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COVID Vaccine Gets The Final Greenlight And Rolls Out Of A Michigan Plant; Electoral College To Convene Monday And Affirm Biden's Win; Schumer Says Gang Of Eight Will Have Aid Package On Floor By Monday. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired December 13, 2020 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:01]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

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

We begin this hour with what is a tale of two milestones. First, the history making moment, this first COVID vaccine gets the final greenlight and rolls out of a Michigan plant and that alongside the grim reality of record hospitalizations and thousands of Americans dying every single day.

This afternoon, the C.D.C. Director Robert Redfield accepted the recommendation by an advisory board of the C.D.C., 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 this 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 and that will take an incredible feat. The distribution of the vaccine presenting one of the most complex and complicated logistical challenges in history.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Many of the vaccine will arrive in the states maybe later tonight, tomorrow morning, more likely; and then sometime tomorrow, my guess is, in at least some of the locations, we're going to start seeing these vaccination -- 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 that 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MARQUARDT: Now, all of this, as the U.S. closes in on another sobering

milestone, nearly 300,000 dead, and counting. We've had 30,000 deaths here in the United States in just the first two weeks of December. The number of new cases and hospitalizations also continues to soar at the same time.

We have a team of reporters covering this critical day in the fight against this pandemic.

Let's go first to CNN's Dianne Gallagher, who is live at a FedEx shipping facility in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where the vaccines are being distributed from.

Dianne, where does that distribution stand right now?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and so Alex, I'm going to tell you, it was just a cargo plane that was taking off here from the airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan, but it was so much more than that.

This is only about 45 minutes away from where those vaccines were manufactured at the Pfizer facility near Kalamazoo, Michigan. And so the FedEx and the UPS large trucks drove out with those vaccines in them and took them to respective airports, loaded them onto planes and then flew them to their own headquarters.

For UPS, that was Louisville; for FedEx, that was Memphis.

At this time, they are now both divvying up those vaccines to send them out across the country. UPS is going to take the eastern half of the country, FedEx the western half of the country.

Now, you heard Sanjay saying that the states are kind of going to make their own determinations there, but when it comes to the logistics of getting them transported, it's going to happen both on the ground and in the air and the chain of cold custody, making sure that these vaccines stay super cold. We're talking negative 100 degrees is the responsibility of well, dry ice; both UPS and FedEx say that they have plenty of experience with that and they are tracking it, not just minute by minute, but second by second.

And we have talked a lot about the complex logistics here, but this was really emotional for a lot of people to see as well. The airport workers here talked about how much it meant to them to be a part of this, and even people at home: one couple got up from their homes and drove out to the airport just so they could maybe catch a glimpse of that FedEx flight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICKY ROYS, JENISON, MICHIGAN RESIDENT: This is like, so exciting. This is history right here. The first vaccines are going on, I might cry in here. This is like man on the moon time. Like this is where were you when --

GALLAGHER: And you were here.

V. ROYS: I was here.

RON ROYS, JENISON MICHIGAN: We are just so excited. I mean, we were watching the news and we jumped in the car and said we're going to get down here, right now, you know, to try and make us see it.

V. ROYS: It's all coming from West Michigan. Woohoo.

GALLAGHER: There's got to be that sense of pride there.

V. ROYS: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

R. ROYS: Just a sense of relief that it's starting. It's starting. Who knows? Going through the whole United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: And you know, Alex, the couple there, they told me that they were hoping that once they started having more waves and sending more of these vaccines out, that if everything turned out the way that we're all hoping it will, that she'll get a chance to see her father again who is in an assisted living facility.

She hasn't been able to touch him or hug him or even talk to him in person in months and that is what she saw on that plane, Alex, not just science and vaccines, but a whole lot of hope for not just her, but really everybody right now in this country.

[09:05:09]

MARQUARDT: That joy and relief is so nice to see. Dianne Gallagher, thank you so much.

Now, New York State was hit hard early on and is in the midst of yet another surge, and the vaccine, of course for them cannot come soon enough. CNN's Polo Sandoval is in New York.

Polo in planning for the rollout of this vaccine, New York is looking towards its minority communities, in particular. Why and how is that being handled?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's been a big concern, particularly here in New York, Alex, especially those committees that have been hardest hit by this pandemic may not have at least quick access to getting vaccine.

And then there's also the issue of trust that we're going to talk about in just a second. But first, let me give you kind of the national look right now. We heard from the head of the H.H.S. this morning saying that their goal is still to vaccinate close to 20 million people before the end of this month.

And as a result, you've had medical facilities across the country, including Mount Sinai here in New York that has been preparing even before the F.D.A. issued that authorization over the weekend here, not only to receive and store, but to immediately start to vaccinate people.

And at this point, of course, nothing has changed. They haven't strayed from that C.D.C. guidance, which is vaccinating those frontline workers first. You're talking ER folks, ICU folks, and also some of those vulnerable patients. Also, in terms of a timeline when that will happen, also hearing this morning from the head of the Food and Drug Administration saying that there is an expectation that that could start as early as tomorrow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. STEPHEN HAHN, F.D.A. COMMISSIONER: Well, my hope, again, is that this happens very expeditiously, hopefully, tomorrow. We've seen the vaccines go out. We've seen the press reports of hospitals waiting to vaccinate healthcare workers and those most vulnerable according to the recommendations of the A.C.I.P. and the C.D.C. So it would be my greatest hope and desire that that occur tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: All right, so let's get specific now on some of the efforts that we are seeing here in New York City, for example. Before the weekend started, we heard from health officials here that said they will be launching a command center, call it, you can consider this like an air traffic control. It is the best example that we can get here.

What you can expect from this command center is they will be monitoring the distribution and the administering of these vaccines. They will also be publishing some of the information that they are getting as well.

And also really key here and gets to the earlier point that you made earlier, Alex, which is trying to really narrow that vaccine mistrust gap. We know that black and brown communities across the country have been deeply affected by this, especially when you see some of those numbers, including the numbers that have been issued here in New York City areas.

So one of the things that we expect is that they will be actually launching this effort at the city level, this vaccine equality effort. They will be targeting about two dozen different hard hit neighborhoods, parts of Brooklyn and parts of Queens.

They will be using clinics, also public housing space for these vaccinations and they will be in the community. You're talking about healthcare workers that will be basically teaming up and partnering up with community centers and churches, because there is obviously that growing mistrust when it comes to this vaccine.

So that is one of the things that you can expect in the coming days, is to not only vaccinate those in the frontlines, but also those hard- hit.

MARQUARDT: Yes, all of these cities and hospitals launching very careful plans to make sure that these vaccines get administered. Polo Sandoval in New York. Thanks very much.

Now, all of the vaccine shipments moving around the country have come from one place, and that is Pfizer's facility in Portage, Michigan, where we find our Pete Muntean.

Pete, you've been there for several days now, and you were there today to witness what really was a historic moment.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What a moment here, Alex, especially when you consider the fact that it wasn't even a year ago that we first found out about this virus. Now the vaccine leaving here, a critical spot for the vaccine distribution network.

This is Pfizer's largest facility just outside of Kalamazoo, Michigan. What's so interesting, about 8:30 this morning, UPS and FedEx trucks carrying the vaccine rolled out of here, 189 boxes of the Pfizer vaccine, 975 vials to each box, five doses to a vial. That means about 920,000 doses are now going throughout the country.

Operation Warp Speed says they are going to 600 individual locations. Those are places like hospitals, pharmacies, CVS and Walgreens. The deliveries start tomorrow morning, but the bulk of the shipments arrive on Tuesday.

I spoke to Pfizer's Head of Global Supply and he described this as a major achievement, not unlike the moon land.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE MCDERMOTT, PRESIDENT, PFIZER GLOBAL SUPPLY: My dad worked for NASA and was part of the Apollo program and I was wondering what it was like for him the day that a person stepped on the moon, like what could he have been thinking to be part of that -- and I got a glimpse of that today, thinking about the impact that we can have around the world, and certainly here in the U.S. and it was a wonderful and proud moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:10:15]

MUNTEAN: You know, not just a ground game here, Alex, also a massive air operation, those trucks went to airports, flights want to larger hubs for the vaccine to get throughout the country.

We just saw one of those first vaccine flights, land at UPS headquarters Worldport, Louisville, Kentucky. UPS, FedEx, Pfizer rehearsed this logistical challenge for months.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCDERMOTT: I couldn't be more confident in the distribution of the vaccine. We've worked incredibly hard over many months doing test shipments, improving our shippers, making sure that they can maintain temperature during the entire journey and we're very happy with the solution. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: You know, the Federal government is also helping out here. Air traffic controllers are giving those vaccine flights priority clearance and U.S. Marshals protected the vaccine trucks as they left out of here. It is a major movement, Alex, and it all starts right here in Michigan.

MARQUARDT: A major complicated movement and Pete Muntean, we know that you'll be following it all the way right from its origin there in Michigan. Thank you so much.

Now a medical milestone in the United States, a plane you can see it right there carrying the coronavirus vaccine has just landed in Louisville, Kentucky and the first shots could go into arms as they say as early as tomorrow.

But some people are still hesitant about getting the vaccine including some healthcare workers who are first in line. I'll be speaking with a doctor working to change that.

Then later, he served for tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan and ended up dying of coronavirus without meeting his newborn son. His wife recounting his final moments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I could just feel him slipping away, and I just -- I really don't even know how to describe it. I just felt everything. All of our dreams, everything just like came out of me. I can just like --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:15:22]

MARQUARDT: We really can't say this enough today. The COVID-19 vaccine is now on its way.

This happened just moments ago, that UPS plane carrying vials of coronavirus vaccine arriving in Louisville, Kentucky. It's part of the effort to get 2.9 million doses of the vaccine to hospitals, clinics and other distribution points across the country.

Listen as the effort is compared to the extraordinary American operations on D-Day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. GUS. PERNA, OPERATION WARP SPEED: D-Day was a pivotal turning point in World War II. It was the beginning of the end. D-Day was the beginning of the end and that's where we are today.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MARQUARDT: A major comparison. I want to bring in Dr. Shereef Elnahal.

He is the President and CEO of University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, a former New Jersey Health Commissioner. He is also a member of President-elect Joe Biden's Veterans Affairs team.

Doctor, D-Day operations. You heard it there. Is that an apt comparison to what we're facing in terms of getting this vaccine distributed?

DR. SHEREEF ELNAHAL, MEMBER OF PRESIDENT-ELECT BIDEN'S VETERANS AFFAIRS TEAM: Definitely. This is a historical mobilization that we have not seen in public health. We're talking about delivering millions of vaccines to people across this country, just 4.7 million people in New Jersey alone out of the nine million residents that we have and we have to do that over a period of six months.

And so we're honored to be one of the first hospitals in the country that is getting one of the first shipments of the Pfizer vaccine. All of the complex logistics we planned for four weeks now, we have ultra- cold storage capacity that rivals really any other hospital.

And we are also setting up one of the administration sites right here on our campus, which will be a model that can be scaled for mega vaccination sites for the community.

And so it's been a really exciting effort. We are on the cusp of a historical milestone in public health this week.

MARQUARDT: As someone who has been in the trenches of this for, you know, the last few months, I want to get your personal reaction to seeing those scenes of trucks -- of trucks pulling out and planes taking off and landing with the vaccine in their hauls.

ELHANAL: This is a really emotional moment for me. We've lost 11 employees in our hospital. These are members of our family, of our team. We lost another one last week and of course, that's starting because of this second wave and the fact that the country has not been able to keep cases down has made healthcare workers among the highest risk to get this.

And so they are in the field of battle every single day, and the fact that we still continue to lose people is a shame. This is the next step in a milestone that we will never forget the last chapter of this book in the pandemic and we are so honored to be able to give the first vaccine in New Jersey to one of our healthcare heroes.

MARQUARDT: You did tweet this morning that you have spoken about the vaccine with frontline heroes and you found some hesitancy especially about what you wrote, as going first.

How do you convince healthcare workers who are -- who know more about medicine, obviously to most Americans -- how do you convince them as well as regular Americans to get this vaccine despite the fears and the politics?

ELHANAL: Well, the first thing is to present the facts and that includes the science and even though these are folks who are educated in science and public health, there are unique things about Operation Warp Speed that need to be explained -- how we were able to get scientific answers so quickly, and the fact that we had tens of thousands more people than usual in these trials.

And once you do convey those facts, you do get a positive response, but I will say that there's a lot of very justified skepticism about everything from clinical trials to new vaccines and therapeutics in our community and that skepticism has to be validated and addressed head on.

Black and brown people, remember the horrific historical examples of Dr. Sims, who experimented on enslaved women to develop gynecologic surgeries, the Tuskegee trial, which involved denying treatment for syphilis to black men who had served this country in uniform.

These narratives are fresh in people's minds as we proceed into this historic week and it's our responsibility as healthcare leaders to acknowledge and validate and explain why this isn't just different from those examples. But it's actually a matter of health equity, to get this vaccine delivered to communities that were hit hardest by this.

Also, this is health equities moment to finally ring true for everybody in this country. While this has always been the case, and it's always been morally right to focus on this, it will never be more obvious that black and brown people's willingness to take this vaccine and access to this vaccine will have a direct bearing on the health of everybody in this country.

And so we have to take advantage of that moment and get the critical resources we need to move this community forward.

MARQUARDT: And earlier today, we heard from one of the leading voices during this pandemic, Bill Gates, who told our Jake Tapper that the presidential transition, what's going on right now, basically between one administration handing off to another is complicating the vaccine distribution. Take a listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL GATES, CO-FOUNDER, BILL AND MELISSA GATES FOUNDATION: Transition is complicating it, but the new administration is willing to rely on actual experts and not attack those experts. You know, they are laying out clear plans. So I think we'll get through this in a positive way.

I think that roadmap is clear and I talked with the President-elect about that, and you know, I think our foundation will be part of that dialogue to make sure we don't blow it again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: Dr. Elnahal, does that line up with what you're seeing?

ELNAHAL: It very much does, and I can tell you firsthand that every level of the transition is prioritizing COVID-19 as the most important challenge for the President-elect and the Vice President-elect to face as they are inaugurated.

They are involving people not only in public health, but everything from national security to the folks managing the buildings in our government, to keep everybody safe, including the general public.

And so, this is going to be a serious approach, and I couldn't be more confident at the national leadership that we're going to see after January 20th.

MARQUARDT: All right, Dr. Shereef Elnahal, thank you so much for everything you've done, and best of luck with this next critical stage.

ELNAHAL: Thank you for having me.

MARQUARDT: Up next, a big day tomorrow for President-elect Joe Biden, the Electoral College is about to affirm his election victory. We'll take you inside their critical vote, and reveal what it all means. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:26:58]

MARQUARDT: Tomorrow, electors from the 50 states and the District of Columbia will convene virtually to affirm President-elect Joe Biden's win in the 2020 election.

In most presidential election years, the vote is just a formality, but with President Trump's refusal to concede that he lost this year's meeting has an added level of interest and importance.

So for more on what will unfold tomorrow, let's bring in CNN's Harry Enten, senior political writer and analyst to walk us through these steps.

Harry, this is a complicated process electing a President. Some would say it's overly complicated. Let's start with the basics. What did we all vote for on Election Day?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICS SENIOR WRITER AND ANALYST: Right. So you might remember a little bit more than a month ago, we went to the polls, and we voted and you know, we were voting for an individual candidate. But we were also voting for a slate of electors who are represented by those individual candidates.

And all the states combined, they have 538 electors, and of course, you need a majority 270 to win, which of course is the 270 electoral votes in the Electoral College, which Joe Biden got 306 of.

MARQUARDT: So what has actually happened specifically since Election Day over a month ago?

ENTEN: Right. So you know, normally again, this is all a formality, but the states counted their votes and more than that, they certified those votes. And they weren't just certifying those votes for which candidate won, what they were doing was certifying the slates of electors.

And again, normally, this is a formality, but you saw over the last few weeks how it became much more than that, where there were all these challenges to these certifications.

But at the end of the day, all 50 states did certify their candidates and the slate of electors that went with those electoral votes for the candidates.

MARQUARDT: So they have been certified, and now, we've got this virtual meeting tomorrow. What are those states going to be doing tomorrow?

ENTEN: Right. So tomorrow, the Electoral College meets. And all 50 states, the electors will come together and some states will be virtually and the winning slate in each state will meet and vote tomorrow.

Now here's the question: what could potentially go wrong tomorrow? What are sort of the things we have to keep an eye out on? Well, faithless electors is the thing that we have to keep an eye on. So you know, a faithless elector -- in some states electors don't necessarily need a vote for their candidate.

And I should point out, however, Alex, that this is a very, very rare phenomenon. Last time around in 2016, there were 10 faithless electors, and that was the most in history except for in 1872 when one of the candidates died.

But this is the idea that we'll have to keep an eye out tomorrow, how many faithless electors may there be, but there hasn't really been a concerted effort for there to be very many of them. I would think they'll stick pretty close to the electoral vote in each of those states.

MARQUARDT: But then, even after tomorrow, that's not the final step, is it?

ENTEN: No. So this is again such a long journey, jump ahead to a little bit more than a month from now what happens. Congress actually counts the votes, so there will be a joint session where they will meet to count these votes and declare a winner.

Now I should point out, challenges are allowed, some members of the House, for instance on the Republican side may challenge some of those votes. But here's the key thing to keep in mind. A majority of both the House and the Senate must agree to overthrow any state's results.

[15:30:09]

ENTEN: So even if there is, say, a few rogue members in the House on the Republican side who say, you know, we want to overthrow those results, it almost certainly will be the case that Joe Biden will be the next President because Democrats control a majority in the House.

And even in the Senate, there are a number of Republicans who will team up with the Democrats to affirm those votes.

MARQUARDT: That's a very long shot for some, but one that they may take anyway. Harry Enten, thank you so much as always for breaking all of that down.

ENTEN: My pleasure, Alex.

MARQUARDT: All right. Well, CNN has learned that President-elect Joe Biden plans to deliver remarks on the Electoral College -- as we were just talking with Harry -- on that vote tomorrow night. He will, Biden now says that he hopes to complete his Cabinet picks also by Christmas. He is under growing pressure for more race, gender and thought diversity with those remaining seats in the Cabinet.

Today on CNN, Stacey Abrams, a top African-American Democratic leader from Georgia urged critics to be patient until Biden's team is fully assembled. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STACEY ABRAMS (D), FORMER GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE OF GEORGIA: I think that Joe Biden is putting together the team he needs to fix four years of ignominy, four years of destruction and four years of going against the rule of law.

And what I want to look at is the team that he puts together in total, because I believe that we will have a government that can fix what's been broken.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: Abrams was of course, an architect of Biden's victory in Georgia.

CNN's Jessica Dean is in Wilmington, Delaware. Jessica, the Biden transition team is preparing for what really looks like it's going to be a busy week. We have got this Electoral College vote happening tomorrow. The vaccine is now being distributed across the country and likely more Cabinet announcements. What are you expecting to see?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you're exactly right. The transition officials we've talked to have indicated this will be a very busy weekend. It starts tomorrow with that address you're talking about. President-elect Biden will address the nation after the Electoral College meets, and what's interesting about that is it's going to be happening at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, at least that's the scheduled time for now, a prime time address, which is a little bit different than what we've been seeing from Biden previously.

So look for that tomorrow. Then, of course on Tuesday, he is going to travel down to Georgia, to campaign on behalf of the two runoff candidates down there, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. Of course, Biden hoping to get a Democratic majority in the Senate if the Democrats can lock up those two Senate seats down in Georgia.

And then, of course, we are still waiting on Cabinet nominees. He does hope to have that completed by Christmas. We do have indications that we're going to expect more announcements early this week.

One of the big outstanding positions is Attorney General, and our reporting indicates that that has been called down to a small list of finalists that includes Alabama Senator Doug Jones, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, Deval Patrick and Judge Merrick Garland.

So that's one of the big major outstanding questions is who will run the Justice Department under the Biden-Harris administration as Attorney General. But again, Alex, we're expecting to hear more formal announcements on Cabinet nominees and appointees as the week goes on -- Alex.

MARQUARDT: All right, busy week ahead. Jessica Dean from Wilmington, thanks very much.

Now something that is not moving at a warp speed are the stimulus talks. Congressional leaders are still far apart on some key provisions. The main sticking points, among them, Democrats continue to request that state and local aid despite fierce resistance from Republicans, but Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said today that the bipartisan Gang of Eight -- four Democrats and four Republicans -- should have an aid package on the floor that could be the basis for negotiations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): The good news on the negotiations is that the Gang of Eight is working hard and they hope to have something as early as tomorrow morning. It's not everything we all want, but it's a good framework.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: Leaders from both parties said that Congress should stay in Washington until an agreement is reached.

Now at least four people were stabbed and nearly two dozen arrested at election protests last night here in the nation's capital, Washington, D.C. Videos show fights breaking out between protesters and those who came out to meet them.

The D.C. mayor's office says at least 23 arrests were made in the hours following the pro-Trump "Stop the Steal" demonstrations as it was called and four stabbing victims were critically injured.

The protests were reaction to the Supreme Court's rejection of a Texas lawsuit that sought to invalidate millions of votes in critical swing states.

Still ahead, the coronavirus vaccine needs to be stored in freezers that are colder than the North Pole and that's going to require a lot of energy. We'll be speaking about the challenges and the cost. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:38:53]

MARQUARDT: For the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began, we're starting to see vaccines distributed inside and across the United States, and that as good as news as it is brings with it another set of challenges.

For one, this vaccine that we've been talking about, the Pfizer- BioNTech vaccine requires vials to remain incredibly cold to be stored in extremely cold conditions, as low as negative 94 degrees Fahrenheit.

Now that alone could make access to the vaccine difficult for some across the country.

Kristen Parrish is an Assistant Professor for the School of Sustainable Engineering at Arizona State University. Professor, thanks so much for joining me. This is very complicated. It is very exciting. It's very positive, but it is complicated.

And we're just touching on the cold there. That's something that we keep hearing about. How challenging because of that cold factor is this distribution going to be?

KRISTEN PARRISH, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, SCHOOL OF SUSTAINABLE ENGINEERING AT ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY: Well, hi, Alex, and thanks for having me. So the cold factor, the real challenge is that there's a limited number of ultra-low temperature freezers in each and every state, so every state does have them, but they don't necessarily have droves and droves of them.

[15:40:06]

PARRISH: So what's going to be required is that people are really smart about where they have these, if you haven't already ordered them, order them now because there is a bit of a lead time. It is approaching two to three months to get one.

But if you have them, these freezers are more than capable of maintaining that ultra-cold temperature.

MARQUARDT: Are there some parts of the country -- some areas, some states that are better equipped to deal with that specific part of the distribution?

PARRISH: Yes, I don't know that I would necessarily say that some states, every state will have these, but what you're probably going to find is that in the more metropolitan areas, you will have more access to these ultra-low temperature freezers, so that's really going to help.

If you are in states where it's more rural or in a more rural part of a state, then you're going to find that the ultra-low temperature freezers may be harder to come by.

MARQUARDT: Are there any additional or unforeseen costs that's associated with getting these vaccines into the hands of people? PARRISH: Yes, I mean, this is one thing that my work looks at a lot.

So one of these ultra-low temperature freezers consumes as much energy as two of my households. I'm sorry, I said that the reverse -- two freezers consumes as much as one of my household.

So there is going to be a real additional strain potentially on the electricity grid if we have to increase the number of freezers largely across the country. So this for planning for that vaccine distribution so that you don't have to be storing things for six months. And instead, you are able to use it as it is distributed and keep it in the distribution packaging that you've actually been showing all day here on your show.

MARQUARDT: What about the network of people? And it is people who are doing this distribution that are needed to transport the vaccine, to administer them the vaccine? Obviously, these are jobs for which you have to be well-trained. Do you think that we, as a country, have enough qualified people to handle the scale of this rollout?

PARRISH: I do think that we're going to have enough people to do it. And just in the spirit of full disclosure, I am not a labor expert. I don't study this full time.

But I will say I do look at technician labor as part of my work, and I think that while that is a fixed resource. This could be exactly what we need to get more students in high schools to pursue technical education as their career recognizing the critical importance of that skill set in an event like a pandemic.

MARQUARDT: One of the goals that has been expressed by Operation Warp Speed is that they want to vaccinate a hundred million Americans by the end of March. Do you think that that's achievable?

PARRISH: I do. I think, again, this really comes down to how you're planning. There's a lot of great tools out there to help plan large projects by planning construction projects, and it's not all that dissimilar, right? You have to make sure that you have the materials you need and the place that you need them just in time and that's a lot of what's gone in already. It's the logistics planning.

I just hope that the municipalities that are receiving these have also done all the planning and are getting all the help that they can to ensure that they have a robust distribution system once it arrives in their hands.

MARQUARDT: Well, it is encouraging to hear that this is -- it's a daunting process, but certainly not insurmountable. Professor Kristen Parrish, thank you so much.

PARRISH: Thank you.

MARQUARDT: Up next, a veteran dies of coronavirus without ever meeting his newborn son. Now, his widow is opening up about the pain of seeing her husband and child fight for their lives in the same hospital.

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MARQUARDT: Today's first shipment of vaccines is bringing hope to many people who have been anxiously waiting to protect themselves from the coronavirus, but nearly 3,400 people in the U.S. died from the virus just yesterday, continuing what is really a dramatic rise in the fatalities in this country. COVID-19 has claimed 30,000 lives so far in just the first 13 days of December.

And of course, there are heartbreaking stories behind each and every single one of those deaths.

CNNs Martin Savidge reports on a veteran who died before he met his newborn son.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a girl.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a girl.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Thirty-nine-year-old Michael Keene was not a number. He was a husband, father, a hero.

SAVIDGE (on camera): The military was a big part of his life.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Huge.

SAVIDGE (voice over): He survived four tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Coronavirus killed him in just over three weeks.

NICOLE KEENE, ARMY VET HUSBAND DIED OF COVID: I mean, I feel this just huge part of me gone. Just a huge hole.

SAVIDGE (voice over): It began as a scratchy throat. Since Nicole was pregnant, they got tested for COVID. She was negative, Michael was positive. Within four days, he was in an ICU on a ventilator.

KEENE: I was terrified and just knew that if you get on the ventilator, it's really hard to get off with COVID.

SAVIDGE (voice over): Days passed. The inability to be with her husband was torture on Nicole, and one night, when she hadn't felt the baby kick as usual, she went to the hospital.

KEENE: I just remember the doctor coming in and looking at me and saying, we're going to have to take your baby right now.

SAVIDGE (voice over): Michael Wesson King was born unresponsive.

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SAVIDGE (voice over): It took a medical team 15 minutes to bring him to life. They rushed him to the neonatal intensive care unit at the University of Kentucky Hospital, the same hospital as his father.

Doctors advise Nicole not to tell Michael about his son, fearing what the stress might do.

SAVIDGE (on camera): Did you follow their advice?

KEENE: I did. I did.

SAVIDGE (voice over): Two days later, as Nicole lay in bed now in the same hospital as her husband and baby, she got a call from the doctor saying her husband was in cardiac arrest and they were trying to revive him.

KEENE: I fell to my knees and I was just crying. I just couldn't believe it.

SAVIDGE (voice over): She demanded to be allowed into his room. Wearing full protective gear, she held her husband's hand.

KEENE: And I could just feel him slipping away, and I just felt -- I just -- I don't even know how to describe it. I just felt everything, all of our dreams, everything just like came out of me -- it just like shattered.

SAVIDGE (voice over): Michael Keene died, unaware that in that very same hospital, he had a son.

SAVIDGE (on camera): Did you ever get to tell him?

KEENE: No.

SAVIDGE: So, he never knew.

KEENE: No.

SAVIDGE (voice over): Baby Michael is now at home, but may need specialized care. His big sister is happy to help, when she is not roaming the house, looking for dad.

And Nicole struggles with expenses. Michael was the sole breadwinner. From his journal, she reads the wedding vows he wrote for her.

KEENE: From this day to my last, all of my imperfect self is yours. We will walk in the light and in the dark, but we will walk together. You are my heart, my soul, my miracle.

SAVIDGE (voice over): On the day Michael died, October 28th, coronavirus, also killed 1,008 other Americans.

But Michael Keene was not number. To those who loved him, he was everything.

Martin Savidge, CNN, Lexington, Kentucky.

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[15:57:06] MARQUARDT: From the very country that brought us this first authorized

COVID vaccine, there are calls for acceleration. Germany's Health Minister is tweeting that Federal and state authorities will be ready to go by December 15th.

Germany is facing an increasing caseload recording more than 20,000 cases on Sunday and a rising death toll. As a result the country is entering what they are calling a hard lockdown.

CNN's Anna Stewart has more.

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ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: With less than two weeks to go until Christmas, Germany has implemented a strict nationwide lockdown, an effort to curb the rise in COVID-19 cases.

The country had already been in a so-called soft lockdown since early November with bars and restaurant shut, but more measures needed to be taken.

ANGELA MERKEL, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translator): Action is needed because the measures that we implemented on November 2nd were not sufficient. We were able to stop the exponential growth for a while and achieved a stabilization.

But for some days now, we have been seeing increasing case numbers and exponential growth again. This means that we have suffered many deaths.

We are all following the statistics and we know that the health system is already under a lot of pressure.

STEWART: From Wednesday, nonessential shops and schools will have to close and they won't be reopening their doors until January the 10th.

Drinking alcohol outside has been banned which will be a blow for those wanting a festive gluehwein. Christmas isn't canceled, but it will be a smaller affair, just five adults are now allowed to meet, reduced down from 10 and they have to be from up to two households.

New Year's Eve is also going to be quieter since there's been a ban on fireworks and some states have taken additional measures. For instance in Bavaria, where there is now a curfew at 9:00 p.m.

Germany isn't alone as it struggles to contain the spread of the virus. In France, plans to ease restrictions next week have been scaled back and a curfew has been extended.

In Denmark, more regions have now fallen under a partial shutdown, around 80 percent of the population now under those stricter measures.

Here in England, the lockdown ended less than two weeks ago. Already some regions are seeing an uptick in cases of COVID-19 and could see stricter measures imposed and a government review expected next week.

Anna Stewart, CNN, London.

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MARQUARDT: Our thanks to Anna Stewart for that look across Europe.

Now more than ever, the world does feel like it needs heroes. You can join -- we shall join Anderson Cooper and Kelly Ripa for CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Well, thanks for joining me. I'm Alex Marquardt in for Fredricka Whitfield.

Today, 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 greenlight and rolling out of a Michigan plant. That alongside the grim reality of record hospitalizations and thousands of Americans dying every single day.

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