ashish jha is standing by, but we begin with abc's stephanie ramos.

ashish jha, thanks as always. do appreciate you. >> thank you. >>> still ahead this hour, will the incoming -- the incoming biden administration, will they boost vaccine production using a wartime production law? it's paerchltly something that's being considered. first though, congress, finally, sending a covid aid package to the president's desk. negotiations were going nowhere until they got a kick start from a bipartisan group called the problem solvers caucus. two of those problem solvers, they're going to join me next. [ engines revving ] ♪ it's amazing to see them in the wild like th-- shhh. [ engine revs ] for those who were born to ride, there's progressive. [ engine revs ] just between us, you know what's better than mopping? anything! at the end of a long day, it's the last thing i want to do. well i switched to swiffer wet jet and its awesome. it's an all-in-one so it's ready to go when i am. the cleaning solution actually breaks down dirt and grime. and the pad absorbs it deep inside. so, it prevents s

ashish jha, dean of the brown university school of health about that latest variation discovered in the uk. dr. jha, how concerning is this, and is it likely that it's already here in the united states? >> yes, good evening and thank you for having me on. one of the reasons we're discovering them in the uk because they're doing really extensive testing of their viruses in a way that we are not. so, we don't know if it's in the u.s. or not. it is concerning that we have now several variants that seem to be spreading more easily. but we do need to start looking for it more aggressively here in the united states. >> and are children more susceptible to infection from these mutations that we're seeing? >> there's a lot we're still learning about this. it does appear from preliminary data that kids may be more susceptible to being infected. doesn't necessarily mean they're going to get any sicker. one of the highlights of this disease is that kids don't usually get very sick. i think that will be true for this variant, as well. >> okay, dr. jha, thank you so much. >>> next tonight, we're on

ashish jha with us every step of the way. dr. jha, thank you. >>> and in the meantime, tonight in the uk, vaccinations are under way. how this is working, from the moment they take the vaccine out of those freezers, how much time do they have to administer the shot? and what it really says about what we'll likely see right here in the u.s. abc's james longman tonight in london taking us to a vaccination site, witnessing the careful process first-hand. >> reporter: the race is on tonight in britain. the cutting edge pfizer vaccine being rolled out. e.r. director david fontaine-boyd among the first americans to get a dose. >> i feel very lucky and i feel very -- i hope that as we get more and more people, we will start to turn the corner. >> reporter: now we're getting a glimpse of the challenge soon facing america. we got rare access to see it up close. this box may not look like much, but it's the all-important freezer where this vaccine is being stored. once it's brought out of there, it's put immediately into a regular refrigera

ashish jha, dean of the public uversity school of health. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: birdi jay, wamp: wear a ask please, featuring thee mental notes. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. the united states has once again shattered records for daily coronavirus cases and deaths, with nearly a quarter-million infections reported on wednesday alone. more than 3600 americans died of covid-19 wednesday, by far the worst one-day death toll for any nation sincehe start othe pandemic. this comes as politico reports that former trump appointee paul alexander repeatedly urged ficials athe deparent of health and human services to deliberately allow tens of millions of americans to become infected with coronavirus, promoting a widely discreded approach of herd immunity through natural infection. in one email to top health officials, alexander wrote -- "infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk so we use them to dev

ashish jha is with me now. he's dean at the brown university school of public health.e, dr. celine gounder celi . you heard anthony fauci before the break talk about the post holiday period, calling it a surge upon a surge. what is your take on that given the fact that you are advising joe biden and that could really spike at the time of his inauguration. >> we are really, really concerned. we already had a surge even before going into the thanksgiving holiday and then with all of the travel and people seeing family and friends over the thanksgiving weekend, we saw an increase in cases. hospitalizations, deaths. and now we're seeing the same kind of traveling, in fact even more traveling around the christmas and new year's holidays than we did over thanksgiving. and this is really concerning to those of us, including myself, who are still serving on the front lines, taking care of patients where we see hospital beds full, icus full, doctors and nurses exhausted and some even throwing up their hands and quitting in the face of this. so we're very concerned. >> understan

i want to bring in ashish jha. let's talk about how we get out of this with a vaccine and the timeline that's been put in place. the rollout we heard from richmo richard engel and the hopeful rollout in the u.s. here's the lead with task force members. thursday they are considering the emergency use authorization with pfizer. within days you have the hhs secretary who says you could see authorization at that point. end of december, mid january, the first round of vaccines to long-term care facilities. mid march, shots for the most high risk americans and in may or june, vaccines for the rest of us, everybody else. based on your expertise here, is this timeline realistic? is it too ambitious? is it maybe too conservative? >> good morning. thank you for having me on. i think that timeline is pretty realistic. and, again, depending a little bit on how well things go operationally, how good a job we do in communicating with people, i think we could even do a little bit better than that. in my own mind, i think we're go

ashish jha, dean of the brown university public school of health.hanks for being with us this morning. vaccines obviously top of mind for so many as we inch closer to those first doses going out here in the u.s. this week the fda will hold a public meeting to discuss approving the emergency use of pfizer's vaccine. what can we expect from that meeting? >> good morning. thank you for having me on. what i am expecting this week is we're going to have a thorough vetting of the data. we're going to see a lot of new data that hasn't been released yet, and then i do expect by the end of the day thursday to get an authorization from the fda. it might be friday morning. obviously the timing is not going to be perfectly predictable, but i do expect that this week we're going to see the pfizer vaccine get authorized for use in the united states. >> so perhaps the biggest hurdle with this vaccine is that of public opinion of it. what do you say to those who worry we don't know the long-term effects of this vaccine. >> yeah, look, i totally understand where peo

ashish jha. it's always a real pleasure seeing you.tonight. >> thank you, rachel. >> how different are the pfizer and moderna vaccines? >> they're really similar. they're both mrna vaccines. they work in very, very similar ways. little bit of difference in how they're stored and how stable they are in warmer temperatures. pfizer needs to be minus 96 degrees and the moderna vaccine can be kept in regular freezing and refrigerating for more a longer period of time. that's it. that's the only difference. >> that means that there will be different logistics necessary for both delivering and storing and ultimately administering the vaccine. obviously, it's better to have more available and have multiple sources of relief in the pipeline here, but will -- should we expect an impact on the vaccine rollout to have two different vaccines, again, broadly similar, but with some different handling requirements? >> yeah, they definitely have different handling requirements. you're going to want to see them in different places so the pfizer vaccine

ashish jha, dean of brown university's school of public health. doctor, good morning, and thanks for coming on. this new variation of the virus sounds really concerning. what do we know about it? >> good morning, dan. thanks for having me on. you know, what we know is that there is this new variation that's spreading much more rapidly in the uk. we think it's more infectious. that's what data seems to suggest. we're not 100% sure. but all of the data so far says that it's not any more lethal and it's not likely to be any less sort of protective against the vaccine, so i feel reasonably confident that this is not some major game changer. but if it's more infectious, obviously that's an important issue to track. >> but there's no evidence that it's resistant to the vaccine or that it's more lethal. but no evidence yet. i mean, how do we really foe? it's pretty new. >> it is very new. and this is going to happen. i mean, part of the problem is there's so much virus spreading that you're going to start seeing some of these kinds of variations pop up,

ashish jha. sir, it's always really, really helpful to have you here. thank you. >> rachel, thank you. >> we'll be right back. stay with us. >>> one last story for you lives to get home to they use stamps.com print discounted postage for any letter any package any time right from your computer all the amazing services of the post office only cheaper get our special tv offer a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again! do you have a life insurance policy you no longer need? now you can sell your policy, even a term policy, for an immediate cash payment. call coventry direct to learn more. we thought we had planned carefully for our retirement. but we quickly realized that we needed a way to supplement our income. our friends sold their policy to help pay for their medical bills and that got me thinking. maybe selling our policy could help with our retirement. i'm skeptical, so i did some research and called coventry direct. they explained life insurance is a valuable asset that can be sold. we

ashish jha, dean of the brown university school of public health. dr.ha, thanks for being with us, because everyone is waiting to see the moderna vaccine, people are waiting for pfizer, we're also waiting to see which groups are going to be approved in the second phase, after nursing homes and health care workers. but i guess this is the kind of hiccup you would expect. this is just the beginning of a very long and complicated process. >> yes, so good afternoon, andrea, thanks for having me on. it is, it is a long and complicated process. we expect a few hiccups. i have to say i was a little bit concerned about pfizer's statement yesterday saying we have millions of doses sitting around waiting for instructions. that sounds like more than just a miscommunication between the federal government and governors. we should not have doses sitting around waiting for instructions. more than 200,000 americans are getting infected every day. 3, 4,000 americans are dying every day. we've got to get these vaccines out. so i would like to see a sense of urgency from

ashish jha. the data from the moderna says it's 94% effective. similar to the numbers from pfizer. but we've been hearing about the first dose has also been effective at stopping asymptomatic spread, when you don't even realize you have it, you don't show symptoms. i don't remember reading that in the pfizer data. is there a difference between the two vaccines? >> david, thanks for having me on. that's a great question. i expect the same benefit from the pfizer vaccine, but i don't know for sure. we have not seen that data. because we're moving quickly, there is still a lot of data coming in. i expect the pfizer vaccine will have the same benefit, but we're not sure right now. >> we'll be eager to see that in the months ahead. and the pfizer vaccine is out across the country, moderna expected to follow quickly. it's going to take months, though. at some point, will patients have a choice, or will you be expected to get whatever you're able to get through your doctor or pharmacy? >> i expect in the next month and a half, we'll have a third or possibly even a fourth vaccine. but ther

ashish jha, back with us again tonight. and dr. jha, you heard me ask tom the same question. from your perspective, give us a reality check tonight. we're seeing first responders, nursing homes, but when do you think most americans will get access to a vaccine? will you go to a pharmacy, your doctor's office, will you be called letting you know they have the vaccine? >> reporter: good evening, david, thank you for having me on. first and foremost, what a wonderful day to see those health care workers starting to get vaccinated. you know, i do think that's where most of the vaccines are going to be in december and january, high risk individuals. i think most americans should expect the option to start getting vags natedd probably in march. you might get a call from your doctor's office, you'll see information in your local walgreens or cvs and when that broad general campaign will again. >> and we know there are two shots that are needed, about three weeks apart. right now, the pfizer vaccine trial data says protection, the vaccination, could protect you possibly as long as fo

ashish jha, back with us tonight. and dr. jha, you know a lot of people at home have concerned, questions over the safety of these vaccines. so, give us a bit of a reality check tonight. how safe do we believe the pfizer vaccine actually is? and how can we be sure there won't be side effects? >> yeah, david, thank you for having me on. i understand people's concerns. we've gone fast on this. but these vaccines have gone through every hoop, every step that we would of any other vaccine. and the results from all of those tests have been reported back transparentally. so, we know a lot more about these vaccines than we do about many others. and everything we're seeing so far suggests that these vaccines are safe and effective. there will be some side effects. with everything, there are always some side effects. people will have some -- people have pain in their arm, i expect some people to have fever in the first 24 hours. those are common. but everything we're seeing right now makes me feel confident these vaccines are safe and

ashish jha, dean of the brown university school of public health. and dr. jha, thanks for being here, as always. we were hoping you could put this in perspective tonight. do we expect to see these variants, these mutations and what concerns do you have most about this particular one so far? >> hi, david. thank you for having me on. these variants are common, especially when the pandemic is as bad as it is. remember, all the infections that are happening out there are more opportunities for the virus to mutate. my concern here is about contagiousness. there is good evidence that this virus seems more contagious, but as we heard in the previous report, not anymore deadly, and that part is reassuring. but of course we'll have to sort this out a bit better. >> let's hope that continues to be the case. in everything i read today, it's believed that so far, the vaccines would still be effective against this and that it typically takes a long time for a virus to mutate to actually get around a vaccine? >> yeah, this is quite a good vaccine that we have developed in

ashish jha. the dean of the brown university school of public health. always great to have you. i want to go back to the numbers here. the data from the moderna trial shows it's 94% effective in preventing symptomatic disease. similar to the numbers from pfizer. but we've been reporting for a couple of days that additional number from moderna saying that first dose has also been effective at stopping asymptomatic spread, when you don't even realize you have it, you don't show symptoms. i don't remember reading that number in the pfizer data. this would be significant for moderna. i don't want to pit them against each other, but is there a difference between the moderna and pfizer vaccine? >> david, thanks for having me on. that's a great question. i expect the same benefit from the pfizer vaccine, but we don't know for sure. we have not seen that data. because we're moving quickly, there is still a lot of data coming in. i expect that the pfizer vaccine will have the same benefit, but we're not sure right now. >> we'll be eager to see that in the data as we move in the months ah

dr ashish jha, very good to talk to. thank you. thank you. is thank you. is a thank you.s broken." 0ur planet is waging where an age nature is tracing back with growing force and fury. that comes from the us secretary general and the special bbc broadcast. as we learned this year, it's one of the warmest on record. —— despite all those panic lockdowns. our environment correspondent justin rowlatt reports. as if suffering a pandemic wasn't enough, now we learn that 2020 is on track to be one of the three hottest years ever recorded, and that is not all. the past decade, obviously, is the warmest on record, and the last six years are the warmest years on record. the bad news is even the covid—19 lockdowns haven't made a difference. the coronavirus restrictions imposed around the world may have shut down our cities and lead to a small reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, but the world meteorological 0rganisation is saying today it hasn't been enough to stop the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from continuing to increase. the un chief, antonio guterres, to

ashish jha from brown university says if there is authorization tomorrow, he hopes some americans could get the vaccine by friday. many experts are telling us, though, it will probably be a few days after that, likely monday morning. david, this is a very fluid situation, we are covering every angle of it, but we will know very soon. david? >> and you'll bring it to us. tom llamas, thank you. >>> and as tom mentioned, there is a lot of hope with this, but authorities across the country are warning it will be months before the vaccine reaches everyone who needs it. tonight, the images coming in from hospitals across the country. patients waiting outside e.r.s. one hospital with more than 150 workers out with coronavirus. and that moment in idaho, the county meeting meant to cover guidelines to protect people there, halted just minutes into it when a commissioner and mother revealed in tears that protesters had gathered outside her home and that she needed to get to her 12-year-old son. here's abc's kaylee hartung tonight. >> reporter: tonight, hospitals across the country reaching a brea

ashish jha, always great to see you.hank you. >> thank you. >>> president trump, who has 30 days left in his term, met with lawmakers yesterday about contesting the electoral college vote that he lost. he's also pushing attorney general bill barr to have a special counsel investigate the election and take over the tax investigation of hunter biden. as paula reid reports, the man who report supported the president for so long is firmly saying no. >> if i thought a special counsel at this stage was the right tool and was appropriate, i would name one, but i haven't, and i'm not going to. >> reporter: attorney general william barr torpedoed several of president trump's political priorities monday saying there is no need to investigate the president's claims of election fraud or name a special counsel to investigate president-elect joe biden's son hunter. >> i think to the extent that there's an investigation, i think that it's being handled responsibly and professionally currently within the department. >> i appreciate ever

ashish jha, dean of the brown university school of public health. thank you very much for joining us. dr. fauci emphasized it's not unusual to see a virus mutate. it does not appear this mutation has made the virus more deadly or dangerous. what challenges does this new strain present? >> thanks for having me on, wolf. he's absolutely right, of course, we do see variations, we've seen them throughout the pandemic. this one does look a little bit different, it looks like it has some functional differences and it looks like it's a bit more contagious. how much more contagious, we're not sure, but obviously that is of concern. i think the solution for that is all the stuff we've been doing. if we continue to try to prevent transmission of this virus, continue to focus on getting vaccines out, that will continue to help us out along the way. i don't think this is anything that should alter what we do in any meaningful way. >> dr. fauci also told me we will know relatively soon whether the vaccines that haven about developed, the two already in use here

ashish jha said "the worst part is no real planning on what happens when vaccines arrive in states, no plan, no money, just hope that states will figure this out. he continues, "states are out of money. so many are passing it on to hospitals, nursing homes." does any of this sound familiar to you, like our national testing debacle being repeated, he says. he is frustrated and among public health professionals, he's not alone. >> the biggest limitations that we're seeing are the actual infrastructure that needs to be put in place to get these vaccines out to the communities. that is a massive overhaul and we should have been starting to put that infrastructure in place six, seven, eight months ago. >> again, 20 million vaccinations promised by year end, only 11 million shipped, not given, not administered, and a little more than 2 million actually into the arms of those who need it. at that rate, as our guest last night put it, this country will not be fully vaccinated until the year 2050 at that slow rate. when faced with that, you would think the president might see the need for the s

ashish jha. always good to see you. help us understand who's going to get this vaccine when? we know it's health care workers, then seniors. talk about after that. who should get it? rural america, where we have the worst hospital systems or urban america where unfortunately vulnerable live in close communities and can't isolate? >> good morning, stephanie and thank you for having me on. we've got to do it based on risk. right now there are details being sorted out. certainly in the first wave, it's going to be health care workers and people living in long-term care facilities. residents as well as staff there. after that, i think it's going to be a mix of essential workers, frontline workers, like police officers, firemen and women. you know, emts as well as some high-risk individuals. i think we can doboth in urban and rural america, not prioritize one other another especially with the moderna vaccine coming online in the next few day. those will be easier to get out to rural america. so i want to do it based on risk and not necessarily based on where you live. >> why is th

ashish jha, thank you as always for sharing your expertise on this. >> thank you. >>> outrage and disappointmentrvivors of the massacre in iraq react to president trump's pardoning of four guards to slaughtered innocent men, women and children. next. looking to save money this holiday season? look at allstate. drivers who switched & saved, averaged $718 dollars. saving is easy when you're in good hands. call a local agent, or 1-800-allstate for a quote today. want to sell the best burger add an employee.ode? or ten... then easily and automatically pay your team and file payroll taxes. that means... world domination! or just the west side. run payroll in less than five minutes with intuit quickbooks. fighting cancer starts with you. covid has devastated our funding for lifesaving research. help us help patients. donate today. experience the wonders of at nizuc resort & spa,ents. where paradise is personal. nizuc is a world to discover unto itself, day or night, indoors or out. something wonderful awaits. experience the wonders of at nizuc resort & spa, where paradise is personal. nizuc is a world

ashish jha andjoins us now. president-elect biden says we need to ramp up vaccines to 1 million a day, 100 million shots in his first 100 days. is that realistic? >> yeah, jake, thanks for having me on. i think it's realistic, i think it's doable. is it within our capacity as a country? absolutely. we do big things. we used to be able to do big things. i have no doubt that we can do it, but it will take real federal leadership and that's what i heard from president-elect biden, that he's committed to that leadership. >> i saw you had a twitter thread yesterday in which you were expressing frustration at the failure of the trump administration. they first promised 100 million vaccine doses by the end of the year, then they most recently promised 20 million doses but as of right now, according to official government records, only 2.1 million americans have been vaccinated. what went wrong? like, why have we not even come close to reaching the administration's goal, even though they kept lowering the goal over and

ashish jha. doctors, thanks to both of you for joining. thanks for everything you're doing.tee decision, do you agree with their assessment? who should be next in line for the vaccine? >> wolf, as you have heard, the committee members really have an agonizing time talking about this. and indeed, they've been studying this very carefully for quite a few weeks now. and i agree with it. the next group, after health care workers, as well as residents in long-term care facilities will now be people who are 75 years of age and older and frontline, essential workers. those are the two large groups. and then after them, 65 and older and those younger than 65 who have underlying health conditions and the remainder of the essential workers. these are large groups, will take sometime to reach out to them, get them in and vaccinated. but these are firm steps in the delivery of these now two vaccines i'm pleased to say. two vaccines that we have to make a dent on the transmission of this virus. >> what do you think about it, dr. jha? what about people who do have these underlying conditi

ashish jha. good to see you. talking about the numbers nationwide are awful. are we going to see it go from bad to worse after the holidays? >> hi, chris, thanks for having me on. i am worried in lots of places we will. after holidays going back to memorial day, july 4th, thanksgiving, we've seen a surge. i'm really worried we're going to see another surge after the christmas/new year's holiday. there's no room. there's no room at the inn. so what is happening not just that covid patients are having a hard time getting hospital care. everybody is having a hard time getting hospital care because there are not enough beds. there's not enough staff, doctors and nurses. you can't convert -- you can convert a gift shop into a room but you can't magically create doctors and nurses out of thin air. >> yeah. one of the things that is concerning, we've seen california reinstate some of their previous restrictions but they have not been able to seem to bend the curve back, at least not so far. is that what we're going to be seeing in other places, too? >> yeah, there ar

ashish jha says he also is confident in the vaccine. >> i am confident. these vaccines that we've developed so far, two of them, pfizer and moderna, are really pretty superb vaccines, and so so far as of right now i feel pretty confident -- obviously we can't predict the future and still need to study it more carefully, but i'm confident the vaccine will work. >> coming up on "gma," you can hear more on why dr. jha suspects the new variants are already here in the u.s. >> thank you. >>> san francisco supervisor aaron peskin is trying to save an iconic chinatown restaurant from closing. the 100-year-old far east cafe is closing its doors due to the pandemic. peskin says he is asking the board of supervisors for 1$1.9 million in aid for restaurants. he pleaded with owner bill lee to wait on closing. >> bill, i beseech you and your investors and your landlord to hang in there a little bit longer. >> lee didn't make any promises, but peskin's office tells abc7 that lee may stay open until supervisors vote on the aid package in january. >>> the albany bowl is

ashish jha. you just heard what she said about the new variant in colorado. what is your reaction? >> first of all, thank you for having me on. i think this strain probably has been around for a while. obviously the person in colorado doesn't have a travel history, did not get it directly from the uk, picked it up in the community. that means other people in colorado have it. and there's no reason to think it's somehow confined to colorado. it's really an issue that we have not been doing gentlemen nomic surveillance in the way the uk and other countries have been. we've got to step up and be looking for these kinds of things. much easier to track it if you're looking for it than to be surprised by it. >> it seems to be a pattern where we feed had to step up. testing being one of them as well. dr. reiner, he's con iffident t vaccine will work. when it comes to the vaccine, the numbers don't lie. nearly 2.6 million vaccine doses given, a far cry from the 20 million that had been promised. the head of operation warp speed said that we know it should be better. at least he's being for

ashish jha, the dean of brown university school of public health. dr. jha, the news this morning, all the breaking news that we are dealing with, is really unsettling this morning. i mean, there's just so many things compounding the situation. i think we were hopeful that with the vaccines things were going to be looking up. they are not looking up. 3,745 americans died just yesterday and then there's this new variant that's more transmissible, more contagious, now discovered in colorado. we don't know how widespread it is. all we know is that the young man in his 20s had no known travel history. that means that there's community spread. he picked it up in his rural county in colorado somewhere. and then add to that that there are five hospitals in l.a. county that are having to turn patients away because they can't get them oxygen, they don't have the infrastructure to dispense this much oxygen that people need right now. it's just -- it just seems very bleak right now. >> yeah, good morning, alisyn. it does seem bleak. we are in the middle of the sort

ashish jha dean of the brown university of public health. dr. jha, thank you for being here this morning. at this point we novak seens -- know vaccines can stop symptoms. can they reduce transmissibility of the virus? >> good morning and thanks for having me on. we don't know for sure. all the evidence so far suggests it probably does. i doubt it's 100%. my best guess base on the data we've seen is if you get vaccinated, your chances of transmitting the disease probably does go down substantially. >> we've seen new variants of the virus in the uk and south africa. they're also showing up in france, canada and other countries. how concerned are you about this? >> i'm pretty concerned about this. you know, we're already at a breaking point in so many places. you saw in the last report california, texas, other places really stretched. if that variant, which i suspect is probably here in the u.s., really takes off, it's more contagious. we'll see more infections. i'm worried about what's going to happen to our hospitals. >> dr. jha, the vaccine as f

ashish jha, dean of the brown university school of health. >> good morning, thanks for having me back. >> let's talk at the fda advisory committee, they are hearing from that panel, this time on moderna's vaccine. second time in a week, right? talk about the significance here. how important is it that we get this second vaccine on line and distribute it possibly as early as monday, tuesday, wednesday, as we heard from top officials? >> yes, so another exciting day and we're really being very, very careful about this. i like the fact that again, with the moderna vaccine there is a deep dive into the data and open and public discussion what the data shows and doesn't show and there will be a vote at end of the day and i expect the vote to be positive because the data looks really good and i expect the fda to authorize it eye teally within 24-48 hours. the reason this is so important, you sort of nailed it, we need both vaccines out there. the moderna is easier to transport, easier to store. means they will be able to get it to doctors offices and pharmacies and pfizer may be limited to

ashish jha, the dean of brown universe school of public health, said, "running the cdc is complicated, especially in a crisis. you need to, one, communicate with the american people, two, run a sprawling organization, and three, understand effectively use tools of public health." dr. jha said lots of people can do one of these three things. no one i know can do all three as well as dr. rochelle walensky. an inspecious disease physician today said, "this is the happiest a bunch of stressed-out, overworked and tired infectious diseases providers and epidemiologists have been in nearly 12 months. another guest of the show, a hero of the activist movement, now an epidemiologist at yale, couldn't hide his excitement, saying "omg, best cdc director choice ever. biden knocks it out of the park. i haven't been this hopeful in months. dr. walensky is the perfect person to lead us out of the darkness of this pandemic. i would follow her anywhere. she is an inspiration to all who know her." pulmonary and critical care physician dr. vin gupta, who you have seen multiple times on this show said, "

ashish jha, thank you. >>> what we're learning about the new administration's plans on the pandemic asci. ♪ ♪ you're all, you're all i need ♪ ♪ you're all, you're all i need ♪ ♪ as long as i got you then baby ♪ ♪ you know that you've got me, oh! yea...♪ ♪ save for being a new customer. save more for adding drivewise. save even more for driving safely. take another look at allstate - and start saving. ♪ inflammation in your eye might be to blame.ck, and start saving. looks like a great day for achy, burning eyes over-the-counter eye drops typically work by lubricating your eyes and may provide temporary relief. ha! these drops probably won't touch me. xiidra works differently, targeting inflammation that can cause dry eye disease. what is that? xiidra, noooo! it can provide lasting relief. xiidra is the only fda approved treatment specifically for the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. one drop in each eye, twice a day. don't use if you're allergic to xiidra. common side effects include eye irritation, discomfort or blurred vision when applied to the eye, and unusual taste sensation

ashish jha, who you have seen make multiple appearances on this show, he's dean of brown university'school of public health. he said today, quote, running the cdc is complicated, especially in a crisis. you need to, one, communicate with the american people. two, run a sprawling organization. and, three, understand and effectively use tools of public health. dr. jha said, lots of people can do one of these three things. no one i know can do all three as well as dr. rochelle walensky. josh barocas, an infectious disease physician at boston medical center, saying today, quote, this is the happiest a bunch of stressed out, overworked, and tired infectious disease providers and epidemiologists have been in nearly 12 months. gregg gonsalves, who we've had here on this show as well, a hero of the aids activist movement and a clarion voice against covid, he now works as an epidemiologist at yale. gregg gonsalves could not hide his excitement. he said, quote, omg. best cdc director choice ever. biden knocks it out of the park. i haven't been this hopeful in months. dr. walensky is the perfect

ashish jha. great to have you back on the program.igures from the cdc, 2.1 million people received their first doses of a covid-19 vaccine. with just two days left until the new year. far, for short of the administration's goal to vaccinate 20 million americans, even after accounting for a lag in the data. what is your initial reaction of where things stand today? >> yes, ayman, thanks for having me on. i have to be honest with you, i'm just incredibly frustrated with this situation. it's not like we didn't novak see know vaccines were coming. not like this is a surprise we have to vaccinate people. early october, secretary azar was saying we'd have 100 million doses by december. that got ramped down to 40 million, now 20 million, we're going to miss the 20 million. vaccine allocation isn't the goal. it's getting people vaccinated that makes a difference. and it really is becoming obvious that the administration didn't think through what needed to happen beyond just getting the vaccines to states. there's a lot of work between getting

ashish jha, dean of the brown university school of public health. a lot of information, starting with secretary azar. let me suggest first of all, he said that we are on track to be able to ship enough vaccine for 20 million americans before the end of the year, that's 40 million doses. that would be the pfizer. the antibody treatment can be available for all americans over 65 and subject to risk of severe covid. that is the infusion to try to keep them out of hospitalization. there has already been a quarter million courses of convalescent plasma. they need donations, please, he appealed to americans, to contact the american red cross, their blood banks, or the government websites. moncef slaoui, the head of operation warp speed, said that the final results are in for moderna, it was 94.1% efficacy against moderate or severe disease. 30 cases were severe but they were all in the placebo group, not those who got the vaccine, so it is 100% efficacy for those who got the vaccine from severe disease. there were 7,500 in the test group over 65, and the

ashish jha, dean of the college of public health. and dr.reiner advised the white house medical team under president george w. bush. dr. j ha, let me start with you. the republicans are giving this doctor a platform as dr. fauci, members of operation warp speed, are urging americans to get the vaccines, the vaccines are safe. okay? how dangerous is having a hearing like this -- well, frankly, again, as a parent of young children, and i vaccinate the second you're supposed to, at any time how dangerous is it, specifically right now? >> yes, erin, thank you for having me on. look, this hearing is really a platform for fringe elements of the medical community having a voice. now, look, i'd be totally comfortable, it would be reasonable to have a discussion about the safety of the vaccine. by experts who understand safety, who understand data. let's talk about that openly. i have no concerns about that. that's not what senator johnson is doing. he's giving a platform to people who want to push hydroxychloroquine and other unproven therapies over

ashish jha, dean of brown public school of health. much things could have been different. our schools, our businesses, everything could have been open if we solved this. but it's not too late. testing, tracing has got to be fixed in this country, even when we get the vaccine. >>> coming up next, with congress racing to pass a relief bill finally, restaurants are still not going to get the help they need. millions and millions of employees. millions of workers who, by the way, many of whom don't have college educations. there's not other industries dying to hire them all. i'll be speaking with one restaurant owner who has lost six businesses in the last year about what he needs to survive. he joins us next. [ engine rumbling ] ♪ [ beeping ] [ engine revs ] ♪ uh, you know there's a 30-minute limit, right? tell that to the rain. [ beeping ] for those who were born to ride, there's progressive. than rheumatoid arthritis. when considering another treatment, ask about xeljanz... a pill for adults with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis

ashish jha.stration has really tried to point to as a success is the development of a vaccine and certainly our scientists, our researchers, deserve just enormous credit for getting that vaccine together so quickly. but now the challenge is to get that out the door and we do need the government for that. so far, those numbers are a lot lower than what they had promised. what's going on and are you concerned about how this rollout is taking place? >> yeah, good morning, thanks for having me on. back in early october, secretary azar said a 100 million doses out by the end of the year and then that was revised by 40 million and now 20 million people will get vaccinated by the end of the year. well, we're at the end of the year, we're at 2 million. i believe we're at higher than because there's a lag, and i believe it's 4 or 5 million. but it's not 20 million. the federal government has does a good job for setting up the infrastructure to get the vaccines out the states, but very little in the way of

ashish j jha, back with us tonight. and i just wanted to get your reaction to this late news of that vote, 17-4, and do you believe, from you've read in the fda's report, that the vaccine is safe? >> david, thank you for having me on. this is a big day. this is a big day for the pandemic. i do believe that the data is now clear that the vaccines appear to be safe and effective and i think the four votes against really was about the fact that we don't have a lot of data on 16 and 17-year-olds. not concerns that there's a problem with them, but we just don't know as much about that group. >> i know the panel talked at length today about the two health care workers in the uk who had allergic reactions. what would you say to americans who are concerned about those initial reports? we know those health care workers are okay and all indications, they're sending a message we should move forward, but it did cause a reaction and concern out there. >> almost every vaccine, medicine, can cause allergic reactions. these two individ

ashish jha.h it at this time, we are between thanksgiving and christmas and a lot of people they just need to see the on th. what's your advice to people across america, given the fact that the vaccine is coming, we're seeing it going in to people's arms. and yet, we're still in the midst of this pandemic which is raging. >> yes, good morning and thank you for having me on. this is a very unusual moment because the light at the end of the tunnel is here. we can see it, we can see that it's a couple of months away. and yet, we are going to have over the next six weeks probably the hardest six weeks of the pandemic. in terms of number of americans who are going to die. i think an additional 100,000 in the next month to six weeks is almost baked into the system at this point. there's so much infection raging around the country. this is a result of a federal government that has largely given up on the american people when it comes to this pandemic. and so it's very, very challenging for states and th

ashish jha is the dean of brown university school of public health. >> there really hasn't been muchtment from the federal side in helping states get the vaccine into people's arms. states don't have the dollars or the resources to figure this out on their own. >> reporter: in florida, thousands of seniors lined up for their shot of the covid vaccine. some waiting overnight. >> it's kind of like a mob scene of senior citizens. >> reporter: retired schoolteacher wayne frongello spent hours waiting for information from local officials about vaccine registration he says never came. he finally booked a slot two weeks from now. >> it qaen on twitter. it wasn't on facebook. it wasn't on the news. if you're not good at sniffing and scurrying, you're just out of luck. >> reporter: dr. jha told us at the current vaccination rate, it would take us years to reach herd immunity, but both he and dr. fauci believe the process will eventually speed up. yesterday health and human services announced nearly 20 million doses for distribution, but most of those have yet to be distributed and very few ha

ashish jha, dean of the brown university school of public health. dr. a, thank you for joining us this morning, and there's so much excitement around the pfizer vaccine this week but looks like moderna's vaccine could be authorized this week as well. you've looked at the data so far. how hopeful are you? >> good morning, michael. thanks for having me on. i'm very hopeful. look, every time i look at the data and see new data i am more and more impressed at both of these vaccines, the efficacy as well as the safety profile. so i'm pretty excited about where the moderna vaccine is going to end up landing. >> and we know more vaccines are in the pipeline like astrazeneca's. but that one is a lot different than the others. what do we know about how it works and its effectiveness? >> yeah, there are several vaccines in the works and the next two that we're probably going to hear about in january are astrazeneca and johnson & johnson. they work totally differently. they don't use mrna. they use a viral vector but that's a pretty standard technology for vaccines

ashish jha, dean of the brown university school of public health. dr. jha, good morning to you.nks for joining us. i do want to start with this new variant in the uk, because we're getting new information from some scientists that perhaps this could spread more easily among children. this would be a significant shift in the pandemic. how concerned are you about that possibility? >> yeah, good morning, and thanks for having me on. you know, i am concerned. there is some evidence that this virus does spread more easily including potentially more easily to kids. one of the bright spots has been that kids even if they get infected are less likely to get very sick. i'm hoping that doesn't change. i expect that to continue to be true. but, indeed, this may infect kids more easily. >> now one of the lead scientists behind the pfizer vaccine says that the vaccine should still be effective against this variant and if it's not, they might actually be able to make adjustments to it. how exactly would that work and then would it need new fda authorization? >> yeah, so this is -- first of al

ashish jha. the overwhelming number of vaccines have gone out safely but we have had isolated allergic reactions. what's your take from that? >> good morning, george. thanks for having me on. i'm not worried. people can have allergies to medicines, vaccines, food, and the uk has administered more than 100,000 doses. only a couple, so people with severe allergic reactions should consult their doctor but most people will be fine. >> so the general population doesn't have to take any special precautions? >> no. no, i think -- i have seasonal allergies, i don't plan to do anything differently. for most people, i don't think this will be an issue. >> the moderna vaccine approved by the fda as well. talk about the differences between the moderna and the pfizer vaccines and whether people will have a choice. >> they're very, very similar, george, and i don't -- from an efficacy safety point of view they're nearly identical. one is a little easier to distribute, doesn't have to be kept frozen, that's the