been plagued by so many bottlenecks. a lot of vaccines getting out there but not getting distributed. the states and local authorities are having all kinds of problems. they're saying they need more resources from washington to get the job done. it's unclear whether that's going to happen. the new administration is saying they're going to do a better job of it. here's president-elect joe biden talking about that last night. >> i'm more optimistic about america's chances than i've ever been, and i've been around this for a while. we have the most productive workers in the world, we've now found vaccines that are available and are going to work. we have to get a better way of getting more out there quicker. >> reporter: the good news is that there seems to be a lot of demand for the vaccine. places like florida, we've seen long lines of seniors over 65 who are the second category of people allowed to get vaccines there, waiting in line up to eight hours to get the vaccine. the problem of course is that

they couldn't get it soon enough or quick enough out there. it remains to be seen how that's going to be solved, that problem is going to be solved in the coming weeks. again, it's a question of resources, getting to states and localities. this is the problem we've seen throughout the pandemic where the states saying they need more help from washington. washington saying this is the state's function to carry out. also a lot of concern about this new strain that's been detected now in a third state after colorado, california and now florida. health officials are saying that it's more contagious, it spreads more easily, but it's not necessarily more deadly and it's not going to make people sicker. the big concern is after this long holiday period when so many people have defied the warnings and the pleas not to travel and not to gather with friends and relatives, that the coming months are going to be very, very challenging, very, very difficult before a lot of vaccine can get out to millions of americans over the next weeks and months. >> we will ask the doctor about

that new strain in just a minute. now i want to bring in steve patterson in los angeles. hospitals there are under siege as southern california deals with another major surge. steve, i just feel like it's going from bad to even worse. >> it is, lindsay. the crisis here has gotten to a point where the health care system is at a breaking point. virtually every hospital in the region, in southern california, is diverting patients away in most cases. in some cases hospitals are seeing ambulances stacked back-to-back as many as ten deep with patients waiting seven or eight hours to see any form of treatment. when they do get in, health care workers have to get creative about the space that they're treating these patients because there simply isn't any available space left in a lot of cases, which means patients could be treated in an e.r. hallway, in a conference room, in a gift shop, in a chapel, in the ambulance itself because there simply, again, isn't any room left.

meanwhile frontline health care workers are dealing with ratios that are not sustainable. morgues, mortuaries and private funeral homes are turning away bereaved families because the bodies are piling up so fast. because of this, a lot of these health care workers are pleading with the public. many of them have sent out these powerful cell phone videos just to describe what their job is like right now. we have one of those. i want you to listen to this nurse. take a listen. >> things are pretty bad. things are really bad. we're overwhelmed, we're stressed, we're stretched so thin. it's pretty unimaginable. a lot of us have never dealt with anything like this. >> reporter: meanwhile three more cases of that strain that ron was talking about were again discovered in san diego county. health officials there say none of the people so far have known each other or have any prior

travel history, which leads them to believe that this strain is now widespread in southern california. >> there is no help on the way for those workers who are already so burned out. doctor, let's bring you in on this. we know there's a lag from that holiday travel that we saw, millions of people packing airports over the holidays, to when we'll see increases in hospitalizations from those post-holiday surges. in a place like california where you already don't have beds, your treating people in gift shops and chapels, what does that mean? what is the reality of, for example, somebody, god forbid, has a heart attack? >> yeah, so we actually saw this happen and play out in new york and the northeast back in the spring. it is unconscionable that we're having to deal with it again in the same kind of crisis mode. it's like we have some sort of national dementia here because what we did in the spring was we had the army corps of

engineers -- hello? >> we can hear you. >> so anyway, i'm just saying we have the army corps of engineers come in last spring and build facilities and put hospital-type facilities in tents outside of the hospitals, we had very formal development of facilities within conference rooms -- the conference centers and so on. so we know what we have to do. it's just amazing to me that we have not deployed those methods in california and other places. it's not -- it's not a surprise what's happening now in terms of the very dangerous overcrowding of our facilities. and what you said was exactly correct. somebody has got a heart attack, who's had a stroke, they're getting crowded out of the hospitals that are overwhelmed with covid patients. so we have a tremendous amount of work to do. by the way, this new strain,

which we've seen a handful of cases in california, in colorado and now in florida, this is the tiniest possible tip of the iceberg. there is no doubt at all that this strain of virus has been -- has spread itself all over the united states. i think we're just sort of waiting now to see the consequences, which will be exacerbated because people tending to forget the rules during the holiday periods, whether it's thanksgiving, christmas and now new year's. we're going to see horrendous impact, i think, this month in january and well into next month as well, unfortunately. >> doctor, with this new strain we hear people say it's more highly transmissable, that's scary. but it's not going to necessarily make you more ill or more prone to a horrible outcome, for example, like death. what do you think the public needs to know most about this new strain that's now here in the u.s.? >> right. so the deal with the new strain

is this. it's much more transmissable. they say 70% more transmissable. that means that the number of people that a documented patient with covid can infect has increased. so let's say every person with covid that's documented was able to transmit it to 1.5 people or 2 people. what this new strain does is it expands the number of people that any individual person can infect. we don't think there's any consequence now, for example, for the effectiveness of the vaccine. and there's probably not a big increase in severity. but i don't think i'd hold my breath on that. i think we need to wait and see what these next few weeks bring. in the meantime it's just spreading faster with no clinical consequences that we know at the moment and i emphasize at the moment, lindsay. >> i want to talk to you about that big shift in vaccine strategy in the uk because

there's been some talk of potentially doing it here. of course it hasn't been implemented an hasn't been serious talk, but there in the uk they're delaying the second dose of the pfizer vaccine to make sure as many people as possible can get the vaccine in the first round because that strain is so rampant there. knowing that this rollout for the vaccine has been slower, that we have missed that projection of 20 million vaccinations by the end of the year greatly, should we consider doing something like that here? and we should mention that pfizer disagrees with the move. >> yeah, you know, this is really a challenge because the pfizer vaccine and moderna vaccines, the two available right now, have only been tested with a two-dose regimen. in other words, you get it once and then you get it a second time three or four weeks later. that is something that's been -- that's what actually drove the fda to give it emergency use authorization.

two doses. so contemplating the idea of a single dose being sufficient, at least for the moment, that has to go back to the fda. so the fda considers whether they have enough information to suggest that a single dose is okay. i don't think policy makers need to be deciding that or should be deciding that because we don't know if a single dose will have the same effectiveness of developing an immune response or how long if they do develop it, it will actually last. this is not a political decision, this needs to go back to the fda for analysis to see whether this is a good idea or not. right now i'd say the united states is not going to seriously contemplate a single dose of any of the vaccines any time soon. >> doctor, before we let you go, what is your outlook for 2021? >> it's a complicated question, lindsay, and i'm not going to dodge the answer but i think we're going to have a very rough remainder of the winter and into

the spring, very, very difficult. whether or not we have enough vaccine available, whether it's being distributed properly, and whether people will understand the message that is critical to take this vaccine, these are all unknowns. if we did everything correctly, in other words, we did get everybody or the vast majority of americans, i'm talking about 90% taking the vaccine or having had the disease, i think we'll have a good shot of really bringing this under control. but really not until late summer into the fall as far as i'm concerned. but there are many, many variables. we'll just have to keep a close eye on what evolves here right now. but i'm kind of quasi-hopeful but certainly no degree of certainty that we're going to wrestle this to the ground before late summer. >> dr. irwin redlener, your voice has been so critical in the last year. thank you for starting the new year with us, we appreciate it. still ahead, it's a huge act of defiance against the

president and congress is getting close to it. a congressional override of trump's veto. the latest from capitol hill, next. first, a look at how people around the world have celebrated the end of 2020. >> a giant crowd, no masks. life basically back to normal as they ring in the new year in the small island nation where covid cases have been virtually eliminated. >> i want this year to be more, more, more happier than last year. >> in australia, fireworks soared above a mostly empty sydney harbor, while in the chinese city wuhan, where covid-19 originated, thousands packed the city center to celebrate. statues and monuments in london barricaded off, berlin banning fireworks. rome and st. peter's square empty. inside the basilica, a socially distanced mass took place

without the pope. across the continent, abandoned streets and uncanny quiet as the world says farewell to a year few will miss but no one will forget. w will miss but no one w forget ♪

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this afternoon the senate will get one step closer to overriding the president's veto of the national defense authorization act, which the house already voted to override on monday. if lawmakers take this step, it would mark the first congressional override during president trump's four years in office. but they don't have much time. the senate must act before noon on sunday when a new congress is sworn in. joining me now, sahil kapur and beth fouhi. good morning to you, happy new year. sahil, what do you expect from this vote today? >> today's vote is essentially a procedural vote to move to a final vote tomorrow. it's expected to happen at 1:00

p.m. it's widely expected to sail through the senate as it did the house. it would be the first veto of donald trump's presidency and a potential streak he had that could have made him the first president since lbj not to have a veto overturned. if this passes as it is expected to it would authorize about $741 billion worth of pentagon activities and it would force the pentagon to rename military bases and assets named to honor confederate soldiers. that was language led by elizabeth warren that has been included in this. >> turning now to the latest over this january 6 vote, senator hawley is facing some heat over his decision to challenge the election results. how is this playing out behind the scenes? is it largely viewed that he's doing this for potentially aspirations of higher office, though he's denied that? >> the reaction has been mixed to say the least among republicans to senator josh

hawley. the house conservatives who had planned on going along with this are obviously happy. president trump has been praising the senator from missouri. but a number of his republican colleagues are very upset with him, angry even with him, most notably ben sasse the senator from nebraska who wrote a lengthy facebook post accusing him and others like him of essentially being opportunists who are trying to tap into the president's base politically. sasse made the accurate point there's no legitimate evidence that could overturn the election and that joe biden's win was clear, even though there are always some isolated instances of irregularity. nothing on the level that could undo the election. sasse called this attempt playing with fire and described it as a loaded gun pointed at the heart of legitimate government that would have implications for the long haul of american democracy. >> beth, we're seeing some division within the republican party. what kind of position does this put republicans in next wednesday, especially vulnerable republican senators? >> well, as we know from a lot

of polling, most republican voters in this country do believe that the election was fraudulent, rigged, all the language that president trump has used because he's been making that baseless allegation now for weeks and it's been amplified by conservative media. so what is going to happen is republican members of the house and senate are going to have to decide, are we going to stick with trump who's still extremely popular with the republican base or stick up for the constitution, which they have sworn to uphold. by the way, republicans typically proclaim the righte s righteousness of states. that states determine who won the election in their state. so these republicans will have to override that, override the belief that states should make the decision on who the next president is going to be and throw their loyalty to trump. it's a very difficult and, frankly, untenable position. sahil mentioned what ben sasse is saying and it's true.

these folks are going to have to say that they're loyal to trump if that's what they decide to do, who's the lame duck president who's going to be gone in a matter of weeks. it's a short-term gain for them perhaps because of the popularity of that president and because many of them are worried about getting primaried from the right if they don't take that position. but on the other hand, do they really want to contradict the constitution? do they really want to say the will of the people should not be honored and we should stick our nose into this situation and try to overturn it based on no evidence whatsoever. so, yes, it's a very bad position for both them, senator hawley who is probably going to run for president thinks it's a great way to rally the populist republicans behind him. again, a short-term win for a long-term potentially very damaging position. >> beth, there's some infighting over those larger stimulus checks. we have the president who wants to send out $2,000 checks to americans. some americans started getting their $600 checks this week. but then we have mitch mcconnell

who says the $2,000 check is not going to come up for a vote. texas senator john cornyn says that he thinks this talk takes away from what they have accomplished. the democrats say this is just a down payment, the $600 check. how do you see this playing out not only in the transition but then in the first few days of a biden administration? >> you know, we're in a crisis in this country. we're in a coronavirus pandemic crisis, we're in an economic crisis because of that pandemic. people are hurting. people need jobs, they need money. of course most americans want the $2,000 as opposed to 600. they're very, very stressed. frankly, what else is government for in a crisis like this other than to help people ride things through. so it's a popular position. if it's taken to the floor of the senate, there's no question it will pass. politicians are realists. they know their constituents want to get more money rather than less if there's a choice

but mitch mcconnell has made a choice that's not going to happen. he's the most powerful person in the senate. he's going to let this ride through and it's not going to happen at least right now. we'll see whether joe biden has the political chops to take the case for more money for americans to the congress and get them to change their minds. we don't know whether that's going to happen. we have a few more weeks still until joe biden is president. one of the reasons he was elected is he assured americans that he gets along well with rips and that he can bring the two sides together to make progress in this country. this will be a test of that skill. >> and sahil, we're going to end on a tragic note. congressman jamie raskin announcing the death of his 25-year-old son, thomas, yesterday. what is he saying? >> just the second death in a matter days that has shaken up capitol hill. a few days ago it was congressman luke letlow, 41 years old. now 25-year-old tommy raskin, the son of maryland congressman

jamie raskin. he was known to many members of congress who have sent their condolences to the congressman and his wife who remember him as compassionate and loving. in their brief statement announcing their death, they didn't list a cause of death but they did ask everyone to abide by strict covid guidelines, lindsey. >> thank you both for your time today and happy new year. may 2021 be better to us all. up next, an alarming update of the russian hack of the u.s. government. microsoft now sharing how far the hackers got, and it's worse than first expected. we are the thrivers. women with metastatic breast cancer. our time... ...for more time... ...has come.

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developing this morning, microsoft says the far-reaching russian hack of dozens of u.s. government agencies and private companies went further into its systems than the company previously thought. microsoft says the hackers managed to view some of the source code for their software, but weren't able to make any changes to it. the company also says they found no evidence that the hackers got access to customer data and no indication that its systems were used to attack others. this is the same hack that president trump downplayed last month, deflecting blame away

from russia and suggesting chinese involvement, contradicting top officials in his own administration. joining us now is former fbi special agent and nbc news national security analyst clint watts. good morning to you. what exactly is source code? why would hackers want access to this? >> essentially that's the -- a way to think of it is the dna of a computer program. it's the actual backbone of that. that's usually a very protected secret. companies will try and keep that source code as protected as possible because that's their intellectual property but it also provides a road map for how a computer program works. if you have the source code, the actual backbone of that, and you know how the software is programmed, then it does several things. one, you could try to change that source code if you had direct access, which it does not sound like they had that here. but if you know what the code is, you could try to identify

vulnerabilities and a way to make offensive cyber weapons, in this case if you're russia, which could go after this source code and essentially penetrate those that use that software program. >> one of the words in microsoft's statement was that their source code is proprietary, it's theirs, it's part of the machinations that make microsoft work and run. is there any potential that the hackers want access to this so they can replicate it in a separate company back at home. >> yes, it very well could be. that is a traditional sort of economic espionage hack, which is you go at a company and try to take their intellectual property and duplicate it with a company in your own country, whatever country that might be. that's always been a big concern with china which has a rapidly expanding economy, growing in the tech sector. in this case it could also be russia, but it's unlikely that they would be able to build up a company in such a way just based off this one hack. >> these russian spies got in

through so many back doors through an automatic software update. your iphone says it's time to update. you do it while you're sleeping and you wake up and you have these glitches and bugs fixed. is that the same method of entry in microsoft's case? >> yeah. it's not clear to me from reading the reporting exactly how it did it. it sounds like an employee uploaded a patch that the russians gained access to or put some of their own entry code into. traditionally that's one of the big vulner abilities. if you can get into a software update uploaded into everyone's computers, it can create a back door and so they can enter any computer that uploaded that software. that's why it's important for all companies and the u.s. as a whole to protect what those uploads are and what those backups are and the source companies that actually have a wide footprint across the entire

u.s. government appeared the u.s. economy. >> it bears repeating, microsoft says it found no evidence that the hackers got access to customer data and customers should not be concerned. but we still don't know the full impact here. we don't even know if they're still in some of these systems. so what are the long-term implications of this? and does the fact that president trump has downplayed this and implicated china frankly embolden russia? >> that's exactly right. i think if we've learned anything over the last month is despite our anger over election 2016 and russian interference, despite them messing around in election 2018 and our prep in 2020, the russians have not been deterred in any way. i think that's in large part due to the political climate in the u.s., namely that the president continues to give cover for russia. anything that does happen he immediately deflects to china. he's pointed almost all of his emphasis there without really putting any evidence behind it. if you're vladimir putin and you are trying to pursue your

foreign policy around the world, you're trying to blind the united states, it justin se i incentivizes russia to keep pushing on the united states because we won't push back. this is important for the biden administration to determine what is a deterrent. what can we do in cyberspace and around the world to deter putin at this point when he's had a wide-open and free ride for four years. >> and the laundry list of priorities still remains pretty high. clint watts, thank you for spending this early new year's day morning with us, we appreciate it. a major developing story we're following overseas right now. at the stroke of midnight, the united kingdom officially completed its separation from the european union. four and a half years after a majority of uk citizens voted for brexit. let's go live to paris and nbc foreign correspondent matt bradley. so, matt, brexit we know has been a long and bumpy process. now it's finally official. what does that mean for the uk and the european union going

forward? >> reporter: happy new year, lindsey. you know, it's going to be kind of hard to tell exactly what this means for the european union and the uk as you're asking because just like everything else in the world, brexit, which was a huge deal for the last four and a half years, it's now been completely eclipsed in the news and the economy and everything by the coronavirus. just an example, last night there were only a couple of trucks that crossed from dover in britain from callais. they had already been blocked by the covid restrictions so it's unclear how this will manifest itself in the coming months. it's not going to become what the relationship is here in britain and europe until covid clears. some of this just came into place as of 11:00 p.m. british time last night is the restrictions on the free movement of people. no longer will british people be able to travel throughout the

european union as freely as they did before, and the same thing with citizens of countries like here in france, they won't travel as freely through britain. but if you remember, there was a deal that boris johnson, the prime minister, he signed with the eu that came on christmas eve right before the deadline. basically this maintains a lot of the current relationship between the uk and the eu. it means that there still will be no tariffs or taxes on trade, but there's going to be a lot more bureaucracy. for anybody who's doing deals between the european union and the uk, that's one of the main things that british people are going to be giving up and, of course, european people. so this whole thing is a work in progress. it's impossible to tell exactly what this will look like going forward. lindsey. >> even though brexit is a done deal, there will still be some future negotiations. what are those about? >> reporter: here's the thing. every country that has a close

relationship with the european union, especially if they're not a member, they end up in constant negotiations essentially ceaseless negotiations, this is what switzerland found out, that is never resolved. the relationships are constantly changing. for the uk, they'll have to have their own negotiations. one of the things that brexit did, one of the things prime minister boris johnson was encouraging was that the uk would then be able to make deals with whatever other country they wanted to, and that's one of the benefits. but that means constant, constant negotiations with other countries. lindsey. >> i've said it before, i'll say it before, matt bradley, your live shots always make me yearn for travel in 2021. happy new year to you, my friend, thank you. georgia's senate runoff races, we're just days away from the race that will decide the balance of power in washington and have a huge impact on biden's presidency. so what are both sides doing in the final stretch? that's next. in the final stretch? that's next. ♪

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this morning we're watching for a new word from georgia senator david perdue's campaign after he began quarantining yesterday. right now he's off the trail with just four days to election day, and one of the biggest senate races in u.s. history. his campaign announced that a close contact tested positive for coronavirus and he's quarantining on recommendation from his doctor and the cdc. so far he's tested negative and no word on how long he may be quarantined, but he's already missed a campaign event with fellow republican senator and incumbent candidate kelly loeffler with other key events leading up to tuesday's big vote. president trump and president-elect joe biden are set to hold dueling campaign stops on monday. joining me now is democratic strategist joel payne, host of "here comes the payne" podcast and michael steel, former senior advisor to jeb bush. good morning, happy birthday new year to both of you. michael, i want to start with you, on how the republican

campaign strategizes, how this changes based on this quarantine. if you're senator perdue, what's your game plan right now? >> i think the important thing is that he take the steps to protect his own health and the health of those around him. he's taking public health seriously and following the science. that's the smart thing to do and the right thing to do. the key issues in this campaign are pretty clear. these are races that could hand control of the senate to democrats, control of all of washington to radical liberals and that message has been loud and clear throughout this entire campaign so i don't think this last four days being quarantined will make a big difference, assuming that he is. >> joel, for the democratic candidates, how does this impact their strategies? does this shift the focus more over to the warnock-loeffler race? >> no. talking to folks on the ground in dpae thgeorgia there, i'm se

lot of focus on the stimulus which came to a head last week but there are also some real cultural issues coming to the forefront here in georgia as well. we know there's a lot of concern about kelly loeffler and people she's campaigning with. there's a former member of the ku klux klan that she's been campaigning around the state with. if you talk to a lot of democrats in the state, they feel like more of the focus has been on rauf nephael warnock thn ossoff. i think democrats understand the odds are pretty long here given the fact this is an off cycle election. while georgia is purple, it's a red shade of purple. >> the obamas are out with new ads supporting the democratic candidates. it's michelle obama supporting reverend raphael warnock. joel, how significant could this be for the campaign knowing how close it could potentially be? >> given those odds and stakes that michael and i just talked

about, this is really all about turnout. so to juice turnout, you need to have high level, a-list surrogates out there, you know, kind of whipping up support and getting people excited. michelle obama would do that. joe biden is going to be in state. for republicans donald trump is going to be in state so you'll see some of these heavies in the next 72 to 96 hours in georgia. i think it's designed on both sides to get people excited. remember, it's a special -- rather, it's a runoff election so it's harder to get people to understand the urgency of showing up. it's not like a normal election on election day. that's why you're going to really rely on those types of people to get people excited. >> we saw john legend there breaking out the keys. michael, let's talk about president trump's impact on the race ahead of his trip there monday. you just heard joel say you want your heavy hitters out there, but he has been attacking a number of republican officials over the election results. he demandinged that georgia governor brian kemp resign because he refused to overturn joe biden's win. mike allen told cnbc that some

republicans think president trump is actually trying to sabotage the race to try and send a message about the importance of his name being on the ballot. what's your take? >> well, first, i think it's important to remember that michelle obama, the obamas' involvement in this race is something of a mixed blessing because it also reminds people of their connection with jeremiah wright and his connection with reverend warnock, which is not a positive in georgia. i think president trump knows that his legacy is on the line here. everything he has accomplished over the past four years, whether it's tax reform, reshaping america's foreign policy, drawing down troops abroad, all of that goes away in the blink of an eye if we lose these georgia senate races and democrats have unrestricted control of washington, d.c. >> michael, meantime, there's growing divisions around the $2,000 relief checks right now. republican candidates in georgia say we're going to side with the president on this. the president wants these checks and we'll support it. senator majority leader mitch

mcconnell continues to tear down the house version. he's been calling it socialism for the rich. how do you see this playing out for the republican candidates? >> i think politically the republican georgia senate candidates are in the right place on this. i think economically we need more covid-related relief. the economic impact has been horrific for families across the country. i'm not convinced a blanket $2,000 check is the right economic policy but i think politically speaking the georgia senate candidates are in the right place on this. >> joel, big picture here in georgia. are the campaigns and outside groups meeting the moment here with how big they're going in the last few days given the implications for both parties? >> sure. i mean you're going to see hundreds of millions of dollars awash those air waves in georgia. just to talk about the stimulus piece real quick, i think it's interesting what michael was talking about here. so we've had republicans who have been spending like drunken sailors for the last four years with donald trump, and it's interesting to me that now the

deficit hawk in republicans is coming back out when it comes to giving money to people every day. i think this is a preview of what a lot of folks are going to see from the republican party of the next three to four years, really talking about deficit spending when they didn't really care about it when donald trump was in the white house. they're going to care about it more when joe biden is in the white house. just a waiver out there for everybody, this is what you're going to hear the next four years from republicans. >> joel, do you want to respond to that -- i'm sorry, michael? >> we have spent a lot of money appropriately to deal with the impact of this pandemic but that is not limitless. i think you'll hear a returning to fiscal discipline from republicans and i hope democrats too. we are borrowing money from our children and grandchildren and we can't keep doing it indefinitely. >> quick before we let both of you go because it is new year's, i want your resolutions. joel first and then michael. >> my resolution is to stop doom scrolling on twitter. stop looking for bad news. also to be nicer to my friends

across the aisle, like michael. >> michael, what about you? >> well, it's always good to see my friend, and i want to wait my turn, get a vaccine and then go everywhere and see everyone. i have missed the world this year. >> i don't think that there is a wrong answer right here. gentlemen, thank you both for starting us off. happy new year to you both. up next, a fascinating look at how to update the skills of the american workforce to fill millions of vacant tech jobs and stop increasing the poverty rate. that's next. first, as we turn the page on 2020, we asked some of the familiar faces here on msnbc to reflect on the year that was and what they're most looking forward to in 2021. here's what hallie jackson had to say. >> professionally for me 2020 was a wild year, covering an impeachment, covering a covid crisis at the white house, covering a presidential election for weeks on end. but personally, i'm so grateful in 2020 to have welcomed my daughter, my healthy baby girl,

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million americans are starting the new year without a job. and 9 million have fallen into poverty throughout the pandemic. for many, the outlook is bleak and it's worse for those without college degrees. while unemployment stood at 4.2% for college graduates in november, the rate was 7.7% for those with a high school diploma. but one organization is now trying to break down those barriers while also filling crucial tech jobs. jacob ward reports from oakland, california. >> reporter: elisha grew up in oakland and knew he needed a four-year degree. . >> in this world that we live in, you have to have some type of paperwork to be able to move on, move up in life. >> reporter: he's right. a georgetown study found nearly 70% of new jobs created since 2010 require at least a four-year degree. but when cancer struck his father, he had to quit college to support his family.

>> i wasn't able to move up in the company because of the lack of my degree. >> reporter: then he heard about the year up program which offers a shot at a career to people without a diploma. >> we put it into people's heads that you are failing if you do not go to four-year college. then we priced that four-year degree out of reach for most americans. that's a definition of cruelty. >> it's a tech-based program where you take college courses and you also get taught how to be a professional. >> reporter: culminating in a paid six-month tryout at more than 250 companies, including jp morgan chase and microsoft. he has a full-time mentor he now meets with virtually and learns software, public speaking, project management. >> 90% of our graduates, within four months of graduation, are either in school full time or on

average earn ing $42,000 per year. that young person when they came to us was on average earning between 9,000, $10,000, $12,000. >> reporter: he was working in a call center when they realized they weren't going to make it. >> we had our son and didn't know what we were going to do. >> to have our son in that situation in those type of jobs really struggling from check to check. >> reporter: after year up, jp morgan chase hired them both. >> i think i cried a little bit. we really put our all into it and it paid off. >> with the current climate of the world, it seems like your education pretty much determines what your potential is. >> reporter: here's the thing. those degree requirements do not affect everyone equally. according to census data, when you slap a degree requirement on a job you are wiping out more than 80% of hispanic job seekers and more than 70% of black job

seekers. eveland just got an internship at a software company. it could change his family for generations. >> he's going to be our family pioneer and he's opening up some new paths for the younger ones coming along because we have yet more. >> i have a lot of cousins. they're smart. they're able to look up to me and see what i'm doing. >> reporter: that's cool to imagine them saying, oh, yeah, my cousin does this or my uncle does this. >> exactly. instead of just working at a job where it's not going to lead to anything. >> reporter: jake ward, nbc news, oakland, california. >> thanks, jake, for that powerful, uplifting story. thank you for watching this hour of msnbc live. i'll see you back here from 3:00 to 5:00 tomorrow afternoon. our new year's coverage continues next with kathy park. introducing voltaren arthritis pain gel. the first full prescription strength non-steroidal anti-inflammatory gel...

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good friday morning. i'm kathy park at msnbc headquarters in new york filling in for stephanie ruhle. happy new year, and welcome to 2021. we made it. we are diving in with renewed hope but also a reality check of what we face in the days ahead with this pandemic. these are the facts at this hour. as we start this new year, we just passed 20 million confirmed covid-19 cases in our country. one of those new cases includes a florida man who has been found

to have the more contagious virus strain from the united kingdom. the state reports he has no history of travel. florida is now the third state after colorado and california to identify a case of this more contagious variant. and los angeles county's health director says this mutant variant is likely already in their community considering more cases of the strain were just found in california. even worse, l.a. county just reported its deadliest day from this pandemic on thursday. erasing the record it set on wednesday. and right now, hospitals in l.a. county are facing intense pressure from waves of new patients. i want to start with our reporters on the ground. msnbc's steve patterson is in hard-hit los angeles county where a person is dying every ten minutes from this virus. and nbc's shaquille brewster is at bradley international airport in windsor locks, connecticut, where they are testing travelers after holiday gather