good morning, it's saturday, december 5th, i'm ali velshi. we are 46 days until president-elect joe biden's inauguration. the outgoing president has not conceded but has released an actual 46-minute propaganda video, attacking his own attorney general, threatened to veto the annual defense bill and reportedly issuing reem tive pardons for family members and close associates which would seem to be an admission that they have done something wrong although we don't know exactly what wrongdoing they have in mind because they haven't been charged with anything yet. not the most confident message about your family's future once you are beyond the security of the oval office. the latest jobs report shows a grim reality and a grim future as the economy added just 245,000 jobs in november, that's a little less than half the number than economists predicted

and down significantly from october. this is the fifth straight month of decelerating jobs gains and two of the past three weekly jobless claims reports showed increases. now, congress continues to not be able to agree on another round of relief funds, although a $908 billion package put forth by a bipartisan group of house and senate centrists seem to have at least broken the stalemate. yesterday, president-elect biden summed up the situation like this. >> this is a dire jobs report. this is a snapshot, i might remind you, up to mid november. before the surge in covid cases we predicted, many predicted and the deaths rise that we've seen in december as we head into a very dark winter ahead. >> we're indeed heading toward a very dark winter, right now, the united states is setting records for covid-19 case, hospitalizations, and deaths. on a near daily basis and we aren't even at the expected

post-thanksgiving surge, which is anticipated to begin this weekend. as we hit the 10-day mark for millions of people having traveled. >> i think we have not yet seen the post-thanksgiving peak. that's the concerning thing. because the numbers in and of itself are alarming and then you realize that it is likely we will see more of the surge as we get two to three weeks past the thanksgiving holiday. and the thing that concerns me is that it goes right to the christmas holiday as people start to travel and shop and congregate. >> keeping with his campaign trail promise, president-elect biden has asked dr. fauci to become his chief medical adviser. biden also says that he is calling on all americans to wear a mask for the first 100 days of his administration. although he isn't shy about telling the american people the truth about the situation we're currently living in. and what to expect during the next 46 days. >> i don't want to scare anybody here but understand the facts,

we're likely to lose another 250,000 people, dead, between now and january. do you hear me? because people aren't paying attention. >> now, this is no time for pandemic fatigue. not only are things expected to get much worse, in the coming weeks, the situation right now is actually worse than it's ever been. and more than 200,000 americans are now consistently being diagnosed with covid-19. on a daily basis. look at this chart. it goes all the way back to april, and this equates to a pace of more than a million cases per week. and as you can see, those numbers are essentially off our nbc news chart. we will have to calibrate this chart differently. the number of americans dying daily from covid-19 is now jumped into the upper 2,000s. and breaking records and surpassing the morbid marks set in the spring. don't be confused by that blip basically at the beginning of april. it had to do with new york

adding probable deaths to the count because some of the early deaths were not calculated, were not marked as being covid deaths so they put them all in on the same few days, and that's why there's that blip. if you look at the blue line, you can see that we are back to where we were in april. and things may be even worse depending on your background. as the cdc now says that black and hispanic americans die at a rate almost three times that of white americans. on the bright side, doctors do know more about treating covid-19 patients than they did during the early stages of the pandemic in the spring. however, they're now treating a higher number of people. all with scarce supplies and medication. more than 100,000 americans are now hospitalized, across the country, with covid-19. and as the number of available intensive care unit beds in california continues, the state is splitting itself into five zones in order to better manage

anticipated lockdowns and stay-at-home orders. massachusetts is opening a field hospital tomorrow and announced plans to open a second one in the coming weeks. across the country, the toll continues to take, this continues to take a major toll on our health care workers. >> it's about 3:30 in the morning. and each of us, we have had four or five patients each. most of our patients over here are on monitors. and they're very sick. and they all have, most of them have covid. a lot of them are requiring a lot of oxygen. so we have to keep them monitored very close. >> probably one of the most difficult parts for the patients, that they can't have family here and it puts a whole different spin on our care, where we really have to be like, we feel like we have to be the emotional support for our patients, and spend extra time

with them, make sure they're doing okay, physically and emotionally. >> and in addition to the toll the pandemic is taking on those treating us, it's also having an effect on those tasks with, tasked with getting us to hospitals, especially in rural parts of the country. nbc's ellison barber joins me from the rural jamestown, north dakota. the pandemic continues to pose unique problems, in rural parts of the country. i was in south dakota, last week, where people are very far, in many cases from hospitals, what are you seeing? >> yes, this is the only ambulance service in jamestown, north dakota. they have a total of four ambulances and the paramedics would he have spoken to here, they say they are running more calls, the majority of them related to covid-19, and a lot of those calls are taking them further and further away. we saw that firsthand yesterday when one of the ambulance crews here got a call from one of smaller hospitals in the area, asking them to move a patient who had covid-19 and was on a

ventilator to a bigger hospital, about 100 miles away, in fargo. that trip, from beginning to end, took that crew at least five hours. the people that we have spoken to, they say not only are they really running on fume, but they are having to spend a whole lot more time getting ready to go out on these calls tand takes a lot more time to put on the proper ppe to head out to a covid-19 call and decontaminate and often take these calls and take these patients to hospitals further and further away, either because of a higher level of care or because of the level of care that they need, there aren't any available beds in the area and all of that is really taxing the system, and it is making them have a very difficult time financially. >> some of the chances that we're taking aren't medically necessary. they're necessary only because there is no availability here. and so it's hard to know if insurance companies will pay that, or not. >> i do know that there are also, this is out there, that are past that breaking point,

and are barely hanging on. i feel like we are kind of forgotten. we're a vital source and hospitals need to be there. but how do we get people to hospitals? i mean that's what our role is. >> this ambulance service, jamestown area ems got some federal aid in april, but since then, they have not gotten anything, they say that a lot of rural ambulance services were struggling financially, before the pandemic. put the pandemic on top of it, and now they say a lot of them, in especially rural areas, they are at their breaking point or even past it. >> it is an important consideration. because we think about, you know, our cameras are more in cities than rural area, the challenges faced by rural americans, rural ambulance service, rural medical centers, rural clinics, rural hospitals, rural doctors, rural nurses, are different, and they are hard in these life-threatening situations so thank you for your reporting from north dakota. ellison barber for us in jamestown, north dakota.

meanwhile, in hard-hit illinois, almost 1,000 people have died from covid-19 in the last week alone. joining me now is the pulmonary and critical care specialist at northwestern moilk hospital in chicago, dr. michelle preck pic working the icu in chicago and known for bringing an aura of calm to those there, and due hear critical care nurses and doctors and critical care people being overwhelmed and you signed up for that the day you signed up to become a doctor and mow we are hearing on a daily basis, people are saying their own care, the care of their family, the emotional stress that they're going through is something they have never experienced in their careers before. >> thank you, ali, i think that's exactly right. we are built for this. we strive, thrive in situations where there's mass chaos. we like to bring calm and try to control the situation. and we do a very good job of it,

the issue we have right now is just volume. patients have been coming at very high rates, our numbers from october, to the end of october to the end of november, have essentially quadrupled, so the patients that are coming in, we know how to take care of them, it is just a matter of volume. >> the first covid patients that came in to northwestern memorial hospital's intensive care with covid were in fact your patients. often it will be a pulmonologist who works in emergency or critical care who sees these patients but before covid, your rule, your personal mantra that you followed that nobody dies alone. that was sort of a good feeling for you, and something that was entirely manageable before covid. this is a real problem now. where people don't have their families around them, and they know they're dying, and their families know they're dying. >> i mean i think we're all human, so we're doctors, we're nurses, we're respiratory therapists, we're healthcare workers, we're all human, and we know how it feels to be alone,

and we know how scary this disease is, and we also know the look in people's eyes when they can't breathe, so as a pulmonary doctor, that is a look that i have seen way too many times in my career, and i wish i never were to see, but unfortunately, that's what we're seeing and so you see that fear, you see the concern, and you're human, and so we're trying to provide that empathy, and you know, even though we're professionals, we're still human and it is emotionally draining, and we still need to come home and be with our families as well and support their needs emotionally as well as physically so it's just been a loss. >> what happens in hospital settings, there are a lot of us who deeply appreciate what doctors and nurses do but we get the sense you are built to be a little bit detached from it because otherwise it would break you to deal with all of people you have to deal with and now people come into the hospitals and you are replacing their families. >> it's true, the covid i see is one of the quietest icu, because

all of the doors are closed, no fam i, no conversations, the vast majority of our patients are ventilated, not speaking with us, so it is a very quiet time. except when there's emergencies. so there's a lot of time to reflect and understand how important it is for us to provide that emotional support to our patients, because it's very obvious that there is no families there. we thrive on being able to communicate with our families and let them know we're doing it now by telephone and zoom and other methods but it's relatively foreign to us, and historically, unfortunately, it is very common to us now, within the last nine months. >> what a time, dr. picket, please send our thoughts for all you're doing with us along with your staff at northwestern memorial hospital in chicago. meanwhile, there does appear

to be a light at the end of the tunnel. promising news on the vaccine front. however, serious distribution questions remain and it seems that the outgoing administration has only made matters worse by passing the buck and shifting responsibility to states. >> there's a lot more that has to be done. they clued us in on their planning, on how they're planning to distribute the actual vaccine to the various states. but there is no detailed plan that we've seen anyway as to how you get the vaccine out of a container, into an injection syringe, that somebody's arm. >> joining me now is the executive director of the american public health association dr. georges benjamin. doctor, thank you for being with us. here's the thing a lot of people say all states are different. states should be in charge of this stuff. the problem is these are the same states that see their revenues drop, because businesses and people are not

working, and states cannot run deficits and the federal government has cut and has not extended money to states, so states that are already cash-strapped to pay, you know, the hospitals, and to pay police, and first responders, now have to figure out a way to get this vaccine as joe biden said, from the vial into the arms of people. >> there's no question about that. look, we spend over $10 billion creating this amazing scientific discovery. and now, we have not put the money in place to actually make sure it happens, and we seem to now begin to see some of the repeating the mistakes that we did with testing and contact tracing and not having a comprehensive plan that is transparent for everyone to see, so that we can actually get shots in the arm. >> so let's talk about that. there are two distinct problems, one is these fantastic vaccines, i mean you're absolutely right. we spent a lot of money and we did something that has not historically been possible but

now we have complexities, we have to contribute them, we have to keep the pfizer vaccine in very cold storage, we have to overcome some people's aversion to getting a vaccine, because it was so politicized earlier this year, and if you take care of all of that, which i actually believe we can take care of, you have the issue of equity. and there are poor americans, americans who live in multi-generational household, americans who cannot work from home, americans who dot not have health care, they have co-morbidities and they live in poverty, who didn't get drugs under normal circumstances, how are we going to make sure that they are not at the absolute back of the line for these vaccines? >> we're going to have to define our plans with that goal in mind. that means recognizing that people are not against vaccines, they are hesitant to take it. and that means we're going to have to figure out ways to get it into those communities. and it's not just the issue in rural communities, which is a real challenge. but it's also getting it into the hood.

getting it into the centers, where people historically, as you say, don't generally have access to health care. it also means that we are going to have to take the vaccine to those individuals, or bring those individuals in to get the vaccine, and the challenge we have with that, of course, is the fact that at least one of these vaccines requires ultra-cold storage, pretty much throughout the process and the other requires ultra cold storage through a fair amount of the process and it will be a real challenge for us and ta requires very detailed planning, and training and execution and by the way, we need to do this in the next three weeks. >> so i saw a poll yesterday, pew is saying that the number of americans who are prepared to take this vaccine has moved from 51% which was a gallup poll i think in september, to 60%, toward the end of november. i suspect that once you, once you start seeing people take, it the health care workers take it first, it will be february by the time most people who have

any kind of choice in the matter will get an option of having this, i think that number will go up. but one of the points you made is the damage that this president did to the cdc by politicizing it. and used to be when the cdc said something, you could take it to the bank. >> no question about that. the cdc was the gold standard. and look, as you know, they're beginning to speak out more. and i'm very pleased with the fact that they're trying to wrap their hands around this and move this together. look, the scientific part of this has gone quite well. you know, you got to give the administration credit for the science part. we don't want to botch the delivery. you know, at the end of the day, i think if the president-elect said, i think the president-elect said it quite well, it's great to make the science but it is even better to get the shots in the arm. >> dr. georges benjamin, thank you for being with us. and thank you for the work that you do at the american public health association. doctor georges benjamin, the executive director of the american public health association. still to come, how the current administration's immigration policies are preventing some of the most qualified physicians from

working in covid hot spots. but first, some breaking news. some very good breaking news for immigration advocates and dreamers. last night, a federal judge reinstated the deferred action for childhood arrivals program. that is daca. donald trump tried to end the program in 2017. his acting homeland security secretary suspended daca pending a quote comprehensive review. the judge's ruling now swiftly grants thousands of immigrants whose parents brought them to the united states, as young children, the ability to continue working and going to school in the united states. my job is to help new homeowners who have turned into their parents. i'm having a big lunch and then just a snack for dinner. so we're using a speakerphone in the store. is that a good idea? one of the ways i do that is to get them out of the home. you're looking for a grout brush, this is -- garth, did he ask for your help? -no, no. -no. we all see it. we all see it. he has blue hair. -okay. -blue. progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents, but we can protect your home and auto

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in my 34 years as a physician, i have never seen so much suffering from a single disease over such a short period of time. currently, in a single day, we admit more patients for covid-19 pneumonia than we do in an entire influenza season during a typical year. >> this week, the united states surpass the yet another grim milestone, 100,000 people currently hospitalized with covid-19. hospitals are overwhelmed. and many are postponing noncovid-related elective procedures of the bottom line is there are too many covid cases and not enough health care personnel. one simple and obvious solution is to bring in foreign medical professionals to help with america's crisis. as you know, america is 5%, less than 5% of the world population,

20% of the world's coronavirus cases. however, the immigration policies enforced by the current white house are preventing many highly qualified doctors from coming here, and doing what they have been trained to do. also, many foreign medical professionals are here in the united states, on the highly-restrictive h 1 b visas which restrict doctors from moving around and volunteering at other locations. according to "politico," an estimated 10,000 physicians are in the united states, on h 1 b visas that currently restrict where they can work. and an additional 15,000 foreign nurses who have applied to immigrate are stuck in limbo, because of consulate closures and backlogs. the h 1 b visa is also tied to a physician's employment so if a visa holder becomes ill or incapacitated for any reason and cannot work, they become subject to deportation. and not just them individually, their entire family, too. and if a doctor on an h 1 b visa dies, which is an unfortunate reality during this pandemic,

the visa becomes void and all dependent family members are instantly subject to removal from the united states. it's a flawed process, it has been for many years. medical workers are leaving their home countries to practice medicine notice united states. we are short of medical workers in the united states. they put their lives on the line to care for covid-19 patients and we pay them with the very real threat of deportation. one of the only ways to address is this legislation and a bill has been stalled in the senate since may, and immigration and health advocates are counting on the biden administration to reverse trump immigration policies, and restrictions on certain visas, and president-elect biden has promised to expand temporary work visas, and employment-based immigration, but he will likely face major challenges in congress. in fact, let me read you that last sentence again because it applies to kind of everything. he will likely face major challenges in congress. which is another reason why the georgia senate runoff elections, one month from today, carry so

much weight. in exactly one month, georgia will decide the fate of the united states senate, both parties are throwing their weight behind the candidates, in two runoff elections. and donald trump, is in georgia today, and former president barack obama, virtually stumped for the democrats last night. he really stumped for them but it was done virtually. and he also stayed up late to make an appearance on "the tonight show" with jimmy fallon where he settled some of the world's most contentious debates. >> new york style or chicago deep dish? >> i'm going to go contrary to type on this. i love chicago deep dish pizza, i love my hometown. >> yes. >> but new york style, being able to fold it, walk while you're eating, there's an efficiency element to it that i think puts it over the top. >> this is another no-brainer. >> no pineapple. i'm from hawaii, and i know you can't have pineapple on a pizza.

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by boosting total testosterone. build muscle, fuel desire, and improve performance. get test x180 from force factor, the #1 fastest-growing men's health brand at walmart. in exactly one month from today, georgia's going to hold two runoff elections that will determine the party, which party controls the u.s. senate. with so much at stake, surrogates for both sides are making their presence felt, on the campaign trail. later today, donald trump's going to hit the stump in val dosta georgia on behalf of republican incumbents senators david perdue and kelly loeffler and former president barack obama hit the campaign trail yesterday expressing how significant these upcoming elections and retaking the senate actually are. >> the special election in georgia is going to determine

ultimately the course of the biden presidency. if you don't have a majority, they can block just about anything. >> the senate really matters. >> now, georgia's statewide election rule requires a candidate to win a majority of the vote, 50% or more, none of the candidates in georgia accomplished that on november 3rd so here we are. next month, senator david perdue will once again face off against democratic john ossoff and you can see the last race, last month, was extremely close, separated by two percentage points. >> meantime democrat warnock and kelly loeffler will go head-to-head as the two ptop finishers among several candidates and they emerge for a runoff. fun fact about loeffler, she was never elected and appointed late last year by the state's governor to fill the seat of retired senator johnny isaacson.

it will be 50/50 giving democrats the upper hand because vice president-elect kamala harris will cast the tie-breaking vote. president-elect biden may need democratic control of the senate to pass much of anything on his agenda including a larger covid relief bill, action on climate change, or tax reform. i want to bring in debra scott, the founder of georgia standup, a nonprofit think and act tank, working for working communities of georgia. good morning, good to see you. thoi for being with us. >> thank you for having me and i want to correct, i'm not the founder but i am the executive director for the last 16 years. >> we love giving people different roles on this show but thank you for correcting us. executive director. debra, let's talk about, you have sort of a dual issue in georgia right now. everybody has to register by monday in order to vote.

and it is often hard to motivate people to vote in special elections as opposed to general elections as there is much less publicity around them although that doesn't probably apply to this case and it is important to georgia and its representatives in the united states senate and important to the entire country because these two senate seats will control the u.s. senate. what's the message to get georgia voters out? >> thank you so much for having us. so georgia standup is a think and act tank for working communities. so we do voter registration all year long. along with our partners. and one of the things that is so important for this election is monday, monday, december 7th, is the last day to register to vote in this election. so we want to make sure those 17 1/2-year-olds, that may not have been able to vote, the last november election, that they are ready to vote this time. so we want people to get registered to vote. check your voter registration status, and have a plan. and that means knowing the exact date that you're going to vote,

and making sure your friends and family go with you and that you take your community with you as well. one of the other important things is really realizing that the people that are involved in this election are black women, and black women from black women's round table, to black voters matter, to pro-georgia, to the people's agenda, all of these organizations are led by women, and particularly black women, that have been doing base work for years. so what we would like you to do is to trust the women and trust the people on the ground, and when we say this needs to be a ground game, this needs to be conversations at the door, and we are nonpartisan, our goal is just to get people out, and it's up to the candidates, and everyone else to convince them about their issues, but when we're at the door with them, we're asking them, what are your values? what are your pain points? and why would you vote in this election? and so we will start with the power dynamic of the senate, and

flipping and all of that, we talk about miss johnson, what does this mean to you, and how is your unemployment being handled, and did you get a stimulus check, and are you concerned about what's happening in this economy? and we meet her where she is and encourage her to not only get herself to vote but get her entire community to vote. >> so it's interesting because anywhere else in the united states, when people were carting their ballots, on or before november 3rd, they had a senatorial candidate, it wasn't a given that my voting for this senatorial kw senatorial candidate is going to affect my stimulus check or my unemployment or extension of grants or loans to businesses but in your case in georgia, it is 100% likely that both of your votes will directly affect your personal prosperity or poverty. >> exactly. so their vote matters. and that's what we're really trying to get across is, this is one of most important elections in all of our lifetimes, and so

they have an opportunity to make a difference. but the important thing is we can't just talk to them about the national issues. we have to talk about the local issues. so as we're building the base and making sure that people get registered to vote, we're making sure that they get that absentee ballot in on time. and if you can request your ballot right now, and you can get it into the drop box, right now. we want people to come out in both their values. >> deborah scott, we're getting your name right, your title right this time, executive director for the last 16 years of georgia standup. georgia standup, georgia strategic alliance for new directions you know and unified policies and everybody, please, even if you're not in georgia, text and send your georgia friends information, the deadline to register to vote for the georgia special election one month from today, the deadline is monday. this coming monday. >> monday. >> the day after tomorrow.

december 7th. so thank you for that, deborah. great to see you. >> thank you. all right. who's goes to get the coronavirus vaccine first? experts have narrowed it down to two groups, more on that next. o. you work hard for your money. stretched days for it. juggled life for it. took charge for it. so care for it. look after it. invest with the expertise of j.p. morgan, either with an advisor or online, through chase. after all, it's yours. chase. make more of what's yours.

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who gets the vaccine first? where are you in the line? it's a key question millions of americans are asking themselves right now and this week we got

an answer as an independent advisory panel laid out its plan before the cdc. the group recommends the first several million doses in the united states go to health care workers, of which there are roughly 21 million. and it also goes to residents and staff at long-term care facilities. nursing homes. about three million people. and the panel is calling this stage of the rollout phase 1 a. the vaccines will likely be short supply at the onset of distribution so the panel has prioritized these two groups who are at the highest risk. and the next phase, 1-b, will reportedly include about 85 million essential workers. people in the education sector, food and agriculture, police, firemen, transportation, the list goes on. and so that's about 100 million people that have to get this thing before the general public. however, there are a few issues. first, the lone member of advisory panel who voted against phase one says residents of nursing homes an similar facilities shouldn't be included in the first phase, because the vaccine's safety was not

specifically tested for their population. secondly, pfizer and moderna have estimates that they will have enough doses to vaccinate 22.5 million americans at most, that's about 1.5 million short of what experts estimate will be needed to cover the first phase. plus, remember that virtually all of the guidelines surrounding vaccine distribution have been state-based. there's still zero federal course of action, this was a cdc advisory board. there's nothing coming from the federal government otherwise, and therefore, there's no clarity as to what the distribution should actually look like, past this first phase. so i'm hoping we could iron some of this out with my next guest, former president of cornell university, former secretary of the smithsonian and now president and ceo of the association of american medical colleges. good to see you again. welcome to the show. you and the association of american medical colleges are calling for medical colleges to be involved in the distribution,

the last mile of getting this vaccine from manufacturing to people's arms. >> well, it's good to see you, always, a pleasure to be on your program. first of all, let me just comment that we're in a very, very touch situation nationally right now as you were talking about. the number of cases. the number of hospitalizations and the number of deaths is staggering. and the medical establishment is just about at our limit. for doing these things. and so the first thing i want to say, before i answer your question, we talk a lot about front line workers, and those who are up against the actual patient experiences, and i want to mention to you and all of your leagues at msnbc, and everyone watching this show, can also be a front line worker, and maybe you're not carrying a stethoscope but you can carry one of these and i want to make this a very important point that even though we have some vaccines that we believe are about to come online, it's going to be months and months until we achieve the level of immunity across our country to allow us

to back off on these public health measures. wearing a mask, forestalling travel, washing your hand, social distancing, these are very, very powerful methods, please, everybody get on the front line and do this. now, to your question, so in terms of the vaccine, a lot of things have to happen to make this work. number one, i've been very, very reassured by recent meetings that we've had with the fda commissioner, and the top staff, i think the fda is doing a terrific job of being very, very careful, before emergency use authorizations are granted. which may be forth coming in the next couple of weeks, or so. once that's done, then we have some real serious problems that we have to work out with distribution, as you know, had mentioned before, the storage of some of the vaccines requires extraordinarily cold temperatures and the academic medical centers all across the country, 155 medical schools that are accredited and roughly 400 hospitals and health systems, have the capacity to do some of the storage, have the

capacity to help with distribution, and so help is on the way. >> what does that look like? are you in touch with the president, the administrators of those medical colleges, are they establishing cores of volunteers or clearing out those storage paces, because we know even a lot of pharmacies in this country don't have the minus 94 fahrenheit to be able to store the pfizer vaccine in the quantities that we need, and the army corps of engineers may have to be involved in storage and distribution. and is there a plan of action that is being developed at american medical colleges, those 155 medical colleges? >> well, as you mentioned, we don't have a complete national plan. a lot of it is being delegated to local jurisdiction. but since that's the hand that we've been dealt, yes. 155 medical schools, roughly 400 teaching hospitals and health systems, and believe it or not, they're not waiting for me. they're not waiting for a bureaucrat to tell them what to do. they're already on the case

figuring out what can be done. and let me just mention one thing. the reason, one of the reasons that we're at this juncture with successful vaccines we hope in the of f'ing is because of nearly 20 years of basic research, much of it done at these medical school laboratories, to figure out things that will allow us to develop a vaccine in a breathtakingly fast pace. yes they're getting ready and many of them are already ready to store it, to help distribute it, and to help get information out about it, and the information flow is critical. >> what a great story this will be for their children and grandchildren, that in 2020, as a medical student, they were on the front lines, they were in the arena in distributing this vaccine. david about, two months ago, gallup said 51% of americans were prepared to take the vaccine, that was at the height of donald trump's nonsense about how it was being developed and by the ends of november, by thanksgiving, it was 60%. we need upward of 70% for herd immunity. are you worried it will get there or do you think once it

starts getting distribute and in the news and that people are taking it, really by february or april which is the first chance that people are choosing to take the vaccine will be able to get it that that number is going to be upward of 70%? >> i'm very worried about it, and one of the things, about these global national numbers, is that they don't necessarily focus on the marginalized vulnerable communities who have good and understandable reasons not to have complete trust in the health system. so i think we need to focus in addition to the global numbers which were statesed which of course need to go up quite a bit, we need to focus on the communities where the trust in the health care system is justifiably not as good as we wish it were. so we need to listen to their voices, to the lived experiences of these people, and make sure that we can do the best we can to make them feel comfortable. i'm more comfortable because of the meeting that we had with the top brass at the fda just a few years ago, just a few days, excuse me, ago, i'm reassured when my primary care physician tells me it take a vaccine, i'm

going to take, it everybody i know in the medical profession feels the very same way and we hope that vaccine acceptance will be high and remember at the risk of being redundant it will be a while before the vaccine is very widely available until we have immunity. forstall the travel, wash your hands, social distance, wear the mask, take the steps, it's powerful. >> president and ceo of the american association of medical college, thank you as always, my friend. well, it looks like the president's most loyal henchman may have finally crossed a line with trump. that line being the truth about a lack of voter fraud. william barr may not make it to inauguration day. william barr m inauguration day you. you inspired us to make your humira experience even better... with humira citrate-free. it has the same effectiveness you know and trust, but we removed the citrate buffers, there's less liquid, and a thinner needle...

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learn. barr twisted the findings of the muller report leaving out essential and damning details in first characterizing it to the public, a move that forced robert mueller himself to write a letter condemning barr's so-called summary. after trump tweeted his complaints about the sentencing of some of his closest allies, barr intervened in those cases too. michael flynn, paul manafort, roger stone, but unfortunately for barr those efforts mean nothing if he cannot now come up with evidence of voter fraud. barr declared openly this week the justice department has found no evidence of widespread voter fraud. he didn't even find evidence of little scale voter fraud. that might be the last straw for bill bar. first, there was the failure to find illegal ballots and the durham report, the investigation into the russia investigation

that he ordered before the election the way trump wanted and now debunking the president's wild false claims of massive voter fraud. joining me now is former federal prosecutor, former assistant u.s. attorney at the department of justice and msnbc legal analyst, cynthia oxley. thank you for joining us. >> good morning. >> you and i have talked about bill barr. bill barr sent the unsolicited letter for the job. he has carried donald trump's water from the beginning. a lot of us never understood what he was in it for. now he has completely wrecked his reputation and trump is going to throw him to the side. >> i would file this under who cares. at this point, he's done. he has done generational damage to the department of justice and as you were reporting in the beginning about the muller report, it wasn't just that he twisted it, he just lied about it. so he has institutionalized the

head of the department of justice lying to the american people. there are a lot of norm sz that have been broken. he have has used the department of justice as a political tool and if now he pays because he gets fired 50 days before, i would definitely say nobody cares. >> let's just -- but i want to talk to you about this because you were at the department of justice. there was an article written in which it was written, if even barr is ready to defy the president, if one of trump's greatest defenders is ready to reject the false narrative, perhaps we can truly start the healing process of healing the rifts that were exposed during the election. i think the point that they are making there is barr didn't have any space between him and the president at any point during his tenure and even he can't abide by the trump, giuliani clown car that's driving around the country. >> i do think the appointment of

the next attorney general is going to be very important in terms of that healing around the department of justice with the career prosecutors and also with the people who count on the department of justice to fight for them. and we'll have to wait and see who that is. personally, i would like somebody who's really going to be active in civil rights. duvall patrick was the assistant. he's a very good choice. there are lots of other people who are good choices. we need to start that heal. it's so obvious that biden has won the election. the fact that bill barr is on board is of infinitesimal information for me. >> bill barr has lowered the bar on what it would be to be an attorney general. the next person has to raise that bar. and what does that involve? how will they -- they're going to have to be able to come in there and say, i'm here for the law, the constitution, the department of justice. i'm not here to carry any

president's water, including joe biden's. i mean, i don't think anybody needs to see this again. >> right. no, no one needs to see it again. it may take several attorney generals and several presidencies to restore the luster of the department of justice, but, for example, let's just take civil rights where i worked. they've been shut down under barr and we need to start that process. people need to see that that's started. not only in police prosecutions and consent decrees, but in lots of civil cases involving the manner in which use of force is used. major changes need to happen. people need to be able to see it in order to regain confidence in the department of justice. >> cynthia, good to talk to you. cynthia oxney is a former prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst. lawmakers have come up with a 9$908 billion coronavirus relie

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social distancing, mask wearing and self-isolation, we are now at a crossroads. an end to the pandemic is in sight with hopes of several pending vaccine arrivals on the horizon. the distribution and who will receive them first is a complicated equation casting uncertainty on the precise time frame in which everyone will have a chance to get vaccinated, all while the nation experiences record shattering infections, hospitalizations and deaths which doesn't include the spike from thanksgiving day travel and gatherings which are expected to peak right about now. today's new york headline reads the virus is devastating the u.s. and leaving an uneven toll. the report goes on to say, quote, on friday a national single day record was set with more than 226,000 cases. it was one of the many data points that has illustrated the depth and spreadf