Elizabeth . Reporter thats right, john. Whats exciting about this new data is its a much larger data set, so its much more reliable than what they announced a few weeks ago. So lets take a look at what these percentages are. What theyre showing is that their vaccine is 94. 1 effective. Thats very much along the lines of what they said earlier. Also, very close to the pfizers effectiveness. And this vaccine, they say, is 100 effective against severe disease. Now, lets take a look at the numbers that they gave that led to this percentage. So moderna says that 11 out of the 15,000 people in their study who received the vaccine got covid19. So 11 out of 15,000 who received the vaccine got covid19. But 185 people out of the 15,000 who received the placebo got covid19. So you can see, thats a huge difference. You can really see how the vaccine made a difference. And in this study, it went on for several months, and moderna didnt give covid19, people just went out into their communities, and the rates of covid have been so high in the past several months, that people just naturally ran into and got infected with covid19. Now, the next steps is the fda and the cdc so to review both the pfizer and the Moderna Vaccine. Dr. Anthony fauci telling us that he thinks the First Americans will get vaccinated in the second half of december. John, alisyn . And zplelizabeth, were also getting some news about distribution. Who will get these vaccines first and in what order when they become available. What have we learned . Right. So thats up to an Advisory Committee to the center for disease control. And this group of independent experts seems to be steering towards two groups to get it first. One is Front Line Health Care workers. And the other is nursing home residents. And then after that, other highrisk groups such as essential workers Like Police Officers or people with underlying medical conditions. But right now, it looks like the first in line will be Health Care Workers and nursing home residents. John, alisyn . Elizabeth, thank you very much for all of that information. Okay, joining us now is someone who is contributing to the Moderna Vaccine trial, dr. Carlos del rio. Hes the executive associate dean of Emory University school of medicine at grady health system. Also with us, cnn medical analyst, dr. Jonathan reiner, a professor of medicine at George Washington university. Great to have both of you. So dr. Del rio, this breaking news that weve just gotten, that they are applying today for the emergency use authorization, so what does that mean in terms of the timeline . When could it be available . Well, alisyn, i think this is fantastic news. And as elizabeth said, you know, the efficacy to prevent disease of 94. 1 , but in addition, of all of the serious cases of covid that there were in the study, 30 cases of serious covid, all of them were in the placebo, none of them were in the vaccine arm. Not only does it prevent infection, it really prevents severe disease. We dont know if it prevents we dont know if it prevents infection or not, it just prevents disease at this point in time. So once we got the vaccine rolled out, probably by the second week of december, well probably see vaccinations either with moderna or the pfizer or both, we still need to continue to use a mask and protect ourselves, because we can still potentially get infected and transmit to others. We dont have that data. That data will be coming up later whether it prevents infection or not. But the fact that it prevents disease, especially severe disease is good news, considering the number of people hospitalized with covid right now zplp and dr. Reiner, thats a really striking figure that jumps off the screen. 100 effective against severe illness. Now, it will be some time, we understand, it will be some time and first to get the vaccine will be Health Care Workers and maybe vulnerable populations in nursing homes. But six months, a year from now, if you have a vaccine, maybe more than one, 100 effective against severe illness, how can that change behavior . What will it allow us to do . It will allow us to go back to basically a normal life. And thats really what you want this vaccine to do. We want to prevent people from dying. You know, fortunately, you know, well over, you know, 98 of people who acquire this virus do survive. The problem is the small number of people, the relatively small proportion of people who die from this or the proportion of people who get very sick and suffer hospitalizations. And, you know, the Moderna Vaccine and the Pfizer Vaccine seem to be remarkably effective at preventing this from happening. And now particularly, this morning, with the moderna data, suggesting 100 effective against severe disease, like hospitalization is very welcome news. And this is the promise that will return our society and society around the world to normal life. Oh, my gosh. What a fantastic development. But, of course, the devils in the details, dr. Del rio. And so weve been hearing for weeks now that the first people who will get this vaccine, youre saying, middecember, will be Front Line Health Care workers. But let me just show you the numbers. Because there are many people who need it than will be able to get it. So in terms of the numbers, 40 million vaccine doses, okay, are estimated to be available by the end of december. But there are 21 Million Health care personnel, 87 Million People considered essential workers, like front line workers in terms of, you know, police, et cetera, 100 million adults with highrisk medical conditions, and 53 million americans 65 and older, obviously, some of them in nursing homes. So theres just not enough to go around. And i know theres this Advisory Committee, the cdc Advisory Committee thats meeting tomorrow to try to figure out who exactly will get those 40 doses. So whats the answer . Well, the answer is that this is one of the most complicated Public Health experts weve ever done. Vaccinating over 250 million americans in a matter of six months or so is not going to be easy, especially with a vaccine that requires two doses, so one dose today and one dose in a month. But its doable. We put a man on the moon, we can do this. I think its going to require a lot of coordination, a lot of collaboration of, you know, federal dissipate governors and medical personnel. And of course, the community. Because, remember, vaccines dont work, vaccination works. Youve got to get vaccines into people. Its going to be a tiered approach. The National Academy of science, engineering, and medicine put out a report that is very comprehensive on this topic. The cdc Advisory Committee has essentially accepted the report. And this tiered approach would mean that youre going to start vaccinating people that are highest risk and move until you get to the general population. Im pretty confident that by some time between april and june, we will be getting to the general population and well be immunizing everybody. And as was previously said, i think by the fall, i hope that we will be back to essentially normal. Thats great news. Thats great news. And it increases the urgency to get there. It increases the urgency on all of us to behave in the right way until then. And dr. Reiner, dr. Deborah birx was out over the weekend saying things that i think alarmed a lot of people. She was very blunt with what you should do if you traveled for thanksgiving, which frankly the cdc had warned against. And this is what deborah birx said. So, listen. If youre young and you gathered, you need to be tested about five to ten days later, but you need to assume youre infected and not go near your grandparents and aunts and others without a mask. And if youre over 65 or if you have comorbidities and gathered at thanksgiving, if you develop any symptoms, you need to be tested immediately. If you traveled for thanksgiving, dr. Reiner, assume youre infected. And both dr. Birx and dr. Fauci are warning of this surge upon a surge, because of family gatherings. What do you see . Oh, it is going to happen. I think just as we were trying to educate the public prior to thanksgiving, to assume that they might have been exposed or infected before they went home, now since the virus is so ubiquitous around this country, if youve traveled on thanksgiving, on the thanksgiving holiday, you should assume youve been infected or exposed to the virus. Even if you have no symptoms, especially if you have no symptom symptoms. You should consider quarantining for a week and then getting tested. Thats the sensible thing to do. Stay home for a week and then get tested. Dr. Del rio, i believe you traveled for the thanksgiving holiday and the reason that i think that is because we have this lovely picture of you in a contraption of safety, where you have a mask and eye protection and a plastic over it and a hat. So what was your take on the safety at the airports and whats your plan now that youre back home . Well, you know, indeed, i traveled, i went to new york to visit my daughter, who had just had a baby last week, and thats our first granddaughter. Congratulations so we had to go see her. And we took many precautions. We got tested three days before we got on the plane, we got tested four days after we arrived. We essentially stayed within our bubble. And then we traveled using an k95 mask and using, as you saw, a face shield or goggles and with purell, with hand sanitizer. And i will tell you, there wasnt a lot of people at the airport in laguardia, more people in the airport at atlanta. But overall, i saw everybody masked. And in the planes, you know, i flew delta. Theyre doing a very good job of really enforcing the masking, of blocking the middle seat, of increasing the air ventilation, of cleaning the planes. I felt pretty safe on the plane. Im more concerned when i go to the Grocery Store and other places. I think traveling was okay, but you have to follow the registrations and be careful. Keep your social distance and do all of those different things. And it is a matter of keeping that at the front of your head all the time, the masking, the face shield, keeping your distance, all of those things to try to minimize your risk of getting infected. But im back in atlanta, and as dr. Birx said, in five to seven days, im going to get tested. Are you going to quarantine until then . Im going to stay, pretty much, yes, im pretty much going to stay home. So youre following the advice from dr. Birx and others. You traveled, youre going to stay home, get tested in five to seven days. Thats what you need to do at this point. Thats what you need to do as this goes forward. Dr. Reiner, what do you think of dr. Del rio hitting the road for thanksgiving . Oh, if i had a new grandchild, i would be hitting the road, also, and geared up like dr. Del rio. Look, you know, we have lives that we have to live and all of these decisions are very personal. I think dr. Del rio and his wife took sensible precautions on the front end and now on the back end theyll do the same, theyll do whats important now that theyre back in atlanta. So, congratulations. Mazel tov. Congratulations, indeed. Dr. Del rio, dr. Reiner, thank you so much for being with us this morning. Appreciate it. Take care. All right, president elect biden set to announce his Economic Team today. Well tell you who he is expected to choose and who is already generating some controversy, next. Tired of overpaying for your prescriptions . Try optum perks. Its a new way to save up to 80 . And everyone can do it. Its from optum, a Health Care Company thats trusted by millions of people. You dont have to sign up for anything. Just go to optumperks. Com. And get a coupon to use at your pharmacy. Thats it. I opted in. I opted in. You can, too. Opt in and save big today. To save you up to 60 . These are all great. And when you get a big deal. You feel like a big deal. Priceline. Every trip is a big deal. President elect joe biden and Vice President elect Kamala Harris will receive their First National security briefing today. Biden will also formally announce his Economic Team today after naming an allfemale Senior Communications team last night. Joining us now to talk about this, we have cnn political analyst, sungman kim, a White House Reporter for the Washington Post. Also with us, brittany shepard, National Politics recorder for yahoo news. Great to see both of you. Let me just put up the list of the women who will be leading the Communications Team in the biden white house. And, you know, brittney, donai t want yes, its an historic headline and a very important historic headline, but i think that sometimes eclipses their qualifications for the job. These women already familiar to lots of our viewers. Theyve been around washington. Theyve been in and out of the white house. They know what theyre doing. But as you point out, its very notable, because washington is the ultimately old boys club. Exactly, alisyn. I mean, d. C. Is the city of boys clubs. I think the white house is probably the most notorious of them all. Both in the press representation and in the staffing. Its critical for the Biden Transition Team that they are putting adults in the room. Thats why youre seeing a lot of obamaworld veterans, both formally and informally in jen psaki and others, symone sanders, as well, from the Bernie Campaign and the Biden Campaign. Its critical to them that the voice coming out of the white house representing joe biden is not only fierce in loyal defense of him, but also fresh. The campaign and now the transition has made pains to ensure that their Transition Team is diverse in thought, in experience, in age, and thats continuing over here to the Communications Team. And i think its notable that over the last four years, we have had a maybe acrimonious relationship to put it polite we what whats coming out of the White House Press shop, but we did hear a lot from President Trump himself. He would be out on the lawn speaking for sometimes an hour and a half if its snowing, if its 100 degrees with a group of adults like the Biden Campaign has liked to create. I dont think were going to hear from biden as much. I think well be hearing a lot from these women and we should really be getting familiar with their names. Its a big job and they have a lot of work to do. Not just to restore confidence in an administration or in a government, but in institutions themselves. Because americans have lost faith in institutions. And thats a tall order to try to restore that in just a few years. Sungminh, were also getting reporting on the Economic Team that biden will nominate. We learned cecelia rouse, a labor economist at princeton. And neera tanden to run the office of management and budget, which is a Senate Confirmed role. Why does that matter . Because theres already griping overnight about that nomination. A spokesperson for senator john cornyn has put out a statement basically saying something to the effect of, theres a 0 chance that she will be confirmed. And then, also, a former spokesperson for Bernie Sanders saying, everything toxic about the Corporate Democratic Party is embodied in neera tanden. Interesting that this is the pick all of a sudden after a few weeks thats generated the controversy. Whats going on here . Well, neera tanden has been a prominent figure in Democratic Politics for a very long time. Obviously, she is in her role as the leader of a very prominent liberal think tank, the center for american progress. She was an ardent Hillary Clinton ally in 2016, which put her up against a lot of Bernie Sanders supporters, like the one you just quote there had and there are a lot of comments that both the left and right may dig through of neera tanden that may surface at her confirmation hearing. I know republican operatives were going through her feeds and screen shotti inting some of hee colorful tweets. And also just the democrats could be interesting. We just talked about her clash with sombere bernie supporters. Bernie is the top democrat on the Senate Budget committee, so he will be helping to lead the confirmation hearings, perhaps in a role to lead her defense against republicans. But i think this is why those georgia runoffs january 5th have so many high stakes for the execution of joe bidens agenda, whether it is personnel or policy. And were seeing it play out right now. I think it is a pretty fair, it is a fair analysis to say that if there is a republicancontrolled senate, neera tanden is probably not going to get confirmed. But certainly, if its one controlled by democrats, or one where Kamala Harris has the tiebreaking vote, she could be muscled through. Do you have anything you want to add to that, brittney . I think its important to note, too, i think a lot of progressives feel a bit blindpseudoed by whats been happening with some of these transition picks, and neera tanden is kind of a really bold example of that. They feel like even as the Biden Ca