i'm kate bolduan. thank you so much for joining us this hour. we're continuing to follow the breaking news this morning, fda scientists are giving a big boost to a second covid-19 vaccine that could get the green light later this week. this one we're talking about is from moderna. fda briefing documents were just released this morning and they confirm that the -- they confirm the surprisingly good efficacy of this vaccine. almost 95% effective. and also, safe. also today we have learned that the majority of pfizer's initial vaccine shipment will be delivered with 425 sites across the country expected to receive the doses. health care workers from coast-to-coast rolling up their sleeves, getting the shots in hopes of finally putting this pandemic behind us.

>> it is such a moment of hope because we can see the light. >> i wanted to do it to inspire people who may be skeptical about taking the vaccine. >> i want you to know help is on the way. >> if i can be the one person who helps show person it's okay to do this, it's okay to get the vaccine, it's safe, we trust the science, the methods, then i'm going to be that person. >> with the vaccines really rolling out, americans appear to be getting more and more comfortable with the idea of getting vaccinated. a new poll say 71% of americans definitely or probably get would get a vaccine. that's up from 63% in september. but it is also important to remember that it will still be months before the majority of americans can get a shot. this is a moment that dr. anthony fauci really has described as bittersweet today. such hope with these vaccines but still the reality that the virus is ravaging the country as we speak.

more than 300,000 coronavirus deaths now in the united states. 300,000 and almost 200,000 new cases were reported just yesterday. and more than 110,000 people are now filling hospitals with coronavirus, breaking more and more records and putting more and more strain on hospital systems throughout the nation. >> let's start with this news on the moderna vaccine. joining me now is dr. sanjay gupta who's been going through the details of these moderna documents. what are you seeing in these documents? what do they tell you about the moderna vaccine? >> these are sort of the documents that the company and the fda released prior to these advisory meetings and you keep in mind, kate, we had only really heard from the company prior to this in terms of how effective the vaccine was, but as you point out 94.5% effective. it's a slightly different sort of dosing schedule.

they give more details about who benefits the most from this and how you separate out the doses. and when the overall vaccine is most effective in the time frame of things. but i think the biggest thing here, when i've gone through these documents. there's no red flags, something that jumps out at you and says here's a group of people that should not take this vaccine and it does match with what we've generally heard so far from the company in terms of the over all numbers. it's good news. we'll see what the advisory committee does with it. but it tracks with what we've heard and what pfizer presented a week ago as well. >> do you get a sense of how different or similar the moderna vaccine is from the pfizer one? >> they're very similar vaccines. they're both the messenger rna vaccines, people have heard this term a lot in the pfizer,

biontech as well as the moderna one. but let me show you the specifics here. when it comes to moderna -- we'll hear more from the advisory committee -- it's two 100 micro gram doses separated by a month. it doesn't need to be kept quite as cold as the pfizer vaccine. that could be important because there's places that may not have the same cold storage capacity so this vaccine may be able to get distributed more widely. that middle line there, 94.5% efficacy. that's remarkable. it's hard to overstate that. 18 and older. pfizer was 16 and older in terms of who might take this vaccine and we know the moderna one is still being considered for authorization, not there yet. let me contrast that with the pfizer one. also two doses, but 30 microgram

doses, 95% efficacy. one thing with the moderna vaccine is that the maximum effectiveness is typically about two weeks after the second dose. so one dose, wait a month, and then two weeks after that. so a total of six weeks from the time you start getting vaccinated is when you have the maximum effectiveness, kate. >> you touch on this a bit, but are there outstanding questions that you have that you think will really need to be focused on when the fda -- when the vaccine advisory committee meets that the fda scientists might point to in these documents or groups that they don't have enough data on, or side effects? >> yeah. i mean, it's interesting in both these trials pregnant women were not included in the trials. so that is something that came up, obviously, during the pfizer trial, women who are pregnant, may become pregnant during the vaccination period. that's going to be something we want to hear from the the

advisory committee and then the cdc. what pfizer basically did is say, let's be -- the cdc said for the pfizer vaccine, let's be transparent about this. there's not enough data on pregnant women to suggest there's harm, that will be a decision between women and their health care providers we may hear a similar thing with the moderna vaccine. people with allergic reactions to things in the past. similar questions may arise here. and there's other questions, too. like if you've been infected recently, you should have antibodies, should you get the vaccine still in a lot of people may not know for certain but that's a question. and say you get one dose. everybody is saying we're not going to suggest anybody just get one dose, but if you have a lot of effectiveness at one dose and you're in the middle of a pandemic and there's not enough, is that going to be something that may be recommended in

certain situations. so far it's not, dr. fauci, the cdc, everyone is saying you have to get the two doses. i think those are some of the questions that may get raised over the next few days. >> more broadly, what does the possibility of having, then it would be two vaccines on the market, available, what does that mean -- what should that mean to folks at home in the broader effort to be done with this pandemic? >> that is the question. so if you just look at the two vaccines and we've looked at the manufacturing capabilities and all that sort of stuff, when people have heard the number 40 million doses by the end of the year, which would be enough for 20 million people, that was already sort of counting on the idea that the moderna vaccine would likely be authorized. so we know the pfizer batch has 6.4 million doses out, they think closer to 25 million doses by the end of the year for the united states. moderna could come online

providing another 15 million. you can see the calendar, january another 60 million. february, 200 million. now, keep in mind, in this country if you want to get to that 70% roughly of people inoculated, 75%, we're talking 450, 500 million doses would be necessary. and if the manufacturing sort of keeps up at that pace, you're talking end of spring, early summer we could be at those numbers if people get the vaccines and nothing goes wrong. >> this week being another huge week as the vaccine advisory board meets later this week on this moderna vaccine. sanjay, thank you. new jersey's first covid vaccines are being administered this morning and the leading hospital in the state opened a special vaccine clinic. miguel marquez is in newark, new jersey. what's happening there? >> reporter: this is rut gers medical center and this is one

of six different locations in the state that will start administering these vaccines right now. we were here, present, when the first five individuals got the vaccine today. this is newark, this is an area that has been hard hit by the covid-19, the african-american and latino communities here, many family members and loved ones have passed away from this. 18,000 total new jerseyians have died from it. their first case of covid-19 was march 4th of this year, they have now over 400,000 cases but it is growing. there is hope, we spoke to an e.r. nurse, a registered nurs who's been here on the front lines since the beginning of the pandemic about being the first to get that shot today. >> it is -- it's almost hard to put in words, right, to tell you

what my -- what my deepest soul feels having received this shot. this, to me, this is a lifeline. this, to me, i don't have to be afraid. i know that in another month and a half i will not have to be afraid to touch people. >> so she has to get the second shot in 21 days and then two weeks after that, she thinks she'll be fully inoculated. new jersey will get about 76,000 doses of the vaccine and then it will ramp up from there. three phases, the first phase, the essential workers, 650,000 people are in that first phase. that gives you an idea how far they have to go. back to you. >> thank you so much. across the country, medical workers are lining up to do the same thing, roll up their sleeves and receive the first doses of the pfizer vaccine. our next guest was one of them, dr. todd schaeffer, one of the first in north dakota to get the

shot. he's joining us now. thank you so much doctor. how are you feeling physically this morning, the day after? any side effects at all for you? >> i have no side effects whatsoever. i feel wonderful this morning. >> that is great to hear. i saw -- we just saw an er nurse there, one of my colleagues was playing how emotional she was to get the vaccine and i heard in another interview, a doctor saying she felt like she won the lottery in being able to get the shot and get it early. beyond physically, how are you feeling emotionally about this today after fighting the pandemic for so long? >> that's exactly the way we feel in north dakota as well. as our president described in bismark here, this is a beacon of hope, this is a light at the end of the tunnel that we hoped to get to when we started down the road in this pandemic. the end is near. we still have to be vigilant in what we're doing but this gives

us a fighting chance to defeat this pandemic. >> do you know why you were among the first to get the vaccine at your hospital? >> well, i was chosen as the physician leader, as was indicated early in the broadcast. other people have echoed my sentiments we're here with you in solidarity to say we are at the front lines we want to be there to show you that we want to take this with you. it's important for our staff to feel safe in getting the vaccine and understand it's effectiveness. and we want them to -- we wouldn't want them to do something we wouldn't do ourselves. so as a physician leader i wanted to be there with them to take one of the first doses. >> fantastic. there is polling that shows more and more people are willing to get the vaccine. but among the people who still say they likely will not, people living in rural parts of the country are a big group of them, 35% saying definitely or probably not going to be getting

vaccinated. how big of a problem or concern is it for you, especially in a state with many, many rural parts in north dakota? >> right. as we're the largest rural provider in the country. we do understand the intricacies of taking care of patients in a rural setting. the moderna will give us a little bit better of a fighting chance because of the cold storage discussion that dr. gupta mentioned. i feel that once we do roll this out and we can see that the vaccines indeed are safe and they are effective, that more and more people will get in line to help get the vaccination in those rural communities. i think the biggest thing is that we see the safety profile of it. once the trials themselves have, you know, tens of thousands of people in them but as millions of doses are rolled out and people are doing well with it, i think we'll see more and more

people understand that it'll be their turn to get it and feel comfortable with getting it. >> doctor, thank you for coming on. and thank you for getting it, appreciate it zble. coming up, following the electoral college vote yesterday, senator mitch mcconnell finally acknowledges the truth. and how one of vladimir putin's detractors was attacked. look, this isn't my first rodeo

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election and donald trump lost. here is the senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell, on the senate floor today. >> so as of this morning our country has officially a president-elect and a vice president-elect. the electoral college has spoken. so today i want to congratulate president-elect joe biden, the president-elect is no stranger to the senate. he's devoted himself to public service for many years. i also want to congratulate the vice president-elect, our colleague from california, senator harris. >> the reason his recognition is such a statement is because of the verbal gymnastics that he and so many republicans have engaged in for weeks now to avoid saying that very thing. senator john bow ras sew called it a got you question when asked about joe biden's win and that was yesterday. and president trump is still trying to fight the results,

refusing to accept reality. joining me is jessica dean and manu raju with all of this. what does this mean now that we hear it from mcconnell? >> reporter: i think we'll hear more republicans acknowledge reality as well that joe biden won the race. a number of republicans i talked to in the run up to december 14th pointed to december 14th as the day when the electoral college votes to make joe biden officially the winner of the race even though that was clear it was going to happen. we should expect more to say that. john thune, the number two republican last night, told reporters it's time to move on and any efforts to try to overturn the election results when it comes time on january 6th for congress to convene, those efforts are going nowhere by the words of john thune. mitch mcconnell signaling that as well. but there are a number of republicans who have yet to acknowledge reality, would not

do so after last night when the electoral college voted to make joe biden's election official. senator john kennedy of louisiana said i don't have anything on you for that when i asked if he would accept joe biden. and i also asked steve daines, who's a montana republican, about whether or not he believes biden will be the president, he said that january is when it comes time for congress to make this official. so we'll see if others join mcconnell but right now also kate, house republican leader, kevin mccarthy still silent on the issue, as is his number two, steve scalise. joe biden made clear yesterday he's had enough of this. what are you hearing today now, jessica? >> reporter: we heard from president-elect biden himself on a call to supporters last night. he said at least 7 senior republicans called him to

congratulate him, reach out to him and they hoped to work together. it's long been biden's theory that once president trump is out of office that republicans will be willing to make deals, specifically senate republicans. a lot of people said, look, this isn't the same senate you were in years ago. this is a very different environment. but biden has been quite hesitant to go the legal route. web when we were waiting for the the election to be validated by the general services administration he said over and over again he believed his experience showed that republicans would come over that the fever would break and he would be acknowledged by them as the president-elect. and that's what we're beginning to see now. but as manu just noted, a lot of room to go in terms of all republicans acknowledging what we know to be true. last night president-elect biden going through and dismantling president trump's attack on democracy, calling it unprecedented, and he also called on americans to move forward, to unite and turn the page.

take a listen. >> we the people voted, faith in our institutions held. the integrity of our elections remains intact. and now it's time to turn the page as we've done throughout our history. to unite, to heal. >> reporter: and, of course, that is the big task at hand, kate, can the nation come together and move forward after what has been such a divisive time. >> thank you both so much. coming up, he was on the brink of death after being poisoned now a cnn investigation reveals a top secret mission against one of vladimir putin's political enemies.

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this morning, six weeks after the election here in the united states, russian president vladimir putin finally congratulated joe biden on his victory, putting out a statement on that there. yet notably not commenting at all on the blockbuster investigation just out by cnn and the investigative group bell and cat it uncovered evidence that the russian security

service had an elite team following alexei navalny for years. alexei navalny was poisoned in august and nearly died. cnn correspondent clarissa ward and her team have been working this story for months. watch. >> reporter: august 20th, on a flight to moscow, as passenger captures the wails of alexei navalny. the russian opposition leader has suddenly fallen ill and he knows exactly why. >> i get out of this bathroom, go over to the flight attendant and said, i was poisoned. i'm going to die. and then i laid down at his feet to die. >> reporter: you knew in that moment that you had been poisoned? >> yes. >> reporter: quick thinking from the pilot saves his life. instead of flying to moscow, three hours away, the plane

diverts to omsk. three days later alexei navalny is flown to berlin where the government announces he's been poisoned with a nerve agent, novichok. now a top secret mission tracking alexei navalny. involving experts in chemical weapons who work for the fsb, the russian successor to the kgb. this building on the outskirts of moscow was the headquarters of the operation. >> we're staying in the car because we don't want to attract any attention. but this compound is part of the institution of criminalistics of the fsb, russia's security service. and beyond that fence, an elite team of operatives have been tracking navalny's every move for more than three years. >> reporter: cnn has examined hundreds of pages of phone records and flight manifests that reveal backgrounds, communications and travel of the group. the documents were obtained by

online investigative outlet belling cat. which two years ago identified the russian agents sent to pois poison sergei skri pof. the team's leader an expert in chemical weapons. several of the team are doctors, but they weren't recruited to save lives. >> i wanted to show you some photographs here and ask you if if you recognize -- if you've ever seen any of the men in those photographs? >> no. >> you don't recognize them? >> i don't recognize any of them. would it surprise you to learn that some of these men went on more than 30 trips with you over the course of three years?

>> this is absolutely terrifying. i don't know if terrifying is a good word. >> i think it's a pretty good word. >> yes, but the -- i understand how system work in russia. i understand that putin hates me. i understand that these people sitting in the kremlin are ready to kill. >> is it your contention that vladimir putin must have been aware of this? >> of course. 100%. it could have not been happened without direct order of putin. because it's -- well, it's big scale. >> reporter: in the weeks before he was poisoned navalny and his wife took a short vacation to a resort. our investigation has uncovered that the fsb team followed. according to the belling cat, the security cameras inside the hotel were mysteriously turned off while they were there. alexei navalny said his wife felt uncomfortable, she took

videos and photos of men she felt were following them. this man i also don't recognize she says. hours after the fsb's toxins team left, ulia suddenly felt sick. >> she said, well, i feel really, really bad. do you need ambulance? no. is it heart? no. is it stomach? no. is it head? no. could you describe it? no. and then we approach restaurant and she said, well, i feel like worse in my life. i never felt it before, but unfortunately, and, of course, i couldn't connect these dots. now i am -- now i realize how bad she was. >> reporter: she recovered but the fsb unit was apparently not done with the navalnys.

>> in the days after, cell phone data shows several senior fsb officials were in regular contact with a lab in this compound. it's called the signal institute. and cnn and belling cat have established that it has been involved with researching and developing novichok. in mid august, navalny and his team travelled to siberia. at least five members of the fsb unit make the same journey on different flights. alexei navalny and his colleagues stay at a hotel. we travelled to the siberian city to retrace his steps on the night he was poisoned. >> this is the room that alexei navalny was staying in and it looks like my room here is right next door. >> reporter: according to navalny, he went to bed at around midnight after drinking a cocktail with his team. the toxins unit was not far away.

using a ping from a cell phone we've been able to place one of the fsb operatives in this area. just blocks from the hotel on the night of august 19th. the night that the nerve agent, novichok, made its way into room 239. alexei navalny left the hotel early the next morning, boarded the moscow flight feeling fine, three hours later he was close to death. his team collects any evidence they can from his hotel room, including water and shampoo bottles, a toothbrush and a towel. as they did, there was a surge in communications among the fsb unit and their bosses. if it was expected that navalny would die on the flight they were now scrambling to deal with a very different situation. after much back and forth, russian authorities allow navalny to be transported to berlin. what they don't know is that the

items recovered from his hotel room were also on board. some later tested positive for novichok. back in moscow we went in search of the fsb's toxins team. >> we're here at the home of the one of the fsb team and we're going to see if he has anything to say to us. we enter a rundown apartment building on the outskirts of moscow where the operative lives. >> reporter: my name is clarissa ward i work for cnn, can i ask you a couple of questions? was it your team that poisoned navalny, please? do you have any comment? he doesn't seem to want to talk to us. toxicologists tell cnn that

navalny is incredibly lucky to be alive and that the intention was undoubtedly to kill him. so you said that you want to go back to russia. >> and i will do. >> reporter: you're aware of the risks of going back? >> yes, but i'm russian politician and even when i was not just in hospital, i was in intense, and i said publicly i'll go back and i will go back because i'm russian politician and i belong to this country. which i -- especially now when these actual crime is cracked open, revealed, i understand the whole operation. i would never give putin such a gift. >> clarissa ward joining me now. this is an incredible investigation and further proof you have nerves of steel. have you heard anything from the kremlin since this report? >> reporter: thank you so much, kate. i want to emphasize this was a

team effort. the people with nerves of steel, daria who was with me at that doorstep, who is a russian citizen who has to stay here when i leave. no, kate, we have not heard anything yet from the kremlin, which is stunning, more than 24 hours after this story drops we haven't heard anything from the fsb either. the regular press briefing that is done by dmitri, the spokesperson for president putin, it happens every day with journalists, it's been cancelled today. they announced it will also be cancelled tomorrow. they said officially this is because of president putin's big press conference on thursday, but frankly it's a little hard to believe that it's a coincidence. of course, we also reached out to members of that fsb toxins team, none of them provided any comment. even the russian media has been largely silent on this.

it is just a deafening silence, kate. >> it speaks volumes. you also say the intention was to kill navalny, what are you hearing from toxicologists about what they learned from his poisoning? >> reporter: so this is interesting, because it is obviously an important question. how do you know if the intention was to kill, couldn't it have been to incapacitate or get him out of the country? but we spoke to so many experts and essentially the answer we were given by everyone was the same, it's not possible to dose novichok out of a laboratory. so you could not possibly attempt to incapacitate someone using a nerve agent like novichok. the only reason you use novichok is if you're trying to kill someone because the risk is simply too high that you would do that anyway. and don't forget, our viewers have to remember, if it hadn't been for that pilot landing that plane, diverting to omsk,

landing three hours earlier, and the medics on the runway, alexei navalny would not be alive. >> also worth noting, bravo, i haven't heard a response or reaction from the u.s. government to this either. clarissa, it's good to see you, thank you. coming up another step in the fight against covid-19. an fda document confirms the moderna vaccine is safe and effective. what's next? how quickly it can get approval. dr. moncef slaoui joins us next. genuine idaho potatoes not just a side dish anymore. always look for the grown in idaho seal. or psoriatic arthritis, little things can become your big moment. that's why there's otezla.

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♪ the bulk of the first shipment of pfizer's vaccine is arriving in states across the country today after a huge sigh of relief yesterday as the very first shots were administered. next up the moderna vaccine. the fda is expected to grant emergency authorization to that vaccine in days now. it just took a step forward as an advisory committee just released its scientific review, finding it is both safe and effective. what does this mean for the

fight against the virus? joining me now is chief adviser of operation warp spreed dr. moncef slaoui. thank you for joining us. what are you seeing in the data that was released this morning? >> seeing a good vaccine with 94.5% efficacy against disease. there were 30 cases of severe disease in the control group, no cases in the vaccine group. excellent efficacy in the higher age group, over 65. similar efficacy in the more diverse population, which is a combined group of african-american and hispanics and native americans. really across the line very good efficacy. for those who will be looking more in detail into the data, actually also excellent onset of efficacy after the first dose, more or less ten days after the

first dose. again, 90% protection going forward. so really a performance that's similar to that of the pfizer vaccine. and safety that's also similar to that of the pfizer vaccine. no serious adverse events of any concern. all of them are associated with the injection site or like a little bit a fever, a little bit of chills and muscle ache for about 24 to 36 hours after immunization in maybe 15, 20% of those immunized. so very optimistic. >> are you more optimistic or more excited about one of the vaccines over the other? the pfizer versus the moderna? >> no, frankly, they have very similar data, i find that scientifically extremely convincing that two products, using similar technology but totally independently developed provide us with data that are so

similar, the one difference between the two products really is to the cold chain requirements. as you know, the pfizer vaccine requires a minus 80 degrees celsius cold chain. the moderna vaccine a minus 20, which is more like your home freezer. so that's more manageable, much more commonly available. but pfizer did an outstanding job around the environments for transportation and maintenance of the cold chain. so all in all i think both vaccines will have a great impact on this pandemic going forward. >> do you think that the fda will authorize the moderna vaccine this week? >> i hope so. i think -- i think the data are similar to those of the pfizer vaccine. and i think the comments that have just been issued are going in the same direction. so my expectation is it should be, hopefully, approved also on friday, a day after the advisory

committee. but, of course, we'll see. >> of course. if it gets approved this week, say friday, when do you expect the first shipments of the moderna vaccine to roll out? >> shipments start 24 hours later. again we'll work out like last week to make sure that the vaccines arrive on the monday morning. this time the vaccines will be shipped to a little bit over 3,200 sites, compared to the 636 sites that are being targeted in this three days, monday, tuesday, wednesday. and about a little bit over 6 million doses of vaccines. so we're ramping up to distribute more vaccines. both from the pfizer and the moderna stable, i would say. >> so, dr. anthony fauci, he said this morning that as the vaccines roll out, he thinks that president trump, vice president pence, as well as president-elect biden and vice president-elect harris should all be vaccinated as soon as possible.

let me play for you what he said. >> for security reasons, i feel strongly we should get them vaccinated as soon as we possibly can. you want him fully protected as he enters into the presidency in january. >> he's talking of course about joe biden. do you agree with dr. fauci? >> i completely agree. i think it is very important that our leaders, departing ones and arriving wunones are protec. i think both president trump and president-elect biden are both parts of the higher age group and therefore higher risk, so yeah, i think they should be vaccinated. >> of course, there's also a message to the population that they trust the vaccine, an example for the population to follow. >> and that gets to the public messaging aspect of this. we heard that it is important to

reach herd immunity, have 75 to 80% of americans get the vaccine. and public messaging is a huge part of that. are you satisfied with the level of public messaging that's been done so far by the administration? there hasn't been a major push, especially from the president. >> yeah. so we have not been able to communicate a lot on the specifics of the vaccine before it's approved by the fda because otherwise that would not be actually approved from a regulatory perspective before the data are out there, before they're validated by the independent regulators. now that they are, there is a whole plan to push out public messaging and as you probably noticed over the last two weeks or so, i'm very, very present in the press, so are other leaders of the operation, to really help

drive the message to the u.s. population that the vaccines are safe, highly effective and will help us over time control the pandemic. meantime, of course everybody needs to remain highly aware of the transmission of the virus, but we, thanks to the vaccines, we will be able to get back to our normal life, if we get immunized. >> how critical is president trump's role in getting the message out that people need to be immunized? >> i think it is very important, of course. there's a whole fringe of the population that listen to the president very carefully and therefore he has an important role and i hope, i know he has been very supportive of the vaccine development, so i hope he will be of course as supportive of its usage. >> after health care workers and people in long-term care facilities, who do you think should be next up, if you will, in priority list of getting

shots? >> so they established the health care workers, the very frail, old people in long-term care facilities and then we're talking about older people in the population independent living as well as first line workers that allow the country to continue running. and the totality of that population across the board is about 120 million people. our ambition is to have enough vaccine doses to immunize the whole first phase if you wish of the population, 120 million, by end of first quarter of 2021. >> ambitious. so was getting a vaccine approved when you did. i wanted you to weigh in on something. the pfizer moderna vaccines require two doses weeks apart. this has been a topic of conversation i would like your opinion on. in what we're seeing in place now, after the first dose with

the pfizer vaccine, reserving the second shot if you will for the same person. but what do you think about there's an alternative theory out there, you could maximize distribution of the first dose to more people with the assumption more vaccines would be produced along the way and time to get a second dose, if you spread it out rather than reserving a second shot for the same patient, if you will. what do you think of that? >> well, we of course talked about it. it is an ethical question. we modeled, we worked hard on it for a week, modeled it in every possible dimension and came to the conclusion that the benefit really of that doesn't outweigh, the risk of having a million and a half vaccinated within four weeks earlier than they would have overall, and the negatives are the risk we would be taking

that because this is new and we are just ramping up manufacturing, for some reason we may not be able to provide the second dose at the right time it should be provided, and that would undermine the public confidence that we are doing things by the book as they should be doing, according to data that support the efficacy of the vaccines. if we don't immunize people at the right time, we may run risk that some may not have the right protection long enough between first and second dose and therefore we may lose the benefit of vaccinating a million people earlier. people need to understand is we don't have 40 million doses waiting. we put them out as they become available. there isn't a bolus to immunize a lot of people quickly. we immunize people as vaccine doses come, it is important to retain a second dose or we run the risk not to give the

appropriate schedule. >> you charge on. dr. slaoui, thank you for the time. appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. >> we'll be right back. do you have a life insurance policy you no longer need? now you can sell your policy, even a term policy, for an immediate cash payment. we thought we had planned carefully for our retirement. but we quickly realized that we needed a way to supplement our income. if you have one hundred thousand dollars or more of life insurance you may qualify to sell your policy. don't cancel or let your policy lapse without finding out what it's worth. visit conventrydirect.com to find out if you policy qualifies. or call the number on your screen. coventry direct, redefining insurance. little girl is lost.

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- [narrator] as many of the nation's most trusted hospitals, we all know this. the science has not changed. masks slow the spread of covid-19. every one of our healthcare professionals is asking you to do one very simple thing.

let's keep it up. let's mask up. (solemn orchestral music ends) hello, welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i am dana bash in washington. john king is off today. new hope in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic felt across america today. >> thank you. thank you. >> that was in new jersey this morning as the first vaccinations in that state were administered at rutgers university medical school. this shot of hope is coming at a grim