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AstraZeneca Says, COVID Vaccine 79 Percent Effective in U.S. Trial; Former Top Prosecutor Says, Sedition Charges Likely Against Insurrectionists; Miami Beach Extends Curfew to Control Spring Break Crowds. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired March 22, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: AstraZeneca says its vaccine is 79 percent effective in preventing symptomatic illness and 100 percent against sever disease and hospitalization. The trial reports no serious side effects, and that does include the blood clots that raised concerns in Europe. And this is the first step in what the company hopes will be emergency use approval here in the U.S.

More than 6 million Americans received the dose over the weekend, 6 million. That's a terrific number. One in four Americans has been partially vaccinated at this point. More than 13 percent of Americans fully vaccinated. But it's a race. It's a race against stuff like this.

The city of Miami Beach has extended its curfew now for several weeks in response to these huge spring break crowds, the police breaking up the crowds over several nights here. They had to use pepper balls to disperse largely maskless crowds ignoring the curfew over the weekend.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN NEW DAY: Okay. Now to this, the former top prosecutor for the U.S. Capitol riot says former President Trump could be held responsible for the January 6th insurrection. He says federal investigators are still looking at all of the evidence. He also believes sedition charges could be brought against some of the defendants.

BERMAN: We're going to start with the breaking news on AstraZeneca. Joining us now, CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen. She's a former Baltimore City health commissioner. Dr. Wen, great to see you.

AstraZeneca says 79 percent effective against all illness, 100 percent against severe hospitalizations. What does this mean and what might the impact be here in the U.S.?

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: John, I think this is very good news to have another vaccine that could potentially be authorized and then added to our arsenal. I actually think the best news about AstraZeneca is that they found no adverse events or no significant adverse events, including these blood clots that some have raised concerns about in Europe. And so I think this should be really concerning to people around the world because the AstraZeneca vaccine is seen as the world's vaccine. It's inexpensive, easy to store and to transport, and I think, again, it adds to our potential supply here in the U.S.

The timing though is such that by the time AstraZeneca is submitted for authorization and then actually approve for use here, we probably would be into May, in which case we actually have all these other vaccines that would probably be in enough supply. So I don't think this affects us in the U.S. as much as it does in worldwide.

CAMEROTA: So, Dr. Wen, I am scheduled to get my vaccine at 3:30 this afternoon. I'm very excited. And people say to me, oh, which one are you getting? And my question is, who cares? I mean, if they protect against severe illness and hospitalization, is that the right answer? Should I care which vaccine I'm getting?

WEN: I think you should care in the sense that you want to know which vaccine you're getting when you get it, so that if you have to have a second shot of Pfizer or Moderna, you'll know what that is. But I am so excited for you, Alisyn, because no matter what vaccine you get, you're going to become extremely well protected against severe disease, severe enough to cause hospitalization or death, and that's really what matters.

I also think that there are advantages to getting different vaccines, like, for example, if you end up getting Johnson & Johnson, that's one and done. And a lot of people will think that's great, I don't need to come back for a second shot.

And so I'm very excited for you and can't wait to see what you end up getting.

BERMAN: Yes. And, again, 6 million doses over the weekend, which is just a phenomenal number. But it is a race. The urgency of getting vaccinated is even more so given the scenes we're seeing in places like Miami Beach, where the streets are just jammed. When I see crowded streets, I get concerned about where people are going after they're on the street. I mean, here at least they're outside. My concern is where do they go after? They probably go inside somewhere maybe in large groups.

So when you see this, how worried are you?

WEN: Look, I understand that people are sick and tired of coronavirus and they want to be on spring break, but the virus is not taking spring break. When I see people coming from all over the country and congregating in a particular setting, I see a melting pot of variants that people are carrying potentially from overtune (ph). And then I also really worry about what happens when these people return to their home communities, because many of them are going to become asymptomatic carriers who often see infection all over the country.

So I really worry about this. I would just urge people who have not yet traveled, please wait at least until you're fully vaccinated. And if you are going to go somewhere, make sure to be outdoors, not indoors. Try to wear masks the entire time you're in public places. And when you return to quarantine and they get tested to protect others around you in your community.

CAMEROTA: So, Dr. Wen, I mean, basically what I hear you saying is that on some level, it's not that you're giving up against telling people not to travel but you're accepting the reality that they are still traveling, and so there are ways to stay safer, make sure you stay outside and make sure you wear your mask, make sure that you get tested.

I want to ask you about the new research showing pregnant women who get vaccinated and what that means for their children.

[07:05:06]

So they have discovered that now babies born to mothers who have been vaccinated, the antibodies are found in the baby and in their cord blood and there's also antibodies found in the mother's breast milk. So is it safe for babies to be exposed to vaccines?

WEN: It certainly is for other vaccines, and there's no reason for us to think that the coronavirus is any different. Now, that kind of passive immunity, as we call it, is not going to last long. So probably it's going to fade before the first year of life. And we know that there are trials ongoing now for young children, which is going to be important for them to be protected as well.

But I think even though the trials for the vaccines did not initially include pregnant women, we know that many thousands of pregnant women have chosen to take the vaccines, especially women who are essential workers, who work in health care settings, who may be at higher risk for coronavirus themselves.

And we have seen no adverse consequence on women and babies, and I think this is very promising news for all those women who are becoming pregnant or wanting to become pregnant, that it appears that the vaccine is safe for them, based on the evidence that we have, and certainly protects them against severe illness too.

BERMAN: If we can, let's take a look at the nationwide statistics in the pandemic right now in terms of cases first and then also hospitalizations. If we put up cases, people can see that while there was a steep drop for weeks and weeks and weeks -- this is the cases in states. You can see the red states where the states that are rising there. We have a line chart, I believe, somewhere which shows -- there you go. Here, you can see the flat line there in terms of the cases. You can see cases have leveled off around 50,000, a little more than 50,000 a day. And in terms of hospitalizations, level off right around 39,000 or 40,000 a day.

Now, I don't know if this is temporary or not, but if it isn't temporary, if we're stuck at 50,000-plus a day, if we're stuck at 40 hospitalizations -- 40,000 hospitalizations a day, what would that mean for the country?

WEN: Well, it would mean that we're not in a good place because this is a very high level of infection. And I'm also worried we could be on the verge of a fourth surge. Now, that's blunted in some ways by the fact that there are a lot of people who have already been exposed to coronavirus. They were also vaccinating at a record rate, which is fantastic, but I worry that we're going to see an increase because of the variants that are more contagious and, of course, this will really impede our efforts of reaching herd immunity.

I'm also very concerned about vaccine hesitancy and how that, I think, is going to be a major barrier. In many parts of the country, we're going to see demand catch up with supply pretty soon, and the major thing that we have to overcome is hesitancy and complacency in terms of the vaccine.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Gottlieb, former commissioner of the FDA, says that he doesn't think that we're going to see a fourth surge because of all of the natural immunity that has been built up from people having been exposed already and the pace vaccines. So you think it's still an open question?

WEN: I think it's an open question. I wish Dr. Gottlieb was right. I just think though that our wishful thinking cannot be a strategy here and we need to prepare for the worst, and the worst is certainly possible.

BERMAN: Yes. One of the things that Gottlieb said concerns me is we could be stuck at this level for some time. He said we could be static at this level for some time. And what worries me is static at 40,000 hospitalization a day means that may be stuck at north of a thousand deaths a day, which is not a small number. It just isn't. I mean, it's something we become numb to, which is incredible in and of itself a year into this, but it's a lot of people dying every day, Dr. Wen.

WEN: That's right. And a thousand people a day dying means that within three months, we're going to reach something like 100,000 more people who are dead. And it's even more tragic when we think that if we had just held off for a little bit longer, all of those people could be alive because they could be vaccinated, right? We're getting 2 to 3 million shots into arms every day. And so I think those are the preventable deaths that are truly, truly tragic.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Leana Wen, thank you very much.

Now to this, the prosecutor who supervised the Capitol insurrection investigation says some rioters could face charges of sedition and the former president, Trump, could also be culpable. That brand-new interview, next.

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[07:10:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL SHERWIN, FORMER ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY: I personally believe the evidence is trending towards that and probably meets those elements.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you anticipate sedition charges against some of these suspects?

SHERWIN: I believe the facts do support those charges, and I think that as we go forward, more facts will support that, Scott.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So the former top prosecutor investigating the Capitol insurrection says in that new 60 Minutes interview that the evidence he is seeing shows that what happened on the Capitol likely meets the bar necessary to charge some of the insurrectionists with sedition.

Joining me now is Democratic Congresswoman Gwen Moore from Wisconsin. Congresswoman, thank you so much for being with us.

The sedition law, the federal sedition law says includes to oppose by force the authority of the United States government to prevent, hinder or delay by force, the execution of law of the United States. Any doubt in your mind that what you saw at the Capitol, at least among some of those participants, meets that bar?

REP. GWEN MOORE (D-WI): That's sort of plain English, I would say, unlike many laws that we hear where there's a lot of debate about what's being said. That sounds like sedition to me (INAUDIBLE) certification of the Electoral College, and that's exactly what happened.

BERMAN: Why do you think it's taking so long then to charge?

MOORE: Well, you know, I would leave it up to our very capable prosecutors to put the case together.

[07:15:05]

But, certainly, it occurred to me immediately, and I'm a layman, that it was definitely sedition, insurrection, unlike my own United States senator who -- Senator Johnson, who has continued to dismiss and deny and deflect and diminish this event. This is definitely an insurrection, a sedition and cost lives.

BERMAN: Well, let's talk about your Senator Ron Johnson, because he keeps on talking. And, by the way, if you follow his line of thought, it contradicts itself because he read into the congressional record at one point that maybe some of the people who invaded the Capitol were Antifa or inspired by others, but then he also said he wasn't scared of them because he knew they were Trump supporters. And then most recently, he said, this. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): One of the reasons I'm being attacked is because I very honestly said I didn't feel threatened on January 6th. I didn't. There was much more violence on the House side. There was no violence on the Senate side in terms of chamber.

I never felt threatened. It's a true statement.

The reason I didn't is because I've attended Trump rallies.

All those people who that attend Trump rallies, you know what they all have in common? The one characteristic, they love this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. So, your response, first of all.

MOORE: Well, I have to give it up for Maya Angelou here. She said, when people show you who they are, believe them. I don't have to characterize if it's anything other than what it is. I believe him. He did feel more comfortable with his people, Trump supporters, Trump people. And despite the fact that we know one officer killed, two others succumbed to suicide, 150 officers wounded, lost their eyesight, heart attacks, he stills says that these are very good people.

And as you mentioned, John, he just digs the grave deeper in his Wall Street Editorial, where he goes on to bring up, of all things, Kenosha, and talked about the violent left-wingers. And last time I checked, the only two people who died in Kenosha were two victims of a white supremacist attack by a 17-year-old who was cheered as he walked into a bar with his mom for being a white supremacist who got all kinds of legal help and so on from Trump sources. And so he brings up Minneapolis, a place where people all over the world of every color have protested against it. And not once does he mention George Floyd.

And so, you know, this is consistent. And, you know, Ron Johnson has been in denial for a long time. He was chair of the Homeland Security Committee, used that perch to chase debunked conspiracy theories, Russian intelligence, about Hunter Biden and great anti-vaxxer in paneling doctors to push this -- what was this stuff called -- hydroxychloroquine, pure.

And so he's been out of touch for a while and it is too bad because Wisconsinites really, really need him, the farmers who commit suicide regularly needed him to vote for this rescue bill instead of him, you know, being dilatory and forcing the clerks to read for 15 hours, he's been out of touch for a long time.

BERMAN: I believe you're referring to Kyle Rittenhouse, who's been accused of those Kenosha deaths right now. I don't believe --

MOORE: I don't remember his name, but, yes.

BERMAN: Yes. No, no, but I don't believe he's been charged just to be (INAUDIBLE) with white supremacy or seen direct links there. He was connected to some pro-law enforcement groups.

But Ron Johnson, his statement about the Senate is provably false, right? We've seen pictures of the insurrectionists on the floor of the U.S. Senate. We know that there was broken glass there. I want to follow-up with you on the Maya Angelou quote though, because you say, as she so famously noted, when people tell you or show you who they are, believe them.

In a word then, what has Ron Johnson shown us about who he is?

MOORE: He has shown us that he's a lot more comfortable with Trumpsters, and we've had four years of Trump, five years if you count, you know, the time from when he came down the escalator.

[07:20:00]

He has shown us that he is willing to deflect and deny, diminish the impact of governmental, anti-democratic and anti-constitutional impacts in our democracy. I mean, he was a staunch supporter of Trump. He pressed the big lie that there was election fraud. He was part of the big four, I would say, Mike Lee and Ted Cruz and certainly Senator -- the new senator from Missouri. These are -- he was part of that network.

And so I would say that he has shown us by what he has not only done but what he has said who he is. And we should just believe him. It's just not -- you know, this is not subject to -- I mean, if we had a couple hours, we could do a great lecture on this. But just look at what he says and then what he has written --

BERMAN: Congresswoman, we're just getting in Axios moments ago published some pictures provided to them by your Democratic colleague, Henry Cuellar, from Donna, Texas, this is the facility, Donna, Texas, on the border now. I understand you don't have return video. You can't see this. But what it shows us is pretty tight quarters where some of these unaccompanied children, we believe, are being held in custody before they're released, I think, to HHS facilities. Pretty tight quarters, we can see them wrapped with blankets there. They're behind what appears to be different types of curtains and plexiglass.

We don't have a lot of access, the media doesn't, to these places. There is not a lot of transparency. What are your concerns this morning about the conditions? Are you satisfied with the conditions that these migrant children are being held in?

MOORE: I'll tell you, I've been to the border a couple of times. And it's very uncomfortable to see it, much less to experience it. It's made me weak to my knees, and I'm a pretty strong person, to see the conditions that that they're in.

I just want to remind people that Joe Biden inherited a system where the former president cut off the ability to apply for asylum in their home countries in helping us ease our international responsibility to vet people for appropriateness of asylum.

I came to this -- my ancestors came to this country, presumably, on slave ships, but other immigrants have made this country what it is, and they have come with touching stories about coming here. And this is too is America. I'm thinking of my colleague, Dr. Raul Ruiz, who is the chairperson of the Hispanic Caucus, came here undocumented. His mother died. And this too is America.

And I think that our international responsibility is to have a system that is fair. We're expelling people who are not appropriately approaching the borders, but we -- you know, I'm sure that it's a mess at the border because this president has inherited a logjam.

BERMAN: It is now on this administration to figure out a way through this going forward. Congresswoman Gwen Moore, we appreciate you being with us this morning. Thank you so much for your time.

MOORE: Good morning to you.

Curfews in Miami Beach extended to control crowds of spring breakers. The mayor of Miami Beach joins us next.

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[07:25:00]

CAMEROTA: Miami Beach, Florida, extending its emergency curfew for three more weeks as they struggle to control crowds of rowdy spring breakers, as you see on your screen, over the weekend. Police fired pepper balls into the crowds after revelers ignored the curfew.

Joining us now is Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber. Mayor, great to see you this morning. I have heard you say that you are losing sleep right now because of all of this. What in particular is keeping you up at night?

MAYOR DAN GELBER (D-MIAMI BEACH, FL): Well, it feels, in some ways, like our city is a Tinder right now. You know, we're one of the few destinations open, and so people are flocking here in huge numbers, you know, and it's not just about not wearing masks and physical distancing. It's also -- some of the folks that are coming are coming with bad intentions, so there's been brawls and even gun play.

And when you have these levels of crowds, you can't really manage unless you have enormous policing, and all of that mix creates as lot of peril and a lot of concern. And I do worry. I know all of my colleagues and city government, and many of our residents are worried about it.

CAMEROTA: So, Mayor, are you considering shutting down some businesses? What if you were to shut down bars for the next, say, three weeks?

GELBER: Well, yesterday, we had an emergency meeting and we did just that in our entertainment area. We have an 8:00 P.M. curfew now. So it's closed down at 8:00 P.M. And what you saw were police sort of trying to get folks off the streets.

We've also, by the way, taken down the extreme step of closing down our causeway eastbound after 10:00 P.M. at night just to stop the flow of people coming here so only local traffic and residents and hotel guests will be able to come to our city, which is an island. So it does feel like there's real issues here of management.

CAMEROTA: But when you say that you're shutting things down after 8:00 P.M., you mean bars, I mean, in the entertainment area? You mean that bars won't be open after 8:00?

GELBER: There's a curfew at 8:00 P.M. in the entertainment area. That means no businesses are open.

[07:30:00]

You're not supposed to be on the streets. So, we will not be having -- restaurants, bars, everything is closed after 8:00 P.M. from Thursday.