the united states are known to have been infected with covid-19. more than 442,000 americans have died. add to that america is struggling with the vaccination rollout and there's growing concern about new variants of the virus. dr. michael osterholm with the center disease research at the university of minnesota. he says a surge of the u.k. variant could happen in the u.s. in the next six to 14 weeks. >> i think right now in advance of this surge, we need to get as many one-doses in as many people over 65 as we possibly can to reduce the serious illness and deaths that are going to occur over the weeks ahead. >> meanwhile, millions of americans remain out of work. tomorrow is the first of the month. rent's due. so it might be good news that ten senate republicans are proposing a relief package in hopes of a bipartisan solution. but it is significantly smaller than president biden's $1.9 trillion proposal. today they wrote a letter asking to meet with the president and pitch him their plan. their offer is less than a third of the biden plan, but it includes money for vaccines, health and substance abuse services, unemployment aid, and assistance for schools. the head of the national economic council brian deese dave his early reaction on "meet the press." >> the president has said repeatedly he's open to ideas wherever they may come where we can improve upon the approach to tackling this crisis. what he's uncompromising about is the need to move with speed on a comprehensive approach here. >> plenty to talk about, so let's begin tonight with nbc national political reporter sahil kapur. sahil, tell us first about this legal team that we have learned of tonight, the two attorneys who will be representing donald trump in his impeachment trial. what do we know about them? >> yeah, joshua. president trump announcing that the two lawyers will lead his legal team. they are david shone, who is a former d.a. in pennsylvania, and bruce caster is another one. a criminal and civil defense lawyer. this comes after some shuffling occurred with president trump's legal team previous lawyers. he was vetting or was reported to be vetting, planning to sign on, had ultimately left on disagreements of strategy. these are the two lawyers who willible will be leading his defense team. he comes in with a highly sympathetic jury. he needs two-thirds -- more than one-third of the senate to be on his side in order to be acquitted. and right now there are 45 jurors, if you will, who have voted to throw the whole trial out on procedural and constitutional grounds. so essentially these two lawyers don't mess up big, he should be fine. >> what about this deal that has been offered from these ten republican senators? what is our sense so far of how viable it might be compared to how viable president biden's plan looks right now? >> yeah, this is a really good question for the white house, joshua. president biden is caught between essentially two paths here. there is one path he could go down, which would be big, bold, progressive, $1.9 trillion plan. that does not have any prospect for bipartisan support and getting through the senate on a 50 vote -- sorry, 60 vote basis. that would have to be democratic vote only. there is a path slimming it down substantially, pursuing bipartisanship and making good on his talk of unity, but that would take sharply curtailing his $1.9 trillion proposal by at least a third of it. maybe even a fourth of it depending on where these senators come down. a number of these republican senators who signed onto the letter are not the type that typically break party lines on a politically consequential vote. them signing a letter is one thing. many getting to a vote is another thing. >> what is your sense of what it looks like both sides or all sides seem to be in agreement now? >> the issue, joshua, the two sides are on agreement with is vaccine money and help to reopen schools. most senators i talk to say those are the only two things they're interested in offering money for. the base of the republican proposal is $160 billion to help distribute the vaccine. and there is an amount of money for schools as well, but that again is a fraction of what president biden has. so that's the big question now for the white house. >> that's nbc national political reporter sahil kapur starting us off. sahil, thanks very much. let's get back to the breaking news that former president trump has put together a legal team for his upcoming senate trial. joining us to discuss that and more is joel payne, former senior aide to the 2016 clinton campaign. and former press secretary to senate majority leader harry reid. also with us is matt gorman, republican strategist and former communications director for the national republican committee. let me get your reaction to the legal team. matt, you first. then joel. >> broadly, i think it will be very hard for whoever he hired to get down in the well of the senate and defend his actions on their merits. i think it's why you're seeing a lot of republicans talk about process or constitutionality. look, i think to the point, as long as these people have some ability of competence, the votes will likely not be there to convict. in the last couple weeks especially, the momentum is really kind of sapped out of that push and i think you might get a handful of votes, but no more. >> joel? >> i think matt makes some good points. what i'd add to that is something hakeem jeffries said, the number 4 democrat in the house. when he talked about how not only is the senate going to be the place of the trial, but it's actually the scene of the crime. that visual those members of congress, senators and house members experienced just a month ago is going to be emblazoned in their minds. look, whoever takes this case for president trump, i have no reason to believe these two attorneys are not capable. whoever takes this case is just going to have an uphill battle just by the facts. they may be able to avoid conviction because of politics, but if you're just looking at the facts of this case, donald trump should easily be convicted. >> matt kind of alluded to his in his reaction. joel, i wonder what your sense of strategy might be. it was suggested in "the new york times" the attorneys who had been on mr. trump's legal team left because he wanted them to keep pushing these baseless claims about the election. what do you think the strategy looks like, joel, in terms of the former president? does he need to even have a strategy considering how high the bar is that the prosecution has to clear to convict him? >> joshua, i give you so much credit for trying to dig deep and figure out what the strategy is for president trump. i mean, i would imagine the only strategy here could be don't believe your lying eyes because, again, these folks who he's going to be standing trial in front of saw all the evidence they need to see. we heard it. we have it documented on twitter, on tv, firsthand accounts from the president, his family, all the people around him. so, you know, you're really just -- you're banking on political defense here. you're not banking on actual defense based on the evidence and i think, again, i think the president's team has their work cut out nor them. >> matt, with regards to this covid relief bill, what do you think of the strategy of the ten republican senators so far? granted they're going to release the bill tomorrow so i know we don't have all the details just yet. but i don't think the amount of them, ten, is an accident. that would bring them with all the democrats to 60, which is a really key number for moving this thing forward. what do you think about the strategy? >> a couple points. they seem to be calling president biden's bluff, as you mentioned before. he says he wants to negotiate. he says he wants bipartisan bill. here we go. these are serious people. susan collins, mitt romney. also todd young and others who are maybe not as moderate. they're conservative folks. but, look, we can talk about these ten all day, but in the end it's going to come down to one person, that's joe manchin. even with the 50 votes, he needs to be the 50th vote for a reconciliation bill. so, you know, whether you get republicans or not, they need to keep joe manchin on board and bernie sanders and elizabeth warren on board. that's the absolute bare minimum. >> one of the things that came up and this has to do with direct payments to the american people in terms of one of the early sticking points that some republicans have expressed, senator rob portman, republican from ohio, addressed that this morning on "meet the press." joel, i'd like your reactions to part of what he said. >> with regard to the direct payments, we think they should be much more targeted. $50,000 cap for individuals, as an example. 100,000 for a family. and right now if you look at the administration's plan, you have people with three kids getting $300,000. some have no impact, others are struggling. let's focus on those who are struggling. >> so, joel, to those comments from the state of the union on cnn -- sorry, that was not "meet the press." what do you think of that in terms of being a possible sticking point? >> i think what's interesting to me -- i know my buddy matt here, he has to be happy because he doesn't have to talk about all the garbage of the trump era. he can talk about old school republican, republican economics here. i think when it comes to this package, it's interesting to me that republicans have decided that we can balance the budget on the backs of working people, right. you don't have these conversations come up when you're talking about tax breaks, when tour talking about making sure the wealthy and the well connected get their piece of the pie. republicans have no problem doing that. that tcja that passed in 2017, there was no concern about targeting savings or targeting tax breaks. you're only talking about targeting when you're talking about working families, working individuals, people with three children, just to be able to speak about someone in that position as if somebody with three children would not be in need in this moment. i think it speaks volumes about where republicans are here or where democrats are here. and the fact of the matter is this. joe biden has a mandate. he has a mandate to bring people together and unity does not mean capitulation. i think all of those things republicans are going to have to deal with. that's why they're putting up a plan they know joe biden is not going to accept. they put up these ten republicans to try to move the senate on this issue. >> matt, i can see the democrats reaching a point where the whole effort to kum ba ya their way through the next two years, at least, if not four of the entire president's first term, will fall apart. where they just get in republicans faces and say, you know what, you seem very content to let people die. you seem content to let people die from covid because you haven't done what you needed to do. you seem content to let your colleagues die on the floor of the house and the senate because you don't seem to think it's important to hold the people accountable who fomented this. you go right ahead killing the american people. we're going to start saving lives. call us when you want to show up. i feel like there is a point at which the democratic party will blow up president biden's efforts at unity and it will get things done, and it will make a huge mess. is that in the best interest of the gop politically to let that happen? or would it be wise for them to start solving some problems? >> well, i think that democrats accusing republicans of wanting to kill people wouldn't be in the best interest of democrats. i would gladly have that fight, quite frankly, if they're going to make that accusation. >> not killing people, letting people die. not putting them in the ground, but allowing their deaths to go without due response, due action to save lives. >> i would love to fight that semantic battle with a democrat. but yes. look, i think that democrats, for all the talk about unity, for all the talk about negotiation, again, this is a serious proposal. this is not ted cruz wanting president obama to repeal obamacare or he's going to keep the government shutdown. this is a serious proposal with serious legislature -- legislators, and let's remember, too, again as i said before, this comes down to joe manchin, and who is joe manchin's probably closest friend in the senate? susan collins. so they're going to be together on a lot of these issues. whether or not they appeal to mitt romney or susan collins, they need to appeal to joe manchin. i can tell you joe manchin won't be willing to stand up and say the republicans are willing to let people die. >> republican strategist matt gorman and democratic strategist joel payne. gentlemen, appreciate you helping us start off tonight. >> thank you. >> coming up, boston's mayor is named secretary. it could remake that city's politics. one of the mayoral candidates will join us just ahead. also this week marks four weeks since the insurrection at the capitol. prosecutors are charging an array of suspects. but do we need new lawes to fight domestic terrorism? and we know you have more questions about covid-19 including the new strains and the new vaccines. dr. lippy roy will be here to answer them. do keep the questions coming. you can email us theweek@msnbc.com. that's all ahead as "the week" continues on msnbc. on msnbc illis to feeding america. and yet, one in four children may still face hunger. so, as part of our love promise, subaru and our retailers are doing it again, donating an additional 100 million meals to help those in need. love. it's never been needed more than right now. subaru. more than a car company. ♪ ♪ ♪ smooth driving pays off. ♪ with allstate, the safer you drive the more you save. ♪ you never been in better hands. allstate. click or call for a quote today. the department of homeland security issued a national terrorism advisory this week. it points to the heightened threat posed by domestic violent extremists motivated by the results of the 2020 election. at least 160 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the riot at the capitol. the fbi believes that some of the rioters coordinated their assaults. and that two pipe bombs that were discovered near the capitol were planted the night before the attack. president biden has indicated he wants to pass a new law against domestic terrorism. but do we really need new laws to prevent and prosecute the sort of violence we saw on january 6th? how exactly do the existing laws fall short? for more on this we're joined by heena shamsi, the aclu national security project and jason, department of counterterrorism official, now pro first at institute of middlebury school. good to have both of you with us. in his inaugural address, president biden referred to the threat by, quote, a rise in political extremism, white supremacy and domestic terrorism we must confront and defeat. how is domestic terrorism different from other kinds of terrorism? >> in the united states there is an imbalance. the u.s. government has myopically focused in the past charging individuals for providing material support to designated terrorist groups like isis and al qaeda. and there have been a lot of documented situations where we had black muslim men in detroit sending small amounts of money to groups like al-shabaab in somalia where they end up behind bars for 20 years for that small amount of finance. in contrast, you have more than 100 people who stormed the capitol. they are individuals very likely to spend a lot less time in jail than the individual who provided material support to al-shabaab. simply put, i think there is incongruity to our lawes. it is easier to charge people for terrorism when there is an international nexus to a case and you don't have that same situation with domestic laws. >> you wrote an article for us on nbc think, which is the opinion and perspective part of nbcnews.com. and in that article you referred to this idea of a domestic terrorism law as misguided. why is it misguided? >> for at least a couple of reasons. thank you so much for having me. the thing is that if the government wants to address white supremacist violence effectively and meaningfully, it has all the power it needs where there is the will. there are, in fact, adequate and expensive police powers to address white supremacist violence. there are over 50 domestic terrorism statutes that criminalize domestic terrorism and material support for it. there's a plethora of hate crime laws, but law enforcement could use. but historically and traditionally and through to today, that's not what they have done. they have not focused their resources and investigative and prosecutorial powers, which are expansive -- in fact, we think overly expansive in ways they have been interpreted and applied and used. and those police powers are exacerbated by structural racism means that the authorities that exist for domestic terrorism investigations and prosecutions have been targeted and used harmfully against black and brown communities, communities of color, and passage of the new law as some in congress might be contemplating, the biden administration, will actually only worsen the harms. and it's unnecessary. >> professor, what about that? we do have a history of going after domestic terrorists. i think about the department of justice itself. it was founded as the department of justice, in part, to go after klan members. there were laws set up to go after that kind of white supremacy. this isn't new to the u.s. where do you see maybe one example of a gap in the current laws that would prevent us from going after the people who attacked the capitol? >> well, there are quite a few gaps. one really comes to mind, you have a situation where somebody like dylann roof carries out a deadly attack that kills nine black americans in the church in south carolina never being charged with an act of terrorism because simply put the government can't charge because he used a small weapon and light arm. another example, christopher hassan, a white supremacist on the precipice of carrying out an attack got 13 years in jail. the government couldn't charge him with an act of domestic terrorism. if he could, he would be behind bars much longer. we are lacking a lot of potential charges here. >> i'm confused now. you said we have definitions of domestic terrorism, but we don't have the laws that allow us to charge. >> correct. >> don't those -- aren't those definitions part that allow us to charge it? how does it happen? >> it's a significant gap in our laws. that's why you have a lot of members calling for new legislation to close those gaps because you have people who have committed acts of terrorism that meet the definition, but there aren't simply charges that can be levied against them. there are charges if somebody carries out an act involving a weapon of mass destruction or incendiary devices, but those are only related to explosive devices. so unless an individual is part of an overseas network providing material support to an overseas network, those individuals are not going to be charged with an act of domestic terrorism. there is a sufficiency law. >> let me finish by asking each of you what you think may be the step forward in this path. hina, i know there is a potential civil liberties issue with, for example, charging people who were rallying versus attacking the capitol. some suggested it could become a first amendment issue which could lead to some prosecutions being thrown out when they go to court. what do you think, hina, is the best first step, if not new domestic terror laws, then what, before we go? >> so, law enforcement actually has -- if i could break it down for you a little bit, there is a definition of domestic terrorism that congress passed after 9/11 as part of the patriot act. it is broad and it has been used expansively in combination with other fbi and law enforcement authorities to investigate a broad range of crimes and prosecute some, albeit not against white supremacists as domestic terrorism. and the agencies have claimed these powers that allow them to investigate without even actual evidence of criminal wrongdoing. so, again, it's not that there is a lack of police power. it's that there is a lack of police will to address white supremacist violence effectively. >> right. >> there is something very powerful about using the rhetoric of terrorism. i absolutely get that. but the problem here is that what congress needs to do instead of passing more laws is to investigate why it is that federal agencies have not used the existing powers that they have -- >> right. >> -- to pass safeguards against abuses and to address this problem securely for all of our community. >> professor, very briefly before we go, what's the next step, briefly? >> so there is a combination of things. i think first and foremost, federal law enforcement investigative agencies need to continue to shift resources to the domestic threat t. wasn't that long ago christopher wray said 70% of fbi agents are looking at international ter terrorism, not domestic terrorism. simply put, individuals who use light weapons to carry out terrorism aren't being charged. limit domestic terrorism and oversight attached to t. >> middlebury professor and hina of the aclu, we thank you for helping us think this through. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> boston's mayoral race could make history. we'll tell you how and meet one of the candidates coming up. ws r commercials with nostalgia. so to help you remember that liberty mutual customizes your home insurance, here's one that'll really take you back. wow! what'd you get, ryan? it's customized home insurance from liberty mutual! what does it do bud? it customizes our home insurance so we only pay for what we need! and what did you get, mike? 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bostonians have never elected a woman or a person of color to run the city. now the candidates include three women of color. we'll try to make space to meet as many of the candidates as we can, but they include city councilmember andrea campbell. she announced her campaign last september. in an interview, miss campbell said her city needs leadership that can understand equality from lived experience. she added that now is a unique opportunity to face the city's history and transcend it. andrea campbell joins us now. councilmember campbell, good evening. >> good evening. >> let's start with the basic question. why should bostonians elect you mayor? >> well, first of all, thank you for having me. i love your show. so happy to be on this evening. just like i said, i think we all recognize we are in a pivotal moment in this country and in this city. everyone is talking about race and racism and systemic reform frankly in ways they haven't in a really long time. i think boston does have a unique opportunity we won't necessarily get any time soon to confront our own painful history of racism, segregation, and to do that we need leadership not only that is bold and courageous, but leadership that understands those inequities and has lived them. and i jumped into this race back in september when the mayor was still running at the time, and i said at the time, you know, i got into public service life after losing my twin brother andre who died while in the custody of the corrections while he was 29 years old. i asked the question when i was running some months ago against a 32-year-old incumbent, she had two twins born and raised in the city of boston, have such different life outcomes. >> right. >> i never in a million years would have imagined that my lived experience with so many inequities would face bostonians would be the foundation for elected office and the foundation for this run. >> boston has a lot of things to to deal with as does every major city. it's kind of why i love covering mayoral politics. you have to get things done, pave potholes. a snow emergency starting at noon, we will have one starting at 6:00 a.m., so i hope you're safe in this nor'easter. >> you, too. >> where do you put boston in the considerations along with paving potholes, improving the t, thinking through the city's future, vaccinating residents? how does that fit into the mix of how residents should pick their next mayor? >> it should be front and center. you know, we all have experienced the painful murder of george floyd. of course, the attack on the capitol in washington, d.c., and white supremacists and race and racism and marginalization, segregation, it is real. and so this is our opportunity in the city of boston to say, if we're going to move forward and ensure that our city provides equitable access not only, of course, to testing and vaccines in the midst of covid, but to opportunity generally, then we have to confront our painful history of race and racism, which allows persistent inequities in the city of boston, whether in education, housing, policing, our criminal legal system to persist. and if we are going to eradicate those inequities, we have to grapple with the root causes. and we need a leader who is unafraid to do that and i'm not afraid. >> let me ask you a few policy questions before i have to let you go. there were some protesters who gathered in boston yesterday to call for cancelling rent during the pandemic because of intense housing crisis that's popped up. as mayor, what's one thing you could do to address this say if you were in the mayor's office today? >> first and foremost, it is absolutely making sure folks have access to rent or relief funds which is currently available. we can expand that in the city of boston. access to legal counsel. this is happening every single day. i was just dealing with a constituent this morning who was evicted out of his home in the most freezing cold day in the city of boston, and this is someone who pays their rent on time. and so there are credible things we can do, but first and foremost and expanding the relief fund, access to lawyers, and holding landlords accountable when they choose to put people out on the streets which is absolutely unacceptable. >> definitely have to ask you about the vaccine rollout. phase two begins this week. people have been criticizing governor baker for the nature of the rollout including setting up a hotline to help seniors make appointments. before i have to let you go, as mayor how would you interface with governor baker to improve how bostonians get vaccinated? >> this is critically important. if we are going to come out of covid and bounce back economically we're going to have to have an equitable rollout of the vaccine. i put out a plan, let's prioritize communities of color, essential workers, and teachers, and make sure pushing for an equitable rollout, we're giving folks information, points of contact so they can contact folks, of course, to make sure they have all the information they need in order to make an informed decision about he getting a vaccine. >> boston city councilmember and mayoral candidate andrea campbell, one of a number of women of color running to be boston's mayor. councilmember campbell, thanks very much. >> thank you for having me. >> and again, i should note we are reaching out to other candidates in the race, and we will make time for as many of them as we can. the u.s. capitol remains surrounded with fencing tonight. should it stay there? 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actually it's for both new and existing customers. i feel silly. but i do want the fastest 5g network. oh i want the fastest 5g network. are we actually doing this again? it's not complicated. only at&t gives everyone the same great deal. like the samsung galaxy s21 5g for free when you trade in. ♪♪ for skin as alive as you are... don't settle for silver 7 moisturizers 3 vitamins 24 hours hydration gold bond champion your skin it has been just over three weeks since the deadly riot at the capitol. now capitol police are making recommendations for long-term security changes. visiting congress and speaking with our representatives is baked into american democracy. how should we keep the people's house accessible and safe? here's nbc's garrett haake. >> reporter: capitol police manning temporary barricades were no match for the angry mob that attacked the capitol on january 6th. now with multiple investigations and reviews underway, the capitol police department's acting chief on thursday calling for vast improvements in the capitol's physical security. including permanent fencing around the complex's perimeter. that suggestion quickly met with bipartisan opposition for members of congress. republican elise stefanik tweeting she's adamantly opposed. jake calling it a mistake to turn the home of our democracy into a fortress. known as the people's house, surrounding corporational office buildings and parks were accessible to residents and tourists nearly 5 million per year taking time to visit their representatives and observe congress in action. while future guidelines remain unclear, d.c.'s nonvoting member of congress adamantly against a permanent barrier. >> the last thing we need in our nation's capital is fencing around the capitol. i strongly oppose it. we'll fight it. >> reporter: but the threat to the capitol and members of congress remains. on wednesday, police arrested a west virginia man with a hand gun, stop the steal paperwork, and the list of lawmakers just outside the fence line. and a homeland security bulletin this week warned of a heightened threat from domestic extremists potentially emboldened by the january 6 attack. >> i hope we're going through a dark period in our history, but that we can get beyond it and not have to, you know, do our government work behind the barricades. >> that was nbc's garrett haake reporting. when we come back, it's our next installment of dear doctor. we'll put your questions to dr. lipi roy next. trelegy for copd. ♪ birds flyin' high you know how i feel ♪ ♪ breeze drifting on by you know how i feel ♪ [man: coughing] ♪ it's a new dawn, it's a new day... ♪ no matter how you got copd it's time to make a stand. ♪ ...and i'm feelin' good ♪ start a new day with trelegy. no once-daily copd medicine has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. it also helps prevent future flare-ups. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. it's time to start a new day. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy. and save at trelegy.com. today new york's mayor bill de blasio announced that all of tomorrow's vaccination appointments will be postponed. reason being, a nor'easter could bury the city in snow. this temporary delay will derail the city's vaccine rollout, an effort that was already struggling. new covid variants are popping up around the country and that makes getting people vaccinated even more vital. here's what dr. kostareloser home told chuck todd this morning on "meet the press." >> imagine where we're at, chuck, we're sitting on a beach where it's 70 degrees, perfectly blue skies, gentle breeze. but i see that hurricane 5, category 5 or higher, 450 miles offshore. and you know, telling people to evacuate in that nice blue sky day is going to be hard. i can also tell you that hurricane's coming. >> well, this hurricane has prompted an avalanche of questions. dr. lipi roy is here to discuss them. she is the medical director for housing sites in new york city. dr. roy, good to see you. >> good to see you, joshua, as always. >> before we get into questions, let me ask you. you've been busy with vaccinations this week for a little while now. how is it going from your perspective? >> yeah, i mean, you know, i'm fortunate to live in a city ha has the world's best public health systems and public health departments, i should say. so you're seeing images now, that's me with the assistant commissioner chris packet. those are vaccinators. those are the south bronx site. and i was also at the lori site in manhattan. i have both of those sites, i think we vaccinated over 800 new yorkers, new york health care workers as well as elderly and other eligible new yorkers at both of those sites. so i will say it makes for a long tiring day, but it's also highly rewarding when so many people are coming up to you thanking you for the opportunity to get vaccinated. and i remind all of them that they're playing their part in helping us fight the pandemic, but we are facing issues, joshua, as you know, limited supply of vaccine. >> right. >> and we're facing an equity problem. the new york city health department just revealed -- released data showing that of the people that have been vaccinated, 48% are white, 15% asian, 15% latino and only 10% black. severe mortality is affecting people of color. we need to fix these problems. >> with regard to the supply question, that gets to our first audience question. we'll get to as many as we can in this segment. let's look at what dave left in our inbox. >> i'm dave calhoun from lebanon, pennsylvania. lebanon, pennsylvania, if the companies are working 24/7 and 7 days a week how long does it take to make the vaccine. we see thousands of little bottles on conveyor belts. is this happening daily, hourly? i received my first shot of moderna several weeks ago and due for my second shortly. how long until other groups and categories get the vaccine? >> good question, what is the timeline for producing the vials of these vaccines? >> joshua, let me first commend dave for getting his first dose. i too got my first dose of the moderna vaccine a few weeks ago. i'm due for my second dose this tuesday. i too emceeing the little images of those little vials on the conveyer belts. my understanding is that the companies are working as fast as they can. the bottleneck is really there mch although i will point out that there's a quality control aspect. i mean, every vial has to be inspected and all the components have to be inspected carefully and we want that to happen. but it's important to remember that you know, these companies moderna, pfizer, they are not just making vaccines for the united states. in order to fight the pandemic, we cannot just have the u.s. to reach herd immunity, we need the globe to reach that. >> there's fights in parts of the world between the european union and uk now that it's out of the eu, in terms of getting vaccines back and forth. that that has been a big fight over the last few days. let's go to the next video. >> hey, joshua, i'm about to get my second vaccine. and i have been isolated from friends and family for since march. i'm terrified and very excited about being able to be among them again, and get their hugs. but, i am afraid i don't, i'm not really clear on whether i need to wait 15 days, or ten days, after the vaccine. which in my case is moderna. and i know i have to wear a mask. and any other information you have about that day of supposed freedom when i can walk out of isolation and be among humanity again? thank you. >> thank you, loraina. totally understandable she wants to know how long after you've been vaccinated can you feel free again. >> thank you for doing the right thing in terms of protecting yourself and the rest of the people around you including your loved ones by staying isolated. so here's the thing. what we know is that the person who gets vaccinated is protected from getting the disease. and 95% reduction in getting the severe illness. however, we do not know if you are able to still transmit the virus to others. we've already seen cases where people get the vaccine and yet they test positive. so that means you can still test positive and possibly transmit it to others. that's why even after you get your second dose of the vaccine, it's still so important to wear that mask. and to maintain physical distancing until we really have more information. >> let's get to one last question, here's what jenny wants to know. >> hi, my name is jenny. my question is about the antibody test. if somebody had covid-19 in the past year, and didn't know it, how accurate is the test? and how much time needs to pass between having covid and antibodies showing that can be tested? thank you. >> thank you, jenny. and if i could expand that. another viewer asked about covid testing and these new variants. how do the variants -- we know the virusess mutate. that's how they propagate. how do these variants affect covid testing, antibody testing and so on? >> yes, so let's start with the viewer's question first, on the antibody testing. so it can take 2-3 weeks to develop enough antibodies to get detected in an antibody test. don't get tested too soon. and, but we also don't know how long these antibodies last or to what degree of immunity they will confer. because as we know, we have seen a few cases of reinfection. as for the covid tests, so, they are, remember, these covid tests are testing for coronavirus infection. right? so, it's not able to detect or distinguish between the different variants. the covid tests are detecting the coronavirus, the coronavirus virus, so, via either antigen or pcr and dna testing. so it can't distinguish between what variant you have. >> because it's testing for this type of virus rather than every single variant, it should be able to catch various variants because these variants still have the same basic genetic structure, right? >> that's right. i know they're hearing so much about these different variant from different countries. by the way, the u.s. probably has its own variants as well but we don't have the same level of surveillance for genetic sequencing. but this is why it's important for everyone to get vaccinated. we need to use whatever tools possible in order to reach herd immunity so we can protect all of ourselves. >> we appreciate your help answering questions tonight. thanks very much. >> good night, joshua. the super bowl will be missing some of its biggest commercials this year for a good reason. that's just ahead. stay close. reason that's just ahead. stay close “could have been me” by the struts hey, mercedes? how can i help you? the 2021 e-class. motortrend's 2021 car of the year. ♪♪ this is what community looks like. ♪♪ caring for each other, ♪♪ protecting each other. ♪♪ and as the covid vaccine rolls out, we'll be ready to administer it. ♪♪ cell phone repair. did you knowe ready to liberty mutualster it. customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need? just get a quote at libertymutual.com. really? i'll check that out. oh yeah. i think i might get a quote. not again! aah, come on rice. do your thing. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ super bowl lv is one week from tonight. this year's championship highlights two of the biggest quarterbacks. tom brady of the buccaneers and patrick mahomes of the kansas city chiefs. the game will be unique for a few reasons. it will be the first time a team has ever played the super bowl in its home stadium. in this case, raymond james stadium in northwest tampa. also, this will be the first telecast in 37 years without a commercial from budweiser. a 30 second ad costs $5.5 million this year. but the issue is not the price tag. budweiser said its teaming up with the ad council for a campaign to support covid-19 vaccine awareness and access. here's a bit of the ad that will run digitally all week. >> together, let's turn our strength into hope. ♪♪ >> and you won't see any ads on tv from coke