we could be just days away from seeing a third covid-19 vaccine approved for emergency use in the u.s. the food & drug administration says johnson & johnson s vaccine is safe and effective. now an advisory committee will meet friday to make a recommendation but even as vaccinations ramp up and cases decline, we re still reminded of the enormous human toll of this pandemic. california has just become the first state to surpass 50,000 deaths from covid-19. cnn s marra walker has more. reporter: a third vaccine on the horizon in the u.s. we will waste no time getting this life saving vaccine into the arms of americans. reporter: the food & drug administration announcing the johnson & johnson vaccine meets requirements for emergency use authorization which could come as early as friday. the white house covid task force on wednesday saying they ve already started preparing for distribution. if authorized, we are ready to roll this out. if an eua is issued, we will have 3 m
single-dose option in the u.s. the cdc still needs to sign off giving the drugmaker emergency use authorization which could happen in days. j & j s vaccination will play a critical part in the biden administration s plight to get the vaccine into 100 million arms. today the president will deliver remarks to mark the, mark 50 million shots that have been administered since he entered office. he will also remind americans that now is not the time to let our guards down. especially in the face of new variants. those new variants include one just detected and spreading in new york city, which researchers say appears to evade the natural human immune response. much more on that in a moment. first to senior u.s. correspondent phil mattingly. the vice president is focusing on vaccinations today especially on the problem that communities of color or having them get the vaccine and hesitancy of wanting to get it. reporter: an enormous issue and one white house officials are keen
live from our studio in singapore. this is bbc news. it s newsday. it s 7am in singapore, and 7pm in washington where a potential visit to taiwan by us house speaker nancy pelosi is stirring alarm in presidentjoe biden s administration. they fear the trip may cross red lines for china and that there is no exit path. beijing, which claims sovereignty over the island, has already issued harsh warnings even suggesting a possible military response. against this backdrop, president biden is expected to call president xi on thursday for the first time in months. for more, we can speak now to bonnie glaser, political commentator from the german marshall fund. she joins us from washington. thank you so much for talking to the bbc. give us a sense of what is going on in the corridors of power in washington with this potential visit. ~ ~ . visit. well, i think that there are different visit. well, i think that there are different points - visit. well, i think that there are diffe