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CDC Advisers Meeting On Pfizer Vaccine; Vaccine Shipments To Begin Leaving Pfizer Kalamazoo Facility Tomorrow; Shipping Companies Tasked With Historic Vaccine Distribution; Supreme Court Rejects Trump's Bid To Overturn Election; Sarah Palin Campaigns For Georgia GOP Senate Candidates; Vaccine Side Effects; Army-Navy 121st Edition Of "America's Game"; Trump's Inner Circle Gets Full COVID-19 Care While Hospitals Ration. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired December 12, 2020 - 11:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:12]

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, thanks for joining me. I'm Alex Marquardt, in today for Fredricka Whitfield.

We start this hour with the U.S. on the brink of a historic and potentially game-changing moment in this country, in this fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

There's a meeting of the CDC -- of a CDC advisory committee that is just getting under way that could finally recommend the use of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine. A final vote is then expected within the next few hours and a final announcement by the CDC could happen shortly after that.

Now, all of this coming a day after the FDA gave the green light for an emergency use authorization of that same vaccine. The U.S. government is already working to distribute doses and this morning the FDA commissioner tried to reassure Americans about the process. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. STEPHEN HAHN, FDA COMMISSIONER: This vaccine met the FDA's rigorous standards for quality, safety and efficacy. Science and data guided the FDA's decision. We worked quickly based on the urgency of this pandemic, not because of any other external pressure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: This will be a long process and it's only a glimmer of hope at the end of what has been and continues to be a very dark tunnel.

And it could not come at a more dire time. The U.S. Seeing its worst day of the pandemic thus far on Friday. The highest number of deaths, over 3,300 in one day. Hospitalizations and new cases higher also than any day prior.

The U.S. now approaching another horrific milestone, closing in on 300,000 Americans killed this year by the disease.

And as we wait for the vaccine's arrival, hospitals are also struggling. The Department of Health and Human Services saying that 85 percent of hospitals across the country have more COVID-19 patients last week than they did a month ago. The sad reality of all this is that more and more people will die while waiting for this vaccine.

We have a team of reporters covering the latest on the vaccine, its approval and its distribution.

Let's start with that CDC advisory committee meeting that started just minutes ago.

CNN's Jacqueline Howard is following all the developments. Jacqueline, we have this emergency authorization last night from the FDA. What is today's CDC meeting and vote, what do they mean for this process, which is highly regulated?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Right. This is a process. And like you said, we heard from the FDA, we saw that emergency use authorization has been issued. But now we're going to hear from another public health agency, the CDC. And what is happening right now, the advisory committee on immunization practices for the CDC, that committee is meeting at this very moment to look over data on the COVID-19 vaccine. and then the committee is going to vote on what they think the CDC should recommend when it comes to the vaccine.

Once that vote happens, it then goes to the CDC director and its up to the CDC to accept the committee's recommendations.

That's the process happening right now. Again, the FDA already gave authorization to say, yes, the vaccine can be used, but the next step is we're going to hear from the CDC and we're going to hear its recommendation.

Once this process ends, Alex, then we will see vaccine start being administered.

MARQUARDT: And all that expected to happen in the coming hours today. Jacqueline, there has also been a lot of discussion and a lot of concern about this vaccine because you need two doses of the vaccine for it to be most effective. So what are the concerns that officials have about that?

HOWARD: right. Well, the question that has come up with the two doses, so like you said, the vaccine is administered as a two-dose shot 21 days apart. That first dose is to prime the body and then the second dose, a few weeks later, is to boost the response.

But what has come up, some data has suggested that there is already -- it appears to be that there's already some protection from the vaccine after that first dose, so that's the question that has come up, is well, can you just go with one dose.

Well, it turns out, Alex, that this question was asked just moments ago during a news conference by the FDA. It was asked to Dr. Peter Marks, an FDA official, and here was his response. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. PETER MARKS, DIRECTOR, FDA CENTER FOR BIOLOGICS EVALUATION AND RESEARCH: The way the regimen was studied was that everyone ultimately, or almost everyone received two doses of the vaccine. So we only know how people were protected with two doses of vaccine.

We spent so much time carefully reviewing the data and basing our decisions on science, right, that it seems pretty foolhardy to just conjecture that one dose might be ok without knowing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:05:04]

HOWARD: So you see there the FDA's stance is that this should be administered as two doses. And so that's what we will see happening as a rollout takes place in the coming days ahead.

MARQUARDT: Yes, absolutely vital we get that second dose.

Ok Jacqueline Howard -- thanks so much. We know you'll stay on top of all those developments out of the CDC today.

So now, the big question, how does this vaccine get to you? There is a massive, highly-choreographed complex distribution effort that is about to get under way. It's really an operation unlike anything that we've seen in recent memory.

Pete Muntean is at Pfizer's main manufacturing facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Pete, when will we see those trucks finally rolling out of that facility?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pfizer just said that the vaccine will begin leaving here starting tomorrow morning, Alex. What's so interesting here is that we know this spot is critical to the vaccine distribution network. Pfizer's facility near Kalamazoo, Michigan -- its largest facility.

According to Operation Warp Speed, the vaccine leaving here will go direct to 600 individual locations. Those are places like hospitals, pharmacies, CVS, Walgreens. We know that it's UPS and FedEx who will physically handle those packages. The UPS responsible for the east. FedEx responsible for the west.

Ups says months of planning went into this. and what's so interesting is that each package carries a GPS transmitter, also a thermal sensor, able to beam all of that information back to UPS headquarters in Louisville.

MARQUARDT: All right. Pete Muntean at that facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Thank you very much.

We're going to move on to the next part of the process. Once the vaccine starts leaving that Pfizer facility that you just saw there behind Pete, the shipments will head about an hour north to a FedEx distribution center in Grand Rapids.

And that's where we find our Dianne Gallagher. Dianne, there are so many technical specifics for how these doses need to be transported. Pete was just hitting on some of them.

How is the monitoring of these shipments and the storage of these doses working? Because that is absolutely critical.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Alex. And look, we're talking about two major factors here an already very complex process -- time and temperature. Now, those carriers like UPS and FedEx have said that in addition to that GPS Bluetooth monitoring, they're also going to have dedicated health teams and make sure they use the most rapid form of shipping to get those shipments of vaccine so they can make sure that if there's any sort of delay, whatsoever be it because of weather or traffic, they are aware and that they can make any sort of moves there in the air or in the ground to assure that these vaccines stay at the negative 94 degrees Fahrenheit and can get to those hospitals and other locations in the appropriate amount of time.

Now, look, one of the places that we are likely going to see those vaccines deployed from is here at the Gerald R. Ford Airport in Grand Rapids. Now, they are prepared, and part of the reason is because they're the closest airport that has any sort of commercial capability to handle what they need to do.

And that's because of look, a 10,000-foot runway and they have dedicated cargo storage facilities to where they can handle the capacity of those vaccines. Now, the airport said that they're prepared and they have support on the ground to handle, Alex, potentially up to a billion doses of the Pfizer vaccine. They have been working, they say, and speaking with at least four international carriers and have been dealing with their teams for about a month trying to prepare for the distribution here to get that life-saving, potentially life-saving vaccine out to Americans.

MARQUARDT: All right. Dianne there at the airport where FedEx is going to be shipping those out to much of the country very soon. Dianne Gallagher in Grand Rapids, thanks very much.

All right. Well, The vaccine that is being distributed by Pfizer was developed by its German partner, a company called BioNTech. CNN's Fred Pleitgen had an exclusive interview with the company's CEO and Fred is outside of BioNTech headquarters in Mainz, Germany.

Fred, thanks so much for joining me. You spoke with the CEO Ugur Sahin. And he cautioned to you that the vaccine won't actually have an impact here in the U.S. on the spread of the pandemic for the next few months.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT Reporter: that's exactly what he said. He obviously said right now, first of all, they're thrilled to have gotten, Alex, that emergency use authorization because as you stated, I mean, they were working on this vaccine 24/7 in the offices that you see behind me for months and months on end. So they say it's a huge milestone for them. but you're absolutely, he also cautioned that, yes, the vaccine is going to start rolling out very quickly. The first Americans are going to get vaccinated very quickly. But it's going to take several months for enough Americans to have been vaccinated for the vaccine to actually make a difference in beating the pandemic back.

He believes it's going to be sometime probably early in spring. Here's what he had to say.

[11:09:57]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UGUR SAHIN, CEO, BIONTECH: It could happen beginning March, mid of March, end of March to see the first effects. And I hope that with the spring season we will have, by nature, a lower rate of infections and the combination of both might help us to have a better summer than the situation is now.

PLEITGEN (on camera): What steps are being taken to really upgrade and really speed up production as fast as possible?

SAHIN: We anticipate that the need, the virtual (ph) need for our vaccine is much higher than we initially estimated. And now of course understanding that more doses might be required.

We started a few weeks ago to evaluate if we can produce more doses. And this of course means that we need to understand the constraints, the availability of core materials, the availability of machines, of production rooms and of still unfinished (ph) capacity. And this is exactly happening. And I anticipate that end of January we will be able to clearly state if we can produce more dose and if yes, how many.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: So there you have it. They're already working on ways to try to accelerate that production to try and ensure that more Americans get vaccine quicker than the plan is currently.

But the other thing that I thought was really interesting, Alex, is with that logistical process. One of the things that we've been talking about was one of the issues of this vaccine is that it needs to be stored and shipped at around minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit. That makes it all the more.

Well, they're trying to address that as well. One of the things that the CEO told me yesterday, he said they're working on possible new formulations of the vaccine to try and get a version of it that could be shipped maybe refrigerated, maybe at room temperature. They believe that they might be able to do that sort of towards the latter half of next year, Alex.

MARQUARDT: Of course, that demand is overwhelming and goes well, well beyond just the United States. Fred Pleitgen at BioNTech's headquarters in Mainz, Germany. Thanks very much.

Now, still ahead, more new cases and hospitalizations than ever before. Are hospitals equipped to deal with an influx in cases? I'll be speaking with an ER physician. That's coming up.

Plus, questions swirling about who gets access to the vaccine, in what order. Could fame and fortune have an impact?

But first, the Supreme Court shuts down President Trump's false election claims for good. And the president isn't taking it very well. Why he's lashing out at the justice that he appointed and his attorney general, Bill Barr.

That's coming up.

[11:12:38]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUARDT: The Supreme Court has rejected a Trump-backed lawsuit filed by the Texas attorney general that tried to block millions of votes in key battleground states. The justices decisively shut down the very long shot lawsuit to overturn the election late Friday night.

It's a court challenge that gained support from more than 100 Republicans in Congress and nearly two dozen Republican attorneys general across the country.

For more on what this rejection means going forward, let's bring in CNN legal analyst, Laura Coates. Laura, thanks so much for being with me.

The president tweeted this morning, quote, "We have just begun the fight." Does he have more options or is this Supreme Court ruling the end of the road for him?

LAURA COATES, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: It's the end of the road but the end of the road was probably a few miles back a few weeks ago. Every single time every court across the country said where is the beef? Where's the evidence? If you have none, please stop darkening our doorstep.

And then you have the Supreme Court now saying look, not only can you not darken our doorstep as it's a case of standing, meaning Texas really has no dog in this fight. You have no reason or injury or basis to which you come to the court asking for relief specifically because the constitution, as you know, Alex, says that every state is responsible for administering their own elections and another state can't dictate the terms of how that's done. Let alone wait until the person you wanted to win has lost to even take issue with it.

So you've got this issue right now, I think the president is stuck in this sort of loop where I think he is fighting for perhaps donations as he's getting able to be able to have them right now. But there really is no other legal recourse whatsoever for this president.

MARQUARDT: Yes. This was a really interesting order that came last night. It happened very quickly. There were no dissents from any of the justices. What else stood out to you about it?

COATES: What stood out to me, of course, is that the three justices who he confirmed -- we're talking about Justice Amy Coney Barrett, we're talking about Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch -- they were not the two justice who would even allow this case to come before them.

Those two were of course, Thomas and Alito, who said look, I think because we have original jurisdiction, meaning we're able to hear disputes between states and this is a state against other states, we can hear it but we're not going to go any further than that.

You can talk to us, but really at the end of the day talk to the legal hand that says no. And so you don't have anyone who he thought and he tried to entice in some way through his overtures on Twitter to try to have some salvation aspect for him. They didn't speak up.

Do you know why that probably was? Well, the law just isn't on his side and those, at least two of those justices, and you add on Justice Roberts, were all part of Bush versus Gore. They understood the nuances that the Supreme Court doesn't just come in and weigh in on political discussions because you would like them to. There has to be an actual case in controversy and it was not found here.

MARQUARDT: Yes. It doesn't sound like that surprises you because before the election we heard the president talking about how he did have this expectation that things would end up at the Supreme Court. That's why he wanted Justice Amy Coney Barrett put on the court as quickly as he did.

Clearly, he was going to rely on her and the others -- the other two you mentioned Kavanaugh and Gorsuch who he also appointed to the court, but none of them stood by him, as you point out. Are you surprised by that?

[11:20:03]

COATES: I'm not because, of course -- well, first of all, they were very clear, each of them to say that they were not going to be, and I'm paraphrasing each of them, a marionette of the person who has actually nominated them and that they would abide by the rule of the law. And they will decide cases objectively according to the constitution.

Well, the constitution is what says that states are the ones who administer their own elections and they're not going to just weigh in because somebody prefers them to. They're not beholden in that respect, which should give some comfort.

But, again, you also have the idea here that none of them have some misinterpretation of what the Bush versus Gore case was about which was specifically it was in question who won the election. It was an equal protection related clause that they wanted to try to interpret and talk about.

Here, none of that was present, and only, frankly, two of the justices who actually decided that case, Bush v Gore, are (INAUDIBLE) on the court. Talking about Justice Breyer and Justice Thomas and both of them did not see any basis for relief either.

MARQUARDT: And Laura, separately, we're now seeing the president go after the Attorney General Bill Barr today. Trump calling Barr a big disappointment.

A source has told CNN that their relationship now is what they sort of called a cold war. What do you make of Barr who had been a stalwart ally of the President's now not standing by the president's claims of voter fraud and then keeping these investigations into Hunter Biden secret for months?

COATES: Well, first of all, Alex, I think we're all pretty surprised that it took this long for the president to attack Attorney General William Barr after the Associated Press interview said that he did not see any widespread fraud or irregularities that were present that would overturn the election.

Frankly, I was surprised and I started the clock at that point in time to figure out I wonder when there will be some presidential backlash for this moment and this interview.

And so I'm actually not surprised that it has happened, other than surprised that it happened so long. But what the president was banking on was that October surprise. He was hoping, along with the U.S. Attorney out of Connecticut, whose job it was to oversee investigations into not only the origins of the Russia investigation, but hoping that somehow the Hunter Biden investigation would present a cloud of suspicion akin to what happened when James Comey, the former FBI director, came out about Hillary Clinton.

Well, when that didn't materialize, I think we were all wondering whether the president would be angry about it.

And now he, as of this morning, saying the Supreme Court is not going to be his ally, saying Attorney General William Barr is not going to pretend to see what is not there. Frankly can anyone be surprised that he's now going to lash out?

I don't think it's going to help William Barr's reputation though, however. I mean he is somebody at this point in time who, as you note, has been noted as a stalwart, even when the writing was on the wall. So even though that old the phrase is "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", no one is going to give and restore William Barr to the levels of credibility and integrity that I think he had prior to coming in to this administration.

MATTINGLY: Yes. The president not getting the love that he certainly expected from the Supreme Court and his attorney general and learning that that's not how it works.

Laura Coates, thanks so much, as always, for your expertise. COATES: Thanks, Alex.

MARQUARDT: We are continuing to follow breaking news. Shipments of the Pfizer vaccine expected to begin tomorrow. How will health care workers be vaccinated while also treating a record number of patients? We're going to ask that question to an emergency room doctor who joins me live next.

[11:23:39]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUARDT: A day after the FDA gave the green light for an emergency use authorization of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, the company is now preparing to begin its distribution from a warehouse in Kalamazoo, Michigan tomorrow. And it comes as the U.S. is seeing its worst day of the pandemic so far. Friday saw the highest number of deaths -- over 3,300. And more hospitalizations and new cases than any day since the pandemic began.

Dr. Rob Davidson is now with me. He's an emergency room physician in West Virginia. Dr. Davidson, thank you so much for taking the time -- excuse me, in Michigan -- to join us. Has your hospital heard anything about the rollout of the vaccine and when exactly it will be available to you?

DR. ROB DAVIDSON, EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: Yes, it looks like next week we're going to start getting vaccine injected into the arms of staff. They've basically stated at a general framework of how they're going to do that, starting with intensive care and emergency department staff and then going through folks that are having, you know, front line, facing patients, people in the hospital.

It doesn't look like we're going to have enough doses to get every member of the emergency department and ICU staff across the whole system, but you know, we all signed up on email, so we're on the list. We'll be getting our calls hopefully this weekend or early next week to let us know our appointment time. So I'm anxious to get in that line and get that done.

MARQUARDT: Would you have wanted it for everyone to get it at the same time or does it have to be done in shifts for safety?

DR. DAVIDSON: Yes, I mean, certainly they're looking at that so we don't give everyone in the same department on the same shift the vaccine because there are reports of people the next day having, you know, body aches, sometimes fevers, signs that the immune system is reacting, is making antibodies. That's what we want.

But if people have to miss a day of work, we obviously can't have everybody on the same shift doing that. So they're certainly taking that into account.

[11:29:56]

MARQUARDT: One of the major fears is skepticism about the vaccine, fears about the vaccine. People who might not want to go get it. You've been vocal, you've been tweeting about how you want the people who get the vaccine to then post about it on social media. How do you convince people that the vaccine is safe?

All right. We've just lost Dr. Davidson. We'll try to get him back.

In the meantime, we're going to take a quick break.

And coming up, the fight for the senate is how getting hotter than ever before -- next month's runoff election in Georgia. Some big names hitting the campaign trail including former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

But first, Lisa Ling speaks with families and survivors of gun violence for this week's "THIS IS LIFE". Here is a quick preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're so young.

LISA LING, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): From Columbine to Parkland, from New York to Chicago --

(on camera): You think that you would see something like this in a place where there was a horrific genocide or a war zone. But this is America. Probably barely scratches the surface of all the people who've been killed, barely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's so correct. I'm hoping people walk through and see that our children, they had lives.

LING: So moving.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: Be sure to tune in to an all new episode of "THIS IS LIFE WITH LISA LING". That airs tomorrow night at 10:00 p.m. only on CNN. We'll be right back.

[11:31:29]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUARDT: With just 24 days to go before Georgia's two critical senate runoff elections, which will decide the balance of power in the U.S. Senate, the frenzy to influence Georgia voters is at a fever pitch.

A lot of pressure is coming from outsiders though trying to impact how Georgians vote. Just look at today's rallies. They're being attended by Alaska's Sarah Palin the former governor, Senators Steve Daines of Montana, Mike Lee of Utah.

Let's go to the ground where we find our CNN senior national correspondent Kyung Lah in Atlanta. Kyung, we've seen the president and vice president out there stumping for the Republican candidates. We also know that the president-elect Biden is going to be doing the same for the Democrats. What kind of pressure are Georgia voters feeling right now?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're certainly seeing it on their televisions. They are seeing it at their local malls as a lot of these bus tours are crisscrossing the state of Georgia.

You're seeing not only those big names like Sarah Palin and Joe Biden and the president himself coming here to talk to voters and hold rallies or hold meet-and-greets.

We're also seeing allied groups. Now, what we have seen this morning is the PAC group Club for Growth, on what they're calling the Save America bus tour. They are crisscrossing the state of Georgia, they have people like Sarah Palin talking to voters and saying, look, we know that the SCOTUS decision happened and Representative Louie Gohmert who comes from Texas directly mentioned the SCOTUS decision to not hear the case.

And they are still encouraging and walking that -- really trying to square that circle, if you will, trying to get voters excited and out there to vote, while at the same time, Alex, sort of trashing the entire American democratic system in the process.

So what the belief is here from Republican operatives we've spoken to is that that is something that they can do as long as they keep Republican energy high, Alex.

MARQUARDT: All right. And just a reminder that if both those Democrats win, Ossoff and Warnock, they then are at 50/50 in the Senate and Kamala Harris will be the tie breaker.

Kyung Lah, in Georgia, thanks very much.

Coming up, for the first time since 1943, the Army/Navy football game is going to be played at West Point and kickoff is just hours away. We're live there with all the changes next.

[11:38:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUARDT: Before authorizing a COVID vaccine, CDC experts have been studying possible side effects of the vaccine. Doctors say that reactions have been greater than those with the normal flu vaccine, but COVID vaccine side effects are still expected to be what's called low grade.

CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta has more on what we know so far about the vaccine's side effects.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

YASIR BATALVI, VACCINE TRIAL PATIENT: That evening was rough. I mean, I developed a low-grade fever and fatigue and chills.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Yasir Batalvi is describing the side effects that he experienced during Moderna's COVID vaccine trial.

BATALVI: 30 minutes later I had a little bit of stiffness, muscle soreness in my left arm. It's like you're punched in the arm, basically.

GUPTA (on camera): When you're going through this whole process, Yasir, a 22-page consent form, hearing about all the potential side effects, knowing that you're trialing something that, you know, we don't have a lot of data on at the time, did you have any second thoughts before taking it?

BATALVI: Honestly, Sanjay, yes.

GUPTA (voice over): Every decision we make is risk versus reward. And when the company announced early data showing over 94 percent efficacy, Yasir was confident it had been worth it.

BATALVI: It doesn't last long and the potential of folks not getting this vaccine and actually infecting people with COVID, those effects last a lot longer and they can be life or death.

GUPTA: These are early days and the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna use a type of genetic sequence called mRNA, a technology that has never before been used in humans outside of a clinical trial.

mRNA stands for messenger RNA. It carries the instruction for making whatever protein you want. In this case, the spike protein the virus uses to enter our cells. These vaccines require two doses -- one to prime, one to boost. A few weeks apart, so the body mounts what we hope will be a lasting immune response.

One of the biggest concerns now is that the side effects that Yasir is describing -- fatigue, muscle pain, fever and chills will deter people from getting that second dose.

[11:44:59]

MONCEF SLAOUI, CHIEF SCIENTIST, OPERATION WARP SPEED: Maybe 10 percent, 15 percent of the subjects immunized have quite noticeable side effects that usually last no more than 24, 36 hours.

GUPTA (on camera): Do you worry about the impact of this vaccine on you long-term?

BATALVI: I gave it a lot of thought and the only thing that gave me some calm was trying to research the actual vaccine, trying to understand how mRNA vaccines work.

GUPTA (voice over): We understand this for sure, you can't get infected from this vaccine because the vaccine doesn't actually contain the virus. And even though these are genetic-based vaccines, they don't alter our DNA. And as far as those side effects go, that may even be a good sign.

DR. PAUL OFFIT, DIRECTOR, VACCINE EDUCATION CENTER, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: That means your immune response is working for you. You should feel good about that and it shouldn't really be any difficulty coming back for that second shot knowing that you're now in a much better position to fight off this awful virus.

GUPTA: Yasir is confident that his choice is helping pave the way to a better tomorrow.

BATALVI: So I put my name down because I just -- I felt so helpless. It's public service. I have to do it because I think mass scale vaccination is really the only realistic way out of the pandemic that we're in.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

MARQUARDT: Our thanks to Sanjay Gupta there.

Now, in just a few hours, one of college football's great rivalries will kick off when Army plays Navy for the 121st time. But because of COVID-19, the game has been moved from neutral ground in Philadelphia to Army's home turf at West Point, making it the first time that this match-up has been played there since 1943.

And that's where we find CNN's Coy Wire.

Coy, the president is expected to arrive there shortly. How are things looking?

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: yes, that's right, Alex.

President Trump went to high school at Cornwell, just over the mountain here, he went to New York Military Academy. This is his second time coming to West Point this year. Back in June he came here and spoke at graduation. This will be his fourth consecutive Army/Navy game. He's the tenth sitting president to have attended this incredible rich tradition-filled rivalry.

We're going to walk over here, Alex, and you're going to see the only other attendees at today's game, the Corps of Cadets wearing grey there and then off to our left you're going to see the full grade of midshipmen and this is rare for them to all be here. As you mentioned. Normally traditionally played in Philadelphia every year.

Every person on the field today will have been tested for COVID-19 before entering. These young cadets and midshipmen have been living in essentially, Alex, in somewhat of a bubble environment. They've been on post and now they're excited to get off and get some normalcy back.

And this is an incredible tradition that's gone on since 1890, the first time, as you mentioned, it will be played here at West Point since 1943. And it's so much more than a game. These young men and women represent something that we all aspire to be. Although they wear different uniforms and cheer for different sides, they come together afterwards and they hug as brothers and sisters because they realize they're all on the same team.

It's part of what makes this game unlike any other. It's the Army/Navy game. Kickoff is at 3:00 p.m., Alex.

MARQUARDT: And one of the other traditions at the end of the game is that the two sides come together and sing each other's alma maters -- their school songs, to the losing side and to the winning side, which is a wonderful show of unity.

Coy Wire at West point, thanks very much. Enjoy the game.

Now, coming up next, some people in President Trump's inner circle are getting special treatment for coronavirus as hospitals ration their care.

But first, here is this week's "Mission Ahead".

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Every year nearly 30 million acres of fertile soil degrades into unusable desert land, a process known as desertification. With climate change, the problem has only gotten worse and threatens the lives of more than a billion people worldwide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The problem is it's happening underneath our feet, out of sight, out of mind.

CRANE: But what if you could turn that desert land back into fertile soil in a matter of hours?

Norwegian startup Desert Control claims it can do just that.

(on camera): What's the real invention here for Desert Control?

OLE KRISTIAN SIVERTSEN, DESERT CONTROL: Basically what we have invented is a way to turn clay into a liquid nearly as thin as water.

CRANE (voice over): Mixing clay into soil has long been used to restore dry farmland but the process can take 7 to 15 years to complete. By turning clay into liquid, the process is dramatically shortened. The company simply sprays what they call liquid nano-clay onto dry land, it seeps below the surface and begins working in just 7 hours.

SIVERTSEN: It won't just stick to every kind of grain that exists throughout that soil and then form this structure that enables this soil to retain water and nutrients just like a sponge.

[11:49:57] CRANE: In early trials run by a nonprofit in Dubai -- grain, zucchini and watermelon needed 50 percent less water to grow. Some plants even thrived.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have zucchini increases of yield up to 62 percent. Really impressive results.

CRANE: But liquid nanoclay isn't cheap -- between $8,000 to $20,000 an acre. But Desert Control expects costs will come down as the company scales up. Next year, there are plans to test the technology in the U.S. in dry states like California, Nevada and Arizona.

SIVERTSEN: Where, you know, increasing temperatures extended drought periods, to be able to ensure that the little water that we have actually is retained in that soil is going to be extremely valuable and important for farmers moving forward.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[11:55:46]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUARDT: With the FDA authorizing the first COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, there are still many concerns about who gets the vaccine and when.

President Trump and many in his inner circle, including most recently Rudy Giuliani, have gotten COVID-19 and have all been treated with short supply antibody therapies that some hospitals and states are normally giving out by lottery or ranking system.

This special treatment for the select few has some health care workers worried about who is truly essential and who is not.

Joining me to discuss this is Dr. Matthew Wynia, the director of the Center of Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado. Doctor, thank you so much for joining us.

Access to treatment for this highly deadly disease is one of the most valuable things in the world. Let's take a listen to what the president's lawyer Rudy Giuliani said about his treatment after he got infected. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUDY GIULIANI, TRUMP LAWYER: It wasn't me, I wouldn't have been put in the hospital.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Really. Yes, well, I mean --

GIULIANI: Sometimes when you're -- you know, you're a celebrity, they're worried if something happens to you, they're going to examine it more carefully and do everything right.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MARQUARDT: Sometimes if you're a celebrity, people are worried about what happens to you. Doctor, how angry does it make you that someone like Rudy Giuliani, who's not even in the administration, he's the president's lawyer, gets this kind of treatment that the president himself got?

DR. MATTHEW WYNIA, DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO CENTER OF BIOETHICS AND HUMANITIES: Well, it's disappointing, of course, whenever someone even feels like they are receiving sort of special treatment when it may well be that he wasn't receiving special treatment, being hospitalized if you don't need to be hospitalized is not special treatment. That's potentially dangerous.

So it worries me a lot, however, that we're talking about a monoclonal antibody therapy that may have some value and it is in incredibly short supply and the idea that someone could be jumping the line and getting that in an unfair way. That does concern me a great deal.

MARQUARDT: Does it surprise you, though, that people with connections, people with resources are able to get that kind of special treatment?

DR. WYNIA: Well, I guess it doesn't surprise me. There are a few sort of cheaters in the world. There are people who feel like they're special -- you know, the rules don't apply to them. That's always going to be the case. Our job in the health care system is to try to mitigate that risk.

And we use, you know, ethical systems for resource allocation when we have things that are in very short supply. And those systems do not include, you know, diverting resources to people who are wealthy and well connected.

They include things like who is the most likely to benefit from this? Who is the most likely to spread the disease, for example, if we don't take care of it quickly. That kind of thing.

So there are ways to allocate scarce resources that are ethical. And giving it to people with special connections is not one of them.

MARQUARDT: That was for the therapies for treating the disease. Now with the vaccine about to roll out across the country, how worried are you about people jumping ahead in line?

DR. WYNIA: Yes, the -- one of the differences between the antibody treatments and the vaccine is that the antibody treatment, despite what you may have heard from some, you know, very famous people, is not a guaranteed win. There are still questions about whether, you know, the extent to which the antibody treatment provides a great deal of benefit and to whom. So we still need to learn a lot more about that.

The vaccine, by contrast, is quite certainly very effective. There's still more to learn about the vaccine, but we're particularly concerned when something comes on the market that is very effective and that a lot of people are going to want to get their hands on. I think there are ways to mitigate that risk, but it's probably higher with the vaccine than it was and is with the monoclonal antibody therapies.

MARQUARDT: And now countries around the world, states here, are faced with this unprecedented question of who gets it first. I don't think you're going to find any opposition to the fact that those who are most vulnerable, and those who are doing all the fighting against this disease should get it first.

But then once you go below that level, it does get a little more complicated. So how complex is it for states and localities to make these ethical decisions?

DR. WYNIA: Yes, it's quite complicated.