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U.S. FDA Votes on Vaccine Authorization; Nevada Hospital Treating Surge in Package Garage; Poorer Countries Struggle for Access to Vaccines; E.U. and U.K. Agree to Keep Talking through Sunday; Most of Denmark under Partial Lockdown. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired December 10, 2020 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:00]
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When they start building this, I laugh.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST (voice-over): This hour, so many Americans are dying from COVID that only wars and natural disasters have claimed more
lives in a single day, such is the impact. We take you inside a hospital running one unit out of a parking garage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON (on-camera): That as this hour American regulators consider giving a vaccine the green light.
Plus --
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ANDERSON (voice-over): that is the sound of success -- or so Jordan thought. We take a look at what went wrong in the country's battle against
the virus.
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ANDERSON(on-camera): Tonight, we have to do better than this.
I'm Becky Anderson. Hello and welcome to CONNECT THE WORLD.
I want to start by putting the devastating toll of this modern-day plague into historical perspective. More than 3,100 Americans died of COVID-19 in
the past 24 hours, the most so far there in a single day. It is the third deadliest single-day event in American history.
The only two above it, a hurricane and a Civil War battle. Just below it, on the list, the 9/11 terror attacks. Most of the other deadliest days in
America, coronavirus deaths happening just in the past week or so.
Now we don't show you pictures of people dying of COVID-19 in hospitals, many of them intubated, tubes stuck down their throats, because we don't
want to invade the privacy of those last moments.
Most of them die alone, leaving behind loved ones and friends. We understand not seeing these images may somehow make these deaths seem less
real, which is why it's so important to show you images from those other disasters.
And we have to go a long way back in time to show you that. This is Galveston, Texas, year 1900, estimated 8,000 men, women and children
perished on an early September day when a storm surge from a hurricane inundated the island city.
The city's elevation, only a few meters above sea level, no match for the hurricane's fury. Much of Galveston was literally washed away.
In September of 1862, more than 3,600 soldiers died in the Civil War battle of Antietam. The battle site in Maryland fast became a killing field, the
battle itself a turning point in American history, halting the Confederate advance northward, changing the course of the Civil War and Abraham
Lincoln's presidency, all at a huge cost of human life.
Well, those are the only deadlier events than we saw yesterday, an epic natural disaster and the bloodiest day of battle on American soil. It will
only take four days, at this rate, for coronavirus deaths in America to top the combined toll of both of those events.
And medical experts say it will get worse before it gets better. There is also hope, of course, a big dose of it, in fact, in the form of vaccines.
This week, we saw those heartwarming images of people in Britain, getting jabbed with their first dose of coronavirus vaccine just days after
emergency authorization by U.K. regulators.
This hour, U.S. regulators are meeting to discuss that same Pfizer BioNTech vaccine; assuming they allow emergency use, which is considered likely,
shipments could be on their way within hours. In the meantime, though, there will be more tragic coronavirus records set, more tragic history in
the making.
Sara Sidner reporting for us from some of the hardest-hit places in America. She joins us today from Reno, Nevada, where a hospital is
expanding its treatment area into a parking garage -- Sara.
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SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Becky, things have gotten so bad that one of the hospitals here in Reno, Nevada, that services a huge area,
has actually decided that they had to open up a hospital in their parking garage.
They changed it within just 10 days to make it a COVID ward. You can see it just over my shoulder there. If you look and you see that sort of pipe
that's going up the building, that is the HVAC system pushing out the COVID-infected air from inside where all of the patients are.
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SIDNER (voice-over): Dr. Jacob Keeperman is mustering all his mental and physical strength as another wave of COVID-19 patients show up in the
intensive care unit at his hospital. Everyone here has been going nonstop for months.
SIDNER: What was your worst day?
DR. JACOB KEEPERMAN, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, RENOWN TRANSFER AND OPERATIONS CENTER: So my worst day of this pandemic was actually the day I posted the
tweet thanking my teammates.
I had just finished a seven-day stretch in the intensive care unit. There had been patient after patient after patient who was not surviving this
illness.
SIDNER: The tweet he sent was a simple selfie, showing off their new COVID-19 wing, that wing set up in the hospital parking garage. That fact
seemed to set President Trump off, who retweeted the tweet, calling it fake and a scam. That unleashed the Twitter trolls.
KEEPERMAN: I was sad and devastated and I was angry.
SIDNER: Devastated and angry because of all of the hard work being done by his colleagues inside this parking garage hospital every single day, from
the food staff to the CEO.
ANTHONY SLONIM, HOSPITAL CEO: This is not fake. This is as real as it gets.
SIDNER: The idea was conceived and executed months ago, but during this COVID surge patients are now parked in the spaces instead of cars.
The number of coronavirus cases in Washoe County, Nevada, that this hospital services has exploded. This week, there are actually 10 times the
number of COVID-19 cases than there were just a couple of months ago. So the hospital had to do whatever it takes to find more bed space. And so,
here we are, on floor G of the parking garage.
JANET BAUM, NURSING MANAGER, ALTERNATE CARE SITE: It was scary. You know, we don't expect to go to work and be working out of a parking garage. We've
made it a hospital, so we don't even consider it a garage anymore.
SIDNER: Did you ever think that in America they would have to treat people in a parking lot?
ROSALIA MARTINEZ, CORONAVIRUS PATIENT: I apologize for what I'm going to say. When they started building this, I laughed.
SIDNER: Making a dusty, dirty parking garage into a sanitary space seemed laughable. But then, she ended up hospitalized here.
R. MARTINEZ: People don't realize how bad this is, the pain, how you feel, the not being able to breathe. That's one of the worst things that I ever
did experience in my life.
SIDNER: A few days later, her husband of 35 years was also hospitalized with COVID.
LUIS MARTINEZ, HUSBAND OF ROSALIA MARTINEZ, CORONAVIRUS PATIENT: I thought she was going to die.
SIDNER: After spending days in isolation with no visitation, they found each other again, parked just four beds apart in the parking garage.
R. MARTINEZ: He coughs at nighttime. I can hear him. And if I yell, he can hear me. He knows that I'm still alive.
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SIDNER (on-camera): And the Martinezes could not stop smiling because they are able to recover together. And they are, by the way, expected to be
released from the parking garage that you see behind me and be able to go home and when they get a little better in the next couple of days.
I do want to mention one more thing, Becky. You know, the CEO and president of the hospital here in Reno told us that this is a very special place for
him, the parking garage turned hospital.
Why is that?
The day that it opened, he got a phone call. His father had died. His father had COVID-19. And he says, you know, he was alone, I couldn't be
with him. But I realize he wasn't truly alone because, just like he sees in his hospitals, the nurses, the doctors, the staff, they are there to hold
the hands, even if they're strangers they're holding the hands of these patients as they lose their lives -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Sara, thank you.
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Well, the one light at the end of the tunnel in America, a COVID-19 vaccine. It is on the horizon -- or so goes the hope. Americans are
anxiously awaiting to hear from a key advisory committee to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, who are right now meeting.
They are reviewing Pfizer's emergency use authorization or EUA application submitted for its COVID-19 vaccine. This is the first vaccine to be
considered for authorization in the U.S.
But as chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports, the decision involves the nation's top experts, who are looking at the data to make sure
that the vaccine is safe and that it works.
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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was the shot seen around the world, 90-year-old Margaret Keenan, the first woman in
the United Kingdom, in the world, to receive an authorized COVID-19 vaccine.
It had been 286 days since the first patient in the United States died. Now finally, a signal of hope.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Pfizer and BioNTech have submitted --
GUPTA: Up until now, the only real information about how well the vaccines were working was coming from the companies themselves.
ALBERT BOURLA, PFIZER CEO: Ninety percent is a game changer.
GUPTA: But the world is now watching as this vaccine is being rolled out in real time with all the excitement but also the concerns.
AZAR: We want to make sure that any vaccine that comes out in America has the full gold standard stamp of approval of the FDA career people.
GUPTA: The data was submitted three days earlier to the FDA versus to the U.K. regulatory authorities.
Why is it?
DR. STEPHEN HAHN, FDA COMMISSIONER: If we don't do our job to reassure and ensure the safety and efficacy of the vaccine to the American people, then
we are going to contribute to vaccine hesitancy.
DR. PETER MARKS, FDA CENTER FOR BIOLOGICS EVALUATION AND RESEARCH: We look at the actual adverse event reports, the bad spelling errors that are made
by physicians.
Peter Marks is director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, leading the FDA team reviewing the data of about 44,000 Pfizer
trial volunteers, half on placebo, half on actual vaccine. Their findings, so far similar to what we've heard from Pfizer itself.
MARKS: They had 95 percent effectiveness across a wide range of individuals.
GUPTA: Since November 20th, FDA scientists have pored over tens of thousand of pages of data down to the level of the individual participants'
medical records. Now more than 20 scientists and committee members, collectively known as the Vaccines and Related Biologicals Product Advisory
Committee, will review all the data.
Yes, for effectiveness but equally important, how did the vaccine fare among people of different ages, different races and different medical
conditions?
HAHN: We are going to look at underrepresented minorities, we will look at the elderly, young folks, pregnant women, folks with underlying
immunodeficiencies, immune problems. That's part of the entire package that we will present to the vaccine advisory committee.
GUPTA: But after the first dose the results show a fair amount of protection, it was 52.4 percent roughly, obviously a lot lower but better
than the 50 percent that the FDA originally required.
Does it make sense to you to take the 40 million projected doses by the end of the year and give all of those as first doses to people?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We considered that, Sanjay, and we decided that it would be more prudent
not to do that; namely, to get the real total degree of protection, not the 52 percent but the 95 percent after the second dose.
GUPTA: These are the kinds of questions the advisory group will ask to help determine who the vaccine will be authorized for. And then the group
will vote.
Their vote doesn't bind the FDA. But the agency usually does follow their lead.
The goal, to have 60 percent to 70 percent of the country vaccinated to achieve herd immunity and protect our communities from this virus, which is
why this meeting will be repeated again next week, as the FDA considers the equally promising vaccine candidate from Moderna and, again, to consider
other vaccines, like that from Johnson & Johnson and Oxford AstraZeneca, all of it to get to this point for all Americans and, eventually, all the
citizens of the world.
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ANDERSON: That's Dr. Sanjay Gupta reporting for you.
Let's bring in his colleague, senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, to break this all down a little further for us.
So take us through the tick-tock of events.
What should we expect to come out of this FDA meeting today?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I just want to repeat first of all what my colleague, Sanjay, said which is that this committee
that's meeting right now, it's an advisory committee.
[10:15:00]
These are not FDA employees. These are not government employees, these are outside experts, who the FDA has asked to come in and basically consult
with and say, hey, guys, here is what we think of the data.
What do you think of the data?
I think that's really important and, hopefully, will give people confidence when they hear that there are outsiders who are chiming in, not just
government employees.
So as Sanjay mentioned, they are going to be looking at data to show, hey, does this vaccine work and, also, is it safe?
So let's look at those two points right now. What the data shows, from a clinical trial of more than 40,000 people, that the vaccine is 95 percent
effective, in even the very few people who did get COVID after getting the vaccine. They didn't get very sick; there was only one case of severe
illness.
There were frequent side effects -- fatigue, achiness, fever -- but that lasted only about a day. They did not see any severe side effects.
Now there is one important note: the vaccine wasn't tested out in everyone. Certain people weren't allowed to participate in the trial so,
therefore, we don't know if the vaccine is safe for them to get.
So let's take a look at those groups, where we are not sure if the vaccine is safe for them. That's children under 16, women who are pregnant, women
who are breast-feeding, people who have immune issues and people who, in the past, have had severe reactions, severe allergic reactions or other
reactions to vaccines.
So we are not quite sure yet, should those people get vaccinated or not?
But that's a relatively small minority, compared to the entire population - - Becky.
ANDERSON: So when do we think people in the States will start getting vaccinated?
COHEN: You know, we are not exactly sure but it is possible that, after the FDA does its thing and then the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control,
they have to do something as well, it could be a matter of days. It might be a week or so but it could really be a matter of days before we see the
first shots going into arms in the United States, just as we have already seen in the U.K.
ANDERSON: Elizabeth Cohen in the house, always a pleasure. Thank you.
Viewers, just to close this out, take a listen to what Dr. Anthony Fauci had to say earlier.
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FAUCI: We, here in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration, no doubt, really is the gold standard of really careful scrutiny of all of the
data, all the minutiae of the data, of the clinical trials. That's just the way our FDA works.
Some may say it's a bit too careful, a bit too slow. But it really isn't. It really makes very much the front-burner safety an absolute certainty of
efficacy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: That's Dr. Anthony Fauci, of course. We will talk more about Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine coming up in the next hour, when we connect
you to Dr. Andrea Ammon, who is the director of the European CDC.
I want to bring you an update on a story that we brought to you on the program yesterday, from right here in the UAE, about the efficacy of
another vaccine developed in China.
UAE officials announced Wednesday that the vaccine is 86 percent effective, that number coming from an interim analysis of clinical trials that were
held here, and involved 31,000 people in the UAE.
Well, now local officials telling CNN there are 2 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine in storage here, as you can see here. They've been flown
in by the Hope Consortium; that is Abu Dhabi's effort to help carefully get vaccines into the UAE and out around the world to those who need them.
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ANDERSON: And another developing story here in the UAE, the nation is now one step closer to getting a batch of high-tech weapons from the U.S.
On Wednesday a group of mostly Democratic senators failed in a last-ditch effort to block the sale. The senators were concerned about setting off an
arms race in the region but they didn't have the votes to put on the brakes on what is a $23 billion deal.
The weapons include the F-35 fighter jets and reaper drones. The deal appears likely to go through by Friday. At least one Democratic senator is
hoping President-Elect Joe Biden can still reverse that when he comes to office.
When it comes to COVID vaccines, the experts say the math is simple: no one is protected until everyone is protected.
So why are some of the less rich countries around the world having a hard time getting vaccines?
We will take a look.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: COVID has paralyzed us. We are worried about what comes after this. It's like we are in the ICU and we could lose life support any
minute now.
ANDERSON (voice-over): As those parts of the world gear up for the vaccine, others are struggling with new surges in the virus.
[10:20:00]
In our next hour, we head to the country of Jordan, which has just reported a staggering jump in coronavirus infections.
Plus, it wasn't exactly the dinner date from hell but, reading between the lines, sparks did fly. Just ahead, we will take you live to Brussels for
the next move on what are those increasingly difficult Brexit trade talks.
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MELINDA GATES, THE BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION: There have been forecasts done that say, if you take the first 2 billion doses of vaccines
and they only get out to the high-income countries, you're going to get twice as much death.
And what we're seeing is that, yes, the high-income countries can put a lot of money into vaccines. But they're going to spend $1.3 trillion in a
bidding war on vaccines unless they go through this Act accelerator.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Melinda Gates just recently there, telling me that it's not just about developing vaccines and distributing them but about who in the world
gets these jabs.
As we discuss America, wondering about its approval this hour, we understand that, in lower income countries, that's becoming quite tiresome.
Places like Africa watch as promises of vaccines locally evaporate.
One vaccine watchdog group is in the poorest nations, only one in 10 people can hope to be vaccinated by the end of the year. On the other hand, the
rich or high-income countries are buying up enough COVID-19 doses to immunize their populations three times over, according to the People's
Vaccine Alliance.
David McKenzie joins us from Johannesburg, South Africa, as that country plummets towards its second wave of the pandemic -- David.
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And that vaccine alliance, Becky, that you mentioned, has said only one in 10 people in 70 of the
world's poorest countries may be vaccinated by the end of next year because of a lack of access to vaccine.
As Melinda Gates mentioned there, she was calling in that interview with you to have people sign up to this COVAX system, which is basically a
system to allow vaccines to be equitably distributed.
Countries have signed up to that but they have also made substantial bilateral deals with drug manufacturers to secure their access to these
vaccines, which could not be -- may not be a problem and is sort of logical in one point.
[10:25:00]
MCKENZIE: But if you look at the numbers here, certain countries like Canada, the U.K., blocs like the E.U. have ordered far more vaccines than
they actually need.
So the worry now is that, even if money is available for poorer countries to access vaccines, those vaccines have already been promised to these rich
countries and the impact could be severe.
The issue is that, just from an ethical standpoint, you would want equitable distribution. But also from a public health standpoint, here is a
key leader with the WHO.
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DR. RICHARD MIHIGO, WHO IMMUNIZATION AND VACCINE DEVELOPMENT: This is the sad reality that we are facing. But we hope that now a country both like
the Canada, European Union, that they have ordered more doses than necessary, could made available those supplies through the COVAX facility
so that the low income countries can get access at the same time.
Until everybody is protected nobody can be safe because we are now living in an interconnected world, global villages, we said.
And even for those countries that could protect themselves, they can't be living like in an island. So, I think we need absolutely the world in which
people can interact, not only economically but socially.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCKENZIE: Well, the issue is, even if vaccines become available, it will be challenging to get some of those more -- the most experimental vaccines,
like the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccine, because of the extreme temperatures, given the health infrastructure.
And also, even if Africa and countries in Africa, Becky, haven't been as badly hit, as we approach the second wave, the worry is, in countries which
cannot handle the incoming patients, it could still be a bad scenario indeed for COVID-19.
And if vaccines don't come, it could last a great deal longer, perhaps years, than it does in rich countries -- Becky.
ANDERSON: David McKenzie is in South Africa for you.
David, thank you.
Well, it's time to step up to the plate to get a Brexit trade deal done. But critics say that did not happen last night at what was the big dinner
in Brussels. And they say it may not happen at all. Up next, we will discuss that in our live report on why it is that so many believe these
Brexit talks are looking so toxic.
We will also take you to Denmark, where early restrictions kept coronavirus infections and deaths incredibly low. What it's doing as it heads now into
another surge.
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ANDERSON: Well, the U.K. and Singapore are saying, let's make a deal. They signed a free trade agreement just a short time ago with Singapore's trade
minister, calling it a major milestone. He says it will boost their trading relationship, worth more than $23 billion in 2019.
It is also a boost for Boris Johnson, not to mention very good timing. It follows the British prime minister's big dinner date in Brussels last night
with the European Commission chief. They are extending Brexit trade talks until Sunday.
So it wasn't exactly the dinner date from hell as some had feared. Fish was on the menu, possibly a not so subtle dig at the British leader over the
now familiar sticking points, which you see there. Access to U.K. fishing waters is the big one.
At the heart of it all, though, are really just two messages: the U.K. is saying don't mess with our sovereignty while the E.U. is doing contortions
to protect the single market. So four more days to land a deal.
Will Sunday really be the walk-away moment?
We are connecting in Brussels with CNN's international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson.
It seems like dessert was a big fat zilch; not really much moved, Nic, last night, right?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Not much moved, I mean, there's nothing like the food in front of you to set the mood. And
the topic of the conversation, parsnips (INAUDIBLE) scallops for starters. You already entered the fishing discussion here of one of the big sticking
points on the Brexit negotiations.
Main course turbot. And if that wasn't spicy enough for you, there was potato with wasabi, finished up with exotic fruits and coconut sorbet. They
didn't finish off with any agreement. Both sides saying there are big gaps, not sure they can bridge them.
When Ursula van der Leyen, the European Commission president, came out to speak today, this is how she explained this dinner date.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
URSULA VAN DER LEYEN, PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN COMMISSION: I had a very long conversation yesterday night with the prime minister, Boris Johnson. It was
a good conversation.
But it is difficult. We are willing to grant access to the single market to our British friends. It's the largest single market in the world.
But the conditions have to be fair. They have to be fair for our workers and for our companies. And this fine balance of fairness has not been
achieved so far. Our negotiators are still working and we will take a decision on Sunday.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: So what's fair for her, for the European Union, doesn't seem fair to Boris Johnson, that is, that the U.K. would have to tie itself to
the rules and regulations of the European Union to continue to have access to that single market that was talked about.
Becky, everyone has known this. But we're coming down to the wire. Sunday seems to be the wire and they still haven't got agreement on that point.
And they don't seem to be bending and flexing. And it's a big gap.
ANDERSON: Yes, it does seem remarkable that after, what, 3.5 years, as you rightly point out, we've always known this. We hear so much about the level
playing field, right, Nic, the U.K. defending that as being, and I quote, "commitments in trade agreements to ensure the competition is open and
fair."
For the benefit of our viewers, who, you know, don't get caught up in the contortions and machinations of Brexit politics, let's translate into
reality.
I have two cars in the studio with me, one little British one, here it is, and the other a little European one, see the little -- the little European
flag here. Sorry, guys, you can't see it probably. There you go. All right. They are the same, right, because of the rules. They look the same because
of the rules.
But this is a huge sticking point, right?
Using these two little beauties, Nic, just explain what the deal is here.
ROBERTSON: So you have this little car that's made in Europe and it's made under European regulations. So that will govern the materials that go into
it, for example. But it will govern the labor laws around how it's made, maybe how much you pay people, what hours they can work.
[10:35:00]
It will be governed by environmental laws, what are the emissions from it, is it suitable and safe to drive in Europe?
Then you have the car in the U.K. which at the moment is made to the same rules, regulations, restrictions. The workers get the same rights in the
U.K. as they do in Europe.
But let's say the British government turns up the dial and the heat on the British worker and says, no, you're going to work longer hours for less
pay. Let's say they also say, look, we just can't afford this environmental -- these environmental regulations that the E.U. is taking on. We're going
to dial back on those.
So we will use less expensive ingredients in making some parts of the car. Let's say that.
What you end up in the U.K. is with a car that's cheaper to make and it's right now being sold in Europe. That would be unfair advantage against the
E.U. car manufacturers.
That's the problem. That's what the European Union says, if you want to sell those cars without tariffs, without quotas, you have to track our
rules and regulations and Boris Johnson says, hold on, you can't automatically slap penalties on us if we don't track your rules and
regulations.
But that's the E.U.'s way of protecting their market, leveling the playing field.
ANDERSON: It's not just about manufacturing, is it?
It is about what we eat, for example. I just said to my team in Abu Dhabi to buy turkey sausages.
Why are they a key component of this?
I chose sausages, not fish, to save you from pulling your hair out.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTSON: Yes, the fish is one thing but you know, sausages are another and, again, look at what goes into the sausage.
Britain is looking at doing a trade deal with the United States, Britain is possibly -- although it says it won't -- but the United States really wants
to be able to export to the U.K. GM, modified crops, feed for animals.
Let's say those animals in the future in the U.K. are eating these GM, modified crops and those animals end up as part of a sausage.
Can that sausage be sold into the European Union?
The U.K. has changed its sort of rules and regulations on what can go into food. The E.U. hasn't. The E.U. doesn't want GM, modified crops somehow
getting into its food chain, it has rules and regulations to stop that. You can't have different food going between the two entities here.
ANDERSON: It all comes down to the bangers, right, Nic?
It's all about the bangers. Thank you, sir.
ROBERTSON: Indeed, good bangers.
ANDERSON: Makes an awful lot of sense.
(LAUGHTER)
ANDERSON: Two sides to this pandemic, that we have been reporting on now for months and months, are either pushing ahead with vaccine plans or they
seem to have got infections under control versus countries that are still mired in soaring case numbers.
Today we want to connect you to two countries you might not normally pair up: Jordan whose COVID struggles we will explore in the next hour; and
Denmark, whose relative triumph we turn to now.
It is one of the lower per capita death rates in Europe. Just under 10 people per 1 million died in Denmark in the whole first week of December,
just more than one person per million a day.
If you compare that with the number of deaths in Italy, it was nearly nine times higher for the same week with 85 people per million. We wanted to
know how the Nordic nation is working to keep the rate of infections and deaths down, especially as it now faces a new surge. Nina dos Santos
investigates.
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METTE FREDERIKSEN, DANISH PRIME MINISTER: Please don't doubt that this will work. In Denmark, we handled the spring, we handled the summer and we
handled the fall. With your help we will handle the winter as well.
NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The prime minister reassuring fellow Danes that Denmark will keep the latest spike in COVID-19
infections under control.
Our government is swinging into action. Restaurants, museums and movie theaters have to close on Wednesday in 38 of the country's municipalities.
Which is a home to almost half of the nation's population, including the capital Copenhagen. And schools are closing their doors. The P.M. also
urged Danes to limit their Christmas and New Year gatherings to 10 people.
Back in March, Denmark was one of the first countries to implement a lockdown and then in April, one of the first in Europe to reopen schools
and daycare centers and relax the rules.
SOREN BROSTROM, DIRECTOR GENERAL, DANISH HEALTH AUTHORITY: When we were hit by the epidemic, last week of February, first week of March, we were
very quickly acted and so did our politicians and our governments. So, they acted in a very timely fashion.
[10:40:00]
Where you could see that a number of other countries that acted too late, when the epidemic hit, they had a much bigger challenge with the epidemic.
DOS SANTOS: In the summer months, the rate of infections and deaths remained low. And CNN analysis had data from Oxford University and Johns
Hopkins University shows that Denmark was more successful than almost any other country in Europe at keeping the number of deaths and the infection
rate low from September to November, despite having relatively few restrictions on daily life.
Oxford's government response tracker shows Denmark had the second most effective test and trace policy in the region during that period after
Cyprus.
BROSTROM: We have to find the balance between what kind of restrictions as human behavior or adaptations of human behavior, we have to look for, to be
able to control the epidemic and I think we found -- we actually struck a quite good balance in this country in this regard.
DOS SANTOS: The Danish tradition of putting society over self- interest coupled with trust in the government has contributed to the countries
success.
GERT TINGGAARD SVENDSEN, HISTORIAN, AARTHUS UNIVERSITY: When the government says now you can only be 10 people together, most people respect
that. You have to wear a mask. People will do that. And it means that people do it voluntarily.
DOS SANTOS: And all this survey requested by the European commission found 95 percent of Danes we're satisfied with their government's response to the
pandemic. One of the highest rates in the European Union.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It makes sense that we all need to do the same in order to make it work. Being in general, we believe in the government and what we
were told. And believe in our neighbor.
DOS SANTOS: But the rate of infection rising, Denmark's success strategy is being put to the test again. Like in the past the government cannot do
it alone. Instead it's relying heavily on the goodwill of the people to contain this latest spike -- Nina Dos Santos, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: That's the story in Denmark. As we said, we will have the contrasting picture from Jordan in our next hour. Do stay with us for that
hugely important story right here in the Middle East.
You're watching CONNECT THE WORLD from our Middle East programming hub in Abu Dhabi.
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ANDERSON: Missouri (ph) is a shade darker today as Italy and the footballing world mourns the passing of an idol like few others. Paolo
Rossi has died at 64. Amanda Davies is here with more.
This has been a tough couple of weeks for Italian football lovers. First loss of Naples hero Diego Maradona and now this.
AMANDA DAVIES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Actually, Becky, with Napoli playing at their newly named stadium later on Thursday.
[10:40:00]
They'll be paying tribute to Rossi, Italy's hero from the 1982 World Cup. That was the tournament where he really wrote his place in Italian
footballing folklore and we are going to be heading to Italy for reaction as tributes are paid in a couple of minutes' time.
ANDERSON: That's after this short break. I'm back after that. Stay with us.
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