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Michigan Leads U.S. In New COVID-19 Infections As Cases Surge; "Passion Of The Christ" Star Pushes False QAnon Conspiracy. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired April 19, 2021 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: What options does the U.S. have if Navalny dies?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's the interesting question. And we don't exactly know yet, Brianna. We do know that the Biden administration has said that there will be consequences. We heard from the National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, on CNN with Dana Bash this weekend. He said that he wasn't going to publicly telegraph what those consequences would be. But that the message had been delivered to the Kremlin that if Alexey Navalny dies, while he's in the custody of the Russian state, that there will be consequences as a result.

We also heard from President Biden this weekend that, you know, the Russian states treatment of Navalny was totally unfair, quote, and totally inappropriate. But it's also interesting that President Biden didn't mention Navalny when he gave his remarks about the raft of U.S. sanctions against Russia that were levied last week. He also didn't bring up Navalny during his phone call with President Putin last week.

And so there's a lot of speculation as to what exactly the U.S. will do, what the leavers are, that are still available to them. Would it be more sanctions, we simply just don't know, Brianna.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So Clarissa, you know, Navalny's health obviously getting worse as U.S.-Russia relations, bad to begin with. And there's this major military buildup on the border with Ukraine. How does this end?

WARD: Well, John, you know, I've been covering Russia long enough to have learned that there is no good that can come out of making public prognostications about how things involving Russia will end. But I will say this, it's clearly a very concerning situation. Russia is coming under huge international pressure, not just from the U.S.

And as you mentioned, we're seeing this very troubling buildup of Russian military along the Ukraine border and inside Crimea, according to Ukrainian forces, some 50,000 Russian troops on that border and in Crimea, that's not even including the tens of thousands of pro-Russian separatists living in Ukraine, who support Russia. The Russians have said, listen, we're just moving people around. This is inside Russian territory. There's nothing to be concerned about. But obviously people remember what happened in 2014 with the annexation of Crimea, and they remember how sort of blase the dialogue was then coming from the Russians while this was happening in real time.

And so there are very real concerns, particularly from Ukraine's leadership who say their brace for the possibility that there could be a Russian invasion any minute though nothing yet to suggest that that is imminent. Brianna, John?

KEILAR: All right, the temperature is certainly rising there. Clarissa Ward, thank you so much.

Michigan hospitals are on the brink as coronavirus cases are surging. Our next guest says that vaccinations may not be enough to turn things around.

BERMAN: Plus, Senator Ted Cruz despite his recent history says it's the Democrats who are inciting violence.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:36:59]

BERMAN: Healthcare workers across Michigan sounding the alarm as the state sees new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations sore, one emergency room doctors plea is going viral on social media. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROB DAVIDSON, MICHIGAN EMERGENCY ROOM PHYSICIAN: When you get this other strain, it's more transmissible, you got to spread it to more people and we think it might be more deadly. We got to do better, folks. The light is there at the end of the tunnel. But we're just not going to get there unless we do all of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Joining us now Dr. Nick Gilpin, he's the medical director of Infection Prevention for Beaumont Health. ICU capacity at his network of eight Detroit area hospitals is 90 percent this morning, or even higher. Dr. Gilpin, thanks so much for being with us.

I've heard you say, you know, we can add beds, we can find space. But what we can't do is find the people, the medical professionals, the doctors, the healthcare workers, we need to address this. How much of a strain is this putting on you?

DR. NICK GILPIN, MEDICAL DIRECTOR OF INFECTION PREVENTION BEAUMONT HEALTH: That's right. This has been the limiting factor for us really, since the beginning of this pandemic. Early on, as you recall, we had challenges with space. And we had challenges with testing and PPE. And those things are much better today, thankfully. But the one area where we still struggle mightily is with staff. And as you just said, I have said that before that we can create beds, we can manufacture beds, and we can create field hospitals, but we simply can't find the staff to adequately staff those beds.

BERMAN: Look, we vaccinated half the adult population in the United States, which is a great thing. Why can't we get vaccinate our way out of this problem in Michigan?

GILPIN: Well, first of all, I want to applaud the efforts to get vaccines in arms as quickly as possible. I think my state of Michigan has done a fantastic job of this. I think other states are doing a wonderful job of this as well. But the fact of the matter is in Detroit right now, where I'm practicing, this is what substantial community transmission looks like.

And even if we could vaccinate every remaining citizen tomorrow, there's a lead time that it takes for the vaccine to be effective. And that can be as long as six weeks. Especially if you think about a two dose vaccine like the Pfizer or the Moderna vaccine, it could take six weeks to get the full effect of the vaccine. And frankly, that's too long by itself.

So as an important mitigation strategy, of course, we want to get vaccines in arms. But in a period of substantial transmission such as we're living in right now, people have to do other things to help contain this as well. And that means all the things that I've spoken about, that Dr. Fauci spoken about wearing masks and social distancing and staying home and preferring outdoor activities over indoor activities. That coupled with the vaccine strategy is really what's going to get us through this.

BERMAN: And Dr. Gilpin, what do you say to those people who will say to you, look, Doc, we've done that, you know, we did the shutdowns. We did the stay at home orders. We did the restrictions. We can't go back to that again. We're past that.

[06:40:01]

GILPIN: Yes. Listen, I respect it. Everybody is tired. We all have COVID fatigue. I've got COVID fatigue. My staff here at the hospitals have COVID fatigue. And people do too. And I think we're seeing that happen in real time in our communities. You know, it's getting warm outside. People are getting spring fever. They want to travel. But in the face of that we've got this significant risk still in our backyard.

And the risk really is if we allow this virus to continue to transmit itself and make more copies of itself there's a substantial risk that it will continue to alter itself as well. And that is a tangible risk. We've already seen that play out with the B117 variant and some of the other more transmissible variants.

So, you know, I get it, we're all tired. And we don't want to go back to a world of restrictions. We can self-impose those restrictions. And we can use what I call a common sense approach, sort of the so called door number three, where we can, you know, wear our masks and really limit our capacities, our gatherings, our sporting event activities, or things that will -- that we know will propagate this virus, we can do it ourselves. And if we can do that, I think that's great.

BERMAN: Dr. Gilpin, we appreciate you being with us. We wish you the best of luck in the coming days and weeks.

GILPIN: Thank you.

KEILAR: President Biden, former President Obama, and a host of celebrities are rolling up their sleeves to encourage folks to get vaccinated. Teaming up for a television special last night, the former president along with Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley, emphasizing the needs for communities of color to get vaccinated.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I appreciate you guys doing this. You know, part of our goal here is to make sure that everybody who's been going through so much in COVID understands the need and the urgency of our communities getting vaccinated.

Michelle and I, we've been lucky, Michelle's mom, she just stayed put in Chicago, didn't leave her apartment. You know, the other girls as frustrating as it was, they, you know, really followed protocol in terms of making sure that they took this seriously.

Now, as the vaccine becomes more available, I want to make sure that our communities, particularly ones, African American, Latino, as well as young people understand that this will save lives and allow people to get their lives back to normal, and the sooner we get more people vaccinated, the better off we're going to be.

CHARLES BARKLEY, FORMER NBA ALL STAR: Mr. President, I get my second vaccine shot tomorrow. I cannot wait. I think it's important for us to keep talking about the vaccine. So I'm telling all my friends, yo, man, forget what happened back in the day, every black person, please go out and get vaccinated.

SHAQUILLE O'NEAL, FORMER NBA ALL STAR: I am vaccinated. My family has underlying conditions, they're also vaccinated. But I'm not worried about me and my family. I'm worried about the average mom and dad.

OBAMA: Chuck, you mentioned history about things like Tuskegee. The irony is when you know about the Tuskegee experiment, what was going on there was the government withheld treatment that was available for black men for syphilis. It wasn't that they made them sick by giving them medicine, it's that they didn't give them medicine they needed.

And so here's a situation where if the medicine is available we need to take it. And look, if the wealthy and the powerful in our society are all lining up to get shots, that means everybody should know it's a good thing to get.

Did Chuck freeze up?

O'NEAL: Yes, he did.

OBAMA: Because I've never seen him this quiet.

O'NEAL: He's in the --

BARKLEY: No, I think I'm back. I'm back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: That was awesome.

BERMAN: -- that their I.T. is like no different than the rest of ours.

KEILAR: No, I know. It's so great that they are doing this and getting the word out and it's hilarious that they are subject to the same Zoom issues that everyone else is.

BERMAN: So there's three men, you know, six doses in about 75,000 rebounds there among those three guys but that was nice to see.

KEILAR: Yes. It's wonderful.

[06:44:08]

"Passion of the Christ" star Jim Caviezel is sparking outrage and this is because of a crazy QAnon conspiracy theory that he is promoting. We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: QAnon conspiracy theorists have a new backer, a man who once played Jesus, after Jim Caviezel pushing QAnon theories that can only be described as flat out crazy. Donie O'Sullivan is joining us now. What is he saying, Donie?

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN REPORTER: Hey, Brianna. Yes, crazy certainly is the word for it. And what we've seen here really is that even with Trump out of the White House conspiracy theories are continuing to grip the United States. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM CAVIEZEL, ACTOR: The adrenochroming of children the -- I mean, look, where we're at right now. Hopefully we need your prayers.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): He may have played the role of Jesus Christ and Mel Gibson's 2004 movie "The Passion of the Christ." But now it seems actor Jim Caviezel is preaching a different kind of Gospel, echoing the Gospel of QAnon while speaking to a right wing convention over the weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said adrenochrome.

CAVIEZEL: Essentially, you have adrenaline in your body. I'll just simplify it. And when you are scared, you produce adrenaline. If a child knows he's going to die, his body will secrete adrenaline. O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Followers of QAnon are obsessed with the idea without having any evidence that Hollywood celebrities and other famous people torture children to extract adrenochrome, some believe to use in satanic rituals. It is bizarre and baseless, but it's the same kind of conspiracy theory that children are in imminent danger that in 2016 led a gunman to a pizzeria in Washington D.C. that was the target of false online claims about child torture.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The fact that you guys are attacking us and making us look like we're crazy when we're just trying to save some -- children pisses me off.

[06:50:05]

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): And the conspiracy theories continue to spread. In October QAnon believers marched in Hollywood repeating baseless claims. What's going on with Tom Hanks?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you guys just want me to explain everything today, huh? Dude, it's all suspicion. That's a suspicion.

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): How do you know Tom Hanks is -- you're going to get negative.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're reporting a non-fact because you don't know the information that you're saying the fact that they're not.

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): But neither do you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're in an impasse then because your reporting literally the same thing.

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): But neither do you. But you have him on your sign. You're calling him a pedophile?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

O'SULLIVAN (on camera): But you don't know --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do they get to that position of power?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'SULLIVAN: And we should mention we have reached out to Caviezel for comments. Look, why does this all matter guys? Well, you can see it there. People are showing up on the street about this thing. You saw at Comet Ping Pong Pizza, which was also the target of conspiracy theories gunmen showing up a few years ago. So these crazy conspiracy theories have real consequences.

BERMAN: Absolutely. They're so obviously, just absolutely nuts, Donie. They really just are. Why is it then they continue to circulate?

O'SULLIVAN: Yes. I think particularly over the past year because with lockdowns, et cetera. All of us that are spending so much more time online, all of us are in Facebook all day. And that's where a lot of this stuff is spreading. But also you can see people have an incentive to push this sort of stuff as well. You see those small dollar donations to Marjorie Taylor Greene who pushed a conspiracy theory a few years back about Jewish space lasers causing wildfires in California. So there is an audience for it and you can potentially make a buck off it too.

BERMAN: It's unbelievable to see at this point, Donie, and sickening, I have to say. Thanks so much for that report, great work, terrific work as always.

Sorry, I can't believe it. I'm sorry. I just -- it's -- it just keep getting more and more bonkers.

KEILAR: That's right. It just speaks to there are a lot of people who believe it. You know, there are so many. And there are people who would think would not believe it who do. It's really an epidemic.

BERMAN: There are people who know better and need to know better at this point.

Minneapolis bracing for unrest as closing arguments begin in the Derek Chauvin trial. We have a preview of what to expect.

KEILAR: And Johnson & Johnson accused of making up claims about other vaccines as they battle their own bad news. CNN's brand new reporting is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:56:44]

BERMAN: The Vancouver Canucks returned to the ice for the first time in nearly a month after a COVID outbreak decimated their roster. Andy Scholes has this morning's Bleacher Report, hey, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Good morning, John. So yes, the Canucks were one of the worst outbreaks we've seen in any team sport since the pandemic started. The organization said they had 25 members including 21 players test positive of COVID-19 over the past several weeks. They were finally able to return to the ice last night against the Toronto Maple Leafs as first game since March 24th.

And then Vancouver would win in overtime three to two of their head coach, Travis Green, saying afterwards, this was a special when considering everything that they've gone through.

All right, the Lakers, meanwhile, will not be visiting the White House next week to celebrate their title with President Biden. A White House official telling CNN that it's being postponed because of COVID-19 protocols and scheduling issues, the NBA champions haven't visited the White House since 2016 when the Cleveland Cavaliers met with President Obama.

All right, and finally, Stewart Cink is having an amazing comeback here tour. The 47-year-old winning the RBC Heritage Tournament for a third time yesterday, first since 2004. Now, late last year, Cink and his wife Lisa who's a cancer survivor both battle COVID. This win in Hilton head yesterday extra special because Cink's son, Reagan, was his caddy and his family was there to cheer him on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART CINK, AMERICAN GOLFER: It's just so great to have this whole family here. That means so much to me. It's just a really a blast this week. I just can't explain it.

LISA CINK, STEWART CINK'S WIFE: It's just an amazing blessing. God has blessed us beyond words. And I'm just super grateful and I loved them so much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: So great, Cink just a second golfer in the last 50 years to win two PGA Tour events at 47 years old or older.

All right, more New Day continues right now.

KEILAR: I'm Brianna Keilar alongside John Berman on this New Day.

A city on edge closing arguments today in the Derek Chauvin murder trial and Minneapolis is bracing for unrest.

BERMAN: America First in hate Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene's abrupt U turn on her new policy platform after losing support of top Republicans.

KEILAR: Johnson & Johnson accused of making up claims about other coronavirus vaccines while in a full blown damage control mode with their own. What the company is saying this morning.

BERMAN: And a big business blow up, new CNN reporting on the tension between top business leaders and Republican lawmakers.

KEILAR: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I am Brianna Keilar alongside John Berman. It is so wonderful to be here with you.

BERMAN: It's great to have you here, you are Brianna Keilar. How's it going so far in our end?

KEILAR: It's going great, very smooth so far. Thank you for welcoming me.

BERMAN: You're going to say the whole time?

KEILAR: Yes. I am. I think I don't have a choice. But I would anyways. John Berman, thank you so much. It is just the big day.

[06:59:59]

There are closing arguments that are beginning this morning in the trial of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer knelt on George Floyd's neck and back for nine minutes and 29 seconds.