if you're living with hiv . . . . . . keep loving who you are. and ask your doctor if biktarvy is right for you. ready to go. the coronavirus vaccine faces one last hurdle before reaching americans and it can't come soon enough, with records still being set daily. even a parking lot, yes, you heard that right, a parking lot at this hospital being transformed to treat covid patients. and crowds of trump supporters descend on the nation's capital, with the electoral college set to vote in about 24 hours. hello and welcome to "cnn newsroom," everyone. i'm michael holmes.

thanks for your company, everyone. the need is great, the logistics complex and the coronavirus still raging, as the u.s. prepares to launch a massive vaccine distribution effort once the cdc director gives the final green light. now, the pfizer/biontech vaccines are set to be delivered to 145 sites across the country on monday. the health officials say that they could alter the course of the pandemic in the u.s. and, of course, it is not a moment too soon. the country has passed 16 million cases, adding 1 million in just four days. and hospitalizations hit a record high again on saturday. more than 108,000 americans in hospital around the country with coronavirus. cnn's team has more now on how

the largest vags nation program in u.s. history is going to get up and running. >> reporter: we're getting new insight into why the vaccine is not on the move right this moment. pfizer says vaccine shipments will begin leaving here starting on sunday morning. we know this spot is central to the vaccine distribution network. this is pfizer's largest facility. it's here in michigan. and operation warp speed says vaccine shipments will leave here, going to 600 individual locations across the country. those are places like hospitals, pharmacies, cvs and walgreens. many of those place s will not see the deliveries until monday. the bulk of the shipments arrives on tuesday. it is fedex and u.p.s. responsible for those deliveries and fedex says there is a reason why the vaccine is not rolling out right this moment. >> we could deliver it within 24 hours, but the decision was made by the team that because there are hundreds of administration sites that are going to be

receiving these, they thought it best that we wait until monday to deliver them to ensure they're all open and ready to receive, so, a weekday, a normal business day seemed like the optimal time to send out those first shipments rather than try to get them delivered on a sunday when some sites might be short staffed or not open. >> reporter: this is not just a ground game. also, a major air operation and the faa is directing airports to get ready for vaccine flights whether or not they were planning on them already. the faa says there's always a chance that a plane could divert for weather or potentially have an emergency. the faa is telling airports that delivery trucks need to have priority access and that security should be double checked. you know, this could be the beginning of the end for this pandemic, but this major movement is about to kick off right here. dr. michael meaner is assistant professor at harvard

t.h. chan school of public health. he joins me now from boston. i want to get to testing issues you've raised in a moment, but let's start with what we've learned about the vaccine in the last day or so. previously infected people should get vaccinated, too. talk about that. is that because of the cases of reinfection and that immunity seems imperfect? >> no, i think that this is more about the logistics and that we just don't know, and so, this is really erring on the side of caution. but in fact, we have not seen many reinfections at all. we've seen millions and millions of cases, of course, across the globe, with relatively few reinfectionsing, so, i think the decision to provide vaccines also for people who are known to have already been infected is probably more of a let's play it safe kind of move. >> and of course, one other interesting thing about them is, we don't know if vaccinated

people can actually carry the virus and infect nonvaccinated people, right? is that right? the recommendation is even for vaccinated people to continue wearing masks and distance and so on. those precautions aren't going away any time soon. >> that's absolutely correct and absolutely important. we don't know if somebody gets vaccinated, the end points for the phase three studies were not about transmission, they were about symptomatic disease, but it is possible that somebody could have the virus still replicate in their nose and mouth and potentially in their lungs to an asemitom matic extend and people could still spread it, potentially. > . >> the vaccine is a major arrow in the quiver, if you like, but controlling the spread is months away, realistically. and i know that you've long argued that instead of waiting for the longer tests that people are already taking in the u.s., that the government should be making the rapid and simple

tests available for people at home as often as they want. explain the benefit of that. >> that's absolutely correct. for this virus, if we actually want to stop this virus from spreading before everyone has access to a vaccine, we need to change the paradigm of testing. we need to let people know when they are infected. so, tests need to be frequent, they need to be fast and importantly, they need to be accessible. and if we can make that happen with simple paper strip antigen tests, then we can get these into people's homes and huge numbers of people can test themselves in the privacy of their own home multiple times per week and stop the spread. >> what about the issue of reliability of those tests? speak to that and why people shouldn't, you know, be overly concerned about that given the pluses. >> sure, there's been a lot of confusion about the reliability of these tests, but in general, that confusion was born from comparing them to the pcr test.

but what's important is, much of the time that people are pcr-positive, they are post transmission. they are done transmitting. these tests are transmission indicating tests. they will detect you when you are likely contagious and they do a very good job at that, greater than 90% sensitivity, greater than 99% specificity. so, the speed in which these tests give results back and the frequency in which they can be taken, much, much more than makes up for any losses in sensitivity. >> and i know you say, if only 50% of the population tested themselves in this way every four days, we can achieve the so-called herd-like effects far quicker. explain that. >> absolutely. so what we need to do to stop -- to stop this virus is, we need to attain herd effects. you can do that through vaccination to stop people

spreading onwards to others. you can do it by getting the tests in people's hands frequently so they do not spread it to others. they don't need to be perfect. you just need to have about 50% of people testing themselves on a regular basis that we can actually get fewer people infected by each individual person rather than more. we'll have exponential decline in the virus at the population level rather than what we have seen which is an explosion of cases in an exponential increase. >> i mean, there is the staringly obvious question, you know, this is being done in other countries. why is it not being done here in the u.s. where infection is rampant? this is cheap and easy to make. i think you've got a test there, isn't it? >> absolutely. this is one of the -- this is one of the cheapest tests we could make, or, the cheapest actions we could take to really control the virus, it's one of these little paper strip tests inside of this plastic cartri e cartridge. these are being sort of blocked,

if you would, by the fda currently, because the fda looks at every test as a clinical medical device that needs to be prescribed by a physician. if we want to get these out to homes, we need to have a change in the regulatory patterns of the fda. we've need to have them see these as the public health tools that they are and not have them barricaded and behind a medical prescription. >> it does really seem like a no brainer and hopefully your argument gets some traction, because the u.s. certainly needs it. dr. michael mina, thank you so much. appreciate it. >> thank you. as people hold out hope for vaccines, the pandemic surging once again in countries all across the world. let's look at south korea to start with. health officials are trying to cope with the highest number of daily covid cases since the pandemic began. they're reporting more than 1,000 confirmed infections from saturday in south korea. that is a lot. in europe, the german chancellor

plans to meet in the coming hours with local leaders over a possible nationwide lockdown. and hospital workers and paramedics around the world are struggling to deal with the crushing number of covid patients and they're having a hard time seeing the relief that might be ahead. just have a listen. business is booming for this dry ice machine maker in belgium. the company says demand is high for its products as the vaccine manufacturers rush to ship their precious cargo in sub-freezing temperatures. "we've had many requests and orders," says one vendor. the turnover is likely to increase in the coming months. while it is a thriving scene here, it's a struggle in places where the coronavirus has shut down businesses and destroyed livelihoods. hard times forcing these students at a college in france to line up for food.

"my father lost his company because of the coronavirus," one student says, "my mom is vulnerable. she can't go outside, so it's difficult for her to do the shopping." hope may be spreading with each vial of vaccine on a tarmac or a cargo plane, but those doses won't help people who are already sick. and for those treating them, like these health care workers in an icu buckling under a crushing number of new cases in brazil, it's hard to see any relief in sight. "we're at a moment when everyone is physically exhausted," one doctor says. "we have to hold back the tears and move on because the patients need us." the governor of saw polo says help is on the way and will begin inoculations on january

25th with a chinese vaccine still in trial. th but for those on the front lineses of fighting the virus, like these paramedics in russia where the sputnik five vaccine is rolling out, it's all about keeping focus and doing their jobs as the drug manufacturers do theirs. "we have more work," one paramedic says. "we're not sitting and waiting." donald trump knows his days in power are rapidly drawing to a close. what the frustrated president, though, is saying now about the supreme court and his own attorney general. also, still to come, small business owners in los angeles protesting, pleading with congress to bring them much-needed covid-19 relief. stay with us. you're watching cnn. we'll be right back. re all the s you bought this year. and here's all the cardboard it takes to ship them.

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tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you. ...this one's for you. you inspired us to make your humira experience even better... with humira citrate-free. it has the same effectiveness you know and trust, but we removed the citrate buffers, there's less liquid, and a thinner needle... with less pain immediately following injection. ask your doctor about humira citrate-free. and you can use your co-pay card to pay as little as $5 a month. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections,... ...including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened,... ...as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems,... ...serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure.

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over here! ♪ violent confrontations like the ones you see there have been playing out in the u.s. capital. washington's mayor says at least 23 people have been arrested during a day and night of post-election protests. officials say at least four people were stabbed and taken to

hospital in critical condition. large groups of so-called stop the steal protesters and also counterprotesters, took part in the demonstrations, which were mostly peaceful, during the day at least. on monday, the electoral college will meet in state capitals around the country and make joe biden's victory official. that's not stopping president trump, though, from continuing to spread baseless claims about november's vote. nor is it keeping him from attacking his own supporters. boris sanchez with more from washington. >> reporter: president trump spent saturday mostly focused on the 2020 election and myth-making, repeating false claims that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen from him and now the president is focusing his ire on those in his administration and elsewhere that are refusing to go along with this fantasy. on saturday, president trump tweeting that the supreme court acted disgracefully in dismissing that lawsuit from the

state of texas and other states, trying to overturn the election results in pennsylvania and a number of other states. the president also focused on his attorney general william barr. cnn reported earlier this month that president trump was furious with barr after the attorney general revealed in the associated press that he did not believe that there was any widespread election fraud. there was no evidence of widespread election fraud. cnn has learned that president trump at that point contemplated potentially firing the attorney general but was talked out of it by aides, ultimately suggesting that he was so close to january 20th and a new administration that it wouldn't be worth it. now, the president is again revisiting the idea, after news that attorney general william barr worked to keep news that the department of justice was investigating president-elect joe biden's son hunter under wraps. barr, following precedent and policy at doj to not reveal any sort of information about a

candidate or their family members being under investigation around election time. the president tweeting this. quote, why didn't bill barr reveal the truth to the public before the election about hunter biden? joe was lying on the debate stage that nothing was wrong or going on. press confirmed. big disadvantage for republicans at the polls. the truth there that the president is alluding to, a bit nebulous, at best. nevertheless, this is history repeating itself. president trump frequently berated jeff sessions on twitter because sessions did not do his bidding and ultimately recused himself from the russia investigation. that went on for the better part of a year before president trump ultimately fired sessions, replacing him with barr. now, we find ourselves in a similar situation with the current attorney general. sources close to the two men say that the communication between them is virtually nonexistent,

that there has been a breakdown between the two of them. they likened it to a cold war between the two men. at this point, we understand the president has mused about firing barr, it is unclear that he will so close to a new administration on january 20th. boris sanchez, cnn, at the white house. patrick healy is a cnn political an twist and "new york times" politics editor. he joins me now from new york. good to see you again, patrick. we have all seen the president's behavior post and pre-election, for that matter, casting doubt not just on results of the election, but the whole system of voting. curious your take on whether there will be lingering effects for democracy, for the electoral process, going forward. >> i think there are going to be lingering effects for the republican party. you just saw in the last few y days about 126 republican house members, 18 republican attorneys general, other members of the party, getting behind president trump in this legal effort to

overturn the election and undermine confidence in democracy. and i think there is going to be a period where those republicans are going to have to kind of answer for their stance. now, in terms of the system of democracy, you know, in a lot of ways, michael, it really held. you had dozens of court cases that president trump and his lawyers put forward that had little to know evidence attached to them and judges rejected them over and over and over again. and, you know, president trump tried to lean on republican ledge slay childrens to to appoint trump electors for the electoral college meeting, they didn't do that. so, in a lot of ways, the system worked but the lingering impact may really be for republicans who enabled trump. >> yeah, i guess a lot of people are wondering, are worried that this sort of challenging of the

validity and, you know, mail-in ballots and voter i.d. and a long laundry list of things, whether that's going to become the norm now in republican arguments about elections. i mean, the president tweeting on saturday, we have just begun to fight, which, you know, seems to be a bit of a cowl to aall t. >> yeah, you're already seeing efforts by republicans in pennsylvania and wisconsin and georgia, three states that joe biden won, looking at restricting some of those measures that you mentioned, that made it easier for people to vote in the pandemic, that expanded the ranks of voters this year. so, they are already looking at making -- making possible pullbacks on voting. one strange thing here, michael, republicans actually did quite well down-ballot. they did better than expected in house seats, you know, they held

opt some senate seats that they thought that they would lose, so pulling back on the ease of voting for republicans may actually not be such a good idea since it did seem to help them. >> yeah, well, making it harder for traditional democrat areas to vote could work well for them, though, and that's what a lot of people are wondering, are you concerned about his more passionate followers? we've seen them all over the streets, those that will just not accept joe biden's victory, no matter what. the majority of republicans say that the election was a fraud. what does that mean for the next four years? >> it's going to make it challenging for joe biden. there's no question. like you said, majority of republicans are holding onto these views of suspicion, you know, joe biden, you know, his history has been reaching out to the other side so he may -- he talks about trying to unify the country but michael, that is so hard to do.

the country is so deeply polarized and president trump really did spend the last four years worsening that polarization, sort of convincing republicans that democrats were out to get them, that the news media was out to get them. so it's going to be a hard road and the reality is that the republican leaders who remain in the party want to still be, you know, popular with that base of support that trump has, so crossing trump still becomes a difficult thing, even with him out of office. >> yeah. at what cost, of course. patrick healy, always good to see you. thank you so much. >> thanks, michael. small business owners continue to voice desperation as u.s. lawmakers remain deadlocked when it comes to a new stimulus package. in los angeles, where the film industry, of course, is considered essential, some small businesses are pushing back against covid restrictions. on saturday, some of them protested, pleading with the government to offer much-needed

relief. cnn's paul vacannon was there. >> reporter: the small business owners, many of them wearing green shirts, first started at the chinese theater in hollywood. they wanted to stress, they realize the numbers are horrific in california. the spread of covid-19 throughout the state. but they say they believe they can reopen safely outside, put people back to work and not risk anybody's health. they then marched to the park here at the corner of beverly hills and los angeles, if you will, and we caught up with hector, he's a server. he said it is absolutely horrible for his family that he lost his job. >> hit us tremendously. myself, my family, my friends, my coworkers. everyone. it's been a struggle from the beginning up until this point. we made it through the first phase of the lockdown. now we're going through the second one and now i don't know if we're going to be able. if i'm going to be able to

provide to my family. if i'm going to be ainble to brg a holiday meal this season because of the shutting of this -- of the restaurants. we've been following all the protocols, we've been taking temperatures, we've been making sure that guests are six feet apart from each other, wearing the masks when they're going to the restroom. we need a solution. we need to get our jobs back. i don't know if i can pay my rent or bills next month. i don't know if i'm going to be able to provide a safe holiday to my family. but just shutting us down and taking our jobs away, i don't think that's the solution. >> reporter: organizers of the march stressed time and time again they're willing to compromise with politicians to find some way to begin hiring people again and they stress that most of the people who are unemployed make less than $50,000 a year. reporting from beverly hills, i'm paul verve came men, back to

you. now, a new hope in the world for some of the darkest days of the pandemic, as they continue. when we come back, we'll have the latest on the vaccine rollout in the ugs. also, imagine going to the hospital for covid and being treated at a makeshift unit in a parking garage. when we come back, we'll show you a hospital where they had to do just that. 'tis the season to save a bundle. bundle auto and home, and save up to 25% with allstate. bundling just feels good this time of year.

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welcome back, everyone, i'm michael holmes. you're watching "cnn newsroom." appreciate your company. the u.s. is preparing for a huge coronavirus vaccine rollout once the cdc director gives that final green light.

the first doses of the pfizer beon tech vaccine are set for delivery monday and doctors say they hope it will be the beginning of the end for the pandemic. the situation, of course, remains dispararemain s desperate. just look at that map there. it's not meant to be red. there are more than 16 million cases of coronavirus in the u.s., more than 297,000 people have died. cnn chief medical correspondent sanjay gupta has more on the vaccine, who should take it and what the rollout will look like once the cdc director signs off. >> well, just remarkable developments scientifically with this vaccine. we know the vaccine is now authorized and has now been recommended by the centers for disease control, as well, which means that lots of moving parts are starting to unfold. we know that the shipments are scheduled to begin this weekend, likely going to be arriving in many places by monday morning. and we could see people starting

to get vaccinated for the first time outside of a clinical trial early this week, perhaps even monday or tuesday. the process so far has been, once the fda authorized it, the cdc then recommended it and we get some better clarity on not only who the vaccine is for, recommended for, but also who may not be recommended. for example, we know that this is going to be recommended for people 16 and over. there was some back and forth on that among the advisory committee. some felt the age should be 18 and over but the fda and now the cdc saying 16 and over. we know that pregnant women, for example, were not part of the original clinical trial. 23 women that were in the trial became pregnant while in the trial, but there's not a lot of data. not a lot of data that it's dangerous or not safe and there's not a lot of data to show its evefficacy in pregnant women specifically. so, that's likely to end up being conversations between

pregnant women and their doctors. if a preg not woman is in a particularly high risk profession. expro exposed to covid over and over again. they may ask for that vaccine. we know that people who have had a significant allergic reaction in the past, so significant that they carry an epipen, for example. they may not be recommended to get the vaccine. and also people who have conditions that have compromised their immune system. but again, i think a lot of this is going to be conversations between individuals and their health care providers to try and figure out what's going to be the best course of action for them. 3 million doses, roughly, are going to be distributed around the country. and it's going to be up to each state to sort of triage these doses. we know that health care workers who take care of covid patients and people in long-term care facilities are going to be at the top of the list. but each state may handle that a bit differently. they may give all their doses to

health care workers or all their doses to long-term care facility residents or split it up. so, it may be different in one state as compared to the state right next door. so, that may feel a little disjointed in the beginning, but the hope is that as more and more vaccine is created, that it's going to help actually smooth out some of those -- some of those demand surges that are likely to happen in the various states. want to show you in terms of future vaccine, we know about pfizer, the u.s. government bought 100 million doses of that. moderna, another vaccine maker, is going to go through this whole same process next week. they've applied for emergency use authorization, there will be committee meetings at the end of next week on moderna's vaccine. take a look at the other vaccines possibly in the pipeline here, astrazeneca, 300 million doses. johnson and johnson, 100 million doses. we did get some news from

sanofi/gsk, they are going to take awhile longer before they have their vaccine. you start to do the math there, and in order to vaccinate the country, two doses of this vaccine, you're talking 600, 700 million doses. you may get there if these other vaccine makers actually get their emergency use authorizations and if they can manufacture these vaccines at the scale that is necessary then distribute them. so, there's a lot of hurdles still for this all to work and a lot of things have to go exactly right. but i got to tell you, it's an important, important step forward to actually have this vaccine authorized now here in the united states. i frankly did not think we would be having this conversation this year, but here we are. we're going to continue to follow it. see where the vaccines go, see how people are reacting to it. see how the distribution is going and as we learn more of those details, we'll certainly bring them to you. >> sanjay gupta, thank you. now, hospitals around the u.s. are being pushed to the

breaking point. in nevada, one hospital has even had to run a covid-19 unit from its parking garage. cnn's sara sidner went there to speak with health care workers on the front line. >> reporter: dr. jacob keeperman is mustering all his mental and physical strength as another wave of covid-19 patients show up in the intensive care unit at his hospital. everyone here has been going nonstop for months. what was your worst day? >> so, my worst day of this pandemic was actually the day i posted the tweet thanking my teammates. i had just finished a seven-day stretch in the intensive care unit, there had been patient after patient after patient who was not surviving this illness.

>> reporter: the tweet he sent was a simple selfie, showing off their new covid-19 wing. that wing set up in the hospital parking garage. that fact seemed to set president trump off, who retweeted a tweet calling it fake and a scam. that unleashed the twitter trolls. >> i was sad and devastated and i was angry. >> reporter: devastated and angry because all of the hard work being done by his colleagues inside this parking garage hospital every single y day, from the food staff, to the ceo. >> this is not fake. this is as real as it gets. >> reporter: the idea was conceived and executed months ago, but during this covid surge, patients are now parked in the spaces instead of cars. the number of coronavirus cases here has exploded. this week, there are actually

ten times the number of covid-19 cases than there were just a couple of months ago. so, the hospital had to do whatever it takes to find more bed space and so here we are on floor g of a parking garage. >> it was scary, you know? we don't expect to go to work and be working out of a parking garage. we've made it a hospital. so, we don't even consider it a garage anymore. >> reporter: did you ever think that in america they would have to treat people in a parking lot? >> apologize for what i'm going to say. when they started building this, i laugh. >> reporter: making a dusty, dirty parking garage into a sanitary space seemed laughable, but then she ended up hospitalized here. >> people don't realize how bad this is. the pain that you feel, the not being able to breathe, that's -- that's one of the worst things

that i ever experienced in my life. >> reporter: a few days later, her husband of 35 years was also hospitalized with covid. >> i thought, you know, she's going to die. >> reporter: after spending days in isolation with no visitation, they found each other again, parked just four beds apart in the parking garage. >> he coughs at nighttime. i can hear him. and if i yell, he can hear me. he knows that i'm still alive. >> that was cnn's sara sidner at that makeshift hospital in nevada. we're going to take a quick break. when we come back, some famous figures have a public health message for minorities in america. please take the coronavirus vaccine. but for many, distrust about a vaccine is rooted in a history of discrimination. we'll have more on that when we come back. ♪ you're still the one ♪ that i love to touch

♪ still the one ♪ and i can't get enough ♪ we're still having fun, ♪ and you're still the one applebee's 2 for $20. now that's eating good in the neighborhood. or psoriatic arthritis, little things can become your big moment. that's why there's otezla. otezla is not an injection or a cream. it's a pill that treats differently. for psoriasis, 75% clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness,

and scaliness of plaques. for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you.

welcome back. as america prepares to roll out its first coronavirus vaccine, there is plenty of concern about its distribution, particularly in minority communities and the willingness of many to take it. experts say more than 70% of african-americans and 60% of latinx americans know someone who has been hospitalized or died from covid-19, as the pandemic has hit those groups disproporti disproportionately hard. that's because of lack of access to quality food, clean air and water. former president barack obama says an historic mistrust of vaccines in minority communities may make some hesitant to take the shot, but he says he will, on television, to show it's

safe. cnn's stephanie elam is hoping her own example will encourage minorities to get the shot. she joined the trials of a vaccine candidate by johnson & johnson, the giant u.s. pharmaceutical company. but as stephanie points out, distrust of vaccines by some minorities runs deep. >> reporter: everyone in this office is here in the pursuit of science. >> hopefully i'll develop immunity over the next few weeks. >> reporter: ark clinical research will administer shots to about 200 people. part of a ram dndomized vaccine trial for johnson & johnson. >> i'm very comfortable with getting the injection. >> reporter: but not everyone is. especially since trials have been sped up to battle a coronavirus crisis that's out of control. nationwide, some 40,000 people are taking part in this trial. >> just breathe normally. >> reporter: including me. i'm not just reporting on this

phase three covid-19 vaccine trial, i'm part of it. i wanted to do this because i wanted to see how the science worked and i wanted other black people, other people of color, to see someone like them going through this process. >> generally, it's important that you study people from many different diverse backgrounds because you can have a different side effect profile or you can have different dose levels if it's a drug. >> what the united states government did was shameful and i am sorry. >> reporter: yet america's history of unethical medical studies on people have color has led to generations of fear. most notably, the decades long does key gee experiment that began in the 1930s. it was designed to study untreated syphilis in hundreds of black men without their consent. what do you hear from people, from those demographics that are

more hesitant? >> rather than thinking of this as an opportunity to get access to a new therapy earlier, there's more suspicious that this could be unsafe. so, there is definitely fear. >> reporter: but not all are fearful. this 22-year-old is waiting for his shot. >> i know a lot of people within my ethnicity would be, i guess, skeptical of it, but me, not really. >> reporter: insi signed the pa work and i've had my blood drawn and i've been shown what i'm taking home with me and how that technology is going to work and how i'm going to update them about any symptoms, any feelings that i have after i get the vaccine. all that's left is to get the needle in my arm. i don't know whether or not i'm going to get the placebo or the real vaccine, in fact, no one here knows what i'm going to get. it's all decided by a computer some place else. and though some vaccines are

further along in the approval process, america still needs more doses to cover the population, and there's great interest in candidates like this one from johnson & johnson. for one thing, it's just one shot, unlike the moderna and pfizer vaccines. >> it does get shipped from just a regular freezer setting and we're allowed to store in the refrigerator for 28 days. >> reporter: storage lesson aside, nurse princess is here to give me my shot. all right. deep breath, small poke. it felt like getting a flu shot. but now i've got to sit here and wait for 30 minutes to make sure there's no adverse effects right away. but i am still feeling really solid about my decision to do this. >> all right. no injection site reaction. you're okay. >> reporter: and hopefully, hopefully, this will get other people out there to trust science and to believe in science and medicine and how hard these people work. after getting the shot, i woke up the next morning and felt my

arm and didn't feel any effects from the shot. i didn't get the sniffles. dr. kim told me that some people get the placebo and do get some sniffles, maybe headaches and other people get the actual vaccine and have no effects. so, i really don't know what i got. this trial, however, is going to wrap up within the next week and then they're going to need to examine the data from at least half of the people involved in this trial so that they can move forward to try to get that emergency use authorization and that would not happen before january, but overall, i hope for other people who see me taking part in this, they will trust the science, they will trust the medicine and get themselves vaccinated, because too many people of color are losing their battle to the coronavirus. stephanie elam, cnn, los angeles. when we come back after a quick break, the warning that the planet is headed towards a climate catastrophe. what the united nations says leaders must do to repair the

damage from our war on nature. that's after the break. before you go over the river and through the woods this holiday season. remember, safe drivers save 40% with allstate. saving is easy when you're in good hands. call a local agent, or 1-800-allstate for a quote today. call a local agent, ♪ ♪ light it up like dynamite ♪ (this is ah) ♪ light it up like dynamite ♪ so watch me light the fire and set the night alight (alright) ♪ ♪ shining through the city...

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catastrophic temperature rise. that is why today i call on all leader worldwide to claim a state of emergency in their countries. >> that was the u.n. secretary gem calling for all world leader to declare a climate emergency. at a virtual summit during fifth anniversary of the paris climate accord he criticized the lack of progress and with some justification. gutierrez pointing out the damage already done to the environment, calling it a, quote, war on nature. he urged countries to not lose the opportunity afforded by the pandemic to prioritize making peace with the environment. speaking of the state of the planet, a massive iceberg is on a collision course with a remote riled full of pep begins and other wild life near antarctica.

derrick van dam has derails. >> it doesn't usually grab a lot of news headlines but it's garnering a lot of attention lately from scientists and biologists. it's on a collision corporation with this small island-teaming with wild life and that could set off an ecological disaster. we have to go back in time to july, 2017, when this gigantic iceberg kavld off the anti-arctic peninsula. it's massive. it weighs hundreds of billions of metric tons. it got caught in the prevailing crosscurrent. this is iceberg alley. you can see its proximity to south georgia island as well as pat gone ya and south america. we've highlighted the iceberg on

the satellite with the shading of orange. in the middle of september it was 900 miles away mt but now the middle of december puts it at just about a hundred kilometers a the shore line, within reach of the continental shelf. it's massive. for our u.s. audience it is larger than the u.s. state of rhode island. it is also about the same length as the province of bali. so this thing is absolutely huge. scientists, however, have deemed this a shallow iceberg because it's only about 200 meters deep. that's a concern because it means it could ground itself on the continental shelf which has the potential to damage some of the underwater ecosystems, disrupting foot paths for penguins, of course, who go out into these long journeys to collect food to feed their young. if they take longer than usual, they could actually end up

starving to death. it could altar some of the local currents in the ocean. climate change and whether or not it's destabilizing the ice shelf still under debate but one thing for sure. apt arctica warming at about three times the global average. back to you. >> that is incredible. some sad news from the world of country music. the legendary chael pride passing away at the aiming of 86 from, yes, complications of covid-19. he was the first black member of the country music hall of fame. he broke through country music's racial barrier. he went on to land more than 50 top country hits and we leave you with this 1971 performance of the grammy winning "kiss an angel good morning."

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welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm robin curnow. coming up, the covid surge gets worse and the united states prepares to shift doses of advantage seep around the country. that's not what is on president donald trump's mind.