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Investigation into Subway Death; FDA Approves RSV Vaccine; Nordstrom to Leave San Francisco; Harris Meets with CEOs over AI. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired May 04, 2023 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Perhaps the drip, drip, drip of all the things coming out may force them to do something that they've been asked to do.

Thank you so much, Joan Biskupic, we appreciate you, live there from Washington.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A man dies after he was put in a chokehold on the subway. This is prompting new protests and demands for action across the city.

And it is time, just about, for the opening bell on Wall Street. Futures pointing slightly lower this morning. You can see there down less than 1 percent. This after the Fed raised rates by a quarter point yesterday. Interest rates are the highest they have been in more than 15 years. This is the tenth rate hike since the central bank started raising rates back in March, although the Fed indicated maybe -- they used some wording that they may pause these hikes soon.

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[09:35:36]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

Some of the top stories we're tracking this hour. The suspected gunman in a mass shooting at an Atlanta medical center is expected in court today for his first court appearance. Twenty-four-year-old Deion Patterson was arrested last night after a nearly eight-hour manhunt that he led police on. He's been charged with murder and aggravated assault for allegedly killing a CDC employee and injuring four others in the shooting.

We're also tracking this, Russia is now accusing the United States of being behind the alleged drone attack on the Kremlin. A Kremlin spokesperson has claimed, without evidence, that the Ukrainian government is implementing decisions made in Washington as it relates to this alleged drone attack. The last -- just the last hour, John Kirby, from the White House, called that a ludicrous claim and a lie. John.

BERMAN: Thanks, Kate.

This morning, prosecutors here in New York City are investigating the death of a subway rider after another passenger put him in a chokehold. The incident was caught on video. By the time police arrived, 30-year-old Jordan Neely was already unconscious. His death has been ruled a homicide. Now, no charges or arrests have yet been announced.

CNN's Omar Jimenez is at the subway station where the victim was taken off the train.

Omar, why don't you walk us through what happened.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John.

So, it would have happened on this northbound F train here in the heart of New York City. And this happened earlier this week where witnesses say this man, Jordan Neely, walked on to the subway car acting erratically, as it was described, and talking about how he was tired about not having enough food and that he was fed up, hungry, tired of having nothing. And then he took off his coat, threw it on the ground, according to this witness, and some passengers seemed to at least get uncomfortable. But that's when another man, another passenger, came up from behind and just - and started putting this man, Jordan Neely, into a chokehold.

Now, that's where some of that video picks up that's been circulating, in the middle of that chokehold. Though I should mention, we don't exactly know what happened leading up to it. We haven't been able to confirm that. But - and we haven't been able to confirm how long this man was in the chokehold itself.

But, bottom line, this was something that he did not end up waking up from as the medical examiner said that he died later that afternoon due to compression of the neck. And, of course, that is where the investigation is for now as the district attorney's office says they are looking into this situation.

BERMAN: And, Omar, again, I'm asking you this as subways are coming and going, so it may be hard to hear me, how are city officials responding to this?

JIMENEZ: Well, obviously, they've had a pretty visceral reaction right off the bat. I mean I'll start with a local councilwoman here who said - Adrienne Adams said, let's be clear, any possible mental health challenges were no reason for his life to be taken, which is part of the anger that many people here feel, that no matter what happened leading up to this, that it was not enough to end up with someone losing their life.

And Mayor Eric Adams, here in New York, also commented on this. Take a listen to some of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ERIC ADAMS (D), NEW YORK: This is what highlights what I've been saying throughout my administration. People who are dealing with mental health illness should get the help they need and not live on a train. And I'm going to continue to push on that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: And, obviously, now the investigation continues. As we've seen, no charges have been filed just yet. But, obviously, it's something that's being looked into. Others seem to -- there have been, I should say, some protests here and there again over that dynamic that we just talked about. That, of course, the details of what exactly led up to this are still being confirmed, are still bit by bit coming out, but many people feel that no matter what happened he shouldn't have lost his life. And, of course, that's the heart of what this investigation moving forward will be, John.

BERMAN: Indeed. All right, Omar Jimenez, very much on the scene. Omar, thank you so much for your reporting.

Sara.

SIDNER: A 60-year scientific quest has now given us the world's first RSV vaccine. The FDA has approved a one-time shot for adults 60 and over. And it could be available for that age group as soon as this fall.

CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell joins us now.

[09:40:01]

This is a bit deal. A long time coming. It tells you sort of how long it takes to come up with vaccines for some of these things. How well do we know that this actually works?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So, it looks like it works extremely well. And RSV is a horrible disease. We probably remember it from the fall when we were have that triple-demic of RSV, flu and Covid.

SIDNER: Yes.

TIRRELL: And this really affects older adults and kids really severely. It's a super contagious respiratory virus. It hospitalizes up to 160,000 older people every year in the United States alone and leads to 10,000 deaths. So the hope is that this can really help potentially make this a vaccine-preventable disease.

In terms of the efficacy that we've seen just against getting RSV disease itself, you know, coughing and wheezing and things like that, 83 percent in the clinical trials, more than 90 percent effective in preventing severe disease. And that's really was you want a vaccine to do. So that's really important.

SIDNER: This is really important. I know that they have said, OK, this is for people who are 60 years and older. Will there be soon a vaccine for children?

TIRRELL: You and all parents of small children are asking this question. Companies are working on this. We always see that it's slower going to get vaccines for kids because you need to be so careful with the safety and regulators always do them second. But companies are working on it. That will come.

Pfizer actually has a vaccine for pregnant women or pregnant people so that they can protect babies in the first six months of their lives. So, that's going up to the FDA very soon as well. This vaccine that just approved is from GSK.

SIDNER: Yes, I remember seeing a whole lot of children that were in the hospital with RSV just recently. So this is a good development.

Thank you so much, Meg Tirrell. Appreciate it.

TIRRELL: Thank you.

SIDNER: Kate.

BOLDUAN: Ahead, another major retailer is calling it quits on downtown San Francisco. The company points to too much crime as part of the reason. The impact and the response to this move. We're going to tell you about it, next.

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[09:46:15]

BERMAN: All right, new developments this morning. The department store Nordstrom announced it is closing both of its downtown stores in San Francisco this summer. The retail chain says changing dynamics are behind the decision as crime and economic struggles have plagued the city since the pandemic. Police data shows a spike in burglary and thefts since 2020, though it's still lower than years prior.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is here.

And when you see something like this happening, you always wonder why? And this is happening in San Francisco but other urban centers as well.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Certainly. And in San Francisco, Nordstrom now the 20th - about 20th retailer to announce that they're leaving the city. Nordstrom saying that they're going to close down their two downtown locations. So on Market Street and then in the Westfield Mall. And they're citing changing dynamics in the city. So, yes, it's absolutely about crime. In the beginning of this year, homicides are up 20 percent compared to last year. You mentioned the theft, up 23 percent over the course of the pandemic.

But there are other factors. Rising rent is a big factor. You also have people working from home. So, there's not as much foot traffic in the area. And you also have just consumer buying habits changing. A lot of us are buying things online and not in person. But Nordstrom, not alone in this. You have Whole Foods, Office Depot,

CB2 (ph), Anthropology, all leaving town. And Nordstrom, for their part, though, says that they're going to try to find jobs for all the employees that are working in those two downtown locations because those two downtown locations make up 300,000 square feet. That's a lot of employees. Nordstrom looking to put them in other positions elsewhere.

BERMAN: How much of this is unique to San Francisco, the Silicon Valley environment, and the -- sort of the tech hub?

YURKEVICH: Yes, certainly. This is changing the economic landscape of San Francisco. So, you have these retailers leaving town. You have major tech companies leaving town. And then you have home buyers leaving town. San Francisco is the number one city where home buyers are now leaving town to look for homes in other areas. So, all of this together is certainly changing the economic landscape of San Francisco.

You mentioned it's happening in other cities as well, but really in San Francisco we're having this kind of trifecta of an economic reality that's now playing out.

BERMAN: All right, Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, top tech executives are due at the White House next hour. On the agenda, the exploding artificial intelligence industry and how to deal with serious risk this technology can bring.

Plus, the race to hire air traffic controllers. There's a weekend deadline to apply, but will the new hires be enough to handle the summer travel rush? That's all ahead on CNN NEWS CENTRAL

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[09:52:48]

BOLDUAN: This morning, the White House is laying out a new plan to try to address the challenges and risks associated with artificial intelligence. The new measures will help shape how federal agencies use AI going forward. And later this morning, Vice President Kamala Harris, she's going to be meeting with the heads of some of the top tech companies on this very topic. The CEOs of Open AI, Anthropic, Microsoft, and Google's parent company, they're all going to be taking part. They're among the big names that are going to be sitting down with the VP on this.

CNN's Brian Fung joins us now for more on this.

Brian, the White House describes this meeting as -- they're billing it as a frank discussion on artificial intelligence and its risks. What are you hearing about this approach from the Biden administration when it comes to AI? BRIAN FUNG, CNN TECH REPORTER: Yes, Kate, this new plan from the Biden

administration really has a couple of main planks here. One, there's an announcement of $140 million in new spending on research and development targeted towards AI that will go towards things like applying AI to climate research, agriculture, and medicine. And then another major plan here is, as you said, developing policies for federal government agencies and their use of AI and how they procure AI. And this could have really big impacts on Americans for how they interact with AI on government websites or security checkpoints when they're trying to enter the country or leave the country, and so that could have a really big effect on how many average people experience AI and what the market for AI looks like.

Now, obviously, in this plan you're seeing the White House try to walk a tightrope here where it, you know, simultaneously recognizes that there are benefits to using AI for, you know, some of these scientific breakthroughs, but also some major risks, including the possible algorithmic bias that could come from the use of AI, obviously job losses, and as well, you know, the possibility of hacking or scams that might arise as a result of AI tools. And so Vice President Harris is going to be pressing this point with the CEOs of Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, and Open AI later today, telling them, you know, hey, you guys really need to step it up and take responsibility for how your tools are used and deployed so that they don't cause unintended harms.

[09:55:06]

And this is sort of the main point the White House is trying to drive today, although the White House isn't yet ready to, you know, release specific calls for exact policy proposals or anything like that. So that appears to be still a ways off.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: I would say probably a very much still a ways off considering a lot of people are still wrapping their minds around what is the best way to regulate something that right now it is somewhere and could be completely in a different place when it comes to AI in just a few years.

It's good to see you, Brian.

It's going to be very interesting, John Berman, how the White House decides to handle AI.

BERMAN: Yes, I mean, we could have - we could have virtual administration officials before long the way we're going.

BOLDUAN: A virtual cabinet.

BERMAN: All right, 8 million jobs, that is how many the White House predicts could be wiped out if the nation defaults on its debt. And the White House is calling Moscow's accusations ridiculous after the Kremlin suggested the U.S. directed Ukraine to carry out that alleged drone attack.

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