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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
CDC Panel Meets Today To Decide Who Gets Coronavirus Vaccine First; Enthusiasm Grows For Biden's Treasury Secretary Pick Janet Yellen; Germany Setting Up Mass Vaccination Centers. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired December 01, 2020 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:31:54]
LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Laura Jarrett.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Christine Romans. Thirty-one, almost 32 minutes past the hour on this very first day of December. Good morning, everyone.
Today we'll be a step closer to answering a question that's been on everyone's mind now for months. When can people start being vaccinated for coronavirus?
A CDC advisory panel will meet later today to decide who will receive the vaccine first, with health care workers and the most vulnerable Americans at the top of the list.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. MONCEF SLAOUI, CHIEF SCIENTIFIC ADVISER, OPERATION WARP SPEED: What's important to note is the number of those is the amount of vaccine that we have is still limited in comparison to the needs. You know, we need -- there's about 120 million at risk in the U.S. We will have by the end of the month of December about 40 million doses of vaccine. So it's going to take a while for all Americans who need it on a priority level to get it. But it's, you know, over probably two or 2 1/2 months that we all get it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Now remember, each person needs two doses, so 40 million doses would fully vaccinate 20 million people.
Meantime, the official leading the vaccine distribution right now expressed confidence that even those who are not at the top of this list could get the vaccine by June.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. GEN. PAUL OSTROWSKI, DIRECTOR OF SUPPLY, PRODUCTION, AND DISTRIBUTION, OPERATION WARP SPEED: One hundred percent of Americans that want the vaccine will have the vaccine by that point in time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: So even with that light at the end of the tunnel it still could be a long, painful winter. Right now, a record 96,000 Americans with coronavirus have been admitted to the hospital.
CNN's Erica Hill has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERICA HILL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New freezers at hospitals, planes at the ready, pharmacies gearing up as a coronavirus vaccine gets closer.
ADM. BRETT GIROIR, MD, ASSISTANT SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: And we should have enough vaccine by the end of the year to immunize 20 million Americans.
HILL (voice-over): Moderna now says its vaccine is 100 percent effective at preventing severe cases of the virus. Health care workers will likely be the first to receive an approved vaccine and then, once it's widely available --
DR. LEANA WEN, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, FORMER BALTIMORE HEALTH COMMISSIONER: We can get back to normal. Kids can be back in school, we can be working, and very importantly, we can see our loved ones again.
HILL (voice-over): -- to do that we need less of this --
DR. JONATHAN REINER, PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: If you've traveled on Thanksgiving -- on the Thanksgiving holiday, you should assume you've been infected or exposed to the virus.
HILL (voice-over): -- and more of this.
GOV. JIM JUSTICE (R), WEST VIRGINIA: The only thing we can possibly have to be able to slow this thing down right now is that mask.
HILL (voice-over): New cases added in November, more than 4.25 million. That would count for 30 percent of all confirmed cases since the pandemic began.
DR. JEROME ADAMS, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: It's going to get worse over the next several weeks.
HILL (voice-over): Dr. Joseph Varon has been on the job in Houston for the last 256 days straight.
DR. JOSEPH VARON, CHIEF OF STAFF, UNITED MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER: 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 we work, work, work, work, work and people don't listen, and then they end up in my ICU. [05:35:00]
HILL (voice-over): Hospitals in Rhode Island just hit capacity on the first day of the state's two-week pause. Hospitalizations in California have now topped the state's high set back in July.
Strict new three-week restrictions now in place for Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties, including a ban on contact sports which means no practice for the 49ers.
JAMES WILLIAMS, SANTA CLARA COUNTY COUNSEL: And the 49ers are, I think, are the most nationally obvious example. But there is no family in our community that is untouched by this pandemic.
HILL (voice-over): As hospitals and officials brace for a post- Thanksgiving surge the message is clear. Now is not the time to let down your guard.
DR. DEBORAH BIRX, COORDINATOR, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE: If your governor or your mayor isn't doing the policies that we know are critical -- masking, physical distancing, avoiding bars, avoiding crowded indoor areas -- if those restrictions don't exist in your state you need to take it upon yourself to be restrictive.
HILL (on camera): California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he may need to take drastic measures, including a return to a stay-at-home order in the face of projections for his state that show it could run out of ICU beds there by Christmas Eve.
Meantime in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis was asked on Monday about a state mask mandate. His response, I'm opposed to mandates, period. He said he doesn't believe they work. Science tells us masks do help prevent the spread.
In New York, I'm Erica Hill, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JARRETT: Erica, thank you for that.
The president-elect will introduce his economic team today. He will inherit any number of challenges. The pandemic has put millions of Americans out of work, facing eviction or hunger.
So that's the reality that Janet Yellen, Biden's pick to lead Treasury, will face day-one on the job. But unlike most things in Washington, she's managed to draw enthusiasm from both sides of the aisle.
CNN's Tom Foreman has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JANET YELLEN, FORMER CHAIR, FEDERAL RESERVE: I can say emphatically that partisan politics plays no role in our decisions about the appropriate stance of monetary policy. TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hard-nosed, clear-eyed Janet Yellen's nomination has triggered a flurry of praise from the right for her intellect, foresight, and independence, and from the left where she is called smart, tough, and principled.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: She doesn't have a crystal ball, but what she does have is a keen understanding about how markets and the economy work.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Her resume, which includes Brown, Yale, Harvard, and the London School of Economics, spurred President Obama to put her in charge of the Federal Reserve in 2014, keeping watch on the nation's banks and promoting economic stability.
YELLEN: I'm honored and humbled by the faith that you've placed in me.
FOREMAN (voice-over): By the time her four-year term came to a close, however, Donald Trump was in office. He once said Yellen should be ashamed of her work and has openly criticized the Fed ever since.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Federal Reserve raised the rates too fast and too soon.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Yellen never blinked.
YELLEN: Obviously, the president has a right to comment on the Fed. But I would worry that if it continues or intensifies that it could undermine confidence in the Fed and the market's confidence in the Fed's judgment.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Since the 1700s when Alexander Hamilton served as the first Treasury secretary, they've all been male, including Trump's man, Steve Mnuchin who has a deep pedigree in business and has staunchly refused to hand over the president's tax returns.
STEVEN MNUCHIN, TREASURY SECRETARY: I've had no conversations ever with the president or anyone in the White House about delivering the president's tax returns to Congress.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Yellen, by comparison, is known for her balanced approach to business and consumer concerns for imposing stiff sanctions on Wells Fargo over widespread consumer abuses. And her take on the pandemic economy was clear even last spring.
YELLEN: We're going to be looking at a decline in GDP of at least 30 percent and I've seen far higher numbers. So this is a huge unprecedented devastating hit and my hope is that we will get back to business as usual as quickly as possible.
FOREMAN (on camera): Appreciation for the suffering of regular folks, respect for the needs of business -- those are the twin engines fueling this rare show of bipartisan support for Yellen in this deeply divided town.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington. (END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Very well said, my friend.
Fifty days until Joe Biden's inauguration as president. It's time for three questions in three minutes. Let's bring in CNN senior political analyst John Avlon.
And John, that piece was so well done. When Joe Biden came into office as vice president it was a financial crisis. The economy was in real trouble. Fast-forward 12 years, it is a pandemic and jobs crisis. They have a lot of work to do.
Janet Yellen is a brilliant economist. Do you think she can handle the political part of this as Treasury secretary?
[05:40:04]
JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think as Tom Foreman just laid out, if anyone can, she can. I mean, getting bipartisan support right now for a major cabinet pick is almost unimaginable. It's the unicorn of political problems and she seems to have solved it.
And I think it's not just because she's the first woman obviously, but because she's the first Fed chair. She's got credibility with Wall Street but she's really focused on Main Street.
And one of the things I'm keeping an eye on is a speech she gave in 2014 on the problem of inequality in America -- income inequality. Called it un-American.
ROMANS: Yes.
AVLON: And now she's got very different tools at her disposal as Treasury secretary to deal with them that would be very well-suited to the times.
ROMANS: And you'll finally have a picture of a woman in those cold marble halls over at Treasury.
AVLON: Finally.
ROMANS: All those pictures of dudes. Finally, we'll have a woman in the halls of the Treasury.
JARRETT: So, John, Republicans are apparently going to try to label some of Biden's nominees as elites. I guess I missed the memo on being on public assistance as a child -- being on food stamps as a sign of wealth. How's that argument going to fly?
AVLON: It's totally predictable. It's a conservative populist pose but it's also totally wrong. I mean, of course, Donald Trump, in addition to being a populist billionaire went to an Ivy League school. So, by the way, did eight members of his cabinet.
So this is throwing rocks at glass houses but it's the kind of attack you can expect from a bunch of senators who, themselves, went to Ivy League schools trying to run down Joe Biden's cabinet as elite instinct. It's pure politics and it's got no basis in reality, at least as it applies to their side as well.
ROMANS: Georgia's on our mind, too. More than 940,000 mail-in ballots have been requested in Georgia for the runoff races next month. That is just an enormous number.
President Trump has been saying for months he's against mail-in voting. He goes to Georgia on Saturday. How does -- how does that possibly help the GOP?
AVLON: It doesn't. And as we've seen, it already is causing some confusion in addition to the president's claims that elections are rigged, which are entirely baseless but are causing confusion among the base.
Look, the Georgia runoff race is for all the marbles, folks. It's for control of the Senate. But, Donald Trump is really causing a lot of headaches for his party.
And by the way, two things to look at. One, as the COVID rate rises, Donald Trump is going to have problems beyond his base. There are some science studies that show that where he campaigned in the late innings of the last campaign he actually did worse in 25 of them out of 30 than he did better.
So this could be a double-edged sword, particularly if the battleground remains the suburbs where Donald Trump is not as popular as he might like to think.
JARRETT: All right, John Avlon. Thank you so much for getting up on this Tuesday with us.
AVLON: Always, guys.
JARRETT: Appreciate it.
AVLON: Thank you, guys.
JARRETT: All right, see you soon.
A quick programming note here for you. Georgia Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler and her opponent, Rev. Raphael Warnock, are set to debate each other live on CNN. You can watch "DEBATE NIGHT IN GEORGIA" Sunday night at 7:00 p.m. eastern.
ROMANS: All right, don't want to miss that.
Meantime, sobering words from fed chair Jerome Powell. He says the economic recovery is extraordinarily uncertain as rising coronavirus cases take a toll on the economy. In prepared remarks ahead of his testimony in Washington today, Powell has said the recovery depends on keeping the virus in check, adding "A full economic recovery is unlikely until people are confident that it is safe to re-engage in a broad range of activities." Meanwhile, several programs the Fed started in March will expire at the end of the year. Powell said these programs help unlock almost $2 trillion of funding and repeated the central bank is committed to using its policies to help the economy recover.
Both Powell and the Treasury Sec. Steven Mnuchin will testify in front of the Senate Banking Committee later today.
JARRETT: Still ahead for you, what will the rest of the holidays look like during a global pandemic? How some traditions are being put on hold. That's next.
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[05:48:04]
JARRETT: Across Germany right now, dozens of mass vaccination centers are being set up, all getting ready to provide the coronavirus vaccine once it's approved.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen is live in Germany at one of the facilities where people will actually receive a vaccine. Fred, it's always so terrific when you get to take us inside one of these places. Walk us through what you have been seeing and what more you're learning.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and it's all about that complicated vaccine logistics -- right, Laura? Essentially, because of the issues with some of the vaccines that are probably going to be on the market soon, some of which have to be stored at about 100 degrees minus Fahrenheit, the Germans are saying why not make vaccine centers like this one to bring the people to the vaccine.
Now, of course, they have to try and do that in a safe way. So essentially, what you have here is you have several of these -- they call them vaccination streets, which means you go one way -- this way -- to make sure that people who come here to get their vaccinations don't encounter too many other people.
Now, what you're seeing here is these guys here who, by the way, are from the German Technical Assistance Agency and they're all volunteers. And they're working here under really, really difficult circumstances. They're doing a great job.
So here in this room, you get to talk to a doctor who asks you whether or not you have any sort of health issues. Whether there's anything that could stop you from getting a vaccination. Then people move further on to four rooms that are right here. This is where you get the actual vaccination jab.
And the reason why they have four of these rooms here is, for instance, you'll have one person who may be taking off their shirt to get their shot and another person may be putting their shirt back on after getting the shot. Simply to make the process a little more efficient. And then folks essentially, once they're done with that, they go to
this area back here, which they've deemed to be a resting area afterwards. And everybody who is going to come through here is going to get monitored for at least 15 minutes to make sure those people don't have any major reactions to that vaccine.
So this is the way the Germans are saying they want to do this safely and effectively. And they say once this vaccination center is finished they'll be able to vaccinate about 1,000 people here every day.
[05:50:04]
And as you said at the beginning, the Germans are setting up dozens of these centers to make sure that they can take those vaccines that have to be stored ultra-cold and still get them to as many people as possible, Laura.
JARRETT: All right, Fred, just fascinating. Thank you so much for taking us inside so we can see how all of this is going to happen very soon. Appreciate it.
ROMANS: Yes, on a global scale trying to fix this problem and get back to some sort of normal.
Let's get a check on CNN Business this morning.
This is a solid start to the new trading month. You can see markets around the world -- Asian shares, higher. Europe has opened strongly higher, especially London. And on Wall Street, U.S. stock index futures also higher by more than a percentage point there.
You know, President Trump said a Joe Biden win would crash the stock market. He said that many times. Instead, the opposite happened.
A lower close Monday, but the bigger picture is the entire month. Double-digit percentage in gains in November. The Dow's best month since 1987. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq had their best month since April.
You can credit science and election certainty. There is progress on vaccines -- a lot of progress there. And investors are looking way ahead into an economy returning closer to normal next year with a bitter election cycle behind them.
JARRETT: Well, as one holiday passes, Dr. Anthony Fauci is warning about family and friends getting together for the next few on the horizon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: You want to bring friends -- the warmth, the fireplace, the people sitting down together. Unfortunately, that's the perfect setup. So people who may have no symptoms and innocently and inadvertently come into the home and infect someone. Do you really want to take the chance of exposing that person to
something that might not allow them to have future Christmases and New Years and Hanukah?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: Celebrations all over the world are being adapted for the pandemic. CNN's Melissa Bell has a look at how lockdowns across Europe are changing the holiday season.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is what Christmas normally looks like but this year something's missing. London's dazzling Christmas lights have been switched on but the coronavirus has prevented the usual fanfare and the shoppers are not out in force, although non-essential stores are set to reopen on Wednesday when the U.K. exits a second national lockdown.
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Tis the season to be jolly, but tis also the season to be jolly careful.
BELL (voice-over): Across Europe, gatherings for traditional church services will be smaller due to the pandemic.
DR. PAULA GOODER, CHANCELLOR OF ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL: Here at St. Paul's, it's going to feel very different this year. Normally, we can get 2,000 people into this great space but this year we can only get 250 people at a time, so it's going to feel much smaller. But what we can do is livestream.
BELL (voice-over): In Germany, most of the traditional Christmas markets where tourists flock to glug Gluhwein and eat bratwurst will be closed. But for those who can't do without some festive cheer there's an innovation forced by the pandemic -- the drive-thru.
In Italy, the former European epicenter of the virus, the prime minister is urging people to avoid another tradition, holidays on the slopes. Meanwhile, Switzerland is allowing skiing with precautions.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): There's no big difference. I think we are very lucky that we can go skiing. Once you're used to the mask, it's OK.
BELL (on camera): Here in France, Emmanuel Macron has said that people will be allowed to travel across the country to be with their families for Christmas from December 15th if the daily number of cases reaches a level of about 5,000.
European leaders, though, are urging caution when it comes to travel. The World Health Organization said last week that Europe still accounted for half of all new COVID-19 cases and new deaths globally.
URSULA VON DER LEYEN, PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN COMMISSION: We must learn from the summer and not repeat the same mistakes. Relaxing too fast and too much is a risk for a third wave after Christmas. BELL (voice-over): By the way, this will be a Christmas like no other. With hundreds of thousands of lives lost across Europe, celebrations will be scarred by the loss of life and the reality that the COVID pandemic remains far from over.
Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Zoom Christmas like Zoom Thanksgiving for so many families. Even here in New York at Rockefeller Center you have to make reservations --
JARRETT: Right.
ROMANS: -- for a five-minute window to view the tree with a pod of four people. Everything's different this year.
JARRETT: Everything is different. But as Dr. Fauci said, if we all do the right thing --
ROMANS: That's right.
JARRETT: -- then we can be here for the next season --
ROMANS: That's right.
JARRETT: -- of holidays.
ROMANS: Thanks for joining us, everybody. I'm Christine Romans.
JARRETT: I'm Laura Jarrett. "NEW DAY" is next.
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[05:59:19]
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HILL: COVID-19 hospitalizations have never been higher.
JAMIE GIERE, RN, COVID UNIT TEAM LEADER, UPPER VALLEY MEDICAL CENTER, TROY, OHIO: I don't think the public truly understands what we go through every day.
HILL: Pharmacies gearing up as the coronavirus vaccine gets closer.
SLAOUI: It's going to take a while for all Americans who need it on a priority level to get it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President-elect Joe Biden is going to be attending an event introducing new members of their economic team.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Trump insisted there is no way we lost this election and turning his anger on Republican officials. BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: There are those who are exploiting the emotions of many Trump supporters with fantastic claims -- and frankly, they are misleading the president as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, December first.
