captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, joe biden and kamala harris begin their transition to the white house as the trump administration refuses to concede defeat. then, legal battles loom: despite virtually no chance of changing the results, the president's lawyers file multiple suits to challenge the election. plus, a potential treatment -- as the pandemic worsens worldwide, a glimmer of hope emerges from a vaccine trial showing promising results. all that and more on tonight's "pbs newshour."

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>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: a newly-elected joe biden is moving tonight to set up his presidency. a defeated donald trump is moving to oust those he deems disloyal as he refuses to aid the transition.

looming over it all, covid-19-- and potentially hopeful news. lisa desjardins begins our coverage. >> reporter: the first weekday since former vice president joe biden was declared the election winner, and the new president- elect made it clear he is full steam ahead. establishing and holding a teleconference wh his coronavirus task force, made up of well-known doctors and disease scientists. >> this group will advise on detailed plans built on a bedrock of science and to keep compassion and empathy and care for every american at its core. >> reporter: mr. biden outlined a specific plan he and vice president-elect, california senator kamala harris have for fighting the pandemic when they take over in january: make rapid testing available; deploy more contact tracing; give clear guidelines to businesses and schools; and address communities-- including minority communities, hardest hit. this comes as drug maker pfizer announced a seeming

breakthrough, that its vaccine trial was more than 90% effective in preventing the disease. mr. biden pointed to the sign of hope, but urged that in the months before any vaccine is widely available, americans must protect themselves. >> i implore you, wear a mask. do it for yourself. do it for your neighbor. a mask is not a political statement, but it is a good way to start pulling the country together. >> reporter: today there was news that the u.s. has now had more than 10 million covid-19 infections, with nearly 240,000 deaths. meanwhile, secretary of housing and urban development, ben carson, tested positive for the disease, as did the trump campaign's newly-appointed lawyer david bossie. they along with also coronavirus positive white house chief of staff mark meadows had attended last week's election night watch party at the white house. as for president trump, he has

given no indication of conceding to biden, and he has had no public appearances since thursday. instead, he announced a major decision on twitter that defense secretary mark esper will be replaced by christopher miller, director of the national counterterrorism center. the president tweeted "chris will do a great job! mark esper has been terminated. i would like to thank him for his service." >> reporter: during a trump campaign press conference today, white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany and r.n.c. chairwoman ronna mcdaniel discussed unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. >> reporter: in michigan, a court of appeals rejected a trump attempt to challenge the vote count there as "defective"" meanwhile, republicans in congress have largely declined to endorse the election results, at least publicly. at the capitol, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell welcomed four new republican senators, even as the larger fate of the chamber is still unknown. in the presidential race he called for the process to continue. >> we have the system in place to consider concerns and president trump is 100% within

his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options. >> reporter: but fellow republican senator susan collins, fresh off her own victory last week, released a definitive statement openly congratulating president-elect biden. and then there are some like senator lindsey graham. on fox yesterday, he urged a continued fight. >> if republicans don't challenge and change the us election system, there'll never be another republican president elected again. president trump should not concede. and a trump appointee has yet to ascertain that mr. biden has won the presidential election, potentially delaying the presidential transition. >> reporter: some world leaders were quick to congratulate mr. biden and senator harris. chancellor angela merkel of germany: >> ( translated ): i congratulate joe biden from the bottom of my heart on his election to the 46th president

of the united states of america. >> reporter: some countries like russia and china say they are waiting for all of the votes to be counted. >> ( translated ): we noticed that mr. biden has declared election victory. we understand that the u.s. presidential election result will be determined following u.s. law and procedures. >> reporter: and as the trump campaign lawsuits play out, the counting of remaining ballots continues-- with voter turnout already hitting a 50-year high. the associated press has yet to announce a winner in alaska, north carolina, and georgia. the peach tree state is so close it's heading to a recount. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> woodruff: so far, the fact that president trump will not concede underscores his campaign's all-out legal effort to challenge the results. but those efforts have had litt traction in the courts so far. we turn to benjamin ginsberg. his work as a republican election lawyer spans decades, and includes work on the landmark "bush v. gore" dispute after the 2000 election.

>> benjamin ginsberg, thank you so much for joining us. the president and the people around him are saying there was widespread fraud. they are saying this election was stolen. is there evidence that you see to back that up? >> there is not evidence so far to back that up. and it's worth remembering, judy, that those were allegations that were made before this election, based on past elections, with absolutely no proof of that. and so the credibility of these statements now are being called into question by courts. >> woodruff: i'm hearing some of the people around the president say, well, you know, we gave al gore 37 days to contest the election result back in 2000. you can at least do the same for us. is it an appropriate comparison? >> well, i think that a candidate taking his or her time to pursue recount

and contest remedies is allowed under state law, is appropriate. remember the hillary clinton campaign intervened in three jill stein, very long shot recounts on december 26 of 2016. so that the president does have the ability to pursue those remedies. the difference here is that he is alleging fraudulent elections and rigged results, that there is no evidence for. >> woodruff: so we're seeing lawsuits in at least five states, that i can think of: pennsylvania, michigan, arizona, georgia, nevada, and if not lawsuits, the beginning of some sort of legal challenge. pennsylvania seems to be the main focus because of the number of electoral votes it could give the president if the results were overturned. do you see anything that is the making of a legitimate complaint there? >> the case before the u.s. superior court, which has to do with the absentee ballot deadline being extended for three

days by the state supreme court, rather than the legislature, is a real legitimate issue. but there aren't enough votes involved in that to change the outcome of the election. and the question of a legislature's role, as opposed to a state supreme court's role, does not have to be answered for the 2020 election. >> woodruff: so what about some of these other allegations. in michigan, they're saying -- they're alleging back-dating of ballots. in georgia, they were talking about late-arriving ballots. do any of these add up to something that could materially change the results? >> certainly not so far. i've been involved in trying to put together challenges to elections. and the truth is, you really need same-day, election-day affidavits, attesting to individual ballots being mishandled or fraudulent or somehow improper. and trying to create a case after an election is very difficult. they are allowed some time

to try to get that together. but in reality, these cases tend to dissipate over time and not be successful. >> woodruff: so what is your best thinking, estimation, at this point, benjamin ginsberg, about what could happen? >> i think the margins to make up in too many states are too great. in fact, the processes that the individual states have in place require ballot by ballot, precinct by precinct, county by county findings of the illegal ballots in fraud. and so far, and the evidence presented by the trump campaign, there is not close to enough to over turn the results of the election. >> woodruff: not for lack of trying. benjamin ginsberg, we thank you very much. >> thank you, judy. nice to be with you. >> woodruff: and we turn now to our lisa desjardins, to yamiche alcindor, and to nick

schiffrin. lisa, let me come back to you first on the biden campaign. how are they reacting to everything, including the legal proceedings by the trump people, refusing to concede? >> first of all, judy, they're very busy. i think the word i hear from all sources in and around the biden campaign, they are focused. they know there is a lot of work to be done. let's take apart sort of this transition, the issues we're having with the g.f.a. administrator. the biden administration sent me a statement that they look forward to the g.s.a. administrator as seascertaining they that won. they are not too worried about them failing to release the money for the transition. they say they have been raising money for months, then have their transition teams ready to go and they're deploying them. one reason for that, judy, is the law that describes and sort of projects how

this transition should work is written by ted koffman, one of the key advisors for president-elect biden. and also to add to reporting we've had in the past, the biden campaign tells me they will have transition offices here in wilmington, as we reported, and also in washington, d.c., and the president-elect will be working in both places. e more thing, as you heard in the piece, the presidt-elect is talking about the agenda, very focused on the coronavirus, and talking to sources today, they say he does plan a national mandate as they talked about in the campaign trail. he can only directly affect federal areas like federal parks, but he is going to be reaching out to governors, asking them to mandate masks around thcountry. >> woodruff: interesting. yamiche, tell us about the thinking inside the white house, inside the trump campaign, as they continue to insist the election is not over? >> the president is refusing to face the thing he has feared the most in

his life and during this presidential campaign, and that is he has lost, he is a loser of this campaign. he is not wanting to at all say that former vice president joe biden is the president-elect. sources tell me that the president is angry. he is blaming people around the white house. he is isolated. he is overseeing a white house that is paralyzed by his inaction and refusal to sign this form from the g.s.a. administrator. and the trump campaign is filing lawsuit after lawsuit, a new one today in pennsylvania. but when they had a press conference at the republican national committee, fox news, the president's favorite tv network, cut away saying in good conscience we could not air the false claims. and the president is really feeling as though he is backed against a corner, not wanting to at all acknowledge what is going on here. there is some worry that the president not wanting to do this might actually slow things down, including the distribution and operation of the

coronavirus vaccine. if he does not sign this over and biden does not get all of the different people in place he needs, that vaccine could possibly not get to all of the people it needs to in time. >> woodruff: and, yamiche, what does the president's refusal to concede so far actually mean for the transition going forward? >> well, typically 24 hours after a race is called, and the winner is clear, the transition formally starts. in this case, president trump is not doing that, so there are a lot of people who are very worried about this. there are people who are looking at president trump and saying can he actually concede? will he actually do that. the lawsuits we continue to talk don't have any evidence evidence behind them. and today we learn that david bosi, he has the coronavirus. so as all of this turns on, there are a lot of people worried about that. another thing to note is the senate majority leader, mitch mcconnell, threw his support behind president trump. he is key to possibly

getting president trump to back off and admit he lost. he is very concerned about holding on to republican voters, as well as winning that senate race in georgia. so a lot of people think mitch mcconnell is going to stick into this because he is, quote, "handcuffed by politics." >> woodruff: and back to you, lisa, on that. what about the fact that you cover the hill, and the vast majority of republicans are not congratulating joe biden? they're going along with the president challenging questioning the results. what do they see as the way forward here? >> i can handle this quicy. senators -- republican senators, their words today, was there fraud? not in my role to decide that. from john cornyn. the number two senator says, let's let this play out. obviously we'll get a result at some point. some limbo in the senate republicans, who are not yet willing to go against the president.

>> woodruff: we're watching them all very, very closely. and finally to you, nick, all of this taking place as the president today fired his secretary of defense, mark esper. tell us what is going on there. >> yeah. esper was the president's number one national security target, ever since he resisted the president's desire to invoke the insurection act. it was a surprise to many. the republican chairman of the senate armed services committee told recorders he did not know ahead of time. miller is a former green beret, who joined the intelligence community recently during a purge by the president of senior officials over there. he is seen as an ally of the president, and he was chosen above the deputy secretary defense and the senior officials who have more experience. but a senior officiain the defense department says miller will represent

continuity over the 72 days, and the senior staff was to continue the mission with no significant changes. and former senior officials, judy, i talked to do believe he is likely to have little impact. one fear though suppressed by one former senior official is that he could go along with some kind of adventurous decision by the president against, perhaps, iran. we asked leo pnetta, and he said no. the interview was in barg go today, and he rejecte rejected -- he tried to explain why he didn't fight the president more. quote, "you've got to pick your fights. esper said he held his tongue because, quote, "who is going to come in behind me. it is going to be a real

yes man." and he concluded, judy, "god help us." >> woodruff: that certainly gets our attention. nick schiffrin, covering that part of today's fast-moving events. nick schiffrin, yamiche alcindor, lisa desjardins, thank you all three. >> woodruff: as we reported, this is a transition of power, unlike any we have ever seen. to help us understand what is happening, i'm joined by david marchick, the director of the center for presidential transition. it is a non-partisan group that helps presidents and candidates prepare for the next administration. david marchick, thank you very much for joining us. again, how unusual is what is going on right now? in terms of -- compared with other transitions. >> thanks for having me, judy.

there have been peaceful tratransitions of power for 223 years. 537 votes determine the outcome of 270 electoral votes. the outcome is here, as george w. bush said, and the transition should be moved forward. >> woodruff: that is exactly what i wanted to ask you, and i posed this question to ben ginsburg, because you hear republicans saying we gave al gore 37 days, and why can't we do the same thing this time. you're saying it is different situations? >> the circumstances are entirely different. the law that governors why the g.s.a. administrator does requires her to make a decision when the outcome is clear. this year there are four states that vice president-elect biden has one where he is above the

margin of victory by very, very significant counts. the likelihood of a change is almost zero. he would have to win both pennsylvania and georgia. he is up by almost 50,000 votes in pennsylvania. judy, in the last 20 years, there have been 31 state-wide recounts. only three have changed the outcome. and the largest, delta, which led to a change was some 200 votes. so the outcome is clear, and the country needs this transition to go forward. >> woodrf: well, explain to us why it makes a difference? because some people are saying, well, he really doesn't take office until january 20th, the new president, what is the rush? why does it matter? >> well, it matters for our national security, for our economic security, and most importantly to combat the covid. let's go back to the year 2000. president bush, then governor bush, had a

shortened transition. he only got about the half number of people in their seats at day 100 as president obama did eight years late. when they did an autopsy on 9/11 stated that the difficulty of getting the national security people in their seats hurt our national security. today we have multiple crisises going on, covid, a racial justice crisis, and climate change crisis, and the outgoing and the incoming need to come together and collaborate as george w. bush did and obama did in theyear 2008. >> woodruff: david, what actually is triggered. once emily murphy has not certified is that joe biden is the winner -- has not certified that, but once she does -- or if it happens, what changes?

i mean, what benefits a crew or access is then available to the biden team? >> so there are really three things: money, more space, and access to the agencies. money is not that big a deal. they would like the money, but they have plenty of money. they don't need that much space because we're in a covid environment. and it's a virtual transition. but the critical thing is having the outgoing administration, the career offials in the agencies, and the biden transition team start to work together on national security issues, on economic issues, on making sure tt the vaccine, where we had such an important breakthrough today, can be developed and distributed quickly to 300 million americans. that work is critical, and it can't start until the transition starts. and the outgoing and the incoming work together. >> woodruff: do you have a sense of whether this administration below the

highest level, below the white house level, understands that joe biden has won and is prepared to cooperate and have the transmission move forward? >> you know, i've been working on this for over a year. and my organization has been working on it for four years. what i've seen up until now has been very diligent work from the trump white house, from the agencies, and from the biden team. i've been very impressed up until about this point. so, yes, i think people do know. i think people are prepared. people that i talk to want to get going, but the politics are very, very difficult. >> woodruff: meaning the president -- are you referring to the president? >> ultimately, they're looking for the signal from the president of the united states, but the presidential transition act does not require a signal from the president of the united states. the law gets that authority with g.s.a., and

g.s.a. alone, and the determination is whether the outcome of the election is clear. yesterday president george w. bush, certainly not a fan of the democrats, and certainly not a supporter of joe biden, said the upcome of the election is clear. so that's the trigger for the transition formally starting. >> woodruff: david marchick with the center for presidential transitions, we thank you. >> thanks for having me. >> woodruff: in the day's other news, news of progress with pfizer's covid-19 vaccine sent the dow jones industrial average surging. the dow shot up 1,500 points before ending with a gain of 834-- nearly 3%-- to close at 29,157. the nasdaq fell 181 points as tech stocks that have benefited from pandemic restrictions lost ground.

and the s&p 500 added 41. south florida faced major flooding today, as tropical storm eta blew past. whole neighborhoods were swamped after the storm crossed the florida keys overnight and veered into the gulf of mexico. rain bands dumped up to a foot of water, taking people by surprise. >> never seen this, never not this deep-- period. i mean, it'll settle a little bit there, but a few hours it's gone, but this? no. >> woodruff: the storm already killed dozens in mexico and central america, and left more than 100 missing. it is expected to strengthen into a hurricane again before striking northeastern florida next weekend. and, general motors has issued a major new recall of more than 217,000 vehicles in the u.s. and canada. it involves transmission oil

leaks that might cause vehicles to stop or even catch fire. affected models include an array of buick, cadillac, chevrolet and gmc models from 2018 through 2020. the company says it has no reports of crashes, fires or injuries. still to come on the "newshour," a glimmer of hope in the fight against covid emerges from a promising vaccine trial; our politics monday team breaks down the tumultuous transition of power ahead plus much more. >> woodruff: as we reported earlier, there was a lot of excitement around pfizer's announcement today that early

>> new times have led us to find new ways to do what we do best. now, more than ever, we seek answers to the tough questions. >> the united states has still not tested per capita. >> woodruff: and get you information you can trust. >> we are the pbs

"newshour." >> woodruff: week nights on pbs. >> judy, the >> brangham: judy, the first thing to know-- and we can't emphasize this enough-- is this is very early data that pfizer reported along with its partner, german drugmaker bio-n-tech. but the headline was beyond what many expected. pfizer said initial results found its vaccine was 90% effective in preventing covid among volunteers who had no prior infection. the data has not been published or peer-reviewed by a medical journal yet, but pfizer released it today with the hopes of getting approval for use in the weeks ahead. dr. albert bourla is the c.e.o. and chairman of pfizer and he joins me now. >> dr. bourla, very goods to havyou on the "news hour." before we talk about the results, i wonder if you can give me a spence, as the c.e.o. of this company, what was your reaction when you heard this news first come in? >> doctor: itas a relief. i was feeling the pressure

of the hopes of so many billions of people. this is one of the most promising technologies. this is the one that had the best results in terms of immunonicenturycity, but we didn't know if it was transferred into protection. i was very worried. i was cautiously optimistic, but humanly worried, knowing the consequences if it was going to be negative. but all the way to knowing it is positive, which is 90%, which i never thought it would be, that gave me a joy i cannot describe. >> initially the f.d.a. said it set a benchmark of 50% efficacy, and you guys are reporting 90% efficacy. what do we know the data is saying about what this is exactly protecting

against? >> this is examining all people that have been sick. the people are coming to typically a hospital, and if they have symptoms, and then they are examined by a physician, then they are to begin taking samples. they take the samples, and they send the samples, and we are testing if they have covid or not. >> so right now we still don't know if this protects against developing the disease or a more serious infection. those results will come later? >> docr: i think we know if it protects against the disease. we don't know yet, because we advantage seen this data, if and how many of these cases were severe cases or live cases. only aroup of independent experts, independent from pfizer, that they are allowed to have a look in the blind data. >> so if you get approval, can you give us a sense of when people might start seeing this vaccine

distributed,and what kind of numbers do you estimate? >> doctor: we hope we will be able to produce approximately 50 million doses this year, approximately 1.3 billion doses next year. 50 million doses means 25 million people. and this is a global production. so if you receive, let's say, 20 million of this, let's say, 50 or 25, which is half of it, this means that in the u.s. we will have 12.5 million people that we can protect. it is a small number compared to the totality of the population. of course it is a gigantic step because those 12.5 million, if used strategically, could be the people who are more likely to get the disease, like first-line workers, elderly, etc. >> you didn't take, initially, federal government money from the u.s. government for its

"operation warped speed," and you signed a special deal with the u.s. government. some members of the trump administration and members of the trump family have suggested something suspicious about the timing of this, that former vice president joe biden is declared the winner of the presidency and then this news comes out from pfizer. can you speak to the timing of this? was political consideration in this announcement as all? >> doctor: of course there was no political considerations in the timing of this announcement. there was nothing political in the whole process to develop this vaccine. the fact that it was discussed, unfortunately in political terms rather than scientific terms. i sent a letter to our employees just two days after the first presidential debate in the u.s., telling them that some people are telling us to move faster, and some people are telling us to move slower. we are going to move with the speed of science, and that's exactly what we did. if the results were coming

october, as i was predicting, we would have told them in october. they came a week later, and we disclosed the results immediately. >> dr. albert bourla, c.e.o. of pfizer, thank you very much for being here. >> doctor: thank you very, very much. >> i'm joined now by mile obama, our science correspondent. he has been covering the hunt for a vaccine throughout this pandemic. miles, great to have you back on the "news hour." can you help us understand the substance of today's announcement. this was -- we haven't seen the data, correct? >> yeah. we should do a little bit of trust but verifying in this one. this is a press release. we're waiting fo the independent review, the peer-review science work, which is still unknown to us. assuming all of this bears out, this is an extraordinary number. this is a vaccine that will easily get into the hall of fame batting 900. 90% is stunning, actually. when you think about it,

the typical flu vaccine, its efficacy is somewhere between 40% and 60%. but there is still a lot of work to do. we're talking in 94 cases, among tens of thousands -- 94 cases of covid, and almost all of those individuals received a placebo, a saline solution, not the vaccine. it is a vaccine, however, that is really an unproven thing in humans. it uses a piece of genetic material called mrna, and it is a novel approach to making vaccines. there has never been a vaccine brought to the human market that uses this particular technique. but if all of this bears out, all of the vaccines that are out there right now are going after the spikey surface of the coronavirus, the spike protein, including this one. so if this is so incredibly affective, that bodes well for the other

trials that we're looking at right now. back in march, whicheems like an eternity going, before we had a lot of mask requirements, i spoke with neil king, a biocommunist at the university of washington's institute for protein design, and he walked me through this process of identifying a vaccine in this manner. >> figure out how to present this molecule to the immune system in the right way so you get the right response. and really for the spike protein, what that means is which part of this do you want to hit with an antibody to shut the virus down? and then how can we shine a light on that to the immune system? >> so the spike protein appears to be the key, and that really does bode well for all of the other trials. >> go forward, you heard dr. bourla say they might be able to get 50 million doses out the door this year, and next year, over a billion. what do we need to do

between here and there to get shots into people's arms? >> william, the devil is in the logistics. over the next few weeks, they're going to try to get a little more data on the safety of this vaccine, and then they will submit approval from the f.d.a., and obviously the f.d.a. knows this is coming so it should happen quickly. but this particular vaccine likes it cold, really cold. it needs to be transported at minus 90° fahrenheit, and that is colder than some of its competitors on the vaccine front. that is creating a problem with what is called cold-chain logistics. ups showed us a raft of freezers they have geared up to try to deliver this without it getting spoiled. and pfizer has come up with its own shipment

scheme, a little box with dry ice in it and hopefully thee will be ab to get these vaccines to people without being spoiled. >> let'ssay they do get authorization to distribute these. pfizer is not the one who decides who gets those precious first doses, right? who decides that? >> the federal government will make the decision ultimately. and there are all kind of review panels who are trying to make the decision. everyone agrees frontline health workers should be at the head of the cue, and elderly and people with pre-existing conditions that. the government has already sign on with pfizer for $2 billion to buy 100 million doses, but yo have to remember, pfizer and many of the others, except for johnson &

johnson's vaccine require a booster. it is two shots and a couple of weeks later is a second shot. so getting people in for the first shot is one thing, and making sure they come back for the second shot, all those things have to happen in order for this to work. >> miles o'brien, thank you so much for helping us wade through all of this. >> you're welcome, william. >> woodruff: speaking of vaccines, doctors are worried too many children are not getting the standard childhood vaccinations they need. in the beginning of the pandemic, many doctors' offices told people to stay away to control the spread of the virus. many parents listened-- maybe too well. but while vaccinations are inching upward, stephanie sy tells us health officials remain concerned. here's her report from michigan. >> are you ready? >> reporter: four-year old leah long likes whooshing down

slides. and going for walks with her parents, michelle and craig, and her big brother bubba in his specially designed wheelchair. like lots of four-year olds, this summer leah was due for some of her critical childhood vaccinations, those that guard against serious diseases like tetanus, pertussis, and measles. but bringing her to the doctor in the midst of the pandemic was a big concern for her mom. >> having two medically fragile kids... i mean, it's, it's hard. i'm not going to tell you that it's easy, and in this pandemic just makes it that much haer. >> reporter: leah and her brother are both adopted. and six-year old bubba is a quadriplegic with cerebral palsy. >> i always worry about him catching something because, you know, while he's not going anywhere right now, we've been told respiratory is going to be the thing that that takes him. so, being in this pandemic right now, it's all respiratory.

>> reporter: parental fears about bringing children in for checkups and routine vaccinations have led to worrying trends. in the first few months of the pandemic, the centers for disease control noted that orders for vaccines had fallen drastically compared to the same time period last year. in the state of michigan, where the longs live, vaccines administered by federal and state programs dropped 63% in april over the prior two years. bob swanson is the immunization director for michigan's department of community health. we're now several months into the pandemic. bob, have you seen vaccination rates go back up to where they should be? >> no, unfortunately, we haven't. we've seen we're still about 21% lower doses administered when we compared to the same time a year ago or two years ago. we're very concerned about ts whole pocket of kids that, that will go through the system and not be vaccinated. >> i think vaccinations have

proven over time to be one of the most effective tools that we have to protect ourselves from infections. >> reporter: doctor layla mohammed is leah and bubba's pediatrician in ypsilanti, michigan. >> for my, my wonderful family, michelle and i actually corresponded and discussed how the visit is going to be. >> if i could give you my email thread with me and the doctor, you would laugh, because i was every day and some days twice a day e-mailing the doctor saying, "you know, i'm not sure." she kept telling me, "it's okay, we have everything." >> reporter: after getting many assurances from drmohammad, leah went in for her visit, 30 days after she was originally scheduled-- and her mom took extra precautions. >> with a four-year-old being everywhere and touching things and putting her fingers in her mouth, that was my biggest concern. so, i really, i-- what i did was i put gloves on her and made sure that she didn't touch

anything. and i we played a game and just pretended like it was wintertime. >> reporter: one of the critical vaccinations leah received was for measles, which is six times more contagious than scientists know covid-19 to be. before 1963, the childhood disease caused 6,000 deaths a year in the u.s. and even now, it's seeing a resurgence around the world, which could be further fueled by the pandemic- related gap in inoculations. that lag, could that present a real public health concern? >> it absolutely does, because the more susceptible people you have to a disease, the greater the risk of, of it being reintroduced into the population. and then the spread becomes quicker as well. >> reporter: in the suburbs of grand rapids, michigan, 11ear old twins rae and reese defrang got in a few last flips on their trampoline under the watchful eyes of their mom, renee.

while the mulder siblings-- ages two to eight-- got creative with sidewalk chalk. they were burning off a little energy before piling into their family s.u.v.'s for a different kind of doctor's visit. our crew tagged along as they went to get their flu vaccines-- without ever setting foot in an office. >> with four kids, nothing's quick, nothing's easy, but to get it all on one visit, to just be able to go out in the parking lot and have them do it that way, it's a, you know, it's convenienc it saves time. >> it's so nice to have this option for those who are a little bit more nervous about that. when you're right in your car and you have less risk of, of exposure, you can still get the vaccination that you need to get. >> reporter: spectrum health-- the largest healthcare provider in western michigan-- started offering the drive-through immunizations when they noticed a huge drop in visits during the spring covid lockdowns.

mary zimmerman oversees immunizations. >> we decided we needed to, kind of, think outside the box and comep with something different so that the patients felt safe getting vaccinated. >> reporter: vaccines prevent children, adolescents from 16 different serious diseases. convenience and comfort aside-- for healthcare professionals, these flu vaccines serve an especially vital function right now. rae and reese's dad, doctor aaron defrang, explains. >> you know, if someone were to get infected with influenza and covid in close proximity to each other, that might not look good. that might be a very serious illness. i think people don't realize that most hospitals traditionally are at or near capacity in the wintertime. and we just need to have that safety net. we need to have those beds available for people if there's any surge of anything, of course, covid being the main concern now. >> reporter: on the opposite side of the state, that message has resonated with michelle long. she already has a date scheduled for leah and bubba to get their flu shots. for the pbs newshour, i'm stephanie sy.

>> woodruff: from the results of the presidential election to the beginning of the presidential transition, amna nawaz is here with politics monday. >> nawaz: that's right, judy. what a difference a week makes. to talk about it, i'm joined by amy walter of "the cook political report" and host of public radio's "politics with amy walter." and tamara keith of npr. she also co-hosts the "npr politics podcast." now that you have had a moment to breathe, hopefully get some sleep, i just want to get briefly from you, both of you, your biggest take-aways from the election. tam, let's start with you. >> what stood out to me is that president trump did not do as well in the suburbs, and joe biden really did do better in the suburbs than hillary clinton had. it was like the revenge of

the suburbs part two. that's what stood out the most. also a little bit surprising was that as the trump campaign was saying they were going to do better with latino and black voters, and there was a lot of skepticism, well, they did better in areas -- they did better in cities and in south florida. >> nawaz: amy, what about your, what is your biggest take-away as you're reflecting on this day? >> both parties had a theory. the trump theory was despite the fact he didn't win the popular vote, and he failed to get the majority of the vote in the key battleground states, he still counted on winning by division rather than by decision. by focusing on the polarization, by talking almost exclusively to his base, and as such, he came up short. you still have to win over the folks in the middle, independent voters, and

swing voters to win an election. on the democratic side, what i thought it was also interesting is their theory of the case is trump was going to be so toxic, he would bring everybody in the republican party down with him, and that didn't happen, and specifically in maine, a state that went overwhelming for joe biden, but susan collins, very well known in that state, ran as an independent candidate, was able to ou outperform president trump in maine by about eight points. >> amy, pick up on that point. the control of the senate is still up in the air. house democrats actually lost seats in the house. what does that mean for the dynamics that the biden/harris team will face coming into office? >> well, it is not what they had hoped. they really had been counting on democrats being able to not only get control of the senate but increase their numbers in the house.

so joe biden becomes the first democratic president since grover cleveland to come into office without having a majority in the house and senate. what it is going to put a premium on is something that joe biden talked about sa lot on the campaign trail, we'll see if he can deliver, which is being a bipartisan deal-maker. this is a man who likes the active compromise. he has spent his career in the united states senate. he is a creature of the senate. and he has a decent relationship with mitch mcconnell. now, is that going to matter? is that going to be enough at a time when we know we are still so deeply polarized and republicans are looking at taking control of the house in the mid-term elections and is expanding their margins in the senate, too. >> pam, what about that? those same republicans mr. biden said he can work with, and he knows, and he has had relationships with him, but some are backing president trump's refusal

to concede. will they work with joe biden? >> a vast majority of them have not acknowledged biden as the president-elect. i don't know if they're ultimately going to end up working with biden. certainly he has that relationship with mitch mcconnell, but we just don't know what will be their political interest. there will be a mid-term in 2022, and some republicans i've talked to, not elected republicans, but trumpian republicans, they say they see 2022 and 2024 as a chance to strike back and to strike a blow for trumpism and elect candidates that are in the mold of president trump. i think the bigger challenge for joe biden will be that the coronavirus has gottenso polarized, some of it is stuff he can work on in the transition. it has become so polarized, so politicized, is he going to be able to convince people who voted

for president trump that he deserves the benefit of the doubt when it comes to dealing with coronavirus? >> amy, what about that, very briefly, before we go, clearly the pandemic is going to be issue number one, based on the fact that the team is already talking about it, they held a briefing today. does that side line the rest of the biden agenda for the time being? >> i think that has been the top of the biden agenda from day one. it is what, for the people who voted for joe biden, they said that was their number one issue. but to tam's point, the majority of those folks who are republicans voted for donald trump, and it is not simply that they didn't think coronavirus was as important of an issue, but they think a lot of it has been overblown. it is one thing to say the two sides have to come together to come to a solution, but the problem is they can't come together to solve a common problem. in this case, the two sides don't see the same

problem at all. >> and we know there is still great uncertainty ahead about what the pandemic's affect will be in the weeks and months to come. that is politics monday with amy walter and tamara keith. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. >> woodruff: finally tonight, we mark the passing of a tv legend. alex trebek was known to millions the world over for hosting the game show "jeopardy!" jeffrey brown has our remembrance. >> here is the host of "jeopardy!" alex trebek! >> reporter: in an age that questions facts, "jeopardy!" celebrates them. >> before this word was common, some folks used "radio with pictures." justin? >> what is television? >> yeah. >> reporter: in an era of loud, fractious voices, alex trebek's was calm and measured.

>> they're dealing with famous phrases, and this clue-- >> reporter: and somehow it worked and went on working for 37 years, more than 8,000 episodes, both records for a game show. trebek was like a caring professor: encouraging, but ready to show disappointment. >> dallas cowboys. you think we should go to commercial? ( laughter ) we want to entertain you. we want-- we want to inform you. >> reporter: trebek-- then in bushy hair and mustache-- took over "jeopardy!" in 1984. born in canada, he would later become a u.s. citizen and-- humanities lovers rejoice-- he was a philosophy major in college. the style and substance-- and maybe the utter defiance of contemporary norms-- helped turn trebek himself into a pop culture icon. >> aren't we forgetting something, marge? you were down $5,200. >> rorter: including a turn on" the simpso." >>run mom!

>> welcome back to "celebrity jeopardy!" >> reporter: and, played by will ferrell, on "saturday night live." >> hi everyone. i have some news to share with all of you. >> reporter: in march of 2019 trebek announced he'd been diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. his millions of fans, many who'd followed him for decades, watched him carry on the same demeanor and dignity they'd come to expect. >> what you see on air really is what i am. and-- i'm a reasonably nice guy. and-- i'd like you to view me that way. i don't go out of my way to malign anybody. i want to be considered as helpful and generous, generous and kind. >> reporter: alex trebek died sunday. he was 80 years old. for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown. >> woodruff: and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff.

for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, please stay safe and see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> architect. bee-keeper. mentor. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life, well-planned. >> johnson & johnson. >> consumer cellular. >> bnsf railway. >> the kendeda fund. committed to advancing restorative justice and meaningful work through investments in transformative leaders and ideas. more at kendedafund.org. >> the alfred p. sloan foundation. driven by the promise of great ideas.

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hello, everyone. welcome to "amanpour & co." here's what's coming up. pennsylvania has literally been this election's keystone. the key senator bob casey joins us. then as president trump president legal warfare, part of a group trevor potter tells us what's next. >> the south side of chicago. they're bound together on the gun issue. >> the story behind the march for our lives. hari sreenivasan talks to alex king and david hogg. and finally, the anxiety of waiting. lori gottlie