They couldnt get it soon enough or quick enough out there. It remains to be seen how thats going to be solved, that problem is going to be solved in the coming weeks. Again, its a question of resources, getting to states and localities. This is the problem weve seen throughout the pandemic where the states saying they need more help from washington. Washington saying this is the states function to carry out. Also a lot of concern about this new strain thats been detected now in a third state after colorado, california and now florida. Health officials are saying that its more contagious, it spreads more easily, but its not necessarily more deadly and its not going to make people sicker. The big concern is after this long holiday period when so many people have defied the warnings and the pleas not to travel and not to gather with friends and relatives, that the coming months are going to be very, very challenging, very, very difficult before a lot of vaccine can get out to millions of americans over the next weeks and months. We will ask the doctor about that new strain in just a minute. Now i want to bring in Steve Patterson in los angeles. Hospitals there are under siege as Southern California deals with another major surge. Steve, i just feel like its going from bad to even worse. It is, lindsay. The crisis here has gotten to a point where the Health Care System is at a breaking point. Virtually every hospital in the region, in Southern California, is diverting patients away in most cases. In some cases hospitals are seeing ambulances stacked backtoback as many as ten deep with patients waiting seven or eight hours to see any form of treatment. When they do get in, Health Care Workers have to get creative about the space that theyre treating these patients because there simply isnt any Available Space left in a lot of cases, which means patients could be treated in an e. R. Hallway, in a conference room, in a gift shop, in a chapel, in the ambulance itself because there simply, again, isnt any room left. Meanwhile frontline Health Care Workers are dealing with ratios that are not sustainable. Morgues, mortuaries and private Funeral Homes are turning away bereaved families because the bodies are piling up so fast. Because of this, a lot of these Health Care Workers are pleading with the public. Many of them have sent out these powerful cell phone videos just to describe what their job is like right now. We have one of those. I want you to listen to this nurse. Take a listen. Things are pretty bad. Things are really bad. Were overwhelmed, were stressed, were stretched so thin. Its pretty unimaginable. A lot of us have never dealt with anything like this. Reporter meanwhile three more cases of that strain that ron was talking about were again discovered in san diego county. Health officials there say none of the people so far have known each other or have any prior travel history, which leads them to believe that this strain is now widespread in Southern California. There is no help on the way for those workers who are already so burned out. Doctor, lets bring you in on this. We know theres a lag from that Holiday Travel that we saw, millions of people packing airports over the holidays, to when well see increases in hospitalizations from those postholiday surges. In a place like california where you already dont have beds, your treating people in gift shops and chapels, what does that mean . What is the reality of, for example, somebody, god forbid, has a heart attack . Yeah, so we actually saw this happen and play out in new york and the northeast back in the spring. It is unconscionable that were having to deal with it again in the same kind of crisis mode. Its like we have some sort of National Dementia here because what we did in the spring was we had the army corps of engineers hello . We can hear you. So anyway, im just saying we have the army corps of engineers come in last spring and build facilities and put hospitaltype facilities in tents outside of the hospitals, we had very formal development of facilities within Conference Rooms the Conference Centers and so on. So we know what we have to do. Its just amazing to me that we have not deployed those methods in california and other places. Its not its not a surprise whats happening now in terms of the very dangerous overcrowding of our facilities. And what you said was exactly correct. Somebody has got a heart attack, whos had a stroke, theyre getting crowded out of the hospitals that are overwhelmed with covid patients. So we have a tremendous amount of work to do. By the way, this new strain, which weve seen a handful of cases in california, in colorado and now in florida, this is the tiniest possible tip of the iceberg. There is no doubt at all that this strain of virus has been has spread itself all over the United States. I think were just sort of waiting now to see the consequences, which will be exacerbated because people tending to forget the rules during the holiday periods, whether its thanksgiving, christmas and now new years. Were going to see horrendous impact, i think, this month in january and well into next month as well, unfortunately. Doctor, with this new strain we hear people say its more highly transmissable, thats scary. But its not going to necessarily make you more ill or more prone to a horrible outcome, for example, like death. What do you think the public needs to know most about this new strain thats now here in the u. S. . Right. So the deal with the new strain is this. Its much more transmissable. They say 70 more transmissable. That means that the number of people that a documented patient with covid can infect has increased. So lets say every person with covid thats documented was able to transmit it to 1. 5 people or 2 people. What this new strain does is it expands the number of people that any individual person can infect. We dont think theres any consequence now, for example, for the effectiveness of the vaccine. And theres probably not a big increase in severity. But i dont think id hold my breath on that. I think we need to wait and see what these next few weeks bring. In the meantime its just spreading faster with no clinical consequences that we know at the moment and i emphasize at the moment, lindsay. I want to talk to you about that big shift in vaccine strategy in the uk because theres been some talk of potentially doing it here. Of course it hasnt been implemented an hasnt been serious talk, but there in the uk theyre delaying the second dose of the Pfizer Vaccine to make sure as many people as possible can get the vaccine in the first round because that strain is so rampant there. Knowing that this rollout for the vaccine has been slower, that we have missed that projection of 20 million vaccinations by the end of the year greatly, should we consider doing Something Like that here . And we should mention that pfizer disagrees with the move. Yeah, you know, this is really a challenge because the Pfizer Vaccine and moderna vaccines, the two available right now, have only been tested with a twodose regimen. In other words, you get it once and then you get it a second time three or four weeks later. That is something thats been thats what actually drove the fda to give it emergency use authorization. Two doses. So contemplating the idea of a single dose being sufficient, at least for the moment, that has to go back to the fda. So the fda considers whether they have enough information to suggest that a single dose is okay. I dont think policy makers need to be deciding that or should be deciding that because we dont know if a single dose will have the same effectiveness of developing an immune response or how long if they do develop it, it will actually last. This is not a political decision, this needs to go back to the fda for analysis to see whether this is a good idea or not. Right now id say the United States is not going to seriously contemplate a single dose of any of the vaccines any time soon. Doctor, before we let you go, what is your outlook for 2021 . Its a complicated question, lindsay, and im not going to dodge the answer but i think were going to have a very rough remainder of the winter and into the spring, very, very difficult. Whether or not we have enough vaccine available, whether its being distributed properly, and whether people will understand the message that is critical to take this vaccine, these are all unknowns. If we did everything correctly, in other words, we did get everybody or the vast majority of americans, im talking about 90 taking the vaccine or having had the disease, i think well have a good shot of really bringing this under control. But really not until late summer into the fall as far as im concerned. But there are many, many variables. Well just have to keep a close eye on what evolves here right now. But im kind of quasihopeful but certainly no degree of certainty that were going to wrestle this to the ground before late summer. Dr. Irwin redlener, your voice has been so critical in the last year. Thank you for starting the new year with us, we appreciate it. Still ahead, its a huge act of defiance against the president and congress is getting close to it. A congressional override of trumps veto. The latest from capitol hill, next. First, a look at how people around the world have celebrated the end of 2020. A giant crowd, no masks. Life basically back to normal as they ring in the new year in the small island nation where covid cases have been virtually eliminated. I want this year to be more, more, more happier than last year. In australia, fireworks soared above a mostly empty sydney harbor, while in the chinese city wuhan, where covid19 originated, thousands packed the city center to celebrate. Statues and monuments in london barricaded off, berlin banning fireworks. Rome and st. Peters square empty. Inside the basilica, a socially distanced mass took place without the pope. Across the continent, abandoned streets and uncanny quiet as the world says farewell to a year few will miss but no one will forget. W will miss but no one w forget 2020s done a new era has begun so keep pushing forward. Because this is twenty twenty won make a different future start different at godaddy. Com Research Shows people remember so to help you remember that Liberty Mutual customizes your Home Insurance, heres one thatll really take you back. Wow whatd you get, ryan . Its customized Home Insurance from Liberty Mutual what does it do bud . It customizes our Home Insurance so we only pay for what we need and what did you get, mike . I got a bike. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. This afternoon the senate will get one step closer to overriding the president s veto of the National Defense authorization act, which the house already voted to override on monday. If lawmakers take this step, it would mark the first congressional override during President Trumps four years in office. But they dont have much time. The Senate Must Act before noon on sunday when a new congress is sworn in. Joining me now, sahil kapur and beth fouhi. Good morning to you, happy new year. Sahil, what do you expect from this vote today . Todays vote is essentially a procedural vote to move to a final vote tomorrow. Its expected to happen at 1 00 p. M. Its widely expected to sail through the senate as it did the house. It would be the first veto of Donald Trumps presidency and a potential streak he had that could have made him the first president since lbj not to have a veto overturned. If this passes as it is expected to it would authorize about 741 billion worth of pentagon activities and it would force the pentagon to rename military bases and assets named to honor confederate soldiers. That was language led by Elizabeth Warren that has been included in this. Turning now to the latest over this january 6 vote, senator hawley is facing some heat over his decision to challenge the election results. How is this playing out behind the scenes . Is it largely viewed that hes doing this for potentially aspirations of higher office, though hes denied that . The reaction has been mixed to say the least among republicans to senator josh hawley. The house conservatives who had planned on going along with this are obviously happy. President trump has been praising the senator from missouri. But a number of his republican colleagues are very upset with him, angry even with him, most notably ben sasse the senator from nebraska who wrote a lengthy Facebook Post accusing him and others like him of essentially being opportunists who are trying to tap into the president s base politically. Sasse made the accurate point theres no legitimate evidence that could overturn the election and that joe bidens win was clear, even though there are always some isolated instances of irregularity. Nothing on the level that could undo the election. Sasse called this attempt playing with fire and described it as a loaded gun pointed at the heart of legitimate government that would have implications for the long haul of american democracy. Beth, were seeing some Division Within the Republican Party. What kind of position does this put republicans in next wednesday, especially vulnerable republican senators . Well, as we know from a lot of polling, most Republican Voters in this country do believe that the election was fraudulent, rigged, all the language that President Trump has used because hes been making that baseless allegation now for weeks and its been amplified by conservative media. So what is going to happen is republican members of the house and senate are going to have to decide, are we going to stick with trump whos still extremely popular with the Republican Base or stick up for the constitution, which they have sworn to uphold. By the way, republicans typically proclaim the righte s righteousness of states. That states determine who won the election in their state. So these republicans will have to override that, override the belief that states should make the decision on who the next president is going to be and throw their loyalty to trump. Its a very difficult and, frankly, untenable position. Sahil mentioned what ben sasse is saying and its true. These folks are going to have to say that theyre loyal to trump if thats what they decide to do, whos the lame duck president whos going to be gone in a matter of weeks. Its a shortterm gain for them perhaps because of the popularity of that president and because many of them are worried about getting primaried from the right if they dont take that position. But on the other hand, do they really want to contradict the constitution . Do they really want to say the will of the people should not be honored and we should stick our nose into this situation and try to overturn it based on no evidence whatsoever. So, yes, its a very bad position for both them, senator hawley who is probably going to run for president thinks its a great way to rally the populist republicans behind him. Again, a shortterm win for a longterm potentially very damaging position. Beth, theres some infighting over those larger stimulus checks. We have the president who wants to send out 2,000 checks to americans. Some americans started getting their 600 checks this week. But then we have Mitch Mcconnell who says the 2,000 check is not going to come up for a vote. Texas senator john cornyn says that he thinks this talk takes away from what they have accomplished. The democrats say this is just a down payment, the 600 check. How do you see this playing out not only in the transition but then in the first few days of a Biden Administration . You know, were in a crisis in this country. Were in a coronavirus pandemic crisis, were in an economic crisis because of that pandemic. People are hurting. People need jobs, they need money. Of course most americans want the 2,000 as opposed to 600. Theyre very, very stressed. Frankly, what else is government for in a crisis like this other than to help people ride things through. So its a popular position. If its taken to the floor of the senate, theres no question it will pass. Politicians are realists. They know their constituents want to get more money rather than less if theres a choice but Mitch Mcconnell has made a choice thats not going to happen. Hes the most powerful person in the senate. Hes going to let this ride through and its not going to happen at least right now. Well see whether joe biden has the political chops to take the case for more money for americans to the congress and get them to change their minds. We dont know whether thats going to happen. We have a few more weeks still until joe biden is president. One of the reasons he was elected is he assured americans that he gets along well with rips and that he can bring the two sides together to make progress in this country. This will be a test of that skill. And sahil, were going to end on a tragic note. Congressman jamie raskin announcing the death of his 25yearold son, thomas, yesterday. What is he saying . Just the second death in a matter days that has shaken up capitol hill. A few days ago it was congressman luke letlow, 41 years old. Now 25yearold tommy raskin, the son of maryland congressman jamie raskin. He was known to many members of congress who have sent their condolences to the congressman and his wife who remember him as compassionate and loving. In their brief statement announcing their death, they didnt list a cause of death but they did ask everyone to abide by strict covid guidelines, lindsey. Thank you both for your time today and happy new year. May 2021 be bet