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Doctors Raise Concerns About Vaccinating Long-Term Care Patients First; Trump Using Military Funding In Threat Against Tech Giants; Obama Cautions Activists Against Using "Defund The Police" Slogan; Obama: Democrats Need To Make Room For New Voices In Party; Biden's Team Narrows List For Next HHS Secretary. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired December 02, 2020 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[14:30:00]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Health care workers and those living in long-term care facilities will be first in line to get a coronavirus vaccine once it is approved.
A group of independent CDC advisers share that recommendation yesterday. This received overwhelming support for all except for one member of the 14-person panel.
The one person came from Dr. Helen Keipp Talbot, joining us to discuss this.
Doctor, thank you for joining us.
Tell us why you vote against this. What is your concern having these long-term care facilities being in that first tranche?
DR. HELEN KEIPP TALBOT, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Absolutely.
First, I want to make clear that I think health care workers definitely need to be in the first group. I feel very comfortable for voting for the health care workers. I think they'll set an amazing example and be able to keep working.
I think my concerns for the long-term care facility is we don't have any data.
It would be lovely to have clinical trials in the long-term facilities so we know exactly what efficacy we'll see. In other words, how well the vaccine works. And to know exactly what side effects to expect.
KEILAR: So when you think of this being used in long-term care facilities without the data you want to see -- you obviously think the what the worst-case scenario could be, and what is that to you?
TALBOT: I think the worst-case scenario is that normal life events will be blamed on the vaccine. Someone will have a heart attack. Someone will have a stroke. Things happen. And they'll be temporarily associated with vaccine. They won't be
caused by the vaccine, but there may be confusion and people may thing that.
And that will cause a lack of vaccine confidence.
KEILAR: This is the most vulnerable population, those in long-term care facilities.
We have seen them be incubators for the virus throughout this pandemic.
So how do long-term care facilities fit into the roll-out and distribution of the vaccine?
TALBOT: Actually, I think the most important part of the long-term care facilities are not the residents, though they were incredibly important in the vaccine.
It's the people who work at the long-term care facility. If they can be vaccinated and they prevent transmission, if they prevent the virus from getting near the patients and residents, it will be much more effective.
So really the key is vaccinating everybody who works or visits in the -- visits in the long-term care facilities.
KEILAR: You were the dissenting voice. If it's likely that the recommendation of the vast majority of this panel is accepted, is it likely any of this is adjusted, considering the concerns are racing here?
TALBOT: I think it gave me the opportunity to speak up and say we need to start studying viruses in older adults that live in nursing homes and in long-term care facilities.
Coronavirus is not the first virus to cause large numbers of deaths in nursing homes.. Influenza does it yearly. Respiratory virus does it yearly
We need vaccines designed for residents of long-term facilities, and we need long-term studies. We need to use them to keep our residents healthy and safe.
KEILAR: Right now, CVS and Walgreens will be helping fascinate residents of long-term care facilities. Walgreens, for example is planning to send in teams of two to 10 people who would go into these facilities. They would have to do this two or three times.
Do you have any concerns -- you scoff at that. What are your concerns about the number of people and the frequency of the visits?
TALBOT: No, I didn't scoff. I think I smiles because it will take multiple visits.
KEILAR: Yes. TALBOT: Nothing is going to be easy with a vaccine. We can't just carry it in our pocket and have to keep it in a freezer or refrigerator.
Though I'm excited we do have a vaccine.
The most important thing is we just are very careful and examine anything that does happen in and around the vaccine. We have really great vaccine experts that can do that.
I think the best thing that will happen, and probably the most exciting, is we can slow down the spread of this virus. I think that will be phenomenal.
KEILAR: Do you worry, though? What precautions need to be taken when you're talking about introducing -- look, family members haven't been able to go in and see their family members in these facilities.
What are your concerns if you have teams of two to 10 people going in two to three times, as you point out, is going to have to happen?
TALBOT: I think teams will have to be just as careful as my health care workers will have to be.
We think of these pharmacists as the health care team. They're going to gown, glove, mask and be very careful to make sure we protect our residents.
I think that will continue to quite some teem. Even when we get vaccines, we'll be wearing a mask until the majority of the population is vaccinated.
KEILAR: Dr. Talbot, thank you for sharing your perspective.
TALBOT: Thank you.
KEILAR: Next, President Trump is threatening to veto a bill that would fund the military if he doesn't get his way. But what he wants from lawmakers has nothing to do with military spending. We'll explain next.
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KEILAR: New this afternoon, the Republican chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee says that Congress will not give into President Trump's threat to veto the defense authorization bill that funds the military.
The president tweeted on Tuesday saying he would use his veto power if Congress doesn't include a provision that would strip legal protections for tech giants like Twitter and Facebook.
Here's White House advisor, Larry Kudlow, explaining the president's strategy on FOX Business. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KUDLOW, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF ECONOMICS ADVISER: He's not dictating the language yet. But he wants an amendment that would essentially curb, in some way, shape or form, the unbridled liability protection shield that these firms have. That shouldn't have it.
Some have to have it.
MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK ANCHOR: Yes.
KUDLOW: You know this. You reported this. All these big social media companies, isn't it odd that conservative messaging is taken down, not liberal, left wing messaging?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Joining me now is CNN military and diplomatic analyst, retired rear admiral, John Kirby, and CNN chief media correspondent, Brian Stelter, the anchor of "RELIABLE SOURCES" on CNN
You know, Brian, the president wants to get rid of Section 230. Just explain what it is and why the president takes such issue with it.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT & CNN HOST, "RELIABLE SOURCES": It's a legal shelf to protect being companies, like Twitter as well as start-ups.
Brianna, if I started a Web site and you went on my Web site and posted nasty comments about me, I would not be liable. It happens all the time on the Internet. That's the idea, freedom of expression on the Internet is protected by Section 230.
Here's the exact language from the 1996 law. It says, "No provider, no user of the Interment or computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another content provider."
So that means your hateful comments or my ugly comments or my ridiculous video would not be responsible to the person on the Web site that it's published on.
The president right now has gone after Twitter because it keeps flagging his lies. He claims it's censorship, that there's systemic bias against conservatives from technology platforms, and the way to address it is reform of Section 230.
A lot of people do in D.C. believe this bit of language does need reform. There are disagreements on how to do it. But Trump is boiling down a really interesting debate into a simple black and white issue where there's actually a lot of gray here.
But it seems like he's being driving by his own ego because he at Twitter because they are labeling his tweets.
KEILAR: Kirby, I want to talk about the real consequences of this. You have President Trump - he's using the troops as pawns. It has nothing to with what he wants with the military.
What is the impact of this?
REAR ADM. JOHN KIRBY, CNN MILITARY & DIPLOMATIC ANALYST: In the short term, probably not a whole lot, Brianna. The operational contingency funds that the Pentagon can tap into to continue to fund current operations that will go on.
If they really need to, they can seek a continuing resolution from the Congress to continue at current year funding into next year.
But over the long haul this could have a dramatic effect on their ability to buy new ships, new planes, new technology to be able to recruit and retain their troops.
There's a long-term impact if they don't get it solved because the budget for next year is higher than the budget for this year. The Pentagon will be limited in some things they can buy and procure and build next year.
[14:45:00]
So I find it ironic from a commander-in-chief who said he's rebuilt the military that now he's holding that exact process hostage so he can get this one fix to Section 230.
KEILAR: It's downright bizarre.
Admiral Kirby, Brian, thank you so much to both of you.
Next, President Obama weighs in on the battle between moderates and progressives in the Democratic Party. Why he says he's not a fan of using the phrase, "defund the police."
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KEILAR: Former President Barack Obama is cautioning progressives about the phrase "defund the police" calling it polarizing and ineffective.
In an interview with Snapchat, the former president says there's power in the word choice.
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BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You've got to be able to meet people where they are.
You can use a snappy slogan like "defund the police." But you know you've lost a big audience the minute you say it.
If you instead say, let's reform the police department so that everybody is being treated fairly, suddenly, a whole bunch of folks who might not otherwise listen to you are listening to you.
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KEILAR: Now, progressives like Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are hitting back.
And Cori Bush who just won her seat in Missouri, running on this platform, tweeted, "With all due respect, Mr. President, it's not a slogan. It's a mandate for keeping our people alive.
With me know is CNN Political Reporter, Maeve Reston.
Maeve, this is the line that Democrats are walking. We see former President Obama struggling with it.
People seem to be struggling about it.
MAEVE RESTON, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: That's right, Brianna, because during the lead up to the presidential election, and afterwards, talking to Democratic strategists and Republican strategists about this, Republicans thought this was their most effective attack on those members of Congress who ended up winning this year.
It became a huge issue to fund the police because it doesn't sound like there's a lot of gray area in that slogan.
Even though many of the Republican attacks on Democrats were false and Democrats had positions that were more in the middle saying, when you think about police reform, this ended up being really effective for Republicans.
I think that part of what is at issue here, it's still a live issue in the Georgia runoff race. We'll probably hear about it in the Sunday night debate between Kelly Loeffler and Reverend Warnock.
She came out this summer and talked about how his calls for police refund would put people in Atlanta at risk, where there's a rising murder rate.
This is something Democrats have to think through the language really carefully.
And that's the point the president was making, is that a lot of Americans didn't see nuanced in this.
And Republicans felt that it helped them particularly with suburban women who President Trump talked so much about in the lead-up to the election.
KEILAR: They certainly didn't see nuance in it.
RESTON: Yes.
KEILAR: And he's very much illuminating this fracture in the Democratic Party over how to talk about these things.
He also, Maeve, called on Democrats to make room for new talent in the party. Let's listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: We stick so long with the same old folks and don't make room for new voices.
The fact that AOC got, what, three minutes or five minutes, even though they don't agree with everything she says?
New blood is always good. I say that as somebody that used to be the young, shiny cool guy, but now is the gray-haired grizzled old vet.
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KEILAR: He says there need to be new blood. Why isn't there?
RESTON: This is something certainly that Biden's advisers are struggling with right now as they try to build the cabinet and also the infrastructure that's going to be around the president-elect.
But you see a lot of young voters who feel that they really have stepped up and made a contribution.
You know, for example, in the 2018 midterm elections. And also in the presidential election by turning out, by getting out to vote, by talking about all of these new ideas and bringing more people into the Democratic Party.
And they feel that they have -- you know, it's their due now.
Certainly, the argument on the other side of that within the party is that elevating the voices of, you know, AOC and Omar, that would potentially really cause some issues in terms of messaging for them.
Some of the other attacks that were really effective on Democrats this year were on the Green New Deal and on taxes, for example.
So those are issues where Biden is going to have to try to find middle ground but also try not to alienate those moderate voters that he's trying to speak to right now -- Brianna?
KEILAR: Maeve Reston, it was so lovely to see you, my friend. Thanks for the report from LA. for us.
RESTON: You, too.
KEILAR: And we have a quick programming note.
You, too.
KEILAR: Programming note, President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris will be joining Jake Tapper tomorrow night. This is their first joint interview since winning the White House. That will be at 9:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN.
A new report into CNN. Biden's team is narrowing its list for the next Department of Health and Human Services. CNN Senior White House Correspondent, Jeff Zeleny, has details on the
leading contender.
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JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, as President-Elect Joe Biden continues filling out his cabinet, we're learning that one of the leading contenders for the key role of Health and Human Services secretary is New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham.
She has unique qualifications for this post. She was the state health secretary in New Mexico, served in Congress, and is now a governor on the front lines of the coronavirus fight.
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We're told this is one of the key positions that will be announced likely this month. The attorney general, defense secretary and the Secretary of HHS. So critical in the fight against the coronavirus.
As of now, New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham is the leading contender for HHS secretary -- Brianna?
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KEILAR: All right, Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much.
And just ahead, the CDC director raising the alarm that the next three months will be the most difficult in U.S. public health history.
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