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New Day

Doctor Comforts Elderly Coronavirus Patient in Heartbreaking Photo; Congress Running Out of Time to Work out Virus Relief Package this Year. Aired 7:30-8p ET

Aired November 30, 2020 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:32:23]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: There are new restrictions this morning in many parts of the U.S. as the virus surges. But New York City's mayor is reversing course and planning to reopen in person classes at elementary schools next week.

CNN has reporters across the country bringing you all of the latest developments.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Miguel Marquez in New York where the city is trying to get at least some kids back in to the classroom, kids elementary school age kids from three on up can start back in class on December 7.

And those with the most severe disabilities, the so called district 75 students in New York City, they can start back on December 10. All of this is only students who had previously indicated that they would do in person learning. For those other students will have to remain doing their learning from home. But New York City taking another step toward trying to get back to normal in a pandemic.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN REPORTER: I'm Paul Vercammen. In Los Angeles County, California where the latest numbers, those latest COVID-19 numbers 5,000 new cases more than 2000 people hospitalized and a brand new set of guidelines to go into effect in Los Angeles County Monday. These refined guidelines basically say people can only congregate with people from their own household. It also says that churches can stay open as well as protest for larger groups of people. But that is about it.

And right behind me you can see some people are dining. Well, this is Pasadena which has its own health department. They are allowing people to dine outside here but only under strict guidelines from the restaurants in Pasadena. That means that the workers have to wear masks and shields all eyes on this city as we go forward to see if this experiment is going to work or if they have to shut down restaurants here for outdoor dining like the rest of L.A. County.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I am Polo Sandoval in New York. Rhode Island hitting the pause button for two weeks hoping to reduce community COVID-19 spread starting today and running through December 13. Some offices, bars, recreational venues and also indoor gyms will be closed by order of the governor.

Also there will be no in person classes in Rhode Island colleges and universities. Social gatherings are to be limited to only the people live in the same house. Also indoor dining capacity is going to be reduced.

The state's health department tweeted last week that hospitalizations are rising at an unsustainable level and it could result in patients with other illnesses having to be turned away.

[07:35:02]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Our thanks for reporters across the country.

This morning the U.S. set a new record, more than 93,000 Americans hospitalized with coronavirus, the frontline workers who deal with the reality of this pandemic. Millions of people have now seen this photo capturing a doctor comforting an elderly patient on Thanksgiving Day.

Joining us now is that doctor, Dr. Joseph Varon. He's the chief of staff at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston.

Dr. Varon, as always, thank you so much for being with us. Thank you for your compassion.

The photographer who took that picture was Go Nakamura of Getty Images, we should say. You are the doctor, tell us what's going on there.

DR. JOSEPH VARON, CHIEF OF STAFF, UNITED MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER: Yes. And what's going on is, you know, as you know, I have been very transparent with the media. So I usually have media in our unit so people can see what's going on.

So, I have a photographer following me. And as I'm going inside my COVID unit, I see that this elderly patient is out of his bed and trying to get out of the room and he's crying. So I get close to him. And I tell him, why are you crying, and the man says, I want to be with my wife. So you know, I just grabbed him, I -- like I hold him.

I did not know that I was being photographed at the time. And you know, he was just crying. And eventually he got -- he felt better and he stopped crying.

BERMAN: I want to be with my wife, he said. Of course, can he be with his wife right now? Who can he see?

VARON: At the present time he can't. You know, we need to complete his treatment, he needs to be negative on his swabs so that we can then send him out of the hospital.

But it's very difficult. You can imagine, you are inside a room where people coming in spacesuits and you have no communication with anybody else other by phone if you're lucky. I mean, it's very difficult. And when you are an elderly individual, it's even more difficult. Because you feel that you are alone, you feel isolated.

BERMAN: You just mentioned spacesuit, I mean, that is what is so notable in that photograph, you know, he's the patient, obviously, and you are dressed in all this protective gear. So what was going through your head during this?

VARON: I was feeling very, very sorry for him. I mean, I was feeling sad, just like him. And I was just recollecting all the patients that I've had to do similar things with.

You know, I will go into the rooms, I will sit in the room and chat with them, because they truly need somebody to give them a hand. And my staff is very good at doing this. But we have so many patients that sometimes we cannot, you know, hold every patient or grab the hand of a patient, or at least try to be a little more human.

BERMAN: What can you tell us about how that patient is doing this morning?

VARON: He's actually doing great, he's doing much better. We are hoping that before the end of the week, he'll be able to get out of the hospital.

BERMAN: That's wonderful news. How often does this happen?

VARON: Oh, very often. I mean, people are just -- the patients get so sad. Some of them cry, some of them try to escape. We actually have somebody that tried to escape to a window the other way. It's -- they are so isolated. They really want out. It is it is very sad.

BERMAN: How do you handle all this patient after patient in need? All these people needing not just training but needing love?

VARON: To be honest with you, I don't know. As you know, you know, I've been working for 256 days today and non-stop. And I don't know what keeps me going. I don't know how I haven't broken down.

As we have discussed before, you know, my nurses have broken down. My nurses cry in the middle of the day. Because you know, they get so, so sad that sometimes for situations like this, you know, just seeing a patient that's crying because he wants to see his family.

BERMAN: What does get you Dr. Varon?

VARON: As of now what gets to me is frustration. It's a frustration that, you know, I do this day in and day out. And people are out there doing the wrong thing. People are out there in bars, restaurants, malls. I mean, it is crazy.

It's like you know, we work, work, work, work, work. And people don't listen, and then they end up in my ICU.

BERMAN: Yes, we saw pictures in New York City and Los Angeles over the weekend of dozens, if not hundreds of people gathering in parties. You know, when you are hugging a patient like that, what do you want or need the people out there to know?

VARON: What people need to know is that I don't want to have to be hugging them. They need to do the basic things. You know, keep your social distance, wear your mask, wash your hands and avoid going to places that were very a lot of people. Very simple.

If people can do that, healthcare workers like me will be able to hopefully rest.

BERMAN: Looking at that picture again, I'm just struck by that man and all he wanted was to see his wife.

Generally speaking how much patients understand about what the protocols are?

[07:40:04]

VARON: You see it's very difficult, especially when you're dealing with elderly patients. They don't understand. They don't understand this situation where you basically are in a, I want to call it jail. You know where you have limited things.

I mean, sometimes they don't understand that that's the process. They don't understand that you cannot go out. And that's why some of them tried to get out of the hospital.

BERMAN: How many days is it again, Dr. Varon for you working without a break?

VARON: Two fifty-six.

BERMAN: Two hundred and fifty-six days.

Dr. Varon, you're made of stronger stuff than allof us.

VARON: No. I don't know.

I don't know about that. But, you know, we'll keep it going as much as we can.

BERMAN: Thank you. Thank you for what you're doing.

VARON: It's a pleasure.

BERMAN: Thank you for being with us this morning. Thank you for showing compassion to the people in your hospital like that. That's a picture an image that will live with us for a long time. So thank you for what you do.

VARON: Thank you.

BERMAN: Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: My gosh, that picture is so moving. We want to take some time right now to remember some of the nearly 267,000 Americans lost to coronavirus.

(voice-over): Fifty year-old Saad Cobain (ph) was well known DJ in Oklahoma City, both on the radio and at weddings and other big events. Friends and family say he was always the life of the party, with a big grin that matched the meaning of his name in Arabic, happy.

Our CNN affiliate reports the Jordanian immigrant is survived by two teenage sons.

Twenty-seven year old Brittany Paloma (ph) was an ER nurse in Texas. Her family describes her as independent and fun. Her stepfather says she was very determined, "she could accomplish anything."

Laura Escalante (ph) taught Spanish and the Native American Tewa language in a northern New Mexico School District. The Santa Fe New Mexico -- New Mexican reports she dropped out of college returning almost 30 years later to earn two masters in education. Tribal officials say her charisma and determination inspired the entire community. She was 69 years old.

And we'll be right back.

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[07:41:26]

CAMEROTA: President Trump has 51 days left in office and it appears he plans to use his remaining time to continue peddling false claims about the election he lost.

John Avlon is here with a reality check.

Hi, John.

JOHN AVLON, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Al.

Outgoing President Donald Trump's refusal to recognize the election results has moved from denial to delusion in recent days, claiming that he won by a landslide and that they lost the -- won the election by a lot.

Since Election Day, put those flag content on Trump's account more than 200 times. On Sunday even suggested without evidence that the FBI and the DOJ may be in a plot against him.

Now if you're confused about what's true in this blizzard of lies. Just listen to how Trump appointed federal judge rejected a Trump appeal on Friday, "Calling an election unfair does not make it so, charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.

Or you could look at the results of the Wisconsin recount requested by the Trump campaign. It costs them $3 million to increase Joe Biden's lead by 87 votes. Or look at the Trump mega donor who wants his $2.5 million back after the Trump legal team dropped cases for lack of evidence.

Look, there are two options here. One, is that the President is lying. This would be in keeping with the more than 23,000 false or misleading claims he's made in office. It would also mean that he is playing his supporters for fools.

Second, is that Trump really believes he won, despite all the evidence. And if the President's massive yet fragile ego obscures his ability to recognize reality, then he is delusional and should be treated the same way as someone who insists the earth is flat.

Now if this sounds unfair to members of the Flat Earth Society, consider the White House adviser told "The Washington Post" that Trump is acting like Mad King George muttering I won, I won, nonetheless, of course, I'm sick of fencer echoing Trump and in flaming the base.

Today they're just 23 Republican members of Congress who have publicly acknowledged Joe Biden's win. This is progress, but it's still fewer than the number of GOP lawmakers who've tested positive for COVID.

The people who really deserve our democracies thanks are those Republican state officials who put country over party. People like Aaron Vang Lengevelde, a Republican member of Michigan's Board of state canvassers who resisted partisan pressure and certified the election there.

Or Clint Hickman, the Arizona Republican chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors who called on Republicans to dial back the rhetoric, rumors and false claims after people threatened to kill the democratic Secretary of State's family and pets, or Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger who's also facing death threats and being labeled an enemy of the people by President Trump just for doing his job.

I want you to listen closely what Raffensperger told "The Washington Post," "If Republicans don't start condemning this stuff, then I think they're really complicit in it. It's time to stand up and be counted. Are you going to stand for righteousness? Are you going to stand for integrity? Or you're going to stand for the wild mob?"

"You wanted to condemn the wild mob when it's on the left side? What are you going to do when it's on our side?" That is the question.

And it's pathetic that most Republican elected officials are still too afraid of a lying or delusional lame duck to answer it. And that's the reality check.

CAMEROTA: And Secretary of State Raffensperger is a Trump supporter. And that's the thanks he gets for speaking out so publicly about his support.

[07:50:01]

Thank you very much, John for all of that.

AVLON: Thanks, Al. CAMEROTA: The pandemic is taking a major bite out of the holiday shopping season. We have our first indication on how retailer did on Black Friday. That's next.

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BERMAN: This week, Congress is back in Washington for what is a critical week for the U.S. economy. Their action or inaction could determine really which way things go.

CNN Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans joins us with much more on that.

Congress, it's up to Congress, which way this goes to this point?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It really is. Look, we knew the recovery was fragile, right? And then you saw this resurgence of cases, these record hospitalizations. And that is really feeding into a jobs crisis here.

We'll learn this week what the jobs picture was. Were expecting maybe four or 500,000 jobs were added. And that in normal times would be good, but that's a really slower pace and it's not picking up all the people who got thrown out of the economy when there was the big shutdown, the beginning of the summer.

[07:55:03]

And what we're hearing from governors and from mayors and from local officials, they need a federal stimulus package. They need more money now. And it's not even just stimulus. It's survival.

John, listen to the governor of New Jersey.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. PHIL MURPHY, (D) NEW JERSEY: I'll tell you what would really make a difference here, a big federal stimulus sooner than later, with a lifeline to small businesses, restaurants, folks who are unemployed, that would be a game changer. Not just in their lives and in their prospects, but it gives us more degrees of freedom in terms of dealing with the virus.

So it's on the table in terms of a shutdown. I don't anticipate it. And I sure as heck don't want to go that route. But boy, federal stimulus would give us a lot more ammunition to do a lot more things right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Buy some accounts, a third of small businesses, a third of small businesses in New Jersey have closed this year.

If you don't have a lifeline, if you don't have support, if you don't have subsidies for these small businesses while you have this virus just rampaging through these states and localities. This is just a real no win situation.

BERMAN: Romans there going to be people who watch lucky people, who are watching right now. Who say, well, what about my 401k, my stock package is up for the year.

ROMANS: And this is in the world is upside down file. You got the Dow on track for the best November since 1987 up a 12.8 percent for the month. I mean, just think of that. So this is that k shape recovery investors win, people on the right side of the economy win and really it just blows everybody else away here in terms of if you don't have investments in the stock market, if you have the kind of job that you have to go to every day or you have a job that you're dealing with workers, with customers, right, and you can't go to work. I mean, this is just -- this is a really tough point we are in right now.

And I don't know that there's an urgency here in this lame duck, this lame duck session, this is going to determine whether you have a recovery that lasts or you have a double dip recession next year.

BERMAN: What would a double dip recession look like?

ROMANS: It would look like more jobs lost, it would look like an economy that flat lines instead of slowly growing again. I mean the President, the current President has talked about this super V recovery.

There is a super V for investors, for the investor class, there is not a super v for workers here. We're still 10 million workers down, jobs down that we were in February, we've got to make up that last ground or next year is going to be tough. Even with vaccines next year will be tough.

BERMAN: Right. Overnight, we did get some data back about the beginning of the holiday shopping season. I guess the day after Thanksgiving is always Black Friday, even if there's not a real Thanksgiving or a real Black Friday, what do we know?

ROMANS: Well, we know that about half as many people went to an actual store or went shopping, you know, in a physical location this year compared to last year and that's sort of accelerating what's been a trend we've seen to online shopping anyway.

Online spending jumped 22 percent. I think you're going to see another record Cyber Monday here today. There were already some changes in consumer behavior that were in effect even before the pandemic but I think the pandemic has really changed how people feel. I mean those door busters, I mean maybe those things are -- for the past forever for good for now, but you don't have people, you know, waiting in big crowds to get in, to get a toaster or a big flat screen T.V. that just didn't happen this year.

BERMAN: Are we going to do that thing where we agree not to get each other presences?

ROMANS: Yes. And please, you know you always break that rule. Always break rule. BERMAN: Just to make you feel guilty.

ROMANS: My present to you is no present. Your present to me is getting me a present to make me mad at you.

BERMAN: It's guilt. Happy Holidays.

ROMANS: You too.

BERMAN: Christine Romans, thanks so much for being with us.

New Day continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: More than 93,000 Americans are hospitalized right now due to the coronavirus.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About 20 percent of all people in the hospital have COVID. So this is a really dangerous time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to be straight with the American people. It's going to get worse over the next several weeks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Biden transition is on in full swing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The senior White House communications team will be a big break from tradition. All posts filled by women

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The whole world is watching and nobody can believe what they're saying.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: he is continuing to try and convince the American public to take them along with him in his denial of reality.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a new day with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

BERMAN: All right, welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is New Day and we do begin with breaking news.

Just moments ago, pharmaceutical Moderna has just announced that it will apply today for emergency use authors for its coronavirus vaccine.

Today, we're going to also release new data on the effectiveness of this vaccine. The company now says it's 94.1 percent effective against the virus in general. And look at this, a 100 percent effective they say at preventing severe cases. This comes as hospitalizations hit a record nationwide, 16 states breeding their highest number of patients ever.

More than 4 million new coronavirus cases reported in November alone, month not even over yet.