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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Daily Pace of Vaccinations Drops Below 3 Million Shots Per Day for the First Time in 2 Weeks; Putin Critic Transferred to Civilian Hospital, Doctors Plead for Him to End His Hunger Strike. Aired 4:30- 5p ET

Aired April 22, 2021 - 16:30   ET

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

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[16:34:03]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Alarm bells sounding in our health lead today. The demand for vaccinations is starting to dwindle, even though the U.S. is nowhere near herd immunity levels. For the first time in more than two weeks, the daily case of vaccinations has dropped below 3 million shots per day. So, now, the Biden administration is trying to figure out how to get vaccine enthusiasm back up, as CNN's Nick Watt reports.

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JACOB MCMORRIS, PARISHIONER, LIFE TABERNACLE CHURCH, BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA: I know it works medically but when you put something in you that help stop from getting it, you know, that just -- that just doesn't work for me.

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): So, here's who HHS recruited to help fight such vaccine hesitancy, Walter Kim, president, National Association of Evangelicals. The WNBA, NASCAR, a couple of sharks, Seacrest and Ripa.

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: My job now is to make sure every American knows this vaccine is available to them, that it is safe, that it is effective, and they should go and get vaccinated.

WATT: One report suggests that hesitancy means vaccine supply may outstrip demand within weeks.

[16:35:07]

Early in the vaccine rollout, waste was the worry.

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: This is such a precious resource and really this wait list should not be tolerated at all.

WATT: New CNN analysis of CDC data finds through the end of March, one in every 850 doses was unused, spoiled, expired or wasted. One-third of American adults are now fully vaccinated. Dodgers Stadium will have a section just for them in the stands.

Saturday, the CDC is working on updated guidance for the vaccinated.

Average daily new case counts here down 12 percent in a week. Elsewhere on earth, a very different story. In India, an all-time global record, nearly 315,000 new cases reported in one day.

CHANDRIKA BAHADUR, CHAIR, LANCET COMMISSION ON COVID-19 INDIA TASKFORCE: We're going through pretty much the worst possible phase of the pandemic.

WATT: Help to save my mother, I love her more than anything. Just one plea on social media.

Many hospitals, morgues, graveyards are now full.

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WATT (on camera): And back here, federal officials are also mulling over whether to keep or ditch that mask mandate on mass transit. That's due to expire next month. Meanwhile, some states are taking the lead. Rhode Island, for example, just named a date, May 7th. From then, you will not need to wear a mask outside in that state -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Nick, thanks so much.

And tomorrow, we expect to learn whether Johnson & Johnson can continue its vaccinations in the U.S. We're going to discuss the options on the table and more with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and that's next.

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[16:41:13]

TAPPER: Welcome back.

So, continuing our health lead, the fate of the J&J vaccine in the U.S. fate could be decided tomorrow. That's when an influential advisory group to the CDC will meet to decide whether the pause in distributing the vaccine should end or continue. This, of course, is in response to six cases of a severe and rare brain blood clot and whether there was a link to the vaccine.

Joining us now to discuss, CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Sanjay, what are the chances that the J&J vaccine will go back on the market tomorrow but maybe with a warning that in extremely rare cases, the blood clot can happen?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think that seems like the most likely scenario. You know, we'll see.

One thing to keep in mind is part of the advantage of having this time over the last week or so is if there are a lot more patients who will declare themselves and say that happened to me as well. In other words was this a needle in a haystack or a tip of the iceberg? We're not hearing about a lot more cases. So, this does, we thought it was rare, it continues to be rare. So, in certain cases, where people may have a pre-existing condition, this may serve as a warning to them. That's what they did in Europe, by the way. Not that the FDA always matches what the European medicine agency does. That seems like the most likely outcome here, some kind of warning.

TAPPER: The White House announced new efforts trying to boost plateauing vaccination rates. They're offering incentives to businesses to allow employees to take team off work to get vaccinated.

Do you think numbers are slowing because of a lack of ability to get the vaccine or because so many people remain skeptical?

GUPTA: Well, we've been doing a lot of reporting on this. I do think at this point it's still a combination of both. There are still some places around the country where -- that are just harder to reach. People have not been able to have the same access to the vaccines, even though they become much more accessible in so many other places. And then you're seeing the impact overall of the vaccine hesitancy, or the lack of vaccine confidence.

Show this graph if we have it. This is some polling that came out of the Kaiser Family Foundation. But basically right now in the country, about 61 percent says either they've had the vaccine, they're going to get it, they have no problem with it.

The bottom green line are people who say only if needed or definitely not. But that blue line in the middle, Jake, it started off at a high level, down to 17 percent. That's the fence setters, the moveable middle, people who, you know, they could flip. And those numbers have been coming down. I think that's where a lot of the focus is going to be. A will the of them want to wait and see, let other people go first and then they'll go. If they flip, and a significant percentage flips, that gets us closer and closer to herd or community immunity.

TAPPER: Yesterday, I had senior COVID adviser to the White House, Andy Slavitt on the show, and he told me the CDC is putting together new guidance for vaccinated Americans like you and me. What's this -- you know, how come I still have to wear a mask outdoors, for example? That's a question I asked.

What does the science say about what the rules should be for people like us, who are vaccinated?

GUPTA: Well, let me go over some of the numbers. We have data around this now, how likely people who are becoming infected are getting infected outdoors? A small percentage. Less than 10 percent of these cases are happening outdoors. That's just across the board.

But 18.7, that's a number I shared with you earlier last year, Jake, the odds of transmission indoors versus outdoors, almost 19 times more likely to happen indoors versus outdoors. So, keep those in mind in the back of your mind.

As a general rule, Lindsay Marr whose somebody who writes a lot about this. If you have been vaccinated and you are not vulnerable, high risk, you probably don't need a mask outdoors. But there is some common sense that comes into play as well.

[16:45:03]

If you're in a very crowded outdoor setting where you're going to be stationary for a long period of time and there's high viral transmission in your community, that's something you can check, then that's going to be mover a risk. More of a risk that you're going to breathe in someone else's air and that that air may contain the virus. That's basically it.

So outdoors in general, vaccinated, not vulnerable, probably don't worry about it. But if you're in a high-risk area and are considered high-risk yourself, then I think, you know, a mask is still going to be a good'.

TAPPER: If you were to go -- you and I are both fans of Dave Matthews. If you were to go to the Dave Matthews concert, he just announced he's touring, outdoor events this summer, are you going -- would you be willing to go, would you wear a mask? How would you handle that?

GUPTA: Yeah. I think so. I think that -- it would be curious to see. I just heard about that, that they're going to have these live concerts. Where are we in the country at that point?

I think in the summer -- what I've been optimistic about for some time is that the rate of transmission at that time may end up being so low that the likelihood of me coming in contact with someone who is actually carrying the virus is going to be pretty minuscule. At that point I would be very comfortable going. If, for whatever reason, one of these concerts -- and he's having several of them, one of these cities has a high rate of viral transfers, so viral transmission, then I would be worried.

But low viral transmission, outdoors, I'm not vulnerable, I'm vaccinated, I would be good to go.

TAPPER: OK.

GUPTA: And I'd like to go.

TAPPER: Yes, I know you would. OK, me, too.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much.

Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny needs to stop his hunger strike immediately. That's the plea from five of Navalny's doctors. We're going to go live to Moscow ahead. Stay with us.

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[16:51:01]

TAPPER: Breaking now in our world lead, we are just learning that jailed Putin critic, Alexey Navalny, was finally allowed to be visited by a team of independent doctors after he was moved for -- to a civilian facility. In a letter first published by media zone, his doctors are warning that if Navalny continues his hunger strike, they will have, quote, no one to heal. Navalny started his strike three weeks ago in prison, to protest officials' refusal to grant him access to proper medical care.

His hunger strike inspired thousands to protest throughout Russia last night. Almost 2,000 protesters were detained.

CNN's Sam Kiley is in Moscow for us.

Sam, what are we hearing from Navalny today and what condition is he in?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, earlier on today, Jake, via his lawyers using Instagram and other social media, he acknowledged with gratitude the large turnout that we're seeing right across Russia in spite of the efforts by the Putin administration to suppress public demonstrations. Many thousands of people turned out as you say there, close to 2,000 were detained. That's down on previous demonstrations in support of Mr. Navalny.

And then we have this very dramatic letter from his doctors. As you say there, saying that he is in mortal danger, effectively, and exalting him to come off of his hunger strike, because he says -- they say after analysis of the independent physicians who did see him, their reports suggest he could suffer renal failure, some kind of neurological damage, even heart failure, and is already suffering from some kind of fits.

So, in that context, they have asked him to give up his hunger strike. It's not clear -- and I have been in touch with his chief of staff the last couple of hours whether or not Mr. Navalny will agree to give up his hunger strike, and kind of a moot points a to whether his demands for independent attention from physicians have now been met since he has been seen and moved to a civilian institution.

So, there's a lot to play for here, but at the same time, his supporters are saying they're going to have another demonstration in favor, in support of his efforts to fight back against his incarceration by the Putin administration and ultimately demanding radical reforms here in Russia, Jake.

TAPPER: Right, that's -- right, the question then becomes if he ends his hunger strike to protest the fact that he wasn't able to have independent doctors, now he does, is he going to continue his hunger strike to protest his incarceration or the fact that Putin is repressing members of society, including him? Will he continue?

KILEY: Well, I think if you look at the pattern of his behavior in the past, he was poisoned with Novichok last year. The nerve agent used by in the past or at least blamed on the Putin administration for attacks on, for example, Sergei Skripal in England, dreadful poison. He then traveled back here after treatment in the sure knowledge he was going to end up in jail and has since gone on hunger strike.

So, he is clearly intent on -- in a sense ramming himself into confrontation with the Putin administration. TAPPER: And the more that Putin oppresses him, throws him in jail, the

more he brings attention to Navalny.

Sam Kylie, thanks so much. We'll be right back.

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[18:59:17]

TAPPER: In our out of this world lead, a tiny machine the size of a toaster is helping to pave the way for the possibility that humans might some day go to Mars. The Perseverance rover successfully made oxygen for the first time Wednesday. The rover was sent up to the Red Planet with an oxygen conversion tool called MOXIE. NASA says the amount of oxygen made could sustain an astronaut for about ten minutes and could be even used as fuel.

And finally, today, we want to take a time to remember just one of the 570 lives lost to coronavirus in the U.S.

Today, we remember, Felipe Amador, a 48-year-old dad, husband and frontline at Cedar Sinai in Beverly Hills, California. For 30 years, he assisted nurses and providing the best care possible for his patients. He was known at the hospital for his compassion.

Our deepest condolences to his family, friends, and coworkers. May his memory be a blessing.

Our coverage on CNN continues right now. I will see you tomorrow.