good afternoon to msnbc world headquarters here in new york. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." here's what's happening right now for you. after months of darkness, today, a glimmer of hope for millions of americans as distribution of the first coronavirus vaccine is officially underway. right now, fedex and u.p.s. are gearing up to ship half a million doses of the pfizer vaccine nationwide. that first batch is slated to arrive at more than 600

locations across the country over the course of the next three days. this morning, the director of the national institutes of health reassuring the public on the safety of the vaccine. >> i think there have been few, if any vaccines, that have ever been subjected to this level of scrutiny. so if you want to look at the facts, i think you should be very reassured. put aside all of the noise and, yeah, all of the skepticism that's born of potential interference from some source or another. that did not determine the outcome. this was based upon scientific decision making of the most rigorous sort. and in less than 24 hours, the 538 members of the electoral college will begin casting their votes for president and vice president, making president-elect joe biden's victory even more official. this morning, one republican senator saying he hopes tomorrow will be the end of president trump's illegal battle against the election results. >> looks very much like the

electors will vote for joe biden, and when they do, i hope he puts the country first, i mean, the president, that he takes pride in his considerable accomplishments, that he congratulates the president-elect and helps him get off to a good start. especially in the middle of this pandemic. we need to not lose one day in the transition in getting the vaccine out to everybody who needs it. and with a friday deadline looming, lawmakers on capitol hill are facing increasing pressure to pass another round of coronavirus relief before the year's end. today, senate minority leader chuck schumer saying congress should not go home until they reach an agreement. >> the good news on the negotiations is that the gang of eight is working hard and they hope to have something as early as tomorrow morning. it's not everything we all want, but it's a good framework. and i hope everyone can come together around the gang of eight. if we don't come to an agreement, we should stay here through christmas and new year's, because people are suffering. >> we have a team of reporters

and analysts following all of these breaking developments for us this hour. nbc's ellison barber is outside the pfizer facility in portage, michigan, where she's been for the last 48 hours or so. how about the latest on what's happening there right now? we saw all of the dry ice and the vaccines being loaded and packaged today. pretty extraordinary. what's going on in that building behind you now? >> reporter: very, very busy morning turned into a quiet afternoon outside of the building, though after the trucks initially left this morning, we know and we were able to see workers still packaging and preparing shipments of the vaccine to go out tomorrow. pfizer says they have shipped about half a million doses of the covid-19 vaccine today. all of it coming from this manufacturing plant, just over my shoulder in portage, michigan. they say another 2 million doses of the vaccine will go out and be shipped by the end of this week. this was a huge moment for science, for the country, and

for this community of portage, michigan. there were a bunch of people, a little less than ten, not a bunch, but a decent little group that came by this morning. they came out, many of them before the sun even rose, standing, waiting in the cold, hoping to catch a glimpse of this moment. one woman, a teacher, came out to try to just witness and be a part of what seemed to be the very first sign of true hope in what has been a devastating year. listen here. >> i cried on march 13th when i closed my classroom doors, because i thought it was going to be a month until we saw each other again and now it's looking like it's going to be a year. i think it's incredible, just for the business in portage and the people of portage, and it's just pride, pride in our community that they've done this. >> reporter: there were a lot of emotions here today. people cheered as those trucks left and started making their way towards the airport in

lansing, michigan, to heads towards the airports. this is a moment this community has been waiting for and following along with for a very long time, but a lot of mixed emotions, and you heard it from that woman, from everyone, because we know that so many people have lost their lives to this virus. many more people will lose their lives before they can have access to this vaccine and it didn't have to be that way. while this is a great moment of hope, there is hurt for the people who have been lost and whose family members didn't have a chance to get this and who maybe not down the road. and we saw some people experiencing that today in realtime as they watched and cheered these trucks as they made their way towards the airport. alex? >> very much a mix of emotions, but very glad you remind us all of those sobering aspects to all of this. thank you very much, ellison, for that. this new video in just a short time ago, a plane carrying the vaccine landing in louisville. a very important moment as the fight against the pandemic is taking the next step. there you see the landing right

there. nbc's morgan chesky was on site there. he watched that landing at the mohammad ali international airport in louisville. you know pb. i loved that interview you did as you spoke with one of the pilots who made that flight possible. let's go back to that and what you're seeing there today. >> it really was just a special moment here, alex. because you have the boeing 757, the most common plane in the fleet of u.p.s. and yet, when this one particular plane landed here today in louisville, there was a collective sense of celebration. there may not have been a lot of visible yelling or clapping, but everyone appreciated the gravity of this moment. and we had a chance to speak to the man who was in that cockpit during that one of a mission today, captain houston mills, a former marine pilot, now with u.p.s. for the past 26 years. and he reflected on the fact that she's just become a piece of history. take a listen. >> this particular moment is a continuation of what we've been

doing. you know, as i mentioned, we've got 10 million square feet of facility spread out over 32 countries from around the world. we've got significant cold storage capability to store these vaccines and to help others. we're just very grateful for this process. >> reporter: grateful and humble. you could hear him talking about the logistics of the mission, rather than really sharing the sheer impact it had on him. an important thing to note is that he says that this is just the beginning. we acknowledged the importance of this one flight, but we know there are going to be hundreds if not thousands of more to come. sharing these doses of the vaccine, we know that the plane that he landed here, taxied a short distance from where i'm standing to a hanger where those boxes were unpacked, placed on to conveyor belts. some of them will be placed in that ultracold storage here to be used in kentucky, distributed as needed to those nofolks who need it most. other boxes will be placed on to

flights and flown to more than 50 locations, starting tomorrow. all beginning a process that's been really studied for the past several months that will only be ramping up in earnest, starting right now. alex? >> i've got to tell you, morgan. pretty remarkable that interview that you did and all the stories that he will have to tell going forward. as will you, having witnessed this historic moment here in louisville. thank you so much for that. let's get to the logistical operation and talk about that with nbc's tom costello. he's joining us from washington once again. tom, big welcome as we have 145 sites getting these vaccine packages tomorrow. lay out the details of this extraordinary rollout, first to the security in terms of keeping the vaccines safe in transit. that's a key thing. and then, of course, keeping them in the proper condition so you don't waste anything before being able to administer them. >> yeah, so those first trucks that left that plant in michigan, they were escorted by u.s. marshals today, on their way to the airport.

then on, as you saw, from morgan, on to louisville, the fedex truck, the fedex plane, rather, went on to memphis, their distribution hub there. from there, fedex and u.p.s. are splitting the country. fedex is essentially taking the west. u.p.s. is taking the east. each one of these companies insist they can deliver to every zip code in america within 24 hours. and that's what's critical here. because within three to four days, they expect to have delivered to 636 micro-sites around the united states, and its territories. so 50 states and territories and then you go into the microclinics and hospital locations nationwide. and as you note, the cdc has already decided, has already prioritized who gets the vaccine first. and let's just go through that real quickly. because i have had a lot of questions asked of me over the last week or so. so the cdc says priority group 1a will be front line medical workers. so those are people, doctors and

nurses and techs who work in ers and icus and have what are described as real intense touch points with covid patients. and then people in long-term care facilities, elderly people, as well as the workers are in group 1a. group 1b becomes teachers as well as emergency responders and food handlers. people in those essential services are in group 1b. we might start to see them starting to get vaccinated in late january or so. maybe early february. and then group 1c, that is the group of 65 and older and anybody who is in an at-risk population. by the way, the total population of people who are thought to be at risk in some way is about 200