liz palmer reports from london. >> reporter: good morning.se numbers point to the inequality of access to vaccine around the world. at this point, the developed countries are 13 13% of the population have locked in more than half of the world's vaccine supply. it is india's giant pharmaceutical manufacturers that will be key to making enough vaccines, hundreds of millions of doses for the world, especially developing countries, and, of course, for itself. the indian government staged a dry run for our giant program that will try to inoculate a million and a half people a day. >> you see how short of breath you are? >> reporter: but as vaccinations gathered speed, so did the virus. extra contagious strains, one in south africa, have pushed up the death rate alarmingly. >> it is scary, scary for us all. >> reporter: one in london was hit hard, too, and hospitals were at full capacity. so it was a huge relief when regulators approved the astrazeneca vaccine just before the new year. tomorrow it will be rolled out in britain, with such urgency th

>> brennan: liz palmer in london, thank you. we want to go to the incoming biden administration's c.d.c. director, rochelle walensky. and she joins us from boston. good morning to you, doctor. >> doctor: good morning, margaret. thanks for having me. >> brennan: we are already at 4,000 cases a day. the outgoing c.d.c. director says wh that we're about to be in the worst month. do you agree with his forecast, that it is goingt wor? octo unfortunately, i do. i think that, you know, we've -- as you've noted, nearly 4,000 deaths a day, almost 400,000 deaths total by the middle of february. we expect half a million deaths in this country. that doesn't speak to the tens of thousands of people who are living with a yet uncharacterized syndrome after they've recovered. and we still yet haven't seen the ramifications of what happened from the holiday travel in terms of high rates of hospitalizations and the deaths thereafter. so, yes, i think we still have some dark weeks ahead. >> brennan: how often is the public going to hear from you?

liz palmer reports from london. >> reporter: good morning. the u.k.s now more than half way towards its goal of vaccinating 50 million people over 70 and medical staff by mid-february. and that's in sharp contrast to the situation in europe. some german vaccination centers are completely empty because they've run out of vaccines. and there is the same problem in parts of spain and france. manufacturing delays and sluggish bureaucracy means europe has vaccinated just 3% of its population, compared to 8% in the u.s. and 13% in the u.k. but those are numbers african countries can only dream of. most are still waiting to get a single dose. as south africa battles a dangerous new virus variant that sent deaths rocketing up. the fact is 95% of the vaccines on earth have so far gone to the 10 richest countries. for life to return to normal, that's going to have to change, warns the w.h.o. >> we will not end the pandemic anywhere until we end it everywhere. >> reporter: and its far from ended in europe. in spite of lockdowns and curfews. this is carnival we'l

. >> brennan: we want to check in with senior correspondent liz palmer in london.rning. here is a sobering statistic: although the number of infections is at least coming down here, england now has the worst per capita coronavirus death rate in the worgrgth ndhad at wkk, making mo room. hospitals are full of h newdoes kill more people. stark public warnings like this one reinforce the national lockdown. >> look them in the eyes and tell them you're doing all you can to stop the spread of covid-19. >> reporter: but there is good news here, too. britain's vaccine rollout is the third fastest in the world, about to hit the 6 million mark. europe, by contrast is having a rough time. vaccinations there got off to a slow start, and supplies are running low thanks to manufacturing problems. d few r trlands has second world war, though dog walkers are exempt. the fastest vaccine rollout is in israel. it started with the elderly, but now even teenagers are getting their covid shots. and, finally, there was huge international relief this week when the u.s. rejoined the world