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CDC Chief: U.S. Has A Responsibility To Help Vaccinate Rest Of World; Russian Foreign Min. Says Moscow Will Ask 10 U.S. Diplomats To Leave; Sources: Authorities Were Warned About FedEx Suspect's Potential For Violence In The Past. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired April 16, 2021 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Of course, as part of the vaccination rollout in the vaccination race, 78.5 million Americans are fully vaccinated. That's just shy of 24 percent of the population fully vaccinated. Partially vaccinated, just shy of 126 million you see the numbers there going up every day, that's just shy of 38 percent, 38 percent of the American population is at least partially vaccinated.

Again, you look at it state by state, which states are doing the best, the highest percentage of their population vaccinated. That's Alaska, New Mexico, Maine, Rhode Island, and Connecticut are the top five in terms of getting everybody fully vaccinated, those numbers moving up. So who's at the bottom of that list? Well, these five states, mostly here in the south Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, and Utah, all states with Republican governors, that's where the hesitancy is a lot in Republican communities and in rural communities with the lowest vaccination rates as we go through.

Let's take a look at the world. From a global perspective, the United States is doing quite well, at the head of the pack, or at least ahead of the pack among larger countries. Again, 23.5 percent fully vaccinated, look to the north and Canada just 2.3 percent, Mexico just 2.3 percent. The U.K. is 12.5, Germany, 6.4, South Africa, fewer than 1 percent of the population in South Africa has been fully vaccinated. You have heard calls from around the world that the United States to do -- should do more to help this global effort, the head of the CDC says it will in time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: So I think we have a responsibility to vaccinate the rest of the world both from a humanitarian standpoint, as well as from a global health security standpoint to ensure that we don't have further variants that threaten both the rest of the world as well as the United States. And I look forward to having CDC where we have partnerships across the globe to having a key role in providing technical assistance and support to make that happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: Let's get some expertise and insights from Dr. Kevin Ault. He's a member of that CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, also professor and division director at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Doctor, it's great to see you again.

Let me start with the point Dr. Walensky was just making. There have been calls from around the world. Please help, United States of America please help. And one of the lines essentially has been, yes, once we get completely vaccinated here in the United States. Where are we? When will it be enough supply not only to deal with what you need here in America, but to share more?

DR. KEVIN AULT, PROFESSOR AND DIVISION DIRECTOR, UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS MEDICAL CENTER: Well, I certainly agree with what she said, the CDC director said. You know, we are churning out vaccine more and more every week in the United States. And so we should be able to share with the rest of the world. But as she said, it's in our self-interest to do this because the more the virus replicates, the more problems we're going to have with these variants.

And the only way to keep it from replicating or one of the ways to keep it from replicating his vaccination, social distancing, and mask. And so, yes, we have a global responsibility. And we're a global leader in public health.

KING: And one of the ways to help is to get more vaccines in the pipeline, which would be act as quickly as possible, resolve as quickly as possible. The question that you are dealing with right now, which is Johnson & Johnson, the vaccine, the meeting -- next meeting is next Friday. Why do you need a week? And what are you looking for before you would raise your hand and say, maybe we need an advisory? Or maybe we need to tell young woman, maybe we shouldn't do this, but get the rest of these vaccines into the system ASAP?

AULT: Well, when we met on Wednesday, we were looking over the data very carefully. There were six cases in about 7 million vaccinations. And so as you mentioned, it did skew towards women and it did skew towards younger people. We need to know, you know, what the size of the problem is, if there are more than six cases. So we're going to shake the trees in the databases that the CDC has. But we also need to know what the denominator is. Is it just young women? Or is it the whole population that's been vaccinated.

And that's the only way really to make a risk benefit analysis and a recommendation about this. And so there are still a fair number of people in the United States that 1 or 2 -- 2 or 3 million if I remember correctly, who've been vaccinated in the last two weeks, and we've seen these reactions within two weeks. And so it doesn't sound like a very long time, but we'll have a fair amount of data in just those nine or 10 days.

KING: All right, we'll watch that meeting planned. Another big challenge, Dr. Ault, as you well know is that when are children vaccinated. Pfizer is waiting for emergency use authorization in it for the teenage group. And there's some studies underway, I believe we can show them now phase one trials beginning even in young children at Stanford medicine, 144 participants across the United States ages two to five at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, 340 kids participating.

Walk us through, and separate the two groups, if you will. It's a big question as we finish this school year, get close to finishing this school year and then think about what's it going to look like come August and September. Where are we when it comes to these two groups of children, teenagers, and then the lower school children?

AULT: Well, with teenagers, you know, their body mass and physiology is more similar to adults, maybe even two year olds. And so you can do some bridging studies as far as immunogenicity, safety, and efficacy. And so we have a local Children's Hospital at Children's Mercy in Kansas City, Missouri and they filled up very quickly in those trials. And so we have plenty of volunteers I think, for that older group of children.

[12:35:11]

It gets a little tougher when you have to decrease the dose and look at side effects in those youngest infants. But some of those states that you mentioned where they're having increased rates, some of that might be driven by school based transmission. So you certainly want to get on top of at least the older children over the summer, the adolescence then work our way down to the younger children.

KING: This one's a little bit more technical, but I want you to listen to Andy Slavitt. He's one of the White House COVID coordinators. They're taking about $1.7 billion and they're trying to ramp up the genome tracking, forgive me -- fix my language, if I get it wrong of these variants to try to better understand these variants and why they're more -- why they tend to be more infectious, more nasty, is the lay term I use. Listen to Andy Slavitt earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY SLAVITT, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER FOR COVID-19 RESPONSE: This funding will enable CDC and states to do more genomic sequencing, as we activate the nation's great research capabilities to detect variants earlier and increase our visibility into emerging threats. This investment will give public health officials the chance to react more quickly to prevent and stop the spread.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Help the nonmedical person out there listening understand why this is so important and exactly what it is.

AULT: Well, I think that's great news for a couple of different reasons. Reason number one is how are we going to find out if these variants are -- caused problems and people have already been vaccinated? And really, the only way to do that is to find people who get COVID after they've been vaccinated, and then sequence as you just mentioned, that genome and see if it's a variant or somebody that got infected with a different type of COVID.

So we need to do that. We also need to know the sequences if we ever talk about a next generation or, you know, next steps as far as vaccine development as far as what's circulating, and so that makes perfect sense. And that's a logical thing to do from a public health perspective. And it's expensive, you know, it involves sending specimens around sequencing and so that's the reason that dollar figure is so large.

KING: Dr. Ault, grateful for your time and insights, advanced warning we'll be checking in with you next Friday for sure to see how the conversations go about the J&J vaccine. Appreciate your time, Sir.

AULT: Thank you.

KING: Thank you.

Up next divided reset with Russia, the Kremlin complaining about new U.S. sanctions, but there are signs Vladimir Putin also wants to find a path to some cooperation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:41:58]

KING: An important first today for President Biden to close a week of defining foreign policy choices. Today the Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga at the White House for an in person bilateral meeting, the on camera big event treatment is a sign of friendship and it is also a message of transpacific unity to a rising assertive China.

This week, the President also put an end date on the forever war in Afghanistan. That date, September 11th, 2021. Also this week, a big Biden focus on Russia. Fresh sanctions against Moscow are what the administration calls a proportionate response for a massive cyber hack and 2020 election interference. The sanctions are the stick, but there also is a carrot. President Biden inviting Vladimir Putin to a summit meeting. And President Biden says he prefers to avoid a cold warlike competition.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I was clear with President Putin that we could have gone further. But I chose not to do so to be I chose to be proportionate. The United States is not looking to kick off a cycle of escalation and conflict with Russia. We want a stable, predictable relationship. If Russia continues to interfere with our democracy, I'm prepared to take further actions to respond. It is my responsibility as President of the United States to do so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Joining us now our old friend and colleague Jill Dougherty, former CNN White House correspondent and Moscow bureau chief and the adjunct professor now at Georgetown Law School of Foreign Service. Jill, it's great to see you at this very interesting moment. Let's look at this U.S.-Russia relationship. Just a short time ago, Sergey Lavrov, a man you know very well, the Russian Foreign Minister, announcing the escalation, if you will, at least on paper, expelling U.S. diplomats, expelling U.S. says they no longer will allow U.S. nongovernmental organizations to work in Russia.

So if you look at the paper or the announcement, it seems like that is the escalation the President just said he would hope to avoid. But you know this very well, and you've been watching Russian television, will there be a major escalation? Or is this a little bit of chess?

JILL DOUGHERTY, GEORGETOWN UNIV. ADJUNCT PROF., WALSH SCHOOL OF FOREIGN SERVICE: You know, I think at this point, the word is reciprocity. And that is what Russia has used for years under President Putin. In other words, tit for tat, you do this, we're going to do that. And I just was looking at the statement by Mr. Lavrov. And he said, U.S. is kicking out 10 diplomats, we're going to do the same. But then he, you know, raised the possibility of kicking out other people and taking other steps.

So I think right now, you know, and I've been watching T.V., as you said, Russian T.V. all morning. And essentially, I think what they're trying to do is decide what should be the best next steps for Russia. This is obviously almost an easy one in the sense that the United States took this step they can take that step. I think a harder one and these issues came up. By the way, President Putin had a meeting, a virtual meeting with his security council this morning and they discussed this, what should they do?

So one immediate thing, John, would be how do they answer that invitation from President Biden to attend a summit with President Putin perhaps over the summer. That's, you know, it can play both ways so they have that. And there are other things, you know, economically, I don't think that they can do much of anything in response to the United States, but we'll see what they come up with.

[12:45:21]

KING: We will watch as it plays out. It's just one of many of big foreign policy choices for the President, when the date still in the 80s, in the 80s, in terms of days, the administration. "The Wall Street Journal" today, giving the Democratic President some credit. The Editorial Board saying China poses the greatest threat to U.S. national security, but that doesn't mean other adversaries should get a pass, credit then to President Biden for imposing costs on Russia over a wide range of malfeasance.

Let me ask you to comment on that, Jill, in this context. The Japanese Prime Minister is at the White House that is a message to China, it's also a friendship with Japan, but it's a message to China, the President announcing the end of in his view of the war in Afghanistan, the endless war in Afghanistan, the sanctions against Russia. Is there an emerging Biden doctrine? Or is this a each country will have a different response based on the circumstances of the moment?

DOUGHERTY: Well, I think, you know, it appears that they are taking a more cohesive approach to a range of issues. And, you know, Russia is very specific in that sense that you do have the hacking, the interference, alleged interference, as the Russians could say, in the election, et cetera. So there -- they had to craft something specifically for Russia. That said, on Russian T.V. this morning, there was -- they, the Russians, were comparing their situation to what the United States is doing with China. So it's out there. But I think with Russia, it's quite obvious that they look back, the administration look back, analyze what had happened even under the Trump administration, and then decided to put together what appears to be a much more cohesive strategy in dealing with Russia.

Now whether it will work this carrot and stick approach. And it was very funny, by the way, listening to the Russians, translating carrot and stick, it can be, you know, a whip and a cookie. But in any case, carrot and stick, how they look at this, and many of them are saying, where is the carrot?

KING: Interesting conversation. Jill Dougherty, we'll circle back as we see number one where that summit invitation goes, and then the rest of these issues. Appreciate your time today. It's great to see you.

Up next, the question asked after every mass shooting, will Congress adopt even modest new gun safety measures?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:52:17]

KING: Some important new information just in to CNN just now about the shooting suspect who killed eight people at that FedEx facility in Indianapolis last night. Our justice correspondent, Evan Perez has those details and is with us. Evan, what do we know?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, one of the things that investigators are now looking into is any previous contact or information about this suspect. Now we don't have a suspect name as yet, the authorities there have not said who the suspected shooter is. But what we're told is they're looking into a possible, possible interaction -- past interaction, a family member contacted authorities some time ago, we don't know exactly when and express concern about the potential -- their potential for violence.

The local authorities, local police, as well as the FBI looked into it. The FBI opened a preliminary investigation. And at some point they closed that investigation. They just decided that they didn't have or concluding that they did not have enough evidence to continue that investigation. We don't know exactly why that is. At this point, we know from the authorities, they're at the -- at a home, which is believed to be the suspect's home to try to get some more information about perhaps talk to family members and look at their devices, look at their social media presence, to try to get a little bit more and motivation.

Again, the fact that the suspect is deceased, really now makes this an investigation of trying to determine what motivated them. And that job is a lot harder because you don't have anybody to talk to. So at this point, what they're looking at, John, is to see what was in that previous interaction from the local authorities as well as the FBI files to see what they found when they first had any indication of a problem with this suspect.

KING: Yes. Very important reporting from Evan Perez, stay on top of it obviously complicates the questions for investigators as this plays out. Evan, grateful for that, thanks so much.

[12:54:08]

And as we go to break another reminder of that deadly shooting in Indianapolis, take a look. The White House has now lowered the flags, to half-staff that to pay tribute and to pay respect to those lives lost in Indianapolis late last night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Topping our political radar today, President Biden backpedaling on a big promise announcing he will sign a declaration to speed refugee admissions to the United States but he will not raise the refugee cap as he promised during the campaign that he would. Instead of the President will move to cast a wider net on who can arrive in the United States under the refugee ceiling currently in place. The senior administration official says the emergency presidential determination will keep the refugee number at 15,000.

After the killing of eight people last night in Indianapolis, the Senate's top Democrat today promises votes on gun safety legislation with or without Republican support.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): We will have a vote on this issue. We will have a debate on this issue. It is very important. Two of our leaders on this from Connecticut, Senators Murphy and Blumenthal are reaching out to Republican colleagues to see if they will join us but we will have a vote whether they join us or not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Among the actions the White House wants the Senate to take pass three bills that strengthened background checks. Those bills already passed the House, passed a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines and overhaul immunity for gun manufacturers.

[13:00:07]

Thanks for your time today here on Inside Politics. See you on Monday. Have a great weekend. Ana Cabrera picks up our coverage right now.