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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

AstraZeneca: COVID Vaccine 79 Percent Effective In U.S. Trial; Miami Beach Faces Unruly Spring Break Crowds, Imposes Curfew; Royal Family Considers Appointment Diversity Chief. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired March 22, 2021 - 05:30   ET

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


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[05:30:17]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. This is EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Laura Jarrett. Exactly 30 minutes past the hour here in New York.

ROMANS: All right.

Breaking overnight, a U.S. clinical trial finds AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine to be 79 percent effective against symptomatic disease and 100 percent effective against severe disease and hospitalization.

The large clinical trial found the vaccine causes no serious side effects. A number of countries had temporarily suspended the AstraZeneca shot after reports of blood clots in a small number of vaccinated people.

The company is preparing to apply for emergency use authorization in the U.S.

JARRETT: To Florida now where spring break turned to spring chaos. Police firing a chemical irritant into an army of spring breakers over the weekend. Now, Miami Beach officials extended an 8:00 p.m. curfew and state of emergency until mid-April.

Officials say partiers had been fighting in the streets, trashing restaurants, and refusing to wear masks or socially distance.

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RAUL AGUILA, CITY MANAGER, MIAMI BEACH: This is not a typical spring break crowd, as you said. These are individuals coming into the city, as you said, to engage in lawlessness and an anything-goes party attitude.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Right now, Florida leads the nation with the highest number of reported cases of the contagious COVID variant first seen in the U.K.

CNN's Randi Kaye is there. She has more from Miami Beach for us.

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RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Good morning, Christine and Laura.

Officials are calling the spring break here in Miami Beach a spring break like no other. They said it is not your typical group of spring breakers here.

More than 1,000 people were in the streets on Friday night and many more on Saturday night, which is why they have now put in this state of emergency and new curfew here in Miami Beach. The curfew is at 8:00 p.m. -- it goes into effect at 8:00 p.m., at least for another day or so.

The causeways will also be closed from the mainland to Miami Beach and the entertainment districts here. And the streets in this area here on Ocean Drive where we are also closed to spring breakers, although hotel guests can come in, people who work in the restaurants can come in or the businesses around here, and some of the residents as well.

There is a chance, of course, that there -- that this violence could continue, which is why they put this new curfew into effect. More than a dozen people were arrested on Saturday night.

The mayor here has said that there have been riots in the street. He said that somebody fired a gun into the air. There have been stampedes. So on Saturday night, police had to use pepper balls to try and clear the crowd of spring breakers that was defying the new curfew and the new order in place.

I did speak to some spring breakers to get their views on what they think of this new curfew and here's what they told me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like it's needed because coronavirus is still around. I feel like a lot of the spring breakers are just not thinking about the future and what could possibly happen if they keep coming to Miami for spring break.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So they shut down South Beach and I live closer to Fort Lauderdale, so when they shut down here it was just like a flux of people coming down to Fort Lauderdale. And it's just like since South Beach is like the most popular one, they're just trickling down to Fort Lauderdale. And that's my home so I'm even more worried about Fort Lauderdale.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't believe -- I'm here from New York to be out here to have fun. Like, 8:00 is O.D. (ph). Maybe like 10:30 would have been fine. I'd be OK with that -- or even 10:00. But 8:00, that's (INAUDIBLE).

KAYE (on camera): And about 51 percent of those people who were arrested are from out of state. They're not even from here in Florida, which is why people are so concerned about this group that seems to be wreaking havoc on the city of Miami Beach.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: Randi, thank you.

It just shows you that travel is back in a big way now and that is a worrying sign for health experts.

CNN has reporters covering the pandemic coast-to-coast.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm Pete Muntean in Washington.

Spring break air travel continues to set records of the pandemic.

The TSA says it screened more than 1.3 million people at airports across the country on Saturday. That means more than a million people have flown each day for 10 straight days. The record of the pandemic, set on Friday, when more than 1.4 million people flew -- and that number could be even higher for Sunday. That number will come out later on Monday.

All of this travel is happening as health experts are still warning against spring break trips.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm Dianne Gallagher in Charlotte.

Vaccine eligibility expansion is happening all across the southeast. Starting today, Monday, in Florida, anybody over the age of 50 can get a vaccine. In Alabama, it's 55 and older, as well as those who have developmental or intellectual disabilities, and anybody ages 16 to 64 who have underlying high-risk medical conditions.

[05:35:15]

Now, in Louisiana -- and this is big -- all essential workers over the age of 16 are eligible for the vaccine. In Louisiana, essential workers could be a member of the clergy, someone who works in higher education, manufacturing, transportation, and those who work in grocery stores and food services.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm Alexandra Field.

The state of Massachusetts is taking its next steps towards reopening, raising the limits on gatherings at event spaces and in public places. The city of Boston says it will loosen the same restrictions but they'll move to make a more moderate increase for now.

Mayor Marty Walsh says the city can meet the state at that higher threshold once the city is able to hold a positivity rate at or below 2.75 percent for two consecutive weeks. BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST (on camera): I'm Bianna Golodryga in New York.

For the first time in over a year, all of New York City public schools will be offering in-person learning for K through 12 students starting today. Nearly 500 high schools are welcoming back some 55,000 students. That's just a fraction of the city's 326,000 high school students prior to the pandemic.

The majority of families continuing to opt for remote learning.

High school students will be subjected to the same safety measures as elementary and middle school students, including randomized weekly testing, masking, and social distancing.

According to city officials, the coronavirus positivity rate of schools since October is .57 percent, indicating minimal spread within classrooms.

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ROMANS: All right. Thank you, Bianna, and all of our reporters for those.

The Biden administration has just notched a legislative victory that will deliver thousands of dollars into the pockets of lower and middle-income Americans. Vaccinations are surging, the stock market near record highs. Top economists expect all this progress will supercharge the U.S. economy to growth, this year, we haven't seen since the 1980s.

Let's bring in CNN White House correspondent John Harwood who has dropped an excellent piece on cnn.com about the economy. "It's the economy, stupid" to quote James Carville. Can President Biden sustain these early wins, John?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (via Cisco Webex): Well, Christine, President Biden hopes it will be the "economy, stupid." The economy has not been the central driving force in our politics for a while. But, Joe Biden's ability to sustain his early success depends on keeping his popularity levels high and holding Congress. Of course, they've got midterm elections next year.

He's reasonably popular now -- low 50s approval -- but that wasn't enough, as we saw, to draw any Republican votes in the recent debate over COVID relief. And there are other issues coming up where he can't do it with Democratic votes alone. So he's hoping the tailwinds of a strong economy give him a greater ability to move his agenda through Congress.

JARRETT: But, John, how does he do that? You already see some -- this vocal crowd trying to change the subject and look for openings where they can on what you might think of as typical wedge issues like immigration. You already see Republicans sort of beating this drum that the Biden administration has an open borders policy when, of course, it doesn't. So how does the Biden administration counter that and keep redirecting the conversation back to the economy, especially when it's doing well?

HARWOOD: Laura, that is such a good point and that's why we have not seen the administration label the border situation a crisis. We've not seen Joe Biden go to the border.

He's trying to keep his focus on solving the pandemic and reviving the economy. And what he's hoping and his team is hoping is that the strong link between resolving the pandemic and getting the economy going, that voters will see that and will understand that he's very focused on COVID. And so when the economy really takes off in the second-third quarters of this year, he's going to be rewarded by people saying my life is better because of what Joe Biden has done on the pandemic.

Try to deal with the situation on the border, but not let that become the dominant story of his administration.

ROMANS: You know, the economy could really be flying into 2022 and midterms. You know, not a single Republican voted for the relief that people will be feeling over the next year. I wonder if that's why you're hearing more about Dr. Seuss and, like, these fake identity issues, right? That seems to resonate with people.

If you're a Republican, you want to focus on that. You don't want to focus on the fact that your party didn't support the thing that makes you feel good.

HARWOOD: One hundred percent.

And, you know, what we've seen with the Republican Party -- especially among those blue-collar, white, evangelicals who are really the core of the Trump movement -- is a feeling that they are being left behind in diversifying U.S. economy, diversifying population of the United States. And so, Republicans focus on things that are important culturally to them.

[05:40:15]

Democrats are hoping that if, in fact, this COVID relief bill helps the economy get back to full employment by the end of 2022 -- if we have a seven percent year this year, as Goldman Sachs has predicted, five percent growth next year -- that surge can let them focus the minds of voters -- of more voters than we've seen in the recent past on what I'm putting in your pocket.

And, of course, those $1,400 checks which have been landing in people's bank accounts, that's pretty unmistakable. And the more Joe Biden can underscore this is what I'm doing for you, the better chance he has of helping Democrats hold the Congress next year.

Remember, they've only got five votes to spare in the House and zero votes to spare in the Senate. They need to hold on. And three of the last four presidents have lost the House in their first two years in office. If that happens to Joe Biden, his agenda gets roadblocked. ROMANS: All right, John Harwood. Nice to see you. Thanks for getting

up early with us to start the week.

JARRETT: Yes, nice to have you, John. Thanks.

ROMANS: Nice to have you. Thanks, John. Great piece at cnn.com

HARWOOD: My pleasure.

ROMANS: All right.

There's a wrinkle in delivering all of that critical relief. Rollout of that game-changing child tax credit may be delayed. The head of the IRS warned payments may not be ready in July, as the law requires. Extending this year's tax filing deadline means the agency has less time to create a system to send families that credit monthly instead of as a lump sum at tax time.

Those payments, by the way -- those monthly payments are critical. It's a guaranteed income for the year for low-income families and it's expected to cut child poverty, potentially, nearly in half.

The credit is fully refundable, so more low-income parents can take advantage of it. Until now, it's only been partially refundable, leaving more than 20 million children unable to get the full credit because their family's income is too low.

The IRS is struggling to juggle the child tax credit, tax season, those $1,400 stimulus checks that John was just talking about, and the other demands the relief package has placed on it, Laura.

JARRETT: The implementation of this always the tricky party.

ROMANS: Yes.

JARRETT: Well, Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin in Afghanistan this morning as the U.S. faces a May first deadline to remove all U.S. forces.

Let's bring in our international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson, who is live in London for us. Nic, nice to see you.

This May first deadline was a deal that the Trump administration had struck with the Taliban, but it seems the Biden administration isn't likely to stick with it.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: They're certainly having problems with it. When President Biden came in he said he wanted to understand precisely what it was the Trump administration had agreed to with the Taliban. He subsequently said the Taliban are not sticking to their terms of the deal to stop their attacks, to break connections with al Qaeda.

Secretary of Defense Austin said that he was on a sort of a listening mission while he was in Afghanistan, speaking there with President Ashraf Ghani who, by the way, has come under increasing pressure from President Biden to get into talks with the Taliban. But it's not going well. President Biden, himself, has said that this May the first deadline would be hard to achieve.

The Secretary of Defense said that he wasn't going to give an analysis of when that -- what might happen to that deadline and would it be extended.

I think we're also going to get some indications on that when Sec. of State Antony Blinken arrives in Brussels at NATO headquarters sometime later today for meetings there with NATO officials.

Of course, Afghanistan a big issue. NATO has troops there and the mantra at the last NATO summit with defense leaders was that we went in together, we'll make a decision together, and we'll come out together. So, a lot of listening to allies to be done at NATO by Sec. Blinken.

But clearly, a decision must be made soon on whether or not to extend the troops in Afghanistan.

JARRETT: All right, Nic. We know you will be keeping tabs on all of this for us -- appreciate it. Nice to see you.

We'll be right back.

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[05:48:22]

ROMANS: Welcome back this Monday morning.

Brazilian hospitals are running out of ICU beds and vaccine supply is severely limited.

CNN's Matt Rivers has more from Rio de Janeiro.

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MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's a sense of desperation outside this Rio de Janeiro clinic.

SILVIA SILVA SANTOS, MOTHER COULD NOT GET VACCINE: (Speaking foreign language).

RIVERS (voice-over): She didn't get one, says Silvia Silva Santos, walking out. My 77-year-old mom can't get a vaccine. One of many that showed up that day waiting for vaccines that don't exist.

This woman says this is a disgrace. People waiting all day and night. Who knows if there will be a vaccine tomorrow?

And Brazil's COVID-19 situation has never been worse. Daily case and death records are the norm, ICUs nationwide are full, and health systems are failing. And despite health officials saying the program has been a success, vaccine deliveries are well behind schedule -- months away from making a big impact, experts say. No supply means no shots today back at the clinic. RIVERS (on camera): So all these 70-plus-year-olds behind me have

been told there are no more vaccines left in this clinic. The weather app says it feels like it's about 100 degrees outside and yet, they're not willing to leave because they're scared that if they do leave and some vaccines show up they won't be here to get them.

RIVERS (voice-over): They wait because they're scared of the disease that preys on the elderly. But in Brazil lately, it's not just the old who are dying.

[05:50:00]

Maria De Pena De Silva Cicada (ph) says she wasn't just a daughter, she was a friend who was everything to me. Her daughter Gracyanne (ph) was only 28 when she died last year of COVID. Her four-year-old son lives with grandma now, their family forever missing a member.

She says, "They called me that morning and said she was dead, then I went into shock. The virus didn't let us say goodbye."

For the last two months, multiple doctors across Brazil have told us they've seen more young people dying of COVID than before.

In Brazil's largest state of Sao Paulo, officials say 60 percent of ICU patients are now between 30 and 50, something Rio de Janeiro Dr. Pedro Archer is seeing, too. He says, "We have patients now in their 30s and their 20s -- severe intubated patients. I think maybe the virus has mutated -- become a new strain."

There are new COVID variants here but experts say there's no proof yet they are more lethal for the young. To explain it, epidemiologists point more to scenes like this -- social gatherings. This one, a party from this month, ramped up during the New Year and Carnival holidays. Younger people simply exposed more.

In another video given to CNN this weekend, dozens can be seen streaming out of a party broken up by police, and that's just the legal stuff.

In Rio, bars and restaurants can be open until 9:00, many taking full advantage.

RIVERS (on camera): It is crowded out here and it just doesn't feel like you might expect, given that Brazil keeps setting new records for cases and deaths.

RIVERS (voice-over): Where it does feel like that is this cemetery in Rio de Janeiro. Both young and old end up here. Today, it's a funeral for a 52-year-old COVID victim. There's a lot of services lined up this afternoon, so the family only gets 15 minutes to mourn.

Matt Rivers, CNN, Rio de Janeiro.

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JARRETT: Matt, thank you for that report. Buckingham Palace says they may consider appointing a diversity chief

after that bombshell interview with Harry and Meghan Markle.

CNN's Max Foster is live for us in the U.K. Max, how serious is this? How is this even going to work?

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting and I think it's the first real impact, Laura, that we've had from this interview on the palace system.

What they're talking about here is representation. And you've got -- you know, when you talk about the monarchy you've got the family itself -- representation there -- and Meghan was part of the working monarchy. That's no longer the case. There's not much they can do about that now, it appears. But what they can do is look at the wider palace -- the household staff -- and look at representation there.

So the palace -- a source there saying the diversity is an issue which has been taken very seriously. They do have procedures and policies and programs in place there for that. But there hasn't been enough progress and there's an admission there that they do need to do more.

So they're looking at the idea of having someone in charge of overseeing diversity policies within the palace. I think a lot of people will be surprised that no one was responsible for that before. But some progress there, at least.

I think, frankly, if you go into the palace and see the people working there, they are overwhelmingly white and there is a very obvious issue there. And it's something that this interview has exposed and they're finally acting on it, Laura.

JARRETT: Yes, it's fascinating that they do feel the need to respond to this in some way after all those revelations that Meghan had in that interview with Oprah.

All right, Max, thank you so much -- appreciate it.

ROMANS: All right, it's just about that time on a Monday morning. Let's get a check on CNN Business this morning.

Looking at markets all around the world right now, Asian shares have closed. The beginning of the new week mixed, although a big decline in Tokyo there. And European futures are -- European stock markets, rather, are open and they're barely moving here. On Wall Street, also a little bit of indecision to start this new trading week overall.

Look, we're seeing a new phase of the yearlong stock market rally. There's now optimism for a real economic recovery this year and that's lifting bond yields, but then that pressures tech stocks. Investors are rotating out of the tech sector and into companies that will benefit from an economic rebound.

The job market, of course, is still down more than 9 million jobs since the pandemic hit and that is a real problem, but the split- screen here has been remarkable. The Dow and the S&P are up 62 percent since the crash last year. The Nasdaq is up almost 85 percent.

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ROMANS: All right, it looks like we've got a little bit of a video glitch here.

JARRETT: That's your Monday, folks.

ROMANS: Wheel of Fortune, stock market futures, and the Sussexes. Congratulations, everyone. That's how we're ending our show today.

Thanks for joining us, everyone. I'm Christine Romans.

JARRETT: I'm Laura Jarrett. "NEW DAY" is next.

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[05:59:39]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Health officials worry about Americans getting complacent in the fight against COVID-19.

CHIEF RICHARD CLEMENTS, MIAMI BEACH POLICE: I'm concerned that the behavior is getting a little bit more for us to be able to handle.

DR. PETER HOTEZ, DEAN, NATIONAL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: This is crunch time. This is going to be our most difficult period right now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Protesters demand justice for the victims. Among them, six Asian women.

ANGELA EUNSUNG KIM: I want people to finally hear us, for us, not only when we're trending.

PASTOR BYEONG CHEOL HAN, KOREAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, CHAMBLEE, ATLANTA: It's an awakening moment for Asian-Americans to stand strong. Stand up and raise our voice.