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Biden Names Economic And Communications Teams; Biden Faces Uphill Battle On Economic Recovery; Trump Calls Into Fox, Shares Delusions About The Election; U.S. Sees Most COVID Hospitalizations Yet; Joe Biden To Receive First Presidential Briefing Tomorrow; COVID- 19 Vaccines Shipped Ahead Of FDA Decision To Speed Distribution; Supreme Court Relieves Religious Groups From COVID Restrictions. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired November 29, 2020 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:19]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: Good evening. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean in Washington. And we begin tonight with breaking news.

A huge night for President-elect Joe Biden and for all Americans out there wondering what his administration will look like. It turns out, it will be different. In some ways than any White House in history.

Let's get you right over to CNN's M.J. Lee in Delaware.

M.J., Biden's economic team is now taking shape. What are you learning about his picks?

M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessica, this is already looking LIN: ke the beginning of a very busy week for the Biden transition team. Tomorrow, they are expected to announce some key members of Joe Biden's economic team, some names that we can already report tonight including Janet Yellen who is expected to be named Biden's Treasury secretary. This is something that CNN has been reporting for a while now.

She, of course, will be the first woman to serve in that role and served previously as the chairwoman of the Federal Reserve. Another name that we can report is Neera Tanden. She is the head of the Center for American Progress. She is going to be named the head of the Office of Management and Budget. And then we also have Cecilia Rouse. She is a Princeton economist who is going to be named the head of Biden's Council of Economic Advisers.

Noteworthy that these are three women who are being named to very important positions to head up some of these economic positions. We are told that we should expect an announcement to come tomorrow and then a formal event here in Wilmington on Tuesday to sort of formally introduce some of these folks that Biden will be choosing.

This team obviously will have their work cut out for them as they work on the economic recovery amid the COVID-19 pandemic. DEAN: A key focus for the Biden transition team for sure. And Biden

also announcing a historic White House communications team this evening. A lot of familiar faces for those who follow the Biden campaign.

M.J., what makes this historic?

LEE: Historic because they are an all-female team, senior members who will be serving in various communications roles inside the Joe Biden White House. Some names that will be familiar as you said to people who have covered the campaign, covered the transition. The first name is Kate Bedingfield. She is going to be named the White House communications director. We know her as the deputy campaign manager for Biden's 2020 campaign.

We also have Jen Psaki who is being named press secretary so we will be seeing her behind the podium inside the White House briefing room. Two other names I want to quickly mention, Symone Sanders is being named the chief spokesperson for Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and we also have Karine Jean-Pierre who will be named principal deputy press secretary. So all women who are going to be serving in senior roles, senior communications roles throughout the White House.

And also we should note that there is real racial diversity here. Two things that Biden has talked about as being important as he forms his future government and administration -- Jessica.

DEAN: And we also heard via the pool report this afternoon, M.J., that President-elect Biden twisted his ankle on Saturday playing with his dog. Interesting, they gave us that information, the transition team, in contrast to President Trump when we still don't know why he went to Walter Reed.

What can you tell us about President-elect Biden's condition this evening?

LEE: Yes, a bit of an incident involving his dog Major. We are told by the transition office that Joe Biden was playing with his dog yesterday, slipped and twisted his ankle, and so today after returning from Rehoboth Beach, here to Wilmington where he lives, he was taken to see an orthopedist and the initial readout from his doctor is that x-rays show that he does have a sprain in his right foot. But that there are no -- there's no obvious fracture.

But we did just get a glimpse of the president-elect leaving another facility so that he could get an additional CT scan. So we'll keep you posted if in the coming hours we get any additional readouts from that. Obviously, it is always important when we have any health updates about a sitting president or the president-elect, but I will quickly note that some members of the traveling press pool, so these are reporters who are currently with the president-elect, they said that he did appear to give a thumbs up. So clearly trying to show that this was not a big deal. Just one of the hazard of playing with a large dog.

DEAN: Yes, right. I think we can all identify with that. Anyone that's had dogs before.

M.J. Lee, thanks again so much for your reporting there.

[19:05:02]

And for more on all of this, I want to bring in former Labor secretary under President Clinton, Robert Reich. He's the author "The System, Who Rigged It, How Do We Fix It."

Mr. Secretary, thanks so much for joining us. Tell me first, what do you think these potential picks tell you about Biden's economic policy and also his priorities as he gets ready to take office?

ROBERT REICH, FORMER LABOR SECRETARY: Jessica, it's pretty clear. These are all extremely competent economists, people who've dealt with economic policy for years. They are very concerned and have committed themselves to full employment, that is as many jobs as possible, and also raising wages. As you know the median wage has been stuck for 40 years, adjusted for inflation. Almost no growth for the typical American. Well, these are all people who are very, very dedicated to changing that.

And I might add, although every president I know in recent years has talked about making a cabinet or making appointments that reflect America, I don't remember a cabinet or a senior appointments that are this diverse. I mean, this is -- with regard to women, this the just breaking the glass ceiling, this is shattering it.

DEAN: Yes. And it was something that President-elect Biden said again and again on the campaign trail. He wanted his cabinet to look like America. And it is interesting to see these picks and we are starting to get a sense that it is going to look like that.

What do you think the expectations should be for the average American out there who's watching this, someone who's at home saying how is this going to -- how will these people affect my taxes or my pocketbook or the savings that I'm able to put together?

REICH: Well, there's not a direct relationship, obviously, between appointees or even a president and the economy. What these people and what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris all have in common is a commitment to improving the bottom two-thirds of America in terms of income, job security and so on. Now there's no guarantee that's going to happen. We are on the verge of another kind of double dip in terms of recession.

Joe Biden was part of an administration in 2008 that inherited one of the worst economies since the Great Depression. He is now inheriting even a worse economy than the Great Depression. In many ways, worse certainly than the Great Recession. And he is probably -- and his economic team -- going to be spending much of next year or two doing nothing but focusing on both getting COVID under control, which is absolutely critical to get some control over the economy and get jobs back, but also the economy.

DEAN: Right. I mean, those two things seem so linked together, getting COVID under control and also bringing the economy back. It seems like they are absolutely linked together.

REICH: Totally linked together. And that's interesting that he does have also a separate group of people who he has named who are going to be his advisers on the coronavirus and he has this new group that he's talking about or he has designated, apparently, with regard to the economy. Those two groups are going to have to work very closely together because you can't solve one without solving the other.

DEAN: All right, Robert Reich, we're going to leave it there. Thanks so much for joining us tonight. We appreciate it.

REICH: Thank you, Jessica.

DEAN: President-elect Biden has also announced an all-female senior White House communications team. We just mentioned these. But we'll go through them again. Among the top role, the press secretary will be Jen Psaki. She was White House communications director under President Obama. Biden has named his deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield as White House communications director, and Symone Sanders will be a senior adviser and press secretary for Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.

Let's bring in CNN Politics Reporter and Editor-at-Large, Chris Cillizza.

Chris, great to see you.

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER AND EDITOR-AT-LARGE: Hey, Jess.

DEAN: I want to get first your reaction to the historic nature of this announcement. It is the first time to see all women in these senior positions.

CILLIZZA: Yes, I think Joe Biden wanted to make clear, as a 78-year- old white man, in both his VP pick, let's not forget that, Kamala Harris, first South Asian and first African-American woman to be vice president of the United States, or soon to be, and in his actual team, who handles the -- who will be the face for many people of this administration, certainly in the case of Jen Psaki who will be we presume doing press briefings.

He wanted to make a point here. So I think that is important. Symbolism matters, number one. Number two, he has not just picked random people. He has picked people with long track records. Kate Bedingfield goes all the way back -- she's been in politics for a very long time and was obviously extremely high up in the Biden operation. Jen Psaki did -- I knew Jen when she worked for the House Democratic Campaign Committee.

Symone worked for Barack -- excuse me, for Bernie Sanders and there was a big coup, you'll remember back, when Joe Biden when she announced that she was going to work for Joe Biden. It was a big deal during the primary.

[19:10:02] So these are names that people who follow politics will know and more importantly for Joe Biden, they're people who have been there and done that at this high level. And that's very important if you want that first 100 days to matter. You need people who know what they're doing.

DEAN: Right, they're going to have no time to waste and a lot of things to tackle. They are going to need to get through a lot in those first 100 days.

I also want to talk about Biden's ankle injury. We were just talking he --

CILLIZZA: Yes.

DEAN: He sprained his ankle playing with his dog in the backyard. It is interesting to see, we are getting readouts from the Biden team, keeping the press, the American people informed.

CILLIZZA: Yes.

DEAN: About this injury. A sprained ankle. It is quite a departure from how the Trump White House has handled medical questions. As I mentioned earlier, we still don't know why President Trump visited Walter Reed over a year ago.

CILLIZZA: Yes.

DEAN: I'm interested to hear your take on the contrast here in terms of the transparency we're getting from the Biden team versus what we got from the Trump team.

CILLIZZA: Well, Jessica, let me first say, as someone who was 6'3" when I was 14-year-old, sprained ankles are no stranger to me.

DEAN: Yes.

CILLIZZA: I've done too many times. But yet, to your broader point, and I think it's actually important. We heard that it happened. We heard how it happened. We heard that he was getting a CT scan. We're getting regular updates.

Compare that -- I just went back and looked at the coverage. Right around November 17th was when Donald Trump went to an unscheduled visit to Walter Reed. Now we in the media, CNN, everybody else has lots of questions. They initially said at the White House -- he's just getting a jump on his physical. Then it was, well, he's finishing up his physical. We never -- I know there's so many times because it's stunning.

Remember, this is a man who we have very little medical information about. The letter that was written as justification for his candidacy, the doctor who wrote that, Donald Trump's personal doctor prior to going to the White House, said that Donald Trump told him what to write. We know nothing about this man's health prior to coming to office. He released very little, by the way, of medical records and we have this unexplained visit that they have multiple explanations for. So yes, transparency is a good thing. Democrat, Republican, Green

Party, Libertarian, it doesn't matter. Transparency in office is a good thing. The president, the vice president, these people work for the American public, particularly in a situation -- Donald Trump is 74 years old, Joe Biden is 78.

They both oldest elected first-term presidents. Joe Biden broke Donald Trump's record when he won. Their health is important. They are the leader of the country and the more transparency about their health and about everything else, the better.

DEAN: That's absolutely true. It's what the American people deserve.

All right, Chris Cillizza, thanks so much. Always good to see you.

CILLIZZA: Thank you, Jessica.

DEAN: And right now, as one American life on average, one American life on average is lost every minute to the coronavirus, President Trump isn't talking about the pandemic. He is instead laser-focused on the election he lost. Details on what he's saying now. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:17:05]

DEAN: While President-elect Joe Biden is assembling his White House team, the current president is determined as ever to make the case for why he didn't lose the election, which he did. President Trump was on FOX News today, but little of that conversation could really be considered news. He spent the better part of an hour spreading baseless conspiracy theories about election fraud.

We go now to CNN White House Correspondent, Jeremy Diamond.

And Jeremy, help us understand all of this. Among many baseless accusations, the president seemed to implicate his own FBI and Justice Department were in a plot to steal the election from him.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. He did. And it was just one of a slew of conspiracy theories, lies and frankly just delusional statements that the president was making about the 2020 election. Despite the fact that over the last nearly four weeks since the election, what you have seen is more evidence that this election was free and fair. More evidence backed up by the 30-plus court cases that the president's campaign and their allies have lost during this -- since the 2020 election.

And recounts as well showing very clearly that this election -- recounts in Wisconsin, an audit in the state of Georgia, showing very clearly that the election results held up. And then there was this allegation about the FBI and the Justice Department where the president suggested that perhaps they too were involved in, quote- unquote, "rigging this election." Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is total fraud and how the FBI and Department of Justice -- I don't know, maybe they're involved, but how people are allowed to get away from this -- with this stuff is unbelievable. This election was rigged. This is the essence of our country. This is the whole ball game and they cheated. Joe Biden did not get 80 million votes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: And you heard that notion from the president over and over again, this disbelief it seems that President-elect Joe Biden could have possibly beaten him and gotten 80 million votes. But disbelief is no substitute for evidence. And as I said, court after court, judge after judge has rejected this notion.

As for the FBI and the Justice Department, there's no evidence to back up what the president is saying there and the president even suggested at one point that the FBI was, quote-unquote, "missing in action" as it relates to investigating these cases of widespread fraud. Well, they're missing in action because there simply is not any evidence to back up the claims of widespread fraud or any kind of plot to steal the election.

One thing that the president did make clear is that he's not going to abandon these fantasies and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Even as he said earlier this week that he would leave the White House on January 20th if the electoral college certifies Joe Biden's victory as president of the United States. The president said today that even six months from now, he will continue to believe that this election was stolen from him -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Jeremy Diamond at the White House for us tonight, thanks so much.

Let's turn now to the pandemic and some troubling breaking news tonight.

[19:20:01]

The U.S. reporting more than 93,200 people hospitalized with the coronavirus right now. That's according to the COVID Tracking Project. And that is a record number of people. A record number of people hospitalized right now. And that's before we begin to see the results of Thanksgiving.

This weekend has brought the highest levels of travel since the pandemic began. And the weeks ahead offer more opportunities for people to do exactly what we shouldn't be doing right now, gathering to celebrate. Dr. Deborah Birx says if you left your bubble over Thanksgiving, you need to take preventive steps now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. DEBORAH BIRX, WHITE HOUSE CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE: We know people may have made mistakes over the Thanksgiving time period. So if you're young and you gathered, you need to be tested about five to 10 days later. But you need to assume that you're infected and not go near your grandparents and aunts and others without a mask. We're really asking families to even mask indoors if they chose to gather during Thanksgiving and others went across the country or even into the next state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Dr. Celine Gounder joins me now. She is on President-elect Biden's Coronavirus Advisory Board.

And Dr. Gounder, your team will soon take the wheel on this pandemic. Thanks for being with us. Tell me right now how often you're meeting and what are the top concerns? I know there's a lot when it comes to this pandemic. But what are some of your top concerns right now as a team?

DR. CELINE GOUNDER, MEMBER, BIDEN CORONAVIRUS ADVISORY BOARD: Well, some of our top concerns are precisely what Dr. Deborah Birx was describing, which is the surge on top of a surge that we're going to be seeing after the Thanksgiving holiday and then heading into the Christmas and New Year's holidays. You know, we are already overwhelmed in hospitals. I myself am still seeing patients at Bellevue Hospital and I can tell you we're steeling ourselves for a big surge in the coming weeks.

So, you know, I think that is our number one, two, and three concern right now is, is there a way to slow this down, is there a way to explain to Americans, remind Americans of that whole flatten the curve concept of trying to slow the spread so that hospitals can still care for the patients who come to them?

DEAN: Yes, and Dr. Birx also said that she's hoping to be able to start briefing your team tomorrow. You all haven't been able to talk to one another until that ascertainment happened last week. If and when that happens, what are you hoping to learn from her?

GOUNDER: Well, there's a lot of detail that you don't get in the "New York Times" or on television about, you know, things like supply chains and logistics, and the details of the negotiations and operational plans with pharmaceutical companies for vaccine distribution or what the big pharmacy retail chains are going to do with vaccines, what state and local health departments are already doing in coordination with the federal government.

So a lot of it is like the nuts and bolts of how those things are going to happen as opposed to big picture policy.

DEAN: Right. Like realty getting into those details. I know a lot of people express concern especially when it comes to this vaccine distribution because it's such an intricate process and there is so much planning that has to go into it that you all were going to be behind and that that could cost people lives.

Do you feel like now that you're going to be able to get this data you need, that it's enough time? GOUNDER: I certainly hope so. You know, we're just starting that

process. I certainly hope that we can make up for the time lost and that there won't be a real toll as a result of that delay.

DEAN: Yes. And Dr. Fauci said, as you mentioned, we could be looking at a surge on top of a surge. When you start thinking about America's health care infrastructure and what happens if these cases and hospitalizations keep going up and perhaps explode as predicted, how do you plan for that? How do you help hospitals, even rural hospitals, especially, prepare for something like this?

GOUNDER: The biggest challenge here is a question of staffing. You know, you can invoke things like the Defense Production Act to put pressure on manufacturers to make more ventilators, for example.

But there's really no way to accelerate the production of new healthcare providers and right now healthcare providers are really burned out for months and months of fighting this that they themselves have gotten sick due to exposures on the job, perhaps because they did not have enough personal protective equipment, and they also would like to have some time off over the holidays to spend time at home with family which means that very often we have skeleton crews working over the holidays, really just the essential people.

So I think this timing is really terrible in terms of meeting the needs of people when we are short staffed and really can't generate new health care workers with the snap of a finger.

DEAN: Yes. It is daunting to say the least.

Dr. Celine Grounder, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it.

Almost a month after the election, President-elect Joe Biden will receive his first Presidential Daily Brief.

[19:25:00]

We're going to take a look at what impact the delay may have had on his administration when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: Tomorrow, nearly a month after the election was called, President-elect Joe Biden finally will receive his first presidential daily brief. It's the latest step toward a transition of power that President Trump has actively blocked for weeks despite his decisive loss.

CNN National Security Analyst, Samantha Vinograd joining us now.

Sam, great to see you. Tell us a little bit about what Joe Biden will be getting from this first briefing.

[19:30:00] SAMANTHA VINOGRAD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, the

President's Daily Brief or PDB, originated under President Lyndon B. Johnson. It's really shorthand for two things. One is a written compilation of Intelligence assessments that's now compiled by the Director of National Intelligence that arrives in the Oval Office every single morning.

The PDB also refers to an oral briefing that typically accompanies that written document. That oral briefing has historically been attended by the President, the Vice President and other participants attend at the President's discretion.

Tomorrow, President-elect Biden will have an opportunity to receive the written document, the oral briefing, and potentially during that oral briefing as well, one of the key benefits is he has an opportunity to ask questions, Jessica.

If he has questions about the Intelligence assessments in the written or oral briefing, he can request more information from the briefer and that will be critically important as he tries to formulate ideas for policies he will implement when he assumes office.

DEAN: Yes, and it's interesting because he has done this before. It's not like he is a President-elect who hasn't gotten this before. So, it'll be interesting to see if that changes how he uses it, or how he hopes to have it formulated.

Um, it's been nearly a month though, since his victory was first announced. There have been calls by some on his team that say, look, we're worried about national security if he is not getting these daily briefings. How far behind is he, do you think at this point? Is this something that they can overcome?

VINOGRAD: Well, the first point is, unlike President Trump, Biden won't need any cliff notes version of Intelligence. As you mentioned, from an Intelligence standpoint, Biden is arguably the most experienced incoming President. He digested volumes of intelligence during his decades on the Hill and as Vice President, remember, he received the PDB and he was in that oral briefing every morning with President Obama. So this won't be a new format to him.

The delay in getting him the PDB was certainly unhelpful, and President-elect Biden tried to find workarounds. He looked at open source information. He engaged with experts, but it was a delay and now President-elect Biden will be able to have access to the most highly classified information about threats facing this country, opportunities and potentially covert capabilities as well.

DEAN: All right, that all starts tomorrow. The next step in the transition of power. All right, Samantha Vinograd, thanks for being with us. As always, great to see you.

As the U.S. sees a surge in new coronavirus cases, C.D.C. advisers will be voting this week on who gets that vaccine first. This, coming, as doses of one vaccine are already being shipped. We've got details next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:35:44]

DEAN: As COVID numbers surge across the country, the Pfizer vaccine is already being shipped. It's presumed the F.D.A. will greenlight Emergency Use Authorization for that vaccine sometime after agency officials meet on December 10th.

And here is how the F.D.A. website describes that process. Under an EUA as it's known in an emergency, the F.D.A. makes a product available to the public based on the best available evidence without waiting for all the evidence that would be needed for F.D.A. approval or clearance.

With me now, Dr. Peter Hotez from the Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Hotez, always wonderful to see you. Walk us through best available evidence as they laid it out there and why people should have confidence in a vaccine that's released under this Emergency Use Authorization.

DR. PETER HOTEZ, DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE, BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: Well, thanks, Jessica. I mean, the truth is, there's not really a lot of choice at this point. The pandemic, especially in the United States is accelerating so aggressively, we may be looking at 3,000 to 4,000 deaths per day as the surges on the ICUs mount.

And so some numbers indicate half a million Americans could lose their life by a week or so after the inauguration and go on from there. So the full approval process often can take six to nine months, even if it's expedited. So you do the math, you multiply those numbers of days times the number of Americans who are losing their life every day, it's just an unacceptable death toll.

So what the F.D.A. has done is -- we really haven't done Emergency Use Authorization for a vaccine that's released to large segments of the population before. So what the F.D.A. is doing is balancing the urgency with trying to as closely approximate as possible the full approval process, and I think they are really on top of it. They definitely have not compromised the Phase 3 trials in any way in terms of safety or efficacy showing that the vaccine works. And so they are moving as expeditiously as possible without compromising any of those things.

So I think what we'll see is Pfizer will probably have about 75 million doses of the vaccine by March and the idea is to try to start distributing those two priority populations. And that's what this ACIP meeting will be, I believe, on Tuesday at the Centers for Disease Control to really prioritize those groups.

DEAN: Right. But what you're saying, though, is that people should feel confident in taking these vaccines.

HOTEZ: Yes, absolutely. Remember, the one -- all of these vaccines and you know, people get confused by the different strategies, the mRNA vaccine, the adenovirus vaccine, we're making a recombinant protein vaccine. They actually all work by the same way. They all induce what are called virus neutralizing antibodies to the spike protein of the virus. That's the soft target of this virus, and we know that will keep you out of the hospital in the ICU.

So the idea is get virus neutralizing antibodies into your system as soon as you can and don't wait for any particular one vaccine because they're all working by the same strategy and the safety record so far in the Phase 3 trials -- and these are not small trials, these are 30 to 60,000-person trials are looking really good. So you definitely want to get the vaccine as soon as you can.

DEAN: And I'm hearing you say time is of the essence. The death toll is going to go up likely exponentially in the months to come, this is a public health emergency. In fact, today, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said it is going to get worse over the next several weeks, as you just said.

You said that spikes in hospitalizations and deaths could be destabilizing for our country, not just for our medical infrastructure, but also our economy, even Homeland Security. Walk me through how deep your concerns are about these spiking numbers.

[19:40:33]

HOTEZ: Well remember, pretty soon, almost everybody in the country is going to know someone who not only has COVID-19, but has been seriously ill from COVID-19 and that's going to have a very chilling effect.

And then you have the impact on food security and supply chain management. You start adding up all of those things and it is clear that this epidemic is going to be highly destabilizing for the nation. So when the President and Vice President take their oath of office on January 20th, it's going to be a country in not very good shape for a number of reasons.

And the key is to turn that around and start with finally, with having a national response, which we haven't had before. It's always been with the states in the lead and the U.S. government's supplying backup supply chain management and PPE and manufacturing support, which was important, but it wasn't the same as actually launching a national strategy and I think we'll finally start to have that when the transition eventually occurs.

DEAN: Yes. We are talking about like streamline guidance across all 50 states. You also mentioned the C.D.C. meeting is going to happen, they're going to discuss who is getting this vaccine first. We know frontline medical workers are very top priority. Who else do you see at the top of that list?

HOTEZ: Well, the priorities are based on two things. One, who is at the greatest risk for serious illness or death from COVID-19? And what do we do to keep the health system infrastructure moving along? Because if we don't, then the deaths will also mount for different reasons. And that's why these surges are so dangerous. So keeping our healthcare professionals healthy and alive is a top

priority. I think our first line responders. And then we've seen how this virus really hammers nursing homes, and really rips through. This is one of the first things we noticed back in March, how deadly they are. So vaccinating nursing home populations, which account for about 35 to 40 percent of the deaths from COVID-19. I think we'll probably see something along those lines.

Our National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine have recommended some priorities, and I'm guessing that ACIP will likely vote something along those lines, and then it'll build out from there. We're also hearing about individuals over the age of 65.

The one pushback I sometimes give on that is sometimes we forget that 30 to 35 percent of the deaths in the Hispanic community, African- American community, and Native-American community are individuals under the age of 65. So I think, we have to be careful about those kinds of strict age cut offs.

DEAN: Right. All right. Well, Dr. Peter Hotez, thanks for presenting us with science and facts. We sure do appreciate it.

HOTEZ: Thank you so much, Jessica.

DEAN: The Supreme Court sided with religious groups in a dispute over coronavirus restrictions and many faith leaders are applauding that ruling. But could it make controlling the pandemic more difficult? We're going to talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:47:55]

DEAN: In a blow to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and other state officials, the Supreme Court's new conservative majority has voted to strike down pandemic restrictions on religious services. Faith leaders are cheering that ruling, but it raises concerns over how cities will be able to control the spread of coronavirus if large religious gatherings continue.

And joining me now Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, author of "Face your Fear: Living with Courage in an age of Caution." Rabbi, thanks for being with us.

Walk me through, why is it not in everyone's best interest to stay home right now and congregate virtually if we know it can save lives?

RABBI SHMULEY BOTEACH, FOUNDER, THE WORLD VALUES NETWORK: Well, because faith is a vaccine against hopelessness, and worship is an antibody to despair. It's not only C.D.C. guidelines and vaccines and social distancing, and medical advice we all have to follow. It's also the knowledge that we're going to pull through this together.

The isolation that comes from worship only at home means that we can't feel that we're a community and we feel completely abandoned. And we're seeing that kind of loneliness also having an effect even on people's immune system.

Let me be clear, there is no excuse for any kind of worship service that doesn't practice proper social distancing where everybody is masked, but Governor Cuomo's original restrictions which were overturned by the Supreme Court, they basically said that even cathedrals or synagogues that could fit 500 or a thousand people could only have 10 to 25 people. Similar restrictions weren't put on financial services institutions or on bike shops or in liquor stores.

Now, I know that people need to fix a flat tire and have maybe a shot of single malt during the pandemic. But prayer is as important. It is an essential service.

DEAN: Right, and for people who are practicing a faith they want to be together in that moment, I hear you. And you're saying it sounds like there's a large spectrum between packing it in with no social distancing and taking some precautions when you're worshiping together.

BOTEACH: Well, Jessica, a pandemic is a very extreme epoch to live through and I think we have to be careful of all extremes right now. Fanatics will say that social distancing doesn't matter at all and they will pack things together and that's a desecration of God's name because you can't risk your life in order to worship the God who commands you to choose life.

[19:50:12]

BOTEACH: Having said that, the other form of fanaticism is to say that a Cathedral where you could almost land an airplane can have only 10 people without any kind of scientific barometer about social distancing. These restrictions were ridiculous, and they did target religious people.

And that's why the Founding Fathers put in guarantees for religious worship because someone might come along and say, look, I understand why a vaccine or medicine is essential, but your faith, I just don't get it. I'm going to restrict it.

The Founding Fathers said, no, we understand that people's faith is essential to them, we're going to make sure that people can't restrict it.

DEAN: And so what would you do at your temple? Or what have you done? What would you do in that position? What do you think is the responsible way to meet in the middle here, if there is one?

BOTEACH: Well, first of all, my father passed away during the pandemic.

DEAN: I'm sorry.

BOTEACH: So I have to say, the mourners prayer three times a day, if I couldn't say that with a quorum -- thank you very much. God bless you -- if I couldn't say that with a quorum of 10, which is what was required in Judaism, it would be extremely painful to me. So I have services every day. They are masked. They are socially distanced.

There are -- there's hand sanitizer, of course, always. We make sure that people don't touch the various sacred scrolls if they need not do so. We're extremely careful.

And thank God, no one has gotten sick to our knowledge and we hope that no one will. But the fact is that we're going to go to restaurants, even if they're outdoors now, and we're going to go to grocery stores. And as I said, acupuncture stores are considered essential financial services. Well, you know, it's not by bread alone that man shall live, it's for the word of a living God that man shall live.

And I actually think, I would have thought that instead of seeing this as a smack down, Governor Cuomo, who is a man of faith himself would have welcomed it. People of faith, we have to have more sense of optimism. We can't just hear doom and gloom even while we have to carry on with the restrictions. We have to hear we are going to get through this together and we're going to live.

DEAN: Rabbi Shmuley, thanks so much for being with us. We appreciate it.

BOTEACH: Thank you. Thank you, Jessica.

DEAN: Have a great night. President-elect Joe Biden is making a number of big announcements about his White House team, one that includes several women in key roles. We've got the details ahead.

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[19:56:35]

DEAN: You may not know her name, Loujain Al Hathloul, a women's rights activists led the charge to allow women to drive in Saudi Arabia. After 900 days in a pre-trial detention, her case was finally set to get underway last week. But now it's heading to one of the nation's toughest terror courts.

CNN's Nic Robertson is covering this story for us from London -- Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Jessica, this is a case that's not getting a lot of attention in Saudi Arabia, but it's certainly one that could land on President-elect Joe Biden's plate. He said in the campaign trail that he would get tough on Saudi Arabia. Human rights, one of those issues that people would be looking to him to see how tough he gets.

Loujain Hathloul's case absolutely front and center of what's going on, on that front in Saudi Arabia right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (voice over): Saudi Arabia's most well-known female prisoner, Loujain Hathloul has gone from jailed rights activist to alleged national security threat. Her sister is horrified. She alleges Loujain has been tortured in prison.

LINA HATHLOUL, SISTER OF LOUJAIN: My parents saw that she was very weak, that her body was shaking and that her voice as well. But even with that, she was still very focused and wanted to read her whole defense. Her and other activists were being electrocuted, water- boarded, flogged, beaten, and deprived of sleep, forced fed.

ROBERTSON (voice over): Saudi authorities have repeatedly denied allegations of torture and sexual abuse in their jails.

Hathloul law campaigned for women to drive. Then just weeks before Saudi's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS gave the go ahead for the long-awaited reform, she was arrested.

Human rights groups called on world leaders to use last week's virtual G-20 Summit in Riyadh to pressure MBS to allow her release. Instead, days after the event wrapped, Hathloul appeared before a judge only to learn her case was being referred to a notorious terror court.

ADEL AL JUBEIR, SAUDI MINISTER OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS: I believe the charges have to do with receiving money from hostile governments in order to pass it on to dissidents and hostile groups to Saudi Arabia.

ROBERTSON (voice over): So far, the Saudi government hasn't published its evidence and Saudi's courts where evidence would be presented are notoriously difficult to access. International pressure for Hathloul's release isn't working. Unclear if President-elect Joe Biden who was promised to take a tough line on Saudi can make a difference.

JUBEIR: We're not subject to pressure. These individuals were arrested under our laws and our courts have jurisdiction and they decide. We don't allow people to put pressure on us in order to do things that are against our interests.

ROBERTSON (voice over): Unclear, too, when Hathloul's next court appearance will be, although the venue is set Saudi Arabia's Specialized Criminal Court, which according to human rights group, Amnesty International, is intrinsically unfair.

Nic Robertson, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (on camera): Well, having just come back from Saudi Arabia, one of the things I can tell you and I think this is quite informative about the bigger picture of what is happening in Saudi Arabia, the vast majority of people and many of the young women that we spoke to there told us that they are happy with the reforms and changes that are happening in Saudi Arabia. They praised the Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman for that.

They are not focused on Loujain Hathloul's case. What they are looking at, the new opportunities for women which they feel are real and that ought to be taken right now -- Jessica. DEAN: Nic Robertson, thanks so much.

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