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WHO Says, India Accounts for 25 Percent of World's COVID Deaths in Last Week Biden Begins to Reunite Families Separated at U.S.-Mexico Border; FAA Warns of Spike in Unruly Airline Passengers. Aired 11:30a- 12p ET

Aired May 05, 2021 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

JENNIFER NUZZO, EPIDEMIOLOGIST: We have seen demand falling faster in some states than in other states.

So I think it does put emphasis back on to the states to come up with creative solutions, not to make sure that everyone has access to vaccines because that's still an issue, even if supplies are much more ample than they used to be. We know some people just have had a hard time getting to vaccination appointments, so more work to do that, but also more work to do to encourage people to get vaccinated.

It's been great to states taking some creative approaches to kind of make it more of a fun and try to incentivize vaccinations. I think that's key. But as we are going to be holding them to a metric, I hope to see more progress there.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. I was talking to an official in Georgia who was saying, really, the emphasis now needs to be on meeting people where they are, getting on their level, understanding why they're hesitant or why they're resistant in order to meet them to at a place to get them comfortable to get a shot.

And there's something else that you've been leaning into that I'm quite curious about, I want to ask you about that maybe the United States, kind of looking at the broader vaccine effort, maybe the United States should actually be helping to vaccinate adults in other countries that are being crushed by the virus before focusing on offering shots to teenagers here in the U.S.

Talk to the parents of these kids out there, why do you think that?

NUZZO: Sure. Well, first of all, I'm a parent of school age kids. So I understand completely the desperation that many parents feel to return our kids to school and return them to activities. That's really important. The truth is vaccine isn't needed to do that.

One of the really encouraging signs coming out of the United Kingdom and Israel, which are quite far along in terms of their vaccination, is that vaccinating adults brings down case numbers across the board which protects kids. So we're not talking about leaving kids unprotected by any means.

But what I am deeply worried about is that only a few countries in the world have enough vaccine for the high-risk populations, for the adults, the people with underlying health conditions, the health care workers, the people that we know are at greatest risk of severe outcomes and dying from this virus but fortunately it's not children.

And it's not going to be good for our kids in the long run if we continue to let this virus spread unchecked in other parts of the world. So we have to do something to address the deep inequities that exists in the world in terms of which countries have access to vaccines.

And, in my view, while it would be nice to vaccinate our kids, it's more of a nice to have rather than a need to have. But I very much worry about the future of this pandemic if we continue to kind of pour the vaccines here in the United States and not allow other countries to use it to start to bring down their case numbers too.

BOLDUAN: I guess we're not out of this until we're all out of this together. It really does speak to that. Jennifer, thanks for coming in.

NUZZO: Thanks for having me.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, did India's prime minister allow his country to be overrun by the coronavirus? Is he responsible for this? Look at your screen. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:35:00]

BOLDUAN: While the U.S. is seeing good news on almost all fronts against the coronavirus right now, what continues to unfold in India is certainly and utterly a disaster. Nearly half of all global infections and a quarter of deaths around the world were in India in the past week.

You can forget the numbers and just look at these pictures. People are desperate. They're suffocating to death on the streets and even in hospitals as they're running out of supplies. And everyone is begging for help from their government or somewhere.

India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, has widely been blamed for the crisis reaching this point. Watch this report from CNN's Clarissa Ward.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Modi. Modi. Modi. Modi.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): As a raging pandemic tore across the country, thousands flocked to the streets for political rallies with hardly a mask in sight. At one gathering, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised the turnout.

I've never seen such huge crowds at a rally.

On that same day, more than 260,000 new cases of COVID were recorded in India. Shortly after, millions of worshippers were allowed to congregate for the end of the week's long Hindu Kumbh Mela pilgrimage. After all Modi had already declared victory against COVID.

NARENDRA MODI, INDIAN PRIME MINISTER: In a country where 18 percent of the world population lives, we averted a major tragedy by effectively controlling the coronavirus. We saved mankind from a big disaster by saving our citizens from the pandemic.

WARD: As the second wave of coronavirus ravages this country, those words have come back to haunt Modi. Critics accuse him of putting his political interests ahead of the health of the nation.

YAMINI AIYAR, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE, CENTRE FOR POLICY RESEARCH: We didn't even ask the question of what we needed to do based on learning from this last year in the event that we'd have a second wave. A second wave was never off the table. You just had to look around the world.

[11:40:00]

You don't have to be a scientist to say that. We did nothing. Instead, we celebrated a bit too prematurely, Indian exceptionalism.

WARD: Now, India's health care system is on the brink of collapse, with shortages of everything from doctors and drugs to beds and oxygen after years of neglect.

It was always going to be difficult to contain the spread of COVID here in India. This is a densely populated country of nearly 1.4 billion people. The Indian government is blaming the rapid spread on this new double mutant variant. And it says that it warns states to remain vigilant.

Still, many doctors agree that the devastating toll of this second wave could have been mitigated with better preparations and a coordinated response. Assured of victory against the virus, India began exporting the vaccines it was producing instead of inoculating its own population.

How much responsibility does Prime Minister Modi bear for this?

AIYAR: He's the prime minister of the country. He takes full responsibility for all that we do good and all that goes wrong.

WARD: Do you think this will have an impact on his popularity?

AIYAR: I think as of now, what we have seen especially over the last three weeks is complete policy abdication and certainly I hope that we hold our government accountable for what we are seeing today.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WARD (on camera): The government has announced a raft of measures to try to combat the crisis, including drafting in medical students to help the doctors, getting the Navy involved, getting the Air Force involved. But some are saying it's too little too late.

And while it's not clear what the political fallout might be for Prime Minister Modi, people are saying here that this problem is not going away. One state health minister warning that there could be a third wave on the horizon. Clarissa Ward, CNN, New Delhi.

BOLDUAN: Clarissa, thank you so much for that report.

Coming up, thousands of children were torn from their parents under the Trump zero tolerance policy at the border. Now, the first reunion from President Biden are finally happening. We're going to bring you the story of one reunion that just happened.

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[11:45:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRYAN ORTIZ, REUNTED WITH MOM AFTER 2017 SEPARATION: It feels like a dream, like I was in the car and I was just, this is finally happening. And I'm really going to be reunified with her after all this time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: That is a family reunion years in the making, a son reunited with his mom after they had been separated for years under the demonstration's zero tolerance policy at the border, one of the more than 5,500 children taken from their parents often without warning or explanation, families torn apart under a judge's order. The Trump administration, you'll remember, was forced to start reuniting these families. But more than a thousand now three years later remain apart.

This week the first, four families are being reunited under the Biden administration. Yesterday in Philadelphia, one long-awaited reunion just took place. Now, we don't have pictures of this yet, but here is their story.

A mother from Honduras came here to the United States with her two sons in 2017. The boys were 14 and are 15 at the time, taken from their mother at the border. She was deported. And they have been staying with extended family here ever since. Yesterday, for the first time in over three years, they were able to hug their mom again.

One person at that reunion, Lee Gelernt, Deputy Director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project. Lee, thank you for being here.

Can you describe for us how it went last night?

LEE GELERNT, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, ACLU IMMIGRANTS' RIGHTS PROJECT: I almost don't have the words to describe it. It was so emotional, I mean, just really just gut-wrenching, these boys hugging their mother for what seemed like an eternity, all of them sobbing, the extended family sobbing. It was one of those scenes that I think, if anybody could have seen, and hopefully there will be video soon, and Jonathan Blitzer at The New Yorker is coming out with a long piece this afternoon that I think will really put things in context.

It's just -- I talk about how many families separated, more than 5,500. It's critical that people understand the scope. But at the end of the day, if it was one family and you could see the family and the hardship they had gone through, and then the joy of being reunited, that's what it's ultimately all about.

BOLDUAN: I mean, this mother is seeing her sons who are now three years older, 14 and 15, now becoming men. And this is -- they've been able to communicate, is my understanding, but finally being able to see each other and touch each other and hug each other. I can't imagine what it was like being in that room.

GELERNT: Yes. I mean, I think anybody who has teenage sons, these were 14 and 15-year-olds, knows how difficult a period that is, these boys came to another country, another culture, had to learn a new language and they had to navigate all of that without their mother. It's just unimaginable. They've stayed strong, and for them to see their mother was just unbelievably joyous.

BOLDUAN: The boys have been with their aunt since they were separated. Now that they're reunited, what happens to this family now?

[11:50:01]

GELERNT: So she will be allowed to stay for a minimum of three years with work authorization. But the more important thing is the ACLU is negotiating with the Biden administration, so far more than that. It's not enough just to reunify these families. We need to get them compensation. We need to get them social services, including mental health services, and we need to get them legal permanent status. We'll never make these families whole again but we need to at least try, and that's the minimum.

So these are the first four families and it's a long haul. We are negotiating in our class action lawsuit for all of the families. We want them all brought back and we want them all to be given legal status. We have to do that if these families have any chance of leading a healthy and productive life.

BOLDUAN: And, Lee, as you said, it's going to be a long haul to get there, if you eventually do, with the Biden administration. Four families reunited now after a hundred days. That's how long it took former families to be reunited under the Biden administration.

There's still so many others that are separated. Are you celebrating this morning?

GELERNT: We're celebrating for the four families, but no larger celebration. I think this is just the beginning. It is the tip of it. We have so much work to do. And I think like any major civil rights case, a lot of it is just are you going to stick with it and grind and that's what we are hoping and expecting the Biden administration to do.

We can't all rest and say it's solved. These are four families out of the thousands. I am thrilled for these families. But, really, the work is just beginning.

BOLDUAN: No. You and I have been talking for so long. And just to remind folks, it was June of 2018 that a federal judge told the Trump administration what they were doing was completely wrong and the families needed to get back together.

How long this is going to take, because it has been a hundred days and the Biden administration has been able to reunite four families?

GELERNT: Right. Well, we're hoping that now it will speed up. And I think -- and one of the things for the Biden administration is they were trying not to do the beginning ones in an ad hoc way but to develop a process that can be scaled up.

So what we are hoping for is that while these took longer than anybody would have hoped, and I think including the Biden administration, we now have a process in place that can be scaled up and things will move much more quickly. So, hopefully, we won't see delays like this any longer, and I think the Biden administration doesn't want the delays.

I think what happened happened with the delays, but now we need to look forward, and I am hopeful based on the good faith negotiations I am having with the Biden administration.

BOLDUAN: But I do fear that it's still going to be a long conversation of you coming on and discussing this. But thank you so much, Lee. I really appreciate it. Thank you very much for bringing this to us.

GELERNT: Thank you for continuing to shine a light on this, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thank you.

Coming up for us, actual violence and verbal attacks. Fewer people are flying because of the pandemic but there's a big spike in unruly passengers. What's going on here?

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[11:55:00]

BOLDUAN: Over the last couple of months, we have seen an increase in the number of people flying. On Sunday alone, the TSA screened more than 1.6 million people. That's a pandemic record. But at the same time, these are historically still low numbers still for how many people used to pack planes pre-pandemic.

So why are officials reporting such a big spike and reports of unruly airline passengers. CNN's Pete Muntean joins me now. Pete, what is going on? PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, more people are flying for pandemic, but what is so interesting is those numbers are way lower than normal and there are more problem passengers among them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MUNTEAN (voice over): It is the newest issue facing pandemic-era air travel, flyers flying off the handle. The Federal Aviation Administration says the number of in-flight incidents are soaring, its latest data, 1,300 reports of unruly passengers in the last three months alone. The FAA says it typically gets one report every few days. Now, it's says multiple incidents come in every single day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we all do some messed up things and the alcohol gets in us.

MUNTEAN: A California woman apologized after she was caught on video trying to attack an airline employee by jumping the ticket counter in Miami. The FAA says it's cracking down on passengers not wearing masks, assaulting flight attendants and illegally drinking alcohol on board. Federal regulators' new policy is zero tolerance for bad behavior while flying.

A change spurred because of problems on flights carrying Capitol riots.

STEVE DICKSON, FAA ADMINISTRATOR: We will not address these cases through warnings and counseling.

MUNTEAN: The FAA said it's even investigating an Alaska state senator who was banned from Alaska Airlines for refusing to wear a mask, though she claimed to have an unspecified exemption.

The head of the largest association of flight attendants says help from the federal government is essential. Flight crews are often the first to deal with this growing problem.

SARA NELSON, PRESIDENT, ASSOCIATION OF FLIGHT ATTENDANTS-CWA: It means everything to have that backing and to send a very clear message to travelers that these are the rules and these are these consequences if you don't comply.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MUNTEAN (on camera): The punishments include fines as high as $35,000, even jail time.

[12:00:01]

The FAA says its zero tolerance policy will stay in place as long as the transportation mask mandate stays in place.