services and the director of the national institute of health all receiving their dose of the vaccine before cameras. part of the push by top officials to convince americans the vaccines are safe, effective and necessary. >> there's a symbol to the rest of the country that i feel extreme confidence in the safety and efficacy of this vaccine and i want to encourage everyone who has the opportunity to get vaccinated so we can have a vail of protection over this country that would end this pandemic. >> they received the moderna vaccine which just rolled out shipments this week just as moderna and pfizer are digging in to get a definitive answer on whether their vaccines are effective against a new variant of the virus hitting the united kingdom right now. just as dr. anthony fauci says to assume it's already made its

way here. until those answers come, what should do you? 40 countries have now halted travel from the uk. white house advisers are expected to present president trump with options today. but new york's governor announced an agreement with three airlines to test all passengers flying into new york from the uk. but he's also calling on the federal government to do more. >> the united states has done nothing. now, i acted proactively, frankly, for new york. but we'll have flights into chicago, into other parts of the country and those people can get on flights and come back to new york or infect other states. and this whole notion that any one state can protect itself was foolish from the beginning. >> so let's begin at the white house right now where they are said to be considering plans to impose testing requirements for

anyone traveling from the united kingdom into the united states. john harwood is at the white house and he's joining us now. what are you hearing about this? >> it looks like the administration is focussing in on a testing regime that would require air travelers flying into the united states to have tested negative for the virus within 48 or 72 hours of their entry into the united states. not finally settled yet. there appears to be some disagreement within the government about one, how efficacious this would be because the virus, as dr. fauci said, may already be in the united states and b how serious this strain of the virus is. obviously the pandemic is surging as a general matter across the country. we see the disagreement reflected in the hawkishness or lack of it in state governors. you played the sound bite from andrew cuomo, who took the pro

active action to require testing. governor phil murphy of new jersey seems less alarmed says the science is reflected. and that's what's in the administration's deliberation so far. >> as the white house is considering options there appears to be more questions than answers about this variant. chief among them do the two vaccines work against this mutation. elizabeth cohen has been looking into this, talking to some smart minds on this. what are you hearing about the variant and the vaccines available? >> let's first talk about the variant, kind of introduce it to people in the united states and explain a little bit about what it is. so this is a variant that first appeared in the uk. it's been traced back to september 20th near london. that date is important because you can imagine how much travel there's been from the uk to the u.s. since september 20th. uk scientists are highly confident, that's the phrase they use, that it's more

transmissible than the variants that preceded it. and now six out of ten cases in london are this new variant. most of the cases are in people under 60. the reason why we raise that point is because unfortunately it's people under 60 who are responsible for a lot of the transmission because quite a few people under 60 are asymptomatic, they feel fine so they're spreading the virus because they don't know they have it. what does this mean for the vaccine, what officials have been telling us it doesn't seem like it means anything for the vaccine, the vaccine will work well. i am hearing scientists say we have to test this out we're not so sure. but either way, since we have a variant that does appear to be spreading more easily, all the more important that people get vaccinated. if woe 'going to have this virus

spreading quickly you need more people getting vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity. >> joining me for more on this is dr. leana wen, dr. wen, the cdc is saying the moment this uk variant has not been identified in the united states, but as elizabeth is pointing out, it had been honed in on and identify in general back in september. so if the cdc is saying that, i'm wondering if it's good news. >> i don't think we can know at this point, because september was a long time ago. and there has been a lot of travel between here and the uk since then. also here in the u.s. we're not doing the kind of surveillance on the type of variance that the uk has done. so chances are we have it already in this country and i think that the most important thing for people to know about the variant is it does appear to be more contagious which is more concerning because the virus

that causes covid-19 is an extremely contagious virus. so it's concerning. and we have to keep up precautions of wearing masks, social distancing and avoiding indoor gatherings, particularly as we come into the christmas holidays. as you know, pfizer's partner in creating the vaccine, their ceo spoke out and said he thinks with this variant it might require a higher vaccination rate. can you explain this? >> when we look at other viruses, like measles as an example that's more contagious you know in order to catch up with the virus you have to vaccinate a larger percentage of the population. you have to vaccinate something like 90% of the population for measles. we're estimating we need 60 to 80% of people in the u.s. who have immunity to covid-19 but if it spreads more easily we'll

have more catching up to do. we know the roll out of the vaccine is more difficult, that vaccine hesitancy is an issue so that's more important for us to get the virus under control and ramp up vaccine rollout as soon as we can. >> in the meantime we are starting to see as we heard from governor cuomo, states taking their own actions and the white house is considering this proof of a negative test for travelers from the united kingdom. i wonder what's the smart thing to do here? what's the right balance, do you think? >> i think we need a national strategy. it doesn't make sense for states to be implementing their own measures when we are a nation we know that the virus is one that does not abide by state boundaries. i think testing is a good way to go, in fact, it shouldn't be testing for people traveling from the uk but really anywhere at this point, i think that would give peace of mind for

people on the flights but it's about what people do when they get to their destination. if they tested positive before they travelled, they should not be traveling at all. when people travel the virus travels. also having enforced quarantine makes sense as well to have an extra layer of protection. i hope everyone will reconsider their travel plans right now with so much virus surging around the country and around the world that we should be canceling nonessential traveling. >> as you were pointing out the need for more people to get vaccinated, dr. fauci laid out this morning his thought on when the broader general public can expect to see -- expect to get shots. i'm going to play this for you. >> i think we'll start in ernest, vaccinating the general population somewhere the end of march, beginning of april. it may take two, three, four months or more before you get everyone vaccinated that wants

to be vaccinated. i would think by the tomb ime wt into the summer we're almost at the point you can say everyone who wants to get vaccinated will get vaccinated. >> what do you think of that time line now? >> i hope that dr. fauci is right. and i think that there is a good chance we can get there. i am, though, worried. we've seen already a lot of bumps along the way. some of them are expected, but also looks like there is lack of coordination, communication. we know that states and local health departments need funding. they're getting some funding for the stimulus but they need to ramp up testing, doing public education and there are so many things that have to align in order for us to get vaccines to everyone who needs them and wants them. i hope this next rollout when it comes to other essential workers, older individuals will go more smoothly than the roll out thus far has been. >> i think you're hitting on

something important this next phase we're headed into from your perspective as a public health official, the kind of double pressure and responsibility now on local health officials, which is not only to try to get -- ramp up testing and get the community to follow proper public health guidance but also now being in charge of rolling out vaccine efforts and tracking that. it seems there is a lot that is still more and more being put on public health officials. i'm curious as to your thought of how they manage this. >> i've spoken my counter parts across the country, local health officials who are so tired, they've been running what is now a marathon, but at sprint speed. morale is also know because many individuals have been facing people, calling them names, threatening them and their families because they're trying to implement public health guidance, they're trying to ramp

up testing and tracing and working to help businesses to reopen and so many other measures too. now we're adding on top of that, the most ambitious program we've taken in the u.s. this is something health departments can do. we know what's needed in order to do it but we need the resources. and i really hope they are pleased from local and state departments will be heeded, because this is a huge undertaking. >> dr. wen, thank you. coming up for us, congress passes a long awaited, much needed pandemic relief package. why america's mayors are mad about it. and strategizing another long shot to try to overturn the election. what they're planning. that's ahead. eaning of home like a veteran. what it feels like to get a hero's welcome on your own front lawn. at newday usa, our aim is to help every veteran family celebrate home

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just before mud night congress approved a long overdue coronavirus relief package and there's a lot in it, a $900 billion plan giving direct payments of $600 to many adults and their children. it also boosts unemployment benefits by $300 a week. there's $284 billion for small businesses. money for -- money for vaccine distribution as well. and an extension on the eviction moratorium. but state and local governments are angry. saying this relief bill still falls short. there's no money in this deal to help states and cities pay crucial employees. the u.s. conference of mayors put out a statement saying it is not enough. the pandemic has shattered the budgets of local governments and

washington's unwillingness to help has cost people jobs and made communities less safe. the result is police, firefighters, other essential workers will lose their jobs and residents will lose their services. with me right now the vice president of the u.s. conference of mayors, the mayor of dayton, ohio. thank you for coming in. as you feared, the money isn't there. what does that mean for dayton? >> it means the folks we have done voluntary separation plans, 102 employees those positions won't be rehired. and it means in 2021 there will not be a police or fire class in the city of dayton putting our response levels at critical situations in our city. we are lucky, compared to other cities that will likely have to do layoffs of these direct services. while our service delivery will be lower we do not have to do layoffs because we've managed the budget well, something

congress can take a lesson from. >> can you put in perspective what this means from years past, what it means for the residents of dayton, the choices having to be made. >> it doesn't have to be this way. it's just such an easy fix. what we were hoping would be a k recovery, not a u recovery, and these front line workers are working class, middle class jobs that provide services to our community. we've gone through recessions like this that are very long, the 2008 and 2009 one for example in dayton was brutal. but this didn't have to be this way except congress likes to play political football with our local communities. you have to ask yourselves when movie theatres are being bailed out but front line services aren't, something is wrong with washington d.c. >> what is it about this pandemic that has hit cities so hard? >> like all other areas it's hit

our taxes, like income or sales taxes that provide those services every day to our communities. you would think that washington d.c. and congress would recognize how important these front line services are. they're always fast to, you know, pat police officers and firefighters on the back when they do a great job or front line workers or folks that remove snow and take up the trash but when the rubber meets the road they're not there for them. that's why cities and states really say this package is a failure. we know they have kicked the can just a little bit on eviction. so we'll have the same conversation come january 31st. we know this vaccination is going to take time. and with these kind of pal ttry events this economy is one that will be murky and mired. they're playing political football between parties and not paying attention to the needs of

everyday citizens. >> i spoke with a former mayor, turned republican congressman in utah last night. i thought he would be sympathetic to what you are talking about, but he essentially said too bad and made the point to say some cities are actually doing quite well. let me play for you what congressman john curtis told me. >> counties and states are taxing authorities. it surprised me a little bit that all of the pressure has been on congress to move forward and incur debt that we don't have, and states have the same taxing authority and i think in many ways it's a mistake to look to one federal government to solve all the problems across the united states. there's a number of cities that are actually doing fine. there's a number of states doing okay. and so, this one size fits all answer across the united states is very, very difficult to do. >> what do you say to him? >> well, he's clearly out of

touch and clueless. it's embarrassing that he was ever a local government official, frankly because he's forgotten what the basis of local economies are. first, unlike the federal government, we have to have balanced budgets every year. something the federal government doesn't have to do. this pandemic is no community's fault. we're not saying it's the federal government's fault but we need to come together and they're the only ones that can take action when we're talking about the need for these services. secondly, the senate did have a proposal that had population and revenue loss as part of the formula. we were fine with that. we recognize this pandemic has been uneven so we said, fine with this way to make the decision. but instead, they did nothing. this just shows how out of touch congress is. they sincerely don't get it. they're in their fancy places in washington d.c., forgetting where the rubber meets the road, forgetting about the people providing the everyday life

saving services in our communities and it's just really a disappointment but not surprising unfortunately to mayors across the country. >> i want to ask you about something else you're overseeing, vaccine distribution. how is that going in had your city? >> we started -- the state started yesterday actually in montgomery county with nursing homes. to date we have not started vaccine distribution in dayton. we understand that we -- >> you don't have any vaccines? >> not until christmas eve is the first day. that's my point around the economy taking a while to get going. you know, we are a big city that gets these assets quickly. we have talked about this, how testing was very slow in communities like dayton and across the country. and i'm concerned that vaccine distribution will be slow as well -- >> mayor let me jump in really quick because it makes me want to ask you, members of congress started getting vaccines over the weekend. many posting pictures getting

it. they say they want to lead by example. i wonder since you haven't gotten any vaccines in your city what you think of that since you're waiting to get a single dose? >> i think it's important for us to say the vaccine is safe and i'm glad the former presidents were pointing they would get the vaccine early to show that. but for me, i know that i'm going to wait in line like everybody else in my community and when it's my turn, public health will tell me it's my turn and that's when i'll go. that's the difference between local and federal officials we are with everybody every day, aren't away from who we serve every day even during a pandemic and that shows how off base they continue to be. >> mayor, thanks for coming in. >> thank you. coming up next for us. a new report on the growing anxiety inside the pent gone about president trump. what sources are revealing to them. and what scares them in the remaining days. that's next. ♪ you must go and i must bide

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officials telling cnn about president trump in the final days of his presidency. almost a dozen currently serving military officers are expressing to cnn the rising anxiety among military leaders over what the president might do, appears to have given up governing the

country and is focused on trying to overturn the election result. barbara starr broke the story and she's here now. tell us what you're hearing. >> reporter: kate, think of it as a low murmur just under the surface. if you talk to people around the pentagon this is what you begin to hear consistently, concern, anxiety, what could the president do to potentially draw the military into his efforts to overturn election results. hard to see how it would be legal, maybe it's just talk of some kind of stunt from the white house but here at the pant gone there is concern about it and genuine concern. i think one of the reasons is they have seen the one-time lieutenant general michael flynn fired as president trump's national security advisor now openly talking about using what he calls military capabilities to put into the swing states to

change the election results somehow. nobody knows what he really means. but it takes that kind of talk right into the oval office, because flynn, of course, now meeting with the president, discussions of martial law, call it what you will. what this has led to is at least some retired generals who have much more freedom to speak out, speaking out incredibly bluntly. i want to, quote, a tweet from retired tony thomas, very respected, retired general thomas says to michael flynn, stop, just stop. you know leveraging the military to rerun elections is a totally inappropriate role for the profession. you are also undercutting the extraordinary tus and confidence america has in their military. you can take to the bank that general thomas knows that message not going just to flynn but to troops, commanders, and the american people. now the top u.s. military

official, general mark milly, chairman of the joint chiefs who functions as the president's chief military adviser has said in the past there is no role for the u.s. military in the elections. he has not addressed these specific concerns, because that would draw him into politics. but he recently did talk in very blunt terms about what the u.s. military does and what it does not do. >> we are unique among militaries. we do not take an oath to a king or queen, a tyrant or a dictator. we do not take an oath to an individual. no, we do not take an oath to a country, tribe, or religion. we take an oath to the constitution. >> in just the last few days the head of the army, the chief of staff, the army secretary also issuing statements saying that the military has no role in the

outcome of the election. >> great reporting, barbara, thank you. so president trump, he's now plotting with a group of house republicans as well on his next effort to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power. cnn is learning mike pence attended the meeting as well. it comes to january 6th when the vote is announced before a session of congress. manu raju has this reporting now. you've been digging into this, what are these meetings about and what's the plan? >> reporter: it's all about january 6th, the house conservatives who i spoke with yesterday they met with president trump and vice president pence too which is significant because he will oversee what occurs on january 6th on the house floor. a joint session of congress to count the electoral votes. what the house republicans are planning on doing is objecting to the state's electoral votes i'm told by a leader of the

effort, mo brooks they plan to object to six of the state's election results. now in order for this to have any success -- first of all it has no chances of succeeding in overturning the result but it could pro long the debate and lead to a messy debate. house conservatives need support from one senator. according to mo brooks he told them senators have told him privately they're willing to do it. privately he told me they have a number of assurances. if they get support from a senator then each chamber has to debate separately for two hours the merits of that objection to a specific state's results and then there would be a vote in the house and senate whether to uphold that objection. and that vote is certain to fail in both chambers, including in the republican led senate in which the republican leaders are urging senators not to get behind this. one of the senators, the number two republican john thune told

me yesterday republicans should not join this effort on the senate side. he told me, i think they have to remember it's not going anywhere. in the senate it would go down like a shot dog. now that is pretty clear sign there is virtually no support among the senate republican leaders but house republican leaders have been quiet on this so far, including steve scalise who told me, if the republicans do it, it happened in the past, he didn't seem to have an issue with them going forward with it on january 6th. >> sounds like a good use of their time. manu thank you. coming up, we are getting crushed. that's from a doctor in los angeles who said his hospital could soon run out of beds. he's our guest next. ♪

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california is crippling under the weight of covid-19 right now. the numbers in the state's most populus county tell you the story. a health official in los angeles county estimates one in 64 residents has covid-19 and is actively infecting others and it's pushing the county's health system to the brink. >> what's it like right now for your staff? >> it's a disaster right now for our staff. the patients are extremely sick. this is a horrible disease. i hope i won't cry because it's

been ten months of this and we are inundated. >> inundated. on monday l.a. county officials reported there are only 30 adult icu beds available. look at this video. this is some of the sobering video. this is one of dozens of refrigerated storage units brought to l.a. and the state as they fear a wave of covid-19 deaths now. let's get the latest on the ground there on what is happening and what is needed. joining me is dr. brad spellberg, the chief medical office for the university of southern california medical center. that estimate, that number of 1 in 64 people in the county infected, can you give us perspective of what that means on the ground? >> what it means on the ground is we don't have icu beds. we are -- the water is running over the levies now here. we are bailing out the water as fast as we can to expand the levy higher.

but if the surge continues to increase, there's no amount of bailing that's going to keep us from sinking. >> doctor, the way you put it, i read in an interview, is that you are getting crushed, your hospital. can you describe what it is like in a typical day right now with, of course, we know that california has been going through this for ten months now, as so many states have been. how is your staff doing? >> we're exhausted. we're frustrated. our staff work in the safety net. they know why they come to work. we're holding strong by our finger nails but we're tired and we need the public to really respect public health guidelines. in the hospital we can only react to what comes to us and we're doing our best to keep up with the surge of patients coming. the public has the ability to slow the spread, to keep the safety net and the county health system afloat. so that the pace of patients

coming to us doesn't result in getting overwhelmed. i just would emphasize, if you think this is just about covid-19, you're wrong. if you get into a car accident or you have a heart attack or stroke or fall off a ladder, you're going to want us to have a bed for you and staff trained to take care of you. if they're full of covid patients, who's left to care for you? >> is that happening right now? this is the fear and it's a term that is painful even to say always. but it comes down to having to make very tough choices like rationing care. who has the most urgent need which patient that has to have the focus over another patient that also deserves attention, but you just have stretched too thin to be able to offer that? is that happening? >> i mentioned we're bailing water as it spills over the lev have you. the way we do that, we scale back so you don't have clinic

appointments anymore, we don't do elective surgeries or procedures so we can redeploy the staff away from the not sick people who do need care into critical parts of the hospital to open up new beds to handle the flood of sick patients. this is contingency care. we're not at crisis care where we're saying you're going to live and you're going to die, sorry. we don't want to get to that point. there is going to be a point no matter how fast we bail and how much internal redistribution of staff we do and how much we try to hire extra staff we can't continue to bail. if we reach that point, that is where you start delivering crisis care and start triaging patients. >> can i ask about the vaccine effort? how many doses of the vaccine have you received? how many shots have been administered? >> well, so we're the largest of the four county hospitals in

l.a. county so we're part of a four hospital systems with 19 clinic, the department of health services, as a system we expect to administer approximately 11,000 vaccines -- sorry, i think 17,000 vaccines by the end of the month. thus far multiple thousands have been given we anticipate we will be increasing that in the coming two weeks and hit approximately 17,000 by the end of the month. >> i'm curious about that, we have heard from the trump administration that nearly 5 million doses have been shipped. if you look at the tracking numbers in the first after seven or eight days, there's still only about 614,000 shots that have been administered across the country. do you understand why there is a disconnect? is it taking more time to get people vaccinated than maybe the administration was anticipating? >> we had an unbelievably

efficient vaccine effort. people were in and in. i don't know what the issue is. we're surviving minute by minute here. i don't have time to keep track of what's going on at the national level. i hope other people are keeping an eye on it. >> i understand that. doctor, thank you for coming on. >> thank you. >>. coming up next, the russian government is responding to cnn reporting that a russia agent admitted to poisoning the top opposition leader. coming up next, the russian (solemn orchestral music begins)

- [narrator] as many of the nation's most trusted hospitals,

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russia's security service is speaking out after cnn's investigation into the poisoning of top opposition leader alexei navalny. they're saying the recorded phone conversation where an agent admitted to helping poison navalny was a fake conversation. now there's more. clarissa ward had the exclusive report, joins us again. walk us through what you're learning now. >> reporter: well, the spokesperson for president putin came out with a slew of insults against navalny, saying he has a jesus come flex, freudian obsession with his crotch, that's where it was put, in his underwear. one thing he didn't say was refuting the facts of our reporting on the extraordinary

story. it is an extraordinary scenario. russian opposition leader alexei navalny on the phone of the man in the unit that poisoned him in august. he pretends to be a senior figure from russia national security council investigating the attempted assassination. the operative is hesitant at first, then reveals the poison was placed on navalny's underpants. >> well, imagine underpants, in what place. >> translator: the insides, the groin. the crotch in the underpants? >> well, the circle, there are seams there, across the scenes. >> reporter: it punches a gaping hole in the kremlin's repeated denials that the russian government played any role in

navalny's poisoning. he was one of an elite team that trailed navalny for years as cnn and online investigative outlet reported last week. the unit was headquartered in this building in a moscow suburb. most members were doctors or scientists. graduated from the russian academy of chemical defense. when navalny was poisoned in august, his flight was diverted. flight records show just five days later, he flew to the same city, taking poe sissession of navalny's clothes. on the call he offers assurance no trace of nof chalk would be found on them. >> yes, it was cleaned. visually it will not be visible. they did not remove, there are no stains on them, nothing?

no, no nothing. they're in good condition and clean. pants? there's the same inside area, perhaps something was left on it, too. we washed it off there also. this is presumably because there's contact with the pants. perhaps there was something on there, too. >> reporter: fsb toxins team trailed navalny on more than 30 trips around russia. five of its members flew to siberia around the same time as narcotics v-- navalny. they say navalny is lucky to be alive, the intention was almost certainly to kill him, a point he appears to acknowledge. >> if it flew longer, perhaps it would have gone differently. that is if it had not been

prompt assistance of doctors and ambulances on the landing strip and so on. >> the plane landed after 40 minutes. this should have been taken into account planning the operation. wasn't that the plane landed instantly. they calculated the wrong dose, the probability. why? >> well, i can't say why. as i understand it, we added a bit extra. >> reporter: at the end of the call, navalny and his team are elated that their sting operation has worked and despite everything he has discovered, he's still determined to return to russia as soon as possible. >> he told the whole story. >> reporter: the russian government has also hit back today against eu sanctions that were leveled at senior officials by announcing its own sanctions against several eu representatives, ambassadors from three countries were hauled into moscow today.

those countries were sweden, france, germany. no accident, kate, those three countries were chosen. it was in those three countries that independent laboratories confirmed presence of novichok in his underwear. this is very much an ongoing story, kate. >> amazing to hear the story when you first broke it, clarissa. then to see alexei navalny hearing it the first time itself, it is remarkable. great to see you. thank you for bringing the reporting. coming up, a new study just released on face coverings. why even the most effective face coverings may not be effective alone. mize your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. wow. that will save me lots of money. this game's boring. only pay for what you need. liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty.

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hello, everyone. kate bolduan. top of the hour. countries are racing to understand the new coronavirus variant spreading rapidly across united kingdom. the cdc says it hasn't been identified yet in the u.s., dr. anthony fauci says best to assume it is probably already here. >> when you have this amount of spread in a place like the uk, you really need to assume that it's here already and certainly is not the dominant strain but i would not be surprised at all if