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Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine to FDA for Authorization; Trump Tries to Maintain Leverage with Republicans; Biden Meets with Top Democratic Lawmakers; Scotland Bans Travel to England; Europe Proceeds with Vaccine Distribution Plans; U.S. Sets New Daily Case Record of over 195,000; Cases in South Dakota Skyrocketing; How COVID-19 is Shaping a Generation of Young Workers; Saudis Can't Showcase Reforms during Virtual G20; Georgia Certifies Biden Win. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired November 21, 2020 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN HOST (voice-over): The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is asked to authorize the first coronavirus vaccine for emergency use.
Then Michigan Republicans hold firm to the rule of law and uphold election integrity after their meeting with President Trump.
And Joe Biden forges ahead with his transition, focusing today on COVID-19 economic relief.
Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to you, our viewers here in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber, this is CNN NEWSROOM.
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BRUNHUBER: Ten months after COVID-19 first appeared in the United States, a promising vaccine is now one step closer to being rolled out. Drugmakers Pfizer and BioNTech applied on Friday to the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization.
If given the green light, the first doses could be shipped by mid- December. And the situation could not be more urgent. The U.S. set another record on Friday with more than 195,000 new COVID cases. One million Americans have tested positive in just the past week.
Getting vaccines to the larger population will probably take several months. Until then, many communities are facing hard choices about how to curb the staggering number of new infections. CNN's Nick Watt has the latest.
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NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Today, Pfizer and BioNTech submitted their COVID-19 vaccine to the FDA for emergency use authorization. There could be shots in some arms before New Year. DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: This pandemic will start getting better once we get into February and March. And by April and May, things will be dramatically better.
WATT (voice-over): But what about now?
Thursday, a record number of new cases, more than 187,000, a record number of people in the hospital, more than 80,000 and, for the first time since early May, more than 2,000 lives reported lost to COVID-19 in a single day.
DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE COORDINATOR: So, this is faster. It's is broader. And what worries me, it could be longer.
WATT (voice-over): Today in Illinois, movie theaters, museums, indoor bars all closed again. Tomorrow night, 10:00 P.M. an overnight curfew kicks in across much of California.
DR. MARK GHALY, CALIFORNIA HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: We too are seeing this surge growing faster and faster and we must address it immediately.
WATT (voice-over): In New York, schools just closed after the city's positivity rate crept to 3 percent. Tempers are high.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why can a child go to a restaurant, why can a child go everywhere else but school? There is no excuse.
WATT (voice-over): Now we hear that New York City restaurants might close again after Thanksgiving and the schools might actually reopen.
DR. JAY VARMA, SENIOR ADVISER FOR PUBLIC HEALTH, NYC MAYOR'S OFFICE: The plan right now is to work on a plan so that after the Thanksgiving break, we can bring everybody back into the schools and we are going to adjust and adapt our protocols so that we can continue to do in- person learning.
WATT (voice-over): The latest signs suggest schools are not super- spreaders.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: My feeling, is that that the full position, keep the schools open if you possibly can.
DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, CDC DIRECTOR: Our big threat for transmission is not the public square. It is small family gathering.
WATT: The CDC and some states advising us not to travel over Thanksgiving. Utah had said just one household for dinner but --
GOV. GARY HERBERT (R-UT): We are taking that out of the order. What you do in the confines of your home is going to be up to you. But we also are given strong recommendations of how you conduct that in a safe environment.
WATT (voice-over): Today, 10 months since the first confirmed case in the country, we are still unsure.
Close schools, keep restaurants open or vice versa?
Are strict rules best or just recommendations?
Is personal freedom the priority or the health of others?
Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
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BRUNHUBER: Lawmakers vowing to follow the law. It's a headline that should go without saying. But Republican members of Michigan's legislature felt it necessary to release a statement, saying they would adhere to the normal process of choosing presidential electors after a meeting with President Trump.
They said, "The candidates who win the most votes win elections and Michigan electoral votes. These are simple truths that should provide confidence in our elections."
CNN's Boris Sanchez has more from the White House.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The campaign, which I won, by the way. But you know, we will find that out.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tonight, President Trump denying reality and for the 17th consecutive day, dodging questions while he tries to up-end the democratic process in a desperate bid to stay in power.
In a brazen move, President Trump inviting Republican lawmakers from Michigan to the White House today before the state certifies its election results which currently has Biden leading by more than 100,000 votes. Trump calling this 11th hour meeting that the White House says is routine.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This is not an advocacy meeting. There will be no one from the campaign there. He routinely meets with lawmakers from all across the country.
SANCHEZ (voice-over): Sources tell CNN that White House officials are considering a similar invitation to Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania before that state certifies Biden as the winner on Monday.
Despite Trump's efforts, today, Georgia one step closer to certifying Joe Biden as the winner of its 16 electoral college votes with local Republican officials making clear there was no fraud.
BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: Numbers don't lie. As secretary of state, I believe that the numbers that we have presented today are correct.
SANCHEZ (voice-over): With lawsuits fizzling out and state-by-state fights hitting dead-ends, tonight, the leader of Trump's legal team sidelined.
RUDY GIULIANI, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S ATTORNEY: Did you all watch "My Cousin Vinny"?
SANCHEZ (voice-over): Rudy Giuliani, who originally planned to be in today's meeting with Michigan lawmakers, forced to cancel because of exposure to COVID- 19.
His son, Andrew, an assistant to the president, who was at yesterday off-the-rails news conference, announcing on Twitter, he tested positive for the virus. Despite surging case numbers around the country, the White House is desperately spinning Trump's refusal to concede.
MCENANY: Something that I would note is just we talked a lot about transfer of power in the election and it's worth remembering that this president was never given an orderly transition of power. His presidency was never accepted.
SANCHEZ (voice-over): In fact, Hillary Clinton called Trump to concede hours after he was declared president-elect. President Obama invited him to the White House just days later and during his inauguration, Trump said this.
TRUMP: Every four years we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power and we are grateful to President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition.
SANCHEZ (voice-over): While a few Republicans are speaking out, Senators Ben Sasse and Mitt Romney, saying the president and his team are hurting the nation, with Romney writing, quote, "It is difficult to imagine a worse more undemocratic action by a sitting American president."
Most Republicans remain silent as the White House tries to sidestep scrutiny.
MCENANY: I don't call on activists.
SANCHEZ: Friday's appearance in the Briefing Room is really a rare moment in the White House. This is the first time we have seen President Trump in about a week. And looking forward, the president to this point only has two public events still on his schedule: first, the Thanksgiving Turkey pardon at the White House and the unveiling of the White House Christmas tree -- Boris Sanchez, CNN, the White House.
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BRUNHUBER: In the meantime, Joe Biden is plowing ahead with his transition. He met Friday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer on ways to fight the pandemic and its impacts while celebrating his 78th birthday. Jessica Dean has more.
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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Welcome to Wilmington!
JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris pushing ahead with their transition process today, meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in Wilmington, Delaware, to discuss a COVID relief bill.
JEN PSAKI, BIDEN-HARRIS TRANSITION SENIOR ADVISER: They're going to be working in lockstep and they're in lockstep agreement that there needs to be emergency assistance and aid before and during the lame duck session to help families.
DEAN (voice-over): With two months until Inauguration Day, Biden and his transition team are forging ahead with their plans despite President Trump's continued refusal to concede and begin the formal transition process.
YOHANNES ABRAHAM, BIDEN-HARRIS TRANSITION ADVISER: We continue to move forward in the absence ascertainment decision.
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DEAN (voice-over): On a virtual call with reporters, Friday, senior adviser and lawyer for the Biden campaign, Bob Bauer said Trump's actions and baseless lawsuits are harming the democratic process but emphasized Trump will not be successful.
BOB BAUER, BIDEN FOR PRESIDENT SENIOR ADVISER: While the president and his allies are ripping at the fabric of the democracy in any way they can, the fabric is not tearing, it's holding firm.
DEAN (voice-over): Additionally, as part of the effort to show he is moving forward despite Trump's actions, Biden has expedited the process of selecting his cabinet nominees with some announcements expected the soonest next week.
BIDEN: You'll soon hear my choice for Treasury. I made that decision. We made that decision. And you'll hear that either just before or just after Thanksgiving.
DEAN (voice-over): Meantime, Biden continues to grow his incoming White House staff. Today, the transition announced a new round of senior appointments which included several long-time Biden aides who have worked for both the president-elect and his wife, Jill.
DEAN: Another area where the Biden transition team is pushing ahead is when it comes to fundraising yet again. Because the General Services Administration still hasn't certified and signed off on Biden as being president-elect and triggering the transition process, releasing millions of dollars they need to do so, the Biden transition team is now sending emails to its supporters, saying it's going likely have to self-fund its transition, asking for donations for that.
Also, something to note, on this Friday, it is Joe Biden's 78th birthday, which means, when he takes office in two months, he'll be the oldest president ever in the history of the United States -- Jessica Dean, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.
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BRUNHUBER: To analyze all this, I'd like to invite Amy Pope to join us.
Thank you very much for joining us. As you just heard, more losses for the president; Michigan lawmakers saying they'll follow the law. Georgia certified Biden's win as well as losses for the president's legal team in Arizona.
What's next?
AMY POPE, CHATHAM HOUSE: There aren't many paths left for the president. This is really more about the political theater, sending a message to his base. It may be that he's setting himself up for a run in the future.
It may be that he's setting himself up for an audience if he has a new plan to do his own television.
But no matter what he is, trying to keep the spotlight on him, make sure he's the center of attention. And he's not ready to give that up yet.
BRUNHUBER: Literally fewer than a handful of Republicans have been willing to call out the president or challenge him in any way. You've worked in the Senate.
What do you make of the silence coming from Republicans there?
POPE: I think they are holding on for the sake of securing their base, at least until the votes are certified. I think they're nervous about alienating people who voted for Trump, who still genuinely believe the election was stolen.
At some point, once those votes have been certified, once the Electoral College has been officially called, then there isn't much room for them to go and they need to look to the future because there are very serious challenges that they have to face as a Congress.
BRUNHUBER: That says a lot about President Trump's enduring power after all this going forward.
I want to know what generally the effects of all of this is on democracy. I see a lot of headlines, which have variations of "Trump is salting the soil of democracy."
Biden's senior adviser said the fabric is not tearing, it's holding firm.
Is it?
POPE: The good news is the institutions are functioning as a check on the president's power. The fact that the courts are very quickly hearing and dismissing the claims when there's no evidence to support them, the fact that we have at least some members of Congress demonstrating that ultimately, they're going to go along with whatever the vote shows.
What I think is really heartening is the fact that Republican legislature, both in Georgia and in Michigan, are demonstrating that they're going to follow the rule of law.
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BRUNHUBER: That was Amy Pope of Chatham House, speaking to me just a little while ago.
Countries across the world are battling a dangerous second wave of the coronavirus. Just ahead, we'll find out why Scotland is closing its borders to the rest of the U.K. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Countries around the world are battling a fierce second wave of the coronavirus and Canada's biggest city is tightening restrictions to slow the spread. Starting Monday, Toronto and the surrounding region will enter a lockdown for at least 28 days.
Outdoor gatherings, weddings and religious ceremonies will be limited to 10 people and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is asking more of his fellow Canadians.
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JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: If you are planning to see friends this weekend, maybe don't. If there was a birthday party or a gathering for dinner you were thinking about doing, don't do it.
We're in a moment right now where, even with all the sacrifices I know Canadians have been making over these past 10 months, we are now going to have to really tighten up once again.
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BRUNHUBER: Scotland is also taking some extreme measures. It's banning all nonessential travel to England and most of the British Isles. Let's bring in Anna Stewart from London.
Anna, new restrictions. But from the sounds of it, you could drive one of those red London double-decker buses through the loopholes.
ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This ban comes despite the fact that cases of coronavirus appear to be leveling off in the U.K. England is currently under lockdown until December 2nd.
In Scotland, over 2 million people faced very similar restrictions to the English lockdown.
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STEWART: Nonessential shops being shut. You can't mix with other households and so on.
But this idea that Scotland has banned all travel from Scotland and the rest of the U.K., some say, is that a bit of an overreach?
The Scottish government is devolved from Westminster. However, this is legally enforced. Anyone flouting it can get fined around 60 pounds which is around $80. But there are a few flaws in the plan.
For one thing, there's no real border between Scotland and England, at least in terms of infrastructure. There are no border checks.
Secondly, the exemption lists are exhaustive. For instance, you can travel from Scotland to England, still, despite the ban, if you need to feed an animal, if you want to give blood, if you need to take a driving test as well as various reasons for education and health.
So it's likely to be heavily enforced. This is all part of Scotland's further restrictions, Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, says, these are short, sharp restrictions. And the balance here is looking ahead to Christmas to allow some flexibility for families to get together.
We know behind the scenes, while the U.K. is an absolute patchwork of different rules and restrictions, at the moment there are conversations with the government in Westminster, Scotland and Northern Ireland and Wales, to see if they can reach some common ground for everyone can enjoy Christmas together.
The U.K. is, of course, is one nation. And we travel to see our families this time of year. So next week we'll see, as everyone is waiting to see further news on that and the vaccine rollout.
BRUNHUBER: All right. We'll hear from you about that. Thank you so much, Anna Stewart in London.
For more on the COVID crisis in London, let's bring in Dr. Peter Drobac at the University of Oxford in England.
Thank you very much for joining us. Pfizer and BioNTech submitting their vaccine to the FDA for emergency use authorization
How excited are you about this?
DR. PETER DROBAC, OXFORD UNIVERSITY: Well, Kim, good to be with you again. A lot of exciting vaccine news, not only the Pfizer vaccine but also Moderna and AstraZeneca Oxford with their phase 2 results. That's three vaccines that have shown promising clinical trial results.
With the application for the Pfizer vaccine, it stills needs to go through, obviously, rigorous scientific review by FDA and independent bodies. And it's important that is rigorous, so we can have faith in the results.
But if things go well, it is possible there could be an approval of that first vaccine as early as a few weeks from now.
BRUNHUBER: OK. Well, that's obviously, very welcome news. And it can't come soon enough, obviously with cases rising.
You know, many here in this country on the Left are quick to blame the Trump administration for still being mired in the COVID crisis, some, you know, nine, 10 months after it all started.
But you look at Europe, where you are, cases are spiking all over the continent there, too. So some might argue, if so many other countries haven't been able to get a handle on it, doesn't that absolve the U.S. administration of a lot of the blame?
DROBAC: I think, as we've seen across the Northern Hemisphere, this is very challenging as we move into winter months. But it's not clear across the board. If you look at the difference between infection and death rates in Canada and the U.S., they're starkly, starkly different.
So I think it really demonstrates what is possible with good leadership with science-based policy and with people coming together to really attack this virus.
And in Europe, after a real struggle, I think some complacency in late summer and fall, things have improved. We've flattened the curve. There's still a long way to go. So, I don't want to necessarily get into blaming anyone.
But if you look at the situation in the U.S., all of the curves are still going straight up, infections, hospitalizations, deaths. A few weeks from now, we might look back at a few thousand deaths a day and say I wish we could get back to that.
It's really frightening, and we have to do something now to turn the corner. We know there will be a vacuum of federal leadership for the next couple of weeks. States and localities need to step up. All of us, as individuals, need to step up and make good decisions and sometimes hard choices to protect our loved ones.
BRUNHUBER: One of those decisions we're making now, it's that debate about closing schools and closing bars. We're seeing more and more jurisdictions shutting down in-person learning.
But lawmakers, worrying about the economic effects of shutting down, so the upshot is kids can no longer go to school to learn but adults can still go down to the bar to drink.
[05:25:00] BRUNHUBER: So, based on what you've seen in Europe, what works?
Is there a right answer there?
DROBAC: Yes, of course, there are a lot of hard choices that need to be made in a situation like this. And questions about what to keep open and what to close are really questions about what you value as society. Right?
So, some decisions were made here in many parts of Europe that education is really important. So we are going to do everything we can to maintain schools opening. Sometimes, that means closing bars, closing restaurants, having other kinds of restrictions because we think the social value of education is greater than being able to get a pint in a pub.
And I happen to agree with that. Unfortunately, this huge gap in learning, especially from more vulnerable kids, that we're seeing now stretching out towards the end of the year, is going to have impact on their development, on their future and the U.S. economy for decades to come.
I think when we look back in history, this is going to be one of the most insane choices that I think was made.
BRUNHUBER: I agree. Listen, we'll have to leave it there. Thank you for speaking to us, Dr. Peter Drobac, University of Oxford in London.
DROBAC: Thank you.
BRUNHUBER: And with that, that wraps up CNN NEWSROOM for the international audience. "INSIDE AFRICA" is next. But in the U.S. and Canada, we have much more news after this. We'll come back.
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BRUNHUBER: And welcome back.
The first limited doses of the COVID vaccine could be distributed as early as mid-December. Drugmakers Pfizer and BioNTech have applied for emergency use authorization in the U.S.
The companies say data from clinical trials show the therapy is 95 percent effective, without serious side effects. Adding to the urgency, the U.S. set another daily record for new cases; 195,000 positive tests were reported on Friday.
Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator for the White House task force, spoke exclusively with CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta about the crisis.
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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I sometimes have a hard time, Ambassador, figuring out how to represent how we've done in this country; 250,000 people have died.
If you compare it to other countries -- South Korea, 500 people have died -- was this a failure in this country?
I mean, did you expect it to go this way?
DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE COORDINATOR: I always worry when we have an outcome that none of us want and none of us wanted, you know?
Did we miss a communication?
Did we say it the wrong way?
And I think, really, that's part of the reason why I went out into the states, is to really understand what they were hearing when we were speaking and really being in a dialogue and a partnership to really understand how we could do this better together.
GUPTA: Was the lack of testing and the continued inadequate testing the original sin here?
BIRX: It's not only the number of tests and the type of tests but using them in the optimal way so that we can get the most answers for the quantity that we have.
Certainly, I'm a big proponent of testing and expanding testing. I actually think testing alone is a public health intervention. And if you constantly are testing people and isolating the positives, then you have a very different outcome.
If you look at the universities that had mandatory, mandatory testing, they ended up with less than 1 percent of their student body infected. Ones that did the testing the way we were doing it in America, primarily focused on symptomatics, contact tracing, isolating and quarantining, they had 8 to 10 percent of their student body infected.
GUPTA: Was there ever a strategic decision not to test as much?
BIRX: I think there was not -- that was not a strategic decision to not to test. There was a strategic decision to test more until a particular timeframe in the late summer, when you saw the CDC guidance changed to symptomatic testing.
And from the -- I really -- I can't tell you how strongly I believe that symptomatic testing and contact tracing is only -- well, it's less than half of the equation.
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BRUNHUBER: Coronavirus cases in South Dakota have been soaring so much lately, authorities say the state this week had one of the country's highest rates of new cases. CNN's Gary Tuchman visited one hospital, where patients and staff are struggling with the disturbing rush of patients. And worse, some people don't even believe the disease is real.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you going to be OK if I sit you up a little bit?
KEITH SUGDEN, COVID-19 PATIENT: Sure.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Keith Sugden is very ill.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
SUGDEN: No, you're welcome.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): The 88-year-old has COVID-19. He's in the hospital in Rapid City, South Dakota, a state with an explosive increase in COVID cases. Incredibly more people in South Dakota are testing positive than negative.
SUGDEN: (INAUDIBLE) helped me so much. Those three days has been rough. It's improved.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): This is an intensive care unit just for COVID patients at the Monument Health Rapid City Hospital. The onslaught of patients is overwhelming for the staff. And everyone knows things are likely to get worse.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As I've been working.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Dr. Shankar Kurra is the hospital's vice president of medical affairs.
DR. SHANKAR KURRA, MONUMENT HEALTH RAPID CITY HOSPITAL: I'm very scared for the state for my neighbors for my own family. Sometimes for myself and this is the truth.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're going to get better, huh?
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Employees here are doing heroic work.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, you are getting better.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): But there is great concern that as cases continue to increase, it will be difficult to maintain adequate staffing levels.
TUCHMAN: As recently as the end of July, there were just five COVID patients in this hospital. Today, there are 85 COVID patients in this hospital.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Heidi Schumann is a nurse's aide. HEIDI SCHUMANN, NURSE'S AIDE: It's very hard. There's a lot of days that I go home and just cry because I get to go home to my family and I get to see my daughter and, you know, my parents and everybody.
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SCHUMANN: And some of these people don't make it out of here unfortunately.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): For Keith Sugden, things are touch and go.
SUGDEN: It's been a great life. And they just tears in my eyes are happy tears. They're not sad. There's to know that how many people really care. You've got to wonder and once in a while.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ninety percent right now. So remember to take those deep breaths in your nose.
TOM MASSA, COVID-19 PATIENT: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll turn now and then breathe.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): A few days ago, Tom Massa felt achy and had a scratchy throat. Now he's also extremely sick, receiving high levels of oxygen.
TUCHMAN: How are you feeling right now?
MASSA: Oh (INAUDIBLE).
TUCHMAN: You have good character. Great doctors and nurses.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes, they're here. Excellent.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): One of the RNs treating Tom moved to South Dakota from South Florida, right at the beginning of the COVID outbreak.
JAMESHIA PARKER, REGISTERED NURSE: Thankfully, I haven't contracted it yet. I just keep praying that it stays that way.
TUCHMAN: It's scary, isn't it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it is.
TUCHMAN: What do you say to people who don't take it seriously? COVID?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I don't know if I should say this or not. But I believe that the whole COVID situation was a failure from the top government leadership to the state government. They did deal with it. They apparently did think that they needed to listen to the experts and stuff.
GOV. KRISTI NOEM (R-SD): My people are happy.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): The governor of South Dakota has refused to encourage her citizens to wear masks or socially distance, even as their state becomes a national leader in COVID sickness. So South Dakota hospitals are taking it upon themselves to try to keep people safe.
KURRA: Some folks don't even believe this disease is real.
TUCHMAN: Here in South Dakota?
KURRA: Yes, yes. And so, misinformation is one thing that leads to misguidance. But also there's this streak of, you know, we will not do something if you tell me to do it. I'll do it to fight --
TUCHMAN: So that's the way you feel when you give advice.
KURRA: That's how frustrated I feel. Yes.
SUGDEN: My father told me when I was a kid, he pokes me (INAUDIBLE) and he says, you know, everybody's got troubles and you have to help them if you can. And I've done that all my life.
TUCHMAN: And now people are helping you, Keith.
SUGDEN: They are, they are. Thank God.
TUCHMAN: The governor of South Dakota had a news conference this week. There's zero indication of any change in her philosophy. She showed a public service announcement airing a lot here in South Dakota.
In the PSA she said, "We did a good job of fighting COVID-19."
But the numbers don't lie. South Dakota is a beautiful state but it's in a very bad place right now -- this is Gary Tuchman, CNN, in Rapid City, South Dakota.
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BRUNHUBER: Well, as desperate as those hospital scenes are, there's fear elsewhere in society. Millennials and young members of Generation Zed have seen job opportunities dry up. Simon Cullen looks at what could be called Generation COVID.
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SIMON CULLEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the start of the year, Ben Olatunbosun's future was looking up. He just finished an IT course and was interviewing for several jobs. But then the pandemic struck.
BEN OLATUNBOSUN, JOB SEEKER: All the employers that I had lined up, they all had to kind of cancel their employment processes because of COVID. So that kind of left me back to square one.
I am still searching for jobs. I'm open to job opportunities, whether that's apprenticeships or unpaid work just to gain experience.
CULLEN (voice-over): It's a story young people are experiencing one way or another around the world.
In Greece, 30-year-old Nicholas Keliakopoulos (ph) is working in a supermarket, even though he is trained as a teacher.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, many schools have to lock down and as a consequence, no teaching staff were created from the national lists of secondary education leaving many people unemployed.
CULLEN (voice-over): According to Australia's independent economic agency, the Productivity Commission, the pandemic means young people are more likely to struggle to find work, be forced to take lower wages or accept fewer hours or work in jobs they are overqualified for.
CATHERINE DE FONTENAY, AUSTRALIAN PRODUCTIVITY COMMISSION: It means less savings. That means worse jobs, more chance of unemployment for quite a long time.
CULLEN (voice-over): The effects of which are likely to linger long after the pandemic.
CULLEN: Economists warn many young people have depleted their savings and some are being forced to rely on the support of their parents.
But the generational divide goes much deeper.
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CULLEN: As governments around the world spend trillions of dollars to stem the economic fallout, it's younger workers who are likely to be disproportionately lumped with the bill for years to come.
DE FONTENAY: If you are a young person right now, you'd be feeling pretty bitter because you will be looking at a very tough job market as you're looking for work. And likely you'll be looking at higher taxes over your lifetime to pay for the government policy during this COVID era.
CULLEN (voice-over): For those starting out in the job market, it can be an overwhelming prospect. Ben Olatunbosun says there's a lot of anxiety and fear among people his age, about what the future holds but he is trying to remain hopeful.
OLATUNBOSUN: I would say that it has been tough for me but it's just something that I know that I just have to kind of cope with and get through because I know that there is a light at the end of this dark tunnel.
CULLEN (voice-over): Regardless of when that light appears, this is a generation that will feel the economic consequences for years to come -- Simon Cullen, CNN, London.
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BRUNHUBER: Authorities in South Australia say a six-day lockdown of the entire state was based on a lie. A man told officials he contracted COVID after picking up a takeout meal from a pizza shop. The exposure seemed very short but officials feared he was infected by an especially virulent strain of the virus.
So they ordered businesses closed and told the state's population of 1.7 million to stay at home. Investigators later learned the man worked at the pizza place and lied to contact tracers. He had actually worked several shifts with a contagious person. The state's premier was furious.
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STEVEN MARSHALL, SOUTH AUSTRALIA PREMIER: To say I am fuming about the actions of this individual is an absolute understatement. The selfish actions of this individual have put our whole state in a very difficult situation.
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BRUNHUBER: So the lockdown will end tonight and the premier said the man who lied won't be punished.
Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, we'll go live to the first virtual G20 summit, find out what to expect from what may be President Trump's last global event. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Well, just hours from now, the G20 leaders summit will be getting under way, hosted by Saudi Arabia. But this year, the leaders of the world's largest economies won't be gathering in person as they normally have in the past.
Instead, the coronavirus pandemic is forcing them to meet online in a virtual summit. CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson is in Riyadh.
Nic, what can we expect during the next few days?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, it's interesting, Kim, because we just had a speech from the Saudi ministry of investment which has laid out a broad overview of what the stakes were on the groundwork going into preparing for this G20.
Very clearly, the Saudis are proud to be hosting this event and proud to be showing off the reforms they see in their country. But it's very interesting, listening to this well-respected Saudi minister essentially say, when the global pandemic COVID-19 hit the world, the world looked for a global leader and there wasn't one. And this really seemed to be somewhat of a swipe at President Trump.
And that came up again afterwards. He didn't say that -- he didn't say President Trump by name. But he said, the G20 stepped up to the plate. They met earlier in the year. They assigned $21 billion to help poorer countries to combat the immediate impact of COVID-19.
He said that saved hundreds of thousands of lives. That was the G20 leaders working together, who managed to achieve that. He said $40 billion was offered up in debt relief. He said that has had a huge impact, used by 73 different countries.
He gave interesting figures, quoting the IMF, International Monetary Fund's assessment, of how their expected contraction of the global economy, he said, if you compare the figures between June and October for the contraction of the global economy that the IMF was predicting, October is 2 percent better.
And he attributes that to what the G20 -- he described as activating a lot of different global international institutions which, he said again, this seemed to be a reference to President Trump, had been on somewhat of a decline. He said, unfortunately, some leaders chose to keep an internal looking view, a nationalistic view. But the G20, the U.N., the World Bank, the IMF focused on the coronavirus issue.
Of course, there's another theme that runs under the G20 here and that's Saudi Arabia's own relationship with President Trump, which has been a close relationship, despite the apparent criticism we're hearing from the investment minister.
But I spoke with the Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs, about how they'll navigate changing between President Trump and President-Elect Joe Biden.
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ADEL AL-JUBEIR, SAUDI FOREIGN MINISTER: We deal with the President of the United States as a friend, whether he's Republican or Democrat.
President-Elect Biden has been in the Senate for 35 years. He has tremendous experience. He was vice president for eight years. I don't expect there to be a major change in terms of America's foreign policy. America's a global power with global interests. ROBERTSON: But he says he's going to be tough on Saudi Arabia.
AL-JUBEIR: I believe that what people say in their campaign often doesn't translate once they're in office. President Trump said things about Saudi Arabia during the campaign and yet we were the first country he visited when he took office.
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ROBERTSON: So remembering that the G20 is a body that really sort of helps the global economy, it did that during the economic crisis in 2008. And what we're hearing here is that the work they're doing now in the G20 really hopes to lay the foundation, not just for the current situation with COVID-19 but for whatever pandemics, lesser or worse, potentially, may come in the future, that they're trying to create the foundations for a global response because, at the beginning of the pandemic, the global leadership that everyone turned to and looked for wasn't really there. Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Absolutely. Thank you so much for that, Nic Robertson in Riyadh.
The state of Georgia is having a tumultuous voting season. Ahead, a tight voter race, false accusations of voter fraud and a battle to control the U.S. Senate all making for volatile times here in the Peach State. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: The state of Georgia is at the center of two election fights. The campaigning is well underway for two Senate seats. And on Friday, Georgia's secretary of state certified Joe Biden as the first Democrat since 1992 to win the presidential vote there. CNN's Kyung Lah reports.
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PROTESTERS: Four more years! Four more years!
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You are hearing correctly. This Georgia crowd is calling for a second Trump term, despite defeat.
Vice president Mike Pence, on his first return to the campaign trail, pledged, it's not over.
MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to keep fighting until every legal vote is counted. We're going to keep fighting until every illegal vote is thrown out. And whatever the outcome, we will never stop fighting to make America great again.
LAH (voice-over): That's despite the hand count led by a Republican secretary of state in Georgia.
BRAD RAFFENSERGER (R), GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: Working as an engineer throughout my life, I live by the motto that numbers don't lie.
LAH (voice-over): A fact the vice president is ignoring, while he dances a political two-step.
President Trump still insists he won. Meanwhile, Pence is calling for Georgia Republicans to vote in the January 5th Senate runoff to fight a Joe Biden presidency.
PENCE: The Republican Senate majority could be the last line of defense.
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LAH (voice-over): Supporters who showed up to see the vice president have no problem following this logic.
Do you believe the election results?
PENNY CLOPTON, VETERAN AND TRUMP SUPPORTER: No.
LAH (voice-over): Penny Clopton, who came to see Pence, carried a "stop the steal" sign. She says all of this makes her want to vote in January even more.
LAH: And how different is the energy from November to January?
CLOPTON: It's still here. It hasn't gone anywhere.
LAH: What do you believe will happen on January 5th?
CLOPTON: I believe that people will come out and vote for Republicans, so that we can -- I guess so that it will be a fair fight when things come to the Senate.
PROTESTERS: Let's vote blue! Let's vote blue!
LAH (voice-over): The Democratic challengers for the two Senate seats Jon Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock attacked the GOP fight with reality.
REV. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA), SENATE CANDIDATE: They don't like the results. It wasn't supposed to turn out that way. Explain that to me.
LAH (voice-over): The challenge for the Democrats will be turnout. Something even the most die-hard Democratic Georgians understand.
TINA MARIE HEAD, GEORGIA VOTER: I think the people who voted in the general election will not come out for the runoff.
AMANDA GAINER, GEORGIA VOTER: We've been red for so many years, you know? I'm just a little concerned about that.
LAH: Georgia's governor Brian Kemp formally certified the state's vote but, in doing so, offered a mashup of illogical statements, toeing the Trump line, sowing doubt, saying, yes, he would certify the vote just because he had to -- Kyung Lah, CNN, Georgia.
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BRUNHUBER: That wraps up this hour of NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. "NEW DAY" is just ahead.
