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American Morning

Bombings Kill Dozens in Uganda; BP Replaces Cap on Leaking Oil Well; Diabetes Drug Avandia Examined for Causing Increased Heart Risk; New Oil Cap Put to the Test; Mel Gibson Rants Recorded on AudioTape?; Obama to Unveil Plan to Fight HIV and AIDS; Haiti's Hospital Care

Aired July 13, 2010 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Glad you're with us on this Tuesday, July 13th. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm not John Roberts. He's off today. I'm Drew Griffin in for him, and here are this morning's top stories.

Day 85 of this BP oil spill in the Gulf. The company, though, successfully put a new containment cap on the leak yesterday, still unclear if it will stop the oil flow. They're doing a testing right now as we speak. We are live in the Gulf ahead.

CHETRY: Also, former Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro, making a rare appearance with words of warning to the U.S. Castro says any U.S. military action against Iran would likely turn nuclear, and he's also blaming the U.S. for sinking the South Korean ship in order to provoke war with North Korea. We're getting a live report from Havana this hour.

GRIFFIN: And it's a big day and probably, maybe, not a good one for the makers of the popular diabetes drug Avandia. The FDA could vote to remove this drug from the market. The concern is it raises the risk for heart attacks. We'll talk with doctors who raised some of the first concerns about this drug.

CHETRY: First though, there is a new cap on the gushing oil well in the Gulf, and it is good news this morning according to many who have followed this from day one. Now day 85 into the Gulf oil disaster, a look now at the new cap. These are live underwater pictures.

BP got it situated last night and now beginning today, BP will begin testing the pressure in the well to see if the cap will work at actually stopping the oil flow all together. If all goes as planned, the next step would be to close the vents and drastically cut the flow of oil.

Ed Lavandera is live in New Orleans with the latest on all of this. We had a chance last hour to speak to the LSU professor at the petroleum engineering lab in Baton Rouge. He says all signs point to this being very, very positive.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. That tone of optimism is starting to percolate all across the Gulf coast region. Perhaps it is also a sign that after three months of enduring this oil disaster, people are just so hanging to this as the one good shred of good news that they haven't seen here in quite some time.

So officials here, we anticipate an update here in about an hour and a half or so from BP officials as to how this is moving along. We anticipate that perhaps that testing has already begun. As we've mentioned, it could take anywhere between six hours, 48 hours, could take longer.

As you've seen that live picture there, you saw some of that oil coming out of the top. That was at least according to what we were told by BP officials yesterday, that was going to be something that we would be seeing. That's not out of the normal. As you mentioned, Kiran, they'll start closing the valves down to see what kind of pressure that new containment cap can withstand.

Oddly enough, as you might hear throughout the day here today, the higher the pressure in there, the better off. If there's not enough pressure that means that oil is escaping from other places along the path up to that blowout preventer, so that would be bad news.

So a series of things that could happen here. That containment cap ideally would work by itself essentially sealing everything off. If it doesn't work, the next step officials here hope that they will be able to bring in the tubes and pipes and start collecting oil at the surface in vessels that are positioned on the surface of the water to collect that oil that's being released.

But the best case scenario here is they'd at least be able to capture by their estimations all of the oil that's coming out of this run-away well. This would be monumental news.

This is not to get confused with the relief wells. That work continues, but we're still weeks away from that being the ultimate solution here. And so this would be the best effort to at least save the Gulf from three more weeks of gallons of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico.

CHETRY: Right, because the bottom line is we wouldn't be ticking off every second because effectively if it goes as planned, it would stop the oil flow completely as they drill the relief well, right?

LAVANDERA: That would be -- that would -- ideally, assuming everything would be able to kind of sit tight and hold on tight for the next three weeks, maybe even four weeks that would be need for that relief well to work completely and kill off the well.

It would also save, quite frankly, BP millions and millions of dollars more. Remember, they're fined by how many barrels of oil leak into the Gulf of Mexico, so this would save the company untold millions of dollars as well.

CHETRY: All the heartache down there as well, the clean-up would obviously continue, but at least a bit of a bright spot in this ongoing nightmare. Ed Lavandera for us, thanks so much.

GRIFFIN: Other breaking news this morning on the bombing attacks in Uganda yesterday. The new developments are arrests being made in that country in connection with these attacks -- 74 people killed when bombs exploded as people were watching the World Cup.

Police have now told us that they found an unexploded device, a suicide belt similar to those found at the bomb sites of the blast. It didn't go off. Here's American Kris Sledge who survived the blasts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRIS SLEDGE, BOMB BLAST SURVIVOR: All I remember is watching the football game at this Ethiopian restaurant and for some reason I put my head down, and I just remember hearing a big explosion, a lot of noise.

I remember like falling down off my chair for like a couple seconds and. I guess I was unconscious for a couple seconds, or blacked out or something. I remember waking up and I was walking away from the scene, walking away from where I was sitting. I remember my leg hurt really bad so I had to stop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Amazing story. CNN's David McKenzie just out of a press conference with police there in Kampala, Uganda. David, what is the latest in this case?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Drew, the latest is pretty surprising in fact, because what they've already found is damning evidence that this was a suicide attack. The reason is that they found a suicide belt at what they call here a disco, at a nightclub late last night here in Kampala.

A concerned citizen called up the police. They swooped on that nightclub and found an unexploded vest. They showed it in front of the reporters, in front of us, and showed that this was an unexploded suicide vest with explosives, ball bearings that could rip through people.

So the two attacks which were actually three separate bombings here in very crowded places looking at the soccer World Cup could have been even more deadly, it seems.

I'm outside the hospital here in Kampala. There are scores of injured in there. In fact they're taking out bodies in coffins out the back. So very sad for Uganda at this stage. The death toll of 74 could go up.

GRIFFIN: David McKenzie live in Uganda with the latest in that. That should certainly be able to give us a lot of details on how this was put together, this suicide belt.

CHETRY: Also new this morning, later this hour, an FDA panel will begin two days of hearing deciding whether or not to pull the diabetes drug Avandia from the market. It's been linked to an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

Later this hour, just coming up in 30 minutes, we'll talk with a doctor who first raised red flags about the safety of Avandia three years ago.

GRIFFIN: America's confidence in president Obama hitting an all- time new low. A new "Washington Post"/ABC poll shows nearly 60 percent of Americans say they have lost faith in him, a clear majority also disapproving of how the president handles the economy. The numbers signaling that an anti-incumbent mood is settling in just ahead of the fall's midterm elections.

CHETRY: Football hall of famer Lawrence Taylor is scheduled to appear at a New York courtroom this morning. The former New York Giant is accused of raping a 16 year old girl. His lawyer vehemently denied the claims. Taylor is expected to officially enter a plea in court today.

GRIFFIN: The Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert fined $100,000 for blasting LeBron James. He called LeBron's decision a "cowardly betrayal and shocking act of disloyalty." NBA commissioner David Stern thought that was shocking, so he's fining Gilbert.

CHETRY: It was a pretty scathing release on the web.

GRIFFIN: Doesn't the boss get to say what he wants?

CHETRY: He went on and on and on, the poor guy.

(WEATHER BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Still ahead, the rant heard round the world, an audiotape believed to be the voice of actor Mel Gibson. Gibson's ex- girlfriend says he threatens her life while using every swear word in somebody's book. If you haven't heard these tapes, stick around, because something sounds suspicious here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: This morning after three months of failures, BP engineers could be on the verge of stopping nearly every drop of oil that's leaking into the Gulf. You know it is not leaking -- there it is pouring into the Gulf right now. If everything goes as planned, that potentially could stop today.

Last night robots attached a new containment cap on the broken well. Today they're putting it to the test. What they're going to do is close one or more valves to measure the pressure of the well. Could this be the fix we've been waiting for?

Joining me now, Don Van Nieuwenhuise, professor of petroleum geoscience at the University of Houston. I'm sure, Don, you've been looking at these live pictures as we have and I guess potentially what we would see is a slowing or at least a narrowing of the leak that's coming out of the top of this thing. Correct?

DON VAN NIEUWENHUISE, PROFESSOR OF PETROLEUM GEOSCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON: Yes. I think what they're going to probably try to do is close some of the vents at a time slowly so they can check the pressure response to closing those vents, because they want to close the vents extremely slowly so that they don't create a hammer-like effect on the well by shutting it quickly.

In other words, if they were to cut the pressure quickly, it would be like a train running into a brick wall rather than using breaks, and they need to be very careful with this equipment while they're testing it out.

GRIFFIN: All the information we're getting out sounds very positive to the moment as they have put this cap in place now. It's where it is supposed to be. They're being able to exercise the valves over the next six to 48 hours.

If this doesn't work, if, in other words, the pressure builds up to the point where they cannot actually shut it off, what's the back- up? Just put a hose on the top of this thing and then suck the oil off to the top?

NIEUWENHUISE: Actually, they already have three hoses, I believe, connected. I know they have two connected already to the lower marine riser package. They'll have a third hose attached to this stack itself. And then they can also produce the oil.

And the fallback situation to leave the valves open enough as much as they need to and relieve the pressure by producing the oil.

You can also see that the flow there doesn't seem to be as violent or as fast as it used to be in the early days when they took the cap off. It seems to be slowed down a bit. That could be a loss of reservoir energy or they could actually have the valves partially closed at this point in time.

GRIFFIN: Right.

The talking points we're getting from the oil industry is that this didn't take so long, or they didn't wait so long to do this, they've been working for this all along. Do you buy that, that they did not have this technology when this started and this is kind of a miraculous engineering job that they've done quickly to solve the problem?

NIEUWENHUISE: It's sort of a combination of miracle and also good planning. They did plan on doing something like this in the beginning.

One of their first options similar to this was to remove the LMRP and put a blowout preventer on top of the old blowout preventer stack. And when they realized that that would be more complicated, they came up with this new plan and they came up with it pretty quickly. They've been working on this almost since day one. It takes a while to build it.

And the reason why you don't have these things sitting on a rack somewhere is because every time you have a blowout, the situation that presents itself is a little bit different. The equipment that you have to deal with is a little bit different. And, of course, that's why they had to make the transition spool onto the LMRP because that wasn't the typical arrangement that they'd be looking for in a blowout and they did that. And then they, at the same time, they were building the equipment to actually do this.

And also, the steps that they did earlier, they actually learned from their mistakes in terms of the gas clap (ph) rates, the ice crystals that they had problems with and that sort of thing. They learned how to control that. And so a lot of the success that you see right now is a result of the steps that they took before this. So they've been doing this in a very careful step-wise fashion and I don't know why no one believes that, but it appears that way to me.

GRIFFIN: Yes. Well, I guess no one believes that because we've seen this oil spilling into the Gulf for the past 85 days and it's tough to get around those pictures. But will this -- what they're doing now change the oil industry, make these kind of blowout protectors and caps on the racks, as you say, so we can pull them off and put them in place in case, God forbid, this happens again?

NIEUWENHUISE: I believe that's absolutely correct. I think the easiest solution to the concerns that we all have are to have this equipment available. Now this particular type of cap is something they didn't have before, but now they will have that available.

And I think it would be appropriate for them to have the equipment they need for every type of well depending on the specific conditions, the pressure, the temperature and the water depth, to have blowout preventers and back-up caps like this available in case there's another accident of this nature so that they can respond much more quickly and take advantage of what they've learned from this exercise which has been a tremendous disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, which is something that cannot be overestimated.

GRIFFIN: Don, real quick question, sort of political. A new ban on oil drilling in the Gulf basically, you know, shutting down the oil industry down there. The White House saying, look, we don't know enough about this spill yet to know it's not going to happen somewhere else. Justified to put the moratorium in place, or not?

NIEUWENHUISE: I think they're justified in being concerned. And again, I think the better response would be to make sure that you have back-up plans well in advance and equipment on the shore ready to respond quickly to this type of situation. And then also to make sure that all the equipment is properly checked.

I have to imagine that the blowout preventers, for example, that went into the relief wells were much better checked than the one that was on this well that blew out. And that sort of thing should never happen. They should make sure that all the safety precautions that can be taken have been taken and taken. And one thing you just can't cut corners on with a well is safety. You have to be -- that has to be your primary objective.

GRIFFIN: All right, Don, thanks a lot. Don Nieuwenhuise with the University of Houston, thanks for joining us -- Kiran.

NIEUWENHUISE: Thank you.

CHETRY: Griffin, thanks.

Still ahead, actor Mel Gibson in what is reported to be a new audiotape. New accusations of threatening and sexist remarks that he made against his ex-girlfriend and mother of his child. We're going to play some of it for you and find out more about the fallout still ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: "Minding Your Business" this morning, "Consumer Reports" is giving the iPhone 4 a shocking thumbs down. The influential product review magazine is saying that it checked it out. It believes that it is a hardware flaw. The antenna where they've said that at times when you're holding the phone on the bottom left side, it actually causes you to lose reception. A lot of tech blogs say that if you buy a case for the iPhone it fixes the problem. "Consumer Reports" also somewhat sarcastically recommended a piece of duct tape to fix the problem as well. Gizmodo.com has an online petition demanding an antenna fix or free cases with each iPhone 4.

GRIFFIN: Why the music? This is why. There could be a battle for the bunny. "Playboy" founder Hugh Hefner proposed taking his company private. It's a move that pushed shares 41 percent higher and prompted the "Playboy's" long-time archrival "Penthouse" to say it's going to put in a competing bid.

CHETRY: Interesting. You know, the day and age where magazines are suffering so much to see all the big back and forth over Playboy.

GRIFFIN: Yes.

CHETRY: A lot of people, you know, could just get the articles online.

GRIFFIN: Well, let's move on.

CHETRY: All right. Lindsay Lohan's jail sentence could be good news for her fashion line, 6126. Retail analysts say that the increased interest in Lohan, I guess because of her woes with the law, led to an uptick in sales. And they point to Paris Hilton whose fashion line also successfully launched three weeks after she was released from jail back in 2007.

GRIFFIN: What was the other one, Heidi Wear? Remember here? Heidi Fleiss?

CHETRY: Oh, that one.

GRIFFIN: Yes. She had pajamas, too. CHETRY: Yes.

GRIFFIN: Oh, I don't know about -- anyway, more Hollywood news. Could be lethal weapon in the domestic violence case against Mel Gibson. A new audiotape allegedly captures Gibson in another profanity-laced tirade.

CHETRY: Yes, in these tapes, the actor allegedly admits to hitting the mother of his daughter, and then threatens her life. Here's a portion of the secretly taped recording and a warning that we had bleeped out the profanities, but I still wouldn't want my kids to hear it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOMAN: You almost killed us. Did you forget?

MAN: The last three years has been a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) gravy train for you.

WOMAN: You were hitting a woman with a child in her hands. You. What kind of man is that? Hitting a woman when she's holding a child in her hands, breaking her teeth twice in the face? What kind of man is that?

MAN: Oh, you are all angry now. You know what?

WOMAN: You're going to get to it. You know what?

MAN: You (EXPLETIVE DELETED) deserved it.

WOMAN: You're going to answer. One day, boy, you're going to answer.

MAN: What, what are you threatening me?

WOMAN: Nothing, nothing. I'm not the one to threaten.

MAN: I'll threaten. I'll put you in the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) rose garden, you (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: That is bizarre. It sounds staged to me. Just very weird. We need to get to the bottom of that.

CHETRY: Yes. I'm sure we won't hear the end of that one.

GRIFFIN: No.

All right. Well, a frail but feisty Fidel Castro, the former Cuban dictator, makes a rare appearance with accusations of blame and words of warning to the United States. We are live in Havana. That's just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHETRY: Well, new numbers just released from the CDC estimate that a million people in the U.S. are now living with HIV and that one out of every five don't even know they're infected. Later today, President Obama will officially unveil a new plan to fight HIV/AIDS.

Dan Lothian is live at the White House with more. Hey, Dan.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning. You know, I think what's so disturbing for some people is that 30 years after the first cases of HIV began to appear, this remains a major problem.

So as part of its comprehensive plan, the White House will aim to reduce the number of new infections and also provide more access to care for those living with HIV. We'll hear from administration officials about that later today. But if President Obama wanted to get a first-hand glimpse of this problem, he wouldn't have to go very far. In fact, all he has to do is walk out the front door.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN (voice-over): It's not the headline any city's mayor would be proud of. Washington, D.C.'s HIV infection rate surpasses parts of West Africa's.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In an area where you have extreme rates of disease --

LOTHIAN: A blunt assessment from the district's former HIV/AIDS administration director who added that D.C. was, quote, "on par with Uganda and some parts of Kenya." What's equally disturbing, people living with HIV unaware.

JUSTIN GOFORTH, DIR. OF COMMUNITY HEALTH, WHITMAN-WALKER CLINIC: It's estimated that a third to a half of the residents of D.C. that are living with HIV don't know their status.

LOTHIAN: Justin Goforth, a director at Whitman-Walker Clinic about a mile from the White House has been fighting this epidemic, working with some of the clinic's 3,000 patients educating, counseling and offering health care.

GOFORTH: The research is really clear that someone who's engaged in medical care for HIV are much less likely to go out and infect somebody else.

LOTHIAN: Goforth says because of the district's increased funding for HIV testing in recent years, the AIDS freight train is slowing down and looking to turn around. But among African-Americans, it's barreling down the tracks. Why?

GOFORTH: Their access to health care, their access to quality education, socioeconomic status, unemployment rate.

LOTHIAN: And there is the stigma that Guy Jenkins, a radio deejay, community activist and clinic patient admits is alive and well. GUY JENKINS, WHITMAN-WALKER CLINIC CLIENT LIVING WITH HIV: It's true, we don't tend to take to homosexuality or the HIV thing really well. Those hiding behind doors and everything.

LOTHIAN: But Goforth is optimistic. He's driven by a passion to help others conquer a mountain that he began climbing 18 years ago when he tested positive for HIV.

GOFORTH: It was a death sentence. And I was devastated. Yes, I'll share my story and say that, you know, it's been 18 years for me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LOTHIAN: Now, Goforth has even adopted a young man, 17 years old, also HIV infected. His mother died. Now, as the White House rolls out its new strategy today, he will be watching closely. He says what's more important than even this new focus or even more funding is that the federal government really use existing data so they can figure out where the problem areas are in communities across the country so they can be better targeted. Back to you.

CHETRY: Dan Lothian for us this morning, outside of the White House. Thanks so much.

Well, it's 30 minutes past the hour. Time for our top stories. This morning, new hope as BP begins testing its new tighter fitting containment cap. Now, if it works and vents can be shut, the oil giant says it should contain most, if not all, of the oil that's gushing from the well. Today's tests could last anywhere from a few hours to two days or even longer.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: Listen to this, a group of lawmakers want to know if BP lobbied for the convicted Lockerbie terrorist bomber Abdul Basset Al Megrahi's release. So that BP could profit from Libyan oil deals. Megrahi, you'll remember, was released from a British prison last year. Doctors told us he was dying almost imminently from cancer. Guess what? He's still alive. It turns out one of those doctors now says Megrahi, who's back home in Libya, could live another 10 years.

CHETRY: Also the Senate judiciary committee is scheduled to vote today on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's confirmation. But Republican committee member Senator Lindsey Graham says that vote will have to wait another week calling that vote "the normal way of doing business." Republicans on the committee say they want the delay so they can have more time to review Kagan's testimony.

GRIFFIN: Also new this morning, former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro making a rare TV appearance since handing over control of the country to his brother, Raul.

CHETRY: Yes, Castro talked extensively on several global issues and also had a warning for President Obama when it came to Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FIDEL CASTRO, FMR. CUBAN PRESIDENT (through translator): The Iran crisis right now is the worst crisis that Obama has right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Let's bring in David Ariosto, he is live from the Cuban capital of Havana. David, the obvious question, why is this guy coming out and doing this interview at this time?

DAVID ARIOSTO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that seems to be the million dollar question at this point. Here in Cuba, there is some significant domestic news taking place. Just last week Raul Castro's government announced the release of some 52 political prisoners. That is going to be the largest political prisoner release since 1998 when Pope John Paul II visited.

And so the first group of those prisoners are actually en route to Spain right now. Over the weekend we saw the first public appearance of Castro in photos, and then yesterday that old Cuban revolutionary again making headlines by coming on Cuba's evening broadcast.

But I think what's most interesting about what this - his appearance last night is what he didn't say. Cuba has had significant changes in terms of liberalization of some barber shops, agricultural reforms and now in terms of this historical political prisoner release and Fidel Castro, last night, chose to talk about international issues blasting the United States for its foreign policy, warning against potential nuclear war with Iran, North Korea.

And what we're looking at here is almost a TV version of some of the columns that he's penned in state media. He's become sort of a columnist in chief, if you will, since leaving power in 2006 and giving over that power to his younger brother, Raul. The question though that has remained is who is really pulling the strings behind the political apparatus that is the Cuban government.

GRIFFIN: All right. David, thank you, joining us from Havana where a rare appearance by the Cuban leader.

CHETRY: There you go. Well, a big day for the makers of the popular or once popular, should we say, diabetes drug, Avandia. That's now been under increasing scrutiny as concerns it could raise the risk of heart attacks come out. We're going to be talking with a doctor who was one of the first who authored a study that called safety concerns of Avandia into question in the first place.

We're going to figure out whether or not the FDA will pull this drug from the market. Get his take coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: 37 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the most news in the morning.

We could know today whether or not a popular diabetes drug could be pulled from the market. An FDA panel is about to begin hearings on Avandia. It's a drug that's safety has been questioned since 2007. Our next guest in that year authored a study finding that Avandia could increase the risk of heart attacks.

Dr. Steven Nissen is chairman of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. He'll be testifying at today's hearings and joins us this morning from Gaithersburg, Maryland. Dr. Nissen, thanks for being with us.

DR. STEVEN NISSEN, CHMN, CARDIOVASCULAR MEDICINE, CLEVELAND CLINIC: My pleasure.

CHETRY: I'm sure you've read this morning in the "New York Times," they're reporting that the makers of Avandia actually found their drug to increase heart problems all the way back in 1999, a study conducted then, and they did not submit that data to federal drug regulators as is required in most cases by law.

What do you make of allegations that perhaps senior management sought to bury this data because it was unfavorable toward their drug?

NISSEN: Well, coming at the 11th hour here before this advisory committee meeting, this certainly does not help them. There is lots of evidence they've known for a long time that their drug was harmful and sought to downplay it. And unfortunately that's going to play out very badly for them at this hearing.

CHETRY: And so today the FDA will decide over this, of course, a two- day hearing Avandia's fate. You published a study back in 2007 that started a lot of this, people saying, who took Avandia, according to your research, you say they face 43 percent higher risk of heart attacks yet the FDA nearly unanimously kept it on the market. Why and what could change today?

NISSEN: Well, there is a problem. And of course, the FDA has a structural problem. The people that approve drugs in the first place are the ones that have the authority to take them off the market. And they just have a terrible time looking back and saying, "gee, we made a mistake, this drug we approved is hurting people."

And so there is this very slow response to safety problems. I think in the wake of this - and I do think the drug will be removed - there will need to be some thoughts on Capitol Hill about how do we restructure the FDA to do a better job of protecting the safety of drugs.

CHETRY: And I do want to get back more to the issue of Avandia prescriptions themselves. We will talk about the FDA which, you know, many have criticized the way that drugs get approved, and then in some cases pulled from the market.

But it seems that there is some self-policing going on here. Avandia prescriptions falling off dramatically. And at one point had about 50 percent of the market, now that's down to just about 10 percent. And we're talking about billions of dollars at stake. Will doctors simply stop prescribing this to patients regardless of how the FDA rules?

NISSEN: Well, unfortunately, the drug is still being used extensively. It is still more than a $1 billion drug and it is going to go generic in a couple of years so it's going to become very inexpensive.

If we don't act to take the drug off the market now, we will not be able to protect patients. This is a very serious problem. A 40 percent increase in the risk of heart attack in diabetic patients, 70 percent of whom will die of heart disease, is a huge national tragedy.

CHETRY: And so should doctors stop prescribing it?

NISSEN: Absolutely. We said that in 2007, and fortunately many doctors heeded the warning. But it's very difficult. You know, pharmaceutical companies like Glaxo-Smith Kline have tens of thousands of representatives who have basically insisted that the drug is safe, and so their market share has fallen but the drug is still used by many hundreds of thousands of people.

CHETRY: All right. This does raise a lot of questions, as you've talked about, about how drugs are approved, how we monitor the safety of drugs. I mean, you remember, Vioxx, which was an anti-inflammatory I believe used for arthritis. Very similar issue. We obviously want to get drugs out on the market to save lives but how do we refine and streamline the FDA process if that is indeed the case?

NISSEN: I think we divide the new approval process into one division and we get a separate division of the FDA, the safety officials, the authority to remove drugs or to put warning labels on. We create a separation of powers that allows each of those roles in the FDA to be able to proceed with independence. If we do that, I think we can get beyond Vioxx and Avandia.

CHETRY: If I'm sitting at home today and I have type II diabetes, what's your advice to me?

NISSEN: Well, if you take Avandia, please do not stop taking medication because you hear a news report. Talk to your doctor. We never want patients to hear a news report and make a decision on their own. But I would advise patients if they are on this drug, talk to your doctor about alternatives. It turns out one of the things that will make this decision fairly easy today and tomorrow is that there is another drug in the class known as Actose that absolutely appears perfectly safe.

CHETRY: Right. And actually, their shares rose 69 percent in 2009. I think doctors are prescribing this much more. At one point it was equal to Avandia in terms of prescription, it's since overtaken it.

You know, the other problem seems to be, Dr. Nissen, that there's millions and millions, hundreds of millions of dollars at stake in all of this. I mean should the drug companies who have so much to gain by whether or not their drug makes it on the market and becomes a top seller be the ones doing the initial studies?

NISSEN: Well, unfortunately, in our health care system, the government dollars that the NIH to do these clinical trials are very limited. 99 percent of the research is done by the companies who stand to profit from the drugs. We have to count on the integrity of those companies to release all of the information. That is why today's report in the "New York Times" coming out of Senator Grassley's office is so disturbing. We didn't have all the information, even the FDA did not have all the information. We made a terrible mistake in approving this drug and tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people have been harmed.

CHETRY: All right. I know you are testifying today. Keep us posted on how the hearings go and we'll check back in with you. Dr. Steven Nissen, thanks for being with us today.

NISSEN: My pleasure.

GRIFFIN: 17 minutes now before the hour. Before you head out the door, Rob is going to have the morning travel forecast right after this break.

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CHETRY: Forty-six minutes past the hour. Time to get a check of the weather headlines. Our Rob Marciano is checking everything for us in Atlanta. Looks like some places are getting a lot of rain today.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. You're familiar with this area across down across Delaware. Just west here was a thunderstorm that had kept (INAUDIBLE) producing a tornado. That warning has been allowed to expire as the cell is beginning to weaken just a little bit.

Meanwhile, just west of Philadelphia, a little cell there with some rough weather. No warnings posted for this one, but this certainly has some lightning, thunder and probably some heavy rain. Lesser rain across parts of New York City area, but a lot of this energy will be rolling up the thruway into parts of the tri-state area.

Speaking of rainfall, check out this number - Memphis, four and a half inches of rainfall yesterday, parts of Arkansas seeing almost three inches as well. And because of that and on top of the rainfall that we're getting right now - look at that. I mean, this radar looks just like yesterday except Nashville's getting a little bit more than yesterday. Down I-40 toward Memphis, you got hammered yesterday. And Little Rock seeing some flashflood warnings that are posted right now until 9:00 this morning and then watches for the rest of this green area between two and four inches of additional rainfall potentially for this region throughout the day today.

New York metros and Philadelphia, because of the thunderstorms, there and now and later on in the afternoon, I think you'll see at least an hour-plus delays there. The other bull's-eye for severe weather across the Northern Plains, but heat will - once again be the problem in the low country of the Carolinas and Southeast Georgia and also New Orleans where the high temperature there will be 94 degrees.

Dramatic video I want to show you just real quick out of China. If you didn't see this last hour, certainly a mind boggling. You see, this amount of water (INAUDIBLE) Hunan Province of China where thousands are - are being evacuated here. They are scrambling to safety (INAUDIBLE) here. It is a rainy season but this is clearly well above what they normally would see for this time of year. The Yangtze River getting hit hard right now.

You wouldn't see that kind of rainfall across New York today, but it will be wet before the day is done across the Big Apple. Drew, Kiran, back up to you.

GRIFFIN: Rob, thanks.

This morning's top stories just minutes away, including this one - BP's new cap is over that broken oil well in the gulf. Is it time to breathe a sigh of relief? What it really means 85 days of this disaster. It could be over today. We're live from New Orleans.

CHETRY: Also Former President Bill Clinton is back in Haiti. What's his mission now six months after that devastating earthquake? Well, he talked exclusively to CNN's Anderson Cooper.

GRIFFIN: Plus, "Money" magazine out with one of those polls that tells you you're living in the wrong spot. The top 100 places to call home. Find out if you live in one of them.

Those stories and more at the top of the hour.

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GRIFFIN: Just about eight minutes before the hour. And that is time for your "A.M. House Call". This morning, we're checking in on the medical state of emergency in Haiti. While there's been no outbreak of infectious disease, the need for medical care in the devastated country is great. People are dying, literally, around the clock because they're not getting treatment they need.

As chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta tells us the supply of doctors and hospitals is shrinking.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Best estimate, the quake displaced 1.5 million people. Injured or crippled - 300,000. In the United States, the care of this man, Mildred Resid (ph), will be considered ordinary.

GUPTA (on camera): When did you realize that you were injured?

Here, Mildred (ph) is an extraordinarily success story.

The worst injuries that he had was - was actually to his leg. And I don't know if you can tell, so far but he's actually walking with a prosthetic here. This is what so many people here in Haiti have been wanting. They've been waiting for because so many amputations were performed.

GUPTA (voice-over): Mildred (ph) is a success here because he not only received immediate acute care, but because there are resources for his recovery and his follow-up. Intermediate care, it's so important. But here, it is way too rare.

It's about the money. There's never enough. Aid organizations tell us they are saving so much of it for the long term. But in the meantime, hospitals are dying and so are patients.

GUPTA (on camera): This little girl has been left here to die. She had hydrocephalus, too much water on the brain, and the shunt to drain that fluid became infected. Now, there's nothing more they can do for her.

GUPTA (voice-over): You see, she got the acute care but it's the same stupid story. Six months later, she needed antibiotics that she couldn't get. She will die. The money, one U.S.-based charity, Medi- Share, has spent nearly all of $7 million that's raised from private donors. But if they don't get a larger share of the public donations by September, that's it. This hospital shuts down.

GUPTA (on camera): Another month and half here saying the money runs out?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

GUPTA: We were sitting here talking - the three of us just a few months ago about this very issue. And we said, you know, literally people were giving money, more than a billion dollars they were giving all over the world. How - how does a place like this shut - that the only critical care hospital in the country, how does it shut down if so much money was given?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where's the money?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We - we asked ourselves the same question. Where's the money?

GUPTA (voice-over): The medical needs will not miraculously go away any time soon. But, remember this?

GUPTA (on camera): They actually think there are too many doctors.

GUPTA (voice-over): Not long ago, compassion was overflowing here. For a short while, there were simply too many volunteers. They had come in from all over the world. But now --

GUPTA (on camera): This is general hospital. One of the biggest trauma hospitals in Port-au-Prince. Just a few months ago, this place was very busy and now you can see there's hardly anything happening here. The tables are still left. Yes. There's hardly any resources, any equipment. There's no doctors. And as a result, no surgeries taking place.

It's not just the public hospitals, but the private hospitals as well. There are many that say the health care in Haiti is as bad as it's ever been. Many hospitals simply shut down for business.

So where is the money? A lot of hospitals starting to run out of money. Some hospitals, they had to shut down completely. General Hospital, which is the largest public hospital in the area, it's - it's sort of become a bit of a ghost town.

What do you say to that? I mean, how - how do you address some of those concerns?

MATT MAREK, AMERICAN RED CROSS, HAITI: And, you know, as everyone knows, the generosity of the American public towards the Red Cross, the American Red Cross, has been enormous, OK? And we've raised a large amount of money.

We're also, you know, aware that, you know, other resources are out there via the government and support the government have received, OK, to get it into the hands of the general hospital, and we're flexible, you know, on what support our funds, you know, can actually give.

GUPTA (voice-over): Back with Mildred (ph), he wants to show me that he can not only walk, but he can also run.

GUPTA (on camera): Careful. Oh-oh.

MILDRED RESID (ph), SURVIVOR: I get up (ph).

GUPTA: Are you all right? that's one of the difficulties you just saw here. Simply navigating the road, he's obviously running. But it's a very uneven surface.

GUPTA (on camera): The journey here is so difficult. But until September at least, Mildred (ph) will get his intermediate care. Once left for dead, he's back on his feet dancing.

GUPTA (on camera): So if September rolls around and this place has shut down, what happens to those people?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're sad about it (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We begin life before the earthquake. I'm talking about a lot of patients with critical care will die.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: So when you really look at the money, Drew, if think about it in medical terms, some of the money was spent in this acute phase, trying to take care of patients initially. And a lot of money is sort of being left for long-term planning, rehabilitation of the medical infrastructure.

And that's where it gets a little bit dicey because as you can - as you can see there, Drew, there's still a lot of patients and hospitals sort of caught in between. They're not getting the resources they need now. They're being told the money is being saved for later. But unless they survive, there's got - there's not going to be a later for them. Also, another thing, Drew, and that we're working on today, along those lines, a lot of supplies, a lot of resources, a lot of equipment actually making their way into the country, into the city. But because of poor distribution plans, unfortunately, those things are sitting in warehouses for way too long, sometimes even expiring before they can get it to the people who need it the most.

That's just a little bit of the glimpse of the reality and a little bit of the chase of the money there, Drew.

GRIFFIN: Sanjay, it's got to be exasperating. You're getting evasive answers from the Red Cross. I thought President Clinton was kind of dodging a lot of the bullets that Anderson was throwing at him. And the frustration level for you as a medical physician to be sitting there watching that girl die, just must be incomprehensible.

GUPTA: She could have been saved with a simple antibiotic, Drew. I mean, I - you know, as I said, it's the same stupid story that we're talking about. It is - it's incredibly irritating and frustrating.

GRIFFIN: All right. Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

CHETRY: And he's down there still shining a light on us (ph).

GRIFFIN: You know, we're the only network that's going to do this kind of stuff.

CHETRY: Yes.

GRIFFIN: I mean, I hate to toot our own horn but I'm going to.

Great job, Sanjay. Thanks for that.

CHETRY: And with much more coming up. Your top stories just two minutes away. We'll be right back.

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