admiral brett giroir will be here. >>> plus, the moderna vaccine is one step away from approval. and some hospitals are completely out of icu beds. that's next. that's next.hn's di? are you ok? i did. but even when i was there, i never knew when my symptoms would keep us apart. so, i talked to my doctor and learned humira is for people who still have uc or crohn's symptoms after trying other medications. and humira helps people achieve remission that can last, so you can experience few or no symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections. serious and sometimes fatal infections, including tuberculosis, and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. be there for you, and them. ask your gastroenterologist about humira. with humira, rem

joining us now, admiral brett giroir, a member of the white house coronavirus task force. l, welcome to "fox news sunday." >> admiral giroir: great to be her, thank you for having me on buried >> mike: tsa checkpoint travel numbers reveal more than 1 million per day traveling leading up to christmas despite those covid warnings. do you expect a spike in new cases as a result, sir? >> admiral giroir: well, it really depends on what the travelers do when they get where they're going. we know the actual physical act of traveling in airplanes, for example, can be quite safe because of the air purification systems. what we really worry about is the mingling of different bubbles once you get to your destination. over thanksgiving we saw a mixed picture. in the midwest and in the northern plains, cases continued to go down despite the travel, which meant that people really did the kinds of things we talked to them about like wearing a mask and limiting your gatherings, so we really have to wait and see. i really encourage people to follow the cdc guidelines, make your family gathe

admiral brett giroir telling our jake tapper they need to be doing a better job. remember the goal here was to have 20 million doses by today. we are nowhere near that. based on the latest cdc data, we only have about 2.7 million vaccine doses that have been administered with a bit over 12 million doses that have been distributed. again, a big discrepancy here, while operation warp speed did not give us any specifics as to why exactly these numbers were lagging, it appears that the focus has turned to the states. dr. anthony fauci earlier this morning saying the states and jurisdictions need more resources in order to be able to get those shots into amprms. that is something we're hearing on the ground as well. states saying they need help from the federal government. i will acknowledge that the admiral, brett giroir, said there will be at least 30 million more vaccines in january and potentially 50 million in february. that, of course, is something we'll be watching very closely to see whether or not this is just another over promise. bian bianna. >> all right, t

we're out of time but admiral brett giroir, thank you very much.roads today. >>> and that does it for "andrea mitchell reports." remember to follow the show online on facebook and on twitter @mitchellreports. >>> my friend chuck todd is up next with "mtp daily" only on msnbc. but we didn't stop there. we made a cloud flexible enough to adapt to any size business. no matter what it does, or how it changes. and we kept going. so you only pay for what you use. because at dell technologies, we stop...at nothing. ♪ that's why we've merged with sprint.get more. because at dell technologies, we stop...at nothing. now it's about to get even better. and as we work to integrate sprint's network, our nationwide 5g keeps getting stronger. with the capacity and coverage to reach more people and places across the country. who says you can't have it all. now is the time for 5g. now is the time to join t-mobile. the only thing a disaster can't destroy is hope. donate now at redcross.org keeping your oysters growing while keeping your business growing has you swamp

. >>> hhs assistant secretary admiral brett giroir here next. ♪ ♪ ♪ still warm. ♪ thanks, maggie.us, our daily journey is a short one. save 50% when you pay per mile with allstate. pay less when you drive less. you've never been in better hands. allstate. click or call for a quote today. tums ver(bell rings)la stick you've never been in better hands. when heartburn hits fight back fast... ...with tums chewy bites... beat heartburn fast tums chewy bites ♪ ♪ lou: breaking news, the united states negotiating with pfizer to secure millions more doses of the china virus vaccine. it comes as china's -- also announced it will buy 100 million doses as well. moderna snapping by to distribute 6 million doses as soon as the fda authorizes emergency use. authorization expected to come by friday. the no moderna vaccine has an efficacy rate of 94percent. well, joining us tonight is white house testing czar and assistant health and human services secretary admiral brett giroir. we are delighted to have yous, general -- to have you with us, general. we've got a lot to talk about, but is also want

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admiral brett giroir, as always, thank you very much for being with us. >>> with us, dr. kavita patel, where do you come down on the wn rollout, the miracle of having two vaccines and more on the way, a but it's very, very slow going. what is your own experience at the clinic that you operate here in d.c.? >> yes, absolutely, andrea, thanks for having me, and you hit on a lot of the high points. i thmean, number one, this has t been kind of a national, even kind of distribution. even in terms of allocation, the admiral answered accurately, we left it up to the local jurisdictions and the states, but therein lies the e problem. as you point out, these are underfunded, understaffed, these are the same statesd, and jurisdictions that have to deal with testing, tracing, school closures, all of the kind of ongoings of the pandemic. my local experience in washington, d.c., i work in a safety net community where we've had some of the highest positive rates for covid and andrea, let's be clear, we want the icu staff, the emergency room, and this wasm, an answer the admira gave, h

. >> we cover it all this morning with admiral brett giroir. from the white house task force, the top democrat on the senate intelligence committee mark werner and president-elect joe biden's pick to lead the energy department jennifer granholm, plus insight and analysis from our powerhouse round table. >> announcer: from abc news, it's "this week." here now chief anchor george stephanopoulos. >>> good morning and welcome to "this week." as we come into christmas week the covid pandemic has tightened its deadly grip on our country. the worst week yet has passed, crossing 300,000 deaths. a new 9/11 nearly every day. 13 straight days of record high hospitalizations. more than 1.5 million new cases. one out of every 200 americans is contracting the virus every day. the good news this week two vaccines have been authorized by the fda. the first shots administered this week and the first shipment of the moderna vaccine is rolling out of the mckesson distribution center in olive branch, mississippi. gio benitez is there and he starts us off. good mor

it's interesting, i just recently asked that question of admiral brett giroir.f andrew is looking for a new job he can do mine. >> if you look at the models overall there's sort of a plateau and hopefully a decrease in the overall trajectory of new cases by end of january, early sort of february time frame. that takes into account less about the vaccine and more that states once they hit certain numbers of new people being infected that they will start to implement some sort of mitigation measure, whether it be masks or shutting down certain indoor locations. as far as the vaccine itself, it's interesting. it's likely to have impact on death rates first because the more vulnerable people are being vaccinated first which makes sense, then hospitalizations and then case rates. so it's almost going backwards in terms of the impact of the vaccine. you know, people say once you get to 30% vaccination you will start to see some impact, but it's really this herd immunity number that we keep talking about, 70%, 80% of the country being vaccinated which they anticipate i

admiral brett giroir is joining us right now. want to get to this crisis involving the coronavirus. you know, admiral, a yale immunologist reacted to the faeds fda pfizer review this is what an a plus report card looks like for a vaccine. do you agree? >> thank you, wolf. i absolutely agree. i read both the company's report and the fda's complete report today. the efficacy in the 90 percentile. the side effects are consistent with the vaccine that works. in the arm soreness and fatigue and those symptoms. but this is an incredible breakthrough day. the end of the pandemic is in sight but as you pointed out, we have a lot of work to do because we are going to have those vaccines out at warp speed but we have got to do the kinds of things we know how to do to flatten the curve right now because vaccines won't provide relief immediately. >> it's going to take months and months to get most of the country vaccinated april assuming a lot of those people are willing to get the shot. we saw the first vaccinations of the pfizer convenient

of this pandemic has millions of doses of vaccine begin to arrive all over the country admiral brett giroirays the same challenges that limited testing early in the pandemic could become a problem again. but that that's the way life i mean this is a newly developed vaccine. the same way we didn't have any task. you can't create hundreds of millions of testing to you develop the test and develop the technology but this time juror says multiple contingency plans are in place. there's backup vaccines in case a shipment >>misplaced were you know there's a an issue with a truck or anything else. >>as the vaccine distribution process gets underway. states say they're going to need financial help and for that they're turning to congress. >>the ball sort of our court now in congress indiana senator todd young says the medical community has done its job. >>and now for congress to do theirs and passed the relief the nation needs so that we can. >>make sure we get vaccine out to more americans. >>senate minority leader chuck schumer calls the vaccine. the first best hope for defeating the pandemic. >>

. >> reporter: today, admiral brett giroir pledging that the pace will pick up, but there's only so much the federal government can do. >> the federal government doesn't invade texas or montana and provide shots to people. we support the state and locals in doing that. >> reporter: scenes like this in florida show how difficult administering the vaccine on a wide scale can be. senior citizens lining up overnight, hoping to be some of the first in the state to get their shots. >> it feels great! >> reporter: today, three locations in southwest florida had 400 doses available. they were all booked by 7:00 a.m. >> there just hasn't been much planning, there hasn't been much investment, and we're starting to see departments of health that are really stretched having to try to figure out how to get all these vaccines into people and it's going much more slowly than i think the federal authorities thought it would. >> very long lines there in florida. rachel scott joins us now live from washington. and rachel, the president-elect with that stark warning today, predicting 400,000 americans coul

. >> sreenivasan: admiral brett giroir also said he's hopeful thathird vaccine candidate-- from johnson & johnsonl be ready for emergency f.d.a. approval in january. the promising news around vaccines comes as confirmed coronavirus caseinue to rise around the united states. average dails continue at record levels, according to "the new york times." and dend hospitalizations continue to rise, on average, compared ttwo weeks ago. the head scientific advisor for the trump administration's vaccine program said today he expects the spread of the worse.vis to continue to get >> we still are experiencing the outcome of the thanksgivin s,holidays and the gatherind unfortunately there may be more over the christmas holid, so there will be a continuing surge. i don't know what the numbers will be, but unfortunatelyhey will be higher than they are today. >> sreenivasan: in europe, several countries, including germany, spain, ity, belgi, and the netherlands, have halted flights and trains to the united kingdom. the new restrictions are to prevent the spread of a new strain of coronavirus that is sw

admiral brett giroir with the coronavirus task force now says 20 million doses of the vaccine should be delivered across the country by january but warns the guard down just yet as people get vaccinated. he adds the average american should be able to receive the vaccine by june of next year. linsey. >> something millions are certainly counting on. stephanie ramos, our thanks to you. >>> now to the new year's storm threat. a new system set to sweep east with rain and snow heading into the holiday. record snowfall this weekend, including in buffalo new york, where residents are digging out from more than 18 inches in 24 hours. for more on what to expect, let's get to wabc meteorologist jeff smith. hey, jeff. >> reporter: linsey, in the next few hours that storm entering central and southern california, could be big snows over the sierras, san gabriels. moves into the rock economies. upwards of two feet of snow in the highest elevations. that moves into the upper plains. another storm emerges out of the gulf of the mexico. that could spread severe weather by thursday. by new year's eve

admiral brett giroir stressed the importance of wearing a mask and socially distancing. >> these do workwe've got to be absolutely vigilant implementing them or we'll see tens of thousands more americans die before the vaccine supplies significant relief. >> today an fda advisory kmiet tee committee is meeting to see if they'll issue an emergency authorization of moderna's vaccine. a recent poll shows only 42% of black americans say they would get vaccinated. joining me now is dr. lou edgy from the university of cincinna cincinnati. covid-19 has affected you personally. tell us about what drove you to enroll in the moderna vaccine trial. >> ayman, thank you for having me. a special thank you to all of the interns, residents, fellows and the whole team on the frontline for taking care of us. one of the things that got me interested in the vaccine trial was it was affecting people who looked like me significantly. i take care of all sorts of patients. it was really realhardest hit fe when my step mother passed away. she was young and healthy and then she was gone. then taking a deep dive i

the strain had no known travel history or high risk contacts but west house testing czar admiral brett giroirronavirus vaccine will work against the new strain. >> we have no evidence to suggest nor do we believe that the vaccine would not be effective. in other words, we do believe the vaccine will be effective against this variant. so that's why we're so excited and still very enthusiastic about the vac teen program. >> reporter: -- vaccine program. >> reporter: astrazeneca's chief said the vaccine will fight it in the u.k. british officials hope to have 2 million people vaccinated there in the two weeks after that. todd: thanks for that update. carley: a young pilot goes through a painstaking process to honor europe's coronavirus vaccination campaign. a 20-year-old went on a 125-mile journey to create this giant syringe on radar. the pilot hopes it will inspire people who are on the fence about getting the vaccine. germany and the eu kicked off their vaccination drive over the weekend. how about that? and take a look at this. an emotional christmas surprise for a police sergeant in st. pet

admiral brett giroir says that covid-19 vaccines will likely protect against this variant.t is good news. do you agree and what have you learned about this new variant? >> well, we first learned that it's here and one thing that we also learned that stha we need to do more genomic sequencing. we're 43rd in the world in jean nick sequencing so we have to do more jean nick sequencing because if you look for it you find it. i do agree with admiral giroir that the vaccine seems to be covering this virus. the sooner we can vaccinate the population the sooner we're going to have to stop transmission of this virus. so we are in a race to the end and we have to get people vaccinated but we also need to remind people especially today being new year's to please do whatever you cannot to get infected. >> that is a key message that officials are trying to get out across the country. dr. carlos del rio, thank you. happy new year to you. i know you will be celebrating quietly at home but you will be safe. thank you. >> happy new year. >>> soon president trump returns to washington as som

assistant health secretary brett giroir told cnn today even with the first vaccine doses rolling out americans must continue to take this pandemic seriously. >> tens of thousands of americans can either live or die, depending on what we do to protect them until the vaccine gets widespread. >> new emails reported by politico today show a trump administration official back in july pushing the widely discredited theory of herd immunity, the idea of purposefully in fact,ing people and wrote the then science adviser, quote, infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults and have zero to little risk so we use them to develop herd. we want them infected. and recovered. with antibodies. we want them infected. experts say that would be a disastrous course, though it might explain the refusal of the white house to do more to stop the spread. cnn sara murray reports for us now. more hospitals across the u.s. are once again warning they are running out of space. >> reporter: as the pandemic refuses to relent across the country, optimistic is growing a second coronavirus vaccine could be on the

administered and when it's being reported is that the only problem >> well, you know, i heard admiral brett giroir and i have a lot of respect for him let's say 2.1 million is too low. let's say 4.2 million have been vaccinated that puts us too low by the end of the year we want 20 million yes, our ramp up has been slow if we're going to change that, if we're going to get every single american who wants the vaccine vaccinated by july, that is a huge effort and it's going to require a major coordinating effort >> how do we get there has this got to be something that the federal government tackles? >> well, the federal government has to work with state governments. everybody has to work together this requires federal government, private sector, public sector, it needs everybody to do their best to have clinics open all the time, to have vaccination available. we have underfunded public health for years right now it's really hard to find employees in public health that are not busy who can start doing the vaccination. and we have hospitals also because of the surge of patients, nurses are busy. you c

. >> admiral brett giroir says at least 20 million americans will be able to receive covid-19 vaccines, by the end of the year. does that seem realistic to you? >> it seems realistic if we have two vaccines that are shipping. so, as dr. fauci said this evening, it looks like, actually, in some places, the pfizer vaccine has already been pre-positioned, awaiting the eua from the fda. a week later, the moderna vaccine goes before the fda. and if -- if that vaccine is approved, yeah, we should have about enough vaccine for about 25 million people. >> by the end of the year? it's december 3rd, already. well, it's december 4th, excuse me. it's december 4th. by the end of the year? we don't have very long. that's a lot. >> yeah. so, yeah. the vaccine -- vaccine will be shipping. but again, that's still only 10 to 15% of the -- of the population. it's still a relatively small amount. >> yeah. so, coronavirus was the number one cause of death in the u.s. this week, surpassing heart disease. as a cardiologist, what went through your mind when you heard this news today? >> it's heartbreaking. i

here is the assistant secretary at health admiral brett giroir. >> we still expect that any americanscan be vaccinated by gm. if that's really very exciting. that means a couple hundred million people being able to be vaccinated by that time. >> alicia: bryan llenas is live in new york city with more. hi, brian. >> hi, alicia. you just heard the admiral saying that by june, anyone who wants to get vaccinated should be able to get vaccinated. there will be enough doses. i'm part of the reason is that there is more vexing on the way. astrazeneca expected at any moment this week to be approved in the united kingdom by their regulators. and by next week it could actually be distributed and administered to people. if the company says it's vaccine is actually effective against the new strain of covid-19 that is in the u.k. and that is spreading quicker than the original. now back in the u.s., so far 10.8 million vaccines have been distributed nationwide and more than 2 million doses have been administered. by the first week of january, they expect they have 20 million vaccines distributed i

brett giroir from hhs had to say about this. an >> what there is no evidence of nor reason to believe, it is not any more lethal or any more dangerous than the normal coronavirus, no evidence to suggest that, no reason to believe it. there is also no evidence to suggest nor reason to believe that it would evade our vaccines that we have right now. remember, our vaccines developed antibodies against multiple parts of that spiked protein, not just one that's the mutated one, so we are very encouraged about that, but of course, we have a lot of work to do, to understand this more fully. >> from several different health officials they think the vaccine will still work against this uk variant, but they've got to do this computeer analysis, they hope to have some answers within just a few days. poppy? >> you know, elizabeth, the word mutate sounds scary to a lot of folks, to me. help us understand, is this something we need to be scared of? >> you know, all the doctors that i've talked to, top experts in this area, they do not sound v

tonight is white house testing czar and assistant the health and human services secretary admiral brett giroirto have you with us, general. we've got a lot to talk about, and i want to get to it quickly, but i also want to say something, if i may. you have handled yourself, in my judgment if i may say, with great distinction and class as befits an admiral of any american in any way of life. you've been a real, you've been exemplary, and i just want to until you i salute you and thank you for your conduct and your poise throughout. it has not been easy, with know that, and we just want to say thank you. let's start with the vaccine. you've got to be thrilled. america's thrilled. you beat the odds, you beat all the experts and delivered. give us your sense tonight how it feels to you. >> well, thank you, and thank you for the kind words. i am just honored and privileged to be on the president's team. i'm here at the white house because we just finished a task force meeting led by the vice president, and i can tell you there's exextreme excitement not only by the fact that the pfizer vaccine is b

. >> white house testing czar brett giroir says the coronavirus vaccine will work against the new straine have no evidence to suggest, nor do we believe that the vaccine would not be effective, in other words, we do believe the vaccine will be effective against this variant. >> astrazeneca's chief says their vaccine will fight the new strain in the u.k. as the government is expected to approve the vaccine this week to be distributed beginning january 4th. british officials hope to have 2 million people vaccinated in the following two weeks to come after that. todd, carley. carley: jackie, thank you. todd: a string of community clinics in new york facing a criminal investigation following allegations they illegally distributed covid-19 vaccines. carley: the clinic is returning the remainder of their stash after administering more than 860 doses. joining us now, fox news medical contributor, dr. marc siegel. doctor, this sounds fishy. what's going on here? >> this is very disturbing. the new york post has been following this an reporting on this story, carley. i think for the viewers out t

. >> you know, it's interesting, doctor, admiral brett giroir says there's no reason to believe this variant would evade the two vaccines that are now approved here in the united states. do you agree with him, and if you do, why? >> i do actually, and part of the reason is how we study viruses all along. and what we know about viral mutations. even though there have been several mutations identified over even the last few months and even into the early like late summer, early fall, there have to be multiple mutations in specific key locations to cause the body to make different antibodies. right now, it really looks like the antibodies at the vaccine produces would still be effective against the viral mutations we have seen already. >> that's good to know. doctor, in addition to being a physician, you're also a participant in a coronavirus vaccine trial. first of all, why did you decide to volunteer? and what has this process been like for you? >> well, we need a lot more vaccines. and so i'm thrilled that we have now two vaccines, the moderna and pfizer vaccine that are safe and loo

. >> julie: that it's admiral brett giroir of the white house coronavirus task force on "fox news sundayhen when he expects most americans get vaccinated. this comes after the vaccination of health care workers and nursing residents are currently underway. dr. anthony fauci is warning the country's darkest days in the pandemic could come in january. bryan llenas is live in new york city with the latest on the vaccine rollout. hi, bryan. >> hi, julie. so far 140,000 new yorkers have received their first vaccine dose. 250,000 of the vaccines are going to be distributed throughout new york state next week. this week. and next week they will start going to ems workers, the health care workers, and those who are administering these vaccines. nationwide, and rope it is your wife said that we are at about 10.8 million vaccines distributed with doses administered across the u.s. today, novivax became the fifth company to launch a vaccine trial in the u.s. by march 1st, projected 1 million doses distributed in the u.s. dr. fauci believes on the current timeline that the u.s. could reach herd immu

the position of the president, of the vice president, of admiral brett giroir who is sort of leading up this effort as well has just been okay we got it to the states, you do it, your job now. and that's where they seem to be leaving it not realizing that states need federal support. they haven't gotten the money -- there is money in the covid relief bill, but they haven't gotten that money yet. they need those resources, and it's just not there. so they need some help. >> a.b., there's also quite a bit of drama in congress rights now over two things. both the ndaa and this increased amount of money for stimulus relief checks. in vetoing the ndaa the president put republicans in a really tough spot, forcing them to override him and opening up the possibility to potentially raise that stimulus payment amount which republicans had opposed. in vetoing the nda, the reasons the president kept giving were about social media companies and section 230 and also about voter fraud as well as other things. there's been some confusion, though -- i'm sorry, confederate renaming of bases. there's b

. >> harris: with me now is admiral brett giroir, white house coronavirus task force testing czar.to see you, sir. it's a two-step process, what happens immediately after that emergency use authorization which i imagine we anticipate get the okay. >> it's a very exciting day because we can really see the end of the pandemic, it's really in our site. we would expect that the advisory committee would vote to authorize the vaccine and again, they don't make a decision. that's a recommendation to the career scientists. the fda center will discuss that and ultimately we hope that an authorization will be signed by the fda chief scientist, admiral denise hinton, one of my fellow uniformed officers and the public health service for the data are extremely compelling and i would imagine this authorization would come very soon. >> harris: well, the next step and we are hearing this from dr. fauci and i've heard it from you, too, as well. a new poll finding that only about half of americans plan to get the vaccine once it's available in the other half say they won't or are not sure. what you

so admiral brett giroir who is one of the people involved in the vaccine program in this country admitted, he did say, we need to be doing a better job but added all vaccine programs start somewhat slow. nick watt, cnn, los angeles. >> well, california has more cases of covid-19 than any state in the united states. well over 2 million confirmed infections since the pandemic began. front line medical workers there are fighting an up hill battle you can imagine as they face an overwhelming surge of patients. i spoke to dr. cooperman of university of california, and i asked how it compares with the conditions he saw earlier in the year. take a listen. >> the early peak in march was not half as big as the peak now. back in march, we didn't know what we were dealing with. we had a new viral pandemic. we did not know how to treat patients, and we weren't sure if we were transmitting disease to our families and to our loved ones. now, the peak is much bragreate yet we are much more experienced in caring for this disease. we know how to treat patients. we know how to keep ourselves safe and prote

on our next hour, andrea mitchell will talk to admiral brett giroir, key member of the coronavirus tasko doubt they'll be talking in part about the criticism of the vaccine rollout so far. it's time for theraflu hot liquid medicine. powerful relief so you can restore and recover. theraflu hot beats cold. ♪ oh, oh, (announcer)®! ♪ once-weekly ozempic® is helping powerful relief so you can restore and recover. many people with type 2 diabetes like emily lower their blood sugar. a majority of adults who took ozempic® reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. here's your a1c. oh! my a1c is under 7! (announcer) and you may lose weight. adults who took ozempic® lost on average up to 12 pounds. i lost almost 12 pounds! oh! (announcer) for those also with known heart disease, ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke, or death. it lowers the risk. oh! and i only have to take it once a week. oh! ♪ oh, oh, oh, ozempic®! ♪ (announcer) ozempic® is not for people with type 1 diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. do not share needles or pens. don't reuse needle

assistant health secretary brett giroir tol

. >> joining is admiral brett giroir. we learned russia has banned travel from the united kingdom, india, canada. concern over this new variant of coronavirus which is spreading beyond control in the united kingdom. what is the latest on what the trump administration, this country knows about this new variant? >> well, thank you for having me on about this important topic. i had an extensive discussion with dr. redfield and his top people last night and this is what we know. the variant that's being discussed was first identified in september, so it's not something that just arose in the last week. it has become of concern because it is becoming the dominant variant in the uk. the inference is that because it is a dominant variant, it may be more transmissible and that may be true. it has not been proven but it may be true. what there is no evidence of nor reason to believe, it is not any more lethal or any more dangerous than the normal coronavirus, no evidence to suggest that, no reason to believe it. there is also no e

of this pandemic has millions of doses of vaccine begin to arrive all over the country admiral brett giroir says the same challenges that limited testing early in the pandemic could become a problem again. but that that's the way life i mean this is a newly developed vaccine. the same way we didn't have any task. you can't create hundreds of millions of tasks into you develop the test and develop the technology but this time juror says multiple contingency plans are in place. there's backup vaccines in case, a shipment >>misplaced or you know there's a an issue with a truck or anything else. >>as the vaccine distribution process gets underway. states say they're going to need financial help and for that they're turning to congress. >>the ball sort of our court now in congress indiana senator todd young says the medical community has done its job. >>and now it's time for congress to do theirs and passed the relief the nation needs so that we can. >>make sure we get vaccine out to more americans. >>senate minority leader chuck schumer calls the vaccine. the first best hope for defeating the p

white house coronavirus task force member and testing czar admiral brett giroir told andrea mitchelln the last hour that by the end of next week, 19.9 million more doses will be distributed to states across the country. and we're expecting president-elect biden to criticize the trump administration over the pace of vaccinations when he speaks later on this afternoon. and joining me is geoff bennett from wilmington, delaware, covering the biden transition. geoff, good to see you. we did reference this reporting from mike memoli on what we'll hear from the president-elect later on today about the pace of these vaccinations going out. what more can we expect there in wilmington? >> yeah, and it's a great point you make. the trump administration's vaccine distribution process, so far as we know, is off to a much slower start than administration officials had projected and promised. you have the vice president, the current fda director, the hhs secretary, all on the record saying that by the end of the year, they vowed to vaccinate some 20 million americans. well, there are a couple of da

admiral brett giroir, part of the white house task force, says it's the hhs secretary who serves on the task force who was on with me yesterday, he defended the vaccine rollout, saying it was really up to the states. >> the federal plan is to provide the guidance, to provide the infrastructure. you know, we're providing all the vaccines, the distribution mechanisms, the needles, the alcohol swabs. it's really a state and local level to get vaccines in arms like it always is, every year, 170 flu shots. that's done at the local level. the federal government doesn't invade texas or montana and provide shots to people. >> dr. adalja, any reaction to that? >> i wouldn't take a victory lap over this if these are vaccines that are just sitting in refrigerators. there's a big difference between a vaccine and a vaccination program. if they're not getting into people's arms, they're worthless. there's zero efficacy to a vaccine that isn't used. this isn't the time to shift responsibility to the states and the states are clearly faltering, so now is the time to show leadership in this pandemic, le

this morning admiral brett giroir, the assistant secretary of health, says the administration is nowllion doses will be distributed to states by the first week in january. here's the distinction. that's doses available, not 20 million shots in arms. for reference, a month ago they thought they would make enough doses available to put shots in 20 million arms by the end of the year. 20 million arms, by the way, is 10 million doses, 10 million people because it's two doses per person. but they were going to continue to vaccinate 25 million to 30 million people every month going forward. this new projection comes just days after operation warp speed's chief adviser, dr. moncef slaoui, admitted that the ramp-up of vaccinations is, quote, slower than we thought it would be. indeed. now that the end of the year is on thursday, the projections have changed in no small part because this is our current vaccination pace. cdc reports that as of this morning, more than 11.4 million vaccines have been distributed to states, but only 2.1 million people have actually gotten their first shot. now, t

brett giroir, so let's listen to what they had to had. >> up to now, i don't think there's been a single variant that would be resistant to the vaccine. we can't exclude it, but it's not there now and this particular variant in the uk i think is very unlikely to have escaped the vaccine immunity. >> viruses mutate. we've seen almost 4,000 different mutations among this virus. we have not seen a single mutation yet that would make it evade the vaccine. can't say that won't happen in the future. but right now, it looks like the vaccine should cover everything that we see. >> now, the walter reed scientists are going to be using a computer model to look at the genomic sequencing of this uk variant to see how it sort of meshes with the vaccine. other labs around the world are doing the same thing. erica. >> elizabeth, we can definitely hear there that there is a real effort to let people know that it's not uncommon for viruses to mutate. but when you hear that it can spread so much more quickly, that understandably gives people pause. just how concerned should people be? is it as scary as it

as when the shot will be available to the general public, admiral brett giroir expects that every american should be able to get one by june. the president-elect's team says it may take a little longer. dr. vivek murthy says it may take until early fall to vaccinate the general population. let's go to that quooshaquille outside the moderna's distribution site in olive branch, mississippi. good to see you, shaq. tell me, what is the latest there? >> reporter: alicia, we saw several trucks roll out of the facility behind me today. and the bottom line is that the moderna vaccine, the second vaccine approved by the fda to help fight the coronavirus is en route to americans. it's going to all 50 states. we expect dlaifrs. those first deliveries to start arriving tomorrow. it was a warning that we saw the supply chain process really play out in realtime with cameras. we saw workers go into a big freezer room and break down moderna's stockpile of vaccinations into individual shipments. those boxes were then emptied with -- or placed with cooling packs and those boxes put on fedex trumps here in t

thank you so much to you and your team admiral brett giroir joining us this morning the baby boom weilization a big industry we are taking a closer look at with new technology coming up next the production staff hits back at tom cruise, cruz onset tirade over covid-19 safety has far-reaching consequences you are going to hear it on the morning buzz coming up you are watching "mornings with maria" live on fox business. ♪ ♪ up ♪ so if rhythm ♪ ♪ we were the first to bring 5g nationwide. . upgrading over a thousand towers a month with ultra capacity 5g. to bring speeds as fast as wifi to cities and towns across america. and we're adding more every week. coverage and speed. who says you can't have it all? expect covid-19 pandemic causing a spike in in vitro fertilization industry fertility center saw 41% increase in women freezing eggs this year an industry plagued with issues, over 100 million frozen egichl gs embryos globally in preparation for in vitro fertilization will translate to billions in decades offer 300 million babies project to be born by the end of the? hurt the massive gr

senate intelligence committee about that massive cyberattack, and he'll go one-on-one with admiral brett giroir to discuss the moderna vaccine as it rolls out for distribution across the nation. dan? >>> time for the weather. greg dutra from wls, our station in chicago, is with us. rob is out. it's nice to have a clean shaven weatherman this morning. greg, we're hearing about a christmas week storm. >>> just when the nor'easter was over we're ramping up for yet another storm system that starts in the pacific northwest on monday, makes its way into the central portion of the u.s. here. the midwest by wednesday evening. looks like rain switches over to snow in chicago. look down to the south. one to two inches of rain, rather, with strong storms too. this moves on to the east coast as mainly rainfall. that's the big difference between this storm and the last storm. there could be damaging winds too along with localized flooding. really damaging potential there when rain falls on fresh snow and everything melts with the ground being wet, not being able to soak it up goes right into rivers and stre