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Interview with Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D-CO) on Discovery of New Coronavirus Variant in His State; Coronavirus Vaccination Distribution Significantly Lower than Expected in States Across U.S.; Interview with Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York About the Celebrations in Times Square and the Coronavirus Pandemic. Aired 8- 8:30a ET

Aired December 31, 2020 - 08:00   ET

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


[08:00:00]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks very much. Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen, they will have CNN's New York's Eve live from Times begin at 8:00 p.m. tonight. Some of the special guests include Mariah Carey, Snoop Dogg, Pitbull and Jimmy Buffet. And NEW DAY continues right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

CAMEROTA: OK, good morning, everyone. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. John Berman is off, Jim Sciutto is here. And there's a big fireworks celebration just starting this minute in Sydney. Look at this. This is Sydney Harbor as Australia rings in their new year.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Damn those Australians, they beat us to it.

(LAUGHTER)

CAMEROTA: How did that happen? Look at how spectacular it is. It really gives you goose bumps.

SCIUTTO: Couldn't come soon enough on 2020.

CAMEROTA: Interestingly, revelers there, Jim, have also been told to stay home this year because of the pandemic, just like here, as Brynn was saying, in Times Square. It's really beautiful. I love fireworks. Even from a distance, even from thousands of miles away they are still rousing.

Meanwhile, here in the U.S., the story is not as uplifting. We are again breaking records for coronavirus deaths and hospitalizations -- 3,744 American deaths reported just yesterday. And the outlook for the start of this new year is very grim. The CDC now projects another 81,000 Americans will die in just the next three weeks. More than 125,000 Americans are hospitalized with coronavirus. That's a new all- time high. Health officials in southern California have identified a new case of that highly contagious strain of coronavirus, confirming that the strain was found in a 30-year-old man who has not recently traveled. California already dealing with a crushing number of coronavirus patients and the National Guard has been called in there to help.

SCIUTTO: Listen to this. The Coronavirus Task Force admits now that the pace of vaccinations in this country is nowhere near what they promised, what they hoped it would be -- 2.7 million Americans have now been vaccinated, but that's only about 20 percent of the doses delivered, that means a lot of doses sitting on shelves, well below the 20 million people the White House said would be vaccinated by today. Only a few weeks ago they said 100 million.

President Trump returning to Washington this morning ahead of schedule, skipping his annual new year's bash at Mar-a-Lago. He's not coming back to tackle the pandemic or get on the slow rollout of the vaccine. He's doing it to continue his baseless pursuit of overturning the election. Republican lawmakers now plan to challenge next week's Electoral College certification of Joe Biden's victory.

CAMEROTA: But we begin with the pandemic. And joining us now is the governor of Colorado Jared Polis. Good morning, governor.

GOV. JARED POLIS, (D-CO): Good morning. Happy New Year.

CAMEROTA: Happy New Year to you as well. Tell us about what's happening in terms of this new variant in Colorado. We understand you have one confirmed case and another suspected case we had reported on yesterday. Have you been able to confirm that that second young man also has this new variant of coronavirus?

POLIS: So the analysis on the second is being done at the state labs. Some of the initial indicators indicated it's likely the strain. The first is confirmed, and we're proud of Colorado scientists for identifying this United Kingdom strain the first here in the United States. We don't yet know how widespread it is across our country. We expect it's probably in many states, particularly states in the northeast that have a lot more travel back and forth from London.

CAMEROTA: So here is what I think we know, but you can help us fill in the blanks. Both of these people, the confirmed case and the suspected case, both young men, both in their 20s, both work for the National Guard, both National Guardsmen who were helping out at this assisted living facility. Doesn't it stand to reason that that means there are more cases at that nursing home and in that rural community?

POLIS: So, yes, and as you indicated the two cases are connected, meaning if the second case is confirmed, it's likely related to the first case. We are, of course, going to be doing the additional RNA analysis on all the other cases that surround it, folks that could have received it from this person or folks that could have given it to this person.

CAMEROTA: Have the residents of that assisted living facility all been vaccinated yet?

POLIS: That was scheduled to happen, as it is an assisted living facility, literally around this time. Unfortunately this outbreak was in mid to late December at this particular facility, and I believe that nearly everybody or as much as 100 percent of the residents at this facility were COVID positive.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, 100 percent being COVID positive, that's really concerning.

[08:05:03]

POLIS: Yes, it is. It shows how fast this -- whether it's the traditional strain or the variant strain, how fast it spreads in these congregate living centers, in assisted living centers where people live together. And we've seen this happen where it can -- especially among the elderly, it can kill 10, 20 people out of 100 in the matter of a week or two.

CAMEROTA: So now that you know that this new variant, this new strain is in Colorado, how are you as governor going to get your arms around this? What will you do differently?

POLIS: Well, it's not yet our dominant strain. The reason that scientists in the United Kingdom believe that it is more contagious, one of the biggest data points is that this effectively crowded out other strains in southwest England and went from being one percent or two percent of the cases to being the majority of the cases in a relatively short period of time.

We have done the initial RNA indicators, we've been doing surveillance in our state for a number of weeks, ever since this was released and that we were able to do it, and so we still know this is not the predominant variant in our state. So we just watch it closely. It's really the same precautions that people need to take to avoid any version of this virus. It's all highly contagious. Wear a mask when you're out, avoid socializing with people outside of your household, and keep a distance between you and other people.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about the vaccinations. Across the country they are not happening as quickly as had been promised, 20 million people, OK, were predicted to be vaccinated by today. That's what the Trump administration told us. It's a fraction of that. It's something like at our last count 2.8 million people. What's the situation in Colorado? Are you able to -- well, here is what we have, the latest numbers that we have that I will read to everybody -- 12 million doses of the vaccine were delivered to Colorado, 2.7, almost 2.8 doses have been administered. Is that slower than expected? Is that right on target?

POLIS: So I think you just read the national figures, to be clear.

CAMEROTA: Sorry.

POLIS: And 12 million would be more than the people we have in Colorado.

CAMEROTA: Sorry. I do have the Colorado numbers. Let me just put those up. POLIS: Sure.

CAMEROTA: It's 251,000 doses delivered, 82,000 administered.

POLIS: Yes, so we're one of the top five states in getting it out. And I think I attribute part of that to something we put in place when we got our first vaccine, which is that all of our distribution partners, meaning hospitals, community health clinics, have to use every dose we give them within 72 hours or we simply reassign it somewhere else.

But, look, if we had more doses we'd get those into arms as well. The demand at this point far exceeds the supply. And while there is a little lag time in reporting to get all the information back, we are working aggressively with our partners to get it out, and we've expanded our initial group we're inoculating now to people 70 and up, and we expect that will be completed in the next four or five weeks.

CAMEROTA: At the same time that this is happening are you also lifting some restrictions in your state?

POLIS: Depends on the area you are in. We have areas that have had a 14-day downward trend, and thankfully are able to have a little bit more normal economic activity. And there's some areas of our state that have been lower all along. So we're a big, diverse state. But like everybody, we're trying to have as much normalcy as we can during this period while making sure people stay safe, wear masks, and avoid socializing with people outside their home.

CAMEROTA: On a personal note, I know that you and your partner tested positive for coronavirus last month. How was your experience?

POLIS: I fortunately had a relatively mild experience, but my partner Marlon was hospitalized for two days, it was very scary for our family. We also completely isolated, I didn't leave my house for 14 days, and as I said, I felt fine for most of that, but we were worried about Marlon much of the time. And yes, it's a tough thing for anybody to go through. I hope that more people can avoid it, and we count ourselves among the lucky ones.

CAMEROTA: That's really scary. How is Marlon doing today?

POLIS: We all fully recovered our health, thank you, and we are excited and thrilled that we're ready to embrace the new year like everybody else.

CAMEROTA: Governor Jared Polis, thank you very much for giving us all the information from Colorado today.

POLIS: Thank you. Take care.

CAMEROTA: You, too. Jim?

SCIUTTO: This just into CNN. Dr. Anthony Fauci making news moments ago about a new plan to hold back second doses of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, remember they require two shots, to get more Americans vaccinated now as the rollout has slowed. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: You can make an argument, and some people are, about stretching out the doses by giving a single dose across the board and hoping you're going to get the second dose in time to give to individuals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Joining us now, Dr. Megan Ranney. She's the director of the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health, and she's also an emergency physician. Dr. Ranney, always good to have you on.

[08:10:02]

I'm curious what your reaction is to that plan. It's a risky plan. Listen, it speaks to the delay here, right, because we are well behind where this administration said we would be at this point. But there is a risk, because if you give everybody a dose now, you would need to then manufacture enough doses to meet the deadline in effect after, what, three weeks for the second dose. Make sense in your view?

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, DIRECTOR, BROWN-LIFESPAN CENTER FOR DIGITAL HEALTH: It does make sense that two weeks or three weeks or four weeks I have been talking to scientists, that's not a magic number. If we give the second dose at three weeks versus three-and-a-half that's OK. The second dose really serves as a booster and helps to maintain your immune response.

But the thing that concerns me is we already have 12 million doses out there that haven't gotten into arms. That's not because they are all being reserved. It's because our last mile logistics are no good. We need a better system to get those vaccine doses into arms. Opening up more doses to get to people is great, but we need to rethink our distribution system. Maybe bring in the National Guard or FEMA to help states get people vaccinated. The priority right now should be getting the vaccine doses that have already been manufactured into the arms of the folks who are at risk, both our essential workers and those who are older.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Ranney, who is supposed to spearhead this? The fact that our last mile logistics aren't working, President Trump has said we've sent it to the states, it's on you guys now. Who is supposed to be spearheading this?

RANNEY: Alisyn, it really should be a combination of the federal government and the states. In an ideal world we would have had funding to start the logistics planning at the same time that we opened up funding to create the vaccines. That didn't happen. Just like we didn't plan for testing or PPE, we've had a failure of national leadership there.

So now given where we are today, what we should ideally see is, again, a collaboration between the federal government and the states. We can't just depend on funding and planning from the feds at this point. We really need them to step up and help, because individual states, public health departments are completely overwhelmed, underfunded, and have been working full out for the last 10 months. They're exhausted and they need help from above today.

SCIUTTO: Imagine you had a terror attack and the federal government just dumped a lot of, I don't know, weapons or screening machines at some airports and said pick it up, it's up to you guys, states, to defend from here forward. It's remarkable.

There is a new U.K. study out talking about this new variant that has now showed up in both California and Colorado that not only is it more transmissible, but it is showing up among more people under the age of 20. And I wonder based on what we know at this point, what does that mean, more transmissible among them, or does it speak to the behavior of those younger populations?

RANNEY: It's tough to know. I quickly skimmed the study before coming on this morning, and I will tell you what concerns me about it. What concerns me is the implications for colleges and for schools. I have been a vocal proponent for keeping our schools open because there's lots of evidence that if the kids and the teachers are masked that we have minimal transmission in the school setting. This new variant might change that, and that's what worries me.

Outside of that, the big thing is that we have to do a better job at both those things that we've been preaching since the beginning of the pandemic -- masking, avoiding indoor gatherings, having adequate testing for people who are symptomatic, and, again, we need to speed up those vaccines in arms, because we've shown we're not doing a great job at masking and physical distancing. Vaccines are our next best hope right now.

CAMEROTA: It's very cold comfort I find, Doctor, to hear that this new variant isn't more deadly, but it's more contagious, which means more people will get it, which means more people will die.

RANNEY: Alisyn, I completely, completely agree. I'm looking at my hospital and other hospitals across the country that are already completely full. Here in Rhode Island, we've had our alternative field hospitals open for almost a month now because we have so many COVID-19 patients in the hospital. And I think about having more people infected, more people hospitalized, that is terrifying. Our health care system is at the breaking point already. It does mean that there is going to be a massive growth in the number of American deaths.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Ranney, thank you very much for giving us all of this information, and happy New Year to you.

RANNEY: May 2021 be better

SCIUTTO: Lord, please.

CAMEROTA: Indeed, indeed.

Well, the New Year's Eve ball drop in Times Square tonight will look very different than it has in past years. So New York City's mayor is going to join us live with what's happening in New York next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:16:50]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Well, for those of you who think that 2020 cannot end fast enough, you only have less than 16 hours to go. When the ball drops in Times Square tonight, things will look very different. No revelers are allowed this year for one.

Joining us now is New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Good morning, Mayor.

You know, I just want to know how this is going to work because I remember two years ago, in a different lifetime, when I saw you at Times Square, and I had the privilege of being one of the journalists to push the button that makes the ball drop, it was the year of the free press, and it was all so thrilling and so exciting.

And the idea that this year, you know, it's just a very, very select group of invited guests and not the crowd. How is it going to be magical?

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK CITY: Oh, it's definitely going to be magical. Those invited guests are our health care heroes, our essential workers who did amazing things in the year 2020 to see the city through. So that's going to be part of the magic.

But also, Alisyn, we get to say goodbye to 2020. I cannot think of a more joyous, you know, exceptional, or wonderful celebration than that. We've got New York City's own Jennifer Lopez will be singing right before the ball drop. We've got Gloria Gaynor live singing "I Will Survive." Does it get better than that?

I mean, I think it's going to be amazing and people are so ready to say goodbye to 2020, that this is going to be a kind of joy, a kind of focused energy that's going to actually surpass a lot of what we've seen in the past.

CAMEROTA: OK. You've convinced me. You're right. The "I Will Survive" seems particularly fitting.

Where will you be? What will you be doing tonight?

DE BLASIO: Well, Alisyn, I was thrilled to join with you and bring in the New Year a few years ago. I'm going to be doing the same thing. This time, I'll be up there with my wife Chirlane and it's one of the great joys of this job, to be able to officially welcome in the New Year.

But this one is going to be something unbelievable, because one of I think -- you know, in a country, in a city that sometimes could use more unity, one thing unifies all of us as Americans, we want to get the hell rid of 2020. So, I think it's going to be an amazing moment. And I guarantee you, I

will push that button on time and make sure we get the New Year immediately.

CAMEROTA: Feel free to do it early basically.

DE BLASIO: Even early would be good. Yeah.

CAMEROTA: That's right.

All right. So let's talk about how we are in the grip of coronavirus. Has the new variant, that more contagious strain, has that been detected in New York yet?

DE BLASIO: So far, not. We are vigilant and we certainly want to make sure everyone gets vaccinated as quickly as possible because we're concerned that new variants could make the infectiousness of this disease even more intense as we're seeing in the United Kingdom right now. But the bottom line is to get out there and vaccinate.

So, Alisyn, I want to let you know, we've set a goal for the month of January. We're going to vaccinate a million New Yorkers in the month of January. Now, we're going to need the help of the federal government, the state government, the manufacturers of the vaccine. We need everyone to pull together.

But we know New York City can vaccinate a million people in the month of January and really put this thing into high gear.

[08:20:02]

And every single time we vaccinate someone, we are one step closer to making the coronavirus a thing of the past in terms of the horrible grip it has had on our society. And more and more people want to get vaccinated, and we're going to make it possible right here.

CAMEROTA: And explain how you're going to do that? Because the country has not done a great job of being able to vaccinate a lot of people in these past two weeks. So a million people -- I mean, logistically how is that going to work in New York?

DE BLASIO: Look, we're going to do a call to arms here. We're going to say to every part of the health care world we need you, local community clinics, we're going to put up pop up sites, we're going to use our schools. You name it.

Whatever it takes to reach a million people, we're ready to go because we have an extraordinary health care community here in this city and we have the people ready to do it, we have the trained folks, we have, you know, millions of New Yorkers who want the vaccine.

Again, we need some help. We need the federal government to speed up. We need the manufacturers to do what they need to do.

Really, the vaccines need to go where they can be used. We have the capacity to make it happen right down to the grassroots, and I think the way you do great things is by setting great goals.

So we are going to show it can be done. I agree with the president- elect, I think Joe Biden is 100 percent right, this thing is not moving the way it needs to in the United States of America.

New York City is going to show that we can jump start this and vaccinate people at a record pace and we want to see the whole country be a part of this because we need to go faster to fight back the coronavirus if we want to recover.

CAMEROTA: Yeah, for sure. I mean, we are only at a fraction.

But just explain to me again how you're confident it's going to work, because the latest numbers that we have are that only 368,000 vaccine doses have been received in New York City by the end of this week, and only 80,000 vaccinations have been administered.

So, are you going to get a million doses in the next month?

DE BLASIO: Certainly, the manufacturers can do it, there's no question about that. When you look at the supply capacity, it can 100 percent be done. But this is where the federal government comes in.

There has to be a clear devotion to maximizing supply, using Defense Production Act and every other tool to maximize the supply of the vaccine and to get it where it can be used.

Look, some places are going to be able to do this faster than others. We're working closely with the state of New York. We want to speed up this whole process intensely.

The manufacturers and the federal government get us the vaccine we can deliver t we've got incredible hospitals, incredible local clinics, best health department in the country. We can do it.

Give us the vaccine. We'll make it happen.

CAMEROTA: I want to ask you about this other case that has gotten a lot of attention around the country, and that is this black teenager at a hotel being falsely accused of stealing -- by this white woman of stealing her cellphone.

It wasn't true. Her cellphone was left in an Uber, I think.

What is the right outcome here? What should happen next? What do you believe should happen to this woman who made this false accusation?

DE BLASIO: Yeah, here, this is a horrible situation. You've got a teenager here who did nothing wrong, who was clearly profiled because he was young and male and black. That is racism pure and simple. That is unacceptable in this city and this country.

That woman needs to face charges and I know that prosecutors are looking at that right now. She falsely accused someone and put that young teenager through a traumatic experience. That's unacceptable. It's like that horrible situation we had in Central Park some months

ago. This has to stop. You can't accuse someone because of the color of their skin. It's unacceptable.

CAMEROTA: The Manhattan district attorney according to Ben Crump who represents the family, the boy's family, says that the hotel video shows more of a physical altercation than what we see. Have you seen that video?

DE BLASIO: I have not seen the hotel video but I have heard the same thing. And the bottom line is the accusation alone, you know, calling in law enforcement against someone falsely, that's a crime. But if you get physical about it, even more so.

I think that the thing that has to be clear here is this is a pattern. We've seen it all over the country, how easy it is in America for a young black man to be accused. That has to end. We cannot move forward.

And the way things end is educating people, of course, calling that out, but also consequences. Folks have to understand if they do this, a woman like this who does something like this, it's not a neutral act, it's a horribly negative and aggressive act, and there will be consequences.

CAMEROTA: And just on a personal note, what do you tell your son?

DE BLASIO: I've had many conversations with my son about the reality. Obviously, he's half African-American. He -- to the eyes of a lot of people in this world who unfortunately still harbor hate -- they see a young black man with the wrong assumptions and he's had to grapple with that throughout his life.

[08:25:07]

I've always told him most importantly how much I love him, how much I respect him, how much I believe in him, but I've also told him to be ready for these kinds of things. And he took it in early. Even before I started to try to educate him with my wife Chirlane, he had perceived a lot of this. So he is not blind to it, nor is any young black man in America.

But the point is we have to stop it from happening and we've got to remind our young men of color how much faith we have in them and how much we believe in them, and they're going to be a big part of America's future, we've got to stand by them.

CAMEROTA: Mayor Bill de Blasio, happy New Year to you.

DE BLASIO: Happy New Year. It's going to be the best, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: I hope so.

DE BLASIO: Happy New Year.

CAMEROTA: We have a lot of hope for 2021. Thanks for being on NEW DAY.

DE BLASIO: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: The Trump Justice Department says there is not enough evidence to charge the two Cleveland police officers who killed 12- year-old Tamir Rice. His mother has not spoken out much since these new findings and she's going to join us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: The Justice Department says there is not enough evidence to support criminal charges against the two Cleveland police officers involved in the shooting death of Tamir Rice. Tamir, you will remember, was just 12 years old -- there he is -- when he was killed back in 2014.

The officers mistook a toy gun that he was playing with in a park for a real gun and shot him.

Joining me now is Tamir's mother Samaria Rice, and Jonathan Abady, he's the attorney for the Rice family.

Thanks so much to both of you for joining this morning.

JONATHAN ABADY, RICE FAMILY ATTORNEY: Thanks for having us.