Months or so ahead away. Im in front of a Field Hospital. I was here just two weeks ago and now im here and this Field Hospital is wide open. A few weeks ago, there was nobody inside here. Now you see cars coming in and out. 300plus beds in the Field Hospital behind me. They opened up this filed hospital because stahospitals i the state of rhode island were overrun. The largest hospital having just over 700 beds. They had certain hospital beds designated for covid. Those hospital beds hit capacity. So they had to move those patients from those hospitals to this Field Hospital. Theres one Field Hospital here just 15 minutes or so away from here. Another Field Hospital opening up today as well. As of now, they only have one patient inside but theyre anticipating more patients will be coming in throughout the day. I want to bring in dr. Laura foreman who is heading up this Field Hospital here and has been the director of this Field Hospital for some time and preparing for more patients to come in. Thank you for having me. You and i spoke just two weeks ago and you said its not a matter ff but when patients are going to start showing up here and here we 24 weeare two later. So far its going well. Weve spent a lot of time preparing for this and were ready for the patients to arrive but its so painfully difficult for us to see its come to this. We were hoping against hope up until the last minute we wouldnt need to do this. But the hospital is at capacity. In order to continue safely care for patients at the main emp hospital we had to start bringing patients over here. If you have a heart attack, do you have a bed . Can you go to a hospital . Yes, but the only way to keep beds in the regular hospital is to bring all of our Covid Patients here. Otherwise wed no longer have beds at the regular hospital. Now were able to do that. At what point did you identify the fact you were at capacity at the hospitals in the state and needed to open this Field Hospital . Weve been watching the numbers carefully over the last month. Over the last week we knew this was a likely scenario. It was probably around thanksgiving or the day after that we said we were going to need to open this yesterday. What kind of resources do you have inside . A lot of folks you told me. Four patients were supposed to come here last night and their families lobbied on their behalf to not come because theyre afraid theyll get suboptimal care. Will patients get the care they need . We know people are concerned about what it would be like to be in a Field Hospital. Weve done everything to duplicate every possible service youd get in a traditional hospital here. Patients have beds. The bedside supplies, nursing staff, physicians on site, Resuscitation Team on site around the clock. All the supplies youd need in a traditional hospital. Were being very selective about the patients so were not bringing anyone we wouldnt be prepared to care. Were not bringing any patients who need a ventilator because we dont have the resources to do that. Were being careful to match the selective patients to meet all of their needs here. What if i patient gets worse while here . We would immediately transfer them by ambulance back to our hospital which is about ten minutes away. Doctor, thank you so much and for the work youve done and the time youve spent with us. Appreciate it. Good luck to you and your staff. Thank you very much. Its not just rhode island. More hospitals are being overrun and Field Hospitals are opening up. In new york, the governor there worried about the stage ahead for new york state. Want to go to rehema ellis who is standing by there. Talk us through this. Whats happening in new york and how are they going to manage if, in fact, hospitals there do hit capacity . Good morning. Whats happening here is the governor says Governor Cuomo says the numbers are not as bad as they could be but it doesnt like what he has seen. As a result of that, hes asking hospitals to begin to prepare. No one wants to see this state go through what this hospital behind me experienced last spring when new york was the epicenter of this pandemic. These conditions at this hospital in queens, they were described as apocalyptic. Too many patients, overwhelmed staff and, yet, there was hospital space available, some 20 miles away. But they didnt have the coordination. Now they have the experience. They know what could happen if the hospitals find themselves with too many patients. And thats the critical thing to watch. Because right now the governor says the numbers are moving in the wrong direction. Take a listen. When the covid rates go up, what happens . The hospitalization rate goes up. And the hospitalization rate is increasing dramatically. End of june, were about 900. Were now at 3500. Okay . Since the end of june. And that is before feeling the effect of the holiday season. Because the governor also says theres not likely to be a cavalry of Health Care Workers, they are now feeling what new york felt back in the spring. Hospitals are being told to make a list of retired doctors and nurses they can call on in need of an emergency. In addition, they are also telling they are planning to put their Field Hospital operation into effect. They are making the plans for that because they dont want to go through what this state went through before. Yasmin . Its interesting theyre trying to increase staff here as well as i was talking to dr. Laura foreman about some of the staffing issues. Theyre bringing in travel nurses, free lance nurses, asking people to take on extra time if they want an extra day to be working because theyll need as much help as they need in some of these Field Hospitals as well. Doctors and nurses are not overrun at the hospitals that are currently up and running. Rehema, thank you. Appreciate it. Want to get back to the real question of vaccines here and the cdc meeting later today to talk about the distribution of some of those. Want to bring in dr. Richard besser, served as acting director for the cdc. Ceo and president of the Robert Wood Johnson foundation. So you have this is the biggest question out there which is the distribution of this vaccine. Having to get to 300 million americans. I spoke to the person who is the head of distribution for operation warp speed yesterday who said by the end of june he expects every american who wants this vaccine will have access to this vaccine. How do you go about distributing this vaccine . Yeah, you know, yasmin, its going to be a major challenge. What the Committee Meeting today will do will be talking about who should get this vaccine first, in what order and why. Over the past couple of weeks, this committee its called the Advisory Committee on immunization practices. And what they do, and theyve been in existence for decades, they provide the recommendations to cdc regarding who should get an approved vaccine and why. This is true for the childhood vaccinations i give as a pediatrician. Its true for the seasonal flu vaccines and it will be true here. In all likelihood, they will recommend that Health Care Workers, Frontline Health care workers, be in that first group. And there are many reasons for that. They have a great risk of exposure. And we look to them to be able to provide the care as you were just showing at the Field Hospital. The care for people around this nation who become sick. After that it will be groups at increased risk of having a really bad outcome with it. Well see how they rank the priority for elderly individuals, people with chronic conditions and other essential workers. These are all groups at increased risk. As weve been talking about, you have to look at issues of equity. Black americans, latino americans, native americans have been getting infected, hospitalized and dying at rates that far surpass the other proportion of the population. Thats something that will be considered by the committee and make sure that issues of equity are dealt with and front and center. So you brought up a couple really good points. How do you identify which Health Care Workers get this vaccine because its not going to be able to get to all the Frontline Health care workers. Who is most important is the question. How do you identify that . Part of it, yasmin, is that when you look at the surveys of who wants this vaccine, theres a lot of work that has to be done around trust. Im going to be watching in addition to the cdc committee thats meeting today, next week and the week after, the fda and the fda Advisory Committees are going to be meeting. But for vaccines to have the update that were looking for, were going to need to believe that the process that fda is using and their Advisory Committee are true. That they havent been tampered with for political reasons. Im withholding judgment until then. To date, all weve had are reports in terms of how effective these vaccines are and how safe they are. Im very optimistic they will be safe and effective, but ill be looking to these committees to see, do you have any concerns . Is there endorsement for strong for this so that when the vaccines are approved, we can say, yes, this is something that you should get. Within health care, the cdc will put out the recommendations. They have always had systems in place for distributing to states. And then within states, the state Health Departments that look to see, okay, here are the points of distribution. Each of these vaccines has different challenges in terms of temperature and storage, tracking of individuals since these are not onedose vaccinations. Each vaccine, both the moderna and the Pfizer Vaccine require two doses. One is four weeks apart. One is three weeks apart. You have to track people to make sure they get the same vaccine both times and at the right time interval. Lots of logistics here, but states have been working on this for many months knowing that vaccines likely would be coming by the end of the year. What about Rural Communities . Thats a real concern, right . You talk about the Pfizer Vaccine. They need a deep freeze environment. What is the plan to get this vaccine to folks that are living in these Rural Communities . Yeah, i mean, thats a real challenge. And if you think global, we are talking about in the u. S. , we have 300 Million People that we want to get vaccinated. Globally were talking 70 billion people, many people who live in rural areas where it will not be possible to maintain that cold chain. As were thinking here, pfizer, as theyve talked about this, they have developed the technology and containers to contain dry ice that will keep the vaccine to the proper level, but this is something that states are looking at and figuring out, okay, how do we do this. Do we bring vaccine to people or people to vaccine . How do you weigh the benefits of having centralized distribution points for administering vaccines with the needs of people who are in rural areas. As well, as hospitals and Health Care Workers are stretched caring for people with covid, how do you think about pulling some of those people away from providing direct care to be able to provide immunization . Some of this is the same workers who do both and its going to be very challenging if were not able to get the numbers down that are on the rise around the nation in terms of hospitalizations and overall numbers of cases. Dr. Besser, real quick, final question. How do you take politics out of the Vaccine Distribution process . You know, its a real challenge, but the last thing you want to see is someones accessibility to vaccine be based on their income, the color of their skin, their political or social connections. We have to have a system that is truly transparent so that those who are truly the most at need, those who are providing services and working as essential workers and Health Care Workers are getting this first, and its a system that we believe is truly fair. All right, dr. Richard besser, thank you so much. He served as the acting director for the cdc and currently president and ceo of the Robert Wood Johnson foundation. Appreciate your knowledge on this. With that, im going to toss it over to my colleague Chris Jansing who is going to take it from here. Hi, chris. Hi. Im going to pull back the curtain a little. We have technical problems here in my apartment with like no warning at all. Yasmin picked up the show. Kudos to you. You are a rock star, my friend. We appreciate it. Still to come president elect biden will officially introduce key members of his Economic Team today. One has some republicans consistently claiming not to have seen this tweet or that tweet by trump, but suddenly, paying close attention on twitter. Plus, the former Trump Administration official in charge of Election Security says that despite threats against his life, his position stands. The election was secure. Were digging into the impact of all of this inside the republican party. Based on what we understand, based on the checks, the controls, the security measures in place at all points throughout the election, from registration through certification, weve got a lot of confidence in the security, not just of the arizona results but throughout the country. Alerts, they remind and warn us. If you have type 2 diabetes and risks for heart disease, you could land in the hospital with heart failure. For people like you, farxiga does more than lower a1c. Farxiga also helps prevent hospitalization for heart failure. Do not take if allergic to farxiga. Symptoms of a serious allergic reaction include rash, swelling, difficulty breathing or swallowing. Stop taking and seek medical help right away. Tell your doctor right away if you have red color in urine, or pain while you urinate, or a genital area infection, since a rare but serious genital infection may be lifethreatening. Do not take farxiga if you have severe kidney problems or are on dialysis. Other serious side effects include dehydration, genital yeast and bacterial infections in women and men, urinary tract infections, low blood sugar, and sudden kidney problems. Stop taking farxiga and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of ketoacidosis, which is serious and may lead to death. Answer the alert. Ask your doctor if farxiga could do more for you. If you cant afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. I was just fighting an uphill battle in my career. So when i heard about the applied Digital Skills courses, im thinking i can become more marketable. You dont need to be a computer expert to be great at this. These are skills lots of people can learn. I feel hopeful about the future now. I feel hopeful abou[whats this . ]ow. Oh, are we kicking karly out . We live with at t. It was a lapse in judgment. At t, we called this house meeting because you advertise gigspeed internet, but we cant sign up for that here. Yeah, but im just like warming up to those speeds. Youve lived here two years. The personal attacks arent helping, karly. Dont you have like a hot pilates class to get to or something . [ muffled scream ] stop living with at t. Xfinity can deliver gig to the most homes. 50 days until the inauguration and Joe Bidens White house team is starting to take shape. Today, president elect biden will officially introduce key members of his Economic Team. Among them, janet yellen as treasury secretary who could be the first woman to serve in that post if shes confirmed. Other members include princeton economist Cecilia Rouse and neera tanden from the center for American Progress to run the office of management and budget. Joining me now to talk about it, nbcs mike memoli who is in wilmington, delaware, this morning. Peter baker, chief White House Correspondent for the new york times, and ben white, chief economic correspondent for politico and host of the politico money podcast. Great to see you all guys. Mike, as you noted, republicans seem very focused on one nominee, neera tanden and specifically her past tweets while theyve been, frankly, pretty good at overlooking president ial tweets. Talk about it a little bit. Yeah, thats right, chris. I think the biden team was fully aware heading into these nominations that the makeup of the senate if it stays in republican hands makes things difficult for them. So far what youve seen is biden naming some fairly controversial names for National Security posts. Tony blinken for state, for example. Janet yellen saying she would be received very favorably, but neera tanden is the exception because she has been critical very critical on twitter of both left and right. She was a top supporter of Hillary Clinton in 2016, and that meant being at odds with Bernie Sanders supporters but much more over time with republicans who she did not hold back on. So what we saw yesterday on capitol hill is republicans return to the senate was, including many republicans, by the way, who have yet to acknowledge that joe biden won this election and is the president elect, but calling tandens nomination r