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Deep Freeze Leaves Millions of Americans Without Power; Texas Vaccines Redistributed Due to Power Outage; Biden and Democrats Race to Pass COVID-19 Relief Bill; CDC Releases New Guidance on Reopening Schools; Republican Lawmakers Faces Backlash for Not Backing Trump; Myanmar Military Denies Coup, Says Takeover is Constitutional; U.K. Sees Lowest Number of New Cases Since October. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired February 16, 2021 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM and I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead, winter weather rages across the United States with millions struggling to stay warm as the power goes out. We will tell you just how cold it could get.

And the storm is likely to impact vaccine centers. What closures could mean for the country's vaccination rollout.

Plus, President Biden is moving on from his predecessor's impeachment trying to focus Congress and the country on his COVID stimulus bill.

Good to have you with us. Well much of the U.S. is facing a dangerous deep freeze. Ice and snow are falling from West Virginia to Texas and wind chills have been recorded as low as 42 below zero in Colorado.

Right now more than 5 million Americans are without power as temperatures plummet. Texas is particularly hard hit as the southern state isn't used to these harsh conditions. President Biden had already declared a federal emergency over the weekend and the governor has now deployed the National Guard.

At the same time, tornadoes have been spotted along the east coast. This is the scene in Georgia. Reports of storm damage also coming out of North Carolina as well as search and rescue efforts there for missing persons.

Travel has been affected by dangerous icy roads and multiple airports across the U.S. have also been closed. School districts are canceling in-person classes and some vaccination centers will be closed.

Ahead of the storm people lined up in Missouri to get a coronavirus vaccine. Now that state has canceled vaccination events for the next few days. Alabama, on the other hand, is encouraging people to attend appointments despite a state of emergency there if they can do so safely. Well state officials from Texas to Illinois are warning residents to

stay indoors. One major concern, conserving enough energy for everyone to make it through the storm. Mary Maloney has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY MOLONEY, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): All across the U.S. people digging out from under the snow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a lot.

MOLONEY (voice-over): As another storm moves in.

GOV. LAURA KELLY (D-KS): How we respond over the next 48 to 72 hours is critical.

MOLONEY (voice-over): The winter wallop will be yet another cross country storm.

JIM GRAY, KENTUCKY TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: What we're facing is three winter storms in seven days.

MOLONEY (voice-over): It's expected to hit areas inundated with snow and ice like in Texas where more than 3.5 million people were stuck in homes without power in subfreezing temperatures.

SYLVESTER TURNER, HOUSTON MAYOR: There's a huge demand and very limited supply. It is a system wide failure across the state.

MOLONEY (voice-over): In Kansas, the governor is asking people to conserve energy.

KELLY: I can't stress this point enough. We all must cut back on natural gas and electricity usage now to ensure we have enough available to make it through these subzero temperatures.

MOLONEY (voice-over): The snow temporarily halting air traffic in major airports in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, and creating deadly road conditions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I'm simply going to ask us to kind of hunker down.

MOLONEY (voice-over): The storm also causing concerns over the COVID vaccine rollout as some states impacted halt vaccination events and others prepare for delivery delays.

I'm Mary Moloney reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Well the storm's impact on vaccinations was felt and seen in a very real way in one Texas county. Just take a look at these long lines. These are scenes from Rice University in Houston. A power outage in Hays County put thousands of vaccines in danger of spoiling so officials snapped into action quickly giving out shots to avoid wasting the vaccine doses.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTA SCHWARTZ, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, HOUSTON METHODIST HOSPITAL: We've reached out in the nearby neighborhood where people could walk or get very easily to us.

[04:05:00]

In addition, we worked with a community nearby that has a series of volunteers that they could mount and give out vaccine to a community that could walk. So quite honestly it was not people on our list. Many people it caught were in the groups of 1A or 1B. But most importantly we were able to get these vaccines that needed to be utilized very quickly into arms and not waste them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And many of those doses went to students. Others went to local hospitals and the county jail.

Well joining us now with the latest is meteorologist Tyler Maudlin. Good to see you, Tyler. So what are you seeing and what is the best advice for all those people affected by this?

TYLER MAUDLIN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: So I would that you need to play it safe if you're going to be operating a generator during the power outages. And just play it safe in general. If you don't have to step outside in the record historic cold, just don't. Hunker down and stay warm. And we are dealing with record cold. In fact, over the last seven days we have had almost 2,000 records broken overall. That's incredible.

And over the last 48 hours records 150 plus records are in jeopardy. That's both low temperatures and maximum temperatures. At the moment you can see that it is minus 20 in Sioux Falls, it is minus 5 in Oklahoma City. It's 3 degrees in Dallas. You start pushing to the east and it does warm up a little bit.

But man, this is arctic air that we have engulfing pretty much 2/3 of the country. And when you factor in the wind, it makes it feel much, much colder on your exposed skin. In fact the wind chill readings are as low as minus 40. And that is the reason why we have wind chill advisories and wind chill warnings from Canada down to Mexico and pushing on east into areas of the South and Midwest.

Unfortunately as we just talked about, there is an energy crisis. And we have widespread power outages across the country because of snow and ice and the cold. The cold temperatures are creating record high electricity demand across portions of the U.S. So we have nearly 5 million people without power. What should you do if you decide to use a portable generator? You need to make sure that you read that owner's manual, so you operate it properly. You want to keep it away from the windows and doors outside -- way outside. And invest in a carbon monoxide detector. Because those generators can create carbon monoxide fumes and that is deadly. So you want to make sure that you have that detector to detect that. Now unfortunately, Rosemary, we have more systems pushing eastbound. And that means that Oklahoma and Texas, Rosemary, could see more snow and ice over the next 24 to 48 hours.

CHURCH: All right, some great advice there, too, as well as the forecast of course. Tyler Mauldin, many thanks as always.

Well U.S. President Joe Biden is putting his predecessor in the rear- view mirror with Donald Trump's impeachment trial behind him. Mr. Biden is moving on with his own agenda. On top of his to do list, the race to pass his $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill. CNN's Kaitlan Collins has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the distraction of former President Trump's impeachment trial behind him, President Joe Biden is forging ahead with his agenda. Following a weekend at Camp David, Biden returned to the White House with one item at the top of his list, getting his COVID relief bill through Congress.

CEDRIC RICHMOND, SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: President Biden is not willing to wait.

COLLINS (voice-over): Republican lawmakers still overwhelmingly oppose Biden's $1.9 trillion plan, and his top aides say he's building support with the GOP just not in Washington, D.C.

RICHMOND: Look, you know I was looking at that the other day. We have many Republican mayors. We have Republican governors. We have more than 50 percent of Republicans in this country. There's just one place that we don't have anybody who has signed on yet, and that's in the United States Congress.

COLLINS (voice-over): But Biden ran his campaign promising to bring unity to Washington. Democrat Senator Chris Coons, a close ally of his, says Biden will keep pushing for bipartisanship even if his first major piece of legislation isn't.

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): We can proceed with a Democrat only bill. President Biden is uniting the American people. He is moving forward on relief that has the support of 3/4 of the American people.

COLLINS (voice-over): Biden's top health officials are also pushing for the passage of his stimulus bill, arguing that schools need more resources to reopen.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: I think that the schools really do need more resources and that's the reason why the national relief act that we're talking about getting passed, we need that. The schools need more resources.

COLLINS (voice-over): On Friday, the CDC issued more guidance for reopening. DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, DIRECTOR, U.S. CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL:

Most of these in school does not come from in school transmission but comes from outside come into the community.

COLLINS: CDC Director Dr. Walensky says they are mandating that schools reopen.

[04:10:00]

But the guidance the CDC issued appears to have created more questions than it's answered about how and when to do so.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Can you point to any scientific reasons for students in the United States not to return to in-person classes tomorrow as long as schools are taking the five steps?

WALENSKY: You know, I think you look -- as you noted, there's 90 percent of communities with this high rate of transmission going on right now, and we really don't want to bring community disease into the classroom.

COLLINS (voice-over): Top White House aides said they were not involved in the making of the new guidance.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I can assure you the White House is not directing the CDC on how they're to determine their guidelines.

COLLINS (voice-over): Meanwhile, Biden reopened the Affordable Care Act's federal insurance marketplaces for three months. The White House says it will give millions of Americans affected by the pandemic another chance to buy health care plans.

RICHMOND: We just want to use every tool in the tool kit to make sure people are covered in the middle of this pandemic.

COLLINS: And the house is drafting the legislation for President Biden's COVID-19 relief bill. It's going to be in the Senate's hands after that. But they are hoping to get this bill, the final version of it at least, on President Biden's desk by as soon as next month. And of course the expectation is that once he signs that he's going to turn his mind to and his attention to not only the pandemic but his other priorities including immigration and infrastructure. All of these things that he's got on his list.

But first, the White House says they are focused on getting this bill passed through Congress and having President Biden on the road this week to sell it to American voters.

Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And you can join us for a CNN Town Hall with U.S. President Joe Biden moderated by Anderson Cooper. That is today at 9 p.m. Eastern in the United States. Wednesday morning in Hong Kong. Well meantime, although Donald Trump was acquitted of inciting the

Capitol riot, the investigation into the insurrection is far from over. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is planning to establish an outside 9/11 style commission to investigate the causes of the attack. CNN's Ryan Nobles has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Some pretty big developments since that vote on Saturday night that ultimately acquitted the former president. There's still a lot of questions being asked about what happened on January 6th, so much so that Speaker Pelosi has decided that she's going to push forward with plans to create a 9/11 style commission to look into what happened on January 6th.

Now this is something that would have to be passed by statute, meaning both the House and Senate would have to pass it and sign in law by President Biden. But it would establish a commission outside the government. These would be independent experts not affiliated with parties. They would not be current members of the House or Senate or of the government that would look into everything that happened and then issue a report with recommendations on how to change things moving forward.

Now that's not the only fallout from what we saw on Saturday. Also, these Republicans that broke party ranks and voted to convict the former president are now hearing it from their constituents and party leaders at home. For instance, Richard Burr, the Senator from North Carolina who's not running for re-election, he's on the verge of being censured by the state Republican Party. Bill Cassidy also, from Louisiana, his state's executive committee censured him on Saturday after he cast that ballot to convict the former president.

So Republicans now dealing with how this impacts their future. There're still many party leaders still very loyal to the former president. They want to see him part of the conversation moving forward while there are other Republicans ready to move on. And there's no group of people feeling it more, feeling that pressure more than the members of Congress who are part of the Republican Party.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Well one Republican lawmaker is not just facing the anger of his party for criticizing Trump and voting to impeach him, he's also facing the rage of his own family members. "The New York Times" is reporting that Congressman Adam Kinzinger got a vitriolic letter from 11 members of his family calling him a disappointment and accusing him of being a member of the, quote, devil's army.

As you can see in the letter, the family went on to say President Trump is not perfect, but neither are you or any of us for that matter. It is not for us to judge or be judged but he is a Christian. It is now most embarrassing to us that we are related to you.

And here is CNN's Michael Smerconish with his take on the letter. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST, SMERCONISH: Here's what was most stunning to me. These family members who are disgusted, really, it's worded so strongly, with Kinzinger. You know, they are seeking and receiving direction from Donald Trump, from God and then the third leg of that stool, which I think is most telling.

[04:15:00]

Is that they tell Kinzinger that he has now lost the respect of Lou Dobbs, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingram, Greg Kelly, and most importantly Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh, the very people who profit by perpetuating the polarization that exists in this country. Honestly, this is like a lab experiment for what has gone wrong in this country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And just ahead here on CNN, why there's mounting confusion and frustration from parents and teachers on how to safely reopen U.S. schools amid this pandemic. We're back with that in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: We are following some breaking news this hour. Just moments ago Myanmar's military held its first news conference in the country's capital two months after seizing power and detaining democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

So let's go to our Paula Hancocks whose been following these developments from hare vantage point in Seoul. So Paula, what all was said at the news conference?

[04:20:00]

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Rosemary, the main thing that the military wanted to point out in the news conference is that what has happened over the past two weeks in Myanmar is not a coup. Now this is something we had heard from Min Aung Hlaing earlier in the day and they said that we were carrying out our duties according to the constitution. This is a constitution back in 2008 which effectively guaranteed the military to have 25 percent control of the Parliament at all times including the main ministries.

And what they have said once again is they will hold elections and that they will hand over power to the winning party. Now this is something that they have consistently said since the beginning, that they believed that the election back in November of last year was fraudulent, that it shouldn't have gone the way it did. Now clearly, they didn't want it to go the way it did because there was an overwhelming majority who voted for the NLD, the National League for Democracy. Aung San Suu Kyi's party.

But what the military has been alleging is that there was widespread election fraud without giving any actual evidence or presenting that. So as you say, Rosemary, this is the first time that we have officially heard from them in this kind of format in two weeks. We're not hearing anything remarkably new. They are insisting that this is not a coup and that they were able to do this under the constitution.

CHURCH: All right, Paula Hancocks bringing us up to date on this developing story from Seoul there. Many thanks.

Here in the U.S. more states are loosening their COVID-19 restrictions as case levels fall, but health experts are warning Americans not to let down their guard. CNN Jason Carroll explains why.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Health experts expressing cautious optimism as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in the country show signs of improvement. Johns Hopkins University indicating daily cases falling for more than 300,000 in January to less than 100,000 now. However, there's some grave concern over the spread of variants, including seven home grown just identified in the United States.

DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: I'm concerned about the variants because we're not doing enough surveillance. So we don't know how widespread they are. We don't have any information right now, but are they are more contagious, are they more deadly. And we don't know if they're going to work with our vaccines.

CARROLL (voice-over): Facing unknowns with the variants, health experts warn it's too early to loosen restrictions or for people to let their guard down.

DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, EMORY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT GRADY: We're seeing a lot of this variants in states like Florida, California, New York. So I would be very concerned. And it's my advice is to continue masking, to continue to socially distance and to avoid crowd environments.

CARROLL (voice-over): Despite warnings, this past weekend, one of the busiest for air travel during the pandemic. More than 4 million people flying since Thursday. States including Montana have lifted mask mandates. New York now allowing limited indoor dining. While the demand for available vaccines still outweighing the supply. In New York the state system crashed over the weekend as people with certain underlying conditions now eligible for the vaccine flooded the website.

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY: I know the Biden administration is hard at work at getting states more accurate information about how many vaccines are out there. But it's got to be done really quickly because it's impossible for states to plan.

CARROLL (voice-over): The CDC rolled out its guidelines for reopening schools much to the frustration of some stressed out parents and students who have been looking for a way back to in-person learning. Here's why. The CDC guidelines focus on five strategies for in-person

learning including universal mask wearing, physical distancing, hand washing, cleaning and contact tracing. But the CDC also recommended full in-person learning return only in places where levels of community transmission are low. The problem right now, almost 90 percent of American children attend schools located in high community spread areas, so-called red zones.

WALENSKY: If there's more disease in the community, there will be more in school and that most of these in school does not come from in- school transmission but comes from outside and come into the community. So what we would advocate for is to have more kids in school as our community spread comes down.

CARROLL: A spokesman for the CDC reached out to CNN specifically about schools in those so called the red zone and said their recommendation is that schools in those areas can implement in-person learning provided that they're, quote, strictly implementing mitigation and monitoring cases in the community. Part of the problem with that is some of these schools simply don't have the resources to do that.

Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[04:25:00]

CHURCH: Well, it's not every day we see positive news about the COVID- 19 pandemic, but today we can. The U.K. has reported its lowest one- day new case total since October. But despite these encouraging numbers and the success of the country's vaccine program, leaders are remaining cautious. Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the threat from the virus remains very real. And for more, CNN's Salma Abdelaziz joins us from London. Good to see you Salma. So cautious optimism with this good news on declining cases and the vaccine rollout going well. What is the latest?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN REPORTER: Well, Rosemary, it is a triumph, but it's a triumph that comes with caveats. Of course now we're looking at the lowest case number this country has seen since October. The first group of priority of vulnerable people has been vaccinated. That first target has been hit, 50 million people now with the first dose.

But that all begs the question, when are restrictions, when are rules, when is this lockdown going to be lifted? And last night the Prime Minister had to disappoint people and said, look, not yet. The plan is, is on February 22nd I'm going to lay out a roadmap, but everything will be eased slowly and steadily, cautiously but irreversibly, was the phrase. But if there's very little political or public appetite for a fourth lockdown -- we're currently in a third lockdown. Every step that has to be taken, has to be done very steadily, very intentionally, and you cannot come back from it. That's the irreversible part.

So first steps should be schools. The authorities looking at reopening those on March 8th. Then of course, non-essential retail, the economy reopens and finally the hospitality industry should be the final step once the authorities are ready. But they're still facing this very real threat from this variant of COVID-19 that prevalent here in the U.K. You're still looking at more people in hospital right now with COVID-19 than you did last April. So cautious but optimistic steps being taken here, Rosemary, to try to ease these restrictions, ease these lockdowns, by a two-pronged approach really. Vaccinate as many people as you can, at the same time keep the rules and restrictions in place to keep this virus from spreading.

CHURCH: Yes, great stuff. Salma Abdelaziz appreciate it.

Joining us now is Arthur Caplan. He is a professor of bioethics at New York University's Grossman School of Medicine. He's also the founding director of the division of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center's department of population health. Thank you, professor, for being with us.

ARTHUR CAPLAN, PROFESSOR OF BIOETHICS, NYU GROSSMAN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Thanks for having me.

CHURCH: So I did want to ask you this. How likely is it that private businesses will eventually make it mandatory for employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before returning to the workplace? And can they legally do that?

CAPLAN: Well, not to beat around the bush but I'm going to say 100 percent it's almost assured that private businesses will start to say, if you want to work on a cruise ship as a crew member, if you want to work at a hotel, if you want to work in many office spaces, you're going to have to get vaccinated. Legally I think they have the right to protect their workers from one another and customers who are going to want some assurance that let's say if they fly, or travel in a train, or go on a cruise boat, they're going to be safe.

CHURCH: So if an employer decides to fire an employee because they refuse to have the COVID-19 vaccine, they are completely protected?

CAPLAN: Well I think you have to make a reasonable accommodation. That tends to be the standard that we hear about in various countries. So someone says, I'll work at home. I don't want to have to come into the office. I've learned to work remotely. And the employer says, OK, you can do your job that way. And they can reasonably avoid the vaccination if they don't want it. But in general I think the employer is going to be able to say, a safe workplace, the maintenance of confidence of consumers or people that we send our sales force out to, it requires vaccination, and I think that's going to hold up in front of courts and judges.

CHURCH: Arthur Caplan, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.

CAPLAN: Thank you.

CHURCH: Donald Trump may have avoided two impeachment convictions, but his troubles are not over yet. Why he's preparing for several legal challenges in the weeks ahead. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)