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Trump Claims CDC Chief "Confused"; Biden: Politics Cannot Interfere with Vaccine Research; "Historic and Catastrophic Flooding" along U.S. Gulf Coast; Kushner Refuses to Rule Out Assassinations as Part of U.S. Foreign Policy; U.S. Officials Weighed Using Heat Ray on Protesters; Venezuelans Fear COVID-19 Diagnosis More Than Death; Growing Concerns Over Vaccine Supply & Distribution; Congressional Report Slams Boeing, FAA for Deadly Crashes. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired September 17, 2020 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John Vause.
Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, a self-described stable genius and current U.S. president tells CDC director with more than 40 years of medical experience he's wrong on vaccines and masks.
Rescues underway along the Gulf Coast after Sally dumped record amounts of rain.
And Venezuela, where the cure may really be worse than the disease. Mandatory quarantine for COVID-19 patients in filthy warehouses described as hellholes.
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VAUSE: At a White House news conference on Wednesday, Donald Trump made it known that the director of the CDC, the country's leading health protection agency, has been spoken to and schooled by the president over vaccines and masks.
Trump said Robert Redfield was confused and mistaken on two key central features here, stopping the virus with masks and vaccines. Here's Dr. Redfield making that original sin Wednesday before Congress.
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DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: I think there will be a vaccine that will initially be available sometime between November and December but very limited supply and it'll have to be prioritized.
If you ask when will it be generally available to the American public so we can begin to take advantage of the vaccine to get back to our regular life, I think we are probably looking at third -- late second quarter, third quarter, 2021.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: That's not what the president wants to hear. The timeline did not sit well with the political calendar.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think he made a mistake when he said that. It is incorrect information. I called him and he didn't tell me that. And I think he got the message may be confused. I called him and I said what did you mean by that? And, I think he just made a mistake.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: So, you had the call. You said that you told him that he made a mistake. What was his response?
TRUMP: No, I didn't tell him anything. I said what happened? I got the impression he didn't realize when he said what he said he might have said. I didn't see him say it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Guess what?
Not long after that, the CDC backed up the president, saying, in today's hearing, Dr. Redfield was answering a question he thought was in regard to the time period in which all Americans would have completed their COVID vaccination and his estimate was by the second or third quarter of 2021.
He was not referring to the time period when COVID-19 vaccine doses would be made available to all Americans.
Yes, then there was the CDC director's endorsement of face masks.
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REDFIELD: We have clear scientific evidence that they work. And they are our best defense. I might even go so far as to say that this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against COVID than when I take the COVID vaccine.
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VAUSE: For a president who does not like wearing a face mask, he was having none of it.
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TRUMP: I called him about that. Those were the two things I asked about. I believe that if you ask him, he would probably say that he did not understand the question, because I said to him, I asked him those two questions. The one question which we covered and the mask question. When I called up Robert today, I said to him, what's with the mask? He said I think I answered that question incorrectly. I think maybe he misunderstood it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And what do you know, after the president's news conference, Dr. Redfield issued a statement.
"I 100 percent believe in the importance of vaccines and the importance in particular of a COVID-19 vaccine. A COVID-19 vaccine is the thing that will get Americans back to normal everyday life.
The best defense we currently have against the virus are the important mitigation efforts of wearing a mask, washing our hands, social distancing and being careful about crowds."
The president's Democratic rival, Joe Biden, is rejecting President Trump's accusation that he is spreading fear about the safety and -- of any potential vaccine. Biden says he will follow the science and that the process cannot be rushed.
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JOE BIDEN (D-DE), FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We can't allow politics to interfere with the vaccine in any way. Americans have had to endure President Trump's incompetence and dishonesty when it comes to testing and personal protective equipment. We cannot afford to repeat those fiascoes when it comes to a vaccine, when it occurs. The stakes are too high. American families have already suffered and sacrificed too much.
So, let me be clear. I trust vaccines. I trust scientists, but I don't trust Donald Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: A recent survey shows 62 percent of Americans are concerned that political pressure from the Trump administration will push the Food and Drug Administration into rushing a vaccine before it's deemed safe and effective.
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VAUSE: Patrick Healy is the politics editor for "The New York Times" and a CNN political analyst and he's with us from New York.
Patrick, thank you for taking the time, good to see you.
PATRICK HEALY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Great to be here, John.
There is a town hall on ABC on Tuesday night and there is a bunch of undecided voters with direct and relevant questions for the president. He didn't do too well and, at FOX News, well, it was an ambush. Listen to this.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This was an ambush and Biden is not going to take any questions like this. He's not going to get any questions like this. So why did the president decide to do this, to open himself up to a room full of basically Trump resistance?
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VAUSE: Yes, this was a train wreck by all accounts. The president did not emerge well from this. He did not come out unscathed.
Why did he do it and also why did he tweet Wednesday morning, thank you for the great reviews on the ABC news show last night?
You know, what reviews?
Even the best FOX could come up with was it was an ambush.
HEALY: Yes, the president spins like no one else when he's talking about his own reviews and, as we know, ratings and reviews matter a great deal to him.
In this case, he knows that Pennsylvania is deeply important for his electoral calculus. This town hall was undecided voters in Pennsylvania; it was not an ambush. There were voters there who supported Donald Trump in 2016, as well as people who supported Hillary Clinton and who didn't vote. So it was a pretty wide sampling.
But what you would expect is and what happened was, people came with direct, tough questions to ask of this president and he is not used to that kind of forum. He is more used to appearing on FOX News, getting very friendly questions from people like Laura Ingraham.
So this was not an ambush in that regard but it was something where the president felt the need to put the best possible spin on it.
VAUSE: There was a stark contrast what we saw on Wednesday at the White House to what we watched on ABC on Tuesday night. And, you know, when Trump was asked directly if he knew the virus was deadly, why did he lie to the public about the threat?
There was this incredible moment we compared himself to Churchill during the blitz. Here he is.
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TRUMP: He was very brave because he was at the top of a building. He was very well known that he was standing on buildings and they were bombing and he says everyone is going to be safe. I don't think that's being necessarily honest and yet I think it's being a great leader.
But he said, you are going to be safe, be calm, don't panic and you had bombers dropping bombs all over London.
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VAUSE: You know, if Churchill said the blitz is harmless and will magically end by, spring, leave your shelters, go about your business, yes, fair comparison. But Churchill did not say that. So guess what, Trump has been recorded and can't lie about what he said. The fallback position is to lie about why he said it?
HEALY: Yes, it's a totally misleading comparison. And this is a president who reaches for comparisons of himself to great men, great leaders in history. But what he is not getting is that his own words on tape undercut him.
You know, Churchill wasn't lying to the people of London and Britain. They knew what they were in for. You know, he was focused on morale and safety and one nation facing a great challenge.
Donald Trump is, you know, focused again and again, you know, in his own words, on saying the virus is going to disappear. This is not his fault, he's done everything possible to take precautions.
And yet, we see again and again, the fact that he denies the science around masks. He denies what is more of a realistic timeline on vaccines, he wants to present his own version of reality, even where he has become Winston Churchill as a wartime leader.
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HEALY: Which is clearly not the case.
VAUSE: Clearly. Not just Donald Trump, also Bill Barr making some incredible comments on things like lockdowns. Here is Bill Barr. Listen to this.
I think we have Bill Barr?
Any moment.
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WILLIAM BARR, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL: You know, other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in the history of America.
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VAUSE: That just seems not. I'm sorry. This is crazy.
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HEALY: It's shocking, John, the attorney general of the United States invoking slavery as kind of a point of comparison to lockdowns over the virus. It's the sort of rhetoric that I think a lot of us have become used to from the president of the United States, Donald Trump. Less so at least from people like Bill Barr.
But now he is reaching I think -- and so many of the people around the, president several weeks from the election -- reaching for this kind of extreme, extraordinary hyperbole to cast their opponents and enemies, even ideas like a lockdown to keep people safe and protect health, as somehow abnormal moments of history.
But to compare it to slavery, it's hard to be surprised at this point by the administration but it was a really surprising one.
VAUSE: We're out of time but it's kind of notable that there isn't this kind of stuff going on in other countries. Thank you for being with us, good to see you.
A quick programming note 1 am Friday London, 8 am Hong Kong. You can see Anderson Cooper moderate a town hall with Joe Biden here, only here on CNN.
What's left of Hurricane Sally is drenching much of the southeastern, with months of rain in near hours. Sally hit as a category 2 hurricane early Wednesday, causing widespread flooding and leading to hundreds of rescues.
The National Hurricane Center says the flooding is historic and catastrophic in parts of the Florida Panhandle and Alabama and is putting lives at risk. The Florida governor is urging people to stay at home and away from the water.
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GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): With the flooding, it's going to continue to be an issue over the next many days so people need to buckle up if you are in those areas.
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VAUSE: CNN's Gary Tuchman is following all the details for us from Pensacola Beach in Florida.
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GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here in this barrier island of Pensacola Beach, Florida, Hurricane Sally brought hurricane force winds for much of Wednesday morning, tropical storm force winds from Tuesday night to Wednesday afternoon.
But the winds weren't the story for this hurricane. The winds were scary but it was the rain, torrential rain, buckets of rain for 23 straight hours without letup. And it caused immense flooding problems here in Pensacola Beach, other parts of Florida Panhandle and the Alabama Gulf Coast.
Thousands of businesses and homes suffered from flood damage like here, the Bimini Beach Bar now with flood damage and next door, the Parasailing WaveRunners business, a restaurant, flood damage and we see this all around the region.
Rescues were taking place today, emergency officials in Alabama and here in Florida rescued people who were surrendered by water in their homes, where they sought shelter from the storm, about 400 rescues took place.
Also need to tell you about an accident that happened, there's a bridge to get from here, Pensacola Beach to the city of Pensacola, which is much bigger. You have to take a bridge which is called the 3 Mile Bridge. It was damaged by a barge, that got loose, maybe two barges. One or two hit the bridge, caused damage. It's now closed, it could be closed for months and it's the only way to get there quickly to Pensacola, the city that this is named after ,Pensacola Beach.
It's now a much longer ride to get there so that gives you an idea of the damage that can be caused by an immense storm. There's concern there will be more flooding tomorrow on Thursday. Because of that concern, there's a curfew in place in Escambia County, Florida, from dusk to dawn for the next few days -- this is Gary Tuchman, CNN, in Pensacola Beach, Florida.
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VAUSE: Firefighters are making some progress in battling the huge wildfires in California and much of the western part of the U.S. Scientists say vast amounts of smoke from the flames have now reached Northern Europe.
The agency in charge of wildfire management says the number of active fires in the western part of the U.S. has gone from 87 to 79. California continues to have the most, 22.
Officials in Oregon say at least 8 people have been killed, 12 are missing. Firefighters as you can see are exhausted. CNN's Martin Savidge reports.
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MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're on the outskirts of Lyons, Oregon, it's about a 1.5 hours south of Portland. It's the community where the Beachie Creek fire roared through a little over a week ago.
This is just an example of some of what it did. You can tell that the fire that burned through here was fierce and just had incredible power. Just look at the trees, the way they didn't just burn, they exploded.
And then if you try to look at the house and get an idea what it looked like, there's really no way. There is just sort of the chimney sticking out of the ruins. And everything else is completely gone.
You can come on over in this direction, you can see the vehicles over there. So recognize those. But otherwise many people say, when they go back into a fire zone, they don't recognize their own home because everything has been consumed. And like a flood, where once the waters recede, it pretty much looks
the same. And the fire didn't burn the same everywhere. Here you can tell it crept along the ground by this sign, not burned at the top but you can see that the fire burned at the base until it got so weak the sign just toppled on over.
That's another example of how these fires can burn so oddly. And this is really an example of that. The house directly across the street, which looks perfect, right down to the manicured yard.
So how do you explain it?
You can't. The woman who lives here, who I talked to, has extreme survivor's guilt. She was in tears as she was talking about how lucky she is and how she knows her neighbors have lost so much. There are 29 fires burning still just like this in Oregon -- Martin Savidge, CNN, Lyons, Oregon.
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VAUSE: Still to come here, remember when the administration used federal police officers, federal agents, to clear protesters away from the square across from the White House?
That in itself was controversial. Find out why it's even more controversial now. It was a moment for Donald Trump to hold the Bible upside down.
Also still to come, Donald Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law up puts political assassination on the agenda as a future tool of U.S. foreign policy. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
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VAUSE: Donald Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law has raised the possibility of political assassinations of foreign leaders could once again become U.S. policy. President Gerald Ford signed an executive order in 1976 banning those but Jared Kushner now says, quote, "it's a full contact sport. This is not touch football."
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does this administration rule out the use of assassination as a tool of U.S. foreign policy?
JARED KUSHNER, TRUMP SENIOR ADVISER: Look, I think that President Trump always keeps all options on the table. You ask me a question, I don't want to give you a non answer but different terminology could be used to describe, you know, different methods you're going to take to try to retaliate to somebody for an action that they've taken. (END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: His comments come just a few days after President Trump revealed he was ready to take out Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad but was talked out of it by the former Defense Secretary, James Mattis.
U.S. Defense officials considered using a heat ray on Black Lives Matter protesters in Washington back in June. This comes in a letter written at the time by a D.C. National Guard major.
The device emits invisible beams which can make the skin feel like it's burning. U.S. Park police actually used a chemical agent to clear the protesters. This was all because the president wanted to walk to a church across the square and hold a Bible upside down for a photo op.
CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem is with us now.
Good to see you, it's been a while. A heat ray, I keep thinking Marvin the Martian.
Can you tell us more about it?
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It's called ADS, active denial system. It's a way of emitting a sort of waves right that essentially sort of burn your skin. So it sounds bad and is bad. In fact the military has never really truly adopted it both for practical reasons -- it doesn't always work -- but also for basically ethical reasons to be used against a crowd.
So what we know from the story is at least there's one email coming from the federal government, meaning the White House and DOD, to the D.C. local National Guard, asking if they had access to an ADS system. The very request is outlandish but it shows you the mindspace of a White House that was willing to do anything to clear that plaza.
VAUSE: Put this in context. So an ADS system has it actually ever been used before and when it was developed, what was the purpose of it being developed?
What was the original intention, where would it be deployed?
KAYYEM: Mostly deployed abroad. It was tested by the Department of Defense for crowd control, mostly because our wars, essentially, in the last 30 years, have been some kind of urban warfare, that we've been in urban areas. So imagine a crowd starts to form. You don't want to do bullets in them.
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KAYYEM: Tear gas is complicated as, well so the system was tested out but it hasn't been actively used and it's never been used in a civilian domestic population. The very notion of it is just shocking, I think is the right word. And it shows just how out of control the White House was and is often about the use of military assets.
VAUSE: It also seems incredible that if this thing has ever been properly used or developed, whatever, who knows how to -- I mean, do these guys have any idea of how to use it?
KAYYEM: No So this was my point on Twitter earlier, so I oversaw in that state National Guard so people in the United States understand the distinction, that they are sort of owned by the governor, right.
So there's sophisticated military assets but they are not Marines in the sense they're fighting wars. So what they can do and the assets to military weaponry that they have is well known by the Feds. They know what the National Guard can and can't do. They help with floods and hurricanes, like you were reporting on.
So that's exactly right, that the idea that the White House just scrambling on a hunch for a system that is questionable, to be utilized by service members who are not trained for it, every piece of it wreaks of, you know, just a complete use of force without any foresight.
VAUSE: It's what, 50 days to the election and there are still surprises with this administration. It never ends. Juliette, thank you good to see you.
KAYYEM: Yes I, will see you then.
VAUSE: OK.
Well, still to come, why some Venezuelans say the government 's response to COVID-19 is more frightening and terrifying than the virus itself.
And Big Pharma is getting closer to the COVID finishing line but once a vaccine is approved, will there be enough?
How would it be distributed?
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VAUSE: Venezuela has reported some of the lowest COVID-19 numbers in Latin America, about 63,000 cases, just over 500 people have died. But doctors, nurses and humanitarian workers say those numbers most likely don't reflect the reality of the pandemic.
In many cases are not being reported. Some Venezuelans tell CNN that some suspected of having the disease face mandatory quarantine by the government and they the quarantine facilities more than the virus itself. CNN's Isa Soares has this exclusive report.
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ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the once oil-rich city of Maracaibo in Venezuela, COVID-19 comes hand in hand with fear and representation.
This mother of three knows this all too well so much so she's still shaken by her experience.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING SPANISH)
GRAPHIC: I sometimes am sleeping at night and I wake up thinking I am in the motel.
SOARES: Like others in this story, she spoke to me on the condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals. She tells me she was quarantined against her will in this motel after she lost her father to suspected COVID-19, and a rapid antibody test came back inconclusive.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING SPANISH)
GRAPHIC: I was immediately isolated. From that moment on I heard nothing from my family.
SOARES: She says inside there was little food or water. And personal hygiene? A luxury.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING SPANISH)
GRAPHIC: They said they were going to give me personal hygiene supplies, and they only gave them to me after 15 days.
SOARES: Away from family and unable to leave her room, she says she was held for 23 days, despite never testing positive for the virus.
Doctors tell us this motel is one of many being used by the Venezuelan government to house suspected COVID-19 patients in a bid to keep them off Venezuela's crumbling hospitals where the situation is similarly desperate.
The main hospital here, one doctor tells me, has only nine ICU beds. Six hours of available water a day, interim power, and on X-Ray machine that hasn't worked for months. Details that even healthcare workers aren't comfortable sharing because of a climate of fear.
In this video from a hospital in Maracaibo shared on social media, patients protest the shortage of medical staff.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING SPANISH)
GRAPHIC: There's no medication nor nurse.
SOARES: They plead for help.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING SPANISH)
GRAPHIC: Please help us. Help us.
SOARES: Patients say this man was left dead, abandoned in his bed for days. To date, Venezuela has reported some of the lowest COVID-19 numbers in
the region, but with testing limited to a small number of government- controlled labs, patients may wait up to 70 days to learn the results.
Doctors and NGOs tell us many cases go unreported, and some die without even knowing if they had COVID.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING SPANISH)
GRAPHIC: There's at least twice as many cases as what is reported as deceased in the official lists.
SOARES: Doctors have been calling for increased testing since the pandemic reached the country, the Venezuelan Academy of Physical Mathematical and Natural Sciences is currently predicting a peak of up to 14,000 daily cases. An earlier report in May was met with a threat of physical violence by a government official on TV.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING SPANISH)
GRAPHIC: This is an invitation for the state security forces to visit these people.
SOARES: They're not just empty threats. Doctors on the ground tell me authorities here have arrested healthcare workers who speak out publicly. They say it's the government's way of maintaining control over the political narrative.
(on camera): Is there pressure also on doctors not to -- not to note down who has contracted COVID and who has died from COVID? (SPEAKING SPANISH) Is it that type of pressure?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING SPANISH)
GRAPHIC: Yes, exactly. There's that kind of pressure.
SOARES: So while doctors work under the government radar and patients stay away from the streets, embattled President Nicolas Maduro tightens his grip on power, under the guise of COVID-19.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Thanks to Isa Soares for that report. We should note that CNN repeatedly asked the Venezuelan government for comment. So far, there has been no response.
Brazil now has a health minister after the last one quit back in April and the one before that was fired by President Jair Bolsonaro. An army general is now in charge of the health ministry.
Brazil has the second highest coronavirus death toll after the United States with more than 135 -- 34,000 fatalities.
As U.K. struggles with the virus flare-ups, the British prime minister has ruled out another major shutdown.
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BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I don't want a second national lockdown. And I think it would be a -- completely wrong for this country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can we afford it, Prime Minister?
JOHNSON: And -- and we are going to do everything in our power to prevent it. And can we afford it? I very much doubt that the financial consequences would be anything but disastrous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Not so in Spain. The capital is planning a targeted lockdown. Authorities will announce new measures on Friday as Madrid responds to an increase in the number of cases.
Since restrictions were lifted in late June, nationwide infections went from hundreds a day to thousands.
And South Africa will reopen its borders for tourism and business beginning next month. The South African president says the reopening will be gradual now that infections have started to fall.
And starting this Sunday, restrictions will be eased on public gatherings. Nightly curfew and retail alcohol sales will resume.
Now, the World Economic Forum is warning that when a vaccine is approved, there is a strong possibility there won't be enough to go around. And it's based on the current manufacturing capacity.
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Oxfam says rich nations have already bought up more than half of the expected supply, even though these countries only represent 13 percent of the global population. Anna Stewart looks into the concerns of the shortages and what's being done behind the scenes.
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ANNA STEWART, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Pharmaceutical companies are inching closer to the finish line. There are over 170 vaccine candidates around the world. Eight are in the final stage of human trials.
Proving them to be effective, safe, and achieve regulatory approval isn't the only challenge.
KATE O'BRIEN, DIRECTOR OF IMMUNIZATION, VACCINES & BIOLOGICALS, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: We have to go from there to actually having billions of doses of vaccine that can be delivered to people around the world. We're investing in the process of manufacturing before we even know whether a given vaccine will reach licensure and could be used.
STEWART: Governments around the world have committed billions of dollars to vaccine makers, buying up hundreds of millions of vaccine doses, which may not even work.
Pfizer, in partnership with BioNTech, plans to make 100 million doses of its vaccine candidate by the end of the year and over a billion next.
PAMELA SIWIK, VICE PRESIDENT, GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN, PFIZER: Well, it's absolutely not normal. It's unprecedented.
STEWART: To try and meet that demand, Pfizer has set up separate manufacturing in the U.S. and Europe and is drawing on all its resources.
SIWIK: This really is a collaborative effort. It has to be. You know, in this case, the race, right, that people talk about. The competition. Right? The competition is -- is not each other, right? It really is working against the virus.
STEWART: Making the vaccine isn't the end of the challenge. Next up, getting it to those that need it all over the world.
Companies like UPS plan to be ready to pick up, store, and deliver a successful vaccine.
WES WHEELER, UPS: We don't know who's going to be first. We know that Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca with Oxford University, we know that CanSino in China is -- is doing well. We know that Novavax is moving fast.
STEWART: Different kinds of vaccine need different transport and storage conditions. One of the biggest challenges is temperature.
WHEELER: A few months ago when we started to get good information about what temperatures would be required for these vaccines, we made an investment in freezer farm technology. So we have invested in both the U.S. and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in the Netherlands, one of our pubs near our Cologne air hub in Germany.
So we have made investments there and also on the clinical side, we've put freezers now in several of our depots around the world.
STEWART: Keeping the vaccine safe and secure is critical, and UPS plans to have 24/7 tracking for every single vial.
WHEELER: We are taking very seriously the fact that our clients are counting on us to move every single vial and not lose a single one.
STEWART (on camera): And they're not alone. Vaccine developers, suppliers, manufacturers and logistics firms are all taking unprecedented action. Not just to make, but to deliver a vaccine for COVID-19.
Anna Stewart, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: When we come back, a congressional report blasting Boeing and the FAA for two crashes of the 737 Max and says 346 deaths were preventable.
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VAUSE: Official interest rates look set to be held at zero, or near zero, in the United States until the labor market recovers. That could be 2023.
The Federal Reserve says the pandemic continues to weigh heavily on the economy, losing 11 and a half million jobs since February. Wall Street ended mostly lower following the Fed's cautious outlook. You can see the numbers there.
Now, a U.S. House report found two fatal Boeing 737 Max crashes were, quote, "a horrific culmination of failures by Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration. Lawmakers are calling for urgent reforms to improve how airplanes are certified.
CNN's Pete Muntean has details.
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PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So many new damning new details in the report, and what's so interesting is that it is not focused on the actions of the pilots leading up to these two 737 Max disasters but rather, years before at Boeing and the FAA.
This quote from the 250-page report really sums this up perfectly. It says, it shows a disturbing pattern of technical miscalculations and troubling management misjudgments made by Boeing. It also enumerates numerous oversight lapses and accountability gaps by the FDA.
The report highlights two such instances where Boeing engineers tried to downplay the significance of the MCAT system, the Maneuvering, Control and Augmentation System that's been at the heart of these two Max investigations.
One instance, a Boeing test pilot, in a simulator encountered a 10- second physical struggle caused by the MCAT system that the report says ended in a catastrophic result.
The report also details emails between Boeing engineers where they tried to give MCAT system considered as part of an existing system rather than a new one to avoid additional FAA scrutiny.
Samya Stumo was 24 when she died on one of these crashes, and her father tells me Boeing and the FAA failed.
MICHAEL STUMO, DAUGHTER KILLED ON ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES FLIGHT: They're still hiding the ball like they did before and like they did through the crashes when they kept the plane in the air when they knew the thing was a killer plane, between the Lion Air crash and the Ethiopian crash that killed my daughter.
MUNTEAN: Recertification of the Max is taking place right now, and Boeing continues to stand by its design and says that, when that certification processes finishes, that the Max will be one of the most scrutinized aircraft in the history of aviation.
There are meetings taking place right now in London between Boeing and regulators. The FAA says its process will not be rushed, and it has implemented numerous mandates to the 737 Max design.
Not good enough for House Transportation chair Peter DeFazio. He says the entire FAA certification process needs to be completely revamped.
Pied Muntean, CNN, Washington.
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VAUSE: I'm John Vause. I'll be back at the top of the hour with a lot more of CNN NEWSROOM. In the meantime, WORLD SPORT is up next.
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