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Millions in California Face New Stay-at-Home Orders; Trump Holds Superspreader Rally in Georgia; Countries Prepare for Vaccine Rollouts; Hungary Opens Borders to Recovered COVID-19 Travelers; U.S. Adds over 1 Million New COVID-19 Cases in Five Days; Frontline Health Care Workers Suffer, Too; E.U.-U.K. Trade Deal Negotiations Resume; Nor'easter Triggers Bomb Cyclone. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired December 06, 2020 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hi, welcome to all of our viewers joining us from all around the world. You're watching CNN. I'm Robyn Curnow.
Just ahead, staggering and sobering numbers in the U.S. The coronavirus is spreading faster than ever before.
On the front lines, imagine being sent into pandemic hot spots one after another, saving lives in unfamiliar settings. We'll speak to a nurse doing just that.
Then the U.S. president rallies supporters ahead of a pivotal Senate runoff but resorts to another tactic, trying to hold on to power.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Robyn Curnow.
CURNOW: Great to have you along this hour. So there are many ways to measure the explosive growth of coronavirus now raging through the United States. There's the daily tally of new cases.
Take a look at this. New records are being set almost daily. A staggering 1 million Americans have now tested positive in the first five days of December. And then there's the soaring death toll. Each day it's enough to fill every seat in the Kennedy Center in Washington.
A front line doctor in Minnesota describes the crushing emotional burden being shouldered by nurses and physicians.
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DR. SHIRLEE XIE, HENNEPIN HEALTHCARE: I think that, sometimes, when you hear statistics like that, you become numb to what those numbers mean. But -- but for us, you knowing, people that are taking care of these
patients, every single number is somebody we have to look at and say, I'm sorry, there's nothing more I can do for you. And it's just another family we have to call to tell them that their loved ones are going to die.
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CURNOW: The clearest picture of the crisis is hospital beds, filling up all over the U.S. and filling up fast. As of now, a record 101,000 Americans are so sick they need to be in a medical facility. Health experts warn the worst is yet to come. Los Angeles says its hospitals could run out of beds within a month.
So millions of people in California are facing new stay-at-home orders, as Paul Vercammen reports.
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PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The number of new cases in California, just alarming; shocking, really. Let's go right to a graphic and show you: 25,000 new cases, in California, more than 10,000 hospitalizations, more than 200 deaths.
And, all of this, helping contribute to these new stricter stay-at- home orders, which means people cannot go to wineries, to nail salons, hair salons, playgrounds and the rest. And they must wear a mask.
Let's look at where this is being impacted. In Southern California and in the San Joaquin Valley, 27 million people, one minute before midnight Sunday, the order goes into effect.
Well, it's not being embraced throughout California. In fact, let's hear from the sheriff of Riverside County, who calls these strict regulations ridiculous.
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SHERIFF CHAD BIANCO, RIVERSIDE COUNTY: While the governor's office and the state has threatened action against violators, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department will not be blackmailed, bullied or used as muscle against Riverside County residents in the enforcement of the governor's orders.
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VERCAMMEN: These stricter rules, also, affect other parts of California. Some Bay Area counties, also, joining in on the new regulations. And the order's being applauded here by top brass at UCLA Medical Center. They say they need something to help bend this curve, somehow, someway, with all these doctors and nurses facing a tsunami of new patients.
Also UCLA playing another huge role in the fight against the pandemic. It can store 1 million vaccines in seven freezers and expects to be able to put shots in people's arms in about two weeks -- reporting from Los Angeles, I'm Paul Vercammen. Now back to you.
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CURNOW: Dr. Larry Brilliant is a CNN medical analyst and joins me from Mill Valley, California.
Doctor, good to see you. Lockdowns, like you're seeing in California, of course a lot of criticism because of the damage to the economy.
Is it such a binary choice, lives or livelihood?
DR. LARRY BRILLIANT, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Thanks for having me.
No, it's not binary. Well, first of all, I don't think you can solve the problem of the economy until we throw COVID into the dustbin of history, which we will be doing as the vaccines come on board.
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BRILLIANT: Until then, we're going to have two or three or four months that's going to be catastrophic. So the lockdown is prompted mostly by overrunning hospitals with the COVID cases. We now have 100,000 hospital beds occupied by COVID patients in the United States. There's some communities that just don't have any more ICU beds.
So what I like about the California stay at home, not lockdown, what I like about it is that they're allowing retail stores and other community activities to stay open but reduced to 25 percent or 50 percent of capacity. And the trigger for closing down more is when they exceed 85 percent of the ICU beds being used.
Once you get to only 15 percent of beds left, then it's just too dangerous. You're almost forced to do a lockdown.
CURNOW: I mean, the death toll also is just staggering. You talk about hospital beds; we're seeing over 2,000 people dying every day already this month. We're in the early days of December. I think the calculation is that one person is dying every 30 seconds in America.
With that in mind, we're seeing California deal with it in a different way, to Atlanta where we are here.
I mean, how important is it for the Biden administration to perhaps make sure that everything is on an equal level, that there is some consistency in terms of response?
Is that possible in America, with all the states?
BRILLIANT: You're asking exactly the right question. We are having and will have soon the equivalent of one 9/11, the deaths from one 9/11, every day. It's incomprehensible. It's tragedy.
And I think part of the problem is that we have this hopscotch pattern of governance -- county health officers, state health officers. We need to have a concerted federal plan, a strategy that everyone knows what it will be, what the targets will be, what excellence looks like, what success looks like.
Until we have that, then, as you see, the virus moves from place to place. For one season it's in the Northeast, then it's in the South. Now it happens to be in the Upper Midwest and, of course, I heard the other day that the virus, there's an epidemic in every single county in the United States except one.
And that's in Hawaii and that's a county that previously was a lepers colony. For all intents and purposes, there's epidemics in every county. So we need to have a uniform set of guidelines for the whole country.
CURNOW: But until that happens, I mean, the 20th of January just feels like many, many years away, particularly for people who are sick or vulnerable. So we're looking ahead, there's one estimate that, four months from now, there will be almost double the amount of deaths in this country.
I've said it already, nearly 540,000 people could potentially be dead. That's the equivalent of taking a city the size of Atlanta and wiping it off the map.
So the question is, how can that be lessened in the next four months?
How do we save lives with those kinds of numbers already projected?
BRILLIANT: And today we had a terrible statistic. We passed 100,000 deaths in nursing homes in the United States. Those are all somebody's mothers or grandmothers or fathers or grandfathers.
We know what to do. Wear face masks. Practice social distancing. Don't congregate especially indoors, in large gatherings. Stay away from people who are not following those practices. And when there is a case, test, trace and isolate. Follow the CDC guidelines of isolation.
And soon, when there's vaccination, let's move to using vaccine as part of the response to outbreaks. So testing, tracing and vaccinating. We know what to do. We just -- I think because we haven't had national leadership.
Because it's been ignored or denied, it's been really difficult. I think -- the polls that I see are that most Americans don't know what the right thing to do is, other than face masks and social distancing. We need to be much more crisp and careful.
And I hope a Biden administration and this excellent task force that they have will help us to have one concerted national policy.
CURNOW: Dr. Larry Brilliant, thanks so much for your perspective there in California.
BRILLIANT: Robyn, thank you for having me.
CURNOW: Despite the worsening pandemic, U.S. president Donald Trump held a packed, largely maskless rally here in Georgia on Saturday. Now the aim was to give Republicans a boost in the upcoming runoff elections that will determine control of the Senate.
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CURNOW: But as Ryan Nobles now reports, the president mostly focused on himself and his baseless claims of voter fraud.
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RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Donald Trump came here to Georgia, seemingly, with the goal of helping support the two candidates running in the runoff election, here, to the United States Senate.
But he spent far more of his time here in Georgia, talking about the election that he has just lost than he did supporting those two candidates in their upcoming fight.
President Trump went through a laundry list of perceived grievances that he had about the electoral process, specifically the electoral process here in Georgia while, at the same time, trying to convince his supporters that they need to come out and vote in January.
Take a listen to this one excerpt of the president's speech, where he talked about how he feels that this election was stolen from him.
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TRUMP: They cheated and they rigged our presidential election. But we will still win it. We will still win it. We'll still win it. And they're going to try and rig this election, too.
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NOBLES: President Trump spoke for more than 90 minutes in Valdosta, Georgia, which is right along the Florida border.
And it was just a speech filled with lies. He talked about evidence of fraud and malfeasance in elections, not just here in Georgia but in Wisconsin and in Arizona. Much (sic) of these claims have been debunked. He even played clips from the conservative news networks, Newsmax and OAN, that claim to show evidence of voter fraud.
Those examples have, also, been debunked and he did it to the glee of this crowd, that said repeatedly throughout his speech that they wanted the two Republican candidates to "stop the steal" and they also asked them to fight for Trump.
It's not necessarily the message that Republicans for looking for here tonight. They wanted the president to focus on Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, those two candidates running for the Senate.
But as is often the practice with President Trump, this speech was all about him and his hope of trying to overturn an election, a hope that, really, is not based in any kind of reality -- Ryan Nobles, CNN, Valdosta, Georgia.
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CURNOW: Joining me is Judy Norman, a lecturer in politics for University College London.
We heard Ryan lay it out. This was a campaign rally, a laundry list of perceived grievances. But the president's trip was supposed to get voters mobilized for the Georgia runoffs.
Could he have accomplished the opposite?
He says the electoral process is a fraud but go vote anyway.
JULIE NORMAN, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON: That's certainly a concern for many Republican officials in Georgia right now, that voters will be hearing this message from Trump, that the election system is flawed and be discouraged from voting.
In reality, I don't think that will be the case. We see from Trump that it's really the momentum that he brings even more than the message. He is quite clearly still a very strong political force.
Even if his messaging is more in the fact that vote to support me, defend me, that is still a very galvanizing message for his base and one that will still get a lot of his supporters out to the polls or to vote for him by absentee. So I think some of those concerns will be downplayed as we move forward.
CURNOW: Despite the fact that Joe Biden won Georgia, this is still very much the heart of the Bible Belt. I live here. There's still a clear devotion to guns, church, conservative values, very deeply rooted.
How likely do you think it is these Senate seats will flip blue?
NORMAN: Of course Georgia is an interesting state right now in the sense of how the demographics are changing with the Old South and the new South. We saw so much of that come together in the presidential election and with Biden's slim victory there.
But I do think that this is going to be a very close race for both of the Senate races. We know that a lot of it is going to come down to voter turnout. Of course voter turnout is always lower in what's just a Senate race rather than a presidential race.
But we see both parties really trying to get voters to register before the deadline on Monday.
Stacey Abrams and many Democratic organizers are trying to get first- time voters to come out again, at the same time really going up against, as you said, a state that is historically Republican, has not sent a non-Republican member to the Senate in over 20 years.
And that is still going to be a challenge for the Democrats to overcome. Democrats are also, of course, aware that many of the votes for Biden were from individuals who would still probably identify as Republican but just didn't want to vote for Trump, especially in some of those suburbs. So it will be hard to flip both those races.
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CURNOW: So what we do know is what happens in Georgia will have a significant impact on how the Biden administration could get things done in Congress. So whoever wins, it's also clear that Mr. Trump will continue to cast a long shadow over this administration.
NORMAN: That's exactly right. And we've heard from both parties that they really see this vote and who will control the Senate as being quite decisive for how the Biden administration will move forward.
As you noted, however, Trump is not going away, whatever happens with the Senate races. We've seen that he still holds a very strong control over GOP voters as well as many elected officials in both the House and the Senate, who see how strong of a resonance he still has with his base and with Republican voters.
So I don't think we'll be seeing Trump go away, regardless of how the Senate races turn out.
CURNOW: Also we've had so many developments just here in the last 48 hours when it comes to Georgia, Mr. Trump pressuring the Georgia governor, a Republican, to overturn the election result.
Just saying that is mind boggling, just because he wanted him to, even though the count has been three times so far here.
How much credit do you give Georgia Republicans for holding the line under this very direct pressure from the president?
NORMAN: This is really quite notable. We've seen pretty relentless attacks from Trump on both Governor Kemp, Secretary of State Raffensperger and pretty strong resolve from that Republican leadership in the state to defend the integrity of the elections, first and foremost.
And also to really be among the few to push the president to tone down his rhetoric, not only because of the damage it might cause the party in terms of votes but also real threats of violence that these individuals and their families are getting.
And that is a reality that is manifesting from a lot of Trump's messages. And it's something that I think is very important for Republican leaders to be calling out, as we've seen from these Georgia leaders.
CURNOW: Thanks so much. Great to have your analysis, Julie Norman.
NORMAN: Thank you, Robyn.
CURNOW: Still to come, a vaccine rollout picks up speed. We'll take a look at why scientists are still cautious of a spike in coronavirus numbers in parts of Europe.
Plus a look at how Hungary is opening its doors to recovered coronavirus patients and why some think that may not be a good idea.
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CURNOW: As countries prepare for a rollout of coronavirus vaccines, the World Health Organization warns the pandemic is far from over. There are over 66 million cases around the globe, more than 1.5 million have died.
Germany has been especially hard-hit recently. It's reported more than 17,000 new cases and more than 250 deaths the last day, just a day after it reported nearly 500 deaths. For more on this and other coronavirus developments in Europe, Cyril Vanier.
What can you tell us?
CYRIL VANIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Robyn, Germany had done better than most of its European neighbors during the first wave of the pandemic. In the second wave they thought they could get by late October when cases started rising with a light lockdown. That meant restaurants closed, yes. But schools open, shops open.
And it turns out that that was -- that allowed Germany to cap the exponential rise in the coronavirus but it hasn't actually decreased the number of new infections, which is what they're really looking for, which is what any country fighting the coronavirus is looking for.
They've plateaued, leveled off at a fairly high number of new daily infections. Two weeks ago, when we saw Germany with more than 20,000 daily infections, you know, it is guaranteed, when you have a high number of infections, two weeks later you're going to have a high number of deaths, which is why this week we saw a high number of deaths, almost 500 Wednesday, almost 500 in the 24 hours from Friday to Saturday.
So in the face of that, Germany has extended restrictions that were supposed to end late December. Those have been extended to early January, may be extended even beyond that day.
CURNOW: Cyril Vanier, thanks for that update.
Travel during the coronavirus pandemic is full of challenges but if you can prove you've recovered from the coronavirus in the last half- year or so, Hungary is rolling out the welcome mat. Scott McLean explains how it works and why it's raising concerns.
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SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With miles of electric fencing and barbed wire along its border and open government hostility to migrants, Hungary isn't the first country you'd expect to loosen entry requirements. Since the pandemic, Budapest International Airport has been mostly empty. Hungary essentially closed its borders to most foreigners.
But if you can provide credible evidence that you've recovered from COVID-19 in the last six months, come on in. You might call the privilege an immunity passport.
MCLEAN: If you've had the virus before, does that mean you're immune?
DR. ANIA WAJNBERG, MT. SINAI HEALTH SYSTEM: So far from what we can see in the studies, it's encouraging, that if you have antibodies, especially at high levels, that most people would be protected from getting this again.
MCLEAN (voice-over): Dr. Ania Wajnberg led a massive study in New York that shows more than 90 percent of people with mild or moderate symptoms have enough antibodies to kill the virus for at least five months. While there have only been a handful of cases of reinfection so far, it's not entirely clear how long immunity does last.
WAJNBERG: It's certainly theoretically possible that some people with antibodies might not be protected. But I think the majority of people who test positive for antibodies will be protected for some time.
MCLEAN (voice-over): The World Health Organization came out against immunity passports in April, saying there wasn't enough evidence of immunity from antibodies alone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At the moment, the WHO's recommendation has not changed, we do not recommend immunity passports.
MCLEAN (voice-over): Hungary's policy has been in place for months.
MCLEAN: Is that a good idea?
CARMEL SHACHAR, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL: I think Hungary's idea is well intentioned.
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SHACHAR: But it raises concerns. We don't want to create any incentives for people to feel like, oh, I need to get this potentially deadly virus so I can travel to see my loved ones.
MCLEAN (voice-over): A warning shared by experts in leading medical journals.
SHACHAR: You could see it especially if more and more countries adopt a similar scheme.
MCLEAN (voice-over): Now Iceland will also soon allow tourists who beat the virus to skip mandatory testing and quarantine on arrival.
MCLEAN: Aren't you just giving people an incentive to get infected? THOROLFU GUDNASON, CHIEF EPIDEMIOLOGIST, ICELAND: Well, I'm not sure, exactly. That is possible. But on the other hand, I think it's also unfair to people who have had the infection.
Why should they not be allowed to travel freely?
MCLEAN (voice-over): Icelanders with antibodies are even exempt from the nationwide mask mandate.
GUDNASON: I think it's a question of justice, basically. If you have the medical condition but you are not spreading or having the virus, you're not a risk to the environment, then you should be recognized for that.
MCLEAN (voice-over): The Hungarian government ignored interview requests and told CNN it doesn't keep statistics on how many have used the exemption. Critics of immunity passports warn they may erode personal privacy and exacerbate social inequalities.
Proponents say they could boost the economy and restore freedom to millions. With a vaccine on the way, the airline industry is developing a secure digital record for passengers to show proof of vaccination.
What about those who already have antibodies?
Iceland plans to give them the same freedoms as those who get the vaccine -- Scott McLean, CNN, London.
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CURNOW: The government of Venezuela seems to have been largely spared the ravaging effects of COVID but if you scratch beneath the surface the reality is much darker than the government in Caracas wants to admit. Isa Soares went inside two of the country's largest hospitals.
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ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Isa Soares in one of the biggest hospitals in Caracas in Venezuela. We've been allowed into this hospital accompanied by medical staff. They want to show us what they have been facing, the conditions these hospitals are in.
They've been in dire states already prior to COVID-19. But medical staff saying it's getting very desperate. Have a very quick look at this.
This is one of the medical staff's units they use for medication, washing hands. As you can see, there's nothing here. There's no water, just dead rats. It gets much, much worse.
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CURNOW: Watch the full report on Monday at 10:00 am in New York, 3:00 pm in London. Still to come on CNN, health care workers under pressure amid surging
cases and hospitalizations. Morgue workers are now also feeling the strain as well as Sara Sidner reports.
Also, one of those frontline workers will join us live. He's a nurse who travels to hot spots, where additional medical help is needed. His perspective after the break.
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CURNOW: Welcome back. It's 31 minutes past the hour. I'm Robyn Curnow live here in Atlanta.
The coronavirus pandemic soars to new levels here in the U.S. with more than 1 million new cases reported during the first week in December alone. That's accordingly to Johns Hopkins University. Saturday was the fifth consecutive day with more than 2,000 people in the U.S. dying from the virus.
And those surging cases can lead to surging hospitalizations. On Saturday, more than 100,000 people were hospitalized because of the virus for the fourth straight day.
Hospitals are approaching capacity and health care workers are really feeling the strain, not just because of the numbers but because they're also providing emotional support for patients, who are isolated from their families. Listen to this emergency room nurse talk about what her life has been like.
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ALLISON BOERNER, CHARGE ER NURSE, CENTURA-PARKER ADVENTIST HOSPITAL: As an ER nurse, I haven't cried a lot on the job. You hold that back and you, you know, you want to stay tough for the family and stoic.
And there's been a lot of tears shed in ER rooms during COVID because we are treating that person dying like our loved one dying, because they don't have anyone else and they need that grace and they need that human touch and they need someone to be there when they're taking their last breath.
The holidays have been rough for a lot of us. We're not seeing our families. We're doing everything we can to keep the public safe. So it's extremely frustrating for us when people are not doing that.
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CURNOW: Our Sara Sidner spoke with other Americans carrying the weight of the pandemic, from the hospitals to the morgues.
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My business pretty much tripled.
SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Imperial County, California, with an 18 percent unemployment rate, that would normally be great news.
But this is a funeral home inundated with bodies.
SIDNER (on camera): How much worse can this get?
SHEILA KRUGER, MANAGING DIRECTOR, FRYE CHAPEL AND MORTUARY: We're afraid. You know when the first wave hit, our hospitals were sending patients out of county to other hospitals because they were at capacity. That's not going to happen this time, because nobody has room anymore.
SIDNER (voice-over): The COVID-19 summer surge overwhelmed her staff, going from an average of 55 deaths in one month. Sheila Kruger fronted containers with the dead, they are filling up again.
KRUGER: So we can put two or three. We're backed up four and five weeks out now. And we've had married couples that die within a day of each other. Parents and children die within a week of each other. It's heart wrenching.
SIDNER (voice-over): Even with all the new treatments helping bring death down and a vaccine on the way, COVID-19 is killing one person in America every 30 seconds. In Kansas, one patient says the politicization of masks is killing people.
JACE BRUCE, COVID-19 PATIENT: I've convinced that there are going to be so many people that are going to die just because of what I'm going to call political.
SIDNER (voice-over): For months, throngs of health care workers have been working to exhaustion battling to save as many lives as they can but seeing more death than ever before.
DR. SHANNON TAPIA, GERIATRICIAN: I don't want to say it's been harder for us than it has for everybody else but the truth is it has.
SIDNER (voice-over): From a doctor in Colorado, one at a 41 people are contagious, according to the governor, to a COVID unit nurse in Kansas where ICU beds in one part of the state are at capacity. There has been no respite.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two to three weeks we're going to be just swamped.
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SIDNER (voice-over): One healthcare system with hospitals in 21 states is reporting a 70 percent increase in hospitalizations over the past three weeks, caring for highly contagious coronavirus patients is taking its toll on everyone. In a newly released survey of 1,100 healthcare workers, 76 percent reported exhaustion and burnout.
DR. ADOLPHE EDWARD, CEO, EL CENTRO REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER: I think we're past the breaking point. So the staff is here but they are broken but they still continue to come.
SIDNER (voice-over): Dr. Adolphe Edward runs El Centro Regional Medical Center in California. This hospital has just two ICU beds left before they're at capacity.
While working nonstop since the summer's deadly surge, they're facing down yet another surge. This time, a second field hospital with 50 beds has been erected, the medical tent mimicking a familiar scene to this Air Force veteran.
EDWARD: This brings me back or takes me back to when we were in the middle of Baghdad.
SIDNER: Are we in a war, though?
EDWARD: We are. So we used to shy away from using the term war zone. We're in a war zone against COVID.
SIDNER (voice-over): The signs of a big battle are reappearing across the country.
On Staten Island, an emergency hospital reopened. Corona hospitalizations there have nearly tripled. In Rhode Island, a field hospital erected. Another put up by the National Guard in Massachusetts and a terribly familiar plea we heard at the beginning of the pandemic now repeated.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you have the skills, the ability, a can-do attitude and have time to work in a hospital, we need you.
SIDNER (voice-over): Experts say what we really need to put the disease on ice the vaccine. Here in El Centro, they took part in the AstraZeneca trial and now have one of the precious super cold refrigerators that hold the delicate vaccine.
EDWARD: This refrigerator, I call it my life right now. This is -- every night we come in to make sure everything is OK with it, that it has what it takes and that we're prepared to actually take it to the next level.
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CURNOW: Thanks to Sara Sidner for that powerful report.
I'm joined by another one of those frontline health care workers. Our next guest is a travel nurse. He goes to hot spots around the country and helps to boost staffing at hospitals in need. Grover Street comes to us live from California.
Thank you, sir, for joining us. Before we get to what you're doing in various hospitals around the country, I understand you've just tested for COVID yourself and you're in isolation. How are you doing?
GROVER STREET, FASTAFF TRAVEL NURSE: I'm actually doing pretty good right now. I tested positive back on November 3rd. The only symptoms I had was loss of taste and smell.
CURNOW: OK, so you're OK now. I want you to talk about what you've been doing the past year, the last few months. Unlike most of us, you're actually chasing the virus around the country, following the surges.
What has it been like?
STREET: It's been a very unusual experience. Since March of this year. And it's a great opportunity to learn more about the virus and about the way people act, you know, different treatment modalities that we're experiencing.
You know, it's also interesting to me that some of the hospitals, you know, they approach it differently than other hospitals. Not everybody has the same approach.
I think if they were to develop an algorithm that could be used for the treatment of COVID-19 -- in health care, it's always based on evidence-based practice. And when you get an algorithm, then I think that would help treat some of these patients in a better way.
CURNOW: Are you saying there needs to be more consistency?
I understand you started off in New York with the surge there; then Miami, now in California, you're helping out at different hospitals.
Are you saying there needs to be more consistency across the U.S. in how to manage it?
STREET: Yes, ma'am, more consistency in the way they treat it and the approach that they do it. Now it's different, based on the patient. You know, not everybody has the same symptoms. And you can't approach with the same treatment modalities or regime in one patient versus another. It just depends on the patient.
CURNOW: You started your career, your medical career, as a nurse in the Air Force. We've got pictures of you on the front lines with your military training.
How has that helped you?
I know our previous guest on Sara Sidner's piece said this is like a war zone on the front line.
Does it feel like that?
STREET: Yes. It's interesting. It is that simple fact that people are making that comparison, that it's sort of like -- it is a war. And the weapons that we have to use is not guns or grenades or ammo or bombs. It's actually wearing a face mask. That's the weapon we need to use. [03:40:00]
STREET: And that's what we're going to have to do and get better at doing in order to be able to contain this and have more control over what's going on in our society.
CURNOW: From a personal perspective, what's it like, what's been hardest about having to parachute into many of these hospitals where the staff need you so much?
What is one of the most difficult things?
STREET: Well, I've seen several things with other employees and staff members. There's a lot of job burnout in different facilities. And you see nurses quit and doctors walk off the job and they just can't handle the stress load.
With me, however, I mean, I've learned to adapt to change. I think that's something the military taught me. I'm always ready to take on a challenge. And it actually motivates me to see somebody get better. And I've had patients that actually have gotten better. But the majority of the patients that I've taken care of have not gotten better.
CURNOW: And what is that like, to be with people, particularly if they're dying, and you know they're alone?
STREET: You know what, these people are alone in the hospital. They have families. I've been on the phone, letting family members know, hey, your mother may not make it tonight, your father, your loved one. They have people on the outside.
But it's hospital policy and the CDC recommendations that we control the population of well people that are coming through the hospital and to limit visiting hours. There's actually no visiting hours right now.
And to know that their loved ones may go into the hospital one day and not come out, they'll never see them again, this is happening.
CURNOW: What do you tell those people, who might not leave the hospital and they can't say goodbye properly or have a hug with their loved ones and you might be the last person they speak to?
What do you tell them?
STREET: Well, if -- if they're in a position -- it depends on the patient now. I work ICU. If they're intubated, they really don't have any reference. You can't really talk to them in that manner.
But if they are on BiPAP or treatment -- if they're not intubated, you talk to them and just give them a level of confidence that, you know, we're here for you. We are your family.
And that's just like working in every hospital, when nurses and doctors get together, respiratory therapists, CNAs, all the medical professionals that are working together, we're like a family. We have to bring it together like a family. And not just us as workers but with the patients as well.
We have to accept them. And it becomes emotional. There's a lot of emotional things involved with this kind of disease.
CURNOW: Grover Street, thank you very much for joining us. Thank you so very much for all the work you've been doing and no doubt all the hands you've held over the past few months. I hope you keep up your strength and have a beautiful Christmas.
STREET: Thank you, you, too.
CURNOW: All the best.
You are watching CNN. Still to come, post-Brexit trade talks between the E.U. and the U.K. will resume soon in Brussels. The latest on those negotiations that have so far produced no deal. That story and much more on the COVID pandemic ravaging the U.S. and the world.
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CURNOW: Negotiators from the European Union and U.K. are hoping to break the deadlock on a post-Brexit trade deal. They're meeting in Brussels today to resume talks and key differences remain. The European Commission president says no agreement is possible if they're not resolved.
Our international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, joins me from London.
This is never-ending in many ways but certainly it's being described as the last roll of the dice.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, that's the quote being bandied around at the moment. One of the things I think, the takeaways you might make, if you're a glass half-full type person, from that statement from Ursula van der Leyen, it was a joint statement from Downing Street.
They put it out again this morning as the negotiator hops on the Eurostar or the plane, whichever way it's going to go, to get to Brussels, to continue those negotiations. A joint statement, a joint recognition. Much to disagree about but the statement mentions progress has been made.
The reality is, as you say, time is running out for one simple reason, that the deal has to be concluded before the end of the year. But in concluding that deal, it has to give time for both the Parliament and U.K. and European Parliament as well to ratify it.
And the technical time for that to achieve that is running out. The issues are those core issues we've been talking about for days and weeks and months and everyone's known about.
So you get the sense, the reason that the -- that Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen had the call yesterday is because the negotiators got as far as they could go. So it's up to political leaders to make some compromises. They'll have another phone call Monday evening.
We just don't know what sort of political ground has shifted there but it's clear that that's this roll of the dice. If it doesn't shift that political ground, then there isn't going to be a deal. That's very clear, Robyn.
CURNOW: What about the criticism coming from some quarters that the Europeans are playing too hardball, that they've not been willing to compromise?
ROBERTSON: Yes, and that's certainly something that you'll read about in the British press. I think perhaps if you read other European newspapers and you look at the view and perspective that's being expressed by French fishermen, who fish in the English Channel, so- called because it's the channel between England and France but at the moment it has E.U. regulations on it, where both French and English fishermen can fish and sometimes there are contested moments when there have been over the past few years, decades actually, in those waters about who's fishing where.
These are very, very contentious and heartfelt issues by communities on both sides of the channel and actually all around the U.K.
It contributes to a very tiny fraction of the overall U.K. GDP. But when you read in British newspapers that the French are holding out, French fishermen have pressure, perhaps, on Emmanuel Macron and his holding out, I think what you're getting to when you hear those narratives that the Europeans are moving the goal posts, that tells you one very simple thing.
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ROBERTSON: That this is absolutely an emotive issue and that the two sides, because there is this deep division, are drifting apart. And perhaps not in terms of negotiation but in terms of how they feel about each other.
And this speaks volumes to the thinness of the deal that may be constructed here eventually, maybe, and also the difficulty to negotiate going further forward because, in this negotiation, you're getting into an area where emotional frustrations are coming to the fore.
CURNOW: And of course, it's such uncharted territory as well, in the midst of a pandemic. Nic Robertson, it's going to be an interesting few days. Thanks for bringing us up to date on it.
You're watching CNN. Still to come, the U.S. Northeast is getting pounded by severe winter weather. Take a look at these images. We're going to talk about a bomb cyclone and what triggered it after the break. (MUSIC PLAYING)
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CURNOW: So a powerful, powerful winter storm is barreling up the U.S. Northeastern coast into Canada's eastern coast as well. Meteorologists say the storm has become a bomb cyclone with some areas under nearly a foot of snow.
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CURNOW: More than 190,000 homes and businesses are without power in the state of Maine alone. And more than 2 million people in New England alone are under winter storm alerts.
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CURNOW: So I am Robyn Curnow. NEWSROOM continues after this quick break, stay with us.
