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New Day

FDA Advisory Panel Gives Green Light to Pfizer Vaccine; New York Times Reports, Manhattan D.A. Interviews Deutsche Bank and Broker Employees in Trump Probe. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired December 11, 2020 - 07:00   ET

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

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Wasn't played on the interstate.

[07:00:01]

It was played here on post at West Point on this plane inside Michie Stadium tomorrow though, John. There will be about 8,000 fans, the cadets and the mid shipment coming up from Minneapolis.

And President Trump is scheduled to be here as well. He attended last season's game as well. John, he's the tenth sitting president to have attended an Army/Navy game.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: Obviously, it will be very different, but still always exciting. Coy, thanks so much.

New Day continues right now.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is New Day.

And a major step for America's first coronavirus vaccine. FDA advisers recommending emergency use authorization of the Pfizer vaccine. The FDA could give the go ahead as early as this morning. And the first shots could be administered next week.

Of course, this is good news. But it is not coming soon enough to stop the staggering death toll. This is the deadliest week in the U.S. since the pandemic began. And the CDC director says for the next 60 to 90 days, the U.S. should expect more deaths every day than we had on September 11th.

More than 107,000 Americans are 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.

Meanwhile, overnight, one drug maker announcing a major setback in its clinical vaccine trials. Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline say their vaccine showed insufficient immune response and they now do not expect their vaccine to be ready until the end of next year.

BERMAN: Major developments overnight in Washington, where stimulus negotiations appear to be on the brink of collapse. Finger pointing could now lead to a government shutdown if the Senate is unable to pass a short-term spending bill. The House has gone home for the weekend. No economic relief in sight for millions of Americans who so desperately need it.

However, these 106 House Republicans did have time to sign on to the legally vacuous Trump-backed Texas lawsuit seeking to invalidate millions of votes. Just one example of the members here, Scott Perry from Pennsylvania, he won his race by 26,000 votes in his state. He doesn't have a problem with that. But he does have a problem with Joe Biden winning Pennsylvania by 80,000 votes. Follow the logic.

More ahead on that, but first, the pandemic.

Joining us now is CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Sanjay, all day yesterday, you were watching and listening and monitoring so closely this FDA advisory panel, which did give its approval for emergency use authorization to the Pfizer vaccine. Now, the FDA has to grant emergency use authorization. That could happen as soon as today, maybe tomorrow.

At the end of the day yesterday, what have you now learned? What is the most important takeaway from what just happened?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, we didn't really know much of the data or how this was going to play out. Most of what we've heard from had been from the companies themselves.

So, the biggest thing, really, was that you have this significant body, this FDA advisory committee, that looked at all of this data down to sort of the granular level, individual medical records on some of these participants, and making sure that, yes, it was as effective as the company says it was, and that also, it was safe, that there weren't some unusual sort of side effects that cropped up.

So the overwhelming majority was in favor of recommending this authorization, as you point out, the FDA has still got to decide. There were some interesting issues that sort of popped up. Not so much on who should get it, but who should not maybe get this. And that's still going to be decided. That's what I'm really going to be looking for today, because we may hear from the FDA today.

Should people of certain age groups get this? We know that the trials were in people 16 years and older. Women who were pregnant and breast- feeding, what about them? What about people who have had serious allergic reactions to vaccines in the past? All of those are going to be questions.

Then there are other questions, sort of more provocative ones.

[07:05:01]

If you've been infected recently, you should have some immunity. Should you get the vaccine now? Maybe you should get it ultimately, but we don't have enough right now. So what about those people who have been infected? Should we be giving all the doses right away and then give the second dose? I've talked to many people about that. Most people say, we're going to give half the doses, keep half in the refrigerator, but then you can only vaccinate half the people. And we know that giving just one dose offers some protection.

So I'm throwing a lot at you, but it was a fascinating discussion. There were ethicists there, there were scientists there, there were vaccine developers, academicians, all these people coming together to try and really get at some of these decisions. And we'll get more clarity on this even over the next couple of days.

CAMEROTA: And there is interesting and, I would say, disheartening news this morning. So as Pfizer moves forward, as of yesterday, with its 100 million doses that the U.S. government has ordered, this other pharmaceutical, the Sanofi/GSK, has to apply the brakes to their 100 million doses that the U.S. was expecting, because, what went wrong?

GUPTA: Yes, this is really interesting. And backdrop a little bit as well is that when you're talking about GSK and Sanofi, these are some of the largest vaccine makers in the world, right? These are the sort of the gold standard when it comes to vaccine makers. What went wrong is that, especially in people who are over the age of 50, when they looked at their results, they just weren't seeing of these neutral neutralizing antibodies, the types of antibodies that you want. The vaccine just wasn't generating enough of that sort of response.

So that was a bit surprising, especially given the track record. Even the head of Operation Warp Speed, Moncef Slaoui, that's where he came from. He came from GSK. He was a vaccine maker at GSK. So I think there was a lot of optimism about a company like that, but, look, the results just weren't there and they disclosed that early and have also given a timeline in terms of how long it's likely to take.

Keep in mind, Moderna, this company most people had never even heard of before this year, had never had a vaccine come to market and they're showing 95 percent efficacy. I find this to be such an interesting medical innovation story, that had this mRNA vaccine not come on the scene right now, you know, we may not have had vaccines that had nearly the same sort of effectiveness as what we're seeing.

So, you know, there's good news in there. And I think it will change how we think about vaccines and other types of medical innovations for years and decades to come.

BERMAN: Yes. I had the same reaction. It's a setback in a way for one company, but it's also a reminder that nothing was guaranteed. So it makes it all the remarkable, what we've been watching with Pfizer and Moderna.

One thing I do want to point out, because it is significant, is that the United States had pre-ordered 100 million doses of this vaccine. They had been depending on this to fill the need that they see. People have been asking, why didn't they order more of the Pfizer vaccine, which is the one that's been shown to work well, because they were hedging their bets and they were hedging it among other things with this vaccine from Sanofi and GSK. So it does matter in that sense.

Dr. Peter Hotez says he does worry we're not going to have enough vaccines overall if something like this keeps happening.

GUPTA: Yes. I mean, I think that that's a big concern. Obviously, you see the numbers there in terms of where they had some confidence. AstraZeneca, obviously, a big one, and Johnson & Johnson, if you start to do the math there and everything goes well, by summer, you might get into the numbers.

And I spoke to Moncef Slaoui about that. Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, we're going to be hearing more about those, especially as we go into the New Year. We've heard a fair amount already. These are both, again, two-dose vaccine regimens. And you see that there's 300 million doses of the A.Z. -- the Oxford/A.Z. vaccine that they have pre-purchased. So maybe we get into the numbers.

One thing I'm looking forward yesterday as well which got less attention during the vaccine meeting was just the manufacturing abilities. They came out pretty early and they said, for example, with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, that, yes there was evidence, good evidence that this company, they were making tens of thousands of doses for clinical trials, but, yes, they could manufacture this at the scale of hundreds of millions of doses. That's going to be an important thing for Moderna as well next week.

It's one thing to make tens of thousands of doses, can you replicate it with the same quality control standards at the 100 million level? Some of these are big companies. They have great track records. We'll have to see the answer to that with Moderna.

But, again, if everything goes well with these rollouts, we could get to the sufficient numbers, which is basically 400, to 500 million to get 60 percent of the country, two doses, by the end of summer.

[07:10:03]

CAMEROTA: Sanjay, I want to talk to you about the death toll. Every day this week, it has gone up, and it's gotten, as we've discussed, to 9/11 levels. Yesterday, it ticked down by, I don't know, 100 or 200 people, and I'm just wondering if you think that's just a one-day anomaly or if we should see anything positive there?

GUPTA: Yes. Well, you know, look, best of times, worst of times, right? It was such a whiplash day yesterday, I've got to tell you, Alisyn. I mean, for so long, I've been wanting and looking forward to reporting the emergency use authorization of a vaccine. I did not think that we would be having that discussion this year, frankly. I had resigned myself to thinking this would be early spring, whatever, of next year.

And at the same time, as you point out, these death tolls, I do think it's an anomaly. I do think that when you look at the trajectories overall, we're 15 days after Thanksgiving, just about two weeks before Christmas. We're in this tough, tough period. I think the vaccines, interestingly, will have an impact on death rate more than anything, initially, because you're giving to people who are at highest risk and it prevents them from getting us sick. But I think for the next couple of months, we're not going to see those impacts. So the numbers will continue to go up.

If you look at the IHME models, I mean -- and I hesitate to say these numbers out loud even, but 5,000 people dying per day in some of these models when you get to the end of December, early January sort of timeframe.

And as we were talking about yesterday, I think the big question now is not so much whether we can reduce the amplitude of the peak. I think these numbers are going up, all of them, the number of people who are being infected, the number of hospitalizations, the number of deaths. Now, it's just a question of how quickly we can come off the other side of that, I think.

And there's all sorts of things that play a role. Vaccine is a big deal, powerful medicine, takes a while for it to act. Masks, much more surgical and effective, widespread testing so people can stay home if they're contagious, very effective in the short-term. Those are things that we still need to be talking about and leaning into.

CAMEROTA: Yes. I mean, Sanjay, when you say those numbers, I understand why you're reluctant to say them out loud. And it's like, I always debate, should we be bracing ourselves for that, or is it even possible to brace yourself for a death toll that high every day?

And so we don't know what the next few weeks hold, but we always appreciate you reminding us what we need to do right now. So, thank you.

GUPTA: We'll keep doing it. You got it. Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Developing this morning, congressional negotiations on that 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.

12 million unemployed workers will lose aid by Christmas if Congress does not act by the week -- by the end of next week. And, of course, desperation is growing across the country.

BERMAN: The threat of a U.S. government shutdown looms over a separate short-term spending bill that would only fund the government through next week. They wanted to pass that to get more time to pass the bigger stimulus, but they didn't even get the short-term thing through. The Senate has until midnight to pass this bill, but Senators Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul could be holding up passage.

The uncertainty over a stimulus deal is sending markets lower this morning. Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P Futures all down about 1 percent. So despite the fact that millions of people need it, Congress can't do it. They can't seem to pass a stimulus bill. But 106 House Republicans are supporting the president's efforts to overturn the results of the election, next.

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[07:15:00]

CAMEROTA: We do have some breaking news right now. The New York Times is reporting that the Manhattan District Attorney's Office has recently interviewed employees of President Trump's bank, Deutsche Bank, in the latest indication that the president is still facing the potential threat of criminal charges once he leaves office.

Joining us now is CNN Political Analyst Maggie Haberman, White House Correspondent at The New York Times. Maggie, tell us about this breaking news. What do we know?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Alisyn, this is an indication that Cy Vance, the Manhattan district attorney, with the only known criminal investigation into the president is stepping up his activity. What it leads to, we don't know yet, but it had not been clear for several months has he had been trying unsuccessfully to get President Trump's tax returns where it was going. This is an indication as the president is going to leave in the next couple of weeks, this investigation that he can't do anything to stop, is still going forward.

BERMAN: When you say, can't do anything to stop, it is also worthy of note, this is a state investigation. He couldn't pardon himself. There's no federal power he has over this at all, correct?

HABERMAN: Correct. Correct. There is nothing that he can do to keep this investigation from moving forward, nothing.

BERMAN: And this is a new twist on that. Because before, what we had been -- Letitia James, what had been going in New York was largely civil actions. This is stepping up in the criminal realm, correct?

HABERMAN: Correct. Look, John, again, as I said, this is the only known criminal activity. Tish James has been looking into activity related to President Trump's -- I believe his tax filings, but also his -- related to his properties, but mostly related to his charity work, or such as it was. It was, according to her, largely a front for him doing other things. That was not a criminal investigation, at least not as of yet. This is only one that we know of. And we know, John, that this president has been very concerned as he leaves office about prosecutors going after not just him, but his family.

Now, that conversation has largely been about federal investigations, potential federal investigations, that could come after he leaves office and whether he could pardon his children with some kind of preemptive pardon.

[07:20:04] There's nothing he can do about the Cy Vance case. It is a state case, not a federal case, and it is going to go forward with whatever way it goes forward. We don't know where it's going, but the fact that it has stepped up the activity is of note.

CAMEROTA: And, Maggie, do we know what at the heart of this investigation? Is this about the fudging of tax documents?

HABERMAN: The fact that it relates to the Deutsche Bank interviews with staff members working for the company that lent him money suggested it is either related to his taxes or related to some sort of business activity. But I don't want to suggest that I can see more into that than we can. We know simply that it relates to the Trump organization.

BERMAN: All right. So the president has signed on to this lawsuit that most people think is legally vacuous and the court won't even take up, the Supreme Court, to overturn the results of the election. We know how he feels. He's been doing this in public. He has been talking about this now for a long time.

What's new is now 106 members of the House of Representatives have signed on to this same suit. Is the president pressuring them? How important is this list of names to the president? Is he demanding loyalty now from Republican members or what?

HABERMAN: Whether it is overt or whether it is through some sort of covert pressure campaign of, you know, this is what the president wants, conducted by other people, there are now more House Republicans signed on to this lawsuit supporting it, if not actually signed on to it, but offering support with the court. And there are House Republicans who are not, John, which tells you a lot about the current state of the party.

The president has been making a number of calls about this lawsuit to various people. He has been talking to, for instance, Senator Cruz, asking him if he would argue the case for oral argument, should the Supreme Court take it up. The president has been making a number of phone calls to Republicans in various places, including, again, to the state attorney general in Georgia, asking him not to try to push back on efforts like this.

So I do think that you are seeing Republicans feeling the need for their own personal preservation, whether it's to not be attacked by this president or to have their voters think that they're with him, to sign on to this as some kind of a litmus test.

Now, the president's own intervention in this suit, John, did not please all of his advisers, if any of them. There were a number of them who thought this was a mistake for him to get involved. Let other people handle it. Putting yourself in a suit where you are literally trying to overthrow the results of an election, their argument was, is unwise, but the president has been moving full steam ahead.

CAMEROTA: Maggie, I want to ask you what happened last night with this execution of this 40-year-old convicted murderer in Terre Haute, Indiana, Brandon Bernard. He was 18 at the time that these two youth ministers were killed. They were from Iowa. He was not the gunman.

HABERMAN: No.

CAMEROTA: He was a teenager and he was in a gang, it sounds like, but he, it turned out, wasn't even one of the leaders of the gang or it sounds like the planner of this murder. And so all sorts of high- profile people had gotten involved in making an appeal to the president for a stay of execution, everybody from Kim Kardashian to even Ken Starr, Alan Dershowitz. And the president decided not to do that.

And not only that, there has been an acceleration, a huge acceleration of executions since July. So there had been a 17-year hiatus of federal executions and the, since July, there's been, I think, nine, counting last night. I think last night makes nine. There are four more that are scheduled, as he's a lame-duck president, which I don't think has happened in something like a 130 years.

So what's he thinking? Why is he in such a rush to do these executions? Why is this an important priority for him?

HABERMAN: So, Alisyn, one of the president's earliest forays into making himself either both a political figure and commenting on policy was a full-page ad in The New York Times in 1987 related to the Central Park jogger case, where he called for bringing back the death penalty for a group of teens, mostly teens, who were people of color, who were arrested in connection with the case and he was instantly calling for the death penalty. That is actually where his heart is.

He went along with criminal justice reform because his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has pushed for it. He thought he would see some benefit from it with black voters. He clearly didn't get the benefit that he believed that he was going to get, and now you are seeing him reverting to type.

But it's extraordinary that his final -- in his final days, you know, two of the things he's doing are trying to overthrow the results of the election and guaranteeing that a number of additional people, some of whom were young black men, and very young, at the time that the crimes took place, making sure that they are executed by the federal government.

[07:25:00]

He is somebody who likes -- shows of power and this is consistent with that. But it is not made with the type of compassionate persona that he tried to create around criminal justice reform and is very much at odds with it.

BERMAN: Needless to say, it's also irreversible. And 35 days left to get a rush on this is notable.

On a much lighter note, much lighter note, Maggie, Time Magazine has declared Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to be Person of the Year.

CAMEROTA: Where's the plural? BERMAN: People of the Year?

You know, Donald Trump has been known to make fake Time Magazines with him on the cover. How much will this bug him as he sits in the Oval Office alone this morning? And I ask you alone because you've been reporting on the rather notable and extraordinary isolation that he's experiencing.

HABERMAN: Yes, it's true, John. I know that we have all overused. He is isolated over the last four years. This time, he actually is pretty isolated. His circle has gotten much, much smaller. There are very few people who he's actually talking to. Most people are avoiding the Oval Office because he is in such a bad mood or because he wants them to agree with him that the election was stolen and many of them -- not all, but many of them don't want to say that or go along with him.

As for Time Magazine, we know that this president's cultural references are sort of preserved in amber in the 1980s and '90s. And for him, there was no greater iconography than being the Person of the Year. I don't think it will thrill him. But, boy, when I throw into the cauldron of investigations and him knowing that he is going to have to leave the White House in the next couple of weeks, I'm not sure this bothers him as much as everything else. I think it's compared to other things that's probably not going to bother him as much.

CAMEROTA: Eye of newt, wing of bat, Person of the Year, into the cauldron. Thank you very much, Maggie. I really appreciate all of your reporting.

HABERMAN: Thanks.

CAMEROTA: Not every Republican in the House is signing on to the effort to overturn the results of the election. One GOP member calls it poppycock and he's calling out his colleagues, and he'll join us next.

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