this hour, the fist dorst d of moderna vaccines are being delivered, as the cdc makes recommendations on who should get vaccinated next. a new, more contagious strain of the virus appears in the uk, putting london on lockdown. could it already be here in the u.s.? we have a deal. congress agrees to a $900 billion covid relief plan with stimulus checks for most americans. how soon could there be money in your pocket? and white house officials scrambling as president trump downplays a massive hack attack, contradicting top officials who say russia is behind what could

be the biggest hack of the u.s. government ever. hello. i'm chris jansing. we begin this hour with some major news on the coronavirus pandemic. the first doses of moderna's vaccine are starting to arrive at more than 3,000 locations across the country. the rollout of this second vaccine now available here in the u.s. means millions more americans will be getting the shots. near lly 6 million doses are expected to be shipped out this week, with 20 million distributed by the end of the year. but it comes as cases and deaths continue to rise at an alarming rate, and as health officials warn it could still get worse. especially now that we're in the holiday travel season. meantime, the cdc's advisory panel is releasing new recommendations for who should be next in line to get the vaccines. people over the age of 75 and essential workers, like first responders, teachers, postal workers, public transit employees, and grocery store workers leading the list.

and the moderna vaccine comes as a new, more contagious strain of the coronavirus is appearing in the uk. already, at least 30 countries have cut off uk travelers, but so far, the u.s. is not one of them. the strain is believed to be 70% more transmissable, although public health officials say it isn't any more deadly. senior international -- >> while it seems to be more easily transmissable, we do not have evidence, yet, that this is a more deadly virus to an individual who acquires it. it is no reason to believe the vaccines developed will not be effective against this virus, as well. >> right now, there are no indications it is going to hurt our ability to continue vaccinating people or that it is any more dangerous or deadly than the strains that are currently out there and that we know about. >> senior international correspondent keir simmons is in london for us today. nbc's shaq brewster is outside the distribution facility in the memphis area, where the first doses were shipped out

yesterday. good morning to both of you. keir, let me start with you. what are officials there saying about the virus mutations, and how strict is this emergency lockdown? >> reporter: good questions. honestly, it's what they said that are causing waves around the world. now more than 40 countries banning flights from the uk. we're just hearing new york's governor, andrew cuomo, has said in his briefing that he has got british airways to agree to test passengers before flying to new york. he's asked virgin atlantic and delta to do the same but has not heard back. british airways testing, according to the governor, starts tomorrow. so that is part of the concerns in the u.s., as whether this new variant of the virus will spread outside the uk. concerns are understandable. they've locked down london here in a way we haven't seen since really the spring.

outside of london, there isn't the same level of lockdown, and the lockdown that happened here did cause people to race to train stations, to the airport, you know, to try to get away. already, there are signs, too, that this new variant of the virus is in various european countries. the british prime minister talking about what the virus is. take a listen. >> first of all, let me say to everybody who has made plans for christmas, as i said earlier on, everybody who thought about it, all the care and love that's gone into plans for christmas, we, of course, bitterly regret the changes that are necessary, but alas, when the facts change, you have to change your approach. >> reporter: what he said in that briefing, chris, is that this new virus variant is up to 70% more infectious. in fact, though, they honestly don't know, the numbers are soaring. the numbers of infections. it'll take time to understand

the biology of this new mutation of the virus and understand whether, indeed, it is more infectious and exactly by how much more. >> keir simmons in london for us. thanks, keir. shaq, let's talk vaccine. the shipments have been going out over the weekend. where are those doses now, and when can we expect to see them actually reaching the arms of americans? >> reporter: chris, we know some of yesterday's shipments have already begun to be delivered this morning. kerry sanders confirmed that as he was down in florida, where he watched one of those u.p.s. shipments come in. really, when you combine the efforts we saw here at the plant in the memphis, tennessee, area, with their other plant in the louisville area, we're expecting shipments to hit all 50 states at some point today. they were essentially priority overnight shipments. so those arrivals will be happening quickly. then it depends on the health care providers, what happens and the speed with which those shots

will start to go in people's arms. but the reason why so many people are excited about this moderna vaccine is because it is expected to go to more places, more quickly. we watched that supply chain yesterday, and how workers were in this cold freezer room. 15,000 square foot facility, turning moderna's stockpile into individual shipments. those shipments, because it doesn't require a special freezer that has the sub arctic temperatures, can go to more places. think pharmacies, doctor's offs, those long-term health care facilities. the idea is that this vaccine can go in a regular freezer. it's available to more people. that's why so many people are so excited when they saw that truck first ship out yesterday. chris? >> which leads us to the question, how quickly moderna could ramp up production and delivery. what do we know? >> reporter: they say they will deliver to the u.s. government 20 million doses by the end of the year. you look at the calendar. that is just about a week and a half. they say the number will go up

to about 100 million by the spring. by the start of summer, they're saying the number will be about 200 million doses. we know there is some lag when they say they can hit 20 million by the end of the year. there's some conversion period, some approvals that need to happen before those can actually be shipped out to people. you get an idea that they are definitely trying to ramp this up as quickly as possible. the need is there, and now that the cdc has laid out the next steps, the next priorities, who will get that vaccine, now you're seeing those two kind of connect all at once. chris? >> shaq, thanks so much for that. joining me now is dr. blackstock, practicing physician, yahoo! news medical contributor x and the founder and ceo of advancing health equity. doctor, good to see you. here we are again, on one of these classic sort of good news and bad news days. the good news is moderna getting the vaccine out. let's also talk about these new concerns being raised with this new strain of the coronavirus that, frankly, might be hypercontagious. the uk is acting quickly to

contain it, but the u.s. government is barely enacting any mitigation efforts anymore. governor cuomo in new york is not happy about planes coming into jfk. what do you make of this? are we potentially in the u.s. going to be caught flat-footed if the strain makes its way here, or if it is here already? >> so, one, i think we need to step back. what the public needs to know is spontaneous mutations in virus occur very often. for there to be one that significantly -- the criteria needed to show the vaccine doesn't work against it or there is a higher death rate, there needs to be a lot of mutations for that to happen. i think what we're seeing with this mutation, which we still need more information about, is it just shows we need to practice the preventable measures. so the uk already was in a surge around the holidays. they need to continue to mask

up, physically distance. we need to also do the same. we also need to call off any traveling during the holidays. so i do think that there is reason to be more cautious. however, i want to alert the public that more information needs to be known about this viral mutation. it needs to be studied for a longer amount of time. >> i just want to reemphasize this, though. bottom line is the general belief is that this vaccine will still be effective against this mutation. >> absolutely. absolutely. it takes a lot of different spontaneous mutations to make a virus or vaccine ineffective against the virus. we are not there yet at all. this particular variant is being studied as we speak. there are no signs that the vaccine will not work against it. so everyone should be aware of that fact. >> meantime, the cdc has released its guidelines for who should be next in line for the vaccine, just in time for

moderna to roll out. i wonder if you think this is the right call. people over 75, front line workers. you see anybody who is an essential worker who is on the front line. what do you make of that? >> i do agree with the phase one, the priority group. the focus should be on those at greatest risk for dying from this infection and those at greatest risk of being infected. i think that this priority group, you know, front line essential workers and people over 75 was a compromise the advisory group made. it makes a lot of sense. i also think in the essential workers category, they were trying to also address the racial health inequities we've seen in this pandemic, given that black and latino people make up a disproportionate group of the essential workers, as well as those who had been impacted by the virus. >> so let's talk a little bit about that. you tweeted, "let's change the

narrative around vaccine hesitancy in black communities to focus on institutional trustworthiness." how do we do that? and how much do you think of this pandemic aresponse, how ths has exacerbated distrust of some institutions in the united states? >> yeah. you know, i think that there is -- there is a history of, you know, medical experimentation and exploitation of black communities in this country, but also there's ongoing discrimination that black people experience when they interface with the health care system, as well as the political interference that was unprecedented that we saw this year in the fda and cdc's work. all right. that's what we're working against. so i think, moving forward, we need to focus on institutions need to be very transparent about the cure they're providing, about the accessibility of vaccines, about what a vaccine does. i think we need institutions to engage with trusted leaders in the community who know the

communities well, have been doing work on the ground already. i think we also need to appreciate that these are a series of conversations. no one is going to change their mind about whether or not they should take the vaccine in one conversation. i think what we're going to probably see is that people will probably take a wait and see approach, and see that other folks have got b tten the vacci and seem to be doing well. this is not about convincing people, especially black americans, to take the vaccine. this is about getting people the information and education they need to make an informed decision about whether or not to take the vaccine. >> dr. uche blackstock, always great to have you on the program. thank you so much for being here. we appreciate it. still ahead, the massive russia hack attack that president trump is downplaying. how he is using it to try to create even more doubt about the election he lost. and the latest from capitol hill. lawmakers reach a deal on covid relief. but how soon could it be finalized? finalized? if you have postmenopausal osteoporosis

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there was a very significant eh for the to use a piece of third-party software to essentially embed code inside of u.s. government systems, and it now appears systems of private companies and governments across the world, as well. this was a very significant effort, and i think it's the case that now we can say pretty clearly that it was the russians that engaged in this activity. >> from the information i have, you know, i agree with secretary pompeo's assessment. it's certainly -- appears to be the russians. >> welcome back. that was attorney general bill barr just moments ago, echoing secretary of state mike pompeo's earlier comments, which came just hours before white house officials were preparing to release a statement, formally tying the massive solar wind cyber hack to russia. but they were told to stand

down, according to an u.s. official who spoke to nbc news. without offering any evidence, the president on twitter is downplaying this severity of the hack, suggesting china, not russia, is actually to blame. he's also using the incident to try to sow further doubt about the integrity of joe biden's victory. nbc news has confirmed that president trump held a meeting at the white house on friday where he discussed the idea of naming attorney and voter fraud conspiracy theorist sydney powell to investigate the election. michael flynn was also in the meeting. it is notable because flynn has been publicly pushing the president to try to declare some form of martial law. geoff bennett has the latest from the white house for us. geoff, good to see you. >> you, too. >> how concerned are some people around the president about his apparent embrace of all these various conspiracy theories, whether it's the russian hack, the election? and how successful have they been so far in talking him out

of doing potentially really reckless? >> reporter: yeah, it's a great question. i can tell you this, based on our reporting. there are some top trump administration officials who are growing increasingly alarmed about what president trump might do to try to unleash the full power of the federal government, to at least try to overturn an election he clearly lost. based on our reporting, we know white house chief of half meadows and cipollone cut off what ultimately turned out to be the heated oval office meeting, where president trump considered elevating his fringe attorney, sydney powell, to be special counsel to look into election fraud. fraud that we have to say does not exist. today, the attorney general was asked about it and said, in his view, he saw no reason to appoint a special counsel. in that same meeting, reportedly, the disgraced former national trump security adviser, michael flynn, we're told, floated the notion of president

trump invoking martial law. in effect, sending the military into swing states to redo the election. president trump has pushed back on that, says it didn't happen. but the army put out a statement, making clear that the military has no role in determining an election outcome. so we're at this point now where president trump has exhausted all of the really legal avenues to steal away joe biden's election victory, and he is embracing these fringe elements. to me, it's striking that this is a man whose political rise was fueled by conspiracy, right, the racist birther lie, and now it appears to be ending in more conspiracies, chris. >> do we know more about the back story on saying stand down on the russia hack? did trump not feel like it? what happened? >> reporter: we don't know why it happened, and we don't yet know the official who dictated

that order to stand down. we do know that president trump is an outlier here. you have now both the secretary of state and the attorney general pointing the finger at russia. you have members of congress who have been briefed on this, to include republicans who say it's increasingly clear that it's russia. yet, president trump over the weekend, in that tweet, not only really tried to downplay the severity of the hack, but then tried to deflect attention away from russia and point the finger at china. this fits a pattern. i was at that 2018 helsinki summit, where president trump stood next to, and basically stood up for, vladimir putin when he was asked directly act russia's election interference. so president trump, for whatever reason, is constitutional lly unable to be critical of russia. you have to have the question, if that blind spot, as mitt romney put it, is somehow responsible for this hack going undetected for months, chris. >> geoff bennett, thank you for

that. now with me, clint watts, former fbi special agent and now a senior fellow at the foreign policy research institute. always good to have you on the program at times like these. it feels, clint, like we've gone into disinformation overdrive, with trump downplaying the apparent russia hack, using it to baselessly sow doubts about the election, trying to elevate these voter fraud conspiracy therapists, like sydney powell and michael flynn. tell us, from your perspective, somebody who has been on the inside, how worrisome is this? how dangerous do you see it? >> i think the big thing, chris, is it stops the defenders from furthering the defense. meaning, every time you see your commander in chief, who is the ultimate boss of the executive branch, put out a conspiracy or a lie, that's in direct opposition to what you already know, it causes a hesitation in the system. that hesitation is, can i move forward?

can i support in a vocal way? one of the key things about this hack that occurred from russia is it affects poet the pboth th and public sectors. when we need our institutions to lead and be strong, set a direction on what we need to do to defend ourselves against russian cyber attacks, they become hesitant. they're listening to the president say something that is both inaccurate and providing cover, really, to one of america's adversaries in cyber space. it becomes almost impossible to defend the country when you actually are fighting internally against your ultimate highest boss. >> so it happened. we just heard two administration officials saying it did indeed happen, despite what the president had to say. so what do we do about it? how do we fix it? how do we make sure it doesn't happen again? >> i think that's the real challenge here, chris. a lot of the defenses are ultimately in the private sector. microsoft has been discussed quite a bit the last few days.

fire eye saw the hack and did the first notification, so they may have been one of the first to detect it. then it is the exhaustive experience now of going all through the government, all through the private sector, and trying to identify everywhere that this hack is essentially affecting, in terms of the business space. that is very time intensive. the other part is that a lot of machines will have this sort of software installed on it, but the russians probably didn't go and do a deep intrusion into every aspect of every one of those machines. we now need to look at, where are the devices they penetrated into networks and did an exfiltration or may have done significant damage? so you see that widespread listing there. where they did invest their human resources is going to be uneven. that's are we need to focus at, is where did they go deep, and what did they take, if they took anything? >> so there's that part of the response. on the president's reported

embracecon conspira conspiracies, you tweeted this, i'm worried about the administration trying to counter nonsense. dumb as these schemes sound, they work, and dry podium speeches will not be effective in dispelling the disinformation. i mean, that's what i see when i've been out in a lot of the battleground states before and after the election, talking to people who still support the president. they believe -- you repeat something as many times as he does, and they come to believe it. what can the incoming biden administration plan to do about that part of it? >> that's right, chris. people tend to believe four things. that which they hear first. that which they hear the most. that which comes from a trusted source. and that which is not rebutted for being false. just as you said, chris, from your own experience, when you go out to these kmountcommunities, believe it because they are hearing a steady drum beat of

disinformation. the president, future president biden and his team are not going to be able to go and make speeches in d.c. and counteract this. they have to be in person. at a very difficult time with covid-19 still roaring across the country, they're going to have to be in an action mode. they're not going to be able to sit back and essentially message from a podium and hope the message gets out. the other thing is they need to get into that information space. there's another network here called fox news. fox news has repeatedly, along with other channels, broadcast these election conspiracies over and over again. they give air time to conspiracies. so that means the president, president biden as the future president, wants to dispel this information, whatever comes next, they have to get into that information bubble and start to lay down some truth. i think that's really bipartisanship and working across the aisle, and going to those, as you noticed, purple states, those states which the president said, "let's go out

and seize voting machines," maybe, right, talking about these conspiracies. let's go out and try to overturn it. you hear mike flynn say that, "we need to declare martial l law." that's where the incoming administration has to be to restore truth and unity to america. >> one of the extraordinary challenges facing the biden administration. clint watts, good to see you and thank you. still ahead, how soon could congress pass its new covid relief bill? we have the latest from capitol hill next. we're also live in georgia, where vice president-elect kamala harris is set to speak shortly ahead of the critical senate runoffs. this week on "the upper hands"... special guest flo challenges the hand models to show off the ease of comparing rates

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yesterday, loeaders in the senate, house, secretary, reached a major agreement that struggling americans have needed for months. we're going to pass another historic rescue package to help american families through this pandemic. we're going to pass a fully year-government funding, so armed forces and all federal departments have the resources and the certainty they need. and we're going to do both of these things as soon as

possible. >> that was senate majority leader mitch mcconnell moments ago, as law make imakers say th finally come to an agreement on the $900 billion covid relief bill. i say finally because it's been nearly 270 days since congress last approved a covid relief bill. back then, the reported death toll in this country was 1,500 people. compared to 320,000 now. lawmakers are expected to vote on this deal tonight, in tandem with the $1.4 trillion deal to fund the government. as of this morning, the actual text of this massive bill hadn't even been released. nbc's garrett haake joins us now from capitol hill. garrett, how do members you talk to feel about voting on a massive bill they haven't even seen, and how much time is there likely to be between actually getting the text of it and a vote? >> reporter: chris, the reality is, they're going to have to move fairly quickly once the text of this bill is released. right now, at least, government funding expires at midnight.

now, they've already kicked the can on that a couple times and extended the deadline for themselves. the majority leader, mitch mcconnell, coming off the floor, theying zai in saying they're going to stay tonight until they get this done. law make imakers hate this. they don't like this is the way that the very little legislation that gets produced and signed into law around here oftentimes comes from the leadership suites. it is written by staff of the leadership. members essentially get jammed up at the very end, if they're involved at all. they come in involved on the back end. they don't love it. chris, i'm going to let you in on a secret here. i'll make sure no other reporters are around. most members don't actually read the bills. they don't. they read the summaries. they read stuff that's prepared for them by their staff. this bill will be in the thousands of pages. even if they were given weeks, most lawmakers are not going to sit down with a strong cup of coffee and work their way through the bill. it's not how it's done. >> i'm shocked and dismayed at that little secret you have

shared with me. nevertheless, worth noting that at it $900 billion, nothing to sneeze at, it is less than 1/3 the size of the $3 trillion heros act the democrats passed in the house seven months ago. this has to be a tough pill to swallow for progressives, hoping leadership could negotiate a bigger deal. aoc tweeted yesterday, "one major difference between gop and dems is that gop leverage their right-flank to gain policy concessions and generate enthusiasm, while dems lock their left flank in the basement because they think that will make republicans be nicer to them." so is it fair to say there isn't, like, a big celebration going on, or am i reading this wrong? >> reporter: well, look, i mean, this bill will have a lot of help in it for a lot of people, but the frustration on the left that it doesn't do more is real. the issue i'd take with congresswoman ocasio-cortez is not so much the left wing was cut out but the left wing isn't

enough people to get this done. bottom line, you're still working with the republican-controlled senate and a republican president. there's just not -- there are no other levers to pull if you're speaker pelosi, to generate votes on these things that just don't exist. in the political environment that exists now. this is, i think, part of the argument that pelosi has made, about why she ultimately accepted less now than might have been available in the past. folks can debate, you know, the sort of strategic thinking on that as much as they like, but the idea democrats argued is they may get another bite of the apple under a biden administration, and perhaps with a narrowly democratic senate instead of a narrowly republican senate, they can get more out of washington. but i think that's a big lift still, quite honestly. >> garrett haake, always good to see you. dishing those top secret -- that top secret information. thanks for that. >> reporter: do not repeat that, chris. thank you. >> yeah, yeah, it's our little secret.

congress is about to vote on covid relief, but the incoming biden administration has set its sights on the next congress. vice president-elect kamala harris about to campaign in georgia for ossoff and warnock. i'm joined from columbus, georgia. priscilla thompson, good to see you. what are we expecting to hear from the vice president-elect, and tell us what's going to be going on at the event. >> reporter: chris, the vice president-elect's motorcade pulled in a little while ago, so she could be taking the stage here very soon. but three words that are top of mind for democrats and what we expect to hear from kamala harris, health, jobs, and justice. that is the closing message for the democratic candidates here, as they count down to election day. we certainly expect kamala harris to hit on all of that. it'll be interesting, though, to hear how she frames that conversation today, on a day when, as you've been discussing, this covid relief bill is going to be voted on, could be passed

very soon. that's certainly something that's on the mind of many voters here. but the other really important point for harris to hit here today is going to be getting out and vote. encouraging these people to make sure that they're making it to the polls. we are heading into the really holiday weeks here, between this week and next week. there are going to be poll closures and things like that on some of these days. it is really important she's here, kicking off this second week of early voting, as we're already seeing incredibly high turnout here for these runoff elections. chris? >> priscilla thompson, we'll get back to you when everything gets under way. thank you so much for that. by the way, don't miss the readout tonight. joy will be sitting down with the vice president-elect for an exclusive interview. that's tonight, 7:00 eastern, here on msnbc. ahead, the coronavirus crisis growing inside america's hospitals. we're going to take you to two of the hardest hit places, where doctors and nurses are

absolutely stretched to the breaking point. first, because 2020 hasn't had enough going on, check out these dramatic pictures from hawaii's big island. the kilauea volcano eruption. officials are telling people to stay indoors, although no one is being told to leave their homes yet. at this point, it does not appear the eruption has caused any damage. we'll be right back. (harold) twelve hundred strings of lights. (betsy) quarter mile of tinsel. (harold) and real snow all the way from switzerland. (betsy) hmmhm... gonna be tough to top.

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sir... wait, are you sure? yes, we're that productive now. you hear that?! the kids get twice the presents! [ cheering ] about time 2020 gave us some good news. whatever your business is facing... let's workflow it. servicenow. welcome back. hospitals across the country are running out of icu beds. in many places, the intensive care units are operating over 100% capacity. the fear is that holiday travel will only make the problem worse. more than 113,000 americans are hospitalized with the coronavirus right now. at least 42 states and washington, d.c., are seeing an increase in coronavirus-related deaths over the past two weeks. in los angeles county, where hospitals are overwhelmed, efforts to contain the virus appear to be failing.

the "la times" reports grocery stores and other essential businesses are being linked to nearly 500 outbreaks. nbc's aarerin mclaughlin is in angeles, where hospitals are considering rationing care. california is fighting a massive surge. la county is outlining plans to ration care. what can you tell us, and how much worse are officials worried it might get? >> reporter: they're extremely worried here, chris. estimated 27 million californians live in areas with hospitals facing severe icu capacity shortages. the situation so bad, one doctor telling us his hospital is getting absolutely crushed by covid. they're worried the situation is careening toward the potential catastrophe. california is now the crisis epicenter. the "washington post" capturing the scene inside this icu outside los angeles. the hallways filled with covid patients and the haunting sounds of sickness.

[ coughing ] >> reporter: hospitals running at 300% capacity. up to 80 patients waiting for beds at any given time. >> i felt like we were in a movie. this is some disaster movie. >> reporter: in la, a person now dies from the virus every 15 minutes. >> to see people congregating without masks, it feels as if your work doesn't mean anything, and the people you've watched die don't mean anything. >> reporter: now, doctors say la county's largest hospitals are preparing to possibly enter a crisis standard of care mode by christmas. >> what that means is that you are not guaranteed to have a ventilator for the entirety of your stay. and if you're not making progress, we may need to reallocate such resources to patients who have a better odds of survival. >> reporter: san diego, the list of ishs cu patients grow by the. some as young as 33. >> as you can see right now, we have one problem.

respiratory failure from covid. we have most patients on ventilators. a lot of them are being proned. you can see that behind me. puts a lot of work on our staff. >> reporter: so many doctors have told me that all they want for christmas is for people to stay home, stay apart, and stay safe. chris? >> wow. erin mclaughlin, eye-opening. i thought we had seen everything. thank you so much. joining me now, mike clark, hospital administrator in ogden, utah, a state where icu capacity is nearing 100%. thank you so much for being with us. look, when you look at utah hospitals, almost 99% capacity, i'm sure you heard what's going on in los angeles. let me just ask you first, how is your hospital doing right now? how sustainable is this situation? >> that's a good question, chris. thanks for having me on, by the

way. it's not sustainable for very long. we are functioning. we've been preparing for this, obviously, since the beginning of the pandemic in march. we continue to move our patients around to try to meet their needs, but we're running double capacity of our icu. we have been for several months. but we continue. our staff are working hard, they're working together, they're working extra, and working short. but we have really good kpoop rati -- cooperation, and we see great things happening, though it is stressful for them. >> stressful. they're human. they have to be exhausted. i mean, when you talk about sustainability, i just don't know how they're doing it. what would you identify as your hospital's most urgent need right now? >> i think our most urgent need is staff. because we have staff that go out because of covid. they call in sick. we have star that are tired. they have the same issues at home that we all have, that everyone has as far as dealing with the virus and the problems associated with that. their children at school, not at

school. their spouse's employment and that stress. then they have the work stress. for many of the patients, the only person they talk to when they are on ventilator is -- or not even talk to, but communicate with, is a nurse. if that patient passes away or it's just very stressful because of the emotional connection the nurses have with these patients, it just makes it very difficult for them. >> yeah. there is that little bit of light at the end of the tunnel, although it's months away. mckay-dee did receive doses of the pfizer vaccine. is the arrival of the vaccine a boost for the front line workers during this dark winter? i mean, at least they can say, you know, by late spring/early summer, maybe we can finally catch a break here and take a breath. >> yes, for sure. we received our vaccine thursday morning. had our first vaccine clinic thursday afternoon. we've had two additional clinics since then. we have another one day. so the first clinic, it wasn't a party, but there was a light

atmosphere. the staff came in to get their vaccine and were happy and excited to be able to see a little bit of a relief from anticipation of what this winter may look like. so they're excited and happy to do that. >> well, meantime, the utah department of health tweeted that they are not getting the number of vaccines that they expected, and they're not alone. the head of the trump administration's vaccine distribution admits he messed up. that's why some states got significantly fewer doses than expected. how are things looking at your hospital, and how is distribution going? did you get fewer doses than planned? >> we got what we anticipated in our first allotment. so we were happy to receive those. we're worried about going forward. we have about 4,000, 5,000 caregivers we need to get vaccinated, so we hope we'll continue to get some allotments to be able to meet that need. for now, it's kind of the same as it's been from the beginning.

we adapt and adjust as things continue to evolve. we react the best we can to meet the needs for our patients and caregivers. >> you know, it was heartbreaking when i was watching the health care worker from la talking about the fact that when she sees people out without masks, it makes her feel like their work doesn't matter, like all the deaths that she has seen don't matter. so what is your message to utah residents right now? >> my message is continue to social distancing. wear your mask. wash your hands. be careful. it's not worth -- as we've seen people and families pass away, it's just not worth it. to be able to have that few minutes together or few minutes that you think i don't need a mask, we all need masks. even after vaccinations, we continue to wear masks. just continue and hold out, and it'll be a few more months and we'll be okay. we'll be able to get through this. but our hospital staff, our

caregivers need you to be able to do that because they're tired. >> that is the bottom line. do it for the hospital workers who have been just exhausted. mike clark, thank you. good luck. we want to go back to georgia for minute because there is a kamala harris event that started in columbus, we'll keep our eye on it for you. and bring you a bit of the vice president-elect when she steps up to the microphone. but ahead, 32 years later, new revelations about the 1988 bombing of pan am flight 103. the details from attorney general bill barr's news conference, next. o help you remt liberty mutual customizes your home insurance, here's one that'll really take you back. it's customized home insurance from liberty mutual! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ some things are good to know. like where to find the cheapest gas in town and which supermarket gives you the most bang for your buck. something else that's good to know? if you

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welcome back. a major development today, 32 years to the day after pan am flight 103 went down over lockerbie killing all on board. bill bar are oig wrappr announc against the alleged barack obama maker in the terrorist attack. and pete williams is covering the just continues department. tell us about the new charges and who is this guy? >> mehsud has been in custody

and the evidence is interrogation that he did eight years ago that has recently been turned over to the u.s. he is a former intelligence operative and according to court documents filed today, mehsuded a mitted that he built the bomb that was hidden in the suitcase that went off on pan am 103. >> so he also answered some questions, bill barr, and seemed to undercut the notion of seizing voting machines. what can you tell us about that? >> well, to no one's surprise, he said what he has said before about these things, that he has seen no evidence of systemic fraud in the election, no need to appoint a special prosecutor to look into the election. he said that he sees no reason to seize voting machines, something that i'm sure that he believes u.s. government couldn't did ao anyway. and secondly, no need to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate hunter biden.

he said that has already been going on for several months. and if he felt there was a need, he would do so but he hasn't. >> we mentioned that this is likely to be in our final few seconds here his last press conference, what, wednesday is his last day, pete? >> correct. >> pete williams, always good to see you. happy holidays. thank you so much. and thank you for being with us. msnbc coverage continues with morgan radford right after this short break. radford right afte short break. sure, he's the 76-year-old guy who still runs marathons, right? sadly, not anymore. wow. so sudden. um...we're not about to have the "we need life insurance" conversation again, are we? (woman) no. we're having the "we're getting coverage so we don't have to worry about it" conversation. so you're calling about the $9.95 a month plan from colonial penn? i am. we put it off long enough. we're getting that $9.95 plan today.

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good afternoon and thank you so much for joining us. i'm morgan radford. right now we're following two developing stories as the incoming biden administration braces for twin crises, they are going to inherit on day one. the first of course, this raging pandemic while the moderna vaccine is now being distributed, we are still months away at least from a vaccine being widely available to the public. right now on capitol hill, lawmakers are racing to finish a $900 billion covid relief deal. biden and democrats are already vowing that there will be more than relief in the new administration. that of course is going to be a tall order. the current bill is still struggling to getting across the finish line. there could be votes well into the night. lawmakers haven't yet seen the text of the massive bill. but here