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Highly-Contagious Variants Pose Threat To United States; Uyghur Families Desperate To Reunite. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired March 25, 2021 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH AND POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: Change with the B117. Now they are just like the rest of us. They're not transmitting it any more frequently than young adults or older adults, but they are now transmitting it in a way that this is what we're seeing in terms of much of the spread in our communities.

In our own state of Minnesota right now, youth sports has been a major way that his virus has been moving quickly from city-to-city, county- to-county with young children first getting ill and getting infected and then transmitting it to those who are older, who are much, much more likely to have a serious illness.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I was going to ask you how vaccinations and the relative speed -- because we are speeding up in terms of getting people vaccinated -- will affect this. But, you know, if you're talking about spread within younger people, they're not getting the vaccine yet.

OSTERHOLM: That's right. And, John -- and I think right now we have to take a step back and be very careful how we're assessing the success of our vaccination programs.

First of all, the United States deserves great credit for what we've done over the course of the past four to six weeks. I think the administration has done everything it possibly can to speed up the availability of vaccine and to get it out, and for that, I give them great credit.

But I worry that the media right now is missing a major point, and that is when states announce they're now opening it up to everybody, somehow this is seen as a great success. I think this is almost a failure. And what I mean by that is that states right now are being held accountable to how many doses they put in people's arms, not whose arms that those doses go into.

If you just look over the last seven days in this country, we were at 68 percent of those 65 years of age and older who are vaccinated. Today, as I sit here, we're at 69 percent. We've only vaccinated with one dose one percent of those over 65 years of age. And as I sit here, we also now have over 17 million of these individuals not vaccinated. And so what's happening is when it gets tough to find the people that we need to vaccinate, whether they be the older population, the BIPOC community, people who don't trust the vaccine system, we're bypassing them. We're just saying get it into anybody's arms so that we can show the media today that we've vaccinated another x-thousand people.

If we miss these high-risk people who are going to be the ones who are going to be hospitalized and ones who are going to die, we're going to have a real challenge on our hands. So we've got to reassess how we're looking at these vaccine campaigns. It's not just the number of doses, it's who is getting those doses.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: I hear what you're saying, Professor, but now that this variant is preying upon 20-something-year-olds -- I mean, in Europe, Britain and France have more sick people without any comorbidities. Twenty-somethings entering the ICU now than ever before. In Ontario, the most active cases are people between 20 and 29.

Shouldn't we start focusing the vaccine or opening up, I guess, the vaccine for 20-somethings?

OSTERHOLM: And, Alisyn, that makes perfect sense if you look at it from the standpoint of what you're hearing about more of these infections. They are occurring. More 20-year-olds are getting seriously ill and being hospitalized. More 30-year-olds are, more 40- year-olds are.

But the point of it is those who are 65 years of age and older make up over 80 percent of the deaths we have in this country. And if you really want to see a population impacted, leave those high-risk people. Leave the people who are from a work standpoint still a risk. Leave the people who have underlying comorbidities who are older population members. That's where we're going to see the real hit in terms of deaths, hospitalizations, and serious illnesses.

So I want to get everybody vaccinated. You know, your producer asked me before we started here what should be the goal -- 200 million people vaccinated as opposed to 100 million. No, I want everybody in the country vaccinated.

But the bottom line, in the short period of time we have while this B117 is rolling out and doing what it's doing, we've got to get those people who are most at risk of being seriously ill vaccinated, and we're not doing that right now.

BERMAN: Professor Osterholm, always eye-opening, sobering to speak with you. We appreciate you coming on. Thank you very much.

OSTERHOLM: Thank you very much.

BERMAN: We want to remember some of the more than 545,000 Americans lost to coronavirus.

Seventy-five-year-old Dennis Mileti was a renowned expert on disaster planning who wrote a seminal book on the subject. He once said seeing the movie "Godzilla" as a youngster helped steer him toward the field. Mileti preached the importance of consistent messaging and ways preparedness may backfire.

He is survived by his husband and partner of 54 years, Rick Oliver.

For decades, Native-American sculptor Christine Nofchissey sold traditional pottery in Santa Fe. And about 12 years ago, she began making more abstract sculptural forms, a move that drew a whole new audience for her work. She earned multiple awards and had her art acquired by the Smithsonian.

She leaves behind a husband and two sons.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:39:00]

BERMAN: This morning we're taking you inside one of the world's great humanitarian crises for a CNN investigation the Chinese government would rather you not see. Children are being ripped away from their families. Some of the loved ones left behind are now turning to us for help.

In a new heartbreaking report, Amnesty International estimates China's policy toward ethnic Uyghur Muslims to split up thousands of families. The U.S. and other countries have labeled China's treatment of Uyghurs as genocide. Now, China denies the human rights abuse allegations, claiming their actions are justified to battle religious extremism and prevent terrorism.

But in an exclusive report, CNN's David Culver, CNN senior producer Steven Jiang, and photojournalist Justin Robertson traveled to the heavily-surveilled region and with the parent's permission, they went in search of the lost children of Xinjiang.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Followed by a convoy of suspected undercover Chinese police vehicles --

STEVEN JIANG, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER (on camera): The tail is still on us.

[07:40:00]

CULVER (voice-over): -- mimicking our every turn through China's far western Xinjiang region --

JIANG (on camera): Yes, they want to know exactly where we're going (ph).

CULVER (voice-over): -- blocking roads that lead to possible internment camps and keeping us from getting too close to so-called sensitive sites. How we ended up on this journey had less to do about us and more about

who we were looking for. CNN searching for the lost Uyghur children of Xinjiang, a region in which several countries, including the U.S., allege China is committing genocide against the ethnic Uyghur-Muslim minority.

Thousands of families have now been ripped apart due to China's actions. We tracked down two of them.

Now in Adelaide, Australia, Mamutjan Abdurehim constantly replays the only recent videos he has of his daughter and son. He has not held his wife or their children in more than five years. He is among thousands of families from Xinjiang who have been torn apart, according to a new Amnesty International report.

MAMUTJAN ABDUREHIM, FATHER OF CHILDREN TRAPPED IN XINJIANG: In April 2017, the mass internment started and I was one of the first people detained. My wife was detained, too.

CULVER (voice-over): Before they were separated, Mamutjan was studying for a PhD in Kuala Lumpur. His wife was studying English there.

ABDUREHIM: We were happy as a family. It was a -- it was -- it was the good old days.

CULVER (voice-over): But, Mamutjan's wife lost her passport while abroad in Malaysia. Chinese officials told her that to renew it she had to go back to Xinjiang. She brought the couple's two young children with her thinking they'd soon be able to travel back to be with her husband, but that was late-2015.

Amnesty says the forced separation of families allows China to control the narrative, keeping something precious to dissuade their loved ones outside the country from badmouthing China.

Chinese officials have repeatedly pushed back against claims of genocide in Xinjiang. The foreign minister recently calling it preposterous, adding we welcome more people from around the world to visit Xinjiang. Seeing is believing. It is the best way to debunk rumors, he said.

So we decided to try to find the missing children ourselves with permission from their parents. The five-plus hour flight from Beijing ending with a strange request from the cabin crew. As we approach Kashgar's airport to land, all window shades had to be shut. No explanation why.

We went through a standard COVID test for all arriving passengers --

CULVER (on camera): All right, thank you.

CULVER (voice-over): -- loaded up a rental car, and roamed without anyone stopping us -- though, like much of China, you're always watched. You immediately encounter the vibrant and richly diverse culture of

this region. The faces, all so different -- perhaps not what you'd expect in China.

From the Grand Bazaar to the central mosque, we stroll through the reconstructed old town. It's here we began to notice people trailing us.

CULVER (on camera): There are usually individual men on phones and kind of keeping a social distance, shall we say.

CULVER (voice-over): But it seemed they wanted to know who we were searching for. This video of Mamutjan's little girl was a critical clue for us. We matched the alleyways of old Kashgar with the backdrop in the video. The first day, no luck.

CULVER (on camera): I hit another dead end. This might be it. Let's try this.

CULVER (voice-over): Twenty-four hours and 20,000 steps later we weaved our way through one last corridor and suddenly --

CULVER (on camera): That's her.

Do you know this man? Is he your father?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language).

CULVER (on camera): (INAUDIBLE) your dad.

CULVER (voice-over): The daughter and her grandparents, Mamutjan's mom and dad, were not expecting us but they let us into their home.

Muhlise told me she's going to turn 11 in May. But amidst her innocence, an awareness not to say too much. She told us she'd not spoken to her father since 2017.

JIANG (on camera): Your passport is confiscated.

CULVER (voice-over): And when we asked her --

CULVER (on camera): What would you want to say to him if you could talk to him?

CULVER (voice-over): I miss him, she later told me.

CULVER (on camera): Can you tell me some of the -- what you're feeling?

CULVER (voice-over): I don't have my mom with me right now. I don't have my dad, either. I just want to be reunited with them, she told me.

Off-camera, her grandmother overcome by grief. As I asked about her mother and if she'd been sent to a camp --

CULVER (on camera): How long was she away for?

CULVER (voice-over): -- she quickly bolted to her grandfather, translating our question from Chinese to Uyghur for them. Camps are too sensitive a topic to discuss.

As they talked, notice the sudden murmurs in the background. It seemed word of our visit had gotten to officials and back to the family, bringing an abrupt end to our visit.

JIANG (on camera): She wants the family together.

CULVER (on camera): Right.

JIANG (on camera): And that's -- she didn't want -- she didn't want to say they want to go abroad.

[07:45:00]

CULVER (voice-over): But we still wanted to know where Mamutjan's wife and son were. The family says they've been living with her parents at a house nearby.

CULVER (on camera): It's locked on the outside so unless they're gone for the day or they're gone permanently --

CULVER (voice-over): We asked the Chinese government if the wife is currently in a camp. They have not gotten back to us.

While on the ground in Xinjiang, there was a second set of children we wanted to track down. Their parents are in Italy.

ABLIKIM MAMTININ, FATHER OF CHILDREN TRAPPED IN XINJIANG (through translator): My children thought that we had abandoned them, that we don't care about them.

CULVER (voice-over): After having five children and getting pregnant with a sixth, they say authorities wanted to force the mother to have an abortion and throw the father in jail.

MIHRIBAN KADER, MOTHER OF CHILDREN TRAPPED IN XINJIANG (through translator): The policies were too strict. It was impossible to take all our children together with us, so we left our homeland and our children in desperation.

CULVER (voice-over): The older children, now aged between 12 and 16, were left behind with their grandparents. Mihriban and Ablikim hoped the separation would be temporary until they could secure more visas, but they went nearly four years unable to contact their children. And they got word that family members were being rounded up and sent to camps.

Determined to reunite the family, their cousin in Canada, Arafat Abulmit, choreographed their escape attempt from half a world away. Their parents had finally secured visa approvals from Italy for their children. In June 2020, Arafat managed to communicate to the kids. ARAFAT ABULMIT, COUSIN OF UYGHUR CHILDREN: This is your only shot. If you just stay, your life is going to be staying there and there is nothing we can do.

CULVER (voice-over): On their own, they traveled more than 3,000 miles -- farther than going from L.A. to New York -- recovering hidden passports, and eventually flying into Shanghai.

CULVER (on camera): When the children arrived here in Shanghai they were excited and happy. They never thought they would make it this far.

CULVER (voice-over): But their repeated attempts to obtain their visas failed. Arafat also says multiple hotels turned the kids away because they are Uyghur. They finally found a place willing to take them in.

All the while, they dropped geolocation pins for Arafat to know that they were OK. The last pin dropped on June 24th a few blocks from the hotel.

CULVER (on camera): Do you know who these children are? Have you seen them before?

CULVER (voice-over): Arafat, in Canada, watched -- then, silence -- minutes to hours to days to weeks.

ABULMIT: And then I tell my aunts, they might have been detained. Mihriban in Italy, they start crying. Like, they cannot believe it.

CULVER (voice-over): After several phone calls, he learned that police had tracked them down. China's giant surveillance network zeroing in on the four children. Arafat later found out they'd been sent back to Xinjiang and thrown into an orphanage.

In Rome, the parents heard the devastating news of their children's detention as they begged for help outside Italy's Ministry of Foreign Affairs office. The Italian government refused to comment to CNN on what happened. China has also not responded to requests for comment on the two families' cases.

Having found Muhlise for her father, we hoped to find the four Ablikim children to bring their parents some comfort. We headed out before sunrise, leaving Kashgar for the hour or so drive to get to the orphanage where they were sent. That's the eldest boy, Yehya, standing in front of the building a month ago.

As we drove, we watched as one car after another trailed us. After making a pass by the orphanage we headed to one of the kid's schools. We asked to see the kids. Eventually, a local official showed up and asked for about 30 minutes to get back to us.

CULVER (on camera): That was more than two hours ago but they've yet to let us talk to the children.

CULVER (voice-over): We later made contact with Yehya through video contact.

CULVER (on camera): Do you want to be with them? Do you -- do you miss them?

CULVER (voice-over): I do, he says. He answered quickly and kept looking off-camera. Someone was directing him to answer. Tell them that you see your sister every day, the voice said.

CULVER (on camera): Can you tell us about your journey trying to reunite with your parents last year?

CULVER (voice-over): When we asked about the Shanghai escape attempt, he deflected.

Much like Muhlise, here was another child keenly aware that the way they speak and what they say could impact those they love.

After about eight minutes we ended the call.

CULVER (on camera): They are literally right over there and we can't see them.

CULVER (voice-over): We later learned that three of the children were interrogated about our conversation.

Despite the pressure that the children face every day, late last month they even risked sending out a photo message to their parents. The four of them lined up holding a sign in Chinese saying "Dad, Mom, we miss you." A rare glimpse of an uncensored truth.

With each passing hour of our being on the ground in Xinjiang, it seemed a number of likely security agents trailing us increased, adding pressure to our search.

But before leaving we reconnected with Mamutjan, who was hungry for any information on his wife and kids and desperate to see his little girl. We watched him as he watched her.

[07:50:00]

ABDUREHIM: That's my daughter. That's my mother. That's my daughter. I can't stop (INAUDIBLE). I haven't seen her in four years.

CULVER (voice-over): For Mamutjan, it's part relief seeing that she's OK -- even proud that she still wants to be a doctor. But to see her break down sending her love to her father -- well, no dad, no matter how strong, can hide that agony for long.

ABDUREHIM: Poor thing (crying). What kind of country does this to people -- to innocent people? She definitely misses me, too.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: Oh my God, David, what gut-wrenching -- what a gut- wrenching story and what stunning reporting you did --

CULVER: Yes.

CAMEROTA: -- so that the rest of the world can see this. I mean, it's just -- it's staggering what's happening there.

And so what happened to the children? Do you know what happened to the children that you tried to make contact with and did after you left?

CULVER: Yes, gut-wrenching, heartbreaking, Alisyn, and I appreciate your words. It's a massive team behind this. A lot of journalists here working on this story for weeks.

The children went through hours of interrogation. This is according to their family.

They were presented, even, with our reporting that went out late last week on cnn.com. We did a digital write on this. That was put in front of them.

The photo that they sent to their mom and dad that said "Dad, Mom, we miss you" -- that was put in front of them. They were, according to the family, questioned as to why would you send this to your mom and dad? This went on for hours and several of the children were subjected to this. That's with regards to the four Ablikim children.

Muhlise, the young girl that you saw there whose dad lives in Australia, we haven't been in touch with her directly but she was featured just this week in state media propaganda. She was put out in a video broadcast that showed her in a seemingly happy setting with her grandparents, asking her dad to come back into the country from Australia. And it was clearly an effort to show that her life is great, according to Chinese state media. That she has no issues.

But you saw it there -- she broke down. This is a little girl who -- and when we encountered her, wants her family together. And didn't say she wanted to leave the country but she certainly wants mom and dad to be reunited.

Interesting to note in that state media report, by the way, John and Alisyn, they gave us a clue as to what happened to her mom because we tried to track her down and we could not find her.

It seems that she has been charged with a crime. Inciting ethnic hatred and violence is what they have labeled that as. That, according to state media -- inciting ethnic hatred. It's not clear what her location is or where she is.

BERMAN: The question from the father that he asked in your piece -- and this is amazing, David -- you know, what kind of country would do this?

The answer is China. The answer is China and we know it, the world knows it. And because of you and the team, we can now see it at a level that wasn't seen before. We know China is trying to keep the world and certainly the people in China from seeing it.

So how do you expect China to respond? CULVER: They're angry about this and one of the things that we have seen is they point out flaws in other countries, particularly western countries. They're saying look at the U.S., look at Canada, look at the U.K., look at Australia. All these countries that are pointing at human rights issues here within China -- well, look within your own borders. You have your own issues.

And it was interesting to see Sec. Blinken last week in Alaska address this. And what I would say in a rather humble way to say yes, the U.S. has a lot of issues but we're acknowledging them -- we're transparent, we're open. And we hope that transparency and openness will lead to a more perfect union drawing a strict contrast between how the Chinese, in his opinion, are handling things.

But this is also setting the stage for what will be a very interesting Olympics, to be quite honest. It's supposed to be right here in Beijing in 2022. There are already calls for a boycott based on human rights concerns allegations of the widespread abuse. But then, it also could be a platform for many athletes of western countries to use that to push for human rights and, really, a recognition of what people are going through.

CAMEROTA: And so, David, before the Olympics, is there pressure now building on China about this?

[07:55:00]

CULVER: You know where it's coming from, Alisyn? It's the business world. I mean, you look here at the second-largest economy in the world. Eventually, it will overtake the U.S., analysts predict. So money is a big factor in a lot of things and that could be a factor in changing the course of how things are playing out right now.

There's no guarantee, of course, but one example is H&M, a few months ago, actually decided to stop using Xinjiang-related cotton that they believed were coming from forced labor of Uyghurs and that resurfaced this week. It has led to a boycott of several H&M products here.

But then also this week, Nike put on their Web site saying that they, too, are looking into making sure that they don't have products that are coming from Xinjiang and ties to forced labor in particular.

So it's becoming an awareness factor within the corporate world and perhaps that would generate a positive outcome -- John and Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: We should also just mention, David, you're in Beijing reporting for us. And at this very moment, as we speak, China is censoring this report so that the people there cannot --

CULVER: That's right.

CAMEROTA: -- see this.

CULVER: They're not seeing this conversation domestically. That's right. BERMAN: It doesn't mean it's not happening, though, David. And we know it's happening again thanks to you and your team -- so, well done.

CULVER: Thanks to you, guys.

CAMEROTA: Back here, all eyes on President Biden today as he holds his first news conference in just a few hours. As mass shootings and the crisis at the border are gripping America's attention, how will he address those?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: There are many issues that people can bring up with President Biden, including his new push for gun reform, immigration, legislation.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Biden is appointing Vice President Kamala Harris to lead efforts to stem the flow of migrants from Central America.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's a huge problem. This is not going to be solved overnight.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Investigators continue to collect evidence and search for a possible motive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As many continue to mourn, there's a national outcry for Congress to act.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many more have to die? How many more officers have to face down.