U.S. vaccine nears, but deaths rising each day

A mounting U.S. death toll has tempered enthusiasm about a coming COVID-19 vaccine with 9/11-like fatalities projected every day for the months ahead, even with a rapid rollout of inoculations, which could start as soon as Monday.

This report produced by Emma Jehle.

As hospitals around the country prep for the arrival of the coronavirus vaccine, a mounting U.S. death toll has tempered enthusiasm for the rapid rollout of inoculations, which could start as soon as Monday.

Another 2,902 U.S. deaths were reported on Thursday, a day after a record 3,253 people died... Numbers equivalent to those killed in the September 11th attacks, and greater than in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

On Thursday, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Robert Redfield warned that rate wouldn't be slowing down anytime soon.

"Probably for the next 60 to 90 days, we’re going to have more deaths per day than we had on 9/11 or we had at Pearl Harbor.

This is a real, this is going to be a really unfortunate loss of life.

The reality is the vaccine approval this week is not going to really impact that, I think, to any degree for the next 60 days" In a matter of days, ultra cold freezer units in hospitals and pharmacies across the country will be storing the much-anticipated COVID-19 vaccine.

Susan Mashni is the vice president and chief pharmacy officer for the Mount Sinai Health System in New York.

"And this whole freezer can hold like a couple hundred thousand doses.

We expect we'll only probably get in the thousands initially and maybe 5,000 doses just at any given time at one site.” For Steven Dohi, Chief Pharmacist Service at Los Angeles County USC Medical Center, the question is when will vaccine rollout start to turn the pandemic around.

"Well, the vaccine is coming very soon, we anticipate.

Is it the light at the end of the tunnel?

We definitely hope so.

That does require, though, that we reach some critical number, the herd immunity numbers.

How fast we get there, we'll have to wait and see."