general gus perna, i want to thank you for your dedication. we continued from the beginning to operate an approach at the federal level that is federally supported, state managed and locally executed. we will continue to respect decisions the state governments are making. in efforts to slow the spread. but to be very clear, president trump has been very clear we don't support another national lockdown and don't believe it's necessary. i think dr. fauci reflected again, we are not calling for a national lockdown and we won't. beyond that, there have been some actions taken in jurisdictions across the country closing schools. i want the american people to know it is the position of this task force and this administration and of the cdc that we do not need to close our schools. i want to invite dr. redfield to speak about that. he reminded our task force at no point in the pandemic has the cdc ever recommended closing schools. the more we learned about this virus, the more it simply affirmed that. we think our kids belong in the classroom. we are

it's gus perna and we haven't heard enough about him.d the scenes on a program called tiberius, where just like the roman tiberius, he's looking at it from a computer point of view, so when the vaccine is deployed, that's right, deployed, he's going to be able to track it. we have a problem with this vaccine. it has to be stored at 80 degrees below zero centigra centigrade, but gore gus perna is on top of that and he's working with pfizer and pfizer already in place the plans for deploying this vaccine,or where it's going to go, where the supply chain is going to go andi gus perna was asked recently, four-star generalrn gus perna ws asked recently what are you going do, general, when the fda gives an emergency approval for this vaccine? and you know what the general said? one word, tucker buried execute. execute. and he said within 24 hours the first batch of this vaccine is v going to be in the right place all around the country, stored with dry ice or potentially with liquid nitrogen, the facilities will be there, the clinics will be t

was asked recently, four-star general, gus perna was asked recently, what are you going to do, generalda gives an emergency approval for this vaccine? and you know what the general said? one word, tucker: execute. execute. and you know what he said, within 24 hours, the first batch of this vaccine is going to be in the right places all around the country, stored with dry ice, or potentially with liquid nitrogen, the facilities will be there, the clinics will be there, the hospitals will be there, the pharmacies will be there, and you know what? i believe him. i have a question for you, tucker. who are you going to believe? this governor, who changes his mind every second on the political winds? for the general? tucker, i choose the military in this country every time. tucker? >> tucker: dr. marc siegel, thank you so much. that is the question of who are you going to believe? whenever the vaccine arrives, let's hope the people in charge slowly and calmly explained to us what it does, with the risks are, what the benefits are come and get buy-in from the public and calm everyone down bef

." >> david martin: while the rest of the country has been counting votes, an army general named gus perna has been counting doses of vaccine. he is in charge of operation warp speed, the catchy title given to the crash program to inoculate 300 million americans against the coronavirus by next spring. for those of you longing to reclaim a semblance of your previous life, it may not seem all that speedy, but it is compared to the five to ten years it usually takes to field a new vaccine. once approved, it will not be a silver bullet. just as with the annual flu shot some of us will still get sick. but it should make enough people immune so that the virus runs out of places to go. that would give this country what it badly needs right now- a shot in the arm. so if this distribution of vaccine is-- doesn't go according to plan, where does the buck stop? >> general gustave perna: me. conversation's over. (laugh) it's pretty easy, me. i hold myself 100% personally accountable to that end. >> martin: after a career as an army supply officer, general gus perna was two months away from retirement

. >> reporter: army general gus perna, in charge of delivering the vaccine, has been counting on pfizerbe the first and the most difficult to distribute because it requires two shots. >> second dose has to be targeted to the people that already received the first dose. it's essential to our success. >> we'll have the needles and syringes. >> reporter: marion whicker, one of perna's deputies, showed "60 minutes" the pfizer vaccine kit, complete with a card telling you when to come back for your second shot. how many of these are going to get lost? >> probably quite a few, which is why we are recommending to all the administrators to tell people to take pictures of it. >> reporter: the pfizer vaccine nus 94 degrtored at minus 94 degrees fahrenheit. to new jersey health commissioner judith persichilli, that means the shots will have to be given in hospitals already swamped by covid. >> my biggest fear is that we're dealing with a surge at the same time that we're trying to vaccinate. >> reporter: healthcare workers are likely to be the first to get shots, and general perna estimates that a

smoothly local hospitals, doctors offices, local pharmacies such as cvs and walgreens 4 star general gus perna says the vaccines will be distributed in priority waves the initial push will focus on the most vulnerable americans followed by senior citizens and health care workers in january. >>if there's more available after the initial push. then it will go out in the following kate weekly cadences of distribution. >>accordingly easer says that means the general public likely won't be able to get their hands on a vaccine until next spring so americans should still be cautious, especially now as we approach thanksgiving take care of ourselves be careful. >>because there is such a bright day ahead the health department says they're working with jurisdictions to make sure they're prepared to properly store and administer the vaccine as soon as they receive it. >>in washington, i'm anna warren, a key. >>uber is now asking customers holiday season, if you must travel burst face mask policy is still in place for both drivers and riders. and by plane this week may see new technology being used by the

general gus perna is remarkable. the planning going into distributing.on warp speed is the greatest public health achievement in modern times for the development and distribution of a vaccine for a novel virus in a matter of months. by next year, we will have this thing distributed so all of the at risk people are vaccinated and most of the country can be vaccinated within months from now. that's unprecedented. if we had known this information, we would have a different election. >> one person's enthusiasm about having a vaccine that could end the coronavirus pandemic is another person's greed and ego stroke. listen to new york governor andrew cuomoed about a vaccine yesterday. >> why is it moving so fast? two reasons. money and ego. he wants to say i solved covid because i discovered a vaccine. no, it's all bs. he didn't do anything. it's the drug companies. nobody is going to trust him saying it's a safe vaccine. >> katie, there is a lot of money in creating pharmaceuticals and these companies received a lot of money already from the federal government

secretaries of joint chiefs and they immediately said, the person you need leading this effort is general gus perna. the american public are in deep, deep gratitude to these two individuals, as well as the hundreds of people on their teams, delivering the kinds of results, historic results we've seen in the last week. so, we'll turn now to questions. >> thank you, operator, we can now open it up for questions. >> thank you. at this time, if you would like to ask a question, you may press star 1. please unmute your offense and state your first and last name unprompted. to withdraw your question, you may press star 2. one moment for the first question. zachary brennan, you may go ahead and please state your outlet. >> thanks for taking the question, i'm with politico. i'm curious if someone can talk about federal plans for vaccine waste. if you're trying to vaccinate a hospital with 37 doctors and the pfizer vaccine only comes in five doses per vial. and 195 vials per container. what is the plan for the remaining doses that might be left over? >> let me ask general perna. >> thank you. really an impo

>>local pharmacies such as cvs and walgreens 4 star general gus perna says the vaccines will be distributedn priority waves the initial push will focus on the most vulnerable americans followed by senior citizens and health care workers in january. >>if there's more available after the initial push. then it will go out in the following kate weekly cadences of distribution. >>accordingly easer says that means the general public likely won't be able to get their hands on a vaccine until next spring so americans should still be cautious, especially now as we approach thanksgiving take care of ourselves be careful. >>because there is such a bright day ahead the health department says they're working with jurisdictions to make sure they're prepared to properly store and administer the vaccine as soon as they >>the organization is trying to regain their footing after the covid-19 pandemic is an east bay youth group hip-hop for change aims to empower young people through music and the arts and its founder says it's also trying to reclaim hip-hop music which he says has been corrupted by big record

we have ongoing daily interactions with the trump administration, tony fauci, general gus perna, them there and a wide-open channel. likewise we have a wide-open channel with the biden's people. murphy and ron klain and others. those two camps aren't speaking so that is the fail of the system and that is a big problem. that is a major problem that could put both the distribution of a vaccine at risk and, more broadly, lives at risk. it has to get solved sooner or later. >> all hands on deck and need everybody working together. it's not a political issue but life and death issue and we have to get ready because sadly thousands of americans will be dying in the coming weeks and months unless this country gets its act together. governor murphy, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >>> coming up, president trump launching new attacks against the election and the american democracy itself. is his refusal to accept his loss putting lives on the line? e precision jet spray and an advanced pad system. and offers personalized cleaning suggestions unique to your home. bra

army general gus perna heads up the military effort to ship and inoculate millions of americans that vaccine. an fda vaccine advisory committee begins reviewing pfizer's emergency use authorization request december 10th. but members of an independent vaccine working group including our next guest, professor arthur kaplan, have concerns. they write, quote, an emergency use authorization would potentially open the flood gates to deploy an unapproved and unlicensed vaccine to millions or tens of millions of individuals before gathering the proof of safety and efficacy that licensing a new vaccine typically demands. for more we are so pleased to welcome to the broadcast the aforementioned arthur kaplan. he's a professor of bioethics. authored and edited dozens of books including a recent one relevant to this conversation, vaccination ethics and policy. we're also joined by dr. kavita patel, former senior aide during the obama administration. she's now a nonresident fellow at brookings. welcome to you both. arthur, talk first about your concerns about the emergency use authorization. is i

the army general overseeing operation warp speed and vaccine distribution, general gus perna, is essentiallywhile it is flying. >> we are helping with, you know, things with just the augmentation program support. but we are doing is bringing, enabling capability and capacity to the fight. >> the vaccine is a two dose vaccine administered 21 days apart. paulus trotsky told "60 minutes" the problem with the pfizer vaccine will be refrigeration. >> basically my knee to minus 8. we have to make sure that we send that particular vaccine to the right places that either have the capacity or the ability to do the dry ice. >> new york governor andrew cuomo warned that if distribution is bungled by the outgoing of administration, the biden administration will be blamed. >> if this administration rolls out a flawed vaccination plan, it's going to be a problem because it's going to be very hard for the biden administration to turn it back. >> the general worries about vaccine skeptics. >> we get vaccines to the american people and they don't take them. shame on us. >> the white house covid task force le

we have a wide open pipeline into the administration including the likes of tony fauci, general gus perna, all the folks doing really good work. we talked to the private sector developers of these vaccines. we have that wide open. like weiss we are wide open in our channels with the biden team, whether it's vivek murthy, ron klain and others. the bizarre thing that will put people at risk is there is no connection between those two camps. that will matter in new jersey, it will matter in america, it's completely unacceptable. >> alisyn had a conversation with jason furman about the idea of stimulus and there is no agreement on the economic relief plan. maybe it will happen in the next 60 days, maybe it will have to wait until after january 20th. can new jersey wait 60 more days for more money? >> boy, sooner is better than later, john. i was on with speaker pelosi last night and i know she's doing everything she can. this can't wait. forget about what we need as a state four our budgets or local, you have folks unemployed who are just desperate. small businesses, restaurants, they've lite

we've got one tomorrow, in addition to secretary azar, you have the likes of tony fauci, general gus pernaephen hahn, others of. i give the private sector players a lot of credit and i give decades of investment in public health a lot of credit. having said that, we're not in the end zone yet. this is incredibly complex. i'm gratified that at long last the gsa has you allowed both teams to begin to coordinate. i be monemoan it took as long ad there's complexity ahead in terms of distribution and federal support. this is going to be a historic path that we're on. i give them credit for the progress we've made but we have a distance yet to travel and the more we could be coordinated -- the other piece, bret, is the more the president-elect and the president are speaking from the same playbook, the more confidence folks will have in taking that vaccine. my confidence is very, very high. we need to make sure that's the case in the public at large. bret: well, good luck, governor murphy, we appreciate your time. have a good one. >> thanks for having me, bret. bret: up next, we'll bring in our s

the four-star general in charge of this, gus perna, has had a lot of time to think this through and they'veontracted with mckesson. i think it will go okay. the u.s. does this carefully orchestrated dance every year for flu vaccine, we give out 100 million doses of flu vaccine starting in august and going through the fall. this is a bit more ambitious, but it's not so completely different. so i do have some optimism that we'll be able to begin vaccinating the public in significant amounts. it's a matter of keeping everyone alive and not doing reckless things between now and the early part of next year. >> that's really true. and we don't know how long, very briefly, we don't know how long the immunity lasts for any one of these individual vaccines yet? >> yeah, that's exactly right, andrea, we don't know about the durability of protection. so the question i often get asked is, hey, dr. hotez, which vaccine are you going to wait for? the answer is, don't wait. first of all, you won't have a lot of choice, at least in the beginning, you take whatever vaccine is offered you to because there ar

that's being handled by general gus perna and the military and transport of that. once it gets there, it's the state and local authorities who are responsible for the distribution. so there are a couple of taspha. the part about 300 million doses getting shipped will be taken care of by people who know how to do that. the part at the end of getting into people's arms will be more challenging than the regular flu season. i think it would be foolish to deny that. i think it will be able to be done because the local people have done that in the past. hopefully, they will get the resources to help them to do that. >> january 20th, president biden calls you up, dr. fauci, what's the first thing you say to him? he says i need you, what's the first thing you want me to do dr. fauci, what do you say? >> there will be a couple things. i think it will be continuing to make sure the vaccines get distributed in an efficient and equatable way. that's important. i together with dr. birx say there are two types of testings, a couple, more than two but one is the testing for a sit

general gus perna was on yesterday going through our distribution plan with the commissioner of the department of health and it is a plan that is consistent with cdc guidance but also takes into account the uniqueness of our state, as any state would. i feel very confident that our plan will address the inequities that we -- that this virus has unearthed. may not have created them but has laid them bare, and the folks who need them most, especially our vulnerable communities, will get it at the head of the line. >> one more question on that. it's going to be pretty difficult -- this vaccine needs two doses, it needs to be stored in ultracold storage. millions of people are going to need it as quickly as possible. are you confident that you have all the resources in place, that the federal government has all the resources and logistics in place to ensure that the vaccine itself survives the transport from the federal government, from the cdc and the fda to the individual states and to the individual doctors' offices where this vaccine will be distributed? >> yeah. it's exceedingly complex. gene

we have a system, the distribution system led by general gus perna who is going to be responsible for getting the material there obviously locally. once they get them there, they're going to have to be able to distribute and that's what they're going to need more resources for, as we're hearing they're talking about needing considerable more resources to be able to implement that. >> is the pfizer vaccine safe for kids? has it been tested on kids? >> no, not yet. what we do -- and this is not an unusual situation -- is that once you have a vaccine shown to be safe and effective in adults, you can go back and do phase one and phase two trials in children and then do what's called bridging it, namely using the data to know that it's comparable responses in children but it's safe. and the reason we do that is that children are vulnerable and you've always got to make sure that you're dealing with a safe and effective vaccine before you even think about putting it into children. you want to get the children to get it as quickly as you possibly can. you don't want to deprive them of access

the chief operating officer of operation warp speed is four-star general gus perna who has said give me a day and these vaccines will be sent around the country, in one day. you will see that first batch going out. they have to be kept cold storage, charles, cold, very cold, about 70 degrees below 0 centigrade. that's dry ice. but once they get to the refrigerators in the hospital, they can have about a day or two or three outside of that cold storage and be kept in a freezer or refrigerator before being administered. pfizer has that plan in place already. it's going to be deployed, to use an army term, it's going to be deployed right away. charles: dr. siegel, always appreciate it. i learn so much. i don't know, i just feel better after we talk with you. thanks a lot. thank you. >>> meanwhile, folks, aoc says that we need to pay people to stay home. this is how we get the virus under control. but just who would foot the bill and for how long? i'm asking congressman andy biggs for the answers, next. trelegy for copd. ♪ birds flyin' high you know how i feel ♪ ♪ breeze drifting on by y

hey, the good news about it is my good friend general gus perna, is running this.e's a fine officer. he is a great american. he's going to make it happen. he and his team will make it happen. i think it's immensely important to bring the biden administration into this now. you know, those who are working on the transition. but, you know, chris, i don't think we should be super concerned about it because once you remove kind of these hyper political people across the government at this stage, what you have is you have really dedicated, in this case a military officer, but civil servants who are going to make this work. and of course they're doing it in a very close partnership with the private sector and private logistics chains. i have big confidence in this, chris, that this is going to work. >> but they have people over -- >> what you said at the outset of the show is right. the door should be open, right? hey, we're all americans, right? this virus isn't going after democrats or republicans, just like at 9/11 al qaeda didn't attack democrats and republicans. the

general gus perna, thanks for joining us. what exactly do you expect to have happen today? me on the show this morning. really remarkable news. you know, we've been on this journey for just a short time in relative terms. so for pfizer to file for their eua is remarkable. and my responsibility is to make sure that we're ready to take the next step, which is distribute safe and effective vaccine to the american people. >> and what do you have stockpiled right now? how quickly can it get out? >> so we have about 40 million doses of vaccine give or take exactly when the eua comes out and what we're going to do is we're going to execute fair and equitable distribution based on the population of the jurisdictions, jurisdictions identified as the 50 states, eight territories and six metropolitan cities. and so coupled working with the states and the cdc, we have developed a very extensive plan on how to distribute the vaccine. i will tell you, our success is going to be because of our whole of america approach. it's really been remarkable. whether it's the scientists and health a

gus perna, the official in charge of distribution at the federal level told "60 minutes" his worst nightmareyou have the vaccine and americans don't take it. do you share his concern and what do you say to those vaccine hesitant americans? >> vaccine hesitancy is a real problem. i hope the whole country will come together and say this was an independent process. it's exactly what i've assured the american people of for months which is, there would be an independent data and safety monitoring board that determines if you even see data. that happened. there will be a pharmaceutical company, a great reputation like pfizer that will determine if the data fits their ethical standards. that will go to the fda and they'll consider it against publicly published standards and guidance. they'll have a committee of independent advisers. and fda will make the determination if this vaccine meets their standards in a public and transparent way. so everybody will be able to talk to their health care provider and determine if it makes sense for them. but data and transparency and rule of law are what i hope

the scientific aspect of it which is led by saluai answer logistic aspect is led by general gus perks, pernaorking to make sure the logistics goes smoothly. we know right now what the company will do very likely, i'm certain they will be doing it putting in soon within the next week and a half or so for an emergency use authorization and ultimately for ultimate approval of the vaccine, which means if that goes along smoothly, that we may have doses that we are able to give to people by the end of november, the beginning of december, probably well into december. again, you have to go through the hoops of making sure all of the eyes are dotted and the t's are crossed about the safety and the regulatory aspects of it, but we would be giving vaccine to people very likely before the end of this year. that is good news. >> that is great news. we are all hoping it works out. as you heard today, i assume you heard, the president-elect joe biden outlined his pandemic plan today in great detail including wrapping up testing and hiring more contact tracers and providing clear guidelines to businesses a

gus per ma'am will outline our distribution plans on operation warp speed. i was at fema today and received a detailed briefing about our distribution plans i asked general perna to come here today and make that preparation tpresn people and putting us in a position that literally the day after one of these vaccines is approved we'll be shipping vaccines to the american people and within a day after that, we'll be seeing those vaccines injcketted into americans with a particular focus on those most vulnerable and those that are providing healthcare to the american people. finally, we'll talk with -- a bit about the way forward as state and local governments are continuing to act and take mitigation measures to slow the spread. you can assure them as we did governors again this week that we will support decision-making at the local level and we'll continue to support decisions that are made in each individual community based on the circumstances on the ground. with that being said, president trump wanted me to make it clear that our task force, this administration and our president does not support another national lockdown. and we do not support closing school