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In Britain, It's V-Day - First Vaccinations Begin; Nationalized Health System Key To Better Vaccine Logistics; 1000,000 Patients In U.S. Hospitals Today; Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong Face New COVID Closures; Fakhrizadeh Assassination; On The Ground In Iran; India Awaits New Test Reports On Mystery Illness; U.K. Begins Giving First COVID-19 Vaccinations Tuesday; Shocking Conditions Revealed at Venezuelan Hospital; Texas Gospel Music Family Bounces Back from COVID; Pilot Who Broke the Sound Barrier Dies at 97. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired December 08, 2020 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
JOHN VAUSE, ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: And so it begins. In the coming hours, Britain will vaccinating the elderly, the vulnerable and health care workers.
In the U.S., emergency authorization to start vaccinations expected later this week but a decision by the Trump Administration could see supplies running short.
And later, CNN reporting from the scene of an assassination. Clues about how Iran's top nuclear scientist was killed.
Hello, welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm John Vause and you're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
This might just be the end of the beginning of the pandemic. The British prime minister says it's a huge step forward, the largest ever vaccination program carried out by the National Health Service is about to begin.
At dozens of hospital hubs across Britain, the first Pfizer BioNTech COVID vaccine will be given to the elderly, over 80 years old, as well as frontline healthcare workers and care workers.
The vaccine requires two injections three weeks apart.
A recent survey published in the medical journal "The Lancet" found just over half of the respondents in the U.K. trusted vaccines. Notably, that was before the outbreak of the pandemic.
So to try and boost confidence, the health secretary has offered to be vaccinated live on television.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT HANCOCK, BRITISH HEALTH SECRETARY: It's the beginning of the end of this pandemic. We're not there yet. It's so important that people keep doing the things we know we need to
do, following the rules and the basics to make sure we keep this under control. But we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: CNN's Cyril Vanier live for us in London at this very early hour. Cyril, good to see you.
No doubt this is a milestone moment. So walk through the process here, who gets vaccinated and when?
CYRIL VANIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. Good morning to you, John. British health authorities are calling this V-Day, Victory Day.
Less than nine months after this country first went into a national lockdown due to the pandemic, they're now in a position to start rolling out a trickle of vaccines.
In hospital hubs that you mentioned like this one behind me, Guy's Hospital in Central London, sometime today, patients in here will be getting the first jab of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID vaccine.
And they will more than likely be 80-year-old and above patients, either out-patients who just happened to have an appointment for the hospital today without knowing that it would be vaccination day -- either out-patients or in-patients who are about to be released after a hospital stay -- they will be offered the very first doses of the vaccine.
You might remember, John, that initially the NHS here, the British -- the English health system, wanted to deliver the first doses to care home residents. That's going to take a little more time just due to the logistical challenges of delivering this vaccine.
Remember, this is the one that needs to be kept at minus 70 degrees Celsius. That makes it challenging to actually take the doses without spoiling the vaccine into the care homes.
So long story short, first people to get it are people who had hospital -- who are in hospital today and are above 80.
Also, in a second step, people who are the staff and workers in care homes will be invited to come and get this. It's jab one today then they will be given a card -- should be given a card at least in theory, we'll see at the end of the day whether that's actually happened -- a card that keeps a record of the batch number of the vaccine that they got as well as the date obviously and the type of the vaccine that they got.
And reminding them to come and get the second jab three weeks from now, John.
VAUSE: So given how badly the government botched the pandemic response in Britain is there much confidence that this roll out of mass vaccinations is going to happen in a problem-free way?
[01:05:00]
VANIER: That's a great question, John. And certainly the early polls from a few weeks ago do say that there has been a boost in optimism due to the vaccine.
But this is all very, very recent, John. The vaccine was approved less than a week ago so we can't give you a comprehensive assessment of how public opinion is responding to it yet.
Anecdotally, yes there is quite a lot of -- what should we call it, John, skepticism about the vaccine.
Just the person driving me here is one of many who has told me in recent days that how could this be developed so quickly and be safe? This is one of the big questions that the NHS is facing.
They're addressing those questions head on saying hey, the corners weren't cut in the medical aspect of vaccine development, corners were cut -- and the Pfizer CEO says this, the Moderna CEO says this -- not corners were cut but we fast-tracked the business and financial sides of developing vaccines. That's why we were able to do this so quickly.
How many people are actually going to take up this vaccine, how many people are going to accept it when it is offered to them, John, that is a big question.
Because we know that a significant portion of the population actually needs to get this vaccine so that we can get anywhere near herd immunity. That's to say a level of population vaccination where the virus starts to slow within the population, John.
VAUSE: Seventy percent, I believe, is that number. And that will be difficult with some hand wringing over just how safe and effective it will be.
Cyril, thank you for pulling early morning live shot duty, we appreciate it.
Sian Griffiths is a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She joins us now live. Professor, thank you for being with us.
Among the many challenges for a vaccine to be effective --and Cyril just mentioned this -- it's public trust.
There was a study published in "The Lancet" and it found that -- "...confidence remained low across Europe compared with other continents."
And -- "there are signs that vaccine confidence is increasing for much of Europe including France where confidence has been low since 2015."
But this survey is pre-pandemic --
SIAN GRIFFITHS, EMERITUS PROFESSOR, THE CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG: Yes.
VAUSE: -- so given the politicization of the vaccine in the U.S. and there's been this growth of the anti-vaxxer movement in Europe, would you expect to see those confidence levels to have fallen since then?
GRIFFITHS: No. I think that since last week when the vaccine was announced as safe in the U.K. and everyone started moving toward getting the logistics sorted to start the vaccination campaign, there has been a much different feel, a feeling of optimism.
Because everybody's lives are affected by the lockdowns, by the restrictions particularly on seeing friends and family and for socializing and those factors were starting to wear.
People felt a bit optimistic when they heard that we could have a break at Christmas but when the news of the vaccine came people could start to lift their sights.
And as our deputy chief medical officer said we could see the train that had been coming around the corner come into the station.
And that means that the NHS is now geared or gearing up to make sure that the mass vaccination campaign reaches the most vulnerable as quickly as it can.
And it's one of the advantages of our nationalized system, our nationalized health system, is that it can be easily coordinated into trying to make sure that you can get the vaccine including to the elderly in the care homes.
VAUSE: So just a timeline here. When do you think life returns to some kind of normalcy --
GRIFFITHS: (Inaudible).
VAUSE: -- assuming globally everything goes according to plan?
GRIFFITHS: This is only the first vaccine, this is the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. We're all still waiting to hear about the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine which is also being assessed by the regulators because for us in the U.K., that would be easier to distribute because it doesn't need the very cold temperatures and can come in smaller doses.
We haven't yet overcome the problem of breaking down the large numbers of doses that come over from Belgium into smaller packs so they can go to care homes.
But if we can have more vaccines on track then we'll have more of the population vaccinated earlier.
And I don't know -- people are sorting of saying the spring. I think we recognize that the winter's going to be hard, that we have to keep the social distancing messages, that the personal messages of wearing masks and washing hands and keeping distance all still apply. Until the vaccine levels -- as you say we need 70 percent of the population, we think, for herd immunity. We need to stay safe until we reach that level.
Here in the United States, last week Dr. Anthony Fauci explained why the United States is lagging behind the U.K. in terms of vaccine roll out.
Listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We really scrutinize the data very carefully to guarantee to the American public that this is a safe and efficacious vaccine.
[01:10:00]
The U.K. did not do it as carefully, they got a couple of days ahead. I don't think that makes much difference. We'll be there, we'll be there very soon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Do you agree with that assessment, that essentially the U.K. cut corners?
GRIFFITHS: I don't think that Dr. Fauci stopped there, did he? The next day he withdrew that statement. And I think that we need to be clear that the U.K. did not cut corners.
What it did was it was very -- it did the overlapping stages of the assessment so it didn't wait for one phase to finish and then do the next. It's been doing an overlapping, rolling program of assessments since June so it didn't just start doing it.
And that's, I think, using the British system which is robust and is generally recognized as that. And in Anthony Fauci's apology, it was recognized as that.
I think that we have had a very thorough and good assessment here and people have every faith in our organizations, our scientific organizations, who undertook the assessment. It just happens the system is slightly different and was able to kickstart.
But he did say a few days, he didn't say much longer. So I think we should all get on the same track and try and get everybody vaccinated.
VAUSE: That's a great idea. Especially right now, Professor.
GRIFFITHS: Well, not time to fight and squabble but time to get on with it to fight this disease. We need to focus on the disease.
VAUSE: I couldn't say it better. Thank you. Professor, thanks for being with us. GRIFFITHS: OK. Nice to talk to you.
VAUSE: Cheers. Well, for our viewers in the U.K., please visit cnn.com/ukvaccine. Tell us how you feel about taking the vaccine. Are you nervous, are you willing to wait a while? Are you ready to roll up the sleeve and get the jab? Let us know.
In the United States, the FDA is expected to authorize Pfizer's COVID vaccine for immediate distribution.
But according to reporting from the "New York Times," around six months ago, the Trump Administration turned down an offer from Pfizer for additional doses of its vaccine which means many in the U.S. will have to wait until next June.
That's when Pfizer says it will have met commitments made to other countries and be able to produce the vaccine for the U.S.
The Trump Administration denies the report, says there will be sufficient number of doses to vaccinate all Americans who want to be vaccinated by the end of June.
All of this among the dire news of record hospital admissions in the U.S. for COVID-19. Right now just over 100,000 patients nationwide.
CNN's Lucy Kafanov has more now on the surge in cases.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Across America, the coronavirus is spreading faster than ever.
A whopping 1 million new cases of COVID-19 reported in just the first five days of December.
DR. ABDUL EL-SAYED, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This is a four-alarm fire and we can't pretend that it's not blazing because it's been blazing for the past eight months.
KAFANOV: Sunday capping off the deadliest weekend since mid-April with more than 3,300 new deaths reported.
Many hospitals stretched to capacity yesterday hitting a another record high.
JEROME ADAMS, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: This surge is different than earlier surges because it's not about PPE, it's not about testing, it's really about health care capacity. And certain places are just being overwhelmed.
KAFANOV: 10,000 COVID patients are in hospital beds in California alone with severe new restrictions are now back in place.
Restaurants in many California counties are limited to takeout and delivery services only --
CROWD: Reopen!
KAFANOV: -- some pushing back. One restaurant owner frustrated her outdoor dining patio been forced to close, even though as she sent a video production company set up an outdoor eating area for its employees right next to her own parking lot.
ANGELA MARSDEN, RESTAURANT OWNER: Tell me that this is dangerous but right next to me is a slap in my face. That's safe.
KAFANOV: New York also considering closing indoor dining in five days if hospitalization rate don't stabilize.
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, N.Y.: I think it's as simple as this. If these numbers don't level off soon then all options have to be on the table.
KAFANOV: As for schools in the Big Apple, some of those reopened today for elementary and special needs students.
DE BLASIO: The parents were so happy and so relieved.
KAFANOV: Colorado Governor, Jared Polis, recovering from COVID. His husband also sick and rushed to the hospital posting on Facebook -- "I experienced a worsening cough and shortness of breath. My doctor suggested as a precaution I go to the hospital."
This as experts warn it's about to get worse.
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: The situation is that as we enter now from the Thanksgiving holiday season into the Christmas holiday season, it's going to be challenging.
KAFANOV: Some hope seemingly around the corner. Pfizer's vaccine expected to get emergency authorization from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration which meets Thursday.
But according to a CNN analysis, the first shipments will fall short of what 27 states need to vaccinate their priority group, frontline health care workers and the elderly.
[01:15:00]
According to the surgeon general, nearly half of all COVID deaths are among those in long-term care facilities or are older.
ADAMS: We want to make sure we're giving it to the people who are most likely to die from this virus. We also want our healthcare workers who are on the front lines to be able to get it.
KAFANOV (On Camera): Now another worrying factor. Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday warned that even after someone is vaccinated, they could still spread the virus.
He also said there won't be an immediate improvement to the mortality spread once vaccines start getting distributed. And that means things might get a lot worse before they get any
better.
Lucy Kafanov, CNN, Denver.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: In the city of Chengdu, China, one person testing positive for the coronavirus has sparked a large-scale screening of nearly 25,000.
The results found a few more cases, the first locally transmitted infections in Chengdu in nine months.
New cases are also rising quickly in Hong Kong. Officials are imposing new restrictions mostly to try and keep people at home.
Meantime, Indonesia about to distribute more than million doses of the COVID vaccine which just arrived over the weekend from China.
CNN's senior international correspondent, Ivan Watson live in Hong Kong.
So, Ivan, precisely what are these restrictions that are being put in place across Asia as they try and really clamp down on these outbreaks early?
WATSON: Well, Mainland China is of course fascinating. Because that's where the coronavirus was first identified back in December and from where the pandemic is believed to have spread.
And using very draconian measures after initially not being able to contain it, the Chinese government has succeeded in tamping it down to the extent that five new cases being discovered in Chengdu is a news story.
And it results in imposing tens of thousands of tests and shutting down, according to state media, a hospital that was visited by this 69-year-old woman who first tested positive there, a farmers' market being shut down and her entire neighborhood being shut down as well.
Which just indicates how well, as of now, the Mainland Chinese authorities are controlling this.
Down here in Hong Kong, the special autonomous region, we're dealing with another wave of coronavirus, record high numbers according to the city's chief executive.
Which has prompted her in the past couple of hours to announce new measures that -- we don't know when they'll go into effect -- but, for instance, closing all in-restaurant dining after 6:00 pm, closing gyms and beauty salons and announcing other measures that we don't know quite yet that are going to be aimed at trying to reduce the amount of foot traffic, for example, in this densely populated city.
South Korea and Japan are two other East Asian nations that are facing third waves right now of the infections where the governments say that they're bringing in their military to help out.
In South Korea to help with contact tracing. In Japan, in the cities of Hokkaido and Osaka, to help with care as the number of cases have increased.
And if you look at these graphs which are a little bit different in South Korea, total confirmed cases in Japan, new confirmed cases, you see similar waves of these third waves of infections.
South Korea announcing that it's allocating some 1.2 billion dollars, the equivalent of that to order vaccines for tens of millions of people. Meanwhile, Japan announcing that it's setting aside some $700 million, the equivalent of that, for stimulus to help a battered economy as a result of this pandemic.
All of these countries and territories, their infection rates and death rates are but a fraction of what you've seen in North America, for example, proportionately.
And these are in countries where the populations have voluntarily abided by mask wearing and many social distancing regulations. Because they, of course, are countries that have been hit by deadly epidemics in decades past. John.
VAUSE: Ivan, thank you. Ivan Watson live for us in Hong Kong.
We'll take a short break.
And when we come back, Iran says he paid the ultimate price for his nation. Their top nuclear scientist killed in what some claim was a high tech plot involving facial recognition and a satellite-controlled machine gun.
CNN visits the site of an assassination. That's next.
And in the midst of a global pandemic, hundreds have been admitted to hospital in India suffering from a deadly mystery illness.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:20:00]
VAUSE: Welcome back.
Iran's top nuclear scientist long had a target on his back. But those who wanted him dead are staying silent and whoever it was who pulled the trigger remains a mystery.
CNN's Nick Payton Walsh reports now from the scene of an assassination.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PAYTON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Amid Tehran's holiday homes by the snowy roadside is where the man whose work Iran says must go on was fatally shot, reportedly in front of his wife.
Nuclear scientist, Dr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was Iran's repository of nuclear bomb knowledge, Israel has claimed. While not saying they were behind the assassination.
A lot of the debris is being cleared away here but you can still see the soot from the explosion on the curb and the damage done to the road below me.
There are still so many different versions of the events of what happened here.
But one witness we've spoken to says at first they heard an explosion. A wood truck, they say, that detonated here. And then there was an exchange of gunfire that lasted about 8 to 10 minutes.
You can see over here the damage still done to the site by the bullets.
From the orchard nearby, possible vantage points for a low-tech ambush even though Iranian security officials are telling state media this was a high-tech plot involving an A.I.-powered facial recognition satellite controlled robot machine gun into whose bullets Fakhrizadeh stepped, when he got out of his bulletproof car.
One of the many reasons offered for a lapse in security in this neat backwater.
Fakhrizadeh's son told state media his father ignored warnings from his security detail the day before.
My father said he had a class, his son says. One he could not teach virtually and an important meeting so they could not persuade him to turn back.
Deep inside the defense ministry Sunday, they remembered him again at the highest levels.
Among Iran's critics louder and louder, the question does this, another lapse in security, make a race towards a possible nuclear weapon a good idea or worse one?
Officially, Iran says it does not want the bomb but its parliament last week demanded Iran enrich uranium to 20 percent in the first weeks of the Biden Administration. That could make a weapon a lot closer.
Yet there remain two versions of Iran, both a bit visible here. It's hard hit by sanctions and wants to talk or has resisted and will hit back.
MIKE POMPEO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We know our campaign is working because now the Iranians are desperately signaling their willingness to return to the negotiating table to get sanctions relief.
SAYEED MOHAMMED MARANDI, UNIVERSITY OF TEHRAN: The Israeli regime, if it feels that it can continue carrying out acts of terror, Iranians will pay an unnecessary price. The only way to stop these acts of terror is for them to pay a price that makes it not worthy.
I have no doubt that the Iranians are going to respond.
PAYTON WALSH: Iran has been here before a lot as this museum of blown-up cars attests.
[01:25:00]
All Peugeot models going back in the ages, all nuclear scientists assassinated in Iran's pursuit of what it says is peaceful nuclear technology that it needs alongside its huge oil reserves.
We may never know what knowledge perished with Dr. Fakhrizadeh or what impact that will have on Iran's critics, the hawks, who claim that it could be as little as four months away from a possible nuclear weapon.
Deals, scientists, assassins, all have come and gone, but the mounting tension which Joe Biden has a huge diplomatic task to ease in a matter of months has about 40 days left to build.
PAYTON WALSH (Voice Over): Nick Paton Walsh. CNN, Tehran.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: In southeastern India, a mystery illness has sent hundreds of people to hospital, left at least one person dead. And it's not COVID-19.
Patients have been suffering seizures and nausea, as well as losing consciousness.
Authorities are now testing food and water as well as blood samples but this still is a mystery.
Vedika Sud following all of this now live from New Delhi.
This is probably the last thing India's healthcare system needs right now on top of the hundreds of thousands of people who've been affected by the coronavirus and have been admitted to hospital at some point.
VEDIKA SUD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You said it, John. Absolutely right. And this is a growing concern because there are about 500-plus people who've have been affected by this in the state of Andhra Pradesh that you rightly said is in South India.
Now here's what we know. We know the first case was reported on the 5th of December when a person did suffer from convulsions and that very day there were more cases reported.
To now, there have been 501 cases that we know of, according to officials of which about 300-plus have been discharged from hospitals. You've mentioned the symptoms but till now, medical officials and state officials have not been able to come up with a cause for this mystery illness. Another test report is awaited later today which could hopefully throw
light on what really happened with these people.
What we do know as of now is at least the people who were tested over the last three days do not have COVID-19, they've tested negative.
What we also know at this point is that the water in the area which was the same common source of water for these people has been tested, food has being tested, milk has being tested.
So every precaution is being taken.
When we spoke with state authorities they said that over 57,000 households, a survey, a door-to-door survey, was held in over 57,000 households in over 24 hours.
So there are people on the ground, all possible investigations are taking place but as of now, we still don't know what the reason behind this is.
But what we do know is that -- like you rightly said at the top -- that Andhra Pradesh has over 800,000 cases in itself in that state of COVID-19.
So of course, this is just not the time for them to battle an illness which they don't know the reason for at this point in time, John.
VAUSE: Vedika, thank you.
SUD: Thank you.
VAUSE: Vedika Sud there live for us in New Delhi.
Well, Venezuela's Nicholas Maduro declares the health care system is winning the war against the pandemic. But then there's reality.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: This is the intensive neonatal ward. And the reason I'm holding up this light right here is because there is no electricity in this hospital.
VAUSE: Coming up. CNN's exclusive report from inside two Venezuelan hospitals.
Also as cases skyrocket in Turkey, three separate human trials of a Chinese vaccine now underway.
Hear from a volunteer who was just given his second dose.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:31:07]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back everybody. I'm John Vause.
You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Thanks for staying with us.
The U.K. is now the first country in the world to start using the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine. Across the country the immunizations are rolling out in dozens of hospital hubs (ph). The vaccine requires two injections and is said to be and is said to be 95 percent effective. It works across all age groups including the elderly and they will be among the first to receive it.
The British prime minister has praise the National Health Service staff for working tirelessly on this roll out. They've been getting ready to deliver the shots and also comfort some nervous patients.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NAOMI WALSH, PEER VACCINATOR ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL, LONDON: Don't worry. We can reassure you. We can talk you through it. We can answer your questions. And if there is anything you're not sure about I'm sure we can find somebody that can answer that question for us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is this going to hurt?
WALSH: There will be an -- it's a needle. But the technique that we use helps minimize that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Vaccine supplies began arriving in Britain over the weekend. Some 800,000 doses are expected to be available this first week, the biggest ever vaccination program for the National Health Service.
CNN's Max Foster reports on the kick off from Cardiff, Wales.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): There's a real sense of history here in the United Kingdom as it becomes the first country in the world to start mass immunizations with the Pfizer vaccine. It's being delivered to a network of hospitals up and down the country although here in wales those locations are being kept secret to avoid people queueing up outside.
It's strictly invitation only and the first invitations for the vaccine have gone out to frontline health and care home workers. So far, everything is going to plan. The bigger challenge though will what will be the next phase and that's getting the vaccine into smaller doctors' surgeries and care homes which don't have the refrigeration facilities to keep the vaccine for more than a few days.
Nevertheless, a real sense of history and achievements in getting this vaccine through the development stage and into people's arms in a matter of months when it normally takes about 10 years.
Max Foster, CNN -- Cardiff, Wales.
(END VIDEOTAPE) VAUSE: Over the weekend, Russia was the first nation to roll out large-scale vaccinations. In Moscow, thousands were injected with these Sputnik V shot.
The vaccine was registered in August. That was ahead of the last scale phase three human trials with tests still under way.
When it comes to vaccine development, China leads the world with 13 candidates followed by the U.S. which has 12. Four in Germany, many other countries as you can see there also have vaccines which are in the testing phase.
And Turkey has started human trials for one of the vaccines developed in China. Turkish health officials say 203 people died of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours. That's the highest daily death toll since the start of the pandemic.
Jomana Karadsheh has details now from Istanbul.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Turkey is facing a vicious wave of the coronavirus, and while the government is trying to control the spread with new restrictions and measures, it's also preparing to vaccinate its population.
Turkey's developing its own vaccines, one potential they say could be ready in April 2021. But they're not wasting any time. Their vaccine of choice right now is one of the candidate Chinese vaccines developed by Sinovac (ph) Biotech.
(on camera): Phase 3 human trials for this vaccine are taking place in different facilities in Turkey, including this hospital here in Istanbul. Thousands of health care workers and other volunteers are participating in the trial.
[01:34:52]
KARADSHEH: So one of those volunteers is this Dr. Sedat Altin. Doctor -- this is your second dose? You got your first one two weeks ago. How have you've been feeling?
DR. SEDAT ALTIN, VOLUNTEER: I am feeling very well. I have been vaccinated for inactive vaccine.
KARADSHEH (on camera): any side effects?
DR. ALTIN: No side effects.
KARADSHEH (voice over): No side effect and Dr. Altin is overseeing the trial that's taking place in this hospital. And so far he says the results of phase one and two have been promising and while phase three trials taking place -- Turkey has already pre-ordered 50 million doses of this vaccine, enough for 25 million people and they say they're going to start rolling out the vaccine this month.
Jomana Karadsheh, CNN -- Istanbul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Allies of Venezuela's President Nicholas Maduro is celebrating a widely criticize and yet apparently sweeping victory in Sunday's parliamentary elections.
On Maduro's watch though, the coronavirus pandemic crippled the nation and left the economy in ruins.
Officially, the government says fewer than 1,000 people have died from the coronavirus but in the real world doctors tell CNN the situation is dire.
CNN's Isa Soares has exclusive access to two of the biggest hospitals in the country and has revealed a health care system grossly unprepared, under-resourced and under incredible strain.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In Los Magallanes (ph) Public Hospital in Caracas remnants of this once wealthy nations lies strewn on the dearth floor. It's shackle wards hiding what the Venezuelan government doesn't want us to see.
Here COVID-19 has unmasked Venezuela's open wounds. Practically every floor this hospital is empty. It tells us the hospital worker, who prefers to remain anonymous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's empty because there's nothing here. There are no supplies. There's no way to treat patients, no lights, no working pipes. The baths are clogged and there's no water.
If patients don't die of their diseases, they die of contamination.
SOARES: It's a risk only a few dare to take.
This is the COVID-19 ward. Only this part of it is functional. The rest is completely rundown after years of mismanagement.
So it is no surprise many would rather face the pandemic outside these walls choosing instead their homes over these decrepit rooms where darkness has literally taken over.
(on camera): This is the intensive unit. The reason I'm holding up this light right here is because there is no electricity in this hospital.
Have a look around, barebones. And what I've been told by doctors around Caracas and outside of Caracas, is that this is the situation day in and day out. Even in the morgue, death comes with shortages. There is no pathologists here. And with intermittent electricity, the stench is unbearable.
(voice over): Now, imagine having to face a pandemic in these conditions. It's why doctors like this Gustavo (INAUDIBLE) are no longer afraid to speak out.
"I have friends of mine who have been criminally charged, he says. Why? For protesting the conditions in which they have been forced to practice. So he does not hold back.
In Venezuela, Vichasmil (ph) says it's impossible to paint an accurate picture. With regards to COVID, he says, we don't know where we are.
The government however claims the pandemic is under control saying its strategy has worked.
A government minder shows it's inside a hotel where suspected infected patients are kept in quarantine for up to 21 days. It's a lockdown strategy employed by China which the government of Nicolas Maduro has been keen to extol.
Dr. Rodriguez shares a similar pride. Venezuelans have shown an immunity to the virus, he says. The families of those who have died in the frontlines may see it differently.
272 health care workers have lost their lives in Venezuela as of November 30th.
At Hospital Vargas in Caracas you can see why. They are overworked, and unprotected.
(on camera): That's one nurse for this whole area here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't have masks, we don't have gloves. They turn the water one hour in the morning, one in the afternoon and one at night.
There is nothing. There's no broom, no mop, no cloth.
SOARES (voice over): this is evident all around and as I walk this ward, I stopped to speak to a patient's daughter.
[01:39:55]
SOARES: She tells me her frail 69=year-old father is here because of malnourishment. The same state in post malady that we've seen across Venezuela.
His immune system is compromised, yet he shares this ward with a COVID patient. His daughter tells me he needs iron supplements that the hospital simply does not have.
(on camera): Look at this. This is what they have to work with here. Nurses and Doctors. Syringes. It's astounding. They've got nothing.
SOARES: there's a vast emptiness all around. And a sense of It's a vast emptiness all around. And the sense of disillusionment and surrender. Painful nod doubt for those who saw this once oil-rich country as one of the wealthiest in Latin America now tittering on the brink of survival.
Isa Soares, CNN, Caracas Venezuela
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: And CNN reached out to the Venezuelan government for comments on the conditions seen in hospitals and Caracas us.
And also on the criticism by health care professionals in Isa's speech. Now to date, we have not received a response.
Well, remember Brexit? It hasn't gone away. After the break, the British prime minister's latest effort to get a trade agreement before the U.K. leaves the bloc.
And U.S. lawmakers want even more time to negotiate a financial relief package for those impacted by the coronavirus.
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VAUSE: I know we've said this before, and I'll say it again.
The stop and start Brexit process may be nearing its end. British prime minister Boris Johnson and the president of the E.U. Commission will meet face to face this week after failing to breach their differences on a trade deal Monday. Ursula von der Leyen's tweeted conditions for an agreement are not there.
CNN's Nic Robertson has details on the sticking points.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Boris Johnson is going to go to Brussels later this week not quite clear which day he's going to meet with Ursula von der Leyen -- the European commission president. They will talk face-to-face.
They had a phone call late Monday afternoon. In a joint statement they said that they -- the conditions were not there yet to be able to get an agreement on the trade deal.
The sticking points -- and they both agreed on these sticking points -- the same as they have been, the three -- fisheries (ph), governance and level playing field. And what we understand from a senior British government source is that no tangible progress was made in talks over the weekend. That the view in the U.K. now is that the talks need to go political. This is why Boris Johnson is now going to Brussels.
And they also further said while they don't close down the possibility of a deal still being done, they say things are looking very tricky and there is every chance of not -- not getting there.
[01:44:45]
ROBERTSON: So from the British perspective look at this perhaps as negotiation, putting on extra pressure, their perspective now saying there is a possibility of a no deal, raising the stakes.
Boris Johnson now going to Brussels for that key meeting with Ursula von Der Leyen later this week.
We know that all E.U. 27 leaders or their representatives will be there in Brussels, for a summit.
This is Boris Johnson's perhaps his endgame. Certainly a chance to pitch his final position to Ursula von der Leyen. Potentially opening the door in Brussels to speak to other leaders. One final push, one final pitch. Will they take it? Will he accept what they say later this week?
Nic Robertson, CNN -- London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: In the United States, lawmakers will vote this week on funding to keep the government open until December 18th. That's to allow more time for talks on a coronavirus relief bill. Congress has been gridlocked on a boost to unemployment benefits and funding to state and local governments.
A new plan would spend billions of dollars to extend the pause in student loan payments, the ban on evictions and the Paycheck Protection Program.
CNN's John Defterios live in Abu Dhabi with more on this. And John it just seems at this point, nothing is going to happen with this aid package it seems until Joe Biden is sworn in as President and even then it's a big if.
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: It is a big if, John. But they have to come up with something because of the number of programs that are expiring by the end of the year. I cannot see falling off the cliff, but we've seen this script before, right.
We have House Democrats and Senate Republicans in their entrenched positions. But this is very different than budget battles of the past, because of the spike in COVID-19 cases. Even where I'm from in California, this is an extreme lockdown.
And it's one of the G7 countries if you stand it on its own. As you suggest you have the jobless benefits expiring, small business loans, renter protection that's there.
The first priority is closing the spending gap through December 18, just to fund the government. Mitch McConnell is on one side, and he says the grandstanding has to stop but some points the fingers at him. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: Republicans and Democrats, do not need to resolve every one of our differences to get badly needed relief out the door. We just need both sides to finally do what members of congress do when they're serious -- when they're serious about wanting an outcome.
Drop the all or nothing tactics, drop the hostage taking and make law, in the many places where we have common ground.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEFTERIOS: There is a shortage of common ground. John, let's take a look at the major players here. Nancy Pelosi and you just saw Mitch McConnell. The Pelosi bill was $2.2 trillion and we don't have anybody talking about that anymore.
The Senate Republican still holding on to half a trillion dollars. There's that compromise bill that we talked about over the last week.
That seems to be the common ground, just over 900,000 ground over 900 billion dollars. And it does cover off the program I was talking about.
But this is falling disproportionately on the poorest. The latest studies show that those making $27,000 a year or less John, the employment rate has dropped 20 percent because of COVID-19. And we still have what 10 million people who have lost that are not back in the system whatsoever, they're still debating so they need to get something at least on the stop gap measure with a few of those programs by the end of the year, John.
VAUSE: Yes. And with that in mind that statement by Mitch McConnell seems a bit rich.
John, thank you -- John Defterios live for us from Abu Dhabi.
DEFTERIOS: Yes.
VAUSE: Well, a family of gospel singers in Texas has a real testimony for the times. The coronavirus stopped them in their tracks when five members of the group were infected. Their inspiring story of recovery is just ahead.
[01:48:40]
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VAUSE: They say music has the power to heal. And that might be true for Texas family of gospel singers and musicians. Before the pandemic, the Jones family traveled the world performing their high-powered music and then the coronavirus struck five family members.
Here's CNN's Ed Lavandera with their story of recovery.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Spiritually charged gospel revival is the Jones family calling. Pentecostal preacher Fred Jones trained his children early in the power of music.
(on camera): Some dads want a baseball team, your dad wanted a band.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He wanted a band and he got a band. LAVANDERA (voice over): Long ago, Jones and his seven children started dazzling their small town Texas church, but in the five years before the coronavirus pandemic, the Jones Family Singers found a worldwide audience.
Touring hundreds of U.S. cities and nine countries, they're featured in an upcoming documentary, "Jesus and the Jones".
BISHOP FRED JONES, JR., LEADER, JONES FAMILY SINGERS: It means literally, the world, it is our world. This is what we do, this is who we are.
LAVANDERAS: The pandemic brought the Jones family high flying gospel performances to a sudden halt. To keep the music alive the family performed this virtual concert in late June.
Fred Jones says he started feeling sick during the show. What no one in the family knew at the time is that many of them would leave the performance infected with COVID-19.
Jones and four of his daughters got sick. About a week later, the pastor and three daughters were rushed to the same hospital.
SABRINA FREEMAN, JONES FAMILY SINGERS: All of us began to get sick after my dad got sick, it was like, what's going on?
LAVANDERA (on camera): It must be surreal experience. You've just seen everybody in your family -- boom, boom going down.
FREEMAN: Yes.
ERNESTINE RAY, JONES FAMILY SINGERS: We are a close family anyway, but during that time we all pulled together.
LAVANDERA: The Jones sisters spent four days hospitalized. But their 71-year-old father was struggling to breathe and with a dangerously high fever that left him delirious.
JONES: They said I was saying stuff that made no sense. They say we are going to pray, don't pray for me. I don't want no prayer.
LAVANDERA (on camera): And you're a pastor?
JONES: That's what I'm saying. One of my friends told some of the other that isn't him. They say he's under attack.
LAVANDERA (voice over): Jones thought he had been in the hospital four days and wanted to go home.
JONES: They said excuse me, Mr. Jones, but you've been here 14 days.
Man that broke my heart. Time got away from me just that fast.
LAVANDERA: When Fred Jones returned to the healing hands of his family, he had lost 30 pounds, was weak and emotional.
JONES: I love you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love you too.
LAVANDERA: Sabrina Freeman says a faithful song on written by her brother, who died this summer of heart failure, helped the family survive.
FREEMAN: He wrote a song, I can see the sunshine through all the rain.
And that song, had really brought us to where we're at now.
JONES: Thank you to everyone that worked diligently.
LAVANDERA: Five months after getting sick, Fred Jones struggles to breathe at times but he vows the Jones Family Singers will regain the full power of their soulful rhythm and return to the stage.
Ed Lavandera, CNN -- Manville, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Well the man they once called the fastest alive, Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to faster than the speed of sound, has died at the age of 97. Yeager became a household name, the book and the movie, "The Right Stuff".
His wife Victoria, tweeted that the World War II flying legend died on Monday.
Here's CNN John Berman, with more on Yeager's life and his legacy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: General Charles M. Chuck Yeager, was the very embodiment of the right stuff. He will forever be known as the first man to break the sound barrier.
Born in 1923, in rural West Virginia Yeager says he was not a born pilot.
[01:54:57]
CHUCK YEAGER, PILOT: I didn't know anything about flying because I've never been in an airplane in my life.
BERMAN: Yeager joined the army as an aircraft mechanic at the start of World War II. His first airplane ride didn't go so well.
YEAGER: I puked all over my airplane. I said to myself man, you've made a big mistake.
BERMAN: Pressing on, Yeager took advantage of an army program that offered enlisted men the opportunity to become pilots.
YEAGER: I remember in March 4th, 1944, on my eighth mission I shot down an enemy one on (INAUDIBLE) right over the middle of Berlin with the Mustang. Next day I got shot at.
BERMAN: When the war ended, Yeager returned to California to marry his sweetheart, Glennis Dickhouse. Yeager later became a research pilot at Edward Air Force Base making dangerous test flight civilian pilots couldn't or wouldn't do.
YEAGER: It's like combat, you know, you either get killed or you don't. Well, if you have no control over it, don't worry about it.
BERMAN: That's how he found himself 45,000 feet above Rogers Dry Lake in California, on October 14th, 1947. Breaking the sound barrier, a feat many believed could not be done.
YEAGER: I don't look at things, you know, as being scary or not, you either do or you don't. If you live, you've done your job.
BERMAN: Yeager eventually returned to combat flying, and retired from active duty in 1975 as a brigadier general. "The General" as he preferred to be called, became a household name in the eighties with the book and movie, "The Right Stuff".
LARRY KING, FORMER CNN HOST: You like watching someone else play you?
YEAGER: Yes, Sam Shepard did an excellent job.
KING: Sam Shepard did it.
YEAGER: Yes.
BERMAN: Through it all, Yeager remained airborne. In 2012 at the controls of a borrowed Air Force F-15, an 89 year old chuck Yeager, broke the sound barrier again. 65 years to the minute after his first sonic boom.
Yeager's logbook documented more than 10,000 flight hours over 60 years in 350 different kinds of planes around the world. Always a pilot, with the right stuff.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm John Vause.
After the break, Robyn Curnow has the desk. You're watching CNN.
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