-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com hi. welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and all around the world. thanks for joining me. you're watching cnn. i'm robyn curnow. just ahead, special delivery. millions of doses of the coronavirus vaccine on the way to dozens of facilities in all 50 u.s. states. another wave of the virus hitting south korea hard. now its president is warning tough restrictions could return. and in just a few hour's time the electoral college will certify the results of the u.s. election, putting the final touches on joe biden's victory. president trump remains in a state of denial. >> announcer: live from cnn

center, this is "cnn newsroom" with robyn curnow. after months of the coronavirus raging across the u.s., finally there is hope. first shipments of pfizer's coronavirus vaccines will begin to arrive across the country in the hours ahead and it is not a moment too soon. nearly 300,000 americans have lost their lives to the virus so far. among 16 million cases nationwide. on sunday, the u.s. set yet another record when it comes to hospitalization. the head of the food and drug administration says he hopes the vaccines will start right away. >> well, my hope, again, is that this happens very expeditiously, hopefully tomorrow. we've seen the vaccines go out. we've seen the press reports of hospitals waiting to vaccinate health care workers and those most vulnerable according to reck men dags of the acip and the cdc. so, it would be my greatest hope and desire that that occur

tomorrow. >> well, the plan is for tens of millions of people to be vaccinated by the end of the month. that requires, of course, a complex strategy to distribute the vaccine by land and air. ground zero for the shipments and has the report, pete. >> reporter: what a moment, especially considering the fact that we only first learned of this virus less than a year ago and now the vaccine is leaving from here. this spot is critical to the vaccine distribution network. this is pfizer's largest facility outside kalamazoo, michigan. what's interesting is the trucks carrying the vaccine from ups and fedex left here 8:30 sunday morning. in those trucks, 189 boxes of the pfizer vaccine, 975 viles to a box, five doses per vile. now hundreds of thousands of doses are being delivered throughout the country. the lion's share of the deliveries begin on monday morning. the bulk of them though later on tuesday. they're going to 600 individual locations according to operation

warp speed. those are places like hospitals and pharmacies, cvs and walgreens. and pfizer's head of global supply says this was months in the making. >> i couldn't be more confident than the distribution of the vaccine. we've worked incredibly hard over many months doing test shipments, improving our shippers, making sure that they can maintain temperature during the entire journey. and we're very happy with the solution. >> this is not just a ground game, also a major air operation. trucks left here bound for airports. flights took the vaccine to larger hubs where it could be distributed better throughout the country. and we saw some of those flights land today at ups headquarters in louisville, kentucky. this is just the start of a massive movement that all begins right here. pete muntean. >> california has seen three straight days of at least 30,000 new coronavirus cases.

and paul vercammen is in l.a. to see how hospitals plan to distribute the vaccine. >> reporter: the latest numbers out of los angeles county on the covid-19 outbreak are ghastly, more than 13,000 cases and more than 4,000 hospitalizations. 101 of those hospitalizations for covid-19 ruth here at the ucla medical center where they're also bracing for the arrival they say in the next day or two of the vaccine. they say shots will go into the arm of hospital workers. that is on wednesday. but how do you fight a pandemic as well as get your workers vaccinated? we talked to the chief medical officer here at ucla. >> there's years of preparedness behind a lot of these efforts. while we're taking care of our non-kofd 19 patients as well as our patients that are covid-19 as well, we're doing other things we need to do to keep our health care workers safe, including standing up a

vaccination program for them. we'll have the staffing to be able to do this and people are pitchi pitching in to make sure it works well. >> the priority here at ucla will be to get vaccinations for those health care workers who are constantly around covid-19 patients and close to those patients. now, he will not be one of those who gets the vaccine. that's because he's part of the astrazeneca clinical trial. reporting from ucla, i'm paul vercammen. back to you. joining me now, dr. jeffrey smith, executive vice president of hospital operations and chief operating officer at cedars-sinai medical center. his hospital will be among the first to get the covid-19 vaccine. great to have you on the show. thanks so much for joining me this hour. so, how has your hospital prepared for the arrival of this vaccine? >> thank you. our teams have been working around the clock to be prepared to receive and administer the vaccine. that includes making sure that we can receive the vaccine and put it directly into our

ultra-low temperature freezers and make sure they're kept at the proper temperature at all times. we've built the information system so we can schedule our health care workers and prioritize them appropriately to receive the vaccine, and we've scheduled vax nccinators, nurse who can get the vaccine. lots of logistics involved as we administer this vaccine. >> when are you expecting to receive it? >> we anticipate the next two days. >> i know you mentioned your nurses. how have you prioritized things? who gets it first? have you got enough for all your staff who needs it? >> we are prioritizing based on both personal risk based on the age and whether our health care workers have pre-existing medical conditions that put them at risk along with the patients that they care for and the potential risk of them being exposed to covid. so, both people who are caring for patients in areas like our emergency department and intensive care units as well as

people handling lab specimens and cleaning rooms, all the staff who could encounter patients with the virus or materials that put them at risk. >> what's the mood in the hospital? obviously it's been a rough, exhausting, emotionally draining, to say the least, few months through this year. how are they feeling with the thought this is going to be coming into the hospital in the next few days? >> those staff are really the health care heroes caring for patients on those front lines. they're tired. it's been over ten months now and many of them aric approximating up ext are picking up extra shifted and taking on more shifts than they would in order to provide for patients in our community. but they're excited. they're excited there's hope on the horizon to protect them and be administered to patients and hopefully bring this pandemic to an end. >> how huge is this logistically? will you be able to upscale, increase your capacity in the weeks and months ahead? is that going to be part of the challenge?

>> yes, so we are preparing to vaccinate our health care workers. at the same time, we and most the people in california and across the country are dealing with a growing surge of covid patients. so, we are working very hard to do both of those things at the same time. so, it is very logistically challenging, especially as we're all working hard to make sure that we have adequate people and adequate supplies that continue to provide care for patients. >> and the big question that no doubt folks in the area around you want to ask, you know, when do you start giving out doses to the public? >> so, we don't yet know. we'll be working closely with the health department on that and at the direction of both state and local health officials as well as the cdc. we anticipate that that will be sometime after the first of the year. >> and that certainly plays into your planning. how concerned are you that there might be log jams or delays, particularly when it comes to sort of the moving of this

vaccine around the u.s. and to the states? >> well, it certainly is a humongous nationwide effort, but we're very encouraged at the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine. we're looking forward to receiving our first shipments to help distribute those to other hospitals. and then soon for additional shipments to be shipped directly to those hospitals. so, big challenge but i think that our country is up to it. >> you know, we all want to take a deep breath and also thank the scientists who got this vaccine in record time. as a doctor, as a person who works within the medical field, how astounded are you that we're seeing the delivery of this vaccine within under a year? >> it really is amazing. this is a new type of vaccine that we used in only limited circumstances before. we know that no steps have been skipped in development of this vaccine to ensure that its

safety and effectiveness. but rather those processes were really done in parallel. so, it really is a remarkable scientific accomplishment to have a safe and effective vaccine with more in the pipeline to come in such a short period of time. >> yeah, it certainly is a historic moment even in the midst of all these rising infections. it's certainly to pause and to be grateful for. dr. jeffrey smith there in l.a. thank you very much. god bless you and all your staff who have been working so hard this year. good luck. >> thank you so much. canada is also preparing to roll out the pfizer-biontech vaccine. prime minister justin trudeau tweeted a photo of the plane carrying the first doses just after it landed on sunday evening. as you can see here, the vaccines are arriving though amid increasing cases, despite recent restrictions on movements in cities. canada's two largest provinces logged record setting case numbers just over the past week

alone. then several countries in europe are taking further action to contain their surging outbreaks. this past week, infections rose by more than 10% in places like the uk and germany. uk is expected to roll out mass testing programs in some of the worst hit areas. more than 1.5 million rapid tests will be deployed. germany meantime says it will go into hard lockdown starting next wednesday. all non-essential shops, services and schools will close until january 10th while christmas day gatherings will be reduced to just a handful of people. i want to turn to asia with several cases seeing huge spikes in covid cases n. south korea the infection total has climbed past 43,000 following record surge over the weekend. the country is considering tougher measures including limits and gatherings and closing down facilities to try and slow the spread. japan is expected to express countermeasures in the day ahead. officials have confirmed more

than 180,000 cases since the pandemic began. kristie lu stout joins me with more from hong kong. >> hi. compared to the united states and europe, east asia has largely been automobile to keep this virus in check. with this winter surge of new coronavirus cases over the weekend we saw both japan and south korea set new records in daily coronavirus cases. over the weekend, japan surpassed 3,000 new daily cases of covid-19. as winter sets in, the infection rates are growing. it's particularly hard in places in the north of japan like in hokkaido. happening this afternoon, as a matter of fact, the japanese government is having a special task force meeting where they will discuss additional countermeasures to control this growing outbreak, including possibly excluding tokyo and nagoya from a list of places that would be exempt from domestic travel surcharges. on top of that, over the weekend in south korea, south korea also announced a record high in daily

covid cases, announcing 1,030 new cases on saturday. on saturday we heard from president moon jae-in. in fact, he mobilized the nation's military, its police force as well as medical workers to try to contain the outbreak. on sunday he delaired it was an emergency situation and if south korea was not able to keep control of the outbreak it would have to issue for the first time ever a level three alert. take a listen to what president moon jae-in said on sunday. >> translator: it is a very serious and emergency situation. there is nowhere to back down. it is a desperate time to devote all efforts to stop the spread of corona by focusing all quarantine capabilities and administrative power. unless the outbreak can be contained now, it has come to a critical point to consider escalating the social distancing measures to the third level. >> level three alert would mean a boone social gatherings of

more than ten people, also work from home except essential workers. we've also learned in the last hour that ahead of the level three alert, the authorities in south korea have ordered schools in seoul and surrounding areas to be closed and to transition to remote learning. back to you, robyn. >> we're also seeing some positive or optimistic news coming out of new zealand in the cook islands. >> absolutely, an incredible announcement happening this afternoon. the announcement was made this afternoon by the prime minister of new zealand, jacinda ardern who said a travel bubble could open bup. but a travel bubble would have many conditions. the most important conditions, there would have to be no community transmission, zero local transmission of the virus in the places involved for at least 28 days. an exact date on when the travel bubble will begin as well as details, that remains yet to be determined. back to you. >> thank to that live from hong

kong. so coming up here at cnn in just a few hour's time u.s. electors will begin meeting to confirm president-elect joe biden's victory. just ahead the details on how the big day will go down. staying home is essential. but some can't do it alone. they need help to stay home... ...and stay safe. they need us and we need you. home instead. apply today. home instead. i'm captain kidd. captain.

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it's 18 minutes past the hour. welcome back. i'm robyn curnow. so, monday is a big day for president-elect joe biden and vice president kamala harris. u.s. electors will begin meeting a few hours from now to officially confirm their victory. biden is then expected to deliver remarks monday evening. as boris sanchez reports, there's still time and opportunity for more political drama. boris. >> reporter: the electors of the electoral college will gather in their respective states to cast their ballots and certify president-elect joe biden won the 2020 election. now, here's how it's going to work. this is going to be happening all throughout the day. these electors that have been selected since earlier in the summer, in the spring, they're going to gather and record their votes in writing on actual paper ballots individually for president and vice president. once they cast their ballots and count them, they're going to

sign six copies of a certificate of the vote. those copies are the actual official documents that certify their vote. and they're going to wind up going to their respective secretaries of state, to the u.s. senate, to the national archives, et cetera. but the most consequential certificates are going to be the ones that go to capitol hill, because that's where they will be counted on january 6th. notably an event that vice president pence will be presiding over. and there is a chance in that process for some drama for republican law makers who are supportive of the president, president trump, to raise an objection. ultimately though to sustain that objection for it to be consequential, they would need both chambers of congress to sustain that objection to agree to it and because democrats control the house of representatives, that appears extremely unlikely. but there still may be some moments rife with drama. ultimately the big thing to watch for tomorrow as the electoral college certifies the results of the election,

certifies that joe biden won the election, how many republican lawmakers, how many republican senators will finally come out and acknowledge that reality that joe biden won the election, that there was no widespread electoral fraud? that of course is something president trump is not ready to do. >> well, he's certainly not. in fact, mr. trump seems stuck on criticizing fellow republicans and even the supreme court for following the rules of democracy. >> we've proven it but no judge has had the courage including the supreme court. i am so disappointed in them. no judge including the supreme court of the united states has had the courage to allow it to be heard. the supreme court, all they did is say we don't have standing. so, they're saying essentially that the president of the united states and tech txas and these r states, great states, they don't have standing. here's the thing. they're winning on little

technicalities. they're saying the president of the united states does not have standing. >> in american history no other major party candidate has gone this long after an election without conceding. as biden looks ahead to his inauguration, president trump says his fight to overturn the election is not over. >> no, it's not over. we're going to keep going. we're going to keep going forward. we have numerous local cases in some of the states that got rigged and robbed from us. >> rigged and robbed the president says even though he has never presented proof to back that up. earlier i spoke with cnn political analyst and asked him what he thinks mr. trump actually means when he says, the fight is not over. >> well, it still has to go to congress in january and congress has to tally up the votes and accept them. and obviously he might be hoping that somehow republicans are going to break with the official vote. but that's not going to happen

other than a couple of people who have said they're going to do this. he's fighting for something beyond the election. i don't think he's even fighting to win anymore. he's fighting to delegitimize the election, and he's fighting to make himself in a hero within the republican party in the next years to come. >> this is what's interesting. in many ways particularly the legal battle certainly has seemed like a dead loss legally. for many experts when they accept these legal challenges. in many ways it's created a momentum, a message and potentially a movement for mr. trump in these days and weeks since he lost and of course a sizable war chest of donations and dollars. how do you see president trump channelling that? >> well, one option is that he decides that he wants to run again in four years and try to return to the white house and use this controversy to argue he never lost and to mobilize supporters that somehow they

were robbed of a fair result. another is he doesn't want to come back into politics or he doesn't but he's using this to remain relevant within conservative circles, to remain relevant as a public figure, someone who's going to be feared and listened to even if he doesn't reenter the world of politics and goes into the media or stays into business. it's a dangerous way to do this. he's doing this by attacking the legitimacy of the election and attacking the legitimacy of the results. and that's the thing we can't forget. this isn't some kind of game. this is the president attacking our democratic process. >> that was cnn political analyst julian zell czar. don't miss our special coverage of the electoral coverage vote starting at 11:00 p.m. monday morning in new york, 4:00 p.m. in london. right here on cnn. coming up in just a moment a closer look at the massive, massive vaccine rollout beginning in the u.s., what the head of the fda is saying about

the decision to authorize it.

welcome back to "cnn newsroom." i'm robyn curnow. finally the historic moment the people in the u.s. have been waiting for. about six hours from now the first shipments of covid-19 vaccine will be delivered and soon all 50 states have doses available to them. the white house had major pressure on the fda to get the vaccine introduced. but the fda told jake tapper they were not influenced by politics and only followed

science. take a listen. >> we have been very clear, and i'll say it again here, that nothing decided our decision, no external comments, no external pressure other than the science and data guided our decision making. if you look at the timetable here immediately after the vaccine advisory committee, our team spent that night, we decided to go forward and you know by early morning, before 7:00 a.m. we issued a statement saying we were moving forward working with pfizer to get the authorization out. and we worked throughout the day to do that. our timeline, how we approach this was based upon our thorough review of the science and data. that's the promise we made to the american people. the transparency around that. and that's what we did. >> most governors expect to run out of their first shipments of the pfizer vaccines within days. there are 2.9 million doses of the vaccine in this first shipment. that's a lot. but it's also less than 1% of the u.s. population. can you give us some sort of timetable as to when, say, 100

million doses will have gone out the door? >> i personally can't. fda's responsibility is on the regulatory side. however we're working hard with the supply chain to get supply up and running and assessing the quality manufacturing. i have heard public reports from the department of health and human services that the expectation is in the next several months there will be enough supply of vaccines to vaccinate 100 million americans. >> and now the vaccines have shipped in the u.s., what about developing countries who can't afford them? earlier on in the pandemic, solidarity pledge committed nations not to board vaccines when one was found. but that seems to be now non-existent. nine out of ten people in poorer countries won't receive a covid vaccine next year. and wealthier nations have enough doses to vaccinate their population as much as three times over. mexico is among those countries where the vaccine will be in

short supply or at least early on. it's expected to receive 250,000 doses by the end of the year even though the pandemic is at peak there. here's matt rivers. >> reporter: here just south of the u.s.-mexico boarder in the city of tijuana, mexico, just like many places around the world we are watching as the united states has begun to distribute vaccines all across that country. and we know that the u.s. is not going to be able to vaccinate the vast majority of its population very quickly. but it is safe to say that the u.s. is in a better position than mexico is when it comes to vaccines. consider the plan announced by mexico's government so far. 250,000 doses of the pfizer vaccine will arrive here in mexico for distribution this month. from january through april, we are expecting another 15 million doses to arrive here of that same vaccine. that's good enough to vaccinate roughly 7.6 million mexicans

against covid-19 of a total population here in this country of roughly 130 million people. as we watch the u.s. distribute vaccines, here in mexico, it is arguably the worst time of this pandemic so far. in recent days we have seen several new records set in terms of newly confirmed cases. the number hoff daily confirmed deaths from covid-19 remains stubbornly high. and so i think it's an important reminder that during times of a pandemic, even with the shortcomings that we see in the united states, it is still better to be a richer country than it is to be a poorer one. matt rivers, cnn tijuana, mexico. in latin america, some countries are struggling to get a handle on this pandemic. only a handful of countries are reporting fewer covid cases on average this past week. most are either staying the same or reporting higher numbers. that includes venezuela in orange here at the top.

venezuela has recorded almost 108,000 cases according to johns hopkins university. experts say those numbers may be severely underreported. years of mismanagement have left the health care system grossly underprepared. many covid patients told cnn they would rather take their chances at home than be in hospital. still ahead on cnn after winning a third term in office, allegations of corruption and human rights abuses. an exclusive interview with cnn. that's next. responds to snoring-automatically. so no hiding under your pillow. or opting for the couch. your best sleep. all night. every night. experience the mattress ranked #1 in customer satisfaction by jd power two years in a row. l'oréal's magic root cover up three seconds to flawless roots three...two...one... roots gone! magic root cover up by l'oréal paris oh my gosh!

home instead has helped seniors stay home. now, staying home isn't just staying in the place they love. it's staying safe. home instead. to us, it's personal. for the better. whatever question i have i feel like there's an avenue to seek the answer. hit that app and you start a story, you're on an adventure. download a new book within seconds and it's ready to go. there's something for everybody on audible. i like short stories. short stories are easy. they're quick. i like long and like intricate stories, that's really what i love. audible originals. i like biographies. self-help. fantasy. true crime podcasts. i love it so much. i can literally listen to anything. i can do it any time. and any place. and you know, for as long as i like. getting really into a story can totally transform where you are and your mindset.

it's really cool. every time i learn something new, it just fuels the curiosity to explore more, to learn more. there's anything and everything. to start your free 30-day trial, just text listen 25 to 500500. . . . i had hiv, it was difficult for . . . . . . me to accept. i decided . . . . . . hiv doesn't define me. my name's dimitri. and i'm on biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment . . . . . . used for hiv in certain adults. it's not a cure, but with one small pill . . . . . . biktarvy fights hiv to help you get to and stay undetectable. that's when the amount of virus is so low . . . . . . it cannot be measured by a lab test. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects include a build-up of lactic acid and liver problems. do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin.

tell your doctor about all the medicines and supplements you take, . . . . . . if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you have kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis. if you have hepatitis b, do not stop taking biktarvy without talking to your doctor. common side effects were diarrhea, nausea, and headache. if you're living with hiv . . . . . . keep loving who you are. and ask your doctor if biktarvy is right for you. a day ahead the president of the ivory coast is expected to be sworn in for his third term in office after winning a highly controversial election. this report does contain graphic images. scott. >> reporter: this video shows people in ivory coast blocking a

major highway last month to protest the re-election of the country's president. and sometime after the video ends, shots are fired. this was the aftermath of what was supposed to be a peaceful protest. victims lying motionless on the pavement. witnesses told human rights watch that there were three people killed after security forces opened fire. investigations are underway. but president alassane ouattara has made up his mind. >> this is a lie. i have given strict to the defense forces not to use guns and no one shot along the forces. >> it is premature to call that a lie. >> the shooting capped off a string of pre- and post-election protests and violence.

85 people have been killed on both sides, hundreds more injured and more than 15,000 fled the country fearing a return to the civil war violence that brought president obama tara to power almost a decade ago. the constitution limits presidents to just two. >> uts a decision i'm glad i took today because the country would have been in a mess if i had not been a candidate. >> do you understand why your opponents and people in your country were upset by your decision. >> no, i think they just know they could win not. they're not democrats. >> while the commission encouraged him to run. >> does that sound like democracy to you? >> let me tell you, democracy does not mean that anyone should

come. we are young countries, there are fragile countries. there should be available to say what they're going to do for the people and for the country. >> those candidates who were allowed to run boycotted the election before the vote and afterwards set up a parallel government to organize a new vote. one exiled candidate went even further. >> he's a con artist. and a liar. and he's behaving like a culprit and a culprit should be jailed. >> reporter: but it was one of ouattara's main rivals who was jailed. another was put under house arrest. >> so, first donald trump decide to form a government because biden has won re-election. it wou he would be sent to jail right away. and this is what we're doing. >> reporter: election observers from the american carter center found serious concerns about

restrictions on civil liberties, freedom of expression and the right to vote and be elected, which threatened to undo democratic process. but it seems the rest of the world is unwilling to make a fuss. not even france, which has strong ties to its former colony. >> with a relatively recent instance of civil war in on 2010 and '11 in the country and before the election there being a real possibility of returning to that, i think it was kind of seen as better to just accept what is and what people know. >> democracy has been sacrificed in the name of the stability. >> i think it's fair to say that, yes. >> for now at least there's peace in ivory coast, though the real war may be with democracy itself. scott mcclain, cnn. thanks for watching cnn. i'm robyn curnow. for our international viewers, "world sport" is next. for everyone else, the news

continues after this quick break.

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welcome back. i'm robyn curnow. it is 45 minutes past the hour. more though on our top story. after months of waiting, the first shipments of pfizer's coronavirus vaccine are on their way to all 50 states here in the u.s. and you can see one of those shipments here arriving in l.a. just a short time ago. this relief, of course, can't come soon enough with deaths and cases soaring to new records across the country. more than 30,000 americans have died just in the first two weeks of this month and the u.s. also set another new record for covid hospitalizations since the pandemic began. scientists are now reassuring americans the vaccine was approved after rigorous

scientific review and they're urging everyone not to be skeptical about getting it. meanwhile the u.s. plans to distribute 40 million doses of the vaccine just by the end of the year, with the goal of having 100 million people vaccinated by the end of march. dianne gallagher has more on the logistics of this massive vaccine rollout, diyan. >> reporter: viles of the pfizer vaccine loaded on to a cargo plane in grand rapids, michigan, set for tennessee, the headquarters of fedex where they're going to divvy up those vaccines and send them to the western half of the country. ups did the same thing, flying to its headquarters in louisville. it will handle the eastern half of the country. a lot is being discussed about the chain of control. because these packages take a lot of effort. this is a complex logistical operation. every couple minutes we are going to know what's going on.

fedex says that it receives a transmission every two seconds on the location of these vaccine packages. ups says its using bluetooth technology as well to make sure it has precise eyes in real time on where these packages are located. both companies say they are also able to monitor those extreme cold conditions. we're talking negative 100 degrees fahrenheit that they have to stay in so they can make sure there's no sort of change in that -- in transit there. now, at this time, all 50 states are going to receive some vaccine. what's going to happen from there will differ depending on the state. but pfizer says it plans to send out an even larger shipment on monday from its facilities. dianne gallagher, cnn, grand rapids, michigan. l.j. tan is a vaccine expert, also the chief strategy expert of the immunization

action coalition. he joins me now from chicago. lovely to have you on the show. what we're seeing is the biggest vaccination drive in u.s. history. has anything been done like this before? >> no, no. robyn, thank you so much for having me on the show. i really appreciate it. just to -- i think the word unprecedented has been used a lot, but i think there's a reason for that. this is unprecedented. this is going to be a huge, huge enterprise for the united states to get as many people vaccinated as we can as quickly as possible. so, not only are we talking about capacity and number of people. we're talking about trying to do this fast so that we can get out of this pandemic. >> how optimistic are you when you know that these vaccinations are going to start getting into peoples' arms in the next few days? as you look at the death rate, as you look at the infection rates, where do you see this ending? >> so, this is -- so, i think we all are, like, looking at this and we know it's going to get us out of this eventually.

but i think i'm really optimistic about that. i think what we want to do is temper that with a little bit of reality. we're not going to get all our vaccine at the same time. we'll have to keep vaccinating. i think in the summer we'll be out of this by the fall. i think we'll get in other words sometime in summer we're hoping that anybody in the u.s. wants to get protected and get vaccinated will have access to vaccine. but until then, i think we will still be having to do what we need odo to get through the pandemic. but we do now have the tools to get us out of it. >> and how important is it for people who have already had covid to also be vaccinated? >> i think it's extremely important but i think if you're thinking at the beginning when we have a shortage -- or not a shortage, but we have a supply capacity build up, when there's not enough vaccine to meet the number of people we need to get vaccinated, i think we move to people who have already have covid lower down in the line because they have had covid.

but ultimately, the recommendation is they still get vaccinated. the reason for that is we do not know the duration of immunity from natural infection. so, i think there's a general feeling that at least three months, yeah, we still have that immunity from the natural infection. but beyond that, we are -- we don't know. i mean, i think we need to keep reminding ourselves, as hard as it seems, we're not even at a year out from actually first discovering this virus, right? so, i think we need to e are mind us of that. we don't know a lot of the duration of immunity from natural infection, and i think that's the reason why we're going to keep recommended people get vaccinated even though they might have had prior infection. >> and with that in mind, it's also unclear if the vaccine prevents infection or just sickness. and so there really is still so much to understand about the virus and also as you were saying the body's immune response just to the vaccine as well. >> absolutely. and i think this is something that i think we're all actively looking at. so, the idea is there's

immunization and immunity. immunization is going to create immunity within us, and that's what ends up protecting us from getting sick. but our immune system is pretty remarkable. one of the things we're beginning to make sure is that that immunity that's created by immunization will also prevent us from spreading the disease. and the reason for that is because there's something that happens with a lot of respiratory infections that's called carriage. in the carriage only happens in what we call the nasopharyngeal area which is your nose and your mouth. so, we need to make sure that when you get vaccinated the vaccine will also prevent the virus from staying in your nasopharyngeal area so that when you cough and sneeze you're not shedding virus even though you yourself are not getting sick. so, that's something people are looking at, to make sure the carriage is not there. if the carriage is not there, you're not transmitting. personally speaking, i would be surprised if we end up not preventing transmission. and the reason for that is

because the data from the two vaccines that we've got right now, the pfizer vaccine and the moderna vaccine is that the immune response to the vaccine is extremely vigorous. in fact it's better than what we get with people who had natural infection. so, i think i'm optimistic that we will also prevent transmission, but we need to look at the science. >> and who shouldn't get this vaccine? >> yeah, so right now the only so-called contraindication to getting the vaccine actually is just if you've had an allergic reaction to any component in the vaccine. now, because of some of the experience, the very preliminary experience we've had with the pfizer vaccine in the united kingdom where we had a couple of allergic reactions -- and i remind folks the allergic reactions were in people who were severely allergic because they were carrying epipens. the recommendation said those people should be first for vaccination as well.

otherwise, everyone can get vaccinated. with pregnancy we don't have a lot of data regarding the safety in pregnant women. the general feeling pregnant women can choose to get vaccinated if they want to do that. and there is a lot of ongoing research to continue to compile the data for pregnant women. >> l.j. tan, thank you very much for joining us, giving us your expertise. vaccine expert, also chief strategy expert at immunization action coalition. thank you, sir. >> thank you, robyn for this opportunity. coronavirus vaccines are on the way. where there's hope, there's hesitancy. tiktok is coming to the rescue in only the way it can as anna stewart reports. ♪ >> explaining how a vaccine works isn't easy. so, these tiktoking scientists have got creative.

♪ >> they're answering all sorts of questions to allay vaccine concerns and promote confidence. they're part of team halo, an international group of experts put together by the un. and they've generated more than 20 million views on tiktok. >> working exclusively with making a covid-19 vaccine. >> a vaccine research scientist for 30 years, paul mckay is working on a covid-19 vaccine candidate being developed by imperial college. and he's creating tiktok videos on the side. >> you're not just tackling the anti-vaxxers or the antivax sentiment. you're tackling people who aren't sure and ask questions. >> you have the right to ask questions. you have the right to know what goes into your body. >> you're now a bit of a tiktok star. >> i wouldn't say star.

♪ we come out and say vaccines have been the single greatest health benefit since clean water. it's saved more people's lives than any other medical intervention. >> team halo is using social media to bolster vaccine confidence. of course that's also where rumor and misinformation spreads. in the uk, just 63.4% of people surveyed said they would definitely get a covid-19 vaccine. after viewing this information online, that number dropped to just 54%. >> i'm very cautious. if anything i don't really know or understand. >> it's been researched and everything and clinical trials. >> yeah, we trust the scientists i guess. >> you've got take a leap of faith for the greater good of society, no? if you don't do that, nobody takes it, it's not going to work. >> health experts warn that a vaccine will need to be accepted by at least 70% of the population to provide herd

immunity. and perhaps more. >> i'm just giving people facts and information. i'm not trying to change their minds. i'm not trying to make them think differently or change their lifestyles. i'm just trying to give them the information they don't have access to. so, i'm not against them. i'm wanting to work with them. >> anna stewart, cnn, london. thanks so much for watching i'm robyn curnow. i'm going to hand it over to my colleague for another hour of "cnn newsroom" after the break. enjoy. unexpected situation? l'oréal's magic root cover up three seconds to flawless roots

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-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com hello and welcome to all of you, our viewers joining us here in the united states and all around the world. you're watching "cnn newsroom" and i'm kim brunhuber. the first batch of the covid vaccine has arrived in california and should be delivered just hours from now. we'll look at plans to distribute it. meanwhile, other parts of the world are taking action amid a spike in coronavirus cases. we'll go live to berlin, london, hong kong. and the electoral college is set to seal the end of donald trump's presidency, but he's still not going quietly.