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New Day

New Study on Vaccine; Navalny Faces Jail Time; Rioter Charged with Attacking Officer; Brady Continues Super Bowl History. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired February 02, 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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[06:31:46]

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DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: If you stop their replication by vaccinating widely and not giving the virus an open playing field to continue to respond to the pressures that you put on it, you will not get mutations.

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ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: New information this morning and new study suggests that one dose of the coronavirus vaccine may be enough for people who have already had COVID and recovered.

Joining us now is Dr. Peter Hotez. He's the co-director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development. He's also the dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Dr. Hotez, what do you think of this study out of Mount Sinai in New York that you have enough antibodies if you've already covered from COVID and you might only need one vaccine, thereby freeing up more vaccine supply?

DR. PETER HOTEZ, CO-DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR VACCINE DEVELOPMENT, TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: Yes, Alisyn, it gets back to the original findings from the phase one, phase two studies last year for all of these vaccines that if you get two doses of the vaccine, you can give everybody high levels of virus neutralizing antibody in order to stop the virus. And the problem with a single dose was there was a lot of variability. Some got it, some didn't. And that's why we give the second dose to everybody. Wanted to make a single-dose vaccine but most required two to bring everybody up to those high levels of virus neutralizing antibodies. So Florian Krammer's study at Mount Sinai shows that in lieu of getting the vaccine, if you also got the virus through a natural infection, the boosting with the -- a single dose of the vaccine would do the probably the equivalent.

The problem there is how do you operationalize that because it's already very complicated to vaccinate large numbers of Americans -- we're in this race against the new variants -- if you have to pretest to see who's had the infection before and who hasn't. Then it becomes logistically very complex. So, you know, the -- while a lot of people know they've had COVID and have had it documented, the majority probably haven't given all the asymptomatic transmission.

So I think it's an interesting finding, but in practice, I don't know if it will really create a lot of dose varying for the vaccine.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, the reason it's interesting now is the context of where we are, which is the concerns about the new variants, which I know you think, Professor Hotez, changes everything, it just changes the situation, changes the battle that we're in. And we didn't play the part of Dr. Fauci's bite, one of the major concerns now is that in South Africa there is a very high rate of reinfection. People who had COVID once are getting infected again with the new variant. So talk to me about that. Talk to us about why you think the variants have changed everything.

HOTEZ: Yes, what's happened with the South African variant, it took that 501Y, which was in the U.K. strain, and added one called E484K. That doesn't mean a lot to a lot of people, but, practically speaking, it means the virus is binding tighter to the receptors and can actually be more transmissible. So this virus now outcompetes the South African one and now the U.K. one. And the U.K. one is -- in some areas now is acquired that second South African mutation outcompetes all the other ones.

[06:35:00]

And -- and that means -- this accelerates the timetable for everything.

So, you know, the Biden administration put in place a really good plan for your father's COVID-19 or your mother's COVID-19, meaning the one last year and the 100 vaccines -- over 100 million vaccines over 100 days have all made sense. But now that this variant is here and -- these variants are here in the U.S. and rapidly accelerating, it means we've got to call an audible and do something a bit different. We're going to have to find a way to accelerate that timetable. And rather than vaccinate the American people by the fall, we've got to figure out a way to do this by early summer, late spring.

And I think the way to do that is to start bringing along the other vaccines. I think there's this pressure now to introduce the AstraZeneca-Oxford adenovirus vaccine, the J&J vaccine, the Novavax particle vaccine. We have a recovative (ph) protein vaccine that we'd like to bring in. This is what has to happen. We have to deliver 500 million immunizations between now and late spring, early summer to get ahead of these variants. It's going to be tough.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Hotez, let's talk about the other -- some good news on the testing front, and that is that the Biden administration says it will work with this Australian company that makes an at-home testing kit. They're going to give them something like a $231 million federal contract to speed these up and manufacture more. At the moment they can only do, I think, 100,000 kits per month, which is not enough. And at the moment it costs $30, but that price will come down.

When will we have this?

HOTEZ: Hopefully soon. I think the plan is to have 30 -- 20 million, 19 million a month available and I think half of that for the U.S. So, you know, 8 million, 9 million of these kits per -- you know, for -- for home use per month. So I think that's a -- that's a great start.

And the other advance to this, Alisyn, is no prescription is going to be required. For some reason, which I never understood, requiring a prescription for a diagnostic test I think just made it too fussy and too complicated and it was a barrier. So the FDA, last year, authorized I think 200 different kits, 25 at home, but they -- but they all required a doctor's prescription, which was a non-starter. So having this without a prescription will make -- will definitely make it easier.

We have to -- we have to make things really easy. We have to make it easy for the American people to get a diagnostic test. We have to make it easy for the American people to get vaccinated. Our health system just cannot handle any complexity. That's the one major lesson we've learned in 2020.

CAMEROTA: You are so right, Dr. Hotez. I can't tell you -- I mean I've only -- I've gone for tests a few times and I've had to wait in the office while -- for a fax to come through. But the fax paper isn't loaded and the fax doesn't come through. Like, the prescription element, you're so right, has been a barrier -- an unnecessary barrier. Thank you very much for all of the information.

HOTEZ: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: OK, now to this, a high -- high drama inside a courtroom in Moscow. Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny is facing years in jail while police take hundreds of protesters into custody. We give you a live report of what's happening there, next.

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CAMEROTA: Breaking overnight, roughly 200 protesters detained outside the courthouse in Moscow where opposition leader Alexey Navalny faces -- faced possible jail time.

CNN's Frederik Pleitgen is live at that courthouse in Moscow with the latest.

So what happened, Fred?

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

Well, there certainly was a lot of drama here outside of the court. And you're absolutely right, around 240 people have already been taken into detention. Essentially what Alexey Navalny did is he called on people to come out here and protest outside of the court. And some people tried to get close to the court, but there is a massive amount of police officers out there. And we, ourselves, were on the ground, not really even that long, and we saw dozens of people being taken into custody. Some of them didn't even seem to be part of any sort of protest or supporters of Alexey Navalny, but the police certainly moving in, in full force.

You can see here behind me, a lot of riot cops on the scene outside the court where this trial is taking place. And there was drama inside the courtroom as well. The prosecutors are essentially saying that they want to put Alexey Navalny behind bars because he violated a probation by not checking in enough. But, of course, he had been poisoned with a chemical nerve agent Novichok. At some point he asked the prosecutor, why are you saying that I didn't check in. You knew that I was in Germany getting treatment after getting Novichok. He said, you should have checked in more. Alexey Navalny simply said, I was in a coma. So certainly some drama in the courtroom.

There's a recess going on right now. It's going to resume in about an hour from now. But Alexey Navalny faces considerable jail time, 3.5 years in prison, and the prosecutor general of this country has already said they believe that Alexey Navalny should be behind bars. Of course, Navalny had called for those protests to happen in the vicinity of this trial taking place.

One final note. We also asked the Kremlin about this today and they said that Vladimir Putin was not following the proceedings that are going on here. Certainly he has put a lot of security forces on the ground here to make sure none of Alexey Navalny's supporters even get close.

John.

BERMAN: I've got to say, Fred, I can tell by the look on your face just how much credence you give that claim about Vladimir Putin not following this.

We're lucky to have you there. Please, you and your team stay safe. Great reporting. Thank you so much.

Developing this morning, police officers in Rochester, New York, who handcuffed and pepper sprayed a nine-year-old girl, have been suspended pending an investigation. The incident happened last Friday when officers responded to a domestic incident. Police body cam video shows the officers trying to restrain the child, eventually handcuffing and pepper spraying her, as you can hear her scream for her father.

Protesters have demanded justice.

[06:45:00]

The city has not released the names of the officers involved. New York's attorney general condemned the actions and says her office is investigating. So, a dramatic revelation from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as we learn new details about what she went through the day of the Capitol insurrection. That's next.

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BERMAN: Tonight, at the U.S. Capitol, fallen Police Officer Brian Sicknick will lie in honor in the rotunda while prosecutors file new charges against alleged rioters, including one man for attacking an officer who suffered a concussion.

CNN's Josh Campbell live in Washington with the very latest on these new charges.

Josh.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, John.

More criminal charges for those alleged to have taken part in that deadly insurrection at the United States Capitol. Prosecutors say they have charged one of the first people who was part of this initial wave, charged him with assault on a police officer.

Take a look at this video here. You'll see -- prosecutors say is Ryan Steven Samsell (ph). He's in a jean jacket, this red MAGA hat off to the right of your screen.

[06:50:01]

Now, authorities say that he pushed this barricade back into a police officer, who fell back onto the stairs and actually stopped and said to her, we don't have to hurt you. Why are you standing in our way? And authorities say that officer blacked out and collapsed. She suffered a concussion. Again, he has been charged with assault on a police officer.

Now, as federal officers continue to identify and prosecute those who took part in this insurrection, they are also preparing to bury one of their own. Tonight, the body of fallen Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick will arrive at the Capitol where he will lie in honor throughout the evening. This is an honor that's typically afforded to government leaders but congressional leaders are now also allowing this officer who gave his life during that Capitol insurrection to have this honor.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer writing in a statement the heroism of Officer Sicknick and the Capitol Police force during the violent insurrection against our Capitol helped save lives, defend the temple of our democracy and ensure that the Congress was not diverted from our duty to the Constitution.

Now, this honor that is being bestowed by the nation to Officer Sicknick is not the only honor. Indeed, the honor will be eternal. After a ceremony tomorrow, his body will be taken from the Capitol, across the river into Virginia where he will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: That's just all so tragic. Josh, thank you very much.

So in an emotional Instagram post overnight, Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez opened up about the trauma she endured during the Capitol insurrection.

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REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): The reason I say this and the reason I'm getting emotional in this moment is because these folks who tell us to move on, that it's not a big deal, that we should forget what's happened or even telling us to apologize, these are the same tactics of abusers. And I'm a survivor of sexual assault.

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CAMEROTA: This appears to be the first time that Ocasio-Cortez has spoken publicly about her sexual assault. She also shared details of her frightening experience on January 6th as rioters breached the Capitol and a U.S. Capitol Police officer rushed into her office without identifying himself.

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OCASIO-CORTEZ: It felt like my brain was able to have so many thoughts in that moment between these screams and these yells of, where is she? Where is she? And so I go down and I just -- I mean I thought I was going to die.

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CAMEROTA: The congresswoman went on to describe the panic of running through the Capitol, trying to escape the mob.

CNN has asked U.S. Capitol Police for comment on Ocasio-Cortez's account, and we await their response.

John, I mean, listen, she does so many women and other people a favor by talking about the lingering trauma of these events, the PTSD after traumatic events like this, and I'm sure people will want to hear more about her personal story. And when she's ready to talk, I know that that will also help victims everywhere.

BERMAN: And, look, she revealed quite a bit about her story on January 6th. And I think the thing people need to remember is, there have been threats against her that she is well aware of. I mean the rhetoric that is spoken about her, whatever you think about her politically, you know, it's not even under the surface, it's out there in public. So she knows all this as she's in the Capitol, in her office, hearing what's going on. And to hear someone come into the office -- she doesn't know who it is -- saying, you know, where is she, where is she, you can imagine what's going through her head. You can absolutely imagine the fear, the reasonable, rational fear she had at that moment. CAMEROTA: And this doesn't go away on January 7th. This is going to be

with those lawmakers and all of us, frankly, who witnessed it on TV for a long time.

And NEW DAY will be right back.

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[06:58:22]

BERMAN: So Tom Brady opens the door to playing forever.

Andy Scholes with more in the "Bleacher Report."

I'm only exaggerating by a tiny little bit, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Only a little bit. And we're going to be watching Tom Brady in the Super Bowl in 2050, John.

BERMAN: Maybe we will.

SCHOLES: But, you know, Brady's going to -- he's going to be the oldest player ever to play in the Super Bowl when he steps on the field on Sunday. Forty-three years old now. I mean he showed no signs of slowing down. Brady has always said in the past, you know, he hopes to play until he's 45. But yesterday he said he'll definitely consider playing past even that.

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TOM BRADY, TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS QUARTERBACK: Yes, I think I'll know when it's time. So I don't know when that time will come, but I think I'll know and I'll understand that I gave everything I could to get to this game. So, you know, you put a lot into it. I don't think I can ever go at this game half ass, you know, I've got to put everything into it. So when I put it all out there, I feel like I can't do that anymore, I don't feel like I can commit to the team in the way that the team needs me, then I think that's probably time to walk away.

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SCHOLES: All right, yesterday's opening night festivities were all done virtually in the afternoon. Many of the players saying, you know, they weren't really a fan of how everything was being done. They couldn't even see the person that was asking them a question.

Brady tweeting about the festivities, saying, well, this year's a little different than the others. And I guess he would know better than anyone considering it was his 10th media day.

And finally, John, you know, according to ESPN, the Chiefs have placed two backup players on the COVID-19 list. They can both end up playing in the Super Bowl if they have five-straight days of negative tests, but, you know, you have to imagine that's the NFL's biggest fear right now either of these teams having an outbreak.

[07:00:07]

BERMAN: A very different year to be sure.

Andy Scholes, thanks.