Significant moments in the pandemic is now just hours away. An Fda Advisory Panel is set to meet tomorrow to discuss authorizing pfizers covid19 vaccine. U. S. Officials say nearly 3 million doses are ready to go once the green light is given. Supplies like needles and syringes should start being shipped out today. Also breaking, president elect bidens son hunter biden just revealed that he is now under federal investigation involving his taxes. Were going to tell you what were learning about that. Thats coming up. Lets start right now with more on the pandemic. Cnns nick watt is joining us. Nick, after months and months of suffering, authorization of a vaccine potentially may be imminent. Reporter wolf, tomorrow could be one of the most momentous days of this entire pandemic. This fda Vaccine Advisory Committee is going to meet for nine hours. A member of that committee tells us that after the nine hours they will take a vote and as early as thursday night or friday the fda commissioner could give the thumbs up. A green light for pfizers vaccine in the u. S. Could be just a day away. Within 24 to 48 hours from that Advisory Committee decision we will actually have shots in arms. Reporter the needles, syringes, wipes are ready to roll. Well begin that today. It will be distribution will be completed by friday. Reporter but doses of the vaccine will be tight. Between now and the end of the year we are going to only be able to immunize a fraction of the frontline workers that are going to need it. Our timeline for widespread distribution, which i will say again is months away, remains very fluid. Reporter theres another issue. Vaccine hesitancy. We must build trust in the American People. We must make them understand that the science that went into this, that the oversight that went into this is gold standard. When they then say that the vaccine is safe and effective, i will tell you all that i myself will be perfectly comfortable in taking the vaccine and i would recommend it to my family. Reporter the fda now also analyzing allergic reactions to the vaccine in two British Health workers who do have a history of allergic reaction. The expectation would be that subjects with known severe reactions, allergic reactions should not take the vaccine. Until we understand exactly what happened here. Reporter the White House Task force warns it could be late spring before vaccines slow the spread. And this country is now averaging more than 200,000 new covid19 cases every day. Thats near doubled in just a month. And averaging well over 2,000 deaths every day. Thats more than doubled in just a month. I would say this is the start of the thanksgiving bump. Reporter icus in many places are filling and fast. I feel like we are on some level on a precipice. But again, were not helpless. Wear masks, social distance. Reporter many states are reintroducing restrictions and we will do more if our trends do not improve. Reporter but some citizens just will not toe the line. In idaho forcing a health board to abandon a meeting. My 12yearold son is home by himself right now and there are protesters banging outside the door. Im going to go home. Reporter now, here in california weve just heard that one more region is going to go back under a stayathome order because icu beds are running low. That means that as of tomorrow night, wolf, there will be more than 36 million californians told to stay home as much as possible. Wolf . Nick watt reporting from l. A. Thank you very much. Lets bring in our chief medical correspondent dr. Sanjay gupta. Sanjay, what lu be watching for during this critical fda meeting on pfizers vaccine tomorrow . Well, you know, wolf, pretty much all the daya that weve really seen has come from the company itself. Were going to be looking to see how these fda scientists are looking at this data. And theyre looking down to the level of the individual medical record of these participants. Seeing if anything in particular jumps out at them. But the big things are are there people who may be excluded from this vaccine rollout . Weve heard, for example, people under the age of 16, women who are pregnant, people with certain immunocompromised conditions, how are they going to essentially be treated . And you know, other things. Wolf, youve got tens of millions of doses. Do you give tens of millions of people the first dose or do you sort of hold half the doses back given that this is a twodose vaccine . Theres pluses and minuses to both. And i think thats going to be a source of debate probably among the committee. So those are the sorts of things. Really validation of a lot of the things weve heard so far from these fda scientists themselves. If emergency use authorization, sanjay, is granted tomorrow, and we anticipate it will be, how quickly could the First American who isnt part of the Clinical Trial shall we say actually get the shot . You know, weve talked to a variety of people about this. And you do get some differing answers. But as a general rule weve been hearing around, you know, four days, 96 hours people will say. We sort of have this calendar sort of put together in terms of how things might unfold. December 10th, obviously tomorrow is this committee meeting. A decision could be made tomorrow as to whether or not this actually gets emergency use authorization or it could be in the next couple of days. Sometimes they take a few days to deliberate. December 15th, the first shipments of the vaccine delivered. And wolf, the expectation is, especially given the need, that people will start getting those injections almost immediately after that. Were looking at early next week, wolf. Operation warp speed officials, as you know, sanjay, they insist that 2. 9 million doses will be distributed in the first shipment. Is that enough to make an impact and start to change the course of this pandemic in the u. S. . Well, first of all, you know the 2. 9 million number is sort of interesting. What they did was they have 6. 4 million doses. They take 500,000 and essentially put them in stock supply. You know, to meet some surge demands. And then the rest of it they take half and ship those out. Thats the first dose, 2. 9 million people. Then they keep the other 2. 9 million for that second dose. Again, this will be a point of discussion tomorrow in terms of how those vaccines go out. Those first vaccines arent going to change the trajectory of this pandemic at this point. In fact, if you look at the overall models, they say even with vaccine rollout happening in the early part of next year youre still having an upward tick of cases because the vaccine really works to start to protect people when you get to herd immunity, when you start to get to lots and lots of people vaccinated. You will get some benefit when you get like 30 of the country vaccinated. But the most benefit from the vaccine on the country itself will probably come sort of midsummer because thats when you get to the 60 , possibly 70 of the country vaccinated. Important points. Sanjay, thank you very, very much. Were going to stay on top of this story. Its critical. Theres more breaking news unfolding right now involving hunter biden revealing his taxes now are under federal investigation. Our senior justice correspondent evan perez has been looking into all of this for us. What are you learning about this investigation, evan . Reporter well, wolf, this is an investigation thats been going on since 2018 and its being led by prosecutors in the u. S. Attorneys office in delaware. Hunter biden said he was officially notified by those prosecutors on tuesday that this investigation is looking into his taxes. Ill read you a part of his statement that he issued through the biden transition team. He says, i learned yesterday for the first time that u. S. Attorneys office in delaware advised my Legal Counsel that they were investigating my tax affairs. I take this matter very seriously and i am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that i handled my affairs legally and appropriately including the benefit with the benefit of professional tax advisers. Wolf, this is an investigation, again, that is looking into his taxes and whether or not hunter biden properly reported income over a number of years. Principally, the investigation were told, myself and pamela brown are told by sources that it is looking into Hunter BidensBusiness Activity overseas. Principally in china. And the issue there would be whether hunter biden reported all of that income, whether any of that violated tax and Money Laundering laws. Again, this is an investigation thats been ongoing. We saw that because of the election the Justice Department has these rules that requires politically sensitive investigations to go quiet for a period and thats what happened in recent months. Were told, wolf, that activity now is allowed to continue. Overt steps are allowed to begin once the election is over and joe biden had won. And this is a criminal investigation, right . Thats right, wolf. This is a criminal investigation. Again, its looking into his activities his Business Activities in china. One of the things that we know, investigators have taken a look at, is his this business that he was pursuing with a Company Called cefc china, which had to do with an Energy Venture that he was trying to set up. In particular, there was a businessman by the name of ye jian ming who the chinese have since arrested allegedly for possible corruption. Now, the we dont know a lot of what else the investigators are looking at. But there was one curious episode that hunter biden described in a new yorker profile last year. He said that ye jian ming had sent him a 2. 8 carat diamond at the end of a business meeting in miami. He said in this interview that he didnt know what happened to the diamond, he gave it to some associates. Were told that that is one of the issues investigators have taken a key interest in. Evan, i know youre working this story for us. Thank you very much. I want to bring in our senior washington correspondent jeff zeleny. Jeff, any reaction from team biden to the breaking news on the investigation of hunter biden . Reporter wolf, reading a bit of reaction to this. This is coming in a statement from a transition official. Not giving much about the substance of this investigation. But they are saying this. They said, president elect biden is deeply proud of his son, who has fought through difficult challenges including the vicious personal attacks of recent months, only to emerge stronger. So very much a statement from a father about a son. But wolf, really not shedding any light at all about what the specifics are in this investigation. All of this of course is hanging over the president elect, who is not implicated in this in any way, were told, but its continuing as he is building this cabinet here in wilmington. Hes the definition of duty, honor, country. Reporter president elect joe biden making one of his first commander in chief decisions, introducing retired army general lloyd austin as the secretary of defense to help rebuild americas frayed alliances. Hes loved by the men and women of the armed forces. Feared by our adversaries, known and respected by our allies. And he shares my deeply held belief in the values of americas alliances. Reporter austin would become the first africanamerican to lead the pentagon, a barrierbreaking pick, considering 40 of the nations active duty troops but few highranking leaders are people of color. Theyve known each other for years and worked together to end Operation Iraqi freedom. You can expect that as secretary of defense that i will give you the same direct and unvarnished counsel that i did back then. Reporter after rising to the highest levels of the army and serving 41 years, austin retired in 2016. I come to this role, this new role, as a civilian leader. With military experience to be sure but also with a deep appreciation and reverence for the prevailing wisdom of civilian control of our military. Reporter to be confirmed congress will need to waive a federal law requiring a sevenyear gap between military service and civilian leadership, which some members of bidens own party have balked at. I would not be asking for this exception if i did not believe this moment in our history didnt call for it. Reporter biden said austins long military background in logistics could also be essential in trying to tame the deadly coronavirus. We need his experience in largescale logistical operations to help support the swift and equitable distribution of covid19 vaccines. Reporter former secretary of state colin powell, a retired black fourstar army general himself, said congress should confirm austin, saying he has zralted his war fighting skills and his bureaucratic, diplomatic and political acumen. Biden has now settled on nearly half of his cabinet with the latest picks of ohio congresswoman marcia fudge going to housing and former ag secretary and Iowa Governor tom vilsack heading back to usda. The attorney general remains the biggest post i still unfilled. Cnn has learned alabama senator doug jones, judge merrick garland, and former Deputy Attorney general sally yates are the leading contenders. Officials tell cnn that several more cabinet picks are coming before the holidays and six weeks from today biden will be sworn in as president. And the pick of attorney general certainly always important, wolf, but it may take on even more significance given that investigation into Hunter Bidens business dealings. Were already hearing from republicans on capitol hill who are calling on the attorney general to appoint a special counsel. No word on if that will happen. But certainly this will be among the questions facing whoever the attorney general nominee is for president elect biden. Jeff zeleny reporting from wilmington. Thank you very much. Just ahead, President Trump turns to the United StatesSupreme Court in another longshot bid to try to change the outcome of the election he refuses to concede. Fixodent ultra dual power provides you with an unbeatable hold and strong seal against food infiltrations. Fixodent. And forget it. Can take you to deep, depressive lows. Or, give you unusually high energy, even when depressed. Overwhelmed by bipolar i . Ask about vraylar. Some medicines only treat the lows or highs. Vraylar effectively treats depression, acute manic and mixed episodes of bipolar i in adults. Fullspectrum relief for all bipolar i symptoms, with just one pill, once a day. Elderly patients with dementiarelated psychosis have an increased risk of death or stroke. Call your doctor about unusual changes in behavior or suicidal thoughts. 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Lets go to our chief White House Correspondent jim acosta. Jim, the president , he seems to be clinging to this longshot lawsuit even as he refuses to accept defeat. Reporter thats right, wolf. President trump wants in on this lawsuit brought by the Republican Attorney general of texas, who is asking the Supreme Court to throw out millions of votes cast in four battleground states. 17 others, 17 other gopled states are also supporting this lawsuit. The president s decision to involve himself in the case shows just how desperate he has become at this point. Mr. Trump is still raging out about the election with the most ridiculous claims on twitter. And some of mr. Trumps own advisers are tired of it, as one white house adviser described it to me earlier today, the president has stress tested american democracy. Stuck in electionchallenged groundhog day, losing time and again in court, President Trump is sounding more detached from the reality of the pandemic. Tweeting cries for help in the election from his social media bunker. Falsely declaring rigged election and if somebody cheated in the election, which the democrats did, why wouldnt the election be immediately overturned . How can a country be run like this . This read makes even less sense. At 10 00 p. M. On election evening we were at 97 win with the socalled bookies. The president isnt hiding. Hes hashtag sad. All of the things weve done and we were rewarded with a victory. Now lets see whether or not somebody has the courage, whether its a legislator or legislatures or whether its a justice of the Supreme Court or a number of justices of the Supreme Court. Lets see if they have the courage to do what everybody in this country knows is right. Reporter the president s latest act of desperation, pinning his hopes on texas Republican Attorney general ken paxtons longshot request that the Supreme Court invalidate the results in georgia, michigan, pennsylvania and wisconsin. Even though the High Court Just rejected a similar gop attempt in pennsylvania. Michigans democratic attorney general accused paxton of shopping for a president ial pardon. I feel bad for the taxpayers in texas that have to finance this rid