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Millions Traveling for Thanksgiving Despite CDC Warnings; Countries Prepare for COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution; Biden Taps Avril Haines as Intelligence Chief; White House Task Force Considering Shortening Recommended Quarantine Time for COVID-19. Aired 12-12:45a ET
Aired November 25, 2020 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR: And hello, everyone. I'm Paula Newton. You're watching CNN news live from CNN's news headquarters in Atlanta.
Ahead this hour, the next U.S. president reveals his foreign policy team. And with his picks, Joe Biden is making it clear the days of America first are over.
One after another, the coronavirus records are being broken every day in the United States as health experts warn, holiday travel could the outbreak even worse.
And we're looking at the global race to get a COVID vaccine, not just to the wealthy countries of the world, but developing nations as well.
(MUSIC)
NEWTON: Well, President-elect Joe Biden declaring America is back, as he formally introduced his key cabinet picks. Now he says the team shows the country is now ready to lead the world, not retreat from it.
And in a major development, the White House has given formal approval for Biden to receive the president daily briefing.
CNN's Jessica Dean begins our coverage.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JESSICA DEAN, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President- elect Joe Biden making it official.
BIDEN: America is back.
DEAN: Formally introducing his first round of cabinet nominees and appointees.
BIDEN: It's a team that will keep our country and our people safe and secure. It's a team that reflects the fact that America is back.
DEAN: The National Security and foreign policy picks are all heavy on experience, and if confirmed, some will make history. ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY NOMINEE: Thank you for placing your trust in me to lead the Department of Homeland Security.
DEAN: Alejandro Mayorkas, the son of Cuban immigrants, would be the first Latino and immigrant to serve as Homeland Security Secretary.
MAYORKAS: My father and mother brought me to this country to escape communism. They cherished our democracy and were intensely proud to become United States citizens.
DEAN: Avril Haines would be the first woman to serve as Director of National Intelligence.
AVRIL HAINES, NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE DIRECTOR NOMINEE: I have never shied away from speaking truth to power.
DEAN: Secretary of State nominee, Anthony Blinken spoke specifically of his late stepfather who escaped the holocaust as a child, finding safety with American forces.
TONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE NOMINEE: He ran to the tank. The hatch opened. An African-American GI looked down at him. He got down on his knees and said the only three words that he knew in English that his mother taught him before the war, "God bless America." That's who we are.
DEAN: Louisiana native Linda Thomas-Greenfield nominated to be Ambassador to the United Nations, promised to bring people together using what she calls gumbo diplomacy, a strategy she deployed in her 35 years in Foreign Service.
LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N. NOMINEE: Wherever I was posted around the world, I'd invite people of different backgrounds and beliefs to help me make a roux and chopped onions for the Holy Trinity and make homemade gumbo. It was my way of breaking down barriers.
DEAN: The nominees were clear. Their message to the world is very different than President Trump's America first approach.
BLINKEN: We need to be working with other countries. We need their cooperation.
JAKE SULLIVAN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER NOMINEE: And perhaps most importantly you've tasked us with helping unite America.
DEAN: The Biden transition is now fully in motion with the General Services Administration signing off on the official process Monday night.
BIDEN: I think we're not going to be so far behind the curve as we thought we might be in the past and there's a lot of immediate discussion, and I must say the outreach has been sincere.
It has not been begrudging so far and I don't expect there to be. So yes, it's already begun.
DEAN: The Biden team has already been in communication with several key government agencies like the Department of Defense, Treasury, State Department, and Health and Human Services.
(EDN VIDEOTAPE)
DEAN (on camera): We now know that the Biden transition team has been in touch with all federal agencies. We also know that the team has had informal conversations now with Dr. Anthony Fauci who says that he looks forward to more substantive conversations with them in the days to come and that he hopes he stays on to help the Biden administration.
Jessica Dean, CNN, Washington.
NEWTON: Chris Kofinis is a Democratic strategist and former communications director for 2008 presidential John Edwards.
[00:05:06]
And he joins me now from Washington.
I mean, Chris, what a different tone. I mean, give us some of your impressions just as you take it all in?
CHRIS KOFINIS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, it's clearly, a fundamentally new direction. I think just the nature by which they were introduced, their personal stories, just the tenure of their rhetoric, it was so dramatically different than what we've seen over the last I think for years.
I think that was purposeful. I think that President-elect Biden is making a very clear statement that he is going to bring back a degree of stability, decorum, and professionalism, to government. And it's part of the reason why I think he got elected. It seems like he's following through on that mission.
NEWTON: You know the pushback is already started though. Senator Marco Rubio, you know, calls this Biden's Ivy League cabinet. He's not wrong about that. And he says politely, that they're going to oversee the decline of America.
Now hyperbole aside, look, the point is here, you know as well as I do, 75 million people voted for Trump, and the vast majority of those people don't even believe that Biden won legitimately. He does need to bring these people around with that new cabinet, right?
KOFINIS: Well, I mean, I think it's going to be a challenge to bring some of them around, but he's going to try. I think the country right now is divided. It will remain divided for the foreseeable future.
I think that the challenge here is not to worry so much about the politics of it, I know that sounds really strange.
NEWTON: It does Chris, oh God does it ever, but keep going, I'll stay with you.
KOFINIS: I know, especially considering what's happened over the last 4 years. But if you sit there and I think overthink it and try to, you know, think over every political calculation, you really end up boxing yourself into a corner.
At the end of it all, what matters more than anything are the results. Is he able to lead through the pandemic? Is he able to help the economy recover? The country get back to normal?
If that happens, then it happens in a reasonable amount of time, only -- other than the die hard Trump voters, most Americans will give then President Biden, a lot of credit. If that doesn't happen, then it's a different story. I think when you hear Senator Rubio and others be critical, I think they're playing the political game, or maybe the positioning themselves for the next presidential run.
But, you now, we just finished one run.
NEWTON: I was going to say -- give us a break, right, Chris?
But to that end, in terms of what President-elect Biden does have to do, I want you to listen to an interview that he just gave a while ago about he's unifying America. And let's just listen to him and we'll talk in the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LESTER HOLT, NBC NEWS ANCHOR: Have you considered for the sake of national unity, selecting or nominating a Republican, someone who voted for President Trump?
BIDEN: Yes. And we still have a lot more appointments to make. I want this country to be united. The purpose of our administration is once again to unite. We can't keep this virulent political dialogue going.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: So what about that? I mean, we even had Senator Bernie Sanders on the other side of this, pushing back on having a Republican cabinet.
KOFINIS: Yeah, you can't win if you try, right? Is it a bad thing that he has a Republican administration? Probably not.
But in -- I think here the -- the tension that he is going to feel and that administration is going to feel from the far left of the Democratic Party is going to be pretty clear. You know, I think what's happened here is politics has changed, it's very different than when Biden was in the Senate. That degree of cooperation bipartisanship has -- I don't want to say it evaporated, but it has dramatically declined. And so, I think about trying to bring it back is with the overall majority of Americans want and I think they need.
I think you have to be careful about playing to the extremes, or trying to please the extremes of either side. You're not going to be able to.
Again, I think it matters more than anything or the results. Are you able to tackle the big problems facing the country? In a reasonable amount of time, and actually have an impact? Move the country in the right direction, whether it's on the environment, the economy, the pandemic.
If that happens, even his most virulent critics are going to be stymied. If it doesn't, then they'll be empowered. It doesn't matter who is in his cabinet.
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But, so, you know, these kind of potshots that always happened when a new administration comes in I think kind of missed the point.
NEWTON: Yeah.
KOFINIS: You know, you want the president to be surrounded by the best people possible. That should be the goal, regardless if they're Republican, Democrat or independent.
NEWTON: Right, and it's been interesting to see that President-elect Biden has not been playing into any of that, he's really been trying to downplay any criticism that comes his way.
Chris Kofinis in Washington, thanks so much. We really appreciate.
KOFINIS: Thank you. Take care.
NEWTON: Now just a really a reality check here, despite all the talk about close margins and re-counts, President-elect Joe Biden has broken another record. He's now the first candidate ever to surpass, look at there, 80 million votes in the popular vote. Now, he beats Donald Trump by more than 6 million.
For the first time in six months, the U.S. has reported more than 2,000 new deaths from COVID-19 in a single day. The numbers are just astounding. The country's overall death toll is nearing 260,000.
Well, the number of hospital admissions -- this is truly depressing, it now stands at 88,000. And that too is another national record.
And as CNN's Lucy Kafanov reports, the surging cases only expected to intensify in the weeks ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The coronavirus outbreak is accelerating across the nation. More than 169,000 new cases reported yesterday, the highest Monday on record. Thirty states seeing a surge in new cases this week and an uncontrolled spread of the virus across New Mexico, up 104 percent compared to last week.
COVID-19 so rampant across America that one model projects the U.S. will reach a staggering 20 million cases by January 20th. Hospitals buckling under the surge.
EROME ADAMS, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: You may not be able to go in and get your heart attack treated. I've heard hospitals not being able to provide care for pregnant women because they're filled with COVID beds. So that's the reality.
KAFANOV: From coast to coast, 14 consecutive days of record-breaking hospitalizations.
In Minnesota, the "Star Tribune" publishing this dire headline: "No beds anywhere."
DR. SHIRLEE XIE, HOSPITALIST, HENNEPIN HEALTHCARE: I took care of a woman who after over a month in the ICU was recovering from COVID, and that should be a win.
But we were trying to call her family every day to give them an update, and we couldn't get a hold of anyone. And then one day we found out it was because her husband had died of COVID and her daughter had died of COVID. All while she was in the hospital.
And so how do you tell somebody that? How do you tell somebody that their family has died?
KAFANOV: Experts warn that Thanksgiving holiday could turn into a disaster.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Going home to your home community for a wonderful, traditional Thanksgiving holiday, might actually unfortunately be a source of and even amplification of the surge.
KAFANOV: As the cases keep surging, some states forced to implement new restrictions.
GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): We've been overwhelmed with a record number of cases with hospitalizations going up, with numbers of individuals in the ICU increasing every day.
KAFANOV: National public schools returning to all virtual classrooms after Thanksgiving.
DR. NICHOLAS CHRISTAKIS, YALE UNIVERSITY: There should be no community in this nation where the bars are open but the elementary schools are closed.
KAFANOV: Meanwhile, the U.S. today announcing a first batch of 6.4 million doses of new vaccine could be distributed soon after December 10th.
ALEX AZAR, U.S. SECRETARY OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES: We believe we can distribute vaccine to all 64 jurisdictions within 24 hours of F.D.A. authorization. Then we hope administration can begin as soon as the product arrives. One of the private sector partners we've unlisted, CVS Health, has
said that they expect to be vaccinating residents of nursing homes, one of the top priority groups, within 48 hours after FDA authorization.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAFANOV (on camera): The Coronavirus Taskforce on Tuesday sounding the alarm about the spread of the pandemic, calling for the significant behavior change of all Americans.
This as the CDC director announced the majority of the coronavirus spread in the U.S. is coming from small household gatherings and people who aren't exhibiting symptoms -- a stark warning ahead of the Thanksgiving Holiday.
Lucy Kafanov. CNN, Denver.
NEWTON: Dr. Jorge Rodriguez is an internal medicine and viral specialist. He joins me now live from Los Angeles.
And, Doctor, I just have to pause to really point to the doctor in Lucy's piece there, who was really overcome with grief. So many of us are worried about health care professionals like you and the nurses and the orderlies and the first responders and the toll this is all taking on them.
I mean, how afraid are you that at the end of the day, it's not for lack of medicine or beds or ventilators, but that we will not have the human capacity to take care of the sick around the world?
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DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, INTERNAL MEDICINE AND VIRAL SPECIALIST: I think it's a very reasonable concern. Medical professionals are a resource. Like beds in hospitals, like band-aids, and we will get exhausted. The good thing about my fellow physicians and nurses is that, seriously, we are raised to be tough. And we will continue persevering, but one can only do so much.
And what's becoming frustrating is it appears a small percentage, but a very important percentage, of the population is not taking this seriously enough. And it's driving the surge that we are seeing throughout the country. It's frustrating. It's maddening. And it's dangerous.
NEWTON: Yeah, and at a certain point, as a health care professional, there's only so many days you can go on preaching what must be obvious.
OK. I want to talk about too confusing issues, things that are confusing me. So, Lucy mentioned in her piece, asymptomatic spread, we've heard so much about. At the CDC now saying as much as 60 percent might be that way. Then the other issue is the spread between in households, those intimate settings that we're all used to. What do you want people to know about those two things? Because
obviously, there has been a lot of confusion, and that's with Thanksgiving coming up, Passover coming up, Christmas, New Year's, all those holiday is going on in the next few weeks.
RODRIGUEZ: Well, first of all, I think some people are just going to visit family to prove that they are different than everyone else. We are being too soft and what we are telling the public. We're making recommendations.
I think we should make absolute statements saying, you go visit your family, and people out there will die because of that. A very large percentage, anywhere from 30 to 60 percent of the people that go to visit their family, are going to have COVID, but are not going to have any symptoms. They may have symptoms 5 days later. They may never have symptoms. But they all spread it.
And they will spread it to people that are more susceptible to getting and dying from this disease. It isn't an if, it is going to happen.
And we get this unfortunate sense of comfort that we are dealing with family and family is safe. Sometimes, dealing with people we know is even more dangerous, because they feel almost obligated to attend, whether it's a Thanksgiving meal or a service. And they may be reluctant to really say that the symptoms they are having are significant.
So sometimes, the people that we know, because of their love for us, will not tell us their symptoms. So, it is those intimate settings where we spread the most disease, because we let our guard down, because we believe that the people we know are safe, and they are not. They are just people that may be spreading the disease.
NEWTON: Yeah, and it's so sad to think about. As I said, we go through all the holidays that are going to be going on throughout the world in the next eight to 10 weeks just before we might have that all-important vaccine.
Dr. Jorge Rodriguez, thanks so much. I really appreciate your time.
RODRIGUEZ: Thank you for the time, Paula.
NETWON: Now, President Trump returned to the cameras Tuesday to announce a milestone, yes, on the U.S. stock market. But experts say he should not get the credit.
Plus, coronavirus vaccines are being developed at record speed, how countries around the world are now preparing for vaccination.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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NEWTON: Even as the Biden transition moves forward, President Trump is expected to join his attorney, Rudy Giuliani, in Pennsylvania in the coming day for a Republican hearing on allegations of vote fraud. Now, Pennsylvania has already certified the votes, giving Biden the
win. President Trump has largely avoided public appearances since losing the election. But Kaitlan Collins reports he reappeared on Tuesday.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): While refusing to commit to the tradition of conceding the election, President Trump took part in another tradition at the White House.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Corn, I hereby grant you a full pardon. Thank you, Corn.
COLLINS: Trump granting leniency to two turkeys in the Rose Garden ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday while making only a veiled reference to the presidential transition now underway.
TRUMP: And as I say, America first. Shouldn't go away from that. America first.
COLLINS: It was his second appearance in front of cameras today after the White House gave reporters a two-minute notice for this one-minute presidential statement.
TRUMP: The stock market has just broken 30,000. Never been broken. That number. That's a sacred number, 30,000. Nobody thought they'd ever see it.
COLLINS: In the briefing room, Trump touted the milestone for the Dow and attempted to take credit for it before leaving the room designated for questions without taking any for the third week in a row.
TRUMP: Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President --
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President --
(CROSSTALK)
COLLINS: It was the president's first appearance in front of cameras since the General Services Administration announced the transition to the Biden administration can now formally begin, including coordination between officials like HHS Secretary Alex Azar and the incoming pandemic team.
AZAR: We are immediately getting them all of the pre-prepared transition briefing materials. We will ensure coordinated briefings with them to ensure they're getting whatever information that they feel they need.
COLLINS: The move was seen as possibly the closest Trump could get to a concession, though he later tweeted: What does GSA being allowed to preliminarily work with the Dems have to do with continuing to pursue our various cases? We are moving full speed ahead. Even with the Biden transition now underway, the president is continuing to fundraise off his own efforts to undermine democracy, sending multiple e-mails overnight. The e-mails claimed the funds are to fight the election results but the fine print shows Trump's new fundraising arm gets the first cut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS (on camera): And for three weeks since the election, the White House has blocked Joe Biden from getting that president's daily brief, that intelligence assessment that is afforded to anyone who has won the presidency, that really updates them on the national security threats that are facing the world right now and that are going to face them when they take office. And now we have learned the White House has signed off on Joe Biden, the president-elect, getting that president's daily brief. He said he has not gotten it yet but he does expect to start potentially as soon as today.
Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.
NEWTON: So, analysts aren't giving President Trump the credit for the Dow topping 30,000 for the first time. Instead, they point to the official beginning of the Biden transition. Biden's pick of Janet Yellen for treasury secretary and progress on coronavirus vaccines as the key factors at play here.
Now, the optimism on Wall Street's spread, as you can see there, to some of Asia's markets on Wednesday. Trading is now mixed, though, as you can see there.
And U.S. futures are up once again after Wall Street's record high.
CNN's emerging markets editor John Defterios is in Abu Dhabi and he is watching all of this.
I mean, as you pointed out, John, historically, the surge to 30,000, how does this rank against previous milestones? I mean, what have been the key drivers and all of this?
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Yeah, no problem there, Paula. It's pretty easy. This is the fastest rise in terms of a 10,000 point burst on record. It happened in the span of just 4 years, and you have to give President Donald Trump credit for that. At the start of his administration, because shortly after he was inaugurated, he cut taxes, fueled regulation and deregulation to cut the red tape in the U.S. economy.
[00:25:06]
And as a result, we had this burst up.
But this is an incredibly unusual 2020, because we had that collapse in the market in March, anywhere from 30 to 60 percent, depending on the stocks here. This last leg of the journey, though, and this is what people are talking about. It's an anticipation of 2021. And these three people, Joe Biden, of course, as the president elect,
and then Janet Yellen as his choice for treasury secretary, very experienced with the Federal Reserve and the White House under Bill Clinton, and Jerome Powell who's going to stay at the Federal Reserve here, and how they manage avoiding a second dip, or a second recession here in 2021 will be very difficult to steer your way through it, and whether you can provide any sort of relief to those who need it most.
But many are focused on the Dow 30 because it's a big brand. But this is been a broad based rally, Paula, against people who are near a record. And then what is encouraging is that the small cap index, the Russell 2000, hit a record yesterday along with the Dow Industrial, so that means it's going deeper into the economy in anticipation of going back to normal, and then the vaccine getting distributed over the six to nine months that everyone's anticipating.
NEWTON: Yeah, we certainly hope those predictions for those revenues in 2021 actually end up coming to fruition. A lot of that will depend on what this Biden administration does. What's been interesting as well is as we would expect, right, John, commodity markets are also rising.
DEFTERIOS: Yeah, I call it the rotation into the real economy, Paula. As you know, we've had a tech driven rally because of the war from home environment. That is broadening out here as people start to emerge from their homes and work from home environments with the anticipation of that vaccine distribution.
But we see, for example, oil prices, this is the highest level since March, above $48 for North Sea Brent. We have WTI trading above $45 a barrel. That was negative zero in April due to that crisis itself.
We see energy stocks up nearly 40 percent in the month of November. So, what's that telling us? People expect people to get on to planes, not just that planes are flying. Cars and trucks will hit the road again.
But, again, there's dichotomy in the market. You see Tesla hitting the record high. Elon Musk, being the second wealthiest person in the world behind Jeff Bezos, invests for electric vehicles. So, they like the technology, they like the energy transition, but they would like to see the real economy come to the floor here. That's with this latest leg of the rally is all about.
NEWTON: Yeah, to remember, that's already baked, so the point is, can those expectations actually come to fruition in 2021?
John Defterios, who continues to follow the markets for us today, appreciate it.
Now, still to come, traveling for the holidays, the CDC says, don't do it. Millions of Americans are rushing to the airport anyway. Why some say they are taking the risk.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NEWTON: You are watching CNN's NEWSROOM. I'm Paula Newton.
[00:30:26]
France will start lifting COVID-19 lockdown restrictions this weekend as part of a three-step reopening plan. Now, President Emmanuel Macron says the worst of the second wave of the pandemic appears to be over. But he says the reopening needs to be gradual to avoid a third wave and another lockdown.
That means restaurants and bars will have to stay closed until at least January 20, but people will be allowed to travel and see their loved ones for the holidays.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): During my last intervention, we were sure of having figures that were, well, worse, and we have avoided them. On one hand because our efforts -- your efforts -- have paid off. The civic spirit that you have demonstrated has been efficient.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: Now, Mr. Macron also said France will be ready to start a vaccination program around the end of the year, beginning of course, with the most vulnerable people.
The U.K. is also loosening COVID-19 restrictions for the holidays. The government says it will let members of up to three households -- three -- form a so-called Christmas bubble. And they will be able to gather inside outside, outside and in places of worship from December 23 to December 28. Now, that covers all four nations of the United Kingdom, and there will be no restrictions over that time period.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL GOVE, BRITISH CABINET OFFICE MEMBER: A balance needs to be struck. People want to be with their loved ones, with those close to them, on what is the most important holiday of the year.
But at the same time, the limits and the restrictions that we're placing, just five days and just three households, are way of seeking to ensure that while we can have an opportunity to be with those that we love, it's also the case that we're taking a cautious approach.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: Now, a government news release says it, of course, won't be a normal Christmas, but that it does offer hope for families and friends who have made many sacrifices over this difficult year. You can say that again.
Now with Thanksgiving almost here in the U.S., health experts are pleading with Americans not to travel for the holiday, as of course, those cases continue to surge. But despite the warning, air travel is at its highest level since the pandemic hit, with millions flocking to airports nationwide.
CNN's Pete Muntean reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Caroline Osler says she could not stay home anymore, so she took a coronavirus test and boarded a flight home to Kentucky for Thanksgiving.
CAROLINE OSLER, TRAVELING TO KENTUCKY: I think, at some point, it just -- it's too hard to stay away from family especially for the holidays.
MUNTEAN: It is the rationale of 50 million Americans, according to AAA, who will travel by plane, train, or car this week. The new forecast is only a 10 percent decrease from last year's pre-pandemic levels. But AAA thinks the actual number could be even lower, as coronavirus cases surge.
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control said to cancel holiday travel.
YASMINE DEHGHANI, TRAVELING TO CONNECTICUT: I understand the risk that I'm taking, but I want to see my family.
MUNTEAN: Passenger levels are already starting to rise again and set a new record for the pandemic on Sunday.
This past weekend was the busiest three days at airports since travel cratered. Major airlines are gearing up for more passengers and adding new flights for the first time since March.
Airline industry groups say they are not encouraging travel, but they're not discouraging it either.
NICK CALIO, AIRLINES FOR AMERICA: I think it's perfectly ethical. We would not fly people if it were not safe.
MUNTEAN (on camera): Airlines feel empowered by new research that says cleaning like this, plus heavily-filtered air on board an airplane, and everyone wearing masks, keeps virus transmission rates low.
DR. LEONARD MARCUS, HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: It's a layered approach.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): Dr. Leonard Marcus is on the team of Harvard virologists who studied the air inside airliners. Their findings: that being in a passenger cabin is maybe safer than a grocery store. But Marcus cautions travelers to plan every step of their trip to reduce risk door to door.
MARCUS: Everyone has to make a decision about their own personal risk. It's a very personal decision.
MUNTEAN: Airlines are starting programs to test passengers for coronavirus but only on limited international routes. For Caroline Osler that means taking another coronavirus test before gathering around the table for a Thanksgiving like no other.
OSLER: I think it reaches the point where you have to decide what's best for yourself, and how you can best protect yourself and those around you, as well.
MUNTEAN (on camera): The TSA thinks not many people are canceling their trips, meaning Wednesday could set a new air travel record of the pandemic, one that could be broken come Sunday. That's what the TSA thinks everybody who left for the holiday could be coming home all at once.
[00:35:10]
Pete Muntean, CNN, Reagan National Airport.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: Russia says its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine is at least 91 -- sorry, pardon me, 90.4 -- 91.4 percent effective and that it would be more than 95 percent effective if they get new data and new research.
Now, the calculations are based on data for more than 18,000 volunteers who received either two doses of the vaccine or a placebo. A news release says there haven't been any unexpected problems during the trials. It says access to the full clinical report will be provided after Phase 3 trials are finished.
There are dozens more coronavirus vaccines in development right around the world, with several very promising -- very promising outcomes so far. Kim Brunhuber shows us how countries are preparing for distribution.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This empty warehouse in Germany could be one of the most important fronts in the fight against the coronavirus.
German officials say within the next four weeks, it'll be transformed into one of several sites to vaccinate residents against COVID-19, as soon as the shots made by German company BioNTech and its partner Pfizer are approved.
ALBRECHT BROEMME, VACCINATIONS-CENTRE COORDINATOR (through translator): Our goal is that each vaccination center can be vaccinating one person every two minutes.
BRUNHUBER: The vaccine is already under review in the U.S. for emergency use, with different vaccines by Moderna and AstraZeneca also showing promising results.
According to the WHO, 11 vaccines are in Phase 3 trials worldwide, and 37 others are in early phases of clinical trials. The news is being met by with a mix of fear and excitement. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's marvelous. You know, (UNINTELLIGIBLE). As I said, you know, culturally (ph), it might not take that long before we can actually get it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I will get vaccinated, but to be honest, I prefer not to be one of the first ones. I prefer to wait for the results from the people who are already vaccinated.
BRUNHUBER: Many experts say there could be several viable vaccines, which should be widely available to all countries, rich and poor, to be effective.
TEDROS ADHANOM, DIRECTOR GENERAL, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: The best way to do that is vaccinate some people in all countries, rather than all people in some countries.
BRUNHUBER: Russian president Vladimir Putin said he will provide the Russian vaccine Sputnik V, which is still in Phase 3 trials, to any country that needs it.
The Chinese drug maker Sinopharm says almost one million people have been inoculated with one of its experimental coronavirus vaccines. Under an emergency use program, students, diplomats and construction workers have received the shots. The company also says 60,000 people in countries in the Middle East and South America have had them. Even the prime minister of the UAE tweeted an image of his shot in the arm.
India's Serum Institute, which is one of the largest drug makers in the world, says it's gearing up to make mass affordable doses of vaccine, half to keep in India and half for the developing world.
Kim Brunhuber, CNN, Atlanta.
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NEWTON: Now, she can fix a car, fly a plane, and talk theoretical physics. No joke. And if Joe Biden has his way, she'll be the first woman to lead U.S. intelligence. We'll meet Avril Haines, just ahead.
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NEWTON: There are many standouts among incoming U.S. president Joe Biden's early cabinet picks, including his choice to director of national intelligence. The first woman to hold the post is promising to speak truth to power, even when it's inconvenient. And she has quite a background.
CNN's Alex Marquardt has details.
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ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The president-elect today lavishing praise on his nominee to lead the U.S. intelligence community, Avril Haines. JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Brilliant, humble,
can talk literature and theoretical physics, fixing cars, flying planes, running a bookstore cafe, all in a single conversation. Because she's done all that.
MARQUARDT: Haines in response, vowing to tell Biden what may be difficult and what he may not want to hear, as she takes on a role that recently has been held by loyalist allies of President Trump, who did his political bidding.
AVRIL HAINES, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE NOMINEE: Mister President-elect, you know that I have never shied away from speaking truth to power. And that will be my charge as director of national intelligence.
MARQUARDT: As DNI, Haines would be the first woman, whose path was different than her predecessors'. Under President Obama, Haines was made No. 2 at the CIA by Director John Brennan, who's just out with a book called "Undaunted" because of what he calls her unprecedented breadth of experience.
JOHN BRENNAN, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: She is wicked smart. She has such tremendous understanding of national security law. She has terrific interpersonal skills, and she has a work ethic that is unrivaled.
MARQUARDT: Haines's path to the world of security and secrets was untraditional and eclectic.
After high school, she attended an elite judo academy in Japan. At the University of Chicago, she studied physics but took time off to learn to fly with an instructor who would later become her husband. They opened a bookstore in Baltimore, which would sometimes host readings of erotic literature, before she went on to Georgetown Law School.
BRENNAN: I think that background really gives her, I think, a tremendous perspective as part of the role that the director of national intelligence needs to play in this very complex, complicated world of ours.
MARQUARDT: Haines has worked with Biden for more than a decade, in a variety of national security roles. Now, she looks to take over an intelligence community which for years has been repeatedly insulted and sidelined by Trump.
HAINES: To our intelligence professionals, the work you do, oftentimes under the most austere conditions imaginable, is just indispensable.
MARQUARDT: Next, Haines will help the future Biden administration settle on another important intelligence pick: the director of the CIA, a critical partner for Haines in the formidable challenges that lie ahead.
Alex Marquardt, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE) NEWTON: Now in a year that's really felt stranger than science fiction, some state employees in Utah made a discovery that seems right out of this world.
They found a tall, shiny, silver monolith -- you see it there -- recently when flying over a remote stretch of desert. Now, it has no markings, and no one's claimed to have put it there. And of course, some are already screaming, well, aliens must have done it.
Others believe it's most likely the work of an artist, possibly -- get this -- a fan of the film "2001: A Space Odyssey," which features a similar monolith. Interesting. We'll wait to see when they solve that mystery.
Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Paula Newton. WORLD SPORT starts right after the break.
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