Again. Ive seen more people die in the last seven days than ive talked to my own family members. Just the added numbers of having the Covid Patients has been hard to comprehend. The physicians, scientists working tirelessly. Believe them. Trust in them. Trust the science. So here are the facts on this pandemic at this hour. Today moderna and pfizer ask European Union regulators for fasttrack approval for their vaccines. Today here in the u. S. , a Cdc Advisory Committee will meet to decide which americans should get the vaccine first. Right now 45 states are experiencing a percentage increase in covidrelated deaths from over the past two weeks. And rising case numbers are presenting new challenges for our hospitals according to the covid tracking project. A record high 96,000 covid19 patients are currently hospitalized in the United States. Right now rhode island put new restrictions in place. If youre there, you may have just received this Emergency Alert from the government with this stark warning. Quote, hospitals at capacity due to covid. Help the front line by staying home as much as possible for the next two weeks. The situation there is now so dire that Field Hospital beds are being used there for the first time during this pandemic. Nbcs Yasmin Vossoughian is at one of those Field Hospitals in cranston, rhode island. She joins us there. Yasmin, obviously a dire situation unfolding on the ground. Walk us through the Major Concerns there. Reporter how much time do you have . A lot of concerns on the ground here as hospital, as you just read from that alert, are reaching capacity. A couple minutes before you came to me, behind me, you see this ambulance here, you saw a patient being rolled out of this ambulance. They were brought in through those double doors here. You can see now the emts bringing the empty bed back out, driving back to into hospital which is the associate hospital to this Field Hospital. Essentially whats happening is they have designated certain beds for covid19 patients. They hit capacity on the covid beds. That doesnt mean if you have a heart attack and live in the state of rhode island you cant go to a hospital and get a bed. Now they have subsequently moved the skilled hospital, thats frees up beds that have other ailments aside from covid19. If you think about the numbers, its insane. The population of the state of rhode island, ayman, is 1 million people. When i was here two weeks ago there was 250plus patients hospitalized. In a matter of 10 to 14 days, that number is at 365. Were hitting peaks every day throughout the state. I spoke to the director of this Field Hospital, dr. Laura foreman a little earlier. Lets take a listen to what she had to say. We spent a lot of time preparing for this and were ready for the patients to arrive. Its still so painfully difficult to see it has come to this. Right now were not bringing any patients that need a high level of airway support here. Were careful to match the selected patients to make sure we can meet their needs here. Reporter i want to clarify. The folks coming here are low to mid acuity patients, a new term i learned. That means these are folks not in the icu. These are folks that just need oxygen. They can get up, walk themselves to the bathroom. They need to be hospitalized, but not a the level to which they need to be in the icu unit. About 15 minutes away, theres another Field Hospital opening today. Ill ooh be heading there as well in a couple hours. One other thing, ayman, i want to add. This is day one of a pause throughout the state of rhode island. That means 33 capacity for indoor dining, 25 capacity in churches and religious institutions and gathering just with your immediate family. Then its a waitandsee, to hope the numbers go down and they can subsequently close those hospitals down. Two patients inside this Field Hospital right now with a capacity to hold 300plus patients as they have more than 300 beds in this Field Hospital behind me. All right. Yasmin vossoughian live in rhode island. Good to talk to you, my friend. Stay safe. All this week nbc news is focused on a race for a vaccine. Right now millions of americans see some light at the end of the seemingly neverending tunnel. Just weeks ago from two covid vaccines being ready for distribution. In the next few hours well see the next step in the rollout process. The Cdc Advisory Committee will meet to decide who should get vaccinated first. Nbcs tom costello is following all this for us. When we talk about the vaccine in this country, the big question is what is the governments plan to get the vaccines to the people who need them most . Are they giving any kind of guidance as to how it might look li like. Reporter youre right to notice we have two different agencies on parallel tracks. The cdc agency today will be looking at who gets prioritized, separate from the fda Advisory Committee which meets on december 10th to decide whether to approve these two vaccines, moderna and pfizer from emergency operations. So parallel tracks. At a certain point, they intersect when the fda decides to provide approval. As for who goes first, weve said all along, medical professionals are likely going to be first. Theyve reiterated that again. Thats not just front line doctors, nurses and paramedics. Its also going to be the people in the hospital who work with patients as well, orderlies, the food staff, the cleaning staff inside facilities. Then theyll start to look at whether they should put people who live and work in a senior sit Certain Center as well, they are likely to be top priority. Maybe not a plus, but maybe a minus. The point is they start to tier out exactly who gets priority all the way down to the general public to you and me, assuming were healthy and middle aged at least im middle aged. Im right there with you. All right. Well probably see our vaccines in april, may, maybe even june. One problem they anticipate is people being reluctant to take the vaccine. People reluctant to wear a mask, may be reluctant to get the vaccine. Its going to be a matter of convincing people the vaccine is safe and it is for everybodys good to, in fact, have the vaccine. Tom, ive been speaking to people. I think it may be bigger the people reluctant about taking the vaccine. A lot of people wearing the masks say they might wait a year or two before taking the vaccine out of an abundance of caution. Its going to be an uphill bat tl battle to convince people to do that. White house chief of staff mark meadows summoned the fda commissioner to the white house to talk about the vaccines. A source confirmed stephen hahn was asked to the west wing to discuss why his agency hasnt moved faster to approve the pfizer vaccine. I want to bring in dr. Lipi roy, an msnbc medical distributor and internal medicine physician. Dr. Roy. Good morning, ayman. Good to be with you. Theres so nouch talk about. The fact we have five vaccine candidates almost ready to go, probably more next year is extremely promising. The fact that the fda commissioner is being again, this is not the first time im getting the sense that the fda is being pressured, receiving political pressure to expedite a process that, remember, ayman, traditionally takes 10 to 15, 20 years. Your typical Vaccine Development takes decades. The fact we have several candidates is really unreal. They need to make sure these vaccines are, in fact, safe for the public, and thats what most from the pharma agencies and the manufacturers that these vaccines are safe. The fda ultimately is the agency that grants authorization. Let me ask you about the topic of vaccines for a moment. You brought it up. You heard our colleague tom costello talking about the uphill challenge in trying to convince the public to do it. Is there any way that this country, frankly any country, but this country specifically, can return to a sense of normal see if we have a large part of the public or population actually vaccinated . Thats really the Million Dollar question, ayman. Theres a lot of unknowns. You pointed out the issue of vaccine hesitancy. A growing percentage of the population in the United States that for various reasons, no less because of the anti vax movement, a large percentage thats really reluctant. Unfortunately over the past nine months theres also been questionable information coming out from our political leaders who have not been very forthcoming when it comes to trusting the scientist and health care experts. Its going to take a lot of effort and a lot of education and reassurance from Health Care Professionals and our political leaders to assure the public that this vaccine is safe. We need the population to be at at least 75 , 80 if not higher. In the meantime, we still dont know what the duration of protection is, people need to be Wearing Masks and practicing physical distancing and these Public Health measures that are lifesaving. Let me ask you about other events that have become the hallmarks of the spring and the summer, weddings. A lot of people put off their weddings because of the concern of covid this year. Obviously, the reports of the new vaccines is really fueling returns to lavish weddings for the spring of 2021, going into the summer of 2021. It begs the question whether or not is it too early, despite the news were hearing on a vaccine, for couples and for people planning weddings in the spring and summer to go ahead with these plans when we dont know how widely distributed and how much of the population will be vaccinated . Is that too much of a risk to take . I get people are really frustrated. Theyre tired. They want to go back to some sense of normal see, weddings, special events like that are really special. The promise of a vaccine is very different from the reality of an actual vaccination, successful, widespread vaccination program. There are too many unknowns. Its still not safe to gather large groups of people together for a wegd, whether it be 50 people or 500 people. Its not safe at this moment, ayman, for all the reasons you just mentioned. We dont know about the duration or longterm efficacy. Way too many unknowns right now, aym ayman, for these large weddings to go forward. Still so many unanswered questions. Dr. Lipi roy, we appreciate it as always. In new york there are alarming new signs the state could be heading back to what we saw play out in the spring. Hospitalizations just hit a level not seen since may. Governor andrew cuomo is warning that new emergency measures could be on the way. If those numbers continue to increase, which we expect they will, you will see serious stress on the hospital system. If we hit a real hospitalization crisis, we could potentially do a new york pause. Nbcs rehema ellis is at elmhurst hospital in queens. That hospital became a symbol of the devastation in new york and the bravery of our frontline workers early on in this pandemic. Its a name all of us in new york learned about very quickly. Rehema, good to talk to you. Tell us about what is happening at elmhurst hospital. What is the scene there and what is new york doing to try to prevent a repeat of what we saw in the spring . Reporter ayman, what theyre telling elmhurst hospital to do is what Governor Cuomo is telling every hospital in the state they should do, and that is prepare for what could be coming. They want them to put together a list of retired doctors and nurses who they can call on the the situation here becomes overwhelming as it did, as you pointed out, last spring, when new york was the epicenter of the pandemic. This hospital represented what some call apocalyptic conditions. There were too many patients, too many people dying, not enough beds and an overwhelmed staff. So thats why theyre talking about needing the call on retired medical professionals to help out because they wont be able to find people from up state or out of state to come out because, as youve been reporting the country is experiencing a surge before, unlike before when it was just new york. In addition, theyre saying they might have to put the plan together for more Field Hospitals once again if these numbers become overwhelming. They dont want to do that. As you said, the governor says this state might have to go into a pause situation if they dont get it together. Beyond that, back to the hospitals, the governor says he wants the hospitals to have a plan of sharing patients, if you will, of putting patients from one hospital such as this one back in the spring, when they were inundated with patients, just 20 miles from here, they had free beds but werent taking any patients. The governor doesnt want to see that happen again. Theyre looking for cooperation, for coordination. Rehema, thank you. Coming up, california close to a breaking point. Cases in that state surging once again. Icus getting close to capacity. The governor saying more stayathome orders could be coming up in the next few days. First, in just over an hour from now, president elect joe biden set to introduce some of the most important members of his 250e7 team, the people responsible for trying to get the economy back on track. Well get the very latest on the transition next. Were following breaking news this hour. The Trump Campaign filing a lawsuit appealing wisconsins Election Results with the state supreme court. The president s lawyers alleging abuse around absentee voting in that state which they say affected around 221,000 ballots. It is unclear what proof, if any, they may have. Nbc news has repeatedly reached out to the Trump Campaign again this morning for comment. We have not yet heard back. On monday, wisconsin governor signed a certificate of ascertainment for the state. That directs the slate of electors for president elect joe biden and Vice President elect Kamala Harris to cast their votes in the state capital come december 14th. In over an hour from now, president elect joe biden is expected to formally introduce key members of his Economic Team, which includes treasury secretary nominee janet yellen was officially announced about 24 hours ago. Now well finally get to hear from them about their new roles. Nbcs mike memoli is in wilmington, delaware. Good to talk to you. Lets talk about what we can expect to hear this afternoon. We know the names. We know their track records. We know their history. What about where we go forward with this team . Ayman, as weve seen the president elect and this team pick up the pace of these nominations over time, weve seen him clearly establishing the priorities he has to confront as the president on january 20th. First and foremost he announced the Pandemic Task force. Last week we saw the introduction of his Foreign Policy and National Security team with a reminder that the pandemic is a Global Health crisis that requires a global response. So today, as he rolls out officially his members of his Economic Team, you should expect that reminder of how the pandemic has been straining the economy and how it will make it difficult to come out on the other side, as biden puts it, where everyone comes out of it equitably. Youll also see something thats been a hallmark of this transition so far, highlighting the diversity of these choices. Janet yellen, the first woman who would be the treasury secretary. Her deputy, wally at yam mow, an africanamerican in that role, also an immigrant to this country. Most of the fire at this point, as we move into the discussion of battles on capitol hill over confirmation has been about the nominee for the office of management and budget. Senators coming back to capitol hill last night. We heard from some republicans, by the way, some of whom have yet to formally acknowledge that biden is the president elect, the winner of this election, talking about tanden as a radioactive choice for this position. What are we talking about . Less policy, more about her tweets. These are republican lawmakers who happen not to see President Trumps tweets. Remind everybody he was tweeting again overnight more unfounded theories about the election and what he believes is a conspiracy against him. They are focused on the fact that neera tanden was also a frequent critic of republicans on capitol hill. Theyre saying that makes it very difficult for them to consider her nomination. Well see the biden team bracing for a fight and saying theyre happy to have one over this nomination. A bit rich for any republican to criticize anyone for tweeting when the president has set that bar at a new level. Mike memoli, thank you so much. I want to bring in barbara boxer, former democratic senator of california. Thank you for your time. Its been interesting to see the debate about the Economic Team that president elect joe biden has been putting together. Curious to get your thoughts. What do his choices say about his promise to prioritize American Workers . Is this the team that can make that happen from your perspective . This is the team thats going to fight every day for the middle class of this country, a middle class that is so butylized right now. People standing online for food who never thought theyd ever have to do that because of the mishandling of this pandemic. Youve got a team thats brilliant. They have the wherewithal to know what theyre doing. Theyre all experienced. They dont need training wheels on their bikes. Theyre going to reflect the values of president elect joe biden who ive known since the 80s. He has always stood up for working people. Do you think there was any space in there to incorporate at least the vision, if not the personalities of someone like senator Elizabet