agencies. we'll take you live to washington. tesla shutting down two production lines for 18 days. it's not clear why. but speculation is running wild. it is the 14th, vaccine day, 2020, "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box." joe, you said it's vaccine day. this is d-day, which is the term you use any time there's a military front where we're going to be taking a significant strategic action, that's what this is. this is the turning point when we fight back against covid. that's probably why you see the

dow futures up by about 200. the s&p up by about 20 and the nasdaq 44. last week was the first time for a down week for the dow and s&p. let's look at what's happening in the treasury market. you see right now it looks like the ten year is yielding 0.92% so the yields picking back up a little bit. andrew, welcome back, good to see you. >> thanks, becky. as you mentioned it's a historic day today. this is the moment the fight against covid begins in ernest. after months of research and clinical trials, the pfizer vaccine delivery under way, millions of doses being distributed across the country. and meg joins us to discuss and break it down. >> it's an active weekend in terms of progress for the vaccine. friday night, of course, the fda

granted the emergency use authorization for pfizer and biontech's covid-19 vaccine. saturday was a busy day, the cdc met and decided to authorize the vaccine. and sunday they were being shipped out from michigan. saturday operation warp speed had a briefing. here's how general gus perna, similar to becky, put these moments. >> you have heard me refer to today as d-day. some people assume that i meant day of distribution. in fact, d-day in military, decembdez nates the day the mission begins. it 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. >> general perna saying we are not without challenges ahead of us. here are the plans for the locations expected to receive vaccine this week. 636 in total. 2.9 million doses do going out, 145 receive sipments today, 425 tomorrow, 66 on wednesday with the first health care workers expected to get their vaccine sometime this morning, guys. it's important to look back at this race that they've had toward this vaccine because it shattered every record in modern medical history. it was december 31st, that the world health organization became aware of this in wuhan, china. the sequence of the virus was shared january 11th. that kicked off the race for the vaccine and drugs. pfizer dosed their first patient with a trial in april. and we remember the day in november when the vaccine was

proven to be more than 90% effective. and getting that emergency use authorization on friday. back over to you. >> it's an amazing day, and an important first step in what i imagine is going to be -- i hate to say it, a bit of a journey still, especially given the backdrop of covid h-related deas and the spike in covid we're seeing around the country. walk us through the numbers in terms of what we plan to see in terms of availability from this moment forward, if you could. >> so this week it's just those two 2.9 million doses going out. there was a batch of 6.4 million doses available. and operation warp speed decided to hold half of those and ship them in three weeks so it could fully vaccinate the first group. we are expecting moderna this week to go through the same fda

process, the documents come out tomorrow, thursday is an fda meeting we could see potentially friday another vaccine getting cleared in the u.s. that would add to supply, in total enough for 20 million people in december. more and more going out through the first quarter. we'll have to see how this goes. this is a massive vaccination campaign, some concerns over whether states have funding to do this at the speed and scale they're being asked to. so we'll have to see if the actual vaccinations can keep pace with the supply then, of course, supply getting into the first and second quarter when vaccines are hoped to be available more broadly for the general population. >> it should be similar to what we saw with moderna, we get the documents, the fda sort of shows its hand on what it's thinking and then thursday the panel meeting and then we could have it by friday. that happens with moderna starting tomorrow. it's interesting about how quickly this came out. in the old days you were dealing

with science constraints and in the lab you were using a virus or whatever it was and there were all types of daunting obstacles about safety. this time it's about testing. and that's where i would think, no matter how advance we get in terms of sequencing and being able to design these things, there's going to be a minimum amount of time it takes to gather patients, have enough of them possibly get it or not get it to test the safety and efficacy. i don't see us getting below -- what was this ten months? i don't see us, no matter what the science or lab work tells us, this seems as quickly as we're going to be able to do it because you need to test for safety and efficacy. >> yeah. there's an important phenomenon in understanding vaccines calling the protection. understanding what the immune response needs to be, how much of an antibody response, t cell

response our immune system has to generate to protect us. with a new virus we don't know what these are. but through this data they're figuring that on it. that will enable speeding up potentially of future vaccines because we know if you get your antibody levels to this point you'll be protected. but you're right, difficult to make it any faster than they did at this time. >> one question i wanted to ask you, the backdrop is the vaccines but we're also at this moment where we're nearing 300,000 deaths in america, over 3,000 deaths a day. the question i was going to ask was about the state of therapeutics. for so long we talked about them, whether it be regeneron or remdesivir or what eli lilly was doing. but we're still seeing 3,000 deaths a day. my question is how is this

going? >> we expected medicines available first to make a difference in the pandemic. we did get remdesivir. there is international disagreement over how useful remdesivir is in treating patients then the antibody drugs, those are authorized but there's not enough of them. so they're getting rationed. we will start to see the supply of the antibody drugs ramp up in the new year. especially with international partnership over manufacturing the antibody. but in the beginning it hasn't been enough to make a dent in the pandemic. and then there are novel anti-viral drugs that are being developed. merck has one that it licensed that is going into large scale clinical trials. we hope to see the data soon to see a potential pill that could help with this disease. but the -- that category has gone maybe more slowly than

people hoped it might. >> whatever happened with the people who were in these tests? i know pfizer wanted to make sure that they could give the vaccine to all of those who volunteered to step forward and take these early phase 3 trials and the fda wasn't in favor of that because they wanted to see some additional information to continue those tests to maybe take longer term with it. what happened with that? the these are people that stepped forward and took it when there were so many questions about how risky it would be to take that vaccine? >> there was a lot of debate about this on thursday's meeting because the longer you keep people split, the longer you can follow them and collect better data over time. that's important to the fda but it's also important to make sure the people who volunteered for the trial aren't treated worse than everybody else in the population as a reward for their service. i need to check exactly when the

people will be able to get the vaccine but one discussion was that they shouldn't be behind people in line in their priority group. so when the time for them in the population, if they're a health care worker, just a regular person, when their time comes up, they should be able to get the vaccine. there were all kinds of complicated ideas suggested like switch everybody but don't tell them if they got the placebo or vaccine the first time, things like that. so we have to see how they do it but they should be able to get the vaccine. >> okay. meg thank you for this report. we'll be seeing you in just a little bit with an interview with pfizer's ceo coming up at 8:00 a.m. this morning. becky? in the meantime, senior white house staff members were scheduled to be among the first to receive the vaccine but president trump tweeted last night that people working in the white house should receive it

somewhat later in the program. he said he asked for that adjustment to be made. officials said earlier that vaccinations would be offered soon to leaders in all three branchs of government, which caused a lot of concern among people, why weren't they waiting for their turn in line, follow the cdc guidelines. my take is if you want to prove you're essential personnel, why don't you do something in washington and pass some aid. aid for americans suffering right now. whether that would be people who could be evicted soon, people who aren't working and don't have extended jobless benefits, small businesses up against the break. if you want to prove you're essential workers do something in government. >> don't be cynical, becky. if these guys received things only based on merit they wouldn't have a paycheck every week or retirement benefits. they'd be dead last. no, i'm kidding, but it's been a long time waiting for something to happen. still wondering about stimulus.

i don't know where that stands right now. >> we need it. >> we do. i didn't think about it -- >> we do. >> we all need a break once in a while. but we go out friday thinking about stimulus, where are we? anything happen? nothing is going on, i don't think. >> nope. >> nothing. nothing. >> 260 days, i think. >> to me it's as important as -- it's as important as ever. obviously one of the things that did happen, and starting here today in new york, indoor dining has been shutdown. that may be -- and i would argue even potentially the scientific thing to do, i know there's debate about that. but you only should be doing that if you can then support the small businesses. >> providing help. exactly. >> it's crazy. it's absolutely crazy that the government is taking steps like this and at the same time isn't providing help. and, you know, it's one thing to follow-up with science, you should do that. but at the same time you actually have to help at the same time.

you can't choose one or the other. and that's i think what makes it so difficult. >> especially, by the way, when we're looking at light at the end of the tunnel. this is the first day of vaccinations, we are teattackin this, taking covid head on and in a matter of months things are going to get better. if you can get those businesses and americans through the next few months everybody has a fighting chance. >> i saw 21. did you see that? 21. >> yeah. >> i couldn't tell whether it was a you better do something or this is going to happen and this is what we'll do if nothing happens or whether there was really meant was going to go home for good in march. >> i'm deeply concerned, as you know, that there's going to be a lot of restaurants, at least in new york city, but i think around the country that are not going to make it, unless, of course, as becky said there is a light at the end of the tunnel, you have to provide the bridge, consider it a bridge loan if

that's what you want to call it, hopefully it's only a couple months, maybe it's longer -- >> but andrew, we had dinner at gallagher's, one of my favorite places. the water had a mask on -- the waiter had a mask on. nobody was in 25 feet, i don't know what the science is about 25 feet. i would not go up to the bar but it was less than 20% occupancy. so my only concern was the waiter who had a mask on the entire time and this was two months ago, a month and a half ago, i don't know if i would do it now. it was fine then from what i could tell. i don't know whether that's an option or not. maybe that many people want to go in. it's not hard to do it at 20%. >> restaurants will tell you 20% they can't survive. >> you can tell the ones that were closed. and there was no one -- there was no one anywhere near us. it was actually pretty nice, you know what i mean.

anyway, that was where i was coming from. done it a few times. as we head to break, here's a rundown of the other big stories we're covering. russia's intelligence service expected to be behind an attack on u.s. agencies. tesla is shutting down two production lines for 18 days despite an email from elon musk. and electors gather in state capital today to vote for joe biden to be the next u.s. president. the votes will be sent to congress to beofficially this holiday, get iphone 12 on the 5g america's been waiting for. this new iphone plus verizon 5g is incredible. switch now and get iphone 12 pro max on us. unlimited plans start at just $35.

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futures are up triple digits. joining us is mark grant, market strategist and one of 15 people in the world designated a bloomberg profit. oh. are we talking about the mayor? what are we talking about there? i don't want to know. you know what, i don't even want to know. let me start by asking you,

mr. profit, in your view, let's just cut to the chase. what's more overvalued, stocks or bonds? >> stocks are probably more overvalued. what we're seeing, in my opinion, is a huge rotation, however, out of bonds at current levels and into equities. you see a lot of insurance companies, pension funds, university endowments, seniors, retirees, they cannot afford the current levels in the bond market and while treasury is backed up a little bit, corporate bonds is an example and mortgage bonds have tightened against treasury, so there's virtually no yield in the bond markets. the only place -- i will identify this for your viewers -- to find yields and it's complicated is in closed in bond funds you can get yields with two numbers there. >> what you said doesn't seem

consistent with what we're seeing. if people were bailing out of bonds to get into stocks, rates would be much higher. that's what i meant. your point you're making it's a borrowers' paradise as countries go more negative with rates, that's not indicative of people bailing out of bonds. if people were bailing out of bonds rates would go up. >> there are still buyers. i can tell you talking to my clients that are major money managers there's pressure on them because there's no yield in bonds. we're about the only country left with positive yields in their bond markets. all the yields, spain, portugal, japan, switzerland, they're all at negative rates. >> that wouldn't come from people selling bonds that would

be from people buying bonds with lower yields. we can disagree on what's going on there. but there have been people saying that now that the vaccine is on its way that perhaps the stimulus dries up, perhaps -- i'm not talking about the fiscal stimulus, talking about monetary stimulus, perhaps things start to reverse themselves now that we're going to start reopening, theoretically, we anticipate things and discount things, and maybe this is the time that some of the markets reverse themselves? or the beginning of it. >> i don't think so, joe. i think one of the factors we haven't discussed yet is the fed and the fed has been in buying monthly treasuries, stocks they're going to extend the maturities they're going to buy, which would flatten the curve more. so there are still people buying bonds but a lot of people can't afford the current yields and

so, it's become problematic which is one of the reasons i think that the equity markets are up. the money has come out of bonds. i'm talking about private money, not the fed. and has gone into the equity markets, which is one of the things that i think is driving equities higher. >> it m seems like the yields go up to a point where they get buyers and that -- i think that's coming obviously and then i don't know what happens, whether that -- whether that spells trouble for the equity markets or not. but what a run we've been on mark, and you finally capitulated and said -- i think you said i'm down in the rabbit hole, i don't know who you decided to be in those characters in "alice in wonderland," but you basically said i can't fight this anymore. for the stock market are you getting negative now or still going along for the ride? >> if we see the fed, which i think is going to be under

tremendous pressure from the new administration, to even lower rates further or expand their assets. and there's a direct correlation, joe, which you can see between every time the fed ex pands their assets the stock market goes higher. there's a very strong correlation there. and, you know, you have to recognize what's going on and especially have to recognize the role of the central banks, the fed and the other central banks, in controlling and dominating these markets. you can't fight against the people that make the money and they make the money. >> right. all right. bloomberg, thanks for gracing us with your presence today. appreciate that. we had no idea -- i had no idea that -- who i was dealing with. but congrats. and hopefully we can see you again soon, mark. >> absolutely, joe. 24 years and still going.

>> that's -- yeah. that's about it. all right. thanks. >> thank you. thanks, joe. still to come this morning, a huge lineup to cover the vaccine rollout and reaction in the markets, including mark lazrey and jim coulter and governor phil murphy. and ji this is decision tech. find a stock based on your interests or what's trending. get real-time insights in your customized view of the market. it's smarter trading technology for smarter trading decisions. fidelity.

edge and a special programming note to tell you about. tomorrow on "squawk box" we're going to be talking to warren buffett and goldman sachs ceo david solman about the biggest challenges facing the backbone of our economy, that's the thousands of small businesses struggling greatly right now with no sign of relief because congress has not passed any additional relief. i think it's been almost 260 days since the last covid relief was passed and we know the situation has gotten a lot worse since then. this is a matter that's near and dear to both of these gentlemen's hearts. goldman sachs started the 10,000 small businesses program. they have a thousand businesses that graduated from that program. it provides help with business services that entrepreneurs need to understand how to be better business knowner and a program

that warren buffett has been involved with for ten years. he's been very involved with what the small business owners are doing, what the entrepreneurs are doing. david solomon said this is a huge point of pride for the firm and what they've been able to do. and both these gentlemen understand the pressure these owners are coming under right now. they did a survey of those small business owners and 97% came back and said they think it's important for the democrats and republicans to stop their talking points on both sides and find ways to pass bipartisan support. the pain they've been under at this point is real and it's palpable. when they surveyed them about that, 42% said they had to layoff workers or cut their pay since the pandemic began and even more than that, 52% of them have taken a cut in pay or no

pay of their own while they're trying to keep their business afloat. 28% say legislative uncertainty is making them think about closing their businesses at this point. >> is it purely about government assistance or is it a reopening, reclosing conversation to have? >> i think their concern at this point is -- go ahead, sorry. >> a lot of small businesses look around and are very frustrated with a lot of the stuff the government is telling them that they're mandated to do. i'm just wondering whether that's what we're talking about or purely about providing a bridge to where the thing -- >> honestly, i don't know. >> -- where we get beyond this. >> i'm not sure what their thoughts are on all of this. i've spoken with both of them. their concern is the pressure on small businesses right now. i don't know how much is trying to make sure that the government does something to assist them and how much of it is concern about the government shutdowns that have come.

i think if you look at it, in some cases, even where there hasn't been government closures, there's been massive pressure, something like a third of restaurants in new jersey were facing pressures even when they were allowed to be open and serving outside in the summertime. if you talk to many of the restaurants, they can't survive at 50% capacity, 20% capacity. but i don't know their thoughts, honestly, in terms of what they'd like to see with some of the government mandates as well. we can talk to them about that tomorrow. buffett hasn't spoken since the meeting back in may. he doesn't have plans to speak until the annual meeting coming up next may. he did say the one thing he'll talk about is small businesses. he's concerned about the pressure they're facing and what washington is and is not doing at this point. david solomon will talk about other things he's seeing in the markets and other areas with the economy. go ahead, andrew. >> i was going to say, it's a

very important interview because to hear from lauren during this is clearly very important. i don't think david has spoken that much publically either. i want to ask both of you, i was thinking about this over the weekend. why we haven't had more pressure, frankly on washington or why washington hasn't moved. one of the things i wonder is actually weather actually whether it relates directly to the elites, the most influential people in the world pushing on washington which is to say in the midst of crisis in march, there were lots of people, ceos and the like, who were all over washington saying you have to do this, the world is ending if if you don't do this right now. but the biggest companies in the world have had great success during this crisis. and i don't know if they're putting the pressure or have been putting the pressure on washington in the same way the small businesses don't

necessarily have the same voice. so it's an important conversation tomorrow and we'll see whether it turns out to be a turning point. >> the three of us have fared okay. you know what i mean? we can give out all our advice on closing, opening, doing this stuff and we're doing fine. i've been nowhere near a food line. talk about elites, i feel for us on whether we're right there with them, because this has not affected us like the people -- we need to walk in their shoes to know where we are. >> i wonder if that's why we haven't had the action, you know. the action in washington, because there's not enough people in washington who are feeling it and frankly the people that are, i hate to say it, giving them all the money, they're not feeling it either and maybe they're not making the phone calls they should. this is going to be a very, very important conversation. >> anyway, that's coming up at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow. >> when we come back, a couple

big interviews we have here today. our big interview with the ceo of pfizer, happening at 8:00 a.m. this morning, as vaccine distribution kicks into high gear and we'll watch the reopening stocks closely. here's a look at some of the movers as we head to break. back in a moment. i made a business out of my passion. i mean, who doesn't love obsessing over network security? all our techs are pros. they know exactly which parking lots have the strongest signal. i just don't have the bandwidth for more business. seriously, i don't have the bandwidth. glitchy video calls with regional offices? yeah, that's my thing. with at&t business, you do the things you love. our people and network will help do the things you don't. let's take care of business.

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pfizer shipping out the first covid-19 vaccines in the united states. as we could see the first americans vaccinated today. joining us right now to talk more about the country's rollout campaign is dr. julie marieta, the executive vice president of the johnson wood foundation also a member of joe biden's advisory board.

doctor, thank you for being with us. good to see you. this is a historic day. but the question is what next? where do we go from here? >> good morning, becky. nice to see you. i think a critical thing is we know this process has been used by the u.s. to evaluate and approve the vaccine was robust, science based and transparent. that should be good for the public. that's the first step. the next step is making sure the vaccines gets distributed throughout the nation. and the next is making sure people have confidence in the vaccine. making sure people are vaccinated is what's going to stop this pandemic. there's two parts to that, the first is the immediate where no matter how people are willing to take it we won't have enough vaccine for the foreseeable future. what concerns you about the l

logistical headaches and problems we could run into there? >> when i was health commissioner in chicago in 2009 we were able to get vaccine out to health care providers, to the community, the challenge was getting the vaccine into the community's arm there was a trust in the vaccine because of past mistreatment. so we've worked with community organizations to have them help us bring people out to get the vaccine. what i'm concerned about during this pandemic is we've seen a disproportionate impact on communities of color. so unless we work with them, i'm concerned they won't get the vaccines they need as well. >> doctor, there's a question about, frankly, whether vaccines should be voluntary or whether they should be mandatory. for example, the new york bar association is pushing on the state of new york to make

vaccines mandatory. obviously this will be a certain time when they're available at scale. there's other conversations happening around the country and world about whether businesses should require their employees to take the vaccine simply as part of their employment. some believe it could be a competitive advantage to them, while others think it could create a backlash. where do you stand? >> i think the first step in terms of any new vaccine is earning the trust of the public. and how we earn the trust of the public is making sure they understand the vaccines are safe, that they're effective, and the process was not influenced by politics. you need to ensure the people have this information so they're comfortable getting the vaccine. and that's not easy work. federal, state, local, public health officials have been working nonstop to make sure we get the vaccines to the community and making sure the communities understand the safety and efficacy of the vaccines. but that's hard, rigorous, challenging work and more

research needs to flow to the federal, state and local health agencies so they can do this important work. >> doctor, again, this is a really important day. i guess the big question is when do you think it'll be before we can actually breathe a little easier. how long do you think it'll be before we've made inroads against the virus? >> the vaccine is available in limited supplies right now and we're not certain when we'll have enough vaccine for the entire population to have access to the vaccine. so in the meantime it's critical that people continue to do the things we know will work, wearing our mask, remaining distanced socially. not attending family gatherings during the holidays. we need to do those things until we make sure the entire population has access to the vaccines. >> thank you for your time today. i'm sure we'll be talking with you over the next several

months. we do appreciate it. >> thank you. >> coming up, the latest on a cyber attack on u.s. agencies by a group suspected to be backed by russia. we'll talk to a former senior intelligence official about the hack. straight ahead. and still to come our big

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welcome back to "squawk

box." a little bit of deal news today, astrazeneca buying alexion pharmaceuticals. it's the largest deal done, $175 a share. a 40% premium over the average price in the last month alone. the move will boost astrazeneca's footprint in treating rare diseases. when we come back we'll discuss hackers (harold) twelve hundred strings of lights. (betsy) quarter mile of tinsel. (harold) and real snow all the way from switzerland. (betsy) hmmhm... gonna be tough to top.

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but with the covid-19 crisis, many veterans are struggling - to make ends meet or get the care they need. dav has helped ill and injured veterans for one hundred years, but today, the need is greater than ever. give to the dav covid-19 relief fund - and help provide critical assistance to veterans in need. go to dav.org/helpvets or call now. your donation will make a real difference. welcome back to "squawk box." we have a developing story to talk about. the u.s. treasury and commerce department among the federal agencies that were victim of a massive cyber attack. the breach believed to be the work of the russians. amon joins us with the latest. >> reporter: good morning to you. a lot of developing news over

this overnight but yesterday what we knew was "reuters" reported initially there was a hack by persons unknown as the treasury and commerce department what we knew was they were monitoring email traffic inside treasury and the commerce's organization focused organizati on internet policy. that led to a national security organization, later last night, fire eye put out additional details in blog posts. they said the attack was global in scope hitting public and private institutions around the world. it began by the spring of 2020. this has been underway for quite some time now. they also said that the attack uses existing i.t. fracture management software that's widely used by companies and government entities to get in. it stealthily gathers

information once that malware has been installed. they said the malware lies dormant for two weeks before beginning to gather information. it's very difficult to detect. this was most likely a nation state. the russians had said it wasn't them. they deny responsibility. fire eye says there are a lot of organizations here that have been affected and they are notifying them all right now. the federal government said overnight last night, andrew, this they are trying to root this malware out. they have ordered all federal agencies to stop using the software in question here. there's a lot we still don't know, andrew. >> thank you for that report. i know we'll be talking to you about this all day. in the meantime, we want to bring in sue gordon to the conversation. a cnbc contributor. how critical is this and what information do you think is now

at risk? >> good morning, andrew. this is big, and you ought to think about it akin to the 2014, 2015, acts of state and white house. a little bit as the chinese attack on opm in the same time frame. maybe bigger than that because it is public and private and it is global. it's a big deal not only because of the information they may be having access to but once you're in a network, you're in, and there are a lot of things you can do. as we learn more about the actor, and as we learn more about the extent of the activity, we'll see what their intention is, but this is not only problematic for the information but problematic getting rid of it.

>> is there something you're supposed to be doing, information you believe has now been exposed or potentially access to your own systems. >> absolutely. first things first is see if you're using the software in question. it is very widespread. you're going to want to talk to your cyber security information officer and see whether it's in your system and you're going to want to start acting on that right away. i don't think you have to go to widespread panic because if this is in fact, and it feels like a nation state actor or is russia, these people invest a lot of resources to affect this kind of hack. it may not be that everyone has this software is going to be affected. if you have the software, you should know when they start taking precautions. anything else i would tell ceos and company officials and leaders of organizations is we have seen this mistake in the past, as you look just at this

software, and you forget to look at all the other vulnerabilities. you forget to look at what's the most thing that you have in your company, so those three things, see whether you have the soft war ware, look at your cyber security posture, and think about what your most valuable information is and work to protect it. >> what do you think the most information or interesting information, dare i say, is at risk inside treasury and commerce, though, for example. >> so one of the things to think about is if you're in the e-mails of the decision makers, and you're watching the discussions going on, if what they're talking about is what you're interested in, you have the opportunity to beat them to the spot in terms of the decision they're working. if it is telecommunications and infrastructure, if we are talking about spectrum issues, you have a chance to affect your game plan. even more than that, once you're

in that network, once you're seeing people's identities in person, you can move around and hide and find other opportunities within the network, so it's not the first play only. it's the second and third place. >> do you think that the russians, if they are the actor involved specifically took advantage of this moment which is to say this election season when eyes were all on the election, and dare i say, people, you know, for more than 100 days now have been talking falsely about hacks in the election and seem to not be talking about this? >> yeah, well, one, if it is the russians, the russians have their own initiative that fits into the play. they may have had these plans for a long time, but it is certainly true that three things are going on. number one, we have been in the middle of a pandemic. a lot of the tension that would have been normally applied to routine processes and systems,

we just have been not as able to focus on that. second, as you suggest, we have been focused on elections. those are different fraur infrastructures. the third thing is we are in the middle of a presidential transition. they may have been planning it for a while. but when did we get a chance it see it. that's an interesting question. >> sue gordon, thank you as always for helping us better understand what's taking place in what's a complicated situation. we really appreciate it. great to see you. >> thank you. >> becky, i'm going to send it over to you. >> thanks, andrew. when we come back, we will continue with our huge lineup this morning, covering the vaccine rollout and reactions in the market. we've got many guests still to come, including investors mark laz and jim

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on america's largest 5g network. and save 20% per month. it's time to holiday on. it's time for t-mobile. united states, and the fight against covid-19 as mass distribution of a vaccine gets underway. we have the latest on the rollout straight ahead. investors are watching stimulus talks and the vaccine distribution. we will speak to marc lasry about the state of the markets

and economic recovery, leading up to our big interview with pfizer ceo albert bourla. the second hour of "squawk box" begins right now. good morning, welcome back to "squawk box" right here on cnbc. i'm andrew ross sorkin along with becky quick and joe kernen. take a quick look at u.s. equity futures on this monday morning. about 2 1/2 hours before the big open. dow looks like it would open quite big. up 244 points, nasdaq looking to open 66 points higher, and the s&p 500 looking to open about 27 points for now. becky. >> thanks, andrew. millions of doses of pfizer's covid-19 vaccine are out for delivery. they're being transported across the country right now, marking an historic milestone in the fight against the pandemic.

meg tirrell joins us right now. she has been covering this and has more on exactly what's happening. meg, good morning again. >> good morning, becky. it is a huge day as the first locations in the u.s., mostly hospitals will be receiving their first shipments of this covid-19 vaccine. of course friday night getting the clearance from the fda, saturday getting the recommendation of an influential panel of advisers to the cdc, and sunday, the distribution starting. here are the number of locations expected to receive shipments over the course of the next three days. 636 total u.s. locations as designated by states. 145 places today get shipments, 425 tomorrow, and 66 on wednesday. now this shipping is happening from pfizer's plant in kalamazoo, michigan. we understand that 189 shippers went out yesterday with 500,000 doses in total this week. it will be 2.9 million doses. there are 650 workers in the kalamazoo plant dedicated to the

distribution activity after about 3,000. this really a historic cu culmination of an unprecedented race toward this vaccine which began when the genetic sequence was shared. a month after the virus was detected in wuhan, china. pfizer partnered with biontech in march. they had already been working together with this technology on a flu vaccine, decided to team up on covid. they dosed their first patient and clinical trials. and november, the historic news that the vaccine was 95% effective in protecting people against covid-19, getting the fda emergency use authorization on friday night. i talked with biontech ceo about this big moment on friday in advance of getting that clearance, and here's what he told me about the significance of this moment. >> this is an extremely powerful and energizing feeling which

makes clear that innovation is able to help people. and we will continue to work to make a difference for humanity. >> innovation is able to help people, guys, and we will be talking a lot more about this with pfizer ceo albert bourla coming up next hour, becky. >> meg, obviously this is a huge, important day. we are finally starting to fight back against this virus. but there's going to be a lot of bumps along the way just if terms of trying to roll out a program like this across the nation. a lot of things that have to happen. i'm hearing in terms of the elderly and nursing home and those populations, that's not going to start until at least december 21st, and in that case, only in a handful of states because there wasn't consent. they weren't able to get consent in time from all of these nursing homes, the patients themselves who are living there. >> yeah, the date that we are

hearing in terms of nursing homes being able to get these doses is december 21st. that is a bit later obviously than we are hearing about hospitals receiving the shipments and health care workers being among the first to get their vaccines, which we expect to see later this morning. the priority groups in the phase 1 a of the rollouts, include health care workers and those who live and work in the long-term care facilities, because of the burden the disease has had on nursing home residents and staff, and so it will be very important to get those folks protected but we are seeing the sort of process play out, and all of the complications therein, and we will be watching that of course over the coming weeks as more and more vaccines make their way across the country. >> meg, thank you. we'll see you again in just a bit. don't forget, folks, we have today at 8:00 a.m. eastern time. a big interview with pfizer ceo albert bourla. he's going to be coming to us

live to talk about the vaccine rollout. another, i guess, critical week for stimulus. a bipartisan group of lawmakers expected to break their covid relief package into two pieces. good morning, ylan. >> good morning, joe, that's right, multiple sources are telling me the bipartisan group is planning to split up their $908 billion package. the first piece would be worth $748 billion, and would have the relatively noncontroversial items, extending unemployment benefits, $3 billion for small businesses, money for vaccines and schools. the second bucket would be the hard stuff. $160 billion in state and local aid, the guardrails for distributing that, as well as the language on liability protections and the idea here is to provide party leadership a road map for either striking the bigger deal or for scaling it

back. now, these informal negotiations among lawmakers were happening this weekend as the official talks between the treasury secretary and house speaker nancy pelosi appear to be back on. the two of them were on the phone yesterday for about half an hour, according to a readout from her office, pelosi emphasized the importance of state and local aid, especially as they're the ones now responsible for the last distribution and administration of the vaccine. she also signalled a potential compromise on republicans' top priority, liability protections as long as it dioesn't jeopardie worker safety. one thing that was not mentioned in the readout of the call is stimulus checks, so we will have to see how hard both president trump and rank and file lawmakers from both parties decide to push for that, and what we hope are the final week of negotiations. back to you. >> elan, thank you, and given the darkness of winter, we hope

the stimulus checks come. for those at home, news breaking that gmail, you tube and google docs other alphabet google services appear to be simultaneously down in multiple countries across the world. for those of you trying to log on having trouble, you're not the only one. we'll talk more about that in a little bit. hedge fund titan, and co-owner of the washington bucs, marc lasry is going to join us in just a bit. we'll talk markets and where we stand in the economic recovery. before we head to the break, let's get a quick check on the markets. we have green arrows across the we have green arrows across the board.

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welcome back, a special programming note to tell you about. thousands of small businesses struggling with no signs of relief. it's something that big businesses are starting to really weigh in on as well. warren buffet from berkshire hathaway, and goldman sacs ceo, the conversation we'll be having tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. eastern time. guys, this is a big issue. these two have been very involved in the goldman sacs 10,000 small businesses program. it's a program designed to help entrepreneurs and business owners really get their legs

under them and provide support, everything from capital to education. and we'll be talking with them about that program, and what they're hearing back from those small business owners right now, who are all under a lot of pressure because of what we have seen with the pandemic because of covid, and they're looking to washington for help, and hoping americans will help them out in terms of being there to support their businesses, too. a long few months before we get to the other side of this. obviously with the vaccinations going out today, we are really taking this on, fighting back against covid. there have been tough times since then, and we have not had financial help to any of these small businesses that have come through, since congress passed the last plan about 260 days ago. when we come back, marc lasry will be joining us. we'll be talking to him about the markets, and debt, a lot of that to go around these

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marc lasry. i mean, is that what you are? is that who you are? does that define anything about you? it's so gosh. the chairman, ceo and cofounder of avenue capital. co-owner of the milwaukee bucs, and i apologize in advance for that. you know what, though, never feel bad for someone who's got their own private jet. anyway, it's good to see you, marc, i don't want to pigeon hole you there. and there's no envy or anything that i'm manifesting. i think you're wonderful. >> well, thank you. >> hey, marc. >> yes, sir. >> you have made some pretty cogent competenments about how economy has changed in terms of how a lot of companies that have benefitted where five or ten years have been squeezed into one year, and they were at the right place at the right time. and we know the flip side of that, how difficult it has been for many companies. as a buyer and seller of

distressed debt, have you spent more of your time dealing with distressed debt that you already owned that's come under pressure? or finding opportunities in distressed t distressed debt that you don't own yet that must have opened up across the globe for you in the pandemic? >> it's been more the latter. first of all, it's great to see you again. it's been a while. i hope you're doing well, and your family is doing well. >> thank you, you too. >> i think for us there's been huge opportunities, a lot in specialty lending. companies need capital, the public markets are not providing that. and we're coming in and lending money anywhere between 12 to 15% on a senior basis. it's actually gone really well. >> can you point to any of the -- i remember you were

getting into energy to some extent. you do a lot over in europe, and you have over the years. have you had any situations that you're very concerned with some of the stuff that you already own? it hasn't all been great, i wouldn't imagine. >> no, no, it hasn't. i wish it was, but, no, it hasn't been all great. i think on the energy side, we took a bunch of hits early on. i think now we're working those out and finding actually new opportunities. the simple reason is people don't want to invest in energy, so we're able to come in. we have been making some big investments in a company diamond offshore is a company where we have been investing in recently, so we're still doing it. i would love to tell you we haven't had any problems. it would be nice. we have had problems, work those out and try to make new investments. >> with the vaccine being rolled out today, are you expecting a

second derivative change in interest rates or something you're dealing with in terms of opportunities, whether you buy or sell now. will that change things as we move into hopefully after covid? >> i don't think, i think everybody knows the vaccine is coming out, at least the markets. obviously we've known that for the last sort of two to four weeks, so i think what you're going to find is just the focus now is going to be on the economy, how quickly is it turned around. how quickly, the real question for everybody is how quickly do things get back to 2009 ebita. and is that six months, a year or two years, so you're still going to have a little bit of stress in the system, but the good news that's out there right now is that the fed is willing to help. i think rates will stay where they are. you know, maybe they'll go up a little bit, just because there's going to be less pressure on the system.

but really what you're going to find is that people still need capital, so for us, we hope over the course of the next six months, a year, we're still going to be able to find all the situations that we're investing in. >> marc, we know each other from georgia, too, and i'm just wondering, you make, you know, you're a big friend of bill, one of the big fobs, supporter of hillary, joe biden, raise a lot of money. yet you make the point, you're frank about it, wall street would prefer gridlock, so would marc lasry prefer gridlock or do you wish georgia, this place that we, you know, we go occasionally, do you think they'll go -- do you think they're going to vote in david perdue and loeffler? neither, what do you want to happen, and what do you think will happen? >> look, i think, if you're asking my professional opinion,

i think what will end up happening is it will be one and one. i think that's what will end up happening. >> okay. i would like, you know, the personally for me, i would like democrats to get control of the senate, but i think ultimately what will happen is i think republicans will keep control but they may lose one seat. >> you say wall street would prefer gridlock, but not marc lasry. >> i wish i spoke for wall street, but no, i don't. >> so i would like to -- you may be part of advising president-elect biden in your view, and i'm disappointed because you don't think it would be diplomacy as ambassador to france, which you almost got last time. i think you need to reconsider. that's still a pretty good job, marc, you would say no, and you speak french, and you've got contacts over there. is that off the table? i'm positing you, throwing your

hat in the ring again, would you say no? >> i would. thank you for throwing my hat in. >> i like to call it our hat in the ring. >> your wine guy. >> that's what i'm going to need. thank you. >> but you do expect to -- what would you -- how would you advise the biden administration now in terms of economics? would you say get rid of the trump tax cuts? >> no. get rid of the trump tax dut can you tells -- tax cuts. i think you have to raise taxes because at the end of the day, there's this huge deficit, and i think we have to pay that down a little bit. i think we can all do a little bit more, but i would say you've got to end up getting into the system a little bit more capital, so that's what i would try to do. >> we should stick to business,

but sports is business. isn't it? >> yes, sir. >> and i know you want things to reopen, and i'm just wondering whether you can tell us anything about the greek freak and whether it's going to really happen or not. his barber, his barber was wishing him well, but nobody knows where the barber is leaving or whether john is leaving. and you made some other moves, and you're just right on the cusp. i mean, you've got the mvp. i mean, you ought to be able to take this to the next level. >> well, i hope so. we have a week. so i hope we'll all find out in the next week, but i hope so. you know. >> that doesn't sound very confident. are you going to keep them? >> i'm optimistic, but, you know, you never know, it's going to be his decision, and i hope things work out for us. so we'll know in the next week. >> japanese. okay. i'm pulling for you.

they're telling me we got to go. >> take care. >> all right. we will see you, and maybe the new guy is going to help, too, the guy you brought in. >> thank you. it's good to see you. >> take care. >> see you around. thanks, joe. love to see marc, too. when we come back, former commissioner, and cnbc contributor, dr. scott gottlieb is going to join us to talk about the

welcome back to "squawk," we've got breaking news. google is suffering a major outage this morning. multiple services including gmail, you tube, google classroom, google docs, are in accessible to users starting at 6:40 a.m. eastern time that team you tube twitter account has acknowledged that many people are having issues and they say they are looking into it. the verge reporting the issue is happening in multiple countries across the world.

we've reached out to google, and we'll let you know when we get a response. this is a major issue for those of you trying to get even into your own gmail right now, personal or enterprise, you are not alone. to put this in context, and we'll see hopefully they'll get back online, some of the biggest companies in the country use google and this includes uber, airbnb, pinterest, netflix, spotify, twitter, instacart, the list goes on. employees not able to reach not just these as much ass services gmail but get into the system at all. lots of companies use gmail, authenticate as you try to get into web sites and web services, sales force, drop box, so many that use google to get online. in certain cases that's inaccessible, and also hitting

quote unquote the real world nest heaters that control heat and air-conditioning and the like. all controlled through authentication through google. those appear to be down as well across the globe. we're going to be brengiinging more news about this throughout the morning. this, for so many people, there are companies literally in standstill as we speak, given this outage, and we hope that it comes back. >> hey, andrew. >> very very soon. >> yes, becky. i'll just add to that, you know, our schools, our son's school district uses google docs to say every day that you don't have a temperature, you haven't been exposed to anybody with covid-19, it's not working today so they're just asking everybody to go in on your honor. usually it's something you have to do an electronic signature on. it's not working today. >> and we should mention many classrooms around the country using google classrooms virtually, those appear to be down as well.

this is going to be a developing story that we're going to have to keep our eyes on, and again, if you're waking up this morning and you can't access your company or you can't access your e-mail, it does appear to be a global outage. at this point we'll be doing more roeporting. >> wake up call, not like we're dependent on this. >> extly. ac this holiday, get iphone 12 on the 5g america's been waiting for. this new iphone plus verizon 5g is incredible. switch now and get iphone 12 pro max on us.

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months of planning and investment to update so called cold chain capabilities has led to this, the first shipments of pfizer's covid vaccine across the country and frank holland joins us with more on the rollout. good morning, frank. >> good morning to you, joe, more than 630 sites around the u.s. will get pfizer's covid-19 vaccine in coming days. today 145 locations will get the life saving medicine, and in many cases, flown around the country in 737s like this one here at ups's largest air hub, and containers like you see here in the cargo hold.

we spoke to the head of the vaccine effort for ups. he says shipping vaccines quickly is the top priority even over christmas presents as both get shipped on the same truck and on the same plane. >> this is our regular network, our regular sort. the only thing that's different about the vaccines is the fact that we have to monitor the temperature. we're watching more closely in terms of gps location. in terms of the handling the packages, this is our network. this is what we do all day long, whether it's people unloading the aircraft, people operating inside the building or people on the other end in our brown trucks, our package cars, delivering. it's the same network. >> ups and fedex are the official carriers of operation warp speed, and assigned based on their capabilities. ahead of the vaccine effort, the company has special software and staff to deal with any potential issues. >> we have a team of agents in a 24 by 7, 365 command center.

we call this service priority alert. and i refer to them as guardian angels, they're using the technology in a new platform called surround that uses predictive analytics. >> reporter: and i spoke to the head of ups's vaccine effort. he says the company got the final orders from the government to deliver the last of the 2.9 million shipments of doses expected this week. that will take place now on thursday. joe, back over to you. >> fingers crossed, frank. these companies are good at what they do. we know that. and thohopefully there's going be glitches, you figure, i guess, but i don't know, i have confidence that these guys and gals are really good at what that they do. >> reporter: i think the government has the same confidence, and honestly these are probably the only two companies in america that could handle this kind of effort that have delivery capabilities. >> and you remember, and that was richard smith, i guess,

probably related to fred obviously, and i remember when he started fedex. you're going to take on the post office, and make money? the post office, how are you going to do that, and the rest is history, so pretty amazing. ups, kudos to them as well. thank you, frank lanholland, we appreciate that report. for more on the emergency use authorization of covid-19, we want to bring in our guest. dr. scott gottlieb, the former fda commissioner, cnbc contributor, and sits on the boards after illumina, and pfizer. you can read his latest op-ed, entitled "antibodies as covid insurance" and this is a topic that's let's say related but not directly about the vaccines. where are we when it comes to some of these both antibody and therapeutic programs? and i ask because one of the other things that's happening,

against the backdrop. the vaccines are going out, against the backdrop of more and more deaths. >> you know, thanks, i'll tell you where we are with the antibodies and why it's related. we don't have enough supply. two companies half antibodies on the market, lily and regeneron went through extraordinary efforts to bring on more supply. lily partnered with amgen to increase manufacturing. and they maxed out the available domestic manufacturing capacity. the only way to get more manufacturing online for these drugs was to ask companies currently producing marketed antibody drugs to stop making drugs for a period of time and convert over to making covid antibodies and really only the government could have led that kind of effort. they would have had to step in and make it worthwhile, and stockpile some of the active pharmaceutical ingredients. most companies that manufacture biologics in the united states built free is about 2 years worth of supplier of the active pharmaceutical ingredients.

they can stop production and burn down their supplier, and in an emergency they could have been paid to do that. that was the only way we were going to get increased capacity online. there wasn't enough domestic manufacturing company. the reason i think this is related we see a lot of hetero gentlem heterojenity, that haven't distributed any doses of these antibody drugs or distributed very few. that's what i'm hearing. other states have done a good job to set occupy distribute these. like maryland where i worked with the governor of the state. it speaks to the fact that this might be the same challenge with the vaccine. it's really left up to the states to figure out how to distribute these things. some states are doing a better job than others, some have more resources than others. as you mentioned i'm on the board of pfizer, we have done a very good job figuring out the cold chain supply chain, the low

gi logistics of getting it from point a to point b. pfizer built a special box to do that to keep these frozen. the challenge is the last mile, getting into the states, in an austere environment or to disadvantaged populations. >> scott when you look at the states that you don't think have necessarily distributed some of these therapeutics, what do you think has happened? why is that the case and clearly you're suggesting it's not the supply constraint, how quickly are we going to get therapeutics, come this spring, this summer, are we going to have that at scale as well or no? >> well, next year combined, analysts are saying that regeneron, lily can produce, 6 and 7 million doses of antibody drugs. you could increase that supply. and remember, these antibody drugs, hasn't been demonstrated but probably can be used as a prophylactic, certainly the

experience of an antibody. effective as an early treatment and so for patients who forego vaccination for whatever reason or contra indicated the vaccination, this could be used to give them for a period of a month or two. these antibody drugs can be an insurance policy. in terms of why states have struggled, it's not easy to distribute the drugs. it's an infusion, takes up to three hours. you have to set up a special infuse site because you can't bring covid patients into a normal infusion facility, where you might have immunocompromised patients like cancer patients. the people that are getting drugs in some cases are those who have doctors willing to go the extra mile to get them access to the drugs. kro you're not seeing the broad access. right now there's not enough supply but next year there will be more supply, and the systems aren't in place. we have had time. i think this is something we need to look at very closely.

we don't want this to happen with the vaccine where the last mile becomes the problem. >> hey, scott, pfizer's ceo is out this morning saying that the company is still negotiating with the united states on providing additional coronavirus vaccines, that additional 100 million more, the coronavirus vaccine doses for 2021. you're a pfizer board member. what's the hold up? >> well, look, we talked about this a week ago. this is a question of what's available in the second quarter. there were multiple conversations with the u.s. government about taking more supply in the second quarter. the company wasn't taken up on the offer as recent as november. the federal government said those discussions happened in july. now they're saying they happened in october. we're getting closer to when i think the last discussions were, which was november. in the interim, other countries have put in orders for those supplies. i think they're going to work this out. i think hopefully we'll find a way to increase supply and be

able to get the government what the government needs. this is an american company. we want to work with the u.s. government. but, you know, this has been a challenging process because there have been multiple conversations happening as recently as november, and now they're coming back, you know, andmenti and wanting to restart conversations when other commitments have been made in the interim. i think this will get worked out. >> is this a pricing issue. if you think it's going to get worked out. there's still availability. are they going back and forth over price? >> well, number one, i'm not involved in the negotiation. i have no idea whether or not, what all the issues are. my understanding is it's just a supply issue. there's a certain amount to be available in the first quarter. that's going to the u.s. government, what coming out of the u.s. facility is going to the u.s. government. that's already been contracted for. there was a certain amount available in the second quarter and it's month by month. some available in april. some available in may, and some available in june, and the question is where does the april supply go. who gets first dibs on what

comes off the production line in april. that's where the discussion is around. >> hey, scott, last week, you talked about the response to the pfizer vaccine from both t cells and b cells. you said there's a t cell response. there's some clinical trial results that meg forwarded from germany, that confirmed exactly what you said. now, i read the abstract, and it says a potent, you know, response from both antibodies and t cells, and cd 8 t cells, but i don't know enough to know whether it's a potent response. did you have a chance to look at the data that came out today from the german trial or do you -- what can you add to that? is it a potent response because it said a lot of cells, interferon, and everything you would want from a combined immune response seems to be elicited by the pfizer vaccine. >> it's hard for me to say what potent is because i don't know what we're comparing against.

it's hard to compare across vaccines and we also don't know what level of immune response is needed to provide potent protection. i think what matters is what happens clinically and what is potent for the patient. we don't necessarily have those correlates. what we have is evidence from preclinical and clinical data, demonstrating and suggesting that this does more than activate an antibody response. now, what level of t cell response is actually going to have a clinical impact. that's what we're not sure of yet. it's hopeful. >> doctor, we got to jump, but i just wanted to ask you very quickly, governor cuomo shutting down indoor dining in the state of new york, it's a tragedy given that there's not government funds to help these restaurants that are in need. is there a way to do this in a more narrow way, meaning is there a way to keep indoor dining in certain locations open? is there a way you would do it? >> it's tough in the winter time

because you really can't move it outside. you can put things to prevent restaurants from turning into bars at night. that's what we have done in connecticut. the federal government really needs to step in and back up these restaurants. >> okay. doctor, always appreciate seeing you. thank you for your perspective on all of this. >> thanks a lot. >> becky. thanks, andrew. thanks, andrew. when we come back, e th

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welcome back, everybody. a bipartisan group of senate and house lawmakers are continuing to work toward a covid relief package that both sides can hopefully compromise on. congressman josh gottheimer, also congressman tom reed, the cochairs of the bipartisan process, ones is a democrat, one is a republican. gentlemen welcome to both of you. i feel like a little bit of a broken record here saying we are working on a relief bill that both sides can compromise on. congressman gottheimer where are we right now? >> i know you thought we wouldn't get there. we're going to introduce legislation today. $908 billion combined covid emergency relief package to address the major needs over the next few month, in what are obviously clearly the toughest times from the pandemic, from what we're facing in the

pandemic, and to get us into the next administration. it covers major pillars we have been talking about, everything from unemployment, helping families to small businesses to vaccine deployment, which is obviously critically important right now. to food security and assistance, to helping families on food lines for the first time, and really to get us through the toughest time is bipartisan, bicameral in the senate and house, and we will be doing that later today. >> congressman reed, when you all say you're introentducing a legislation, does that mean it will get a vote on the house and senate floor? >> that's what we'll have to continue to look for. what we're showing with the combined bill of $908 billion most importantly is there's republicans and democrats that can work out the issues of liability protection, that is greatly needed in regards to this emergency situation and the issue of state and local aid. and that has been the sticky wicket, if you would, that we had to get to to get to the finish line. obviously there's going to be

some disagreement. i believe today you'll see that they're splitting these bills in the senate but working with a guy like josh gottheimer on the democratic side and the problem caucus members are sincere good faith members, i think we found a way to bring that together, and talk to our colleagues, and show we can figure out the final issues on liability and state and local, and also add that so we get a whole $908 billion deal put together. >> congressman gottheimer, it sounds like you all can put together a bill that you can find plenty of democrats and republicans to agree with. i would ask, a, how many of those, and how come your leaders can't seem to do the same. >> as you know, there's 50 of us, 25 democrats and 25 republicans in the house. we have been working with a phenomenal group of bipartisan in the senate and there's definitely momentum here, and i have been in regular touch with leadership on both sides, and we're hopeful this will be the package that will be part of the

final agreement that we have to vote on this week. you know, it looks like we're going home at the end of this week. people can't wait anymore. we have lost one out of every 500 residents in new jersey to covid, where 6,000 new cases a day, 30% of instasmall business have gone out. we've got to help people. i think the pressure is on, as you said, becky, not just in washington, but everyone is feeling it at home, and we've got to get this done. you look at state and local governments, they are critically important, on the front lines of this getting this vaccine out. now is not the time to leave them in the lurch. so this has to get done. we really have no choice, and i think our leadership recognizes that. >> congressman reed, what kind of odds would you give this as something that will be done by the end of this week? >> we have had to. we have 30 plus republican members sign a letter we worked with them on to say we're not

leaving. we get covid relief done. we have other members that have to pass, the funding of the government. other issues that have to be resolved. this is the other legislative vehicle before we go into the next year of the next congress, so there's a multitude of issues that have to be resolved and this is a prime opportunity to show the american people that we can govern again, and guys like us in the problem solvers caucus with josh and myself and the 50 members are true patriots that want to put america first. we can compromise on liability and state and local and all the other additional relief that josh has articulated and laid out that the american people need today. now is the time to respond and listen to the american people and get it done. that's what our job is to do. and the leadership is in a position. we show the path, finish it off, get it to the finish line, we laid the groundwork for you to get it done. >> representative gottheimer, you have done the hard work and if your leadership doesn't sign off and push this forward, what will you do?

>> remember, as tom just said, we have an ultimate end of the year package to keep the lights of the government on, to make sure that -- which expires this week, so there is something we're all going to have to vote on. this has to be part of it. what we have made very clear to our leadership, and to everyone and handing over what we think is a clear road map for emergency relief here, emergency covid relief to get us into the new year, into the new administration, this has to be part of it. it doesn't have to be every word we hand them, this is a clear road map for them and better reflects the values and priorities we put barforward. they're going to have a lot of members they have to answer to, and frankly, the american people. that's why tom said we're all about putting country first over party, and that's going to be the focus. that's how we're going to get through this week. >> i'll ask you both. you all get to vote for your

leadership in each party. would you vote for your existing leadership if they can't reach a compromise and find a way to get something done by the end of the year? congressman reed, we'll start with you. >> i'm confident in our leadership. we want to solve this problem, and we can get there. that's a vote outside of this congress. we need to get this done this congress, and so my focus is on getting this taken care of before we leave for christmas. we're not leaving for christmas. the american people deserve for us to stay in town and get it done. >> josh, we're out of time, but quick answer for you. >> that's what i'm hearing from my leadership, and we're in regular touch. i know they will get this done. we're not going to have to worry about that hypothetical, becky. >> gentlemen, thank you both for your time. good luck. congressman gottheimer, congressman reed. >> thanks, becky. when we return, our big interview with the ceo of pfizer

is next, as vaccine distribution kicks into high gear. we've got a quick update on the widespread google outage. the company out with a statement saying service has been restored for some users and they expect a resolution for all

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good morning, and welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm joe kernen along with becky quick and andrew ross sorkin. u.s. equity futures, we always talk about buying on the rumor, selling on the news, well, today is the pfizer vaccine. and it's being rolled out and the stock market is up after being up many many sessions for the last three, four, five months, based on, you would think, this day, but up again today. monumental day for public health in this country. the first shots of pfizer, and biontech's coronavirus vaccine are expected to be administered in this country today. we've already seen the uk, obviously, and we have the biggest interview you'll see anywhere. meg tirrell joins us now. joining us with a special guest.

meg, good morning. >> joe, good morning, that special guest is pfizer chairman and ceo albert bourla, thanks for being with us this morning. this is a historic day. you have given hope to people of the united states. tell us how you're feeling today, and the people of pfizer are feeling as you have given us this way out, this light at the end of the tunnel. >> they are feeling very proud, they are feeling very proud for what they do every day. it's recognition, it's overwhelming everyone including me. i'm receiving notes in my mailbox from neighbors. they don't want to come in because of covid restrictions, and social distancing, but they are leaving their notes to say thank you, pfizer. so it's a great moment for us. >> you know, we were talking this morning about just the historic pace with which you and your partner biontech developed this vaccine with the genetic sequence being posted in january. you shattered every record.

did you expect when you partnered in march that you could do it this fast, but december, whatever day it is. 14th, these shots would be getting administered. >> i was hoping, i was aspiring, and i was driving everything so we can do it, but deep inside me, incompetent it is a very stretched goal, and a small possibility to make. but we made it. >> let's talk about what's happening right now. your employees at your kalamazoo plant are packing up the vaccine, shipping out hundreds of thousands, millions of doses across the united states this week. tell us about this logistical challenge that is ahead, and really put it into context for us for how much of a challenge it is for pfizer. you're a huge company, you distribute lots of vaccines, how does this challenge compare? >> we are preparing for months now, starting from developing this famous box that our engineers design and doing dry runs and preparing for that.

and i'm very optimistic, i think we will go very well. it is extremely challenging to have a logistical operation, but plans to send vaccines at the same time to hundreds of countries, millions of doses and makes it more complicated. i think we have it, and i'm sure, or i believe very confident, i'm very confident that things will go very smoothly. >> tell us about your expectations for supply. of course, you know, on november 9th. when we had the huge news that your vaccine worked with 90% efficacy. you reduced the supply forecast for the year from 50 million to 100 million. a bottleneck with raw materials. how confident are you with the supply chains enabling you to get to 1.3 billion doses globally next year. >> i'm optimistic, and always there are challenges. as i said, most of them have been overcome.

i'm sure there's a way there will be more bumps but we are very used to it. 60 million for this year, and most of it already has been manufactured. and we are locating it and next year will be 1.3 billion, and we are working to make much more than that. so the 1.3 billion cities is our commitment to the world but working to make much more. >> can you bring us some clarity on the situation with the u.s. government, where, you know, dr. gottlieb told us who's on your board, that pfizer had offered its second quarter allotment of doses to the u.s. government a number of times. before then, other governments wanted to buy those doses. what is your relationship like with the trump administration, you know, the president accused pfizer of waiting until after the election to present your data, and you of course told us on november 9th there was no politics involved there. has that strained your relationship with the u.s. government? >> i hope not. we are not in the business of

taking political sides. we are advocating for policies. they are there for innovation but not taking political sides. we are working with this administration, and we will work equally with the next administration, and during the transition, we are working with both. i think right now, the u.s. government has asked us for additional 100 million doses and we are in a position to provide them, but we are working the time frame. we can provide a lot of that in the third quarter, the u.s. government wants it in the second quarter. we are working collaboratively to find the solution and allocate those 100 million in the second quarter. we haven't signed an agreement. we are working collaboratively, but not an agreement yet. we need to wait. >> we've heard that operation warp speed, you know, has offered to help pfizer to try to increase the manufacturing capacity or speed your ability to deliver those doses to the

u.s. one way that's been suggested that that could be done is to use the defense production act, not to force pfizer to do anything but to obtain supplies, raw materials, things like that. how do you interpret the -- or how would that affect pfizer if the defense production act were used to help you? >> i think it would be very positive and i think it will allow us to maximize what we can do. we are asking them right now, they haven't done it yet. we are asking them, and i hope they will do it very soon. particularly in some components, we are critical supply. i think they will do it so there will be no problem. >> and if the u.s. government does use the defense production act to help you, does that give them more control over the doses or anything that pfizer does? >> i think that right now we don't need excessive measures but at least to get some orders

in some of the suppliers. if not, they will put into jeopardy, in general, the supply chain. i don't think it is a combative relation right now that we are going to take over our manufacturing deposit or not. i think it's collaborative, and everybody understands that the u.s. is a major priority, but also have human lives to save. >> absolutely. i want to ask you also, this is such a historic day that this vaccine is getting rolled out but it does not mark the end of you studying this vaccine and making it better. there are many important questions we need the answer to, including does the vaccine prevent infection, once people get vaccinated they can stop wearing masks. people who get the shot are still being recommended to wear masks, socially distance as much as possible, even though it will cut down on their chances of getting the disease by 5i95%. when you know if the vaccine

prevents infection. >> we are trying to run analysis around that. there are some indications in animals, but no proof in humans. the suggestion is that until we know for certain that it does it or not. we should be wearing mask. i think it's prudent and everyone should follow. >> it's joe kernen. we had kind of a theoretical discussion earlier about the state of vaccine development and you go back 50, 60 years, to the discovery really of penicillin, and it's all so recently, and the breakneck pace of technological advances we have seen, and i was just wondering whether because of the testing, it's much faster to make a vaccine now to develop one, but i would think there's a certain amount of time you still need, just to test. and we're going to hit those limits of how quickly it can be

done, but then i thought, again, act the messenger rna technology and the platform and how quickly you could aydjust to a change i the virus, a mutation in the virus. you could probably adjust quickly to the sequence of what you were putting into a person, and maybe it wouldn't take that long. do you have a feeling for that? is it that powerful where we could do this very very quickly if we did see a mutation? >> it's very possible, and one of the reasons why we selected the mrna technology together with our partner biontech was one of them was this one, that we can very quickly develop a vaccine and very quickly adopt it, if there is a mutation of that. but you need to understand also this technology didn't start yesterday. there are decades of investments, and in similar technologies, so we'd be able to move through the speeds as we

moved right now. so it's not like we started from scratch. we knew a lot of things, and developed a lot before. >> hey, albert, congratulations on what you all are rolling out today. this is huge. we have been waiting for this, and you have given us so much hope. a question about what comes next. i know that the fda did sign off on this idea of kids as young as 16 getting this vaccination, though they're not going to be in the first tranches of people who get it. you're testing on younger kids. i wonder when you think vaccines will start rolling out, when you'll see younger populations actually inoculated. >> i think that will depend in every country based on their plans, the quantity that would be available to them. i believe in most of the countries that will take some time because i believe in most of the countries like in the u.s., they will have a priority,

the first responders in the health care system, and senior people living in nursing homes, then other senior people, so more vulnerable situations, people will comorbidities, so until you come to, people will take time, the recommendation and not the approval of going into younger ages. i believe will come when the full approval of the product will come, if fda approves it around -- between first and second quarter, around april. >> albert, it's andrew. congratulations again, and thank you on behalf of everybody across the globe. i did want to ask you, though, about this and just get your thoughts. as you know, south africa and india are now petitioning the world trade organization to suspend effectively patent protection, intellectual property protections for things like this very vaccine. you have doctors without borders

have begun a social media campaign talking about putting lives over profits. what do you tell them, and how do you think about that? >> i think they are wrong. i don't know any instance being an obstacle, ip is what kept this industry vibrant so they were able in record time when society needed to develop these solutions. there is bottleneck right now which has to do with manufacturing capacity, and it's not that it is manufacturing capacity of, for example, in our case, it is manufacturing capacity globally. if there is someone who could do it, we already came into contact with them as we try to see how much they can produce for us. but it is highly specialized technology, requires highly specialized equipment. highly specialized materials, and right now, the fastest way to be able to develop this within our house. so i don't think ip is at all an

ends. >> and that's interesting you sort of scoured the world for people who could help you increase supply even further. and messenger rna vaccines are brand new. yours is the first one to reach the market but do you expect that there are, you know, makers of vaccines, huge makers of vaccine in india, for example, partnering with other companies like astrazeneca. do you expect that perhaps as the technology is better understood, the manufacturing is better understood, you could find partners in other countries who could help you with this. >> in talking specific about the rna technology, other technology, there is much broader capacity available, in india, there is high qualified capacity, they can do that. but it's not in mrna. mrna is very highly specialized, with manufacturing processes. we actually developed it, were

not existing before. we had to develop the manufacturing processes and to develop the process from the lab scale up to make $1.3 billion. so we have done $1.3 billion, so unfortunately does not exist out there. we are trying to see if we can have other people and have them order equipment. all of that, there's no stone we are leaving unturned right now, and this is the basis of what i said before, we have promised the world 1.3 billion doses but we are hoping, we are trying hard to make much more than that, and based on increasing our own, and partners to do it. right now, we are not aware of anyone who can do it. and we looked a lot. >> i'm sure you have. and it's a very complicated manufacturing process getting the mrna perfectly into the lipid nano particle that enables you to deliver it to the body safely. i want to ask you, how do you

make decisions when you're getting orders from every government around the world, getting orders from nonprofit organizations. the world health organization has covax to provide vaccine to less developed countries. how do you make the decision who to develop the vaccine and when? >> we basically spoke with every single government in the world telling them that -- presenting the potential vaccine that we may have, and asking them to have an agreement so we can allocate those to them. so basically the agreements were coming as we were negotiating. we were trying to spread it, but eventually, the orders were much more than what you could produce, so we tried to give to all, and we tried to follow the order, in order of ordering. so once, for example, 100

million doses relative kat, ands and to them, and israel and every other country in the world. >> does price come into it at all or are you essentially trying to keep prices around the same for each government? >> they are priced, tier pricing, so for governments of developed countries like the u.s., europe, japan, et cetera, we have one tier of price, based on how many orders, how many doses they order. that was materially the same. for middle income countries we are offering a much lower price, and then for low income countries. some countries in aftrica and other places, we are asking it not for profit. it is not having to do with the price how it's allocated. >> i want to ask about data you're collecting on allergic reactions to the vaccine. of course there were reports

from the uk, some health care workers had severe allergic reactions. this is of course now being monitored for as this gets rolled out in the u.s. what kind of studies is pfizer planning to do on that to help understand better just the risk of that for people. >> with 44,000 people, we were trying to see if there are any allergic reactions. we didn't see now 44,000 assembled. i know that there were two in the uk. we haven't received the details other than that they were health care work skpeers and they were carrying an epipen, so they had a history of super sensitivity but that was something that was extensively discussed at the fda level, at the cdc level, and, you know, normal precautions as for any vaccines for people that have allergic reactions, i think it should be followed. >> i want to ask you also about a very important issue of vaccine hesitancy, even folks

who get host of their vaccines normally might be hesitant about these vaccines because they were developed so quickly. what do you tell those folks who might be saying we're going to wait a few months before we get this one. >> i will tell them i wish the situation was not so critical so they can have the luxury to think about it. as situation is deadly, could be with the amounts of deaths or new cases that we are facing, so they need to think it twice. this is a vaccine that was developed without cutting corners from the company with 171 years of credentials. this is a vaccine that was developed in the spotlight, the daylight with all of the data being put in service. this is a vaccine that has been approved in the u.s. by two separate governmental agencies is. cdc and fda, after listening to two separate independent boxes. one is the da, and acip for the

cdc. and is getting approved by all in the world, so that should say something to them, and i repeat once more, the decision not to vaccinate, will not affect only your health or your life. unfortunately it will affect the lives of others, and likely the lives of the people you love the most, the people that you are in contact with. i think trust science. >> and a question for you. you have not yet had your shot. when do you plan to get it? >> as soon as i can i. the only sensitivity here, meg, is that i don't want to have an example that i'm cutting the line. i'm 69 years old. in good health, i'm not working on the front line.

so my time is not recommended to get vaccination now. on the other hand, see what will take people to believe it, and one of the highest ranking, even higher than if joe biden takes it, even higher than if other presidents take it, it is if the ceo of the company takes it, so with that in mind, i'm trying to find a way that i will get vaccinated if it is not my time, just to demonstrate the confidence of the company, but if we have to do that, we will not do it with our executives. so none of the executives or board members will cut the line. they will take it as their age and their occupation type is the time for them to take it. >> all right. bell, albert bourla, we'll wait for that news, we'll send a camera if you'll let us.

thank you so much for being here with us today on this historic day. >> thank you very much. >> becky, sending it back to you. our thanks to albert, and you, meg, for that big interview. by the way, another special event to tell you about coming up. meg is going to be sitting down with dr. anthony fauci, this is coming this wednesday on a special edition of the cnbc's healthy returns live stream, a big conversation, especially with so much that's happening right now. if you would like to be involved, you can register right now at cnbc events.com/healthy returns live stream. let's dig deeper into the vaccine at the state level. new jersey's initial allotment is 76,000 doses. the very first are set to be given tomorrow at the university hospital of newark. joining us to talk about that is governor phil murphy. thank you for being with us today. >> nice to be with you. thanks for having me. >> just a clarification, the

76,000 doses is that for 76,000 people or is that two doses that each person needs so we're talking about 38,000 people that will get vaccinated out of the get go. >> correct, the latter. it is the latter and you're absolutely right, i will be myself at university hospital in newark tomorrow morning as we kick things off, and these are the pfizer vaccines that albert bourla has been a great leader including in deliberations with us in new jersey. each week we'll get an increased allotment until it reaches a plateau. moderna getting their authorization this week in another series of delivers over time from them. >> i guess my question would be, how many people qualify until the first bat ksket of people? how many front line workers, health care workers and elderly people living in nursing homes? >> many hundreds of thousands. my guess is that this is, you're

into the significantly january, before you're able to get to all of these folks, and you're going to have overlapping waves of some folks in the process, waiting for their second jab while others are then at the same time getting their first. logistically, it's not, as you can imagine, this is complicated but really good news, and the beginning, i'll paraphrase churmg hi churchill, the beginning of the end. >> i'll second that. obviously there are going to be issues trying to figure out how we distribute this. where the difficulties are along that line and deciding who gets it next. how do you tackle those things, what's your biggest concern about potential trouble spots in terms of just getting this out? >> yeah, so we're still in the thick of things, becky, i mean, i should say that up front. this is really good news but i think the next six, eight weeks are going to be really tough in

new jersey and in our country. there's a lot of fatigue, a lot of private spread. a lot of holidays, cold weather, all of that is conspireing so the near term, i would beg with people to do the right things and keep their guard up. health care workers, long-term care residents and staff is a defined amount, again, not logistically easy but we see the road, the path to get them all vaccinated. the next group, the so called 1b group is a much larger group, and a lot of folks with a very good case as to why they should be up to bat, next. essential workers, educators, longshoremen, first responders, you name it. that is still a work in progress in new jersey and around the country in trying to get the balance right between supply and demand in the next group will be the next challenge. >> andrew. >> governor, i just wanted to

pivot, if i could, to get your thoughts on the decision by your neighboring state or at least city, the governor of new york effectively shuttering indoor dining in new york city, and curious how you're thinking about that decision, especially in relation to your own state. >> yeah, listen, we haven't had a better partner than governor cuomo. the neighborhood has been coordinating intensively for a moment, and we still do that. doesn't mean we take exactly the same moves in lock step, we were one of the last states to actually get to indoor dining. we never got above 25%, and i think, andrew, it's one thing to say you take on more risk, and folks know that when they do something indoors, particularly when you have to take your mask off, versus another we know explicitly in x or y, we have transmissions. we have so far, and i think we'll continue to for the time

being be using the scalpel, strategic steps. a lot of restaurants, or some restaurants were morphing into more of a club atmosphere, letting their hair down, if you will, i think we'll stay where we are. again, all options have to remain on the table. >> you can imagine, governor, and it's good to see you, and 25%, i'm comfortable. as i have said again, and again, obviously it spiked. i try to help all of those places, you know the places i'm talking about. half of them out in new jersey. the one thing i have heard from some restaurants is they did all of this stuff with ventilation and plexiglass and disinfectant, and they put all of this effort into doing it, and they're the no opening the bars and people aren't saddle up there, and they're doing 25%, and after spending all of that money, the rug gets pulled out from under them in new york city. i don't know how you explain

that, and i'm with you. i think it can be done safely at 25%. >> yeah, and joe, you know this, the overwhelming restaurateur have done the right thing. the overwhelming gym operators. there are a few knuckle heads in every group. overwhelmingly folks have done the right thing. i hope we're able to please god stay at this level. we're going to try to. and boy could we use more federal stimulus. that gives an opportunity to make that plea, and small businesses, restaurants, folking who are unemployed would be at the front of the line, states that are trying to keep everybody employed at the front lines. we need more federal help, and this is a great example of where it could make a world of difference. >> to that effect, what are you hearing? we spoke with the heads of the bipartisan group in congress that's really working at least in the house to kind of put this

together. they're working with the is that the, too, but every time we hear about this bipartisan packages that have been put together, it's the leadership on both sides, don't take it up. what have you heard back either from the administration and/or the two parties running congress? >> we speak to folks constantly. i spoke to the president on friday. we speak to congressional leaders, in my case, more on the democratic side of the aisle. i give everybody a lot of credit for trying to get something done. i say two things, we have to get from trying to get something done to getting something done, number one, and if it's 900 billion, even if we acknowledge it isn't enough, we should take it. secondly, i personally continue to believe this is a 3 plus trillion dollar moment. so this is a step in the right direction. please god get this done, folks. we desperately need it, and remember, it's both a bridge over these troubled waters that we're in now, but we will

recover. this vaccine, if it's as effective as we think it is, and more coming behind it, we could see a real bounce in the second and third quarter. the question is where are you going to start the bounce from. if you're a restaurant on the ropes you're going to struggle just to get back on your feet, as opposed to let's send folks a lifeline or if you're unemployed, you're a small business, then when that bounce happens, you're starting from a place that's respectable, and you'll be able to earn a fair amount of this back, so please, please, let's get something done. >> governor, you have been pleading for weeks with your citizens to be careful, to not be out there, to not visit with broader groups during the holidays, i just wonder is it working, what are you seeing right now. are we where you had hopes we would be, if people were starting to adhere to those things or does it look like people are not listening? >> i think it's mixed, becky, to be honest with you.

when you're printing 5 or 6,000 positive cases a day, the positivity rates in most cases is plus or minus 10%. that's higher than we should have any comfort with. and so i just hope folks do accept the fact -- i know it stinks, too, by the way, who doesn't have fatigue, including yours truly, but small holidays. inside your bubble. do the right thing, even when you're in a private setting. the basic stuff, social distancing, face covering, that still is the stuff that it's a basic set of principles, but they're the ones we have to rely on, new jerseyans have been extraordinary, we just need another kick, particularly as we get through the holiday season. >> governor murphy, thank you for your time. i know it's a busy season. we will be watching as the vaccines start to roll out in your state tomorrow. thank you for your time today. >> thank you very much for having me. >> andrew.

>> okay. thanks, becky, coming up on the other side of this. we have an update on the widespread outage for google. we'll bring you the latest about that after the break, and we're in an exclusive interview with private equity titan jim coulter, he's going to be joining us in a little bit. join us tomorrow as goldman sacs ceo, and warren buffet, talking about the countless number of small businesses struggling that are being challenged to stay

welcome back to "squawk box." google suffering a major outage this morning. multiple services, including you tube, gmail, google classroom, google docs, those for the enterprise as well, inaccessible to users. that started around 6:40 a.m. this morning. google out with a statement saying the problem should be resolved for the vast majority of affected users. the team you tube twitter account saying they just are back up and running as well of course. more than a billion people or a billion accounts run over these services, so a huge impact across the globe with certain

companies, now able to access some of their internal information, and we're talking about even virtual schools and what was going on given the classrooms, such an important one these days. >> so heating and the nest stuff, i was thinking, you know, some day, medical info, pacemaker info, you need a jolt now, if it's connected. i thought of so many nightmare scenarios with this that, am i wrong or? this is what you worry about with the big pulse that we're going to get that shuts down the grid or whatever. >> somebody took to twitter this morning and said google just made the best antitrust argument against themselves. >> we got to break this company up, dude. like today. no, no, i'm kidding. anyway, coming up, i mean, we're all connected by this. i mean, my kids are on to something when the wi-fi is

down. this can't happen. yes, it can. much more on what this week's historic rollout of the pfizer coronavirus vaccine means for american business. first here's a couple of other big headlines this morning. government agencies are being told to comb through their networks for malware, and remove any compromised servers due to a global hacking campaign that hit at least the treasury and commerce departments. many experts believe russia is behind the cyber spying. and i can't believe this company was worth this much, but it was. alexon pharmaceutical is being bought by astrazeneca for $39 billion in cash and stock flexshares may look like other etfs. but inside... there's advanced research, modeling and refinement. constructing funds that don't simply follow an index. but explore new terrain. helping you fill portfolio gaps.

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welcome back, everybody. countless small businesses are struggling in this country with few signs of relief from washington, at least at this point. tomorrow on "squawk box," we're going to be talking about the existential challenge to the backbone of this economy with warren buffet and goldman sacks

ceo, a group that they have put together to help entrepreneurs, small business owners with everything from capital to access to education and business support services, we're going to be talking to them about what they have seen over the last decade as they have had this program, and what they are actually hearing from those small business owners right now. the help that they need, the trouble they're facing. they have had a huge number of them who have had to lay off workers or cut pay. 42%. 52% of the small businesses they have surveyed have actually said they have fore gone pay themselves to help their businesses survive. a big conversation, coming up tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. joe. >> thanks, beck. and we can talk some other things, too, i guess, too. there's no limit. >> david solomon will stay with us longer and we can talk some other issues with him.

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us money reserve is one of the most dependable gold distributors in america. i'm very optimistic. i think it will go extremely well. it is extremely challenge, to plan to send vaccines at the same time to hundreds of countries of millions of doses,

and the cold thing makes it more complicated but i think we have it and i'm sure or i believe very confident, i'm very confident that things will go very smoothly. >> that was pfizer chairman and co albert bourla with us earlier this hour on "squawk box." the first doses are expected to be administered. it started today. joining us for his reaction. what do you think a working vaccine means for the markets and investors. jim coulter is the founding partner and co-ceo of investment firm, $85 billion. it's great to see you. we normally get the opportunity to see you in a very snowy world of davos, but today we get to see you virtually. we should also mention you've got a special announcement, a spac announcement and we're going to get to that in just a minute. i want to get your reaction to this important and historic day, and what does it mean for investors when you think about the markets right now?

>> andrew, a few years ago, when we were together, i introduced you to the term tech lash, and as that's played out, it's clearly become part of the markets. i think today we have to begin thinking about the post covid world more deeply, and while the days ahead of us are going to be difficult, in the market sense, we are looking over the hump into what the future might look like. >> and do the markets in your mind, both private and public, look right. you were an early investor in airbnb, huge success of that ipo last week, surprising so many to the point where there are companies in the valley including a firm in roblox who have halted their ipo saying they need to better understand what's going on in the market. >> there's a few realities to the post-covid world, one of them is we're going through a period of likely economic growth

at the same time we had 0 interest rates. i think the market is still trying to sort out the concept of how do you value very high growth leaving companies at a moment of zero interest rates and an economic recovery. my experience is markets will figure that oiver time, but at the moment, there's a bit of repricing going on as those realities come into focus. >> and you say to yourself, these multiples make sense to you, do you say they don't make sense to you. when you're out there in the marketplace, look to go buy or sell companies. do you say to yourself, this seems rational or i need to wait or i have a great opportunity now, or what's the thought process? >> you and i have lived in the markets for a long time. we have never lived with high growth, leading companies coming to the market in a short period of time with zero interest rates. what i have learned over the years is there are better and worse times to buy into the market, but if you can invest into a major trend with big tam

and a market leader, you almost always do well, anyone invested in apple and amazon, even through the 2000 period did well in the long-term. if you think about major trends like the sharing economy and airbnb or ai as our other ipo, c3ai participated in, or what we're going to talki about in a moment is the carbon revolution. if you can get into those companies, leaders, at the right time, you tend to do okay. >> and i want to get into spacs in just a moment, but do you think that the ipo process is, once again, there's a debate, is it broken? >> i don't think it's broken. i think it's evolving. it's evolving to express the world of 0 interest rates and evolving to this new tool, which has grown substantially in the marketplace called the spac. >> and why don't we talk about what you're doing in the spac

space but speak, if you could, more broadly, you know, to some degree, the spac is competing with ipos and spacs ultimately could be competing with firms like yours. >> there's always been new tools, and new competition. the question is how to use them well, and so just on spacs, we did our first spac five years ago when it was considered a back market. we recognized that trend early. we saw reaps and mlps move from a corner of the market to a key vehicle. we thought spacs were going to travel the same distance. over those five years, we have issued five spacs very quietly. and we have tried to focus on how do you do spacs the right away. and just like an ipo, andrew, there's a right way and wrong way to do these. there's good execution, and i think the market is just beginning to understand that. the volumes have been extraordinary, the year we issued our first aspect.

there were 0. this year, so far there's been 230 spacs issued, and they represent almost half the ipo market. there's still 200 spacs in the marketplace that have yet not found a company to de-spac with and that's going to be an interesting process, but it's clear that spacs are here to stay, and are playing an important role in the market. >> but explain how you think this all plays itself out? if we were having this conversation five years from now, are we going to look back at this vintage of spacs or look back at this market and say, wow, that really worked? or are we going to say, wow, that was a real bubble? >> i think that is still sorting itself out. i think the market will have to decide when spacs are done right, and the acceptance of well done spacs will drive the long-term trend. what do i mean by a well done spac? if you think about tpg, andrew, over the last ten years, we have

done 57 ipos out of our portfolio, the leading sponsor in doing ipos, and we have done five spacs, so for a portion of the marketplace, we believe the spac execution is the right execution. and will it be half of the market as it was this year? i think that's probably a stretch but will it be a key tool for complicated deals to be brought to the market in a way that investors can talk about the future more clearly than they sometimes can in the ipo process? that's very valuable in the marketplace. >> speak to some of the projects and investments that you're making right now, especially when it relates to spacs. can you see yourself investing in pipes themselves rather than actually do the inspire spac yourself? >> through our public market arm, absolutely. generally our role in the marketplace is as a sponsor. we had a very important spac

announce its acquisition and despac on friday. it is the market leader for eb charging in the european marketplace. and it was announced friday it had the largest first-day pop in the spac market and i think it's an example of two trends coming together. as you and i have talked about a lot, andrew, tpg is a leader in impact investing and secondly a leader in spac. the idea of putting together those two trends at this critical time has led us to evbox. revenues growing 60%, 70%. in this case it was a carve out of a french utility subsidiary and that complexity and the need to tell the forward story really

made this spac execution very powerful. under my partner carl pettersson i think we have shown the, mat some some of the right ways to do spacs. >> that's effectively a buy out when you're doing a spac like this unlike a classic ipo, people are always saying did i leave money on the table? how do you think about that? >> the former owner is very pleased with the execution because what we're doing here is setting the company up for the later needs of growth. this is not the end, as it would be in a buyout for them. they remain a 44% owner although we're the lead shareholder and control and building an independent board. what we've done for this company which has a massive runway ahead of it 400 million plus on the balance sheet and allow it to

grow at a rate which could not occur within its previous structure. this company sits, andrew, at the very center of the ev eco system and if you think about it, i cannot predict whether tesla and the major ev companies are going to win the blueprint war, but i can predict that all have to plug in somewhere and v evbox is the center of the cy system for what i think of smart charging. how do you play the ev market in a pure way over the next decade plus is, you know, one of the most interesting large market opportunities that we've seen for a while and this was the right execution to bring it to market. >> jim coulter, always a pleasure to see you. appreciate you waking up early on the west coast and looking forward to see you in person very, very soon. congratulations on that deal and hope to talk to you again, as i

said, very, very soon. >> thank you. >> becky. thanks, andrew. when we come back, jim cramer's first take on the markets this morning and then tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. eastern time. don't miss our special congratulations! welcome to the aflac program. aflac! now tell me, what does aflac do? aflac pays you money directly to help with unexpected medical bills. and is aflac health insurance? no, but it can help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover! that's right. are there any questions? -coach! -yes? can i get one of those cool blue blazers? you know i can't play favorites. alright let's talk coverage. it's go time! get help with expenses health insurance doesn't cover. mmm hmm! get to know us at aflac.com

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first shots for pfizer's vaccine expected to give us today. >> i was hoping i was inspiring and driving everything so it could do it. but deep inside me i felt it was a very stressed goal and small possibility to make it, but we made it. get to cnbc jim cramer who has always sort of spoken with some, i don't know if i'd call it reverence but sometimes pharmaceutical companies can do good and they're not all profit, maybe make money down the road. this is a big day, capitalism, but for the private sector and the government sector, jim.

but it's a good day and it came quickly. >> it sure is. i also felt thalking about regeneron work and lilly work and make these drugs and we know in the therapeutics who knows if they're going to make a lot of money, but we know they're not making more money than they could. and i think that is a sign, once again, that we have to start thinking about these companies as treasures and not as rip offs. there's, obviously, some rip offs in the system but i don't want to point to these guys as doing it wrong. they are doing everything they can to solve this pandemic. >> i guess we're going to go, we won't know about whether people take profits based on tax implications until january 5th. we have the vaccine. i just wonder what happens now between now and the end of the year, jim. i guess time will tell. >> it's up to georgia, right? call that.

>> right. but we won't know. >> no, we will not. but great show this morning. really great. >>thanks, jim. dom chu joins us. >> the weather was pretty decent yesterday but let's talk about the morning movers. hot ipos. air bnbs down 2%. it gets a two notch downgrade to an underperformance at the sell rating and target 103 and 26% lower from current levels based out of the massive run up in the stock because of the ipo. we'll watch those shares. next up, you have shares of doordash another big ipo down around 2%. the food delivery platform gets downgraded to a neutral from a prior buy. now they cited things like the massive run up in the valuations there, as well. watch doordash and end with a more established company.

amazon.com up fractionally 50,000 shares of volume and call it one of their best ideas. they reiterate the outperform and the price target goes to 43 pi 43.50. joe, andrew, becky, i will send things back over to you. >> great, dom. thank you. obviously, it is first day of the rest of our lives, right? vaccine day. let's hope it goes well today. guys, we'll see you tomorrow. make sure you join us "squawk on the street" is next. good monday morning, welcome to "squawk on the street." if you're coming off the first losing week in three, but with a bounce as pfizer's historic vaccine rolls off the line going to hundreds of locations around the country. got a blitz of m&a. the largest vaccination effort in history. we will watch