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Weather Pattern Could Dump Storms on Northeast for Month; French Soldiers Attacked in Nice; Suge Knight Could Be Arraigned; Politics of Measles Vaccines Heats Up

Aired February 03, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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


JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A brutal weather pattern threatens much of the country. The snow, the ice, the wind -- it could hit again and again and again for 30 more days.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: To vaccinate or not to vaccinate children? The debate heats up and now turns political. As the measles outbreak spreads what potential presidential candidates are saying now.

BERMAN: New information about the daughter of Whitney Houston, her family at her bedside. How did she end up unconscious in a bathtub and what is her current prognosis?

BOLDUAN: Good morning once again. I'm Kate Bolduan. Thanks for joining us, guys.

BERMAN: And I'm John Berman.

And unwelcome and for some of you surprising forecast this morning especially the millions and millions of Americans who have been fighting the record-breaking snow and ice and winds.

Our meteorologist tells us that a weather pattern is now in place that could bring one storm system after another after another to the Midwest and northeast for 30 more days. That's right, 30 more days of this.

BOLDUAN: Hundreds of flights have been canceled today. At least ten people lost their lives in this storm, and today there are bitterly cold temperatures throughout the northeast, cold enough for Boston to postpone the Patriots' Super Bowl parade.

I think -- couldn't imagine what could postpone a celebration like that. And it also is keeping schools closed for yet another day there.

We have reporters in Boston and New York City, covering the extreme cold for us. Let's get to it.

BERMAN: Yeah. They can't get cars down the streets. They can't have a parade because, seriously, they have nowhere to put the snow. That's the big problem. They've had a year's worth of snow in just the last two weeks. They set a new record for the snowiest seven-day period in Boston history, 40.2 inches. School canceled there again today.

Our Alexandra Field braving the deep snow, how's it going now, Alexandra?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It does feel like braving it when you talk about these really bitter temperatures. And, John, you talk about the cars getting down the road, the difficulty of getting those duck boats down the road for Patriots parade, but on top of that, how about all the people, the thousands of people who would typically be out here in Copley Square to watch the Patriots go by on those duck boats.

Can't sit on these benches. Those are benches under that pile of snow, but the city really is doing the very best that they can to try and clear this parade route and to try and clear some of the snow off the sidewalks so that people can safely line the route, because the mayor has just announced that the plan to have this parade kickoff tomorrow at 11:00 is in fact still the plan.

But it does come with some precautions that are being taken. For instance, the mayor says that there will be no rally at city hall, the end of the parade route. That's typically the tradition in Boston. It's just too cold. It's just too messy. It would just be too dangerous. So they're saying we have to scrap that, just get the Patriots through here, let fans applaud them, cheer for them, thank them, and then move on.

A lot of people were hoping they would do it today because there are Patriots who of course leave town during the off-season, but at the last minute the mayor scrapped that plan, saying just too much snow was still in the forecast last night, the temperatures simply too cold to safely accommodate people out here today.

John, Kate?

BERMAN: It's not going to melt. It's not going to melt because temperatures are in the teens.

BOLDUAN: I also wonder what's going to change in 24 hours for them to come through tomorrow. Those benches are still going to be all snowed over.

BERMAN: They're going to have to green screen the parade to make it work so people can all see it.

Alexandra Field, thanks so much.

BOLDUAN: And while it may seem hard to look past today's brutal temperatures, and it's hard, there's now word that the light at the end of the tunnel is frigidly far away.

Chad Myers is out in Columbus Circle here in New York with a look at that. So, Chad, what is this about 30 more days?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's just a random number I made up. It could be 35. It could be 40. Thirty days is only -- what -- March 5th because 28 days has -- ah, never mind.

So we're still talking a trough in the East, a ridge in the West. The West remains warmer than normal. The East remains colder than normal and when that happens, every time a low pressure comes by, there can be snow rather than rain.

Now of course there's going to be rain in Atlanta, maybe rain in Tallahassee and all that. But the Northeast, prepare for storm after storm after storm. Some may hit Montpellier, Vermont. Some may hit New York City. And some may hit D.C. It's just going to be one of those patterns for the next four weeks, five weeks, somewhere in there.

Temperatures across the country right now, at least across the Northeast, very, very cold. It's an amazing 17 right now here at Central Park and colder than that in other places.

I saw Montpellier this morning was ten degrees below zero, and that's not even including the wind-chill factor. That's just cold That's cold for pets. That's cold for people. That's cold for your car. That's cold for everybody.

So the next couple days we see that continuing. The low pressure goes by. We have the first storm -- I think of many. The first storm goes by with probably a two-to-four-inch snowfall across the Northeast. Could be a little bit more into Maine and also New Brunswick and all that as it kind of bombs off the East Coast.

But there are so many storms behind it, if this stays cold like I expect it to, one storm after another, the warm in the West, the cold in the East, there's the graphic right there. When that happens, every time you get moisture coming over that cold air, there can be snow, there can be freezing rain just like we're seeing -- well, we saw yesterday. But we're seeing the cold air behind that storm today. I see no change in the forecast.

BOLDUAN: Damn you, Punxsutawney Phil. That's all I have to say.

Not you, Chad. I would never put it on your head. Chad, thank you so much.

MYERS: You're welcome.

BERMAN: Breaking news just into CNN. Three soldiers patrolling near a Jewish community center in Nice in France, they were attacked with knives today. They were slightly wounded. We're still learning details of the attack. We'll bring them to you as they come in.

But I was there just a few weeks ago. They staffed up. They put new military troops, new police to guard a lot of the Jewish institutions around that entire nation. They did that because there were threats, they felt, on those institutions.

They also felt there were threats on military personnel and police, so this news today that three soldiers have been stabbed, or at least attacked with a knife, I think that sends a chilling sign -- it's a chilling sign, I think, in that country that's trying to get past these terror threats.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And just on that point, John, French police have arrested eight more people who they believe have links to jihadist cells. This is just the latest in a series, of course, of arrests that the country has made since last month's deadly terror attacks in Paris.

Meanwhile, France's interior minister is trying to push through a new anti-terrorism bill for the whole European Union. It would require airlines to maintain and share data on all passengers entering and leaving countries who are part of the E.U.

BERMAN: Some other news now, rap mogul Suge Knight could be arraigned on a murder charge as soon as this morning. He is accused of running down two men in a hit-and-run incident. One of them died.

Knight's attorney says he was attacked after an argument, that his client feared for his life and he was just trying to get away. Knight is now being held without bail. And because of prior convictions, lawyers say this is a third-strike case. If convicted, Knight could face life in prison.

BOLDUAN: New York is demanding big chain stores stop selling what it is calling bogus herbal supplements. The state attorney general's office says GNC, Walgreens, Target, and Walmart have been selling pills that have, in their view, little or none of the herbs advertised on the labels.

What's worse is officials say that some of the supplements have unlisted ingredients that could be actually dangerous for folks with allergies.

The "New York Times" reports that Walgreens, GNC, and Walmart have said that they will cooperate with the state's demands. Target has not yet commented.

BERMAN: A lot of people take those supplements.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

BERMAN: The measles outbreak, new concern this morning about the nationwide spread of the virus and bigger concern in some parts about what some scientists consider misguided rhetoric.

BOLDUAN: And the murder trial against former football star Aaron Hernandez is set to resume today but it hit what seems like a major snag. Find out what it is, ahead at this hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: New developments in the measles outbreak, two critical questions right now. Is your child vaccinated, and are the country's leaders being straight with you?

Two potential Republican presidential candidates, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie are stirring up some controversy over the issue of vaccinations with their comments.

BOLDUAN: They both say they are in favor of children being vaccinated, but they also both said that parents should decide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR CHRIS CHRISTIE (D), NEW JERSEY: What's more important, I think, is what you think as a parent than what you think as a public official. And that's what we do.

But I also understand that parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well. So that's the balance that the government has to decide.

SENATOR RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: I heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines.

I'm not arguing vaccines are a bad idea. I think that they're a good thing. But I think the parents should have some input.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Let's get to facts behind the political rhetoric here. Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is joining us along with Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious diseases and public health specialist. She's joining here us in studio.

Sanjay, first to you, it's important to get to the heart of this whole -- the question at the heart of this whole problem I would describe it as. Are vaccines safe, especially when you're talking about measles? What do you say?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I say they're safe. There's obviously -- when you look at these things, you have to put things in a little bit of context any time you take something into your body.

Is there a potential risk of some sort of side effect? Yes. There's no question. Let me give you a little bit of context here. I think this is important the way I think about things. We have graphic to demonstrate this.

When you talk about adverse reactions from vaccines, and you have lots of data now, decades worth of data, serious allergic reaction. So when Senator Rand Paul talks about he has seen many kids that have problems, you get about 10 million kids that receive this shot a year. Maybe 10 out of those 10 million may have some sort of adverse serious reaction.

Maybe he's met all of them. I don't know. Compare that to something much more common, aspirin. Twelve out of 10,000 can have a hemorrhage in their brain. That gives you context in terms of risk here which is important.

BERMAN: You don't see an anti-aspirin lobby out there.

GUPTA: They're not shouting from the rooftops about aspirin. BERMAN: No, it's not something that is controversial. Dr. (inaudible), I want to talk about what Rand Paul said. Rand Paul, by the way, is an ophthalmologist, a doctor. He said he's heard of many cases -- let me quote him here -- many cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines.

Is there any studies that say that? Is that based on any scientific evidence that you know about?

DR. CELINE GOUNDER, INFECTIOUS DISEASES AND PUBLIC HEALTH SPECIALIST: No. And in fact, there are numerous studies that looked at whether there's an association between measles vaccines and other vaccines and autism and mental retardation.

The Institute of Medicine compiled that research into a report, which, if you go to my Twitter feed, you can actually find a link. So the data is overwhelming. Measles vaccines are safe and they are effective.

Frankly, Rand Paul as an ophthalmologist should be out there saying measles is one of the most common causes of childhood blindness worldwide, and as an eye doctor he should be advocating for measles vaccination for that reason.

BOLDUAN: Sanjay, I guess it's good that we're having the conversation because there seems to be a lot of confusion and misinformation surrounding it.

But where does -- and I know that it comes from a couple different sources -- where does all of the paranoia come from?

GUPTA: It's a great question. In trying to paint any particular group of people with one brush is challenging. I think --

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

GUPTA: I think there's a lot of parents out there who are confused by the whole thing and think what they want to be good parents and that maybe withholding vaccines or delaying vaccines is the right answer. It's not the right answer.

And let me just be a hundred-percent clear on that. I have three kids. I love my kids. I got them vaccinated and on schedule. But -- I think that's one part of it. I think there are people who have a deep distrust of anything pharmaceutical, anything in the pharmaceutical industry, period, is going to engender distrust from them.

And then there are people who have political gains. They're pandering for one reason or another. Part of that is politics, but this is a dangerous pandering going on because people's lives and their well- being are at risk here.

BERMAN: We're going to talk about the politics of this in just a moment. But, Dr. Gounder, let's talk about the medicine for a moment here. What can we now do as parents? There's this outbreak out there, more measles than we've seen in a long, long time. So what would you advise parents or people like us who were vaccinated decades ago? Do we now need boosters?

GOUNDER: Well in 1990, the CDC started to recommend that we get a booster shot, so you get one around a year of age and then a second shot at four to six years of age. Now, for those of us who were born before 1990, which all of us here at the table, I think, were, it's helpful to get a booster shot if you haven't already had one. I've gotten one because I travel overseas where there is a lot of measles. That would be a good idea.

BOLDUAN: Is there anything else that parents need to be looking out for, Sanjay, in the immediate? Because we're talking about this is spreading as we speak. Parents are concerned. Does this outbreak have to subside, go away by itself, or is it something that families can do to protect themselves?

GUPTA: You see a predictable pattern in these pockets of places that are unvaccinated, and so, you know, obviously making sure your children are vaccinated is very important. I will say, you know, this is interesting, Kate. It's a really, pretty unique situation overall in our country. This confluence of taking care of your own child's health, but at the same time recognizing that by doing this you are taking care of other children, as well. I mentioned that I have three kids. You know, when my youngest was still below a year old and couldn't be vaccinated, she would have been at risk had my older children not been vaccinated. I don't know how to make that more concrete. And I know that there are people who are on the fence about this, but it's just -- the science is clear. You have decades of data and it's safe and effective, as your guest said.

BERMAN: And that's why it's a public health issue. That's why it's a public policy issue, because it affects more than just your kids and your household, which is why we're going to talk about the politics behind this in just a moment. Dr. Gupta, Dr. Gounder, thanks so much for being with us. Really appreciate it.

BOLDUAN: And regardless, it's important to continue talking about the science, the established science, behind all of this, because clearly, misinformation is out there and abound. Coming up, we'll talk about, just as John said, the politics of the measles outbreak. Yes, it has definitely become political now.

And President Obama, on this issue, has shifted his stance on vaccinations. Now Hillary Clinton, Rand Paul, Chris Christie, they are all weighing in. We'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: A debate over vaccinating children has turned political with the measles outbreak spreading. Right now, 102 cases of the virus are confirmed in 14 states. President Obama is urging parents to vaccinate their children.

BERMAN: But candidate Obama back in 2008, he voiced some skepticism about vaccines. Listen to what the then-candidate said back in 2008. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, THEN-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have seen just a skyrocketing autism rate. Nobody knows exactly why. There are some people who are suspicious that it's connected to vaccines and triggers, this person included. The science right now is inconclusive, but we have to research it.

I understand that there are families that, in some cases, are concerned about the effect of vaccinations. The science is pretty indisputable. There's every reason to get vaccinated. There aren't reasons to not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: So for a lot of folks, it appears the president's view on this one has evolved. Earlier, we heard comments from two potential Republican presidential candidates, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, both in their own way voicing support for parents' right to choose whether or not to vaccinate their children.

BERMAN: They both do say that they had their children vaccinated, they support the idea of children being vaccinated, but they say that there are parents who should have rights not to have their children vaccinated, also.

Want to bring in our political commentators Donna Brazile and Ana Navarro. Ana, we'll start with you here because the discussion has been on the Republican side of the aisle for the last day or so. Of course, it's a history of debate over vaccines in Republican primaries. Remember what happened with Rick Perry and the HPV vaccine? What are politics of this now? What does Rand Paul get for talking about vaccines like this?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I guess from the political aspect, what he gets is media attention. We are talking about him on TV. And he also can appeal to some of the libertarian branch of the Republican primary voters who are big into personal liberty, freedoms and the right to choose what to do with their kids. But I think it's important, John, and you bring up HPV vaccine, to differentiate between what that is, which is not a communicable disease, it's for -- against cervical cancer, and what we're talking about now, which is for a communicable disease that had been eradicated that has now made a comeback and is a serious health threat to the United States. I'm sorry that it's become a political issue. I'd much rather hear Sanjay Gupta and Dr. Elizabeth Cohen talking about this than any potential 2016er on either side of the isle.

BOLDUAN: But John made a good point, Ana, and I've got to follow up with you - John made a good point earlier on this. But it is an important issue to hear from candidates if an issue like this comes up, because it's an issue of public policy. What happens in our schools. What happens if there's a massive outbreak where the government has to be involved to contain. So it is important to understand a potential presidential candidate's position on this - Does Rand Paul - Go ahead, Donna.

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, but we overdramatize some of these issues, just like with the Ebola virus last year. We made this so huge that we couldn't even get to the science. We couldn't even locate where it was happening. We began to fear our neighbors and fear that if we got an airplane, somehow we would contract this virus. I agree with Ana. There are some things that in the public spirit politicians should perhaps err on the side of caution and listen to doctors. One of the things I've heard over the last 24 hours is Dr. Ben Carson, who is a pediatric neurosurgeon, and he said, look, the science is very clear on this. Children should be vaccinated.

BOLDUAN: Right, well Democrats might have a problem on this, as well, Donna. I mean, when you - And to just this point, this is not a major part of any presidential campaign. This is one of those issues that bubbles up and can derail a campaign pretty effectively if they don't answer these questions and answer to voters in an appropriate way. Hillary Clinton also need to -

(CROSSTALK)

BRAZILE: What can derail a campaign is if you are being seen as pandering to one group or another. I think one important lesson for any candidate to learn is that you don't have to opine on every issue and every question that is posed to you. At some point, it's better to let the folks that are the experts on these particular --

BERMAN: But in this case, though -- hang on, Donna. But in this case, though, leaving it to the experts does take a side on this because the experts, the doctors, the scientific community, they all agree that parents should have their children vaccinated. So there are politicians on both side of the aisle. Will Republican candidates have the courage to say to some of the more libertarian base in their party that doctors say you should have your children vaccinated, schools should require it? And does Hillary Clinton or Martin O'Malley have the courage to go into Portlandia in Oregon, Donna, and tell people who shop at Whole Foods and don't get their kids vaccinated that you are doing a disservice to other kids in the schools?

BRAZILE: I would hope so. Look, I understand how we have to make everything a petty partisan issue, but on this, this is a public health concern. I would hope that we would err on the side of caution when it comes to issues like public health and listen to doctors and scientists. But on the other hand, yes, we have to stand up and tell the facts and talk to constituents and talk to potential voters. But hopefully we can tell them the truth and not just tell them, you know, what they want to hear. That's what we need our politicians to do.

BERMAN: Donna Brazile -

NAVARRO: And you know, John, on the point that Donna made earlier about overdramatizing, let's also be clear that none of these guys, not Rand Paul or Chris Christie, have said don't vaccinate your kids. They have left themselves a little wiggle room, but they are not advocating a no vaccine type of position. BERMAN: No, but there are doctors, Ana, who will tell you what Rand

Paul said about hearing of people, kids who end up with mental deficiencies as they grow up because of vaccines. That in and of itself is a political statement there.

NAVARRO: I thought that was an irresponsible comment, frankly.

BRAZILE: Let's raise healthy children. I'm glad I was vaccinated 50 years ago. I continue to get my shots from time to time.

BERMAN: Guys, thanks so much. Appreciate you being with us.

BOLDUAN: Thanks, you guys.

A snag in the murder trial for former NFL star Aaron Hernandez. Today, we were expecting testimony from the girlfriend and mother of the man he's accused of killing, but there's a huge problem apparently. We'll tell you what the holdup is and get straight to the trial.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)