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CDC to Require Negative COVID-19 Test for U.K Passengers; Stimulus Bill Flown to Trump in Florida, Unclear if He'll Sign. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired December 25, 2020 - 07:00   ET

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


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[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to this special holiday edition of New Day. Merry Christmas, everyone, I'm John Berman alongside Alisyn Camerota.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: Merry Christmas.

BERMAN: So we're celebrating --

CAMEROTA: Yes.

BERMAN: -- a lot.

CAMEROTA: Why not?

BERMAN: Because it's different, right, because we are in the middle of a global pandemic and Dr. Sanjay Gupta will join us to talk about what the pandemic has taught us about science, leadership and heroism in America.

CAMEROTA: Speaking of heroes, two critical care nurses will join us in just a few minutes to share what they're seeing on the frontlines of this pandemic.

BERMAN: And, yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. The real story behind what might be the most famous newspaper editorial ever written.

CAMEROTA: All that and more ahead.

But, first, let's get a check of your headlines from the News Desk.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, everyone, I'm Alison Kosik.

Breaking overnight, the CDC announcing it will require all passengers from the United Kingdom to prove they have tested negative for coronavirus before they can fly to the United States. The order is a response to the new COVID variant that appears to have originated in the U.K.

Let's go live now to London and bring in CNN's Salma Abdelaziz. Salma, so what's the reaction there about this new requirement?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: Well, Alison, of course, there is often flights between the U.K. and the United States, but the United States is kind of late to the party here. There's over 40 countries that already put restrictions into place. And it's important to remember that Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced these new rules -- or rather this new variant last weekend. So you are sort of looking at a week in time in which potentially there could have been many flights that have already entered the United States and that variant could already be in the United States.

Now, just to tell you about the variant, on last Saturday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a surprise announcement came out and said there is a new variant here in London and the surrounding regions, it's up to 70 percent more transmissible, that's why people are worried about it. It is not more deadly or immune to the vaccine, as far as people understand right now, although there are early indications that it might be more difficult to vaccinate against.

So what's the plan? The plan is you have to get a negative coronavirus test up to 72 hours before you board that flight to the United States. Otherwise, airliners will turn you around. The responsibility is on the airliners to do that.

But I want to explain to you that it's not easy to get a coronavirus test here. Yes, mass testing is being rolled out across this country, but, for example, here in London where there is no mass testing, I would have to do one of two things, I would either have to have symptoms and try to book a test through the National Health Service here or I would have to go to a private clinic and pay $200. All of this, of course, will make it much more difficult for trade, business, commerce, lives, families to flow between the U.K. and the U.S. Alison?

KOSIK: Okay. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz, thanks very much.

The stimulus relief bill that President Trump has so far refused to sign has been flown to Trump's Mar-a-Lago golf club in Florida where the president is spending the holiday. The question is what will he do with it? More than 12 million laid off Americans could lose their jobless benefits as early as tomorrow.

Joining us now, Eugene Daniels, he is the National Political Reporter for Politico, and he joins us live. Thanks so much for joining us on Christmas. Merry Christmas to you.

EUGENE DANIELS, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, POLITICO: Merry Christmas to you. Thanks for having me.

KOSIK: So, Trump has made it clear he's, you know, good leaving chaos in his dust. Talk with me about the impact on Americans if this bill doesn't get moving.

DANIELS: Exactly. I mean, just like you said, there are millions of Americans who have benefits that were tied to the CARES Act that are going to expire just next week. They're going to -- they're not going to be able to pay for rent, they're not going to be able to pay for those mortgages, all of those things that we've been talking about.

It's been months since Congress has actually passed any huge kind of stimulus package and the $600 that was already in the package, the package that President Trump hasn't really said he's going to veto but is signaling that he said he doesn't like and signaling that he will veto, it seems that $600 has been hit by Democrats, Republicans, as not too much. Any person you talk to out in the world says it's not enough. And that's the president's biggest gripe it seems, like it's not something that we haven't heard.

The $600 has been out there for a long time. So him swooping in now and kind of saying, you know, even as people were hoping for that $600 stimulus check is concerning for a lot of people across the country.

[07:05:01]

KOSIK: So, you say you're getting indications that he will veto it, but I want to know what your prediction is. What do you think President Trump will do with the bill? It was literally flown to his doorstep. Will he sign it, will he veto it, will let he sit and let it die before the new congressional session starts on January 3rd?

DANIELS: Exactly right. He doesn't have to veto it, right? If they wanted him to be able to like -- basically, for them to run out the clock on him and without him signing it, they would have had to send it to him before Wednesday. And that's not what happened, obviously, as you said, it's being sent there now.

It's completely unclear what the president is going to do. You talk to his allies on the Hill and other Republicans, they are just as confused as anyone else and he hasn't given any indication to Americans or to his allies what he's going to do.

And the stakes are really high for mostly Republicans at this point because Democrats have already said, you know, we want to give $2,000 too. We want to give as much as possible and House Republicans stopped that from having unanimous consent in the House.

So, right now, Democrats are agreeing with the president, which is something that hasn't happened in a long time, and Republicans could be seen as the team that's involved here that doesn't want to give more money to Americans.

KOSIK: What do you think are the motivations of the president in doing this?

DANIELS: President Trump, you know, he's on his way out. He knows that he said the next administration, though he did kind of give a wink and a nod to his attempts to overturn the election by saying maybe that will be my administration, it won't be. He will be leaving on January 20th.

I think President Trump is hoping that, on his way out, he is seen as what he promised to be, which is the man fighting for the unforgotten men and women around this country. But the problem is the president could have done this months ago. He was completely uninvolved personally with this, the treasury secretary was involved, so the White House knew exactly what was being argued for weeks, especially the part that is his biggest gripe, right, that amount of money.

It seems that President Trump wants to -- as he leaves, we already know he is not going to go away as many presidents do after they finish their term. He's probably going to be out there and what he wants to do is continue to be seen as the person who -- the only person, you know, whether Democrat or Republican, that's fighting for you, fighting for the everyday American in this country. And I think he's banking on either saving the day with everyone getting on board with what he said he wants or by vetoing it and saying it wasn't enough or pocket vetoing it.

KOSIK: Very quickly, I want to hear your predict about what you think is going to happen leading up to the inauguration. Do you think the president is going to play out any shenanigans as President-elect Biden is getting inaugurated?

DANIELS: I would say yes. You know, there are conversations already happening behind the scenes with President Trump's team, talking about what he could do, right? Should he have his own event on inauguration day, where he's going to announce that he's going to run again in 2024? Will he go to the inauguration? It seems unlikely at this point.

But something that benefits President Trump if he does decide to go to the inauguration is that we're in the middle of a pandemic and he would unlikely be able to, you know, be advised to get into a limousine with President-elect Joe Biden and drive over to the Capitol from the White House, as has been the tradition.

And so President Trump has a lot of power here in deciding that, you know, I don't want to go and it's hard to see President Trump going to this because that implicitly is a stamp of approval on the next presidency, which is what he's been trying to not do for weeks now.

KOSIK: Eugene Daniels with Politico, great talking with you today. Merry Christmas.

DANIELS: Merry Christmas. Thanks for having me.

KOSIK: You got it.

The coronavirus pandemic has taught us so much about science and about leadership. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us with a look at what he's learned next.

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BERMAN: So the coronavirus pandemic has obviously affected so many lives, but it's also brought out the best in science and put leadership to the test.

Speaking of the best in science and leadership, joining us now is CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay, Merry Christmas to you, it's so great to see you this morning.

Look, the vaccine rollout has finally been able to provide some protection to frontline workers, the health care workers. How incredible of a feat is this? What has it been like to watch this for you?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's been a pretty remarkable year. I think, scientifically, we see these shots going into arms and it looks like, you know, a fairly routine thing. I mean, most of us have received shots at some point in our life, but the story behind these shots, the scientific progress, the pace of medical innovation, I think, has forever been changed not just for this pandemic but forever been changed. I mean, it's remarkable. When people's backs are up against the wall, some of our greatest innovations result.

What I find really, you know, heartening in some ways is I still spend a lot of time in the hospital, I talk to a lot of health care workers, there's people who are working in COVID units and they're doing everything they can to protect themselves, and they're doing a good job, but you still can't help but have this feeling when you're going home were you exposed to today? Are you carrying the virus? Could you potentially get sick, expose your family? All these thoughts are always in the back of your mind. And o you do your best but you still worry.

When you think about these vaccines now going out for health care workers, it's kind of like having personal protective equipment on a molecular level. It offers this level of protection for them that, obviously, from a scientific and physical perspective you can see that objectively, but, psychologically, you know, you're seeing the impact of these vaccines as well, which is -- it's been really quite remarkable.

[07:15:01]

I've been practicing medicine for a quarter century, I've never seen anything like it. Obviously, most of us have not.

CAMEROTA: I mean, I know that to say it's a Christmas miracle is not exactly scientific, but it does feel miraculous because it all happened so fast. But then on the down side, the tragedy of 2020 -- I mean, if at the beginning of 2020, Sanjay, anybody had told any of us, you know, this year and this, basically, 11 months, more than 300,000 Americans are going to die, we just wouldn't have believed it.

GUPTA: No it's this -- the beginning of the tale of two cities, you know, one of my favorite books, it's the best of times, it's the worst of times. The best of times scientifically, the worst of times because we're still very much in it, you know? And I think we've all tried to maintain a hopeful sort of outlook throughout this year, but also being very, very honest about what's happening.

And you're right, I mean, I don't think anyone would have believed it and I think it's totally fair to say that most of this did not need to happen. I mean, I hate saying it because there's so many people out there who are celebrating the holidays this year without somebody, somebody who died and many of those deaths were preventable.

I've tracked what has happened in the United States this year compared to what happened 102 years ago back in 1918 and sort of staggering that it's sort of tracks almost exactly. Obviously, the population is three times greater now than it was then. But if you account for that, it's tracked almost exactly, which has just been this reminder that, you know, no matter how good the science is, the science cannot rescue us from ourselves.

You know, the rest of that Dickens, you know, opening of the book of Tale of Two Cities is we live in an age of wisdom and we also live in an age of foolishness. And I think we've seen both those things at play this year. We could have done a lot better and we still have the opportunity to do a lot better because a lot of lives can still be saved over the next few months even before the vaccines really have their maximum impact.

BERMAN: Look, the age of wisdom is all the science we have seen, the age of foolishness is the extent to which science has become politicized in ways that I don't think any of us imagine it could be, and that's a tragedy. Let's hope that's in the past, Sanjay.

So, what can we do now? Now that people have started receiving the vaccines, what do we need to do to stay healthy and vigilant as most of us wait to get vaccinated?

GUPTA: Well, the first thing I would say is that it's totally possible, right? I mean, I think that sometimes there is a sense -- I talk to people, there is a sense of it's inevitable, it's preordained. What is happening was going to happen no matter what we did. And that is not the -- that is not the case. Again, we can point to places around the world to show that's not the case. They didn't have anything that we didn't have and they count their death rates in the dozens or maybe the hundreds not the hundreds of thousands like we do.

But, you know, one thing I've tried to do this year, as you know, on your program on New Day is to give examples, like hyper local examples, just to give examples of what is happening in communities that maybe people can relate to.

And I'm from Michigan. And one of the things that happened this year as you know is the Michigan/Ohio State football game was canceled. I always associate that with the holidays, more Thanksgiving than Christmas, but still. And if you look at these two states, I think this is really instructive, and both these states that are reasonably good job overall in the country of handling this.

But as their numbers started to go up sort of beginning of November, Michigan basically decided to put in some more restrictive measures with regard to masks and indoor dining and things like that and Ohio did not at that time. And you can see just a dramatic difference, you know, the number of new cases, less than half in Michigan of what they are in Ohio by the time we got to mid-December.

So, again, it just goes to show that there are people out there who have no idea that they're going to become infected over the next several weeks, they have no idea that maybe they will get sick from this virus because they think it's in the rearview mirror, the vaccine is here, we're good to go. But if you pay attention to graphs like that and realize through some basic public health measures, not turning your life upside down, not having to shut down a society, but basic public health measures can go such a long way toward saving lives.

CAMEROTA: But, Sanjay, I want to just end on a beacon of light and that is that, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, medical school applications are up this year and some call it the Fauci effect.

BERMAN: I call it the Sanjay effect.

CAMEROTA: Some call it the Gupta effect, okay? There's a lot of different ways to go about this. But, I mean, do you think that it's because people have been inspired by seeing the frontline health care workers save lives?

GUPTA: I definitely think so. And, by the way, I think the Fauci effect is the accurate way of describing this. I mean, you know, this guy, he's been around for 40 years.

[07:20:03]

A lot of people maybe knew him in the medical world but obviously now everyone knows his name around the world.

But, yes, I think that the idea that we saw health care workers maybe in a different light, not just doctors, but nurses and respiratory technicians and all these -- respiratory therapists, people who do this incredible work, but also not just the medical part of it.

I think what was so touching to me and what we spent so much time talking about was almost the intimate relationships, people walking in with their own iPads and their phones to basically allow their patients to have conversations with their families because the families could not visit given, you know, the pandemic and sometimes those conversations were the last conversations they had. It's very emotional.

And -- but I also -- talking to medical students, I gave an address for the medical students at Harvard a couple of weeks ago and, you know, one of the things that comes out of it is that, like why do we choose this profession? Why do we decide to go into this? You want to do good work but also there is a sense of gratification for having actually been able to help people on a very personal level as well, their health, yes, but their relationship, their outlook on life and all of that. So it makes a huge difference.

18 percent increase overall in med school applications maybe because students were at home more than unusual, they could actually finish those applications this year, they are not always easy to do. I will tell you this as well, more women than men applying to medical school now also. So, for whatever it's worth, these are all great trends and of course I'm biased, I'm a doc, I love health care, but this is -- this is something that I think may be a positive that came out of all of this.

CAMEROTA: That's so great, Sanjay. What a great note to end on and what a great upshot of this really hard year.

BERMAN: I think a lot of people have been inspired.

GUPTA: Next year, I hope I can be with you guys in person, by the way, it looks really nice and cozy up there.

CAMEROTA: It's really toasty warm. I hope you can see our fire that we built in the studio. Sanjay, we can't wait for that. We can't wait to be reunited with you in person.

BERMAN: When we'll all go out, you're buying. All right, Sanjay, we really appreciate it, Merry Christmas to you.

GUPTA: My pleasure.

BERMAN: All right. It has been quite an incredible year, a moment of reckoning in some ways for this country on race. We will look back on what we learned and what we can look forward to. Abby Phillip and Van Jones joins us next.

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CAMEROTA: Merry Christmas, everyone. Welcome back to a special Christmas edition of New Day.

BERMAN: Merry Christmas.

CAMEROTA: Merry Christmas to you. Well, I can't wait to open all our gifts after this.

We have a lot to get to in this half hour, including a conversation about America's racial reckoning. Will 2020 be a lasting turning point in our nation's history?

BERMAN: And we have a CNN reality check on Santa Claus, a true story of what happened when a little girl dared to question whether he is real.

But, first, let's get a check of your headlines at the News Desk.

KOSIK: Good morning, everyone, I'm Alison Kosik. Breaking overnight, the CDC announcing all air travelers from the U.K. to the United States must present current a negative COVID-19 test before they are allowed to board. The measure takes effect on Monday. Passengers will not be allowed on flights if they refuse a test or do not give documentation. The order is in response to a new coronavirus variant spreading in the U.K.

A harsh winter storm barreling through the eastern U.S. bringing heavy rain to the northeast. Let's get to Meteorologist Chad Myers. And, Chad, I know this not only brings rain but a lot of wind too. CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, rain, wind, flooding and then cold air behind it, Alison, all of the bad things of a northeast storm. Places that saw between 30 and 40 inches of snow now getting between three and four inches of rain on top of that to wash it away and to make flooding, significant flooding happening right now across parts of Pennsylvania and even also into New York.

Here is the live radar showing the rain moving into Boston, it's been raining a lot of the night here, wind is very gusty as well, but look at the wind chill factor as we go from feeling like 55 right now in New York City, that won't last long, and it feels like eight in Pittsburgh and well below zero back out into the great lakes.

So we are going to see the winter weather advisories, winter storm warnings, still posted this morning. You're going to have to really watch out if you're headed out this morning, a lot of roads are actually closed and some of this water that's been coming down over the past couple of hours is going to be refreezing as soon as that cold air gets here. So, a lot going on today, we will keep you advised.

KOSIK: of course you have a wild storm to get to the end of a wild year. Chad Myers, thanks very much.

And that's the latest from the news desk. Let's go back to John and Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: From the massive protests across the country to the election of the first woman of color on a presidential ticket, race in America is one of the biggest stories of 2020.

Joining us now with what a year it's been, CNN Political Correspondent Abby Phillip and CNN Political Commentator Van Jones. Merry Christmas, great to see both of you.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Merry Christmas.

CAMEROTA: So, Abby, is 2020 -- I mean, let's just take the 30,000 foot view right now. Is it a lasting watershed? I mean, so much happened this year. And do we think that all of the seeds that were planted or whatever progress that was made will be carried on from here on out?

PHILLIP: Well, you know, I think that's not always how this works. I think often in this country, you make some progress and then you take a couple of steps back. That has happened before. I mean, in fact, we elected the first black president and followed that up with the person who doubted whether he was born in the United States. So, sometimes there is this pendulum swinging that happens.

But I think what's different about this year is when you look at who was involved in these racial justice protests.

[07:30:05]

It was a multi-generational, multi-racial movement.