Return to Transcripts main page
Erin Burnett Outfront
Texas Braces for Another Deep Freeze Tonight; 165,000 Homes Still Without Power; Millions Facing Water, Food Shortages; Over Half of Texas Facing Water Disruptions; "I Believe We'll Be Approaching Normalcy By the End of This Year" Bur Warns "Things Can Change"; Study: 30 Percent of COVID Patients Battle Symptoms Months Later; El Paso's Lights Were Mostly On As Much of Texas Went Dark. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired February 19, 2021 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:00]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We'll be watching that closely. Brian Todd, excellent reporting. Thank you.
And to our viewers, thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM. You can always follow me on Twitter and Instagram @WOLFBLITZER. You can always tweet the show @CNNSITROOM.
Erin Burnett OUTFRONT starts right now.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next, Texas facing another night of freezing temperatures as the State deals with a major water crisis. More than half of the State affected, and officials fear the situation could get worse, not better.
Plus, a longtime Republican lawmaker says he's leaving the party. What was the final straw? He is my guest tonight.
And some new hope that may speed up vaccine supplies as an alarming study reveals just how many people are suffering from long-term coronavirus symptoms. Let's go OUTFRONT.
Good evening. I'm Poppy Harlow, in tonight for Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight, the deepening crisis in Texas. CNN learning 26 people have now died from the severe winter weather that has hammered the Lone Star State as officials brace for another night of below freezing temperatures. That is expected to push the state's water system to the brink, 14.9 million people across Texas tonight are being told to boil their water or they have no water at all. That is more than half of the state's entire population.
Texans are also dealing with frozen pipes that are bursting and water treatment plants that are still offline. Officials say it could be days before some homes get their water back. That means we can expect more images like these, cars lined up in San Antonio filled with people just desperate to get water. Military planes being used to ship water to hard-hit areas and food is almost as scarce as the water in some places, people standing in line for hours just to get the essentials.
Also tonight, The Wall Street Journal is reporting the estimated financial toll from this deep freeze is $18 billion. To put that in perspective, that is equivalent to the damage from a major hurricane. And now, President Biden says he is making plans to visit the hard-hit state as Texans wait for more than 400,000 doses of COVID vaccine that were expected to already have arrived this week.
Omar Jimenez is OUTFRONT live in Austin. Omar, good evening as we get closer to nightfall there, how are things actually looking and feeling on the ground?
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Poppy. Today was maybe the warmest day we've had this week which was great for a lot of people to actually get out and try to make some headway in what has been a disaster leading up to this point. The tough part is we're heading into, as the sun goes down, another, potentially final, night of freezing temperatures here in Austin.
Now, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which controls the state power grid, says we're no longer in a power emergency, so operations have returned to normal. But on the waterfront, it's still expected to be days away from people here getting reliable drinking water.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ (on camera): So you've never even used your fireplace before this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, no.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Jenn Studebaker and her family in Austin, Texas were burning chairs, pieces of bookshelves before eventually scavenging for bits of wood without even a means to cut it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENN STUDEBAKER, AUSTIN, TEXAS RESIDENT: That hammer actually is what we were splitting wood with.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Using their nearly abandoned fireplace now as a means of survival.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRAYSON CRUISE, SON, 17, HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR: We would bring the head of a Futon bed and put it right here so ...
STUDEBAKER: We could get closer to the heat. CRUISE: ... and get closer to the heat and I would sleep right here,
so we would all just kind of be huddling together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Restless from the new mentality, they've now had to adopt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STUDEBAKER: Everyone's just thinking like if we just make one more day, just get one more day. And it's like, well, what if it happens again tomorrow, now we got to - OK, we can't burn all of this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ (voice-over): And even though the power is on ...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STUDEBAKER: No waters, not even bubbling, nothing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ (voice-over): The water isn't. And it's not just Austin, as they are among the millions across Texas under a boil water advisory. In Houston, miles of long lines to pick up water at mass distribution sites. In San Antonio, this apartment complex burned to the ground as firefighters struggled to get enough water to fight it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our main concern is water supply. All these hydrants out here is dry. Well, they're not dry, they're just frozen and there's no water.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Even members of Congress forced to get created.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. SYLVIA GARCIA (R-TX): I'm going to fill my toilet with water so that I can be ready for later today.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Without water on her Houston home, Congresswoman Sylvia Garcia collected rainwater to flush her toilet. And hospitals are struggling to care for an influx of patients amid an ongoing pandemic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ROBERT SALDANA, MEDICAL DIRECTOR OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE, HOUSTON METHODIST HOSPITAL: As more of our area hospitals were without power and water, many of their patients ended up at our facilities.
CHIEF CANDE FLORES, ABILENE FIRE DEPARTMENT: Earlier today, we had a situation where an elderly female walked out of her home and she was found in her backyard, deceased, and that was directly related to the weather conditions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[19:05:00]
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Emergencies merging and leaving those already affected by the pandemic wondering where to go next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STUDEBAKER: I lost half my income and then finally we're getting here. What am I going to do? I mean, we can barely live here. I'm sorry. It's like you just keep going and going and just this whole year is - just keep going. And if we just make it one more month, then my tax return will come in or we get some funding. I can't pay my utility, so just let us have the tiny apartment, it's all I'm asking and maybe some water would be nice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JIMENEZ (on camera): And those water restoration efforts are ongoing. The city's utility here in Austin says it actually could be as early as the end of the weekend at the pace they are going right now. But that's still a day's long effort versus an hour's long.
On the electricity front, the CEO of ERCOT was asked whether he would resign or how he could even hold on to his job after a week like this. He says if that's the outcome, that's the outcome. But for now they're going to focus on restoring power on the tail end of a week where people here in Austin were fighting for their lives inside their own homes, Poppy.
HARLOW: I think you made us all feel the pain that they're feeling through Ms. Studebaker, who we just heard from it, it's heartbreaking. Thank you very much for that reporting.
OUTFRONT now the mayor of Austin, Texas, Steve Adler. Good evening, Mayor. Thank you for being here, especially in the midst of what all of your residents are dealing with. You've got many people that maybe have their power back on now, that's a good thing. But there are a host of other major issues as we just saw from Omar's reporting. What are you most concerned about tonight?
MAYOR STEVE ADLER (D) AUSTIN, TEXAS: My greatest concern tonight is getting water to people that don't have it. This has just been one thing after another thing, after another thing. I have people in our community that have been without power for a week. Power gets restored, but one of the one of the products of the power being lost and the failure of the grid was we lost our main water treatment plant. We lost our reservoir. So now we're having to catch up on water.
The part of my city that has water is being asked to boil it at this point. This is a community of people that are scared and upset and angry. We're eventually going to need some better answers to why we're here and how we prevent it from ever happening again. But for right now, we're just trying to get water to our neighbors.
HARLOW: Everyone deserves those answers and solutions for the next time weather like this hits. But do you believe, Mayor, that it's even clear the extent of the damage and the suffering at this point?
ADLER: No. In fact, I'm pretty sure that we don't know the extent at this point. Today was the first day that it got warm enough for pipes really to begin to start thawing. But it's probably going to be tomorrow and increased temperatures before we know the full extent of the pipe ruptures in our city.
Several days of sustained weather at 18 below zero not something that we're used to down here.
HARLOW: Yes.
ADLER: And I'm also concerned about people alone in their homes.
HARLOW: The White House, I know, has been in touch with mayors and county officials throughout the State, that includes you. Is there anything more right now that the federal government could do to help?
ADLER: Water. We could hand out all of the bottled water that would be delivered our way. We have truckloads that are coming in. We couldn't source it in Texas. We had to order water from the southeastern states. That's supposed to be arriving here to tonight. We're sourcing water. It would be great if the federal government came in with just an armada or planes full of water.
HARLOW: Yes. It'd be a beautiful sight to see in the midst of all of this. I'm sure they're listening. I hope you get it soon. But before you go, Mayor, obviously you're solely focused on getting the supplies to the people in your community that need it most. I do need to ask you, though, about Sen. Ted Cruz . He just went on vacation in Cancun this week. It appears he only came back when he got caught.
Back in December, he shamed you on Twitter for going to Mexico while telling your constituents to stay home. He called you a complete and utter hypocrite. You apologize for that. Are you surprised that he then went and did pretty much the exact same thing when Texas is in this state?
ADLER: Poppy, right now I am so focused on getting water to my neighbors and making sure that they're safe. That's pretty much all I'm focused on. Another thing is going to be between Sen. Cruz and the voters, but I want to stay focused on this task.
HARLOW: I hear you. I hope you get that water, Mayor. Thank you.
ADLER: Thank you. HARLOW: OUTFRONT now John Avlon. John, good evening to you. Thank you
for being here.
JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good to see you, Poppy.
[19:10:00]
HARLOW: Let's just begin there with the need in Texas and then what you just heard the Mayor say or really not say, he could have shot back at Cruz and he didn't. What do you see big picture here?
AVLON: Texas is in trouble and people are suffering. I mean, the interviews that Omar did shows you how personal this is. This is rattling people to their core. It feels like a failed state. They're not getting water. They're burning furniture, just to stay warm.
And this is in one of America's greatest states, the so-called energy backbone of the country and that backbone is broken and there's a lot of reckoning to be had. It's a result of bad policy. The fact that the Mayor didn't pile on Ted Cruz, I think shows a degree of emotional discipline given that Cruz attacked him once upon a time. But he's a mayor, he's got real responsibilities.
HARLOW: Yes.
AVLON: His job isn't to talk, it's to get things done. And Ted Cruz is clearly taking plenty of incoming deservedly so.
HARLOW: Yes. John, I just keep thinking about the fact that this is going to happen again.
AVLON: Yes.
HARLOW: This weather is going to come to Texas again. The question is just when it's going to happen and they've known it and there could have been a lot more done to prevent where we are now. Do you believe that all of this finger pointing and this human suffering will actually result in meaningful change to the grid, to the plans, to all of it?
AVLON: I'm so glad you're putting the focus on that, because that's what needs to be done. There's mitigation and then there's trying to learn the right lessons to avoid this in the future.
HARLOW: Yes.
AVLON: Look, if Republicans and Texas are clinging to climate change denial, they should reconsider that because they're reaping the effects. This is the result of bad policy to the extent that Texas has had an electrical grid separate from the rest of the United States since 1935. That may feel good on a bumper sticker, but it doesn't make sense when you can't share the electrical load if your state has an unexpected event like this.
So the answer is, yes, let's move beyond the finger pointing, let's move beyond the plate of the base politics and focus on solutions, which is an infrastructure reform bill that deals with the new energy grid, which we desperately need as a nation and start trying to depolarize scientific fact like climate crisis.
HARLOW: Yes. Look, I hesitate to ask some political questions, but it is notable, John, that Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has raised over a million dollars for the State of Texas as Ted Cruz went to Cancun and then Beto O'Rourke also doing a phone bank to collect money. It's just notable.
AVLON: This is what you're supposed to be doing.
HARLOW: Yes.
AVLON: People are dunking on Ted Cruz because he's sort of an Ivy League populist who is now complaining about Vitriol on Twitter when that's what he tends to traffic in and there's not a lot of goodwill towards Ted Cruz among his colleagues in the Senate. But you say you don't have control of the energy grid as a senator, you're right.
What you can do is be there for your neighbors and your constituents, and raise money, and raise awareness and roll up your sleeves. You don't retreat to a vacation because it's uncomfortable. Everyone else is suffering. It's your job to be a leader and to help solve the problem by your example, if you can't do anything else.
HARLOW: And bring some water.
AVLON: That's right.
HARLOW: This is what the Mayor just said.
AVLON: That's right.
HARLOW: John, thank you.
AVLON: Thank you.
HARLOW: OUTFRONT next, a longtime Republican lawmaker says he's done with the GOP, calling the break up the hardest decision he has ever had to make. Why is he leaving the party?
Also, as the number of COVID deaths in the United States nears 500,000, President Biden says he is beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I believe we'll be approaching normalcy by the end of this year.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Wouldn't that be a beautiful thing?
And NASA sharing incredible new images from Mars.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:17:17]
HARLOW: Tonight, a longtime Republican leader in Arkansas announcing he is leaving the party saying the Capitol Hill riot was the final straw.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM HENDREN (R-AR): For months I watched as members of my own party and our former president tried to overturn the results of a fair and free election. The very hallmark of our democracy with the lies, with false statements, conspiracy theories and attempts to subvert the Constitution. This led to the violent events of January 6th, when we all watch violence in the halls of our nation's capitol and couldn't believe our eyes. For me, that day was the final straw.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: OUTFRONT now Arkansas State Senator, Jim Hendren. Sen. Hendren, thank you for being with me tonight.
HENDREN: Well, thanks for having me, Poppy.
HARLOW: I know this was a gut wrenching decision for you. It can't be easy. You come from a family, a long line or Republicans. But you say you haven't changed. Did the party leave you?
HENDREN: I think so, Poppy. Again, the party that I joined way back when I finished high school and proudly cast a vote for Ronald Reagan and believed in the principles and one of those principles was character counts and matters, that it was also the principles of conservative, limited government, a strong national defense and so many things that I believe in.
Those have all taken a backseat now to a personality. And again, as you saw there earlier when I saw what happened after the election, I just can't be part of that anymore.
HARLOW: It sounds like it was also not just what happened after the election, that may have been the final straw. But in your announcement, you laid out many of the things that former President Trump said years ago, some of them even during the 2016 election that upset you. Let's play that for our viewers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HENDREN: I heard people demonized as rapists and murderers. I watched the former president actively fanned the flame of racist rhetoric, make fun of those with disabilities, bully his enemies and talk about women in ways that would never be tolerated in my home or business.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: So you could have stayed in the party like Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger has chosen to do and try to change it from the inside. Instead, you're leaving the party. I wonder if that means you think that the Republican Party should split, there should be a new center-right party.
HENDREN: That's going to be a decision that the party has to make for itself. I just decided for myself, I could be more effective outside of the party. Here in Arkansas, we've had a long history of conservative southern Democrats working with conservative and even moderate Republicans to get things done and it's hard to do that.
The state of politics has got so partisan now that there's a tremendous resistance to people working across the aisle.
HARLOW: Yes.
HENDREN: So I believe for me at least in order to build something that It is possible for that kind of productive government to work, I needed to leave the Republican Party because of just the extreme partisanship.
[19:20:07]
HARLOW: For anyone who might not know, your uncle is the Governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson was on the show last night and he said he does not believe Trump should still be the center of the Republican Party. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON (R) ARKANSAS: I couldn't disagree more with what Sen. Lindsey Graham has said. He has said that the GOP cannot win in 2022 without former President Trump. He has indicated that he defines our party and certainly he has a huge following in our party, but he cannot define this for the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: And even after the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6th, 75 percent of Republicans still say Trump should play a prominent role in the party. How does this hold that President Trump clearly has and continues to have impact your work? I mean, you're working, you say, to bridge divisions. You've started a new nonprofit called Common Ground. Can you do that when he has such a hold on the party?
HENDREN: Look, I believe there is a huge gap in the middle. There are so many people who do not have a political home right now, including my four adult children, which has been a big factor in my decision. They don't want to be part of the 75 percent that say we're going to follow Trump regardless of where he's going to take us and they don't feel comfortable with far left wing policies of the Democratic Party.
And so I believe it's important to give those people a home and that's what Common Ground Arkansas is going to be about. I just really - while there's a large number of Republicans that are still a hundred percent dedicated to Trump, I'm going to let the Republican Party sort that out. But I believe there is an even larger number of people in Arkansas who are ready for a return to normalcy, a return to decency. HARLOW: All right. Well, we know you're thinking about running for
Governor of Arkansas. We don't know what you've decided or if you've decided, but you're thinking about it. And it's in a deep red state, I mean, a state that voted even more overwhelmingly for Trump in 2020 than it did in 2016. The Chairwoman of the Republican Party of Arkansas responded to your decision to leave the party.
Let me read you part of what she told the local newspaper. "This is nothing more than an attempt to garner press for a future independent candidacy for governor." What's your response?
HENDREN: Well, that's part of politics that I say we are tired of. It is people just assuming motives without knowing what somebody is really trying to do. I've said what I'm trying to do and it is sincere. I'm trying to build something that is for the people who don't have a political home.
It's not about a governor's race like every senator probably thinks about being governor, just as a U.S. senator thinks about being president. I've not ruled that out, but this is about something far greater and far broader than one governor's race in Arkansas. If I wanted to be governor, I probably wouldn't be leaving the dominant party in Arkansas. This is about building a home for people who don't have one now.
HARLOW: Right. You'll make it more of an uphill battle if you do decide to run.
HENDREN: That's right.
HARLOW: We appreciate you coming tonight.
HENDREN: That's right.
HARLOW: Thank you.
HENDREN: Thanks for having me, Poppy.
HARLOW: All right. Let's go to Gloria Borger, CNN Chief Political Analyst. Gloria, what's your takeaway from what you just heard?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think it's a really honest cri de coeur from the senator, saying that he felt he couldn't live with Donald Trump. The problem for Republicans in many places in the country is that they can't win a primary in the Republican Party without Donald Trump and they can't win an election with him. So it's kind of difficult for them to know what to do all over the country.
And I think he's made his decision on moral grounds, perhaps political grounds, of course. But don't forget, there are polls showing that 50 percent of the people in this country now registers independence and more than 60 percent of the people in this country say they don't like either party. So we may be really at a turning point in which somebody who is independent can win somewhere, because the public is clearly sick and tired of both parties. HARLOW: So given what you all just said, which is brilliant analysis,
you've got Nikki Haley trying to sort of have it always, six ways to Sunday.
BORGER: Yes.
HARLOW: And then you have Sen. Lindsey Graham going down this weekend to Mar-A-Lago to visit former President Trump. What's the endgame here?
BORGER: Well, for Lindsey Graham, I think what he's trying to do is go down there and say, please don't kill us with your vengeance against those people who did not support you. Do not do that to us. And we know that he's furious with Mitch McConnell and I spoke with someone very close to Mitch McConnell the other day who said to me, look, Mitch McConnell is never going to go down there on bended knee. He's not going to ever mention Donald Trump's name again and all he cares about is winning back the Senate majority.
[19:25:06]
And if the animating question of the Republican Party is where are you on Donald Trump, they're never going to win. And so I think in an interesting way, I think Lindsey Graham agrees with Mitch McConnell on some points, wanting to win back control of the Senate. He just has to get Donald Trump under control and say to him, don't blow this for us like you blew it for us in Georgia, although he probably won't say that to him.
But they have to kind of try and contain his anger and his need to strike back at people who didn't bow down to him during the impeachment or during the election.
HARLOW: Thirty seconds left, do you think this could actually be maybe the autopsy the Republican Party needs, the one they tried to do after Romney lost but didn't really changed a lot?
BORGER: It might be, but what are they going to find when they open them up?
HARLOW: Yes.
BORGER: Are they going to say, OK, we have to move away from Donald Trump? Don't forget, he got 74 million voters. I think what the autopsy might show is that perhaps instead of standing for one man, they ought to stand for a set of ideas again, go back to where they were to a degree and be conservative. We all know Donald Trump wasn't exactly conservative, talk about the deficit skyrocketing for the last four years.
So I think there's a need for the Republican Party to become a party of ideas. That's always easier to do when you're out of power, instead of to be a party that hates the guy in office and loves the guy who lost. I think that's a problem.
HARLOW: Gloria, thank you. Good to have you. BORGER: Thanks, Poppy.
HARLOW: OUTFRONT next, Pfizer says its vaccine can actually be stored at warmer temperatures, that's big news. What could this mean for getting it to millions of more people? Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta also has a special report on just how many people who have had COVID are still suffering from the effects.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had a brief period where I felt like I was on the mend and then the seizure started.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:31:39]
HARLOW: New tonight, as demand for coronavirus vaccine outpaces supply in the U.S., President Biden traveling to a Pfizer manufacturing plant earlier and explaining that virus variants, manufacturing delays, and these unforeseen circumstances like this severe weather mean that he cannot say when exactly every American who wants a vaccine can get one or when this pandemic will end.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I can't give you a date when this crisis will end. I believe we'll be approaching normalcy by the end of this year. And God willing, this Christmas will be different than last. But I can't make that commitment to you.
(END VIDEO CLPI)
HARLOW: OUTFRONT now, Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University School of Public Health, and Dr. Jonathan Reiner. He advised the White House medical team under President George W. Bush.
Good evening, Doctors, and thank you for being with me.
Dr. Jha, let me begin with you.
It's important to hear that candor from president Biden, no promises that he can make. He's also saying that while not every American will be vaccinated by July, we will have enough supply then for everyone.
What does that announcement mean for all of us watching and listening intently?
DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNVIERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Yeah, Poppy. Thanks for having me back on.
You know, I listen to President Biden and I hear two things. First of all, it's nice to have a president who gives people a realistic timeline, as opposed to our prior president, who basically kept saying this pandemic was going to be over any day now.
But, second is I'm a little bit more optimistic. Look, the president obviously can't overpromise. So, I get that. But I think most Americans who want a vaccine will be able to get one before the summer. And I think much of our lives will begin to get back to a new normal, and a good normal, sometime over the summer, certainly by early fall.
So, that's my timeline. I'm pretty optimistic we're going to get there.
HARLOW: I take the optimism tonight.
Dr. Reiner, Pfizer has submitted data to the FDA showing that its vaccine is stable for two weeks at the warmer temperatures that you would fine in just a normal refrigerator or freezer, including a new storage option to the ultra-cold freezer currently use for the vaccine. Can you explain how big that is? Because that seemed to be one of the hang-ups before.
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Yeah, Poppy, it was a hang- up, and a headache. When that vaccine, when the Pfizer vaccine was rolled out, it was required to store it at ultra-cold temperatures, between minus 60 and minus 80 degrees centigrade, basically Antarctica, and Antarctica during the winter. Now, that might work in my institution or Dr. Jha's institution, but we need to get vaccine out into the community.
And in large parts of the United States, ultra-cold storage is just impractical and not available. So, now, understanding that this vaccine can be stored safely for a couple of weeks in just a standard freezer, which is ubiquitous, is a -- is a big move towards getting this vaccine to where people are. Not where we want them to be, but where people are.
HARLOW: Yeah. So, Dr. Jha, we've gotten new studies that have just come out showing the efficacy provided by just one dose of the Pfizer vaccine is pretty high, I think 85 percent.
[19:35:05]
But Dr. Fauci has some skepticism, to say the least about any delay of second doses in order to quickly vaccinate more people. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Even though you can get a fair degree of protection after a single dose, it clearly is not durable. You might actually theoretically be inducing more variants.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: You were one of the first experts to propose delaying the second dose. Do you agree, then, with what Dr. Fauci is saying, or do you believe more ardently that we should delay the second dose, and give more people the first?
JHA: Well, first of all, one disagrees with Dr. Fauci with a lot of trepidation.
HARLOW: Right.
JHA: He's the best in the world for a reason.
I agree with him that everybody needs a second dose. There's no question about that. I think the question is, right now, we wait four weeks between first and second dose. What if we went six or eight or ten weeks? Not much longer than that, would that really be a problem? Because if we could do that, we could vaccinate a lot more high-risk people quickly and then fill in with the second dose.
I still believe the science is there for that. Everybody needs a second dose. But I think we can do it in a way that is still safe, and get a lot more people protected.
HARLOW: OK. So, Dr. Reiner, let's end on this. Pfizer just came out in the last 24 hours and said they've administered the first vaccine doses to 4,000 pregnant women. This is the first time that a trial has been done, a broad one, on pregnant women. They're going to assess not only how it impacts the pregnant women, but also their babies.
How significant is this, and when do you think we will see solid results of this?
REINER: Well, it's going to take a little while. They're going to enroll 4,000 pregnant women between 24 and 36 weeks gestation. You know, what we're seeing now is a little bit of how the sausage gets ground.
The vaccines typically take about a decade to develop. These vaccines were developed in less than a year. All of these studies would have been done prior to commercialization. We would have known how long they last vaccines can last in refrigerators and freezers, they would have been studied in children, and infant, and pregnant women before they were released. But we didn't have time for that.
So, we're learning this as we go. It's very important. We know that pregnant women have increased risk of adverse events from the infection, we know that they are more likely, if infected, to require a ventilator, an ICU stay.
HARLOW: Right.
REINER: And we also know that they are more likely to have pre-term labor. So, it's important to know that the vaccine is safe and effective in pregnant women, and the only way to do that is to study that.
So, it will take several months before we finally get the data. Now, the recommendation is that pregnant women should have this discussion with their obstetricians. But there's every reason to believe from the small amount of data we have so far that this will work well and be safe in pregnant women.
HARLOW: Yeah, that's really important for them to hear right now, when they make this decision. Thank you both, Doctors, very much.
OUTFRONT next, a new study finds nearly a third people who have had coronavirus still have symptoms up to nine months later. Why can't their bodies kick the effects of COVID? Dr. Sanjay Gupta is next.
Plus, NASA's "Perseverance" beaming back never before seen images from Mars.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:42:43]
HARLOW: Tonight, a frightening new study on the long term impact of coronavirus. Nearly a third of coronavirus patients battling symptoms lasting up to nine months, this is according to a new study in "The Journal of the American Medical Association".
What is causing the illness to linger in so many for so long?
Dr. Sanjay Gupta is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL REAGAN, COVID LONG-HAULER: I have constant chest pain and pressure.
STEPHANIE CONDRA, COVID LONG-HAULER: I have some bad brain fog, and like feelings of confusion.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What you're hearing is descriptions of a relatively new phenomenon, post- COVID syndrome.
Many people who have it, like 34-year-old Stephanie Condra, and 50- year-old Michael Reagan, call themselves long-haulers. They were diagnosed with COVID, thought they would get better soon, but are still feeling the symptoms months later.
You think about a viral infection, you think it will resolve. But 11 months later, would say that you're worse now than you were, you know, at the beginning?
REAGAN: I had a brief period where I felt like I was on the mend. And then the seizures started, and the more complicated issues started.
GUPTA: Reagan has always been an on the go guy, traveling, rock climbing, running. But last March, after waking up in a sweat, he ended up in the hospital for two months. We first spoke last summer.
I honestly thought that when I would speak to you again, that we would be having a very different conversation.
REAGAN: Last time I spoke to you, I thought six months later, that I would be doing cartwheels down Madison Avenue or something. I've been on steroids. I have been on anti-inflammatories. I have been on antivirals and nothing is fixing it.
GUPTA: So far, the treatments have largely been focused on symptoms. Nothing yet for the underlying disease itself. And you may wonder just how common then is post-COVID long-haulers?
Well, a new study in "The Journal of the American Medical Association" found that 30 percent of participants who had COVID still had symptoms up to nine months later, 30 percent, the most common, fatigue and loss of smell or taste.
DR. ZIJIAN CHIN, MOUNT SINAI CENTER FOR POST-COVID CARE: It's very hard to predict who will get these symptoms.
GUPTA: Dr. Zijian Chin is medical director of the post-COVID care center for the Mt. Sinai Health System. They have seen more than 1,600 patients since they opened their doors in May.
[19:45:00]
Patients now are waiting months to get an appointment.
DR. ZIJIAN CHIN, MOUNT SINAI CENTER FOR POST-COVID CARE: The patients we're seeing at the center, they're of all races, they span in age from 20s to 70s and 80s. We have patients who are both male and female of equal distribution.
GUPTA: People who had milder illnesses, are they less likely to have persistent symptoms?
CHIN: I would presume that if you had a preexisting condition, that infection with the virus can worsen that condition. But again, we're also seeing patients who are previously healthy had somewhat relatively mild illness.
GUPTA: In fact, more severe disease or advanced age do not seem to be predictors of post-COVID.
Many coming to the center, under the age of 50, and never went to the hospital, like Stephanie.
CONDRA: Some really bad sinus pain.
GUPTA: Six months after her positive tests, she still has inflammation in her heart issues, and memory issues.
CONDRA: Venereologists explain, there is probably a slip inflammation in your brain, which is why you're feeling the brain fog.
GUPTA: The theory is that the body is essentially now attacking itself, explains Dr. Dayna McCarthy, who is also part of Mount Sinai's post COVID center.
DR. DAYNA MCCARTHY, MOUNT SINAI CENTER FOR POST-COVID CARE: An individual's body is now responding to fight off the virus, but in that process, it is then identifying itself as being something that is foreign as well.
GUPTA: A year into this pandemic, there is still so little known about what is driving this. Most striking is a respiratory virus could then manifest in the cardiac issues, and neurological ones as well.
MCCARTHY: When you are young, healthy, and then 5th gear full steam ahead, now we tell you, you really have to shift down to allow your body when it needs to recuperate, and recover, we see patients get better, it is just glacially slow.
REAGAN: These people are just recovering from fatigue, or malaise or whatever, but they actually have a very real disease.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: Sanjay joins me now.
Sanjay, I mean, 30 percent of COVID patients, that seems really high. How concerning is this?
GUPTA: Yeah. No, I mean, it is concerning. We are learning a lot more still, Poppy. I think the numbers are pretty staggering if you look at nearly 28 million people confirmed with COVID in this country. And then, you say 9 -- 30 percent of them have symptoms 9 months. That's obviously significant for individuals, but for the health care system, as a whole.
Also, you know, you sort of think about what exactly is causing this. It's probably some underlying inflammation, but it's interesting. I mean, so many different treatments of tribe, if the zeroed in on anything that creates the underlying problems.
HARLOW: Yeah, and the people in your piece were young, as young as 24 --
GUPTA: Yeah.
HARLOW: -- which also adds to it. Sanjay, thank you for that reporting.
GUPTA: Yeah, thank you.
HARLOW: OUTFRONT next, while much of Texas is left in the deadly dark in this winter storm, one city of El Paso, fared so much better. Why is that? We'll answer that questions ahead.
And new images just back from Mars showing NASA's perseverance, as it touches down on the Red Planet.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:51:56]
HARLOW: Tonight, while one million of Texans are literally left in the dark all week, one major city in that state was able to, mostly, keep the lights on. Why were El Paso residents so lucky? Dianne Gallagher is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): No power, no water. It's been the same story across the state of Texas this week. Well, most of it.
RALPH LOYA, EL PASO RESIDENT: They're freezing in San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth, the Rio Grande Valley, we're very, very lucky.
GALLAGHER: The reason the lights never really went out in a major way here in El Paso is a bit more complicated, and rooted in experience.
LOYA: We had gas shortages, water shortages, power outages.
GALLAGHER: Ralph Loya, like everyone else in El Paso, can't forget the 2011 deep freeze.
LOYA: It was a catastrophe to hit the city that we were not prepared for.
GALLAGHER: El Paso Electric Company, senior vice president of operations Steve Buraczyk was in the control room, 10 years ago, this month, when it all came crashing down.
STEVEN BURACZYK, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS, EL PASO ELECTRIC COMPANY: We actually had over 3 days where the temperature in El Paso never got above freezing. We lost most of our local units. Those impacts lasted for weeks, and weeks, after.
So, we made that decision that we're going to harden our assets, that we're going to invest in new technology, and invest a new infrastructure.
GALLAGHER: The winterize plant that manager Albert Montano is showing us around today exists, in part, because of the big freeze.
ALBERT MONTANO, PROJECT ENGINEER, EL PASO ELECTRIC COMPANY: We're designed for running in the summer. But there's a few times where we have an overnight low, and we really need all of the systems up and ready. Our team was able to do that.
BURACZYK: It's a lot easier with a brand-new plant, because now we designed it for minus 10. You have the top technology, state-of-the- art, so you can dine in redundant systems.
GALLAGHER: And built in redundancies that needed to be tapped in this week, when natural gas supply drop.
MONTANO: It's a diesel operation of the first few units this week, and that is when we started seeing issues with gas pipeline pressure.
GALLAGHER: But another reason El Paso isn't in the dark? It is located so far from other Lone Star cities, it is not on the same power grid as 90 percent of the rest of Texas. There are three power grids in the country, Western, that's where El Paso is on, eastern, and Texas, the only state to have its own grid, in part to avoid certain federal regulations.
This week, the Texas system, which is operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, failed, and has faced accusations of being unprepared for the storm.
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R), TEXAS: I am taking responsibility for the current status of ERCOT. Again, I find what has happened unacceptable.
GALLAGHER: Planning for a once in a decade storm is expensive, but it is possible, and worth it, says El Paso Electric, if it prevents disasters like what we're seeing in Texas this week.
BURACZYK: When we saw what happened to her community in 2011, we made a decision, and we said, never again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GALLAGHER (on camera): Now, this wasn't a walk in the park for officials here in El Paso. It was still complicated, and difficult, they had to call in people to work around the clock to prevent the city from looking like, well, what it did in the rest of the state.
[19:55:05]
They did still have power outages, about 3,000 households, but just about 1,000 of those, Poppy, had power outages for less than 5 minutes. According to El Paso electric, they had power on for almost every household within a matter of a few hours.
HARLOW: Yeah, amazing the difference. Dianne, thank you for that reporting.
OUTFRONT next, incredible new images tonight from NASA's perseverance on Mars. This gets me very excited, and you'll see them next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Well, the Perseverance rover has been on Mars for a little more than 24 hours now, and already stunning images from the Red Planet have been sent back to us earthlings.
Take a look at this crisp detailed photos of the surface, and in color. It is incredible that they can do this.
Remember, these images were transmitted after a 300 million mile journey. And check out this image of the landing site. Well, focus right now is on the first hundred days the mission will last one Mars a year, or around 687 birthdays. Scientists are looking for past signs of life that may be revealed by various experiments, and robotic exploration already, a truly, truly thrilling achievement that has my 4-year-old very excited.
Thank you for being with me this Friday night.
"AC360" starts now.
