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New Day
Michigan Quadruples New Cases, Triples Hospitalizations In Last Month; Remembering the Lives Lost to Coronavirus; Jordan's FMR. Crown Prince Signs Letter Agreeing to Support King; Arkansas Governor Vetoes Anti-Transgender Health Bill; Engineers Find No Second Breach at FL Wastewater Reservoir; Final "Jeopardy!" Response Leaves Aaron Rodgers Speechless; Who Will Replace Longtime "Jeopardy!" Host Alex Trebek?; CNN: Biden to Announce He's Moving Deadline for All Adults to be Eligible for Coronavirus Vaccine to April 19th. Aired 07:30-8a ET.
Aired April 06, 2021 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:30:00]
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Michigan just reported more than 11,000 new coronavirus cases. Cases have quadrupled there in the last month. Hospitalizations have tripled so, yes, there is a new surge there. But of even more concern a new type of patient. CNN's Miguel Marquez has just returned from speaking to patients and doctors in Michigan and Miguel joins us now. Miguel.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, we visited two hospitals in Michigan both of them seeing a sharp increase in patients from this new surge. A year on and this virus is still proving tricky to defeat.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you?
MARQUEZ: Fred Romankewiz was on his way to get vaccinated.
FRED ROMANKEWIZ, DEVELOPED COVID SYMPTOMS ON THE WAY TO GET VACCINATED: I was going there and I didn't feel right.
MARQUEZ: He got a COVID-19 test instead, it was positive. We were right at the finish line.
ROMANKEWIZ: There was a lot of - there was a lot of emotional baggage that went with that.
MARQUEZ: He says he got it from his 19-year old son, Andy. His wife, Betsy, was fully vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine. She too got COVID-19 with only minor symptoms. The virus hammered Fred, 54-years old and no underlying conditions. ROMANKEWIZ: I felt like I went 10 rounds with Mike Tyson. I was
absolutely physically exhausted. I mean I felt like had been beat up, I felt like I had been in a car accident. I mean it was crazy.
MARQUEZ: Tina Catron thinks her son's soccer club brought the coronavirus into her home.
TINE CATRON, BELIEVES SHE GOT CORONAVIRUS FROM YOUTH SPORTS LEAGUE: Even though we were all masked up, on (ph) the sidelines everyone's yelling.
MARQUEZ: Her boys Levi and Jesse (ph) got it with no symptoms. Her husband, Jason (ph), got a bad case. Hers was worst.
CATRON: They said, yes, you have pneumonia cased from COVID so we're going to admit you. And here I am.
MARQUEZ: How surprised are you to be in this bed?
CATRON: Oh, very shocked.
MARQUEZ: The 44-year old mother of two with no underlying conditions.
[07:35:00]
Outdoorsy, active, never sick, adhered to coronavirus guidelines - never thought she would get COVID, or that it would hit her this hard.
CATRON: It's weird. It's almost like you feel like you're suffocating a little bit. I don't know, it's hard to explain because you get really lightheaded and you're just like (inaudible), clammy.
MARQUEZ: Two cases of thousands in the Wolverine state now in its third coronavirus surge.
DR. MEREDITH HILL, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, EMERGENCY MEDICINE DEPT. SPARROW HOSPITAL: We're not to where we were back in November, December, but I would say that the rate of increase seems more drastic than it did back then.
MARQUEZ: At Lansing's Sparrow Health System, COVID-19 admissions have risen 600 percent in a month.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, so we're trying to see where we can pull extra staff from.
MARQUEZ: The hospital had disbanded its COVID Incident Command Center with cases piling up, they've reestablished it.
JIM DOVER, PRESIDENT AND CEO, SPARROW HEALTH SYSTEM: In December we had a high of close to 150 patients. Right now we have 95, and at the rate it's going if it doesn't abate we'll be at 150 patients in 15 days.
MARQUEZ: Fifteen days.
DOVER: Yes.
MARQUEZ: And do you know where the top of the curve is?
DOVER: We do not know where the top of the curve is.
MARQUEZ: Doctor Justin Skrzynski specializes in caring for patients with COVID at Beaumont Health, Royal Oak, part of the largest healthcare system in Michigan. COVID tests of some patients sent for DNA analysis indicate a worrying sign, sharp increase in the new, more contagious, possibly more lethal B117 variant.
DR. JUSTIN SKRZYNSKI, COVID-19 HOSPITALIST- BEAUMONT HEALTH: Right now the regular COVID test we do, that's still just showing COVID, no COVID. We do send a lot of those out to the state, and we're seeing something like 40 percent of our patients now, B117.
MARQUEZ: Oh, right?
SKRZYNSKI: Yeah, so a big percent.
MARQUEZ: As older Michiganders and those with underlying conditions get vaccinated, hospitalizations for them have plummeted. Now the hospitalized typically younger, and healthier.
DR. LYNDA MISRA, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, COVID-19 UNIT, BEAUMONT HEALTH: Each surge has brought different challenges, and when we address them we felt very strong that we had this disease under attack. But then we get thrown a curveball.
MARQUEZ: For healthcare workers, an exhausting year getting longer.
LINDSAY MUENCHEN, REGISTERED NURSE, COVID-19 UNIT, SPARROW HEALTH SYSTEM: The first day I came in and saw that our unit was full of COVID patients again, it was really difficult. I had tears in my eyes.
MARQUEZ: Twenty-two years a registered nurse.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
MARQUEZ: How hard has the last year been?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Harder.
MARQUEZ: Why?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because people are dying. I'm sorry.
MARQUEZ: Why is this so hard to talk about?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because I just saw it yesterday.
MARQUEZ: What did you see?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had a patient that passed away.
MARQUEZ: The weight of so much sickness and death, that burden getting only heavier.
So that last nurse you heard from, she says she just wants a normal day at work. She would love to deal with somebody who just needs their gallbladder out.
Back to you guys.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Miguel, can we just go back to that mom - that young mom, Tina, for a second, mother of two. As you say, young, healthy, compliant with precautions. So the thinking is that her kid's outdoor sports activities are what brought COVID in to the house?
MARQUEZ: Yeah, this is one of the concerns that the state has been talking about for some time - schools, youth sports, those are the kinds of things where you have lots of people sort of gathered together. That was in a tented sort of arena so you had parents, kids - everybody shut in together (ph).
The most concerning thing about her case is that her kids got it - she's not whether the kids got it, or the husband got it first. But the kids had zero symptoms, the husband got very sick - didn't have to be hospitalized.
She only had to be hospitalized because she had pneumonia and fortunately she's gotten out of the hospital since we shot that story. She got out yesterday, so she's doing well. But it is shocking how much of that - the youth sports leagues and just people getting together in that way, especially with the shouting and yelling is a problem.
BERMAN: I have to say, it's devastating to see that nurse after this year losing patients still at this point. You know, we've lost so many over time, Miguel, but in a certain way each death now is somehow even sadder, right? Because it's - approaching the point where it's unnecessary.
I guess what I want to ask you is, you've been to so many states, so many hospitals at this point - what was it like there compared to the other places you've been, a year plus in to this?
MARQUEZ: Look, it was shocking. Not only being in Michigan, but even getting from New York to Michigan. The lines at the airports, the planes, the airports, the hotels, the restaurants - everything packed, not only in New York but then once you get on the ground in Michigan it's like life has gone on.
People are in restaurants having loud conversations, big groups, no masks - nobody knows who's vaccinated, nobody knows who isn't.
[07:40:00]
It's uncomfortable because it's such early steps but everyone seems to think well the elder are vaccinated, they're fine. We don't have to worry about it anymore it's back to life as normal and it's not.
BERMAN: Miguel Marquez, as always thank you to you and your team for going to these places, showing us the suffering still very much happening. We appreciate it.
We want to remember some of the nearly 556,000 Americans lost to coronavirus. Chicago Elementary School Nurse, Beverly Finley Gardner (ph) had recently retired but continued to work remotely part-time. Holly says she was a friend to many who will be sorely missed. The Teachers Union called her passing a tremendous loss for the school.
Janet Sawyer (ph) had many roles in her life; waitress, community theater performer, certified nursing assistance but she was best known around Orlando, Florida as a former T.V. health reporter. Her twin daughters, seen here as well, remember her as a bright light with a big heart. She was 61-years old.
We'll be right back.
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[07:45:00]
CAMEROTA: New this morning the Former Crown Prince of Jordan now declaring his loyalty to his half brother King Abdullah II after being accused over the weekend of plotting to destabilize the country. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh is live in Amman with more. What's the latest, Jomana?
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, after the dramatic events over this weekend on Monday evening the Royal Court here announcing that the King had delegated this issue, the crisis to his uncle to try and resolve and mediate and shortly after that a letter published by the Royal Court signed by Prince Hamzah, as you mentioned, he pledges allegiance to the King and the Crown Prince and the country's Constitution.
Let me read you a part of that letter in which he says quote, "I put myself at the disposal of His Majesty the King, national interest must remain above all else and we must stand behind his Majesty the King."
Real clear shift in tone here if you compare this to the videos and audio recordings that were leaked over the weekend. The defiant Former Crown Prince, where he says he's not going to obey the orders as he says from the military to seize all communications and to stay at home. And he says that he was going to escalate.
But even after the publishing of this letter there are so many questions that remain unanswered. So people in this country really do not understand what happened. They have been presented with two competing narratives.
You've got the government accusing the Former Crown Prince of conspiring with foreign entities, of working with several individuals here in this country who have been detained since to try and destabilize Jordan to undermine its national security. You've got the Crown - the Former Crown Prince in that video statement
basically saying that he's not part of any foreign conspiracy, that the government levels that accusation against anyone who tries to speak out.
But it doesn't seem that Jordanians are going to be getting any answer anytime soon. In the past couple of hours the country's judicial authorities have put a gag order on this case banning anyone from publishing or posting anything related to this case.
Clearly they are very keen to try and put this chapter behind them and try and restore the image of a stable country that has been incredibly damaged by this crisis. John.
BERMAN: Yes, Jomana Karadsheh, keep up posted. The next few days very delicate to say the least.
To the republican governor of Arkansas vetoed an anti-transgender healthcare bill that sailed through the state legislature. The measure would have barred doctors from providing gender referring (ph) medicine or surgery to transgender people under 18. Governor Asa Hutchinson called the bill a vast government overreach that would have interfered with the doctor/patient relationship.
Now the Republican led legislature is expected to override that veto.
CAMEROTA: Environmental officials in Florida say there is no chance of a second breach in the containment of that toxic waste water reservoir that is in danger of collapsing. They are ramping up efforts to get the water pumped out.
They say the leak in the containment wall was discovered about a week ago. A state of emergency was declared and residents in the Piney Point area, about 20 miles from Tampa, were told to evacuate.
All right, so Packers quarterback, Aaron Rodger, getting trolled big time as "Jeopardy's" latest guest host. The question that left him speechless next.
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[07:50:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AARON RODGERS, GREEN BAY PACKERS QUARTERBACK, GUEST "JEOPARDY" HOST: And Scott (ph), could you come up with the correct response who wanted to kick that field goal?
(LAUGHTER)
(APPLAUSE)
RODGERS: That is a great question. Should be correct, but unfortunately for this game today, that's incorrect and you're going to lose zero (ph) - thank you for that. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: So that awesomely uncomfortable, awkward but very funny moment for Jeopardy guest host Aaron Rodgers, the question brought back stinging memories from the playoff lost last season that cost Rodgers and the Packers a trip to the Super Bowl.
Joining us now, CNN Chief Media Correspondent Brian Stelter. Brian, before we get in to the meat of this very serious discussion about who will host Jeopardy going forward -
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
BERMAN: Explain what we just saw there. Because I think people don't necessarily watch the show or watch football might be a little bit confused about exactly how much that contestant just trolled Aaron Rodgers.
STELTER: And right - and on the very first day of Rodgers hosting. He'll be on for the next two weeks, part of this guest hosting tryout process. But it was great television, you know?
This was taped back in February right after the Packers lost the chance to go to the Super Bowl, and this contestant on Jeopardy, having no idea about the answer to the question Fred Rogers went ahead with an inside joke for Aaron instead. I think it was a perfect way to set Rodgers up and introduce him as someone other than the Packers quarterback.
And by the way, I thought this was a stunt (ph) casting - you know, go out and get a hotshot sports celebrity. But no, he was actually really great at hosting, and he says he really wants the job fulltime.
CAMEROTA: But speaking of stunts, is all this musical chairs of hosts a ratings stunt, or did they just have no succession plan in place for after Trebek?
[07:55:00]
STELTER: You know, I think it's tough when someone like Trebek, such a living legend is diagnosed with a very tough illness, and you can see the end at some point down the road. Nobody in the production staff, nobody running this show wanted to think about the future, but they had to. And so they did come up with this incredible list of guest hosts all spring long.
We know our own Anderson Cooper is next later this month. Others like Savannah Guthrie, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Bill Whitaker of CBS are all going to be coming up this spring. It's a logical way to put some distance between Trebek and the next host, whoever it will be.
And the producers say they truly have not made a decision, they don't know what they're going to do.
But is it a ratings stunt? That's hard to say. There was a lot of backlash when Dr. Oz filled in for a couple of weeks, given some of Oz's quacky claims on his daytime talk show. Others really liked Oz as the host, but it was quite controversial, it ticked off some viewers.
And we've seen some evidence that the ratings are sliding a little bit now that Trebek is no longer with us. So if it is a ratings stunt, it may not be working - but I do think for viewers, every two weeks seeing different people tryout on this show, it is something of an interesting casting stunt, at the very least.
CAMEROTA: You know, Brian, Alex Trebek's already said who he thought would be a great host.
STELTER: Yes, he did.
CAMEROTA: Do you remember who he said?
STELTER: He said our own Laura Coates.
CAMEROTA: Yes, he did.
STELTER: Trebek, a big CNN fan - he had noticed Coates years ago as a legal analyst here on the air. And he said he thought she should be the next host, or at least have a tryout. Now, so far we haven't heard anything about Coates having a tryout. I haven't asked her about it either.
I think what's going on is they've gone for really, really big names. So they had Katie Couric for two weeks, they're going to have Savannah Guthrie - these are household names that have maybe been around a little longer than Laura.
But I think it is important that this show tryout a lot of different figures, and try to figure out how best to bring "Jeopardy!" in to the future because look, it's not only one of the most popular shows on TV - this might sound corny, I think it's one of those important shows on TV because it's about celebrating learning, and knowledge - and we know there's a lot of shows on TV that do the opposite, right?
BERMAN: But - so then how's it been doing? You briefly refer to it, so this idea is they've been running in different guest hosts - how's the show been doing?
STELTER: It's been holding up relatively well, but the ratings have slid a little bit in this post Trebek phase, and I think that's to be expected. You know, there are a lot of viewers who miss seeing Alex in their lives everyday. But overall the show is holding up all right, and that's a good sign - that's a good sign for television in general, for good old fashion broadcast TV, which has been sliding downhill in many different ways.
But you know, I think as Americans - especially during this pandemic, to have classic, beloved shows like "Jeopardy!" has really been important. And I certainly hope that my kids, and my - you know, I'm dreaming here, grandkids can have a show like "Jeopardy!" on TV someday, because there's not many shows like it.
BERMAN: What - have they put a deadline as to when they're going to name a permanent host? STELTER: No, but I think the fall is the big issue. And September is
the start of the new TV season for broadcast television, the producers have signaled that they would like to have a plan by then, and it's logical, right, to give a little distance between the past and the future of the show.
CAMEROTA: You know, there is one person on "New Day," who won "Jeopardy!" I don't know if he's ever mentioned -
STELTER: I see him right over there -
BERMAN: The phone lines are open.
CAMEROTA: - yeah, I mean -
BERMAN: The phone lines are open, I'm just saying.
STELTER: But you know, John, you'd have to be like - you'd have to be like Aaron Rodgers and be able to be willing (ph) to do two jobs at once. Aaron Rodgers calculated it, he found he - it was only 46 days of Jeopardy, 187 days as Packers quarterback. You've got to be able to juggle, can you juggle?
CAMEROTA: How will you play football during that time?
BERMAN: Yeah. I could find a way - exactly.
(LAUGHTER)
I will win the Super Bowl, and host "Jeopardy!" all at the same time, that is my promise to all of you.
CAMEROTA: (Inaudible).
BERMAN: Thanks, Brian.
CAMEROTA: Thanks, Brian.
STELTER: Thanks.
BERMAN: "New Day" continues right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Health experts worry the increase of COVID-19 variants puts the country on the cusp of a surge in cases.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cases are increasing nationally, and we are seeing this occur predominantly in younger adults.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's acting differently from anything we've seen before, so we have to take this very seriously.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The current Minneapolis police chief takes a stand in the trial of Derek Chauvin, his former officer. MEDARIA ARRADONDO, CURRENT MINNEAPOLIS POLICE CHIEF: I vehemently
disagree that that was the appropriate use of force for that situation. In no way, shape or form - by policy that is not part of our training.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He says it's not part of the training, or the policies. It is extremely damaging to the defense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is "New Day" with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is "New Day".
A major announcement coming from President Biden today. CNN has learned that he is moving up the deadline for the coronavirus vaccine eligibility by two weeks. OK, so now the goal for every adult - and by that the White House means age 16 and older. In every state, the goal is for them to be eligible for a vaccination by April 19. OK, so no longer May 1.
This comes as more than a dozen states are reporting increases in cases this morning, and deaths over the past week.
