this is "nightline." >> tonight, "operation warp speed." the rare look inside the mission to help mass produce and mass distribute covid-19 vaccines. >> 24 hours later, vaccines are on the street, right? >> 24 hours, all it's going to take? >> yep. >> when a vaccine could be made available and how soon you might get one. plus bang in with mike tyson. >> you are a complicated dude. >> i'm [ bleep ]ed up. >> from historic highs to polarizing lows. >> that's what i learned, from life kicking my ass, i learned gratitude. >> his most important role and why he's jumping back into the ring. and the forever family. for one teen, more than 10 years in the making. >> oh my gosh!

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♪ ♪ heart monitors that let your doctor watch over you, just like you watch over your best friend. another life-changing technology from abbott, so you don't wait for life. you live it. ♪ >> good evening. thank you for joining us. tonight the countdown to covid-19 vaccine under way. this as the fatality count rises in this country with nearly 260,000 americans dead. now the unprecedented effort to

design and deliver a potentially life-saving drug at warp speed. when you sign up for a clinical trial, you put your body on the line for science. >> i really felt like that personal risk could lead to greater good. >> reporter: dr. victoria smith is one of the tens of thousands of volunteers at pfizer's clinical vaccine trial. fighting at the front line of covid-19, she's seen the devastation firsthand. >> i know a patient who lost multiple family members. and so that just tears at my heart. there were many times when i really felt like a victim of what was going on. and i was watching patients being affected, watching the fear. and i just wanted to do something to be part of a solution. >> reporter: as the covid-19 pandemic was spiraling out of

control last spring, top government officials hatched a multibillion-dollar plan to develop and deliver a safe and effective vaccine in record time. military-like precision called "operation warp speed." less than a year later, it's prompted breakthroughs in vaccines from biotech and pharmaceutical companies. pfiz pfizer, moderna, astra zina, all showing effectiveness in clinical trials. >> we're watching the process as the vaccines for both pfizer and moderna have really gotten to an exciting stage. >> reporter: my colleague bob woodruff sat down with general gus perneff, who after 37 years in the army was put in charge of overseeing the logistics of "operation warp speed." >> it's going through the fda. the fda will go through their process, and hopefully they'll determine it's safe and effective and they'll award an

eua, emergency use authorization. >> reporter: he says pending fda authorization, the vaccine could be available as soon as mid-december. >> me personally, i have to visualize things. >> reporter: he tracks everything from his office in washington, d.c. on a white board, mapping out the strategy and timing for vaccine delivery. he even has a nickname for the day vaccines are cleared to be distributed. d-day. >> so let's just say d-day is the 15th. right? 24 hours later, vaccines are on the street, right? >> 24 hours, all it's going to take? >> right. >> it's just a phone call about execution? >> pfizer's first, i'll call pfizer, they'll begin distributing vaccines. it will go to 64 jurisdictions simultaneously. 50 states, 8 territories, 6 metropolitan cities. >> reporter: part of being prepared for distribution, making sure that states have the equipment necessary for the vaccines to be administered. >> these are called ancillary kits.

these come with the vaccine. it's a lot of syringes, a lot of needles, a lot of alcohol wipes. so what the federal government has decided to do, this is based off our experience during h1n1 about a decade ago, is centralize the building of kits that support that vaccine. >> reporter: a cdc committee says it's likely the first round of vaccines in december will go to the nation's health care workers, and then eventually the elderly, as soon as march or april there could be enough vaccines approved to vaccinate all adults. yet for some the very speed with which the vaccine is promised has example fired fears over its safety. the latest poll showing that 42% of americans say they would not take the covid-19 vaccine if it was made available to the public. >> once they get to 30% or 40% of people getting vaccinated, i think that alone will make a big difference in slowing down the pandemic. but that won't be enough. i think once we get to 60% plus, much of our lives will be back.

70%, 80% vaccination, i think we're going to be in excellent shape. >> reporter: secretary of health and human services alex azar, who's leading the charge in "operation warp speed," told bob woodruff with the independent fda approval process and each clinical trial requiring over 30,000 participants, vaccine safety is top priority. >> you would take this vaccine as soon as it's released? >> i will and have asked that i get vaccinated as soon as anybody will allow me to get vaccinated. >> people don't have that much trust. people are afraid this is not going to be good for them. what would you say to them? >> there is a question that people ask all the time. you moved so fast, so historically fast, did you cut corners? and the answer is, absolutely not. the key insight when i built "operation warp speed" was putting the full financial power of the u.s. government behind what is effectively a business problem.

>> this has never been done before like this. >> so what do you do? you say money is not an object here. you are limited only by science and physics. so we fund all that have development planning up front. we literally move from one stage to the next within 24 hours in these vaccine programs. before bite take three, four, five months to move from one stage to the next. the second thing you derisk is manufacturing. a pharmaceutical company would never make commercial-scale, multimillion production lots of vaccine while they're still testing the vaccine in early stages. we did just that, and we did it in redun tant manufacturing systems. and because we can fund that. >> we're about to have a change, a new president. is that going to change this process at all? >> it won't change anything about the process. because we will ensure a professional, cooperative, effective transition. the individuals involved at the cdc, at the nih, fda, department of defense, hhs, are career

people. they don't change. they're the same people on january 19th as they are on january 21st. and we will ensure continuity. by then, by the time of any transition, we believe many tens of millions of americans will already have been vaccinated. and the mission of a next administration will be to simply not mess up what we've gotten going. >> reporter: news of a vaccine came as the u.s. recorded an unprecedented 3 million new covid cases just this month. officials fear the upcoming thanksgiving holiday could make things worse. cdc recommending americans avoid traveling this year. despite this, airports remain packed. >> i am very worried about the next four to six weeks. they're going to be the hardest period of our entire pandemic. and i'm very worried that hospitals are not going to be able to take care of everybody who needs care. that's the situation we're heading in. >> reporter: still, with a vaccine on the horizon, dr. smith is hopeful.

>> i feel like in this war, we finally have some arms to actually fight back. i also am just concerned that people not let their guards down and know that this war is not over yet. coming up, we spich gewitch. mike tyson's next move. returning to the ring and reflecting on the ups and downs of his life. we love the new apartment. the natural light is amazing. hardwood floors. there is a bit of a clogging problem. (clog dancing) at least geico makes it easy to bundle our renters and car insurance. yeah, helping us save us even more...

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mike tyson is ready for his comeback fight. but first the story career highlights in crushing blows that brought him to this point. the legendary boxing champion not holding back about the moments that defined him. just at a glance, looking at your life, arrested 38 times by age 13, heavyweight champion of the world by 20, convicted of rape by age 30. you've lived so many lives. >> yeah, that's true. and there's people who have had worse. in spite of, they still succeeded. so i'm nobody. i've been a millionaire most of my life, i'm good. i learned gratitude. what i learned from life kicking my ass, i learned gratitude. >> reporter: mike tyson today

seems a very different man from the one many of us remember. for two decades, he was a king. boxing royalty. a once-undisputed world heavyweight champion. >> tyson attacks immediately! >> reporter: iron mike. his kroeshs and ferocious and intimidating boxing style earned him the title "the baddest man on the planet." both inside the ring and out. >> you are a complicated dude. >> i'm [ bleep ]ed up. >> reporter: now 15 years later, at 54 years old -- >> i'm back! >> reporter: tyson is making his return to the ring in an exhibition fight against fellow former champ roy jones jr. >> this is the exhibition, but things happen when two men get in the ring and we throw punches. >> what happens? >> the unwritten clause in our contract, that any time during training and fighting, you can die. that's a great possibility. that we wish don't happen, we hope don't happen. >> the old mike tyson, i would

imagine, was okay of the idea, are you having to die to be successful, but not mike tyson today? >> but that guy, he didn't have any self-love, self-respect. so of course he don't want to live. this is a different guy, right? so much more i want to do for other people. >> reporter: part of tyson's motivation in returning to the ring is the launch of his new initiative "legends only league," a chance for retired athletes to come together and face off once more. >> this is how it all came to par, because i was looking at this story. this story is about jerry rice, too old to be playing wide receiver. and he was just a few seconds off of his time, but he can play. but still, ask anybody who would they rather see play? jerry rice or the guy that played his position -- that's playing his position right now? you know? on a team that he played with? and you would get overwhelmingly they want to see jerry rice. >> there's a season for all things. >> you allow that season to exist, yes. >> reporter: mike tyson has

passed through many a season. braized in brownsville in brooklyn, new york, where poverty and violence were neighbors. no stranger to street crime, tyson was arrested more than 30 times by the age of 12. eventually he was introduced to legendary trainer and boxing manager gus demottau who molded tyson into a boxer. he made history becoming the youngest heavyweight champion of all time at age 20. >> a big win for mike tyson! >> reporter: from there he became a worldwide phenomenon. >> i remember once covering, years ago, a mudslide in honduras, thousands dead. we see this one man. he's running like he's going into his house to rescue perhaps his wife, a child, a pet. you know who he's running in the house to rescue? >> what's that? >> a picture this big of muhammad ali. a picture about this big of you.

>> are you serious? >> yes. >> wow. you know -- i don't know how to answer those questions. when people put me in that -- i don't know, pedestal, you'll say. it's just really -- i don't know, i don't look at myself in the light people look at me. >> reporter: people have always looked at him many times not positively. there was this tumultuous marriage to actress robin givens in 1988 that spiraled him to that infamous interview with barbara walters, where givens accused him of domestic violence on national television. >> he shakes, he pushes, he -- he swings. >> reporter: their marriage ended in divorce shortly after. years later, tyson told oprah he had been violent towards his then wife. >> was it an abusive relationship? >> oh, definitely. definitely. >> reporter: in another inglorious chapter of his life -- >> did the jury buy your story? >> reporter: tyson found himself in an indianapolis courtroom in 1992, accused of raping an

18-year-old beauty contestant, desiree washington, found guilty and sent to prison. >> tyson was given six years beginning immediately. >> reporter: released after less than six years, he returned to the ring. two years later he violently bit the year of evander holyfield during their match which resulted in the suspension of his boxing license. 2005 he left the sport behind. eventually finding a new home in hollywood. >> quiet, quiet! >> reporter: thanks to a famous cameo in "the hangover." >> mike tyson? >> shh! this is my favorite part coming up right now. ♪ a stranger to you and mow >> reporter: on and off set, addiction ruled his life. rock bottom came with it. >> a bunch of times, you know, my wife snapped me out of it and stuff, you know, fixed me up. >> hey, hot boxing, i'm mike tyson -- >> reporter: these days tyson cohosts a podcast and oversees

the tyson ranch, a company that promotes cannabis-based products. tyson says his most important title now, family man. >> nice to meet you, sir. >> shake his hand, rocco, look at his face. look at his eyes. >> old-school fathering. >> you have to start with self-respect. you have to learn to treat people the way you treat yourself and the way you want to be treated. all the stuff that's in here. >> reporter: his daughter milan is a promising tennis player. >> do you docounsel her yet abo the trappings of athletic success? >> she's just different. she's not what i was when i was a kid. when she lose a game, she goes back to a multimillion-dollar house. when i lose, i go back to juvenile detention. >> could you have imagined 30 years ago that mike tyson, boxing champion, would become mike tyson, suburban dad, husband? >> look. life has beaten me in submission.

i'm this guy because i'm unable to successfully be that [ bleep ] that i was before. so i'm trying to got other way now. >> how's that going for you? >> i have struggled but it's really good. really good, really good, really good. >> reporter: in the "me too" era, mike tyson's own story might have ended with the rape conviction. there would be perhaps no second chance. but to this day he continues to fascinate. gracing the couches of late-night television. hinting at future fights. fans and critics all still waiting, watching his next move. >> why do you think so many people on this earth still are so engaged, so curious about mike tyson? >> listen. i don't know. i got all kind of records. i got the rape, i got some sex cases, i got some violence stuff on my record. i have no idea. >> reporter: perhaps we're so drawn to him because in many ways there may be a little bit of mike tyson in all of us.

flashes of brilliance, brokenness, triumph and trouble. flawed, failings frozen in time. and many days in between, simply doing the best he can. >> success for me is for me is being responsible and being present. that's success to me. >> our thanks to mike and his wife, kiki. up next, the best surprise after a decade in the foster care system. >> oh my god! ♪ alexa, tell roomba to vacuum in front of the couch. experience clean in a whole new way. now roomba offers you personalized cleaning suggestions and vacuums exactly where you need it. by getting to know you and your home, roomba makes cleaning easier than ever before.

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different foster homes. >> you are adopted! >> whoo-hoo! >> whee! >> on the same day mom, katie holsten, also adopting a baby named thomas. three starting a new life together. family. happy holidays to the holstens. that's "nightline" for this evening. catch your full episodes on hulu. see you back here same time tomorrow. thanks for the company, america. good night. you're constantly on the go, on the clock, and on your way. hang on a second. what's the rush? know the speed limit, go the speed limit, and slow the fast down. go safely, california. satchel paige was still dominating batters at 59.at 52