Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

U.S. Sets New Record with 93,000+ COVID Hospitalizations; Health Experts: Thanksgiving May Lead to Surge on Top of a Surge; Moderna to Apply for FDA Authorizations for its Vaccine Today; Moderna: Vaccine 94% Effective, 100% Effective at Preventing Severe COVID; CDC Advisers to Vote Tomorrow on Who Will Get a COVID Vaccine First; Moderna's COVID Vaccine was Designed in Just Two Days; U.S. Gearing up to Distribute Coronavirus Vaccines this Week; President- Elect Biden Unveils Economic Team; Midwest Hospitals Facing a Shortage of ICU Beds, Staff; Biden Announces All-Female Senior WH Communications Team; Biden Fractures Foot While Playing with Dog; 7 States Certify Results as Trump Makes Baseless Fraud Claims; Fired Election Security Chief: Americans Should Have 100% Confidence in Their Vote. Aired 11-11:30a ET.

Aired November 30, 2020 - 11:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:04:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. Thank you so much for joining us this hour. We start the week with the country hitting an alarming new record. As of last night, more people in the United States are currently hospitalized with coronavirus than at any other point during the entire pandemic so far.

It's no longer localized to one state or one region. The virus is taking off everywhere. The nation topped more than 93,000 hospitalizations Sunday night, and it's not just hospitalizations. The month of November saw an unprecedented coronavirus surge in pretty much all metrics. Yesterday the country added nearly 140,000 new cases. The twenty-seventh day in a row new infections have topped 100,000.

And now on the heels of Thanksgiving the country's top experts are worrying that a surge of infections is - another surge of infections is coming soon. According to the TSA more than a million people travelled by plane yesterday, and that's more than any day since March, which is why America's top doctors are urging everyone who travelled to assume you are infected. Assume you are infected, act that way, and also get tested. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. JEROME ADAMS, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: I want to be straight with the American people. It's going to get worse over the next several weeks. VOICE OF DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGEY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: As we go for the next couple of weeks into December that we might see a surge superposed upon that surge that we're already in.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: That is the currently reality that we are all facing right now, but there is some very good news this morning in the quest for a coronavirus vaccine. Moderna announcing it will be applying today for emergency authorization from the FDA for its coronavirus vaccine. That's where CNN's Elizabeth Cohen is very focused this morning. She's tracking this very big news. She's joining us now. Elizabeth, what are you hearing from Moderna?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So Moderna is telling me, Kate, that right now as we speak they are in the process of applying for emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration. If they get it, that would allow them to put their vaccine on the market. And when they apply to the FDA they're going to be applying with a much larger dataset than the one that you and I talked about a couple of weeks ago. Remember they had some good data then. This data's even better because the dataset is twice as big, and that means that it's - that it's stronger. Scientists have more confidence in it. So let's take a look at what they - that data found.

What it found was that the vaccine was 94.1 percent effective at preventing COVID-19, and it was actually 100 percent effective at preventing COVID - at preventing severe COVID-19. So let's talk a little bit about how they came up with these numbers. What Moderna did in their Phase 3 clinical trial is take tens of thousands of people. Some of those people were given the vaccine and told, all right, go out. Go live your life. Go back to your home. Do your thing. Let's see what happens. They then gave more other people placebo, just a shot of saline that does nothing. Those people were told the same thing. Go live your life. Go do your usual thing. Let's see if you get infected, and nobody knew who got which shot.

Well let's take a look at how that turned out. So when you take a look at this, 11 of the 15,000 people who received the vaccine got COVID- 19. 11 out of 15,000. 185 out of 15,000 people who received the placebo got COVID-19, so you can see that that vaccine did a good job of protecting people. And as I mentioned when you look at those 11 people none of them became severely ill. They get COVID, but they did not become severely ill. Kate -

BOLDUAN: And real quick, Elizabeth. There is a lot, of course, approvals are coming we can assume, so is it clear yet, is it announced yet who will be first in line for a vaccine when approved?

COHEN: Right. So Dr. Anthony Fauci telling us that after this is reviewed by the FDA and by the CDC he thinks that the first shots will go into arms in the United States in the second half of December. What the CDC is - what CDC members of an advisory committee are telling us is that they think those - that first group is going to be healthcare workers along with nursing home residents who are so vulnerable to COVID-19, and then later other high risk groups and then finally in the spring people who are not in a high risk group. But again thinking right now it's going to start with healthcare workers and nursing home residents. Kate -

BOLDUAN: All right, much more to come, Elizabeth. Thank you. Joining me right now is Dr. Richard Besser. He's the former Acting Director at the CDC of course and now President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Besser, I just want to get your reaction to what we're learning, this new data coming out from Moderna this morning and the fact that they'll be filing today.

DR. RICHARD BESSER, FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR, CDC: Well Kate, I think it's really exciting that Moderna is filing for emergency use approval from the FDA. It's exciting that their announcement includes data that they - their vaccine was very effective at preventing serious COVID infections.

[11:05:00]

I'm going to be watching the FDA hearings very closely, and it's going to be really important that there's transparency around that because if you look at the polling data there's a lot of concern out there, a lot of mistrust about how the vaccines are moving, whether they're moving too quickly, and I'll want the Independent Scientific Advisory Committee to the FDA to look at the data to weigh in and say from their perspective do they think it's safe, do they think it's effective, do they think it's something people should be receiving? And at that point if they say yes on that, then I will be incredibly excited about this vaccine.

BOLDUAN: And your opinion on that is something that many of us really depend on and are looking for and your take and if you think it is safe and effective on that front. I also saw that Moderna was also saying that they designed this vaccine that we're talking about in just two days after getting some genetic information from China. That blows my mind obviously as a non-scientist. Is that surprising to you?

BESSER: Well this is a wholesale new technology for developing vaccines, and you know, if this vaccine pans out, if the Pfizer vaccine, which is a similar messenger RNA vaccine, pans out, it gives me real hope about the future because pandemics will continue to occur, and the idea that you can develop a vaccine that quickly, all right, if this is safe, effective, and turns this pandemic around, that will be an amazing breakthrough in public health.

BOLDUAN: Yes, no kidding. You mentioned the CDC vaccine advisory board. The reading this week these conversations and their recommendations are so critical, and they're going to be making recommendations of who should be getting the vaccine first. But also just on the larger effort that is going to be required. What this is going to look like I don't think people yet appreciate, Dr. Besser, what a massive effort this vaccine program is going to be across the country and across the world. Can you help put that in perspective for folks?

BESSER: Well it's - you know, there are several aspects of that. One is just the manufacturing of a vaccine to scale. If you think about the need to vaccinated seven, eight billion people around the globe for this pandemic, that's absolutely incredible. This vaccine and the Pfizer vaccine require two doses, so being able to track people who've got vaccines to make sure they receive the same vaccine each time, that the timeframe is correct as people move from place-to-place being able to know that's taking place, and then each vaccine will have its own storage requirements, and we know that the Pfizer vaccine requires ultra cold temperatures. The technology for that is something that's new, and being able to deliver that to people how live in rural areas, you know, there are big equity issues here.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

BESSER: You know, you don't want vaccines just to go to those people who are socially connected and have resources. You want them to go to the populations who are most affected, and we know in this pandemic black, Latino, native Americans have been infected, hospitalized, and have been dying at incredibly high rates, but in some of those groups you see major issues in trust. So that's another aspect of scaling a vaccine is working with communities, making sure that people have trust so that if there is a safe and effective vaccine people are going to want to get it.

BOLDUAN: And included in that, I think there is some basic - we all have some - a lot of people have questions on just a basic level with this vaccine. Do we know what vaccine the general public is going to get assuming that more than one vaccine is approved? Are people going to have a choice do you think of which vaccine they could get, and do you have - do we know how much this is going to cost?

BESSER: Well I think over time there will be many more vaccines that come forward for consideration of approval. And so, it's very likely that there'll be many. That's not unusual. I'm a general pediatrician, and when we're vaccinating children against whooping cough or hepatitis, there are a number of choices there. It can get confusing, and you - we have to track kids to make sure they're getting the same products over and over again. That's likely to be the case here, and it may turn out that certain vaccines are more effective in certain populations. We know from influenza that a high dose flu vaccines works better in the elderly than a standard dose flu vaccines, so it'll be important to see that. And the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices that advisees CDC, one of the important roles they play is just that, is to say who should get what vaccines, in what order, what's the appropriate approach to that. So after the FDA and their advisory committee decides whether a vaccine should be licensed, then it's the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices that tells practitioners who to recommend vaccines for, you know, and the timing of that, and recommends to people which ones they should think about getting.

[11:10:00]

BOLDUAN: It's so fascinating, Dr. Besser, because of course I've had my children, you know, they've both had the whooping cough vaccine. Never have I ever thought of which of the whooping cough vaccines has my - have my children been given, but that's the - (CROSSTALK)

BESSER: Right.

BOLDUAN: -- world that we're in when it comes to COVID. The Pfizer or the Moderna, I mean, it's just - this is - this is how important this is to all of us, and I just always depend so much on your expertise on this. Thank you.

BESSER: Thanks very much, Kate.

BOLDUAN: We really appreciate it. Coming up for us, President-Elect Joe Biden just announced his economic team, and they immediately will face crisis. Record lines at food banks across the country. We continue to see that. Yet the stock market is still hitting record highs. The task they have ahead. Also ahead for us, the number of people in need of hospital care from COVID is skyrocketing, especially in the Midwest. Hospitals stretched to the limit already. They're starting to be forced to turn patients away. We're going to take you to the - one frontline in St. Louis, Missouri.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:25:00]

President-Elect Joe Biden is breaking more barriers as he continues to fill out his White House team. This morning Biden formally announced his economic team with three women set to hold top positions. Janet Yellen, if confirmed, would become the first woman Treasury Secretary in U.S. history. And just yesterday Joe Biden also announced his communications team, again, led by all women. Another first. CNN's Jessica Dean is following the transition today. She's joining us now. Jessica, what are you learning - what more are you learning about these latest hires and what Joe Biden is rolling out?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Kate, we are getting this information this morning as they formally announced these Treasury - or these economic picks, and as we take a look at the people that he's going to nominate and appoint to lead his economic team, one thing that stands out is they are - this group is historically diverse. It is also full of experience in doing these sorts of - in working in these sorts of roles, and they all have years of experience in doing this sort of thing. Janet Yellen, as you mentioned would become the first woman to serve as Treasury Secretary. She actually tweeted earlier today. She said, "We face great challenges as a country right now. To recover we must restore the American dream. A society where each person can rise to their potential and dream even bigger for their children. As Treasury Secretary I will work every day toward rebuilding that dream for all."

Also interesting to point out Neera Tanden being nominated to serve as the Head of the Office of Management and Budget. Her nomination has sparked more outrage really from both sides of the aisle, progressive - form the progressive liberals but also from Republicans with a spokesperson for Senator John Cornyn saying she has no chance of being confirmed last night, so already kind of seeing that battle that might lie ahead.

You also mentioned the communications team. So today's announcement comes on the heels of yesterday's announcement of this all female senior team that will lead the communications effort for the White House. You see a lot of familiar faces there from the Biden campaign. It will be led by Kate Bedingfield as Comms Director and Jen Psaki as press secretary. Again, making history all women there. Kate -

BOLDUAN: Yes. And also over the weekend, Jessica, President-Elect Biden had to visit the doctor after a foot injury. Do you now how he's doing today?

DEAN: Well you will probably see him in a walking boot for several weeks. That's what his doctor is saying. We know that he was playing with his dog. Major, slipped, and that's when they though he twisted his ankle. He ended up going to the - to be checked out. They did an x-ray, didn't really see anything. Did a CT scan. That's when they found these small, tiny hairline fractures in his foot. So we're told again to expect him to be in a walking boot for several weeks, but Kate, what was interesting about that is last night as that was developing we were getting readouts on the Biden team on what exactly what was going on. Again, a contrast to President Trump and his medical history, including that trip to Walter Reed about a year ago. We still don't know why he went there.

BOLDUAN: Yes. I mean, the amount of medical information we're already getting and in real time from the Biden team is true stark contrast to what we've gotten from Donald Trump throughout all four years. It's good to see you, Jessica. Thank you.

DEAN: Thanks.

BOLDUAN: So while the transition is happening and Joe Biden will be president on January 20, President Trump continues to fight reality. Seven more states will be certifying their election results today, and just last night, Chris Krebs - he's the man who was in charge of overseeing our nation's election security - he reaffirmed in a new interview that this was the safest election in American history.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

CHRIS KREBS, FORMER U.S. DIRECTOR OF THE CYBERSECURITY AND INFRASTRUCTURE SECURITY AGENCY: The proof is in the ballots. The recounts are consistent with the initial count. And to me that's further evidence. That's confirmation that the systems used in the 2020 election performed as expected and the American people should have 100 percent confidence in their vote.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BOLDUAN: Remember, that same man - that is the man who President Trump fired for speaking out about election security. No surprise then that that is to convincing President Trump to back down, and he is not backing down. Continuing to push unfounded and baseless accusations about widespread voter fraud and rigged elections. Let me play for you what he wanted to talk about and what he wanted to say. His message in his first interview since the election.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is total fraud, and how the FBI and Department of Justice.

[11:20:00]

I don't know. Maybe they're involved, but how people are allowed to get away from this stuff - with this stuff is unbelievable. This election was rigged. This is the essence of our country. This is the whole ballgame and they cheated. Joe Biden did note get 80 million votes.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BOLDUAN: And of course there is no basis for any of that. The FBI and DOJ potentially being involved in voter fraud and rigging the election now, John Harwood. What do you even do with that interview?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It's crazy, isn't it? Joe Biden did in fact get 80 million votes in the election, and he's up about 4 percent over President Trump. Six million votes so far. Still rising as some of those ballots came in. Look, it's hard to reconcile why the president would say so many crazy lies about the election, but there are a couple of reasons for it. First of all it is instrumental for him to rally his base. Many of those 70 million plus people who voted for him are believing the lies that he's telling. That gives him a cause to push for future elections if he decides to run, keep his grip over the Republican Party in the meantime, extract money from his base for his political action committee, which is what he's doing now continuing to raise money, a little bit for the legal defense and a lot for the - for the president's political action committee.

It shields him from public embarrassment. Not admitting that he lost protects him from the embarrassment of saying, the humiliation of saying I lost the election to Biden. And it may be if he is able to persuade himself of those lies that he could protect his own ego. The president's fragile emotionally. He hates being labeled a loser. And so, if he can say this enough times that it was a fraudulent election, he didn't really lose, he may be able to convince himself that he was not a loser even though, of course, he was the loser of this election, Kate.

BOLDUAN: And doing so just puts contingent - puts a brighter and brighter spotlight on exactly that. That he has lost. That's it. It's good to see you, John. Thank you.

HARWOOD: Over and over.

BOLDUAN: Again and again. Thanks, buddy. Coming up for us, hospitals across the country are filling up, and it's only expected to get worse says the country's surgeon general, especially in the Midwest. We're going to take you to St. Louis, Missouri next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:27:18]

It is the one measure that seems to worry health experts the most when it comes to the pandemic - the number of people sick enough with coronavirus that they need hospital care. On Sunday, the nation passed another record high. More than 93,000 hospitalizations. That's the highest number since the start of the pandemic, and the Midwest is feeling the brunt of it. On Sunday, the seven-day average of hospitalizations in the St. Louis, Missouri region reached a new high as well for the third straight day. More than 900 patients in the hospital with COVID-related illnesses. Current models predict that the region's hospital system could run out of intensive care beds this week. Let's get a view from the ground there right now. Joining me right now is Dr. Alex Garza. He's the Chief Community Health Officer for the SSM Health Hospital Group in St. Louis and also serves as the head of the area's pandemic task force. Dr. Garza, thank you for being here. What is the status of where you are? How strained are things getting in your hospitals?

DR. ALEXANDER GARZA, INCIDENT COMMANDER, ST. LOUIS METRO PANDEMIC TASK FORCE: Yes. They're very strained. So I spent last Wednesday and Friday at one of our hospitals, and of course we had no ICU bed capacity on each of those days. We had to fly patients in critical care outside of the St. Louis metropolitan area to hospitals in the outlying areas because we simply didn't have any critical care capacity within the St. Louis metropolitan area, and that's a pretty scary thing when you're thinking about how do we take care of these patients going forward with limited capacity?

BOLDUAN: Doctor, it's a terrifying thing, and the patients that you're - in critical care that you're having to fly out, what are those patients suffering from? These are - these patients that are coming in with non-COVID related - non-COVID related emergencies I assume?

GARZA: Correct, it could be anything from a COVID-related emergency to any of the other medical emergencies that we handle whether it's heart attacks or strokes or any of a number of other things.

You know, I think what else people don't realize is the COVID statistics that we put out saying this is the number of COVID patients we're taking care of doesn't also include the patients that come back from complications from COVID. And so, it has this ripple effect downstream that really complicates how we can take care of all of the patients that are going to need care at our hospitals.

BOLDUAN: I think this is a message that people really do need to understand when they're seeing - they often see these numbers or hear these numbers that we report and you put out as well, and they need to understand that it's not someone else that's being hospitalized. When a hospital has filled up you can't get care if you are in an emergency at your - at your nearest hospital potentially. You're just

[11:30:00]