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Biden, CDC Director Warn of Virus Rebound if Americans Let Up; WHO Draft Report: Virus Likely Came from Animal, Not Lab; Soon: Derek Chauvin Trial Resumes After Dramatic First Day. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired March 30, 2021 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: COVID-19 cases start climbing in more than half the states.

[05:58:55]

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: Right now I'm scared. I know what it's like as a physician to be the last person to touch someone else's loved one, because their loved one couldn't be there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Opening statements in a trial many see as a major step toward justice for George Floyd.

JERRY BLACKWELL, PROSECUTING ATTORNEY IN DEREK CHAUVIN TRIAL: Mr. Derek Chauvin betrayed this badge. He used excessive and unreasonable force.

ERIC NELSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY FOR DEREK CHAUVIN: Derek Chauvin did exactly what he had been trained to do. The use of force is not attractive, but it is a necessary component of policing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They can't sweep this under the rug. This is the starting point. This is not a finishing point.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: nWe want to welcome your viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, March 30, 6 a.m. here in New York. John Berman is off. John Avlon is with me. Great to have you here.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST/ANCHOR: Good to see you. Good morning.

CAMEROTA: So this morning President Biden and the head of the CDC are so concerned about the next phase in the pandemic that they are bagging Americans to keep taking precautions for just a little while longer. The warning comes as the U.S. surpasses 550,000 deaths.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) WALENSKY: Now is one of those times when I have to share the truth, and I have to hope and trust you will listen. I'm going to pause here. I'm going to lose the script, and I'm going to reflect on the reoccurring feeling I have of impending doom. We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are and so much reason for hope, but right now, I'm scared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Here's the situation. Cases are rising in nearly half of all states. And unlike in the past surges, this time there's a rise in cases and hospitalizations among younger people.

In Michigan, cases are spiking the most in the 10- to 19-year-old age group. Hospitalizations there are up 600 percent for people in their 30s. They're up 800 percent for adults in their 40s, John.

AVLON: That is devastating trend. But we also have long-awaited release of the World Health Organization's report on the origins of the coronavirus in China. CNN has obtained a draft copy, and we're going to bring you details of what it says.

Also this morning, the prosecution in the Derek Chauvin murder trial will continue questioning witnesses after starting their case by playing the entire video of George Floyd's death for the jurors. A key witness, Donald Williams, is expected to take the stand again. Mr. Williams overheard Mr. Floyd pleading for his life as Chauvin put his neck on Floyd's neck for an agonizing 9 minutes and 29 seconds.

We begin with CNN's Miguel Marquez, live in Detroit with our top story on the pandemic -- Miguel.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning.

Look, cases are up, and guards are down. Nowhere is it more clear than what's happening here in Michigan. They are seeing a major, major spike in cases in many parts of the state.

And nothing brings it home like those hospitalizations that Alisyn talked about at the top of the show. Look at this one chart that the health organization put together here in Michigan.

In March, just March, aged -- people aged 30 to 39, the hospitalizations are up 633 percent for them. Forty to 49, 800 percent for them. But then you see a break in there, around 50 years old where people are getting vaccinated to a higher degree, and you see the number of hospitalizations drop off.

What the president on down is saying is that do not drop your guard yet, because this thing is not over.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm reiterating my call for every governor, mayor and local leader to maintain and reinstate the mask mandate. Please, this is not politics. Reinstate the mandate if you let it down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, do you believe that some states should pause their reopening efforts?

BIDEN: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: And here is the biggest concern, that these variants, the U.K. variant, the South African variant. They're finding the U.K. variant, B.1.1.7, in big numbers here in Michigan. It appears to some experts that it not only may be more transmissible but more deadly, as well.

I can say from a personal point of view, anecdotally, just getting here from New York to Michigan, I've been flying consistently and constantly the last year. Airports, airplanes, restaurants, public areas, everything is packed. Social distancing has disappeared in a lot of cases, and masks seem to be an option.

Back to you, guys.

AVLON: Thank you, Miguel.

All right, the World Health Organization will release its final report on the origins of the coronavirus pandemic in China in just hours. But CNN has obtained a draft copy of it.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh live in London with details on what the report finds -- Nick.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: It's an extraordinarily detailed body of work, one yes, of course, the Chinese government supplied a lot of data upon which the WHO panel have done its work.

But within there, there's a lot of instances, lot of examples of how possibly the virus spread earlier than December 2019 when we first knew it was around. Say, what we've seen is a draft, and we have to see what the final text shows. But here's what we saw in that draft copy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH (voice-over): After a year of wrangling and delays, the WHO is set to finally publish their first report into one of the most important questions over this novel coronavirus: Where did it start?

A copy of the report, obtained by CNN ahead of its official release, reveals that first, and most importantly, they conclude they don't yet know for sure.

The report says that, among four possible sources for the virus, the most likely is it began in bats and then moved through another animal to humans. How that happened remains unclear, but the report says more urgent testing and investigation is needed of world animal markets in Wuhan and the province it's in, Hubei, and the farms in China that supply them.

[06:05:05]

It says evidence suggests the well-known Hunan Seafood Market was involved in the early spread, but its role is still unclear. And that while about half the December '19 cases had links to markets like these, only a quarter were linked only to Hunan, meaning this particular market may not have been the only source of the outbreaks.

That suggests the virus was spread more widely that first month than thought before.

The report also discusses records of a rise of influenza-like illness in Hubei and six neighboring areas in China in December 2019. That was also reported by CNN late last year, citing leaked Chinese documents. It is unclear whether that is linked to coronavirus's early spread.

The report also deals with the lab leak theory, saying it was the least likely scenario.

Some scientists and governments have questioned China's involvement in the investigation, accusing it of not being transparent on the pandemic, a claim that Beijing denies. And much of the data the WHO had to work on was supplied by China.

But the report is 123 pages long with annexes and is a serious body of work, and it recommends further digging into blood banks storing historical samples from residents in Hubei over years, into more tissue samples where available, and into wildlife farming.

More questions have emerged from the report, but it gives the world some insight to help to try and prevent a pandemic like this from happening in the future.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WATSON: Now, there is a lot of detail in this report. And it also goes to say that, in December of 2019, there were over a dozen slight variations of the virus circulating in Hubei, which suggests it had possibly been in circulation for a little bit longer than just that month.

And interestingly, over that lab leak theory you've heard so much, often from Trump-era officials, more recently from the former CDC director Redfield, but they point out that's the least likely option and say that staff at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were, in fact, tested. They tested negative, as well. So even less evidence for that initial theory.

A lot, though, in this document that will require further investigation when we hear its official release in about three and a half hours' time.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Nick, thank you very much for laying all of that out for us. We will speak about it throughout the program. Joining us now is CNN contributor Dr. Abdul El-Sayed. He is Detroit's

former health commissioner. Also with us, CNN political analyst Josh Rogen. He's the author of the new book "Chaos Under Heaven: Trump, Xi and the Battle for the 21st Century."

Guess, we will get to that WHO report in a second. First, Dr. El- Sayed, I want to just start with the CDC director's warning. Let me play for everybody how emotional and impassioned she feels about where the country is right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALENSKY: Now is one of those times when I have to share the truth, and I have to hope and trust you will listen. I'm going to pause here. I'm going to lose the script. And I'm going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending view. We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are and so much reason for hope. But right now, I'm scared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Dr. El-Sayed, explain this to us. With so many people, Americans being able to get vaccinated every day, with so much immunity having been built up from all of the people who have already had it, had coronavirus, why today does she have such impending doom?

DR. ABDUL EL-SAYED, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, first, you can hear in her voice, and I really hope that people take what she is saying seriously. When the CDC director of the United States tells you that she has a feeling of impending doom, that because she's looking at the evidence and is fearful of what's coming in the future as a doctor, as a public official, as a parent.

Look, here's the facts. Vaccines are great, but vaccines don't work until they hit people's arms. Right? And we just don't have enough vaccinations in people's arms yet to be able to achieve the kind of herd immunity that we need.

The kinds of variants that are spreading right now, B.1.1.7 and the coastal variants in California and New York, these variants we know are more resistant to the natural immunity that we pick up after having had the disease than was the wild type, the usual variant of coronavirus that we'd been dealing with in the past.

You take those two things together, and you look at the fact that, in more than half states -- half of states' numbers are ticking up, and public officials keep making decisions to continue to rescind the kinds of protective policies that had kept them from spreading in the first place, and you realize we have a perfect storm. And I think that's what she's responding to, and we've got to take it seriously.

AVLON: Josh, before we get to the WHO report, I want to get your response to what ex-President Trump said in response to the CNN documentary "COVID WARS," where he really -- he issued a statement teeing off -- the kind of statement that would have previously been a Twitter tantrum. Here's what he said: "Two self-promoters trying to reinvent history to

cover their bad instincts and faulty recommendations, which I fortunately always overturned. I only kept Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx on because they worked for the U.S. government so long -- they're like a bad habit."

Josh, Dr. Birx said in the documentary that she felt the first 100,000 deaths might have been unavoidable but basically 450,000 Americans have died

Josh, Dr. Birx said in the documentary that she felt the first 100,000 deaths might have been unavoidable, but basically, 450,000 Americans have died because of bad policies from President Trump. Is President Trump, in effect, taking ownership in a backhanded way for his administration's failure and those deaths by attacking the doctors and proudly saying he ignored their advice?

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, I think there's plenty of blame to go around and a lot of things everybody wished they had done different, including Dr. Birx.

But former President Trump's level of concern for the real issue at hand, which is actually the pain and suffering of millions of Americans, is next to none. And that's consistent throughout his presidency and remains. And the fact that he's focusing on his personal squabbles and not the actual suffering of Americans, which he exacerbated through his ignorance, negligence and lies, is appalling and depressing and is only mitigated by the small comfort that he's no longer president anymore.

CAMEROTA: I mean, he is very upset about the CNN documentary. He obviously watched it closely, or his advisers told him about it. I mean, he -- he was really -- that statement was sort of going through point by point, Josh.

AVLON: He didn't learn anything.

ROGIN: Yes. No. I mean, he's free to, like, put out whatever statements on whatever social media platforms haven't banned him. Luckily, he's not making the policy anymore. So, you know, yes. His statement is depressing and appalling, but at least it won't kill any more Americans just because he's not president. And I think, you know, like, that's the small comfort that I find in it.

CAMEROTA: OK. So Dr. El-Sayed, back to where we are. Why are younger people now being hospitalized? I mean, what's happening? The idea that we're seeing spikes even among 10- to 19-year-olds. I think that, you know, obviously, for the last year the cold comfort or small comfort, I guess I should say, that we all took as parents was, well, this is horrible. It's a horrible catastrophe what's happening in the country, but at least our grade-school kids and high schoolers aren't getting sick.

And so now 10- to 19-year-olds are seeing a spike, and then those numbers that we just pulled up in terms of even just younger adults, 20 to 29-year-olds; 30 to 39-year-olds in Michigan up 633 percent; 40- year-olds up 800 percent. Why? What's happening?

EL-SAYED: A couple of things here. It really is tragic to hear about. You never want to hear about anybody being hospitalized or dying, but certainly not younger people in the prime of their lives.

What's happening here is a mixture of things. No. 1, they're the least likely to have been vaccinated. You know that we ruled out focusing on older people first, and then the way that the vaccine -- limited vaccine supply was staged was that you had younger and younger people getting access to it.

Second, as we open up -- and restrictions have been rolled back in Michigan for some time -- it is younger and younger people who are engaging in the kinds of social activities that they haven't been able to over the past year.

And then third, I think it's the fact that, you know, when you think about what the overall message that's being sent by a lot of the narrative that had said that the vaccines are on their way and we're done with this. The folks who hear that loudest tend to be the youngest folks, who really have gone without the kind of social interactions that they have missed for some time.

And I think you take those things together, and you have this perfect brew that it's affecting younger people most.

AVLON: Josh, let's dig into this WHO report. We have been waiting for a year. CNN has obtained a draft copy. The final is going to be released later today.

It spends twice as many words talking about the possibility of transmission through frozen food as it does the possibility that it was released through a mistake in the lab. What is your take on this report? And are you concerned that it sidesteps the really tough questions that needs to be addressed?

ROGIN: Yes. As I wrote today in "The Washington Post," the investigation and the report are both fatally flawed for a large number of glaring and obvious reasons, including that the Chinese government had veto control over the team members. They helped edit the report. According to Tony Blinken, they helped write the report. They controlled the investigation. The members of the team that weren't the Chinese officials and scientists. Some of them had conflicts of interest. They ruled out the lab theory before the investigation, and then they didn't even investigate it, and then they said it doesn't even need more investigation.

So, you know, it's -- I would love to say it's worthless, but I think that's actually too kind. It's actually very harmful, because it gives this imprimatur of, like, some sort of credibility that we learned something when actually all it did was muddy the waters more and increase the cause for a real investigation that's really going to look at the real options, including the lab accident theory.

And if these guys want to go on and search frozen food packages and find every pond civet and pangolin from Indonesia to Bishkek (ph), I wish them all the best, OK, but that's not going to be the investigation that tells us what happened; because they're not serious. And we need to find a different team of people who are serious to do the real investigation.

[06:15:12]

CAMEROTA: Dr. El-Sayed, I remember Dr. Sanjay Gupta telling us a year ago, back when this was starting, this was not a food-borne virus. What do you take away from this WHO report?

EL-SAYED: Yes. I want to contrast two -- two of the proposed potential stories of emergence that they include in the report to make a broader argument here.

You know, you look at this frozen food argument -- and we know, just based on the evidence of transmission, that this virus is transmitted largely via aerosols, in the air. That's why we're all wearing masks. The probability of getting it from food, let alone frozen food that has been shipped from a long way away, seems wholly implausible just when you step back and ask does this -- does this meet our face validity.

And then the second is the point that Josh has done, some excellent reporting on, which is the role that the Wuhan Institute of Virology may have played. And, you know, no one is arguing that this was a purposeful release, but you've got an institute that's been studying the most similar, largest homology-sharing virus to the coronavirus right there in the community. And we know that these kind of lab accidents happen all the time.

And the argument that the report pushes forward, which is that the frozen food theory is more plausible and more likely than the Institute of Virology theory, as you read the report, it looks like folks are making a great effort to overinterpret any evidence around frozen food and great effort to under-interpret any evidence around -- around the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

And so as a scientist who's reading this objectively, it really is quite frustrating, because it just doesn't make sense from all that we've learned about COVID-19 over the past year.

CAMEROTA: Yes. These questions are not going away. Dr. El-Sayed, Josh Rogin, thank you both very much for all of the information.

ROGIN: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Three witnesses and more of the video of George Floyd's killing. A preview of what to expect in court today. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:21:30]

AVLON: Just a few hours the Derek Chauvin murder trial resumes after a dramatic first day. Prosecutors say the former Minneapolis police officer betrayed his badge by using excessive force on George Floyd. And the video of Chauvin's knee on Floyd's neck was played in its entirety.

CNN's Omar Jimenez, live at the courthouse in Minneapolis with more -- Omar.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, if you were trying to avoid this trial, you're going to be out of luck. It's the culmination of everything that has been building since George Floyd's death a little over 10 months ago now. And because of opening statements, we got a clear picture for what each side is going to argue either in favor of or against Derek Chauvin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: the most important numbers you will hear in this trial are 9-29. What happened in those 9 minutes and 29 seconds.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Nine minutes and 29 seconds, that's the corrected length of time prosecutors say Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd's neck.

GEORGE FLOYD, KILLED DURING POLICE STOP: I can't breathe.

JIMENEZ: During day one of opening statements, prosecutor Jerry Blackwell played a bystander's video in full for the jury.

BLACKWELL: Mr. Derek Chauvin betrayed this badge when he used excessive and unreasonable force upon the body of Mr. George Floyd.

JIMENEZ: Chauvin faces three counts: second- and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The defense argues that Floyd died of previous health conditions and his methamphetamine and fentanyl use. An autopsy said drug use was a significant condition, but it listed his cause of death as heart failure during restraint.

NELSON: Derek Chauvin did exactly what he had been trained to do over the course of his 19-year career. The use of force is not attractive, but it is a necessary component of policing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Check his pulse.

JIMENEZ: Chauvin's attorney also argues the crowd that formed at the scene distracted the officers.

NELSON: They're screaming at him, causing the officers to divert their attention from the care of Mr. Floyd to the threat that was growing in front of them.

JIMENEZ: The jury heard testimony from three witnesses, including the 911 dispatcher who called the police sergeant while watching surveillance video of the scene. At one point she said, even thinking the real-time video froze, given how long the officers were on top of Floyd.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My instincts were telling me that something is wrong. JIMENEZ: The jury also heard from Donald Williams, a mixed martial

arts instructor who was at the scene. He's trained in the use of choke holds and says he yelled to Chauvin of the blood choke he had for him (ph).

DONALD WILLIAMS, WITNESS: Every time the shoulder is moving, he's pushing that pressure down on his neck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Black lives matter, hey.

JIMENEZ: The nation has been waiting ten months for this trial, demonstrators flooding the surrounding streets outside the courthouse in Minneapolis.

Floyd's brother was in the courtroom Monday. He says this trial is a test for the justice system.

PHILONISE FLOYD, GEORGE FLOYD'S BROTHER: America is on trial right now. Minneapolis, Minnesota, they will have to get this right. We're tired of people being killed and slaughtered. If you can't get justice for this as a black man in America, what can you get justice for?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: And testimony is going to pick up today with Donald Williams, who told CNN back in May just days after witnessing what happened, that he believed those officers wanted to kill that man; speaking of Floyd and of Chauvin at the time, said he knew what he was doing.

[06:25:07]

Court will resume later this morning. We'll hear more from Williams but also others on this official day 14 of the trial, even though this week it's felt like a new beginning -- John.

AVLON: Thank you, Omar. He'll be keeping on top of this for us from Minneapolis.

Joining us now, CNN legal analysts Joey Jackson and Areva Martin. Joey is, of course, a criminal defense attorney, and Areva is a civil rights attorney.

Joey, let me start with you. As a criminal defense attorney, I think one of the big questions confronting this -- this trial is whether Derek Chauvin will take the stand. If you were representing him, would you have him take the stand to try to explain that 9 minutes and 29 seconds?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning to you, John.

I think it's far too premature to make that assessment. That, of course, is the open question, right? Whether he will explain what his actions are.

But the reason I say it's premature is because the defense has to lay some foundation. What is that? You're going to hear a lot of expert testimony moving forward, not today, but you'll hear expert testimony on the cause of death.

In the opening statement, the defense was blaming everything other than the kneeling on the knee on the neck as to that cause of death. Speaking about you'll hear about no bruising. There's not a bit of evidence with respect to suffocation or restriction of breathing. You heard all that.

So what you want to assess first as a defense attorney is what, if any, headway those medical examiners can make, the medical experts can make.

Then you pivot to the use of force question, and then you're going to have experts with respect to the propriety and portionality of the force. What do the experts say concerning the protocols, concerning the training, concerning the reasonableness?

And then, provided that on those two issues, right, cause of death, you're not making headway, the expert issue, not making headway, and you're down and out, then as a last resort, last thing, whenever you put a witness on the stand who is the defendant, it changes the equation dramatically. The only issue that becomes, right, do you believe him? What about the credibility?

And there's far too much to savage him on from a defense perspective, right? You're worried because he's exposed. And if you damage his credibility, the case is over. So we'll re-evaluate that moving forward, John. As of now, he's not testifying.

CAMEROTA: Areva, it was gutting to watch that 9 minutes and 29 seconds again. I thought that I had seen it over, you know, the summer. And then when it was on again, when I was home yesterday rewatching it, I had to turn away. It's so upsetting to watch someone die before our eyes.

And what I was struck by -- I mean, it's interesting to me that one of the things the defense is trying to say is that the crowd was distracting. The crowd, I was so struck by their rational, reasonable tone with the officer. They were going, Hey, bro. He can't breathe. Hey, bro, you're killing him. You're going to stay like that? You're just going to stay right there?

I mean, they were so rational trying to speak sense, it sounded to me, to my ears, to Derek Chauvin. What do you make about that argument?

AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Alisyn, I think you're absolutely correct. That argument is entirely bogus. I think we are going to do what the prosecutor asks us to do, which is to believe our eyes. And we saw with our own eyes a very reasonable and manageable crowd.

And we can't forget, there were five armed officers. And let's be clear, male officers at the scene of that incident. And we don't have any evidence that any of those individuals in the crowd, that small crowd that we witnessed, no one was armed. No one was yelling. No one was screaming. They were very controlled as they tried to reason with those officers to give some care to Mr. Floyd.

So I don't think that argument about being distracted is going to resonate with the jurors.

But what will resonate with those jurors is the incredible story that was told in the opening argument by the prosecutors and the playing, as you just said, of that 9 minutes and 29 second video. I don't think many of us -- and we know some of the jurors -- had ever seen the totality of that video. And watching it in its totality was indeed just shocking.

And then to have that video played during opening and then to have the witness, one of the witness videos played again. And we should expect in the upcoming days to see more and more of those witness videos. So, the videos are going to be center stage throughout this entire trial, because they are so searing, and they are so powerful.

AVLON: Joey, look, the job of a defense attorney is to create doubt. If this is not a unanimous verdict either way, you've got a hung jury. You said that the defense attorney in the opening argument was trying to blame everything but the knee on the neck. And I want to play a clip for you of him laying out that alternative reality, so to speak.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NELSON: The evidence will show that Mr. Floyd died of a cardiac arrhythmia that occurred as a result of hypertension, his coronary disease, the ingestion of methamphetamine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)