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FDA Chief at White House; GOP Silent on Election Outcome; Couple Shares their COVID-19 Story; Leaked Chinese COVID-19 Documents; U.S. Sets new COVID Record. Aired 9:30-10a

Aired December 01, 2020 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The urge to try to corrupt that process for immediate benefit. So he's attacked the vaccine companies, or the -- the pharmaceutical companies for having delayed the reporting of their successful phase three trials until after he lost the election to Joe Biden.

Now he is complaining that Pfizer's Emergency Use Authorization has not already been approved. But, of course, there is a process, a scientific process that governed both those phase three trials and governs the FDA's decision on the Emergency Use Authorization.

What does that involve? That involves decisions by career scientists looking at the safety and efficacy data and deciding it merits the Emergency Use Authorization. They consult with outside advisers as well.

President Trump cannot process the patient's required to permit that process to go forward. So Mark Meadows has summoned Stephen Hahn, the FDA commissioner, to explain that process. Hahn wanted to have this meeting over the phone.

Meadows said, no, you need to come to the White House. Wouldn't surprise me if President Trump walked in on that meeting and tried to put more pressure on Hahn. But Hahn's made pretty clear he's going to follow this process and that is expected to result in a meeting on February 10th, almost certainly the approval of Emergency Use Authorization -- did I say February 10th? I meant December 10th. That's next week.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

HARWOOD: Almost certainly the approval next week on December 10th and very quick shipment and distribution of those vaccines and beginning the process of vaccinating high risk individuals and health care workers after that. Not fast enough for President Trump, but that's the way it's going to work.

SCIUTTO: John Harwood, thanks very much. And thanks to the scientists who are sticking to the science. Well, the president's baseless claims of voter fraud are growing wilder and republicans still saying quite -- staying quiet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:36:24]

SCIUTTO: Today it is four weeks since Election Day, an election that Joe Biden won. But the entire Senate GOP leadership has yet to recognize Biden as president-elect. Why? They claim his victory is not official until state electors are chosen on December 14th. Fact is, that is an entirely new standard for them.

Back in 2016, when the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, won, they took no time at all to recognize him as president-elect. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is silent now, but four years ago it took less than a day for him to declare, quote, the American people have chosen a new direction for our nation.

When asked about Biden, Texas Senator John Cornyn says it will be, quote, taken care of on the 14th of December. But four years ago, Cornyn released a statement the day after the election saying he, quote, looked forward to working with then President-elect Donald Trump.

Senate Majority Whip John Thune says he doesn't agree that Biden is the president-elect today. Four years ago, his congratulations came one day after Election Day, too.

These are new standards, new statements from Republicans.

Let's go to CNN's Manu Raju on Capitol Hill this morning.

Manu, how are these GOP leaders justifying their silence now given that four years ago they congratulated right away?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're arguing that it's different because the president is making these claims in court, even though these claims in court are failing left and right and the president is seeing battleground state after battleground state certify the winner as Joe Biden.

And Republicans are frankly concerned about getting ahead of the president, getting on the wrong side of his Twitter finger, seeing what the president has been done to a number of local officials, governors and the like as he's gone after them for siding with the will of the voters rather than trying to overturn the elections.

And Republican senators are telling me they believe this will all sort itself out on December 14th. So they are trying to give it about two more weeks hoping it gets resolved by the time that the state electors are chosen and at that time they hope the president sees the writing on the wall and they do not have to get involved. Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, I asked him yesterday, would you consider Joe Biden president-elect? He did not answer that question. As you mentioned, John Cornyn, John Thune among the Republican leaders

who also don't want to go that far. I asked John Thune why not -- why is it not incumbent on Republicans to push back? And he said, look, there's a process playing out. We'll see the process play out. And at that point the most important thing right now is there's actually a transition happening.

But some Republicans, Jim, are pushing back. Mitt Romney who's been a frequent critic, has called the president's claims dangerous. And Lisa Murkowski, the Republican senator, told me that the president should concede.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

Well, their standards have changed, too, right, because initially they said legal process in court. Of course he's lost in court. Now they're talking about the electors being chosen.

Anyway, we'll try to keep up.

Manu Raju, thanks very much.

RAJU: Thanks, Jim.

SCIUTTO: You can watch Rev. Raphael Warnock and Senator Kelly Loeffler face off in a Georgia Senate debate. That debate in Georgia airs Sunday night at 7:00 Eastern Time right here on CNN.

And CNN gets an exclusive inside look at how China handled the coronavirus outbreak. What they knew, what they told the public during the early weeks of the pandemic.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:44:19]

SCIUTTO: Welcome back.

Well, nearly 100,000 COVID-19 patients are now hospitalized across the U.S. Our next guests, husband and wife, are among them. They are in the same hospital recovering from the virus but separated by three floors.

And joining me now are Mark and Kathryn Ahrens from their hospital beds.

Mark and Kathryn, so good to have you on this morning.

I suppose if I could begin with you, Catherine, just tell us how you're doing. How you're feeling.

KATHRYN AHRENS, COVID-19 PATIENT: (INAUDIBLE) lousy. One second you feel (INAUDIBLE) and then it's right back at you.

[09:45:01]

SCIUTTO: I get it. I can hear it in your voice.

Mark, you're in the same hospital. You're three floors apart. When's the last time you were able to see each other?

MARK AHRENS, COVID-19 PATIENT: In person was a little over three weeks ago.

That's got to be so tough, I imagine, Mark. I mean you're both individually going through something so hard. How do you manage? Are you able to talk to each other?

M. AHRENS: Yes, we -- she calls me and her daughter like Zooms with the grandkids. It's beautiful (ph).

SCIUTTO: I got it.

Now, Kathryn, you believe you were infected at a family social gathering with friends, which, listen, frankly, a lot of us are doing. A lot of people are doing around the country right now.

For folks at home who are listening, what advice, Kathryn, do you give to them?

K. AHRENS: Let me think. (INAUDIBLE) distancing from each other, staying (INAUDIBLE) staying (INAUDIBLE) in your boundaries.

SCIUTTO: Mark, I wonder --

K. AHRENS: (INAUDIBLE).

SCIUTTO: Mark, I wonder your advice, is it the same?

M. AHRENS: Pretty much. I would rather people listen to the scientists and the experts than just listen to anybody there because they're the ones that know what's really going on and they're the ones that know what will happen.

SCIUTTO: Mark, I know that this has gone through several generations of the family now, Kathryn's daughter, the grandchildren, they also had the virus. How is -- how are they doing?

M. AHRENS: Actually, they're doing pretty well. The grandchildren went through it really easy. So -- and --

SCIUTTO: Did you -- kids have advantages, I know.

Kathryn, can you tell us how they're treating you there, what kinds of things are they able to give you, medicines and so on?

K. AHRENS: Medication, pain medicine.

SCIUTTO: Any new -- any new treatments? I mean there are so many things out there. Are they giving you new treatments that have become available recently? K. AHRENS: Not that I'm aware of.

SCIUTTO: Well, listen, I know it's hard, Mark, because there are so many questions, even as you're being treated. I wonder, can you tell us, Mark, before we go, just what's your message to people? We've just come out of one holiday where so many families and friends got together. We're heading towards another, Christmas. What do you tell people as they consider having gatherings like that?

M. AHRENS: I would tell them to stay home because you might go see somebody this year and they won't be here next.

SCIUTTO: Yes. That's the sad reality of this.

Listen, Mark and Kathryn, we wish you both, your families, a quick recovery and I hope, too, that you get to see each other soon.

K. AHRENS: Me, too.

M. AHRENS: Yes, so do I.

SCIUTTO: I second that.

Mark and Kathryn, take care.

M. AHRENS: Thank you.

K. AHRENS: Take care.

SCIUTTO: Just two faces of what's affecting this country. So many people in so many places in so many states. And listen to that advice there, stay home.

Well, CNN has obtained leaked documents from inside China that reveal the missteps and the chaos of that country's early response to the coronavirus pandemic. The documents are from Hubei province, home of the city of Wuhan, where you may remember the pandemic is thought to have begun. They show authorities released misleading public data on the number of deaths and cases, took on -- took an average of three weeks to diagnose a new case and much more.

CNN international security editor Nick Paton Walsh explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR (voice over): An unprecedented leak of internal Chinese documents to CNN reveals for the first time what China knew in the opening weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic but did not tell the world. A whistleblower who said they worked inside the Chinese health care system shared the documents with CNN online, which show a chaotic local response from the start.

YANZHONG HUANG, SENIOR FELLOW FOR GLOBAL HEALTH, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: This lack of transparency sort of also contributed to the crises. DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PROFESSOR, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL

CENTER: Seeing information in black and white was very revealing and instructive.

WALSH: CNN has verified them with half a dozen experts, a European security official and using complex digital forensic analysis looking at their source code.

[09:50:03]

WALSH (on camera): The documents provide a number of key revelations about the province of Hubei, home to the epicenter city of Wuhan. Firstly, some of the death tolls were off of the worst day in these reports is February the 17th, where they say 196 people who were confirmed cases died, but that day they only announced 93.

WALSH (voice over): China was also circulating internally bigger, more detailed totals for new cases in Hubei. For one day in February, recording internally nearly 6,000 new cases. Some diagnosed by tests, others clinically by doctors and some suspected because of symptoms and contacts, but all pretty serious. Yet, publically, that day, China reported nationwide about 2,500 new confirmed cases. The rest were downplayed and an ongoing tally of suspected cases. That meant patients that doctors had diagnosed as being seriously ill sounded like they were in doubt, that it later improved the criteria.

DALI YANG, PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: If China had been more transparent, and also more aggressive in responding, clearly they would have had an impact on how much the virus spread in Wuhan, in Hubei in China and perhaps to the rest of the world as well.

WALSH: Strikingly, the documents reveal one possible reason behind the discrepancy in the numbers. A report from early March says it took a staggering 23 days on average from when someone showed COVID-19 symptoms to when they got a confirmed diagnosis. That's three weeks to officially catch each case.

HUANG: As information seems to be very surprising to me because normally it would take a, you know, just a couple of days.

SCHAFFNER: You're making policy today based on information that already is three weeks old.

WALSH: Perhaps the most remarkable revelations concerns early December, the moments when COVID-19 first emerged in China.

WALSH (on camera): Startlingly, these documents reveal there was an enormous spike in influenza cases in Hubei, right when studies have shown the very first known patients were infected with COVID-19, 20 times the number of flu cases compared to the same week the year before.

WALSH (voice over): Experts said it could have flooded the hospital system with patients sick from flu-like symptoms, making it harder to spot the first cases of COVID-19. The documents don't link the outbreak to coronavirus' origins directly, but they show flu patients were regularly screened and many did not have a known flu virus strain, leaving open the possibility they were sick with COVID-19.

HUANG: The spike, right (ph), in Wuhan was very unusual, like compared to previous years. And so that would raise a red flag.

SCHAFFNER: It was very, very sizable. It's clear that the Chinese virologist can make precise diagnoses of influenza. But in retrospect, you have to wonder, was there some COVID in there mascaraing as influenza?

WALSH: The documents also show the flu outbreak was biggest that first week in December, not in Wuhan but in two other cities nearby in Hubei, all valuable information in the hunt for where the disease came from.

Chinese officials have said the outbreak began here, the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan in mid-December. And despite western accusations that it has limited its cooperation with the WHO in investigation into the virus' origins, China has insisted it has been as transparent as possible over the coronavirus.

For some time now, in order to shift the blame, she said, some U.S. politicians have constantly used the pandemic and other issues as a pretext to smear and demonize China and sow lies and misinformation about China. This will, of course, seriously mislead citizens of the United States and some other western countries, understating of the truth of China's fight against the epidemic.

China's foreign ministry and health officials in Beijing and Wuhan have not responded to our requests for comment.

This disease has killed nearly 1.5 million people, about a fifth of known deaths in America. These documents, a rare, clear, and open window into what China knew all along, trying to appear in control, while a local outbreak turned into a global pandemic.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: A valuable story. Great reporting there.

Well, the CDC with a major decision today. Who should get the vaccine first?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:58:54]

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

Today, two critical meetings on tap as federal officials race to get a vaccine to you. Right now the head of the FDA, Stephen Hahn, is at the White House meeting with Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Sources tell us that President Trump is upset at how long it is taking for the agency to approve emergency use of Pfizer's vaccine. Hahn, to his credit, is vowing not to cave to political pressure when making that decision.

Also today, a CDC advisory panel will vote on who should get a vaccine first.

But here's where we stand this morning. More than 96,000 Americans are hospitalized with the coronavirus right now. Twenty-three states are reporting new record highs. And for the 28th straight day, more than 100,000 new infections were reported in this country. In total, more than 268,000 people have died. Perhaps you know some of them.

Let's begin with CNN correspondent Stephanie Elam in California, where the governor there says his state could impose new restrictions.

[10:00:01]

What restrictions, Stephanie, and when?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Jim.