Scrambling to figure out how much highly Sensitive Information has been compromised after malicious actors roamed undetected across Government Agencies for months. Welcome to tuesday. Its meet the press daily. Im chuck todd. The Electoral College has spoken and this morning Mitch Mcconnell finally decided to congratulate joe biden as the next president of the United States. Yesterday, electors met in all 50 states. So as of this morning, our country has officially a president elect and a Vice President elect. The Electoral College has spoken. So today i want to congratulate president elect joe biden, the president elect is no stranger to the senate. Hes devoted himself to Public Service for many years. I also want to congratulate the Vice President elect, our colleague from california, senator harris. For what its worth, its the first time anybody in that leadership position has used the Electoral College as somehow the bar before acknowledging a victory, especially one that was not even among the four closest this century. Meanwhile, vaccinations are under way with more hospitals inoculating workers. Well speak with a doctor who administered the first vaccine publicly in this country ahead this hour. There are two headlines signaling hope that our democracy is held and this can be tamed. The damage done by the current president cannot be ignored. Were still facing a threeheaded monster of crises. The pandemic, the erosion of our democracy and this new staggering russian hack. All of them have been worsened by the actions of this president. President trump continues to baselessly claim the election was rigged. And an alarming chunk of the Republican Party now believes, appears to believe his lies. Attorney general bill barr is leaving and a source tells nbc news it was partly due to the president s anger at barr for stating there was no evidence of widespread election fraud. President elect biden spoke last night. Its a position so extreme weve never seen it before. A position that refused to respect the will of the people, refused to respect the rule of law and refused to honor our constitution. Respecting the will of the people is at the heart of our democracy. Even when we find those results hard to accept. But thats the obligation of those who have taken on a sworn duty to uphold the constitution. The consequences of President Trumps efforts to undermine our democracy may be with us for a very long time. The same thing can be said about his weakness on matters of russia policy. As the headlines show you, there was a serious breach by suspected russian actors of Government Agencies and private companies. U. S. Officials are still grappling with just how bad this hack really was. Early indications are that it was very, very bad and well have more on it later in the show. Ask yourself, the president downplaying russian hacking for the last 4 1 2 years. Did the government take its eye off the russian ball . On the issue of the pandemic, those numbers, 300,000 deaths and 16 million cases showcase some of the greatest failures of president ial leadership in this nations history. Even as vaccinations are now beginning and even as were finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. Lets focus on the good news and the vaccines. Jake ward is in San Francisco where cases are on the rise and the first vaccine doses have just been administered. Yasmin vossoughian is outside of yale hospital where were expecting to see the first vaccinations happen there. And also dr. Vin gupta who is set to get his vaccine tomorrow. Let me start with jacob ward out in San Francisco. Jacob, the first doses out there today. What did you see out there, and whats the reaction been . Chuck, you know, its been a very hopeful morning. I have to say its hard not to feel some deep emotions looking at a place like this behind me. This is San Franciscos general hospital. The one that got this city through the tuberculosis crisis, the aids crisis, the big earthquake and its the epicenter of the vaccine rollout. The first five people in San Francisco are receiving their vaccine here today. We spoke to the director of the citys Health Department to find out what he is feeling, whether theres cause for hope now. Well, im both hopeful and concerned. So were in this third surge. We are not going to get enough vaccine to protect many people from this third surge. So its very important in San Francisco and the region that we continue wearing these masks, social distancing, staying at home, do not travel for the holidays. So, chuck, you know, theres a huge number of vaccines arriving here. More than 12,500 doses will arrive and thats 12,500 people who will be vaccinated. But a city this size has more than 80,000 medical workers alone. And so we have a long way to go. As dr. Koufax pointed out, were not allowed to take our foot off the gas yet. We have to dig deep and get through this very dark third wave. But to be here for the initial rollout of this at an historic hospital, it feels pretty good. Look, weve got to take these glimmers of hope and take we can take all these glimmers and it ends up benefiting a lot of us. Let me move over to yasmin in new haven, connecticut, at yale, where theyre also about to administer the first doses of vaccine at that hospital. What have you seen . What are you hearing . Chuck, sorry im looking down as you were coming to me. Im watching the zoom call play out on my phone as you guys have the feed in there as well. Theyll be administering these vaccines at any moment behind me. We wanted to get inside the room as we were yesterday. Sadly, you werent on the program yesterday but it was an incredible moment. Im going to echo what jacob was talking about. Its really emotional. Ive seen a couple of these administered in covering this story. Its incredibly emotional to see them administered, imagining what is ahead. It allows you to have some hope as jake was just talking about. A glimmer of hope that life can maybe turn back to normal one day, eventually. Maybe june, july, when the general population if they want it, will be able to get vaccinated. Were seeing the First Health Care professionals being vaccinated across this country. I saw it in rhode island. Youll be speaking to one of the first doctors vaccinated later on in your show. And i spoke to the first doctor thats going to be vaccinated here in Yale New Haven Health in about two minutes or so as were awaiting that to begin. Were hearing from the chief clinical officer there. You saw him beside me on the screen. He is one of the first doctors that will get it administered to him. And he actually was working on the pfizer Clinical Trial here at yale new haven. This is the first time that hes going to be taking a medication, something that he helped develop. He helped work on. He was an aids researcher before this. Hes going to be taking it himself, administering it for himself, which is a real full circle moment forever him. Hes also a father of a few children. This will alleviate some pressure and stress hes carried for much of these last couple of months, hoping he doesnt bring covid home. And then also giving him confidence to walk the hospital floor and to treat patients safely now that hell be vaccinated. But it is quite a moment in seeing these folks, these Frontline Health care workers being vaccinated, how much theyve been through, so many lives theyve had to save and so many lives theyve lost. Just talking numbers here, quickly, chuck, if i take you through some of the numbers in this hospital behind me. 57 people currently on ventilators behind me. 433 in hospital beds positive with covid. 3 out of 4 beds are full with Covid Patients. Almost at capacity. Just in the last two weeks, statewide, in the last two weeks, more people have died than the entire month of november. So theyre in a dire state here in connecticut. And any moment now, behind me, were await well, well come back to you. Hopefully well bring that to you. Yasmin, youll hang tight with me. Im going to bring in dr. Gupta and as soon as we see him, we want to bring these moments. There have been theyve just its funny what just a single shot can do and dr. Gupta, im wondering if you had that same just to see some of these first inoculations, it does feel as if were going to make it. Im curious, are you shocked that youre going to get a vaccine before actually getting this virus . Good afternoon, chuck. You know, its the deepest gratitude to our scientists who often work in obscurity and we havent given them enough spotlight here. Thank you to them because this is our only way out. Theres just a few things, chuck, i want to emphasize here. Number one, it is, as somebody, my colleagues and i, as somebody that has seen the impacts of covid19 Critical Illness in the intensive care unit, thats a difficult done to manage and its unexpected. Ive seen 18yearolds otherwise healthy come into the icu with a stroke. 88yearolds with smoking related emphysema come in. Very difficult to manage on the ventilator. But it can happen to anybody, covid19 Critical Illness. Thats why we can manage. A lot of attention has been paid to the side effects if you have had a severe allergy in the past. Thats manageable. Thats manageable quickly in a health care setting. Whats very challenging, what remains very challenging to manage is covid19 Critical Illness. Ill quickly say, all of this should inform a peoples behavior in the next two weeks. Do not think that youre protected if you want to travel for the holidays, you are not protected. You cant mask and test your way to safety here. Stay home. Because the vaccine, while its near and medium term relief, that relief well not realize it at scale until april at the earliest. So the next three months, vigilance top of mind. Let me ask you about what weve learned about the moderna vaccine. Modernas documentation indicates that not only does it prevent the worst its effective in preventing the person from getting the worst aspects of this virus, but this one they seem to think it also stops the spread. Does this give should this give us some hope that pfizers will also limit the spread because thats a question we werent yet able to answer with the Pfizer Vaccine. So well know that soon. Right now its speculation on pfizer since they didnt actually report that data. Moderna, to your point, theres a suggestion for your viewers out there that modernas vaccine, the primary end point here is do any of these vaccines prevent you from ending up in the icu with severe covid19 pneumonia . The other question, does it prevent infection . So it may prevent you from ending up with a severe form of the illness but do these vaccines protect you from getting infected in the first place . Does appear modernas prevents not only bad symptoms from happening but getting infected in the first place. At least thats what we think. If thats also true for pfizer, that means if you are getting the vaccine, the twodose regimen from either of these companies, potentially ten days after that second dose, you will be protected from infection, meaning we can start to think that if youve gotten vaccinated, you are no longer a risk to even transmit the disease to others, unwittingly getting infected, even if youve gotten vaccinated. Thats a big difference. We still dont have definitive proof that vaccination protects you from any type of infection. Just the severe forms of illness. Right now we dont have clarity but well have greater clarity the next few months. And when will we have an idea of how whether were going to need to do a booster vaccine . How long are we going to know if this is something that wears off over time . So those phase three trials that moderna and pfizer continue to have and to monitor, they have about 40,000 individuals on each trial. Some have gotten the vaccine. Some have gotten the placebo. One of the debates is, can we continue to follow those individuals and that randomized control trial . Can those who have gotten the placebo continue to actually participate in the study and not get the actual vaccine . And thats important, chuck, to answer your question. We have a few months worth of data about whats their immunity look like, these people enrolled in these trials. So we have a few months lead time to answer that specific question. We dont know yet. Theres suggestion that youll have a few years protection. We dont know. As someone trying to message on vaccine efficacy and safety, i think we need to level with the American People about what we do clearly know and what we dont know and the duration of immunity, we just dont know. Well, thats what we keep learning about as well as we dont know a lot about the side effects of the virus itself, covid long haulers. Theres still a lot were learning but were so glad that we have this vaccine. All right. I want to go back to yasmin because i think we are seconds away from seeing the first vaccinations at yale at that hospital there in new haven. Yasmin, take us through what youre seeing right now. They are leaving us they are leaving you outdoors. They are leaving me outdoors. And its cold out here. So i do wish i was inside seeing this thing in person. But nonetheless, we are outside, obviously, for safety purposes. They didnt want us inside and we completely and totally understand that. But theyre vaccinating five individuals, five health care professionals, Frontline Health care workers they chose to vaccinate in this first go around. Early this morning, i believe it was around 8 15 or so we saw the delivery of these vaccines. They had 1,950 doses that were delivered early this morning off a fedex truck at Bradley International airport in hartford, connecticut. Made the drive, 45 minutes or so to this hospital and then they wheeled those vaccines up into the hospital and all of the staff that accepted that vaccine, they were just elated. So completely happy to see this vaccine on their premises. Now you have these five individuals that are about to get vaccinated, as we well know, with the Pfizer Vaccine. Theyll get this first shot now and have to wait 21 days for their second shot to have full immunity in this vaccine. As dr. Vin gupta just talked about and always talks about and knows so well, were not necessarily going to know how long immunity is going to last because theyre part of the trial in a way. These five individuals and subsequently the thousands more that will be vaccinated. Theyre ultimately going to be part of the trial because well be learning something every single day. I want to talk folks through exactly who is getting vaccinated. So the first individual i believe on your left, if im saying that right is dr. Obuagu. He san Infectious Disease specialist and the Principal Investigator for the pfizer trial. So this is the first time. Full circle moment for him where he is taking something that he worked on. He helped develop. Think about how incredible that is for him. This is a man whose family is from nigeria. He went to school here at yale. Hes the first individual to get this vaccine. The woman next to him, i also spoke to her a little bit earlier as well. Excuse me for the ambulance. You can imagine were in front of a hospital. And as i mentioned, 400plus patients right now hospitalized with covid19 at this hospital behind me. So, of course, well hear ambulances coming by throughout this moment because its a split screen moment. Folks getting vaccines and folks still hospitalized. So to the right of dr. Obuagu you have kay husler. She is a registered nurse for the medical intensive care unit. She said she was pretty nervous to get this vaccine because she didnt really know what to expect. Then she talked about the confidence she would feel walking the floor. Her coworkers said she was being really humble about her nursing skills. Shes one of the best nurses they have here at the hospital. One of the reasons shes getting this vaccine today. That she gives so much care and love and time to her patients. You think about, chuck, how many times weve talked about patients dying alone throughout this entire pandemic. What it is like to not be with their families, having to talk with them through their ipad or phone for their final moments and how often it is doctors and nurses able to hold those patients hands in that moment. Many times with covid, especially because we didnt know so much throughout this entire period, we havent been able to those nurses and doctors havent been able to be as close to these patients as they would like. Kay has a personal touch with many of these patients and her colleague told me she was one of those nurses that tried to be as personal as she could within the safety protocols of the hospital. Its one of the reason yes shes there today getting this vaccine. She told me actually once she gets the second shot, shes going to try to go see her family in seattle. Shes got Four Brothers and sisters. Her parents live in seattle. Everybody is on the left coast. Here we go. She says she wants to make sure yeah. Here we go. Getting that first shot. All right. I imagine its both relief and trepidation at the same time. I mean, ill be honest. Any time you get the poke in the arm, no matter what it is. You always have that minute. But this is something else. All right. Here we go. 3, 2, 1. Wow. Wow. Small victories, yasmin. Small victories. I mean, again, chuck, i it just makes you emotional. You kind of tear up watching it. Its what the future may hold because of this advancement. Its so incredible. And i will say, you made the joke about whenever you get a needle in your arm theres a bit of prepidation. Both kay and dr. Obuagu said theyre nervous about the needle. I said youre doctors and nurses. Youre using giving them. They said were used to giving them, not getting them. Joking around with them. Just an amazin