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Sen. Mitch McConnell Finally Acknowledges Trump Lost, But Stalls Relief For Millions Of Struggling Americans; Biden Stumps For Democrats In Crucial Georgia Senate Races; Moderna Moves Closer To Vaccine Authorization, New Data Suggests Its Vaccine May Prevent Infection. Aired 9-10p ET

Aired December 15, 2020 - 21:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[21:00:00]

M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: There should be an event tomorrow, here in Wilmington, to formally announce that.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: M.J. Lee, appreciate it, thank you.

A reminder, don't miss Full Circle, our digital news show. You can catch it streaming live, 6.00 P.M. Eastern at CNN.com/FullCircle, or watch it there, on the CNN app, at any time, on-demand.

News continues right now. Want to hand it over to Chris for "CUOMO PRIME TIME." Chris?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: All right, thank you, Coop.

I am Chris Cuomo and welcome to PRIME TIME.

We have a massive political problem. But this one, we can do something about, right now.

The top four congressional leaders are finally talking relief again. It's happening tonight. But the word is that they are huddling separately right now. And there's no word of a deal.

This is unacceptable, because this isn't about some irrational sound and fury that will amount to nothing like what we just lived through. This is a soulless, slow-walking of relief that must be the focus of attention and outrage. There is no good reason for this delay. It's time to focus on it.

Has anyone heard of the flood of lawsuits that are hitting businesses so hard that we have to address it right now, with equal urgency as hunger, vaccine production, or any family pain? Well, Mitch McConnell has, and he is arguing for exactly that.

Be very clear, McConnell is talking about 1,400 or so suits since March. They are against employers for work-related illness regarding COVID.

He says these suits are such a threat, such an emergency that they are worth holding up relief until there is a deal to hold these employers harmless from liability. So, those companies getting relief, matters as much as anything else?

Forget the fact that some of those suits may be justified, maybe many of them, maybe all of them, or that people may have been mistreated, or that there's something called workers' compensation, and other tools that are already in place to limit liability, or the fact that litigation is how we figure out problems, or, that you could address the problem of massive number of suits, not 1,400, when they really pile up.

You know what's piling up? 60 million. We are close to that number of people who are hungry, kids that need food, schools that are desperate, vaccines that need to be produced, families who won't have Christmas. Those are exigent circumstances. Those are now. These families needed help weeks ago, months ago.

But look at McConnell because this is about him. And his visage betrays his demeanor. He always has that face on because he is about the goal. There is no shame in his game. There is never a trace of humanity or of concern. He is a pro's pro. He does not care about the cost to anyone else.

Lie about the Garland nomination. Then stack the court. There is no principle, only priorities. And he will let the pain pour down on this country because he has. You see, it's not speculative. If he doesn't get this protection, no deal!

He says and does what he has to, when he has to, like today.

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SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): The Electoral College has spoken. So today, I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden.

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CUOMO: Same face! Electors were an echo. Voters spoke six weeks ago.

He knows transition matters. He said so when it suited him. He was silent because it worked for him, despite what it meant to this country. Imagine, our own Senate Leader playing the same game as Putin. Putin actually beat him to saying congratulations to the President-elect.

The Re-Trump-licans could not sabotage the election. They cannot be allowed to sabotage relief. Think about it, in terms of context. In March, OK, trillions got out the door, fast, everybody on board, even Trump was involved.

Now, everything is worse, there's no metric that isn't worse. Is it as bad as we thought it would be? Thankfully, in some ways, no. I'm not saying there's not pain. I know there's pain on just about every level you can manage. But I'm saying the expectations were even worse, the projections.

So, why is everything delayed right now? Why is a deal so hard to come by when everything is worse? Priorities have changed. So, who wins? A handful, who are not in

crisis? Or millions and millions again, who needed the relief a month ago? Christmas is 10 days away. This is no time to take care of a special interest.

[21:05:00]

But this is how McConnell plays. And he will continue to do so, as long as in power. That's why Biden was back on the stump, again today, in the state, that decides McConnell's power.

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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: All of you just taught Donald Trump a lesson. In this election, Georgia wasn't going to be bullied. Georgia wasn't going to be silent.

You know who did nothing while Trump, Texas and others were trying to wipe out every single one of the almost 5 million votes you had cast here in Georgia, in November? Your two Republican senators!

They fully embraced nullifying nearly 5 million Georgia votes. You might want to remember that, come January 5th.

I need two senators from this state. Want to get something done. Not two senators who are just going to get in the way.

Send me these two men, and we will control the Senate, and we will change the lives of people in Georgia!

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CUOMO: It matters. I'd like to argue to you, it really doesn't. It's nice to have balance. Bipartisanship is good. You get to a better kind of compromise, balanced interests.

But that doesn't really happen, does it? Not anymore. Not when McConnell is holding hostage money to make the vaccine and the money that states need to get it to the needy.

Are we going to squander the gift, because that's what it is, of this vaccine coming as soon as it did, because of politics? Right now, the answer is yes. We need all hands on deck for this to work out, as it is. Do you know how hard this is going to be?

As amazing as it is that the vaccine was made, and seems to be safe, that now turns out to be the easy part. This vaccine, this gift is going to be worthless, if it doesn't get where it needs to go, when it needs to be there, to the people who need it most. We've never done anything like this.

Biden is getting a bad start for bad reason that McConnell enabled and is now extending. Every day there's no deal, the delay gets worse, especially because until the Inauguration, remember the situation we're in. The President has basically quit working on anything but fugazi donations and his own political future. There are no economic moves being discussed. There's no dialog. There

are no details of how the federal government, the military, the states, the localities are all going to pull off this magic with FedEx and UPS, something they've never done before, let alone at this scale? And the rest of the world isn't just waiting until we're ready.

Just think about it. Re-Trump-licans are shouting about a legitimate election right? And yet, they have been ignoring the worst hacking by Russia to date.

Not a word from these putative patriots that Russia may have just penetrated further into our government agencies than ever before. You don't hear that, do you? Huh? No Bible quote for that!

A suspected cyber espionage campaign, the hacking of federal agencies, including the Departments of Homeland Security, Treasury and Commerce, and you barely heard a word about it from the Re-Trump-licans.

All that BS, about things they knew were made up, and real attacks get ignored, all you hear is "They're taking a hard look." You already know what happened, but you're not going to do anything, right?

Never forget relief-slowing, line-towing, democracy-doubting, Putin- pandering frauds!

So, the question then becomes, how does a deal get done here? What are the levers? What could matter? Let's bring in Michael Smerconish and David Axelrod.

Gentlemen, thank you very much.

Axe, on the macro level, what is the play here to get relief when you have imbalanced power?

DAVID AXELROD, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, look, I think that the play is that there is enormous anxiety in the country, and I think they're feeling it. I do think that. I mean I'm not - I'm not privy to their negotiations.

I think there's an awful lot of pressure, on both sides, not to leave. How do you leave and go home and celebrate the holidays knowing that you didn't do what you needed to do to try and bring some relief to people who are suffering?

This is a story, you know, we've heard a lot. And Chris, you've shown a bright light on all of this. But we've heard a lot about the people who are suffering from the virus itself.

But not everybody can sit home and Zoom to make a living. Not everybody is free of that fear of lack of a paycheck, how do they keep their small business afloat. There's a lot of ancillary damage that this virus has caused.

And, for four months, the Congress has been talking about this. I don't think these Members can go home, Republican or Democrat, without doing something on this. [21:10:00]

And I suspect, even Mitch McConnell understands, as a political matter, heading in to these special elections in Georgia, and beyond, he doesn't want to be the one, who is assigned the blame for no aid going into the holidays.

CUOMO: But then how do you explain, Michael, the play on corporate liability?

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN ANCHOR: Well I think he's protecting those forces that are the benefactors of the Republican Party.

This issue has been a dividing line ever since the pandemic arose between business interests, on one side, trial lawyers on the other, who tend to be supportive of Democrats, representative of those who've been victimized.

I liked what you said, when you referenced those cases, and the fact that we have no idea, right now. You can't treat them with a blanket response, and say, "Well, they lack merit," or "They're all meritorious."

My own hunch is that they've got to be determined on a case-by-case basis. And to say none on them could be treated as if they have merit strikes me as being fundamentally unfair.

CUOMO: Also, it just seems like, I don't understand why the Democrats aren't jumping up and down about this one point. This is an easy point to win, Axe, because it's not an exigency.

The suits may be a problem. You may wind up having some kind of surfeit of class action suits. We deal with that all the time. Tort reform is something everybody is familiar with in Congress. You don't have to do it now. You could at least argue--

AXELROD: Right.

CUOMO: --for a separation bill. "Give us the vaccine production money, you know, let's talk about checks for people. But let's get these things out the door." I'm not hearing that that loudly. Am I just missing it or is it not there?

AXELROD: No, I think that, that there have been some who have argued that. Look, I think the focus that Democrats and some Republicans are placing is the right focus, which is on the people who need help right now.

And this is a complex and misunderstood issue in some ways, the legal issue that you guys have kicked around here. The fact that people are going without paychecks, and after the end of this month, the situation will worsen is something that is understood.

In these last jobs report, what we saw were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands more people giving up, and simply saying, "I can't find a job. I'm not going to look for a job anymore." We've got more small businesses going under. We know the next six weeks or eight weeks are going to be very, very perilous and will promote more economic hardship. I really think that's enough pressure.

I don't mean to take the attention away from - I agree with you completely. I think McConnell is protecting special interests and there may be some who have - who are deserving. As you guys point out, that should be taken on, case-by-case, but there is no case to be made that people don't need help in this country.

And when you ask people to shut their businesses down, when you ask people to forego their paycheck, because it's in our interests, as a country, to protect each other, then we ought to be standing with them, and making sure that they can weather the storm, the economic storm that they're going to face in doing the right thing.

CUOMO: Smerc, last word to you.

SMERCONISH: Mitch McConnell has an issue on his hands in trying to avoid a vote that might take place on January 6.

If he can't keep everybody in his tent, and I'm referring to one potential Republican breaking ranks, joining forces with some of those insurgent House GOP types, who want to continue to contest the election, and if that vote should take place, all of a sudden, he'll have Members of his Caucus voting against the now, still, incumbent President of the United States.

That's a fascinating issue to follow in light of him today finally recognizing Joe Biden as the President-elect.

CUOMO: Yes, he got beat by Putin to that punch. But can McConnell control the vote or not, Michael?

SMERCONISH: It's not only those who are there in Washington today, and all eyes seem to be on Rand Paul, but also some Republicans, who are coming in and are the ex-factor, the unknown, because all it would take would be one to join forces with a House Member, and all of a sudden, you've now going to have a vote in both chambers.

And guess who presides in the Senate? That would be Vice President Mike Pence. Talk about an uncomfortable moment for him!

CUOMO: Hmm! Well, when you're betting on Mitch McConnell to make sure that Biden gets safe passage, you know just how deep in the River Styx you actually are right now in this political reality.

David Axelrod, Michael Smerconish, thank you, thank you for the points and the context, appreciate you.

SMERCONISH: Thanks.

CUOMO: All right, maybe a Member of the Senate, in a non-disaster scenario, can do something positive, can get behind this relief holdup on the bill, and see what really is going to make a difference here.

Democrat Chris Murphy has been loud on relief. And he is here next.

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[21:15:00]

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CUOMO: The humanitarian crisis of hunger and homelessness, as well as the logistical moon shot of these vaccines, the need is desperation in this country. Lives hang in the balance. Time is death, not just money.

Just now, as time is running out, leaders from both parties are meeting on Capitol Hill. The question is will there be a deal?

I'm joined by Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat from Connecticut.

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CUOMO: Senator, welcome back to PRIME TIME.

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Thanks for having me.

CUOMO: We get a deal?

MURPHY: We have to get a deal. We cannot go home to our states, to our constituents if we don't get a deal.

[21:20:00]

It is good news that Mitch McConnell, after seven months of refusing to negotiate, finally came to the table today. But, how much time was wasted by his refusal to negotiate? How much misery did he create by sitting outside of that negotiating room?

All along, we knew that we couldn't get an agreement without Mitch McConnell, because, as you've mentioned, his Caucus is split. He has to deliver enough Republican votes to be able to get this through. But it feels like we might be closer than we have in a long time.

Listen, I'm willing to set aside the perfect and accept the good. We desperately need money in Connecticut to distribute this vaccine. We have testing sites that are closing midday because they are running out of money.

We're going to have to pass along a massive tax increase, next year, in the middle of a massive recession because our government is going bankrupt, because of the huge costs of fighting the pandemic.

We need relief in Connecticut. I'll settle for three quarters of a loaf. I guess it's good news tonight that McConnell is finally talking.

CUOMO: Finally talking, but is liability for companies with COVID lawsuits, is that something you'll have to give on?

MURPHY: I mean, listen, Mitch McConnell carries K Street's water, right?

Mitch McConnell's sort of number one operating principle is do what's right for Corporate America, and that's what this liability protection is all about. It's an attempt to try to avoid liability for truly irresponsible behavior that may have happened at some of these companies.

I mean, listen, nobody wants frivolous lawsuits. Nobody wants companies that are playing by the rules--

CUOMO: Well don't say "Nobody," Senator.

MURPHY: --or adhering to CDC and OSHA guidance.

CUOMO: The Re-Trump-licans love--

MURPHY: Well!

CUOMO: --frivolous lawsuits.

MURPHY: Well!

CUOMO: I can't believe there haven't been sanctions for a dozen of these lawsuits. But continue.

MURPHY: No, listen, so you got no - so there's clearly a way to protect companies that are playing by the rules here without shutting every single worker, in the country, out of court, to leave them with no redress.

As you mentioned, this doesn't have to be settled now. The emergency is the fact that folks are going to go hungry, this winter that the thousands of small businesses in my state are going to shut down.

CUOMO: But isn't McConnell saying it is an emergency?

MURPHY: We can certainly settle this liability question later.

CUOMO: But that's not what he says.

MURPHY: I mean it's not - yes, I mean he says that the liability question is an emergency. Of course, there is no evidence that there is a flood of lawsuits being filed.

All of that being said, Chris, I am willing to do a deal on liability. You can't close the doors of the courthouse to millions of Americans. But I'm willing to look at some provisions that would offer a little bit more certainty to companies out there.

CUOMO: Do you believe that McConnell is balancing the interests of his Caucus in terms of this potential vote on January 6th that he is afraid that if he makes the wrong kind of deal with you guys, it may encourage Rand Paul, et al, to join with the House, and have a vote, on certification of the electors that he can't control. Is that real?

MURPHY: I don't know that that's the calculus here.

I mean, listen, Ted Cruz or Rand Paul, they're not going to make their decisions on what to do, on January 6th, based on the deal that gets cut on COVID. They're going to decide that based upon what they think is best for their presidential ambitions, for an eight years, from now.

So, I think it's probably playing a little bit too cute for McConnell to think that he is going to avoid a fiasco on January 6th by giving Ted and Rand what they need on this deal.

They are always sort of looking out for their best political interests in the long run. And that's what will dictate their decision about whether to try to blow up the certification of electors.

CUOMO: What is the chance of the Republicans or Re-Trump-licans successfully derailing the certification on the 6th?

MURPHY: Well I think there's a chance that one Republican Senator will join a Republican House Member in a contest, but that only gets you so far. You then ultimately have to have both the House and the Senate vote to essentially decertify a delegation of electors, and that's not going to happen.

So, they'll make some headlines, if they choose to do it. They'll probably raise some money online. But it won't result in Donald Trump being President of the United States. Joe Biden is going to be President.

CUOMO: What is your on-the-scene understanding of what I have been told, which is not only is McConnell saying "I got to get the liability the way I want it. But I am not giving states like Connecticut the money that they're asking for. This is a bail-out. It's not my fault that Murphy and the Governor there can't balance their budget. I'm not going to take care of them."

MURPHY: Hey, listen, if McConnell wants to have a conversation about rightsizing the amount of money that Connecticut sends to the federal government compared to what we get back, we'll be happy to have that conversation.

[21:25:00] Because every single year, we subsidize Kentucky, every single year, we subsidize Florida. Every now and again there's a crisis that whacks us, and we ask for a little bit of goodwill in return, like this crisis hit us over the head, in the early days of the pandemic.

But it is just absolutely rich that Mitch McConnell or any other Republican from these states that are subsidized by New York, and Connecticut, and California, and New Jersey, are all of a sudden lecturing us on bailing them out.

CUOMO: Strong point!

Senator Chris Murphy, thank you very much for joining us. I will be coming to the office, as we're trying to aggregate data about where the vaccine is going. Any help is appreciated. Thank you, Sir.

MURPHY: Awesome! Thanks.

CUOMO: Be well.

All right, so more good news, how about that? Doesn't have to all be dark, OK?

The vaccine is out there. A second COVID vaccine is about to get FDA approval, it seems. How likely? What does it mean? Why does it add to the stew? There is a big difference between the Moderna and the Pfizer, and it's not just storage.

We've got the Good Doctor, Chief Doctor, Sanjay Gupta, dropping science, next.

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CUOMO: A 113,000 people are battling COVID in hospital beds right now. We don't have those kinds of beds. We are stretched everywhere. And these aren't people you can warehouse. It is a new record and it's the worst kind to be making. And it's happening, almost every day, for the last week and a half.

New cases top 200,000 a day. That's why the vaccine means so much to eventually stop cases. But, more importantly, right now, to allow the people, who are keeping the rest of us alive in the hospital, a chance to stay well and do that job.

More good news - that's terrible news. But more good news, the Moderna vaccine may be approved soon. So, you'll have Pfizer and Moderna. And there is new data that may make Moderna even better. I'm not talking about the storage temperature. That's relevant. But there's something new.

Chief Doctor Sanjay Gupta is here.

Good to see you, Doc. The claim is what about Moderna?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Chris.

CUOMO: And do we believe it?

GUPTA: So, what happened was, we got this report about Moderna. It was talked about how effective it was, the safety profile, all the things that we have sort off expected, things we had heard from the company.

They added this addendum, in afterwards, that basically look at this issue that we've talked about before. The vaccine does what exactly? We know that the vaccine can help prevent people from getting sick, help people from getting COVID-19.

But the second question is does it also prevent them from becoming infected, possibly carrying the virus, and possibly transmitting the virus? What we hear from Pfizer is, you know, "We don't know the answer to that yet."

With Moderna, and I don't know if we have the graphic, I can show you, they swabbed people before they got the first dose of the vaccine. They swabbed them between the first and second dose. And they then just looked at surveillance, and said how many people are actually got infected.

And what they found was the people who got the placebo were far more likely to have become infected than those who received the vaccine. So there's 52 people who got infected total. 38 were in the placebo group, 14 in the vaccinated group.

Now, look, you can look at this data, people are going to interpret this differently. It does seem to indicate, at least, that the vaccine has some impact on the likelihood you become infected.

But it's not perfect, obviously. And the more critical thing is it does seem to work really, really well at keeping you from getting sick.

CUOMO: All right, so let's step this down.

GUPTA: So, you may still have the virus. But you--

CUOMO: Yes, let's step this down just the--

GUPTA: --but you - but you won't get sick. CUOMO: All right, so yes, that's it. That last part, just to sum it up, so the vaccine keeps you from getting sick, meaning feeling bad, feeling the symptoms, but it doesn't necessarily--

GUPTA: No symptoms, yes (ph).

CUOMO: --doesn't necessarily mean that you don't have the virus in as high a load amount to give it to somebody else. The potential with Moderna, is it may do both, keep you from feeling sick and keep you from getting someone else sick?

GUPTA: Right. That's what it seems to indicate. Now, again, you look at the numbers, it's not perfect. There are a lot of people who got the vaccine and still had the virus in their system.

The second point you made though, I think, is a very important one. OK, so we detected presence of virus, but was it enough to actually be contagious and transmit to somebody else?

It could be a situation where the vaccine is keeping you from getting sick, and lowering your viral loads to the point where--

CUOMO: Right.

GUPTA: --you're not actually being contagious.

And, by the way, I'll say about Pfizer. That could be the case with the Pfizer vaccine as well. We just haven't seen that data yet. We've asked about it, Chris. They say they'll probably have some of that data in January. So, we're going to look for that.

CUOMO: One other thing that is going to matter to people. The FDA authorized a fully at-home test. They expect to produce about 3 million tests in January, about $30. Is that $30 for the - for the machine, and then you have to buy all the other stuff which is in really short supply, or is this a better - better set-up?

GUPTA: It seems like it's a better set-up. It's all over the counter. You don't have to have a health care professional administer the test.

It's all done, you know, you have a test, you swab yourself. You got a little analyzer. The analyzer connects to your smartphone. 20 minutes after you do the - place the swab, you get a result. It sounds like a pretty good test.

It's 91 percent likely to find positive cases in people who don't have symptoms. Those are the most likely people we're talking about here, right, Chris?

CUOMO: Yes.

GUPTA: If you have symptoms, you should stay home.

CUOMO: Right.

GUPTA: Don't - you are trying to figure out, "Can I go out? I don't have any symptom. I'm going to swab myself." 90 percent of the time it's going to miss you.

CUOMO: Right.

GUPTA: So, what it basically is saying is it's pretty good. But if you - if you don't have any symptoms, you should still wear a mask, if you go out. You can go out, but you should still wear a mask when you go out, because you could be--

CUOMO: Right.

GUPTA: --carrying the virus, even if the test came back negative.

CUOMO: These numbers are many times better than what we're dealing with the rapid tests right now.

[21:35:00]

And I don't know about for you. But for me, when everybody - when anybody tells me they get a rapid test, half the time that they're negative, when they get retested, they're not. So, people are spooked by those.

GUPTA: Right.

CUOMO: An improvement there would be good.

I got to jump, Sanjay. But thank you very much for the headlines, brother, appreciate you.

GUPTA: All right, anytime brother, thank you.

CUOMO: All right, Vaccination, Vaccination, we'll be using Sanjay, we'll be using senators, we'll be going to states, we'll be going to localities. I'm going to take what you're telling us about what you're hearing in your own community, why, because this matters and transparency is everything.

Where to focus the vaccine? Who should get it? OK, well, if you start with the obvious metric, where are the most cases, where are people dying the most? Going to be your big states, New York, California, Texas, Florida, OK.

But now let's look at those states. They also have the most health care workers, right? Because you have the most people, most population, most cases, most health care workers, most everything. Nursing home patients, health care workers, they need a lot, and they're first up for doses.

But only one of the states I just mentioned, Texas, is even scheduled to get close to enough doses to give everyone in that first group a single dose by the end of the year. Why Texas? It's not the biggest, certainly hasn't been the most responsible. Why Texas?

In fact, of the five states that will get enough, to give everyone, in the first group, a single dose, by New Year's, none of the states who will qualify that way are in the top 20 when it comes to case count. Again, is this just about math? Or is it manipulation?

We must not just track who needs what, but who gets what, and when, and of course, why. We're just getting started. It's already an issue, as I just outlined to you. So, this means we're going to have to be all over this.

Context, I know this guy named Cuomo, up in New York. He said about 10,000 doses were administered yesterday. That leaves him just as exposed, given the scale of need, as he was, without the vaccine, relatively.

Every bit counts of course, but New York needs so much more, and a lot faster, or the curve of cases is going to go up a lot longer, and include a lot more of the people that we need on the front lines. Time equals death here.

Governor DeSantis in Florida says they sent about 100,000 to five hospitals. But there's a delay as shipments for the next two weeks are "On hold right now."

Two issues, one, why did they get so many more than New York? Is that true, that they did, because the numbers seem to suggest it? Is that the answer?

DeSantis says "Well this is about Pfizer and their production issues." Is it? Oh, this isn't about that you only need one-shot BS, that he was trying to peddle, is it? Did they get the doses they need? Should they?

This all demands answers in real-time, because otherwise, problems will fall on top of one another, because what you give one state that they weren't supposed to get will fall down the line, and there'll be short falls.

Good news, there's a help. FedEx and UPS, as we all know, they place a tracker in every case, right? You can track all your stuff. We're always frustrated. "Where is it?" "Oh, you didn't check the mail. There it is."

Who is tracking the good on the receiving end here? Is there a central system on the federal level? Not that we know of! Shouldn't there be? Are the states all doing it? Is that good? Will they be transparent enough?

You got to be suspicious. You can't do trust but verify. You get one chance to get this right. We're going to have to stay on it, because the vaccination is too important to not give it our all. And we will, I promise.

Now, Georgia, huge, because of the runoffs. Three weeks, OK? It's not only a matter of time for the state, but for the entire country. Look what the imbalance of power is doing right now, holding up relief. Can Democrats really win?

The Wizard of Odds is here, back by popular demand, the inside scoop, next. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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CUOMO: Electoral College says Biden won, fine. Now we have to look at the Georgia Senate races, why? Because bipartisan doesn't even seem to be in the dictionary of any kind of political dialog anymore.

These two Senate races will make the difference, OK? Either the Democrats get them both or the state on play stays at it is with Mitch McConnell saying "I got to help companies before I can help the hungry."

What does history and data tell us about the chances for the Democrats and the state of play? The Wizard of Odds, the OAO, the one and only Harry Enten.

Thank you very much for being here, brother. Let's take a look. Let's start with what we saw in November, and what that suggests about potential in the Senate runoff.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICS SENIOR WRITER & ANALYST: Right, so the key thing to remember what happened in November was Joe Biden won the State of Georgia, right? But he barely won, and he won it by two- tenths of a percentage point.

But here's the key thing. The Democrats in both the Senate regular, that's the Ossoff-Perdue match-up, and the Senate special - I tallied up all the Democrats, combined them all and all the Republicans in that.

In both the regular and the special, the Democrats actually ran behind the Republicans. So that in order to win come January 5th, the Democrats need to outperform what they did in November, because otherwise, it's, simply put, won't work out for them.

CUOMO: What do we know about runoffs?

ENTEN: Yes. So, this is a key thing to keep in mind about Georgia runoffs. There have been about eight of them since 1992 statewide runoffs. And what happened in seven out of those eight times, the Republicans gained more ground than the Democrats did from round one to the runoff. So, historically speaking, given that the Republicans actually got more votes in those Senate races, back in November, and the fact that they've gained ground, historically, seven out of eight times, in statewide runoffs, since 1992, you have to think that Republicans at least, looking historically, are in better shape than the Democrats are.

CUOMO: And you don't have Trump telling them not to vote, this time, in a way that matters. So, look at the polling averages, and what does it tell us about the state of play.

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ENTEN: Right. So, if you look at history, you might say the Republicans are going to gain ground. But, in fact, if you look at the Senate polling averages, what you actually see is that the Democrats have slight advantages in both the special and the regular election.

Now, here's the thing, though, Chris. It's really, really tight. It's a point race in the regular. It's a two-point race down in the special. But, again, that moves against history. It certainly suggests that Republicans aren't necessarily gaining ground, like we might historically expect.

And I know a lot of people will go, "Oh the polls, the polls, I don't trust the polls." Actually, in Georgia, the polls were pretty gosh darn good, back in November. They were only off by a point. So, I think that this gives you a pretty good understanding that the race is just really, really tight there right now.

CUOMO: Well even if we don't need to paraphrase Spike from Gremlins when he says, "Polls, caca!"

Let's take a look at what we know about the actual performance, where, let's say, look at the imbalance between the Senate Democrat candidates and Biden, in terms of mismatches and performance, as a window in to what might happen here.

ENTEN: Right. So, look, here's the key thing to keep in mind. It's the Georgia's 6th congressional district. That's the district that I'm keeping an eye on. And that's in the Atlanta suburbs.

You might remember, of course, there was that special election that actually Jon Ossoff ran in back in 2017, now a Democrat actually represents that district, and Joe Biden won that district by 11 percentage points.

But here's the key nugget. In both the Senate special and the Senate regular elections, Democrats although they won there, ran behind Joe Biden by 5 points to 6 points. That was the greatest underperformance of any congressional district in the state.

So, if the Senate Democrats are going to win this go-around, they need to improve, they need to get up to those levels of support that Joe Biden had in those Atlanta suburbs, particularly among Whites with the college degrees. If they cannot do that, if they can't match Biden's performance, especially there in the Georgia suburbs, they're not going to win.

So, I am keeping a real eye out on the Georgia suburb - on the Atlanta suburbs, excuse me, because that may tell the story come January 5th.

CUOMO: All right. Your facility with words aside, do you believe that when you look at this race, that any, enough has changed since the election where Biden was picked, but Democrats were kind of under- sold?

Between then and now, has there been enough of a change to make it a different state of play in Georgia?

ENTEN: Well, I will say, obviously, there's been a lot of movement within the state, saying that the vote count was not legitimate, especially among some of those, certainly on the far-Right, and that may anger a lot of Georgia traditionally-Republican voters in those suburbs, who picked that ballot for Biden but went for the Senate Republicans.

And they may say, "You know what? Actually, we want to send a message that there was a reason why we supported Joe Biden, and we're now going to support those Senate Democrats." I'm not saying that's necessarily the case.

But it wouldn't be surprising to me if you can just move the margin just a little bit, Chris, just a little bit, it could make a big difference, and something like that could, in fact, make the ultimate difference, come January 5th.

CUOMO: And are the Re-Trump-licans not going to vote because they're pissed at the rest of the Party, we'll have to see.

ENTEN: We'll have to see although I will say that so far, the turnout looks to be on pace in terms of the partisan balance. But we'll have to wait and see, Chris. There are a lot to be determined in the final few weeks.

CUOMO: I'm sorry I made you a little nervous there, Harry. Sometimes, just looking at me can do that.

ENTEN: You don't make me nervous. You don't intimidate me at all. And the fact of the matter is that no matter how hard you try, I will always see you for being Christopher Cuomo.

CUOMO: Good, because that's who I am.

ENTEN: That's true.

CUOMO: Harry, I'll see you soon on my couch.

ENTEN: See you later buddy.

CUOMO: Too much politics over this pandemic. It should never have been this way. And it's bad. It's making people quit when we need them to help. I have two medical officials who are facing all kinds of ugly for just

trying to keep their communities safe. One just had to resign in frustration but not just frustration. There's a little tinge of fear there also. The other is still going to try and fight the fight.

Why is this happening to them, and what does it mean to us, and to you? Next.

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CUOMO: COVID, it's all over the place in the country. It's spreading wildly, makes people scared, and then it was politicized, and that made it all worse. People literally see wearing a mask, or obeying the right types of instructions to stay safe, as weakness, as capitulation to a political opponent.

Case in point, Kansas, what do we see in Kansas? Cases aren't just surging there. Some public health officials, who have been pushing for people to do the right thing, have been made into pariahs.

My next guest is Dr. Jennifer Bacani McKenney. She knows that very well as someone who was pushed for mask mandates in her rural community. Her friend, Dr. Gianfranco Pezzino, even left his job this week because of the pandemic politics at his Health Department.

Now, in the one hand, when I look at you two, with your ethnic backgrounds, and you're in Kansas, it kind of fulfills the promise of the country. But then I see how you're being treated, and it shows me the struggle of this country right now.

I welcome you both to PRIME TIME. And I am sorry it is for this reason. But hopefully, by shining a light on what's happening, it will make people some - think about it a little bit.

Dr. McKenney, now, you two have only met on Zoom because of COVID. And when Pezzino put together a support group for health care workers, you guys wound up meeting.

Now, just that idea, support group for health care workers, not just because of the stress of dealing with the pandemic, but dealing with people who don't want you to deal with the pandemic, explain, Dr. McKenney. DR. JENNIFER BACANI MCKENNEY, HEALTH OFFICER, WILSON COUNTY, KS, FAMILY PHYSICIAN: Well, Chris, it has definitely been a very challenging time. I mean, people are scared, they are frustrated, they just want to get back to normal life, and there's nothing about what's going on right now that is normal.

And so, when people have to deal with unknown, when they are tired of dealing with this pandemic, they get angry. They get frustrated. And they take it out on the only thing that they can.

They can't be angry at a virus that they can't see. And so, they take it out on the rules, and they take it out on the people that are making the rules. And so, that's where we come in, that we end up having, having problems with people getting angry, and frustrated with us, when we're really just trying to help.

CUOMO: Pezzino, you had to resign, why?

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DR. GIANFRANCO PEZZINO, FORMER HEALTH OFFICER, SHAWNEE COUNTY, KS: Because the Board of County Commissioners decided to make some changes to my public health emergency order that contains community mitigation strategies for the virus.

And that was not the first time that happened, and to be just, to go to the point that we're just fed up. I had seen that too many times, it was a last straw.

And I also thought it was time to send a signal that it is not right for policymakers, who have no background in public health, to decide how this pandemic should be contained. Public health measures should be decided based on public health science and not on politics.

CUOMO: And Dr. McKenney, this isn't just about policy. This is politics. And people put you in the crosshairs as almost being a partisan. Even though you are staying on and you want to fight, how rough is it?

MCKENNEY: Well there should have never been a part for politics in this entire pandemic.

I mean, at its essence, this pandemic is a health crisis. And really, our job, as Health Officers, is to take the data and the science, and make the best decisions possible, to keep the most people safe through this entire thing.

And we know that commissioners and legislators, they don't have a medical background, but we do. And we've been training for this kind of thing for years. And so, we hope that we can advise our elected officials, and we can help them to make the best decisions possible. But, that's not always happening.

And when we start talking about politics, and everything else, it really muddies the waters, and it makes it so hard for us to give the solid advice that we have been trained to give throughout this entire thing.

And so, it is hard. It has been a challenge because we really just want to do our very best job, and really save lives, and keep people healthy. And there is no other - other purpose for us right now than to do our best job for people in our communities.

CUOMO: And it's not like you are doing it from far away. You live there. You are outside Topeka, Kansas, or Fredonia, Kansas, in your case. It's a rural area. You live there. You care about the people.

So, Dr. Pezzino, let me ask you, what is your concern about as the vaccine comes, and the public policy statements that need to be put out, and the messaging, what is your concern?

PEZZINO: Well, first of all, my first feeling is one of joy. We had been waiting for this day, for many, many months. And I'm not sure that everybody fully understands, at this point, what a success it is, to be able to develop and deploy a vaccine in just a few months.

My concern is that we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and the light has a vaccine name, and people are going to drop all their guards, all their precautions, going to start running towards the light.

But we are still in the tunnel. And this is not the time to run, because you are still running in the dark. So, the way we get to the light is by marching and walking slowly, deliberately and keeping our precautions up. This is not the time to give up. We'll get there, but we are not quite there yet.

CUOMO: So, in terms of where we are, and where we need to be, the concern, Dr. McKenney, is that people aren't going to want to take the vaccine.

I actually believe that we're going to have the opposite problem, that as people start to see that it is working, they're going to be desperate for the vaccine, and they're going to start to be angry because they can't get it.

What do you see in your community right now, in Fredonia, which is more of a rural part of Kansas?

MCKENNEY: Well, right now, I'm seeing a lot of people that are hesitant to take the vaccine. I hear people talking about wanting to wait to see what happens. They're nervous because of the technology to produce this vaccine. They're nervous about being one of the first to get it.

I know that that the best advice that I can give any of my patients is that I will get the vaccine.

I am going to make sure that my 76-year-old dad, who has been serving our community, for 42 years, as a physician, will get the vaccine, because he's still out there, taking care of patients right now. And that's the best endorsement for this vaccine that I can give. We talk about safety. We're trying to educate people. There is just a lot of, again, fear and misinformation that we've seen throughout this entire pandemic. And now, it's applied to the vaccine, the one thing that, like Dr. Pezzino said, is kind of the light at the end of the tunnel.

And so, we're hopeful that we're going to get people to understand that this is safe. This is the way to get back to normal life, and to resume the way that we can go about life safely.

CUOMO: Dr. McKenney, thank you so much, I hope that you keep fighting the good fight, and it gets easier to do so. And I hope the vaccine makes a big difference.

And Pezzino, Dr. Gianfranco Pezzino, thank you for reminding me how beautiful the Kansas accent can sound.

PEZZINO: Thank you for having us.

CUOMO: Thank you very much.

MCKENNEY: Thank you very much.

CUOMO: Thank you very much for what you put up with Dr. Pezzino, and for putting out a statement that we have to treat the people who are trying to help us the right way. It is an important reminder.

PEZZINO: Thank you.

CUOMO: God bless and be well.

That goes for all of us. We have to remember how to treat each other. We are addicted to the negative. And it's time to start calling out what works and what is right.

"CNN TONIGHT," the big show with the big man, D. Lemon, right now.