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New Day

Coronavirus Cases and Hospitalizations Drop in U.S.; Myanmar's Military Seizes Power; Pro-Navalny Protesters Arrested; Super Bowl's Different Look. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired February 01, 2021 - 06:30   ET

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

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MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH AND POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: The fact is that the surge that is likely to occur with this new variant from England is going to happen in the next six to 14 weeks. And if we see that happen, which my 45 years in the trenches tells me we will, we are going to see something like we have not seen yet in this country.

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ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: A dire warning about the new COVID variants.

So where are we this morning with tracking the coronavirus? Right now new infections in the United States are down 50 percent from their peak in January and hospitalizations have fallen below 100,000 for the first time in two months. But January was also the deadliest month of the pandemic with more than 95,000 Americans killed.

Joining us now is William Haseltine. He's the president of ACCESS Health International and former professor at Harvard Medical School.

Professor Haseltine, I think that Americans are confused about whether things are getting better or getting worse. What's your take this morning?

WILLIAM HASELTINE, PRESIDENT, ACCESS HEALTH INTERNATIONAL: Well, it's a good time to be confused. The thing -- the time -- they are getting better. But you have to remember, we're actually about twice the peak of infections that we had the last time around. So things are getting better, but they're not great.

They're getting better because the rate of infection is falling. But that comes against a background of understanding that this virus is changing fast with a potential that the vaccines may not be as effective and that prior infection may not protect you.

And it's not just the U.K. variant or the South African variant. The news today is that at least half of the new infections in the L.A. area, California area, is from our own homegrown variant. And I believe there will be many.

And a homegrown variant is really different from the South African or the Brazilian variant. So we're going to be dealing with a host of variants that we're going to have to be trying to control. And so I think that's what's behind the previous speaker's comment, that there are lots of variants that may evade immunity from vaccines or natural infection.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I think one of the problems we've had is that leaders for months and months have been suggesting that there's light at the end of the tunnel. The end is just around the corner. And I think it's been raising irrational hope that we are days or weeks away from this being over, and we're just not. We're just not. And people need to understand that this is a long process and we're just at the beginning of turning whatever corner we are.

To that end, Professor, Michael Osterholm and others, it's not just him, it's others have now suggested that in order to battle what could be a new wave as these variants take hold, that maybe we should get as many people as possible the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine, Moderna or Pfizer, not worry about getting the second dose to them yet. Get as many people as possible one dose.

What do you think of that?

HASELTINE: You know, I understand what he's trying to do and it's -- it's admirable, trying to give at least some protection to as many people as possible.

We have two problems with that. The first, they may not get fully protected, and that might accelerate the rate of variants taking over and causing us much more trouble in the future. And, secondly, we really don't know if delaying the second dose for a long time is going to give you the same degree of protection as putting the two doses at the same time. So there are two issues. So I would come down with the CDC and the health department at this point of recommending the doses be spaced equally.

Let me just say, in terms of the first point you made, how long is this going to go on? We know that flu comes back every year. If you look at coronaviruses in their natural habitat -- that's us -- they come back every year. And there's no reason at this point, with the information we have about variants, to think that immunity won't wane and that the vaccine -- the viruses won't come back in a different form, just like flu.

[06:35:07]

We live with flu. We contend with flu, with changing the vaccines and soon, I think, we'll have better drugs for both flu and for coronaviruses. This is going to be a long, long battle. Not a year- long battle, a decades-long battle.

CAMEROTA: Professor, one more follow-up question to what you were just saying about the homegrown variants that are being discovered now. Do we know their characteristics? Are they more contagious? Are they more deadly? What?

HASELTINE: We knew some of it. Well, we -- they're very likely more contagious because they're taking over the previous virus that was there. That's how you know it's more contagious. If you have two types of viruses that are infecting the same population and one dominates, the one that was there previously, you have prima facie evidence that that is more infectious. That's how we understood the U.K. virus, the South African virus, the Brazilian virus and the southern California virus looks very much like that.

In Ohio, there's a similar situation, where a completely different variant looks like it's been taking over infections in Ohio. Whether it is more lethal or not, there's some slight evidence from the U.K. that one of the strains is.

Another worrying feature of some of these variants is some of them prefer -- actually have a higher preference for children than the original strain. So we have to be more careful with what we do with our children and we have to consider that as we think about opening our schools.

CAMEROTA: That would be a game changer on every level if -- if kids were becoming more sick.

HASELTINE: Well, they definitely are. They definitely are in -- in south -- in the South African strain and there's some good evidence that's happened in the U.K. strain, as well.

CAMEROTA: Professor Haseltine, thank you very much. We always appreciate getting information from you.

HASELTINE: Thank you, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Breaking news right now. A military coup drawing international condemnation. We'll bring you all of the breaking details we know, next.

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BERMAN: We do have breaking news this morning.

A military coup in the nation of Myanmar. The military has detained the country's civilian leaders. The U.S. expressing grave concern this morning.

CNN's Ivan Watson joins us now with the breaking details.

Ivan, what can you tell us?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. This was a textbook example of a military coup. Before dawn this

morning, troops started rounding up the de facto leader of the civilian government, the president-elected members of parliament, as well. Taken away, held in incommunicado. Nobody knows where these officials are right now.

The country's TV signals were turned off with the exception of the military-owned TV station, where an anchor announced that the country was going into a one-year period of military emergency and that the commander of the armed forces, a general named Min Aung Hilaing, would now be assuming control of the entire government.

Now, how did Myanmar get here?

It starts after more than a half century of difficult military rule with no dissent of -- no tolerance of public dissent. The country had started opening up. It had had five years of power sharing between the military government and this civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. On November 8th there was national elections and Aung San Suu Kyi's party won big. They clobbered the political parties backed by the military.

And, get this, the military began to claim election fraud, providing no evidence whatsoever, rejecting international and domestic election observers and the country's election commission that said the election was free and largely fair. And now the military is using that claim, unsubstantiated, of election fraud to justify its military coup, throwing the elected leaders into undisclosed prisons and basically throwing out the results of the election that they lost on -- they lost on November 8th.

John.

CAMEROTA: I'll take it, Ivan. That's horrible. Thank you very much for all of the reporting and please keep us posted of this developing situation.

This morning, thousands of protesters arrested across Russia. Demonstrations erupting in support of opposition leader Alexey Navalny.

CNN's Frederik Pleitgen is live in Moscow with more.

Fred, what have you learned?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Alisyn.

Well, it was a really remarkable day in Moscow and really across all of Russia yesterday. The authorities really did everything to try and stop protesters from coming out into the streets. They locked down large parts of central Moscow. They closed down a lot of the public transport, and yet thousands of people took to the street.

And what they were met there with, Alisyn, was really no mercy at all by the authorities. I saw police officers wielding clubs, beating people. Some were even Tasered by police officers as well. And then you had detention after detention. You can see some of what we saw yesterday on our screens right now.

And this isn't going to go away anytime soon, Alisyn. Alexey Navalny, the opposition leader, he's set to stand trial again here in Russia tomorrow. He could get up to 3.5 years in prison if he's convicted and his supporters, once again, called for protesters to show up there again as well, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Fred, on a personal note, you were detained by Russian police. What happened?

PLEITGEN: Yes, I was -- I was -- I was briefly detained. You're absolutely right. It was -- it was really a surreal situation in that we had actually just filmed another journalist who had gotten detained when all of a sudden a bunch of riot cops showed up and took me away. And I got -- I got to say, I was actually pretty lucky in that situation. I got out after a couple of minutes, mostly thanks to my producer, Mary Ilyushina, who talked to these cops and got them to finally release me.

But, yesterday, according to a monitoring group, more than 80 journalists were detained in Russia. The U.S. secretary of state taking a strong note, has already condemned what he calls harsh tactics by Russian security forces against both protesters and journalists. The Kremlin coming out, by the way, just a couple of minutes ago and saying they will not listen or consider to anything the U.S. says on this matter, Alisyn.

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CAMEROTA: Such troubling developments on every level.

Fred, thank you very much for all that reporting.

So we have new reporting on where the stock market is headed this morning. The GameStop frenzy is spreading. That's next.

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BERMAN: Developing now, U.S. stock futures surging ahead of the open as Wall Street braces for a rocky trading week fueled by small investors on Reddit. One GameStop investor who went from making $35,000 a year to being worth more than $1 million on paper told CNN's Jon Sarlin that he's still not ready to cash out.

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JON SARLIN, CNN BUSINESS PRODUCER: You haven't sold your stocks yet?

AJ VANOVER, GAMESTOP INVESTOR: I want to make more money. And I feel confident it's going up. If it starts to run, I might see how far it goes now.

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BERMAN: All right, CNN business producer Jon Sarlin joins me now.

Jon, you've been tracking this online forum, Wall Street Bets, for months now and you've watched the tone and the messaging evolve.

You know, what are users saying now?

JON SARLIN, CNN BUSINESS PRODUCER: The site has always been about making money.

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What's new that we're seeing over the last few weeks is (INAUDIBLE). It's almost a religious tone to the posts. And the key of it is that this GameStop run is revenge for 2008, for the financial crisis, that no one believed you and this is getting back to them.

Now, I've talked to people who have invested in this site. No one I've talked to, that is their motivation. But what is true is that for young people, 2008 has been defining in creating a very cynical world view when it comes to the financial world. The fact that in 2008 no one went to jail. The fact that 2008 financial crisis, the rich got richer and we saw that replicate itself in 2020. That has clearly defined the world view of young people when it comes to the financial world.

Now, we are seeing these posts on Reddit saying that this is revenge for 2008 and you have to hold on to your GameStop stock. Hold on. What is key, though, is, we do not know who these people are. We do not know the motivations of the people saying that you have to hold on to your GameStop stock and, most importantly, we do not know their financial holdings.

BERMAN: What was so interesting about that interview you did, the armature investor you spoke with, saying that he does want to hold on to GameStop, despite the fact that it really can't stay as inflated as it is forever.

So what is motivating them to hold on?

SARLIN: Well, AJ is an interesting case. He makes $35,000 a year as a battery -- he changes iPhone batteries and phone batteries. And him and his best friend started looking into GameStop months ago and went on Wall Street Bets.

Now, AJ is, of the people I talked to, on the sliding scale of informed about the financial world, actually has a solid sense of the financial world and got in on GameStop. But he admits he got lucky. Now, him and his friend are looking to set up a trading shop in rural Missouri and take their winnings and keep this thing going.

But it's important to note that there are not just AJs. I've been talking to people on this site for months and there are people who have lost their shirt following the advice of Wall Street Bets, which is to bet on highly volatile, risky options trades. I talked to Omar in my story, who is a young kid. I've talked to a number of people who are the children of immigrants and see this site and its financial advice as ways for them to find some kind of financial stability. Well, Omar got into a hole betting on options trade, and then bet his student loans just to crawl out of the financial hole that he got himself into.

BERMAN: Jon Sarlin, terrific reporting. Thanks so much for being with us on NEW DAY. Appreciate it.

So Tom Brady is playing, thank God, but nearly everything else about the Super Bowl will be different. The big changes in how you will watch the game, next.

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CAMEROTA: The Super Bowl is almost here, but it's going to look very different this year.

Andy Scholes has more in the "Bleacher Report."

Hi, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Alisyn.

You know, today is supposed to be the traditional opening night. That's when all the players and coaches meet with media from around the world, answer all kinds of fun questions. But this year it's all being done virtually. Tom Brady and the Bucs are going to Zoom away at noon eastern today. The Chiefs are going to go at 4:00 in the afternoon. It's just one of the many ways this year's game is going to be different.

The Chiefs not even going to Tampa until Saturday.

Super Bowl parties, they are a tradition for many, but the CDC recommending people watch the big game with only those that you live with. If you are having a gathering, the CDC recommends to do it outdoors to help fight the spread of the coronavirus.

All right, in the NBA, we had a crazy (INAUDIBLE) between the Nets and Wizards last night. Brooklyn was up five with ten seconds left. Bradley Beal hits the three there. Then there's a miscommunication on the inbound. Russell Westbrook's going to end up with it. And he nails the three. Wizards score six points in four seconds. Nets got a good look at the end, but their game-winning layup rolls out. Washington stuns the Nets, 149-146.

All right, baseball's spring training set to begin in just a few weeks, but according to reports, Major League Baseball wants to push that back to late March and start a shortened 154-game season in late April. The proposal, which was formally submitted to the union on Friday, would also expand the post season to 14 teams and add the designated hitter in the national league, just like we saw last season. Players would have to agree to the delayed spring training for it to happen. CNN Sports has reached out to Major League Baseball. You know, guys, the thought with this is, you know, you delay the start of spring training, more people will get vaccinated, the numbers hopefully come down and then maybe come this summer fans will all be able to go to the ballpark and watch games. CAMEROTA: Andy, you know what the best part about no Super Bowl party

is?

SCHOLES: What's that?

CAMEROTA: More nachos for me. So that's the silver lining.

Thank you very much for the report.

SCHOLES: All right.

CAMEROTA: NEW DAY continues right now.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a dangerous and prolonged snowfall event.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a dangerous storm. If you do not need to be out and about on Monday, stay home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay off the streets, please, so that we can get out and get the job done.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ours is about $600 billion. We're targeted to the needs of the American people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We welcome input, but what we really need to focus on now is, what do we need to get this economy back on track?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The issue is not bipartisanship or not. The issue is, are we going to address the pain and the anxiety which is in this country?

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

BERMAN: All right, welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY, live from