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Laura Now a Hurricane Heading For TX & Louisiana Coasts; Inside Chinese Lab Conducting Late-Stage Vaccine Trials; Chinese Biotech Company in Human Trials for Covid-19 Vaccine. Aired 9.30-10a ET

Aired August 25, 2020 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Well, it was Tropical Storm Laura. It is now Hurricane Laura and it's headed directly for the Gulf coast. Residents along the Texas and Louisiana shorelines, they're on alert with some already under mandatory evacuation orders. We just learned that now includes Galveston, Texas.

All 50,000 residents there have been ordered to leave the area. Let's get straight to CNN's Martin Savidge. He is in New Orleans so Martin, tell us, I mean one question I always have in these situations are people listening to those evacuation orders?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh absolutely Jim. I mean, any time you talk about a category 3 in the Gulf of Mexico, that gets people's attention but when you start talking about that on the fifteenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina then believe me, people are laser locked when it comes to Laura.

Let's talk about Texas. You mention Galveston. There other parts Jefferson County, Texas too that's also ordering mandatory and in some cases people could take it on the road if they want to evacuate but it shows you that there is growing concern in Texas as the storm projection and Chad will talk more about this.

This seems to be more and more west. The good news about Marco which by the way, did pass by New Orleans earlier today did bring a little bit of rain but it was not the storm that people had feared. The really even better news about Marco was that it got people in the storm mindset.

In other words, a lot of people have already gone up this weekend, purchased their emergency supplies, purchased their food and things like that. The city went about making sure that all of its pump - pumps, all 99 are ready to go. They brought in alternative power sources for them to keep them going if the electricity goes out.

Cleared all the drainage basin so they are trying to be as prepared as they possibly can. It's not expected they'll get a direct hit here but they could definitely feel the impact as western Louisiana braces for the full on force of what could be a Cat 3.

SCIUTTO: 15 years since Katrina. Martin Savidge, thanks very much. Let's go to CNN Meteorologist Chad Myers. Chad, you're looking at the map there where and when do we expect landfall?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I won't say landfall is after midnight, Wednesday night, Thursday morning but it's going to start affecting the coast way before that. You have up until about 6:00 tomorrow and then you just need to be out of there or boarded up or whatever you're going to do. Category one Hurricane. Hurricane hunters did fly through it in the past hour.

[09:35:00]

Found a gust to 77 miles per hour. That's high enough to make a hurricane. Now Marco had the same kind of gust and about 20 minutes later it was dead. This is not going to be a Marco. This is going to intensify, this is going to be a Category 3 or greater as it makes landfall between Texas and Louisiana.

I would say 70 miles either side of a line of that line there where Texas and Louisiana separate. The path right through there. Now the water is warm, Jim. The water is over 90 degrees and this is going to rapidly intensify.

You're going to use that term over the next couple days, rapid intensification. When have we used it before? Katrina, Rita and Matthew. It means greater than 35 miles per hour gain over 24 hours and guess where Laura is right now? Right there. Right at the crossroads of all of those storms that rapidly intensified in very warm water, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Goodness. We know you're going to be watching closely. Just folks if you live in in those lines there, be watching this closely as well. Chad Myers, thanks very much. Behind the global race to develop a coronavirus vaccine, next CNN goes exclusively inside a Chinese lab where a vaccine trial is now already in the late stages. What are they finding?

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[09:40:00]

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SCIUTTO: A Chinese biotech company is pushing ahead with Phase 3 of a coronavirus vaccine trial. Sinovac is one of 31 vaccines in human trials around the world today including nine in China, five here in the U.S. CNN's David Culver joins us now. David, you got a chance to go inside, to tour the lab where this vaccine is being developed.

What steps are they following? How far along are they? How seriously should we take this?

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Jim, I can tell you. It's probably a surprise to you but it's been a challenge to get this access, to get in there. We've been asking for months to see what exactly is behind of the production of vaccines here in China and so we were able to get in today and you're going to see some of the images of us going inside of Sinovac. It's in Beijing. They're building a new expanded campus here, simply to put up with the demand.

They're trying to meet that demand and trying to increase production. Now inside, you've got a strange juxtaposition. You've got a construction site that meets what is a high tech lab. You've got people in hard hats and people in lab coats passing each other in the hall so it's a bit strange to see that but it speaks to how quickly this infrastructure has had to go up as they're trying to research and then ultimately produce this vaccine.

As to how serious it is, it is in Phase 3 and those Phase 3 trials are under way in Brazil and Indonesia. You're talking about 11,000 people who are partaking in those trials. And what's interesting is when they're up to full production capacity, it's only going to be about 300 million vaccines a year.

For that reason because you do the math, that's more than 1 billion short of China's population alone and they want to do this worldwide, that they have decided to open up the idea of competition. They say competition in this case is a good thing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HELEN YANG, INVESTOR RELATIONS, SINOVAC BIOTECH LTD: Yes, I think the competition is more like we compete with the virus, right? Our speed should be faster than the transmitting of the virus instead of competing with others, we like everyone to be successful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CULVER: Jim, it was a bit strange holding that vile and reading the label and seeing coronavirus vaccine. You know there's a lot of hope in that but at the same time as people have been messaging me on Instagram, how much can we trust it and believe that it will be effective and I think that's the test that we'll see play out.

SCIUTTO: No question. There's a reason they have their investors relations person there speaking as well. A lot of money behind it.

CULVER: Exactly.

SCIUTTO: David Culver, thanks very much. Joining me now is Dr. Paul Offit. He's Director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Offit, always good to have you.

DR. PAUL OFFIT, DIRECTOR, VACCINE EDUCATION CENTER, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: Good to be here.

SCIUTTO: So you look at that world map there and you have many vaccines being developed around the world. China, the U.S. and so on. Do we have a sense at this point as to who's ahead of the game here and who's - which efforts are most promising? OFFIT: I am open minded to the fact that any of these vaccines could

be the last best vaccine. What I like about the Chinese vaccine though is they use a technology this well-worn. Basically, you take the virus, you grow it up and you inactivate it with a chemical.

That's the way we make the inactivated polio vaccine. That's the way we make the hepatitis A vaccine, that's the way we make the rabies vaccine so there there's been a lot of commercial experience with that strategy to make a vaccine.

The second thing that I like about the Chinese vaccine is that it takes the whole virus whereas all the previous strategies that you've heard about, whether messenger RNA or the so called replication, defective, simian or human adenoviruses, all just focus on one coronavirus protein which is that spike protein that emanates from the surface of the virus.

This strategy includes all four proteins which could be a theoretical advantage so I mean I'm interested to see how this vaccine does in its Stage 3 trials.

SCIUTTO: I mean is it possible that we have more than one effective vaccine too and therefore people have options, countries have options.

OFFIT: I think it's likely that we'll have more than one and may be they say to attract horse for courses meaning there maybe for example a vaccine that's particularly good for people over 65 years of age. There may be a vaccine that's particularly good for people with various comorbidities. So I think we'll learn as we go.

SCIUTTO: OK. So let's talk about a concern here and this is not confined to the U.S. but where politics gets in the way or has been injected into the process. I mean you have Russia rushing out a vaccine before large trials. Concern is you know they're trying to score political points here but also in this country.

[09:45:00]

The President repeatedly talking about something by election day and we have Dr. Fauci among others saying wait a second. Let's follow the science here. Let's not follow the politics. Are you concerned in this country about the politics getting in the way of the safest, most vetted vaccine coming out?

OFFIT: Yes, I mean this country is good at making vaccines, really. You know, the first vaccine was the smallpox vaccine made in late 1700s, a hundred years later, the next actually was made in France, the rabies vaccine. Since the 1940s with the flu and pertussis vaccine, every real vaccine that's been made has been made in the United States.

We're really good at this but you have to let it play out the way as Dr. Fauci said it should play out which is that finish the Phase 3 trials, don't short circuit Phase 3 trials, don't put a vaccine out there before it's been clearly shown to be safe and effective. I think he has a right to be worried. SCIUTTO: OK, let's talk finally about this therapeutic plasma

treatment that the White House unveiled with great fanfare on Sunday. We now know that the director of the FDA - fudged is too strong a word, but he certainly exaggerated the statistical benefits of this treatment by a large margin here.

And given that we've seen the president inject himself into the hydroxychloroquine debate and now this pushing for a vaccine earlier on a political timeline and this, what message should Americans take here? I mean a lot of this is about confidence in the system and the vetting here. How concerned are you about the FDA fudging the numbers as it were on a treatment?

OFFIT: I think Dr. Hahn just made a mistake, just made a rookie mistake if you will and I really don't think he meant to mislead the public. If he did, he wouldn't have the next day gone on national television and apologized for that mistake.

SCIUTTO: Correct.

OFFIT: I have faith that Dr. Hahn is going to stand up to the president and do what the FDA needs to do which is to protect the public and make sure that any vaccine we get has been held to a higher standard of safety and efficacy.

SCIUTTO: Good to hear. We'll be watching closely. Dr. Paul Offit, thanks very much.

OFFIT: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well, in the convention Republicans painted really a misleading portrait of the Trump presidency, particularly his handling of the coronavirus pandemic. That on the opening day of the convention. This as a source within his campaign says fact checkers will be working overtime this week. We'll discuss.

[09:50:00]

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SCIUTTO: Welcome back. This week's Republican National Convention is a family affair as each night features at least one member of the Trump family in the spotlight but there are worries within the Republican universe that members of the Trump family will dominate the airwaves, not the GOP's message.

Joining me now CNN senior media correspondent and host of Reliable Sources, Brian Stelter. Also out with a new book 'Hoax: A behind the scenes look at Fox News in the Trump era.' Really a remarkable look at the connections there. First, let's begin with the convention of what we learned from it last night.

You said this convention showing Fox's America in affect to the rest of the country. How so in your view?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes because Fox is programming the Trump White House, it's programming the GOP and Trump is producing Fox. It's a feedback loop that normally only is seen by a third or you know, half the country.

Now it's being seen all over on the broadcast networks here on CNN and MSNBC. Last night, it was like watching Fox News in prime time on every channel because you were seeing right wing internet celebrities, GOP lawmakers that are - that are close you know frequent guests on Fox and we're going to see this all week long, Jim.

It's almost like we need to GOP decoder and the decoder is Fox.

SCIUTTO: In your book, I mean your essential argument is if Fox is not just a mirror image of left leaning news outlets but - but really a propaganda machine you know that wraps itself in a cloak of conservative journalism but goes further, explain how you make that case?

STELTER: Yes and that's because President Trump has effectively taken control of the network due to a lack of leadership there, he is able to program the network himself. He chooses to call in, take over for an hour, you know rant and rave. No president had access to a megaphone like this before.

You know we have been fact checking night one of the RNC but that's not happening nearly as much over at Fox. There aren't the same journalistic standards. It doesn't have to be this way. They could add more journalistic standards but they choose not to because it ticks off the president.

SCIUTTO: Another point is that you say Fox News influences Trump as much as much as the other way around and you have a news breaking story in your book on foreign policy in particular. Walk us through that.

STELTER: Yes, this is why I think your book and mine are the perfect companions. You just came out with Madman Theory. Hoax and Madman theory go perfectly together because they explain what has gone wrong in the Trump years.

Here's the new quote from my book that talks about the president's relationship with Sean Hannity and why that was an issue security wise, quoting here, "given his proximity to the president, Fox executives have real concerns about whether Hannity's phone was being targeted by foreign governments."

Now I know Hannity took precautions but it was a huge problem for the corporate IT department and this wasn't just about Hannity. Other Fox stars also experienced this. I know a prominent Fox host who found spyware on their phone and traced it back to a nosy foreign ally. In other words, you've got foreign government spies trying to learn about Trump through Fox News hosts.

SCIUTTO: And looks to me, it's a security weakness for the president himself because we know that he speaks to them on this phone too. It's a way to listen to the president's conversations there.

[09:55:00]

Finally, tells us about the title 'Hoax' because that was not your original title. How did you get there?

STELTER: Yes, that's right. I told you I was working on a book called 'Wingman' but when the pandemic happened in our lives and the president used the word 'hoax' saying the Democrats were making too much of a fuss about the virus, it was clear that the story had changed.

My editor, Julia Cheiffetz said, we need to call this book 'Hoax.' We need to start and end this book with the pandemic and that's what we've done, Jim. This book is about the last five years of Fox and Trump. It explains what is gone wrong in this country and why the president is so addicted to TV but it really mattered this year when Fox downplayed the pandemic. We know the cost is measured in human lives. That is why this story really matters.

SCIUTTO: Shared this information, right, about it? That was harmful to people's health. Listen, the book is 'Hoax,' it's coming out tomorrow - today actually.

STELTER: Today, thank you for the -

SCIUTTO: Fox News and its dangerous distortion of truth. It's out today. It's a fascinating read and it's an important one in this time. Brian Stelter, thanks very much.

STELTER: Thank you Jim. Thanks.

SCIUTTO: And we'll be right back.

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