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Critical Vaccine Meeting As U.S. Sets Daily Death Record; Now: FDA Panel Meeting To Consider Authorization Of Pfizer Vaccine; Dr. Anthony Fauci: With Vaccine, Could See Some Normalcy By End Of 2021; Pence, Biden Campaign In Georgia Ahead Of Senate Runoffs; FDA Meeting Underway To Consider Authorization For Pfizer Vaccine. Aired 12-12:30p ET
Aired December 10, 2020 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:00:00]
JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Hello everybody and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I am John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing this very, very important day with us. Today's FDA meeting agenda focuses on a single question, with pandemic altering implications.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will have a single question for the committee to vote on. The question is based on the totality of scientific evidence available, do the benefits of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine outlay its risk for use in individuals 16 years of age and older.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: This Pfizer vaccine decision comes at a harrowing Coronavirus moment. 221,000 new cases yesterday, Wednesday. 209,000 new cases per day is the average across the United States right now. And a new daily death record as well, 3,124 COVID-19 deaths recorded Wednesday. The CDC forecast says the American death toll will top 360,000 just into the New Year.
The economic fallout also getting more painful too today. 853,000 first time unemployment claims filed last week. Pandemic assistance runs out after Christmas for millions and millions of Americans. But look, the congress for help and you'll hear lots of talk, but little evidence yet of compromise. The president's schedule today reminds us he cares more about his power than your health.
Later this hour, a White House lunch with the Attorney General of Texas, who is the leading latest Republican, leading the latest Republican appeal for judges to toss out the 2020 election results. 17 Republican Attorneys General have signed on to that Supreme Court petition.
All the proof you need that what was once the party of federalism and constitutional conservatism is now the party of Trump. The FDA decision today could alter the American timeline to recovery. We have yet to see the full post-Thanksgiving COVID surge show up in hospitals but already one in three ICUs nationwide topped 90 percent capacity last week.
That means scenes like this. That's a parking garage, a parking garage in Reno, Nevada, now a Coronavirus ward, approaching full capacity. So, the urgency for even a limited vaccine green light is obvious. Still, the FDA Commissioner just today says the need for trust is critical. And that means the process must follow the rules.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. STEPHEN HAHN, FDA COMMISSIONER: It is not just a formality. We take this very seriously in terms of having the transparency around our process. Our job is to assess the safety and efficacy and do that well. And we've shrunken a process that normally takes months into one that's taken weeks and I have a 100 percent confidence in them, and I believe the American people should as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KING: Let's go through some of the harrowing numbers at the moment, and then we will bring in our Chief Medical Correspondent to walk through the vaccine process. But let's just get a sense of where we are, and why this meeting is so critical? Where we are is just dismal, 221,267 new COVID infections reported yesterday.
You see this here; I almost don't need to say anything. You see the direction of the line. You see it compared to the summer peak which was horrific. That was down here, way up here, approaching 250,000, above 200,000 right now and for those of you who think it's just cases, most people recover, please pay attention, and please pay attention.
Deaths hit a record high as well, 3,124 Americans reported dead from COVID-19 just yesterday. And again, look at the trend line. Yes, a lot of people got comfortable down here, thinking that a lot of people get infected, and not that many people die. We're starting to see the death trend go up as well.
And look around your community. Just look around your community. There's stress, whether you live in an urban or rural area, there's stress on your hospital system. A record 106,668 Americans hospitalized yesterday with COVID-19. These numbers, you see them, they keep going up. Maybe not every day as a record, but almost every day is a record.
And why? Because of the high positivity across the country. The deeper the color here, the darker it is, the higher the positivity rate. That means people getting tested coming back positive, 37 percent in Pennsylvania, 34 percent in Alabama, 40 percent in Kansas, 49 percent in South Dakota, 15 percent in Wyoming, double digits almost everywhere, sometimes above 20 and above 30 percent in some of these states, which is why today is so important.
What is the vaccine process? For that, let's bring in our Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. And Sanjay, let's just start with the stakes of this meeting I just want to bring up the timeline for what we could see play out today. They are meeting right now, this is an urgent meeting, they're re-meeting right now, and it's an all day meeting.
By end of the day, they could vote to grant emergency authorization which means Pfizer can start shipping this, or the government can start shipping the supplies out to the states, can't administer yet. But then by Friday or Sunday, by the end of this week, the CDC could say go e use. Walk through what that means.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, so obviously today is critically important, nine hours of meetings between all these various people who comprise the committee from industry, from infectious diseases. They'll make a recommendation John to the FDA for either to emergency use authorize this or not and the FDA generally follows the recommendations, not always, but generally follows the recommendations.
[12:05:00]
DR. GUPTA: If the emergency use authorization is basically recommended, distribution can start. As you mention, there's a couple more meetings, advisory committee meetings with the CDC that basically determines as they already have telegraphed that these people should go first, health care workers and people who live in long-term care facilities, things like that.
Each state is going to triage this on their own. Operation Warp Speed is responsible for getting the vaccine from the manufacturers to the states. Sometimes within the states it goes straight to pharmacies or hospitals, sometimes it goes into a stockpile in the states. But after that, each state is going to handle these doses differently, if this authorization occurs, John.
KING: If it occurs, let's just continue to walk through the process a little bit. Number one, just to remind people if you haven't paid a close attention, this is an outside group, this is essentially a jury, the government has a jury, they don't work for the government, it's an advisory committee, vaccine experts, infectious disease specialists, industry representatives, consumer representatives.
Essentially now Pfizer lay out, people can other government lays out what it knows all the data from the studies, and they decide is this safe enough to now give a limited green light, emergency use authorization.
So let's go through some of the big questions, if that happens Sanjay, because the expectation is it will, we'll watch the hearing play out today. Will there be restrictions and who can receive this vaccine?
DR. GUPTA: We think there will be, John and part of this is sort of from looking at the data and figuring out who was tested, who was part of these clinical trials? And even for people who were tested, where they tested and adequate enough numbers to actually provide meaningful data.
When you look at that, there are a few groups that sort of pop out as groups of possible concern in terms of whether or not the committee will recommend, they be vaccinated? You already heard at the very beginning that this is not going to be for children under the age of 16, first of all.
Those trials are ongoing, but those results really not back. Pregnant women is going to be a big question mark, John. There wasn't a lot of data on pregnant women or breastfeeding women in this trial. So we'll have to see how the FDA committee sort of looks at that? People with certain underlying conditions specifically conditions had weakened their immune system.
And as we know, we heard over the news yesterday, people with the history of severe allergic reactions. We also know looking at the trial data, that if you had a severe allergic reaction in the past, you were excluded from the trial. We knew that sort of going in. I think the pregnancy question is going to be an important one. Now I want you to hear some of the comments about this in the committee meeting today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. HAHN: We have been very closely monitoring the impacts of COVID-19 in both pregnant women and subsequently following up with their infants. Thankfully the rates overall have been relatively low thus far.
The early indication is that there may be higher risk of preterm delivery among pregnant women infected with COVID-19 relative to women without COVID-19. But there's ongoing efforts to assess those and other potential pregnancy related risks and fetal outcomes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DR. GUPTA: John, risk reward is essentially what he is describing there, right? We understand the risk, there's been small numbers of significant COVID disease in pregnant women, but how do they balance that with the possibility of a vaccine that really hasn't been tested in this population of people.
KING: And so, let's stay on the reward part, because it is critical to remind people this is limited at first, even if they give the green light today, again we'll see what the committee decides as it goes forward. But the question then is how long does it take to get back to normal, meaning how many Americans need to get this vaccine before we get to a place where we are more comfortable?
And here's the goal and I want you to help us explain it. 60 to 70 percent of the population ideally is vaccinated where we get to a term that's been thrown around a lot the last few months, but this is the right way to get to it so-called herd immunity. Walk through that Sanjay.
DR. GUPTA: Yeah. That's exactly right. I think of the vaccine like a powerful but slower acting medicine. Okay. Masks are surgical, John, in their approach because they basically can greatly reduce if not prevent virus transmission. That's like a surgical solution in terms of how quickly it can work?
Vaccines can be very powerful, but they're going to take time and you need to get to a certain number of people being vaccinated. I asked Dr. Fauci about that, listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Let's say we get 75 percent, 80 percent of the population vaccinated. If we do that, I believe if we do it efficiently enough over the second quarter of 2021, by the time we get to the end of the summer, I.E., the third quarter, we may actually have enough herd immunity protecting our society that as we get to the end of 2021, we could approach very much some degree of normality that is close to where we were before.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[12:10:00]
DR. GUPTA: And what that really means, John, from a public health standpoint is that the number of new cases per day becomes manageable. You can find people who are newly infected, you can trace their contacts.
Remember these terms, testing and tracing. The numbers have been so huge, John, but that's been impractical to do in most places. We can get back to that point, and eventually sort of extinguish the pandemic.
KING: And so, Sanjay, help me on this question, which I -- it fascinates me how they got to the answer they got to? And I think a lot of Americans want to ask this, which is one dose or two, which in the case meaning that you have this Pfizer vaccine, let's say it gets the green light, you have limited supplies. It takes two doses to be fully vaccinated.
But partial dose, one dose, would help you. So, the question is, let's say, I'm going to make up the number, you have 100 doses, you could give 100 people some protection or 50 people 90 plus percent protection. What is the decision and why did they make it?
DR. GUPTA: Yeah, well, John, we don't know the answer to what the decision is yet? And it is a point of contention. I can tell you I've talked to a lot of people about this, Scott Gottlieb, for example, the Former FDA Commissioner has said, it makes probably make sense to give as many people some protection as possible initially.
Manufacture more doses for the second dose for those folks, that where you get as much protection in the community as possible right away. I talked to Dr. Fauci about this again as well and he has a different point of view. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. GUPTA: Does it make sense to you to take the 40 million projected doses by the end of the year and give all those as first doses to people?
DR. FAUCI: We considered that, Sanjay, and we decided that it would be more prudent not to do that, namely, to get the real total degree of protection, not the 52 percent, but the 95 percent after the second dose.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DR. GUPTA: So, there you have it, John. We're all learning together. And I don't know that there's absolute right answers here but let me just show you what he is talking about specifically, in between the first dose and the second dose.
There is some benefit. It's hard to study because it was just three weeks in between those doses. But 52 percent benefit, it's better than the 50 percent that the FDA originally wanted, But Dr. Fauci says, what better to wait for the 95 percent. We'll see what the committee recommends.
KING: Fascinating. Dr. Gupta, grateful for your time to walk through all this. It's a complicated process and it is a critical day. We'll continue to watch the hearing Dr. Gupta, grateful for your time to help us get through it.
And up next for us, today's big White House lunch, it's not about helping you get a vaccine or helping those of you who need a job, it's about tossing out millions of votes so the president can keep his.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:15:00]
KING: The election challenge President Trump calls "The big one" also his words, focus of a White House lunch meeting this hour. The guest list includes Ken Paxton; he's the Republican Attorney General of Texas who is now asking the Supreme Court to throw out the results in four battleground states that voted for Joe Biden.
Hopeless, offensive, constitutionally, legally and factually wrong, those are quotes from some legal scholars and one Republican Attorney General. That's how they describe the Paxton challenge. But 17 other state attorneys general, all of them Republicans, told the Supreme Court Wednesday, the suit has their official support.
Joining us now CNN's Kaitlan Collins from the White House. And Kaitlan, the president calls it the big one; he has Ken Paxton and other attorneys general at the lunch table today. All the experts say this is a farce. If this is the big one, if the president loses, will he finally give up?
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: He'll probably just move on to the next big one because you've seen the president do this time and time again. And this week you saw him distanced him after the Supreme Court rejected that effort in Pennsylvania to challenge the vote there, and the president said after well that wasn't our case.
Well, it wasn't, but it was touted by his legal team, Rudy Giuliani and others. And so, now he is focusing on this one, even though as you noted there are several legal experts who say it has no legal basis, and it's a long shot case, and it's more symbolic than it is actually going to achieve anything.
And it's not just critics of the president who are saying things of that nature. You know, Republicans as well are questioning it, including Senator John Cornyn of Texas, of course its Texas's Attorney General that has filed this lawsuit.
And then Ben Sasse, I've got to read you this quote John, he just told someone this about the Texas Attorney General who of course is under investigation right now for allegations that he abused the power of his office.
He said, Ben Sasse said of this lawsuit, it looks like a fellow begging for a pardon from a PR stunt rather than a lawsuit. So that is the view of this, even in Republican circles of how they're seeing this last-ditch effort by the president? But he is doing anything he can to try to continue to delay the results of this election, John.
But what's notable about this is not that, because the president has been doing that for weeks. It's the number of Republicans who are falling in line behind the president, and continuing to push this and amplify this, and try to make it look like they're getting behind this effort.
KING: Well, if you follow politics, the job of state attorney general often a springboard to say the Governor and the Senate, it's proof those attorneys general are for getting everything they learned in law school and understanding right now their party is under the thumb of the President of the United States.
Kaitlan Collins, it's grateful for the White House reporting there and we will watch as this case, I'm going to call it a case, we'll watch as this petition goes to the Supreme Court. And more high-profile visits to help the candidates in those two critical Georgia Senate runoffs. The Biden transition announcing just today, the president- elect will campaign for the democratic candidates on Tuesday.
Vice President Mike Pence is there for the Republicans today. Given the stakes, Democrats will control the Senate if they win them both. You would think getting the Trump base to turn out would be an easy sell for Pence. But the president's constant complaints that Georgia was stolen from him last month, well, that complicates things. CNN's Donie O'Sullivan explains.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN REPORTER: Are you going to vote?
[12:20:00]
STEVE COATS, TRUMP SUPPORTER: I don't know yet. If it's going to be the same counters, and the same Dominion machines, I may not. And if I don't see the Republicans thumping for Trump, I'm not voting for them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'SULLIVAN: Two critical runoff elections in Georgia next month will decide what party controls the U.S. senate. But some Trump supporters here still falsely believe Trump didn't lose this state in the presidential election and they don't think Georgian Republican Senate candidates are standing up for Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'SULLIVAN: Some folks are saying they're not going to show up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I understand -- because we're pissed.
O'SULLIVAN: Did you vote sir in the presidential election here in Georgia?
COATS: I did.
O'SULLIVAN: Who did you vote for if you don't mind me asking?
COATS: Greatest president we've ever had, Donald J. Trump.
O'SULLIVAN: And he lost.
COATS: He didn't lose.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's going to win.
COATS: You're kidding me, he's going to lose.
O'SULLIVAN: Do you plan on voting in the senate runoffs next month?
COATS: I do plan on voting in the senate runoff.
O'SULLIVAN: For a Republican I take yes?
COATS: I don't know at this point.
O'SULLIVAN: So you might not vote Republican in January?
COATS: I don't vote for a party. Okay. As far as I am concerned, the Democrats and Republicans can all go to hell.
O'SULLIVAN: You guys are -
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'SULLIVAN: Trump supporters are stuck in the murky, muddy world of misinformation. Viral videos claiming the election here was rigged are circulating all over the internet. Lynn Wood, a Trump supporting lawyer in Georgia who is now challenging the results of November's election even told Republicans they shouldn't vote in January's runoffs if the Senators do not challenge the November results.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Kelly Loffler and David Perdue do not do it, they have not earned your vote. Don't you give it to them? LUCRETIA HUGHES, TRUMP SUPPORTER AND YOUTUBER: The Republican people
and the base are the reason to get up off our tails and go vote for you, because if you don't stop this fraud of an election, you don't have our back, so why are we having yours.
O'SULLIVAN: If I were the Chair of the Republican Party, and I hear you, a Georgia voter, a conservative, a Trump supporter, a Republican, saying they might not vote, I would be freaking out. I would say oh, my God, are we going to lose this to the Democrats.
COATS: That's the point. That's the point. Those two Republican Senators need to get their -- out of their office, and start thumping on the street, demanding a real recount, not a fake recount.
O'SULLIVAN: Do you trust that next month's election the runoffs are going to be fair?
MARJORIE WOMACK, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Not 100 percent. But I am still encouraging people to vote, because if they don't vote, there will absolutely be nothing to sort out, and we will have gifted the election to the Democrats.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'SULLIVAN: Gabriel Sterling is a Republican Election Official in Georgia who has called out Trump's bogus election claims.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'SULLIVAN: A lot of folks, look, just don't believe that there's a free and fair election here in Georgia for the Presidential Race. And some of them don't think that what is going to happen here in January in the senate runoffs is going to be fair either. What's your message to people who believe this?
GABRIEL STERLING, VOTING SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION MANAGER, GEORGIA: First of all, we've shown with math, we're showing with everything we can. I know in their heart of hearts and their gut, there's no evidence they're going to ever see that's going to make them believe this. Because everybody they know voted for Trump, they don't know anybody that voted for Biden.
And we've been talking about this for months, we had an entire ad campaign on disinformation that we did in the state to explain to people a lot of what you're going to hear is not going to be real. The problem is we have to combat it from the President of the United States which makes it much more difficult.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'SULLIVAN: Donie O'Sullivan, CNN, Atlanta.
KING: Fascinating report there from Donie. We're grateful for that. Up next UPS is involved, FedEx, too, plus the military, getting COVID vaccines to every state is a giant logistical hurdle and then deciding who goes to go the front of the line? Well, that's a big test, too. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:25:00]
KING: A positive outcome of today's big FDA meeting on the Coronavirus vaccine would begin a daunting logistical and medical challenge, getting every available dose to the states ASAP, and then making big decisions about who gets vaccinated first?
There are CDC guidelines suggesting those in nursing homes, and then front-line health care workers should be at the front of the line, but states make that call and with limited vaccine doses available, it is an enormous challenge. Joining us now, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, she is the Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Dr. Ezike grateful for your time today. So, by Kaiser's estimate, there are 692,000 people in Illinois who would qualify essentially for the front of the line, those are health care facility -- nursing home residents and health care workers. A, is that number about right, and B, are you going to get anywhere near that number of doses in the first wave?
DR. NGOZI EZIKE, DIRECTOR, ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Again, thank you, John, for having me. So those numbers do sound about right, but we don't think that we'll be getting vaccine for all of those people in the first allotment, the first week that it comes out.
So definitely we have to send the message that yes, there are a lot of people in that priority group. And yes, we want to make sure we get it to you, but no, it won't happen on day one or week one, or maybe even week two. So, patience will be the name of the game.
KING: So, patience will be the name of the game, and also that means pressure on people like you and people the Governor or people saying, where is mine? Especially people who understandably should be at the front of the line, people need protection in nursing homes, people fire-fighters, health care workers and the like?
I want to listen to Alex Azar, the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
