Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live With Hallie Jackson 20201215

Another big shot of hope this morning. This time with the vaccine candidate from moderna. Within the last hour, the fda signaling it will probably approve emergency use of that vaccine and theres some really interesting new data we havent seen yet. Well tell you about it next. Were live at a hospital in new jersey where theyre about to launch day one of the vaccination push. And a new york nurse that was first to get the vaccine, talking about what it was like and her advice as this possiblization looks to turn the tide of the pandemic. We have a lot to get to this morning with our team. Tom, we have these new findings from the fda on the Moderna Vaccine. It shows the data seems to show that it doesnt just stop you from getting symptoms. It might also stop the infection itself. That is something that experts hadnt been sure about, and it could be significant in stopping the spread of the virus . Yeah. And we should make it clear. Were talking about the second vaccine. This is good news. The fda suggesting they were grant emergency authorization as soon as friday for a second vaccine. This one made by moderna, and youre right in fact not only does it seem to be up to 94 effective. It also seems to block the infection itself. So not just keeping you from getting symptomatic but blocking the infection. Thats critical. What we still dont know about either the pfizer or Moderna Vaccine, although this ed may suggest it. The question has always been if you get the vaccine, could you still shed the virus, spread it to somebody else, or are you protected not only yourself, but protecting somebody else . Now, this evidence from modernas fda application might suggest that in fact, you would not spread it, because if you cant get the infection, in theory, youre not going to spread it. That could be good news. We do know the moderna emergency authorization expected probably friday, and then it would start rolling out over the weekend or next week. Whats really critical about the Moderna Vaccine is it does not require that deep cold freezer temperatures of negative 94 degrees that pfizers requires. And there appears to be more of the Moderna Vaccine already in the system and ready to be rolled out. So this could be really helpful, especially in those remote communities around the country, for example, not big cities but in the corners of states where they dont have big hospitals with those deep freezer capabilities. This could really be helpful. Lastly, i want to point out, thats moderna. On the pfizer front, the operation warp speed commander is suggesting another 4. 5 million doses of pfizers vaccine probably will be released on friday. Probably start rolling through the system over the weekend and into next week. We really are in a situation where we have just a cascade of doses now starting to move through the system. Yeah. It does feel like a ramp up. And this needs to happen. In order to get the millions of shots that need to get into arms, you have to have more vaccines than just pfizer. Right . Its a numbers game here. Yeah. And we expect another vaccine in january or february that would be johnson and john johnson. Every expert said we need 75 to 85 of the population to have been vaccinated to achieve what they call the herd immunity. Whats critical is what percentage of the country will feel comfortable getting the vaccine, and there are new numbers out this morning suggesting thats inching up. Were now up to around three quarters or so of the population becoming more comfortable with getting vaccinated. Right. Its really good news. Well talk about that later. Ann, getting enough people vaccinated, were seeing it where you are in jersey. This is one of the states hit hard in the early days of the pandemic. Now here we are day one for that state on the vaccination program. Yes, and new jersey is continuing to be hit hard by the pandemic. It is near willing 16,000 deaths. Over 400,000 cases of coronavirus in this state alone. It has a population of just under 9 million to give you some idea of the proportion, but today as the new jersey governor says, this is the beginning of the end. They are going to begin to administer the Pfizer Vaccine here here, and we will see a doctor get that vaccine. Thats what everybody is here for. She is going to get her vaccine up on that stage. To demonstrate with her life with the vaccine is safe and effective. Thats the message theyre trying to get out to the population, especially populations of color which may be very suspicious because of historical factors about just whether this vaccine will work. Carr keri carson is here on hand to help deliver that message. In all, this hospital will get 7,000 doses of the Pfizer Vaccine. As i said, new jersey will have 76,000 doses this week. Over 80,000 doses next week to start to really try to put an end to this pandemic. It is good news for sure in the state where you are. Ann thompson, thank you. Tom, we appreciate your reporting as well. Let me bring in the Critical Care Nurse Practitioner at north Shore University hospital in long island. She was one of the first people in the country to be vaccinated. She joins us now. Good morning. Thank you for being with us. Good morning. Thank you for having me. Of course. So physically, how are you feeling . Any side effects . No. I feel really good. Im excited to report it. So i hope more people get the vaccine. I got my vaccine 24 hours ago now. And i feel good. I feel normal. I went to work today. Im working. I got here at my normal 5 00 a. M. , and i feel totally normal. I was going to ask if youre back at work. It looks like you are. Talk about the process of getting the vaccine. I think people have had questions. We talk about the Pfizer Vaccine having needed to be in cold storage. Its not cold when it goes into your arm. Clear that up for folks. Yep. So its not cold when it goes in your arm. It has to be stored in that cold temperature and only can stay out for a certain amount of hours. So when it goes in your arm, its like a normal vaccine. You have a little discomfort in your arm, but nothing significant like just like the flu shot or any other, not as bad as some shot like a tetanus. The discomfort is not bad at all. Actually, i was just trying to lift my arm before. Its kind of gone now. It was a little discomfort this morning, and now its gone. We talked about the physical piece. I have to ask mentally and emotionally, whats it like for you . Youve been on the front lines for months. Youve tried to keep a positive attitude, but you finally have some protection against this virus, not your second dose, but some protection. The morale in the hospital is different today than it has been. Were fill fighting the virus, and still getting inundated with patients currently because of its not social distancing. And things. But we have hope. We see the light at the end of the tunnel. Were beginning to get vaccinated. The health system, and its just a different feeling. We know theres a light, and theres hope. We still have to wear our masks and socially distance and do the right thing. I probably am going to do that for a long time after because of the trauma that we felt and endured. For you, staying safe. Keeping our masks and socially distanced until most of the population is vaccinated. So in a nutshell, whats your message to your patients, people talking about your receiving the vaccine and having questions about them getting the vaccine . My message is please, take the vaccine. I did it. I volunteered. They asked me to do it first. I had no problem doing it. The science is behind it. The evidence is behind it. I have complete in the safety, its good. Its great, and everybody should take it that is able to take it so we can fight and end this war. We have so glad to have you on. And were even more and to hear you are feeling great and youre back at work today. Thank you very much for your perspective. We appreciate that. Dr. Anthony fauci as we talk about vaccines joined us on this show 24 hours ago says he is recommending that biden and harris get one for security reasons. That comes as the president elect is getting ready to get on the campaign trail for the first time in weeks. One day after the Electoral College sealed the deal. Joining me from wilmington, delaware is jeff bennett. Outside the white house, monica alba. Weve seen over the last 12 hours biden issue what has been i think among his most scathing takedowns of President Trumps refusal to accept the Election Results here. Reporter thats right. It was a full and forceful condemnation of President Trump and his backers attempts to undermine a free and Fair Election and to really sort of try to doom the legitimacy of bidens presidency. We saw joe biden point by point take down all the legal efforts mounted by the Trump Campaign and by republican groups to undo, subvert the election. And now today joe biden is taking the next step in trying to shore up his legislative agenda, trying to shore up the makeup of his cabinet and really all of that hinges upon the kind of u. S. Senate that he will face. Will he face an evenly split senate with kamala, the future Vice President as the tie breaking vote or face a Republicanled Senate with Mitch Mcconnell making a return appearance as Senate Majority leader . Today joe biden is headed to georgia to campaign for those two democrats running in the Georgia Senate runoff races, because if one or both of them loses, then you have another republicanled u. S. Senate. Joe biden is putting his precious Political Capital on the line before hes even sworn in really to drive turnout. He turned georgia blue once back in november. Hes going to try to do it again come january. Geoff bennett live for us. Monica, one of the things as geoff knows well, covering the biden transition. Joe biden said hes been reached out to by senior republicans. Were seeing more recognition that joe biden is the president elect. You had about a hand full acknowledging for the first time the Electoral College has spoken that thats the case. Some are still not acknowledging it. I want to show that that juxtaposition here. Watch. The electors have voted. So theres i think its time to turn the page and begin a new administration. In the end at some point you have to face the music. Its time for everybody to move on. Thats still the result. I dont have anything for you on that. Once the Electoral College has spoken, then President Trump has the right for his legal challenges like anybody else does. And until both are resolved, we have to watch it. You have group one, acknowledgers. Group two, the nonacknowledgers, and group three, i guess you could call them the verbal gymnastics, if you will, who are basically trying to thread the needle. Im being told we are going to dip into Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell. Hes speaking about this. We need to listen. Our system of government has processes to determine who will be sworn in on january 20th. The Electoral College has spoken. So today i want to congratulate president elect joe biden, the president elect is no stranger to the senate. Hes devoted himself to Public Service for many years. I also want to congratulate the Vice President president elect, our colleague from california, senator harris. Beyond our differences, all americans can take pride that our nation has a female president elect for the very first time. I look forward to finishing out the next 36 days strong with President Trump. Our nation needs us to add another bipartisan chapter to this record of achievement. Significant news there from the floor of the senate. Top republican Mitch Mcconnell acknowledging president elect joe biden as the president elect, saying that the Electoral College has spoken. Senator mcconnell prior to that, prior to us dipping in live there was praising President Trumps accomplishments but monica and geoff, this is exactly what were talking about. That Electoral College vote cementing joe bidens victory. Some republicans coming out like Mitch Mcconnell and acknowledging that. You have to wonder if the flood gates will now open for more republicans to do just that, give in what senator mcconnell just said as you heard it live right here. Its a remarkable moment. Many republicans were waiting for the Senate Majority leader, essentially to give the green light and give them cover in terms of acknowledging a reality privately. They had already accepted, but publicly didnt want to go as far as to do what Mitch Mcconnell just did which is to congratulate the president elect, joe biden, and Vice President president elect Kamala Harris and acknowledge the fact that they are going to be sworn in on january 20th. And President Trump is somebody who will clearly watch this, and probably be frustrated, because he was also hoping certain of his allies would continue with this defiance and these baseless claims of voter fraud. It comes, of course, less than 24 hours after the Electoral College vote which completely formal az oo formalized joe bidens victory. Weve heard from the president and top aides who pointed to december 14th as a critical deadline as the de facto timeline, something they wanted as a potential point of encouragement. Obviously thats not what it was. We want to play for you, though, to put into context how significant their comments are. Listen. Lets remember the Electoral College, our constitutional process does not vote until december 14th. We have plenty of time to pursue all legal options. The electorals dont vote until december 14th. If the Electoral College does elect joe biden, are you not going to leave this building . Certainly i will. And you know that. Thats the president just a short few weeks ago saying if what happened yesterday happens, he will be leaving the white house. He hasnt formally acknowledged that since that major breaking news last night. It did certify and send the votes and you had joe biden speaking in prime time last night. We didnt hear from the president at all on camera yesterday. And he has nothing publicly scheduled for today at this point. Geoff, this is clearly a signal from senator mcconnell to the rest of the republican conference that game is over. Right . President elect biden is coming in. Weve known that. It was officially cemented as weve been talking about less than 18 hours ago when the vote in the Electoral College was finalized. You have to imagine that this is something that the biden team had wanted to hear. Right . As we know that joe biden has been getting outreach from top republicans. Youre right about that. And i should point out that joe biden last friday was asked pointedly if he had spoken with the Senate Majority leader and the president elect wouldnt say. He just grinned. Which suggested to all of us that he had. And even though it is notable that the Senate Majority leader is acknowledging joe biden as president elect, you can also make the case that it shouldnt be all that remarkable and shouldnt be all that notable given that biden and harris have been the apparent winners now for more than a month. And so i think the immediate test once we get beyond the platitudes is how will they Work Together . In the event that Mitch Mcconnell retains his role as Senate Majority leader, we dont know they will. But joe biden has called for this congress to pass a covid relief now. And then he wants them to do it again after hes sworn in. A more substantive, larger bill. So that is an immediate heavy lift. And so we will have to see the degree to which, if Mitch Mcconnell retains his leadership, he is willing to work with a biden administration. That will be the test. Not what he says on the senate floor today. That is a fair point. And again, as we are living in this breaking news here, senator Mitch Mcconnell, you watched it live here on the air saying he congratulates president elect joe biden. His acknowledgment now as geoff points out of the reality of the president ial races results. Noting that the president elect is no stranger to the senate saying joe biden devoted himself to Public Service for many years. A significant moment. Well check back in on this story as we get more reaction from other republicans and maybe democrats on the hill. That will come up in a minute. For now, thank you to you both. We have brand new reporting here. Details coming into us on bill barrs resignation. Of course, it happened, announced late yesterday, late last night. A source familiar with barrs decision is now telling nbc news moments ago that the attorney general was angry about the president s tweets over the weekend. Attacking him for keeping the hunter biden investigation quiet before the election. This, of course, came on the heels of other attacks by President Trump like for barrs comments to the Associated Press that he had not seen evidence of widespread voter fraud. We are hearing that barr unlike jeff sessions, for example, was not willing to turn the other cheek to President Trumps attacks. So sources are telling our team he drew a line and left. That source is emphasizing this was barrs doing. He was not pressured to resign. On that, at least, the white house agrees with one official telling our team at the white house that barr was not pushed out. We know as weve been talking about, there have been recent tensions between barr and President Trump. But for most of his tenure, the ag was a fiery defender of his boss. Early barr presented the controversy summary of the Mueller Report which was written did not fully capture the context of his work. This summer over protests, barr defended the decision to clear demonstrators from Lafayette Square for a photo op. And barr followed the lead in questioning the use of mailin ballots despite no evidence to back it up. I want to bring in chuck rosenberg, friend of the show. Chuck, its great to have you on. Good morning to you. Good morning, hallie. Let me talk about this new reporting. And again, this is literally coming in as we are on the air as im talking to you here in this broadcast. A source close to bar is saying he was not willing to turn his other cheek to the president s attacks. What do you make of that . Its interesting. Barr has been a huge defender as you pointed out of this president. And i think has lied on his behalf. He gross ri li mischaracterized the Mueller Report and helped the president weigh in on behalf of mike flynn and roger stone, allies of the president. Whether he left or was pushed out, hallie, good riddance. Its time for a change. We need somebody new to run the department of dus jjustice. You have thoughts on barrs resignation letter. He goes after the president s political opponents saying they launched an effort to cripple if not oust the administration with frenzied and baseless accusations of collusion with russia. I was struck by what was not in the letter. You fairly point out what is in the letter. This undying praise for the president and for his accomplishments. Look, ive read lots of these letters. Ive written two myself. I think the most important thing you can do when you write a letter like that is say look, it was a privilege to serve. I was honored to lead the department of justice. I am so proud of the men and women who work there. Career Public Servants devoted their lives to making this a better place and better country. They have a difficult mission. And it was really a privilege to be a part of it for a few short years. Where was that . And so without the grace or the humility to simply say thank you, it was an honor to work with you, my colleagues, at the department of justice, i thought the letter was awful. By the way, if you dont know how to write this thing, there are templates and pop eople at department of justice who can help you write it. The notion of praising the president and all his accomplishments and ignoring the men and women of the department of justice that he led, its whats missing from the letter that really disappoints me. Barr will leave his position next week just before the christmas holiday. The Deputy Attorney general will step in. He might have things on his plate. Theres discussion of the president doing many more pardons before he leaves office. Talk about over the next month as rosen is in that position as acting attorney general, what are the best Case Scenarios and what could be the worst case scenari scenarios . I can think of one thing immediately that jeff rosen can do to help ensure a smooth transition. A new administration is coming in in a month. I think its incumbent on everybody who leads an oagency n the United States government to make sure the next team has everything they need to take over and run it. I participated in two transitions. One which never came to fruition because the president was reelected and one in which we helped hand over the department of justice to those who came after us. It is the responsibility of the attorney general, and now the acting attorney general rosen to make sure that happens with respect to pardons, look, the president has not relied on the department of justice for their traditional role in vetting pardons. And recommending pardons. So i dont know that rosen is going fto have a huge role ther. He ought to be very much aware that this president is reckless and there are lots of things that may be asked of him in the coming weeks that make him uncomfortable. If he is uncomfortable, he ought to be careful and learn how to say no. Chuck rosenberg, thank you so much for your perspective. You know this Justice Department very well. You can catch episode 2 of chucks podcast, the oath, wherever you get your podcasts. When we come back, were going to one of the biggest coronavirus hot spots in the country where the vaccine is arriving today and were talking with a vaccine fighting vaccine skept kicicism on the front lin. Well have an update at the breaking news, Mitch Mcconnell acknowledging joe biden as the president elect of this country. Well take you live back to capitol hill. First, before all that, pull the sleds out of storage. The northeast is getting ready for the first big snow storm this year. You have winter tomorrow gale. You can see some places expected to get anywhere from a few inches in d. C. To maybe a foot of snow in new york and new england. After last year it was one of the least snowy winters on record. New york hasnt seen the kind of thing thats predicted since january of 2016. Everyday youre eating acidic foods; youre constantly weakening that enamel structure. Pronamel repair allows more minerals to penetrate deep into the enamel layer and it repairs it. It is pretty phenomenal. My body is truly powerful. I have the power to lower my a1c. Because my body can still make its own insulin. And trulicity activates my body to release it, lowering my blood sugar from the first dose. Onceweekly trulicity responds when my body needs it, 24 7. Trulicity is for type 2 diabetes. Its not insulin. It isnt for people with type 1 diabetes. Dont take trulicity if youre allergic to it, you or your family have medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2. Stop trulicity and call your doctor right away if you have an allergic reaction, a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, changes in vision, or diabetic retinopathy. Serious side effects may include pancreatitis. Taking trulicity with sulfonylurea or insulin raises low blood sugar risk. Side effects include indigestion, fatigue, belly pain, decreased appetite, nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting which can lead to dehydration and may worsen kidney problems. I have it within me to lower my a1c. Ask your doctor about trulicity. We want to take you live to the hill. Mitch mcconnell after six weeks roughly of saying nothing about president elect joe biden is now finally recognizing him as the next president elect. Given that the Electoral College formally certified what has been clear for weeks. President trump lost the election. I want to take you live to capitol hill. I know lee ann is there. I know that this just happened within the last couple minutes. I am wonder if theres any reaction from the republican sources that you are talking with, and if you expect more in the gop to follow suit here. Reporter hallie, so we started to see signs of this last night when members of mcconnells Leadership Team started to acknowledge after joe biden hit that 270 electoral vote mark around the 5 00 hour last night, members of mcconnells Leadership Team started to acknowledge that he was, in fact, the president elect, but mcconnell was silent. We hadnt heard him, from him yet. This morning, though, we were alerted that we should watch his speech on the senate floor when he opened the senate floor this morning, and after he went through a long list of President Trumps accomplishments, he ended by saying that the Electoral College has spoken, and that he congratulated president elect joe biden and Vice President elect Kamala Harris. An interesting note. Every morning the Senate Chaplain gives a prayer to open the senate, and he also prayed that the senate and members of congress acknowledge the Electoral College as well, and also wish well the new president elect joe biden. Its a big deal mcconnell said this. We are still hearing from some Senate Republicans whoven last night were saying that well, yes, the Electoral College has spoken but the Legal Process has to continue. I would follow up and ask when does the Legal Process end. The Electoral College has spoken. Is that january 6th when Congress Comes in or january 20th when president elect joe biden is sworn in . They didnt have an answer. Mcconnell is leading his party this morning saying that joe biden is the president elect. And i think important to note, this normally would not be news. Normally this wouldnt be something wed put a breaking news banner up to talk about. Its an indication of how extraordinary this year has been given the president s refusal to accept the results. Well check in later in the broadcast on this story. We want to turn back to the pandemic. Right now you have hospitals all across the country getting ready to receive the vaccine. That rollout is ramping up. A lot of places getting their first shipments today. It took about 24 hours for the shipments to move through the system. Maybe 48 hours in some cases. Vaccinations are set to start after the deliveries happen. We are at University Medical center of el paso where the first delivery is expected i think in the next couple hours. Take us inside the preps in a city hit so hard by covid as we talked about in the show and explain how this is not instant. Its not like the vaccines show up and go into arms immediately. Reporter thats right. The anticipation is building for the first doses to arrive. Were told 10 00 a. M. Local time is when theyre expected to arrive. It depends on when those arrive and when the vaccinations start to take place. They have to prep the doses. They are going to arrive in that ultra cold condition. And so they have to thaw them out. They have to be brought up to Room Temperature before theyre administered. At that point, thats when the clock starts ticking. They want to use it before it goes to waste. Again, the vaccinations may take place tomorrow or later today. It depends on when the delivery arrives. Even though that is welcome news, the county has Just Announced they may be imposing a new curfew over the holidays of christmas and new year. The county did it in october and november to try to stop the spread. It is still continuing to spread. The city says right now about 6 h people are hospitalized. 237 of those are in the icu. As for the vaccines, the city did a survey a couple weeks a egg to see who wants to take the vaccine and who says no way . About 86 of people surveyed got responses from 4,381 people. 86 say they plan to get it. They will most likely get it. More than half of 25 to 34yearolds say they plan to get it. There is a 68 group who say that have serious safety concerns. Theyre not sure theyre going to line up to get the vaccine right off the bat. Valerie live for us in el paso. Thank you. Teeing us nextly for a cardiologist and Florida State lead for the committee to protect medicare. Doctor, thank you for being on the show. Good morning. Thanks for having me. I want to talk to you about what valerie, my colleague in texas mentioned. The idea that there are some people concerned about getting the vaccine. The numbers are changing. Were seeing more people now according to new polling saying they are more willing to get this vaccine. And its important to show the science, the facts here. The brand new fda documents out this morning show moderna is very effective, that vaccine. The Pfizer Vaccine has fda emergency approval for people ages 16 and up. No serious safety concerns. It doesnt contain active covid virus. How do you talk to your patients, doctor, about getting the vaccine when some of them may feel hesitant to do so . A great question. And basically its all about equipping them with information to make good decisions. So my main criticism of the Operation Warp Speed Program was that the lack of communication strategy. Now that the vaccines are imminent, theyre theyve been approved or its authorized under the emergency use authorization act, you know, theyre here. And this communication should have been going on months ahead of time. Because now what youre running into is vaccine hesitancy. Its nothing new. Basically what i try to communicate with my patients is try to first of all listen to them. Okay . They have very real rational concerns. The one i hear is how quickly the vaccine has come to market, and so essentially what i try to do is try to explain to them the context behind the moderna and other Pfizer Vaccine, mrna vaccine in particular about the research and r d that went into this Technology Prior to the covid19 pandemic. Right. Because this mrna sequence, researchers have been working on this even before the pandemic started. The numbers indicate that we need and weve heard this before, about 75 to 80 of people vaccinated to reach herd immunity. Do you think the number is realistic . No. Not even close. And so the latest polls, the research polls indicated that about 58 of African Americans and people of color dont or say they wont get the vaccine, and there is a large demographic of folks who are just hesitant, and theres another demographic who say they wont get it under any circumstances. We do have some margin where we can improve the vaccine uptake, but essentially, we have to acknowledge the real and rational concerns of people of color. Especially folks who are black who know the historical the history of our country but also know the history of our health care system, and so a lot of people reference incidences. But i dont think the narrative includes folks understanding the fact that there are issues currently today. The disparities in mortality is huge. Disparities in individual diseases such as heart disease, im a cardiologist and i Pay Attention to, but cancer and other forms of chronic medical illnesses. Those are issues that are occurring today. And the case mortality rates that occurred were predictable. Unfortunately, a lot of people of color do not have access to care. They do to institutions that are underresourced, underfunded and unfortunately, that directly correlates to their impact on mortality, and so if you talk to them and express their rational concerns and then explain to them the research and the rationale behind the vaccine, then you can begin to change a few minds, but again, this should have been going on a long time ago, and this reflects the fact that we are often an afterthought. So if you want to encourage folks and get them to buy into the seasonal, you have to show it. You have to prove it. I think that we kind of need to catch up there. And this is a very important opportunity for us to allocate and dedicate resources. I think this is kind of a day of reckoning with the u. S. Health care system. After the pandemic is behind us, were going to deal with issues such as mortality with cardiovascular disease and cancer that hasnt been addressed to the degree it should have. Doctor, youre making some incredibly important points. Were glad to have your perspective on the show this morning. Thank you and we appreciate the work youre doing on the frontlines making those points. We appreciate it. Coming up, we should note we were showing live vaccinations while dr. Ashby was talking. Youll see vaccinations starting next week in Nursing Homes. Were talking with a top official at walgreens in their role at getting vaccines to people who are vulnerable. Vuln. Let me tell you something, i wouldnt be here if i thought reverse mortgages took advantage of any american senior, or worse, that it was some way to take your home. Learn how homeowners are strategically using a reverse Mortgage Loan to cover expenses, pay for healthcare, preserve your portfolio and so much more. A reverse Mortgage Loan isnt some kind of trick to take your home. Its a loan, like any other. Big difference is how you pay it back. Find out how reverse mortgages really work with aags free, noobligation reverse mortgage guide. With a reverse mortgage, you can pay whatever you can, when it works for you, or, you can wait, and pay it off in one lump sum when you leave your home. Discover the option thats best for you. Call today and find out more. Im proud to be a part of aag, i trust em, i think you can too. S uh um. Its shiori. Shori. Thank you, thats great. Shiori. I really love it. Who invented were car vending machines and buying a car 100 online. Now weve created a brandnew way for you to sell your car. Whether its a year old or a few years old. We wanna buy your car. So go to carvana and enter your license plate answer a few questions. And our techno wizardry calculates your cars value and gives you a real offer in seconds. When youre ready, well come to you, pay you on the spot and pick up your car, thats it. So ditch the old way of selling your car, and say hello to the new way at carvana. As we track day two of the National Vaccine rollout, you have access for Health Care Workers happening more quickly at least at the moment than for people in Nursing Homes. The other key Group Approved to be at the front of the line. Some of the delays are being blamed in part on challenges about getting written consent before vaccination. In some cases family members have to be contacted. In other cases there are bigger questions about what to do when nursing home residents cannot sign for themselves and dont have a clear person to sign for them. Let me bring in rick gates, now getting stores at walgreens to help with vaccinations at Nursing Homes probably within the next week and working ahead on plans for when the vaccine is available to the general public. Thank you for being on the show. Good morning. Great to be with you. Good morning. Thank you for having me. Lets start with the plans to help states vaccinate people at Nursing Homes and assisted living facilities. That starts less than a week from now. What does it look like . Obviously weve been working closely with operation warp speed and with the states and cdc to plan this out. We have about 35,000 longterm care facilities in nursing facilities that have chosen walgreens to be an administrator for them and weve been actively working with the states and longterm care facilities to plan them out when vaccines are available to get into Long Term Care facilities and vaccinate the residents as well as the Health Care Workers and staff at the facilities as well. Are there any i guess i could say lessons or anything youre seeing or learning from over the past 24 hours day one of this National Rollout that could change things for you moving forward . You know, i think that were trying to ensure that we understand the envin tory so we can plan appropriately to get out to longterm care facilities and vaccinate the entire staff and residents within the facilities. And then as we have more available, obviously, we want to accelerate that into the week so that we can vaccinate more americans more quickly, obviously. There are certain states that have pfizer as their choice of vaccine. So those are the ones youll see us in earnest working through next week. States that have chosen a Moderna Vaccine, were waiting for approval to have a vaccine available for longterm care facilities in those states specifically. That is set to come potentially as early as this week. I imagine that process will quick into high gear when it comes. What about for other americans, the vision for when the vaccine is widely available. Dr. Fauci said yesterday he thought it was going to be march or april in that time frame. Are people healthy americans able to walk into a walgreens and say id like a vaccine . Do they have to sign up in advance . Do you think the timeline is realistic . I think well see when we see production ramping up and if moderna is approved, if it is, the availability to get more vaccine into our hands is going to be increased. Theyre saying the vaccine should not stop being pushed until were past full vaccination for longterm care facilities. It come down to the states and they determine which priority populations we vaccinate. Even for the general public, we determine with the states what the priorities are and we have ways to ensure were vaccinating individuals as well as signing them up for they schedule appointments, if you will, as well as schedule the second series completion dose as well. Well come at it from a calculated way officially until broad vaccine is available that we can go to your point and expand beyond the prioritized populations. What about your own staffers . Theyre going to be the ones having to be in Walgreens Stores and different facilities helping with the administration of the vaccine. Are you concerned about having enough staffers . Most people need to be monitored for Something Like 15 minutes after getting the shot. That takes a lot of people and a lot of resources. You know, it does. Id say for phase one, especially with longterm care facilities, weve been planning for months for this. I would say from a staffing perspective, understanding the teams the pharmacy teams we need to go to longterm care facilities, we can do that. Weve been doing off site clinics forever. And so id say weve done 150,000 over the last five years. We know what were doing, and i think well continue to have that process in place to ensure safety protocols as well as the time to ensure theres no adverse reaction to the individuals that are receiving the vaccine as well. Rick gates live for us on msnbc of walgreens. Thank you for your time and for walking us through the process. I think its something a lot of people want to know about. Coming up at noon eastern, Andrea Mitchel is staying on the issue, talking with the head of operation warp speed right here on msnbc. Back now to the development in washington that happened in the last 30 minutes. Mitch mcconnell acknowledging joe biden as president elect. Congratulating him on his win. President trump has not responded specifically to that at this point. Although, he is still tweeting baseless claims of voter fraud as we speak. Were watching for reaction from the white house, the biden team, from other lawmakers to this moment. The Electoral College has spoken. So today i want to congratulate president elect joe biden, the president elect is no stranger to the senate. Hes devoted himself to Public Service for many years. With me now is our senior Political Editor mark murray. A couple topics. How does this change the dynamics . The time when joe biden ended up being declared by the networks to be the president elect to now the Electoral College cementing that and now Senate Majority leader Mitch Mcconnell tremendous amou from Republican Voters about the election where polls show the majority of republicans think somehow President Trump had this election stolen from him, that joe biden is not the legitimate president , all of which are false. I think that fiveweek time frame ended up sowing a lot of distrust to the electorate. Mitch mcconnell, a lot of the logic of withholding the recognition of joe biden as president elect, you want to keep your caucus unified, particularly as you run into these Georgia Senate runoffs in january. We still see a Republican Party still split on recognizing joe biden as the president elect where you had people like mitt romney and Lisa Murkowski who did it right after the networks did. Now youre seeing other republicans, including Mitch Mcconnell recognize after the Electoral College. Theres still a sizable number of republicans who are not on board on this. So republicans arent unified, whether you come to the covid relief talks or the Senate Runoffs in january. Lets talk about those by the way, on the Senate Runoffs, its testing, the same day mish mcconnell is acknowledging joe biden as the president elect, joe biden is in georgia working to flip the balance of power to make sure mcconnell is no longer the majority leader come 2021. You mentioned covid relief, mark. This is the week for it. If its going to happen, its going to happen this week. My understanding is you have these bipartisan proposals now. Where is this going . Again, hallie, i think the votes are certainly there. The we is whether theres still the Political Leadership to get them done. As weve been reporting and our Capitol Hill Team has been reporting, you end up having bipartisan negotiators who put a good faith effort into these covid relief talks. Still the president of the United States really hasnt moved that much and you havent seen the leadership on the republican side get on board. Its the leadership thats the last missing ingredient. Leadership does matter, whether at the white house or on capitol hill, hallie. Mark murray, live in washington. Talking through all things hill related, thank you for that. Turning now back to our coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, because the covid relief bill, if it happens, cannot come too soon for so many people. Millions of americans struggling. In the crisis of the pandemic, theres also a crisis developing inside that. Were talking about Food Insecurity facing millions of people and families in this country. I was working at a food pantry actually. Here you are now getting the food. Yes. You were at one point distributing the food . Correct. You can live off your credit card for so long. Your bank account, savings account only lasts so long. Your bank account only lasts so long. If it werent for these sites, would you be able to get food on the table . Not really. The Group Feeding america projects the number of people in need is going from one in nine last year to one in six people this year. More than 50 million americans will experience Food Insecurity this year in 2020. Take a look at lines from just this morning, just today at a food pantry in connecticut. Youve got National Food Bank Officials telling us 40 of people going to food drives leading up to the holidays have never been to one before. Knowing this Upcoming Season will be so tough for so many, Nbc Universal is activating what we call the season of giving. This qr code will be on the bottom of the screen for the next couple minutes. Open your camera, put it up to that qr code. Monica worked at a food pantry. Thank you for being on the show. Good morning to you. Good morning. Thank you for this opportunity. Tell us about your journey, your story. You, like a lot of people in this pandemic, you lost your job and then started working at a food pantry. Absolutely. My pastor at my church sent me the link to a federal grant that was applied by our dane county job center. From the that connection, i was hired at the river food pantry on the north side of madison. Its the busiest food pantry in South Central wisconsin. While i was working in the kitchen helping to make the family athome meals that we send out, they used to have a Community Meal and obviously we cant do that because of covid. So we know package the meals up and give them out. Yes give about 1,200 meals over four days, open tuesday through friday. Its incredible the number of people that come through. We have signed up through the covid since march 2,000 new families. It has been a lifesaver to me. Talk about that. Because you reached out. You asked for help, and i wonder if you felt uncomfortable with that. Did you feel there was a stigma around that . What would you tell someone in a similar position . There is a stigma. We get individuals through the line all the time that are like, well, i dont have a job. My wife has a job. Can i still sign up . Can i get some food . Weave increased 40 of new individuals that are middle class. Theyre working class. They had professional jobs, just like me. Im a Fund Development person for a nonprofit. Nonprofits are having a hard time. It wasnt until i came to the river food pantry and i was working and someone asked me, well, are you picking up food as well . I didnt think of it. It wasnt until someone actually invited me to pick up, you know get in line and pick up food. And now im really speaking out because there is a stigma of, i volunteer for these places, i dough naelt to these places, i coordinate food drives for these type of charities. I dont participate there are so many people and some of my friends, theyre like, how do you even sign up . Were used to working and volunteeri volunteering. Were not used to being the services. Yet, it is a gift to give as ive experienced. Its also a gift to receive. So beautifully said. Ive gone through 100 of my savings. Im sorry. Monica, i didnt mean to interrupt you. Youve gone through your savings and this food bank, im sure, is a lifesaver for you. It is. It is through the grace of god and the generosity of others that ive survived. Thank you. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for bearing with that delay over the computer skype situation. Monica wahlberg. Were so appreciative of you sharing your story. Thank you. That qr code is at the bottom of your screen. Take your camera app, get up on screen. Its going to take you exactly to where you need to go if you want to help as we at Nbc Universal and msnbc move forward in tseason of giving. Thats it for us this hour. Well see you back here tomorrow. Oat gel is formulated with prebiotic oat. And strengthens skins moisture barrier. Uh i love it aveeno® healthy. Its our nature. ™ 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. Good morning. Im Chris Jansing in for craig melvin. We are in the thick of day two of the largest Vaccination Campaign in our nations history. Right now another dose of positive news even as we watch more of our Health Care Workers get vaccinated. Plus, in just the last few hours, the fda