captiong sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, cember 6: officials say f.d.a. authorization for a covid-19 vaccine could come this week. and the doors drummer jo densmore: seeking the origins of creativity. next" "pbs newshour weekend." >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg. the leonard and norma klorfine foundation. charles rosenblum.

we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no-contract wireless plans, designed to help people do more of wey like. our u.s.-based customer service team can help find a plan that firn you. to leaore, visit www.consumercellular.tv. additional supportas been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like u. thank you. >> sreenivasan: go evening and thank you for joining us. the covid-19 vaccine expected to u.s. is on its way to millions in great britain today. the first doses of the pfizer vaccine will be administered on

tuesday-- a day thitish health secretary is reportedly calling v-day-- a referencto victories in world war the united kingdom was the first country to approve the pfizer vaccine and will give priority to people over 80 and frontline health care workers. the u.k. has ordered enough doses for 20 million people, which could vaccinate nearly a third of the country population. in the u.s., the fd and drug administration will vote on an emergency use authorization for pfizer's vaccine this thursday. moncef slaoui the trump administration's chief adviser for vaccine development-- operation warp speed-- said he expects an approva >> it should take them about 2 hours to make it to the various immunization sites that the various jurisdiction and states have told us to ship vaccines to them and within, i would say, 36 hours from approval, potentially the first immunization could be taking place. >> sreenivasan: slaoui also said will have his first meeting wito president-elecbiden this we. on fday mr. biden said he had nfo yet seen a detailed pla

vaccine distribution. across the country, the virus continues to resurge. spitalizations, confirme cases and deaths related to covid-19 are all increasing. dr. deborah birx, the white house coronavirus response coordinator, cautioned americans to continue to take actions to slow the spread of the coravirus and not to believe >>lse information. hear community members parroting back those situations, parroting back that masks don't work, parroting back that we should work towards herd immunity, parroting back that gatherings don't result in super-spreading events, and i think our job is to constantly say those are ths, they are wrong, and you can see the evidence base. >> sreenivasan: late this afternoon president trump tweeted that his personal lawyer-- former w york city mayor rudy giuliani-- has tested positive for the coronavirus. euliani has been leading trump campaign's election challenges, most of which have the tweet ended with "...get

better soon rudy. we will cay on." georgia's two runoff elections that will decide which party ntrols the u.s. senate are one month away, and there's one day left to er new voters. >> hello, georgia! el sreenivasan: republican senators loeffler and david perdue were on stage with president trump last night. it was the president's first rallsince he lost his reelection bid. he spent most of his time baselessly calling president- elect joe biden's win in georgia a fraud and challenging the validity of t state's ballots. the two senators tried to both support the president and ask for people to participate in the january 5 election. >> georgia, we need you to vote! >> sreenivasan: democrats are challenging the incumbents. if both democrats win, the senate would have a 50-50 split with tie votes decided by vicepr ident-elect kamala harris. debates are scheduled for tonight in atlanta, but perdue is not partipating. loeefler and warnock will face off. ossoff will appear aloneo answer questions.

the united kingdom is entering final negotiations with the european union before its exit from the trading bloc is finalized at the end of the month. ittoday, the u.k.'s chief negotiator, david frost, arrived at e.u. headquarters to discuss rules over fair competition and how to solve future trade disputes. according to u.k. nepaper "the guardian," the day also saw a major breaktough on european fishing rights in british waters. t.u. at the end of lastly left january, it remains inside the unn's tariff-free single market until december 31. arleaving that mt without a trade deal could have devastating effects on the u.k.'s economy. today for a congressionalls election that the u.s. and many other countries are already calling fraudulent. the election is expe to give president nicolas maduro control over venezuela'sational assembly for the first time in but the election's legitimacy is being questioned, because earlier this year venezuela's supreme court-- which is loyal

elections commission without the heparticipation ofongress as required by law. opposition leader juan guaido called for a boycott of the elections and will hold a referendum next week asking venezuelans to end maduro's rule and hold new presidential elections. for the latest national and international news visit pbs.org/newshour. >>sreenivasan: while there been much attention given to the approval for a covid-19 vaccine, littasle attentioneen given to how the facilities-- where many vaccines are manufactured-- are being regulated. a recent investigation in "vanity fair" magazine features a former f.d.a. inspector turned whistleblower who says that the f.d.a. is not doing its job and downgraded his findings to escape regulatory enforcement. the article also cites documents and letters charging the plants lack proper f.d.a. oversight. the f.d.a. responded that medical products are made "in

compliance with goodnu cturing practice." i recently spoke with the "vanity fair" article's reporter, contributing editore katheran, who is also the author of the bookesbottle of lithe inside story of the generic drug boom." who checks all these plants? >> the f.d.a. is responsible for inspectinghe manufacturing conditionsnside any plant that is making drugs that go to u.s. patients. they have an elite unit of highly trained investigators called "team biologi." people who are required toy 14 bivestigate conditions in 280 ogic plants that sell drugs and biologic products into the u.s. so, this is a-- our investigation revealed it's a demoralized unit claiming of poor supervision from inexperienced supervisors.

inthere are personnel comp inside that unit. this whistleblower alleged that he was not empowered to do his job. he felt that it threatened the safety of the american public. >> sreenivasan: so, an inspector goes into a plant, finds things wrong. they file a report and presumably there's some sort of regulatory aion taken against the company to clean up its act? >> right. an investigator has to classify their findings in any plant. those can be nd,action indicahich means they didn't find any problems voluntary action indicated, which means the plant should geke some steps to make ch or official ac which is the most serious. one of the complaintloinside team bcs is that investigators are going in inding conditions that ty classify as official action

indicated, which means urgent, the plant needs to make urgent haanges becausthere are real rds there, and that bureaucrats back at f.d.a. headquarters were downgrading those recommended classifications. >> sreenivasan: so, this comes he an era where there is increased vaccintancy. the world health organization says that is one of the top ten problems that'facing the planet right now. you know, an article like yours, i can easily see an anti-vax community picking it up and saying, "here you go. here's one more reason that we should not get a covid vaccine or any other becse these plants are horribly regulated." what is-- what's your response to that? us well, i'm glad you bring that up, bewhen these issues first came to my attention, my reaction was "i'm never writingt thatle because the last thing i want to do vs contribute

cine hesitancy." holver, i think it is criti that the f.d.a. does its job. so, we we very clear in the anti-vaxer position linking vaccines to autism is really based on debunked science, full of conflicts of interest, you know, the issues we raised in this story have nothing to do with the anti-vaxer position. ave to do with whether the f.d.a. is doing the job it is supposed to do, which is ensuring that all these manufacturing plants follow good manufacturing practices. >> sreenivasan: katherine eban, thankg s so much for join. >> thanks for having me. >> srn:eeniva0 years ago this month the american rock band the doors played their final show together in new

orleans. lead singer jim morrison died unexpectedly several months later at the age of 27, marking the end of an era. dfor the bandmmer, john densmore, the ensuing years have been a continued artistic exploration-- one that has eacluded music, but also a venture into theng of creative fulfillment. newshour weekend's christopher booker recently spoke with densmore about his new boors "the see ♪ ♪ >> reporter: at this point, the doory of the doors is familiar, whether in booksmentaries or hollyod movies. the band's astonishingly short, meteoric rise and run has been well covered.e ♪ f one, baby one in five ♪ no one here gets out alive, now ♪ and while drummer john densmore has long played a role in that storytelling-- his own 1990 memoir, "riders on the storm" was a "new york times" erstseller-- his new book, "the

se meetings with remarkable musicians," is an attempt to understand the forces that make a story like the doors even possible. >> it's pretty interesting stuff, this creative road and what we've learned and what it all means. >> reporter: released last month, the book offers what densmore calls "notes on how to live creatively on planet earth." writing about his inspiration and artistic motivation, densmore chricles his time spent in the company of some of the world's most beloved musicians and creative forces. from willie nelson to pti smith, "the seekers" opens a window into a disparate llection of characters who, in densmore's eyes, are more interested in the creatie path, than izes bestowed upon them for what they have created. >> had tremendous success my 20s, and it's been downhill ever since. but what i learned was that i get fed, like, maybe playing drums at a poetry reading in a club a year ago, as much as madison square garden if i'm in

the moment and i'm really concentrating and the 12 people are listening, or the 12,000. you know, the road, kee path is th not the goal. as reporter: is it easier to get to that space orr to motivate yourself to get to that space now that you are cognint of it? >> it's interesting. in my old age, i've learned that if i put the right cymbal crash in the very right spot, exactly, it can be as powerful as all my showoff drum rolls in my 20s. ♪ ♪ ♪ i'm not the fastest drummer in the world, but i'm very to e'namics and knowing that thspace in between the

notes and you got to breathe. you hear a willie nelson solo, and he doesn't play real fast, but it's so melodic and beautiful. it's kind of-- to be human is to ht ave space and noow all your stuff all the time. >> reporter: but as densmorefo recounts, some, the creative path can be destructive. how do you reconcile that? e how do you find the bala the, kind of, the darkness that can come with creativity, with the light? >> not everybody has creativity and self-destruction in the me package. i writabout janis joplin and jim morrison, and they did, you know, obviously. picasso lived to 90. he didn't. janis and jim were teachers for me to be careful, because i want to be on a longer road and ty both died at 27, and the years have helped me sort of heal that and think that jim was just a shooting star, supposed to make a quick, big impression.

i talk a little bit about how neil degrasse tyso the astrophysicist, says that all the planets are gravitionally pulling each other. and so, as we go around in our orbits, everyone is affecting everyone else, just like a musicaensemble. >> reporter: densmore's ensemble is much smaller now. he and guitar player robbie krieger are now the only surviving members of the doors. keybodist ray manzarek died in 2013, while morrison has been dead for nearly 50ears. the last time the original doors lineup played together was in 1970, just days after densmore turned 26. thinking of, again, this thesis, this idea of the creative life and the puuit of the creative life, is there a consistency between the doors and the thesis of what you're working with and wrestling now? >> what is the thesis ofhe doors? ( laughs ) we found each other and created magic ouof a garage bigger

than all of us, and all my fancy stuff in the earlyays, you know- crack! da-da-da-dda-da-da-da, light my fire, was an incredibleeak. but, like i said, after peaks like that, it's all downhill. so, you got to kind of zigzag and negotiate, and you can still have a very fulfilling creative life. on whatever level, it's your ner life that's the most impoant. >> sreenivasan: for the last few weeks we've been bringing you personal stories from members of communities in canada's northwest territory of yellowknife. address thewhich difficult topic of alcohol abuse, are part of an empowerment journalism series called "turning points," done in partnership wi the global reporting center. today we hear from devin hinchey, who is métis, or of mixed indiurgenous andean

ancestry, about his road from addiction toery. >> there's no typical alcoholic or addict. it doesn't matter, you know,wh your ethnicitye you come from, the life that you've lived. i had a pretty decent bringing. i didn't have crazy, crazy stuff happen to me like a lot of my friends have lived through, and i still encountered the same issues with drugs and alcohol. when i left yellowknife i went h to a hhool where there was really no supervision and, for me, already kind of experiencing, like, some depressivehoughts. every night i'd come home from school i knew that i could smoke anweed or drini'd feel better. come on! >> i think i really noticea change, it probably wasn't 'til the end of grade 12. trashed and you hit me and, and

clicked into me that there was something else going on. >> in the middle of, like, a really dark addiction, it's reay impossible to say exactly what's going on while it's going on, but i think tyas the closest person i got to saying that, ancally to get back, "whatever you need," or, like, "whatever you do, i'm there for" yo and then i went to university anthe first hard drug that i tried was ecstasy, it was m.d.m.a. and from there, it westly kind of like the floodgates opened. by november of my first semester, i was using something every day. i started developing, uh, like these really dark, kind of life- ending thoughts. and i remember near thend of that year, i was really high on m.d.m.a. and i remember being in a cab and looking outside of the windows and the streetlits

were almost, like, stretching out. like, i just kind of stopped feeling heart beating. ke, i couldn't feel, didn't have a lot of feeling in my chest. inand i remember thi like, "i am overdosing right now." like, "i am overdosing on m.d.m.a. and i'm probly going to die." that was when it got really, really real. >> i'm glad that you reached out and i'm very glad that, that it, it wasn't too late. >> that was fe first time i elt comfortable. you know, i'm not alone and i'm not crazy. ian'm not i and i'm going to be at least help with this.ne if i get when i went to treatment, it was really frustrating at times. i'm 19, i just failed out of school. i've spent a, a ton of money that wasn't mine. stole money to fund this addictio j why couldn'tt stop? like, that was a lot of my thoughts. so, treatment was really good for learning that addiction andd alcoholism aeases.

and, like, the word that's used daily is, like, poweess. i had no power over my alcohosm, over my addiction. i think the biggt part for me, though, was coming back from treatment, your response was like, "what are you comfortable with? what can i do? where can't we go?" tu just wanted to understand-- limits. >> yeah. >> what, what was going to set you r what i could do to help you move forward. it's helped me, um, understand that what i see isn't the whole picture. like, there's, there's more to it than what people are showing you. k it made me a better friend. it made our friendship stronger, that's for sure. >> just because i'm sober or because someone is sober doesn't mean that you have to completely change. all right, you ready? when i got out of treatment, we were texting about matching

tattoos. i think it started out half as a ju oke and ggested the inuksuk. in the past two years of my e,l've had more fun being sober than i did ever. well, i just finished, uh, my university diploma, which is honestly something i never thought i would say. and now that i have that, my pursuing a career in social work, and working with people and just trying to help whoever and whatever i can. i've lived in nanaimo, toronto, london, and yellowknife and yellowknife is a lot different, especially regarng drugs and alcohol. it's so easy up he to go down the rabbit hole. people react to drug use differently here. it's known that it's a problem and it's, like, acceptedhat it's a problem, but i feel like there's a stigma around sobriety veand re. you know, when i spoke out about my story, i had people in the recovery community telling me it

liwas a bad idea, i shouldn't do that, i shouldn't speak about that. if's one person who can hear someone share a story and that urges them to reach out,no why is tha okay? i'm not going to speak like i hoknow all the answers to to change tt, but it's something that needs to be changed and that can be chand. >> sreenivasan: that's all for story searching for justice on building lines ouof pried sofnlt that is all for pbs newshour. visit i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. stay healthy and have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by group at wgbh

access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund bernard and denise schrtz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. barbara hope zuckerberg. the leonard d norma klorfine foundation. charles rosenblum. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutl of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: consumer cellular. and by: public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people.

and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs.

narrator: this program was made possible in part by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you, thank you. ♪ ♪ moon river ♪ wider than a mile announcer: ladies and gentlemen, andy williams. (audience cheering) ♪ youo're just too o be true ♪ ♪ can't take my eyes off oyou ♪ ♪ you'd be like heaven to touch ♪ ♪ i wanna hold you so much ♪ it's keepin' track of the pack watching them wahing back ♪ ♪ that makes the world go 'round ♪ ♪ what's that sound ♪ ach time you hear a loud collecte sigh, aah ♪