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CDC Director: Expect More Deaths Per Day Than 9/11 Over The Next Months; COVID-19 Crisis Deepens In U.S. Amid Wait For Vaccinations To Begin; Experts: Feds Not Prioritizing Vaccine For Hotspots "Turns A Blind Eye To Where The Pandemic Is Right Now"; GOP Republicans: Trump Conspiracies Are "Political Litmus Test For 2022"; Dr. Anthony Fauci: Vaccine Distribution "Up To The Local Health Officials". Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired December 11, 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 and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I am John King in Washington, thank you for sharing a very busy Friday with us.

This hour, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention debate whether to green light that Pfizer vaccine? Word from the Trump Administration Health Secretary just this morning, expect a yes soon, and shots starting next week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX AZAR, SECRETARY, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: We should be seeing the authorization of this first vaccine and as you just said, we will work with Pfizer to get that shipped out and so, we could be seeing people getting vaccinated Monday, Tuesday of next week.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: A source tells CNN that key players in the vaccine process have been told to expect the OK by Saturday. That's not fast enough, it seems though for an angry, soon to be former president. "Stop playing games and start saving lives" he demands, as part of a morning tweet rant.

Skip the science and safety rules and "Get the damn vaccines out now" is the president's misspelled lecture for his FDA Director more on the president's Twitter morning a bit later in the program. The President- Elect Joe Biden this afternoon introduces his latest administration picks for veterans, agriculture, for housing, for trade, and for a top White House domestic policy job.

Vaccine distribution is a top priority and challenge for this and for the next administration, and the numbers again underscore the urgency here. The American case count growing by 224,000 new infections Thursday. The American death toll raising as well, another 2700 lives lost to COVID-19 107,000 patients right now sick in the hospitals across the United States with COVID. Dr. Anthony Fauci says we will just now start to see the full brunt of the thanksgiving travel surge, what he calls seemingly innocent settings, Fauci says, now driving the terrible new case, death, hospitalization records.

Yes, a vaccine is coming. But listen closely here to the CDC Director's warning. There's light at the end, but the tunnel is long. The next few months will be brutal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, CDC DIRECTOR: Obviously the next 60 to 90 days, we're going to have more deaths per day than we had in 9/11 or we had at Pearl Harbor and the reality is that vaccine approval this week is not going to really impact that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: And so, you listen to that, the comparison to Pearl Harbor. Dr. Anthony Fauci says what happens next during that tunnel period if you will is on us, on us he says to get a vaccine once it's available, on us to keep safe while we wait our turn.

The latest numbers underscore the challenge and what Dr. Fauci means. If you look at the state case trend, the map in some ways looks a little better, but let me go through the numbers and explain it.

27 states heading in the wrong direction, that's the orange and the red. Orange and red means more new COVID infections now compared to a week ago. You see California, the dark red, Virginia, South Carolina and Maine as well that means, 50 percent more new infections in those states today compared to a week ago, that's troublesome.

Orange also bad - up between 10 percent more new infections this week compared to last, all the way up to 50 percent more. 17 states holding steady, somewhat deceptive there because a lot of those states are holding steady at a dangerous place. You see six states trending down at the moment. Here is the trend line that backs up what I'm saying about the map being deceptive a little bit 224,452 new infections reported yesterday.

You see right here, seven days now above 200,000 new infections. That appears to be our new normal and that is devastating more than 200,000 new infections. Again, remember how horrific the summer surge was. We were in the ballpark of 50,000, sometimes close to 60,000 new infections.

Now we are above 200,000 seven days we've had so far. With all those cases, hospitalizations 107,000 plus Americans in the hospital many people believe cases; most people don't get that sick. It's OK; don't focus on the case number. Look at this hospitalization number 107,000 and rising. This continues to go up.

That's stress on your community, its stress when it comes to COVID, it's also stresses if you want to get treated or help with anything else, because your hospitals are getting overwhelmed. The IHME out at the University of Washington now projects half

million, 502,000 deaths by April 1st. That's actually down a bit from its previous projection, because it believes the vaccine actually will help but it says death would decrease by 56,000, more, fewer maybe 56,000 fewer deaths the IHME says if 95 percent of Americans would wear masks by next week.

And you see the numbers on your screen the current U.S. death toll already above 292,000. So, the question now is how quickly can the vaccine get out into the pipeline? As early as today, the Food and Drug Administration will embrace the emergency use authorization. It will say yes, Pfizer has emergency authorization to put the vaccine out there that means they can be shipped.

By Sunday, a CDC Advisory Committee votes, this could happen earlier, it could happen Saturday we're told, but by Sunday, the votes to recommend the vaccine. Then it can be administered. Once you get the emergency use authorization, you can ship it.

You have to have permission to administer it. The HHS Secretary Alex Azar said again could be Monday or Tuesday, perhaps as early as the beginning of next week, where some Americans are starting to get shots of that new vaccine in the arm.

[12:05:00]

KING: One of the big challenges Dr. Fauci says, building trust among people out there who are skeptical, this is being shaped by politicians, is it being rushed out there just to get it out as soon as possible Dr. Fauci says no.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We want to make sure that we impress the American public that decisions that involve their health and safety are made outside of the realm of politics, outside of the realm of self- aggrandizement and are made in essence by independent groups.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: With us to share her insights and her expertise is our CNN Medical Analyst, Dr. Leana Wen. Dr. Wen, it is good to see us. I want to start with this sort of crossroads moment that we're at that yes, people can see light. You hear Dr. Redfield, you hear Dr. Fauci trying to warn people the tunnel is long though. The tunnel is long; it's going to be a few months for most of us to get to the point of a vaccine.

New York State closed. So that is the moment that we're at. States needing or at least considering new restrictions for the here and now, even as we can lift our heads a bit to see perhaps a brighter day ahead.

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: That's right, John. There is fantastic news about the vaccine, and I cannot underscore how exciting it is that we have a safe and what appears to be extremely efficacious vaccine. 95 percent effective is really better than I think many of us would have possibly imagined.

That's coming but it is going to be taking us quite a few months for millions of Americans, hundreds of millions of Americans to be vaccinated to the point that it actually makes an impact on reducing community spread.

And that's why I think it's so important to emphasize that all those things that we have been talking about for months, the mask wearing, physical distancing, avoiding indoor gatherings, that's still our best hope of getting out of this winter because one thing about this vaccine, we don't yet know whether it reduces transmission.

It may protect you from getting severely ill or even ill at all, but you could still be an asymptomatic carrier. And so, it's really important to know that even if you get the vaccine, that you still keep on wearing masks and physical distancing, because that's what's going to get us through this really difficult winter ahead.

KING: Right. And I think it is critical. The point you just made that is optimistic or as hopeful as we should be that there's light at the end of this long tunnel. There are still a number of things we don't know, which is why even if you get vaccinated, wear masks, why not? What's the harm?

Also, we don't understand sometimes the impact on certain constituencies if you will, including pregnant women. I want you to listen here to Dr. Paul Offit who is not only a vaccine expert, he is a member of that FDA Advisory Committee that decided yes, let's move forward.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. PAUL OFFIT, FDA VACCINES AND RELATED BIOLOGICAL PRODUCTS ADVISORY COMMITTEE: I think the recommendation will be that pregnant women not receive this vaccine until we know more. However, as we shown in this problem, every - any sort of large clinical trial, invariably you do include pregnant women, because women don't find out they're pregnant until they've gotten one or two doses.

So, there were about two dozen women in this trial that were pregnant. There doesn't appear to be any harmful effects on them, their babies haven't been born yet, so to find out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: So, everyone out there, you know, someone who is pregnant, somebody who thinks they might be pregnant, we can go through other groups and we will in a moment or thinking is this for me. As you listen to Dr. Offit, what does the data tell you about a pregnant woman and this vaccine?

DR. WEN: This is a really tricky one, John, because we don't know about the effect on a pregnant woman, because pregnant women were not included in the study. A pregnant or breast-feeding women were not included in the short phase III trials. Some women did become pregnant over the course of the trials, and so, we will have some very limited information, but the answer is we just don't know.

At the same time though, you don't want to be excluding a group that is otherwise high risk. Pregnant women tend to have more severe effects from Coronavirus and there may be individuals in that group who are particularly high risk. For example, if you're an ICU nurse, maybe if you have diabetes and obesity and asthma, you could be at severe effects from having Coronavirus.

And so, I am looking for the CDC to make a recommendation, ideally, they say we don't know enough information at this point, but we do leave the decision to the individual patient and her doctor.

KING: Help me with your thoughts, this is a very difficult moment and it's a difficult decision for policy makers. You have X amount of doses, you have 50 states, and you decide you can send them out based on population or you can make other decisions. So, I want to read you, this is the Associate Director for Global Health Policy for the Kaiser Family Foundation, Josh Michaud speaking to National Geographic.

He says it turns a blind eye to where the pandemic is right now when certain states are experiencing a massive surge, the idea of there being surge what you have into states that are hit hardest right now as opposed to distribute it sort of on a population metric across all 50 states.

These are tough calls as is the one dose or two doses. If you have 100 million doses and it takes two to get to 95 percent, do you give people two doses or spread it out? How do you get through the ethical questions here?

DR. WEN: Yes, there's no perfect answer here, because when you have a scarce resource and far more people who want this resource, there are going to be difficult calls.

[12:10:00]

DR. WEN: I think most people agree with that getting it to health care workers at the frontlines and nursing home residents who are older, and more likely to be severely ill, that's important. But we're not even going to have enough in this first tranche to reach these groups. And so, I think at this point my philosophy is, let's not let perfect be the enemy of the good, let's just get the vaccine out because we really need for people to get immunity.

KING: Excellent point. Dr. Wen as always, grateful for your time and your insights. It's very complicated. Again, hope at the end of the tunnel, but a long tunnel ahead. We will continue this conversation. I am grateful. Thank you. And up next for us the morning headlines were on the president of legal troubles ahead for him and his morning tweets tell us he is mad at just about everyone.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: I want to reiterate some breaking news that came in just moments ago, just to show you this fascinating moment, difficult moment we're at across the United States of America. Yes, there's a Coronavirus vaccine coming, and some of it coming perhaps as early as next week but, in the meantime,, the case count is way up.

[12:15:00]

KING: And the New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, moments ago saying indoor dining in New York City must shutdown effective Monday, that because of rising case counts and rising positivity rates in New York City. So you see new restrictions being put in place even as we all have some hope that there is a vaccine coming down the road a bit.

The President of the United States, the current president, very active on twitter this morning. The common thread of his tweet storm, anger and grievance. President Trump taking after the president-elect, his own Attorney General, the FDA Commissioner, the Obama Administration, Congressional Democrats, yes, all of them and more, targets of the president scorn.

What you might say the - I'm right and everyone else is wrong, the common theme of the president's Twitter outburst. Just ignore him is what a lot of you recommend and trust me, we get that but for 40 more days, his grievances also happen to be official presidential statements.

Let's go straight to the White House and CNN's Kaitlan Collins. Kaitlan, I call it the festive this presidency. Every day he puts down the poll and airs his grievances but today he does seem especially stirred up.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he does. And he has several targets as you noted, one of course has to do with the vaccine, where the president is talking about the Biden Administration, something of course he has been hesitant or completely reluctant to acknowledge at all since he lost the election.

But he was talking about it today when it comes to the vaccine. You see there, saying the Biden Administration will be a scandal plagued mess for years to come, saying that the Supreme Court should intervene, and show great courage and wisdom.

Of course John, that's not how it works, but it is as the president is still pursuing what many legal experts have said is a frivolous lawsuit, filed by the Attorney General in Texas to overturn the results of the election in four states that Trump lost and so, it's not just that, though.

He is talking about the Biden Administration and when his Deputy Press Secretary was asked is that a concession coming from the president, he said no. It was couched in terms of what the president was saying should happen with the litigation that's moving forward.

But the president is also complaining about the Biden Administration taking over the effort of vaccine distribution, saying that they will not be able to do a good job essentially, and that comes of course as the HHS Secretary, Alex Azar did make news this week by noting he has met with the Biden transition team.

And of course, number one on their list when they are meeting is talking about what's going to be happening with this vaccine effort.

KING: Kaitlan, test my theory here, that the president might be especially agitated, because he does consume news in the morning, and "The New York Times" has a pretty devastating or at least potentially devastating headline for the president, that the Manhattan District Attorney is accelerating his investigation into the Trump family business.

COLLINS: That's right. Prosecutors from the Manhattan office have spoken where we're told employees from the president's bank, from an insurance broker, that the president has also used, and this could be part of that ramped up effort of that investigation and potential criminal charges against the president.

As Cyrus Vance in New York is investigating the Trump Organization for potential financial crimes, a lot of that stem from what the president's Former Attorney, Michael Cohen said when of course he was coming out and talking about his role in Trump World and in the Trump Organization.

And so, no criminal charges have been leveled against the president or anything yet. But of course, what this makes everyone think of is what's it going to look like in a post presidency world for Donald Trump? And one of his main concerns has been that prosecutors will come after him or his family that's why there's been so much talk of pardons though.

Of course, if the president does issue a pardon for himself which some people have said is legally dubious; it's not going to protect him from state investigations. So that's certainly is something the president is going to have to deal with, John, and less than six weeks from now.

KING: Right, and we will see how much of that money he raised, he said he was rising to fight the election ends up being used to pay legal bills down the line. Kaitlan Collins right at the White House, I appreciate that reporting very much.

The State of Texas today filing its reply to the Supreme Court that response sets up a momentous high court decision. Will the justices consider a sue seeking to invalidate millions of Joe Biden votes or will they reject it, and send it packing? The president calls the lawsuit the big one and it is now a fresh dividing line in the Republican Party's debate over its future.

106 members, a majority of current House Republicans signed on to support that Texas sue. Remember, courts and election officials in the states at issue here have told us over and over and over again there is no evidence of major fraud. None has been presented in any of the official forums which you can do that.

Republicans backing the suit insist this is about protecting the constitution. Other Republicans see it as groveling to stay in the president's good graces and they wish their colleagues would worry less about power and more about their oath to country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): You may not like the outcome of the election, but that doesn't mean that our 2020 election was fake it was real. It counts and we needed before. Failing to accept this reality puts the country in a very dangerous moment in time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Joining our conversation, CNN Political Commentator, the Former Republican Congresswomen from Utah, Mia Love. Congresswomen, it's good to see you and I suspect you agree with your former colleague, Mr. Kinzinger there.

[12:20:00]

KING: Jeb Bush the Former Governor, Florida put it this way. This is crazy; it will be killed on arrival. Why are smart people advancing this notion? Let it go, the election is over. That Governor Jeb Bush, Bush of course is a - forgive me has become a dirty word to many of today's Republicans who somehow want to rebuke the Bush legacy.

A current member of the House Republican Conference from Virginia Denver Riggleman, he says this is what it plays here. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DENVER RIGGLEMAN (R-VA): Right now, you are having a sort of political litmus test for 2022 - 2024, nobody knows what's going to happen? Chair Committee assignments up in the air, you got fundraising issues that might have, and you do have districts that lean heavily Republican right now that believe in a lot of this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Do you believe that's what it is, having served among House Republicans, that to hell with the constitution to hell with democracy, who cares how America voted? We got to stay in the president's good favor so that we can raise money, get re-elected and get put on the right committees.

MIA LOVE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I can tell you this, Adam Kinzinger is one of the best colleagues that I've worked with. He is incredibly reasonable, incredibly smart. And he's right when he says the 2020 election was real just as the 2016 elections were real.

I think what you're getting is at - if you've got 106 members of congress, Republican members of congress, it's probably because you've got a lot of Trump supporters that are putting pressure on them saying, what are you doing to help the president.

I've actually heard that from two members of congress that I used to work with, that they're getting a lot of pressure saying, what are you doing to help the president? Why aren't you fighting with him? In the State of Utah, I can say that you haven't seen any of the delegation, it's because we have done this, and book by mail actually has worked for the State of Utah.

And the Attorney General I have to point out is actually getting ridiculed by the current Governor and Governor-Elect for the fact that he's actually joining this. So, I think that this is one, has everything to do with a show and fighting for what they believe they should be doing for the president.

KING: So what is your expectation in the context of that, when John Bolton who served in the Bush Administration, who then served as President Trump's National Security Adviser, that didn't go that too well, the two men didn't get along? He writes this in "The Washington Post" today.

Many of us - many who have been unable or unwilling to feel the tectonic plate shifting will finally recognize the change. Mar-a-Lago is not the same as the Oval Office. Foreign leaders will not flock to Florida for meetings, despite four years as President, Trump never fully grasp the issues before him. He won't learn anything new once he leaves. His observations will become increasingly irrelevant.

Do you believe that for everyday President Trump is out of the White House, he is increasingly irrelevant? Or is that Washington speaks and his passionate supporters out in the country will continue to follow him?

LOVE: I think he is absolutely relevant. I think that people are going to continue to follow him. And I also think that this may not go anywhere, and we certainly do not want the Supreme Court setting a precedent for overturning elections. So, I want everybody to remember that this is not a direction you want to go towards.

KING: Congresswomen Love, grateful to see you. If I don't see you before Christmas, Merry Christmas looks beautiful behind you.

LOVE: Merry Christmas, John.

KING: I wish I could be at snowboarding in Utah but that will have to wait for another day it shows come. Appreciate it good to see you. Up next, millions of Americans will soon lose unemployment benefits or be put at risk of eviction. Congress says it wants to help but sadly, its congress. Don't count on it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:00]

KING: Green lighting a Coronavirus vaccine is a Washington decision. The feds also then will help with the logistical crush of delivering doses to the states but then another question. Who goes to the front of the line?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. FAUCI: Once it gets locally to the state and city and local areas, it's going to be up to the local health officials to make the determination of how it's distributed? We hope that that's followed in an equitable way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Joining me now is, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh one of the people who have to make these big decisions. Mr. Mayor, it's good to see you. So, I just want to show you the Massachusetts plan. The Governor talked about this the other day. 300,000 doses expected to be delivered by the end of December.

Over 2 million doses received and distributed by the end of March. Are you looking at the positivity rates right there in Massachusetts? You and I both hail from the Dorchester section of your great city. 12.1 percent positivity right there in Dorchester. So, you have this hope that vaccines are coming. What about the here and now? What's the 12.1 percent about?

MAYOR MARTY WALSH (D-MA), BOSTON: So, what we're seeing is, we're seeing increases in our numbers really due to Thanksgiving in a lot of ways, it goes right back to that. It also goes back to house parties and not house parties, but gatherings in homes, and working work sites, that's where we're seeing the largest increase now of Coronavirus.

We're not actually seeing in our restaurants, but those we're pointing a - so we're doing everything we can to bring these numbers down, to continue connecting to people and talking about the need to continue to wear masks, continue to physical social distance, all of those precautions that are put in place, they work.

KING: So just moments ago, I want you to listen here. Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, he's looking at the numbers in New York City and he said, I'm sorry, but I have to do this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): The hospitalizations have continued to increase in New York City. We said that we would watch it.