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FDA Advisory Panel Gives Green Light to Pfizer Vaccine; President-elect Biden to Introduce More Cabinet Nominees and Senior Advisors Today; More Than 100 GOP Lawmakers Support Texas Suit to Invalidate Millions of Votes. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired December 11, 2020 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The FDA advisory committee just voted to recommend a green light for Pfizer's vaccine.

[05:59:20]

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES (voice-over): The FDA will take under consideration that recommendation and will very likely act on it quite soon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm really, really just fearing what's going to happen over the next several weeks. Hospitals are overwhelmed.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (voice-over): More than 100 U.S. House Republicans have signed on to support a Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn the 2020 results.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Legal experts said they doubt the high court will take it up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Failing to accept this reality puts the country in a very dangerous moment in time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're trying to use democracy to undermine democracy.

(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 is Friday.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, fantastic!

BERMAN: We keep getting here pretty quickly now.

CAMEROTA: But we keep being surprised by it. BERMAN: It's -- it's December 11, 6 a.m. here in New York. And this

morning, the first coronavirus vaccine in the United States is a giant step closer to arms in need.

An FDA advisory panel recommended emergency use authorization of the Pfizer vaccine. The FDA itself could sign on as early as today, which means the first shots could be given in days, the beginning of next week.

Hospitals across the country are now receiving supplies ahead of the vaccine shipments.

Also overnight, a really interesting and important setback for a separate drug maker.

Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline announced that their vaccine showed an insufficient immune response in clinical trials. The U.S. government had actually been depending on this vaccine, as well, had pre- purchased, what, 100 million doses of this one, as well. Back to the drawing board for these companies, and now they don't expect their vaccine to be ready until the end of next year.

Still, the pandemic raging out of control. The deadliest week in the U.S. since it began. The CDC director says for the next 60 to 90 days, the U.S. should expect more deaths each day than we had on September 11. Every day for up to 90 days, he says.

Hospitalizations in the United States, they just keep on rising, which means, frankly, the death toll likely will not drop in any substantial way for a long time. More than 107,000 Americans hospitalized this morning.

According to a CNN analysis, as of last week, a third of hospitals nationwide were at 90 percent capacity in their ICUs.

CAMEROTA: We also have big developments in Washington overnight. Stimulus negotiations appear to be on the brink of collapse. Finger- pointing could lead to a shutdown of the U.S. government tonight, if the Senate is not able to pass a spending bill.

The House has adjourned, members going home for a few days without getting the relief that so many Americans desperately need.

And these 106 House Republicans did find time to sign onto a far- fetched Trump-backed Texas lawsuit that seeks to invalidate millions of valid votes. We will get into that and who these folks are.

But we begin with the pandemic. CNN's Adrienne Broaddus is live in Chicago at a hospital preparing for the arrival of a coronavirus vaccine.

What are they doing this morning, Adrienne?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, good morning to you.

Here at Rush University Medical Center, they've transferred -- transformed this hallway into a vaccination distribution center. You see behind me, they have bays set up, and when the vaccine arrives, they'll be ready to roll it out.

But first, we've got to get through the next few weeks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROADDUS (voice-over): As the pandemic continues to worsen across the country, one ray of hope, with an advisory board for the Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorization for Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine.

DR. PAUL OFFIT, MEMBER, FDA VACCINES ADVISORY COMMITTEE: I voted yes. I think we know enough now to say that this appears to be our way out of this awful, awful mess.

BROADDUS: After the full FDA signs off, which can happen at any time, an advisory panel for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to vote Sunday whether to recommend the vaccine. Once the full CDC signs off, vaccinations can start.

Here in Chicago, hospitals are preparing. They're starting to receive the Pfizer vaccine by getting freezers capable of storing the vaccine ready at the appropriate temperature. They're also setting up vaccine bays like this one at Rush University Medical Center, to streamline the vaccination process once emergency use authorization is granted.

FAUCI: We, as a nation, need to continue to wear the masks, to keep the physical distance, to avoid crowds. We're not through with this just because we're starting a vaccine program.

BROADDUS: But as the country prepares for the potential first vaccine doses, some hospitals are quickly reaching their breaking point. CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield thinks the next few months will be tough.

DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, CDC DIRECTOR: Probably for the next 60 to 90 days, we're going to have more deaths per day than we had at 9/11 or we had at Pearl Harbor.

BROADDUS: More than 2,700 deaths were reported Thursday. And in the first ten days of December, the United States reported more than two million new coronavirus infections.

More than 107,000 coronavirus patients are in the hospital, a record.

In New Mexico, the surge forcing the state to activate its, quote, "crisis care standards," including suspending all nonessential surgeries.

Los Angeles County shattering its daily case record again, reporting more than 12,800 new cases.

[06:05:05]

MAYOR ERIC GARCETTI (D), LOS ANGELES: It's happening so quickly, sometimes we can't even take in these numbers. That's up 128 percent since last week, 300 percent since last month, 1,000 percent since a month and a half ago.

BROADDUS: And Pennsylvania seeing a substantial uptick in cases this month. Starting Saturday, indoor dining, gyms, and indoor entertainment, such as movie theaters, will close until January 4.

GOV. TOM WOLF (D-PA): Over the past several weeks, it's become clear that we need to take further mitigation actions to protect Pennsylvanians and stop the spread of COVID-19. We all hoped it would not come to this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROADDUS: And later today, Rush will test the system they've put in place. You can call it a drill. It's their way of seeing any unforeseen issues before those much-needed shots are given to healthcare workers.

CAMEROTA: Good, yes. A dry run. That seems really important.

Adrienne, thank you very much for that reporting.

So also developing this morning, congressional negotiations on the critical coronavirus relief package appear to be on the brink of collapse.

Sources tell CNN that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell sees no path for bipartisan agreement on two key sticking points: funding for state and local governments, which Democrats are pushing for, and corporate liability protection, which Republicans want.

Twelve million unemployed workers will lose aid by Christmas if Congress does not act by the end of next week.

And desperation is growing across the country. Food lines stretched for miles in cities like Los Angeles yesterday. New U.S. unemployment claims just hit their highest level since mid-September.

BERMAN: While this is happening, the threat of a government shutdown looms over a separate short-term spending bill that will only fund the government through next week. They wanted to fund it short-term to reach this bigger deal, but even that might not work.

The Senate has until midnight tonight to pass this bill.

Senator Bernie Sanders is demanding the Senate vote on a provision to give Americans $1,200 stimulus checks, and Senator Rand Paul is also standing in the way over this in his opposition to a separate defense policy bill.

The House has gone home for the weekend.

CAMEROTA: President-elect Joe Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris will formally announce new cabinet nominees and more senior advisers today.

CNN's Jessica Dean is live in Wilmington, Delaware, with a preview. So what do we know, Jessica?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you, Alisyn.

This is a larger group that we're going to be introduced to later this afternoon. Let me walk you through some of the names that will be introduced, some of the people that will be introduced.

Denis McDonough has been tapped to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. He's President Obama's former chief of staff. And they were looking for someone with government experience to really know how to pull the levers of government in a notoriously challenging agency to run.

Also, Ohio Congresswoman Marcia Fudge has been tapped to lead the Housing and Urban Development Department.

And also, Tom Vilsack, former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack has been tapped to reprise his role as agriculture secretary. That's a role he had for the entirety of the Obama administration.

Now, all of those are Senate-confirmed posts. So they will all go through the Senate confirmation process.

We're also going to hear about Susan Rice today. Of course, she was in the mix as a potential running mate to Biden and also as secretary of state, but she has been tapped to lead and be the director of the White House domestic policy counsel. So her portfolio will oversee, as it says, all of the domestic policy here in the United States.

That's a lot of Biden's Build Back Better plan that we heard about on the campaign trail. Infrastructure, clean energy. There are a host of things that she's going to be walking through and working on. That is not a Senate-confirmed post. That is an appointee post.

Now, we are also learning that Biden is hoping to complete his cabinet by Christmas. So there's a deadline. It might move around, but right now the hope is to get everyone announced by Christmas, before the Christmas holiday.

Now, all of this is coming as overnight, "TIME" magazine named President-elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris as its "Person of the Year," saying they're changing America's story.

They also named Dr. Anthony Fauci and frontline healthcare workers as "Guardians of the Year." Of course, Alisyn, Dr. Fauci is going to serve -- continue to serve in his capacity that he has been and also come on as Biden and Harris' chief medical adviser, as they work to get their arms around this pandemic -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Jessica, thank you very much. Shouldn't "Person of the Year" be plural?

BERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: "Persons of the Year." Also, though, apparently the president is suing "TIME" magazine,

because he didn't win. He's filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court, because he didn't win the "Person of the Year."

CAMEROTA: Oh, breaking news. Thank you very much for that update.

Now the FDA advisory panel has recommended Pfizer's vaccine, what exactly is next? We break down the next steps.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:14:20]

CAMEROTA: This morning, we are one step closer to Americans being able to get a coronavirus vaccine. Overnight, an FDA advisory panel gave the green light to Pfizer. That's the vaccine. Formal approval by the FDA could come as soon as this morning. Even during our program. So we'll keep you posted.

Joining us now is Dr. Peter Hotez. He's the Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and the co-director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development.

So Dr. Hotez, everybody is waiting to see what happens today and when Americans can get vaccinated. And Dr. Fauci had said that, if this all goes apace, you know, that things could return to normal as early as this summer or early fall. What do you think of that timeline?

HOTEZ: Yes, I think it's -- it's certainly possible, Alisyn. Well, first of all, it's good news today that the -- that the EUA may be issued today, or even if it's not, if it's early next week, that's just fabulous news. Start rolling out the vaccine. And that will be the beginning of a long road to recovery.

I think the timeline of summer/fall feeling like we're back to normal, yes, I think it's possible. A lot of stars will have to align.

You know, we -- we estimate with a group in City University of New York that about 60 to 80 percent of the U.S. population would have to be vaccinated in order to halt transmission of the virus. That's a pretty high bar. It means we'll probably have to vaccinate adolescents and some pediatric -- younger pediatric population, and we have to have those trials in place.

We're going to need more vaccines. Doing it alone with the mRNA vaccines, I don't think the technology is robust enough to have all of the vaccine -- all of the vaccination program done through mRNA vaccines. It's possible, but I think we're going to need the other adenovirus-based vaccines, maybe particle vaccines. We have a recombinant protein vaccine. So we're going to need more -- more -- more players in this.

And then, you know, we're going to have to convince Americans to take the vaccine. And we have a pretty aggressive anti-vaccine lobby. And so far no one has shown any appetite for going up against the anti- vaccine lobby.

So a lot of things have to happen. But definitely, the message is with each passing month now, I'm hopeful that things will start to get better. We'll start returning to a more normal American life. And I'm so excited that we have this opportunity through vaccinations.

BERMAN: So you say we're going to need more vaccines. There was a really interesting and perhaps surprising development overnight. G

GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi -- or SA-no-fee -- I'm not sure how to pronounce it, frankly, which had been developing or is developing a vaccine, a vaccine the U.S. government has been counting on and ordered, pre-ordered just as many of those doses as they did for the Pfizer vaccine, 100 million doses, they're not happy with the results they're getting; and they're going back to the drawing board.

What do they say? They say they're not seeing the immune response that they had hoped for in older patients.

Now, you can look at this glass half empty, glass half full. I think it -- it makes it all the more remarkable that Moderna and Pfizer are having the success they have. To me, it tells me that success isn't guaranteed, and we should rejoice in the success that we have.

But how much of a setback is it to get all the doses that you just said you wanted, Dr. Hotez?

HOTEZ: Well, first of all, I thought it was great that Sanofi and GSK were just transparent about it. I think that's really important. That's a sign of a -- we'll call it classy companies, willing to do that.

No. 2, you know, the SHINGRIX vaccine that many of us who are over the age of 50 have taken is a recombinant protein vaccine with the GSK adjuvant ASO1. And that's -- that's immunogenic.

The -- the Sanofi/GSK COVID vaccine is a similar kind of thing. It's a recombinant protein and ASO1. So I'm a little surprised that that happened.

And -- and the setback is not only for the U.S. You'll remember, we don't have a lot of vaccine options globally for low- and middle- income countries, because the -- we're hearing that the Moderna vaccine may be too expensive. We're hearing that the Pfizer vaccine with that minus-100-degree deep-freeze requirement is going to be very tough for a lot of low- and middle-income countries.

So we were counting -- you know, Sanofi/GSK indicated they'd be willing to donate 200 million doses to the COVAX sharing facility, which was huge. So we were counting on that vaccine, and we're running out of options for low- and middle-income countries. Maybe the two adenovirus vaccines, possibly our vaccine. That's -- we really needed that one. So I think that's going to be -- that is a setback, and I hope we can -- we can work this out.

CAMEROTA: Yes. We hope so, too. Let's just put up on the screen what the steps are, the next steps are

that everybody wants to know, as far as we know, what will happening -- be happening today and early next week.

So soon, the FDA will authorize the emergency use. We don't know, again, if that's this morning, if that's today, if it's tomorrow.

Then Pfizer will begin the shipping process. And we know that pharmacies and governors are waiting to -- with open arms to receive those.

On Sunday, the CDC advisory committee will vote to recommend the vaccine, if everything continues as scheduled. The CDC must accept a recommendation. And then Tuesday, the first shipments of the vaccine could be available, if everything follows suit.

Is there any way to speed any of this up? I mean, you know, time is of the essence here. I mean, this -- when I read the FDA, yesterday, it greenlit it, but it still has to authorize it. And the CDC has to receive it. And is this just bureaucracy standing in the way at this point?

[06:20:01]

HOTEZ: Yes, I mean, the way it -- the way it reads makes it sound like red tape, but I think it's more substantive than that.

There are still questions that need to be resolved regarding how we're going to handle this vaccine for pregnant women, because pregnant women are getting hit really hard with COVID-19. How do you -- how do you manage that? How do you weigh the risk versus benefit? These are some tough decisions to make with -- with pregnant women.

There's tough decisions to make on the 16- and 17-year-olds. You heard -- we heard last night that the four dissenting votes might have been because of the 16- and 17-year-olds and how you manage that.

You know, you have the two allergic reactions in the -- in the U.K. And, you know, there's -- and the U.K. took a very draconian measure of saying, We're not going to give the vaccine to individuals for now who have a severe allergic reaction.

You know, in the U.S., you have 50 million people with allergies and several million people who carry EpiPens. If you exclude them, that's going to have a pretty chilling effect on the vaccine, both in terms of, you know, reaching those target numbers that Dr. Fauci hopes for, as well as the fact that it may turn people off to getting vaccinated in the first place.

So how you thread that needle and navigate it and not shut the door on too many people, these are -- these are tough decisions to make.

So from my perspective, it's actually, wow, they're going to get all of that done by the weekend? That's pretty impressive. So it's -- it's -- they're all hands deck at the FDA. They are working day and night. It's really extraordinary what they've been doing. CAMEROTA: That is really helpful context. I withdraw my previous

complaint. Thank you very much, Dr. Hotez. We appreciate you. Happy Friday. So --

HOTEZ: Happy Friday. All the best.

CAMEROTA: You, too.

So millions of Americans are about to lose their lifelines. Stimulus talks appear to be on the brink of collapse. What is the problem? Why can't Congress get this deal done? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:26:13]

BERMAN: This morning, the president of the United States is trying to overturn the election in public, the election he lost by more than 7 million votes. He has signed onto a suit from the Texas attorney general to the Supreme Court, asking them to throw out millions of ballots in four swing states.

The president is literally and openly trying to undermine democracy before our eyes. Now, you might be used to hearing it, but it's still shocking and historic.

What's even more surprising this morning, though, is that 106 members of Congress have signed on in support. A hundred and six members who, let's be clear, know better. They do. Of course they do.

Take the members who signed on from Pennsylvania. Three of them had served in the Pennsylvania legislature, where they took an oath, quote, "I do solemnly swear that I will support, obey, and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of this commonwealth, and that I will discharge the duties of my office with fidelity."

With fidelity. Fidelity to whom, you might ask? I promise it wasn't fidelity to Texas. That's not part of the job. They know that! They know better! Of course they do.

Now, how do I know that? There are 16 members who signed on from the four states under attack. Sixteen members who say the ballots from their states should be thrown out.

Surely, then, these 16 members have all tendered their resignations from Congress or have agreed not to serve in Congress until the matter is resolved? Why? Because they were on the same ballots! How could they live with themselves staying in Congress when they feel so passionately that they won a fraudulent election?

So how many of them have stepped aside? Zero. Because they know better. Of course they do.

They're playing this dangerous game with democracy: your vote, your franchise, and they know it. As columnist Thomas Friedman told Wolf yesterday, Is it worth sacrificing everything for this? I mean, seriously. Just for free parking at National Airport?

Joining us now, CNN political analyst Margaret Talev. She's a politics and White House editor at Axios. Also with us, John Harris. He is the founding editor of "Politico."

And John, you're here to talk me down from the ledge a little bit.

CAMEROTA: Good luck.

JOHN HARRIS, FOUNDING EDITOR, "POLITICO": OK, that's a big job.

BERMAN: It's not, I think, that you disagree the historic and outrageous nature of this lawsuit and what 106 Republican members have just signed onto -- and it is historic.

But you also note, I think, eloquently, and maybe accurately, that history tells us that this won't last from Donald Trump. That as much as of a threat as this is today, it will be less so starting January 21.

HARRIS: That is my belief, that history does not bode well for the idea that Trump is going to have a sustained movement, based on what you say is, accurately, is an outrage, a false claim that the election was stolen and that that is going to sustain.

The reason I say that is Trump is not unique in American history. He's unique in becoming president. But as far as being a movement type of politician, we've seen it many times before. Joe McCarthy is an example, George Wallace is an example. Father Coughlin in the Thirties is an example.

Those movements always flame out rather quickly. And I think there's a good chance that will happen with Trump, too, once we get past January 20.

CAMEROTA: But John, here's the fly in the ointment of your theory. Those examples that you gave didn't have right-wing media allies that have taken a huge foothold now in the country.

And so, as you know, we're in this, you know, incredibly bifurcated media landscape, where some people are in the echo chamber and only hearing the information from, you know, radically right-wing networks. And so, isn't -- doesn't that ensure, particularly if President Trump gets involved with one of them, that Trumpism goes on?

HARRIS: It's possible, you know, I'll take the bet, but I know I could lose it.