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Rudy Giuliani Hospitalized for Testing Positive for Coronavirus; Spiking Coronavirus Cases in California Forces New Restrictions; Hope in the Horizon as COVID-19 Vaccine Nears; E.U. Privacy Rule and Risk of Online Child Sex Abuse; Trump Lawyer Rudy Giuliani Tests Positive For COVID-19; President-Elect Biden Plans To Ramp Up COVID-19 Testing; U.K. To Launch Its Biggest Ever Vaccination Program This Week; U.S. Senate Candidates Debate Ahead Of Critical Runoff; Republican Senators Try To Keep Seats, U.S. Senate Control; Control Of U.S. Senate At Stake In Next Month's Runoff; Biden To Name Pick For Health & Human Services Secretary; Biden Filling Out Ranks In Pandemic Response Team. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired December 07, 2020 - 2:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN HOST: Hi. Welcome to our viewers joining us here in the U.S. and all around the world. You are watching CNN. I'm Robyn Curnow. So, just ahead on the show, another member of Donald Trump's inner circle test positive for coronavirus. This time, his personal attorney.

As cases skyrocket, so will the number of tests being taken. We'll speak to someone working around the clock to make sure you get you results. Also -

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ASHTON KUTCHER, CO-FOUNDER OF THORN: If this interim legislation does not happen, those clues are gone, they're in the dark, nobody can see them. We can't find those kids.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW (on camera): Ashton Kutcher speaks to me about his plea to European lawmakers. What it could mean for children around the world.

For the fifth time this month, the U.S. has reported a record number of hospitalizations from COVID. More than 101,000 were counted on Sunday alone, and the overall infection rate just keeps on soaring to new heights.

In the coming days, the number of cases is expected to top 15 million worldwide. But this week could also bring some good news. The food and drug administration will meet on Thursday to decide whether Pfizer's vaccine should receive emergency use authorization. Meantime, we're learning that another member of the U.S. president's inner circle has tested positive for the virus.

Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's personal attorney, was hospitalized on Sunday and is now receiving treatment. Giuliani says he is getting great care, and in a tweet, he claimed he was feeling good and is recovering quickly. Jeremy Diamond has more on his condition. Jeremy?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the coronavirus has struck once again inside President Trump's inner circle. This time, the former New York City mayor, and the president's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, testing positive for the virus.

The president announced the news in a tweet on Sunday. Now, he didn't provide many details about Giuliani's condition, but a source familiar with the matter told me a few hours after the president's tweet that Mayor Giuliani was indeed admitted to the hospital, admitted to Georgetown University Hospital here in Washington D.C., a sign that clearly his condition was serious enough to at least warrant hospitalization.

Giuliani, of course, is 76 years old and in that higher risk category. But over the last week, what we've seen from Mayor Giuliani as him engaging in the kind of behavior that you certainly should not engage in during this coronavirus pandemic especially when you are in that high-risk category.

Giuliani was crisscrossing the country, visiting three key states in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election. You can see him here on Thursday. He was in Atlanta Georgia at the Georgia state capitol, shaking hands, hugging people, taking pictures with folks in very close quarters, all of this not wearing a mask.

This is the kind of reckless behavior, again, that not only puts Mayor Giuliani at risk, but that puts other folks at risk. Now that he has tested positive, a lot of those people could potentially have been infected with the virus. So that is, obviously, a concern.

Now, Mayor Giuliani, we don't have many updates on his condition, but his son did take to twitter on Sunday to say, "My dad, Rudy Giuliani, is resting, getting great care and feeling well. Thank you to all of the friends who have reached out concerned about his well-being."

And Giuliani is just the latest person in the president's inner circle to test positive for the virus. We have seen dozens of people close to the president, testing positive.

And while you certainly can contract this virus when you're trying to be as careful as possible, many of those around the president are folks who have disregarded those public health guidelines, rejecting the wearing of masks as an important preventative measure.

And of course, none other than the president himself has continued to disregard those public health guidelines and hasn't done anything amid this deadly surge of the pandemic to encourage Americans to take those steps. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.

CURNOW: So within the next hour, tens of millions of people in California will be placed under new coronavirus restrictions as the state battles record infection numbers and hospitalizations. Now, these new measures will close down businesses and require people to stay home for the next few weeks. As Paul Vercammen now reports. Paul?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): In all of these stay- at-home orders now being enacted in California, one of the rules is no more outdoor dining in the southern California region, in the San Joaquin region and much of the Bay area.

Now, for these restaurant owners, it's just been awful and worse for the employees. Right behind me, the closed down Pineapple Hill Saloon and Grill in Sherman oaks. The owner went viral with one of her messages. I talked to her. She says one thing that is just absolutely crushing for her, is telling employees that they do not have a job for the holidays.

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ANGELA MARSDEN, OWNER, PINEAPPLE HILL SALOON AND GRILL: It's unbearable. I mean, you try and put on a good face, you try to say don't worry, we're going to reopen. I'm going to make it happen, but to look at my staff, give them their last paycheck right before Christmas, and some of them are newer staff, that have been shut down over and over.

And their unemployment is running out, and they have kids, and children. It is the most excruciating feeling. There is no option. There is no options for our entire industry. And it is not because of we are trying to stay on unemployment and just, you know, sit on that.

UNKNOWN: Yours is almost out.

MARSDENL: Mine is almost out and I have no idea -- I have no idea what I'm going to do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VERCAMMEN (on camera): And the owner here at the Saloon and Grill telling me she's explored the possibility of takeout, is still trying to work it out, but the numbers just don't add up in terms of trying to make some kind of profit by staying open for takeout and delivery only. Reporting from Sherman Oaks, I'm Paul Vercammen.

CURNOW: Thanks Paul for that. So Americans and people all over the world are hopeful that things will be different in the New Year. A U.S. official says emergency authorization of a vaccine could come very soon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX AZAR, U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: I don't know of any reason why the system is in any way off track. If things are on track, the advisory committee goes well, I believe we could see FDA authorization within days. (END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW: But experts remind us that it will take months before most Americans receive a vaccine. And there is still many, many things we don't not know about the vaccine's effectiveness. Early on, I spoke with Dr. Anish Mahajan about these very points. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANISH MAHAJAN, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, HARBOR-UCLA MEDICAL CENTER (on camera): The Food and Drug Administration, the FDA, is carefully reviewing the data right now as they go towards approval of these vaccine candidates from Pfizer and Moderna.

And so far, what we know from the data that has been released is it's more than 90 percent effective to prevent somebody who takes the vaccine from getting sick from COVID. Now, we do not yet know if taking the vaccine will prevent the person who takes it from giving the COVID virus to somebody else. We also do not know if it will work in children and those tests will be starting soon.

CURNOW: So, when you look at the coming year, when do you think, and that is I know is the million dollar question that we all want to know, when do you think we will all be vaccinated? When can people look forward to family holidays or going back to their work buildings? If you were a betting man, what does 2021 look like for you?

MAHAJAN: 2021 will be difficult. This is not actually something like a magic wand. It will take months and months for the companies to create enough vaccine to vaccinate all Americans. So, in the first tranche of vaccines that are expected to be available before the end of the year, there will only be doses for about 20 million Americans, and those will be for health care workers.

It will take many months well into 2021 before people take the vaccine. Now, throughout this time, we all need to continue wearing our masks, socially distancing, and doing all of the things necessary to keep each other safe because this is going to take a long time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW (on camera): Thanks there to Dr. Anish Mahajan. So, to U.S. politics now, voters in the U.S. state of Georgi are holding some pretty significant political cards right now. The state is less than a month away from a runoff election that could decide whether the Republicans keep control of the U.S. Senate.

Now, Democrat candidate, Jon Ossoff, you can see him here debated at an empty podium on Sunday. Republican incumbent, David Perdue, refused to participate. And later, Republican senator, Kelly Loeffler, debated Democratic challenger, Raphael Warnock. Loeffler faced questions about Trump and his claims of election fraud, but she didn't give a direct answer.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SEN. KELLY LOEFFLER (R-GA): You know, President Trump has every right

to use every legal recourse available. In our own state, we've seen time and again, that we have investigations that need to be completed. In fact, we've run two audits, and those audits discovered thousands of ballots across several counties here in Georgia that were not counted.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW (on camera): Well, coming up on CNN, an E.U. vote could stop tech firms from tracking online content. Actor Ashton Kutcher tells us why he thinks that would be a terrible, terrible mistake and children would be the victims. That is next.

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[02:10:00]

CURNOW (on camera): Welcome back. Its 13 minutes past the hour. Just hours from now in Brussels, a committee of the European parliament is expected to take up a vote that could have big, big consequences for the fight against child sexual abuse.

Now, the issue is where the big tech firms can keep scanning social media, websites and personal messages to detect predators. Some critics say that's a violation of privacy. Nina Dos Santos now has that story from London. Nina?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With countries locked down and people are spending more time online, authorities in Europe are sounding the alarm about a rise in sexual exploitation of children.

YLVA JOHANSSON, EUROPEAN COMMISSIONER FOR HOME AFFAIRS: We have so many signs that grooming is growing rapidly. And that means that perpetrators find children and these children are being victims. We are obliged, in my view, to protect these children.

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): For more than a decade, law enforcement agencies across Europe like Europol have been able to work with technology firms to scan social media, websites, and online communications for evidence of child pornography.

[02:15:02]

TIMOTHY ZAMMIT, CHAIR, EUROPEAN UNION CYBERCRIME TASK FORCE: The information we are receiving through these types of reference is a great part of our job. Through these reference we have been able to identify a number of victims in our own investigations, and also prevent further abuse to these children.

UNKNOWN: We are looking forward to the questions and answers.

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): But now, a debate of the E.U. privacy rules could change that. On one side, the E.U. Commission wants to maintain the status quo and has proposed a temporary piece of legislation that would allow tech companies to continue screening online platforms.

JOHANSSON: This is about protecting children. It is not that they are into reading everything that somebody's texting on the platform.

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): On the other hand, some members of the European parliament, like Patrick Breyer see the screening as a breach of privacy that could be open to abuse itself.

PATRICK BREYER, MEMBER OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT (GREENS/EFA): Examining and searching the content of everybody's digital correspondence is as if the post office were just opening all of our letters. All it may achieve is that criminals will be using encrypted channels instead.

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): Last month, the actor and tech investor, Ashton Kutcher, waded into the debate.

KUCHER: If it was your kid that was being sexually abused and it was their content that was being shared on the internet, and you knew that tech companies had the ability to identify and remove that content or even prevent the abuse from happening, but a law was standing in the way from you providing your kid with a better life. Would you be okay with that?

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): For police fighting cybercrime across the E.U., losing a tool they say is vital at a pivotal time is deeply concerning.

(On camera): So how would life change on a day-to-day basis for police forces across the E.U. if you didn't have this ability to screen communications?

ZAMMIT: The reality is, we will have to wait for reports to come in, or else employ other proactive measures and other exercises that are already in play.

DOS SANTOS (voice-over): The matter will come to a head on Monday, with a vote on how to proceed. If no compromise is reached, by default, screening will stop before the end of December, with implications, for millions of children, across the E.U. and elsewhere in the world. Nina Dos Santos, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CURNOW (on camera): Ashton Kutcher is an actor. He also is the co- founder of Thorn, an organization that builds technology to defend children from child sex trafficking and he joins me now from Los Angeles. Ashton, hi. You were in that piece and clearly you're very passionate about this subject. But why have you waded into this argument between E.U. lawmakers?

KUTCHER: Well, I got involved with this issue for over a decade now. You know, I founded Thorn. We build technology to help defend children from sexual abuse. I've spent countless hours working with lawmakers, working with technology companies, working with other NGOs, trying to find the best solution in the space.

And, you know, as this piece of legislation came up and was meeting resistance, it just became extraordinarily frustrating to me, one, that I think lawmakers weren't fully aware of the breath of the issue. And secondly, you know, this isn't an EU issue.

The internet is a global tool. So, children that are being abused in the United States, their content could be - being shared in Europe. Children that are being abused in Europe, their content could be being shared in the United States.

And so this is a global issue. And as the E.U. makes a very critical decision on how this is going to be legislated, it is going to affect the rest of the world. It's going to affect all of us. And, frankly, I don't understand any one bit, that has children and cares about children, that isn't interested in this issue and taking it on because it's your kids' lives.

CURNOW: What happens if this is stalled, if there is no solution?

KUTCHER: Well, here's the thing. This has to pass on December 21st. So, let me just scale the issue for you. So, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, received 16 million reports last year. That is 16 million reports.

Of each of those -- of those reports, that is 69 million files. That is 69 million pieces of evidence of children being sexually abused, molested, and raped.

[02:20:03]

Some of these kids are toddlers, even as young as infants, prepubescent children. This is evidence of their rape. So, if this doesn't pass, what we are talking about, we can do the quick math. It's 69 million divided by 12. We're at 5.8 million files?

Government moves slow and they negotiate slowly and we all understand that. And this needs to be legislated very carefully because privacy is important. But for every month that goes by, that's 5.8 million pieces of evidence of children being sexually abused, molested, and rape that go dark. It goes blind.

And if it takes them two months, that's what, 11.6 million pieces of evidence. And if takes them three months and on, and on, and on, these are vital clues that help us identify these children and bring them to safety.

And if this interim legislation doesn't happen, those clues are gone. They are in the dark. Nobody can see them. We can't find those kids. So that's what happens.

CURNOW: It's horrifying, it's terrifying, particularly, as you say, if you have kids yourself. But then you also heard some E.U. lawmakers in that piece say, you know, this is like somebody opening your mail, but this is about privacy. That ordinary citizens could be infringed in their privacy. For

example, I know one example has been the harmless family photographs at the beach could be flagged and removed and even investigated under these rules. What is your reaction to that?

KUTCHER: That is not the utilization. What we are talking about is a continuation of the tools that are being used for 10, 15 years to specifically for identifying child sexual abuse material, specifically for that. That's what these tools are for. That's what the legislation outlines. It is specifically for that.

So, it is nonsense to assume. Now, could tech companies abuse this? Could lawmakers abuse this? Yes. But that's why we have legislation. That's why we put guardrails around things. I mean, listen, we have speed limits, right, when we drive our car, and police officers have radar guns. That's a piece of technology that is used to detect someone who is speeding.

This piece of technology is used to detect children that are being abused. So, the notion that they're going to be sitting there abusing this technology to look through your family photos at the beach seems pseudo-nonsensical to me.

CURNOW: Just so what your organization, Thorn. I mean, it also develops tools to combat child abuse. I mean, how can technology and legislation, work together at least to try and outpace or keep up with child traffickers when you talk about the kind of rates that we are seeing here?

KUTCEHR: It starts with working together. You know, it's shocking, as a non-profit that works on this issue specifically on this issue, that there wasn't more consultation with us as to what the regulation should look like.

I'm a tech investor. I'm an actor. I run a nonprofit that focuses on this. We have pretty decent domain expertise. We are talking with law enforcement. Our tools are being used by law enforcement. Our tools area being used by private industry.

Our tools are being used by parents to understand and be educated on this issue. They should be coming to us and saying, how should we regulate on this and we can work together to find a solution. And by no means is what exists perfect, right?

The analogy I like to talk about is, you know, planes can't be used to crash into buildings, but we have to trust that we can regulate air traffic so it doesn't take place. And we've done a relatively decent job since we realized that people wanted to fly planes into buildings.

So, we need to assume that we can do a good job of regulating this technology, so it is not abused. People aren't -- their privacy isn't being infringed and law enforcement can use it efficiently and effectively. Private industry can use it efficiently and effectively.

And most importantly, that we protect the privacy of these kids. They did not consent to their abuse being shared online. They didn't consent after they are identified or their abuser's identified to that content to continue to be shared online.

Their privacy matters too, and we need to take that into account when we legislate against this. And it's not going to get done overnight.

[02:24:59]

So that's what this interim piece of legislation is about, is saying, hey, let's keep using the tools that we have so this content and this evidence doesn't go in the dark, until we come up with a better solution. And we are willing to work on that. We are willing to work with everyone on that.

CURNOW: And just finally before we go, I mean, what is your message to E.U. lawmakers as they watch CNN on Monday as they make this decision and we get closer to the deadline?

KUTHCER: Pass this piece of legislation, then let's sit down, let's work on what the long term compromise needs to be between privacy and identifying these kids, and what privacy looks like for everyone, not just you, but for these kids as well.

CURNOW: Ashton, thanks so much for joining us. Really appreciate you joining us.

KUTCHER: Thank you.

CURNOW: So, coming up, nearly 200 million coronavirus tests have been processed in the U.S. since the start of the pandemic. Just ahead, we'll hear from an underappreciated group, the lab techs, who provide all of those results for us. That's next.

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CURNOW: Great to have you along with me this hour. Its 29 minutes past the hour. This is CNN. I'm Robyn Curnow, live from Atlanta. Now, the U.S. has seen another sharp rise in COVID cases and has reported its highest number of hospitalizations since the pandemic began. The country is now approaching 15 million confirmed infections. By far, the highest total in the world.

Among the newly infected, President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. The 76-year-old was admitted to hospital on Sunday after the president announced he had tested positive.

[02:30:00]

Meanwhile, President-Elect Biden's coronavirus advisory board says, it plans to ramp up testing. Americans around the country have waited in long lines to get tests, and credible health officials say much more testing still needs to be done. But, that's just one part of the process, a lot happens in the labs behind the scenes to actually get the results to the patient. It is an integral part of fighting this pandemic.

April Abbott is the Director of Microbiology at the Deaconess Health System. And she joins me now from Evansville, Indiana. Thank you so much for speaking to us. How many coronavirus tests have you and your team done?

APRIL ABBOTT, DIRECTOR OF MICROBIOLOGY DEACONESS HEALTH SYSTEM: Sure, we actually passed a big milestone for us, so we've crossed the 100,000 tests performed metric here this month.

CURNOW: How does that feel? And how is that been? Because many people are loading doctors, and nurses, as heroes. But I know that lot of folks, like you have said nobody sees us, people forget that we are also there on the front lines.

ABBOTT: Yes. It's interesting. Because the number came, and went and we really didn't even notice it. So one of the comments that was made - that it was actually during a conversation with a friend of mine, he commented that they had crossed that milestone. And so I went to look to see how many tests that we performed, I didn't even realize that we crossed it. And when I told the text that they had actually made it past that number, they were shocked. So we know that we were running constantly but it's not something that we even weren't looking for.

CURNOW: And when you say running constantly, what do you mean? How overworked? How exhausting? How absolutely debilitating has it been the last few months, trying to just get those tests done?

ABBOTT: Yes. So we were 24/7 our laboratory, so we were running constantly. We definitely have increased our capacity here, we continue to increase. So it's a very stressful environment for the technologist here right now.

CURNOW: Yes. I mean are you're tired.

ABBOTT: Yes. Every ones were out. So I think we hit that point, and we've definitely had to get resources from outside of the laboratory to help us. So there are days where any instrumentation fails or we just get on aligned with tests or perhaps we have leftover test from the day prior, and we need to send those out, because we are not able to do those tests in house. Not necessarily with all of them. And so we have to get resources from outside the laboratory to help us with that process.

CURNOW: I mean, aren't there are enough medical technologists in America, folks to process these tests. I mean the diagnostic infrastructure in this country. Do you feel like it's been strained to its very tipping point here?

ABBOTT: Yes. I think you hit the nail on the head with that. Prior to this pandemic, we were already at a critical juncture for us. We already had more experiencing critical shortages, for medical laboratory scientists. And so this happened just, sort of, at a perfect storm for us, where we were already well understaffed, and many hospitals, and to have this turn on top we now - we went from doing, perhaps, about 6000 tests a week, until now we are 10,000 or 12,000 tests a week. And they are just starting people to do them.

CURNOW: I know you are a mom, and you've got kids, how have you manage to balance that? Because, I understand you have put a bed in your office, as well, to try and manage this? ABBOTT: Yes. So I mean, you know, I'm probably not the poster child of work life balance right now, you know, one of the things that I try to do, is I really do try to make it home most nights of the week. And that is not always possible, unfortunate that I have a husband that can be there with our children in the evenings. They, you know they know what coronavirus is, so this isn't about age, but even our 4 year old.

I mean he goes to school, and he wears a mask, and so he says things like coronavirus, is a catastrophe. And my kids, they want me to be home, but I think kids are pretty resilient. So they realize that you know, Mommy is doing other things right now, and that - but I am trying my best to make it home to be with them soon to.

CURNOW: For all health care workers, what does it make you feel when you see people still not wearing masks, and perhaps, congregating in big rallies or even the comments coming from the President. How does that impact your morale?

ABBOTT: Yes. It's really pretty devastating. And at worked pretty much all day, I went home and like 4 in the morning, because I need to help my husband to get, our children ready for school, and take care. And then turn around and came back at 7 o'clock in the morning and then I stop to pick up a drink. Right behind, me three people walked down with no mask. And for the first time, I think, throughout all of this is happened within the last few weeks, I started to tear up.

Because it is just devastating to see that, whenever you know that that action, right there, means that there are going to be people stuck in the hospital, unable to go home, because they are having to process additional specimens, and those individuals may be exposed or expose others. And that's going to add to the testing dilemma that we're in.

CURNOW: April Abbott, you're the Director of Microbiology at the Deaconess Health System. Thank you for all of work that you are doing, all of your team as well. Keep on going, America needs you.

[02:35:00]

ABBOTT: All right. Thank you so much.

CURNOW: You are watching CNN. Still ahead the U.K. prepares to launch its biggest vaccination program ever. How the rollout will work, and who will receive the first doses?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CURNOW: Cities, and countries, around the globe are reporting record coronavirus numbers. More than 67 million infections have now been confirmed worldwide. We are also seeing spikes in Asian countries like South Korea, where military and police officers will now help with contact tracing. And then in the U.K., many doses of Pfizer's COVID vaccine are being stored in freezers, as the country prepares for its biggest ever vaccination program this week. I want to bring Cyril Vanier, live in London with more on all of that. Certainly, fantastic news from many people who're going to be receiving this first batch of the vaccine?

CYRIL VANIER, CNN INTERNATIONAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely, Robyn. There's a lot of excitement here. This week marks a major turning point in the fight against the coronavirus. Here, in the U.K., but also I want to say worldwide, because we know many countries are looking at the rollout of the vaccine, we are now less than 24 hours removed from Scotland, Wales, England, delivering the very face single jabs of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. Now that involves a major logistical challenges Robyn, as you know, as we've been talking about over the last few days, because this is the vaccine that needs to be kept in those deep freeze temperatures minus 70 Degree Celsius.

So, throughout the weekend, over the last three, four days, since the first doses arrived in country, well, there's been a lot of preparation going on. The doses have been dispatched, they've been checked first to make sure the quality and integrity of the vaccine hasn't been compromised, right, because of those temperatures that need to be respected. Then they've been dispatched here in England 50 hospital vaccination centers are going to start the vaccination campaign.

[02:40:00]

Who are they going to vaccinate? Well, look originally, the government was saying we want to do the residents of care homes first.

It turns out, that is difficult. Because getting that vaccine to the care homes, bearing in mind that it can only be taken out four time within the those temperatures. And it will only survive four or five days outside of those temperatures that's very difficult.

So, what they are doing now, the government is going to, as a priority, vaccinate 80 year old and above who are already in hospital, either been treated as, out patients, or in patients, right. We're already in hospital. After that, they will be inviting the staff member of care homes as well as vulnerable health workers that's this week, tens of thousands of people are going start been vaccinated that is the hope and then the program is going to expand from their as general practitioners that's your local doctor, or going to be, or already being, mobilized, they have been put on standby to start vaccinating people in primary care networks, so easier access, as opposed to the hospitals starting next week. And it will continue to expand from there Robyn.

CURNOW: OK. Thanks for the update, there live from number 10 Downing Street. So you are watching CNN, I am Robyn Curnow, for our international viewers, world sport is next. Enjoy that. For everyone else, the news continues after this quick break.

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[02:45:00]

CURNOW: Welcome back. I am Robyn Curnow here in Atlanta. So voters in Georgia are holding some pretty powerful political cards right now. In less than a month, as runoff election will decide whether Republicans can keep control of the U.S. Senate. Now two Republican incumbents are facing off against Democratic challengers and Sunday was debate night as Ryan Nobles now tells us. Ryan.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: It was a very important contest in Atlanta on Sunday night, Raphael Warnock and Kelly Loeffler two of the candidates are running in the runoff elections in Georgia in their first one-on-one debate of the election cycle. And it played out much of the way we expected it to, Raphael Warnock attacking Loeffler for some convenient stock trades that took place shortly after she became a United States Senator and at the begins of the coronavirus pandemic.

While Loeffler consistently and often called Warnock a radical liberal over and over again throughout the course of this debate. But it was Loeffler who found herself in a bit of an awkward position. That's when the moderators pressed her on whether or not she agreed with President Trump's unfounded claims about the way the election was conducted. She was asked directly whether or not she agrees with the President that it was rigged.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator, do you believe the election was rigged?

SEN. KELLY LOEFFLER (R-GA): Look, Greg (ph). It's very clear that there were issues in this election. There are 250 investigations open including an investigation into one of my opponent's organizations for voter fraud and we have to make sure that Georgia trusts this process because of what's at stake in this election. The promise that Chuck Schumer made was to fundamentally change America. And I am making sure that we don't go down the road of socialism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: There's no doubt that Loeffler is in a tight spot here. Trump supporters were going to be an important part of the base of a republican vote, desperately want her to embrace the president's claims, but there are independent voters and certainly Democrats that might be turned off by all that. Now, of course there are two runoffs here in Georgia, but there was only one debate. That's because in the other contest between David Perdue and Jon Ossoff, the Republican, David Perdue chose not to even show up. So as a result, the debate organizers, the Atlanta press club and the Georgia public broadcasting instead just put an empty lectern up on the stage and Ossoff took questions for 30 minutes, Ryan Nobles, CNN Atlanta.

CURNOW: Patrick Healy is a CNN Political Commentator. He's also the Politics Editor of "The New York Times" and he joins me now from New York, of course, Patrick, lovely to see you. So I want to get your take on these key moments from these very important Georgia debates.

PATRICK HEALY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. What stood out the most was Senator Kelly Loeffler really dodging a series of questions about whether President Trump had won Georgia. We know, in fact, he has lost Georgia in the presidential race. The Republican Governor and Secretary of State have made that clear, but the Republican Senators from Georgia, Loeffler and David Perdue, who's also a poor election in the runoff in January, refuse to acknowledge this.

And you saw in the debate Kelly Loeffler sort of continuing to side step this, as well as side stepping other questions about whether she believes that there should be a ban on stock trading in the senate and other points and instead really trying to unload a very negative attack on Raphael Warnock, her Democratic opponent. What you're seeing here is basically two Republican senators who are tying themselves so closely to President Trump, who lost the state already, sort of really believing that some kind of a comeback for Republicans is possible in Georgia that's still a red enough state and if they stay loyal to Trump that he may be able to help them get over the finish line.

CURNOW: And do they have a point there because many - you know, Georgia, yes, Georgia turned blue. But many people split their vote, going for Biden because they didn't like Mr. Trump or the tone of him but still very much voting red down ballot. I mean this is still a deeply conservative state. I live here. It's still very much deeply rooted in conservative values. So, how likely is it that these seats can be flipped?

HEALY: No, I think that's right, Robyn. And these are still basically Republicans races to lose. They are still in many ways the front runners in this race, Senator Perdue, Senator Loeffler that they are still basically have a lot of advantages with the Republican base in Georgia.

[02:50:00]

That basically last month you really did see a good number of independent votes, some Republican voters especially in the Atlanta suburbs rejecting Trump. But that didn't mean that they automatically became Democrats.

So, the attacks that you saw in the debate tonight, particularly that Loeffler mounted against Warnock, really does remind you that the Republicans are playing out of a playbook that has won them races before in Georgia, where they are framing Democrats as outside of the main stream, as sort of too liberal, as people who will raise their taxes. The big question is will President Trump ultimately help or potentially hurt the Republican candidates in Georgia? And that's certainly what the Democrats are probably counting on.

CURNOW: Yes. I want to talk about that. So, even with President Trump he was here over the weekend threatening that this had been an illegal and fraudulent election. There had been a number of pretty virulent attack ads and those will continue, the comments coming out of these debates. Turnout is so key. Do you think all of this is a turn off for voters on both sides or not?

HEALY: That's really what the Democrats are hoping, and it's unclear if that will actually happen. Whether there are enough Republicans who really believe that somehow the election was rigged in Georgia against President Trump and therefore someone they can't trust the electoral process.

That is an argument that President Trump is making, but I think what you're going to more likely see is a number of Republican voters who are going to understand that control of the United States senate is at stake in Georgia and that they very much want to have the senate remain under Mitch McConnell's control and they're not willing ultimately to, you know, to certainly back Democratic candidates. There were enough independents and some Republicans who were willing to reject President Trump but not these Republicans, don't want to hand over the senate to Chuck Schumer or other Democrats.

CURNOW: OK. Thanks so much for that analysis. Good to speak to you again, Patrick Healy, CNN Politics Commentator also Politics Editor of "The New York Times".

HEALY: Thanks Robyn.

CURNOW: And as the coronavirus kills hundreds of thousands of Americans, U.S. President-Elect Joe Biden isn't wasting time. He's expected to announce his nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, a critical role in the administration's pandemic response. Here's Arlette Saenz with the details on that, Arlette.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: President-Elect Joe Biden is rolling out members of his health team at the start of this week, and that is expected to include his choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Sources tell CNN that the President-Elect is expected to nominate California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to lead HHS. This will be a very important role as the Biden administration starts planning out their response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Now, Becerra has served as the Attorney General of California and led the legal efforts to try to protect the Affordable Care Act. He is also a Latino and if confirmed would be the second Latino appointed to Biden's cabinet so far. The fifth person of color appointed to the cabinet. And that is welcomed news to people, groups like the Congressional Hispanic caucus, which has been lobbying for more Latino representation within the highest ranks of the separation.

Now Biden is also expected to announce other members of his health team during this week. We have learned that Jeffrey Zients, one of the Co-Chairs of his transition is expected to be named as the COVID coordinator for the White House. And the President-Elect is making it clear that tackling this pandemic is a top priority. And that includes rolling out the numbers of this team, Arlette Saenz, CNN Wilmington, Delaware.

CURNOW: Thank Arlette for that. Now the Bond wildfire continues to blaze through Southern California, scorching more than 7,000 acres so far. The blaze is 50 percent contained and 20 million residents are under red flag warnings, mandatory evacuations ongoing as the fire continues to spread. Let's get to Pedram Javaheri, if you can tell us more about this particularly because the spread is just so quick.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: It has, you know, the elements are in place here to support rapid growth and that was the biggest concern coming into the weekend, Robyn. Great to seeing you. And you know when you're talking about this particular region of California and to Southern California and of course, statewide we know what a historic run it has been for wild fire activity. In fact look at the five of the top six largest fires in state history and they've all occurred in the past couple of months, namely in September 2020. So, really speaks to what folks here have dealt with in recent months, but high pressure firmly in control across the great basin.

Any time you see this sort of set up, the clockwise flow around this allows the winds to come downstream across the mountainous region, across the valleys and canyons.

[02:55:00]

They won by compression, I use that analogy of taking a bicycle pump and pumping your tire you cannot warm that tier up and warm the pump up because you're compressing air into the tire. That's what's happening on a broader scale across this region as the air is compressing down the valleys into lower lying areas. And of course winds begin to howl. We made this bone dry here and we have a not only elevated consumer, but a critical risk here for fire weather not just on Monday but potentially into Tuesday as well.

You know, Robyn, over 20 million Californians dealing with these red flag warnings. About 24 million, the latest numbers coming in, which you do the math on that that's two out of every three people that leave in the State of California dealing with these condition of very much dangerous windy weather and dry weather that can supports fires growing rapidly in. And the airport fire, the bond fire precisely the case with growth across this region of California. Now quickly I want to leave you with a new report coming out of European Union's (inaudible) report here showing us the warmest temperatures ever observed for the month of November in recorded history occurred in November 2020.

Globally speaking nearly 1 degree Celsius which is roughly about 2.5 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit above long-term averages, notice large areas in the globe indicated in the orange, especially the regulator of our planet, the arctic region Robyn seeing the warmest trend there. And of course that's concerning because sea ice has been dropping rapidly across that region as well. So, reporting we're sharing with you.

CURNOW: Yes. It's sobering particularly this year and real cause for concern. Pedram thanks so much for keeping us up to date on that. So I'm Robyn Curnow. Thanks so much for joining me and for watching. The news of course, continues after the short break with my colleague Rosemary Church.

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