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Coronavirus Cases Among Young People Continue to Increase Across U.S.; President Biden Moves Up Federal Date for All Adult Americans to Have Access to COVID-19 Vaccine to April 19; Trial of Derek Chauvin for Death of George Floyd Continues; Police Chief: Chauvin "Absolutely" Violated Policy Restraining George Floyd. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired April 06, 2021 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: No longer May 1st. This comes are more than a dozen states are reporting increases in cases this morning and deaths over the past week. Michigan has become the new epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S., and there is concern about variants spreading now across the country.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The Derek Chauvin trial resumes in just a few hours. What can we expect after a dramatic day when we heard from the police chief who fired Chauvin, an E.R. doctor who said a lack of oxygen was most likely what killed Floyd?

Let's begin, though, with CNN's Jeremy Diamond live at the White House with this new announcement coming out about when the president wants to have every American adult eligible for a vaccine.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. President Biden is expected to announce today that he will be moving up that eligibility deadline for all American adults to be able to receive a coronavirus vaccine up from May 1st nearly two weeks earlier to April 19th. Of course, this is his target that he wants states to actually meet, and really this only impacts five states that were set to open eligibility for all adults by -- on May 1st. Every other state either has already done so, as a majority of states already have, or were set to do so in the coming weeks.

This comes as President Biden has been working to increase not only eligibility but also access to the coronavirus vaccine. About 90 percent of Americans will be within five miles of a vaccination center by the time this April 19th date rolls around, in large part driven by this increase in the federal pharmacy program from 17,000 to 40,000 pharmacies where Americans can receive their coronavirus vaccine.

Now President Biden today will make this announcement after he tours a vaccination site in Alexandria, Virginia, and he's also expected to tout the fact that not only is the U.S. increasing eligibility for all Americans to allow younger Americans to be vaccinated, but it comes after a lot of progress has already been made in terms of those Americans 65 and older who are most at risk of hospitalization and death. Seventy-five percent of Americans 65 and older have already received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. John?

BERMAN: Jeremy Diamond live at the White House for us with this new development in the pandemic.

There are actually a number of new developments just over the last few minutes. Joining us now, CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Also with us, Dr. David Andrews, he's an associate professor of clinical pathology at the University of Miami School of Medicine.

One of the reasons, we suspect, that the White House is trying to get more people vaccinated and opening up to younger people more quickly is because of the spread of the different variants and the idea that younger people are being infected with this -- these different variants. And Dr. Andrews, you've got some numbers on this. You've actually got some statistics about the presence of the B-117 variant in and around you. Why don't you tell us what you're finding?

DR. DAVID ANDREWS, VICE CHIEF FOR PATHOLOGY LABORATORIES, JACKSON HEALTH SYSTEM: Yes, in Miami-Dade County, as you know, we've had a big influx of young people for the spring break event. But in our sample population, which includes both students and patient samples, we're seeing upwards of 50 percent to 60 percent of samples testing positive for the B-117 Variant, the U.K. variant.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Andrews, one more question for you about the variants, because I've recently become concerned about the so-called California variant, the B-1427, after reading that it is more transmissible, causing more hospitalizations, more deaths, and possibly vaccine resistance. Are you seeing any evidence of the California variant?

ANDREWS: Yes. So what has been fascinating to see is this evolution from a significant expansion of the U.K. variant. Now we're actually seeing that start to plateau, and the emergence of virtually all of the variants of concern that we're tracking in the United States. Second place, if you will, in between roughly 10 percent and 20 percent of our samples, again, that's in our sample population, which is not necessarily representative of peer representation of the Miami- Dade County residents, but we're seeing over 10 percent California variant.

We're also seeing a significant number of the New York variant. I'll avoid mentioning them by their official names designation. We have also -- we're also encountering, not surprisingly, in Miami-Dade the Brazilian P1 variant which carries the amino acid changes, the mutation that is most associated with immune escape, which is of more concern downstream than with regard to emergence of those which may be resistant to vaccines and immunotherapies.

BERMAN: Sanjay, put this all in perspective for us, but I think people hear this and they get very concerned. Oh, 60 percent of the cases are the B-117 variant that we saw in the U.K. Oh, we're seeing other variants. How much does that matter? What does it tell us about who is getting infected? And the flip side of that is, really, we still think that vaccines work against all of these variants, right?

[08:05:03] DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, right. So I think there's a couple of really important points here coming out of Dr. Andrews work. First of all, we have worried and been concerned for some time that these variants would become the dominant strains, right? We have the naturally occurring -- the type of strain that's been circulating mostly in the United States, starting to be increasingly crowded out by these variants which we know are more transmissible and possibly more lethal as well. So that's one thing.

The second thing is this other point that you're bringing up. First of all, we're still not seeing high reinfection rates. Why is that important? It means even people who have been previously infected with the circulating coronavirus, the more common circulating coronavirus, they still seem to have protection against these variants just from their natural infection before. We'll see if that continues to hold up.

But also, the vaccines that have been trialed, at least against the U.K. variant, for example, that Dr. Andrews was talking about, does seem to provide significant protection. It's a little bit less compared to against the more commonly circulating virus, but it still does offer protection. And I think that's encouraging.

There are some other mutations I know that's come out of Dr. Andrews' work which we have got to keep an eye on, mutations that we've seen in places like South Africa, for example, that may make the virus a little bit more likely to escape that protection. And that's what we really have to focus on here, to make sure that that's not happening.

CAMEROTA: Sanjay, you also have new information about herd immunity. Do we know where we are in the U.S. right now?

GUPTA: It's an interesting point because I think -- I don't know that we know for sure, but I think one thing that's important to continue to point out is that we are looking at the vaccination numbers, and those are obviously very important numbers to look at. But we also know, based on various modeling studies from the CDC and from University of Washington, that there's probably around 100 million people in the country, roughly, that have been previously infected and have some degree of immunity. So you have got to add that number in as well. So now a certain percentage of them have been vaccinated. So they got both, they got previously infected and vaccinated.

But the point is, if you add vaccination numbers and add in previously infected numbers, you're starting to get closer to 200 million people who may have a degree of immunity to this coronavirus. That may get us closer to herd immunity and do it more quickly. Still, it doesn't account for people under the age of 16 who still don't have a vaccine available to them. But there's a certain percentage of them that may have immunity because of having been previously infected. So it's overall, it's good news. You don't want to get infected to get that immunity, but there's a lot of people who have, and that's going to help us get toward herd immunity.

BERMAN: I promised a number of new developments. Dr. Fauci, Dr. Anthony Fauci just did an interview where he said something that I had not heard him say as directly before, and it perked my ears up as the parent two of 14-year-old soccer players. And it has to do with youth sports. I think we have the sound. Do we have the sound? Let's play it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, BIDEN CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER: What we're finding out that it's the team sports where kids are getting together, obviously, many without masks that are driving it rather than in the classroom spread. When you go back and take a look and try and track where these clusters of cases are coming from in the school, it's just that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So Dr. Andrews, that's interesting, right, because outdoor activities have been seen as largely safe. We had heard there hadn't been any on-field or very few on-field transmissions. Now Dr. Fauci is saying team sports driving part of what we're seeing among younger people. What do you make of it?

ANDREWS: I think that fits perfectly with the increased transmissibility associated with, for example, the U.K. variant, this B-117, and the others. Where previously may be there might not have been as much transmission, but that's definitely the concern right now is the rate that these are transmitted.

CAMEROTA: And Sanjay, of course, the concern also is that younger people seem to be getting sicker. Just the fact that younger people are going to the hospital by definition, I assume, that means they're having breathing difficulties. We hadn't seen really young people under 20 having those symptoms a year ago.

GUPTA: Yes, it does appear that this, at least the U.K. variant may be causing more serious illness in people. I have been talking to doctors at various hospital systems in Michigan, that's my home state. I talk to them all the time. It is true that you are seeing increased hospitalizations among younger people. But overall, I will say that the, what we call the index of severity, or just how severely ill patients are, is still less, significantly less than what we saw when elderly people or more vulnerable people were hospitalized. So we'll see. It's not to minimize that in and way.

[08:10:00]

And, trust me, you don't want this virus. No one is suggesting that you get this virus. That's not the way to get your immunity. But I think the fact that 75 percent of people over the age of 65 now at least have some immunity is going to be really helpful in terms of curbing severe illness and deaths longer term.

CAMEROTA: We certainly hope so. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Dr. David Andrews, thank you both very much for all the information this morning.

Now we turn to the Derek Chauvin murder trial. Before court resumes this morning, the judge will decide if George Floyd's friend who was in the car when police first confronted Floyd can be a witness for the prosecution. CNN's Josh Campbell has been following it all for us. He's live at the courthouse in Minneapolis. So what do we expect today, Josh?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: We're expecting more witnesses as the prosecution continues to build their case. That of course following yesterday, more damning testimony from Derek Chauvin's former colleagues. That has been this theme that we've seen, that some of the most detrimental testimony has come from former police officers with the Minneapolis Police Department.

Of course, the focus yesterday was on training. How do Minneapolis police officers receive training, what types of training? Some of the witnesses talked about use of force as well as this idea that police officers must respond to people who are in distress even if that person is in custody. So again, building that case. And of course yesterday we heard from the police chief himself who explained what was going through his mind, his view on that now infamous video of Derek Chauvin holding down George Floyd. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it your belief, then, that this particular form of restraint, if that's what we'll call it, in fact violates departmental policy?

CHIEF MEDARIA ARRADONDO, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE: I absolutely agree that violates our policy. Once Mr. Floyd had stopped resisting, and certainly once he was in distress and trying to verbalize that, that should have stopped.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: Now, as far as what we are expecting today, we are anticipating hearing from a friend of George Floyd. This man Morries Hall who was in the vehicle that day here last May. However, we're expecting him to plead the Fifth, to invoke his right against testimony. Nevertheless, he will be questions by the judge this morning. We're also expecting to hear from a police sergeant, one of the crisis response coordinators with the police department, again, continuing the prosecution's theme here that Derek Chauvin was not operating within policy as he knelt on George Floyd's neck for over nine minutes. Alisyn, John?

CAMEROTA: OK, Josh, thank you very much for all of that.

So how will the testimony from the Minneapolis police chief and other police officers affect Derek Chauvin's fate? That's next.

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[08:16:30]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROSECUTOR: Based on these observations, do you have an opinion as to whether the defendant violated MPD's departmental policy 7-350 by failing to render aid to Mr. Floyd?

CHIEF MEDARIA ARRADONDO, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE: I agree that the defendant violated our policy in terms of rendering aid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: That was the chief of the Minneapolis Police Department testifying against former Officer Derek Chauvin. Chief Medaria Arradondo told the jury that Chauvin's actions violated his training and department policy.

Joining us now is Art Acevedo who was sworn in yesterday as the chief of Miami Police Department after being Houston's police chief for five years.

First of all, congratulations. Good luck. Thank you so much for being with us this morning, Chief.

ART ACEVEDO, CHIEF, MIAMI POLICE DEPARTMENT: Thank you. Good to be here.

BERMAN: We don't see this often. We really don't. I mean, we don't see chiefs of police often on the stand publicly testifying against officers who work for them. Bakari Sellers said, you know, Derek Chauvin was just tossed over the blue wall.

So what's the significance of it? Why do you think it happened like this?

ACEVEDO: Well, because facts matter. The law matters. Evidence matters. And all lives matter, including black lives matter.

So, Chief Medaria is one of the best chiefs in the country. He's a phenomenal leader, phenomenal human being. And he testified based on his professional judgment and based on the law.

So, that's what we get paid to do as police chiefs. And I'm proud to stand with him and I join him in condemning the actions that led to the death of George Floyd.

BERMAN: Generally speaking, when officers get charged, one of the things you hear in the defense is, oh, you know, he or she was just doing the job. But basically by having the chief and others testify, they were saying, no, this wasn't the job.

ACEVEDO: Yeah, I mean, look, police officers are highly trained. We -- the taxpayers spend a lot of money on training them and the policies are very clear. And sitting on somebody's neck for 9 1/2 minutes or 9 minutes and 26 seconds, whatever the new count is, is not the way we train across this country. And ignoring a man's plea for help is not the way we train across this country.

And so, the chief testified because it's his duty to testify under oath and again, a real tough position to be in if you're in the defense in this case.

BERMAN: So that part, not the training, seemed to be key for the prosecution.

ACEVEDO: Yeah.

BERMAN: So key that they wanted more testimony just beyond the chief. We heard from Inspector Blackwell, too, who was in charge of training. Let me play that exchange for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROSECUTOR: Let me ask you, Officer, as you look at exhibit 17, is this a trained technique that's by the Minneapolis Police Department when you were overseeing the training?

COMMANDER KATIE BLACKWELL, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE: It is not.

PROSECUTOR: Why not?

BLACKWELL: Well, use of force, according to policy, has to be, you know, consistent with MPD policy. What we train are neck restraints, the conscious and unconscious neck restraint. So, per policy, a neck restraint is compressing one or both sides of the neck using an arm or leg but what we train is using one arm or two arm to do a neck restraint.

PROSECUTOR: And how does this differ?

BLACKWELL: I don't know what kind of improvised position that is. So that's not what we train.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: It's not what we train. This is not the training.

What's the implication there then, Chief?

[08:20:03]

ACEVEDO: I think when you're outside of your training, and you sit there on somebody's knee for -- on somebody's neck for as long as he did, the implications are that he faces a huge hurdle. And quite frankly, the only guy that can be able to explain his reasoning and why he did what he did is the defendant himself.

And so, this is one of those cases where it's not looking good. I've been able to watch those snippets of this trial. And so, Mr. Chauvin has a high hurdle to climb. I'd be very surprised if he's not convicted as charged by the prosecution.

BERMAN: You said the only person who can explain this is Derek Chauvin. So do you think, and this doesn't happen often either, do you think the former officer has to testify in his own defense?

ACEVEDO: Well, the only person -- the objectable reasonable -- objectively reasonable use of force is the standard by which we're all judged. And the only one that can explain the mindset, the frame of mind, why he did what he did, I don't think he has an explanation. But I can tell you that without some type of explanation, he's in for a long haul, and I have a feeling he'll wind up getting convicted.

BERMAN: Chief Art Acevedo, again, congratulations on the job. We wish you the best of luck in Miami. We look forward to speaking to you again.

ACEVEDO: Thank you. Have a great day too (ph).

BERMAN: Alisyn?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us for legal analysis is Channa Lloyd. She's a managing partner of the Cochran Firm.

Ms. Lloyd, thank you very much for being here.

Let me start there. Do you think from all of the evidence that you've heard and what's transpired in court, do you think that Derek Chauvin should take the witness stand at some point?

CHANNA LLOYD, MANAGING PARTHER, THE COCHRAN FIRM: That's a really dicey situation for him. Typically, we don't have to put on a case as a defense. It is not required that he take the stand.

However, he is the only person that can combat everything that has been said, everything that they're seeing. Now, you have to consider the other half of that is that he opens himself up to a cross- examination that can be really brutal, especially if he doesn't have something very significant to contribute. It might not be the worth for him to testify.

CAMEROTA: When the police chief of a department takes the stand and under oath says that is not a tactic, the knee on the neck is not a tactic that we use. In fact, it's a, quote, violation of policy, what more does the jury need to hear? I mean, is that the last word on that?

LLOYD: It's going to be the last word as likely for the training aspect. For what they expect other officers. What you see is this blue wall crumbling against something that everyone has come to unconscious to decide is too far. It's done too much. So everyone is very consistent in that, and that's what the prosecution is looking to do. Layer each one of these different law enforcement officers in their specific area to say that this was beyond reasonable force.

CAMEROTA: Do you believe that one of the most key points will have to be determining if George Floyd died of asphyxia as we heard yesterday from some of the medical experts, meaning a lack of oxygen, so the prosecution says that the asphyxia was from a knee on the neck. The defense appears to be saying the asphyxia was from drugs in the system.

How will the jury determine what the answer is there?

LLOYD: That boils down to perspective for each of the jurors. They're going to listen to this medical information and they'll take it in. Just like everyone else when they come into that jury box. We're talking about a combination of experience, perspective, common sense and what's been presented at trial. So it's going to really be interesting to see how -- I mean, you'll see them get very granular when we start talking about the drug usage, the quantities within the blood stream.

I think you're going to see a very different defense. I think they're going to be slow and methodical to drill that home to the jury.

CAMEROTA: And let's talk about that. Obviously, we've just heard basically the prosecution's case and they've put on, by all accounts, a strong case. Do you think that Derek Chauvin's defense can turn this around?

LLOYD: There's a possibility. Whenever you are talking about juries, they're very unpredictable. You're talking about 12 people that have varied experiences in life. Their viewpoints are very different. The parts and information that they hold onto are very unique to them.

And then they're going to have to go and deliberate with each other. It will be very interesting to see how that comes out because each one of them is going to come in with a different viewpoint. And you have to have discussions. Jurors have a lot of debates when they're back there about the very information that they're seeing.

CAMEROTA: Today, we are told that there is a friend of George Floyd who we see in the video with him who, I guess the prosecution wants to hear from. He could explain the confrontation with police. He was, I think, in the car with George Floyd. He could describe what the mood of the police, what the approach of the police were, but he doesn't understandably want to incriminate himself in whatever was happening. How will this be resolved?

[08:25:02]

LLOYD: That's going to be resolved behind the scenes. He obviously doesn't want to incriminate himself so he's likely to plead the Fifth on anything he could see resulting in a sentence or punishment for himself. The state has the opportunity to create some sort of deal for him as well, some sort of plea arrangement where if they create a deal and he, in exchange for his testimony, that's a possibility as well. It does happen. You'll see a lot of informants will have very similar types of things happen.

So that's a possibility because his testimony is going to be key because he was right there when it was happening.

CAMEROTA: If you were representing Derek Chauvin, where would you start when it is your turn, when it's now the defense's turn?

LLOYD: The defense is likely going to have to get very quickly into cause of death. This is all about the science. That's where they're going to have to hang their case in chief because that is the thing that could overcome what they are seeing. And that's where they are going to have to really focus and get very specific so the jury can focus in on the medicine, the drugs, what their effects were, how it affected the body.

CAMEROTA: Channa Lloyd, thank you very much for all of the information. We really appreciate it.

LLOYD: Thanks for having me.

CAMEROTA: Texas Governor Abbott refusing to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at last night's Rangers game because of election laws. We'll explain the connection, next.

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