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Vaccine Timeline?; President Trump Holds White House Press Briefing. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 18, 2020 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:02]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: He continues to tout his administration's response to the pandemic. And his claim is that we are rounding the turn.

But let's look at the numbers here. That is despite the fact that the United States is about to hit the tragic milestone of 200,000 coronavirus deaths, by far more than any other country. That is 200,000 Americans whose lives were taken far too soon by a virus that is still spreading rapidly throughout this country.

An additional 44,000 cases were reported on Thursday, as more states are heading in the wrong direction. I will show you this map here, and you will see a lot of red on your screen, a lot of red and orange. Those are not good colors when we're talking COVID; 30 states are reporting more cases over the past week, with seven of them seeing increases of more than 50 percent.

And all of these troubling trends are coming as we're getting new evidence of political interference with the CDC. A source tells CNN that controversial CDC guidance put out last month was published by the Trump administration without going through the normal scientific review process.

That guidance said asymptomatic people do not need to get tested unless they're part of a vulnerable population. Just to add to that, this afternoon, that guidance was adjusted yet again, once again stressing that anyone who has been in contact with an infected person should be tested for COVID.

Let's start this hour at the White House.

Let's to our chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta.

And so, Jim, we're waiting for the president. He's a bit late. What do you expect him to address?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we have been told by the White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, that the president is going to be talking about vaccine development and the administration's timelines only for getting a vaccine ready, but also to begin to distribute it out to the American people. McEnany said on FOX Business earlier today that they're expecting to see distribution happen or starting to by the end of the year. But, of course, we have heard from people like Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Robert Redfield that full vaccination of the American people, broad distribution of this vaccine out to the public will likely take many months, and that you're not going to have the entire country guarded against this virus through a vaccine until sometime in 2021.

That is in conflict with the president's political timeline. He wants the public to think that, by Election Day, he's going to wave a magic wand and have all of this magically disappear. That's obviously not going to be the case.

And with the nation running up against this dreaded milestone of 200,000 deaths -- by the way, it could double that by early next year, according to some recent projections -- the president is feeling a lot of pressure to show progress.

My sense of it, Brooke, is that is one -- that is going to be the thrust of what he wants to talk about at this news conference. But keep in mind, he also wants to responsive for Vice President Joe Biden. Biden had that town hall on CNN last night. A lot of people were watching that town hall.

And it was Biden who is saying, get mad at President Trump for these lockdowns. It's because of the president that you have these lockdowns forcing people not to live their lives as back to normal, because of what -- his management of the coronavirus and his response to this pandemic.

And so, obviously, the president is going to want to come out there and respond to Joe Biden. And for whatever reason, we're really delayed here, Brooke. This was supposed to happen at 2:00. Then it was pushed to 2:30. It is 3:00 now. And we're still waiting to see what the president has to say about his plans for a vaccine.

He has been trying to paint this rosy scenario, as you know, Brooke, for weeks and weeks now that somehow we will have a vaccine by Election Day and so on. And he has just been at odds with the scientists over the reality of all of that.

And add to that what you were just mentioning a few moments ago, that there appears to have been--

BALDWIN: The interference.

ACOSTA: -- political meddling and interference every step of the way.

The latest example, the CDC just today just updated its guidelines on its Web site for getting people tested who are asymptomatic. HHS had interfered, apparently, with that and put guidelines on the CDC Web site that essentially said that, if you were asymptomatic, you didn't necessarily need to be tested.

And that had public health experts across the country tearing their hair out, including people inside the task force, because they know asymptomatic people can spread the virus. And so the president will likely be asked about that as well as to whether or not he and his administration -- well, they have -- but what's his answer to this?

Why has he and his team been meddling politically with something as important as CDC guidance for testing for the coronavirus? Very serious questions for the president. We will see how he answers them, Brooke.

BALDWIN: We will stand by for that. Thank you for teeing up everything we will be listening for.

Jim Acosta, I appreciate you at the White House.

ACOSTA: Sure.

BALDWIN: And, as Jim pointed out, as political interference and mixed messaging continue to take a toll on public confidence in science behind COVID, pressure is also building on Dr. Anthony Fauci to be the final voice when it comes to a vaccine.

[15:05:05]

I want to listen to what Joe Biden said just last night at our CNN town hall when he was asked about vaccines.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't trust the president on vaccines. I trust Dr. Fauci.

If Fauci says the vaccine is safe, I take the vaccine. We should listen to the scientists, not to the president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Dr. Fauci, for his part, is promising to take responsibility for the safety of a vaccine. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS HAYES, MSNBC: Do you are sure all of us that, if the corners have been cut, if there is something sideways or wrong with the process, that you will tell us and take the heat for that?

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NIAID DIRECTOR: Yes. The answer--

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Yes. The answer is yes, he's saying.

CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is standing by with more on this.

And so, Elizabeth, what is the task force saying now about the timeline for a vaccine? ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The timeline to the vaccine, I think, has still been the same since what Dr. Fauci has said in January, which is a year to 18 months.

So he said that back in January, so that is the very end of this year or the beginning of next year. That is what he has said repeatedly. And he's really pretty much stuck to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADM. BRETT GIROIR, U.S. ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: If we had a vaccine, even a few million in November, it could make an enormous impact on the health of the country. But it is also true that everyone who wants a vaccine may not be able to get it until mid-next year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: And so, as we're learning more about vaccines, and when they will come out, I think it's really important to make the distinction that we sort of just heard right now, which is that there's a difference between, oh, a vaccine has authorization from the FDA to go on the market and the vaccine will be widely distributed, that it is not an on off/switch.

Once we have a vaccine that's authorized, it will be a process to vaccinate the entire country -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: On the subject, Elizabeth, of schools, a new study finds about half of all school employees are at an increased risk of COVID infection. Why? What's behind the increased risk?

COHEN: You know, you can think of the folks who work at schools in many ways are reflective of the entire population.

When we hear at risk, people at high risk for having complications of COVID, don't think it's just sort of the 90-year-old grandmas and grandpas. It's a lot of people. It's people you know. it very well could be you.

So let's take a look at the population of people who look -- who work in schools, because, as I said, it may be pretty reflective of the entire population. If you look at all school employees, 51 percent of them are at an at risk -- or an increased risk, rather, for having a complication of COVID, for getting very sick or dying.

When you look at low-skilled support staff, it's more than 58 percent, again, reflective of the population. Folks who have less education tend to have risk factors that put them at a higher risk for having a complication.

Teachers and assistants are lower. That's 38 percent, highly skilled staff and administrators, 39 percent.

And, Brooke, when we talk about being at high risk, what we mean is being 65 or older, being obese, having conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure. All of those things put together or even single, by themselves, put you at a high risk for having a complication of COVID-19.

BALDWIN: I want to start on this point with my next guest.

Elizabeth, thank you so much.

With me now, CNN medical analyst Amy Compton-Phillips. She is also the chief clinical officer for Providence Health System.

So, Dr. Compton-Phillips, welcome.

And just on Elizabeth's reporting on this increased health risk for school employees, what should schools be doing to, number one, protect their employees? And then, number two, how should that impact in- person teaching plans?

DR. AMY COMPTON-PHILLIPS, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: So it's really important for schools to do everything they can to protect not only the students, but the people that work there.

And so the CDC actually did put out guidance earlier this year on what to do. If the community is safe to open in-person schooling, in order to do that, you need to do certain things, ensure that groups are cohorted, so that the staff, as well as the students, aren't being exposed to a large number of others, but, rather, keeping the numbers small, making sure that there is social distancing, that there is things like being able to eat lunch together in the classroom, rather than in the cafeteria, where you get, again, much broader exposures.

So, following the guidelines that allow us to both keep kids in school, as well as to keep the staff themselves safe, is really critical, and, by the way, wearing a mask essential.

BALDWIN: I hear you. I hear you. I hear you.

On the point -- we saw the map at the top of the show, a lot of the red and the orange on the screen signifying an increase in new cases all across the country. And new numbers show that the nation has a seven-day average of just under 40,000 new cases.

[15:10:03]

That is up from 13 percent from a previous week.

What I want to know, is this just like the post-Labor Day spike, and it draw back down, or do you think it will continue to climb?

Oh, hang on one second. Here's the president.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So, a lot of work has been going on with respect to the vaccines, very successful work, I might add.

We have three great, great companies doing somewhat different variations, but they're all looking very good. From the beginning of the China virus, all nations have understood

that our top priority must be to develop a vaccine as quickly as possible to end the pandemic and get life back to normal.

The successful vaccine will not only save millions of lives. It will put an end to the restrictions and some of the things that go on and have to go on in the meantime.

Today, I want to discuss the historic progress we are making to deliver a safe and effective vaccine in record time. And there's never been anything like this ever. In our history, there's never been any -- in history, period, world history.

Since January, America's brilliant doctors and scientists have been working been working around the clock. These are the best medical minds in the world by far. And the vaccines are going through the gold standard of clinical trials, and very heavy emphasis placed on safety.

Three vaccines are already in the final stage. Joe Biden's anti- vaccine theories are putting a lot of lives at risk. And they are only doing it for political reasons. It's very foolish.

It's part of their war to try and discredit the vaccine, now that they know that we essentially have it. We will be announcing it fairly soon. As part of Operation Warp Speed, my administration's manufacturing all of the most promising vaccines in advance.

And, actually, it'll be fairly long in advance. As soon as a vaccine is approved, the administration will deliver it to the American people immediately. Distribution will begin within 24 hours after notice.

And the general, I think those are the words specifically you wanted us to use.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, Mr. President.

TRUMP: Within 24 hours, you're all set to go, and massive amounts will be delivered through our great military. And the general is one of our best, and he is ready to go.

We will have manufactured at least 100 million vaccine doses before the end of the year, and likely much more than that. Hundreds of millions of doses will be available every month. And we expect to have enough vaccines for every American by April.

And, again, I will say that, even at that later stage, the delivery will go. As fast as it comes, they can deliver. They're very good, best -- I think probably the best in the world.

The estimates I'm providing today are based on the manufacturing that's in process. And that's in process immediately, right now. We have already exceeded our ambitious goals under the Defense Production Act. Contracts that we have secured, we may even get far above these numbers.

The numbers that I'm telling you today, I think we will exceed them very, very substantially. And I think that also includes distribution. I think distribution will go even quicker than most people think.

I'm relying on our military. Everything I have done with our military has worked out very well. In a short time, we will have a safe and effective vaccine and we will defeat the virus.

Interestingly, as I was saying, that it will go very well, just like what we did with our military with respect to ISIS went very well, long ahead of schedule. They have been incredible in working with me.

Let's go to Puerto Rico, because Puerto Rico's been hit very, very hard by a lot of different storms. And they're great people. It's a great place. I know it well, great place.

Today, my administration's making the largest emergency relief award in history to rebuild Puerto Rico's electrical grid and educational system. We're awarding $13 billion to permanently repair and replace thousands of miles of transmission and distribution lines that should have been done many years ago.

This was beyond even the storms. This was just age and a lot of the salt. The salt from that ocean is a killer for electrical stations and power generation systems. But, on top of the salt, you had these massive storms or hurricanes come in. And Maria in particular was a disaster.

[15:15:08]

But, for many years, they have been trying to get this done, and they haven't had the political willpower in Washington to get it done. So, we're going to get it done for them.

We're also going to be bringing back very, very major amounts of medical work. We used to have pharmaceutical manufacturing at levels that few places had. And a lot of it has left Puerto Rico, and we're going to bring that back, especially now since our emphasis is going to be making our product.

So, we're going to bring pharmaceutical manufacturing back to Puerto Rico. A lot of it left over the years over a long period of time. It's been leaving and going to China and other places. So, we're bringing all of that back. This was done in previous administrations, I'd like to just point out.

We have done more for Puerto Rico than anybody. And this is just an example of it, but we have done for Puerto Rico, by far, than anybody.

We will also be launching a major effort to repair and renovate the schools across the island. Following Hurricane Maria, my administration immediately deployed the full power of the federal government to bring the electric grid back online, so they could, at least temporarily -- and it certainly wasn't a permanent fix. It was ripped to shreds.

But a lot of that was ripped to shreds long before even the storm came in. For many, many years, they have been trying to do it. But we wanted to restore water supplies. And we did make emergency repairs to critical infrastructure, which we took care of and saved countless lives, which we did.

FEMA's response in Puerto Rico included the longest sustained air mission supplying food and water in American history. We supplied it for long after the hurricane was gone, the largest disaster commodity distribution mission in U.S. history and the largest sea bridge operation in federal disaster aid U.S. history.

My administration's also prepositioned vast quantities of relief supplies for the future disasters. Unfortunately, Puerto Rico's in the way of a lot of different storms, a lot of hurricanes. And the island is now stocked with nearly eight times as much drinking water, and 13 times as much food as it had before I took office.

So, they're ready to go if something should happen. They get brushed by a storm recently, but they're in a good position. So, we're going to bring back medical distribution and manufacturing to Puerto Rico, and at a level far greater than it was before.

BALDWIN: All right, we're going to pull out of this.

And I am going to bring in Gloria Borger, who is our chief political analyst, because, Gloria, the president just threw out a lot.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.

BALDWIN: So, let me -- I'm going to look down.

And this is what the president said. This is what I jotted down, specifically on the vaccine. I heard the word immediately, we will distribute to the public immediately within 24 hours. He got the yes from the military member sitting next to him.

BORGER: Yes.

BALDWIN: He said there will be 100 million vaccine doses before the end of the year, and then hundreds of millions a month. We will have enough for everyone by April.

BORGER: By April.

That's pretty declarative, if you ask me.

BALDWIN: It is. It is.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: And we heard from Redfield -- we heard from Dr. Redfield, the head of the CDC, earlier this week, saying to Congress that the vaccine would not be widely available until the middle of 021.

BORGER: 2021.

So, here we have -- I mean, what is the American public supposed to believe at this point?

BALDWIN: That is exactly what I'm sitting here wondering. Why should they believe him?

BORGER: Well, the hope is that you can believe him, of course.

The hope is that he's telling you the truth, that the vaccine has arrived, the cavalry is there, and that there will be these doses for every American, every American, every American, not just people with preexisting conditions, not just the elderly, every American, by April.

Now, we don't know, from listening to the president -- and maybe we will get it later -- what kinds of vaccines these are, how they will be stored, what the distribution system will be, where they will be available, nothing, just this huge promise that, it's here, I have done it, Operation Warp Speed is a success, a mission accomplished, to a certain degree.

But I think -- so you listen to this, and you go, oh, fabulous. But then you listen to the scientists.

BALDWIN: Right.

BORGER: And we haven't heard it from pharma. We haven't heard it from Moderna. We haven't heard it from all the producers of the vaccines about what their timetable is and how this would be distributed.

And are they safe? We don't know.

BALDWIN: Hang with me, Gloria, because I -- neither of us are vaccine experts.

[15:20:01]

BORGER: No.

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: But I have Dr. Peter Hotez waiting in the wings.

BORGER: Oh, great. Great.

BALDWIN: And he is. He is a vaccine scientist. He's a dean of tropical medicine at Baylor.

So, Dr. Hotez, you just heard all of those definitive statements from the president. And, again, if true, this is wonderful news. Could this be?

DR. PETER HOTEZ, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Well, it was a bit confusing because it was vaguely worded enough that you could interpret it lots of different ways.

Look, here's the situation. We have got three vaccines from Operation Warp Speed that are in phase three clinical trials, the two mRNA vaccines, one from Pfizer, one from Moderna, and the one from AstraZeneca-Oxford, which is an adenovirus vaccine. That's on a pause right now because of potential concerns around the two pauses that they have had.

And the FDA is now reevaluating that one. So we could take that one off the table for a little bit. But let's look at the two mRNA vaccines. We have no idea if they work, and we have no idea if they're safe. All we have is data from the initial phase one trials that didn't show any major problem.

But now they're going through phase three trials. And by the end of the year, many people think, and including myself, that there may be enough data accumulated through those large phase three trials, which are run through Operation Warp Speed that we will know if these vaccines are -- either these two vaccines and maybe three, if the AstraZeneca one gets back up, are either safe or effective.

And that's all we really know. The part about the manufacturing, these are being scaled up and manufactured, with the hope that if one of the three actually works, then we will have it ready to go.

And then there will be -- then slowly--

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Hang on one second, Dr. Hotez.

Let's back into the president.

TRUMP: And I think the most exciting part of the package isn't necessarily the billions of dollars.

It's going to be what we do with the pharmaceutical industry. We're going to get them back into Puerto Rico. They liked being there, but they change the tax situation. They ripped it out. So they really ripped apart the island. And we're going to bring it back to them.

QUESTION: It may be simply coincidental, but it does coincide with the big push for Puerto Rican voters that the Biden/Harris campaign--

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Yes, I think that that's probably -- well, they can't do anything.

Look, the Biden/Harris campaign, what they did, they hurt -- I have gone through it. And whether it was President Obama or Vice President Biden, they were a disaster for Puerto Rico, a disaster.

And what we're doing and what we have done, but what we're doing is something that will be fantastic for many years in the future. Bringing back the former pharmaceutical industry, manufacturing in Puerto Rico is what they have wanted for years. So, we're doing that, in addition to the $13 billion.

Yes, please.

QUESTION: Mr. President, I think I heard you right saying that -- you said that there should -- you expect to have enough vaccines for every American by April.

So, as we sit here in mid-September, and there have been questions about the timeline, can you walk us through now and the beginning of April to which every American could have a vaccine?

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Sure. And I think we may exceed those numbers, even.

Scott, do you want to discuss that quickly?

DR. SCOTT ATLAS, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS ADVISER: Sure. As has been said many times--

(CROSSTALK)

ATLAS: OK.

We have all the people that are involved in the actual vaccine distribution here. But we were just going through this. As of the end of the year, we will have over 100 million doses manufactured.

The people who are on the prioritized list of, including high-risk, including first responders, will have the ability to take the vaccine -- no one's being mandated to be vaccinated -- at the latest in January. And as we said yesterday and or -- I think yesterday, there will be hundreds of millions of doses delivered for people to take it during the first quarter, and so that, by April, every single American who wants to be vaccinated will have the ability to be vaccinated.

It's not a forced vaccination, of course.

QUESTION: Dr. Fauci said today -- basically echoed Dr. Redfield's comments that Q2, Q3, some point the summer of next year, the entire country potentially, or at least as many Americans that need to be vaccinated will be vaccinated.

Is that the timeline that--

TRUMP: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: We think we will.

QUESTION: Next summer?

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Yes. That's on the outer edge. We think we can beat that number very substantially.

QUESTION: And on TikTok, sir, if you don't -- if you don't mind.

You -- the Commerce Department essentially gave you a runway today to strike a deal after the election. Do you expect a TikTok deal before the election or after the election?

TRUMP: I think it could go quickly. We have great companies talking to us about it.

You know about Oracle. You know Microsoft has been involved. And let's see whether or not they're continuing to be involved. Walmart is truly a great company. They are very much involved. They want to do something.

[15:25:02]

So, we have some great options. And maybe we can keep a lot of people happy, but have the security that we need. We have to have the total security from China.

And just know we're not going to do anything to jeopardize security. At the same time, it's an amazing company, very, very popular. So, if we can do a combination of both, I'd be very happy doing that. Could go very quickly. That could go very, very fast.

Yes, please.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Go ahead, please.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: OAN.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President.

On Kuwait, so the ambassador to -- the Kuwaiti ambassador to Austria this week told the IAEA that the Kuwaiti government is very concerned over Iran's constant breaching of the JCPOA.

In your discussions with the Kuwaitis today, have you discussed where they stand this week as we go into the U.N., as the United States tries to extend sanctions on Iran?

TRUMP: Well, they just left my office, as you know, the Oval Office.

And we had a very good meeting with the emir. And I think we understand each other very well. They're very excited about a lot of things that are happening in the Middle East. They are so excited that we signed the first two countries.

And I think they will end up fairly quickly being a part of it. I have, I would say, seven or eight countries that want to be a part of it without even working very easily, very quickly. Nobody thought this would happen.

And not only is it happening. It's happening rather easily. We discussed that very briefly, because that's an easy one. Believe it or not, that whole thing is now a beautiful puzzle that's coming together very nicely. But we are talking to them and others about various aspects of the

Middle East. The Middle East is straightening out with all that's happening. We have brought a lot of our troops back. A lot of them are coming back in the very near future.

We're out of Syria. We kept the oil. I kept the oil. And we have troops guarding the oil. Other than that, we're out of Syria. We took them off the border between Syria and Turkey. We had a lot of troops on the border.

Ultimately, we got it down to 50. And I thought they were in great danger. When you have two armies sitting there looking to fight, and you have 50 people in the middle, I don't care who you are, even if you're the U.S. Those 50 people are in great danger. We took them out.

But we had a lot of troops on the border, and we took them out. I said, look, they have been fighting on their border for 200 years, a lot longer than that, under different names. And they can continue to do that.

That's not for us. We're guarding our own borders. We're doing very well on our Southern border as an example. So, we're out of Syria, except we kept the oil. And we will make a determination. We will probably be dealing with the Kurds and the oil and see what it all ends up.

But we will be out. And, very importantly, we're down to very few soldiers in Iraq. And we're down -- we will be down very shortly over the next couple of weeks to 4,000, less than 4,000 in Afghanistan.

And then we will make that final determination a little bit later on. We're dealing very well with the Taliban. They're very tough. They're very smart. They're very sharp.

But it's been 19 years, and even they are tired of fighting, in all fairness. And we really served as a police force, because, if we wanted to do what we had to do, we would have fought a lot differently than they have over the 19 years. They didn't fight it properly. They were -- they were police, OK? They're not police. They're -- they're soldiers.

So, there's a difference. The police -- nobody has more respect for police than I do, but they have to do their own policing. So we're having some very good discussions with the Taliban, as you probably heard. It's been public.

And -- but we will be down to -- very shortly, we will be down to less than 4,000 soldiers. And so we will be out of there, knowing that certain things have to happen. Certain things have to be fulfilled.

But 19 years is a long time, 8,000 miles away. Nineteen years is a long time. And the Middle East, the whole Middle East equation, if you look at what's happened, if you have looked at the stupidity of decisions that were made, including the deal that was made, I mean, take a look at what happened with Iran. Had that deal stayed, had I not broken that deal, you could have never done the deal that I'm doing now, where all the countries are pouring in. And I had two calls this morning with countries that want to know, when can we go into the deal? They want to go. It's not that we're giving them anything. They want security. They want peace.

And they're really tired of fighting. It's incredible. They're tired of fighting. They have been fighting for so many years. They're tired of fighting.

Thank you very much.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Mr. President, a question on the vaccine, but first on Puerto Rico.

I heard you many times over the past couple of years saying that Puerto Rico got too much money.