i am going to tell you i have got to scoot now to make way for my colleague, lawrence o'donnel, because it is time for his exclusive interview with president joe biden. that starts right now. >> help is on the way, we'll move heaven and earth to get more people vaccinated, 100 million shots of our first 100 days in office. we are going to beat that goal. >> it is a race between the vaccines and the virus. >> 200 million shots. this is an american -- >> the exponential growth in vaccinations seemed to be stopping. >> there are millions of

americans who need a little bit of encouragement to get the shot. >> i don't know if i am going to get it. >> i am good and i am pretty healthy. >> you hear so many stories of side effects. i don't need it. >> we really need to do whatever we can for people who are hesitant. >> our goal by july 4th is to have 70% of adult americans of at least one shot. the only way to get our economy back and our lives back is to beat the virus. this is an "msnbc town hall: vaccinated america." [ applause ] good evening, and welcome to "vaccinating america," an msnbc town hall. i am lawrence o'donnel.

>> we are here. >> president biden says beating the coronavirus is the only way to fully reopen the economy and get our lives back. as of tonight more than 150 million people in america have received at least one shot. >> that's right, some people still have concerns about getting the vaccines themselves or for their children. >> our audience in the theater with us will be able to put their questions directly to three members of the biden health team, dr. anthony fauci, chief medical adviser, u.s. surgeon general murthy. >> we'll be joined by one of the heroes of the pandemic.

>> job one is to get life saing vaccines into the arms of many people to stopped the raging virus that had killed 580,000 people in this country as of tonight. i spoke to president biden about this earlier tonight. i work at the united states senate with senator joe biden in the 1990s when i served on the staff of new york democratic senator, daniel patrick monehan. >> mr. president, you met and succeeded your 100 days of vaccines in arms. what about the next 100 days? is vaccination still your number one priority in the next 100 days?

>> yes. we are going to have an announcement in a kouchl days, we have another 50 million to put in arms so it will be 250 million. one of the things i focused on when i got elected was i said, one, to get the american public vaccinated. we had to go out to get a lot of vaccinators and 600 million doses of it and get people back to work because you know we lost millions of jobs, i think 22 million jobs and directly related to the vaccine and not covid-19. what i am continuing to do is making sure we get people back to work and change the circumstance where we have 70% of the american public vaccinated.

my goal is by july the 4th. we can do that. we are close to 59%, we are getting very close. >> you are coming up against something we have never seen before of any vaccination program or public health program which is a partisan resistance to vaccination. this is in addition to other hesitancies that others have. there is a partisan resistance. that's among people. many of whom failed of what's a basic mental competency test. how are you going to convince them to get the vaccine? >> they're showing up of all this stuff of vaccine hesitancy, the truth the matter is more and more people are getting the vaccine. i have never believe there will be a large percentage of americans who won't get the vaccine. you said local politics hundreds of years ago. what happens?

when your neighbor gets the vaccine, your next door neighbor gets it, maybe i should get it. no matter what your position was and when you see people in the position where you can easily get the vaccine, you don't have to go out of your way, that's why you see i was doing some meetings with folks who are providing, for example and governor of maine who's saying if you want to get a free license is come to get the vaccine. people are showing up. the idea and i never believe at the end of the day there would be any large percentage of americans who would not get the vaccine. >> i have a question from my telemundo colleague, what do you say to people who are worried that their immigration status is a reason not to get the vaccine? >> well, i say they should snack

>> well, i say they should snack not worry. they should get the vaccine. >> what i have said is that is one thing for people who are in the country here to have and if they show up for a doctor's appointment. they show up to drop their child off to school or etcetera, we should lay off those people. that's why i introduced the undocumented bill. we should move about and getting that taken care of and making sure there is a pathway to earn citizenship and get underway. it should not be in a position where if they are trying to save their lives or health and needed to be done to make it safe for them as well. they should not be penalized for that. >> you just had a meeting with the big four, and it had that

external signal, it went into overtime. it went much longer than people outside the room expected. mitch mcconnell says it was a productive meeting. they seem to be drawing a red line on any new taxes or taxes to pay for infrastructure bill. >> well, look, there was a red line saying they would not do anything or anything. >> mitch mcconnell said last week he had 100% of republican senators lined up against your infrastructure bill. >> i understand that. i think we can get a deal. there are ways we can pay for this without just putting the entire burden on working class and middle class people. there is a situation where there is an estimation some where

between 700 billion and, $300 million. these are serious, serious experts and liberal conservatives and etc. let's say some where in between, that's a trillion dollars. i am confident they will go for that. i am confident something that's not in the $2 trillion tax cut for which nothing was paid for and end up being increasing the debt. there is a thing called step-up basis. i didn't know what it was, i never had any money so i didn't know what it was. for example, if you have a capital gain or you are a wealthy person and cash-in, you bought a million dollars in stock and now it is worth 105 million thousand and you are going to cash it in.

your son and daughter would not pay any capital gains. eliminate debt. debt raises billions of dollars so there is ways to do this. >> mitch mcconnell says he's not going to reopen anything that was in the trump's tax cut. >> neither of those -- >> is that where you are exploring, do you have an exploration of possible revenue? >> i want to make it clear, i want to get a bipartisan bill on as much as we can get a bipartisan deal on. that means roads and broad band and infrastructure. women are not able to go back to work because all the daycare centers are closed. they're out of business.

they can't go back to work. i am not going to give back a whole range of thing that goes to the question of productivity and increasing revenues and jobs. we'll fight those out. i am not going to give up on it. what can we agree on and fight over what's left and let's see if i can get it done without republicans if need be. >> you are trying to make a deal today in a room with kevin mccarthy where what he was doing before he came up here was expelling liz cheney from his leadership group for saying things like the election is over. and kevin mccarthy was the same person who supported liz cheney weeks ago, how can you accept whatever some one like kevin mccarthy said today is something that's going to legislate today

or months from now. >> today as he made that deal? we are nowhere near it, we agreed that and we should try to get a bipartisan agreement. liz cheney and mccarthy thing is above my pay grade. i have have trouble figuring out my own party all the time and led alone republicans. >> are you shocked at this point one member on the republican side of the house who was willing to stand up last night and say things like the election is over and if you don't believe in the outcomes of our courts, you are an anti-constitutionallist. that's what her fight is. >> i think i heard mccarthy said today biden is the elected president. >> he did. >> this is the experience i had

working with you in the senate. i have to let the audience in on this. we have known each other for 25 years. when we were working together? the senate, you take the most positive thing in your direction and try to work on it tomorrow and you try to ignore anything that's not apart of tomorrow. >> yes, joe, i am not sure you are irish and you don't hold a grudge. that's right, i don't. it is too important to the american people. i don't want to sound -- i am going to say what i believe. it is too important for the american people for me not to reach out and get things done with people i agree and disagree with. i ended up making a deal with jesse helms on funding the united nations. i worked on it and worked on it and he finally came around. but if i said because jesse helms done all these things and

i am never going to deal with him. it is not the way. i believe in redemption for myself as well. >> look, lawrence, i have -- i once had a doctor who has worked on me because i had an -- the american people are optimistic and never give up. i have faith and we got to keep pushing it. >> let me ask you about the second most powerful joe in washington, joe manchin, who's a visitor to this white house. he's not there with the democrats. he's on everything that's proposed but he's not there on

100% on your infrastructure bill. he's trying to work with republicans to bring republicans into something of a compromise. what about s1, it is so important that the minority and majority leaders went to the rule of committee to talk about that bill. that bill looks like it will be zero republican votes in the senate for that bill. that does not fit any reconciliation rule. that bill can't get through without 60 votes or an adjustment which joe biden would manchin would have to agree to. >> i don't know, i have not had a discussion with joe. i have been meeting with a lot of republicans and bipartisan

groups that's been coming to see me on everything from my overall bills and the family bill i had and the caregiver bill and as well as the infrastructure bill. other series folks asked me the same kind of question when we tried to do the american rescue plan. how can you possibly get it passed? well, you can pass by one vote. people are saying i am not going to do it. look, i have -- it is going to sound naive. i have faith in the american people. the american people overwhelmingly support what i am doing. the polling numbers are overwhelming and democrats and republicans and independence. we got 78% of american people if i am not mistaken of the last

major poll done showing they support what i am talking about of this gigantic effort trying to build back and build back better. you had an enormous number of american people supporting the last bill to pass and look at what's happening? 1.5 million new jobs. you had all that money in there for covid and now 250 million people who gotten shots. death rates is the lowest it has ever been, it is down to 80%. hospitalizations are down. so i just think what i have to do and just keep moving forward. just keep moving forward. the more we move, the more i demonstrate what we have done is working what is right and the more likelihood i will have. look, for example, you know we used to be back in the old days

when i first got to the senate, we used to invest in research and development of the things of the future. we invested more money than any high percentage of gdp and any nation in the world. china was number nine or something. we are now number eight and china is nine. what do you think is going to happen if we standstill for god's sake? what's going to happen if corporate americans don't invest in research and development, instead of buying back their own stocks? this is a matter and a bit of my grandfather may say, it is a bit of epiphany that's going on here where people began to look and say whoa. i met with either all on the telephone or skype. i think now with 40 something

leaders. they want to know. are americans back? the game? are we engaged? i just think and i know this sounds -- it is never, ever a good bed of america. has it ever occurred. it is never good betting against the american people. >> one more question for you and that's your 113 days into the presidency, this is the top of the mountain, you were climbing this mountain for many, many years, you are the most prepared in history with 36 years in the nate and eight years as vice president. the one thing you don't have on this 113th day is our son, beau.

>> he would say home base, home base, be who you are. the one thing that i hope that he would say is "dad, you are home base, you are sticking to it." i have not done this, this long to do things i don't believe. >> mr. president, thank you very much for your time today. >> god love him. he should be sitting in this chair. anyway, thank you, thank you. >> thank you very much mr. president. >> today joe biden took office only 22 million doses of the vaccines have been administered. tonight that number is more than

263 million doses. 58% of adults have received at least one dose. president biden set a goal of 70% by 4th of july. we are joined by members of the coronavirus team who are working to get us there. the chief medical adviser, dr. anthony fauci. dr. murthy and javier bacera. >> secretary bacera, let me start with a follow-up of vanessa's question to the president about immigration sta status and the vaccines in their country. >> lawrence, the president has said it. everyone should get vaccinated. everyone means anyone, anyone in

this country whether you are a citizen or not, you are sell eligible to get the vaccine. >> let's take a look at the audience here, can we get a show of hands who has concerns or knows someone or a family member who has concerns or doubts or hesitanies about the vaccine. okay, just about everybody in the room tonight has that. our panel is ready to deal with any questions about that vaccine. let's get started. let's get a question from the audience. we got someone approaching the microphone right here. please tell us your name and your question. >> many i name is nathaniel. my question is can you guarantee the safety and the long-term health of people who take the vaccine? >> dr. fauci?

>> you know when you have an intervention there is never a 100% guarantee but i can tell you the overwhelming evidence of data that we have now indicates that the vaccine as we all know are highly effective and really, very safe. the chance of having a serious adverse event is small so although there is no guarantee, there is a lot of confidence that it is safe. >> all right, another on this side. >> my name is carlos, in january i contracted covid and a week later i got the antibody therapy and four days after that i tested negative. is there any advantage to someone who's already gone through covid and getting the vaccination and second, are there preexisting conditions

that can have an adverse effect as a result of getting any of the vaccinations? >> dr. murthy? >> carlos, thank you for your question. i am sorry to hear that you had covid and i am glad you made it through and it sounds like you are doing much better now. you are a asking a great question. it turns out even if you had covid, it is still important that you get vaccinated and the reason is because your body will build up an immune response from having covid but what we have learned is that the immune response, the protection that you get from the vaccine is actually stronger and more robust than when you get from being naturally infected. that's why we are recommending the people getting vaccinated even if they are sick before. to your question of other conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure. could that in any way lead to more side effects with the vaccine? in fact, i would say it is the

opposite. people who have other medical conditions are at a greater risk of having bad outcomes with covid of hospitalized or potentially dying from covid. it is important that they get vaccinated and the fact that so many have is why we are seeing the number of cases and hospitalizations and deaths dropped in our country. >> many want to know also how long would that immunity last? >> well, we don't know but we know it is at least several months. likely considerably longer than that. that's the reason why we are following large number of people to see the level of protection, if it will stay like this and start to come down over a period of time which may be the reason why it is not surprising if we need a booster at some time in the future. >> that's the question i have been getting from parents of small children towards the age of 12. will they get the same dose that

an adult, 200 bounds or 6-foot adult would get? >> the 12 to 15-years-old will. when you get from 12 down, we do a dose, deescalation and an age deescalation. we go from 12 years to 9 and 9 to 6 and 6 to 2. as you get down to the lower ages, the dose will be diminished. >> thank you, dr. fauci. we have another question over there. >> my name is corrina and i have three children, we would like to get them vaccinated but we prefer if it is fda approval. do you know the timeline since it was authorized later than for adults, will fda approval happening for adults or later for children?

who would like to respond? >> the 12 to 15, we are there. the recommendation of the acp that was just recently begun that children at that age can get vaccinated. the approval for the younger will depend on the clinical trials we are doing right now. as soon as the trials have finished, what the company will do is submit to the fda to try to extend the approval the same way that we just did with the 12 to 15 years old. >> for your children who are 12 or older, you don't have to wait now. you can get those children vaccinated. >> corrina, as a parent, i relate to you, i got two kids, they're not as old as your kids, i have to wait for a vaccine to be available to them. i can understand you are considering the full approval.

here is one thing i would encourage parents who go kids 12 and up to get vaccinated now especially now the fda and the cdc have waited and said this is something that kids could get. we now have really good data that's telling us that these vaccines work in kids to protect them and the rate of adverse effect is extraordinary low. the most common side effect children were experiencing were temporary muscle aches and fevers that lasted a couple of days and it went away. what they are left with is protection. we hear a lot of the risk of covid in kids is in terms of bad outcome is low and that's true. kids do much better than old folks do. if overall we look at our experience, we had a lot of kids who gotten sick, we had 13,000 kids who have been hospitalized in the age of 12 to 17 and 127 who have died.

it is not a benign thing. it is not harmless in children either. when we compare the risks and benefits. the risks are low. benefits are really high. this vaccine turns out it is a way that our kids came back to seeing their grandparents and celebrating birthdays with friends and having sleepovers and dinners and ultimately getting their way back to normal life. >> can you explain emergency use of approval of the vaccine and the final use of approvals because i have been hearing hesitancy based on the distinction on that. >> there is a distinction but it is very nuance. that's the emergency use authorization looks both at the efficacy and the safety and the safety is a pretty good gauge because you will not get an emergency authorization until you wait 60 days following where

the time half of the people of the trial gotten their last dose. we know from experience that the overwhelming majority of the long-term effects are within 15 to 45 days following the dose. if you wait 60 days on the emergency use authorization alone, you are in really good shape with safety. the bla or the biological license application or full approval usually waits several more months just to make sure, extra sure with regards to the safety. we feel comfortable with the safety of those vaccines that received emergency use of authorization. it is a matter of waiting a few months to narrow it down. we should not hesitate. i know people are saying just that, why don't i wait until it

is fully approved. the safety and efficacy now is very firm. which is the reason why all of us strongly recommend that if you are in the age group that could be vaccinated, you could get vaccinated. it is safe and highly effective. >> some of our audience have been attending this virtually tonight. we'll take questions from one of those virtual members attending. dr. rodriguez in florida, go ahead. >> hi, i am dr. rodriguez. i have seen an increase number in covid-positive of teenagers requiring icu admission. one of the only spanish-speaking physician in my group, what are we doing to improve vaccine

process for non-primary english speakers and many who are already struggling to navigate the complex system? >> i can try to tackle that one. dr. rodriguez. one o f the first thing i would say is can you give us your phone number and contact so we can work with you to make sure we can reach out to that population. president biden has instructed all of us to make sure we go to work for you. the people need to be vaccinated and not wait for you to come to us. we know that at this stage some of those folks are just having a hard time getting to us. they may work long hours or have responsibilities at work and home that make it difficult. they may not speak english very well, all of those things we'll not wait. i am going to go to a small site in central valley, california,

we'll reach out to them because we know many of them would love to get vaccinated, they just have not had the opportunity to go to the site. before this town hall is over, we need to make sure to get your number so hope you can have us and those people trust you. >> one and five essential workers are afraid of getting the vaccine because they are concerned of side effects and missing work, what would you say to them? >> president biden already asked a lot of these employers to give their workers a day off so they can go get vaccinated. if they can't take the day off and as i said we'll go to them. we want to know where you are. tell us, we are now setting up mobile clinics to do

vaccinations. what is called pop-up vaccination site. on a given day, we got a pass pastorsaying, we can do we'll go to where you are. we know at this stage is up for us to in knowing more of herd immunity and the idea that the vaccine not only protects me but also others. could you tell me how the portion of the population that is choosing not to be vaccinating harming others? >> dr. fauci. >> the people who are choosing

not to get vaccinated, would you describe them to be a harm to other people? >> no, we don't ever want to accuse people or make them feel guilty. we want to embrace them and try and convince them, try to find out what the reason for that is and reach out to them, even if it takes a trusted messenger, maybe not me or someone they trust in the community. a clergy person or their family physician, to get to ask them why you don't want to get vaccinated rather than making them feel guilty because you will never win them over. our tactic is trying to reach out and give good rational reasons why it is necessary for your own protection and of your family and really as your societal responsibility to keep

the entire community safe. >> thank you very much, dr. fauci. we have many more questions to get to. we want you to know people that are 12 years old are eligible for a vaccine. if you need more information about where to get your vaccine, you can find the information you need by scanning the qr code on your screen or going to planyourvaccine.com. e.com. dance on stage. spin class! i can't wait for my patients to see my smile again. to hug my students. to give my parents a proper send off. to go salsa dancing. no. i can't wait for you to meet my mom. play my piano for my friends. to give high fives to our patients. i think we are one step closer to being...better people. with every vaccine, cvs is working to bring you one step closer to a better tomorrow. i don't like veggies...

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[ applause ] . welcome back to "vaccinating america," dr. fauci and dr. murthy and our secretary becerra

are answering questions about vaccination. we have many questions, dr. fauci would like to take questions about herd immunity because many people are concerned that we'll never get there in the united states. >> herd immunity, the concept of herd immunity is when you get enough people who are vaccinated plus who have been infected recovered and have immunity. when you add them together, if you get enough people to have a blanket of protection over the community that's called herd immunity. the herd immunity threshold is what that number is, what that percentage is. we don't know yet what that is for covid-19. we know what it is for measles because we have deades experience with measles. we don't know the exact number is. so when we don't know the number, the thing we do is say

get as many vaccinated as quickly as we can and whatever that number is, sooner or later you are going to reach it. that's the reason why we say gist go and get vaccinated and don't worry about this number that we are not sure what it is yet. that's the answer to your question. >> thank you, we have another question here. good evening everyone, hi dr. fauci, i am a big fan. what research is available of the side effects of the vaccines on pregnant women and their unborn chern? >> children. >> what's your name? >> my name is misreen. >> thank you for that question. my kids was small and it was not long ago my wife was pregnant. i remember at the time i was preoccupied of her health and our child. i think it is good to ask questions because we want

pregnant women to be safe and their kids. the good news that we have with the vaccine is that at this point, we have a large number of people in america who are pregnant and received the vaccine and continued to have a strong profile. the cdc have been tracking this data and they release periodic report of what they are finding. people receiving the vaccine in their third trimester, the mom and the baby is doing well. the first wave of people who got the vaccines were healthcare workers and nurses and other health officials and many of them were pregnant and they chose to receive it because they knew one final thing is the risk of getting covid, if you are pregnant is serious because then people who are pregnant, women have worse outcomes and the baby actually have adverse outcome when covid hits.

that's why we want to protect women at all costs that the benefits are high and the risk are low for women who are pregnant. >> hi, i am bailey. what would you say to someone who's on defense of getting the vaccine despite of so many being vaccinated and we have to wear a mask and social distance. >> that brings the question once you do have the vaccine and two weeks from your second shot, where and why should you still be wearing a mask and how long? >> the cdc has come out guidance and we'll continue in realtime to update those guidance, not only related to the number of getting vaccinated but what the level of infection in the community is. i am vaccinated but if i am in an area of a lot of infection, i

still could get infected. it is unlikely that i am going to get seriously ill but i still can get infected. if i do, i can inadvertedly spread it to someone else. that's one of the reasons why. as the level of community infection gets lower and lower, that likelihood comes less and less. that's what the cdc means when they say as we get lower and lower, we'll pull back on the restrictions. right now you don't need to wear a mask if you are together in a family or friends with other vaccinated people. when you go outside, almost any circumstances you don't need to wear a mask except if you are in a crowded place. we need to get vaccinated and the more people that get vaccinated, the closer we'll get to a pulling back on all of those restrictions because we all want to be in a situation

where we don't have to wear a mask at all. indoor and outdoor and we'll get there if we get enough people vaccinated. >> the best news that you just said and clarity is when you are outside, if you are vaccinated, you don't need a mask at all outside. does that have anything to do with my proximity to another person outside who may not be v vaccinated? >> no. >> so even in close proximity to unvaccinated people does not need a mask. >> the only time you need a mask if you are vaccinated if you are going to a concentrated area with people literally who are walking all over each other. >> we have another question from the audience. >> my name is matthew. my question is having the vaccine is safe and who to trust? >> that goes back to the vaccine

process and how you develop it. dr. murthy, this is a basic question and not everyone can read the articles in the new york times and certainly not scientific journal. what do you tell them about that? >> you should know what you are taking and what's in your body is safe and effective. the good news is we got a lot of information about the safety of this vaccine. the technology and foundation of these vaccines are not new. i know there are some headlines that say these are brand new technologies that we have been experimenting with. we have been spending decades building this technology. we understand the technology. the trial that is were done before the vaccines was made available to the public, they involve tens of thousands of people who were followed for months and what we found in those trials is they were really affected in preventing preventions and they came at a

low side effect rates. we have real world data, we have more than 150 million people who received at least one shots of shotof the vaccine. we found again that the vaccine are remarkically safe at reducing deaths and infections. so what we have in total is a vaccine that has high benefits and very low side effects which is why so many doctors and more than 90% of doctors either took the vaccine in themselves or planning to get it and why so many of us are recommending it. >> matthew, does it give you confidence that dr. fauci who had been working in this area his entire life was one of the first people to take the vaccine, the moderna vaccine? >> in a way it does. i just feel hesitancies.

>> lawrence, can i try one? >> remember when covid started hitting, all the news coming out of deaths, most of the folks who were dying are older folks and grandparents. if you have been watching the news, you are not watching news of folks who are passing away are so much older americans. today with the vast majority of seniors in america are vaccinated, they're able to do things and a lot of people are able to hug our mothers or grandmothers on mother's day because they have been vaccinated. if you are not convinced by the experts then the fact that today your grandmother and mother may be alive who got vaccinated is a clear sign that not only it is safe but it is something we should do for our family. we got to keep everyone safe and keep them alive. >> at the end o f the hour, you will hear from dr. corbit who is the woman that invented the vaccine that dr. fauci took and

i took. you will want to listen to her. she's the one who may be able to convince you. >> okay. >> families and friends are divided about this. some people have decided to stop talking about it. what do we do when we have loved one or or a family member that's in that place? >> we have to, vanessa, do what we have to do with family and be kind, give understanding and give people time. we are all trying to make the right decision for ourselves and a way forward here and we have different questions and some people might take longer to get to the answers but what doesn't work is when we judge people and make them feel bad about the positions and we have to keep an open dialogue there. what people say again and again in surveys is that they -- about half of the people want to talk to a family member to help make

that decision to vaccinated 0 not. but you can be a really powerful force in helping the family make that decision as long as you're there for them when they have questions that need answering and make an appointment and don't underestimate that piece either. people are sort of okay with getting the vaccine but don't know how to make an appointment and now it is easier than ever. go to vaccines.gov and put in the zip code and get locations and text get vax or the zip code and get three places immediately that are close to you to get vaccinated. these are the tools to give the family. support them. give them information. lead by example. that's how we protect the families. >> i want to thank the expert guests for joining us tonight. this is the a-team fighting the coronavirus for you. [ applause ] they're doing this for you. dr. fauci. dr. murthy.

secretary becra. we'll be right back with the creator of the moderna vaccine, she is next. thank you very much. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ hey google, turn up the heat. ♪ ♪ ♪

♪♪ ♪ i want to see you stand up ♪ ♪ i want to feel you be proud ♪ ♪ i want to hear your beating heart ♪

♪ live out loud ♪ ♪ you can do it on your own ♪ ♪ stand up now ♪ ♪ be proud, yeah ♪ ♪ stand up now ♪ ♪ live out loud, oh ♪♪

- oh. - what's going on? - oh, darn! - let me help. lift and push and push! there... it's up there. hey joshie... wrinkles send the wrong message. help prevent them before they start with downy wrinkleguard. i hope the vaccine can get me one step closer to my fiancé. dance on stage. spin class! i can't wait for my patients to see my smile again. to hug my students. to give my parents a proper send off. to go salsa dancing. no. i can't wait for you to meet my mom. play my piano for my friends. to give high fives to our patients. i think we are one step closer to being...better people. with every vaccine, cvs is working to bring you one step closer to a better tomorrow.

[ applause ] welcome back to "vaccinating america," a msnbc town hall. if like me you got the moderna vaccine, you have our next guest to thank. dr. kizzmekia corbett and her team at the national institutes of health spent years working on vaccine for coronaviruses before

covid-19 hit. so kizzy corbett was right when if sequencing of covid-19 was revealed on a friday in january of last year. >> when we got the sequences because we knew how to make that protein as a very good vaccine we did that quickly over the weekend. >> over the weekend. >> over the weekend. you know something about working on weekends, right? >> not like that. >> joining us is dr. corbett, the scientific lead for the coronavirus team at the national institutes of health and want to let the audience know as we approach the 11:00 hour that the 11th hour with brian williams will be coming up shortly and going to trespass on the time a bit. dr. corbett, the very strangest thing in what i heard you just say was over the weekend. over the weekend. i can't think of a single

important thing i did over a weekend except maybe study for exams in high school and college. the sequencing of the vaccine gets determined in january. you go to work sequence of the virus gets determined on a friday and you start working through the weekend and then you have an idea what will work as a vaccine? >> absolutely. you know why that is? >> no, i don't! no one knows why that is. >> it's because we went into that weekend very prepared. we'd worked on coronavirus vaccines for the previous six years. and we knew exactly what to do. and we were actually waiting patiently for the sequences because we were so ready to start to make a vaccine in case that the virus did become a pandemic. >> you knew this kind of pandemic was both likely and surely on the way at some point but you don't know when, like an

earthquake. >> coronaviruses have been giving us a hint over and over in history before. there was sars and then mers and so we kind of knew that coronaviruses as a viral family has pandemic potential. and so, we prepared for it. >> dr. corbett, this is a concern that many people has raised. they think the vaccine was developed very fast. could you explaining does this type of process of development going on for decades. >> for decades. both on what we were doing at the national institutes of health which was basically understanding coronaviruses so that we can make a really good vaccine for it and also the technologies that these vaccines are using. they have been in development for years and so when you bring those two things together you become confident as a scientist that you know what you are doing and the steps the vaccine development process embedded in the steps are check points where we as scientists and the fda

say, can you go forward? is there vaccine safe? and does it elicit or make the type of immune response you would think? >> doctor, you heard matthew earlier in the hour. dr. fauci who's been working his whole life on this taking the vaccine, your vaccine, in public gave him confidence but didn't get him over the line to eliminate his hesitancy. do you have anything to say that might help matthew get all the way to the vaccine? >> where is matthew? >> where is matthew? >> hi, matthew. you know, i get it. i completely understand. from where i sit i think i've realized that through this moment i sit in a place of privilege where i have information on a day-to-day basis about these vaccines that the general person does not but the one thing that reassures me constantly is seeing over time more and more people getting the vaccines, the data are so clear

and crisp