Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

FDA Releases New Data On Pfizer's Vaccine Ahead Of Critical Meeting; U.S. Sees Its Deadliest COVID-19 Week Since April. Aired 1- 1:30p ET

Aired December 08, 2020 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:01]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Manu Raju live on the Hill for us, we appreciate that. And we appreciate your time today. I hope to see you back here this time tomorrow.

Don't go anywhere, a busy news day. Brooke Baldwin picks up our coverage right now. Have a good day.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Here we go. You're watching CNN on this Tuesday. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me.

We begin with contrasting moments in this fight against the pandemic all unfolding this afternoon. So, first up this hour, you have President-elect Joe Biden, he will be introducing members of his health team. These are the scientists and doctors, he says, who will help him defeat COVID-19 all starting January 20th.

On the other, you have President Trump today. He will be holding a summit where he is expected to sign this executive order to make it a priority for Americans to get this vaccine before anyone else. Sources tell CNN he will take credit for the forthcoming vaccines.

Today, the White House is denying this report that they passed on a big chance to have more Pfizer vaccine doses available. When you look at The New York Times reporting, they say that the Trump administration turned down this offer from Pfizer for more doses this past summer. This is how a former FDA commissioner, who is also a Pfizer board member, this is how described it today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: Pfizer did offer an additional allotment coming out of that plant, basically the second quarter allotment, to the United States government multiple times.

I think they're betting that more than one vaccine is going to get authorized and there will be more vaccines on the market. And that perhaps could be why they didn't take up the additional 100 million option agreement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And just a bigger picture, 102,000 Americans are in the hospital with coronavirus. That is a new record.

We are getting though a glimpse of the joy that will soon echo across a COVID weary America as several elderly people in the U.K. became the first to be vaccinated in the world today. Little dance there says it all.

Back here in the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration release encouraging information about the safety and effectiveness of Pfizer's and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccines. It comes days ahead of this critical meeting of experts who will advice whether the vaccine should be given emergency use authorization.

So, we start our hour with CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, here to breakdown the FDA's data. Sanjay, good to see you. What did they find?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it seems to match up with what we've heard so far, Brooke. You remember a couple weeks ago now, we first heard only from the company itself at that point, that it appeared that this vaccine to be 95 percent or so effective at actually preventing COVID-19, preventing people from developing the disease.

This data has more in it. It gives a better idea of just who is most likely to benefit, breakdown by age group, people with pre-existing conditions, things like that. So this is all going to be data the FDA is now going to use to basically make these recommendations in terms of who, what, when in the vaccines. We know health care workers and people who are particularly vulnerable are going to be first in line but they also found other things like this, Brooke. One dose, for example, does appear to offer some protection against COVID-19, 52 percent they say, roughly.

Now, that's a hard study to do. Why? Because you only have a three- week window to evaluate that before you get that second dose. So I don't think it's going to change the recommendation by any means of two doses. What I think is going to be a topic of discussion is to say this, Brooke. If you have 40 million doses, do you go ahead and just give 40 million a first dose and then wait for the second dose, given that the first dose does offers some protection or do you take 20 million people and leave 20 million in the refrigerator. That's going to be a topic of discussion.

Also, are there people, Brooke, who shouldn't get the vaccine as these rolls out? I just spoke to Stephen Hahn, he is the FDA commissioner, as you know, asked him specifically about these vulnerable groups. Here is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. STEPHEN HAHN, FDA COMMISSIONER: We're going to look at underrepresented minorities. We're going to look at the elderly. We're going to look at young folks, pregnant women, folks with underlying immunodeficiencies, immune problems, because these questions are very important, providers and patients want to know them. So it takes a lot of time to analyze those data and come to our conclusions. So, yes, that's part of the entire package that we'll present to the vaccine advisory committee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: So let me just run that through you really quick again, Brooke, in terms of these three groups specifically which are likely to come up on December 10th. And specifically people ask about kids all the time, we know they're less likely to develop this, but children under 16 are really not part of the vaccine trials. They may be part of future trials.

Pregnant women, lactating women, we'll see how the FDA looks at this data, but it could be at least for the first round of vaccines, they may not be people on the list.

[13:05:01]

And then people who are immune compromised because of immunodeficiency disease or chemotherapy or something like that, it could be that their immune systems just don't react well enough. But these are sort of the open questions that remain, Brooke.

BALDWIN: And so this is all -- so, open questions, we're talking about Pfizer specifically here. We are hoping we will have a potpourri of successful vaccines to choose from eventually. AstraZeneca is another drug maker, we're getting new details on the efficacy of their vaccine. What is that?

GUPTA: Yes. No, it is really important to point out that there may be other vaccines because you were mentioning that the government bought 100 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, and they had to make bets, essentially, Brooke, in the summer, saying where do we think this is likely to land.

Take a look at this list here to your question. 300 million of AstraZeneca is what they bought. At that point in the summer, that indicates that they had more faith in that vaccine, 100 million of Pfizer, as you see, 100 million with the Moderna. Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, according to our reporting, and my conversation with the FDA commissioner, we may have data at the end of January on that. So within the next couple of months, there may be two more vaccines that come online.

AstraZeneca, you mentioned, we are getting some early data. They say about 70 percent or so effective with the AstraZeneca. It varies, depending how many doses you give. If you do a low dose, like sort of a prime dose, and then a boosting dose, it got up to 90 percent efficacy as opposed to two full doses.

So that's still some early data. So we'll see what the final data shows. But if that data holds up, that would also meet the requirements for an emergency authorization, because they just wanted to see 50 percent efficacy. So,m it is promising, Brooke. There's no question about it.

BALDWIN: We'll take promising news. We have been looking for some promising news. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much. Under that same heading here to this landmark moment today of 2020, the U.K. now is the first nation in the world to begin administering a fully vetted vaccine to its people. CNN's Max Foster is live in lovely Cardiff, Wales. And, Max, I cannot get enough of the images of these elderly Englishmen and women rolling up their sleeves and taking this vaccine. Tell me some stories that have come out today and how successful has it been.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think everyone is really struck as they woke up in the U.K. today, and they saw Margaret Keenan, she's a 90-year-old, she was the first person to receive the Pfizer vaccine outside trials in the world. Another big moment, a lot people quite taken aback, and I headed up to a vaccination center here in Wales.

And I spoke to one of the nurses, and I said, how would you describe what you're doing here today. And she said I am injecting hope. And I think she spoke for a lot of the medical profession when she said that, combined with these pictures of Margaret Keenan.

And shortly after that, the first man to be vaccinated, of course, called William Shakespeare, grabbed the headlines, so a lot of people to talk about today.

Cyril Vanier, my colleague in London, obviously, spoke to an elderly gentleman who received the vaccine. This is how he described it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTIN KENYON, 91-YEAR-OLD WHO RECEIVED COVID VACCINE TODAY: No, didn't hurt at all. I didn't know the needle had gone in and come out. It was interesting. Not, it was painless.

CYRIL VANIER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: And it was a quick in and out for the needle, like any vaccination?

KENYON: Exactly. Vaccinations aren't very common, are they, inoculations, no.

VANIER: So, you called this morning, sir, and --

KENYON: I said, I would like to be vaccinated. You're vaccinating, aren't you? I've heard it and seen it on the news, watched the news, and they said, yes. I said -- then they asked questions. They said come in and have a fill.

VANIER: How do you feel that you are now one of the first people in the country to have received the first dose of this vaccine?

KENYON: Thrilled.

VANIER: One of the first people in the world, how do you feel about it?

KENYON: I can't imagine at all, except that I hope I am not going to have the bloody bug now. I don't intend to have it because I've got granddaughters and I want to live a long time to enjoy their lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: There are people being quite matter of fact about it. Here in Wales, the locations for the vaccine centers have actually been kept secret, Brooke, because they worry about people queuing up outside to try to get it.

So it's going pretty effectively here, a massive logistical exercise. But people are excited and seeing hope, as the nurse described it to me early on, which is a big moment for everyone.

BALDWIN: Yes, truly a big moment injecting hope, we need some of that over here. But I think our colleague, Cyril, wins best interview of the day. And to hear Mr. Kenyon saying, it sounded like the toughest part was finding a parking spot and not getting the vaccine. Max Foster, thank you.

[13:10:00]

The White House today is responding to reports that it turned down this additional allotment of the Pfizer vaccine this past summer not once but possibly multiple times. White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins is with me now.

And so, Kaitlan, what is the administration saying?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it depends on who you ask, really, Brooke, because some people are denying that they passed up buying more of these vaccines, the doses, when it was offered by Pfizer a few months ago. That's coming from the press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany.

But then if you talk to Moncef Slaoui, who, of course, is running Operation Warp Speed, he defended how they did not buy more doses from Pfizer, saying that they committed to 100 million doses, which, of course, we know now would be enough to vaccinate about 50 million people because it is a two-shot vaccine. Because, basically, his argument was they didn't know the efficacy of this back when Pfizer approached them.

However, the concern is now that Pfizer is telling people, like The Washington Post, that they have made commitments to other countries and they may not be able to give substantial more doses to the United States of their vaccine, which is proven pretty effective if you look at the data and the reporting from that until later in the summer, June or July, they were saying.

And so the question was, is that going to affect this timeline that we have been told by White House officials, by Operation Warp Speed officials, that every American who wants a vaccine by July can get one.

And so we are waiting to find out for more information on that because we kind of have not gotten a lot of details from the White House on how exactly that went down. But then you have also heard from other officials and you heard what Sanjay Gupta was saying there earlier, what the FDA told him, they're also looking to those other vaccine candidates and what that's going to look like come January. There's going to be multiple of these vaccines on the market.

And so this is raising some questions about what's happening here at the White House, because the president is holding that vaccine summit. He is expected to sign an executive order where it is still a little unclear the details of this executive order. But what they have said is that it prioritizes giving the vaccine to Americans first and then figuring out other countries and how they're going to distribute it that way.

But it is raising questions about is this about a company like Pfizer, it is known to be the U.S. trying to stop a company from giving doses to other countries even though they have already committed to that.

That is something that we're still not clear on. And even Moncef Slaoui, the head of Operation Warp Speed, once again, said this morning he does not understand what this executive order is intended to do. He said he is staying out of it, which is pretty notable given, of course, he is the person who is helping run and facilitate this vaccine effort.

BALDWIN: And he doesn't totally know what's happening with this executive order. Listen, we'll stand by and we'll watch to see what -- we'll look for that clarity, Kaitlan, coming up in the next hour.

Meantime, let me ask about Jenna Ellis, Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis has tested positive for COVID now. How is she?

COLLINS: Well, we don't know. She hasn't confirmed this. We had just heard she has told other people she has coronavirus. And, of course, Brooke, she was the one who is traveling all over with Rudy Giuliani. You see her there in the background with Guiliani. They have been crisscrossing the country, pushing the president's baseless claims.

But the reason this is coming under scrutiny is not just the fact that she's been out and about across the country not wearing a mask, as Rudy Giuliani was, she was also here at the White House on Friday for a Christmas party that was for senior staffers. And, for example, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump were there, according to photos that the president's daughter posted on social media.

So, we were told that Jenna Ellis was not wearing a mask at this party. Of course, we have seen at these parties a lot of people are not wearing a mask. And there's more people than probably most people have been around this year at some of these gatherings. And so it is raising questions about that. But, so far, we have not gotten a comment from Jenna Ellis, from the campaign or from the White House on her attendance at this party.

BALDWIN: All right. Kaitlan, thank you very much, at the White House.

And in just a couple minutes, as we mentioned off the top, President- elect Joe Biden will be formally introducing these key members of his health team who will be in charge of the pandemic response once he takes office next month.

CNN Political Correspondent Arlette Saenz is live in Wilmington, Delaware. And, Arlette, give us a little preview of what we're about to see.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, President- elect Joe Biden will be officially rolling out these members of his health team that will be tasked with tackling the pandemic. And if you look at Biden's previous rollouts of his nominees, there's a chance that some of them may be in attendance today. We know that Dr. Anthony Fauci will not be among them but that the transition was looking into ways for him to potentially participate virtually.

But Biden has landed on a variety people with a variety of backgrounds and expertise areas. And leading the Department of Health and Human Services is Xavier Becerra. He is the attorney general of California, who does not -- is not a medical expert but has been leading that legal fight to defend the Affordable Care Act. We know that Dr. Vivek Murthy will return as surgeon general in this administration. And Biden has also selected Dr. Rochelle Walensky, an infectious disease expert, to lead the CDC.

[13:15:00]

And this team will be facing a daunting task as Biden takes office. They will need to make plans for distributing a vaccine, also promote ways to mitigate spread of this virus. We have already heard the president-elect say that he will ask Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days of his presidency to try to get this pandemic under control.

And I also want to point to how Biden started his day. The president- elect attended mass here in Delaware. This is a holy day of obligation for Catholics. And it's another example of how Biden's faith is front and center to him. He will be only the second catholic to serve as president and we should expect to see him continuing this church-going tradition once he is in the White House. Brooke?

BALDWIN: There he is heading into the church. Arlette, thank you for that. And we will look for the president-elect and, hopefully, some of the members of his health team a little later this hour. Thank you.

Meanwhile, more states reporting record cases and hospital shortages, and considering new lockdowns. We have those details ahead.

And President Trump is calling state lawmakers again as he is still trying to overturn the will of the American people and his legal challenges continue to fail.

And why did Republican senators invite a discredited vaccine critic to a hearing on fighting this pandemic? Let's talk about it all.

You're watching CNN. I am Brooke Baldwin.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:20:00]

BALDWIN: We are back. You're watching CNN. I am Brooke Baldwin.

The U.S. has just experienced its deadliest week since April, recording more than 15,000 people dying from COVID just in the last seven days. In fact, since the month of December began, every single metric has been up after November broke record after record.

For the first time, we are averaging 200,000 new infections each day, and there are more people than ever in the hospital fighting coronavirus, numbering above 102,000. All of this as the United States nears 15 million cases, which could happen today.

CNN Correspondent Dan Simon live in San Francisco. And, Dan, another number, California just experienced another 160,000 new cases in the last week. That is the most of any state. Just -- what's the situation where you are today and how are people handling the stay-at-home orders?

DAN SIMON, CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brooke, and hospitalizations up 72 percent in just the past two weeks in California. In terms of how people are taking it all, I would say they're taking it in stride. It is highly disruptive though. And San Francisco isn't quite seeing the surge in terms of what we are seeing in Los Angeles. It took these measures preemptively, the city along with the Bay Area.

But we are in the Marina District in San Francisco, that is Chestnut Street, a high volume shopping district, especially this time of year. But the retail stores have to reduce their capacity, in-store capacity to 20 percent. This is, of course, very disruptive to restaurants.

And restaurants in san Francisco have done a remarkable job really adapting to the times. You can see this is an outdoor space that's been created here, right here in the middle of the street. And you really see this everywhere in San Francisco. But guess what, now all of the restaurants are effectively closed. You can just do delivery or takeout only. And that's going to be at least through January 5th.

In the meantime, Brooke, Governor Newsom announcing the roll out of this new app. It's opt in-only app where you basically alert the app if you have the coronavirus. And in turn, it will alert others who may have been in proximity to you. This is the app that was developed jointly by Google and Apple. And Governor Newsom talked about it yesterday. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): This is only as good as people's adaptation and utilization. Opting in, it's not an opt out, you make the decision, it is not a contact tracing app, it is a notification app, if you choose to use it. We can leverage more and more utilization which will make us more effective and more meaningful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIMON: And Governor Newsom calling this just one more tool in the tool kit. Of course, the biggest tool, the vaccine, and 2 million doses are on their way to California, it will be here by December 15th, the first batch going to health care workers. Brooke?

BALDWIN: Dan, thank you so much. And I know that's so tough for business owners to shut those, even the outdoor dining options down. Dan, thank you.

CNN Medical Analyst Seema Yasmin is a former disease detective for the CDC. Dr. Yasmin, great to see you.

DR. SEEMA YASMIN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Good to see you.

BALDWIN: My first question is really just big picture. You have this dichotomy today, right? You have jubilation over the vaccine getting injected for the first time in people's arms in the U.K., which we'll get to that in a second, but then you have this devastation. Listen to Dan, a devastation over the surge here in the U.S. with Thanksgiving numbers not even reported yet. What's your message to Americans today?

YASMIN: That we are nearing the end of the finish line of the race but it is not quite there yet. So if you think of that race analogy, as you start to approach the finish line, that is not when you slow down, that is not when you take a rest. That is when you keep your eyes on the target and keep on going. So, now, more than ever, we have to make sure we are really diligent about wearing a mask, we're doing physical distancing, we're cancelling Christmas, as we know it. I'm sorry, but that's just the reality this year.

We have more than 101,000 Americans in hospital with COVID-19 right now. That's more Americans in hospital with this illness than any other time during the pandemic. So now is not the time to let our guard down.

BALDWIN: We won't do that.

[13:25:00]

No one really should globally, right? But overseas, let's talk about our favorite new 90-year-old, Margaret Keenan over in the U.K. She was the first person in the world, here she is, to be injected with the COVID vaccine as the NHS launched its biggest vaccine campaign today.

So my understanding, you, Dr. Yasmin, were born near there, you worked for NHS after getting your medical degree at Cambridge. So, what did you think when you saw these pictures rolling in this morning and what can the U.S. learn from this?

YASMIN: So, yes, I was born a few miles from where Maggie, as she's known to her friends, the 90-year-old grandmother, who is going to turn 91 next week, got her shot this morning, making history, Brooke, the first person in the western world to receive a vaccine for COVID- 19 outside of a trial. And I loved her message. She was saying, if she can do it, then everyone else can go out there and get vaccinated too. It's that very, British Keep Calm and Carry On, but get your vaccine and wear your mask as well. The message here, I think, for the U.S. is that there are other countries that have done their due diligence in terms of the planning and the preparation and just thinking about how much vaccine they're going to need, but also rolling out supply chains. Here in the U.S., we were promised 300 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine by end of the year. We are looking at one-tenth of that target. We are so far off the mark.

And CNN did an analysis of 27 states. None of them said that they expect to receive enough vaccine to even vaccinate the highest priority groups. So we have an issue of supply chains here. We're, also, let's be real, looking at a vaccine, only one that we have so far, that has to be kept as cold as winter in Antarctica. Not every clinic or hospital can do that. So it is a logistical challenge for sure.

BALDWIN: So, speaking of the Pfizer vaccine, one of the big headlines today over here is that even before the Pfizer vaccine was deemed successful, the Trump administration had passed when Pfizer offered them supplies beyond the 100 million doses, and the former FDA commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, confirmed this, but the Trump White House is denying this report. And then you have HHS Secretary Alex Azar telling NBC, and I'm quoting him, we do still have that option for an additional 500 million doses.

Here is my question just to be fair in all of this. The White House placed contracts with six different vaccine manufacturers, you see them here, each guaranteed 100 million doses, AstraZeneca, 300. What else were they supposed to do? Was hedging their bets the smart move?

YASMIN: So, yes, they had to do that, right, because there's a finite amount of funding and there's the hope that we will end up with a basket of vaccines so we have more than one available. However, I think they did drop the ball here because there were early signs about which of the vaccines looked most likely to be ready, most likely to be efficacious in the trials. And now, what we're seeing is this kind of trying to play catch up to clean up the mess with an executive order being discussed that I don't think will actually do anything.

Pfizer is saying, look, we gave you that option in the summer, you passed it up. So now we sold 200 million doses of vaccine to the European Union. So I think waving an executive order is a bit like a kid having a tantrum is candy store when the candy store is empty, there's none left.

o now, we're going to have to bank on other vaccines becoming available, which I really, really hope they do, and especially vaccines that do not have to be kept at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit. The AstraZeneca/University of Oxford one can be kept in the fridge. So we are hopeful there will be more vaccines that are just easier to store and to administer in the future.

BALDWIN: Let's hope so. Dr. Seema Yasmin, thank you so much for all of that.

YASMIN: Thank you. BALDWIN: The president is reaching out to state lawmakers again, this time the Pennsylvania House speaker, as he seeks to overturn the election and his legal challenges keep on failing. We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:30:00]