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Officials: Trump Has Not Met With COVID-19 Task Force In Five Months; More COVID-19 Deaths In 28 States Versus Last Week; U.S. Eclipses 11 Million COVID-19 Cases; White House National Security Adviser Moves Closer To Accepting Biden Win; Illinois Is Now One Of The Worst-Hit States For Total Cases. Aired 12-12:30p ET
Aired November 16, 2020 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:00:00]
RICHARD QUEST, CNN EDITOR-AT-LARGE: I'll see you in London tomorrow.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: It sounds good darling. Thank you so much Richard. Good to see you. And thank you all for joining us this hour, I am Kate Bolduan. John King picks up our coverage right now.
JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Hello to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I am John king in Washington. Thank you for sharing your day with us. Dr. Anthony Fauci wants you to know a new Coronavirus vaccine development is "As good as it gets" President Trump wants you to know he won the election. Dr. Fauci lives and works in the real world, a place where science and facts matter.
The president favors conspiracy and keeps pedaling fraud theories even his own lawyers are backing away from. I won is another red flag tweet this morning from the president to begin this work week. The man, who did win, President-Elect, Joe Biden, plans a big economic speech next hour on how to build back better and how to dig out from a deep pandemic recession.
A vaccine break through could be a major assist to the new president, but navigating the next several months until vaccines are widely available is both a giant public health and economic challenge. Early data suggests Moderna's vaccine is get this, 94.5 percent effective. Truly outstanding is another way Dr. Fauci frames these preliminary results.
President Trump's reactions, he tweets historians better give him credit. The news comes at a very bleak moment in this pandemic fight. 11 million cases, 246,000 American deaths, 45 of the 50 states trending the wrong way. 13 consecutive days with over 100,000 plus new infections. The vice president today leads a Coronavirus call with the nation's governors.
The president can't be bothered with such things. Multiple task force officials now publicly confirm the president has not physically met with the nation's top Coronavirus experts in five months. In those five months, nearly 9 million new infections and 126,000 American lives lost. Dr. Fauci this morning says the virus is not going to call a timeout,
which is why we have two transitions right now to worry about, one, from Trump to Biden, the other from a raging pandemic to a vaccine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: With the vaccine, as I use it, I say help is on the way, it certainly is. But the fact that help is on the way should spur us even more to double down on some of the public health measures to be able to use the combination of a vaccine and public health measures to turn this thing around. We can do it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: We can do it, Dr. Fauci says, but there's this difficult crossroads right now, the trouble we're in at this moment and the hope of a vaccine down the road a bit. Let's just look at the numbers right now.
And again, this is the here and now. A vaccine is still several months away for most Americans. 45 states, orange and red. 45 states. That means more new Coronavirus infections now compared to a week ago. 45 states heading in the wrong direction, where you see the deep red, that's 50 percent or more.
More COVID infections now compared to a week ago. And you see 11 states, including California, Colorado right up here from the Midwest toward the Northeast. 50 percent more, at least new infections now, compared to a week ago.
The death trend sadly up in many states as well. 28 states, 11 of them 50 percent plus more deaths this week to last week. 28 states in all reporting more deaths from the Coronavirus now compared to a week ago, eight holding steady, 14 reporting a downward trend.
This is just when you look at the stunning here, we are 300 days, it was 300 days ago, we had our first confirmed case here in the United States. You see the steady climb of cumulative infections. Here's what is stunning. On November 9th, six days ago, we hit 10 million. Now we are past yesterday, we hit 11 million. Six days to go from 10 to 11 million.
You see the long climb; it is growing exponentially right now because of the spike in new cases. And here's what that case time line looks like. Back at the beginning, bit of a plateau, up to the summer surge dropped down and now straight up.
Sunday, 133,000 new infections, 13 consecutive days. 13 consecutive days of atleast100, 000 new infections across the United States. That is the steepness of the challenge we are in right now. With more cases come hospitalizations. You see again, just shy of 70,000 Americans hospitalized yesterday from the Coronavirus.
In the first and the second times up the hill, 60,000 was the peak of hospitalizations. We have now blown past that, destination unknown as that number continues to go up. And because of that, because of new cases, because of hospitalizations, you see now at least eight states announcing new restrictive measures since Friday in the go from New Jersey in the east all the way to California, Oregon, or Washington on the west.
These are new restrictions as Governors decide, I have a problem on my hand, and I need to try to do something to fix it. Eight states we'll watch in the week ahead as the case count goes up if we get more. And that's the fascinating and challenging crossroads we are at. States having to think about new restrictions because of what is happening today, while Dr. Fauci talks about hope. But it's still months down the road.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. FAUCI: Now we have two vaccines that are really quite effective, so I think this is a really strong step forward to where we want to be about getting control of this outbreak.
[12:05:00]
DR. FAUCI: We project that by the end of December that there will be doses of vaccines available for individuals in the higher risk category from both companies, we hope.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Let's get more now from our CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. Elizabeth it is hopeful news this morning, Moderna following Pfizer. Walk us through Moderna's preliminary data.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It really is exciting preliminary data, showing a vaccine that is 94.5 percent effective, and had very few side effects, some people had headaches or muscle aches for a short period of time and that was it. So John, let's talk about how Moderna did its study.
What they did is, they put shots into arms, and then said go live your life and let's see who gets COVID. Sadly is the numbers you've been reciting for the past five or ten minutes, there's a lot of COVID in the United States.
So a fair number of these people did get COVID. The trial did not give these folks COVID; they just caught it out living their lives. So specifically let's look at the numbers. What Moderna did was they gave 15,000 people a shot of saline, a placebo that does nothing.
Over a period of several months, 90 of them came down with COVID again just living their lives. Another 15,000, different people, received the vaccine over a period of months only five of those people contracted COVID or got sick with COVID. None of them got severely sick with COVID; it was all mild to moderate.
That's not true for the people who got the placebo, 11 of them became severely ill. And so, those are numbers that are really important to think about. They're early numbers, they're interim data. It's also important to say, we may need to get the shot every year, this could be a seasonal thing kind of like the flu shot.
Now let's talk a little bit about one of the advantages of the Moderna vaccine, and that is the way that it can be shipped and distributed. So let's take a look at a big difference between Pfizer and Moderna in this sense. Pfizer has to be shipped and stored at minus 75 degrees Celsius, that's way colder than any other vaccine currently on the market in the U.S.
Doctors and pharmacists don't have freezers that go that low. Plus once you take it out of that temperature, it only lasts for five days in the refrigerator. Moderna, it needs to be stored and distributed at minus 20 degrees. Doctors and pharmacies do have freezers that go to that temperature.
And then once you take it out of that freezer, it can be kept for 30 days in the refrigerator. That is a huge sort of tactical advantage to the Moderna vaccine. I spoke last night with Dr. Tal Zaks, he is the Chief Medical Officer at Moderna and he talked about this tactical advantage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. TAL ZAKS, MODERNA CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: Our vaccine requires only minus 20 which is a readily available freezer that is available in most doctor's offices and pharmacies. So we anticipate our vaccine should be able to be deployed to those locations without any difficulty.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: Now I also spoke last night with Dr. Anthony Fauci and he said that he expects the first vaccinations to be given in the second half of December. John?
KING: Elizabeth Cohen, grateful for the reporting and the very, very important insights there. Elizabeth thank you very much. Let's continue the conversation now with Michael Mina; he is from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Mina, it's good to see you.
So the question is sort of where are we, right, in the sense that you hear Pfizer, then Moderna, you heard Elizabeth just laid out, and every American, everybody around the world watching should have some reason to be hopeful. And yet, that for many people that's months down the line, and we're in this hearing now that Dr. Michael Osterholm describes this way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, MEMBER, BIDEN COVID-19 ADVISORY BOARD: We are in a very dangerous period, the most dangerous public health period since 1918. And if we don't basically take important steps like stop swapping air with our neighbors, at friends or colleagues, we're going to see these numbers grow substantially.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Describe how you see this challenge ahead in the sense that we are in this transition to a vaccine, but at a time of high crisis.
DR. MICHAEL MINA, ASST. PROFESSOR OF EPIDEMIOLOGY, HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: I think that it's actually even too early to say we're really even in the transition to a vaccine. I think that is giving too much credit in terms of when most people will really get access, especially at a global level. We are in the United States in a terrible position right now.
I would say we are practically in one of the worst-case positions that we warned about many, many months ago, and we're seeing exponential increases of this virus across the whole of the United States right now. And it doesn't seem to be abating; we have no reason to think that it would abate on its own.
And so, I am very encouraged by the vaccine results that came out today and recently from Pfizer. But we have to not lose track of what we have to do now which is do everything we can without a vaccine at the moment to try to stop spread and limit onward infections.
[12:10:00]
KING: With the case count so high, we've had the conversation, frustrating conversations now going on eight months Dr. Mina about testing, and the lack of testing, and why hasn't testing been ramped up, and are we doing the right testing and are we surging testing to the right places?
This has been a frustrating conversation because of the Trump Administration's response or lack thereof to this for months. You're an advocate of antigen testing that can be done at home in a way, especially when you have this soaring case count, you think is critical. Walk through what you're talking about.
DR. MINA: So if we can get rapid antigen tests all into people's homes, these are tests that can give you information in five minutes of whether or not you are contagious right now. If we can get those to enough homes in America, we can actually use those in lieu of a vaccine to create what we call herd effects, to help people use them frequently, so that they know when they're infectious early in their infection, so that they can then stop the onward transmission before they spread to other people.
And so, these can be a way to truly curb epidemics even before vaccine and without necessarily having to close down the economy, and it can be done on people's own terms, in their house, in the privacy, in their own privacy.
KING: And so, to get there, let me ask in the context of this, to get there, how much do you need hands on position from the existing administration, we still have two months of the Trump Administration.
And I was struck yesterday even though our reporters have talked about this, just listen here, two members of the president's own team saying, we're in the middle of this pandemic, everyone has seen the fall surge, and now we're in this dangerous level, and when it comes to the president meeting with the experts, this is the answer. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. FAUCI: The last time the president was physically at a task force meeting was several months ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "The Washington Post" is reporting this morning that the president has not attended a Coronavirus task force meeting in at least five months. Is that accurate?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's true.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KING: It's hard to imagine the CEO of any company in America, any organization in America not attending meetings, while the company was in crisis and in collapse. But to your point about what has to be done in this period, and I am glad you corrected me when I used the term transition, if we're not that optimistic yet to get that testing you talk about to get other things done in this period of time. What must be done at the federal level?
DR. MINA: We have to get the federal government to start, to not just use the regulatory mechanisms that have always been in place, and not just use the EOAs, but we need the federal government to treat this virus like the war that it is. We should have for months now been on a wartime sort of mode, not just asking will this test or that test be authorized.
But actually, having the federal government be a partner to these companies, hand hold them across the finish line to get these tests out into the hands of Americans as soon as possible, get them to the hospitals, get them to the clinics. And for this massive screening program which is working in other parts of the world very, very well, get it into the homes and out to the public and take a very proactive stance.
We have yet to see the government especially as it pertains to testing take a proactive stance. It's mostly been a stance of we will purchase things if they come out, but we would never do that if bombs were getting dropped on the United States and killing a thousand people every single day, we would be actively engaged in defending ourselves, and not just sitting around until the next product comes on the market.
KING: And it's a sober analogy but necessary, perhaps. Dr. Mina as always, grateful for your time and your insights, sir.
DR. MINA: Absolutely.
KING: Up next for us, the president's defiance and its impact on the new administration's pandemic planning. And here just a stunning, sad look at the COVID fallout. Those are thousands of cars lining up at one food bank in Texas.
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[12:15:00]
KING: Fresh evidence today, the president's election denial could impact critical government business, including distribution of a Coronavirus vaccine. The traditional transition information sharing is not happening because the president refuses to let the general services administration open that process. Health and Human Service Secretary Alex Azar today blaming the rules and leaving out the reason.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't you need to be talking to the president- elect's team now?
ALEX AZAR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: Well, George, we'll make sure that happens when and if it's appropriate to do that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why isn't it appropriate now?
AZAR: George, GSA has to make a determination that a transition is in effect. That determination hasn't been made.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING (voice over): The President-elect's Chief of Staff says it is a potentially dangerous standoff.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RON KLAIN, INCOMING WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: We now have the possibility; we need to see if it gets approved of a vaccine starting perhaps in December, January. Our experts need to talk to those people as soon as possible so nothing dropped in this change of power we're going to have on January 20th.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING (on camera): With me now is, White House Correspondent at "The Washington Post", Toluse Olorunnipa. Toluse, it's interesting. I want you to listen here. We do start - we're starting to see more and more cracks, and this one comes right from the West Wing. The president's National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien who is very loyal to this president, listen here, he seems to get the math.
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ROBERT O'BRIEN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: If there's a new administration, what they deserve some time to come in and implement their policies, we may have policy disagreements. But look, if the Biden/Harris ticket is determined to be the winner, and obviously things look that way now, we'll have a very professional transition from a national security council, there's no question about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Obviously things look that way now; candid from Mr. O'Brien is simple fact. By the way you shouldn't get the credit for stating a fact. But will they get to the president to say sir, at least authorize the transition, we're in this horrible moment in the pandemic, team Biden should be allowed to talk to team Trump about vaccines and more.
[12:20:00]
TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: What you have right now is the president essentially denying reality, continuing to tweet out I won the election, continuing to try to get his own officials to tell everyone that he won the election, that the Biden Administration is not happening, when so many of his administration officials know better, they know that there already has been a determination that Biden and Harris have won the election.
They're waiting for the GSA to make it official, but it is official in the eyes of most Americans, and in the eyes of the Biden and Harris team, which has already started its own transition. So as Alex Azar says, that GSA needs to make a determination that transition is under way.
There does not need to be a determination, because the transition is actually already under way. Biden and Harris are starting to choose their cabinet; they're starting to choose major officials who work in the White House. But what they don't have access to our current administration officials who are currently putting together policy.
And that policy will need to continue into the Biden Administration, and without having access to those people, access to the resources is going to be very difficult for this process to play out. So you do have a number of administration officials in the Trump Administration who know what's going on, they know that they need to begin preparing for the transition.
But they have the president who is not acknowledging reality, president continuing to tweet out conspiracy theories, and it's very difficult for them to act under that circumstance unless they defy the president and we just have not seen very many cabinet officials and administration officials willing to defy him, and I don't expect that to change over the next couple of weeks.
KING: Right, you do see some Republican Governors, Mike DeWine, he is also the subject to the president's tweets today, Asa Hutchinson in Arkansas, because guess what, their citizens have COVID. Their citizens are going to need this vaccine and other help from the federal government, including when Joe Biden is President in 60 plus days.
But instead what you do get from the White House is the president's, the one doctor he listens to, he doesn't go to the important meetings any more. The one doctor he listens to Scott Atlas tweeting out last night after some new restrictions were announced in Michigan, the only way this stops is if people rise up, you get what you accept.
And then he tweeted hey, I never was talking about violence. This is still Scott Atlas tweeting, essentially telling people pay no attention to your Governor at a time when the Surgeon General himself Toluse this morning was tweeting this is a war, we have to get on wartime footing. I thought Republicans were the party, they believed in states, states can make their decisions. But this is again mixed messaging from a president and his team at a critical moment.
OLORUNNIPA: Yes, we're at a record high when it comes to the number of Coronavirus cases. And we're at the beginning of a surge in deaths, where we're getting a thousand people dying every day, and that number is expected to grow as the case number continues to go high.
And we have not heard from the administration, we haven't heard from the president or his top medical doctor, Scott Atlas, wear a mask or socially distance or practice all these various public health measures. Instead, the president has been consumed with denying the facts surrounding the election, and not getting his hands around this incredible pandemic that's been infecting so many people and killing so many Americans.
So the fact that Scott Atlas is using his major platform and his access to the president to attack a Governor who is trying to get her hands around the pandemic and trying to reduce the case load, it shows just sort of the situation that we're in.
And that's why you do have the Biden/Harris team trying to say that they're ready to get going on this pandemic, putting together their own task force and saying that they want access to administration officials, because there's a sense from that team and from a number of public health experts that the president and his team have not been taking it seriously, have sort of given up on the idea of getting control of the pandemic into the final months of his administration will not involve any kind of public health measures to get control of a pandemic that is surging out of control.
KING: Certainly as Dr. Fauci going on the record today saying he completely disagrees with what Dr. Atlas said. That's one of the problems continue conflict on team Trump and a president to won't acknowledge the results and allow at least the transition to start. Toluse Olorunnipa grateful for the reporting and insights. Still ahead we zone in and look at one, one of the states facing a critical crisis, Illinois.
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[12:25:00]
KING: The Governor of Illinois as you may have to consider a lockdown or some other new restrictions because of the deepening Coronavirus crisis in that state. Let's look at the Illinois and the context of problems all across the country. Right now you see its positivity rate right here is 13 percent, and that's not as bad, it's 51 percent in Iowa. It's 58 percent in South Dakota.
But remember, in the middle of America, Illinois, populous state, things are getting bad as we go. If you look at the top five states total right now confirmed cases in the United States, this is from beginning to now, you see Illinois here after Texas, California, Florida, then Illinois and New York.
But if you look at the top five states reporting new infections just on Sunday, Illinois leading the pack. That's a pack you do not want to lead more than 10,000 new infections in Florida, California, Ohio, and Minnesota. And so, with new cases comes this, the crisis strain hospitalizations.
You see the trend line of hospitalizations in across the state right now is a problem state wide; it's a problem in the City of Chicago. The public health commissioner there saying, things are getting worse fast and Thanksgiving is right around the corner.
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DR. ALLISON ARWADY, COMMISSIONER, CHICAGO DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH: We've seen just in the last month, our cases go up five times, our hospitalizations go up three times, our deaths go up three times. And the biggest problem is that we have seen no slowing of that increase.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
