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Soon, Biden Campaigns in Georgia Senate Runoffs for 1st Time; Biden Spoke to McConnell Today in "Good Conservation"; Dr. Richina Bicette Answers Viewers' Questions about Vaccines; Russia's Putin Acknowledges Biden's Win Before McConnell; Trump Silent on Suspected Russian Cyberattack on U.S. Government; Biden to Nominate Buttigieg for Transportation Secretary. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired December 15, 2020 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:34:27]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Now that President-Elect Joe Biden has called on the nation to, quote, "turn the page and unite" following the Electoral College vote, he is turning his attention to the state of Georgia.
Biden is about to make his first campaign appearance in the state's closely watched Senate runoff raises. He's looking to boost the Democratic candidates, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, whose wins would tilt the balance of power in the Senate to Democrats.
Jeff Zeleny, CNN senior Washington correspondent, is in Atlanta covering this.
Biden's appearance is falling, Jeff, on the second day of early voting. How effective could his visit be?
[13:35:07]
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, it's certainly drawing attention to the Georgia runoff race. If you live in the state of Georgia, you would be hard pressed to not know there are two runoff races going on.
Nearly a half billion dollars -- billion with a "B" -- spent on advertising here from all sides, the candidates as well as outside groups.
There's no question the president-elect's visit will focus attention on this race as well.
As Mr. Biden was flying here to Atlanta a short time ago, he revealed he has spoken to Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell.
We know that, finally, six weeks after Election Day, the majority leader recognized Mr. Biden as president-elect.
We heard from Biden what he said during the phone call to Mitch McConnell. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: I had a great conversation with Mitch McConnell today. I called him to thank him for congratulations.
I told him, though we disagree on a lot of things, I see things we can work together on. We've always been straight will one another. And we agreed we would get together sooner rather than later.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: Of course, that will be one of the most intriguing and important relationships in Washington in the new year, President-Elect Biden and Mitch McConnell.
But it all hinges on Georgia, what title Mitch McConnell will have. Will he be the Senate majority leader if Republicans win these races or if he will be the Senate minority leader? Then it wouldn't matter as much.
But That phone call, so fascinating, Brianna. We know those two men have a long history of cutting some deals. But certainly a new dynamic in the new year.
But again, in the next few weeks in Georgia will play a key role into the Biden agenda in the first year -- Brianna?
KEILAR: Sounded friendly enough from the president-elect's perspective.
Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much for that report in Atlanta for us.
ZELENY: Sure.
KEILAR: Dr. Anthony Fauci is saying that Biden and Kamala Harris need to be vaccinated as soon as possible. Hear what the plan is.
Plus, we are going to answer viewer questions about the vaccine. This includes whether there are drugs that may interfere with the doses.
And after weeks of reported friction between the president and Attorney General Bill Barr what's the real reason for Barr's abrupt departure from the Justice Department?
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[13:42:15]
KEILAR: By early next week, a second coronavirus vaccine may be available to millions of Americans. Data released by the FDA shows that the Moderna vaccine candidate is
highly effective in preventing COVID-19 and has no specific safety concerns.
This news comes ahead of a Thursday meeting to weigh an emergency use authorization for the vaccine.
Let's talk about it with Dr. Richina Bicette, an emergency medicine physician in Houston, and she's the medical director at the Baylor College of Medicine.
Great to see you, Dr. Bicette.
I want to get your take on some of the breaking news at the top of the show that the FDA authorized this at-home coronavirus test. Do you trust it will give people accurate results?
DR. RICHINA BICETTE, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, EMERGENCY MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Well, the studies sound like they're going to give people accurate results at home.
But this actually isn't the first at-home test that's been authorized by the FDA. The FDA authorized another at-home test almost a month ago now, but that test is available by prescription only.
Now, the test hasn't been making a ton of waves. I haven't heard a lot about it because physicians haven't been prescribing it.
The problem with at-home tests, it can potentially give a false positive or false negative result.
A false positive result may cause a little bit of a scare but is not as dangerous as a false negative result. Because if you test negative at home, you think you're safe, and you could potentially be spreading the virus onto others.
KEILAR: I want to talk about the differences between the two vaccines, the Moderna vaccine and the Pfizer one. Can you explain why the doses of vaccines are so different?
BICETTE: So the doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine are a few weeks apart. Pfizer requires two doses of vaccine three weeks apart. Moderna requires two doses of vaccine four weeks apart.
I can't say why each company chose three and four weeks, respectively, but the process of a multi-dose vaccine is not new and has been done for decades.
The measles, mumps, rubella vaccine is a multi-dose vaccine. Hepatitis A and B are multi-dose, varicella, the HPV vaccine, which causes some forms of cervical cancer. All of these are multi-dose vaccines.
Because the initial dose kind of primes the body. The second or third dose, in some cases, really guarantees a robust immune response.
KEILAR: I want to ask you some questions from our viewers because our viewers are very curious about these vaccines.
T.J. Freeland wants to know: In the process of receiving the first dose of one vaccine, if available, can one take the second dose from a different manufacturer?
[13:44:59]
BICETTE: No, T.J.. I like the ingenuity and your enterprising spirit, but that's not recommended. And I don't think any manufacturer would give you the second dose of a vaccine you didn't get the first dose of.
KEILAR: And our next viewer asks: Is the vaccine effective, safe for those on immunosuppressant drugs, for example, like cancer survivors or transplant recipients?
BICETTE: It's hard to say. Neither the Pfizer nor the Moderna trail were people that had immunosuppressed or suppressed immune systems included.
We can't say with 100 percent certainty that the vaccine is safe and effective for that special population of patients.
We can, however, say that COVID is extremely dangerous for those that have suppressed immune systems. I do recommend speaking to your doctor about your specific case.
But I have colleagues that are neurologists and rheumatologists who have patients on immunosuppressant drugs and they have recommended their patients get vaccinated.
KEILAR: OK, and talk to your doctor, always great advice.
We have a question from Las Vegas: The people taking the coronavirus vaccine, will they become asymptomatic, able to infect people that have not been vaccinated?
BICETTE: A very interesting question.
Again, in both the Pfizer and Moderna trials, what they were looking for was symptomatic illness. They did not test to see if people could have potentially still become infected with COVID and be asymptomatic.
They tested for people with symptoms and then developed COVID or developed severe illness of COVID. That was a secondary end point.
No one can say for sure that it absolutely prevents you from getting COVID and being asymptomatic.
Which is why, as much as we are trying to push the vaccine and as happy as we are that a vaccine has been released, we're telling the public that masks and social distancing are not going to go away anytime soon.
KEILAR: Very important to know.
Dr. Bicette, it's great to see you. Thank you so much for being with us again.
BICETTE: Good to see you, too, Brianna.
KEILAR: Russian President Vladimir Putin goes where President Trump won't, acknowledging Joe Biden's win.
Plus, data breaches in federal agencies, like the Departments of Homeland Security and Commerce, may be the work of Russian hackers. Why haven't we heard from the president about this.
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[13:51:41]
KEILAR: Senator Mitch McConnell is finally acknowledging Joe Biden as the next president of the United States.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, one of the last international leaders to offer his congratulations, did the same today. He actually beat the Senate majority leader to the punch.
Here's CNN' senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen, with the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Brianna. Of course, so far, President Trump has not conceded or congratulated President-Elect Joe Biden.
But now one of President Trump's biggest international allies, Vladimir Putin, has.
In fact, the Kremlin put out a press release earlier today saying there had been a telegram from Vladimir Putin to Joe Biden congratulating him on winning the election.
The Russians are quite late in the game on doing this. Most international leaders congratulated the president-elect and the vice president-elect, Kamala Harris, shortly after the election took place.
The Russians waiting several weeks. But they say they wanted to wait until the Electoral College made things official. They said they thought that was appropriate.
In that telegram, Vladimir Putin said he was willing to work together with President-Elect Joe Biden.
Of course, we remember U.S. intelligence services saying the Kremlin actively tried to undermine the U.S. election to try and help President Trump get re-elected -- Brianna?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: Fred, thank you so much.
Putin's congrats comes on the heels of a serious hacking of U.S. federal agencies by groups suspected to be linked to Russia.
So far, at least three agencies, including the Departments of Homeland Security, Agriculture and Commerce, have been hacked. Experts expect that number to grow.
These hackers are even targeting the agency responsible for protecting the U.S. from cyberattacks.
For more, let's bring in CNN national security correspondent, Vivian Salama, to talk about this.
Vivian, what do we know about these attacks and why do we think these actors are linked to Russia?
VIVIAN SALAMA, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, this is a massive attack, impacting agencies across the board. You listed a couple. There are still investigations into other agencies as well.
Now, a lot of these agencies actually rely on the same company for their software. It's no wonder this is having such a huge impact.
SolarWinds, that software company, said they believe that about 18,000 private and government users downloaded Russian-tainted software updates, which essentially gave these hackers a foothold into these government systems.
So you listed a couple agencies that have been impacted. The government is also investigating possible breaches at the Department of Defense, at the Treasury Department, and at the U.S. Postal Service.
Now, our sources tell us that this definitely has the footprints and the hallmarks of a Russian-linked actor. They believe that and are following it closely.
However, the president obviously throughout his presidency has been reluctant to call out Russia on any type of hacking, whether it's elections or software attack, and doing so now. We have yet to hear anything from the president, Brianna.
Even with five weeks left to go in his presidency, he's staying the course when it comes to Russia.
KEILAR: Saying nothing.
Vivian, thank you for that report. Vivian Salama for us here in Washington.
[13:54:52]
And we have so much more ahead on the blitz to vaccinate thousands of frontline workers who are fighting the coronavirus, including a doctor who will get his shot live on-air with me, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KEILAR: All right. Just into CNN, we've learned President-Elect Joe Biden will nominate former presidential candidate, Pete Buttigieg, to be the next transportation secretary.
I want to bring in Jeff Zeleny. He is covering the Biden campaign. He's there in Atlanta today where the former vice president, president-elect is. And chief political analyst, Gloria Borger, is joining us from Washington.
[14:00:05]
Jeff, what more can you tell us about this pick?
