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Moderna to Apply for FDA Authorization for Its Vaccine Today; Biden Set to Receive First President's Daily Intel Briefing; Florida Close to Hitting 1 Million Coronavirus Cases. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired November 30, 2020 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: A very good morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto. Poppy Harlow is off this week.

The nation bracing for a possible surge upon the surge. Thanksgiving might be behind us but health experts warn that we could soon see a spike in cases because many people did not listen to the warnings. The TSA reported Sunday was the busiest flying day since March. More than 1.1 million people went through TSA screening at airports.

Also on Sunday, the U.S. hit a new record number of hospitalizations. That number now stands at more than 93,000 people around the country. Look at that graph there going up and up, 267,000 Americans have already died from COVID-19.

There is, however, good news this morning. Moderna is set to submit its vaccine for emergency FDA approval today. And we're getting new data from the company this morning on just how effective it is. It's good news.

Let's go to CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. Elizabeth, tell us about these numbers. Even more promising as they have expanded the data pool than we first heard.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And the reason why they're more promising, Jim, it's just what you said, they expanded the data pool. We now have twice as much data as they had before, as Moderna had before, more than twice as much data. And that means the data is, well, twice as strong, really.

Let's look at what this data shows. It shows the vaccine is 94.1 percent effective at preventing coronavirus. Now, that's about as good as it gets. It doesn't get better than that. And that it's 100 percent effective against severe disease.

Now, let's talk a little bit about how Moderna came up with those numbers. Those didn't just sort of come out of the blue sky, there was a study that let them to those numbers.

So let's take a look at what they did. They took 15,000 people and vaccinated them and then they went out and lived their lives. Those people got vaccinated, they lived their lives. Only 11 people ended up getting COVID. But 185 people out of 15,000, who received the placebo got COVID-19.

So, just look at the difference between those numbers, 11 people who were vaccinated got COVID and 185 people who were not vaccinated got COVID. And that's where you get that 94.1 percent.

Now, I just got off the phone with a spokesperson from Moderna and what he said is that they are in the process, as we speak, of applying to the FDA for emergency use authorization. That would allow them to put the vaccine on the market. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Elizabeth Cohen, thanks very much.

Well, here in the U.S. new infections of COVID-19 topped 100,000, that's in a single day, for the 27th straight day. This as travelers now disperse nationwide after Thanksgiving.

CNN's Ryan Young is at airport in Atlanta. It's a very busy one. Ryan, what is the message this morning for those travelers. They're coming home. They defied the advice to not travel. So what do they need to do now to be safe?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jim, health care officials have been saying maybe they should get tested on the way home. They should also think about isolating themselves. We talked to a lot of people last week who planned to get tested or did get tested before getting on a plane to go home to see their loved ones. But now it's probably the same idea to do that again as you're just coming back home.

But look back this direction, you can see they have a whole operation here at this airport to hand out masks to people who are flying. We've seen several people this morning showing up without masks. Also social distancing seems to go away as people stand in line. We're creatures of habits. So as people are trying to get to their airlines, they are packing themselves in there.

And you think about this, 16 states across the country are treating a record number of coronavirus patients. And, of course, on top of that, more than 93,000 Americans are hospitalized with the coronavirus. When we talk to travelers, they say they know what was coming in terms of being kind of worried about traveling with the coronavirus. They still feel like they needed to see their families.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'd say it helps. It definitely helps. Yes.

YOUNG: Are you worried at all? Are you scared at all or what?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A little nervous but that's just like flying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Yes. We talked to some travelers who basically said, look, they didn't want to cancel their flights Because, one, they didn't want to lose the money. We talked to some

people who said they were looking forward to vacations. They just felt like they needed to get away. We're hearing that over and over again, Jim, in terms of people saying they're just sort of tired of dealing with the coronavirus and this pandemic.

The problem is when you talk to health care officials, you hear the warnings. They are worried about a spike. And like I said last hour, we know people are using this sort of as a dry run. Some folks say they already plan to travel for the Christmas holidays. Here, you can obviously wipe your hands down in so many different places, but still the worry is will we see a spike in the next two weeks after all this holiday travel. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Well, the experts seem to say so. We'll be watching.

[10:05:00]

Ryan Young, thanks very much.

Public schools in New York City will reopen for in-person learning for elementary school kids next week. This is a change from just a couple of weeks ago.

CNN's Bianna Golodryga joins me now.

Bianna, quite reverse. I mean, there was outrage in the city for many that they closed. What is leading to the change now? What does it mean and how many kids does it affect?

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, good morning. It's about 190 (INAUDIBLE) student. 300,000 students and their families opted for in-person since the semester began in September. And that had been going relatively well, much better than experts and even health officials had feared going into the (INAUDIBLE) two months in.

The positivity rates in schools among 160,000 students that have been tested was 2.8 percent. That is very low given the spike in the positivity in the city overall. Nonetheless, they're concerned because the mayor had promised school officials, principals, teachers unions that once that 3 percent threshold would be met that schools would shut down no matter what. This was an arbitrary threshold. It was rather conservative given health experts have said the 5 percent should be the deciding factor for closing schools.

Here is what the mayor said when asked about that 3 percent threshold.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NEW YORK CITY, NY): What happened was that 3 percent standard, after we had so much experience with the schools proved to be different than we thought it would be. And then we said what can we do now to sustain our schools for the long haul, all the way to having the vaccine present. We decided we needed a lot more testing. And to make that in every school, that would be the difference maker. That was the new measure we needed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: So it's K through fifth grade -- I understand there's some audio issues. This happens when you're remote reporting here, Jim. It's a big change, a big relief for many parents, especially when you see bars and gyms are still open in the city.

SCIUTTO: Well, listen, I'm sure everyone watching has dealt with their share own audio issues in the Zoom. Bianna Golodryga, thanks very much for updating us on New York.

We're joined now by Dr. Jeffrey Gold. He's Chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Doctor, good to have you back on.

DR. JEFFREY GOLD, CHANCELLOR, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA MEDICAL CENTER: Good morning.

SCIUTTO: Let's talk about schools, if we can, for a second. I mean, this is of enormous importance to so many people, students and their parents in this country. We saw New York kind of toggle back and forth on opening, closing. One thing we've seen in Europe is that Europe has prioritized schools over restaurants and bars. And by keeping schools open, closing restaurants and bars, they've seen a dip in new infections. Is that, in your view, what communities around the country should emphasize?

GOLD: It's certainly one of the things that needs to be emphasized. We know that bars, restaurants, et cetera, even small groups, dining with your family and with your friends is when the virus is spread. We think about it. We know that masks work, so those are the times that you take your mask off.

We also know that while virus can be spread in the K-12 schools and in the colleges, it's much more dependent upon what's going on in the local community than it is based on the safety precautions in our schools.

SCIUTTO: All right. So the U.S., it's in a bad place. I mean, it would be nice to think we would have a national plan to do this. It's not clearly the president has given up on that. Now, we have had holiday travel. Where do you expect this to be -- this pandemic to be in two weeks or so when we see the results, the effects of this increased holiday travel as we've seen in previous holidays going back to the summer?

GOLD: So, we like to say hope for the best but plan for the worst. And given the amount of travel that has occurred, the very close distances that we just saw in some of the airports, I would say we're going to be looking at another peak. It's probably going to take somewhere between five to seven days.

And so people need to take precautions as if they were exposed, even if they may not have been. That is to say social distance, where your mask, work from home, if you're a student, study from home. Do all the things as if you may have had an exposure over the holiday weekend. SCIUTTO: Understood. I hope folks are listening. Let's talk about the good news, because we see another vaccine showing spectacular results, the Moderna vaccine, 94, 95 percent effectiveness here. If they get emergency use authorization today, just tell us, for folks at home, what that means about the timeline when frontline workers get it and when the larger population will get it.

GOLD: Yes. So there are basically four stages of vaccine production and deployment. The development, the manufacturing is one stage. The testing is another stage. The shipment and storage is the third stage, which is yet to occur. And then finally it's the willingness of the American people and the global community to be immunized.

[10:10:00]

So, you know, we're probably looking from the day that emergency use authorization is granted, days to weeks to initial shipment, let's say within the first three to five, let's say, seven days, particularly given the temperature requirements of these vaccines. And then it's up to the frontline Americans, particularly health care and other essential employees to be willing to be immunized, which hopefully will not be a challenge.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Final question, if I can. We will have a new president though not for a couple of months. What is job one on day one for President-elect Biden after the inauguration regarding the outbreak?

GOLD: Sure. To me, that's pretty simple. That's consistency of the message. Dealing with the pandemic for the crisis that it is, understanding that at least in the last month, there's been one American on average dying every minute of the day, 24 hours a day, empty seats at the dining room table over Thanksgiving. And then dealing with this with all of the seriousness that it requires and getting consistent messaging on the federal, state and local levels. A big challenge but an important thing for us to all work on.

SCIUTTO: Meanwhile, too very dangerous, it seems little national leadership until then. Dr. Jeffrey Gold, thank you very much.

GOLD: My pleasure, thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well, today is a big day for President-elect Joe Biden when he will finally receive his first scheduled intelligence briefing. It normally would have happened long ago. We're going to discuss the importance of that with former director of the CIA, John Brennan.

Plus, President Trump spent his holiday weekend again peddling false claims about election fraud. But now, some of those baseless claims are further debunked by the man who was in charge of protecting the vote. You want to hear it. He was appointed by this president.

And coronavirus taking its toll on the NFL, leaving one team without a home stadium and another with no quarterback.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:00]

SCIUTTO: Welcome back.

Happening today, after weeks of waiting, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will receive their first national security briefing long after in normal times they would have.

Joining me is the former director of the CIA, John Brennan. We should note, he also has a new book out, Undaunted, My Fight Against America's Enemies at Home and Abroad. Note that, at Home and Abroad. I want to talk about that. Director Brennan, good to have you on this morning.

JOHN BRENNAN, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Good morning, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Let's begin with this first presidential daily brief for the president-elect, Joe Biden, today. Famously, Barack Obama told Donald Trump when he came into office that North Korea was likely the greatest threat that his administration will face. I wonder, in Biden's briefing today, what do you believe would be the number one threat to this country today?

BRENNAN: Well, Jim, the president's daily brief, the PDB, is a document that covers a range of topics. It could have something related to a recent terrorist threat or engagements with China and Russia, maybe North Korea and nuclear developments. So, what Joe Biden will expect is to hopefully receive the same PDB that's delivered to the White House every morning. Joe Biden, he was vice president, he had a briefer who brought him the PDB. So it will be a back and forth in exchange.

So I fully expect Joe Biden to be very curious about a number of issues, again, whether it's Russia, China, terrorism, proliferation, the whole range of issues that the United States has to deal with on the international stage.

SCIUTTO: Iran is front and center right now, particularly after Iran's top nuclear scientist was assassinated, and, really, a remarkable event just over the last several days. You have called this assassination highly reckless. Iran is blaming Israel, saying it had U.S. backing here. I wonder, first question, do you -- why is this reckless, in your view?

BRENNAN: Well, I think we have seen that Iran is going to feel obliged, as it in the past, to carry out some type of retaliatory strike. And especially during a period of presidential transition, when we have to be sure that this administration doesn't do anything to undermine the next administration's approach to these very, very challenging issues. And so, therefore, I believe that there needs to be standards of international behavior to exclude assassinations.

And so I believe it's reckless because, again, it can provoke an Iranian response that could escalate then into not just height regional tension but also possible confrontation.

SCIUTTO: Do you believe that this is a deliberate attempt by the Trump administration to tie the Biden administration's hands, for instance, on the possibility of reentering the Iran nuclear deal?

BRENNAN: Well, I don't know who was responsible for this assassination. But, again, I do believe that this is something that western democracies, as well as countries around the globe should not engage in an assassination. So whether or not the Trump administration was aware of it in advance or provided some type of support, again, I am not aware.

But this is something that should be, I think, condemned roundly by the international community. If the Iranians carried out an attack like this against an Israeli scientist, for example, inside of Israel, there would be no hesitance in terms of the condemnation. And so, therefore, whenever a country is going to attack this -- an official of a sovereign country, I think that goes way beyond what can be and should be expected of countries in this day and age.

SCIUTTO: The Obama administration was very aggressive in its use of force abroad, drone strikes, particularly on terrorist leaders in a number of countries.

[10:20:04]

Why is this one different, in your view?

BRENNAN: Well, again, the attacks and strikes against terrorist leaders and operatives, consistent with international law in terms of taking actions against illegitimate combatants, which an Al Qaeda member is. They are not part of any type of country or sovereign state. The strike against Fakhrizadeh was a strike against a senior Iranian official, an official of a sovereign nation. And, therefore, there's a great distinction and difference between killing a terrorist who is trying to carry out attacks against innocent lives as opposed to a strike against a government official of another sovereign state.

SCIUTTO: I want to ask you about the president's continued attack on the U.S. election. And we had yesterday, again, a senior official from the Trump administration, Chris Krebs, who led the effort to protect this election, saying, in no uncertain terms, there were no votes flipped by a foreign power or domestic power, yet Trump continues his attack on the election. What damage is he doing to U.S. elections with those attacks?

BRENNAN: Well, I think he is doing damage both on the domestic front as well as on the international front. On the domestic front, I think he really is fueling suspicions, unwarrantedly so, in the minds of a lot of Americans about the integrity of this election. But I think Chris Krebs and a lot of the other cyber security professionals in this administration did their very best to protect the integrity of the election.

So, therefore, I think he is sowing the seeds of doubt in a lot of Americans about what actually happened in this election as well as then in future elections.

On the international stage, I think he really is disparaging our ability to carry out these free and fair elections. And so the United States, the world's oldest democracy, really should set the example for the transitions of power from one person or party to another.

SCIUTTO: You mentioned sowing the seeds of doubt, and, clearly, there are seeds of doubt in this country. Recent polling shows 70 percent of Republicans feel the election was rigged. But we had a Republican congressman on this network earlier this morning, Congressman Riggleman from Pennsylvania, Republican again, I should note, who noted another risk. I want to play his sound and get your reaction. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DENVER RIGGLEMAN (R-VA): The president has to stop sort of bloviating on this preposterous ridiculousness because most people in the intelligence world are looking, they're scratching their head, going, you need to stop this because it could be radicalizing people based on data that's just faulty and ideas that are just out there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Radicalizing people. I don't have to tell you the risk of domestic right-wing groups, domestic terrorists, et cetera, but are you beyond concerned sowing doubt that the president is giving some of these groups something to act on?

BRENNAN: Well, first of all, good on Congressman Riggleman. More Republicans should be speaking up and out about against these very fallacious claims about fraudulent election. But, yes, I am concerned. Because when the president of the United States, even Donald Trump, he speaks, he has a voice that is heard throughout this country and it is resonant among those elements that really do believe that he was defrauded when he really wasn't. He wasn't at all. And so, therefore, will they take to the streets? Will they potentially use violence? I hope not. Thankfully, they have not done that so far.

And I do hope calmer heads will prevail and that Congressman Riggleman and others will try to calm down these concerns that Donald Trump, unfortunately, is escalating.

SCIUTTO: You served for decades as an intelligence officer, of course, led the CIA as well, as Russia was attacking this country's elections here. Have you, in your time, witnessed a foreign disinformation operation as damaging as the one we're seeing coming from the president and his allies right now?

BRENNAN: No. I used to think that the Russians were the world's most sophisticated and expert sources of disinformation. But, unfortunately, I think Donald Trump and a lot of people of his ilk, his supporters, have now demonstrated that they're able to just consume the airwaves with these claims and allegations that are totally baseless and specious.

And so I think that Donald Trump certainly has exceeded the ability of the Russians to influence the minds, the ideas and even the votes of the American people as he continues upon this very unfortunate disinformation campaign.

SCIUTTO: It's alarming to hear. Well, to your point, Director Brennan, thanks very much for coming on.

A reminder to our viewers, your new book is Undaunted, My Fight Against America's Enemies at Home and Abroad, that key, at Home and Abroad. Director Brennan, thanks very much.

BRENNAN: Thank you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, California is setting records for hospitalizations now from COVID-19. And amid the surge, Los Angeles County has issued new limits on public gatherings there.

[10:25:01]

We're going to take you there live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:00]

SCIUTTO: Florida is close to hitting the sad milestone of 1 million total coronavirus infections. CNN's Rosa Flores reports that mayors across the state are asking Governor Ron DeSantis.