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Vaccinations Ramping Up as New Cases Decline; AstraZeneca Vaccine Effective against U.K. Variant; Impact of Variants on Vaccines a Growing Concern; Thousands March in Yangon against Military Junta; U.S. Democratic Lawmakers Set Stage to Pass COVID-19 Bill; Australian Open Will Allow Tens of Thousands of Fans at Matches. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired February 06, 2021 - 03:00   ET

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

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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello, everyone, and welcome to Studio 7 here at CNN Center in Atlanta. I am Michael Holmes.

Coming up, protests in Myanmar: thousands take to the streets, angry over the country's military coup.

And around the world, new coronavirus cases are on a decline. But we remain far from normal lives.

Also U.S. President Joe Biden moving full steam ahead with his COVID relief plan to help a struggling economy.

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HOLMES: Much of the world seeing a decline in new coronavirus cases, the downward trend a welcome relief for countries aiming to ramp up inoculations and get a handle on the more contagious variants.

The U.S. is opening up more mass vaccination centers, with the Biden administration pledging to use the Defense Production Act to boost supply. Already, newly given doses are far outpacing new infections.

And more vaccines might soon be in the mix. Johnson & Johnson and Novavax among the latest taking steps towards clearances.

The big wild card of course, how will variants like those first identified in the U.K., in South Africa, impact efforts to stop the spread?

Some E.U. leaders are now urging Brussels to make sure their Johnson & Johnson vaccine orders will in fact get to them. They want to avoid the kind of delays that have plagued the rollout of AstraZeneca's vaccine in Europe. CNN's Melissa Bell joins me now, live from Paris.

A lot of criticism, anger even at the vaccine rollout and shortages.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. There's been a great deal of anger within Europe at the European Union for the way it's been handled. And given all that's happened over the AstraZeneca supplies and the announcement of the shortages, European leaders now writing to the European Commission to urge it to secure the doses of the next vaccines that are likely to be approved by the European Medicines Agency.

We expect Novavax and Johnson & Johnson. With regard to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in particular, what the E.U. leaders were writing about was the fact that, because of part of its production process takes place in the United States, they want to ensure that the European Commission makes sure it gets to them, once the approval happens, even suggesting they might look at a pre-authorization distribution system to try and get ahead of the process given the fiasco the last couple of weeks.

This, of course, because supplies remain. Short Germany has announced that it has managed to give a first jab at least to 80 percent of its care home residents. So, progress is being made within Europe.

But a determination, we heard from Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel at a joint press conference, to acknowledge first of all that there has been slowness, mistakes and to make sure that they get things back on track in order to speed up this very important process.

HOLMES: And, Melissa, more broadly, where do things stand in Europe?

Some countries apparently going to start to ease restrictions.?

BELL: We're starting to see those numbers that we've seen rise and rise, over the last few weeks and months start to stabilize. But ones the countries believe are now manageable. Take Germany, its infection rate per hundred thousand people is at its lowest level since the end of October.

That's how long it's taken with so many restrictions in place in so many different parts of the European Union, to try and get to a downward slope on these figures. But it appears to have happened.

We saw Italy this week take down a notch, the number of its regions in terms of restrictions. Here in France the authorities put off a third partial lockdown. In order to wait and see. And it seems that there appears to be a stabilization. Again, at high levels that will need to be kept an eye on.

You mentioned a moment ago, for all that downward trend, there is of course, the fear and is the case here in Europe as well, about the new variants. Much more contagious. We heard from the German health minister yesterday who said although there is a downward trend in terms of overall COVID-19 figures and infection rates, the new variant first identified in the U.K., was now representing about 6 percent of new infections. That's quite substantial.

HOLMES: That's very worrying. Melissa Bell in Paris. Appreciate it, good to see you. Thanks.

[03:05:00] HOLMES: Researchers at Oxford University, along with AstraZeneca, made a pretty big announcement. They say their coronavirus vaccine is effective against the variant first identified in the U.K.

If they're right, this would obviously be a huge step in the right direction. This version of the coronavirus could be deadly or on top of being far more contagious. Let's go to CNN's Salma Abdelaziz, she is standing by in London.

Let's talk about signs of progress on the vaccination program there. But no sign, unlike what Melissa was just telling us, that restrictions will be lifted anytime soon where you are.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: Absolutely right, Michael. There's plenty of good news to give, hope and optimism. Here the vaccination program is going well. The country says it's on track to vaccinate all of this country's most vulnerable groups, key priority groups by February 15th. That's 15 million people, potentially, that would be vaccinated by that date.

Also, the figures, the key indicators are looking good as well. Hospitalization rates are down. The R number, that crucial reproduction number, that is down. Scientists are saying it is clear that the epidemic is appearing to now be shrinking, which is also a great sign.

Yesterday, a bit of good news. Over 50s should be starting to get the vaccine by May. The over 50s should get that vaccination by May. Everyone is excited about. That scientific advisers have said, once those over 50s get the inoculation, that's when restrictions can start to ease.

But we're still a long way from that and that's why prime minister Boris Johnson, took to Twitter Friday evening, reminding everyone of the rules, reminding everyone of their restrictions.

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BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: I want to stress that it is still early days. And we have rates of infection in this country still very, very high. And more people, almost twice as many people, in our hospitals with COVID now than there were back at the peak in April.

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ABDELAZIZ: So still very much a country that is struggling to deal with the variant. That's good news about that the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine will be effective in fighting this variant but it means that that vaccine has to be rolled out. It has to get into people's arms before these restrictions can be lifted.

It's tough. It's definitely a difficult time here. Most people across this country have been under some form of lockdown essentially since Christmas. They're looking at weeks more ahead working from home. So tough days ahead but at least signs of progress, Michael.

HOLMES: Indeed. Salma, thank you. Salma Abdelaziz there in London.

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HOLMES: Professor William Haseltine is the president of Access Health International, a think tank and advisory group, also a former professor at Harvard Medical School and the author of the new book coming out February 15th online, "Variants! The Shape-Shifting Challenge of COVID-19."

Professor, great to see you and I wanted to ask you about this because you are an expert in it.

How alarmed are you about the various variants and the vaccine efficacy, the U.K. and South African variants and particular?

Remember, the U.K. lags the world in sequencing, without really knowing the true spread, do we?

DR. WILLIAM HASELTINE, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Thank you for asking me the questions and I've been deeply immersed in the issue of variants. Let me say that we are so fortunate to have these vaccines.

We are moving them out as fast as we can and, in some places, faster than others. But they will give us an additional wall of protection.

But, unfortunately, we are now learning that protection may not be complete. This is a virus, like all viruses, that has to adapt to a circumstance. It goes from one person to another through the air, on the surface or the water. It needs to get into your body, to replicate and get out again.

It has to fight off your defense as well as doing that. Now your body has a lot of defenses. You have your immune system, surface barriers, many defenses your body has.

But the virus also has its own ways of attacking us. I call it, machine intelligence, artificial intelligence. He is just throwing trillions of combinations. And a problem is that when it works, it is the one it takes.

HOLMES: You think we're going to have this around forever and maybe we will just get a shot every year, the same as we do with the flu?

But with the variants and so on, do you think it will be more deadly?

HASELTINE: The one thing we are seeing, what is the virus actually doing that we see?

It has become more transmissible, it has become able to evade our immune defenses, whether you've been previously infected, and making these vaccines only partially infected. And, it is more lethal.

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HASELTINE: The British have published a study that says that it is 30 percent to 35 percent more lethal than the previous variants. So already, it's quite lethal. It is one out of 200, as compared to one out of 2,000 or less, with flu. So we are facing a very serious issue if this thing is out of control.

I'll tell you the good news and the bad news. The good news is, human beings can use their intellect to fight this virus. That is what five countries have done. They tamped down this infection to zero or as close to zero as you can get, in a world that's infested by virus.

How did they do that?

Public health. Identification of the infected, rigorous contact tracing, isolating all of those who were possibly exposed for 2 to 3 weeks and you get back to normal. But very few countries have been able to do that. That is what we need to do. Vaccines will help us make the problem simpler.

But unless we eradicate the virus -- and if you look at the history of Europe, first wave, people relaxed; second wave, people relaxed; third wave, people may relax. Unless you drive it to zero, through a combination of vaccines and really strict public health.

And with really strict public health, you don't even need to do it that long if you do it right. All countries that have succeeded in stamping out their major infections, they have done it in a matter of 3 or 4 weeks. That's all it takes, 3 or 4 weeks of real discipline.

Together with the vaccines, if we can get the will and the leadership together, we can beat this. But if we don't beat it, we're facing something like the flu but much more deadly coming back every year. It is time to get more serious.

HOLMES: Indeed, good advice. Professor William Haseltine, thank you so much, appreciate your expertise.

HASELTINE: It's always a pleasure, thank you for your time.

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HOLMES: Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, Myanmar's civil disobedience campaign is growing. We've seen thousands of people marching against the coup. We'll have a live report.

Plus, President Joe Biden builds his case for a big and speedy COVID relief package while House impeachment managers build their case against his predecessor. We will be right back.

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HOLMES: Thousands of people have been marching today in Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city it. Is the biggest show of public dissent since the military staged a coup last Monday? And it comes as military leaders crack down on communications, most recently Twitter and Instagram.

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HOLMES: Ivan Watson is watching this for us from Hong Kong.

I know you've been checking in, Ivan.

What's the latest on the reaction from authorities?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It does sound like there are 2 groups of demonstrators who have been out in the streets in Yangon, the commercial capital. No reports of any violence of any type. They have been met and stopped from advancing through areas by riot police, with their shields and helmets.

But no reports of any kind of altercations there. Some of the demonstrators waving the 3 finger "Hunger Games" salute that he seems to be used more and more since Monday's military coup, a salute that was used across the border in Thailand during protests there just in the past year.

Now we also have just heard from the mobile phone company, one of the mobile phone companies in Myanmar, that's called Tele-nor Myanmar. They just announced that they received an order from the Myanmar ministry of transport and communications ordering all mobile operators to temporarily shut down the data network in Myanmar.

Still allowing voice and SMS services but shutting down all data. We know that on Friday, the government, military government, now, ordered that Facebook and Twitter be taken down. And now it seems to be a broader effort to kind of cut off the flow of information coming out of Myanmar.

For its part, Tele-nor has said that it is bound by local laws. So, it appears to have to comply with this. They are concerned about the safety of their employees on the ground. And they say that they deeply regret the impact that the shutdown will have on the people of Myanmar.

I think in the initial shocking days after the coup on Monday, there has been expressed a lot of concern from people in Myanmar, that this might be a return to the incredible isolation that the country went through for decades under military dictatorship, isolation that has eased quite dramatically over the course of the last 10 years, as the country was supposed to be going through a transition to democracy and allowing its first elections to take place, an experiment in shared governance between the military and the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, who is now, with the president and top civilian officials, under house arrest since Monday.

So I think one of the concerns here is, with orders to shut down data going -- and permission to communicate with the outside world, pictures, video, information -- that this could be a sign that Myanmar is going back to a dark and isolated past -- Michael.

HOLMES: All right, Ivan, thank you. Ivan Watson there in Hong Kong, keeping track of developments in Myanmar for us.

Now in Washington, President Joe Biden ramping up his efforts to get his nearly $2 trillion COVID relief bill passed while the U.S. Senate is getting ready for the previous president's second impeachment trial. CNN's Zeleny with the rest.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's time to act. We can reduce suffering in this country.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Joe Biden saying bluntly today the American pain is too deep to go small and too urgent for a drawn-out Washington debate.

BIDEN: I believe the American people are looking right now to their government for help to do our job, to not let them down. So, I'm going to act. I'm going to act fast.

ZELENY (voice-over): The president making clear he's plunging ahead with his American Rescue Plan, saying, if Democrats have to pass the bill alone, so be it. He invited Republican help but said their proposals did not meet the magnitude of the economic need.

BIDEN: What Republicans have proposed is either to do nothing or not enough.

Thanks for coming down.

ZELENY (voice-over): It was the capstone of a whirlwind week that started with Republicans in the Oval Office on Monday and ended with Democratic leaders there today, charting a path forward to pass the COVID relief plan through a budget process that only needs a simple majority in the Senate.

BIDEN: Here's what I won't do. I'm not cutting the size of the checks. They're going to be $1,400, period. That's what the American people were promised.

ZELENY (voice-over): But Biden said he is willing to negotiate who gets those checks, signaling his interest in targeting the help toward Americans who need it most, not some families making $300,000 a year.

The president and his advisers dismissed criticism from a top Democratic economist that the $1.9 trillion plan was too big and could overheat the economy.

QUESTION: Is the Biden administration going too big?

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JARED BERNSTEIN, WHITE HOUSE COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS: No. I firmly would disagree with that contention.

ZELENY (voice-over): Pushback to Larry Summers, a top economic adviser in the Obama administration, who said today such a large bill would eat into other priorities, writing in "The Washington Post": "After resolving the coronavirus crisis, how will political and economic space be found for the public investments that should be the nation's highest priority?"

But Biden saying that mentality would delay the American recovery.

BIDEN: Don't worry, hang on, things are going to get better. We're going to go smaller. So, it's just going to take us a lot longer, like until 2025. I can't in good conscience do that.

ZELENY: So even as President Biden is pressing forward with his COVID relief plan, there is going to be a delay next week because of the impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump.

In an interview with CBS News, President Biden declined to weigh in on his views of the impeachment trial. He said, look, I'm not in the Senate anymore. I'm not going to say how I would vote. But he does of course, believe that the former president acted inappropriately, and he never should've been in office.

All of this is coming as there are also new questions about, should former president Trump receive intelligence briefings that are usually given to former presidents. President Biden weighed in and said, no, he does not believe the intelligence community should be giving these intel briefings to the former president.

He said he simply doesn't know what he would do with them or how he would use them. So certainly, a big interest here now as former president Trump is not coming back to Washington but certainly will be hanging over all of it next week during his impeachment trial -- Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.

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HOLMES: And CNN NEWSROOM will be right back.

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HOLMES: Welcome back.

The Australian Open is set to begin Monday after every player tested negative for COVID-19 and nearly 400,000 fans are going to be able to pack into Melbourne's Tennis Center over the next 2 weeks of matches. Good news. CNN's Will Ripley looks at the matches undertaken to host this tournament.

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WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At this year's Australian Open, huge crowds, unimaginable in places like the U.S., nearly 400,000 fans will pack Melbourne's Tennis Center over the next two weeks. NOVAK DJOKOVIC, MEN'S WORLD NUMBER 1: I had good response coming into

the court, playing in front of the fans again.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Australia won't even begin vaccinations until later this month.

How are they packing stadiums in the middle of a pandemic?

Every player arriving in Melbourne had to quarantine for two weeks in a state-monitored hotel. If anyone on their plane tested positive, the rules got even tougher. Possible exposure meant 14 days stuck in a room, no fresh air, no outdoor practice for dozens of players.

CRAIG TILEY, CEO, TENNIS AUSTRALIA: We're in a pandemic. This is not going away tomorrow. In fact, I think we're going to be doing this again next year and potentially the year after. And we're going to have to manage through it. We're going to find ways to do it. But we have to get going and this is a way to show we can do it.

RIPLEY (voice-over): The uncertainty of the pandemic is forcing organizers to be nimble. A new case connected to hotel hosting athletes suspended play on Thursday.

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RIPLEY (voice-over): More than 500 people had to get tested. Melbourne is a city that knows how to handle an outbreak.

As huge American crowds celebrated the 4th of July, Melbourne endured one of the world's toughest and longest lockdowns, 111 days, masks mandatory for everyone. In phase one, a strict curfew at night. By day, only essential travel within 3 miles of home. Breaking the rules meant hefty fines.

The harsh lockdown worked. Cases dropped from more than 700 per day to zero.

PROF. SHARON LEWIN, DOHERTY INSTITUTE FOR INFECTION AND IMMUNITY: I think they got to eradication by default. We always talked about aggressive suppression. But we actually got to eradication. I can tell you, even with eradication, it's pretty nice.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Pretty nice may be an understatement for many around the world, wondering when they can hug their families again let alone pack a stadium. Australian experts say other nations can do it. too, with the right mix of restrictions and, now, vaccines. A possible test run for the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics in July.

CRAIG TILEY, TENNIS AUSTRALIA: You can take the smallest sample we had here, which would probably be about 12-15 percent of what it is over there, and you can just replicate it. And I believe if you do, it'll be a success.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Success in Melbourne meant short-term pain for long-term gain, giving hope to others around the world, waiting for life to get back to normal. (END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Certainly worked, didn't it?

Christopher Plummer, famous around the world for his role as the patriarch in "The Sound of Music," has died at the age of 91.

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HOLMES: And that, of course, was Plummer, playing Captain Von Trapp in the 1965 musical; 47 years later he won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in the 2010 film "Beginners," become the oldest person to do so.

Plummer started his Broadway career in the 1950s, appearing in a number of theatrical and screen productions. Christopher Plummer died at his home in Connecticut at the age of 91.

I'm Michael Holmes, thanks for spending part of your days with me. Robyn will be here in about 30 minutes with more CNN NEWSROOM. Follow me on Twitter at Holmes CNN. Meanwhile "AFRICAN VOICES" CHANGEMAKERS" is up next.