hello, everyone. i'm kate bolduan. thank you for joining us this hour. we start the week with the consulta country hitting an alarming new record. as of last night more people in the united states are currently hospitalized with coronavirus than at any other point during the entire pandemic so far. it's no longer localized to one state or region. the virus is taking off everywhere. the nation topped more than 93,000 hospitalizations sunday night. and it's not just hospitalizations. the month of november saw an unprecedented coronavirus surge in pretty much all metrics. yesterday the country added nearly 140,000 new cases. the 27th day in a row new

infections have topped 100,000. and now, on the heels of thanksgiving, the country's top experts are worrying that a surge of infections -- another surge of infections is coming soon. according to the tsa more than a million people travelled by plane yesterday, that's more than any day since march, which is why america's top doctors are urging everyone who travelled to assume you are insfekted. assume you're infected, act that way and also get tested. listen to this. >> i want to be straight with the american people. it's going to get worse over the next several weeks. >> as we go for the next couple weeks into december that we might see a surge super imposed upon that surge that we're already in. >> that is the current reality that we're all facing right now. but there is some very good news this morning in the quest for a coronavirus vaccine. moderna announcing it will be applying today for emergency

authorization from the fda for its coronavirus vaccine. that's where elizabeth cohen is focused this morning. she's tracking this news. what are you hearing from moderna? >> so moderna is telling me, kate, as we speak they are in the process of applying for emergency use authorization from the food and drug administration. if they get it, that would allow them to put their vaccine on the market. when they apply to the fda they're going to be applying with a much larger data set than the one you and i talked about a couple weeks ago. they had good data then, this data is better because the data set is twice as big. and that means that it's stronger. scientists have more confidence in it. let's look at what that data found. what it found was that the vaccine was 94.1% effective at preventing covid-19. it was actually 100% effective at preventing severe covid-19.

let's talk about how they came up with the numbers. what moderna did in their phase three clinical trial is take tens of thousands of people, some of those people were given the vaccine and told live your life, go back to your home, do your thing, let's see what happens. they gave other people a placebo, a shot of saline that does nothing, they were told the same thing, live your life, do your thing. see if you get infected. nobody knew who got which shot. let's look at how that turned out. 11 of the 15,000 people who received the vaccine got covid-19. 11 out of 15,000. 185 out of 15,000 people who received the placebo got covid-19. so you can see the vaccine did a good job of protecting people. when you look at those 11 people, none of them became severely ill. they did get covid but they did not become severely ill.

>> there is a lot of -- approvals are coming we can assume. so is it clear yet, is it announced yet who will be first in line for a vaccine when approved? >> so dr. anthony fauci telling us after this is reviewed by the fda and cdc, he thinks that the first shots will go into arms in the united states in the second half of december. what the cdc -- what cdc members of an advisory committee are telling us is that they think that first group is going to be health care workers along with nursing home residents who are so vulnerable to covid-19. and then later other high risk groups and finally in the spring, people who are not in the a high risk group. the thinking right now it starts with health care workers and nursing home residents. kate? >> much more to come. thank you. joining me is dr. richard be besser. dr. besser, i want to get your reaction to what we are learning, this new data coming out from moderna this morning

and the fact that they'll be filing today. >> kate, i think it's really exciting that moderna is filing for emergency use approval from the fda. it's exciting that their announcement includes data that their vaccine was very effective at preventing serious covid infections. i'm going to be watching the fda hearings very closely. and it's going to be really important that there's transparency around that because if you look at the polling data, there's a lot of concern out there, a lot of mistrust about how the vaccines are moving, whether they're moving too quickly and i'll want the independent scientific committee to the fda to look at the data and weigh in from their perspective, do they think it's safe, effective, something people should be receiving. and at that point, if they say yes, on that, then i will be incredibly excited about this vaccine. >> and your opinion on that is something that many of us really depend on and are looking for,

your take, if you think it is safe and effective on that front. i also saw that moderna is also saying that they designed this vaccine that we're talking about in just two days after getting some genetic information from china. that blows my mind, obviously, as a nonscientist. is that surprising to you? >> well, this is a wholesale new technology for developing vaccines. and, you know, if this vaccine pans out, the pfizer vaccine, which is a similar messenger rna vaccine pans out, it gives me real hope about the future. because pandemics will continue to occur. and the idea that you can develop a vaccine that quickly, if this is safe, effective and turns this pandemic around, that will be an amazing break through in public health. >> no kidding. you mentioned the cdc vaccine advisory board. they're meeting this week, these conversations and their recommendations are so critical.

they're going to be making recommendations of who should get the vaccine first. but also, just on the larger effort that is going to be required, what this is going to look like, i don't think people yet appreciate, dr. besser, what a massive effort this vaccine program is going to be across the country and across the world. can you put that into perspective for folks? >> there are several aspects of that. one is just the manufacturing of a vaccine to scale. if you think about the need to vaccinate 7, 8 billion people around the globe for this pandemic, that's absolutely incredible. this vaccine and the pfizer vaccine require two doses. so being able to track people who got vaccines to make sure they received the same vaccine each times that the time frame is correct as people move from place-to-place being able to know that's taking place. and each vaccine will have its own storage requirements.

we know that the pfizer vaccine requires ultra cold temperatures. the technology for that is something that's new. and being able to deliver that to people who live in rural areas, you know, there are big equity issues here. you don't want vaccines just to go to those people who are socially connected and have resources. you want them to go to the populations who are most affected. and we know in this pandemic, black, latinos, native americans, have been sfeinfecte hospitalized and dying at high rates. but in some of those groups you see major issues in trust. that's another standard with the vaccine, working with people making sure people have trust so if there is a safe and effective vaccine people are going to want to get it. >> included in that, we all have some -- a lot of people have questions on a basic level with the vaccine. do we know what vaccine the general public is going to get, assuming that more than one

vaccine is approved? are people going to have a choice, do you think of which vaccine they could get? and do we know how much this is going to cost? >> well, i think over time there will be many more vaccines that come forward for consideration of approval. so it's very likely that there will be many. that's not unusual. i'm a general pediatrician. and when we're vaccinated children against whooping cough or hepatitis, there are a number of choices there. it can get confusing and we have to track kids to make sure they get the same products over and over again. that's likely to be the case here. and it may turn out that certain vaccines are more effective in certain populations. we know from influenza that a high dose flu vaccine works better in the elderly than a standard dose vaccine. so it'll be important to see that. and the advisory committee that

advises the cdc, one of the important roles they play is that, who should get what vaccines, in what order and what's the proech to that. the fda decides if it should be licensed and then there was the advisory committee that tells practitioners who to recommend vaccines for and the timing of that and recommends to people which ones they should think about getting. >> it's fascinating, dr. besser because, of course, i've had my children, they've both had the whooping cough vaccine. never have i thought of which vaccine has my children being given but that's the world we're in when it comes to covid, the pfizer or moderna? this is how important it is to all of us and i always depend so much on your expertise on this. thank you. >> thank you so much, kate. coming up, president-elect joe biden announced his economic team and they'll face crisis. record lines at food banks

across the country. we continue to see that yet. the stock market is hitting record highs. the task they have ahead. and for us, the number of people in need from covid care is skyrocketing especially in the midwest. hospitals stretched to the limit already and starting to be forced to turn patients away. we'll take you to st. louis, missouri. if you still have symptoms of crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis even after trying other medications, it may be a sign of damaging inflammation, which left untreated, could get much worse. please make an appointment to see your gastroenterologist right away. or connect with them online. once you do, seeing the doctor is one less thing to worry about. need help finding a doctor? head to crohnsandcolitis.com

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history. and yesterday he announced his communications team led by all women, another first. jessica dean is following the transition today. she's joining us now. what more are you learning about these latest hires and what joe biden is rolling out? >> reporter: kate we are getting this information this morning as they announce the economic picks. as we look at the people he's going to nominate and appoint to lead his economic team, one thing that stands out is that this group is historically diverse, it is also fuel ll of experience in working in these sorts of roles and they all have years of experience in doing this sort of thing. janet yellen would become the first woman to serve as treasury secretary. she tweeted earlier today saying we face great challenges as a country right now. to recover we must restore the american dream, a society each

person can rise to their potential and dream bigger for their children. as treasury secretary i'll work every day towards rebuilding that dream for all. and neera tandem nominated to serve as the head of the office of management and budget. her nomination has sparked outrage from both sides of the aisle, from the progressive liberals and also from republicans with a spokesperson for senator john cornyn saying she has no chance of being confirmed last night. so already kind of seeing that battle that might lie ahead. you also mentioned the communications team. today's announcement comes on the heels of this announcement of an all female team leading the efforts for the white house. you see the familiar faces it'll be led by kate bedingfield and jen psaki. >> over the weekend,

president-elect biden had to visit the doctor after a foot injury. do you know how he's doing today? >> you'll probably see him in a walking boot for several weeks. that's what his doctor was saying. we know he was playing with his doing, major, slipped and they thought he twitted his ankle. he ended up going to be checked out. they did an x-ray, didn't see anything. did a ct scan, that's when they found these small, tiny, hairline fractures in his foot. we're told to expect him in a walking boot for several weeks. as that was developing last night we were getting read outs from the biden team on what was going on. different from president trump and his team including the trip to walter reed last year we still don't know why he went there. >> it's a true contrast to what we've gotten from donald trump throughout all four years.

good to see you, jessica. thank you. while the transition is happening and joe biden will be president on january 20th. president trump continues to fight reality. seven more states will be certifying their election results today, and just last night, chris krebs, the man who was in charge of sioverseeing o elections security he reaffirmed in an interview this was the safest election in american history. >> the proof is in the ballots, the recounts are consistent with the initial count that's further evidence, confirmation that the systems used in the 2020 election performed as expected, and the american people should have 100% confidence in their photo. vote. >> remember that same man, that is the man who president trump fired for speaking out about election security. no surprise that is not convincing president trump to back down and he is not backing down, continuing to push on

unfounded and baseless accusations about widespread voter fraud and rigged elections. let me play for you what he wanted to talk about and what he wanted to say. his message in his first interview since the election. >> this is total fraud. and how the fbi and department of justice -- i don't know, maybe they're involved. but how people are allowed to get away from this -- with this stuff is unbelievable. this election was rigged. this is the essence of our country. this is the whole ball game. and they cheated. joe biden did not get 80 million votes. >> and, of course, there's no basis for any of that. the fbi and doj, potentially being involved in voter fraud and rigging the election, john harwood, what do you do with that interview? >> reporter: it's crazy. joe biden did, in fact, get 80 million votes in the election. and he's up about 4% over president trump, 6 million votes so far. still rising as some of the

ballots came in. it's hard to reconcile why the president would say so many crazy lies about the election. but there are a couple of reasons for it. first of all, it is instrumental for him to rally his base. many of those 70 million plus people who voted for him are believing the lies that he's telling, that gives him a cause to push for future elections, if he decides to run. keep his grip over the republican party in the meantime, extract money from his base for his political action committee, which is what he's doing now, continuing to raise money a little bit for the legal defense and a lot for the -- for the president's political action committee. it shields him from public embarrassment, not admitting that he lost protects him from the embarrassment, the humiliation of saying i lost the election to biden. and if he is able to persuade himself of those lies that he can protect his own ego.

the president is fragile emotionally, he hates being labeled a loser. if he can say enough times it was a fraudulent election, he may be able to convince himself he was not a loser, even though, of course, he was the loser of this election, kate. >> doing so puts a brighter spotlight on exactly that, that he has lost. that's it. good to see you, john, thank you. >> over and over. >> again and again. thanks, buddy. coming up for us, hospitals across the country are filling up and it's expected to get worse says the country's surgeon general. especially in the midwest. we'll take you to st. louis, missouri next. you can even order on the subway® app! did i just get picked off by deion sanders? you sure did! now in the app, get a free footlong when you buy two. because it's footlong season™! save for being a new customer. save more for adding drivewise. save even more for driving safely.

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it is the one measure that seems to worry health experts the most when it comes to the pandemic. the number of people sick enough with coronavirus that they need hospital care. on sunday, the nation passed another record high, more than 93,000 hospitalizations. that's the highest number since the start of the pandemic. and the midwest is feeling the brunt of it. on sunday, the seven day average of hospitalizations in the st.

louis, missouri region reached a new high as well for the third straight day. more than 900 patients in the hospital with covid related illnesses. current models predict the hospital system could run out of intensive care beds this week. let's get a view from the ground there right now. joining me is dr. alex garza, chief community health officer for the ssm group. dr. garza, thank you for being here. what is the status of where you are? how strained are things getting in your hospitals? >> they're very strained. so i spent last wednesday and friday at one of our hospitals and, of course, we had no icu bed capacity on each of those days. we had to fly patients in critical care outside of the st. louis metropolitan area to hospitals in the outlying areas because we simply didn't have any critical care capacity with the st. louis metropolitan area.

that's a scary thing when you're thinking about how do we take care of these patients going forward with limited capacity. >> doctor, it's terrifying, and the patients that -- in critical care that you're having to fly out, what are these patients suffering from? are they patients coming in if with non-covid related emergencies, i assume? >> correct. it could be anything from a covid related emergency to any of the other medical emergencies that we handle, whether it's heart attacks or strokes or any number of other things. i think what else people don't realize is the covid statistics that we put out saying this is the number of covid patients we're taking care of, doesn't include the patients that come back from complications from covid. so it has this ripple effect downstream that really complicates how we can take care of all the patients that are going to need care at our

hospitals. >> i think this is a message that people do need to understand when they are seeing -- they often see these numbers or hear these numbers that we report and you put out as well. and they need to understand it's not someone else that's being hospitalized. when a hospital has filled up, you can't get care if you are in an emergency at your nearest hospital, potentially. you're just telling us, you're having to send patients who are in critical need of care, who otherwise you would never turn away from your hospital and you're having to send them away. how far away are you having to send them? >> yeah, so that is an important message. we'll always take care of everybody, but the timeliness and, you know, whenever you're distracting people with such a huge volume of patients, you're never going to get as good of care as you deserve. and so, from the last couple of days that i was at this hospital, we were flying patients to quincy, illinois and

up to hannibal, missouri, which seems really bizarre that you would send patients from a major metropolitan area in the united states into an outlying area, but that is where we could find the critical care bed. there was absolutely no critical care beds in st. louis. >> the mayo clinic in minnesota has said they, as one example, started bringing in staff, nurses and other hospital staff, because of just -- to help backstop staffing shortages, from arizona and even florida. are you having to do the same? >> so, yes, although it's a bit of a different tax. we're doing what we can to bring in contract nursing, which most of the systems i think are in the same boat. so trying to get nurses on contract to come in from out of town to staff some of our needs. we're just staying afloat, i would say, by getting all this

contract nursing into place. so it's not that we're able to scale up for any surge in patients. this is keeping up with the volume that we have right now. and the thing to note about that is -- i'm sorry -- but it's super expensive to bring those nurses in. >> i was just going to say, if it doesn't get better. if it doesn't let up, you're seeing this and we haven't seen what comes after thanksgiving, what is it going to mean for the system where you are? >> well, we're going to try to create capacity wherever we can. so whether that is downramping other services that we provide, whether that is increasing our nurse to patient ratios or whether that is being -- you know, doing different levels of care. so we will create capacity as much as we can. but what i tell everybody is that health care is a finite resource, we can't just create critical care nurses overnight. and at some point we will be at our capacity.

we'll keep managing, but it is extremely difficult. >> but things will suffer. and not by your doing, but things will suffer because of it. the system cannot bear the prudent of this pressure over and over again. thank you for your time. >> any time. coming up, joe biden and kamala harris will soon get their first presidential briefing. what will they be seeing and learning? we'll speak to a man who has done thousands of these same intelligence briefings. but we didn't stop there. we made a cloud flexible enough to adapt to any size business. no matter what it does, or how it changes. and we kept going. so you only pay for what you use. because at dell technologies, we stop...at nothing. ♪

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today an important and necessary step in the presidential transition. for the first time since winning the election, president-elect joe biden and vice president-elect kamala harris will receive the presidential daily briefing. the top secret document produced by the intelligence community for the president laying out the latest threat assessment around the world to u.s. national security. every president-elect service the pdb, as it's known, but the trump white house has slow walked every aspect of the transition including this for weeks as president trump denies the reality that he lost the election. joining me is robert cardilo,

he's briefed president obamas and trump himself. he managed, edited and delivered more than 1,400 presidential daily briefings in his time. but who's counting, robert, at this point. how important when you look at this being the day that body cameras -- biden gets his first daily briefing as president-elect. >> i think it's critical for two reasons. one he needs to get back up to speed. he was clearly well versed in what the intelligence community could do during his time for senator and then as vice president. but that changes over time. so he needs to be refreshed on that. and then, secondly, probably more importantly he needs the most up-to-date intelligence assessments on the most critical challenges that we currently face. >> it is no secret that president trump is known for not reading the pdb, not interested

in the assessments, we've heard it from many people. you have said something along those lines yourself. you read a piece in september, i'll read a sentence from it, i have briefed him up close and i have seen and felt the effects of his faults on our nation's security. he has little patience for facts and data that do not comport with his personal world view. looking at that and knowing how different biden will approach this, what damage has trump done to the critical relationship between the intelligence community and the oval office? >> to be clear, it's been real. you know, if nothing else, there's been a hit on the morale of the community when the person that you're singularly supposed to serve either dismisses or discounts, in some cases actually counters, you know, your assessments, but that said, kate, i'm optimistic that that community really is in a service

mindset and they are looking to quickly pivot to an administration that will actively consume and leverage their intelligence in the interest of our country. >> and i want to ask you, because it's one thing that biden is going to clearly have to deal with coming in and something you would maybe assume would be in part of the briefing today, is the assassination of iran's top nuclear scientist. the details coming out is wild, it's according to iran's state run media but they're reporting the top scientist that he was shot by a remote controlled machine gun set up in another car, i believe i saw in one report that was some 100 yards away. when you see the details coming out, what would you be telling the president right now? >> well, suffice to say if i was editing the book for the vice president's -- or the

president-elect's pdb today, iran would be the first topic. i would do it for two reasons. one, again, he and his incoming vice president need to get up to speed on the current state of iranian capabilities. much has changed over the past four years that he won't be -- he won't have the details on. and as he considers, perhaps, rejoining the joint agreement he needs to know the current status. to your point and more timely, there is this issue of the assassination and now what the intelligence community would be looking for, indications of potential retaliatory strikes coming from iran or their proxies. obviously thinking through what the cascading effects of such a retaliation could occur. all of those scenarios should be laid out in today's book, in my mind. >> robert, thanks for coming on. i really appreciate it. >> absolutely. thank you. still ahead, the san

francisco 49ers were told they're banned from playing in their home stadium for three weeks to try to help slow the spread of covid in that county. all contact sports are on hold there as well. what is santa clara county seeing that has them making such big moves? we'll take you there.

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starting today, stringent new safety protocols are going into place in north earn california, santa clara county announcing over the weekend a ban on all contact sports from youth to professional for at least three weeks throwing a wrench into the seasons of some sports teams like the san

francisco 49ers and stanford university football, now banned from playing or practicing at their home stadiums. joining me is james williams, county council for santa clara county. thank you for being here. i appreciate it. you announced the ban, why does the county think that contact sports need to be shutdown right now? how bad is it getting in your county? >> the situation with covid-19 is getting bad here in santa clara county just as it is across the united states. when we made this announcement two days ago we had a record number of cases, 760, more than shattering our records in the 500s. today we have 801 cases. our hospitalizations have doubled in just the last 14 days. and so, this is really about preserving hospital capacity. we're extremely concerned about what's happening and so we're taking the steps that we can

take locally. but that's not enough. and it's not a substitute for federal and state action that is needed. >> absolutely. the statistics and data you're laying out are really terrifying of what's happening and kind of the trajectory of where this is headed if something doesn't turn around hence you put in place these restrictions. why contact sports? >> well, we put in place a wide range of measures on top of many measures that the state has put in place, because we need to slow this train down right now. the growth rate in cases and hospitalizations is exponential. and we know that every single facet that can contribute to that count is going to contribute to harm in our hospitals, that's going to fill up beds and so we are taking as many steps as we can take locally. so this is one piece of those efforts. and we will continue to do what

we can locally. but, you know, it's not sufficient. and, of course, it's hard for the entire community. the 49ers are i think the most nationally obvious example. but there is no family in our community that is untouched by this pandemic. >> that's an excellent point. you speak about the 49ers, they put out a statement about the ban, only to say they're working with the nfl and partners on operation plans, will share details as confirmed. what is the team telling you about what they're going to do? >> well, we have been in touch with the team, both before and after, and we will continue to try to support them just as we are trying to support local businesses, small businesses, other families, impacted communities. like i said, there's no business in santa clara county or elsewhere in the country that's untouched by the pandemic,

retailers during the shopping season, we're well aware of that. and obviously for the families that are effected, 476 deaths in our county alone, and that's irreversible for those families. we understand that our own families are effected as well. i think one thing we can all agree on is that this virus has upended all our lives, all our operations, all of our communities, and we need to do everything we can to reign in the surge, bring down cases, avoid hospitalizations and deaths so all of us are collectively in a better place. >> that's the most important. has to be top priority. when you're looking at the ripple effects of these decisions, specifically on the sports front just because you have the 49ers in your county, what do you say to someone that

would be concerned if this means the end of the nfl season which let's be honest is already teetering on the brink with decision f beiof being banned f three weeks, what would you say about that? >> we have to put the first priority on our hospitals, ensuring whether it is because of covid or because you have a stroke, heart attack, other trauma, accident, serious condition, that there's a bed available for you. our icu beds are filling up, hospitals are filling up. we are trying to take every possible measure locally to rein that in. it is not enough to just act locally. we are not an island, we are well aware of that. that's why we desperately need bold, aggressive and fast federal and state action. >> well, mr. williams, thank you for coming on. we'll check back in. three week ban in place, see what happens in the three weeks. turning to politics, all

eyes on georgia as the balance of power in washington is at stake. both senate seats in georgia are up for grabs. republican incumbents are battling for their lives. what happens in the georgia runoff set for january will determine the balance of power in the senate. president trump is headed there this weekend to campaign. ahead of that trip, he is focused on his loss in the state, railing against the republican governor for his handling of the presidential election. rnc chair woman ron a mcdaniels faced tough questions from voters this weekend, not about the runoff but trump's baseless claims that the presidential election was stolen. >> switching the votes, and we go there in crazy numbers and they should have won. >> yeah, we have to, we didn't see that in the audit, so we've got to just, that evidence i haven't seen. we'll wait and see on that. >> at the same time, happening now, one of the democratic

candidates, john ossoff wrapped up a press conference. let's get over to cnn's manu raju. he is tracking this in georgia. where do things stand in georgia? >> reporter: a staggering amount of money is being spent. almost $300 million from mid november to january 5th is reserved on air. republicans are holding a narrow advantage in that air war in terms of dollars spent because so much is on the line in these races. one of the lines of attacks john ossoff has against the republican incumbent, david perdue, he is alleging he used his position of power to make financial trades that benefitted him financially. perdue faced a lot of questions and criticism of late in the wake of reports showing that he sold roughly $1 million in stocks back in march of the financial company, and later purchased those back when the stocks bottomed out.

john ossoff, democratic candidate just had a press conference in which he accused david perdue of lying to voters and profiting off this crisis. >> senator perdue repeatedly claimed that he doesn't control day to day stock trades, but federal agents secured banking records which revealed that senator perdue did in fact personally instruct stock trading. truth is, senator perdue did direct his investments personally, so every time he has said he is not personally responsible for profiting from this pandemic he's been lying to you. >> reporter: what ossoff is referring to is the reference, "new york times" report from late last week in which it said david perdue actually instructed his financial adviser to make those trades. now, perdue's campaign responded but haven't said why they gave a

different story earlier about perdue's involvement. they said he has been cleared by the senate ethics committee and justice department, there was no wrongdoing and he has been cleared of any charges whatsoever, but the question about perdue's involvement is becoming a central focus in the campaign. more to come from cnn "newsroom" after this. force vee of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. that's how you do it right. usaa insurance is made just the way martin's family needs it with hassle-free claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. because doing right by our members, that's what's right. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. ♪ usaa

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