vaccine front coming in this hour. the fda just released new data on pfizer's vaccine and confirming that it is surprisingly -- has a surprisingly good efficacy rate. this comes days ahead of a critical meeting at the fda to determine whether or not to clear that vaccine for emergency use. and new this hour, another company astrazeneca, is releasing some of their vaccine trial data and it is more good news. we'll get to that, bring that to you in just a second. but this also comes amid new reports of a dispute between the white house and pfizer. the white house denying that they turned down an offer from pfizer to buy extra doses of their vaccine this summer. i want to play for you how a former fda commissioner, scott gottlieb, who is also a pfizer board member. how he described it today. >> pfizer did offer an additional allotment coming out of that plant basically the second quarter allotment to the united states government multiple times. i think they're betting that

more than one vaccine is going to get authorized and there will be more on the market and that perhaps could be while they didn't take up that additional 100 million option agreement. >> all of this comes as the world finds itself at a turning point in the fight against the coronavirus. patients in the united kingdom receiving the very first shots of the pfizer vaccine this morning. and in one week the first doses in the united states are expected to be delivered. it can't come soon enough, of course. the country broke another record number in covid hospitalizations. 102,148. that is how many americans are sick enough with covid right now that they need hospital care. and on average, more than 2,000 people -- 2,000 people are dying every day here from the virus with over 15,000 deaths in the last seven days. the numbers are numbing, but they can't be. this has been the deadliest week for the coronavirus since april. let me bring in right now

dr. sanjay gupta. he has all the detail coming in on the vaccine news this morning. sanjay, what are you learning? what is your big take from this pfizer data that the fda just released? >> well, you know, i think there's a few things. this is the first time we're actually seeing the data. you know, we had heard from the company before we had no reason to not believe it. we saw, obviously, what happened in the uk with their approving their authorization. but now we're seeing it. and it does match up with what we heard in terms of the overall efficacy, how well this works, some 95% effective in terms of preventing the disease. they also broke it down by age, by preexisting conditions, by background overall. you can take a look, sort of at what they found but they found basically at that 95% effectiveness people over the age of 16 were included in this

trial, we'll have to see if the fda authorizes this for people as young as 16. but also that there was some effectiveness between the first and second dose. i think that's gonna be an important point, kate, going forward. about 52% effective between the first and second dough dosse. it's hard to measure that because there's only a three-week time period between the doses. but then they give you the idea who's most likely to benefit and not, children under the age of 16, pregnant women and people with some immune compromising position. >> i found it promising, somewhat, i guess we'll take any kernel of promise we can find it that it's showing protection after a first down. now you have astrazeneca releasing some of its trial data today. this is just coming in now. what are they telling you? >> this is important. when we look at the astrazeneca

trial -- keep in mind this is a company that the united states has been very focused on. if we have the graphics showing the various doses that the united states has purchased up till now, you'll see -- let's look at this first. 70.4% effectiveness is what they found. we're bouncing around a little bit. >> there we go. >> i think this is a really important graphic here, kate because we talk about the fact that pfizer, 100 million doses were purchased. but this gives us the idea of how the united states was looking at the vaccine companies making bets going back to the summer and astrazeneca was the biggest bet, 300 million doses that was purchased. now we're seeing some of the astrazeneca data. it doesn't look as effective, necessarily, as the pfizer one which was over 95% effective. but 70% effective it appears. 90% if you gave a low dose, a

sort of prime dose followed by a full dose. and, you know, it's a pretty extensive trial. four trials across three continents. what i heard in our own reporting now, kate, is that by middle to end of january we're likely to hear astrazeneca also applying for an emergency use authorization. we're likely to here about a division of johnson & johnson also applying. add this all together, kate, and you could have potentially four vaccines authorized by february of next year. and that's when you start to get into the real numbers of possibly being able to vaccinate the country. >> and that's why this rollout, this massive effort is so important to get right when you see all these vaccines could be coming online quickly in quick succession. thank you, sanjay. >> you got it. i want to turn to the white house where there's a dispute with the vaccine maker pfizer. the white house denying reporting that last summer the

white house turned down offers from pfizer to buy additional doses of their vaccine. you saw the graphic sanjay was showing about how many were purchased. john harwood has the news. this couldn't come at a worst time i would think. we played scott gottlieb talking about it just now. but i'm also told by a source that pfizer did offer multiple times for the administration to buy into more doses and the white house declined. what is the white house saying about this? >> reporter: the white house, as you said, is denying they passed up the chance to buy the additional doses. not only does scott gottlieb publicly confirm they did offer them, you have your source as well but moncef slouie indicating he defended the decision not to buy and it wouldn't be reasonable given the candidates we were looking at, it wouldn't have been reasonable to take that process.

here's a tip, if the white house is telling you one thing and scott gottlieb and moncef and sl slouie slouie is telling you another thing, believe them. it's possible if you get astrazeneca and the johnson & johnson vaccine also approved for emergency use within a few weeks we may have among all those candidates enough to vaccinate everyone. we don't know if it was a mistake, but we do know they turned down the opportunity. >> can you also inject some truth or reality into what the situation is with the president expecting to sign an executive order today related to the vaccine rollout. the little i understand from it, it doesn't make sense. >> reporter: look, president trump is going to sign a piece of paper. we don't know if the piece of paper will do anything. he has a penchant for signing executive orders declaring

things that don't have any effect. journalists aren't the only ones who don't know the answer to this. here's what mon receive slow wee told george this morning. >> can you understand the executive order that the president is putting out? it sounds like the problem is the opposite, pfizer has made deals with countries that are going to limit the supply here. >> frankly, i don't know and frankly, i'm staying out of this. i can't comment. >> you don't know? >> i don't know. >> so again, we will see when the president signs this effective order early this afternoon whether he invokes any particular executive authority to make something happen that wouldn't otherwise happen or it could be an empty gesture which is what president trump goes for often. >> political theatre in the form of signing a piece of paper. joining me now is dr. eric

topple. and cnn medical analyst dr. jorge rodriguez. there's so much to discuss. if i can start where i left off with john harwood, how significant do you think this dispute between the white house and pfizer is over turning down the opportunity to purchase more doses of their vaccine? does it make any sense? >> it makes no sense. so much coming out of this administration makes no sense. but quite honestly right now it's a moot point, it is what it is. we have so many vaccines to work with. it seems the roll out may be slow enough that other vaccines are going to come into play. i think it was shortsighted but nobody could predict how many companies would be able to provide them. so right now we have to work with what we have.

it is what it is right now. >> it is what it is. i feel myself using that more and more often dr. rodriguez. dr. topple. dr. ramsey out of brown was on the show with me yesterday she said she's quite worried about the vaccine rollout plans or she thinks lack thereof. the way she puts it, she said the trump administration could not get us enough ppe so she's not confident she can get them these vaccines especially given the conditions in which these vaccines need to be handled and administered. are you concerned? >> good to be with you. i totally agree with her. when we first heard about operation warp speed's plan with hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine before the end of the year, that was great. now we learned that's only 10 to 15% of those doses are going to be available. so it's a big disappointment.

it's not going to cover all the health care workforce no less the other high risk individuals. yet another disappointment from the administration. >> doctor, just real quick, how do you begin to prioritize that? how do you begin to prioritize which health care worker gets it and which waits? >> it's not too complex because age is a big factor and also working in intensive care unit and having a lot of contact with covid patients. those are a couple. then you get down to things like coexisting medical conditions, essentially all health care workforce needs to be vaccinated and that likely can get achieved, a good part of it, before the end of the year. we'll see these vaccines getting started, at least the first one, by friday this week. so it won't take long to get this year 20 million workforce of people to be vaccinated. it's going to get into the new year, unfortunately, because of the shortage from what was

promised. >> and dr. rodriguez, now when we look at after health care workers and people in long-term care facilities you're also looking at front line workers, essential workers other workers likely to need to get the vaccine or have it offered. the union president for the new york city fire department released a poll of firefighters and the result of it is a blinking red light. the poll of firefighters shows that nearly 55% of them said that they would not get a covid-19 vaccine if it was offered by the department. if that's happening among the fdny does this signal problems ahead with convincing people to get the shots? >> it does signal a problem. we've known that for a while. we know the general population almost mimics those percentages. so now is the time for people who have influence with the general public, the people

trusted to try to counter act the misinformation out there from groups that are anti-vaxers or don't want to see this. because we have very little chance of succeeding with a population as a whole unless we get a much larger percentage of people that get vaccinated. so is it an issue, yes. we knew that and now we need to counter act it with proof and information to get people to realize this is the way we're going to get our families and our economy back to normal. >> dr. topol i know this aspect is something you're focused on as well. how big of a problem do you think this is going to be? there's been focus on getting the vaccine approved and out there, but actually convincing people to get the shot. >> right, kate. that's what's beautiful about this fda release of the data today. this remarkable transparency. we didn't see that with the uk review. and these extra days are giving the public all the data, the

science and medical community, and it looks terrific. having reviewed those documents this morning, the efficacy is so high. i see already the polls are showing surveys that more and more people are embracing the idea of having a vaccine. i think as it gets vetted and the data for both pfizer and moderna vaccines it's going to help propel the high level that dr. rodriguez is talking about. >> doctor your thought as the fda is releasing this of a 95% efficacy rate and some protection even after one dose. >> well, i think dr. topol hit on a word we need to use often to stimulate people and that is the information and results are remarkable. and we have a chance we can't blow. my one concern is that if there's a shortage of vaccine we can't rest on the fact that just one vaccination is sufficient. the data is based on two

vaccinations and we must go to that goal line. again, remarkable information, we markable opportunity, america should not pass up the chance to be vaccinated. >> thank you both for coming on. i appreciate it. coming up for us, president-elect joe biden could soon make history again. this time by nominating the first black man, a retired general, to run the pentagon. a new report shows more kids are falling behind in school because of remote learning and offers a plan on how they can catch up, but it'll cost them. when a hailstorm hit, he needed his insurance to get it done right, right away. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. usaa

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filling out his cabinet and making more history in the process. sources familiar with the decisions say that biden has tapped retired army general lloyd austin to be his defense secretary. if approved by the senate austin would be the first african-american to lead the pentagon. jessica dean joins me now with more on this. biden has been facing pressure to bring more diversity to his cabinet. what more are you learning about this pick? >> reporter: you said it. sources are telling us that biden has tapped retired army general lloyd austin to be his secretary of defense. to that end we know that biden is excited about the historic nature of this pick. if austin is confirmed by the senate, he will be the first black man to hold that position. he, of course, has a very lengthy military history. now what is interesting about this, this extra layer in this nomination is that austin recently retired from the military. he's been out for four years.

that means he's going to need a congressional waiver in order to serve in this post. federal law mandates you need seven years out to serve in this role so that has to make its way through congress, which could be another interesting layer as they work through the senate confirmations and nominating process on the biden team. we know that biden reached out to austin over the weekend, austin accepted the job. and we're told by sources it came down to biden's comfort level with austin, he knows him, they've worked together before. that's something we've seen time and time again with the picks that the president-elect has made so far. it comes down to relationships for president-elect biden and this one seems to be no different. in terms of his team we're going to be introduced to key members of his health team later today we talked about those yesterday. xavier becerra the california attorney general tapped to lead health and human services.

vivek murthy to reprize his role as attorney general. and dr. anthony fauci to come on as chief medical adviser. we're expecting to hear from biden and kamala harris on those picks later this afternoon, kate. >> the president-elect is also meeting with the naacp today. we spoke with the organization's president last week and he's pushing hard on this issue of diversity and -- diversity in the cabinet. what are you hearing about the meeting? >> reporter: so we know this meeting with civil rights leaders is taking place after the announcement i was talking about of the health team. this is coming later this afternoon. biden and his team going to meet with these civil rights leaders to talk about diversity in the cabinet, to talk about social justice. we are expected to hear from some of those civil rights leaders after the meeting to hear what exactly they heard and what they are looking forward to or what they think they need to push back on. but there's been pressure on

biden and his team from the outside putting pressure on him to live up to his promise to put together a cabinet that looks like america. kate? >> good to see you, jessica. thank you. up next, president trump called pennsylvania's top republican lawmaker multiple times about the results in the election process. are these calls part of a pressure campaign. pennsylvania's lieutenant governor joins us. i felt like i was just fighting an uphill battle in my career. as a little kid i knew that i wanted to work with computers. ♪ so when i heard about the applied digital skills courses, that definitely appealed to me. you're learning how to create spreadsheets, documents, forms and surveys. i'm thinking i can become more marketable. i got to about the third course and i'm like, you know, i probably could do this for a living.

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it is safe harbor day here in the united states. and if you don't know what that is, you are not alone. this is normally not a thing that people are really focused on or paying attention to or talking about. the safe harbor provision is part of federal law that allows states to lock in their electoral votes that will be cast by congress next week. today is the deadline for states to lock that in by finishing up their certification of the presidential election results. put another way this is another confirmation that joe biden is the president-elect despite what president trump is saying. cnn learned in the last week, trump called the top republican in the pennsylvania legislature

multiple times asking about the commonwealth's electoral process. a spokesman for brian cutler confirms that the president called but said, quote, according to the spokesman, never pressured cutler to overturn the results or seat rival electors. okay but what was he trying to indirectly do with the calls? joining me now is the lieutenant governor john fetterman. he says he doesn't feel pressured to do anything, what's going on here? >> that's clearly what's going on. whether it's implicit or explicit. the message is clear, you need to pdo what i'm saying or you'r going to pay a price politically because it's my way or the highway. i want to be clear, speaker

cutler has not made any good faith attempts to reverse the election results. that needs to be said and folks need to understand that it is necessary in some cases like this to pander to the lunatic fringe handling wing of this party because they are vocal and active. >> is it necessary, though? because at the same time those same people you're talking about, along with a bunch of other republican lawmakers in the state wrote a letter to members of congress telling them to object to the commonwealth's electoral slate. it's -- are they trying to have it both ways? is that okay? >> there are certainly going to be elements of professional wrestling involved. to numollify the lunatic fringef the party. you have the arizona party

calling for mart ers on twitter. this is real. we have to acknowledge how much courage it takes for a republican in this environment to acknowledge the electoral reality that joe biden is the president-elect. and in pennsylvania won by over 80,000 votes. >> i want to play for you what congressman jim clyburn, the democratic congressman from south carolina, what he said about these phone calls coming from the president. let me play this. >> this is an attempt to overthrow our government. you may not call it a coup, but this is an attempted coupe. so many people said you're not t -- you're trying to steal the election. you're not trying to steal the election. that is some unknown activity when you steal it. no, that is not what he's doing. he's in your face trying to overthrow the will of the people.

>> look what clyburn is saying is that this is more than pandering to some folks in your party. this is straight up dangerous. do you agree with him? >> well, again, coming from the president, the president very much would like to overthrow the result. the people on the ground look at what they've done, the steps they've taken, and i don't believe any republican of any significant stature in the commonwealth of pennsylvania has or will make an attempt to overturn the election results. but also when you have the world's biggest microphone raining scorn and calling you out the way he has in georgia that's a political reality too. as i mentioned before, it's a fine line walking between pandering to the snake handling wing of that party but also acknowledging the electoral truth in pennsylvania and i believe that's what these folks are trying to do because the threat is real and the anger and absurd

absurdity continues to swirl and the president is not going to do anything other than accelerate that. >> i hear you on a political reality of what this fine line that they think that they must walk. but do they need to walk it? why does it take courage to state reality? at some point there has to be a break. you have republicans in your state and republicans nationally who are standing by silently letting this go on or some of them egging the president on in his attempts. what is your message? because i don't know if there is this fine line that they need to walk. >> the truth is, they're getting death threats. commissioner schmitz, republican in philadelphia, still gets death threats a month after the election for standing up and telling the truth as a republican. it's very real. and you have, again, unprecedented scorn raining down on you. and we have to acknowledge in this country right now it is an act of courage to choose death

threats and threats of your political future or worse, in the opposition of getting 170,000 new twitter followers and being held up as the national republican hero of the week. so members of the legislature have done just that. chosen to pander to the element. >> just real quickly is anything with regard to the results of the election out of pennsylvania going to change? >> no. i mean, everyone knows how this movie is going to end, the president more so than anybody that's why he's reverting to these outlandish acticks and trying to turn this into a political revenge fest because people are standing up and saying it's not the truth and i'm going to stand on the side of the truth. >> lieutenant governor thanks so much. i'd like to be a fly on the wall if that's possible if the president ever gave you that phone call. thank you very much, appreciate your time. coming up, the uk is now the

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in the western hemisphere was given this morning in the uk. margaret keenan, 90 years old, the first person to receive the shot. we have more on this. max foster joins us from wales. what is she saying and how is this vaccine rollout going? >> reporter: a star was born. it's been an incredible day really starting at that moment we saw the first pictures of magg maggie keenan receiving the first of 40 million vaccines ordered, just the pfizer vaccine. let's hear what she had to say when she was told she had this starring role. >> i thought it was a joke to start with. i couldn't believe it, you know, but i'm happy it's happened. and now i've done it, it's the best thing that's ever happened at the moment.

so do please go for it. that's all i say. if i can do it, so can you. a. >> reporter: a great way to celebrity her birthday 91 next week. but encouraging people to go out and get vaccinated if they get offered the vaccine. >> max, shakespeare could not have scripted this better. the second person in the uk to get the vaccine is really named william shakespeare? >> of course. he was an inpatient 20 miles from shakespeare birthplace as well. i can't tell you how many people have come up to me here saying is it true that william shakespeare was vaccinated? yes, it's true. it's been a huge exercise but those two names rising to the top of today's excitement. >> absolutely. thank you, max. i appreciate it. back here in the united

states we have another example of why the vaccine rollout cannot come soon enough for the elderly. in washington state, seven residents of three different long-term care facilities died from coronavirus after health officials say staff members attended a large wedding. the elderly have been the hardest hit throughout the pandemic. and there's a report out showing the new wave of cases and death hitting these facilities right now. a one-month delay in distributing the vaccine to nursing home results could result in more than 10,000 preventable deaths. joining me is mark parkinson. thank you for coming back in. the situation with nursing homes i have to say has gotten quite a bit worse since we last spoke just a few weeks ago. what is happening?

>> well, unfortunately as community spread has ravaged the entire country, the virus has found its way back to nursing homes and assisted living facilities and there's more cases in the building than the spring. we thought the spring was the worse it could get. we have now about double the number of cases and unfortunately we're coming close to double the number of deaths. all of which underscores the incredible importance of getting the vaccine out as quickly as possible. >> that's so tragic to hear it's worse. i couldn't imagine than it being worse than some of our conversations in the spring and the stories coming out. so what do you think when you see these vaccines rolling out in the uk? i was talking to max foster, the first shot going to a 90-year-old woman. >> i mean, it's just so great to have a good story, and margaret keenan and william shakespeare two classic english names. a nice twist on the whole thing.

but it's encouraging. it gives us a glimpse on the impact on the long-term care facilities that get the vaccine. the uk made the right decision, targeting those facilities first. we'll learn a lot over the next week or two as they distribute the vaccine and hopefully it gets distributed in the united states in the next week or two. >> the chief scientist for operation warp speed said the vaccine here in the u.s. will reduce elderly deaths by the end of january, how big of an impact will it have in a month? >> if the public health officials make the right decisions, we can make the death rate by 40%. but that's only if long-term care residents and the staff in those facilities are all vaccinated with the second dose by march 1, that's the challenge, let's get everybody vaccinated with the second dose by march 1. if we can do that the death rate

will be cut 40%, because 40% of the deaths are occurring in those facilities. it will be hard to do it. distribution is difficult, logistics are difficult but if we pull together as a country we can get it done. >> you know this on multiple levels. you are a former governor. when you were governor you had to take on distributing a vaccine this way but what are you hearing about how governors are planning to get these vaccines to long-term care facilities? are you feeling good, confident about what you've heard so far? >> the cdc decision last week to elevate long-term care residents to the top tier has made an enormous difference. we believe every governor has made the decision to prioritize the long-term care settings. it looks like they're making the right decisions. unfortunately it will be hard to execute the decisions because it's tough to get the vaccine out into buildings, particularly remote parts of their states.

we're encouraging every governor to really just focus on this in a very specific way and if they do it, they can get this done. if they don't do it, just let it happen naturally, the vaccination in these facilities will be delayed and more people will die. >> it is real, that is not hi hyperbo hyperbole. do you have a sense, mark, if the residents of the long-term care facilities, how accepting, open they are to getting the vaccine? are you hearing any resistance? >> we aren't. there's polling that shows in the general public about 40% or so of the public is concerned and may not get the vaccine immediately. our discussions with our residents we don't think there's going to be that kind of hesitancy. unfortunately they've seen the tragedy that occurs when older people get the virus. many of them are terrified and nervous of getting the virus. so we think there's going to be wide acceptance of the vaccine once we can get it into the

buildings. >> it's entirely a reality they're dealing with on a daily basis. it's not theoretical at all or stories or news reports. they know it too well. thank you for coming in. >> thank you. coming up for us, an entire year of lost learning. a new report finding remote learning is leaving kids behind, just what everyone feared, and it's troubling what it means for students of color, that's next. (♪ )

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the second largest school district in the country is pausing all in person instruction and child care for the remainder of the fall semester. los angeles unified schools had

been offering in person tutoring for students that needed extra help but the district superintendent says the surge in cases in the city means it is no longer safe to have any students on any campuses. just out this morning, a new report is confirming what so many people feared, that children in remote classes are falling behind. the report by the global consulting giant mackenzie finding cumulative learning lost by the end of this school year could put students on average five to nine months behind. the impact on students of color could be even greater, up to 12 months of lost learning. with me now, one of the authors of the report, emma dorn. thank you so much for coming in. can you talk about your findings? how much was lost in the spring and what it is going to look like going forward. >> absolutely. so what we found is that tangible learning loss has already occurred in the spring.

we looked at the fall assessment data from curriculum associates platform. on average they learned 87% of reading they would have learned by fall, but only 67% of the math content. and when we translate that into how many months of learning were lost, that's about three months of learning in mathematics and about a month and a half in reading that students are behind. and that's just from the spring. >> and talk to me about what then, if it all stays status quo, what then, how you get to these troubling predictions of what it could be like by the end of the school year. >> yeah. so one of the things most troubling to me is the inequity in some of the numbers. if you look at the three months of learning in mathematics, for example, if you look at white students, they're behind one to three months, but black students have actually lost three to five months of learning.

the reason that is is because of underlying opportunity gaps. both were closed in the fall, there were still notable gaps. i can give you a couple of examples, and that's translating into ongoing learning. for example, students of color still are more likely to be learning remotely. about 70% of black and hispanic students are still remote versus 50% of white students. as you just said, a lot of districts are having to roll back plans due to rising cases. the other thing that's -- >> go ahead, i'm sorry. >> the other thing that's worrying, black and hispanic students weren't getting access to live instruction. black and hispanic students are twice as likely to have no contact with the teacher in the last week. 15 to 16% of those students. and that's a real problem for learning loss. >> yeah. and the way you put it, the best case scenario is that students are half a grade level behind come june. it's a great analysis, necessary analysis to prove what we all

feared which is some more has to be done to help kids catch up if possible, especially students of color. they're falling behind. we have to make sure they are caught and caught back up. thank you so much. i appreciate your work. coming up. new data on a new covid vaccine. what astra-zeneca's trials are showing and what it could mean for getting more vaccines to more people in the united states, just ahead of the fda meeting this week on pfizer's vaccine. i am kate bolduan. we'll be back. i felt like... ...i was just fighting an uphill battle in my career. so when i heard about the applied digital skills courses, i'm thinking i can become more marketable. you don't need to be a computer expert to be great at this. these are skills lots of people can learn. i feel hopeful about the future now. ♪

hello, everybody. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. john king in washington. thank you so much for sharing this day with us. a global first offers worldwide hope in the middle of the worst pandemic stretch. a 90-year-old in coventry, england, first person to receiver pfizer's vaccine. the shot is the start of an every day sprint to eradicate the virus. for keenan, just another day. listen. >> i wasn't nervous at all. if i can do it, so can you. >> that one poke in the arm there marks the