Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Soon: Biden Introduces Economic Team As Millions Of Americans Struggle; Soon: CDC Panel Votes On Who Will Get Vaccine First; Right Now: FDA Chief At White House As Trump Asks Why Agency Hasn't Authorized Vaccine Yet. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired December 01, 2020 - 11:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:19]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. Thank you so much for joining me this hour. And there's a lot going on that we're tracking this hour. President-elect Joe Biden is about to formally announce key members of his economic team.

A team that will be tasked with tackling a historic economic crisis brought on by the pandemic that has forced millions upon millions of Americans to lose their jobs, struggle to put food on their tables and even struggle to stay in their homes. We're going to take you to Wilmington, Delaware when that event begins.

We're also watching the CDC set to hold a critical meeting this afternoon in determining who will be first in line to get the coronavirus vaccine. This, as vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna await emergency use authorization from the FDA which could happen within weeks. So, this meeting comes at a critical juncture.

But the timetable apparently still isn't fast enough for President Trump. FDA chief Dr. Stephen Hahn was summoned to the White House this morning to meet with Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and sources tell CNN, President Trump is privately have been demanding to know why the FDA hasn't yet given the green light for Pfizer's vaccine.

This demand clearly concerning enough to the FDA's chief that he felt compelled to put out a statement defending the agency and its process last night. We'll have much more on that in just a second.

But first, let's get to the latest troubling sign of how the surge of the virus right now is only getting worse, not better. Hospitals being pushed to the brink as the number of Americans requiring hospital care because of COVID continues to shatter records, now on a daily basis.

CNN's Stephanie Elam is live in Los Angeles. She's tracking the latest from there. Stephanie, the numbers where you are worse every day. How are hospitals coping?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're looking at these numbers rising here, Kate, as we're looking at the hospitalizations coming close to record numbers in California. But if you look at the country overall, 34 states and Puerto Rico all had at least one record day for hospitalizations in November according to Johns Hopkins University and that does bode for a very dark winter ahead for the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELAM (voice-over): The coronavirus pandemic not abating. At least 43 states are over the crucial 5 percent test positivity threshold. More than 96,000 Americans now hospitalized with the coronavirus, another high for the country.

GOV. MIKE DEWINE (R-OH): We have to do everything we can during this very serious time, when our hospitals are really being hit, to slow down the transmission.

ELAM: Governor Mike DeWine said more than 5,000 people are hospitalized with the coronavirus in Ohio, the most for the state throughout the entire pandemic.

STACEY MORRIS, COVID UNIT NURSE MANAGER, AKRON GENERAL: Our numbers have just risen so quickly and so drastically.

JAMIE GIERE, UPPER VALLEY MEDICAL CENTER NURSE: We're seeing healthy -- healthy individuals come in, and -- and they just -- they decline so quickly.

ELAM: This field hospital in Rhode Island is starting to receive patients after hospitals in the state surpassed their capacity.

DR. LAURA FOREMAN, MEDICAL DIRECTOR OF THE CRANSTON FIELD HOSPITAL SITE: We're expecting to -- to be taking care of a lot of folks here. We didn't have to be here, knowing that, had we, as a population, come together and all stayed safe and stayed distanced and stayed home and stayed masked, that we could have avoided this.

ELAM: And in California, the recent surge of new cases forcing Los Angeles County last weekend to implement another stay-at-home order for its 10 million residents.

The governor warning new restrictions could be coming as the state predicts some hospitals could be near capacity by Christmas without intervention.

DR. MARK GHALY, SECRETARY, CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF 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 transition down.

ELAM: As experts warn Thanksgiving travel and gatherings will likely cause a worsening surge in coming weeks, the CDC Vaccine Advisory Committee expected to make recommendations later today on who will receive the vaccines first when they are available.

DR. MONCEF SLAOUI, CHIEF SCIENTIFIC ADVISOR, OPERATION WARP SPEED: What's important to note is the number of those, is the amount of vaccine that we have is still limited in comparison to the needs. So, it's going to take a while for all Americans who need it on a priority level to get it.

ELAM: Drug makers Pfizer and Moderna have submitted their vaccines to the FDA for emergency use authorization. The FDA will consider Pfizer's vaccine on December 10 and Moderna's one week later on December 17th.

Dr. Anthony Fauci urging Americans to get a vaccine.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: If you want to be part of the solution, get vaccinated.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[11:05:00]

ELAM (on camera): It's really worth noting here in Los Angeles County how quickly things can change. Right now, according to the Los Angeles county Health Department the test positivity rate 9.4 percent for just yesterday of that data that they revealed to us. A month ago, it was 3.7 percent. This is why we are now in a stay-at-home order here in Los Angeles county and this is why other counties within California could see a similar move made there as well. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Stephanie, thank you very much.

Now to the White House and the president's pressure campaign today on the FDA to authorize Pfizer's COVID vaccine.

Let's go to our CNN's John Harwood. He is at the White House tracking all this. So, John, Stephen Hahn called over to meet with the president's chief of staff. What is going on here? What's going on behind the scenes?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: What's going on, Kate, is an effort to satisfy or respond to the president's childlike impatience with the normal process of approval of this vaccine. Remember, President Trump has been hectoring the drug companies after they announced their positive results for not having done so until after the election when he was defeated by Joe Biden.

That was, of course, according to scientific protocol. They were following the phase 3 trials. When they got the data, they reported it. That set-in motion the process of approving the emergency use authorization, which is something that will take place probably next week, on January - excuse me, December 10th, when the FDA meets.

But the president is demanding why hasn't that happened already? Of course, that's not a decision that the FDA commissioner makes individually. It's career scientists at the FDA, in consultation with outside advisers that they talk to.

The president isn't satisfied with that. So, Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, called in Stephen Hahn. Hahn wanted to have the meeting by phone, but Meadows insisted it be in person. Don't know what transpired exactly at that meeting whether the president joined it and added some more pressure but that's what's going on.

BOLDUAN: When confidence in the vaccine is paramount, calling someone over, the head of the FDA, to pressure them about this, that doesn't help. John, thank you very much.

Joining me right now for much more on this is Ruth Karron. She's a director of the Center for Immunization Research at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She's also previously served on the CDC panel, that advisory panel we've talked so much about that is meeting today.

Doctor, your expertise is so important right now. On the meeting that will be happening today, what are you expecting to come from -- look, it is now a highly anticipated CDC advisory board meeting today. Everyone is waiting to see what could come out. What do you think will?

DR. RUTH KARRON, FOUNDING DIRECTOR, JOHNS HOPKINS VACCINE INITIATIVE: So good morning, Kate. And good to be with you. I think that today we will be hearing clearly from the CDC what the prioritization is. What their recommendations are for priority groups to receive COVID-19 vaccines.

As we've all heard we hope that eventually everyone will get vaccinated but initially there won't be enough vaccine for everybody. So, it's very important for us to think through and be clear and transparent about how we prioritize and move through our population offering vaccines.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And we also just heard from the head of Operation Warp Speed saying very clearly that, as you well know, the need far outpaces the initial supply of the vaccine, even amongst the high risk group, even amongst the priority group that we've been talking and hearing so much about from frontline workers to 65 and older to people with preexisting -- with co-morbidities and so on. How does the advisory panel balance these demands?

KARRON: Well, what I would say, so a number of people have weighed in on these demands. The National Academy of Medicine put out their own guidance earlier this year. And the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, ACIP, very clearly uses an ethics framework to look at risks and benefits in allocating what initially will be a small supply of vaccine that will grow every month.

BOLDUAN: What about even more simple questions that I know folks have. Like, will Americans have a choice which vaccine they eventually take? Is there a group of Americans that should not get the vaccine? What about simple questions -- I don't know if they're simple questions, I guess there isn't one when it comes to vaccine distribution. But is that going -- do you expect that to come out from the panel today as well?

[11:10:02]

KARRON: I don't expect to hear that information specifically from the panel. We have two vaccines, as you know, that are going to the FDA in very short order. The Pfizer vaccine will be discussed by the FDA on December 10th. The Moderna vaccine will be discussed on December 17th.

The data that we have -- we will see much more data during those two meetings, which are live streamed and open to the public. There are not data that I'm aware of that suggests different benefit for different populations. So far, the benefit actually seems to be spectacular across the board and it's important to emphasize for both of those vaccines, not only 94 to 95 percent efficacy against all COVID-19 disease, but 100 percent efficacy against severe disease, which is really a remarkable, remarkable achievement.

So, I don't anticipate that there will be, given the two vaccines that we have now, any sort of preferential recommendation. There are other vaccines in the pipeline still being evaluated. Whether we have preferential recommendations down the road for those vaccines remains to be seen.

BOLDUAN: Doctor, I want to get your reaction because a big part of the process from now and going forward is building trust amongst the public to -- surrounding the vaccine. And when you hear the reporting that we have as John Harwood was just talking about that the FDA commissioner had been summoned to the White House this morning to meet with the president's chief of staff because the president privately been demanding to know why the FDA hasn't already granted emergency use approval for the Pfizer vaccine, when you hear that, as someone who has a lot of experience in the vaccine approval process, what's your reaction to this?

KARRON: Well, my reaction is that I absolutely trust in the judgment of the FDA career scientists and of the independent advisory panel in making EUA determinations. I'd like to say that building public trust doesn't come once you have a vaccine out in the community. It starts at the very beginning. And I think the FDA vaccine groups should be congratulated on their rigor and on their transparency and how they have pursued this.

They've put out guidance this summer in general about COVID-19 vaccines. They came out with guidance this fall, specifically around EUAs and COVID-19 vaccines that were absolutely, as I said, rigorous and transparent, and their processes are transparent.

They -- it's not required that they include the advisory committee VRBPAC in their deliberations. But they are, and in doing so, the deliberations are public. And I think you can't have trust, particularly in these times without that kind of deliberate and transparent process.

BOLDUAN: Dr. Karron, thank you very much.

KARRON: You're welcome.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, what Joe Biden's picks for his economic team tell you about how he'll try to rescue the pandemic battered economy. That's coming up.

Plus, one doctor's warning. We are watching a system breaking in front of us and we're helpless to stop it. We're going to take you to Nebraska.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:18:02]

BOLDUAN: Soon President-elect Joe Biden will be introducing his team picked to confront the economic crisis brought on by the pandemic. So far, he has named three women who would make history if confirmed by the Senate, Janet Yellen as Treasury secretary, along with as you see over there, Neera Tanden to lead the Office of Management and Budget and Cecelia Rouse to chair the council of economic advisers. Both Neera as well as Cecelia, both of whom would be the first women of color in such high-profile roles if confirmed.

But what do these hires say about Biden's focus for the economy coming in.

Joining me right now is Rana Foroohar, CNN's global economic analyst and global business columnist and associate editor for the "Financial Times," as well as CNN political correspondent Abby Phillips. It's great to see you guys. Rana, you just wrote about this, saying, you said Janet Yellen is a home run. The right woman for the times. Why is that?

RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: Well, you know, she hits to all fields. I mean she's a labor economist. She is someone who has thought about unemployment and working people for her entire career. Many of her policies have been about trying to get to full employment. She's willing to run the economy, traditionally a little hot to do that. You know, as Fed chair, she definitely kept rates low, kept the easy money spigots on.

But that said, she's also concerned about debt. She's voiced concern about longer term fiscal positions in the U.S. So, I think that's going to appeal to both progressives that want someone focused on employment, but also more moderate Democrats and even some conservatives that are worried about debt.

BOLDUAN: The only reason I smile is someone concerned about debt. That's like she's the only person in Washington that would be concerned about debt at this point after what we've seen. Let's be honest.

(LAUGHTER)

Abby, as Rana's touching on, when you look at the backgrounds and bios of Biden's top picks here, you see long-time champions of organized labor, longtime workers' rights and unemployment and full employment. Some things that are very clearly in contrast, in terms of background and biography from President Trump's economic team.

[11:20:06]

What do you think that means for the Biden economic agenda? What policies they're going to be pushing and promoting early on? ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: One of the big things that I know that they are focused on is the income inequality that has been accelerating in this country and made worse by the pandemic. And the reality is, that not only is the country in a terrible situation in terms of unemployment, but there is this incredible divide that we see every day when we look at those food lines and see thousands of Americans lining up to go to food pantries and then you see the wealthiest people getting richer.

And the Biden campaign is focused on that, believing that tackling that issue is a short-term and long-term priority for them. It is both a messaging issue, in terms of their ability to kind of message to working class voters and a practical issue because you know this is a consumer economy by and large and if Americans don't have money to spend on things, the economy can't get back up and running.

So, I do see kind of a pivot to that kind of focus. And in some ways, that's something that actually can have a lot of appeal to both sides of the Democratic Party. We've talked a lot about maybe appealing on the Republican side, but Biden also has to deal with progressives and the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party and they are very focused on issues of inequality, very focused on issues of labor and on issues of working-class Americans.

And I think by Biden signaling to those people that he's focused on that too it will help him as he tries to move some of the people along but also get the backing especially in the House for some of his economic policies as well.

BOLDUAN: That's a good point. You know one of the biggest challenges that Biden's team will face, one of the biggest challenges of the country is facing is up against right now. I would argue as just Congress. They are all - I'm talking about - let's not even call it a stimulus - the stimulus package anymore. Let's call it --it's relief and aid, which is what the country needs.

You talk to small businesses. You talk to people standing in those food lines. This is relief that they need, that they're begging for from Congress. They all say, both of you can answer this. That the country needs - that Congress needs to do something to help the country get back on its feet, help people stay in their homes, help people extend unemployment benefits but they cannot get to yes. Rana, would you like to venture to guess if they ever will?

FOROOHAR: You know it's a great question. Again, I think that some of the candidates that we're seeing on the Biden economic team are meant to be the sort of people that can reach across the aisle. Mitch McConnell is doing a lot to poison the waters here, but there are a certain number of Republicans, I would put you know Marco Rubio, Rob Portman, Josh Hawley in the camp of -- you know we are going to need some stimulus not just as a relief package now but as a longer term plan to help secure supply chains, to help have a little bit more resiliency in the American economy.

So there is - I do think that there is still a possibility that you could get a bigger package but the good news is that the Treasury secretary as chairman of the FSOC board, the Financial Stability Oversight Council still has a lot of levers to pull to reconnect main street and Wall Street. I think you're going to see Janet Yellen, if she's confirmed and some of the others on the team, Gary Gensler, who was a big regulator during the Clinton years. I think that you're going to see those - excuse me, the Obama years.

You're going to see those folks coming in and thinking about ways to curb wall street. Thinking about ways that, OK, if we are going to have to keep interest rates low, if we are going to have to run the economy, how can we make sure that we don't brew up these enormous financial bubbles in -- while we're trying to keep people employed. So, I think that will be something that can happen.

BOLDUAN: First and foremost, it's past the point of disappointment in Congress, both Democrats and Republicans. They can hit me on it if they want, but it is both sides on this one as well.

Good to see you both. Abby, thank you. Rana, thank you very much.

Still ahead for us, Florida is about to become the third state to hit 1 million coronavirus infections. What's happening there? We're going to take you there to find out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:29:04]

BOLDUAN: When it comes to the coronavirus pandemic, help is on the way. Pfizer and Moderna filing for emergency use authorization for their vaccines. And it could come in a matter of weeks. But here is the other side of reality right now.

96,000 that is the number that should hit you like a ton of bricks. It's not the number of people who have COVID but are asymptomatic. It's not the number of people who have the sniffles. It is the number of people who are so sick with COVID in America that they need hospital care. So sick with COVID they can't recover at home.

That is a number that isn't fungible. It isn't up for interpretation. That is a cold - that is cold, hard data that should hit home and hit hard. It's a number that is straining hospitals, doctors, and nurses nationwide. And it could collapse the system if people don't change behavior and just continue to give in to COVID fatigue.

Help is on the way. But it is not here. Until it is here. CNN's Rosa Flores is at a testing site in Miami Beach, Florida with more of the reality of today.