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Biden Names Economic Team Today As Millions of Americans Struggle; Trump Asks Head of FDA Why Agency Hasn't Approved Vaccine Yet; California May See New Restrictions Due to Rising COVID-19 Cases; Florida Set to Surpass One Million COVID-19 Cases; CDC Panel Meeting Today to Decide Who Gets Vaccine First. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 01, 2020 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Are now hospitalized with COVID-19. Twenty- three states, nearly half the country, reporting record highs.

We're watching two critical meetings today. Hours from now a CDC advisory panel will vote on who should get a vaccine first. That's key. And just minutes from now, the head of the FDA, Stephen Hahn, he will be at the White House for what could be a very tense sit-down according to sources.

President Trump is frustrated at how long it is taking for the agency to green light Pfizer's vaccine for emergency use. Hahn to his credit is vowing not to let any political pressure impact this decision which is about medicine and science.

Our team is across the country this morning, let's begin with CNN correspondent Stephanie Elam in California where the governor says that his state could see new restrictions as hospitals there near capacity he worries by Christmas.

Stephanie, you know, it was months ago, California seemed to have this under control. Like so many places, it is way up again. What happens next?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and you know what, I actually asked the governor of California about that very point yesterday, Jim Sciutto, and he was saying that the issue here is that we are a really large state and you take a look at Los Angeles County which is the most populous county in the country, that you would expect to see these numbers rise. What he did point to, though, is the positivity rate and that is at 6.2 percent here in California.

Now it is up about 1.5 percent from two weeks ago so it's definitely increasing, but he's saying it's still at a lower percentage than some of these other states. Still, though, when you look at what we're dealing with here in California, when you listen to the secretary from the Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Mark Ghaly, talk about what this means going forward, we want to be done with the virus, but clearly we're not there. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. MARK GHALY, SECRETARY, CALIFORNIA HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: People just want to be done with this, but it doesn't take a break just because we're tired of it. We need to recalibrate for a short period of time what we do to keep this transmission down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: And here is the thing, across the nation while we want to be done with this, it's clear that we're setting new records in many different states in many different categories and that's part of the problem. Just taking a look at it, 47 states and the District of Columbia actually saw their number of COVID cases rise in November, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Also looking at this same indicator here 34 states as well as Puerto Rico had at least one record day in hospitalizations in November.

So if you look at this, it does paint a very dire picture for what we're going to see for this winter season -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes. I mean, the data points in one direction. We all have to be careful.

Stephanie Elam, thanks very much.

Now let's go to Florida where that state should surpass one million coronavirus infections today. Rosa Flores is in Miami beach.

And, Rosa, the governor there doubling down on his stance against a statewide mask mandate. And, you know, fudging the numbers here, right. He's claiming that nowhere have masks made a difference when in fact the data shows otherwise.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, you're absolutely right and the governor even getting testy with the reporter that asked him the question if he would consider a mask mandate in the state so much so that he answered her question with a question. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R), FLORIDA: Does that stop an outbreak in Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan? What about New Jersey? What about all these states where you have explosion in cases? So, I mean, at some point does the observed experience matter? I'm opposed to mandates, period. I don't think they work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: Governor Ron DeSantis also announced yesterday that schools will reopen for in-person instruction next semester. This as the state of Florida approaches a very grim milestone, it is expected to hit one million cases today.

I'm on Miami Beach at a testing site. Take a look and you'll see, again, this is a Tuesday after Thanksgiving, there is a long line of drive-thru testing and also walk-in testing. Now here's the reality on the ground here in Florida, hospitalizations

are up 28 percent in the state with more than 4,100 people waking up this morning in the state of Florida in hospital rooms. Now 20 percent -- about 20 percent of that total are right here in Miami-Dade County where I am.

Jim, now hospitalizations here have increased 37 percent, ICUs 35 percent and ventilator use up 46 percent in the past two weeks -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: That means folks are getting really sick from this. Rosa Flores, thank you.

So the question, who gets a vaccine first? This afternoon a CDC panel will vote on that list. CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now.

Elizabeth, tell us about this group, how they will decide, and are there any real big debates here on who gets this first?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Jim, there are some debates. So this is a group of independent experts.

[09:05:01]

They are mostly from universities. They are not technically CDC employees. They are advisers to the CDC and they will meet and they will be asked this afternoon what do you think about these two groups? What do you think about these two groups going first? And we are thinking -- the thinking is that they will say yes to these two groups.

So let's take a look at who these two groups are. It's people who are health care workers, doctors, nurses, et cetera, and also nursing home residents and other residents of long-term care facilities. Again, that's the question they'll be asked, should these two groups go first, and the thinking is that this group will say yes, those two should go first, followed by some other high risk groups and those other high risk groups are groups such as the elderly who are not in nursing homes, people with underlying medical conditions and essential workers such as police officers and firefighters -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: All right. So most likely first date that one of those -- assuming they go down this path of these two groups, the first time health care workers or nursing home residents get vaccines, what's the most likely first time?

COHEN: So that likely first date is going to be sometime in the second half of December. That's what Dr. Anthony Fauci tells us. He said second half of December may be just before the Christmas holidays so look for that to be the time when vaccinations start for these very highest of high risk groups then in the months to follow other high risk groups. If you're not in one of these high risk groups then likely you will have to wait until the end of April at the earliest to get a vaccination according to Dr. Fauci -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: All right. Patience. Patience. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks very much.

We're joined now by infectious diseases expert, Dr. Amesh Adalja, he's a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security.

Doctor, good to have you back on the program.

DR. AMESH ADALJA, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT: Thanks for having me.

SCIUTTO: Let's begin here because it sounds simple to say, OK, health care workers get this first and then the next round people with underlying conditions, but when I look at those -- I mean, health care workers fall into a whole host of categories, right? I mean, you have people actually treating patients but also doctors who don't necessarily see COVID patients. And then underlying conditions, goodness, I mean, that's such a long and wide list, could encompass so many tens of millions of Americans.

So how do you get a finer point on these categories?

ADALJA: So what will likely happen is that when a hospital, for example, gets allocated vaccine they may say we're going to give this to emergency medicine doctors, critical care physicians, hospitalists, infectious disease physicians, the ones that are dealing with the most COVID patients first and the nurses that are working in those units, and then it may trickle out to other health care workers.

It's going to be difficult, and I think it probably will vary from hospital to hospital, and maybe even state to state. This is sort of what happened during 2009, during the h1n1 pandemic, it was not very -- there was not a lot of clarity. I actually had to stand in line at a high school to go get my vaccine even though I was taking care of h1n1 patients and it came late.

So it is going to be something that there's going to be hiccups and it's going to probably have to be some fine gradation done but it is going to be health care workers and I think that's the right thing because, you know, we really are inundated with patients right now.

SCIUTTO: All right. So I worry when I look at that about the potential for favoritism, right? We've already seen that with some of these experimental treatments, I mean, things that the president got access to when he went to Walter Reed and other folks in the administration not necessarily widely available to Americans who get sick from this.

Are you concerned that, you know, that folks who have some influence maybe a little more money move to the front of the line when vaccines are handed out?

ADALJA: That's definitely a concern and I've already been called by reporters that have been asking me if sports athletes and Olympic athletes are going to be getting the vaccine first. So there's clearly that kind of jockeying going on. Hopefully that won't happen, hopefully it will be transparent.

You have to remember. this vaccine is a scarce resource. We're in the middle of a pandemic and what we're trying to do with this vaccine is have it -- have the biggest impact on the trajectory of the vaccine -- of the pandemic. So that means health care workers, high-risk individuals. That's what's crowding our hospitals right now are people, for example, from nursing homes. So you want to end this pandemic, get back to normalcy, you have to use the vaccine strategically and we have to use science and epidemiology to say where is it going to have the biggest impact?

It's not going to be vaccinating wealthy people or vaccinating professional athletes. It's going to be health care workers and nursing home patients, other high risk individuals.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Yes. They need some oversight to make sure that happens.

OK. Let's talk about where we are now because there's still going to be time for the vast majority of the country has access to this. Coming out, we're already in a bad place as a country. Going to Thanksgiving, a lot of people travel, family gatherings, et cetera. It's expected the numbers on the side of the screen are going to tick up.

What do we know right now about what's really driving this expanded outbreak as we look at the graph there of the cases? Is it restaurants and bars or is it gatherings that folks are having at home, social, family, with friends, otherwise?

[09:10:00]

ADALJA: So this is a bit controversial and it has to do with the fact that we don't have complete capture of all the data through case investigations and case contact traces. You have to remember, though, that this is a big country and this outbreak is heterogeneous. Even though it's all red when you look on the screen and every place is going up, it's different. So for example, in El Paso it might be restaurants but for example where I'm sitting in Pittsburgh it really hasn't been restaurants.

So you have to look at that data and then take targeted public health actions that are going to have an impact. And it becomes much harder when it is private gatherings in certain locations because that's something that's very hard for public health to reach into or to actually have any input into because you have to get people to actually heed those recommendations whereas if it's in a restaurant or a gym you can put in mitigation, you can decrease capacity, you can have them change -- you can look at them and see exactly what's going on. Are people not wearing masks? That kind of thing.

But it's really going to be 50 different outbreaks and even multiple different types of outbreaks in a state. So that makes it much harder where we are epidemiologically.

SCIUTTO: Let's talk about schools because you said you've been glad to see schools reopening here and, again, we've seen a sort of scatter shot approach here, some places close, some don't, some close and then reopen, we saw that in New York. What does the data show? I mean, have schools turned out to be big epicenters of this or no? And given that what should schools be doing?

ADALJA: Schools haven't been shown to be accelerators of spread. And if you look at the New York City experience the number of positives related to the school system was very, very low. And I think that's why you saw Mayor de Blasio reverse the decision and start to reopen the schools, especially for younger children who are less likely to spread it. When you get into high school they do behave a little bit more like adults so you might get more transmission, but I do think that the priority needs to be having schools open.

It needs to be the default and we have to make schools safe, we have to do testing, we have to be measured about it. But I think that the data shows that this is something that can be done safely and it really needs to be something where they're prioritizing school openings. In Pittsburgh, you can sit around a blackjack table but you can't go to school. So I think that there is a little bit of difference in priorities and I think this needs to be fixed and the data actually supports this being able to be done safely. So I think that states should be moving forward with this.

SCIUTTO: Big impact on students and families. Dr. Amesh Adalja, thanks so much.

ADALJA: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well, millions of Americans are looking to Biden's incoming economic team as they struggle without jobs still and many even without food to feed their families. What this new administration is planning to do about it?

Plus, as the president goes wild with baseless election fraud claims -- he's lying, folks -- most of the Republican Party remains silent. Why is that?

And a husband and wife battle COVID in the hospital three floors apart. Their message for Americans not taking this virus seriously as holiday season gets in full swing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:15:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Happening soon, President-elect Biden will announce the team he has picked to tackle this country's economic troubles. Right now, sadly, evictions are climbing, food lines and you've seen them on this broadcast, are growing, and 12 million Americans could lose their unemployment the day after Christmas. CNN's Jessica Dean is in Wilmington with more on the president-elect's picks and his plans for the first 100 days. Jessica, who are the team and what are going to be his priorities when he takes office?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, you just laid out what a dire situation this economic team is going to face if they are confirmed, and when they inherit this economy in January. He will -- President-elect Biden will announce that economic team a little later this afternoon, of course, Janet Yellen will be announced as the Treasury Secretary nominee, and you see the full complement of nominees and appointees that will be introduced later today.

Of course, they have a giant job in front of them, it's one of Biden's top priorities, and we're learning more about what he hopes to do in his first 100 days in office, which is always a critical time for any new president, but especially so when you're facing so many crisis all at one time. And so, here is what we're learning, number one, and this is pretty clear based on what Biden has been doing, spending the bulk of his time on since becoming president-elect is contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also that broad economic aid package, that's where this economic team comes in, they want to put together and work with people on the Hill to put together a stimulus package, get this economy going again, help people who need it, those people who are waiting in food lines, people who don't have jobs. Tackling racial inequality, and then of course, a series of executive actions aimed at advancing Biden's priorities. They had hoped they would have better support in the Senate, right now, we don't know who is going to have control of the Senate, but even if Democrats take those two seats in Georgia, it's going to be tight, Jim. So, they have a lot to do, but all of those things, COVID, racial inequality and the economy, Jim, Biden says all kind of tie together and intersect at a variety of places. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Jessica Dean, good to have you there, thanks so much. With me now is Peter Orszag, he is the former director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Obama, also happens to be married to my colleague, Bianna. Peter, good to have you on this morning.

PETER ORSZAG, FORMER DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT & BUDGET: Good to be with you.

SCIUTTO: So, you write in an op-ed this morning that in your view, job number one for the Biden team should be to address healthcare costs, particularly disparity, what you pay in one place versus another place with no different outcome. Tell us why and how does the Biden administration address that?

ORSZAG: Well, actually, the first priority is to deal with the pandemic, so the question becomes what do you do after that? But priority number one has to be the pandemic and also avoiding undue harm to the economy. You were highlighting some of the things, but, look, there's a protection against evictions that is going to expire at the end of December. We need to make sure that we're not making the situation worse before then moving on to some of the underlying structural things that also need attention, and in that category is making our healthcare system more efficient.

[09:20:00]

SCIUTTO: What can the Biden administration do if Democrats lose control of the Senate? You know how Mitch McConnell has led Republican majorities before, including when President Obama was around, can he do any of this by executive order or does it all hang in the balance of what happens in Georgia in January? ORSZAG: There's a lot that you can do by executive action, but I'm

also hopeful that even if the Senate is Republican, that there will be legislation, maybe not big legislation, maybe not transformational legislation, but I think you're still going to be able to do targeted pieces of legislation and not just rely solely on executive action. So, there is clearly a lot that needs to be done, much or at least part of it can be done through the executive branch and through executive action. But I also wouldn't completely discount even a Republican Senate, hopefully there will be at least kind of micro legislation that allows you to move forward on some targeted initiatives.

SCIUTTO: Let's talk about stimulus because as you know, that has stumbled for weeks, months now really, and there is now discussion again among a small group of Democrats and Republicans about a smaller stimulus plan the Democrats had thought. In your view, is a small stimulus better than nothing?

ORSZAG: Yes, it is, and let's review where we are. Pandemic hit, the CARES Act provided such a massive amount of assistance that we've been living off of that cushion for a while. So in the second quarter of this year, the economy fell 10 percent, family income went up 10 percent because of the very aggressive action that was taken. So we've got this buffer of savings that has been tiding us over, but we're burning through that, and without action, we will suffer the consequences unnecessarily so of the ongoing pandemic.

So, there is a lot that we can be doing to try to mitigate not only the pandemic itself, but also the economic impact. That requires more stimulus, and frankly, anything at this point would be helpful.

SCIUTTO: The data seems to show that from the CARES Act, what really worked was putting money in people's pockets as you say, supporting incomes. There are a lot of the stuff done to protect businesses didn't necessarily protect jobs in the way it was intended. Do you agree with that view and should that inform then what this next even smaller stimulus package looks like and focuses on?

ORSZAG: Yes, all the more so because one of the underlying tensions as we emerge gradually from the pandemic is there are going to be changes in the economy. You don't want to just freeze frame what we had before and preserve absolutely everything because the reality is moving on, you don't want to create zombie firms that are propped up only because of federal support. So the more that the assistance is targeted at individuals at this point, the better in my opinion.

SCIUTTO: Final question, the "Wall Street Journal" writes today that these advisors as selected by Biden so far are Obama-era, he says that they're going to bring back what the journal calls "secular stagnation", more regulation, higher taxes. What's your response to that criticism?

ORSZAG: I think the "Wall Street Journal" editorial page has always been a bit off. Secular stagnation was not caused by Obama policies, though Obama policies tried to offset that. So I think President-elect Biden has put together a fantastic team, they are a coherent team and I think they're well-equipped to deal with the many challenges that we face ahead.

SCIUTTO: Peter Orszag, thanks so much for taking the time this morning.

ORSZAG: Thanks for having me.

SCIUTTO: Well, just minutes from now when politics tries to collide with science, the head of the FDA prepared to explain that it is up to the scientists, not the politicians to approve a vaccine, not to him. And we're just moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street, the markets look to start the new month higher. Next hour, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Fed Chair Jerome Powell will testify to the Senate Banking Committee. A prepared remarks ahead of the hearing, Powell said the outlook for the nation's economy is, quote, "extraordinarily uncertain, and the recovery depends on keeping the coronavirus pandemic in check." We'll have more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:25:00]

SCIUTTO: Welcome back. Well, the head of the FDA called to the White House to explain the vaccine timeline. Sources close to the president say he is privately demanding to know why Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine has not been approved yet for emergency use. Let's go to CNN White House correspondent John Harwood, of course, this is not the first time we've been concerned about the president interfering perhaps would deny the politics into the scientific questions about vaccine approval. What do we know?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we know is that Stephen Hahn, the FDA Commissioner has arrived at the White House for that meeting with Mark Meadows. And this is another case that illustrates the point, Jim, that Mary Trump made in her book this Summer, which is that President Trump has the emotional makeup of a small child. He cannot handle delayed gratification. So vaccine development is a legitimate triumph that has occurred on his watch, but he cannot resist the urge to try to corrupt that process for immediate benefit. So he's attacked the vaccine companies or the pharmaceutical companies for having.