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U.S. Hits Worst Coronavirus Death Toll; United Kingdom Starts Vaccination Program; Trump Escalates Baseless Attacks on Election with 46-Minute Video Rant; Biden Calms Small Business Owners; U.S. Withdrawing Embassy Personnel from Baghdad; South Korea Holds College Entrance Exams amid Pandemic; China's Lunar Probe Ready to Come Home. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired December 03, 2020 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

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ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A grim reality: the U.S. passes a mindboggling 3,000 deaths from coronavirus in just a single a day.

Plus Russia's Vladimir Putin orders a large-scale vaccination program. We'll have a live report from Moscow on that

Then U.S. president Donald Trump is shifting his focus from COVID to possible pardons.

Is he allowed to pre-pardon his children?

The latest from the White House.

I'm Robyn Curnow. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Robyn Curnow.

CURNOW: Great to have you along this hour.

We start with the latest on the coronavirus pandemic. There is hope, with the first vaccine shipping out next week in the U.K. But there is also concern, as deaths and new infections continue to climb. I want to take you a look at this map, which shows more than 64 million cases and almost 1.5 million fatalities around the world.

The U.S. is, far and away, the hardest, hardest hit. India, South America and several European countries are still struggling, as you can see. Wednesday, though, was the deadliest single day the U.S. since the start of the pandemic, with over 3,000 deaths.

And then for the first time, more than 100,000 people in this country are in hospital. The head of the Centers for Disease Control says the U.S. can see 450,000 deaths before February.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION: The reality is, December and January and February are going to be rough times. I actually believe they're going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation, largely because of the stress that it is going to put on our health care system.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: The U.S. is expected to approve a vaccine soon, with the hope that most Americans who are at risk can be inoculated by the spring. Governors have until Friday to pre-order and enroll providers in a distribution program.

Now the first Pfizer vaccines are expected to be delivered by December the 15th. The first Moderna vaccines, by December the 22nd. And former Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton all said they will get vaccines on camera to promote public confidence.

And in the U.K., the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine should be available as soon as next week. We will have more on that just ahead.

Meanwhile, the White House is warning the COVID risk to Americans is at a historic high and Congress is now debating how to help Americans suffering from the economic impact of the pandemic as Karen Caifa now reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAREN CAIFA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A dramatic, dire assessment from the White House Coronavirus Task Force to states, writing in a weekly report, "We are in a very dangerous place due to the current, extremely high COVID baseline and limited hospital capacity. A further post-Thanksgiving surge will compromise COVID patient care as well as medical care overall."

Doctors nationwide are bracing for the worst.

DR. JASON MITCHELL, PRESBYTERIAN HEALTH CARE SERVICES ALBUQUERQUE: Every doctor's worst fear is that patients come to us and we cannot give them the best care. We cannot give them everything they need to take care of them.

CAIFA (voice-over): Urgency also felt on Capitol Hill as lawmakers resume talks about getting Americans some sort of financial relief soon. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell says he's working on a bill that will include more small business funding and an extension of the federal unemployment benefits set to expire at the end of the year.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: In the last several days, the Democratic leaders have singled (sic) a new willingness to engage in good faith.

CAIFA (voice-over): Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said President Trump would sign McConnell's bill. Meanwhile, the CDC has laid out priority groups, medical workers and long-term care facility residents for the first wave of vaccines, expected to reach states before Christmas.

DR. ERIC TONER, JOHNS HOPKINS CENTER FOR HEALTH SECURITY: I think the states are getting ready, they have been working on their plans now for a couple of months.

CAIFA (voice-over): On Wednesday, the U.K. approved Pfizer BioNTech's vaccine, the first Western country to sign off on a COVID-19 vaccine.

CAIFA: After some public health experts said they waited too long to give their Thanksgiving warning, the CDC on Wednesday recommended against Americans traveling for the upcoming winter holidays.

And CDC director Robert Redfield said the next three months will be the most difficult in the nation's health public history -- in Washington, I'm Karen Caifa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: And as we mentioned, the U.K. is expected to start vaccinations next week, hospital hubs will go first, inoculating nursing home residents and staff and vulnerable patients may get their shots by mid-December. Pharmacies plan to offer vaccines in January, with the general public to follow. Salma Abdelaziz has more.

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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER (voice-over): One big step for the U.K. and a giant leap for humankind. The first Western nation to approve a coronavirus vaccine will be rolling it out, starting early next week.

HANCOCK: 2020 has been just awful and 2021 is going to be better and help is on its way. Help is on its way with this vaccine.

[02:05:00]

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): The super quick authorization came in part because Britain's regulators engaged constantly with Pfizer and BioNTech, according to experts. An initial batch of 800,000 doses will soon arrive from Belgium. That's enough for half as many people, given they need two doses 21 days apart.

Government guidance released today says residents in nursing homes and their caregivers should be given priority; the next, front line health workers and those over 80.

ABDELAZIZ: The real challenge will be immunizing the wider population. Health experts say two-thirds of people need to have immunity in order for the epidemic to be stopped. That means winning hearts and minds and persuading as many people as possible that the vaccine is safe and effective.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Regulators were quick to assure the public.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone can be absolutely confident that no corners whatsoever have been cut.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): On the streets of London, elation and relief.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Having been through this year and lost a lot of people to this horrendous illness, that has taken a lot of people's family, friends, co-workers, I think it has been quite a shocking situation. And we're very grateful to see the news today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Perhaps we are finally going to turn the corner. So it's wonderful.

ABDELAZIZ: I think there's a big smile on your face.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I guess it would be nice to see how -- you know, how people receive it and whether it is safe. But, yes, I have reasonable confidence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think everyone has slight doubts, you know. It's been quite quick in the making. And then, you know, they're going to inject something alien into your body. So, yes, I'm a bit -- a bit skeptical. But things need to go back to some kind of normal.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): The end of the pandemic is in sight, the final hurdle will be gaining the public's trust in the cure -- Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: And it is not just the public that might have doubts about the Pfizer BioNTech. Peter Lizza (ph) is a E.U. lawmaker and physician. He's calling the U.K.'s decision to authorize it hasty and problematic and recommends other European countries not to follow suit.

And then Germany's health minister says his country is going for a longer approval process to create confidence and trust. The European Medicines Agency is supposed to publish its findings on the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine by December the 29th.

And Moderna, in the meantime, says delivery of its vaccine in the E.U. could start in the first quarter of next year if it is approved.

U.S. infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci echoed E.U. concerns about the U.K.'s vaccine approval. In an interview on FOX News, Fauci said the U.K. did not examine the trial data of the vaccine as carefully as the FDA is doing it in its review. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We really scrutinize the data very carefully to guarantee to the American public that this is a safe and efficacious vaccine. I think if we did any less, we would add to the already existing hesitancy on the part of many people to take the vaccine because they are concerned about safety or they're concerned that we went too quickly.

So it's almost a damned if you do and you're damned if you don't because if you go quickly and you do it superficially, people are not going to want to get vaccinated.

The U.K. did not do it as carefully; they got a couple of days ahead. I don't think that makes much difference. We will be there, we will be there very soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: Well, I spoke earlier with CNN medical analyst Dr. Larry Brilliant about Dr. Fauci's criticism and if the U.K. did move too quickly for vaccines. This is what he told me.

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DR. LARRY BRILLIANT, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: We've seen some of the reports out about efficacy. But presumably, the U.K. regulatory authorities have seen a lot more.

I do understand the European Medical Agency taking a poke and saying it's a little bit fast. The structure, as I understand, it is only the European medical -- medicines agency can do formal approvals. But every country can make their own emergency use authorizations for use in their own country. I think that's really part of the story here.

CURNOW: We're also hearing Dr. Fauci seems to suggest the U.K. hadn't scrutinized all the vaccine data as well as anyone else.

Again, is that criticism valid?

Also in many ways this is just a week or two potentially ahead of everyone else, it's not that far ahead.

BRILLIANT: I think the bigger story here is that we've had vaccines made against a previously novel virus in as many days as it took the smallpox vaccine years before we were able to mount a global vaccine program.

I'm celebrating all of the agencies and watching to see what each one of them says.

[02:10:00]

BRILLIANT: I'm not getting too bothered just yet. This is the beginning of a process. We know that, at the end of it, we're going to kick COVID into the dustbin of history.

But we also know, I think, we have to go through the gates of hell for the next three months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: Now the former president of France, Valery Giscard D'Estaing died on Wednesday at his family home. His foundation wrote on Twitter that his state of health had worsened and he died because of COVID.

It also said that he will have a private family funeral, per his wishes. Giscard became president at the age of 48 in 1974. He beat his Socialist rival but lost to him seven years later when he ran for reelection. Giscard is remembered for his reforms and a strongly pro- European presidency. He was 94.

So it's just seven weeks to go until Donald Trump leaves the White House. One source tells CNN, a flurry of presidential pardons could be coming soon. The details next.

Plus Iran is threatening to step up its uranium enrichment, its retaliation for the killing of a top nuclear scientist. What the Iranian government and parliament is saying, that is next.

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CURNOW: U.S. president Donald Trump leaves office in 7 weeks, in the meantime there's speculation on how he might use his power to grant pardons, including whether or not he can prepardon his own children or himself.

This as his daughter Ivanka sat for a deposition on Wednesday, with investigators at the Washington, D.C., attorney general's office. She was questioned in a lawsuit alleging the Trump Organization misused nonprofit funds for the 2017 inauguration to enrich the Trump family.

While this is going on, the president's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, sat for testimony in front of Michigan's Oversight Committee. He's leading Mr. Trump's legal fights to try and overturn the election results. Rudy Giuliani was among the possible names of possible pardons. Our Jim Acosta has the details on this -- Jim.

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JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I talked to a source close to the White House who is close to discussions on this and the source said that the public should expect a flurry -- that was the word used by the source -- a flurry of pardons before President Trump leaves office.

The source went on to say that, among the president's advisers, there is a feeling that, yes, he can legally pardon members of his family, people like Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr., his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and that legally, this adviser said, other advisers feel that, yes, the president could go ahead and pardon themselves, never mind the fact that constitutional scholars say that is not constitutional.

The president appears to be in a mood to try it out and his advisors seem to be supporting him at this point.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Thanks, Jim, for that.

[02:15:00]

CURNOW: For more on this, be sure to visit our website, cnn.com.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Well, for more on all of this let's go to CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein.

Ron, lovely to see you. So the president is ranting untruth about the election and wants to blame his AG.

Why is this administration of this president not yet accepting reality?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: He has, you know, defied reality throughout his political career. He has found that it works for him, with his audience, to ignore the facts and create his alternative facts.

And, even in this case, 75 percent or 80 percent of Republicans are saying they believe the election was stolen or fraudulently won by Biden, even though the -- essentially every court in the country has laughed out of the courtroom the evidence produced or the claims asserted by the Trump campaign.

And I continue to believe, like from day one, a critical element in all of this is that so few other Republicans, other voices that would matter to his coalition, have had the kind of courage to step forward and really just say, the sky is blue, gravity exists, you lost the election, there was not massive fraud.

And that in many ways, is what is allowing these poisonous and corrosive fantasies to take root.

CURNOW: Let's talk about the president's daughter, Ivanka Trump. She is facing legal question or has faced legal questions.

How serious is this development in relation to inauguration funds?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, I don't think we know exactly and particularly what her personal exposure would be.

But it goes into this broader question of how far will the president abuse the pardon power in his final weeks?

You know, we saw the CDC, as you probably reported in the last hour, say that the coming months could be the most difficult for public health in American history. It's possible these coming months may be the most difficult for the health of the democracy in American history.

You have to think of the trajectory that the president has been on, from extorting the government of Ukraine to weaponizing the Postal Service to trying to tilt and destroy the census bureau, to his intervention in criminal cases involving Roger Stone and Michael Flynn.

There is really no way to have a sense of what the outer boundaries are on what he might try to do in these coming weeks.

And one thing we know, is that, again, there is no barrier there from Republicans in Congress, who continue to be silent as he spins these fantasies and also as he walks away from the country with the coronavirus surging to almost unimaginable levels.

CURNOW: We are hearing about this flurry of potential preemptive pardons for the Trump family and possibly even the president himself.

Is it even constitutionally possible to pre-pardon someone or one's self, isn't that in admitting that you've done something wrong or criminal if that is what you are pre-pardoning?

I mean, it just seems --

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BROWNSTEIN: You probably have legal experts who are more kind of attuned to the details of the law. I believe this pardon power is very broad for others. The big question is whether he will be able to pardon himself.

And if he does pardon himself, what exactly is he saying about his own potential culpability?

He will certainly spin it if he does so as he is simply defending himself against the depredations of blue America, out to silence you, my supporters, by going after me.

And, if you think about the totality of what you've been talking about this broadcast, we're talking about incompetence on the coronavirus, corruption on the inauguration and on many other fronts, the chaos of potentially more firings in the final weeks and disdain for the rule of law.

And yet for all of that, there is something like 45-46 percent of America that is OK essentially with this package, particularly, with all this disdain for the rule of law that we have seen.

And I think that's bringing American politics into a stage and an era that we have not seen before. This coming decade, I think, is going to see challenges to our fundamental institutions in a way that we have not previously experienced, maybe not since the 1860s.

CURNOW: OK, Ron, always good to get your analysis and your expertise. Thanks so much.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

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CURNOW: And President-Elect Joe Biden gave small business owners and workers hit by the pandemic some encouraging words during a virtual roundtable. Jeff Zeleny now reports.

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JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: President-Elect Joe Biden is urging Congress tonight to offer immediate relief to Americans struggling with economic pain from the deepening pandemic.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: My hope is that we'll be able to help in a short order. But that depends a lot on our friends in Congress.

ZELENY (voice-over): After naming his economic team, Biden listening to the stories of workers and small business owners being crushed by hardship.

[02:20:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The unemployment helped so much when we had the extra money, who wants extra money without this downhill from there (ph).

ZELENY (voice-over): Tonight, Biden is also focusing on building out his cabinet with the Department of Health and Human Services coming into sharper focus. CNN has learned New Mexico governor Michelle Lujan Grisham is a leading contender for HHS Secretary, a pivotal role at the center of the coronavirus fight and the vaccine distribution.

GOV. MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM (D-NM): While I'm incredibly honored and flattered that my colleagues can see the work that I'm doing on the ground and know that I've got 40 years in comprehensive health care experience, I'm focused on making sure that I'm saving New Mexico lives.

ZELENY (voice-over): Rhode Island governor Gina Raimondo has also interviewed for the post, CNN has learned, a sign that Biden is looking for governors on the front lines of the pandemic. But Biden is under pressure to make good on his pledge to build a diverse cabinet.

In a letter obtained by CNN, more than 30 Hispanic lawmakers in Congress are urging him to consider Lujan Grisham for the post, saying, "She has the vision and drive to see through large projects and effectively lead large organizations and brings the necessary skills to serve our country as Secretary of Health and Human Services."

Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus are also lobbying Biden to consider a Hispanic candidate for attorney general. NAACP president Derrick Johnson tells CNN the civil rights group is also requesting a meeting with Biden to ensure proper representation in the cabinet.

The first wave of Biden's nominees and top advisors have been filled with barrier-breaking choices. Yet civil rights leaders are calling for more diversity in the top cabinet posts, namely attorney general and Secretary of Defense.

ZELENY: Now Biden officials are saying the full diversity of the cabinet will become clear once everyone is announced and it is premature to judge it now.

That is not stopping civil rights groups for calling for a meeting with President-Elect Joe Biden to discuss all of this. Seven civil rights groups, including the NAACP, have asked for that meeting. And so far, one has not been scheduled -- Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Wilmington, Delaware.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: Well, Jake Tapper sits down with the U.S. President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris. It is their first joint interview since they won the White House and you can see it on Friday, 10 am Hong Kong, 7 am London, right here on CNN.

So the U.S. secretary of state Mike Pompeo has invited hundreds of guests to State Department holiday parties. That is in spite of health experts warnings to avoid large gatherings as the coronavirus surges.

Two State Department officials say invitations for one event went to 900 people; 180 foreign ambassadors in the U.S. are invited to another. A department spokesperson says guests will be required to wear masks and socially distance.

But career officials are enraged because staffers feel they can't say no to working these events.

Iran is taking steps to potentially pull back from its commitments to the 5-year-old nuclear agreement. This comes after one of Iran's top nuclear scientists was killed last week.

Meanwhile, the U.S. is temporarily withdrawing some staff from its Baghdad embassy amid the tensions with Tehran. Arwa Damon is live in Istanbul with more on that.

Hi, Arwa, what can you tell us?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Robyn. That bill that was passed by the Iranian parliament allows for Iran to begin enriching uranium at 20 percent. This is higher than the pre- 2015 nuclear agreement levels.

Also, this bill says that they will block nuclear inspectors if sanctions on Iran are not lifted. This was able to pass through parliament because of fuel added to the fire by the killing of that Iranian nuclear scientist that happened last week.

How does Iraq play into all of this?

Well, when there are tensions between Iran and the United States or even between Iran and potentially Israel, those dynamics do tend to play out in neighboring Iraq. So you have that happening on the one hand.

And then you also have us approaching the anniversary of the killing of Iran's top military intelligence general, Qasem Soleimani, that took place last year on January 3rd. And, because of all of this, according to senior diplomats and sources that CNN has been speaking to, the U.S. embassy in Baghdad is going to be drawing down some of its staff.

Keeping in mind that it comes during the holiday season and, therefore, what we are also hearing is that more staff will be allowed to go on leave. The State Department is not officially commenting on this.

But according to the sources that CNN has been speaking to, there are concerns that Iran could be on one hand looking to retaliate, once more for the death of Qasem Soleimani.

[02:25:00]

DAMON: And then of course, you have the added tensions brought on by the killing of this Iranian nuclear scientist.

Of course, all of this leaves Iraq itself in a very tenuous position. Iranian backed militias do regularly, fairly regularly continue to lob mortars and rockets towards the U.S. embassy. The Trump administration had threatened earlier this year to shut it down completely if those attacks did not stop.

And of course, as I was saying, Iraq is where the killing of Qasem Soleimani took place. It is the same country where Iran did end up retaliating, firing rockets toward U.S. military installations there.

So all of this is very concerning, for Iraq, which is finding itself potentially once again this proxy battlefield between on the one hand its neighbor Iran and the United States, a country that is meant to be its ally -- Robyn.

CURNOW: OK, good to see you thanks so much.

So ahead on CNN, we will hear from a participant in one of the vaccine trials. Dr. Sanjay Gupta's latest report.

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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are early days and the two vaccine front-runners in this country, Pfizer and Moderna, use a type of genetic sequence called mRNA. It is a technology that has never been before used in humans, outside of a clinical trial.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CURNOW: Plus right now in South Korea, half a million students are taking a high-stakes exam despite the pandemic. Paula Hancocks is covering that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The government is confident they've done all they can to make sure there is no risk of an outbreak. But there are still those who are questioning, why take that risk?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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CURNOW: Welcome back, thanks for joining, me I'm Robyn Curnow here at the CNN Center in Atlanta.

So on Wednesday, U.S. reported its highest number of deaths in a single day, well over 3,100. That figure far outpaces the worst days of last April. And the expectation of a COVID vaccine probably won't come soon enough for many people.

The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fears another 200,000 Americans could succumb to the disease by next March before a vaccine is widely available.

U.S. medical facilities are already at or near capacity. A record 100,000 Americans are so sick they need to be in a hospital. And that number is only going to go up in the coming weeks and months, we know.

Meanwhile, we are also learning more about who will be first in line to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in the U.K. on Wednesday. The U.K. approved Pfizer's BioNTech drug for emergency use, making it the first Western country to sign off on a vaccine.

[02:30:00]

CURNOW: These first doses are expected to be rolled out next week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've decided that the first people to receive the vaccine in the U.K. will be residents of care home and their carers, followed by the over 80s and frontline health care and social workers. And then we will work down the age cohorts,, the clinically extremely vulnerable patients will be cohort four.

Now this has all been very carefully worked out over many, many months by reference to papers that have been published in "Nature," "The Lancet," "BMJ" and we've come to a conclusion that, in the U.K., we would want to protect those that are most vulnerable first and those that are potentially could transmit to the most vulnerable.

And we think that is the best and fairest way of doing it.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CURNOW: A top official of Operation Warp Speed in the U.S. says tens of millions of Americans could be vaccinated early in the new year. But every vaccine comes with its own side effects, as Dr. Sanjay Gupta now reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

YASIR BATALVI, VACCINE TRIAL PARTICIPANT: That evening was rough. I mean, I developed a low-grade fever and fatigue and chills.

GUPTA (voice-over): Yasir Batalvi is describing the side effects that he experienced during Moderna's COVID vaccine trial.

BATALVI: Thirty minutes later, I had a little bit of stiffness, muscle soreness in my left arm. It's like you -- you're punched in the arm, basically.

GUPTA: When you're going through this whole process, Yasir, 22-page consent form, hearing about all the potential side effects, knowing that you're trialing something that we don't have a lot of data on at the time, did you have any second thoughts before taking it?

BATALVI: Honestly, Sanjay, yes.

GUPTA: Every decision we make is risk vs. reward. And when the company announced early data showing over 94 percent efficacy, Yasir was confident it had been worth it.

BATALVI: It doesn't last long. And the potential of folks not getting this vaccine and actually infecting people with COVID, those effects lasts a lot longer. And they can be life or death.

GUPTA: These are early days. And the two vaccine front-runners in this country, Pfizer and Moderna, use a type of genetic sequence called mRNA. It's a technology that has never before been used in humans outside of a clinical trial; mRNA stands for messenger RNA.

It carries the instruction for making whatever protein you want, in this case, the spike protein the virus uses to enter our cells. These vaccines require two doses, one to prime, one to boost, a few weeks apart, so the body mounts what we hope will be a lasting immune response.

One of the biggest concerns now is that the side effects that Yasir is describing, fatigue, muscle pain, fever and chills, will deter people from getting that second dose.

SLAOUI: Maybe 10, 15 percent of the subjects immunized have quite noticeable side effects that usually lasts no more than 24, 36 hours.

GUPTA (on camera): Do you worry about the impact of this vaccine on you long term?

BATALVI: I gave it a lot of thought. And the only thing that gave me some calm was trying to research the actual vaccine, trying to understand how mRNA vaccines work. GUPTA (voice-over): We understand this for sure. You can't get infected from this vaccine, because the vaccine doesn't actually contain the virus. And even though these are genetic-based vaccines, they don't alter our DNA.

And as far as those side effects go, that may even be a good sign.

DR. PAUL OFFIT, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: That means your immune response is working for you. You should feel good about that. And it shouldn't really be any difficulty coming back for that second shot, knowing that you're now in a much better position to fight off this awful virus.

GUPTA: For now, Yasir is looking forward to his next appointment, which is on December 10, the exact day the FDA might authorize the first vaccine for COVID-19.

BATALVI: So, I put my name down because I just -- I felt so helpless. It's public service. I have to do it, because I think mass-scale vaccination is really the only realistic way out of the pandemic that we're in.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: So that was Dr. Sanjay Gupta, reporting there, fascinating stuff.

Be sure to check out his podcast, "Coronavirus: Fact vs Fiction."

So I want to turn now to Seoul, South Korea, where even a deadly virus is not stopping students from taking their high-stakes college entrance exams. Paula Hancocks joins me now live from Seoul.

Hi, talk us through what's happening right now.

HANCOCKS: Well, Robyn, we're coming towards the end of a very long day for almost half a million students. It's 8-9 hours for many of them, which is really quite brutal. And of course, on top of the stress that you would have on any regular year, this year, you have the extra stresses of the coronavirus.

[02:35:00]

HANCOCKS: The restrictions they have in place were temperature checks and hand sanitization; the desks were socially distanced, they had perspects (ph) plastic dividers between the desks and, of course, they have to wear a mask for the entire day. They cannot really have much of a break, because they can't gather in numbers in between the different exams.

When it comes to lunch, they had to bring their own lunch and eat it at their desk. So it is a very long, stressful day for them. But the government was adamant, that this exam was going to go ahead. And they believe that they have put all the restrictions in necessary, to be able to keep the students and, of course, the teachers, who are moderating, safe. Now even those who have tested positive for the virus are able to take

this exam. We know 3 dozen are taking today, they are in hospitals around the country and isolation. They will have teachers, moderators in full PPE, looking after them.

Once they have finished the exam, the exam papers will be put into a plastic sleeve and stored for several days to make sure there is no live virus on the paper when it is then marked.

So the government really feels that they have thought of everything. I've spoken to the education minister just last week. She admitted that she has worried every day that there could be an outbreak. But they believe they've done everything they can. Also pointing out, they've had an election so why not a national exam.

But of course, not everybody agrees. There are concerns that this is happening in the midst of a pandemic. There was a petition of 6,000 names, calling for this exam to be postponed and pushed back a couple of weeks. But of course, the government decided not to do that.

Within that petition they were talking about, quote, "This is like throwing students into a pit of fire," questioning whether schooling had to be more important than children's health.

But at the end of the day, it is going to be a case of waiting and seeing if there are going to be any outbreaks from this exam. But it does goes to show just how important this exam is to South Korea -- Robyn.

CURNOW: Goodness, they are all going to need a long sleep tonight. Paula Hancocks, thank you so much, joining us there live from Seoul.

Still ahead, to the moon and back. A Chinese probe is ready to return to Earth, with samples not seen on Earth in decades.

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CURNOW: There and back again, a Chinese probe is gearing up to return home after a landmark mission to the moon. The unmanned probe collected samples from the lunar surface, according to Chinese state media. It is the first attempt to collect rocks from the moon by any country since the 1970s.

Steven Jiang is following the moon mission and joining us now live from Beijing.

What can you tell us more?

STEVEN JIANG, CNN SENIOR PRODUCER, BEIJING BUREAU: This is quite a scientific and technological feat for the Chinese. As you mentioned, the latest mission involved this craft robotic arm sweeping up rocks from the surface of the moon with a 2-meter long drill, trying to collect samples from underground.

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JIANG: All of these samples have now been packed and sealed in a canister inside a so-called ascender to be rendezvoused with this orbiter still in space. Then that craft will be traveling back to Earth, expected to land in northern China later this month.

This is really the latest step forward in China's very ambitious space program, which is now considered a pillar for its national development under President Xi Jinping.

One thing worth noting is all of these accomplishments so far are things the U.S. has done in the past, sometimes decades in the past. But what the Chinese have done is, one, they are making their own firsts by doing things a little differently.

This time their lunar probe landed in a part of the moon that had not been visited by the U.S. or the former Soviet Union in the past. They are also really catching up really fast. Remember, the Chinese are a latecomer in space exploration. But just in the past decade, they have successfully launched three manned space missions and now three successful lunar probe missions. They currently have a Mars mission going on. They are starting to build their own full-scale space station.

They've also recently launched the last satellite that formed its own global positioning systems. So all of this, of course, is a source of great pride for the government and the people here.

But it does have a geopolitical dimension here, because this is really a message from the Chinese to the rest of the world, according to many experts, that the Chinese are increasingly offering a legitimate alternative to the U.S. led space order at a time when NASA is actually having a resurgence of sort of its own with a lot of ambitious projects and programs for the coming years.

So Robyn, this is really increasingly a space race between these two countries, with them running their programs on two separate tracks, because they have no cooperation.

The U.S. Congress has prohibited NASA from cooperating with the Chinese due to national security concerns. So they're on separate tracks, trying to achieve many similar goals at a time this is obviously also becoming a very important component in this growing strategic competition between two superpowers -- Robyn.

CURNOW: OK, great to speak you. Thanks so much, Steven.

Former president Barack Obama is warning young activists, stop using the phrase "defund the police." Mr. Obama has been a vocal supporter of protesters after George Floyd died when he was pinned to the ground by an officer.

But in an interview on Snapchat, the former president said the servant (ph) backfired and other carefully considered slogans could be more attractive to supporters. Take a listen.

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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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CURNOW: Coming up in the next hour, my colleague, Matthew Chance, is standing by in Moscow, as Russia's health minister say more than 100,000 Russians have been vaccinated so far with the country's Sputnik V vaccine. That's ahead with Rosemary Church after "WORLD SPORT".

I'm Robyn Curnow. Thanks for joining me, wherever you are in the world. Thanks for watching. You are watching CNN.

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