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U.S. Sets New Seven-Day Average Record of More Than 68,000 New Cases; Pre-Election Voting Surpassing Total 2016 Early Voting; Pfizer Vaccine Being Tested on Kids as Young as 12. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired October 26, 2020 - 10:00   ET

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

POPPY HARLOW, CNN NEWSROOM: Coronavirus surges that experts have been warning about, really bringing the alarm bells about for months.

[10:00:06]

Three-quarters of states currently battling cases that are spiking, not a single one witnessing its case count move in a positive direction, right? There is no state that is green on the map.

The seven-day average of new cases is now at its highest point since the pandemic began and more than 225,000 Americans have died.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: Yes, that graph just so sad to see. Those are real people, right, behind those numbers. Juxtapose that with two very different, in fact, contradictory messages coming from the Trump administration. The president said, once again, we are, as a country, rounding the corner the despite the facts, but his own chief of staff said simply we're not going to control this virus.

We now know that five staffers in the vice president's inner circle are positive for the virus. But the president ignoring his own administration -- rather Pence, the vice president, ignoring his own administration's guidelines to quarantine and is hitting the campaign trail. His office says both he and the second lady tested negative this morning.

Let's begin with CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. All right, Elizabeth, the numbers are growing, right, and it's not just because we are testing, right, because the positivity rate is going up as well. Meaning more people are testing positive when you do test. Why is this happening and what can be done about it?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. So, Jim, there are a couple of thoughts about why this is happening, why these numbers are going up. One of them is that as the weather gets colder, if you remember back in the summer, you get together with friends, maybe do a barbecue or a picnic, stay sort of separate from each other outside. Well, it's too cold to do that in many parts of the country.

So let's look at what the results of that are. If you take a look, 37 states are seeing an increase if you look at last week over previous week and six of those states are seeing more than a 50 percent increase. So that is really dramatic. Those are in red and orange. If you look at the yellow, that's 13 states that are holding steady, only 13, and no states are seeing a decrease, in no states are the numbers going down.

And now, if we take look at this graph, what you can see is the numbers are just going up. On Friday, we hit the highest number of cases ever. You can see that on the far right of this graph. The highest number of cases ever, even compared to those very high days back in the spring. Jim and Poppy?

HARLOW: You have done some important reporting on what pharmacies are actually doing, right? Because the Trump administration made an important change a few months ago, and they said pharmacies can give the flu shot, right, so it's much easier for people to get them? Is that not happening, broadly, Elizabeth?

COHEN: Unfortunately, according to our investigation, it's not happening. Poppy, you know as a mom, it is way easier to take your child to a pharmacy than to the pediatrician, right? And, Jim, you as a dad, it's just easier to go in there, evening hours, weekend hours. But when we -- and so President Trump said, you know what, pharmacists, you can vaccinate children of any age. Because right now, 30 states do not allow pharmacists to vaccinate children at all or have strict age limits. 30 states have strict age limits. So, President Trump did the right thing.

But when we called more than 175 pharmacies, most of them, the vast majority, they hadn't changed it. They were saying no still to children of certain ages. So there is some communication issue, some implementation issue. Trump made this policy change, which was the right thing to do, but somehow it just didn't get quite through to these pharmacies. Jim, Poppy?

SCIUTTO: Yes, we did it for our flu shots, went to the pharmacy because the pediatrician was out. And you can imagine with demand for a vaccine, you might see the same thing.

COHEN: Right, exactly.

HARLOW: Elizabeth, thank you for the reporting on both fronts. We really appreciate it.

To politics now, let's go to Allentown, Pennsylvania. Our colleague, Jeremy Diamond, is there. Good morning, Jeremy.

A rally for the president today, not maybe as big as some of the ones he's had, but still looks like a significant turnout there, and one of three events he's having today there?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And that's the point, Poppy, is that this is just the first of three events that the president is doing here in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, a state that his campaign views as key to any potential path to 270 electoral votes in order for the president to capture a second term. So he will be crisscrossing the state. What we also know is that Vice President Mike Pence, he is also campaigning. He will be in the battleground state of Minnesota today. And that comes after five people, five people, Poppy, in the vice president's orbit have tested positive for coronavirus, including his chief of staff, Marc Short, as well as close aides, Zach Bauer and Marty Obst, the vice president's outside political adviser.

Now, the vice president's office acknowledged that Marc Short is a close contact of the vice president and yet despite that, the vice president has chosen not to quarantine. Instead, he's going to be campaigning throughout this time until Election Day. We've been told that he tested negative for the virus this morning. But, of course, you're supposed to quarantine for 14 days if indeed a close contact of yours tests positive for the virus.

[10:05:05]

So the vice president campaigning in defiance of CDC guidelines, and he will also be presiding over the confirmation vote for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who is expected to be confirmed today as the next associate justice of the United States Supreme Court.

And what this does is it really just underscores overall this administration's handling of the coronavirus. Of course, just yesterday, we heard the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, say that we are not going to control this pandemic.

Now that is something that I have heard from sources inside the White House for months now, but to hear the White House chief of staff say that was stunning, and it is upsetting some people inside the Trump campaign as well. We know that there has been boiling frustration with the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, over his comments that he made when the president was in the hospital at Walter Reed. And now, we are being told that there is more frustration with the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, over these latest comments as well. Jim and Poppy?

SCIUTTO: Jeremy Diamond out there on the trail, thanks very much.

Joining us now, Dr. Robert Wachter, he is chief of the Department of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco. He is also author of The Digital Doctor. Doctor, good to have you on this morning.

I got a practical advice question for you, right, because the focus from all the health experts is avoid those kind of smaller family gatherings or that there's a real risk there. We got two holidays coming up, Halloween, kids want to go out trick or treat and then you got Thanksgiving, which is an indoor family event. I mean, what is your advice to families as these two holidays come up, what they should and shouldn't do?

DR. ROBERT WACHTER, CHAIR, DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE AT UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO: Yes, this is hard, because, obviously, people want to do that and people getting fatigued after eight or nine months of this. But the virus is raging in many parts of the country. And you have to ask the question, is that get together, particular if you don't keep your distance and people don't wear masks, is it worth it if someone gets sick. And I think there's a reasonable chance that someone will if people are being careful.

So I think people know the rules by now. If they can keep themselves distant, if they can keep masks on at all the parties, it's safer. The safest thing to do is, unfortunately, not get together.

HARLOW: Dr. Wachter, I'm so glad you're here. I wanted to have you on after reading your quote in The Washington Post last week, really praising Operation Warp Speed. And I think it's even more relevant this morning after Mark Meadows said we can't control the virus but then he said, quote, we're going to control the fact that we can get vaccines.

You have been really critical of the administration's response to this pandemic, but about the vaccine effort, Operation Warp Speed, you said it's been nearly flawless and staggeringly impressive. Why do you think that is, that the administration has, in your opinion, done so well on the vaccine front and so poorly, in your opinion, on every other mitigation point?

WACHTER: Yes. It's -- it is important to sort of reflect on the last six, eight months and say that the administration's response overall has been abysmal. But on vaccines, I think they have gotten it right at least so far. Why? Because it was a little bit easier. It wasn't a matter of changing the behavior of people, it didn't get politicized the way everything else has. It really is a matter of giving resources to big pharmaceutical companies and mostly stay out of their way.

And the pharmaceutical companies are good at science. They know how to -- if they have the resources to decrease the risk of going full bore in trying to develop a vaccine and you support them and stay out of the way, I think what they're demonstrating is they can do it.

Now, the administration had an opportunity to muck it up by playing with the FDA approval process, and I think they would have, as the president had indicated, had there not been a huge amount of public pressure on the FDA, on the administration. But it looks like the FDA took a breath and said, we're going to follow the normal rules for a vaccine approval, which means they're not going to do it by Election Day, it will probably be two, three months.

SCIUTTO: Okay. Wide availability of this, I spoke with Secretary Azar on Friday, he says, by April, there are others who say it won't be until the summer. Practically, for people watching now, given that timeline, does that mean we have to live in the space we're occupying now until that wide availability, right, which is limiting the kinds of events and family contacts that you talked about, wearing masks, taking other measures and so on. I mean, in other words, are we stuck in this place for a number of months more?

WACHTER: I'm afraid the answer is yes. There's really nothing about the virus that has changed since January, there is nothing about the vast, vast majority of us that has changed. Maybe 5 or 10 percent of people have antibodies, the rest of us, 90, 95 percent of the American population were just as vulnerable. And so if we let our guards down, and I think that's what we're beginning to see, if we let our guards down, then, unfortunately, the fact that a vaccine is a few months away is irrelevant.

[10:10:01]

And this is going to get very hard. We're a year into this at the turn of the year. People are going to be exhausted and tired from all of the restrictions. But until the vaccine is not only approved but is out and in tens of millions of people's shoulders, the facts on the ground don't change. So we have to hunker down and we have to get to stay and get serious until there really are enough people that are vaccinated in order to really change the game.

SCIUTTO: Dr. Robert Wachter, thanks so much for coming on. We look forward to keep up the conversation.

WACHTER: Thanks.

SCIUTTO: Well, still to come, more than 60 million Americans have already cast their votes in this election nationwide, 3 million of those are in the battleground state of North Carolina. Dianne Gallagher, she will be there.

HARLOW: Also, a promising coronavirus vaccine, the Pfizer one, is now being tested in kids, some 12 years old. Why finding a safe vaccine for children is critical in this fight against this pandemic.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:00]

SCIUTTO: We think folks are interested in this election. Already, more than 33 states have surpassed their pre-election vote totals from 2016. And we still have several more days of early voting left until next Tuesday's Election Day.

HARLOW: And more than 60 million votes have already been cast nationwide. North Carolina, a key battleground state, is responsible for just over 3 million of them.

Dianne Gallagher joins us in Charlotte this morning. Good morning. What are you hearing from voters about why, because I think that's a huge number of early votes for the state?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is. In fact, it's the record number of early votes for this state. They surpassed their 2016 numbers for all early voting today. They have more than 3,171,000 North Carolinians have already cast a ballot. The majority of those are doing exactly what these good people here, doing their voting early in person. That voting period ends on October 31st, so there are still several days left to do so.

Nearly 800,000 North Carolinians have voted by mail, which just completely dwarves what they saw in 2016 by about four times the amount. And so a large driver of these early votes, we've talked to voters standing in line, has been the pandemic. It is surging here in North Carolina. They set and then broke their own records for daily new infections of COVID-19 last week.

But they're also keenly aware of just how important their 15 electoral votes in the state really are to the presidential election, and the fact that they are a swing state matters to those voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSY KITZ MILLER, NORTH CAROLINA VOTER: I think it's such a competitive race this year, I think like a lot of younger people are more informed than they have ever been. And I think just seeing how it affects the country globally and locally everywhere, like everybody is just trying to get out there and get their vote in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: Now, tomorrow is the last day that voters in this state can request an absentee ballot, if they choose to send it by mail, they have got to have it postmarked by Election Day.

And, you know, Jim, Poppy, a lot of people are advising them to go ahead and just drop it off at a county board of elections instead of mailing it in at this point to make sure that they can get it there so they can feel good about that. Again, they can vote early in person until the 31st. Though that appears to be what most North Carolinians at least right now are choosing to do.

SCIUTTO: Well, folks get out there and make sure your vote is counted. Dianne Gallagher in North Carolina, thanks you very much.

HARLOW: Well, the president and Joe Biden are both searching for their path to 270 electoral votes as they make their final sprint to Election Day.

SCIUTTO: As you probably have seen, the former vice president, Joe Biden, is leading in most polls both national and at the state level but you may also remember that Hillary Clinton was in the same position in 2016, or at least a comparable one. So how can President Trump overcome this deficit this time around?

Here to break to help us to break it all down, CNN Senior Political Writer and Analyst Harry Enten.

Harry, you've had this question more than once, and maybe even from me, right? Tell us what the data says, if it says, how this year at this point is different from four years ago at this point.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER AND ANALYST: Yes. And I certainly have gotten it from you, Jim. Look, here is the situation. With eight days to go, Joe Biden, simply put, is in a better position than Hillary Clinton was at this point. You can see this well in the national polls, right? What do we see? We see that Biden has an advantage of nine points, Clinton's was just four points.

But what's also important to note about this graphic is that Biden is over 50 percent, Hillary Clinton simply never really got close to 50 percent. And why is that important? It's important because, really, all Donald Trump needed to do four years ago was to win those undecided or third party voters, bring them over to his side.

At this particular point, what Trump needs to do is he needs not only to win those undecided voters, he also needs to convince a bunch of those Biden voters to come over to his side. So his task at this point is significantly more difficult, in my mind, than it was four years ago.

HARLOW: What about Pennsylvania? You've got the president making multiple stops there today. He's about to kick off a rally this morning in Allentown. Is it a must-win state for him to take the White House or just an almost must-win?

ENTEN: Well, I mean, those might be two sides of the coin. All I will say is Pennsylvania is extremely, extremely important in this presidential race.

[10:20:04]

And you can sort of see this on this graphic of Biden's road to 270 electoral votes. It's somewhat complicated. But, really, to break it down, what you should note is the cumulative electoral votes. You start off, say, you're Biden, in 2016, Clinton states, that gets him at 232.

Then look at Michigan, where Biden is ahead by eight. That gets him to 248. Then Nebraska, second congressional district, he's ahead by seven points. That gets Biden a 249. Then Wisconsin, where he's ahead by seven, that gets Biden to 259.

But look at that highlighted Pennsylvania right there, where Biden is ahead right now by six points in the average of polls, that gets Biden to 279 electoral votes.

So, right now, Pennsylvania, in my mind, is the most important state. Yes, there are those other swing states, like Florida and North Carolina, where Biden is ahead, but at this point, those look like extra gravy or the -- say, the cherry on top of sundae.

At this time, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, there's a reason why Trump is making three visits in that state today. It's just such an important battleground.

SCIUTTO: Okay. Another scenario, granted a scenario, but if Trump does not win in Pennsylvania, Michigan or Wisconsin, can he still get to 270?

ENTEN: I mean, look, it's theoretically possible. But I think what you need to know is that if he doesn't win in Michigan, Pennsylvania or Wisconsin, he likely needs to win both Nevada and New Hampshire. And if you look at the polling averages in those states right now, what you see is that Biden's lead in those states is as large, if not, larger than those key great lake battleground states. Seven points in Nevada, 11 in New Hampshire, and he's over 50 percent in both. So this does not seem like a good alternative path. Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania just so key.

HARLOW: Thanks, Harry. I appreciate it as always to have you on the numbers.

Let's talk about kids ahead and vaccine trials. Because right now, more than 100 children are part of the United States first ever vaccine trial for a COVID-19 vaccine for minors. You see some of them on the screen here. How are they doing? How safe is the trial? We'll ask one of the doctors leading the research, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:25:00]

HARLOW: So, the first COVID-19 vaccine trial in the U.S. to include children is now ongoing and they're pushing for more volunteers. A team at Cincinnati Children's Hospital says it has vaccinated 100 children in the younger age group, some as young as 12 years old.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They took the blood clot (ph), which the (INAUDIBLE). And then they need these vaccines.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm just hoping that they can use whatever they get from me and that it helps them put out a vaccine as soon as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Dr. Robert Frenck is with me. He is a pediatric vaccine specialist and director of the Vaccine Research Center at Cincinnati Children's. It's good to have you. Jim and I have been so interested in this, as parents, as journalists, I think every parent wants their kid to get a safe vaccine. But how do you get parents to participate? I can imagine that's been a challenge.

DR. ROBERT FRENCK JR., DIRECTOR, VACCINE RESEARCH CENTER AT CINCINNATI CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: Well, I think every person in the United States, the goal is to get a safe vaccine. And so we're approaching this, like we do any other vaccine trial we do, is that we have a very detailed consent form and we explain things to the parents and the adolescents in detail. It usually takes between an hour and two to explain the study so that they can have time to answer all the questions and make sure they're comfortable in enrolling.

HARLOW: So, I know nothing in a trial is 100 percent safe, but you obviously feel like this Pfizer vaccine is safe enough to be using on children. And what's unique about it, as we've talked about, is that it's mRNA. One has never been proven out in an infectious disease. How safe is it, do you think?

FRENCK: Well, so, nearly 30,000 adults have been vaccinated and, really, so far, the safety profile has been excellent. Most people have had nothing as far as adverse events. And if they had been having anything, we've been seeing people maybe having a little bit of fatigue, a little bit of joint ache, muscle ache, really nothing significant.

And so based on that, plus the really good immune response that we're getting from the vaccine as well, we thought it was reasonably and actually very important to move on to adolescence.

HARLOW: What do you need to learn, Doctor, from this trial on basically teens and preteens to know that it's safe enough to do on kids -- my children's age, two and four years old, right, because they can't consent the way a 12 or 15-year-old who understands it can?

FRENCK: Right. So what we would be doing is to look at an age de- escalation, just as you were mentioning, and so looking how the safety profile is in the adolescents and then see if there's anything that needs to be tweaked and then discuss about moving down an age further.

And if you look at most vaccines we give to children, the dose in even children as young as two months is often times the exact same dose we give to adults even.

[10:30:05]

HARLOW: Okay, that's interesting.