hello, everyone. i'm kate bolduan. thank you for joining us right now. a major step forward in the fight against the pandemic. today, millions more doses of coronavirus vaccine -- of a coronavirus vaccine are rolling out. moderna got the green light for emergency use this weekend, shipments started going out on sunday. according to the chief of operation warp speed, americans will start getting these shots as early as this morning. today we're going to see president-elect joe biden and jill biden rolling up their sleeves to get the first dose of the vaccines before cameras. it's yet to be announced if and when the current president, donald trump, will be doing the same, though. also this hour a major break through in congress, reaching a deal on a covid relief package. this should not be seen as a

success as the deal is months late and millions of americans have been suffering while congress just pointed fingers at each other. a vote is expected today in the house -- i'm going to go to capitol hill in a bit but let's go to the justice department right now where attorney bill barr is taking questions. >> does the president have the authority to order the seizure of votiing machines around the country? and does any president have the authority to pardon themselves? >> let's go, the first question was? >> i'm sorry, has there been any outreach to libyan authorities about a suspect? >> i can't comment on that. the second one, i see no basis now for seizing machines by the federal government. you know, wholesale seizure of machines by the federal government.

and i -- you know, off the top of my head i'm not going to opine on a constitutional issue as far as the pardon power goes. >> the president has continued to make the case there was fraud in the election you have already made your statement on that in an interview. do you believe there is enough evidence to warrant appointing a special council? something that he appears to be thinking about, perhaps sidney powell, do you believe there is any reason to do that? given your opinion on this to the president and the white house. >> as you said, i've already commented on fraud. let me just say that, you know, there are fraud and -- unfortunately in most elections i think we're too tolerant of it, i'm sure there was fraud in

this election but i was commenting on the extent to which we had looked at suggestions or allegations of systemic or broad based fraud that would affect the outcome of the election. and i already spoke to that and i stand by that statement. >> the idea of appointing a special councsel, would you answer the question whether you believe there's enough there even with what you said? do you believe there's enough evidence to warrant a special counsel to investigate that? perhaps sidney powell or someone else? >> if i naugthought a special counsel at this stage was the right tool was appropriate i would name one but i'm not going to and i haven't. >> you talked about your partnership throughout this investigation, can you explain why they are not prosecuting this case? secondly, i had a question about the solar wind hack. has the justice department or the fbi been hacked, and do you agree with the conclusions so

far that russians are responsible and what possible responses are available? >> so the scottish have not ruled out -- the scottish authorities have not ruled out bringing charges. right now they're dealing with an appeal by mcgrawhy, curiously enough since he's dead. but nonetheless there is an appeal and they're dealing with that. i think once that has been dealt with, they'll turn their attention to whether or not they want to bring charges. but they are support tiff of our action today and we will rely on them to help us with evidence at trial. i just want to say something about the scottish law enforcement on this. it impressed me at the time i was here 32 years ago. and you know i have a particular affection for scotland and spent

spend a lot of time there, i've played the bagpipes since i was 8 years old and i visited scotland during this investigation and met with the police who were conducting it in scotland. and what mike sherwin eluded to, what they did lining up police officers and looking at every blade of grass and that footprint was astounding. and that picture of me pointing to the little chip that was found that was smaller than a finger nail, that was critical to cracking the case, and that was found out in a field. so that pain staking work just shows the professionalism of the scottish police but also it shows how important international cooperation is in cracking these heinous crimes. now was there another part to your question?

>> the solar wind hack and if you have the conclusion that the russians were responsible and what responses we might see? >> from the information i have, you know, i agree with secretary pompeo's assessment, it certainly appears to be the russians, but i'm not going to discuss it beyond that. >> katherine? >> on topic, attorney general, can you explain to us why it was important to you personally to bring the investigation full circle with the announcement of today's indictment and, off topic, respecting that it's an ongoing investigation has special counsel concluded that the fbi 2016 russia probe, cross fire hurricane, was not properly predicated? >> i think it was important to bring this case, which in some

ways for me is coming full circle. from the standpoint of the country i think it's very important that we are relentless in pursuing acs of terrorism and terrorists have to know that eventually we will get them. for me personally it was because i felt it was unfinished business in that i was the cabinet official who had to face the grief of the victims' families and actually had the honor of dealing with the victims, but i felt that our follow up to the attack was not sufficient. and that justice was delayed and that the full measure of justice was denied. so, you know, i think we reacted initially with sanctions and things like that.

i felt that that would encourage further terrorism. so i just felt it was unfinished business from a personal standpoint. katy? i'm not going to try to characterize what his conclusions are. katy? >> the head of the criminal division when this case was brought in 1991, did you invite him to be here today? he's spoken about this, and it still haunts him to this day that he wasn't able to bring more charges. my second question is, when you spoke to the federalist society last year you said the left was engaged in the systemic shredding of norms, he said conservatives do not do that, do you still think these remarks hold given the president's claims and actions in the wake of the elections and his attempts to undo the results? >> bob was the head of the criminal division. we worked closely on the case.

i did not invite him to this event. and the -- i'm just not going to get into my remarks at the federalist society or into recent developments. you know, when i -- as you know, i was not intending to come back into government, but i -- i knew i was signing up for a difficult assignment at this department, as i said, there were rough times and i came in because i felt that i could help lead the doj during this particular period. and, you know, i -- i don't regret that at all, i don't regret coming in, because i think it's always an honor to serve the nation and the american people. so that concludes this press conference, thank you very much.

>> we've been listening to the attorney general, bill barr, taking questions not on the topic at hand, actually, that he was going to be announcing charges relate to the locker by bombing. but he made a lot of news here. let me bring in shimon prokupecz on this, if he's with me -- great, i'm glad. >> i'm here. >> point by point, the attorney general really went at -- contradicted the president in major ways on major touch points for the president right now, especially specifically relating to election fraud. made very clear to evan perez's question he's not going to be naming a special counsel with regard to election fraud in the 2020 election. >> reporter: specifically, in terms of the 2020 election, he said that if he felt there was a reason for a special counsel, to appointment a special counsel,

he would have done so at this juncture. at this point, he himself would have appointed one. i think that is very significant, certainly given what we've seen that's been going on at the white house over the weekend, with sydney powell and others there with the president somehow trying to appoint her possibly as a special counsel. so for the attorney general who, as we know, has seen a lot of the reports, reviewed whatever investigation perhaps may have been undertaken by the fbi, he's basically knocking it all down by coming out and saying i have not seen any reason here to, no. 1, launch some kind of investigation, and more specifically, to appoint a speci special counsel. and the significance of that is, a special counsel could last well into a biden administration. so that at this point is not going to happen.

the other significant thing here, and the news here is on the hunter biden investigation, where he said he doesn't see any point to appoint a special counsel in that investigation. and that is very significant as well. because you have to assume that the attorney general is consulting with career prosecutors there at the doj, some of them, which are going to stay well beyond the attorney general, attorney general barr's administration, he's set to leave there on wednesday. so these career prosecutors who are in the office are going to probably stay and be there when the biden administration takes office and his attorney general takes office and to have that kind of view on that case already i think is very significant because there have been some people, including members of congress and other people who have been saying that potentially the biden administration would have to appoint a special counsel in the hunter biden investigation. >> looking down at my notes

because he made clear just staying on the election question that, he says he stands by his position that he stated earlier in the month that he did not see any evidence of widespread election fraud that would overturn the election. take a look at the president's twitter feed just this morning and he is continuing on his rant and conspiracy theories and baseless claims of election fraud and barr said again he stands by his statement there. and also that -- like he does not see it. i think that is -- there's a lot to be said about bill barr and his tenure as attorney general and what he did for president trump along the way, it's pretty noteworthy and striking that the attorney general is making such a statement as he's getting ready to walk out the door. and the president is laying into this still at this very moment. >> that is a significant thing.

look, i think we need to realize that the attorney general has been the president's -- quite frankly, he's been the president's boy. he's been the president's attorney throughout the mueller investigation, other situations that involved questionable activity by people associated with the president, by the president himself. he has stood there and defended the president throughout. today, i think we are seeing a different attorney general, who perhaps knows that this is his last time that he's going to address the media. this is the last time he's going to come before the press there at the doj, many of whom have covered the doj for many years like our evan perez and other people who have been there for years. this is his last opportunity to try to save whatever is left of his reputation. and no doubt he was prepared for this. this is -- i have watched this attorney general take questions. i think this is probably the first time where he has taken

this many questions, certainly in recent times on off topics. >> that's what i was going to ask you. this is not a man, or an attorney general, who is not shy to say i'm not answering that question or not take any off topic questions in the press conference. he stood there and waited for a lot of questions. he knew these questions were coming at him today, too. >> reporter: they could have done this press conference, to give you some inside play of what's going on there, they could have done this virtually, done it and not have reporters present, they have done that throughout this pandemic where they've had reporters not come into the building. today was very different. i think this is what was at play here, the attorney general finally saw an opportunity to knock down some of the most ridiculous things that we are hearing from the white house, from the president as it relates

to the election. which has put the department of justice at the center of this because they're calling for all kinds of crazy investigations on conspiracy theories that don't exist. it put the fbi at the any of this, the president how many times did he go after attorney general barr and the fbi recently because of the election. so i think this was the moment for the attorney general, perhaps, i don't think a lot of people are going to give him credit for what he did today because he doesn't really deserve it in some ways because he has stood by this president but for whatever reason, and perhaps it's because this is his last opportunity, he chose this as an opportunity to come out and finally knock down some of the crazy stuff that we're hearing from the president and his team. >> stick with me i'm going to bring in evan perez, evan was in that press conference asking those briefings. i want to get your take because it was striking what we heard from the attorney general. >> reporter: it's striking to

hear the attorney general just plainly say if there were evidence that he had seen to warrant appointing a special counsel, which is what the president has been talking about with his aids, he wants to do a special counsel to investigate vote fraud, which he says is what cost him the election, the attorney general saying plainly that if he had seen such evidence he would have done it himself and he is not. so that is as strong an answer as you can get from the attorney general. and i think it reflects why the attorney general is leaving a little early. he's leaving in a couple of days, because he disagrees with what the president -- what is on the president's mind, what the president frankly is the number one thing on the president's mind, the top priority, which is to find a way to remain in office or at least that's what he seems to be trying to do. and the attorney general saying he doesn't see that, he doesn't support that idea and this is why he's making his exit on

wednesday this week, kate. >> great you're in there to ask those questions, evan. thank you so much. you also heard the attorney general contradict the president as well on this massive cyber hack that hit the country. he said he agrees with secretary of state mike pompeo, he says it looks like it was russia behind that hack. we'll have much more on that later in the hour. and coming up, the first vaccines from moderna are expected to be given at any moment today. we'll have the details on that next. footlong, from subway®! you can even order on the subway® app! did i just get picked off by deion sanders? you sure did! now in the app, get a free footlong when you buy two. because it's footlong season™!

and my water broke. at only 23 weeks. andrew: we had to stay in the hospital for 10 weeks, 1000s of miles from family. our driver kristin came along in our most desperate hour.

suzanne: bringing us home-cooked meals and gifts. andrew: day after day. we wanted to show you something. kristin: oh my god! andrew: kristin is the most uncommonly kind person that we've met. suzanne: thank you so much. nwhat it feels like to get ang of hhero's welcomeeran. on your own front lawn. at newday usa, our aim is to help every veteran family celebrate home by helping them leverage their va benefits to purchase a home with no down payment to enjoy the life they so rightly deserve. 04(ë 1dhq;-c9p6 the only thing a disaster can't destroy is hope. donate now at redcross.org

welcour new virtual classes were designed for you andving? millions of seniors like you. you can now choose from thousands of live virtual classes every week. get moving wherever you have an internet connection. and when you're ready, enjoy access to thousands of locations nationwide. with silversneakers, you're free to move. enroll today at no additional cost by visiting the website on your screen.

let's get back now to the major developments with the coronavirus vaccine. more help is really on the way as moderna's vaccine got the green light for emergency use this weekend. joining me for more is dr. ashih jha. good to see you again. moderna's shipments began yesterday we're told, shots are expected to begin today of that vaccine. we now have two vaccines out there now. is this a turning point? >> yeah, kate, thanks for having me on. it's certainly good news, isn't it? we need all the vaccines we can get. we still obviously have far fewer vaccines than the demand for it. but it'll be good to have both of these out there by the end of the year i suspect we'll have 20 million people potentially vaccinated. we have to get them vaccinated but we have the potential for 20

million people to be vaccinated and that makes a difference. >> the language is changing and shifting a little bit about the number from operation warp speed. they're no longer saying 20 million people are going to be vaccinated by the first of the year. now they're saying 20 million vaccines will be allocated or available in that time period. the process seems to be having a harder time ramping up or starting maybe than they had hoped. does that surprise you or concern you? >> it doesn't surprise me. it's a little frustrating because it's not like we didn't know that vaccines were coming. there are two parts to the problem, congress hasn't allocated the resources to states to get the vaccinations done and we haven't done the planning to figure out when shipments arrive how we get them into people's arms. i think we'll figure it out, it'll go slowly.

better planning would have helped but here we are. >> we also just learned over the weekend these next priority groups who will be next in line to get the vaccine, front line essential workers like firemen and police and transportation and grocery store workers and adults 75 years old and older. what do you think of the cdc's recommendations here? >> they're trying to thread a needle between two things, people at high risk of developing complications, older people and people at high risk of getting infected, the front line workers. i think they got it right. they got bits of both groups, they're both important and when they get vaccinated we'll move to a young every population, 75 to 64. and other comorbidities. there's no perfect way to do it, the cdc is getting it right. >> i think your perspective here is pretty spot on. if you can stick around with me,

doctor, for a second because i want to get to nic robertson, he has an update for us on what's unfolding in the uk and the new covid variant. nic, the prime minister is imposing emergency new restrictions there, what is happening? >> reporter: 16.4 million people in the country, about a third of the population in england have been put under tighter restrictions until just a couple of days ago, people were told they could have three different households in their house for christmas dinner at the end of the week, they could stay for five days. over the weekend, the prime minister turned that around and people are being told you cannot leave the area, the southeast of the country. don't have anyone into your house, that's absolutely forbidden over christmas, only your family in the house over christmas and the reaction from countries around the world, isolating britain effectively, countries from argentina,

columbia, el salvador, canada, israel, kuwait, saudi arabia, pakistan, jordan and in europe as well. latvia, the netherlands, belgium, germany, france, all puts restrictions for citizens, most critical the restriction from france, the accompanied freight trucks cannot come from france, and that's where 20% of the supplies come to the uk, including fresh food. so that's where they're spiraling trying to deal with a variant that seems more infectious, although not more deadly, manifests to getting products into the country and allowing people to come and go from the country. the prime minister is expected to address this in a press conference in the next hour, his transport secretary and chief

scientific adviser will be with him when he gives that address. >> thank you for that. let me bring back in dr. jha on this opini this. it appears to be more infectious, 70% more transmissable. what does that mean? how worried should people be about this? >> this is a concerning situation, we have to sort this out. the best evidence right now says it is more transmittable. and that is a source of concern. but the good news is nothing so far says it's more deadly if you get infected and nothing here says this virus or this strain is going to be resistant to the vaccine so those are very, very good pieces of news. we have to monitor this and watch it more carefully. and ultimately, kate, what we need to do, even if that strain takes off in the united states, what we need to do is wear masks, avoid crowds, wash your hands. all the stuff we've been talking

about still remains. i don't think it changes our behavior but we have to be careful and watch the strain and learn more about it. >> we know there are scientists at walter reed watching it. i want to play what admiral giroux said this morning about it. >> it's not more lethal or dangerous than the coronavirus, no evidence to suggest that, to believe it. there is also no evidence to suggest nor reason to believe that it would revad our vaccines we have now. our vaccines develop antibodies against multiple parts of the spike protein, not just the mutated one. we're encouraged about that but we have work to do to understand it more fully. >> he points out this variant was first identified in september. when do you think we all will know if there are any issues with this vaccine and this variant? >> on this variant specifically, there's a lot of work being done

right now in the uk, in the u.s. looking at this variant. again, i remain pretty confident that the vaccine will stand up to this variant but over time we will see more variants and we may see a variant where the vaccine is less effective. this is why we have to be vigilant and also the more infections there are the more opportunity there are for mutations and variations. one of the things we can do to avoid long-term issues is keep infection levels down, we know how to do that. i think if we stay on that message we will make a big difference. >> you saw on the screen just all the countries pausing travel from the uk because of what we're learning about this. do you think it would be smart for the united states to do the same? there's a growing list of countries here pausing travel. do you think the u.s. should? >> this is a really good question. the general evidence on travel bans is that it tends to slow

things down a little bit. if that variant really ends up becoming dominant it will find a way into every country. i think travel bans would slow that down for a while, give us more time. so i wouldn't be opposed to it. but to me the most important thing is do the things we're doing in the united states to protect the people. >> doctor, thank you. >> thank you, kate. coming up for us, an attorney known for pushing election fraud conspiracy theories was spotted at the white house twice this weekend. new reporting now on what has even long-time trump allies worried. bative yelling) he used to have bad breath. now, he uses a capful of therabreath fresh breath oral rinse to keep his breath smelling great, all day long. (combative yelling) therabreath, it's a better mouthwash. at walmart, target and other fine stores.

the we have to find just anosomething else.it. good luck! 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.

(combative yelling) he used to have bad breath. now, he uses a capful of therabreath fresh breath oral rinse to keep his breath smelling great, all day long. (combative yelling) therabreath, it's a better mouthwash. at walmart, target and other fine stores. let's turn now to capitol hill, where the first votes on the $900 billion covid relief bill are expected today. but what's actually in this bill and what is not? manu raju is on the hill, he's been tracking all these details all along for us. they announced a deal late yesterday, what's the latest you're hearing on timing and such? >> reporter: the bill is released. we have not seen the bill text yet of the $900 billion proposal that congress wants to approve today. members of congress have virtually no time to read the

bill before they vote on it and it'll be attached to a $1.4 trilli $1.4 trillion spending package to keep the government open through next september because money is going to run out for the government by midnight if they don't act and they have not seen the details on that either. so we expect language to be introduced in a matter of moments then the house rules committee you wiwill take it up. they'll vote, and then it'll be kicked to the united states senate. the question is whether the senate can agree to a quick vote, all 100 senators need to agree to the vote. then assuming it gets passed, it gets kicked to the president's desk, and that could take days because of the paperwork. this includes direct payments up to $600 for individuals, people who make under $75,000 -- up to

$75,000 a year would get that relief, as well as $300 in enhanced unemployment benefits that kick in december 27th. so many people at risk of losing the benefits. more than $20 billion for the paycheck protection program. more than 80 billion for schools and colleges. 25 billion for rental assistance. a lot in this proposal that will help all sectors of the economy. but we need to see the details, there needs to be a vote and the question is, when will that happen and when will the american people get the relief they've been seeking? >> and they're already saying it's not enough. thank you very much. let's turn to the white house now where the reporting is, frankly, stunning when it is impossible to be stunned anymore. screaming matches in the oval office, presidential advisers pushing for martial law to rerun the election. and an attorney who is constantly spreading conspiracy theories over the election is seen at the white house then twice this weekend.

the situation around the president taking such a turn. sources familiar with what has happened are now alerting reporters. one of the sources described to cnn's kevin liptack and pamela brown a concern among trump's aides even those who weathered his previous controversies about what steps he might take next as his term comes to an end. john harwood is at the white house, joining us now. sidney powell is the attorney we're talking about, she was spotted at the white house again last night but this is after the reporting came out about friday night. it's no small thing, martial law is being floated. >> reporter: so much crazy going on in that building behind me. the situation we find ourselves in is this, we have a president not psychologically healthy, he's terrified of being labeled a loser, he's delusional.

he's about to lose the protections and benefits of being president in 30 days and to return to private life facing very large debts, hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. facing the threat of prosecution at the state and local level, as well as the federal level although he might pardon himself. and therefore, he is entertaining all of these crazy ideas, seizing voting machines, making sidney powell, this conspiracy theory lawyer, a special counsel on voter fraud. declaring martial law, the idea advanced by michael flynn, the retired lieutenant general who, of course, was his national security advisor until he was -- pled guilty to a felony for lying to the fbi about conversations with russia. this is what is surrounding the president right now. we heard from bill barr, as you showed on your air a few minutes ago, that he does not think there is reason for a special

counsel. he does not see the widespread fraud. he is fleeing the scene of the craziness but the rest of us are going to be watching this president for 30 days. it'll probably be no more than talk because the president tends to do more talking than acting in these situations. but we don't know, and everybody needs to fasten their seat belts. >> john, thank you. so one thing the president is definitely not focused on and not taking any action against is the massive cyber attack on u.s. government agencies. the president now downplaying an openly contradicting his own secretary of state on this. let me play you what the secretary of state mike pompeo actually said. >> i think it's the case that now we can say pretty clearly it was the russians that engaged in this activity. >> yet in the president's first comments on this, and this is a week after all this became public, he did not condemn russia at all.

instead he suggested it may be china and also suggested that this whole thing is being overblown. joining me right now is the director of the stanford internet observatory and chief security officer for facebook and yahoo. alex, thanks for being here. there's a list of things i would like to get through. do you see any credible suggestion that this is anyone other than russia? >> no, there's no credible evidence that it's anybody other than russia. a number of organizations that have a lot of credibility on matters of attribution, have pointed the finger squarely at the russian intelligence agency. so i've seen nothing that would make me doubt they're correct. >> it's been close to a week since the -- since the security council has met on this. how widespread, and frankly

devastating, is this to the u.s. government and the companies being targeted? can you put that in perspective for people? >> this is quite possibility, the most effective cyber espionage campaign in history. we don't know what the impact is going to be yet. but the fact that the russians were able, through some very smart and careful and stealthy moves, to insert themselves into roughly 18,000 networks around the world meant they had a shopping list of government agencies, large corporations, and companies tied to the defense industrial base that they could choose to break into. which ones they chose to break into we're not sure yet. that's the question that's going to take months, perhaps years, to answer. >> we keep hearing people say the hack could be still ongoing. that's almost the most striking to me at this moment, why don't they know that yet at the very least? >> yeah, so this is a

complicated one. to simplify it a little bit, there's really two steps the russians took here. the first step they took in march. they put a back door into a very popular piece of software that lots of government agencies and corporations use to manage their network. once that back door was inserted and was downloaded by the victims, the svr had a choice to make of whether or not they themselves went on their keyboards and took control of computers inside the organizations to find information. the first step has been closed. the fire eye and microsoft working together have figured out how to stop the russians from walking into that back door. but the question is how many of those back doors did they walk into? we know it's probably in the hundreds out of the 18,000 possible. the question is will that number grow and the number of organizations that are sensitive, such as the nuclear stock pile administration, the

number of the top organizations grow as well? at this pace it looks like that continues and it takes a lot to find that. there's not enough times in the united states, really around the world, to go and look at the situations and figure out in what situations did the russians decide to walk through the door. >> how did it get so far without anyone noticing? >> a great question. a couple things happened here, this was a back door placed in software that i.t. administrators intentionally went and pulled down and installed in their network. it wasn't an outside attack. a lot of defenses built over the last decade are looking for the attack phase. the russians didn't have to do that. the people running the networks intentionally downloaded the software and installed it. of all the russian intelligence agencies, there's three, this is the good, subtle one. we talk about the gru, they're the ones that broke into the

dnc, they're like a sledge hammer. the svr is like a cap pelscalpe if you look at the ways they controlled the network, it was really subtle. >> looking forward, you have a president who's making clear he's not going to be doing anything in the 30 days that he is still in office on this. i'm curious if you think how critical these 30 days could be and how critical timing is. but even looking forward, we heard the incoming chief of staff, ron klain say this is going to go beyond sanctions we'll take on things to degrade the capacity of foreign actors to repeat this type of attack. i'm curious to what you think that would be? >> the next 30 days are critical. the last two weeks are critical. the russians know we know, and they're likely cleaning up their tracks at the different victims. so the first couple of days of an incident response like this are really important that's the time you can greez things in place, you can gather up data

before it's been deleted and be confident you have caught everything. the longer we go from the initial announcement, the harder and harder it's going to be to find the back doors planted in these networks. the biden administration, they have talked about that kind of responding to russia, obviously there's lots of reasons we need to respond to russia around them putting bounties on the heads of american soldiers, and all other espionage activity. but in this circumstance the united states is not considered cyber espionage to be an act of war. this is the kind of thing we have done over and over again in using -- breaking into computers to steal information. so while i think there's going to be a lot of language, in the end this will not be the thing that triggers a lot of sanctions because it is the kind of thing we have reserved for ourselves in the past. >> alex, thank you very much. coming up, cvs rolling out the vaccination program for long

term care facilities, the chief medical officer for cvs join us with an update.

right now, hhs, defense department, and operation warp speed are having a press conference. alex azar just said he will be receiving the coronavirus vaccine in the coming days. listen. >> look forward to receiving this vaccine myself in the

coming days as part of our efforts to demonstrate to americans these vaccines are safe and incredibly effective at preventing covid-19. this first wave of moderna shipments will be sent to more than 3500 sites, greater number than the pfizer vaccine was sent to in part because the moderna vaccine can be accommodated in more sites, including harder to reach and more rural platces. >> the vaccine rollout is ramping up. the united states has two authorized coronavirus vaccines. and residents of long-term care facilities will begin to get the first doses of the vaccine, really starting today. cvs and walgreens are the pharmacies that are focused on the long-term care facilities. let's update how that's going and going to go. dr. troy brennan is with us. thank you for coming back in.

you're just starting with the vaccines in long-term care facilities. how is this going? >> we did a few over the weekend and friday. the big start is really today, in more than a dozen states. so far everything seems to be going quite well. >> that's great to hear. you say it will be in a dozen states. how many shots do you think you'll be able to administer in this first week? >> in the first week really difficult to say. somewhere over 50,000. >> that sounds hugely promising. there are so many long-term care facilities. as things ramp up, dr. brennan, what's your hope on how many you'll be administering week to week. do you have a goal? >> well, we figure there's about 4 million people in long-term care facilities, and people that work in long-term care facilities and we're looking at 8 to 12 week process for the portion we're doing which is over 40,000 out of 70,000

locations that have been identified. if you do the math, we have to get out to plenty of locations every week, but so far we have that well mapped out and our operations teams are confident they'll be able to accomplish that. >> that's why operation warp speed is leaning on you. one of the things we heard from alex azar recently, he believed the government has capacity to give the vaccine to all residents of long-term care facilities by christmas. that doesn't seem feasible at this point, correct? >> no, i don't think that's feasible, not by christmas, no. we're going to be working through the 24th. a lot of places don't want us on the 25th. then we'll be back out there on the 26th. that will be too soon to get to all skilled nursing facilities in the country. some states won't even start until the 28th. >> one of the issues i wanted to ask you about, starting to hear is concerns or issues around

consent with some of the residents in these care facilities. you have residents, many residents, that have dementia, alzheimer's patients, require family or attorneys to provide consent for things. how are you handling this? >> well, initially we wanted to get written consent. working with facilities we found that wasn't going to be possible in many circumstances so we're going to be taking verbal consent and email consent from individuals and then documenting that on the back end. but the idea is to get the vaccinations done in skilled nursing facilities for all the patients that want to have them, not have hangups because we are unable to get written consent. >> this may seem like a small thing, now that there's a second vaccine that received authorization, dr. brennan, how does that work for cvs? how does it work now that you have two vaccines authorized and how it rolls out in various

places through cvs. >> we work with operation warp speed on that. we don't anticipate significant logistical problems with the pfizer vaccine, even though it has to be kept at much lower temperatures. some going with teams in northern vermont over the course of the middle of the week, we will be using the pfizer vaccine in rural settings there. logistics aren't something that sort of concerns us. moderna is a little bit easier, what it will do is provide obviously more supply. some states will get moderna, some will get pfizer. operation warp speed works with us. the major thing for us is that the pfizer vaccine is 21 days. we have to be back there 21 days later, moderna is 28 days. our systems are capable of identifying who has gotten which vaccine, when they need to get their booster. >> thank you so much, dr. brennan, for coming on for an update. big day for so many families

with people in long-term care facilities. thank you. >> it is a big day. thank you so much, kate. coming up for us, president-elect joe biden and jill biden rolling up their sleeves, set to receive the first dose of the pfizer vaccine today. en and serving footlongs contact-free. order in the app for quick and easy pickup. or, get contact-free curbside pickup! staying home? get delivery! so many ways to get footlongs contact-free! subway. eat fresh.

try optum perks. it's a new way to save up to 80%. and everyone can do it. it's from optum, a health care company that's trusted by millions of people. you don't have to sign up for anything. just go to optumperks.com. and get a coupon to use at your pharmacy. that's it. i opted in. i opted in. you can, too. opt in and save big today.

- [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, everyone. thanks for sticking with us. we begin a second hour now. soon, president-elect joe biden and jill biden will be rolling up their sleeves and receiving their first doses of the coronavirus vaccine. they're joining a growing list of political leaders getting the vaccine publicly as part of a major effort to show and convince other americans that the vaccine is safe, easy, effective. hhs secretary alex azar moments ago said he is going to be doing the very same. >> look forward to receiving this vaccine myself in the

coming days as part of our efforts to demonstrate to americans that these vaccines are safe and incredibly effective at preventing covid-19. this first wave of moderna shipments will be sent to more than 3500 sites, a greater number than the pfizer vaccine was sent to. in part, because the moderna vaccine can be accommodated in more sites, including harder to reach and more rural places. >> this also comes as millions of americans who have been suffering for months may finally be seeing some relief they needed so desperately. congressional leaders after months of stalemate and frankly failure which they have admitted themselves, they finally got it together, finally struck a deal, a $900 billion deal for covid relief aid to be sent out. the first votes on that package are supposed to happen today but they haven't even seen the language yet. an update from capitol hill, we take you there