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Officials Identify Nashville Bomber; Vaccinations for Herd Immunity; European Union Kicks off Mass Vaccination Program; Chinese Journalist Jailed for Four Years; Snowy Conditions to Close Out Year; Ravens Fined For Coronavirus Violations. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired December 28, 2020 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Turns to now.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Jonathan, obviously the term suicide bombing carries the connotation of terrorism. But if this is just a suicidal, depressed person, is that -- then are we using the right terminology?

JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, listen, you know, suicide deaths involving explosives unconnected to terrorism is extremely rare. And in my opinion, this case is a suicide by bombing, which should be considered a staged performance, in the fact that the individual created this really dramatic event in their suicidal act. Once they decided to take their own life, this individual went ahead and arranged this act specifically.

To Juliette's point, the motivation is still unclear. Why did this individual create such a structure around taking their own life and, in turn, putting others at jeopardy. The -- you know, motivations typically for -- for suicide can, you know, it's a spectrum. It can go from severe depression to psychosis to a philosophical desire to die. And that's where I think this individual was on that spectrum. The decision to take their own life was predicated upon the fact that they had this -- this structure building, you know, with a recording, the bomb, the placement of the vehicle, the day, the time, all of this leads to, you know, furtherance of my theory that this was a staged performance in the suicidal act.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Listen, sadly, tens of thousands of Americans commit suicide every year.

KAYYEM: Right.

SCIUTTO: But the size of this bomb, the preparations, the giving up of property before, I mean this was premeditated.

I'm curious, Juliette, this was an enormous explosion, right?

KAYYEM: Yes.

SCIUTTO: I mean to gather materials for a sophisticated device like this. I mean, I know that law enforcement looks out for this kind of stuff. In New York, if you buy acetone in a hardware store, right, I mean, there are alarm bells that go off because they're looking for people that are putting this kind of stuff together.

KAYYEM: Right.

SCIUTTO: To build a sophisticated device like this and light it off in a major U.S. city, were there alarm bells missed here?

KAYYEM: Right. Yes. I mean our understanding is that there was no -- that the authorities had no clue about him before this. And that's my big question is, is all of the surveillance, all of the monitoring that we do in terms of the capacity of someone to be able to get these kinds of explosives, what alarms did not go off?

Look, suicide is generally a private affair. I mean and so just picking up on what Jonathan said, this is -- this is not fitting anything we know of so far because not only was it a suicide -- you know, a performance suicide, he clearly did not want people watching. So this is not someone jumping off a bridge and holding up traffic. This is -- this is something just different. And so that's where the investigation is going to head.

But the evidentiary questions I have is, how did someone not sort of set off alarm bells, given the magnitude of the explosives that were purchased and any other behavior? From what we know so far, this guy did not ring any -- you know, did -- no one was paying attention to him for long periods of time. We barely have a picture.

CAMEROTA: And so what police tell us, Jonathan, is that his name is Anthony Quinn Warner, 63 years old.

KAYYEM: Yes.

CAMEROTA: But he died, obviously, in the bombing. And so how will investigators figure out his motive?

WACKROW: Well, listen, that's the -- you know, the challenge in any type of, you know, explosive investigation is that you lose a lot of items, potentially, that could have some evidentiary value. So they have to open up the aperture in their investigation to look at literally everything about this individual.

We're already hearing from some of his neighbors, some of their statements. But, you know, the law enforcement officials on the ground are going to do detailed interviews with every single neighbor to actually establish a pattern of behavior of this individual.

They're also going to look at the digital forensics. They're going to look at everything that this individual touched, whether it was online, telephone records, again, to try to understand what was -- what was the motivation and how did he actually garner the knowledge to construct such a device. I mean the -- to your point, Jim, in New York City, you start compiling components for a bomb. Law enforcement officials are immediately alerted and they react to it. What they need to look for is, what were the missed signals here? What

were the red flags that persisted along the continuum to this event that were potentially missed and how do we not let that happen again?

SCIUTTO: Yes.

Well, listen, the other note here, the president completely silent on this days after this attack.

KAYYEM: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Notable in his silence.

[06:35:00]

We'll be listening to the President-elect Biden. He's going to be speaking later today. Look for his comments, as well.

Jonathan, Juliette, thanks so much to both of you.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Other story we're following this morning, Dr. Anthony Fauci warning of another surge of new coronavirus infections as millions of Americans travel for the holidays. Even with vaccines on the way, and that is good news, what can we expect in the coming weeks?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: I think we all have to be honest and humble. Nobody really knows for sure, but I think 70 to 85 percent for herd immunity for COVID-19 is a reasonable estimate. And, in fact, most of my epidemiology colleagues agree with me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK, that was Dr. Anthony Fauci reinforcing the need for the vast majority of Americans to get vaccinated against COVID. As of this morning, nearly 2 million doses have been administered. That's out of 10 million that have been delivered.

So joining us now, we have CNN political commentator and epidemiologist, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed.

Doctor, Jim and I were struggling with the math this morning. Can you help us? Give us some context so that we understand. Is 2 million -- 2 million Americans have been vaccinated almost. Is that good or bad for two weeks in? Is that what you would expect the number to be, or are we falling short somehow?

DR. ABDUL EL-SAYED, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, let me be clear, it is a vast number of people to vaccinate in two weeks. I mean this is unprecedented. We're trying to blanket the entire country with COVID-19 vaccines. So 2 million is a big deal.

That being said, we know that 2 million out of 10 million is just about 20 percent.

[06:40:01]

And so that is -- that is a lag. And it does reflect the fact that a lot of attention and money have been poured in to getting us to the scientific point where we had a safe and effective vaccine.

The deployment, though, is just as big a hurdle. And it's a huge logistical feat. Now, we know that the military is involved in deploying the vaccines out into states, getting them to the locations where people then can get them. But what happens next is that you have to have state and local organizations that then actually get vaccines to vaccinations into arms.

And that's where the investment really hasn't been made. And really what we need to be paying attention to is this latest coronavirus relief bill does not include support for state and local governments who are -- who cannot float the kinds of debts that the federal government can and have been hit really hard from lost revenue because of the last nine, ten months of this pandemic. And so they're strapped for cash and they're trying to get these vaccines out.

The second thing that I'll say that I think people need to pay attention to is the first group of people who were vaccinated tend to be people in places with high medical infrastructure, whether they're physicians and nurses and support techs at hospitals or they're residents and workers at long-term care facilities. These are the kinds of places where they're used to doing routine medical procedures all the time.

What we're trying to do now is get the vaccines into arms for people who don't work or live in a medical facility. And so this is going to be a bit harder to do and it may explain part of that lag.

SCIUTTO: OK. So, again, to your point, credit where credit is due, 2 million people, a lot of people in a couple weeks' time, but long way to go. Just simple math here, 330 million people in this country. To get to 85 percent to reach herd immunity, that's 280 million people.

How much time? I mean you -- if you hear Secretary Azar, he says by sort of March, April large numbers of Americans will have this. The more conservative estimate, we're getting into early summer. But at what point do we reasonably expect we reach that point of herd immunity?

EL-SAYED: Well, the point here, Jim, is that we want to do it as soon as we possibly can. And the faster we do it, the faster we can knock down the spread of this virus, particularly considering the fact that we may be having a strain that can spread faster coming along.

That being said, a lot of this is about figuring out those basic learnings, picking up and building out those processes on the ground in local communities that allow you then to start deploying this vaccine and turning it into vaccinations in people's arms as quickly as possible.

And I used to run a local health department in the city of Detroit. And sometimes when you get an influx, you know a process is coming, but you can't really work out the kinks in that process and make sure that the process is running as smoothly as you want it to until, of course, you had a couple of reputations. And so it does make sense that early on cities and states and local governments are going to be struggling with doing this as fast as possible, but I have every confidence that this is priority number one, two, three, four, and five for a lot of these communities. And so being able to do that quickly and figuring out what needs to be figured out to be able to do that is going to happen pretty quickly. And so I do think that we're going to catch up.

The real question here is, is what is going to be the slowest part of the process. Is it going to be manufacturing more vaccines? In that case, state and local governments are doing this as fast as possible and they're not the holdup. Or is it going to be getting people vaccinated? Or, worst-case scenario is that people do not want to take the vaccine. And on this front, I just want to be very clear to folks, that this is a safe and effective vaccine.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

EL-SAYED: That the fastest way we get back to living the kind of life where we don't have to think about COVID-19 as we turn every corner is by getting vaccinated. And so my hope is that the slowest part of the process is just getting enough vaccine out there that people are lined up ready to go with their arms forward to get vaccinated.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, thank you very much. We really appreciate you helping us with this status report today.

EL-SAYED: Thank you.

Happy holidays.

CAMEROTA: You as well.

CAMEROTA: A mass vaccination effort is underway in Europe right now with dozens of coronavirus vaccines delivered to all EU countries over the weekend. The first injections are going to the elderly and to the frontline medical workers, just as with here.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz live in London with more.

So what's happening there, Salma?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: Well, Alisyn, of course, balancing that ray of light, that hope right in the middle of a very big surge in cases across Europe. This weekend they started that mass vaccination program and the advantages and disadvantages are really the same thing. It's 27 member states. They all get the same amount of vaccines, so limited supply, but very exciting news, particularly for a country like Germany, which, of course, developed the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, but had to watch other nations, like the U.K. and the U.S. roll it out first.

[06:45:00]

They were so excited there, in fact, in Germany, that they started the vaccinations a day ahead, on Saturday. A 101-year-old woman in a nursing home was the first to receive it.

And at this time they are also dealing with a variant across Europe. That -- they've started to spot that. It may have originated here in the U.K. where that variant is prevalent in London and parts of southeast of England.

And here also there's good news about vaccines. Oxford and AstraZeneca say their vaccine will be approved in a matter of days. It could start rolling out on January 4th. And, of course, British authorities very excited about this, because this is the homegrown vaccine, Oxford University, made right here in the U.K.

There's been debates about its efficacy, but researchers and scientists say they can increase that efficacy by making the second dose a half dose. There's also other advantages to the Oxford vaccine. It is cheap, costs as much as your morning latte, about $4, and it doesn't need special refrigeration capacity. So yet another advantage.

But while these vaccination programs are rolling out around Europe, authorities are reminding people, stay vigilant, keep up with the rules, keep up with the restrictions because, yes, these vaccines are rolling out, but we are still very far from the sort of mass access that we need.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Salma, thank you very much for all of that reporting.

So Japan is set to introduce a tracking system for overseas travelers in an effort to stem the spread of coronavirus. All visitors will be required to install a mobile app to track their movements using GPS technology after they enter the country. The rescheduled Tokyo Olympics are expected to begin on July 23rd.

SCIUTTO: What an operation that will be.

Developing this morning, a Chinese journalist who documented the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China, has now been sentenced to four years in prison.

CNN's Ivan Watson is live in Hong Kong to explain.

Ivan, this is surprising. Early on, China tried to muffle these doctors who were talking about this, but -- then, after it was exposed, they celebrated them and yet they're putting this woman in jail now?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They sure are. I mean she's been in detention for months now and on hunger strike. She was sentenced in a courthouse in Shanghai. And during that hearing, there was an awful lot of security outside the courthouse in that city.

Now, if you rewind back to last winter before the coronavirus pandemic really spread around the world, the epicenter of the outbreak was in the city of Wuhan. This Chinese city. And this ex-lawyer, Zhang Zhan, she traveled there on her own as a citizen journalist and was sending dispatches from Wuhan on social media.

For example, we have a video that we may be able to show of her that she filmed inside the crowded hallway of a hospital in Wuhan where people were being treated in the hallway.

She started being detained as recently as the summer and accused of ultimately this crime she was convicted of. Quote, picking quarrels and provoking trouble, which is a crime that the Chinese authorities use periodically against dissidents, which has the consequence of effectively shutting them up.

Now, her defense attorney says that she's been on hunger strike. That when he met with her earlier this month in detention, that she was bound, her arms were bound at her sides and that she had a tube insert inserted through her throat and nasal passage to force feed her. That she was thin and pale. She'd lost weight.

There's basically not a lot of room for commentary outside of the state line in China. Reporters Without Borders described China as the world's biggest jailer of journalists. We know of at least three other citizen journalists who have been detained or simply disappeared for their posts on what the situation was like in Wuhan back in the winter. The Chinese government insists it respects people's human right to freedom of speech.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: The facts tell a different story in that country and this, another case of that.

Ivan Watson, good to have you on the story.

Back here in the U.S., an Army Green Beret, active military, charged in a deadly triple shooting at a bowling alley. We're going to have the details just ahead.

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[06:52:58]

SCIUTTO: A U.S. Army special forces soldier has been charged in a deadly shooting at a bowling alley in Rockford, Illinois, just over the weekend. Army Sergeant First Class Duke Webb is accused of killing three people, wounding three others. He is now in police custody. Webb is a Florida resident and an active duty member of the Army Green Berets. Police say there is no connection between the suspect and his victims.

CAMEROTA: OK, let's talk about New Year's Eve. It will be snowy in the central U.S., but rain will soak parts of the East Coast. CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray has our forecast.

It's a good thing none of us are going out for New Year's.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Exactly, because millions will be getting wet on New Year's Eve, especially across the south and the east.

It's all starting here. You can see winter weather advisories in place across portions of the Plains, the Rockies.

Of course, this weather is brought to you by O'Keefe's, guaranteed relief for extremely dry, cracked feet.

So let's talk about this storm. You can see it starting to eject out of the Rockies and then by Tuesday you can see a lot of snow across the Plains. A wintry mix. A lot of ice with this storm. Keep that in mind. And then rain on the south side.

That rain is going to spread all the way north into the east. By the time we get into Wednesday, this is what the picture looks like. And then all of that rain will be pushing even farther east by the time we get into Thursday.

So here's the ice. Look at that. We could see half an inch of ice, three quarters of an inch of ice in some places, so that is going to make extremely dangerous conditions on the roads, as well as the possibility of bringing down trees and power lines, as well.

Here's the forecast accumulation. This is the picture through Thursday. You can see where the snow is. Maybe even a little bit of snow across the hill country of Texas. And then we do have a lot of rain, several inches of rain across the deep south. Atlanta could pick up about an inch. Look like the big cities across the northeast, though, it will stay mainly rain.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Jennifer, thank you so much.

So a major announcement from tennis great Roger Federer. Why he's pulling out of the Australian Open, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:57:44]

SCIUTTO: Sports now.

The fallout over the Baltimore Ravens' coronavirus outbreak comes with a price.

Carolyn Manno has more in today's "Bleacher Report."

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Jim. Yes, teams were expected to follow these strict guidelines that are in

place. The Ravens are now on the hook for $250,000. A league source saying it's because they failed to follow those coronavirus protocols back when this outbreak began in November. And you'll recall, it was very widespread across the organization. So now they're being fined for it. The league's reigning MVP Lamar Jackson among the nearly two dozen players who was placed on the reserve COVID-19 list. All have since returned.

The Ravens confirming in a statement that there were four unique strains of COVID-19 within the organization. The team fined one of its strength and conditioning coaches during the outbreak for failing to wear a mask or report symptoms.

Meantime, seven teams are booked for the playoff so far. The Titans trying to join the party last night against the Packers in snowy Green Bay. Blustery conditions doing little to cool the hot hand of Aaron Rodgers, though. He was exceptional. Rodgers and Davante Adams torching the Titans defense for three scores. Rodgers has 44 touchdown passes this season. Adams with 17 TD catches of his own. So both one shy of Packers' all-time records. Green Bay winning big. They can secure the number one seat in the NFC next week with a win over their division rivals the Bears.

And lastly for you this morning, Roger Federer is out of the Australian Open. The 20-time grand slam winner saying he's still not fully recovered from those two operation on his right Knee. The tournament had already been postponed by three weeks from January to early February over coronavirus concerns. And the big question mark now, Jim, is, is he going to come back to Australia at 39 years old? Clearly just not ready to go. They love him there. It's been a very fruitful stomping ground for him with six titles.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

MANNO: We'll see if he makes his way back.

SCIUTTO: Yes, 39 is old in sports, I guess. Different for the rest of us.

Carolyn, thanks so much.

MANNO: Different for the rest of us.

You're welcome.

SCIUTTO: NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At long last, President Trump has signed that $2.3 trillion spending bill.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He wants to be remembered for advocating for big checks, but he'll be remembered for chaos and misery. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was disengaged from this attempt to find an

economic solution I think is totally out of (INAUDIBLE) with his really AWOL behavior on the public health challenge.

[07:00:05]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Authorities here in Nashville today confirming the identity.