that pete -- >> thank you, a reminder don't miss full circle, you can catch it live. or watch it there on the cnn app at any time on demand, news continues and i hwill hand it over to chris cuomo. >> we have a massive political problem. but this one, we can do something about. right now, the top four congressional leaders are finally talking relief again. it's happening tonight. but the word is, that they are huddling separately right now. and there's no word of a deal. this is unacceptable. because this is not about some irrational sound and fury this will amount to nothing like what we have lived through. it's a soulless, slow walking of relief that must be the focus of attention and outrage, there's

to good reason for this delay. it's time to focus on it. has anyone heard of the flood of lawsuits that are hitting businesses so hard that we have to address it right now, with equal urgency as hunger, vaccine production, or any family pain? well, mitch mcconnell has interest and he is arguing for exactly that. be very clear. mcconnell is talking about 1400 or so suits since march. they are against employers for work-related illness regarding the covid. he says these suits are such a threat, such an emergency that they are worth holding up relief until there's a deal to hold these employers harmless from liability. so those companies getting relief, matter as much as anything else? forget the fact that some of the suits may be justified. maybe many of them, maybe all of

them or that people may have been mistreated or that there's something called worker's compensation. and other tools that are already in place to limit liability. or the fact that litigation is how we figure out problems. or, that you could address the problem of massive number of suits not 1400. when they really pile up. you know what's piling up? 60 million. we are close to that number of people who are hungry. kids that need food. schools that are desperate. vaccines that need to be produced. families who won't have christmas. those are circumstances, those are now. these families needed help weeks ago. months ago. but look at mcconnell because this is about him. and his visage betrays his demeanor. he always has the face on. he is about the goal.

there's no shame in his game. there's never a trace of humanity or of concern. he is a pro's pro, he does not care about the cost to anybody else. lie about the garland nomination and then stack the court. there's no principal. only priorities. and he will let the pain pour down on this country because he has. it's not speculative. ifhe doesn't get this protection, no deal. he said and does what he has to, when he has to like today. >> the electoral college has spoken. so, today, i want to congratulate president elect joe biden. >> same face. electors were an echo, voters spoke six weeks ago. he knows transition matters. he said so when it suited him. he was silent because it worked for him. despite what it meant to the

country. imagine, our own senate leader playing the same game as putin. putin actually beat him to saying congratulations to the president elect. the retrumplicans could not sab taj t otag tempt election. they cannot tab sabotage relief. now, everything is worse, there's no metric that is not worse. is it as bad as we thought it would be? thankfully in some ways no. i'm not saying there's not pain. i know there's pain on just about every level you can manage. but i'm saying the expectations were worse. the projections. so, why is everything delayed right now? why is a deal so hard to come by when everything is worse? priorities have changed. so, who wins? a handful who are not in crisis? or millions and millions again, who needed the relief a month

ago. christmas is ten days away. this is no time to take care of a special interest. but this is how mcconnell plays. and he will continue to do so, as long as in power. that's why biden was back on the stump again today in the state, that decides mcconnell's power. >> all of you, just taught donald trump a lesson. in this election, kgeorgia was not going to be bullied, georgia was not going to be silent. you know who did nothing while trump, and texas and others were trying to wipe out the almost 5 million votes you had cast here in georgia, in november? your two republican senators. they fully embraced nullifying nearly 5 million georgia votes. you might want to remember that come january 5th. i need two the senators from the state. want to get something done. not two senators who are just going to get in the way.

send me these two men and we will control the senate and we will change the lives of people in georgia! >> it matters. i would like to argue to you, it really doesn't. it's nice to have balance. bipartisan ship is good. you get to a better kind of compromise. balanced interests. but that doesn't really happen, does it? not anymore. not when mcconnell is holding hostage money to make the vaccine and the money that states need to get it to the needy. are we going to squander the gift, because that's what it is of it coming as soon as it did, over politics? we need all hands on deck to make it work out, do you know how hard this is going to be? as amazing as it is that the vaccine was made and seems to be safe, that now turns out to be the easy part. this vaccine, this gift is going to be worthless if it does not get where it needs to go, when it needs to be there, to the

people who need it most. we have never done anything like this. biden is getting a bad start for bad reason that mcconnell enabled and now is extending. every day there's no deal, the delay gets worse. because until the inauguration, remember the situation we are in. the president is basically quit working on anything but fugazzi donations and his own political future. there's no economic moves being discussed, there's no dialog. no details of how the federal government, the military, the states, the localities are all going to pull off the magic with fedex and u.p.s., something they have never done before, let alone at this scale? and the rest of the world is not just waiting until we are ready. just think about it. retrumplicans are shouting about a legitimate election had, yet they have been ignoring the worst hacking by russia to date. not a word from these patriots that russia may have just penetrated further ee eer -- fu

in to our government agencies than ever before. you don't hear about it, the hacking of federal agencies, including the departments of homeland security, treasury and commerce and you barely leader a word about it from the retrumplicans all the things that they said about things being made up. and real attacks they ignore. you know what happened, not going to do anything. never forget, relief slowing, line towing, democracy doubting, putin pandering frauds. the question then becomes, how does a deal get done here? what are the le ha-- what is thy here to get relief when you have imbalanced power?

>> yeah, look, i think that the play is that there's enormous anxiety in the country and i think they are feeling it. i do think -- i'm not, i'm not privy to their negotiations, i feel like there's a lot of pressure on both sides not to leave. how do you leave and go home and celebrate the holidays knowing that you didn't do what you needed to do to try and bring some relief to people who are suffering? this is a story, you know, we have heard a lot and chris, you have shown a bright light on all of this. but we have heard a lot of the people who were suffering from the virus itself, but, you know, not everyone can sit home and zoom to make a living. not everybody is free of that fear of lack of a paycheck, how do they keep their small business afloat. there's a lot of ancillary damage that the virus has caused and for four months the congress has been talking about this. i don't think that these members can go home, republican or

democrat without doing something on this this. and i suspect, even mitch mcconnell understands as a political matter, heading in to the special elections in georgia and beyond, he doesn't want to be the one who is assigned the blame for no aid going in to the holidays. >> but then how do you explain, michael, the play on corporate liability? >> i think he is protecting had those forces that are the ben factors of the republican party. the issue has been a dividing line ever since the pandemic arose between business interests on one side, trial lawyers on the other who tend to support democrats, representative of people who have been victimized. i liked what you said when you referenced those cases and the fact that we have no idea right now, you can't treat them with a blanket response and say, well, they lack merit or they are all

meritorious, my own hunch is they have to be determined on a case by case basis. and to say none on them should be treated as if they have merit is fundamentally unfair. >> it seems like, i do not understand why the democrats are jumping up and down over one point. it was an easy point to win. it's not a exogency, the suits may be a problem. you may wind up having a batch of class action suits. torte reform is something that everyone is familiar with. you don't have to do it now. you could argue for a separation bill. give us the vaccine production money, you know, let's talk about checks for people. let's get the things out the door. i'm not hearing that that loudly am i just missing it or is it not there? >> no, i think that, that there's been some that argued that.

look the focus is on the people that need help right now. it's a complex issue in some ways the legal issue that you have kicked around here. the fact that people are going without paychecks and after the end of this month, the situation will worsen is something that is understood. you know, in the last jobs report, what we saw were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands more people giving up. and simply saying, i can't find a job i'm not going look for a job anymore. we have more small businesses going under. we know the next six or eight weeks will be very, very perilous and will promote more hardship had. that's enough hardship. i agree, i think mcconnell is protecting special interests and there may be some who are deserving. and that should be taken on,

case by case, because there's no case to be made that people don't need help in the country. and when you ask people to shut their businesses down, when you ask people to forego their paycheck becauses it's in our interests as a country to protect each other, then we ought to be standing with them and making sure that they can weather the storm the economic storm that they are going face in doing the right thing. >> smirk. last word to you. >> mitch mcconnell has an issue on his hands in trying to avoid a vote that may take place on january 6. if he can't keep everyone in his tent, i'm talking of one breaking free. and if that vote should take place, all of a sudden, he will have members of his caucus voting against now, still, incumbent president of the united states. it's a fascinating issue to follow in light of him today findly recognizing joe biden as the president elect.

>> yeah, he got beat by putin to the punch. can mcconnell control the vote or not, michael? >> you know, it's not only those who are there in washington today, and all eyes seem to be on rand paul, but also republicans who are coming in and are the exfactor, the unknown, all it would take is one to join forces with the house member and all of a sudden, you have now got a vote in both chambers and guesses who presides in the senate? that would be vice president mike pence. talk about an uncomfortable moment for him. >> hm-mm. well, when you are betting on mitch mcconnell to make sure that biden gets safe passage, you know just how deep in the river stix you actually are right now in the political reality. thank you both. thank you for the points andthe context, appreciate you. >> thanks. >> okay, maybe a member in a senate in a done disaster scenario can do something positive. can get behind the radio leaf holdup on the bill. and see what really is going to make a difference here.

democrat chris murphy has been loud on relief. and he is here next. how about no

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the humanitarian crisis of hunger and homelessness, as well ask the logistical moon shot of these vaccines, the need is desperation in this country. lives hang in the balance, time is death, not just money. just now, as time is running out, leaders from both parties are meeting on capitol hill, the question is, will there be a deal? i'm joined by senator chris murphy, democrat from connecticut, senator, welcome back to "prime time."

>> thanks for having me. >> we get a deal? >> we have to get a deal. we cannot go home to our states, to our constituents if we don't get a deal. it is good news that mitch mcconnell after seven months of refusing to negotiate finally came to the table today. but, how much time was wasted by his refusal to negotiate. how much misery did he create by sitting outside of that negotiati negotiating room? we could not get agreement without mitch mcconnell. his caucus is split, he has to deliver enough republican votes to get it through. it feels like we might be closer than we have in a long time. listen, i'm willing to set aside the perfect and accept the good. we desperately need money in connecticut to distribute this vaccine, we have testing sites closing midday because they are running out of money.

we have to pass along a massive tax increase in the middle of a massive recession because our government is going bankrupt, we need relief in connecticut, i will settle for three quarters of a loaf, i guess it's good news tonight that mcconnell is finally talking. >> finally talking but is liabilities for companies on covid lawsuits something you have to give on? >> listen will, mitch mcconnell carries k-street's water. his number one operating principal is do what is right for corporate america and that is what this liability protection is all about. it's an attempt to you know, try to avoid liability for truly irresponsible behavior that happened in the companies. nobody wants frivoulous lawsuits. >> don't say nobody, the

retrumplicans love theses lawsuits. i can't believe there's not been sanctions for the lawsuits. >> there's clearly a way to protect companies that are playing by the rules here without shutting every worker out of of court to leave them with no reit widress, as you mentioned, it does not have to be settled now the emergency is that folks are going to go hungry and thousands of small businesses in my state are going to shut down. >> isn't mcconnell -- that's not what he is saying. >> it's not -- yeah, he says that the liability question is a emergency. of course, there's no evidence that there's a flood of lawsuits being filed. all of that being said i'm willing to do a deal on liability. you can not close the doors of the courthouse to millions of americans. i'm willing to look at provisions that would offer more certainty to companies out there. >> do you believe that mcconnell is balancing the interests of

his caucus in terms of the potential vote on january 6th? that he is afraid if he makes the wrong kind of deal with you guys it mayen courage rand paul, et al, to join on the vote, to certify on the electors that he cannot control. is that real? >> i don't know that that's the calculus here. ted cruz and rand paul, they are not going to make decisions on what to do, based on the deal and what gets cut. they will do what makes sense for their presidential goals eight years from now. it's too cute for mcconnell to think he is going to avoid a fiasco on january 6th. they are sort of looking out for their best political interests in the long run. that is what will dictate their decision of whether to blow up the certification of electors. >> what is the chance of the

republicans or retrumplicans derailing the certification on the 6th? >> i think there's a chance that one republican senator will join a republican house member in a contest, but that only gets you so far. you then ultimately have to have both the house and the senate vote to essentially decertify a delegation of electors and that is not going to happen. so, they will make headlines, if they choose to do it, they will raise money online. it will not result in donald trump being president of the united states. joe biden will be president. >> what is your on the scene understanding of what i have been told, which is not only is mcconnell saying i have to get the liability the way i want it. i am not giving states like connecticut the money they are asking for. it's a bail out, it's not my fault that murphy and the governor there cannot balance the budget. i'm not going to take care of them. >> hey, listen, if mcconnell wants to have a conversation about right-sizing the amount of money that connecticut sends to

the federal government compared to what we get back. we will be happy to have that conversation. because every year, we subsadize kentucky, every year, we subsadize florida, every ever now and again there's a kai si s -- there's a crisises that whacks us. but it's rich that mitch mcconnell or any other republican from the states that are subsidized by other states are lecturing us on bailing them out. >> strong point. senate chris murphy, thank you for joining us. i will be coming to the office as we are trying to aggregate on data where the vaccine is going, any help is appreciated. >> all right, thanks. >> be well. good news, doesn't have to be all dark. the vaccine is out there. a second covid vaccine is about to get fda approval, it seems. how likely? what does it mean?

why does it add to the stew? there's a difference between the moderna and pfizer. it's not just storage. we have the good doctor, chief the doctor, sanjay gupta, dropping science. next. from your walmart store. really fast. really perfect. let's end the year nailing it. ♪ li'll be eating chicken tikka. masala with garlic naan. [doorbell chimes] cheers. i win again, patrick.

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we have to find somethingust else. good luck!ut it. what does that mean? we are doomed. [ laughter ] that's it... i figured it out! we're going to give togetherness. that sounds dumb. we're going to take all those family moments and package them. hmm. [ laughing ] that works.

we don't have those kinds of beds, we are stretched everywhere with. and these are not people you can warehouse, it's a new record and it's the worst kind to be making. and it's happening the every day. the vaccine means so much to stop cases and more importantly right now, allow the people who are keeping the rest of us alive had in the hospital, a chance to stay well and do the job. more good news. that's terrible news.

but more good news, the moderna vaccine may be approved soon, you have pfizer and modern th the -- and there's new data that may make moderna more relevant. sanjay gub that is here. the claim is what about moderna and do we believe it? >> what happened was, we got the report about moderna, it talked about the safety profile. all the things we expected and things we heard from the company, they added it in afterwards. that basically look at the issue that we have talked about before. the vaccine does what exactly? the vaccine can help prevent people from getting sick, help people from get covid-19, and the second question is does it also prevent them from possibly carrying the virus and transmitting the virus. from pfizer we don't know the answer yet. from moderna, i don't know if we

have the graphic. they swabbed people before they got the first dose of the vaccine, they swabbed them between the first and second and lacked and said, how many people got infected and what they found was that the people that got the placebo were less likely to be infected than received the vaccine. 14 in the vaccinated group. now, look, you can look at the data, people are going to interpret differently. it's not perfect. obviously. and the more critical thing is, it does seem to work really, really well at keeping you from getting sick is. >> all right, so -- >> so, yeah, that is it, the last part, to summ it up, the vaccine keep cans you from getting sick, feeling bad and feeling the symptoms. >> yes.

>> doesn't necessarily mean that you don't have the virus in as high a load amount to give it to somebody else. the potential with moderna, is it may do both. keep you from feeling sick and keep you from getting someone else sick? >> right. that's what it seems to indicate. now, again, you look at the numbers, it's not perfect. there's a lot of people that got the vaccine and still had the virus in their system, the second point that you made was an important one, so, we detect presence of virus, was it enough to actually, you know, be contagious and transmit to somebody else? it could be a situation where the vaccine is keeping you from getting sick, and lowering your viral load to the point that you are not contagious and i will say about pfizer, that could be the case with the pfizer vaccine as well. we have just not seen the data yet. we have asked about with it, ch and they said they will have that data in january. we will look for it. >> one or thing that matters to people, the fda authorizationed

a fully at home test. they expect to produce 10 million in january, $30. is that $30 for the machine and you have to buy the other stuff that is in short supply or is it a better set up? >> it seems like it's a better set up. it's all over the counter. you don't have to have a health care professional analyze the test. the analyzer connects to the smartphone, 20 minutes after you do the, place the swab, you get a result. it sounds like a good test. it's 91% likely to find positive cases in people who don't have symptoms. those are the most likely people we are talking about here, right, chriss? >> yeah. >> if you have symptoms you should stay home. you are trying to figure out, can i go out, i don't have symptoms, i will swab myself, 90% of the time it will miss you. what it's saying, it's pretty good, if you don't have symptoms, still wear a mask if you go on out, you can go out,

but you should wear a mask when you go out, you could be carrying the virus even if the test comes back negative. >> the numbers are many times better than what we are dealing with the rapid test right now. i don't know about for you, for me, when anybody tells me they have a rapid test, half the time that they are negative when had they are retested they are not. so, people are spooked by those. i have to jump, thank you very much for the headlines, brother, appreciate you. >> all right, any time, brother. >> all right, vaccination, vaccination, we will be using sanjay and senators and going to states and localities i'm going to take what you are telling us about what you are hearing in your own community, why? because this matters and transparency is everything. where to focus the vaccine, who should get it? well, if you start with the obvious metric, where are the most cases, where are people dying the most? going to be the big states. new york, california, texas, florida. okay, now let's look at the states. they have the most health care workers, right? you have the most people, most population, most cases, most health care workers, most

everything. nursing hing home patients and h care workers. only one state that i mentioned, texas, is scheduled to get close to enough doses to get everyone in the group a single doze by the end of the year. why texas? it's not the biggest? has not been the most responsible. why texas in in fact of the five states that will give everyone enough to get a first dose by new years, none of the states that qualify that way are in the top 20 when it comes to case count. again, this is just about math? or is it manipulation? we must not just track who needs what, but who gets what. and when, and of course, why. we are just getting started, it's already an issue, ace jus t outlined to you. this means we will have to be all over this.

context, i know this guy named cuomo up in new york. he said about 10,000 doses were administered today. that leaves him just as exposed given the scale of need without the vaccine, relatively, every bit counts of course, but new york needs so much more and a lot faster on or the curve of cases is going to go up longer and include more of the people that we need on the front lines. time equals death here, governor desantos in florida said they sent about 100,000 to five hospitals. but there's a delay as shipments for the next two weeks are on hold right now, two issues. one, why did they get so many more than new york, is it true? that they did? the numbers suggest it, desanto says it's pfizer and their production issues. is it? er or is it about the you only needs one shot bs, that he was trying to pedal. did 93 gthey get the doses they

need? should they? what you give one state that they were not supposed to get will fall down the line and there will be short falls. good news, there's a help. fedex and u.p.s. have a tracker in every case. you can track all the stuff, where is it? oh, you didn't check the mail. there it is. who is tracking the good on is receiving end? is there a cental level? not that we know of. are the states all doing it? is it good, will they be transparent enough? you have to be suspicious, you cannot trust then vierify. georgia, huge, because of the run-offs. three weeks, okay. it's not only a matter of time for the state. but for the entire country. look at what the imbalance of power is doing right now, holding up relief. can democrats really win? the wizard of odds is here, by

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about the covid-19 virus. it's real. and it's dangerous. so, on behalf of all of us working on the front lines, please take it seriously. and while we don't yet have a cure or a vaccine, we do know how to keep you and your loved ones safe. wear a mask. wash your hands. stay six feet apart. do your best to stay out of crowded spaces. and get a flu shot, it's even more important this year. we can do this. if we do it together.

ga deorgia senate races, bipartisanship is not -- either the democrats get them both or the state on play stays at it is with mitch mcconnell saying i have to help companies before i can help the hungry. what is history and data telling us about the chances of the democrats. thank you for being here, brother. let's take a look, let's start with what we saw in number of, and what that suggests about potential in the senate run-off. >> right, joe biden won the state of georgia, right?

he barely won and he won it by .2 of a percentage point. here's the key thing. the democrats in both the senate regular, that's the purdue match up. i tallied up the democratsin the democrats ran behind the republicans. in order to win come january 5th, the especially dids have to out perform what they did in november, otherwise, simply putit will not work out for them. >> what do we know about run offs? it's a key thing to keep in mind. there's been eight of them since 1992 statewide run-offs and what happened in 7 of the 8 times the republicans gain more ground than the democrats did from round one. historically speaking, given the republicans got more votes in the race, you have to think that republicans at least looking historically better than the democrats are. >> you don't have trump telling

them to not vote this time, in a i with a that matters. look at the polling averages, what does it say about the state of play. >> you may say republicans will gain ground, if you look at the senate polling averages, what you see is that the democrats will have slight advantages in the special and regular election. here's the thing, it's really, really tight. it's a point race in the regular. it's a two-point race down in the special. but, again, that moves against history. it suggests that republicans are not necessarily gaining ground like we may historically expect. i know people say, the polls, the polls, i don't trust the polls. the polls were good, they were off by a point. the race is really, really tight right now. >> even if we don't have to paraphrase spike from gremlins and say, polls, kaka, let's look at the imbalance between the senate democrat candidates and biden in terms of mismatches and

performances, as a window in to what may happen here. >> here's the key thing to keep in mind. it's the georgia sixth congressional district. it's in the atlanta suburbs. now a democrat represents that district and joe biden won that district by 11 percentage poi points. in the senate special and regular election, democrats all ho they won ran behind joe biden by 5-6 incident tos. that was the greatest under performance of any congressional district of the state. if they want to win the go around, they need to improve, they need to get up to the levels of support that joe biden had in the suburbs, and particularly among whites with a college degree, if they cannot do that, if they cannot match biden's performance there in the georgia suburbs they are not going win. i'm keeping an eye out on the georgia suburb is. on the atlanta suburb, that may tell the story come january 5th.

>> with words aside, do you believe that when you look at the race, that any, enough has changed since the election where biden was picked but democrats were kind of under sold? between then and now, has there been enough of a change to make it a different state of play in georgia? >> i will say, obviously, there's been a lot of movement in the state, you know, saying that the vote count was not legitimate, especially among some of those on the far right and that may anger traditionally voters that picked the ballot for biden and went for the senate republicans. they may want to send a message, there's a reason that we want to support biden and now we will support the democrats. it would not be surprising to me if you can move the margin just a bit, it could make a big difference and that could make the ultimate difference come january 5th. >> and are the retrumplicans not going to vote because they are

upset with the rest of the party. >> it seems to be on pace of the partisan balance. a lot to be determined in the final few weeks. >> sorry i made you nervous harry. >> i will always see you for being christopher cuomo. >> good, because that is who i am. >> that's true. >> i will see you soon on my couch. >> see much politics over the pandemic. it should never have been this way and it's bad, making people quit when we need them the help. i have two medical officials that are facing all kinds of ugly for just trying to keep their communities safe. one just had to resign? frustration but not just frustration. there's a tinge of fear there also, and the other is going to try and fight the fight, why is it happening to them and what does it mean to us and you. next. how about no

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. covid, it's all over the mace in the country. it's spreading wildly, makes people scared and then it was polit politized, and that made it all

worse. people see staying safe as weakness and capitulation to a political opponent. case had in point, kansas, what do we see? cases are not just surgery iing people that have been pushed for the right thing have been made in to paryas, my next guest, she knows it well as someone that was pushed for mask mandates in her rural community. her friend, dr. john franco left his job this week because of the pandemic politics at his health department. now, in the one hand, when i look at you two, with your ethnic backgrounds and you're in kansas it fulfills the promise of the country. then i see how you are being treated and it shows me the struggle of the country right now. i welcome you both to prime time and i'm sorry it is for this reason, but hopefully by shining a light on what is happening, it had will make people think about it a bit. so dr. mckinney, now, you two

have only met on zoom because of covid and when he put together a support group for health care workers you guys wound up meeting. just that idea, support group for health care workers, not just because of the stress of dealing with the pandemic. but dealing with people who don't want you to deal with the pandemic, explain, dr. mckinney. >> well, chris, it has definitely been a very challenging time. i mean, people are scared, they are frustrated, they just want to get back to normal life, and there's nothing about what's going on right now that is normal. so, when people have to deal with tun known, when they are tired of dealing with the pandemic, they get angry. had they get frustrated and they take it out on the only thing they can. they cannot be angry at a virus they cannot see, so they take it out on the rules. they take it out on the people that are making the rules. and so, that's where we come in, that we end up having problems with people getting angry and

frustrated with us, when we are just really trying to help. >> you had to resign, why? >> up, because the board of county of commissioners decided to make some changes to my public health emergency order that contains community mitigation strategies for the virus. and it was not the first time that it happened and to be just, to go to the point that we just put up, i had seen that too many times it was a last straw and i also thought it was time to send a signal that it is not right for policy makers who have no background in public health to decide how this pandemic should be contained. public health measures should be decided based on public health science and not on politics. >> and dr. mckinney, it's not just about policy, it's about politics and people you put in the crosshairs as almost being a partisan, even though you are staying on and you want to fight, how rough is it? >> well, you know, there should

have never been a part for politics in this entire pandemic. i mean, at its essence, this pandemic is a health crisis, and really, our job as health officers is to take the data andthe science and make the best decisions possible to keep the most people safe through the entire thing. and we know that commissioners and legislators, they don't have a medical background, but we do. and we have been training for this kind of thing for years. and so, we hope that we can advise our elected officials and we can help them to make the best decisions possible. but, that's not always happening. and when we start talking about politics and everything else, it really muddies the waters and it makes it so hard for us to give the solid advice that we have been trained to give throughout the thing. so, it's hard it has been a challenge. we really just want to do our very best job and really save lives and keep people healthy and there's no other, other

purpose for us right now than to do our best job for people in our communities. >> and it's not like you are doing it from far away. you live there, you are in kansas, it's a rural area. you live there, you care about the people. so, doctor, what is your concern about as the vaccine comes, and the public policy statements that need to be put out and the messaging, what is your concern? >> well with, first of all, my first feeling is one of joy, we have been waiting for this day for , many months. and i'm not sure that everyone fully understands at that point what a success it is to be able to develop and deploy a vaccine in just a few months. my concern is that we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and the light has a vaccine name. and people are going to drop all their guards and precautions and start running toward the light. but we are still in the tunnel. and this is not the time to run. because you are still running in the dark. so, the way we get to the light

is by marching and walking slowly, deliberately and keeping our precautions up. it's not the time to give up. we will get there, but we are not quite there yet. >> so, in terms of where we are and where we need to be. the concern doctor mckinney is that people aren't going to want to take the vaccine. i actually believe that we are going to have the opposite problem, that as people start to see that it's working they are going to be desperate for the vaccine and they are going to be start to be angry because they cannot get it. what do you see in your community right now, which is more of a rural part of kansas? >> well, right now, i'm seeing a lot of people that are hesitatent to take the vaccine. i hear people talking about wanting to wait to see what happens. they are nervous because of the technology to produce the vaccine. they are nervous about being one of the first to get it. i know that, that the best advice that i can give any of my patients is that it will g-- is

had will get the vaccine. i will make sure that my 76-year-old dad who has been serving the community for 42 years as a physician will get the vaccine. and he is still taking care of patients. that's the best endorsement that i can give. we are talking about safety, and trying to educate people, there's just a lot of, again, fear and misinformation that we have seen throughout the entire pandemic. and now, it's applied to the vaccine, the one thing that, like the doctor said, it's the light at the end of the tunnel. so, we are hopeful that we get people to understand, it's safe. it's a way to get back to normal live, and how we resume and go about life safely. >> thank you so much, i hope that you keep fighting the good fight and it gets easier to do so. and i hope the vaccine makes a big difference. and doctor, thank you for reminding how beautiful the kansas can accent can sound. >> thank you for having us. >> thank you very much. >> thank you.

>> thank you very much for what you put up with, and for putting out a statement that we have to treat the people who are trying to help us the right way. it is an important reminder. god bless and be well. that goes for all of us, we have to remember how to treat each other. we are addicted to the negative. and it's time to start calling out what works and what is right. cnn tonight, the big show with the big man, d-lemon. right now. >> i hope a lot of listening to you, we the collective are addicted to the negative. everyone is so, you did this, and you did that, but there's again, i'm going to say this, can't both sides, there's one side right now that is operating in reality, and there's another side that is not. they are coming around. some of them. coming around, finally. >> hm-mm. >> ish, what if i say coming around ish, some of them. >> ish in a pandemic is not the best rate of coming around.