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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Novavax Vaccine in Phase 3 Trials; Post-Christmas COVID-19 Surge Expected. Aired 4:30-5p ET

Aired December 28, 2020 - 16:30   ET

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

[16:30:00]

DR. JULIE MORITA, BIDEN CORONAVIRUS ADVISORY BOARD MEMBER: So, it's those simple measures that can make a big difference, if people are going to be doing things over the holiday season.

And it's really tempting, but it's really important to adhere to this, to not let our guard down. As much as we'd like to celebrate and feel like, because the vaccine is here, we can let our guard down, we really can't do it. It's too early.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: It's heartening to see the videos and selfies of front-line health care workers and seniors who are vulnerable getting these doses of vaccine.

But why do you think the numbers are falling so short of expectations? The Trump administration, Operation Warp Speed originally projecting 20 million doses administered by the end of the year. Now it's actually 2.1 million doses, according to the CDC, in the last few minutes.

That's hardly 20 million.

MORITA: I think it's really important to get the vaccines out quickly.

But it's also important to get them out safely and carefully and done well. And local and state health departments and the CDC have lacked federal support in dollars in funding to actually assure that they have the systems in place to roll the vaccine out as efficiently as possible.

So, with the approval of the COVID relief bill and the passage, there are additional resources that will be made available to CDC, to the state and local health departments, so they can actually roll this vaccine out and make sure it not only gets out quickly, but it gets out safely and effectively and reaches the populations who need it the most.

We know that there's certain groups that have actually been disproportionately affected by COVID. And in order for them to get the vaccine, additional support needs to go to those communities. And so I was really relieved to see that the passage of the COVID relief bill happened, and the money will start flowing to make this happen quickly.

TAPPER: A lot of students are right now in winter break, Christmas break. But I'm wondering what you think about the fact that so many health officials, so many health experts say the schools should be the last thing to close, whereas, in so many parts of the country, they were the first places to close.

As you know, president-elect Biden has suggested a goal of opening as many schools as possible within the first 100 days of taking office. Can it be done quicker? What's your guidance going to be for him?

MORITA: I think a key thing to keep in mind related to school opening is that we all recognize it is important for our children to be in the school environment to learn the best.

And so the president has committed to actually making sure that schools reopen in the first 100 days, but he also wants to make sure that they open safely with adequate resources. So, there were some additional resources made available for schools in the relief package.

And we're also prioritizing teachers and educators and those that work within schools to get the vaccine in the first -- in the second wave of vaccines, so that we can actually ensure that, when the schools are ready, when they can open, it they can be done safely, because we don't want the schools opening and for children to get sick or to spread the disease to their teachers or the people that work in the school.

TAPPER: Isn't the real risk of opening schools, I mean, isn't it -- aren't they closed mainly because of the risk to the teachers and the faculty, not to the kids at this point? Isn't that where the science is?

MORITA: Well, the science tells us that children are less likely to get sick and less likely to get seriously ill because of COVID. And so the risk does live with the teachers who are older, many of whom have underlying health conditions.

And so making sure that the teachers and the educators and the people that work within the schools are vaccinated early is really important, then also making sure the systems are in place to ensure that there isn't transmission within the school setting, so working with local and state health departments to ensure that, if cases are identified, they can isolate and quarantine the appropriate people, so the disease doesn't spread within schools.

But all that -- all that work takes resources. And so it's great that there is resource that will be -- resources will be made available because of the relief package.

TAPPER: All right, Dr. Julie Morita, thank you so much for your time today. We appreciate it.

Coming up: new developments on the vaccine front. Another shot moves a step closer. How soon you might have this third vaccine option. That's next. Plus, 10 months ago, the country watched as this nursing home in

Washington state became the site of the first deadly coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. Now a sign of hope there. We will go there.

Stay with us.

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[16:38:41]

TAPPER: In our health lead today: Novavax today announced the start of its phase three COVID-19 vaccine trial in the U.S. and Mexico. It would be the fifth company to launch a large-scale trial of a coronavirus vaccine in the U.S.

Novavax's trial is supported with funding from Operation Warp Speed.

Elizabeth Cohen joins me now with more.

Elizabeth, tell us what we know about the Novavax trial as of now.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Jake, this is a very interesting company. It's very small. I think a lot of people didn't expect it to get this far, but they have. So let's take a look at what we know.

This trial is going to have 30,000 participants, very similar to the other ones. In their trial participants, they want 25 percent to be over age 65, 15 percent to be black, and 10 to 20 percent to be Latino, because those are the groups at highest risk for COVID-19.

They will be given in -- the vaccine will be given in two doses three weeks apart, similar to what we have already seen. This is different. It requires refrigeration only. That is a big advantage, does not require freezing temperatures, like Moderna and Pfizer. So that's a big advantage.

That could set this vaccine apart, much easier to get to more remote areas of the U.S.

TAPPER: How soon do you think nova vaccines vaccine could get FDA authorization, emergency use authorization?

COHEN: So, Jake, if we go by what happened with Moderna and Pfizer, it'll be sort of four-and-a-half-ish, about four-and-a-half months.

[16:40:03]

Now, one thing I will say is that, unfortunately, with the skyrocketing rates of COVID, their vaccine potentially could go faster. The more disease that's out there, in some ways, the faster these clinical trials can go.

TAPPER: Where do we stand with the other vaccines that are still in the testing pipeline?

COHEN: All right, so let's take a look at those, Jake. You had just noted that this is the fifth.

So, we know that Moderna and Pfizer, they both already received their emergency use authorization earlier this month. Johnson & Johnson is in -- currently in phase three trials started in August. AstraZeneca in phase three trials started -- I'm sorry -- Johnson & Johnson was September. AstraZeneca started in August. And Novavax, as we know, just today is beginning its phase three trials.

There's another company called Sanofi that has also gotten Operation Warp Speed funding. They are not yet in phase three. They're expecting that to come up in the months to come.

TAPPER: Now we know that there are these new variants, these mutations of the virus. Are they testing to ensure that they will work against these new variants from places like the U.K.?

COHEN: So, Moderna, Pfizer and Novavax say that they are all in their labs testing to see whether their vaccines work against this new U.K. variant, which appears to be more transmissible, more infectious than the then the sort of regular, if you will, coronavirus that has come before it.

So, we don't know that for sure. But all three are in the process of testing to find out. And all three have expressed some degree of optimism that it will work against this U.K. variant.

TAPPER: All right, Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

COHEN: Thanks.

TAPPER: A milestone for a Washington state nursing home which was the site of one of the nation's first deadly COVID outbreaks.

You might recall us telling you about the more than three dozen residents at the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington, who died from coronavirus in the first weeks of the pandemic in the U.S.

And now, more than nine months later, some health care providers there are being vaccinated.

CNN's Sara Sidner is live for us at the nursing home where vaccinations are happening right now.

Sara, you have been talking to nurses there. What are they telling you about this milestone?

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

Yes, nurses, a doctor, a physician's assistant all of them getting vaccinated, and, as we speak, the residents are also getting vaccinated here at Life Care Center of Kirkland.

You remember this was really the first major epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak here in the United States; 39 people who were residents here died within the first month of this outbreak here. And we have talked to the nurses in particular, one of whom broke out

in tears talking about the fact that getting this vaccine is going to make their lives better. It gives them hope of having something to fight this, really the most powerful thing to fight this, finally, after 10 months.

They have been in such a state after what happened here back in March. We also heard from a physician's assistant who also broke out in tears. She talked about why she was getting it not only for herself, her family and the staff and residents here, but because one of the patients last week had been asking her over and over again: Can I get the vaccine? Will I get the vaccine? Will you promise me to get me the vaccine?

She was paying attention to what was happening in the news. And the physician's assistant said: Yes, you will get the vaccine. But, unfortunately, she revealed to us today that patient, who had survived COVID, but had other issues, ended up dying before she was able to get the vaccine.

And the physician's assistant told us that she was getting it for her today -- Jake.

TAPPER: That's heartbreaking.

All right, Sara Sidner, thank you so much.

What happened inside the White House the very first time one of the White House employees wore a mask in the West Wing -- that story next.

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TAPPER: We are back with our health lead.

The month of December has been the deadliest month of the pandemic so far in the U.S. A new 40-page report in "The New Yorker" magazine breaks down why and how things got so bad. It's called "The Plague Year" and it appears in the next issue of "The New Yorker" out on January 4th. The entire issue will be devoted to COVID-19.

Author and staff writer for "The New Yorker", Lawrence Wright, who wrote this momentous piece, joins me now live.

And, Larry, let me start with the line you wrote. You write: A pandemic lays bear a society's frailties, unquote.

What did you learn about how frail the U.S. is as you reported this story?

LAWRENCE WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER, THE NEW YORKER: So many things. And I think that it's been a revelation I think for a lot of Americans just how bad off we are because we -- you know, it's a statistic everybody's heard where 4 percent of the world's population and more than 20 percent of the fatalities, how did that happen in such an advanced country?

And a lot of it has to do with the disunity, the political incompetence of this administration. And it's something about the American character that causes us to turn what should have been an event that brought us together into one that made us even more divided.

TAPPER: There's so much I could ask you about. It's a great piece and I recommend for everyone to read it. You can find it on "The New Yorker" website right now.

You write about the behind scene arguments of the so-called travel ban.

[16:50:03]

President Trump restricted travel from China in early February. You called it, in your piece, you called it a bold gesture but incomplete. Explain why.

WRIGHT: Well, it was bold in that Trump is correct that there was a lot of resistance inside his administration from the beginning.

Public health authorities were naturally, you know, according to their orthodoxy, resistant to travel bans. Their thinking was doctors need to come and go, you know, we need to continue trade, we -- it's probably too late by the time you discover it. And, you know, it's just a fruitless gesture. And the money people, the OMB and the Treasury Department, didn't want to do anything drastic that would cripple the economy.

So there were very few advocates for this except Matt Pottinger, the national security advisor who was very -- well, Jake, I have to say he was a reporter and he called upon some skills that people outside our profession maybe don't appreciate. He was in China as a "Wall Street Journal" reporter during the SARS outbreak, and he was able to figure out that, you know, if we cut off travel, we might be able to give our silos a little time to block the advance of this.

And we did buy time but unfortunately we unfortunately, we squandered it.

TAPPER: I think he also had a response to -- based on your reporting, that I went through it at the time, which I immediately didn't believe what the Chinese government was saying immediately.

WRIGHT: Yeah.

TAPPER: A, it's a government. B, it's a communist government. You know, like, there's a million reasons to not just believe him. And he seemed to have that skepticism.

Early on, I talked to a senior administration official and this is in February I think and I said something like that, well, you know, you can't trust what they're telling you. And he said something, oh, no, no, they're good. They're really being open. I was surprised at how credulous people were, not mad though,

apparently.

WRIGHT: Well, you know in 2003 when SARS broke out, they hid the outbreak even when world health authorities went to China, they took people out of the hospital and put them in ambulances and checked them in hotels to hide them from the health authorities. And new rules were set in place.

But this time around, they persecuted the doctors that exposed it. They locked up reporters that said anything about it. And, you know, they hid the ball from -- from not just from the U.S. but from all the world, you know, saying there was no human to human transmission, for instance, when it was obvious there was.

And one of the sad parts of it is we didn't find out about asymptomatic transmission, which was a critical failing. And Dr. Redfield at CDC's had tried to get an American team over there. And he's convinced that had that happened, we would have known early on that this was a disease spread asymptomatically.

TAPPER: Although remember, Trump did say to Woodward that he knew about the asymptomatic spread back at the end of January, although he was claiming otherwise publicly. And there's been such mismanagement of this pandemic.

I want to read a quote from your piece. Nobody in the White House wore a mask until deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger donned one amid March. Entering the West Wing, he felt as if he were wearing a clown nose. People gawked. Trump asked if he was ill. Pottinger replied, I just don't want to be a footnote in history, the guy who knocked off the president with COVID, unquote.

Were you surprised to learn how personally irresponsible they were just about their own workplace even though they all knew how deadly this was?

WRIGHT: Yeah, even go to the Rose Garden, Jake. You know, that was -- what you're quoting is early on in the outbreak. They never learned the lesson. They never learned it in the White House. And that disease is still stalking the White House. I -- I'm at a loss, honestly. The resistance -- President Trump gave in March a speech about how masks will help and we should be wearing masks, but of course, he says, I'm not going to be wearing one, it's voluntary.

He undermined his own -- you know, sabotaged really and politicized the one last chance we had to make a difference in curbing this contagion.

TAPPER: Yeah. Larry Wright, it's a great piece. Congratulations. I wish that it wasn't so depressing about how incompetent the response has been.

[16:55:01]

But it's great reporting. Really appreciate it. WRIGHT: Thank you, Jake.

TAPPER: We're just moments away from the House of Representatives voting on increasing the stimulus check from $600 to $2,000. But there are already plans to mail out the $600 checks. That story's next.

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TAPPER: We have some breaking news for you in our money lead. The $600 coronavirus relief checks are expected to start going out this week. That's according to a Trump administration official who warns that the timing is not set in stone. The House of Representatives is expected to vote any minute now on a deal to raise the amount in those checks from $600 to $2,000. That's what President Trump has been calling for even though he's not been involved in negotiations and that does not have support from House or Senate Republicans who are all expected to vote it down.

Finally, today, we would like to take the time to remember an elementary schoolteacher who lost his life to the coronavirus pandemic on Christmas Day.

Patrick Key was 53 years old. He was a 23-year veteran of the Cobb County school system in Georgia where he most recently taught art. Patrick and his wife Priscilla both Cobb County teachers came down with COVID-19 in November. His wife Priscilla said in a statement, quote, the world has lost one of the kindest, most gentle loving men. Our family has lost our world and my heart is shattered, unquote.

His niece Heather said, quote, if you're spending time with your family today, I hope that you cherish it, but I also hope that you're safe and smart to protect yourself and others. May his memory and the memories of all of those we lost to this pandemic way too early, may it be a blessing.

Our covering on CNN continues right now.

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