Life well planned. The freeman foundation. By judy and Peter Blum Kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for americas neglected needs. And by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Welcome to outside source. There is now a vaccine for coronavirus. The u. S. Firm pfizer says it is 90 effective and the results are huge step forward in the fight against covid19. Ive nevers felt professionally such a moment of joy. We were jumping up and down in the chairs of joy for humanity and medical advances to put an end to this dreadful pandemic. Ros stockmarkets have surged on hopes of a return to normal, or at least Something Like it, but there are huge challenges to getting the vaccine to all those people who need it. The u. S. Meanwhile has passed 10 million cases. Joe biden set up a task force and made tackling the pandemic his first priority. Meanwhile, donald trump is still refusing to concede the election and also sacked defense secretary mark esper. To figure a way this landscaping firm, four seasons, and not the whole tell of the same name, was chosen for a highprofile Tramp Campaign press conference on saturday. Welcome to all of you watching on pbs in america and all of you on bbc world news as well. It is nice to bring you some good news. A Covid Vaccine has been announced. Pfizer says the first results in the final vaccine trial shows there is is highly affected effective in preventing people from getting covid19. Here is chief officer. There are more steps that need to happen, but we feel we are on the cusp of one of the biggest medical advances for this society and mankind in the in 100 years. Ros som caution is still needed but the preliminary resultsre, we are told, highly promising. Pfizer is a u. S. Pharmaceutical company. They say the vaccine is more than 90 effective. It has been tested on over 43,000 people in six countries and that no safety concerns have been raised. The plans to apply for motrin seerpproval to use vaccine by the end of the month. The reaction from the World Health Organization special envoy. Certainly any promising news about a vaccine is great news and im pleased to hear theres a vaccine candidate that seems to be going through the phase three trial process and according to what we heard today, the results are looking good. Ros theres also a special envoy warning about abandoning current measures we are using to stop the virus. This is a statement as far as i can tell from the manufacturer. Great news, but i have been involved in vaccine quality assessments before and there are always many steps before regulatory authorities can say to the public, we are confident this is both effective and safe. Secondly, the vaccine has to be manufactured. Thirdly, the vaccine has to be offered to people everywhere. These are major tasks and they take time. Ros work to do, but nonetheless, a significant moment. There are lots of vaccines diseases for which making a vaccine is almost impossible. This announcement proves it is possible against the coronavirus. There are currently 12 vaccines in phase three final trials including madura moderna, another american one, and another nonamerican one. This means theres optimism the likes of which we have not really heard since this began. Earlier i was listening to bbc and there was this remarkable moment. The est is Sir John Bell who sits on the u. K. Vaccine task force. My colleague Sarah Montague asked what lots of people were wondering. Reporter do we now say with confidence life should return to normal by spring . Yes, yes, yes. Im probably the first one to say that, but i will say that with some confidence. Reporter ros im sure sarah was not her only one putting her arms in the air. This vaccine uses a experimental approach. Here is our medical editor ferg walsh on how it works. Reporter the vaccine uses a tiny part of the genetic sequence of coronavirus rather than the actual virus itself. Synthetic material known as rna is injected into muscle cells in the arm. This stimulates the creation of antibodies, yshaped proteins, which should bind onto coronavirus, preventing future infections. Killer t cells are also produced. These should identify and destroy cells which have become infected. Ros our Global Health correspondent Naomi Grimley explains the next steps from here. Reporter the important point to stress first of all is that the trial is continuing, so that will go on for another couple of weeks until the end of november when they think they will get enough data to be more categorical about its safety and effectiveness. Then it will go to the regulators to see if they will give it emergency approval. And then of course, you got to get to the issue of distribution and also working out which countries are going to get most of the vaccine. Remember, lots of countries have already bought it up or at least have agreementshat have it including the u. K. Then you have to roll it out, you have to give it to the most vulnerable. In this case, the elderly and health workers. Of course youve also got to work out how you get it to the low and middle Income Countries across the world, so perhaps you have sent things like a cold chain. Ros lets go to louisiana now and speak to dr. Victoria smith who is live with us. I know you took part in this trial. Tell me about your decision to do so. There were a lot of things that really made me want to be part of it. One, as a practicing physician, i could see how this is impacting my patients, and wanting to somehow be part of the response to be able tory to end this pandemic. I wanted to be part. Also seeing it was disproportionately affecting africanamericans and other people of color. I wanted to be part of the trial and really model that this was a safe process. Ros and what was your experience taking part in the trial . It has been gre. I received two injections. I dont know if i actually got the vaccine, but i did have some kind of fluey symptoms which makes me think i did get some of the live virus in my arm. Other than that, i have had no symptoms. I have been monitoring for symptoms once a week. Ros and what do you make of this moment, this announcement from pfizer . Is it as significant as so many are telling us . I think so. I was really excited to wake up to that news. Im really hoping this will not be the only vaccine that was effective and safe against covid, but to know that i was part of one of the vaccine trials that may be going toward distribution and production is really exciting. Ros do you have any concerns when its available that some of your patients might be reluctant to take it . Definitely. I have patients who are reluctant to take the flu shot every year. Part of what i do is spending time to explain to people the whys and the house of vaccines and why am only recommending it to protect them. Ros and we have two pieces of news to do is covid19 in america today. First the vaccine, and also joe biden, the president elect, saying he will set up the task force. Do you think the new president will change the discussions around covid19 both in medical circles but among patients as well . I think definitely. It seems like hes going to be a little more active and aggressive in dealing with the pandemic. As one of the folks i heard earlier said, just because we have a vaccine does not mean that we have to stop all of the things we have been doing, but have been wrist successful wearing face masks, aggressive with hand hygiene and staying apart. Ros i know people in the trial will be feeling very grateful to you. Thank you. Ros dr. Victoria smith, one of over 40,000 people in six countries who took part in a successful trial. The news of this vaccine came as the pandemic past another milestone in the u. S. They have now been 10 million confirmed cases and 237,000 people have died. Joe biden says tackling the epidemic will be the administrations first policy when he takes office in january. But today, he announced a new Coronavirus Team to lead americas response. We are ready to get to work addressing the needs of american people. Today, that work begins. It starts with doing Everything Possible to get the covid19 under control so safely and sustainably, resume our lives, put this pandemic behind us. Ros the task force is made up of 13 members, led by the leading spokesperson on Public Health under Barack Obamas presidency. They held its first meeting online as you would expect and of course, during the election the voters had a clear choice on biden. Joe biden has been more cautious in his approach and the advic he gives americans then donald trump, notably on the issue of mask wearing in e foreseeable fe, a mask remains the most potent weapon against the virus. Todays news does not change that urgent reality. It doesnt matter who you voted for or where you stood before election day. It doesnt matter your party, your point of view. We could save tens of thousands of lives if everyone would just wear a mask for the next few months. Ros aside from covid19, the media is reporting joe biden is a draft of executive orders to oppose Donald Trumps policies. These are a key tool for any president when they want to make an instant mark. Donald trump issued four of them on his first week in office. Joe banded joe biden is planning to follow suit. He tweeted that in exactly 77 days the biden adminisation will rejoin the paris climate agreement. Thatill go down well internationally. The vast majority of countries are signatories. The cd paris citys mayor approves and says welcome back, america. This symbolizes our plan to get back together in view of the climate arrange and see. Climate emergency. Joe biden also says on his first state he will rejoin the who and restore our leadership on the world stage. Donald trump had been highly critical of the who throughout the pandemic, accusing it of being chinacentric. That charge is strongly denied by the who chief. Hears here is his reaction. We congratulate president elect joe biden and Vice PresidentKamala Harris and we look fward to working with his administration closely. We need to reimagine leadership, built on mutual trust and mutual accountability, to end the pandemic and address the prlems of inequalities that lie at the root of so many of the worlds problems. Ros here is the bbcs anthony circa on other donald trump policies that joe biden will look to reserve reverse. Reporter the other thing is a reimplementation of the protection for children of immigrants who enter the country illegally, socalled dreamers. This is something donald trump had been trying to wind down unsuccessfully in the courts, but mahave tried to do ain in the second term. I think its clear joe biden will reimplement that policy. Also do awawith some muslim ban. The ban of certain majority muslim nations donald trump implemented in his first year. Also, bring up the number of refugees resettled in the United States. That was something donald trump cut fairly drastically. Also, funding for the border wall. Donald trump was reallocating moneys from the Defense Department to further construct the border wall. I think that is something joe biden will very quickly put to an end. Donald trump relied on a lot of these executive actions. I think joe biden, because he may not have control of congress and might not have of a legislative policy, he will focus on those actions to make a statement about how things have changed with him. Ros in a few minutes on outside source we delve into the details on how this now Infamous Press conference happened saturday when Donald Trumps lawyer Rudy Giuliani ended up doing the event in the parking lot of a Gardening Company. You and u. K. Officials have resumed exit trade talks in london brexit trade talks in london. Reporter the arguments over brexit are once we have talked about many times before and there are still outstanding issues as both sides are trying to solve. The things that are different at the moment. When is the changing geopolitical landscape. You have gone from having a president in the white house passionately probrexit, promising the u. K. A freetrade deal, to a president who is antibrexit and sounds skeptical about the u. K. s plans for trying to ensure trade within the u. K. After brexit. The other thing is time now really is of the essence. It is only until the first of january 2 agree and ratify a deal. Thats a long process. Both sides are getting quite twitchy since the talks have been along for so long and have not come to any agreement. Ros im ros atkins with outside source. Our lead story is a good one, the development of a first proven vaccine for coronavirus hailed as its maker pfizer as a great day for science and humanity. Lets turn back to the u. S. Election. The voting very much still goes on. Joe biden was announced the winner of the election saturday. States have yet to officially certify the results. Candidates almost always accept the independent analysis of major u. S. Media companies as the outcome. It was whistle wisconsin, michigan, and pennsylvania that proved critical. The last few Percentage Points are still being counted. But the Republican Party has announced they are taking legal action over mailin ballots in pennsylvania. The bbcs charlie shows tally shows arizona and george are still counting. If those go his way, joe biden will win 306 Electoral College votes. Lets bring in a reporter from wilmington in joe bidens home state of delaware. Before we talk about mr. Biden, nald trump very much still president and he sacked one of his most senior colleagues. Reporter he has indeed. In the last couple of hours, we heard that the president has sacked his secretary of defense. Im just going to read that tweet. He says that mark esper has been terminated and im pleased to announce christopher miller, highly respected director of the National Counterterrorism center, will be acting secretary of defense. Over the last four years, we have often seen people unceremoniously fired and hired on twitter. You will remember Rex Tillerson was fired on twitter as was john kelly, h. R. Mcmaster, anthony scaramucci. The list goes on and on of the number of people who have found themselves on the wrong side of the presidency. Mark esper fell a far a foul of them in june with black lives matter protests taking place. He said a former National Guard marine that he did not support sending armed forces into civilians. We were not quite there yet. It was really than that the president talked about whether he would keep them or not. In the last 72 days, mark esper has been fired. With me now sorry, go ahead. Ros i was just going to ask you to carry on whats going reporter thank you, i was doing the same i have made several trips to delaware ended up. Every time the networks would rush here to delawar this is where joe biden was raised. He moved here as a 10yearold from scranton, pennsylvania. This is where his wife tragically died in a car accident with his infant daughter and where he became a senator at the age of 29. With me now is the attorney general of delaware state. Thank you so much for joining us. You actually worked with beau biden, joe bidens son who passed away in 2015, when he was attorney general. I did. I worked with him for a number of years. There is still a hole in my heart and the hearts of all delawarians. We still mourn his passing. I miss him every day. The first day i walked into the Attorney Generals Office after i had won the election, i sat down quietly and closed all the doors, and i just thought about beau. That was his office. Reporter his father actually said one of the reasons he ran because we know joe biden ran in 1988. And he said he did it because beau asked him to. Thats right. Beau and his father had such a deep bond. En you saw them together, the closeness was palpable. I know beau biden wld have wanted this. Reporter i can see you are getting quite emotional. We are in a situation where this country is deeply divided and we have a president who is not conceding. He is continuing to hire five hire people. In the last few days. How much of the Voting System do you think needs to change . I am so proud of American Voters who turned out in record numbers to vote in this election and it is a testament to the strength of our democracy despite the pandemic and despite the troubles we are seeing and the deep divisions in the country. Joe is the only person i can imagine to take on the job of being president of all of the states, and to do it in a way that i think no one else can do, which is the quality that sets him apart from every other leader i have ever known. That is in the United States and throughout the world, his unique ability to eathize. Joe has known tragedy. He has the ability to understand the suffering that other people go through. And during this pandemic, during this crisis, the country in the world has seen that he can heal people. He can comfort them and bring us together in a way no one else could. Reporter kathy, thank you so much for joining us. As she mentionede biden has made coronavirus really the cornerstone of his campaign and it is one of the first things he has done here today, announce a task force for coronavirus. He says it is heres his priority. Ros thank you vy much. Donald trumps defeat was announced while the president was playing golf, and when his campaign was setting up in a gardening firms yard by a sex shop and a crematorium. The story starts with donald trump tweeting there would be a press conference saturday morning at the four seasons in philadelphia. We presumed he meant here at the four seasons hotel. Another clarification, not the hotel, but four seasons landscaping, a Gardening Company at an industrial sector at the outskirts of philadelphia. The story headlined it began on a gold escalator, it may have ended at four seasons total landscaping. The director of sales said, i have no idea why the campaign thought to do