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CDC Provides Guidance for Fully-Vaccinated; Biden to Mark 1 Year of Pandemic with Primetime Address; House to Vote on Biden's $1.9 Trillion Relief Bill by Tomorrow; Buckingham Palace Silent on Explosive Allegations from Meghan & Harry. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired March 09, 2021 - 06:00   ET

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

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NICK WATT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Finally, guidance for the fully vaccinated.

[05:58:41]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If grandparents have been vaccinated, they can visit their families, even if they have not been vaccinated.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: House lawmakers are now expected to vote Wednesday on his $1.9 trillion relief package.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Every public opinion poll shows that people want this.

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR AND ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: British tabloids hit back after an explosive royal interview.

PIERS MORGAN, CO-PRESENTER, ITV'S "GOOD MORNING BRITAIN": This is a two-hour trash-a-thon of our royal family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's protecting his family. He wants to keep the press from hounding them.

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Tuesday, March 9. 6 a.m. here in New York.

And this is a morning where it just blows your mind to think about what we've been through. One year ago this morning, one year ago, there were 22 deaths from coronavirus in this country, 22. But all the signs were there, and one year ago this morning, Dr. Sanjay Gupta came on NEW DAY and said, this is a pandemic.

Think about everything that's happened since then. More than half a million deaths. But this morning, there are so many positive signs. An average of 2.2

million people a day are getting vaccinated. The CDC released new guidelines for fully-vaccinated Americans. And if you're one of those 30 million people, the CDC says it is safe to gather with other vaccinated people indoors without masks. They say vaccinated grandparents can safely visit unvaccinated grandchildren.

There are some caveats. The CDC is still cautioning against travel, although that may change as more people get shots.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: That's all such welcome news, but experts warn that coronavirus variants could still trigger another deadly surge, especially as states relax guidelines.

Texas is set to end its statewide mask mandate tomorrow.

And a final vote in the House on President Biden's $1.9 trillion relief bill is expected tomorrow morning. It will bring critical dollars to millions of struggling Americans. The president will tout the measure when he delivers his first primetime address to the nation on Thursday.

So we begin with CNN's Dan Simon, live in Houston with the latest on the pandemic. Good morning, Dan.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Alisyn. That's right. Beginning tomorrow, that mask mandate will end here in Texas, and businesses can open at full capacity. That as we finally get that guidance from the CDC on what the fully-vaccinated can do.

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DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: We are starting to turn a corner.

SIMON (voice-over): For the more than 31 million Americans fully vaccinated, some new guidance from the CDC. Now the fully-vaccinated can visit with other fully-vaccinated people indoors, no masks or social distancing required.

They can also have indoor visits with low-risk unvaccinated individuals from a single household without masks or social distancing.

WALENSKY: If grandparents have been vaccinated, they can visit their daughter and her family, even if they have not been vaccinated.

SIMON: And if exposed to someone who is COVID-19 positive, fully- vaccinated individuals no longer need to quarantine if they are asymptomatic.

But travel is still discouraged. So is hanging out in large crowds. And wearing masks and physically distancing in public is strongly encouraged even if you're fully vaccinated.

DR. TOM FRIEDEN, FORMER CDC DIRECTOR: If you've been waiting to get a haircut or see the dentist, you can do that, but it's not an all- clear. We are not done yet. COVID isn't done with us. The variants are still a risk.

SIMON: While coronavirus-related deaths and hospitalizations are on the decline, new infections in the United States are plateauing at high levels. This as some states are rolling back restrictions.

Here in Texas, the statewide mask mandate ends tomorrow, and businesses can operate again at full capacity.

MAYOR SYLVESTER TURNER (D), HOUSTON: People are celebrating in the end zone when the virus is still saying, I'm here. And I got you. Let's not lose sight of the fact people are going to get the virus, and people are going to die.

SIMON: Even with around 2.2 million coronavirus vaccines now administered daily in the U.S., Dr. Anthony Fauci sending this message to local and state leaders looking to remove safety restrictions.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Get your citizens to get vaccinated when the vaccine becomes available and encourage them not to pull back on public health measures prematurely.

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SIMON: And remember, fully-vaccinated means two weeks after the Pfizer-Moderna dose or two weeks after the one Johnson & Johnson dose.

And remember the Texas government telling people not to wear masks tomorrow. They don't need to wear masks. That said, most businesses here in Houston and elsewhere will still require patrons to wear them.

John, we'll send it back to you.

BERMAN: Dan Simon, thanks very much.

Joining us now Dr. Peter Hotez. He is the co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children's Hospital.

Dr. Hotez, thanks so much for being with us.

Look, what a year it's been since Sanjay came on the show and said this is a pandemic. And this morning, we are dealing with these new CDC guidelines telling vaccinated people it's safe to go hang out indoors with other vaccinated people. Telling vaccinated grandparents it's safe enough to go visit your unvaccinated grandchildren.

What's your take on the CDC guidelines, the good, the bad and the ugly?

DR. PETER HOTEZ, CO-DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR VACCINE DEVELOPMENT, TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: Well, I think, John, they're cautious, and they're cautious for a good, reason because we still don't have all of the information we need to to go any further at this point.

So, I think it's really important to stress this is why the CDC is calling them interim guidelines. They're interim, because we don't know where we're heading with this new B-117 variant in the U.K. We could still go back up to even higher levels of transmission. There's still quite a lot of transmission going on in the United States, No. 1.

No. 2, we don't know the full performance features of these vaccines in terms of interrupting asymptomatic transmission. The numbers and data coming out of Israel, for instance, look really promising for two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and some of the other vaccines. But we still don't know the full extent of that.

So I think the idea behind this -- this is version 1.0. One point oh is saying, yes, now if you're fully vaccinated, grandparents and parents can visit their kids and their -- both little kids and adult kids and meet with them in a home.

[06:05:07]

If you're -- if everybody -- also, if everybody is vaccinated you can meet with friends in a single indoor area. So these are really welcome, but they're still holding off on restriction -- restrictions in terms of travel, in terms of restaurants. And you know, I can't fault them for that.

We -- but this will change. I think in a month or two months, you may see even more liberalization coming up soon.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Hotez, help me with the math. So, we are currently vaccinating about 2.2 million Americans a day. Is that right? It's not just the vaccines. It's not --

BERMAN: Shots in arms.

CAMEROTA: OK. So -- and there's about, as of yesterday, 50,000 cases of coronavirus a day. So, I mean, aren't the vaccines outrunning the new variants, you know? Isn't this just all going in the right direction?

HOTEZ: Sort of. Remember, we've only vaccinated -- only 18 percent of the U.S. population has gotten a single dose of the vaccines. And some places like Texas, it's even less than that, around 15 percent.

Other -- other states like New Mexico are at 25 percent, and that's only a single dose, which has a modest performance in terms of protective ability. So we still have a long ways to go.

Remember the real number. The real number is we have to give about half a billion immunizations to fully vaccinate the American people. And we're far away from that yet. That's point one.

Point two, when you talk about 50,000 new cases a day, remember, that's still an underestimate by a factor of three or four. So we could -- we're still looking at a really level of transmission.

We were talking about those numbers back in the summer with horror. So we've just gotten so used to astonishing high levels of transmission and now it's just down -- now it's down to a roar, but it's still -- it's still quite a bit. So we still have a long ways to go before we can really breathe a sigh of release -- relief.

The good news is we are going to get there. We're going to fully vaccinate the American people by the summer. And we'll likely interrupt virus transmission by the summer. So life will look a lot different. But with this new -- these new variants on the rise, we have to be really cautious.

BERMAN: You're at ground zero. You're our man on the scene in one of the locations in the country where there's the -- there's the greatest tension right now.

You have the governor lifting the mask mandates. You know, businesses can open at 100 percent.

But there's also new information overnight, I understand, about the B- 117 variant. This is the extremely transmissible version that was seen in the U.K. So, what are you seeing and what are your concerns there?

HOTEZ: So, John, both were transmissible and higher mortality, more lethality according to the U.K. government, although it's not been peer reviewed. It looks pretty compelling. They put it up on their website.

And I've been talking on and off with, you know, real public health heroes like David Persse, who's our physician who heads the Houston Health Department; and he's been seeing a lot more B-117 variant in the waste water. And yesterday, Mayor Turner announced that 31 out of the 39 waste water samples have B-117 variant.

That, coupled with the fact that the positivity rate in Houston is creeping up from 11 to 13 or so percent, may not sound like a big difference, but that in the context of the B-117 variant really gives me pause for concern. And once again, this is not a time to be relaxing those restrictions.

You know, people -- it's really interesting what you see coming -- going around here in Houston. People don't want to go into stores where people aren't -- where not everyone is masked. We finally got used to the fact that, if we know we can walk into a grocery store or supermarket or a place of business and know that everybody is masked, people think of it as a safe space; and now that's -- that's out the window. So I think this is actually going to hurt business, in addition to being a very unsound public health measure.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Self-preservation appears to be a strong impulse, regardless of when we see people throwing masks into a Dumpster.

Dr. Hotez, thank you very much. Always great to talk to you.

HOTEZ: Thank you. Always good to talk to you.

CAMEROTA: President Joe Biden is set to make his first primetime address to the nation on Thursday night. The speech will mark a year since the pandemic shut down much of the country. And CNN's Jeremy Diamond is live at the White House with more.

What do we expect, Jeremy?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

That's right. President Biden expected to deliver this first primetime address of his presidency on Thursday, and of course, he will be discussing the coronavirus pandemic.

This address will mark one year since the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.

It also comes a year after we saw another president deliver a primetime address from the Oval Office. That was President Trump, who then announced those travel restrictions to Europe and really started to take a much more serious concerned approach to the coronavirus after weeks of downplaying it.

[06:10:04]

And really, it is remarkable to see what has happened in that year. Twenty-nine-plus million Americans who have been diagnosed with the coronavirus. More than 525,000 Americans have died from this virus.

And so you can expect President Biden to talk not only about the toll of this pandemic over the last year, the sacrifices that the American people have endured, but also to look forward, at a time when 92 plus million coronavirus vaccine doses have already been administered and more shots expected on the way.

You can also expect the president to look forward towards approaching the end of this pandemic. But always, always, as he does with the reminder that we are not yet there and that those coronavirus mitigation measures need to remain in place.

You can also expect the president to tout what we expect to be the passage of this $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief legislation. That is expected to pass the House today in time to reach the president's desk for signature before he addresses the nation tomorrow night -- Alisyn.

BERMAN: So -- so Jeremy, I'm not sure that you're aware of Kate Bennett's reporting overnight, but we understand that the first dog, the first and second dog -- there can't be two first dogs -- have been sent back to Delaware, because Major, the younger of the two dogs --

CAMEROTA: Yes. Yes, the rescue dog.

BERMAN: Some kind of aggressive incident. So the German shepherds are gone there. I don't know if you know about this, but what details can you give us? And just give us a sense of how -- The president loved these dogs.

DIAMOND: Yes. This is -- this is going to be difficult for the president to adjust to, because he is so used to having these dogs around.

It was just a few weeks ago where we saw the president and the first lady on the lawn just behind me, and they were strolling around with both of the dogs off leash here on the White House grounds.

Clearly, there were some issues, though, with some aggression issues, apparently, with Major, including one incident involving a member of White House security. I believe it was a biting incident, if I'm recalling Kate Bennett's reporting accurately.

But clearly, that was a problem, and he is back to Delaware. We don't really know how long that's going to be for, if that's a temporary solution or perhaps something more permanent.

CAMEROTA: The first lady had said she was trying to get the dogs settled and that it was hard to get them settled to their new environment, so maybe this is temporary, but we will stay on it.

BERMAN: For now it's a Major problem.

CAMEROTA: Jeremy, thank you.

BERMAN: That was -- She made me do it over there. Over there.

DIAMOND: John, come on. Come on.

CAMEROTA: I see. There's nobody sitting over there. I don't know --

BERMAN: She made me do it.

CAMEROTA: Thank you, Jeremy, very much.

All right. So from subsidized child care to support for the elderly, the coronavirus relief bill will have a major impact.

BERMAN: You're a champ.

CAMEROTA: Oh my gosh, for millions of Americans. More of this next.

BERMAN: She did. She sent me a text and said it was a major problem.

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[06:16:56]

CAMEROTA: We expect the House of Representatives to vote on President Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill by tomorrow. A senior Democratic aide tells CNN that it's taking longer than expected but that there are now no hang-ups to this legislation.

Joining us now, CNN's chief business correspondent, Christine Romans. She's the anchor of CNN's "EARLY START." And Anna Palmer. She's the founder of Punchbowl News.

Ladies, great to see you.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Christine, just tell us the headlines. What's in here? What can Americans expect?

ROMANS: This is life changing, especially for low-income working Americans here. By some analysis, the Tax Policy Center says, you know, people who make 30 to $40,000 a year are going to -- you know, they're going to see a 20 percent after-tax pay increase.

I did some back-of-the-envelope math for you here. You look at, say, a family of two, two parents, two kids, they're going to get $5,600 in stimulus checks. They're going to get $6,000 in this child tax credit. That's going to be the -- sort of the top line return for this family of two.

Look at a single mom. When you add in the stimulus check and you add in money for -- for $3,000 for the year for her kid, that's $5,800. That's not even counting in reform to the earned income tax, which will give even more money to the lowest working Americans.

So this is really a historic, life-changing event for especially low- income workers here. It really is using COVID legislation to try to address income inequality in a way that we have never really even seen before.

And there's so much here, you guys. It is a sprawling bill. Jen Psaki, you know, the president's spokesperson, said this is the most important progressive legislation in history.

Of course, conservatives say this is the most important progressive legislation in history, and they say that not as a compliment.

So this is clearly a very big deal that you'll feel in so many ways, much beyond the stimulus checks.

BERMAN: You know, and I was reading "The Washington Post." There are things in there like support for black farmers.

ROMANS: Yes.

BERMAN: Who have badly needed it for so long.

ROMANS: Five billion dollars.

BERMAN: Just talk a little more about what this means for middle- and lower-income people, Christine. Because, you know, with all the tax cuts we've had, we're talking about a benefit to this income bracket that was in the hundreds of dollars. And now you're talking about --

ROMANS: Thousands.

BERMAN: Yes. So talk to me about the difference there about the real feel, as it were.

ROMANS: So the real feel here -- and also this legislation tasks the Treasury Department with finding a mechanism -- sorry for the terrible process words -- but find a mechanism to get the money to you all every single month. So not just seeing the money back in the tax code after a year, but getting money regularly for the next year into people's pockets so they can pay their bills.

There's also here -- there are tax breaks for childcare, for elder care. There's a stimulus check for the first -- if you have an elderly parent or grandparent who lives with you, and they're a dependent, that person is going to -- you're going to get a $1,400 check in that person's name, too.

This is really about putting money in the pockets of poor working Americans so that we can try to address this income inequality that has been so revealed by COVID.

I just -- I haven't seen an effort like this when you look at the child tax credit, again, beyond the stimulus checks. It gets a lot of attention. That's going to millions and millions of Americans, but the child tax credit, the earned income tax credit and these other provisions to try to specifically target inequality, very new.

[06:20:18]

CAMEROTA: Anna, on the politics of it, there's a lot to dive into. But let's quickly dispense with one of the criticisms that I hear popping up now on MAGA media, as well as Senator Tom Cotton, that this is all a travesty, because inmates like the Tsarnaev brothers -- or one of the Tsarnaev brothers -- will be getting a payment.

Where was he when inmates got payments during President Trump's two coronavirus relief issue -- you know, packages, which they also got? So this is a new -- a new complaint that has cropped up by Republicans, but what else do we need to know about the politics here?

ANNA PALMER, FOUNDER, PUNCHBOWL NEWS: I mean, this is a widely popular bill across the country with Republicans and Democrats. Obviously, in Washington, it's one of those issues where you're not going to see Republicans support it, even though they have supported many of the provisions that are in this package.

Democrats either maybe plussed up some of them, increased the amount that was going to some of the different provisions. And some of the stickier, thornier issues around state and local funding they put in there.

But the real issue you see is Republicans trying to draw a line in the sand about how this price tag is too large or try to find specific issues like the one that you mentioned that they're going to try to criticize about this COVID relief package, despite the fact that it is wildly popular and certainly something that Democrats are going to count on running on in 2022 when they look at where is the economy.

This is one of those issues where they think this could really help juice up the economy and help those struggling families and people that Christine, you know, was just speaking about.

BERMAN: So if you want to get a sense of what bizarro world looks like, go to West Virginia, where the Republican governor there is criticizing Democratic Senator Joe Manchin for getting in the way of some of the money that he wanted as a governor there. Gives you a sense of how out there in the country it might be received differently than in Washington, D.C.

Anna, I do want to get one question about what this may portend for the future, though. If no Republicans were on board for this COVID relief, right, which is something many of them were in favor of last year, what does it mean going forward? Why should Democrats or the White House assume they'll ever get any Republican votes for pretty much anything, including infrastructure?

PALMER: Yes. This is the top of Punchbowl News A.M. newsletter this morning, is us looking at infrastructure, which is expected to be the next big legislative issue that this White House, although they aren't publicly saying it yet, is going to try to take on.

And to your point, where will the Republicans -- are they going to be, you know, kind of real brokers in this? And are you going to see Susan Collins try to make some kind of a deal here?

Joe Manchin has said that he doesn't want it to just start off as a Democrat-only reconciliation package. But I have a hard time seeing Republicans really coming to the negotiating table in the long-term. They've clearly decided that their biggest strength together and one of the only things that they agree on is that they want to be opposed to what Democrats are far.

And so it will be very interesting to see the posture of what Mitch McConnell, the leader in the Senate, how does he approach infrastructure? This is something that's really difficult. John Boehner, a lot of Republicans, have tried to do this in the past. And infrastructure is a lot more complicated than I think people are actually thinking about when it comes to getting something across the finish line.

CAMEROTA: Anna, Christine, thank you both very much for all of that information.

So, it's been more than a day since Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's bombshell interview and still no response from the royal family. We have a live report on what's happening in London next.

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[06:28:55]

BERMAN: All right. Live pictures of Buckingham Palace. Pictures, but you can't hear anything. It's silent. The palace silent this morning after the stunning claims made by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Their interview aired in Britain last night.

CNN anchor and royal correspondent Max Foster has new reporting what's going on behind the scenes.

Max, what have you learned?

FOSTER: We're live at Windsor Castle, where the queen is based. She'll have to have final say on any statement. But of course, Prince Charles will play it into. Prince William will play into it. And also all of the aides around them. It's a complicated process and complicated severe allegations made against the institution and individuals within it. So, it's playing out.

There's a huge amount of media coverage, of course, on this. They are not giving any briefing whatsoever. As you say, there hasn't been a statement so far.

I've been trying to research as best I can, speak to the people involved in various discussions around this. I think the impression I'm getting is that they simply will not be rushed.

And I think this is about the media pressure, the speculation around the documentary, and the rumors and innuendo, particularly, of course, from the British press.