the president will announce the u.s. is buying another 100 million doses and bring you his remarks live when they start. moments ago, the senate confirmed merrick garland to be u.s. attorney general by 70-30 with republican leader mitch mcconnell voting yes after he spent close to a year blocking garland s 2016 nomination to the supreme court. earlier today the senate confirmed marcia fudge who last vote as a member of congress would be passing the relief which cull if i mated in this moment on the house floor. yay are 220. the nays are 211. the motion is adopted. joining us now to start the coverage as we await the president, punch bowl news founder anna palmer and mike memoli covering the white house. the covid relief bill heading to the president s desk to be signed this friday. wasn t too long ago i recall and correct me if i m wrong the chief of staff saying that they expected to be signing this early march. here we are. the president expected to sign it and we re on
tonight. it was actually after the top of the hour in the early morning hours of friday, october 2nd and we reported that president trump, as you heard the nice man say on television, had tested positive for covid. back with us tonight, michael osterholm, director of the center for infectious disease research and policy, university of minnesota. also was a covid adviser to the biden transition team. michael, first and foremost, i want to hear you out on this oral medication, this pale from merck. there is a concern already that it s going to be seen as some kind of vaccine substitute. it is not. but what is it? what might it do? and how optimistic are you first of all, it s good news. it s actually the first of what will be several drugs coming out. a simple pill. what we call small molecule
hours of friday, october 2nd. and we reported that president trump as you heard the nice man say on television had tested positive for covid. back with us tonight, michael osterholm, the director for the center of infectious disease and policy. also an advisor to the covid transition team as they were taking ownership of this pandemic, as you might say. and michael, first and foremost, i want to hear you out on this oral medication, this pill from merck. there s a concern already that it s going to be seen as some kind of vaccine substitute, but what is it, what might it do. first of all, it s good news and now the first of several drugs coming out that are simple pill, what we call small molecule drugs. and in this case in the merck study it was actually halted early because the results were
Broome and other counties are substituting the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine and keeping appointments for anyone who had scheduled a J&J shot this week.