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New Day

Hospitalizations Soar to Record Levels Ahead of the Holidays; Supreme Court Rejects GOP Bid to Reverse Pennsylvania Results; Biden Expected to Nominate Tom Vilsack as Agriculture Secretary, Marcia Fudge as HUD Secretary; U.K. Regulators Warn Those with History of Allergic Reactions to Not Take New Pfizer Vaccine. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired December 09, 2020 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: We need your help. We're in a very dark winter. Things may well get worse before they get better.

[05:59:45]

NICK WATT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: More Americans in the hospital with COVID now than ever.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got to do the kind of things we know how to do to flatten the curve, because vaccines won't provide relief immediately.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The Supreme Court delivering another blow to efforts by the president and his allies. They were not going to be overturning the certification of the results in Pennsylvania.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Supreme Court is not going to wade into a case that simply has no merit.

GEORGE CONWAY, ATTORNEY: It's absurd and an embarrassment for a public official, let alone any lawyer, let alone any member of the Supreme Court bar. Bringing this lawsuit is atrocious.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Wednesday, December 9, 6 a.m. here in New York. And what we do now will be a matter of life and death.

That's the warning overnight from the governor of Washington, as more and more states face a pandemic out of control, and they're trying to slow it down with new restrictions.

The U.S. is now averaging -- averaging -- more than 200,000 new cases a day. That's the first time we've been in that state. There was a huge jump in hospitalizations overnight: 2,400 new hospitalizations, now nearly 105,000 of Americans in the hospital overall. That's a record.

Two thousand, five hundred and thirty-four deaths reported overnight. And that comes on a Tuesday. And those numbers usually increase as the week goes on. That's more than the lives lost at Pearl Harbor, and that's happening every single day now.

Tomorrow, the FDA will consider the approval of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine, but the White House coronavirus task force warns that it won't reduce the spread of the disease until at least late spring.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And overnight, the U.S. Supreme Court delivering what should be the fatal blow to President Trump's effort to reverse the election results. The court flat-out refused to take up the case in Pennsylvania in one terse sentence. No explanation, not even any written dissent from any of the three conservative justices appointed by President Trump.

Also new this morning, CNN has learned that President-elect Joe Biden will name two new cabinet members in housing and agriculture.

But we begin with the pandemic.

CNN's Alexandra Field is live in Rhode Island which now leads the country with the highest number of new cases per capita.

So what's happening there this morning?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, an unwanted designation, to be certain, Alisyn.

What we're seeing in Rhode Island is what we are seeing across the country. In just the last week, we have seen an average of 206,000 new cases a day and 2,200 deaths a day in that same period. That puts us right on par with what was the worst of the pandemic back in April.

Hospitals all over in almost every state are feeling the strain. You have health officials who are saying this is unsustainable. Now they're turning to people and imploring them, everywhere, to do more to stop the spread.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FIELD (voice-over): As new coronavirus cases spread rapidly across the country, some states are shifting into crisis mode once again, enforcing more restrictions as intensive care units fill up with patients.

GOV. JAY INSLEE (D-WA): What we do now literally will be a matter of life and death for many of our citizens.

DR. MARK GHALY, CALIFORNIA HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: We're experiencing a surge like we've never seen. FIELD: Among those with stay-at-home orders in place: California,

Michigan, and North Carolina, where the governor's also enforcing a 10 p.m. curfew.

GOV. ROY COOPER (D-NC): We will do more if our trends do not improve. That means additional actions involving indoor restaurant dining, entertainment facilities, or shopping and retail capacity.

FIELD: The virus running rampant, with the U.S. recording more than 215,000 new cases Tuesday.

Here in Rhode Island, there's a 9.4 percent daily positivity rate and the nation's highest new average of new coronavirus cases per capita.

Health officials treating patients inside this field hospital in Providence. More than 104,000 people nationwide are hospitalized with the virus, a dangerous record.

President-elect Joe Biden outlining a coronavirus response plan for his first hundred days in office.

BIDEN: As a country, we've been living with this pandemic for so long, we're at risk of becoming numb to its toll on all of us.

FIELD: His top three goals: safely getting more children back into classrooms, promoting widespread mask wearing, and distributing vaccines to at least 100 million Americans.

BIDEN: It's going to take some time, but I'm absolutely convinced that, in a hundred days, we can change the course of the disease and change life in America for the better.

FIELD: Tomorrow, an FDA panel meets to consider whether the first vaccine candidate will be granted emergency use authorization in the United States. A decision is expected this week.

DR. STEPHEN HAHN, FAD COMMISSIONER: We do feel that preliminarily, that the success criteria have been met.

FIELD: But in the meantime, with most of the country likely facing a months-long wait for a vaccine, Dr. Anthony Fauci says it's important to accept the reality of the pandemic.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: There are a substantial proportion of the people who still think that this is not real, that it's fake news or that it's a hoax. It's extraordinary. I've never really seen anything like this.

[06:05:10]

We've got to overcome that and pull together as a nation, uniformly, with adhering to these public health measures.

(END VIDEOTAPE) FIELD: Cases are continuing to climb right here in Rhode Island, even with a two-week pause in place. And that means there could be additional restrictions still to come.

And at no point during the course of the entire pandemic have we seen as many people in hospitals in Rhode Island as there are this morning.

The state has stood up two field hospitals, including one here at the Providence Convention Center. It has a 600-bed capacity. It wasn't needed last spring. It is being used today -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, what a marker of going in the wrong direction at the moment, Alex. Thank you very much.

Also developing overnight, new hurdles for a coronavirus relief bill. The White House proposing a package that includes $600 stimulus checks for those who qualify. But those checks would be instead of the additional $300 a week in unemployment benefits that lawmakers proposed. Democratic leaders say this offer is unacceptable.

Also developing overnight, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the president and his allies' latest attempt to overturn the election.

CNN's Joe Johns is live at the White House with more.

What happened, Joe?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Well, the court's refusal to hear this case was exactly one sentence long. But the message from the United States Supreme Court was loud and clear. This election will not be overturned.

What the court was refusing to hear was a challenge to changes in Pennsylvania election law that were put in place just last year, in 2019.

This is being billed in some places as a tremendous loss for the president and his campaign, but there was never any real hope that somebody was going to buy into the president's fantasies about overturning the election.

What it has done, however, is allowed the president and the campaign to raise a lot of money after the election.

Just the same, a few hours before this decision came down, the president was out asking members of the court, anybody else who would listen, to help him out and buy into the big lie. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now let's see whether or not somebody has the courage, whether it's a legislator or legislatures, or whether it's a justice of the Supreme Court or a number of justices of the Supreme Court. Let's see if they have the courage to do what everybody in this country knows is right. (END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Despite repeated overwhelming losses in the courts, the president and his allies continue to try to go to court to overturn the election; continue to try to raise the possibility that the president could still win the election.

But from today and from yesterday, it's very clear that, at least on the Supreme Court, with three members appointed by the president of the United States, it is not going there.

Alisyn, back to you.

BERMAN: I'll take it, Joe.

JOHNS: John.

BERMAN: The Supreme Court unwilling to overthrow the election, which the president called for at a vaccine event. That was a vaccine event, where the president was trying to overthrow the election.

When he makes the absurd claim that "Everyone knows what happened," he lost by 7 million votes, 4.5 percent, nearly. Which is not close.

Joe Johns at the White House, thank you.

CNN has learned that President-elect Joe Biden will nominate more cabinet members as early as today.

CNN's Jessica Dean live in Wilmington, Delaware. Filling out this list very quickly with some interesting names, Jessica.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning to you, John. We're getting more information on what President-elect Joe Biden's cabinet is going to look like, as we're hearing about two key positions.

Let's start first with the Department of Agriculture. Sources are telling us that former Iowa governor, Tom Vilsack, will be tapped to run the Department of Agriculture. He actually was the ag secretary during the full run of Obama's administration, so it's a place and a position he's quite familiar with.

He's also quite familiar with Joe Biden himself. He was one of his most early and ardent supporters, especially in Iowa. He and his wife, Christie, campaigned aggressively for him there.

And it's just another example of Biden choosing someone he has a long- standing relationship with, someone he trusts, someone he feels comfortable with and knows. And this is certainly no exception to that rule.

The other department we have news in this morning is the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Ohio Congresswoman Marcia Fudge is reportedly going to be tapped to run the Housing and Urban Development department agency. She, of course, is from Ohio, a sitting congresswoman. Joe Biden has

been reluctant to go to anyone and tap anyone from Congress, just because of the House's very slim majority and what's going on in the Senate.

[06:10:00]

But she is the exception. It's a very safe seat for Ohio Democrats. There had been talk of her going to agriculture, but the talk moved to Housing and Urban Development.

And of course, she would be another African-American woman in his cabinet, where there have been calls for diversity.

Also, later this afternoon, President-elect Joe Biden will formally introduce retired Army General Lloyd Austin as his defense secretary right here in Wilmington.

John, so as you said, a lot of this filling out as the days roll by.

BERMAN: Yes. A flurry of activity.

Jim Clyburn, congressman from South Carolina, previewed that Marcia Fudge was going to get something right here on this show. I think he knew something, and I think he's got some pull in this whole thing.

DEAN: Yes.

BERMAN: Jessica Dean, thanks very much --

DEAN: Right.

BERMAN: -- for being with us.

DEAN: Yes.

BERMAN: Keep us posted. More picks could be coming within the next few hours.

DEAN: Yes.

BERMAN: All right. We do have some breaking news. Regulators in the United Kingdom just issued new advice about who should not get Pfizer's new coronavirus vaccine. You'll want to hear this. Details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: We do have some breaking news. Health officials in the United Kingdom just issued a new warning about the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine for people with serious allergies.

[06:15:12]

This is what the statement says: "As is common with new vaccines, the MHRA -- that's the agency there -- have advised on a precautionary basis that people with a significant history of allergic reactions do not receive this vaccination." Why? "Two people with a history of history of significant allergic reactions responded adversely yesterday."

Joining us now, Dr. Paul Offit. He's a pediatrics professor at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and director of the Vaccine Education Center.

Dr. Offit, thanks so much for being with us this morning.

Two people had adverse reactions yesterday when they got the shot. They had severe -- they had a history of severe allergies. They are said to be recovering well. Yet, it was enough for the U.K. to issue this warning. What's the takeaway?

DR. PAUL OFFIT, DIRECTOR, VACCINE EDUCATION CENTER, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: I think it's an odd recommendation. I mean, the smarter thing to do would be to try and -- and look at these two patients and see what specific component of the vaccine they were allergic to. Because I think by making sort of a blanket recommendation of anybody who's had a severe allergic reaction can't get these vaccine is a little silly in the sense that some people may have an egg allergy and say, OK, now I can't get these vaccines, when in fact, these vaccines have nothing to do with eggs. So it would help to sort of dissect out what specific part of the vaccine was causing a problem.

I mean, certainly, vaccines can cause severe allergic reactions. In the United States, roughly one of every 1.4 million doses of vaccines is complicated by a severe allergic reaction, usually to the gelatin in the vaccine, which can be a stabilizer, or the latex stopper, which -- you know, is part of the -- the vaccine, as well.

And that's why you're asked to stay in the doctor's office for 15 minutes after you get a vaccine, or in the case of a drive-through vaccine, to just hang out for 15 minutes, just in case that happens.

But it would help to actually learn more about these patients before you make that kind of blanket recommendation.

CAMEROTA: We also don't exactly know how many people were vaccinated yesterday in the U.K. So we don't know if this is two out of how many.

And do you worry, given these questions, Dr. Offit, that this will increase the vaccine hesitancy that, you know, many people in this country, in the U.S., are feeling and expressing?

OFFIT: Yes. And I do think people should realize, though, that there are immediate treatments for this. If you have a severe allergic reaction, that's why you hang out in the doctor's office, so you get your shot of epinephrine and you're fine.

But I completely agree with you. I think this will only serve as yet another way to scare people.

BERMAN: I want to ask you, Dr. Offit, about what we heard from President-elect Joe Biden yesterday, who announced more details of his plan to deal with coronavirus in his first hundred days.

His plan is to provide for 100 million doses of vaccine to the American people in the first hundred days. He's going to call for mask wearing for the first hundred days, a mask mandate in federal buildings, transportation, and call on mayors and governors to do the same. And also, he's going to work to reopen schools as quickly as possible.

Your take on this plan?

OFFIT: I think it's great. I mean, you know, certainly, while we're waiting for vaccines to get out there at a significant level where we can now bring this virus spread to an end, we're not helpless. We can wear masks and physically distance, which is a powerful thing to do.

I also think that -- that getting back to schools is important. I mean, educators, teachers are essential workers. And you know, there are countries like Denmark, for example, who've figured this out. I mean, they have the students go -- not go from classroom to classroom, but have the teachers do that, so halls aren't crowded. Separate the desk, don't eat in cafeterias, sort of eat at the desks. And they get people back to school, because we need -- we need to get people back to school.

You know, on-site learning is not the same thing as distance learning. For some children, it's the only decent meal they get during the day. And it's also the place where you most can identify child abuse. We need to get back to school.

And I don't think we should have to wait for vaccines to get out there to -- into 70 percent of the population before we do that. Teachers are essential workers. And like all essential workers, I think they can go back to work.

CAMEROTA: I want to ask you about hospitalizations. They're breaking records.

So nationwide, here's the graph that we can look at, and you can see the sharp incline there. Nationwide, we're hitting the record of 104,000 or 105,000 people hospitalized right now.

And then where you are in Pennsylvania, it's even more dramatic. If we look at that graph of what's happening in Pennsylvania, it's just -- you almost see a low plateau and then look at this --

BERMAN: Wow.

CAMEROTA: -- a sharp spike. And so how -- what's happening, Doctor?

OFFIT: It's going to be a rough couple of months. The weather is important. I mean, it's -- it's drier. It's less humid, which makes it much more easy for these so-called respiratory viruses spread by small droplets to spread. It's going to be a while until we get the vaccine out there.

You know, right now, we have no federal leadership, although, thank goodness, we have a federal leadership that is coming in that embraces the science. And Christmas is coming up. I think it is going to be a tough couple of months.

[06:20:06]

But again, we're not helpless! Wear masks. Physical distance is a powerful thing to do. And it's just hard to watch people out there sort of, you know, saying that they think somehow not wearing masks is a freedom.

It's not your freedom to catch and transmit a potentially fatal infection. It doesn't just affect you. It affects those with whom you come in contact. It's been hard to watch this.

BERMAN: I have to say, Dr. Offit, you look at those charts on the hospitalizations, Pennsylvania, nationally, that's scary. I mean, that's what scares me more than anything else this morning.

We had a jump of 2,400 hospitalizations reported nationwide overnight. I -- it looked like things had started to level off a tiny bit. Clearly not. I mean, clearly, people are still headed to the hospitals in huge numbers. And this could go up over the next several weeks.

OFFIT: And the hospitals could be overwhelmed. And it won't be -- not only just a matter of not being able to take care of patients with COVID-19, but being able to take care of a variety of other patients who have acute and serious conditions. It's -- I feel like we are, at some level, on a precipice.

But again, we're not helpless. Wear masks, social distance. That's a powerful thing to do.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Offit, thank you very much for all of the information and the breaking news this morning.

OFFIT: Thank you.

BERMAN: So it turns out the U.S. Supreme Court will not help President Trump overturn the results of the election. Still, he is out there in public, calling for just such a thing. Republicans in Congress still supporting this effort. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Overnight, the U.S. Supreme Court delivering a blow to President Trump's effort to overturn the election. The conservative- majority court denying a Republican effort to block the certification of Joe Biden's victory in Pennsylvania.

Is this the end of the line for President Trump?

Joining us now, CNN political analyst Alex Burns. He's a national political correspondent for "The New York Times." Also with us, Laura Barron-Lopez. She's a national political reporter for "Politico." Great to see both of you. Alex, yesterday President Trump at a vaccine event -- It was supposed to be about vaccines -- spent a significant chunk of time imploring out loud the Supreme Court to do his bidding.

And then the Supreme Court, with three of the justices that he has appointed to the bench, dismissed it out of hand.

But something tells me, this is still not the end and that there will be other tricks up President Trump's sleeve that Republicans appear to be going along with. So what now?

ALEX BURNS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, there may be something up his sleeve, but I don't know that it's going to be a particularly effective trick when it comes to shaping the outcome of the election. I think it's been clear for a couple of weeks now that Republicans generally know and recognize, and privately accept and acknowledge, that Joe Biden is the president-elect. That there is going to be a new administration in about six weeks, but that they are sort of giving the president the space to run out every conceivable tactic that he might have to delay or change the outcome.

And Alisyn, again, that's not every good tactic or every reasonable or appropriate tactic, but every conceivable tactic.

So we're now at a point where the state legislator -- state legislatures have declined to intervene. State authorities like governors in Georgia and Arizona secretaries of state in those places have declined to intervene on the president's behalf. And now the Supreme Court has made it quite clear that they are not going to be the cavalry riding to the president's rescue.

I don't think that comes as any kind of surprise to most senior Republicans. It may come as something as a surprise, or at least a disappointment, to the president himself, because it seems like he and the Democrats have been far more sensitive to the possibility of judicial intervention than most of the Republican Party, which has seen that as kind of a dead end.

BERMAN: The functional end of this was weeks ago, really. I mean, this thing has been over for weeks. All that has been left is a fundraising tool and the president's efforts to undermine the institutions of democracy; and the impact of both of those things will last for some time.

But really, there hasn't been any doubt for some time.

On other matters, Laura, let's talk about President-elect Joe Biden and his cabinet. We're now getting these picks in a much more rapid pace. We're going to see retired General Lloyd Austin today, who is the pick to be secretary of defense, would be the first African- American defense secretary.

But there are serious questions about whether or not he should receive a waiver, since he's only four years removed from military service.

And then we learned, former ag secretary Tom Vilsack, back for an encore performance, will be nominated again by Joe Biden. And then Marcia Fudge, congresswoman from Ohio, nominated not for the position that a lot of people wanted her for, at least in the Democratic Party, secretary of agriculture, but Housing and Urban Development.

What's the takeaway here as President-elect Biden fills out this roster?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "POLITICO": Right. There's been a bit of musical chairs. I mean, in the case of Lloyd Austin and Marcia Fudge, those are big, you know, wins for the congressional black caucus.

They had been pushing for an African-American in the top four. We're talking about top four are at the state, treasury, DOJ, and DOD. And with Lloyd Austin, they are hopefully, in their case, able to get that.

Again, there is the issue of the waiver, and a number of Democrats yesterday were saying that they were uneasy about voting for a potential waiver to allow him to serve in that role, because a number of them voted against a waiver for General Mattis at the beginning of Trump's administration, when he also required one.

Fudge, as you said, a lot of African-American Democrats wanted her to be head of agricultural secretary. But when the lights started dimming on that, they just wanted her to be in the cabinet, and she's going to be able to do that as head of HUD.

Vilsack, again, we're seeing with a lot of these appointments from Biden, he's someone who is a carryover from the Obama administration. He was agriculture secretary.