. Lets end the year nailing it. Before we talk about taxsaudreys expecting. New . Twins wed be closer to the twins. Change in plans. At fidelity, a change in plans is always part of the plan. New projects means you need to hire. Gers. I need indeed. Indeed you do. The moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a short list of quality candidates from our resume database. Claim your seventy five dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed. Com home. To use your vision benefits before the years up. This is us making sure you dont. Use em before you lose em, backed by our 100day guarantee visionworks. See the difference. But with walmarts low prices, you still know how to do it up. And keep costs down. Lets end the year enjoying more. You are all i need baby baby to get by inflammation in your eye might be to blame. Ck, looks like a great day for achy, burning eyes overthecounter eye drops typically work by lubricating your eyes and may provide temporary relief. Ha these drops probably wont touch me. Xiidra works differently, targeting inflammation that can cause dry eye disease. What is that . Xiidra, noooo it can provide lasting relief. Xiidra is the only fda approved treatment specifically for the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. One drop in each eye, twice a day. Dont use if youre allergic to xiidra. Common side effects include eye irritation, discomfort or blurred vision when applied to the eye, and unusual taste sensation. Dont touch container tip to your eye or any surface. After using xiidra, wait 15 minutes before reinserting contacts. Got any room in your eye . Talk to an eye doctor about twicedaily xiidra. I prefer you didnt xiidra. Not today, dry eye. They are doing their jobs. They go home and go to same church and Grocery Stores as their neighbors but now they have some of were neighbors basically issuing threats or saying youre going to prison for treason. It goes beyond President Trump to a bigger pathological issue where we cant disagree without having the other person being an enemy and that is not helping republicans in the long term. I agree completely. He has been calling news media, journalists enemy of the people for a long time and its been a horrible. That is just wrong. Im a republican small r guy and you have to pick all. The courts, all of the amendments are important. We have to make sure all of the institutions are helped. Good luck for another clean election in georgia for the runoffs. I know the last one was clean and efficient. This one will be too. As the nation turns to georgia once again. Gabriel sterling, thank you for your time, work, and Merry Christmas to you. Merry christmas to you, jake. Senate majority leader mcconnell not only congratulated biden but sent a stern message to his fellows. What did he say . That is next. I got uh sausage you can do better, steve get a freshly made footlong, from subway® you can even order on the subway® app did i just get picked off by Deion Sanders . You sure did now in the app, get a free footlong when you buy two. Because its footlong season™ unfortunately, we are still limiting inperson appointments due to the pandemic and well need to move your fathers visit to a later date. Were sorry. We started by making the cloud easier to manage. But we didnt stop there. We made a cloud flexible enough to adapt to any size business. No matter what it does, or how it changes. And we kept going. So you only pay for what you use. Because at dell technologies, we stop. At nothing. 2020 lead. Joe biden was speaking in georgia campaigning two runoff races will decide which Party Controls the senate when joe biden takes official this afternoon the president elect also confirmed that he spoke with senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell after he recognized bidens win for the first time. Jeff zeleny now reports. Reporter president elect joe biden is back on the campaign trail a day after the Electoral College affirmed his victory. Thank you for standing strong, to make sure your voices were heard, your votes were counted, and counted and counted and counted again. Im starting to feel like i won georgia three times reporter he is headed to the white house in just 36 days but, first, hes in georgia trying to help democrats win chrome of the u. S. Senate. The lives of every georgiian still depend on what youre doing. Yes, you still need to vote as if your life depends on it because it does. Reporter it all comes down to the states two runoff races on january 5th. The outcome of which will shape the ambitions of bidens agenda and help determine the early success of his presidency with early voting already under way across the state, biden arrived in atlanta today for a drivein rally with Democratic CandidatesRafael Warnock and jon oshoff. Its georgia voters who have the power to write the next chapter in american history. Im ready. Im ready to be one of your next two United States senators from the great state of georgia. Reporter they are defeat republican senators. The outcome of the georgia races will affect one of the most closely watched relationship in washington between biden and senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell who acknowledge bidens victory today six weeks after election day. The president elect telling reporters he reached out to the republican leader. I called him to thank him for the congratulations. Told him we disagree on a lot of things but we can Work Together on other things and we have been stable with one another and we agreed we would get together sooner than later. Reporter the georgia races will determine mcconnells hold on the senate. Regardless of the outcome biden is vowing to bring the country together and facing monumental challenges from the pandemic and the recession. Now its time to turn the page as we have done throughout our history, to unite, to heal. Reporter as the covid19 vaccine rollout continued into its second day, biden said he will get his first shot soon. Dr. Fauci recommends i get the vaccine sooner than later. I want to make sure we do apply the numbers and we do it. When we do it, youll have notice and we will do it publicly. Reporter now, as the president elect leaves georgia he is still trying to form members of his cabinet. We are learning that Pete Buttigieg will join the biden cabinet. They are still planning to try to wrap this up by christmas. Attorney general remains the biggest cabinet position not yet decided on. Jake . Buttigieg, if he is confirmed by the senate he would be the first Senate Confirmed openly gay cabinet secretary in american history. Jeff zeleny, thank you for that. Lets discuss with our political panel. Senate majoritititititititl l l. The Electoral College has spoken. So, today, i want to congratulate president elect joe biden. Laura, has the fever broken . Are republican officials in washington finally going to acknowledge the reality that we have all i dont know if we can say the fever is broken just yet, jake. Even though the Senate Majority leader mcconnell, as well as a number of Senate Republicans are starting to acknowledge the reality that biden is the winner of the election, majority of House Republicans are still not acknowledging that. Their state gop apparatuses across the country are not acknowledging it. There are still these futile attempts to try to overturn the election and no mask rebuttal of that from the majority of the republican leaders. Its quite something. Its not about recognizing that biden won or 80 plus million americans voted for him. Its also about the fact that donald trump has been trying to stage nonviolent coup. Senate majority leader mcconnell urged Senate Republicans to sit on a Conference Call to not object to the Electoral College results on january 6th because its interesting why he doesnt want them to object, because, a, he said it would be fruitless. But, b, it would put them in a position for a majority to vote against President Trump. I still cant believe we are in this reality. But what do you think is going to happen on that day . Do you think the rand pauls of the world, ron johnsons of the world will they listen to Mitchell Mcconnell . That is really remains to be seen. Mcconnell is pretty good about keeping everybody in line, more so than Kevin Mccarthy on the house side. If some of these senators want to show trump that they love him best, you could totally see it happening. Or more like they want to show that they are the heir apparent when he decides to step aside, if that ever happens. Thats true. There has been a real rush to humiliate themselves, all of these 2024 hopefuls. Laura, do you think Vice President pence who also wants to run for president someday, will he accept a loss on january 6th . He will be presiding over the senate, i believe. Its really difficult to say what any of these republicans are going to do, pence included. He could very well not utter the words he acknowledges bidens win and leave the white house along with President Trump come january. Pence, if he does want to run, as you mentioned, jake, he has to balance trying to win over these Republican Voters that are very much behind President Trump to this day. There have been at least five fundraising emails and one text from the Trump Campaign just since the Electoral College called it the election for biden yesterday. The former director of the u. S. Office of government ethics Walter Schaub tweeted the following. Is that too harsh . What do you think . He is amassing this war chest and whether he chooses to use it for his own political fortunes or to retain power by, you know, maybe funding challengers, maybe supporting some, not others. He is trying to start fight in georgia by getting governor pence primaried. The fact he is sending out these releases and making sure this is going very much benefits the president. He doesnt care about the Republican Party. I think most republicans know about that. Its a vehicle for him to amass power and to, you know, in this case, fundraise more. Its just very embarrassing for the entire Republican Party and i think a lot of people in leadership know it. Thank you both. The new Coronavirus Vaccine is great news. For one hardhit community, it is a reason to be skeptical. We will explain. Tech every customer has their own safelite story. This couple was on a camping trip. When their windshield got a chip. They drove to safelite for a sameday repair. And with their insurance, it was no cost to them. Woman really . Tech thats service you can trust. Singers safelite repair, safelite replace. Struggling americans are waiting for congressional leaders to sign off on economic stimulus money that they need to pay bills and evicted. Manu, can they get there . They are meeting along with the treasury secretary steven much mnuchin who is participating by phone. The outlines have been clear for days. Ultimate question can the two sides finally come together around some package that is smaller in scope than what the democrats want, a little bit bigger than what the republicans want . Will that be enough . What is driving a lot of discussion is a bipartisan proposal that just came out this week. Essentially it looks separates these discussions into two. There is one 748 billion dollar proposal, about 300 billion worth to go to Small Business loans and another 300 billions to individuals and money for vaccines, part of that proposal. Also a separate plan for 160 billion dollars for state and local aid and Liability Protections for businesses, lawsuit protections. That issue state and local aid and lawsuit protections is almost certainly going to fall by the wayside. The question can they agree trost of to the rest of it . If there is agreement by the end of this week to keep the government open past friday but it requires an agreement so see what they say when they emerge from the meeting. What happens if they dont agree . If they getting a deal, so many issues are on the table, expiring jobless benefits and student loan payments, deferral of student loan payments essentially will come back. Federal Eviction Moratorium also set to expire. Business tax breaks are also expiring. So many people are waiting for this including 14 million who could be affected by the empiis turning to our health lead. A new faye from the Kaiser Family foundation finds growing willingness to get the Covid Vaccine. 71 of meramericans say they wi probably get the vaccine and 27 say not. There remains an unwillingness against black americans to get vaccinated, a community hit hard by the virus. Only 20 in the kaiser poll say they will get the vaccine as soon as they can. Half of those polls said they will wait to see how it works for other people. 10 of black americans in that survey say they will only get vaccinated if required to. 15 say they will flat out refuse it. There are historical reasons behind the skepticism such as the notorious tuskegee experimememe. Joining now, is the founder of Grapevine Health dr. Elizabeth fitzpatrick who is a lecturer at a public school. Dr. Lisa, your reaction to the survey is depressing to me. Does it surprise you . Hi, jake. Thanks so much for having me. I actually am encouraged by this survey because the acceptance has increased since september. Okay. So i think this is good news and we should think about this as an opportunity to encourage more people to accept the vaccine. You actually volunteered for a Covid Vaccine trial, partly, to help build trust around the vaccine. What is your message to those who are skeptical about whether they can trust the vaccine . Well, it sounds like they are only 10 of the people who will flat out refuse according to the study and as you just said. So it means there is a lot of room for us to educate people and have them accept the vaccine. I think with the right we can absolutely improve those rates, even beyond what therapy now. I would love to see you and many of your colleagues take the narrative a little bit away from he hesitancy to acceptance. Thousands of us have volunteered to be in the study. Moderna study alone. 10 black people and around 3,000 people so maybe people can understand the motivations f for despite the tuskegee study and what people think about the vaccine. I think this positive study and i would love for us to according to the kaiser survey, black americans top concerns with the virus are possible side effects, a general lack of trust in the government to make sure the vaccine is safe. How new the vaccine is and how much politics have played into the vaccine development. If somebody were to come to you and say that those are their concerns, how would you respond . It happens to me all the time so i dont have to imagine this. Just last friday, i was conducting outreaching in washington, d. C. I met two men who said flat out im not interested in tag the vaccine and these were their questions. The first was i dont want to go first. The side effects, they were afraid of the side effects. They were also concerned the vaccine might give them covid which is something they found in the kaiser study. But after educating these gentlemen about vaccine trials and telling them about my participation and the side effects ive had, one of them said, well, im open to it now. The other one said, ill take the vaccine. Theres a disturbing history as you e allowl eluded in the u abusing black americans. One of the most notorious examples is the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment that lasted in the 70s. They studied syphilis in black men who were not told they had the infection and they did not consent to the experiment. This is well known in the black community, this horrific part of our nations history. How can Health Care Providers rebuild trust with black people who know of that history, which is a horrific medical injustice . What do you say to people who say, look, that was in my lifetime, the 1970s. I get this also a lot, jake. I appreciate you raising it. I think its important for us to acknowledge that this happened, but also to educate people that this is no longer the time of the tuskegee experiment because people like me, many scientists and you mentioned im a member of the black coalition against and many scientists involved in this process whether its monitoring the progress of the study, the results, participating as research in the study. Again, there are at least 3,000 people just in the moderna trial who are black people who talk about our experiences. I never felt like [ inaudible ] encouraged that this is a different time and i think we have to find a way to respectfully acknowledge what happened, but also help people realize we, the black community, is most affected, one of the most affected groups by covid. This is an opportunity for us to reduce the impact on our communities and i would tell Health Care Providers not just Health Care Providers who i think are government leaders, a crosssector all have to recognize what is happening the past and promise that this will never happen again. Dr. Lisa fitzpatrick, thank you for your time today and your expertise. Up next, russias latest cyber attack on the u. S. That may be much worse than originally reported. At visionworks, we know its easy to forget to use your vision benefits before the years up. This is us making sure you dont. Use em before you lose em, backed by our 100day guarantee visionworks. See the difference. See yourself. Welcome back to the mirror. And know youre not alone because this. Come on jessie one more. Is the reflection of an Unstoppable Community in the mirror. Our world lead, the white house says its taking a hard look after a stunning and broad cyber attack on the u. S. Government. We should note President Trump has yet to comment. U. S. Officials tell cnn they supposed Russian Hackers breached several agencies with one Key Department tasked to stop Cyber Attacks in the first place. Vivian, how do we know how widespread this is and who is respected to be responsible . They are still scrambling to figure out the scope of this attack but im he would toll its alarming. This started over the weekend when a cyber private Security Firm alerted u. S. Intelligence officials there had been a breach to the layer of defenses that protect the government software. A lot of these agencies rely on solar winds, one particular company, for their software. Solar winds came out the last few days saying they believe 18,000 government and private users downloaded a russiantainted software that essentially allowed these hackers to seep in and infiltrate these government softwares. So you put up the list now and look at it one more time. We have now confirmed the commerce department, the agriculture department, and cybersecurity arm within the department of homeland security, have been attacked. Officials tell me they are still investigating potential breaches at the department of defense, the department of treasury, and the u. S. Postal service. Some of the agencies sump out to me. Cisa is tasked with preventing this sort of thing. In addition to them, the Postal Service and pentagon have had recent turnover at the top with President Trump either firing or bringing in new people. Could that be a reason they were targeted . Reporter jake, a lot of unknowns than knowns right now. They say chaos is extremely inviting to foreign adversaries and including russia who they suspect but is still trying determine if they are responsible for this. Its hard to make a direct correlation to those events, the shakeups in those agencies and this severe attack they tell me dont underestimate how much that is impacting our adversaries for coming in and taking advantage. Vivian, thank you so much. Today even as Health Care Workers around the country are getting vaccinated, some have paid the ultimate price and we will would like to end the show remembering one front line hero. My Esha Brinkley was a mother of four and her patients called her the breathing lady. She worked 12hour cities in dallas placing severe Covid Patients on violentors. She started feeling dizzy at work in december and her positive test came back positive. She was put on a ventilator and she died. Cher husband said she gave hess last breath to the machine that they gave to others to survive covid19. Announcer this is cnn breaking news. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. Im wolf blitzer in the situation room. Biden campaigning in georgia for the two Senate Candidates in next months runoff which will determine control of the senate. Comes shortly after mcconnell finally acknowledged biden as esidentelect