Good morning. Welcome to Axios today. It's Thursday, December 3rd. I'm Naila Boodoo. Here's how we're making

you smarter today's

the new hope for creating smart cities,

plus the logic behind the CDC's new quarantine guidelines.

But first, the COVID vaccine's tough distribution

journey to rural states is today's one big thing.

We're getting closer to the vaccine finish line with three promising candidates. Distributing this vaccine

is going to be a challenge everywhere but especially in states that have large rural

areas like Alabama. Here's a few things you need to know about Alabama.

November was the state's worst month with more than 55,000 COVID cases reported.

They're getting ready to store vaccines and medical facilities in Birmingham,

Tuscaloosa, and six other large metro areas. and They also face deep mistrust with the health care system,

especially when we're thinking about black Americans.

So it's complicated to say the least.

Dr. Scott Harris is Alabama State Health Officer

and has been working on the state's plan to distribute and administer the vaccine.

Dr Harris, I wonder if you can give us a sense of the scale of what you're dealing with?

What we are doing is meeting with people all day long from all over the state to talk

about the real specifics of how do you handle this vaccine and where in your

building do you keep it these are really tremendous. We're terrified that someone's going to crack open a

coal pack of almost a thousand vaccines and then eight hours later they've only given out ten of them and then we've just wasted that opportunity

you know wasted that resource we still have all these concerns about what's

...