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Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine Shipping Out To All 50 States; High- Wire Logistics Leave Slim Margin For Error; Biden To Deliver Speech Monday Night On Electoral College; First Doses Of Vaccine Shipped As Virus Strains Hospitals, Claims Nearly 300,000 American Lives. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired December 13, 2020 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:00:17]

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

We begin this hour with what really is a tale of two milestones. First, the history-making moment, this first COVID vaccine getting the final green light and rolling out of a Michigan plant.

That, alongside the grim reality. Record hospitalizations and thousands of Americans dying every single day.

Moments ago the CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield, he accepted the recommendation by an advisory board, meaning that vaccines can now be administered here in the United States. This comes just hours after the first shipments of Pfizer's vaccine left Michigan, a sign of what could be the beginning of the end of the pandemic.

More than 184,000 vials are expected to arrive in all 50 states by tomorrow. The plan, according to one U.S. official, is to vaccinate 100 million Americans by March. That of course, will take an incredible logistical feat. The distribution of the vaccine presenting one of the most complex and complicated logistical challenges in U.S. history.

And all of this as the U.S. the U.S. closes in on another sobering milestone. Nearly 300,000 dead and counting. We've had 30,000 deaths in just the first two weeks of December. And the number of new cases and hospitalizations continues to soar at the same time.

We have a team of reporters covering every angle of the coronavirus vaccine rollout. But first we want to get to this breaking news.

Right now the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine can be administered to the American public. CDC director Robert Redfield gave the all-clear a short time ago.

Let's get to Dr. Sanjay -- Let's get to Dr. Sanjay Gupta now for what this all means. Sanjay, thanks so much for joining me today. This is momentous. But it was expected. What does this decision by Director Redfield mean in practical terms?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So this is the sort of final checkoff, Alex. So you had the FDA obviously issue the emergency use authorization on Friday. That was after an advisory committee suggested they do so.

And sort of the same thing happened now with the CDC. So the FDA authorizes this vaccine formally. The CDC now recommends it formally, and they put it into this report that is essentially sort of the gold standard infectious disease report that goes to people all over the country.

And it's a lot -- it reaffirms a lot of the same things that, Alex, people have been hearing for some time, that in fact after they review the data from these trials, the CDC may find that in fact it is a 95 percent -- this particular vaccine, 95 percent effective in terms of preventing COVID-19.

But they also talk about more specific things, like adverse events, for example. They found that any kind of adverse reactions tended to be mild or moderate and typically occurred in people between the ages of 18 and 55, interestingly, right Alex. People older than 55 actually less likely to have these sorts of side effects. And the side effects typically lasted on average about a day.

They found no significant safety concerns based on your age, your race or any preexisting conditions. The likelihood of side effects was the same across those particular groups.

So it's more information, an important box to be checked. But as you well know, seeing the reporters all over the country -- I mean the train is literally already moving in terms of getting the vaccine distributed. So everything still looks very much on schedule.

MARQUARDT: And of course, so many people are asking when can I get my vaccine? What does this mean, this acceptance by Director Redfield at the CDC? What does it mean for the immediate timeline? When are we going to start seeing that same picture here in the U.S. that we saw in the U.K. of people getting those first shots? Could they happen today?

DR. GUPTA: Well, you know, I think it's most likely to happen tomorrow. And you know, we know that a lot of -- Operation Warp Speed planning, the logistics is sending vaccine from these plants in Michigan, where Pete Muntean for example has been reporting, to the states.

And you know, many of that vaccine will arrive in the states maybe later tonight, tomorrow morning more likely. And then some time tomorrow, my guess is at least some of the locations we're going to start seeing these vaccines being administered.

Now it may differ from state to state. In some states, for example, the vaccines are going to go into a sort of stockpile immediately and then be distributed from there. In other places, we're hearing it may go straight to the hospitals, straight to pharmacies for long-term care facilities, and being administered even as early as tomorrow.

[14:04:57]

DR. GUPTA: So it's going to -- it may feel a little disjointed, Alex, in this regard. You may see first shots in certain places around the country and it won't be until Tuesday that you see the same thing happening in other states.

But I would say, you know, within the next few days you're going to see sort of a broad sort of application of these vaccines across the country.

MARQUARDT: We are getting a lot of figures thrown at us in terms of millions of doses. Oftentimes we have to have those numbers, because of course, these -- you need two doses for this vaccine.

And there does seem to be some discrepancy over how many people could get vaccinated in those coming days and weeks that you were just talking about. What is your understanding of the figures, most immediately?

DR. GUPTA: Yes, so I think the way to think about this is typically, you know, you think about medicines or vaccines, whatever, and having a big stock supply. And then it's basically distributed as, you know people -- as those demand.

Here, because we're in the middle of a pandemic and we're in this emergency use situation, you're going to have vaccine going out pretty quickly after it's manufactured.

So for example, Pfizer-BioNTech, the vaccine that we're talking about, there's about 6.5 million doses here in this country. What we're hearing is 500,000 will go into a stockpile.

The other six million will essentially be split in half. You need two doses. So half the doses will go out now, about three million doses. Half will be kept in freezers.

And the company will continue to manufacture these vaccines, four to five million doses per week. You do all of the math and you also think about the fact that Moderna, as you know, Ales, may come on line even at the same time next week, you start to get to the number of around 40 million doses possibly available by the end of the year.

Now, there's caveats. The manufacturing has to go well, Moderna has to come online. It's all looking very favorable, so if you put it all together, 40 million doses possibly by the end of the year, that would mean roughly 20 million people.

Again, you know, just because two doses per person, you should have vaccines available for 20 million people by the end of the year.

Start to look forward, you may see, you know, that continued manufacturing, maybe even increasing the amount that they're producing every week, and possibly other vaccine makers -- Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca are in phase three trials. They may be in this position at the end of January.

It's a lot of numbers as you say, Alex, but that's how you start to get into the hundreds of millions of doses that will be necessary, you know, to be able to vaccinate, you know, 60 percent to 70 percent of people in this country.

MARQUARDT: All right. Dr. Sanjay Gupta on this breaking news, which will now launch the most ambitious vaccination program in the country's history. Thank you very much, Doctor.

DR. GUPTA: Yes. Thank you.

MARQUARDT: Now, let's go straight to CNN's Dianne Gallagher, who is at the FedEx shipping facility in Grand Rapids. Dianne, what do you expect to see in the next few hours?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So Alex, actually just about two hours ago, the first flight here from Grand Rapids, a FedEx plane that was filled with vials of this vaccine went and took off from Memphis. It has since landed in Memphis. And from the FedEx headquarters there in Memphis, they're going to then distribute toward the western part of the country by ground and by air those first vaccines to different states.

Now, we talked about 184,000, just over that, vials, there are five doses per vial, according to Pfizer here. This is just that first shipment. Now, there are even more that are expected to be sent out on Monday from the Pfizer facility here in Michigan.

This was a big moment for a lot of people. It took a lot of logistics work, a lot of cooperating between companies like UPS and FedEx with Pfizer and airports and trucking companies, to make sure that they could get what really has very little room for error in this chain of custody.

We talked so much, Alex, about the fact that, look, they vaccines are not easy to keep. They have to be kept in roughly negative 100 degrees Fahrenheit chambers essentially with dry ice, because they have to stay that cold. They can't begin to defrost unless they could be used.

And so there's just this extreme chain of custody they have here. FedEx and UPS have talked about the technology that they're using that's giving them real-time information on the status of these vaccine shipments just so they know exactly where they are, if there have been any kind of delays, but also to make sure the temperature doesn't drop.

But, you know, we have talked so much about the basics here on how they're making it happen, but it was emotional, too. There were actually a couple who came out here to the airport to watch that flight take off, Alex. I want you to hear why it was so emotional for them and why they wanted to be here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICKY ROYS, JENISON, MICHIGAN RESIDENT: This is like so exciting. This is history right here, the first vaccines are going out. I'm like crying here. This is like man on the moon time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

ROYS: This is like where were you when?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

[14:09:57]

GALLAGHER: And you were here. You came to see it.

ROYS: And I was here. My dad's in a nursing home and I can't visit him. And when this is all -- we're all vaccined (ph) I can visit him again and spend time with him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: And that's kind of the key for everybody, right Alex? That this is -- on that plane, there was science in the vaccines, but there was also a lot of hope for a lot of people.

And that's what we have heard from everybody here at the airport, an industry that has just been decimated by this pandemic, and other people in the community, people online, about just how much hope they have, that perhaps this might be the beginning of the end of this nightmare.

MARQUARDT: Yes -- hope, science, an incredible feat of engineering to track and monitor those vital doses getting sent out across the country by FedEx and by UPS on the east coast.

Dianne Gallagher, thank you very much.

Now, as we just heard from Dianne, the first vaccine shipments destined for California will come from that Grand Rapids location. Many of them will head for UCLA's medical center where CNN's Paul Vercammen joins us now.

Paul, first off, when is that facility expecting their first shipments of this vaccine to arrive?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We'll get that answer shortly from the chief medical officer here, Alex. We can tell you right now there's a lot of anxiety here at UCLA. That's because you may have seen 11,000 cases in L.A. County. This is a tsunami. We also have some 101 patients in critical -- in care here at UCLA with COVID-19 symptoms.

Let's bring in Dr. Robert Cherry. Alex's question to you for when do we get the vaccines? When do shots go into your nurses' and doctor' arms? DR. ROBERT CHERRY, CHIEF MEDICAL AND QUALITY OFFICER, UCLA MEDICAL

CENTER: Yes. We're hoping to get the vaccine products into us about the next day or two. And then after that, we anticipate vaccinating all of our healthcare workers starting on Wednesday.

It will be a ramp-up process. We'll be vaccinating people in the hundreds initially until we get all 11,000 of our highest-risk individuals vaccinated.

VERCAMMEN: When you talk about those high-risk employees, at the top of the list has to be ICU workers as well as emergency room workers.

DR. CHERRY: Oh, yes. We're talking about individuals that have really repeated and consistent contact with COVID-19 patients as well as those that are suspected of having COVID-19. We want to make sure that we prioritize the supply of vaccine for those particular clinical providers.

VERCAMMEN: And with you having so many COVID-19 patients in the hospital right now, how do you safely administer these vaccines while you're at war with the virus?

DR. CHERRY: Yes. Well, you know, there's years of emergency preparedness behind a lot of these efforts. So while we're taking care of our non-COVID-19 patients, as well as our patients that are COVID- 19 as well, we're doing other things that we need to do to keep our health care workers safe including standing up a vaccination program for them. We'll have the staffing to be able to do this and people are pitching in to make sure it works well.

VERCAMMEN: And one person here who will not be getting the Pfizer vaccine is you because you are part of the AstraZeneca clinical trial. In fact you've had your second shot. Tell us why it was important to you to be part of that trial.

DR. CHERRY: Yes. you know, I thought it was really important for me to really contribute to the effort in a different way. And I was happy to have actually been eligible for the trial. I did receive two doses of some sort of injection. I don't know if I'm in the placebo group or the actual vaccine group.

But I think it's really important that if individuals like myself can actually participate in a clinical trial like this hopefully it will make people less hesitant about taking a vaccine for themselves as well.

VERCAMMEN: And as you said, there have been issues here in the L.A. community with the Latino and African-American communities being reluctant, hearing sort of -- some sort of false rumors about getting vaccinated. And you wanted to get in front of that.

DR. CHERRY: Oh yes. We had to change the narrative. But unfortunately the prior century, there's been just an appalling and long history of medical racism around the research part of it.

And things are very different now, but there's still an ongoing stigma around all of that. So we want to make sure that communities like the black community and the Latino community understand that in order for medical breakthroughs to happen, in order to have healthcare equity, we need everybody to participate.

VERCAMMEN: We thank you so much Dr. Cherry for taking time now. Well, there you have heard it. And I appreciate you again.

Alex, they say Wednesday shots are going to go into arms here at UCLA which is a big regional hub for distribution of the vaccine. Back to you now.

MARQUARDT: All right. Thanks Paul and thanks to Dr. Cherry who was assuaging many of those significant fears that so many people have across the country about this life-saving vaccine hoping, of course, that everyone goes out and gets it.

Paul Vercammen in Los Angeles, thanks very much.

Now, all of these shipments that are on the move right now in the United States have started in one place. And that's at the Pfizer facility in Michigan. That's where we find CNN's Pete Muntean, who has been there on the ground waiting for this historic moment.

Pete, we did see those first shipments leave there this morning. What happens next?

[14:14:57]

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What a moment here, Alex, and to think that we first learned of this virus not even a year ago. And now the vaccine is shipping out from here. You know, this is a critical spot in the vaccine distribution network.

Pfizer's largest facility, we're here in Kalamazoo, Michigan. UPS and FedEx trucks rolled out from here about 8:30 this morning. They were carrying about 189 boxes of the Pfizer vaccine. Inside each one of those boxes, 975 vials, five doses to a vial. That means about 920,000 doses are now going from here throughout the country.

They're going to 600 individual locations according to Operation Warp Speed. Those are places like hospitals and pharmacies, CVS and Walgreens.

The deliveries start tomorrow morning, but the bulk of the shipments arrive on Tuesday. You know, I spoke with Pfizer earlier. And they tell me this is just the start of a massive movement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE MCDERMOTT, PRESIDENT, PFIZER GLOBAL SUPPLY: I couldn't be more confident in the distribution of the vaccine. We have worked incredibly hard over many months doing test shipments, improving our shippers, making sure that they can maintain temperatures during the entire journey. And we're very happy with the solution.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MUNTEAN: This is not just a ground game, Alex. Also a massive air operation. The trucks from here left for airports, boxes put onto planes, those flights went to larger hubs, where the vaccine can go on even further.

In fact, one of those first flights touched down at UPS headquarters in Louisville, the first of many of those flights. A very big operation and it's all getting started here in Michigan, Alex.

MARQUARDT: And Pete, we should know -- note rather that this valuable cargo is getting escorted by U.S. marshals, which also speaks to obviously how absolutely critical their safety is.

Pete Muntean there in Portage, Michigan. Thank you very much.

Now, still ahead, the vaccines are approved and ready to go into the arms of millions of Americans across the country, but will that include the president-elect? I'll be speaking with a member of Joe Biden's COVID advisory board next.

Plus, it is a slim margin of error for vaccine distribution. Could the slightest hiccup lead to a logistical nightmare?

And then President Trump vowing to continue to challenge the results of the election, even after the Supreme Court ruled against him. We'll be right back.

[14:17:27]

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MARQUARDT: We are back with our breaking new. CDC director, Dr. Robert Redfield has just signed off on an advisory committee's recommendation now opening the door for the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to be given to Americans across the country.

Here with me now is Dr. Luciana Borio, she's a member of President- Elect Joe Biden's coronavirus advisory board. Doctor Borio, thanks so much for joining me.

We've just been showing the audience pictures of the trucks rolling out of that Michigan facility, of the planes being loaded obviously heartening sights to see those doses being bound for all 50 states.

What is your assessment of how the authorization process has gone when many Americans have seen that it's been faster in other countries?

DR. LUCIANA BORIO, MEMBER, JOE BIDEN CORONAVIRUS ADVISORY BOARD: It's remarkable. It's a really incredible day. I think that we're all anxious to have access to these important vaccines.

You know, the process has been remarkable in terms of how these vaccines have been developed. We know that the evidence was demonstrated in very large randomized controlled clinical standards, the gold standard. They've been shown to be very safe and incredibly effective. The process was transparent. The advisory committees at the FDA and the CDC that made its recommendations, the public has access to this information.

And I think at this moment the public should really have confidence that these vaccines, as authorized by the FDA and recommended by the CDC, really should be administered and they should have full confidence in this process.

Not just confidence, but it's understandable that many people had excitement about this vaccine, but I'm sure you agree that any excitement has to be tempered somewhat by the numbers that we are currently seeing and what we're heading into in the coming weeks and months.

How long do you understand before this vaccine actually helps turn these devastating trend lines -- cases, hospitalizations, deaths -- before those turn around?

DR. BORIO: That's right, Alex, it will be slow. We know that making the safe and effective vaccines is the initial step. Now there's a lot of hard work ahead of us which is how we get them to the arms of Americans. How do we distribute them.

And we're still learning about the current distribution plans, but it's clear that the states -- most states are not prepared to undertake this incredible work of a mass vaccination program at this scale.

The focus of Operation Warp Speed has been to get the vaccines to the states, and there's been a lot less attention to how is it that these vaccines are going to make it to the American people.

I think for the first phase, this initial phase that were just beginning this week with a focus on healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities.

It's going to be, you know, new and challenging, but there have been plans for months for this undertaking. But after that, it will be a lot more challenging. And we're just beginning to understand where the gaps are.

But remember that President-Elect Biden is very committed to this. He wants his team to be able to act on day one. He already stated that he really wants to see 100 million doses of the vaccine being given within the first 100 days.

He wants the process to be fair, to be equitable, to be transparent. He wants all Americans to have access to this important medical innovation.

[14:24:51]

MARQUARDT: You just touched on the first two groups who are going to be getting this vaccine. There's obviously a question of who should be getting it and how they should get it.

And some would argue that the priority should be on the country's leadership including the incoming leadership and President-Elect Joe Biden.

CNN did ask a former medical adviser to President George W. Bush whether President-Elect Biden should get the vaccine and whether it should be public. Here's what he had to say. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JONATHAN REINER, FORMER MEDICAL ADVISER TO PRESIDENT GEORG W. BUSH: It should actually be public. And I would vaccinate the incoming president on Monday. That's what I would do -- and incoming vice president as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: Dr. Borio, do we have any idea when the president-elect and the vice president-elect will be getting the vaccine?

DR. BORIO: You know, I don't know that answer. I don' know -- I haven't talked to him. I don't know what the plans are.

Right now we're very focused on getting the healthcare workers vaccinated and to get the residents who are recommended for this vaccine in long-term care facilities be vaccinated.

I myself a healthcare provider. I've been given the opportunity to put my name on the list to receive the vaccine once it becomes available at my hospital, and I really, you know, put my name on the list and be good to receive it.

I don't know when he will be receiving it. but let me remind you, too, that you know, he's been very clear that he's going to follow the recommendations of public health officials and Dr. Fauci in particular.

So he's very keen on listening to the experts about when to be vaccinated, and these recommendations that the CDC has made and launched this weekend are the gold standard for evidence-based guidance.

And we strongly also encourage that all states follow their advice. But I can't answer you, you know, about the exact timing of the president-elect's vaccination for COVID.

MARQUARDT: All right. We have to leave it there. Dr. Luciana Borio, thank you so much for your time.

DR. BORIO: My pleasure.

MARQUARDT: And next, there is no room for error as millions of doses of the coronavirus vaccine are shipped to hospitals and other facilities all across the country. The plan to avoid a logistical nightmare, that's next. [14:27:00]

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[14:30:00]

MARQUARDT: It is hard to overstate the high-wire logistics of this vaccine rollout, slim margins for errors with the highest possible stakes, 90 seconds to open a shipping container and get the vials into a subzero freezer. Health care workers are rehearsing the process to try to minimize any costly mistakes.

CNN National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem joins us now. Juliette, so often, you and I are talking about bad news. This is, without question, good news that the vaccines are on the way. But when it comes to the distribution, where do you see bumps in that chain? You've often talked about the last time.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes, there is going to be lots of bumps. So let's just start with how you started, which is the hardest part is done. We have one vaccine approved, more coming down the pike. We'll be able to manufacture faster. We'll be able to satisfy demand. So we will look at all of these errors, mistakes, lack of planning, lack of money, but these are solvable problems. So that puts me off and on for bad news in a good mood.

But the biggest challenge, I think there's two. One is going to be money. Basically, what is a Biden administration going to inherit? It's the money. We need more money to state and localities to satisfy what we call a rolling recovery. In other words, we're looking into June, July, August of 2021. So while today may be exciting, and we've got to sustain this thing through much of the year.

The other challenge the Biden administration will have is basically our surge or, you know, stockpile capacity. This isn't just about manufacturing the vaccine. It's about needles and syringes and all the other stuff that goes into just a massive logistical challenge. And that's where I think there's not a lot of transparency and there might delays.

But, finally, I just want to say, look, this is going to be messy. It's big. It's clumpy. It's -- lines are being drawn everywhere just to try to get to herd mentality. I think the question is can we course-correct fast enough? And then that, I still have confidence, that there might be delays, but we're going to measure them in days and weeks, not years. And that's not nothing at this stage.

MARQUARDT: And, Juliette, as we saw those doses going -- leaving that facility in those trucks, we saw SUVs presumably holding U.S. marshals. We know that U.S. marshals are protecting some of the transportation. What kind of protection do you think is warranted and from whom?

KAYYEM: Okay. So, there's two potential threats that we worry about. So, one is going to be the black market, and I have been involved with some of this just for disclosure since June. So, one is just the black market. We have a commodity that lots of people want, and we have manufacturing that's behind it or that's delayed. So there might be people trying to steal it.

The others, of course, the totally incomprehensible and dangerous anti-vax or anti-everything movement, I worry about that a little bit less at the manufacturing facilities, like Kalamazoo and more at your sort of local CVS.

So you're going to see in many states, many states are planning to utilize National Guard for security purposes. This is all right. Look, there is no other priority right now. We've got to get this country healthy. We have got to save lives and we have got to get us moving economically now.

So, in some ways, it's just -- you know, it's an all hands at this stage to maximize the vaccinations and to make sure that we have scaling capacity through the whole year.

MARQUARDT: And an extraordinary, complicated relationship between the private and public sector. This is a long road, one that is full of potential hurdles, but they are off seemingly to a very good start.

[14:35:04]

Juliette Kayyem, thank you so much for joining us.

KAYYEM: Thank you so much.

MARQUARDT: And we'll be right back.

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MARQUARDT: We have just learned that President-elect Joe Biden will be delivering remarks on the Electoral College tomorrow night. It will come after the Electoral College formally affirms his 2020 election and after the nation's courts have all but rejected President Trump's attempts to overturn the election that he has lost.

This weekend, the Georgia Supreme Court rejected Trump's last-minute request to toss that state's election results out on Friday. The U.S. Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, rejected an attempt by the Texas attorney general to overturn the election results in four battleground states.

Now, despite dozens of legal setbacks and no evidence at all of widespread voter fraud, the president vows to continue trying to overturn the election.

[14:40:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, it's not over. We keep going and we're going to continue to go forward. We have numerous local cases, and some of the states have got rigged and robbed from us. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: CNN's Boris Sanchez is at the White House. Boris, tomorrow, the Electoral College vote will formally elect Joe Biden as the next president. He'll be inaugurated next month. Even now, President Trump does not seem to understand or accept that it's over.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No, Alex, just more denial and delusion from President Trump. He still contends that there is a path where he will be inaugurated as president on January 20th. Essentially just myth-making, repeating these false claims that his legal team has utterly failed to prove in court.

Now, the president, with fewer than 40 days in his presidency, hyper- focused on trying to spin reality. And I'm glad you mentioned the aspect of the judges that are behind these decisions, whether from the local level to the highest court in the land appointed by Democrats or Republicans, or even Trump himself, somewhere near 50 judges -- I believe the numbers are more than 50 -- have summarily rejected the claims made by the Trump legal team, both on standing and on the merits.

Despite that, the president says he is still willing to go forward. He was asked today about these failures among his legal team. He said, quote, we have proven it, speaking about election fraud, but no judge has courage, including the Supreme Court, I'm disappointed in them. Alex, the president apparently disappointed in anyone unwilling to go along with his fantasy that the election was stolen from him.

MARQUARDT: And, Boris, we have seen some troubling violence here in the nation's capital. On Saturday, thousands of his supporters held a rally in D.C., many were maskless. We saw General Michael Flynn, the president's former national security adviser, speaking, and then those Trump supporters, which included the now infamous Proud Boys, clashed with protester. A number of people were injured and arrested. What more do we know?

SANCHEZ: Yes. Alex, the streets of D.C. were very tense last night, agitating groups, like the Proud Boys and others, were out in the streets. Several people were stabbed. They needed medical attention. As you noted, multiple arrested. There was even some property damage done to some churches. There are videos online purported to so Proud Boys damaging property at these churches. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has vowed to look into that along with law enforcement.

The president has said that he did not coordinate these protests but he certainly encouraged them. At one point yesterday, when he was on Marine One headed to that Navy-Army game, the president circled above them in Marine One. And he continues to encourage them with this nonsense about a rigged election. Alex?

MARQUARDT: Yes, that's absolutely right. That's why they're out there because they continue to be told from the highest office in the land that the election was stolen. Boris Sanchez at the White House, thanks very much.

SANCHEZ: Thanks.

MARQUARDT: Now, this come as all eyes in the political world are on Georgia, as they prepare for two Senate runoff races that could decide which party controls the U.S. Senate.

For more on that, let's bring in Charles Bethea. He's a Staff Writer for The New Yorker in the southern bureau, based in Atlanta. Charles, thanks so much for joining us. Good to see you.

CHARLES BETHEA, STAFF WRITER, THE NEW YORKER: Thanks for having me.

MARQUARDT: Of course. The president continues to lash out, as we've heard, at Georgia's Republican governor and GOP election officials, blaming them for his loss in that state. How well that, do you think, impact the runoff races, especially for the Republican contenders, Senators Loeffler and Perdue?

BETHEA: Well, it puts voters in a weird position because a lot of Republican voters supported Raffensperger, the secretary of state, supported Governor Brian Kemp, probably were sympathetic to somebody like Gabe Sterling, the voting system implementation manager. They had good feelings about these people, more or less, until November rolled around and Georgia voted for Joe Biden.

And these figures, these Republican Trump-supporting figures, basically ascertained the election, certified election here in Georgia was for Biden, and that that caused a lot of consternation. And Trump really started lashing out at these folks and I think a lot of his supporters are torn between Trump and the rest of the local Republican Party.

MARQUARDT: What are Georgia's Republican voters telling you? How do they reconcile that?

BETHEA: I mean, they're not having an easy time reconciling it. I think you're going to see maybe some split-ticket voting. But, largely, you're going to, I think, have a lot of Republicans going to the polls, voting for these Senate candidates, just not happily doing it.

There are efforts led by folks like Lin Wood, a Trump lawyer here in Georgia, to boycott the runoffs. And he talked to me a few days ago about how he thought there were actually hundreds of thousands of Republicans in the state who would follow along with his advice to boycott

[14:45:00]

I think that number is pretty high.

Sterling did tell me, when we spoke a few days ago, that he actually thinks there are, in fact, probably more than 10,000 Republicans who could boycott. So, a number like 10,000 is pretty significant when you look at how small margin Biden won by here.

MARQUARDT: How worried does that make Georgia Republican officials? BETHEA: I mean, they're quite worried. They're really in a very tough spot. And the challenge is -- sort of the insurmountable challenge is you can't really tell Trump what to say. If they have their druthers, they would ask Trump to just come out and straightforwardly say, vote in the runoffs. These are fair elections run by Republicans who I support. But instead, he's undermining the system while at the same time asking folks to vote. And that kind of mixed messaging, I think, could really result into people not knowing what to do.

MARQUARDT: And, Charles, we have seen the president and vice president down there campaigning for their Republican candidates. We're also going to see Joe Biden there on Tuesday for turning out for the Democratic candidates. He obviously just won that state, as you noted. How much of a boost, do you think, would Biden would be will be for the two Democrat challengers?

BETHEA: It's significant. It's going to be a big boost. And I think that Biden's visit a few days before the November election was probably quite helpful in getting a few thousand people to go out and vote. I think what's interesting is that you're seeing Ossoff and Warnock embrace Biden's arrival as well as the support of other national Democrats, like Bernie Sanders, who, in the past, a few years ago, say, in 2017, when Ossoff was running for in a congressional special election. He was less comfortable with endorsing a figure like Sanders, who's on the far-left of the party.

So I think now, the nationalization of the race, the candidates are embracing any and all support they can get.

MARQUARDT: All right. Charles Bethea, Staff Writer for The New Yorker, thanks very much.

BETHEA: Yes, thank you.

MARQUARDT: Still ahead, the vaccine is on its way for Americans across the country, but are hospitals ready? That's coming up.

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[14:50:00]

MARQUARDT: Right now, all across the country, hospitals are getting ready for what really is a monumental task of receiving some of the first shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine. I want to discuss that with Dr. Mike Saag. He's a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Doctor, thank you so much for joining me.

We know that, for you, this is personal, that in early March, you were stricken with COVID-19 after a trip to New York. Do you know when your hospital will be receiving this vaccine? And what's happening now at the hospital to get ready for its arrival?

DR. MICHAEL SAAG, PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES, UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM: Well, thanks for having me on. Yes, we are definitely ready and should be getting vaccine product in the next day or two. It's been very impressive to watch the rollout on a local level and from the state on to the local regions in our state where our hospital is designated as a distribution site for about 10,750 vaccine doses that will be distributed in the next week or so.

We have two sites lined up to vaccinate, one site for university hospital, where I work, and then another site nearby, where the other regional hospitals can come and have employees get vaccinated as well as our EMS folks. So it's a very organized, orchestrated thing. And I think they picked us to be one of the hubs because of the number of minus 80 freezers that are on campus already.

MARQUARDT: And many hospitals, as you well know, are overwhelmed with COVID patients right now. And with all that going on, have you been able to do rehearsing planning, specific planning, for getting that vaccine out as quickly as possible once it arrives?

SAAG: Yes. The effort has been divided up among personnel. So, I personally am not involved in it, but the team that is is coming out of our employee health group, and they've done a superb job of getting ready, getting all set to go, and I think they're on it. So I think in the next couple days, we'll be getting those doses out to people.

But your point about the hospitals being overwhelmed is a key consideration right now outside of the vaccine. I think we have seen a tremendously coordinated response to the vaccine, and that we should be proud of and happy about, especially as it moves forward, but we're failing pretty miserably on a coordinated response in the here and now.

And it's going to be six to eight months before that vaccine has the impact to end the epidemic that we're all looking for. And right now, we're seeing this surge of cases.

I was in the hospital this morning. I'm going back in just a few minutes. We are bursting at the seams, especially in the emergency department. And that has ripple effects, because people who ordinarily would come in to be evaluated are holding back and staying home because they don't want to have a three to four-hour wait in the E.R. around with a folks in the waiting room who may have COVID.

So this is having ripple effects. We need a coordinated response, and that means we're going to have to put a moratorium on certain activities of spread, and at the same time giving relief to the businesses through another CARES Act.

[14:55:00]

I hope that happens.

MARQUARDT: Dr. Mike Saag, we know that you are dealing with so much there. Our thanks to you and to your colleagues. Thanks for joining us today.

SAAG: Thanks for having me on. MARQUARDT: Next, the breaking news, the first COVID vaccine gets the final green light and is now headed to hospitals across the country. Live team coverage, coming up.

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[15:00:00]

MARQUARDT: Hello. Thanks for joining me. I'm Alex Marquardt in for Fredricka Whitfield.