Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

What to Know About Getting the Vaccine; How Pandemic is Taking Toll on Health Care Workers; U.K. Approves Pfizer/BioNTech COVID Vaccine for Use; Exclusive Look Inside Vaccine Transport Facility; U.S. Attorney General: No Widespread Election Fraud; Family Facing Difficult Choices to Protest Their Child. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired December 02, 2020 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MONCEF SLAOUI, CHIEF SCIENTIFIC ADVISER, OPERATION WARP SPEED: I would classify them as maybe 10 percent, 15 percent of the subjects immunized have quite noticeable side effects that usually lasts no more than 24 hours, 36 hours and resolve.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): And when can most of us who are not healthcare professionals or frontline workers who will likely take priority expect to be able to get vaccinated. Those projections vary.

DR. PETER HOTEZ, DEAN, NATIONAL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE: I'm hopeful by Q2 of 2021. So, early spring, that would be our aspirational goal.

DR. BARTON HAYNES, DIRECTOR, DUKE HUMAN VACCINE INSTITUTE: I think we're talking about late summer fall for when the general public will have access to these vaccines. Perhaps sooner.

TODD: How much will it cost the average person to get vaccinated? In the U.S., likely nothing. The federal government has promised the vaccine will be free of charge. How many doses of the vaccine will you need? Experts say, for at least the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, you'll need two doses, three to four weeks apart.

HAYNES: As far as whether we're going to have to come back and be vaccinated a year later, those -- that's a question that we don't know yet.

TODD: Which vaccines should you choose? Experts say the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are so similar in efficacy that either are fine. And depending on how your state distributes the vaccine, you may not have a choice. Another crucial question, if you've already had coronavirus, do you need to get vaccinated?

DR. RUTH KARRON, CENTER FOR IMMUNIZATION RESEARCH, JOHNS HOPKINS: At this point, we would say, yes you do. We don't know very much about the durability of immunity to coronavirus. We do know that these vaccines can induce antibodies which are important in protection against coronavirus that sometimes are many fold higher.

TODD (on camera): What about after we get vaccinated? how long will we have to wear masks and practice social distancing? We posed that question to vaccine experts. They said even though the vaccines are believed to be safe and highly effective, we'll probably have to wear masks and distance at least through the fall of next year.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Joining me now is Dr. Joseph Varon. He is the chief of staff at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas. Thank you, doctor, for talking with us and for all that you do.

JOSEPH VARON, CHIEF OF STAFF, UNITED MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER: Thanks for the invitation.

CHURCH: I do want to bring up this photo. It's of you embracing and comforting an elderly COVID patient on Thanksgiving Day. It went viral. He's crying because he wants to see his wife. So many heartbreaking moments like this. And you have worked 257 days straight. How stressful has this been for you and your colleagues and how are you all coping?

VARON: By far, it's the most stressful situation I have ever encountered in my career. I have been in major earthquakes. I have been in bombings. I have been in tsunamis, and yet this has been by far the most stressful situation in my entire life.

CHURCH: And how are you coping with that? And how are the nurses and other doctors coping with this?

VARON: Well, you know, our nurses are tired. We are all exhausted. Some of my nurses will start crying in the middle of the day. I mean, they see one patient die and then soon thereafter they see another one, and then they have three more patients coming from the emergency room. We are all very tired. It's been one after the other and the problem is, we don't see an end in sight, in any, you know, anytime soon at least.

CHURCH: Right. Yes, I understand that. I mean, at least there are vaccines in the pipelines. But before we get to that, I do want to ask you how angry it makes you feel when so many Americans refuse to wear masks, and refused to follow other public health recommendations, putting you and your colleagues lives at risk, just because they don't want to basically, it's a freedom issue, isn't it? That is what it comes down to. What do you say to those people? And some of the patients that comes in and see you who have refused to wear masks?

VARON: Well, I'll tell you. It's quite simple. First of all, I get annoyed. I get annoyed to the point that I would like to slap them in the face, but I guess I cannot do that. Having said that, you know, I have had several of them that tell me, hey, I don't want to use a mask. It's my right. I mean, that is a right, but it's not a right to kill somebody else. You know, if they want to die because they want to die, that's OK. But the problem is that there are so many people out there that they don't know that they are carrying the virus, that they are asymptomatic.

In our own data we have tested over 200,000 people. Of those people that are positive, 48 percent of them are totally asymptomatic. So, I get annoyed when somebody tells me I don't need to wear a mask because I'm not feeling sick. I mean, that's nonsense.

CHURCH: And thank you so much for your time. And you are a hero to all of us. Many thanks.

VARON: Thank you very much.

[04:35:00]

CHURCH: All right, we want to bring you the very latest news from the U.K. now. The government has accepted the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for use. The U.K. regulator has concluded that the vaccine, quote, has met its strict standards of safety, quality, and effectiveness.

It is a big moment of course and comes on the morning that England is heading out of a four-week lockdown. And our Max Foster is live in London outside 10 Downing Street. He joins us now. Good to see you, Max. Such exciting news on the vaccine front of course for the U.K. But people there are heading out of a lockdown and into some very strict restrictions before they get access to that vaccine. What's the latest on all of this?

MAX FOSTER, CNN LONDON CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think there's a huge amount of excitement as you describe. The Health Secretary saying the light is now appearing there in the dawn as we move out of this pandemic ultimately. But he does say it's a six-month process. But what's happened today is this well respected, very independent regulator here in the U.K. has said that the vaccine from Pfizer isn't only effective, it's also safe.

The government following up saying they're now ready to start rolling out this inoculation process. It will start next week in hospitals. 800,000 doses are ordered now on their way from the Pfizer factory in Belgium. The big first test, of course, is getting it over here into hospitals and into people's arms. And of course, this drug has to be held at minus 70 degrees Celsius. So Pfizer has developed these special packages containing dry ice to try to keep the doses at that temperature.

So I think the world will be watching to see how the logistics process works here. And of course what happens once people are injected. But it takes two doses and they're 21 days apart. So won't really have a sense of that for a month or so. But certainly high priority individuals in the U.K. will be getting these doses as of next week.

CHURCH: Very exciting news. Max Foster bringing us the latest on that, appreciate it. And earlier I spoke with virologist Muhammad Munir in the UK and asked

if the British news could affect a decision in the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MUHAMMAD MUNIR, VIROLOGIST, LANCASTER UNIVERSITY: Although their regulatory bodies are different from different region, continent or even at the national level. For example in the U.K. we have MHRH that approved -- that is equivalent to FDA in the USA. So, I don't really doubt that the data will be shared between the organizations, between the regulatory bodies, because of the way it has been looked into for the efficacy, stability and effectiveness. And the foundations for rolling out here in the U.K. should also be shared with the FDA, so that it can be learned between the organizations. So that we make sure that we don't really waste the time while we are assessing these vaccines on a very high scale.

Because all the while we are talking about here, at the moment, is something that never been practice and based here before deployment of the vaccine in the public, but in a very short time. So, therefore, of course, there is a pressure on the regulatory bodies. But at the same time, they need to make sure that it is only approved, and that it is safe and effective, which it is. But that will give us, you and me, also assurance. That when it comes to our own, it is safe, and it is good to take on and that there should not be any hesitancy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And that was virologist Muhammad Munir.

Well, CNN got an inside look inside a facility that will be crucial to transporting vaccines across the United States. Aviation correspondent Pete Muntean has that report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (on camera): This is something you typically would not see. This is essentially one big refrigerator that United Airlines will use to distribute the vaccine when it is indeed ready. It needs to be especially cold, and that is the big challenge in distribution. Airlines could be central to this and maybe transport the vaccine the furthest.

At 40 degrees Fahrenheit in here right now but the Moderna vaccine will require that it be negative four degrees Fahrenheit. The Pfizer vaccine, negative 100 degrees Fahrenheit and it requires a special freezer. This is a key link to getting the vaccine from where it's made to getting it to where it'll be administered. Airlines and air cargo groups are already using special refrigerated containers like this. In fact, we saw one just like this being offloaded on a flight from Brussels here at Dulles International Airport earlier today.

United is already doing charter flights for Pfizer to help transport this vaccine -- had a task force for months. American Airlines is starting vaccine trial flights. DHL, UPS, FedEx will all get in on this when the vaccine is ready. [04:40:03]

And the FAA is actually administering special waivers to airlines so that they can carry extra dry ice on board to keep the vaccine cold enough while it is on board.

Airlines have been struggling in the pandemic, air travel's still down about 60 percent from what it was a year ago, they cannot wait for this vaccine to come out. Now airlines could be central to distributing the vaccine to you.

Pete Muntean, CNN. Dulles International Airport.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And still to come, Donald Trump says the election was a fraud but one of the President's closest allies is throwing cold water on that claim. And we will tell you who undercut the President in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: We want to get back to one of our top stories. The final days of the Trump presidency. On Tuesday Trump's long-time ally, Attorney General Bill Barr, broke with the President and said there was no evidence of widespread fraud in the election.

Meanwhile, there's also word that President Trump is considering some very controversial pardons before he leaves office for his children and his attorney Rudy Giuliani. That's despite none of them being charged with a crime.

Well joining me to sort through all of this is Thomas Gift. He is the director of the Center on U.S. Politics at University College London. Good to have you with us.

THOMAS GIFT, POLITICAL SCIENCE LECTURER, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON: Good morning, Rosemary. Good to see you.

CHURCH: You too. So, in a very public shaming of Donald Trump his own Attorney General, Bill Barr, announced there is no evidence of fraud that would change the election result. What do you think triggered Barr's sudden rejection of Trump's baseless claims of a rigged election, and what are the possible ramifications of all this?

[04:45:00]

GIFT: Well, Rosemary, I think that this is Bill Barr saying to the president that he is entitled to his own opinion on election rigging but not his own facts. In some way, Barr's words were striking. In this White House we've grown so accustomed to Trump bending the truth to fit his own narrative. And so little pushback including from the DOJ that it's a story when a high-level official who is loyal to the president puts his foot down.

But in this case, I think Barr didn't have much of a choice if he wanted to maintain credibility. Trump's allegations of voter fraud and irregularities have gotten nowhere in the courts. So, to lend credence to those accusations wouldn't have just seemed like a partisan move. I think it would have flown in the face of overwhelming evidence.

With that said, I think that the fact that Barr did refute Trump's fraud claims so explicitly should add greater force, given that he has been such a staunch defender of the president.

CHURCH: Yes, apparently enough is enough. So, there is progress there. So, the other big revelation also coming from Bill Barr's Department of Justice is an apparent investigation into a potential pay-for- pardon scheme with payments apparently made to the White House in exchange for a Trump pardon. What do you make of this apparent moneymaking venture and clearly verging on criminal?

GIFT: Well that would certainly be an explosive revelation if there were actually facts to back that up. I think at this point, we are still in the early going with trying to figure out what exactly is happening there. But if there was evidence that that was happening, it would be a monumental story, a huge story. And it's hard to figure out exactly what the fallout would be and all the ramifications. But it certainly would be a very serious charge and accusation.

CHURCH: We understand that he is seriously considering pardoning his three older children. And Rudy Giuliani, perhaps even himself. That is still in the mix. What would be the likely response to that? And how legal is that?

GIFT: Well, it would be a preemptive pardon which is fairly uncommon. And I think what Donald Trump would do would be to frame this as trying to avoid a witch hunt against himself and his family. If he did do that, I think that there would be a lot of political fallout. But at the same time, he's an outgoing president so I'm not sure if he would actually face significant consequences.

There are some legal questions about what this would entail and how much of purview Donald Trump would actually have to do this. But at the very least, Rosemary, it would be considered highly unusual and unprecedented in lots of respects.

CHURCH: Yes, yes, indeed. Thomas Gift joining us there from London, many thanks as always.

GIFT: Thanks, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Well three pro-democracy activists have been sentenced to jail in Hong Kong in connection to antigovernment protests. Joshua Wong and Ivan Lam are seen here leaving for court earlier. Wong has been sentenced to 13 1/2 months in prison after pleading guilty to inciting and organizing a protest outside the Hong Kong police headquarters last year. Ivan lam has been sentenced to seven months in prison for inciting the protests and Agnes Chao has been sentenced to 10 months in jail for inciting and taking part in the protests.

And ahead here on CNN, a family faces the possibility of losing their home after making difficult choices to protect their daughter from COVID.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSICA LUSK, BRANDI'S MOTHER: Every night we cry to each other. We talk, if we're not crying, we're trying to make a way. We're trying to find a way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Their heartbreaking story next.

[04:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Millions of Americans are struggling through this pandemic. They have lost jobs, family members. And they're trying to feed their families and keep their homes. And for one family in Texas, the struggle is even tougher. Ed Lavandera has their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Exploring a secluded playground is a rare gift for little Brandi and her family. A chance for kids to be kids and a chance for Jessica Lusk and Dylan Garcia to escape. The coronavirus pandemic has brought this family to the edge of despair.

JESSICA LUSK, BRANDI'S MOTHER: What happens if we lose everything, for real, you know? Like what really is going to happen.

I'm a big girl today.

LAVANDERA: Three-year-old Brandi was born with an extremely rare metabolic disease known as CACT. Essentially, Brandi's body is unable to break down the fat and food that her body needs to function. It has caused brain damage and pulverized her immune system. Her doctors say any illness Brandi catches can be deadly.

When the pandemic started, Jessica worked as a home care provider for disabled veterans, Dylan worked in a metal factory. Imagine their dilemma. Working jobs with a high risk of COVID-19 exposure knowing they could come home with a disease that would kill their child.

DYLAN GARCIA, BRANDI'S FATHER: Well is it better off staying at home or is that going to end up getting us put in a homeless shelter where she's at more risk?

LUSK: And we would lose our kid, you know.

GARCIA: I think about that all the time. Like what's the bigger risk, me going to work or us losing our house? What's the right answer, what do I pick? What's going to actually work?

LAVANDERA: In April, Jessica and Dylan stopped working to keep Brandi safe. They hoped the pandemic would end quickly. Now the couple says they live off $700 a month in unemployment assistance and food stamps. Medicaid insurance provides a nurse to help in Brandi's daily care, a schedule that's meticulously mapped out. She can only eat special formula injected every few hours injected through a tube in her stomach.

But Jessica and Dylan say they're now $2,000 behind on electrical bills, they owe almost $10,000 on nine months of unpaid apartment rent. They were recently told their family would be evicted at the end of December.

LUSK: That lady told me if I was a good mom, I would be calling around to homeless shelters to ask if they can take me in.

[04:55:00]

I poured my whole heart out to her and explained to her that just please don't, don't get rid of me, I have nowhere to go.

GARCIA: It makes you feel like a failure as a parent, as a man to know that you can't even provide for your own family.

LUSK: It's like if I don't even deserve my own kid.

LAVANDERA: Jessica and Dylan have had to isolate themselves and their three children during the pandemic which they say has made fighting this battle even more lonely and stressful. They live for brief moments of joy like watching Brandi take her first steps.

LUSK: You did it.

Every night we cry to each other, we talk. If we're not crying, we're trying to make a way, we're trying to find a way.

LAVANDERA: Jessica and Dylan are haunted every night by the question they can't escape. Are they doing the right thing?

(on camera): Have you given up hope?

LUSK: We can never give up, we have children. It just -- it's a lot.

GARCIA: The only hope we got --

LUSK: It's a lot.

GARCIA: -- is the fact that we still do have her. She still is here.

LUSK: That's all I can do is just pray that it goes away. That things get better, that -- God makes a way.

LAVANDERA (on camera): What is stunning to think about is that Brandi's doctors tell us that most children with her condition don't live past the age of 1. She is now 3 and her parents are following closely the development of the coronavirus vaccine. Brandi's doctors say that the young child would be able to take the vaccine. Her parents tell us they're waiting to get more information about whether or not the vaccine will be safe and effective.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Dallas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: So many tough stories to tell.

Thank you so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Be sure to connect with me on Twitter @rosemaryCNN. "EARLY START" is up next. You're watching CNN. Have a great day.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:00:00]