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Pandemic Raging Across U.S. As Trump Blocks Biden Transition; State Officials Reimpose Restrictions As Pandemic Rages; Moderna: Coronavirus Vaccine 94.5 Percent Effective. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired November 16, 2020 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. Thanks so much for joining us this hour.

No matter how you slice it, the coronavirus pandemic is going from bad to worse, just ravaging communities in states all across the country at this point. This, as the nation has recorded 11 million cases. Just six days after hitting 10 million cases. More than 100,000 new infections have been reported every day for the past 13 days. something that was seen as, honestly, impossible previously. 23 states reporting record highs in hospitalizations over the weekend.

The situation is not much better in the rest of the states either. The number of Americans in the hospital is at its highest level since the pandemic began. This bleak outlook is forcing state and local officials to step up once again to impose new restrictions. The likes of which we haven't seen in months.

In Michigan, for example, high schools and colleges are now going back to remote learning. Indoor dining is suspended. Michigan's governor saying the exploding case numbers leaves her no other choice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): We are in the worst moment of this pandemic to date. The situation has never been more dire. We are at the precipice and we need to take some action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: A short time after she said that President Trump's current top coronavirus adviser, Dr. Scott Atlas, who's been controversial all along. He took to Twitter to respond to the Michigan governor writing this, you see it on your screen. "The only way this stops is if people rise up. You get what you accept."

And President Trump continues to do little on COVID other than tweet about it. And there though is some hopeful news this morning in the quest for a coronavirus vaccine. Moderna announcing results this morning on its phase three trial.

CNN's Elizabeth Cohen is all over that. She's standing by with those details. Elizabeth, 94.5 percent effective. Tell us what these results mean.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: What they mean is that this actually looks like the trifecta for Moderna. It's the second vaccine, Pfizer was the first last week that is showing more not than 90 percent efficacy. Also, both vaccines showing a very good safety profile, very few side effects and what they were with things like body aches and headaches for a short period of time. And third, and this is just from Moderna, they don't need any special freezers to transport or store their vaccines. You can just use ones that doctors' offices and pharmacies already have.

So, Kate, before we delve into these numbers, I want to talk a little bit about how their phase three clinical trial was done. They put shots into arms and then just let people go live their lives. They say go home, go back to your communities. There is, unfortunately as we've just heard so much COVID in the United States and has been for a while now, that people did run into the vaccine - into the virus. They didn't have to give the virus to anyone, people just ran into it. They just caught it as part of their daily lives.

So, let's take a look at the specific numbers for Moderna's phase three trial. So, what they did is they gave 15,000 people a placebo. It's a shot of saline that does nothing. And 90 of those people became sick with COVID. They also gave another 15,000 study participants the vaccine and 5 of those became ill with COVID. Only 5 and none of them severely, which is really worth noting. 11 of the folks who got the placebo did become severely ill with COVID.

And so, you know, it's interesting that Moderna just found out all this news yesterday from an independent data and safety monitoring board that's been keeping track of the trial. They called Moderna to give them the results. It was obviously good news especially because this is a new technology. This technology, which is called messenger RNA or mRNA, the technology used in this vaccine, it's never been used in a vaccine on the market before.

So, I spoke with Dr. Tal Zaks last night. Let's take a listen. He's the CMO, the chief medical officer of Moderna.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. TAL ZAKS, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, MODERNA: This is I believe a major win for both mRNA technology and its ability to prevent disease and for us as a society in our ability to work collaboratively and very quickly from the start of this pandemic, be able to leverage science and collaboration to have a vaccine that has the potential, now the proof, to prevent COVID-19.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: Now we don't know how long this shot's immunity might last. You might have to get this vaccine once a year. Dr. Anthony Fauci told me last night that he thinks we could be getting needles into arms starting in the second half of December. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Hold onto that ray of sunlight amidst the darkness. That's for sure. Elizabeth, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Really important details coming out on that.

[11:05:00]

Joining me right now to talk more about this is Dr. William Schaffner. He is professor in the division of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. It's good to see you again, doctor. What do you think of this Moderna news?

DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PROFESSOR, DIVISION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES AT VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: It's splendid. It's wonderful, extraordinarily effective, as with the Pfizer vaccine. Now we have two vaccines. The more the merrier.

Remember, our goal here in the United States alone is to vaccinate 330 million people. We need as many vaccines out there as possible. So, this is very, very good news and even better that we have data now that it can also prevent severe disease. That's very comforting to people in intensive care units.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And this is a rare ray of sunlight in what by all measures you can look at right now is really a dark time with the virus. We're looking at almost 70,000 people hospitalized with COVID, which is something like 10,000 more than we saw in the peak with the virus in the spring. What is most concerning to you right now in what we're seeing?

SCHAFFNER: Well, at the moment, of course, the concern is that the virus is spreading really uninhibited throughout most of the United States. People have COVID fatigue, COVID annoyance, really, and we'll have to get them back understanding that we can't vaccinate everybody in a week and a half at the end of this year. This will take months to distribute this vaccine.

And in the meantime, please wear the mask. Please social distance. Avoid those large group gatherings. Even family groups. Those are accelerator events. That's where the virus enters, spreads and then you take it home, spread it to your own families and further to the neighborhood. So, we have to curtail our activities just this year. Next year will be much better. Hang in everybody, wear the mask.

BOLDUAN: Talk about, you know, COVID fatigue and COVID annoyance. The Dakotas is an area of serious concern right now. Where the virus is out of control. A nurse from South Dakota was on CNN this morning, spoke to CNN, and the stories that she told are really unbelievable. Doctor, patients dying that are in her care, dying of COVID but denying until their last breath that they believe that the virus is even real. Let me play for you how she describes it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JODI DOERING, EMERGENCY ROOM NURSE IN SOUTH DAKOTA: Yes. I think the hardest thing to watch is that people are still looking for something else and they want a magic answer. And they don't want to believe that COVID is real. And their last dying words are, this can't be happening, it's not real. And when they should be spending time, face timing their families, they're filled with anger and hatred. And it just made me really sad the other night. I just can't believe that those are going to be their last thoughts and words.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: We didn't hear things like that during the peak in the spring. What do you do with that, doctor?

SCHAFFNER: Well, first of all, my heart goes out to the nurse and to everyone else affected. And given that it's in the Dakotas, let me just mention also, which in rural Tennessee, it's now gone from the cities and spreading widely in rural areas. We're going to have to take a new national perspective, and it will be difficult to bring people to the realization that COVID really is real.

It's everywhere. And that we can, together, do something to curtail its spread. We need to do that. Otherwise, I'm afraid the people who work in the cemeteries digging those graves will be very busy throughout the winter.

BOLDUAN: Is there even time to change -- forget hearts, but to change minds and to believe the reality of the science right now? I mean just the timing that we're looking at and how we're in the middle of it right now. I have to ask you, the president's top adviser, Dr. Schaffner, on COVID, Dr. Scott Atlas.

He responded to an announcement from Michigan's governor of new restrictions, shutting down schools, shutting down indoor dining and more. His reaction was saying that the only way to fix this is that people rise up. A doctor, supposedly in charge of public health, suggesting -- though he tried to walk it back later -- you should rise up against these public health measures? What do you say to that?

SCHAFFNER: I'm speechless. That's profoundly sad because it's exactly the opposite. Exactly the opposite of what we should be doing. We should be embracing these public health measures recognizing that they protect ourselves, our families and others around us. Not wearing a mask, Kate, is exactly like driving on the red. It's not your individual decision alone. It puts people around you at risk. This is contagious. It's not just your decision. We have to do this together.

[11:10:03]

BOLDUAN: Thanks for coming on. Thanks for always following the science.

SCHAFFNER: Thank you, Kate.

I really appreciate it.

Still ahead for us, the Trump administration is refusing to share information on the COVID pandemic with President-elect Biden and his team saying only that they'll bring them in when it's appropriate. What if they never get there?

Plus, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are going to soon speak out about their plans for an economy recovery as talks in Congress have obviously stalled. And we see also new signs of how many Americans are desperate for relief. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Coming up very soon, President-elect Joe Biden will be speaking on the economy. And we also have a stark new image from this weekend of just how bad things are still for so many Americans in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.

[11:15:04]

Just look at these lines. Thousands of people, cars, lining up near Dallas. Not because they want to. But because they have to. For a food bank in Texas handing out over 600,000 pounds of food this weekend. A spokesperson for the group saying that almost half of the people coming through are doing so for the first time. That gives you just a sense of the scope.

And you all well know at this point, it has been crickets from Washington and Congress as talks over further stimulus measures sputtered out weeks ago.

CNN's Jessica Dean, she is in Delaware. She's joining me now where Biden will be delivering his remarks on the economy very soon. Jessica, good to see you. What are you hearing from the transition team?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, look, they'll tell you they're doing everything they can to push the transition forward. They feel good about what they've been able to accomplish but the fact remains.

They cannot talk to federal officials they need to be talking to, to plan for this transition because President Trump has still refused to concede and the General Services Administration, which is responsible for signing off on triggering the formal transition process which opens up all these lines of communication has not done so. So that means that the transition team is really left to do what they can within the realm that they've been given.

And so, that we know that they're back channeling with local governments on coronavirus pandemic. We know that they're talking this week with drug makers, including Pfizer, about the vaccine distribution plan. That's one key area where they will tell you that this delay on the transition could have a very serious impact. Incoming Chief of Staff Ron Klain talked about this a little yesterday. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON KLAIN, INCOMING WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Joe Biden is going to become president of the United States in the midst of an ongoing crisis. That has to be a seamless transition. We now have the possibility, we need to see if it gets approved of a vaccine starting perhaps in December, January. There are people at HHS making plans to implement that vaccine. Our experts need to talk to those people as soon as possible so nothing drops in this change of power we're going to have on January 20th.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: They know they have a huge logistical challenge in front of them, made more difficult by the fact they cannot talk to the people they need to be talking to right now, Kate. And circling back to the economy, we will see the president-elect and vice president-elect later today. They're getting briefed on the economic situation. They're going to give remarks on that. We also know that they understand that the economic recovery is very much tied to getting the coronavirus pandemic under control. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Certainly. Great to see you, Jessica. Thank you.

Joining me now for more on this is Olivia Troye. She's a former Coronavirus Task Force adviser to Vice President Mike Pence. It's good to see you, Olivia.

You've been outspoken with your criticism of the administration's response in the face of this pandemic. I want to play for you what the secretary of Health and Human Services said just this morning when asked about the administration getting Biden's team read in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS ANCHOR: Don't you need to be talking to the President-elect's team now?

ALEX AZAR, SECRETARY, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: Well, George, we'll make sure that happens when and if it's appropriate to do that. But right now, we're working with all the jurisdictions across the country to which really will make the prioritization decisions. And we'll be shipping the vaccine where they determine where it ought to go.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Why isn't it appropriate now?

AZAR: George, GSA has to make the determination that a transition in is in effect. That determination hasn't been made.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: They'll get read in when and if it's appropriate. What do you think of that knowing that COVID numbers are skyrocketing pretty much everywhere?

OLIVIA TROYE, FORMER HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISER TO VICE PRESIDENT PENCE: I think that's absolutely ridiculous. Secretary Azar needs to actually grow a backbone and stand up to the president and say this is wrong. He has been the face of leading the charge for HHS on this pandemic. And really this falls on him. He needs to have some (AUDIO GAP). And he needs to stand up.

You know the time is right now. There's no other appropriate moment. People -- this pandemic is out of control right now. We're facing significant crisis across the United States. And so, these people need to be talking to each other. The patriotic American thing to do right now is to give the transition team a chance to meet with the experts. All of these people if you actually care about Americans and their lives, should be meeting together to discuss this and figure out a way together.

BOLDUAN: Olivia, you've been in these task force meetings. What - what specifically do you think is the damage that's being done, or what worries you most about the administration not cooperating with the transition, specifically in this area of COVID?

TROYE: I think with COVID time is of the essence. And there are certainly communities out there that are very much hurting. I'm in my hometown of El Paso right now. El Paso is pretty much ground zero for how bad this virus can get. And the longer this sort of conversations are delayed, it really impacts things like the vaccine distribution planning. Those discussions are happening right now. The Biden team needs to be able to plan accordingly. There's also where are we on the PPE?

[11:20:01]

Project Airbridge was going on for months. We were shipping in stuff from all over the world. Jared Kushner was behind the scenes doing it with Admiral Polowczyk. Where is that now? What's the status? Do we have enough for our health care workers? Do we have enough for communities? You know it's a fundamental thing to slow this virus right now and what everyone can do is wear a mask.

So, do we have enough masks? These are all things that the Biden team is going to have to deal with for months to come. And they need to be having that background now so that they can move forward and not look backward. We made mistakes along the way. They can learn from that. I don't want them to have to do the work that's already been done by the task force in these discussions that have happened, that the president chose to override and sometimes didn't implement. They should be able to use that and move forward with it.

BOLDUAN: To be clear, because there was a point when there were enough PPE, there were enough masks, there were enough gloves for all health care workers around the country as we were looking at spikes. That does not mean there still is now when there are spikes all over the country not just hotspots and certain places as it was moving about. That is a big concern I've heard as well right now.

A spokesperson for the president last night, Olivia, made clear that he does not think it's not a big deal at all they're not engaging with Biden's team. I want to read you his tweet. We can put it up. He was basically playing out a conversation with the press.

Basically, saying like the press would ask why don't you meet with them and we would say what should we meet about? You ask, here are some quotes on the vaccine distribution plan and he says, here is the publicly available distribution plan. This is Brian Morgenstern. He's saying essentially that everything that's needed right now for the Biden team to prepare is publicly available. Is that true? TROYE: No. Look, there's data that's happening, these people need to having the serious conversations with the task force doctors. They need to be able to speak freely with Dr. Han, and others, Dr. Birx. I mean, this is all just, you know, smoke and mirrors, typical of this administration. And the problem with this is that they've been doing this for months now. They are the ones that have put us in this situation.

It didn't have to be this way and we're there now. And continuing to play out this narrative and playing games like this is just absolutely ridiculous. It's time to stop being sore losers and really focus on what's happening, which is a crisis across America.

BOLDUAN: You mentioned El Paso, and I did want to ask you on a personal note you left Washington to drive to El Paso, 2,000 miles to pick up your mom because you're so worried about how bad things are getting there. What are you seeing that has you so concerned and has you driving across the country, Olivia?

TROYE: The cases are through the roof here and the health care workers, they have asked for help. They've asked for help from the governor. The governor needs to have this community's back. It's like there's a political fight where the governor is just following the president's rhetoric and the attorney general as well.

This is all wrong. You know El Paso is ground zero. They are in a very tough spot right now. And they do need to take precautions and they do need to shut down some nonessential businesses. That's where this community is. It doesn't mean that the rest of the country needs to follow suit or anything like that.

But when El Paso is overrun like it is already and cities like Dallas and Houston across the state are also having increasing cases this is very worrisome. We're seeing it happen across the country. I know there's a thing as you know COVID fatigue is real. I get that.

And that is partially why I drove down. I drove three days nonstop to get my mom and to be with her and to bring her back safely. She's going to spend the holidays with us because her mental health matters to me. And it's going to be hard few months. We're going to have to continue to isolate and we're just going to have to hang in there and stand by each other and to sit here to the rules. And the quicker we do that, the better off we're all going to be until this vaccine can be distributed.

BOLDUAN: A few months is not forever, but what can happen if you do get COVID can be forever. Thank God your mom has a daughter like you to come to the rescue. Thanks for coming on, Olivia.

TROYE: Thank you for having me.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, President Trump continues to spread almost nonstop conspiracy theories about an election that he lost. If he and his team know the reality, and they do, what is the game then here?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [11:29:25]

BOLDUAN: It's been almost two weeks since the last votes were cast in the presidential election. The results are clear. Joe Biden is the president-elect. He is now ahead in the popular vote by 5.5 million votes. But President Trump continues to operate in his own reality here.

For a brief moment yesterday, Trump appeared to accept defeat in a tweet though also throwing around more allegations of the election being rigged and being stolen. But then hours later and again this morning, the president is back inside his own reality that he thinks he won.

So, what is Trump up to here? He knows that he has lost. The people around him know that as well. He knows he's leaving the White House. Joe Biden will take office on January 20th.