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FDA Authorizes Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine For Emergency Use; Supreme Court Reject Trump's Bid To Overturn Elections; Hospitalizations And New Cases Hit Single-Day High In U.S.; Education Groups: Teachers Should Be A Priority For Vaccines; Congress Stuck On Stimulus Relief Amid Looming Shutdown Threat. Aired 12-1p ET

Aired December 12, 2020 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN HOST: How complex is it for states and localities to make these ethical decisions?

DR. MATTHEW WYNIA, DIRECTOR, CENTER OF BIOETHICS & HUMANITIES, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO: Yes, it's quite complicated and you can see that if you look across the different states, there are subtle but potentially important differences from one state to another. I think there probably would be some value in having more directive guidance from the federal government.

I don't assume we're going to get that in the next month or so well but there could be a push to see some more discreet guidance that would allow states to have a more consistent approach - the states.

MARQUARDT: OK. Dr. Matthew Wynia, thank you so much for your time.

WYNIA: Thank you.

MARQUARDT: Well thanks for joining me. I'm Alex Marquardt in today for Fredricka Whitfield. We start this hour with the United States on the brink of a historic and potentially game changing moment in this fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Right now as we speak, the CDC Advisory Committee, one committee at the CDC is holding a meeting on whether to recommend the use of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine. A final vote is expected within the next few hours and the final announcement could come from the CDC shortly after that.

Now all this comes just a day after the FDA gave the green light for emergency use authorization of that same Pfizer vaccine and now one Operation Warp Speed official says that the vaccine will be delivered to 145 sites all across the state on Monday and another 425 sites on Tuesday.

It could not come at a more dire time. The United States seeing its worst day of the pandemic thus far. On Friday the highest number of deaths over 3300 hospitalizations and new cases also higher than any day prior. The U.S. now approaching another horrific milestone closing in on 300,000 Americans killed by the disease.

And as we wait for the vaccine's arrival, hospitals are 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. A sad reality of all this is that more and more people will die as they wait for the vaccine.

CNN"s Jacqueline Howard is monitoring that CDC's Advisory Committee meeting. Jacqueline, walk us through what we're going to see today from the committee, from the CDC, what comes next and how crucial these last elements are in this highly complicated process?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Well, these last elements are kind of the next steps in getting the COVID-19 vaccine out and administered to people and so what's happening right now with the Advisory Committee on immunization practices is meeting to go over the COVID-19 vaccine data and the committee is going to vote on one important policy question.

I have it right here. The question is this. Should vaccination with the COVID-19 vaccine be recommended for persons 16 years of age and older under this emergency use authorization. So what's happening, we already heard from the FDA, the FDA has authorized this vaccine for emergency use but now we're going to hear from this other public health agency, from the CDC and we're going to hear their recommendation on the vaccine.

This advisory committee that's meeting at this moment is the same committee that makes recommendations when it comes to adult and childhood immunization schedules, for instance so this is the group that really does take a close look at immunization practices. Once this group makes its vote on the recommendation, that vote is then sent to the CDC director and then it's up to the CDC to accept the committee recommendations.

Once the CDC does that and gives its recommendation then we can expect to see the vaccine being administered to people.

MARQUARDT: Jacqueline, you did mention those over the age of 16. What about the risks associated with children? How soon could they get the vaccine because of course it affects people of different ages differently.

HOWARD: Alex, that's a big discussion that's happening right now in this advisory committee meeting so there isn't much data on children under the age of 16 and that's an area where you know there is expectation to gather and collect more data and you get a better understanding of that age group.

It's interesting just moments ago FDA official Dr. Peter Marks addressed this exact question and he spoke specifically about children ages 16 and 17. Again, the authorization is for ages 16 and older so what about these older children who are in that age group? Here's what Dr. Marks had to say. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR PETER MARKS, DIRECTOR, FDA'S CENTER FOR BIOLOGICS EVALUATION AND RESEARCH: Based on everything we saw from looking at the data, we're very comfortable that the safety profile that was observed in 17 and 16 year olds was acceptable since some of those 16 and 17 year old at least that I know of are out there as check out people or interacting with communities, it may be wise that we are able to vaccinate them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:05:00]

HOWARD: So again, that's what FDA official Dr. Peter Marks had to say about children ages 16 and 17 but we still need more data on ages younger than 16.

MARQUARDT: A lot to figure out there and a lot more to come today and with all those developments at the CDC, we know you'll be paying attention Jacqueline Howard. Thank you very much.

Now at this point distribution of the vaccine is the biggest remaining hurdle to getting that acting out to the American public and getting the shots in people's arms as they say and moving back in around the country is a huge undertaking and so is making sure that it gets there in one piece.

CNN's Pete Muntean is at Pfizer's facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Pete, we now know, we heard just moments ago that shipments will start leaving tomorrow. For a lot of people they're going to be asking why not today, what's the hold up?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, all the parts and pieces are in place here, Alex. Now we're just waiting on the vaccine to begin shipping. We know that this is a critical spot. Pfizer's largest facility here in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It's where the vaccine is being stored and Operation Warp Speed says that the vaccine is going out directly to 636 individual locations.

Those are places like hospitals, pharmacies, CVS and Walgreens. Operation Warp Speed just said that many of these shipments will arrive in those places starting on Monday, the bulk of them though on Tuesday. It is UPS and FedEx physically handling those packages.

UPS in the east. FedEx in the west. UPS says this is months in the making and it's able to track granular details of each package, beaming all of that information back to its headquarters in Louisville. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WES WHEELER, PRESIDENT, UPS HEALTHCARE: The trailer loads that are coming out of Michigan and Wisconsin will carry this device and all that data streaming into our Command Center in Louisville so we can see, we have eyes on these shipments all the way from origin to the final dosing destination.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Now this is not just a ground game, Alex. Also a massive air operation. The FAA is directing airports to get ready for vaccine shipments even if they are not expecting any. The FAA is telling airports to make sure that delivery trucks have priority access to airfields and to step up security at each airport.

You know this could be the beginning of the end of this pandemic but this is just the start of a massive movement here in Michigan. Alex.

MARQUARDT: Hard to imagine a time when FedEx and UPS have been charged with more precious cargo. Pete Muntean in Kalamazoo, Michigan, thanks so much. So when the vaccine does start to move out of Michigan, doses will head the hospitals all around the country.

Nearby in Chicago that'll be one of the first major cities to get shipments. Adrienne Broaddus joins us now at Chicago's Rush Medical Center. Adrienne, how are they preparing for those shipments that Pete was talking about to come in?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Alex, here at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago preparation started earlier in the week with transforming this lobby into a vaccine clinic for Rush employees . Behind me is the vaccine preparation area.

You'll notice over in the corner there is a fridge. That's the fridge that will store the vaccines that have already been prepared for administration, for those first line health care workers, here at Rush. Along this side of the lobby, there are 10 vaccine stations. This is where the vaccine will be administered. Once employees receive that shot in the arm, they will have to wait here for a few moments down the hall in the waiting area.

They will wait to make sure there's no adverse reaction and I want to point out this is in the lobby of the emergency department. We're so close to the emergency department and that was part of the preparation. If something happens, if someone has an allergic reaction, hospital staff here wants to make sure they are steps away from help Alex.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. LUKE HVASS, CLINICAL PHARMACIST, RUSH UNIV MEDICAL CENTER: See, how big this process going to be. It's finally here. It's finally there real, it's always - it's turning into a very nice full size clinic and so it'll be - it's one of those things, I'm excited to be able to have the opportunity to vaccinate so many people.

It also is a little mind boggling, how this whole process is going to work but we have so many different plans in place and different people working on different aspects of that that really, I think this clinic will run smoothly. It's just a matter of getting it going.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROADDUS: And that was a clinical pharmacist you just heard from. He will administer the first shot in the arm. Yesterday Rush went through drill to see what will happen when they start administering those vaccines, Alex. MARQUARDT: All right, Adrienne Broaddus there in Chicago, so

encouraging to see that vaccine set up already in place. Thanks very much.

I want to bring in doctor Margaret Hamburg. She's a former commissioner for the FDA under President Barack Obama. Thank you so much for joining us. We now have this huge undertaking that are correspondents have been talking about.

[12:10:00]

This huge - this massive and complex distribution plan to get that Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine around the country but at the same time, we're still seeing deaths. 3300 people on Friday. Hospitalizations and new cases in record numbers. With the vaccine in place, how quickly do you think that things can actually turn around and those numbers will start to drop?

DR. MARGARET HAMBURG, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: Well, it is just a historic moment to celebrate that we have this vaccine which will soon be going out to people and it can make a difference but it will take time. You know they're going to be a limited supply. It's going to go first to those that have been identified as the highest priority in terms of risk for disease.

But it's going to take us you know at least through the first part of next year to move vaccine to all of the people who may want it. In the meantime we know that we are facing some of the worst days of this COVID-19 pandemic. We're seeing record deaths, hospitalizations, new cases every day, breaking records.

We have to work together to bring the numbers down. That's not going to happen because of the vaccine, it's going to happen because we take those public health measures like wearing masks and social distancing, avoiding large gatherings especially inside, washing hands, et cetera.

That is how we're going to turn the tide on this global pandemic as we wait for the vaccine that will be transformative as more and more people can get it.

MARQUARDT: Yes, you really want to be excited for the vaccine but at the same time these numbers are just staggering. Doctor, this Pfizer vaccine, it requires two doses to maintain effectiveness and the second dose comes weeks after the first. Listen to how one FDA official described the process this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARKS: 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) MARQUARDT: So the FDA clearly saying there that you know the two doses

are absolutely essential, you can't just stop with one but that need for two doses, how does that impact the speed with which Americans can get vaccinated.

HAMBURG: Well obviously there are limited supplies of vaccine. We're in an urgent situation in terms of the devastation of this disease so we want to get vaccine out to as many people as quickly as possible but we want that vaccine to work and as Dr. Mark said the vaccine was studied for a two-dose regimen.

Almost everyone that was in the study got a second dose within just a couple of weeks of that first dose and so while there was data that suggested you know a meaningful degree of efficacy after one dose, we don't know how quickly that protection might drop off.

What we do know is the second dose really boost the efficacy, going from just a little over 50 percent to close to 95 percent and it looks like it may create a longer lasting impact so we need to continue to study whether one dose can work. We need to continue to track people who are getting this vaccine and we need to learn a lot more about what the antibody response when you get a dose of vaccine means in terms of what are the critical elements for protection and how long that protection will last.

So we can keep applying you know new better data and scientific evidence to ask and answer these really important questions.

MARQUARDT: Putting aside the skepticism that many sadly have about getting the vaccine at all, are you worried at all that if people feel low grade side effects after the first dose, that they might be hesitant to come back for that second dose that really makes it efficient.

HAMBURG: We do know that there are local effects from the vaccine. You know pain, swelling at the site. We also know that that many people have a little bit of fatigue, headache, some have chills and low grade fever. People need to be informed that they may have these side effects and to expect them, that it shows that the vaccine as in fact working.

[12:15:00]

And so I think if people understand that this isn't a worry but it's part of the process, they'll come back for their second dose and we need to be tracking, we need to make sure that people get reminded to come back for their second dose and we also need to be tracking people over the course of their experience after they get their vaccinations so that we can look for and investigate any surprises in terms of emerging safety concerns.

And so we can learn more about how the vaccine works, the efficacy and importantly, the duration of protection from this new vaccine.

MARQUARDT: Yes, that messaging campaign so important to be done alongside this distribution so people really understand what's happening and what they're going to experience. Dr. Margaret Hamburg, thank you very much for your time.

HAMBURG: Thank you.

MARQUARDT: All right well next, President Trump versus his Attorney General. Why Bill Barr is suddenly on the president's bad side plus cases exploding across the country, packing hospitals to the brim. We'll take you live inside a makeshift hospital inside a parking garage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:20:00]

MARQUARDT: President Trump continues to lash out at the Supreme Court today after it rejected a lawsuit filed by the Texas Attorney General which tried to block millions of votes in key battleground states. The president's also attacking his own attorney general. calling AG Bill Barr, a big disappointment as the president retweeted a tweet calling for Barr to be fired.

Reports have been circulating for days that President Trump wants to remove Barr from his position after he refused to support the president's false claims of widespread election fraud.

So for the very latest, let's bring in CNN's Boris Sanchez at the White House. Boris, the Attorney General for most of his tenure there has been a fierce ally of the president.

Seen as doing much of the president's bidding. How did Barr end up so quickly on Trump's bad side?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITEHOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well Alex, the short answer at least in the most recent occasion of Trump's ire toward the Attorney General simply put is Hunter Biden. I'll get into that in a second but I want to let you know that President Trump just left the White House. He's headed to the Army Navy game at West Point.

He refused to take reporters' questions but to get into the disagreement between the president and his attorney general, the president publicly repeatedly before the election, mounted a campaign to try to get the Department of Justice to announce an investigation into Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

Of course that did not happen. The Department of Justice has a longstanding precedent of not announcing investigations into candidates around election time. The President clearly felt that that could have benefited him on November 3. Take a look at this tweet he sent out earlier today. He writes, "Why didn't Bill Barr reveal the truth to the public before the election about Hunter Biden? Joe was lying on the debate stage that nothing was wrong or going on. Press confirmed: Big disadvantage for Republicans at the polls."

The truth the president is referring to in this tweet nebulous at best but overall, this really reveals the dissatisfaction that he has with Attorney General Barr right now and it's sort of history repeating itself Alex because you'll recall, the president has similar situation with his previous Attorney General Jeff Sessions when Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation.

The president repeatedly for months berated him on Twitter before ultimately firing him and you're right, sources have indicated that President Trump has recently mused about firing his Attorney General. One source describing the relationship between the two men as a Cold War right now. Alex.

MARQUARDT: All right, Boris Sanchez at the White House as the president leaves for that Army Navy game. Thanks so much. Now still ahead, desperate measures as the U.S. battles new coronavirus cases and more hospitalizations than ever before. We're going to take you inside a makeshift medical unit. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUARDT: The U.S. is now experiencing the worst period of the pandemic so far. Many hospitals are being pushed to the breaking point. Have a look at this. A Nevada hospital now running a COVID-19 medical unit in its parking garage after an influx of new coronavirus cases.

CNN's Sara Sidner reports.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Doctor Jacob Keeperman is mustering all his mental and physical strength as another wave of COVID-19 patients show up in the Intensive Care Unit at this hospital. Everyone here has been going nonstop for months.

What was your worst day?

DR: JACOB KEEPERMAN, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, RENOWN TRANSFER AND OPERATIONS CENTER: So my worst day of this pandemic was actually the day, I posted a tweet thanking my teammates. I had just finished a 7-day stretch in the Intensive Care Unit. There had been a patient after patient after patient who was not surviving this illness.

SIDNER: The tweet he sent was a simple selfie showing off their new COVID-19 wing. That wing set up in the hospital parking garage. That fact seemed to set President Trump off who retweeted a tweet calling it fake and a scam. That unleashed the Twitter trolls.

KEEPERMAN: I was sad and devastated and I was angry.

SIDNER: Devastated and angry because all of the hard work being done by his colleagues inside this parking garage hospital, every single day from the food staff to the CEO.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not fake. This is as real as it gets.

SIDNER: The idea was conceived and executed months ago but during this COVID surge, patients are now parked in these spaces instead of cars. The number of coronavirus cases in Washoe county, Nevada that this hospital services have exploded. This week there are actually ten times the number of COVID-19 cases that there were just a couple of months ago so the hospital had to do whatever it takes to find more bed space and so here we are on Four G of the parking garage.

[12:30:00]

JANET BAUM, NURSING MANAGER, ALTERNATE CARE SITE: It was scary. You know, we don't expect to go to work and be working out of a parking garage. We've made it a hospital, so we don't even consider it a garage any more.

SIDNER (on camera): Did you ever think that in America they would have to treat people in a parking lot?

ROSALIA MARTINEZ, CORONAVIRUS PATIENT: I apologize for what I'm going to say. When they started building this, I laughed.

SIDNER (voice-over): Making a dusty, dirty parking garage into a sanitary space seemed laughable, but then she ended up hospitalized here.

MARTINEZ: People don't realize how bad this is, the pain, how you feel, they're not being able to breathe. That's one of the worst things that I ever had to experience in my life.

SIDNER (voice-over): A few days later, he husband of 35 years was also hospitalized with COVID.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought, you know, she's going to die.

SIDNER (voice-over): After spending days in isolation with no visitation, they found each other again, parked just four beds apart in the parking garage.

MARTINEZ: He coughs at nighttime, I can hear him. And if I yell, he can hear me. He knows that I'm still alive.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

MARQUARDT: Our thanks to Sara Sidner for that piece. Now let's talk more about the record number of hospitalizations here in the U.S. Dr. Richina Bicette is an emergency medicine physician in Houston and the medical director at Baylor College of Medicine. I want to get right into this historic moment with the vaccine. In a just after we touch on what's going on right now. In your emergency room, what is happening?

DR. RICHINA BICETTE, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Well, Alex, what's happening in Houston is similar to what's happening all across the country. We're seeing cases surge. We're seeing ICU beds saturated. Actually in the Texas Medical Center which is the largest Medical Center in the world, our ICU beds are full, we are at capacity. We're right now in phase two of our surge planning or our surge beds. And even then, the combined total of our phase one and phase two beds are already 83 percent full. Patients are coming out of the Woodworks and they are very, very sick.

For the patients that get hospitalized in the Texas Medical Center with COVID, the death rate is actually staggeringly high. It's about 9 percent. So that means if you're sick enough to get hospitalized in the Texas Medical Center, one out of every 11 patients will not be making it home to their families.

MARQUARDT: Staggering numbers. Doctor, when you look at the next few weeks, what -- as we head into the holiday season, are you expecting this surge to continue through the holidays and into the early part of next year?

BICETTE: I'm absolutely expecting the surge to continue because, Alex, I really don't think that we've seen the spike from the Thanksgiving holiday just yet. Thanksgiving was just about two weeks ago. So I think we're finally going to start seeing cases rolling from those who traveled over the holidays and who gathered over the holidays.

Adding that to the fact that the United States has broken records for the last almost two weeks in terms of the number of daily cases, the number of patients that are hospitalized and the number of deaths we're seeing daily, it's extremely frightening.

MARQUARDT: What about the vaccine? What is your hospital have been told about the rollout and when it will be available to you?

BICETTE: Well, hospitals in the Texas Medical Center are actually prepared to start giving the vaccine as early as Monday. They've started to send out e-mails to hospital staff and frontline workers in order to get people to sign up for vaccination slots. Now we're not sure if the vaccine will actually arrive by Monday. But if it does get here, we're prepared to take it.

MARQUARDT: Is your expectation that there will be enough doses so that at least every frontline worker like yourself can be vaccinated at the same time?

BICETTE: I do think that frontline workers will be able to receive the vaccine. We've been told that the U.S. government has been able to secure about 100 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine. And since the vaccine is a two-dose regimen, that means 50 million people should be able to get the vaccine with this first wave of rollout.

They're about 20 million frontline workers across the United States. So I do think at minimum that we should be able to vaccinate our hospital staff.

MARQUARDT: Seeing what we've seen, how do you respond to anybody who's skeptical about taking this vaccine? What do you tell your friends and family?

BICETTE: You know, taking a vaccine is a personal decision. But I'm a scientist and I look at data. And the data says that this vaccine is safe. There were no severe reactions reported with either the Moderna nor the Pfizer vaccine, and the vaccine is effective, 95 percent effective, which is astonishing. That's rivaling that of the measles vaccine which has been around for decades.

Even the flu vaccine which 160 million people take per year is only about 60 to 70 percent effective so if that many people are willing to take the flu vaccine, why wouldn't they be able or be willing to take the COVID vaccine? There's been a lot of speculation with the speed at which the vaccine has been developed. And there are reasons for that.

[12:35:11]

The technology that is being used for the COVID vaccine actually was initially studied greater than 10 years ago, scientists have been looking at this. Furthermore, with Operation Warp Speed and with billions of dollars being funneled into vaccine development and being given to scientists that aids in the speed of vaccine development. So I don't think the vaccine being developed fashion be a reason for people not to want to take it.

MARQUARDT: All right, well, Dr. Richina Bicette, thank you so much for everything you do. Thank you to all of your colleagues as well.

BICETTE: Thank you for having me, Alex.

MARQUARDT: All right. Still ahead, millions of Americans left hanging in the balance as stimulus talks in Congress stall yet again. What is the holdup on coronavirus relief, that's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUARDT: The big question right now is who gets the COVID vaccine first, then who's next and in what order? What are the priorities if we want to get students back to school, labor unions representing teachers and support staff say, that the CDC should vaccinate public school employees first.

[12:40:16]

Randi Weingarten joins us now. She's the President of the American Federation of Teachers. Thank you so much for joining us. Do you consider teachers to be frontline workers? What is your pitch to the CDC on this?

RANDI WEINGARTEN, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS: Well, so look, we represent, we represent both educators and health care workers. And let me be very clear, health care workers and people at risk like those in nursing homes, they have to be first and health care workers, who are the frontline of frontlines need to be first.

What we have said is that teachers, particularly as we're reopening schools should be in what they call category 1B, which is, you know, next in line as part of the essential work to actually get kids educator -- educated, to reopen the economy to make sure that parents have the kind of resources that they need. But frontline health care workers must be first.

MARQUARDT: Are you going to have some sort of push? How will you push all public school workers to get the vaccine?

WEINGARTEN: Well, what we're doing, look, we spent a lot of time with Rockefeller Institute yesterday or this week, who's been working on this with the CDC. We testified several months ago. We testified, we submitted testimony again. And as you know, I'm not shy, so we've made this case very publicly. But there's an alignment here.

And I think that Joe Biden gets it right, which is that if we want to have more school buildings open, you can align the vaccine prioritization. With the reopening of schools, particularly elementary schools and schools with kid -- for kids with special needs. It's not that you wait to reopen them until there's a vaccine. But it's that you can create this kind of alignment over the course of January, February, and March.

And that's what we have proposed, not to say that every single school teacher should get the vaccine, you know, in the next few months, but let's make sure that we do this as we're reopening schools.

MARQUARDT: And no one's saying that when the vaccine comes that all precautions should go out the window. In fact, the health experts are saying that we should still practice safe distancing measures and wear masks until the middle of the night year.

WEINGARTEN: Exactly, right.

MARQUARDT: So how do you how do you square those two things, specifically that plan that you mentioned, from President-elect Biden, to get back -- to get kids back into schools within the first 100 days?

WEINGARTEN: Well, actually, President-elect Biden had two really important caveats. And those are very much things that I wrote in this op-ed on November 30th to the Hill, which is you need the resources to make sure that schools are safe and that educators have the instructional tools they need for kids. You also need the resources for kids to have those instructional tools like connectivity and the devices.

So resources are really, really, really important. But the second thing you need is you need those safety and health protocols. And because we haven't had a national plan, we're not going to all of a sudden get the national plan that we need. I think President-elect Biden has been really clever about talking about it being really good health and safety protocols from local and state health offices.

So in English, what this means, and we've seen this work in New York City in September and October which is why I'm confident that if we can tackle this huge, horrible surge, we can have a good second semester, which is you have to have mask, you have to have the physical distancing, you have to have the cleaning, and you have to have the ventilation. And CDC just this week said if you put all that together, it's about $450 a kid. So we can do that in elementary schools. I will also add the testing. And we can get tackle the curve, start reopening carefully elementary schools with these safeguards in place plus the testing, have the resources to do that.

And then as we get through the whole second semester, we'll have more and more and more people vaccinated. That's a win-win scenario for us to get back to some semblance of normal by the summer.

[12:45:01]

MARQUARDT: All right, well, looking forward to that. Thank you very much. Randi Weingarten, President, American Federation of Teachers.

WEINGARTEN: Thank you.

MARQUARDT: All right, and we will be back right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUARDT: As the pandemic rages on, so too does gridlock on Capitol Hill over stimulus relief. Congress is running out of time to not only pass a stimulus package to give struggling Americans desperately needed relief but also to try to avoid a government shutdown. CNN's Manu Raju reports.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: For months the two parties have been stalled over critical relief needed by so many Americans who have been hit hard by the devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the economic impact that has come along with it.

[12:50:07]

But arguments and bickering have led to this being stalled for quite some time. And now we are reaching crunch time, the end of the 116th Congress and expectation that Congress has to do something. Both sides agree on that. They believe something needs to be done, what they don't agree on is exactly what needs to be done right now.

And at the moment, there are still major sticking points that have now dog a key group of negotiators, that are Senate group that at one point was seen as the best bet to get a deal. And they were trying to find a $908 billion deal that could be approved by both chambers of Congress.

But they have been stuck as they've tried to come up with the details of some key provisions, one state local funding, Democrats believe that there needs to be at least $160 billion for state and local governments. Republicans don't believe that is necessary.

They think it will be wasted by some governments who they say just simply don't need it. And they're arguing, instead, there should be liability protections for businesses and other entities that open up during the pandemic. But Democrats have pushed back on those provisions as well. They have tried to come to some sort of compromise. And that has been elusive. Some Republicans are saying move ahead with what they agreed to. Mitt Romney, one of the negotiators in the group, told me that they had agreed to already $748 billion of that $908 billion package, agree to that, move ahead with that.

But ultimately, the decision will be up to the Democratic leaders and the Republican leaders. Mitch McConnell on the Republican side, Nancy Pelosi on the Democratic side, they still have not sat down and talk to figure out what they ultimately can agree on. But they will have to do that in the coming days, decide what they may want to roll into a spending package to keep the government open pass next Friday.

The question is, can they reach an agreement? Will they be able to do that by the next deadline? Or will we be back at it again, when so many people are waiting and Congress will fail in the final days of this Congress? It's still uncertain as so many people wait.

Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.

MARQUARDT: All right, thanks to Manu Raju.

For many this time of year is about giving back. But the 14th annual CNN Heroes All-Star tribute salutes the people who put others first throughout this turbulent year. The star studded show airs this Sunday at 8:00 pm. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been a year of challenges and change. But it's also been a year of hope. This year's CNN Heroes is a celebration of everyday people doing extraordinary acts, doing two of the biggest stories of 2020. Join Anderson Cooper, Kelly Ripa and celebrity guests.

KELLY RIPA, AMERICAN ACTRESS: Tonight is about hope. It's about decency, and it's about compassion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In a salute to the people who keep our spirits lifted.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need to see the world differently.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anyone can have impact no matter their age.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Plus the viewer's choice for this year's most inspiring moment at a special musical performance by Tony, Grammy, and Emmy winners, Cynthia Erivo. CNN Heroes, an All-Star Tribune, Sunday at 8:00 on CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: And you're going to like this, the need for heroes really does feel even greater. Join Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa for CNN Heroes, an All-Star Tribute. That's tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

[12:53:37]

And that'll do it for me. Thanks so much for joining me today. I'm Alex Marquardt. I'll see you back here tomorrow afternoon. CNN NEWSROOM continues with John Avlon, in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN AVLON, CNN HOST: Hello, thanks for joining us. I'm john Avlon in for Fredricka Whitfield. We begin with the U.S. on the cusp of turning the tide in the fight against coronavirus. Right now, a key CDC Advisory Committee is meeting on whether to recommend the use of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, make it vote in just the next couple hours. Final announcement by the CDC could happen shortly after that.

And this all comes one day after the FDA gave the green light for an emergency use authorization for that same vaccine. The U.S. is rolling out the vaccine with an Operation Warp Speed official saying today that it will be delivered to 145 sites on Monday alone.

This morning, the FDA Commissioner reassured Americans that this vaccine is safe and not being hurried through the process.

(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)

[12:59:52]

AVLON: This rollout could not come at a more dire time. On Friday, the United States hit more record highs for deaths, hospitalizations, and new cases, and is now approaching another horrific milestone closing in on 300,000 Americans killed by the disease.