a new day in america as tens of thousands of doses of pfizer's coronavirus vaccine begin arriving in cities across america this morning and those first in line will be getting their shots today. today the nation's 538 electors meet in their respective states to cast their ballots for president and vice president. an historic day ahead for american democracy. breaking overnight russian cyber hackers breach the u.s. government reaching multiple agencies. brace yourself for one of the worst snowstorms in a very long time. our janessa webb is tracking a

blizzard. cleveland's 105-year-old team is expected to make a big change this week "early today" starts right now good morning i'm frances rivera. >> i'm phillip mena. today marks an historic moment in the war against the coronavirus. planes and trucks carrying the first covid-19 vaccine are delivering the potentially life saving drugs to the united states overnight, a batch of it arrived at lax as of today, more than 16 million cases of coronavirus and will soon meet and surpass more than 300,000 covid-related deaths before lunch today. with hundreds of thousands of batches of the pfizer vaccine being delivered, most hospitals are expected to kick off day one of their vaccination plans here's nbc's gabe gutierrez.

>> reporter: the first doses of pfizer's coronavirus vaccine are on the move across the u.s applause marking the milestone v day. >> some people assumed i meant day of distribution. in fact, d day in military designates the day the mission begins >> reporter: this is a historic moment the first trucks carrying the vaccine pulling out of the pfizer facility escorted by marshals it's taken the lives of nearly 300,000 people across this country. the urgent work inside the plant began before dawn. this, a rare look at the painstaking process of hundreds of subarctic freezers holding the potentially life saving vaccine, then trays of viles carefully packed into boxes and shipping containers filled with dry ice. the vapors, a zesearing reminder

of how dangerous this is michigan teacher pamela ide looked on with her family and fought back tears. >> because it feels like it's finally beginning to the end of this. >> reporter: the rollout came as the cdc director signed off on an advisory panel's recommendation to use pfizer's vaccine for people 16 and older. >> it's an extraordinary day for science. it's an extraordinary day for humanity >> reporter: mike mcdermott compares this to the space race. he says a half mill doses rolled out, roughly 2 million more by the end of the week. the u.s. has a contract for 100 million doses. >> we're in discussions with the u.s. government and looking forward to another 100 million doses doses. >> reporter: the largest vaccine effort underway. a mission just beginning gabe gutierrez, portage,

michigan. sorting the vaccine will be a logistical fete. vaccinations can start shortly after received erin mclaughlin has a look at the plan there good morning, erin. >> reporter: frances, this vaccine is offering hope to so many on the front lines be of this crisis. it will be distributed at cedar sinai in los angeles either tuesday or wednesday of this week that according to a spokesman of this hospital. one of a limited number of hospitals to receive the first doses of the vaccine in the state of california, chosen for a number of factors. proximity to the crisis, its ability to distribute the vaccine to other hospitals and finally its ability to store the vaccine. one er doctor told me she's relieved it's so near. she has two children at home this will provide her peace of mind going forward in what is an escalating pandemic.

it can't be understated, the creation of this vaccine was a scientific breakthrough that could change the course of history. >> reporter: we've had big scientific achievements before, often set off with a bang. this achievement packed in tiny viles no less spectacular, but now it's on us put this in historical perspective. what does this stack up alongside? you look over the decades, world war ii effort, moon landing program, these things show how well we did as a society, and i think we are about to see that right now as we see whether this vaccine works and whether it will be distributed to everyone. >> reporter: it took 25 years to develop a vaccine for polio, 12 years for the flu. this first covid vaccine took just 11 months the scientists should be celebrated. >> this is probably one of the greatest public health

accomplishments in my lifetime. >> reporter: but so, too, should the volunteers, tens of thousands across the world who rolled up their sleeves to take their shot at helping. >> 100 years from now historians will look back on this year and say, did we, americans, meet our moment i hope they say we did. >> it was a proud moment for science. our thanks for that report. the electoral college will make it official for president-elect biden today. the 538 electors will start casting votes at 10 a.m. eastern. president trump's baseless claims of election fraud, the process is under more scrutiny than ever this year. election officials are on high alert. michigan is closing the legislative office buildings during the vote today because of, quote, credible threats of violence to electors nbc's tracie potts joins us. once president-elect biden passes 270, it's done. >> reporter: pretty much

congress has to count them, read them out on january 6th. one republican has said he'll reject, but it's not expected to change the outcome the 538 electors expected to select joe biden officially today as president of the united states echoing the election results of last month, while president trump refuses to accept them even though some of his republican colleagues already have >> looks very much like the electors will vote for joe biden and when they do, i hope that he puts the country first, i mean the president. that he takes pride in his considerable accomplishments, that he congratulates the president-elect and he helps him get off to a good start. >> it's not over we're going to go forward. we have numerous local cases in some of the states that got rigged and robbed from us. we won every one of them we won pennsylvania. we won michigan. we won georgia by a lot.

>> reporter: covid relief negotiations in washington still working on it. we're expected to see again details of that $908 billion compromise that was supposed to come out last week they are still negotiating we understand they have split this in two. the bulk of it, things that lawmakers, republicans agree on and the state bill, the things that they don't yet agree on >> thank you, tracie a gunman who opened fire at st. john the divine in new york city the largest cathedral in the world was shot and killed by police officers. the annual christmas caroling event which was held on the front steps had ended before the gunman made his way to the top of the church steps and opened fire the nypd official said three officers who were on scene returned fire and struck him in

the head he was yelling kill me he was pronounced dead at a hospital police found a bag belonging to him that contained gasoline, rope, wire, tape, even a bible he was also armed with two semi-automatic handguns. there have been no other reports of injuries and so far the shooter's motive is unknown. this morning we're remembering john le carre who has died of pneumonia. we look at how le carre changed the modern spy mystery. >> he wrote spy mysteries during the cold war and the pseudonym was created to hide his identity he gained literary attention and popularity with the spy who came in in the cold he was able to leave the secret service or mi-6 and set out on a

literary career that moved from mysteries to become literature a number of his books were made into movies. cornwell's work used the backdrop of realism, cruelty, moral ambiguity and betrayal. >> playing cowboys and indians is a rotten lie. >> reporter: after the collapse of the soviet union he's used the middle east, latin america, and the new russia as backdrop of his book. he introduced mole or double agent into his books he's said john le carre means nothing. he's told several tales how he came one it. >> john le carre was 89 years old. "the new york times" reports, cleveland's baseball team is looking to rename after 105 years. nbc news has not confirmed that report the times said they could make the announcement as soon as this

week they began phasing out the chief's low kboe in the 2019 season no word on a new name. president trump tweeted the reaction to the news calling the decision to rename cancel culture at work. two of the afc's very best battled under the bright lights. turnovers would hurt the bills against the 11-1 steelers. pittsburgh's black and white just like charlie brown. that touchdown from james washington buffalo would come back in the second half though josh allen finding stefon diggs on a short slant for a touchdown. the bills hand pittsburgh their second straight loss, winning 26-15. kilar murray and the cardinals needed a win to stay alive. they took the fight to giants. they earned the big road victory, 26-7. chase young, he got his first

career touchdown for washington after a fumble recovery just before the half. washington's defense kept the 49ers at bay they win it 23-15. with three weeks left in the regular season, washington moves into the nbc east division lead with that win and the giants loss and the green backpackers ascend to the lead after a win over detroit. a big winter storm is packing feet of snow and it's on the way. here's nbc meteorologist janessa web to fill us in. janessa, good morning. >> good morning. very busy this morning just crunching some of the numbers from the national weather service. we're looking potentially wednesday night thursday morning, 7.2 inches. that's an inch per hour of snowfall rates across areas of the northeast. first, we need to talk about this storm system that's going to run up across d.c. to new york city this morning causing kind of that wintry mix.

that is just round one, but the storm system that's going to be on everybody's mind is going to come out of the south and southeast by wednesday into thursday our european to american models, they don't agree but most of our models saying at least a foot of upper midwest, man, this feels like winter. in the teens with wind chills single digits. we have winter alerts that have been posted i'll show you that coming up >> can't wait to see that. janessa, thank you. "early today" is back in two with a major contribution to the breonna taylor case. there's someone on the wing, someone. the tense tarmac standoff next

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leading the news, frightening moments for passengers aboard a jet in vegas saturday while it was on the ground, a man got on the tarmac and somehow got on the plane's wing. he spent time walking back and forth as police watched from below. the man tried to climb up part of the wing before he slipped to the ground, then he was taken into custody. tyler perry is showing his support for breonna tailor's boyfriend, kenneth walker. he donated $100,000 to a go fund me page that was launched on behalf of walker to help raise funds against one of the officers responsible for the death of taylor. jonathan mattingly, who was allegedly shot in the leg by walker during the raid, sued him for assault, battery, emotional distress back in october. in estonia, 500 swimmers braved the baltic sea.

each swimmer swam a course of 82 feet the water was 39 degrees so winter swimming around those parts have become a popular way for people to counter the lockdown blues. >> a lot to discuss here we don't have time for all of it wow. >> whatever gets them through. >> right. when we come back, wall street reacts to the covid llt.ine roou who's behind the government hack and a top cyber security firm for drug free relief that works fast. vicks sinex. instantly clear everday congestion. ♪ just one look at you. ♪ and i know it's gonna be... a lovely day. ♪ ♪ lovely day, lovely day. lovely day. ♪ ♪ lovely day. ♪ lovely day, lovely day. ♪

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breaking overnight, officials say russian spies are behind a hacking campaign that targeted u.s. agencies and companies including the cyber security firm fireeye. they confirmed the breach. the national security council is looking into another potential intrusion at the treasury department reuters reports foreign hackers accessed internal government emails and the washington post first reported the attacks were carried out by russia's foreign intelligence service sources told "the wall street journal" that hackers gained access through a security flaw in solar winds the homeland security department cyber security agency issued an emergency directive overnight for all federal civilian agencies to review solar winds products for signs that they were compromised. a big day ahead for investors as wall street wakes up with their first day of trading on confirmation that

pfizer's coronavirus vaccine is being distributed to patients in the u.s. today here with an early read on the street is cnbc's geoff cutmore geoff, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. that's the main consideration for investors. the early look at the u.s. futures is that we could see the dow up anywhere between 160 and 180 points on the fact that these pfizer vaccines have been shipping from the michigan facility so keep your eye on that story two other things that have traders up beat, one, the prospect that we might finally get agreement on a stimulus deal and we're watching the federal reserve meeting later in the week to their form buying. when people are thinking of winding down, a lot of people are sitting at their desks or sitting at their desks at home keeping their eye on the markets

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the largest, most ambitious vaccination effort in u.s. history is now underway. thousands of doses of pfizer's covid vaccine have been packed on trucks and being delivered to hospitals and medical centers across the country right now it is a moment front line workers have been dreaming of for the past nine months nbc's jay gray joins us from chicago. jay, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, frances. they expect about 2,000 doses of the drug to be delivered as early as this morning to this downtown chicago hospital. they've been preparing for weeks here the doctors and nurses say

they're ready for the beginning of what they hope is the end of the pandemic as the first viles of coronavirus vaccine roll out, excitement and emotion >> listen to me, i'm still crying sorry. >> reporter: on the way to hospitals like rush university medical center in chicago. the main lobby now a vaccination center where the staff will be able to administer 1,000 doses or more a day. >> this is a vaccination effort that has never before been seen or undertaken in any manner. >> reporter: front line health care workers will be the first in line, the beginning of what doctors and nurses hope will be months of inoculations here in phases the medicine is eventually available for everyone. >> we're starting down the getting everyone vaccinated pathway and hopefully seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for the covid pandemic.

>> reporter: for that to happen, 70 to 80% of the population have to be vaccinated there are still some concerned about a medicine created and approved so quickly. >> it takes time to make a vaccine work so little worried about that. >> reporter: but doctors and nurses at rush say they want to ease those fears >> i am happy to be an example for others to show them that it's okay to get this vaccine, that it is important to get it. >> reporter: vital to finding a way back to normal yeah, and, look, i think it's important again to point out that normal is still a ways away, but it's clear talking to the staff that this vaccine is a game changer for so many who have been fighting the virus for so long. frances, phillip, giving them some hope. >> jay, thank you. certainly one of those when moments when you get the vaccine. >> good day indeed. drone has been converted

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we're starting down the getting everyone vaccinated pathway and hopefully seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for the covid pandemic. right now at 4:30, packed, shimd, and set to arrive. the overnight delivery of the first coronavirus vaccines in america. a firsthand look at the rollout as it begins. also, how hospitals are gearing up. and all new numbers across the state show the need for help is dire. the bay area county running out of icu beds. plus, highways crashing on the coast. that warning if you are thinking of heading to the beach today. "today in the bay" starts right now.