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U.S. to Hit 200K COVID-19 Deaths Soon; CDC Removes Guidance about Airborne Transmission; Europe Reimposing Restrictions as Cases Rise; U.S. Senate Will Confirm Nominee by Election Day; U.N. General Assembly Meets Virtually This Week; New Zealand Prime Minister and Opposition to Face Off in Debate; Sweden Does Not Plan to Mandate COVID-19 Vaccine. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired September 22, 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, with the death toll to hit 200,000 by year's end, the U.S. president says his pandemic response is worthy of an A+.
U.S. Senate Democrats throwing severe repercussions in the face of gross hypocrisy by the Republicans in their rush to fill a Supreme Court vacancy. And in 75, years the U.N. has never seen a General Assembly like the one this year, a virtual gathering to deal with very real problems.
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VAUSE: At any moment, the U.S. is expected to record 200,000 confirmed dead because of the coronavirus pandemic, significantly higher than any other country and the U.S. president who deliberately downplayed the dangers of the pandemic says he has done a phenomenal job.
Donald Trump once again gave himself an A+ for his handling of the crisis, that was in an interview with FOX News on Monday.
The U.K. is facing surging numbers of new infections, much like the U.S. But their prime minister, Boris Johnson, to announce new measures and restrictions. Bars and restaurants will close at 10 pm each night. Johnson is also raising the COVID alert level to 4, meaning transmission is high or rising exponentially.
And the World Health Organization says it aims to have 2 billion doses of a COVID vaccine by the end of next year. It's urging governments to cooperate on distribution. The head of the who Says that we sink or we swim together.
The former commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says the earliest he believes the U.S. will have a vaccine for the general public is the second quarter of 2021.
These timelines are not what President Trump would like to hear, he claims the U.S. is rounding the corner of the pandemic but as Athena Jones reports, that's not really the case.
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DR. PETER HOTEZ, PROFESSOR AND DEAN OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: We may be in for a very apocalyptic fall --
ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the U.S. approaches another grim milestone, 200,000 lives lost to coronavirus, signs the much feared fall surge in cases is already here.
SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: If you look at what's happening around the country right now, there's an unmistakable spike in new infections.
JONES (voice-over): New COVID-19 cases topping 40,000 a day on average with new daily infections now rising in 28 states, up more than 50 percent in eight states. Wisconsin, Idaho and South Dakota all reporting COVID test positivity rates above 16 percent.
HOTEZ: It's happening because we're forcing schools to reopen in areas of high transmission, forcing colleges to reopen. And we don't have the leadership nationally telling people to wear masks and to social distance and do all the things we need to do.
JONES (voice-over): The startling trend coming as the CDC issues and then removes from its website new guidance showing just how contagious coronavirus is.
The agency noting it can spread through the air in tiny droplets or aerosols, not just when someone coughs, sneezes or talks, but even when they simply breathe. Highlighting restaurants, fitness classes and choir practice as risks. The agency later saying the new guidance was a draft posted in error.
DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: It's extremely confusing and that type of whiplash, especially without an explanation directly from the CDC creates confusion and unfortunately leads to lack of trust in the CDC overall.
JONES (voice-over): Meanwhile on the vaccine front, the White House's testing czar, Brett Giroir, arguing --
BRETT GIROIR, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR HEALTH, HHS: Vaccine as early as possible even in a few million doses will be a godsend in terms of outcomes, hospitalizations, morbidity and deaths.
JONES (voice-over): Still, Bill Gates warning of a long road ahead even after a vaccine is approved.
BILL GATES, CO-CHAIR, BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION: If the vaccine approvals come by early next year, as I expect, then by next summer, U.S. will be starting to go back to normal and by the end of the year, our activities can be fairly normal if we're also helping these other countries. At the end of the epidemic best case is probably 2022.
JONES (voice-over): All this as the influential model from the University of Washington now lowering its forecast for total U.S. COVID deaths by January 1st to just under 380,000, down from more than 415,000 last week, citing steeper than expected declines in deaths in several states.
But the model still predicts more than 3,000 deaths a day by the end of December and says a universal mask mandate could keep total deaths to around 263,000 by New Year's Day.
JONES: This new forecast is really a range. Just like it estimates how many lives could be saved by a universal mask mandate, it also says that if current mandates are eased, the number of projected deaths soars to more than 445,000 by January 1st -- Athena Jones, CNN, New York.
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VAUSE: Dr. Leana Wen is a CNN medical analyst an emergency room physician at George Washington University and former health commissioner for Baltimore city.
Good to see you.
The possibility of airborne transmission of the coronavirus has been known for some time and here is how the WTO defines it, speaking on Monday.
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DR. MICHAEL RYAN, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: We have always said the smaller droplet impacts spread this disease and that is very context driven. People crowded into a small space without adequate ventilation, where they are for a long duration of time, in that situation, aerosol based transmission can occur.
And it has been demonstrated to occur.
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VAUSE: But the CDC guidance was retracted to differ significantly from that.
Why was that significant especially when it comes to wearing face masks?
WEN: The science has been accumulating now for several months. Initially at the very beginning of the pandemic, we thought that the virus that causes COVID-19 was transmitted only through these larger respiratory droplets. So you cough or sneeze and transmit that way.
But then it became clear that it's not only through coughing and sneezing but just by talking and breathing, we are also expelling these very small, microscopic aerosols that carry the virus as well.
That virus can linger in the air for minutes and maybe even hours, so that's why wearing masks is so important. And that's also why indoors is much more dangerous than outdoors, where the virus particles can be diffused much more quickly.
And that is also why the CDC guidance that was up for a brief time emphasized ventilation and having air purifiers. I think having all these measures come together because it's synergistic that all working together is what will save lives.
That is why, when the CDC guidelines were removed, suddenly and inexplicably, a lot of us had to wonder why.
Why was there such whiplash and what happened and was there political interference at play?
VAUSE: Many doctors, health experts agree with Dr. Ashish Jha, a regular on CNN who tweeted over the weekend.
"Extraordinary to see the CDC finally acknowledge what scientists have been saying for months, the coronavirus mainly spreads by inhalation of droplets and aerosols. May be the superb CDC scientists are finally being unmuzzled. We can hope."
And to that point it looks like the muzzle has been put back on. This is the third time since May that a retraction has been made.
So is there more to this than a mistake?
WEN: Frankly, we should be hearing from the CDC every day. They should be providing a briefing to the public every day about the state of the outbreak, the latest science and to explain how the latest research and data will influence policy and our daily lives.
This is just crazy, that initially the guidance appeared as change on the CDC website that was only discovered because reporters at CNN found it.
But why was it at a website?
This needed to be explained to everybody else. It has huge implications on classrooms, on airplanes, even indoor gatherings that people are having. If there is a change, even a mistake, there also needs to be an explanation to the public.
Without that explanation and especially with so many recent instances of political interference, it really makes one doubt the credibility of the CDC, the FDA and other top scientific institutions. Once that trust has eroded, it is really hard to get. Back
VAUSE: With that in mind, the death toll in the United States is expected to come close to 400,000 by the end of the year. Here's President Trump on Monday, giving himself a self assessment of the administration's response. Here it is.
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TRUMP: We are rounding the corner. With or without a vaccine. They hate it when I say that but that's the way it is. We are rounding the corner on the pandemic and we've done a phenomenal job. Not just a good job but a phenomenal job.
On public relations I give myself a D. On the job itself, we take an A+ with the ventilators and now with the vaccines that are years ahead of schedule.
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VAUSE: Your point of view?
Good job?
Awesome job?
WEN: I would give President Trump and the Trump administration an F, because what else could we call it when we are rounding to 200,000 deaths and many more hundreds of thousands on the way?
Maybe initially there were mistakes that another administration might have made. But then there were so many mistakes that continued to be made. We still do not have a national coordinated strategy. We still have mixed messaging. Public health is still being somehow pitted as the enemy of the economy when actually it's the roadmap back.
There is still something as basic as masks that have been politicized by the Trump administration, by President Trump himself. At this point, it is just so tragic that we know what it takes in order to save lives. But we're not doing it.
VAUSE: Very quickly, you are seeing a surge of numbers, like in the United States compared to the Trump administration, the Europeans.
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VAUSE: The government's actually doing and taking action. They're reimposing strict restrictions on movement, thinking about lockdowns once again. Here, the U.S. seems like nothing like that is happening.
Does that mean we could expect sort of what happened in the earlier part of this year to happen all over again, a surge in the U.S. whereas Europe will get this under control fairly quickly?
WEN: Yes, because Europe at least is imposing restrictions when they see the numbers rise, versus here in the U.S., because of quarantine fatigue, because we don't have a coordinated national strategy, we are just going to continue to see surges.
At best we can hope for whack-a-mole, where we control the surges in one area only to see high rises in other areas. That means that there will be many more preventable infections and deaths.
VAUSE: OK, Dr. Leana Wen, thank you so much for being with us.
WEN: Thank you.
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VAUSE: Fears of a second wave of the coronavirus and evenly hopes for another U.S. stimulus bill are weighing on stocks. Dow futures are sharply lower after a fall, fell nearly 2 percent Monday. The biggest one day loss in about two weeks.
Markets in Asia, let's check the numbers. The Nikkei is up slightly. The Hong Kong Hang Seng down by a quarter of 1 percent. Shanghai composite is also a tad. Seoul KOSPI down by 1.75 percent.
President Trump and Senate Republicans will accept to quickly fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court left by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Two Republican senators, Chuck Grassley and Cory Gardner, who may be opposed are not publicly on board for a speedy vote.
This appointment will likely change the ecological balance of the court, which would likely impact things like abortion rights and health care.
Trump says he is down to five candidates including appeals court judges Amy Coney Barrett and Barbara Lagoa. He will make the announcement later this week, he says, after the public pays respect to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Fill this vacant Supreme Court seat is a major issue with just over a month to go before the elections. CNN's Ryan Nobles has more from a Trump rally in the battleground state of Ohio.
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RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Trump making two stops in Ohio. On Monday he came here to Swanton, Ohio, which is just outside of Toledo. He also made a stop just outside of Dayton, Ohio. Ohio is a very important state for President Trump.
At this point it is a state that is tilting in his direction. The president talking a lot about his upcoming choice for the Supreme Court. He said he has narrowed his choice to about five different people. He promised he'd make that pick by Friday or Saturday..
He also took the opportunity to pin this conversation back on Joe Biden, asking the Democrat why he has not released a list of potential Supreme Court nominees. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Joe Biden has refused to list the names of his potentials, because he knows they are too weak scream to withstand any form of public review. If Joe Biden and the Democrats take power they will pack the Supreme Court with four left radicals who will unilaterally transform American society far beyond recognition. They will mutilate the law, disfigure the Constitution and a pose a
socialist vision from the bench that could never pass at the ballot box.
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NOBLES: The president also spent some time touting his administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic. He did not know -- mention that the United States could be creeping very close to that grim 200,000 mark, 200,000 people that have died in the United States.
Instead Trump bragging that is administration prevented the deaths of millions of Americans. He is saying this against the backdrop of yet another packed rally, which completely ignores his own administration's guidance on preventing the spread of coronavirus.
Thousands of people here, shoulder to shoulder, almost no masks. Another event, another day with the president and his campaign not doing very much to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic -- Ryan Nobles, CNN, Swanton, Ohio.
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VAUSE: Patrick Healy is a CNN political analyst and a politics editor for "The New York Times."
Good to see you, Patrick. Thanks for coming back.
PATRICK HEALY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Happy to be here.
VAUSE: OK. Republican senator, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Lindsey Graham told FOX News a few hours ago, the Supreme Court nomination, pretty much a done deal. Here he is. Look at this.
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SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): We've got the votes to confirm Justice Ginsburg replacement before the election. We're going to move forward in the committee. We're going to report the nomination out of the committee to the floor of the United States Senate so we can vote before the election.
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VAUSE: Assuming Graham is right about the numbers, no reason to not assume there, are there any Senate procedures open to Democrats to stall just all out warnings of retribution after the November election?
HEALY: Yes, I think that's right and there's -- there are very few levers of power that the Democrats have at this point to slow down or stop either the Judiciary Committee, led by Graham, or actually you know Florida (ph) before Election Day.
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HEALY: If that's what Mitch McConnell decides to do.
What the Democrats now are really looking at is trying to make a full- throated argument to voters in the November election, basically saying that the Republicans are not just hypocritical but possibly putting you know Roe versus Wade at risk, the Affordable Care Act at risk and just a host of legislations.
So really trying to run very aggressively against the Republican Party but actually stopping a Trump nominations going to be very difficult at this point.
VAUSE: You know, just to remind everyone here, the hypocrisy here is because four years ago Mitch McConnell refused to have a hearing of Merrick Garland who was on Obama nominee to the Supreme Court. That's how Neil Gorsuch ended up there. And now it's complete.
According to McConnell we must have this before the election.
But you know one thing that the Democrats have warned of is if they control the Senate after November, they could increase the number of justices from nine to whatever they want, maybe add 10.
The argument against that is that if Republicans take control back, they'll add 10 more judges. So what? The ninth court of appeal, the circuit court has 29 judges. That works perfectly fine.
HEALY: Yes, and really it could spiral. The question here partly is will Joe Biden actually go down that road?
He has opposed court packing in the past. You know he -- today didn't really give a direct answer on that question and there are certainly going to be progressive Democrats who are going to want to go in that -- in that route.
And I think even moderate Democrats in this party who will feel that really there's sort of no alternatives unless you're going to have you know an ultra-Right Supreme Court.
But I think the scenario you lay out is exactly right. It's just how much retribution, you know, tit-for-tat, tit-for-tat you know would both parties be willing to go to and how much would voters put up with that.
VAUSE: Moving on, we had the president, he appeared at a rally in Ohio, Monday night. Before he made this appearance on stage, the state's lieutenant governor, he was a warm up act if you like. Listen to the reaction when he talked about wearing a face mask.
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JON HUSTED, OHIO LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR: But if you go into a grocery store where you got a wear one, all right. Hang on, hang on, just listen up. Just listen up.
All right, I get it.
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VAUSE: Yes, the booing, the direct result of a president, he's played down the importance of masks but he clearly knows the dangers posed by the pandemic and again, here is Trump talking to journalist Bob Woodward in February.
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TRUMP: It goes through, air Bob. That's always tougher than the touch. You know the touch -- you don't have to touch things, right? But the air, you just breathe the air and that's how it's passed and so that's a very tricky one. That's a very delicate one. It's also more deadly than your even your strenuous flus.
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VAUSE: Yes, and one way of controlling for airborne transmission is wearing a mask. You know what doesn't make any sense here is that by controlling the pandemic, by wearing a mask, it would help the economy, which is in Trump's best interest.
Why is he so against it?
HEALY: You know, for years now, the Republican Party has had a very strong libertarian bent, voters who don't like to be told what to do by the government. And that goes back to Ronald Reagan and well before who are not looking to the head of their party to sort of tell them how to live their lives.
The reality is that President Trump knew how deadly this virus was early on. He knew how it was spread.
Frankly, he knew that masks you know certainly short of a vaccine, that masks would be an incredibly strong preventative measure that they take.
But he also knew that among his base, a lot of Republicans just did not want to be told by the government, even scientists, to wear masks.
And rather than lead, rather than set an example and model behavior, you know, he decided to play to the instincts of, I think those rallygoers, who we heard on the tape. You know who just see sort of masks and the need to keep each other safe, frankly, as too much of a burden, too much government intrusion in their lives.
VAUSE: Very quickly, listen to Trump at a rally on Friday.
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TRUMP: You have good genes. You know that, right? You have good genes. A lot of it is about the genes, isn't it, don't you believe? The racehorse theory. You think we're so different? You have good genes in Minnesota.
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VAUSE: A very white Minnesota.
Does that explain the anti-mask stance Trump and his supporters think they're physically superior to everyone else?
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HEALY: I think that's classic Donald Trump, playing to his base, flattering people but also making up facts, going to anti-science and saying things that are so deeply offensive to a lot of Americans.
But he really has shown over the years that he doesn't really care about being careful with his words, let's just put it politely like that. This is a guy who plays to an audience time and again and tends to try to pump people up and make them try to feel better about themselves, at least his own admirers rather than having tough conversations with people about the facts and the threats facing people.
VAUSE: You were very, very diplomatic. Thank you Patrick Healy. We appreciate it. Thank you for being with us. Take care.
HEALY: You too.
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VAUSE: Democrat Joe Biden was in another battleground state, Wisconsin. He continued to hammer away at Donald Trump's handling of the pandemic and said Trump was not up to the challenge.
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JOE BIDEN (D-DE), FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The virus was too big for him. All his life, Donald Trump has been bailed out of any problem he faced.
With this crisis, a real crisis, a crisis that required serious presidential leadership, he just wasn't up to it. He froze. He failed to act. He panicked. And America has paid the worst price of any nation in the world.
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VAUSE: As for the Supreme Court vacancy, Biden says the entire nomination process should wait until after the election, as maintained four years ago by the Senate Republicans when they refused to hold a hearing for the Obama nominee, Merrick Garland.
We'll take a short break, when we come back, on the 75th anniversary, diplomatic tradition has been broken. The U.N. General Assembly meeting during a pandemic like never before.
Also Kiwi faceoff: we'll tell you what happened during the first debate of the general election in New Zealand.
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VAUSE: The United Nations General Assembly will be different this year because of the pandemic. World leaders will not attend the 75th anniversary, gathering in person. Instead remarks will be recorded and the assembly hall will be nearly empty.
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VAUSE: For more I'm joined by CNN's senior U.N. correspondent Richard Roth in New York.
Richard, it's been a while, so it's good to see you. In 75 years of the U.N. and there's never been a general assembly like the one we're going to see. And it seems this is part of the real world fallout from what has been a nonexistent global response to a pandemic, a response which defies the very idea of which the U.N. was founded.
RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT: That's right. You'd love to think that this unique, different U.N. General Assembly will produce more interest.
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ROTH: But there appears to be a lot of other news going on in the world. And basically all the speeches that the audience around the world have come to love, all of the world leaders are on tape, pre- recorded likely at least four days ahead of time.
President Trump on Monday said he had just recorded his remarks and he will be strong on China. So the others will really -- no one will get a chance to verbally respond to perhaps an attack made by someone else.
And we do expect President Trump to attack many countries. China, which speaks 10th on Tuesday morning, Donald Trump goes second as is the custom of the host country after the traditional first speaker of Brazil.
The general assembly hall itself will be much quieter, with only one country getting one ticket for one diplomat to sit at the table and perhaps introduce their video.
VAUSE: One of the real benefits of the past has been these meetings on the sidelines between world leaders, who would rarely have a chance to cross paths.
Without that happening this time, where do you see the value of the UNGA?
ROTH: It's sad and -- I know some people misuse the word said -- but it's the 75th anniversary of the organization that some say kept us out of World War II, despite there being at least 250 other smaller wars that have occurred. So perhaps like sports leads around the world, it happened and it took
place, they got it off the ground. But I'm not sure how it's going to be looked on in the past. They are missing a lot because, it is the so-called diplomatic speed dating, the Super Bowl of diplomacy, these cliches that I use a lot. That's not going to happen.
And many at the U.N. will say they get a lot out of experiences, meeting in person, seeing someone's body language, which you cannot get on a WebEx call. Seeing the nuance, whether they sway, how is their team discussing and negotiating the settlement?
There has been progress on some issues. But it's hard to know at these huge General Assembly weeks but we are not going to have that at all. And important topics such as climate change, Lebanon discussed.
But all the foreign ministers will be virtual. They will pull it off. But many years you don't have progress on big fronts, I doubt you will have that on a 50-person call. But you never know.
VAUSE: The gathering may be virtual but the problems are very real. Richard, good to have you with us.
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VAUSE: Sweden has blazed its own trail during the coronavirus pandemic and plans to do the same thing when a vaccine is available. An update from Stockholm in a moment.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: New Zealand just hours away from its first major primetime debate for the 2020 general election. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, much admired and praised around the world for her leadership during the pandemic, will face opposition leader Judith Collins.
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CNN's Kristie Lu Stout live in Hong Kong with the details.
So Kristie, Jacinda Ardern, she may be loved around the world, but it seems there's a lot of support for the opposition, the Labour opposition, which is holding steady.
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Yes, and all eyes will be on this live primetime TV debate, due to take place in a couple hours from now, even amid a pandemic. It is election season also taking place in New Zealand with the prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, set to face off with her main opposition challenger, Judith Collins of the National Party. Judith Collins is expected to hone her attack on Ardern, basically on her promises and her ability to keep them.
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JACINDA ARDERN, NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINSTER: We went hard and early to fight COVID.
STOUT (voice-over): Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister hailed worldwide for her tough handling of the coronavirus, is under fire for selfies in New Zealand. Her pictures with supporters without social distancing has become a political talking point as she faces a general election on October the 17th.
LISA OWEN, JOURNALIST, RADIO NEW ZEALAND: She's front and center, and they're all around her. A photo that shows, perhaps, her popularity and her ability to mix and mingle with a crowd is now being used against her. So being popular on the campaign trail doesn't always work in your favor.
STOUT: Rival politicians have criticized Ardern's lack of social distancing on the campaign trail with ACT Party leader David Seymour tweeting, "Hospitality businesses can't make money at Level 2 because of single server and social distancing rules. Meanwhile, the person responsible for the rules is self-serving and not social distancing."
The prime minister admits she made a mistake.
ARDERN: In that particular photo, I did make a mistake.
STOUT: Back in March, when the virus started to burn through Europe and the U.S., the prime minister presented her country with a choice --
ARDERN: I hope that you are all with me on this decision.
STOUT: Let the virus in or lock it out. New Zealand sealed its borders with only 28 reported cases and went into lockdown days later. Tough measures brought a nation of 5 million down to zero active cases, and by June, the virus was declared eliminated.
But after more than 100 days of zero local cases, the virus returned in August, and it's spread. Auckland, its largest city, was put under lockdown again.
The national election set for September was postponed, and there was outrage.
The lockdowns have hammered the nation's economy. Tourism-dependent New Zealand has fallen into its deepest economic slump on record, posting a 12.2 percent drop in 2nd quarter economic growth.
ARDERN: My question would be, what's your measure of success? In a global pandemic, what do we measure success on? A success for me is saving people's lives, supporting and saving people's businesses, and coming out the other side faster and quicker and with more activity at the other side; and that is what we're seeing in New Zealand.
STOUT: With the latest outbreak declared under control, New Zealand is slowly lifting restrictions again.
(on camera): At one point, New Zealand's prime minister enjoyed a high 65 percent approval rating, especially for her handling of the pandemic. Where does that approval rating stand now, especially as she faces a general election?
OWEN: In terms of how Jacinda Ardern compares with the preferred prime minister stakes with Judith Collins, the leader of National, so Jacinda Ardern is still leaps and bounds ahead in those preferred prime minister stakes.
STOUT (voice-over): New Zealand's 40-year-old prime minister has led her country through three one-in-a-generation crises. Her personable style may have attracted some criticism, but her leadership has made her the favorite as a nation goes to the polls amid a pandemic.
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(on camera): A second outbreak of the virus has not dented Jacinda Ardern's popularity as she continues to draw crowds on the campaign trail across the country, resulting in some of those talking-point selfies.
Back to you, John.
VAUSE: Yes, just to be quick, I said Labour opposition. No, sorry, the National Party opposition I should say.
Just very quickly, what do we know about those COVID numbers right now in New Zealand? It's under control, but where they stand?
STOUT: Well, right now, New Zealand is in the process of actually lowering its strict restrictions on the back of that flare-up of the virus in Auckland. As of midnight last night, most of the country is now back down to a level one alert. As of Wednesday, coming up on midnight, Auckland will go down to a level two alert, meaning that there will still be a ban on social gatherings. But social gatherings of up to 100 people will be allowed in New Zealand's most populated city.
Now, on Monday, the country reported zero new local cases of the virus, prompted Jacinda Ardern to say that the virus, this time around, is under control -- John.
VAUSE: Kristie, thank you. Kristie Lu Stout, live in Hong Kong. Appreciate it.
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Spain's prime minister says he will consider other scenarios, if needed, to deal with a surging COVID-19 rate. He spoke of strict new lockdown rules to take effect in parts of Madrid, affecting about 150,000 people in densely-populated, mostly low-income neighborhoods. They can only leave their zones for work, school, medical care. And that's for the next two weeks.
Sweden has gone its own way during this pandemic, opting for voluntary guidelines instead of mandates and lockdowns, and there will be a similar approach when a COVID vaccine is ready. It will not be mandatory. The question, though, is will people actually take it? Max Foster reports from Stockholm. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): No lockdown, and few masks, if any at all. Sweden tends to avoid issuing mandates when voluntary guidelines are usually enough.
Many here feel that approach has been vindicated by the latest pandemic numbers.
After a spike in coronavirus deaths, mainly amongst the elderly, mortality is now down to normal, seasonal levels. Infection rates are also falling as they surge elsewhere in Europe, where local lockdowns are still part of the strategy.
Sweden, increasingly, a shining example for American conservatives, who oppose masks and lockdown. All eyes now on how they handle the vaccine. And we already know their plan.
(on camera): The Swedish-British pharmaceuticals giant, AstraZeneca, is one of the frontrunners in developing a coronavirus vaccine. If any when they succeed, adults will be advised by the health authorities here to take it or the approved alternative, and starting with the most vulnerable. There's no real debate here about mandated vaccination.
ANDERS TEGNELL, CHIEF EPIDEMIOLOGIST: We worked with voluntary vaccination during the last pandemic, and Sweden probably reached the highest rate of vaccination anywhere in the world.
FOSTER: Chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell, known as the architect of Sweden's COVID-19 pandemic response. Children won't be advised to take the vaccine at all, at least at first, because they aren't considered spreaders of the virus.
TEGNELL: We have very little data that they spread the disease at all. So at least in the beginning, to vaccinate children would be not the most relevant action to take. The most relevant action to take is to vaccinate people at the real risk, which are mainly the elderly and people working with him in health care and in social care.
FOSTER: But members of this family aren't sure they would ever take part in another vaccination program after the last one. Their 13-year- old, who doesn't want to be named has the chronic sleep disorder narcolepsy, which his doctor says was triggered by the swine flu immunizations of 2009. A vaccine hastily rolled out in Europe at the time has been linked to an increase in cases, leaving this family and others wary of vaccination.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After school, I don't have energy to do stuff, so I just go home and play video games.
FOSTER: His father said he wouldn't take another vaccine unless there was a guarantee of compensation for side effects.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I think I will doubt to take.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Same. I'm his stepmother. I lived with him every other week. And I see what happened to him.
FOSTER (on camera): If a vaccine suddenly appears for the virus, are you likely to take it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
FOSTER: Why not?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm scared of it, though, in the beginning. Yes. I don't -- I feel I'm strong enough without it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I won't do it.
FOSTER: Why not?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because I think it's -- it's too early. They can try first on some other people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think I'd take it.
FOSTER: Why is that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If it's safe, then -- if it helps, then why wouldn't I?
Sweden's national health agency says all the parties involved in developing a new vaccine are doing everything possible to prevent dangerous side effects ever happening again.
Swedes have a reputation for following official advice on medication without questioning it, but even here, you'll find plenty who won't be at the front of the line for a brand-new coronavirus vaccine. That raises the question of whether we'll ever be rid of this deadly and endlessly disruptive virus.
Max Foster, CNN, Stockholm, Sweden.
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VAUSE: Next up on CNN NEWSROOM, seven years and counting. A huge clock in Manhattan counting down on a critical window as it closes to save our planet.
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VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. Global warming may be responsible for an environmental tragedy in southern Africa.
More than 300 elephants were found dead in the wild, and officials in Botswana believe they were killed by drinking water contaminated with bacteria which turned toxic in high heat.
But conservationists say another possibility could be farmers who poison the elephants for destroying their crops. The government says the animals' tusks were still intact, an
indication that, if humans were involved, the killings -- were involved in the killings, they say, the tusks would have been gone.
A giant digital clock in New York City is now counting down until the effects of global warming could become irreversible. The artists behind the project based their circulations on climate experts in Berlin. The clock will stay up through Sunday for Climate Week, and then the artists are hoping to find a permanent home.
And in case you are wondering, a live look how much time is left: 7 years, 3 months, a couple of days. We don't really have it right now, but you get the idea.
Greenhouse gas emissions have fallen worldwide due to the pandemic lockdowns. The red line here shows pre-COVID and current projections. Studies from the climate action tracker finds these recent declines will not have any real impact on long-term climate change, because we're still not doing enough to curb gas emissions.
On that sad note, thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. Stay with us. I'm John Vause. WORLD SPORT is after the break.
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VAUSE: Hello, everyone.
