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Macy's Hold Annual Thanksgiving Day Parade for TV Only; Miami- Dade County COVID-19 Ventilator Use Up in Two Weeks; Supreme Court Blocks COVID-19 Limits on New York Religious Groups; Experts Raise Questions About AstraZeneca's Vaccine Data. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired November 26, 2020 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:53]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow. Happy Thanksgiving. Glad you're with me. This is a special holiday edition of CNN NEWSROOM. Jim has a very well-deserved day off.

It is a Thanksgiving like we have not seen before. A nation celebrating and at the same time mourning as this pandemic hits families across the country. A day that we're being told not to gather, on a day meant to do exactly that. But here's why. On Wednesday alone nearly 2300 Americans died from COVID and 181,000 new cases were reported.

Also this morning a new forecast from the CDC says nearly 60,000 more people will die from this virus -- 60,000 more -- in just the next three weeks.

On top of all of this, there's of course the economic toll. On this Thanksgiving, some 50 million Americans do not have enough to eat. We are seeing Great Depression-like food lines across the country. And another 778,000 Americans filed for first-time unemployment claims just last week.

So many traditions are going to look different and feel different this year. All of them really including the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade right here in New York City.

Let's begin with my colleague and friend, Evan McMorris Santoro. He is here in New York where there would usually be, Evan, massive crowds. And I guess appropriately for 2020, on top of it all, it's raining here this morning.

EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Poppy, Happy Thanksgiving. As you can see, it's not a great day for a parade, but as one of the people who is hold the balloons back there told me just a few minutes ago, this is New York and it is Thanksgiving so there is going to be a Thanksgiving Day parade. It's a little bit different than we're used to obviously going on with the pandemic. Some major changes to the parade. Normally it's a 2.5-mile route. That's been changed.

Much of the parade has been pre-taped and has been made for TV. And then also the number of participants in the parade is down a whole bunch. Almost 90 percent fewer people than we usually see inside this parade. And so what balloons you see moving around, it will just be a short period of time. Spectators are not allowed. And as I said, the whole thing is basically a TV production. It's all in an attempt to try to keep traditions alive while also staying safe for the coronavirus -- Poppy.

HARLOW: I'm glad they are doing it in a safe way. I think it's going to bring a lot of joy to a lot of people watching this morning.

Evan, what are you grateful for this Thanksgiving?

MCMORRIS-SANTORO: I'm grateful for you, Poppy, and for being on air with you this morning out here in the rain.

HARLOW: You're just buttering me up.

Evan, Happy Thanksgiving. I am grateful for health and for my kids. We all have a lot of blessings to count this morning, for sure.

Evan, thanks.

Let's get to our colleague Rosa Flores. She joins us in Miami.

Good morning to you, Rosa. Happy Thanksgiving. I wish we had better news to talk about, but the number of COVID-19 patients in Miami-Dade County that need ventilators has increased by 44 percent in just the last two weeks?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Poppy, you're absolutely right. And you and I have been talking about the situation here in Miami actually for a very long time now it seems since the summer surge. And medical experts warned us about this, about this fall surge and us now we are actually seeing it. But let's take a look at just the United States first. Because the number of cases across the country is surging with the U.S. reporting more than 181,000 cases yesterday.

Hospitalizations are nearing 90,000 and the number of deaths per day is also increasing with more than 2200 reported just yesterday. Look, some states across the country are reacting to this. For example, they are rolling back some of their reopening plans. That's the case in Louisiana. Or they're tightening their mask rules. That's the case in North Carolina. Or they're adding curfews. That's the case in Bear County, Texas, the area of San Antonio.

The point being that hospital systems across the state are getting tested. That's what we're hearing from officials in Rhode Island and also in Washington state. And right here in Miami-Dade County where I am.

[09:05:01]

As Poppy mentioned just moments ago, the number of hospitalizations are increasing in the past two weeks. Miami-Dade County has seen a 25 percent increase in the number of hospitalizations. A 43 percent increase in the number of ICUs and a 44 percent increase in the number of ventilators.

And Poppy, we've talked about this. Medical experts have warned us that this is going to happen and there's a very simple solution. People have to wear masks, they have to social distance, and they have to exercise high hygiene. And on this Thanksgiving, not gather in large groups -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Absolutely. Rosa, thank you for that reporting. It's such a staggering and tragic number.

All right, a major Supreme Court decision overnight. The high court siding with religious organizations and against COVID-19 restrictions that were put in place by New York's governor. This was a 5-4 split decision. The majority saying Governor Cuomo's restrictions violated the Fist Amendment's protection of the free exercise of religion. They ruled that he had treated secular activities more favorably than religious ones in what he chose to close down.

Our Jessica Schneider has read through the majority opinion and the dissent. Just notable here, this is really the opposite of the way that the court ruled earlier this year in cases -- coming from California and Nevada. And the key vote here came from the newly appointed Justice Barrett.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you got it, Poppy. This ruling is really our first glimpse at how consequential the president's pick of Amy Coney Barrett will be for the future of the court starting now. Here she was the crucial vote in giving the conservatives the 5-4 majority because the Chief Justice John Roberts once again sided with the liberals. The same thing he had done this summer when Justice Ginsburg was alive and still on the court and when they sided 5-4 against houses of worship when it came to these COVID restrictions. That's the flipside of what we're seeing here.

But this was a late night decision on the eve of Thanksgiving. And it was a very stark reminder of the split we will see on consequential cases moving forward. And we saw some unusually critical language like this language from Justice Sonya Sotomayor, saying, "Justices of this court play a deadly game in second guessing the expert judgment of health officials about the environments in which a contagious virus now infecting a million Americans each week spreads most easily."

But yet the majority unsigned opinion from conservative justices, it really seemed to shoot back. This is what they wrote. They said, "Not only is there no evidence that the applicants have contributed to the spread of COVID-19, but there are many other less restrictive rules that could be adopted to minimize the risk to those attending religious services. Members of this court are not public health experts and we should respect the judgment of those with special expertise and responsibility in this area, but even in a pandemic, the Constitution cannot be put away and forgotten."

So, Poppy, the justices seizing there on the religious liberties the Constitution affords and really here Justice Amy Coney Barrett being that key vote, Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCHNEIDER: Something we could see as we move forward in this term here.

HARLOW: Yes. For sure. Jessica Schneider, thank you for explaining it to us. And Happy Thanksgiving.

Well, AstraZeneca's vaccine made headlines this week, but now there may be cause for concern. Let's go to our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. She joins me now.

Good morning, Elizabeth. I mean, you know, trust in these vaccines and vaccine makers is key.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

HARLOW: What can you tell us this morning?

COHEN: It really is. And so what we're learning is that actually there was a mistake made in this trial where one subset of participants got half the dose they were supposed to in the first dose that they received. This is a two-dose vaccine and one subset got half the dose that they were supposed to receive in their first dose. That is a problem. Mistakes are not supposed to be made in this.

Let's take a look at some other concerns with this AstraZeneca data. So again, concerns about this dosing error. If that mistake was made, what other mistakes were made. Also there's some missing data in the press release that was released. They give a percent effectiveness, but they don't really explain how they got to that percent effectiveness. Also, there's no details about two participants who became ill.

The study paused and regulatory agencies like the FDA said yes, you can go ahead again, but there's no details what happened to those people. Why was it decided it wasn't about the vaccine? So those questions still linger -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes. They are major questions.

Elizabeth, thank you for laying it out for us this morning. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.

A lot of headlines to get through. Joining us now to discuss, Dr. Esther Choo, a CNN medical analyst and professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health and Science University.

Good morning. Thanks for getting up early with us especially out there, Doctor. I'm worried that what people just heard from Elizabeth Cohen about the mistake that AstraZeneca made in part of its trial, in one of the subsets, and the missing explanation of how they get to their efficacy number is going to maybe make people think that, you know, questioning can they trust these other vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna?

[09:10:15] And I don't want them to conflate the two. So can you just explain the difference and why it matters?

DR. ESTHER CHOO, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Yes. That's exactly the issue. I mean, AstraZeneca has maintained that it's conducted the study with rigor. That they discovered the error and addressed it and that doesn't affect the high efficacy of their final results. And that may be true. I mean, the concern would be that somebody -- that the people in the placebo group, the control arm, got the lower dose, and that that might skew the results to suggest that the vaccine is more efficacious than is reported.

The way that AstraZeneca is addressing this issue, it sounds like they don't feel like that's the case, that the study results stand, and that we will see the way that they responded to this error was on the up and up. But we don't know that yet. And so we'll need more disclosure from them so that -- you know, so that the scientific community can judge for themselves.

I will say up to this point, it's been really a pleasure to see how these vaccine trials have been conducted. The results have been, you know, really promising, exciting and also very consistent across these different trials. And so it may be that when everything comes to light, we feel very confident in these results but they will need to really boost their transparency and walk us through that so that we can feel really comfortable with their vaccine.

HARLOW: So many parents are home today with their kids. And I bet they've got the same question that I have which is OK, I see a date maybe in the spring and summer when I and my husband will get vaccinated. But what about our two little kids? They're 2 and 4 years old. So I know Pfizer has been doing the trial just now on 12-year- olds but none younger yet. How far off are we from vaccinating our toddlers?

CHOO: You know, it's not clear what the overall timeline is. First of all, you're absolutely right. The trials have really focused on older folks and on older children where they include children. You know, there are also other groups where the data are not as clear. For example, what do we do in pregnant women? And so -- and we don't have a hard deadline on vaccine distribution overall quite yet.

But you're absolutely right. Health care workers of course are at the top of the priority list. High risk groups in terms of age and comorbidities will be next and then -- you know, and then the general population. We will at some point need to really turn to our pediatrician and the vaccine manufacturers for more recommendations specifically for very young children, but I think because we know that they do have some potential to spread the disease, they will be there and hopefully it will be a lot clearer going into the new year.

HARLOW: Thirty seconds left. Your message for people who did decide to gather this Thanksgiving.

CHOO: Of course, you know, even speaking with my public health hat on, do I understand that people had a need to gather? Absolutely. And we've seen that so many Americans chose to spend time with their families. Even, you know, sort of upstream against public health recommendations, but I think what I'm seeing and hearing and hopefully what everybody will do is even if you are gathering, trying to layer on everything you can to keep your family members and all of their friends and family safe. So lots of mask wearing, keeping gatherings short, keeping ventilation good with windows open, rotating seats at the table so people can be apart from each other.

HARLOW: Good idea.

CHOO: Let's keep all of us together, you know, and healthy so that we can continue to celebrate upcoming holidays.

HARLOW: Put on a parka and go outside. It's not that cold.

Esther, thank you very much. Appreciate it, Dr. Choo.

CHOO: Happy Thanksgiving.

HARLOW: Happy Thanksgiving to you.

We have a lot ahead this hour. Still to come, the Bidens deliver a message of hope to America on this Thanksgiving holiday.

Plus an unprecedented first semester for colleges and universities across the country. How one university kept its students safe.

And later, we will speak to the first Latino DACA recipient to receive the prestigious Rhodes scholarship. His incredible story is ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:15:00]

HARLOW: Welcome back. This morning -- this morning the president- elect and the future first lady Jill and Joe Biden will -- they have written a really touching op-ed on cnn.com, really a message for America on this Thanksgiving Day. Here's part of it, quote, "like millions of Americans, we are temporarily letting go of the traditions we cannot do safely. It is not a small sacrifice. These moments with our loved ones, time that is lost, it can't be returned. Yet, we know it's the price of protecting each other and one we do not pay alone. Isolated in our own dining rooms and kitchens scattered from coast to coast, we are healing together."

With me now to talk about this, our political correspondent Arlette Saenz, also joining us Toluse Olorunnipa; White House reporter for "The Washington Post". Good morning to you both. Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you for working on Thanksgiving Day. Toluse, let's just begin with the message of, you know, sacrifice, universal sacrifice that we are all sacrificing something today and so are the incoming president and the incoming first lady. It's an important message. It's also really a 180 from what we've seen from the president this week.

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER FOR THE WASHINGTON POST: Yes, it's very different from the message that we've been seeing from the president. Not only this week, but for the past several months where the president has not wanted to make any personal sacrifices. He's held multiple super-spreader events. He himself got infected with a virus after not following the public health guidelines and not wanting to make any sacrifices in his personal life.

[09:20:00]

And we're seeing something very different from Joe Biden and his family essentially saying, we're going to make these sacrifices, and leveling with the American people by saying it's not easy. It's not something that should be just sort of dismissed out of hand that everyone should stay away from their family members. He's saying this is hard, but it's something that we have to do. We have to come together as Americans to take on this virus. At the same time, we have President Trump essentially giving up on the idea of, you know, crushing the virus or getting over the virus.

He essentially said we're rounding the turn and that we're going to be fine with or without a vaccine. And this comes as thousands of Americans are dying every day, and we're seeing record levels of cases across the county. And hospitals are being overwhelmed, and it's really quite stark that the president has given up and has not actually focused on this. He has not put out any words of empathy or encouragement or even guidance for the American people of what -- about what they should be doing at this moment.

So, it's a very different message that we're seeing from the incoming president, the president-elect and the outgoing president who is much more focused on his own election, and the idea that maybe the election was rigged against him even though there's no evidence to back that up. So two completely different messages from two different men.

HARLOW: And Arlette, I mean, I think building on hearing what we heard from President-elect Biden yesterday in his remarks to the American people when he said, I believe you always deserve to hear the truth from your president. And then -- and then one thing that stands out to me in this piece that they've written jointly is, they write, quote, "we are bigger than the challenges we face." And it sounds a bit like FDR's first inaugural address when he said, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." More of that to come in the next -- you know, eight weeks from now?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is all very typical Biden messaging. Over the course of his campaign, he talked about the need for people to come together to overcome differences. And also talked about those sacrifices and praise he had for the healthcare workers, for teachers, for people who are leading throughout this pandemic. And you really have heard from Biden over and over again point to that unity message. And that is something that is likely to continue into his presidency. And something that I think you've also seen from Joe Biden over the course of the past two days in these Thanksgiving messages is a real personalization of the struggles that people are facing.

Biden often times talks about his own experience with loss, as he is trying to connect with others saying that he understands the pain and suffering that they're going through. You heard him talk yesterday about how difficult it is to spend that first Thanksgiving alone. A reference to his -- the loss of his wife and daughter, which happened around this holiday season leading into Christmas and also the loss of his son, Beau. And that is something you hear from Biden over and over as he tries to explain to people that he understands what they are going through in these hard times, stirring the coronavirus pandemic when so many Americans have lost loved ones and are distanced from their relatives during this season.

So, this is all certainly a messaging that we expect the president- elect to continue to push as we head into that Christmas holiday as well and as he heads to the White House.

HARLOW: OK, Arlette, thank you. Toluse, thank you. Happy Thanksgiving to both of you. Ahead, college campuses hit very hard as we all know this semester by COVID. But one campus has not only stayed open, it hasn't had a positive student COVID test in over a month. The president of the university will join me, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:25:00]

HARLOW: Thanksgiving Day and football, the two go together like turkey and stuffing. I like that. Good job to whoever wrote that line. But coronavirus is forcing the NFL to majorly change its plans. Carolyn Manno joins us to explain. Are there games?

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS REPORTER: Good morning, Poppy. You know what? You're making me hungry already which doesn't bode well --

HARLOW: I know well --

MANNO: For the afternoon. But yes, Steelers fans were hoping to feast on their divisional rivals in prime time, this is a big game, but the league making this decision out of what they're calling an abundance of caution, postponing it to Sunday afternoon after a worsening situation in Baltimore with the Ravens organization, they have an outbreak of coronavirus and this is what we've seen. Although we haven't seen a postponement with this kind of impact in a couple of weeks. So, at least, seven of Baltimore's players have now either tested positive or have been identified as close contact.

Several coaches, support staff have also tested positive. The scheduling change coming after the Ravens actually disciplined the staff member for conduct, surrounding the team's recent virus cases. Baltimore's facility currently closed team activities happening virtually right now. This is the second time that 10 of those Steelers have been affected by the virus. Their week four game against Tennessee was moved after a Titans outbreak. Tonight's postponement marking the first impactful change to the schedule since a number of moves were made all the way back in week five.

In the meantime, Alabama coach Nick Saban is going to miss Saturday's Iron Bowl game against Auburn after testing positive for coronavirus for a second time. In a statement, the top-ranked Crimson Tide saying that he's experiencing mild symptoms this time around. He is self- isolating. The 69-year-old tested positive back in October. He was asymptomatic at that time. That result was considered a false positive as he tested negative for three straight days, but now having some symptoms. Saturday's game between number 11 Oklahoma and West Virginia is postponed now, Poppy, after the Sooners called off team activities because of positive tests within the program.

So, that game has been rescheduled for December 12th. So, that's the tenth game called off so far this week in college football, a season high 18 were cancelled or postponed last week.