Directly on this last july. Reporter we did, and this is incredibly controversial, andrea, because you would have such a significantly high death toll. Lets look at that exchange. It is going to disappear. Its going to disappear. It would go away without the vaccine, george. It would go away without the vaccine . Sure, over a period of time, sure, with time. And many deaths. And youll develop herd like a herd mentality, its going to be herd developed and thats going to happen. That will all happen. Reporter now, when the president said herd mentality there he presumably meant herd immunity. But again, a highly controversial notion that the disease will go away without the vaccine and it was one that was being pushed by scott atlas who has now of course stepped down from his position here and a lot of, i can tell you, Top Health Experts are breathing a sigh of relief about that, that hes no longer the person who is closest in counseling the president on this issue. Now that there is, of course, this revelation, undoubtedly congress will be looking into this, andrea. Of course it does come as we are getting the first doses of the vaccine and as were learning that Vice President mike pence is going to actually get the vaccine on camera. We expect that to happen tomorrow. Were still trying to get the specific details. Weve asked over and over again if President Trump is going to get the vaccine as well. Of course he has had covid, he has the antibodies so white house Officials Say its a little complicated, he doesnt want to be seen as someone getting ahead of the line particularly given that he has the antibodies. But could it be important in terms of instilling public trust in the vaccine . A lot of people on both sides of the aisle think it would be. Again, Vice President mike pence will be getting the vaccine tomorrow. We anticipate president elect joe biden will be getting the vaccine as early as next week, andrea. And kristen, thank you. Before i let you go, everyone be sure to take a look, its already online, the new issue of vogue magazine, which profiles our friends, Kristen Welker and Savannah Guthrie. Read the article about how Savannah Guthrie and Kristen Welker won the 2020 election coverage. The two leading journalists of all the journalists, an amazing tribute to two of our favorite people and favorite colleagues. Reporter thank you, andrea, neither of us could have done it without you. You did it on your own, my dear. Its great. Joining us now, dr. Celine gounder, a member of the biden harris transition covid Advisory Board, an epidemiologist in the Bellevue Hospital in new york. Dr. Gounder, thank you very much, lets begin with the disturbing report from congressman clyburn, its all there in the emails, in the summer, Paul Alexander writing to the fda commissioner hahn, that we should flood the zone with the infected. Redfield was involved at the cdc. Whats your reaction, at the highest levels of our top scientific organizations in the federal government . Well, this is why you really do need to have the scientists and doctors in charge of a Public Health response like this. And unfortunately the work of the cdc was compromised by political meddling. At the same time, looking forward we now have a new cdc director nominated, dr. Rochelle walensky who has worked for decades in Infectious Diseases and Public Health as a researcher at harvard. I myself have worked with her, she is a phenomenal scientist, leader, mentor to people. And so i think to have somebody like that leading the organization really will change the tenor of what we hear coming out of the cdc and really should have people feeling a lot more confident about how the cdc will be functioning moving forward. Now, turning to vaccines, big news expected from moderna with the Advisory Board meeting today on their recommendation, combined with the discovery that extra doses were found within the initial pfizer shipments to help operation warp speed. Do you think that had help them hit the 20 million doses goal by the end of the year that theyve been pro claiming . I asked Moncef Slaoui a couple of days ago and he said theyre still on track with regard to the supply chain with pfizer. The Us Government has promised 100 million doses to come from pfizer, some by the end of the calendar year, some in early 2021. That means 50 Million People vaccinated. And if we have six instead of five doses per vial, that means that you would go up to 60 million instead of 50 Million People vaccinated. That is certainly helpful. Thats an improvement. But you have to remember, we have 330 Million People in this country. And so that inches us towards that goal. But its not a game changer. And moderna is supposed to have twice as much as the initial amount pfizer had, if its approved, and if it starts rolling next week, which seems likely according to everything were hearing so far. Yeah, you know, and i think this is really promising. They have very similar technologies, very similar levels of efficacy, essentially the same. And i think what is helpful with respect to the Moderna Vaccine is that it has also been shown to be stable at temperatures that are more typical for vaccine storage, so not the ultracold temperatures that the Pfizer Vaccine requires. It means it will be easier to distribute the Moderna Vaccine for example in rural areas, regular doctors offices that dont have those ultracold freezers. And we did hear about two Health Care Workers in alaska having what they called fairly minor reactions, allergic reactions. One of them at least was in the hospital overnight with iv meds, had to be repeatedly medicated before that person came out of what appears to be anaphylaxis and supposedly that person had no Prior Experience with anaphylaxis so would not have been someone heeding the obvious warnings that had already been attached to the Pfizer Vaccine. Right. Well, this is also why were currently advising that everybody who is vaccinated remain at the vaccination facility for observation for at least 15 minutes after receiving the vaccination, because they do have onsite epinephrine or the epipens we use to treat such a reaction. Its also important to remember that even if this is a one in a million kind of reaction, when youre going to be vaccinating as many people as we will be, again, 330 Million People in this country alone, one in a million translates to 330 anaphylactic reactions. So you are going to be hearing about this, this should be no surprise. I think the key is to remember that this is something that we can treat, and that no one has had serious complications from. This is something we can manage. The states of course have an authority in our system to order different priorities as to who gets the first vaccines after the Health Care Workers, the nursing home residents. There are different definitions of emergency workers, though. Were seeing competition now from groups representing firefighters, food workers, teachers, and arguably black and latino communities who have had some disproportionate results being affected by covid and deaths, or Older Americans with comorbidities. What about minority communities, shouldnt they have a place high up in line . How do you make these decisions between different groups and wont different states obviously have different priorities . Certainly different states will have different priorities, in part because they have different industries. And so the specific Critical Infrastructure groups in any particular state may not always be identical. The other thing with respect to communities of color is they do tend to be concentrated in those Critical Infrastructure jobs, those front line essential worker jobs. And so by prioritizing those professions, you are in fact prioritizing the needs of communities of color who have been hit so hard in part because they are in those jobs. Dr. Gounder, thank you so much. So far all good news on one front but of course the terrible numbers, the positive cases, as well as the deaths. This is not going to end anytime soon. So your concluding message, i assume, is wear the masks, keep social distance, were not over this yet by a long shot. Yeah, thats right. Mask up. Thanks again. And lets go west and see what Creative Ideas state officials there are enacting to make sure front line workers get the Pfizer Vaccine in a safe and speedy way. Nbcs Megan Fitzgerald is in phoenix, arizona. Megan, what have you been seeing this morning . Reporter andrea, this is a massive undertaking. Honor health along with mayo clinic and other partners have been working on this process for the last several months to try and make sure it goes as efficiently as possible, because theyll be vaccinating a thousand people a day, over the next two weeks 15,000 people. 21 days from now theyll be doing the entire process again to get that second dose. This morning we had an opportunity to walk along with a doctor as she went through this process. Here is how it works. Folks will be pulling onto the lot behind me here, theyll pull up to a registration booth to confirm their identity and prove they actually have an appointment. Then theyll pull into these tents which you can probably see over my shoulder here. Thats where the vaccination happens. They roll down their window, they get vaccinated in their arm, then they pull forward where theyll be observed for 15 minutes to make sure there isnt any adverse effects to the vaccine. We talked to dr. Tiffany pankow at the end of this process. Take a listen to what she had to say. It was a really easy process, all done through i. T. , we went in, signed up, got our appointment, got our information ahead of time so we had a chance to look things over and feel confident coming in, went flew our registration process, and came through, sat where we were observed for 15 minutes so make sure i was safe and had folks around to check on me. I felt really comfortable and safe to get it. Reporter now, this location here is going to be open 8 00 a. M. To 4 00 p. M. Mountain time, of course local time here in arizona, for the next 15 days, andrea. Megan fitzgerald. One final note overseas, frances president macron has tested positive for covid and has immediately gone into a sevenday isolation. One of the issues is he was in brussels meeting with other european leaders, thats required other heads of government throughout europe to go into quarantine as well. We wish him of course the best of health and recovery. Meanwhile, as Congress Closes in on a deal to help americans struggling during the pandemic, what is going to be included . The latest on the negotiations from capitol hill, coming up next. And also ahead, what are we learning about the massive hack of u. S. Government and majority corporate servers attributed to russian spies . This is msnbc. N spies . This is msnbc. [ engine rumbling ] [ beeping ] [ engine revs ] uh, you know theres a 30minute limit, right . Tell that to the rain. [ beeping ] for those who were born to ride, theres progressive. [ beeping ] is that the law . Little girl is lost and i am taking her home. How much you want for her . This child is not for sale. You cant have her and im taking her home. Find a stock basedtech. On your interests or whats trending. Get realtime insights in your customized view of the market. Its smarter Trading Technology for smarter trading decisions. Fidelity. We have to find somethingust else. Good luck ut it. What does that mean . We are doomed. [ laughter ] thats it. I figured it out were going to give togetherness. That sounds dumb. Were going to take all those Family Moments and package them. Hmm. [ laughing ] that works. Congress is close, they say, close but not there, to cutting a deal on that 900 billion Coronavirus Relief package to rescue struggling americans set to lose their Employment Benefits the day after christmas and potentially become homeless when their rental moratorium expires. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer on the senate floor a short time ago. Were very close to an agreement. But the details really matter. The bill will likely include a new round of stimulus checks of at least 600 per person, thats half what was approved last march, and an extension of federal Unemployment Insurance benefits, more money for businesses and Vaccine Distribution funds. But as negotiations now stand it will not include state and local funding, Liability Protection for businesses, or significant support for restaurants. Obviously a struggling industry. And now the president has tossed a grenade into any plans for congress to get out of town, at least get out of town without having to come back. He tweeted today he is going to veto the usually sacrosanct bipartisan Defense Authorization act that funds military pay raises. The entire pentagon budget, for that matter, but against the president s wishes, it would rename bases honoring confederate bases among other issues he does not like. Nbcs Garrett Haake is on capitol hill. Garrett, you know this better than anyone, on the defense bill, it passed with vetoproof majorities, but that may not obtain if it comes down to an actual override threat because all of those republicans could peel off, right . Reporter yeah, i think thats right. You could see republicans like kevin mccarthy, the republican leader on the house side, for example, he voted for the bill when the conference report came out but said he would not vote to sustain an override, he would stay with the president. You may get some democrats who voted against this bill because they have problems with elements of it coming back into the fold to balance them out. Its worth noting, andrea, the president has had this bill on his desk since last friday. The tweet is not a part of the constitutional process of vetoing a bill. The president could have vetoed this any day between last friday and today. And the fact that he continues to tweet the threat suggests to me at least that this is still some kind of negotiation, that perhaps he sees Something Else he wants out there. I dont think he wants to have a late january fight with the Republicancontrolled Senate who would have to come back to override the veto as one of the last things he does as president. But that remains to be seen. Or he could just be setting the stage for a socalled pocket veto once they get out of town, which he can do. They would have to come back to try to override him. Reporter regardless. Lets get to the covid package. Is there a hangup . We thought we were going to hear from Speaker Pelosi today. Now senator schumer says theyre close but not there. Is there a lastminute haggling going on . Because they still have to get the language written before they can leave. Reporter thats right. Remember, a lot of the provisions in this bill have been floating around on capitol hill for some time so there are some things that are plug and play that can go into this piece. Particularly the elements theyve changed at the last minute, the addition of stimulus checks, there is for example an inclusion of some money that would go to fema in this, that republicans are concerned could be a back doorway to get aid to state and local governments, sort of against their pro testations on this particular issue. Everybody is on broad agreement on what will go into this package but how do we control how the money gets spent so the language in the bill texts reflects the agreements being made behind closed doors . All of that is pretty important when youre writing a 900 billion bill and its a time consuming process. Thats where we are at this moment. And Mitch Mcconnell has said on a call yesterday that georgias senators, Kelly Loeffler and david perdue, facing runoffs, are getting hammered back home over the failure to come up with an agreement for aid. So its become an issue in the runoff campaign. Reporter yeah, look, theres an expectation, if youre an incumbent senator, that you govern. Covid remains the dominant issue in american politics. These two republican senators have records or lack thereof that they need to run on when it comes to covid relief. Mcconnell sees everything in the political spectrum through the lens of protecting the senate majority. If this can help in georgia, one more reason to do it expeditiously. Do you think it could be done today, finally . Reporter i think we could have an announcement today. The process of voting this thing across the finish line could keep us here all weekend, andrea. That i know. Thank you so much, garrett, youre all over this. Thanks for being with us. Jouining us now, congresswoman Abigail Spanberger who serves on the Foreign Affairs committee among other committees, so good to see you, thank you, congresswoman. What are you hearing from the speaker as to whether or not this is actually coming