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TSA Screens More Than 1.5M At U.S. Airports For First Time Since Pandemic Crushed Air Travel; Miami Beach Extends Curfew To Control Spring Break Crowds; Tournament Officials Apologize For Lack Of Resources. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired March 22, 2021 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:31:06]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: The coronavirus pandemic is not stopping spring break travel despite continued warnings from top health officials. The TSA is reporting it screened more than 1.5 million people at U.S. airports on Sunday, a record high since the pandemic began. Let me bring in CNN's Pete Muntean, whose of course been tracking this. Pete, it seems the trend just continues. What more you're learning about these air travel numbers?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kate, you know, health experts are calling this crunch time against the virus and its variants, which is why they are so worried by these new tribal numbers. The TSA says more than 1.5 million people pass through security at America's airports on Sunday. That is a new record of the pandemic. The previous record set only back on Friday, so all of this means 9.8 million people have flown in a week's time.

It is great news for struggling airlines. They just got a bunch of new money from the federal government. But health experts fear it could lead to a new struggle with the violence. Here's what they said.

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DR. PETER HOTEZ, CO-DIRECTOR, CENTERS FOR VACCINE DEVELOPMENT, TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: This is crunch time. This is going to be our most difficult period right now in terms of seeing who wins out. If we can hang on another month or another six weeks, that's going to make a huge difference.

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MUNTEAN: Just more context on how big these numbers really are. This is the 11th straight day for the TSA has screened more than a million people each day. That is the biggest and longest streak of the pandemic, bigger than around Thanksgiving, bigger than the winter holidays. But this is the highest number that we have seen since March 15th, 2020. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Wow. So much has changed since then. Thank you so much, Pete. Coming up, an alarming rise in COVID cases across much of Europe as countries continue to play catch up with the vaccine rollout.

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[12:37:19]

BOLDUAN: Europe's vaccine rollout is going slower than expected and really at the worst time as it is seeing a surge in new coronavirus cases. The European Union is aiming to vaccinate 70 percent of its adult population by September. But they're running into a real problem with vaccine hesitancy, part of that link to some European nations when they put that pause on the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine. For the very latest COVID headlines, let's check in with our correspondents stationed around the world.

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MATT RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Matt Rivers in Rio de Janeiro. The situation with the latest COVID-19 wave here in Brazil remains absolutely critical according to the latest analysis by CNN. Across the country, nearly every single Brazilian state has ICU occupancy rates at or above 80 percent, 14 of 26 Brazilian states have ICU occupancy rates of 90 percent or higher. That puts the healthcare systems in those states at risk of collapsing if they haven't already done so.

Meanwhile, we're hearing from across the country, critical shortages of crucial medical supplies in the coastal town of Sao Sebastiao in the richest state in Brazil of Sao Paolo. The mayor of that town says that that town is going to be forced to extubate patients as soon as today, bringing people off ventilators because they are lacking critical supplies. The National Association of private hospitals in Brazil say across the country there are shortages of sedatives, anesthetics, and muscle blockers, all medicines critical for intubating patients.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Fred Pleitgen in Berlin. As European countries are tightening their lockdown measures in an effort to come to terms with a third wave of novel coronavirus infections that's gripping the European continent. You have France for instance, where there are already new measures in place. Some of them pertaining to the capital, Paris, in the large city have Nice and also curfew restrictions in other places as well.

And then you have Germany where we expect that new lockdown measures are going to be decided today. Angela Merkel is meeting with her state governors. And one of the things that's on the table is a possible nighttime curfew but also additional coronavirus testing as well. All this comes as the vaccine rollout in Europe is going a lot slower than many people would have predicted. For instance, in Germany, only about 4 percent of the population has so far received both vaccine doses.

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Patrick Oppmann in Havana where Cuban scientists say, soon they will begin working with the government of China on a new vaccine candidate. The vaccine will be called Pancorona and will Designed to combat emerging strains of the coronavirus. This is the first time that we are aware that these two governments from communist countries are collaborating on vaccines.

[12:40:10]

Cuba currently has five other vaccine candidates in development. Two of those vaccines are in the final stages, one of those vaccines Soberana-2 was developed collaborating with the government of Iran and that vaccine according to Cuban scientists, should be ready in the coming weeks for mass vaccinations here in Cuba. The Cuban Government is also hoping to sell that vaccine abroad starting on Monday. Soberana-2 will be, the trials for Soberana-2 will be expanded and will be given to 150,000 volunteers here in Nirvana.

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BOLDUAN: Thank you all so much for that.

So back here in the United States. Right now, Miami Beach is extending a state of emergency order and curfew for an additional three weeks. The measures were suddenly put in place over the weekend after Spring Breakers overwhelmed the city. At one point police use pepper balls to try to disperse the largely maskless crowd who were violating that curfew that was put in place. CNN's Randi Kaye, she's joining me now from Miami Beach. She's been watching all of this. Randy, what a mess over the weekend, what are they looking at now?

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's quieter right now. But we'll see what happens as the sun goes down here, Kate. But it was like spring break on steroids. I mean, the city officials here have said that they've never seen a spring break like this one. At one point there were more than thousand people in the street that they were trying to clear out of the street. As you mentioned, they use those pepper balls to try and get those spring breakers out of the street.

There was gunfire, somebody fired a weapon into the air, there was a bit of a riot, the Mayor said, few stampedes as they tried to clear the street. And then you have this incredible video of these people dancing on a car overnight. And that was after the 8:00 p.m. curfew went into effect. So a lot of spring breakers certainly they flew here from other states, other countries even, and they're not real happy about the new measures that are in place.

But you mentioned the state of emergency and the curfew, Thursday through Sunday, as of 8:00 p.m. thing shut down. Spring breakers will not be allowed to party in the streets. The causeways from the mainland to here in South Beach in Miami Beach and this is the high entertainment district, those will close at 10:00 p.m. And then the local streets here, unless you're a resident or you're staying at a hotel or you're a business owner, you cannot be on the streets past 8:00 p.m. and everything then would reopen at 6:00 a.m.

But the Mayor certainly has sent a message to the spring breakers. This is not the city to come party. And if you think you're coming here to get crazy, think again. This is what else he told CNN. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR DAN GELBER (D), MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA: It feels that in some ways like our city is a tinder right now. But it's not just about not wearing masks and physical distancing. It's also some of the folks that are coming with bad intention. So there's been brawls and even gunplay. And when you have these levels of crowds, you can't really manage unless you have enormous policing. And all that mix creates a lot of parallel and a lot of concern. And I do worry.

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KAYE: So police are doing all they can because you have the Governor of Florida who said, Florida is open. So now it's really up to the locals to try and protect the city here and get this all under control. We do know that they've made arrest. They made more than a dozen arrests Saturday night. And since February 3rd, Kate, they've arrested more than thousand people, more than 50 percent of them are from other states. So they're coming here, they're descending on Florida for the beautiful beaches, but also wreaking havoc some of them at least on the city, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes. And also the Governor is now lowering the vaccine eligibility age today because obviously COVID is a huge concern when you see these gatherings of spring breakers. But what -- how is this going and how is this working now that the Governor is changing eligibility again?

KAYE: Yes, well, that's actually some good news that we're going to get more shots in arms here in the state of Florida, about 2.7 million Floridians have already been fully vaccinated. So the new age as of today, it's lowered to 50 years old. So anyone 50 and above can get a vaccine if they can get their hands on one. And some communities also are taking it into their own hands to go even lower than that.

In Orlando, the Mayor there has said you only have to be 40 years old and older to get a vaccine. And starting one week from today, the mayor of Miami-Dade County says 40 and above in that county as well, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Good to see you, Randi. Thank you very much.

[12:44:33]

Coming up, next accusations of blatant sexism within the NCAA, the weight room that went viral and the changes now in place to make up for it. Is it enough?

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BOLDUAN: The NCAA is attempting to recover from the national outrage sparked by pictures that went viral last week contrasting the men's and women's training facilities during the March Madness tournament. You're going to -- we're going to put it up for you. You can see what was the initial women's set up on the left and then the men's set up on the right, a fully equipped right weight room. The NCAA initial initially said that there wasn't enough space to add more weights for the women's setup. Sedona Prince, a sophomore center from Oregon, she responded with this.

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SEDONA PRINCE, CALLED OUT NCAA OVER WEIGHT ROOM DISPARITY: The NCAA came out with a statement saying that it wasn't money. It was space that was a problem. Let me show you all something else. Here's our practice court, right, and then here's that weight room. And then here's all this extra space. If you aren't upset about this problem, then you're a part of it.

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[12:50:15]

BOLDUAN: People were understandably mad. The NCAA though, they quickly work to upgrade, as you see here, the women's workout space. They also apologized. But the headline of this "Washington Post" column I want to show you makes clear an apology might not be enough.

Joining me right now is the author of that column, Sally Jenkins, sports columnist for The Washington Post. Thanks for coming back in Sally. I'm going to do what I did last time I had you on which is read your own work back to you because I want to read a portion of what you wrote on Friday because it is biting.

You wrote, I'm tired, not from today or from yesterday but from 40 years of it. Forty years tired of writing the same damn story about the same NCAA shortchangers in suits, who would begrudge women's athletes so much as an equal amount of airtime in a tire if they thought it might come at a man's expense. This was so much more than just a crappy and inferior weight room, wasn't it?

SALLY JENKINS, SPORTS COLUMNIST, THE WASHINGTON POST: Oh, completely. I mean, any viewer will notice the -- a significant difference in the quality of the courts that the women are playing on, for instance, and the display. The NCAA March Madness for the men, the courts are brilliantly lit, brilliantly decorated with decals and other promotional, you know, items. The women's courts, you might think you're in a high school state championship gym. It's just no comparison in terms of the amount of energy put into promoting them.

BOLDUAN: Sally, NCAA acknowledged, in their words, that they fell short. Does that mean that they have learned a lesson?

JENKINS: No, certainly not. Because one of the things that I think viewers are about to learn, "The Wall Street Journal" has a very powerful story just out that the NCAA actually actively withheld the phrase March Madness from the women's tournament. They in fact, sort of actively suppress -- that's the second story now that I think is about to absolutely explode.

You know, this is a pervasive attitude on the part of the NCAA. It's unclear as yet as to whether the attitude is just benign neglect, or whether there's some actual sort of malfeasance going on here. Is it more convenient for the NCAA to frame the women's tournament as a money loser because they're involved in a heavily political battle over NCAA revenue and whether athletes are entitled to a cut? You know, that's another question.

There are a lot of questions to be asked. I would hope by people in Congress at this point, because the NCAA is very, very opaque about its money operation here. There's billions of dollars of ad revenue at stake. And the NCAA doesn't disclose any of its financials here.

BOLDUAN: I have to tell you, one of the things that was just kind of mind blowing for me is that there are different testing protocols, Sally, for COVID. There are different safety testing protocols for the men's tournament, getting daily PCR tests. The women's teams not so much also getting antigen tests. We know that antigen tests are less accurate.

JENKINS: And they're cheaper. They're simply cheaper.

BOLDUAN: I mean, is that the answer?

JENKINS: I don't know. I don't know if it's an inconvenience issue or a money issue. But does it really matter? I mean, should these athletes not be getting the same testing? They're both NCAA athletes competing for championships. There's no earthly rationale for it.

BOLDUAN: Sally, thank you so much for coming on and for your powerful writing. Look, we all -- I love the men's tournament. I love the women's tournament as well, both March Madness. But there is a little bit of madness to this and to what is being exposed right now I have to say. Thank you.

JENKINS: Thank you.

[12:53:50]

BOLDUAN: Just ahead for us after that explosive interview from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and other allegations of racism, new reporting that the royal family might hire a diversity chief. We're going to have a live report from London next.

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BOLDUAN: Just a few weeks after the world heard, Prince Harry and Meghan's shocking allegations of racism against the Royal Palace, we are learning that the British royal family is considering now appointing a diversity chief. Joining me now is CNN's Max Foster for more on this. Max, is this a direct response to what Harry and Meghan told Oprah in their interview?

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what they're saying is they take diversity very seriously in the palace. And they've been working on programs and they have programs in place with this already. But they're also accepting that they haven't done enough, Kate.

So I think it certainly is linked to the programs, certainly the fact that they're accelerating their work in this area. They said, we -- a source told us, we have the policies, the procedures, and programs in place but we haven't seen the progress we would like in terms of representation and more needs to be done. We can always improve, they say.

So what are they going to do? You're talking about this diversity chief. It's actually going to be someone who oversees diversity issues. That's the sort of person they're looking at appointing or giving that responsibilities. Someone it's not entirely clear. This isn't an official statement. But I think they are accepting here that there isn't a true representation of society in the palace. And frankly, if you walk in there, it's a very white institution, Kate. So some progress, I think.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Well, thanks for the update, Max. Appreciate it. Let's see what impact that it actually has.

[12:59:57]

And thank you all so much for joining us. At this hour, I'm Kate Bolduan. Our coverage continues right now with Brianna Keilar.