a sign of hope amid a grim holiday season. an fda panel recommends authorizing moderna's coronavirus vaccine, but it may come too late for the record numbers of americans now in the hospital. plus, congressional leaders scramble to get a stimulus deal finalized before tonight's midnight deadline. it's what the deal leaves out that has some state officials fuming. president trump remains silent on a massive cyber attack

on the u.s. live from cnn world headquarters in atlanta, welcome to our viewers in the united states, canada and around the world. i'm kim brunhuber. this is cnn newsroom. new this hour, the u.s. food and drug administration says it will move quickly to give emergency use authorization to the vaccine developed by moderna. an fda advisory panel overwhelmingly recommended the authorization on thursday, its second in a week. if all goes as expected, about 6 million doses of the moderna vaccine could be on delivery trucks as early as monday. that could be critical in the days ahead. some states have been told to expect smaller than promised deliveries of the pfizer biontech vaccine beginning next week.

the tragic truth is no matter how quickly the entire country is vaccinated it's already too late for many. more than 114,000 americans are now filling covid wards all across the country. it's the 12th day in a row that hospitalizations have broken a record and some facilities say they have run out of empty beds. it underscores the urgent need for vaccines as cnn's alexander field explains. >> moderna's vaccine could now be just days away from reaching americans. an fda advisory panel is recommending authorization of what would be the nation's second covid vaccine. the panel heard from scientists, doctors, and people who survived covid. >> there's a lot of long-term effects of covid. after i was at home for a few months, i developed severe at

atrial arrhythmias. >> the pandemic at its all time worst. >> one minute they're okay, you're talking to them face time, then all of a sudden you have to face time then again and they talk to you, and they're hooked up to six different machines with tubes going down their bodies and that's the last image you're going to have of your loved one. >> we're not used to seeing people doing the implementation necessary. >> a cdc forecast adds tens of thousands of predictions of deaths for the next few weeks. >> these patients when they are dying, they are alone. >> reporter: nevada and five states hitting a record high for deaths reported in a single day. the white house covid task force says the fall surge is merging with the post thanksgiving surge to create a winter surge with the most rapid increase of cases yet. tennessee now among the states with the fastest spread of the virus. >> one thing that this vaccine

will not solve, one thing that it will not cure is selfishness. or indifference to what's happening to our neighbors around us. >> the rollout of pfizer's vaccine, the first to hit the market continues across the country. a shipping error forced new mexico to throw out 75 doses shipped at the wrong temperature. pharmacists also say they are finding some viles of the pfizer vaccines have extra doses. a bit of a boost as certain states learn they're getting less for now than what they expected. iowa says it's working with federal partners to figure out why they're receiving as much as 30% less than what they planned for. >> states will be learning on a woke weekly basis about how large the next shipments will be. we're learning if the moderna vaccine gets emergency use authorization, it could send out shipments right away.

the federal government could plan to send 7.9 million doses of vaccine next, and another 2 million from pfizer. in new york, alexandra field, cnn. >> a number of states were informed that future deliveries have been scaled down. the governor of washington said a 40% cut saying he's received no explanation. pfizer quickly shot down any suggestion it was having production approximate. no shipments containing the vaccine are on hold or delayed. we have millions more doses sitting in our warehouse. as of now we have not received additional instructions for doses. an administration official gave this explanation for why shipments will be smaller than before. >> the pfizer vaccine goes out in two shipments. half of the vaccines, so

2.9 million this week, and another 2.9 million for the second dose for the patients to receive in 21 to 28 days and another small amount held back in case there's mishaps on the shipping on spillage or things we can't foresee. things are going as planned, and the states are getting the vaccines out to where they are telling the government to ship them. it's a matter of things are going as planned. >> u.s. congressional leaders are working to get a stimulus deal finalized with the government shut down looming. funding for operations run out at midnight friday. lawmakers may have to extend the deadline to avoid a shut down wile stimulus negotiations continue. >> mitch mcconnell said on thursday he hopes any extension is short. he said congress may work through the weekend to finalize a deal. >> they have waited and suffered and some have died, while needless political games have

played out. struggling americans don't just need action. they need action fast. fast. >> mcdonneconnell focused on di stimulus payments in a recent call. there are major issues in the georgia senate runoff race to determine the next majority. let's turn to cnn's elani jokos in johannesburg, they have inched toward a deal. what's the latest? >> reporter: this is the closest they have been. we know the government shuts down midnight friday. there is just a few hours left. there is a sense of urgency from republicans and democrats to get this deal done and they have said they're willing to work over the weekend. a potential extension of the deadline. let's look at where we stand right now, and the overall package we know is just over $900 billion. it's a bipartisan deal and the sticking points have been

separated into a separate bill. this is where they agree. at the same time, it's the language. lots of money, billions of dollars for vaccines and schools. $300 a week in enhanced jobless benefits but the question is how long will that last. the other question about the $600 stimulus checks. people who receive that money, will they be eligible for the enhanced jobless benefits as well. republicans are saying no, and the limits that the republicans want to place on federal emergency lending, that could hamper the bidden administration into next year, so again, we've got a lot of sticking points but at least you have consensus from both sides that a relief bill needs to be put into place. in the meantime, initial jobless claims numbers showing that the jobs market is deteriorating. 20.6 million americans are currently on some kind of benefits and around 15 million americans are going to be

falling out of benefits the day after christmas. this is going to be a tough few months if they don't put this into place and absolutely, kim, time is running out. >> absolutely, you have just underscored what's at stake. thank you so much. you think the u.s. president would be speaking out about stalled stimulus talks. trump hasn't said anything about it recently or any of the other major challenges the country is facing right now. kaitlan collins has that story. >> where's president trump? >> he's been hard at work behind the scenes. >> reporter: it's a question many are asking, where is president trump, with only five weeks left in office, he stayed behind closed doors again today and hasn't made a public appearance since saturday when he took no questions from the white house press corps. in the middle of a devastating public health crisis where 3,000

americans are dying every day, the presidential transition underway, and national security officials still scrambling to understand a russian cyber attack, trump is nowhere to be found, and the few events he does hold are often closed to the president. while vice president mike pence who campaigned in georgia today is scheduled to get the coronavirus on camera tomorrow, the white house hasn't said when trump will and neither has he. trump has also said little about the coronavirus relief negotiations happening on capitol hill as hundreds of thousands of americans filed for unemployment again this week. >> we have a responsibility to get this right. people's lives depend on it. >> as the scope of a hack of a russian linked group on the u.s. government and corporations becomes clearer, the president hasn't said a word or posted a single tweet. the white house declined to say whether trump has been briefed by his top intelligence officials who were absent from

his cabinet meeting yesterday. >> this is virtually a declaration of war by russia on the united states and we should take that seriously. >> trump's own former officials are calling for his attention. in an op-ed published in the "new york times," his first homeland security adviser tom bossert wrote that trump is on the verge of leaving behind a government compromised by the russian government. president trump must get past his grievances of the election and govern for the remainder of his term. the president doesn't appear to be listening. instead, his twitter feed was filled with disinformation about the election, threats to veto the spending bill, and denial of his involvement in the investigation into hunter biden and of course one of the biggest parts of the president's disinformation about the election has been about dominion voting systems. the president has made this claim that people voted for him, and changed the votes in the machines to joe biden. that's something that has been pushed by the pro trump attorney

sidney powell, and dominion sent a letter asking, demanding taking a legal step here, a public apology of her statements and a retraction of the claims she's made about their company including that one that said that the software was developed in venezuela to benefit hugo chavez who died several years ago. in their letter they say they have no connection to venezuela, mr. chavez, and they joke they have about as much a connection to them as they do to big foot and the loch ness monster. kaitlan collins, cnn, the white house. former new jersey governor chris christie who has been one of mr. trump's biggest allies said it's time for the president to accept his election defeat. here's what he told cnn's chris cuomo. >> whenever anybody loses an election, party, an individual, there's great disappointment, but elections have consequences, and this one was clearly won by

president-elect biden. by the same par begmargin in th electoral college that president trump won four years ago, and by even more, nearly double the popular vote. this election, there's been no evidence put forward that's shown me as a former prosecutor that there was any fraud that would change the result of the election. and so it's time for us to accept that defeat. >> john fedderman is the lieutenant governor of pennsylvania, and joins me now from brannock, pennsylvania, via skype. thank you so much for joining me. so if a deal is finally reached, it seems a huge element will be missing, funding for states and cities. governor cuomo from new york called it madness. how would you characterize it? >> i think that the underlying truth is that the states individual states make up the united states, and if the

federal government does care of the individual states that's going to present a serious challenge. i would think the goal to be all of the states bounce back as quickly as we can. the vaccine is being rolled out. you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, including herd immunity. if you don't provide the necessary resources for the state to do that, i think you're going to just draw this out any longer than it needs to be already. >> so even though the concept of moneys for cities and states has had some bipartisan support, it's going to be democrats pushing it. does the republican leadership's refusal to budge on this just come down to partisan politics? >> i don't know what else it could be. i mean, it's undeniable, this idea that states and cities don't need these resources. everyone knows what this pandemic has done. i don't care if you're in a red city or you are in a blue county

in pennsylvania. it doesn't matter. the fact is we're all americans. and my hope is that we can acknowledge that we need these resources to more quickly bounce back once herd immunity is achieved through the vaccine and we can get back to normal. it's what we all want, whether you're a republican or democrat. it's an undeniable fact. >> some republicans at state level are saying you can't expect the federal government to bail you out. you should be able to cover the short fall with budget cuts if you have your fiscal house in order. >> a lot of these same members of the party are pretending that donald trump won the election or won't call joe biden president-elect. i mean, who are you going to believe, one who wants to believe in fairy tales that the president actually won the election or joe biden did. so of course it's partisanship at a very fundamental level, and i would hope that we could finally just put that to bed and just realize that this pandemic

has affected us all. we need the resources to stabilize and hit the ground running once we put the virus under control. >> you brought up the vaccine. last i saw, there were 1,500 shots given in your state, you're expecting thousands more doses by the end of the week. i understand many states are being told that the next week's shipment is being cut back. what can you tell us about that? >> i'm not exactly sure if that's specifically true to pennsylvania. what i do know is the governor and our secretary of health have a plan to roll out the vaccine where the most vulnerable and front line workers are going to get it, and suddenly we're going to step down to the point where it's available on a general level across pennsylvania, and i certainly would plan to get the

vaccine when it becomes generally available across pennsylvania. i believe in it. i think everybody should and i'm certainly going to project that to the people of pennsylvania that this vaccine is a way that we can all kind of put this virus behind us. >> before we go, i wanted to ask you, your state was at the center of a lot of the fake stolen election controversy. there's been a lot of speculation about what you might do in 2022. run for governor, senate. i don't expect you to announce your campaign here and now. i want to ask you this, given that so many republicans, including many in your state, falsely believe the election was stolen. how might that affect the dynamics of a potential campaign in the future if you were to run? >> well, i would always run on the truth, i mean, that's what the republicans just can't seem to get their heads around, that the truth is that joe biden won. and they can't comprehend any other reality that they have to

for the president right now because they're one, worried about the ramifications of their base or the wrath of the president. but the truth of the matter is we already certified our results. the electoral college weighed in. joe biden is going to be the next president, and we need to just get on with it. and you're going to see more and more republicans acknowledging that, but here in pennsylvania, we still have members of the republican party that refuse to. but, you know, i have always been able to join and use our platform to put forward the idea that truth and the math made joe biden president, not any kind of fraud or conspiracy or crazy ideas they tried to advance over the last six weeks. >> we'll have to leave it there. thank you so much for coming on lieutenant governor of pennsylvania, john feddermatter

appreciate your time. coming up on cnn newsroom, we'll talk about the cyber attack with an expert and find out where we go from here. stay with us.

to cnn this hour. more than 300 nigerian school boys who were freed after being abducted from their boarding school have just arrived in their home state. camera crews report the boys were taken to the state government house. bandits posing as boko haram terrorists abducted them from their school halast week. many are blaming the government for the lawlessness that has swept across nigeria for the past several years. the good news of the freedom is tempered by the fears of people across the region that the wave of criminality is far from over. a top u.s. cyber security agency is warning that a suspected russian hack is more widespread than previously thought. the growing list of targets includes the u.s. energy department, which oversees the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile. the cyber security agency says the hack poses a grave risk to networks across the public and private sectors.

microsoft has identified more than 40 of its customers around the world who are affected and says it is isolated and removed a vulnerability in its systems that facilitated the hacking. cnn national security analyst. sam joins me. the rugss if it's confirmed to be -- russians if it's confirmed to them or tapping into a gold mine. >> the operative point is we don't know the full scope and scale of the damage. the u.s. government and partners around the world cannot yet do accurate damage control. we're learning more about government entities that have been compromised. we learned from microsoft that customers in several countries were also attacked by the alleged russian hackers and for

this reason, one of the key focuses for the u.s. government right now is just to neutralize the threat. that involves agencies like the fbi and dhs trying to scope u.s. government entities to identify what has been breached and when, and to contain the threat. that must be the immediate focus for the u.s. government at this juncture. >> the other focus is on president trump. he's been widely criticized for his silence on this. democrats accuse him of being in russia's pockets. you have written that a key part of emergency response is public messaging. so why does his silence matter. >> i'm not holding my breath for president trump to come out and condemn russia. based on his track record, his silence is more likely than not, but the failure of a u.s. president to comment on a widespread hack of the u.s. government or to attribute the attack to russia, all signs are pointing to this being a russian attack, sends a message of

disorganization within the u.s. government or paint a picture of the u.s. president who's timid in the face of russian attacks. it is critical that someone in the u.s. government very soon calls out the attackers based on my experience. it is near to impossible that the intelligence community does not have declassified intelligence about the perpetrators of this attack, again, alleged to be the cozy bear group, which is affiliated with russian intelligence and the failure to publicly attribute this attack sends a message about u.s. weakness. the u.s. government can multitask. they need to implement a public messaging campaign that attributes to the attack and lays out real costs for the perpetrators. the other issue here, kim, of course is this is a lame duck presidency. anything that this administration does say frankly doesn't hold as much water in light of the fact that they will be out of office soon. instead we need to look to the

comments and statements from the incoming administration including what president-elect biden said earlier today. >> let me ask you about that. how should the u.s. respond, and i'm assuming it will be up to the next president. should it be sanctions, cyber attacks of our own. you know, joe biden has been left a bit of a mess to clean up here. >> trump is certainly leaving biden with a mess, but the most important thing in a situation like this is to have a well informed strategic response. trump approving some kind of retaliatory offensive cyber attack, for example, without a strategy could lead to an escalatory tit for tat cycle with russia. what we need is a president to sit down with his intelligence community, his policy makers and to consult with international partners about how to punish russia and how to send a credible message that the costs will increase if russia continues this behavior. the french president has tested positive for coronavirus.

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and welcome back to all of you watching until the united states, canada and around the world. u.s. food and drug administration says it will act quickly to authorize the moderna vaccine for emergency use against the coronavirus. an fda advisory panel recommended the authorization thursday. it's the second vaccine recommendation in a week adding moderna's drug to the covid arsenal would pump millions of more doses into the supply chain

and that could be critical in the days ahead. some states have been told to expect smaller than promised deliveries of the pfizer biontech vaccine beginning next week. cnn's dr. sanjay gupta explains how both the pfizer and moderna vaccines appear to work equally well. >> i think they're pretty similar from my standpoint. i would not, you know, sort of have a difference or a preference in terms of one or the other. i think for most people it's going to be a question of what you can get. i mean, right now, the demand is obviously much higher than the supply. the moderna vaccine will probably make its way into places maybe the pfizer couldn't because it doesn't require the same level of cold storage, so, you know, that's going to be a great option for people who live in those areas. other than that, i really don't draw a distinction between the two. many european countries are battling a new surge in covid cases. germany reported a record single day increase friday with 30,000

new cases and 800 deaths. french president emmanuel macron is experiencing a cough and a fever after he tested positive thursday for covid-19. mr. macron currently is self-quarantining and working remotely. there's added concern because he has numerous meetings just days ago with some top european leaders and northern ireland is set to impose a six-week lock down starting on december 26th. it means all nonessential shops will close after christmas day in an effort to curb the sudden spike in infections. with us now is jim bittermann in paris and salma abdelaziz in london. salma, let's start with you. so much to talk about, the nhs warning they're running out of beds. unicef stepping in to feed children in the uk for the first time. confusion over holiday restrictions. where do you want to start? >> reporter: let's start with unicef. there is a lot to talk about. here's the bigger picture, the

country is struggling with coronavirus cases and the impact of a pandemic. i want to start by laying the groundwork before i give you details about the unicef announcement. there's been a debate over providing free meals to children during holiday breaks. it's been an extremely divisive and controversial one. you have on the one hand the prime minister and the conservative party arguing that providing meals to hungry children during these school breaks essentially increases the dependence of these families on financial aid. on the other hand, you have a star footballer, marcus rashford, a beloved football player. arguing for his country's hungriest children, he has forced the government with a u-turn on this issue. unicef announcing it will be providing food assistance to the most vulnerable families across the uk. they say this country is facing a domestic emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic and these

families need help. but a senior government official is outraged that they are stepping in. he said unicef should be ashamed of its and this is a political act of the highest order and we have heard from the opposition labor party who said the only people who should be ashamed are the government themselves. kim. >> thank you so much for that. let's go to france now, jim with president macron testing positive. of course there's this concern about his health but the implications here could radiate far and wide. what's the latest? >> reporter: pretty widespread, kim, no kidding because president macron had a lot of contact during the last week with other european leaders and so as a consequence today after the president announced yesterday that he had tested positive, as a consequence, the prime minister of belgium, spain, and luxembourg are

self-isolated as well as the president of the ue council and oe secretary general. that's in europe. there in france, the prime minister is also self-isolating as well as the president of the national assembly, and perhaps some more people because, in fact, president macron had a lunch and dinner over the last couple of days, and he may have come in kcontact with any numbe of top political leaders. we may be hearing about more leaders self-isolating over the next few days. macron is at the presidential residence called lantern. his wife tested negative, staying in paris at the elysee palace. coronavirus is going to be with us well into 2021. the first six months will be very tough, and beyond that probably would be in the fall before france would return to normal. kim. >> probably the rest of us as well. thank you so much, jim

bittermann in paris, and salma abdelaziz in london. appreciate you both joining us. the european union will begin covid vaccinations in the coming weeks. health experts worry that historic european skepticism of vaccines and of government will make it harder to convince people to get those shots. earlier i spoke with infectious disease and global health expert, dr. peter drobac, here's what he had to say. >> there's a variety of reasons people may be hesitant, and more hardened than others. it is important we get out there first. research shows that inoculating people with accurate information before some of the conspiracy theories and things that we're seeing on social media can be effective. we have to remember the messages need to come from places that people trust, and so when you're facing issues where people aren't trusting government or

traditional media, we need to find other sources to find that information. sometimes that means faith leaders and other people in the community. as people begin to get vaccinated, you can see friends and neighbors getting vaccinated and doing so safely, that that can also help. >> that was infectious disease and global health expert, dr. peter drobac at the university of oxford. now to sweden and a condemnation of the covid response from an unlikely source, the country's own king. sweden never went into lock down during the first wave of the pandemic and was well into the second when voluntary precautions were finally recommended. sweden reports more deaths per capita than any other scandinavian country. the king calls that a tragedy. >> translator: simply i think that we have failed. many people have doied, and tha

is horrible. that is something we can all sympathize with that we haven't been able to help them, and it is very sad, terribly sad. >> with us now is cnn's max foster who has reported extensively on the handling of the pandemic in sweden. sweden was lauded in many conservative circles here in the u.s. primarily for its lack of restrictions, embracing that so called herd immunity, but now sweden as we heard, admitting wasn't the success story many thought it was. >> the government will deny to you that they were pursuing herd immunity. public held experts are looking at whether or not lthere was a level of herd immunity in the population, a high death count restricted to care hopes, and the number started falling and falling, and the americans were

looking at sweden, the policy of not enforcing a lock down, not enforcing face masks, keeping restaurants and bars open was working but sweden always argued they were adhering to lots of restrictions but they were voluntary, and that's a cultural difference, but now we have seen numbers rising sharply. they got a record number of people in hospital with covid. we've got icu units running to full capacity because of covid, and there's a clear problem and for the head of state to step in and say something like this is pretty seismic and it's an acceptance, really, that there's a problem there. even the prime minister stepping in and saying he agrees with the king. a big moment in sweden. >> thank you so much for that. max foster, appreciate it. negotiators from the uk and the european union are furiously trying to reach a new trade deal but talks in brussels are said to be going very poorly. the eu chief negotiator told the

european parliament that only a few hours remain to hammer out an agreement, and he's calling this the moment of truth. the status of fisheries is among the obstacles the negotiators can't overcome. if a deal is reach, the european trade union will have no agreement come january 1st. increasing questions about florida's governor and his response to coronavirus, especially around the time of election. why there's a rising chorus of criticism in the sunshine state. stay with us. say na-na. stop your cough from interrupting, with dq cough and congestion. it's max strength formula coats your throat and provides powerful relief. new dayquil cough and congestion. the maxcoat daytime power through your cough medicine.

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on thursday, florida reported its highest daily case count since july, but its health department barely mentions the virus on social media. many people have concerns about how the state and its governor are handling the pandemic. drew griffin has that. >> hey, ron, how are we doing?

>> reporter: in the weeks surrounding the november 3rd election, florida's department of health all by stopped reporting deaths, making overall death numbers appear much lower. days after the department, the department went back to reporting backlogged deaths as first reported by the sun sentinel newspaper. why? the state isn't saying, but cnn has interviewed more than a dozen state officials and experts and finds governor ron desantis's administration has sidelined health experts, promoted questionable science and left some county officials feeling muzzled from raising the alarm about raising cases. >> they are not necessarily at liberty to release all the information they might want to release. >> reporter: dr. ilene marty, an infectious disease doctor says the governor's approach to the virus has made it worse. >> it's counter productive. >> reporter: is it also deadly? >> it leads people toward behavior that increases transmission. bottom line, it leads to more

deaths. >> reporter: in recent weeks, governor ron desantis has defiantly kept restaurants and bars open, joined the maskless crowd tweeting this picture from a high school football game and scoffed at the notion of more government mandated shut downs no matter how bad the virus. >> if they want to shut down businesses, i'm going to stand in the way. >> reporter: what he has rarely done is mention the 20,000 floridians who have died or the more than 1 million who have been infected, seemingly say critics to down play the virus, keep florida's economy open in an effort to win an election for one person. >> we're with the governor of florida, ron desantis who has done a spectacular job in florida. >> when it comes to the issue of coronavirus in florida, i'll tell him to his face. >> reporter: preventing county officials and mayors, like carlos hernandez, the republican mayor of hialeah from enforcing

mask restrictions. >> maybe he has in mind a number that's okay for people to die. i don't know, there's a lot more we could be doing as a state. >> reporter: instead health experts like uss dr. marissa levine say desantis's administration controls the messaging. >> all of the decisions are made in tallahassee. >> reporter: two department of health employees tell cnn in late september they were told to not focus on covid-19 in their public messaging. both workers who asked not to be named said they were afraid of being fired. we're putting politics in front of lives, one said. and sure enough, the state's public messages about coronavirus almost entirely vanished. the florida department of health's web site and social media accounts used to be filled with covid information and advice. on september 25th, the day the governor signed his order that fully reopened florida, all of that changed overnight. the tweets and facebook posts suddenly were about infant hearing loss. carbon monoxide poisoning, and

the flu shot. up until thursday, the department of health's web site was filled with national diabetes month, which was november. to find the latest news on covid-19, you need to click on a link. >> the governor made up his mind about what the right thing to do was, found people who supported that, and then went ahead. the problem was it was kind of an all or nothing and it undermined local efforts. >> reporter: florida's governor's office and state health department refused to answer any question. >> florida today recorded over 100 more deaths, more than 13,000 new covid cases. that's the highest daily case load since mid july. and governor desantis took to tweeting again today about high school football. >> cnn's drew griffin reporting there. we talk a lot about the numbers of people who have died from covid-19, but it's important that we do more than

that. we need to see their faces too. filimina, was a beloved teacher who loved doing just that. she led zoom classes for behaviorally challenged students during the day, and worked with those who had no internet at night over the phone. when she contracted covid-19 and pneumonia, she was hospitalized for three days, and later carried on working wearing an oxygen mask. two weeks later, the 44-year-old returned to the hospital and passed away. her family and many students are part of the navajo nation which has been hit particularly hard by covid-19. her brother says she gave her heart to her students and wanted to make them each feel special. she is survived by her three children and one grandchild. we'll be right back. [♪] do you struggle with dull, dry skin, and find yourself reapplying moisturizer throughout the day? try olay ultra rich. olay's luxurious moisturizer melts into the skin.

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welcome back. this is cnn newsroom. i'm kim brunhuber. if you own a phone, you've dropped it. i've dropped mine like a thousand times, which is why i have one of these hard cases. it can be a heart stopping experience, but imagine dropping your smartphone from a moving

plane. that's what happened to an australian man, and believe it or not, the device survived to tell the tale. here's cnn's . >> reporter: seems like people delight in destroying iphones, shredding them, drowning them with milk, piercing them with nails but documentary maker, ernesto wanted to use his phone, not lose it, as he shot the beaches of rio, but the phone took off. ernesto got annoyed. here's how it look from the phone's view, a blurry 6 minutes later, the iphone 6 landed, the

next day, ernesto used the find my phone app and found it. you would say thank you, too, if your phone fell out of a plane and still worked with only minor damage to the screen protector and case. jealous twitter users complained, i could just look at my screen and it cracks: but i dropped mine into a urinal and it dies. jimmy fallon showcased the survival story. >> that's crazy. i mean, who the hell still has an iphone 6. >> this isn't the first iphone to weather a fall from a plane, a photographer in iceland was shooting flooding when he dropped his cell back in 2018. when it landed, seven seconds later, you could hear the plane's engine receding. it took 13 months for hikers to stumble on the phone. it still worked to go online, send photos, make calls, though

the person on the other end couldn't hear him. no such problem for ernesto. it's here and it may even have messages, he said. it turns out you can take aim, and shoot an iphone, but drop it from a plane and it's still not shot, ernesto, won't have to ask santa for a new one, but santa should hold tight on to his while aloft in his sleigh. cnn, new york. >> i dropped my phone like 6 inches and it smashes into a thousand pieces. there you go. that wraps this hour of cnn newsroom, i'm kim brunhuber live from atlanta. "early start" is up next after a quick break, so please stay with us. to all the businesses that helped us

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around the world. this is "early start." i'm laura jarrett. >> good morning, everyone. i'm christine romans. it is friday, december 18th f. happy friday. one week to go until christmas and a second covid vaccine is now days or perhaps hours of clearance for distribution to americans. fda officials say they will move ahead quickly with emergency authorization for the new vaccine from moderna after the agency's vaccine panel recommended it unanimously. overnight, another crushing number of deaths reported in t